We all move toward the ego. We even solidify the ego as we get older if something doesn’t expose it for the lie that it is—not because it is bad, but because it thinks it is the whole and only thing! We don’t really change by ourselves; [something else] changes us, if we expose ourselves…

The first gaze is seldom compassionate. It’s too busy weighing and feeling itself: “How will this affect me?” or “What reaction does my self-image demand now?” or “How can I regain control of this situation?” Let’s admit that we all start there. Only after God has taught us how to live “undefended” can we immediately…

One philosopher of religion said that if you look at the history of all religions, they begin with one massive misperception: they begin by making a fatal distinction. They start to discriminate between the sacred and the profane, and this is a bad way to start. And then you put all your emphasis on going to the sacred…

The word “respect” means “to look at a second time”: Re-speculate. Re-spect. I’m afraid our first gaze at anything is always utilitarian, and it almost totally takes over after a while. We tend to think, “What’s in it for me? What can I get out of it? How can I make money from it? Does…

So why is “thisness” so good and important? Duns Scotus mirrors Jesus as the Good Shepherd leaving the ninety-nine sheep and going after the one (Luke 15:4–6). The universal incarnation of Christ always shows itself in the specific, the concrete, the particular; it refuses to let life be a mere abstraction. No one says this…

“My challenge to you as fellow pilgrims on the journey, is to cultivate the stability of living on two planes of consciousness simultaneously—as Christ said, ‘In the world but not of the world,’ to be fully passionately involved in life and also be totally equanimous and centered. This is not an either/or, it’s a both/and.”

Which brings me to your view that the culmination of the Buddha’s practice was not enlightenment under the Bodhi tree but service to others. I believe the Buddha achieved something utterly extraordinary under the Bodhi tree, but he recognized that if this event was to be as meaningful as possible, it had to be shared with…

Do you have the patience to waitTill your mud settles and the water is clear?Can you remain unmoving Till the right action arises by itself?                                                               …