From the minute to the mammoth, order emerges spontaneously in the Universe. The natural state of things is to pull everything toward patterns.
It works a lot like a magnetic field. If you put a magnet under a glass table and move it around, iron filings scattered on top of the glass line up ... Views: 1158
Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
Have you ever considered how much of what we do in life is the result of the way we have been programmed while growing up?
We in so many ways act out brain patterns that weren’t of our making. We just picked them up from family, school, ... Views: 1194
If there’s a God, why doesn’t this God just appear on television and spell out how we came into being and why we’re here? It would seem a simple enough miracle for the kind of being most imagine God to be.
Are we the product of seven days of creation, as millions believe? Or, as Richard ... Views: 1375
How deeply connected are your relationships—all kinds of relationships, but especially romantic ones?
How exciting is your connection with those you are close to, particularly your romantic partner if you have one?
We think of the French as great lovers, the British as not so great. But ... Views: 1512
Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
For many of the earlier years of my life, whenever I had a decision to make about what I ought to do with my life, I sought the input of others.
Often I’d discuss and discuss the pros and cons of the various paths that lay before me, ... Views: 1344
When someone says, “I love you,” it really means, “Do you love me?”
What I’ve just shared with you is a quite profound statement from a movie set in Dublin, Ireland, in which the complexity of romantic love is portrayed.
Long ago the German playwright Goethe, author of the play Faust, ... Views: 2756
“It’s really quite shocking now that I see it. Here I am, a grown woman, behaving like a lost little child.”
“The way you phrased what you just said is important,” I responded. “You’ve been acting as though you were a child. But you’re not a child.”
“No, I’m a mother with three children of ... Views: 1467
Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
Where does your motivation come from?
You hear people urging, “Get motivated!” And there are all kinds of tricks you can use to develop a degree of motivation.
The Little Prince’s visit to the fifth planet and his talk with the ... Views: 1229
What I want to introduce today is a practice that any two or more people can use. But for the sake of clarity, I will set it in the context of a couple.
I learned this from Michael Brown, the author of the Namaste books The Presence Process and Alchemy of the Heart. It is a simple but ... Views: 1139
No matter what our spiritual bent—and even if we have no form of "spirituality" as such, but are atheistic and subscribe to a humanistic view of human beings—few of us would disagree with the idea that we ought to love others.
The idea of loving each other is pretty universal. Yet when you ... Views: 2354
Laura was drowning in self-pity. After Dan called off their relationship, she began driving by his home in the hope of catching a glimpse of him. She also phoned when she knew he was out, just to hear his voice on the answering machine. She told herself she wanted to feel close to him, but all ... Views: 1512
Writing to the Corinthians, St. Paul corrected the way they were participating in what we today know, depending on our particular tradition, as the Mass, Eucharist, Communion, or the Lord’s Supper.
“When the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry ... Views: 1240
Daily Spiritual Insight from Eckhart Tolle's Stillness Speaks
How calm, present, and non-anxious can you stay in a life-threatening crisis?
A BBC News report from John Sudworth in Seoul, South Korea, says that the recent skirmish between North and South Korea “is of a different order” from ... Views: 1203
Suppose you are a person who either prays or meditates—or both. Why do you do these things? What’s your objective in praying or meditating?
For many of us it’s a way of seeking to change something. We want to alter some aspect of ourselves, some feature of our life, some experience we are ... Views: 691
Daily Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
The announcement from Clarence House in London, city home of Prince Charles, of the engagement of Prince William, eldest son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, to Ms. Kate Middleton has already captured the attention of much of the ... Views: 1294
Daily Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
Everybody is seeking fulfillment.
But how do you achieve fulfillment?
A great many people live at a surface level, seeking to be entertained in life, to have fun, to "have a nice day,” hoping to experience fulfillment. But they ... Views: 1331
Daily Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
The Little Prince is going to trigger a massive change in the life of the pilot who has crashed in the desert. He will accompany the pilot on an inner journey that will totally transform how he understands himself, how he feels about ... Views: 1252
Daily Spiritual Insight from Eckhart Tolle's Stillness Speaks
When people say, “You have to go inside yourself to find out who you are,” which is something you hear often, the mind has a way of playing tricks on us.
It leads us to believe there’s some objective “me” that we’ll find if we ... Views: 1119
Daily Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
“I just don’t know what to get him,” Cathy, forty-two, confided in her twin sister as she tried to decide on a Christmas gift for their father. “He always says he has everything he wants.”
Amy chuckled. “Just the other day I was ... Views: 1281
Spiritual Insight from Eckhart Tolle's Stillness Speaks
In the British television soap EastEnders, an elderly character called Dot says that at lonely times in life, she always had herself, so that she was never totally lonely.
Her concern about the fact she’s aging is: what if she loses ... Views: 1219
Daily Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
It isn’t only children who expect gifts for the holiday season. Adults want to be catered to also and can be just as demanding as children.
The issue when we have expectations of gifts of a particular nature, significance, or ... Views: 1152
There are people who think we ought to get rid of all talk about the crucifixion of Jesus in the 21st century—that it is a negative, unhelpful, even harmful image.
Those who have moved away from Christianity point to how Christendom has even taught people to crucify themselves, put themselves ... Views: 1409
“I just hate myself,” I heard someone say the other day. They were bemoaning the fact they couldn’t get some simple things in their life right.
How do you feel inside yourself?
When you look at yourself in a mirror, what do you see? As you look at yourself, what don’t you like about ... Views: 883
If you are a truly spiritual person, should you ever feel really sad?
Well, the Little Prince, who represents our inner being, felt very sad. In fact we will find as we proceed through the Little Prince’s story that he experienced the full range of emotion—including emotions that it’s often ... Views: 1346
In the movie Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert is portrayed as someone who has a tendency to distance herself from real intimacy in a romantic relationship because she’s afraid she will dive in so deeply that she all but disappears.
It’s a tendency many of us have in common with her.
Why ... Views: 1860
Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
If you make a discovery or invent something, is it yours by right?
Certainly the law bequeaths the right to profit from our creative endeavors. Copyright, patents, trade marks, and so on have long been a part of how business is ... Views: 1105
Daily Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
How greatly do you suppose the world, the country you live in, or even your local community values you?
We like to live in the illusion that we are important to others, perhaps even almost indispensable.
The other evening I watched a ... Views: 1136
Daily Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
Whenever we are caught out, such as being found making an egoic statement we can’t back up, we have a tendency to deflect the fact we've been caught out onto the person who caught us.
Until we are firmly grounded in consciousness, the state ... Views: 1233
In the northern hemisphere, the harvest is in, winter is upon us, Canada has already celebrated, Britain too, and this week it is the turn of people in the United States to gather to give thanks.
A question: What does it mean to give thanks when everything "goes wrong"? Are we supposed to ... Views: 1285
You have no doubt heard of the “law of attraction.” Literally millions of people are trying to attract to themselves things they want, especially greater financial prosperity.
The books that teach these concepts have been a phenomenal publishing success, but that some are concluding isn’t ... Views: 1260
How can you be who you really are in a corporate, government, or nonprofit workplace when you are around giant egos that challenge you and seek to control you and get the better of you day in and day out?
An interesting article was sent to me recently entitled "A bigger ego is the only way to ... Views: 2041
Daily Insight from the Story of the Little Prince
When it comes to becoming present in our life, I find so many people want some kind of "magical" event to happen that will catapult them into a new state of being.
The reality is that for few does the ability to be present throughout their ... Views: 2081
Learning to be present in my life—to simply enjoy this moment, right now, with no thought of the next moment—didn’t happen quickly for me. So if you are discouraged by your own progress, take heart.
I can tell you that today I dwell each and every moment in the now, experiencing an enduring ... Views: 1259
After an hour delay waiting for the plane to arrive in San Francisco, the anxious passengers rushing off to celebrate Christmas with their families finally boarded the crowded 747 for Chicago.
Shortly after the push back the captain announced on the PA, "I'm sorry ladies and gentleman, we ... Views: 1159
Daily Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
“He’s got more presents than me!” Jimmy yells when, on Christmas morning, he discovers that his brother Tim has two extra packages beneath the Christmas tree.
“That’s because I’m Santa’s favorite,” Tim taunts. “He always gives me ... Views: 1648
Daily Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
When we feel a strong affection for someone, there is invariably an element of fantasy in this affection.
If we are on a path to becoming a spiritually conscious individual, it's possible we will become aware of this element of ... Views: 2187
Daily Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
When someone comes into our awareness in a dream, they usually aren’t quite the same as the person we actually know in everyday life (presuming they are someone we know at all).
In our dream we are creating the characters as a reflection of ... Views: 3129
Daily Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
Have you ever considered just how much energy, whether mental, emotional, or physical, you put into trying to impress other people?
I grew up with my entire self-concept oriented to what others wanted me to be. I so wanted the approval of ... Views: 1676
Daily Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
Have you ever considered just how much energy, whether mental, emotional, or physical, you put into trying to impress other people?
I grew up with my entire self-concept oriented to what others wanted me to be. I so wanted the approval of ... Views: 1061
You know what claustrophobia is, don't you? It's the fear that Santa Claus will get stuck in your chimney.
There's another kind of claus-trophobia, and that's the fear of "being" Santa.
Santa may well be the most universal symbol in western culture. Why does Santa have such ... Views: 1614
The bread and wine served at the Mass, the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, or Communion—whichever your tradition calls this occasion—started out not as isolated elements of bread and wine, as they are in churches today, but as essential parts of a normal dinner.
As the followers of Jesus spread ... Views: 1579
Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
What is the purpose of the “crash in the desert” that seems to have to happen in our life if we are ever to enter into the bliss that Eckhart Tolle describes in his books?
I’m talking about the abiding peace and exhilarating joy that ... Views: 1122
A great many people are seeking to be enlightened, or what is often spoken of as "awakening" or becoming "conscious."
Some have been searching for years, but any kind of sustained enlightenment continues to elude them.
When we search for enlightenment, or struggle to awaken or become ... Views: 1043
When it comes to personal growth, at the very time life feels most threatening—as if it’s perhaps even about to sink our ship—instead of seeing it as our enemy, we need to trust it.
It may seem crazy, but I have seen over the years how there is an incredible wisdom in the way life has brought ... Views: 1139
Daily Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
The way millions upon millions, in fact more likely billions, picture God isn’t really very different from the king the Little Prince encounters on the first planet he visits.
If I had to sit on a throne all day—and for all ... Views: 1200
Millions think that Jesus literally flew up into the sky to God, who was working things like a puppet master from a place somewhere up there called heaven. They get the idea from the Gospel of Luke and its second volume, the Book of Acts. Both are actually one single work in two volumes, which ... Views: 1843
Daily Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
It’s easy when situations become painful to imagine that our life is going all wrong.
But there has long been a mystical sense among humans all over the world that the divine Presence that pervades everything is the only reality there is. ... Views: 2528
Daily Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
How we see reality has to do with our beliefs. If you hold one set of beliefs, you will interpret what happens to you in a very different way than someone who holds an opposing set of beliefs.
However, at a deeper level our ... Views: 1116
Daily Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince
The businessman on the fourth planet the Little Prince visits on his journey to Earth is completely self-absorbed, to the point he doesn’t even notice the Little Prince’s arrival.
To be self-absorbed is to be unaware of everyone ... Views: 1073
What do you do when you love more than one person in your life, but they are at odds with each other, and you find yourself torn between them?
It's a pretty common scenario. For one reason or another, a daughter or son doesn't approve of who you, as a divorced person, are dating. A mother or ... Views: 1237