“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living […]
Taoist Teaching, Taoist Practice, Taoist Life
This guest post was written by friend, teacher and incredibly inspiring soul, Kris Deva North, founder of the London Healing Tao Centre, Chi Nei Tsang Institute, and Zen School of Shiatsu. Most people starting out on the Way try to copy someone else, usually their teacher or facilitator. They seek guidance until understanding how to make their […]
Natalie Goldberg on How a Writer Must Say Yes to Life
Unwind in an Instant: Ancient Ways to Chill Out and Relax
True relaxation is far more than just resting the body but an integrated act that ensures every aspect of your being is rejuvenated and returned to its own exquisite equilibrium. No matter what is happening in your personal adventure, instead of allowing any stress to overwhelm you, which always hampers with your creativity, choose to sample a […]
Poetry | Advice to Writers ~ Billy Collins
Pema Chodron on Change and Opening Yourself to the Dynamic Nature of Your Being
“When you open yourself to the continually changing, impermanent, dynamic nature of your own being and of reality, you increase your capacity to love and care about other people and your capacity to not be afraid. You’re able to keep your eyes open, your heart open, and your mind open. And you notice when you […]
Annie Dillard on How Reading Can Inspire Us with Wisdom, Courage, and the Possibility of Meaningfulness
“Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize our days, will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage, and the possibility of meaningfulness, and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries, so we may feel again their majesty and power? What do we ever know that is […]
Krishnamurti on Awakening to Your Inner Being
If you sit on the bank of a river after a storm, you see the stream going by, carrying a great deal of debris. Similarly, you have to watch the movement of yourself, following every thought, every feeling, every intention, every motive. Just watch it. That watching is also listening; it is being aware with […]
Writing, Wit and Wisdom from Mark Twain
Needing no introduction (but having one anyway), Mark Twain aka Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was a novelist, literary critic, short story writer, essayist, lecturer, joker, pontificator and all round commenter on the great theatre that is life. Growing up with 19 cats can do that to you. Both his birth and death coincided with a passing […]
Being Calm in Times of Stress: How to Have Joy in Spite of Everything
“Don’t worry about things. Don’t push. Just do your work and you’ll survive. The important thing is to have a ball, to be joyful, to be loving and to be explosive. Out of that comes everything and you grow.” ~ Ray Bradbury There’s a lot up against us, life can be capricious, sometimes a joker, other times a friend, […]