Category: Spiritual Growth
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Spiritual Schmiritual
So, in my last post, I mentioned my desire to be so divorced from all things spiritual and personal development-ish, that I couldn’t even be called a critic. But before I could do that, I need to know the terrain I’m leaving. After all, if I want to get out of the game, I need…
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Do what you love and the money WON’T follow
Before I launch into whatever it is I’m about to say, a quick personal note: Been a while since I posted… lately, I’ve been feeling that I’ve said everything I really want to say, that to post more would be getting a job at the Department of Redundancy Department. And, more interesting (to me) is…
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Mantra power from Sweden
I was just remembering a scene from Ram Das’ Be Here Now. I don’t know if I’ve remembered it correctly since I haven’t read the book in over 20 years. I think most people who quote the title of that book as if it were a prescription for living haven’t read it… but that’s besides…
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How to be successful in anything… finally, the truth revealed!
From the “I couldn’t have said it better myself” department comes the following, thanks to Saturday Night Live. While this video is about manifesting a particular goal — picking up women — I’m sure you’ll see how to apply this to whatever you’re trying to get. For extra credit, fill in the blanks: To become…
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Buddha the Internet Marketer
If the Buddha were alive today, the odds are just as good that he’d be an Internet Marketer as the leader of a new religious sect. Why? Because the guy knew how to sell. Let me talk about the Internet Marketing world before we return full-circle to the robed former Prince of the Sakya clan…
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You can be Tony Robbins!
How’s this for a reality show: You can be the next Tony Robbins! Now the question is: Is this a show about becoming a self-help teacher or the freakiest makeover show ever on television? Then answer is actually… wait for it… motivational speaker. And this isn’t just an idea. This was a real show called…
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2012… a time for smarter pinheads
It’s not often that I use words like pinhead, bonehead, moron or idiot… in public. 😉 But today I’m inspired. My local newspaper, the Boulder, Colorado Daily Camera, published an article called Five years and counting: Will the world end in 2012? about the phenomenon that the Mayan calendar ends on December 12, 2012 (12/12/12).…
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The Integration of Bowling and Life
I loved bowling when I was a kid. If I couldn’t get a ride to the lanes from my parents, or the mom of a sometimes-friend (the time being “when I wanted to go bowling”), I would walk the 5 miles to the alley. And if I didn’t have any money, I’d pick up trash…
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Absolutely Relative
In many “spiritual” circles, they refer to two kinds of “truth”: Relative and Absolute. Relative Truth is what we know and experience on a daily basis. There’s a you, there’s a me, we’re separate individuals. Events transpire over time. As the Zen boys would say, “Mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers.” Absolute Truth on…
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The Great and Powerful Allower
I was given a popular meditation book recently. Aside from the confusing fact that the cover blurb said, “The most American form of meditation,” yet the book taught basic Buddhist meditation practices, I was struck by the fundamental teaching: Whatever arises, simply allow it to be. Sounds like a great prescription for living, doesn’t it?…
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Shave and a haircut, two…
How many of you automatically added “bits” to the end of the title of this post? There’s a great scene in a Steve Martin movie: We’re outside his hotel door and hear him practicing the tuba. A woman walks to the door. He plays the tune for “Shave and a haircut, two…” and the woman…
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Accepting Things As They Aren’t
My friend Robert Hover was one of the first westerners authorized to teach Buddhist meditation. This was about 45 years ago. As part of Robert’s training with his teacher, U Ba Khin, he developed a particular way of attending to painful or unpleasant sensations that not only led to the discomfort disappearing but also resulted…
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Our REAL greatest fear
Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. And that the moment we realize this, we will get hit by a bus and lose control of our bowels. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. Because that light shines on our darkness… and sometimes…
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Rearranging furniture in imaginary houses
When I was 8 years old, my parents discovered that I had $42 in my piggy bank. “An eight year old shouldn’t have forty-two dollars!” they said, as if I had somehow come into possession of a stolen painting. And with that proclamation, they took my $42. Over the next 30 years, I attended all…
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Abraham Maslow did yoga?
I don’t know what it is about breakfast, but when I’m making eggs is when I get hit with a lot of interesting ideas. This morning’s was, “Abraham Maslow is upside-down! Stand his ideas on their heads and it’s more accurate.” Any questions? 😉 Okay, let me elaborate. Maslow is famous for his Hierarchy of…