There is life, and there are thoughts about life. If we see our thoughts as thoughts, we don’t become our thoughts; we recognize that we are different from our thoughts. Thoughts just arise and disappear; we can’t even say they arise within us...
I want to talk about awakening. I want to talk about the kind of awakening that is all around us, that doesn’t require any special effort or activity, the kind of awakening that exists as the inner truth of all living things…of all...
What does it mean to be truly alive? Does it mean to be so busy, frantic, or worried that we cannot enter this moment deeply? Does it mean to be so full of yesterday’s knowledge or tomorrow’s hope that we cannot see the contours of today...
The governors of each state must execute the guilty person. I say the governor because that is the person who, in the system we have created, carries the power of clemency: the governor can commute a death sentence. The governor that we have elected...
This column was inspired by a conversation with a client, and while I am addressing him, it has implications for all of us. A few years ago, I was consulted by the president of a manufacturing company, and it was there that I first heard about...
This might not seem very promising, since we are usually trying to become or attain something other than what we are, now, in this moment. Inevitably, we must ask, “What, or who, are we?” No one can teach us the answer to this question...
No one I know has penetrated the koan of leadership. A koan is a riddle, the solution to which can only be found by going completely beyond all conditioning and thought. The solution originates from a place utterly free from image, belief, and...
Our conditioned, patterned way of living may be disrupted by the unexpected. An accident, a sudden reversal of fortune, the death of a loved one, or a confrontation with our own mortality can open a window to another world of significance. Another...
There is a lot of talk about importing spirituality into business as an antidote to various forms of malaise. I think it’s important to ask, “Will it fit?” Personally, I don’t think so, because it would be like trying to...
I am sometimes consulted by people in the corporate sector to shed light on a particular situation or relationship. In one such case, I walked into the office of a client and he looked at me as though I were an alien from outer space, still dirty...



