Daylesford Tarot and Healing

19/07/2022

Tired indeed! (-a passage from my book, ‘Love it Forward’)

20/06/2022

The humanism bypass. I did it for years. I saw glimpses of someone’s potential, their beautiful soul, their loving heart, and told myself that this was who they... truly were, ignoring all the rest. But the rest was what destroyed. The rest is where they lived most of the time. The rest was no illusion- it was them, too. This self-destructive pattern was birthed in two places: (1) my deep desire to see the best in my difficult parents. Not for them, but for me. I needed to believe that there was something kind and caring living inside of them; (2) a misplaced projection from my own self-concept work. I held the belief in my own potential, as a way of overcoming the shame I carried. But I made the mistake of assuming that everyone else was just as eager to find their light. Of course we all have glowing potential. At the core, we are all magnificent beings with profound capacities. But how many of us fully actualize it? At this stage of human development, not so many. The trick is to hold the space for two things at once- a deep belief in everyone’s possibilities, and a deep regard for your own well-being. It’s okay to pray for everyone’s liberation without joining them in prison. Pray from outside the prison walls, while taking exquisite care of yourself. It's okay- you can't do the work for them anyway. Boundaries, boundaries, boundaries… don’t leave home without them.

11/06/2022

What do we whisper to ourselves?

💛 credit:

05/05/2022

Ahhhh, the zen of it all.... 🤣

Cartoon: David Sipress 😃
Often when people start to practice , they hope to become calm and peaceful. Usually they are in for a big shock. Initially practice can reveal the opposite, bringing an unseen stream of evaluations and judgments into stark relief. As minutes pass, we may cycle between agitation and boredom. We hear a door slam and wish for quiet. ("I'm meditating—it should be quiet!") Our knees hurt, our back hurts, and we try to avoid the pain. (Maybe we need a better cushion?) We can't feel our breath and get frustrated. We notice our mind won't stop planning and we feel like a failure. ("I can't stop thinking!") Then maybe we notice how many judgments there are, and we feel proud of ourselves for noticing, then judge our pride.
We can begin to put aside our judgment. We can become mindful. When we are mindful, it is as if we can bow to our experience without judgment or expectation. “Mindfulness,” declared the Buddha, “is all helpful.”

Excerpt adapted from "The Wise Heart"

26/03/2022

24/03/2022

Healing is not easy...

08/02/2022

"It has to end..."

Hearticulations: On Love, Friendship, and Healing

08/02/2022

From "The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace"