“The coming to consciousness is not a discovery of some new thing; it is a long and painful return to that which has alway been.” Helen Luke Each person is born with an unencumbered spot – free of expectation and regret, free of ambition and embarrassment, free of fear and worry. It is this spot of grace that issues peace. Psychologists call this spot the Psyche, theologians call it the Soul, Jung calls it the Seat of the Unconscious, Hindu masters call it Atman, Buddhists ca

Lead us from the unreal to the real.” Hindu Invocation It was a snowy night, and Robert was recalling the time two springs ago when he was determined to paint the family room. Up early, he was out the door, to the hardware store gathering the gallons of red, the wooden mixing sticks, the drop cloths, and the one-time brushes that always harden, no matter what you soak them in. He mixed the paint outside and waddled to the door with a gallon in each hand, the drop cloth under

Of all things that exist, we breathe and wake and turn it into song. There is a Buddhist precept that asks us to be mindful of how rare it is to find ourselves in human form on Earth. It is really a beautiful view of life that offers us the chance to feel enormous appreciation for the fact that we are here as individual spirits filled with consciousness, drinking water and chopping wood. It asks us to look about at the ant and the antelope, at the worm and the butterfly, at