I began the final day of the meditation workshop with a strange, unexpected intention: to forgive myself, and to forgive God. James and Ken told us that no matter what happened, we were supposed to keep our eyes closed, keep breathing, and keep going.

To empower your life, you have to seize responsibility for it. You cannot wait and hope that God or yet another 'miracle pill' will somehow solve the problems of pain, dissatisfaction, and depression. You will not change your state by doing nothing about it or by blaming other people for your pain.

All the theory in the world is useless unless we know how to apply it and make a change. Sometimes when we try to release a pattern, the whole situation seems to get worse for a while. This is not a bad thing. It is a sign that the situation is beginning to move. Our affirmations are working, and we need to keep going.

Fold your hands together in your lap, with the right hand underneath the left hand -- the position is important because the right hand is joined with the left brain, and fear always comes from the left brain. The left hand is joined with the right brain, and courage comes from the right side.

Resilience practices and culturally rooted health traditions show promise for overcoming trauma in real-life settings.

In today’s stressful world, mindfulness – a type of popular spirituality that strives to focus on the present moment – promises to soothe away the anxiety and stress of modern life.

Whenever you have the opportunity, lie down on the earth -- in a meadow, in the forest, on the bank of the river... Just lie down on the earth and feel one with it. That will give you much energy, fresh energy.

Loving-kindness and compassion are of utmost importance at this time for humanity. Love and compassion for one an­other, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, and gender, need to take precedence over ideology and our superficial differ­ences. We must come together and cooperate with one an­other in order to survive the global challenges facing us.

The film The Portal follows six individuals who undergo a personal transformation from trauma and struggle to calmness, self-acceptance, and compassion towards others.

You do not come into earth to meditate. You come into earth to think, feel, act, and do. Thus, the primary impulse from your soul is not to meditate, but to love, to create harmony and goodness, and to heal. Now, the forces of God will love you no matter what you do, whether you meditate or not, whether you...

Meditation is not another “thing” to do, it’s an expression of who you are. Like all authentic spiritual practices it makes life easier by removing the barriers that keep you from being the person you came here to be.

When I was little, my mother used to ask me if I would jump out the window just because my friends were doing it. The question made me mad, but she was trying to teach me an important lesson about life. Learn to think for yourself and listen to your heart, or you're likely to get into trouble.

Practiced daily, this basic activation exercise enables you to gradually shift the center of your being to your heart. The ideal is to start your day with it, but you can do it at any other time, including just before going to sleep.

When most of us are introduced to the practice of meditation and mindfulness, usually our opinion is that thinking is bad. After all, we reason, our thinking and ideas have become a layer between the present moment and ourselves. Our mind has convinced us that we are isolated. At least, that is how we often perceive the situation.

Certainly there are injustices to be named in this world, and hate-filled situations to be changed, and inequities to be remedied. There is appropriate treatment to be demanded, without prejudice or fear. But can we do these things without destroying ourselves through anger?

The purpose of meditation is to slow down so that we can see clearly into the nature of the mind, making it possible for us to become fully present in each moment, to gain understanding of the way things truly are. It can give rise to the deep sense of calm that comes from really knowing something for yourself.

For many of us, the idea of sitting quietly is painful. Many of us like being busy. In our American culture, we are applauded for checking as many items as we can off our to-do lists. It makes us feel we have accom­plished much, that we’re going places fast. But many of us are running on empty. We are just whirling, twirling.

We all start out as a closet case. We have a secret life with secret pain that we keep under wraps in this closet. We bolt the door and hide the key, keeping our dark side hidden away, and we work very hard to function over the top of that pain, fear and anguish and go on somehow with our lives, perhaps thinking we are the only ones with secret pain.

Buddhists believe that all our actions are dependent on our state of mind. A mind that is not well controlled is liable to cause a great deal of harm to itself and others, while a peaceful mind creates a comfortable atmosphere for itself and everyone around.

If I had to mention one single thing which I believe the most important by very very far, for not only the survival but the harmonious evolution of mankind, it is simply LOVE. And the best place to find it might be in ourselves!

We are born into this life to give it shape and to be powerful. Whether you’re simply fixing lunch or dreaming of leading a self-sufficient life in the country, these are all ideas waiting to be put into practice in the best possible way.

A Benedictine monk had used almost exactly the same words as a Hindu ascetic – Swami Ambikananda had also mentioned that we could meditate for 22 hours a day but that during those two remaining hours all kinds of un-enlightened selfish actions were possible. (It also brought to mind a prisoner I’d met who told me that he had been a Buddhist for years and meditated daily – but was nevertheless in prison for recently committing a violent armed robbery.)

Although we may feel like we have no real say about how we spend our time, a careful and honest examination reveals this cannot literally be true. We make choices each day that explicitly reflect our personal values and individual priorities. When...