self inquiry

When experience is primarily harmonious, we have the sense of being held, either internally through our own equilibrium, or externally through the alignment of supportive outside forces. With too much rest, we lose the stimulation necessary for development. With too much stress, we lose the rest necessary for development. In harmony we have both.

To inquire into something is to open to it, to meet it, and to discover its meaning — or lack of meaning — from the inside of it. Inquiry is…

People who live their lives unaware that they are telling themselves a story consider their thoughts to be descriptions of reality. If someone else has a conflicting description, that person is considered just to be wrong. It is a leap into maturity to realize that our descriptions of reality are our versions of reality. Certainly there is nothing wrong about a version of reality, but the recognition that it is a version, rather than reality itself, is humbling to our version of ourselves!

In our long human history of storytelling, there have been great beings with awe-inspiring stories that reveal the victory of self-discovery. What inspires us about these great ones is that somehow their lives turned toward and then reflected the sublime discovery of everlasting truth. In Hidden Treasure: Uncovering the Truth in Your Life Story (Tarcher Penguin, 2011) I invite you to let your story be a contribution to the universal revelation of self-discovery, expressed uniquely as you.

A revealing exercise was discovered with a group of people interested in living freely, unencumbered by past definitions of themselves. When a person said her own name and then said what that name meant to her, self-definitions from childhood were exposed. Usually, if not always, these definitions of themselves were negative to at least some degree. Even if names had been changed, the old name still had hidden power, and hidden power is the most insidious. Many of these intelligent, bright, aware adults were carrying old burdens of negative self-identification within them. When a friend repeated the question, “What is your name and what does it mean?” layers of excess mental and emotional baggage could be recognized and dropped.

Life is filled with an agenda of so many things we need to do each day and trying to find time in our daily calendars to see family and friends…

Every moment there is an opportunity for us to discover more about ourselves by accepting that the world is a reflection of who we are. Imagine the world and its…

Thoughts are just thoughts, they come and go and there is no need for us to get on the thought train and actually become the thought, but it does take a certain vigilance to be conscious of not becoming the thought. Wake up each day and make a commitment not to jump on the ‘train of thought’. Instead, make a choice to begin watching the stories your mind tells you and become the observer of your thoughts. When you begin to let these stories be present without action, they will come and go just like the moment they arrived.