Listening to the Pain of the World: Healing the Human Soul My heart is listening to the pain of the world. There is so much anger, fear, suspicion, projection, despair, violence, grief, sadness, and mistrust. We live in a time when trustworthy leaders are almost nowhere to be found. Some are dictators. Others are neoliberal…
St Francis’ lasting legacy was to teach humanity the sacred lessons of unconditional and boundless love. He especially taught love through his humble service to the vulnerable peoples in his own time who were held in contempt by the powerful and comfortable. He demonstrated the indestructible power of love, which overcomes our primal egoic thoughts…
The 15th century mystic, Teresa of Avila, loved the usage of archetypal symbolism and metaphor in her writings to describe her understanding about the nature of the divine, the state of heaven, the substance of the soul and the stages of the spiritual life. The Interior Castle was one of her finest teachings on the…
Originally written for the Lynn News, Thought for the Day The Cathars of Languedoc were a group of medieval Christians who have been very close to my heart since I first learned of them in 2011. The Cathars were called the good people by friends and neighbours. They were a Gnostic Christian community who lived in…
Mindfulness is a form of meditative practice which focuses upon our mind and attention. In Mindfulness we notice bodily experiences, such as our breathing, sensation, and our energy. We notice external things such as sounds near to us, smells, taste and touch. Mindfulness draws upon a knowledge base of cognitive behavioural psychology, neuroscience, and Buddhist…
Originally written for the Lynn News, Thought for the Day Viktor Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist who was a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust. He spent three years in the infamous concentration camp, Auschwitz. This experience led him to write a transformative book called Man’s Search for Meaning. The book describes how finding deep…
Originally written for the Lynn News, Thought for the Day When we think of the word compassion, we associate it with the attribute of kindness. Compassion does consist of kindness. However, it also consists of far more. Professor Paul Gilbert (OBE) is a renown clinical psychologist who has made significant contributions to the field of compassionate…
Originally written for the Lynn News, Thought for the Day The internationally acclaimed medical doctor, Gabor Maté, is a bestselling author, teacher and public speaker whose pioneering compassionate work with people suffering from addictions and their causative underlying traumas, has been a very important voice in the development of global humanitarianism and compassion. Gabor was born…
There is light that is more luminous than billions of stars. This light resides deep within our consciousness, but remains largely unseen in this universe because the egos eyes cannot comprehend it. The light is manifest in this world through the giving and receiving of love and compassion. These radiate our true luminous nature into…