What does it mean to be free? To feel free? To honor other people’s freedom while embracing our own?
When I was in eighth grade, my history teacher, Mr. B, assigned to the class engaging in a debate as to whether Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Mellon were philanthropists or robber barons. We were put in teams and told which side we had to argue. When we were given the assignment, I went to Mr. B…
In The Yoga of Discipline, Swami Chidvilasananda says that we should eat in such a way that the earth is happy to have us as a guest. (See Thanksgiving blog). As I get ready for the holiday season — a time of being a guest and receiving guests — I continue to contemplate this exhortation. …
It is times like these where the importance of one’s personal home practices is emphasized.
The clouds are thin; we need rain. But not too much.
Have you ever noticed just how ineffective and indeed counter-productive is the exhortation to “cheer up?” Being told to cheer up, be happy, etc, when one is feeling sad or out of sorts can just make one feel worse. The exhortations that work are those that remind us of that for which we are grateful…
On the column that supports this bas-relief and a larger than life standing portrait of Daniel Webster, is engraved: “liberty and union now and forever one and inseparable.” Kind of sounds like a description of the absolute consciousness, the one self, though that was probably, mostly not the intent.