In these challenging times, fortunate individuals have an unexpected opportunity to turn their attention inward and listen in silence to life’s inner callings. For those who seek larger understandings, it is customary to routinely retreat from outer activity and mental clutter.

Perhaps it is a short daily meditation, a longer silent retreat, related reading, or a vision quest. It is at such moments that we can mindfully listen and receive guidance from the natural rhythms and wisdom of life. It is how wise teachers and religious figures chose to align themselves with sacred harmony and deeper knowledge. It is in that inner silence that truth and wholeness are finally revealed to the earnest seeker.

Staying in one place and slowing down one’s “doings” is a consistent requirement of retreat. Although traditionally motivated by a personal longing for meaning and essence, today we are further enabled by a virus-forced mandate. That is where we are, and where we will be for a time to come. So why not grasp this opportunity?

To assist you in using this time well, I would like to share with you three types of retreat: outer, inner, and innermost. I hope this information will motivate you to create an in-home retreat, right where you are, right now. You can begin after reading these few words.

Outer Retreat

An outer retreat occurs when we establish the external conditions that are conducive to an inner and innermost retreat. As a result of the current restrictions that now shape daily life, creating an outer retreat is a bit easier. We are already set-off from the usual activities and distractions of daily life. So we begin by resisting the habit of filling newly found “free time” with more “stuff,” recreating our usual busyness. That’s a familiar pattern that runs deep in our psyche. Be aware of this mental habit when it arises. Watch it and let it go. There are deeper and more important longings and possibilities to now attend to.

Next, as best you can, bring harmony into your outer life. Your living space should be inviting to your soul and spirit, heart-warming, soft, and facilitate inner time. Meals can be prepared in peace and solitude. Harmony can prevail in relationships. Consider creating a special “sacred space” in your house for meditation and self-reflection. Some set-up a small table in a spare room upon which to place important photos, candles, or objects of a spiritual nature. That can bring a special sense of stillness and inspiration.

Think of the energy, sweetness, and peace of nature, a religious space, or a meditation room. The cultivation of that essence is how we create an outer retreat that facilitates harmony of body, mind, and spirit.

Inner Retreat

Inner retreat is the formal time we use for daily meditation practice, as well as the informal time we are in a meditative space during daily activities. The aim of inner retreat is to rest in the stillness of mind rather than the usual mental commentary. Our formal sessions begin, particularly in times such as this, by giving rise to compassion and care for those who are suffering in difficult circumstances. I suggest as one possibility reciting the Bodhissattva Prayer written by Shantideva in the 900s. I will offer a link below. However, you can cultivate a compassionate attitude in whatever manner most suits you.

The next step in inner retreat is calming the mind. We begin with calming methods, using what you already know that works for you. I am linking below a 10-session audio recording that might assist you. The first 3 sessions focus on approaches to calming the mind.

It doesn’t so much matter how you calm the mind, but that you calm it and then rest in the stillness that underlies mental chatter. Mind-talk will inevitably arise, but that doesn’t mean you cannot stay calm in the midst of background noise. You can. Disregard the pull of your usual mind. Allow mental activity to come and go on its own. Allow the usual mental commentary to play itself out. But you, you, remember who you are. The one who is aware, who observes, is still, and fully aware. You are not your thoughts, beliefs, and mental commentary.

What is the aim of an inner retreat? The aim is to empty our mind of afflictive/disturbing emotions, experience the peace and serenity of a calm mind, cultivate the capacity to remain emotionally stable in challenging circumstances, and allow an open space for new insights regarding self, reality, and life directions to naturally and spontaneously arise. As we continue this daily inner retreat, we will recognize its value and realize that even in the midst of outer turbulence there can be inner stability and strength. That is the essence of an inner retreat, we retreat into a calm, clear, alert, and peaceful mind.

Innermost Retreat

The final stage of retreat is an innermost retreat. I am sorry to say that this is the most difficult to convey in words, as to know it, you must experience it directly. Much as you cannot know the actual taste of a Mango by merely listening to a description of it, you cannot know the actual nature of an innermost experience without tasting the center of your being. However, I’ll do the best I can to point you in that direction.

There is an experience, an experience of the innermost and most expansive ground of our being, that we can call spirit, essence, natural self, true self, empty-awareness, or any one of the many names that refer to it. It contains and gives rise to all other levels of experience. One can say it is the ground of our being, a place of isness, thatness, beingness, or pure presence. It just is. When great teachers are asked what it is, they mysteriously answer “It is that.” That’s not much of an answer, because there isn’t an answer. When you experience it, you will know.

Yet, the good news is that we have all experienced our innermost being at one time or another. Whenever we experience the loss of a sense of personal self and its preoccupations, we experience life in that moment as an easy flow. We taste the expansiveness and pervasiveness of peace, and joy. We can catch a glimpse during when we “lose” our usual self in dance, music, art, meditation, yoga, exercise, nature, intimacy, and so on. These moments are usually considered lovely serendipitous experiences. They come and go with a smile. In contrast, what we seek in retreat is an intentional and increasingly stable meeting with our innermost self.

There is no particular effort or practice you can use to directly access this innermost presence. The best you can do is to remove the obstacles, experience a longing and desire to return to your inner home, and allow for grace. So you don’t “do” an innermost retreat, you let go and allow it to happen. Your efforts towards inner development enhance the probability that you will touch this natural self. And let’s remember, we are not visitors to this innermost place. It is who we are. Resting in the ground of our being is the innermost retreat.

So we begin retreat with an intention and commitment based on the understanding that outer experiences as well as mental experiences are transient. We realize the fatigue of a life spent searching for our self in perishable experiences. Increasingly, we trust that the only sustaining experience is the unchanging nature of our true self, our true nature.

We cultivate a harmonious outer environment that supports retreat. That is followed by calming the mind through meditation practice and resting in stillness and serenity. This inner retreat can at any time spontaneously open into an innermost retreat, revealing the essential nature of our natural essence and self – the truth of our existence. If not, we feel blessed and enriched with what we have learned and experienced.

Some final words – start simply, be patient, do not attach to expectations, and appreciate the here and now of meditation practice and retreat. And add a dash of discipline.

I do hope that this short description of the three aspects of retreat allows you to wisely use this in-between time. Perhaps you will then find the precious gold that is often most accessible at times of great adversity.

To learn more about Dr. Dacher and his work, visit: http://www.elliottdacher.org

The details are simple to understand. We begin by imagining, in the mental field in front of us, the image of a loved one – traditionally one’s mother. We start with the aspiration, riding on the in-breath, that our loved one be free of suffering and the causes of suffering. We can further advance this to the sincere desire of taking upon our self the suffering of others, imagining dissolving it in our heart.

Similarly, with each out-breath we aspire that the other be happy and establish the causes of happiness. We can similarly advance this to the desire to give our happiness and the causes of our happiness to others, knowing that the source within cannot be depleted. This is the basic practice. Breathe out, breathe in, send love and happiness and receive suffering and the causes of suffering.

As mentioned, the practice traditionally begins with the image of one’s mother. Why mother? Because that is the foundational relationship of human intimacy, the essential first experience of selfless love and care, which serves as the primary basis of adult intimacy. Given that reality what person is more deserving of our gratitude, love, care, and selfless attention? So surely, by remembering the selfless love of mother, we can further cultivate love and compassion for others, maximizing the effect of this practice. To their surprise, as Eastern teachers introduced this practice to the West, they ran directly into an unexpected obstacle.

The moment the practice is explained hands go up – “not my mother.” “My mother was this and that,” which was invariably followed by a litany of complaints about mother’s indifferent, negligent, or abusive behavior that permanently “broke” the essential bond of mother/child intimacy – foreshadowing the adult intimacy issues so prevalent in the West.

Recognizing this unique dilemma of modern life, a shift took place in how the practice was taught. Alternatively, the Western student is asked to begin the practice by remembering the kindness and care given by a special loved one or give rise to a state of inner quiet and inner well-being, and use either approach as the basis of the practice. The Western issue with mother is thus bypassed.

Let me now explain how I learned this practice in Asia. I learned Tonglen at a 10-day seminar at the Pullahari Monastary in the foothills of Kathmandu. As students, we met as a group 2 hours twice daily. For the first 4 days the teacher would review over and over the ways in which mother was kind and selfless. Little attention was given to the psychological limitations of an immature mother. The emphasis was on the life-giving response to the completely dependent child, which enabled our good fortune to attain adulthood.

He would begin each session recalling the decision, conscious or unconscious, to carry a child, and how this changed a mother’s life. He would then speak of the carrying of a growing child, difficulties of pregnancy, the delivery process, the sleepless nights, challenges of child rearing, and the inherent self-sacrifice over many years of child development, and finally the letting go when the time came. I will spare the very detailed and heartfelt descriptions he gave of this process. But, they were extensive, irrefutable, and heart-touching.

Each day after teachings we would return to our small room to contemplate the kindness and gratitude of our mother. My mother was an immigrant to this country, working 2 jobs as long as I can recall, navigating a difficult marriage, and doing the best to raise her children in a nuclear family. Intimacy was a psychological and logistical impossibility for her. It was only at the end of my mother’s life that some aspect of belated intimacy developed. Yet, I followed the teacher’s instructions. Every day, twice a day, my meditation practice was focused around recalling the elements of self-sacrifice, that to one extent or another are essential aspects of motherhood.

For the first day or two this was an intellectual practice, but then, something shifted, something began to open in my heart. I began to recognize the sacrifices that my “psychologically imperfect” mother did in fact make for my life, enabling a young first generation American to transition through the highly dependent years of infancy to become a physician early on and then gravitate to the mountains of the Himalayas to find the deeper sources of knowledge and healing. What a gift!

Could I have accomplished that without her? Could you have accomplished your life without the self-sacrifices of your mother and others? In my case, the answer was for me a resounding “no.” That is not an assertion of her perfection, far from that, but a realization of my total dependency on her for everything pre- and post-natal. And the fact that I am here today verifies that in her own imperfect way she met that dependency with care, as best as was possible given her circumstance.

By the fourth day of these instructions, reflection, and meditation, I began to feel tears of gratitude well up in my heart and trickle down my face. I began to appreciate, as never before, the extraordinary kindness and self-sacrifice of my mother, followed by father, sister, and others. This appreciation looked past the surface imperfections to the instinctual and good heart of every mother, however obscured it may have seemed at the time.

Once this was accomplished, we were then instructed to drop down into our heart and cultivate these feelings, allowing the recollection of kindness and self-sacrifice to morph into an expansive gratitude. With this achieved, we were then told that we were ready to begin the authentic practice of Tonglen.

We were to take in suffering and give out kindness from the essence of this cultivated heart feeling. Nothing made-up here. The sequence begins with our most cherished ones, moves to unknown others, to those we perceive as difficult, and finally to all of humanity. We begin, of course with mother.

That is how I learned to practice Tonglen and re-immerse myself in the positivity of my mother’s imperfect efforts. I learned to see with gratitude the core of goodness whose care was life-sustaining, and the best possible given their capacities and circumstances. I no longer had to contrive or fabricate the depth of gratefulness and heart that is at the basis of this authentic practice.

I would like to make two comments regarding differences, East and West, that to some extent explain the issues discussed above. First, traditionally in the East children are raised by a large extended family. There is always someone around for a hug, reassurance, listening, and providing. Such an extended community provides a stable and loving childhood. In contrast, in modern times it is very difficult for a mother or a unit of mother and father to offer the same. Although the intention of selfless parenting may be the same, the inevitable consequences of the stressful environment of modern parenting allows little support for the exhausted, psychologically youthful and over-extended parent.

A second point I wish to raise is what I would call Western psychology’s demonization of motherhood. To me this is a devastating side-effect, rarely discussed, that profoundly impacts on the problems of adult intimacy. In the East the mother is deeply respected and honored for her role, irrespective of what must at times be less than perfection. This allows for the honoring and preservation of this initial and profound first intimacy.

In the West, it’s my observation that mother is held responsible for many adult difficulties and lacks the deep regard and honor given in the East. The cost of this demonization of motherhood, is in my view, deeply felt individually and culturally. These two factors may account for the difficulty in this practice taking authentic hold in the West.

Perhaps there is a lesson in this telling. None of us has reached the pinnacle of psychological health. We all suffer our past history. Perhaps it may yet be possible for each of us to look back, look beyond the psychological immaturity of our loved ones and open our wisdom and heart to the deeper love and selflessness that resides within the essential essence of each of us and is especially embodied in the motherly response to the total dependency of our life before, in, and out of the womb. This is not to justify psychological abuse, but rather to free us into a deeper capacity for forgiveness, gratitude, and intimacy on our path to a larger life and health. It is that attitude the primes the powerful practice of Tonglen.

Elliott Dacher, MD website: http://www.elliottdacher.org

It can only be known by direct experience. All that another can do is point you towards that experience. If you follow that pointing you will certainly, when the moment is ripe, know it for yourself. Experiencing your natural, unaltered, and simple awareness is experiencing precisely who you are and have always been. This awareness has no purpose, intention, expectation, or attachment. It just is.

It’s actually quite simple to experience. We are born into a pure and simple awareness. A young child naturally experiences one thing after another without interpretation and commentary, without separation into “I” and It.” The Buddhists illustrate this with the metaphor of a complex tapestry. A young child enjoys the diverse sensory experiences, leaping with delight from one visual impression to another.

However, that is no longer how it is for us. We have lost the natural unfiltered awareness of a child. Instead, we superimpose memories, stories, and meanings onto the perceived images. We are constantly interpreting and commenting on the tapestry. Rather than experiencing the tapestry as it is we alter it, experiencing instead as a conceptual abstraction. And these mental elaborations rapidly take over from our brief but natural experience, affording little if any time to experience what’s actually there.

There is neither good nor bad here, but merely the observation that direct unfiltered awareness is our natural state. The problem is not that we acquire the capacity to add meaning and context but rather that we forget and lose the capacity to experience directly what is as is. We get meaning, context and perhaps functionality by superimposing existing patterns of perception, but lose the creativity, freshness, and possibilities of a beginner’s mind.

How does this happen? Early in childhood we lose touch with unfiltered awareness. It fades from view as we develop the sense of a personal identity. We are given a name and then fill that container with life experiences, which in time are formed into fixed patterns of perception – templates through which we see the world. Our world becomes narrower, familiar, fixed, and increasingly abstract. Simple awareness goes underground, as we develop a conditioned, selective, and preferential awareness.

A tree is no longer a simple sensory experience. It is a certain kind of tree with specific characteristics, uses, and preferences. Another person is no longer an unknown to experience and discover, but rather quickly categorized – liked or disliked. Nothing remains quite as it is. We create a fictitious world, no longer experiencing life as is, but rather what we have made of it with our conditioned mind. Our adult life is thus circumscribed and limited by the past. Seven billion people on our planet and seven billion worlds.

I would like to stop here and offer the words of T.S. Eliot:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

In the same poem he offers us a more specific instruction:

In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.

What are we told? First, that what the seeker seeks is what we have always been from the very beginning, before the process of individuation and separation. Our journey, the end of our seeking, is a homecoming. To accomplish this return requires awareness of the process of individuation, its assets, and liabilities. We begin from the fragmented disconnection of our personal self, which still holds a subtle remembrance and longing for our natural essence, our wholeness. We become humble pilgrims walking the path that returns home, to the place from where we started.

The most insidious liability of individuation is our conditioning – the habits of perception and reactivity that unknowingly shape and influence all our experiences. We learn to acknowledge their presence with neutrality and detachment. We then let these ghosts of the past dissipate from lack of further attention or elaboration. The past, we observe is merely a mental pattern laid down long ago whose significance, if any at all, is long gone. So, what is it like to experience a natural and unconditioned awareness that is free of the past?

Consider the following. When you first awaken in the morning notice what enters your visual or auditory field. It is not yet named, valued, or in any way altered from its actual presentation to consciousness. It is simple unconditioned awareness of a sensory object. When absorbed in meditation you can similarly observe mental activity come and go without adding a mental commentary. This is unconditioned awareness of a mental object. It may only last a moment before your usual conditioned awareness takes over. Observe that as well, as it is essential that you come to know the entire process – how unfiltered awareness re-boots as conditioned awareness. 

Why is this glimpse of unfiltered awareness so important? It’s the beginning of a new freedom, or perhaps I should say an old freedom. We now have the choice of experiencing and responding to how things actually are rather than experiencing and reacting to a self and world shaped by our past. We are able to discern and observe our mental process and act free of the influences of the known.

The final step occurs when our attention shifts to awareness itself. We become self-aware rather than object-aware. Unlike the child we know our unconditioned awareness for the first time, as well as our conditioning. We are aware that mental and sensory objects appear in consciousness – we acknowledge all that arises in awareness – but we know them to be only transient appearances on an unchanging ground awareness. Our natural awareness, the ground of our being, does not come and go. It is ever-present now and always.

Challenges and difficult circumstances will continue. But they will be experienced by a stable and unmoving awareness. They will be held in a ground of serenity, peace, wisdom, and gentleness. No fear. No anxiety. No suffering. Just presence and being. Some say this is a passive state that’s incompatible with worldy life. This is not so. That is merely the statement of an ego caught in ordinary life. Those who touch beyond know better.

When action is necessary it spontaneously arises from the clear knowing of unconditioned awareness. That action will not be a reaction to our interpretation of an event, but rather a precise and accurate response to the experience at hand as it is. There is no thought process involved, just a natural knowing and natural responsiveness. We slowly gain trust and confidence in living from this center of our being. And we gain inspiration from knowing that those great ones, as well as ordinary individuals who have lived from heart and soul, are remembered for their lasting noble contributions to mankind

We will also discover that this simple awareness is the great healing elixir. The mental and sensory appearances that once seemed separate from awareness will be recognized as the dynamic expression of awareness – formlessness and form each an expression of consciousness. No longer a separation. No longer fragmentation. Finally, the knowing of wholeness, of oneness, of the sacred union. We return home and know it for the first time.

In the Western tradition the wise Oracle of Delphi expresses it this way:

Once you have touched it

There is no division:

No tearing your heart away

For it knows no separation.

Website: http://www.elliottdacher.org

When I roam the uncultivated and unmaintained nature of meadow, stream, mountains, or sea, I experience a very different inner stillness. That experience not merely calms, it evokes something deeper, something still and timeless, a remembered home. Although difficult to recognize at first, there is a subtle but very significant difference between these two experiences – a felt and true distinction between a cultivated calmness and a natural uncultivated stillness. That distinction is well known to experienced meditators. and can be recognized by each of us, when carefully observing our inner experience.

Let’s step back for a moment and review the difference between our two “selves” – our ordinary ego-based self and our underlying natural and authentic self. We will then see that the continuum that connects calmness and restlessness is a characteristic of the former. A pervasive and unchanging stillness is characteristic of the latter.

The “I” we know as our day-to-day self is itself cultivated. It does not exist at birth. As we enter the process of naming and individuation we create and cultivate our seemingly unique and distinct personality, our ordinary self – a collection of experiences, history, memories, patterns of perception and reaction that are mentally “strung” together to appear as a continuous history– our personal self.

Over our lifetime we can further “cultivate” this personal self with efforts at self-improvement and psychological development. Using various approaches, we can gain greater insight, enhance day-to-day functioning, improve relationships, increase happiness, diminish reactivity, and establish a greater mental calm. This is a remarkable achievement. But it has a serious downside.

Innate to individualism is a disconnection from others, our essence, and our earthly home. The belief that we are an individual and distinct self is at the heart of this disconnection. The personal self is innately defensive, protective, and self-centered. As we upgrade our personal self these characteristics may become subtler and unseen. But given the right circumstances they can re-assert themselves, disturbing our carefully cultivated personal and upgraded self. We all have had the disillusioning experience of old reaction patterns suddenly re-appearing, just when we were certain we had moved beyond.

So here is the distinction between a cultivated personal sense of “calmness” and a natural uncultivated “stillness.” The former is always on a continuum with restlessness. Visiting the Arboretum, like engaging in a relaxation technique, will move me towards the calm end of the continuum. But as soon as I leave the Arboretum or stop the method, the shift is back towards the restless end of the continuum.

I am sure you have noticed the short lived calm after meditation, a yoga session, massage, vacation, or other methods or circumstances that cultivate mental calmness. That’s why there is an ongoing struggle with the overactive mind. You cannot, through mental will or effort, tap into the unchanging and uncultivated stillness that lies beyond ordinary mental calm.

Method induced or mentally created approaches to calmness are not the same as the stillness found in simple uncultivated nature or the simple uncultivated natural self. In each instance an inner silence is present that is natural rather than mentally created. It is inseparable from the natural state. We can say that this stillness is an essential, ever present, and unchanging perfume of what is spontaneously and naturally alive. Consider this image of a simple natural stillness offered by the poet T.S. Eliot: And the children in the apple-tree … A condition of complete simplicity.

Unlike mental calmness that is induced by a method or circumstance, natural stillness is not on a continuum with restlessness. It is pervasive, permanent, and unchanging. When we rest in our natural self, irrespective of outer challenges or mental “noise” these challenges occur in the context of a profound yet simple unmoving stillness, allowing us to navigate life’s difficulties with a stability and stillness that is unaffected by surface experiences. It can be compared to the deep sea which is unmoved by the shifting waves on its surface. Everything is experienced, but the ground upon which it plays out remains stable and still.

Unlike a transient mental calmness, natural stillness is the gateway to authentic creativity, insight, and realization of our true self and reality. Insight and truth are spontaneously known when we pass through the gate of simple natural stillness. In time, that innate knowledge points the way to the stable experience of natural being and the awakened qualities of human flourishing.

What the seeker truly seeks is its own essence – the natural self with its built-in serenity and stillness. We can arrive at this through the practice of meditation that emphasizes dropping into the natural self during formal practice, by intentionally dropping into natural moments of stillness during the day, and by appreciating those unplanned moments when we spontaneously experience effortless flow and natural stillness. In time, you will discover that stillness is at the core of all activity. Merely stop, drop in, and you will know.

With practice and experience you will realize the difference between a circumstance or method-based calmness, and a natural uncultivated stable stillness that is present every moment. With certainty, you will know this natural stillness when you experience it.

The bible calls it the peace that surpasses understanding. When you touch it, you will let go of your varied relaxation techniques and cultivated circumstances. Why would you need them? You will progressively and effortlessly live life with a still heart and mind irrespective of the challenges confronting you. And its perfume, the qualities of human flourishing will follow. This authentic and permanent stillness can then become the foundation of your life.

Website: http://www.elliottdacher.org

However, unlike ordinary experience these special moments have no cause. They unexpectedly and spontaneously reveal themselves when our personal self, with all of its habit patterns, reactivity and mind talk drops away, dissolves, disappears. Like the sun, clearly visible when the obscuring clouds move away, our essential self, always present, is seen in its natural luminosity when the obscuration of our personal identity dissipates.

There are however certain circumstances or events that may facilitate the dropping away of our personal identity. These may include an absorption in nature, beauty, dance, music, intimacy, art, meditation, or a religious experience. There is a common element in each of these. For a moment they draw attention away from our personal self and in that absence, when we are fortunate, our true nature spontaneously reveals itself for a glorious moment through the crack in the egg of our ordinary world.

We are touched by a fresh known but unknown touch of aliveness and wholeness. Unfortunately, although we have all had that experience, we miss its meaning. What we mistakenly take and label a serendipitous pleasant experience is in actuality a profound window into our essential nature, our authentic self. That is the meaning we have missed. We touch the divine and experience it as mundane pleasure.

But there is more. Not only do we mistake that glimpse as another transient pleasurable experience, but we falsely attribute it to the immediate circumstance. We say its cause was being in nature, absorbed in art, and so on. The activity or circumstances does have a role, but not a causal one. For a moment, it dissolves our tenacious personal self with all its related mental activity. When this obstacle to experiencing our natural self is removed, what is spontaneously revealed is what is already and always within us, our essential self.

Our natural ever present self is neither created nor caused by the transient dissipation of our personal identity. When the veil of our personal identity is lifted, our true self is naturally and spontaneously revealed, as what it is and has always been at the core of our being. Consider an aquarium with silt. We would say the water is dirty. When the silt settles to the bottom, we would say the water is clear. But the water was always clear. It was only obscured by silt. The settling of the silt did not create clear water. It merely revealed what is there all the time.

Why is this distinction essential? First, if we do not recognize these glimpses as windows into who we are and have always been, we miss these special opportunities that unexpectedly reveal to us the nature of our true self. And second, if we take these glimpses as pleasurable moments caused by a particular activity or circumstance, we will seek to re-create that circumstance, and that is the beginning of an addiction.

Too often we have the experience and miss the extraordinary meaning. Life goes on in its usual, ordinary, and limited way. We touch the sacred and divine and return empty handed.

All spiritual practices, meditation included, serve to quiet the ordinary mind and diminish the influence of our personal self and its tenacious conditioning. It is sort of like cleaning our room in preparation for a special visitor. Merely resting in the most subtle and still aspect of the personal mind is a healing antidote to the fears, anxieties, reactivity, and urgency of modern life. It enhances the quality of day-to-day life. But it does not take us beyond, to the essence of our self and its treasures.

With practice and understanding we slowly become less entangled in the dramas of daily life which promise much but fail to deliver. One drama leads to another and then another. There is no rest and no satisfaction. However, as we increasingly dwell in stillness these small islands of peace and clarity become larger land masses. We discover our personal self has been an unreliable and untrustworthy partner in the search for peace and happiness. Its influence softens and diminishes, and our interest turns inward towards a more trustworthy essential self.

 As we turn our attention inward, and if we are fortunate, now and then unexpectedly and spontaneously a sacred breeze will embrace us, and its grace will offer the sacred union with the one that we seek in our journey home. It may just be a glimpse, but if we continue to move the clouds, the obscurations of our personal self, we will increasingly live from this glorious and noble center of our being.

And if you are fortunate to glimpse what lies beyond you will know it to be who you truly are. Blessed, you will dwell in your true nature. To the one who is truly devoted to a precious human life these glimpses will become one’s life.

We ordinarily categorize our relationships according to how they feel to us – pleasant, neutral or unpleasant. We care for our family, friends, and lover, are unconcerned for strangers, and avoid and disparage those that we find unpleasant. However, authentic love and compassion do not know these ordinary boundaries, boundaries that are based on learned personal preferences.

Equalizing

The practice of “equalizing” is an ancient approach to re-training our mind, to returning it to its natural, expansive, and impartial openness. This practice helps us to abandon learned preferences and view all individuals as equally deserving of love and compassion. We shift from self-cherishing, to other-cherishing, to a universal, non-exclusive, embrace. Equalizing is not an easy process. In the beginning it requires the cultivation of new understandings. Eventually, it becomes natural and effortless. Consider the following truths:

1. All beings without exception want to be happy, healthy, and free of suffering. All suffering has the same quality. What is so unique and special about my suffering and the suffering of my loved ones, when all individuals suffer in the same way? Why should I care for my suffering more than that of others? In wanting happiness and freedom from suffering we are all equal.

2. What we consider to be pleasant or unpleasant in another is largely the result of personal or cultural preferences. As a result, any one individual can be viewed as pleasant by some and unpleasant by others. The individual is not different. We all have the same tissues, cells, and essential nature. What differs is our personal preferences, and these are not etched in stone. They are learned, transient, and somewhat fickle. As we diminish the tendency to make distinctions amongst individuals, others increasingly appear more similar than dissimilar, and thus equally worthy of our affection and care.

3. No individual is all bad or all good. We all have some of each quality. One aspect or another may show at one time or another but they are both there. No permanent statement can be made about the benefit or harm caused to us by a particular person. This can change over time. We must be willing to see that we are all equal in containing a mixture of qualities.

4. Individuals who are friends today may lose our affection and tomorrow become enemies. And in a similar manner our enemies may become friends. As ordinary emotions, love, hatred, affection, and rejection are impermanent qualities.

5. We are all interconnected in many ways. We live together, love together, heal together, and die together. Recent scientific studies suggest that our influence on each other may extend beyond physical proximity. Our inter-connectedness can be experience as we directly interact with each other and by energetic forces that are non-local in nature.

6. At the center of our being – an open and present mind and heart – we are all precisely the same.

7. Health, happiness, and wholeness arise from learning to love and care for many others rather than seeking and demanding love from a few individuals.

Each of these points deserves considerable reflection. With time we will realize that in truth we are more equal than different. As we increasingly feel equal to others in deserving happiness and love, the boundaries that define others as friends or enemies will soften and collapse. When this occurs we are ready for the practice of exchanging.

Exchanging

We are now able to wish for all people what we initially desired for our self, and then learned to desire for our closest love ones – happiness and freedom from suffering. We discover that to give to another is to give to our self. To heal another is to heal our self. And this recognition places us directly on the path to a far-reaching health, happiness, and wholeness.

The practice of exchanging involves wishing for others what we have always wished for ourselves, happiness and love free of suffering. It is once again a practice the re-trains our mind. At the beginning it requires effort. In time it becomes natural and effortless.

Briefly. We close our eyes and quiet our mind. Then, on each out-breath, we send out happiness and peace to all others. On the in-breath we take in the stress, distress and suffering of others, allowing them to dissolve in our heart. We practice this for 10 minutes each day. During the day we may do the same as we go about our daily activities. That is how we over ride our tendency to want happiness and love exclusively for ourselves and a few loved ones. As our heart opens wider, we discover that what we sincerely give away to others returns to us in unexpected ways.

Consider the following words of Shantideva, a wise 9th century teacher

The overactive mind will not change by itself. Further understanding and specific techniques are required to remove the mental veils which obscure our authentic self and its great treasures. To explore our biology we use the microscope and its more sophisticated versions such as the MRI or CAT scan. These tools allow us to penetrate surface appearances enabling us to gain a more detailed and precise understanding of biology.

Similarly, when studying the mind we use the tool known as meditation. Meditation allows us to penetrate the surface experiences of the mind and gain a more detailed understanding of its workings and essential nature. That understanding allows us to remove the veils that obscure our deepest self, revealing the qualities of human flourishing that are seamless one with our essential nature.

However, in modern times the use of meditation has strayed far from its original intent and use which was to awaken the mind to its fullest potential. It is now used to calm the mind and alleviate stress and distress. This is achieved by temporarily focusing the mind on an object such as a sound, word, or the breath. That diminishes mental distraction and quiets the overactive mind – temporarily!

In this way meditation has been reduced to a relaxation technique, a remedy. It has become a quick-fix. It calms the mind for a few moments. Unfortunately, like a pain remedy, it lasts only as long as we use it. When meditation is used as a relaxation technique it fails to get to the root source of stress, distress, emotional afflictions, and the overactive mind.

However, when used properly meditation, called “incubation” in the western tradition of ancient Greece, is an investigative tool rather than a temporary remedy. It cuts to the root source of cognitive misunderstandings and mental afflictions that obscure our natural self. It does this by penetrating surface levels of consciousness, directly observing and eliminating the mind’s habitual and faulty mental habits, and realizing the insubstantiality of afflictive thoughts and emotions.

In this way the mental sources of dissatisfaction, distress, and suffering progressively dissipate like morning dew. When this occurs our authentic self and the qualities of an expansive consciousness are revealed. The result is an awakened and full life rather than temporary relaxation and pacification of the overactive mind.

For this to occur meditation must be taught in its full scope in accordance with its traditional aims. That includes three progressive phases: (1) taming the mind’s ceaseless mental chatter, (2) creating an undisturbed mental clearing that allows for an oasis of stillness and clarity and, (3) resting naturally and with ease in the presence and beingness of an expansive consciousness. Our initial effort, which may continue for a year or more, is directed at taming the mind and gaining a foothold in mental clarity and stillness. This will allow us to further explore the mind, undermine its faulty and dysfunctional tendencies and serves as a bridge to the mind’s natural state of being.

When taught in accordance with its traditional purpose, results are seen within weeks. It is common for individuals to report enhanced mental calm that persists beyond the practice session, diminished reactivity, and improved personal relationships. As meditation practice continues new insights, capacities, and skills are developed, stabilized, and fully integrated into daily life. Life begins to change, from the inside out.

Taught in this manner, meditation is part of a larger process of study, reflection, practice, and lifestyle change. The latter includes: (1) turning away from the mistaken notion that outer objects, people, or experiences will result in sustained happiness, (2) turning towards inner development, (3) cultivating loving-kindness and other qualities which support inner development, and (4) gaining a more detailed understanding of the nature of suffering, mental afflictions, and the qualities of human flourishing. This holistic process of mental training and lifestyle change is quite traditional and its results – a full and vital life – has been well known to wise woman and men throughout time and across diverse cultures.

Seen from this perspective meditation, when used as a tool for temporary relaxation, is life-betraying, as it provides no more than momentary relief while supporting the illusion that we are actually creating substantial and permanent change. We are not. When we use meditation solely as a relaxation technique we distract ourselves from the real task ahead. However, when meditation is used as a tool to awaken consciousness we place ourselves directly on the path to realizing the precious qualities of human flourishing.

Is life by its nature a cycle of pleasure and suffering with suffering winning in the end, when we arrive at the unavoidable realities of aging, disease and death? If this is hard-wired into human existence then there is little more to say except to learn to bare it as gracefully as possible.

But let’s take a radical view and suggest that happiness is innate to human life and that suffering is an acquired and reversible add-on. If this were so the immediate question would be: “Then why is happiness so ephemeral and elusive, and dissatisfaction, discontent, and suffering so ever-present?” If one takes the radical view that happiness is innate to human life and suffering a mere add-on then one is forced to meaningfully and successfully address this question. We must show why this is so and how we can actually and finally attain our goal of happiness freed from recurrent suffering. Failure to do so would render unbelievable the assumption that happiness is innate to human life.

But we are fortunate here. For millennia very wise individuals across diverse cultures and time have explored the issue of happiness. They have carefully examined their own experience and remarkably they have together arrived at the same conclusion: happiness is innate to human life and suffering can be largely eradicated. Even further, we are now learning from modern scientific research that they are right.

Research is confirming that enduring happiness can be cultivated and suffering brought to an end. Through mind training practices we see individuals consciously cultivating happiness, and through neuroscience we are observing that mind training can also result in physiological and structural changes in the brain consistent with happiness and well-being.

So where do we start the journey towards authentic happiness? There can be many starting points, but it is best to begin by removing one the greatest obstacles to happiness. We start by looking at a widely held illusion – a powerful illusion that keeps us from pursuing the happiness we all want. We begin by looking at the mistaken belief that pleasure and happiness are the same. Until we can see that they are profoundly different we will not give up chasing pleasure and turn towards cultivating true happiness.

Pleasure and Happiness are Not the Same

Let’s go directly to the point. Pleasure, which is mistaken for authentic happiness, is the experience of satisfaction and delight that we attribute to an external stimulus. Simply stated we find certain people, objects, and experiences to be satisfying and others unsatisfying. We orient our self towards what is pleasurable and avoid what we consider unpleasant. Pleasure is seen as residing in an outer person, object, or experience.

Happiness is much different. Happiness is the experience of peace, delight, and joy that naturally arises from a healthy and wise mind and a compassionate and loving heart. Its source is internal rather than external. It is self cultivated within rather than sought after in the external world. It is enduring and immune to the inevitable adversities of life.

When we seek pleasure in the external world – mistaking it for authentic happiness – we become like scavengers searching here and there to gather what we can from a seeming scarcity of such experiences. And when we find islands of pleasure we protect them against any threats, real or imagined.

In contrast, as we progressively experience authentic happiness we become more like farmers cultivating an endless crop. There is so much we give it away. It oozes out of us and touches everything and everyone.

However, we persist in acting as if pleasure is the same as happiness. Such a mistaken or false belief is called an illusion. An echo, mirage, or train tracks appearing to meet in the distance are examples of false perceptions. They are illusions.

The way they appear is not the way they actually exist. It is the same with pleasure and happiness. We think pleasure is the same as happiness. At first glance it looks that way and tastes that way, but it isn’t. Failure to see the truth of their profound differences binds us to an endless search for pleasure and keeps us from attaining the real thing. This is the core of the problem. This is why we neither know nor live an authentic happiness. We can’t, as long as we are chasing pleasure and think they are the same.

If we look closer we will clearly see the differences between pleasure and happiness. We will see that pleasure is dependent on outer people, objects, and experiences. Happiness comes solely from within. Pleasure is transient and fickle. Happiness is stable. Pleasure focuses on oneself. Happiness focuses on others. Pleasure always leads to suffering. Happiness always leads to more happiness.  And finally, pleasure is a momentary state and happiness a permanent trait.

Let us look at these differences one-at-a-time. By correctly understanding these differences we will progressively undermine the illusion that pleasure and happiness are the same and realize the truth, pleasure can never lead to happiness.

Pleasure is Not an Innate Quality of Outer Experiences

Early in life were taught that certain people, things, and experiences are pleasurable, and others are not. As a result, we are drawn towards what we perceive as pleasant and push away from what seems unpleasant. External activities become our source of pleasure. As a result, we mistakenly come to believe that pleasure is an innate quality of outer objects, people, or experiences. We seek them more and more expecting to gain further pleasure. But the following examples will show that although pleasure is reliant on outer stimuli they are not a steady or reliable source of pleasure. What is pleasant can easily turn unpleasant when circumstances and conditions change.

Consider the following. In the summer, when we sit in front of a fan we experience the fan to be pleasurable. In the winter, when sitting in front of the same fan we experience it as unpleasant. In the summer we think that pleasure is an innate quality of the fan. We say the fan is pleasurable. In the winter we feel chilled and unpleasant. We say the fan is unpleasant.

Let’s look at this more closely. Was pleasure or displeasure an innate quality of the fan? Or, was our experience of pleasure a composite experience based on the actions of the fan, the outside temperature, the relief of a preceding moment of distress, and a variety of other factors? Upon reflection we would agree that the fan does not contain the characteristic of pleasant or unpleasant. If it did it would have to be one or the other all of the time.

Let’s look at another example. We would all consider eating a fine meal as quite pleasurable. Again we would ascribe the pleasure to the quality of the food. Yet if we continue to eat the same food until we are overfilled we would no longer consider our meal to be pleasurable. We might even feel ill. If the quality of pleasure was in the food then it would be pleasurable all the time, and the more we ate the happier we would be. Common sense tells us this is incorrect. Even a fine meal is neither innately pleasant nor unpleasant.

Pleasure relies on external stimuli – on objects, people, and experiences. Yet the very things we rely on for pleasure do not actually contain pleasure as a steady, trustworthy, and reliable characteristic. What gives pleasure one day may give suffering the next.

Unlike pleasure, authentic happiness comes solely from within. It is not reliant on external objects, people, or experiences. Its source is a healthy mind and heart. That’s what it’s dependent on. As a result it is stable, unchanging, reliable, and trustworthy. In this way pleasure is very different from happiness.

Pleasure is Transitory – Happiness is Permanent

All outer things – people, objects, and experiences – are impermanent in their nature and are always undergoing change. As circumstances and conditions change the feeling of pleasure derived from them similarly changes. This is easy to see in our own life. Lovers can become enemies and enemies can become friends. Objects we once admired no longer hold interest. Tastes change. Needs change. Life changes. As a result, pleasure in its dependence on external stimuli is always in flux. It is fickle and ever changing. It’s like a moving target. That is why we are always chasing it and can never quite hold it in place.

Chasing pleasure us like running after a moving target. We have to run faster and faster as if we were on an out-of-control treadmill. That is why the search for pleasure in the outer world is relentless, exhausting, disillusioning, and in the end unsatisfying. And yet we are pushed further and further by the never-ending innovations of our advertising and marketing industries. They keep us on the treadmill and flourish on the fickleness of pleasure and the false conception that pleasure equals happiness.

Authentic happiness is permanent. It does not rely on people, objects, or experiences. It relies on a healthy mind and open heart. When we discover how to live in our authentic self, happiness is found at this center of our being. We will neither see nor be in touch when we are busy chasing after pleasure. However, it is always there, underneath our outer search. It is simply clouded over by our obsession with the outer world. Once we see our natural happiness, know it, and abide in it, we will discover its unchanging nature. We will discover that authentic happiness, unlike pleasure, is permanent and unchanging.

Pleasure Focuses on Self – Happiness Focuses on Others

Pleasure is a self-centered drive. Its only concern is obtaining personal comfort and security from the external world. It is about meeting one’s own needs, even when this means causing harm to others including those we claim to love the most.

We do great harm both individually and collectively when we act from a selfish motivation, and in the end selfishness blocks the path to happiness. Further, we are separated from others because we selfishly use them as objects of pleasure, and we systemically rape our environment in order to distil bits of personal pleasure or ourselves. This self-centered search for pleasure harms life and disconnects us from authentic happiness.

Happiness is selfless. It’s about others. It naturally seeks to connect with others rather than seeking to extract pleasure from them. And when we are authentically happy we want the same happiness for others. Why not? Don’t others deserve and want happiness the same as our self? Even further, we rejoice in the happiness of others. The happiness of others adds to our own.
Pleasure is self-centered. Happiness is other-centered. This is the third way in which pleasure differs from happiness.

Pleasure Leads to Suffering – Happiness Leads to More Happiness

Because pleasure is reliant on external stimuli we are always grasping at what we find pleasurable. Whether it is a person, object, or experience we want more and more. Grasping turns into clinging, clinging leads to attachment, and a growing attachment results in addiction. There are some pleasures that do not take us through this entire cycle, but those external circumstances that have become major sources of pleasure in time become our obsessions, addictions, and greatest sources of mental distress.

External experiences are in a state of constant change. We cannot control them. As much as we may try to fix them and possess their “pleasure” we will not succeed. The effort to attach to outer circumstances as a source of unending pleasure is exhausting. We try harder and harder to possess and defend our sources of pleasure. With time we become disillusioned, experience loss, and can even become angry and resentful. But this habitual pattern continues to re-play itself. It is a dead-end pattern.

In this way the cycle of craving, clinging, attachment, and addiction always leads to dissatisfaction, anxiety, disillusionment, and suffering. This is the major problem we face with chasing pleasure. We cannot catch and hold it. It becomes a lifelong chase. It is like we’re on a treadmill going faster and faster but never reaching our goal. And because we persist in our belief that pleasure is the same as happiness we cannot re-direct our efforts in the right direction.

Unlike pleasure happiness is stable. It is innately and permanently present in the healthy mind and open heart. It does not need to be sought after as it is always there. We cannot lose it. We can only forget it. Authentic happiness only leads to more happiness and never to the suffering and afflictions that are a constant companion of the outer search for pleasure. This is the fourth way in which happiness differs from pleasure. To understand this is to further undermine the illusion that they are the same.

Pleasure is a Momentary State – Happiness is a Permanent Trait

A state is an impermanent feeling or emotion. A trait is a permanent and stable part of our life. Pleasure is a temporary state of being that alternates with, indifference, and dislike. We go back-and-forth from one to the other as the person, object, or experience changes according to changing circumstances and conditions. We have a good, a bad day, and a blah day.  That is how it is with external sources of pleasure. They appear, they change, disappear, and reappear. Pleasure is never constant as its source. It is ever-changing.

Unlike pleasure we are discovering that authentic happiness is a trait. Once cultivated and revealed it is internal, permanent, and unchanging. You can count on it. Because it is a trait it is stable and hardy, conveying a progressively immunity to life’s adversities including aging, disease, and death.

There is recent research by Richard Davidson and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin that may be of interest here. Their research focused on the most recently developed part of our brain – the prefrontal cortex. The left prefrontal cortex appears to be the brain center for the experience of happiness and well being and the right side the opposite. It is as if the left side stands for the glass half full and the right for the glass half empty.

Through their research they discovered that each of us has a basic disposition that contains a certain ratio of left to right activity. Some of us are more left-sided – the optimism and well being of a glass half filled. Some of us are more right sided – the pessimism and dissatisfaction of a glass half empty. In actuality we are each a mixture – a bit of each side. However, whatever our basic disposition it is stable over time. That is why it is called a trait.

If we have a pleasurable experience related to external pleasure the shift of activation will be to the left pre-frontal cortex and if we have an unpleasant experience the activation shifts to the right side. But this is only temporary – a state change. We soon revert back to our basic disposition. I am sure we can all see this in our personal experience. We have a certain basic disposition. Life’s shifts and changes can move us in either direction – pleasure or discontent – but in time we more or less return to our “old” self.

What is important about this research was the discovery that well trained meditators (50,000 – 70,000 hours in a lifetime) could alter their basic disposition and shift their baseline of well-being and happiness way over to the left frontal cortex. They demonstrated that a basic trait can be permanently enhanced or changed by mind training. Happiness and well-being can be learned.

Even more important is the discovery that individuals who are just beginners in mind training can show early but definite shifts in the ratio of left to right pre-frontal activity. Because pleasure is a state it can never be stabilized and fixed. Happiness, however, is a stable trait. And the good news is that we can develop and enhance this stable experience throughout our adult life.

What are these unusual and fortunate qualities and capacities? Amongst all living beings we alone possess a sharp intellect, superior capacity for language, creative imagination, an expansive compassion and love, and most importantly, the ability to know and unite with the very nature of our being. Because of these capacities we, unlike all other living beings, are able to gain freedom from suffering and flourish and prosper in our own lives and in relationship to others. In this way human life is unique occurrence.

In ordinary life, this extraordinary potential remains unseen and unknown. We cannot develop it, because we are constantly distracted by our busy mind. We follow our mental chatter wherever it leads us, filling our time with meaningless activities, consuming attachments, and needless distractions. Yet, with the proper circumstances – a sound mind and body, personal freedom, a strong motivation, and proper teachers and approaches – we can overcome these self-imposed limitations and place ourselves on the path toward a special and precious life.

Since a profound and sustained health, happiness, and wholeness is the unique potential of human life, their attainment becomes the unique purpose of human existence. We move toward the possibility of a fully realized life as soon as we turn mind and heart in the proper direction. What could be more meaningful than to live the full potential that is coded into our nature? What can be of greater value? What can bring us greater joy?

In the East there is a story told of a fisherman who goes down to the sea each morning before dawn. One morning he finds a leather pouch. Still dark and thinking the pouch was filled with small pebbles, he amused himself by tossing one pebble after another into the sea. As dawn appeared there was only one pebble remaining. He looked at it and was stunned to see that it was actually a diamond. He had thrown all his diamonds into the sea except this one. Like the fisherman we are also unable to see the great gifts of our life. Unaware, we toss them away, satisfying our self with an “ordinary” life rather than the extraordinary one given to us as humans.

There is another story told of a poor framer who struggles each day to make a basic living. Unknown to him, under the floor of his dirt hut is a buried treasure left by a King long ago. Unaware of this hidden treasure he could not enjoy the wealth that was always “under his feet.” As a result, he lived in great poverty. However, one day a clairvoyant, a wise man, visited the farmer and told him about the great wealth lying underneath his hut. All you have to do, said the wise man, is dig for it. It is much the same with our self. We live with the great treasures of peace, happiness, and wholeness right in front of us, but we cannot see it. Yet, all we have to do is to develop our mind and our heart, and there it is!

Butter lies unseen within milk. To transform milk into butter we need to churn it. We need to work what is there. To transform the seed and possibility of a precious life into a life of exceptional health, happiness, and wholeness also requires effort. This effort is a self-education, an education focusing on mind and heart. This inner development will reveal our hidden human treasure by removing the mental obstacles that obscure a larger life.

An inner education is not about acquiring information about the outer world, or developing the tools of a vocation. It is an education about our inner life. It is a process of looking within, removing the veils of mental chatter and afflictive thoughts and emotions, expanding understanding, gaining new capacities and skills, and developing our full potential. Many before you have accomplished this. So can you.

Modern education has been oriented towards accomplishment in the outer world. In this we have been very successful. But outer accomplishment is not a guarantee of health and happiness, and in actuality it might get in the way of achieving these goals. In order to complement our outer expertise we must now focus on inner development. We need a holistic education that educates all aspects of our humanity. Only a holistic education of body, mind, and spirit can guarantee that we do not come to the end of life empty-handed, having missed the great treasures of human life.

Most of us are given tastes of what such a life would feel like. Perhaps it is in a moment of communion with nature, an experience at the peak of athletic performance, a touch of the blessings of love, the direct experience of dance, music or the arts, or an opening of the heart through service to others.

During these “peek – peak” experiences you will likely experience an inner spaciousness and ease, intense aliveness and connectedness, wholeness and delight – a seamless flow and presence in life. These seem like “magical” moments. But in actuality they are the qualities of our innate nature that we have long ago forsaken. Imagine what it would be like if you could stretch these moments out so that they could become your life rather than mere transitory glimpses of what is truly possible. That is the life we are seeking.

The Education of Mind and Heart

There are three aspects to this education: study, reflection, and contemplative practice. They each support the other. First, we gain an intellectual understanding through reading and attending seminars. Next, we gain a further understanding of what we learned, through mental reflection. Finally, through formal contemplative practice we directly experience all of the qualities of an unconditioned mind and unconditional heart. In this manner we progressively, with great patience, transform the seed of a precious and special human life into reality. That is the aim of this self-education –a flourishing of body, mind, and spirit.

Universal Responsibility

It is important to emphasize the interplay and interdependence of personal development and service to others. We do not live as isolated beings. We are part of a larger community. Although we cannot fully serve others and heal the problems of humanity until we have committed ourselves to personal development, we cannot fully develop our own life without a concern for how we can benefit others less fortunate then ourselves. Personal development, compassionate care, and service go together. They are as inseparable as a flame and its heat. Our individual problems are a microcosm of the larger problems of humanity.

Until we can move beyond personal anger humanity will not move beyond war. Until we can move beyond greed humanity cannot move beyond poverty and famine. Until we can move beyond self-centeredness and self-cherishing we cannot experience the suffering of others, as if it was our own. Until we recognize that healing our self and healing the world is a seamlessly interwoven experience we will neither heal our self nor the great challenges facing humanity.

Gandhi said to us “be the change you want to see happen in the world.” Through inner development and the expansion of consciousness, we become the change we wish to see happen in the world. is this concern for others that transforms our journey from an ordinary one into a noble one.