Here are some examples of several topics that address many of the struggles and challenges of being happy and centered in our lovingness. When you click on a topic you can read a few sentences from a written and audio version of the topic. Seminars and group discussions can be created around these and other topics.TALKS AND SEMINARS
Who Are We Growing Up For?
"So busy are we keeping life on some preordained schedule that we have lost the basics of touch, joy and acceptance... Goal-directed decision making replaces fulfillment. Career advancement becomes a catch all phrase for how quickly the mortgage will be paid off and in the blink of eternity's eye, creativity, laughter and rebellious thoughts of how to change the world are engulfed with plans for how to retire five years early and we are left with where did the time go."
The Fallacy of Change
"It is a common misconception and I would also say misperception, that the world out there, external to us just happens to us. We act as if this stable ‘I’ is at the mercy of the winds of fate external to me. Secondly, and to the point of our discussion today, when we do look within to "know thyself", we won’t find a self that we need to change. We won’t find a self. I am going to say this again, both for dramatic effect and to wake up the snoozers. When we look within, we won’t find a self to change."
Searching for Pink Elephants
"We have searched for the smallest, most basic building blocks of the universe since the time of the Greeks. The word atom, from the Greek word atomos means indivisible. Well that theory went out the window, then there were quarks and now we have superstrings. Numbers that are beyond fathomability and sizes that are indescribable from the smallest to the largest. We have invented this world of science searching for the spirit, the basic invisible building blocks of life by hunting without in the exterior world and we have the spiritual world searching for connection with the oneness of life by examining the infinite world within. Maybe spirituality and science are not as different as assumed; each is exploring the infinite unnamed world."
Bridges of Intimacy
"I feel like throwing out a line that better belongs in an old cowboy western movie. “You can run but you can’t hide.” Once you start running from the possibility of emotional pain that may come at you in the form of rejection, broken trust, humiliation and all the uncertainty of tomorrow, then you must keep running. Well, you may get fit, after all, the anxiety of getting caught burns off tremendous calories. But, you know as well as anyone that we are all going to be a skinny corpse. All I can hope for, especially for the people that cross my path is that I catch them in a moment of exhaustion. If you haven’t got the energy to get away you may discover being present and aware has many other possibilities than hurt and pain."
For the Love of Human Values
"When you think about it for a moment, we pretend that we need to learn to be gods; to learn how to make our lives certain, predictable, disease free and while we are at it we also pretend we can escape death. Can you imagine our lives if we in fact achieved these illusory objectives? After a moment of relieving fantasy, everyone would come to the same conclusion, that life would be boring, meaningless and without purpose. We are human because of the uncertainty and impermanence of each and every single moment. Therein lies the beauty of our humanity. Our humanness is alive and well when surrounded by the mystery."
