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Spiritual Growth

Giving yourself permission to rejoice in what’s good…

In the Discovering Buddhism program it’s often repeated that we should regret our bad actions, words and thoughts, but that we can also rejoice in what’s good. Rejoicing is not a part of our Western Culture, especially Dutch culture. The Dutch are very good at complaining, my mom even suspects that this is one of [...]

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Baby steps or big changes – about self control and habit

When I was 21 I decided I needed to work on my social skills. Instead of getting a hobby or something I quit university and decided to get a job. My parents weren’t amused and the result was that I went for a community college nursing class, which I was kicked out of within a [...]

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Regret, Guilt and changing your life

In Eat Pray Love (book and movie) by Elizabeth Gilbert we meet Richard, a western devotee of an Indian guru who chastises Elizabeth for every attitude she has, or so it seems – helping her deal with the issues of living in an ashram and learning to meditate. The main lesson Richard teaches Elizabeth is [...]

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Certainty, uncertainty and spirituality

I have been in a very neti-neti (not this, not that) mood for a while now, in terms of what I share on this blog. Not channeling, Not Krishnamurti, Not ideals… If you add in the topics I’ve considered writing about there’s even more: not merely God, not merely Goddess… But I’ve gone further: what [...]

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You are your Soul Mate, Rick Singer

[guest post] Within your own house dwells the treasure of joy, So why do you go begging from door to door. Chinese proverb As human beings we are consistently involved in an endless search for something external to fill the void within us. We search for the perfect partner or our Soul mate, with the [...]

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Ideals, moral issues and psychology

Ideals are tricky things: on the one hand they help us aspire to being something better than we are, which is a good thing. On the other hand, when we can’t live up to them the result is not so good. Because, if you don’t live up to your ideals you start feeling guilty, beating [...]

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Is the world objectively neutral?

From twitter: Paramhansa Yogananda “Objective conditions are always neutral. It is how you react to them that makes them appear sad or happy.” Right. Not. I doubt someone who is dying of hunger, because of rising food prices in Africa, feels that objective conditions are neutral. It’s of course true that life is what we [...]

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Living in language? On the limitations of words…

I’ve been reading up on Western philosophy lately and one of the things philosophers of the last century have been concerned with is language: it’s limitations, how conversations are constrained by language, that language is the main foundation of culture. Whenever I used to hear people say that we think in language, that we can [...]

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The tragic volunteer

I’ve been a volunteer for years. It was a way for me to learn basic human skills like working with people as well as a way to stay in touch with some aspect of society when I was out of a job. It looked good on my resume and so on. So I’m not saying [...]

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The push of experience…

Yes, that title is enigmatic and for the linguists among you: a bit double as well. It has to do, I’m afraid, with the limitations of the English language – or possibly of my knowledge of it. Though I do rarely run into that problem these days. Anyhow – the question is: do you all [...]

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