February 24, 2026

It is a great challenge to be a good person in these difficult times. The culture today seldom supports it. Instead, the political, business, and media worlds often support the opposite — encouraging everyone to get as much wealth and power as they can, while anger, scorn, or outrage are becoming all too common as the first response for dealing with anyone who has a different point of view.

Concern for the feelings of others? How naïve!

Why, then, make an effort to be a good person in such times as these?

The best answer I know is that countless wise men and women through the ages have insisted that wealth and power lead, not to fulfillment, but to disillusionment and dissatisfaction, to a continual quest to get more and more and more of the things that do not provide true satisfaction. The wisest among us have repeatedly advised that making an effort to be considerate and kind, to respect the feelings and beliefs of others, and to help those who are in need are the essential ingredients for a fulfilling life. Continue reading “Why Try To Be A Good Person Today” →

November 3, 2025

I have come to feel the universe is friendly, but each person must reach their own conclusion. After making your choice, what you choose will be your truth as you go through life. As you consider this critically important issue, let me offer a few of the reasons for my personal decision.

One realization is central to my understanding, although part of me still does not like it: The universe is not particularly interested in my ego images of how I would like things to be. The longer I live, however, the more obvious it becomes that numerous urges I have felt are not destined to be fulfilled. Many things my ego wished for have not happened, while others that I did not wish to happen did anyway. This seems to be true for all of us; it is part of being human.

Even harder to accept, we will each experience deep pain and serious loss. The inevitable conclusion is that the world can only be friendly if pain, loss, and unfulfilled expectations are part of the pattern of a friendly world. I have come to believe that is true.

My Reasons the Universe Is Friendly

Continue reading “Why the Universe Seems Friendly” →

September 22, 2025

Albert Einstein was asked what he considered the most important question facing humanity. His surprising answer: “Is the universe a friendly place?” He went on to explain why this question is crucial: Because those who think the universe is not friendly are forced into the belief that “our lives have no real purpose or meaning.” He felt this would be a tragedy for anyone who adopted such a belief.

The reason this question is central becomes clear when you realize it is one of the primary issues all the great spiritual teachers spoke about: Do our human lives have meaning or not? And if they do, what is it?

The answer influential spiritual teachers have given through history is unanimous: Yes, our lives have meaning. After giving this answer, they went on to explain why they had come to this belief, and to describe what they believed that meaning to be. They also pointed toward the Source from which meaning comes.

The world’s wisdom traditions grew out of their teachings, and the vast majority of human beings through history have followed their guidance and answered yes. Most scientists, philosophers, and wise men and women in every field of endeavor have done the same.

Concluding that life has meaning does not suggest, however, that we are destined to get everything we want. Our basic urges and desires are the source of most of our wantings, and no wise person ever said that all our urges and desires would be met. In fact, the wisest teachers have said repeatedly that we cannot have a fulfilling life if we focus primarily on getting what we personally want.

Why not? First, because every living thing dies. From bacteria to human beings to whales, all physical things that are alive have a limited lifespan. Even solar systems and galaxies seem to have a limited lifespan. So, along with every other living thing, our physical bodies are going to die. At the same time, we humans are quite imaginative, so we can always come up with more things to desire than we will ever have time to achieve, no matter how long we live.

Further, every one of us will get sick, be injured, suffer losses and defeats. So will our loved ones and friends. Suffering defeat, loss, and getting injured and sick are very seldom what we want, yet these events keep happening for all of us, whether we are good people or not, whether we like it or not. This is part of the nature of having a human life.

Does this suggest the world is meaningless? Or, instead, is there something worth living for, working toward, struggling for — perhaps even suffering or dying for — that life is about, something that can ultimately give our lives meaning in spite of unwanted difficulties? If so, where does this meaning come from? What is the source of meaning? And how do we find it? Continue reading “The Source of Values and Meanings” →

August 10, 2025

In every culture there are embedded values, virtues, and meanings. Attempts have been to trace this aspect of cultures back to our basic drives, but there are fatal flaws in this approach. To begin with, countless human beings have intentionally chosen to give up the fulfillment of one or more basic drives to be true to a value they held dear, to uphold a strongly held virtue, or to fulfill a sense of meaning.

So where did these aspects of our cultures come from? They came from the wisdom traditions of the world. These foundational belief systems have been handed down from generation to generation for a long time, with each tracing its lineage back to revered teachers — Jesus, the Buddha, Socrates, Plato, Cicero, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Moses, Muhammed, Hindu sages whose names have been lost, and unknown wise men and women all over the world who guided the early tribal peoples.

In science we look to the experts for guidance about the workings of the material world. In the same way, the best approach for those of us who wish to develop our own understanding of the best way to live is to turn to experts for guidance. And the experts for these aspects of our lives are the wise men and women through history who made their life’s work an attempt to understand what is truly important for a fulfilling life.

These founders of the main wisdom traditions left their guidance in the form of stories and sacred writings, and these have been passed down through the ages and used successfully by millions of people to guide their lives. Fortunately, in this modern age we have access to much information about each of these individuals, what they taught, and how their messages developed over time within the traditions to which they gave rise.

Although there are differences in the specific messages they left, one common thread in all is that there is an “Unseen Order” in the universe, and that a few core values, virtues, and meanings are embedded in it — are a part of the very structure of existence itself.

And all insisted that if an individual wishes to have a truly fulfilling life, the only way is to make a sincere effort to live by these core values, to practice virtue, and to live toward that which is truly meaningful.

They also taught that the only way a group of people can live together in relative peace, harmony, and freedom from oppression by others is when most leaders and individuals in a society have a shared set of values, virtues that are to be encouraged and taught, and a common understanding of the paths that will provide meaningful and fulfilling lives. Continue reading “The Wisdom Traditions for Today” →

July 17, 2025

The breakdown of a shared view about the values we will organize our country around has become a great crisis. There have always been significant differences in views and opinions in the United States, of course. The remarkable achievement of our founders was to put together a set of moral ideals that people with so many differences could embrace. Some of the most important:

1) an understanding that all of us were created equal, and therefore should have an equal opportunity to find fulfillment and even happiness in this new country;

2) respect for our fellow citizens, even those with vastly different backgrounds, beliefs, and ways of life;

3) a commitment by all to support this country, abide by its laws, and when it was needed, give their time and money for its future through taxes and military service;

4) a core belief that our institutions, however imperfect, would (at least most of the time) do the right thing for the good of both the whole and for the individuals who lived here;

5) a belief that our leaders would abide by certain moral standards, especially when acting in their institutional roles, and that they would be called to account when they did not;

6) that elected leaders would not use their official positions for personal profit;

7) that each of the three branches of government would serve as a check to the power of the other two, creating a balance so that no branch of government could become overly powerful or corrupt, thus preventing arbitrary rule by one person or a small faction;

8) that all the courts in the legal system, at every level of government, would be committed to justice for each person equally before the law.

These core ideas were the outcome of numerous compromises among the founders and the constituencies they represented, but the result created something new in the world, offering the promise of a new start for people from many different countries. Continue reading “Rebirth of a Healthy Society” →

January 1, 2025

A group of people suddenly find themselves in a totally dark room. At first there is shock and silence, with each person lost in their own reactions and thoughts. Then someone strikes a match. And another. By that light, someone finds a piece of an old candle in their handbag and holds it out to the match. Now there is enough light for another to find an old box of candles in a drawer, and candles are handed around. As the light spreads, everyone begins to talk to their neighbor about what can be done.

A good morning to you on this New Year’s Eve,

In honor of many New Year’s Day gatherings I have held through the years, as well as your own serious reflections about your life as previous new years were about to begin, I wanted to share with you some thoughts, poems, quotes, and inspirational videos to help kick off 2025. And hopefully to share a spark of light.

As 2025 begins, the need for positive ways to move forward has never been greater. There are so many problems in our world — deep divisions in our own country, devastating wars in numerous lands (and the threat of even larger conflicts), the peril of climate change, decreasing faith in and commitment to democracy, the rise of autocratic leaders all over the world, a decreasing commitment to values of any kind except pure self-interest, and many young people feeling alienated, lonely, depressed, and even despairing. We could be in for some dark times.

Reading history does give me some solace, for there have been many dark times in every locale one can name, yet people in each place have survived and then flourished again — although sometimes it took decades, even centuries. I hope that is not what is in store for us now.

Dealing with Difficult Times

Whatever is in store, each one of us has a choice about how we will respond. And the place to begin is given by William James:

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”

But to be able to choose, one must develop a certain amount of consciousness about who they are and what the world is really like. In fact, consciousness is often spoken of as an inner light, and those who have awakened to the truth are often called illumined or enlightened.

Throughout history, by choosing wisely how they would focus their attention and use their consciousness to make good choices, some people have been able to rise above the most difficult outer circumstance and find their way to a life of meaning and fulfillment. You can be one of those people today.

Carl Jung said that by increasing your conscious awareness you will “kindle a light in the darkness.” If you keep at it, you might even join those who found their way to peace, love, and even joy in the most challenging of circumstances. Then you will be able to share those gifts with others.

This is what the greatest souls in every age, even in the darkest of times, have done. While dealing with the problems they faced, they found a way to uplift the people around them, bringing light into the darkness of their age. Continue reading “A Spark of Light” →

January 1, 2024

After surviving for 80 years with most of my faculties intact, perhaps I have earned the privilege of offering a few words of wisdom to those passing through this thing called life. Although it has sometimes been called a “vale of tears,” and it can certainly be that, it can also be a marvelous adventure and a wondrous mystery — filled with joy, beauty, and love.

Of course, there are many problems in our world, and we must try to deal with them as best we can. But every age has had its dire predictions and warnings of doom, yet we humans have always muddled through, and sometimes thrived.

The current estimate is that our universe has been around for about 14 billion years, and the human species has been on Earth for over 2 million of them. Further, the brain size of average human beings 300,000 years ago was about the same as ours, and people living 100,000 years ago probably had the same capacity to learn and develop as do we.

During that long expanse of time, before you and I were born, there were great disasters and incredible achievements in the human community, and it is likely this will be the case into the foreseeable future. One estimate is that this Earth will be around for another 5 or 6 billion years. So, although we often take our own individual lives to be the center of everything, a lot went on before our brief sojourns here, and a lot is likely to happen after our current lives end, both good and bad.

In this broad framework, there is only one pressing question we each face right now:

How will I live for the rest of my life? Continue reading “80 Years of Lessons” →

November 20, 2023

As I finish 80 years of life — a life filled with exciting adventures and unexpected experiences — gratitude and wonder are at the top of the list of feelings. How did I receive the privilege of this life; how did it happen that I awakened one day into the gift of awareness, of having a conscious experience of living this particular life.

What a blessing it now seems, to have found myself on a planet with so many pleasures and delights, and with the gifts of seeing, hearing, and all the other senses available to experience it. As Thomas Traherne put it in his poem “Salutation”:

How could I expect smiles or tears,
Or lips or hands or eyes?

With Traherne, before they were just there, I too:

Did little think such joys as ear or tongue
To celebrate or see:
Such sounds to hear, such hands to feel, such feet.

Yet he concludes:

The earth, the light, the day, the skies,
The sun and stars are mine — if these I prize.

I too was given this Earth, and the ability to experience it personally, and even the capacities to learn, remember, and reflect. From those gifts, I have been able to put together my own life story, and even (I hope) gain a certain measure of wisdom. Continue reading “Reflections on Turning 80” →

April 9, 2023

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.
– Winston Churchill

To share often and much … to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.
– Albert Schweitzer

In nothing do men more nearly approach the Gods than by doing good to their fellow man.
– Cicero

The perfume of sandalwood,
The scent of rosemary and jasmine,
Travel only so far in the wind.
But the fragrance of goodness travels with us through all the worlds.
Like garlands woven from flowers,
Fashion your life as a garland of beautiful deeds.
– The Buddha

Reasons To Be of Service

There are many ways to find pleasure and satisfaction, but most are fleeting, often dissolving like a mist before the moment is fully past. On the other end of the spectrum, there are only a handful of ways that people have found lasting fulfillment or a sustained sense of meaning. Among those few, service is the path more have taken than any other. Perhaps this is because we sense that we are inextricably connected to others, to nature, and to everything at a fundamental level.
Continue reading “The Call to Service” →

March 28, 2023

Continuing with the theme of the last Essay, “The Web of Life,” all the wisdom traditions throughout history have been based on the recognition of an underlying unity, a connectedness in the universe.

The revolutionary ideas of Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Bacon, Kepler, Newton, and others in the 16^th and 17^th centuries ushered in a new era of thought, and the scientific revolution took off on a rapid and dramatic ascent. Importantly, though, all these key figures who set this ascent in motion continued to believe there was an overall unity in the universe and that a Divine Order provided the basis for that unity. Even the least religious figure among them, Francis Bacon, had this to say:

“A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.”

Among the leading lights of this revolution, some were quite religious, including the most celebrated of all, Isaac Newton. Nor did their scientific ideas interfere with the belief in an orderly, unified universe. In fact, the idea that there was an order and connectedness underpinned all that they did — their shared mission was to understand it.

Continue reading “The Connectedness of All Things” →

February 25, 2023

Are we humans somehow connected to others in a deep way, or is life an individual journey, perhaps even a fight for survival?

Looking back over my life, most significant memories involve other people: romantic relationships, intense conversations, experiencing other cultures, doing something for another person, working with a team or tight-knit group, being recognized by others for an accomplishment, winning a competition planned by some organization, reading a book and feeling a connection with the author, and writing with an awareness of readers who might find something I say worthwhile.

These are the positive memories. But there are many on the other side of the ledger; negative memories of being criticized by a friend or rejected by someone with whom I was infatuated, being embarrassed when my mistakes or errors were discovered by others, feeling disappointed by the actions of friends or family, hearing negative gossip about myself among other people, and when others pointed out the failure of projects I had undertaken.

In addition to memories, most of my longings and fears have been tied to other people: the desire for acknowledgement and to be recognized; the search for emotional closeness and connection; sexual longings; worldly ambitions; wishing to be of service; hoping to make the world a better place. All these involve other people.

Surveying the vast range of feelings and emotions I have experienced — love, success, victory, anger, compassion, envy, fear, shame, guilt, and so many others — all are a part of the web of connections woven into the fabric of my life.
Continue reading “The Web of Life” →

February 4, 2023

I have heard the word joy used in numerous ways, and it always has a strong allure. But it also brings a nagging ache, for what I think of as true joy seems so rare. What does the word joy convey that seems so alluring, yet is so elusive as we go about our daily lives?

Is joy the feeling that comes when something good happens — winning a competition or gaining a prize? The reward of pleasant experiences or satisfying sensations?

These do not capture the experience of true joy for me. It is deeper, richer, touching a different level of my being.
Continue reading “Is Joy Possible?” →

January 15, 2022

It is better to light one small candle of gratitude than to curse the darkness.
– Confucius

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
– Cicero

Wise men appreciate and are grateful.
– The Buddha

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.
– Paul

A grateful mind is a great mind which eventually attracts to itself great things.
– Plato

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.
–  Meister Eckhart

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.
– Nietzsche

Your depression is connected to your insolence
And refusal to praise
Whoever feels himself walking on the path
And refuses to praise
that man or woman steals from others everyday
Is a shoplifter.
– Rumi

I can no other answer make
But thanks,
And thanks,
and ever thanks.
– Shakespeare

A lot of attention has been given in the last few years to the value of gratitude in aiding one’s life — to improve mood, attitude, and even health — and those effects are real and valuable. There has also been increased recognition of the importance of being grateful and thankful toward those you care about — which improves and deepens relationships — and this is extremely valuable.

But I want to focus on another value of gratitude and thankfulness in this essay — how they can help us grow emotionally and spiritually. If you want to become more psychologically and emotionally mature, and especially if you want to grow spiritually, one of the most important traits to develop is gratitude — thankfulness for the good there is, for “what is.”
Continue reading “Gratitude, Thankfulness, Praise” →

Essay 9

September 10, 2022

In the ninth essay of Our Highest Possibilities, we look at one of the simplest – and most powerful – practices one can undertake to move toward meaning and fulfillment.

May 9, 2022

Every project, discussion, investigation, or attempt at understanding begins with what you think and believe at the beginning. Every single thing you do from this point forward in your life begins with the assumptions you now hold. Each of us lives within a vast framework of assumptions, and even the most scientific of endeavors rests upon a scaffolding of assumptions that will have a dramatic effect on the outcome.

If this is true of science, it is even more true of inquiries that involve things that cannot be precisely measured, including all philosophical, psychological, and spiritual investigations. And it is especially true when dealing with questions about how to live one’s own life.

My earlier books and essays discus these key ideas at some depth. If you would like to explore these ideas and assumptions more fully, or discover how I came to them, you can do so there. Continue reading “Everything Begins with What You Think You Know” →

Three Core Issues on the Spiritual Journey

This is a deep dive into three issues I have been trying to understand for a long time in my spiritual journey. In recent years, two teachers have been especially helpful with these questions: Tsong Khapa (1357-1419), the Tibetan Buddhist monk and teacher, and Meister Eckhart (1260–1328), the Christian theologian, philosopher, and mystic. This essay will focus on Tsong Khapa, and a later edition will deal with Meister Eckhart.

Since I do not read Tibetan, and have scant knowledge of their vast literature, the thoughts presented here will rely primarily on ideas shared by Robert Thurman. He was Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University until his retirement in 2019, held the first endowed chair in Buddhist Studies in the West, was the co-founder and president of the Tibet House in New York, and was the recipient of India’s highly prestigious Padma Shri award in 2020 for his work in the field of literature and education. Thurman started his personal Tibetan Buddhist practice in 1962 and was ordained as a monk by the Dalai Lama in 1965, thus probably becoming the first American Buddhist monk in the Tibetan tradition. Through the years, Thurman and the Dalai Lama have remained close friends. Continue reading “Tsong Khapa on Time and Timelessness” →