Truth

“Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it.”

― Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed

Truth doesn't easily fit into the container of words. It is the thing into which everything else fits. Whatever words you use to wrap around Truth, it is certain that you have left off and left out so much more of the Truth for which words are totally insufficient. Like love, Truth can be expressed through words, but never fully. We know how important experience is to love - a touch, a look, the simple presence of someone we love. Truth also requires experience, or all we have are ideas about it, but not Truth itself.

Winners and Losers

If you think only in terms of two choices (good or bad, winning or losing, success or failure), then you see people in those terms too. You're either a winner or loser, a success or a failure. But this is not how we are or even who we are.

We are faced with challenges and opportunities and we meet them sometimes well and sometimes not so well, and at every turn, we have the chance to do better, to be better, to express through our words, actions and in relationships, the best of who we truly are. Don't settle for black and white when the whole rainbow is available.

Like Yourself

There is endless power in simply liking yourself well enough that nothing diminishes your contentment.

Know Thyself

When you don't know your own value, you settle for a life that us less than worthy of you. You will feel the lack, the disconnect between who you are and the quality of your life, but it is only when you recognize who you are that you will see why and know what to do to change it.

At Every Second

You have the power AT EVERY SECOND to be different. It's not easy, and it's not maybe fun, but it is possible, and you must never forget that you were made for this, for refining your character and nature and becoming more truly the human being you have the potential to be. The world is waiting for you to show up and participate and share what you have, and your own weaknesses and limitations are the worst excuses for not doing just that.

Standing Together

There are so many among us who need help - an extra hand or a smile or a caring touch or the healing that we can offer each other in so many ways. And there is a notion going around that we shouldn't need this, that we should be able to stand on our own and overcome whatever faces us with the sheer will and strength of our own resources.

But we are not made to stand alone. The saying that we come into this world alone and leave it alone simply isn't true. None of us gets here alone, and none of us makes it if alone is all we have. For so many of us, the greatest meaning in our lives comes from the moments where we connect to help others or let ourselves be helped.

The generosity and humanity required to live openly and lovingly and kindly is what we all need. It is what we most need to receive, and what we most need to give. And it's this big, messy, endless cycle, and it just feels better and works better to be in the middle of it than standing off to the side, too scared to receive, and too shut-off to give, substituting judgement and condemnation for caring and compassion.

Even those who have the fiscal equation all figured out, what it costs to help and care and how else we could spend that money, still need to give and receive at the level not of their wallet, but their heart and their humanity.

Right Choices

To know if you are making the right choices, look at who you are, not what others have done.

Wanting to Help

Wanting the help, especially those you care most about, is the most natural human instinct. We see someone suffering and we want to offer relief of that suffering. We want to step in and offer whatever resources we have to change the circumstances and make things better.

And there are few things more devastating than knowing that you can't fix something, you can't make things better no matter how much you love someone or care for them. The frustration of knowing that you should be able to make things better, but can't, is its own unique version of hell. For those of especially who are used to being effective at getting things done, not being able to help feel incomprehensible. How can we be so able and willing and yet our efforts yield no results.

I remember the first time I visited India and was faced with a level of poverty that simply doesn't exist in America, and over the next few weeks came to understand that all the solutions that work in my world don't begin to make an impact in that world. And it is often the same with the struggles of those we love. We can see the problem, understand it and be fully willing to help, but the help we offer may simply not be what is required to fix the problem.

There is a saying from my yogic practice that those who need the help are sometimes simply too weak to take it. What do you do with a soul who is suffering and struggling that you want to help, but they cannot take the benefit of your input, advice, ideas, resources, etc?  Maybe they reject the help, or waste it, or abuse it, or are simply unreceptive?

On the spiritual journey, there is always a way to help, there is always something you can do to make a difference, even when the one who needs help is too weak to receive it, and that is simply this: offer your prayers and love and good wishes to that soul, unconditionally and generously. If you cannot help in any other way, you can always offer your best wishes to that soul with purity of intention for their healing and well-being. It may be all you can offer, but it is not the least of what you can offer.

Each one of us needs the invisible support and protection of the blessings of good wishes from those who know and love us. There is no downside to offering this support, and the soul feels and experiences the benefit of it even if they don't know it's being offered. It might not fix a specific problem but it gives the one you care about power and energy so that they may become strong enough to make a difference themselves.

So when someone you love is out of reach, beyond your ability to help, you can still offer hope to them on that subtle, invisible and ever-so-meaningful level. All of G*d's children need the net of love and good wishes to support them, and you can make all the difference by sending it their way.

Spiritual Consumerism

We are so groomed by the omnipresent media to be consumers, but the spiritual journey asks us to go further.  Don't just be a consumer.  Don't be content with finding the right book to buy, the right teacher to follow, the right class to take.  Even with religion it's easy to sit back and let others do the work. But being a consumer means defining yourself by what you can take and buy and own.  The spiritual journey invites you to define yourself by what you give and create and become.

Unlimited

I love the idea that we are capable of unlimited love, of unlimited compassion, of unlimited understanding, but as a human being myself, I haven't ever been able to offer that. My love and compassion and understanding all have their own limitations. They end when I'm tired, or distracted with busy-ness, or irritable...all sorts of reasons that my unending virtue ends.

The best I can do is hook into the truly unending love and compassion that G*d offers, and fill myself with as much as I can, and then share as much as I can, but even then, I have my limits. G*d's love is unlimited, but ours isn't.  That's why being loving and compassionate and understanding are such profound virtues. Because they require something extraordinary.  

Because they require that you tap into something beyond yourself to fill up with these qualities, and to tap into something beyond yourself to share them.  If you depend only on your own strength and power to get beyond your limitations, you almost never get there. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you overcome your limitations, but mostly you wear out and get tired before that happens.

It's not so hard to fall in love, to experience the intoxication of something new and exciting, of someone new and exciting. But the kind of love that's a virtue isn't felt or expressed in the intoxication of romantic bliss.  It's felt and expressed in everyday, ordinary life, in trying times and in the midst of difficulty.  And that's why it's so hard, because summoning up that loving energy when the only requirement is need takes more than what so many of us have to give and to give over time.

Because we're human. Because we don't have an unlimited capacity for anything. Because we all get tired. And that's why G*d is such a comfort, because not having to do this all on our own is the hope we need,the hope that love and compassion and understanding can make a difference.