“Judge not lest ye be judged”. What does this mean? Who is the judge? Yesterday I was walking along Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland, my neighborhood shopping area, when I met Robert, a man in his seventies, limping along with a huge, built-up shoe for his club foot and weighted to one side by a heavy …
To my dear Readers: I apologize for this long hiatus between issues of Open Windows. This period of rest and recovery is coming to an end, and I am feeling the spur to get back to writing. A few weeks ago, I was driving with my son, Jerry, across Marin County, on the opposite side …
Open Windows Oakland Heights Rehabilitation June 2018 Sunny, but cool Yesterday evening a small, wiry Hispanic gentleman came to my hospital room to take a blood sample. He may have been small, but he walked with an energetic step and his eyes flashed with enthusiasm. “I love my work”, he said, as he readied my …
Open Windows May 2018 Oakland, CA “The Way we live opens windows….” – Hafiz Hang On to the Threads We may carefully construct our morning routines, and it may work well for getting our days started on the right track. But what happens when through some accident or emergency, we are unable to take even …
Open Windows March 2018 Oakland, California Cool and Rainy “The Way we live opens windows….” – Hafiz Find Your Unique Hook “I believe that all of us are looking for a Way to live which opens the windows of our hearts and souls in this incompatible digital age. We want to find a Way which …
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Open Windows. Living with Integrity, intelligence and compassion Gujarat, India February, 2018 “The way we live opens windows …..” “Float, don’t swim” – Rahul Patel Today I woke up without the slightest idea of what I “should” do. Yes, I had a list on my calendar, but, since January 1, I have given …
Here we are at 2018, wondering what we should aim for in the coming year. In the mornings I spend some time in conversation with my Soul, and this morning I asked, “What would you like for me to accomplish in 2018?” “Are you playing enough?” came the answer. “What you call Work should be …
Open Windows: Living with Energy, Meaning and Purpose Oakland, California Cool and Sunny, November 29, 2017 The way we live opens windows and calls in a secret voice to anything still missing.” Too Many Habits? “I have too many habits!” said my friend as we drove to a practice group meeting for people learning …
Back in the days when I was still in college and converting to Catholicism, I gathered the impression from my reading that I should deny all desires. Desire, or “craving” in Buddhist thought, was not only the root of all evil, it was evil itself. I dutifully disciplined myself to ignore anything I might like, …
Like the plum tree, we all have a few knots on our “I” tree where the branches have sharp turns. Many times we may not realize that our “I” is broken because we carefully sealed the break with anything from rubber cement to actual cement and then forgot about it. But now, we realize that …
Have you ever seen a Chinese painting of a plum tree? I used to brush paint plum branches when I was learning how to apply ink to paper with a brush and come out with something beautiful. The Chinese plum tree doesn’t grow in nice, smooth, flowing lines. The branches are full of sharp angles …
“I want to get out of here! This is the 70’s all over again!” The year was 2004 and I was at a healing retreat, but it was a reprise of everything I had not liked in the 1970’s. In the 70’s, Esalen in Big Sur on the California coast, was becoming famous as a …