We all have them. Rituals, I mean. To this day I almost always put my left shoe on first because, back when I was twelve, I read that the British aristocrats always pulled their left riding boot on first for luck before getting on their horses to ride to the hounds...

Recently I spoke of the dangers surrounding over-dependence on and obsession with the intellect. At the end, I evoked the potent scene in James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar where Neytiri saves Jake from the pack of viperwolves drawn to the light of his torch as he...

Avid curiosity has always been one of the hallmarks of my character. Aside from my birth ( I can see the operating room now from the position of being lifted out of my mother’s unconscious body by the doctor. The most potent sensation was that even the sounds in the...

Years ago, when I was in the early throes of a passionate love affair, it looked like my new beloved was going to succumb to the "thrall of the ex" and go back to a previous partner. Devastated, I remember getting up one morning and, in tears, walking down the stairs...

Let me say upfront, I am no stranger to plant medicines. Or a lot of other substances, for that matter. In my late teens and early twenties, I did different drugs, including plants like mushrooms, peyote and mescaline, for all the wrong reasons. Between ages 43 and...

A few days ago, I was sitting on my deck, basking in the warmth of early morning as the sun rose over the northern flank of Haleakalā volcano. I'd had my morning coffee. I'd eaten breakfast. I'd downed the first quart of water, and taken my supplements. And I was...

Yeshua Ben Yosef, Jesus, right, wrong, mirror, as within so without, enlightenment I woke up at four a.m. this morning from a very intense dream in which I reminded myself over and over again, "I only exist in relationship. I only exist in the mirror. Relationship is...

Have you ever met someone who always seems to manage to antagonize you and everybody else? Nothing major perhaps ... but they definitely rub you up the wrong way, always seeming to disagree with everybody. In a minor way, of course. But still ... Or have you ever been...