Making Sure I'm Still Here
.... and Life Coaching with Joe
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Reconnecting to our Basic Human Dignity We’re all familiar with the trope of a good angel on one shoulder and a bad angel on the other. This seems grandly narcissistic, as though each of us is caught in a cosmic struggle between ultimate good and ultimate evil. Many of us live under the influence of […]
Gaining Mastery Over Our Suffering: the Courage to Face Our Pain I would like to address rising up and facing our pain as a way of navigating a life of turmoil and challenge. This is not to over dramatize life’s difficulties or to define ourselves by pain. Rather, by facing what is truly happening, we […]
The Heartbreak Clash Lord Gampopa, a seminal figure in Tibetan Buddhism, taught that we are the “working basis” of our liberation. In other words, who we are—our body, mind, spirit, work, life, and relationships—holds all the information we need for our freedom. We don’t have to look beyond ourselves. The key is to look beneath […]
Working With Emotions, Healing Our World Today is Veterans Day, 2025. I want to acknowledge all those who have served, suffered, and even lost their lives so that the rest of us may live relatively free and open lives. Veterans include not only those who served in the military, but also the families of those […]
Many of us were shocked by the results of the election. Personally, this was a resounding shot across the bow of my serenity and well being. The voice of the people apparently spoke to underwrite a massive upheaval of our political self-identification. Although Vice President Harris tried to position herself as being aligned with change, she […]
I would like to talk about facing tomorrow. In some cases, this could be looking directly into the face of danger – or many dangers. If we’re honest, we just don’t know. And, it’s natural to be frightened when we are unsure of an outcome. But are we ever really sure of a future outcome? […]
The Way of the Warrior Facing Chaos – The Way of the Warrior We live in turbulent times. It sometimes feels like we’re in the apocalypse as scripted by Stephen King. Yet, our challenges don’t seem to be enough. When facing difficulties, we often magnify them, making them seem outsized and uncontrollable by thinking everything […]
Discovering the S p a c e Around Us Today we’re discussing “the gap,” a simple yet crucial principle in meditation. This concept relates to the Buddha’s Third Noble Truth—The Cessation of Suffering—which is often discussed as though it were a permanent state. However, one of Buddhism’s core principles, and perhaps a basic aspect […]
Remembering John Lennon during the week of his birthday, I wanted to reflect on the third Noble Truth of the Buddha’s teaching—the truth of the cessation of suffering—as a state of peace. Peace is natural to the mind. As a natural state, the cessation of suffering is readily accessible. However, peace is not a fixed […]
Which Way to Go Depends on Where I’m Going In the past, the inflection points my life have been poorly considered. These junctures were opportunities to directly engage my life, and perhaps steer it into a fruitful direction. However, driven by the anxiety and pressure I always lived under, I’d jump past these moments trying […]