There are several archetypal themes that endure in shaping our life’s purposes, many of which are grounded in biological, ecological, and quantum patterns. They include seeking wholeness, authenticity, and vitality.

An interview I did today with an artist got me thinking about the impermanence of our identity - the way we define who we are, what kind of person we see ourself as being. We make choices about who we are and build our commitments and constraints around these choices.

The question is, what kind of choices are the most liberating; which give us the most vitality and resiliency? How can we be true to our impermanent selves?

A recent NY Times article highlights Gerald Edelman’s new book, “Wider Than The Sky” in which the Nobel Prize neuroscientist proposes that, with its 30 billion neurons and 1 million billion connections (read: continuous conversations), there is simply “no overseer in the brain setting rules and making connections.”

What leads to the remarkable resilience and evolution of the brain’s learning is an immense field of redundancy and variation of pathways developed by experience. Amazing.

I’m always amused at conversations that are mutual monologues on whatever topics pique areas of self-interest. They are conversations conspiciously devoid of mutual inquiry, and therefore lack the qualities of dialogue. Dialogue never occurs in a context of mutual politeness and self-absorption. Authentic interest in others is the heart of dialogue. That’s what gives it its transformative power.

Ran into one of our local spiritual leaders yesterday during a neighborhood coffee meeting. He is one of more compassionate people I know. His response to my at-large query about any spiritual advice for us today: sin boldly.

Grounded in the principle of compassion, Buddhism teaches the more we practice consciousness of compassion, the more capable we become of doing no harm. At times, this means expressing our experience, as in the case of compassion for another’s life. At other times, it means not expressing our experience, as in the case of violence to another’s life.

It is a principle of social responsibility that applies equally to nations, corporations, the wealthy and poor, communities, and friends.

if you aspire to
reaping a knowledge harvest
switch your metaphor…

haitech haiku / judith meskill

I’m discovering that one of the most profound ways we debilitate our capacity for wholeness is by being interested in the judgments of those who think they’re better.

The opposite of machine is voice
The opposite of information is trust

David Weinberger / via Wirearchy

To everything, turn turn, turn … there is a season, turn, turn, turn … and a time for every purpose under Heaven
A time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal, a time to laugh, a time to weep
A time to build up, a time to break down, a time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together
A time of love, a time of hate, a time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing
A time to gain, a time to lose, a time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate, a time for peace, I swear it’s not too late