Philosophy
"How do I make choices?"
Deep refection can turn this question into a journey - first toward self-awareness, then to surrender, until eventually the question becomes meaningless.
Life is the Teacher
For a long time, we try to push pain away—reason with it, outrun it, numb it, outsmart it. Sometimes we spend years, even decades, trying every strategy we know. When all of that finally exhausts itself, something inside softens. It isn’t defeat; it’s a quiet surrender. And from that surrender, a new possibility appears: the chance to let life itself teach you.
What you Focus on Grows.
Every challenge you’re facing right now carries within it a corresponding virtue that can soften, transform, or even dissolve it. Ask yourself: would this struggle look the same if I were actively cultivating acceptance, forgiveness, courage, or any other virtue your situation is calling for? Instead of gripping the problem or chasing the outcome, place your attention on the inner effort—the steady practice of the virtue itself. Results are never fully in your control, but expansion always is.
Happiness is the Pursuit
Happiness is the pursuit—not a permanent state of feeling good, but an ongoing relationship with presence. Fulfillment doesn’t come from chasing temporary highs or trying to hold on to moments that inevitably pass. It grows from gratitude for simply being here, awake to your own life as it unfolds. Reaching this kind of fulfillment requires a subtle inner shift: a softening of perception, a quieting of the mind and body, and a willingness to rest in what is, rather than what could be.
Accepting the Whole
Accepting the whole means recognizing the shared humanity beneath every conflict, every rivalry, every wound. “If you were to have walked in their shoes, you’d do the same” isn’t an excuse—it’s an invitation to see the forces, fears, and histories that shape every person, including the ones who trigger you most. The hardest blindness to overcome is the belief that the “other” is separate from you; in truth, they mirror the part of yourself that still waits to be fully accepted. When you allow all of humanity—including the uncomfortable parts—to simply be as it is, something heavy inside you finally releases, and a quiet freedom takes its place.
Suggested reading for the truth-seeking and awakening person.
Mahaney, C.J. — Humility: True Greatness
Maharaj, Sri Nisargadatta — I Am Not the Body
Maharshi, Ramana — Be as You Are
Miller, William R. & Rollnick, Stephen — Motivational Interviewing
Mother Teresa — In Her Own Words
Myss, Caroline — Sacred Contracts
Prochaska, James O. (et al.) — Changing for Good
Rankin, Lissa — The Fear Cure
Satchidananda, Sri Swami — The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Schwartz, Richard C. — Internal Family Systems