Why are we here? Seriously, what's the point? Why is there a universe where we lose everyone we love and everybody dies? Why is there war and famine and widespread poverty? Is there a purpose? What purpose could there be for all this suffering? Is life a cruel joke? These are the age-old questions that have puzzled humans for thousands of years. But perhaps we've been looking for answers in…
We live in a world that, at times, can seem to celebrate and reward the greediest among us. We live by our own code of values and morals, yet we see people who are unencumbered by ethics get ahead and who seemingly don't have a care in the world.But the truth is, there is a greater joy than the fleeting pleasure of accumulation. There is a greater and lasting peace…
As Ram Dass so beautifully put it, we are all just walking each other home. Ram Dass, as you may not know, was a Harvard professor who realized the height of his professional ambitions — and still discovered a deep, ever-pervading discontent and suffering. So he went on a journey to India to try to discover the true secret to happiness.And he found this spirituality over in India, and came…
What can we do when the world is burning all around us? How can we stay hopeful when we are surrounded by hopelessness? What is the point of life when we have nothing to live for? I know that our world can sometimes feel dark, scary, lonely and meaningless. Every hundred years, nearly every single human will die. A slow moving apocalypse is coming for each of us. Our whole…
As Eckhart Tolle shared in The Power of Now, he tells the story of two monks walking through a forest. They come upon a river and see a woman struggling to cross. Even though it's against their rules and customs to touch a woman, one of the monks goes over, lifts the woman, and helps her across the river.He sets her down, makes sure she’s okay, and then the two…
There was this woman I knew. She was very wealthy, and she had the perfect life. On paper, and from the outside looking in, everyone would say that’s the American dream. But this person was never happy. She was always focused on the negative. If she went to a five-star hotel, she would change rooms three or four times — because the wallpaper might have been peeling a little, or…
I was going on this mission with the purpose of helping people through whatever I could learn. It was terrifying, yes — but it was also deeply infused with a sense that this was the right thing to do. This is what my heart was calling me toward. I don’t know where the idea first got planted in my mind — that I should learn about spirituality, that I should…
Any spiritual teacher or healer is going to encounter immense sadness, anger, trauma, and stress, because that’s who gets drawn to this path. And it’s absolutely vital to be able to hold space for those emotions without absorbing them.The same way I dealt with my own pain is how I help others transmute theirs. Because if I take on their stress, I become useless. I lose my ability to serve.…
If somebody is in a lot of pain, and they're going through some serious illness, and they are living in the past, and they’re loving it, then I would never tell anyone to change. But if they're asking this question, then I assume there is some stress, and that the underlying reality of the present moment is causing a great deal of distress, and that they are not able to…
I have a viewpoint and an attitude of loving this moment and wanting for nothing else. Because I noticed a while ago that when you want something that is not happening right now, you suffer. And I didn’t want to suffer, so I cultivated this mindset of making whatever happens in my life, in this moment, exactly what I want.I used to want to be the richest guy in the…
If something here helped you feel less alone, would you help me keep it alive?
Even the smallest support matters.
Weekly Writings from the Desk of Todd Perelmuter
