Will Forgiving the Other Person Make Me a Punching Bag?

Q: Dear Todd, someone who has tried to get me to commit suicide multiple times doesn't deserve me to show them love. If I let it go and forgive, in their mind, wouldn’t that just justify hurting me?Q: Do we continue being our good selves, smiling, doing good deeds for other people, loving them, even if they treat us like something they have stepped in? After many years of trying,…

When We Feel Fear is That Ego? Or Unhealed Part of Ourselves?

Q: Dear Todd, so when we feel fear or experience suffering is that always the ego? Or is it an unhealed part of ourselves? Or both? TODD ANSWERS: Both and neither. These feelings of fear are merely evolutionary traits we have developed to stay far away from tigers and the edges of cliffs. Suffering is what tells us not to put our hands in the fire. But today, it is…

Path to Peace How to Be at Peace If Life Is Unfair

I know it, and you know it. Terrible things happen to wonderful people and wonderful things happen to people who've done tremendous harm.  If even a great man like Gandhi was assassinated, what chance do the rest of us have at a peaceful and good life?! So how can we understand the seeming unfairness in our world? How should we exist in, and respond to, an unfair world? Should we…

How Did You Come Back to the Normal Life After Your Long Traveling?

Q: Dear Todd, how did you manage to come back to the city and "normal" life after your extended traveling time? TODD ANSWERS: I would love to say some big wise thing like, “I recognized that all things must change.” While that is true, honestly after nine years of being in so many places and living out of a tiny suitcase, living in hostels and homestays, and constantly a wanderer,…

Can spirituality and desire to make more money go together?

Q: Dear Todd, can spirituality and desire to make more money go together? TODD ANSWERS: There is nothing wrong with wealth in and of itself. It’s only when we put profits above people, when attachment to wealth creates suffering, and when fear of loss disturbs our inner peace that wealth and the pursuit of wealth become problematic. We all want a comfortable life and people should be rewarded for their…

How Can We Make People Have Conversations Without ‘em Staring at Phones

Q: Dear Todd, either it is the generation, or something else, but I feel, people are too attached to stuff - money, sex, food, Netflix, cellphones, etc. Have you seen that movie "ripped" when they fly from the 80s to today and they go to a mall and everyone is with their cells, and they think they're in a math convention cos everyone has a "calculator", it is what's happening…

Path to Peace How to Leave Your Past in the Past

To be alive is to be on a lifelong mission of learning. That means that we will have regrets, mistakes, failures, setbacks and difficult challenges in our lives. While we think our past determines our present, it's actually how we relate to our past that matters. In today's podcast, I talk about how we can change our relationship with a difficult past. I share ways we can reframe our pain,…

Why haven’t I found peace yet?

Q: Dear Todd, I'm 49 and have not found peace yet. I have all the time in the world to meditate, eat healthy and exercise but it is hard to take the first step. Hoping I will get on the path of enlightenment and will start moving instead of being lazy and wishing for it. Any thoughts? TODD ANSWERS: Try not to carry all your ambitions and goals on your…

I’ve Found the Secret of This Life

For the better part of nine years, I lived in monasteries, ashrams, tribes and forests. I even spent months in silent meditation retreats. During all this time, I was trying to figure out who had the best methods and teachings. Some retreats were very strict, where we’d meditate in tiny prison-like cells for 14 hours a day. 3am wakeup times, total silence, and nothing but meditating and eating two meals.…

Does Universe Understand Negation as if in Mantras?

Q: Dear Todd, Does universe know a negation or a negative? If you say it does the universe hears the opposite? I really get so confused sometimes with all the spiritual understanding. TODD ANSWERS: That’s a great question. Negation only happens when there is suppression or repression of a concept. For example, don’t think of a monkey. The mantra, “I do not need to be perfect, I do not need…