Soul

The World Doesn’t Need to Be Saved 
by Byron Katie

I have looked down the barrel of a gun pointed at me, and never for an instant was I afraid. Fear is the story of a future. How could  I know that he would pull the trigger? How can I know that an  environmental catastrophe will happen or, if it does happen, that  it will be a bad thing for me, for you, for the planet? Once you  understand this, and begin to live in reality, not in your unquestioned thoughts about reality, life becomes fearless, loving, and  filled with adventure and gratitude, whatever the nonexistent future  may bring.

Fear is not possible when you’ve questioned your mind; it can  be experienced only when the mind projects a story into the future.  The story of an unquestioned past is what we continue to project  as a future. If we weren’t attached to the story of a past, we would  notice that we’re already living in the future, and that it’s always  now, and now is always good.

By Bob Banner

“Laughter Yoga combines laughter with yogic breathing exercises. It is a perfect way to laugh and get exercise at the same time. It approaches laughter as a body exercise so it's easy to laugh even if you’re depressed or in a bad mood. Last year I highlighted Laughter Yoga on my TV program. I’ve tried it, and it works.” - Oprah Winfrey

"Time spent laughing is time spent with the gods," says a Japanese proverb

Laughter yoga is basically specific exercises that use clapping, breathing and self-simulating laughter. It is fun and good for you.

The following article is excerpted from The Eight-Circuit Brain: Navigational Strategies for the Energetic Body by Antero Alli, available from Vertical Pool Publishing. Reprinted with permission from the author,

The point of love between lovers is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good relationship is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky. -- Rainer Maria Rilke

I and Thou -- "Relationship" vs. "Relating"

Social intelligence does not depend so much on our capacity to do, feel or think, though all these attributes certainly come into play when we socialize.  Our social intelligence expresses how well we relate with other people.  What does this really mean, to relate? If we do things for another, are we relating to them? No; they don't have to be present for us to do things for them.  When we have feelings for another, are we relating to them yet? No, not unless they are also feeling what we're feeling.  When we think of someone, are we relating to them? Only in our minds. To the extent we assume that any of these modes of doing, feeling or thinking  means we are actually relating with another person, we can unwittingly delude ourselves into fabricating something often labeled as a "relationship," even if no actual relating happens!  There is no such thing as a "relationship." We are either relating with each other or we are not.