The Guest House
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all. Even if they are a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may […]
Final Jeopardy
You may not recognize the photo or even the name Randy Pausch. He died at age 47 from pancreatic cancer. During the final year of his life he shared with the world his Last Lecture—On Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. His inspired talk, as he said each time he delivered it, “is not about death, it’s […]
The Man Who Mistook His Life for That
Many students sent me this past week a link to Oliver Sack’s My Own Life, an Op Ed piece in the New York Times. Dr. Sacks, the eminent neurologist turned author of books on people whose brains and or senses lack what some might call “normalcy” is facing his own death from liver cancer. […]
It was the day before Chanukah
It was the day before Chanukah And all through the school Children wrestled and tussled But not to be cruel This was home for them all A place of content A refuge A dream Hours well spent In the main auditorium Gathered to learn first-aid A teacher leapt up To prevent those on stage […]
The Stopping Place
“There had to be a stopping place,” she said, “and this seemed to be the place for me to stop being pushed around. I had decided that I would have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen, even in Montgomery, Alabama.” For Rosa Parks […]
Developing the Negative
There is an old and odd traditional prayer said at the beginning of the New Year—it is found in the Sephardic liturgy and it’s refrain is: “Let this year and its curses (come to an) end.” In the past we have heard of murders and rapes, we have listened to people’s accounts of atrocities and […]
Chasing Peace
For those wanting to access a copy of the KE Rosh Hashanah Prayer Book it is accessible here: http://bit.ly/Y4jV3x I received two emails yesterday, the next to last day of the year 5774 in Jewish Time. One was from a man who was in class with me for a very brief time some six […]
Dear KE Community
Dear KE Community; Amidst all the challenging and tragic news it is easy to fall into despair about our human journey. We need to keep at the work we are engaged in—the more aware we are of the absolute necessity for us to evolve spiritually the more chance we have to survive. This is […]
The Risk of Love
A number of our students went to hear a spiritual teacher last week on the topic of Intimate Relationships and Authentic Awakening. This mystic teacher hails from Vienna and is currently living with his wife in Tel Aviv. Thomas Hubl is his name and he is relatively young. Some of those who attended added up […]
If the Sole Fits
What do Bill Clinton (2007), Bono (2005), Karen Armstrong (2008) and Sugata Mitra (2013) have in common? They are winners of the TED prize, an annual award of $1million presented to people whose ideas and passions can spark global change. Sugata Mitra wants to spark a revolution in learning by implementing SOLE, self-organized learning […]