Stephen Levine
Stephen Levine
should-have suffering might
Our suffering is caused by holding on to how things might have been, should have been, could have been.
listening attention being-human
The saddest part about being human is not paying attention. Presence is the gift of life.
thinking numb knows
We are so numb we don't even know what a direct experience is. We have an experience, then we think about it and we think the thinking about it is the experience.
spiritual grief loss
Nothing is more natural than grief, no emotion more common to our daily experience. It's an innate response to loss in a world where everything is impermanent.
heal touched
To heal is to touch with love that which we previously touched with fear.
positive-thinking roots mind
Much thought has at its root a dissatisfaction with what is. Wanting is the urge for the next moment to contain what this moment does not. When there is wanting in the mind, that moment feels incomplete. Wanting is seeing elsewhere. Completeness is being right here.
live-life meditation-practice meditation-mind
Meditation allows us to directly participate in our lives instead of living life as an afterthought.
healing compassion wounded
Healing comes when we meet our wounded places with compassion.
spiritual love-is bridges
Go to the truth beyond the mind. Love is the bridge.
grief sadness healing
Grief can have a quality of profound healing because we are forced to a depth of feeling that is usually below the threshold of awareness.
heart hell
Our work is to keep our hearts open in hell.
inspirational friendship relationship
If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call to make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?
pain essence suffering
Wanting things to be otherwise is the very essence of suffering. We almost never directly experience what pain is because our reaction to it is so immediate that most of what we call pain is actually our experience of resistance to that phenomenon. And the resistance is usually a good deal more painful than the original sensation.
letting-go mean suffering
Letting go of our suffering is the hardest work we will ever do. It is also the most fruitful. To heal means to meet ourselves in a new way -- in the newness of each moment where all is possible and nothing is limited to the old.