Why a chronic problem never falls to direct attack — and what kind of synthesis it finally dissolves in Most problems in a life respond to competence. You analyse them, you work at them, they move. This post is about the other kind — the one problem that has not moved. The chronic one. The
Why what you react to keeps coming back — and what changes the moment you meet it instead of fighting it I want to be careful with this one from the first sentence, because the title can be misheard. This is not the idea that the universe sends back whatever you put out, that your
What You React To Will Keep Coming Back — What You Meet Can Finally Rest Read More »
Seven micro-actions I return to through the day — and why staying focused, calm and alert turns out to be something that happens, not something I do I want to be honest about the title before we go further, because it promises something I am going to partly take back. These seven small things do
What it means that no method can free you — and why you can only make your own way by walking it I want to start with the thing I spent thirty years looking for, because I no longer believe it exists. The method. The right practice, the right teacher, the right sequence of steps
There Is No Way to Free Yourself — There Is Only the Way You Make and Walk Yourself Read More »
What a Covenant with the One and Only Truth actually is — and why it can be neither signed nor broken I want to begin with the fear, because I know it from the inside. The fear that I have, somewhere along the way, broken faith with the thing I was looking for. That I
What ‘threshold’ actually names — and what ‘liminal space’ usually means by it The word “threshold” comes from the doorway — the wooden or stone strip you step across when entering a house. It is a real physical thing. It is also, in older usage, the floor of the threshing-room: the place where grain was
The Threshold Is the Road (The Road Has No End) Read More »
What I was looking for when I was looking for my true self For most of my adult life I was looking for my true self. I did not always call it that. Sometimes I called it my real life. Sometimes my actual calling. Sometimes the thing I was actually going for. The names changed.
The ‘True Self’ I Was Looking For — Until I Realised Who Was Doing the Looking Read More »
What ‘letting go’ promises — and where resistance to change actually lives For decades, “letting go” has been the universal answer in spiritual and personal-development circles. You are stuck — let go. You are anxious — let go. You are clinging to an old identity — let go. The phrase is short, soft, and seems
What ‘Letting Go’ Will Not Let Go Of Read More »
What ‘midlife crisis’ names — and what success without meaning is actually pointing to The phrase “midlife crisis” — to those who have heard it applied to themselves, or have started to suspect it applies — names something real. But what it names is rarely what is actually happening. The label arrives with all its
The Quiet Recognition Inside the ‘Midlife Crisis’ Read More »
What “Forerunner” names — and what kind of spiritual teacher this is For a long time I did not have a word for what I do. Teacher was wrong — it had more than what I could honestly hold. Coach was wrong — it pointed at a domain I am not in. Mentor was closer
Prodromos, the Forerunner: Read Me, Hear Me, Follow Me — But You Cannot Catch Me Read More »
What I notice about the teachers, coaches, and mentors who actually move me. After many years of reading, sitting, listening — I have come to notice one thing about the teachers, coaches, and mentors whose words actually move me. Not the ones I admire. Not the ones I cite. The ones whose sentences, days or
The Teacher Beside You, Not Above You Read More »
You’ve organised your life carefully. There’s the work part, the relationship part, the health part, the inner life part. You tend to some of them. You defer the others. You tell yourself that once the significant ones are handled, you’ll get to the rest. But the rest doesn’t wait. It shows up — in the
