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  • Point 8 (eight) on the Enneagram

    The Redemption of Point Eight

    enneagramYears ago, I submitted an article to the Enneagram Monthly on point eight. Recently, someone asked me about my enneagram fixation (point 8 ) and I thought it might be interesting to post this article on enneagram point eight on this blog.

    Shortly after the article appeared in the Enneagram Monthly, a man (point 8 ) from Atlanta emailed me to say that he started reading the article at work and had to go into his office and close the door for privacy. The article brought a rush of emotion and tears to him as it touched something deep in him.

    Perhaps it will serve other 8’s on the enneagram, perhaps it needs updating or critique. You tell me.

    Footsteps on the Path to the Pearl Beyond Price

    I have lived most of my life under the delusion of point eight.

    I would like to share some of my experience and journey toward becoming a human being. I want to talk about the enneagram – how it’s been useful and how I see it being used to perpetuate the incarceration of the soul. I want to address compassion, humanness & vulnerability, integrity, and the Pearl Beyond Price (personal essence).

    Read the full article – The Redemption of Point Eight

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  • Revisiting Paramahansa Yogananda

    Meditation at Song of the Morning

    On Saturday, a friend and I drove over to the Song of the Morning spiritual retreat center near Vanderbilt, Michigan for a 3-hour meditation. The retreat center is located on the Pigeon River amidst 800 acres of beautiful woods.

    Song of the Morning was founded in 1971 by Oliver Black (Yogacharaya), a disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda. (more…)

  • Is it ME or YOU?

    Is it me or you that is bumming us out?

    The other day, I was at a Home & Garden Show in Petoskey, MI. I specifically wanted to talk to some plumbing contractors about water systems for the house. Northern Michigan has hard water, so I need to soften it up – just like me! I also want to install a reverse osmosis system for the kitchen. (more…)

  • Geneen Roth – Lost & Found

    Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations About Food and Money

    Geneen Roth Lost and FoundGeneen Roth’s new book will be released on March 22. I pre-ordered mine on Amazon yesterday. You may recall that Geneen was one of Bernie Madoff’s victims, but instead of playing the victim role, Geneen took a serious look at her situation, what got her there and did what she always does – started looking into the depths of her psyche and behavior to understand herself better.

    As she was exploring her patterns an beliefs, she managed to release her best selling book to date: Women,Food & God. The book took off like a rocket, hopefully helping her to reverse some of her financial misfortune.

    I’ve been looking forward to her new book ever since she told me she was writing it about a year ago. Here’s what the publisher says about Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations About Food and Money:

    When Geneen Roth and her husband lost their life savings, Roth joined the millions of Americans dealing with financial turbulence, uncertainty, and abrupt reversals in their expectations. The resulting shock was the catalyst for her to explore, in workshops and in her own life, how women’s habits and behaviors around money-as with food-can lead to exactly the situations they most want to avoid. Roth identified her own unconscious choices-binge shopping followed by periods of budgetary self-deprivation, “treating” herself in ways that ultimately failed to sustain, and using money as a substitute for love-among others. As she examined the deep sources of these habits, she faced the hard truth about where her “self-protective” financial decisions had led. As in all her books, Roth relates her personal experience with irreverent humor and hard- won wisdom. Here, she offers provocative and radical strategies for transforming how we feel and behave about the resources that should, and ultimately can, sustain and support our lives.

    I think Geneen Roth is taking her work and writing to a whole new level.

    Links of Interest

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  • Time Travel & Contentment

    Traveling in Time
    A Contented State of Mind

    time travelerMy brother-in-law, Iver, often quotes me – “Things Change!” It seems they have when it comes to time travel for me.

    After 33 years working for a major airline, I retired with little interest in traveling. Now I find myself traveling back and forth between Michigan and California on a regular basis and time seems to fly along with me. I’ve also noticed that time flies when I am driving. Driving across country, down to Chicago, up from Detroit, or just an hour to Traverse City seems like just aother moment in time.

    My experience is making me more and more curious about time, traveling and what is going on with me that seems to result in time flying.

    One thing I notice – my mindset is often that I have all the time in the world. These days, I rarely have some moment in time, the future, tied to my travel plans. I get up and go and figure – I’ll get there when I get there. A 4 or 5 hour flight used to be a pain in the old butt – literally – you know those airline seats – not enough padding, not enough room, and not enough ergonomics for most of us.

    At a 10-day retreat last year, I saw a friend of mine had a gel cushion that looked like it would be great for traveling. I purchased one and now travel through time with it. But, it’s not the extra padding that seems to be shrinking the time, aggravation, and effort associated with my traveling.

    This new sense of ease and contentment seems connected to “being with” what is happening in the moment. In hindsight, my travels these days often seem trance-like – did I just drive/fly 5 hours?? I remember the details: working the crossword, the sudoku, listening to music, etc., but the time involved seems to have flown by or compressed itself into some intra-subjective wormhole of a space.

    Perhaps one day this will all change again, but until then traveling is not as big a pain in the ass as it used to be, nor, it seems, am I to those who help me to travel through time.

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  • ING Challenges Reification Through Dialectic Inquiry

    Dialect Inquire Reveals Everything is LivING

    Last week, I was engaging in some open-ended dialectic inquiry with a friend when she looked at a table and said tabling? We were discussing how everything in existence has dynamism and she through the ING on table to express that dynamism of the table. (more…)

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