Naming Rumpelstiltskin, and the path to self-knowledge
Author: Tracy Cochran
Tracy Cochran is editorial director of Parabola. For more information, please visit tracycochran.org.
How deeply we fear being nobody. One way to think of the ego is as a defense against pain, particularly the pain of being no one.
When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me. Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Reaching an understanding that no storm can shake
There are different kinds of realizations. They are not always lightening bolts but sometimes soft and slow, as if snow were quietly falling and settling.
“Today we have gathered and see that the cycles of life continue.”
On silent retreat, a woman finds connection from PARABOLA, Vol. 37:2, Summer 2012: Alone and Together.
When most of us think of determination, we think first of imposing our will on the world, insisting on a particular outcome, our vision. Yet real determination appears when we keep going, surrendering what the ego wants, which is always to look good, to sound good, to win. Real perseverance is willingness, not will. […]
The root meaning of heal is whole. Illness and mishap and even great tragedy can lead us eventually from the pain of isolation to a greater wholeness. There is such a powerful tendency in our spiritual aspiration to climb up out of the mess of our lives. But what if awakening involved sinking down instead…
The rain was coming down in sheets as I drove down a wooded road in rural Montague, Massachusetts, towards the opening ceremony of the Maezumi Institute, the new training center of the Zen Peacemakers Order. “The End” by the Doors was playing on the car stereo. “The West is the best,” sang Jim Morrison. This…