This blog, part of the Living/Dying Project website, will have two main content streams.

First, musings on my life–stuff that I find fascinating, fun, provocative, inspiring. Second, I am facilitating four ongoing small groups(http://www.livingdying.org/pages/events.html) called Healing at the Edge as part of the Project. These groups are exploring deep healing/spiritual awakening. My experience as a meditator, a meditation teacher, and a guide for the dying has been that almost all Westerners have psychological patterns, patterns that determine how energy moves through our body, patterns that eventually deeply limit our progress on the path of awakening. Yet Eastern contemplative practices assume that the practitioner is grounded and not neurotic; they do not directly uncover and heal these long-held patterns. There are a lot of ungrounded, uncentered, neurotic meditators. In these groups and in this blog we will create a solid foundation from which to heal. True healing arises from contact with the Sacred, with the Wisdom Mind. Without a grounded and centered foundation, the heart of compassion will continue to open and close as it feels safe or unsafe. And without the selfless purity of compassion, contact with the Sacred, wholeness, will remain no more than a nice idea.