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Lesson 10 from Jon Kabat-Zinn's "Letting Everything Become Your Teacher"

In this brief yet profound lesson from Jon Kabat-Zinn's Letting Everything Become Your Teacher, we come to a better understanding of the difference between healing and curing.

LESSON 10 - Healing & Curing

Healing does not mean curing, although the two words are often used interchangeably. While it may not be possible for us to cure ourselves or to find someone who can, it is always possible for us to heal ourselves. Healing implies the possibility for us to relate differently to illness, disability, even death, as we learn to see with eyes of wholeness. Healing is coming to terms with things as they are.

Reprinted from LETTING EVERYTHING BECOME YOUR TEACHER: 100 Lessons in Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn © 2009 by Jon Kabat-Zinn.  Reprinted by arrangement with the Random House Publishing Group.

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Excerpt from "Good & Bad" with Marianne Williamson

In this profound transcribed excerpt from a talk by Marianne Williamson recorded live in Los Angeles, Williamson reminds us that, while we may continually forget it, there is nothing that is not God, that is not true, that is not love.

What is a miracle? A miracle is a sane thought. The Christ within us, the Shekinah, the light -- whatever name we use for this means our deep sanity. Now, the Course in Miracles says the thinking of the world is 180 degrees away from the thinking of God. So the thought system of the world is insane. The thought system of God is sane. It is the truth.

Ten Signs of Progress on the Spiritual Path by Elizabeth Lesser

One of our favorite authors -- Elizabeth Lesser, cofounder of the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies -- helps us know how to discern if we've made progress on our personal spiritual path, adapted from her terrific book The Seeker's Guide: Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure.

 TEN SIGNS OF PROGRESS ON THE SPIRITUAL PATH

1. Obuntubotho. When Bishop Desmond Tutu introduced Nelson Mandela at his inauguration as the new president of South Africa, he described him as being a man who had Obuntubotho. “Obuntubotho,” he said, “is the essence of being human. You know when it is there and when it is absent. It speaks about humanness, gentleness, putting yourself out on behalf of others, being vulnerable. It embraces compassion and toughness. It recognizes that my humanity is bound up in ours, for we can only be human together.” Obuntubotho is the first sign of progress on the spiritual path.

Excerpt from "Giving Thanks & Happiness" with Marianne Williamson

In this transcribed excerpt from a lecture given by Marianne Williamson during the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday season, Williamson talks about how focusing on the "happy, happy, happy" can generate the exact opposite.  Williamson talks to us about how we tend to live in this all the time -- and how to shift focus.  "Giving Thanks & Happiness" was recorded live in Los Angeles as part of Williamson's weekly lecture series.

I want to talk to you tonight interestingly enough about Thanksgiving. When even though you know intellectually that there is a lot to be thankful for, you’re not feeling it, which is another way of saying that I want to talk tonight about unhappiness, particularly as we approach this season. American focus on happy, happy, happy. We must be happy because it’s the holiday season. And even though we are supposed to be happy and we are supposed to be thankful, counter-intuitively, what that kind of emphasis does in the culture is that it actually makes even more painfully true the fact that there are many things about our lives about which we don’t necessarily feel so happy.