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Were you ever a tiger in one of your past lives? If so, this would be an excellent time to tap into that power. If you have never lived the life of a tiger, would you be willing to imagine that you did? During the coming week’s challenges, you will really benefit from being able […]

The corny but sometimes useful adages of folk wisdom are still being created afresh in the 21st century. Their breeding ground is no longer the tavern or marketplace, as in centuries past, but rather the Internet. I’ve plucked one of these funky gems out of the ethers for you to contemplate: “Noah’s Ark was built […]

John, a colleague of mine, is a skillful psychotherapist. His father is in a similar occupation, psychoanalysis. If you ask John whether his dad gave him a good understanding of the human psyche while he was growing up, John quotes the old maxim: “The shoemaker’s son has no shoes.” Is there any comparable theme in […]

The sun shines brighter on my new home. The old place had resemblances to a cave and was surrounded by tall trees. My new space is surrounded by a wide sky and drinks in the solar radiance from dawn to dusk. As you might expect, my 15 plants need to drink a lot more than […]

Amazingly enough, the good deeds you do in the next 21 days could alone qualify you for a permanent exemption from hell. It seems God has cooked up some imminent tests that will give you a chance to garner some ridiculously sublime karma. What’s that you say? You don’t believe in either God or hell? […]

Let’s imagine that an independent filmmaker has been following you around, gathering footage for a movie based on the story of your life. This week he or she would face a dilemma. That’s because unexpected new sub-plots may arise, veering off in directions that seem to be far afield from the core themes. The acting […]

“Dear Rob: Help! I have a sinking feeling that the man I love and want to be with for the rest of my life is almost but not quite courageous enough to be truly and deeply intimate with me. What should I do? -Downcast Piscean.” Dear Downcast: Ask yourself if there’s anything you can change […]

“Dear Rob: Thanks for being a continued source of careful thinking! With the help of you and the rather ruthless teachers who are my friends and loved ones, I’m learning the lessons that are most important for me to learn — like how rigorous I have to be in figuring out my intentions, how impeccable […]

The poet Stephen Mallarmé wrote the following in a letter to a friend: “I don’t know which of my internal climates I should explore in order to find you and meet you.” I love that passage. It alludes to one of the central facts about the nature of reality: The quality of your consciousness is […]

Amazingly enough, the good deeds you do in the next 21 days could alone qualify you for a permanent exemption from hell. It seems God has cooked up some imminent tests that will give you a chance to garner some ridiculously sublime karma. What’s that you say? You don’t believe in either God or hell? […]