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“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? […]

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 […]

In 1968, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn finished his book The Gulag Archipelago, a scorching indictment of the oppression that he and his countrymen suffered under the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union. Banned for years, it was never formally published in his home country until 1989. Even after that, the new Russian government tried to control the […]

In 1968, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn finished his book The Gulag Archipelago, a scorching indictment of the oppression that he and his countrymen suffered under the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union. Banned for years, it was never formally published in his home country until 1989. Even after that, the new Russian government tried to control the […]

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 […]

Is there a big difference between your current job and your beloved career? Do you suffer from the unsettling feeling that your calling hasn’t called you yet? Are you under the impression that your main reason for being here on Earth may reveal itself at some unknown time in the future, but not anytime soon? […]

“The bear must deal with 20 obstacles, and each one of them involves pears,” says the Sufi proverb, “because the bear adores pears.” That’s a twisty truth worth meditating on, Capricorn. I suspect that the gifts coming your way will bring their own unique problems; the dreams you’re in love with will generate new dilemmas […]