Living the Course Articles

The practice of meditation has become immensely popular in recent years. I think that on balance this is a good thing. Meditation offers numerous benefits, and it is one of the many practices given to us in A Course in Miracles. Yet a recent article in the Vancouver...

We're all, familiar with the phrase "Give 'til it hurts." Yet a recent scientific study shows that giving really feels good. The brain registers positive feelings not only when you give to another person, but can even do so when you witness giving from a source other...

Jesus' teachings on how to respond to attack have always been challenging. In the gospels, he calls us to turn the other cheek, give the coat and the shirt off our back, and go the extra mile. In A Course in Miracles, he calls us to be wholly gentle, respond to all...

Crime is a hot-button issue in our society. How should we regard people who commit crimes, and how should we deal with them when we apprehend them? A common answer is the get-tough-on-crime, law-and-order approach: "These people are the scum of the earth—lock them up...

Robert spoke of Black Friday in his last message, so now it's my turn. I live in Mexico, and my partner Patricia and I went to the mall during "Buen Fin," the Mexican equivalent of Black Friday, the weekend that promises "the best buys of the year," as the sign below...

Many recent scientific studies have shown a positive correlation between helping other people and greater psychological well-being. I was recently pointed to yet another study that suggests this link. We seem to be accumulating more and more scientific evidence that,...

People often think of miracles as spectacular events like dramatic physical healings and the like. Certainly that is one category of miracles, as A Course in Miracles makes clear. But as we've emphasized so much here at the Circle, miracles most often take the form of...

I had an experience this past weekend which gave me a new window into the curious phenomenon of different people being absolutely convinced of diametrically opposed opinions. This experience underscored for me just how much our assumptions and biases color our...

A recent article by Anthony Barnes in the Independent (UK) describes Matthieu Ricard—a Buddhist monk who is the French interpreter for the Dalai Lama—as "the world's happiest man." The good news for all of us is that, in Ricard's view, happiness is not simply the...

When we think of self-discipline, we often think of some dour Puritan who, in the immortal words of H.L. Mencken, is beset by "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere is having a good time." Self-discipline might be a good way to gain some far-off future reward, we...

Human beings and other animals are very good at telling relatives apart from strangers. Now, a recent study has shown for the first time that plants can do this as well. Does this mean, as A Course in Miracles seems to suggest, that plants are sentient beings, beings...

We've all seen the headlines, and everyone's talking about it: America is experiencing a financial crisis that some say is the worst since the Great Depression. Like everyone else, I have been pondering what effect the recent events on Wall Street will have on my own...