Getting Used to Stuff: A Conversation with Daniel Gottlieb

“Thank God for GPS,” sighs psychologist, family therapist, radio host, and author Daniel Gottlieb, rolling into the Jewish Community Center in Bridgewater, New Jersey. If it were p…

The Soundtrack of Healing

Outside the main entrance to the 80-acre campus of Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, Colorado, the air is filled with the sweet serenade of chirping bobwhites and…

Empowered by the Sacred

An Invocation"Rise and place your hands on your heart. Bow your head to your heart and in doing so, bow your mind, bow your intelligence, bow your ego, to the presence of the Livin…

Beyond the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

About fifteen years ago, Robert E. Thayer, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at California State University Long Beach and author of the recent book The Origin of Everyday Moods (Ox…

A Mind-Altering Message

One of the key words in the New Testament is metanoia, usually translated as "repentance" and giving rise to neurotic concerns about sin and self-reproach. But the Greek word meta …

2004 June

Surprised by Grace

How often are you startled by afresh spiritual awareness — a simple and unexpected new metaphor for your life journey? Discover 'nested meditation’ and experience how wordplay can open your soul.

Meal Magic: Setting the Tamada-Flavored Table

One of my most memorable meals wasn't an actual meal; rather, it was a dining experience cradled in hospitality, friendship, and good, simple food. The place: the patio of a friend…

Should Non-Natives Practice Indigenous Religions?

Seekers in the West hunger to learn from indigenous spiritual teachers, but what are the politics and ethics of taking on and changing the traditions of others?I am a student and p…

How Gratitude for Life Beats Fat

It took losing 50 pounds for Brad Hirschfield to even realize that he was overweight, or so he jokes. The joke is, in fact, on point: Hirschfield, 38, is a teacher and Orthodox rab…

Vengeance 101

Throughout history, we’ve had an insatiable fascination with stories of vengeance. From the earliest Greek tragedies, to the Bible, to Shakespeare, to recent movies like Atonement,…

Reopening the Eyes of Compassion

I vividly remember my first day as an intern at a large inner-city hospital in Southern Africa. As I made my morning rounds through the male cardiothoracic unit, I saw patient afte…

2009 September/October

Neurons of Compassion

Have we found the basis for empathy and altruism? Like most great scientific breakthroughs, the discovery of the human mirror neuron system (MNS) was a complete accident. What may…