In our Western world many people suffer from an inability to live with paradox and contradiction. We have lost touch with paradoxical, mystical or contemplative thinking in an education system with its basis in formal laws of logic and linearity, which has an unfortunate tendency to reinforce either/ or dualistic thinking. The startling idea that truth can be multilayered, unpredictable and contradictory is generally not a part of our modern Western world. Yet many of our gre

Rob Preece, a Buddhist spiritual mentor I am privileged to know, recently wrote a book entitled 'The Wisdom of Imperfection.' An excellent book understanding that, at heart, the spiritual journey involves encompassing all that we are, not a striving for a state of perfection, and encouraging us to have compassion on our vulnerability and fallibility as we travel our path. But this is not a new idea, although it is one we have great need of continually revisiting. In the Chri

Spiritual direction is not a modern innovation but a very ancient and simple process of one person offering another spiritual guidance and counsel. In the Christian tradition this goes back to the Old Testament with Moses giving guidance to the Israelites in the desert and Eli helping Samuel in how to answer when God called. In the New Testament, Paul wrote letters of spiritual guidance to new groups of converts across the Roman Empire. In the 3rd, 4th and 5th Centuries this