Spiritual pathology describes how we can distort and undermine our spiritual path and its practices, because of our own deep unresolved inner emotional wounds and issues. I have written in ' Spiritual Life and the Shadow ' how part of our unconscious self - the Shadow - can influence us in often unrecognised ways. We can take this a step further to understand how it can also influence the way we view and distort our chosen spiritual path and its practice; the delusions we ca

I've been staying a stone's throw from Barbara Hepworth's studio and museum in St Ives. So, before the crowds arrive each morning, I slip alone into her extraordinary garden - a captivating blend of sculpture and exotic planting. Her working spaces lie undisturbed as if she has just popped out for a moment to fetch milk for morning tea, or perhaps in her case a packet of cigarettes. The early morning light in St Ives is clear and full of promise, with a hint of the as yet unk

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 Chr

Retreats are times of renewal and refreshment, time to slow down and go deeper to connect with what is truly important to you in life; a...

On the home page of my website is a picture of a cairn. Cairns are piles of stone placed one on top of the other to mark key events such as battles, burial sites, mark trails, or remember sacred or important events. They have an impermanence as they fall apart with the onslaught of the elements of life, inviting us to touch and interact with them, to rebuild them anew. In a similar way we build inner cairns to mark key moments in our lives - recalling important people, plac

Have you seen this extraordinary short film (just 20 mins) - winner of over 35 film festival awards? Set in the landscape of the American...

Just back from attending a refreshing and inspiring interfaith retreat day led by Maura Sills. She spoke of the numinous quality of love and wisdom that is at the centre of us all. And how awakening to, and resting prayerfully and consciously in this depth within us, not only helps us but all those to whom we relate in life. I was very struck by how easily we can live our life separate in our own skin, sometimes never really experiencing a sense of deep connection to others

There are so many landscapes we pass through, internally and externally, as we journey in life. I find the outer and inner are so often brought together in reflecting on the landscapes of geographical, and spiritual, journeying of God's people in the Old Testament, and how these places relate to our lives and experience now. There are lush gardens such as the Garden of Eden and the garden that is the backdrop to the lovers in the Song of Songs - an almost restored paradise;

'In one sense we are always travelling, and travelling as if we did not know where we are going. In another sense we have already arrived.