Anything having to do with what is happening inside people has political significance to me. That is why I like the term "holistic politics."
We need to recognize that part our political problem is that we do not participate effectively, that we suffer from a kind of mental slumber.
There is an increasingly pervasive sense that one age is over and a new one is beginning - in business, in politics, in science, in psychology.
The media establishment senses that the boats are coming and it has taken it upon itself to stand on those beaches and do everything it can to shoot the soldiers on the boats. They know the beaches will be taken.
When many people think of "new age" they think of crystals and purple decals and ceramic angels in people's windows and a kind of fuzzy thinking - which is abhorrent to a serious person.
The only issue that I have a problem with when it comes to the new age is the way that people such as myself are diminished by that label. I simply don't consider myself "new age." It's other people's small-mindedness that tries to connect me with someone who, let's say, thinks crystals are the answers to all of life's problems. I never did. There are those who suggest that anyone speaking from a base in California has less to say. That kind of bashing doesn't interest me.
I think it's unfortunate how many people today try to build up their own careers by denigrating the work of others.
The fact that the commercial success of my books has allowed me to buy a house for myself and my daughter I think is a lovely thing. I don't think there is anything wrong with that.
I don't think of myself as a very famous person, but the modicum of celebrity that I've had has not been a positive experience for me at all.
I don't think that my twenties were any more dramatic than those of most people I know. I was never that bad and I never became that good.
My story has been the story of my generation.
If there is anything interesting about my story it's the fact that it's not unique at all. I feel that I have been through what almost everyone I know has - a slow and gradual maturation process.
I'm certainly not saying anything new, and I'm not even saying anything all that different from what everyone else I know is saying right now - I'm saying what millions of people are saying. I'm just saying it publicly.
The letters I get on the Internet and the responses to my books make it very clear that something is trying to happen. And I'm just one person. There are millions of people really ready to go. We're just not sure where to go yet.
No matter what I write or speak about, it always has some connection to how our spiritual understanding impacts the world we live in. Whether I'm writing or teaching about nutrition, pilates, green living or meditation, all topics simmer down to self thought and intention.
It is absolutely a relationship with food that is a displaced relationship with God. And that displaced relationship with God takes two forms: our availability to other people and our availability to our own thoughts and feelings.
I am very much into politics, but what interests me is sacred principles applied to that area. You know, many people are interested in alternative health who are never going to become doctors, or practitioners. That is how I am about politics. I am interested in the intersection of the Spiritual and the political - how spiritual principles apply to the social and political issues of our day. For me, the spiritual realm, is a more powerful place to speak from on those issues.
In pursuing personal growth, there are issues where we can advance just so far by ourselves. At some point, our continued progress and improvement can only come about through relationships with others. Romantic love is an intense and intimate exposure to another person; if we can be who we want to be, even in that context, then our spiritual growth is exponentially expanded.
It takes mystical insight to see the beauty and innocence in each other, even when that is not what we are showing to the world. That is why God is needed in intimate relationships, to move us beyond the perceptions that can so often poison love.
The love is what's left at the end because it's the bedrock, fundamental reality that gets hidden all the time, but never really goes away.
Only God’s thoughts, or love, is actually real. So when we separate ourselves from that love, we’re actually not thinking at all: we’re hallucinating.
Our hearts are being stretched to span the violence and the suffering in our lives and world, and at the same time we are also witness to so much magnificence and brilliance. We are a species that has produced nuclear weapons, and also one that has developed profound insight into the nature of life itself.
My father was a deeply committed humanitarian. He was a fighter for social justice. He was spirited in the deepest sense.
The world as it is perceived by most people, is a world of finite resources.
If I'm honest with myself, I think it's probably true I have learned more in my life through pain than through joy. But hopefully that's changing.
