Ed and Deb Shapiro

If You’re Not Here Then Where Are You?

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Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. John Lennon Who said life would be like walking the yellow brick road, or that the human condition would be easy? And why is it so important to be here? What’s the big deal? It appears that the reason we’re generally not happy […]

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The Amazing Wisdom of Mindlessness

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Where mindfulness is all about being aware, being present in the moment, noticing and paying attention to thoughts, feelings, behavior, and everything else, mindlessness is anything but, dominating all those moments when you are least aware. As such, mindlessness is the most amazing teacher ever: become aware of when you are unaware and hey presto, […]

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One Way Your Ego Trips You Up

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One Christmas, when we were living in Brighton, England, we volunteered at a church that regularly feeds the homeless and needy at that time of year. But it was more than the hungry ones who got fed that day. After we happily dished out large helpings of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, followed by pudding […]

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5 Ways To Enhance Your Relationship

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Shortly after we were married, we went to India and spent our honeymoon in ashrams and monasteries. We were fortunate enough to have a private meeting with the Dalai Lama at his residence in McCleod Ganj, in the foothills of the Himalayas. “After some thirty minutes of talking I was feeling so moved by this […]

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Finding Your Sanity in the Midst of Chaos

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The question is, has the world gone nuts? It certainly looks like a lot of people are being driven by fear, hatred and greed. The protests in Chicago, the rising anger and animosity, is to the detriment of us all. Is it not time for some real sanity? Losing our sanity is about getting so […]

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Why Saying Yes To Yourself Is The Most Important Thing You Can Do

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I have too much to do! My boss is so demanding! My mother-in-law always needs my help! I have so many meetings / orders to be filled / classes to teach / deliveries to be made…the list is endless. But in the midst of everything that is being asked of you, what happens to you? […]

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What Is This Thing Called LOVE

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Every day magazines, books, songs, and even blogs extol the importance of love, how to get more of it in our lives, how to be the best at it, how to make it work, how to let go if it doesn’t work, and how to trust it and start the process all over again. Love […]

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Will The Real Deepak Chopra Please Stand Up

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The great Swami Satchidananda always said that we only need to have faith the size of a mustard seed. Such faith proved itself to us in an unusual way. We were teaching a weekend meditation program in Plymouth, a fairly rural town in Devon, England. On the Friday evening an excited student told us that […]

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Why You Can Never Have Too Much To Do

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Having too much to do is our most common moan. We get overloaded, overworked, over everything and don’t see a way through. Deb was just 18 when she attended her first Zen meditation retreat. “It was taught by a somewhat formidable Jiyu Kennet Roshi, a large Englishwoman in a floaty grey robe well established in […]

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What I Learned From David Bowie’s Meditation Teacher

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I grew up in London at the same time as David Bowie was becoming known there in the sixties. Bowie was only 17 when he met meditation and Buddhist teacher Lama Chime Rinpoche, who he studied with and remained close to. It was the first step for Bowie to becoming a world-class humanitarian who gave […]

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