Will, our fourth grandchild, turns 4 today. He is the embodiment of joyfulness and play. I don’t think that 5 minutes go by in any one day where he isn’t laughing or helping someone else to laugh. He gets so excited when he knows he is going out on an outing that he just breaks …
For the most part men are still stuck in the Neolithic period acting like Neanderthals. I am really sorry to say, but it is true. Men have a code. Don’t talk about how you are feeling. Endure all pain without complaint. Go to war. Not everyman carries a machine gun, but when they leave their …
When you go to most self-help or business sections of a bookstore, you will find that when they talk about setting goals and planning for the future that it is important to be specific, measurable, realistic, etc.. because the brain works best when it has clarity about a target and then goes for it. This …
What is dream work? Dream work is the process of using your dreams to make the changes in your life that you have always wanted to make, but could never quite figure out how to do it. It requires believing that dreams are a form of communication delivered to you with perfect messages, that they …
Why do you run out of gas in a dream? Automobiles in our dreams are symbols of getting from one place to another in our lives. For example, suppose you are the type of person who plans out what you want to accomplish for a day or a week or a month. You sit down …
Not long ago I was writing a report on a 7 year old boy in his attitude toward sport. After I wrote the report I started thinking that he just might represent the sort of problems that a great many leaders in the world have. This boy is excellent on the climbing wall in that …
Last night I dreamt that I was in the house of a former colleague who had committed suicide a few years ago. There were a number of people in the living room so I started engaging them in series of sad stories about my life of the bad things that people had done to me …
When I was a young man growing up in America, the Mekong River, especially in Vietnam was associated with war and bloodshed. Here we are at breakfast and at sunset on the Mekong in Luang Prabang, Laos. It is hard to imagine a more peaceful and tranquil place. When you look at these scenes, it …
For the most part our minds are geared to taking the easy way out of life and in the modern world we seem to have taken the easy way out to an extreme. The cultural learning is that a physical pleasure gives you a non-material or permanent quality. Look at this ad. This ad teaches …
Today is Wesak Day in Malaysia. It is a national holiday that honours the birth, the enlightenment, and achievement of Nirvana by the Buddha. Although Malaysia is officially a Muslim country, it acknowledges its diversity by having the major religious festivals of its religious minorities celebrated with national holidays. The process most associated with Buddhism …
Last night we had one of our monthly gatherings in our own home. This one was about how to keep on your own path to accomplish a goal with lots of action. It was actually the 4th in a series taken from Baha’u’llah’s book, The Four Valleys. So to start the meeting we read the …
Sometimes I have a really bad attitude. At the beginning of this school year in August was one of those times. I just didn’t want to be there. The school moved me from one position to the other in what I would consider a non-transparent way. I moved from what was primarily administrative and events …
Early this week Debby and I spent 3 days among the aboriginal people of Malaysia, the Orang Asli. In Malay the word orang means people and asli which original. An orangutan literally translated means a person of the forest. Many of the Orang Asli live in an area known as the Cameron Highlands which is …
My Short History of Abandonment Up and until 1997 I never had an employer who deliberately abandoned me. Mind you I have had a lot of moments of incompetence as probably most people do, but no one ever asked me to leave my job. Then, when I felt I was getting really great results in …
In almost every dream meeting that I have facilitated, I have always gotten the same recurring question. “Why can’t I remember my dreams?” I have answered this question in multiple ways which all have some validity to them. Forgetting your dreams has a lot of to do with attention. We know from research on memory …
Dost thou reckon thyself only a puny form When within thee the universe is folded? The Seven Valleys and Four Valleys. Baha’u’llah Last night in my dream I was at a beach somewhere it seems like California. I went into the water and before me were these huge waves of the crushing type so I …
What can you say about Norway other than it is one spectacular scene after another. Whether you are on land or sea you are surrounded by Mother Nature at her best. She never disappoints you. Our train ride from Stavanger to Arendal is peaceful and picturesque, but the great treasure for us in Arendal is …
So here I am in the middle of someone else’s living room with a group of people I have never met before except for one or two. I am in a country that is thousands of kilometers away from my country of birth They have been invited by the host to a presentation on “Becoming …
In this dream the dreamer is somewhere by the beach with the ocean in front. As she is walking along, a huge python appears and grabs her at her neck. In the last post I talked about cobras which are snakes that have a lot of venom. A python is not a venomous snake. It …
“So far as ye are able, ignite a candle of love in every meeting, and with tenderness rejoice and cheer ye every heart. Care for the stranger as for one of your own; show to alien souls the same loving kindness ye bestow upon your faithful friends.” Abdu’l Baha (Baha’i Writings) So in my …
The National Geographic Channel as well as Animal Planet have a few shows featuring a wonderful adventurer photographer (what a great job) named Austin Stevens. He had a whole series of shows on tracking down and photographing the 10 most deadly snakes in the world and then reframing the experience for us so that we …
Many of us have heard the expression from the old Robin Williams Movie, “Good Morning, Vietnam.” The Vietnamese really are morning people. By 6 am all of the shops are already open for business. Below are some healthy lifestyle choices being taken by Vietnamese.
So here we are riding in a bus from Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon and it is very obvious that God is trying to tell me something. In front of us is a row of three Japanese women, the former enemy of my father’s generation, beside us are 3 young Russian women, the former …
Yesterday was an extremely trying day for me in the development of detachment. I mean here I was going along fine and making great progress in my mind with the virtue. I actually could begin to see myself doing stuff. And then I went to this horrible meeting where it was all about a couple …
“Whither can a lover go but to the land of His beloved.” Baha’u’llah So here I am in the last days in Bali. I have to say that when I am in Bali or for that matter on any vacation, I completely forget about my work life. I seem to understand how to play well. …
The other day I had a pretty scary thought. Am I going to reach the end of my career just doing tasks that other people assign measuring myself on how well I did what they asked? So I decided to find an alternative, which is to live in the land of virtues. I learned this …
If you have ever been to one of my dream meetings, you will almost always hear me say that snakes are about change, transformation especially at the beginning stages of change, but there is hardly another animal on the planet that evokes so much fear as a snake. Part of the problems with snakes is …
Last week when we went to Bali, we visited a butterfly park one afternoon. Butterflies are extremely attractive because of their beauty. They have the quality of being seen and marveled at, but there are a whole lot of other insects who use the opposite quality, camouflage, as they make their way in the world. …
While most Hindus are celebrating Deepavalu, the festival of light, we arrive in Bali during the time of Ganugan, which is their own special day. Whether it be Deepavalu, Chinese New Year, Christmas, or Hari Raya, the thing that is common about most religious and cultural larger than life days is that people make a …
Richard Hastings is an expert in change work and dream work and author of Dreams for Peace. He is a Baha'i and currently lives in Vancouver, BC. Read more...
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