On Counting and Communicating: Dreams of Golf and Michael Moore

So there I am last night on the golf course playing a round of golf.  That is all I remember.  Sometime later I am with Michael Moore, the documentary maker,  Farenheit 911, Sicko, etc..  Both dreams are a mixture of positive and negative so it lets me that whatever the issue is inside,  I have …

On Reconciling a Marriage

Recently I was doing marriage counseling with a couple who had been separated for a few months, had gotten back together and now were looking for some ways to preserve their marriage.   I have to admit that I was really reluctant to see them as a couple, which is a practice I normally don’t do …

Live in the World of Virtues. Get out of the World of Tasks

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 …

When You Dream About Snakes, Start Looking for Jealousy

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 …

What Seems Inappropriate in Real Life Probably Isn’t in a Dream

So suppose last night you were dreaming about having intimate relations with someone or that you just really gorged yourself or were taking illicit drugs.    In real life or maybe even in the dream you might be feeling like you are doing something wrong.  You may wake up feeling full of guilt for something inappropriate …

The Virtue of Camouflage

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.    …

Searching for the Balinese Religion

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 …

Some Guiding Principles for Transformation

These are some of the things that I have found very helpful in the change process. 1.  The process of change is never ending because the spiritual dimension to life is infinite.   This means that there is always  limitless potential to actualize. 2.  The best kind of transformation occurs by submitting to what the Creator …

Remembering Being a Hurdler

Well I am starting to actually learn a few new lessons about working with authority and it is paying off.    I was thinking today that it is a like like running the hurdles.   The best hurdlers have such smooth form that the hurdle motion is a real thing of beauty.  They don’t fight the hurdles, …

Journeying to the Land of Change

Earlier this morning, when I went out for one of my normal midweek holiday runs toward KL’s Lake Gardens,  an interesting question made its way into my head.    The question was this.   Is there a place you can go where all of the changes that you want to make in yourself already exist? What was …

Letting Others Have Their Fears

Not too long ago I found myself in a bit of hellish feeling in the midst of paradise.   So here I am sitting in a meeting talking about facilitating young people’s experiences, but right next to me is a person who seems a bit out of place.  I can sense her discomfort, perhaps boredom.   It …

Stalking the Issues: Releasing Character

For the longest time I have been dealing with my own development by focusing my attention on two types of character origins. The first has to do with the issues that arise out of the issues that come from family because we all inherit strengths and weaknesses and it is the job of the current …

The Wonderland that Sabah Is

So here we are, Debby and I, in a local Chinese Restaurant located at Mile 6 outside of the city of Sandakan, in the Malaysian territory of Sabah on the island of Borneo. The couple we are with are from Indian ancestry, having grown up Malaysia, and realizing that when a person cannot take a …

When I Was In Elementary School

Last night I had a dream that took me back to elementary school.     The dream was pretty vague but it left me with one of the difficulties that I had growing up in that era which probably still exists in this era.     The dream recalled memories of some students who were not extremely intelligent, had …

Avoid Literal Thinking

It seems to me that a large percentage of the current problems we are having in our world come from taking things that are meant to be deep and metaphorical in a literal and shallow way.    We see it most often in fundamentalist religion’s ability to convince large numbers of people that scripture is meant …

Spiritual Communication

“Aren’t a lot of dreams just meaningless firings of the brain?”       This is a question that I have heard at least 100 times in dream meetings or private conversations.    Whenever the question is asked,  my first inclination is to ask  the person how their own life is so meaningless, but it is a bit abrupt …

Animal Dreams

What should you do when you have a dream with animals? When there is a snake, a dog, a shark, an eagle, a deer, how do you regard these symbols? Dreams with animals in them are always about developing specific spiritual qualities like courage, playfulness, strength, humility, and joy. As soon as an animal appears …

Four Elements in Dream Analysis

Most of the cultures and religions in the world have classified spiritual energy into four categories which are  the heart, mind, body, and spirit.  Jesus said, for instance, that we should love God with all of our heart, mind, spirit, and strength.  In dream language or mythological language such as in native stories the four …

A Child’s Dream is Often an Insight into Society

“I was going down stairs to get some water. On the way down a statue of cats came alive and were staring at me.  Down stairs there were two purple jaguars circling around me.  Om my chair there was a sleeping lady with Ron from Harry Potter.  wrapped around her arms and Ron said, “If …

What I Learned About Power on My Sunday Morning Run

I like to reserve Sunday mornings for my long runs so today I decided that it was time that I give myself a challenge by upping the distance to 21 k.   I haven’t run 21k for awhile, but I have been gradually increasing my activity level in the last few weeks so when that happens, …

Getting the Best from My Self

I realized not too long ago that I was really tired of being in conflict with leaders  so today I made the decision that instead of focusing on them, that I would place my attention entirely on going for my own goals rather than fighting against theirs.   As I am writing this right now it …

Transforming the Worst Quality to the Best Part 2 Joyfulness

Transformation of an extremely stubborn energy into a positive one is nearly impossible unless it is understood that the negative energy fixed in the ego is learned very rapidly and holds on tenaciously. Of all the negative weapons that people use to stop growth the one that is the most effective killer of change is …

Who is Controlling the Future?

Last week, our 4th grandchild, Will Shoghi Heins-Hastings, made his transition from the world of the womb to the outside world. I wrote about this in the last posting. Being there at Will’s birth made an impression on me that I cannot put to words because there is nothing quite like holding a newborn. Right …

Embracing Uncertainty #2: Bringing in the New Baby

I was really struck by something the other day. Sen. Obama, the U.S. presidential candidate, was in Europe proclaiming that he was a world citizen, that there is a huge need for cooperation if we are to solve the issues of the day, and that he wanted to work together with others. When I read …

JFK Quotes

In my last post I mentioned seeing a newspaper article about JFK in the interview room of a newspaper in Sabah so I decided to look up a few quotes from JFK and post them here.  Enjoy them. A child miseducated is a child lost. A man does what he must – in spite of …

What’s Missing In Self Discipline is Usually the Self

If you go to almost any school in any place on the planet and ask teachers what virtues they would like to see their students have more of,  they will inevitably say self-discipline, respect, and responsibility.    If you ask a group of youth to identify areas in life where they are the weakest,   they will …

Self Discipline Calling

I have to admit that when I started to feel the inner whispers that my being was calling forth the virtue of self discipline, it wasn’t something that I necessarily wanted to hear.   After all, I mean let’s face it.  Self discipline is not sexy like some other energies.  When I pick self discipline out …

The Myth of Ownership: Who Really Owns Space

I am writing this post because I had an interesting phenomenon happen to me today as I was working.   When I began thinking about being creative and spirited in my job,  I kept getting a negative image in my brain of one of the administrators and what that person might say or do to …

Raising the Bar Means Raising the Participation

On the playground at my school we have a set of monkey bars and rows of rings that students can play on to develop their upper body strength.   This year I set the goal for all of my kindergarten students to be able to do the rings and monkey bars.   Since they are both suspended …

How to Make Every Event Successful: part 1

A little over two years ago I started working in a new position as athletic director in an international school in Malaysia with students K-12. One of the first challenges I faced was with the elementary swim team. We had a relatively small team which practiced a couple of times per week so that students …