The Mystery of Happiness

How to live a soulful and spiritual life.

by T. Byram Karasu, M.D.

One Hundred Years of Wondering

A man came to a Zen master, and asked, “How are things?” The Master replied, “Just as they are.” Read More

The American Guru

The first therapists were most likely gurus by some other name. They were healers of mind and body sanctioned by and reflecting their tribe, its values, and its belief systems. Read More

The Town Fool's Clock

Once upon a time there was an impoverished small town in which there were only four old clocks. One day all of them stopped working, and there was no clockmaker to fix them. Read More

In the academic world, there are philosophers who try to make sense of human beings by defining us through our abilities to think and feel. They even use maxims, such as “I think” or “I feel… therefore I am,” to assert that feeling and thinking differentiate us humans from other beings. Read More

Sacred Optimism

“Dust to dust” is not metaphorical. At the end, all that is left of you is the dust that makes up the earth. But that is only your body.

When you die, your body is put in a grave, but not your soul. The souls of the spiritual are never entombed with their bodies. But if you live a totally nonspiritual life, your body will become the tomb of your soul. Read More

"I Love You"

On our deathbed, the only thing we want to know is that we were loved. You may have witnessed people with terminal illnesses or those who are close to death. Read More

Don't Be Afraid of Dying

This world is to live in and to die in as well. Few of us are afraid of living but most of us are afraid of dying. Death seems to be a most formidable enemy. Death is not the enemy; fear of it is. The certainty of death is your birthright and a source of rebirth. Read More

We Are All Passing Through

There is a story of a wise man who was visited by many people each day. One visitor was shocked to see that the wise man's house was nearly empty except for two wooden chairs, a table, and a narrow bed. "Where is your furniture?" the visitor asked. "Where is yours?" asked the old man. "I am only passing through," the tourist replied. "So am I," said the old man. Read More

Wish To Yearn For Nothing

Peace does not come when you ask for something and then wait for its delivery. Peace comes when you are thankful as if your prayer has already been answered. Read More

Dissolve in Nature

An illiterate but holy man was asked what the source of his wisdom was. He replied that all he knew was in his holy book. When asked what exactly was in his book, he answered: "One pressed flower." Read More

Soulful Transformation

Soulful transformation is a type of alchemy. One part of it is within; the other part of it is in the outside world. The part within contains the emotions of love, caring, and attention. When these emotions encounter objects in the outside world (wood, metal, stone, paper), there occurs a soulful connection. Read More

Our Body Is A Universal Body

God created a single body--nature. From this natural source each of us is given a share in the form of DNA, which is manifested in your present shape. In their essence all beings are homogenous, though spectacularly heterogeneous in form. Each of us is like a hand-thrown clay pot holding a full measure of water that God has dipped from the immense ocean of life. Read More

The Immigrant's Eyes

Steeled in one dewy noon--Autumnal winds;Lured with the strange voicesOf passion and The wildest eyesI left for distant lands--The music behind.Tearless in the tangled wrecksOf solitude; rusted,In the youthful abyssI pined for distant lands--Without witness--The sacred past left behind.

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thedailyshrink Read More

Listen To The Sermons of Every Being

Spirituality is awe in the presence of every living thing; it lovingly respects all God's creatures and preserves them. They are as incomprehensible as we are, for we share the same Creator. It is not your power over other creatures that makes you human, but recognizing your responsibility for them. Don't feel superior to them; feel humbled by them. Read More

Love the World

While God allows humans to use his creations, He also wants us to protect the Earth and all it holds. No one species has the right to put another's existence in danger. All of God's creatures are linked to each other and serve as means to perpetuate the earth and the creatures on it. Read More

Recover Your Love of Innocence

I heard you once, your trembling cry - Empty resonance; Softly flung mournful tunes; Your windless breath; Longing to be inhaled. Read More

Striving For Godly Harmony

If you want to know about living a peaceful life, just knock on your inner doors—your real self, your innocent mind, your pure emotions, your soul. The knowledge is there, waiting to be tapped: a full, simple, and joyful life awaits you. If you pay attention to commercials, television shows, and movies, you would believe that "having it all" is what makes life full. Read More

The Ground Is Best Fertilized By Those Who Dwell On It

Are things without end? Read More

Stay Home, Young People

The nineteenth-century directive, "Go West, young man" served its purpose a long time ago. We've circled the globe. Now going farther west means circling back east. A motto for our time is: "Stay put!" Read More

Love Others As You Love Yourself

No matter how much you love others and how good and kind and well-meaning a person you are, you may find that some people do not like you. This is puzzling because you may have done nothing to deserve their dislike. You may, in fact, go out of your way to show them how nice you are. Interestingly enough, the more you try, the less likely you'll succeed. Read More

You Are At Home In Your Congregation

"My therapist says that my religion has made me neurotic," asserted a young unmarried woman. If anything, religion may have saved her from becoming psychotic. Religion is not a neurosis, filling our minds with illusions. It is a normalizer, a regulator of behavior. In fact, religion restrains our neuroses. Read More

Deliver Your Ministry of Witness

You have practical and ministerial responsibilities to your house of worship and its ministers. If you are called, go and be obedient. Engage with clergy as they interact with the secular world and help with their temporal affairs. In your ministry of witness, assist in the sanctification of the world by spreading the word of God. Read More

Spiritual Communion is Knit One Stitch at a Time

Their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery. Col. 2:2 Read More

Deeper Roots, Higher Branches

No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. John 15:4 Read More

Striving for a Godly Community

Part of the anxiety we feel today is related to the abandonment of our spiritual connections. The ability of the human mind to process information has far outstripped its capacity to meet its visceral needs for restraint. We have declared ourselves masters of nature and patrons of the Houses of God, and we hope to gain power over both. Read More

Self-Haunting

God spoke: Let there be...What?Unbarred gates of immutables-Perilous attempts;Unimaginable lands of unrest-Self-haunting;Uninterdictable signs of ignorance-Deigned infinite;Unattainable light of darkness-Fallacious drift;Unappeasable cries of desolation-Liable to fail;Unalterable measure of insolence-Loud snare;Unsolicitable times of confusion-Hideous despair;Unrecognizable frames of aggression Read More

Spiritual Co-Existence

As the ocean exists in the togetherness of all its drops of water, the spiritual community exists in the togetherness of all its members. Spiritual existence is spiritual coexistence. You cannot make sense of the how or why of being while in isolation. You cannot even conjure up the idea of the Creator when you are alone. Only in a spiritual community is faith guarded undefiled. Read More