When your family has been abusive physically, mentally, and emotionally in your youth. Do you forgive and still allow them in your life? Do you keep them at a distance and feel guilty? I have struggled with this and meditated for years. Right now I let them in only a little cause I have my kids to think of. I just don’t know what the right thing is to do. I feel I need direction with resolving this completely and be at 100% percent in my own life. My past has affected my work and my ability to trust. I need good advice Deepak. I would just like to move forward completely. But how?

I have just started reading your theories and I am very interested in where to start my journey. I have been a “single mom” for years now and I am ready to enlarge my family. I have a successful career, I work out and music is my passion. However, I am alone at night in bed, with my emptiness. I am worried I will repeat my same path in love, and I wonder if that is subconsciously making it come true. I feel alone, when I know I am not. I am surrounded by life’s most amazing friends and family, yet I cannot seem to find peace and happiness in the one area of my life. As I get older, and more independent I am searching for answers to what path I am supposed to follow. My life is full of love and joy and I feel inner turmoil emotionally when it comes to relationships. Everyone has words of wisdom for me, yet they all contradict each other, adding to my confusion. I would like a starting point, a recommended book to start my journey.

Thank you for all your sharing of wisdom.  I especially love the quotes and inspiration you twitter to the farthest ends of the Universe.  Re the ‘silent witness’:  when I try to meditate I have a sense that the silent witness is sort of watching over me rather than within me, and then I feel that the silent witness is everywhere and I have dissolved into it.   My question is: am I being too cerebral thinking of the silent witness outside of me rather than within me.

Recently, I read the Bhagavad Gita and Dhammapada. While I thought that the teachings were wonderful, there was one particular thing I could not quite understand. Both the books exhort us to “free ourselves from desire” and taught that “desire is the root cause of all suffering”.

(I guess this is not the same concept as that of “effortless effort” that the Tao Te Ching teaches) . A blanket statement that “desire is not good” seemed strange. For example, one of my role models is Roger Federer. I marvel at his desire to keep improving and come back slam after slam and emerge victorious. I`ve always thought that desire is a very positive emotion and the first step to any achievement. I guess that I’ve misinterpreted or misunderstood this teaching of Buddha/Gita. I would be really thankful if you could clarify my doubt. It would be a big step forward in my spiritual path.

I am a big believer of healthy, non-violent communication and really try to be conscious of how I present what  I want to say so that I honor both myself and the other person. There are some times however when I’m facing a conflict situation, feel angry and then struggle with whether or not I should express it because I’m afraid of saying hurtful things.

I often times try to wait until I have a better grasp on my emotions but then have a tendency to just clam up and let things go. Where is the fine line between telling someone that you’re upset and when you can’t think of anything nice to say, as the saying goes, don’t say anything at all.