Some spiritual thinking suggests that patterns of (unwanted) events keep reoccurring in our lives, until we understand the lesson it is trying to teach (and change the pattern). I can understand how this may be applied to, for example attracting dysfunctional personal relationships with the same type of person, but I am wondering if you can help me understand this:  My mother, who I love deeply, has a metal health illness of 25 years

with periods where she does very well, and then periods that require psychiatric hospital care (bi-polar/ schizophrenia). Each time she gets sick I try to understand what I am supposed to learn, and then maybe if I get it, it won’t happen again. I try very hard to understand, and that maybe it’s about unconditional love for her, patience, letting go, but the thing is, is that year after year she continues in the cycle of wellness, sickness regardless. Am I on the right track to think that I can change the pattern of reoccurrence of mom’s illness if I can just see what I’m supposed to learn? Or is “getting the lesson/changing the outcome” something that is not applicable here? I find it difficult to see the bigger picture from a spiritual perspective.

Could you please tell me where I can find a list of archetypes? I would like to find out what mine are but I do not know where to access this information.

I am 34 yrs old. My mother passed away about 5 yr ago and that changed everything in my life. I changed my job, i moved from the US and especially in the last couple of years, I have been strongly drawn to spiritual materials and readings. After my mom died, i used to always ask what is the purpose of life, if everyone is going to die and all we do is left behind.

I am Persian. 43 yrs ago I was sent to Vienna to study music., after winning an award among schools in Teheran-by chance. I never wanted to study music, I never-not even 5 min.- did I want to stay in Austria. I had vowed with 10/11 yrs-after reading holocaust stories in magazines-I would never in my life go to fascist German-speaking countries. After 3 years I stopped studying music and chose randomly Theatre Sciences, German Literature (in order to be able to teach something at the Teheran Univ.!?) and Philosophy.

My preference would have been Persian Lit and Sanskrit. Every moment was painful. Upon returning home, I met my future ex-husband and married quite quickly as the upcoming Mullah-regime didn’t allow friendships between unmarried people. Due to the situation and Gulf-war we were lucky to be able to leave Iran due to my connections in Austria. I tried to escape “Austria/ns” by leaving to England, Canada and a short time in the US with my beautiful, very talented son for almost 7 years. But I had to return in 1992 and live here. I started meditating 20 yrs ago, following your teachings, practicing many self help materials (Seth, Abraham, etc..) which were quite helpful. BUT I don’t seem to be able to successfully eradicate the hate and my dismay and dislike of these people. German is the language I have best command of, but I hate to listen or read even one word!

I so much desired to take the vow of ahimsa on your homepage. I’ve always suffered because of these negative feelings, especially because I’m spiritual and caring and peace-loving. And believe me, I’ve tried anything I can think of! My question: How can I get rid of these negative feelings in order to be able to live a loving, peaceful, creative and active life in service of others?
I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done. Being able to contact you online is just heavenly! With my deepest respect, gratitude and love,

Do you think that becoming spiritually can make you devoid of human emotion and somewhat impact your interpersonal relationships? I ask because my husband has always been very spiritual and meditates often. I am now reading The Third Jesus which made me think of this because it somewhat reminds me of Eckhart Tolle’s book, The Power of Now, which my husband read and gave to me. (more…)