Writings

Path of the Friend

Writings related to ‘Identity’

Pakistan: Helping Ourselves

August 22nd, 2010

In a few weeks the vast floods that are sweeping through Pakistan will draw back. Then, when the rain has stopped and people begin to return to their land and the places they live, imagine what they will find. No crops, no livestock, no electricity, no clean water, no food, broken roads and bridges, the […]

Looking for Iran

April 2nd, 2009

ESFAHAN, IRAN The Rally for Ahmadinejad This morning Rabia and I walked out of our small hotel in Esfahan, Iran, and were immediately swept along by a boisterous crowd filling the street—chanting, waving banners—all heading to Imam Square to hear President Ahmadinejad who was due to give a public address there within the hour. Loudspeakers […]

The Simple Fact of Being Aware Right Now

June 3rd, 2008

The Simple Fact of Being Aware Right Now by Elias Amidon There is no goal other than the realization of natural freedom, effortless, faultless, and without defects, the unique fact of awareness, self-radiant and free from discursiveness. – Longchenpa Imagine the sky on a clear spring morning—utterly transparent, empty, and vividly fresh. It is alive, […]

The Open Path

October 3rd, 2007

The Open Path by Elias Amidon What is Openness? One of the most joyful moments in the life of the spiritual seeker is when we recognize that the long sought-for goal is already here. We are the pure Presence the sages and poets speak about. Not our personality, but the heart of our own natural […]

Leaving Our Father’s House

November 2nd, 2006

THE MIDDLE EAST Separation Four years ago at this time my wife and I were in Iraq, on the eve of the invasion. With the members of the Iraq Peace Team we were trying to bring to the attention of world media the enormous mistake the coming invasion was about to enact, and the agony […]

An Invocation for the Beginning of a Gathering

April 4th, 2006

Invocation for the Beginning of a Gathering By the grace of countless beings we are here, thank you by the grace of this heavy planet, we are here, by the grace of sunlight warming everything, by the grace of mystery beyond all we can know, we are here, thank you. By the grace of a […]

The Challenge of Fundamentalism

May 2nd, 2005

The Challenge of Fundamentalism by Rabia Elizabeth Roberts & Elias Amidon Wherever we travel we find concern about fundamentalism. Europeans are worried about violent outbreaks among immigrants in their home countries and the apparent failure of their attempts at multi-culturalism. Arabs try to assure us that fundamentalism is not the heart of Islam. Our liberal […]

Indigenous Survival

March 3rd, 2004

MAE LAN KHAM COMMUNITY FOREST, SAMOENG, THAILAND Trying to keep our balance in the back of the pickup truck as it struggles up the rutted dirt road, Father Wichai and I shout our conversation. He points to the yellow flowers on the thick stands of bamboo. “Not a good sign,” he yells. “When the bamboo […]

Crossing Borders

January 2nd, 2004

CROSSING BORDERS . When the pilgrim’s road comes to an end and her goal is reached, she finds she has traveled only from herself to herself, and that the God whom she reached was all the while in her, around her, with her, and beside her.                                                                                                                                                             –Annonymous After these years of pilgrimage we are truly […]

Being Alone

September 2nd, 2003

HELL ROARING CANYON, UTAH At the moment Rabia and I are waiting in the silence near a remote canyon in the Great Basin Desert of southeastern Utah. We are waiting for a small group of people we have guided out here to return from their three days of solitude and fasting. This is day two. […]