Patrick Paul Garlinger's Blog

Healing the Body

Date of Original Transmission: April 8, 2017For so many of you, being in a body is a tremendously painful experience. It can be a series of pains associated wth disease or with some sort of a degradation of your system or organs, or it can be relationship to the body of trauma, where memory of being the body is itself painful, and this might take the the form of rape or incest or some sort of physical abuse or mistreatment in some way that keeps you from inhabiting the body fully. For at this...

Am I Enough?

At times in my life I have wondered, will I ever be enough? Some times that question carried with it an adjective—will I ever be thin enough? Will I ever be smart enough? Other times verbs inserted themselves—will I ever have enough? Will I ever earn enough? Will I ever achieve enough?At times I’ve thrown my hands up and said, “Enough with enough. I’ll just be and do what I can.” And that worked . . . it all seemed to be, well, enough. Until the question would creep in, “Is this enough?” It’s...

Seeing the World Through the Eyes of the Heart

It took a long time to accept that I see the world differently. I never quite understood that when I was young. I always thought I was just missing something or felt confused or wondered why people behaved the way they did. And, as most people do, I looked at myself and wondered what was wrong with me, before looking outward and considering that perhaps my perspective was fine, and to ask why others saw the world the way they did. For years I didn’t understand that my sense of compassion wasn...

The Depths the Light Cannot Reach

Each of us carries around cloistered rooms packed tight with the remains of the past. Every so often, a door opens . . . ever so slightly, and we get a glimpse inside at the detritus of our psychic lives. All too often our reaction is to slam the door shut, and further buttress it, another lock, another chain. Sometimes we are successful, too successful, and we even forget what lurks deep in the recesses of our mind. So dark are those rooms, that we fear what we might find, rather than facing...

Embrace the Woo-woo

I've often bristled at hearing someone say, "I don't want to sound too woo-woo" or "This might seem a bit woo-woo." It always comes across as this effort to warn the listener that what they are about to hear will be far out, a bit radical, and that I, as a speaker, am distancing myself from what I am about to say so that you don't think that I am too far out, that I am too radical. "Woo-woo" becomes this slightly pejorative disclaimer, a flashing red warning sign that tells the listener not t...

Before Changing the World

Before changing the world, you must look inside to contemplate where your inner world needs attention. So many of us want desperately to change the world, to reshape it in some way so that there would be a better life for all. Yet our efforts to mold and fashion the world around us should be regarded with caution and humility. To take the world like clay and try to make it something of our own smacks of hubris and of playing God, for we don’t know what the life would look like if all of the w...

Getting to the Roots of Anger

Anger is such a common emotion, but we so rarely sift through its nuances. We all are familiar with a sudden jolt of anger, like a spark igniting a smoldering ember. Its fiery breath all too often rushes us into words and actions whose offspring are most often regret and penance. In many situations, anger comes when we lash out at a world that won’t bend to our will. That is the nature of the ego that seeks to control and shape the world to meet its every whim and can only create suffering. B...

Forgiving Yourself

For many of us, forgiveness is a difficult task. We cling to our grievances, like ivy to a building, as if the wounds of the past were somehow the scaffolding with which we should build our lives. But refusing to forgive is a self-inflicted wound. We nurse our grievances, rather than healing them, by telling ourselves and others how we’ve been wronged, and we deepen the cuts, often waiting for justice in the form of an apology. To forgive is a divine gift: the ability to recognize that you ar...

Softening around Spiritual Progress

The Divine does not look at the flower that has only partially opened and think that it will be pretty enough to love once it reaches full bloom. That is our view--that we must change and somehow reach our potential before we are worthy of what life has to offer. Many aspirants want to let go of certain habits or emotions like anger, fear, impatience, or procrastination; spirituality is seen as a means of becoming a better person. To want to let go of negativity is to be commended and support...

Saying Goodbye

There are times when friends, family members or colleagues who have accompanied you on your journey must fall away, as you each pursue different paths, routes, and destinies. Their departure may be because they no longer recognize who you have become, or sometimes it's because their role in your life, and yours in theirs, is complete. In other cases, the reason for the connection was always rooted in some sort of conflict, trauma, or pain, and the relationship was the symptom of something to...