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John Welwood

John Welwood Books

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“Great love -- the kind that illumines and transforms us -- always includes a keen awareness of limitation as well. Though love may inspire us to expand and develop in new ways, we can never be all things to the one we love, or someone other than who we are. Yet once accepted, limitation also helps us develop essential qualities, such as patience, determination, compassion, and humor. When love comes down to earth -- bringing to light those dark corners we would prefer to ignore, encompassing all the different parts of who we are -- it gains depth and power.”

WayWellsKindMayDifferentHelpingLightEarthDarkQualityCompassionAwarenessInspireEssentialsGainsDeterminationAll ThingsDepthCornersAcceptedLimitationWho We AreNew WaysGreat LoveDown To Earth
Book:JOURNEY HEART PB
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“Yet spiritual realizations often remain compartmentalized, apart from everyday life, or become used as a rationale for living in an impersonal or soulless way. That is why, if we are to live our realizations and bring them into this world, we also need to work on the vessel of spirit - our embodied humanity. Soulwork is the forging of this vessel... If spiritual work brings freedom, soulwork brings integration. Both are necessary for a complete human life.”

IfsWorldWayNeedsHumansSoulSpiritualUsedSpiritHumanityThis WorldEverydayRealizationHuman LifeEveryday LifeIntegrationVesselRationaleSoullessForgingSpiritual Work
Author:John Welwood
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“Forget about enlightenment. Sit down wherever you are and listen to the wind that is singing in your veins. Feel the love, the longing and the fear in your bones. Open your heart to who you are, right now, not who you would like to be. Not the saint you're striving to become. But the being right here before you, inside you, around you. All of you is holy. You're already more and less than whatever you can know. Breathe out, look in, let go.”

KnowsLoveLifeFeelsLooksHeartMotivationalSpiritualFearForgetWindBecomingHolyRight NowLetting GoMindfulnessSingingEnlightenmentYogaWho You AreLongingStriveSaintBonesBreatheUpliftingBeing YourselfBelieve In YourselfVeinsFollow Your HeartListen To Your HeartJust Be YourselfListen To YourselfWherever You AreOpen Your Heart
Author:John Welwood
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“I would define love very simply: as a potent blend of openness and warmth, which allows us to make real contact, to take delight in and appreciate, and to be at one with--our selves, others, and life itself. Openness--the heart's pure, unconditional yes--is love's essence. And warmth is love's basic expression, arising as a natural extension of this yes--the desire to reach out and touch, connect with, and nourish what we love.”

HeartRealSelfDesireNaturalAwarenessExpressionPureAppreciateEssenceDelightContactOpennessWarmthReach OutExtensionsUnconditionalPerfect LoveDefine Love
Author:John Welwood
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“Awareness born of love is the only force that can bring healing and renewal. Out of our love for another person, we become more willing to let our old identities wither and fall away, and enter a dark night of the soul, so that we may stand naked once more in the presence of the great mystery that lies at the core of our being. This is how love ripens us -by warming us from within, inspiring us to break out of our shell, and lighting our way through the dark passage to new birth.”

WayLoveMayPersonsSoulLyingNightFallForceBornDarkLove IsHealingBreakMysteryAwarenessIdentityWillingBirthAwakeningCoreNakedPassagesShellsOur LoveRenewalLightingBreak OutDark NightDark Night Of The Soul
Author:John Welwood
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“The more two people open to each other, the more this wide-openness also brings to the surface all the obstacles to it: their deepest, darkest wounds, their desperation and mistrust, and their rawest emotional trigger points. Just as the sun's warmth causes clouds to arise by prompting the earth to release its moisture, so love's pure openness activates the thick clouds of our emotional wounding, the tight places where we are shut down, where we live in fear and resist love.”

PeopleTwoEarthCausesFearSunEmotionalPureCloudsObstaclesWideSurfaceWoundsAriseReleaseOpennessWarmthThickDesperationTriggersMistrustPerfect LoveActivateMoisture
Author:John Welwood
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“Magic is a sudden opening of the mind to the wonder of existence. It is a sense that there is much more to life than we usually recognize; that we do not have to be confined by the limited views that our family, our society, or our own habitual thoughts impose on us; that life contains many dimensions, depths, textures, and meanings extending far beyond our familiar beliefs and concepts.”

MindBeliefViewsExistenceWonderMagicConceptsDepthFamiliarOpeningOur FamilyDimensionsOur SocietyConfinedTextureHabitualExtendingMore To Life
Author:John Welwood
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“The words "I love you," spoken in moments of genuine appreciation, wonder, or caring arise from something perfectly pure within us - the capacity to open ourselves and say yes without reserve. Such moments of pure openheartedness bring us as close to natural perfection as we can come in this life.”

LoveMomentsNaturalWonderLove YouPureCapacityPerfectionAppreciationCaringGenuineAriseThis LifeLove LifeReserves
Book:Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart
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“We may tell ourselves that love is not really available. but the deeper truth is that we don't entirely trust it, and therefore have a hard time fully opening to it or letting it all the way into us. This disconnects us from our own heart, exacerbating our sense of love's scarcity.”

WayLoveHeartMayHardLove IsTrustTruth IsAvailableDeeperOpeningHard TimesScarcityLove And Trust
Book:Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart
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“If there is one thing I've learned in thirty years as a psychotherapist, it is this: If you can let your experience happen, it will release its knots and unfold, leading to a deeper, more grounded experience of yourself. No matter how painful or scary your feelings appear to be, your willingness to engage with them draws forth your essential strength, leading in a more life-positive direction.”

IfsLoveYearsMatterFeelingsHappensOne ThingEssentialsDrawsPainfulScaryDeeperReleaseThirtyI've LearnedWillingnessGroundedThirty YearsKnotsPerfect LoveThings I've LearnedPsychotherapists
Author:John Welwood
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“The light of unconditional love awakens the dormant seed potentials of the soul, helping them ripen, blossom, and bear fruit, allowing us to bring forth the unique gifts that are ours to offer in this life.”

LoveSoulHelpingLightBearsOffersUniqueFruitSeedsThis LifeLove LifeUnconditional LoveAllowingUnconditionalDormantUnique Gifts
Book:Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart
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“There is a secret about human love that is commonly overlooked: Receiving it is much more scary and threatening than giving it. How many times in your life have you been unable to let in someone's love or even pushed it away? Much as we proclaim the wish to be truly loved, we are often afraid of that, and so find it difficult to open to love or let it all the way in.”

WayGivingHumansWishDifficultPerfectSecretScaryReceivingThreateningOverlookedPerfect LoveHuman Love
Book:Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart
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“The less you demand total fulfillment from relationships, the more you can appreciate them for the beautiful tapestries they are, in which absolute and relative, perfect and imperfect, infinite and finite are marvelously interwoven. You can stop fighting the shifting tides of relative love and learn to ride them instead. And you come to appreciate more fully the simple, ordinary heroism involved in opening to another person and forging real intimacy.”

PersonsRealBeautifulFightingSimplePerfectInvolvedDemandOrdinaryAppreciateAbsolutesInfiniteOpeningIntimacyFulfillmentRelativeImperfectTidesHeroismFiniteShiftingTapestryForging
Book:Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart
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“When we reveal ourselves to our partner and find that this brings healing rather than harm, we make an important discovery - that intimate relationship can provide a sanctuary from the world of facades, a sacred space where we can be ourselves, as we are ...This kind of unmasking - speaking our truth, sharing our inner struggles, and revealing our raw edges - is sacred activity, which allows two souls to meet and touch more deeply.”

WorldKindTwoImportantSoulSpaceHealingStruggleActivityDiscoverySacredEdgesHarmPartnersIntimateRevealingSanctuaryFacadeIntimate RelationshipsTwo SoulsSacred SpaceInner StruggleUnmasking
Book:Love and Awakening: Discovering the Sacred Path of Intimate Relationship
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“Cult leaders are often self-styled prophets who have not studied with great teachers or undergone lengthy training or discipline themselves. . . Many of the most dangerous cultic figures of our times have no such stabilizing context of tradition, lineage or transmission, but are self-proclaimed gurus who sway their followers through their charismatic talents. . . .”

SelfLeaderTeacherTalentDangerousFiguresDisciplineTrainingTraditionOur TimeProphetFollowersCultGuruGreat TeacherTransmissionCharismaticLineageLengthy
Author:John Welwood
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“A relationship that has any depth and power at all will inevitably penetrate our usual shield of defenses, exposing our most tender and sensitive spots, and leaving us feeling vulnerable - literally, 'able to be wounded.' To love, in this sense, is to open ourselves to being hurt. The dream of love would have us believe that something is wrong if a relationship causes us pain. Yet trying to avoid the wound of love only creates a more permanent kind of damage. It prevents us from opening ourselves fully, and this keeps us from ever forming a deeply satisfying intimate connection.”

IfsTryingBelieveKindFeelingsDreamAblePainCausesHurtConnectionsDepthLeavingDefenseWoundsOpeningSpotsVulnerablePermanentSensitiveIntimateDamageSatisfyingUsualWoundedPenetrateShieldsExposingBeing Hurt
Author:John Welwood
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“At any moment, whatever we are experiencing, only one of two things is ever happening: either we are being with what is, or else we are resisting what is. Being with what is means letting ourselves have and feel our experience, just as it is right now. ... This is where genuine creativity, health, and communication, as well as spiritual power, arise from.”

FeelsWellsMeanTwoMomentsSpiritualCreativityCommunicationRight NowHappeningsGenuineAriseTwo ThingsResistingSpiritual Power
Author:John Welwood
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“It is only through letting our heart break that we discover something unexpected: the heart cannot actually break, it can only break open. When we feel both our love for this world and the pain of this world-together, at the same time-the heart breaks out of its shell. To live with an open heart is to experience life full-strength.”

WorldFeelsHeartPainTogetherJoyBreakThis WorldUnexpectedShellsOur LoveBreak OutHeart BreakOpen HeartSomething Unexpected
Author:John Welwood
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