DEBORAH EDEN TULL

Mother Grief has called us once again

to the circle where we know ourselves unrelentingly

and…

Expressing our devotion to the earth requires paying attention to the primordial level of existence...the more-than-human world, the invisible world, the quiet beneath the human voice, the hidden processes and metamorphosis resting just beneath the soil. How we listen impacts…

While many of us have been conditioned to perceive rest and activity as opposites, Radical Rest invites us to consider their sacred partnership. In this way, we can celebrate the dynamic interplay of dark and light, restoration and engagement, and form and formlessness in everyday life. Here is…

My book is about meeting the unknown, the mystery, the darkness, with an open heart…in order to see clearly. I’ve spent a long time compassionately investigating…

When I wrote the first draft of Relational Mindfulness, my second book, my editor said, “In every chapter, you carry the voice of a compassionate sage... until the chapter on Technology, when you become a grouchy grandfather. Would you be willing to soften that chapter a bit?” So I did. 

Now...here I am, once again…

What slow, dark invisible processes of spiritual growth and healing are you in the midst of? What creative process or relationship forming—which requires incubation—are you engaged in? How is your relationship with yourself calling for…

The storm carried a sense of both shock and sacred renewal… as we were reminded so palpably about what matters and what does not…

Do your actions today reflect your personal vision for the future? If the answer is no, there is one thing that could be standing in your way…

I live in the lush, dense, dark, temperate rainforest of Western North Carolina. In the spring and summer, when the mountains explode with the green of trees, ferns, herbs, fungus and flowers, my husband and I like to explore the deep off-trail woods. There is…

In this interview Tull shares how mindfulness can inform how we find balance during these troubling times, and talks about…

As we navigate the darker months of the global pandemic, I feel the unshakable recognition that darkness has great teachings to offer us. As a female dharma teacher, one who has navigated chronic illness, and who has been engaged in the heartbreak of environmental and social justice work for many years, I believe that darkness—literal and symbolic—has offered…

I grew up with social justice advocates as parents. While the dominant paradigm modeled “Only my tribe, that’s who I care about and concern myself with daily," my parents showed me differently through…

This list was generated by reflecting on my own experience and through meaningful conversations with colleagues of mine, both black and white leaders. It offers important steps people can take right now, both for DIRECT ACTION to support the black community and…

What if you could touch, right in this moment, the support that you need to face these times of upheaval and uncertainty? What if you could…

An interview with Eden on Relational Mindfulness during Covid-19 and Beyond over at Esalen…

Your welfare and my welfare are undeniably interlinked. How we treat ourselves and how we treat our world are one and the same. Despite a cognitive understanding of interconnection, the mind of separation can draw us into the limiting trance of separation. We forget that…

I spent the past week conducting a seven-day retreat in Big Sur with an extraordinary group of people supporting one another in transformation…As a group we asked the questions…

Ever since I left the monastery where I trained, it has been my intention to live in the world without being of the world. This means living committed to the wisdom of nature, which is often not modeled by the systems our society relies upon. In a culture that…

At a time when so many among us are feeling powerless about social injustice, patriarchy, and the environment, overwhelmed by the issues of climate change and species extinction, and are seeking strength in their own commitment to awakening and acting, Nina Simons and I have co-created an extraordinary training offering tools and practices for a new paradigm of remembering who we truly are, and sensing, acting and centering in these relational realities. If you feel called to join us, please do not wobble. Take this opportunity to heart and register now…

The world is accelerating – driven by our desires, our ambitions, and our obligations, we push ourselves harder and harder, to be more productive, to make more money, to squeeze everything we can out of every second of every day.

The dharma invites us to face ourselves fully. But through fear, we sometimes distract ourselves, over-fill ourselves, and hold onto external attachments, in order to avoid.…what? The illusion that we are separate and isolated manifests in ways conscious and unconscious, but over time practice reveals to us that it is simply the ego that fears surrendering to presence. Ego fears its own annihilation, which is liberation for the human heart.

A good teacher can point to the teachings and ignite our wakefulness, but it is up to each one of us to find the willingness to embody our practice in daily life. We are responsible for our own karma and our own freedom, and this can be a joyful and motivating realization.

In these hyped up divisive times, there is an ever-greater need for tools to de-condition ourselves from reactivity. The practice of listening – within ourselves and with others – is much more significant than we often acknowledge.

“Human sexuality is another area where we can either hide out in the guise of separate self or access freedom from the mind of separation. If we pay attention, eros can be our greatest ally in reclaiming the sacredness of being alive and in unity.”

Today I’m present to tenderness from the violence in our world – like a raw open wound. I am as aware as ever that only when we allow our wounds to be touched are they healed.

My teacher used to say that when we embrace our ordinary self, we become a “social relief.” We no longer bring hidden agendas to our social interaction, such as needing to be seen as “special,” needing to be “right,” or needing approval from outside of ourself.

The following reflection was posted on Worldwide Insight.