Spirituality | Wellness | Happiness

The way I feel about religion now is similar to how I feel about my ex-wife. Not much . Meaning, most of the time I don't think about religion, or her. I've got some pleasant memories of each, along with some unpleasant memories. But neither occupies much space in my brain these days. This wasn't the case soon after my marital and spiritual divorces. Splitting up after a lengthy attachment, it takes some time to get the other party out of your mind. For twenty-one years I've been married to another woman. However, I've had no inclination to get married to another religious belief system. The reason? It's easy for me to explain, and more importantly, experience, the benefits of having an intimate relationship with my wife. When it comes to religion, though, I no longer feel any desire for hooking up with an organized form of spirituality. A few days ago I culled through a bookcase that held many of my once-cherished mystical, spiritual, and religious books. I had...

Be in the world but not of it. Through detachment, you master both inner and outer reality.Detachment isnt the same thing as indifference or passivity. This is an important distinction. You are more than the flesh-and-blood person you see in the mirror, a person created by the world around you. Your actual being has its source in spirit.Through detachment you shift your allegiance away from the physical toward the spiritual. Since you are the spirit first and an individual person second, the world is actually in you, as images, thoughts, sensations, memories, and projections. You are more real than the material world and closer to the creative source.Exercise: You can sit for this exercise at first, but it is meant to be used at any time, even in activity. Center yourself for a moment, then become aware of your breath going in and out. Be mindful of its flow, how the breath is constantly changing in subtle or obvious ways.At the same time, be mindful of the background of your b...

An Intensive Seminar on Pranayama & Meditation will be held on July 8 17, 2011 at the Ibiza Moving Arts. The 10-day retreat will be hosted by Alexander Peters of Healing Center Sonne & Mond, Berlin. The breath is the door to attentiveness and tranquility breathing is existential, yet hardly noticed. The workshop will teach and practice pranayama techniques accompanied by asana practice. The observation of the breath prepares and opens one gradually towards meditation. Meditation is the experience of attentiveness, tranquility and being in the present moment. The retreat will be offering just that, Attentiveness, Tranquility, Stress release, and Happiness. The retreat is for those who strive to learn more about pranayama and meditation and will include: Pranayama and Yoga Classes Accommodation Vegetarian meals source: www.white-ibiza.com

The shadow itself is not evil and therefore not your enemy. I realize that for many people there is a huge barrier in the form of the other, someone outside themselves whose evil is unquestioned.Sixty years ago the other lived in Germany and Japan; thirty years ago it lived in the Soviet Union; today it lives in the Middle East. Such people find evil easier to explain by never losing sight of the otherwithout an enemy, they would have to face the presence of evil inside themselves.Seeing the shadow in yourself defuses the whole notion of the other and brings closer the statement of the Roman poet Terence: Nothing human is foreign to me. Can absolute evil be banished so quickly, however? Polls show that a majority of people believe in the existence of Satan, and many religious sects firmly believe that the devil is loose in the world, secretly changing history through his malignant doings.It doesnt seem that good has a chance to conquer evil perhaps their combat is eternal, never...

Well Balanced Beauty, Inc. will be holding the First "Body and Spirit Seminar on July 11, and July 25 at The Majesty Loft in New Jersey. The seminar is to uplift, inspire, and encourage women about their self-worth when it comes to both their bodies and spiritual well-being. CEO of Well Balanced Beauty, Inc. is wellness/nutrition counselor, Princess Carey. She will lead the seminar along with guest Danielle Gillyard, a Zumba fitness instructor. "You are worth success, peace of mind and spirit, and a healthy body, says Carey. "The right food nurtures the body and the right attitude nurtures the spirit. The seminar will highlight fitness, nutrition, and stress relieving tips and techniques such as meditation, breathing, massage, and aromatherapy. "This seminar will shed light on the truth about self-worth, says Carey. "Weight loss is 25% nutrition, 25% fitness, and 50% attitude. source: www.pr.com

Having arrived at a churchless view of reality, I'm amused when true believers accuse me of taking the easy way out by being a skeptic about God and other things divine'ish. They see religious belief as a courageous stand against rampant secularism -- a bold independent search for ultimate reality that transcends materialistic boundaries. Actually, the truth is far different. Religious belief is the default human condition. What takes courage, effort, and determination is going against the religious current that sweeps the vast majority of people into a faith-based ocean. Interestingly, the evidence for this is scientific. Evolutionary psychology has arrived at well-founded explanations for why religious belief is almost ubiquitious in cultures around the world. So those who decry the theory of evolution as undermining the Bible and other holy books are doing so because of evolutionary influences. They can't help themselves. Belief in the supernatural essentially is hard-wi...

If you look carefully at the critical turning points in your life, youll see how closely you were paying attention to your spiritual evolution:You were ready to move forward. The experience of your old reality was worn out and ready for change. You were ready to pay attention. When the opportunity arrived, you noticed it and took the necessary leap. The environment supported you. When you moved forward, events fell into place to ensure that you didnt backslide. You felt more expanded and free in your new place. You saw yourself as in some way a new person.This set of circumstances, both inner and outer, is what Dharma provides. Which is to say that when you feel ready to move forward, reality shifts to show you how. And when you arent ready to move forward? Then there is the backup system which moves you forward by repeating those tendencies that are embedded in you from the past. When you find yourself stuck and unable to make any progress at all, the following circumstances usually a...

Bestselling author, metaphysicist, and psychical researcher, Dr. Theresa M. Kelly recently released the book Telepathy: A Quantum Approach. The textbook, written for the University of Alternative Studies, offers straightforward, honest explanations of Telepathy through new research initiatives in parapsychology, psychology, neuroscience, quantum mechanics, and related subjects for a semi-technical audience. The book provides a detailed framework, without complicated equations, onto which more advanced concepts can be applied, as well as a revelation of what actions and influences they are involved in and exactly how they can take their telepathic ability to a completely new level step-by-step. In the textbook, telepathy is defined as "the psychical influence of thought via experient influence over the biological basis of consciousness and the mental process by which we perceive, act, learn, and remember; Including mental forms and processes such as the nervous system in which proc...

The most important step in gaining the experience of ageless body is to unfreeze the perceptions that have locked you into feelings of isolation, fragmentation, and separateness.Look at your hand and examine it closely. This is the hand your senses report to you, a material object composed of flesh and blood. In this first exercise we will attempt to thaw out your hand and give you a different experience of it beyond the reach of your senses.Holding the image of your hand in your minds eye, imagine that you are examining it through a high-powered microscope whose lens can penetrate the finest fabrics of matter and energy. At the lowest power, you no longer see smooth flesh but a collection of individual cells loosely bound by connective tissue. Moving closer, you can see separate atoms of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and so on, which have no solidity at allthey are vibrating, ghostly shadows revealed through the microscope as patches of light and dark.You have arrived at the boundary betw...

The stories of cures for cancer through alternative therapies abound in our society, but most are relegated to the realm of fantasy fiction or dismissed as speculation. One story however is true: Alice McCall offers hard data, medical reports and proof that no evidence of breast cancer remains. She credits a process she terms "Cellular Level Healing" for this astounding outcome in her book Wellness Wisdom. "The facts are simple, says McCall, "in 2007, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The next day, I decided to embark on the path of self-healing without medical intervention, where I used my practice of cellular level healing. Today the cancer is gone. In Wellness Wisdom,' I share all that I learned along my healing journey, offering hope and guidance to those that are afflicted with breast cancer or other diseases. "Wellness Wisdom" also raised information regarding: - Making the refrigerator and pantry the pharmacy for your health with specific hea...

I only want to devote a half hour or so to writing a blog post tonight, so I'll tackle a simple subject: what is reality? I'm not being facetious. It actually is easier to talk about the Big Questions of life rather than the small ones. I feel like I've got a pretty good understanding of the basic elements of reality. But how my computer's operating system works behind the scenes... that's a huge mystery to me. What are those elements? Subjectivity and objectivity. Meaning, basically: my subjective experience is mine alone. As is yours. As is our dog's. Nobody has access to what another conscious being is experiencing, or how what philosophers call " qualia " manifest in that experiencing. There's also an objective aspect to reality. My wife can say, "look, there's a large snake in our garden, over there!" I turn in the direction she's pointing and, yes, I see it too. When people can agree on what's there , we call that object...

Alan Ashley will be holding a Meditation for Coaches Workshop on the 28th of June, at the Columbia Hotel in London. This exploration will demonstrate how meditation can help coaches to notice their somatic responses to clients, support a deeper level of presence, and offer the opportunity of broadening the range of creative responses and interventions. During the session Ashley will : 1. Introduce participants to mindfulness and concentration meditation practices 2. Explore levels of awareness, and their influence on decision making in the coaching process 3. Catalyse reflection on the self/other boundary (subject/object dichotomy) in the coaching relationship Alan Ashley (also known as Jnanagarbha) is a coach and development consultant, as well as ordained Buddhist. This unusual background gives him a particular depth of experience in change and personal development, and a great breadth of resources to draw on to support others in their learning and growth. He combines his secular w...

It's nice to inspect my email inbox when I get up in the morning and find a message like this one. Witty. Intelligent. Humorous. Why, this guy reminds me of me. For 17 years he followed the Radha Soami Satsang Beas party line until... he didn't. Brian, I am also an initiate of Charan Singh's (1975). Since 1993, I am also no longer following the teachings. I really enjoyed my time in India, my mostly western US Satsangi friends and I have great respect those who are seekers. An old former Kirpal Singh devotee friend recently teasingly emailed me about how RS Beas teachings, have all changed ("Hey hope you already sold your ownership position because they have closed Sach Khand!!!") and my search for information about his ribbing led me to your great blogsite. After viewing the RS 1.0 and RS Version 2.0 videos, I came to a great personal realization...if there is no duality, and all there really is is Oneness, then I can finally just relax at breakfast because I am...

It looks like I've been too harsh on Islam, because Indonesia's Obedient Wives Club has made me realize how this religion can come up with some really great ideas. A new club in Indonesia that encourages women to be totally obedient to their husbands and focus on keeping them sexually satisfied has generated an outcry from some activists. The Indonesian branch of the Obedient Wives Club, launched early this month in Malaysia, claims to have about 300 members in several cities. Group leader Gina Puspita said the club would offer its members a package of teachings including how to treat their husbands in bed. "A wife has to be 100 percent obedient to her husband in all aspects, especially in sexual treatment," she said. ...The club was founded by the conservative Islamic group Global Ikhwan in Malaysia, where hundreds of women are members. Organizers claim they can cure social ills such as prostitution and divorce by teaching women to be submissive and to keep...

Once you seriously ask, Am I thinking for myself? the entire hierarchy of identity starts to unravel. If you keep asking without being daunted, eventually you get closer to the core. This is the final level of false identity.Am I thinking for myself? Or am I thinking like: The person I was yesterday; the person I wish I could be; an ideal image of myself, a nobody trying to be a somebody.We put on these layers of false identity in order to be separate from everybody else, to feel unique and special. Yet at the same time we know that separation is the problem. Common humanity is beyond self-image. Its beyond the issue of whether you are a somebody or a nobody.If you follow the way of peace you dont try so desperately not to be a nobody. Those distinctions stop having power over you, because you turn into something different. Instead of a label, you become human. Instead of I am X, you become I am. The healing of separation is the beginning of true knowledge.This transformatio...

The Dangers of Meditation LIVE FROM THE SELF, AND THE SELF ALONE!!! Read this: www.lorinroche.com From: MrAshToast Views: 80 14 ratings Time: 08:42 More in Entertainment

Everything you think and feel reflects who you are. If you think and feel from a superficial level of awareness, that is who you are. To dive deeper into yourself and, hopefully, to get to that place where you are love, compassion, trust, and truth, you have to follow the path of your present responses.Someone who feels unloved can still find love in its purest form, but he will have to work through the layers of resistance that block the feeling of pure love. Your present emotions reflect the present state of your nervous system with all its past imprints.Whenever you have an experience, these imprints enter into your response, which means that most of your reactions are echoes from the past. You do not really live in the present.However, at least you are reacting in the present, and that is where the search for your true self begins. Your emotions are the most present-centered thing you have. An emotion is a thought linked to a sensation. The thought is usually about the past ...

A 3-day Meditation Retreat is set on the 24th to the 26th of June. The retreat will be led by Philip Shinko Squire, an ordained priest in the Soto Zen tradition. In November 2003, following ten years of full-time residential training, he completed formal koan study and received precept transmission from his teacher, Charles Tenshin Fletcher, Roshi at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center in Southern California. During this time he served as head monk, administrator and assistant teacher. The Zen meditation retreat (sesshin) is an integral part of Zen Buddhist training and includes sitting and walking meditation, dharma talks, interviews with the teacher, chanting, work practice and rest periods. The sesshin is suitable for beginning and experienced Zen students and full instruction will be given. For more information, visit http://gmz.wellington.net.nz.

Everything is interconnected. Modern society puts too much emphasis on money. Yogurt is conscious. Random number generators around the world respond to major events like 9/11. These are some of the things that the "I Am" movie taught me. (Click on that link to watch the trailer, which captures the essence of "I Am" nicely.) OK, I have no problem with the first two messages. Interconnectedness is indeed how reality operates. And film creator Tom Shadyac uses his own life experience to persuasively argue that buying lots of stuff doesn't buy meaning or satisfaction (Shadyac made Jim Carrey a star by directing him in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" and other movies). But I left the Salem Cinema theatre, where I saw "I Am" with four other members of our monthly Salon discussion group, feeling that the movie was way more believable than " The Secret " and " What the Bleep Do We Know? ," yet still had too many annoying unscientif...

Mind has remained a metaphysical riddle for centuries because it inhabits the physical world like a ghost. But thats a Western perspective based on our bias for solid, tangible things. We insist that the brain must be the source of mind because the brain is a visible object, which is like saying that a radio must be the source of music because it is a visible object from which music emerges.The Vedic rishis adopted the opposite perspective, insisting that visible objects couldnt be the source of mind since the physical plane is the least conscious of worlds. It may seem significant that the brain is active during thought, but a radio is active during a broadcast.Mind will only be proved to exist outside the brain if it leaves some kind of footprint, a visible sign that is as convincing as the MRIs that provide concrete evidence of neural activity. One such piece of evidence is information.No scientist has a problem believing that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, a...

The second annual Spirathon will hit Los Angeles August 13, 2011 and will be held once again at UpDog Yoga and Cycle in West Hollywood, California. The success of last year's event created such momentum that the coordinators of the Spirathon have plans to continue the event every quarter in various locations around the world. The Spirathon is a fundraising event that combines meditation, yoga and spinning to create transformation for its participants while supporting the non profit charity, Nurturing Our Warriors. Nicholas Pratley, voted best Spin instructor and Personal Trainer in Los Angeles by myFOXla.com, brings a unique concept in fundraising to Los Angeles by way of Australia. Nick has created a new paradigm in fundraising that gives the participants not only a way to give back to a worthy cause but also a way to connect body, mind and soul. This "spiritual triathlon takes its participants through relaxation with meditation, stretching with yoga, and completes the tr...

An illness is a localized form of unease (as the term disease implies), and it is not surprising to find that for many people, a much broader unease underlies it. I try to reveal this very general unease, just enough so that they are not entirely caught up in the narrow boundaries of their symptoms.It would be foolhardy and cruel to explore a patients defenses simply to expose them. These boundaries exist for good reason: the person is trying to salvage shreds of happiness by isolating himself from areas of distress. This is what I mean by saying that we choose to control our unhappiness instead of letting it go.If, like a cat, we could wipe clean the slate of our memory, then living with guilt, shame, disappointment, and self-recrimination might not be inevitable. As nature made us, however, we turn our distress into ourselves, just as we turn food into ourselves. What can we do but try to devise the best defenses we can?Each of us is a walking universe. Our inner space spans hu...

Mathhieu Ricard, a former French Molecular Biologist turned monk, will be holding a day workshop at the Aloka Meditation on the 20th of June, Monday, from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm. Venerable Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk who had a promising career in cellular genetics before leaving France to study Buddhism in the Himalayas thirty-five years ago. He is also now a renowned photographer, an active participant in current scientific research on the effects of meditation on the brain, and a best-selling author. Venerable Ricard has received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work in the East, and for the last few years, has spent considerable time working on charitable projects in Tibet, Nepal and India. Since 1989, Matthieu has served as the French interpreter for the Dalai Lama. He is a board member of the Mind and Life Institute, an organization dedicated to collaborative research between scientists and Buddhist scholars and meditators. He is engaged in the research o...

Now on its second year, Graile Lady Faire is set from the 27th of June to the 1st of July. Happening at the Grail Springs Wellness Retreat & Spa in Bancroft, Ontario, the event is a coming together of visionaries and visitors from all walks of life. The event brings together body cleanses, weight loss, juice fasting, colonics, spa therapies, yoga, meditation, canoeing, horseback riding, cooking classes, coaching and spiritual guidance. The event will cater to women who are agents of change or on the cusp of becoming. Women who wish to explore, experience and embrace their true legacy. Women who are ready to roll up their sleeves and answer their call to action. Women who are looking for support and to co-create, invest and collaborate to be the change. Women who have wisdom to share or wisdom to glean. Women of conscience, women of service, women of an open heart! The 5-day event will have over 20 inspirational presenters, various workshops, yoga, nia, sacred dance, song, swimming,...

I've meditated for most of my life. I started when I was twenty, having gotten enthused about hatha/raja yoga my junior year in college. So for more than forty years I've been getting up in the morning and meditating in some fashion. "In some fashion" implies a technique. Indeed, such has been the case. In fact, until now I've never believed that meditation was possible without a technique. Mostly I've done some form of mantra meditation -- repeating a word, or words, to keep thoughts minimal and attention focused. I'm aware that there are many other forms of meditation. What binds these differing approaches together is the word "approach." Just as a technique is a procedure used to accomplish some activity, an approach is similarly instrumental. You're trying to get somewhere, or do something, different from where you are or what you're doing now. A few days ago I was meditating away. Suddenly a intuition flashed through my brain: I...

Consciousness orchestrates its activity in response to both attention and intention. Whatever you put your attention on becomes energized. Whatever you take your attention away from dwindles. On the other hand, intention is the key to transformation, as we have seen. So you could say that attention activates the energy field, and intention activates the information field, which causes transformation.Every time you speak you transmit information through an energy field using sound waves. Every time you send or receive e-mail, you use both information and energy. There is information in the words you select, and the energy is the electromagnetic impulse that travels through cyberspace.Information and energy are inseparably connected. Have you ever noticed how, when you start paying attention to a particular word or color or object, that very thing seems to appear more often in your environment?Millions of things happen every day that never penetrate our conscious minds: sounds fro...

Usually I don't pay much attention to my dreams. They seem to be the brain's way of processing waking life events, albeit in a often disconnected and bizarre fashion. But last night I experienced a dream that was coherent enough to be philosophically quite interesting. I suspect some of the content had to do with my going through some old files yesterday, keeping some folders and discarding others. I also drove my Mini Cooper to town and back, taking turns on our rural road the way I usually do: vigorously. My dream started out with me driving on what seemed like a freeway, or at least a wide two-lane road. I saw a sweeping turn ahead and glanced at the speedometer: 55 or 60. I knew that I was going plenty slow enough to easily make the turn. However, when my car (which seemed to be a BMW, the owner of Mini) started into the turn, the steering wheel wouldn't respond correctly. I kept trying to turn it left, while the car kept drifting right. Speed wasn't the problem; I ...

Desire has become a huge problem for modern people. Two forces pull us in opposite directions. One liberates us from old values. The other wants to preserve those values. The resulting polarization can be seen in every sphere of life, especially the social and political realms.Churchgoers feel righteous, responsible, and obedient to Gods will. They view anyone unlike themselves as devoid of values, and therefore unworthy of Gods love. By denying God to all those who have strayed from the path of righteousness, the devout are unwittingly taking on themselves a role that belongs only to God.This schism can also be seen in our inner conflicts. At bottom, the pull of old values is restrictive. Its God is judgmental, and his demands are not to be flouted. In other words, spirit exists to rebuke the flesh and keep its appetites under control. The force of liberation, on the other hand, evokes a God of tolerance who loves his creation and asks only for love in return.To heal this schism, we n...

"It is of love that I speakto read my work is to know my soul. Bill Jones A unique and visually beautiful work has been released by Bill Jones, which consists of a compilation of enlightening poems and essays on present moment awareness, emotion mastery, and brotherhood, each respectively being the precursor of, and the facilitator for, the next. The largest part of the book is devoted to Love and Romance, "since it is of this that makes it all worthwhile, as Jones says. With roots in Washington, D.C., Palm Beach, and the Great Smoky Mountains, Jones reaches out with his rebellious freewheeling, jovial spirit with hopes for a better world through better understanding of how our mind, ego, brain and soul all function interlinked and in unison. He writes from, and to share, his perspective of his unlimited dreamer-type philosophy of peace, love and self-mastery gained from his studies in psychology, philosophy, nature, dreams, the subconscious, alpha brain waves, Christianity,...

This morning my pre-meditation reading was a chapter on Wu-Wei (non-action) in Alan Watt's " Tao: The Watercourse Way ." The passage below reminded me of how different my meditation period is now that I've become churchless, unreligious, and dogma shunning. In a footnote to a preceding paragraph, Watts says that he is a "deplorable heretic" to those Zen practitioners who favor the "aching legs" brand of Buddhism, since to them long periods of meditation are considered to be key to enlightenment. On the other hand, those who understand the Tao delight, like cats, in just sitting and watching without any goal or result in mind. But when a cat gets tired of sitting, it gets up and goes for a walk or hunts for mice. It does not punish itself or compete with other cats in an endurance test as to how long it can remain immovable -- unless there is some real reason for being still, such as catching a bird. Contemplative Taoists will happily sit with yogi...

The Sustainable Living Retreat will be held from the 25th to the 26th of June, at the Yoga Shala. The Yoga Shala is a sanctuary tucked away in the heart of Fort Collins, a beautiful city located at the base of the Rocky Mountain foothills in Colorado. Topics to include: -Ethnobotany, A look into how different cultures use plants as foods and medicine -Ayurveda, Finding and Balancing your dosha, and the Aryuvedic Diet -Yogic Diet -Energetic Connection with Food. Dietetic health and healing. -Essential Oils, Fundamentals about essential oils; make your own bottle of natural insect repellent Activities to look forward to include: Yoga at the Shire This guided all-levels asana practice will lead participants all over the Shire Gardens. In a meditative walk we will contribute to the work and care that goes into raising our food while incorporating yoga & mindfulness, gathering the fruits and vegetables that we will later eat for dinner. Become a part of the farm as one's yoga practi...

When the ego encounters an obstacle, it responds by exerting more force. The egos world is a battlefield where you have to fight to win. Theres no doubt that this attitude can bring resultsevery empire was built by force of conquestbut it does so at a terrible cost: The tide of war, struggle, and destruction continues to rise.When you are attacked there is a great temptation to adopt the weapons of ego in retaliation. How many peace movements are full of angry activists? How many environmentalists love the Earth but hate those who despoil it? As Mother Teresa famously said, she wasnt willing to join an antiwar movement because it wasnt the same as a peace movement.The egos world presents a massive obstacle to spiritual growth. Therefore, the need to be flexible arises every day. You will meet with inner resistance as a constant occurrence, with intermittent victories and moments of joy. To avoid discouragement, you need to realize that obstacles come from the same source as everything ...

In Jesuss teaching, the communication between different dimensions was completely openfaith performed miracles because being open to God was enough to create a living connection to his limitless power. You can create this connection by going inward and acting on the subtle level by using visualization. Sit with eyes closed and see yourself walking through a familiar place, such as a park or your neighborhood. In your minds eye, see every detail around you, smell the air, let everything in the environment come to you. Dont force yourself to see, just be open to what is around you. What surprises people when they perform this exercise is that they often see entirely new and unexpected things. They find a lost object or notice something they never realized was there. This is just a first step. People can visualize events from a great distance or go into rooms they havent visited before. What they come to realize is that in fact this isnt an exercise in imagination. Its an exercise in merg...

A ten-day meditation retreat is set to start on the 24th of June at the Hermitage, British Columbia. The Hermitage is located on Denman Island, off the West Coast of British Columbia, Canada. The ten day Calm-abiding and Insight-practice (samatha-vipasyana) retreat begins with several days of preliminary concentration practice to attain balance, calm and depth in meditation, and then evolves into insight-practice. Following the ancient maxim"No insight without first attaining calm"we believe that authentic Insight-practice requires a proper basis before it is able to lead to Enlightenment. We therefore tend to emphasize the need for Calm-abiding as a thorough foundation. The aim that is developed in this retreat is direct insight into the nature of one's mind. Depending on the prior experience of the meditator, it is possible to make significant breakthroughs, both in understanding the psychological functioning of one's own mental processes and directly into the natur...

What's our biggest problem in life? Us. Ourselves. If there wasn't any me, I wouldn't be dissatisfied, unhappy, or feeling that a situation should be different from how it is. Of course, I also wouldn't exist. For most people, not being anything isn't an attractive solution to the irritating somethings that are part and parcel of our daily existence. But perhaps there is an in between, a middle ground which comfortably avoids the extremes of too little me (personal non-existence) and too much me (ego-encapsulated anxiety). This is the promise of many forms of spirituality, philosophy, psychotherapy, mysticism, meditation, religion, and other attempts to modify the human psyche so it functions more pleasingly. I think it's possible to view ourselves and our relationship to the world in a wiser fashion. I'm pretty sure there are many ways of realizing this altered perspective. The key is the root of realize: real . I'm an optimist about reality. I don...

Thumbing through a recent issue of The New Yorker last night, I came across a thought-provoking paragraph about mortality in a "personal history" piece by Aleksandar Hemon. There's a psychological mechanism, I've come to believe, that prevents most of us from imagining the moment of our own death. For if it were possible to imagine fully that instant of passing from consciousness to nonexistence, with all the attendant fear and humiliation of absolute helplessness, it would be very hard to live. It would be unbearably obvious that death is inscribed in everything that constitutes life, that any moment of your existence may be only a breath away from being the last. We would be continuously devastated by the magnitude of that inescapable fact. Still, as we mature into our mortality, we begin to gingerly dip our horror-tingling toes into the void, hoping that the mind will somehow ease itself into dying, that God or some other soothing opiate will remain available as we...

This first principle serves as an antidote to fear and sorrow by encouraging you to experience life as joyous. As we begin on the path, joy may come and go in small glimmerings. Yet in the end, laughter will dispel suffering like so much smoke and dust. Suffering is one of illusions most convincing aspects, but it is still unreal.A golden rule applies here: What is true in the material world is false in Gods world, and vice versa. In this case, the material world seems to be dominated by crisis and suffering, and therefore the sanest way to approach life is with worry, anxiety, and defensiveness. But once your consciousness shifts, you realize that life itself couldnt exist without an underlying creativity, and that this continuous act of creation is in itself an expression of ecstasy. These qualities are the basis of your life, also.In fact, the lens of materialism gives us the least accurate view of the world, because through it we see consciousness as merely an accidental byproduct ...

A 9-day meditation retreat will be held from June 17-26 with Ayya Medhanandi at the Galilee Centre. The Galilee Centre is located west of Ottawa with a spacious building, surrounded by large lawns and trees, and features a scenic waterfront and walking trails. The 9-day retreat will involve of various sitting and walking meditations, and Dhamma talks. There will be some meditation instruction. Since this is a silent retreat, participants are asked to maintain silence for the weekend. Retreatants are asked to undertake the basic training rules embodied in the Eight Precepts and to observe noble silence and Retreat Guidelines. The Eight Precepts are: Harmlessness: not intentionally taking the life of any creature. Trustworthiness: not taking anything that is not given. Chastity: refraining from any sexual activity. Right Speech: avoiding false or malicious speech. Sobriety: not taking any intoxicating drinks or drugs. Renunciation: not eating after mid-day**. Restraint: refraining from ...

Being lovable isnt a superficial quality; it is a quality of spirit. If you can see yourself as spirit, it wont matter what conditioning has occurred in the past, whether you were fortunate enough to be raised with loving values or so unfortunate that you were discouraged and made to feel ugly and worthless.In our most inmost being, we are all completely lovable because spirit is love. Beyond what anyone can make you think or feel about yourself, your unconditioned spirit stands, shining with a love nothing can tarnish.If begin lovable really is the secret to attraction, then there is no need for anxious searching, because your own being, which can never be lost, doesnt have to be found.The whole futile process of making yourself attractive to others, of constantly waiting for someone elses response, of desperately comparing yourself with an ideal image can come to an end. The only requirement is a shift in perception, for those who cannot find love perceive themselves as not being ...

Want to get well and stay well? Tried of taking multiple medications? Attend this groundbreaking, practical talk at Unity Center and learn what causes serious health issues and how they can be healed naturally. Welcome author, energy healer, and recent transplant Alice McCall to the greater Asheville area by attending "The Missing Link to Healing on June 22nd, 7-9pm at Unity Center, 2041 Old Fanning Bridge Road, Mills River, NC. She will explore the mind, emotion, and spiritual connection to the body, as well as diet and nutrition, the importance of sleep, and more. Concludes with a powerful guided meditation helping you uncover your own Missing Link. Stay after the event for Q&A and a book signing with Alice. Alice McCall authored "Wellness Wisdom, a reference book that highlights her personal journey in 2007 with breast cancer. "I was filled with fear when I was told I had breast cancer, but deep inside I knew that I could heal myself through transforming t...

Bow down to me, religious believers, because I am the exalted one, God's most favored favorite, the beloved of whoever or whatever divinity -- assuming such exists -- lies at the heart of reality. How do I know this? In the same way the true name of God, Galobet, came to me in a French Roast-fueled revelation five years ago. So after sipping my way through some pre-meditation reading, my consciousness was marvelously attuned to Galobets divine message. I was flying high on the swiftly beating wings of caffeine. This proximity to Galobets heavenly realm allowed me to hear his words (Im not sure if Galobet is a he, but since I am, and Im Galobets chosen messenger, Im going with the masculine pronoun.) I am all of the gods so far known to humankind. And yet I am so much more, my beloved Brian. You are destined to reveal my nature to the world. Understand, Galobet hadnt yet spoken his name to me. All I knew was that a godly entity was communicating with me. This being had the ...