Category: Spirituality/General

The world we are born into and live is the complete opposite of our true nature. Why do so many of us feel as though we are aliens on our own planet, cut off from our family, friends and the rest of humanity? Walking alone in this strange world, we are confronted with the ups and downs as if thrown into a tormented sea, tossed up and down on the waves of life, just waiting to be thrown against the rocks along the shore. “Why me?” We ask ourselves, as we look at everyone else, seemingly gliding through life on a breeze unaffected by life’s hardships. Why does my heart ache with longing, and what I am longing for? Is it God, is it peace, is it a better job, a better relationship? Why is it when I get all the things I want, I am still not experiencing peace? Does no one else have this burning desire to be whole and complete, even for an instant? What about living a life in perpetual bliss…. is that a myth?

Imagine a nondescript door. People walk by it every day, ignoring it. If they knew that beyond this door was a land showered with divine energy, then perhaps they would enter. Stepping through, they would experience profound feelings, understanding, and focus. That door is gratitude, something easy to miss.

Being grateful is a doorway to the divine. Much more than being thankful when someone is kind to you, gratitude covers all experience. At its base is a deep appreciation for being alive. Life is a miracle and a blessing. From this sacred place, spiritual energies and insights can fill your mind, heart, and body.

One cannot have healing without embracing that which needs to be healed. Meditation provides a pathway in the mind to observe the multitude of painful thoughts and emotions that we all carry that keep us separate from the One and one another. The states of consciousness available through meditation allow for objectivity, so lucidity can shine through the ego's darkest illusions in daily living.

These days it’s not uncommon to hear from those who practice alternative spirituality that we must choose our own spiritual path. In the New Age, we are offered a smorgasbord of spiritual systems that includes shamanism, Neo-Paganism, Buddhism, Yoga, Hermetics, Sufism, mystical Christianity and more. Further complicating matters is the fact that within each of these divisions are subdivisions. Buddhism offers the choices of Tibetan style, Zen, Theraveda and more. Within the sphere of NeoPaganism you can choose between Celtic, Nordic, Grecian, Roman and others. Shamanism includes practices of the various Native American nations, the South American Indians, Siberians, Australian aborigines and so on. Things would be much easier if we could just go back to the days when there was only “one true religion.”

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Choosing a spiritual is much like choosing a hiking or jogging path.Choose a path that is suited to your unique needs and abilities.

There are too many people in the New Age who are looking for easy solutions to difficult problems. The alternative community is so inundated with these “bliss ninnies,” as a friend of mine calls them, that they’ve become a caricature in the media, both in the movies and on television shows like ABC’s sitcom Dharma and Greg.

Back in June my friend Linda died. Neither of us would say that we were extremely close friends. I had never been in her home, nor she in mine, and we had never met after work for cocktails or a bite of cheesecake as friends sometimes do. But we were friends nonetheless.

Nobody likes the term New Age. The magicians and neo-Pagans who’ve spent years learning their craft loath it, partly because they fear that it places them in too close of a proximity to the touchy-feelie Shirley MacLaine give-me-a-crystal-and-I’ll-cure-the-world types. The scientific folks, who define the likes of meditation and spiritual symbols in terms of their effect on wave forms, the weak force, the strong force and the H-bar constant want to be taken seriously as spiritual scientists and think that the term trivializes their work. Those who are devoted to the discipline and study of Tibetan Buddhism or other yogic practices don’t want to be confused with any of the above.

Both the Buddhists and the Native Americans believe that one of our problems in dealing with other people is our tendency to divide the people who inhabit our lives into categories. The Buddhist say that we tend to put people into the boxes “friend, enemy and stranger,” and that we treat people according to their respective box. This, they say, is the cause of many of our social ills.

Fear, The Known, And The Dreaming Body

by Matt Guest

Fear is, without a doubt, the greatest obstacle to life. But what is fear, really? And how exactly does fear limit our quest for self-fulfillment and freedom?

The "Easy Chair" Method for Prayer and Meditation

by Robert C. Felix

Prayer meditation does not require an extensive command of technique, or any religious training whatsoever. It is so easy that anyone with an open mind can tap into the vast power of Pure Love. It can be as simple as reading the 10 prayer meditations of The Partners Within or reflecting on any of their words. All it takes is a few minutes a day. The tools are within you.