It's almost certain that living with other people is going to rub off-- we share energy with those we are close to, and whether it is 'postive' or 'negative' energy, what isn't our own tends to get stuck, to make blockages and interference in our own energy systems. How do we experience that influence? As distraction, confusion, lack of get-up-and-go... maybe a sense of being out of control, or just plain stuck... The feeling that it is time for a vacation! When we take ourselves out of the... Sign in to see full entry.
Hello! That is one of the most important words in a spiritually-aware vocabulary. Consider all that it says in those two simple syllables of English... Two syllables that, whatever their orgins, nowadays mean nothing but-- hello! That makes it a wonderfully neutral word. And in its neutrality, it conveys, simply, acknowledgement on neutral ground: I am here, you are there... I am me, you are you... We have come together and now share a space of place and time and consciousness... I acknowledge... Sign in to see full entry.
Sincerity Anna made a point that started the month and the day well: (Still on the Mac, so you may have to c/p this link) http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/SincerityAnna7772/ and inspired me to return to the topic of Parts and the Parts model of human consciousness. Here's the basic model: Every belief that a person, at some time, decided was a Truth worth remembering, became stored in a little package comprised of everything that person was at the moment of the decision. It is, in a sense,... Sign in to see full entry.
So many philosophies put down Ego as a bad thing. Ego is not a bad thing in my Universe. It is a necessary and natural thing that happens when God expresses Itself in the form of a sentient body housing a growing, learning soul. Your Ego is, simply, your identity: how you perceive yourself to be. In itself, it is not a problem, it is one of the children of your being here, now, in a body, living a life as a human being. It's part of the human side. Like any child, it requires a certain amount of... Sign in to see full entry.
There's the old debate, going back historically to the roots of dualism, in the ancient near east, where the Mithraists created the first religion (that we know of) around the dualistic concept of the world as a battleground between Good and Evil. There's a difference between a world of that sort of absolute duality, and the simple fact that so much of our world is structured as dichotomies; Night and Day, Man and Woman, Old and Young, Left and Right... We tend to perceive things as paired... Sign in to see full entry.
When I was a kid of around 5, I lived with my grandparents. Grandpa was a lot of fun--He played with me and read me the Sunday funny papers... let me ride in front of him on the saddle when he rode horseback... Sometimes, in those days before seat-belts, and before it was really appreciated how dangerous cars can be, he let me sit on his lap while he drove, and "help him drive." There was this thing he did sometimes, to amuse us when he drove, of jerking the wheel to pretend we were going into... Sign in to see full entry.
I've been taught two different meditation forms that have each been quite useful and healthful when I practice with any regularity. Transcendental Meditation, developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, from what he learned from his guru, Dev, was introduced to the West by The Beatles in the 60s. It uses repetition of a mantra-- the sound of a word with no intrinsic meaning-- to beguile the busy-ness of the mind, and provide a focus for being not busy. It carries the meditator away from the stresses of... Sign in to see full entry.
The hardest part of meditation for some of us is the initial sitting-down... Yes, meditation is about being still, but it is about an internal stillness. At first, it is easier to find it inside if we practice it outside, but really, it is about the quiet mind, the quiet heart. And that we can find any time, any place, in any movement of our bodies. By now, if you have been following this blog, you know I am all about bringing spirituality down into physical reality, rather than rising from the... Sign in to see full entry.
I've never been impressed much with the mystical properties of crystals. Just didn't feel much there that had anything of significant power or even nudge... that quality that tends one to think or go in a particular direction. Ironic, perhaps, because I have a life-long love of rocks and geology that revels in their beauty, their awesomeness, their magnificence! I have always preferred rough, wild stones to polished and faceted ones, and my heart swells with joy and marvel to be in the presence... Sign in to see full entry.
I come back to the questions about death and dying myself from time to time, to see how my outlook has changed or grown, or tightened. There was a time when I was feeling the weirdest sort of dread and anxiety about a plane flight, with my infant along with me-- my ears were buzzing or ringing, sort of, and I could not get my head clear... I had been listening to a program about the AIDS threat which was only a couple of years old at the time and we were all just realizing how deadly it was, and... Sign in to see full entry.