After witnessing the overwhelming popularity of Star Wars, director Francis Ford Coppola told George Lucas he should start his own religion. Lucas laughed him off, but Coppola may have been onto something.
- By Alan Cohen
December marks the beginning of whale season in Hawaii. Around this time majestic humpback whales appear in Hawaiian waters, having traversed 3,000 miles of deep blue sea from offshore Alaska. The whales stay through the winter, mating and bearing their young. To watch them cavort is a spectacle for the senses and the heart.
- By Nora Caron
Great prophets, gurus, spiritual leaders, and teachers across the world encourage us to search for the Great Light and find this mysterious thing they call "enlightenment". Many people begin their spiritual quest with one major mission: to become enlightened. But what is enlightenment and how can we truly reach it?
Do we want to get well — give up our complaining and blaming, our image of a sick self, to do what we protest we can’t? Or do we love our deprivation and misery? Do we keep repeating that the world is against us, that others have all the luck? Does our poor-me status make us feel special?
What helps us to let go is that appearances change so completely. Nature is kind in that way — we can't say we haven't been warned. Most leaves wither and fade before they fall, fulfilling every bit of their purpose. My mother came to visit after she'd had two rounds of chemo for ovarian cancer. She didn't look like my mom, but she was still my mom...
One of my favorite things to do is to imagine a divine hand upon my head blessing me in my life and letting me know that I am cared for and loved. I do this especially when I feel insecure or stressed. Once while in the emergency room with a badly broken leg and ankle, I closed my eyes and just imagined this other-worldly hand upon my head reminding me that everything would work out alright.
It was one of the Greek philosophers who first said everything was made of atoms. Now we say atoms are made of positive and negative charges of electricity — pure energy. No one has seen them, but out of that which we do not see emerges that which we do see. The biggest thing in the universe is just made up out of the littlest things.
From a spiritual perspective there is no such thing as disappointment. What we call disappointment, Spirit sees as opportunities for learning. We are spiritual beings having a human experience, and disappointment feels unequivocally real.
Let's look at some of the obstacles to our spiritual growth. Let me ask you this: have you ever been stuck in traffic and thought to yourself, “If it weren't for all these other cars on the road, I would get to work (or home) much faster”? Well, spiritual development is similar to that.
This story is about a seemingly small event in my life that took on miraculous significance because of the lessons that came with it. I’m not a theologian; in fact, I’ve found most of my spiritual sustenance outside traditional religion...
- By Sara Chetkin
Nowadays, many of us consider ourselves to be on a spiritual path. Whatever it is we do to enrich this area of our lives, we always want to make sure that it is producing a desired outcome. For example, has your spirituality led you to be more honest with yourself? Are you digging deep within and uncovering...
- By Guy Finley
The need for whatever it may be that we’re drawn to is the yet to be realized presence within us of that very thing to which we are drawn. This means that no matter how distant seems our guiding star, or how isolated we may feel in our journey towards its light...
The vehicle that enables us to live as who we are—that is, as individual personalities in finite bodies who are simultaneously manifestations of Spirit beyond life and death—is the human ego. While problematic in its unhealed state, the ego in its healed state is the best vehicle we have for bringing us to the gate of enlightenment.
- By Sarah Varcas
This truth is of an order beyond all that appears so solid and real in our world. It throws everything into sharp relief as it reflects back to us the fleeting nature of anything which we dare to call ‘mine’. For there is no possession, no ownership, in this place of truth...
The battle between the Lower Self and the Higher Self is an internal battle, fought every day in the minds and hearts of all men and women. The challenges that these internal battles create in our lives exist regardless of our beliefs, religion, culture, or race...
- By Diana Cooper
The first practice of living in the fifth dimension, which is a permanent state of peace, bliss, love, and joy, is to do as you would be done by. Constantly think how others feel and would like to be treated. So if you see someone...
Along with working through my emotional baggage and caring for my physical wellbeing I began looking into what I needed to do for my spiritual health. Following are a few of the steps I took.
- By Ajayan Borys
Clearing and opening the throat chakra releases issues relating to an inability to find and speak one’s truth; this results in authentic and eloquent self-expression. You naturally stand in your highest Self, and your speech expresses the coherence of your whole being. It has the...
- By Rasha
Despite what some may say, and certain texts may set forth as gospel, I can attest to the fact that the sacred journey to Oneness is not all a bed of roses. The peaks and valleys of the roller coaster ride to Realization continued to swerve and dip, even as...
- By Karen Casey
I house two voices in my mind. Of course you have them, too. Our access to either voice is always just a decision away. My introduction to the existence of these two voices, the one that is soft and kind and loving and helpful and the one that is abusive and controlling and angry...
True seekers, my parents were constantly questioning how and where they could feel closer to God. As dysfunctional as my family was, my parents understood that spiritual nourishment was as essential to their individual and family’s well-being and health as good nutrition and exercise. In fact, sometimes their focus...
- By Anam Thubten
Sel?ng, is a very accurate description of how we are creating and maintaining the shell-like falsehood of who we are. If we look into a mirror, what do we say? “Oh, I don’t like my hair.” This is sel?ng. Then we talk to someone: “Oh, I don’t like this person.” We are engaging in this mental compulsion, this constant sel?ng.
- By Roy Holman
While it is important to accept and learn from our pain and suffering, what can we do to stop creating so darned much of it!? Webster’s defines illuminate as “to give light to; to light up; to make clear.” The very next entry down the page, we find the word illusion...