Spirituality Blogs

On the physical level, if we forget to eat, we will die, so our body registers our need for intake of food as hunger pains. Hunger creates unpleasant feelings of dissatisfaction that motivate us to crave food, seek it, possess it, and consume it. As such, desire, seeking, and dissatisfaction are natural on the everyday [Read More...]

The New Moon is the darkest phase of the Moon, but it also marks the beginning of the two-week time frame when the Moon moves away from the Sun and increases in light, which it a great time to begin new projects, new love, new careers or anything else new you want to do (or [Read More...]

“Nothing happens to a man, good or ill, before he has beheld some intimation of it in a dream.” – The Talmud Have you ever passed through the Sacred Doorways of Dreams and met Your Spirit Guides or Guardian Angels? Your personal dream language can be confusing. You may feel much like Alice in Wonderland from [Read More...]

(This post is a continuation of yesterday’s post on “Chögyam Trungpa & Pragmatic, Modern Meditation.”) Given my post yesterday about Trungpa’s shortcomings, why mention him at all today? The main reason is that despite his seeming ethical violations in some areas, it is nevertheless true that he had a particular genius for presenting traditional Buddhist teachings in [Read More...]

All reality is a combination of both seen and unseen elements. What happens, if we base our understanding of what is true on only what we can see?

Hello Rumi Tuesday! "This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally to take a step without feet." by Jalal id-din Rumi. When you look toward love, what do you see? Can you see love without its veils? Can you release the veils and fly straight away to the Secret sky?

I’ve recently been teaching an online program based on A Course in Miracles, and I want to share the first lesson because it’s so central to the way we experience our lives. It introduces the principle of Self love, because the quality of all your relationships depends on the quality of the relationship you have [Read More...]

Sometimes, when I can let things come and go naturally, it’s possible for me to glimpse the truth that, though I’m frustrated, not everything is frustrating. Sometimes, in the midst of sadness, it’s possible to glimpse that, though I’m sad, not everything is sad. Like everyone, I struggle with finding the courage to face pain, [Read More...]

New Dimensions’ guest, Susan Moon, tells the story of her mother’s circle of women friends. They called themselves “Mothers of Daughters” and would meet each time a daughter came to visit from far away. Although their hands were shaking and many used walkers to help them get around, they had each lived vibrant and interesting lives. [Read More...]

Don't allow yourself to remain mired in the political muck that has consumed America this election season. Whatever side of the divide you were on, get up, dust yourself off, and start rebuilding our nation, one relationship at a time.

The Native American Cultural History Trail on Michigan's Mackinac Island explores the spiritual side of this beloved tourist destination.

In the episode entitled ‘Religion’ in the much anticipated second season of Aziz Ansari’s show ‘Master of None,’ Aziz’s character Dev Shah finds himself forced to pretend he is an observant Muslim to please his parents. Aziz was himself raised Muslim, but does not practice, or take religion all that seriously. In the episode, Dev’s [Read More...]

Sense8 is a series on Netflix about an apparently random selection of very different people from around the world who find themselves sharing a psychic bond. On the face of it, that’s all you need to know if you aren’t going to watch it (that, and Netflix has recently cancelled it). If you’re a fan, [Read More...]

Ever go somewhere you feel totally familiar with but have never been there before?  No, your mind is not playing tricks on you!  In fact, it’s quite normal to experience a “Déja vu” and many people do at least once in a lifetime.  Thanks to those who asked about deja vu!  I hope you enjoy [Read More...]

Here is a talk from the San Rafael Meditation group with Rick Hanson. It is titled, “The Awakening Factor of Samadhi”. More information on the San Rafael Meditation group can be found here.The post The Awakening Factor of Samadhi appeared first on Dr. Rick Hanson.

Earlier this summer I was honored to accompany a distinguished group of thought leaders in the Interspiritual Movement on a tour in Colorado. During this trip I taught the Bear Grip Mudra to Ken Wilber and Kurt Johnson. Bear Grip is used to stimulate and strengthen the heart and intensify concentration. Ideally this mudra should [Read More...]

Of the three forms of attachment, the attachment to recognition may be the one we experience the most from the youngest age. From the time we first became aware of ourselves as separate individuals, when we were still just toddlers, we hoped that other people would notice us and give us attention. “Hey, look at [Read More...]

With only a few days to go until Election Day, the stakes couldn’t be higher. We’re choosing our next commander in chief, role model, and leader of the free world. Policy making for decades will be influenced by new Supreme Court Justices. The choice is clear, and depending on whom you ask it’s absolutely Clinton [Read More...]

I was treated poorly at a car dealership service center, and my son was more outraged than I was. When asked in a service survey, he told that that they had "disrespected his mother." I had taken it in stride. His response put me on notice to practice the Quaker testimony in all my affairs and on my own behalf. Otherwise, I was part of the problem.

By Daniel O’Conner Hello Good People! Many of you are aware I recently returned from a trip to Medjugorje.  I know that among good, orthodox, devout Catholics there are varying opinions on this place, so I want to let you in on my own thinking.  Whatever you decide, let us not allow any division to occur from [Read More...]

Last week, Elizabeth Gilbert announced via Facebook that she has left her husband to pursue a relationship with a woman. Her decision was met with an outpouring of love, in large part thanks to the overwhelming support of the LGBT community. But though I send love and support as well, I couldn’t help but also feel a [Read More...]

A moment of stillness can inspire a lifetime of change . .

“But you aren’t self-centered. Instead, you are in the Spirit, if in fact God’s Spirit lives in you.“ Romans 8:9  The call of Christ is the call to die to our “self”, which is our egoic self, and to live our lives from the place of the Spirit, which is our truest essence. At our [Read More...]

My dad was out of work a lot when I was a kid, so we traveled from town to town in the Southeast. Consequently, I attended all sorts of churches, from strip mall storefronts to white wooden boxes with a steeple on top. The churches were always in the Pentecostal / Apostolic range, which in [Read More...]

In a series called By Heart, The Atlantic features authors’ reflections on their favorite passages of literature. Iranian-born Dina Nayeri,who wrote the recently released A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea, choose from Marilyn Robinson’s quiet but strong book, Housekeeping: There is so little to remember of anyone—an anecdote, a conversation at a table. But every [Read More...]

As we move into the winter season, I’m looking out of my office window gazing at thousands of pine trees swaying in the gusty winds. The potent sound of these gusts can be heard swirling around the house sprinkled with the whining vibration of the wind trying to make its way through the cracks of [Read More...]

The sacred container of sisterhood holds a community in an atmosphere of safety where sisters (members) feel confident to share their stories, embrace silence, pray, create, celebrate beauty, and break bread. It could be said there is a sacrament within the spirit of sisterhood. The Way of Belle Coeur: A Woman’s Vade Mecum by Sibyl [Read More...]

I’m the opposite of a Jock, whatever that would be, though I played ice hockey in my youth and now still play a little tennis and golf. I do like to watch American football and, having lived in New Hampshire for twenty years now, I root for the New England Patriots. I was one of [Read More...]

Often we block prosperity from our lives because we believe in scarcity. We’re taught there are a limited number of pieces to the pie and if we get more, others will have less. But everything is energy and the universe is infinitely abundant with energy, so there are no real limits to what can be [Read More...]

Hello, iPhone This past January marked the 10th anniversary of Steve Jobs’s historic announcement at MacWorld Convention of the revolutionary iPhone. In the now infamous presentation, Steve Jobs, Apple’s minister and magician, stands on a darken stage in front of his most ardent supporters. Over Jobs’s shoulder the iconic Apple logo silhouetted with a heavenly [Read More...]

For the many of us—clergy and laypeople, academics and plain citizens, in the U.S. and throughout the world—who for decades have been saying that the environmental crisis calls for a religious perspective and an activist religious response Pope Francis’ bold words are a wonderfully welcome addition. At least three things give those words special weight: [Read More...]

When Spiritual Life Feels Far Away Some of us like to believe spiritual life is always with us. People familiar with coded academic language talk about God being “omnipresent.” They are saying spiritual life is all around us, and within us. In the same way fish live in water, we live in spiritual life. Quite a [Read More...]

Do you want to know how to truly influence those around you? How to move out of control battles and find ways for everyone to get everything they want? There really is a way to do this–and it will take you right into that magic river of flow. Let’s do an experiment. Imagine that I’ve got [Read More...]

Last month women gathered via signals across the country to share, to listen, and to try to make sense of our new political reality. Today is the first day of the new presidency and the future for our country looks grim. Each day, lines are crossed that used to be off limits in a democracy [Read More...]

Are you still trying to find your “purpose?” The problem is not finding it. The real challenge is what to do after you figure it out! I starting teaching a workshop over twenty years ago called, “Discovering Your Bliss.” I was in my Joseph Campbell period, a ministerial student and wild about realizing in my [Read More...]

(cc) maf04 The simple definition of the word “home” by the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary reads: “the place (such as a house or apartment) where a person lives.” So what if your soul feels at home somewhere other than where you currently live?  This can create a painful paradox, one my wife and I have been [Read More...]

Last year, I featured excerpts from several college commencement speeches. This year, I’m focusing on one. It’s a speech by a U.S. senator from my home state, Cory Booker of New Jersey, given to the graduating class at the University of Pennsylvania last month. Booker is an excellent storyteller and he kicked off his speech [Read More...]

A new study by political scientists notes that clergy, on the whole, are more partisan than their parishioners. You can read the study here. Which raises the question: If clergy are tasked to “keep the faith,” exactly what “faith” is it that they “keep?” The faith of their respective religious traditions or the faith of [Read More...]

By Barbara Falconer Newhall Huston Smith was well into his 90s. His mind was sharp. His last books, though slender, were inspired. But his hearing was going, and he had taken to a wheelchair. Finally on December 30, at the age of 97, Huston Smith left his millions of fans and readers behind. I’m just [Read More...]The post Huston Smith — A Spiritual Companion to Millions appeared first on Wrestling with God.