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Spiritual Journeys Toward A New Tomorrow
Past Spiritual Articles

Index of Articles:

Wisdom of the Sadhu: Teachings of Sundar Singh

Negativity: The Silent Killer

Looking For the Yellow Brick Road

The Journey Towards Unity Consciousness

Spiritual Core Beliefs --What are they?

What is my Spiritual Ideal?

The Butterfly, Transformation's Perfect Role Mode

Discovering Your Life Purpose

Will Clones Have Souls?
The Spiritual Future of Artificial Intelligence


THE POWER OF INTUITION

A Quick Start Guide to Prayer Meditation

Four Powerful Pathways into the Light and Sound of Oneness

KNOW THYSELF: The Authentic Self

A Journey From Faith and Back





THE POWER OF INTUITION



By Judith Orloff, M.D.


I'm a psychiatrist and intuitive in Los Angeles. What I do isn't my job. It's my life's passion. With patients and in workshops, I listen with my intellect and my intuition, a potent inner wisdom that goes beyond the literal. I experience it as a flash of insight, a gut feeling, a hunch, a dream. By blending intuition with orthodox medical knowledge I can offer my patients and workshop participants the best of both worlds.
Now, listening to intuition is sacred to me, but learning to trust it has taken years. I've described the details in my memoir Second Sight which is meant to assure anyone whoever thought they were weird or crazy for having intuitive experiences, that they are not! This brief synopsis gives you a taste of the book.

I grew up in Beverly Hills the only daughter of two-physician parents with twenty-five physicians in my family. From age nine, I had dreams and intuitions that would come true. I could predicts illness, earthquakes, even the suicide of one of my parent's friends. This confused and alarmed me, as it did my parents who were entrenched in the hard-core rational world of science. At first they tried to write my intuitions off as coincidence. Finally, though, after I dreamed my mother's mentor would loose a political election--which to my horror, came true--she took me aside and told me, "Never mention another dream or intuition in our house again!" I'll never forget the look in my dear mother's exasperated, frightened eyes, nothing I ever wanted to see again. So from that day on, I kept my intuitions to myself. I grew up ashamed of my abilities, sure there was something wrong with me. 

Luckily, I've had many angels in human form who've pointed me  to my true calling as physician. In the sixties I got heavily involved with drugs in an attempt to block my intuitions out- obviously not something I'm recommending to you!  Following a nearly fatal car accident at age sixteen when I tumbled over a treacherous 1500 foot cliff in Malibu Canyon, my parents forced me to see a psychiatrist. This man was the first person who ever "saw" me--not who he wanted me to be, but who I was. He taught me to begin to value the gift of intuition, and referred me to Dr. Thelma Moss, a intuition researcher at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. She was to become my mentor and guide to developing my intuitive side.

While working in Thelma's lab I had an amazingly specific dream which announced, "You're going to become an MD, a psychiatrist, to help legitimize intuition in medicine." When I awoke, I felt like someone was playing a practical joke on me. I'd never liked science, and I was bored around all my parent's doctor-friends. I was a hippie living in an old converted brick Laundromat with my artist-boyfriend in Venice Beach, working in the May Company's towel department. (I've had a great love of towels and sheets since!) The last thing I envisioned doing was medicine. But because I was beginning to trust my intuition, I enrolled in a junior college just to see how it would go. So one course became two, became fourteen years of medical training--USC medical school and a UCLA psychiatric internship and residency.

The irony was, that during my medical training I strayed far from the intuitive world again. Traditional psychiatry equates visions with psychosis. Working in the UCLA emergency room, I'd keep seeing psychotics who were wheeled in screaming, strapped to gurneys, accompanied by cops with billy clubs. These patients professed to hear God and to be able predict things. They also felt their food was poisoned, and that the FBI was on their tail. No one tried to sort through this mishmash of claims. Typically, patients would shot up with with Thorazine, hospitalized on lock-down inpatient units until their "symptoms" subsided. Seeing this so many times I doubted whether it was safe or appropriate to integrate my intuitions in medicine.

When I opened my Los Angeles psychiatric practice in 1983, I had every intention of it being traditional; I'd use medications, psychotherapy, but I didn't intend for intuition to play a role.  My practice was extremely successful. Since I was a workaholic and also loved helping people, I had twelve hour days, though very little personal life. But then I had a heart-wrenching wake-up call that changed everything. It was an intuition that a patient, on antidepressants, was going to make a suicide attempt. Because she was doing so well--nothing supported my hunch--I dismissed it. Within a week she overdosed on the antidepressants I'd prescribed and ended up in a coma for nearly a month. (Had she not survived I would've been devastated.) The hardest part, though, was that I thought I'd harmed her by not utilizing a vital piece of intuitive information.  This was intolerable for me. From then on, I knew, as a responsible physician, I had to integrate my intuitions into my work.

After this episode, my journey to bring intuition into my medical practice began. I didn't know how I'd do it, but I put out a silent prayer to the universe to help me. Soon, I began meeting people, more angels, who showed me the way. Gradually I grew comfortable with my intuition, set out to write "Second Sight." This took me seven years to complete because I had so much fear about coming out of the closet as an intuitive. I was afraid of what my physician-peers would think, that they'd mock me or blackball me from the profession. My mother warned, "They'll think you're weird. It'll jeopardize your medical career." Ah Mother: I loved her, but thank god I didn't listen. Finding my voice as a psychiatrist and intuitive has been my path to freedom.

Sure, there's a risk when you stretch yourself, but the rewards are enormous. Now, I'm blessed to travel around the country giving workshops on intuition to auditoriums full of extraordinary people--health care professionals and general audiences alike--who long to embrace their inner voice. I'm heartened to see that many physicians are eager to deal with patients in the new way I offer. Recently I gave an intuitive healing workshop at the American Psychiatric Association convention, a annual gathering of the most conservative psychiatrists in the world. I'm pleased to report the response was wonderful.

I'm sad to report that my mother didn't live long enough to see this. In 1993 she died of a lymphoma. But, on her deathbed, she decided to tell me our "family secrets."  She told me, "I want to pass the power onto you." I was astounded to learn that I came from a lineage of intuitive healers on her side of the family--my Jewish grandmother who did laying on of hands in a shed behind the pharmacy she and Grandpop ran in Philadelphia. East coast aunts and cousins I'd never met since I grew up in California. Also, my mother, herself, had a strong inner voice which told her how to treat patients for over forty years. She'd listened to this voice and secretly used her innate healing powers to keep her lymphoma in remission for many years. "Why didn't you tell me?" I asked her. She said simply, "I wanted you to lead a normal, happy life, not to be thought of as weird like your grandmother was."  Oh Mother... I'll always be grateful for what she shared, but, still... she'd waited so long. Even so, I believe in the wisdom of the paths we've been given. Mine has been to fight for what I believed in despite what my parents or anyone said. An invaluable but rugged lesson in empowerment.

These days, no matter what I'm going through, especially when my heart is torn in a million pieces my intuition has sustained me. I hope that my journey in "Second Sight" can help you. One thing I'm certain of: if you follow your intuitive voice, you can't go wrong. Stay true to it. Intuition is about empowerment, not having to conform to someone else's notion of who you should be. It's about being true to yourself, and all the  goodness that comes from that.


Judith Orloff, M.D is a board certified psychiatrist and practicing intuitive, author of the bestsellers Second Sight, Guide to Intuitive Healing and of Positive Energy, due out from Harmony Books, April 2004. She is assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and an international workshop leader. Dr. Orloff can be reached at www.drjudithorloff.com.




Also by this Author:

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A Quick Start Guide to Prayer Meditation

and your Partners Within

Not everyone is familiar with the benefits that are available from the combination of prayer and meditation. If you have never attempted this, fear not. This technique is for anyone who wishes to listen to the inner self and connect with higher powers. All it takes is a willingness to relax your body and mind and unite your heart and soul. The first step to enjoying prayer meditation is to pause for a moment and become perfectly still, totally alone with the pounding of your heart and the hum of your brain. This is where you will find a place for you alone, a place for your unique inner self. This is where you will be free from the roles you play to insure your survival, free from the demands of the people and the institutions that absorb your daily life. Whatever the issues you may desire to address, this is the place where you choose the warm feelings of love over the coldness of harm. This is where you create a partnership of equals between your head and heart, left and right, wants and needs, self and others. To enter into a meditative state, find a quiet spot where you will not be disturbed. Start by sitting in a comfortable chair, eyes closed, spine straight, head effortlessly balanced on the shoulders, feet on the floor and palms upright on the lap. Focus on the pulsing of your heart until your mind quiets down and you have settled into a relaxed and yet focused state. Draw as many deep breaths as necessary to relax the mind and all the muscles of the body. With practice, you will be able to obtain a state of deep relaxation within seconds. The main objective is to become perfectly still and silence the mind. When we eliminate disruptions, we are able to go deep inside ourselves and attain pure introspection. Here, the guidance of Pure Love awaits us all. "Picture a Pure White Light while listening to the words LIGHT-LOVE-ONE" Silently chant the word "LIGHT" in time with each beat of your heart, doing so until you eliminate all other thoughts. Then, picture a brilliant and Pure White Light starting to glow from the inside of your mind. Gradually slowing the timing of the chant, switch your focus to the rhythm of your breath, using a single breath for each word. As you inhale, draw the Light into the physical mind. As you exhale, feel the Light spread throughout the body: your mind, torso, arms and legs. Concentrate on the visualization of this Light glowing and radiating throughout your entire being. The Light is representing all of the goodness, virtue, purity and perfection that exist in the universe. Now, immersed in this Light, chant the word "LOVE" with the same rhythm that you obtained with the word "Light." Concentrate on a feeling of pure and selfless appreciation for all the love that you have ever known. Concentrate on growing your internal love for your physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual powers. This is where your brain enters into a deeply personal space that exists between resting and sleep. Pure Love's essence is unconditional Love; the joyful desiring of what is right and what is best for all. It is an absolute Love of infinite proportions that does no harm. Bask in the glory of Pure Love, allowing this beautiful and caring feeling to grow ever-more pervasive in your life, opening yourself up to its new and better solutions. This partnership of Light and Love compounds the power of your human love, a love that wants what is right for the self, and stimulates the growth of your higher love, a universal Love that wants what is right for others. When you succeed in partnering Light and Love together in a partnership of equals, to the exclusion of all other thoughts, you are empowering your personal partners within. You will feel an "energizing" or "tingling" sensation bristling throughout your being as your brain enters a meditative state. This energy will feel like it is coming from deep inside you as your left and right brain come together in a partnership of equals that wants what is best for both. You will also feel a profound sense of peace as the love and wisdom of the universe enters your world. Concentrate on the powers of your partners within for a few minutes. (You may want to slow the chant at this point, or stop altogether, resuming occasionally if start to lose focus on the energy of your partners within.) This is where you become "ONE" with the Highest Source of Pure Love, the Power of Pure Spirit. The love of your internal partners will merge with all of the other Love that exists throughout the universe. It starts as a desire to do the right thing for you and then intensifies into a passion to do what is right for others. It allows you to see your own life, analyze how you have lived and helps you to make creative new solutions that benefit yourself and all involved. The joyful merging of your internal partners, and the provocative insights of this journey, is the essence of a prayer meditation practice. The love released by your partners within is like a beacon calling to all of the other love that exists throughout the universe, linking you to new and better Instincts for your Body, Inspirations for your Mind, Enlightenment for your Heart and Intuition for your Soul. This is where the dual powers of your left and right brain come together in a partnership of equals. This is where you release the creative dynamics of your dualistic nature. This is the power that helps you choose what is best for all of your partners within: your Logic and Emotions, your Reality and Dreams, your Inner and Outer self, your Human and Higher powers. Ultimately, this partnership of human and higher powers will fuse all of the physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual energies of your being into a true partner within. It is here that you connect with the infinite energy of the universe that surrounds us all. It is here that you will find the simple new thoughts and feelings that help you go forward with your life. The key to success is simple: practice. Mankind has long attempted to connect with a power greater than the self. Many pursue the classical religious virtues of humility, reason, integrity and charity. In addition to your cultural imperatives, you have to make a conscious choice to enter into this personal meditative state. It is like entering into a gap between the stimulus of your thoughts and your reaction to those thoughts. It is in this "gap of silence" where the whispers of the universe come to you through the opening of your Soul. It is like listening at a crack in the door that opens up to the power of the Cosmos. Even if you enter into this moment for only a few seconds, it is here that Pure Love will provide comfort for the Body, contentment for the Mind, warmth for the Heart and guidance for the Soul. Excerpt from The Partners Within, a book by Robert C. Felix © 1995-2003 Free Sample available at www.partnerswithin.com
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Four Powerful Pathways into the Light and Sound of Oneness

 

The easiest, most exciting adventure in consciousness follows the lamplit guidance of the still, small voice in each of us. In the quiet of meditation, we listen to our souls and hear what is most needed in our lives and how best to obtain it. This wise, kindly voice never fails us and never falters.

 

There is no substitute for inner listening. But in our travels, these four pathways emerge to enhance our joy and draw us into the Oneness.

 

See which of these harmonic pathways resonates best with you: thought and word, self-knowledge, inner peace, or chanting and toning. All work together, as individual notes or as a chord, to transport us into the beauty and music of higher consciousness--the light and sound of Universal Mind, or God. 

 

1. The power of thought and word. When our ideal is peace, healing or prosperity, and we say or do something out of alignment with this, we sense, feel or know it. The discord itself keeps us on track and guides us back into oneness with ourselves, others and Spirit. The great psychic-healer Edgar Cayce, who said that "Thoughts are crimes or miracles," lovingly advised everyone to create an ideal by which to live. This is best done in meditation, so that the soul voice may show us what is needed most. For you, is it peace, joy, self-discipline, will, oneness or something else altogether?

 

If a single word floats up when you ask this question, create with this word an affirmative phrase or sentence, then go back into the silence to see if it is good and right for you. When it is, post your ideal somewhere and, during meditation, use it as a mantra to draw your busy mind back into the silence. This will build your ideal into your life. When the words of your ideal no longer have a "shine," or "go dead" for you, you have incorporated this quality and it's time to return to meditation for a fresh ideal.

 

Every time you think or speak your ideal, you are physically attuning your body-mind to it, so be sure it's a spiritual intention that will uplift you! Ideals are blueprints with which we build our lives, whether we know it or not! If you aren't convinced that your thoughts, words and emotions influence the physical world around you, you might find these stories very interesting.

 

Last November I attended an historic conference in Virginia Beach that featured the physicists and U.S. military personnel at the center of America's research on remote viewing, termed "anomalous perception" or "anomalous perturbation" (psychic receiving or influencing) by these methodical thinkers. One of the presenters was the famous remote viewer and artist Ingo Swann, who reminded us that thoughts, as vibrations, are heard and felt by all sentient beings, including house plants!

 

At a party in New York City, Swann met Cleve Baxter, who later authored the classic book, The Secret Life of Plants, and visited Baxter's home to participate in experiments. Baxter had hooked up lie detector electrodes to the leaves of ordinary house plants, and every time Swann struck a match, the readout jumped sharply in reaction. After awhile, the reactions stopped and Swann asked why. "The plant knows you're bluffing!" Baxter told him. And so it did, as illustrated time and again in Baxter's landmark book.

 

In other experiments, Baxter and Swann took skin scrapings and drops of blood from a man and put them in a vial hooked up to the same electrodes. The readouts consistently jumped when the man was poked with a pin, even when he was five blocks away! (See the second edition of my e-zine, OneWorld, for a series of eye-opening articles and interviews from this amazing conference.)

 

That we are all one body, one mind is indisputable. Yet we so easily forget and doubt how our thoughts and words affect everyone-and everything-else, including our own bodies and minds.

 

2. The power of self-knowledge. My still, small voice has said for the past 16 years that releasing darkness enables us to attract and hold more light, and recently, DNA experiments carried out by a Russian scientist proved definitively that this is true. It's intuitively verifiable as well, and a phenomenon that we can physically feel as it takes place.

 

Here's how to bypass your ego, which I call a "hero in its own mind," and awaken to what you need to know about yourself. Every time you find yourself angry, frustrated or in conflict with someone else, "Stand back and watch yourself go by," as Cayce so vividly advised. "Know Thyself," emblazoned on the temples of Greek mystery schools, is the key to conscious evolution. If we do not undertake this journey, we are not really conscious at all.

 

I was taught this by my meditative writings, and as I traced my discordant words and actions back to their source-fear of inadequacy and a crippling lack of self-love-I was able to see and correct the destructive patterns of behavior that drove me to addictive decisions and ways of life. I could actually feel my burdens growing lighter, as my pain, sorrow and yearning gave way to increased amounts of light in my body-mind.

 

What fascinated me most was the correlation of this "en-lightenment" to sound: with each stride forward, I could hear my singing voice becoming ever more resonant and beautiful! I can still hear the difference in my voice, in shifting from one state of consciousness to another, and especially in singing with other spiritual seekers, wherein everyone's voice grows more harmonious, resonant and beautiful. I concluded that the high frequencies of love bring us into our blossoming literally and in response to our deepest desires.

 

3. The power of inner peace. Silent meditation, by building up the divine currents of energy within us, is the single most effective way to heal and transform the body-mind. These currents, containing the light and sound of God, tune up our bodies through the chakra system, or "wheels of energy," as Cayce called them. He said, and virtually all medical intuitives have seen, that these seven energy centers connect the spiritual dimensions with our endocrine glands, located at major nerve centers. The chakras, powered-up like frequency transformers with multi-level circuits, step our energy up or down.

 

You can feel this happen during meditation, and the longer you meditate, the more sensitive you become to these subtle energies, which carry us into the Oneness. I experience this oneness not only as a sense of love for and connection with others, but also as oneness with my highest mental clarity, creativity and intuition. After 16 years of regular practice, I emerge from every meditation, brief or lengthy, feeling more centered, grounded and in attunement with my true self. Going within kindles the divine spark in us so that we may know and speak the truth of who we are-and, in this, reach out to others in love, compassion and service.

 

A calm, peaceful sense of oneness is critical to our evolution; otherwise, we volley back and forth from one state of consciousness to another without ever really knowing what is real and what is not. I experience this shifting consciousness when I don't meditate every day. The slippage is all too apparent to me, and unfortunately, to others around me as well.

 

When I do return to meditation, I am amazed at the consistently gentle, loving voice of my heart, which does not complain when I skip my contemplative time, but waits patiently for me to return. Recently, while in deep meditation, I heard a quiet little voice say, "I am too hurried." Upon engaging in a pen-and-paper dialogue with my heart and mind, I learned that both want and need the restful peace of meditation.

 

This makes sense, doesn't it? It is in the Oneness that both are energized and made more vibrant and whole. In this blissful state, these three notes organize themselves into a chord made of the proper co-creative partnership: mind serving heart, heart serving soul, and soul serving what I call the Divine Harmonic.

 

4. The power of chanting and toning. To comprehend the potential of sound, we have only to read the Hebrew Bible, which tells us how the powerful vibration of trumpets and the drumbeat of marching feet toppled the walls of Jericho. In modern times, we have seen this same harmonic phenomenon in a California bridge undulating in resonance with the frequency of wind blowing all around it. The bridge eventually shattered. Equally unpleasant to many of us is the deep, rumbling bass of automobile speakers passing by and thumping our beating hearts into palpitations.

 

Such "entrainment" sensations can be reversed by a meditative thought, word or rhythmic sound, all of which will rapidly shift any frequency pattern. People have always used chanting and toning to evoke altered states of consciousness and heal with the power of sound.

 

I've recently read, but have not yet verified, that Egyptian hieroglyphics show adepts using the vibrations of their voices to heal their patients' energy fields. It makes sense intuitively that if we fully understood the capabilities of frequency and vibration, we would be able to heal anything.

 

The racial memory of these abilities, lost through the ages, has been restored to us by Cayce and others. Researchers reading of Cayce's glimpses into the distant past believe that the mastery of sound technology is how the Mayans, Aztecs and Egyptians moved 100-ton boulders hundreds of miles and up mountainsides to build megalithic temples and pyramids.

 

David Elkington's meticulously researched book, In the Name of the Gods, claims that Egypt's pyramids were not meant to be burial chambers, but were frequency modulators for spiritual ascension and for quickening the mummified dead. Like sacred cairns and stone circles, pyramidal structures amplify the resonance of chanting voices and may have been used to raise the frequencies of the crystalline human body into harmony with the crystalline healing frequencies of the Earth. We know today that this frequency, 7.8 hertz, is a fundamental brain wave frequency of meditation and spontaneous healing by hands-on practitioners.

 

Hindus, Buddhists and many Westerners harmonize the body-mind by chanting the familiar "Om" or singing the word "Hu," the Sufi and Eckankar seed sound for God. (Eckankar is the present-day Religion of the Light and Sound of God.) The vowel sounds in these words move energy through the abdominal, cardio-pulmonary and cranial cavities of the body when we focus on feeling this movement of loving, divine energy, rather than how we sound to others. The key to chanting and toning is being present to it.

 

Here's a powerful chant from ancient Egypt, resurrected in trance by Edgar Cayce and explained in a little book, Music as the Bridge, published by Cayce's Association of Research and Enlightenment (edgarcayce.org) in Virginia Beach. I've asked people, during my talks and workshops, to sing this chant and always hear beautiful harmonic overtones that carry the singers into deep meditative states. Cayce said this particular chant awakens our ability to draw ourselves into the divine and the divine into us. See if it works for you!

 

Surrounding yourself with a sacred circle of love, chant the word ar-ar-r-r--e-e-e--o-o-o--mmm. Fill your pelvis and navel with this rich, resonant "ar-ar-r-r" (as in ah-r) and with your whole body sound the "eeeeee" (as in eat) in your solar plexus, moving the breath upward and directing the "oooooo" (as in oh) to the heart and throat, then the uuuuuu (as in blue) to the base and center of the brain, and the "mmmmm" (as in room) to the forehead and frontal lobe of your brain. You will feel this last sound vibrating the very bones of your head.

 

If you sit with this chant for awhile, you'll feel the currents of spiritual love coursing through your body-mind, and a river of peace will carry you into the Oneness of perfect love. Share your peace and healing by visualizing your loved ones and Earth's people basking in joy.

 

Joy is the natural outcome of these pathways into the Oneness, for here we feel the perfection in all things and know ourselves to be one with the Divine. All pain, loss and sorrow fall away in this journey toward the Light and Sound of God. In the beautiful music of this illuminated Oneness, we soar on wings of freedom and joy, at home in our place of true belonging, forever.

 

(c)2004, Judith Pennington.  All rights in all media reserved.

 

Judith Pennington is a writer, workshop leader and author of a critically acclaimed book on the soul and consciousness: The Voice of the Soul: A Journey into Wisdom and the Physics of God. Visit her website, www.eaglelife.com, to read articles related to this one and to sign up for her free e-newsletter, The Still, Small Voice, and e-zine, OneWorld.

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KNOW THYSELF: The Authentic Self

 By John Fairhart


Chiseled over the portals

of the ancient Greek temple

at Delphi: Gnothi Seauton

      “Know Thyself”

 

When I was in the ninth grade, I played on my school’s football team.  During one of our games, I had an experience of the authentic Self.  As I was running with the football towards the goal line, my attention was pulled inward.  I saw and felt a powerful presence deep within my solar plexus. This experience lasted only a few moments, but as I was running out of the end zone to meet my teammates who were rushing towards me to celebrate our score, I felt an inner peace. 

 

I soon forgot about that profound experience and didn’t remember it again until my early thirties when I began my own search for the inner Self.   For most of my life, I lived with a compelling need to search for something that I could not define or articulate.  In retrospect, I believe my soul longed for completion, which can only be fulfilled through experiencing the supreme love that exists within every human heart.  At the time, I attempted to satisfy that intense desire by looking to my spouse to fill my emptiness, seeking the approval of others, wanting to achieve financial success and being someone important. Unfortunately, I had so much pain and heartache, it was not possible for me to experience any love within myself.  When I did look at myself, I felt dissatisfied, lonely, hurt and depressed.  And by always looking outside of myself to find inner peace and happiness, I was disappointed every time.

 

Everyone, regardless of how happy or unhappy he or she may feel, has a natural desire to improve his or herself in one way or another.  We all long to live in a natural state of love and joy.   This longing ultimately leads us to ask, “What is the purpose of my life?  How can I experience constant love and joy?  Why can’t I actualize the person I know that I am capable of being or the life I really want to live?”

 

The answers to all of those questions, and others like it, naturally requires us to look at who we are.  Until we master our predominate thoughts and feelings, we cannot live in the ecstasy of love and bliss, which emanates from the inner Self.  The authentic Self lives within everyone and it patiently waits for us to wake up to the truth of who we really are.  Your authentic Self is hidden within you.  You must go within to discover it and to experience your true greatness.   So, how do we go about discovering our true, authentic Self?  What steps must a person take to discover and know our own inner love and contentment?

 

In order to “Know Thyself” it is necessary to understand that we have a higher Self and a lower self.   By clearly identifying all of the parts that make up our totality, it is possible to distinguish between our small petty self, which is the source of all types of suffering, and the authentic Self, which is the sole source of true love, lasting happiness and supreme contentment.  Once we are aware of who we are, it is possible to overcome everything that blocks us from realizing our dream of attaining a state of constant satisfaction and fulfillment.   There are specific techniques that eliminate all of the inner obstacles that block us from experiencing our authentic Self.  And of course, if we don’t know how to recognize our authentic Self, then we stay stuck in our small petty self.  

 

During my seventeen-year search for the true Self, I discovered the simple truth of how to recognize the authentic Self and what to do to overcome all of the pain and obstacles that block us from supreme contentment.   The path of Self-discovery and Self-realization is universal to all spiritual paths and religions.  You do not have to change your beliefs or your faith to realize your authentic Self. 

 

The primary purpose of life is to discover the love that lives within you and to create a life of love.  This inner love is the natural state of your authentic Self.  There is nothing better, there is nothing higher, and there is nothing more fulfilling than living an authentic life.  When you live in a constant state of love, your life works.  In order to get from where we presently are and the life we are living to our authentic Self and a life of love, we need to understand that we must shift our identification away from our small petty self and identify with our authentic Self. 

 

The transition from identification with our petty, small self to our true, authentic Self is a path that leads to Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization.  For the first time, the Discover The Self course clearly and succinctly identifies the authentic Self and teaches you simple but effective techniques to put you in the experience of your authentic Self.    

 

John Fairhart is a published author, speaker and trainer on how to discover and know the authentic Self.  He has written a revolutionary course, which is available at www.DiscoverTheSelf.com, that will transform your understanding of who you really are.  Armed with the knowledge of how to recognize your authentic Self, you will be empowered to experience the greatness that is your very own Self
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A Journey From Faith and Back

By

Steve Hart

Someone recently asked me why I believe what I believe. He stated that he thought one should start from a point of eliminating any concept of God and to use my mind to work forward from the point of zero knowledge of any such entity. He maintained that if I did so I would realize their was no such being. I replied that I had actually done just what he’d suggested many years ago and that this was how I actually came back from a period (about three years) of atheism. The following letter is my response to him and my description of that journey.

This part is a quote from his letter to me: Personally, I would think the more logical approach would be to completely eliminate the God concept from ones mind and work forward from the point of zero knowledge of any such entity, than to take the present entity and work backwards from it.

My response begins here: You'll probably find this difficult to believe, but that's the exact route I took to arrive at my present situation. I was an atheist for a few years during my early twenties. I had been raised Catholic and when I came to understand that there was just something wrong with certain parts of the Bible, (the God of love directing His followers to slay their enemies was a big one), I totally rejected all belief in God. Kind of like throwing the baby out with the bath water, but I didn't realize it at the time.

What started my turnaround was that I started thinking about myself one day. I knew from science studies that "I" was a bunch of tiny (unimaginably small, actually) particles floating around in space that never touched each other. Where was "I" in this conglomeration? The particles were lifeless and nonsentient. I was an alive, thinking, and feeling entity. The particles formed atoms and molecules, still no "me" there. The atoms and molecules formed amino acids and such; the building blocks of life, but still no "me" in the mix. The amino acids and stuff combined to form (I'm sure you understand it's much more complex than this, but I ain't presentin' no science dissertation), one celled animals. Life at last. But still no "me" And, don't forget the lifeless particles that make up the one celled beings. Those particles are still without life, they still whirl around in limited space and NEVER touch each other. Where the hell was I? For that matter, where the hell were the one celled animals, or whatever awareness they possess? Now, of course the one celled entities grouped (some of them), and formed my liver, my skin, my fingernails, eventually my whole body. Now at last "I" am present. I am aware. I am a living, breathing, fornicating (when my wife let's me), beast of the planet. I feel the center of my awareness. It seems to be in my head. My brain, I guess. But wait.

My brain is composed of uncountable billions of lifeless particles buzzing around in space. No life in these things. They, in and of themselves cannot be me. And the cells that make up my body? They don't even know "I" exist. At most their awareness extends to their neighbors. They certainly don't understand that they have a job to do, and that job is to be a mere cog in some big machine that they don't have even the slightest conception of. I think you'll agree the cells lack this level of awareness. No scientist I am aware of would grant them anything more than a very rudimentary level of self awareness. I doubt that the liver cells ever heard of the kidney cells. If they did, they'd probably organize a raid so they could capture a few wives J .

After contemplating this conundrum for more than a year, I slowly came to the conclusion that I must be more than this. And therefore, life must be more than the sum total of its lifeless parts. And yes, this understanding that life was more than the sum total of its lifeless parts did lead me to believe that there was something more behind it all, something beyond my understanding. I finally admitted to myself that there probably was some universe creator. I still was not ready to accept God. At least not God as I understood Him to be at the time. No, that guy was mean, petty, vindictive, and small. Fear of God? Damn right, if that's what He was like. But I saw no reason to fear whatever is behind the creation of the universe.

I began studying the world's religions to see if any of them made sense. I bought all the books out at the time (my library is still overstuffed with them to this day), including the lesser known ones like Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, and even the cabala (Jewish mystical tradition), and each seemed as silly as the other (my apologies to any who take offense at these words, but that was how I felt at the time). After each book, or series of books, that I read, I had more questions than when I had started them. I still had my original questions unanswered, and now had others waiting in line behind them. This quest for God was becoming an endless trek down a winding path that seemed headed for nowhere. Or worse, a "dead" end.

I finally came across some texts that answered all my questions. That not only proclaimed a God of love, mercy, and perfection, but answered in the most beautiful and sensible way such mind-numbing questions as how a God of love could allow the suffering we witness and experience every day. It answered the questions of who we are, where we came from, and where we are going in terms and concepts that rang loud and clear in my heart. It made sense of the whole picture. Not only that, it made beautiful, logical, and thrilling sense. After nearly thirty years of studying these texts, I am still excited over them. I am still thrilled each day as I contemplate my place in the universe. I can embrace everyone, of all faiths, all national origins, and all types as my actual brothers and sisters. I'm not saying I couldn't have loved my brothers and sisters before, in fact I did, but how many belief systems claim that ALL belief systems (including the atheistic faith; don't kid yourself, atheism is faith clothed as cynicism, or skepticism), were equally valid? That it was how you lived, not what you believed that was important? Not many. In fact, I've only found one, Unitarian Universalism, and that's not exactly a belief system, more of a 'come on down and join us, no matter what you believe.' I don't fault the Unitarians in any way. I'm just saying that they don't really have a belief system, and that's fine. Especially when you consider how the alternative has driven wedges between people for thousands of years.

So there you have it. I took your advice over thirty years ago. I

completely eliminate(d) the God concept from (my) mind and work(ed) forward from the point of zero knowledge of any such entity,

Oh yeah, those texts I came across over twenty years ago? I have recently published an updated and easier to read version of a part of them, (the most pertinent part), and they are available on my website under the title "The Greatest Story Ever Revealed."

Cheers,

Steve Hart, Editor

"The Greatest Story Ever Revealed"

www.stevehartbooks.com
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"Wisdom of the Sadhu: Teachings of Sundar Singh"

[Sundar Singh (1889-1929) is known as India's most famous convert to Christianity. However, that reputation is misguided, for Sundar Singh never accepted the religion as such but emphasized instead the life-changing starkness of Jesus' original teachings. If anything, he was the ultimate heretic - an uncompromising critic of convention and a scandal to the comfortable. Leaving a wealthy home at sixteen to live as a sadhu, or wandering holy man, Sundar Singh soon became the stuff of legends. Though hugely popular in India and Europe during his lifetime, his simple yet profound parables have not been readily available in English for decades.]

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dharma - devotion

Once as I wandered in the mountains, I came upon an outcropping of rocks, and as I sat on the highest rock to rest and look out over the valley, I saw a nest in the branches of a tree. The young birds in the nest were crying noisily. Then I saw how the mother bird returned with food for her young ones. When they heard the sound of her wings and felt her presence nearby, they cried all the more loudly and opened their beaks wide. But after the mother bird fed them and flew away again, they were quiet. Climbing down to look more closely, I saw that the newly hatched birds had not yet opened their eyes. Without even being able to see their mother, they opened their beaks and begged for nourishment whenever she approached.

These tiny birds did not say: "We will not open our beaks until we can see our mother clearly and also see what kind of food she offers. Perhaps it is not our mother at all but instead some dangerous enemy. And who knows if it is proper nourishment or some kind of poison that is being fed to us?"

If they had reasoned thus, they would never have discovered the truth. Before they were even strong enough to open their eyes, they would have starved to death. But they held no such doubts about the presence and love of their mother, and so after a few days, they opened their eyes and rejoiced to see her with them. Day by day they grew stronger and developed into the form and likeness of the mother, and soon they were able to soar up into the freedom of the skies.

We humans often think of ourselves as the greatest living beings, but do we not have something to learn from these common birds? We often question the reality and the loving nature of God. But the Master has said: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." Whenever we open our hearts to God, we receive spiritual nourishment and grow more and more into the likeness of God until we reach spiritual maturity. And once we open our spiritual eyes and see God's presence, we find indescribable and unending bliss.

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A scientist had a bird in his hand. He wanted to find out in what part of the bird's body its life was and what the life itself was. So he began dissecting the bird. The result was that the very life of which he was in search mysteriously vanished. Those who try to understand the inner life merely intellectually will meet with a similar failure.

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amrita - eternity

The fitness of our hearts and thoughts to receive God's spirit is like that of violin strings. If they are properly tuned, in harmony with one another, then the touch of the bow produces beautiful music. If not, then there is only discord. Whenever our hearts are truly ready to receive God's spirit, they will produce heavenly airs and joyous harmonies - both in this life and in the spiritual world.

Once a poor beggar sat for twenty-one years on top of a buried treasure without knowing it. He burned so hotly with desire for money that he even hoarded the pennies he received. Yet, he finally died in utter poverty. Because the greedy man sat so long in that one spot, a rumor arose that he had hidden something valuable there. So the governor had the place excavated and the hidden treasure chest was found, filled with precious gems. The greedy beggar died in ignorance of the wealth that lay a few inches under him, and in the end the riches went instead into the royal treasury. God's promise of bliss is very near to us - in our mouths and in our hearts.

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darshana - the divine presence

The story is told of a poor grass cutter who found a beautiful stone in the jungle. He had often heard of people finding valuable diamonds and thought this must be one. He took it to a jeweler and showed it to him with delight. Being a kind and sympathetic man, the jeweler knew that if he bluntly told the grass cutter that his stone was worthless glass, the man would either refuse to believe it or else fall into a state of depression. So instead, the jeweler offered the grass cutter some work in his shop so that he might become better acquainted with precious stones and their value.

Meanwhile, the man kept his stone safely locked away in a strongbox. Several weeks later, the jeweler encouraged the man to bring out his own stone and examine it. As soon as he took it out of the chest and looked at it more closely, he immediately saw that it was worthless. His disappointment was great, but he went to the jeweler and said: "I thank you that you did not destroy my hope but aided me instead to see my mistake on my own. If you will have me, I will stay with you and faithfully serve you, as you are a good and kind master."

In the same way, God leads back to truth those who have wandered into error. When they recognize the truth for themselves, they gladly and joyfully give themselves in obedient service.

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karma - bondage

People may not even be aware of their mortal danger. They are like the hunter who caught sight of a honeycomb on the branch of a tree overhanging a river. Catching sight of the honey, he forgot everything else and quickly climbed up. The honey was sweet and he was so enchanted by its flavor that he did not notice the alligators waiting in the stream below. Nor did he see that around the foot of the tree, wolves had gathered. Worst of all, he didn't notice that the tree itself was infested with termites and was not strong enough to bear his weight.

While he was still enjoying the honey, the tree fell and the hunter fell prey to the alligators. So too, the human spirit enjoys for a time the pleasant but fleeting delights of the senses, forgetting that the world is like a jungle fraught with dangers of every kind. Sin gnaws at the very foundation of our lives, threatening to fling us to our spiritual deaths.

The evil of this world lures us with clever words and beguiling enticements like certain snakes that fascinate small birds with their glittering eyes until they can devour them.

Or think of the moth that gives no thought to the burning, destructive power of the fire. Fascinated by the flashing brilliance of the flame, it rushes to its own death. Likewise we often see only the allurements of the material world, seeking quick gratification of our own urges, and so rush headlong into spiritual death.

Once in the depth of winter, a bird of prey was busy feasting on a corpse that was floating toward a waterfall. When the bird came near the falls he wanted to leave the corpse and escape. But his claws were frozen to it and he could not fly away. He fell into the roaring waters and died a miserable death. Likewise, if we allow sin to numb our consciences, we become powerless to escape death and danger ahead, no matter how we struggle to escape.

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seva - service

There are many people who waste precious chances to serve God and their fellow human beings. They should rouse themselves and make full use of the time that is given to them. Once a hunter picked up some pretty stones by a river in the jungle. He used them to shoot at birds with his slingshot, and so one by one they disappeared into the water and were lost.

Some time later, he was in a city and wandered through the market absent-mindedly tossing and catching the one stone he still had left. A jeweler caught sight of it, marveled at such a precious gem and offered to buy it for several thousand rupees. When the hunter recognized the value of his stone, he cried out: "Woe is me! I have been carelessly shooting gems into the river. I could have been a millionaire. But thank God I have saved at least this one."

Every day of our lives is like a precious diamond. We may have wasted countless days already in idle and selfish pursuits, so that they are now lost in the depths of the past.

But let us at least awake now, see the value of the days that remain and use them to acquire spiritual wealth. If we use them in selfless service to God and if we use them to warn others who are still frivolously throwing away their days in pursuit of fleeting pleasures, then we will gain the boundless treasure of heavenly bliss.

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tapas - suffering

If a newborn child does not cry out and scream, then it must be slapped until it does. No one has joy in slapping a child - only the longing that it makes full use of its lungs and draws in life-giving air. So in perfect love, God may strike us with blows and stings of pain so that the breath of prayer flows freely through the lungs of our souls. This is the only way we can become strong and fit for eternal life.

Look at the pearl. A pearl is a product of pain and suffering. Tormented by some foreign matter against its soft flesh, the oyster responds by embracing the irritant and transforming it into an object of great beauty. The creation of the pearl not only provides relief to the oyster but is also a source of wonder and pleasure to many others. But beware! The unique luster of the pearl can be easily destroyed. Ink or oils can contaminate and destroy its beauty. Pearls laid in ancient tombs often decay with the corpse of their owners; the dust of the pearls is then mingled with the dust of the dead.

Spiritual life - like the pearl - grows out of pain and suffering. And even when the pain has been transformed into a thing of beauty, the lustre of our spiritual lives can easily become contaminated and decay.

Thousands of years of heat and pressure come to bear on black carbon before it is transformed into a precious diamond. Even then, diamonds do not dazzle unless they have first been cut. When cut and polished, then the rays of the sun make them shine with wonderful colors. Scientists may manufacture artificial diamonds in laboratories, but careful examination exposes their inferiority. Likewise, we cannot attain spiritual perfection without passing through pain and suffering.


CREDIT LINE:

Excerpted from Wisdom of the Sadhu: Teachings of Sundar Singh (Plough, 2000).

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Negativity: The Silent Killer

This sucks! I hate reading. Why do I have to think positively? What's the point? We talk to ourselves constantly throughout the day and that never-ending dialogue has a dramatic affect on our lives. You may not notice how often you put yourself down or think negatively during the span of just a few minutes. Whether it's thinking you're not good enough to do a certain thing, or feeling down about messing something up, you create your reality with each thought.

Some research has shown that there is a correlation between thoughts and manifestation in the body. For example, by thinking about a juicy lemon and imagining yourself biting into one, you may begin to have the physical response of salivation. This also holds true for thoughts about yourself and the situations you are faced with. For instance, if you are trying to run a mile in 7 minutes and constantly tell yourself you can't do it, chances are very good that you'll never be able to do it. In contrast, by telling yourself over and over again that you can do it and visualizing yourself completing the mile in 7 minutes, your potential for success is much greater.

Let's examine just how much negativity we carry with us throughout the day. I'd like you to try a little experiment over the next few days. Keep a notepad with you or a tape recorder and try to record every negative thought you have throughout the day. These can be as simple as comments like the following:

I'm so stupid. I can't believe I messed that up.
What's wrong with me?
I'm so clumsy.
I'm not ready for this test.
I can't.
I'm not smart enough to do this.
I worry too much.
I'll never get that job.
I'm so depressed.
I never know what to say.

These are just a few of the thousands of negative thoughts we have throughout the day. You may be surprised at just how many thoughts you really have that aren't "good for you". Now that you know you have them, let's talk about what you can do to get rid of them. The first step with all "programs" for change is becoming aware of the problem. Knowing you are having a negative thought is the most important part of getting rid of it. Most of us go about our day not even realizing that so many of our thoughts are negative. We are trained from birth to feel insecure and have doubts about our strengths and abilities. These are reaffirmed by our friends, family and other outside influences.

In order to take charge of these thoughts, you must become aware of each thought as it occurs. As soon as you recognize that the thought is negative, turn the thought around and make it positive. For example, if you're trying to figure out a math problem and you think to yourself, "I'm not smart enough to do this," turn that around and say to yourself, "I can solve this math problem." At first, you'll have to constantly remind yourself about this and will have to keep consciously changing your thoughts into positive ones, but over time, this will become natural and your first thought will be the positive one. Depending on how deeply ingrained these negative thoughts are, it may take months of reprogramming to feel the results, so hang in there.

Also realize I'm not saying that just by having one positive thought, you'll suddenly solve that math problem, or make your life perfect over night. What I am saying is that as you begin to change each of your negative thoughts, you'll begin to notice a feeling of incredible self-confidence and happiness. As a result, you'll be able to accomplish more then you ever imagined possible. And, you will find an answer to that pesky math problem sooner or later.

Any significant change takes time and energy. To help you to maintain a positive outlook, remember to meditate every day, if possible. Tension and stress play a big role in negative thinking, so regular meditation can help to dramatically improve how you feel about yourself and your surroundings

Ali Sharifi has been teaching meditation and self-hypnosis since 1995 and is the President of The Sage Within, a company dedicated to helping people tap into their inner wisdom through practical exercises and useful information.

Visit http://sagewithin.com/redir.asp?RefID=217 for FREE audio guided meditations, FREE articles, and our FREE monthly meditation newsletter.

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Will Clones Have Souls?
The Spiritual Future of Artificial Intelligence


by Michael Levy
PointOfLife.com


There is much controversy today over the cloning of human beings. Scientists have successfully cloned sheep and other animals and it can only be a matter of time before we have walking, talking replicas of ourselves. I am not getting into the discussion of whether it is wrong or right, for that will be a debate that will rage for a long time to come. Science and religion have always been at loggerheads with each other. There is no wrong or right and many wars are caused by strong beliefs that rely on the ego's view of the world. The only truth is spirits' truth, not just the stand-alone human ego.

The Question here is will a clone have a soul?

I asked this question recently on a spiritual forum and the views of some very well respected spiritual folks were quite mixed. I concluded that it all depends on how we define a soul and who we think we are. These are deep probing questions and many philosophers of the past have come up with a variety of answers, but humanity as a whole has not settled on any one answer to date.

So what is the answer. Lets look into the future and take one scenario:

A person by the name of Will is fifty years old and lives as an atheist. Will has undergone many cosmetic surgeries for vanity. Does Will have a soul? Of course he does; right? He may not recognize God, but that does not mean God does not exist. Atheists may not know if they have a soul, that does not mean they do not have one.

Now Will is very wealthy and decides they would like a clone of himself so his image is left behind after he dies. The clone is made and is physically identical to how Will looked when he was young - all natural with no cosmetic surgery. The clone studies hard, grows up very religious and becomes a priest. Does the minister not have a soul? Will God disown the minister? Who is to cast the first stone? Is the "Will" of God the same as the "Will" of the clone?

What about the advancement with microchips? Very soon we will have robots that can think for themselves. Maybe solar powered, or they may even be powered by inhaling oxygen. Science fiction is fast becoming science reality. Androids may well look just like humans, but that is artificial life and a machine will not have a soul - or will it? It may well be the machines become more intelligent than humans and we are ruled by them. Extreme thoughts but possible some time in the future.

Now more than ever folks need to understand who they are and the reason they exist. If we go through life with no idea of who we truly are, we will get more and more lost in the high-tech revolution. We need a sound foundation to build our lives upon.

Every life form contains a soul, and even a clone will have a soul once the breath of life is infused into the body. We will never be able to know who was born and who is a clone. Spirit is in all life and those that want to think humans have an exclusive contract with spirit will feel anger and hatred towards a cloned human, if they can distinguish one from a naturally created human. Many folks will say a clone has no soul therefore is not really human.

Many folks think they are superior to a dog or cat. Many folks believe animals don't possess a soul. All this blind "dogma" has been programmed in humans for thousands of years. That is why most folks can't be happy. They have to guard their possessions and many humans believe that they possess God exclusively of all other species of life. Some even go so far as to think some other humans are not in God's camp at all. Many different tribes of thought, lined up in divisions of ego's blind thinking and so much time wasted worrying and hating others.

Oh! by the way, did I mention genetic engineering? I heard today they can put genes in our foods to make us fit and well. Maybe also to control our minds in case we feel like rioting against the clones?

Athletes are experimenting with all kinds of stuff to make them compete faster. One-hundredth of a second can mean the difference of big money sponsorship and athletes will try anything to make themselves winners. The latest thing I read was wasp juice from the larvae of killer hornets gives a big boost. Some seek a menu of caterpillar fungus, seal penis and extract of sea horse. How lip-smackingly scrumptious!

With such competition in sports, it will not be long before gene therapy is introduced and injected into sports folk. We will be able to tailor-make our bodies. No need of the surgeon's scalpel. So we will remanufacture a human being to suit a trend. We will become designer beings. Stem cells are cloned cells so many humans will be injected with cloned cells. Does this mean they will lose their soul? The possibilities of modern science boggles the mind. The cures for many diseases maybe just a few years away. No illness means longer lives. Can the planet cope with a population explosion?

This is just a brief glimpse into the future. What would folks say who lived two hundred years ago and could comment on today's lifestyles? Whatever will be will be. Science will advance and humans will survive in spite of their ego selves.

The moments of life are precious and few. We are put on earth to enjoy our lives and what wonderment there is to see a sunrise, to hear the birds sing, to gaze at a sunset. The free things in life are enough. Simplicity in all things is the answer in any era. Everything else is just the icing on the cake. How big a slice do we need?

Remember: Enjoy life and don't fret about so-called advancements. All is perfection in the souls' world and that is the real eternal world. We are all souls together and NOTHING CAN ALTER SPIRIT.

We all need to recognize we are the energy that drives the motor, we are not the motor. We are the energy that feeds the mind, we are not the mind. We are the energy that feeds the thoughts, we are not the thoughts. We take a ride on the carousel of life, but we must remember not to go round so fast or it will make us sick and dizzy. The seesaw makes for one down and one up and we don't want others down at our expense. Best we all ascend in spirits' elevator together.

Michael Levy's poetry and essays can be found on many websites, journals and magazines. He is a renowned guest speaker on finance, wellness and inspiration. He has appeared on TV in the USA and UK and hundreds of radio stations throughout the world. His New book "Invest With A Genius" is now available from all bookstores world wide.See his website at http://www.pointoflife.com

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How to Keep a Spiritual Journal : A Guide to Journal Keeping for Inner Growth and Personal Discovery

How to Keep a Spiritual Journal : A Guide to Journal Keeping for Inner Growth and Personal Discovery



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The Butterfly,
Transformation's Perfect Role Model

By Cindy Griffith
Why the butterfly? Because it doesn't freak out when it knows it's time to change! It just sees change as the next step. In it's caterpillar stage, it creates it's little cocoon, goes inside, and when times up, and after quite a work out, it emerges, transformed into a butterfly. It stretches it's new found wings and flies away to discover it's new vistas!
Why can't we do that? First we would complain that we have to sit still. "I'm stagnating! I must be off my path!" then we'd cry "Oh no it's dark, it (I) must be bad!" Then, when time to come out, "let someone else do the work. I'll be the supportive one." "You want me to fly? I'm still processing!" "I'm not allowed to fly, I fell down in a past life and it's my Karma to stay forever on the ground!"" I can't just take off without knowing where I am going!"
I remember hearing that when we are stopped, it's because God is busy working out the details. It's just like the down time the caterpillar has to go through in order to be the butterfly. Can you imagine if the caterpillar said, "I can't stop now and just hang out in a cocoon!