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.
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.
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
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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
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spouse to fill my emptiness, seeking the approval of others, wanting to
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be empowered to experience the greatness that is your very own Self Back To Top
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."
[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).
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.
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 Back To Top
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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!
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