June | 2012 | Religion4All

Practical Tantra: Intro to the Rasas and Anuttara – Tasting the Emotions: Working with Desire.

Practical Tantra: Intro to the Rasas and Anuttara – Tasting the Emotions: Working with Desire

June 30, 2012 at 1:24 pm · Filed under Faith, Healing, Health, Life, Living, Meditation, Religion, Spirituality, Zen

Really wonderful advice for getting deep and meaningful experiences out of meditation!!

Be True to Yourself

June 30, 2012 at 1:13 pm · Filed under Spirituality

Be True to Yourself.

Great quotes to meditate on!

Colored Toys

June 30, 2012 at 7:08 am · Filed under Authors, Faith, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Poetry, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

My words to meditate on for the day … this is how God looks at us; at you, at me:

Colored Toys

When I bring to you colored toys, my child,
I understand why there is such a play of colors on clouds, on water,
and why flowers are painted in tints
—when I give colored toys to you, my child.

When I sing to make you dance
I truly know why there is music in leaves,
and why waves send their chorus of voices to the heart of the listening earth
—when I sing to make you dance.

When I bring sweet things to your greedy hands
I know why there is honey in the cup of the flowers
and why fruits are secretly filled with sweet juice
—when I bring sweet things to your greedy hands.

When I kiss your face to make you smile, my darling,
I surely understand what pleasure streams from the sky in morning light,
and what delight that is that is which the summer breeze brings to my body
—when I kiss you to make you smile.

Rabindranath Tagore

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Picture from Fine Art America

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Invisible Life Bird

June 30, 2012 at 6:51 am · Filed under Authors, Faith, Healing, Health, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Poetry, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Songs, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

Hiding in this cage

“Hiding in this cage
of visible matter

is the invisible
lifebird

pay attention
to her

she is singing
your song.”

Saint Kabir

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* photo from Flickr page

——-

Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Modern Day Prophet?

June 29, 2012 at 10:35 pm · Filed under Bible, Bible Verse, Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

In meditating on my prior post (“Isaiah 35“) I was struck by the fact that Isaiah was a prophet. Many prophesies that he made came true; some for the near future of that time. Others were for the distant future … like John with the book of Revelations.

In today’s world, we generally meet the word “prophet” with skepticism. Most recently, I recall Harold Camping getting HUGE publicity for predicting “the end of the world” as being May 21st of this year. In modern religions, I see SO many false prophets that it truthfully baffles the mind. This is apparent, just like the Bible says … BY THEIR FRUIT! If their fruit is full of hatred, or judgement … guess what? It’s false. If their fruit is just speculation to aggrandize themselves … guess what? It’s false!

When you look in the Bible … did Isaiah ever give an exact date and time?? I will not be the one to limit God … certainly God is capable of showing someone the exact time of some major event. I just don’t see this as being something God has done throughout history.

God uses people to do miracles. God uses people to show LOVE to the world. God also uses people to prophesy. Usually these prophecies, though, are more clear in retrospect than they are in the present … we can look back in retrospect and see how what Isaiah said was truly prophecy. At the time though … I’m sure there were many skeptics. There were many skeptics for just about every prophet in the Bible. I would imagine that the same is true for probably every other religion … prophets (often like artists) are only appreciated and validated in retrospect.

I suppose what I really received from this meditation, in terms of how my relationship with God has evolved, is that we as humans limit ourselves in SO many ways. We create walls and boundaries for ourselves that we can never break through! These walls are created through what we choose to believe. We choose to believe that these things are fairy tales from the past … or we choose to believe that we are so flawed that we could never be the vehicle for such an amazing phenomenon as a miracle.

We must allow ourselves to be truly broken down … every wall, and barrier, torn down … dismantled. God is capable of anything. We need to be open to that. It doesn’t mean that we will ever do miracles like Jesus, or any of the other great spiritual leaders of the world … whether we are used to that end or not, we need to be open to it. We need to give God the opportunity to do whatever God wants to do through us … whether through creativity, or prayer, or kindness, or healing, or prophecy, or parenthood, or any other facet that we feel called to.

Try and make it your own … and you will be false. Open it to God, and allow God to work through you … however that may turn out … and you will be accomplishing God’s will.

It is not about you though … it is about being SO open, that God can use you for whatever end God intends.

To be in that state … you must reflect God’s love for you … to yourself. You must let go of EVERY vain aspiration that would cause you to go astray from what God is guiding you to. That does not mean you need to give up your dreams … it means that you must give those dreams to God, and trust that you will be led to where you are supposed to be.

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Enlightenment I Pursue

June 29, 2012 at 5:38 pm · Filed under Art, Entertainment, Faith, Healing, Health, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Poetry, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

Going through some old poetry/songs I’ve written and I came across an old favorite:

Enlightenment I Pursue

Religion4All

In the jangled hours of evening

a fog of gathering fears ensue

frightening me toward

enlightenment, yet

beckoning to pursue.

I’ve calmed the dappled haze,

good God,

I’m able now

it’s true.

Come clang upon my

temple’s gong,

your blows only fill me

with new song.

These sounds no longer

shivers make

I’ll dance the night

until you wake

or at least until you’ve gone.

Happiness

is for the taking

there’s plenty to go

around,

unless you attempt

holding on to it

and then it is never

around.

In the jangled hours of evening

a fog of gathering fears ensue

frightening me toward

enlightenment

…

enlightenment

I pursue.

——-

Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Isaiah 35

June 29, 2012 at 9:19 am · Filed under Bible, Bible Verse, Books, Christianity, Faith, Healing, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Theology, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

This was always one of my favorite Bible passages as a teenager – I even wrote a worship song to these lyrics, way back when. For some reason, that song sounded in my head this morning … so I thought it would be a good passage to meditate on today; from the differing depths and perspectives that my relationship with God has grown and evolved since then:

³Strengthen the feeble hands,
    steady the knees that give way;
⁴say to those with fearful hearts,
    “Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
    he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
    he will come to save you.”

⁵Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
⁶Then will the lame leap like a deer,
    and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
    and streams in the desert.
⁷The burning sand will become a pool,
    the thirsty ground bubbling springs.

– Isaiah 35: 3-7

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Chasing Pavements – Adele

June 28, 2012 at 9:46 pm · Filed under Entertainment, Faith, Healing, Health, Life, Living, Meditation, Music, Musician, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Singer, Songs, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

I don’t know why but ever since my last post, “Grasping at the Shadow“, this song has been running through my head. It actually seems like the perfect musical finale to that post …

“Should I give up, or should I just keep chasing pavements?”

Well, according to what I received from my earlier meditations (detailed in that post) … BOTH of those things would be the wrong choices … both of those choices would have been based in the flaws of our own humanity, as opposed to the ultimate bit that God gave me at the end of that meditation:

We shouldn’t give up … and we shouldn’t keep “chasing pavements” either … we should be content in our connection with God … and trust that what God has in store for us is FAR better than the fickle machinations we come up with. God knows what is best for us.

A wonderful example of this happened recently in my own life. My sister just got married to the love of her life. My sister who dealt with abuse, the death of her father at a young age, got into drugs in high school, married a drug dealer at 18 and had 4 kids. Her husband ended up going to prison and she raised all of the kids on her own as a poor, single mother (for most of their lives). Her kids (by the way) are some of the most well-adjusted, most loved young adults I have ever known … thanks to her incredible strength and the Love that she showed them.

They’re all grown now. She has been on her own for a while, and she never really thought she would meet another man to rival the love of her life from her teens. Well … she did. She is more happy than she has ever even dreamed of being … she has had two grandkids this year, and her youngest daughter is getting married … AND she married her soul-mate … in comparison to this connection, she didn’t even know what that was until now.

I said to her … “Isn’t it pretty amazing? After ALL of the things that you have been through? God knew that this is where you would end up. If all of those horrible things hadn’t happened, you would be in a completely different place in your life. Would you want them changed now?”

Of course she wouldn’t … she is in love, and living out what has always been a fantasy for her. My point is … we don’t know what is going to happen. We can try to make what we want happen, and then just go through life flailing away … trying to make everything fit our mold … OR we can focus on what we have, and trust that God will cause things to happen as they are supposed to happen.

God loves you more than anything you could chase after … however trite that may sound; go ahead, roll your eyes … it’s true. You are LOVED.

——-

Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Grasping at the Shadow

June 28, 2012 at 5:31 pm · Filed under Faith, Healing, Health, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

In my meditations today (on my prior post, “Aesop’s Fables“) I found myself inspired by each of the quotes really. I had every intention to write an extended post with a couple of paragraphs for each one. As I continued meditating, I just didn’t feel Divine inspiration down that path. For some reason the very first, and shortest, of the quotes from Aesop’s Fables kept returning to me:

“Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.” – Aesop

There are lots of ways that one could go with this quote:

I could say to a friend, or loved one, “Don’t take me for granted just because I am always here for you. Yes, I love you unconditionally … but this does not make me weak, rather it exhibits the strength of my love … that will not likely be found in a fantasy/shadow.”

I could say to myself, “Be grateful for the things that you have and stop pining for the things, or circumstances, that you hope for. Sit back in your awareness, and find the things that you are grateful for in the here and now … and let the fantasies/shadows dance in the pale moonlight … alone. What will be, will be.”

What I felt God actually prompt me toward was this:

“Stop pining for the fantasies/shadows that would distract you, or derail you, from your relationship with Me. If you try to force your own desires into reality, that is exactly what you will accomplish … for even if what you get is what I wanted you to have … you will have gotten it in the wrong way … and it will fall away and wither as a result. WAIT on Me, be CONTENT with Me, and TRUST Me … I will make you happy beyond your wildest dreams and imaginations.”

Good words from God, those. 🙂

——-

Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Aesop’s Fables

June 28, 2012 at 9:38 am · Filed under Authors, Books, Entertainment, Faith, Healing, Health, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Theology, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

My words and thoughts for meditation today – from Aesop’s Fables:

“Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.” – Aesop

Cherish what you have.

——-

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – Aesop

Open-hearted kindness is always rewarded … even if the reward differs from our expectation.

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“A doubtful friend is worse than a certain enemy. Let a man be one thing or the other, and we then know how to meet him.” – Aesop

This speaks to Unconditional Love … we must love truly, and be there for our friends with whole-hearted support – no matter their trials, mistakes, or tribulations.

– and finally –

“Don’t let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth – don’t let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency.” – Aesop

You are completely unique – there has never been anyone like you, and there will never be anyone like you again. Don’t smother that sacred part of you that is you at your MOST beautiful … embrace it, and know that you are LOVED.

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Blind from birth

June 27, 2012 at 10:32 pm · Filed under Bible, Bible Verse, Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

Could something such as this be done WITHOUT creativity?? Would the logical mind think to do such a thing? Of course not! God is the God of Creation … and thus Creativity. If we want to be used by God … we need to allow God to Create through us.

“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.

And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

We must work the works of him who sent mewhile it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud

and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.”

John 9: 1-7, the Bible

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

A Way to Live Life

June 27, 2012 at 2:26 pm · Filed under Faith, Healing, Health, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Theology, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

In my meditations today (on my prior post, “Ultimately Rich“) I came to dwell on the thought that there are three elements/doctrines to being used by God creatively … or more distinctly, for our creativity to be used Miraculously.

First: we must know God. We must have a relationship with God that is so deep that it surpasses anything else in our lives. This is accomplished through meditation and having an open heart at all times. When you can always be open, and connected to your Creator … the impossible is possible.

Secondly: we must love ourselves. We must act as a mirror for the depth of love that God has for us … to ourselves. This requires diligence and discipline; to overcome the negative Inner Mind. Some of us have SUCH loathing that has been instilled in our mind … for ourselves! It is a great crime of society at large … and truthfully one of the main reasons I felt led to start this blog … so that EVERYONE can know God’s love. YOU are loved by God … just as you are. If God can unconditionally love and forgive you, after all of the pain and rejection God has received from you over the course of your life, surely you can love and forgive yourself!

Thirdly: we must love ourselves in the physical sense. We must treat our body as a temple; the domicile of our greatest Love … God.

All three of these elements interact with each other. If you don’t love your body then that feeds your own negative Inner Voice, which then causes you to shut down your heart and become disconnected from God. If you don’t love yourself, then you will abuse your body in an effort to distract yourself from that self-loathing. If you don’t know God … well then, you have made the decision to never know the only Being who will EVER know you and love you for exactly who you are. The greatest of these is Love … that being a loving and intimate relationship with God.

Most of us have at least one of these aspects working for us: a Relationship with God, Inner Love for Yourself, or Love for your Body/Temple. For the unfortunates who do not have ANY of these things in life … we must show great care, compassion, and love … misery is their constant companion.

For myself, for a long time, I only had one … that was my relationship with God. I have had that from the time I was a small child, and I have adamantly clung to that no matter what. However, for a very long time I did not Love myself … either internally, or externally. So while God could use me to some extent, because the one element (being that Divine relationship) was present, I could never be used by God to my true and full potential.

Presently, I would say that I have the first and second aspects of this Creative Triumvirate in place … and I am working on loving myself in the physical sense. By this I mean eating the proper foods, not drinking alcohol in excess, or really any of the other legal drugs available to us (caffeine, etc.). Notice I say “in excess” … Jesus was known to drink wine, so I am not saying that we should live life as an ascetic. Only that things that are done to excess … deprive us of our connection to God. All of these things, when done in excess affect our mental and emotional well being. Think about it … if you have a hangover, do you really think you will be able to maintain an open-hearted connection with God the next day? I’ve certainly tried … and it is very difficult.

They all work together though … now that I have a constant open-hearted relationship with God, and have learned how to love myself … I see all of the ways in the past that I truly have been abusing this “temple” where God and I live together. So now that prompts me to change them … to move on into the next progression.

When all THREE of these principles are in place in your life … THEN is when God will truly be able to use you to accomplish miraculous things; not only in your life, but in the world around you.

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* Art by Franca Alejandra Franchi

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Ultimately Rich

June 27, 2012 at 8:45 am · Filed under Authors, Bible, Bible Verse, Faith, Healing, Health, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

My words for meditation today (following up on my post from yesterday, “Creativity is the Training Ground for Miracles!”.

^“6Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;

⁷if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching;

⁸or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

⁹Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.”

Romans 12:6-9, The Bible

– AND –

“Meditation will make you ultimately rich by giving you the world of your innermost being and also relatively rich, because it will release your powers of mind into certain talents that you have. My own experience is that everybody is born with a certain talent, and unless he lives that talent to its fullest, something in him will remain missing. He will go on feeling that somehow something is not there that should be.”

– Osho

——-

Painting from Solace Art Therapy

——-

Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Nora Ephron

June 26, 2012 at 7:12 pm · Filed under Entertainment, Movies, Spirituality

This post really has nothing to do with meditation or seeking God … I have just SO enjoyed Nora Ephron’s creativity over my lifetime. Today, she passed away … so I honor that passing with one of the greatest bits of laughter that the last few generations have known.

Comments (4)

Coelho

June 26, 2012 at 6:40 pm · Filed under Authors, Books, Entertainment, Faith, Healing, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen

* from Paolo Coelho’s Facebook page, an excerpt from “Warrior of the Light” … I can’t believe that this is like the only book of his I haven’t read! Must get it!! 🙂

Creativity is the Training Ground for Miracles!

June 26, 2012 at 6:16 pm · Filed under Art, Entertainment, Faith, Healing, Health, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

Have you ever thought that there must be some sort of greater purpose to the creative surging of your soul? You find something that you love, and when you give yourself over to it your spirit soars! You could spend days, weeks, months doing it and never tire of it. The stereotype attached to this is that it must be something artistic … that’s true creativity.

That’s simply not true. We can find creativity within us during just about ANY activity. If your calling is to be the world’s best mom, or dad; you can find amazing and incredible things to do with your kids, and creative ways to show them your love. If your calling is to be a construction worker; you can find creative ways to make yourself the best and most trusted in your trade. Basically … if you LOVE something, or someone … there’s probably a reason for it. Whatever it is … that is part of the unique Creation that is you.

Here’s the thing about creativity though … just because you have it, doesn’t mean that it is necessarily being put to good, or constructive, use. Here’s an example: when I was a suicidally depressed teenager – my teacher remarked that every time she read my poetry she cried. I remember I wrote one piece in particular that just reduced her to a weeping mess … it was about a deer that had been shot through the lungs by an arrow and was dying a slow death. Yeah … REAL uplifting.

What Creativity DOES do is show us the unique gifts that God has blessed us with. When we are connected with God, and unimpeded by the past, worries of the future, and all of the chaos that goes on in the world of today … when we are just CONNECTED to God’s Love. That is when our Creativity can then take on the form of a Miracle.

I enjoy expressing myself through writing (as well as many other forms: cooking, singing, composing music, etc.). You could say that since I gave my life to the arts, I have become a creative being … and that would be true. However, the things that I produced as that creative Being were a direct reflection of who my True Self was at the time … at the time when my True Self was repressed and shackled to an Inner World of fears, rejection, bitterness, anger, and many other things … that was how I expressed myself creatively … those awful things within me were expressed inherently in what I Creatively did in some way, shape, or form.

THAT is why I say that Creativity is the training ground for Miracles. When you have gone within and cleared out all of those ancient blockages. When you have opened yourself to allow the Love of your Creator to wash all of that crap out? Then your Creativity becomes what God always intended it to become all along … a conduit for God to work through you.

Think about it … when you see a painting, or hear a song, that completely takes your breath away … or makes you cry even … there is something MORE to it than just the brush strokes, or vocal gymnastics of the singer. There is a SOUL that is expressed. THAT is a miracle. Raising the most beautiful children in the world, because you allowed God to shape them instead of imposing your own flaws upon them … THAT is a miracle.

Guess what?? LOVING yourself, even though you can find a million ways to loathe yourself … THAT is a Miracle … it is the first Miracle in the line of many more Miracles to come. Learn to Love yourself … you are beautiful, just as you are. God thinks so … and I think so too (because I choose to be a mirror of God’s Love to the world).

You might think that you are paying some sort of penance that you somehow deserve to pay … but that is not God’s Will, or Hope, for you … God wants you to accept how wondrously you are Loved, and embrace that View as how you see yourself. Then your TRUE Creative Self will be unleashed upon the world … for whatever God intends. 🙂

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* this posting came from meditating on my prior post, “Portal of Healing and Creativity“. Picture is from 10000 Victories Kung Fu School.

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Recognise Me In All Things.

Recognise Me In All Things

June 26, 2012 at 12:04 pm · Filed under Faith, Healing, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen

A beautiful writing … it gave me goose-bumps as I heard and received what God had to say :-).

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Portal of Healing and Creativity

June 26, 2012 at 6:45 am · Filed under Art, Faith, Healing, Meditation, Painting, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

My words for meditation today:

“It is your ability as a creative person to envision positive change that will make a difference.”

– Patricia Johanson

– AND –

“The portal of healing and creativity always takes us into the realm of the spirit.”

Angeles Arrien

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* painting by Victoria Pettella

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.