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Sat, 3 January 2009

Spiritual Spice is designed to help you "wear the world like a loose robe." Spiritual Spice is not affiliated with any particular religion, so people from all faiths, or no faith, can feel at home.

The truth is timeless and universal; these blogs and podcasts can be enjoyed over and over. As you change -- they change.

Speaking of timeless, it is Spiritual Spice's pleasure to offer four spiritual classics for sale. Each of these books has stood the test of time, and are as relevant and inspirational today, as when they were first published.

Each of these editions is a pocket-sized labor of love. They are not merely reprints, but the result of many hours of editing grammar, spelling, format, and content.

These books were designed to ensure that "value over cost" was built into each one. Each book can be profitably read many times -- for a lifetime, in fact.

You can find out more about them by clicking here: Spiritual Spice Books

Namaste, Jim O'Neill

No single tradition monopolizes the truth. We must glean the best values of all traditions and work together to remove the tensions between them. If we do , peace will have a chance.
For dialogue to be fruitful, we need to live deeply our own tradition and, at the same time, look and listen deeply to others. We can appreciate the beauty and value of our own and the other's tradition.

Thich Nhat Hanh

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Category: general -- posted at: 1:38 AM

Comments[519]

Sat, 3 January 2009

Spiritual Spice #20 -- The Shack

God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. God is a verb. The word "God" is a verb. An "active" verb -- in the present tense.

Verb: noun Expresses an act, occurrence, or mode of being. From the Latin verbum, meaning "word."

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 (NKJV)

Category: general -- posted at: 1:37 AM

Comments[391]

Sun, 17 June 2007

Spiritual Spice #16 -- Walt Whitman

His favorite occupation seemed to be strolling or sauntering about outdoors by himself, looking at the grass, the trees, the flowers, the vistas of light, the varying aspects of the sky, and listening to the birds, the crickets, the tree frogs, and all the hundreds of natural sounds. It was evident that these things gave him a pleasure far beyond what they give to ordinary people.

Until I knew the man it had not occurred to me that anyone could derive so much absolute happiness from these things as he did. He was very fond of flowers, either wild or cultivated; liked all sorts. I think he admired lilacs and sunflowers just as much as roses. Perhaps, indeed, no man who ever lived liked so many things and disliked so few.

All natural objects seemed to have a charm for him. All sights and sounds seemed to please him. He appeared to like (and I believe he did like) all the men, women, and children he saw...each who knew him felt that he liked him or her, and that he liked others too.

I never knew him to argue or dispute, and he never spoke about money. He always justified, sometimes playfully, sometimes quite seriously, those who spoke harshly of himself or his writings.

When I first knew [him], I used to think that he watched himself, and would not allow his tongue to give expression to fretfulness, antipathy, complaint, and remonstrance. It did not occur to me as possible that these mental states could be absent in him. After long observation, however, I satisfied myself that such absence or unconsciousness was entirely real.

He never spoke deprecatingly of any nationality or class of men, or time in the world's history, or against any trades or occupations, -- against any animals, insects, or inanimate things, nor any of the laws of nature, nor any of the results of those laws, such as illness, deformity, and death.

He never complained or grumbled either at the weather, pain, illness, or anything else. He never swore. He could not very well, since he never spoke in anger and apparently never was angry.

He never exhibited fear, and I do not believe he ever felt it.

Written by Dr. Richard Bucke regarding his friend and mentor, Walt Whitman. (Dr. Bucke coined the term "cosmic consciousness.") The above quote and a description of Dr. Bucke's spiritual awakening can be found in The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James

Miracles

Why, who makes much of a miracle?

As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,

Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,

Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses towards the sky,

Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,

Or stand under trees in the woods,

Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love,

Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,

Or look at strangers opposite me in the car,

Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer fore-noon,

Or animals feeding in the fields,

Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,

Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright,

Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;

These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,

The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,

Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,

Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,

To me the sea is a continual miracle,

The fishes that swim -- the rocks -- the motion of the waves -- the ships with men in them,

What stranger miracles are there?

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

A Persian Lesson

For his overarching and last lesson the greybeard sufi,

In the fresh scent of the morning in the open air,

On the slope of a teeming Persian rose-garden,

Under an ancient chestnut-tree wide spreading its branches,

Spoke to the young priests and students.

"Finally my children, to envelop each word, each part of the rest,

Allah is all, all, all -- is immanent in every life and object,

May-be at many and many-a-more removes -- yet Allah, Allah,

Allah is there."

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Category: general -- posted at: 3:09 PM

Comments[502]

Fri, 3 March 2006

Spiritual Spice -- Flower Power

Home Again -- Naturally
(With a tip of the hat to Gilbert O'Sullivan)

In a little while from Now
If I'm not feeling any less dour
I've promised my self to seek some help
And visit a nearby flower
I'll contemplate it's heart
Of felicity as art
'Til reality
Is so clear to me
My egoic shell is shattered
i'll meld into it All
Heed a call that Life is making
No fear or rage or temporal cage
No doubt -- it's bliss awaking
In no-time i'll be Now
This bloom'll show me how
i'm home again, naturally

It seems to me the heartaches of this world
Are meant to shake us
Free of dreaming
The ego's scheming
Burn up the dross
Burn up the dross

Felicity n. Great happiness; blessedness; blissfulness; great joy.
Temporal adj. 1.Of or limited by time. 2. Worldly.
Dross n. 1. A waste product formed on the surface of molten metal. 2. Worthless or trivial matter.

Flower in the Crannied Wall

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower - but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

[You have] become hypnotized into implicitly believing that when you have attached a word to something, you know what it is. The fact is: You don't know what it is. You have only covered up the mystery with a label.

Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself. When you look at it or hold it and let it be without imposing a word or mental label on it....

The quicker you are in attaching verbal or mental labels to things, people, or situations, the more shallow and lifeless your reality becomes, and the more deadened you become to reality, the miracle of life that continuously unfolds within and around you. In this way, cleverness may be gained, but wisdom is lost, and so are joy, love, creativity, and aliveness.

Of course we need to use words and thoughts. They have their own beauty -- but do we need to become imprisoned in them?

Eckhart Tolle

Let the soul banish all that disturbs.
Let the body that envelopes it be still.
And all the frettings of the body, and all that surrounds it.
Let earth and sea and air be still, and heaven itself.
And then let the body think of the Spirit as streaming, pouring,
rushing and shining into it from all sides while it stands quiet.

Plotinus (205-270 CE)

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past.
But an eternal Now does always last.

Abraham Cowley (1618-1667)

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Category: general -- posted at: 2:14 PM

Comments[445]

Wed, 8 February 2006

Spiritual Spice #14: Gary Snyder 4:10

Gary Snyder the poet...later emerged in history as Japhy Ryder -- the Buddhist-beatnik hero of Kerouac's Dharma Bums -- in a characterization which hardly begins to do him justice. I am not Gary's teacher...but when I am dead I would like to be able to say that he is carrying on everything I hold most dear, though in a different style. To put it another way, my only regret is that I cannot formally claim him as my spiritual successor. He did it all on his own, but nevertheless he is just exactly what I have been trying to say. For Gary is tougher, more disciplined, and more physically competent than I, but he embodies these virtues without rubbing them in, and I can only say that a universe which has manifested Gary Snyder could never be called a failure.

from In My Own Way by Alan Watts (1915-1973)

SMOKEY THE BEAR SUTRA

BY GARY SNYDER

Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a great Discourse to all the assembled elements and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings, the flying beings, and the sitting beings--even the grasses, to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a seed--assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth.

"In some future time, there will be a continent called America. The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature. In that future American Era I shall enter a new form, to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger, and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it."

And he showed himself in his true form of

SMOKEY THE BEAR.

A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs, showing that he is aroused and watchful.

Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances, cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;

His left paw in the Mudra of Comradely Display--indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;

With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the kali yuga, fires caused by the stupidity of those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind;

Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great Earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her;

Wrathful but Calm, Austere but Comic, Smokey the Bear will Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or slander him,

HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.

And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his vajra shovel.

Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice will accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.

Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.

Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.

Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.

Will always have ripe blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at.

AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT

Thus we have heard.

(may be reproduced free forever)

The above is an abridged version of the Smokey the Bear Sutra. To read the full text click here -->Smokey the Bear Sutra

Vajra - thunderbolt, or diamond. Strong determination or willpower -- adamantine hardness.
Purity, clarity, clear insight and strength. Invincible, indestructible.

Mudra - A symbolic hand gesture -- paw gesture in this case.

Dharma - Broadly defined as the way of righteousness or "that which holds one's true nature." The fulfillment of an inherent nature or destiny.

Kali Yuga - An era or age of the world of which there are four: Satya Yuga, (the golden age); Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga, and finally Kali Yuga, (the dark age -- which we are currently muddling our way through). The Yuga's repeat themselves in an endless cycle. Some people believe that the Kali Yuga will continue for many more years; others believe we are in the process of leaving the Kali Yuga, and entering the Dwapara Yuga (a much more benign era or age).
Regardless, as Ramana Maharishi (1879-1950) said, "A wise person lives in Satya Yuga all of the time." In other words -- any Yuga can be a "golden age" for you.

Gary Snyder's book Turtle Island won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Pine Tree Tops

In the blue night
frost haze, the sky glows
with the moon
pine tree tops
bend snow-blue, fade
into sky, frost, starlight.
The creak of boots.
Rabbit tracks, deer tracks,
what do we know.

Everybody Lying on Their Stomachs, Head Toward the Candle,
Reading, Sleeping, Drawing

The corrugated roof
Booms and fades night-long to

million darted rain
squalls and

outside

lightning

Photographs in the brain
Wind-bent bamboo
through

The plank shutter
set

Half-open on eternity

Regarding Wave

The voice of the Dharma
the voice
now

A shimmering bell
through all.

Every hill, still
Every tree alive. Every leaf.
All the slopes flow.
old woods, new seedlings,
tall grasses plumes.

Dark hollows; peaks of light.
wind stirs the cool side
Each leaf living.
All the hills.

The Voice
is a wife to

him still

______________

om ah aum

To find out more about Gary Snyder click Wikpedia.org/wiki/Gary_Snyder

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Direct download: Gary_Snyder_Spiritual_Spice_14.mp3
Category: general -- posted at: 1:02 AM

Comments[567]

Sat, 4 February 2006

Spiritual Spice: The Imprisoned Splendor

Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise

From outward things, whate'er you may believe.

There is an inmost center in us all,

Where truth abides in fullness; and around,

Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,

This perfect, clear perception which is truth.

A baffling and perverting carnal mesh

Binds it, and makes all error: and, to KNOW,

Rather consists in opening out a way

Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,

Than in effecting an entry for a light

Supposed to be without.

Robert Browning (1812-1889) from Paracelsus

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Robert Browning's pet name for his wife Elizabeth was "My Portuguese." This was due to her "mediterranean" complexion, which was darker than usually seen in England in those days.

Hence the title of her most famous book -- Sonnets From the Portuguese. The above poem is from that book.

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Category: general -- posted at: 10:27 PM

Comments[442]

Mon, 19 December 2005

Spiritual Spice #13 -- James Allen 5:00

The background music Naughty Hula Eyes was recorded in the 1930s by "Andy Iona and his Islanders." "What," you might ask, "does Naughty Hula Eyes have to do with James Allen?" The answer is -- nothing. It's just a fun tune that helps to "lighten up," or "enlighten" the podcast. The ego takes itself very seriously, and humor is often an effective spiritual tool.

The oak sleeps in the acorn;
the bird waits in the egg;
and in the highest vision of the soul
a waking angel stirs.

James Allen (1864-1912)

The root of a bulb which shall produce a white lily is an unsightly thing; one might look upon it with disgust. But how foolish we should be to condemn the bulb for its appearance when we know the lily is within it.

The root is perfect after its kind; it is a perfect but incomplete lily, and so we must learn to look upon every man and woman, no matter how unlovely in outward manifestation; they are perfect in their stage of being and they are becoming complete. Behold, it is all very good….

It will make an immense difference with your faith and spirit whether you look upon civilization as a good thing which is becoming better or as a bad and evil thing which is decaying.

One viewpoint gives you an advancing and expanding mind and the other gives you a descending and decreasing mind. One viewpoint will make you grow greater and the other will inevitably cause you to grow smaller.

One will enable you to work for the eternal things; to do large works in a great way toward the completing of all that is incomplete and inharmonious; and the other will make you a mere patchwork reformer working without hope to save a few lost souls from what you will grow to consider a lost and doomed world.

So you see it makes a difference to you, this matter of social viewpoint. All's right with the world. Nothing can possibly be wrong but my personal attitude, and I will see the facts of nature and all events, circumstances and conditions of society, politics, government, and industry from the highest viewpoint; it is all perfect, though incomplete. It is all the handiwork of God; behold, it is all very good.

James Allen (1864-1912)

What you think upon grows. This is an Eastern maxim, and it sums up neatly the greatest and most fundamental of all the Laws of Mind. What you think upon grows.

What you think upon grows. Whatever you allow to occupy your mind you magnify in your life. Whether the subject of your thoughts be good or bad, the law works and the condition grows.

The more you think about lack, bad times, etc., the worse will your business be; and the more you think of prosperity, abundance, and success, the more of these things will you bring into your life. The more you think about your grievances or the injustices that you have suffered, the more such trials will you continue to receive; and the more you think of the good fortune you have had, the more good fortune will come to you.

This is the basic, fundamental, all-inclusive Law of Mind, and actually all psychological and metaphysical teaching is little more than a commentary upon this. What you think upon grows. (see Phillippians 4:8)

Emmet Fox (1886-1951)

To download a free copy of Naughty Hula Eyes and other songs, go to -->PublicDomain4U.com

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Direct download: SS13_James_Allen.mp3
Category: general -- posted at: 12:03 AM

Comments[312]

Mon, 19 December 2005

Spiritual Spice #12 Practicing the Presence - Brother Lawrence 6:25

Background music is Salve Festa Dies performed by Benedictine monks
of Abbe En Calcat, and the Boys Choir of L'Alumnat.

Practicing the Presence is...

The pure loving gaze that finds God everywhere.

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (1605-1691)

Finding God in all things.

Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)

Seeing through exterior things, and seeing God in them.

Thomas Merton (1916-1968)

Looking deeply at life
as it is
in the here and now.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Awareness
absorbed and amazed.

Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

Seeing God in everything and everything in God
with complete extraordinary clearness.

Marie of the Incarnation (1599-1672)

Be still.
Look.
Listen.
Be present.
Say or think "I AM" and add nothing to it.

Eckhart Tolle

Audio

The eyes of my soul were opened, and I discerned the fullness of God, in which I understood the whole world, here and beyond the sea...everything.
My soul was brimming over with wonder and cried in a loud voice "The whole world is full of God!"

Angela of Foligno (1248-1309)

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place,
and I did not know it. ...How awesome is this place!"

Genesis 28:16,17

What do we learn from Jacob's experience? Our material lives...are linear, chronological, sensible. But there exists another level, a level in which there is no before and after, only the eternal present...Now. And we are able to experience an indelible moment. God was in this place and we did not know it!

Rabbi Mark H. Levin

To find out more about the monks of Abbe En Calcat and other Gregorian chanters
-- including chants by nuns -- click here -->DoveSong.com

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Direct download: SS12_Brother_Lawrence.mp3
Category: general -- posted at: 12:02 AM

Comments[242]

Mon, 19 December 2005

Spiritual Spice #11 -- Dr. Carl Jung 8:00

Background music is As the Sun Goes Down by Mark Preston

VOCATUS ATQUE NON VOCATUS DEUS ADERIT

Bidden or Unbidden God is Present

Dr. Jung had the above Latin engraved over the front door of his house in Zurich, Switzerland.
It is also carved on his gravestone.

Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.

Dr. Carl Jung (1875-1961)

Question: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Carl Jung:

"A confluence of events in the global gestalt necessitated the traversing of a thoroughfare by a domestic fowl; ergo synchronous inclinations of the collective unconscious manifested the desired archetypal reality.
Also, the chicken wanted to get to the other side."

To find out more about Mark Preston click here -->MarkPreston.net

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Direct download: SS11_Carl_Jung.mp3
Category: general -- posted at: 12:01 AM

Comments[343]

Sun, 28 August 2005

Spiritual Spice: Point of View

by Emmet Fox

What do you think of the nature of God? What do you think God is like? That is the most important question in the whole world because your idea of God will determine your whole life. From the very marrow of your bones right down to the farthest place your influence goes, all is determined ultimately by your real belief about the nature of God.

If you say, The truth is that it is so hazy I don't know what I think about God -- and that is true of many people -- then it will leave your life hazy, drifting, and undetermined. It is your conception of God that makes your whole life. It makes you what you are. It makes your health, your appearance, your home, your business. It makes the kind of friends and enemies you have and the kind of people you meet. Of all the important things that should be taken care of, the one thing that really matters is your idea of God, because that determines everything.

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993)

Your idea of God is not the name you give to God. It does not matter what you call God. These are only names. The real name of God for you is your idea of God; not mine, not the one your father or mother taught you, not the local minister's idea, but your own honest and real idea of God. That will govern your whole life. That is the name of God for you, and you cannot have it in vain.

The question is sometimes asked, "Do you believe in God?" But that question and its answer can have no meaning until you say what kind of God you believe in. Then it has a meaning. The only intelligent question is what kind of God do you believe in, because everybody believes in some God, even those who do not like the word. And you cannot believe in any kind of God without getting the result of that.

Everyone thinks of changing the world but no one thinks of changing himself.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

If you believe that God is good; God is love; God has all power; God is intelligence; all the conditions of your life will steadily improve. Some conditions will clear up much sooner than others. Some people will demonstrate harmony and well-being sooner than others. These things are only a matter of degree. But when you really believe that God is all these things, as unquestioningly, as unemotionally as you believe in the soundness of the George Washington Bridge when you cross it in a car, then everything will begin to come right.

You cannot take the name of God in vain. You cannot do it. Whatever your idea of God is, whatever idea you really believe in, that will be expressed in your life. A limited God will be limited, a cruel God will react to you cruelly and without love. You will suffer the results of that. If you believe in a weak God, you will suffer the consequences of weakness. If you believe in a human God, you will have all the trouble you would have if a human being really could run this universe.

However, if you believe that God is spirit, and think what spirit means, and if you believe that God is love, and intelligence, and life, and wisdom, and think what these things mean, and really believe it, you will get the results of that kind of God. Your conditions will improve as the days and weeks go by. You will go from strength to strength. Your health, your surroundings, and your understanding will increase and multiply -- "Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away" -- because you cannot take the name of God in vain.

Emmet Fox (1886-1951)

Remember that words do not become true because you affirm them. That is the common confusion about the practice of affirmative prayer, that if you speak words of Truth over and over, you impress them on the subconscious mind and thus they become true for you. They do not become true because you affirm them. You affirm them because they are true. You are synchronizing your consciousness with the reality of the Truth.

Eric Butterworth

Do not be afraid; only believe.

Mark 5:36

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Category: general -- posted at: 12:18 AM

Comments[228]

Sun, 28 August 2005

Spiritual Spice: Paramahansa Yogananda

Paramahansa (Supreme swan)
Yogananda (Union bliss) Mukunda Lal Ghosh (1893-1953)

Excerpts from a talk given on October 26, 1939 Silently and surely, as you walk on the path of life, you must come to the realization that God is the only object, the only goal that will satisfy you; for in God lies the answer to every desire of the heart.

What man does not realize is that unless and until he goes back to the Source, back to God, he will have to struggle to fulfill endless desires. Reflect on that.

Man cannot help having desires, and it is not a sin to have them, but most human longings hamper fulfillment of the supreme desire to return to God, hence they are detrimental to man's happiness. Until he wants and has God, man will continue to long for whatever else he believes will make him happy.

One thing you must remember: Cut out begging from your prayers. Change your old attitude of supplication. You should pray to God intimately, as His child, which you are. God does not mind when you pray from your ego, as a stranger and a beggar, but you will find that your efforts are limited by your consciousness.

Your mind, having descended from almighty God, is not satisfied with the offerings of this world; and it will never be satisfied, because you have lost your soul's richest treasure, which alone can satisfy all your desires, and that is God.

Were heaven itself the same every day, we wouldn't want it. We enjoy variety. The stereotyped conception of heaven is all wrong. If it were boring, all the saints would pray to come back to earth for a little while. Heaven is something infinitely different, ever pleasantly new... .

Carry within you a portable heaven, and in life or in death, in heaven or in hades, that inner heaven will be with you.

Paramahansa Yogananda

While you are learning to swim in the sea of life, you can help others learn to swim.

Paramahansa Yogananda

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Category: general -- posted at: 12:17 AM

Comments[191]

Sun, 28 August 2005

Spiritual Spice -- Salutation to the Dawn

SALUTATION TO THE DAWN

Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life,
In its brief course
Lie all the truths and realities
of your existence:
The bliss of growth
The glory of action
The splendor of beauty,
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow only a vision,
But today well lived
makes every yesterday
a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day!

Such is the salutation of the dawn.

by Kalidasa, Indian dramatist (Circa 450)

PHOTO

Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.

Wayne Dyer

There exists only the present instant... a Now which always and without end is new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence.

Meister Eckhart (1260-1326)

There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day.

Alexander Woollcott (1887-1943)

Do you feel that you have a future moment to get to that is more important than living Now? Since the future never arrives, except as the present, it is a dysfunctional way to live.
It generates a constant undercurrent of unease, tension, and discontent. It does not honor life, which is Now.

Eckhart Tolle

It is your day. You are alive in it. It is an unfolding opportunity to express and to grow. Of all persons in all ages, no one has more reason for thanksgiving than you.

Eric Butterworth

The world is new to us every morning - this is God's gift; and every man should believe he is reborn each day.

the Baal Shem Tov -- Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (1698-1760)

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1802-1883)

Believe that each day that shines on you is your last. Seize the day. (Carpe Diem!)

Horace (65-8 BC)

For a great collection of inspirational quotes click BornToMotivate.com

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Category: general -- posted at: 12:15 AM

Comments[195]

Sun, 28 August 2005

Spiritual Spice: Chuang Tzu -- Words

The fish trap exists because of the fish; once you've gotten the fish, you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit; once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning; once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?

Chuang Tzu (circa 400 B.C.) translated by Burton Watson

Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality.

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

No word is ever anything more than a metaphor.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words, and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inward to illuminate your self. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest.

Eihei Dogen (1200-1253)

Know that words are words and nothing else. When Zen wants you to taste the sweetness of sugar, it will put the required article right into your mouth and no further words are said.

Dr. D.T. Suzuki (1870-1966)

All the problems vanish when you are in the nonverbal dimension of consciousness. You see the answers to all the questions that theologians and metaphysicians ask and you see why their questions are absurd. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889)-1951)

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Category: general -- posted at: 12:13 AM

Comments[178]

Sun, 28 August 2005

Spiritual Spice: The Simple Way

The following quote comes from our friends at The Zoo Fence.

From The Simple Way site.

Ask God for help. Every morning, every single morning, as soon as you wake up, call on God to help you remember to Remember -- to teach you how to Remember. "Dear God, please be my Teacher, and use this day as a classroom in which to Teach me Who and What I Am in Truth." Repeat this prayer throughout the day, as often as you can. And every evening, every single evening, before you retire, thank God for the help you received during the day, even if you were so distracted by events that you did not notice it, and ask God to make the same use of your dreams in the coming night, so that, even in sleep, you continue to be God's Student. Do this with joyful determination.

As this process unfolds, do not be hard on yourself if you do not see or feel its effects immediately. God is incapable of ignoring a heartfelt call. So, if you mean it, you will be heard, and sooner or later, you will Remember. Thank God.

Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet --
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1806-1892)

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Category: general -- posted at: 12:11 AM

Comments[135]

Sun, 28 August 2005

Florence Scovel Shinn

If you need a dose of positive energy then try Florence Scovel Shinn.
In 1925 she self-published The Game of Life and How to Play It. It is still selling well. When Emmet Fox first arrived in the United States he stayed at Florence's home.

Here are a few of our favorite affirmations from her:

I now thank God the Giver for God the Gift.

The Lord loves a cheerful receiver, as well as a cheerful giver.

You will be a failure, until you impress the subconscious with the conviction that you are a success.

Treat yourself everyday for sheer good humor. This alone will solve a surprising number of your problems and is tremendously effective in self-healing.

Emmet Fox (1886-1951)

Besides being an author, Florence was also an accomplished illustrator. Above is a drawing she did for the January, 1900 edition of a magazine named The Century.

This drawing and others by Florence Scovel Shinn made be seen at www .ellisparkerbutler.info

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Category: general -- posted at: 12:09 AM

Comments[180]

Sun, 28 August 2005

Spiritual Spice: Stand Up Arjuna!

The Bhagavad-Gita is a true scripture of the human race; a living creation rather than a book, with a new message for every age, and a new meaning for every civilization. -- Aurobindo

The Bhagavad-Gita is a Hindu holy book that has been around for over 2,000 years. The title is commonly translated as the "Divine Song,"

On the surface, the Bhagavad-Gita tells the story of an Indian prince named Arjuna engaged in an epic battle against a great opposing army. Arjuna's only hope for victory is to follow advice given to him by his mentor Krishna, (the image shown depicts Krishna playing the flute).

The esoteric or hidden meaning of the Bhagavad-Gita is that the battle represents Arjuna's inner struggle as he encounters various obstacles on the spiritual path.

Arjuna represents everyone on a spiritual journey. Arjuna is us. At the beginning of the Bhagavad-Gita, Arjuna looks at the formidable army he faces and loses all hope of emerging victorious. He loses his nerve; drops his weapon, and collapses in despair.

At this point his advisor -- Krishna -- tells Arjuna that this sort of attitude just won't do. "Stand up Arjuna!" he tells him.

Stand up indeed. (Bhagavad-Gita 1:47, 2:1-3)

The spelling used here -- Bhagavad-Gita -- is the most common one. There are several variations, and it is also called simply -- the Gita.

When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous.
Albert Einstein
(superfluous adj. Beyond what is required.
The Bhagavad-Gita...is one of the most clear and comprehensive summaries of perennial philosophy ever revealed; hence its enduring value is subject not only to India but to all of humanity.
Aldous Huxley
The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life's wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion.
Herman Hesse

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Category: general -- posted at: 12:07 AM

Comments[199]

Sun, 28 August 2005

Spiritual Spice: Ken Wilber

Transcendence restores humor. Spirit restores humor. Suddenly smiling returns. Too many representatives of too many movements -- even many very good movements, such as feminism, environmentalism, meditation, spiritual studies -- seem to lack humor altogether. In other words, they lack lightness, they lack a distance from themselves, a distance from the ego and its grim game of forcing others to conform to its contours. There is self-transcending humor, or there is the game of egoic power. ...We have chosen egoic power and politically correct thought police; grim Victorian reformers pretending to protect civil rights; messianic new paradigm thinkers who are going to save the planet and heal the world. They should all trade two pounds of ego for one ounce of laughter.

One Taste

Everything in the dream is basically fun, at some deep level, except for this: when you see your friends suffering...you want to relieve their suffering, you want them to wake up too. Watching them suffer is not fun. And so a deep and powerful compassion arises in the heart of the awakened ones, and they seek, above all else, to awaken others....

One Taste

Ken Wilber

BOOK BOOK BOOK AUDIO AUDIO

All of my life I wanted to be somebody. Now, I am finally somebody...but it isn't me.

Wayne Dyer

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Category: general -- posted at: 12:04 AM

Comments[177]

Sun, 28 August 2005

Spiritual Spice #5 -- Van Morrison 6:30

SpiritualSpice.com

Put Your Feet Back on Higher Ground Dweller on the Threshold I'm a dweller on the threshold And I'm waiting at the door And I'm standing in the darkness I don't want to wait no more I have seen without perceiving I have been another man Let me pierce the realm of glamour So I know just what I am Feel the angel of the present In the mighty crystal fire Lift me up and soothe my darkness Let me travel even higher I'm a dweller on the threshold As I cross the burning ground Let me go down to the water Watch the great illusion drown I'm gonna turn and face the music The music of the spirit Lift me up and soothe my darkness Where the midnight disappears I will walk out of the darkness And I'll walk into the light And I'll sing the song of Ages And the dawn will end the night I'm a dweller on the threshold And I'm waiting at the door And I'm standing in the darkness I don't want to wait no more. Van Morrison	MUSIC
	MUSIC
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	BOOK

I Stand by the Door

I stand by the door. I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out.

The door is the most important door in the world -- it is the door through which men walk when they find God. There is no use my going way inside and staying there, when so many are still outside and they, as much as I, crave to know where the door is.

Men die outside the door, as starving beggars die on cold winter nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter. Die for want of what is within their grasp.

I admire the people who go way in. But I wish they would not forget how it was before they got in. ...You can go in too deeply and stay in too long and forget the people outside the door.

As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place, near enough to God to hear Him and know He is there, but not so far from men as to not hear them, and remember they are there too. ...so I stand by the door.

Rev. Sam Shoemaker (1893-1963)

To see I Stand at the Door in its entirety go to TheJaywalker.com

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Direct download: SpiceV.mp3
Category: general -- posted at: 12:03 AM

Comments[184]

Sun, 28 August 2005

Spiritual Spice #9 -- Gratitude/Prosperity 6:53

The grateful mind is a great mind, and attracts to it great things.

Plato (427-348 BCE)

When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude towards gratitude.

Elie Wiesel (concentration camp survivor)

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life...It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast; a house into a home; a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past; brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Melody Beattie

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of them all.

Cicero (106-43 BCE)

If the only prayer you say in your life is "Thank You," that would suffice.

Meister Eckhart (1260-1327)

Gratitude is heaven itself.

William Blake (1757-1827)

[Some people] have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy.

A. H. Maslow (1908-1970)

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in ink.

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

Thanksgiving is not just a reactive emotion; it is a causative energy.

Eric Butterworth

An attitude of gratitude is most salutary, and bespeaks the realization that we are now in heaven.

Ernest Holmes (1887-1960)

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many--not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

I feel a very unusual sensation -- if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

Spiritual growth is in direct proportion to our ability to accept the good fortune that life can provide. During the past fifty years, during which I have met many thousands of people, I have never known of anyone with a habitual poverty consciousness who experienced an obvious degree of spiritual growth. I have known many such people who were pleasant, kind, and well-intentioned, and some who were able to generate a pleasant mood when praying or meditating. But real spiritual growth? No.

Learn to be affluent: to always be in a continuous flow of resources and supportive events, circumstances and wholesome relationships for the highest good of yourself, others, the planet, and the universe.

Roy Eugene Davis

You are the child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world.

Marianne Williamson

Winter Mornings and other CDs are available at ShirleyCason.com You can download a free ebook of Wallace Wattle's The Science of Getting Rich here at --> ScienceofGetting Rich.NET Spiritual Spice is affiliated with their website via this link -- (seemed appropriate, as this entry includes prosperity consciousness).

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Direct download: Wallace_Wattles2.mp3
Category: general -- posted at: 12:01 AM

Comments[146]

Sun, 28 August 2005

Spiritual Spice: Dr. David R. Hawkins

Dr. David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph. D., served on a minesweeper during WWII. He has over 50 years of clinical and research experience in psychiatry. He has been Knighted into the Danish Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem (est. 1070). He co-authored the book Orthomolecular Psychiatry with Nobelist, Linus Pauling. South Korea has bestowed upon him the honorific of Tae Ryoung Sun Kak Tosa (Foremost Teacher of the Way to Enlightenment) He is the Director of The Institute for Advanced Theoretical Research in Arizona.

As Love becomes more and more unconditional, it begins to be experienced as inner Joy. This isn't the sudden joy of a pleasurable turn of events; it's a constant accompaniment to all activities. Joy arises from within each moment of existence, rather than from any other source.

from Power vs Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior

Science had decided that unless something was definable and measurable it was unreal and imaginary. Thus, science invalidated any serious study or inquiry into the human values of love, compassion, beauty, forgiveness, inspiration, faith, companionship, loyalty, gratitude, hope, and happiness -- in other words, all that constitutes the actual core and reality of human existence and motivation. Science...is, however, the best tool man has had thus far for evaluating and manipulating the physical world. That it has limits is not a defect but merely defines its range of usefulness.

from The Eye of the I: From Which Nothing is Hidden

"Physics, beware of metaphysics." Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Turn only to love and to God as the source of life and joy. This choice is available in every instant. When finally chosen the reward is great.

from I: Reality and Subjectivity

Contextualizing earthly phenomena as evidence of the "wrath of God" is primitive, naive, and an anthropomorphic distortion of the Reality of Divinity. God is not emotionally imbalanced, or needful of psychological help, spiritual counseling, or anger-management classes.

from Discovery of the Presence of God: Devotional Nonduality

Dr. David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph. D.

For more on Dr. Hawkins please go to veritaspub.com

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