My mom taught me several forms of healing prayer from a young age to manage different ongoing health issues. She told me around 3-4 that I could ask for what I needed and would be given help. So I never questioned. That’s what I did, and that’s what happened. It seemed pretty straightforward, and as […]
Prayer takes many forms, but at its core, it is an intentional act of putting our focused attention toward something uplifting—it’s an act of lifting up the gaze of our heart. When we are feeling doubt, confusion, or religious betrayal, we can get stuck on which religious brand of thing we are looking at or […]
Along with the tsunami of information and translations coming to us over the past 10-20 years, we’ve also learned more and more of our history. We can now see with a wider lens beyond our own culture of origin and realize no one tradition held the whole story. A holistic view offers clear evidence that […]
Prayer is not an act of belief, nor is it necessarily even an act of words. It is an act of attention. There are many forms of prayer in every tradition throughout history. Anciently, prayer was a form of “communion,” meaning one actively opens to and engages with the benevolent force—that mystery of life, of aliveness, itself. I’d propose that […]
What is Contemplative Prayer? Contemplative prayer is like when you open your mouth and sit back at the dentist. You try to relax, you understand that something is being done to you by a considerate, skilled being that understands your needs better than you do, in that case, your dental needs. Opening and inviting in […]
All of the traditions studied and presented here essentially share one assumption—that while humans enjoy the free will to pursue their desires and avoid the things they don’t want as they wish—this exercise will ultimately end in a realization that no external person, item, or situation will deeply satisfy in a permanent way. The moment […]
I often argue that all of us are members of many “cults.” CULTure is simply a human way of being that demands compliance to receive social benefits. Our religious, political, and economic systems, and many families all very much operate like cults—conformity is psychologically enforced, nonconformity, penalized. But this doesn’t mean we throw out our […]
A revolution in human consciousness is happening right now—can you feel it? We live in a very exciting time of change, and some wonderfully illuminating discoveries are happening on the inner landscape of humanity right now that will be of greater benefit to future generations and the planet. While the noisy and heartbreaking upheaval and […]
Judge Not, Fear Not, Love One Another, Forgive All Whether or not you are a follower of the being who taught these fundamental, oft-neglected principles, they lie at the heart of most spiritual teachings. The good news is, when one finally sees clearly into the nature of cause and effect, judgment of our fellowman disappears […]
Be Believing Just as we do not need to understand how to build the technology we use in order to enjoy its benefits, we do not need to know how faith works. Nor must we trust anyone else or have faith in anything else beyond ourselves if that’s uncomfortable. But, we absolutely must develop the […]