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Most of us a familiar with the statistics showing that holiday time has one of the highest suicide and depression rates of the whole year. Even if you are not feeling overtly depressed or even suicidal it is quite possible that you may be one the millions of people who have feelings of loneliness and sadness this time of year. So what is it about the holidays that causes us to feel so sad?
In our last teleclass we were discussing creating your dream for the New Year and some very interesting comments were brought up by the folks on the call. I’d like to share a couple of those thoughts and objections so that you can see if these are the same issues you are battling with in creating your best dream.
Years ago, before embarking on my spiritual path, I believed that I would and should have a career that would last until my retirement. But since then, and after many years questioning such beliefs and programming, I have come to realize that it is not in the nature of fluid beings of light to ...
We hear so much about forgiveness--in our churches, on Oprah, in new age magazines, but do we truly understand what the big deal about forgiveness is? We read that if we forgive others and ourselves we are doing our spiritual work and becoming better people, but what does that mean to us? You ...
Those of us who study the Toltec spiritual path recognize that the function of the human mind is to dream. Most of us associate dreaming with the activity we engage in at night and consider ourselves awake during the day. However this is far from the truth for Toltecs! To be awake for us means ...
So often we get caught up in the idea that it’s what’s outside of us that is causing our suffering, and if we could make changes to those aspects, life would be better. We think that if our father wasn’t so angry – we could get along better with him, or express our love more deeply. We imagine that if we had another job we would look forward to work and express our creativity more fully.
One of humanity’s biggest fears is that of confrontation. So often when feeling like someone is in our face, we don’t speak our feelings and then we’re angry afterward. Our anger can then manifest as passive-aggressive behavior. But truly it’s not about dealing with our behavior or learning to speak up that’s the underlying issue – it’s what we believe about confrontation.
In watching the way people respond to pain, difficulties and challenges, there is one thing we all have in common – and that is aversion to sitting in an uncomfortable place. When the going gets tough we simply want to run. Perhaps part of that nature is related to our limbic system and the fight or flight reactions we display when we feel threatened. But as spiritual students this cannot be a justification for our behavior because – if we know in our souls that there is only one – how is it possible that we can be threatened by anything or anyone?
In light of the recent events that took place in the sweat lodge in Sedona with James Arthur Ray, I think it’s a good time to talk about what it means to be a spiritual warrior. As a spiritual warrior we learn to change our perspective from being mind-body focused and ego-identified to becoming aligned with the life-force-spiritual-nature that we all are.
December is a wonderful time to reflect upon all the seeds we’ve planted the year before. When I look upon 2008, I can see the actions that lead to the landscape of my 2009 garden. It’s important to take note of which seeds we planted, which plants we watered and fertilized, and which weeds we allowed to overtake our gardens due to our fear and denial.
I am often bereft of words to explain the many deeply transcendent spiritual experiences I have had over the last ten years. I say bereft, because I cannot speak about what is conceptless, beyond human language, and formless. The best I can do is share inspirational stories and weave mystical imagery never knowing if I will trigger the deep inner wisdom of the one consciousness free of illusion that resides within each of us.
A common definition of failure would be: The condition or fact of not achieving one's desired end or ends. I think most of us would agree that one of the most potent fears that we possess in our minds is fear of failure. There is so much judgment instilled in our programming regarding this ...
I had the opportunity to watch the movie The Reader last night and I was stuck by profound impact of the characters decisions throughout their lives. As I sat back and reflected upon the movie - I thought of hundreds of personal choices that changed the story of my own movie-worthy life. So often we make choices totally unaware of what we are creating. Just one seemingly small choice may have catastrophic effects if made without consciousness.
How many of us pray for peace, become involved in organizations that promote peace and, through our spiritual practices, advocate peace? Many of us certainly do yet, despite our efforts, we seem to move from one war to another, from one act of terrorism to another. As we become more ...
As we have just passed the end of another glorious year of life and adventure we are presented again with the opportunity to make a decision as to the way we choose to perceive our life's circumstances. Every day our mind judges and qualifies each moment of our lives. Either life measures up ...
One of the most powerful and beautiful resources we have as humans in this reality is our ability to express unconditional love. This is probably why every spiritual tradition or philosophy that I’ve experienced uses unconditional love as the foundation for its teachings. Yes, our ...
Life is filled with all kinds of adventures and experiences, gifts and magic. Of all the gifts I have ever received in this life time, the gift of the mastery of awareness is the one I treasure the most. You might ask why that gift would exceed all others. After all, wasn’t that diamond ring ...
Years ago, before embarking on my spiritual path, I believed that I would and should have a career that would last until my retirement. But since then, and after many years questioning such beliefs and programming, I have come to realize that it is not in the nature of fluid beings of light to ...
One of the hardest things for us humans to grock is change. From the minute we are born we are subjected to it, surrounded by it and experience the results of it. Yet, we are resistant to change, afraid of the impact of it, and in general simply abhor it. You would think that by the time we ...
Around holiday times we’re presented with a most wonderful gift – and that’s the opportunity to look at ourselves though the eyes of our family dynamics. Our siblings and parents act as mirrors for us to see ourselves and our emotional reactions more clearly, and observe where we have wounds, ...
As an ex-physician and scientist, I find it exciting to see spirituality and quantum mechanics physics melding into one in recent years. Of course intellectually we can acknowledge they have always been one – in the same way that we can all agree that duality is simply illusion. However, ...
Many people have asked me my opinion on having a teacher on a spiritual path. Like everything else in life, there are only points of view as to whether this choice is the best one for you. All I can do is reflect my personal experience regarding having a teacher and what I feel the benefits and ...
It is a rare occasion that someone will rant and rave about how wonderful their life is, how everything is fabulous, or how grateful they are for all that has happened to them. As a society we tend to focus more on what’s wrong, how life isn’t going our way, or how unfortunate we ...
Many of you have heard the Toltec path being called a path of heart. I suppose most folks believe that means that the path is one of love or one that will make us happy. Those assertions would not be wrong, but the path of heart means so much more than that. Truly it is a path where the heart ...
In spirituality we read much about authenticity and integrity, but I’m not always sure we have a clear understanding of these terms. Some folks have told me they believe these words refer to being honest and true to themselves, but I most often feel that they are speaking about their ego-self ...
Don Miguel Ruiz, author of “The Four Agreements” and my personal mentor, spoke on more than one occasion about living one’s life in a totally different way than we had been taught to live; what he called ”living the will of God.” He asked us to imagine what living the will of God might look ...
A common definition of failure would be: The condition or fact of not achieving ones desired end or ends. I think most of us would agree that one of the most potent fears that we possess in our minds is fear of failure. There is so much judgment instilled in our programming regarding this simple ...
Don Miguel Ruiz, author of “The Four Agreements®” and my personal mentor, spoke on more than one occasion about living one’s life in a totally different way than we had been taught to live; what he called ”living the will of God.” He asked us to imagine what ...
There’s a lot of discussion in spirituality about ego and the myriad of ways to diminish it. No matter what spiritual tradition you are studying, there are unlimited suggestions and tools for doing so. However, no matter how many methods we come up with – nothing can replace service ...
How many of us grew up with the fairy tale ideal of romance where love sweeps us off our feet? One where someone comes along pledging their ete al love to us, with the single goal of making us happy? A romance where our partner does everything with us in mind, and whose life revolves around us? ...
It’s so interesting to see the way people behave once they begin a spiritual path. As their awareness starts to blossom, they often feel compelled to reflect to those around them, the issues, faults and problems of others. The first thing we begin to see more clearly is the behavior of ...
Life is coming at us so fast these days; it often takes all our attention and energy just to get through our waking hours. As a result we may find ourselves taking rote or unaware actions just to get through the massive amount of tasks we have planned. It’s a warrior’s challenge to ...
So often we get caught up in the idea that it’s what’s outside of us that is causing our suffering, and if we could make changes to those aspects, life would be better. We think that if our father wasn’t so angry – we could get along better with him, or express our love ...
As we near the end of another glorious year of life and adventure, we are presented again with the opportunity to make a decision as to the way we choose to perceive our life’s circumstances. Everyday our mind judges and qualifies each moment of our lives. Either life measures up to our ...
Life is coming at us so fast these days; it often takes all our attention and energy just to get through our waking hours. As a result we may find ourselves taking rote or unaware actions just to get through the massive amount of tasks we have planned. It's a warrior's challenge to teach ...
It’s amazing how often I’m in conversation with people who are enthusiastic about their spiritual path and teachings. They get so excited discussing how we’re divine beings, how everyone is one, and how many great organizations are lifting the consciousness of the world today. ...