This is an Index of Content on Spirituality.
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The Bottom Line, a poem by Glenda Taylor
The Bottom Line, by Glenda Taylor You see, it’s like this, sort of: Because I experience Something-That-Is, Awestruck, I respond and in so doing, I learn, and relearn, deliciously, gratefully, that: This Something-That-Is transcends (but does not negate) definition or description. Knowing that is so, strangely unable to remain fittingly silent, I speak to whatever it [...]
Translations of Sacred Chant
The syllables or sounds in sacred chant cannot be translated literally for several reasons. The simplest is the familiar one: much is always “lost in translation.” What is lost in translation of sacred chant is its most important aspect: mystical or spiritual understanding. 1) There are stories, legends, traditions, beliefs, history, etc. behind every word [...]
Remembering “Langar” at Thanksgiving
As I am this week preparing food for the 46th annual open-house Thanksgiving pot-luck meal to be held in my home, I am remembering how a few weeks ago in Toronto at the Parliament of World Religions, I, along with 7200 other attendees, was offered a free and delicious lunch every day by the Sikh [...]
Creating and Experiencing Meaningful Personal Ceremony, by Glenda Taylor
The following is taken from the recording of a series of talks over a weekend workshop that I gave years ago to a small group of people whom I knew well and therefore with whom I felt confident sharing these sometimes personal thoughts. In transcribing the recordings, all the sessions were put together without noting where [...]
When a Jewish Congregation is Assaulted
In this grievous hour, I am reminded to reread George Washington’s letter to the Jewish Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, September 9, 1790: “…May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants, while every one shall sit in safety [...]
Navajo Nation Reacts to Children at Border
I am currently camping out near the Four Corners area of Colorado. I picked up a Navajo Nation newspaper, and I noted an article citing the Navajo Nation's reaction to the current border crisis in the U.S. I excerpt portions of it here as a historial reference that helps us see things through another lense. [...]
Quotations: Dr. Peter Marshall
Dr. Peter Marshall was chaplain of the U.S. Congress. Here are a few quotes: "Give to us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for, because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.May we think of freedom, not as the right to [...]
Easter Morning with Dr. Peter Marshall
Glenda Taylor's comment: "On many and many an Easter morning through the years, I have opened a book by Dr. Peter Marshall called The First Easter to fill my being with the deep and present reality of “resurrection.” I commend the book to you. And I quote from it the [...]
My Concern For The Children, by Glenda Taylor
My Concern For The Children, by Glenda Taylor South Texas Border - U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 2014; Photo by Eddie Perez and US Dept. of Homeland Security, Public Domain. When my third grandson was born with a critical heart defect, I entered the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit where he was clinging [...]
Letting History Wash Over Us
I awoke this morning to the familiar cadence of a certain bird that greets each day perched on a bush somewhere outside my bedroom window at dawn. The amazing thing to me is that, daily, my barely-awake mind, without giving it any conscious thought at all, fits a different set of words each morning into [...]
A Grandmother’s Prayer for Young Men, by Glenda Taylor
A Grandmother’s Prayer for Young Men, by Glenda Taylor Oh, Great and Good Spirit, behold these many young men, especially those just coming into their adulthood in a world so confusing, when what it means to be a man is everywhere challenged and redefined. In this unanchored world, give them grace to know their inner [...]
“What We Want, We Have,” an excerpt from Huston Smith’s “The World Religions”
Hinduism and the Meaning of the Self, an excerpt from Huston Smith: “…Pleasure, success, responsible discharge of duty, and liberation—we have completed the circuit of what people think they want and what they want in actuality. This takes us back to the staggering conclusion with which our survey of Hinduism began. What people want, that [...]
“Centering,” an excerpt, by Glenda Taylor
…And so, here is my report on my own trial and error techniques for centering and maintaining some sense of wholeness in the midst of chaos. First, I want to tell you what didn’t work for me. Denial didn’t work. I tried it. You’ve tried it. We can’t kid ourselves and pretend, in those awful [...]
“Prayer,” a poem by Glenda Taylor
Prayer, a Poem by Glenda Taylor Saying the word God is placing a flaming arrow on your tongue. As sacrament, it may be meant to ignite, in its instant flight, not insight, but a blaze of wonder, awe, even. As such it is an arrow pointing beyond reckoning, toward Immensity so vast as to [...]
“Cracks,” a poem by Glenda Taylor
“Cracks,” a poem by Glenda Taylor I. Somehow, perhaps temporarily, I have fallen into one or another of the cracks that can open in Wholeness itself, fissures that split Being into separate fragments called, first one and then another-- soul, heart, body, mind, ethereal, mental, mystical, sexual, permitted, profane, forbidden, past, present, future--so on and on. [...]
Solstice
Coming up to the Winter Solstice this year, I am more than ever aware of the sacredness of this time between the extremes of light and the dark, as my good friend Monroe Henderson died peacefully in his sleep last night, and my good friend Steve Nash is lingering at the edge of crossing, as is [...]
Arkansas
I frequently suggest to others something I call a square foot meditation—sitting quietly in one spot for a good long time, simply observing, while holding the awareness that everything seen is sacred. During the past few days, while on a personal camping retreat in the mountains of Arkansas, I became convinced that it would take [...]
An excerpt from “Concerning Smoke” by Jordan Paper
“The bowl of the pipe is a sacrificial vessel that itself is a miniature cosmos. Often tobacco is added pinch by pinch, each explicitly dedicated to the sacred directions as well as animals and spirits (as part of ones relations), thus bringing the entire cosmos into the bowl itself...The offerings are directed towards [...]
Quotations from Black Elk, Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
Black Elk was a holy man of the Oglala Sioux. The following quotes are from Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux: “The Sun Dance…We hold it during the Moon of Making Fat, because this is the time when the sun is at its highest [...]
Order and Connection, A Quote from Vine Deloria Jr.
“…From observing the world around them, they could see orderly processes that marked the way organic life behaved. From the obvious motions of the sun and moon to the effects of periodic winds, rains, and snows, the regularity of nature suggested some greater power that guaranteed enough stability to be reliable and within which lives [...]