Spirituality

Spirituality2018-07-08T20:31:35-05:00

This is an Index of Content on Spirituality.

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In Honor of That Not Spoken, A Poem by Glenda Taylor

I speak, till you cry out "Partial! Only Partial!" Then I go silent. I paint, until you say "One, only one of the limitless possible," and so I cease to paint. I wish to publish, yet you whisper, "Ah, but you'll be penned to one perspective and who will know you know there is another [...]

Perspective

Many years ago, I was privileged to spend some time with an incredible man named Hyemeyohsts Storm.  He described himself as a “breed,” his mother being Native American and his father German.  Storm was, in my own experience, a wise, insightful mystic, as well as also being what Native Americans call a [...]

Courage for the Moment

Many of us are exhausted with the various social, political and moral dilemmas of our time.  We do well to listen to the wisdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian, who spoke out strongly about the moral dilemmas faced by German citizens in the 1930s and paid for his [...]

Keep Walking, a Poem by Rumi

Keep Walking, by Rumi, Translation by Coleman Barks Keep walking. Though there's no place to get to. Don't try to see through the distances. That's not for human beings. Move within. But don't move the way fear makes you move. Today, like very other day, We wake up empty and frightened. Don't open the door [...]

Thomas Jefferson Writes About Jesus

Jesus Christ, detail from Deesis mosaic, Hagia Sophia, IstanbulPhoto by Edal Anton Lefterov, via Wikipedia, CC 3.0 “I have promised to write someday about my views…This view would purposely omit the question of his divinity and even his inspiration.  To do him justice, it would be necessary to remark the disadvantages his doctrines [...]

The Jewish Tradition, by Dawn Warren

The Hebrew language, culturally considered the Jewish language, has flourished since before the 10th century B.C.E.  In Hebrew, the word Torah means “teaching” or “law” and refers to Judaism’s  founding legal and religious texts.  The Torah calls the Jewish people “a nation”, referring to them as a group of people with a common history and a common destiny.  That [...]

Quotation: On Wholeness and Being, Stephen Levine

"…This vastness at the center beckons us yet deeper into wisdom, and compassion is the Unnamable to which so many mystics throughout the ages have referred.  It is both our birthright and our unbirthright because it is said by some adepts that we were born to discover we are the unborn, the essential suchness from [...]

Timeline of Some Ancient Writings

Timeline of Ancient Writings In my years of research, I have learned that it is useful to have a timeline of "who said what" "when."  As we all know, versions of history and philosophical concepts change dramatically down through the years.  Here is a timeline of some ancient writers or writings.  Obviously the dates are [...]

Wisdom for This Unusual Day

Wisdom for This Day The words of Hazrat Inayat Khan: Rumi says your worst enemy is hiding within yourself, and that enemy is your nafs or false ego.  It is very difficult to explain the meaning of this ‘false ego.’  The best I can do is to say that every inclination which springs from disregard [...]

On Centering

On Centering The quotations are all from the book The Tao of Symbols, published in 1982 by James N. Powell  “…Where is the still center of this turning universe?  Are we to bow down several times each day in the direction of the stone in the central city of Mecca as [...]

Have We Forgotten What We Have All Been Taught?

Father and Child at US Border, AP imaage “Let the children come unto me…It is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish... Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me...” Jesus, Christian, quoted in Matthew 18 “Give justice to the [...]

Wholeness and Courage

Wholeness and Courage A quote from Marsha Sinetar: “…Wholeness exists to the extent an individual is conscious of and receptive to his innermost self…When we think about our own growth we probably think simultaneously of two co-existing and equally necessary elements: self-knowledge (i.e. knowing who the self within us really is and awakening to the [...]

Dancing With a Tornado: An Easter Story, by Glenda Taylor

Today, a week after the occasion of my 80th birthday celebration, which was a Dances of Universal Peace Four Day Camp at Earthsprings Retreat Center, my heart, mind, and body are still vibrating with the energy of the time some fifty people spent together dancing, singing, praying, eating, laughing,  and most of all, being [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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