This is an Index of Content on Spirituality.
Click on any title to view that actual item.
Darsan
Hindu Concept of “Taking Darsan,” by Daniel J. Boorstin, in The Creators “Taking darsan means seeing, being seen, in the truest sense of the word. “What sanctifies the worshiper is no act of conversion, no change of spirit, but the simple act of seeing, the Hindi word darsan. A Hindu goes to a temple not to [...]
Compassion: Quotations
"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. [...]
Dependent Arising, A Quotation
Quotation by Thomas J. McFarlane from Process and Emptiness: A Comparison of Whitehead’s Process Philosophy and Mahayana Buddhist Philosophy “…One of the core doctrines in Buddhist philosophy is that everything exists as a dependent arising (pratityasamutpada). According to the Buddha, all phenomena are dependent arisings, meaning not only that any process of arising is dependent [...]
Four Corners
"I stand, silent and in awe, before the mystery and uniqueness of each tradition and each individual and hold them sacrosanct in their way of being." Glenda Taylor I am spending a brief time of rest, renewal, and reflection in the area of the United States called Four Corners. Here the “corners” of four states [...]
Authenticity
"You wander from room to room hunting for the diamond necklace That is already around your neck!” Sufi Mystic Rumi Recently, National Public Radio began airing a series of readings of short essays, each composed by a different individual but all on the same subject—“This [...]
A New Year, Thoughts by Glenda Taylor
A new year. But what’s new about it? The same old fretful dithering, over health, politics, family issues repeated over generations. Why bother to make new resolutions when the lists from more than seventy new years, yellowed and frayed around the edges, still remind me of my always unfulfilled potential. But wait! Look, right [...]
Take Heart, an Essay
Take heart! Although the news each day seems more and more alarming, the political divisions and unrest, at home and abroad, seem more and more severe, do not think that hope is lost. Consider how many times those who came before us had to struggle through overwhelming situations. The conditions of the world have always [...]
Prison
On November 28, 1990, Glenda Taylor, at the request of a prison chaplain, addressed the assembled staff of the federal prison at Bryan, Texas, speaking on the subject of "Native American Spirituality." The substance of her talk follows. Thank you, Chaplain, for inviting me to speak today to the [...]
Tibetan Monks Create and Disperse Green Tara Sand Mandala, a Video
Tibetan monks, in reverence and silence, create a Green Tara mandala, and then, ceremonially, sweep the sands together and carry them in procession with others to disperse the sands in the river, in Durango, Colorado.
Yesterday Was Valentines Day
While being cared for in a cardiologist's office, I learned deeper lessons about the care of the heart.
“Ageing,” a poem by Glenda Taylor
I’m slowly dissolving into the Void. While others are spending years sitting upright on hard cushions, striving not to strive to achieve mindlessness, I’m getting it for free by merely ageing, you see. I step into the shower, say, and, warm water streaming over me, I close my eyes and soon know only deliciousness, any [...]
Prayer for the Perpetrators
My dearly beloved friends and family, Like you, I am sure, this week, including as it has the events in Boston, Washington, and now the small town of West in Texas, and also the places where storms may ravage our countryside and our cities, this week has sent me into a deep and quiet place [...]
“Words,” A poem by Glenda Taylor
They say (whoever they are who say nevertheless with words) that a picture’s worth a thousand words, pictures being more exact replicas of reality, or so they say. Words are merely mental constructs, they say, abstractions, illusions, arrows only, pointing to the real thing; words are not experience itself, only limitations upon intuition. But others, older, said [...]
Hexagrams of the I Ching
The following is a useful list categorizing each of the 64 hexagrams of the ancient Chinese study I Ching, or Book of Changes. For further information on this classic spiritual work, see my workshop on the I Ching. Glenda Taylor Information in the table below is gratefully taken from a more complete rendering at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hexagrams_of_the_I_Ching, given under [...]
Timeline: History of Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God and that Muhammad is the messenger of God. The word Islam means voluntary “submission” or “surrender” to the will of God; iIt derives from the root word “salam,” meaning peace. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and has guided mankind through [...]
