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Why Are We
So Afraid — of Fear? In America these days, the Bush administration has declared that it is patriotic to shop and to travel in the face of terrorist threats. We are told that if we change our behaviors as a result of their actions, the terrorists win. We are told to go on with our lives, to be vigilant, and to act pretty much as if nothing has happened. It is almost as if being afraid were the same as being un-American. Pretending not to fear danger, though, is a trap that results in an even greater state of alarm that will pervade every aspect of our lives.
Toward a New
Relationship between Science and Religion
Living Your
Dreams: To live your dreams is to give a gift to the world. By sharing your unique talents, skills, abilities, and passions, you help make this planet a better place. Now is the time to give all you can, whether it is by raising children with love and integrity, fulfilling a desire to record your songs, traveling around the world, writing poetry and publishing a favorite poem, starting a positive organization, or volunteering your time to help others. Discovering your dreams and taking the steps to achieve them is a journey of your soul’s expression that gives your life meaning and nourishes your mind, body, and spirit.
Walking with
the Bones
StarWatch
Opening to
Your Intuition
Chia Seeds
for Health Chia seeds have been a staple food source for the American Native people for centuries (long before the Chia Pet hit the market). Aztec warriors would eat chia during hunting trips, and the Indians of the Southwest would eat only chia seed mixed with water as they ran from the Colorado River to the Pacific Ocean to trade products. Chia seed is a complete source of dietary protein, providing all the essential amino acids. Compared to other seeds and grains, chia seed provides the highest source of protein, between 19 to 23 percent protein by weight. One of the unique qualities of the chia seed is its ability to absorb more than nine times its volume in water or other liquid. This ability can prolong hydration and retain electrolytes in body fluids, especially during exertion or exercise. Normal fluid retention ensures electrolyte dispersion across cell membranes, maintains fluid balances, and aids normal cellular function.
Issues of
Peace
What Lies
Beneath:
Remembering
the Past, Reclaiming the Future
To the mildly curious, past-life therapy (PLT) seems an indulgence, a kind of bizarre past-life tourism. But for those with a burning desire to know themselves, it is a powerful technique of self-discovery, opening inner worlds and inviting an exploration of consciousness far beyond the limits of the ordinary mind. When applied to deep personal issues and limitations, PLT goes directly to the source of problems. They are resolved at their very roots.
Living a Radical
Peace
These times in which you and I live call upon us to live a radical peace. We must live in the center of our souls and be a new way, oblivious to our social and national training, committed to a new convention of relating, doing business, governing, and living healthfully and for the good of the whole.
The Lie of
Life in the Sand Trap of Time
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Most of us have grown up
hearing about the Scopes trial, the so-called Monkey Trial made
famous by the play and later the movie Inherit the Wind.
We know that in the Middle Ages, the Church repressed the likes
of Galileo and other early scientists of Western civilization.
Aggravated by the fundamentalism and bibliolatry of frontier
America, which was devoid of the rich legacy of the great spiritual
teachers of the past, it seems that the conflict between science
and religion has always been a given.
A golden-crowned
kinglet flits through the bones of the salmonberry. Flying must
be so much easier when leaves are but memories of summer past.
While it may be easier to fly through leafless branches, it also
increases vulnerability. Winter exposes stark structural aspects
in the garden. When the winds of time blow the leaves away, we
are faced with "dem bones." The inner form is now apparent,
what the garden is built upon is now seeable. This is a wonderful
time to walk outside.
By adding the
universal year 2002 (2+0+0+2=4) to the month of February, we
come up with the vibration of 6. The 6 month asks us to tune
in to how we can be of service to others through expressing the
healing power of love. The challenge this month is to learn how
to tap into our love of beauty and harmony so that we can come
into balance. Take some time this month to work on beautifying
your environment. By doing so, you will feel more harmonious
and balanced, and others will feel healed solely by being in
your space. Try to see yourself as a channel for unconditional
love flowing through. As you tap into this love yourself, you
will be able to give it to others without feeling burdened or
drained.
Every
human being is born with the gift of intuition. Whether or not
you decide to exercise its function and make it stronger, as
with your muscles, is up to you. Intuition "works"
when you put your five senses aside. Then it can become activated,
providing a completely natural guiding force. Intuition is our
sixth sense, but is often stifled by our culture’s over-dependence
on the five senses of the material world. When you tap into your
intuition, decisions that seemed difficult to make suddenly fall
into place.
Since September
11, my life and work, like many people’s, have been filled
with outreach, adjustments in everyday living and travel, and
a lot of reflection on the world we now live in. I have heard
people say that the world has changed forever, and in many respects
that is true. When I look beneath the surface, however, I see
that the essential issues of life are the same. One way to look
at the game of life is that it is all about issues, process,
and peace.
Because dreams
and dream images emerge from a vast reservoir of life experience
dating back to the beginning of time, attending to dreams is
particularly imperative during this difficult period in our personal
and collective history. The use of the word "imperative"
is significant since it connotes a force or energy at work beyond
conscious intention. The Encarta World English Dictionary
defines "imperative" as something "absolutely
necessary or unavoidable." It’s precisely this necessity
to pursue the art and practice of dream work and, in particular,
its urgency for me now that I will explore in this article. As
I begin, I invite you to stay with your own experience and to
consider these questions: Where is the urgency in my life? What
in my experience seems "absolutely necessary" and how
am I being drawn to respond?
Who
was I in a past life? A street urchin in the gutters of London?
Medieval knight? Prophet of ancient Greece? Bandit of the Arabian
Desert? Does it really matter? Pragmatically minded people will
point out that I can't change the past anyway. The present and
the future are what matter. Why regress, when what I want is
to progress?
Peace cannot exist
outside of our individual lives; neither can it be subject to
the policies and procedures of politics, government, or business
dealings. When we don’t live peace in our feelings for ourselves
and in our relationships with others, the foundation of world
peace is unstable. When subjugated to the "powers"
of governing organizations, we give priority to creating power
for others, not peace for all.
A friend from
out of state dropped by the other day to see me. He happily described
the deep peace and inner acceptance he’d been experiencing
from his meditations, and from his life in a spiritual community.
Later in the conversation, however, he shared his struggles with
worldly desires, private fears, and a frustration with the sheer
magnitude of the spiritual task of God-realization that lay before
him. He admitted that he gets angry with God at times, as though
to complain, "Divine Mother, why is it so difficult? What
have you done to us? Is this your way of having fun?"