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Healing – A Sacred Path

This previously unpublished article is from The Love of Devotion.

Living Prayer

When I was in my early twenties, before my time with spiritual teacher, Dr Thomas Hora, I happily belonged to a Catholic Charismatic group. I lived in two of its communal houses and embraced community life with great enthusiasm. Such Pentecostal groups view the miraculous as common and healing as the reachable result of sincere and dedicated prayer. Faith was alive. Prayer was common. Dedication was the norm. All expected their lives to improve and whole-heartedly dedicated their days to God, in much the same way as many religious orders do. As there were so many young people drawn to the lively community, it was also fun and full of laughter. It was, indeed, a wonderful time. I felt very fortunate to find a religious group that was alive, vibrant, and flourishing. I was able to live like a member of a religious order while being a lay person. I would say that the short-coming of such groups is the vulnerability to fundamentalist thinking and its associated problems.

Continue reading “Healing – A Sacred Path”
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Healing and Creating

Here is my meditation for healing and creating. Meditation is not some new-age mumbo-jumbo for ungrounded people. True meditation is intelligent, humble, and powerful. It means to become consciously alive and well – to heal our body, to clear our mind, and to free our spirit. In this way, we reduce (and often eliminate) our problems and we have the deep satisfaction of living in an ever-evolving, connected, and creative way.

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Conversations and Gossip

One of the first serious spiritual practices I learned in my early twenties was to watch what I was talking about. It is unfortunate but not surprising that most people have no idea what they are saying, to whom, and the consequences of that on themselves and others. If we want to be happy; don’t gossip, don’t spread hate, don’t talk about other people, don’t spread fear, don’t complain, don’t relay stories which are detrimental to the well-being of those around us. That will cut out the vast majority of most people’s conversations. There is a time for honest, well-intentioned directness but it is not found in common conversation and it is a learned skill. Be a bringer of peace and healing. It’s a discipline, for sure, but one that will transform our lives. Continue reading “Conversations and Gossip”

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No Martyrs

When I was fourteen, a missionary visited my school and gave a little talk. Although I can’t remember what she said, I do remember being impressed with her as a person. I couldn’t put it into words but there was something special about her. It might have been the calm look in her eyes even though, from what she said, her life was far from calm. Certainly, I recognised a very unselfish attitude and she seemed happy without trying to convince anyone that she was. Continue reading “No Martyrs”

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We Are Here For God

Like many other things in life, dancing seems to revolve around strengthening one’s ego. I prefer to think of it as letting a little piece of life come through us, together with another person who is gracious enough to want to share a little piece of life with us. It could be something pure. Or powerful. Or happy. Is it possible that the purity, power or happiness could simply express itself through a trained body and mind without the ego and its never-ending problems? Continue reading “We Are Here For God”

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Peace

Although simple, peace is a highly evolved state of consciousness. It cannot live side-by-side with the ego. We choose one or the other. Peace is the predominant quality of spiritual advancement. The unassuming quality of peace wins the day when it comes to the soul’s progression. To choose peace means that we give up the rantings and ravings, demands and hurts, wants and cravings of the personal mind. The personal self feeds off injustices, imagined injustices, complaining, conflict, excitement, drama, and all the goings-on of normal human life. At some point, when we have suffered enough or have enough wisdom, we tire of the whole thing. We sincerely prefer peace. Continue reading “Peace”

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Heartache

The first step in healing is to take responsibility.
The second step in healing is to realise that there are other ways of getting what we want.

(This article was originally published September 2015. The video is new.)

Heartache
Much of our heartache in life comes not from other people but from our expectations of other people and what we feel they should bring into our lives. If our heartaches were truly caused by other people, we would have little power to heal our hurt. Healing would primarily be left to the passage of time and, even then, the big heartaches could easily be reignited. The often unrecognised factors which have brought about our heartache will be based on a myriad of beliefs ranging from reasonable to downright ridiculous. However, this makes no difference at all to the pain we feel because our pain is not coming from our mind but from our heart. It’s no point arguing with the heart. It doesn’t help to talk reason. The heart doesn’t even hear. It doesn’t know that language. It is instinctive – for good and bad. Whereas the mind will try and patiently think through the reasonableness of any situation, the heart is powerless to do so. The heart is all feeling and it flows from a great line of experiences and expectations both remembered and forgotten. Continue reading “Heartache”

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Not As It Seems

How can we see things as they really are? Thought is very powerful and the underlying intention is everything.

How can we see things as they really are? It’s important, don’t you think? For example, honesty can seem like meanness when, really, it may be love. Niceness can seem loving when, really, it may not be at all. People can wish us dead and still be polite to us and people can, sometimes, seem harsh when, in fact, they would give their life for us. The behaviour of a person does not necessarily correspond with their underlying intention. If we can’t see people clearly, we can end up trusting people and situations that are not in our best interest and dismissing people and situations which would make our life better and happier. It is not just in regards little things but if we understand the far-reaching and powerful effect of thought, we realise that it can even be a life and death matter. Thought is very powerful and the underlying intention is everything. Continue reading “Not As It Seems”

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Walking through the Dark Places

It is our deepest hurts which have the power to help and heal us. What else carries an internal fire big enough to force us forwards? What else has the momentum to wake us up? What else has enough pain to make us long for something better? What else will drive us into the waiting arms of that beautiful, invisible life-force which yearns to help us? What else will teach us to feel the love which has no betrayal; the love which seeks only good? Naturally, most of us feel uncomfortable with intense emotion. We do not know how to deal with fear, sadness, and anger and so we repress them. Continue reading “Walking through the Dark Places”