“Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,” said Scrooge. “But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change.” Thus, Ebenezer Scrooge, in Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol, propounded the quintessential element of a genuine spiritual conversion experience: one’s course must change. If so, their former destiny will change. We can see Read More »
A recent headline grabbed our attention. A new study found the practice of mindfulness meditation was just as effective for reducing anxiety as taking medication. A research team at Georgetown University Medical Center conducted the study using two groups of participants over an eight-week period. Those who participated in the mindfulness-meditation program achieved a 20% reduction in anxiety-related symptoms, which Read More »
A new film version was released this year based on the classic children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, about a wooden puppet who is brought to life and aspires to become a real boy. This story provides a wealth of fodder for spiritual metaphor. Especially when Pinocchio is told he must be “brave, truthful, and unselfish” in order to transform Read More »
When it comes to one’s spiritual life, aspirants can easily get sidetracked. One of the biggest traps can be, oddly, reading spiritual books. Or, more precisely, pseudo-spiritual books. Pseudo-spiritual books are those that contain lots of abstract concepts and, for lack of a better word, gobbledygook. The Zen master Hui-Neng is rightly depicted as tearing up the scriptures. Not because Read More »
In Buddhism, a key term is skandha, which is translated as “aggregate.” This refers to the five components of one’s being: material form (i.e., one’s body), sensations, perceptions, mental activity, and consciousness. A similar concept exists in Hinduism, originating from the Sankhya philosophical school, which posits the principle of guna, which translates as “quality.” The world is composed of three Read More »
While we read New Testament accounts that bolster the mild-mannered image of Jesus as portrayed in Charles Wesley’s famous hymn, “Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild,” there is another side of Jesus we cannot ignore. “Do you think I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51), he said. Further, “I have come Read More »
This blog seldom if ever ventures into the shark-infested waters of political opinion. Nor do we often address temporal matters, let alone daily news events, preferring instead to remain in the undiluted stratosphere of purely spiritual topics, untainted by the annals of time. For, the mundane and the secular are mere passing accoutrements that distract from an unsullied vision of Read More »
Vedanta is one of the six traditional schools of Hindu philosophy. The word Vedanta means “the end of the Vedas.” The Vedas are ancient, revealed hymns wherein Hindu religion originates. They contain writings known as the Upanishads, which hold the kernels of Vedanta philosophy. Veda means “knowledge.” The implication is that the end of all knowledge is contained in the Read More »
