Honoring your humanity. It’s important. It’s important to not denigrate but to celebrate who we are in our totality. Sometimes when we’re on a spiritual path and we’re so invested in bringing forward the intuitive body and beginning to work from the intuitive rather than the brain and emotional state, which is where we’re usually functioning from, when we’re in that process of bringing forward the divine and having that lead our way, there is sometimes a tendency to denigrate, to make less the parts in us, the thinking mind, the feelings and to put them aside or hold them in a place where we say, “Go away.” We’re taught in certain spiritual material that we read that our ego doesn’t serve us and we’re looking to replace our ego. I would kindly suggest that our ego serves us quite well. What we need to do is indeed not to ...
Living in your own truth, is not an easy thing to do. Maybe that’s why so many people in our world today are so interested in everybody else’s truth. In fact, many people are interested in everybody else’s business. We’ve got magazines that blare the stories of not only celebrities but anyone who has any type of visibility in our world. We have TV shows that are going into the lives of all kinds of people who have dysfunctions and parading them in front of the world as if it was news. Many, many, many people today are buying into the distraction of other people’s lives instead of spending the time to discover and make real what their truth is. You know, living in your truth isn’t just about how you build your life or the type of life you build. It’s about knowing moment to moment what is really ...
Practical spirituality. I’ve been thinking about that term, as it was recently given to me by spirit to define the teachings they given to me to give to you. Practical spirituality. It truly refers to the idea that everything you need to do, all the tools you have in order to access and work and develop a life that is based in spirit you already have. You have everything. It’s all inside of you. The memory of who you are, the memory of energy in form that you are. Not the thinking memory, but the true experience of who you are is inside of you. The breath that will take you and open up a place of space for that memory, that spirit inside of you to exist in your daily life, that breath is the tool. Yoga is a tool. Yoga is not a destination. It’s not just a ...
The purpose of our daily life. We’re here in bodies as energy in form. I believe there is a very specific purpose for this. The purpose of our daily life, of the challenges, of the stories that happen, of the relationships we have, the decisions and choices that we get to make, the events, the beauty, the wonder, the pain. I believe that the purpose of the way that our life is constructed is to help us to practice and to bring into the physical world the energy of who we truly are, the energy of our natural inheritance, the energy of love. Think about it. If every opportunity and exchange, every glance across the subway platform, every person that we meet in the street or don’t meet but we see, if every decision about our life is an opportunity for us to express one of the many facets and ...
In the last few days, I’ve had the opportunity to be reminded of the power of love. Many will tell you that love is our natural inheritance. I believe that to be true. I read an article very recently in the New York Times that was about people who supported those that were transitioning off the planet. Many of them said that they felt so helpless. They felt so hopeless. One man felt particularly felt powerless as his friend was dying of a brain tumor. He was so moved that he ended up doing a major study asking many people who had gone through similar circumstances, “What would be of help to you when you\’re dying? What can people do to be of service to you?” He was totally surprised because across the board all he heard was, “All I want is to be loved. Tell me that I am ...
What I teach is Practical Spirituality. We use our life, our daily life, as the practice pad to grow our spiritual integrity. Growing our spiritual integrity means walking the talk. The talk are the spiritual values that we say we hold dear; wisdom, compassion, kindness, tolerance, understanding, presence, gratitude, grace. Practical Spirituality is a term that refers to the fact that we have all the tools we need right here, right inside of us. We don’t need crystals to imprana us. We don’t need mantras to charge us. We’ve got the charge. Practical spirituality involves four main steps, four main tools. All of which we have inside of us. All of which we have the ability to choose to use. The five tools are observation, awareness, choice, consistency and Discipline. Those are the tools that anyone who wants to practice practical spirituality, needs. It’s helpful to be on a path ...
How do we use the stories in our life in order to grow as spiritual people? How do we not get stuck in the stories and how do we use them in order to move forward? We are a society, a group of people of human consciousness that loves stories. I’ve spoken about this before. This particular message from spirit is meant to help us to have, to respect, to use our stories for the purpose in which they’ve been given. I believe that the events, the experiences, the challenges we have in life that become our stories are given to us as an opportunity to practice the many faces of love; kindness, compassion, patience, wisdom, gratitude, grace, and tolerance. These are just some of the many facets of love that we are asked to practice, to bring to the forefront when a situation arises that ultimately creates a story. ...
I’m inspired every day by people in many ways. I don’t need to go to a workshop to learn how to be inspired. I simply keep my awareness in my front pocket. Inspiration is all around me. I’m inspired by young people who are filled with ideas and the joy of creating and then act on the belief that they can accomplish exactly what they visualize. I’m inspired by visionaries who want to effect change with their art. They can see the project that is big, big, big! Then they have the courage, the skill, the talent, the commitment, the heart to bring it to completion. I’m inspired by slam poets who perform in a style that is perfect for the words that they write. I am inspired by people who walk in the integrity of what they say they believe, no excuses, 24/7. I am inspired by people who ...
I’d love to share with you some thoughts on observation. The purpose of making your life your practice is to live your spirituality, to bring your spiritual values into your daily way of being. Knowing which values you’ll keep close to you as you move through the day is hugely important. Being able to honestly assess where you are with those values, being able to know whether or not you’re truly living them or just giving them lip service is key. In order to be vigilant, to continue to live in your states of kindness, patience, your energy your inheritance of love, you’ll need to enlist the tool of observation. Let me be clear for you. This isn’t about watching others. Watching yourself is what I’m talking about. That’s always our work. In the world of spiritual practice, it is always about us. It’s our progress, our honesty, our ability ...
Just move. These two words are very, very juicy. Often in our life we come up against circumstances that we try to shift, to change, to make better. I am reminded of a story that the teacher, Gangaji tells that her teacher told her. It’s about a man in India. India is a very, very busy place. This man went to his teacher with a great problem. He told his teacher, “I cannot meditate.” In India and for him meditation was like water, it was like air. He said to his teacher, “I cannot meditate because I live above a machine shop.” In India and for this man, the machine shop ran 24 hours a day. He told his teacher, “It is too noisy. The noise goes on. There is never a break. I cannot meditate. I have tried over and over and over. I come to you to tell ...