The experience I am going through now I call the Zen of Being Sick.
Over the weekend I became sick. I lost my voice. I probably have bronchitis. I have a fever, chills, no energy for work and too much discomfort for sleep. And the end result is feeling miserable.
And yet, it serves a [...]
A few months back I read translated excerpts from Der Jüngste Tag, written by Paul Otto Hesse. I was enthralled by the reading. I felt as if I was visiting the same Truth that I had spent the last 30 some years focussed on, but coming to it from a new direction.
My interest [...]
There are detours on the spiritual path. When someone is first drawn to the spiritual path, there is, no doubt, a burning love for God. And to the degree that this love consumes consciousness determines the progress on the path.
David Hawkins, writes in his book, Discovery of the Presence of God — Devotional Nonduality, that serious spiritual seekers adjust their lifestyle to be in accord with their spiritual commitment. This brings up issues such as attachments, relationships, possessions. etc. “In the end, to the true devotee, the pursuit of spiritual reality supersedes all other [...]
To perceive perfectly the absolute oneness that envelops us all is to be Self Realized.
I wasn’t expecting to be talking about a new humanity when I called an old friend from the West Coast a few days ago. He is a teacher of special needs children in Los Angeles. He is also a poet, an actor, a lover of God, and the best joke teller I have ever known.
But [...]
We are infinite beings. Every one of us, young and old, healthy and sick, rich and poor, are spiritual beings. This is our primary reality. We are not our circumstances. The conditions of our lives, whether we are young or old, healthy or sick, etc., are just temporal experiences. They are not lasting. If they [...]
In Persia, the mystical poet Hafiz referred to Divine Love as wine. And he would often write about having the tavern keeper (The Divine Beloved) fill his glass (his heart) with this wine.
But a glass (the heart) can’t be filled with wine (divine love) if it is filled with something else (desires). So to get [...]
Steve Pavlina writes: “You can’t be intelligent if you turn your back on truth and succumb to falsehood and denial.” How Much more true that is if you are striving for higher consciousness or even Self Realization.
This process of facing truth and not succumbing to falsehood and denial is a continual challenge. We so much [...]
Einstein once said that nothing happens until something moves. This is true in physics as well as in life. And as physics so well demonstrates, more energy is needed to move a stationary object than is required for one that is already moving. That is part of the law of inertia, which states that “A [...]
The roles of the head and the heart in our lives are significant. For we live in a world that requires much of the head, but eventually we realize that though we live in the world, we are not of the world. We are of divine origin and we have a divine desination. To find [...]
People who are attuned to higher vibrations can see deeper aspects of reality, aspects that most people cannot. They have what I call inner vision. Some of these people experience nothing but bliss. They see beyond the denseness of the material world, into the finer realms of the subtle.
These types of people are rare, even [...]
The great striving towards higher consciousness is different from other goals we set out to attain. It’s not like wanting to lose weight by going to the gym three or four times a week to burn calories. It’s not like setting aside a certain time each day like you would to pursue a skill [...]
No matter what is being played out on the world stage, it is no excuse for losing hold on the primary reality of inner life. Yes, we have to live in the world, but while living in it, we need to remember what we are – spiritual beings. Every moment, if we allow it, is [...]
We all have within our being a sacred place where love is meant to flourish. It’s an inner garden.
For some, because there is such a lack of love, the ground is dry and hard as rock. Love has no chance to even take root. It’s like a seed thrown on a rock.
For others, there is [...]
Have you ever been happy for no reason at all? You don’t know why. But you are happy. That is causeless happiness.
Disillusionment is the key to overcoming the most difficult addiction to overcome: the addiction to illusion. People don’t even realize the addiction exists. They don’t even know that what they take for reality is, in fact, illusion. And even when they do realize that what they take for reality, is in fact illusion, they don’t [...]
Anyone who has an experience of the Divine Presence, for however brief a moment it might be, longs to return to that experience. For in those sacred moments, we discover deep within that nothing else matters. Not politics, not the stock market, not the baseball standings. Not even illness or impending death. The world of [...]
There is a Divine Presence. It can be most intensely felt in the realm of existence beyond the level of the gross senses — the inner world. This is the realm of subtle energy, inspiration, and illumination. This inner world is the gateway to the final goal, the only Real Existence — the Infinite Knowledge, [...]
In my college days, I was in a band that played at small nightclubs. We had a trumpet player, who sometimes would start out on a solo sounding awful. He’d stop and turn to me, and ask, “Hey Man, what key are we in?” I’d tell him and then everything would be beautiful.
In life, some [...]
I read the news today and saw a picture being painted of a world teetering on the brink of disaster. A never-ending war, a possible new war, global warming, a possible world-wide financial collapse, rising oil prices, and plummeting food supplies.
It has all the ingredients of a perfect storm which could reduce the world [...]
Presence alone can dissolve patterns of unconsciousness. Eckhart Tolle, in the 10 week web seminar being hosted by Oprah Winfrey, puts total emphasis on experiencing Presence. He says you can call it what you want – consciousness, awareness, God – but that it permeates the universe. And that it alone can dissolve the patterns of [...]
Note by Greg Butler: This is Part 3, the final installment of Plant Medicine and Patience, by Carrie Wenninger. In this post, she shares an intimate look into her experience of the mystical realms of consciousness by way of a shaman and the plant medicine known as ayahuasca. Since the publication of the best-selling book, [...]
Note by Greg Butler: This is Part 2 of Plant Medicine and Patience, by Carrie Wenninger. In this series of posts, she shares her experience into the mystical realms of consciousness by way of a shaman and the plant medicine known as ayahuasca. Since the publication of the best-selling book, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, [...]
Note by Greg Butler: The following posts on Plant Medicine and Patience was excerpted from a series of e-mails I received from a friend and reader of this blog, Carrie Wenninger. The e-mails were part of an ongoing conversation on this subject. Therefore, the tone of the piece is very personal, friendly, and free-flowing. She [...]