Excerpted from The Ecstatic Journey: Walking the Mystical Path in Everyday Life By Sophy Burnham
For the past five hundred years Christian meditation - or contemplation, as it was called - has largely been lost. Today we find a renewal of this tradition. Monasteries offer retreats for a week or a month, and spiritual communities provide space where people, hungry for silence, may slow down and look inward toward the soul.
Dom Laurence Freeman, a
Excerpted from Dracula: The Connoisseur's Guide By Leonard Wolf
Dracula Suck! That's the name of a soft-porn movie and the message imprinted on T-shirts that teenagers wear. The films audience is not left long in doubt about the meaning of the sentence. The T-shirt wearers displaying their message also have a raunchy intent in mind. Dracula sucks! Yes. He does. Once past the smile or the giggle the low-key joke induces, what is surprising is how much of the Dracula Matt
Excerpted from Circling the Sacred Mountain: A Spiritual Adventure Through the Himalayas By Robert Thurman, Tad Wise
Number one, breaking momentum on a bad spot is not cool. It becomes difficult to begin again. Panic creeps over a still body faster and more swiftly than over a moving one. Number two, never throw stones. Landslides are bad enough under the best of conditions. Jock pulls into sight and can see from our eyes we are not happy. Nor are we the least bit shy i
Excerpted from Circle Round: Raising Children in Goddess Traditions By Starhawk
The theology and practices described in this book are those that arise from the Reclaiming community in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Reclaiming is a community of women and men who have been working together, teaching and creating public rituals, for almost two decades. We encompass many different circles and covens, and over the years we have created our own evolving tradition. We
Excerpted from Chinese Horoscopes Guide to Relationship By Theodora Lau
As a child, he is gifted with a great zest for life and surplus energy which could be directed to sports and group exercise. Enthusiastic, playful and happy, he would like to be involved in many activities, yet he can be reliable when given responsibilities such as caring for younger siblings or pets. He will worship his parents unabashedly and have many role models such as his teachers and sports h
Excerpted from Chanting: Discovering Spirit in Sound By Robert Gass, Kathleen A. Brehony
Chanting is so extraordinarily useful for groups because each chant represents a different pattern of energy that can potentially transform a group field in a distinct way. Our collection of chants is like a tool box for consciousness, like an artist's palette with its range of colors. Virtually any experience a group is seeking can be invoked or enhanced by chant. Out of this limit
Excerpted from Casebook; Alien Implants (Whitley Strieber's Hidden Agendas) By Roger Leir, Whitley Streiber
One of the criteria we established for removal of alleged alien implants was an abduction history of the proposed surgical candidates. Derrel took responsibility for supplying a detailed abduction history for Patricia and Peter, the surgical candidates.
Critics and debunkers of the alien abduction phenomenon point disapprovingly to the met
Excerpted from Borderlands: The Ultimate Exploration of the Surrounding Unknown By Mike Dash, Ph.D.
If the controversy that has raged for decades over practically all the most interesting UFO photographs settles anything, it is that such images prove little or nothing. It is almost always possible to produce either a natural explanation for the photos, or to suggest that they are frauds. And, in fairness, it should be noted that there are often worrying discrepancies in
Excerpted from Through These Doors: A true inspirational story of a family overcoming crisis By Dwight Alexander
Although the wreck that injured them comprised mere seconds, Collin and Grant would need hours, days, weeks to recover, if they recovered at all. Grant was monitored closely by highly competent staff in ICU; the danger of his brain swelling drastically and causing irreversible damage was clear. Collin's doctor planted a chair at his bedside for an all-night
Excerpted from Barefoot on Holy Ground: Twelve Lessons in Spiritual Craftsmanship By Gloria Karpinski
Soon after we discover the Light, we learn that not all parts of self are standing in it. Out of fear and denial we have relegated many aspects to the shadow lands of unconsciousness. The task of a disciple is to identify, embrace, and eventually integrate all parts of the divided self.
Our shadows are filled with anything we have rejected, deni
Excerpted from Overcoming Life's Disappointments By Rabbi Harold S. Kushner
When I ponder the greatness of Moses, the first word that conies to mind is perseverance, perseverance in the face of frequent criticism, dedication born of keeping his mind constantly focused on the presence and the promise of the God who summoned him and assured him that He would be with him.
One of my favorite stories tells of the prominent rabbi who ran into a member
Excerpted from Driven by Eternity: Making Your Life Count Today and Forever By John Bevere
There was once a world similar to our own, yet in many ways different. In this world there were no independent nations, only the one great kingdom named Affabel. Though this kingdom spanned the entire known world, it had a single capital city from which all leadership was administered. It was called The Great City of Affabel, which we will refer to from this point on as simply Aff
Excerpted from The New Rabbi: A Congregation Searches for Its Leader By Stephen Fried
Har Zion's main sanctuary makes a sensational first impression, especially in the morning when fractured light from the thirty-foot-high stained-glass windows illuminates the outer aisles. Front and center is the bimah, the pulpit, a low stage where all the action takes place. Built into its contemporary wood back wall is the Ark, the holy walk-in closet that houses the scrolls of the
Excerpted from The Confident Woman: Start Today Living Boldly and Without Fear By Joyce Meyer
God never intended for women to be less than men in anyone's estimation. Neither are they above men. Both genders should work together for the common good of all. The competitive spirit that exists in our society today between men and women is downright foolish. When women began to realize they would have to fight for their rights, some of them became extreme in their attitudes
Excerpted from Building Your Field of Dreams By Mary Manin Morrissey
Carla, a woman in our congregation, spent most of her life feeling unworthy. She got the message loud and clear in the third grade from a narrow-minded nun. Outgoing and a touch rebellious, Carla always seemed to be in trouble at school. One day Carla said or did something that annoyed the nun-she can't recall precisely what-and was called to the front of the room. The nun instructed Carla to stay ther
Excerpted from It's a Miracle 2: More Inspiring True Stories Based on the PAX TV Series, It's A Miracle By Richard Thomas
On January 30, 1983, paramedic Kevin Rolf was on duty in Alachua County, Florida, when an emergency dispatch came through.
"The call came in about a crash of a light plane on takeoff with fire involved and four people inside the plane," recalls Kevin. "Light planes generally don't do very well when they crash, so there's usua
Excerpted from It's a Miracle 3: Extraordinary Real-Life Stories Based on the PAX TV Series It's a Miracle By Richard Thomas
In 1963, Ben Carson was a poor kid growing up in a tough inner-city neighborhood in Detroit. Michigan. Violent and out of control, the twelve-year-old boy was headed for a life of crime. And when he wasn't running from the law, Ben was skipping school, getting Ds and Fs. His future looked hopeless.
"I had no competition fo
Excerpted from God Against the Gods By Jonathan Kirsch
The biblical condemnation of polytheism, when stripped of its rhetorical overkill, rests on a single theological offense: the pagan commits an unforgivable crime when he or she prays to any god or goddess other than the Only True God. Although some of the biblical authors delight in describing (and, of course, denouncing) the exotic and provocative rituals of paganism, the manner of worship ultimately matters less t
Excerpted from What Jesus Meant By Garry Wills
For me, the most convincing pictures or sculptures of the Annunciation to Mary show her in a state of panic. Arturo Martini and Dante Gabriel Rossetti show her shrinking off from the angel, looking cornered by him. Lorenzo Lotto shows her turning entirely away from the angel, as if about to run from him. But the most striking images occur in fourteenth-century paintings-by, for instance, Lorenzo Veneziano and the Master of
Excerpted from Thirty Days By Paul Mariani
1:00 P.M. Up at six in almost total darkness. Slipped on some pants-brand-new ones, in fact-to go down to the bathroom and noticed ink stains on my right pocket. The cover of one of my new pens had come loose and now my goddamn pants are ruined. So much for thoughtful, efficient packing. When you go, do not bring an extra cloak or sandals or money. Thus Jesus, speaking to his disciples as he sent them out on their first mission
Excerpted from Benedict's Dharma: Buddhists Reflect on the Rule of Saint Benedict By Patrick Henry
Freedom is as elusive as it is desirable. Monastic values at first glance seem the very antithesis of freedom. Living according to a rule, even a rule understood as a trellis and not as a straitjacket, goes against the grain of a culture that celebrates individualism. Commitments tend to be provisional. As Norman Fischer pointed out, "Everybody is so conditioned to 'Let's
Excerpted from Dark Night of the Soul By Saint John of the Cross, Mirabai Starr
In the first verse, the soul sings of the path she followed as she left behind attachment to herself and to created things. Through radical humility, she has died to her old self. She tells of living a new life-sweet and delicious-in love with God. The soul calls this going forth a "dark night," which is pure contemplation. The negation of the self and of all things unfolds passively within
Excerpted from Tree of Dreams: A Spirit Woman's Vision of Transition and Change By Lynn V. Andrews
Oddly enough, I awoke one morning in my little single-walled cabin and opened my eyes to discover that the cabin was filled with light. I saw the Buddha walk through the door. Why the Buddha? I couldn't imagine, but there he was. He was smiling, and he asked the strangest question. "Where's the Buddha? I'm looking for the Buddha."
"You're looking f
Excerpted from God and the Evolving Universe: The Next Step in Personal Evolution By James Redfield, Michael Murphy
Evolution entered a new domain with the appearance of humankind. Intelligence, communication skills, and other attributes of animal life advanced dramatically as our species formed newly creative social groups, harnessed fire, developed new tools, learned to speak, and tried to make greater sense of the world around them. As their capacities developed, our
Excerpted from Shakti Mantras: Tapping Into the Great Goddess Energy Within By Thom Ashley-Farrand
Para Shakti
Para Shakti is the Supreme Force that exists throughout the entire manifest universe. Scientists have been carefully studying its principal attributes, heat and light, for as long as we have inquired about the nature of the cosmos. But for all its investigation, modern science knows only a little about light. It cannot even be said with
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