Friday, July 8, 2016

We are Simultaneously One & Many

Like most of my fellow Americans, I find myself reeling from and grieving the shooting of Alton Sterling on Tuesday, Philando Castile on Wednesday, and 12 Dallas police officers, five who lost their lives: Brent Thomas, Michael Krol, Michael Smith, Brent Thompson, and Patrick Zamarripa, on Thursday.

I don't have adequate words. But this morning, I listened to the live streaming of a prayer vigil held at Thanksgiving square in Dallas, TX. It helped me a lot to watch it. It helped me because it reminded me that as Americans we want a better reality for our shared lives and community than we have witnessed this past week.

As soon as I can find a video of the full interfaith prayer vigil online, I'll post it here. Here is a link to one of the speakers (there were many):


Yay! The 48-minute service has finally been posted on You Tube (highly recommended!) (please take the time to listen to the many voices of the entire service):


I have often griped about the failures and shortcomings of religion, but in the service today, the faith in a divine intelligence and the fruits of developing a relationship with that Source shines through, a transformational beacon of light.

I simply cannot abide to hear anymore divisive rhetoric. We must evolve beyond duality and non-duality. The way forward is embracing the reality that we are simultaneously one and many.

Peace.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Meditation & Eclectic Spirituality, Volume 17

I wrote Sunburned: A Blog Series About Spirituality while doing research for War & Grace, the final installment in my epic fantasy trilogy Daughter of Light. Since the foundation of the story is the evolution of consciousness, I've been posting weekly links to meditation (& ecletic) spirituality things around the web ... because I really do believe it is all about evolving our consciousness—and meditation is one of the best ways to do that!

This week's links all have a "when the rubber hits the road" quality, i.e. this stuff really works in real life ... and you don't need to subscribe to any particular religion to reap the benefits!

Enjoy!

Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant's Meditation Coach on How to be 'Flow Ready' and Get in the Zone: I highly recommend this long video. The time stamp appears to be wrong ... it says 18 + minutes but it's more like an hour. But Dan Harris's interview with with George Mumford is worth every minute.

How meditating in a tiny Iowa town helped me recover from war: A moving meditation transformation story.


Some are writing obituaries for American religion. Karen Tippet is documenting its revolution: Rethinking the sea change that's lapping at our collective shore ... Nones, SBNRs (Spiritual But Not Religious) ...


The Yoga of College Life: A fun trip through a (potentially mindful) day in the life of a college student.