Wonderings & Wanderings of the Soul

<a href="http://thesoulsource.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/5-newmethodfor.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2938" src="https://thesoulsource.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/5-newmethodfor-300x297.jpg" alt="5-newmethodfor" width="300" height="297"></a>Celebrate this season of light by recognizing and reveling in the LIGHT within. Millions of people around the world have begun the annual celebration of Christmas – the gift of Christ Consciousness; while others commemorate the Winter Solstice, Chanukah or the presence of Buddha or Krishna Consciousness. It is a time for deep reflection and joy regardless of which banner one pauses to celebrate under. Over the centuries, traditions have come and gone merged and morphed. What remains constant is the gift each of us has received regardless of our religious or philosophical orientation. Each of us is a child of God, our existence made possible through the vast power, creativity and love that is the Source of All That Is. Each of us is on an eternal journey through the vastness of [...]

<div class="irc_mutc"></div> <div class="irc_mutc"><a href="http://thesoulsource.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/gratitude3.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-2920" src="https://thesoulsource.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/gratitude3-150x150.jpg" alt="gratitude3" width="150" height="150"></a></div> <div class="irc_mutc">We are on the verge of gathering for our Thanksgiving celebration -- a time when most in our culture press the PAUSE button to gather to acknowledge the many blessings that we enjoy and to express our gratitude.</div> <div class="irc_mutc">Some have traveled to join family and friends while those separated by great distances will connect through their hearts as we pause to celebrate the bounty that fills our lives. Most who are hosting the annual feast have finished the long preparation. What remains is the quiet time to prepare one's list of gratitude.</div> <div class="irc_mutc">My list of things to be grateful for remains virtually unchanged from year to year.</div> <div class="irc_mutc">To the SOURCE of all that is, I offer thanks for the breadth of life, my senses and [...]

<a href="http://thesoulsource.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Sufi-image.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2885" src="https://thesoulsource.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Sufi-image.jpg" alt="Source of the Realization" width="262" height="193"></a> &nbsp; Two great Sufi leaders and teachers inspire us to break through the grand illusion of duality to discover the truth of our existence and the source of the realization. <p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>“The source of the realization of truth is within man; he himself is the object of his realization”. </strong>Hazrat Inayat Khan</em></p> The elaboration on this essential truth is offered by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, Hazrat’s cousin and fellow leader of the Sufi movement to help us shatter the illusion. <p style="padding-left: 30px;">“Men have differed in all ages because they have called their Deity by different names. There have existed wars, fights and family feuds for ages, men dividing themselves merely for the difference of the names they gave to their Deity. Man always sees just what he sees; [...]

<a href="http://thesoulsource.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Sufi-image.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2885" src="https://thesoulsource.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Sufi-image.jpg" alt="Source of the Realization" width="262" height="193"></a> &nbsp; Two great Sufi leaders and teachers inspire us to break through the grand illusion of duality to discover the truth of our existence and the source of the realization. <p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>“The source of the realization of truth is within man; he himself is the object of his realization”. </strong>Hazrat Inayat Khan</em></p> The elaboration on this essential truth is offered by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, Hazrat’s cousin and fellow leader of the Sufi movement to help us shatter the illusion. <p style="padding-left: 30px;">“Men have differed in all ages because they have called their Deity by different names. There have existed wars, fights and family feuds for ages, men dividing themselves merely for the difference of the names they gave to their Deity. Man always sees just what he sees; [...]

I  admit, my last blog post - Cosmic Motion Picture -- calls out for amplification, so consider this Cosmic Motion Picture part two. Easier said than done, you've scoffed! How can I possibly detach from my life you have wondered? Believe me when I say that I am quite familiar with the wide range of disparate reactions to the idea that we are just illusory figures playing parts in a massive cosmic illusion. The philosopher within quietly concurs with the great sage and guru Paramahansa Yogananda who continues to counsel from the far edges of eternity -- encouraging us to shift our level of awareness and extolling the benefits to successful detachment -- peace . . bliss. The spiritual aspirant within understands that detachment from the ups and downs of daily life and its triumphs and disappointments is the only route [...]

Paramahansa Yogananda’s prayer Make Me See That I Am But An Actor In Thy Cosmic Motion Picture is a source of great inspiration and comfort. His wisdom provokes one to contemplate the play of life - lila - from the observer perspective. This detachment, while difficult to achieve, is key to achieving peace and serenity in one's day-to-day life as well as a milepost on the journey to immersion with the Source Creator and the bliss that is its rewards. “Beholding the ever-changing sound-and-motion pictures of life, I am aware that this turbulent dancing show is only a vast illusion. The tragedies, comedies, and paradoxes of life; the dreams of birth and death; the changing scenes ad places that surge round us: all these are nothing but movies, designed to engage us in the Cosmic Illusion. O Divine Operator, with Thy [...]

Patience is too often in short supply!!  I have to admit that this is a virtue which I don’t have an abundance of and on a bad day I never seem to have enough. Perhaps you too have been feeling that the number of situations that demand patience of you seem to be on the increase. A typical day seems to present numerous occasions that call upon one’s patience – telephone calls to arrange service which land one in ‘call center hell’, the clock ticking as you wait patiently in hopes of speaking to a human being before the phone/computer cuts you off. Worse yet when you do get cut off and have to repeat your entire litany again before you are inevitably told “now hold on while I transfer you to the person who can help you with that”!!! And [...]

Let’s be honest, holding on through dark and troubled times can be incredibly difficult. The last time I felt besieged by the weight of life and its predictable disappointments, positive thoughts floated off like clouds on the distant horizon – recognizable but beyond reach. Each time I got close to holding on to one, it slipped out of my grasp. Comfort beyond my reach and so I wallowed in sadness fighting off despair; both incredibly heavy burdens compounding the original malaise. And then, as if the weight I was trying to lift off my heart wasn’t heavy enough – guilt set in like the early morning fog; guilt because I was allowing myself both the time and the room for self-pity, guilt because I was wallowing. In a recent bout of melancholy in what one might call a flash of grandiosity, [...]

EXPERIENCE I am frequently asked by students and clients “what is the purpose of life”, my answer in a word – EXPERIENCE. Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan in a Bowl of Saki expresses this more eloquently, “life is an opportunity given to satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul”. Often this answer is followed by a barrage of questions, some that cannot be answered except by the mystics and masters who have transcended the limitations of material existence. But what are the rest of us to do as we seek to make sense of the struggle, disappointment and seeming insanity of everyday life? One view holds that we recognize the illusory nature of life in the ‘earth school’, viewing our lives and life around us as a theatrical play – Lila in the Hindu tradition. I must admit that I intellectually [...]

Ljubljana Love Between Lives  ~ this blog was posted by my colleague and fellow Newton Institute Life Between Lives facilitator Marcus Sorensen following his trip to Ljubljana, Slovenia to conduct hypnotic regression sessions. It is fabulous and captures the incredible experience of a Life Between Lives session. For additional posts by Marcus, follow him at http://www.marcustravels.net If you would like to schedule a Life Between Lives hypnotherapy session, please call Joanne at 410.371.7950.[separator top="40" style="shadow"] “It is dark and almost completely quiet… In this haven of peace, two hearts are pounding loudly, and one of them is mine. The young athletic man stretched out on the bed has his eyes closed, and I notice a tear rolling down one of his cheeks. A compassionate sigh rises and falls in my chest, and I sink a little further down into the armchair [...]