JOYFUL WANDERING -- 61

+ Updated on Tuesday, March 8 at 7:49am

+ Spiritual & Practice offers A Thought to Carry with You :

Way back in 1971, humorist Erma Bombeck wrote that it seems "rather incongruous that in a society of supersophisticated communication, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners." She was not only perceptive but prophetic. 

This week, help reverse the trend. Look for a way each day to listen to someone, letting go of any other agenda. Remember all the tools at your disposal: concentrated silence, a nod, simple words of support like "um hmm" or "oh?" or "wow!" Reflect back what you hear the other person saying, so that they can hear themselves more clearly. Ask follow-up questions like "How come?" or "What happened then?" Offer gentle encouragement to someone by your unconditionally accepting presence. It's okay if that someone is yourself.

+ Spiritual & Practice offers "Unleashing America's Shadow" by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Excerpt: "'With media complicity, Trump has unleashed the beast that has long resided not far from the American hearth, from those who started a Civil War to preserve the right to enslave a fellow human to the Know-Nothing mobs who burned Irish-Catholic churches out of fear of immigrants.' This observation is from Timothy Egan's excellent article "The Beast Is Us" in The New York Times."

+ Patheos offers "The Making of Donald Trump and the Unmaking of a Nation" by Frederic Schmidt. Excerpt: "But Donald Trump is also the media’s creation. Together, since Richard Nixon’s appearance on 'Laugh In,' Presidents and the media have been erasing the boundary between entertainment and national leadership. Presidents make the rounds on talk shows and fawn over the hosts, treating them as the high priests of public opinion. They try their hand at stand-up comedy and they reduce policy debates into punch lines."

+ Dharma Wisdom offers "The Heart's Intention" by Phillip Moffitt. Excerpt: "Setting intention, at least according to Buddhist teachings, is quite different than goal making. It is not oriented toward a future outcome. Instead, it is a path or practice that is focused on how you are 'being' in the present moment. Your attention is on the ever present 'now' in the constantly changing flow of life. You set your intentions based on understanding what matters most to you and make a commitment to align your worldly actions with your inner values."

+ Weaving Home offers "Wilderness Places" by Naomi Kelly. Excerpt: "So we can come face to face with ourselves in the wilderness, with our fears, with what gets under our skin and makes us act in certain ways,. When we are on a Lenten journey, we take the time to see, to let our inner nature see the false self that so often holds us hostage. Seeng with the eyes of the heart can reveal all the pettiness and fear that tends to drive us into habitual directions of non-functionality."

+ Patheos offers "On Making America Great Again" by Erin Wathen. 

+ So, would a Bernie Sanders presidency be good for the economy?  An independent analysis suggests that it would be a dream come true for millions of hard working Americans who deserve much better than what the plutocracy has offered us in recent years. Common Dreams offers "Enacting Sanders Agenda Would Catapult Economy, Shatter Inequality" by Lauren McCauley.

+ Joyful Wandering posts 1 to 58 are found on The Abundancetrek Blog. You can find them all here.

JOYFUL WANDERING -- 60

+ updated at 9:56am on Wednesday, February 10, 2016.

+ I am working on the spiritual practice of humility for the next series of posts in the Spiritual Explorations series. There will be 16 posts beginning at SE49. It sure helps to have the resources Spirituality and Practice offers including their quotes on humility. You can search for all kinds of resources at the best website in the universe.   

+ Inner Frontier offers "Walking Presence," the next in the Presence Trigger series.

+ Spirituality and Practice offers The Most Spiritually Literate Films of 2015. How many have you seen?

+ Video > The Mystic Heart Uploaded to Youtube on Nov 12,2006 > In this dialogue series, Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber discuss the advent of an integral mysticism in the postmodern world. Reflecting on their own spiritual experiences, the relation of science to spirituality, the lives of the great inter-spiritual pioneers, and how youth culture is revitalizing the mystical traditions, Brother Wayne and Ken show how an integral perspective can bring the revelations of mysticism

+ Diane Rehm Show at its best today, January 18.  Two important interviews >

1 - Congressman John Lewis and author Andrew Aydin talk about March: Book Two, a comprehensive and inspiring history of the Civil Rights movement. 

2 - Joseph Stiglitz deals very informatively with the huge crisis of income inequality in the USA.  

+ “The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.” -- Black Elk

https://www.goodreads.com/…/15888-the-first-peace-which-is-…

As Jesus said: "The Kingdom of God is within you."

When we get to mysticism, we get to the heart of all of our great wisdom traditions. Wayne Teasdale promoted this vision.

In The Mystic Heart (2001), Wayne Teasdale says, “The real religion of humankind an be said to be spirituality itself, because mystical spirituality is the origin of all the world religions. If this is so, and I believe it is, we might also say that inter-spirituality – the sharing of ultimate experiences across traditions – is the religion of the third millennium.” (Teasdale, p. 26) + For more on InterSpirituality, visit https://quotationstreasury.wordpress.com/tag/wayne-teasdale/

+ Joyful Wandering posts 1 to 58 are found on The Abundancetrek Blog. You can find them all here.

JOYFUL WANDERING -- 59

+ Updated at 1:13pm EST on Friday, January 15, 2016

+ This post includes entries from Saturday, November 21, 2015 until January 15, 2016. Joyful Wandering posts 1 to 58 are found on The Abundancetrek Blog.   You can find them all here. Latest entries are at the top. If you would like to contribute, write JW in your subject line and send it to John@abundancetrek.com or put a comment on my Facebook page.

+ Daily Necessities 
Tips & pointers for building a spiritual life from scratch

Pray 
Meditate 
Be aware/Stay awake 
Bow 
Practise yoga 
Feel 
Chant and sing 
Breathe and smile 
Relax/Enjoy/Laugh/Play 
Create/Envision 
Let Go/Forgive/Accept 
Walk/Exercise/Move 
Work/Serve/Contribute 
Listen/Learn/Enquire 
Consider/Reflect 
Cultivate oneself/Enhance competencies 
Cultivate contentment 
Cultivate flexibility 
Cultivate friendship and collaboration 
Lighten up 
Celebrate and appreciate 
Dream 
Give thanks 
Evolve 
Love 
Share/Give/Receive 
Walk softly/Live gently 
Expand/Radiate/Dissolve 
Simplify 
Surrender/Trust 
Be born anew

from Awakening The Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das and found when scrolling down http://www.sapphyr.net/buddhist/buddhist-quotes.htm

+ Patheos offers 

Advent Two: Longing for Sunlight and Song by Jill Crainshaw. It begins: 

The songs and images of the Advent and Christmas season stir in many people a longing for peace and good will. But peace is hard to come by these days. Instead, violent world realities incite fear.

How can a fear-wearied world rejoice with songs of hope? How do we keep fear from taking over and destroying our capacity to love and care for each other and our neighbors with open hearts and minds?

+ DailyZen 12/2/15 > "If you have any desire to surpass others, or any thought of your own ability, this is egoism and possessiveness. These are sicknesses in the context of nirvana, so The Nirvana Sutra says, “Space can contain everything, but space does not entertain the thought that it can contain everything.” This is a metaphor for the disappearance of egoism and possessiveness, by which you proceed to indestructible concentration." - Hongren (602-675)

+ ‪#‎Advent‬ > http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/…/…/view/24493/advent+ The Spiritual Discipline of WAITING is a major theme of the season + One of the great spiritual practices related to waiting and patience id FASTING + Doesn't quite go along with everybody putting up their Christmas tree by now, does it? + Advent's great themes are hard to honor these days + Excerpt from this S&P resource for the season > As Pierre Teilhard de Chardin advised, we need to "trust in the slow work of God." That is what the Israelites did during their long sojourn in the desert and what Christians do during Advent.

+ The SpiritualLiteracy Blog offers "After Paris - Thoughts from Rabbi Lerner." Excerpt: "Lerner points out that the ancient strategies of revenge and payback should be out of the question; they lead only to more bloodshed. Healing will come only when we move beyond the unconscionable terrorist attacks of ISIS and the havoc the United States and other countries have reigned down on the innocent civilians in Syria and Iraq in drone attacks. He writes: 'As long as our resources (and here I include not only the U.S. and the West, but also China and Russia) are primarily focused on military, economic, cultural and political domination of the world, what we saw in Paris will become an increasing reality worldwide.'"

+ If you are on Facebook, I invite you to "like" and be inspired by the frequent (almost daily) photos and reflections offered on Weaving Home.  You can also go to The Weaving Home Blog offering wisdom regularly (often once a week). Here is an excerpt from the first post by Weaving Home creator Naomi Kelly, a Presbyterian pastor and a Spiritual Director:

We can plug into the Spirit of Christ in many ways, Weaving Home is one such guide to deepen your spiritual practices to enthuse and inspire, so that you are empowered to live out your calling to love God and each other.  

+ Spiritual Explorations posts have begun to accumulate on The Abundancetrek Blog. You can begin this series of posts at Spiritual Explorations -- 1 or you can find any one of the posts by going to abundancetrek.com/sepostsaccess.html.

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+ updated at 5:17pm ESDT on Tuesday, October 7, 2014. 

+ “In everything, whether it is a thing sensed or a thing known, God Himself is hidden within.”  -- St Bonaventure

+ Spirituality and Practice offers an excerpt on an excerpt on practicing Unconditional Love from the book, It's Up to You: A Practice to Change Your Life by Changing Your Mind by Karen Casey. Read the S&P review.

+ Religion for Life offers John Shuck's recent  interview with Bill McKibben

+ 2 important articles by Robert Reich:

•  “Why We Allow Big Pharma to Rip Us Off”
• “Why the Economy is Still Failing Most Americans”

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+ updated at 2:26pm ESDT on Saturday, April 19, 2014

+ What Teachers Make > http://thesocialcrat.com/?p=511

+ Today's Daily Zen:

Know the essence of mind.

Its intrinsic essence is

Pure clarity.

It is essentially the same as a Buddha.

- Tao-hsin (580-651)

+ Gratefulness Word for the Day today: “Confusion is the welcome mat at the door of creativity.” -- Michael J. Gelb

+ Inner Frontier Inner Work > Energy Breathing (Deepening Our Inner Life: Part 2) > excerpt > “As we work on becoming aware of and breathing this energy, we discover an unmistakable and wonderful flow of energy in our breath, strengthening our energy body. But this energy flow is never automatic; it requires intention and attention to separate the energy from the ordinary air. Spending time every day on this energy breathing practice proves invaluable in filling us with sensation and establishing our energy body, giving us a sturdy vessel for presence and for deepening our path.”

+ This is a very important read: Jerusalem is a sacred city for all 3 Abrahamic faiths and must be treated as such. Palestinians definitely regard Jerusalem as their capital and international law recognizes Palestinian rights. So, read this > http://www.kairospalestine.ps/sites/default/Documents/Easter%20Alert%202014.pdf

Here is more solid information about the plight of the citizens of East Jerusalem > The Ghettoization of East Jerusalem > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-farah/the-ghettoization-of-east_b_3387202.html

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+ updated at 4:14pm ESDT on Friday, March 28, 2014

+ Page 5 of The Amazing Journey is now posted on The Abundancetrek Blog.

+ Here is an excerpt from this week's Inner Work at Inner Frontier > Rising Above Our Plateaus > As our inner work deepens, joy, love, conscience, and equanimity suffuse our life. This is wonderful and, for many who come to it, good enough. So after reaching that grand plateau, one can practice just enough to maintain the necessary inner tone. If that meets a person’s goals and aspirations with regard to their inner life, then he or she has attained what they sought. This is completely honorable. The world certainly is a better place because of people who live in such a state. This is a groove, not a rut.

For others, however, the spiritual path has no upper bound. Their aspirations reach all the way to the Divine. For them, any spiritual plateau, no matter how sublime, is a rut, a temptation to be overcome.

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+ In the Gratefulness Word for the Day today we are reminded that silence is often the best policy:

“Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace. Keep silent, refrain from judgement. This will raise you above the deadly arrows of slander, insult and outrage and will shield your glowing heart against all evil.” -- St. Seraphim of Sarov

+ Joseph Naft's illuminating Inner Frontier Inner Work this week is on Profiting from our Valleys. 

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+ updated at 11:50am EST on Friday, March 14, 2014

+ Yesterday's Gratefulness Word for the Day:

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower, our whole life would change.”

-- The Buddha

+ Yesterday's Daily Zen: 

If you want to complete the unsurpassable Buddha Way, you must first vow to save each and every sentient being, whose numbers are infinite. If you want to save all sentient beings, you must arouse a spirit of dauntless courage and push yourself forward mercilessly until you can see your true nature as if you are looking at it in the palm of your hand. 

– Hakuin

+ Last week Joseph Naft began a new series at Inner Frontier on The Path of The Path. This week he offers his wonderful wisdom on Handling Peaks. Here is an excerpt: "The spiritual path, our inner work is rightly directed at changing our station, at a lasting transformation of our level of being. The methods of the path accomplish this by training us to enter into and extend our stay in a state corresponding to the next higher level beyond our current station. The intention is eventually to make that next higher state our new station, to enable us to live in that new way. This takes long-term persistence." | Read it all

+ The Gratefulness Word for the Day:

The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. Daily prayers are delivered on the lips of breaking waves, the whisperings of grasses, the shimmering of leaves.

 -- Terry Tempest Williams in Talking to God: Portrait of a World at Prayer (anthology)

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+ Four pages of The Amazing Journey are now posted on The Abundancetrek Blog. 

There will be 46 or 47 more pages.  I wrote these pages last year with pen and paper and I am slowly putting them into the computer with my keyboard word for word. 

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 

It's the first draft of a book I hope to publish but it would be so much better if YOU contributed. It is the result of years of prayer, contemplation, meditation and study. I  got a lot of help from the Heavenly Council so it is already a joint project. I would like it to be the joint project of many fellow adventurers journeying in the Inner Frontier.  

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 

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+ At Inner Frontier, Joseph Naft begins a new series of Inner Work, The Path of the Path.  He began today with Peaks, Valleys and Plateaus.  

Excerpt 1: "The single most important act, in terms of our progress on the spiritual path, is to resolve and continually renew our resolution to keep with our practice come what may. The seasons of our path, with the rebirth of spring, the growth of summer, the inward turn of fall, and treadmill of winter, come and go of their own accord, without a schedule. As we have seen, the causes are complex and often indecipherable. It taxes our wisdom to do more than just muddle through."

Excerpt 2: "In serving the spirit, happiness often comes as a byproduct of leading a right life. In primarily seeking happiness, we tend not to find it. The extent to which we stay committed to our inner work in the sunny moments, reveals our motivations to us."

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+ Peter Russell is amazing.  He has a great series posts on Letting Go and how difficult it is.  His The Church of I AM has been a favorite of mine for a long time.

+ I am slowly but surely posting the first draft of The Amazing Journey on The Abundancetrek Blog.  Today I posted page 4.  I have 50 hand written pages of the 12 heavenly practices and the 9 attributes of heaven.  I have put the first 11 in to the computer.  

Here is what I posted on my Facebook page: WE are on an Amazing Journey. We are intimately, intricately, infinitely connected by a matrix of unconditional, unlimited, uniting LOVE which is miraculous, mysterious and marvelous. #Stillness is the key. Getting in touch with your inner Burning Bush is the gift. Join me. I have written a first draft of about 50 hand written pages. With YOUR help I can make big improvements and make our journey together even more amazing.  Comments welcome here or on Facebook where you will find me as Abundancetrek.

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+ updated at 4:13pm EST on Friday, February 21, 2014

+ Wildmind offers Ten Tips for Mindful Driving.

+ I love listening to the Sound of the Surf. Listen to a four hour recording of Pacific surf.

+ You can hear the sound of the surf as Ed Bastian leads you through the 7 steps of InterSpiritual Meditation which are:

1. May we be happy and healthy.
2. May we be grateful.
3. May we be transformed.
4. May we be loving and compassionate.
5. May we be mindful through our breathing.
6. May we become wise through meditation.
7. May we be in service to all.

Listen and watch.

You can start the surf video and then the Ed Bastian video. Your computer can probably handle both of the soundtracks.  

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+ SUFI WISDOM > Excerpt from the Third Thought > "There is One Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader …. To the eye of the seer every leaf of the tree is a page of the holy book that contains divine revelation, and he is inspired every moment of his life by constantly reading and understanding the holy script of nature." < http://sufiorder.org/Sufi_Thoughts.html

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+ Shambala Sun offers “Love & Relationships: What the Buddhists Teach“ > The Introduction states: “From the profound to the practical, from the basic split between self and other to dealing with your partner’s anger, four prominent teachers and psychologists talked about all the issues of relationships at this year’s annual Shambhala Sun/Omega Institute program, ‘What the Buddhists Teach.’ Here are four essays on the dharma of relationships, adapted from their presentations. Presenters were  The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Sylvia Boorstein, John Tarrant, and Polly Young-Eisendrath.

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+ updated at 12:10pm EST on Friday, February 14, 2014

+ Here is the Gratefulness Word for the Day:

“Treat everyone you meet as if he or she were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do so with no thought of reward. Your life will never be the same.” -- Og Mandino in The Greatest Salesman in the World

+ A book on Grace > http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/books.php?id=21998

+ At least a foot of snow here in the Utica area and it is still snowing at 11:42am.

+ This one ALWAYS makes me cry >
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EWvbu5K7MBM

+ I did an online Enneagram instrument and I came out tied for the Four, the Thinker (or the Observer) and the Five, the Artist (or the Romantic).  The other seven types are: The One, the Reformer (or the Perfectionist), the Two, the Helper, the Three, the Motivator (or the Achiever), the Six, the Skeptic (or the Questioner), the Seven, the Generalist (or the Adventurer), the Eight, the Leader (or the Asserter) and the Nine, the Peacemaker.  What are you?

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+ updated at 4:36pm EST on Monday, January 20, 2014

+ Daily Kos offers "Most of You Have No Idea of What Martin Luther King Actually Did" by Hamden Rice. Excerpt: 

He ended the terror of living as a black person, especially in the south.

I'm guessing that most of you, especially those having come fresh from seeing The Help, may not understand what this was all about. But living in the south (and in parts of the midwest and in many ghettos of the north) was living under terrorism.  

It wasn't that black people had to use a separate drinking fountain or couldn't sit at lunch counters, or had to sit in the back of the bus.  

You really must disabuse yourself of this idea. Lunch counters and buses were crucial symbolic planes of struggle that the civil rights movement used to dramatize the issue, but the main suffering in the south did not come from our inability to drink from the same fountain, ride in the front of the bus or eat lunch at Woolworth's.

It was that white people, mostly white men, occasionally went berserk, and grabbed random black people, usually men, and lynched them. You all know about lynching. But you may forget or not know that white people also randomly beat black people, and the black people could not fight back, for fear of even worse punishment.  

This constant low level dread of atavistic violence is what kept the system running. It made life miserable, stressful and terrifying for black people.  

White people also occasionally tried black people, esp 

+ The Theological Wanderings of a Street Pastor offers "Pregnant with God." Here it is:

I beheld the fullness of God in which I beheld and comprehended the whole of creation, that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else.  And in everything that I saw, I could perceive nothing except the presence of the power of God, and in a manner totally indescribable.  And my soul in an excess of wonder cried out: “This world is pregnant with God!”  Wherefore I understood how small is the whole of creation – that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else – but the power of God fills it all to overflowing.

-St. Angela of Foligno (1248-1309)

Passage retrieved from http://datinggod.org/2010/10/01/the-world-is-pregnant-with-god/

+ Here is today's Daily Zen:

During the moment of illumination,

When I see the original face of mind,

A limitless compassion arises.

The greater the illumination,

The greater is the compassion.

The greater my compassion,

The deeper is the wisdom I feel.

- Garmaba

+ Here is today's Gratefulness Word for the Day: "If you have a strong mind and plant in it a firm resolve, you can change your destiny." -- Paramahansa Yogananda

+ Spirituality and Practice offers resources for MARTIN LUTHER KING jr DAY.

+ Today's S&P poverty month resource is an excerpt from Meal by Meal: 365 Daily Meditations for Finding Balance through Mindful Eating by Donald Altman > The excerpt begins: “"For some, leftovers are associated with poverty. For others, they signify a treasure that is not to be wasted. It seems that people either love leftovers or hate them.” Read the entire excerpt

+ Today's S&P spiritual reading is an excerpt from What You Will See Inside a Hindu Temple by Dr. Mahendra Jani and Dr. Vandana Jani > Dr. Mahendra Jani and Dr. Vendana Jani provide a succinct overview of what goes on in a Hindu temple. | Read an excerpt on devotion in Hindu homes.

+ Inner Frontier is beginning a new Inner Work series on MIND AND THOUGHT. Here is an excerpt from the introduction: “Because of their range and flexibility, our thoughts give us the illusion of freedom. But the truth is that our thoughts are bound by their patterns and by memory. Their central pattern is that they refer to a non-existent self, our ego, that we believe we are. Our thoughts create our ego in the same way that a novelist creates a character.” | Read the Introduction

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+ Updated at 5:22pm EST on Friday, January 10, 2014

+ This afternoon, I worked on the Abundancetrek Stillness Page which has not been updated for a while. There are many new quotes and other resources. Some links are broken and there is some duplication.

+  I added THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE LISTS to my website, Abundancetrek.com, this morning. It now includes J. Barrett Lee’s Five Categories of Prayer.  He told me that he borrowed a lot but I like the way he put it together in an original way.

 

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+ updated at 11:53am EST on Wednesday, January 8, 2014

+ On FB, Robert Reich posted the following:
"I'm freezing in Chicago. Meanwhile, in Washington, Republicans say they won't extend emergency unemployment benefits unless their cost is offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget. But they won't even consider offsetting the cost by closing tax loopholes for the rich -- such as the "carried interest" loophole that gives hedge-fund and private-equity partners an annual $11 billion tax subsidy, almost twice the cost of extending unemployment benefits. Put this in a larger context and see the pattern: (1) Not only do they oppose extending unemployment benefits, but (2) they oppose any jobs program to put the long-term unemployed to work, (3) they want to cut food stamps, (4) they refuse to raise the minimum wage, and (5) they're determined to kill off unions. Connect the dots and you have a calculated strategy to keep wages as low as possible -- forcing large numbers of Americans to choose between working for peanuts or having nothing at all. Republicans are pushing this strategy because lower wages give their big-business patrons fatter profits (at least in the short term; longer term, they reduce overall demand for goods and services). The strategy is already succeeding: Real median household incomes are now 4.4 percent below what they were at the start of the so-called recovery, and corporate profits are up. Democrats, including Obama, should be calling them out on this strategy. Why aren't they?"

+ Richard Rohr offers "The Contemplative Alternative." Excerpt: “What we are enjoying now is a renaissance of the contemplative mind, the one truly unique alternative mind and heart that religion has to offer the world. Without this new mind, most doctrines, moralities, dogmas, and church structures will almost certainly be misunderstood, misused, and mishandled. Small people make everything small.” | Read it all

+ Robert Reich is very wise, intelligent, informed and compassionate. Recently he offered "The Year of the Great Distribution." It begins: “One of the worst epithets that can be leveled at a politician these days is to call him a 'redistributionist.' Yet 2013 marked one of the biggest redistributions in recent American history. It was a redistribution upward, from average working people to the owners of America.” | Read it all

+ “Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul.” -- Mahatma Gandhi

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+ updated at 11:11am EST on Monday, January 6, 2014

+ Hey, friends, remember the book we are working on? I NEED you. Let's begin again. Here is Page 1 > http://abundancetrekblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-amazing-journey-page-1.html 

What are your thoughts about these ideas? You can post in Comments here or at https://www.facebook.com/abundancetrek/posts/10202086005284056

Today being Epiphany and the beginning of a new liturgical season ... please share what's happening in your spiritual journey, or your life adventure or whatever you want to call your quest for joy and meaning and purpose.

 

Breathe Deeply. Breathe fully. Be still. Be silent. Be centered. Be grounded. ighten up. Loosen up. Let go. Let God. Celebrate. Enjoy. Be glad all over!

 

I like to exhale on "Breathe Deeply" and inhale on "Breathe Fully." Same with "Be Still" and "Be Silent" and all the other pairs. Sometimes I use beads and sometimes just my fingers to keep track. Then I will go into my sacred word as taught by Thomas Keating in his Centering Prayer method. 

 

My sacred word hasn't changed for about a decade but you can change it from one Meditation Session or Prayer Session or Contemplation Session to the next if you want to.

+ Today is Epiphany when we celebrate the revelation (appearance, manifestation) of Jesus as the Son of God come into the world.  It is the wise men who first proclaim this truth to the world. Other events in the life of Jesus marking this wondrous revelation are celebrated during this season of the Church Year including the Baptism of Jesus and his first miracle, turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana.  Churches in Cana, near Nazareth, are often included in Holy Land pilgrimages.

Here are some Epiphany resources:

• Epiphany comes from the Greek, epiphaneia, which means appearance or manifestation. The feast commemorates the day when the three wise men found the Christ child. < http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/briefing-epiphany-1.129910
• The Epiphany, or revelation, of the baby Jesus as the Son of God come into the world, is traditionally celebrated on the 6 January. < http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/worship/festivals_and_dates
• Old St. Paul's Church: At High Mass on Sunday 5 January at 10.30am, the traditional gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh are carried in procession to be offered to the Child in the manger. Gold symbolises the Kingship of Christ, frankincense represents priestly service, and myrrh symbolises healing power. In the evening, Blessing of the Light precedes Solemn Evensong and Benediction at 6.30pm. On succeeding Sundays, we celebrate further revelations of the Christ: on 12 January, the Feast of the Baptism, a voice from heaven proclaims him the Beloved Son; on 19 January, the second Sunday after Epiphany, John the Baptist recognises him as Son of God, and on 2 February, the Feast of Candlemas, he is acclaimed by Simeon as the Light to lighten the Gentiles. < http://www.osp.org.uk/index.php/news/entry/epiphany_at_old_saint_pauls/
• Spirituality and Practice Naming the Days Resource > http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/days/features.php?id=16401 / Practices: Devotion, Gratitude, Wonder. A Suggested spiritual exercise for today is offered by Christopher Hays: Step outside this evening and look up at the over 200 billion stars that blaze in beauty in our galaxy alone. The splendor of it should cause you to pray as did the Magi in adoration of God." 
• Here is an Epiphany verse from the Revised Common Lectionary: Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. (Ephesians 3:8-9) < http://www.presbyterianmission.org/devotion/revised-common-lectionary/2014/1/6/
• A thought of my own! > There is stuff going on in your mind right now which is far more amazing than what you are thinking right now.
• The Presbyterian Church (USA) offers this at 
  

  http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/worship/epiphany/ > Epiphany is the celebration of God’s manifestation or self-revelation to the world in Jesus Christ. In particular, we celebrate the revelation of God’s promise and purpose to the nations of the world, as the magi came from the East to worship to the Christ child, and God’s covenant of grace is extended to all who believe the good news of Christ Jesus. The symbolism of light is important: not only because of the star that guided the magi, but as it relates to the bright dawning of God’s self-revelation in Christ. / An excerpt from the Companion to the Book of Common Worship (Geneva Press, 2003, 94-95): The word “epiphany” (from the Greek epiphaneia or theophaneia) means “appearance” or “manifestation” of God, and has roots in the word for sunrise or dawn. In ancient times, an epiphany meant either a visible manifestation of a god or the solemn visit of a ruler venerated as a god. / For Christians, Christmas marks the coming of God to us; Epiphany celebrates the appearance of the Lord in the midst of humanity. The Christmas stories of the birth of Immanuel declare the divine entry; Epiphany extols the revelation of God to the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. / In our celebrations of Christmas and Epiphany we rejoice in the dawning and the arising of Light in darkness. … Epiphany not only discloses the Savior to the world but also calls the world to show forth Christ, to be witnesses to God’s true Light. The timeless mystery of the incarnation, God in flesh, leads us forth to show and tell of Christ as God’s gift of grace and salvation for all persons. Some call this ongoing epiphany the work of Christmas.