Top Ten Reasons to Expand Mind through Study

Tomorrow is September 1 and most schools begin this week! There has been a shift, from the period slow summer relaxation into planning, scheduling and post Labor Day activity. Morning temperatures this morning were in the 50's and from the back porch see tree leaves sporting new yellow and red hues.

At the Spiritual Center I attend preparations are underway for a new series of classes. Always thinking of new ways to communicate this top 10 list seemed a great way to share the benefits of attending classes on philosophical and spiritual topics.

Top 10 List -- Reasons for Taking Classes this Fall
10. Explore great spiritual concepts like- Infinite Universe, Mind, Law, health, abundance and get home for CSI all in the same evening.
9. Learn one step at a time--- how to pray affirmatively—to do Spiritual Mind Treatment. When to use it, why you use it and begin using it in your day to day activities.
8. Understanding great thinkers like Thomas Troward, who lived in India, studied Eastern and Western Traditions and then lectured and wrote about ‘How things become Real- Mental Science.’ Learn a thinking structure about how thoughts become real objects and manifestations in your life.
7. Your Engine is running rough. You air filter is clogged and your check engine light is on. You need a tune up.
6. Explore and develop your own Spiritual Practice. Make friends while your study. Feel more deeply connected to the Universe. Free Coffee and Tea included.
5. Examine and Release old ideas of God that no longer serve you. ‘God is All There Is!’
4. Experience Diversity…Every 8 weeks is a new adventure- Three different teachers, 8 different classes are available.
3. Learn 3 responses for when your friends and family tell you, you’ve changed. You look so peace full.
2. Put more ‘juice in your life’. What you think you become!
1. You are already Perfect! Come see yourself in a brighter light!

Intro classes are on Mondays and Wednesdays beginning Sept 14 in Morristown. Which reasons speak to you? See you in class!

Life as a Mission and Ministry

Each of us is here living our mission. Sometimes we're really clear on the mission and we live, we love, we create and relate aligned and with the mission. Other times the mission may not be so clear- but over a longer period, whether a decade or a lifetime I am convinced the mission is always being expressed.

You can substitute the word ministry for mission. Stream-side yesterday I began writing about my mission and then that shifted into ways that I know the Divine, share the Divine and expand my idea of the same. That was when I realized that mission equals ministry. You can choose the 'M' or 'm'. Either way it came out as a list of the way my Ministry lives in...while...when... and more.

What is on your list of M/m? Try it, fill in the phrase "My Ministry lives..."

My Ministry lives in ...
the breath and the silence
the stringing of words and thoughts that come from a place beyond my intellect
my shivers at seeing beauty
my tears
trust and faith of an infinite intelligence

My Ministry lives while ...
watching the stream flow over rocks
seeing the mind of the student shift with an insight
keeping the big idea fresh in my mind
watching vortexes in the river after a rainfall
looking into the eyes of the deer in the woods
singing a song
in my home

My Ministry lives when ...
honoring the lives of those before me
speaking a quick witted response- by itself a memorial to my father
I see stars from horizon to horizon
within any church
in prayer
intently holding the gaze
opening my mind and heart to receive
moving to greater knowing when the infinite idea feels constrained
when conversing over a set of over easy's (eggs)
exchanging viewpoints over a cup of java

and more ...
ever expanding

Double Use

This poem, inspired at Ramapo Reservation, is on One Forest Many Trees - a blog about nature. It describes a lesson in beauty and faith. I am posting it here for double use-- Grass with Dew

Poet Seers

I don't remember where I found this site- Poet Seers. I enjoy the sampling of poems and poet's expressions from East and West available all at one place. Their simple explanation of the site, "Poetseers seeks to offer a range of spiritual and illumining poetry from a diverse range of cultural and poetic traditions." It is produced by two members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre

And then I found the sub-site of the spiritual and devotional poets. From Christian, Muslim, Sufi, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism and more--such a great resource of inspiration. I had never heard of Sri Chinmoy until finding this site. In his bio they mentioned that he provided an opening at the Parliament of World Religions and so in addition to finding great daily inspiration in poetry I now plan to also read about his work.

Meditation Shapes the Mind

The Meditation Awareness Research Center (MARC) at UCLA was founded by Dr Susan Smalley, PhD, who was interviewed in the Huffington Post by wellness editor Patricia Fitzgerald. There are several great links in the article, including meditation teacher, Diana Winston, a link to meditations and research measuring brain lobe thickness for people who meditate compared to those who do not.

From that data "brain areas are thicker in practitioners of Insight meditation than control subjects who do not meditate. Graphs show age and cortical thickness of each individual, red= control subjects, blue = meditators.

The study doesn't interpret lobe difference to mean better lifestyle it simply notes the difference in the shape.

Grounding- G1 revisited

I've recently experienced a period of G1. For me that shows up as my mind is very busy, I mull and rethink options and as a result I'm challenged when I want to focus.

So this is what I know. Moving to a G5 (high groundedness) is always about coming back to knowing what is really True- that I am this Divine idea here and now... I just forgot. So I work knowing that idea with affirmative prayer. Sometimes I work with a Prayer Practitioner who can see this Truth, my Divine essence when I am not seeing it myself. The Practitioner provides a professional service which I pay for and they affirm Spiritual Truth- they pray- with me. In this context the prayer helps me remember my coming to G5 highest level of feeling connected to living, or grounded.

Then there are three other things I've been doing. One- I'm back in Nature- taking time to walk and observe and connect with the woods. Two- I work with my hands. I led a workshop on creating a prayer stick, in which the creation of the stick is really a solemn prayer. Selecting the stick and different colors of yarn, then applying the yarn with a splicing knot that absorbs all loose ends and then finally applying my personal carvings into the wood became a prayerful activity. Often the things we do in recognition and awareness of purpose become some of the most significant. And three- I intentionally exercise and breathe with an intention to move out of my mind and into my physical body. The body, the breath, the heart know a natural rhythm. I know after my Tai Chi class I feel better mentally and physically. My chest is opened up and I'm much more limber, from legs, lower back and shoulders.

Apollo 11 and the Pale Blue Dot

I watched the Apollo 11 lunar landing from a campground on the shore of Lake Wallenpaupack. We were vacationing (building the house) in Hawley, PA that summer and in the evening went to the lake. No cable back then and only weak fuzzy signals from the Scranton VHF TV station. So on this 40th anniversary of the landing I have enjoyed reading, listening and watching the interviews and the expressions of the travelers, the Earth team that supported them and the population of observers.

And in that search I found the Carl Sagan segment called, 'the pale blue dot' based on photos taken by the Voyager I unmanned spacecraft in 1990 while 3,781,782,502.403 miles from Earth. I like the way it shows the relative size of our Earth to other celestial bodies. It gives a scale to compare our position and our history on this pale dot. And in that comparison I experience the vastness of the infinite universe.