All Blog Posts (1,800)

Arnaud Desjardins: Cultural Bridge-builder Toward the East

Rene Wadlow

            Arnaud Desjardins (1925-2011) was a leading figure in introducing the broader French public to the philosophies and religious practices of Asia.  His films devoted to Tibetan Buddhist leaders, Indian religious teachers, Japanese Zen philosophers, and Afghan Sufis were widely shown on French television in the 1960s and early 1970s when such…

Robin Robertson

Indra’s Net : Alchemy and Chaos Theory as Models for Transformation

(Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2009, 182pp.)

            The most important lesson

            but one that’s seldom adequately learned

            is that, like sub-atomic particles,

            everything with life exists

            within a field of force

            in which all affect and are…

By Mark Mason

July 16, 2013

- Imagine you have a brother and he’s an alcoholic. He has his moments, but you keep your distance from him. You don’t mind him for the occasional family gathering or holiday. You still love him. But you don’t want to be around him. This is how I lovingly describe my current relationship with the United States. The United States is my alcoholic brother. And although I will always love him, I don’t want to be near him at the…

May you awaken to the mystery of being here

and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.

May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.

May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon.

May you respond to the call of your gift and find the courage to follow its path.

May the flame of anger free you from falsity.

May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame and may anxiety never linger about you.

May your outer dignity…

Bodies are articulations. The human body is one form of biotic speech, similar to yet different from the body of the jaguar, as to the body of the orca, as to the sable-feathered, light boned flesh of raven.

Through bodies, evolution, diversity, even Earth herself and guiding divinity, initiates communication. Such is why there are levels of motion and differences in textures and colors and sensitivities.

Faces are articulations too. The human face, structurally of a kind,…

Non-violence : In Tune With The Infinite

Rene Wadlow

            I do not believe that the spiritual law works in a field of its own.  On the contrary, it expresses itself only through the ordinary activities of life.  It thus affects the economic, the social and the political fields.       Mohandas K. Gandhi

             For Mahatma Gandhi, non-violence…

---

Only in time passages…

The Inner Light and the Focused Mind

Rene Wadlow

Mitch Horowitz

Occult America

(New York: Bantam Books, 2010, 290pp)

            Mitch Horowitz tells in a lively way the American path to the New Age.  As he writes “Most people, thought schools, or movements identified as New Age from the 1970s through the early twenty-first century shared these traits:

1)      Belief in the…

Paul R. Smith

Integral Christianity : The Spirit’s Call to Evolve

(St Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2011, 381pp)

         Paul R. Smith has written a lively reminder that in all religious traditions “there are many mansions” and that the role of faith is to unite and enlarge rather than to divide and build wall of defense.  Paul Smith has been a pastor of a Southern Baptist church in Kansas City, Missouri as well as teaching in Protestant seminaries elsewhere…

Harmony, the term derived of harmonia of the Greek, symbolizes of agreement, concord or to join. The spirit in the root of the word harmony is to fit together, to join others for common cause, to work together for general welfare, or the common good. In the Indian perspective it is Sauhard or Sadbhavana, a means to connect people by heart to pave the way to work together. It is, thus, inevitable for existence and development, particularly for the reason that it emerges…

The Faiths of the Past and the Challenges of the Future: The Start of Interfaith Efforts

Rene Wadlow

         There has always been interaction and borrowing of ideas among spiritual and religious groups.  Early Christianity took ideas and rituals from the Jewish milieu of its early members including its founder, Jesus.  However, ideas from the mystical traditions of the Middle East and Greece were…

Jean Houston

The Hero and the Goddess

(Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2009, 470pp)

            Homer’s Odyssey is a journey through personal transformation to wholeness.  During this journey, there is an interplay between the masculine and feminine principles.  Masculine and feminine principles are part of the psyche shared by both sexes.  In fact, as the masculine principle dominates in many societies, the masculine dominates in many women as well as men, and…

Water is very important,

but, now we have floods on the Elbe, many people have big problems. The water destroyed villages and towns. People are desperate.

Link: Floods on the Elbe

 …

                                   Freedom From Fear : For All The Citizens of The World

                                                                       René Wadlow *

            When President Franklin Delano  Roosevelt, the 32^nd President of the United States (1933-1945) in his January 6, 1941 State of the Union address  to Congress presented the “Four Freedoms”, much of the world was at war: German troops were advancing  in Europe as were…

"Master, what is the most important question? " 

"It is the one, you ask with mouth closed." - 

'Waiting for the procession of the emperor', Japan 1951  (Werner Bischof)

The theme capacity-building programmes for social sciences teachers is quite important and significant involving four focal points –capacity-building, teachers, social sciences and programmes. It categorically calls for necessity of those specific programmers, which should be initiated or the steps that can be taken to capacity-building of teachers-educators associated with various disciplines in social sciences. That is why; I have already started with my pre-observation of the theme by…

Robert Frager

Sufi Talks:Teachings of an American Sufi Sheikh

(Wheaton, IL:  Quest Books, 2012 )

         “Sufism focuses on the inner effects of our practice.  The Sufi path, or tariqa, means in Arabic, an unmarked path, through the desert, where the sands shift, and there are no clear markers.  Following the tariqa requires judgement and sophistication.  It also requires a guide who knows the way…Sufism is practice.  It is not theory or…

We all use mantras or words all day long -- repetitive, out loud, or silently -- phrases such as "It's hard," or "I'm tired." "I don't know what I'm doing," "It will never happen ... .. I'm stressed," "There's not enough time," or "There's not enough money." We don't even notice them becoming part of our reality by…

My father, Chögyam Trungpa, who brought the Shambhala principle to the modern world, was a great believer in humanity. In both the East and the West, he was always synthesizing the knowledge that he had gained, seeking to understand and compare not only what the Buddha had taught, but also the teachings of Plato, Aristotle, Jesus and those of Judaism and Islam, as well as the great minds of China -- Lao Tzu and Confucius. He particularly respected India's great ruler, King Ashoka,…