Holiday ezine 2013

Namaste Insights Brought to You by Namaste Publishing

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Winter 2013

www.namastepublishing.com

From the Publisher

Constance Kellough

The Doors of Higher Consciousness Are Opening It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada as I write this, and by the time this ezine is released it will be approaching the time of Thanksgiving in the United States, with similar celebrations in other parts of the world.

As we pause to give thanks for our blessings, perhaps our greatest is that spiritual consciousness is breaking through all over the planet.

How do I know this?

It was over 15 years ago that we published first time author Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now. This was followed by Stillness Speaks and A New Earth.

From that beginning in 1997, from that small mustard seed planted in the world in the form of a book, has come a measurable global awakening to our true nature as individual expressions of what many of us have come to call God—this universal infinite loving force which is omniscient and omnipresent.

From then until now, in 2013, Eckhart’s publications have sold over 15 million copies and have been translated into 45 languages. The readiness for spiritual truth on a

mass scale was there from the get-go, evidenced by how quickly The Power of Now spread, simply by word of mouth. Today this book continues to reach new readers at a steady, undiminished rate.

When such a large population throughout the world open to the truth in Eckhart’s teachings, higher consciousness experienced in us as felt Presence will not be stopped. Consciousness is contagious, and higher consciousness immeasurably so.

Almost every day I receive evidence of people awakening spiritually. The carpet cleaner arrives, notices the books in my office, and in particular The Power of Now. He queries me about it, tells me of how he came to read it, and a warm and elevated exchange follows.

The man coming to deliver some wine for our cellar does the same thing. Again, I commune with him before he heads on to his next delivery, now armed with a load of some of our titles, including another Tolle book produced especially to be a gift, Oneness With All Life.

And just two days ago, I was going to a business meeting in Yale Town, a fun and funky area in Vancouver. I had under my arm a number of copies of The Power of Now and A New Earth wall calendars for 2014 to leave behind. As I stepped out of my car and headed to my destination only half a block away, I was stopped by a woman who asked, “Are those records you are carrying or calendars?”

I responded, “Calendars,” and showed her the cover of the top one.

To this she burst out, “Oh, I just love Eckhart Tolle.” Yes, I gave her a calendar.

This beat goes on and continues unabated. So I must assume that what I am experiencing personally, many across the planet are as well, albeit in different ways.

The microcosm reflects the macrocosm. And Namaste Publishing is only one of many sources that disseminate conscious material or support positive social action to bring about a more conscious and loving world.

One of the many fruits and buoying aspects of this work is to receive letters of request and gratitude, especially for Eckhart’s books. These have found their way into many prisons, where there is an insatiable craving and yeasty readiness for this universal teaching that points to how to live in the Now, be free of the pain-body, and awaken to our true nature. Following are just a few excerpts of the many letters received from inmates: My name is Patrick. I am currently serving my 13th year of incarceration on a life sentence. There is a strong possibility I will never be free from this physical prison; but in the last few years of life, I have been seeking an inner freedom.

I came across A New Earth in our prison library, and after reading it for the second time, it has helped bring an awareness to life that I had never even realized existed. It has taken me from my search for inner freedom to being conscious of the fact that I already have it.

I have a very dense pain-body and a long life of identifying with my ego, but I am conscious NOW. ** I am writing to express my newfound happiness that came about after reading A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle over one year ago. It was my glimpse into the way things are; my “satori” as Tolle describes it.

I am an ex-marine, honorably discharged from Desert Storm, who picked up a bad cocaine habit and was finally locked up a few weeks ago. After reading A New Earth, I want to continue my growth. I have found my own internal teacher and would like to continue with my study of awakening…. Today I have something to live for besides just the next hit or drink.

I would also like to ask if you could donate to me another book that I gave my father before he died, Stillness Speaks. I didn’t know what I gave him at the time, but he said it changed his life and that I was his savior. It was something I picked up at the bookstore unknowingly as a gift at the last minute. It showed him the way out of pain and suffering. I’d like to read it. I think it would give me insight into his last few months on earth. ** Just a thank you note to let you know how much I appreciate the books you sent, and especially The Leap! God bless you.

Yes, I AM ready to live a new reality! I’m learning, slowly but surely, how to live in the state of Presence, that is to say, aware of awareness; conscious of consciousness.

Your words, in the same vein as those of Eckhart, mirror my own innermost reality, the truth and essence of Being. I long to become fully awakened! It really stirs my soul to touch base with another who’s also in the process of their own spiritual awakening! Thank you so much.

There are times when I see everyone and everything as pure light, the pure vibrant living energy and essence of Consciousness It-Self. But my goal is to always remain there, beyond the polarities and duality of mundane existence. I am ready to take “The Leap.”

Another example of an evident leap in consciousness is our pending publication, which will come out in mid January, 2014: OUT OF CONTROL – Why Disciplining Your Child Doesn’t Work and What Will. This is the second Namaste Publishing book by author Dr. Shefali Tsabary, the first being The Conscious Parent.

OUT OF CONTROL brings us a more evolved and honoring way of parenting. It’s truly a book born of higher consciousness. Spirit wanted this book to come out at this time, and here it is.

I quote now from the Publisher’s Preface: Rarely does a book come along that breaks with the way society tends to do things and challenges us to a new approach entirely—especially when it hits us literally “right at home.”

For many, if not most, the content of OUT OF CONTROL will be something strikingly new. For some it will be experienced as a shock, akin to a physical whiplash or a whack on the head. For others it will be confirmation of the way they are already parenting, providing them with the insight and support they simply can’t find in most places.

For many like myself who have adult children, the question that will spring to mind is, “Where was this book when I was parenting?”

The simple fact is that we were unaware of the amazing insights Dr. Shefali Tsabary shares with us in OUT OF CONTROL. Though we loved our children and did the best we could, our methods were based on the kind of parenting we experienced in our own upbringing. Consequently, we didn’t really know to rear our children differently—in a more gentle and validating way that would result in them being self-assured, happy, responsible adults.

Another breakthrough that’s evidence of consciousness rising is Crowd Funding, a relatively new electronically-based way to give financial and communication support to projects one wants to see become reality. People are stepping up to the plate to support conscious and worthy projects that would not be funded by the regular business and financial investment channels.

Also, what about Paying It Forward? I just recently became aware of this concept of giving to another party or cause part of what we have been given. This is not your traditional tithing, as it encourages a universal and non-religious charitable gesture.

Since then, I have heard of this practice numerous times. It is spreading quickly. When enough people give of a gift they have received and this becomes normal practice, it will ensure abundance for our world because if we “cast our bread upon the waters,” it will return to us in more than full measure. (Continued on next page.)

Stillness Speaks A New Earth, and The Power of Now are also available on CD as audiobooks - you will find them on the lower right of Eckhart’s author page.

Eckhart has many offerings, such as those on the next page. Simply scroll on the titles on his Namaste author page. Other videos, audios, and books will appear.

TO ORDER Click on Titles: The Leap Stillness Speaks A New Earth The Power of Now 52 Inspiration Cards

Then there’s the emergence of Meet Up Groups, which almost spontaneously form by noting a topic of interest on the web, usually focused on social or spiritual issues, then showing up at a convenient location at a specific time to be in community with those with the same interest. It’s another example of while the ego separates, the Spirit joins.

I know we can look around and find many examples of negative and unconscious practices, but these will wane in time as the new consciousness that’s pressing to emerge on our planet has its way.

Just the other day, I opened a magazine at my doctor’s office. If I were to take that magazine to be representative of what our society deems most important, they would be hair, skin, and clothes—in that order. Then someone sent me a file entitled “Advertisements We Don’t See Anymore.” Two of the many examples: Advertisement: Picture of a husband embracing his wife with one arm around her waist. The wife is in a pretty dress with an apron over it, smiling while holding a dust mop. A bubble box positioned above the husband’s head reads, “So the harder a wife works, the cuter she gets.” The ad is for PEP Vitamins.

Advertisement: Picture of a doctor in his white coat, leaning forward on his desk holding a cigarette between his fingers, looking very wise and professional.

Below him the caption reads, “More doctors smoke CAMELS than any other cigarette.”

These seem humorous to us now, but they are poignant indicators of the moreenlightened ways we are tending toward as a society.

When Eckhart was writing The Power of Now over 15 years ago, he had little hope for humanity to break out of its insanity and evolve to a higher consciousness. However, the worldwide reception of this spiritual teaching, along with many other publications in this vein, heralds an emerging reality. Not long ago when I met with him I said, “Eckhart, isn’t it wonderful! There is so much evidence now that we are truly creating A New Earth,” to which he nodded in his quiet and characteristic way, adding, “Yes, just wonderful.”

As part of our practice of thanksgiving, I suggest we intentionally look for evidence of humanity moving to a higher level of spiritual awareness, and share this good news with others instead of so much of the bad news we often pass on. What we dwell upon, we magnify.

Global Oneness and Interspirituality

by Kurt Johnson and David Robert Ord At this juncture in the history of our species, when our planet faces a plethora of critical challenges, a movement toward global oneness is underway.

Dubbed the “Interspiritual” movement, surprisingly this movement has emerged from the world’s religious communities—traditionally some of the most divided groups on earth.

This initiative was identified and set on a solid footing in 1999 with the release of a book by the visionary interfaith and sacred activist pioneer Brother Wayne Teasdale, whose influential The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions boldly declared, “The only viable religion for the Third Millennium is spirituality itself.”

It was Teasdale who coined the now popular term “interspirituality” that has become the hallmark of the rapidly growing movement he identified. Today, a visit to search engines turns up over 200,000 references to “interspirituality” and “interspiritual,” including a wealth of discussions of the unfolding vision on YouTube.

The interspirituality movement marks the emergence in our critical Third Millennium of an awareness among the world’s religions of shared values and universal ethical principles. It’s especially grounded in an awareness of a commonality among our species that’s particularly evident in the contemplative experience of people of many diverse paths—a sense that nothing is separate, and that everything in our universe is profoundly and inextricably interconnected.

Released by Namaste Publishing earlier this year, the book The Coming Interspiritual Age expands and elaborates on this emerging global interspiritual vision. The book describes the strong and deep global forces that are driving the rapid growth of world interfaith exchange and understanding, as well as trans-traditional practice and belief, along with a growing sense of a shared universal spirituality—the latter having especially emerged during just the last decade.

Two powerful undercurrents are particularly emphasized: (1) the world’s inevitable movement toward globalization and multiculturalism across all arenas of human endeavor; and (2) the overall direction of cognitive brain-mind development demonstrated by modern science, pointing toward deeper appreciations of unity and profound interconnectedness—a significant departure from the parochialisms of the past. For far too long, the latter sustained a lens of fragmentation, competition, and even conflict between worldviews stuck in myriad traditional “boxes” across our planet’s highly divergent cultures.

A Global Oneness Unfolding The emergence of interspirituality represents the culmination of decades of international interfaith and ecumenical exchanges.

Such exchanges centered on the recognition of a common experience within all spiritual traditions—a sense of profound interconnectedness, and what this implies for how humans should behave both individually and collectively.

Globally, this recognition occurred hand in hand with the wider universal sense of unity that underpins the world’s other currently

advancing ideals of holism. These include the drive toward true economic egalitarianism, the abandonment of militant nationalism, nuclear disarmament, and other ethical gold standards advanced by the secular voices of globalization and multiculturalism.

Not only do such ideals propel the defining edge of human development, but they have the support of vast numbers of people on the street. For instance, when polled about these ideals, some 80% of Americans felt them to be both important and achievable.

Central to globalization is the imperative that our two primary ways of knowing—the external explorations of science, and the internal explorations of religion and spirituality —must also converge as coherent aspects of an emerging cosmology. Such a cosmology needs to be one that can successfully nurture a healthy global and multicultural age.

Teasdale’s goal, along with that of the other great historical champions of a universal spirituality, of which nearly fifty are described in The Coming Interspiritual Age and pictured at www.thecominginterspiritualage.com and www.isdna.org, was to prepare the world’s religions for their role as an asset in achieving this mature global civilization.

He saw it as critical that the religions don’t become a liability by aiding and abetting the worldwide problem of competing ethnocentric and nationalistic allegiances.

All of the interspiritual pioneers believed that the primary vector of our species’ ultimate spiritual and ethical development wasn’t any one of the world’s countless spiritual paths, but the shared direction of all of them.

Teasdale put forward the view that, in the deepest existential sense, the historical development of humanity’s spiritual unfolding has been a single experience on behalf of all humankind—a convergence that continues to this day and defines the leading edge of the maturation of our species. As he expressed it: We are at the dawn of a new consciousness, a radically fresh approach to our life as the human family in a fragile world.

The necessary shifts in consciousness require a new approach to spirituality that transcends past religious cultures of fragmentation and

isolation. This revolution will be the task of the Interspiritual Age. We need to understand, to really grasp at an elemental level that the definitive revolution is the spiritual awakening of humankind [MH, p. 4f].

Understanding that “interspirituality”—this more universal experience of the world’s religions, emphasizing shared experiences of heart and unity consciousness— represents religion’s inevitable response to globalization, Teasdale further realized: The real religion of humankind can 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 interspirituality—the sharing of ultimate experiences across traditions—is the religion of the third millennium. Interspirituality is the foundation that can prepare the way for a planet-wide enlightened culture, and a continuing community among the religions that is substantial, vital, and creative [MH p. 26].

Today there are parallel discussions concerning globalization in all fields of human discourse: governance, economics, science, culture, and more. Interfaith and interspirituality are simply the religions’ part of this potential evolutionary leap.

Teasdale predicted that institutions and structures that could support achieving this historic anthropological threshold in human development would develop rapidly. The book The Coming Interspiritual Age reviews this ongoing emergence.

The success of this interspiritual vision in inspiring many others has to a great degree resulted in the upwelling of the current growing global interspiritual movement. The essence of the vision is the sense that a “Mystic Heart” undergirds all the world’s spiritual paths. Since this heart connects us to the very core of reality itself, it is able to inspire and empower us to unconditionally embrace all beings with the love and compassion central to the world’s spiritual teachings.

A New Axial Age? The interspiritual pioneers envisioned nothing less than the emergence of a new Axial Age that can lift all humanity, enabling the human family to transcend the differences and disagreements that have plagued us thus far.

Such a global shift in consciousness would nurture a spiritual alignment based on the universal elements that are shared by all the religious, spiritual, wisdom, and philosophical traditions. These include: (1) the possibility of a common unifying core to human mystic experience, (2) fundamental teachings held in common by all the world’s religions, (3) the shared ethical implications of the teachings of all the great traditions, and (4) the inevitable mutuality across the religions regarding commitment to social and economic justice.

In the last decade, these directions have emerged universally to usher humanity toward the kind of maturation predicted by global visionaries such as Teilhard de Chardin, Sri

Aurobindo, and the many other spiritual champions of holism that are recounted in detail in The Coming Interspiritual Age. This vision also framed the “foundationalist theologians” after Vatican II, who envisioned the possibility of a global religious pluralism ultimately joined in heart and consciousness in an emerging Interspiritual Age. Further, these unifying principles characterize the best vision of philosophy and futurism as well—from the perennial humanist goal of a “global ethical manifold,” to Ken Wilber and the integralists’ positing of a “conveyor belt” to an Integral Age. Today, we are witnessing a significant shift throughout the global community toward an emphasis on the interconnectedness of all things. This is reflected in an expanding popular literature and increasing media coverage regarding the experience of a global collective or gestalt of “We.” It’s also reflected in what have become known as the current “springs” that have been occurring in the world, such as the Arab Spring, the Occupy movement, and the now-emerging Catholic Spring.

The coming decades will prove pivotal, for it remains to be seen whether a new global gestalt, with a new cosmology for the person on the street, can emerge—and what this might look like.

The interspiritual movement envisions a shift toward a universal spirituality that is highly personal, deeply experiential, holistic, and all-embracing. The longing in all our hearts is for such a spirituality to come of age.

And as The Coming Interspiritual Age reveals, hope is afoot! The deep undercurrents pushing today’s upwelling of interfaith and interspiritual activity appear indeed to be working their slow but steady evolutionary magic.

In softcover and eBook

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Click to Read The Coming Interspiritual Age Special Edition Ezine

The contemporary story about humanity's place in this vast universe expands our notions of "God" beyond belief in a deity residing in the heavens above the earth. Much of our personal and liturgical prayer, however, has been and continues to be addressed to a "God" that no longer fits with our expanded notions. What, then, is the goal of personal prayer, and how might we reshape prayer to reflect our shifts in imagination and belief about "God"?

For many years, Australian Michael Morwood, formerly a Catholic priest for 29 years, has engaged readers and listeners in an understanding of God, revelation, Jesus, prayer, liturgy, and the wonder of who we are that builds on a "New Story", the contemporary scientific story, of our place in the universe and how life developed on earth.

Michael brings a wealth of experience in spirituality and adult faith development to the task of rethinking faith in what he describes as "the time of greatest shifts ever" in how we understand that everything and everyone is connected in the Mystery we call "God".

Namaste Publishing’s Editorial Director caught up with him when he recently spoke in Phoenix and asked him about prayer. Here’s what he said.

“We are living through the greatest shift ever in Christian thought.”

Because the sort of prayers we learned as children went something like “God bless mommy and daddy,” we tend to go through life thinking that prayer is fundamentally about talking to God. Of course, I’m aware there’s another aspect of prayer, which is that prayer is getting in touch with ourselves through quietness and reflection. Yet when it comes to vocal prayer, especially liturgical prayer, the overwhelming majority of our prayers are addressed to God. Growing up hearing people pray to God, it’s natural that we would personify the mystery we refer to as “God.” It’s understandable that we would address this mystery in a personal way, using personal pronouns, talking to the divine as if “God “ is a heavenly deity who is actually listening to us.

Although we can sympathize with the desire to pray this way, such a concept of prayer belongs to an age before science showed us the infinite nature of space and time. But in our era when we can no longer justify thinking of God as a being who is “somewhere out there,” isn’t it time to ask ourselves precisely what we imagine to be on the receiving end of our prayers?

Is there really a listening deity? Is there a divine being who hears our prayers and decides whether to grant them? Or is such a God merely a product of our imagination, based on what we were taught while we were growing up?

There’s a problem with the idea of a God who needs to be prayed to and expects to be worshiped in the sort of way a literal reading of the Bible would cause us to imagine. By thinking of God in this way, we lock ourselves into a concept of God as a deity who acts much the same way humans do. For instance, this literal version of the God of the Bible punishes people, withholds blessings, controls nature, dictates who is to be a ruler and who a servant, reacts, and has definite opinions on a wide range of matters.

I have a problem with worship. When we hear the kinds of prayers all our lives that talk to God as a being to be worshiped, it causes us to feel that God is an “elsewhere” reality. Our language and imagery all convey the idea of a God who basically lives in heaven and acts from there. Prayer then becomes trying to make contact with this God. My concern is that Christian faith is in large measure based on a story of disconnection from God. It involves literalizing the Adam and Eve story, as well as our understanding of what it means for Jesus to be spoken of as the “Christ.” We end up with a God who, long ago, used to talk to humans in the Garden of Eden, but who withdrew to heaven, then felt sorry for us and sent his son down from heaven to rescue us from our alienated state.

I believe that Christianity is in need of a shift that would move people away from the idea that God is somewhere else.

People often say to me, especially if they are progressive Christians, “I believe God is everywhere.”

I respond, “Then let me hear the way you pray.” Sure enough, most of their prayers are addressed to God as if God were somewhere “out there” listening.

So even when we say God is everywhere, we still lock ourselves into a form of prayer that actually reinforces the idea that we are addressing an “elsewhere” reality. The form of prayer is not much different from that used thousands of years ago when people believed they were praying to a heavenly overlord.

I’m not saying don’t ever pray that way. By all means go ahead and personify this mystery, calling it Father or Mother, addressing prayers to it, if this is your preference. But at least realize that this is personification. It’s metaphor, and not at all who or what God is.

At the same time, if you are going to use this kind of prayer, it’s important to counterbalance it with prayer that really “gets” the idea of God as everywhere. The reality of God as we understand God today is in terms of the ground of all being, the reality that holds everything in existence.

When we look at the vastness of the universe and try to take seriously that God reality is an everywhere, all pervasive, all embracing mystery, it makes sense to see prayer as a way of affirming this. At least some of our prayers, rather than being addressed to God, might simply assume the divine presence in everything. For instance, we might

A God who damns us to hell when angered, but then tries desperately to rescue us?

It’s a concept of God BILLIONS believe in.

But is this really what the divine is like?

say, “We gather here today aware of a divine creative presence within and among us.”

This is quite different from addressing the reality we are talking about.

Which brings up the question: Is prayer and liturgy fundamentally for God’s sake? Or are they about deepening our awareness of the divine presence within and around us, so they become tools for changing us?

An important part of prayer is to deepen our awareness that we live within this reality that we call God. Not only do we live within it, but this reality comes to expression in us.

Our liturgy then becomes gathering around the story of Jesus, or the story of whatever our faith may be, so that these stories might lead us into an understanding that we are bearers of the divine. All our rituals should call us into this truth, challenging us to live it.

Realizing that we are bearers of the divine is fundamentally different from telling ourselves we are rather hopeless, and that we should keep on thanking God because Jesus has saved “wretches like us.” It’s vastly different from the idea that “we’re praying to God, and God’s going to do this and that.” Instead, what we are talking about is a way of changing ourselves.

As an individual, I want to grow in my awareness of the utter wonder of what it is to be human. From a scientific point of view, on this planet at least, the universe has found a way to produce a life form that is consciously aware, and that can celebrate the fact by singing and dancing. Some twelve months ago, I went to see the ballet the Nutcracker and was just blown away by the fact that the universe has produced such incredible culture.

But faith isn’t just about our personal lives. It affects our social world, the political arena, the economic aspects of life—the whole of public and private life. Faith is about coming into the kind of heightened human awareness Jesus had—the sense that we are bearers of the divine, and it’s therefore our task to make the reign of God, which is life lived from an ongoing awareness of the presence of God, an active reality in our world.

The reason we don’t do this enough is because we aren’t sufficiently aware, don’t sufficiently believe, that we are bearers of the divine in the same way Jesus was.

It’s for this reason that I want to promote the type of prayer that raises our awareness by asserting the presence of the divine in ourselves and everything around us.

In terms of private prayer, I’m suggesting that people sit with this notion that prayer is about deepening our awareness of the sacred in us. The more we become aware of this and live from it, then what Jesus wanted to see will be expressed in our world. If we don’t participate in this, then I think we miss the point of Jesus’ teaching.

When we come from a place of faith, we understand that it’s not just the universe that has produced human awareness. It’s the divine, creative, energizing presence—the ground of all being—that has found a way to produce this life form. In other words, our being here isn’t just providing the universe with a way of expressing itself, but giving the divine a way of coming into expression.

A key aspect of prayer for me, what I might call my prayer “mantra,” runs along the following lines. Just in terms of our solar system, let alone the universe as a whole, I was four and a half billion years in the making, and I get to be here perhaps seventy, eighty, or ninety years. Well, what am I doing with this? What is the human community doing with this?

If one chooses to believe in the reality people call “God,” I would want to engage this reality with a sense of awe, wonder, delight, appreciation, then bring this to the human community, which lacks this kind of self-understanding. This is why we are so divisive, not to mention destructive, when it comes to the workings of our economic systems, legal systems, patriotic systems, and so on.

The task of prayer is to realize that for the first time in history, we’ve got an awesome story to tell. On a personal level, I need to give myself time to sit with this, to assimilate it, to let it soak through me. For some people, who don’t feel the need of a faith, it’s just good common sense. But if one is a person of faith, then this is where I would engage that faith.

An ages-old image of God that needs to GO...

So as a Christian, I use this lens now to go back to the story of Jesus and ask what that story is all about. It’s not about a God who locked us out, nor about someone descending from heaven to rescue us. Rather, it’s the story of someone who was walking the same path that I am, and who, because he had this awareness, tried to get people to see it.

In a nutshell, if one wants to talk about Christian prayer, I would say that the first responsibility of such prayer is that I see it as a path to help me to see, appreciate, and live what Jesus saw, appreciated, and lived. That’s my task as a Christian.

We can’t do this without community, and we can’t do it without private reflection, because there are all sorts of voices within us that say such things as, “Who do you think you are?” Even the church community has said, “You are unworthy. You are a sinner.” It’s been about disbelieving in ourselves instead of realizing our magnificence as expressions of the divine.

You might be surprised that I haven’t mentioned praying for guidance. When we talk about guidance, the classical language runs something like, “I’m trying to work out what God’s will is for my life. What does God want of me?”

I suggest that people focus on discerning what love asks of us. What does maturity ask of us? What does growth ask of us?

Michael Morwood with Namaste Publishing’s Editorial Director

If I believe there’s a divine spark within me—if I believe that all the impulses that make up the thrust of the universe are active in me, as they are—then I need to listen to this. We all have this wisdom within us. We have the divine, creative, energizing consciousness at work in us. So let me try to listen, try to discern, rather than directing my prayer to something external by saying, “God, you tell me what to do.”

It’s within us. We discover it when we ask ourselves what life, maturity, responsibility, and growth are asking of us.

Hardcover, leather spine, gorgeously illustrated throughout Click HERE to order

When Hildegard...

“When Hildegard enters the well-guarded and thick patriarchal gates of the Vatican as Saint and Doctor of the Church, she brings many surprises with her just like the trojan horse of old. Hildegard and the convoy that accompanies her includes the powerful lineage of the creation spirituality tradition, coupled with her fierce commitment to the reality of the divine feminine.”

- Matthew Fox

“Hildegard is sure to lead the charge, not only on behalf of the return of the proper balance of the divine feminine and a healthy and sacred masculine, but to sound the trumpet today against the schism in the Roman Catholic hierarchy, which has replaced the teachings of Vatican II with demands for blind obedience to an all-male power structure.”

- Matthew Fox

...rode into town

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Our Children As Our

AWAKENERS

by

Dr Shefali Tsabary

To parent consciously is to become aware that the parenting process evokes for us many issues from our own childhood.

In fact, our children come into our lives to trigger these issues, functioning as a mirror of our own unresolved past. By parenting consciously, we see ourselves reflected through our children’s ways of behaving and the conflicts we experience as parent and child.

Our children may be small and powerless in terms of living independent lives, but they are mighty in their potential to be our life's greatest awakeners.

“Awakeners.” I like this term because it speaks directly to our children's potential to raise our consciousness to new levels. When we begin to notice exactly how they do this, we are in awe.

When I speak of becoming “conscious” as parents, I’m not talking about a sudden epiphany, for the insights our children bring to us are hardly ever stumbled upon in the extraordinary.

Rather, it’s in the most ordinary of moments, and often the most humbling situations, that our children's capacity for kindling our consciousness is revealed. Everyday routines can become a window onto the ways in which, as parents, we have yet to grow up.

It’s usually in situations involving conflict that we tend to glimpse aspects of our behavior that are originating from a lack of awareness. This is why, instead of shying away from conflict, perhaps even denying that there is conflict, I encourage parents to accept the inevitability of conflict, then use the insights that can emerge from such situations to awaken themselves to the growth that still needs to take place in them.

The reason we don’t tend to see the opportunities for growth that are children afford us is that we have a tendency to blame our children for the things that aren’t working in our relationship with them. We then resort to dictating to them, trying to control them, attempting to set them straight.

The last thing we are expecting is for such moments to offer us an opportunity for our own spiritual development. Yet if we are willing to open our eyes, our children constantly reflect back to us things about ourselves that need to change.

Take, for example, the mother who complains that she loses her temper with her children when it’s time to get ready for school because they “never listen,” and consequently arrive late for class. It might seem that such a parent needs to teach her children to pay attention—and in some cases this may be true. But what if the mother were to explore her own behavior, for instance examining whether she herself is disorganized and tends to be tardy, particularly in the mornings? Perhaps she’s not

Dr. Shefali Tsabary, is a clinical psychologist with a private practice in New York. Her specialty is in the integration of Eastern philosophy and Western psychology. It is this blend of East and West that allows her to reach a global audience, and establishes her as one of a kind in the field of mindfulness psychology. Namaste Publishing will release her second book, Out of Control: Why Disciplining Your Child Doesn't Work and What Will in January, 2014. Shefali has spoke at events and plays an advisory role to the Milton’s Secret movie production team.

Eckhart Tolle with

Dr Shefali Tsabary

naturally a “morning person.” The conscious approach to parenting shifts the focus away from what our children need to change, to aspects of ourselves that may need to be addressed.

A conscious way of parenting begins with asking ouselves, “Do I need to revisit the way I operate? Are there ways I need to restructure my life so I can be more organized for my children?” Where a certain level of disorganization may have been acceptable before we became a parent, we now realize that such chaos is simply too confusing for a child.

Being more organized may seem like such a small thing. Surely this can’t be the answer to why our children are late? Yet it’s precisely these “small” things that have the potential to create many a dysfunctional pattern in a family.

Consider the eight-year-old child who has inexplicably become a social recluse, refusing to go to school or play with his friends. His parents are at a loss for what to do. Experts have been called in to "fix" the child, yet the situation persists. Profession intervention may indeed be necessary in some cases, what about first turning the focus onto the parents?

When the parents put the spotlight on themselves, the mother discovers that she herself went through a traumatic period when she was around seven years old. She was in a car accident in which her father died, witnessing the whole tragedy firsthand.

For the next two years, she became selectively mute. In other words, what we are dealing with here is a generational pattern of anxiety, passed on from mother to son.

These are just two examples, one seemingly superficial and the other more serious, of the ways in which our children tell us, "Wake up, look at yourself, transform yourself, heal yourself. Do this for you, so that I may be free of what burdens you.”

Our children have the ability to awaken us to our tardiness, our obsessiveness, our anxiety, our need for perfection, our desire for control, our inability to say “yes” or “no” and mean it, our neediness, our marital troubles, and even our addictions.

Perhaps one of the biggest lessons we can learn from our children is how to simply be “still,” which is something many of us have a hard time with. Along with this goes the ability to engage with full-on presence, to be intuitive, and especially to be authentic.

We can even learn what it is to be open, spontaneous, playful.

The list of opportunities for growth that our children bring into our lives is almost endless. If our eyes are open, we will see our unconsciousness at work in how they act and react to us, as well as in how we act and react to them.

It comes down to awakening to the fact that parenting isn’t so much about raising of our children, but beginning to act like real parents by first raising ourselves.

Click to Buy the Book

This holiday season, give the gift that can change a child’s life forever!

Pre-order at www.namastepublishing.com

C o m i n g J a n u a r y 1 4

Watch Eckhart Tolle, Dr Shefali Tsabary, Barnet Bain and others talk about the movie Click HERE

A Wonderful Seasonal Gift for Children

Click HERE to Order

And for younger children this holiday ..season...

Hardcover, jacket,full color Click HERE for details

Launching the

NEXT STAGE by

Marj Britt

Living, Loving, Legacy

One of the things I’ve learned in the precious years of immersing myself in understanding consciousness is that over and over we launch “next stages” of our lives. And the learning underlying that is what is really important. It often comes out of a void, a time of darkness.

Should I be surprised? Probably not, since I’ve taught the “creation story” for years. It is clearly part of the work of my life. I’ve lived it and see it as uniquely unfolding in my own life and in your lives. It all started in seminary when a teacher imprinted words that simply penetrated my very being.

The words were like vibration, and I can still hear them: “This is the key to everything.

And we don’t understand it yet.” My most significant Unity teacher, Marvin Anderson, was teaching the stages of creation, one of Unity’s foundational frameworks from the first chapter of Genesis. He was talking about involution and evolution...and what was happening for me was something way beyond the human mind.

I’m rereading the words of scripture now: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of

the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.”

The “seeds” had “dropped in” to my human awareness. I was open…perhaps because even then I was going through a time of unknowing in my life. What I didn’t know was that the framework would be one that I would live, in vaster and more revealing way, for the rest of my life.

Yet somehow, I knew.

Even now, as I Realize That, it still seems to surprise my human self, even as my Soul Knows what my human self does not.

Unity of Tustin

A huge launch is coming for me…with a projected launch date of November 15, 2013. It feels a bit like saying “the baby is due in November!”

The Campus of Consciousness that I have so loved, cherished, and nurtured at Unity of Tustin for 19 years is shifting into a vastness that three years ago, I could not have even imagined. It is moving from a bricks and mortar platform to the invisible platform of the worldwide web.

The landing page reads: Called By Love, A Worldwide Campus of Consciousness, Presents Living, Loving, Legacy. The cosmic image of the galaxies, of stars, of light and darkness is the background. The beautiful stained glass image of the world with two non-identifiable beings of light in front of it, from Site 6 in our meditation gardens, is the logo that carries the energy of love and wisdom.

There is an invitation to join and learn from some of the foremost master teachers on the planet who are realizing legacy. The pictures of the teachers, who have said “Yes!” to being part of the tele summit, have shared the platform with me at Unity of Tustin’s Campus of Consciousness. Now they grace the Cosmic sky. We will be in dialogue about the faces of love in their lives, about how they are living their destiny, loving their life, and realizing legacy You’ll perhaps recognize them:

Adyashanti, Don Beck, Andrew Harvey, Roger Walsh, Russ Hudson, Jean Houston, James Twyman, John Welshons, Constance Kellough.

Constance Kellough’s sharing will include some of her story of working with Eckhart Tolle in his process of publishing his first book, The Power of Now. It was also his process of moving from the park-bench to being on Oprah!

Constance’s life was changed by their soul crossing. She became the founder of Namaste Publishing. She also gave me a one-sentence laser focused invitation: “Do not miss the most powerful parables of our time – the new scripture – shared by some of the world’s leading spiritual teachers.”

Have you ever thought of your life as a powerful parable? Have I ever thought of my life even like that? What if we could experience our lives with the awareness that with consciousness, every moment has the potential of being the living energy of new scripture?

If you want to be part of experiencing the amazing teachers of consciousness who will be part of Living, Loving, Legacy, it’s easy…and free. All you have to do is go to the following link and tell us you want to receive all of the information as it becomes available: http://www.calledbylove.com, on the top left of the page.

Interestingly, out of all of this, other new experiences and doors are opening. I have been invited by Adyashanti to come visit and see the platform that has emerged for Open Gate Sangha. And he invited me to be a guest on his worldwide radio and video broadcast.

Years ago, Adya was here, before he was famous, talking with me about Unity of Tustin. Now, I have been there talking with him about Open Gate Sangha and the worldwide platform that has emerged.

Isn’t it amazing how the universe works.

And, if you want to hear or see the broadcast, that link is: http:// www.adyashanti.org/ cafedharma/ index.php?file=radio And Constance Kellough invited me to share about Living,

Loving, Legacy and what is happening in the new edition of Namaste Insights, the ezine or online magazine, whihc you are reading now.

Suddenly, the awareness of The Promise that I have so often quoted from A Course in Miracles is coming into my mind: “Once you have accepted God’s plan as the one function that you would fulfill…there will be nothing else the Holy Spirit will not arrange for you, without your effort…”

Somehow I know there will be more. And even as I “feel” the “coming,” I cannot yet see it in the visible.

It was in September of 2011 that I wrote the article called “Tsunamis, Earthquakes and Womb-Houses.” The shock of what I called “the whiteboard of my life being erased” had come as surprise. It was filled with overwhelming sorrow and grief. And there was an instruction: “Put on a breastplate of love.”

Now, more than two years later, I see the amazing template of the creation story from Genesis 1…happening at higher and deeper levels in my own life, and in your lives.

And I simply delight in the awareness that so many are part of the energy field of Unity of Tustin’s beautiful meditation gardens. Every site is a field, a living vibrating symbol of each day or stage of creation.

I’ve taught it and loved it all these years. It has in many ways been The Work of My Life, which was the title of my chapel talk when I was in seminary way back in September 1986. Yet, now I see it, 27 years later, fresh, new, vibrant and even more alive. It is thrilling, ecstatic, beyond words. I am in awe.

And, it is still, even now, emerging. I know there will be next stages, more new birth, continuing revelation. It is the living energy of cocreation.

So, what is your next stage? How is it moving, perhaps even yearning, to launch in your life? Is it sometimes showing up as void or even darkness--as unknowing?

Have you recognized that it is all holy ground?

I invite you to join in the energy of launching. All it takes is willingness to see, to know your life as the curriculum.

You might just start by clicking on the link above to become part of the field of Living, Loving, Legacy in its emergence. www.CalledByLove.com

Hear Constance Kellough, 1 PM Eastern 10 AM Pacific

November 20

An Invitation to the Telesummit from

Constance Kellough Dear Friends, I’m writing to tell you about a very special telesummit that I will be participating in. It is a FREE EVENT, November 15 through December 16, and I feel you may want to be a part of it. You can participate from anywhere in the world according to your own schedule.

I know that you are deeply committed to transformation, to living a conscious life and to exploring the paths of consciousness. I know that because we have shared some of that journey together. We are interested in knowing the ways that lives change, including our own.

Living, Loving, Legacy is an unusual event. It is bringing together some of the most significant explorers of the maps of consciousness on the planet, people who have devoted their lives to their own transformation and that of the world.

What is unusual is that my friend of many years, Marj Britt, founder of Called By Love and Senior Minister Emeritus of Unity of Tustin, has invited me and all of the other

speakers to talk about our own lives, about how we have lived our destiny and have become part of changing the world. She knows us all…we’ve all done intensives at Unity of Tustin, we’ve shared deep conversations…

If you have ever had questions about ‘where your life is going’ or wondered how lives of meaning and purpose happen, this telesummit event will be the chance for you to be in on conversation about just that.

The speakers who have said ‘Yes’ to sharing about how it all happened in their lives are truly phenomenal. They are some of the most renowned explorers of consciousness in our lifetime. They include: Andrew Harvey, founder of the Institute for Sacred Activism Adyashanti, founder of Open Gate Sangha Don Beck, founder of Spiral Dynamics Integral Constance Kellough, founder of Namaste Publishing Russ Hudson, Co-founder of The Enneagram Institute James Twyman, The Beloved Community…and more Roger Walsh, Essential Spirituality…and more John Welshons, One Soul, One Love, One Heart…and more Jean Houston, founder of the Mystery School, Social Artistry…and more Marj Britt, host and founder of Called By Love and Living, Loving, Legacy Marj believes that love is a compelling force behind decisions that change the trajectory of our lives. She believes it can be found in education, professions, work, lovers and marriages, family, friends and more. She believes it is creative, filled with passion, joy, sometimes complexity, and at times, even turmoil. She wonders how it shows up differently at different stages in our lives. We can choose our own ‘themes’ to explore… or not! These dialogues hold the potential of being profound.

You will join us in this exploration of love as a conveyor belt. You will hear our dialogues about how loving in our lives turned into living our destiny, and what Marj calls, Realizing Legacy. You’ll be able to apply what you learn into your own life, into Living Your Destiny, Loving Your Life, and Realizing Legacy. You can also be part the conversation, with Q & A or perhaps sharing some of your own experiences of ‘Intersections in Time that Changed Your Life’. You’ll see it all when you click on my photo which will take you to my Speaker Page. You’ll want to also click on the photos of other speakers or even our logos at the bottom.

I invite you to join these mapmakers of consciousness as we come together to explore and learn about this Field of Love as a guiding and compelling power in our lives. What Marj believes, and I do too, is that it could give you insights that could change your life.

Once you register, you will receive the details and schedule for the TeleSummit. I am

personally speaking on Nov 20th at 10am Pacific/1pm Eastern. I do hope you will attend *live* as well as enjoy the other speakers throughout the TeleSummit.

All you need to do is simply click on the link and register. And it is FREE: http://www.LivingLovingLegacy.com/?ap_id=ConstanceKellough With love and gratitude for our shared journey, Constance Kellough President and Publisher Namaste Publishing

I am 79 years, and I am doing The Presence Process.

I am in week seven, and my life has already changed so much.

I read the book first through, and then started the Process.

I cannot say remarkable things have happened: more unusual dreams, and crying spontaneously, at times feeling a great sadness, and a choking feeling in my throat.

I have struggled all my life with being unable to control myself and this has caused me much grief, guilt feelings, and shame.

I was born in Holland, migrated on my own to Australia at age 30. To make a long story short, seven years ago I met my third husband and again migrated to America.

With this marriage I had the worst time in reacting instead of responding.

I love my husband but was unable to respond, and I was very often miserable.

I prayed for help a long time and tried many things, and that is why I am so grateful to Michael Brown.

Almost from the beginning of the Process, I was able to respond instead of reacting.

Our life is now peaceful and joyful. Life still happens, but we have so much more fun together.

Thank you for listening, and through you, I’d like to send heartfelt thanks to Michael.

I also have his book Alchemy of the Heart and his video.

With Love and Blessings, Elisabeth B. To Order Click HERE

For anyone facing trauma this holiday season...

Book available in softcover and eBook Exercises available as DVD or digital download Click HERE to order

Health Is

BEING

by Ivan Rados

Everyone wants to be healthy, yet so many of us are repeatedly sick, and some of us seemingly cannot get well.

We experience illness as something extremely personal––in some ways, one of the most deeply felt personal experiences we ever have. Similarly we tend to think of our health as highly personal, perhaps one of the most personal aspects of our life.

Although we experience health in a personal way, when we investigate more closely it becomes apparent that the source of health––which I will explain in a moment––is impersonal. For instance, can you hug your health or kiss it? No, it’s something that arises within the body quite spontaneously and without our controlling it.

When we are healthy we are largely unaware of our body, whereas when we are sick the body demands our total attention, to the point we can often think of little else.

We cannot separate our health from our essential being, as if it somehow were a thing we possess, because its source is more encompassing than just the body. This is because, although we were born into the world, we didn’t originate from our physical birth. Each of us is a physical manifestation of an essential being that encompasses far more than our material existence.

We didn’t spring just from matter. Consequently our physical body isn’t just a machine whose functioning is entirely dependent on what happens to it in the world of matter.

When the body is healthy, we are experiencing not a state of matter but a process we refer to as well-being. The process of experiencing health is a reflection of our essential being. Even the term “well-being” shows us that wellness is an expression of being.

Health is the natural result of simply being.

Just as health is grounded in being, this essence of who we are is itself grounded in a universal oneness I will call our One-Self. This One-Self is the divine essence of the cosmos that people often refer to as God. It is our true being, the divine love that birthed the universe.

As the source of everything that exists––and as the heart and core of our individual being––this One-Self knows nothing but well-being. This is because, as a oneness, there is no fracturing within the source. Rather, it is whole, or holy. The words “holy,” “holism,” “holistic” and “healing” all carry this root meaning.

This wholeness of the universal oneness in which we are all grounded is the source of health. Hence to be healed means to be made whole––to be made holy––which is to experience reconnection with our multidimensionality and interconnectedness. It is to know our One-Self––that is, to experience ourselves as a manifestation of the whole. In contrast, to be unhealthy is to experience ourselves as disconnected and separate from the whole.

Just as health is a process of being, disease is also a process, as is obvious when we examine the word. Dis-ease is a condition of uneasiness, which creates an imbalance in the body. For instance we speak of being “ill at ease.” This is in contrast to our

natural process which is to enjoy a flowing aliveness and vibrancy. Disease is a state in which there is no longer an easiness about us, no longer an unimpeded flow of energy, no longer a suppleness.

Whenever we find ourselves diseased, it means we are doing something to create an energy blockage. Our energy has been diverted from its natural flow and consequently the balance within the whole has been lost.

You can learn about Ivan Rados’ insights into health and wellbeing in his books on health and through his box set of 52 gorgeous meditation yantras, entitled Transform Your Life Through Sacred Geometry, which make a superb seasonal gift, whether for Hanukkah or Christmas.

Click HERE to Order Softcover or eBook

Connect with Ivan on his author page at Namaste Publishing and also through his website www.ivanrados.com.

What Is a Yantra? Click to Find Out...

Dancing the

Slow Jams

with

by Alexandra Folz Nostalgia beckoned me to dance with Facebook seven years ago. My initial two-month twirl-a-thon was joyous I viewed family photos of long lost friends and was grateful for the connection.

The virtual high lead to FB messaging and memorable phone calls reminiscing about rad times. Once I’d found those who had influenced my life the most, I felt fulfilled and complete. The music stopped, and I took a seat.

Three years later I published my first children’s book, Indigo’s Bracelet. I wrote it because in my heart, I had to. Until I committed myself to its creation, the story cheered for my attention like tin cans strung to the back of a newlywed’s limo.

Once the book was complete, I had to face the daunting reality that I was responsible for its upbringing. Nowadays, even if you are with a traditional publisher, most authors are made accountable for marketing their book.

Hmmm, I thought writing it was hard…

So I began the marketing education process, all the while gritting my teeth and readjusting my stance. Self-promotion disturbed me and yet there I was, facing the fact that in order for people to know my book exists, I had to share it with them.

As I soon learned, what’s an author to do these days if they don’t engage social media? In fact, I distinctly remember meeting with a friend of a friend who was a social media consultant. Since I was clear I would not pay for advertising, he graciously, in no uncertain terms, declared I must create a social presence for myself. He made a good point. How else was I going to promote the book without a marketing budget?

My initial response to using social media was, “No way! I’m not going to minister about my book to my friends.”

At that moment, I looked directly into the eyes of resistance and, frankly, entered a state I found oddly invigorating. Sniffing out internal roadblocks is one of my gifts. It’s like I become Warrior, one who senses deathly restriction and deftly conquers its suffocation with discernible force.

And it wasn’t too long before I realized it was up to me to find a way to share my writing with authenticity.

So I stood up and beckoned Facebook and Twitter to the dance floor. Techno music pulsed and my partners threw their hands in the air. So I did too. We jumped side by side to the beat, blending in, becoming one with the mash pile.

Today, I dance with these virtual partners on a regular basis. Yet I’ve had wave my finger in their faces, cut the trance, walk across the club, place both hands on the DJ table, and command a slower, more grounded beat. I’ve had to test the vibe, trip over my feet, and courageously return to the music man requesting a more intimate tone.

Because, you see, FB and T have gigantic presence that come with hypnotic rhythm.

It’s like, if you go beyond the initial nostalgia and engage connectivity daily, there are currents that can unconsciously draw you in, exposing you not only to beautiful photos of loved ones but to powerful agendas and media ministry.

For example, a couple of years ago I remember going through a phase in which I was somewhere experiencing something clever, and then I’d catch myself thinking, this would be a good FB/T post. Before indulging the urge to share pieces of my life with the world, I went through an internal check-list. Should I post it? It is funny. People could probably relate, laugh, and connect virtually to me with a “like…”

Then I’d hear my daughter ask me a question. I’d have to have her repeat the question because I’d lost my mind, caught in a social media trance. And let’s not forget the time taken to acknowledge comments from adoring friends. If I did decide to post, there was the time I took away from my personal moment to read and respond.

This was a red flag for me.

I’m one who deeply values awareness. I feel passionate about being present and practice this way of living daily. To realize I’d left a cool personal moment to contemplate whether I should share it with the public seemed hypocritical. I also had to ask myself why I felt compelled to share the event in the first place. Was my ego taking over? I never felt driven to share my trivial life events when I wasn’t on FB. Why now?

I’m not saying I won’t share touching times in the future, but I needed to be honest with myself. Using social media on a regular basis had an effect on me. I was beginning to see its power of distraction and egoic appeal.

In full disclosure, social media had greater access to my personal moments because I had chosen to download the FB and T apps to my iPhone. Now that I had immediate access to social media, I realized it too had more access to me. The impulse to share was greater, and so too was the curiosity to check in with the sites and review posts.

For example, I have a FB page for my book. When I posted on that page, I was curious to see if others could relate, so I carved out multiple FB check-in times out of my day.

If I saw a like, I felt good. If no one liked my post, I felt perplexed. Then, once again, I got lost in the mind, wondering if there was a better way to convey my thoughts to people who had liked my page.

There I was, wandering off course, leaving whatever moment I was in to create a new one, a social media moment, filled with discomfort, uncertainty, and the fear of dis-like.

This leads me to the “like” button. I didn’t even know what it was three years ago. The social media consultant had to draw my attention to its home on the page. Once I shook its hand, I played with it for a while. As I “liked” more pages and “liked” the content of the posts, I was “liking” all the time. I saw how the “like” was acknowledgement, and I felt good letting someone know I saw their post. Facebook in particular became my personal newspaper, a source where all the pages appealed to

my favorite topics. I appreciated reading the quotes and connecting with other like-minded people.

Until…

I was sitting at my daughter’s violin lesson one day. In times past, I’d enjoyed watching her interact with her teacher and navigate sharp learning curves. But since I was conveniently connected to my accounts via my phone, I replaced observing my daughter with observing FB and T feeds, reading the posts and retweeting and liking my favorite ones. In the beginning, I told myself this was important to do for my book, but there came a point when I gave too much of myself away and unconsciously hooked into FB and T’s hypnotic moves.

That day it hit me. Although I appreciated all the posts I had “liked,” I was choosing to connect virtually rather than humanly. I was choosing other people’s vantage points rather than my own.

And why? Yes, I “liked” the post, but why? I hadn’t even taken a moment to ask myself what struck me about what I saw and read. And because of that, I don’t think I gave myself a full and complete meal. I snacked on FB and T with my non-committal “likes.”

And while I munched throughout the day, I never felt satiated.

So, is that the agenda of social media? Do these sites thrive on frequent and impulsive visits and post? Of course! The more we pop on and off throughout the day, the more ads they can sell and display, and the more posts from sites we might “like” appear in our feed trying to get us to buy that shirt we were just viewing on a merchandise website via Google moments ago.

Once I realized the unsatisfying nature of my habit and the force that is social media, I stopped “liking” posts. In fact, I even posted on FB that the “like” button ought to hit the road! I mean really. How necessary is this button? Yes, we all love it. We love the validation and we love knowing someone in this big wide world sees us and gets us.

But most of the time, that’s my ego ghoulishly grabbing for more; and the more validation it gets, the more it craves to be seen.

The “like” button…candy for my ego…’cause the high just feels good.

At this point, I couldn’t ignore my inner trends and habits. I wasn’t impressed, and once again, I’d gotten off course. During heated back-and-forth comments in response to my “get rid of the like button” post, I made a commitment. That day I promised to no longer use the like button in response to posts. (Note: I do use the like button when I acknowledge friends who have commented on my posts.)

Outside of my marriage, that was my only promise made public. What the heck was I thinking? Anyhow, a promise is a promise, and I take my instincts and commitments seriously.

So now when I review posts, I comment on ones that catch my discerning eye. And because I’m committed to comment, quick on/off social media viewing isn’t fun anymore. Yes, some days my comment is a smile, because that’s exactly what happened when I saw the photo or read the post. I feel good offering up a glimpse of my experience to my friend’s display; and in return, I get to fully digest why their public expression struck my fancy in the first place.

Admittedly, not all my comments are profound and reflective. But I appreciate making time to open more fully to what social media has to offer. Of course, one could argue that a smile comment is a “like.” And though there may be some truth to that, what I experience while I consider my comment feels like a virtual connection that lasts longer than the second it would take me to hit “like.” So yes, a smile appears like a quick response. But oftentimes the smile is how I could sum up the emotion and reflection I explored through reading the post.

Committing to “comment only” quelled my impulsivity, and for that I am grateful. It also showed me how hooked I was not only on giving out “likes” like candy, but on the candy itself.

Choosing to live awake and aware often means seeing crap you’d rather not see.

Realizing I’d given up inner-connectivity to dance sultry techno beats with virtual partners whose pockets were filled with Lick-a-Stixs and Milk Duds wasn’t a feel-good moment.

Do I think social media is feeding the mash pile candy with the hopes we’ll all get hooked? Yes. Have I eaten the candy? Yes. Do I continue to eat the candy?

Sometimes, especially when I’m tired and lonely.!

And then I ask myself, “Who is social media?”

Pause. Pause. Pause.

Well, we are, right? We’re the active dancers keeping the club open 24/7.

Pause.

Pause.

Pause.

“Zoinks,” shrieks my inner Shaggy.

“We’re outta here!”

Pause.

Pause.

Pause.

And then I snap out of it.

If I make up social media, then I must remember that I’m in charge of when I enter the club, when I dance, how I dance, with whom I dance, whether I’m going to take a sugary handoff from FB and T, and what music I choose to request to compliment my finest moves.

Yes. It is me who must walk in my power to the DJ tower and command a run of R&B slow jams.

Maybe that’s why I appreciate sharing myself on social media after all. Although some may feel inundated with puffed-up blogs and ego-driven agendas, there is a space on the dance floor for mystics and writers. Gettin’ low, seeing from numerous vantage points, and sharing these funky experiences through language is fulfilling, and I’m grateful for all those who take their valuable time to experience these posts. I’m sure there are many who react negatively to my music choice and dance moves. And at the

same time, I know they too get to choose when they enter the club, how often they dance, how they shake it on the floor, and when and if they decide to switch the tunes.

I bow to my fellow dancers. As we groove alongside social media, I see our unique styles. Some sit hidden in a booth, contained and quiet as a mouse, acting like it wasn’t their idea to enter the club in the first place, leaving without a post, comment, or like. Others kick a leg in here or there, liking some posts and sharing the occasional picture displaying love and maturity. Others do the wave and pulse their hips, posting and liking about their favorite topics. Others goof off, using humorous shouts mixed with family events to crack the crowd from their serious poses. Others do what all the others are doing because that’s how they become one with the hypnotic beat, get all the candy, and oblige the highs and lows of club life.

So what I ask myself each day as I chose to interact with FB and T is, “Am I being mindful, compassionate, respectful, courageous and honest?” If how I move and what I display doesn’t fall into all of these categories, I’ve gone off course. But I gotta say, at least I’m mindful to the best of my ability to realize I didn’t meet my own potential to dance with conscious abandonment.

In the meantime, my new iPhone doesn’t house the FB and T apps. Even if I wanted to impulsively get up and dance, I’ve decided to save my energy for slower and more thought-out expression.

Look, social media is everywhere. If most of us are dancing the trance and binging on sugar, what kind of world are we creating?

Perhaps it’s time to slow down, be our highest expression of ourselves, and share our gifts. We can dance with social media like this. That way, in our virtual giving and receiving, we are evolving the world, not stunting its growth.

Alexandra Folz is author of two forthcoming books for children, Indigo’s Bracelet and Indigo’s Crystals. You can find some of her poems at: www.elephantournal.com/author/ alexandra-folz/

How to Transcend Everything Bad That Ever Happened to You

How to Transcend Everything Bad that Ever Happened to You A Message for the Christmas Season

by David Robert Ord One of the worst things in life is to feel unwanted. When you feel unwanted, it can cripple your ability to engage life with passion. You may feel like you don’t belong in the world. It can be an incredibly depressing experience.

Humans have come into the world as a result of a baby being wanted, a baby not being wanted, incest, rape, artificial insemination, and perhaps soon cloning. In some cases, we are proud of our lineage. In other cases, we feel shame over our origins.

What we don’t tend to take into account is who we really are. At the end of the day, whatever may have happened to us in life can either become an identity—or a reason to discover our true identity.

No matter what may have happened to us, who we really are has never been hurt, wounded, or damaged in any way. Only the person we have learned to think we are suffered the abuse, sexual molestation, bullying, beatings, neglect, and other horrors that befall children.

No matter how we got here physically or what our social status, our physical birth into a social setting is only the groundwork for a far more important birth. As the Gospel of John puts it, we can become “children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

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The author is describing a birth that involves no human father. That’s a “virgin birth.” Yes, we are all meant to experience a virgin birth just like Jesus!

Said St. Paul, we are “to be conformed to the image of God’s son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

This cannot be talking about the physical birth of Jesus because he obviously wasn’t the first to be born. It’s clearly talking about his virgin birth, his second birth, his birth into divine consciousness. Like him, we too are to draw our identity from a virgin birth.

It’s for this reason Paul insists that this birth Jesus experienced is only the first among many such births, for we are all to experience such a birth—all to experience a virgin birth through which we leave behind the falsity of the unconsciousness of humanity and at last become truly real, truly present in our lives, no longer in need of selfimprovement through self-help.

This is why Paul says of us that if we are children of God, we are “heirs of God, and coheirs with Christ.” There’s no inequality here. On the contrary, he emphasizes that we get to call God by the term abba in the same way Jesus did, since we share in the same consciousness—the same divine Spirit.

The story of the virgin birth of Jesus of Nazareth has impacted billions of lives. But how many of us have heard of our own virgin birth and experienced its dramatic impact? This birth is a fundamentally different experience from our earthly birth.

It’s a birth in which God, not a human, is our source—in the identical way that God was Jesus’ source.

In our physical form, we may have come into the world in a way that either makes us proud or causes us to feel ashamed. But in our virgin birth, it matters not a whit how we came into the world. This birth is unsullied by any human interference and unaffected by anything that may have happened to us since.

Because our virgin birth is an awakening as a divinely conscious being, it has nothing to do with our physical pedigree. However important or stigmatized we may imagine this pedigree to be, the social identity we carry from our upbringing, with its strengths and its flaws, isn’t who we are.

The writings of the disciples of Jesus assert that our physical existence is just the scaffolding for the development of an inner being that is being birthed. Just like Jesus, we are in process of becoming manifestations of the divine. This is the meaning of “incarnation.” The divine nature of love, joy, peace is emerging in us, to whatever degree we are ready for it and allow it.

When we grasp that our real identity is grounded in this birth of consciousness, our virgin birth, it totally changes how we see ourselves. What matters is the spiritual identity unfolding within us as unique manifestations of God. In light of becoming participants in divine consciousness, anything that may have befallen us in life, wounding us in some way, is of no ultimate account. What counts is that God is becoming incarnate in us. In our virgin birth, we are untouched by childhood wounds or any other damage the world may have inflicted on us.

For many years I had no idea that, just as we must be, Jesus was born twice: born “again.” He was born as a human, but also born as a divinely conscious person. This is why he could speak as such an authority about the need for all of us to experience two births: the first into human consciousness, and the second into divine consciousness.

He was an authority because he himself had experienced this second birth. Indeed, at least from the perspective of the Middle East at the time, he was the first human to experience divine consciousness fully and thereby became the prototype for each of us in our evolutionary journey of becoming the incarnation of the divine Presence.

People imagine Jesus’ physical birth and his virgin birth were one and the same. But they were quite separate realities.

The virgin birth of Jesus wasn’t his natural birth. His virgin birth was his birth into divine consciousness. Through his birth into higher consciousness, divine consciousness, he not only experienced expanding human awareness but also a growing awareness. As an infant, at first his human awareness and his divine awareness were limited. But as his capacity to be aware as a human increased with his brain size and experience, so too his ability to enjoy divine consciousness intensified.

Let’s look at the birth of Jesus more closely, because the stories really say something quite different from what most of us have long imagined they say. Only two of the four gospels feature the virgin birth of Jesus and the stories are actually quite different.

Matthew’s birth narrative states, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened in this way.”

The Greek word translated “birth” isn’t however the word for birth. Instead, it’s genesis, The two words are similar in appearance but different in meaning. Genesis is the name of the first book of the Hebrew Scriptures and means “beginning” or “origin.” The author is signaling that this birth story is actually a creation story. A new creation is beginning, birthing a higher level of human.

There is a birth, the natural birth of Jesus from his parents, but there is also a creation of a new level of consciousness in humanity. This is why Paul speaks of us as a “new creation.” The virgin birth is the inception of a new kind of human, which constitutes a quantum leap in terms of how we have so far understood our humanity.

The “virgin” in this second birth that inaugurates the new humanity isn’t Mary. Matthew’s nativity story reads, translating the text literally, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Translating this into English, translators tend to leave out the Greek definite article and say “a virgin shall conceive.” But the Greek uses the definite article, “the” virgin.

Who is this “virgin” who will be the vehicle of a divine conception, and who is the “son” who incarnates the divine presence as a result of this virgin birth?

To the Jewish ears that first heard this story, “the virgin” isn’t just any virgin. It’s a collective term, denoting a community. In other words, the term had a history for the Jewish people. It refers back to Hebrew Scriptures that speak of “the virgin Israel,” in which the nation of Israel is pictured as God’s bride.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, Israel is several times described as a spiritual adulteress with many lovers. Despite her infidelity to her divine husband, God still sees her as “the virgin Israel.” The symbolism is powerful, showing that we can never contaminate our divine essence, no matter what we do. In our core being, we forever bear the divine likeness.

A key theme of the New Testament is that God is giving birth to a son, which isn’t an individual but a spiritual community that is ultimately to encompass the whole of humanity. The heart of the New Testament message, building on the Hebrew Scriptures, is that Israel, as wife of God, is birthing a new son—a spiritual son. We, together, are this son. We are Emmanuel, “God with us.” We are God incarnate, the body of God. Luke’s virgin birth story takes us deeper in understanding ourselves as a new humanity in which the divine Presence is incarnate. An angel tells Mary she will conceive and bear a son. She responds, “How can this be, since I have no husband?” Actually, Mary does have a husband, Joseph—though, following the traditional Jewish custom of the times, she was still living under her parents’ roof. The Greek reads “since I do not know a man.” As the custom was, she hadn’t yet been intimate with Joseph and wouldn’t be until the waiting period of a year was up.

It’s during this waiting period in the two-step marriage process that the conception was to take place.

Mary is told, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the son of God.” Is Spirit the physical, impregnating

agent, as so many of us have always imagined?

What would it be like for the Holy Spirit to come upon us and overshadow us, as Luke says happened?

Well, take the time when the ancient prophet Samuel took oil and anointed David king.

We’re told that “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.”

David entered into a heightened consciousness of the divine purpose in his life, giving him a sense of direction. It wasn’t that he suddenly took on characteristics he didn’t have; rather, he began to be what he had the potential to be. There are numerous examples like this in the Hebrew Scriptures.

The point is that for someone to be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit doesn’t involve a violation of the laws of nature.

When the Spirit overshadowed Mary, she Michelangelo’s “David” in Florence wasn’t asked to participate in a birth that violates the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. She was asked to look at what happened in her life through different eyes—from the point of view of divine consciousness, so that she saw her situation as God sees it.

We are told that it was the “power” of the Most High that was at work in Mary’s life. Just what does this power do? Well, John the Baptizer is described as preceding Jesus “in the spirit and power of Elijah.” Then we read that “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.” The Greek word is dynamis, and we get our word dynamic from it.

A dynamic personality isn’t necessarily physically powerful, but there is nevertheless real power involved—the magnetic, persuasive power of such qualities as leadership, enthusiasm, charm, wisdom, insight, and love.

“Spirit” is simply an ancient word for consciousness: human consciousness, and divine consciousness (the holy spirit).

The power of divine consciousness isn’t power to violate the laws of the universe. It’s the power of a really solid sense of the divine Presence: a profound awareness of one’s importance to the divine. It’s the power that comes from having meaning, purpose, direction. It’s the courage to be what the divine in us wants us to be, and to follow our path whether those around us approve or not.

Somehow Mary gets pregnant. Was it the result of a rape by a Roman soldier? One tradition says so. It doesn’t matter. It happened, and she is asked to see it through divine eyes because God has a purpose for the child who is to be born—a purpose that requires him to be, as Paul would later put it, “of no reputation.” He’s got to represent the lowest of the low on the totem pole of human status.

This is why, throughout Jesus’ life, people said he was “born of fornication.” The gospels make it clear he was said to be illegitimate, and he never refuted the charge.

He realized it didn’t matter how he came into the world physically because he knew his true identity as a holy child of God—an identity that came from his virgin birth, the birth of divine consciousness in him, not his physical birth. His identity was grounded in the divine consciousness that increasingly defined the whole of his life.

To go through with an experience of this kind in that day and age, Mary would need the power of divine consciousness. It was a lot to ask of a young girl. There was the disgrace to her family to be faced, the outrage of Joseph and his family to be dealt with, the scandal in the small community in which they lived to be survived. Imagine what it must have looked like to Mary’s mother and father, her brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, and girlfriends. Everyone was mad at her, ashamed of her, ready to disown her, including Joseph. There was no explaining she could do. No one was going to understand.

We are so often preoccupied with what looks good, what’s socially acceptable, what will make us liked and looked up to. But this story reminds us that the divine doesn’t necessarily value what human society values. Our inner being, where we are one with the divine, may ask us to do things that aren’t going to win a popularity contest. If we draw our sense of value from being thought well of, we will find it impossible to be true to ourselves.

Mary’s situation was scandalous. It was the kind of situation that, in cultures that practice sharia law still today, could lead to a so-called “honor” killing by a member of the family, which feels it has been disgraced, or to a public stoning at the hands of the authorities. Joseph, initially outraged by her pregnancy, had every right in that culture to publicly humiliate her. In society’s eyes—in his eyes—she was “damaged goods.”

But as it dawned on Mary that divine consciousness was going to use this conception for a divine purpose, rather than seeing something morally wrong as having happened to her, her illicit state became part of her spiritual path—a state that, however she got into this condition, was divinely blessed. This divine purpose in her pregnancy would be the overriding reality in her life, so that no matter what the gossips said, she would always regard her child as holy, a gift from God. Mary wasn’t the only one ever to make such a claim in the long story of the Hebrew people. Generations before her, the prophet Hosea announced that God told him to go

marry a prostitute for a divine purpose. In other words, divine consciousness led him to do what no good saint would ever do.

As Joseph pondered ending the relationship privately instead of by humiliating Mary publicly, he heard within himself a message from his own essence. It was a message of compassion, leading to acceptance. As a result, he was able to identify the presence of the divine in a situation that had the appearance of anything but godliness.

When difficult circumstances arise in our life, we tend to become overwhelmed. We don’t see where God is at work in the situation. However, Presence is here in spiritual power at every moment, ready to introduce us to a whole different way of seeing ourselves and experiencing our life. But it takes a choice to open up to it. We must say with Mary, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” This isn’t resignation.

It’s a choice to become a co-creator with God, so that what happens in our life isn’t the result of some vague fate, but what we bring into being.

Referring to the light of Christ, the Gospel of John asserts (and I am giving a literal rendition of the Greek), “It was the true light which enlightens all humans coming into the cosmos.” John uses the expression “the true light,” which means true in the sense of genuine, authentic, real. Jesus is portrayed as so real that he sheds light on what it means to be an authentic person.

This new consciousness “enlightens all humans.” In other words, this is the destiny of our species, because it has always been our potential. Now, in the light of Jesus’ understanding of himself as the self-manifestation of God, we are seeing who we really are. Consequently, authenticity is arising in our species. We are becoming true to ourselves.

For many who may have long thought of themselves as inferior to Jesus, it may seem hard to believe we are to participate in the identical divine consciousness that was incarnate in him. However, when it at last dawns on us that we are the fabulous selfmanifestation of the divine source of the cosmos itself, it changes everything. We never settle for a mediocre view of ourselves again.

Which is why John in one of his letters asserts that “whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because God’s nature remains in him.” Here, once again, is reference to

our virgin birth: “born of God,” like Jesus. Nothing about Jesus needed selfimprovement because he came from divine consciousness in everything, and this can also be true of us.

No wonder Hebrews asks, “What are human beings, that God should be interested in us?” To which the author replies, paraphrasing: “Take a look at Jesus. He trod the same path we are to tread, and we are to enjoy the same sense of worth as him. As our pioneer, he was perfected just like we are being perfected.”

Indeed, he was “in all things” like us. In fact, because “we are all one”—meaning we have all sprung from the same divine Source—he “is not ashamed to call us brothers.”

This is a clear statement of our equality.

It takes a reorientation of ourselves to really “get” what it means to participate in the leap our species is taking, a leap that leaves all self-improvement aside and instead incarnates the divine consciousness in our humanity. Paul describes this reorientation of how we see ourselves this way: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” When we see ourselves as Jesus saw himself, we learn to think of ourselves in an entirely new way. There’s a washing from our consciousness of all that has sullied our life thus far. The hurt, the wounds, the feeling of being victimized, the guilt and remorse over what we may have done or failed to do, fade from our awareness—not entirely forgotten necessarily, but no longer present to torment us, limit us, and spoil our lives.

To the degree we allow ourselves to relax into this new mindset, we find ourselves spontaneously living lives that are a manifestation of God. David is author of the Namaste Publishing book Your Forgotten Self Mirrored in Jesus the Christ.

He is also the author and voice of the Namaste Publishing audiobook on 5 CDs, Lessons in Loving--A Journey into the Heart.

With Kurt Johnson, he coauthored the latest Namaste Publishing book, The Coming Interspiritual Age. And with Constance Kellough, he coauthored Meet Your Inner Grower--Your Personal GPS for Conscious Living.

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