We all came from and will return to the one Source. By definition then, we are all one. Hence, whatever we do for others, we do for ourselves. So when you choose to be loving, you will receive love in return, both in this life and beyond.
How does this principle affect us on a practical basis? Author and speaker Dannion Brinkley offers a compelling example. While undergoing a near-death experience after being struck by lightning, Brinkley found himself receiving a life review in which he relived every emotion from every encounter he ever had on Earth. The process was then repeated, except this time he experienced the emotions of the people with whom he had interacted.
Today, when appropriate, Brinkley greets those who cross his path with a long, lingering, loving hug, a gesture that is at once selfless and selfish.
Do a kindness for someone and some day, somehow, it circles back to you. I can’t get enough of stories like this one. It’s by Robert Reynolds of Huron, Ohio. and appeared in the December 2009 issue of Guideposts.
Huron, Ohio, was where I’d spent my twenties, working on a steamer out on the Great Lakes. My wife and I started our family there, and later we came back to Huron to retire.
Then, during the final stages of construction on our new home, I had difficulty breathing. The doctor determined I needed open-heart surgery. I was admitted to a hospital in Sandusky. Everything was put on hold.
The night before my surgery, I was so worried I couldn’t sleep. I lay in my hospital bed, praying and thinking about the events in my life that had led me to this point. I remembered how I had fallen in love with Huron and its people. I remembered a Christmas many years ago…
The shipping season had been good to me, so that winter I decided to buy some Christmas gifts and help out a family in town.
“I know a family that would appreciate a visit from Santa Claus,” the owner of the marine supply store said. “A woman with Read the rest of this entry »
A seventh-grader named Wayne left a comment on my blog Thursday night. He’s writing a report on me for school and wanted to know how I started writing poems. I’ve gotten a handful of such requests from kids over the years and they always make me smile.
Here I am, just a regular Joe, sitting at my laptop, unshaven, in a T-shirt and sweat pants, pounding out whatever copy I can to pay the bills. But because my name is in Kids Pick the Funniest Poems attached to a handful of goofy poems, to a generation of kids I’m a dapper poet laureate in a smoking jacket, relaxing in an overstuffed leather chair at an exclusive men’s club, lifting a glass of sherry and trading witticisms with the likes of John Keats and Robert Frost. Love it!
I have five poems in this wonderful little book. Do your kids a favor and buy this book for them. They'll love it!
I know that when I was a kid, if an author I admired had responded to a letter from me with a few kind words in a brief note, I would have whooped and hollered and run around the yard in circles until I passed out from joyous exhaustion. So I always enjoy responding to kids right away and helping them with their reports however I can.
In responding to Wayne’s note, I thought back to all the silly song parodies I had written in grade school. I would sit at the counter that separated our kitchen and family room and painstakingly type out my own versions of Snoopy and the Red Baron and Strangers in the Night on an old manual typewriter that would be in the Smithsonian today. I still have the little book of songs I so Read the rest of this entry »
Drilling down to the essence of what you believe—with all the honesty and courage you can muster—and questioning every idea you have about God, is the key to unlocking the front door to your spiritual mansion.
I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth; and truth rewarded me. Simone de Beauvoir
Even if you emerge with your original belief system intact, your effort will have been worthwhile. For you will now believe what you believe through conscious choice rather than unconscious acceptance.
The question is not whether you have a talent, but how long it will take you to discover and apply it. If you are not actively striving to identify your talent and develop your right livelihood, you are passively engaging in self-sabotage.
It is understandable why so many opt for a “safe” life doing work that they do not enjoy, especially when there are children to be raised and a mortgage to be paid.
Most people live for their pension instead of their passion. Les Brown
It is easy to make excuses for not developing your talents, for not exploring other opportunities, for not pursuing a more challenging career path. “I need a steady paycheck to support my family.” “There are too many other people doing what I want to do.” “I’ve invested too much time and money in learning how to do this job.”
Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome. Samuel Johnson
When I was in my middle forties, my mother, who was almost eighty-five, elected to have coronary bypass surgery. After surgery, she was wheeled to the coronary intensive-care unit. For the first week, she was unconscious, peering over the edge of life, breathed by a ventilator. As I sat with her, I remember feeling awed by her will to live and by the capacity of the human body to endure such a massive insult at such an advanced age.
When she finally regained consciousness, she was profoundly disoriented and often did not know who I, her only child, was. The nurses were reassuring. They told me they saw this sort of thing often. They called it Read the rest of this entry »
Of all the stories in my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, Gregg Braden‘s tale of an outing with his Native American friend was the one that impacted my daily life the most. It deepened my understanding of universal laws and transformed the way I prayed. Here is an excerpt from Gregg’s powerful story, beginning with his bio.
Braden, a best-selling author and internationally renowned speaker, is a pioneer in bridging the wisdom of our past with the science, healing, and peace of our future. After serving as a senior computer systems designer for Martin Marietta Aerospace, a computer geologist for Phillips Petroleum, and the technical operations manager for Cisco Systems, Braden’s work is now devoted to inspiring humanity to build a better world. His books include The Divine Matrix, The God Code, and The Isaiah Effect. Click hereto visit Gregg’s website.
Back in the early ’90s, I was living in the high desert of northern New Mexico. This was during one of the worst droughts that the Southwest had ever recorded. The elders in the native pueblos said that as far back as they could remember they’d never gone so long without rain.
David, a native friend of mine from one of those nearby pueblos, called me one summer morning and asked if I wanted to join him in visiting a place his ancestors had built, where he would pray for rain. I agreed, and soon we were hiking through hundreds of acres of high desert sage. He led me to a place where Read the rest of this entry »
I just received this nice prose-poem from a friend in an e-mail. I like it! I don’t know who wrote it but a quick Google check tells me it’s popular and that’s it’s been used as a wedding poem. One thing is for certain: It’s definitely worth sharing!
DANCING WITH GOD
When I meditated on the word Guidance,
I kept seeing “dance” at the end of the word.
I remember reading that doing God’s will is a lot like dancing.
When two people try to lead, nothing feels right.
The movement doesn’t flow with the music,
and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.
When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead,
both bodies begin to Read the rest of this entry »
Being fully present is a timeless state of being, independent of what is happening around you in the physical world at any given moment.
My friend, the sufi is the friend of the present moment. To say tomorrow is not our way. Rumi
Timelessness is your natural state. The present moment patiently waits to welcome you home.
You would measure time the measureless and the
immeasurable.
You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.
Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing.
Yet the timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness,
And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.
And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space. Kahlil Gibran
Dannion Brinkley is a passionate guy, and I’m grateful that I could interview him for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything. He told me the poignant story about his father’s last days on earth. Here are excerpts from his story, beginning with his bio.
Brinkley, who survived two lightning strikes, open-heart surgery, and brain surgery, which was followed by a grand mal seizure, wrote two best-selling books about his near-death experiences: Saved by the Light and At Peace in the Light. In his third book, Secrets of the Light, co-authored with his wife, Kathryn, Dannion describes his third near-death experience and offers spiritual strategies for raising consciousness and empowering daily life. An early crusader for hospice and palliative care, Brinkley cofounded The Twilight Brigade, one of the largest end-of-life-care volunteer programs for dying veterans in American history. Click here to visit Dannion’s website.
I was with my mother when she passed in 1984. She trusted what I told her about the experience of going home, but she was still terrified. She said to me, “Don’t let them hurt me anymore.” She also said, “Take care of your father.” I protected her and held her in my arms as she took her last breath and left this world.
I committed my life to those two things. The first—Don’t let them hurt me anymore—is palliative care, or alleviating pain at the end of life without prolonging suffering. The second—Take Read the rest of this entry »
Is there anything better than soldiers surprising their kids upon their return home? If there is, I can’t think of what it would be. Let’s pray that every kid in every country who’s waiting for their dad or mom to come back home gets to experience this joy for themselves.
If you are among the technically challenged who have called Tech Support to figure out how to solve a problem only to find out that something is unplugged or not turned on (Umm, that would be me), then you will appreciate this two-minute video. And if you work for Tech Support, you will appreciate it even more! As my Mac guy, Ed, told me after watching it, “This is my life!” Hilarious!
A paradox: Spiritual growth will simultaneously render you more tolerant and less tolerant.
It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are, the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others. Joseph Addison
You will be more tolerant because you recognize that God is present in all and that the next person you see may be delivering a life-altering message meant just for you.
Everyone is God speaking. Why not be polite and listen to him? Hafiz
Mystified that your terrific manuscript hasn’t been snapped up by a high-powered literary agent? Guess what, it’s not them, it’s you. Before you drop another manuscript in the mail, hunker down and do these two things:
#1: IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF YOUR WRITING
Even if you’ve been making a living as a professional writer, do not assume that publishers will swoon over the quality of your work. I spent ten long months writing a business book with Tom Gegax, founder of the Tires Plus chain, only to hear from publishers that the writing was mediocre and that they weren’t interested in our magnum opus.
Yes, that criticism stung. I had been writing magazine articles for the last dozen years, and consistently heard from editors, interviewees and the general public that I was a wonderful writer. And I was a good writer! In hindsight, however, I wasn’t good enough.
While talking to my friend, Liz, at our favorite restaurant, she mentioned that her back was tight, so I asked her if she wanted a ten-minute chair massage. She certainly did! Later that day, she e-mailed me this:
I noticed a strange sensation while you gave me a massage today… I just felt so loved and comforted… and I remembered the time you told me about practicing sending love to a person for 5 minutes at a time. I wondered if you do that during a massage… Do you intentionally ‘project love’ into your massage-ees while you work on them?
Liz is a perceptive young woman! That’s exactly what I do. As I start to massage someone, I ask God to guide my soul to meet the other person’s soul on a bridge of light between our hearts. I visualize the two of us meeting halfway on that bridge and embracing in divine friendship. I also pray, “God, let Read the rest of this entry »
The image of Swami Sri Yukteswar I keep on my desktop
Seven weeks ago, I wrote about how the photo of Paramahansa Yogananda I keep on my desktop began moving when I clicked on it. It’s the only time I ever saw a photo move in any way.
Until yesterday, that is. I had just committed to deepening my spiritual practice. A short time later, I clicked on my desktop photo of Swami Sri Yukteswar, Yogananda’s beloved guru. To my amazement, Swami Sri Yukteswar’s photo, the only other photo I keep on my desktop, began moving toward me and grew in size about 20 percent before stopping.
Just like when Yogananda’s photo moved, I stared at the screen, transfixed. After about thirty seconds, I regained my equilibrium and restored the photo to its original size. I then began clicking and dragging on the photo to try to recreate what had just happened. Nothing. I kept clicking and dragging, trying to elicit some change. I mean, there’s got to Read the rest of this entry »
We all came from and will return to the one Source. By definition then, we are all one. Hence, whatever we do for others, we do for ourselves. So when you choose to be loving, you will receive love in return, both in this life and beyond.
Huron, Ohio, was where I’d spent my twenties, working on a steamer out on the Great Lakes. My wife and I started our family there, and later we came back to Huron to retire.
A seventh-grader named Wayne left a comment on my blog Thursday night. He’s writing a report on me for school and wanted to know how I started writing poems. I’ve gotten a handful of such requests from kids over the years and they always make me smile.
Drilling down to the essence of what you believe—with all the honesty and courage you can muster—and questioning every idea you have about God, is the key to unlocking the front door to your spiritual mansion.
The question is not whether you have a talent, but how long it will take you to discover and apply it. If you are not actively striving to identify your talent and develop your right livelihood, you are passively engaging in self-sabotage.
