SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 209

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

-- Isaac Watts

+ Looking deeply at any one thing, we see the whole cosmos.

-- Thich Nhat Hahn

+ Everything that is in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.

-- Hildegard of Bingen quoted in The Sun & Moon Over Assisi by Gerard Thomas Straub

+ What mystics have always known has been confirmed by physics and ecology — all things are interconnected. Dueling dualisms are giving way to holistic thinking.

-- Frederic & Mary Ann Brussat

+ Let us awaken to the glorious, heavenly reality that, right now, right here, we are intimately, intricately, infinitely connected in a matrix of unconditional, unlimited, uniting LOVE which is miraculous, mysterious and marvelous.

I know.  I said that in the last post.  But it is worth repeating, isn’t it?  How wonderful life is, how amazing, how heavenly, how intricate. We need to appreciate, share and expand this heavenly reality with all our mind, heart, body & soul breath after breath.  That’s what it’s all about, isn't it?

+ Spirituality & Practice offers plenty of resources on the Practice of Connections. It is one of the 37 practices Frederic & Mary Ann Brussat feature at their amazing website, the best website in the universe. There is also a 12s Gallery on Connections.

+ I would love it if you offered a guest post on this practice or any practice.  And, I have work to do on my Heavenlinesspage.  Maybe you can help.  Send an email with the subject “Heavenliness” or “Guest Post” to John@abundancetrek.com.

+ You can always find a link to any of the Spiritual Explorations posts by going to http://abundancetrek.com/sepostsaccess.html

JOYFUL WONDERING -- 2

+ updated at 5:04pm EST on Monday, February 28, 2011

+ Are you a joyful wonderer or wanderer? I would love to include your ideas, practices, resources, dreams and visions.

+ New February 28: Inner Frontier offers powerful ideas and practices for Inner Work in weekly segments.  The current theme is Modes of Will.  This week's focus is "Non-Directed, Sensitive Will." Excerpt: "Vigilance means actively staying in touch with our senses, through the sensitive energy, but without directing that contact toward a particular object. This is a form of the ancient Greek practice of common sense: simple, direct, immediate awareness of all our senses, actively driven by our will. We will ourselves to be in contact with all our senses, which naturally rouses the sensitive energy of awareness to mediate that contact. Vigilance transforms our life from flat shades of grey to vivid, full-color 3D, with layer upon layer of unexpected textures."

+ I have now updated the Spiritual Websites section on the Abundancetrek Connections Galore page. 26 new links found in the past 2 years.  67 "oldies but goodies" which remain big favorites.

+ I am learning a lot in the Spirituality and Practice course on InterSpiritual Meditation which is being taught by Ed Bastian.  He is one of the pioneers of the new InterSpiritual Wisdom movement which is seeking to build far more understanding among the planet's wisdom traditions, particularly Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Taoism.

More about Ed:

Edward W. Bastian, Ph.D., is a Buddhist scholar, president of the Spiritual Paths Foundation (which offers retreats, classes, and a two-year certificate program in InterSpiritual Wisdom), and co-author of the award-winning book, Living Fully, Dying Well (2009).

JOYFUL WONDERING -- 1

+ updated at 1:07pm EST on Friday, January 28, 2011

+ ANYTHING GOES in this series of posts here on 2 of my blogs -- John A Wilde and The Abundancetrek Blog -- which I begin today, January 27, 2011.  Well, that doesn't mean I will share everything I think or believe. Not yet anyway.  But I will share a lot and I would sure welcome some support and encouragement and wisdom from fellow joyful wonderers.

+ The COFFEE BREAK SERIES OF POSTS will definitely continue and be a priority because I simply enjoy finding web pages filled with wisdom or important information on the subjects of COMPASSION, PEACE, JUSTICE and SUSTAINABLE ABUNDANCE.  The world needs far more of these things. 

+ On my Abundancetrek homepage I have changed my vision from "The New Church for the New Age" to THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH.  Have I become Post-Christian?  No, I don't think so.  As a matter of fact, I think I am becoming REALLY A CHRISTIAN as I open up more and more to wisdom and compassion from all over the planet.  We are lucky to live in an age when we can receive and realize the wisdom of so many great sages of the ages including many, many current sages.  A website which offers this wisdom on a daily basis is Spirituality and Practice, the best website on the planet by far. 

+ I haven't updated my CONNECTIONS GALORE PAGE recently but it will still get you to many of the best websites promoting Compassion, Peace, Justice and Sustainable Abundance.  Another place to look is right here on the sidebar where I continue to find  websites and web pages on these themes and more.

+ The need to BEGIN AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN is taught by many sages of the ages. We need a childlike awareness and appreciation of our constantly changing reality.  Nothing remains the same.  A great Zen Master particularly emphasizes this need.  I can't locate the book here in my study at the moment.  It should be on the Priority Shelf!

+ NEW JANUARY 28:

+ One of my favorite theologians is Harvey Cox.  Recently he wrote THE FUTURE OF FAITH.  In it, he quotes Einstein, one of my favorite scientists:

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle.

It was the experience of mystery--even if mixed with fear--that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms--it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.

( I found this at http://einsteinandreligion.com/mysterious.html. It goes on there for another paragraph which is also profound but I disagree with his belief that we can't have a life beyond this one. There are too many experiences in my life which suggest that a life beyond this one is indeed likely but I agree with Einstein that punishment in eternity is not what God is up to.)

I will possibly come back to both Cox and Einstein in these posts since they are among the most intriguing of the planet's joyful wonderers, past and present.