soma

I have fasted alot for physical cleansing and for spiritual reasons. It alters your consciousness so it is wise to be in a positive setting as one gets very sensitive and could pick up negative feelings, but at the same time one can go very deep in spiritual endeavors. The day is long because you don't have to prepare or eat food. It is very good to do before dropping a bad habit. Sometimes I crave a good fast. Plan it out so you don't binge comming out of it. Enjoy the experience it will bring you closer to God.

lCynthia thanks for showing us how genuine Spirituality and Service Gave Way to Rigid Dogma, when spirituality can be the most empowering, most liberating, most life-giving force in all the world, why people will put it down and then pick up a bottle of spirits instead is puzzling. The techniques in meditation are different, but the purpose is the same, which is to calm the body and mind into a deep restfull alertness or awareness. The mind is always active reminding us what we should do, have done, are doing or will do. The techniques quiete that voice so we can witness who we really are and commune with the pure consciousness of God. Sure thoughts creep back, but the techniques help us to withdraw again to the garden of Our Lord. Lectio divina, centering prayer, contemplative prayer, zen, TM, walking meditation, chanting, Taiz, Sufi dancing, listening or playing music, chess, philosophy, science ect. or anything that makes a person good, peaceful and thoughtful should be encouraged.

You probably meditate in another fashion. Keating's way is similar to TM and so the Contemplative prayer movement had to start because so many Annoying Christians are against meditation and they related Keatings method to that. It is amazing how any method or technique that makes one peaceful, a better person or more spiritual is put down by Christians. I like your attitude. You don't do it in the figurative sense, but you don't put it down.

Having put away the ego, which only sees multiplicity and division through meditation one can see the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost as one unit. The son denotes that which is born of pure consciousness, where the spring of the Holy Ghost shows the love of the Father. Meditation help us not to separate, divide and judge others with what we hear or read. If we don’t understand the words of unity in the Scriptures it might be because we are not moved by pure consciousness whereas the people who wrote the Scriptures were in contact with Christ consciousness. The tragedy is that not all people are creative and constructive thinkers and can see the unity of the whole, for this meditation helps. We need to engage our minds in intellectual and rigorous practice to break the boundaries between our minds and other dualities. This differentiation is within ourselves so with meditation we can understand our own unit consciousness to be able to see Christ consciousness expressing to us One Power, One Principle, One Cause and One Source of Love. By visualizing Christ during meditation is one way to experience the non-dual through the images of the dual. We can’t change love, but with different spiritual practises we can understand and bring ourselves into harmony with it to let pure consciousness work with us, through us and for us. Meditation is not the only way, but a useful technique for some to quite the mind and let Christ consciousness guide us.

Some Christian philosophies and theories have a lack of total explanation; therefore, they have lost the power to bring about the original, spiritual, experience of oneness and have become superstitions and an impediment on the road to spiritual development. The world that intersects spirituality and Christianity is unclear and confusing because some ministers and priest are preaching to control the mass, their flock and not to instill a spiritual experience with Christ. With Christian explanations, we can touch the point, the pulse, the essence of the real problem which is the relation between the individual consciousness and the mystery of all life, the universal Christ consciousness, but the imagination and intuition are vital to this understanding so that God ceases to be an object and becomes an actual experience. http://thinkunity.com

Everything is first developed in the unseen, before it is visible in the world we see. The spiritual ideal from the soul is first invisible before it manifests into the material world. In the material world it is manipulated with the intellect, desires.and people of authority who want power. I think the best thing is to live sincerely and act without words. The soul to soul contact is communication on a much higher plane than on the physical. Everyone has a purpose Cynthia I think you are on the high road and doing a great service. I feel my station in life is to stear people to the internal Christ consciousness that speaks directly to the soul.

The Christ way is to lay aside our fears, doubts and worries so we can enter into a silent, peaceful contemplation of God the Father. God's consciousness is within us and destroys our doubts and fears, and casts out all uncertainty and disbelief. If people let go, drop every fear from their mind, and enter into inner communion with the Father in the Medium of love as the fundamental element, one will draw full, complete and perfect joy, which causes one to surrender to the Father. The joy is the proof that it is not superstition. God removes every mental obstruction to peace because we surrender all confusion, doubt, condemnation and judgment to Him. I feel my station is to help people find the inner joy, love and silence that is inside of them with Jesus as a guide because I feel this is what Jesus has done for me. http://thinkunity.com

We are all bargining with ourselves, but you seem to project a rich presence, which is not a matter of material extravagance but of sanity and spiritual radiance. I enjoyed what you wrote and the replies. We don't know what Jesus wants, but he will present himself to you in an opportunity so be open and not afraid. It will probably be where you least expect and don't want to go, but that is where you will grow the fastest. We the uncut diamond lay before Jesus the master craftsman who cuts, grinds and polishes us so we may shine with his radiance. We all project different angles to reflect that light. I personally am not gay, but my all inclusive path of Christianity is leading me to many interesting opportunities to grow closer to God. http://thinkunity.com

Mystictrek, That is a great website you have. YOU have put a lot of energy into it so it will be fun to explore. Thanks for helping to make Christianity all inclusive instead of exclusive.

I heard on the Radio that Osama is not seen because he is on vacation. He doesn't have to be active because Bush who is at war on everything is destroying America.

I teach at a middle school. I taught at a University in Seoul Korea and the Air Force in Iran, but I really enjoy the energy at MS even though I am old. These kids are richoceting off the walls, but they are honest because what you see is what you get. Being with them I find my weakness very quickly. Gibran says children are the teachers because they are fresh from the other side. In this case my students are my teachers so we are all learning. The test can be difficult.

Contemplative prayer is so deep the waves on the oceans surface don't affect it, but it is so hard to dive deep when the waves keep pulling one to the surface. I guess that is why it is called spiritual practise. I get pulled out of the center time and time again, but am always welcomed back with open arms when I calm down. Des you are strong so you were placed there and will get stronger so you can go to even bigger challenges. The stream goes on either pushing aside stones or going around them in its path to the sea.

Yes, I feel human beings who follow their spirit are the true believers who worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Their churches are not made of stone alone but are also in the hearts of the men and women that they serve. These truly Christian men and women live by another concept because they consider the date of their birth the day their ego surrendered to what I like to call Christ consciousness. The mind after knowing the love of this higher consciousness takes on something more than just the ego and is born again to help the world. http://thinkunity.com

"Evolution of Consciousness" is a book that explaings how we are all connedted. It shows how Christ consciousness is all inclusive and not exclusive in the way it is presented by fundamentalist. It brings a spiritual consciousness raising to Christians who have been turned off by preaching. The site is http://thinkunity.com

Since we don't have equal education, the best thing you can do for your child is .ive or move in the zone of a good school. Check out the principal he/she sets the climate and culture of the school. In science classes you have to cover the standards, but on evolution I think the teacher can talk about all the different theories or discuss them. The problem is some students won't accept any criticism or discussion on their religious theory on evolution. Thanks to all this testing, music, drama and art classes are being cut so the funds go to the testing companies. Text books rake in tons of money also making our system not very efficient. To make a generality the push is coming from Republicans who send their kids to private schools already. Greed is a spendid thing.

Great insight. When we give the test half the school doesn't come to school and since we do this for a week and give 3 different standardized test, our students miss 3 weeks of school. Our High Schools are modeling the Texas school scam. To have a student drop out is a bad mark so the principals have the students transfer to another H.S. in the district, but they never show up so our not recorded as drop outs. I get students who are in this country for only 3 days and I have to give them these standardized test. It takes me an hour just to get them to fill our the information on the front of the test correctly just so they can take the test so I put in the information myself because it is easier. They can't read, understand English yet, but that doesn't matter we test them anyway.

Christian Mysticism is inspirational and intellectually explains the interconnectedness of us all while dismantling the thoughts and fears that separate. It opens Christian minds that are closed by belief. http://thinkunity.com

I am also a teacher. I have three degrees, one in Biology . I have taken many math classes for science. I took the test and passed so I am Highly Qualified in English and Math besides Science, but thanks to Bush and his fuzzy education mandates I can't give English or Math credit in English or Math to ESL students because I am Highly Qualified, but not competent because I didn't take enough credits or the right credits in Math ect. Now, a elementary teacher who takes the same test and received far lower scores than I can give credit because her degree is k to 8 while I have k-12 ESL and 7-12 for science. I have taken more and higher math than this other teacher, but I can't give credit because of my secondary degree. I taught at university level in Korea and at an airforce base, but can't give credit to a 7 th grader. I don't think the president has a clue what he is doing.

Thank you, I am going to try to find that book. I like books that answers questions about the mind so I can have a spiritual experience beyond the mind. The book "Evolution of Consciousness" the site has been upgraded. http://thinkunity.com/

"Evolution of Consciousness" is not an institutional Unity book, but each chapter ends in unity in One God. It takes one on a journey through the layers of the mind, the parts of the mind, the Trinity, evolution and creation to rest in the consciousness of an omnipresent God.

I teach ESL and at risk students in 7th and 8th. I love it if I get a good nights sleep because I can be tested and have fun without sleep. I see the dance and the humor without sleep and meditation, it is a different story. They have taught me many of my weakness so for that I am gratefull. The funny thing is I know where they are coming from because I was kicked out of a Catholic High School.

Congratulations, The students are lucky and so are you. Kibran says that children are the teachers because they are fresh from the other side.

The book "Evolution of Consciousness" is not only inspirational, but it answers many questions intellectually about the Trinity, Evolution and other Christian mysteries. Here is the website for it: http://thinkunity.com/

A book that describes the layers of the mind and the journey through them to God. You can read more at the website below. http://thinkunity.com/

To add to your discussion if we identify with the source, our ego is inwardly replaced with pure consciousness, and God becomes outwardly man. Christ said, "Whoever sees me sees the Father." The mind with pure consciousness is a channel for refinement because Christ consciousness has a mission in life and for the world. This mission is to remind the fallen men and women of their original nature and to show them the way through which it may once more be lived or actualized. This awareness or Christ consciousness is the merging of the microcosm with the macrocosm or the unit mind merging with the cosmic mind. So many ways to say the same thing. Peace