Monthly Archives: May 2024

Common Beliefs #11

Common tenets among major religions often revolve around themes of morality, spirituality, and the purpose of existence. While each religion has its unique beliefs and practices, there are some overarching principles that many share:

  1. Belief in a Higher Power: Most religions believe in the existence of a divine being or beings, such as God, gods, or a universal energy.
  2. Ethical Behavior: Virtues like compassion, honesty, justice, and kindness are emphasized across many religions as fundamental to leading a good life.
  3. Golden Rule: The idea of treating others as you would like to be treated is present in various forms in many religious teachings.
  4. Life After Death: Many religions have beliefs about an afterlife, whether it’s reincarnation, heaven and hell, or other spiritual realms.
  5. Sacred Texts: Most religions have texts that are considered holy or authoritative, which contain teachings, stories, and guidance for followers.
  6. Prayer and Rituals: Practices like prayer, meditation, worship, and rituals are common across religions as ways to connect with the divine and express devotion.
  7. Community and Fellowship: Being part of a religious community provides support, guidance, and a sense of belonging for many followers.
  8. Purpose and Meaning: Religions often offer explanations for the purpose of human existence and the meaning of life, helping followers find a sense of direction and fulfillment.
  9. Morality and Ethics: Many religions provide moral frameworks and ethical guidelines to help individuals navigate moral dilemmas and live virtuously.
  10. Unity and Harmony: While there are differences among religions, many emphasize the importance of unity, peace, and harmony among people of different faiths.

These principles serve as foundations for the beliefs and practices of billions of people around the world, guiding their understanding of the divine, their relationships with others, and their journey through life.

Unity vs. Duality #10

I have often wondered why our emotional brains process information by creating dualities: good and evil, love and hate, life and death, fear and courage, faith and doubt, hope and despair, action and inaction.

We do so because it is easier for our emotional and lazy mind to create a dichotomy, rather than understanding our universe as a whole– while holding these aspects as just parts.

In various religious traditions, there is an understanding that behind the apparent dualities of existence lies a deeper unity or interconnectedness. This unity might be expressed in diverse ways: as the oneness of God, the interconnectedness of all living beings, or the underlying unity of the cosmos.

  1. Buddhism:
    • “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Emptiness is not separate from form; form is not separate from emptiness.” – Heart Sutra
  1. Hinduism:
    • “The wise see the same Self in all beings, and all beings in the same Self.”  – Bhagavad Gita
  1. Taoism:
    • “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be named is not the eternal name.” – Tao Te Ching
  1. Christianity:
    • “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” – John 15:5 (NIV)5
  1. Judaism:
    • In the words of the Talmud: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: You have made Me one in the world, so will I make you one in the world.”
  1. Sufi Islam:
    • “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” – Rumi

    These quotes from various religious texts illustrate the concept of oneness within the context of duality, emphasizing unity, interconnectedness, and the transcendence of apparent distinctions.

    Protection #9

    Before continuing with this blog, please review Creating #2 to make sure you understand how to “run your energy.”

    Many students seem to believe they need to protect themselves from energy attacks. As a rule, I would say, “Yes, you do.” However, I would also say you can better protect yourself by frequently changing your energy, your grounding cord, and replenishing the energy in your space.

    Many of these same students often create a wall of “white light” to protect themselves. I find this poor substitute for changing your energy, your grounding cord and replenishing your energy. I say this because when you create a “white light” barrier, it will keep out everything–even what you want to experience. So, the intention in your creation of a white light barrier is the key to how this form of protection serves you, or not.

    For example, I have seen people pray at a person needing healing. In doing so, they send prayer energy, often white light, to surround the patient. Instead of healing the patient, this creates a barrier for the patient in healing themselves. So, instead of helping, this prayer energy creates problems for the patient. (If you want to send a healing prayer, direct God to perform the healing.)

    The energy in your space will always change and will always be influenced by the energy in your surroundings and the energy sent in your direction. This is part of your life experience. You want to experience life, for example, love, joy, loss, and even pain and each has its own energy. So, instead of blocking out everything by creating an impenetrable barrier; check your energy space by frequently changing your energy, changing your grounding cord, and replenishing your energy. In most cases this will protect you and allow you to experience life.

    You can also create a symbol at the edge of your personal space to give you a signal about the energy directed at you. You can also use this symbol to deflect the energy. Your symbol will become damaged in due time, so destroy it and create another one with the intention of performing the task you want. This technique is useful because it gives you both a warning of energy directed at you, and it is a tool to deflect and protect you.

    Years ago, a shaman asked me to do a reading. His question was, “How can I hide from those hunting me?” Since everyone has a unique energy signature, the intelligence service agents hunting him could, in fact, locate him if they were close enough. The shaman had already created symbols in his neighborhood that would warn him about these types of intruders, but these same symbols could be used by the agents to help find him because they were created with the shaman’s energy.

    Again, how you create and use energy symbols, i.e., the intention in your creation, is all important. The shaman could have created symbols to misdirect the hunters to a different location, and still give him a warning of their approach. He could have also created a symbol that he recently moved, or (even) disappeared to confuse the hunters. Your creativity in your use of symbols or energy is endless, just keep it simple.

    Another, more esoteric, form of protection is non-resistance. This requires you to not resist or react to the energy directed at you. This, obviously, seems to be difficult because, generally, you are reactive to what is happening around you. This technique requires you to “let go,” –let the energy flow through you and not react to it, while just observing it neutrally.

    Here is an example of non-resistance. Years ago, I was entering a busy three lane highway, but a car was speeding rapidly behind cars blocking each lane. As I entered the nearest lane of traffic, the speeding car was forced to swerve across all the lanes in front of me to avoid hitting the cars blocking his forward progress. Instead of panicking, I just neutrally observed the out-of-control speeding car’s direction and timed my own vehicle’s course to travel untouched through the developing accident. My non-resistance to the event allowed me to not participate in the accident. To summarize, use these tools to reconstitute your personal energy space as needed. Use your meditation practice to establish a baseline of well-being, so you have the awareness of changes in your energy. And, understand you do not have to become the effect of the energy of your surroundings.