Category Archives: Blog

A white daily like looking flower with yellow and orange center.

Rule #1: Do not believe what I say, or do. 

#3 Energy Flow

Try it out for yourself to see if it is TRUE for you. (Too many spiritual teachers are manipulators who do not honor even their professed beliefs.)

Energy Work Flow

The goal of your practice is to intentionally change your energy—to let God flow within.

Most ritual practices “do” change your energy, for example, prayer, meditation and yoga—all change how your energy flows within you. The act of “doing” your practice is important, but are you choosing the energy of your God-within?

There are many meditation (or prayer or yoga) styles taught by different religious traditions. Each has its own form and rules. If you look at the various styles you can see how the energy pattern flows in the body. You will also see the strengths and weaknesses of each technique in changing your own energy.

Some techniques teach you to choose a particular energy and have it flow in a circle around your body. Some have an energy flow through your limbs, torso and head in a specific direction. Even others demand that your eyes be open (or closed), and your hands and legs be in a particular position.

Does it matter? Yes, it does… but only to you. Look for yourself to see what works and what doesn’t. You can create whatever style works for you.

My recommendation is to intentionally choose the style that fits your requirements.  Mine are:

  1. I have chosen the direction and flow of the energy in my body and aura
  2. I choose the energy that I want to flow in my body and aura
  3. I have chosen a technique(s) to change my energy i.e. to get rid of energy I do not want and to replace it with energy I do want
  4. I have chosen to make myself safer by creating a technique to ground my body and aura
  5. I choose to change any of the above at will, and often, to keep the energy techniques I am using fresh

I will offer more details on each component later in the Series.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/advanced-meditation-alters-consciousness-and-our-basic-sense-of-self

Meditation’s potential has been demonstrated by numerous contemplative, philosophical, religious and spiritual traditions that teach it as a core element that leads to enlightenment or salvation. Buddhism, Vedic and Hindu practices, Jewish kabbalism, Islamic Sufism and shamanism, among others, have all explored meditation in their traditions. Some of them have multimillennial-long histories and en¬¬compass experiences that include states of ecstasy, insights into the nature of the self and the world around us, the cultivation of empathy, and the pursuit of altruistic goals. Such experiences have also been reported to sometimes lead to a sense of transcendence.

https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/quote-archive1/quotes-about-prayer

(Read: Finding Grace at the Center, Fr. Thomas Keating)

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/types-of-meditation#takeaway

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/the-11-major-types-of-yoga-explained-simply

A sitting buddha statue in a garden.

An Intentionally Meaningful Practice

#2 Practice

Let’s keep this simple. In whatever spiritual practice you create, make it intentionally meaningful. By this I mean clear your mind and give this practice time over to yourself and your God. You may have to “fake it” initially i.e. use your ritual practice to just slow down… until you can be with God, so take your time without depreciating self-judgement. It is a practice—and it takes practice to know, and recognize, your God within.

The key is to this practice time is to consciously (intentionally) give yourself over to God. I do not see this as giving yourself over to some separate outside “other,” but instead, giving yourself over to the God-within (Hindu’s call this OM). In a very real sense you are intentionally experiencing God by allowing the energy to flow within you. This quiet shift in perception, and reality, will give you God. In time, you will see God’s energy in everything.

God’s Energy:  By this I mean whatever you believe in your religious tradition: God, Jesus Christ, Allah, Dharma, The Way, The Source, etc.

Recommendation: Universal Wisdom by Bede Griffiths. It offers eight translations of the sacred wisdom of the major religions. They are surprisingly similar.

Prologue

#1 Prologue
circle of religions.

My goal with this blog is to help you find The Source. By using the word “The Source,” I mean seeking a higher power often called by the various religious traditions as: God, Jesus Christ, Allah, the Chosen, nirvana, enlightenment, spirit worship, seeking Salvation, submission to God, attaining Liberation, the realization of the Dharma, to Awaken, The Way, etc.

All recognize there is more, must be more, to the human experience—some higher calling– beyond our unrelenting birth, family, work, and death cycle.

I remember as a youth I would lie beneath a tree and watch the sunlight filter through the wavering leaves. I “knew” that there was more, had to be more, to this human experience than the disquiet I felt.  My restlessness was more than a nagging question of what was I to do with my life? I felt there was some sort of God-like source I knew existed, I just had to find it and learn how to tap into it.  Only then would I feel like I was “home” and be at peace.

In my search I found that religious traditions often explained how to find your way to God. Generally, they offered some combination of three paths: 1. Scholarship (the in-depth study of a religious tradition), 2. Service to Others, and/or 3. Deep Prayer, Meditation or Yoga.  These paths were often accompanied by reinforcing mechanisms: the ongoing, often daily, practice of various rituals, an obligation to belong to and build a like-minded spiritual community, and the acceptance of some dogma and revealed texts explaining the cosmos and your path forward to God.

All religions have moral authority i.e. prescriptions for love, compassion, kindness and conscious righteous actions. They all seek to make you a “good” person, often explained as being free of sin and suffering. As your reward, you become closer to God and free from the trivialities of your existence.

In some religious traditions you achieve salvation or enlightenment because you are among the Chosen, but in most, however, you must choose a practice to develop a relationship with your concept of God. It is often a daily discipline of thought and action to invoke the presence of God within. It may mean you turn toward Mecca to pray five times a day, or you meditate, or study your revealed texts, or you serve the needs of others, or you attend a church service. It does not matter what you choose, it only matters that you “do” choose to bring yourself closer to God.

Now, what about those who are atheists, agnostics or lapsed religious followers? Many of the great religions do not believe in God. Look at Buddhists, Confucianism, and Taoism. Many do not believe in One God, but in many instead… Hinduism, Shintoism, and indigenous religions. It does not matter what you believe. What matters is that you choose a path that makes you a righteous person. In all cases, it is the discipline of a thoughtful practice that will give you the inner peace and joy you seek.