Finding the On-Ramp to Your Spiritual Path: A Road Map to Joy and Rejuvenation ~ Jan Phillips

True to the title, this guidebook directs beginners on the spiritual journey. Author Jan Phillips, reared Catholic, has traveled through Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim cultures merging dualities of East and West. A popular workshop leader for decades, she is a dynamic, upbeat, straight-talking, wise old woman in her own right, and her prose reflects her character. In warm, engaging language, she presents basic spiritual concepts and practices for the multitudes of Americans who have left traditional religion and are searching for a full-bodied, mind-expanding, convincing spirituality.

The book consists of short essays and personal anecdotes. Each story incorporates the wisdom of various traditions, all suggesting the immanence of the Divine in our lives. Each chapter reframes the meaning of a typical road sign-such as YIELD for surrender, STOP for taking time for balance, LANE ENDS for giving up old notions. All in all, this lively book maps an adventurous trek from illusion to reality, fear to fulfillment, isolation to community. It invites us to go deeper and further, finding, at the end, that the journey is everything.

Jan Phillips is known internationally as a visionary thought leader, award-winning author and speaker. She has spoken and presented multimedia works at the National Organization for Women convention and at dozens of universities and spent three years as a contributing artist and co-editor of the annual Women Artists Datebook In Praise of the Muse. She is also the co-founder and executive director of the Livingkindness Foundation.

Her own quest has led her into and out of a religious community, across the U.S. on a Honda motorcycle, and around the world on a one-woman peace pilgrimage. Her workshops cover many facets of creativity, some sponsored by the International Women’s Writing Guild, and her award-winning photographs and feature articles appear in national publications such as the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Utne Reader, and many other national and regional publications.

Jan is the author of many books on spirituality and creativity, including The Art of Original Thinking: The Making of a Thought Leader (9th Element Press, 2006), God Is at Eye Level: Photography as a Healing Art (Quest Books, 2000) and Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity (Quest Books, 1997). She lives in San Diego. For more information visit http://www.janphillips.com. Available titles by Jan Phillips:

• Finding the On-Ramp to Your Spiritual Path: A Road Map to Joy and Rejuvenation

• God Is at Eye-Level: Photography as a Healing Art

• Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity

 

Alyce Smith Cooper Interviews Jan Phillips

Executive Producer Alyce Smith Cooper Interviews Jan Phillips on Community Issues: A Tapestry of Concerns.

Oprah Winfrey Master Class Surrender

Uploaded on Jan 28, 2012

Oprah sharing her story as a Spiritual Entrepreneur. When you have worked as hard and done as much and strived and tried and given and plead and bargained and hoped – Surrender. When you have done all that you can do, and there is nothing left for you to do. Give it up. Give it up to that thing that is greater than yourself and let it then become a part of the flow.

Emptiness Dancing ~ Adyashanti

In recent years, the bold new teacher known as Adyashanti has dared hundreds of students across North America to ask, What is ultimately behind this set of eyes? For it is in the process of this inquiry that we let go of who we think we are, and begin to understand what we are.

With Emptiness Dancing, readers will explore these subtle differences, and many other human perceptions?and misconceptions that we live by, including:

• Openness: Discover the freedom available when you cultivate an open heart and an open mind, and lose your self-image to total presence.
• Love: Enjoy the peace from being the essence of love at every moment, with everyone and everything you experience.
• Ego: Unmask the fall guy of spirituality for what it is, and release yourself from the fruitless pursuit of and running away from something that doesn’t really exist.

The funny thing about enlightenment, or awakening, is that we miss it even though it’s not hidden,  Adya teaches. It is hard to find because it is right here. Destined to become a spiritual classic, Emptiness Dancing brings readers Adyashanti’s quintessential teachings in a mind-to-mind transmission from this gifted teacher.

Click here to browse inside.

Stillness – from Emptiness Dancing, by Adyashanti, Chapter 8

Adyashanti “Silence”

Adyashanti is a dynamic and inspiring spiritual teacher who lives an ordinary life while demonstrating an extraordinary gift for transmitting a simple truth to thousands of students worldwide: liberation is the birthright of us all. His teachings have been compared to those of the early Zen masters and Advaita Vedanta sages.

Adyashanti began teaching in 1996 at the request of his Zen teacher, with whom he had been studying for 14 years. A native of Northern California, he now teaches extensively in the San Francisco Bay Area, offering weekly satsangs, frequent intensives, and silent retreats. He also travels to teach in other areas of the United States and Canada.

Adyashanti is the author of The Impact of Awakening, Emptiness Dancing, My Secret Is Silence, True Meditation, and The End of Your World, and has made extensive audio and video recordings of his talks and satsangs.

Adyashanti speaks to the word silence.

Out of the Darkness From Turmoil to Transformation by Steve Taylor [updated Feb 09, 2013]

In Out of the Darkness, bestselling author Steve Taylor tells the stories of more than 30 people who have undergone permanent spiritual awakening after intense trauma and turmoil in their lives.

Read about the young woman who was reborn after suffering terrible injuries in the 7/7 bombings in London, the man who found enlightenment after becoming paralyzed in a fall, the man who underwent transformation after attempting suicide, and the recovering alcoholic who shifted to a permanent state of enlightenment after hitting ‘rock bottom’ and losing everything.

Steve has also interviewed several spiritual teachers whose awakening occurred after intense psychological turmoil, including Eckhart Tolle. In addition to telling these people’s stories, Out of the Darkness explains why turmoil has this transformational effect and illustrates the almost infinite capacity of human beings to overcome suffering. It shows how close – and how natural – spiritual awakening is to all of us.

Steve Taylor is an author and teacher whose main interests are spirituality and psychology. He taught courses on personal development at the University of Manchester in the UK for several years, and is now a researcher in transpersonal psychology at Liverpool John Moores University. He is the author of Waking from Sleep, The Fall and Making Time. Steve lives in Manchester with his wife and young children.

Click here to browse inside

Steve Taylor: Out of the Darkness: Part 1

Steve Taylor is a lecturer in psychology at Leeds Metropolitan University and researcher in transpersonal psychology at Liverpool John Moores University. He has written for many magazines, newspapers and academic journals, including Psychologies, The Daily Express, The Guardian The Journal of Humanistic Psychology and The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. Steve lives in Manchester with his wife and young children.

Out of the Darkness tells the stories of more than 30 people who have undergone permanent psychological rebirth after intense trauma and turmoil in their lives. From suffering terrible injuries or developing life-threatening diseases, to hitting rock bottom as a result of addiction, these people have all shifted into a state of appreciation, connection and intense well-being.
Steve Taylor: Out of the Darkness: part 2

Steve Taylor – Out of the Darkness and The Fall (Turmoil to Enlightenment)

Steve’s research looks at how humanity suddenly changed from being peaceful to war like from around 6000 years ago. Humanity suddenly had an ego explosion where people became more individualistic and separate. Also in his new book “Out of the Darkness” Steve discusses a number of cases where people were going through some of kind of inner turmoil to then suddenly transform into an enlightened state of awareness. Where the ego collapses and allows a higher awareness of consciousness to shine through.

Listen to Steve’s fascinating interview and learn about his popular books on the subject.

‘The Dark Night of the Soul’ is meaningless and unnecessary ~ Mandi Solk

Posted on January 4, 2013

There is really only one thing to do with so call suffering – it is to find out who is the one WHO suffers, over and over, until there is true ‘dissolving’.Sit down and stay quiet and instantly ask ‘ to whom are these thoughts arising?’ or just ‘who?’ And really look. Even if you are on the move or working and can’t sit and shut your eyes, do it in the moment wherever you are – but really look. Then just keep coming back to the sense of ‘I’ – just that inherent sense of your plain existence. Just ‘I’. This always ‘pulls you in’ to the pure spaciousness of what you are, because the ‘I’ has no content.

There doesn’t have to be any ‘ dark nights of the Soul’ either, although it can seem that way, because like a miner, as we drill deeper, we can hit hard nuggets of rock – or ‘old stuff’ re- surfacing, which seems to get more relentless for a while – like rocks that wont budge. So, the moment you hit these ‘rocky times’ you must allow yourself to really feel the fear, anxiety, anger or whatever arises, as soon as you can, BUT, drop all the ‘language’ about it – (the words of the thoughts) and focus intently on the actual feeling – that is, the VIBRATION. Where is the feeling vibrating? Is it in your tummy? Head? Throat? Now when you’ve found it, have the courage to sink deeply into it until that’s all there is. Go down so deeply into it (wordlessly) that you shake with it.

I can promise you that when you do this, you will come out the other side of it in minutes, often in under a minute. That’s because in Being, our True nature, there is no foundation for it. Our true nature is purely Benign – pure Love and fear is no part of it. Fear, anxiety, nightmares have NO SOURCE and are always illusion and have no reality in Truth so cannot last when faced head-on – when looked in the eye. Fear is an absolute imposter which can only persist when it’s NOT looked at – because then it is not ‘seen through’. But when we really look – without listening to the words, but instead go deeper, right into the underlying vibration that the very listening to the words have been causing, we see and experience their total nothingness, and then all that remains is peace.

Do this again and again the very second you notice the beginning of inner discomfort, and thoughts will lose all of their ‘bite’. They are powerless unless you give them power by buying their stories.

We have no need to fear loneliness or isolation either. There is no true isolation in all of this dropping away of our identity because in coming to recognise what we are and what we are not, it is slowly and lovingly being revealed that what we are and have always been, is pure LOVE, forever embraced in GOD, because we ARE that which embraces us. RIGHT NOW! Nothing else is true.

So when thoughts come up that are not joyful or peaceful – they are liars. Thoughts by their very nature can never be relied on. Positive thoughts can soon turn to negative and are always changing from happy to sad etc. Mostly meaningless rubbish. That’s why we must always go to the underlying vibration – underneath the thought – in order to get beyond it. What we are IS beyond thought, but we have to find this out.

Eventually this becomes automatic because there becomes a switch-over wherein the spaciousness of pure Presence becomes the dominant factor in your life, and thoughts, merely vibrations in the background, and the Light of our being sees them so fast, before they’ve time to take a hold, that they are instantly dissolved, so that we are never afraid of thought.
As Ramana Maharshi said:
“I leave my human life to unfold according to it’s destiny – I remain as I AM”

Radiance: Experiencing Divine Presence by Gina Lake

Radiance: Experiencing Divine Presence is a free ebook that shows you how to experience the Divine in the world in simple ways by being very present. It’s possible to experience the mysterious truth that everything is an expression of the Divine by paying close attention to the many signs that reveal this great Mystery. Radiance points out these clues so that you can more easily recognize yourself as the Divine—that which is creating and has created this you that you think you are and all that this you is experiencing. It was given to Gina Lake by her inner teacher.

It had this effect on one reader: “Your words are of great joy to me and very comforting . . . my heart expanded so much, I thought it would burst.”

Click Here To Read The Free ebook.

The Ego Is Just a Thought

Gina Lake is a spiritual teacher and the author of numerous books about awakening to one’s true nature, including Trusting Life, Embracing the Now, Radical Happiness, Living in the Now, Return to Essence, Loving in the Moment, Anatomy of Desire, and Getting Free. She is also a gifted intuitive with a master’s degree in counseling psychology and over twenty years experience supporting people in their spiritual growth.

Gina Lake – Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview

In 1986, Gina realized she could pose a question mentally and get an answer mentally. Three years later, a very beneficial relationship with a wise nonphysical being began, who has been her inner teacher, mentor, and healer. In the late 80s and 90s, after earning a master’s degree in counseling psychology, she worked as an astrological counselor, metaphysical teacher, and writer, and spent much of her time meditating and doing inner work.

In 1999, Gina had a spiritual awakening shortly after meeting Adyashanti, and has since written numerous books related to awakening. Two weeks after that shift, she met Nirmala, a non-dual teacher. In 2000, Gina and Nirmala moved from California to Arizona together and married.

The focus of Gina’s writing and teaching is on helping people be in the present moment and live the happy and fulfilled life that is possible and on shedding light on the ego and other programming that interferes with awakening to one’s true nature. Gina is most interested in how the Divine moves in life through us and in helping people align with and express the Divine, or Essence, in their life. She defines Essence as the individualized expression of the Divine. Being in Essence results in what she calls “radical happiness,” which is the happiness that exists at our core and doesn’t come and go with circumstances. It is the happiness that comes from awakening to the truth of who we really are and living in the world as a unique expression of that. The opportunity to realize this happiness exists in every moment—for anyone—by simply being present in the moment.

Gina and Nirmala live in Sedona, Arizona, where they hold weekend intensives. Gina’s website offers information about her books and courses, and free e-books, book excerpts, a monthly newsletter, a blog, and audio and video recordings:

http://www.radicalhappiness.com

Gangaji – Unraveling the Knot of Suffering – Full length Movie

In Search of the Miraculous: Healing Into Consciousness by Eliza Mada Dalian [updated]

In Search of the Miraculous: Healing into Consciousness is an invaluable spiritual manual to each person s journey out of pain and suffering. It imparts an in-depth understanding about the complexities of our spiritual journey, and covers many questions left unanswered by others. The author guides readers through the phases of the development of their ego and consciousness, and describes the steps we all need to take to heal our ego into consciousness.

Most chapters are followed by question and answer sections; making the topics covered in each chapter more personal and down-to-earth. The author’s own story at the end of the book, described in the chapter One Spirit’s Journey, beautifully exemplifies how she herself has walked the talk that she now teaches to others. This book might be this year’s best offering in the field of spirituality and personal growth, and is here to stay for a long time to come. Click Here To Preview
Eliza Mada Dalian: Healing into Consciousness with the Dalian Method™

The Dalian Method™ for Health & Consciousness is an accelerated technique that takes the concepts of healing and awakening to the next level. Created by self-realized mystic, spiritual teacher, and internationally acclaimed master healer, Eliza Mada Dalian, the Dalian Method™ can spontaneously heal your ailments by accurately identifying and helping to dissolve the blocks that cause fear, anxiety, pain, and illness. It is an invaluable healing modality that can transform your life into health and self-empowered consciousness! For more information visit http://madadalian.com.

Eliza Mada Dalian talks on Healing and Awareness
watch?v=N0dzc3hUqy4&feature=plcp

Eliza talks to Alan Steinfeld about bringing awareness to our inner dialogue to help overcome the inner conflicts that are in the way of having what we want to achieve in life.

Eliza Mada Dalian: Karma is not Punishment

In this video self-realized mystic, internationally acclaimed master healer, spiritual teacher and bestselling author Eliza Mada Dalian explains what Karma is and how it is not a punishment.

“The reason we need to look at karma is to see what we have done unconsciously. If you do something unconsciously, you have to repeat that again and again until you see that you’re doing it unconsciously. It’s not a punishment! Existence gives you another chance and another chance, so you finally wake up!”

This excerpt was filmed during a 10 day healing into Consciousness Intensive, in Vancouver, Canada.

Eliza Mada Dalian: The Stages of the Ego’s Development

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Host Bret Moss interviews Eliza Mada Dalian on The Defining Moment Television Talk Show. The Defining Moment provides new insights and practical wisdom which can be applied in one’s own life allowing greater happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment, peace-of-mind and well-being. In this interview “Living in the Now,” Mada explains what it means to be present in the now, the purpose of the ego, and the stages of the ego’s development.

Eliza Mada Dalian: Understanding the Chakra System and the Seven Bodies

Moment Television Talk Show. The Defining Moment provides new insights and practical wisdom which can be applied in one’s own life allowing greater happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment, peace-of-mind and well-being. In this interview “Transforming and Healing the Ego-Mind,” Mada explains the function of each chakra and how the developing ego-mind helps to expand consciousness as it evolves in the seven chakras. She also explains how we can start healing the seven chakras or energy centers to allow expanded consciousness.

Sojourns of the Soul: One Woman’s Journey around the World and into Her Truth ~ Dana Micucci

Sojourns of the Soul is the quintessential armchair travel book for the spiritual seeker. Dana Micucci’s touching memoir chronicles seven sacred journeys that span 14 years of Micucci’s life, during which she explores the connection of inner growth to world travel that eventually leads to her own enlightenment. Unlike other inspirational travel books, Sojourns of the Soul provides a rare mix of in-depth wisdom and literary insights from the holistic view of an experienced female traveler.

Dana Micucci gives a compelling account of her growing spiritual illumination through visits to some of the most sacred places on earth. Her lively, engaging narrative takes us through the Australian outback, Angkor in Cambodia, the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, Lhasa in Tibet, Chichen Itza in the Yucatan, the Monastery of Christ in the Desert in New Mexico and Machu Picchu in Peru. As her travels progress, Micucci links each visit to the awakening of a particular chakra – the chakras being the seven energy centers of the body in Hinduism, associated with progressive enlightenment.

In the afterword, Micucci reflects on how her experiences continue to shape her life after resuming her career as a journalist in New York City. She finds she is more tolerant, can engage in daily activities with more heart-centered awareness, and can sustain states of joy and gratitude for longer periods of time.

Readers who yearn for long-delayed adventure won’t be able to put this book down. With the added benefit that it is not just a journey log but more of a seeker’s manual in which travel is simply the vehicle, they will find it’s unnecessary to travel to far-flung places for the spiritual inspiration available in their everyday lives. As Micucci says, “Each day brings new remembrances of our divinity, of the Divine presence in all beings, and of our eternal connection to each other. I am so grateful to be here NOW . . . with you.”
SOJOURNS OF THE SOUL by Dana Micucci

Dana talks about her new spiritual travel memoir, SOJOURNS OF THE SOUL: ONE WOMAN’S JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD AND INTO HER TRUTH.

Alan Steinfeld interviews Dana Micucci on her book: Sojourns of the Soul

This is an inner and outer journey of one woman as she explores the world and herself. Sojourns of the Soul takes the reader on a journey through the world’s most sacred and exotic lands, including the Australian Outback, Cambodia, Egypt, Tibet, the Yucatan, New Mexico and Peru. As she explores each “souljourn,” Micucci finds herself in seven successive stages that correlate with each of the seven spiritual energy centers of the body, called chakras. These stages take the reader from an awakening all the way to activation.

This spiritual memoir gives readers an inside look into each destination through Micucci’s eyes, observing not only the spirituality and lessons to be learned at each location, but also the intimate details of the landscape. While observing the Aborigines in the Outback with Micucci, readers will not only learn about their own connections to the oldest known human culture, but will also get detailed descriptions of the eucalyptus forests and galleries of millennia-old Aboriginal paintings.

1. Legacy of the Heart :The Spiritual Advantages of a Painful Childhood 2. Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal and Delight in our Busy lives by Wayne Muller

It requires a tremendous leap of faith to imagine that our deepest sorrows, our losses and our grief, may become gifts for us.

In this bestselling book, featured on Oprah, Wayne Muller explores how the pain and hurt of our lives can become catalysts that bring forth remarkable strength and wisdom, courage and peace. We do not need to repair what we believe is damaged, so much as to awaken what is already alive and well, a deep, spiritual magic that burns bright and refuses to be extinguished.

Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal and Delight in our Busy Lives

In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between action and rest. When action is universally prescribed as more useful than rest, we inevitably lose our way. We bypass the nourishment that would give us succour, and we reject the quiet that would give us wisdom. Poisoned by this hypnotic belief that good things come only through unceasing striving and tireless effort, we can never truly rest. And for want of rest, our lives are in danger.

All spiritual traditions insist that a life well-lived requires rest. Only from rest may we gain the nourishment, wisdom, courage and clarity necessary to heal the world. In this book, Wayne Muller explores how we may reclaim the wisdom and delight that make our lives and work fruitful.

Wayne Muller on the Sabbath.

Wayne Muller_Caregiver.mov