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	<title>Sanctuary of Sophia Blog</title>
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		<title>Spiritual Healing and Wholeness by Rev. Ann Emerson</title>
		<link>http://www.oneness-now.net/blog/?p=14</link>
		<comments>http://www.oneness-now.net/blog/?p=14#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:15:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ann</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Love the Gift of Peace
Love is not something you do, Love is a way of  being. And more than that is simply being, being with another person, however  that may be. Holding no judgments, having no agendas, no desire to control, no  need to prove you love, no intrusion upon their soul. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Love the Gift of Peace</strong></p>
<p>Love is not something you do, Love is a way of  being. And more than that is simply being, being with another person, however  that may be. Holding no judgments, having no agendas, no desire to control, no  need to prove you love, no intrusion upon their soul. Nothing but total  acceptance of their being, born of your acceptance of yours.</p>
<p>“The day  will come when after harnessing the winds, the tides and gravitation, we shall  harness for God the energies of Love. And on that day, for the second time in  the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”</p>
<p>&#8211; Teilhard de  Chardin</p>
<p>The Spiritual Path<br />
the Way to<br />
Healing and  Wholeness</p>
<p>“What if we weren’t alone after all?<br />
What if you were really  a fragment of a<br />
Great and glorious mind<br />
Like an individual wave<br />
Is part  of the magnificent ocean.”</p>
<p>by Joan Borysenko</p>
<p>Then any thing would  be possible.</p>
<p>Illness is a crossroads in ones life. A time to take stock  in your life. It can become a time of awakening and renewal if you will develop  a spiritual path to follow.</p>
<p>A spiritual path is not better than modern  medicine. It is a complement to medicine.</p>
<p>Prayer, meditation,  medications, and surgery are all a blessing, a grace, a gift.</p>
<p>Why not use  all of them, with reverence and gratitude. Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit  priest and scholar said “Scientific research is the highest form of  adoration.”</p>
<p>Without faith in universal order science would not be  possible. Faith is the foundation of both science and prayer.</p>
<p>Ralph Waldo  Emerson said “Religion that is afraid of science dishonors God and commits  suicide.”</p>
<p>A spiritual path takes you on a journey to a deeper knowing of  self and a deeper connection with universal life energy which is called Ki –  (Japanese), Chi – (Chinese), Divine light – (Christian) and Prana –  (Hindi).</p>
<p>This universal life energy comes from a Supreme Being or other  names that are used are The Absolute – God – Allah – Krishna – Brahman – The Tao  – The Universal mind – The Alpha and The Omega – The One – Higher Power. In  Hebrew, the name of God can not be written or spoken.</p>
<p>Lighter and  Happier<br />
With this holy path you will learn to open your heart to yourself. As  you do this you will learn to shed the burden of judgments and old angers you  hold about yourself and others. This process will help you feel much lighter and  happier.</p>
<p>Your Life is Important<br />
You will understand the richness and  beauty of your own life. You are part of a Sacred Dance with pure life force  always flowing throughout your whole being. Your life is important – you have  special gifts to give and receive in this lifetime.</p>
<p>Life Filled with  Richness<br />
As you find a deeper understanding, of the richness of who you are –  you will relinquish your need for approval from others, and you will learn to  forgive past errors. You cannot grow without taking risks and in those risks  there are errors made. That is the human condition. You will become inner  directed, not outer directed. This will bring a new freedom into your  life.</p>
<p>New Joys<br />
Understanding that you are a sacred being will help you  replace rear-motivated behavior with love-motivated behavior. As you become  skilled in this, it will bring new joys in your life.</p>
<p>Inner  Wisdom<br />
Human beings need time to be silent. You will learn to silence your  mind with meditation. You can learn how to quiet your inner dialogue, be guided  and learn about your own inner wisdom rather than externally imposed  interpretations of what is or is not good for you.</p>
<p>Inner Peace<br />
You  will learn to connect to the core of your being. Your soul is that unique part  of you that is connected to the Godhead with you. Every human being can develop  skills to make the connection. There are skills you learn to make the  connection. Meditation is one form to learn to release stress and acquire inner  peace.</p>
<p>On a spiritual journey, you learn that all of life is  interconnected and the physical world mirrors the process of your own  consciousness.</p>
<p>Modern physicist, Mac Planck, whose discoveries set the  stage for the quantum-relativistic revolution in physics, saw that religion and  science were naturally intertwined. He said, “There can never be any real  opposition between religion and science; for one is the complement of the other.  Every serious and reflective person realizes, I think, that the religious  element in nature must be recognized and cultivated if all the powers of the  human soul are to act in perfect balance and harmony. And indeed it is not by  any accident that the greatest thinkers of all ages were also deeply religious  souls, even though they made no public show of their religious  feelings&#8230;</p>
<p>Every advance in knowledge brings us face to face with the  mystery of our own being.”</p>
<p>Seeking the spirit within is a place to grow  and to heal and to enjoy life more fully.</p>
<p>As the speed of modern life  increases, it is imperative to stay in touch with our deepest feelings by  listening, carefully to our body as it holds the truth for our health and well  being. Our body is the vessel for our life force. If we treat it badly it  becomes dull and we are unable to channel divine life force. This divine energy  is available to us at all times. When the body has become dim and dull it  becomes unable to receive. Then the light of life cannot flow brightly through  us. It is as if we have turned down low the electromagnetic field that runs  throughout our whole body and our energy field that surrounds our body. The  field of energy that surrounds our body is called our aura.</p>
<p>We need to  keep our body healthy and receptive. Our body is the sacred vessel that connects  us to Spirit, the universe, other human beings and all other life  forms.</p>
<p>When we are fully open to universal life energy we feel enriched,  nourished and refreshed, connected to our core. We become centered and opened to  our own soul and the many gifts of being fully alive. Then we can witness  miracles and have the ability to accept them in our own lives.</p>
<p>“To be  fully alive means – to be new –<br />
to be fresh at every moment<br />
as though one  had just issued from<br />
the hand of God”</p>
<p>Five Keys<br />
To Healing and  Wholeness</p>
<p>When you become ill, it is time to focus on yourself for a  while.</p>
<p>The keys are simple to state, but they take great skill and  determination to follow:<br />
1. Self Love – caring for yourself before you  care for others…often when you do this your own expression in loving others  becomes more pure.</p>
<p>Most of us are not trained to care for ourselves  first. This means we do not care for our own personal environment. Things like  eating well, getting enough rest, being careful about not being with toxic  people and in toxic environments. Taking time for developing spiritually in our  lives with meditation, prayer, time in nature, sacred music, and times of  silence.</p>
<p>2. Allowing others to be who they are and you to be who you are.  This means letting go of your expectations and demands as to what your  relationships and life should look like. Learning to let go of others  expectations and demands if the are harming you in any way.</p>
<p>“Going with  the flow” or “Letting go and letting God” are tow phrases that speak well to  this second step.</p>
<p>3. Forgiving Others FOR HOW YOU PERCEIVE THEY HAVE  HARMED YOU. You can forgive the person, but not the act that harmed you.  Unforgiveness holds you in bondage. It is for your own health and well-being  that you forgive. This also means stopping those who are hurting you now,  learning to make strong boundaries for you own protection.</p>
<p>4. Forgiving  Yourself for any mistakes you have made. It is own human to make errors. In fact  it is impossible to live life without error. We are all constantly evolving, the  key is to learn from your errors.</p>
<p>When we look into the difficult  situations of our live, we can see we had an important part in creating them.  When we look deeply into our lives we see the hardest things we go through also  add the most insight, compassion and wisdom to our lives.</p>
<p>If you are  caught in unforgiveness of self and others, your own energy is not fully  available for you life and your healing. Forgive yourself and others in the  situations and move on.</p>
<p>Living fully in the NOW, not in the past or the  future will awaken you to a sense of a new freedom in your life. The NOW moment  is all we really have. The past is just a memory, the future is just a vision or  a dream.</p>
<p>5. Gratitude &#8211; seeing what is rich and good around you and  seeing the lessons in what is hard. The greatest time of growth is when things  are hard. We often do not look for new ideas and new ways of being if life is  good.</p>
<p>“The reason why love and compassion bring the greatest happiness is  simply that our nature cherishes them above all else.</p>
<p>The need for love  lies at the very foundation of human existence. It results from the profound  interdependence we all share with one another.”</p>
<p>&#8211; The Dalai  Lama</p>
<p>“To forgive is to abandon your right to pay back the  perpetrator in his own coin – but it is a loss that liberates the  victim.”</p>
<p>&#8211; Archbishop Desmond Tutu</p>
<p>Mastery of these 5 Keys  to<br />
Healing and Wholeness<br />
is a lifetime job.</p>
<p>Opening to the  Spiritual in Your Life</p>
<p>Spirit is something that cannot be seen but can  be experienced.</p>
<p>In the poetic words of an anonymous teacher “There is a  force that is unfathomable – omnipresent – unnameable – and  omniscient.”</p>
<p>This intelligence and loving force stands behind  manifestation.</p>
<p>Spirituality is the label we use to describe what occurs  when we connect with the source.</p>
<p>By opening to our spiritual nature – we  open to the New and Unexpected.</p>
<p>Ernest Kurts and Katherine Ketcham  authors of The Spirituality of Imperfection put it this  way:</p>
<p>“Spirituality – points always beyond –<br />
Beyond the ordinary  –<br />
Beyond possessions –<br />
Beyond the narrow confines of self –<br />
And above  all beyond expectations.”</p>
<p>As we age, all of us have had many trials and  losses and many external demands that have wounded us. Our vital energy gets  redirected, blocked, submerged from physical – emotional – mental and social  disturbances.</p>
<p>Illness is a tension in our tone and vibration – also  dissonant tones in movement and voice.</p>
<p>The word healing comes from the  root word in Anglo-Saxon &#8230;.Hal which means – Whole – Hale or Hearty also –  Holy – Wholeness.</p>
<p>Healing is the reorganization, reintegration of things  that have come apart.</p>
<p>What is a Miracle?</p>
<p>A Miracle is a  spontaneous shift in reality – brought about by a shift in the vibrational  energy in our body and in our aura. The aura is the field of energy around our  body.</p>
<p>St. Augustine said –<br />
“Miracles happen not in opposition to  nature<br />
but in opposition to what we know about nature.”</p>
<p>In  Christianity there is a story about a woman who had been bleeding for years and  she touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak and she was healed.</p>
<p>She touched the  higher vibration field that flowed around and off of Him and into her and she  was healed.</p>
<p>Even today, people receive Miraculous healings just by being  in the presence of the energy of an advanced being.</p>
<p>The Dalai Lama is a  profound Buddhist Leader and master teacher, and just being in his presence some  people receive healing without prayer or by being touched by him.</p>
<p>Let me  share a beautiful prayer<br />
By Joan Borysenko</p>
<p>“I am a child of the one  light<br />
the wisdom of the entire universe<br />
is present within me.”</p>
<p>The  7 Levels<br />
You will move through to<br />
Your healing</p>
<p>This is not a  straight path from number one through number seven but a journey moving back and  forth through the steps. Each of us must find our own way. That becomes your  unique spiritual journey back to health and wholeness.</p>
<p>1. Denial &#8211; The  beginning of emotional, physical, mental or spiritual trauma. Denial is used to  forget the experience and provide physical comfort and safety. We become numb.  Energy becomes blocked and produces enough pain so we must just close down.  There appears to be a direct relationship of numbing out memories and physical  pain in the body so that we can survive.</p>
<p>Therefore, it appears the first  level of healing is to experience (but not yet on a conscious level) what we  have buried. It is what is hidden that leave us feeling unstable, weakened and  ill.</p>
<p>If we stay at this level it reduces the possibility for our personal  growth.</p>
<p>2. Self Blame &#8211; The beginning of healing that may last minutes or  decades. Self blame produces awareness of the issues and may evoke anger. Energy  seems to be moving and is often felt in the body with high levels of intensity.  The purpose of this level of healing is to have us notice the pain and to move  towards self love and self acceptance and desire to find creative solutions for  our lives.</p>
<p>3. Blaming Others – Feeling the victim, bargaining to  understand why this experience is in our life. The third level of healing also  produces intense pain that comes in patterns associated with the intensity of  our fear of becoming a victim. The purpose of this level is to teach us clarity  so that we might understand the situation clearly.</p>
<p>4. Indignation – Self  righteousness, how dare you! This level typically creates muscle spasms and  unbalanced muscle functions. Because this level creates feeling of depression,  we tend to retreat into ourselves. This provides the opportunity to allow us to  move towards accepting our relationships and learning to receive and give love  at a deeper level.</p>
<p>5. Surviving – allows us to accept the experience and  understand that we have survived the event or events. Energy begins to move more  freely and we feel a lessening or healing of the pain. The purpose of this  experience is to allow us to develop our own personal truth.</p>
<p>6.  Integrating the Experience –what can we learn from the experience? The sixth  level permits integration of the experience into our wisdom and brings our body  to a higher vibration. We feel a new openness and begin to see new possibilities  to explore.</p>
<p>Many people use this level of healing as a re-birthing of who  we are and for finding the purpose for their lives.</p>
<p>7. Understanding the  Serendipity of Life – the definition of Serendipity from The American Heritage  dictionary is; “The faculty of making fortunate and unexpected discoveries by  accident.”</p>
<p>Understanding the serendipity of life moves us from the  physical realm of understanding and connects us with the Divine Mind – The  Absolute – as we begin to vibrate at the higher frequencies of clear light. It  is at this point that we learn how we function within the great patterns of the  serendipity of life. This experience allows us to become clear about our part in  the perfection of life and how we relate to others. We realize that we have  become willing participants in the serendipity of life to teach ourselves and  others. We see the wisdom that comes from the consequences of life. Life is  perfect – it is only our own belief systems that make that untrue.</p>
<p>Here  is an old adage; God is a circle whose circumference is everywhere and whose  center is in every person.</p>
<p>Prayer from the Unity Church :<br />
The Light of  God surrounds me<br />
The Love of God enfolds me<br />
The Power of God Protects  me<br />
The Presence of God watches over me<br />
Wherever I am – God is</p>
<p>Religious beliefs from around the world –<br />
All That Is – is within you</p>
<p>Judaism: Create in me a clean heart, O God and put a new right spirit  within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not the Holy spirit  from me.</p>
<p>Christianity: Jesus being asked by the Pharisees when the  kingdom of God was coming, he answered them, “The Kingdom of God is not coming  with signs to be observed; nor will they say, Lo, here it is! Or There! For  behold there it is. The Kingdom of God is within you.” (i.e. Here and now, we do  not have to wait.)</p>
<p>Islam &#8211; Mohammed: “He who knows himself knows  God.”</p>
<p>Buddhism – Buddha: “The light of the truth within me enlightened  me.”</p>
<p>Hinduism: &#8211; “It is impossible to find God outside ourselves. Our own  souls contribute all of the divinity that is outside of us. We are the greatest  temple. The objectification is only a faint imitation of what we see within  ourselves.”</p>
<p>Sikhism – Guru Nanak: ”As fragrance abides in the flower, as  the reflection is within the mirror, so does the Lord abide within you, Why  search him/her without?”</p>
<p>Native American: The first peace, which is the  most important, is that which comes within the souls of humans when they realize  their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and  when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells in Wakan-Tanka  (God). That this center is really everywhere, it is “within each of us.” This is  the real peace, and the others are the reflection of this. The second peace is  made between two individuals. The third peace is between two nations. But above  all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until  there is first known “within the souls of humans.”</p>
<p>Zoroastrism –  Zoroaster: “One need not scale the heights of the heavens nor travel along the  highways of the world to find Ahura Masda (God). With purity of mind and  holiness of heart one can find it in one’s own heart.”</p>
<p>Questions to  reflect upon<br />
to develop your connection to the divine within you.</p>
<p>1.  What gives me life?</p>
<p>2. What lifts us into wholeness?</p>
<p>3. What  enhances our being?</p>
<p>4. What introduces us to transcendence?</p>
<p>5.  What calls us beyond our limits?</p>
<p>6. What do we ultimately  value?</p>
<p>Poet and writer – Marianne Williamson: “As we become purer  channels for God’s light, we develop an appetite for the sweetness that is  possible in the world. A Miracle worker is not geared toward fighting the world  that is, but toward creating the world that could be.”</p>
<p>The Christian  Prayer of St. Francis:<br />
“Lord, Make me an instrument of your peace.<br />
Where  there is hatred, let me sow love;<br />
Where there is injury, pardon;<br />
Where  there is despair, faith;<br />
Where there is double, hope;<br />
Where there is  darkness, light;<br />
And where there is sadness, Joy.</p>
<p>Oh Divine  Master<br />
Grant that I may not seek to be consoled as to console;<br />
To be  understood as to understand;<br />
To be loved as to love.</p>
<p>For it is in the  giving that we receive;<br />
It is in the pardoning, that we are pardoned;<br />
And  it is in the dying that we are born to eternal life.”</p>
<p>Let me  share this meditation to open you to God’s love and presence in your life. Use  it early in the morning and at night just before you go to sleep.</p>
<p>May I  be safe<br />
May I be healthy and strong<br />
May I care for myself easily<br />
May I  have peace of mind<br />
I am whole – I am holy</p>
<p>Gandhi’s grandson  stayed 18 months with his grandfather. The day he was leaving his grandfather  handed him a paper with these thoughts on it.</p>
<p>SEVEN BLUNDERS THE WORLD  MAKES THAT LEAD TO VIOLENCE</p>
<p>1. Wealth without work<br />
2. Pleasure without  conscience<br />
3. Knowledge without character<br />
4. Commerce without  morality<br />
5. Science without humanity<br />
6. Worship without sacrifice<br />
7.  Politics without principals</p>
<p>His grandson added:<br />
8. Rights without  responsibility</p>
<p>Four other quotes by Gandhi –</p>
<p>1. “There is more  than enough for everybody’s need but not enough for everybody’s greed.”<br />
2.  “Live simply that others may simply live.”<br />
3. “Be the changes you want to see  in the world.”<br />
4. On Gandhi’s gravestone: “Think of the poorest person you  have ever seen and ask if your next act will be of any use to him.”</p>
<p>Peace  is not the absence of war but the presence of a higher evolution of human  awareness with respect and trust and integrity toward all humankind.<br />
The  Universal Golden Rule</p>
<p>Brahmanism<br />
This the sum of duty; do naught unto  others which would cause you pain if done unto you. (Mahabharata 5,  1517)</p>
<p>Buddhism<br />
Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find  hurtful. (Udana-Varga 5, 18)</p>
<p>Christianity<br />
Therefore all things  whatsoever yea would that men should do to you, do yea even so to them: for this  is the law of the prophets. (Matthew 7:12)</p>
<p>Confucianism<br />
Surely it is  the maxim of loving-kindness:<br />
Do not unto others that you would not have them  do unto you.</p>
<p>Islam<br />
No one is a believer until he desires for his  brother that which he desires for himself (Sunnah)</p>
<p>Judaism<br />
What is  hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the entire Law; All the rest  is commentary.</p>
<p>Taoism<br />
Regard your neighbor’s gains as your gain and  your neighbor’s loss as your own loss. (T’ai Shang Kan Ying  P’ien)</p>
<p>Zoroastrianism<br />
That nature alone is good which refrains from  doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself. (Dadistan-i-dinik  94-5)</p>
<p>and George Bernard Shaw<br />
Do not do unto others as you would that  they do unto you.<br />
Their tastes may not be the same  (1903).</p>
<p>Meister Eckhart, a great 13th century German Christian  mystic said:</p>
<p>“Whoever perceives something in God and attaches thereby  some name to him, that is not God. God is&#8230; ineffable. And it is God’s nature  to be without nature.”</p>
<p>God’s universal truths surfaces in all cultures  and rings in our hearts when we hear them.</p>
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		<title>8/1/2009 Newsletter</title>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2009 23:05:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ann</dc:creator>
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