SPIRITUAL ESSENCE:

Focusing on the essence of spirituality from all times, places, cultures…and beyond. Serving and cultivating the innate, inherent spiritual nature contained within all: the religious, the non-religious, the spiritual but not religious, the atheist, the agnostic, the mystic; whatever one does or does not consider oneself. We are beings at many different levels with many different aspects: physical, energy/life force, mind, intellect, emotion; but at our deepest common core, we are all spiritual beings. We all yearn to love and be loved, to nurture and be nurtured, to express and serve and realize each of our unique destinies. We can all help each other along our individual journeys, united by our common needs and yearnings.


Quote of the Week #156 - Listening/Hearing for Non-material Sustenance

Quote of the Week #156 - Listening/Hearing for Non-material Sustenance


Every one who is thirsty, come and drink. He who has no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good. Let your soul delight in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, that your soul will live…


--Isaiah 55:1-3, The Living Torah translation by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Quote of the Week #119 - Prana: The Source of Life



Quote of the Week 382 - Prana: The Source of Life
Know that you are a breathing being. You exist because you breathe. Your mind thinks because you breathe. Your organs function because you breathe. Your senses and limbs function because you breathe. Breath is the source of life—it is life.
Breath is not your creation; you are breath’s creation. The breath that is moving in and out of your body is a physical manifestation of the non-physical life force. This life force is prana shakti, or simply prana.
Every living being is a child of prana. As pulsation, prana is mother and father of all. The presence of prana makes the sun shine, allows the earth to metabolize sunlight, and enables nature to flourish. Prana is the provider, protector, and guide of all. We are whatever prana has made us. This is knowledge. Anything more is simply an elaboration of this truth. The further a piece of information is from this truth, the more burdensome and binding it is.
[The source of prana is] the almighty, omniscient divine being. Prana is infallible sankalpa, the power of intention of the divine. It is as mighty and omniscient as the absolute being. It is propelled by the intrinsic compassion of the divine. Prana is imbued with inexhaustible compassion. It does not judge those it serves. It is all pervading. It was there before we were born; it is there when we are alive; it will be there when we are dead. It is the foundation of existence. It is the manifest form of the unmanifest transcendental being. Wise is he who thinks, speaks, and interacts with himself and others in the light of this knowledge. To be and to behave like prana is the way to expand one’s consciousness and one day achieve the same degree of purity and capacity as prana.
Everything in the universe is the product of benevolent, compassionate prana shakti. Nonjudgmental, compassionate benevolence is our essential nature. Experiencing our essential nature is the highest spiritual experience. Thinking, speaking, and acting in the light of our essential nature is the best way to reinforce our self-understanding. This continuous reinforcement strengthens our conviction that the absolute divinity is within us. She is breathing, thinking, speaking, and acting while using our bodies and minds. We are her instruments. All of us are here at her behest. We act as she wishes. In the ultimate scheme of her creation, all of us are engaged in serving the purpose of the one who pulsates in us as breath. Some know it; others don’t. Yet she dispenses her love, compassion, guidance, and nourishment equally to all.
A person immersed in this knowledge loves all and judges none, for he sees the whole world and everyone and everything in it as her manifestation. This experience is the highest experience. This knowledge is the highest knowledge. It is the foundation of freedom from all fear.
--Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Spiritual Head of the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, conveying the teachings of one of the Masters of the Himalayan Tradition


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