SPIRITUAL FICTION - What Does Fiction Have To Do With Spirituality?

When I first began to read, I never considered what "genre" the books that I was reading fell into. Like most people, I initially chose topics that I was interested in and books that looked easy to read. As my reading progressed I was able to quickly pick up a book and determine within the first few pages whether it would appeal to me. This also allowed me to check out books that I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

It was quite a few years (decades, ALMOST!) until I really discovered that I was most interested in books that could help me grow spiritually, intellectually and inwardly. I realized that some of the books that I previously enjoyed could be classed as "spiritual fiction", and most of my favourite movies fell into this category as well. Books like "The Hobbit", "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy, "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" series, and "A Christmas Carol" I read more than once, prior to my focus on spiritual fiction.

My favourite movies are "Oh, God!", "Scrooge" with Alastair Sim, "It's A Wonderful Life" and "The Lord Of The Rings" movie trilogy. It probably isn't a coincidence that I also watch all the Christmas classics still - "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer", "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas", "A Charlie Brown Christmas", "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" and "The Little Drummer Boy". Probably my two favourite Christmas movies (which are getting hard to find on TV now) are "The Homecoming" based on "The Waltons", and "An American Christmas Carol" with Henry Winkler. Yes, "Fonzie" starred in a spiritual fiction classic, and if you get a chance it is well worth watching. "The Homecoming" isn't really spiritual fiction, however since I can't imagine living the way they did, it might as well be fiction for the majority of us today.

Celebrating Spiritual Freedom

Spiritual freedom is the energy of the heart. No matter where you live, the circumstances of your life or if you practice a religion or not, you have the freedom to tap into the energy of your heart. The energy of the heart is the Spirit that gives you life. Each one of us, all humans on this planet, can tap into the energy of their heart. As each individual taps into their heart's energy and allows this energy to guide their thoughts, words, and deeds, together we will evolve into One Heart and One Spirit. Learning and experiencing heart energy is vital to the evolution of our human race and the healing of the planet. Celebrating spiritual freedom is the first step.

The beliefs of a religion can appeal to our intellect and the spirit of the religion can appeal to our heart. Religion is what gives shape and form to a particular belief system. Religion provides Holy Books, teachings, rituals, and guidelines for followers to use. Following a religion can give a sense of security by having a system of beliefs while providing connection to a community. For some, it is a necessity to belong to a religion - having beliefs gives structure to their lives. And, there is a Spirit at the heart of every religion that frequently is forgotten and lost in the practice of the religion. You can be a member of a religious community and tap into the true Spirit of that religion, thus celebrating Spiritual freedom.

Some find it challenging to feel the spiritual essence of their religion so they abandon their religion in order to experience their heart energy. Those who say they are "Spiritual, not religious" typically are saying they believe in the Spirit of life without adhering to the structure of a religious belief. Spirituality has become a "buzz" word to mean that you're not religious. With the concept One Heart and One Spirit, it makes no difference whether you follow a specific religion. Remember, Oneness is one, without division. With or without a religion, you can tap into the energy of your heart. Bringing the head and the heart together in Oneness is dynamic. Once this is achieved, you can join the collective movement of conscious living.

Five Similarities Between Religion and Spirituality

When we were children we were asked, Which came first, the chicken or the egg? If we based our answer on the creation story in the Bible, we would answer, Chicken. But if we based our answer on our experience in raising chickens, our answer would be, Egg.

The same can be said of the answer to the question, Which came first, Religion or Spirituality?

In terms of our experience with religious books and discussions, religion came first. It is only now that more and more people are talking about spirituality and writing about it. In terms of the origin of the reality behind those words or in terms of the object of our understanding, spirituality came first. The spirit was there before there was any religion. God was there before there was anybody to worship him.

We can even say that spirituality is an offshoot of religion. For many centuries people professed religion. Some of them fiercely opposed religions other their own. Christians for many centuries opposed paganism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and any other religion. This has happened also with paganism, Islam, and the rest with respect to the other religions. They too opposed other religions.

Cracking the Code of Religion

The religious icons; Christ, the Buddha, etc., went deep within themselves and found something quite remarkable, then advised their followers to do the same.

"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old, seek what they sought (Matsuo Basho)

But something happened along the way; and these icons became articles of worship instead of teachers. Then their followers became idolaters instead of enlightened beings. This explains a lot about the tragedies that followed - the religious wars and sectarian strife that justifies the condemnation that religion is the cause of human strife, rather than the solution.

To discover the truth about contemporary society, and whether it would rather idolize a savior than transform itself as its saviors have done, we must approach the problem with an open mind. When we approach problems with ideology or hardened opinions, we only utilize a fraction of the facts that are available.

Can Religion Survive Quantum Physics?

Our world is on the verge of dramatic change. Quantum discoveries will inevitably restructure our world view. Since this is a shift none of us can escape, we must ask ourselves if our current belief systems will be able to endure the change.

Most religious beliefs arose from our need to explain the natural world. When food was plentiful and conditions stable, our ancestors gave credit to a good power they called God. When disease, drought or natural disasters occurred, they blamed an evil power. Religions were formed when people decided these powers must be appeased. Bible teachings are based on the belief that good and evil powers are locked in a cosmic struggle. Is this world view supported by quantum discoveries?

The quantum universe is one continuous, interconnected whole. If there was a cosmic struggle going on between good and evil, it would be apparent at the quantum level of the universe. That's not what quantum physicists are seeing. At the quantum level, our universe is completely interdependent and linked by shared consciousness. Even if good and evil powers existed outside the universe, they aren't having any effect on it.

Europe Shrinks from Health-Religion Research

Europe's greatest continental divide -- the chasm between scientific research and theology -- has begun to close, as scores of university institutes and medical associations from Arkhangelsk to Zurich are gathering to see how the two fields might help each other. The movement, though, is at a glacial pace, as an increasingly secular Western Europe and a post-communist Eastern Europe continue to resist any efforts that smack of church and state collaboration.

Croatia's University of Zagreb Medical School is typical. Candid discussions concerning religion and medical science take place but never in a formal research environment, said Lucija Fabijanic, a medical student who recently graduated from the school. "Some medical doctors do speak about this topic, but it is mainly not acknowledged by the university and hospital staff," said Fabijanic. "From the medical point of view, I understand that after a long era of communism a lot of people still think that religion is something personal and that it has nothing to do with science and medicine."

Similarly, in Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, where 40 percent of the country's medical academic research is conducted, religion and science are only rarely mentioned in the same breath. Of the 2,814 dissertations published since 1995, only half a dozen mention the words together, and only two -- a 2005 study on Islam's perpetuation of female genital mutilation in Sudan, and a 2000 paper on mortality and injury rates in Northern and Western Europe -- look at religion with more than a passing glance.

New Age Spirituality is all about getting back your power. Not that you ever lost it. Sometimes you gave your power away, misplaced it, or forgot you had power in the first place.

And why does the term: "New Age Spirituality"... seem to bother some religious leaders, especially leaders of the Christian faith? After all, we are in a new age: The Age of Aquarius. The concept of an Age exists within ancient spiritual traditions, and lasts 2000 years. It denotes a change process, occurring during those 2000 years, for the evolution of consciousness, for the good of all. The energy which entered this plane over 2000 years ago, at the beginning of what astrology calls the Piscean Age...was Agape (brotherly and sisterly love) - love of one human being for another, simply because each is worthy of love and part of the same human family. That energy is only now being accepted in any general manner. It has taken us the entire Age for us to "get it."

Christ brought this love-energy to our world over 2000 years ago, and we humans have been working on it ever since. We are just beginning to open, to sisters and brothers everywhere. And now that The Age of Aquarius is finally here...maybe we have developed that critical mass of love-energy that is needed for this New Age Spirituality. This time, the message expands to, "not only are we brothers and sisters...we are one." The Piscean Age taught us, we are all connected; we must love one another as ourselves. The "other" is an illusion. You and I are one consciousness, reflected in an infinite rainbow of seeming difference. All is one.

On Choosing Your Own Spiritual Path

Introduction

" What path is right for me?", is a question that each seeker asks at least once in their lives. As children, most individuals follow the pathways of their parents. Even if a parent has no particular spiritual path, the child is influenced by their parent. This is almost genetic as, regardless of a path, the mother, to the child, is the goddess. As one grows older and begins to think for themselves, they begin to feel a desire to either embrace or reject their parental suggestions. This includes the chosen spiritual path of the individual.

In my own life, I have spent time in many "spiritual" and "religious" pathways. Some of these were even of my own choosing at the time, so I thought. However, as we are social creatures, even the most reclusive of us, we still seem to blunder about until we finally settle on what works well for us.

Over the years as I facilitate myself and others on reaching some kind of accommodation with their desires for spiritual connection, certain indications seem to be prevalent with the majority of individuals.

What is a Spiritual Path?

Dictionary.com defines the word spiritual, (among other things) as:

of or pertaining to the spirit or soul, as distinguished from the physical nature: a spiritual approach to life.

Sufi Poetry and Song Brings Spiritual Understanding

A unique and little-known religion, Sufism follows a mystical teaching and a way of life that has had an enormous though largely unrecognized impact on both the East and West for four thousand years.

The Sufis are as diverse as the countries in which they've flourished-from Morocco to India to China-and as varied as their distinctive forms of art, music, poetry, and dance. They are said to represent the mystical heart of Islam.

Any theory which is difficult to define is going to cause problems for people who like to have instant answers, and this could explain why some of the more impatient members of society would question the meaning of Sufism. In this modern era of technology, cell phones, the internet and all the instant information we constantly get fed, it is possible to lose sight of the deeper meaning of life and the value of enlightenment.

People who follow Sufism reject formal religious rules and believe in an open-minded attitude. The reluctance of a Sufi to be categorized or compartmentalized makes them pretty frustrating for those who would prefer to have the whole concept neatly packed up in a little box, ready to be handed to people all neat and tidy. The fact is that sometimes beliefs cannot be packaged up into one system or set of teachings, and will overlap considerably, including some elements of both Islam and Christianity for example.

Women and Spirituality

The topic selection for this paper is women and spirituality within culture diversity. Current research shows that there is a worldwide need for women to image themselves as spiritual beings. There are intellectual connections between visualizing, achievement and creativity. The media across the world also helps the image of the Goddess, which is an aesthetic and creative value to enrich lives. The Goddess has characteristics that women, from diverse faiths, cultures and background, honor. The global perspective of the Goddess emphasizes life affirming interconnections among women and other species. To know one self better is a universal human need. Women are caught between survival and achievement. Each person, to maximize his or her skills, needs to image the self as part of the divine, as resonating with life. As each person does, he or she increases creativity, achievement and generate beautiful evidence of own insights. These offerings enrich the person's life and the world overall. Some people will make religions out of these possibilities, sounding like big and clever experts, in front of others.

Qualitative analysis found themes to describe spirituality: connection with a Higher Power, personal choice, connectedness with nature and people, healing, and support. Most women across the globe view spirituality and religion as separate, yet connected, entities. Benefits of women's spirituality groups include the groups' being therapeutic, providing valued relationships, and social support.

Spiritualism Uncovered

Spiritualism is a type of religion that should not be confused with spirituality. The spiritualism religion is built on the belief that when people die their spirits reside in another realm known as the spirit world. The believers also believe that the spirits of these dead people want to make contact with the people in the living world. They firmly believe that these spirits attempt to make communications with the living world regularly.

Mediums are people with the ability to hear, see, or otherwise make connections with spirits easier than the average person can. All people have the ability to be communicated with by someone from the spirit world but a medium has the ability to truly understand and explain to us what the communication means. There are mediums of who is not a part of the spiritualism religion, but when a psychic is of this religion they are considered to be spiritualist mediums.

Spiritualist mediums were first recognized in the 18oos when spiritualism began to be a popular religion. Most of the people that belong to these religious orders were from the upper and middle income classes. It all began around 1840 and by 1897 there were reportedly more than eight million active members of this religion in the United States and throughout Europe.

Some of the credibility of the spiritualist mediums was damaged because of the many accusations that were made of people who were fraudulently pursuing financial gain by claiming to be psychic. Spiritualism as a religion lost much of its favor when these accusations began and now there are less active members than there were in the 1800s and early 1900s, most of the people who do belong to this religious order live in the United States, or Canada, with some people residing in the United Kingdom.

Anatomy of a Spiritual Illness (Part 4 of 5)

My meditation practice at this time actually instilled some lucidity, and this clarity kept growing until I really could see with new eyes. The increased clarity was slow in developing, however, which enabled me to more easily absorb the changes that were occurring. Every day and every moment, I stayed true to my practice. What else could I do?

Then one evening, as I was contentedly concentrating, a strange thing happened. Happiness, bliss, confidence, and single-mindedness surrounded me. I suddenly could see that "striking the bell" and "maintaining the tone" were too close to thought, and therefore objectionable -- while happiness, bliss, confidence, and single-mindedness were satisfying and serene. It was as if my effort to meditate was interfering with this newfound peace.

Not long after this occurrence, and perhaps because of the intense sensitivity that was developing because of the illness; I became painfully aware of how frenzied the actual experience of happiness was. A hint of this cropped up in Pennsylvania, but the insight was stronger now, a new kind of awareness that wanted to dismiss happiness completely and leave only equanimity and bliss remaining. Now my practice really took a turn toward stillness as I basked in this equanimity and bliss watching everything without partiality. I was neither happy nor depressed, neither striving nor slack, and although bliss came up at times, I no longer felt necessarily attached to it. This stage felt very mature.

Transcending Religions' Meaning and Value

Religion is a special way of sharing ourselves with others. Perhaps the best thing that we may share with others through our religions is our connectedness to each other and to our Creator.

We may go through many relationships with religion in our lives. Some of us may find our spiritual path by only a single religion, whether they find that path through their religious heritage or go seeking a path on their own. Some of us may try many religions and may finally understand that none of them will be their single path to the divine; these people may go on to develop a personal, independent relationship with their Creator.

Whether we have followed one religion or sampled many different religions, many of us celebrate our relationship to our Creator through religious worship. Our sacred traditions remind us of the intimate ways we are connected to each other and to all of Creation.

Some of us may sometimes err in our perceptions of religions. We may think one or another of the many religions we encounter may be false or hurtful. It is true that we may sometimes experience hurts from the careless words or hands of those who practice their religion sanctimoniously or dogmatically. There may always be those who would exclude from grace anyone who will not bow down to those holy laws peculiar to their own religion, holy laws which they may often purport to be the only path to God.

Everyday Spirituality - Life As Prayer

We are participating in an explosion of new age teaching, interest in eastern religion, and a general curiosity about the usefulness of everyday spiritual practice. When you turn on the television, it seems just about every talk show host is discussing how to maximize human potential and help viewers become a more advanced version of self.

In our effort to reach higher, spirituality is a major interest in the books we read, the classes we take, and the inner peace we want to find. Accordingly, there is growing dialog concerning differences between traditional religious teaching and a form of spiritual practice termed: everyday spirituality or spirituality of the market place. Interestingly enough, the usefulness of spiritual practice in everyday life is an ancient teaching, and lies at the heart of human development systems like Sufism; where travelers are taught, through ordinary daily activity, to align with the Higher and make life a prayer.

To help travelers add this practical approach, we will examine the basic difference between traditional religious form and spirituality; offering various 'things to know, and things to do' while following a personal spiritual path.

Reflections From Meditation - Religious and Spiritual

After one ends a period of meditation or prayer, it is a powerful experience to write out words that come to you. Following are some of the ideas that came to me about religion springing from my life experience. They, of course, may be very different from your personal views.

My grandmother was a very fervent member of the Episcopal Church. She believed fully in religion. She was a deeply spiritual woman who continually searched for God's will in her life. My mother, raised in that environment, was also deeply spiritual. When she married my father she became a Roman Catholic, not too different from the Episcopal Church in many ways.

What I've seen within religion are two groups of people. There is the spiritual and then those interested in control over others.

The spiritual are connected to God. They've discovered that what they knew intellectually as the Supreme Being was not outside of themselves, but love within themselves. Someone who has had a truly spiritual experience will talk about how much stronger they feel by giving themselves over to whatever name they use for God.

With the discovery that God is within, people who have had a spiritual awakening discover their personal power which is within them. It is not unusual for this type of experience to result in what can be called mystical experiences. Mysticism leads people to realize that they don't need someone "out there," as in religious leaders, to tell them what is God's will. Many of these people leave what is called traditional religion and find their way into what is known as New Age spirituality.