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Category Archives: Spirituality

Adapting Buddhist Meditation Practices to Christian Spirituality – by Susan Stabile – Video

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Adapting Buddhist Meditation Practices to Christian Spirituality - by Susan Stabile
Jay Phillips Center presentation by Susan Stabile: Adapting Buddhist Meditation Practices to Christian Spirituality Novemeber 12th, 2013 Q264, Saint John #39;s U...

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Adapting Buddhist Meditation Practices to Christian Spirituality - by Susan Stabile - Video

CATCHING the SPIRIT of Jewish Spirituality – Rabbi Michael Skobac – Jews for Judaism – Video

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CATCHING the SPIRIT of Jewish Spirituality - Rabbi Michael Skobac - Jews for Judaism
JEWS FOR JUDAISM is an international organization dedicated to countering the multi-million dollar efforts of Christian missionary groups that target Jews, t...

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CATCHING the SPIRIT of Jewish Spirituality - Rabbi Michael Skobac - Jews for Judaism - Video

Money or God? My Thoughts on Wealth and How it Relates to Spirituality. – Video

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Money or God? My Thoughts on Wealth and How it Relates to Spirituality.
http://www.herestofreedom.info I asked a question on facebook earlier today "What is your relationship with money?" to bring some perspectives into this vide...

By: KaaaterinaE

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Money or God? My Thoughts on Wealth and How it Relates to Spirituality. - Video

Tagore's poetic spirituality

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India, May 7 -- "Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel the embrace of freedom in thousand bonds of delight." This strikes the keynote of Tagore's poetic spirituality. Despite his deep Vedantic background, Tagore was against any world-negating asceticism. "Whom dost thou worship in the lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?" He found the Omnipresent expressed in and through the creation.

"Deliverance? Where is this deliverance to be found?" Tagore is clear in assertion, "Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation; He is bound with us all forever." God has invited the poet to this wonderful feast of sight and symphony as He wants to witness the eternal harmony of His creation through the eyes and ears of the poet who has been made endless with ever fresh life. So he undergoes the experiences of complete life and is so daring, so passionate and yet so saintly.

The poet is never indifferent to the sordid suffering and numerous worldly diversions. His desires are many and cry is pitiful but he is thankful to God for saving him with hard refusals and thereby making him worthy of divine love.

He is aware that the barrier between him and his cosmic beloved is created by his unending earthly desires. He knows, "All desires that distract me day and night are false and empty to the core."

But this human cry of flesh is succumbed by sublime cry of soul, "Light, oh where is the light? Kindle it with the burning fire of desire." Finally he affirms, "Yes, all my illusions will burn into illumination of joy and all my desires ripen into fruits of love."

"It was my songs that taught me all the lessons I ever learnt, they showed me the secret path,"- says the poet. He marked his poetic spirituality with the words, "In this playhouse of infinite forms, I have had my play and here have I caught sight of him that is formless."

Published by HT Syndication with permission from Hindustan Times.

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Tagore's poetic spirituality

Art: Exploring feminine spirituality

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Maimouna Guerresi (left) and Mudra no.1, 2011 Mamouna Guerresi / TASVEER (Right)

Italian photographer, video artist and sculptor Maimouna Guerresi explores the feminine spirituality through her veiled figures, which in turn, represent the greater Indian spirituality. We catch up with her to know what inspires her.

What is the idea behind Inner Space? In the work for the 'Inner Space' exhibition, some figures do not have a precise religious identity, they could be Muslims or from any other religion. I am attracted to cultural hybridisation, contamination, and religious syncretism. I am more interested in the similarities rather than the differences between religions and traditional cultures, in an attempt to find a common thread that links them and provides the most value for each. As an artist, I am curious and I try to remain as objective as possible.

What made you select India as a culture or society to work with? My work on the subject of India is a continuation of my research regarding the mystic body. As such, much of this series is in fact an extension of my ideas on Giant Spirits, where I began working with Muslim African characters. Through my work, I try to interpret my visions and my imagination in a way that also relates to the real world. Mine is a mystic language, not a report or a chronicle, even though my subjects connect to themes of hard reality such as different religions and different cultures. What interests me most is to unarm peoples fears of the unknown, of that which is different, such things, I believe, are the main causes of both personal and social conflicts.

The images I present are timeless, rigorous, and classic. They do not depict ancient India or a new India in constant development. They are inner representations of a greater Indian spirituality. I hope my work is interpreted in the ecumenical spirit with which it was produced, that is, as a collection of values, cultures and religions coexisting within the Indian population, and that it evokes reflection beyond aesthetic pleasure.

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Art: Exploring feminine spirituality

Pastor Appreciates ‘Spirituality of the Chinese’ in Shen Yun

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Pastor Rob Lloyd (R) enjoys Shen Yun Performing Arts with his wife and friends at the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall in Honolulu, Hawaii, on May 4, 2013.

Mr. Lloyd said he appreciated the spiritual emphasis in the performance, adding that the performance reflected the spirituality of the Chinese.

You have to be right as a person before you can go out and dance because who you are comes through in your moves and the movement of the whole piece as a whole, said Mr. Lloyd.

In traditional China, it was believed that the character of the artist was essential to creating great art. If an artist was not virtuous, their work could not be considered good no matter how it looked. Shen Yun artists follow in this tradition by practicing meditation and cultivation of character so that their performances convey the most uplifting meanings possible.

The costumes were amazing, Mr. Lloyd said. The dance routines, they make it look very simple, but it is very, very difficult moves that they do.

Mr. Lloyd said he enjoyed the orchestra that accompanied the performance. Theres a lot of texture to the music that added to the program.

Shen Yun orchestras are unique in that they consist of the foundation of a Western philharmonic orchestra but also include traditional Chinese instruments that lead the melodies.

According to the Shen Yun website, The sound produced is uniquely pleasing to the ear. The ensemble at once expresses both the grandeur of a Western orchestra and the distinct sensibilities of Chinas 5,000-year-old civilization.

This was a very family-friendly performance, Mr. Lloyd said.

Reporting by Flora Ge and Jasper Fakkert

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Pastor Appreciates ‘Spirituality of the Chinese’ in Shen Yun

Pastor's Corner: Summer Spirituality

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Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. (2 Timothy 4:2)

I doubt that spirituality was designed to be seasonal, but there are times our approach to summertime spirituality stretches that premise.

It begins innocently enough. With summer comes more schedule flexing, vacation planning, weekend trips, and random acts of recreation. As a result, the temptation is to simultaneously put our spirituality on the shelf.

As it increasingly impacted the church through the past decades, the phenomena was labeled the Summer Slump and reflected weekly decline in church attendance and giving. It wasnt simply that the church was affected, but the summer slump impacted personal spirituality as well. Im not positive, but perhaps the origin of the summer slump phenomena first surfaced in the post apostolic period. Late in the first century (A.D.) Christians in Ephesus determined to spend weekends body surfing on the beaches of Ephesus while staying at the Ephesus Super 8. The rest is history!

If were not cautious, the summer season potentially impacts all things spiritual from personal devotions to worship attendance to stewardship, even to the depth of our intimacy with Jesus. The tendency to dial down our walk with God seems to be part of the annual summer American religious experience.

Faith should never be routine, but it should always be part of our routine. Within the realm of personal piety, there is the routine of the spiritual disciplines (practices) such as devotional reading of scripture and prayer.

There is the routine of the community of faith:gathering for worship, Bible study and relational accountability. The reality of church life is that many church programs take a summer hiatus due to lack of volunteer availability or recreational preoccupation.

As a result, there is an intriguing cause and effect relationship between our devotion to spiritual growth and the church program calendar. The reality of our personal life is that if we have the resources and time, were out of here! Vacation time, baby! While theres obviously nothing inherently wrong with vacations, (in fact I highly recommend them) the risk is that vacations rarely enhance our spiritual growth.

It was Paul who wrote to a young pastor named Timothy about the significance of being prepared regardless of the season. The gospel was too strategic to be proclaimed seasonally. I would suggest our relationship with Christ cant afford to take the summer off either.

Brian Vriesman, pastor of Twin Falls Reformed Church, may be reached at 733-6128 or brian@-tfrc.org.

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Pastor's Corner: Summer Spirituality

Boston suspect's mother found deeper spirituality

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Boston:In photos of her as a younger woman, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva wears a low-cut blouse and has her hair teased like a 1980s rock star. After she arrived in the US from Russia in 2002, she went to beauty school and did facials at a suburban day spa.

But in recent years, people noticed a change. She began wearing a hijab and cited conspiracy theories about 9/11 being a plot against Muslims.

Now known as the angry and grieving mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Tsarnaeva is drawing increased attention after federal officials say Russian authorities intercepted her phone calls, including one in which she vaguely discussed jihad with her elder son. In another, she was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, US officials said.

Tsarnaeva insists there is no mystery. She's no terrorist, just someone who found a deeper spirituality. She insists her sons - Tamerlan, who was killed in a gunfight with police, and Dzhokhar, who was wounded and captured - are innocent.

"It's all lies and hypocrisy," she told The Associated Press in Dagestan. "I'm sick and tired of all this nonsense that they make up about me and my children. People know me as a regular person, and I've never been mixed up in any criminal intentions, especially any linked to terrorism."

Amid the scrutiny, Tsarnaeva and her ex-husband, Anzor Tsarnaev, say they have put off the idea of any trip to the US to reclaim their elder son's body or try to visit Dzhokhar in jail. Tsarnaev told the AP on Sunday he was too ill to travel to the US Tsarnaeva faces a 2012 shoplifting charge in a Boston suburb, though it was unclear whether that was a deterrent.

At a news conference in Dagestan with Anzor last week, Tsarnaeva appeared overwhelmed with grief one moment, defiant the next. "They already are talking about that we are terrorists, I am terrorist," she said. "They already want me, him and all of us to look (like) terrorists."

Tsarnaeva arrived in the US in 2002, settling in a working-class section of Cambridge, Mass. With four children, Anzor and Zubeidat qualified for food stamps and were on and off public assistance benefits for years. The large family squeezed itself into a third-floor apartment.

Zubeidat took classes at the Catherine Hinds Institute of Esthetics, before becoming a state-licensed aesthetician. Anzor, who had studied law, fixed cars.

By some accounts, the family was tolerant.

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Boston suspect's mother found deeper spirituality


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