beliefs
Heal Your Life With The Great Law
Do you have a lot of recurring drama in your life and the same negative situations repeating again and again? Do you keep attracting the same kind of toxic people and energy thieves into your life?
If so, you may benefit from learning more about the laws of karma and how to apply them in your everyday life, as these universal laws can transform your life for the better if we honor them in our spiritual practice and daily life.
Hindu and Buddhist spirituality recognizes 12 Laws of Karma. The first and most important of these is The Great Law, also known as the Law of Cause and Effect. This fundamental karmic law has helped me a lot to uncomplicate my own life since my spiritual awakening.
The Great Law teaches that whatever we sow, we shall reap. Every cause has an effect. Whatever put out into the world will eventually come back to us. Even the good and bad things we wish upon others will return to bless, or curse us.
Once we understand the role of The Great Law in our life, we become more aware of how we can eliminate negative patterns in our life and begin to attract more positive, new things.
The energy we emanate each day in the form of thoughts, wishes, fears, desires, attitudes, and beliefs will determine what will return to us as manifested experiences, events and circumstances.
Intention is everything in karmic law. For example, you start dating someone, but you live in fear of that person leaving you, or betraying you, so you are emanating an energy frequency of fear. In the end, it is very likely that you will lose that person. Fear attracts fear, love attracts love, and gratitude attracts gratitude. It’s that simple.
Spiritual Awakening ‘Turns On The Light’
What exactly is a spiritual awakening, and is there a way you can tell if you are having one? Here are some ways to be aware of what is happening to you.
The first sign is usually when you are no longer living in a ‘dream world,’ where you used to see everything through your human ego and you were overly focused on the future and your past.
This is a clear sign that you are becoming more spiritually aware. You have a greater awareness of your individual self and the connection between that and everything else. Things start to come into better focus in your life and make more sense.
When you closely examine various religions and faith traditions, there is usually a common thread that describes this state of heightened awareness as nirvana, enlightenment, or awakening.
This new consciousness happens when you stop being the observer, and instead ask yourself, who is observing?
Many people go through life on ‘autopilot,’ because that is what they were taught, or they simply fell into a routine without giving much thought to who they really are, or what they truly need or desire to make their life meaningful.
Asking such questions about yourself is important for your personal growth and self-realization. It is ‘turning the light on’ so to speak. The first step in growth is always the awareness of the present moment followed by an impulse to change something. Continue reading
The History And Hidden Blessings Of Halloween
As a child, I remember getting excited about dressing up as a witch on Halloween and enjoying all the treats, like toffee apples and spooky cakes, that my mom used to make.
But one year, my father ruined the holiday for me when he explained his views on the significance of Halloween to me. I was just 10 years old, and it upset me.
Because of his religious beliefs, my father then forbade my siblings and me from celebrating Halloween. This made us feel excluded from our community as we watched other children dress up and enjoy themselves.
As an adult, I learned that it was not the event itself that was the issue, but rather the assumed F.E.A.R. behind it: False Evidence Appearing Real.
Remembering those times recently, I was prompted to take another look into the origin of this holiday tradition and what it truly stands for.
On 31st October each year, the Celtic pagan festival known as Samhain is celebrated, symbolizing the end of the harvest period and the start of the winter season, sometimes referred to as the “darker half” of the annual 12-month cycle.
Long before it became a night of costumes and candy, it was a sacred festival rooted in ancient spiritual tradition. The celebration we now know as Halloween traces its origins to Samhain (pronounced Sow-in), a Gaelic festival that marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of the dark half of the year.
Simple Guidelines For Real Spiritual Growth
Spirituality is a wide-ranging concept with many diverse perspectives. In essence it is the process through which our inner being seeks to relate to something bigger than ourselves. It is the search for the meaning and purpose of our human existence.
Spirituality is about our soul or spirit, and the unseen realms, as opposed to material things and physical life. It is also the life-long pursuit of inner peace, unconditional love, and existential wisdom and understanding.
Many people believe that the secret to spiritual growth and development can only be found in a book, a lecture, dogmatic belief system, or some other product or service that will magically unlock the doors to spiritual insight, happiness, joy and fulfillment.
However, spirituality is a unique, personal path that each of us can explore on our own, from within. The following guidelines may be helpful on your journey towards spiritual fulfillment.
Reflection
The first step in personal spiritual growth is reflecting on your life journey. To be spiritual is to be questioning and inquisitive. Spiritual growth is a process of constantly learning and improving. One must be willing to open yourself to personal and spiritual growth, and by doing this your world opens up and things become less scary.
Holding on to past events keeps us from experiencing new adventures, and the emotional baggage will only weigh you down. Accept your past mistakes and learn from them. Reflect on what changes need to happen for you to move forward.
We are all teachers. We are either teaching someone, or they are teaching us – both good and bad. Learn from your experiences and move on with life.
Seeing The Real World Of The Heart
As a woman and mother, I have questions about things happening in my world. As an intuitive empath, I receive questions that others have about things happening in their world. A recent experience sums up what I consider to be the most reliable source of inner wisdom, and where answers can be accessed by all of us.
I was awake one night with the energetic sensation of a specific situation permeating my experience. I could feel the energy in each expansion of my chest, as I inhaled. It filled my every breath, my every sense. My mind questioned, but I heard the guiding whisper of God in my soul say, “The real world is in the heart.”
There are spiritual dimensions of reality that are deeper, finer, subtler, more substantial than what is evident on the surface in the physical world. The door that opens to them is within the heart. There is truly more than meets the eye.
This realization reminded me of the illustration plates in the anatomy section of my parents’ encyclopedia, which fascinated me when I was a child. It wasn’t the human body per se that so intrigued me; it was the way the transparencies overlaid one another to form the whole picture.
At the top of them all was the skin, creating a picture of a human the way I was accustomed to see. As I turned the first page, I got a glimpse of something I had felt but never seen directly before with my eye, namely muscles. Page by page continuously showed deeper levels of anatomy beneath the surface, including the circulatory system, organs, and skeleton.
The Magicless Misery Of ‘Compare And Despair’
I once attended a Toastmasters meeting where a gentleman was delivering his first speech to this specific group. It was an ice breaker to have us get acquainted with him. Instead of the typical short autobiographical introduction this speaker chose to give us an overview of his philosophy of life.
He told his audience that he sees himself entering a new phase of his life right now. He spoke about how important it is to get to know yourself and to take care of yourself first and foremost, and to always live in the moment.
After the speech and applause, the toastmaster reflected briefly on what the talk meant to him as he had listened. He said it reminded him of a mentor who had once, many years ago, said to him, “Compare… and despair”. If in life you are constantly comparing yourself to others, or comparing what you have with what others have, or what you feel you lack, or need to achieve, then all that will do is bring yourself unnecessary despair.
The only thing you should ever compare yourself against, his mentor added, is yesterday. Today did you do something constructive or grow in some way that makes you a better person than you were yesterday?
Too often we compare ourselves with our peers, both in our personal and professional lives. Why did he get a raise and not me? Why can I not find a soulmate like she did? Why can’t I be a successful entrepreneur like him? How come they get to have all these wonderful vacations?
The Timeless Magic Of Nature Spirits And Elementals
As a youngster growing up in the UK, I loved visiting a neighbor, Mrs. O’Leary, whose lilting Irish voice still echoes in my mind. She spoke often of the “Good People” and acknowledged their presence in her home and garden. I recall her taking us outside to witness her making small offerings to these unseen little mystical beings.
Though it feels like a distant memory now, I can still recall seeing them, too. Perhaps they appeared to us because we truly believed, or perhaps because Mrs. O’Leary invited them to show themselves.
Whatever the reason, those moments left a lasting impression. To me, it felt like truly being “in my element,” fully connected to the hidden, magical forces of nature.
I vaguely recall a magical moment in Mrs. O’Leary’s garden when she pointed out to me a tiny, translucent little figure perched on a large moss-covered rock at the base of her prized old hawthorn tree. With delight, she described how this “little person” was waving at us and encouraged me to wave back. Standing there with awe and intrigue, I became aware of what seemed like hundreds of luminous sprites dancing in the glistening water below.
Despite all the cynicism of a technologically driven world, increasingly devoid of the many miracles and wonders of nature and the unseen realms, Mrs. O’Leary and the spirits of nature still remind me of the healing, transformative power that lies in reverence, stillness, and everyday magic.