Category: Spirituality

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff Consider a drop of water, in its journey to the sea and how it undergoes change. One day the drop is mist.  The next it has become part of a passing cloud.  On the third day, the drop falls onto the ground as a raindrop; eventually the drop seeps down into [...]

By Marlene Buffa No matter what your religious or spiritual beliefs, the irony of a divine birth in the middle of the winter of earthly death inspires faith.  Harvest complete, farming dormant, our earthly cycle of seed-to-life lays at rest in the winter months.  Instead, the birth of a heavenly idea springs forth each year [...]

“Oh, my God! I can see perfectly!” … What a shock! On a break in the workshop, I walk outside of the conference room onto a high desert mesa near Sedona. I look out at a surprisingly crisp, clear vision of Arizona’s famous purple mountains at sunset. My eyesight hasn’t been this sharp since I [...]

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff He whose undertakings are free from anxious desire and fanciful thought, whose work is made pure in the fire of wisdom: he is called wise by those who see. Bhagavad-Gita, 4:19 Traveler:            It is said, that in order for the spiritual traveler to reach their goal, first, they must unlearn much [...]

by Barry and Joyce Vissell A short time ago, Joyce and I fulfilled a thirty-five year old dream of leading a retreat in Assisi, Italy. The experience went way beyond what we could have ever imagined. Early one morning we brought our group of retreat participants to the Basilica de San Francesco, the tomb of [...]

By Marlene Buffa Years ago, the television show Saturday Night Live, included a skit where Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest played blue collar workers discussing their masochistic habits. Describing painful physical events, absurdly orchestrated, the opposing character grimaced and replied, “Ooh, I hate when that happens.” The audience laughed not only because of Crystal’s comedic [...]

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff Here’s a follow-up story about the threatened Koran Burning with flow and synchronicity that just has to make you smile. The other day I was driving in New Jersey listening to the radio and a car commercial came on the air. It was Brad Benson, a large volume New Jersey Hyundai [...]

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff Each of us has an internal gauge that helps us decide what to do in a complex situation.  In the past, this capacity was called the ‘voice of conscience;’ and many of us make good use of our own internal measure of knowing right from wrong. Yet, our modern life is [...]

by Marlene Buffa My favorite holiday of the year – Halloween – a time when people honestly pretend to be something other than who they are!  By donning our masks and putting on makeup and costumes, we cloak ourselves in a persona vastly different from how we present ourselves every day.  The new façade creates [...]

By Marlene Buffa October 12, 2010 Born and raised in Michigan, I knew the move to Phoenix would bring profound changes to my life.  Accustomed to a lifetime in a state with beautiful lakes and lush landscape, I learned to live with the native insects and wondered about the types of critter-life I’d find in [...]

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff Religion is a structure through which spiritual learning can begin and mature. Over the years, as travelers advance, spiritual learning takes place more and more outside of a religious context, and occurs in daily life through personal spiritual experience. Personal spiritual experience is the natural extension of religious inquiry; the great religions were [...]

By Marlene Buffa Each morning I blow out the candle I lit the night before.  A large glass globe sits inside of a metal stand and the candle, either a short or tall pillar, rests inside the base of the globe. 4:30 a.m. The dogs woke me up. I reach for my candle, carefully grabbing [...]