Category: Spirituality

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 [...]

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff Wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of God – Koran Recently, there has been much discussion about building a mosque near ground zero; many people feel that its location dishonors and insults the memory of those who died in the 911 tragedy. Yet, people forget that innocent Muslims died in this event, [...]

By Susan Scharfman Will you teach your children what we teach our children, that the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. Earth does not belong to man; Man belongs to the earth. ––Chief Seattle of the Suquamish Tribe (et al) of the Pacific Northwest If old [...]

by Gangaji I was talking to someone recently about the bounty of his life.  He said, “It couldn’t have been imagined.”  What a true statement.  True bounty cannot be imagined.  In fact, the only obstacle to true bounty is trying to imagine what it might be.  Then we fixate on that imagining and don’t even [...]

“By understanding that death is neither an enemy nor an ending and that there is no judgment anywhere in the universe, we can release our fear-based notions of punishment rather than correction, judgment rather than support, and an eternity of idleness rather than limitless opportunity for growth.” These are the words of author Terri Daniel, [...]

By Keith Varnum When I was only 22, I found myself thrust into the job of managing a bustling natural food store in Boston. I hadn’t ask for the promotion. I enjoyed my previous job of produce manger. Fruits and vegetables are easier to mange than people! And before that job, I was very content [...]

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff One of the many things the western spiritual seeker has to face is that within the context of our culture there is limited discussion and awareness concerning the outcome of spiritual learning.  Also, western spiritual travelers may have romantic ideas about what they will look like after they have reached ‘spiritual [...]