Divine Sparks

John Francis TED Talk - I Walk the Earth

2012-01-30T13:27:00.002-05:00

When Death Comes - Mary Oliver

2012-01-28T06:03:00.000-05:00

photo credit: Hamed Saber via photopin cc When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snaps the purse shut; when death comes like the measles-pox; when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades, I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: what is it going to be like, that cottage

Seeking - Cheri Huber

2012-01-22T03:53:00.000-05:00

photo credit: *Kicki* via photopin cc "If we didn't already know the experience of what we're looking for, we would never look. It simply would not occur to us... We begin to seek - where, what is that which we long for, our essence, our True Nature, that which we truly are? - and slowly, painstakingly we begin to follow it home. Haltingly, fearfully, sometimes excitedly, joyfully, we begin

Quote from Father Bede Griffiths - from "The Hope" by Andrew Harvey

2012-01-21T04:06:00.001-05:00

photo credit: Sarjana Sky via photopin cc When, through grace, you are taken to one horizon of Awakening, another, even vaster, opens up before you. Even the highest angels are evolving, drawn ever upward in a passion of love for love.

SPIRITUAL CONSPIRACY - Anonymous Author

2012-01-18T04:50:00.000-05:00

I stumbled upon the following poem on this blog ... On the surface of the world right now there is war and violence and things seem dark. But calmly and quietly, at the same time, something else is happening underground An inner revolution is taking place and certain individuals are being called to a higher light. It is a silent revolution. From the inside out. From the ground up. This is a

2012-01-16T09:09:00.000-05:00

I'm a new fan of Dr. Christine Page! Dr. Christine Page, "Healing and Knowing Your Body" ISSSEEM Conference from BVMA on Vimeo.

How Does It Taste? - A parable shared by Mark Nepo

2012-01-15T04:49:00.002-05:00

photo credit: paul (dex) via photopin cc An aging Hindu master grew tired of his apprentice complaining, and so, one morning, sent him for some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it. "How does it taste?" the master asked. "Bitter," spit the apprentice. The master chuckled and

Best Questions Series - Post #1

2012-01-12T10:30:00.000-05:00

What did you marry? What did you divorce? ~ posed to me by Charque Newell, December 2011

Questions Tennis - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

2012-01-12T10:17:00.000-05:00

I love questions and I love the idea for this game:

Krista Tippett on Being Podcasts

2012-01-11T08:54:00.000-05:00

I heard this for the first time last night - an episode about Roseanne Cash. WOW!your browser does not support IFRAMEs

Authentic Resonance - Paula Reeves

2012-01-09T19:27:00.001-05:00

Every woman must find a clear and clean connection to her body and the full range of her feelings before she can trust her own intuitive capacity. A woman must learn how to give voice to her emotional position without the messiness of an undifferentiated mood - or the fear of revealing her power. We have to learn to like the sound of our own voice, teaching ourselves not to allow it, neglected,

Unchanging Awareness - Richard Miller

2012-01-09T06:45:00.000-05:00

I have been doing Yoga Nidra off and on for about 10 years. Yesterday when I was following one of Richard Miller's guided sessions, something he said jumped out at me: ...being aware of all that's now in awareness...peeling back...dissolving into being unchanging awareness in which all the changing perceptions are unfolding...

Movement - Einstein

2012-01-06T05:26:00.000-05:00

Something is moving. ~ Einstein, in answer to a query as to whether there was anything he knew for sure.

Large Spiral Rose-Like Galaxy - New Hubble Image

2011-12-23T07:58:00.000-05:00

The newly released Hubble image shows a large spiral galaxy, known as UGC 1810, with a disk that is distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813 Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2077549/Nasas-Hubble-telescope-shows-space-rose-2-galaxies-colliding-300m-light-years-away.html#ixzz1hMVcDBax

Jesus's Life - Jung as quoted by Rob Brezsny

2011-12-23T04:17:00.000-05:00

The whole point of Jesus’s life was not that we should become exactly like him, but that we should become ourselves in the same way he became himself. Jesus is not the great exception but the great example. —Carl Jung as quoted by Rob Brezsny in Pronoia

The Cruise - A Documentary

2011-12-22T05:35:00.001-05:00

Watched this the other night. Loved the whole thing - especially what he says about relationships at the 6:45 minute mark!

Teaching, Teachers, Passion - Matt Damon Speaks

2011-12-22T04:28:00.001-05:00

YES! Matt Damon speaks about teachers, standardized testing, and passion in the two following videos:

Solstice Joy - by Gary Zukav

2011-12-18T05:21:00.000-05:00

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en ... from Gary Zukav's Seat of the Soul Institute Blog The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of

Philip Glass & Lou Reed at Occupy Lincoln Center: An Artful View

2011-12-09T08:45:00.001-05:00

Visible Shape (Philip Glass & Lou Reed occupying Lincoln Center) from jaune! on Vimeo.

Behind the Urgency - Mark Nepo

2011-12-08T04:15:00.001-05:00

When feeling urgent, you must slow down. I learned this, over and over, during the many crises of cancer. Unless someone is bleeding or can’t breathe, unless there is some true physical requirement to act swiftly, a sense of urgency is a terrible illusion, a trick that happens, again and again, because life inside our skin and outside our skin are forever different. It is as hard as

Quote from "Spiritual Alchemy" by Dr. Christine Page

2011-12-07T17:22:00.001-05:00

I love this: "Now is the time to remove the veils of separation, dissolving the myths that to be human is to belong to a lesser race or that each of us isn't in a position to know Divine consciousness. So I ask you, What part of your soul is waiting in the shadows to be acknowledged? What dreams, aspirations or beliefs about yourself have you carried from childhood but now lie dormant,

Cam's Thanksgiving Sermon

2011-11-24T05:50:00.001-05:00

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Questions of the Heart

2011-11-22T05:31:00.001-05:00

The mind alone cannot answer the questions of the heart.

The Nature of Teaching - Mark Nepo

2011-11-21T06:24:00.001-05:00

Kikakou was a student of Basho, the great Japanese poet of the seventeenth century. One day Kikakou brought Basho this haiku about why we need each other: A blind child guided by his mother, admires the cherry blossoms... This moment of small things opens the heart of all teaching. For we each take turns being the blind child, the

Accepting This - Mark Nepo

2011-11-21T06:17:00.001-05:00

Yes, it is true. I confess, I have thought great thoughts, and sung great songs—all of it rehearsal for the majesty of being held. The dream is awakened when thinking I love you and life begins when saying I love you and joy moves like blood when embracing others with love. My efforts now turn from trying to outrun suffering to accepting

Marco Tempest - The Magic of Truth and Lies

2011-11-05T05:53:00.001-04:00

Steve Jobs' Eulogy by His Sister

2011-11-03T06:35:00.002-04:00

Steve's final words were "OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW." http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/mona-simpsons-eulogy-for-steve-jobs.html

Happiness and Life - John Lennon

2011-10-31T04:44:00.000-04:00

Chuck Close - Interview with Charlie Rose

2011-10-24T05:40:00.001-04:00

I love what he says about limitations around the 20 minute mark.

Mirrors of Self - Ruth and Charque

2011-10-23T09:35:00.000-04:00

You share more than you think with your mother and grandmother...

2011-10-19T10:56:00.000-04:00

Did you know that when your grandmother was five months pregnant with your mother, the egg that would eventually become you was already present in your mother's womb? That means, before your mother was even born, your mother, your grandmother and you all shared the same biological environment. Whatever intense feelings (grief, trauma, etc.) affected your grandmother likely affected your mother

Heart and Path - Mark Nepo

2011-10-16T09:38:00.002-04:00

It takes six million grains of pollen to seed one peony, and salmon need a lifetime of swimming to find their way home, so we mustn't be alarmed or discouraged when it takes us years to find love or years to understand our calling in life. Everything in nature is given some form of resilience by which it can rehearse finding its way, so that, when it doesn't, it is practiced and ready to

Radical Abundance: David Korten Presentation

2011-10-15T03:02:00.001-04:00

This is a long-ish and very inspiring lecture. If you don't have a lot of time, just listen to the first 15 minutes or so. It might just pull you in. :) Learn More about David Korten

2011-10-14T07:11:00.001-04:00

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. ~Howard Thurman

Dalai Lama - What Surprises Him the Most...

2011-10-12T07:09:00.002-04:00

Overcoming - Helen Keller

2011-10-10T05:16:00.000-04:00

Rule Breakers - Think Different

2011-10-07T04:40:00.000-04:00

Quote from Steve Jobs - 2005 Stanford Commencement

2011-10-06T07:13:00.001-04:00

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the

Worry - Chinese Proverb

2011-09-09T05:24:00.000-04:00

"That the birds of worry and care fly over your head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent." - Chinese Proverb

Family Constellations - Quote from Mark Wolynn

2011-09-02T05:29:00.000-04:00

Did you know that what we reject in our parents lives inside us? We can carry their emotions, behaviors, addictions and traumas as though they were our own. It’s our unconscious way of loving them. The more we distance from them, the more we are likely to suffer. Once we find our peace with our parents, it not only has a positive effect on us, but also on our children who often carry our

My Friend's Divorce - Naomi Shihab Nye

2011-08-18T07:16:00.000-04:00

I want her To dig up every plant in her garden, the pansies, the penta, roses, rununculas, thyme and the lilies, the thing nobody knows the name of, unwind the morning glories from the wire windows of the fence, take the blooming and the almost-blooming and the dormant, especially the dormant, and then and then plant them in her new yard on the other side of town and see how they breathe!

Relating - Molly Vass

2011-07-09T20:14:00.000-04:00

The stuff of our lives doesn't change.It is we who change in relation to it.

A Set of Inner Doors - Mark Nepo

2011-07-09T20:09:00.001-04:00

Whatever our gifts or wounds or life situation - whether we have been married several times or have never been in love, whether we have plenty of money or are sorely in need of more - the core issues of our lives will not go away. There exists for each life on Earth a set of inner doors that no one can go through for us. We can change jobs or lovers, travel around the world, become a doctor or

what to remember when waking - David Whyte

2011-07-08T08:32:00.000-04:00

In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake, coming back to this life from the other more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world there is a small opening into the new day which closes the moment you begin your plans. What you can plan is too small for you to live. What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough for the vitality hidden in your sleep. To be human is to

The House of Belonging - David Whyte

2011-07-08T06:41:00.000-04:00

I awoke this morning in the gold light turning this way and that thinking for a moment it was one day like any other. But the veil had gone from my darkened heart and I thought it must have been the quiet candlelight that filled my room, it must have been the first easy rhythm with which I breathed myself to sleep, it must have been the prayer I said speaking to the otherness of the

Friend - Hafiz

2011-07-03T07:08:00.000-04:00

This is the kind of Friend You are - Without making me realize My soul's anguished history, You slip into my house at night, And while I am sleeping, You silently carry off All my suffering and sordid past In Your beautiful Hands.

My Garden Nautilus (and Slug)

2011-07-02T06:02:00.001-04:00

I thought I was taking a pic of the snail shell, and this morning I also noticed the slug (or could it be the snail that left its shell behind!?).

For Your Birthday - John O'Donohue

2011-06-28T05:21:00.000-04:00

from http://ashhasgotskillz.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html Blessed be the mind that dreamed the day The blueprint of your life Would begin to glow on earth, Illuminating all the faces and voices That would arrive to invite Your soul to growth. Praised be your father and mother, Who loved you before you were, And trusted to call you here With no idea who you would be. Blessed be those

Everything is Waiting for You - David Whyte

2011-06-08T12:07:00.000-04:00

Your great mistake is to act the drama as if you were alone. As if life were a progressive and cunning crime with no witness to the tiny hidden transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely, even you, at times, have felt the grand array; the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding out your solo voice You must note the way the soap dish enables you,

Einstein on Clutter

2011-05-17T12:52:00.000-04:00

2011-04-24T09:38:00.000-04:00

“A pearl is a beautiful thing that is produced by an injured life. It is the tear [that results] from the injury of the oyster. The treasure of our being in this world is also produced by an injured life. If we had not been wounded, if we had not been injured, then we will not produce the pearl.”Stephan Hoeller

Commitment - Goethe

2011-04-12T08:23:00.000-04:00

Until one is committed, there is hesitance, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise

The Gift - William Stafford

2011-04-12T05:03:00.000-04:00

Time wants to show you a different country. It's the onethat your life conceals, the one waiting outsidewhen curtains are drawn, the one Grandmother hinted atin her crochet design, the one almost foundover at the edge of the music, after the sermon.It's the way life is, and you have it, a few years given.You get killed now and then, violatedin various ways. (And sometimes it's turn about.)You get

Money - Thornton Wilder

2011-04-11T07:30:00.000-04:00

“Money is like manure; it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around encouraging young things to grow.” — Thornton Wilder (The Matchmaker A Farce in Four Acts)

2011-04-11T04:14:00.001-04:00

Dandelion Seed Head ‎"Learn to wish that everything should come to pass exactly as it does." Epictetus, Greek philosopher (c.55 - c.135 C.E.)

Where You Are - Hafiz

2011-04-08T13:32:00.000-04:00

This place where you are right now,God circled on a map for you. ~ Hafiz

Joy - Cheri Huber

2011-04-05T13:36:00.000-04:00

"Joy is compassion turned inward..."

Grace emerges... - by Rob Brezsny

2011-03-14T04:27:00.000-04:00

Pronoia doesn't promise uninterrupted progress forever. It's not a slick commercial for a perfect summer day that never ends. Grace emerges in the ebb and flow, not just the flow. The waning reveals a different kind of blessing than the waxing. But whether it's our time to ferment in the valley of shadows or rise up singing in the sun-splashed meadow, fresh power to transform ourselves is always

The Storm is Passing Over

2011-02-25T12:16:00.002-05:00

Faith - Martin Luther King, Jr.

2011-02-06T10:21:00.000-05:00

From "A Course of Love" (10.17)

2011-02-05T09:19:00.000-05:00

"Nothing happens by accident and the observation of this will help to put the responsibility of your life back into your hands, where it belongs. You are not helpless, nor are you at the whim of forces beyond your control. The only force beyond your control is your own mind."

Vulnerability - Brene Brown's TED Talk

2011-01-07T04:43:00.000-05:00

Visionaries - Henri Amiel

2011-01-06T07:42:00.000-05:00

A New Year's Benediction - Neil Gaiman

2011-01-03T04:46:00.002-05:00

A Blessing for the New Year (Beannacht) - John O'Donohue

2011-01-01T06:47:00.000-05:00

For a New Beginning - John O'Donohue

2010-12-22T05:23:00.002-05:00

Art by Deborah Koff-Chapin In out-of-the-way places of the heart, Where your thoughts never think to wander, This beginning has been quietly forming, Waiting until you were ready to emerge. For a long time it has watched your desire, Feeling the emptiness growing inside you, Noticing how you willed yourself on, Still unable to leave what you had outgrown. It watched you play with the

Change - Ellen Bass

2010-11-23T19:08:00.000-05:00

Art by Deborah Koff-Chapin This is where I yank the old rootsfrom my chest, like tomatoeswe let grow until December, stalksthick as saplings. This is the moment when the ancient fearsrace like thoroughbreds, asking for moreand more rein. And, I, the driver,for some reason they know nothing ofstrain to hold them back. Terror grips me like a virusand I sweat, fevered,trying to burn it out. This

How to Be Free of Guilt - David R. Hawkins

2010-11-06T09:08:00.002-04:00

David R. Hawkins on Integrity

2010-11-04T09:42:00.002-04:00

The Dalai Lama at Stanford

2010-10-21T07:27:00.000-04:00

Recorded Webcast of "The Centrality of Compassion in Human Life and Society" Thursday, October 14, 2010, 9:30-11:00 am PDT.A public talk by His Holiness the Dalai Lama &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;your browser does not support IFRAMEs&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;

Pull - Rumi

2010-10-13T19:29:00.000-04:00

Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love. ~Rumi

Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education

2010-10-02T09:31:00.002-04:00

One Day - Matisyahu

2010-10-01T09:21:00.002-04:00

Matisyahu - One Day from 100% on Vimeo.

A Spell to Re-Genius Yourself - Rob Brezsny

2010-09-28T20:26:00.000-04:00

From Brezsny's Site: http://www.freewillastrology.com/horoscopes/ Although we are all born geniuses, the grind of day-to-day living tends to de-genius us. That's the bad news. The good news is that you have the power to re-genius yourself. I'm going to give you a ritual you can use to jump-start the process. The Greek philosopher Plato long ago recognized that in addition to

Driver's Ed - An Exercise

2010-09-20T10:22:00.000-04:00

From On Becoming an Alchemist: A Guide for the Modern Magicianby Catherine MacCoun, p. 135 "I've recently discovered a quick way back to the driver's seat when I fall into passenger mentality. Maybe it will work for you, too. A year ago I found myself embarking on an enterprise that scared me. I wasn't at all sure whether I really ought to be doing this thing, and my desires were equally

From Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology

2010-09-19T10:20:00.000-04:00

In his book "The Medusa and the Snail," science writer Lewis Thomas said that the word "error" developed from a root meaning "to wander about, looking for something." That's why he liked Darwin's idea that error is a driving force in evolution. "The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA," said Thomas. ..."Without this special attribute, we would still be anaerobic bacteria

What Makes Us Human?

2010-09-19T07:04:00.002-04:00

Meaning and Choice

2010-09-08T10:01:00.000-04:00

The meaning of life is not a fact to be discovered, but a choice that you make about the way you live. – Hilda Bernstein, anti-apartheid activist, quoted in The Washington Post.

Book Recommendation: The Soul of Money - Lynne Twist

2010-09-01T06:12:00.000-04:00

I am reading an amazing book called The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist. This morning it is this quote that resonates with me the most: We each have the choice in any setting to step back and let go of the mind-set of scarcity. Once we let go of scarcity, we discover the surprising truth of sufficiency. By sufficiency, I don't mean a quantity of anything. Sufficiency isn't two steps up from

Mother Teresa's "Anyway" Poem

2010-08-31T18:34:00.000-04:00

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy

Listen to your life...

2010-08-29T07:59:00.000-04:00

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace. ~FREDERICH BUECHNER

Martin Luther King "I have a dream"

2010-08-28T14:32:00.000-04:00

Zen Meditation Chimes

2010-08-25T08:25:00.000-04:00

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There is a Brokenness

2010-08-22T05:15:00.000-04:00

There is a brokenness out of which comes the unbroken, a shatteredness out of which blooms the unshatterable. There is a sorrow beyond all grief that leads to joy and a fragility out of whose depths emerges strength. There is a hollow space too vast for words through which we pass with each loss, out of whose darkness we are sanctioned into being. There is a cry deeper than all sound whose

God Speaking - Hafiz

2010-08-20T07:35:00.003-04:00

EveryoneIs God speaking.Why not be polite andListen toHim?

Throwing Away - Breaking Free - Susannah

2010-08-19T08:26:00.016-04:00

I'm going through old stuff while the kids are in Florida visiting their dad. It's some stuff I've been dragging around with me for years: journals, college notebooks, old letters. I'm filtering through pretty quickly - tossing a lot...I just don't feel the need to lug it around anymore, yet it feels a little painful and "a lot scary" to let go of it. I consider what this letting go means to

Watch a Panda Grow

2010-08-18T17:12:00.024-04:00

Love - Buddha

2010-08-18T07:36:00.003-04:00

2010 Predictions from ... Beyond.

2010-08-15T18:19:00.000-04:00

Andrew Solomon: The Refugees

2010-08-12T13:27:00.001-04:00

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One Love!

2010-08-10T08:40:00.000-04:00

Inner Gold - Join the Conversation

2010-08-09T11:33:00.002-04:00

Jung Documentary

2010-08-09T07:33:00.001-04:00

Fear vs. Intuition - Rob Brezsny

2010-08-04T08:55:00.002-04:00

Click here to listen to a short audio of Rob Brezsny sharing how to tell the difference between fearful fantasies and true intuition...

Footsteps - Thoreau

2010-08-02T07:04:00.003-04:00

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deeper physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.~ Henry David Thoreau

The Apocalypse - Rob Brezsny

2010-07-18T17:46:00.004-04:00

From Pronoia by Rob Brezsny But it’s nothing like the end of the world visualized by any of the usual suspects. It’s different in four ways. 1. THE APOCALYPSE IS HAPPENING IN SLOW MOTION. It has been going on for decades and will continue to unfold for many years. Sudden, sensational punctuations arise now and then to expedite it, but for the most part it ferments continuously in the

Amazon Exclusive: A Personal Note from Gary Zukav

2010-07-14T08:36:00.002-04:00

I wrote Spiritual Partnership: The Journey to Authentic Power to try to get out of my own cage. I wanted, and needed, to connect with people, not just reach them, but really connect for my own well being and hopefully for theirs as well. I have learned that the difficult times in my life are not because of other people, they are because of me. They occur because of parts of my personality

It is Through Them

2010-07-14T05:18:00.001-04:00

Whenever I catch sight of others,By thinking, "It is through them,That I will reach awakening,"I'll look with sincerity and love.- Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva

The Great Turning - Joanna Macy

2010-07-11T07:45:00.000-04:00

Becoming Ourselves...

2010-06-26T09:15:00.000-04:00

"The whole point of Jesus's life was not that we should become exactly like him, but that we should become ourselves in the same way he became himself. Jesus was not the great exception but the great example."Jung