Spirituality for Living

Reflection Island in the virtual world of Second Life is the home of the group, ‘One World, Many Paths’. Here, Dragon Intuitive’s Travis holds spirituality discussion groups as the avatar ‘Merlin Scarborough’. Classes are in text chat, and it is an opportunity for interactive discussion on various spirituality topics.

Visit and subscribe to our ‘One World, Many Paths’ site, and join the group in Second Life for group notices. Please come with your thoughts and questions, our sessions are only as good as your engagement and your feedback is welcome on what topics interest you. A teleporter to the class location is located at the Reflection Island landing zone. Entrance fee is courtesy and respect.

Hope to see you there!

Sunday
Title: “Spirituality for Living” Discussion Group
Location: Hall of Creativity, Reflection Island, Second Life
Description: Merlin’s popular class on spirituality and the insights he has discovered on his path. Visit the ‘Spirituality for Living’ blog [...] Continue to Seek…

Thanks to Ocean of Perspective and to The Inspired Self for passing us the Lemonade Award! 

This award is passed to bloggers for showing great Attitude and/or Gratitude.  Since the purpose of this site is to inspire living from your true nature and acting accordingly in the world, we thought we would pass the award onto some others who may broaden your view of the world and perhaps inspire your action.  

We hope you enjoy the sites and also check out the ways to take action at the bottom of all our posts.

The award is passed to:

allgreenblogs.com: Your one stop source for Environmental Tips and Information
ECO-BLOGICAL: moved by the plight of the working poor and the damage to the environment
mygreening: making earth friendly choices…one step at a time
Arise for Social Justice: low-income rights, membership organization
Eco Mama
Endangered Spaces Blog: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
Climate of Our [...] Continue to Seek…

Judgement, what it is and what it does. Judgement is an inherently restrictive force in the mind, but it lays no restrictions on others not without some overt force. Our judgements restrict us. We do not perceive our world directly. We do not see things as they are. We see them as we judge them to be, people too. If you judge another harshly you do not directly impact them. They may not even care for your judgement one way or another, but you do leave a mark on your mind and your life. How you judge the world likewise you also judge yourself.

By our judgements we shape our world, and your beliefs will be arrived at regardless of any faith you profess or any practice you engage in. This is why many fall away from a faith or practice. They either embraced another’s view without reflecting on their [...] Continue to Seek…

They say adversity doesn’t make you who you are, it shows who you are. It’s there. There is more than judgement. Like language is acquired by an infant, there is a language behind the mind/body connection. There is a language by which the world is assembled, and having failed to acquire that it makes things harder. We tend to be more aware of other tongues than our native tongue. You will recognize Spanish being spoken faster than English if you are English speaking, and won’t have to try to pay attention to it.

In my case, as is often the case with autistics, I developed a strength. It’s an overcompensation for the fear response that is so typical. I focused on language, and though I use the words others do and I am well read (deeply immersed in language), I am because it’s in a sense foreign to me. Our [...] Continue to Seek…

There can be said to be two paths in the world. In the Cabala they are called the pillar of mercy, and the pillar of severity, but in fact there are three points.  They are only opposed in the minds of those who oppose them. My own path is more in keeping with the pillar of severity. This is my natural inclination but to the one who sees, severity or mercy, in the true spirit they are one. It is severe if I extinguish the life of a suffering animal, but that is also compassion. It is severe if a frighten my son when he endangers himself, but that is also compassion. If you can do otherwise than you should do otherwise. Right action is right action in each and every moment.

In the movie ‘The Mist’ based on the Stephen King story, there is a whole chunk about judgement in [...] Continue to Seek…

The shadow consciousness theory of psychology is the notion of suppression of our selves by our judgement. When we see other people doing what we have stopped ourselves from doing, it traumatizes the shadow consciousness. Our judgement traumatizes it reflexively. Being moral entrepreneurs it brings doubts to our certainties or enforces our bitterness and jealousy of others freedoms, because we’re not letting our selves be as free.

There is a third point between our normal consciousness and our shadow consciousness, but most people don’t seek this third point. They see what they have chosen to believe, their judgement. They see what is in them but they have chosen to reject, that shadow consciousness. But both stem from a more elemental consciousness that only has life instinct motivating it.

People who annoy us are usually just reflecting that which we are trying to reject in ourselves. If it were totally foreign we [...] Continue to Seek…

Judgement is something I have been dealing with lately, but there are some simple facts regarding it. As much as people may want to believe otherwise, we do not respond to an objective reality. The world and our lives as we see them are simply the bi-product of judgements me make. The first and foremost being a judgement of ourselves.

Does anyone know someone who judges the world harshly, but themselves positively? The mind has a way of checking ideas and its world view for consistency. So if the person seems to judge themselves positively and the world poorly, the brain won’t reconcile that. Too many instincts speak against it. Pair bonding, familial affinity, etc.

I know many misanthropes. People who say I hate people. They do not in fact hate people, and yet still love themselves or their lives. Their lives are in a world that has people in it, and [...] Continue to Seek…

Some say the physical is dual, so we have to rise above the duality and become more spiritual. So the physical is profane? I find that people tend to trip over the idea of transcending the physical. It is confusing and a bit upsetting. Is this necessary? It seems to me that the spirit is already here, and is written into our makeups. It seems the mind is the barrier, and not even it. Not in it’s true nature. It’s the ideas we all cling to, but not everything that comes with the mind is bad. Does intuition, insight, or liberation by logical thought reveal itself to be limited?

We produce fear and ego, and emotions arise after feeling not before. Why should we say emotions are bad without looking at the root? Pain is a life preserving feeling, and can have an emotion about it. Usually that doesn’t help me [...] Continue to Seek…

Health is related to spirituality, the mind-body connection. Like how laughter is healing or at least stabilizing. I have made some observations in life, and in my observation those who are truly happy tend to be very healthy.  Also, peoples issues tend to correspond to their temperament. Anyone else observe this?

So by default if I’m not healthy, I can’t be happy? Oh not true. I’m technically not healthy, but I manage better for not allowing that to dictate my coping. I am healthier for being happy.

Biological harmony can potentially arise from spiritual harmony. Meditation has been proven to do that. This is why they allow it as well as touch therapy in hospitals now. If anything, therapies that were thought to be formerly only spiritual are booming. Myself I focus on personal experience, so I didn’t need anyone to vouch for these things. I read to broaden my view, [...] Continue to Seek…

For me daily, my muscles behave as if I have done hard labour all day upon waking. I never seem relaxed, and for all intents and purposes I never am. I have a somatic instinct. My shape even seems to change to people. If it’s off, in moments of composure my skeleton realigns, even some fine joints from the weirdness of having over elastic connective tissue. Even face shape change. Basic bio mass remains the same of course, and my indicator traits don’t alter unless I’m in a really strange mood.

I do tend to get into a non caring mode, and my physical appearance in that mode is actually relaxed. The systems get relaxed because I want to climb out of my body. I’m positively relaxed then, so perhaps should care about my body and my physical existence less. When I’m least interested in my physical existence this is when [...] Continue to Seek…