CELEBRATION
Celebrate, then, the days of rejoicing and do not tire of them. For lo, none may take their goods with them and none who depart ever come back again.
~ Book of Songs ~
If ever there was reason to put out another issue of this newsletter, we guess we have it. Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing has been selected Winner of the Non-Fiction Anthologies category of the Best Books 2006 National Book Awards. It is gratifying to receive industry recognition for our very first publication.
APPRECIATION
A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.
~ Cicero, 106-43 BCE ~
We are truly grateful for the honor bestowed on our publication by USABookNews and the judges who had to assess thousands of submissions. Our congratulations go to:
GROWTH
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
~ Chinese Saying ~
We note with satisfaction that last month Barnes and Noble took the decision to carry Wisdom in its brick-and-mortar stores in addition to offering it on the web. Our Amazon sales continue to grow, particularly since the airing of Larry's interview with Marc Steiner on WYPR, Baltimore. A clip of that segment is available for download until November 10. It didn't hurt either that WYPR offered Wisdom as a premium in their membership drive. Thanks Marc and WYPR.
CONGRUENCE / RESONANCE
Community is created when people seek the same spiritual reality. The key to community is the discovery that we are all looking for, but we find what we are looking for only by being looked for. Our fellow seekers comprise what Ignatius of Antioch first termed “the company of saints.” In such company, one is likely to find friends who are also guides: wise women and men who listen well, who offer advice and support, who help us clarify our questions, to recognize our options and to make our choices, and who seek and find in us the same realities.
~ Ernest Kurtz & Katherine Ketcham ~
The Wise Women FestivAll teams up with the 2006 DC Environmental Conference, Saturday and Sunday, October 21-22 at the University of the District of Columbia. See their website for details. We'll have a booth there so drop by and say hello.
We'll also be at the Dale City Holistic Health Fair November 12, at the Dale City VFW Hall, 14631 Minnieville Road, Dale City, VA. See calendar below for our schedule to the end of the year.
INFLUENCE / EFFECT
One person’s candle is light for many.
~ Babylonian Talmud, 2nd-5th C. CE ~
As promised last month, we share quotations from Swami Dhyan Giten, a spiritual teacher in Sweden, who gave us permission to publish them. They fit perfectly into our opus, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing and provide more incentive to publish a second edition to include them. His book, The Silent Whisperings of the Heart - A Collection of Quotes from Giten, will be published soon by The Mandala Press. Visit his website at www.giten.net.
ATTENTION / AWARENESS
Awareness is the golden key to increase the quality of life in relation to ourselves, in relation to other people, in relation to work and creativity and in relation to life itself.CONGRUENCE / RESONANCE
We can either work with or against life. The first way is a “yes”-attitude towards life and the second way is a “no”-attitude towards life. The first way results in joy, harmony and wholeness and the second way results in fight, struggle and separation from life, but in the end the part can never win over the whole.GROWTH / EXPANSION
Our spiritual development depends on our own commitment to our own growth. We can use our free will to grow or we can chose not to grow. This is the freedom that life gives us and it is our own responsibility, but it seems to be few people that accept the challenge of life to grow.OPENNESS / RECEPTIVITY
Look for the light and the possibilities in all situations. See what you can learn in all situations. In this way you can use all situations to grow.RESPONSIBILITY
Our spiritual development depends on our “yes” and commitment to our own growth. When we begin to take responsibility for our own development, things begin to happen by itself. It is like Existence supports our decision to develop.TRUST
What is trust in life? Trust is an attitude to life. It means to open our heart to life. It means to travel with an open heart into the unknown. It means to dare to take the jump into the unknown. It means to let go of our separate ideas, attitudes and expectations and allow life to guide us. It means to live in a deep harmony with life, without expecting life to fit with our ideas and expectations.VALUE / WORTH
Everything of real value is already within ourselves.
SEEKING
All beings search and long for lasting happiness, peace, truth and understanding. Our life can be the expression and celebration of that discovery. But without real understanding of who we truly are, we take ourselves to be mere body-mind entities, unaware of our deeper nature as Pure Consciousness. This limited view leaves us enmeshed in a world of confusion, fear and conflict - a most unhappy state. Satsang reminds us we are already free! For those who are open, the message in Satsang is the soap which removes the age-old grime of ignorance and misunderstanding caused by mistaken identification, leaving us as here now conscious presence. Satsang is the invitation to step into the fire of Self-discovery. This fire will not burn you; it will only burn what you are not.
~ Mooji ~
Another spiritual teacher who has come to our attention is Mooji, a direct disciple of Sri Harilal Poonja (Papaji), the renowned Advaita master. Originally from Jamaica, now based in Brixton, UK, Mooji is on his first visit to the US. He'll be in Washington, DC, October 26-29, and in Lenox, MA, November 5-10. See his website for complete schedule.
You are invited to experience the beautiful force which radiates from Mooji’s presence and to open up fully and fearlessly to the freedom that satsang invites us to embrace.
Oct. 27 - Open Satsang $15 at door
Oct 28-29 All-day Intensive $50/day
Call OneCircle Center at 301-949-8984 for more information.
POSSIBILITY / POTENTIAL
The method of the enterprising is to plan with audacity, and execute with vigor; to sketch out a map of possibilities, and then to treat them as probabilities.
~ Christian Bovee, 1820-1904 ~
Here's our schedule for the rest of this year as it stands now.
LEARNING
For too long we … have been looking backward when we hear the term history. But history is about what is emerging and can emerge as well as what has already emerged.
~ Matthew Fox, 1940- ~
The Secret - The popular movie will be shown October 29, hosted by Mira Patterson in Stafford, VA. This will be followed by discussion led by Larry Chang. Attendees are asked to bring snacks or contribute $5 each to the pot. Call 202 545 0869 or email ventures@wisdomforthesoul.org for information. Other locales and dates to be determined.
OPENNESS / RECEPTIVITY
The one who learns to tread the spiritual path must become as an empty cup in order that the wine of music and harmony may be poured down into his heart. By being open, we can receive things beyond what we ourselves might imagine.
~ Hazrat Khan, 1882-1927 ~
Send your comments, news, listings, quotations, musings. We'd love to learn of and from you.