This Thursday, July 29, we shall gather together once again to invoke the power that belongs to us through our shared focus on the Divine.  We all know that there is strength in numbers and, when our like minds resonate together with clarity, courage and Grace abound.

Let’s consider that at birth we are each given a complete number of breaths that take us all the way through life and into our final transition.  Not knowing where you are in your current “breath account”, how would you choose to use your remaining balance?  For material gain?  Success?  Fame?  Relationships?  Enlightenment?  Face it…we are not here forever, just for a very short period of time, and then we move on.  Taking the value of each day as a precious gift reinforces your choice to live authentically…breath by breath.  The resulting choices ultimately manifest through exactly where you place your attention.

Bring your attention into pinpointed focus toward the Divine in community and strengthen your resolve to fulfill your highest good now.  We shall pray, meditate and share Universal Principles that have endured the sands of time.

“Group meditation is a castle that protects the new spiritual aspirants as well as the veteran meditators.  Meditation together increases the degree of Self-realization of each member of the group by the law of invisible vibratory exchange of group meditation.”

—Paramahansa Yogananda



Yogah Chitta Vritti Nirodahah — Yoga is the uniting of consciousness in the heart.

The lotus flower has long been a symbol for the unfolding of Spirituality.  It is one of the most elegant illustrations of the meshing of our human and Divine natures.

The lotus seed is planted and grows in muddy waters, below the surface of the lake, far from the light.  Though the light is murky and unclear, the flower blossoms by drawing energy from within.  As the bud passes through the muddy waters, it lifts its face to the sunlight and finally emerges.  Miraculously, not a trace of soil remains on the flower.  It lives in the mud yet is unaffected by it.  This is an example for us to be in the world but not be adversely affected by it.  The lotus flower teaches us that no matter how muddied the waters of our consciousness may become, clarity can always emerge from our spirit if the Divine Light guides us—even if it is only one tiny lotus blossom at a time.

—Nischala Joy Devi, The Secret Power of Yoga

“I looked in temples, Churches, and Mosques.  I found the Divine in my heart.” —Rumi

This Thursday, July 15, draws us together, once again, for The Gathering with Spirit.  A time and space where we, as like-minded devotees to the One from which all life has been given, lift each other up with courage and love.  Your life is a song with its own rhythm, harmony, verse and message.  Come share your melody with us for together we make the most spellbinding musical repertoire ever compiled!  We are awesome, awe-inspired beings!

When I meditated on the word Guidance,

I kept seeing “dance” at the end of the word.

I remember reading that doing God’s will is a lot like dancing.

When two people try to lead, nothing feels right.

The movement doesn’t flow with the music,

And everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.

When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead,

Both bodies begin to flow with the music.

One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back

Or by pressing Lightly in one direction or another.

It’s as if two become one body, moving beautifully.

The dance takes surrender, willingness,

And attentiveness from one person

And gentle guidance and skill from the other.

My eyes drew back to the word Guidance.

When I saw “G”, I thought of God, followed by “U” and “I”.

“God, U, and I dance.”

God, you and I dance.

As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust

That I would get guidance about my life.

Once again, I became willing to let God lead.

My prayer for you today is that God’s blessings

And mercies are upon you on this day and everyday.

May you abide in God, as God abides in you.

Dance together with God, trusting God to lead

And to guide you through each season of your life.

This prayer is powerful and there is nothing attached.

If God has done anything for you in your life,

Please share this message with someone else.

There is no cost but a lot of rewards,

So let’s continue to pray for one another.

And I Hope You Dance!

Life is full of excitement and infinite possibilities for each of us.  Our Spiritual Community continues to grow and morph as we remain ever “vigilant” to the voice within that beckons us to share time with like-minded friends.  We are creating, together, a safe and sacred space where we may each express our innermost truth and become encouraged to become the most awesome humans on the planet!

This Thursday evening, July 1, please join me for The Gathering with Spirit.  I know that your presence here makes everything shift into a higher vibration so we need you AND you need us to feel good about just being magnificent YOU!

Science Discovers Intelligent Order

“The rise of science served to extend the range of nature’s marvels, so that today we have discovered order in the deepest recesses of the atom and among the grandest collection of galaxies,” writes Paul Davies, Ph.D., well-known author and professor of mathematical physics, in Evidence of Purpose: Scientists Discover the Creator (New York: Continuum Publishing, 1994).

Symptoms theorists Ervin Laszlo reports in The Whispering Pond: A Personal Guide to the Emerging Vision of Science (Boston: Element Books 1999): “The fine-tuning of the physical universe to the parameters of life constitutes a series of coincidences—if that is what they are…in which even the slightest departure from the given values would spell the end of life, or, more exactly, create conditions under which life could never have evolved in the first place.  If the neutron did not outweigh the proton in the nucleus of the atom, the active lifetime of the sun and other stars would be reduced to a few hundred years; if the electric charge of electrons and protons did not balance precisely, all configurations of matter would be unstable and the universe would consist of nothing more than radiation and a relatively uniform mixture of gases…If the strong force that binds the particles of a nucleus were merely a fraction weaker than it is, deuteron could not exist and stars such as the sun could not shine.  And if that force were slightly stronger than it is, the sun and other active stars would inflate and perhaps explode…The values of the four universal forces [electromagnetism, gravity, and the nuclear strong and weak force] were precisely such that life could evolve in the cosmos.”

Professor Davies estimates that if—as some scientists maintain—there were no inherent guiding intelligence and cosmic evolution were governed only by the chance operation of strictly mechanical laws, “the time required to achieve the level of order we now meet in the universe purely by random processes is of the order of at least greater than 10 trillion years times eighty.”—Inconceivably longer than the current age of the universe.  Citing these calculations, Laszlo wryly observes: “Serendipity of this magnitude strains credibility,” and concludes: “Must we then face the possibility that the universe we then witness is the result of proposal design by an omnipotent master builder?”

—Publishers Note from The Yoga of Jesus (Self-Realization Fellowship, 2004)

To reach cosmic understanding, it is necessary to unite our feeling with

the infinite feeling that penetrates everything. —Rabindranath Tagore

(Spiritual Pigs – Unite!)

Today I entered Oprah’s Your OWN Show contest for a chance to have my own show on Oprah’s new network.  My vision is for a program that expands upon our bi-weekly Gathering with Spirit, where people come together to discuss spiritual issues and soul growth.  With the right knowledge and attitude, all actions, interactions, places, and events can become sacred, leading to a life of ease and grace.  I want to be able to teach and share these Universal Principles with as many people as possible so that, together, we can uplift and transform the world.

View my Audition Video and vote!

The five videos with the most votes are guaranteed to move on to the next phase of the competition, although other submissions will still have a chance.  I’m not sure I’ll make it to the top five, but I want to build up energetic momentum for my program to assist in its manifestation.  Please join me by casting your vote for my audition video.  You can vote as many times as you like until the voting ends at 11:59 PM on July 3, 2010.  Be sure to tell your friends!

Infinite Love and Gratitude,

Marydale

I’ll tell you briefly the fine qualities

Of those on the path of compassion:

Giving, and ethics, patience, and effort,

Concentrating,  wisdom,  compassion and such.

Giving is giving away what you have,

And ethics is doing good to others.

Patience is giving up feelings of anger,

And effort is joy that increases all good.

Concentration’s one-pointed, free of bad thoughts,

And wisdom decides what truth really is.

Compassion’s a kind of high intelligence

Mixed deep with a love for all living kind.

Giving brings wealth, a good world comes from ethics;

Patience brings beauty, eminence comes from effort.

Concentration brings peace, and from wisdom comes freedom;

Compassion achieves everything we all wish for.

A person who takes all seven of these

And perfects them together will reach

That place of inconceivable knowledge,

No less than the world’s protector.

—Nagarjuna, String of Precious Jewels

MASKS

Don’t be fooled by the face I wear, for I wear a thousand masks, and none of them are me.  Don’t be fooled, for goodness sake, don’t be fooled.   I give you the impression that I’m secure, that confidence is my name and coolness is my game, and that I need no one.  But don’t believe me.

Beneath dwells the real me in confusion, in aloneness, in fear. That’s why I create a mask to hide behind, to shield me from the glance that knows, but such a glance is precisely my salvation.  That is, if it’s followed by acceptance, if it’s followed by love. It’s the only thing that can liberate me from my own self-built prison walls.

I’m afraid that deep down I’m nothing and that I’m just no good, and that you will reject me.   And so begins the parade of masks. I idly chatter to you. I tell you everything that’s really nothing and nothing of what’s everything, of what’s crying within me.

Please listen carefully and try to hear what I’m not saying. I’d really like to be genuine and spontaneous, and me. But you’ve got to help me. You’ve got to hold out your hand.   Each time you’re kind and gentle and encouraging, each time you try to understand because you really care, my heart begins to grow wings, feeble wings, but wings.

With your sensitivity and sympathy, and your power of understanding, you alone can release me from my shallow world of uncertainty.  It will not be easy for you. The nearer you approach me, the blinder I may strike back. But I’m told that love is stronger than strong walls, and in this lies my only hope.

Please try to beat down these walls with firm hands, but gentle hands, for a child is very sensitive.  Who am I, you wonder.  I am every man you meet, and also every woman that you meet, and I am you, also.

By choosing better-feeling thoughts and by speaking more of what you do want and less of what you do not want, you will gently tune yourself to the vibrational frequency of your Broader Perspective.  To see your world through the eyes of Source is truly the most spectacular view of life, for from that vibrational vantage point, you are in alignment with—and therefore in the process of attracting—only what you would consider to be the very best of your world. —Abraham/Jerry & Esther Hicks, Money and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Health, Wealth and Happiness

A baby asked God, “They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?”

“Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you.”

The child further inquired, “But tell me, here in heaven I don’t have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy.”

God said, “Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel’s love and be very happy.”

Again the child asked, “And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don’t know the language?”

God said, “Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak.”

“And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?”

God said, “Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray.”

“Who will protect me?”

God said, “Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life.”

“But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore.”

God said, “Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you.”

At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, “God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel’s name.”

“You will simply call her, ‘Mom.'”

—Unknown

TRUST

Don’t waste your life for that which is going to be taken away.  Trust life.  If you trust, only then can you drop your knowledge, only then can you put your mind aside.  And with trust, something immense opens up. Then this life is no longer ordinary life, it becomes full of God, overflowing.  When the heart is innocent and the walls have disappeared, you are bridged with infinity.  And you are not deceived;  there is nothing that can be taken away from you.  That which can be taken away from you is not worth keeping, and that which cannot be taken away from you, why should one be afraid of its being taken away? – It cannot be taken away, there is no possibility.  You cannot lose your real treasure. —Osho