Gratitude is the door to joy. Seriousness is a killjoy. - Dr. Thomas Hora
Joy just is. It’s not in the lights or the stars, in getting or giving presents; nor is it in gathering with friends and family, although one might, or might not, be aware of joy in any of these experiences. Experiences come and go; joy is a spiritual quality that is unchanging. It manifests through awareness of it.
Read MoreThere are three frequent afflictions which people tend to suffer from: pride, ambition, and vanity. It is hard to measure which of these is worse, but it would seem that ambition is the most troublesome. . . It is full of frustration because if one succeeds, one gets sicker; and if one fails, one also gets sicker.
Read More"The only purpose of suffering is to wake-up from it."
Read More"In what way does a certain idea contribute to the improvement of the quality of our lives? Does it heal us? Does it liberate us? Does it bring harmony into our lives? Does it contribute to a sense of peace, assurance? Does it fill us with a sense of gratitude? Does it inspire us with wisdom and love? Does it make it possible for us to find the answers we need to the problems of daily living? If what we are learning has this effect, then it must be existentially valid.
Read MoreThis thought was originally posted on January 10, 2014 and it still seems relevant. While New Year’s Day is an arbitrarily agreed upon point in the calendar of days, the “meaning” of it was brought to mind by the many friendly smiles shared between strangers walking by each other declaring: “Happy New Year!”
The communication seemed to be “it’s a holiday (a holy day) and on this day we can be unburdened by our normal concerns.” And thus, the underlying truth of being slips into view. Freed from the day-to-day habitual "shoulds," openness, friendliness and goodwill took their place.
What is symbolized in the phrase “Happy New Year” that inspires such openness? Perhaps it is the recognition that all of the heavy burdens of human living can be transformed in a moment. Our true identity of joyful lightness of being can be realized. It’s hidden in the words:
Happy: Happiness is an inner quality of being that becomes more and more available to us as we value joy. In the words of Dr. Hora, “Gratitude is the door to joy, seriousness is a killjoy.”
New: Each moment is an opportunity to realize that we do not need to be determined by our past experiences, present circumstances or future expectations.
Year: We are endowed with the capacity to manifest divine order and harmony as they unfold in the context of Joy. Everything everywhere is already all right, even when it does not seem that way.
While taking a break in the middle of writing this blog, I was confronted with a tension. Something I expected to happen did not happen. Blaming and being blamed filled the atmosphere. Then came the awareness that expectations have no place in joy; gratitude was overshadowed by the presence of a “should” thought. With this illumination it became possible to let be, release the expectation and apologize for letting it in. Grateful to be able to see it, to humbly acknowledge it and then turn to the new, free moment.
Happy New Year.
In other words, Be grateful. We are not cement, we are consciousness with the capacity to be free moment-by-moment from our habits of thought.
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What is “spiritual” is best understood next to it’s opposite: Material. “Material” refers to what is physical and can be perceived through sensory perception. Spiritual refers to what is non-material.
To understand God, it is important to understand that God is unimaginable Reality; we have to be capable of knowing that which cannot be imagined.
Infinite Love-Intelligence, the Metapsychiatric name for God, implies an infinite source of ideas. These ideas are not duplications of one another; they are unique in content and...
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Joy just is. It’s not in the lights or the stars, in getting or giving presents; nor is it in gathering with friends and family, although one might, or might not, be aware of joy in any of these experiences. Experiences come and go; joy is a spiritual quality that is unchanging. It manifests through awareness of it.
Who are we? What is life, and what are the laws that govern it? What is its meaning and purpose? What is real; what is unreal? What is truth, health, evil, disease, death? How are these elements of existence cognized and understood?
The term “existential” is used to connote whatever deals with the above issues.
When a tree has its roots in contact with the source of its nourishment, it is in harmony with its own nature and, as a consequence, it is a beneficial presence in nature. What is our essential nature? If we were ego-persons, then ego gratification would make us healthy because then we would be true to our essential nature. But we see that ego gratification does not make anyone healthy; it makes us sick. So, there must be something wrong with this idea.
At Christmas time and other holidays, families come together and the members make a supreme effort to express love toward each other. They try to do it and the result is that after these holidays people tend to run into various problems (such as colds, flu, sadness, exhaustion, etc.) .
Isaiah in chapter 1, verse 18 makes it sound so easy: “Come, let us reason together.” And, indeed, it may be easier than it looks. All it requires is sincere interest in what is really true, useful, and beneficial for all concerned.
Are we free, or are we enslaved?
Most people don’t realize that they are enslaved. It is so widespread that they think it is just natural to be paralyzed with fear. So the first thing is to know the difference between being enslaved and being free. Once we know that we can be enslaved when we could be free, then the question is, What is the next step?
Here is a simple idea to discern what is good and healthy vs what is not:
Any idea, or system of values, or religious system, anything that impinges on individual existence, can validate itself or disqualify itself by its consequences for the health and fulfillment of the individual. . .
if we have the right idea of what abundance is and what its source is, we will never lack an opportunity for being useful and helpful. But if we are ignorant of this fact and feel deprived or sorry for ourselves, we have closed the floodgates of the good which God is generously pouring out continuously.
. . .Our ability and willingness to be useful and helpful in business or employment determines the prospering of it. Should we experience insufficient income or a slowdown in our business, we need to improve our ability to be helpful.
. . .In a certain sense, looking for a job is a mistake. We are looking to be useful, to contribute. While it is intelligent to be concerned with what benefits we may derive from our employment, we must also be interested in what way we may benefit the company or institution we work for.
There are all kinds of moneys. We have to distinguish between drug money, and political bribery money, and crime money. But the real money, the good money, is the shadow of love.
Seed finds itself on a journey to share the best of who it is with all life. Landing underneath a boulder on a cliff, her growth is stunted and sorrow abounds. This is a story about human existence. We are inevitably born into circumstances that are not perfect. Discovering the perfection of being within imperfect circumstances is the journey. Seed is on this journey, as we all are. How does Seed find the way from unhappiness to joy? You will just need to read the book to find out!
Aging is the accumulation of unresolved grievances. . . .
The word “maturing” is an attempt at describing a progressive development of consciousness, moving in the direction of ever-clearer discernment of nondimensional Reality: toward the light of enlightenment.
-Dr. Hora: "Self Transcendence"
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Joy just is. It’s not in the lights or the stars, in getting or giving presents; nor is it in gathering with friends and family, although one might, or might not, be aware of joy in any of these experiences. Experiences come and go; joy is a spiritual quality that is unchanging. It manifests through awareness of it.