On this day of your life

On this day of your life,

Neytiri & Jake, I believe God wants you to know...    

...that the reason so much of humanity commemorates
this day is that so much of humanity seeks to give and
receive love.

During this holy time, know that all times are holy, that
every religion holds truth, that each tradition is sacred,
and that it is in the simple sharing of love that we make
our beliefs come alive, and our dreams come true.

Let this Christmas Day remind us that Christ came to
invite us to offer love to all humankind, and to open the
door of God's kingdom to every soul.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

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"I am the bread of life.
I am the living water.
I am the light of the world.
I am the desire of all ages.
I am the open door to eternal salvation.
I am the reality of endless life."

Jesus, (1965.3) 182:1.10 

Light Out of Darkness (KB)

There’s no question that we are living in an unsettled world. Every week, a new disaster takes over the headlines. Nevertheless, amid all this chaos and destruction, we are able to find proof that the human spirit can still illuminate our way home in the darkness. I just read about a 22-year-old woman in England who raised £20,000 to help pay for housing for a homeless man. Why? Because he had given her £3 to get home one night earlier in the month when she had lost her bank card. And every year, CNN honors 10 heroes of humanity who have done things to make this world a better place. One such honoree is Pablo Romero who started the non-profit called Los Patojos (Little Ones), which offers meals, classes, and medical care to children and teenagers in his community. Another is Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg who translated the pain of losing his two-year-old daughter to leukemia into Kids Kicking Cancer, a program that brings free martial arts classes to children with cancer so that they can learn how to manage their energy and pain. At the Kabbalah Centre, we teach that Light comes out of darkness. Our spirit, strength, and heart are carved out of and made stronger by the trials and tribulations that we face. Humanity is finally waking up to this fact, and in the process, we are also waking up to a realization of our shared human experience, our interconnectedness of spirit, and that spark of the Creator that is within each of us. Today, many of you will gather with friends and family to celebrate Christmas. Wherever you are and whatever you do, may you feel that spark of the Creator within you and extend it outwards in love and kindness. I will leave you with the words of a song we sing here at the Kabbalah Centre (which are also part of a quote commonly attributed to the philosopher Albert Camus): “Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend, and together we will walk in the way of God.”

Ants and Bees, a Metaphor

Parts of the One
by Madisyn Taylor


We can learn a lot from watching ants and bees living in community and working for the greater good.

When we see ants and bees out in the world, we often see just one, but this belies the reality of their situation. More than any other species, ants and bees function as parts of a whole. They cannot and do not survive as individuals; they survive as members of a group, and the group’s survival is the implicit goal of each individual’s life. There is no concept of life outside the group, so even to use the word individual is somewhat misleading. Often, humans, on the other hand, strongly value individuality and often negatively associate ants and bees with a lack of independence. And yet, if we look closer at these amazing creatures, we can learn valuable lessons about how much we can achieve when we band together with others to work for a higher purpose.

Most ants and bees have highly specified roles within their communities, some of which are biologically dictated, and they work within the confines of their roles without complaint, never wishing to be something other than what they are. In this way, they symbolize self-knowledge and humility. They also display selfless service as they work for the common good. In many ways, they are like the individual cells of one body, living and dying as necessary to preserve the integrity of the whole body, not to protect themselves as individuals. In this way, ants personify the ability to see beyond one’s small self to one’s place within the greater whole, and the ability to serve this whole selflessly.

Ants and bees can inspire us to fully own what we have to offer and to put it to use in the pursuit of a goal that will benefit all of humanity, whether it be raising consciousness about the environment, feeding the hungry, or raising a happy child. Each one of us has certain talents we were born with, as well as skills we have acquired. When we apply these gifts, knowing that we are one part of a greater organism working to better the whole world, we honor and implement the wisdom of ants and bees. 

For more information visit dailyom.com

Nobody Does It Better (S)

Nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, you're the best

I wasn't looking but somehow you found me
It tried to hide from your love light
But like Heaven above me
The spy who loved me
Is keeping all my secrets safe tonight

And nobody does it better
Though sometimes I wish someone could
Nobody does it quite the way you do
Why'd you have to be so good?

The way that you hold me
Whenever you hold me
There's some kind of magic inside you
That keeps me from running
But just keep it coming
How'd you learn to do the things you do?

And nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, baby, darlin', you're the best

Baby, you're the best
Darlin', you're the best
Baby, you're the best
Baby, you're the best
Baby, you're the best
Baby, you're the best

Profit

"In freeing people . . . our country's blessing will also come, for profit follows righteousness." Senator Albert Beveridge

Profit is more than financial benefit or material wellbeing. For the recovering alcoholic or drug addict, it is being aware of life, feeling feelings, and having the capacity for a relationship with God, self, and others. But financial benefit is also part of spirituality.The blessing of money and economic stability is part of God's love and trust. This gift of freedom involves responsibility and stewardship. With money and profit, not only am I able to enjoy creative comforts, but I can also help make the lives of others creative. A responsible use of money is part of my recovery program and has become one of the joys of my spiritual awakening.

Let Your blessing of money in life help me to bless others.

Opening Your Heart (KB)

Aaron, the brother of Moses, was the first High Priest in the ancient Temple. It is said about Aaron that he would go to people and tell them good things about one another to make peace and awaken love between them and to bring them closer to God’s love. We are now in the month of Capricorn, a month ruled by Saturn, a cold and harsh planet. We have to try, as Aaron did, to practice a little bit more caring and kindness at this time because that warm energy is lacking in the cosmos right now. Not only can it be a warm feeling to look at others and feel you can be a part of them, join with them, and feel their friendship and their energy, but if you can bring yourself into this space, you can also break down your own walls and open yourself to more love and blessings from the universe.

You Have All the Answers Within You (OM)

Finding Answers Within
by Madisyn Taylor


When you realize that you always have the answers within yourself, you can stop searching outside of yourself.

Many of us seek the answers to life’s questions by looking outside of ourselves and trying to glean advice from the people around us. But as each of us is unique, with our own personal histories, our own sense of right and wrong, and our own way of experiencing the world that defines our realities, looking to others for our answers is only partially helpful. The answers to our personal questions can be most often found by looking within. When you realize that you always have access to the part of you that always knows what you need and is meant to act as your inner compass, you can stop searching outside of yourself. If you can learn to hear, trust, and embrace the wisdom that lives within you, you will be able to confidently navigate your life.

Trusting your inner wisdom may be awkward at first, particularly if you grew up around people who taught you to look to others for answers. We each have exclusive access to our inner knowing. All we have to do is remember how to listen. Remember to be patient as you relearn how to hear, receive, and follow your own guidance. If you are unsure about whether following your inner wisdom will prove reliable, you may want to think of a time when you did trust your own knowing and everything worked out. Recall how the answers came to you, how they felt in your body as you considered them, and what happened when you acted upon this guidance. Now, recall a time when you didn’t trust yourself and the results didn’t work out as you had hoped. Trusting your own guidance can help you avoid going against what you instinctively know is right for you.

When you second guess yourself and go against what you know to be your truth, you can easily go off course because you are no longer following your inner compass. By looking inside yourself for the answers to your life’s questions, you are consulting your best guide. Only you can know the how’s and why’s of your life. The answers that you seek can be found when you start answering your own questions. 

For more information visit dailyom.com

Chanukah 2014: Third Candle - Creating a Spiritual Revolution (KB)

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level. It's got to happen inside first.” – Jim Morrison Sometimes connecting to our inner Light requires that we be revolutionaries—not in the sense of overcoming other people or getting our way, but by simply recognizing our own Light enough to say, “I’m not going to let people step on me. I’m not going to tell people that I agree with them when I don’t. I’m not going to do things just for approval or recognition.” Don’t get me wrong: we all have responsibilities that we need to uphold and we all want to do our utmost to share our time and energy with others. But beyond that, how often are we honest with ourselves about what our soul truly desires? How often do we do (or don’t do) certain things because we feel that if we act otherwise, people won’t like us or accept us? This window in time called Chanukah is an opportunity for us to connect with our own truth; to continually and consciously throughout the day stop and ask the Creator: “What would You have me do? Where would You have me be in this moment?” Simply by stopping and asking these questions, we are opening ourselves up to a new course—a course of mindfulness and love. Tonight as we light the third candle of Chanukah, let’s meditate to have the strength to respect and listen to the Light of our soul so we can come closer to revealing its potential in this world.