MSI Press Blog

Today's meditation from Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living by Dr. Frederic Craigie. -19-   When we let go of our battles and open our heart to things as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice. Only in this moment can we discover that which is timeless. Only here can we find the love that we seek. Love in the past is simply memory, and love in the future is fantasy. Only in the reality of the present can we love, can we awaken, can we find peace and understanding and connection with ourselves and the world. Jack Kornfield   Thanks substantially to work by Jack Kornfield, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Sharon Salzberg, and a small number of other pioneers in this area, the idea of mindfulness—paying attention, in the present moment, without judgment—has embedded itself in the American consciousness. A man suffers flashbacks and remorse about a motor vehicle accident in which his d...

  Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie: -47-   In the school of life, difficult people are the faculty. They teach us our most important spiritual lessons, the lessons that we would be most unlikely to learn on our own.   Mark I. Rosen   Civility has outer work and inner work. The outer work, if not easy, is at least straightforward. You listen to people. You give them a chance to speak. You communicate that you’re enough interested in understanding them that you’re willing to hold off on coming at them with your own opinions or rejoinders. You allow the possibility of a seedling relationship to grow. The inner work can be more challenging. How are you going to position your heart so that you are able to reach out in civility to someone who feels like the enemy? The outer work of civility takes place in the realm of behavior; the inner work takes place in...

  Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie: -43-   Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there’s love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.   Ella Fitzgerald   Ella Fitzgerald, the “Queen of Song,” had a legendary career that spanned over half a century. Beginning in the early 1930s, she performed with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Nat King Cole, and Frank Sinatra and helped to form new styles in American popular music. She was noted both for her vocal and artistic range and for her remarkable improvisational ability. Reacting to the formulaic style of big band swing music, Fitzgerald was at the cutting edge of bebop, the jazz movement that turned away from prominent bass lines and featured extended improvisational solos from instruments like saxophone and clarinet or from the voice in the role of instruments. You can...