MSI Press Blog

  Today's book excerpt comes from  An Afternoon's Dictation  by Steven Greenebaum .                                                              Introduction These are hugely difficult times. When I began this book, COVID was loose and taking lives across the country and around the world as wars were raging and murdering so many innocents. Now, as wars continue, there are new diseases raging while many struggle to learn to live with “long COVID.” All this as people are at long last recognizing that the environment is in crisis yet continue to argue vehemently over what if anything to do about it. In the United States and much of what has been called the “free world,” the very nature of freedom itself is the topic of vehement and often virulent argument. The future of the Earth is in question. More personally, and for me of equal importance, the quality of life we are leaving for posterity is also in question. Even if, as I fervently hope, humanity at last rises to the occasion

  The Severe Trial During the ninth century, the Abbasid khalifah1 al-Mamun (r. 813-833) set out to convert ahl al-sunnah, or the traditionalists who emphasized the authority of the Qur’an and Prophetic traditions, to a theological doctrine held by the Muc tazilah, or the rationalists who emphasized the authority of reason and philosophical principles. Traditionalist scholars were forced to recant their belief in the non-created nature of the Qur’an in favor of the rationalist doctrine which held that the Qur’an was a creation of God. Those who refused were tortured and, at times, executed. In 848, fifteen years after the beginning of the government sponsored inquisition, termed al-Mihnah, or the Severe Trial, by Muslim historians, al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-861) ordered the end of all government sponsored attempts to enforce the rationalist doctrine. Al-Mutawakkil’s decision reflected his awareness that the inquisition had simply not succeeded and that its continuation might well

  Excerpt from The Seven Wisdoms of Life  - Definition Undoubtedly, the Chakra system is the most known, most researched, and most accessible energetic layer. The first documentations of this system go all the way back to the ancient Eastern and Egyptian cultures, about four-thousand years ago. Simply defined, chakras are mediators of energy-matter interaction. The chakra system is the bridge between the physical body and the subtle bodies and also between the physical body and the vital life force of the universe. The chakras are the key energy centers of the whole subtle anatomy and may be regarded as our basic energetic body. As mediators of energy-matter interaction, they translate material energy into spiritual energy and spiritual energy into material energy. The main function of the chakra system is to translate spiritual energy into physical energy for the sake of physical and psychological wellbeing. Residing in the central confluences of the energetic nervous system, th

    Today's book excerpt comes from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Frederic Craigie . INTRODUCTION   In August, 2004, my friend and psychologist colleague Peter Flournoy, Ph.D., died of cancer at the age of 45. Peter was a remarkable person, an energetic professional, and a gentle soul. He experienced his cancer as a blessing that taught him more about life than he otherwise would have understood. He packed a lot into the last couple of years of his life, ice climbing several times and sea kayaking to Monhegan Island (ten miles off the Maine coast—not for the faint of heart) a month before his death. Peter was also excited about his spiritual life, which was informed particularly by Buddhist philosophy and practice in his last years. His memorial service took place on a glorious summer day. We who attended all received a card with a favorite meditative image of Peter’s and his words:   Life has taught me not to grasp and hold but

  CHANGE OF HEART “I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.” --Ezekiel 36: 26   “I hate change!” If I received a dollar for every time a patient said that to me, I could work for free.   They often add, “Change replaces the familiar with the unknown. The unknown scares me.” In response, I remind my anxious patients, “If there is no change, you are dead. The future is always unknown, of course, because it does not yet exist. You are now in the process of creating your own future.” I also ask them,”Why are you here meeting with me, except to change?” They tell me how miserable they feel and powerless to do anything about it. Frightening change is the price of relief. Therapy is for healing and growth. Some of my patients imagine that their trying life circumstances cause their distress. In our work together they learn that only changing their minds and hearts, their outlooks, atti