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Excerpt from Puertas a la Eternidad (Ustman): Introduction

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  Introducción  Cada vez que alguien escribe sobre un tema, de alguna forma escribe sobre sí mismo. Mi nombre es Nelson Fernando Ustman S., y durante este breve espacio en nuestro planeta tierra, he sufrido, he vivido, he reído, he llorado, he cantado, me he caído, y me he vuelto a levantar. He vivido toda clase de decepciones y he convivido con todos los aprendizajes en los fríos inviernos de esta estación de la vida que me tocó transitar. No escogí a mi familia, ni a mi raza cuando llegué a este lugar de nacimiento. Quizás desde ese momento y lugar me tocó arañar la tierra con todas mis fuerzas para poder tener derecho a un espacio de convivencia y acercamiento con los demás. No fue fácil, fueron muchos los tropiezos antes de poder levantar mi cabeza y prepararme para la nueva estación. No es tan sencillo llegar a una familia donde no te están esperando y mucho menos donde no te han invitado. Razón más que suficiente para ser abordado por la soledad, y el a...

Excerpt from A Guide to Bliss (Shai Tubali): Practice: The Expansion of Positive Emotions

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Practice: The Expansion of Positive Emotions  Expanding a positive emotion can be a wonderful way to start your day. However, it can be performed in almost any situation and at almost all times. As emphasized in the introduction, it is highly recommended to try out expansion, at least in your first attempts, with a friend guiding you. Important: whenever you see this mark, “…” it is your sign to pause for a few seconds in order to either receive a response or settle into and deepen a new state .  1. Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Allow your entire being to relax more and more. Breathe slowly and deeply… You are about to enter into your innermost Self… to enjoy a state of self-knowing, which is the sweetest and most wondrous state possible… Now, from this relaxation, let the moment or time in your life in which you experienced the highest level of happiness, elevation, and limitlessness rise to the surface of your mind. Recall the situation within y...

Endorsements (!) for Good Blood (Schaffer)

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Endorsements received for  Good Blood, Second Edition  by Irit Schaffer This is the only book I have read cover to cover in the past several years.  It captivated me and I couldn’t put it down.  As a retired psychologist and university professor, I view it as a stunning study of many aspects of human behavior.  As a spiritual seeker, I experience it as a motivator in looking for the Light to help me in my personal healing and transformation.  As the dad of two grown sons and grandfather of two young children, it challenged me to look at the legacy of Love and Light that I want to pass on to them.  I am grateful to Irit for writing this book that nourished and healed me on every level of my being.   Charles R. Billings, Ph.D. Corte Madera, California   This book allowed me to see that even in the darkest of situations, if you live in the mindset that there is always hope, you can survive and even come out stronger than...

Daily Excerpt: Rainstorm of Tomorrow (Dong) - Preface

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  Preface “Philosophy is dead,” declared Stephen Hawking in agreement with many others. “As philosophers have not kept up with science, their art is dated” (Warman, 2011). However, if we refer to the history of how humans peruse knowledge, we will not find that different disciplines replaced one another in sequence. It is not that the wilt of religion gave rise to philosophy, or that the denouement of philosophy set the stage for science—nor is the world segmented into discrete, incompatible disciplinary fields. A biological reaction can be expanded to millions of chemical reactions or trillions of interactions between physical particles; likewise, the emergence of “social behaviors” among neural networks as they grow and that of “tacit agreement” from quantum entanglement have implied the possibility of adopting a sociological language to explain phenomena previously deemed as lifeless and strictly adherent to the laws of physics. Every discipline is a language capable of encompas...

Weekly Soul. Week 7 - Living Your Own Life

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  Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie. -7-   People say that what we’re all seeking is meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive so that our life experiences on a purely physical plane will have resonances within our innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.   Joseph Campbell   You are alive as you live your own life. There are so many forces that draw us to live other people’s lives. We live in a culture that relentlessly champions the external trappings of success. Newer cars are better than older. Bigger houses are better than smaller. Higher salaries are better than lower. Being one of the vice presidents of your company is better than being among the line staff. Being young and sleek is better than being older and heavy. There is nothi...