Comments for London Spirituality Network Blog

Comment on by Tony Pinfold

Tony Pinfold — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:14:15 +0000

I very much enjoyed reading your blog. Joy is constantly being over looked by most people who are in search of joy. People are always in a constant state of planning for something to happen, that will bring them this elusive emotion. While they wait for it’s coming they over look the blossom, the sky, the birds and even the people around them.

Look at this dictionary definition I found
Joy - the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying

Such a view of joy is very disempowering and it is no wonder most people are joyless. Joy is coupled with gratitude and a true realisation that every moment of the day is a gift and not a ‘so what’. Sadly for many the wonder of just being alive is only ever discovered by those that have had brushes with death. It is amazing how quickly health scares can refocus the mind to the beauty of the world and of life in general. As a visionary artist whose works challenge daily perceptions, I would like to finish with a extract from my description of a work called ‘A moment in time’

‘The Universe has been evolving for billions of years just so you can experience this very second in time. Knowing that can you still view it in such a superficial way? I ask you to savour every minute of every day whatever it brings. Welcome to this wonderful moment in time, one thing is for sure, you will never see the likes of it again’

When viewed from this perspective how can even the most ‘mundane’ act, fail to bring a sense of joy.

Namaste Tony

Comment on “I’m spiritual, but not religious” by Stephen Handley

Stephen Handley — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:08:51 +0000

Dear all,

I saw the London Spirituality Network advertised in Green Events.

I’ve been in three different religious systems in my lifetime, and in recent years I’ve been engaging with what is called “New Spirituality”, which seeks to examine our thought systems in order to allow new revelations to emerge. Among its core principles are: firstly, we are all one. Secondly, this is not the only way, this is just another way. Thirdly, God has never stopped speaking to us, and She (every so often I use the feminine pronoun to denote God) continues to do so today. There are quite a few more. Hopefully this has stimulated your curiosity somewhat.

The idea isn’t to invalidate any belief system or to create a new one. It is rather to encourage existing belief systems to rethink. We are all aware that the world is not working. That is not because anything is wrong: there is no such thing as right and wrong. We make up what is right and wrong for ourselves. It is rather that our beliefs are causing us to live non-functional lives.

All of us have an idea of the highest good. Ask yourself, what are you going to be to bring it about? Note, I didn’t say, what are you going to do. The state of being comes first. That gives rise to the action.

I’m looking to get together with anyone who is interested in living in accordance with his/her highest good. As some of your contributors have already said, it’s best done in company. You can get me at http://spiritualityandthestandard.blogspot.com or at simchay@yahoo.co.uk.

Whoever you are, have a great 2008. Lots of love to all.

Comment on The Abuse of Prosperity preaching by rachel

rachel — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:56:02 +0000

Isnt this typical of many spiritual messages though - the message is taken, stressed in a different way to make whatever the person wants it to mean. This has happened in so many religions too.

As a consumer driven society our economics depend on us buying and wanting more ’stuff’. Its quite a contrary situation when at this time of year there were news items on TV before xmas saying the retailers were worried as we werent spending enough (subtle message is - go out and spend - its your duty to our society or there will be problems with interest rates later!!!) Then we have the january sales and now I notice the items are about debt and the trouble some people have got themselves into. No wonder so many get confused.

And this spirituality of materialism isnt that new. Even in the 1980s people started using a slogan ‘greed is good’. With the ‘ gospel of prosperity’ we have the story of the Emperors new clothes’! The trouble is that there is a grain of truth that there is a spirituality within the idea that we can be happy with what we have. But people mistake this for meaning what we have in material ’stuff’ again.

I believe what the message is meant to be that we have everything within us to be happy. And even that we can find happiness in the life we lead by looking at not what we lack, but the people, love, health, life experiences etc. that are in our lives. Even to look at the unpleasant stuff and see what may have come from it (strength, courage etc) What has happened though is that we have had the message dressed in false clothing. Books coming out that tell us we can ‘order stuff’ up like some kind of cosmic argos!!
Creative visualisation is something that was written about in the 1970s but even then it wasnt about visualising having things, but finding joy in the life you already live. Its message was supposed to be that joy is found in the life you lead - being who you are NOT what you own or get.
Now personally I dont believe you cant be spiritual if you have a comfortable life. But sadly so many self help books are focussed on the wrong message.

Comment on The Abuse of Prosperity preaching by carole

carole — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 08:32:10 +0000

Well said, the truth always emerges but when people are so desperate and seek help, their awareness is veiled, their weaknesses exposed and they often spiral downwards by these prosperity abusers.
Let’s pray for their protection and that their true needs and wants are revealed to them, and let us leave the princes of darkness to auto-destruct with Divine Justice/Divine Intervention/Divine Order. With enough resolve, a pure heart to help others, all is possible. I wish everyone an abundant and prosperous New Year 2008!

Comment on What are we Waiting For? by Fiona

Fiona — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 07:37:52 +0000

Linda writes so beautifully for me about the human side of that which we term God….a fragile human being with human needs of parental love, support, his mothers milk, warmth. it occurs to me that we are not fed this image enough!…even in the christian crib preparations……i have never seen a baby jesus who is blue from cold, crying, hungry.
i know in my life i have often thought that God is this perfect un-needy being who can continue to “deliver the goods” no matter what we human beings ask….demand…
the truth actually is that i have my most clear experiences of being in contact with god when i am in the most agony of my human ego as it wrestles with trying to label things “right” and “wrong”. recently i had a really tough period of profound bereavments, and although i am grieving, and have slowed down my work to just let myself be with it…..i also feel the most centred,connected and clear i have felt in a long time.
i am able to see and feel clearly the vulnerability that we all are….whether it is a squirell as it contracts its tummy muscles as it cries out in the woods, human beings just trying to give their soul life either through music, or healing, and for the interconnection i truly feel with life and the god-ness of life breathing through every living thing in these moments….i feel fully grateful.
A friend was telling me about putting her mother into residential care for the elderly over christmas and all that took of the family and what it brought her into contact with…vulnerability. I personally went out with my brothers and sisters on the eve of christmas to a bar, and walked past a child…of perhaps 17 years…in his sleeping bag…alone….not even another homeless person to be on contact with and watched myself register him, the perceived agony of his aloneness on christmas eve and walk by.
it occurs to me that as i released my feelings of guilt and shame about my actions in that moment, that these two incidents show how difficult we in england seem to find being with vulnerability….our own or another’s and in these moments choosing seperation instead of relationship. what would it have cost me to go over and talk to this youngster? maybe i would have received an earful of defences, or maybe a chance for love to connect us both in that moment.. i’ll never know now…but it did firm my resolve to “get in there!” whatever that means at times where i can and allow love a more full expression and a chance to connect whatever the outer presentation of fragility and the vulnerable it shows up.
may all humanity find ease and faith that love is around and continues to feed our lives in the most unexpected ways and will continue to do so in 2008.

Comment on “I’m spiritual, but not religious” by Angela

Angela — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 05:50:52 +0000

I think that there is another twist to this … and that is religions that are passing themselves off a being “spiritual”. I am thinking of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, who seem to be lost in a tangle of different fronts, desperate to hide the fact that they are a religion … and a pretty extreme one at that; no sex, no touching, imminent and desirable End of the World through nuclear holocaust with death of 6 Billion to make way for a heaven on earth for 900,000 of their faithful followers.

I think it is also necessary to separate ’spiritual’ from ’spiritist’ or ’spiritualist’. Note, I am not judging or condemning, I just think that folks should get what it says on the label. The Brahma Kumaris are heavily into mediumship and channelling which are spiritist or spiritualistic.

Their practise basically opens one up to their guiding spirit entity who they … of course … claim is God or the supreme spirit. Although they work very hard to hide the mediumistic messages this ‘god’ channels, it is clear that followers are being opened up so that it and others within the organization can ‘work through’ them. This is surely occult or psychicism not ’spirituality’.

Perhaps it is about time that all the interested parties sat down and clearly defined all this stuff? I don’t think the terminology is entirely interchangeable.

In my experience, whereas I would agree that spirituality should be bound by morals and ethics, it should be the application of those. Whilst not denying its existence, all too often I find the occult and psychicism laden with amorality, unaccountability and deception.

Is deception, e.g. followers being strung along on false predictions, not the first sign that one is dealing with a lower level of psychicism?

Comment on Learning to Slow Down by Michael

Michael — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 17:23:09 +0000

This is a good article I wish I hadn’t had to slow down over the last two years and even at 66 I am yearning to get into the political establishment I have supposedly retired from (don’t believe all you read in the newspapers, folks!). But perhaps God brought me this time to set aside to really catch up with myself and my “clarity” of mind; allowing me to find true love as well has been great!

Meltem - Pilates is great, I am not sure whether you are a woman or man but it is more designed for women…If you are a bloke, I suggest you change to something like t’ai chi - same effect, different set of physical rules which would suit your body better. You are right - our society places too much importance on youth, fitness and “high impact” everything. Time to slow down and enjoy life more!

Comment on “I’m spiritual, but not religious” by Michael

Michael — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 17:14:55 +0000

Louise has the best idea. Try it, you might like it.

I and my fiancee - also named Louise - are both practicing members of our religions (as well as spiritualists who have personal experience of what is Beyond) and though we are a bit hermit-like at the moment (we are working hard on political research) find being able to be in church or synagogue - I am a Jew, she is, in her own words, “the nearest thing the Anglicans have to a witch” - among ordinary people with ordinary faiths one of the most spiritual things I can find.

As someone who has to have one eye on the media, I don’t think you should take this survey at face value. There is some propaganda element in it designed to sideline mainstream religion in favour of “junk-food spirituality”, which has in my opinion cut the spirituality community loose from any semblance of logic, moral foundations or ethical considerations. Spirituality should for the most part be active in engaging with the world as it is, not hoping for a world that “can be” full of sweetness and light and the denial that people are tempted by evil every day. Opening our eyes as well as our hearts will be necessary to create a goodly world, and the current trend towards the isolation of spiritual believers worries me profoundly that we are letting the bulk of humanity down by neglecting the good and feeding the evil.

Comment on Junk Food Spirituality? by Michael

Michael — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 17:06:23 +0000

“Then there is Jesus Camp where young ‘Christians’ (I mean 7 or 8 years old) are sent to be indoctrinated in evangelical, charismatic Christianity. Yet more spiritual poison.”

Have you ever been? Behind the bad image, charismatic Christians are full of happy, spiritual values and a positive spiritual outlook. They may be a bit doctrinaire, but then so are a lot of people - they just don’t admit it and these are. I’d rather my children - even as a Jew - went to Jesus Camp than stayed out on the streets killing each other or being pushed out of windows.

Comment on Learning to Slow Down by Meltem

Meltem — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:28:45 +0000

I am one of those who have been learning to slow down for the last 3 years to be successful at my job without burning out.
3 years ago I joined the gym with the intention of keeping fit and toned. I liked going to classes rather than doing exercises with the machines. I liked high impact exercises such as aerobic and body combat. I am an IT professional, life goes very fast at work. Everything is urgent. I liked the body combat classes because I relieved my stress gained from the type of work I have done. Later on Pilates classes were offered. Since they were on a lunch time I decided to do Pilates. I hated it. Every movement was so slow that I almost fell asleep. No action at all. So boring. But I continued because of doing just something at lunch time not because I liked it. After 8 classes I began to realize that every move we had to do in a slow motion actually was much more difficult to do than a fast action. I had to pay attention to what I was doing in order to do it right. This made me notice that I was being more focused, more concentrated and more relax. This type of slowing down brought much more clarity in my mind. I began to see things so clearly at my work and faster than anybody else. Ideas started to flow freely in my mind. Whenever, I face a challenging situation I move myself to a different plane and slow my thoughts down at once to see a clear picture. This does not only work at work but also in other aspects in my life. I am a mother and wife. When things seem going out of hand, I slow down. I owe this to Pilates. I gained this skill through Pilates. I am sure there are many other ways one can learn this skill.