Contemporary Spirituality

On Being in the Moment By Ivy Helman

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

Time.  We mark years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds. We mark seasons.  We mark life events. ... more Time.  We mark years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds. We mark seasons.  We mark life events.  We live our lives in time: both circular and linear.  Time began before we did and time will continue after we cannot experience it any further.  Some say we repeat time with rebirth.  Others suggest that we only have one lifetime of which we should make the most.  Still others suggest there is existence outside of time with concepts like infinity and eternal life. 

Kant Concept Art

by Mark Singer

Tandem works include: "Seminal Ethics," "More Seminal Ethics Implications," "Addendum - More Seminal Ethics Implications" - also on this site.

The artist is P. Patten (USA).

Seminal Ethics

by Mark Singer

Tandem works include: "Kant Concept Art," "More Seminal Ethics Implications," "Addendum - More Seminal Ethics Implications" - also on this site.

Additional implications include: moral, epistemology, love, happiness, time and space, psychological, art, education, medical, economic, war, capital punishment, abortion, and possibility.

Portraits in the Mind

by Mark Singer

"Portraits in the Mind" - composed mostly of art - is based on research at Kendall College of Art & Design (USA) in which this new link was discovered:

> 1:10 art students reported synaesthesia

> 1:3 of the above demographic reported co-consciousness.

Discovering Your Ethical Core

by Mark Singer

Related works include: "Seminal Ethics," "Kant Concept Art," "More Seminal Ethics Implications," "Addendum - More Seminal Ethics Implications" - also on this site.

It's All About Love (Synopsis)

by Mark Singer

The Gospel According To Google: The Future of Religious Niches and Technological Spirituality

by Tommaso Bertolotti

Co-authored with Carolina Cinerari, presented at the EPHES-SST conference in Suceava, March 2012, to appear in the European Journal of Science and Theology

This paper deals with the developments of online religiosity and its possible perversion. The first section examines... more This paper deals with the developments of online religiosity and its possible perversion. The first section examines whether the impact of Internet on traditional religions is fundamentally helpful in adding anything new to the world of spirituality and devotion. The second section deals with some instances of religious and spiritual behaviors that are being produced by digitalized lifestyle, even though they are not concerned with traditional religious beliefs. The question underlying this research is whether we are looking “the right way” when we mean to study the link between computers, Internet and religiosity.

More Seminal Ethics Implications

by Mark Singer

Tandem works include: "Seminal Ethics," "Kant Concept Art," "Addendum - More Seminal Ethics Implications" - also on this site.

These implications are: moral, epistemology, love, happiness, time and space, psychological, art, education, medical, economic, war, capital punishment, and abortion.

"Addendum - More Seminal Ethics Implications" includes additional categories.

The role of religion and spirituality on the quality of life of rare diseases patients

by Ioan Popoviciu

Salomea Popoviciu, Delia Birle, Serban Olah (2012). Review of Research and Social Intervention.

This study explored the relationship between religious beliefs and spiritual beliefs and the quality of life of... more This study explored the relationship between religious beliefs and spiritual beliefs and the quality of life of Romanian rare disease patients. Specifically, the study, firstly, analyzed the correlations between self-reported life satisfaction and
participants’ beliefs in heaven, afterlife and God. Secondly, correlations between self-reported optimism and participants’ belief in the role of spirituality and life meaning were studied. Thirdly, the relationship between self-reported health and
church attendance, importance of church and importance God for Romanian rare disease patients were examined. Implications for social workers, counselors and health providers were also discussed.

THEORIAS - Réseau international de chercheurs pour la théorisation transdisciplinaire de la spiritualité

by Jean Ehret

On February 18, 2012, an international network for the transdisciplinary theorization of spirituality was founded at... more On February 18, 2012, an international network for the transdisciplinary theorization of spirituality was founded at the Catholic University of Louvain. People interested may find the statutes in this document. For more information and for joining the group, please email me.

The Nature of Soul

by Author Sam Oliver

Soul

It is the nature of soul to grow, to heal, and to love. As we enter into the world, we emerge as a tiny child. We are... more It is the nature of soul to grow, to heal, and to love. As we enter into the world, we emerge as a tiny child. We are open. We do not have conditions placed on us by our parents or ourselves. We have not closed ourselves off from any possibility. It is though the world lay at our feet. We are a bundle of unconditioned purity.

As we age, conditions are placed on us to direct us along our paths intended to keep us from harm. Even if we manage to stay out of harms way, we move into a state of stimulus-response reactions toward life. This draws us further and further away from the natural state of pure being we came into the world with as an infant.

How can we return to our natural state of being? How can we call our soul back and gain a sense of spiritual well-being? The following are ways we can return to the wholeness and healing we seek as spiritual beings incarnated into the human race:

1. Do Something Creative.

Creativity engages our heart, our mind, and our imagination. These activities allow us to utilize our whole being. Our attention moves from outer expressions of the world and enters the inner dynamics of living giving rise to our heart and our imagination. When our heart and our imagination are given attention, we enter into the realm of insight. Insight is our ability to see from within just how sacred and magical our lives really are.

In the realm of soul, our humanity becomes sacred. Through creativity we are aware how life flows through us and not from us. The more we identify with these qualities of attention flowing through us, the more we are identifying with qualities residing in us that are whole and healing. It is our natural state.

2. Spend Time With A Child.

Children have a way of drawing our attention away from activities and responsibilities defining us as adults. All a child wants to do in this world is have fun. They seem to never tire of such activities. Children are constantly motivated by play.

As adults, we tend to think of play as wasted time. Adults who lose a sense of play and joy in their lives are in danger of losing self-motivation. The kind of self-motivation I am referring to involves the desire to have fun in life. This can lead to a depressive state lacking creativity, spontaneity, and the heart of a child.

Each of us has the heart of a child within us that never tires. It is the part of us fully participating in and with life. As our imagination and heart begin to guide us over the mind, we are in soul. In soul, our mind is in its proper perspective. This part of us is our inner awareness not bound by the pressures of the world. When we return to soul, the possibility of living whole and healed becomes a reality.

3. Become A Child.

The next time you look into a child's eyes try to feel their heart. Notice the difference and similarities of your heart and their heart. Is there a difference? Is this awareness a long or short distance from where you were as a child?

What happened to that little boy or little girl inside you? Since we cannot retrieve childhood physically, maybe we can from within. Remember your past as a child - the good times and the bad times. As you look at your life through the eyes of a child, recall how active your heart and imagination were. Embrace it. Let this inner vision penetrate your entire awareness. Let go of your adult interpretations of your childhood and view it with innocence and love.

Our true nature is to live in the world without being fully of it. Inside us are endless avenues that can move us toward the experience of joy. When we let go of our tendency to view the world as right or wrong, good or bad, we leave behind dualism and enter into Unity.

This Unity behind all appearances of diversity is a healing state of unconditional love. It is the part of us bringing all life into being, leading us through life, and what will lead us home. It is the force of nature giving us life. It is our soul.


Sam Oliver

Americanasana (review essay on history of yoga in America)

by Jared Farmer

Special attention given to Mark Singleton's YOGA BODY, Stefanie Syman's THE SUBTLE BODY, and Robert Love's THE GREAT OOM.

Yoga: Attainment of Ultimate Reality and Meaning

by Shiv Talwar

Piublished in the Journal of Ultimate Reality and Meaning, Vol. 27, No.1, March 2004.
Print a copy by visiting spiritualeducation.org.

Yoga is a serious system of contemplation with an integrated approach towards both the objective and transcendental... more Yoga is a serious system of contemplation with an integrated approach towards both the objective and transcendental knowledge. Yoga is a Sanskrit word, which is derived from the root yuj, meaning ‘to join’. Its purpose is first to unite the contemplative with the objective reality of the object of contemplation and then to enable unity with the realm transcending objectivity.

Yogic process begins with consciously stilling the mind to free it of its usual disturbances and fleetingness in order to develop an incisive focus of intellect to enable uninterrupted contemplation of one object. Eventually, even this one object fades and disappears from consciousness, which is left completely free of ordinary activity. The contemplative must want passionately to know the object of contemplation, or the effort needed for the contemplative union will not be possible. Any object of contemplation can enable the transcendence of objectivity, if the contemplative effort is uninterrupted.

In Search of Spiritual Capital: The Spiritual As a Cultural Resource

by Mathew Guest

pp. 181-200 in Kieran Flanagan & Peter Jupp (eds) A Sociology of Spirituality (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007)

This chapter addresses contemporary debates about the decline of religion and rise of spirituality through the concept... more This chapter addresses contemporary debates about the decline of religion and rise of spirituality through the concept of spiritual capital. It offers a review of the literature on ‘capital’ theory, leading up to Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology, which serves as a basis for a critical theorisation of spiritual capital. The capacity of spiritual capital to illuminate issues of power and the politics of identity is illustrated via a case study of Anglican clergy and their influence upon their children’s values and religious identities.

“El cielo fragmentado sobre mí y la incertidumbre dentro de mí”: Para reinterpretar la fe en el discurso post-cristiano"

by Juan Dejo

Inaugural lecture, march 2007, University Antonio Ruiz de Montoya.

Ausencia, Realidad y Mediación: variables de la mística cristiana en el acceso del Cibernauta a lo Sagrado.

by Juan Dejo

Originally Published in: Jesús Martín Barbero, Rocío Silva-Santisteban, Juan Dejo, S.J. et.al. "Lo sagrado en los medios de comunicación". Lima, UARM 2009.

It's All About Love (Synopsis)

by Mark Singer

Residing in a Liminal Space: Finding a scholarly home at the Institute for Thealogy and Deasophy by Patricia ‘Iolana

by Feminism and Religion

originally published at the Feminism and Religion Project.

For years I was outside of traditional academia.  I can no longer count the times I have heard that my research... more For years I was outside of traditional academia.  I can no longer count the times I have heard that my research and my theories were highly radical and would never find a home or a place of acceptance.  Early in my career, while still in the States, a number of my colleagues tried to convince me to take a traditional theological stance, and join the world of orthodox faith tradition.  What my well-meaning colleagues never considered was that in asking me to alter my way of being, they were asking me to deny myself, my understanding of the Numinous, and negating that there were other people in the world who think and feel as I do.  I would rather cut off my nose to spite my face. Needless to say, I continued on, even though it often meant blazing my own trail off the safe and ‘beaten path.’ I trusted that I was on the right path and that the Divine would lead my way.  In other words, I had faith—loads of it, and in the end it paid off.

Seminal Ethics

by Mark Singer

Tandem works include: "Kant Concept Art," "More Seminal Ethics Implications," "Addendum - More Seminal Ethics Implications" - also on this site.

Additional implications include: moral, epistemology, love, happiness, time and space, psychological, art, education, medical, economic, war, capital punishment, abortion, and possibility.

Piercing the Veil of Language: How to Achieve Intuitive Knowledge in Meditative Reading

by Bill Trusiewicz

Part I of a two-part article published in "Starlight," the Sophia Foundation of North America newsletter, vol. 8, No 2, Fall 2008

Piercing the Veil of Language: How to Achieve Intuitive Knowledge in Meditative Reading, Part I, is the first of two... more Piercing the Veil of Language: How to Achieve Intuitive Knowledge in Meditative Reading, Part I, is the first of two articles, in which a groundwork is laid upon which intuitive knowledge may be achieved.

Two prerequisites are discussed: a courage to face ambiguity, paradoxes and the like; and the ability to make a distinction between merely abstract ideas, what often masquerades as higher perception, and the "real thing."

Following this, eight suggestions are offered towards understanding what meditative reading involves.