The 15th century mystic, Teresa of Avila, loved the usage of archetypal symbolism and metaphor in her writings to describe her understanding about the nature of the divine, the state of heaven, the substance of the soul and the stages of the spiritual life. The Interior Castle was one of her finest teachings on the…
Mindfulness is a form of meditative practice which focuses upon our mind and attention. In Mindfulness we notice bodily experiences, such as our breathing, sensation, and our energy. We notice external things such as sounds near to us, smells, taste and touch. Mindfulness draws upon a knowledge base of cognitive behavioural psychology, neuroscience, and Buddhist…
Originally written for the Lynn News, Thought for the Day Viktor Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist who was a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust. He spent three years in the infamous concentration camp, Auschwitz. This experience led him to write a transformative book called Man’s Search for Meaning. The book describes how finding deep…
We are a fractured, fragmented and dysfunctional humanity in many ways. We are also an incredibly good, compassionate and creative species. We oscillate between these. Our global history bears witness to this. Most of us don’t intend to cause harm, but we do. Some of us have been twisted into narcissism by destructive formative experiences….
One evening I said to my soul,“What secrets do you hold? WhatHave you veiled from my humanMind?” And my soul replied: We always have been and alwaysWill be. I veil our beautyAnd divinity from you for your sake.If you knew who you areAnd whence you came,You could not bear this world.” And in response I…
When we think of the word compassion, we associate it with the attribute of kindness. Compassion does consist of kindness. However, it also consists of far more. Professor Paul Gilbert (OBE) is a renown clinical psychologist who has made significant contributions to the field of compassionate mental health care. He speaks of compassion as being…
Intuition and intuitive knowing is as natural to humans as is breathing, through sadly, most of humanity keeps their precious third eye of non dual perception, tightly closed. We deny ourselves entry to the gateway of mysticism without even realising we are doing it. At the gateway divinity meets us and lifts up our consciousness…
The human intellect, even the greatest intellect, is fallible and and limited when facing the immense nature of a limitless universe. Wisdom on the other hand has little relationship to the intellect. Wisdom doesn’t process problems through rational, deductive logic, but rather utilises and guides the intellect In the process of knowing and understanding. The…