Category Archives: 3. SPIRIT

The word spirit originates in the Latin “spiritus” meaning “breath.” Spirit is the breath of life. Spirituality directs our attention toward the fundamental questions of life: Why am I here? How should I live? What happens when I die? The path of spirituality embraces deeply personal investigation into the nature of truth, purpose and meaning. To be spiritual means to embrace the universal mystery and illusive nature of life itself.

Religion: Emergence of a Third Way

Posted on 07/23/2010 by Brian Alger

Reli­gious belief is often char­ac­ter­ized as being inflex­i­ble and closed. The source of the beliefs that give rise to a reli­gious sys­tem lies within the inter­pre­ta­tion of “sacred” doc­trine that in some man­ner orig­i­nates in an all pow­er­ful being, or … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in 3. SPIRIT | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dark Night of the Soul: Learning on a dark night…

Posted on 07/15/2010 by Brian Alger

[Explor­ing Life] Dark­ness means an absence or defi­ciency of light. It cre­ates an intu­itive space in which the fragility of our own per­cep­tion becomes uncom­fort­ably appar­ent. Dark­ness immerses us in the unknown and ren­ders our beliefs inad­e­quate. On a dark … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in 3. SPIRIT | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Spirit: Spiritual Deception — The Spiritual Bypass

Posted on 06/09/2010 by Brian Alger

In The Spir­i­tual Bypass: Self Enhanc­ing or Self Decep­tion? Bernard Starr describes the idea of the spir­i­tual bypass, or using spir­i­tu­al­ity as a means to escape the real­ity of our exis­tence into some sup­posed “higher” state of con­scious­ness. In this … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in 3. SPIRIT | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Spirutal Quality: Gratefulness

Posted on 01/08/2010 by Brian Alger

[Explor­ing Life] A Net­work for Grate­ful Liv­ing is an orga­ni­za­tion cre­ated by Bro. David Steindl-Rast that is ded­i­cated to pro­vid­ing edu­ca­tion and sup­port for the prac­tice of grate­ful liv­ing as a global ethic. Brother Steindl-Rast believes that grate­ful­ness is a … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in 3. SPIRIT | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Spiritual Practices: John O’Donohue-There Is No Spiritual Program

Posted on 12/23/2009 by Brian Alger

[Explor­ing Life] What is the essence of spir­i­tual learn­ing? Is there an ideal pro­gram, course of study, or method­ol­ogy? In Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wis­dom, John O’Donohue declares: “There is no spir­i­tual pro­gram.” This means that spir­i­tual learn­ing … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in 3. SPIRIT | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Spiritual Practices: A Perennial Course in Living Druidry

Posted on 12/21/2009 by Brian Alger

[Explor­ing Life] A Peren­nial Course in Liv­ing Druidry is intended to pro­vide process for learn­ing that is designed to endure for an indef­i­nite period of time. In this sense, a course inte­grates ele­ments of a prac­tice or rit­ual. The Peren­nial … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in 3. SPIRIT | Tagged | Leave a comment

Everything is Waiting for You — David Whyte

Posted on 02/05/2009 by Brian Alger

Your great mis­take is to act the drama as if you were alone. As if life were a pro­gres­sive and cun­ning crime with no wit­ness to the tiny hid­den trans­gres­sions. To feel aban­doned is to deny the inti­macy of your sur­round­ings… via Every­thing is … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in 3. SPIRIT | Tagged | Comments Off

Spiritual Quality: John O’Donohue on Beauty

Posted on 11/28/2008 by Brian Alger

[Explor­ing Life] The sub­tleties of suf­fer­ing and loss that now seem per­va­sive in mod­ern life is inti­mately con­nected with a loss of beauty. While the world remains rich in beauty, it is our abil­ity to sense and appre­ci­ate it has … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in 3. SPIRIT | Tagged | Comments Off

Yoga: The Bhagavad Gita

Posted on 11/16/2008 by Brian Alger

[Explor­ing Life] The Bha­gavad Gita, or Song of God, is a clas­sic reli­gious text of India that cel­e­brates the expe­ri­ence of God in the con­text of every­day life. Schol­ars esti­mate that it was writ­ten between 500BCE — 200BCE, how­ever, Vedic … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in 3. SPIRIT | Tagged | Comments Off

Yoga: The Yoga Sutras

Posted on 11/16/2008 by Brian Alger

[Explor­ing Life] The Yoga Sutras writ­ten by Pan­tan­jali in the 2nd cen­tury B.C. is con­sider to be one of the pri­mary texts of yoga. The word Yoga is derived from San­skrit root yujir mean­ing to join or to unite. Another … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in 3. SPIRIT | Tagged | Comments Off