The Missing Years of Jesus' Life — Now Found

What did Jesus do between the ages of 12 and 30 years? This question has been the subject of many speculations. And there have been many answers, some of them purportedly based on scientific research.

Some of the answers say that he went to India, to England, to Alexandria, and to other places as well. They say he studied Buddhism, Hinduism, Egyptian wisdom, etc.

Those Years Are Not Missing

It is not true to say that those years are missing. When we say that something is missing what we usually mean is that it cannot be found or it is lost. For example, we say that we miss our pet dog, meaning that we cannot find it or it is absent from where we are. We also say, We missed the train, meaning we lost our chance to ride that train.

But in the case of Jesus those 18 years between the time he was 12 years old and 30 years old, are not really missing because they are not lost and we can easily find them. Those years are recorded properly. First, Luke wrote that he was 12 years old when he was lost to his parents and then found in the temple. Then a little further he wrote that when Jesus began his ministry he was about 30 years of age. 30 minus 12 are 18 years. We found those 18 years by simply deducting 12 from 30. They are not lost years.

What is missing is not the years but the description, as most readers would want it in a story, of what Jesus did during those years. This is what we do not find in the Gospels of the Christian Bible.

The Gospels Are Not Mere Stories

The desire to know what happened in Jesus’ life during those 18 years arises from a misunderstanding of the Gospels as we have them in the Christian Bible. Our tendency is to read these Gospels as stories about Jesus’ life or his biography. We do not realize and perhaps we will never realize that these are not ordinary stories or biographies of Jesus, unless somebody tells us so, and shows us why they are not stories or biographies.

Those Gospels are what they are, gospels, not biographies.

The meaning of Gospel is announcement of good news. That is what the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are. They are announcements of the good news of Jesus. They are not a collection of stories about Jesus’ life to merely inform or entertain us. They are a public announcement of events and words which if believed benefits the listener in a life-changing way.

How I Discovered That the Gospels Are Not Mere Stories

I myself did not grasp this fact about these gospels although I had a formal training in theology. In my theological studies about the Gospels I was taught that they are indeed Gospels. But still the idea persisted in my mind that they were stories or portions of the biographies of Jesus.

The realization that the Gospels are announcements of the good news of Jesus came to me much, much later in life. It dawned on me while I was listening to an audio version of the Gospel according to Mark. I heard this Gospel read on the Internet and the tone of the reader was that of a person who was announcing a very important, life changing news. There and then I realized what is meant that the Gospel of Mark is an announcement, not a story telling. As a boy I read it like a Bible story. During the time I listened to this audio version the words were still the same, but now they were proclaimed as components of a good news.

The So-called Missing Years Are Fully Contained in the Gospels

Viewed as an announcement the 18 years of Jesus are fully contained in this description of Luke: And he went down with them (his parents) and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them; And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and years, and in favor with God and man.

The So-called Missing Years Are Present In Us

Secondly, those years are not really missing when we relate our life to that of Jesus. We carry those years within us. The reason for this is because Christ is our life, as Paul says in his letter to the Colossians. If Jesus is our life, the life of Jesus is in us, and therefore his life before the creation of this world, his life after creation including his human life, is also our life and those years, from the time he was 12 to 30 years old, are also within us. This will take another full article to explain but for now we can see already the truth of this, if we have indeed the life of Jesus in us.

Jesus said that he is the vine and we are the branches. In a plant the same life flows from the vine to its branches. The same life of Jesus the vine flows to us the branches, including his life the time he was 12 years old to 30 years old.

The so-called missing years of Jesus’ life are no longer missing. We have found them if we realize the Gospels are announcements of good news and if we realize that the life of Jesus still flows in us and through us.

So, those 18 years are not really missing. We found them by subtracting 12 from 30. What Jesus did during those years is fully proclaimed by Luke in 2 verses in the Christian Bible. And the reality of those 18 years is within us. We have found those 18 years. They are in us. We continue living them.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Spirituality in Prisons

Spirituality in prisons is a strange topic. It is like the topic of fire in water. Why? Because we think of prisons as places where criminals, convicted or presumed innocent, live. How can spirituality co-exist with these criminals? We would think that spirituality is in churches and homes but hardly in prisons among criminals.

Prisons Can Be Places of Deep Spirituality

But if we reflect seriously, prisons can indeed be places where spirituality can germinate, grow, bloom and bear fruit.

Just take the case of Viktor Emil Frankl, who was imprisoned in the concentration camps of Hitler during World War II. Because of this experience in prison he was able to write the best-selling book, MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING. His spirituality which bloomed in the most sordid conditions in the camps is witness to the fact that indeed prisons can be a fertile ground for spirituality.

Or take the case of Benigno Aquino Jr. who was converted to genuine Christianity and deep spirituality in the prison cells where he was put after Ferdinand Marcos, then President of the Philippines, declared Martial Law in September 21, 1972.

Factors Making Prisons Places of Deep Spirituality

The primary factor which makes prisons a fertile ground for spirituality is the abundance of time prisoners enjoy. Prisoners have plenty of time in their prison quarters for themselves, even for those who are condemned to do hard labor.

A second factor is suffering. Prisoners suffer. They suffer from restrictions of movement, food and human relations. The last restriction makes them very lonely and is perhaps for most, as it was for me once, the worst suffering.

A person who is lonely and suffering and has plenty of time for himself or herself is bound to think and think more. He can do no other thing except commit suicide. But in prisons suicide is carefully guarded against.

There are of course diverse kinds of prisons, from being locked up in a cell to being confined to a penal colony where prisoners can cultivate farms and simulate normal life.

But ample time and lots of suffering do provide a favorable setting for the presence and flourishing of spirituality in prisons.

The two months I was confined in prison in 1968 gave me ample time to reflect on my own life. Fortunately I was allowed to have a Bible which I kept on reading. Loneliness was indeed a cause of sharp and deep suffering. I was able to smuggle out a letter through the help of a fellow prisoner who was getting out of confinement. There I realized that indeed spirituality could germinate, grow, bloom and fructify in prison conditions.

Religiosity in Prisons Is Not Enough

This may lead authorities to take advantage of this opportunity to sow the seeds of spirituality among our prisoners. Many prison establishments do provide religious services. There are even prison chaplains. Regular Bible studies are conducted in many prison institutions. But spirituality as such is not given due importance.

Religiosity is not the same as spirituality. In religiosity the focus is on the religious thinking, words and religious acts of a prisoner, like praying and participating in church related services. In spirituality the focus is on the positive creativity of a person’s spirit, not just the making of handicrafts or engaging in works of art, but in truly liberating the spirit from the confines of an enslaved life, perhaps enslaved by murderous passions or addictions or other factors.

Obstacle to Spirituality in Prisons

An obstacle to the germination and growth of spirituality in prisons is the reformatory mentality many prison establishments have. This is very apparent by their use of the term “correctional” or “reformatory”. They want their prison inmates to reform, to change their behavior, from bad to good, from greed to generosity, from murdering for revenge to forgiveness of wrongdoing done to them. To achieve this objective there are drills, exercises, classes, sessions, etc.

But the inmates cannot change their behavior unless new life is stirred up among them, unless they are convinced of the primacy of the spirit in their life. This is where a real ministry in prisons can be done: not a change in behavior, but in total orientation; not in the change of language the prisoners use, but a completely new mind.

A Challenge to Prison Administrators

May our prison authorities see the possibilities of making their correctional facilities gardens of genuine spirituality.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

How to Create Prosperity in Your Spiritual Life

Spirituality is directly linked to prosperity in life but most people do not know this. Either they have a false notion of spirituality or they think only of prosperity from an economic or materialistic point of view.

Meaning of Prosperity

When people hear or read the word “prosperity” the immediate image that usually comes to their mind is that of an abundance of material goods. This easily evokes the image of financial prosperity or wealth.

They do not realize that generally there are three levels of prosperity.

The basic meaning of “prosper” from which the word “prosperity” comes from is to “succeed,” from the Latin “prosperare.” Because most people measure success in terms of financial gains, the word “to prosper” has come to mean “to succeed in business or in financial endeavors.”

Prosperity therefore can be applied to success in the acquisition of wealth or material goods. But this is only one level, perhaps the lowest level, but for most people the most important level.

But it can also be applied to success in the acquisition of education or psychological goods. This is a second level. The person has attained success as a teacher, as a professional, or as a person honored in his community. He has prospered in his career.

Thirdly, prosperity can be applied to success in the acquisition of spiritual goods. This is prosperity in the spiritual life. This is what we want to describe here, how you can create prosperity in your spiritual life.

Difference in Spiritual Prosperity

But first let us be clear what the meaning is of prosperity in our spiritual life. Prosperity in our material life is easily gauged by the amount of money we have in the bank or in the investments we enter into. Prosperity in our mental life is also easily gauged by the academic titles we add to our names, usually abbreviations of doctoral degrees. But prosperity in our spiritual life is a little more difficult to measure.

The things of the spirit are not visible, like money or diplomas or transcripts of school records. They are only perceived by the effects that they produce in our lives. Therefore we can only describe prosperity in our spiritual life by the effects this produces in our life.

Meaning of Prosperity in the Spiritual Life

Basic to prosperity in our spiritual life is a nearness to God, a nearness that is personally intimate.

I once met a person who was financially successful. He had built a school and it was thriving. He was also educationally successful. He had a sharp mind and mixed easily with other highly educated persons. But he told us that he just could not conceive of an intimate relation with God. For him God was remote, God was someone impersonal. His concept of God was that of a being who created this world and left it to work out with the laws he put into it. This man was not prosperous in his spiritual life.

How is this nearness, this personal intimacy with God manifested in a person’s life? It is manifested in the kindness he shows to those around him.

Another essential element of prosperity in our spiritual life is the richness of spiritual values in a person’s life. This is manifested by a tolerance of religions. The person who is spiritually prosperous is never bigoted. He is rich spiritually, so he is not attached to one doctrine or opinion.

A third essential element of prosperity in the spiritual life is wisdom. The spiritually rich person is rich in wisdom. This is manifested by his timely advices and wise decisions. I once went to an old man in the dead of the night. Before I could speak, the old man knew that I needed help and in what aspect I needed help. He had the wisdom to tell the members of his family to help me. He was spiritually prosperous, though financially poor.

These three things, intimacy with God, richness of spiritual values, and wisdom constitute spiritual wealth. The person who has them is spiritually prosperous, has prosperity in his or her spiritual life.

How to Create Prosperity in Your Spiritual Life

How then do you create this kind of prosperity in your spiritual life? The question seems misleading because in a sense you cannot do something or a technique in order to create it, this prosperity in the spiritual life. When we say or read the word “create” the connotation is that we are going to do something in order to produce something else. The artist creates a beautiful picture by thinking about it in his mind and by painting it on canvass. The writer creates a novel by thinking about a plot and weaving a story around this plot.

But in the spiritual life strictly speaking we do not create prosperity. It is a gift. We ask it of God who creates it in us. Analogously we do create spiritual prosperity in our life by disposing ourselves to receive this gift. Without this disposing on our part we would never attain prosperity in our spiritual life.

So, a proper question to ask is: How do you dispose yourself so that God can create prosperity in your spiritual life? There are three dispositions you need to go through.

The first disposition is to be open to all the treasures of the spiritual life that you can see or read about you. You read the Bible if you are a Christian, the Qur’an if you are a Muslim, the Bhavagad Gita if you are a Hindu, the Tripitaka if you are a Buddhist, whatever is written by the sages of the religions, great and small. Or you read any or all of these books whatever your religion is.

The second disposition is to ponder on the sayings you read in these books and relate them to your life. It is not a matter of reading for the sake of curiosity. You read in order to pause and ponder. If you read through one of the great spiritual books just to finish it, it will not profit you. You read and pause and think and relate what you think with your life.

The third disposition is to just rest your mind. Do not think when the moment comes that you feel not thinking anymore. Just think of the presence of the Great Spirit in you and others.

As you become used to these dispositions great wisdom is going to flood into your soul, you accumulate more and more of the values of the spiritual life, and you become more and more intimate with God. You become prosperous in your spiritual life. You create prosperity in your spiritual life.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

The Meaning of Spirituality in Life

We may think that the meaning of spirituality in life is simple. Just look it up in the dictionary and you have it.

Diverse Meanings of Spirituality

But even looking at its meaning in the dictionary we will find that there are three to four definitions, and one of them is a definition that seems to contradict its basic concept. It defines spirituality as church property which is something material, not spiritual.

And the dictionary lists 9 different contexts in which this word “spirituality” can be used.

Scientists in a certain workshop could not agree on the meaning of spirituality.

So, what really is the meaning of spirituality in life?

Difficulty in Getting the Meaning Without Experiencing It

A difficulty in getting at the meaning of spirituality in life is that we cannot know its meaning if we have not experienced it to a certain degree. And judging from our observation of the people around us they seem to be concerned only with the material things, like how to produce money for a living, how to spend it, how to hoard it. It seems that these people do not have any experience of spirituality at all.

But if it is true that the human being is composed of body, soul and spirit, then any human being has an experience of spirituality and therefore has a notion of its meaning.

Spirituality in life then is a way of living wherein the person gives proper emphasis to the spiritual part of his being.

The athlete, the body builder, the beautician, the gym owners give emphasis to the physical aspect of the person, the body.

The academician, the teacher in our schools, the educational institutions give emphasis to the mental aspect of the person, the soul.

The religious persons, the spiritual healers, the shamans give emphasis to the spiritual aspect of the person, the spirit.

Meaning of Spirituality in Life

Spirituality in life then is giving emphasis and priority to the spiritual aspect in our life, the things which endure, like faith or belief in the world of spirits and God, hope or desire for better things in life, and love or union with the spirits and with God.

When a person lives in such a way that he gives proper value to the spiritual dimension of his existence, then he has a mature spirituality. But if he does not live in such a way then he only has incipient or beginning spirituality.

Furthermore once a person lives a mature spiritual life, he gives primacy to the spiritual dimension of his life. He is no longer caught in the rat race. He has a calmness about him. He is no longer a slave of material things, like money, or of psychological rewards, like fame.

Spirituality in life enables us to live life to the full if we also take care of our physical and mental life. These three dimensions are all essential in life, but the primary one is spiritual, a dimension which most people seem to forget or relegate to the background of their life.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

The Purpose of Going on a Spiritual Journey

Spirituality is not simply a topic to be discussed by those who want to know more about spiritual things. There is a practical purpose for discussing things related to spirituality.

And so also there is a practical purpose in going on a spiritual journey. What that purpose is will be made clear in this article.

Purpose Is Different from Destination

There is a physical journey, a journey to a physical destination, a place. And there is always a purpose in such a journey. The place is not the purpose. It is only a destination. Usually, one or a combination of these is the purpose of a physical journey: a business or work related transaction, a vacation, a bonding of a relationship.

A scientist wants to go to the south pole to record the temperature there. His purpose in going there is not the south pole but the recording of the temperature.

A tired worker wants to go to Australia to enjoy a vacation there. His purpose is not Australia, but the vacation, rest and excitement Australia can offer to him.

The same is true in a mental journey, going into the ideas of men and women who lived a long time ago or in other areas of the world. The purpose is not just to know these ideas. The purpose is to see how these ideas may be of help to the one reading these ideas. We read about the Greek tragedies in order to learn how tragedies are worked out in one’s life with the purpose of avoiding them.

In a spiritual journey our destination is the world of spirits and ultimately God Himself, but He is not the purpose of such a journey. He is only the destination, not the purpose of the journey. We want to go there because He has something to offer us which we cannot acquire by a physical or mental journey.

The Purpose of Our Spiritual Journey

The purpose of a spiritual journey may be curiosity, trying to know what lies in the realm of the spirits. But more than curiosity the person undergoing a spiritual journey wants to enjoy life to the fullest possible that he can attain.

One may say that the purpose of a spiritual journey is to enjoy God. But what is in God that we can enjoy?

Paradoxically, the one which we are searching when we go on a spiritual journey is our true self, the self which we have in God. Let me explain.

If you observe carefully, in any journey our purpose is something that is related to our self. The scientist goes on a journey to the south pole because of his desire to record the temperature there. He wants to satisfy his desire to measure such temperature and report it to the world. He wants his self to be recognized as the one who shall have measured and recorded such a temperature.

The tired worker wants to go on vacation in order to relax his self, find satisfaction in rest and excitement.

The reader goes into the ideas of other people because he or she wants to use these ideas for his or her self.

The self is always the reference of our purpose in a journey. The self is always the one who will benefit from a journey.

The same is true in a spiritual journey. We are looking for our true self. And this true self can only be found in the world of spirits, in God.

That is why we read that one time Jesus appeared to Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada and said to her, Seek your self in me.

We Are Searching for Our True Self in God

When we undertake a spiritual journey it is for the purpose of finding our true self, our real self. The self is always the focus of spirituality. We read more about this topic and learn more about it for the sake of our self, our true self.

Why, are there other selves that are not our true self? Yes, there are. The self that we present to other people is not really our true self, but the one that we want them to see. We want to appear diligent, therefore we busy ourselves with work, although deep inside we may want to be lazy. We want to appear righteous before others, and so we try to be religious and obey the rules and regulations of our church and society, but deep inside we know that we are just tired of pretending to be so before other people.

But when we get to God we cannot show to him a self that we want to show Him. He knows us in and out. And only in Him can we be most relaxed, most natural. Only in Him can we enjoy our true self.

The purpose of going on a spiritual journey is to find and enjoy our true self.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

How to Enjoy God

Genuine spirituality enables us to enjoy God and enjoy things as they are in God.

We enjoy things. We enjoy doing things. We enjoy a cup of ice cream. We enjoy eating it. We enjoy seeing a beautiful sunset. We enjoy listening to good music. We enjoy the presence of a dear friend.

If these things, persons, activities are so enjoyable, their source must also be enjoyable, most probably in a greater degree.

If the ultimate source of all these things, persons, activities is God as Creator and Father, then God must also be enjoyable.

And if God willed that we enjoy these things, persons, and activities, He also wanted that we enjoy Him.

How then can we enjoy God? I have outlined 4 simple steps which we can take in order that we can enjoy God.

Definite Place, Definite Time

First is: Assign a definite, regular time and place for this activity, enjoying God, in your daily routine. It may be in the morning, noon, afternoon, or evening, whichever is most convenient for you. For the place, it may be in your bedroom, your office, or the transportation as you go to your work or in a garden outside your house. The duration of the time need not be long. Ten minutes will do as a starting duration. What is important is that during this time you are not disturbed.

And it is a regular time, not done sometimes in the morning, at other times in the afternoon, or evening. Of course, there may be emergencies when the regularity cannot be observed. But excepting these emergencies the time for this is fixed and regular, every day.

Awareness of God's Presence in and Around You

Second. Begin your time by being aware of God's presence in you and everything around you. Do not say, as some would begin their prayer, that now you put yourself in the presence of God. You do not need to put yourself in the presence of God. You are already there.

Be aware of God's presence in your body, in every part of your body, in your thoughts, in the words you may speak or read, in your activities, your breathing, your seeing, etc.

Then be aware of God's presence in the persons and/or things around you: the furniture, the trees, the grass, the part of the car, the persons around in the house, etc.

At this point you may ask, How do you think of God, as an old man with a beard, or as a young child with a staff, as a being surrounded by clouds, or as Pure Energy?

I suggest that you think of God simply as a Presence, not as a man whether old or young, not as an object, not as a force, but simply as Presence, He who is present in you and in everything around you. He is the Presence in every cell of your body, in every idea of your mind, in every desire of your heart.

It may also help you to recall His names in the religion to which you belong.

In the Christian Bible He is called the God of Abraham, the "I am" of Moses, the Lord God of Hosts of Elijah. There are other names.

If you are a Muslim you may dwell on one or two of the 99 names of God, Allah, like the Most Compassionate One, etc.

If you are a Hindu you may want to think of the names of God in the Hindu Scriptures, Brahma, Vishnu, or Shiva.

If you are a Buddhist you may want to recall the Light that enlightens the Buddha, the Enlightened One.

Genuine spirituality does not discriminate among the different concepts and names of God. It knows that the reality of God cannot be grasped by concepts, ideas or names.

Whatever concept you have of God think of Him as the ever present Presence in you and all around you.

Converse With God About Anything That Comes to Your Mind

Third. Talk with this Presence, converse with Him. What do you talk about? Just about anything that comes to your mind. Thank Him for being there, for creating you and sustaining you. Praise Him for His goodness. Then tell Him about your needs and the needs of others. Thank Him for the opportunity to enjoy Him, His company.

If a tragedy has stricken your life ask Him why He has permitted such a tragedy when He is so good, so wise and so powerful. You may also ask Him what to do when tragedy strikes. Be aware that He is still there, even in the tragedy.

Do not expect an immediate answer from a voice whose sound you cannot see which direction it comes from. If you keep your mind open He will speak to your mind in a language only He and you can understand.

If you are sick, be aware that there too He is present, in your sickness, in the medicines prescribed for you, in the activities suggested to you by your therapist, whether it is stretching your hand or taking a walk, in the health care staff, the doctors, the nurses, the attendants. Talk to this Presence about your sickness. Ask for healing if it is His will.

You may also tell this Presence about your faults, failures and shortcomings, even your sins. And hope for His pardon for He is a Most Compassionate and Most Forgiving Presence.

Just talk to Him about anything that comes to your mind. Even of your desires, your ambition in life, etc. As you talk with Him you will enjoy Him as a dear friend. Your burdens will become lighter and your joys will become more intense.

And during the day when you have some free time, like taking a cup of coffee by yourself, return to this activity even if just for a minute or two. Think of God's presence in the coffee, in your sipping of it, in the cup, etc.

Let This Activity Inspire All Your Other Activities

Fourth. Do not put parentheses around this activity. What I mean is that do not do it and after the time you assigned to this, you forget it and you go to your work. Putting parentheses around this activity would separate it from the normal flow of your daily routine. As you leave the time and place, continue to think about these things as much as possible. Like, say to yourself, I am now going to my work and this Presence is still there in my work, in the pen and paper before me, in the computer in front of me, etc.

In this way the Presence permeates your whole day and this activity of being aware of the Presence becomes habitual. Gradually it becomes part of your system. You begin to enjoy the activity itself of devoting a definite time and place for this.

As you continue this activity you will find life more enjoyable, or more bearable if you are in the midst of great problems.

What To Do When This Activity Seems Meaningless

A caution is in order. Sometime in the course of such an activity, if you are faithful to it, there will come a time when you do not feel God's presence. In fact you may even feel that He is totally absent. The whole activity may seem meaningless to you. You may feel that you simply drag yourself, as it were, to this activity.

Do not despair. Do not force yourself to do this activity. Just keep rested. Do not even force yourself to think about it. Do not force your mind to think about this Presence. He is still there, despite your feelings to the contrary, because He is the Ever Present One. You may not feel His presence because He is going into your deepest center to transform you into Himself, just as you do not feel the activities, the heavings and convulsions, of the lava in the depths of the earth.

You Can See God Face to Face Now

If you are faithful to this activity the Presence will make Himself more and more enjoyed by you. It is even possible that He makes you see Him face to face while you are still on earth, of course not with your physical eyes, but with the eyes of your spirit. There is nothing more enjoyable on earth than to see God face to face with the eyes of your spirit. This is the goal of genuine spirituality.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

How to Go Back to Your Spiritual Roots

Roots of trees serve three purposes. First, they take up the nutrients from the soil and bring them up to the trunk, branches and leaves of the trees. Second, they take hold of the water from the ground so that this water does not go down immediately to the river all at once but only gradually. And third, roots make the trees stand tall and firm by grasping the earth on which they stand. The life of the trees depends on their roots as also upon the sun, the air and the soil around them.

Your Spirituality Depends On Your Spiritual Roots

In the same way the vitality of your spiritual life depends upon the roots of your spirituality, your spiritual roots. That is why you need to go back to these spiritual roots. Most people do not even know that their spiritual life has roots, let alone what these roots are.

By going back to your spiritual roots you will know how you can stand firm in your spiritual life and you will be able to draw more from the richness of the tradition of your spirituality.

Why We Need to Go Back to Our Spiritual Roots

You also need to go back to your spiritual roots because for almost all of us, and thus it includes you too, our spirituality is something that is overlaid upon our native consciousness. By native consciousness I mean the consciousness with which we were born. Our spirituality is not integrated with this native consciousness, it only covers it. That is why I said it is something overlaid upon our native consciousness. A personal reference may make this clear.

I was born to Filipino parents. But no sooner than a week after my birth the mantle, as it were, of Catholicism was put over me by baptism. Catholicism is not a religion native to us. It was brought to our shores by the Spaniards. And so the process of overlaying me with Catholic doctrines and practices began. Naturally I grew up thinking I was a Catholic.

The truth of the matter was that I only behaved and looked like a Catholic. Deep within me the native religion of the Filipinos was suppressed and covered over with Catholic religious practices and my consciousness was drowned in the sea of Catholic doctrines.

My Native Religion

Later through readings I came to know what my native religion was called. Anthropologists and historians call it Animism. But when I personally revived my native religion I found a better term to call it with. It is not Animism but Vitalism.

Animism is based on the fundamental premise that plants and animals have anima, a soul. I found out that even this concept of soul is foreign to us Filipinos. It came to us from the Greek Aristotle through the Spaniards. So I do not subscribe to Animism as my native religion.

Vitalism, on the other hand, is based on the fundamental premise that all things, not only plants and animals, have life, not just existence. The soil, the stone, the iron railings, the clouds, the air have life. This is the basic belief of my native religion, covered over by Catholicism for many years. (This understanding of Vitalism is a bit different from that offered in the dictionary which defines it as the “theory or doctrine that life processes arise from or contain a nonmaterial vital principle and cannot be explained entirely as physical and chemical phenomena.”)

I do not know what your native religion is. But if you belong to one of the great religions of the world, like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, chances are that your religion has covered over your native spirituality.

And just as the strength and vitality of a tree depend upon its roots, so also the strength and vitality of your spirituality depend upon its roots, the spiritual treasures God gifted you with even before you were born, in the tribe or ethnic group to which you belong.

How to Go Back to Your Spiritual Roots

How then do you go back to your spiritual roots so as to draw upon these spiritual treasures? I already told you how I went to my spiritual roots: by reading about my native religion, by practicing it, and by reflecting upon it. You can do the same.

First, learn about your native religion, the religion of your tribe or ethnic group. Exponents of the world’s great religions may tell you that your religion is pagan and filled with superstitions. Do not entertain such comment. As you learn more about your native religion, you will appreciate its beauty and richness. Read more about your ethnic origins. All of us belong to an ethnic group because God created tribes, not just individual persons.

Second, practice your native religion. As you practice it I am sure you will respect and love more your environment. Today there is much talk about global warming and environmental degradation. The waters of the ocean are rising as the earth’s temperature increases, melting the icecaps of the north and south poles. This is because whole populations have forgotten the religion and spirituality God endowed them with and have adopted man-made religions which are manipulative of the earth.

Third, reflect on your native religion. Integrate it with the religion that you have acquired as an adult. The marriage of your native religion and that which you have acquired (if you did acquire one) will produce a richer and stronger spirituality. I am sure of it because it did in my case.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

How to Start Your Spiritual Journey

Welcome aboard on a spiritual journey! You may be wondering what a spiritual journey is. Well, it is the most exciting of all journeys and it is better than all other journeys combined. I hope to tell you here how you can start your spiritual journey. But first let us know what a spiritual journey is.

A spiritual journey can be known by comparing it with other kinds of journeys. Let us compare it with physical and mental journeys.

Physical, Mental and Spiritual Journeys Compared

In a physical journey we have a physical destination. It does not matter how near or how far that destination is. There is a place, a physical destination where a journey will end. It may be the next town, or the next country, a city halfway around the globe, or the next planet, or even a far away star. No matter what it is, there is a physical destination.

In a mental journey there is also a destination. Our mind will come to dwell on something. It might be the ideas of wise men who lived centuries before us, like Socrates or Aristotle. Our mind will travel to the time when they had these ideas. It is a destination in time, back to the time of the men and women who produced the ideas that we want to dwell on.

In a physical journey we need to have a physical means to get to our destination. It may be our feet, a bicycle, a car, a train, a boat or an airplane, or a rocket plane or a combination of any of these. We include also the food while we are in this or that kind of transportation.

In a mental journey we need also to have mental means to get to our mental destination. This usually consists of our brain, our mind, our imagination, our emotions, the books around us, the men and women who knew the men whose ideas we want our mind to come to.

Furthermore in a physical and mental journey we need to have a purpose why we want to get there, even if it is just to satisfy our curiosity, just to see the place or feel the feelings of those men involved in a story or drama.

And when we embark upon a journey for the first time we need to have a guide, either a person from whom we can ask ideas about our destination and the means to get there, or one who will go with us like a tourist guide, or at least a map or written direction where to start, what transportation to take, the sign or signs that tell us we shall have reached our destination.

If you want to start your spiritual journey you need to know these: your destination, the means to get there, the purpose why you want to get there, a guide to help you get there. These are the elements of a journey and they are all present in a physical, mental, or spiritual journey.

The destination in a spiritual journey is the world of the spirits, and ultimately the Original Spirit himself. If the destination of a physical journey is a place, that of a mental journey ideas in time, the destination of a spiritual journey is a spiritual one, the world of the spirits and ultimately the Original Spirit from whom all came from.

The means to get to the world of the spirits and the Original Spirit consists of spiritual means. These are basically faith, hope and love that work in solitary prayer.

The purpose of a spiritual journey can also be curiosity, but more than this, it is to enjoy life to the fullest possible that we can attain.

The guide on a spiritual journey may be a spiritual person who himself has undertaken this journey or the written guides left by spiritual persons, like the Bible for Christians, the Qur’an for Muslims, the Trepitaka of Buddhism, or the Bhagavad Gita of the Hindus.

Are You Ready to Undertake a Spiritual Journey?

After learning something about the elements of this journey you need to ascertain whether you are ready to undertake this journey on your own. Children do not usually undertake a physical journey on their own. They need adults to accompany them. A certain level of maturity is needed to undertake even just a physical journey on one’s own.

So also you need to have a certain spiritual maturity in order to undertake the spiritual journey on your own. How do you know you have this maturity? In a physical journey usually the age and the educational background of a person are considered. In a spiritual journey, your spiritual age and knowledge of spiritual things are also to be considered. How do you know you have reached this spiritual age since it is not measured by years, unlike in physical age? You will know that you have reached this spiritual age if you have fallen in love with your God, just as in normal life falling in love with someone is an indication that you have reached a certain physical degree of maturity.

The Greatest of All Journeys

And why do I say that you are undergoing the greatest of all journeys when you start on a spiritual journey? It is because in a spiritual journey you are going to a place which is no place at all but a presence in all the places in the universe and you are going to a time which is not a time but an eternity which includes all time, from past to present to future. For the spirit is not bound by space and time, and you are going to that place of the spirit who transcends space and time. Briefly put, in a spiritual journey you are going to all places and to all times. This cannot be done in a physical journey because you only have one body. As a body you can be present only at one place in one time. But with the spirit you can be present to all places at the same time. An analogy may help clarify this if you have ridden a plane.

When you ride in a plane you begin by being present in the airport. When your plane goes up the air you leave the airport but you begin to look at the place surrounding the airport. Now you begin to see more places at once, not just the airport, a single place. By your vision you are present to all these places below you at the same time. So also by spirit you can be present to all of creation when you go beyond them.

Starting This Journey

And how do you start this journey? Assuming that you have fallen in love with the Original Spirit in whatever manifestation he has revealed himself to you, you take his personal guide or the written guides left by spiritual men and women of all ages. Each person will take a different kind according to his preference.

In my case my guides were the Christian Bible and the written works of Juan de Yepes Alvarez, a spiritual man who lived in the 16th century.

May I share with you the prescription of this man as you begin this journey. He said that if you want to reach your spiritual destination in a very short time you need to take these steps: 1. Desire to have pleasure in nothing; 2. Desire to possess nothing; 3. Desire to be nothing, and 4. Desire to know nothing.

If you have an acquaintance with Buddhism these prescriptions of Juan de Yepes Alvarez are like those in Buddhism, where we are urged not to desire anything because desire is the cause of suffering.

The most practical advice I can give you as you start your spiritual journey is to desire above all to reach and be united with the Original Spirit and to desire nothing that may hinder you in reaching this goal. Do not desire material goods, physical pleasure, mental enjoyment or any kind of pleasure if this will hinder you in reaching your goal, union with the Original Spirit.

Bon voyage on your spiritual journey.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.