new age spirituality

Category: spirituality

  • The Sufi Call, Making A Better World

    By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

    Nasrudin was now an old man looking back on his life. He sat with his friends in the tea shop telling his story.

    “When I was young I was firey-I wanted to awaken everyone. I prayed to Allah to give me the strength to change the world.

    In mid-life I awoke one day and realized my life was half over and I had changed no one so I prayed to Allah to give me the strength to change those around me who so much needed it.

    Alas, now I am old and my prayer is simpler. ‘Allah,’ I ask, ‘please give me the strength to at least change myself.”  [Posted on Facebook, by Eric Twose, The Caravanserai Page, 7/1/16, 9:51 am.]

    Introduction

    According to Sufi tradition, man/woman is the meeting point between heaven and earth and is created with a spiritual destiny.  Within each person there is the capacity to create, make decisions and destroy.  These aspects or abilities reflect Higher attributes and man/woman’s birth right is to rule a vast, personal spiritual kingdom. (more…)

  • Royalty in Unity

    By Harold Witkov

    When I hear the words, “Royal Family,” I do not think of Prince William, Kate, and young Prince George, and I do not envision the Romanovs of Russia either. When I hear the words, “Royal Family,” I picture myself as a young man in my early twenties, more than forty years ago, sitting on a couch and reading from a book in my living room.

    The book I was reading was written by a mystic by the name of Charles Webster Leadbeater.  Back in the early to mid 1970’s, I was a passionate reader of C.W. Leadbeater spiritual texts. And when I read them, I was often moved, focused, and very receptive. That certainly was the case that day on the couch when I came upon the following: (more…)

  • Expectation & Emotion

    Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

    If you could get rid
    Of yourself just once,
    The secret of secrets
    Would open to you.
    The face of the unknown,
    Hidden beyond the universe
    Would appear on the
    Mirror of your perception.
    -Rumi

    Each spiritual traveler is born into a world of expectation. Daily, behavior and societal standards are presented by family, friends, co-workers, country, religion and self. (more…)

  • Does ‘Self’ Exist?

    The Buddhist Perspective of Self

    Buddha’s assertion that the self does not exist was first described in the famous “Discourse on the Not-Self”. It is a fundamental principle of Buddhist philosophy and is said to be the second sermon delivered by the Buddha after his enlightenment.

    Buddha defined five “aggregates” that together constitute the entire person. These are: form (body), feelings (positive, negative, neutral), perception, mental formations (thought, emotion, will), and consciousness.

    Buddha declared each aggregate in turn (like most of reality) to be impermanent, and therefore not identifiable with ‘self’. This implies Buddha’s concept of self has (a degree of) permanence.

    Considering the aggregates again, he declared that each is not controllable (we cannot control the fate of our body, our emotions etc), and is therefore not self. This implies Buddha’s concept of self is controllable. (more…)

  • Plan for Humanity?

    By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

    Q:  How can you claim there is a Plan for humanity?  Just look at the mess out there; surely somebody is not doing their job.

    A:  Many would assert the world is in chaos and daily we continue to destroy ourselves. Further the idea of a spiritual plan for humanity is absurd; just look at our track record and the growing materialism, addictions, and physical and sexual abuse/exploitation of our young. Additionally, historically, so-called spiritual leaders have been responsible through war and greed for some of our greatest suffering.  In fact today many of the churches continue as some of the richest corporations on earth.

    This description of humanity’s self-destructive capacity is true; however it describes only part of the picture. It neglects our higher nature and the unselfish efforts of billions. (more…)

  • Timeliness of Teachings

    By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

    In viewing individual spiritual teachings, sometimes, travelers forget the timeliness or context in which a specific teaching is Given.

    A majority of spiritual teachings are Given or prescribed for a specific person/audience, in a specific time and a specific place. Trying to generalize individual teachings may be like trying to put a ‘square peg in a round hole’ or working under the rule that ‘one hat size fits all.’ (more…)

  • What is God?

    I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us… John Lennon

    Beliefs about God

    Atheists do not believe God exists. Agnostics believe it impossible to know anything about God, including existence or otherwise. In contrast numerous religions with billions of followers believe in the existence of one or more deities of various forms.

    Reasons to Believe in God

    The concept of God has existed for millennia, believed in by billions across cultures around the world.

    Despite the undoubted success of science as a means of understanding reality it has made little to no progress in answering several fundamental questions, eg:

    • the nature of consciousness, and free will
    • the origin of the miracle that is life
    • what preceded / caused the ‘big bang’
    • why the laws of nature are so precisely tuned as to support life

    (more…)

  • Keep It Simple

    By Dr.Stewart Bitkoff

    When life becomes confusing and over whelming, there is a management technique I use that has been very helpful.

    I learned this technique while working at the psychiatric hospital and we were getting reading for our routine four year inspection by The Joint Commission; during our leadership meetings one of our Directors offered a personal leadership technique that has stayed with me. He said, every day when he comes to work, he has 4 things/goals that he works on and these will help prepare us for the inspection. (more…)

  • What Can I Know? What Should I Believe?

    The Significance of Faith

    Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed. Jesus (John 20:29)

    In this quote Jesus expresses the importance of faith – belief in that which has not / cannot be “proven”. In actuality, much of what we think we know relies in varying degrees upon faith.

    The Limits of Certainty

    Descartes remarked in the 17th century: I think therefore I am. This effectively defined the bounds of certainty, since all else beyond one’s own existence could be illusion.

    Scientific quantum theory in the 20th century discovered the inherent randomness at the most fundamental level of the material universe. Heisenberg’s “uncertainty principle” set a limit in principle on what it is physically possible to know.

    It seems overwhelmingly likely that the true nature of reality is very different to that which is perceived through the physical senses.

    Consciousness and Reality

    I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness. Max Planck, Nobel Prize winner, originator of quantum theory.

    The consequence of key concepts from quantum physics (observer effect, collapse of the wave function) suggest that consciousness (yours, others’, God’s?) doesn’t just passively receive information about the universe but may play an active role in shaping/creating reality (eg see The Self-Aware Universe by theoretical physicist Dr. Amit Goswami).

    (more…)

  • Learning from Life- 11 Lessons

    By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

    This piece has not been an easy one for me to write or think about. There is much that I would like to forget and get past.

    Also, I searched my motivation for this piece and concluded:  it is based primarily upon the belief- life is the great classroom and we learn much from personal, every day experience.

    About 2 months ago I was in hospital with a heart attack; now after the shock waves have subsided a bit, I have had time to reflect on all of this. Also, I am still occupied with the after effects. I am in cardiac rehab, changing certain life habits and still don’t have all my strength or heart capacity back; in multiple ways, this experience has clearly affected members of my family.

    Some learning happens right away and other lessons take longer; both the doctors and EMT’s said I was lucky to be alive. There was a 100% blockage in my major heart artery and 60% in another; they have a nick- name for this particular attack: ‘the widow maker.’

    Fortunately, I was at a family Thanksgiving dinner when this occurred and people acted quickly.

    Sometimes, I still wonder why I am here.  Perhaps there is more that I have to do, accomplish and enjoy. (more…)