Higher Knowledge: Enriching & Enabling Factor

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

Most people would agree we all want to live in a kinder, more humane world.  A world where there is respect for human life, economic resources are shared, and the old and infirm are treated with dignity.  In each of these areas there is room for improvement.  Economically many are still without the basic necessities of life and go hungry.  Even in the richest country on earth, often the sick go untreated.

Further most would agree, somehow, as a planet we need to work together to share our natural resources and improve our collective circumstance.  It is at this point, when we try to identify and prioritize what areas need improving and how we are to accomplish this all, we start to disagree and things break down.

Rationale or linear thought is able to tackle some of these problems, offering possible solutions; however this form of thought is not able to solve all problems.  It has limitations and, in some areas, is like the cart and horse that is without a driver and going around in circles.  Generally, for problems which involve the needs of divergent groups, there is no balancing factor and the needs of one group bounce unsuccessfully against the needs of others.  In situations like this, self-interest repeatedly rears its head and there appears to be no corrective.  Many are slow to accept that the needs of the individual are bound to the needs of the many.

What is the corrective to this harmful self-interest?  What factor reconciles the needs of different nations while sharing the earth’s resources in an ecologically sound manner?  (more…)

Family & Community

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

Q:     Speak to me of family.  Spiritually what is the significance of this grouping?

Each is a member of two families: their birth/marriage family and the larger, human family.  In both, meaningful membership and participation is essential to balanced living.  Each person must feel they are loved and protected, and have the opportunity to express, without fear, who they are. Each is a unique soul and has something to contribute and learn.

In a family there is a connection, love and bonding.  This connection occurs of many levels: it may be biological, emotional and spiritual.

Spiritually, the members of a birth/marriage family have entered the earth phase together to learn from each other.  On an inner level, their souls are connected.  Sometimes the lessons are painful and other times joyous.  This connection extends beyond time and space.

Similarly humanity is one family.  We have all come from the same source (God) and one day will return home after experiencing the many worlds. (more…)

Magnificent Monastery

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

For the longest time, I wished that I had a church, temple, mosque or synagogue to attend. I could find no special place that called to my heart and helped my soul sing. In years past, there had always been a place: top of a close by hill; stream just below a reservoir dam; tree lined chapel set beside a lake; shaded path through a nearby park; or an old stone church, late at night, when no other person was there. In these holy places, I learned to hear the quiet whispers that flowed through my heart; some from my soul and others from that distant shore. These moments of joyous, quiet solitude and contemplation filled me with peace, reminding of my far away Home. (more…)

Spiritual Traveler: Why Must there be Suffering?

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

Show me someone
Whose life has been easy?
And I will show you
Half a person.
-SB

For the spiritual traveler every day life problems offer an opportunity to learn and move forward along the Path.  Potentially running late to work, not having enough money to pay for gas and wondering whether the kids are coming down with a cold, all stressors- at some point on a spiritual level- offer the opportunity to go deep within our selves.

Once the problem passes and/or is resolved, the traveler wonders: why is life filled with so many ups and downs? Why must there always be clouds to cover the sun? (more…)

Spiritual Traveler: Remember

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

Everything is dependent upon remembering. One does not begin by learning, one starts by remembrance. The distance of eternal existence and the difficulties of life cause one to forget. It is for this reason God has commanded us: Remember!”

-Sheikh Ismail Hakki

*              *

Traveler:         If the purpose of life is to join in Kingship with the Creator; then, why weren’t we born with this awareness firmly fixed in our conscious mind? Why do we go through the struggle or journey of reaching this realization? Wouldn’t it simplify things if we were born Awakened to this Reality? (more…)

A Week of Sustainable Living in an Intentional Community

Niánn Emerson Chase

I, along with Gabriel of Urantia, founded the intentional community of more than one-hundred people who now all live at Avalon Organic Gardens & EcoVillage located in the Tubac/Tumacácori area. It was more than two decades ago in Sedona (located in north-central Arizona) that Gabriel and I, with our three small children (an infant and two-year-old twins) began the journey of striving and struggling to create and maintain a culture more sustainable than the one that dominates Western civilization and increasingly the rest of the world. Within a few months of us beginning this adventure, others started to join us in our commitment to a vision that we all shared. Together we participated in the unfoldment of an intentional community that continues to expand on many levels—quantitatively and qualitatively. (more…)

Enlightenment: Initial Discussions

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

Introduction

As our society moves forward in its study and growing understanding of different spiritual paths, one of the things required is a dialogue concerning the nature of personal enlightenment. Or said another way, after studying a particular spiritual path, for the average traveler, what does personal spiritual development look like?

Often travelers start out on a spiritual quest uncertain about outcome. Having only a strong feeling that a particular path is calling, unsure where this study will lead; perhaps their point of reference being a specific teacher or what they have heard from other students or read.  Sometimes travelers define their search in terms of outcomes such as reading minds, gaining mysterious powers, spiritual states, being at peace, or wondering how learning will set them apart from others: that is make them individually special.

The following is a beginning discussion concerning possible outcomes of spiritual learning. (more…)

Walking the Balance

Niánn Emerson Chase

From the time I was a child I have had dreams of higher more sustainable worlds—worlds that are more sane, more compassionate, more reasonable, more joyful, and more peaceful than the one I am living in. These dreams seem to come from deep within me, as if they are part of my particles, part of my personality as a human being. I dream these visions of truth, beauty, and goodness when I sleep as well as when I am awake. These visions of something much better have brought me joy and reassurance as well as torment.
(more…)

Who Or What Is God?

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

God is the Light of the universe and is the mother and father of us all.  God is present in everything and is the underlying unity. God is the life force and binds together the worlds. God is all loving and merciful, and a piece of God- spark of energy- called the Heart is in everyone.

God is greater than the creation and exists beyond the universe. While we may know and experience God, many aspects of God are beyond our experience and remain a mystery.

In our age, science has defined God as a supra-energy force that is part of everything and connects all things.  This reality, mystics have perceived and used for countless centuries: bringing Light to the spiritual darkness.

For some, attached to the Word/Name God are many negative connotations; if this is true for you, for ease of learning, substitute the Word- Light. This may help you travel through these pages; remember it is the Light which dissipates spiritual darkness. (more…)

Understanding Orbs

By Tom T. Moore, copyright 2013

Perhaps you’ve seen photos from your friends or in this magazine of orbs.  Some are quite simple, appearing like a thousand light bulbs suspended in the air.  Others are quite complex, with intricate designs and shapes.  So what are “orbs?”  You’ll be intrigued by the answers I received in my meditations.

Orbs are spirits in many different forms.  They are energy with consciousness.  Their energy is just above the human eye spectrum, which is why they normally can only be seen in photographs.  Few humans have the ability to see them with their naked eyes.  They cannot be touched—your hand would go right through them. (more…)