Spiritual Art Blog - *Ed P

Spiritual Life Quotes

“If we want to keep the blessings of life coming to us, we must learn to be grateful for whatever is given.”
Harold Klemp

"The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it."
Henri J. M. Nouwen

"Patient and regular practice is the whole secret of spiritual realization. Do not be in a hurry in spiritual life. Do your utmost, and leave the rest to God."
Swami Shivananda

"Spirit is an invisible force made visible in all life."
Maya Angelou~

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
Teilhard de Chardin

“When the act of reflection takes place in the mind, when we look at ourselves in the light of thought, we discover that our life is embosomed in beauty.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The highest knowledge is to know that we are surrounded by mystery. Neither knowledge nor hope for the future can be the pivot of our life or determine its direction. It is intended to be solely determined by our allowing ourselves to be gripped by the ethical God, who reveals Himself in us, and by our yielding our will to His.”
Albert Schweitzer

“We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.”
Anne Frank

“We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end.”
Benjamin Disraeli

“We are not here merely to make a living. We are here to enrich the world.”
Woodrow Wilson

“Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't.”
Richard Bach

“...Spiritual opening is not a withdrawal to some imagined realm or safe cave. It is not a pulling away, but a touching of all the experience of life with wisdom and with a heart of kindness, without any separation.”
Jack Kornfield

“Imagine that every person in the world is enlightened but you. They are all your teachers, each doing just the right things to help you learn perfect patience, perfect wisdom, perfect compassion.”
Buddha

“Qualities like love and compassion are not just abstract virtues that are the property of saints and adepts. Anyone can develop these qualities in themselves by doing spiritual practices. As the Buddha said, Come and see.”
Joanna Macy

“Big-heartedness is the most essential virtue on the spiritual journey.”
Matthew Fox

You'll find more quotes to help with your spiritual life on the Spiritual Inspirations page by clicking here.

Sky Harbour

Here's the latest development of the picture, Sky Harbour. I've changed it from being landscape to portrait shape. This view gives more room to explain what is going on.

Understanding our Inner Worlds

Thought for the week

What are our inner worlds? Where are they? We could say, anything that happens within ourselves is happening in our inner worlds. Things like our thoughts, memories, emotions, intuitions, plans, desires, imagination, day dreams and dreams. Most of these work within ourselves simultaneously.

For example, if we are planning to get some food in the nearby shops we may have these elements working simultaneously:
Thoughts – thinking about what to get at the shops.
Memories – remembering where we got an item previously.
Emotions – when we come across an item which reminds us of an incident during a meal the emotions we felt then may come back to us again.
Intuitions – as we go through our shopping list we may get the idea to include something unusual, just because it feels right.
Plans – if we are getting different items in different shops we will be planning where we go first, how we get there and back.
Desires – there may be some items we would like to get but we may be limited by our budget or the availability of the item, but we still desire it.
Imagination – while thinking about the items we will get, we may use our imagination to see how we would cook, prepare or combine the items to make a meal.
Daydreams – we may also get lost in a daydream as we think about going around the shops, what if we meet someone? Where will we go? As we wonder about this we drift off into a daydream.

Understanding Ourselves
That is a lot of stuff happening in our inner worlds, all at the same time. Most of the time it all happens automatically and we are only conscious of the main inner activity, which is usually our thoughts, memories or plans. Our desires, intuition, imagination, daydreams and dreams tend to slip in very subtly almost as an intrusion on our thoughts. Our thoughts see these as intrusions because they are not logical and interrupt its control of our attention. However the subtler sides of ourselves can often bring us joy and happiness as we remember happy events or drift off in a daydream to other places.

Understanding our Mind
To be able to explore our inner worlds we must first take control of our mind. If our lives are run on a logical basis, in an ordered fashion without much change, our mind may be the controlling element in our lives. This can be okay as it will help make things easy and automatic for us but it can prevent us from exploring and discovering new things. A lot of what happens in our inner worlds is not logical so the mind often dismisses it straight away as illogical and therefore not important.
Continuing with our shopping example above. While going through the things we need we may recall something a friend recommended to us which would benefit our health. Our mind may dismiss it with thoughts like “There is no proof that it will help,” or “The health problem is caused by ageing, there is nothing that can be done.” To keep the mind satisfied we can say “I know this isn't logical but it is something I want to try to see if it might help”. The mind now has a logical explanation for our 'illogical' behaviour and will usually accept that explanation.

Understanding our Intuition
Our intuition is often the source of the illogical messages or suggestions, most of which will help us if we have the awareness to accept them and put them into action. Our intuition is above the mind and is closely connected to our higher happy self Soul. Soul is the true part of ourselves which lives in the moment and has an overview of our whole life, past, present and future. From this viewpoint It can see what is best for us and sends messages to us via our intuition.

The messages from Soul can come to us in a variety of forms, such as:
Intuition - we “feel” something is right or we get an undeniable urge to do something because it feels right.
Waking Dreams - a series of incidents or coincidences point us in a particular direction or leads us to a certain conclusion.
Golden Tongue Wisdom – a headline or a word jumps out at us to give us an answer to a question. We could also hear something on the radio or in a conversation which seems aimed just at us.

How do we become more aware of our Inner Worlds?
The first step is to recognise that our inner worlds exist. They have always been there but we may not have been aware of them. The next thing is to watch for the information and messages. One of the best ways of boosting our awareness is the spend time in our inner worlds. One of the easiest ways is to contemplate for ten to twenty minutes a day.

We can do this by taking time to be on our own. We get into a comfortable position, close our eyes and take a few deep breaths and sing the word Hu (pronounced like “hue”) or any other sacred word we prefer. As we sing we can listen to the sounds around us and let our mind drift from one thought to another, We can wonder about things but don't let any thoughts become too emotional or cause us concern. If we can focus on the love or kindness in an issue we will have a pleasant time.
By contemplating like this we begin to explore our inner worlds and get to know them. After a while we will get insights into some of the things happening in our daily life. At this point our inner world helps with our outer world.

Journal 
When we get into the habit of doing a regular contemplation it can be a good idea to have note pad or journal beside us where we can take notes of ideas or insights we come across. The act of writing or drawing something we've seen in our inner worlds helps to bring it into our outer world and make it more practical.

Wishing you happy explorations in your inner worlds which should bring you more understanding about your outer world.

*Ed Parkinson

If you'd like more insights into your inner worlds, visit the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

A view of our Inner Worlds

Exhibitions opens TODAY,  Tuesday, 24th April in the Ranelagh Arts Centre, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Ireland.
The Opening Reception is from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

Exploring our Inner Worlds - Artist's Talk
Come along on Saturday 28th April at 2pm, when Ed Parkinson will share his insights about exploring our inner worlds. He will also have a few simple techniques to helps you being exploring your own inner worlds.

Exhibition
The exhibition is open Tuesday 24th to Saturday 28th April from 12pm to 7pm each day.
Call in for the opening reception on Tuesday at 6.30pm or the Artist's Talk on Saturday at 2.00pm or between opening times during the week.

 

Spiritual Jokes

An email from God
One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the evil that was going on. He decided to send an angel down to Earth to check it out. So he called on a female angel and sent her to Earth for a time. 
When she returned she told God, yes it is bad on Earth, 95% is bad and 5% is good. Well, he thought for a moment and said maybe I had better send down a male angel; to get both points of view. So God called a male angel and sent him to Earth for a time.
When the male angel returned he went to God and told him yes, the Earth was in decline, 95% was bad and 5% was good. God said this was not good.
He decided to E-mail the 5% that were good and encourage them a little, something to help them keep going.
Do you know what that E-mail said?
.
..
...
... Oh! You didn't get one either huh?


Bill Gates met God
Bill Gates met God, and God said, "Well, Bill, I'm really confused on this one. I'm not sure whether to send you to Heaven or to Hell. After all, you enormously helped society by putting a computer in almost every home in the world, and yet you created that ghastly Windows. I'm going to do something I've never done before. I'm going to let you decide where you want to go."

Bill Gates said, "What's the difference between the two?"

God said, "It might help you decide if you took a peek at both places. Shall we look at Hell first?"

Bill was amazed. He saw a clean, white sandy beach with clear waters. There were thousands of beautiful men and women running around, playing in the water, laughing and frolicking about. The sun was shining and the temperature was perfect. "This is great!" said Bill. "If this is Hell, I can't wait to see Heaven."

God said, "Let's go!" and off they went to Heaven.

Bill saw puffy white clouds in a beautiful blue sky, with angels drifting about playing harps and singing. It was nice, but surely not as enticing as Hell. Bill thought for only a brief moment and rendered his decision. "God, I do believe I would prefer to go to Hell."

"As you wish," said God.

Two weeks later, God decided to check up on the late billionaire to see how things were going. He found Bill shackled to a wall, screaming amidst the hot flames in a dark cave. He was being tortured by demons with pitchforks. "How ya doin', Bill?" asked God.

Bill responded with anguish and despair, "This is awful! This is not what I expected at all! What happened to the beach and the beautiful women playing in the water?"

"Oh, that," said God. "That was the screen saver."

Sky Harbour

Sky Harbour continues to develop. I've playing around with it in 3D to try and find a good composition. If you'd like to see other artist's ideas for Sky Harbour, you find them in the ImagineFX competition forum by clicking here.

How to connect with the Life-force

Thought for the week

If we can learn to connect with the Life-force and go with the flow of life, instead of battling against it, we will have a much easier journey through life. Most of us aren’t aware that we can connect with the Life-force or haven't been taught how to do it. There are a few simple techniques we can use to get started.

Some of the techniques have to do with us being aware of how the Holy Spirit or the Life-force is communicating with us. There are many ways it sends us messages such as through our intuition or a series of coincidences. Being creative also brings us closer to that creative energy in the Life-force. We can also use spiritual exercises to help us connect with the Holy Spirit and learn to increase our awareness of its presence in our lives.

Intuition
Being aware of our intuition or the messages we receive intuitively will help us to connect with the Life-force. We have a number of aspects within ourselves which are, emotions, memories, the mind, intuition and Soul. Soul uses intuition to speak to the mind so that it will be aware of something happening in our life. Our Intuition is often refereed to as “the small voice within”. If our mind and its logic is a dominant part of our lives we are going to have hard time hearing the “small voice”. If we are not used to listening to our intuition it can be a very small voice when we do eventually discover it.

This is because a lot of the intuition we receive is not logical. Soul has a higher viewpoint of our lives and can see a lot more than our logical mind. For example, we plan to go meet someone and our intuition gives us the idea of taking a different direction from our usual route. This new route may not seem logical as it may be longer or more awkward to navigate. Soul can see that on the different route we may meet someone who will assist us in some way or there may be a problem in going the usual way. If we take the route suggested by our intuition and we get the opportunity to check out the regular route, we may discover the reason for the suggestion. Doing this a number of times will give us confidence in the messages we receive from the small voice / intuition.

Coincidences
Coincidences are a another way the Holy Spirit communicates with us. If we notice a number of similar things happening by coincidence, it may be the Life-force is trying to tell us something. For example, if someone comes to mind for no reason, then shortly after that someone mentions them in conversation and then you notice their photo or someone who looks like them. Why is Spirit bringing this person to our attention? It may be that we should contact them or we are being prepared to meet them.

Being Creative
Being creative with situations, problems and challenges in our lives is another way of connecting with the Life-force. The Holy Spirit is a creative force. When we get creative with a situation we are plugging into the energy to find a solution to our challenge. This could be as simple as cooking a good meal based on the limited food available to us, or finding new ways to do a task to make it easier or more efficient. While we are in the creative area we are using our imagination. We are searching for ideas and playing with with a little of the Life-force's creative energy to create a solution for some issue in our world.

HU Song
Another technique is to use a sound from the place where Soul is. By singing this sound we begin to open up the connection between our physical world and Soul's world. With regular practice we begin to see things in our life from a higher viewpoint. We see them from a different angle and will often get solutions or new approaches to challenges we face in our daily life. The HU Song is very simple to do. Take ten to twenty minutes to be in a quiet place where you won't be disturbed. Make yourself comfortable, take a few deep breaths and think of something or someone who brings love to your heart. Then on your outgoing breath sing in a drawn out fashion, HUuuu. Pronounced like “hue” as in colour or the name Hugh. As you sing, listen for sounds within yourself and look for lights on your inner screen. Ideas may come to you, so have a pen a paper nearby so you can take notes.

Being of service
Being of service to others and where possible giving a little love is another great way of connecting with the Life-force. When we think about it, this Force is being of service to us constantly. It provides the essential elements of our existence and without any expectation from us. It gives to us in an unconditional way. If we can operate in a similar way we will begin to see how service and unconditional love benefit others but also us too.

For example, if we are tending a garden by watering and feeding the plants, keeping the weeds out and helping them grow, we are being of service to the plants. If we love doing the garden, the plants will be better and brighter for it. We are now using a similar energy or approach to life as the Spirit and we are thereby moving closer to it..

We have a choice
Now we have a choice of techniques to help us connect with the Life-force.
Intuition, being aware of the “small voice within”.
Coincidences, watching for happy accidents which lead us in a particular direction.
Being creative and using our imagination and the Life-force to find solutions
The HU Song which helps move our awareness to where Soul is.
Being of service with love helps others as well as us.

We can use any or all of these to help us increase our awareness. We may be familiar with some of them already but now we can add others to our list.

I hope this has been of some service to you as you explore your connection with the Life-force

*Ed Parkinson

If you need more insights into the Life-force, the Holy Spirit or other spiritual subjects, you'll find it in the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

A view of our Inner Worlds

An exhibition of work by Ed Parkinson
Exhibitions opens next Tuesday, 24th April in the Ranelagh Arts Centre, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Ireland.
The Opening Reception is from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

Exploring our Inner Worlds - Artist's Talk
Come along on Saturday 28th April at 2pm, when Ed Parkinson will share his insights about exploring our inner worlds. He will also have a few simple techniques to helps you being exploring your own inner worlds.

Exhibition
The exhibition is open Tuesday 24th to Saturday 28th April from 12pm to 7pm each day.
Call in for the opening reception on Tuesday at 6.30pm or the Artist's Talk on Saturday at 2.00pm or between opening times during the week.

Jokes about Life

Wouldn't it be nice if whenever we messed up our life we could simply press 'Ctrl Alt Delete' and start all over?

If it's true that we are here to help other people, then what exactly are the other people here for?

A good sense of humour will get you through most problems in life (unfortunately, mostly in retrospect).

____ Jokes about Life _____

I live every day like it's the last day of my life. Every morning I wake up real early, and I spend maybe three hours on the phone making funeral arrangements.

I especially hate people that have life-after-death experiences because they're just so full of it, you know? 'Oh, I had an accident, and then I was headed towards this bright white light.' You know, the first thing an ambulance crew does when they find an unconscious victim? They shine something in your eye.

The whole argument is -- when does life begin? Does it begin at conception, or does it begin when the baby is an embryo? Anybody with children knows life with them don't begin 'til they can pay their own damn bills.

____ Jokes about Life _____

What if you died, and you found out that when you died, we all went to the same place. No Heaven, no Hell, doesn't matter what you did in life -- you all go to the same place, regardless. I know a lot of nice people who will be really pissed off. You'll see Gandhi arguing with the doorman.

Everyone's got their own beliefs on this. You're entitled to your belief. My belief is that life begins when you start minding your own business.

Two statues, male and female, faced each other in the city park for many years.
An angel appeared before the statues and said, "Since the two of you have been exemplary statues and have brought enjoyment to many people, I am giving you the gift of life. You have 30 minutes to do whatever you desire."
The statues came to life and smiled at each other. They ran toward some nearby woods and dove behind a couple of bushes. The angel smiled to himself as he listened to the two statues giggling, bushes rustling and twigs snapping.
After 15 minutes, the two statues emerged from the bushes, satisfied and smiling.
Puzzled, the angel looked at his watch and asked the statues, "You still have 15 minutes. Would you like to continue?"
The male statue looked at the female and asked, "Do you want to do it again?"
Giggling, the female statue said, "Sure, but this time, you hold the pigeon down and I'll crap on its head!"

____ Jokes about Life _____

Man: You've brought religion into my life.
Woman: Really? How?
Man: Until I met you, I didn't believe in Hell.

A very religious man lived right next door to an atheist. The religious man prayed every single day and night, spending much time at church, while the atheist never even thought of such acts.
However, the atheist's had a good life. An excellent, well-paid job, and a beautiful wife, lovely, healthy, children, whereas the religious man's job was stressful and his wages were low, his wife was getting fatter every day ,and his kids were obnoxious, and non loving.
So one day, while deep into his regular prayer, he looked towards heaven and asked, "Oh God, I honour you every day, I ask your advice for every problem and confess to you my every sin. Yet my neighbour, who doesn't even believe in you and certainly never prays, seems blessed with every happiness, while I go poor and suffer many an indignity. Why is this?"
A great voice bellowed out from above, "BECAUSE HE DOESN'T BOTHER ME ALL THE TIME!"

If you enjoyed these Jokes about Life, you'll probably enjoy some of the quotes on the Spiritual Inspirations page.

Sky Harbour

I'm still working on the Sky Harbour picture. This is an image of some of the structures I'm playing with in 3D. I'm exploring these to see if I can come up with some buildings for the Sky Harbour.

We get our needs not our wants

Thought for the week

What we want in life is not necessarily what we need. Our desires are not the same as our needs. If we can be satisfied with what we have and forget about what we want we can be happier in life. We have got to this point in our lives by receiving what we needed to get here. Having our needs fulfilled help us survive in this world. Our needs are constantly being met, yet we take so many of them for granted. These needs include:
Air so we can breath,
Water so our bodies can function,
Food so we can have energy,
Family to help us get started in life,
Friends to love and support us,
Work so we can be of service,

Life is a journey not a destination.
Our wants make us focus on getting something in an hour, a week, a month or a year. While we travel to that thing we want, we will discover lots of things on the way. What we discover may take us in a different direction or at least change our route. Life is a journey not a destination. For example:

We want more money in our bank account. This may require us to change jobs, move to a different place or work differently.

We want better health. This may require a change in our diet and more exercise. We may need serious surgery or treatments for an extended length of time.

We want a loving partner or spouse. This can change where and when we go to socialise. If we do develop a relationship it will likely change our living arrangements.

As we go chasing after our wants and desires we should take time to observe what is happening around us. Watch the new people we come in contact with, the new ways we do things, the new skills we develop as we progress along the route to our destination. Let's enjoy the journey.

What is life trying to teach me?
When our wants are not being fulfilled and we are being presented with some serious challenges, a good question to ask is, What is life trying to teach me? The challenges will force us to change direction as they will have to be dealt with before we go any further.

Not having our desires and wants met can be a source of unhappiness. A lot of us can spend our whole lives chasing after our desires and miss the happiness we can have by accepting our situation as it is here and now. Just by being aware that all our needs have been met and counting our blessings, we will move our focus to a happier place. This is how we can live in the moment and enjoy our journey through life.


Do we really need the challenges?
The Life-force or the Holy Spirit is a loving force which can guide our lives if we take the time to study its guidance and nudges. There is also the requirements of our karma or the list of lessons we have to try to learn during this lifetime. This list of lessons determines our destiny in life such as, where we are born, who our family will be, what benefits and challenges we will have. During our life some key lessons or challenges will arrive as we meet significant people and situations. For example, when we meet our spouse, a good friend, a business partner or someone who makes an impact on our lives. Our lessons can also take the form of a change of direction in our lives such as, moving to a new house, area, city or country. They may also arrive as a change in career, in our belief system or religion, or a disruption of the economic or political situation where we live.

These all point to a new set of lessons to be learned. If we become too attached to the way things were in the past we miss the excitement and thrills of moving with the changes as they happen around us. While we need desires, wants and goals in our lives to give us direction, we should be flexible about how we get them. There will be interruptions and upsets along the way to any goal but if we can look at these as part of our journey to the goal, we will have a more enjoyable experience.

Contemplate
A good way of bringing these ideas into you consciousness is to contemplate on them. Find a quiet comfortable place where you won't be disturbed and sing Hu on your outgoing breath. After a few minutes let one of these ideas drift into your mind and watch what insights you observe as it floats around your mind.
Our needs are constantly being met, yet we take so many of them for granted.
Life is a journey not a destination
What is life trying to teach me?
How is the Life-force or Holy Spirit guiding us?
Be flexible about how we get our wants and desires.

Wishing you a life of loving desires and needs.

*Ed Parkinson

if your needs of spiritual insight have not been met, you may find what you want on the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

A view of our Inner Worlds

During the last week of April, in two weeks time, I'll be having an exhibition in the Ranelagh Arts Centre, titled 'A view of our Inner Worlds'. 
Opening Reception

Tuesday 24th April, 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Exhibition

Tues. 24th - Sat. 28th April 2012, 12pm - 7pm.

Curated by
Tony Strickland, marginman1 AT gmail DOT com

At the:
Ranelagh Arts Centre,
26 Ranelagh, Dublin 6.
Email: info@ranelagharts.org
Below is the invitation. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Needs and wants Quotes

“We know we can shape our future... because the future is unformed. You can make it what you want, but first you have to be able to visualise what you want very clearly. Unfortunately most people look for materialistic goals such as money, health, wealth and companionship. But again I'm going to mention this: As Jesus said ”Seek first the Kingdom of God...and all things shall be added unto you.” Make sure that your goal is worth the trouble.”
Harold Klemp

“Be of service. Whether you make yourself available to a friend or co-worker, or you make time every month to do volunteer work, there is nothing that harvests more of a feeling of empowerment than being of service to someone in need.”
Gillian Anderson

“A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.”
Winston Churchill

“Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to.”
Mark Twain

“Your friend is your needs answered.”
Khalil Gibran

“From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”
Karl Marx

“Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.”
Niccolo Machiavelli

“What we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree.”
Sigmund Freud

“A state arises, as I conceive, out of the needs of mankind; no one is self-sufficing, but all of us have many wants.”
Plato

“Men take only their needs into consideration - never their abilities.”
Napoleon Bonaparte

“What Washington needs is adult supervision.”
Barack Obama

“He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn't need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.”
Jim Rohn

“Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.”
Carl Sagan

“Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health.”
Carl Jung

“Man has two great spiritual needs. One is for forgiveness. The other is for goodness.”
Billy Graham.

“Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.”
Albert Schweitzer

“Everyone of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves.”
Princess Diana

“Man learns through experience, and the spiritual path is full of different kinds of experiences. He will encounter many difficulties and obstacles, and they are the very experiences he needs to encourage and complete the cleansing process.”
Sai Baba

“You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.”
E. O. Wilson

“Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.”
Rene Descartes

“He who would be serene and pure needs but one thing, detachment.”
Meister Eckhart


If you still have needs and wants from more wisdom visit the Spiritual Inspirations page by clicking here.

The Sky Harbour

The Sky Harbour is the title of an art challenge on ImagineFX.com. It's the website of a magazine for artists. There is no breif or requirements regarding the picture once it relates in  some way to the title. This is my very first sketch. It seems like a natural lead on from the picture Meeting Place. It is like a meeting place of many different kinds of Souls coming from a range of different places.

Parents are as good as they can be

Thought for the week

Parents often get a lot of criticism and a raw deal from their children. While they have done the best they can, there is always going to be some area where our parents have failed. One of the things to bear in mind is that we, the children, are not perfect either. We all have something to learn in this University of Life. If we can keep in mind that we are still learning like the Souls around us we will have a more compassionate view towards them and towards ourselves. None of us are perfect, even the people who we have looked up to, like our parents.

Our lives are perfect
We are not perfect but our lives are perfect for us. Our lives have been designed to put us in situations and circumstances where we learn what we need to at that moment. The people around us, like our parents, are there to help us learn a variety of skills, techniques and to develop our awareness of ourselves.

Those of us who have moved on from being children to being parents realise the challenges of being a parent. After about ten years in the job of being a parent, I wrote a thank you note to my mother in appreciation for doing the best she could in raising me and my siblings. My father was dead at this point but as he was out working a lot of the time, my mother was the one who took on the main parenting role.

Do the best we can
We have to keep in mind that our parents learned how to be parents from their own parents, as we did from ours. If there was a flaw in the way parents were brought up, that same flaw would probably reoccur as they brought up their children. The way we were raised seems normal to us. We do the best we can, just like our parents and grandparents did. There is always room for improvement. If there was a particular flaw in the parenting of one generation, the next generation would try and correct it. For example, if parents sent their child away to be educated from a young age, the next generation may correct that and send their children away at a later age. The following generation may not send their children away at all.

One of the issues we have to keep in mind is that before we were born we were in a more heavenly place than this material world. We arrive here helpless, completely dependant on our parents for safety, food and love. As babies we begin to adjust to the tough material world while we are awake and return to our heavenly home when we sleep. As we get older our time in the material world becomes longer and we spend less time in our inner heaven. By the time we are seven or so, our mind usually takes control of our lives to ensure we can survive. Our focus is on living in the physical world and we begin to loose sight of our inner heaven. We then spend our physical lives searching for the inner happiness we knew as babies.

We can return to our inner heaven
All is not lost, we can return to our inner heaven with a simple daily spiritual exercise. Our physical life demands so much attention that we easily loose the connection we have with our inner heaven. It may be a long time since we have been consciously in touch with our inner selves so it may take time to reconnect again. A simple way to reconnect with our inner heaven is to sing the HU Song. This is a song from the heavenly worlds of Soul and by singing it we are naturally drawn back there. We should take about ten to twenty minutes a day doing this.

Find a comfortable position where you won't be disturbed. Take a few deep breaths and on your outgoing breath sing Hu, pronounced like the word 'hue' or the name Hugh. With your eyes closed, think of someone or something you love. On your inner screen watch for lights which may appear as glows, sparkles or flashes in various colours. At the same time listen to the sounds around you and note each one. After you've noted all the local sounds you may hear a sound from within yourself. Listen to this in between singing Hu. The light and sound may combine into an inner scene or dream like experience. If a scene does appear, go with the flow and enjoy the experience. After a month or two of doing this spiritual exercise regularly you may notice an improvement in your attitude to a more positive position.

While doing this contemplative exercise we may be brought back to a scene with our parents so that we get a different perspective on how they raised us. We may be able to see things from their point of view and why they did the things they did. If we look on them with love we may be able to see the love they had for us as they helped us move from being helpless babies into mature people.

Love is the key to all things in life but it does take a lot of work to see it. The Hu Song exercise above is one way to help us see this love.

Love, the answer is always love.

*Ed Parkinson

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Children and Parents Quotes

“Why are you in your family and not another? It's for the simple reason that you and your parents agreed to it before this lifetime ever began. Somehow all of you saw a spiritual reason for being together.”
Harold Klemp

“Parenthood: That state of being better chaperoned than you were before marriage.”
Marcelene Cox

“Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories.”
John Wilmot

“It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge.”
Phyllis Diller

“To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while.”
Josh Billings

“Your children need your presence more than your presents.”
Jesse Jackson

“It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself.”
Joyce Maynard

“It behooves a father to be blameless if he expects his child to be.”
Homer

“Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.”
Robert Fulghum

“If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.”
Abigail Van Buren

“Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy."
Robert A. Heinlein

“Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.”
Roger Lewin

“Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.”
Oscar Wilde

“There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.”
Chinese Proverb

“If your kids are giving you a headache, follow the directions on the aspirin bottle, especially the part that says "keep away from children."
Susan Savannah

If you enjoyed these children and parent quotes, you'll find more on the Spiritual Inspirations page by clicking here