Spiritual Art Blog - *Ed P

Reaching for the Light

This is a sketch for a piece titled Reaching for the Light. The hero is trying to break free of her Earthly ties to reach the light above her.

Meditation the easy way

Many of us who have tried meditation over the years have found it difficult to practice. The main problem seems to be keeping the mind blank. There is an alternative way of achieving a state of relaxation and at the same time getting some insights into our own personal life.

Keeping the mind blank is one of the big challenges when meditating. We can get so agitated and stressed by the constant flow of our thoughts and our inability to keep our mind blank that it becomes counter productive. We end up being stressed and frustrated rather than relaxed and calm.

Wondering
Meditation the easy way is often referred to as contemplation. A friend described it as “Wondering”. Rather than thinking about a subject or situation, if we wonder about it, we are taking a slightly detached view of the topic. We can ask questions like:
“I wonder, if this was a happy situation, how would it look?”
“I wonder how the others involved feel about this?”
“What would it be like if it was different?”
“If I was to create this problem, why would I do it?”

Control over our thoughts
We need to recognise that our mind is constantly active. It is a machine which is essential to living our lives and continues to examine things and produce thoughts all the time. If we can recognise this fact and move our point of view above it we will begin to gain some control over our thoughts. If we look at our flow of thoughts as an observer, like we are on a bridge above a river watching the flow of the water and the things it carries downstream. We’ll see bubbles, some debris, vegetation and ripples on the surface of the river. Deeper down we may see fish, weeds, mud and rocks. As they flow past we see different angles to each item. We get a different view as it moves along with the flow of the water.

The same thing happens during contemplation. We observer our thoughts as they come to the surface of our consciousness. Rather than reacting to them by deciding to do something there and then, let’s just observe the though, acknowledge it for what it is, let them be and they will flow into the swirl of our mind.

As we sit or lie down to do our meditation or contemplation, we should take a few deep breaths and relax our bodies. We can even stretch and tense up our muscles so we are more aware of their relaxed state. With our eyes closed we can watch the screen of our mind

See and hear
We all see and hear things. Even if we are blind or deaf, there are still lights and shapes to be seen and sounds of sorts to be heard. When we have our eyes closed we can still see brightness and darkness. There may be lights or an image like a negative of a colour photograph. This will clear away after a few minutes. Then we may become aware of lights, glowing, floating, in cloud shapes, as sparkles or stars and in a range of colours. Enjoy this light show as it changes and moves around our inner screen.

There are also sounds to be heard. When we are asleep we hear things in our dreams. We communicate with people and react to sounds. When we are resting or daydreaming we do the same in our mind’s eye. Initially there will be sounds in our vicinity such as animals, birds, traffic, machines, weather, wind, etc. Take each sound and put it in box or put a label on it, so that we know its source. Listen for all the outer sounds we can hear and we box or label them.

When we have all the outer sounds accounted for, listen for another sound. It will be very subtle. It may sound like running water, the sea, a train, a choir, a flute, an electronic sound, a wind or music. Listen to this sound and watch the lights as they dance together within ourselves. The sound and the light(s) may move in harmony or at varying speeds. They may also come together to form a thought, vision or picture. Go with the flow of the experience and see where it takes you.

Contemplation
Occasionally we may catch a new angle or approach to a situation which we hadn’t noticed or been aware of before. It can be a good to have a notepad by our side so we can take notes of the new ideas. Once we get into the habit of contemplating on a daily basis for fifteen to thirty minutes, this flow of ideas and insights will increase. With regular practice we begin to loosen the rocks and weeds that slow the flow of our thoughts and ideas. We begin to open the stream of light and sound, ideas and insights, inspirations and opportunities along with a more relaxed and calm approach to life.

Contemplation is meditation the easy way. We are not trying to stop the flow of thoughts and ideas coming from the mind. We have moved to a higher point of view, as an observer. This higher viewpoint allows us to see things from different angles and perspectives. This new viewpoint and the insights it brings helps us live a more relaxed and insightful life.

Wishing you wisdom and joy with your contemplations, meditation the easy way.

*Ed Parkinson

Another tool which can help with meditation is the HU Song. Click here to read about it.

Contemplation Quotes

“Contemplate sweetly on love, and the wisdom of God shall find you.”
Harold Klemp

“Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which Nature herself is animated.”
Auguste Rodin

“The contemplation of truth and beauty is the proper object for which we were created, which calls forth the most intense desires of the soul, and of which it never tires.”
William Hazlitt

“The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.”
Aristotle

“What a man takes in by contemplation, that he pours out in love.”
Meister Eckhart

“Contemplation is to knowledge what digestion is to food - the way to get life out of it.”
Tryon Edwards

“It was the contemplation of God that created men who were equal, for it was in God that they were equal.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall.”
Fulton J. Sheen

“That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful.”
Edgar Allan Poe

“Him that yon soars on golden wing, / Guiding the fiery-wheelèd throne, / The Cherub Contemplation.”
John Milton

“Our goodness comes solely from thinking on goodness; our wickedness from thinking on wickedness. We too are the victims of our own contemplation.”
John Jay Chapman

“The mysteries of faith are degraded if they are made into an object of affirmation and negation, when in reality they should be an object of contemplation.”
Simone Weil

“Ecstasy is from the contemplation of things vaster than the individual and imperfectly seen perhaps, by all those that still live.”
William Butler Yeats

“Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing.”
Dodie Smith

“Therefore, focus your mind on Me alone and let your intellect dwell upon Me through meditation and contemplation. Thereafter you shall certainly come to Me.”
Bhagavad Gita


If you enjoyed these Contemplation Quotes, click here to find more wisdom on the Inspirations page.

Soul’s Connection

A lot of people think of Soul as something they have rather than something they are. They see Soul as a subtle element deep within themselves, lost among their thoughts, memories and emotions. Our attention is focused so much on our outer physical lives that we have lost sight of our inner life. However Soul’s connection is never lost but it does get hidden among the confusion of things which go on in our daily life.

Let’s take a different look at Soul’s connection with our physical world. Let’s explore why and how we are here in this world. As Soul we are a part of the Higher Power, the One, God, Sugmad, Allah or whatever name you wish to call It. As we are an individual, we need to educate ourselves about our abilities and our reason for being. For the purpose of educating Soul, the Higher Power has set up an educational area where we Souls can experiment with our powers, desires and creative abilities. This facility is at a safe distance from Soul’s usual home so that whatever happens in the facility stays in it. None of the experiments carried out there will impact on Soul’s heavenly home.

However the experiments do impact on Soul Itself. It does learn from the experiences it goes through in this area of time and space. By playing with Its powers It eventually realises that the only worthwhile experiences It goes through are the ones involving love. When we discover love we rediscover Soul’s connection.

While thinking about this concept I had the image that Soul is stretching Its hand down to connect with us in our physical world. Our physical body is like a glove puppet where Soul’s hand is plunged deep into these worlds where It can explore things, play with power, creativity and love, and learn from the experiences. However with all the other elements within ourselves, Soul’s connection can easily get hidden. We have lots of things going on that it is no wonder we lose sight of this connection.

We have our emotions, which if we don’t control can have us going through so many different combination of feelings such as:
high and low,
happy and sad,
loving and hating,
angry and calm,
and lots more.

Then we have our memories which pop up as we come across different events or go to different areas as we go about our lives. They all trigger memories of similar happenings in the past and feed us the information on what happened, how we dealt with it and what the results were. This information can trigger our emotions to react and will sometimes cause confusion for us.

Our mind will try and take these memories and emotions and work out a way of getting through the situation. It has a lot of methods it has used in the past and because it knows them, it will use them again and again. Mind is a machine, working on a logical basis. It has templates it uses for a variety of different situations. These templates are great for doing regular tasks like finding our way to work or home, cooking a meal, doing our work and performing the regular tasks in our lives. Its methods are based on doing things in logical steps which hopefully lead us to a solution to the situation it is dealing with.

Sometimes our mind can hit a wall where it doesn’t know what to do next. Now it has to get creative and so it turns to our intuition for ideas. Our intuition is the subtle voice which offers new ideas and approaches to the situations we meet in life. These suggestions and ideas are often not logical and on first looking at them, seem silly. If our mind is strong and a dominant element in our lives, it will dismiss these ideas as worthless.

If we have an open mind, which will consider new ideas and approaches to things we will be open to our intuition and its messages. With a little work and practice we can begin to develop our intuition. This can bring a lot of benefits to us as we try out its approach to solving problems. The ideas are often fun, creative and loving.

Our intuition gets its ideas from Soul, our true happy selves. Intuition is the interface between Soul in Its world of no time where it constantly lives in the moment. Our intuition feeds us Soul’s messages, hints, suggestions and ideas on an ongoing basis. By developing our intuition we gain access to these wonderful, creative and happy ideas from Soul.

We as Soul can see the whole picture and direction of our lives. If we can open ourselves to this wisdom we will be brought on an exciting, insightful and beneficial direction in our lives. We just need to move our focus bit by bit towards our intuition until our awareness of Soul’s connection becomes a regular part of our lives.

We can live a happier, wiser and more loving life if we can renew Soul’s connection. A simple technique worth trying is the HU Song. Click here see how it works.

Wishing you love and blessings from Soul’s connection

*Ed Parkinson

Connection Quotes

“The more connections you and your lover make, not just between your bodies, but between your minds, your hearts, and your souls, the more you will strengthen the fabric of your relationship, and the more real moments you will experience together.”
Barbara De Angelis

“Rather than basing our relationships primarily on biological family connections or human personality attractions, we tend to be drawn to those with whom we have significant soul connections from past lifetimes, or from mutual experiences within other realms.”
Anna Ellington

“Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together.”
Anais Nin

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Creating a new theory is not like destroying an old barn and erecting a skyscraper in its place. It is rather like climbing a mountain, gaining new and wider views, discovering unexpected connections between our starting points and its rich environment.”
Albert Einstein

“In each of us, there lies a divine connection to a power more powerful than hate or violence. Today is the day to attune to that power and use it on behalf of peace on earth.”
Marianne Williamson

“Between understanding and faith immediate connections must subsist.”
Marquis De Sade

“We are born and reborn countless number of times, and it is possible that each being has been our parent at one time or another. Therefore, it is likely that all beings in this universe have familial connections.”
Dalai Lama

Soul's Connection

This picture Soul’s Connection is finished. Next week I’ll give an insight into my thinking behind the picture.

Spiritual Leadership from Spirit

Thought for the week

How do we find spiritual leadership in our lives? How do we decide on what decisions we should take and where we should go with our lives?

There are two forces we can use to give us direction. One is our mind, the other is Spirit. Our training in life generally steers us to use our mind for the decisions we take in our lives. From school age we are taught in a logical fashion. If we do this that will happen, if we add one and two we get three, if we touch something hot we’ll get burnt. Most of it is good information but in the process of focusing on this intellectual knowledge we loose touch with Spirit. We get to the point where our mind seems to be the only option for us to follow. We have no inner spiritual leadership in our lives.

The urge to find happiness
We still have the eternal burning urge to find happiness. All the logical plans and schemes we develop with our mind do not seem to get us any closer to happiness. We occasionally get to feel happy when we achieve a goal but soon the novelty wears off and the uncomfortable urge returns. Soon we are no longer happy with our new found glory and our golden treasure becomes tarnished.

We do occasionally get some input from Spirit when the mind’s guard eases a little. We get the feeling that something needs to be done, even though it doesn’t make logical sense. Following this feeling is a first step to opening ourselves to Spirit’s spiritual leadership. Spirit can lead us in the right direction for our lives if we let It. We must give It permission to communicate with us. We must ask for direction and messages from Spirit and be open to hear what It says.

How can we tune into Spirit?
We can ask Spirit to give us a definite answer to a particular question. We can ask about small or significant issues. A significant issue could be our next career move. “Should I take the job offer presented to me recently?” could be the question. We can ask for a specific type of answer like, “If the answer is Yes, show me a green flag, if No, show me a red flag”. We then have to be observant and watch out for either of these flags appearing in our daily life. Even when we get an answer and we’re still not sure, we can ask for confirmation. The request might be “Please confirm the answer by showing me a green monkey”. A green monkey is not common, so when and if we see one, we’ll be sure of our answer.

For a small issue we could ask “What food should I have at this time?” We may be lead to particular fruits, vegetables or meats. A person in a shop may just comment “The oranges are good”. To get a confirmation we could ask, “Are the oranges for me?” Then we watch for signals like being drawn back to the orange shelf, or oranges may keep coming up in our thoughts.

People get messages from Spirit in numerous ways. Some may hear a few words from a radio, or read a piece in a paper which resonates with them. Some will notice a number of coincidences relating to something on their mind. Some will see a series of events leading them in a particular direction.

A Conversation with Spirit
When we get used to asking questions and receiving answers, we begin to enter into a conversation with Spirit. We can ask for guidance on every aspect of our lives such as:
what to wear in the morning,
what to eat,
what direction we could take on our journey,
how to find solutions to situations, etc.

One of the things we notice is that Spirit just gives us answers and directions. There is no requirement on us to go along with Its advice. We still have our free will. We can decide to go with its recommendations or go with our own judgement of the situation. While its advice is based on the overall situation of our lives and those around us, It does not impose Its will on us. We are the ones who make the final decision whether to do something or not. After all one of the reasons we have a life is to learn to be responsible for ourselves and all that we do.

Asking for guidance
When asking for spiritual leadership and guidance from Spirit, we should be in a calm and balanced state of mind. If we are aggravated, stressed, emotional or angry, we are likely to see only limited options for the situation we face. In these states we close down our awareness of things around us and go into the narrow view of a survival mode.

We need to take time to relax and find some peace within ourselves. If we can take a few deep breaths, find a quiet place to gather our thoughts, do a little contemplation or meditation or sing the HU song we will be in a better state of mind to ask for guidance. We will also have a more open view of life around us and will find it easier to see the answers.

Guidance and gifts
We may occasionally notice we are not only receiving guidance from Spirit but we are sometimes providing guidance and gifts to others. For example, just now as I am getting to the end of writing this piece, our cat jumped up onto my desk, straddled herself across my keyboard and looked to be petted. I obliged her and in the process my heart opened to love her and her love flowed to me. It is not something she does often but it is a gift when it does happen. For me it was a blessing, a gift from our cat and from Spirit. The cat nudged by Spirit gave me her gift of love.

Using Spirit like this will give us spiritual leadership and blessings on an individual basis. The directions and answers we receive are not something we can prove to another person. They are only something we can know ourselves. We know the answers we received and we know the results of the actions we have taken based on that guidance. It is an inner and personal communication with Spirit. We are developing our own personal spiritual leadership.

Wishing you blessings from Spirit.

*Ed Parkinson

Click here to go to the Spiritual Writings page where you'll find more insights on spiritual leadership.

Spiritual Leadership Quotes

“Life is trying to teach us one thing: to see the Eck, Holy Spirit, in the eyes of all we meet. This means that those who have the enlightenment, or work themselves into it, have the ability to know that the Spirit of God is always with them. From then on they find peace and contentment and accept themselves without apology.“
Harold Klemp

“Spiritual leadership should remain spiritual leadership and the temporal power should not become too important in any church.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

“The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it.”
Elaine Agather

“Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.”
Robert F. Bennett

“I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn't need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about.”
Henry Ford

“Knowing that I am not the one in control gives great encouragement. Knowing the One who is in control is everything.”
Alexander Michael

“The only safe ship in a storm is leadership.”
Faye Wattleton

"When the solution is simple, God is answering."
Albert Einstein

“You have within you, right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw.”
Brian Tracy

“Secret forces are bringing compatible spirits together. If the man permits himself to be led by this ineffable attraction, good fortune will come his way. When deep friendships exist, formalities and elaborate preparations are not necessary.”
I Ching

“The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.”
 Oscar Wilde

“There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.”
 Napoleon Bonaparte

“Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.”
 Leonardo da Vinci

“If you want to accomplish the goals of your life, you have to begin with the spirit.”
 Oprah Winfrey

“O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.”
 Saint Augustine 

“Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.”
 William Butler Yeats

“The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.”
 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



If you enjoyed these Spiritual Leadership Quotes, you’ll find more inspirations and quotes by clicking this link.

Soul’s Connection

In this development of Soul’s Connection the foreground at the bottom of the picture is coming together. The backgrounds behind each of the figures are beginning to take shape or should I say several shapes. The background on the left has been changed to a path with steps rather than the mountain stream. It is still developing but getting closer to the final piece.

Spiritual science in the University of Life

Thought for the Week

A definition of spiritual science could be the ongoing task of living our lives, making decisions, learning about how life works, testing different ideas and learning from our experiences. If we look at life as a spiritual experiment we begin to make a little more sense of it. Here’s how it works.

We as Soul, have undertaken a research project under the guidance of the Higher Power or God, to discover who we really are and what we are capable of. We are currently in the middle of our research as we go about our daily lives and our studies in this University of Life.

Over the course of a single life we can study and graduate with many degrees and skills, such as:
Playing a game or sport,
Reading books,
Being kind and caring,
Being a bully and abusive,
Being drunk or drugged,
Being a good parent,
Being a bad parent,
Being a skilled worker,
And any other skill we’ve learned and become good at over the years.

We have to do this research
All of these things we learn, the experiences we have and the things we do teach us something. We could learn that doing nasty things will have to be corrected and repaid at some stage and doing nice things helps bring some light and happiness into our lives and the lives of others. This seems to be something we have to experience as it is difficult to teach. How many times have we asked a child to be nice and share their things with others? Many of us still retain this resistance to sharing or giving in our adult lives. When we do share we can see the benefits, not only for the person we are sharing with but also for ourselves.

One of the basic desires we have is to be happy. Sometimes we think by getting power, money, physical things like cars, houses, cloths, technology and other stuff, that they will bring us happiness. We have to do this research and go through the experiences to find the answers for ourselves. We can be shown that other people who went a similar route did not succeed in achieving the happiness it promised but we still have to try it ourselves. We need the actual experience so we know it for sure.

Spiritual Science
We are all spiritual scientists in this University of Life. One of the degrees that will help us understand our life is Spiritual Science. That is examining the spiritual side of life. With it we can figure out how this University of Life works and develop the understanding to move on to a happier place. Some of the minor degrees within Spiritual Science could include:
Reading about spirituality
Searching for ‘Truth’ as we see it
Being a cleric in a religion
Being a clairvoyant,
Searching for happiness,
Exploring our dreams,
Becoming aware of our intuition,
Watching for coincidences,
Observing how Life coordinates things,
Exploring past lives,
Reading about near death experiences,
Exploring our own inner experiences,
Practicing contemplation or meditation,
And anything related to the inner side of life.

Graduate with honours
There is one degree which tops them all. This degree will get us into a loving happy place and guarantees a graduation from the University of Life with honours. This degree is in Love. If we can learn to love, learn how it works and how to work with it, we will graduate with honours. When we have love throughout our life, when we give it to all around us, and let it flow through us, we graduate from these worlds and into God’s worlds of Love, where our true self, Soul, resides.

This is the place we have been searching for throughout or lives as we follow our urge to be happy. Love is the key which gets us out of the University of Life and into heaven. With Love in our heart, in our lives and in the lives of the Souls around us we begin to bring a little of heaven into our lives. We begin to learn the subject we came into life to find. We begin to learn to love.

Looking forward to seeing you at your graduation from the University of Life.

*Ed Parkinson

Have you read the University of Life article which gives details of how it works? It gives good insight into the spiritual science of life. Click this link to read it.

Inspirational Spiritual Science Quotes

“The Law of Cause and Effect and the experiences that derive from your understanding - or lack of understanding – of that law bring you to a realization or an acceptance of divine love.”
Harold Klemp

"By philosophy we can live wisely and die well. Those who perfect themselves in wisdom are called twice-born, for by wisdom, man is given a new birth. He departs from the old life with its uncertainties and limitations into a new illumined existence. Love rules the sphere of the wise. Those who have learned to love life in its deepest and most mystical senses have escaped from bondage of fear and dwell in peace with all things."
Manly P. Hall

“Human relations are built on feeling, not on reason or knowledge. And feeling is not an exact science; like all spiritual qualities, it has the vagueness of greatness about it.”
Amelia E. Barr

“To recover a spiritual tradition in which creation, and the study of creation, matters would be to inaugurate new possibilities between spirituality and science that would shape the paradigms for culture, its institution, and its people.”
Matthew Fox

“Science urges us to occupy by our mind the immensity of the knowable world; our spiritual teacher enjoins us to comprehend by our soul the infinite spirit which is in the depth of the moving and changing facts of the world; the urging of our artistic.”
Rabindranath Tagore

“Intuition is the source of scientific knowledge.”
Aristotle

“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”
Martin Luther King, Jr

“Science has promised us truth. It has never promised us either peace or happiness.”
Gustave Le Bon

“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”
Eden Phillpotts

“Science is the language of the temporal world; love is that of the spiritual world. Man, indeed, describes more than he explains; while the angelic spirit sees and understands. Science saddens man; love enraptures the angel; science is still seeking; love has found.”
Honore de Balzac

“The moral principle inherent in evolution, that nothing can be gained in this world without an effort; the ethical principle inherent in evolution is that only the best has the right to survive; the spiritual principle in evolution is the evidence of beauty, of order, and of design in the daily myriad of miracles to which we owe our existence.”
Henry Fairfield Osborn

“I had the intention of becoming a theologian...but now I see how God is, by my endeavours, also glorified in astronomy, for 'the heavens declare the glory of God.'"
Johannes Kepler

“Spiritual science has no doctrine or scripture. It is the study of all religions and belief systems, taking from them the best that each has to offer. Spiritual science also includes the practice of meditation and constant observation of one's thoughts, words and deeds. It is a disciplined philosophical way of life.”
www.thesanctuarycongregation.org

“Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe -- a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble."
 Albert Einstein

 

If you enjoyed these spiritual science quotes you’ll find more by clicking this link to the Inspirations page.