Every Day is a New Year Day!

... As the Christmas season passes and a new year is upon us we realize that these celebrations are symbols of what we are doing in spiritual life. Christmas is a symbol not only of Christ’s birth but the ever-renewed birth of something in us each day.... New Year’s Day is a symbol of that rebirth in our will and resolution to turn over a new leaf.

                             - Excerpt from Every Day is a New Year Day by Paul Hourihan

Secular and Sacred

According to Swami Vivekananda, the body and Spirit are both necessary: The body cannot exist without Spirit and Spirit cannot be understood without the body.

Secular and Sacred: Both are necessary.

God is Love

Full of grace, He ultimately gives liberation to all creatures.

None can be lost in this universe. No matter how long we should try, we can’t get away from the Godhead. The Divine will follow us as far as we flee. “Full of grace, He ultimately gives liberation to all creatures.” How? “By turning their faces toward Himself.”*

Spiritual or Psychic?

... Psychic experiences leave us essentially the same; spiritual experiences transform us.

When we have a psychic experience we wonder about its meaning, its genuineness, etc. With the spiritual experience, there is no doubt—Spirit is Truth! Truth speaks with a clear, compelling voice....

                    - excerpt from THE PSYCHIC VERSUS THE SPIRITUAL by Paul Hourihan
 

The Role of Dissatisfaction

Why are some drawn to the spiritual search, and not others? Dissatisfaction. Discontent with the world and with ‘me’—with who we perceive ourselves to be.

We must disintegrate before we can integrate. We must know great conflict before peace, great passion before serenity. We must want, we must need the Truth. Otherwise we don’t find it. A great secret inner continuing discontent—a dissatisfaction with oneself and with Life, is what is needful.

Truth belongs to the discontented.

The Divine in Human Affairs

Know that the Divine is manifesting wherever there is a sense of perfection in an event, an act, or a relationship. For we know what most events, actions, and relationships are like most of the time―under merely human control, so to speak, where our human egos involve themselves in what is taking place.

But there are other times, to which all may testify from their own experience when suddenly the change is felt, a sense of peace, of grace and ease, of harmony, acceptance, oneness.... then the Divine is present.

Peace

The secret of its search is that it lies within.
This is the heart of the matter.

Why the Deadly Sins Are Deadly

The deadly sins―lust, greed, anger, hatred, jealousy, envy―are deadly because they conceal the light from us. We are full of light, we are light, that is the soul's nature―light. Not merely the light that we see, but another light―the Light of the Self.        
   

Gratitude

Cultivate gratitude to get close to your true Self. It can be a new discipline.

It's an amazing grace given to us. We should do it when we can, and not expect anything beyond that. Do it even for one day―why not today?
 

Tribute to Mother

Mother's unique forgiveness illuminates the deep feeling we have that somewhere in life there ought to be someone that would be steadily loyal and supportive of us through thick and thin to the end, who would show unlimited patience with our foibles, forbearance at our mistakes, forgiveness for our shortcomings.

That is ideal of the Mother, unique among human types.

She personifies the role of the Divine Self, which is the true source of the attributes of steadiness, loyalty and forgiveness.

__________

 
Pure mind―the lost Paradise within.

__________

The Highest Thought

The highest thought you can entertain is from God.

It will be tentative, strange―your mind is unaccustomed to it.
But its truth will be felt―will be self-authenticating.
 

Every Day is Christmas!

Even though the Christmas celebrations are now passed, Christmas is still with us. In fact, every day is Christmas―each day is a gift.
  
                                                                                                   - Anna Hourihan

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Note: All "Words of Wisdom" are quotations from Paul Hourihan, unless otherwise noted.