Miceal Ledwith has an additional interview clip in the extra material of the DVD Down The Rabbit Hole. He’s quite a character. Maybe even an eccentric in the old sense of the word. But he makes a point that I have been dying to hear. He says that we are not here, in life on [...]
Posts Tagged ‘regeneration’
Getting settled
Posted in Flashes, tagged Down The Rabbit Hole, growth, insurance, kingdom of god, Micael Ledwith, purpose of life, regeneration, spiritual growth, What the Bleep on September 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Boundaries: part five – Day of crossing
Posted in Flashes, Workshops, plans, themes, tagged boundary, cross, eagle, Eden, Jacob's dream, Jesus, regeneration, Swedenborg, turtle on July 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Part one. – overview Part two. – freedom and regeneration Part three. – young people Part four. – format young people The boundary theme for adults, focusing on regeneration, the necessary crossing of boundaries that must take place. Adults have gained experience. Lots of good and lots of less good experience. They have established personal [...]
Boundaries: part four – day of freedom
Posted in Flashes, Workshops, plans, themes, tagged boundary, Canaan, cross, divine providence, eagle, Eden, Jesus, Native American wisdom, regeneration, Swedenborg, turtle on July 27, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Part one. Part two. Part three. The freedom theme, for young people. Group questions and format guidelines. What boundaries do you find people crossing with you, in your experience? What boundaries do you have? What do you do when someone, a friend, a parent, crosses a boundary with you? And how does this make you [...]
Boundaries: part three – Eagles and turtles
Posted in Flashes, Workshops, plans, themes, tagged boundary, Canaan, cross, eagle, Eden, Jesus, Native American wisdom, regeneration, Swedenborg, turtle on July 26, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Part one is here. Part two is here. The freedom theme, for young people. I listened to a webcast about vision quests, modern culture and ancient traditions, by a Native American speaker called Sequoia Trueblood. He said, about children growing up, that parents are always already planning for their children to be eagles, when they [...]
Boundaries: part two – A two part theme
Posted in Flashes, Workshops, plans, themes, tagged boundary, Canaan, cross, Eden, Jesus, regeneration, Swedenborg on July 26, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Part one is here. So there’s a theme in this. Something that can be applied for both adults and young people, with a different emphasis. Main theological teaching that lies underneath “boundaries”: freedom. We are created free. We have choice. We are unique individuals. Our relationship with the Divine depends on this. Our freedom is [...]
No quick way
Posted in Flashes, tagged Jesus, Paul, regeneration, Saul on July 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I want to be a heavenly person, moved by a love for the whole of humanity, powered by infinite source energy, steady, constant, infallible, forever. Inspired by infinite intelligence. And I want this instantly, tomorrow. No, today. Right. Regeneration, as the process of spiritual growth, rebirth, enlightenment, is described in the teachings of Swedenborg as [...]
The tent pole analogy
Posted in Flashes, tagged Buddhism, regeneration, world peace on June 11, 2011 | 1 Comment »
I heard about a group of people in Arizona who have gone into a 3-year retreat. The purpose is to aid world peace. They seclude themselves and do meditative practices in order to bring greater peace into the whole world. So, the question is: is our primary responsibility to ourselves or to the world? When [...]
Making space
Posted in Flashes, tagged Abraham, Plotkin, rebirth, regeneration, Soulcraft on April 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
“All things must change to evolve. Death and impermanence provide hope for an evolving universe.” (Soulcraft – Bill Plotkin, p. 267) The book Soulcraft is about the passion in our souls, which we were born with. Each person his or her own passion. It’s a passion that is so big and strong, for it to [...]
Angels Are Calling My Name
Posted in Sermon writing and preaching, tagged celestial, heaven, mantra, prayer, regeneration, religion, sermon, spirit, vision on April 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
(Sermon by Stephen Muires, Feb. 2011.) Today I want to describe a vision. A vision that is at the core of religion, of every religion, and at the core of our lives as human beings. It is a vision of heaven in us. You may have heard people say that heaven is inside us. It [...]
Combat
Posted in Flashes, tagged Lord, regeneration, spiritual warfare, SWET on October 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“In combat, mankind is seen in absolutes – at his very best or his very worst. There are no inbetweens. No one has a place to hide.” (Eric L. Haney – Inside Delta Force) That makes me think of SWET, the spiritual warfare training weekends in Pennsylvania. The quote suggests a person is pushed into [...]
Coming alive
Posted in Flashes, tagged Abraham, God, Lord, regeneration, spiritual growth, Swedenborg on October 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I like this quote a lot: Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. (Howard Thurman) Or this one from the same guy: Howard Thurman asked, “What is the greatest enemy that Jesus [...]
Do we do spirituality? (part two)
Posted in Flashes, tagged church, God, Lord, regeneration, spiritual growth, Swedenborg on September 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Back to part one. So… do we do spirituality in the New Church? Can I answer YES to all of the statements from the definition? Do I refer to the reality of the spiritual world, including heaven and hell? Am I on a path of regeneration, in order to become fully human? Do I live [...]
Fighting without help
Posted in Flashes, tagged attraction, manifesting, regeneration, spiritual warfare, testing, The Secret on September 15, 2010 | 1 Comment »
The Writings of Swedenborg occasionally mention the mysterious process of being tested. The Latin word is tentatio. Also known as temptation, except that temptation sounds like you gotta resist the urge to eat that chocolate. Being tested, or entering the testing grounds, is something else. Being tested is what truly is meant by waging spiritual [...]
The answers to all questions
Posted in Flashes, tagged evil, God, Lord, mystery, purification, regeneration on September 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Does God know the answers to all questions? Well of course, isn’t that the definition of God? All-knowing, all-present, all-powerful. The two basic pronouncements of the Lord are: 1) repent; 2) the kingdom of God is at hand. Questions are God’s prodding. They are leading questions. What is it that I don’t want? What is [...]
Levels of comfort
Posted in Flashes, tagged church, comfortability, learning, regeneration, religion on September 6, 2010 | 5 Comments »
“When we diminish the brain rhythm from beta to alpha, we put ourselves in the ideal condition to learn.” (source) I want to look at levels of comfort.Should learning be comfortable? It is science today that learning best happens if our state of consciousness is slightly different from the usual, habitual one in which we [...]
Preacher or spiritual teacher: part two
Posted in Flashes, tagged church, Lord, preaching, regeneration on September 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Part two: the firebrand. I came to the New Church through my understanding, no doubt about it. Actually it is more true to say that I came to Swedenborg and from there to religion through my understanding. From there my feelings came into play somehow and I have been moved to another place, spiritually and [...]
Preacher or spiritual teacher: part one
Posted in Flashes, tagged church, Jesus Christ, preaching, presence, regeneration, Swedenborg, teaching on September 1, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Part one: the blind alley. In the New Church the job of the priest is described as: teach the truth and lead to the good of life. Swedenborg simply does not say it in more detail. Now, these words can be understood in many different ways. And by repeating them again and again they really [...]
Part four: joy
Posted in Flashes, tagged healing, joy, regeneration, spiritual growth on August 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Do you feel joy? What things make you feel joy? AC 33: “Such as the love is, such is the life, and such is the joy.” AC 543: “Certain people wished to know what heavenly joy was. They were then allowed to perceive their own inmost joy, even to a point where they could bear [...]
Immortality
Posted in The Sacred, tagged belief, faith, holiness, immortality, regeneration, spiritual growth, Swedenborg, Truth on August 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
(A section from my dissertation on “The Sacred”) Freedom gives us immortality. This refers to our spirit, not our natural body. Our spirit is already immortal, regardless whether we are good or evil (DP 96.7, 324.3, 324.8). Our will and understanding, whose nature and essential activity at heart are freedom and rationality, are directly from [...]
Create the holes
Posted in Flashes, tagged evil, flute, God, regeneration on July 26, 2010 | 3 Comments »
What makes a flute a flute? It’s not the wood or the bamboo. A piece of wood becomes a flute by removing bits. Small sections that get hollowed out, removed, made empty. The sound gets formed where a half-moon of wood is taken out at the mouth piece. The tones get created by holes in [...]
