Soul’s Code

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” — Dalai Lama

SPECIAL TO SOUL’S CODE: DR. JEANINE AUSTIN — Many of the great spiritual teachers throughout time emphasize the power of love in action, also known as compassion. As a life coach for women, when working with clients I will often offer applications and strategies that are love-based.

When my clients are desirous of monumental shifts and changes, why mess with weaker ideologies?

I believe there is no greater power or law than that of love in action, or compassion. Divinely inspired love is the most potent force in the universe.

Test your knowledge of the spiritual secrets of the stars. How well do you know the tantra mantras of Scarlett, Heather, Sting and others?

In the 1970s, the now-deceased and disgraced Indian guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, began turning baby boomers in the west onto the principles of Tantric sex. And as the word spread, celebrities have been mixing up orgasms with spirituality ever since:

1.  Over what time span did Sean “Diddy” Combs claim to have had Tantric sex with his twins’ mama while in Paris ?

A.  10 hours
B.  20 hours
C.  30 hours
D.  2 days

A spiritual author argues that the movement that drew its name from the Age of Aquarius is simply about connecting to the God within

GUEST COLUMN: ELAINE MURRAY

New Age Spirituality is all about getting back your power. Not that you ever lost it . . . sometimes you gave it away, misplaced it — or forgot you had power in the first place.

And why does the term New Age Spirituality seem to bother some religious leaders — especially leaders of the Christian faith? After all, we are in a new age: The Age of Aquarius.

The concept of an Age exists within ancient spiritual traditions, and lasts 2,000 years.

(Above: Catherine Keener and Steve Carell in the final scene of The 40 Year Old Virgin).

It might be about kinky costumes or eye candy for you. For me, it’s a sacred celebration that ”tricks” sweet little kids into “treating” all witches as ”wicked” stereotypes.

DANNY KENNY — Ah, to be an Irish Pagan at Halloween and witness apparently sane, God fearing people, joyously ridiculing a sacred tradition from an ancient  land of culture.

I refer of course to Ireland, those mythical shores that gave you Shaw and so much more than “Paddy’s Day” and the “Paddy Wagon” — a racist term still sadly used openly in these so called PC days.  Let’s not forget we also gave the world literary greats like Yeats and Wilde.

We gave you the Kennedy family, U2 and even “the Greatest” grandfathers of  all; Muhammed Ali and Obama’s. And what did you choose to celebrate from our culture: Halloween and St Patrick’s Day! Both of which do neither Irish culture nor Paganism any favors.

Test your knowledge of billionaire Oprah and her BFF Eckhart Tolle

Last year, Oprah featured Tolle’s books, The Power of Now, and A New Earth on the Oprah Book Club, and then devoted 10 weeks of webcasts to interviewing Tolle himself.  Fundamentalist Christians got their knickers in a knot at the thought of Tolle’s “New Age” teachings becoming accessible to anyone who has a computer or a TV. Test your knowledge of these spiritual bed-fellows:

Check your answers at the bottom of the page.

1. Who publicly denied rumors in 2006 that they were in a same-sex relationship?

A. Eckhart Tolle
B. Jim Carrey
C. Oprah
D. Suze Orman

My world is perfectly designed for me, perhaps yours is too

BY DAVID RICKEY — Sometime in high school I decided that I could do anything I wanted to, as long as I was willing to accept the consequences. It was a somewhat naïve and “adolescent” choice, but it has stuck with me.

However, my awareness has deepened considerably, and the truth behind that choice has become richer and more complex. I still believe that I am a completely free agent, meaning that my choices are my own. I bear responsibility for them and for the resulting “events.”

I am now aware that there is a more primal and profound energy behind my being here that, although it doesn’t direct or control my choices, exercises an amazingly mysterious and wonderful power.

All Souls’ Day

Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholics this week celebrate the “Commemoration of the Faithful Departed” or “All Souls’ Day” (November 2). Prayerful attention is paid to the souls of the departed going through a purification (or purging) of past sins in Purgatory. Popular in Mexico as El Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), families gather in cemeteries to pray for deceased friends and families.  A more macabre remembrance of the dead occurred last week: a member of 1 Mind Ministries has refused to plea guilty to starving a one year old boy to death because he refused to say “amen” after his meals.

Obama lights up the White House for the Goddess of Wealth (and no, it’s not Oprah). In another first for Nobel Prize winner Barack Obama, he became the first  US President to honor Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains by lighting a symbolic diya/lamp in the White House and wishing everyone a “Happy Diwali and Saal Mubarak.”

The Secret’s Out for Oprah Guru: Police in Angel Valley are showing  no mercy in pursuing James Arthur Ray, as Oprah’s Self-help Guru sweats out  homicide charges in the Sedona sweat lodge murder investigation.