Soul’s Code

An excerpt from the newly-released book, The Tao of Rejuvenation, by ANGELO DRUDA

In Traditional Chinese Medicine and Taoism, the male is understood to be the embodiment of the “yang” fire force to the female’s watery “yin”.  In the Tantric teachings of India, the male force is Shiva to the female’s Shakti.

In both systems — and there are many others that use a similar framework — conditional existence is seen as a great play of opposing forces: light and dark, hot and cold, pain and pleasure, birth and death.

It is a play of endless modifications.  Opposites attract each other, looking to find equanimity and resolution in each other.

The hot yang of the man seeks balance in the cool yin of the woman.

The Early Church used ‘miracles’ as a marketing theme as much as the producers of ABC’s Lost do today. But by emphasizing Jesus’ Miracles more than His Teachings, it postponed the Kingdom

FR. DAVID RICKEY: In the Bible, Jesus performed more miracles than filled the first four seasons of the ABC series, Lost, and it must have initially been a real kick for him. But for Jesus the miracles seem to have gotten in his way. He was even reported to have rebuked his followers after feeding 5000 people: “You’re following me just because I fed you! Seek the real food!”

For the New Testament Gospel writers, the miracles seem more important than the teaching. So often it reads: “Jesus taught them many things.” Then the writer goes on to tell us in great detail about a miracle. I always say, “Hey! What about the teaching? What was that?” But there’s no answer.

When we’re not happy, do you believe it’s because we “think” we know what happiness is? The short answer from Vedic psychology

Raised in an abusive, alcoholic family — and twice diagnosed, “terminal” — Vaishali is a new female mystic who comes by her joy honestly.

GUEST COLUMN: VAISHALI — Happiness. It is the No. 1 thing we all want. The constitution of the United States institutionalizes our protected right to pursue it. But what exactly is it? Someone once told me they’d found happiness. I honestly didn’t know it was ever lost.

A koan from the Zen master, Goso, and the legend of Seijo

SOUL’S CODE — We stumbled onto this Zen Koan and thought it worth sharing.

Chokan had a very beautiful daughter named Seijo. He also had a handsome young cousin named Ochu. Joking, he would often comment that they would make a fine married couple. Actually, he planned to give his daughter in marriage to another man. But young Seijo and Ochu took him seriously; they fell in love and thought themselves engaged. One day Chokan announced Seijo’s betrothal to the other man. In rage and despair, Ochu left by boat. After several days journey, much to his astonishment and joy he discovered that Seijo was on the boat with him!

They went to a nearby city where they lived for several years and had two children. But Seijo could not forget her father; so Ochu decided to go back with her and ask the father’s forgiveness and blessing. When they arrived, he left Seijo on the boat and went to the father’s house. he humbly apologized to the father for taking his daughter away and asked forgiveness for them both.

“What is the meaning of all this madness?” the father exclaimed. Then he related that after Ochu had left, many years ago, his daughter Seijo had fallen ill and had lain comatose in bed since. Ochu assured him that he was mistaken, and, in proof, he brought Seijo from the boat. When she entered, the Seijo lying ill in bed rose to meet her, and the two became one.

Zen Master Goso, referrring to the legend, observed, “Seijo had two souls, one always sick at home and the other in the city, a married woman with two children. Which was the true soul?”

A vanguard of self-schooled female mystics are doing an end-run around the mainstream self-help and New Age movements — and are advancing a radical, 21st century spirituality. Call it the ‘Anti-Me Generation.’

In this series, we introduce some of the leading lights of the sage sex, and their teachings

Across the centuries, spiritual seekers have invariably been women and the teachers men; From Jesus to Gurdjieff and Rumi to Ramana Maharshi, enlightenment has been a male-dominated business. But figures like Byron Katie are in the vanguard of an astonishing advent in the mystical tradition: she is a leading light in a scattered coterie of women who have propounded a radical, new esoteric spirituality and seem to have leap-frogged ahead of male counterparts in the pursuit of the sacred.

Their work, if you want to call it that, isn’t wholly cribbed from Indian gurus or apprenticeships in Asian monasteries but forged in a homegrown fashion in the crucible of the modern, over-caffeinated, high-tech West – sometimes as a result of frustration with oriental traditions. Alongside Katie, these self-schooled spiritual masters include Oregon-based Catherine Ingram, Santa Fe’s Pamela Wilson, and Calgary, Alberta-based Karen McPhee (pictured above).

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