Soul’s Code

The solution to today’s most popular problem: Improved spiritual care will improve health care

BY DAVID RICKEY — The long ranging and raging debate over Health Care Reform reveals a more fundamental problem: human beings, even in the more educated and “enlightened” countries, may not be ready for the next major shift in spiritual evolution.

The questions asked on all sides — “How much will it cost me? Will I lose my freedom to choose? Will I get the care I need when I need it?” — demonstrate how we remain caught up in ego-centric concerns.

Only a few seem to be asking, “How can all people share in the benefits of medical care?”

A spiritual teacher’s meditation and affirmation for this anniversary of fear and terror

GUEST COLUMN: RONDA LARUE — 9/11 is, and was, a big wake up call to witness the internal machinations of fear, and its multi-faced projections. And as with all tragedies, it is a call to dive deeper under the ruble of suffering, shock, and reaction to reclaim an ecology of the heart.

Spinning on a Prayer…

In our greatest imaginings
who could dream a world such as this?

Love is the answer for transforming all pain into unconditional love

SMADAR DE LANGE — I meditate on this day on the worth of life. 9/11 is an exhibit of the way some in the body of humanity do not believe in the worth of individual human life.

It’s easy to call people like this “terrorists.” But let’s drill deeper into the thing in their value system that devalues. They believe that human lives do not have a meaning in their individuality, but only as a collective.

Belonging to a certain ethnicity, religion, nationality, geographical location is all that a human presence is to this group-think mentality.

In these times, it seems that we are on a pendulum between being a spark of dust to being it all  . . .

Does the continuing recession feed your anxiety? Is your grasp on hope loosening? A former business executive-turned-mystic, speaks

SPECIAL TO SOUL’S CODE: RONDA LARUE — What does one dedicated to a soulful life do in the days following a layoff or the termination of a job?

What does one do with the shock, the feelings of betrayal, and the confusion — and the paralyzing waves of fear?

How does one survive, find hope, stand strong, and create new opportunity? How can one dare to meet life in a new way — to stay open and not cave in?

According to the spiritual teacher and modern-day mystic, Eckhart Tolle, Michael Jackson was not a successful entertainer so much for his technical virtuosity. Instead, Jackson made a connection with gazillions of people because he was a portal into consciousness and presence. A quote from a rare Tolle lecture, Living a Life of Inner Peace:

You’ll probably laugh but I saw Michael Jackson on TV the other day. Even if you say that he’s strange, he’s weird  — that’s what people say — the moment he goes into the music mode, something takes over. Woosh. Wow. What was that? He actually said that you can’t think, it doesn’t come from thinking. You can learn the externals but not the essence. So the moment he switches into music notes, an energy takes over. It’s beautiful.

An Episcopal priest and pagan witch see eye-to-eye on karma, the power of forgiveness and Scotland’s controversial release of the Pan Am 103 convict

DANNY KENNY and DAVID RICKEY — When Pan Am flight 103 was ripped from the skies on December 21st, 1988, it shocked the world and tore a remote tiny Scottish community apart. This horrific act of terror killed 270 people, including eleven in Lockerbie, as large sections of the plane fell in and around the town.

From herbs to T-Tapp exercises and cold-laser treatments, the key is boosting your lymphatic system

GUEST COLUMN: VAISHALI — At the end of June, 2009, the U.S. Center for Disease Control estimated that one million Americans had contracted swine flu.  In July, after more than two dozen deaths, Britain’s National Health Service budgeted for a worst-case scenario of 65,000 swine flu *mortalities* in 2009.

What is our holistic prescription to H1N1? Protect, strengthen and support the immune system, the body’s first line of defense. Here’s why.

“The next time you pick up a newspaper forecasting the end of the world, remember to laugh.”

GUEST COLUMN: VAISHALI — The only thing more highly contagious than a virus, bacteria, mold spore or free radicals is fear. The panic that arises from imagining oneself succumbing to the dreaded swine flu is a far greater health-threatening condition. It travels much faster and with more drastic consequences than the actual illness itself, leaving its own trail of destruction in its perceptual wake.

Maybe they should change the name of the swine flu from the H1N1 virus to the “CNN#1 Ratings virus panic-demic.” You know, we can’t just sit around waiting for Homeland Security to kill all the free radicals so we can feel safe once again. And now, I heard the pigs are worried about contracting the swine flu from humans!

“Just because CNN is selling economic fear across the board doesn’t mean you have to buy it.”

GUEST COLUMN: VAISHALI — From the Eastern perspective there will never be one single pill, diet, exercise or lifestyle that will cure what ails all people.

Each of our lives fulls of thoughts and episodes and sensations reflect an intensely-experienced microcosm. Each being has a unique fingerprint —  let it be said, soul’s code — and wants to be understood, examined and healed uniquely, not through the lens of mass judgment.

What is experientially, emotionally and perceptually toxic to one person could be liberating to another. There is not one accepted standard that will equally measure every nuance of every person’s life. The “average person” does not exist in Eastern philosophy.

A priest and psychotherapist shares how he and his friends have dealt with recession, job loss and financial poverty

BY DAVID RICKEY — The loss of a job — the proverbial “Pink Slip” — can be a major challenge on several levels. Material survival, physical well-being, emotional balance, and, ultimately, sense of meaning are all threatened by this single event.

Here’s a “prescription” for dealing with this threat.

First, breathe . . .

Then, as you keep breathing deeply, let the fears and emotions gently come forth. With each fear, as it arises, ask yourself: “Is that really true?”