Soul’s Code

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.

The cosmic side of Courtney Cox; B.F. Skinner and Arthur Koestler redux; Does ABC’s Amazing Race have any grace?

Call it self-pleasuring, call it masturbation, call it whatever you want. But is it “spiritual”?

GUEST COLUMN: ED EHRGOTT — Coming to terms with my identity as a gay man in my early 20’s was the final reason for me to sever my connection to the Catholic Church; for many years, I had no spiritual identity or practice at all.

Raised Catholic, I vividly recall learning that sex and spirit were apparently two different things.

Spirit (which for many of us meant religion) was “good,” while sex was presented as something vile, and sometimes “evil.”

Spirituality was presented in the context of “proper behavior,” which usually meant not paying any attention to your body. In fact, it often meant denying any sexual feelings.

As The Vatican, the American Public and Republican Christians remain divided on Ted Kennedy’s “State of Grace” and “very Catholic Funeral”, US scholars debate new ways to communicate with, or ex-communicate, God. Soul’s Code highlights the great divide!

Where Americans disagree: “Kennedy funeral rings with hope, Twitter with vitriol”

Edward Moore Kennedy wrote to the Pope: “I’ve never failed to believe”

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.

Controversial and visionary British bishop, Jonathan Blake (head of the Open Episcopal Church) has denounced the head of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales for portraying Facebook as a suicide risk.

The object of his dissent: Catholic Archbishop Vincent Nichols believes that social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook increase the risk of teen suicide and un-fulfilling transient relationships.

We surf Oprah . . . so you don’t have to

The L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, has given Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince a four star rating.

Not overly concerned that most of the characters are witches and warlocks, the article praises the movie for its values of “friendship, altruism, loyalty and self-giving.”  Catholic News Service.

Mira’s miracle?

One wonders if the word “miraculous” is getting too much play.  Mira Sorvino’s third child has been called a “miracle baby.”

These aren’t “The Rules” that Oprah loves. DAVID RICHO’s arise out of Buddhism, a Catholic priesthood and depth psychology

SOUL’S CODE —  Shrunken stock portfolios, canceled checks, and an unemployment rate in the double-digits indicate that couples who are distressed in their relationships today will stick together tomorrow.

Stick it out, rather than walk out is a distinctly anti-Me Generation response to fear and unmet wants — the opposite of the Baby Boomer ethic of autonomy and desire-fulfillment.

The polar-opposite is our parents’ and grandparents’ code for survival — a Survivor-response to love and relationships forged in the scarcity of The Depression’s and WWII.

“Headscarf martyr” mourned in Egypt

An Egyptian woman stabbed to death in a German courtroom was mourned by a throng of people in Alexandria, Egypt, July 7, 2009. Marwa al-Sherbini, 32 years old and pregnant, was allegedly attacked in court during a case in which a neighbor accused her of being a “terrorist” for wearing traditional Muslim garb. This is what’s in the air over there: President Nicolas Sarkozy has made waves over the past few weeks by advocating a ban of wearing burkas in public.