The Spiritual Forum

Whenever we enter a New Year we have the opportunity to declare who we want to be and who we don't want to be. We can also chose to bring ourselves vibrantly, fully alive to the world. In this episode we explore what enlivens us and how we can impact the world. This is where Life calls us to create a meaningful life.

Joy is a state of well being that already exists deep inside us. It is a Divine gift - an infinite well - which we can experience independent of circumstances. It is an internal quality and a mystery, because we can actually live in Joy when things are pretty darn awful. We don't look for people, places and things to satisfy our expectations in order to experience Joy. We just need to enter into i...

We see and hear a lot about love in novels, pop music and movies. It is often wrought with angst, longing, loss of self, and attachment. This is otherwise known as romantic love, and is a distinct part of Western culture. But Real Love endures. It is unconditional and has no boundaries. Real Love frees. It is something that we do, not something that we feel or elicit. Love is the theme of the thir...

In order for Peace to be, it must first be established in our consciousness. It is not something we can make happen by any external activity. When we establish Peace and Harmony in our consciousness, we are okay with life as it is AND we hold the power to calm its storms. Peace is the theme of the second week of Advent.

Hope exhorts courage and is underneath any forward movement toward our life goals. It is also something we can give to and receive from others. What is your current hope for yourself and the world? How can we use Hope powerfully in our lives? These are questions we explore in this episode.

There are Divine Ideas or Qualities under everything that happens or exists. When we express Gratitude, we usually extend it to people, circumstances or things. But if we dig to find the Quality underneath a situation in our life, a whole new experience may open up.

Living with an attitude of gratitude changes everything. It lifts us to a higher level and allows more Good to be revealed. In this episode we talk about who/what we can be radically grateful for and how being grateful in the midst of so much sadness and challenge in the world is a good thing. Gratitude fundamentally changes us.

In this episode, Rev. Carol engages best-selling author and lifestyle coach, Victoria Moran, in dialogue on spirituality and eating, the original teachings and practices of Charles and Myrtle Fillmore on ethical vegetarianism, and the new spiritually-focused documentary, A Prayer for Compassion. Whether you are vegan, vegetarian or omnivore, this dialogue brings to the surface our need to examine...

Day of the Dead is a holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage. It is similar to observances in other societies of a time to celebrate the life of a deceased loved one. Believing that the dead would be insulted by mourning or sadness, people celebrate the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, and activities that the deceased enjoyed in life. But what is deat...

Halloween has a long history. Our annual trick-or-treating tradition is rooted in the 15th century celebration of All Soul's Day, when people went door to door to offer prayers for people in exchange for cakes. When look at this historical tradition and remove its religious trappings, we can see a spiritual Truth, which is, when we pray for others, we receive bountiful gifts! In this episode we sh...

Bearing false witness can be about lying, but it is much more. It can also describe the ways we see another or ourselves falsely. It is what we do when look at another and see lack, limitation, what's missing, inferiority (or superiority) or what's wrong with them. These are some of the ways we judge our brothers and sisters (and ourselves) in the relative world, instead of seeing their Divine Tru...

This is the final Spiritual Truth and it's about coveting. Coveting is a little different from envy. It is more than a feeling. When we covet, there is usually an obsessive thought attached to the desire - like an addiction - which can consume our lives. It's under a lot of misery! Beyond that, if we look even deeper, this Spiritual Truth calls us to not focus on what seems to be missing in our li...

If we look closely, the thought under needing to take from another is 'there is not enough' - not enough substance or not enough power. This is self-deception because in Truth, each one of us is and has enough. Here we explore the ways we 'steal' in everyday life. Not to make us feel bad or wrong, but to awaken us to living a fuller, more abundant life.

The verb adulterate means to debase or make impure by adding inferior materials or elements. This Spiritual Truth is about who we are in our closest relationships. It's about putting our hearts and souls into our most important relationships so they feel complete trust and not neglect, and to not let the sense world lead us off course. It is also about finding love, joy or pleasure without it bein...

Murder is defined as "killing unlawfully and with premeditated malice." It is the ultimate squelching of life. At face value, this directive seems like a pretty easy thing for most of us to comply with. But let's consider this from an 'outside the box' perspective.

The Sabbath is time set apart and made holy - when we put away active work and thought, as well as distractions, and enter prayer, contemplation, celebration, faith, stillness and/or reverence. It is the 'space between' where we 'let go and let God.' It is also the time when we release distractions and focus on our relationships. Here we share all the ways we create this essential space.

Honor your father and mother. I think those of us with loving parents understand this, as do those of us who currently are parents. Everyone wants respect, right? But why doesn't this 'commandment' ask parents to honor their children? Wouldn't life be better if they did. Listen and find out why it is so important for us to get this primal relationship right, even if our parents aren't 'deserving.'

What is your spiritual Truth, really? How can you use your "I Am" statements to create the life you are intended to create?

So what's a graven image? In the story of Exodus, graven images were carved statues that people worshipped as gods. The proverbial golden calf is most famous. Today we don't do such things. But we do a lot of other things that reveal what our life priorities really are, and what activities/beliefs we put before our experience of God.

The Ten Commandments are foundational statements for successful living. Each one can be looked at from a surface perspective or a deeply personal, soul perspective. We'll be doing more of the latter than the former.

Our dialogue on The Infinity of Creation was so energized, that we continued on the topic another week. It's so incredibly significant. We are all inspired by the vastness of Spirit, the Infinity of Creation and the fact that we are all made of the same 'energy-stuff'- the stuff that comes from dying stars. In this episode we share how we put our inspiration into practice on our everyday lives.

We live not just in an abundant Universe, but a crucible of abundant Creation. God is INFINITE CREATION. And we are made of the stuff that makes up everything.

Fred Rogers, known to most of us from the TV show, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was an unassuming hero with a bold but simple message: Everyone matters. His life was one of Universal Love and Kindness. We can all walk away inspired by this man to share our own message in the world.

The world was riveted by the plight and rescue of the young Thailand soccer team last week. This week we will engage in dialogue on some of the spiritual takeaways from this amazing story. Remember we are all One, so our stories inform and inspire each other. Let's find ourselves in this one.

In this episode we look at the spiritual message in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence as it pertains to us as individuals: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Specifically we talk about how we allow othe...