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Light of the Spirit BLOG

Come back often to find new, valuable and practical articles to help you in your spiritual life. Below the latest blog posts we also list some of our most well received articles.
Wisdom Quote of the Day
“Remember, habits are nothing but crystallized concepts and by exerting yourself you can alter your habits and develop a character which will express spiritual truths. One overcomes difficulties in spiritual life by determination, not by confusion. Know what you want to get, and it is yours. You have all the tools.”
Swami Gnaneshwarananda

Latest Blog Posts

Calvin & Hobbes cartoon

The Religion of Ignorance

What Jesus said to his disciples about those who propagate ignorance, from the Gospel of Thomas Jesus said, The pharisees and the scribes have taken the keys of knowledge [gnosis] and hidden them. They themselves have not entered, nor have they allowed to enter those who wish to. You, however, be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves.

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The Supreme Sciences: Eternal Dharma (Philosophy) and Eternal Yoga

A selection from Perspectives on Yoga: Living the Yoga Life, now available at Amazon.com. When you get into an auto, turn on the ignition, press the accelerator, and guide the forward-moving vehicle by means of the steering-wheel, you are acting on a number of premises. The same is true of yoga. Yoga is not just a mechanical practice; it presupposes

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The Ten Commandments of Yoga

Yama and Niyama are often called the Ten Commandments of Yoga, but they have nothing to do with the ideas of sin and virtue or good and evil as dictated by some cosmic potentate. Rather they are determined by a thoroughly practical, pragmatic basis: that which strengthens and facilitates our yoga practice should be observed and that which weakens or

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Humans: Are We Carnivores or Vegetarians by Nature?

How humans are not physically created/evolved to eat meat [We found this useful article and would like to share it with our readers. The author is unknown.] Although some historians and anthropologists say that man is historically omnivorous, our anatomical equipment ­ teeth, jaws, and digestive system ­ favors a fleshless diet. The American Dietetic Association notes that “most of

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The Symbolism of Christmas and Its Universal Message | Podcast

For our Christmas offering we share again a podcast from three years ago about Christmas, and about Christ being born in us. This podcast is from an interview of Abbot George Burke by our friend Bianca Vlahos of radio station FIVEaa in Adelaide, Australia. Listen to The Symbolism of Christmas and Its Universal Message if you do not see the player

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Open a Treasure Chest of Spiritual Podcasts

To those who are new to OCOY.org, or who have not explored our site, we introduce our Podcast Section, with over 30 timeless audio podcasts by Abbot George Burke on different aspects of practical spirituality: vegetarianism, meditation, reincarnation, the Yoga Life, Monastic Life, and the spiritual masters that Abbot George encountered in his many trips to India. The podcasts are

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Reincarnation and Memory: Where Do Our Memories Go?

Q: When reincarnated do we retain our current memories and interests, or what it is that makes us feel “ourselves”? All the memories of our past lives remain in the subconscious mind in the forms of impressions in the mind-substance (chitta) which is a field of magnetic energy. They sort of float around, vibrating individually as samskaras, but those of

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Featured Articles

Yogis Who Saw Jesus

The day our Original Christianity and Original Yoga website was launched we received an irate communication from one of those Western “Hindus” that believe they are more truly Hindu if they hate other religions–especially Christianity–and deny that Jesus ever existed. Here is our answer:
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The Many Advantages of Vegetarianism

 
You can indeed reap a lot of benefits by being a vegetarian and people have become more aware of the health benefits of being a vegetarian. Animal rights issues is only one of the reasons why people decide to go on a vegetarian diet. People are beginning to care more about the environment. However, the main reason why people go on vegetarian diet is because of health benefits.
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Seeing the One in All

In response to our recent blog posting about the reality of Jesus in the experience of India’s great yogis, we received a most heartening letter from India. I want to share parts of it with you and my reflections on it for I feel it presents the most authentic perspective on these matters.

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7 Steps to Misuse Your Power of Thought

 
Thought is power–magnetic power, particularly. That is, thought can draw or repel whatever is thought about, depending upon the polarity of the individual mind. Many times we see that people bring to themselves the things they continually think about, but we also see that thinking about something can repel it from the person.

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