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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
“The defilements are like a tiger. We should imprison the tiger in a good strong cage made of mindfulness, energy, patience, and endurance. Then we can let is starve to death by not feeding it its habitual desires. We do not have to take a knife and butcher it. Or defilements are like a cat. If you feed it, it will keep coming around. Stop feeding it, and eventually it will not bother to come around any more.”
Ajahn Chah

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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Monastic Life and the Way of the East

To someone who wrote about joining the monastery and receiving “monastic training.” This I tell you very sincerely: monks are born, not made. The idea of “monastic training” gives me the horrors, for it is just brainwashing. The Roman Catholic Church specialized in it for centuries, calling it “formation,” another chilling word. A monk is not a performing animal to

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9 Obstacles to Yoga Meditation You Need to Overcome

The following is an excerpt from Abbot George’s soon-to-be-published Commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Yoga Sutra I:30. Disease [vyadhi], languor [styana], doubt [samshaya], carelessness [pramada], laziness [alasya], worldly-mindedness [avirati], delusion [bhranti-darshana], non-achievement of a stage [alabdhabhumikatva], instability [anavashtitatvani], these (nine) cause the distraction of the mind and they are the obstacles [to yoga]. These are too important to

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18 Indispensable Ingredients You Need to Become a Real Yogi

Q: How does a person go about becoming a yogi? I mean a real yogi in a real tradition? First of all, seek God and God alone, and never accept any intermediary, though there is nothing wrong in learning from teachers. But scrutinize them thoroughly and do not be afraid to question, ignore or reject them. I appreciate your question,

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How to Grow Your Knowledge of the Life of Christ

Q: Do you base for your knowledge about Jesus Christ and his teachings on the presently available Bible or some other book(s)? Though they are not well known, there are quite a few books about the lives of Jesus and his mother Mary. They were considered authoritative by the early Christians but are mostly forgotten today except by the Eastern

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Satsang with the Abbot Now Available in Print and as an Ebook

We are happy to announce that Satsang with the Abbot: Questions & Answers about Life, Spiritual Liberty, and the Pursuit of Ultimate Happiness is now available on Amazon in printed and ebook formats. In this book Abbot George Burke, spiritual director of Light of the Spirit Monastery, answers over 350 questions from inquiring spiritual seekers. During the month of April, the ebook

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Practical Advise on Learning the Kriya Yoga Methods

To someone who wrote describing his experiences in meditation and who was practicing Kriya Yoga from an ebook he had purchased. The evaluation of meditation experiences is very tricky, because it depends on the meditator’s karma, any past life experience of esoteric development, and the current state of the meditator’s physical, astral and causal bodies. So I really do not

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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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