“Ultimately, no human being can find genuine meaning in her life merely by accepting the meaning handed down from those who have gone before. Personal meaning must be created, not accepted, and the process of creating it requires testing and experimentation. A false self will neither test nor experiment; it is a defense against experimenting.” James F. Masterson, M.D. The Search for the Real Self
Spiritual Pilgrimages of Initiation
“Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit—such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony—which brings happiness to both self and others. While ritual and prayer, along with the questions of nirvana and salvation, are directly connected to religious faith, these inner qualities need not be, however. There is no reason why the individual should not develop them, even to a highest degree, without recourse to any religious or metaphysical belief system. This is why I sometimes say that religion is something we can perhaps do without. What we cannot do without are these basic spiritual qualities.” –The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Ethics for the New Millennium
As a writer, I appreciate how the writer’s life and spiritual path are alike; central to both is the ability to use everything that comes up as part of the practice. Everything that comes up, good or bad is grist for the spiritual or daily journal mill. Someone insults me?,–I journal, then possibly write a scene, and finally, consider my spiritual prinicples in my response. Therefore, nothing becomes a distraction from my writing or spiritual life – it is all material to work with.
Nothing needs to take you away from your creative path either.
With the practices of spiritual journaling, personal initiation both your spiritual and creative path can evolve. I work with clients one to one, on-line and in my many classes and groups. Over my thirty years of writing and counseling I have found that everyone wants to be happy, everyone wants to experience personal fulfillment and to make meaning of their life.
"In Lakota framework everyone is a meaning-maker, everyone must make sense of his or her experience. Woableza has been translated as “realization.” It has always seemed to me that this word acknowledges that each person has a capacity to make meaning; that understanding is very personal, is timed by him or her, and is not predictable; and for woableza to exist, a change in the person should take place.” Gerald Mohatt, Joe Eagle Elk The Price of A Gift
Spiritual Journaling
Spiritual Journaling: Writing Your Way to Enlightenment
I have kept journals since the age of sixteen discovering how the writer and spiritual paths are one and the same. For the past thirty years I have worked with individuals and groups to help them discover a spiritual practice that brings them a sense of purpose and happiness. It’s best for each of us to find a practice that uplifts our lives and benefits those around us than force some kind of religious or psychological dogma on our selves. I am dedicated to helping clients; students and readers alike reach the inner resources inherent in us all. We all have what my teacher says is ‘natural intelligence,’ and to tap into this opens up the doors to freedom.
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Take your own pilgrimage, join me...
Transpersonal Counseling
Without acknowledgement of how the internal journey is revealed and connected to our outer circumstances we tend to stay stuck or somehow held back in our spiritual and creative evolution. Transpersonal work encompasses how our personal psychological and spiritual work is interdependent with the natural and communal environments in which we live.
The Initiation Course
The Wheel of Initiation
A course for those who are ready to commit a year of their life to initiating their essential selves and expressing their creativity in the world. Next Initiation Course begins in October, 2010. Enter the Wheel of Initiation through the Course or on your own.
Poets, Artists and Writers, OH MY!
Featured Poets and Artists
I will feature a regular poet (see The Poetic Life page) and artist (see Artist Page). What the world needs now is . . . our poets and artists.
