“Instinct and intuition are the first levels of direct knowing—they both help you perceive the consciousness-and-energy world—instinct is concerned with physical survival (you might think of it as a lower-frequency kind of intuition focused in the reptile brain), while intuition brings guidance from the soul. Intuition registers in one segment of your awareness at a time—your hearing, or vision, or tactile sensitivity, for example. Direct knowing, in comparison, is a heightened intuition that brings inspiration, guidance, and wisdom via all your channels and centers at once. There is no need to go through a process of decoding it; you know immediately.” ~Penney Peirce

“It doesn’t seem like instinct and intuition are related, but, as Ms. Peirce notes, they are. We all know what instinct is, or at least we think we do. We assume that “dumb animals” can’t actually think, so they do virtually everything by instinct. Instinct is what tells a dog to sleep with his back against a wall for protection. Instinct is why beavers build dams, while ducks don’t. Instinct is specific to a species. But instinct isn’t all of it. Instinct is why the squirrels start to bury nuts in the fall, but does it tell the squirrels when the winter will be harsh and they need to bury more nuts than usual? Perhaps, but I’m not sure.”

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“By symbols men have ever sought to communicate to each other those thoughts which transcend the limitations of language. Rejecting man-conceived dialects as inadequate and unworthy to perpetuate divine ideas, the mysteries thus chose symbolism as a far more ingenious and ideal method of preserving their transcendental knowledge. In a single figure a symbol may both reveal and conceal, for to the wise the subject of the symbol is obvious, while to the ignorant the figure remains inscrutable. Hence, he who seeks to unveil the secret doctrine of antiquity must search for that doctrine not upon the open pages of books which might fall into the hands of the unworthy but in the place where it was originally concealed.” ~Manly P. Hall

“The ancients were much smarter than most people think. But they didn’t really chose symbols as the best way to communicate, that was already done before any of them lived. Symbols are the language of the soul and the spirit. In a different way, it is even the language of the mind. The ancients knew this and used it. Hall goes on to say that nations and empires come and go, rise and fall, so the ancients had to find ways to share knowledge with future generation that would not likely be destroyed. We all know that the ancient library of Egypt at Alexandria was considered the greatest of its time and held a great deal of information on the mysteries, mystical schools, and spiritual development. It was nearly all lost when the Romans burned the library and we are only know recovering much of that knowledge.”

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“The transformational process is largely about clearing the clutter that interferes with your soul coming all the way through into your body and life. Unlearning and dissolving old, ingrained perception habits is really the biggest part of this. But unlearning habits and establishing new ones is no more difficult than learning them in the first place. … Decide what you want and don’t want and entitle yourself to have what you want—now. Nothing can happen until you know what you want …
“Ask for help. Everything in the nonphysical world is cooperative, service-oriented, and win-win-win by nature. … Create a new set of criteria for making choices. … Weigh each choice: does this allow me to experience my home frequency? Does this keep my intuition open?” ~Penney Peirce

It may not be the most important thing, but getting rid of old habits and beliefs that restrict your learning is certainly among the top five things you need to do to advance spiritually.

Some people may say that they have no bad habits or beliefs to get rid of, but this is not about habits that would traditionally be considered bad. This is about habits and beliefs that limit or prevent spiritual growth. For example, believing in the teaching of one church so totally that you never even investigate the teachings of other churches or other religions is a habit or belief that is restricting your spiritual growth. If your church even tells you that you should not listen to ministers of other churches or faiths, or read books about them, this is a church you should probably leave immediately. A valid church or spiritual school with valid and honest teaching is not afraid to let it’s members study other faiths. In fact, they often encourage it as a way of helping to open your mind. It is really shocking how many people will insist their church and their beliefs are the only true ones, but when you ask them what is specifically false about another belief system, they have no answer because they have never bothered to learn anything about other beliefs.

Another common belief that isn’t generally considered bad, but for this purpose probably is, is a strong belief in exactly what God is. Many people have such beliefs, though it may be more about what God is like, what His personality is, rather than how He looks. There are some, though, who have become so sunken into the muck of materialism, they can only see God as another physical being, but with great powers. You can never know the real God if you cling to these false concepts and do not approach your spiritual awakening with a completely open mind.

Some of you may argue that eliminating beliefs and habits that you have had for a long time is not easy, and that is true. The quoted text above gives an answer which is probably the easiest and probably the best way to get rid of bad habits and false beliefs: replace them with new ones. Of course, the new ones need to be open beliefs and habits, not the closed type you had before. Instead of switching from one materialistic habit or belief to another, you need to get in the habit of opening up your mind and considering other possibilities. After you practice this for a while, having an open mind and non-judgmental beliefs will become new habits and your path to true enlightenment will become clearer.

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“When a man begins to perceive the love of God in all its richness, he begins also to love his neighbor with spiritual perception. This is the love of which all the scriptures speak. Friendship after the flesh is very easily destroyed on some slight pretext, since it is not held firm by spiritual perception. But when a person is spiritually awakened, even if something irritates him, the bond of love is not dissolved; rekindling himself with the warmth of the love of God, he quickly recovers himself and with great joy seeks his neighbor’s love, even though he has been gravely wronged or insulted by him. For the sweetness of God completely consumes the bitterness of the quarrel.” ~The Philokalia

“People who are not spiritual will undoubtedly disagree with this quote very strongly. They will claim that they are fully capable of love for others even without any awakening of the soul or even belief in God. But the love that is addressed in the above quote is a higher love that cannot exist in those who are not at least partially awakened. This love happens when you look at another person and recognize the spirit and soul withing. You recognize that while the physical being is not of God, the unawakened spirit and soul is. And that is what the spiritual person loves.”

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“I participated in the Peru Sacred Places of Power Tour with Sean Savoy as our group leader. On August 3^rd, we visited parts of Lima, the capitol city. We went first to the main square in downtown Lima where many government buildings and the main cathedral are located. As a writer, I of course made special note of the House of Literature there (see photo). We went to the catacombs at Saint Francis Church, which was interesting, but a little creepy. There are piles of human bones and skulls from thousands who were buried there.

“Later, we visited Casa Luna, the home of the Luna family with a large private collection of nativity scenes. After touring the collection, we had an excellent lunch of Peruvian dishes. After lunch, we visited the archeology museum, but we didn’t get to see everything because we were behind schedule.

“Few people seemed to pay much note to this badly faded old tapestry, but I found it very interesting because the pattern has a striking resemblance to the diagram for a modern computer chip! We then went to an old tavern and were shown how to make a Pisco Sour, the national drink of Peru (which I enjoyed regularly during the next ten days).”

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“We are beginning to learn the overwhelming importance of infantile impressions: how a forgotten babyish fear or grief may develop underground, and produce at least an unrecognizable growth poisoning the body and the mind of the adult. But here good is at least as potent as ill. What terror, a hideous sight, an unloving nurture may do for evil; a happy impression, a beautiful sight, a loving nurture will do for good. … Babyish prayers, simple hymns, trace while the mind is ductile the paths in which feelings shall afterward tend to flow; and it is only in maturity that we realize our psychological debt to these early and perhaps afterward abandoned beliefs and deeds. So the veritable education of the Spirit begins at once, in the cradle …” ~Evelyn Underhill

I seem to remember reading somewhere that about half of what we learn during our entire life happens during the first five years. While that is partially due to the fact that after a while we are no longer exposed to much that is new, it is also largely due to the fact that as we develop beliefs and create filters in our subconscious mind, we start rejecting anything that contradicts those beliefs.

Recently, there have been posts on Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites that show something like a white infant playing with a black one and saying that racism is something that has to be learned and no one is born a racist. That is true for just about all forms of bigotry. No one is born hating gays, Jews, Muslims, blacks, short people, etc. They learn these prejudices from others, most often their parents, siblings, and caretakers. But it isn’t limited to what we directly tell out babies, they learn as much—if not more—from observation.

But the good news, as Ms Underhill mentions, is that they can learn good habits and beliefs as easily as they can learn bad ones. The key thing is we have to make an effort to teach them the positive, knowing that the very nature of the world means they will regularly be exposed to a lot of negative things. We need to tech them to be open-minded rather than trapped in any belief which may later prove to be wrong, no matter how fervently we believe in it ourselves. We also need to be careful about teaching them something negative in an indirect way by promoting a group that practices negative or bigoted beliefs, such as promoting a church that promotes hatred of gays (I know, I know, they claim they don’t hate gays, but their behavior says otherwise), or a club that allows members of only one sex. Even the idea that certain toys are for boys and others are for girls helps to build false beliefs that may be difficult to overcome at a later age.

Most important, though, is the last part of the quote. It is never too early to start teaching kids about spirituality. They need to learn to value the spirit and soul as soon as they are old enough to understand what the words mean.

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“Let us begin, then, to withdraw from the thing of this world. Let us despise possessions and money and all that swamps and drowns our intelligence. …Those who travel by sea, when overtaken by a storm, do not worry about their merchandise but throw it into the waters with their own hands, considering their property less important than their life. Why, then, do we not follow their example, and for the sake of the higher life despise whatever drags our soul down to the depths? Why is fear of God less powerful than fear of the sea? …
“Do athletes compete with their clothes on? No, the rules require them to enter the stadium naked. … Yet, instead of stripping ourselves, we try to engage in the contest while carrying countless burdens on our shoulders, thus giving our opponents many chances of getting a grip on us.” ~The Philokalia

We do need to withdraw from the things of the world, but despising possessions and the material world in general is probably going a little too far. We don’t need to hate the material world, indeed we should not, because the source of it is the spiritual world, the realm of God and the angels. We don’t hate a person for having a physical deformity, so we shouldn’t hate the spirit that has been deformed into matter. Spirit is still at it’s root. We can have possessions, we can wear clothes and live in a house, but we should avoid becoming attached to these things.

The quoted section gives the example of a ship caught in a storm and how even the owners of the property will throw possessions overboard in order to save themselves. That is the proper attitude to have for material goods, but the real “storm” we should be concerned with is the battle of the Children of Light and the Forces of Darkness for possession of our souls. Many people seem to have the idea that by default, when they die physically, their soul and spirit will go to heaven and be claimed by the Children of Light as one of their own and the only way they will be claimed by the dark ones is if they do something really evil or, as in many classic novels, sell their soul to Satan. The truth is, if you ask Satan to buy your soul he will laugh in your face. As an old saying goes (on a totally different subject); why buy the cow if you can get free milk?

Satan doesn’t need to buy your soul because as long as you are in the grips of materialism, it is already his! You need to wrestle it away from him, in a manner of speaking, by turning away from materialism, by rejecting attachments to physical objects, and become attached instead to God and obeying His will and fulfilling His Plan.

I had to include the part about athletes competing naked for a little humor, but it does make a point. When we become attached to material things, and then try to develop spiritually, the demons can use those attachments to pull us away from our spiritual intentions. Then can cause a car to crash into our beloved auto, they can cause a forest fire to burn our house, etc. By not getting attached to things, we take that away from them.

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contributed by Harold Boulette

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Boys & Girls Club lawn in April 2014

“Overall the last couple of years I’ve felt a growing connection to the sunflower.　I began planting a few of them last year but wanted to do something bigger and brighter.　 This spring I saw an underutilized section of grass at the Boys & Girls Club in Lancaster, PA and the vision came to me.　This vision was to start a sunflower garden and have the kids at the club contribute by helping to plant the sunflowers.　 Planting day was a huge success with kids enthusiastically and curiously getting their hands dirty and planting the garden.　The rain and sun did the rest as we now have well over 100 sunflower plants in our garden.　 I thank the sun not only for helping the flowers grow but also for inspiring me to start the project.”

Paul Schmitendorf

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Boys & Girls Club lawn in early August 2014

“To recognize and began the shift into new, Intuition Age perception, you need to feel how limited you are by old perception and consciously decide to expand beyond beyond what’s been so familiar. …
“The heart is really a kind of brain, and it generate an electromagnetic field of radiance that’s spherical in nature. … Your hears resonates with all other hearts, all other souls, and all other centerpoints. By being in your heart, you can know the core experience of any other being or reality—and you can know yourself as the whole unified field. … And as you experience spherical-holographic perception, you have insight into the workings of collective consciousness and an understanding of why the Golden Rule exists in all cultures.” ~Penney Peirce

“Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful” -Buddhism

“All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” -Christianity

“This is the sum of duty: do not unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.” -Hinduism

“No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.” -Islam

“What is hateful to you, do not do to you fellow man. This is the law; all the rest is commentary.” -Judaism

“Respect for all life is the foundation” – Native American

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“We as adults may actualize and help on the spiritual life in ourselves. But our best hope of giving Spirit its rightful, full expression within the time-world lies in the future. It is toward that, that those who really care must work. Anything which we can do toward persuading into better shape our own deformed characters, compelling our recalcitrant energy into fresh channels, is little in comparison with what might be achieved in the plastic growing psychic life of children did we appreciate our full opportunity and the importance of using it.” ~Evelyn Underhill

In many popular spiritual feel-good books of today, as well as in many of the posts on Facebook and Twitter, we are told something like: the past is gone, the future doesn’t exist, the only thing we can deal with is the present. While the basic idea that we need to act now, and do good today, rather than putting everything off until sometime in the future is a good one, there is also a negative side to this attitude which may actually be greater than the positive.

Look around you. Look at the world, the people, the climate, and so on. Listen to the news on TV or radio, or look at the web pages of a news service. Are you seeing a description of an ideal world? I certainly hope that what you see and hear is not what you consider ideal. Everyday there are murders, rapes, robberies and other crimes. People are dying of all sorts of nasty diseases and new ones pop up all the time. As I write this, the news is full of stories about a disease known as MERS, which is short for Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, a respiratory illness with no known cure and a high mortality rate that has recently entered the United States for the first time.

If we have any sense at all, we realize this is a world that has problems and can improve. We may differ on exactly what to do and how, but nearly all agree that change is needed. And this is where the main problem with the “we only have the present” attitude is found. For starters, how are you defining “present”. Is it today? This hour? This minute? We have clocks so accurate that can break a second into billionths! So by the criteria that the present is one tick on the clock, the present would be less than a billionth of a second. That isn’t enough time to even become aware of anything, let alone doing anything. It should be obvious that if we are to change anything, it must be done in the future, whether that future be one minute, one hour, or one year from now. Yes, we have to start now, but if we do so with the attitude that the future should be ignored we can never plan the type of improvement that take time, sometimes years, decades, even centuries. So yes, we need to act now, but we also need to plan for a better future by remembering and trying to correct the mistakes of the past. And this certainly includes the spiritual aspirant who cannot achieve any significant enlightenment in the present, but must work to get it in the future.

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contributed by Harold Boulette