The Kingdom of God is within you.

The Kingdom of God is within you.

LibriVox recording of The Kingdom of God is within you by Leo Tolstoy.

COUNSELS FOR LIFE | A Strong America

COUNSELS FOR LIFE

A Strong America

We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.

A lifetime of training for just ten seconds. One chance is all you need. I always loved running—it was something you could do by yourself and under your own power.

I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up.

The only bond worth anything between human beings is their humanness.

For a time, at least, I was the most famous person in the entire world.

—Jesse Owens, winner of four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

American boxer Jack Dempsey posed with Civil Defence poster A Strong America showing Jesse Owens on starting blocks.

This file was contributed to Wikimedia Commons by the National Archives at College Park—Still Pictures as part of a co-operation project. The donation was facilitated by the Digital Public Library of America, via its partner the National Archives and Records Administration.

Photo of Jesse Owens (left) and Bill Bojangles Robinson after Owens' return from his 1936 Olympic victories, 24 August 1939 | Author International News Photos Permission

Watch Jesse Owens—American Experience

Spiritual Teachings of the Spiritual Aspects of Life

Spiritual Prozac invites the spiritual person to explore the spiritual teachings of the spiritual aspects of life, love, compassion, altruism, life after death, wisdom and truth, prayer and meditation, the existence of God, moral laws, and the meaning of life. 

The spiritual person knows there is more to understanding than logic and reason—knows that spirituality is the indefinable urge to reach beyond the limits of ordinary human existence and to discover higher values in spiritual personhood. 

In cultivating a spiritual path, the spiritual person is consciously appreciating the ultimate mystery that is life—the universe—and everything in it. 

The core experience is of being somehow connected to something greater—or of being in relationship with a higher self—higher beings—or God. 

It is the writer's sincere wish that these spiritual shards, and fragments of spiritual teachings, serve to soothe, inspire, and instruct you to live life more in fulfilment of that great Law—Love.

—Luisa Rodrigues

Images of Егор Камелев in Pixabay

 

A Panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis) moves its eyes | Matthias Kabel | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic

It should tell us much.

It should tell us much, it should alter our whole conception of things, it should bring home what we have to do, what I have to do, and what all the countless millions have to do in the end, to give, and not to take.

Monument to Humanity*, Mehmet Aksoy, Kars, Turkey | Georgios Giannopoulos | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

*The Statue of Humanity was a nearly completed statue in Kars, Turkey. The monument was demolished in April 2011, only months after being criticized by then–prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as a freak or monstrosity.

Monument to Humanity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_Humanity, Wikipedia, accessed 18 July 2021

It should alter our whole conception of things.

It should tell us much, it should alter our whole conception of things, it should bring home what we have to do, what I have to do, and what all the countless millions have to do in the end, to give, and not to take.

Monument to Humanity,* Mehmet Aksoy, Kars, Turkey | Georgios Giannopoulos | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

*The Statue of Humanity was a nearly completed statue in Kars, Turkey. The monument was demolished in April 2011, only months after being criticized by then–prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as a freak or monstrosity.

Monument to Humanity Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_Humanity (accessed 18 July 2021)

It should bring home what we have to do.

It should tell us much, it should alter our whole conception of things, it should bring home what we have to do, what I have to do, and what all the countless millions have to do in the end, to give, and not to take.

Monument to Humanity,* Mehmet Aksoy, Kars, Turkey | Georgios Giannopoulos | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

*Statue of Humanity was a nearly completed statue in Kars, Turkey. The monument was demolished in April 2011, only months after being criticized by then–prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as a freak or monstrosity.

Monument to Humanity Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_Humanity (accessed 18 July 2021)

And what all the countless millions have to do.

It should tell us much, it should alter our whole conception of things, it should bring home what we have to do, what I have to do, and what all the countless millions have to do in the end, to give, and not to take.

Monument to Humanity,* Mehmet Aksoy, Kars, Turkey | Georgios Giannopoulos | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

*The Statue of Humanity was a nearly completed statue in Kars, Turkey. The monument was demolished in April 2011, only months after being criticized by then–prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as a freak or monstrosity.


Monument to Humanity Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_Humanity (accessed 18 July 2021)

What I have to do

It should tell us much, it should alter our whole conception of things, it should bring home what we have to do, what I have to do, and what all the countless millions have to do in the end, to give, and not to take.

Monument to Humanity,* Mehmet Aksoy, Kars, Turkey | Georgios Giannopoulos  | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

*Statue of Humanity was a nearly completed statue in Kars, Turkey. The monument was demolished in April 2011, only months after being criticized by then–prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as a freak or monstrosity.

Monument to Humanity Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_Humanity (accessed 18 July 2021)

One Pearl of Great Price

Somewhere within the soul, there is silence. Attain to it. It is a pearl of great price.

The Campanile and Mt Tamalpais from the Memorial Stadium | Tristan Harward | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Life in The Spirit is Real-life

We are spirit, and, therefore, life in the spirit is real-life, for we occupy a physical body for so short a time that compared with our life as a spirit it seems but a day.

Karagoz Theatre (Backstage)—Nevit Dilmen—Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Man's Best Friend

My daughter, Bianca, 15, quips—

Why is a dog a man’s best friend?

Because spelt backwards dog is God!

Did you know that dogs have been engineered to understand humans?

U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl Isaiah Schult jokes with Afghan children and an Afghan National Police officer outside a local residence in Garmsir district, Helmand Province, Afghanistan

What is the value of self-sacrifice?

What is the value of self-sacrifice?

Selfishness is loss; self-sacrifice brings the greatest gain of all.

Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius), Athens, Greece—Tim Bekaert

The life of service is the shortest way to God.

What the world calls sacrifice is gain, and nothing else. It should tell you that the gifts, which God bestows far, far outweigh anything that the human mind could hold out. It should show you too that the life of service is the shortest way to God.

Saint Damien of Molokai

Lotus bud against the leaf—Frank Gualtieri

The life of service is the only life worth having.

The life of service is the only life worth having.

European honey bee (Apis mellifera) extracts nectar from an Aster flower using its proboscis—John Severns

God is a Spirit

God is a Spirit. As God is a Spirit, and we are His children, then it follows, without any reserve whatever, that we too are Spirit, because we are of Him.

Orion Nebula—NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

Long to rise

In the heart of each one, there is the longing to rise, and if circumstances, or environment, for a time suffocate that longing, yet take it for an unalterable fact that the day will come when that longing will be stronger than anything else.

The Zodiac Messages

The Antelope Canyon in Arizona—Lucas Löffler

Use me in Thy service

Love is not love in the sense that we understand it if it is bestowed only on those who love us. The wider, bigger, true conception of that wonderful gift is in sending out love to those who seem outside its range altogether. And it can be done by prayer. By prayer and dedication, you can tear out those last roots of self; you can offer your mind, your will, and your energies to the Father, saying from your very heart—

Use me in Thy service, for I too once was outcast from Thee.

The Zodiac Messages

Balochi children, Balochistan region of the Iranian plateau in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, as well as in the Arabian Peninsula | User Mostafameraji fro Wikimedia Commons | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

We have got to learn true brotherhood.

There is before you all a problem, which must be faced in God's good time; it is that of choosing the sympathetic companionship of those you love, and making it exclusive, or in being willing to sacrifice a proportion of that companionship and to throw open your hearts and minds to the majority. I know you shrink from the larger view. There is much that will be uncongenial, so you think. There will be obstacles of many kinds and a sense of loneliness as well. But, dear friends, I speak to all who read these records, dear friends, as well as my children here tonight either on this plane or in the planes of the Spirit, you have got to learn true brotherhood or true sisterhood; you have got to make yourselves one in sympathy with the least and the frailest of God's creatures.

—Zodiac, the Christ Messenger

We cannot climb alone.

Those who have sought to climb to God cannot climb alone, they have got to send back strength and courage to those who are lower down.

The Zodiac Messages

Large and small stars in harmonious coexistence | NASA, ESA | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

To give, and not to take.

It should tell us much, it should alter our whole conception of things, it should bring home what we have to do, what I have to do, and what all the countless millions have to do in the end, to give, and not to take.

Monument to Humanity* (İnsanlık Anıtı) by Mehmet Aksoy in Kars, Turkey | Georgios Giannopoulos (Ggia) | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

*Statue of Humanity (Turkish: İnsanlık Anıtı, Armenian: Մարդկության հուշարձան) was a nearly completed statue in Kars, Turkey. The monument was demolished in April 2011, only months after being criticized by then–prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a "freak" or "monstrosity."

Monument to Humanity Wikipedia (accessed 18 July 2021)