by Marilyn Tam
Have you heard this before? “Love or Business, you have to choose.” The message is direct – you have to decide what you value more, something/one you love or your work/business. Actually, there is more factual statement – Love is Good Business.

February is the month of love. A great deal of thought and energy will be spent on expressions of love, usually for a romantic partner. The truth in the old axiom, Love makes the World Go Round, applies to all aspects of life, not only to romantic love. When you are doing what you love, you are going to be more successful in it, and you will also be happier and at peace. It’s only natural.
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The ancient art of Wabi Sabi is about elevating the imperfections in things…to raise them to high art. An example might be to take a cracked vase and display it with a light directly on the crack…or even to fill the crack with solid gold to make it the highest expression of the vase.

That’s taking imperfection and elevating it.

Talk about a master spiritual practice.

Now imagine applying this ancient wisdom to your relationships! That’s what Arielle Ford’s newest book Wabi Sabi Love is all about…celebrating and elevating the imperfect to make it a high art form. After all, love is an art, don’t you think?

Get a free chapter of this fabulous new book using this link: Wabi Sabi Sample Chapter

If you believe that all of life is made up of energy and that energy can be directed and transformed from one form to another, then consider what would happen if someone were able to conduct that energy and direct it at will.

Mahendra Kumar Trivedi is recognized by many in the scientific community as possessing that ability. He is able to transfer, or channel, a pure form of energy he calls Divine Energy and Creation Energy to plants, seeds, organisms and even other humans. The results are nothing short of amazing.

Trivedi’s energy transfers, known as blessings, are offered weekly by telephone or in-person in his public presentations. He claims that either way, the energy transfer has the same effects on the individual. Most report increased self esteem, raised confidence, less stress, better sleep, and a host of other benefits.

“Like the energy from a cell phone satellite comes to Earth and enters each cell phone, this Divine Energy enters each human through the blessing,” teaches Trivedi. “This is the creation energy. Without the existence of this energy, the creation (humans, trees, viruses) cannot exist.”

To participate in a blessing event, start by attending Mahendra Trivedi’s free webcast, where you’ll hear Trivedi speak about this energy and the scientific studies that have measured the results.

Webcast link: Live Webcast with Trivedi

Most of us have learned that everything is made of energy. At its essence, everything in the universe gives off a particular frequency and vibration and is made up of particles that are made up of energy vibrations. It’s said that energy cannot be created or destroyed; it merely transmutes or shifts from one form to another. We see these shifts in energy all the time in nature. But can humans learn to transmute, control or otherwise direct this energy?
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The Deepest Dynamic is a book that closes the gap between science and spirituality in a way that others have only speculated about. This book is both for people with a scientific orientation who need a comfortable way to connect with Spirit, and for those with a spiritual orientation who could use a better understanding of the contours of the illusion so as to more readily go beyond it.
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by Christopher Van Buren
You’re about to start hearing people in the green movement talk about the new green movement, or Green 2.0. It’s what happens when movements or industries mature…they move into new phases of their evolution. The 1.0 phase of the green movement ended with the publicity surrounding those hacked email files from the Climate Research Unit (CRU), bringing to light the fact that global warming, while it’s very much happening on Earth, is actually a natural phenomenon. All those programs to curb carbon emissions were just full of hot air, it seems. Well, most phases when they end, they end in crisis of some kind.
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by Christopher Van Buren
Earth Day is upon us and so is a change of seasons. But I’m not talking about Springtime…I’m talking about a global shift that’s changing the entire planet — both in the way we perceive it and the way it perceives us. Today, more and more momentum is gathering around a global shift of consciousness…an awakening that has the potential to bring about a new era of harmony.

Experts say that it requires only a small percentage of the planetary population to shift the rest automatically. This is called the “hundredth monkey effect” and you can read about it here.
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by Samantha Hoffnagle
An old friend sent me this wonderful prayer from the Hopi Nation and I decided to pass it along to our Kosmic readers. I think this is a positive and timely message…but also a call to the truth. If this moves you…pass it along to others who might also be inspired by it.

A HOPI ELDER SPEAKS

“You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is THE HOUR. And there are things to be considered…

Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

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The emerging American lifestyle is all about healthy eating, stress-free living (or at least reducing stress), sustainability and energy efficiency, fitness and conscious consumerism. Although we may relate more to some of these areas than others, those of us who are trying to live more conscious lifestyles are usually tuned into all of these growing concerns to some degree. What’s emerging is a new kind of spiritual lifestyle…coming from the blending of these different areas of awareness in life.
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You’ve heard the saying that goes…we can’t choose our family, but we can choose our friends? Well, when it comes to people who accompany us on this life journey, the people who appear in the story of our lives…they are all with us for a reason, whether we choose them or not.

Enemies, friends, business colleagues, competition, fans, critics, family…everyone who appears on the silver screen of our life story is there to help make the story work. Some are pleasant protagonists and others are irritating antagonists, but they all help to build the character development, the plot, and the meaning of the script.
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by Christopher Van Buren
You’ve heard of the monkey mind? That’s the name that many Buddhists and spiritual practitioners give the reactionary thoughts and patterns and the background chatter that goes on in our minds. But what about the monk mind…ever heard of that? That’s the mind that behaves like the monk: calm, thoughtful, introspective, and humble. It’s what’s left when we silence the monkey mind. How do we silence the monkey? There’s one “key” involved…the monk-key! The monk key is all about bringing the monk mind to the forefront and the monkey mind to the back. It’s the key to mental balance and it opens the door called silence, stillness, and emptiness.
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Today marks the opening of a new temple in India, dedicated to the non-denominational practice of oneness and union. It is a place where people from all over the world and from all beliefs can come together, learn, and practice oneness with the devine. Nearly 700,000 people attended the opening ceremony in Southern India. The Oneness organization, known also as the Oneness Movement (OM) , and the Oneness University, is dedicated to bringing all religions together to experience the devine. As it’s co-founder, Amma Bhagavan says…
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by Christopher Van Buren
Sometimes it’s good to pause and take a look at how far you’ve come. Life is a long and often arduous journey and we often get so caught up in it that we forget that we’re making progress. On a personal level, it can be quite revealing to stop and remember where you’ve been. Who were you a year ago…three years ago…ten years ago? Who are you becoming? How did you respond to your environment then? What were your dreams and how have they changed? Most important, how have you evolved since then? As a culture or even as human beings, we can do the same thing.
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by Christopher Van Buren
Life is usually bigger than we think it is and it can usually be better than we think too. Trouble is, we have the power to make it very small by making our experiences and perceptions small. In other words, life is only as big as we allow it to be for us. What do I mean by that? Well, one common way we shrink life is by limiting ourselves to the choices we can imagine. We keep our choices and our experiences limited by only allowing for what we think is possible. I’m not talking about brainstorming about new possibilities…I’m talking about trusting that life is trying to present you with something more than what you have in mind. When we allow for the “unknown” or the “mystery” to be a part of our lives, then we suddenly make life a lot bigger.

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by Christopher Van Buren
One thing that’s comforted me in times of trauma, defeat, remorse and regret…is the knowledge that my soul is traveling through a much larger storyline than the day-to-day happenings of this life. In fact, it is this over-arching journey that my soul is taking that may hold the answers to why I’m here and what I’m doing. Occasionally, I’ve been able to step out of my present situation and look from a “bird’s eye view” at my entire soul’s journey up to and beyond the current moment of my life. The vantage point is spectacular and the sense of detached awareness is soothing to the soul.

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by Christopher Van Buren
What we surround ourselves with and fill our minds with shapes our outlook, influences our point of view and even changes our mood. Often, you can affect what’s going on on the inside by changing what’s on the outside. A good friend of mine who had been working in a stressful job in a major metropolitan area of California, decided to trade it all in for a residency at a Northern California hot springs and spiritual center. I met her after she had made this transition. She told me that her goal was to find an inner peace and tranquility that eluded her in the city. That surprised me…because I saw her as a person with a calm and still center. There, in the midst of the hot springs, massage sessions and vegetarian meals, she seemed in perfect harmony with her surroundings. She, on the other hand, still held onto her previous self perspective. She was shocked when I told her she struck me as a person with a great inner stillness.

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by Christopher Van Buren
Thinking about your new year’s resolutions? Maybe you’re fed up with resolutions or reluctant to even make one for fear of how long you might be inclined to keep it. What often makes resolutions so hard to follow is that we strive for too radical a change, when what’s needed is something more subtle and gentle…a simple return to your center to ponder your next move.

Returning to the center is a way of restoring balance for a time. It may be for only a moment, when you meditate or practice yoga. You may be able to return to center by taking a long hike in the mountains or a long jog along the beach. For some, just walking the dog can take them a few steps closer to center. For those of us focused on the day-to-day necessities of work, family, errands…finding the center is often an exercise in paying attention to the areas that are out of balance: self, silence, nature, sleep, play.

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by Christopher Van Buren
Both science and spirituality have made grave mistakes throughout history. But today, there is a new science taking place that is beginning bridge the gap between these two former opponents. The new science seeks to explain the natural laws behind phenomena that have always been in the spiritual camp. It appears that some scientists are accepting the fact that just because it can’t be explained does not mean it does not exist. If you’ve ever walked on hot coals in your bare feet, you know what I’m talking about. I know there is some scientific measurement that could explain what happened to my body when I stepped out onto the hot embers. I don’t pretend that I had some kind of spiritual experience or miraculous transformation. It’s probably quite explainable. But for the moment, it has not been explained scientifically. There are many such spectacular natural events…what people often call super-natural events.

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by Christopher Van Buren
The holidays are a great time to practice being on center. There’s nothing like a few stressed out people on the highway or in line at the store to take you completely out of your inner zen. There’s always too much to get done and not enough time (and barely enough money) to do them. Ahh, what better place to test your spiritual practice? Anyone can have inner calm and stillness when things are humming along peacefully, but it’s a rare master who can hold his or her center during the holidays.

Most likely, you have your favorite practices for calming and centering in the midst of frantic energy. But here are a couple of insight to consider adding to your arsenal:

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