Do You Believe in Miracles?
10 Exercises to Stay Spiritually Fit
20 Scriptures That Bring Hope to Any Situation
5 Ways to Revive Your Dream!
7 Ways to Plant Seeds of Greatness in Your Life
20 Powerful Declarations to Fight Discouragement
5 Ways to Stay Healthy This Summer
5 Tips for Better Sleep
7 Top Health Issues Facing Today’s Women
Celebrities Who Won't Back Down
A Conversation with Minnesota Wild Center Matt Cullen
Yes, Gratitude Works!
10 Ways to To Handle Life Changes With Courage
The Fruits of Desire
Nurturing a Healthy Marriage
10 Ways to Get Over a Hurtful Past
Ten Things Every Dad Should Tell His Son
“A sensitive person has a great need for the sacred. One needs to protect one’s very fragile soul against the turbulence and grossness, vulgarity and ruthlessness one finds in the world. How can one be in the world and not of the world? … How can one preserve one’s attunement where one’s soul is being pummeled all the time from all directions?
“In the course of history our societies have built temples and churches in order to seek refuge, so one is able to find one’s soul again in favorable circumstances. The purpose of the temple is to provide a safe place for worship, to give expression to the nostalgia of our soul. The nomads, whether they were Jews or Arabs, found that since they were always on the move they could not rely upon a place where they could find peace and the sacred attunement of their being. They realized they had to create their own temple. Living in our modern societies, we might benefit by dedicating a room in our home that would be a temple for meditation, but not all of us can afford even that in our crowded lives. The answer is to build an inner temple out of our own being.
“The temple provides a threshold marking a very definite transit from the profane to the sacred, and marking a protection so you are able to find peace within your self without being subjected to the impressions coming in from all sides. You can seek refuge in that temple, even when you are right in the middle of activity, because you have built the temple from within. It’s always there.”
posted October 9, 2006 at 11:14 pm
It took me years to learn how to build an inner temple for peace and refuge. Instead of being IN the world but not OF it, I was OF but not IN. Much happier now.
Portable peace.Your post resonates with an article I read today by Robert J. Wicks, in which he says: Living a prayerful life and living everyday life are one and the same thing. Beyond the classic tension between our prayer and our action, there is that place where God becomes as real as the joys and sorrows we face every single day. All of a sudden we begin to see that prayer and action are truly one, when we are sensitive to God’s presence in our lives. I call that “street spirituality.”
posted October 10, 2006 at 2:42 pm
for me, my temple is books, the spa, a date with my self at the beauty parlor and then my favorite restaurant, swimming naked, taking long walks through Nature, books again, and walking again– all done alone. a solitary woman enjoying her own company in today’s world seems anathema, though, and i had to struggle to establish, protect and nurture that temple.
posted October 10, 2006 at 9:59 pm
This is beautiful. I need to read more sufi writers.I’m heading my blog in the direction of “humanist spirituality”. I hope you can stop by and take a look around. I always encourage feedback on my ideas. I’m exploring new things and enjoy the interaction.Sincerely, David