- By Zev Eleff
Purim, the springtime Jewish holiday packed with much merriment and humor, recalls the biblical story of Queen Esther.
A curious new church was dedicated on the outskirts of Moscow in June 2020: The Main Church of the Russian Armed Forces.
It may be the season for peace on Earth and goodwill to all men, but you don’t have to look very far in the financial pages to find stories about businesses doing exactly the opposite.
Each season, the celebration of Christmas has religious leaders and conservatives publicly complaining about the commercialization of the holiday and the growing lack of Christian sentiment. Many people seem to believe that there was once a way to celebrate the birth of Christ in a more spiritual way.
The biannual U.S. Catholic bishops’ meeting received more than its usual attention in June 2021 due to one particular item on its agenda: a proposed document on the Sacrament of the Eucharist, a ritual also known as Holy Communion.
- By Egan Sanders
There comes a time in an individual's spiritual evolution when every seeker/person on a spiritual or philosophical quest, must come to the realization that all higher knowledge, higher truth, and all higher wisdom can only be revealed through their own being.
When one studies and understands the main concepts and teachings of the great religions, it becomes obvious from their similarities that they come from the same source of inspiration: God Divine Energy. Even if these concepts were not so similar, it is obvious that there cannot be a Supreme God for each different part of the world.
Fear is the principal force that divides our hearts. It will continue to do so unless we increase the muscle of our attention and faith that lets us remain present for more and more of reality. When we consciously meet our fear, our faith grows...
I've written about the fear of the future and said, "If we dwell in concern over the tomorrows of life, we lose today . . ." Yet hardly a week goes by that I don't receive a letter expressing concern about what's on the horizon. But if we're going to live joyfully...
History teaches that messianic hopes lead to poor outcomes for the societies that embrace them. Yet, they continue to surface — even today, with the elevation of Donald Trump by some to messiah-like status.
Organized religion has been on the decline for decades in the United States. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers found that online searches for the word “prayer” soared to their highest level ever in over 90 countries.
Each culture sees human life as a progression through a series of stages... in an attempt to understand the evolution of human beings. Those people on the outer circle are just holding onto life; for them it is a matter of survival.
The Judeo-Christian tradition has conditioned many to believe that God exists... in some remote far away region. This negates the idea of an indwelling God. Your spiritual hunger -- your search for God -- is the desire to become holy, wholly unified in mind, body, and spirit.
One of our most ingrained belief systems, and one that evokes the most fear whenever challenged, is our religious belief system. Conflict will surely arise every time anyone challenges our programming regarding religion. In the beginning, I was told what to believe about God, salvation, and eternity, by people I trusted...
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, and lasts either 29 or 30 days, depending on when the new crescent moon is, or should be, visible. Ramadan is a period of fasting and spiritual growth, and is one of the five “pillars of Islam.”
Americans are fascinated by magic. TV shows like “WandaVision” and “The Witcher,” books like the Harry Potter series, plus comics, movies and games about people with powers that can’t be explained by God, science or technology, have all been wildly popular for years.
- By Osho
Don't think about enlightenment as a goal, it is not. It is not a goal; it is not something that you can desire. And if you desire it you will not get it. In desiring a thousand and one things, by and by you come to understand that all desire is futile. Each desire lands you in frustration; each desire again and again throws you into a ditch.
While you’re biting the heads off your chocolate bunnies this weekend, you might wonder how cartoon rabbits became so central to our Easter celebrations. It’s tempting to assume that because there’s no biblical basis for the Easter Bunny, rabbits and hares have no religious significance – but that’s just not the case.
Churches around the world hold services for their three most important days during Holy Week: Holy Thursday, sometimes called Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
The priests of the Age of the Father, whose job centered on sacrifice, would probably not have recognized their successors as religions. One of the charges the pagan Romans leveled against the Christians was atheism...
Jewish families will gather for Passover this year in circumstances that will, like the celebration itself, reflect on dark times while holding out for better to come.
As the days grow longer and the flowers start to bloom, my 5-year-old gets excited and exclaims, “Nowruz is coming.”
Why we are here? Who and what are we really?. The great mystical traditions are astonishingly united in their answers to these questions; they each claim, in different ways, that we are essentially sparks of Divine Consciousness, emanated by the Divine out of itself, and placed here in this dimension to travel back to conscious union with the Godhead.