The Spirit of the Olympics: A Practice in Non-Violence

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Julianne Victoria

During the Olympic Games most of us are in awe at the                                                       strength, power, and discobolusgrace of the athletes. They may inspire many of us to push ourselves harder in our pursuits, whether they be athletic, intellectual, or otherwise. The Olympics are about competitiveness, national pride, and personal achievement, but let’s not forget what the underlying spirit of the Olympic Games is: a peaceful gathering of peoples in non-violent interaction and camaraderie.

In ancient Greece, when the Olympic games commenced, all disputes, battles, and wars were suspended to allow safe travel for the athletes and spectators. No armies were allowed in Olympia, and even the death penalty was halted. Just think of the impact on the world today, if we all adhered to those same rules! Has our planet ever experienced two consecutive weeks of non-violence and peaceful interaction?

The answer to that question is unfortunately likely “no”.  Homo sapiens is the most violent creature on the planet, not just towards other creatures, but towards our own kind. We are one of the few creatures on earth that kills for reasons other than for sustenance. Jesus Christ taught us to: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Then why do so many who call themselves Christians promote and perform acts of violence? Maybe it comes down to the fact that we (of any religious, or not, background) don’t love ourselves, but that does not justify taking our self-hatred out on others. Violence destroys ourselves from the inside out, much more than it destroys others.

The recent tragedy at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin is just one of the latest acts of hatred and violence that has shocked many of us. What is most shocking about it, is that the Sikhs preach and practice peace and non-violence, religious tolerance and freedom, anti-discrimination, equality of humankind, the preciousness of human life, living honestly and truthfully, being active in society, selfless service, and sharing with others. In essence these are a people who both love their neighbors and live the spirit of the Olympics.

Let us all strive to be our own Olympians by training ourselves to be non-violent, and hence being loving and responsible people to ourselves and others. Though it may take some time, may we some day be living in the peaceful world so many of us imagine.

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The Healing Power of Creativity

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Julianne Victoria

Some of us may only be able to draw                                                                                             stick figures, and those trombone lessons celldivisionin middle school may have seemed more like a form of punishment than art, but we all have the ability to create. Yes, some of us are more artistically creative than others, but we all have the ability to create our lives, and what we create greatly affects our health.

On the physical level, most of our cells are continually turning over, re-creating themselves multiple times during our lives. Different types of cells change over at different rates, but on the whole, the bodies that we have today, are not the same bodies we had seven years ago. Think about it…if today we begin to make conscious choices to eat better and eat well, get proper exercise, open our hearts to engage in emotionally healthy relationships, and do whatever else each of us has said, or hoped, or promised to do to live healthier lives physically, emotionally, and spiritually, in seven years time we can all be re-created!

Every day we are creating ourselves, from new cells to how we express ourselves to the world. It is an on-going process of life. Nourishing ourselves and surrounding ourselves with all that is nurturing and all that which brings beauty into our lives and joy into ours and others’ hearts will heal us, and often in ways that we didn’t know we needed to be healed.

George Bernard Shaw said: Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

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The “Pursuit” of Happiness

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Julianne Victoria

In a recent study at the University of                                                                                         California at Berkeley, researchers DalaiLamadiscovered that money does not bring people happiness, but respect from others does. In Eric Weiner’s book The Geography of Bliss: One Grumps Search for the Happiest Places on Earth, he learned that people are happiest when they have a sense of belonging to the people and place where they live, and when they feel they have people in their lives whom they can trust. It is not the quantifiable things, such as money, possessions, and luxury vacations that contribute to our happiness, but the quality of our relationships and sense of being, through respect, trust, reliability, kindness, and connection to a family and/or community, that contribute to the state of being we call happiness.

Happiness, Nirvana, Bliss, Heaven, Enlightenment, Peace, Joy. Everybody wants to have happiness, to seek enlightenment, or to find heaven. As long as we are desiring, grasping, chasing, seeking, searching, and pursuing, we will never find something we cannot possess in the first place. Constantly craving an inner state that can’t be quantified only contributes to our suffering. We can be happy where ever we are. When we nurture our relationships by being kind, respectful, loving, giving, and compassionate, we will receive the same in return, and our lives will become abundant and bountiful in unexpected ways.

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Herbs and Drugs: Healing Aides or Poisonous Venom?

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Julianne Victoria

According to Vedic myth, the gods hid in the depths of                                                             the ocean both the Aesclepiusnectar of immortality and poisons, and had placed the demon-snake Vasuki in charge of churning the immortal nectar. In Greek mythology, the god of healing and the medicinal arts was Asclepius, whose rod with the snake entwined around it is the symbol of medicine today. Throughout the world, snakes have been the symbols of healing and death, good and evil, and wisdom and cunning. Likewise, the venom of the snake, as well as that of other animals, parts of plants/herbs, and minerals have been used for thousands of years as both aides in healing and as poisons.

Drugs and herbs are used in medicine and healing to help bring the body and, in psychological cases, the mind back into balance and harmony. Even hydrating well and eating healthy foods can heal, for in truth we are what we eat (and ingest). According to Tibetan Medicine, boiling water was the first medicine! Unfortunately, many of us use herbs and drugs when there is no need for their healing abilities. When this happens, whether it’s prescriptions, recreational drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, or coffee or tea, they no longer become healing aides, but poisons and toxins that throw our bodies and minds out of balance.

Even nectar is poison when taken in excess. – Hindu Proverb

Let’s all take a look at what we put into our bodies and reflect on what it is doing to us, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Does it promote health and healing, or does it cause illness and lethargy?

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Asceticism and Liberation from Suffering

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Julianne Victoria

There was a news article this week that reported on                                                                 the death of a member of afastingbuddha so-called Buddhist cult in Arizona that practices extreme asceticism, the practice of self-denial, especially of food and water. Asceticism is intended to free one’s Self from earthly desires and to clear the mind for spiritual awakening. However it goes against the Buddhist philosophy of practicing the Middle Way. Going to such extremes makes balance and harmony in body, mind, and soul impossible.

At the age of 29, Siddhartha Gautama left his palace to become an ascetic so that he could understand suffering. After six years of starving himself, he realized that self-mortification and self-violence was not the way to nirvana, the freedom from suffering. It was only then, while sitting in meditation under the Sacred Fig, or Bodhi Tree, that Shakyamuni became enlightened about the nature of suffering. The Buddha saw that Dhyana/Jhana, stillness and concentration, is what will lead to total awareness of body, mind, and soul, and hence nirvana.

From his Enlightenment, the Buddha developed the Four Noble Truths, which includes the Noble Eightfold Path (#4), as a means for all of us to understand the nature of suffering (#1-3) and as a pathway to overcome it (#4). I will discuss these in future posts, but for now let us all strive to bring more balance and harmony into our lives through taking care of and nourishing our bodies, minds, and souls.

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Connecting the Dots: We are All the Children of God

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Julianne Victoria

During the homily of a Catholic mass that I                                                                                 recently attended, the priest FamilyTreediscussed how Jesus told his disciples to refer to God as Abba, Father. The implication of this is that we are all God’s children, and hence, we are all brothers and sisters. Geneticists and scientists believe we all came from some common ancestor who spawned Homo Sapiens. If we take the Bible literally, we all are descendants of Adam and Eve. Whatever angle we look at it, whether we are staunch atheists and scientists, evolution believers, Bodhisattvas of compassion and interrelationship, or take the Bible word-for-word, we are all connected and interconnected in body and in soul.

If we connect the dots of every one of us, past, present, and future, it becomes clearer that we are all part of a great web, woven and held together by how we relate to one another. Kind interactions strengthen the connections, and violent ones weaken some of the strands. We are all part of life on this planet. We are all brothers and sisters. We are all one family. Let’s all work together to love and respect one another and weave a strong family web for ourselves and for our children.

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Finding The Pot of Gold at The End of The Rainbow

Posted on March 17, 2012 by Julianne Victoria

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to actually                                                                                     stumble across a pot of gold!? Some of usrainbow my aready have one, or in other words, be financially secure and well-off. Though having money makes it easier to do stuff and buy more things, it does not bring happiness and joy. Whether we have money or not, we all experience in different ways and to different degrees the challenges of life. It is what we do with what we have and with the relationships, situations, challenges, and sufferings that come our way that will lead us to our pot of gold, or not.

Happiness is an inner state of being. External circumstances, events, and other people cannot make us happy. They are impermanant/temporary happenings that can be positive or negative, but it is how how we deal with them that will determine our state of being. For example, winning the lottery can seem positive, but if we throw that money away on addictions and self-destructive behaviors, it’s negative. If someone dear to us dies, processing the grief and being grateful for having that person in our life, makes it a positive experience.

Life is what we make of it. Our attitude and our willingness to see the positive and the negative, to embrace both joys and sorrows, and to learn and grow from the challenges that life gives us, is where we will discover true happiness and inner joy. May we all follow the rainbow of our inner Selves, for there is surely a pot of gold therein! Luck o’ the Irish to you!

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Eating Well For the Health of the Planet

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Julianne Victoria

Most of us probably go through each day                                                                                   without really thinking about the Earthimpact of what we eat except for how it might affect each of us personally. Food is a vital substance. We should eat to live so that we have the health, energy, and strength to live fully each day. But how we eat also affects how we live, our personal environments, and the planet as a whole. Our food choices and demands can influence how the environment is used – holisticly and sustainably or greedily depleted and pillaged.

If we all took steps, even if just baby steps, to eat well, we can have a positive influence on others around us and on the global environment. How do we “eat well”? By consciously trying to eat better quality food more often: local, organic, sustainably farmed, in-season, and humanely-treated. With positive intentions when we live in natural alignment with our immediate and, in turn, our global and even universal environments, we can all live healthier including the planet. Good intentions do have the power to change the world. To health and good food!

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Suspiciendo Despicio: Ascendant, Sun, and Moon

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Julianne Victoria

The sixteenth century Danish astronomer and astrologer,                                                     Tycho Brahe, stated, astronomymap“Suspiciendo, despicio,” – By looking above, I see below. He spent his life studying and mapping the stars for science (astronomy) and for guidance (astrology) as the two systems of knowledge of the planets and stars are interconnected. By learning about what lay above us at our time of birth we can find understanding and guidance for our lives on this planet Earth below. Though all the planets and signs (constellations) exist in everyone’s birth chart, the Ascendant, the Sun, and the Moon are considered the most important.

The Ascendant sign represents our physical self and body in this lifetime. The Sun respresents our soul, our vital essence that moves from one lifetime to the next. The Moon represents our mind and emotions and reflects the Sun’s light, our soul, into this life on Earth. Learning about how these three connect and intermingle in our charts can shed some light and give clarity about who each of us are and how we can best present ourselves in the world. Without the light from the Sun, the Moon, and the stars above, we would not be able to see and find our way below.

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The Prayer of Saint Francis: Mantra of Compassion

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Julianne Victoria

Saint Francis of Assisi came from a wealthy family.                                                                 He had all the comforts of St.Francisluxury for his day, but he saw that material things and pleasures could not fill his heart and soul with joy and peace. He left this existence of emptiness and suffering for the life of an ascetic monk. He chose a life of material poverty so that he could find abundance within his heart through teaching love and compassion and providing service towards others, not only to humans but also towards both animals and the environment. Today he is the patron saint of gardens and animals.

Though we do not have to choose a monastic life to find everlasting fortune and abundance in our own lives, we can choose to work towards finding the courage to let our egos die by not being attached to the material and fleeting, and to work towards filling our hearts with the same passion for compassion that Saint Francis exemplified. May The Prayer of Saint Francis be a mantra for us to live with our hearts:

Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me bring you love,
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord,
And where there’s doubt, true faith in you.
Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope,
Where there is darkness, only light,
And where there’s sadness, ever joy.
Oh Master grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving to all men that we receive,
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.

To listen to The Prayer of Saint Francis, click here.

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