Perhaps the great surprise is that even if you go to heaven, you'll still be  reincarnated. Heaven is the  place of fulfillment of all desires, or so say the East Indian scriptures. One still has to get past the desires to be finally free. I'll take reincarnated so I can finish the work and get it right. If I get to heven en route, thank you for that. I rejoice and am grateful, and still knowing that I'll get to final liberation in perfect right  timing.

The one from my daughter in college that said,

"I cannot thank you for all the mamil you've sent me this year. Here, I just want to share the love."

Most of us were told as young people that lying is "a sin", that it's really really bad and to never lie under any circumstance. One of the great gifts of the spiritual path is discernment, being able to distinguish between what is and is not appropirate for any given circumstance at any given moment. We all know that we can have exactly the same circumstance and two different moments and that a different response may be required in each.

It may be true that we happen to know that our friend's  lost dog died a wretched death, but when we share that with our friend, is that the compassionate thing to say? Would it not be better to say that the dog had passed and that it was peaceful? Would it not be more compassionate on behalf of the dog owner?

If your parent were dying and your brother were being a total incompetent and and inconsiderate so-and-so, would it not be better to let the parent believe that all was well?

What good does it serve others, and maybe ourselves, in delicate moments to be absolutely "truthful" when the truth of the reality of the world causes great emotonal pain to another?  Is our job not to bring peace and comfort to one another?

Bottom line, there are times when not telling all the truth could save another person a lot of pain and it is discrenment and compassion that tells us which is which at any given moment.

Dr . Carell

Most of us are aware of many of the lifetimes we've already been through. Iknow that I've been  Catholic a lot, mostly in France, and I've been tomany of those places and realized how "familiar" it felt. I've been a nun/monk. I remember eastern teachings, especially East Indian. Perhaps that's why I choose a semi-monastic lifestyle while in this world and participating in those teachings that bring all the wisdom together.

For thirty years, I've had the powerhouse experience of Siddha Yoga meditation combined with Religious Science/Science of Mind (which is NOT  scientology!). Both teach that there is only One, that it flows through the individual mind to be released into the world. That means we are both the inlet and the outlet of the divine on this plane. I love the meditative experience, to be in it and then to turn around and offer that awareness to everything I see and touch in the outer. Religious Science (which it's founder Ernest Holmes says is 95% Hinduism) invites one to come into the meditative place, remember who we are and gather the energy from that, and then turn around and project that truth into the world, onto relationships at work, healing our bodies and helping others to heal as well, manifesting the divine prosperity that is our God-given right, and engaging us a s vehicles to change the world as instruments of Truth. just by our awareness that there is only One and it is already perfect. Spiritual mind treatment (conscious effective prayer) and meditation = a dynamite combination. Not that there's two things going on here. It one thing, just revealing both sides of the coin at once.

Everyone needs a treehouse AND a cave. In order to be in balance, we  all need the greeness and oxygen of trees and full-blown nature. Personally, I'd live in the treehouse, and I've gone and re-created that one again, in a secnd story apartment with huge trees out all the windows. But I live in it as if it were a meditation cave. It is my sanctuary, my refuge, my renewal space for mediation and contemplation. We all need both parts and the art is to create both partw on a daily basis in our day to day world. It doesn't matter if we choose to live in the city or the country, in the treehouse or the cave. the question is whether we are entering into the balance of energies that make us alive, centered, balanced, happy and in tune with the Infinite.