It is rare to find a retail oasis of depth and beauty and rarer still to find several tea houses set in a bamboo garden and stream with Asian sculptures. But find it I did at The Sacred Space and am delighted to share it with NPD readers with the suggestion that if you find yourself in the Santa Barbara area on your way north or south, that you stop by, enjoy a cup of tea and enjoy the treasures that Jack and Rose have found on their many trips through Asia. You may also enjoy talking with Jack who at one time produced flutist Paul Horn and offers occassional

I spent a wonderful hour browsing the beautiful pavilions, pottery, fountains, sculptures, jewelry, plants, accessories and much more. I purchased what has become my favorite jacket, an elegant Chinese piece that will accompany me on my upcoming NZ and AU trip.

The feeling I have each time I introduce a new friend to The Sacred Space in Summerland, CA is one of immersion in a gallery of transformational artifacts. I am alwasy transported and embraced by the serene environment that Jack and Rose have created.

If you are not in the area, you can still check out their collection and order anything that you feel connected to at their site.

Among their treasures are Tibetan prayer, meditation and yoga rugs from Kathleen Adams and her Messenger Rug Company that support local Tibetan artisans. Visit Messenger Rugs site to see her beautiful Serenity Collection that offer one of a kind hand crafted rugs with designs based on the world’s contemplative traditions. These are authentic one of a kind rugs that are hard to find anywhere. They should be considered art and are priced as such.

MESSENGER RUGS is a licensee of GoodWeave®, a global nonprofit organization working to end child labor and offer educational opportunities for children in South Asia. Each rug is marked with a GoodWeave® certification number ensuring the “No Child Labor” standard, allowing the rug to be traced through the supply chain back to the loom.

Review by Associate Editor, Jamie Jackson

Spiritual Growth is Not What You Think
By Doyle Barnett

Maybe everything that happens to you isn’t always for the best; maybe it is possible to make grave spiritual mistakes that could impede your evolution for a very long time….

Could it be, that to grow spiritually you have to transcend all spiritual beliefs?

For those seekers among us who are stuck, entranced or disillusioned by our quest for the spiritual grail, Doyle Barnett arrives lance in hand, to prod us toward ultimate clarity. This is a book whose time has arrived. It is a course in spiritual philosophy. In the name of tough love, Doyle challenges us to pull up our spiritual socks via a series of radical questions, the answers to which determine the reader’s progression beyond dysfunctional spiritual beliefs through to each of several stages of personal awareness.

Yet at the very moment you feel your courage might desert you, Doyle’s irreverent and self-deprecating humor repeatedly softens up the entire exercise.

Doyle writes from his profound spiritual and life experiences. In his quest for truth he invested his “heart and soul into many different religions.” A search made even more powerful following a traumatic childhood, debilitating chronic illness and a near death experience.

After thirteen years as a practicing Christian, followed by a year at a Zen monastery, Doyle joined the Brotherhood of the Sun. Isolated from the outside world, he practiced his monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. He meditated twice daily for nine years, sometimes for periods of sixteen hours a day, non-stop.

For several years he worked and studied with American Indians. He slept in tee-pees, tracked and hunted animals, studied wild herbs, did vision quests and fasted for days in search of the Great Spirit.

For three years he lived with the followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a master from India.

Finally, he delved into the modern metaphysical movement: “For four years I consulted more than forty psychics, sought spirit guides and did soul retrievals. Eventually, I outgrew the relentless cycle of belief upgrading. I quit searching for hand-me-down spiritual beliefs to use as replacements for my old beliefs. For the past twenty-three years, I tried to purge myself of all borrowed spiritual beliefs in order to live life more authentically. I sought a more objective truth rather than confirmation of what I wanted or needed to believe.”

Doyle poses the now almost perennial question: “Six billion people make up the top twenty-two religions in the world. Considering the condition that the earth is in, how much is all this religion helping?”

Neither are New Agers let off the hook. He observes that most of today’s seekers don’t really know what they are doing and think that attaining new beliefs will somehow make them wiser and more spiritual. Eventually, however, they trade in these beliefs for new ones and assume they are becoming even more spiritual, whereby “the spiritual path of seekers has become the Tao of belief upgrading, or in essence, the modern metaphysical movement.”

For many, this process of belief upgrading can continue until death. For others, “the stimulation of their spiritual egos finally grows old and they realize they ‘know’ nothing for sure – it’s all just beliefs.” He exposes some of the fallacies, superstitions and hypocrisies of the modern metaphysical movement and encourages seekers to replace their spiritual fantasies with a genuine reality check.

Doyle does not eschew belief or faith and is by no means anti spiritual. Nor does he seek to replace his readers’ beliefs with a brand new set of his own. He merely points the way toward the only intelligent, sensible –and indeed spiritual – direction available and allows readers to make their own choices. His conclusion is a most satisfying, inspiring and enjoyable read.
This intelligent, authentic, heart-felt and funny book is a must have companion for any truly genuine seekers.

Doyle Barnett has lectured throughout the US and has been a frequent guest speaker on national radio and television. He has been published in national magazines and newspapers and is the author of two books on communication tips for couples. He lives with his wife in Santa Barbara, California. They swing dance, rock climb and regularly spend time in God – the Great Out Doors.
Website: DoyleB.com

Acclaim for “Spiritual Growth is Not What You Think.”

I enjoyed this book very much. I found it stimulating, provocative, challenging, and disturbing! The topic is timely and relevant – baby-boomers en masse are coming out for spirituality, needing direction and guidance.
Nancy Marriott
Co-author with Candice Pert of
“Everything You Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d.”

This book is an important reminder that all beliefs place limits and boundaries upon the ineffable spirit. This is a valuable guide to the pathless path: The genius of one’s own genuine spiritual experience. This work will help us lighten our beliefs and dance more with one another.”

Harold H. Bloomfield, MD
Author of “Making Peace with Yourself,” “How to Heal
Depression,” “Life Mates” and “ Love Secrets for a Lasting
Relationship.”

by Keith Goetzman
Source: New Humanist

Satan’s henchmen are trying to remove God from our schools, our government, and even our private lives, goes the frequent Christian conservative complaint. Well, author A.C. Grayling has gone a step further and taken God out of the Bible.

The Good Book: A Humanist Bible is Grayling’s attempt to create an inspirational book without a supernatural being at the center, writes Matthew Adams in New Humanist’s May-June issue.

“The way I made it,” Grayling tells Adams, “was to plunder from the great traditions texts on which I had performed redaction, weaving them together, editing them, interpolating other texts and sometimes my own, just as the Bible makers worked on their texts. It was tremendous fun.”

Writes Adams in “The Man Who Would Be God”:

The inclusion of a scientifically coherent creation story is probably the most markedly irreligious aspect of The Good Book, and might well end up, when the creationists get to hear about it, being the most controversial. But the work as a whole has none of the combativeness that one might expect. [Grayling says:] “This book is not against religion, it just ignores religion, and by ignoring it shows that there is as much if not more of a resource already in our hands.”

Like the Bible, The Good Book is organized by book, chapter, and verse and laid out in double columns. But the Bible never sang the praises of nonprocreative sexual love, described Newton’s discovery of gravity, or incorporated the ideas of great thinkers from Thucydides to Kant to Darwin.

Here are some verses:

• “Let us help one another, therefore; let us build the city together. Where the best future might inhabit, and the true promise of humanity be realized at last. —The Good, Chapter 9, Verses 10-11

• “Do I love you for the fine soft waves of hair That fall about your neck when you undress? Or that ivory pillar of your neck, or your breasts Soft and fair with rosy nipples crowned?” —Songs, 108

• “This is the final consolation: that we will sleep at evening, and be free for ever.” —Consolations, Chapter 26, Verse 31

Read more

In life, we often carry excess personal baggage from our past that prevents us from living fully in the present moment, accessing our creativity and generally enjoying life to the fullest. We may try reading books, meditation, attending workshops and other techniques to get free of these brakes on our life. If you or anyone you know may be in this exploration, you may want to check out the deep transformative work of Rob and Thessa Egan’s Alchemy Techniques.

Rob had a spiritual awakening at Findhorn in Scotland. He then trained as a trauma therapist, Sivananda yoga instructor and is a Chi Kung practitioner. He worked For many years, with associates from around the world, and conducted extensive consciousness research, met Thessa and together they co-founded Alchemy Techniques.

Thessa is an experienced therapist in many modalities including trauma healing, nutrition, allergy therapy and herbalism. She says about her work, ‘I see my role as teacher in Structural Self Inquiry as one of guide, and fellow traveler along the path.

Alchemy Techniques provides a set of effective tools to move from experiencing the clouds of past traumatic experiences to the ‘sunshine’ of core expression. Some of their students have described this process as being like ‘falling in love with life’.

The more advanced levels their work becomes explores the nature of experience, identity, perception and consciousness. This process can lead to an understanding and experience of who we are at our deepest levels, which is then integrated into daily life.  The experience at this level can be described as a path of self realization eventually resulting in the fusion of pure being and pure awareness at all levels of consciousness.

For a first hand experience of Alchemy Techniques training, you can sign up for free access to three hours of free online videos and a workbook on their site.

Here is a 30 minute interview I conducted with Rob and Thessa about a year ago that will provide further insights to the background and a description of their work.

Jim Carrey is known for his comedic genius but he, like all of us, has another side. In this talk that I attended a few years ago, Jim shares his experience of the spiritual dimension.