Now its time to discuss specific techniques to quiet the mind.

One word of caution before we move forward: these methods are not a substitute for professional counseling. If you have depression or anxiety, you should consult with a health professional to determine if these methods are appropriate for you.

Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the following suggestions. They are very effective if you approach them with an open mind and have the discipline to apply them.

1. Spend some time each day sitting quietly by yourself and do nothing. This sounds too easy, but you may find it a lot more challenging when you actually practice it. All I’m asking you to do is sit down in a chair or on a couch and do nothing. Just sit there. No other distractions are allowed. No radio. No TV. You don’t read a book or a newspaper. You just sit. By the way, you’re allowed to move your arms, legs and body while sitting. Be comfortable, but stay seated.

You can look around the room. You can even look at what’s going on outside if there are windows in the room. Or you can look straight ahead without focusing on anything in particular.

If nothing else, you’re going to notice a lot of the imperfections on the ceiling, walls and furniture in the room!

For the first few days, sit quietly for only 5 minutes. As that becomes easier, you can extend your daily session to 10 or 15 minutes. For those who can work their way up to 20 or 30 minutes each day, that is even better. Go at your own pace.

Some of you will have no problem sitting still and will actually enjoy the peace. Others will be restless after a minute or two, with your mind racing and wanting to engage in some activity. You will resist this non-activity and tell yourself it’s silly, and a waste of time. Don’t be hard on yourself. There is no right or wrong here. Just make the commitment to start with 5 minutes a session and build up from there.

Of course, before these sessions, shut off you cell phone and all technology devices. The world will be there when you get up. By the way, eventually, you should be able to sit still for an hour or more and be perfectly content. I’m not saying you have to sit for an hour. Just build up to 15 – 30 minutes a day and you will make tremendous progress in quieting your mind. If your home is very noisy, perhaps you can do this exercise at work during part of your lunch break.

For those who have difficulty falling asleep at night because your mind won’t shut off, this is a great exercise to do right before you go to bed. You will be much calmer as you’re slowing your mind before bed. Too many of us stimulate our minds right before going to sleep by reading, watching TV or using a computer. Our minds rev up and we can’t fall asleep. Sitting quietly before bed isn’t guaranteed to allow you to fall asleep immediately, but it can only help.

Now I want to move on to another effective technique to help you quiet the mind.

2. Become an observer of your negative thoughts and emotions. When negative thoughts or emotions come up, we tend to resist them or run away from them. We want them to go away as fast as possible. So we try to think positive thoughts or do something to distract us from the negative thoughts and feelings.

Instead, I’m asking you to take a radically different approach. ALLOW the negative thought or emotion to be there. Just watch it as if you were an impartial observer. It’s almost as if it is happening to someone else, and you are just observing from the sidelines.

Do not try to get rid of it and don’t be annoyed with it. Just observe it impartially. You may think that this will make the situation worse – that you will be imbedding the negative thought or emotion even more deeply. You will find the opposite is true if you stick with it. When you simply observe the negativity – and allow it to be there — it will dissolve on its own. It will pass from your field of awareness just as a cloud passes through the sky.

The negative thought or emotion might come up quickly again. Just watch the thought, or if it is a feeling, allow yourself to feel the tenseness in your head or stomach or wherever it shows up. Remember to be an impartial observer or witness, and don’t resist the thought or feeling. You are shining the light of awareness on it and this will help the thought or sensation to move on.

You’re going to have to play with this exercise for a while to get the hang of it. At the beginning, you may think you’re watching the thought or emotion, whereas in fact you may be resisting it, or at the very least hoping it will go away soon. As the saying goes, what you resist, persists. Play the role of the relaxed observer.

There’s a part of us that knows that fighting or running away from something never heals the condition. Avoidance or battle is a temporary solution at best. It’s only a matter of time before the unwanted thoughts and emotions return.

The very practice of being AWARE of the thought and emotion has extraordinary healing power. If we can face it, we can heal it.

I’ve bombarded your mind with enough material for one sitting. Start using these techniques and listen to what your heart tells you. I’ll pick up the discussion in the next newsletter.

In the meantime, let me know your experiences with these exercises.

– Jeff Keller
© 2008

I appreciate the enthusiastic response that I received to Part 1 of this series on quieting the mind. This is obviously a topic that is of great interest to many of our subscribers. As life becomes more and more complex, or should I say BUSY, many of us are looking for ways to experience more peace, and to release the negative thoughts that hound us all too often.

Quieting the mind is not a controversial principle. In fact, I don’t know of any religion or spiritual tradition that does not emphasize the importance of a quiet mind. This Bible verse says it beautifully:

“Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalms 46:10)

When every religion agrees on something, I take notice. So, when all of them either quote this Scripture (or re-word it in a way that conveys the same meaning), I feel that there is something worth investigating.

What does this Bible verse mean to you? How often do you consider it?

This verse tells us to be STILL. And we are told that in this stillness, we will know God. That’s a strong statement. Thus, we have good reason to focus on being still or quiet.

We’ve all experienced the benefits of a quiet mind, yet we often overlook them. Let’s examine some of these benefits.

Notice how you FEEL when you quiet the mind, when your thinking subsides. It’s relaxing, and at times even exhilarating. For instance, you watch a beautiful sunrise or sunset. You look into a young child’s innocent face. At these times, you feel serenity and joy. It feels good not to think! You’re in the present moment, and no thinking is necessary. You’re just BEING. There is a lightness to it.

When that child starts crying loudly or spills a drink on your clean pants, you may quickly lose your serenity. You start to THINK about how your pants look or how you will be embarrassed when you have to meet someone later that day. You may also think about how the parents should have watched the child more closely to prevent the drink from being spilled on you. You’ve lost the stillness. The mind is running wild again.

“Be still, and know that I am God.”

We also tend to believe, incorrectly, that intense thinking is the best way to solve our problems. How does our mind work when we bombard it with thoughts? Are we at maximum effectiveness in that state? Most people aren’t.

When we tax our brain dwelling on a problem, we often get frustrated and we may even get a headache or feel tension throughout the body. Here again, our body is giving a message. Stop thinking! Be still.

When we give up thinking about the problem and go to bed, what often happens? The following morning, the “right” answer to the problem just pops into our mind. When we are still and relaxed, the mind is very efficient in guiding us. Over the centuries, inventors frequently reported having made their breakthroughs and discoveries when they “let go” of the problem and stopped thinking. The relaxed mind then yielded the answer.

A busy, overactive mind causes more harm than we can even imagine. For those who say that the key is to develop positive thoughts, feel free to follow that approach if it works for you. I found that it doesn’t work for most people. You are keeping the mind active when you try to force positive thoughts into the mind to “defeat” the negative thoughts. And an active mind is going to come back to haunt you, sooner or later. Negative thoughts, fears and anxieties are going to creep in.

The active mind will not connect with God and spirit. Let’s not forget these important words: Be still, and know that I am God.

How do we develop a quiet mind? That’s what everyone wants to know, and I will begin discussing specific techniques in the next message of this series. Many people wanted to know if meditation is required to quiet the mind. I’ll address that now.

Meditation is a wonderful discipline and is of help in quieting the mind. However, meditation has its limitations. Some meditation methods require training; thus, you have to spend time and money to learn them.

Furthermore, the vast majority of people are not disciplined enough to meditate every day. They may meditate for a few weeks or even months, but they don’t stick with it. We could spend hours discussing the benefits of meditating. The bottom line is that most people won’t do it.

There’s another issue regarding meditation. Some people who meditate demonstrate a quiet, peaceful mind throughout the day. However, there are those who can be at perfect peace during the meditation with their eyes closed — but they are not able to maintain that same quiet mind when they have their eyes open and go about their activities during the day.

Next time, I will be offering some techniques to quiet the mind that you can implement immediately without any specific training. The methods themselves are rather simple. As you might expect, simple does not mean easy! Yes, you will need to be disciplined to stick with them. But let’s not worry about that right now.

Just be still.

– Jeff Keller
© 2008

Most of you are very familiar with the value of a positive attitude and positive thoughts. By understanding and applying these concepts, my life improved dramatically. I’m guessing that positive thoughts have produced beneficial results for you as well.

Here’s how the process works. We have negative thoughts and negative beliefs in some areas of our lives. These negative thoughts affect our physical and emotional health. They affect our relationships with others. They may affect our career and our finances.

So what do we do? If we have learned about self-development principles and the power of our thoughts, we focus our attention on positive thoughts instead of negative thoughts. If we are very negative, it might take some time to shift our dominant thinking to the positive. But if we are dedicated and persist, we can usually make progress and train our mind to think positively much more than we think negatively.

As a result, we begin to see the conditions of our life improving. Some of these changes are extraordinary. We become much happier and more successful.

No matter how much progress we make, however, it seems that the negative thoughts and emotions can’t be entirely wiped out. When we have negative thoughts, we attempt to quickly change them to positive thoughts. Sometimes we can make that shift, and on other occasions, we don’t have as much success in “defeating” the negative thoughts.

What I’ve come to learn is that fighting the negative thoughts by trying to replace them with positive thoughts has its limits. It works much of the time, but there will be instances where, even if you are a very positive person, negative thoughts and negative emotions will pop up and hang around for a while to taunt you. You may not even understand why negativity or fear is arising, as you can’t point to a reason for it.

There’s another way to approach this problem but it goes against what most people believe. What if you just learned to quiet the mind? In other words, you aren’t trying to force positive thoughts into your mind when the negative thoughts arise. Instead, you are training your mind to be quiet.

What happens if the mind is quieted? Most of us have never spent a prolonged period of time in this state, so we can’t know what would happen.

Developing a quiet mind is no simple task, especially if your mind is very active now. But you will be amazed at the results if you are dedicated to calming that constant chattering in your mind.

When you are quiet, you connect with your divine nature. This is the only source of lasting peace. Your true nature doesn’t know negativity. It doesn’t know fear. It doesn’t experience anger. It is your mind that experiences the negativity, the fear, and the anger. This is an invitation to explore what happens when you let go of the mind.

The mind will tell you that your entire world will fall apart without an active mind. This is the mind’s tactic for keeping itself alive and in the forefront. The mind can be very mischievous!

If you are happy with your mind and its current activity, there would be no reason for you to quiet the mind. However, if you are wrestling with occasional negativity or fear – and you are sick and tired of having your mind run you — these messages may help you to find a new approach to dissolve the negative thoughts and emotions.

My own journey has taught me that the mind holds the key to suffering and that spiritual awareness expands as the mind is quieted. As always, I respect your right to think differently.

In upcoming messages in this series, I will be discussing ways in which to quiet the mind and the benefits of doing so. I’d like this series to be interactive. I’ll be able to address some of your questions and concerns as this series unfolds. Feel free to forward any questions or comments to me, as well as your experiences and insights. I will incorporate your comments where appropriate, but nobody’s name or email address will be included. Thus, your privacy will always be maintained.

I don’t claim to know the answers, but we can have an open dialogue. You can send your email to  jeff@YourSpiritualJourney.net  .

– Jeff Keller
© 2008

The relationship between money and spirituality is a bit complicated. Everyone sees this issue a little differently. No doubt, you’ve received lots of messages throughout your life about money and its importance. Where you were born plays a role in what beliefs you acquired, as does the economic environment in which you were raised.

I’m not here to declare that one set of beliefs is right and the other is wrong. Some will say that God wants us to be rich and that we should have an abundance of money circulating in our lives. Others will say that money and material things corrupt our spirituality and that we should live simply. Many people take a position somewhere in the middle of those extremes.

Personally, I think the Bible gives a meaningful perspective on this issue when it says that “the LOVE of money” is the root of evil. Money is not evil, of itself. It serves many useful purposes. But the love of money, the obsession with money, is where problems creep in, and where we live a life that becomes disconnected with spirit.

I see this in some of the television ministries where the preachers spend a lot of time speaking about the acquisition of material wealth. They tie it into a spiritual message, along the lines of “God wants us to be rich.” Thus, we are somehow serving God and connecting with our spirit by becoming rich. Not surprisingly, many of these preachers and organizations also want us to send money to them to help them become rich.

The intention of these organizations may be pure, and feel free to support them if you wish. I just find something missing in this approach. I don’t claim to speak for God, but something tells me that God is not rooting for us to amass material wealth.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I have nothing against money or the enjoyment of things that money can buy. I feel no urge to give away my possessions and sit in a cave somewhere so that I can find God.

Yet, for those who wish to grow spiritually, I think the emphasis shifts to the things money can’t buy. You don’t deepen your spiritual connection by getting a bigger car or a bigger house. Those things may flow into your life even though you are not concentrating on them. There is nothing wrong with that.

I think the traditional self-development movement has also fallen into this trap. Many of the speakers and authors talk about the importance of spiritual development, yet the lion’s share of their message – and 99% of their promotional materials – are focused on the acquisition of material wealth.

Follow their methods, they say, and you can get the car of your dreams, and the house of your dreams. If you’re not married, you can also attract the mate of your dreams. They will sprinkle in a few words about how this is accomplished through spiritual principles.

Let’s face it. They are concentrating on material things because that is what people want. Most people want the big bank account, the nice car and the huge home – and they want that more than they want to feel a connection with God.

Where you place your attention will reveal what you really care about. How much time do you spend each day thinking about the presence of God and spirit in your life? How much time do you spend thinking about money and your material desires?

Here’s another question you might ask yourself: Would I trade most or all of my wealth and possessions right now for a more intimate connection with God? That’s a tough question for most of us to answer, even those who profess to be on the path of spiritual growth. When it comes down to it, most of us don’t want spiritual growth if we have to give up too much of our stuff to attain it. There’s no need to feel guilty about this. It simply reveals to us where we are right now.

I am finding that when a person places great importance on amassing wealth and acquiring material objects, that person’s spiritual awareness will take a back seat. When we make it our goal to acquire material wealth, our ego enters the picture. We eventually want even more wealth, and we compare our wealth with that of others. As the well known saying goes, EGO is Edging God Out.

When we go through our day with God and spirit in mind, and see God in every moment, we no longer feel the need to dwell on our material possessions – or to demand that we receive a certain portion. We appreciate whatever has been given to us.

If we spend more time focusing on our spirit and less time focusing on money, I don’t think we can go wrong. We can find a peace that no bank account can provide.

– Jeff Keller
© 2008

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
- Joseph Campbell

Your career, interests, and relationships are important, but they are only important insofar as they lead you toward a deeper understanding of yourself. Otherwise, they are irrelevant.
- A.H. Almaas

We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them.
- Unknown

Though you may travel the world to find the beautiful, you must have it within you or you will find it not.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
- Rumi

It is simple. We are where we should be, doing what we should be doing. Otherwise, we would be somewhere else, doing something else.
- Richard Stine

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image.
- Thomas Merton

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
- Dalai Lama

It is only when we realize that life is taking us nowhere that it begins to have meaning.
- P.D. Ouspensky

Any path is only a path and there is no affront to oneself or to others in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you.
- Carlos Castaneda

I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.
- Walt Whitman

Note: This message was contributed by Sandra, one of the subscribers to this newsletter. I hope you find her experiences and insights to be helpful.

Sandra’s Journey

Several years ago, my husband’s work forced us to move across the state. I left a beautiful home, a just-beginning-to-grow business I had started, and several organizations I belonged to and was a vital part of. We moved back to no work for me, no organizations, and into our home which we had rented and had been extremely neglected by the tenants. And on top of that we were plunged into a financial deficit.

It had been over 20 years since I had been depressed so I had forgotten it, even flippantly making statements such as “I could never be depressed. Depression is something you have and wear like a sweater.” As it ended up, I had to eat those words. Many days were spent in bed, sleeping and crying, seldom getting out of my nightgown, and eating to ease my feelings.

My husband was a gem through this, picking up breakfast on his way to work, often bringing home carry-out food. One evening, he sat on the edge of the bed after viewing a commercial for a clinic that specialized in depression. He gently told me that they listed the symptoms of depression, that I had all ten of them, and that we needed to get “help” for me.

During the last bout of depression, my doctor had prescribed tranquilizers. At that time I read material about asking Christ into my heart, thanking Him for it, and believing it is done.

I was an organist in a Catholic Church where they read the long Gospel and then you kneel down and reflect on Christ’s death. It was Palm Sunday. Alone in the choir loft, I knelt. It was then I felt “washed clean”. I almost didn’t get up in time to play the Offertory hymn! Over the next few months I was able to quit taking pills altogether. I felt that God had delivered me out of the need for medication.

Because of the drug experience, I have an extreme aversion to medications and felt that they would only mask my symptoms and not help me deal with the real root of my problems. I remember the dependency and the hopelessness associated with the pills. So I prayed for help and guidance in this situation.

Soon after that, I recalled a sermon on the story of Martha and Mary and the words of Jesus: “one thing only is necessary”. The minister had said that each of us has one thing we should be doing and needed to do that one thing. Well, when you are depressed everything is overwhelming and you can’t take care of everything. But one thing? I could do that.

Some days, that one thing was getting out of bed and getting a shower. Then I could focus on the next “one thing” and the next. Of course it didn’t happen overnight but very slowly and gradually I was able to become a fully functional person. I joined a church and re-established friendships. It was a wake-up call to remember that God had taken care of me and I could trust Him for my daily needs. It definitely renewed my faith in Him.

For me, the depression never seems to be completely gone and sometimes I need a little extra help. Some time later an idea came to me to create a list of the things I liked. So I wrote down 10 things I like to smell, like French vanilla candles; 10 things to listen to, like classical music; 10 things I like to see, like sunrises and sunsets; 10 things I like to feel, like cat fur; and 10 things I like to do, like swing in my backyard or swim. As soon as I feel depressed, I get out my list and work on me for a little while.

I feel that if one is not at peace with oneself it is difficult to help anyone else. And I believe that each of us has power to conquer a lot more than we think we can. This journey taught me to take one step at a time and that with God’s help I can do anything.

– Sandra

You come home at the end of your work day and you begin telling someone in your family about an incident that happened earlier in the day. It involves another person who works in your office or place of business.

In the first few seconds of telling the story, you identify the color of the other person. If you are white, you say early on, “This black woman who works in accounting…”

Of course, if you are white and the other person is white, you never mention the color or race. You would not say, “This white woman who works in accounting…” In fact, if you said that, the person listening to you would say, “Why are you telling me that the person is white? What does that have to do with the story?”

Why do feel it is necessary to refer to the other person’s color when it differs from our own?

We often do the same thing when referring to a person born in another country. An American might say something like, “This Indian man at work” or “This Chinese woman.”

I can only speak from the perspective of a white American, although I suppose many people of other races and nationalities do the same thing.

We lose touch with our spirit when we classify others based on race or nationality. Our mind loves to point out the differences in others, even when those differences are irrelevant. We rarely see people as people. We live in a world that is one big “WE,” yet most of us view it as “US” and “THEM.”

I’m learning to develop the habit of not mentioning a person’s race or nationality when it has no importance to the story. Guarding my language in this way allows me to see the common bond I share with others, instead of our superficial differences.

Some of you might say that we should broaden this principle and not limit it to the distinctions we make in language. We should give up all prejudice, even in our thinking. I won’t argue with you. You’re right.

Yet I know that virtually every human that walks this earth has been strongly conditioned to be prejudiced. Even people we consider as saintly have some prejudice. Sure, we should drop the prejudices and see everyone equally. But this isn’t something we will achieve overnight.

What we can do is clear up our language immediately. It gives a message to our brain – and to the brain of the other person we are talking to — that distinctions of race and nationality are no longer needed.

It’s an important first step that just might help us in shedding some of the rest of our prejudices.

– Jeff Keller
© 2008

We can offer our time and money to many worthwhile causes in our community, our nation and around the world. By so doing, we can improve the lives of others, and enrich our lives in the process.

As with just about every activity we engage in, the ego is not a passive participant when it comes to charitable giving. The ego is often front and center, crying out for recognition – and wondering how its actions compare with the actions of others.

I think all of us have some ego involvement when it comes to our charitable giving. Here’s a test you can take. Consider a religious or non-religious organization that you belong to or support financially. It could be a religious congregation where you attend services regularly. It could be an environmental group. Maybe you contribute funds toward finding a cure for a particular disease.

If that organization were to publish a list of all contributions made by people in your community (including the precise amount of each person’s contribution), would you have an interest in reading the list to see who gave – and how much they gave?

I’d look at the list, yet I realize it is my ego that wants to know. My spirit has no need to see the list. Whether someone else contributed, or how much they gave, is irrelevant.

It’s funny how people will judge the amounts given by others to charity. We know someone in our community who has been blessed with wealth and we wonder why he or she is not giving more to charitable causes or organizations. The ego loves to judge others and establish standards of conduct that others should be following.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against charitable giving. Many people are helped when we give our time and money, regardless of our motive. We should extend a helping hand whenever possible.

But we can do it without the ego. We can give anonymously in ways that others will not know about our contribution. We don’t need to be on a list of donors. We don’t need to have the amounts of our gifts announced in front of others.

Many organizations encourage the disclosure of contributors and amounts as they feel it encourages others to participate and to be generous. In the end, they say, the key is to collect as much money as possible, so the organization can be successful in doing its work. There is some truth to that.

I still like to believe that we can give because we love to give and serve others. The reward is in the giving and not in the recognition we receive. It’s not easy to push the ego out of the way when it comes to charity. The ego loves to be patted on the back for its generosity.

Be aware of the ego and how it operates when you choose to give time and money to organizations and charities. The reward of giving from your heart is all you need. This is the unconditional love from the spirit.

– Jeff Keller
© 2008

One of the biggest obstacles to spiritual growth is our focus on the body. We spend virtually all of our time concentrating on our existence as the body. In so doing, we ignore our eternal spiritual nature.

Whatever your religion or spiritual beliefs, I think it’s safe to say that most of you believe that you have an existence as Spirit, and that this spiritual essence lives eternally.

On the other hand, there is the physical body. This entity, when viewed in eternity, is a mere speck in time. It is temporary and we know that all physical bodies die. Yet we place almost all of our attention on the temporary physical body instead of on the eternal and ever-present spiritual essence.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that those who seem to have attained a considerable degree of spiritual growth have this quality in common – they don’t identify primarily as the body. I’m talking about people within organized religions, as well as people who are not associated with any particular religion. As far as what criteria I am using for spiritual growth, here are some of them:

a) the person is almost always at peace
b) the person has no fear of death
c) the person is extremely loving and non-judgmental
d) the person is not bothered by the daily ups and downs of life

Such people are rare, I admit. Yet those who exhibit these traits do not obsess about their physical bodies. They take their foundation as the divine essence or spirit – and that is where they live, moment by moment.

As long as you believe, “I am the body,” you will live in fear. There is no way around this. Your mind will be fighting the inevitable fact that the body is going to die. Whenever the body’s health or existence is threatened, you’ll be afraid. Just the thought of death terrifies people, even when they are healthy.

And yet we know, even at the level of mind, that death is not painful for the deceased. There is nothing to feel at that point. What is there to fear? At the funeral services, what you hear are people commenting how the deceased person is now at peace in a wonderful place. Why do WE fear being at peace in a wonderful place? It sounds like something we would welcome, not something to avoid at all costs.

The only ones who can suffer are those left behind in the physical world – the family and friends of the deceased. Interestingly, we don’t seem to be overly concerned in most instances with how our loved ones will cope after we die. We simply can’t accept what the mind perceives as extinction, the end of “ME”. That is our real fear – no more ME!

I’m not saying that we have to ignore the physical body and its needs. By the same token, we don’t need to be obsessed with the body. One of the most valuable things I have learned on my journey is that the body will be guided to take proper care of itself without the mind dwelling on the body all the time.

If you didn’t think about your body at all, you would still take care of the body. You would eat, wash and do all the things you do now. You don’t need the endless chattering mind to carry this out for you.

Weakening or breaking the identification as the body is, in my view, one of the most difficult assignments on our spiritual journey. It takes quite a bit of vigilance and discipline. Yet if you are earnest enough, the path will show itself.

There is no five step formula I can give you for breaking identification as the body. Each person’s path is unique. I do find it helpful to interact with people who are not strongly identified as the body and to read their writings. You begin to get a flavor of what it is to live like that.

You might find that this message is not practical or helpful to you in your day-to-life. You may have no desire to break your identification with your body. Nothing wrong with that, and I am not trying to persuade you otherwise.

As for me, I feel at a deep level that I am not the body. Yet the mind conditioning is still there, and that conditioning does not yield easily. I’m chopping down this tree, little by little.

Spiritual growth blossoms as we go from “some-body” to “no-body.” We come to realize that we will temporarily experience the body, but we are much more than the body.

– Jeff Keller
© 2008