Swami Karuna Mata The Rev. Karen MacQueen

Who knew?

‘Bees are sentient’: inside the stunning brains of nature’s hardest workers ‘Fringe’ research suggests the insects that are essential to agriculture have emotions, dreams and even PTSD, raising complex ethical questions

Core Teaching of Paramahansa Yogananda.

When you learn to go within in meditation, you will find His kingdom. It is within you; God is within you. It is His power that is behind your ability to talk, move, and feel. Without Him you can do nothing. — Paramhansa Yogananda .

Preparing for Christmas at the Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi.

Please consider ordering a copy of this book for your local library or school library.

The Kapaemahu children's book, which just made the School Library Journal's list of Best Picture Books of 2022, is available this holiday season at Native Books Hawaii, Na Mea Hawaii, and everywhere books are sold... 🎄

The Prayer of St. Francis, a map for living a holy life.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
(Saint Francis of Assisi 1181 – 3 October 1226)

Swami Sivananda offers this reflection on the nine day festival of Navaratri, the worship of the Divine as Mother.

NAVARATRI - NINE-DAY (ESOTERIC) WORSHIP OF THE UNIVERSAL MOTHER ~ Swami Sivananda, Sept.26-Oct. 5

In its cosmic aspect, Navaratri, the nine-day worship of Devi, epitomises the stages of the evolution of man into God, from Jivahood (the state of individualisation) to Shivahood (the state of Self-realisation). In its individual import, it shows the course that his spiritual practice should take.

The worship of Devi, the UNIVERSAL MOTHER, leads to the attainment of knowledge of the Self…Devi does not belong to any religion. Devi is that conscious power of God. The words Devi, Shakti, etc., and the ideas of different forms connected with these names are concessions granted by the sages due to the limitations of the human intellect; they are by no means the ultimate definitions of Shakti. …

THE THREE STAGES OF NAVARATRI

This process demands a resolute will, determined effort, and arduous struggle. In other words, strength and infinite power are the prime necessity. Thus it is the Divine Mother who has to operate through the aspirant. . . .

CONTINUED . . .

💗 READ MORE

https://yoganandasite.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/navaratri-esoteric-worship-of-the-universal-mother-sw-sivananda/

National Geographic will be doing a story on the Healer Stones of Kapaemahu. Let’s hope they do justice to the Mahu who gave the stones to the people of Hawaii and to the long effort, successful until now, to erase the Mahu people.

We had the honor of hosting Hawaii-based documentary photographer Marie Eriel Hobro at our Bishop Museum exhibition this week for a shoot sheʻs doing for an upcoming National Geographic story on The Healer Stones of Kapaemahu... 💜