Posts Tagged ‘Hinduism’

LTRP Note: As Lighthouse Trails reported previously, Hollywood darling Julia Roberts played the leading role in the summer release New Age movie, Eat, Pray, Love. Now, this in – Julia Roberts converts to Hinduism after filming the movie. What is so troubling is that thousands, if not millions, of viewers of the movie could be potentially drawn toward Hinduism, especially after learning that Roberts herself has converted.

Jane Lasky
Examiner

August 7, 2010 – News comes today that when Julia Roberts was shooting the film ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ she reportedly made a big decision: To convert to Hinduism.

The ‘Pretty Woman’ actress is the daughter of a Baptist and a Catholic, says Jam Movies, who claims that while filming in India Roberts took a spiritual pilgrimage much like that of ‘Eat Pray Love’ author Elizabeth Gilbert.

Out of that experience, the movie star learned about yoga, meditation and reincarnation — something in which Julia Roberts is said to now hold as her own belief.

Roberts told Elle magazine:

‘I’m definitely a practicing Hindu.’

Off the set, Julia and her family chant and celebrate life — a peaceful existence for the new believer in Hinduism who stars in ‘Eat, Pray, Love’. The new movie based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoirs debuts in theaters next week. Click here to continue.

Our past coverage:

Oprah and Julia Roberts Make Push for New Age Eat, Pray, Love Summer 2010 Movie (Lighthouse Trails)

Julia Roberts embraces Hinduism  (India Times)

(Courtesy Underground News US)

Nevada (US), April 26 (ANI): Five city councils in California and one in Nevada are opening their meetings with Hindu prayers containing ancient Sanskrit mantras in the coming weeks.

Nevada based Hindu leader Rajan Zed is reciting these prayers before city councils of Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, Lincoln and Yuba City in California and Henderson in Nevada.

Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, is delivering these prayers from ancient Hindu scriptures at Lincoln (April 27), Yuba City (May four), Bakersfield (May five), Modesto (May 11), Fresno (May 13) and Henderson (May 18). After first reciting in Sanskrit, he will then read the English translation of the prayer. Sanskrit is considered a sacred language in Hinduism and root language of Indo-European languages.

Rajan Zed plans to recite from Rig-Veda, the oldest scripture of the world still in common use, dated from around 1,500 BCE, besides lines from Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord), both ancient Hindu scriptures. He will start and end the prayer with “Om,” the mystical syllable containing the universe, which in Hinduism is used to introduce and conclude religious work. Click here to read this entire article.

Blending Hinduism, Shamanism and Goddess Spirituality

by Berit Kjos
Kjos Ministries

Imagine a new world! Visualize its beauty! Flow with your feelings! Become one with all! 

But what about reality?

The tall, blue-skinned natives of Pandora, a distant earth-like moon, are part of a unified spiritual system that links all of nature. They ride through the skies on powerful birds, climb the stony walls of magnificent hanging mountains, worship their goddess, and despise the corporate monstrosity that has invaded their habitat in search of priceless resources.

Those earthly intruders intend to excavate Pandora’s most sacred spot. To avoid war, they brought a scientific team trained to befriend the indigenous Na’vi people and persuade them to move.

That team includes latecomer Jake Sully, a paraplegic Marine replacing his slain twin brother. After some training, his mind and consciousness would periodically be transferred to the Na’vi-like avatar — a high-tech body originally made to match his brother’s DNA.

Remember the Hindu word avatar? It refers to an incarnation or manifestation of a Hindu god. The most common avatars are incarnations of the god Vishnu, and they include the mischievous flute-playing Krishna (pictured below) and the bow-and-arrow carrying Rama (pictured above). Both are pictured with bluish skin — just like the native Na’vis.

Testing his new legs and body, Jake heads for the forest and faces a herd of elephant-sized beasts. Moments later, a flock of snarling predators chase him deeper into the woods where he meets the beautiful Neytiri who aims her bow and arrow at him. Fortunately, she receives a message from her mysterious goddess through a cloud of white flower-like creatures that settle on Jake — a clear sign that the goddess wants Neytiri to befriend this ignorant stranger.

Hmmm. Do you wonder why Neytiri carries a bow and arrow when killing is banned and all life is one?

Jake does his best to follow the sure-footed Neytiri (climbing, leaping, etc.) back to Hometree, her clan’s sacred domain. She introduces him to Mo’at, her friendly mother who happens to be the tribal shaman. She tells her daughter to train this “dream-walker” in their native ways. Some of the clan warriors look skeptical. Click here to continue this review.

by Mike Oppenheimer
Let Us Reason Ministries

This may seem like an inconsequential question, even a silly question to ask, but many people may not know how involved they are in the New Age movement that has permeated our society.

In other words, do you believe or practice what is taught in the new age movement without knowing it?

Here are some questions to ask yourself…

Do you believe God is a force–that God is all things (pantheism) or that God is in all things (panentheism)?

Do you believe in karma and reincarnation as Hindus or Buddhists do?

Do you believe life is not real but just an illusion and the real world is unseen?

Do you believe that all religions and spiritual paths lead to the same place and are acceptable to God (universalism)?

Do you deny a moral standard for all people that is understood by our conscience or the law given to Moses?

Do you believe that all holy books are given by God at different times?

Do you believe that all religions and spiritual beliefs are based on or point to the same God who is known by different names?

Do you think Jesus was an enlightened master like many others? That he discovered God by realization of what is inside Him?

Do you believe we can leave our bodies and visit other realms through psych spiritual techniques or dreams?

Do you believe  we can come in touch with God through Yoga or mantra meditation?

Do you believe that man can pass onto you by touch, a spirit, or gift?

Do you believe that ghosts are people that once lived and are trying to communicate with us?

Do you believe space aliens are visiting to give us knowledge for the advancement of human kind?

Do you believe that spirit beings from other dimensions are desiring to channel to us information?

If you believe any of these, you are involved to some degree willingly or unwillingly with the New Age.

If you believe any of these as a Christian, then you are accepting beliefs and practices that go against the faith that is to be focused on Jesus Christ.  Source: Let Us Reason Ministries

LTRP Note: Please be sure to read our articles (see links at bottom of this posting).
by Rajan Zed (out-of-house news source)
Independent News Media

Hindus critical & dismayed of “Hollywood types” describing Tantra as just sex

Hindus are strongly critical of “Hollywood types” who apparently think and describe of Tantra as just sex, including actress-producer Trudie Styler’s recent reported announcement that “Sadomasochism is the new Tantra”.

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that Tantrism was a major channel in Indian religious traditions and besides Hinduism, it also exerted considerable influence on Buddhism and Jainism. Sankaracharya had mentioned the names of 64 Tantras. Click here to continue reading. 

To understand more about Tantra and its role in the “new spirituality, read:

A Pastor Speaks Up: Mark Driscoll and the New “Sexual Spirituality”

Tantra Sex: Evangelicals Catching Up with New Agers? by Caryl Matrisciana

Trinity Western University Professor Promotes Tantric-like Spirituality – Serious Implications for Christianity

LTRP Note: Yoga is on the rise in the Western world. Even in Christian circles, Yoga is being widely practiced. “Christian” Yoga teachers say that the exercises can be done without invoking Eastern mysticism. But this is not accurate information. Caryl Matrisciana was born and raised in India. Today, as a Christian film maker, she testifies that Yoga is the Heartbeat of Hinduism. The following is an excerpt from her book, Out of India.

“Bus Ride to the Future”
by Caryl Matrisciana

When I was twenty years old, my family returned from India, where I was born and lived for most of my life, to England, our homeland. It was during the turbulent sixties, and I was about to be introduced to a movement that didn’t even have a name yet. How could I have possibly known then that the strange and mystical religion I had been surrounded by in India would someday be at the heart of a spirituality that would influence millions around the world?

I will never forget that hot, muggy day in London in the summer of 1966 when I was twenty years old. How could I forget? After all, it was the day that changed my life forever.

Perhaps if I had been out in the English countryside or beside the sea, that hot, stifling day would have been bearable—but in the city it was miserable. Oh, to be in a garden with its soothing assortment of colorful flowers, my feet dangling in a cool spring!

Reality was all too blatant. The British capital was steeped and simmering in its own crowded bustle, intense noise, and pandemonium of traffic. By day’s end I could hardly bear the sound and sweat of it all as I was jostled along in an overcrowded, red, double-decker bus through rush-hour traffic.

Still, in spite of all the unpleasantness, a breathless anticipation filled my soul. That surging excitement was my only motivation to struggle across blistering-hot London. I knew I was on my way to a marvelous experience.
Eventually the bus rounded Piccadilly Circus and honked impatiently at the myriads of pedestrians overflowing onto the streets. The sidewalk vendors and little shops were teeming with hundreds of tourists. T-shirts hanging on shop canopies sported the slogan “swinging London,” along with coffee mugs, postcards, and dozens of other souvenir items.

A New Spiritual Gospel
The phrase “swinging London” had recently been splashed across the world’s newsstands by Time magazine1 and had captured an atmosphere that really did permeate the London air. I basked proudly in the energy that surrounded me, enchanted with the good fortune to live and work in this pulsating metropolis.

The bus changed gears noisily and puffed out dirty diesel fumes. We moved slowly down Shaftesbury Avenue, the heart of theater land, in Soho. My pulse pounded harder. The next stop was my destination.

I pushed my way through the crowded bus and jumped off with a spurt of enthusiasm. Renewed vigor had me effortlessly nudging my way through throngs of theater goers who crowded the sidewalks. At last I arrived! I stood still for what seemed to be an endless moment, absorbing the glowing neon advertisements that assured me I was at the right place. The theater marquee carried but one word. The name of the show was Hair.2

Soon I was to experience the musical blockbuster that the whole world was singing about. The people milling around me were quite different in appearance from those on the bus. Denim jeans, casual Indian cotton shirts, and hippie informality identified almost everyone. Hairstyles ranged from long to longer to longest. I grinned to myself, realizing I too looked like the in generation. At the same time, it was a relief to know that my parents couldn’t see me now. How they would argue that I was not conforming to the “required London theater dress.”

I had waited months for tonight. Tickets for Hair were nearly impossible to buy. I clutched mine protectively, waiting to squeeze through the door. Scanning the crowd, I searched for the friends I was to meet.

The air buzzed as people hummed various songs from the score that was about to begin. Never before had I gone into a show already so familiar with its lyrics and tunes. For months the airwaves had carried those melodies around the world.

Still, I could not have imagined the impact the show itself was to have on my life and thinking. I would not have guessed how religiously I would follow this new spiritual “gospel.” I was about to be “converted” by the message of Hair, along with thousands of other people of my generation.

We shuffled inside and located our seats. The theater darkened. The rustle of programs stilled. Chills and goose bumps spread through the audience as the orchestra began to play. There was heavy, loud rock music as magnificent, full voices swelled in harmony. There were colors, lights, and sounds. Everything mingled together to draw me willingly, passionately, into the phenomenon. Never before had I known such intense involvement in a theatrical production.

With exciting extravagance, the show animated and popularized outrageously impudent and risqué ideas. Tricky little songs whipped us into attitudes of rebellion and promiscuity. We cheered and applauded the demise of family, society, government, and country. We decried the past and its values. We sang about the hopeless state of our planet; we coughed and choked for the pollution and wept over the sadness of war.

Every person in the audience was transformed into a mystical searcher through the song lyrics. Everyone contemplated the plaintive question asked in, “Where Do I Go?” That particular song had us following everything, nothing, and even myself. It had us asking the eternal question posed in the lyrics, “And will I ever discover why I live and die?”3

Like many other people my age, I had never considered that topic before, but I was to do so a thousand times in the days and months to come. That evening’s performance was to lead me, and countless others, on a spiritual quest.

Having disparaged the past and present and looking grimly into the emptiness of no solution, Hair suddenly gave a glimmer of hope. We whooped ecstatically through the marvelous escape presented in “Hashish.” This gleeful song promoted the wow experience one could achieve through no less than twenty-five different highs.
In the years to come, I would get hooked on one particular high and try several others. I would understand all too well the appeal of replacing realism with psychedelia.

A New Way of Thinking
L ittle did I comprehend at the time that through this musical I was being subtly introduced to a new religious system. One song ridiculed the faith of my youth. It encouraged us not to believe in God per se, but instead, to see that we ourselves were like gods. Joyfully we sang the immortal words of the great poet William Shakespeare, taken from his play Hamlet:

What a piece of work man is!
How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty.
In form and moving, how express and admirable, In action how like an angel,
In apprehension how like a god.4

My perception of the world was about to change. From here on I was being introduced to a new alternative to my old way of life—one that in the future was to jealously lead me into an uncompromising spiritual dimension. “Let the sunshine in,” the cast vocalized.5

“Let the sunshine in!” we responded at the tops of our voices. Oh yes, oh yes! Let the sunshine in! My heart ached with hope. How I longed to experience this new “opening” and its promised sensation. In any case, it would have been hopeless to struggle against the overpowering emotional, mental, and sensual seduction taking place. (To read this entire chapter one of Out of India, and for endnotes and credits, click here – picks up on p. 17. For more information or to order, click here.)

As a follow up to our recent posting about a new film, The Men Who Stare at Goats, we are issuing this special news report about a project currently underway with US Military Chaplains and other military personnel to receive ongoing training in contemplative mysticism.  Those who understand the serious implications of the contemplative/emerging spirituality will likely be quite troubled by this report.

The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society was founded in 1991 and was inspired by retreats led by Thich Nhat Hanh (a Buddhist) and Ram Dass (a Hindu). The Center states that its “intention is ‘not to isolate meditation, but to reflect on the contemplative traditions as powerful techniques that have potential for beneficial change in American society.’” 1 The Center’s objective is to bring meditation into all facets, both religious and secular, of society.

Over the past decade or so, some of those involved with the work at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society include a number of eastern meditation advocates, some of whom are Daniel Goleman (The Meditative Mind), the Dalai Lama, Charlie Halpern,  Thomas Keating, and Dr. Dean Ornish. The Center’s targeted areas in society to bring “awareness” in the role of eastern meditation have included education, medicine, environmental, business, law, prisons, economics, youth, philosophy, psychology, and religion.

The Center now has added a relatively new project,  one that is geared toward training those in the military in contemplative/mindfulness meditation. The project is called the Military Care Providers Project. The Center says it is “working with the US Army to explore the uses of meditation to restore resiliency in chaplains and medical caregivers.” Chaplains and caregivers would then be able to pass on their newly-learned meditation practices to soldiers, other military personnel, and even families:

The project includes a research report on The Use of Meditation and Mindfulness Practices to Support Military Care Providers. That report will be the basis of a meeting at the National Cathedral in Washington DC … a one-day dialogue between mindfulness [New Age] meditation and contemplative neuroscience subject matter experts (practitioners and scientists) and Army leaders. The symposium will focus on research related to the use of mindfulness training and contemplative practices with caregivers, soldiers, and family members.2

In the Center’s 57-page report (written  by Maia Duerr, Chaplaincy Coordinator for the Upaya Zen Center) on bringing eastern-style meditation into the military on a large scale, a wide range of meditative practices are discussed. Interestingly, the report kicks off with a quote by emerging church author Tony Jones from his book The Sacred Way. In his book, Jones makes an appeal for contemplative mysticism. Clearly, the eastern mystics of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society resonate with someone presenting “Christian” contemplative prayer for the reason, as Lighthouse Trails has been stating for years, they are the same thing, and this report does not hide that fact, even though the majority of “Christian” contemplative advocates try incessantly to convince Christians that contemplative prayer and eastern meditation are two completely different belief systems.

The Preface of the research report is written by a US Army Chaplain and a US Army Major. They discuss practices such as The Jesus Prayer and Centering Prayer, saying such practices are “the foundation of this study.” Other meditative practices that are talked about in the report are: “T.M., contemplative prayer, lectio divina, mindfulness meditation, insight meditation (also called vipassana), Zen meditation (also called zazen), and movement meditations such as yoga and qigong” (p. 9). The Center’s Tree of Contemplative Practices illustrates the variety of meditative practices that can be incorporated. The project’s objective is to use meditation in various trauma and stress related scenarios for those in the military and for their families.

The report acknowledges that contemplative prayer has its “roots in early Christian monasticism” and that Thomas Merton, Basil Pennington, William Menninger, and Thomas Keating were instrumental in bringing the contemplative tradition to the forefront and “distill[ing] the practices and teachings of St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, and other Christian contemplatives into the discipline of centering prayer [mantra meditation]” (p.11). The report also acknowledges that these meditative practices are mind-altering techniques used to change one’s thinking patterns.

The report says that a similar program in Canada uses meditation techniques after deployment but states it would be advisable to teach meditation before, during, and after deployment (p. 31). Thus, if all goes according to the Center’s plans, soldiers would receive training throughout their entire military service. It is determined by the Center that “it is probable that Soldiers will benefit by receiving improved care from military care providers who have been supported to develop greater skills in self-care and self-awareness [through meditation] (p. 33).

To further along the research of the Center’s plans for the military, in April 2009, the Symposium on Contemplative Practices for Army Care Providers was held at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Representatives from across Army organizations attended:

The one-day symposium was a formal way to bring proponents from the Army medical community, Army Training & Doctrine Command’s Human Dimension, Army Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program, Army Chaplains, DOD’s Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, Army research labs, civilian neuroscientists, scholars, and experienced contemplatives/mindfulness trainers into a dialogue with each other about the research and science related to contemplative practices/mindfulness and care providers.4

 It is important to understand that the Center’s studies and efforts to incorporate eastern meditation into the military is not an isolated event, and the implications are serious. For instance, in a November 2008 Lighthouse Trails article titled Will Department of Defense Turn to Meditation to Bring World Peace?, it was revealed that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that “[e]nlightened counter-measures … will bolster the internal strength of vulnerable states so they will not harbor violent networks seeking to launch the next attack.” It was suggested that in the Department of Defense’s “struggle to eliminate violent extremism,” eastern-style meditation techniques should be used.

The Lighthouse Trails article pointed out that Dr. David Leffler, an eight-year US Air Force veteran, now the Executive Director at the Center for Advanced Military Science (CAMS) explained in his article titled “A proven enlightened counter-measure”:

Extensive scientific research indicates that the best way to reduce collective societal stress, eliminate extremism and thereby snuff out war and terrorism, is to adopt an ancient strategy. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has revived the ancient Vedic technology of Invincible Defense Technology (IDT) in a non-religious manner. It has been quietly and successfully used by members of many faiths to eliminate conflict in the past.5

We feel we need to reiterate some of the information that was pointed out in our own article last year. According to research, special units would be trained using Transcendental Meditation (TM) and TM-Sidhi (psychic powers) programs.

In the Leffler article, it states that for this “Maharishi Effect” (ME) to take place, a certain percentage of the population would have to practice this joint-efforted meditation: “Extensive research shows that the group size needed to reduce social stress depends on population size. It needs to be at least the square root of 1% of the population.” Leffler says that based on research, crime drops and quality of life goes up when the ME takes place.

Leffler states that the ME could take place around the world if each country’s military would establish what he calls Prevention Wings of the Military. This group would make up for the percentage supposedly needed to meditate for world peace. As for the US military, Leffler says, “Ultimately, it is the DoD’s duty to build a Prevention Wing of the Military.”

According to New Age teachings, Leffler’s proposition that a certain percentage of meditators will rid the world of terrorism, crime, and even poverty could work. New Agers say that a “critical mass” of meditators is needed to bring the ME about. While critical mass is a scientific term, it is used here to refer to “an explosion in global consciousness capable of ‘touching’ or transforming all of humankind.” The idea is that when a certain critical number of people all share the same awareness, then change can come to all people’s thinking because of the critical mass. This critical mass would bring about a global paradigm shift.

As Lighthouse Trails has documented for several years now, the number of people practicing eastern meditation is quickly increasing. From babies being taught to meditate to a huge infiltration of meditation in all sectors of society, and finally through the contemplative (i.e., spiritual formation) movement in the evangelical church, meditation practice is overwhelmingly accepted and embraced in the world today. Leaders of meditation believe that it is through meditation that the world will finally experience true peace and unity.

While the Bible says that the world will at some point reach a momentary, false global peace (through occultic practices, we believe), it will be short lived and demonically inspired. Ray Yungen discusses the false sense of unity and oneness that is achieved through meditation and why it is spiritually dangerous:

Dr. Rodney R. Romney, former Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Seattle, is a person frequently quoted as an example of a New Age Christian. He very candidly revealed what was conveyed to him in his contemplative prayer periods. The ’source of wisdom’ he was in contact with told him the following:

I want you to preach this oneness, to hold it up before the world as my call to unity and togetherness. In the end this witness to the oneness of all people will undermine any barriers that presently exist (Romney, Journey to Inner Space, p. 132).

Could this be a familiar spirit speaking [to Romney] here? Jesus Christ did not teach that all people are one [spiritually speaking]. There are the saved and the unsaved. And Jesus Christ is the catalyst for this distinction. (from A Time of Departing, chapter 4)

We have established in previous articles and reports that contemplative spirituality is a New Age belief system with which meditation is implemented and altered states of consciousness are reached. We have also shown how New Agers believe that the one common factor that unites all religious traditions is the metaphysical (i.e., mystical meditation). Yungen elaborates:

But the spirit who spoke to Dr. Romney also revealed something else of vital importance. It declared, “Silence is that place, that environment where I work.” Please pay attention to this! God does not work in the silence — but familiar spirits do. Moreover, what makes it so dangerous is that they are very clever. One well-known New Ager revealed what his guiding (familiar) spirit candidly disclosed: “We work with all who are vibrationally [meditationally] sympathetic; simple and sincere people who feel our spirit moving, but for the most part, only within the context of their current belief system” (Carey, The Starseed Transmissions, p. 33).

Some may think our suggesting that the US Department of Defense would turn to meditation techniques is absurd. Perhaps the DOD would never consider taking Leffler’s advice to use eastern mystical practices. But consider this: In October 2008, the Department of Defense awarded a $411,000 grant to the Center for Mind-Body Medicine to study the effectiveness of a non-drug approach for brain-injured soldiers who are suffering from depression. 6 The Center for Mind-Body Medicine uses various forms of eastern-style practices including guided imagery, meditation, and has an advisory board that includes New Age sympathizer Dean Ornish (also involved with the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society ). Caryl Matrisciana discusses Ornish in her book Out of India:

In the 1970s, Ornish met Sri Swami Satchidananda (who was teaching Ornish’s sister meditation techniques at the time) and told the guru he wanted to learn from him too. Today, he credits Satchidananda for inspiring his heart disease program. His book, Program for Reversing Heart Disease, became a New York Times best-seller and is a product of the swami’s advice. Ornish says:

Swami Satchidananda began teaching me in 1972 the meditation and Yoga techniques that evolved into the stress management program described [in this book]. Since then, he has remained my teacher and close friend (Ornish, p. xvii).

Ornish devotes two chapters in his book to Yoga and other meditative techniques, explaining that “Yoga is a system of powerful tools for achieving union . . . with a higher force,” and through meditation, the higher self can be experienced. Quoting Swami Vivekananda, he states:

In one word, this ideal is that you are divine . . . All the powers in the universe are already ours (Ornish, p. 21).

Ornish was appointed to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy by former President Clinton and also served as a physician consultant to Clinton and several bipartisan members of the U.S. Congress. (from Out of India, pp. 165-166)

It is Swami Vivekananda’s spirituality to which the Department of Defense is giving nearly 1/2 million dollars! So Leffler’s hope that the Department of Defense will incorporate meditation will most likely become a reality.

It is tragic to watch the futile efforts of the world seeking so desperately after peace in all the wrong places. The world has rejected Jesus Christ as the only Prince of Peace and has turned to the prince of this world (Satan) and his methods instead. Those methods convince humanity that it has the capability within itself to mend, heal, and save. Those methods, in particular meditation, convince man that he is divine and he needs no savior because salvation comes not from one person but from humanity itself.

What is equally tragic is that those calling themselves Christian leaders have turned to these methods as well, and now instead of being the salt of the earth and a light shining on the hill (always pointing to Jesus Christ), they have joined forces with the world to bring about peace through meditation. The fact that Henri Nouwen believed in “reconciliation” and peace through meditation and is touted by countless Christian ministries, organizations, schools, and churches is astounding.

Contemplative spirituality is of the same spirit as the Maharishi Effect. That silent sacred space that Christian contemplatives promote is the same silent space that is promoted by Hindu yogis, Buddhist monks, and New Age leaders. It is interspiritual, interfaith, and recognizes no single savior.

We beseech Christian figures and ministries to turn away from contemplative spirituality and return to the pure, simple and saving Gospel of Jesus Christ, offering that to the world of lost humanity. Many of these Christians leaders talk about Jesus through one side of their mouths while declaring the spirituality of Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, and Richard Foster out of the other side. It cannot work. It never will. The very nature of contemplative rejects man’s sinful nature and his need for a savior.

The peace that Jesus Christ offers is to individual men, women, and children, one soul at a time. This is why the preaching of the Gospel is so vital. It is indeed a Gospel of peace but not the peace the world gives, yet it is the only eternal peace there is. Jesus Himself explained this:

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me… Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. (from John 14)

The true peace of God can never be reached through meditative practices but comes only to the repentant heart who accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Peace plans, peace coalitions, three-legged stools, mystical reformations, man-induced awakenings, enlightened counter-measures will never accomplish what only Christ can do.

Related Information:

Research on the Department of Peace

By YOAV GONEN Education Reporter
New York Post
(Courtesy of Underground News)

Thousands of city public-school students and teachers are participating in a “Brain Education” program run by a group with ties to an alleged cult.

For the past three years, the Department of Education has shelled out nearly $400,000 for 44 schools to participate in the Power Brain Education company’s lessons and workshops.

But dozens of former employees of an organization called Dahn Yoga — whose founder developed the teachings for Brain Education — said the school program is run by a group that is part of a vast web of interrelated companies conning participants into investing all their time and money in unproven health and healing activities.

The former workers of Dahn Yoga, which operates 130 health centers and two training retreats across the country, filed a federal lawsuit in Arizona in May charging that its activities are abusive and grow increasingly devotional over time to the group’s founder and spiritual leader, 57-year-old Seung Huen “Ilchi” Lee.

“If my child was [participating in Power Brain], I would pull them out in about two minutes,” said lawyer Terry Brostowin, who settled a wrongful-death suit against Dahn Yoga last year. “I would be very scared.” Read more: click here.