Michael Bernard Beckwith: Spiritual Liberation – Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential follows Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith (founder of Agape International Spiritual Center) for an actual day of his life. We come along with him as he shops for groceries, walks his dogs with his wife, Rickie, and shares a meal at his home with friends and family.

The beauty of this film is that we see how our daily routines can become fulfilling, meaningful and joyful in their own right simply because they give us an opportunity to share our self with others and to experience the Divine in the middle of the ordinary. Or as Michael Beckwith says at the beginning of the movie,

“We’re not trying to fit mediation into our busy life, with our ‘to-do’ list, with all the things that need to be done. No. Little by little, we make a discovery that our life begins to revolve around our meditation.”

As we walk with Michael throughout his day and listen in on his conversations with friends, family and associates, we hear light-hearted jokes, profound insights and genuine solutions to the challenges of our time. Michael also talks about how a lucid dream inspired him to unconditionally say Yes to the Divine, after he had previously outwitted It’s attempts. That moment Michael said Yes, his life was forever changed.

This is a powerful message for all of us. Everyday, no matter how glamorous, mundane, or difficult our circumstances might be, we have the free choice to say Yes to the Divine. And, when we say Yes to It, we can awaken to our life purpose and a field of possibility that is often far greater than anything we can imagine for ourself.

Other bonus features on the DVD include interviews with USC head football coach, Pete Carroll, producer of Crash, Mark Harris, international speaker Lisa Nichols, the premiere performance of “You Can Dream’ by APL.DE.AP of Black Eyed Peas, 8 performances by Rickie Byars Beckwith and the Agape International Choir, supplemental interviews about love, forgiveness, living on purpose and meditation, and a talk with Michael Beckwith and the filmmaker Mikki Willis on the genesis of Spiritual Liberation.

After taking this intimate look at Rev. Michael Beckwith’s daily life, you will see firsthand why his teachings have empowered thousands of spiritual seekers for more than two decades and also gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for your own life purpose.

Spiritual Liberation DVD and the book it is based on Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential is available for purchase on Amazon by Clicking Here

This article is a guest post written by Tina Turbin.

My most inspiring movie to this day has been Papillion. It touched my heart as a book first and then as a movie. It was not at all a spiritual movie per se’, but oh my did it leave an impact on me as a child up to this day. I opened my eyes to the little intricacies of life such as ants. Who would have known that such a movie would get me to observe trailing ants and see they to have a world of their own and a mission in life- not unlike us. Life is all around and the respect it showed me was profound.This amazing man,convicted felon and fugitive, Nehri Cherriere told his story in detail and those details convey not “victim and pain” but life and what living can and does encompass. It has its challenges no matter where life may take you. It is exciting and it encompasses so much, yes even ants. So not a “spiritual” movie to comment upon- it conveyed beautifully and was not only well written in pages but the drama and communication artistically was spot on in the movie as well”.

This article was written by Tina Turbin. For more information, please visit her web sites at www.TinaTurbin.com and www.DannyTheDragon.com

Letters from the Dhamma Brothers: Meditation Behind Bars is a documentary about an overcrowded maximum-security prison in Alabama that offers an ancient meditation retreat to its prisoners as part of their rehabilitation.

The film features inmates who are serving life sentences without parole at the Donaldson Correctional Facility. They are given the option of participating in an emotionally and physically demanding course of silent meditation lasting 10 days. The participants are some of the state’s most dangerous criminals battling life-long demons. Most of them are highly skeptical of the meditation retreat. Additionally, many of guards question why the controversial retreat should be allowed for such violent offenders in the first place.

Scott Harshbarger, former Attorney General of Massachusetts, gave his thoughts about the movie when he said, “Through the film we realize that inmates can accept responsiblity for serious crimes, and attempt to engage in personal change even though it will not enable them to be released.”

You can purchase the book it is based on Amazon by Clicking Here.

This post is a guest post about Babies movie written by Adelaide Zindler with Home Office Mommy

I got a request from the Associated Press for the Junior Apprentice and I to give our review of the new movie “Babies”. So we went to check it out. I really had to revisit my own attachment to civilization, and I’m so grateful to AP for inviting us to take their challenge! Here are some of the questions I got from my 5-year old, as well as a few observations of my own.

Junior Apprentice’s Observations

Junior Apprentice: I wish I was the boy with my hair sticking out!

Mommy: Why?

Junior Apprentice: I could play more. She (the mom) wouldn’t be like you and I could just walk around, and where she couldn’t see me. I could still be with my daddy or my brother.

Why did he leave the baby right there with the cows? Don’t let the dog lick the baby’s face because the dogs licks their butt and other dogs butts but cats do not. Why do babies crawl? That’s disgusting! (baby discovering their body parts). She’s like Pharaoh. She’s making them work! (baby peeling banana and giving each piece to parent to discard for her) Why do they let their baby go naked? Why are they all poor? Somebody can’t handle this movie. (a young employee who came in the middle of the film walks out of the theater) They are forming a circle around him. (calves surround baby). He needs milk. (mom leans down to sooth baby with milk then sings him into walking beside her. No yelling or threats. Wow)

Home Office’s Observations

It seemed the more civilized the culture the less moms and infants touched each other, and the more they leaned toward formulas, diapers, and equipment. Indigenous mom was seen rocking her baby to sleep by carrying them while she did chores. Tribal moms appear to understand that babies can be given clear direction and have the ability to obey. Civilized parents often believe their young are still developing brains with comments like, “There’s finally starting to become a little person.” Tribal moms recognized the healing power of breast milk on wounds, and for maintaining healthy skin. In the film the modern moms puts her emphasis on either delegating themselves from child rearing or on controlling it. I observed far more of a need to resolve maternal and child conflict. From a distance what seemed like a modern mom nurturing her baby, at a closer glance turned out be more resembled a classroom setting for babies, only without the desks and chalk board. Even the more affluent Asian mother began her baby on the development of fine motor skills using miniature circles that the baby was being asked to stick to paper.

Yet research confirms that there is an equal ratio of retarded vs. mentally handicapped in every tribe on Earth. Although more highly educated, the civilized moms in the video spent massive amounts of time engaging in school readiness behavior beginning in infancy, where the African tribal moms were focusing on nurturing their babies and building relationships with each other. This is a family excursion that I highly recommend!

If this topic got you thinking about how to your young thought leaders, I invite you to claim your copy of my latest book, 30 Days to Home Office and Parenting Success.

This post is a guest post about Babies movie written by Adelaide Zindle. For more information, please visit her web site at http://www.HomeOfficeMommyMagazine.com

Crazy Heart is the story of Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges), a fifty-seven year old chain-smoking alcoholic, country music singer trying to overcome his personal demons and find some sort of redemption in his life. On the surface, this plot sounds like a cliche country music song with a predictable ending. However, the movie has its own unique twists and turns that left me surprised and deeply moved.

Bad is informed by a doctor that his self-destructive lifestyle will lead to an early death. His lifetime of poor choices has caused several failed marriages, terrible decisions while drinking, and deteriorating health. Still, Bad has a big enough heart that he makes you and his fans care about him.

While performing at a small bar in Santa Fe, Bad meets newspaper journalist Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who wants to interview him for a local newspaper. Despite Bad’s reckless behavior, Jean and Bad begin a relationship. Bad’s professional career also takes a turn for the better when he reconnects with a former touring partner (Colin Farrel) who wants Bad to write songs for him. Bad has been given a second chance in his life and we watch wondering if he is going to take advantage of it and turn his life around or if he is going to blow it and continue with his self-destructive behavior…

This is why Crazy Heart really makes you think and prompts you to ask some tough questions about decisions you’ve made in the past, choices you can make in the future and second chances. We can never know if or when we might be given a second chance. Crazy Heart encourages us to be prepared and ready for it when the time comes.

Additionally, most of us have reached a point in life where either through bad luck or poor choices, we’ve experienced some significant hardship. However, I believe we are also given second chances. Crazy Heart asks us what are you going to do when you are given your second chance in life. You can either choose to let it slip away or “pick up your crazy heart and give it one more try” as the title song of the movie suggests.

You can purchase Crazy Heart on DVD on Amazon by Clicking Here

…Also, if you like country music, the soundtrack to Crazy Heart is great….

“A woman dreams her horse is dying. She wakes to find him dead. Then she dreams this year will be her last.”

-

This is the synopsis for The Edge of Dreaming, a documentary that tells the story of a rational, skeptical woman, a mother and wife, who must confront her mortality after having a dream that tells her she would die in a year at the age of 48. The Edge of Dreaming uses a meditative cinematography to visually explore the emotional states, spiritual insights and daily journey of that year. The film also mixes humor, science and married life as Amy tries to understand what is happening to her by seeking out possible answers from a neuroscientist, shaman, Carl Jung’s teachings and her own family.

The Edge of Dreaming prompts viewers to ask some big questions such as:

What would I worry about if I was going to die in a year?
How would I spend my time?
What would I place my thoughts and attention on?
Where am I going after I die?

The Edge of Dreaming does a good job of raising these questions by following Amy’s journey without telling you exactly how to answer them.

For more information on The Edge of Dreaming you can visit it’s website at http://www.edgeofdreaming.co.uk

Yesterday, CNN did a feature story on Unbeaten, the inspirational documentary that chronicles the exploits of 31 paraplegics for six days, as they make their way in wheelchairs and hand cycles across a brutal road race, “Sadler’s Alaska Challenge.”

Last week Unbeaten screened for some of the military’s Wounded Warriors recovering from devastating injuries at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In the CNN interview below, you can hear how the Wounded Warriors were inspired by the film’s message to NEVER QUIT.

For more information about Unbeaten, you can listen to an 8 minute interview that Spiritual Media Blog did with one of the documentary’s producers, Tamara Henry, by clicking the play button below below.

You can also find out more by visiting Unbeaten’s web site at http://www.unbeatenthemovie.com

Andrew Harvey and Karuna Erickson are the authors of Heart Yoga: The Sacred Marriage of Yoga and Mysticism. In Heart Yoga, Andrew and Karuna use practical teachings and richly layered poems to remind us that through yoga it is possible for anyone to become “embodied channels of illumined love, grace, peace . . . and instruments of divine creativity and service in the world.” 

I recently had a chance to interview them about their book, the benefits and differences of heart yoga and how yoga can connect you to the Sacred.  You can listen to our 30-minute conversation by clicking the play button and read highlights from our conversation below.  For more information, please visit Andrew’s web site at www.AndrewHarvey.net and Karuna’s web site at www.yogakaruna.com.  Heart Yoga is available on Amazon.com by Clicking Here

Andrew, you are an internationally acclaimed visionary and bestselling author and/or editor of over 30 books.  What inspired you to write about yoga?

Well my last book , which in a way is a consummation of my life work is called “The Hope; A Guide to Sacred Activism.”  In that book I lay out a vision for what I believe is a force that can save the planet, save the human race and save us from the addictions that are now destroying us.  That force I call Sacred Activism, which is the fusion of the two noblest fires in the human soul: The fire of the mystic’s passion for God and the fire for the activist’s passion for justice.

When these two fires fuse, they birth a third fire which is the nuclear fire of love in action and which connects directly to the evolutionary fire that streams from the Godhead to evolve all of the Universes ever more profoundly into the glory of the Divine.

When I wrote this book, I came to understand that four kinds of practices were profoundly needed now for us to become strong enough to deal with the enormous crisis that is manifesting everywhere:

• Cool practices that calm us and align us with Divine Being.
• Hot practices that align us with the Motherhood of God.
• Prayer practices that enable us to keep up a stream of remembrance of the beloved through everything and align us with the will of God through everything.
• And very importantly, body practices, Sacred body practices that enable us to embody the Divine energies that are streaming in at this crucial and menacing moment to help birth what I believe is the real secret meaning of our crisis and embody Divine humanity.

About eight years ago, I had the great good fortune to meet Karuna Erickson and she was a pupil of mine in a class that I was giving on Rumi.  And very sweetly and tenderly, she came up to me after one of my classes and said,

“Andrew, the passion that is devouring you and that you are emanating will deeply damage you if you don’t get more bodied.”

And because she said it so sweetly, I heard her and I embarked on a whole deep immersion in yoga under her instruction and through that immersion, I came to understand with Karuna’s help that at this moment yoga could be the most important crucible for the divinization of the body that we have available to us.

Yoga has very ancient sacred roots.  Yoga has always known at these Sacred roots that the Divine is present as Light Consciousness in every cell of the body…

Yoga can become a conscious way of uniting with the Divine within and without and even more importantly of calling down the Divine Light into the body so that the body can become more and more consciously the living temple of the Divine energies.

One of the most extraordinary things about heart yoga has been is its extremely vibrant reception from both the leading spiritual teachers Marianne Williamson, Caroline Myss and Deepak Chopra and also by the leading Yoga teachers such as Seane Corn, Rodney Yee and Shiva Rea.

How does Heart Yoga differ from other types of yoga, and what is its biggest benefit?

God is the sacred marriage of immanence and transcendence.  This is the way in which God is most holy and most vibrantly worshiped in all the great mystical traditions.  And the site of the marriage is the sacred heart center.  This isn’t the physical center of the heart.  It’s a little bit to the right of the chest and it’s called by many names…

And, when this heart center is open, it allows for the irrigation of the body by the Divine Light….And so the heart center functions in the spiritual body, psychosomatic body, mystical body in the same way that the physical heart center operates in the physical body.  For example, just how the physical body pumps blood around the body to keep the body vibrant.  So, does the heart center, when open, pumps the Divine Light around all of the different parts of the physical and spiritual body and allows them to come into a vibrant field of naked unity, which allows us to become more and more consciously Divine.

So, we called it Heart Yoga in this very profound mystical sense and we’ve put at the core of our book a vision of the heart center how to open it and how to stay in it while practicing the asanas and I think Karuna you’d like to say something about why you feel so important about heart yoga…

Karuna:

I think that Andrew is a living example of heart yoga because you can hear in his words how the inspiration flows, in a very grounded way flows through the body.  The light is manifesting in every cell of our bodies actually when we practice with conscious intention, as we do with heart yoga.  Our intention is to bring practice into a deeper and deeper level of actually invoking the light and feeling it radiating through every cell in the body.  This creates the type of inspiration in which Andrew has been speaking of….

I’d like to emphasize that this experience is available to everyone.  It’s not just some rare, strange experience that’s only available to a few enlightened beings. But, everyone has an experience of connecting with what is Sacred.  For example, when they look at a baby or look at beautiful flower.  This direct experience of connecting with the Sacred is something that through conscious practice that we can all, and we all have experienced.  You don’t have to be an accomplished Yogi.  You can just open your heart to the possibility of this experience.  And, here it is for everyone.

Andrew:

In our book, we really do make that very clear.  One of our great dreams for this book is that it would be a book for absolutely everyone, not only for yoga practitioners, but also for those who haven’t yet found yoga.  And the ways that we offer for opening the heart through the ancient, mystical systems are very simple.

This article is a Guest Post contributed by Larry Coleman, author of The Shepherd Boy of New York City

Some of us are book lovers, some of us are movie lovers, and then there are those of us that are both. Although I fit the last category, I have never read Dan Millman’s book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior; but that didn’t stop me from being totally blown away by the 2006 movie which was based up his bestselling novel.

Peaceful Warrior (Widescreen), starring Nick Nolte, Amy Smart and Scott Mechlowicz, ranks among my all time favorite inspirational/spiritual movies. In order to keep this blog from sounding like a movie review, let’s just say the movie version of the book is about finding and embracing your inner guide, the guru in you.

Dan’s inner guide in the movie is an old gas station attendant aptly named, Socrates. Socrates main objective in the movie is to get Dan, a world class gymnast who has a sustained a career ending injury, to think outside the box, to live life in the moment, to forget about his perceived limitations and to embrace the world of paradox. Dan has to learn how to do all this on his own because no one can, or will, help him to do it. After all, a gymnast who shatters his femur in a motorcycle accident is a long shot to get back in the game and has no realistic chance of returning to something he loves—or does he?

In the movie, Socrates is a mystical teacher who only appears to Dan and Joy and a couple other people who show up for gas, Joy is another one of Socrates protégés; besides these two main characters, none of the other gymnast can see him. It’s sort of like the scene in which Jesus is driven into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple to show him all the kingdoms of the world in order to seduce him into to worshiping him. In reality, it’s not that Jesus and the Devil are flying over Jerusalem in bodily form, but the meeting takes place in consciousness. The character, Socrates, is much like that—we don’t know if he’s real or a figment in Dan’s imagination—it’s a beautiful piece of writing and directing, and a treat for the movie watcher.

The beauty of the Peaceful Warrior is hidden in the dialogue, and Socrates is full of little one-liners that stay with the movie watcher long after the closing credits. Here are a few of them:

“You can live your whole lifetime without being awake.

“There’s no higher purpose than to offer service.”

“People are afraid of what’s inside and that’s the only place they’re going to find what they need.

“There are no ordinary moments.” (a quote from Dan)

“A warrior doesn’t give up on what he loves. He finds the love in what he does.”

Socrates to Dan: “That’s the difference between you and me: You practice gymnastic, I practice everything. A warrior is not about perfection, or victory, or invulnerability. He’s about absolute vulnerability.”

“I want you to stop gathering information from outside yourself, and start gathering it from the inside.”

“How do you know I’m not your intuition speaking to you right now?

The Peaceful Warrior is truly inspiring film. I’ve seen it a couple of times and I think I’ll watch it again. It’s important to vulnerable enough to accept wisdom from wherever it may come. Perhaps, that’s my intuition speaking to me right now.

This article is a Guest Post written by Larry Coleman, author of The Shepherd Boy of New York City

You can purchase Peaceful Warrior on DVD on Amazon by Clicking Here .

Hunter Patch Adams , both a professional clown and doctor, has been made famous by the film that bears his name and stars Robin Williams. He has become so popular within the healing community by standing out in a crowd, promoting a radical healthcare system and challenging the most traditional medical models. For 27 years, Adams has advocated the effects that joy, fun, love, creativity, community and humor have on healing. He truly believes that these are integral parts of the healing process; therefore, health care must incorporate such things in life. With his clowning around, Adams has been able to lift the spirits of many seriously ill patients all over the world.

The history behind Patch Adams is just as exciting as his attire. As a freshman in college, Adams placed himself into a psychiatric hospital for depression and from then on promised himself that his life would be full of passion, joy and purpose. After he graduated from the Medical College of Virginia and finished his internship at Georgetown, he decided to quit his residency.

‘If you want to be a clown, join the circus’ is what Patch Adams was once told by an advisor. His ‘excessive happiness’ was critically noted in his official medical records at school. He did actually want to be a clown and be part of a circus, but he also wanted to be a doctor. With his desires, he combined his two very different personalities and become both. Patch, being both a doctor and a patient in a mental hospital, celebrates his victory of spirited individualism and his pursuit of idealistic dreams that never ended.

Adams is the Founder of the Gesundheith Institue in West Virginia and is on a mission to change how health care is offered, received and valued. After the Institute has treated 15,000 patients in its first 12 years (all without cost to patients), it has now become the next part of Adam’s vision, building his dream hospital- where intimacy and compassion take the place of malpractice insurance; and silliness and fun rule over liability waivers. The staff does not make a lot of money and patients do not pay anything. Exhaustion of caregivers and third-party insurance are non-existent. Joy is all that will exist in this hospital.

We have learned many lessons from Mr. Hunter ‘Patch’ Adams:

Justice, peace and care. No war.

Your life has meaning once you begin to give.

Everyone has their own version of how to love.

Accept others paths in life. As you are accepting change and working through self improvement, remember not everyone is doing the same thing. Everyone has different attitudes and values for life.

Success will not happen overnight; it takes time to acquire it.

If it is required that a staff be loving, happy, thoughtful and creative, the atmosphere will be fun for both caregivers and patients.

Healing needs to be a loving interchange between people and not business transaction.

Laughter is vital in healthy living. Laughter is considered to be the best medicine and also relieves stress.

Someone who is happy has a better immune system and is less susceptible to disease and illness.

Life must be fun!

This article is a Guest Post written by Melissa Tamura. Melissa writes about online degrees for the Zen College Life blog. A lifetime movie lover, she most recently wrote about the best online colleges.

You can purchase Patch Adams on Amazon by visiting Patch Adams