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In Intimate Spirituality: The Catholic Way of Love and Sex, Gordon J. Hilsman presents sexual loving as integral to rather than separate from most people’s spiritual lives. His coalescing of intimate love with traditional Catholic concepts—virtues, capital sins, fruits of the Spirit, sacraments—augments the pervasively moral view of sex with a spiritual perspective that highlights its beauty and power to shape the virtue of peoples lives. Seeing sexual attraction as built into humanity by the Creator to feed and challenge virtually all persons worldwide, he illustrates how intimate loving is actually a neglected aspect of Christian spirituality that has never been developed as fully as the individual and the communal. Hilsman calls upon theologians and spiritual leaders to further develop the understanding of intimate loving as a genuinely beautiful spiritual aspect of life. Many Christians (Catholics and Protestants alike) who take both their love lives and their Christian faith seriously, will find the positive, healthy view of sexuality presented in this book illuminating and helpful. So will those who counsel them.
Love between Equals by Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D. Pdf
Learn how to successfully negotiate conflicts and deepen our most intimate relationships in this practical and thoughtful guide by an experienced Buddhist teacher, psychotherapist, and couples counselor. A committed relationship, as most people see it today, is a partnership of equals who share values and goals, a team united by love and dedicated to each other’s growth on every level. This contemporary model for coupledom requires real intention and work, and, more often than not, the traditional archetypes of relationships experienced by our parents and grandparents fail us or seem irrelevant. Utilizing the wisdom of her years of personal and professional practice, Young-Eisendrath dismantles our idealized projections about love, while revealing how mindfulness and communication can help us identify and honor the differences with our partners and strengthen our bonds. These practical and time-tested guidelines are rooted in sound understanding of modern psychology and offer concrete ideas and the necessary tools to reinforce and reinvigorate our deepest relationships.
Spiritual Bypassing by Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. Pdf
“A wonderfully significant and important book.” —Ken Wilber, The Integral Vision “A timely and penetrating analysis of spirituality’s shadow.” —Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism without Beliefs A spiritual teacher and integral psychotherapist offers a first-of-its-kind study on how we use—and abuse—spiritual beliefs and practices, revealing how to identify and move beyond what holds us back from living life fully. Spiritual bypassing—the use of spiritual beliefs to avoid dealing with painful feelings, unresolved wounds, and developmental needs—is so pervasive that it goes largely unnoticed. The spiritual ideals of any tradition, whether Christian commandments or Buddhist precepts, can provide easy justification for practitioners to duck uncomfortable feelings in favor of more seemingly enlightened activity. When split off from fundamental psychological needs, such actions often do much more harm than good. While other authors have touched on the subject, this is the first book fully devoted to spiritual bypassing. In the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa’s landmark Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Spiritual Bypassing provides an in-depth look at the unresolved or ignored psychological issues often masked as spirituality, including self-judgment, excessive niceness, and emotional dissociation. A longtime psychotherapist with an engaging writing style, Masters furthers the body of psychological insight into how we use (and abuse) religion in often unconscious ways. This book will hold particular appeal for those who grew up with an unstructured new-age spirituality now looking for a more mature spiritual practice, and for anyone seeking increased self-awareness and a more robust relationship with themselves and others.
In recent decades, men have begun to question seriously their traditionally held roles and values. The women's movement, popular books, and male images on television and in films have all contributed to men's uncertainty about themselves. There is a major shift taking place in the perception of sexuality. James Nelson asserts that men and women seek something the sexual revolution did not provide: an understanding of the true meaning of love. This, he claims, is the unfinished business of that revolution.
Religion and Intimate Partner Violence by Nancy Nason-Clark,Barbara Fisher-Townsend,Catherine Holtmann,Stephen McMullin Pdf
"Grounded in data and enriched with narratives of abused women, abusive men, and those who walk alongside them, Religion and Intimate Partner Violence examines how lived religion both helps and hinders the journey towards justice, accountability, healing and wholeness for women and men caught in the web of abuse"--
This is a book about making contact—with yourself, your partner, and everything around you—at the deepest level possible. The basis for this connection is what Dr. Judith Blackstone calls fundamental consciousness—what we all are in our essence. In The Intimate Life, this innovative teacher and psychotherapist shares 17 relational practices from her unique approach to embodied spiritual awakening known as the Realization Process. Offered to help us relate “core to core” with compassion, understanding, and joy, The Intimate Life explores: “Our spirituality flowers as we bring love alive in our lives. In The Intimate Life, Judith Blackstone guides us in how to release resistance to authentic contact and how to realize our inherent oneness with all beings. Her teachings are lucid, powerful, and wise—this book is a gem!”—Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Acceptance “With grace and profound insight, Judith Blackstone presents wise guidance on how we can more genuinely connect with and recognize the luminous depth of each other—and the world.”—Marci Shimoff, New York Times bestselling author, Love for No Reason and Happy for No Reason Attuning to Unified Consciousness—how to let go of our conditioned perceptions and behaviors to foster spiritual maturation • Overcoming boundary problems—how to embrace the paradox of oneness and separateness • Awareness, emotion, and physical contact—the three main pathways of interpersonal connection • The spiritual essence of sexuality—spiritual exercises that apply unified consciousness to sexuality to enhance pleasure, liberate the body’s subtle energy, and more To genuinely love other people is one of the central ideals in every spiritual tradition. It’s also one of our greatest challenges. Here is a transformational guide to becoming “lovers of life” and experiencing the full potential of our intimate relationships.
Advanced Spiritual Intimacy by Stuart Sovatsky Pdf
A practical guide for both individuals and couples to transform sexual energy into spiritual and erotic fulfillment • Explains how to awaken advanced stages of sexual development for spiritual intimacy and deep erotic satisfaction • Includes illustrated instructions for exercises and techniques based on yoga, kundalini, breathing practices, mantra chanting, and chakra meditation • Explores how this practice can deepen a life partnership, enhance creativity, heal emotional scars, and awaken new understandings of gender Sexual development does not end in adolescence. There are advanced stages of glandular, emotional, and erotic development based in the lifelong “puberty of the spine.” Known in India as kundalini awakening, these stages form the energetic basis of all yoga forms and deeper erotic aspirations. They present an opportunity for couples and individuals to explore the consciousness-expanding abilities of sexual energy as both spirituality and sexuality transform into what Michel Foucault called ars erotica, far beyond the Freudian scientia sexualis sexuality of the Western world. Offering a guide to the advanced stages of human sexuality and a passionately infused tantric yoga practice, Stuart Sovatsky explains how to awaken the complete spinal puberty, resulting in spiritual intimacy and orgasmic pineal maturity that far surpasses the gratifications of modern sexuality. With illustrated instructions, he reveals flow-yoga asanas, mantras, and devotional breathing practices for solo kundalini yoga as well as couples’ yoga practices and chakra meditations to awaken the heart and the divinely eroticized mind. He shares inspiring stories from those on this path about ever-deepening life partnerships, enriched family life, enhanced personal creativity, profound new understandings of conception, masculinity, femininity, and gender itself as well as healing emotional scars of romantic breakups and sexual abuse. Sovatsky shows that by transcending conventional Western sexuality and returning to the ars erotica beliefs of ancient India, we can harness the divine energy--glimpsed for only an instant by most people--at the heart of all erotic yearning.
Sacred Pathways reveals nine distinct spiritual temperaments--and their strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies--to help you improve your spiritual life and deepen your personal walk with God. It's time to strip away the frustration of a one-size-fits-all spirituality and discover a path of worship that frees you to be you. Experienced spiritual directors, pastors, and church leaders recognize that all of us engage with God differently, and it's about time we do too. In this updated and expanded edition of Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas details nine spiritual temperaments and--like the Enneagram and other tools do with personality--encourages you to investigate the ways you most naturally express yourself in your relationship with God. He encourages you to dig into the traits, strengths, and pitfalls in your devotional approach so you can eliminate the barriers that keep you locked into rigid methods of worship and praise. Plus, as you begin to identify and understand your own temperament, you'll soon learn about the temperaments that aren’t necessarily "you" but that may help you understand the spiritual tendencies of friends, family, and others around you. Whatever temperament or blend of temperaments best describes you, rest assured it's not by accident. It's by the design of a Creator who knew what he was doing when he made you according to his own unique intentions. If your spiritual walk is not what you'd like it to be, you can change that, starting here. Sacred Pathways will show you the route you were made to travel, marked by growth and filled with the riches of a close walk with God.
A renowned, respected teacher and mentor to thousands, Sobonfu Somi is one of the first and foremost voices of African spirituality to come to the West. Somi was born in Dano, Burkina Faso, a remote West African village with a population of about two hundred people. Dano has preserved the old ways of African village life, with family structures, spiritual practices, and methods of living that have been in place for more than ten thousand years. In The Spirit of Intimacy, Somi distills the ancient teachings and wisdom of her native village to give insight into the nature of intimate relationships. Somi generously applies the subtle knowledge from her West African culture to this one. Simply and beautifully, she reveals the role of spirit in every marriage, friendship, relationship, and community. She shares ancient ways to make our intimate lives more fulfilling and secure and offers powerful insights into the "illusion of romance," divorce, and loss. Her important and fascinating lessons from the heart include the sacred meaning of pleasure, preparing a ritual space for intimacy, and the connection between sex and spirituality. Her ideas are intuitively persuasive, provocative, and healing--and supported by sound practical advice, along with specific rituals and ceremonies based on those used for thousands of years. With this book, the spiritual insights of indigenous Africa take their place alongside those of native America, ancient Europe, and Asia as important influences on Western readers.A renowned, respected teacher and mentor to thousands, Sobonfu Somi is one of the first and foremost voices of African spirituality to come to the West. Somi was born in Dano, Burkina Faso, a remote West African village with a population of about two hundred people. Dano has preserved the old ways of African village life, with family structures, spiritual practices, and methods of living that have been in place for more than ten thousand years. In The Spirit of Intimacy, Somi distills the ancient teachings and wisdom of her native village to give insight into the nature of intimate relationships. A renowned, respected teacher and mentor to thousands, Sobonfu Somi is one of the first and foremost voices of African spirituality to come to the West. Somi was born in Dano, Burkina Faso, a remote West African village with a population of about two hundred people. Dano has preserved the old ways of African village life, with family structures, spiritual practices, and methods of living that have been in place for more than ten thousand years. In The Spirit of Intimacy, Somi distills the ancient teachings and wisdom of her native village to give insight into the nature of intimate relationships. Somi generously applies the subtle knowledge from her West African culture to this one. Simply and beautifully, she reveals the role of spirit in every marriage, friendship, relationship, and community. She shares ancient ways to make our intimate lives more fulfilling and secure and offers powerful insights into the "illusion of romance," divorce, and loss. Her important and fascinating lessons from the heart include the sacred meaning of pleasure, preparing a ritual space for intimacy, and the connection between sex and spirituality. Her ideas are intuitively persuasive, provocative, and healing--and supported by sound practical advice, along with specific rituals and ceremonies based on those used for thousands of years. With this book, the spiritual insights of indigenous Africa take their place alongside those of native America, ancient Europe, and Asia as important influences on Western readers.
“Full of wisdom as well as practical guidance about how to bring spiritual illumination into the very heart of our humanness.” —John Welwood, author of Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships and Journey of the Heart Our natural state is to love and be loved. From deep within, we’re compelled to seek connection. Yet relationships remain a struggle—even for the most spiritually enlightened among us. Traumatic experiences, insecure attachment, and especially the false but commonly held belief that we are separate, both from each other and from the love we seek, can cause endless problems in relationships. As long as our connections are built on this untruth, lasting love and harmony in relationship will elude us. Awakened Relating can help. Written by a licensed therapist and pioneer in bringing the most direct teachings of non-duality into the practice of psychotherapy, this book offers practical guidance for improving relationships through “awakened relating”—a more enlightened experience of falling in love, communication, conflict resolution, and sexuality. With examples, guidelines, and experiential inquiries for realizing your true nature, this book will dispel common myths and mistaken beliefs about intimacy and help you cultivate a loving relationship with yourself and others. Including inspirational stories of people who practice awakened relating in their own lives, this book will show you how to identify, transform, and resolve the deep psychological issues that prevent you from having the harmonious, loving relationships you seek. Now is the time to realize the deep and ever-present love that exists within and all around you.
90 Days of Spiritual Intimacy by Clephane W. ''Terrific'' Roberts Pdf
“90 Days of Spiritual Intimacy is a life-changing, mind-transforming and soul-inspiring work of excellence. By making the profound simple and the simple profound, the energetic, enlightened C. W. “Terrific” Roberts has put spiritual intimacy within the reach of all who are willing to embrace it. Purchase it! Read it! Be transformed by it!” Pastor Howard Simon Family Therapist and Author of 101 Elements of Excellence. “90 Days of Spiritual Intimacy takes you on a journey of abundance and excellence. It lays the foundation for discovering and experiencing the depth of God’s love for each of us and thereby it opens up a vast new range of opportunities and successes.” Nichole Grant Information Technology Instructor “In time when many are extremely busy with the demands of a fast paced society, Clephane Roberts has provided us with a systematic format to keep us in tune with our Saviour Jesus Christ. This simple, yet profound approach to spiritual development is long overdue. As a Minister/Counselor, I view this book as a must read for those seeking spiritual direction and emotional healing. Christians who often struggle in maintaining a strong devotional life, now have a great resource to assits them in their quest for spiritual intimacy with God. It is my belief that this book will inspire all Christians in their walk with God.” Pastor Cecil Cornelius Minister of Counseling and Pastoral Care Cornerstone Baptist Church Arlington, Texas “If 90 Days of Spiritual Intimacy accomplishes one thing, it is this: it parachutes spirit-filled insights into your everday-ness. More than a devotional book, C. W. “Terrific” Roberts offers readers the participatory manual that is at once eminently sophisticated, analytically user-friendly, provocatively practical, and profoundly transformational. Read this book and you will discover its compelling power to challenge and change you.” Dr. Isaac Newton Inspirational Speaker and Author of Several Books including: Fix It Preacher: Meditative Conversations Between Pulpit and Pew