Dreams take us to the place of soul beyond self

The Traveling Solo blog shares responses to Thomas Moore's new book, A Religion of One's Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World by blogger Linda Harris. Harris writes about Moore's book in five posts:

1. A Religion of One's Own, by Thomas Moore
2. Chapter 2: A beautiful bowl, a letter in the mail, a gift in shiny paper
3. Chapter 3: Dreams — Thomas Moore
4. Ordinary Things: a question
5. Favorite Things

What you want is often what you don't need

Huffington Post blogger, Catherine Nagle, quotes Thomas Moore at the start of her recent post, "Why I Pray". In  Meditations: On the Monk who Dwells in Daily Life page 19 Moore writes:

"Pray — Period! Don't expect anything, or better, expect nothing. Prayer cleanses us of expectations and allows holy will, providence, and life itself an entry. What could be more worth the effort — or the non-effort!"

Following this introduction, Nagle responds, "I find this quote by far the most powerful saving Grace of the infallible devotion of all traditional prayers. " She shares, "The Lord's Prayer and Psalm 23 are among my devotionals and have brought me closer to God's holy will."

Dark light may be valued over naïve sunshine

Self-described writer, sound engineer, musician, and mystic in Newcastle upon Tyne U.K., Jessica Davidson reviews Thomas Moore's Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way through Life's Ordeals in a blog post this month.

Sprinkling her review with quotes from Moore's book, Davidson concludes, "In the end, the dark night is about finding out who you really are in the depths of your soul. It facilitates a relationship with your daemon, or guiding spirit, which helps you to cultivate the strength to be true to your deeper Self. Everyone has their own scintilla  —  the divine spark, or inner genius that ‘knows’. As Thomas Moore shows, the best way to deal with the dark night is to use the emotional and intellectual darkness to help you see your own luminosity."

Relax your will during the soul's dark nights

Moon Day Journal blog values Thomas Moore's book, Dark Nights of the Soul, in the similarly titled post, "Dark Night of the Soul" at the beginning of this month:

 "It has been just a little over two years since my last post to this blog.  This has been a difficult time for me, a time of wanting to get free of my marriage and yet so not wanting it to end. A book by Thomas Moore, Dark Nights of the Soul, helped me by naming what I was experiencing in the grip of these conflicting impulses. 'Sometimes a dark night begins to brew when you are caught between incompatible wishes,' Moore writes. 'At one level you want change, but at another it’s the last thing in the world you want.'   

Moore encouraged me to accept that what I needed to do was sit with this dilemma until my internal conflict resolved itself and allowed me to move on.  This sitting with the feelings that arise and accepting 'what is,' is, of course, what Buddhist practice and yoga practice are all about.  So, I have been practicing intensely but not feeling much like writing about it."

The post ends with a quote by Moore that includes, "The relaxing of your will, however desperate, allows life to proceed.  It may not go according to your plan, but whatever it makes will be more secure and ultimately more satisfying than anything you could force into existence."