Smells and Bells

http://www.eyeopening.info/2016/04/05/deceased-loved-one-ever-visited-you-in-a-dream#.WoClWlQ-fOQ There is a definite connection between the supernatural and dreaming. A dream itself almost seems to be a supernatural experience when we have dreams that seem so real but yet are over when we return to consciousness. We are able to see those who are no longer with us in our dreams but do these apparitions com from memory? Or are they visits from the dead? Either way, these visits or memories come from a place of love and longing to once again see those who we have lost even if we never knew them when they were living. When I was about two I began to put names to people and talking as a developing child would. I had two older cousins who referred to my grandfather as “Grandpa” along with the rest of my family. My family was rightfully surprised and confused when I began referring to my grandfather as “Pop”. My parents were unable to pinpoint where I could have come up with this name u...

Different religions relate to the sense of sight in different ways. In Diana L. Eck's book Darsan: Seeing The Divine Image In India  she compares and contrasts the difference between the traditions in the east and the west in relationship to sight. She writes that western traditions who have a propensity to hold God as something separate from what we can see condemn practices such as darsan that worship of a deity through sight. In contrast Eastern traditions tend to believe that one can see and be seen by the deity, a manifestation of God, because God is in all things. The investigation of worship through sight in Eck's book has been truly illuminating and inspiring. It is especially fascinating to me in the context of Buddhist philosophy. Hinduism and Buddhism have many things in common. For example, the concept of every person having the light of God within them as referenced by the greeting Namaste corresponds to the buddhist principle that all living beings have Buddha n...