Every person can recall what it was like. In the massive unfolding tragedy you looked at television or to the sky, and you felt inside your skin the death of hope that anyone would survive. A shadow blotted out joy, and behind the shadow, evil worked to make sure that joy never returned. Of course that can’t happen. No one can be in pain forever. Fear isn’t here to stay. It just felt that way. (more…)

The events of 9/11 belong to a long string of historical catastrophes that test people’s faith in God, or offer evidence that such faith is misguided. In the beautiful summer movie, “The Tree of Life”, a boy witnesses another boy drown in the town’s swimming pool. Afterwards, he says to God in an accusing voice, “You let anything happen.” This is the central dilemma, spiritually speaking, around 9/11 and all other examples of the seeming dominance of evil, death, and destruction. To make sense of the enormous gap between God, who is supposedly good, and a world beset with suffering, the mind can follow any number of paths. They form a wild, tangled path of reasoning. (more…)

In the first post I began to talk about the spiritual side of stress. That’s such an unusual approach that it might be good to review stress more conventionally first. Stress is made more complicated because mind and body are involved. The so-called stress response is a temporary event with physical markers such as a rise in certain hormones. Once the event is over that caused the response, the stress isn’t gone, however. Soldiers come home from battle with post-traumatic stress disorder, for example, a lingering memory bringing back their stress even more powerfully and repeatedly than when it was first felt. Closer to home, sitting in a traffic snarl while commuting to and from work can create a low-level kind of stress that is constant and nagging. (more…)

Science vs Spirituality — Deepak Chopra shares his thoughts on human behavior and other topics on MSNBC Dylan Ratigan

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