Spirituality 101

Greetings! And welcome to my site. My name is James Arthur Mitchell and  I am an aspiring actor/singer/dancer and artist. I am back in my hometown of Buffalo, NY where I completed work on a feature film a friend of mine has directed and produced. (Sal Monico) The film is entitled "Beyond the Mainstream" and follows the lives of several "alt" girls in Buffalo who befriend the lead actress who aspires to an on-air position at a local radio station. I play the manager of the station. (Gino Morellie) I'm kinda like the villain in the piece except that I'm really kinda funny too. (At least I'm trying to be) The film is going to be premiered in Buffalo and in Toronto sometime this summer('09) if all goes well . We are hoping for a distribution deal as well.

  I  have worked with Richard Wicca, who produces several shows and  The Five-Minute Video Series at his Home of the Future.( http://www.hotftv.net)

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Spirituality 101

Hello! This section of my site will explore my personal spiritual beliefs and teachers. I  know there are LOTS of spiritually-minded people out there and I encourage you to find ones that you feel drawn to for whatever reason. This site will explore many of the spiritual teachers I have come in contact with over the years, as well as my own personal views on spirituality and what it means to all of us collectively. I encourage you to have an open mind and join me on the journey of self-discovery.

OK, first of all you must understand that the SOUL is of utmost importance. You also need to understand what the soul is and recognize that you not only have one but that you ARE one. I recommend reading books by Thomas Moore in particular because he is intimately acquainted with the idea of Soul and what it really means. Another great series is  Conversations with God  by Neale Donald Walsh. These also I highly recommend. The soul wishes to be free to pursue its desires and talents and does not like to be hindered by an overly rationalistic mind which so many are prone to in our culture. The truth is that God did not intend life to be so complicated. It's time to simplify our lives and get back to basics. I am a big advocate of Krishna Consciousness and recommend chanting the Maha Mantra Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama. Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare as well as studying vedic literature and reading The Bhagavad- Gita  As-It -Is by his divine grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

  Here are some themes I am going to be exploring here on this website:  enlightenment, purpose, higher ideals, appreciation, loving unconditionally, refraining from judgement, understanding myth and how it relates to all of us collectively, vision, honesty, truthfulness, innocence, playfulness, responsibility, cosmic awareness , imagination, compassion, logic, societal matrix, freedom, music, arts, poetry, ascended masters, faith, spiritual emissaries, angels and inner transformation .

Music is the language of the Soul. I have loved music from a very early age and for good reason. It speaks directly to my soul. I have always been attracted to beautiful music and especially singers. It's important to play only music that feeds or nurtures one's soul. If you do otherwise you risk channelling  negative energy that will not be good for the world. Everything is vibration.  All music, whether positive or negative is an expression of the Creator. However, I do not recommend listening to extremely jarring  selections that are more aptly described as a type of screaming.  It depends,of course, on the artist so it is important to be discerning. For me, music has meant a great deal in my life. There was never a time when music wasn't the most important thing to me (outside of love) My deep love of singing from a early age  definitely contributed to my fascination with music and I encourage everyone to learn how to sing, even if they think it's impossible. It's not, believe me. If you can talk, you can learn  to sing. It's just that simple.

   Another concept I would like to talk about is creativity. We are creative beings, whether we realize it or not. Most children are encouraged to appreciate and develop their creative and artistic abilities. When do we stop being creative? Never! The truth is we are always creating our reality individually and collectively moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day. The problem in our society tends to be that we are conditioned to think too rationally and use the mind to solve problems when we we should be using our hearts and souls.( Again, think of the song here). The mind is a very powerful thing but it has no will of its own.. It acts like a computer. It will do what you tell it to do. The soul however does have a will and it will  find a way to exercise it one way or another. What do you think dreams are all about? Soul travel. Now I haven't touched upon the heart but of course that's an extremely important concept too and directly linked to soul.

       I really love children and  animals.Why? Because their spirits are pure and innocent , and they embody unconditional love and freedom of expression. They realize on some level that they are not in charge, that they have parents who love them and that older people will look after them. That's the pure essence of faith. We should all have that kind of faith. But we don't. Why? Because We want to be in charge all the time and not let SPIRIT do it's work! Again, that's the essence of FAITH, something sorely lacking in our secular society.  Ultimately, all children learn what their parents and society teaches them. Some are strong enough to overcome negative conditioning, but for those who are not it can be disastrous. Children are our future. Teach them well. Treat them with dignity and respect. The art of parenting is knowing when to say no and mean it. You must let your children know who's in charge. If they think they are in charge then you have a serious problem on your hands. Love your kids unconditionally but also let them know who's boss .They will thank you for it later. That's why it's so important to lead a truly spiritual life. Because that's who we all are. Spirits and Souls. Listen to your children.  They have much to teach you.

Life should be a voyage of discovery, not a plethora of despair. War is not the answer. Common logic would dictate this. There are many higher dimensions than this one. They are exceedingly wondrous and beautiful. There simply is no end to the glory of God, which is  everywhere present and everywhere infinite. God of course has no gender but has masculine and feminine aspects. The reason I am telling you this is to show you how limitless you are in the greater scheme of things. We have  limited ourselves in so many ways. Religions have been responsible for providing some of the biggest stumbling blocks to mankind. They purport to have the ultimate answers to Life's big questions.What may be true for one may not be true for someone else. I can tell you what is true. God exists. And we exist to love and serve Him and love and serve each other. Now when I say "Him" I really mean every aspect of divinity, including the Planet we inhabit. If you think we are alone in the Universe think again. We aren't. We never have been. The human race was seeded here millions of years ago in the last of three "Grand Experiments" The first two failed. This is it folks. It's almost over. We're getting very close to the time of spiritual reunion with our "star families". Where do you think all those myths came from? Thin air? You don't have to look very far to see evidence of extraterrestrial intervention on Planet Earth. As we are evolving from God we are involuting back to God. Involution and evolution are a constant cycle, like yin and yang.

 Humans judge themselves ultimately because they are one with  the law of karma (cause and effect) as propounded by the ancient Vedic scriptures. God created us to be creators in our own right because that is what we all are. Any concept of God as being separate from his creations is a fallacy. It makes no sense. Eastern literature describes this world of form as Maya or illusion. It is also called Lila, or the divine play.  We are literally the dream of God, his entertainment. But if we see ourselves as fully one with our God-source , Our mighty I AM Presence, then we can enjoy creation  too, because we realize that it is nothing but a dream of our own making. Suffering results when a soul does not know he or she is dreaming and is not awake in God. Everything in the Universe is connected to everything else. This has already been proven. So what's the problem? Religion. Adam and Eve. Mistaken ideas like original sin. In Conversations With God it is described as the "original blessing" for without which no idea of free will could ever have been produced or undertaken. . Many so called "Christians" believe themselves to be inherently unworthy due to this ridiculous concept of original sin which doesn't exist. We are one with  Christ Consciousness that has existed since the beginning. Christians mistakenly believe Jesus to be the only embodiment of  Christ Consciouness thereby making him the savior of the world and its peoples,  but it is more complicated than that. Christ's teachings have been distorted and lost to dogma and misinterpretation. James, the true successor and brother to Jesus, was nearly written out of history. This is why there is so much confusion between Jews and Christians. James was the pivotal figure who established Jesus as the Jewish  messiah. He and his followers did not see themselves promoting some new religion, but of fullfilling their own. The Roman Catholic church saw to it that Paul, not James be seen as the true successor, since his (Paul's) message was clearly aimed at converting  gentiles to  belief in Jesus as the Christ. The Dead Sea Scrolls offer clues into the historicity of James as righteous teacher or Zadok as described in Eisenman's book James the Brother of Jesus. Jesus was and is a master spirit and a great teacher. To deny his divinity would be to deny everyone's divinity because that is what Jesus clearly embodied. No figure  has had more historical impact on humanity than Jesus of Nazareth. It is true that wars have been fought in his name and religious zealots have blinded themselves to universal truths that Jesus embodied. The" lost years " of Jesus were likely spent in places like India and Tibet where a holy brother named St. Issa has been recorded in the annals of  certain Buddhist sects. The message of Jesus was clear: Love the Creator and  Love your neighbor as yourself. In addition, the Gospel of Thomas sheds light on the true nature of Jesus.

 I'd now like to talk about the story of Adam and Eve and how it has impacted  mass consciousness.

Adam and Eve were one of the best things to ever happen to the human race. Unfortunately, Eve was beguiled by the then deposed ruling planetary prince and his associates, acting on her own without Adam's knowledge. It is a testament to Adam's love for her that he chose to share her fate. He would not have done so otherwise. The odds were stacked against them from the beginning.  I recommend reading the Urantia Book for more on this.(It can be found online).  Adam was going with the program. He did his thing. He named the animals. Eve wasn't. And yes, she was "beguiled" by the serpent, except that these were powerful beings intent on ruining everything. Mankind had "fallen" a long way before Adam and Eve ever made their appearance on Earth. It wasn't their fault of course, they were sent to help uplift the planetary races and were never found to be guilty of any insurrection. However, they lost their immortal status and became mortals, albeit very advanced ones. The planetary prince Caligastia at that time was involved in what was known as the "Lucifer rebellion", the fall of Lucifer and a great many of his angels. There had been two "insurrections" previously but they were not nearly as large and were in far distant galaxies. This is what "Star Wars" was all about.  The Urantia book details all of this so I won't go on and on about it. I wouldn't expect everyone to relate to it but it's not that hard to comprehend either. We have imagined so much already on this planet through books and films especially. Where do you think all of that comes from? The whole point is that the human race has got to get its act together now. Time as we understand it, is running out. It would be wise for all of us to heed the Mayan calender. It ends on December 21st, 2012. That's not a lot of time folks! These people knew what they were talking about. I suggest you pay attention to it.

I am an advocate of the Bahai faith, because I believe it to be the hope of mankind. It embraces all of the world's religions and unifies them. Bahais believe in the progressive revelation of the prophets, each one buliding on the the former. Baha'u'lla, the prophet-founder of the Bahai Faith  was born in Persia (Iran)during the 19th century. Bahais believe him to be the reappearance of Christ for our age. He  and his family went through much persecution during thier life times and ended up in the prison city of Akka in the Holy land for nearly 40 years.

 I also follow the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda which I highly reccommend. Yogananda founded the Self-Realization Fellowship in 1920 in Los Angeles. His "Autobiography of a Yogi" is a classic and is always in demand. I personally follow Swami Kriyananda of Ananda.org who is one of the last living disciples of Yogananda.

   Everything is alive. Everything has a spirit. We, as human beings, were meant to appreciate the world around us and each other to the best of our abilities. The Oxford American College dictionary defines it this way: 1.recognize the full worth of. * Be grateful for  2.understand fully ; recognize the full implications of. Appreciation means living in the moment, in the here and now. The more we can appreciate life and all that it offers us the more fulfilled we wll become. Problems arise when people and things are not appreciated as they should be. The concept of appreciation goes hand in hand with the concept of reverence. To be reverent is to give repect to, and attention. First and foremost we must appreciate and give reverence to ourselves and then it will naturally outflow to the world around us. Obviously cutting down trees to make paper and outlawing hemp production is not in the best interests of this planet or her peoples. Until humanity wakes up, the corporations, in league with the governements of the world, will continue to wreak havok upon the Earth and furthur accelerate the demise of civilzation as we know it. The world will evolve and cleanse itself of all negative vibration. This has already been prophesied. So be grateful for what you have, because it won't last forever. The extent to which mankind can accept the challenge of taking  responsibility for its actions upon the face of the earth will determine how easily it can move into its final destiny. Consciousness is the key. I am fortunate indeed to poseess a high spiritual consciouness, and am thankful for it. Knowledge is power, plain and simple. How we use that knowledge is yet another matter.This is what all the great masters have said since the beginning of time. Without the masters humanity would be lost, for they are the illumined ones, the lightbearers, the way-showers of God. It would be wise to heed their council. Unfortunately, the majority of mankind lives mostly in a state of fear, confusion and ignorance. This is how they are so easily manipulated, like sheep to the slaughter. Well I say it ought so not to be! That is not our Divine heritage! And so say the masters.