Steven Taylor

Audio version read by Rev. Steven Lane Taylor, B.Msc.
“Real Love vs. Imagined Love”

Is it real love or is it imagined love? Have you ever asked yourself this question? Many people have, and numerous others are currently making this very same self-inquiry. The question may be asked under varying circumstances, such as when contemplating a new relationship, in the midst of a current relationship, or in retrospect, when reflecting on a previous relationship.

And why is this such an important question? The reason is that love, above all else in life, is the single most important source of happiness, apart only from one’s relationship to God.

So many relationships and marriages end because one or both partners could not distinguish real love from imagined love. Real love is from the heart—from the very soul of a person—and it is lasting. In all relationships there are disagreements and bumps in the road in communication, but in the case of real love, such dips in a relationship do not diminish the love. Real love can override any temporary negativity between two people.

Audio version read by Rev. Steven Lane Taylor, B.Msc.
“The Sacredness of Silence”

There’s a Mystical expression that goes, “He who speaks more knows less, and he who speaks less knows more.”  If one encounters religious zealots, they are very likely to speak at great length and volume about their beliefs.  A person who is advanced in spiritual awareness knows to remain silent and let the zealot ramble on.  With awareness, one knows that to try to enlighten such a person at that level of awareness would do no good.  It would only end in a meaningless debate.  There’s nothing to be gained.  It is better to remain silent, being content to know that in some future lifetime every zealot will awaken to a much greater realization of spiritual truth.

All who have studied deeper forms of meditation—for the purpose of experiencing mystical union with God—do all they can to enter into the Silence of the Absolute.  Only when the mind can be totally quieted can Absolute Presence be known.  As long as thinking occupies the mind, God cannot.  Thoughts and thinking are all activities of the false sense of personal ego identity.  Even those thoughts that dwell on God are still part of personal ego consciousness.  As long as the personal ego is active—even in the loftiest of ways—God’s Presence remains unknown.