Sparks from the Fire

As a teacher, a parent, and inspirational music composer, I am conscious of this subtle line of demarcation between the undesirable and the desired.  It moves and waves from case to case, from situation to situation.  It requires complete consciousness to keep it in control.

I want to be feared by no one – not even my worst enemy.  If I am feared then I truly am an enemy.  If I am respected then the enmity disappears and the relationship between constituents is in balance.  Cross the line and welcome in the beginnings of war.

(more…)

If there was ever a confusion of concepts, it’s this one.  It’s been in the high 90s here in NYC for the past week and it seems like everybody I’m running into lately is struggling with a summer cold.  The whole concept, or should I say ‘miss-concept’, is so proliferate that I guess I decided to join the party – or should I say ‘got duped into’ joining the party.

Fly Fishing - What's wrong with this picture?

I mean really, what a weird thing to begin with – get a cold when it’s hot.  Shows how mental these things are in the first place.  To begin with, the expression, “in the first place” is the operative word here in my experience.  I decided to join the party because I didn’t protect my thought as I usually do when I started being bombarded with all the bad news.

(more…)

Need a healing?  Start with forgiveness.

We all carry the need to forgive somebody around with us through life.  If you can’t think of anyone you need to forgive, try forgiving yourself.  Once you clean up that dark spot in your life, you’ll see healing demonstrated by the endeavor – often in physical terms.

But what really is forgiveness?  I think forgiveness comes when we truly clean up the mess.  We forgive and are forgiven when we no longer have anything to forgive.  It’s not, as some think, an act that somehow prefaces the solution of the original crime.  It only comes when the crime is solved and rectified.

The most prescient statement I’ve ever heard on the subject of forgiveness is found in the Lord’s Prayer.  Forgive us our debts (our trespasses) as we forgive our debtors (those who trespass against us).

(more…)

A famous saying goes like this: “If the mind is not contrived, it is spontaneously blissful;  just as water, when not agitated, is by nature transparent and clear.”

Buddhism teaches us the following: “I often compare the mind in meditation to a jar of muddy water.

The more we leave the water without interfering or stirring it, the more the particles of dirt will sink to the bottom, letting the natural clarity of the water shine through.

The very nature of the mind is such that if you only leave it in its unaltered state, it will find its true nature, which is bliss and clarity.”

My mother, a dedicated Christian woman and accomplished healer, who knew nothing about Buddhism taught me the same thing when I was a child, only she was referencing prayer and not meditation.  She would often say, (more…)

As a child growing up I always thought someone with an ego was someone who was deemed bigheaded or conceited.  If you had a big ego, you were far too impressed with yourself.

In the past 5 years or so through the exploration and study of Eckhart Tolle’s two seminal books, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment and A New Earth, both which I’ve read and re-read many times, I’ve come to see and understand the word ‘ego’ in a much more expanded light.

According to Tolle’s official website, “at the core of Tolle’s teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution. An essential aspect of this awakening consists in transcending our ego-based state of consciousness. This is a prerequisite not only for personal happiness but also for the ending of violent conflict endemic on our planet.”

(more…)

Pardon my absence, but I’ve been up to my eyebrows in music.

Just this last weekend I had the great privilege to produce and direct a concert of Inspirational music for TMC Youth, an organization dedicated to opening up the horizons of spirituality for the youth of today.

In a 3-day weekend gathering of over 200 young people from mainly the East coast, but also from as far away as Africa and Europe, my task was to put together and spearhead an hour and a half of Inspirational music entertainment for their Saturday night blow-out.

(more…)

• You are the light of the world.  Live your life as if this were true because it is true.
• But can you build something so grand, people will be drawn to you?
• God, use me as an instrument of thy peace.
• It’s much easier to be done than satisfied.
• Be not slothful in business, but fervent in Spirit – serving the Lord.

For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link, please visit
Watchfire Music.

In the long run, what does it matter?  Christianity’s biggest split seems to me to be was he or wasn’t he.  Was Jesus God?  Just doesn’t make sense.  To me it seems like he was not.

Don’t mean to stir up a hornet’s nest here (or maybe I do), but I think a ton of people here got it wrong.

For my money, Jesus was the way-shower, the exemplar.  He was sent here to be an example for us on the subject of how to live our lives.  He was a human being just like us and that was the point.  He showed us our potential – what we could be if we knew what he knew and practiced what he practiced.

He taught us how to think, how to treat our fellow man, how to heal, how to live.

(more…)