Discover the Bliss of Asheville's Spiritual Community
The very beauty of the mountains of Western North Carolina personifies spirit... and has always attracted people who seek spirituality in their lives.
In the greater Asheville area, there are numerous pathways to this spirituality. Here are just a few...
Unity Center in Western North Carolina
"... What can you expect at a Unity Sunday morning service? People of all ages, dressed however they feel comfortable (from jeans to suits), coming together for fellowship, to learn to create a more joyful, harmonious life, and to experience a spiritual connection to God."
A typical worship service includes:
Contemporary, original music, both sung together by the congregation and performed by Lytingale and The Unitic Band,
A few teaching jokes and stories,
A time of meditation and healing prayers,
Singing The Lord's Prayer together,
A lesson from our unique minister, Rev. Chad O'Shea (described as a cross between George Carlin and Ram Dass!)
We laugh, we sing, we cry, we meditate, we learn, we hug, and we do our best to take this joyful experience out into our daily lives to transform our world.
Love In Action
".... allows each of us to identify and develop our spiritual gifts, and to experience success serving in that gifted area. We believe each of us is a unique combination of talents essential to the unfolding of the Divine Plan and that all gifts are equal. Our "gifts" in full expression all come together for the good of ourselves and for the entire community of love and principle in action. The theory further supports the idea that when we serve in our gifted area, when we are doing what we love to do, there is no "burn-out." Sometimes we need to do an inner search to identify and honor our gifts and to "know" our bliss(es). As the person's needs are met, so then the church's needs are met!..." CLICK HERE for the rest of the story
Center for Creative Living
"... The Center for Creative Living is an affiliated member of the United Church of Religious Science. Religious Science is described as a compilation of the opinions of philosophy, the laws of science, and the revelations of religion as applied to the aspirations of humankind. Ours is a practical teaching that affirms perfect health, happiness, peace, and joy in their lives of all people.... Our founders, Rev. Barbara and Dr. John Waterhouse are Ordained Religious Science Ministers. They provide a unique approach to life and to our under-standing of the Divine. For more information, click the ministers button above. We welcome people from all walks of life, and all spiritual paths to join in our Celebrations of Life. If you're looking for a nontraditional, spiritually uplifting experience, please join us!..." Free Science of Mind books by Ernest Holmes Just off of Sand Hill Road Directions
Sacred Nature and Unity Cafe
"... offers a variety of ministerial services in Asheville, North Carolina, including Unity Café spiritual gatherings, weddings and other sacred ceremonies, counseling for mind/body/Spirit, workshops and retreat leadership, meditation classes, and other activities.Sacred Nature, lead by Reverend Nancy H. Clark,an ordained Unity Minister and certified Hakomi therapist, offers an innovative approach to ministry. Her commitment is to celebrating the Sacred Nature of all life – in each person, each creature, and all creation. She does not define her ministry by a building and congregation, but by connecting with people in the many ways one can experience Spirit. ..." Unity Cafe meetings on the first and third and fifth Sundays at 10 a.m. at Greenlife.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville "... We view ourselves as a voice for freedom,
reason and tolerance in religion,
and living in the spirit of love. We welcome a broad range of beliefs
in a caring community that encourages us to put our understanding and faith into action. I invite you to come and get to know us. The Rev. Mark Ward Minister..."
Inner Voice
"... Our first concert in Asheville, NC will be held at a magical venue called: The Light Center. This center was built with the intention to use prayer and gratitude as tools to tranform the planet and reveal the permanent presence of one’s infinite being. This show will be intimate, the intimacy of the heart singing to itself.... INNER VOICE will ROCK your PROJECTED WORLD with sounds so JUICY they INSPIRE, PERSPIRE, CONSPIRE to throw your EGO-LIAR in its BARBED-WIRE ATTIRE onto a FUNERAL PYRE and light your pounding heart's ONE TRUE DESIRE to NOT EVEN ASPIRE ...but to simply BE ... in the delicious FIRE ... of NOW. A raucously intimate infinite-flavor banana split dropping TRUTH like bombs from the very deepest part of IT that can't even be partially described by singing IT from the limitless space of one soul sitting right in the midst of IT. There is simply no other way to describe IT. Come witness the magical experience of 5 guys, 2 guitars, a harmonium ... a BOX ... and the IN.SANITY of delicious infinite right now true freedom ... INNER VOICE....."
United Research Light Center
"... provides a nondenominational supportive environment for encouraging personal and planetary transformation through prayer. We are dedicated to helping all people expand awareness of their inner Light and to pray more effectively. Our site offers instruction in the use of Effective Prayer, a Calendar of upcoming Events (including programs and speakers), and World Prayer Missions. You may also purchase materials through our bookstore (special orders are available) or reserve space in the UR Lodge for your own personal retreat.... United Research has no membership and no formalized belief system, and we do not proselytize nor ask that anyone change his or her belief system in favor of our teachings.... Mission: To increase awareness of the Oneness of All That Is by expanding Light, Peace, and unconditional Love.
Vision: To provide an environment that supports individual and universal transformation through effective prayer, compassionate education, service, and creating Good moment by moment. Code of Conduct: We must be consistently, constantly and continuously aware of what we are creating at all times. We need to be centered and operating from the Divine and show compassionate care for everyone and everything. We must acknowledge that our personal feelings and personal beliefs are ours alone and should be described as such when shared with others. We are all here with our own missions. Remember that those missions will be different and diverse and hold respect for each mission and the presence of the one nurturing it...." Located 8.2 miles east of Black Mountain (which is 15 miles east of Asheville) up Route 9.
Recommended by AshevilleBliss: World Peace Experiment: Only Love Prevails"... We are seeking 80,000 people who are willing to be part of an experiment to see if we can shift the world's perception of "good and evil" to a perception of love. It won't cost you any money and will take only seconds a day. We believe we are all one mind and that if enough people (critical mass) could shift their own personal perception—change their minds—about the existence of evil, then the whole planet could shift into a perception of love. We also believe that world peace begins with each individual achieving a state of peace within themselves. We can begin to do that for ourselves by becoming aware of the "negative" influences in our lives and choosing consciously to eliminate or shift those influences...."
Click on each of the dozens of categories to the left to uncover what makes the Asheville area so vital, so intriguing and so, well, UTTERLY BLISSFUL!
Explore the Bliss of Asheville ...
Via Eric Weiner's new book
The Geography of Bliss
The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World: ".... Asheville, North Carolina, with its idyllic mountain setting and proliferation of good restaurants and New Age healing spas, is enjoying a vogue as a happy place to live. As one newly arrived resident puts it, "A lot of people spin the globe and their finger stops on Asheville."
"....the author is correct, nice weather, affordable housing, lovely scenery, and a slower pace of life, yet an active cultural scene..."
I've never been one of those uptight literary types who thinks that you have to have actually read a book in order to recommend it to others. So I feel no trepidation in suggesting Eric Weiner's new travelogue-slash-memoir The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World The premise of the book is simple but intriguing-- here is Amazon's description:
Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness." The book uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Singapore benefit psychologically by having their options limited by the government? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy? With engaging wit and surprising insights, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions.
In the imaginary Netflix queue of books-that-I'm-planning-to-read, this one has just jumped to the top. By the way, why has no one started a Netflix for books? This question, and many more, I'll leave for another day.
Buddhist Centers
Zen Center of Asheville
"... is a Soto Zen Temple located in Asheville, North Carolina. We offer zazen instruction (sitting meditation), study groups, lectures, and we maintain a regular sitting schedule mornings and evenings (see inside). We are open to the public; anyone is welcome to participate. You do not have to have prior experience in meditation to join us for zazen...."
"... Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky...."
Great Tree Zen Temple
"... a Soto Zen temple near Asheville, North Carolina.
A long-time vision of Rev. Teijo Munnich, Great Tree, a residential facility
for women, offers a variety of practice opportunities for men, women, and
children, including sesshins, workshops, family meditation, meditation opportunities
for the local community, and practice-related outreach opportunities in Georgia,
North Carolina, and Tennessee...."
Anattasati Magga
".... independent Buddhist Sangha for the Laity, practicing Buddhism in accordance with the Soto Zen sect. We offer meditation, services, Dharma discussions and lectures, retreats and meditation supplies. Currently, the Sangha practices in Asheville and Bryson City, North Carolina ..."
Shambala Meditation Group of Asheville
"... We aspire to help create enlightened society based upon the realization of basic goodness and the cultivation of gentleness, fearlessness and dignity in ourselves, our community and the world. To this end, we offer to all the practice of meditation, the study of the Shambhala Buddhist teachings and a community dedicated to open-hearted interaction...."
Windhorse Zen Community
"... is a group of Dharma practitioners dedicated to a dynamic, engaged Zen practice, on the mat and in the world. The Windhorse is an ancient symbol of the boundless freedom and energy of our own intrinsic nature, and the fundamental perfection of all existence. With the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha on its back, the Windhorse carries this teaching of Original Perfection to beings in all directions. At Windhorse we work to support each other in the challenging task of bringing this teaching to life in the midst of our daily lives.... We now have a wonderful place on Panther Branch Road in Alexander, NC, a tiny town 15-20 minutes northwest of Asheville...."
"... Thanks to generous loans and gifts from many supporters, the group was able to purchase a large house with 16 acres of rolling hills and woods, fruit, nut and pine trees, and a spacious vegetable garden. And within a few weeks, members succeeded in transforming a garage into a fine new zendo (place for Zen meditation), just in time to hold the first Panther Branch sesshin (Zen retreat). The property also has a "most amazing view,"... - a sweeping overlook of the ancient, majestic Pisgah Mountains to the south. On many mornings white mist envelopes these blue mountains, resembling a Sung dynasty landscape. Then, as the mist clears, the mountains and green foothills reveal themselves, with white, yellow, and orange wildflowers scattered everywhere. Summer nights are bright with stars and moonlight and the flashing of thousands of fireflies. It is an extraordinary place: the land breathes a stillness and power deeply conducive to Zen practice...."
This Fantastic Unfolding Experiment: A Vision for Spirit Rock - by Jack Kornfield
"... Jack Kornfield reflects on the history of Insight Meditation Society (IMS) and Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He describes the challenges and tensions that have accompanied bringing Buddhism to the West and the creative solutions that have emerged to meet them. This article is a transcription of an informal talk that Jack gave to the Spirit Rock Board of Directors and was first published in the Spirit Rock News in September 2006...."
Interfaith Spiritual Retreats
Southern Dharma Retreat Center
"... is an interfaith retreat center which hosts meditation retreats representing the world's various spiritual traditions. Retreat teachers are experienced and recognized in their own traditions. All retreats have meditation, contemplation, and silence as underlying threads. Between teacher-led retreats, individual private retreats may be arranged. Located part way up one of the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina, isolated and forested, Southern Dharma provides a comfortable, secluded gathering place removed from everyday distractions. Retreats create an atmosphere of quiet reflection, peace, and opening to the truths within the heart...."
Discover the Bliss of Asheville ...
through These Books and Videos.
Finding Your Way in Asheville is ".... a different kind of guide book. Instead of offering glossy photos and paid insertions from big bucks advertisers, it gives you the kind of information you'd get from a best friend who moved to Western North Carolina twenty years ago. "I've discovered the greatest place for a romantic dinner," she'd say. "Just around the corner from Pritchard Park. Here, let me draw you a map." It's a selective guide in that the authors share the places they've come to love while living, working, dining out, partying, biking, hiking, canoeing and raising children in the "Paris of the South."
America's Castles: The Biltmore Estate "...the grandest of all American homes... Biltmore dwarfs all the mansions built by his illustrious forefathers... . a remarkable top-to-bottom tour of the largest home ever built in America. With its 255 rooms, the Biltmore is a monument to the extravagance and eccentricity of its owner. See footage of its construction, and go behind the scenes with the men and women who work there to learn the secrets of this incredible mansion. Get a privileged tour of rooms that are off-limits to the public, and marvel at the magnificent treasures that Vanderbilt collected....."
Biltmore Estate: The Most Distinguished Private Place "... Few people realize what effort it took to design and construct the largest private residence in the United States, but this book details it all from the breaking of the ground to the designing of the curtain rods. This book is one of the best written and most appealing architectural history books ever. The photographs and drawings in it are also to be commended. Many of the pictures offer breathtaking views of the mansion and its grounds as well as showing many vintage photographs taken at various times throughout its construction and times of residence...."
The premise of the book is simple but intriguing-- here is Amazon's description: