Your Being Has Two Sides

May 25th, 2009 Remez Sasson Posted in Meditation, consciousness, paramahansa yogananda, spiritual teachers No Comments »

An excerpt from the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda

Read, think and meditate on the following excerpt from the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda. Try to go beyond the words and realize what he means. The more you can calm down the flow of incessant thoughts in your mind, the more you will be able to realize what Paramahansa Yogananda means in these words.

“Your being has two sides — one visible, the other invisible. With open eyes you behold objective creation, and yourself in it. With closed eyes you see nothing, a dark void; yet your consciousness, even when dissociated from form, is still keenly aware and operative. If in deep meditation you penetrate the darkness behind closed eyes, you behold the Light from which all creation emerges. By deeper samadhi, your experience transcends even the manifested Light and enters the All-Blissful Consciousness — beyond all form, yet infinitely more real, tangible, and joyous than any sensory or supersensory perception.”

addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.successconsciousness.com%2Fblog%2Fspiritual-teachers%2Fyour-being-has-two-sides%2F'; addthis_title = 'Your+Being+Has+Two+Sides'; addthis_pub = '';


Copyright © 2009 Remez Sasson Remez Sasson Blog. | Permalink | No comment

Related Articles

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Love Is in the Air: Five Steps into Joyful Abundance

May 7th, 2009 Judith Pennington Posted in God, Healing, Law of Attraction, Life, Manifesting Abundance, Meditation, Spirituality, abundance, consciousness, gratitude, guided meditation, inner wisdom, intuition, love, meaning of life, meditative state, negative thoughts, peace, prosperity, science and spirituality No Comments »

on Manifesting Abundance at Manifesting with the Law of Attraction

What is it that brings about healing and attracts love, joy, peace and prosperity into our lives? As a journalist, writer and author, I’ve studied science and spirituality for decades and perhaps like you have formed a seamless belief system that makes sense of everything.

So I’m excited when I see proof of it, which comes over and over again and most recently in an e-mail message from a new friend of mine in Pittsburgh. He wrote to say that when we hugged, he felt the direct transfer of something from me into his chest. It didn’t carry any emotional impact, but a physical shift in his energies transpired and the next day rid him of a misconception that had caused him a great deal of anxiety.

Could I explain what had happened, he asked? Were these two events connected? What isn’t, I laughed in delight, replying with the lessons my inner voice of wisdom had just been teaching me!

Bearers of light

I spoke to David of liking him from the moment we met, as I’d sensed something very special in him. He was coordinating the Sunday service at his Unity church, and as he stood at the podium, speaking so gently of love, my heart opened and I became aware of the high spiritual energies in the room. I was there to speak and my travel fatigue instantly melted away.

During the “meet and greet” portion of the service, I hugged David gratefully for the love he had given me. So it was not I who healed him, but the Love in him that did the work. When we are open and ready for change, love responds and Light flows into and through us, bringing about the transformation we seek.

My seven-year-old grandson understands this perfectly. He delights in creating “pictures” to give away, and alongside many of his colorful airplanes and butterflies are the words, “Love is in the air.”

In this cosmic sea of spirit, composed of energetic waves of thought and feeling, love flows through every person and event. I bring to you some gift of wisdom, a loving thought or touch, and you say something that enlivens me, perhaps opens my heart to a new understanding of us both.

This is what the Hindu mystic-poet Kabir meant in saying, “Sometimes we are a wave, sometimes the ocean. We come here to bring each other to God.” When we are calm and peaceful, we float restfully in the ocean of the OneMind, immersed in its expanded perspectives and at-one with its rhythmic flow. When we are disconnected, we break into separate waves, but even then we call each other back to the One.

Waves in flow with the ocean

What separates us from the OneMind and its peace, joy and fulfillment? It is always stress, fatigue, fear and distrust, tensing us into waves of rigidity and resistance. Many of us fear being hurt and shrink away from life, closing our hearts to the healing Love in and all around us. At times we feel cold and alone, perhaps rejected, abandoned, unsure and confused. But in truth, Love has not abandoned us. We have become oblivious to its presence.

This separation is why we so often feel lost and unhappy. The closed heart, by virtue of its separation, cannot be enriched by All That Is. The law of magnetic resonance, governing the law of attraction, cannot bring riches to poverty, nor peace and happiness to a conflicted bodymind trapped in anger or judgment. When we are experiencing inner conflict and are out of integrity with our souls, we feel a gnawing hunger, a thirst for what is missing, and usually try to satisfy this craving with love relationships, euphoric chemicals, career achievement and/or material possessions. Our busyness almost distracts us from the cold internal knot of separation, but not quite.

The only way back to the ocean of the OneMind is to open our hearts to the light and unfold, petal by petal, into our blossoming.

Nature shows us what to do, especially in the springtime. Out of dark, quiet winter comes a season of warmth and renewal. Brightly colored plants and flowers draw us to the wondrous life force swirling into the curve of a leaf, colorful patches of wildflowers and the light mint greens of budding trees. Seeing the magic of spring, we remember how the Creative Force sweeps into every thing: in sheets of rain upon a rushing river; the pealing laughter in a child’s perfect cartwheel; the sparkling spiral star-dance of our magnificent Milky Way.

Because of this visible and invisible evidence of love, I trust and believe what my inner wisdom tells me: that all waves come to empty our darkness so that Light can flow into the bodymind, enabling us to gently unfold and flower into lives of beauty and joy. Our inner wisdom whispers that each and every wave helps us grow and is called, by our nature, into being.

When we listen to our souls very closely, we hear that this is our dearest wish and the work that we came here to do. The open heart knows this and does it willingly, with excitement and gratitude, understanding its soul’s purpose and the ultimate meaning of life.

The secrets of an open heart

All the same, life is sometimes like a banana peel. It seems that everything conspires to trip us up, throw us off-balance and slide us down some slippery slope, whereupon we close our tender hearts for our own protection. How to open the heart, then, when it closes suddenly or over time?

STEP 1.  The most immediate antidote is to breathe and relax inside the remembered assurance that every wave comes out the OneMind and so must be a wave of love calling us back to Love. Knowing this, we breathe deeply and evenly, becoming perfectly present to the flow of air into the nose and back out of the mouth.

Your can deepen this relaxed, peaceful state of consciousness by counting breaths or following the wind of your breath into your diaphragm and back out of your body. Research has shown that focusing on the breath relaxes us, and focusing on two things simultaneously, like counting and the movement of breath, produces a deeper state of consciousness akin to meditation.

Another heart-opening technique, especially useful during conflict, is to close your eyes and focus on the space between your ears. Try this now, to see for yourself how this diffuses thought and relaxes the body. It works just as well when we focus on the space between the eyes or any two objects. Just as in a guided meditation, the act of imagining space shifts our brainwaves into the alpha bandwidth of vibration. This relaxed peacefulness neutralizes the patterns of overexcited, hyper-aroused physical tension that create most if not all illness and disease, according to neurofeedback research.

STEP 2.  When we repeatedly experience this meditative state of mind, we extend it into everyday life and are better able to stay united with the OneMind. We are less upset by our own thoughts and by external events, so we live happier, healthier, more balanced lives.

Rooted in the transcendent perspectives of the OneMind, we consistently respond to life peacefully and the heart is better able to stay open. When conflict comes up, we breathe, relax and allow that wave of thought energy to wash into and through us, neither holding on to nor resisting it. This is called peaceful, nonviolent non-resistance. We “hold our seats,” as Buddhism teaches and remain peaceful.

It is easy to do this because we know who we are. We are souls observing our selves and what happens in this earth plane for the sake of learning. We are not trapped here, but choose to be here. In this sense of choice and freedom rests fearlessness, courage and the ability to stay peaceful.

By remaining open-hearted, we stay connected with our soul’s infinite wisdom and its creative solutions. We understand how to respond–what, if anything, to say–because our inner wisdom prompts us. In the silence we are able to listen to, hear, feel, sense and see the transcendent perspectives of our open, loving hearts.

Our intuition is an inner knowing of spiritual truth. It expands us beyond the ordinary thinking mind into the transcendent sixth-sense perspectives of inner knowing, feeling, sensing, hearing and seeing. Going deeper within our souls, we observe that any and all negative thoughts are erased from our minds and replaced by a clear sense of direction. At the same time, the Light heals physical discomfort, pain, stress and fatigue.

 

===============Advertisement=============

Serenity through Forgiveness and Unconditional Love

======================================

STEP 3.  Sometimes our hearts are opened by another person’s kindly word, smile or touch, as with my friend David. Sometimes the opening occurs during a walk in the woods, as nature delights us and points the way home.

But what if someone is yelling at or demeaning us in some way that causes pain?

We can ask that person to please calm down so that we may listen better to what he or she has to say. If the person does so and we wish to listen, but nevertheless begin to lose our peace, we can draw our full attention to the heart and center the busy mind in the heart.

The energy of the heart will relax our thinking. We can open to the heart’s love and ask for the OneMind to help us flow into Love, so that this light circulates into every atom and cell of our bodies. Be assured that it will. This heart-centering will help us listen better to the other person and return love. By the law of magnetic resonance, the other person will attune to our energies and grow more loving.

This has been proved in experiments conducted by The Mind-Life Institute in cooperation with the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet. A Buddhist monk and veteran, 30-year meditator was placed in a room with a professor outraged by the idea of reincarnation. The man berated the monk loudly and to no avail. The monk listened placidly and did not flinch once; in fact, he was hooked up to electrodes and there was no “startle” response whatsoever. Finally the professor grew just as calm and willing to conduct a reasonable conversation.

Try this for yourself. Be the peacemaker and see what happens.

STEP 4.  We can keep our hearts open by freeing ourselves from judgment. The verbal thinking mind loves to name everything and remember similar situations that it then relives and discusses with itself. The ego says, “Aha, I recognize who this person is, because So-and-So was that way, too. This person is devious and dangerous.” Even if the ego is right, this judgment narrows our perspectives and our ability to clearly perceive the full truth about the other person, who, like us, is much more than what was done.

A single, solitary judgment triggers a volley of thinking that closes the heart, blocks inner wisdom and separates us from ourselves, the other person and God! Moreover, constantly reliving the past keeps us from being fully present to the now-moment and serving as a creative, shining light to other people.

The antidote is not to let the thinking mind name, categorize, judge and persecute anyone–us included. We can move the naming, thinking mind into silence by teaching it that no matter what comes up within us or in external reality–an angry person, the loss of a job, illness, the death of a loved one–it is a wave of experience that brings healing and growth. It comes to rid us of what is no longer needed and to evoke in us anything that might be missing. In the world of Spirit, nothing is lost. All is accounted for.

STEP 5. We can be at-one with goodness by keeping our hearts open, rejoicing in the beauty of the world and seeking something to love in every person we meet, including the derelict on the street who teaches us that this is not who we want to be. Even if we feel repulsed, we can look at this person closely enough to find something in him or her to love. Some facial characteristic, some trait…because if love is in the air, it is also in each of us, even at our worst.

Do we have to judge or detest that derelict? My inner wisdom says no, because this person has just given me the gift of knowing myself. I am grateful for that gift and can reach out to return love without needing or expecting appreciation.

In my experience, we come here to open our hearts and love ourselves, others and God. If we feel cold and aloof or separate and apart much of the time, there is a very good chance that our lives are cloudy and gray.

Do you have all of the love, money, happiness and peace that you want in your life? If not, check to see if your heart is open and joyfully aware of the abundance in each and every precious thing in you and your life.

If your heart is closed, you can open it easily with these mind-expansion techniques which enable us to become present to the present. In opening to Love, you will be enlivened by its joy and peace, so that everything you need and so richly deserve will come to you. All else will be pruned away, healed, to make room for fresh growth.

This is the simple and magical secret of life: You have within you all the Love needed to create and attract the life you want. Love calls you to shine your light, for love and love alone will heal our world.

If we stay peaceful, we can catch the waves of love upswelling in our hearts and ride them with perfect balance into our everyday choices and actions for economic parity, social justice and environmental responsibility.

To create a perfect planet of peace and love, all we have to do is remember that love is in the air. We can bring its Light into being with the thought of it, the need of it, the hope of Love that is it. In this wave is the spiritual awakening of our world.

Judith Pennington is a writer, singer and coast-to-coast teacher of meditation and the evolution of human consciousness. She is the author of a ground-breaking book, The Voice of the Soul, about her extraordinary journey into inspired writing, the guiding wisdom of the soul and the science of spirituality. Visit her primary website, www.eaglelife.com, to check for a workshop near you, sign up for her free e-newsletter, “The Still, Small Voice,” and read complementary articles in her paid-for e-magazine, OneWorld Spirit, devoted to art, beauty, truth, spiritual politics and global peace.

       
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

5-Minute Meditation: Flower of Change

March 16th, 2009 Guest Author Posted in Meditation, Visualize, consciousness, flowing, giving, gratitude, living your dream, peace, success No Comments »

Take a moment alone and settle into your body. Close your eyes, relax and breathe… deeply, slowly.

Visualize yourself walking through the woods. Glistening, new-fallen snow carpets the trail beneath your feet. Breathe in the cool air and feel it refreshing you.

Exhale slowly, letting all your worries out with your breath. Spirit is with you and you are expanding your consciousness to take in the life-giving love that Spirit wants to share with you.

Up ahead, you see a beautiful, golden wildflower, standing tall, growing right in the middle of the snow. There is a glorious, warm, loving light beaming out from this amazing flower.

As you step closer to this flower you feel its light permeating you, and you feel lighter, like a weight has lifted. The purest love is flowing all through your entire body, energizing you.

Now think of something you’d like to change in your life. Imagine yourself experiencing this change in total harmony, success coming to you with incredible ease. See yourself celebrating your success. Feel the fulfillment, the joy, the peace that comes from living your dream. Take it all in. Let yourself bask in the glow of this feeling and continue breathing.

When you feel ready, give gratitude to your golden wildflower in the snow for its light and for helping you bring this wonderful change to fruition.

Walking back through the woods, you see that same loving light beaming out from you, too. Extend this light to everyone you meet.

Open your eyes, stretch and return to your day, renewed and energized.

Resource Box:

This 5-Minute Meditation by Avalon De Witt. Visit http://www.AskAvalon.com for more original content like this.

       

       
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

8 Prosperity Principles

March 11th, 2009 Jeff Forte Posted in Law of Attraction, Manifestation, Manifesting Abundance, abundance, consciousness, desires, intention, manifest, poverty, power of desire, prosperity, wealth No Comments »

I have taken my favorite elements out of all the literature and teachings I’ve ever read and practiced, and insights I’ve come to though my own personal experiences on the path, and formulated these 8 Principles for Prosperity. I also encourage you to make your own list of prosperity principles based on what works for you. May these 8 principles light the fire to manifest more of your heart’s desires!

(From my experience … If you truly, wholly, fully integrate these eight principles, you have the “inner state” to create anything you desire.)

1. Prosperity comes through communication. Communicate with the world around you to expand your prosperity … through love and appreciation. You cannot experience ultimate abundance without realizing your connection to all things. As you realize we are all One, this becomes a natural part of the path to your prosperity.

2. What you appreciate in life appreciates (through the Law of Attraction). Start appreciating everything you have in your experience. Stop and jot down the things in your life that you appreciate from time to time, even on a daily basis if you are so inclined. Instead of complain about the things you don’t have, appreciate what you do have. The more you find things to appreciate the more rich you become, inwardly and outwardly. This is affirming your abundance. And employing the Law of Attraction on your behalf.

3. Learn how to consciously command what you want from the Universe (as creator). When you have a belief that keeps you in lack, you can use the power of DESIRE and INTENTION to manifest your desire. It then matters less what you believe possible for yourself or what has been your past experience.

4. The past does not exist. Your past is a figment of your imagination. It has no real meaning other than the meaning you assign it. You are one with any part of your past when you think about it … and you create more of it in the NOW. So think about the past as an eternal stream of “practice takes” that allow you to “get it right” in this moment! Only energize the elements of the past that serve your expansion into the prosperous reality you are now allowing and hence creating to be there.

5. The goal is the joy of the journey, not the result. Keeping that focus keeps you centered in the NOW moment where your true wealth can be revealed and expressed, through an endless myriad of expressions and reflections that the Universe wants to show you. This is the path of letting go, and allowing all to exist as it is. Your joy comes from simply being who you are … an infinite and abundant creator.

6. Prosperity is a “feeling place.” Not an outward experience or event. They are the reflections of how you have been feeling or flowing your Source Energy (as creator … that is all you do — flow energy). When you get that it’s all about the feeling of things, that creates anything, you’ve got it.

7. The Law of Giving and Receiving. What you give of your Self you receive back in manifestation. The importance here is HOW you give, not what you give. When you come from a place of abundant giving you receive abundance in return. When you give from the place of limitation or lack (ie. expecting something in return as a pay off) you are given more representations of lack and limitation. This can also be perceived as thinking thoughts or taking actions based on FEAR or those on LOVE. The former yields poverty consciousness, the latter, prosperity consciousness.

8. You are Worthy of goodness, love and abundance. This is the most important principle. For with it, you will realize your infinite nature. It is the foundation for creating everything you can ever desire. That’s why it is last. So you’ll remember with the most impact. Embrace that thought, if you forget everything else, and your abundance will continue to expand. Allow that thought to permeate your entire being, by affirming it as often as you must, no matter how you feel. Know you are worthy just because of who you are … a creator made in the image of the Infinite. That is who you are and will always be, eternally. So rejoice!

Jeff Forte Visit: http://www.whirlwindofwealth.com or send an email to: subscribe@whirlwindofwealth.com

       
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Getting to Know Your Higher Self -Why Does That Matter in Life?

February 19th, 2009 Guest Author Posted in Life, Robert Paisola, consciousness, ego, goals, happy list, higher self, motivational, passion, professional life, success No Comments »

What is it that makes us human? Speech, consciousness, opposable thumbs? Yes, all that. But what also makes us human is the belief in a Higher Self. The Higher Self inhabits a spiritual dimension beyond the material plane.

This Higher Self’s quest is not necessarily antithetical to the quest for success in the material world. Some of the most successful people share an elevated consciousness. Whether this is the reason for or the consequence of their success depends on the person.

Being in touch with our higher selves gives us the ability to commune with the sublime. Do not be a stranger to your Higher Self. Give your Higher Self a name and seek out his/her advice. Don’t let your ego block this powerful technique for accessing inspired visions. Give your Higher Self a chance to speak, and you may get the answers to your most perplexing problems.

Somewhere inside yourself is the true you—the part that represents what you want most, the part that is your inner hero.

Try this exercise: write your own version of “How to Be Happy.” List the things that you have learned in your personal and professional life. What you will come up with is a list of values and goals.

After the writing exercise, take some time to visualize your Higher Self. Imagine stepping outside of your physical body and taking a look at the real you. See your Higher Self.

The Higher Self can speak to you through your physical body. You’re upset, and you feel nauseous. You are tired, so you want to sleep. If your heart beats in fear or your knees shake, or you have recurrent dreams or nightmares, the self may be trying to talk to you! The self may be telling you that the emotional air you are breathing is toxic. It’s time to take action!

The Higher Self whispers while the ego SHOUTS. The more busy-work, chatter, or other meaningless distractions interfere with your ability to hear the internal message, the harder it will be to make the choices that lead to a oneness with your Higher Self.

Resource Box:

To Your Continued Success Robert Paisola www.robertpaisola.com

Robert Paisola is driven by a passion for people–motivating them to reach for the highest standards of success. As founder and president of many International Corporations, Robert trains sales and marketing professionals who want to strive to get to the top…and stay there. His innovative, no-nonsense approach is based on applying what he has observed in his fifteen-plus years in säles, motivational speaking and training, thus revealing the common business habits of the top 20% of säles performers in all organizations.

Robert’s approach works…that’s why New York-based Success Magazine has rated Robert Paisola as one of the top-five most effective säles-training professional in the market today. Routinely Distinguished by The National Speakers Forum, Robert is also a regular contributor to Business Week Magazine, CNN, CNNFN, XM Satellite Radio, The Wall Street Journal, Telemundo International, National Public Radio and many other organizations.

For more information on Robert Paisola’s unique training programs, visit http://www.mywesterncapital.com/people.html or robert@mycollector.com

   

   
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Consciousness, Life Force, Universal Consciousness

December 11th, 2008 Remez Sasson Posted in Spiritual Growth, consciousness, life force, self realization, universal consciousness No Comments »

People often send me questions about various subjects covered in my website. Here is one of them, about the terms Consciousness, Life Force and the Universal Consciousness.

Question:

You are probably the only author I came across who cover both self-realization and law of attraction in the writings at the same time. When you talk about self-realization, mind and
consciousness are used. Mind is a tool and consciousness is the real you. This view/model is the same as the ones adopted by Eckhart Tolle and Mouni Sadhu.

When you talk about law of attration, the terms Life Force and Universal Consciousness are
mentioned. Most of LOA authors use this concept as well. Is Life Force the same as Consciousness in self-realzation model? Or this Life Force is some sort of Universal Mind, which is a bigger tool than individual mind?

Answer:

Here are two of the reasons why I write on both self-realization and the law of attraction:

(more…)

addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.successconsciousness.com%2Fblog%2Fspiritual-growth%2Fconsciousness-life-force-universal-consciousness%2F'; addthis_title = 'Consciousness%2C+Life+Force%2C+Universal+Consciousness'; addthis_pub = '';


Copyright © 2008 Remez Sasson Remez Sasson Blog. | Permalink | No comment

Related Articles

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Higher Consciousness Focuses and Silences the Mind

December 2nd, 2008 Remez Sasson Posted in Concentration and Mind Power, concentration, consciousness, mind, silence No Comments »

How is it possible to focus the mind when it is so restless?

When you try to stop thinking, do really stop thinking, or do you just hold to the thought that you are not thinking, which is itself a thought?

Who and what it is that orders the mind to concentrate or get silent?

Can the mind concentrate itself, or is there something higher than the mind that focuses or silences it?

Concentration exercises and meditation eventually awaken something inside, some kind of silent consciousness, and it is this consciousness that focuses the mind on any chosen subject or object, and it is this consciousness that is able to cleanse the mind of thoughts and silence the mind.

This Consciousness-Awareness, Higher Consciousness is the Inner Self, and is beyond and above the mind. It is always here, but sort of hidden behind the thinking mind. There is too much focus on thoughts and sense impressions coming through the five senses, so that this Consciousness, “forgets” itself, and tend to “get involved” with the mind and the impressions coming through five senses. This is what makes it so difficult to focus the mind.

In time, as concentration gets stronger, one is able to cleanse the mind of thoughts, but this takes time and a lot of work. At this point you don’t say to yourself, “I am silencing my mind”, because this is itself a thought. You just stop thinking, but something else is there that stops the thinking. At this stage, when you stop thinking, there is no vacuum or the thought that “you are trying to stop thinking”. There is just Pure Consciousness, joy and inner peace.

From this perspective, concentration becomes simple and easy, and you are able to focus your mind easily on anything, a thought, a point on the wall, a flower, an inspiring quote, prayer, or on your work, studies, reading book or any other activity, or just enjoy being conscious, but without thoughts.

Books

addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.successconsciousness.com%2Fblog%2Fconcentration-mind-power%2Fhigher-consciousness-focuses-and-silences-the-mind%2F'; addthis_title = 'Higher+Consciousness+Focuses+and+Silences+the+Mind'; addthis_pub = '';


Copyright © 2008 Remez Sasson Remez Sasson Blog. | Permalink | No comment

Related Articles

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Meditation Guide: How To Meditate On Self Control

September 30th, 2008 Randolph Fabian Directo Posted in Meditation, concentration, consciousness, emotion, emotional freedom techniques, intention, remote viewing, stress, tension, transcendental meditation No Comments »

  • How to relax and focus instantly in any situation
  • Natural deep breathing opens your higher consciousness

  • Remain cool and calm in any crisis
  • Simple step by step guide

I’ve listened to a lot of people concerning meditation. First, let’s recognize that there are all kinds of meditation. The problem that I’ve encountered is that people have trouble getting into meditation and staying with it because they don’t know how to take the benefits with them. This guide is meant to help you meditate for instant self control and focus in any situation.

Your Head Knowledge: Intention

When you exercise, the results you want are to be healthier, shapelier, and stronger. When you eat right, the results you want are to be healthier with the necessary fuel reserves for all your strenuous activities. Altogether, these activities make you resistant to aging while helping you to concentrate, perform, and think better.

The actual purpose of meditation is to focus all of your energy, experience, and learning that you’ve gathered towards your specific intention. Every kind of meditation should provide you with specific intention – or at least it should.

For example, in martial arts chi kung meditation, we build bioenergy (Chi) in our outer extremities through exercise. In martial arts meditation, we take that bioenergy and channel the circulation through the energy vessels through focused intent.

In turn, our meridians become energized and can be used for even more focused martial arts practice. As you see, “forging our bodies in the fire of our spirits” is not just Chinese Folklore; through this feedback mechanism of exercise and meditation, this is what really happens.

Intention: the key to Meditation

There are all kinds of meditations for raising the consciousness to shape reality like the Kabbalah and remote viewing/influencing. Other esoteric meditations like Transcendental Meditation help the practitioners become “siddhis” or accomplished ones, so they accomplish the focused intent of invisibility, levitation or infinite strength, etc.

There are mainstream kinds that raise the consciousness for remote healing like Emotional Freedom Techniques (which takes advantage of the higher guage symmetry of the energy meridians as in chi kung).

All kinds of fascinating things can be accomplished by raising the consciousness. The most common thread between all of them is focused intention. You can go to all the fancy meditation retreats and take all the classes, but what will you take with you once you return to the real world? How will that experience serve you in real life?

Let’s face the facts: Those more advanced accomplishments take time, something you feel you may not have. From what I’ve experienced, most people just want to take a few meditation or yoga classes here and there when they have time on a vacation, then they hope that experience will somehow provide the control that they need when taking on a chaotic world with so much crisis at hand. Most of the time, that meditation retreat becomes nothing more than a beautiful memory.

I believe you want more than that.

Your Heart Knowledge: How to program yourself to relax

Different schools of meditation all have different methods of keying the relaxation response. Some experts advise that you find a quiet, comfortable place at a certain time of the day as you touch your fingers together in a certain way.

What they’re all trying to do is get you into a routine of trained autonomic relaxation, but it’s just not practical if they don’t tell you how to take that experience with you wherever you go. What if you’re in a noisy, uncomfortable place and your hands are full at rush hour, but you need to maintain calm, collected focus to find your way through busy traffic - then suddenly there’s a crash in front of you?

Not to worry: There is a common set of autonomic relaxation responses that most people have forgotten. Because part of our culture is based on stress, we’ve been trained away from our natural abilities since grade school.

Let’s face a discouraging fact: There are no academic requirements for relaxation and focused concentration classes to deal with stress in school or life in general, yet academic officials expect kids to “deal with it” (by taking drugs).

The following set of relaxation responses are keyed through natural, deep breaths towards the diaphragm or solar plexus. Here’s how to easily slide into relaxation mode:

1. Breathe deeply and naturally.

Remember to take deep, natural, slow breaths only through your nose towards the solar (celiac) plexus as you perform each relaxation response. Your nose is your natural filter to pollutants. Remember to breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Feel your breath being drawn deep into your lungs by your stomach muscles and diaphragm.

Your deep breathing keys all of the responses, so they all fall into place. By training these responses you learn to relax automatically.

The solar plexus is the bundle of nerves that cause people the most trouble when trying to relax because they breathe incorrectly, so they have shallow breathes or hyperventilate. When you breathe deeply and naturally using your stomach muscles, the solar (celiac) plexus becomes your ally in maintaining control.

Even if your stomach muscles tense up in a “fight or flight” situation, you’re still using them to breathe correctly and act accordingly.

2. Hold your back in an upright posture.

Standing or sitting in this position helps keep you aware and awake during your relaxation, so you create control over your autonomic responses. If you must lay down, you can use a pillow under your back to hold a naturally straight posture. (Preferably, this exercise should be done in an upright position.) Breathe deeply and naturally.

3. Relax your shoulders.

The first thing I see people do when asking them to hold an upright posture is that they tense their shoulders. Relax your shoulders in order to relax the brachial plexus on both sides of your neck. Tension in the shoulders leads to tension in the neck, then tension in the head which leads to stress ailments like headaches and dizziness. Make the bundle of nerves around your neck relax, and they will help you relax. Breathe deeply and naturally.

4. Hold your head up, loosely.

Feel as if your head is supported by a string from above. Your head is upright, but feels free as if it is floating. This response allows enhanced, circulation of fluids and subtle energies going to and from your head. Breathe deeply and naturally.

5. Relax your vision.

Relax your focus as if gazing blankly along a distant horizon of the ocean. Breathe deeply and naturally.

6. Relax your jaw.

Allow your jaw to relax by letting it drop slightly. Coupled with steps 4 and 5 above, these actions relax cranial nerves 1 to 5 which allow your neural patterns to slow down, thus allowing you to further relax. Breathe deeply and naturally.

7. Place the tip of your tongue gently against the roof of your mouth.

The tongue should be relaxed, but not touching the teeth. The relaxed tip of the tongue should be on or near the center of the palate (between soft and hard palates). This action is easier when the jaw is slightly dropped, another reason for step 6. Breathe deeply and naturally.

According to Chinese chi kung theory: “..when the tongue touches the roof of the mouth cavity, yin and yang vessels (yin in front, yang in back) are connected and the (chi circulation) circuit is complete. This tongue touch is called ‘Da Chiao’ or building the bridge. The tongue acts like a switch in an electrical circuit…” (”Nei Dan,” Ch. 3, p. 48, Chi Kung Health and Martial Arts by Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming.)

You may say that you’re not into chi kung meditation, so why do step 7? In fact, this is a natural, albeit, subconscious response by everyone throughout the day; we’ve all known since birth to “complete the circuit” in this manner, but a stressful culture trains unnecessary stretching and and tensing of the tongue and surrounding oral muscles which causes chi stagnation. This can lead to chronic physical and mental ailments.

In Chinese Medical Chi Kung theory, your tongue is an extension of your heart. When you relax your tongue, you relax your heart. Breathe deeply and naturally.

Your Deep Breathing is Key

Remember, your deep breathing keys all of the relaxation responses at once. All you’re doing is putting back all the natural autonomic functions that stressful culture took away from you. Once you have correctly trained steps 1 – 7 above, one deep breathe is all it should take activate all of the above relaxation responses, so “all of the pieces fall into place” immediately.

I imagine that you may have already mastered all of your relaxation responses. Since you were born with them, all you’re doing is “remastering” them. Now, you know how to take the benefits of meditation with you to any situation to meet the challenge of a chaotic world with no trouble…

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

A New Earth – Week 3: The Core of Ego

March 18th, 2008 Edward Mills Posted in Personal Growth, a new earth, attachment, consciousness, eckhart tolle, ego, oprah, possessions No Comments »

A New Earth - Oprah and Eckhart TolleHave you been following along with the reading and webcasts from the Oprah and Eckhart Tolle webinar on A New Earth? I just got the latest stats on this ground-breaking event:

  • 826,000 people are registered.
  • There have been over 4.5 million streams/downloads of the webcasts.
  • People from 130 countries are participating.

If you missed last night’s webcast or any of the previous webcasts, you can download the video, audio or transcript of all the shows at the A New Earth download page.

The Core of Ego and Law of Attraction

This week the focus is on The Core of Ego. If you’re a Law of Attraction practitioner, I’m sure you saw the connection between the some of the concepts in this chapter and some of the lessons from Law of Attraction!

Eckhart describes how one of the ego’s favorite activity is complaining. From Law of Attraction, we know that complaining is is a form of focusing our attention on what we don’t want. As long as we continue to complain about what is “wrong” in our lives (ego) it is difficult to get more of what we want in our lives.

Why do you complain? (We all do!) Are there certain areas of your life that you find yourself complaining about more than others? Why?

Tolle suggests that merely becoming aware of the ego limits its ability to direct our thoughts and actions. Have you found this to be true? And if so, what steps will you take to become aware of your ego?

Truth: Relative or Absolute

Another key point in this chapter focused on Truth and how we use truth both as individuals and as groups to maintain our sense of superiority. Tolle writes this about Truth and religions:

All religions are equally false and equally true, depending on how you use them. You can use them in service of the ego, or you can use them in service of the Truth. If you believe only your religion is the Truth, you are using it in the service of the ego. Used in such a way, religion becomes ideology and creates an illusory sense of superiority as well as division and conflict between people. In the service of Truth, religious teachings represent signposts or maps left behind by awakened humans to assist you in spiritual awakening.

All of us have moments in our lives when we are in service of ego and times when we are in service of the truth. How do you know the difference? What do you feel when you catch yourself serving ego? What do you feel when you recognize that you are serving the Truth? And what steps can you take, in the moment when you catch yourself serving ego, to begin making the shift back to Truth?

Other Thoughts/Questions:

  • Does a gradual path really take us to the place of being free and joyous? Or must we have the sudden awakening AKA the AHA Moment?
  • What is your definition of inner peace?
  • What are some experience that you want to share this week?


Week 3 Quotes (Flower Petals):

Your greatest protection is being conscious.

Whatever you fight, you strengthen and what you resist persists.

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

A New Earth – Week 2: Ego

March 11th, 2008 Edward Mills Posted in Books, Personal Growth, a new earth, attachment, consciousness, eckhart tolle, ego, life hacks, oprah, possessions No Comments »

A New Earth - Oprah and Eckhart Tolle
In week 2 of the Oprah, Eckhart Tolle webinar on A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life Purpose, we begin an exploration of ego. Let’s use this space to continue to explore this concept.

What does ego mean to you?

How did Tolle’s explanation of ego in the book and/or webinar deepen or shift your understanding of the concept?

Identifying with objects

In the book, Tolle tells the story of a dying woman who accused one of her caregivers of stealing her diamond ring. Tolle describes the anger this woman experienced because of the loss of this “valuable” object. He went on to share that:

“In the last few weeks of her life, as her body became weaker, she became more and more radiate, as if light were shining through her. She gave many of her possessions away, some to the woman she thought had stolen the ring, and with each thing she gave away, her joy deepened.”

What objects do you identify with?

Look around your home or office and ask yourself “how many of the things I see do I describe as ‘mine?’”

How would it feel to give these things away?

Can you imagine being in a state where giving away these possessions would bring deeper joy?

What is in the way of that happening now?


Your Week 2 Flower Petals:

In the workbook for the webinar we are being asked to pick our two favorite passages or quotes from the book. At the end of the 10-weeks, we will have a beautiful flower whose petals inspire us to continue the process of awakening.

What are your petals from week 2?

Here are mine.

When you don’t cover up the world with words and labels, a sense of the miraculous returns to your life.

Yielding means inner acceptance of what is. You are open to life. Resistance is an inner contraction, a hardening of the ego. You are closed. Whatever action you take in a state of inner resistance (which we could also call negativity) will create more outer resistance, and the universe will not be on your side; life will not be helpful. If the shutters are closed, the sunlight cannot come in. When you yield internally, when you surrender, a new dimension of consciousness opens up. If action is possible or necessary, your action will be in alignment with the whole and supported by creative intelligence.

Use the comments space below to leave your quotes, answers to the questions above, or any thoughts, observations or further questions you might have.

Don’t miss any of these A New Earth discussions: Sign up to get updates by email or RSS. It’s fast, free and no-risk!

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Can Half A Million People Create A New Earth?

March 5th, 2008 Edward Mills Posted in Books, Personal Growth, Upcoming Events, a new earth, buddha, consciousness, eckhart tolle, jesus, oprah, purpose No Comments »

Last night’s historic webcast with Oprah and Eckhart Tolle attracted nearly 500,000 viewers. So many people, in fact, that for a lot of us, including myself, the webcast became unwatchable around 20-minutes into it. Here’s a press release from Harpo Productions with more details about the webcast.

If you were not able to view the webcast live, you can access the On Demand version Oprah’s New Earth Web Event here and download a video, MP3, watch a streaming version or grab a transcript of the show.

The workbook that accompanies chapter 1 has some excellent questions to consider based on the information in the book and from the webcast. But I’d like to use this space to explore some other aspects that were explored in the show last night as well as in the book. Watch for a post in a day or so with another topic for exploration.

But right now, let’s start with a question that Tolle poses while he is explaining the purpose of the book. He asks:

Is humanity ready for a transformation of consciousness, an inner flowering so radical and profound that compared to it the flowering of plants, no matter how beautiful, is only a pale reflection? … Is humanity more ready now than at the time of those early teachers [Jesus & Buddha]? … What can you do, if anything, to bring about or accelerate this inner shift?


A New Earth - Oprah and Eckhart TolleWhat do you think? Are we, as individuals and collectively, more ready for an inner flowering of consciousness? Do you, personally, feel ready for a radical and profound inner flowering? And, if so, how can we as individuals and collectively accelerate this process?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below and let’s begin exploring and expanding upon the world-changing ideas in this book!

AddThis Social Bookmark Button