Use this technique when you find yourself in emotional turmoil, as well as when you’re feeling depressed, “flat” or empty. It can help set you on the path to a new sense of self, a fresh perspective on life, even a childlike calm.1. Identify the emotion. Find a quiet place and ask, “What…
Nobody will stop you from creating. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. That is the way to make your soul grow — whether there is a market for it or not! The kick of creation is the act of creating, not anything that happens afterward. I would tell all of you watching this screen: Before you go to bed, write a four line poem. Make it as good as you can. Don’t show it to anybody. Put it where nobody will find it. And you will discover that you have your reward.
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| — | Kurt Vonnegut (via elige) |
The pattern, and it alone, brings into being and causes to pass away and confers purpose, that is to say, value and meaning, on all there is. To understand is to perceive patterns. To make intelligible is to reveal the basic pattern.
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| — | Isaiah Berlin, British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian, (1909-1997), The proper study of mankind: an anthology of essays, Chatto & Windus, 1997, p. 129. See also: ☞ ‘To understand is to perceive patterns’ - B. Fuller, Powell, Johnson, West, Kurzweil & video narration by J. Silva (via amiquote) |
1) The Practice of Sweeping the Temple - clean house, inside and out…
2) The Practice of Dying - prepare for the last act of the earthly drama, and decide what is important and what is not, what to hold onto and what to relinquish……there is only one thing you can do, and that is to let go…
3)…
Simple Methods
Mindfulness Meditation
This is the simplest kind of meditation. You don’t even have to be sitting to do this. You don’t even have to set aside any extra time in your day to do this. All you have to do is focus on what you are doing in this moment. If you are washing dishes, just wash dishes. If you are walking, just walk. Allow your everyday tasks to devour your full attention. You may find beauty and delight in the simplest of things, such as sweeping the porch or doing the laundry. Enjoy them! Don’t think about what you’re going to do next, or what you did before. If you’re going to think, then think. Don’t flip-flop between different actions. You can do this anywhere you go and with most anything you do.
Awareness Meditation
This one is easy. Sit down, take a moment to calm yourself. Keep your eyes open or close them, it’s personal preference (I like to keep my eyes open). The purpose here is to reduce and eliminate the noise of ego-thought by drowning it out with pure awareness. Listen to anything around you. Shift your concentration constantly from one sound to the next. Once your mind begins wandering, or once you begin thinking about what the sound is, or where it came from, you know it’s time to shift your awareness again. Don’t worry, you can cycle through the different noises around you, you’ll never run out. Just don’t think! Listen. You’ll find that eventually after a few sessions, you’ll be able to linger on each sound for longer and longer without wandering. Try it anywhere. On a crowded bus, a train, while you’re relaxing outside, et cetera. It’s possible but more difficult to do this with your other senses as well, such as feeling wind currents on your skin, watching the world around you, or trying to smell it. You may be surprised at how aware you become if you do this regularly.
Death Visualization
A lot of people I find are uncomfortable with this kind of meditation, but to be honest I feel I have made a lot of spiritual progress with it. Sit down, and close your eyes. Visualize in your mind how you appear to be physically. Now, imagine yourself dying. You may see it when you are old and wrinkled, or perhaps you may predict an ailment common in your family. It doesn’t matter. Now visualize your funeral, the procession, and your burial. Attempt to visualize the process of nature break you down and scatter you. Watch yourself rot and fall apart. See yourself in everything: soil consumed by plants consumed by insects consumed by animals, et cetera. See yourself everywhere and in everything, and see everything moving in and out of you. Do you understand yet?
More Soon!
I meditate in the morning and in the evening, for half an hour each time. I don’t know what my life would be without meditation and I never have missed one session anywhere. I’ve meditated every day for the past 23 years. It cleans the nervous system, which is the instrument of consciousness. Little by little, a person becomes a hair more aware of what’s going on. The bad things that happen don’t hit you so hard, and you’re not overpowered by success. Success can be even more dangerous than failure.”
“Well, you know, I’m a meditator, and the idea of that is to expand consciousness by clearing the machines of consciousness, which is the nervous system, and the greater the consciousness, you know… I think in the analogy of fishing, the deeper your hook can go to catch the bigger ideas. And its very important to get down in there. Sitting comfortably, in a chair, drifting off, not trying to manipulate what’s in front of you, sometimes you can drop into a beautiful area or bounce up to higher whichever way you want to see it into a beautiful area and catch ideas.
“Well, you know, I’m a meditator, and the idea of that is to expand consciousness by clearing the machines of consciousness, which is the nervous system, and the greater the consciousness, you know… I think in the analogy of fishing, the deeper your hook can go to catch the bigger ideas. And its very important to get down in there. Sitting comfortably, in a chair, drifting off, not trying to manipulate what’s in front of you, sometimes you can drop into a beautiful area or bounce up to higher whichever way you want to see it into a beautiful area and catch ideas.
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David Lynch on Meditation (via theantidote ) |
The eyes only see what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
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Henri Bergson (via mythologyofblue)
(via invisiblestories) |
”Naturally, every age thinks that all ages before it were prejudiced, and today we think this more than ever and are just as wrong as all previous ages that thought so. How often have we not seen the truth condemned! It is sad but unfortunately true that man learns nothing from history.
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| — | Carl G. Jung (via heartmindspirit) |
Drinking from the same cup bonds people by sharing saliva and representing a common waterhole. A witch who drinks from a cup before presenting it to the recipient knows this and can gain control over the other person in this way. A standard person gains nothing from the action.
One of the most…
Buddhism and the Sound Current — Inner Sound Meditation
“Ananda and all you who listen here
Should inward turn your faculty
Of hearing to hear your own nature
Which alone achieves Supreme Bodhi.
That is how enlightenment is won.
Buddhas as many as the Ganges’ sand
Entered this one gateway to Nirvana.
All past Tathagathatas
Have achieved this method.”
(The Surangama Sutra: Selections from the
Upasaka Lu K’uan Yu Translation,
Published by Rider and Company, London)
It is easiest to hear this Sound when it is quiet, particularly at nighttime. Once you have identified this Sound, then you place your awareness on it without wavering. Resting your mind in the Sound, you continue to listen, going further and further into the Sound itself. (Mind Beyond Death, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Snow Lion Publications)
Listening to the inner Sound brings the heart into a position of acute inner awareness. It is not that the inner Sound has some magical property. Rather, it is that bringing of the alert mind, bringing openness and receptivity to Sound, is symbolic of the presence of Ultimate Truth. The Sound is always there. We don’t have to create it. It is featureless. It is ever present. So it is a good symbol for Ultimate Reality itself. (Ajahn Amaro)
