Wikipedia link of the day: Bhakti Yoga
“We are what we think, having become what we thought,” begins the collection of verse entitled the Dhammapada, the most accessible of ancient Buddhist texts. This emphasis on the state of our minds is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Buddhist approach. Mind is both the problem and the solution. It is not fixed but flexible. It can be changed. But much of the time we are not even aware of what we are thinking and we are certainly not in control of it. The everyday mind runs on by itself and more often than not we are at the mercy of our immediate reactions.
The Dhammapada delights in describing how out of control our minds can be and how much better it feels to do something about it. “Like an archer and arrow, the wise man steadies his trembling mind, a fickle and restless weapon. Flapping like a fish thrown on dry ground, it trembles all day,” it comments. The Buddha was more like a therapist than the founder of a religion. He saw, from his own experience, that self-awareness makes self-control possible. If we want to change what we become, the Buddha taught, we have to change the way we think. “A disciplined mind is the road to Nirvana,” is the Dhammapada’s insistent refrain.There is no single word for meditation in the original language of Buddhism. The closest is one that translates as ‘mental development.’ Meditation, as taught by the Buddha, was a means of taming the mind by bringing the entire range of thoughts, feelings and physical sensations into awareness, making the unconscious conscious. There were already various forms of meditation widely practiced in the Buddha’s day but they were all techniques of concentration. Buddha mastered each of them but still felt uneasy. It was fine to rest the mind on a single object: a sound (or mantra), a sensation (the breath), an image (a candle flame), a feeling (love or compassion), or an idea. This gave strength to the mind, a feeling of stability, of peace and tranquility, a sense of what Freud came to call the ‘oceanic feeling’. While this could be relaxing, it did not do enough to change the mind’s complexion. Buddha was after something more.
The meditation that the Buddha found most helpful was moment-to-moment awareness of what is actually happening to us and in us at successive moments of perception. This did not mean resting the mind on a single object, as he had been taught, but meant observing the mind in action. Human beings have the peculiar ability to be self-reflective, to observe themselves even as they are in process. The Buddha’s method harnesses this ability and develops it. Tibetan Buddhists describe this kind of meditation as like setting up a spy-consciousness in the corner of the mind, eavesdropping on whatever is going on. Freud described something similar when he instructed psychoanalysts to ‘suspend judgment and give impartial attention to everything there is to observe.’ The Buddha found that the mind, when subjected to this kind of self-awareness, settles down and begins to shine.
To experience a taste of this luminosity, try sitting quietly in an upright posture. It could be in a chair or on the sofa or cross-legged on the floor. Keep your back straight. Or lie down if you would rather. Let your eyes gently close. And just listen to your mind. Like a fish returned to water, you may notice that things flow more easily.
-Dr. Mark Epstein
Just as the desert sand burns in the heat of the hot afternoon sun and is cold to the touch during a crisp evening, our minds reflect the influences in our life. The thinking in which we engage, the nature of people with whom we spend time, and the type of media we absorb all contribute to the quality of our minds. The purpose of meditation is to focus the mind as well as identify the things that make it unstable. Quite often mental wavering is due to our habits, for the mind thrives and is structured by habit. To begin a meditation practice is to add a habit to our lives whose substance is clarity, insight, kindness and non-judgment. The yogis of India have taught that meditation brings brightness and clarity to the mind. Without it, the mind remains cloudy with mental fluctuations, which color the way we perceive the world.The method is simple: sit down in a quiet, comfortable spot, either on the floor or in a chair. Take a few slow breaths, inhaling and exhaling calmly and smoothly. Then, begin repeating the following formula to yourself:
- May I be happy.
- May I be free from fear.
- May I be free from suffering.
Repeat this three times. Then, repeat the same, replacing the ‘I’ with the name of someone you love or who is dear to you. Next, use the name of someone you feel is an enemy, or someone you are having difficulty with, then someone who has the same feelings of enmity towards you. Lastly, extend the meditation towards all beings, and the whole world.
The words should be repeated with gentle concentration and genuine feeling; we should feel that the person we are meditating on is there with us. This will contribute to our transformation. We are not repeating empty phrases, but stating a heartfelt prayer, and forming an intention, as when chanting a mantra.
When we wish for someone else’s happiness, for them to be free from fear and sorrow, the way we relate with them is altered. Suddenly, they are no longer in opposition to us, but a fellow human being beset by the difficulties of life. This practice is the seed of learning to be non-judgmental. The state of non-judgment is a neutral point, it is a fulcrum whereby the poisons quiet, and qualities like compassion and understanding can begin.
-Eddie Stern
So compassion, appreciation for others, and the capacity to help others are enhanced when you meditate. You start diving down and experiencing this ocean of pure love, pure peace — you could say pure compassion. You experience that, and know it by being it. Then you go out into the world, and you can really do something for people. The ability to transcend — to dive within and experience an ocean of energy, intelligence and happiness—is the birthright of every human being.
-David Lynch
Wherever you are, whatever you do, have discipline in your life. Discipline your mind, discipline your senses, discipline your body. When we want a big reward, we have to pay a big price. Nothing comes easily. Even for a few minutes of ego gratification for climbing to the top of a mountain, so much effort is needed. How many months of great difficulties will you have to undergo to attain such a goal? How many times will you slip, get up, start, slip, get up, start again? At last you stand there at the top, plant your flag, and say, "I conquered Everest." You may have conquered Everest, but you can never rest there. In ten minutes you even have to come down. For that ten minutes' joy you worked so hard, you followed so many disciplines. Then it's over.
In the spiritual life, however, once you get to the top, you have reached Ever-rest. You do rest there, and you won't have to come down. You can even pull others up as well. But there are no shortcuts. A great price must be laid to reach that great goal. What is that price? Leading a selfless life.
Om Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi
The Oneness Experience is a unique and intelligent energy transfer that works by balancing the brain and awakening the energy centers in our bodies. While each person's experience is unique, many report that the experience leaves them in a peaceful state of connectedness and a newly found heightened awareness to life around them. The states of clarity and deep inner peace that many saints and sages speak about occur as a result of balance in the brain. In our modern society, the brain has become unbalanced due to the great stress that is the norm for so many of us. As we receive the Oneness Experience, the brain has a chance to heal and return to its natural way of experiencing the reality around us, allowing us to be fully with whatever is there and no longer resist who and what we are.I especially like the last part of the quote. During Ayurveda class tonight, we learned that health is happiness. The search for happiness (sukha) and avoidance of unhappiness (dukkha) is natural. I believe true happiness, which you must be healthy to experience-as Ayurveda teaches, comes from making others happy. There is no other way to be happy but to make sure that others are happy, like there is no way to receive but to give.
The goal of Oneness is to help people transform their lives in a positive way, in turn affecting the lives of others and creating a better world for us all - "to end man's suffering."
via Green America newsletter:
Our hearts go out to the survivors of the devastating earthquake in Haiti last week. There's both immediate disaster recovery to do, along with longer term rebuilding work.
First, if you haven't already, please consider giving to an organization that is doing recovery work right now in Haiti. Our friends and allies at groups like Mercy Corps and Haiti Partners are working on addressing key issues such as clean water and shelter for children. Our allies at Network for Good put together a list of organizations on the ground doing direct relief work today. With one click, you can donate to one, several or all of them.
Second, we'd like to point you to the resources in our online community investing center for ways you can invest your money to help Haiti rebuild over time. As you know, community investment intitutions are in the business of making loans to low-income and underserved populations. Below we point you toward a number of institutions already doing work in Haiti, where they will be poised to make a huge impact on the rebuilding process.
If you've been thinking of "breaking up with your bank," because you're tired of the business-as-usual mega-banks, consider directing some of your dollars toward financial institutions you know will be using your money to help survivors in Haiti to rebuild their lives. (Click here to see how community investment banks helped survivors of Hurricane Katrina rebuild their lives here in the US.)
P.S. Please post our list -- and all of our community investing resources -- to your blogs, Facebook pages, etc. Remind your networks that after the initial flurry of donations dies down, Haiti will require long-term investment to get back on its feet.
At our online community investing center, you can search for the investment institution that is right for you by sorting criteria like issue area (health care, education, refugees, etc.), organization type (loan fund, housing developer, venture capital fund, etc.), or geographic impact area (any US state, or any nation). Searching for "Haiti" provides the following list of organizations already doing work on the ground in that nation:
1/15/2010 is a very powerful early start to 2010.
Mercury ends its retrograde; it’s a new moon and also a Solar Eclipse. [A partial solar eclipse may slightly darken the skies of Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe.]
Take this energy and put it into action. Whatever seeds you have been planting over the last 30 days put them into a starting block on this day. Whatever you have been putting your intention into will allow you to see it come to light if you have sincerely been working toward a higher goal. If you goals have been selfish in nature look for this energy to work in reverse.
In this day in age with Pluto in Capricorn your true intentions will be brought to light. There is no time to cut corners into you compassion and selflessness. The more you serve in Wisdom the more you will be given the answers into your higher self. The truth will be told as Pluto continues to entrench itself into Capricorn. Over the next 14 years many things will come to the surface that ordinarily would have been swept under the carpet.
With this powerful Capricorn energy implanting itself on the 15th (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, North Node and Pluto in Capricorn) you can expect to see some “truths” rise to the surface. Will your truth be for the greater good or will you be exposed as someone who has more work to do? If you are not sure you will have a better idea come 1/16.
Just treat everything as play. All this coming and going, meeting, eating, welcoming, sending off, taking birth, saying goodnight and goodbye. It's all fun. We should see it in this light and take things easy. It's all a great, divine play and we all have our roles. Don't even say that we are playing our roles. We are all puppets; there is a wire tied to us. That wire is Cosmic Consciousness. We all have that Consciousness. Whatever that Consciousness thinks, we think. But when we fail to understand that, and allow our individual egos to come to the surface, we think that we are doing something. That is what you call basic ignorance. Actually we have no business of our own here at all. Nothing belongs to us. Not even these bodies, not even these minds.
Idealist.org has some great ideas for getting all of the world's idealists to work together to bridge the gap between our good intentions and our actions. To read their proposal, and sign up to be a part of the movement click here.
Vedanta (Devanagari: वेदान्त, Vedānta) was originally a word used as a synonym for that part of the Veda known also as the Upanishads. The name is a sandhied form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedas". Vedanta is considered to be source of all vedic literature. Original Vedanta contained four verses, later expanded to thousands. By the 8th century CE, the word also came to be used to describe a group of philosophical traditions concerned with the self-realisation by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality (Brahman). The word Vedanta teaches that the believer's goal is to transcend the limitations of self-identity. Vedanta is not restricted or confined to one book and there is no sole source for Vedantic philosophy.[1] Vedanta is based on two simple propositions:
The goal of Vedanta is a state of self-realization or cosmic consciousness. Historically and currently, it is assumed that this state can be experienced by anyone, but it cannot be adequately conveyed in language.
via wikipedia: Vedanta
Quote of the day: Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious. -Brendan Gill
Astronomy happenings: The Leonid Meteor shower is happening until Nov. 21, but it already peaked on the 17th. Mercury joins Jupiter in the evenings on Nov. 22. The phenomenon of the Northern Lights takes place throughout the year, but the lights can be observed only against a night sky. Look for faint vertical bars of light in the northern sky.
"Years ago, when we had both lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, we had spent regular evenings together, talking. Most of our discussions were about academic theories and psychological growth. We had both been fascinated by the conversations and by each other."
"Working to establish a more comfortable style of survival has grown to feel completely in and of itself as a reason to live, and we've gradually forgotten our original question...We've forgotten that we still don't know what we're surviving for."Quote of the day:
"Much has been written over the past several decades about the revolution in physics, but the changes really stem from two major findings, those of quantum mechanics and those of Albert Einstein.
The whole of Einstein's life's work was to show that what we perceive as hard matter is mostly empty space with a pattern of energy running through it. This includes ourselves. And what quantum physics has shown is that when we look at these patterns of energy at smaller and smaller levels, startling results can be seen. Experiments have revealed that when you break apart small aspects of this energy, and try to observe how they operate, the act of observation itself alters the results. This is true even if the particles must appear in places they couldn't possibly go, given the laws of the universe as we know them: two places at the same moment, forward or backward in time. The basic stuff of the universe, at its core, is looking like a kind of pure energy that is malleable to human intention."
