Transcending Grudges with "The 10 Good Things Exercise"

"Double Happiness" char-
acters in Chinese script.

        This is a great exercise to help start the new year on a positive note.  The main purpose of this exercise is to help you clear your mind and emotions of negativity toward someone.  It has a multiplicity of applications, as you could probably imagine.  What you're doing here is reframing your perception of a person, rewriting the script in your mind about him or her.  It could be a person you've wronged, or a person who's wronged you (or both).  Either way, you are ready to move on, tired of carrying the weight of the negativity that the thought of this person inspires within you.  I have tried it.  It works.  It can be a very liberating experience. 

        You may or may not realize it, but harboring grudges seeps energy from your soul, slowly.  Like a fire needs logs placed into it occasionally to keep it burning, in order for a grudge to stay vibrant and charged it feeds on your soul's emotional energy.  A grudge is a slow, but powerful, life-sapping leak. 

        This exercise has nothing to do with whether what transpired between you and the other person was right or wrong, who was at fault, and so forth.  That is an entirely separate issue.  That may have to be handled concurrently or later.  In some cases it may even need to be handled legally.  No, this exercise is solely a personal thing, for your own mental health, to help you to "lighten" the energy around your perception of this person.

        And if you have several grudges against several people, well you've better get working on this ASAP!  

Personal Ascension

A model created by researchers at
The Max Plank Institute in Germany. 
It shows the pattern a thought takes 

when firing through "neural networks"
within an average brain.

Old Dog, New Tricks

        It's been said, "you can't teach an old dog new tricks."  I would have to disagree with that.  I think anyone any age could expand their horizons with new interests, lifestyle changes, changes in values, and so forth.  And I think science bears me out on this one.  Brain research has proven that when you're an older learner, someone with some life experience under your belt, you're better able to connect new information that comes into your brain with the old information stored in "neural networks" you've created through life experience.  You understand the "bigger picture" quicker than someone without this advantage.  You literally are better able to "connect the dots."  We just keep growing, it seems.

        In fact, it seems to me there are two urges we all have: one, to find balance, and the second, to expand.  These two urges seem to be across the board for humans, in my observation.  When we have too much of anything, we instinctively find balance for our bodies and minds again.  But balance and stasis could lead to stagnancy, so it seems that we then get an urge to expand again ...take a new class, embark on a new love relationship, visit a new place, take a chance on something we were previously reluctant about before.  It seems that throughout our lives there's always higher vibrational levels to which we aspire, and we're driven like salmon swimming upstream to get there.  Nothing and no one will stand in the way.  We need to go higher, dig deeper, better understand our boundaries ....then expand them.

Personal Ascension

         I've come to term this growth as, "Personal Ascension."  I don't know if that's already a popular term somewhere, but I said it spontaneously during a reading once, and it's stuck with me since (note: I am not using this term in relation to the current New Age trend of "ascension to the 5th dimension," etc. that is popular right now).  I can tell when people are experience this, as there tends to be telltale signs of it...

There's No Wabi Sabi Here

In our mechanized and computerized lives, it's easy to forget that we are in fact part of the natural world.  The objective behind wabi sabi is to bring us back to our roots, to nature, and the sense of peace that it could impart to our lives."  
--James Crowely, author


        I sat on a park bench today admiring the autumn leaves, as kids played tag on a nearby playground.  I looked down and inspected the wood of the bench.  It hadn't been repaired in a while.  It was split here and there, and whatever paint and finish had been applied to it, was long gone.  In fact, winter rains and hundred-degree summers, as well as the friction from thousands of butts sitting down and getting up over the years, weathered the wood rather beautifully.

        With that bench, what appears to be dangerously splintered, misshapen wood is, in fact, quite smooth to the touch, even "polished" in some places.  It was an example of the Japanese aesthetic of wabi sabi, where weathered, frequently-used items are valued for their unique beauty and character.   I guess Western interpretations of this aesthetic might be the "shabby chic" furniture popular years ago, or "acid-washed" jeans, and the like.

        My being a child of Western culture, and my mother being a child of Eastern culture as she was, resulted in my mother and I often having funny misunderstandings about the oddest things.  Despite her efforts to fit in here, the underlying Buddhist aesthetics of her upbringing in rural Japan, such as wabi sabi, never left her.

Christian Yoga

  “Adapting yoga to suit the needs of every unique individual is where the true greatness of yoga lies.”  --T.K.V. Desikachar

Some say, during his "Lost Years"

between 12 years old and 30

years old, Jesus investigated 
schools of esoteric teachings,
and may have been well-acquain-
ted with yoga practices.

        Though the roots of the spiritual and physical practices of yoga predate Hinduism proper, yoga has long been associated with Hinduism, both being spiritual paths originating in India. Yoga practitioners adopted aspects of the worship of the Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses, viewing them as personifications representating universal energies around us,  "chosen ideals."

        The Hinduism-tinged aspects of yoga practice, with its Sanskrit terminology and chants, tend to make many Christians uncomfortable.  They may feel that yoga is really a kind of Hindu religion, even idolatry.  Yet, many Christians are also interested in enjoying the known health benefits of hatha yoga practice.

Dealing with Restlessness During Meditation

original title: 
Restlessness During the Practice of Silent Illumination

by Barry Wadsworth 
Guest Blogger

Meditation instructor Barry Wadsworth shares three approaches

for dealing with restlessness when you're trying to meditate

        A friend I met at a Silent Illumination retreat at the Dharma Drum Retreat Center [DDRC] last December wrote, "I have trouble focusing on the present, my mind swings back and forth like a monkey swings on a tree.  Last night I meditated using the Silent Illumination method, I couldn't be silent more than one minute.  I will keep trying....".  How many of you meditators out there have experienced this?  Everyone, I'm sure.  

        How many meditators that have been practicing more than 5 years still experience this at times?  Unless you are made of special stuff, again, everyone, I'm fairly certain.  Now here is where it really hurts.  How many of you meditators out there that have been practicing for 30 years or longer still have meditations like this occasionally?  No one?  Well, I guess I'm the only one that still has meditations like this at times.

          There are many causes of restlessness.  The fact that you choose to sit during a time when you are feeling restless is coincidental.  It's just that you become acutely aware of restlessness during meditation.  So first, lets look at the causes of restlessness and what can be done about them before meditation.  Then, let's look at what we can do about restlessness during meditation.

The Season of Gratitude

by Mary Meith

Guest  Blog!

        Hi.  The season of gratitude is upon us, leading us to our very special American holiday, Thanksgiving. It reminds us that gratitude is a doorway that leads us to more expansive and loving experiences of life. I want to share with you 2 simple techniques that can help us to make gratitude an integral part of our everyday lives. These were shared by some friends in the World Community of St. Francis.

Psychic Ability Relates to Survival Instinct

by Sandra Hilleard

        This article explores why psychic ability is an innate human ability, citing related research that seem to suggest we are able to learn to control these abilities, as well as give them a useful place in our lives.

        Psychic ability is the innate human ability to perceive things, people, places and events, distant in space and/or time that are shielded from our normal five senses.

        If you ask the general populous if they ever had a ‘forefeeling’ something was about to happen, something that they could not have known. Most people will answer yes! Whether this is related to ‘knowing’ who is going to call moments before the phone rings. ‘Knowing’ a friend or relative is in distress over thousands of miles away without using any other means of communication. Almost every human being can recite some experience that is ‘unusual’ or perhaps dismissed as a strange coincidence, related to a feeling of ‘knowing.’

Threats Trigger Extrasensory Perception

        The remarkable thing is that most people who have been in dangerous or threatening situations over a longer period of time in their lives, like front-line military/police officers, seem to have developed a stronger awareness of these extrasensory abilities. Some of these people can even tell you that this so called ‘sixth sense’ has saved their lives.

Chakra Readings: The Heart Chakra, Part 1

        Heart chakra energy directly relates to our interaction with the people and other beings of the world around us, probably moreso than any other chakra.  It addresses our general openness, or the degree of our reluctance to open up.  "Melinda" and "Rose" are two good examples of how differences in this energy center may look.  In this article I share with you visual impressions I got when reading their heart energies.

The Hero's Journey Always Looks Like This

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"Whatever you have gone through in life or are yet to go through, your experiences are the natural consequences of being a human being.  You are already on the hero's journey.  It always looks like this."      --Mastering Life's Energies, by Maria Nemeth, Ph.D.

In our quests to achieve our goals, 
we often encounter discourage-
ment, challenges to self-confidence, 
fatigue in the will to keep fight-
ing...it's all part of the journey.

       "It always looks like this."  Hmm.  When I read that, it did that echo-y thing, like in the movies..."this, this, this, this..."  And I could hear the air hissing out of the huge balloon of expectations of perfection I had blown up in the course of my adulthood, and hidden somewhere in the recesses of my mind.  What a relief that was.

        I thought about the imperfect journeys of the  heroes I've read about: Ulysseus getting sidetracked with the Sirens and other hostile creatures, yet still reaching his destination; Moses leading the Isrealites through a harrowing journey through the "wilderness" for 40 years, at one point facing near-mutiny by them, but still seeing to it that they got to the Promised Land; Arjuna's famous moment of confusion and reluctance on the battlefield in the Bhagavad Gita.

        Thousands of years later these stories are still rich to us, for good reason.  We get it.  We understand the imperfect paths the heroes walked.  We walk them ourselves every day.  And we yearn for the transcendence those heroes achieved.

A Jew, a Nazi, and an Arab

I've discovered that the surest way to be reincarnated into a particular group of people, defined by religion, race, nationality, or culture, is to hate those people in a previous life, to be prejudiced or violent against that group.  --Brian Weiss, M.D.

The Jew

        Evelyn worked in mergers and acquisitions, meaning that she helped effectuate the merging of two companies or the sale of one to another.  When the companies were large, there were often hundreds of millions of dollars involved, and the fees paid to the company that Evelyn worked for routinely came to seven figures.  Evelyn was paid a substantial salary, which was often doubled or tripled by her year-end bonus, a reward for bringing in new business.

       She was in her mid-thirties, slim, physically attractive, with black hair cropped short, almost a cliche of the young woman executive.  Her clothes reflected her success: a Chanel suit and handbag, a Hermes scarf, shoes by Gucci, a Rolex watch, and a diamond necklace.  Yet when I looked into her eyes --not easy since they darted away from me when she became conscious of my gaze --I could see sadness.  The light was in the diamonds at her neck, not in her expression.

         "I need help," she said the moment we shook hands.  While she sat, agitated hands twisted and untwisted on her lap.  I quickly learned that she was given to declarative sentences spoken in an unnaturally loud voice.
        "I'm unhappy."
        There was silence.  "Go on," I prompted.
        "I have of late lost all my mirth."
        The phrase seemed oddly formal.  Then I remembered it was a quote from Hamlet.  Patients sometimes use someone else's words so they don't have to use their own.  It's a defense, a way of masking feeling.  I waited for her to continue.  It took a while.
        "I used to love my job.  Now I hate it.  I used to love my husband.  Now we're divorced.  When I have to see him, I can barely look at him."
        "When did the change come?" I asked.

        "With the suicide bombings."

The Yoga of Psychic Ability

.

          Psychic abilities are not a New Age construct.  There's nothing new about them.  They only seem new to us because over the centuries socio-political factors have dumbed us down so much.  We have been alienated from our own true abilities and potential as spiritual beings.  Since ancient times, Indian sages (rishis in Sanskrit) knew that we're all born with some degree of sixth-sensory ability, called siddhi in Sanskrit.  They wrote extensively about this.

        The rishis noted that one of the natural consequences of the mental discipline created by a regular meditation practice is that it tends to sharpen one's innate sixth-sensory acuity, much like exercising a muscle.

        At the same time, they also cautioned that desiring to acquire these abilities in order to attain power over other people, or for vainglorious attention or wealth, are not good reasons to pursue meditation and siddhis, and soundly condemned such motives.  While they knew that siddhis could be fine-tuned and controlled, many teachers (even today) taught that they should be ignored altogether because the temptation to misuse them is too great.  As you develop your abilities, seek to use them for benevolent purposes.  Otherwise, there will be negative karmic consequences you will have to deal with, and this is unavoidable.

                  Below are a few ancient Sanskrit terms for various psychic abilities:

• Adarsha Siddhi (or Divya) is clairvoyance, the most well-known psychic ability.  It is seeing information you didn't already know in visions and dreams.  Visions happen during the waking hours.  They can be quick flashes of insight, or long, detailed vignettes that play like a movie in your mind's eye.  Dreams can sometimes contain psychic messages, so pay attention to them

• Shravana Siddhi (or Divyashravana) is clairaudience, the psychic ability of hearing information you didn't already know.  You might hear someone saying something in their head (which would also be called telepathy) when they didn't speak it, only to have them speak it a moment later.  A funny example: I used to hear a friend's cell phone tone when she wanted to go out to Happy Hour.  I'd call her and ask if she wanted to go to Happy Hour and she'd say, "Hey, I was just about to call you and ask you that!"  When I hadn't heard her cell phone ring, but called her anyway to see if she wanted to go, she would be tied up with something and unable to go 

• Pratibha Siddhi is divination, the ability to read and acquire information through tools of augery, or through signs presented in the rhythms and patterns of the natural environment

Drishti: Where is Your Attention?

       
       As with most concepts in yoga, there's both a metaphoric and a literal aspect to the concept of drishti, Sanskrit for "point of gaze."  Yoga practice brings awareness of the body, breath and mind to the practitioner, and in a literal sense, drishti refers to where the eyes are focused.  I think in a larger, figurative sense, we could also consider where we place our "focus" in life as another practice of drishti.   This focus shapes our all activities and attitudes, all our relationships and goals.

Drishti in Yoga

        With yogasanas, the postures you assume when practicing hatha yoga, not only are you aware of what your arms, legs, and breath are doing, but you also pay attention to where your eyes are focused.  Every yogasana has its appropriate drishti.  Most American yoga teachers don't teach this, at least not the ones I've had.  It might be because either they don't know about it, or they don't want to be bothered with it during class.  I've only ever encountered a couple yoga instructors who included this instruction in their entire session.  The book I mention at the end of this article lists the appropriate drishti for each asana presented in it.  I thought that was neat.

        Drishti helps you get the most out of the yoga posture.  It helps with the alignment of the spine, muscles and internal organs.  I can feel the difference when I do or don't incorporate them.  In the course of performing one asana there could be two or three different drishti to be aware of as you move through a single asana sequence.  Here are a few common drishti:

On Psychic Self-Defense, and the Problem with Energetic "Hedges"

.
The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.” --Bob Marley


        "Sandra" came into the metaphysical store where I worked looking for any number of oils, herbs and crystals with which to "repel" the many negative energies she was facing in her life.  She filled up her basket with every such item in sight.  It must have gotten expensive.  Moments later, "Rene" walked in, having the same goal in mind.  Overhearing my assisting Sandra, Rene listened for a while.  Then, she approached me and requested a reading to examine the negative energies she believed were plaguing her life.  I usually answered questions and chatted with guests when I wasn't doing readings.

        You could employ witchcraft spells and workings, or Hoodoo.  You could pray to angels, saints or gods for intercessory assistance.  You could construct elaborate psychic wards and energetic shields around yourself, your home and your possessions.  These are all ways we might separate and protect ourselves from what we perceive to be negative energies around us.

The Two of Swords: Navigating the Fear of Change

The Two of Swords

        One way to interpret this card's image is that this woman doesn't want to face the fork in the road of her life.  She knows she can't stay in the situation in which she finds herself, represented by one sword.  Yet, she is unwilling to take the plunge into a new situation, represented by the other.  So, she doesn't deal with it one way or another, represented by her being blindfolded.  The suite of swords has to do with thought, the element of air.  This woman doesn't want to "think" about this dilemma.  So she avoids "looking" at it.

Margaret's Fear of Change

        Every time "Margaret" walked into the store, I would see the image of the Two of Swords card hovering over her head like a hologram.  I never said anything to her about it.  I knew that her life was a touchy subject, and she did not want to be forced to "see" what was really happening.

        Margaret worked two jobs, in addition to taking care of a handicapped child.  A former spouse needed a place to stay, so she let him live there.  Big mistake.  She already knew he had gambling and drug addictions.  His addictions got progressively worse during his residence in her home.

Dangers of Past Life Regressions

 

Respect the Process

        Past life regressions can be wonderfully insightful tools to help you learn about yourself, and I highly recommend them!  Through them you have the opportunity to heal areas of your life that need healing, or learn about the possible origins of your abilities and talents.

        You can also gain surprising insights into the possible origins of your personal and professional relationships, and the nature of the dynamics underlying them.  But regressions are totally unpredictable.  So respect the process and always exercise caution.

Warning to the Wise

          Carol Bowman, psychologist and past-life researcher, warns that with access to the variety of past life regression cds freely available on the market, certain responsibility toward the process especially needs to be exercised.  She is known for being one of the first regressionists to take children's past lives seriously, and has written a book about it.  Bowman cautions against leaving someone "hanging" with traumatic memories, and suggests having a plan in place to help them.

        Note that you won't hear things like this from most people who have a vested interest in your attending their workshops or buying their books.  Most won't provide a realistic disclaimer disclosing just how damaging past life regressions could possibly be for some, so people could at least have some kind of heads up beforehand.  Instead, they paint a picture of the process leading many to believe regressions are all fun and games, or simply "healing."  It's the making of money that's important.

         Though Bowman herself sells books and conducts workshops on the topic, I appreciate that she  remains honest and down to earth about the regression process.  In response to a question on her blog concerning "regressions by the untrained," Bowman wrote the following comment echoing what I have come to believe, as I will explain below:

The Catcher's Mitt: Journaling Your Psychic Experiences

You might think, "I'll remember

this dream" or inspirational thought
...later.  But later comes, and you've
forgotten it!  The information might
have been vital to you, so be sure to 
"catch" it in a journal next time.

        It's helpful to write down thoughts, inspirations, dreams, visions, and so on, that you receive along your life path, especially if you're trying to fine-tune your intuitive abilities.  Spirit speaks to us through our natural thought processes.  Those "funny feelings," that "little voice" tipping us off about something are sometimes spirit communication, or your own Higher Self speaking through your intuition.    

        Despite the flurry of thoughts about this, that and the other thing that blazes through your mind throughout the day, you could "catch" those elusive but sometimes life-changing insights in a notebook.  I call such a notebook a spiritual "catcher's mitt."

Tips

        World-reknown psychic medium John Holland is an adamant proponent of journal writing.  In each of his books, he mentions the importance of journal writing.  In Power of the Soul: Inside Wisdom for an Outside World he even admits he has "used some of the material from my journals as a reference for the books I've written," so he practices what he preaches.  Your journal can be the recipe book from which you cook up the projects you will undertake in this lifetime that are part of your soul purpose.

        In Power of the Soul he suggests several useful journaling tips, including:

The Tokonoma of the Mind

.

An Architecture of Reflection

It is believed that tokonoma
were interior Buddhist shrines
long ago, then later evolved 
into merely a secularized, 
decorative element. 

       In a traditional Japanese home there is usually a built-in, recessed alcove called a tokonoma.  Residents place items of heartfelt significance there for display.   This could include a scroll of calligraphy featuring poetry reflecting the seasons, reflecting a special occasion, a holiday or a milestone.

        Flower arrangements are often placed there, too.  They are viewed as statements reminding us of the temporal nature of life, urging us to be present and enjoy the moment before it withers away.  Temporal reality is considered "The Floating World," a river always flowing past us, all things ever-changing, all things impermanent.

        The architecture of a traditional Japanese home is considered a metaphor for the human body, with the tokonoma correlating to one's spirit or soul.  In considering the contents of the tokonoma, we are reminded to examine what we hold within our own spirits, as well.

        We're to examine what we've maintained in the tokonomas of our hearts and minds: are there good things there, bad things?   What have we allowed to blossom there, what plays like poetry to us there?   Which memories have we chosen to retain, which have we chosen to let drift away...and why?

___________________________________________

Examples of Tokonomas

A traditional tokonoma.  Though natural lighting is an important aesthetic 
in traditional Japanese homes such as this, sometimes an electrical back
light is installed somewhere within the tokonoma to highlight its contents, 
a spotlight of sorts.

A woman dressed in traditional clothing (kimono) arranging
flowers within the tokonoma.  The art of flower arrangement
is called, Ikebana, and at one point in Japan was compul-
sory education for girls (I doubt that's the case today).

I don't remember a time growing up when there wasn't a 
flower arrangement in our home.  My mom would use
flowers from her garden during the summer, and "found"
wild flowers during the winter.  I wrote poems about it in 
college.  It's something I'll never forget about my mom. 

A stunning doll collection displayed in a home's tokonoma area
 for the Hinamatsuri festival (aka "Girl's Day") held each March.
It is considered back luck not to put the display away immediately
after the holiday passes, despite its beauty and whatever enjoyment
it has brought.  The point is to not to dwell on the past.

An ultra-modern tokonoma in the city.  As traditional design 
principles are observed, unique innovation is also prized in 
tokonoma design.  What's important is that it works for the 
home dwellers.  Other modern ideas: 9 Elements of Asian Style 

An American mom in Pennsylvania with a
fondness for Japanese decor created this
tokonoma-like area in the home she shares
with her husband and two little boys.

My Tokonoma of Words

        I consider this blog a tokonoma of my own spirit, as I share here with you my thoughts and feelings about various matters Of the Soul.  It gets whacky sometimes, but I try my best.  So welcome, and I am glad to have you here. 







_______________________________________________________

Related resources:

The Mastery of Japanese Flower Arrangement
A Japanese Touch for Your Home
Tansu, a Japanese-style entertainment center TV cabinet
Japanese incense, Jinkoh Juzan Aloeswood (150 Sticks)
Japanese lamp w/window pane design (rosewood)

Chakra Readings: The Crown Chakra

        The main thing I've observed with this energy center is that one could have "people" in there, either guiding one's life for the better (where they do nothing without your consent), or controlling one's life for the worse.

       In the article below, I describe aspects of strong and weak Crown Chakras.  I also offer suggestions for balancing the energy of this chakra.  These suggestions are starting points only.  Let the wisdom of your own intuition guide you in additional ways to strengthen this area of your life.


In this article we'll look at:

I.   A Strong Crown Chakra
         1.  Purple Power

         2.  The Presence of "Ascended Master" Types

II.  A Weak Crown Chakra

         1.  Searching for Meaning

         2.  Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

         3.  Suicidal Tendancies

III.  Balancing the Energy of the Crown Chakra