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Witchcraft Accusations

Witchcraft Accusations - CRIN

http://www.crin.org/docs/Stepping_stones_witchcraft.pdf

Can Cosmic Energy Really Heal?

Cosmic Energy Healing Cosmic energy healing is an important facet of spiritual healing and deals with using cosmic energy, which exists in our cosmos. Cosmic energy is referred to as the life force and the energy that maintains the balance of the entire cosmos. Cosmic energy is also known as the energy of supreme consciousness and intelligence and we are surrounded by it everywhere and all the time. Earth energy is part of it and it's usually recognized as Mother Earth or Gaia.  There are two ways of receiving cosmic energy. We all receive this energy while sleeping but the received energy is not sufficient to maintain the order or balance in our life. The second way of receiving cosmic energy is by practicing spirituality. The energy received through spirituality is powerful enough to assist in healing through cosmic energy. It helps us to live a healthier and happier life and also drives the expansion and the transformation of our consciousness. How can I receive Cosmic Energy? Cosmic energy is abundant in the cosmos. To gather energy you can use chackra breathing exercises or learn energy healing. In my opinion, the best and more simple path to choose for receiving this positive energy is meditation. Cosmic energy enters through the mind and meditation helps the mind to be more focused to receive it. Cosmic energy enters our individual mind-body system through the chackras and supports the human energy field. In most humans chackras are at least partially closed most of the time because of the distractions in the mind like anxiety, fear, worry, stress and negative emotions. When you meditate, the mind and body have the tendency to become one. This helps the physical and spiritual self to receive the energy and helps in cosmic energy healing. Experts in cosmic energy healing also suggest that you can channelize cosmic energy through breathing meditation as well. Breathing meditation helps in bringing calmness in the mind and aids in the development of inner peace. Breathing meditation can be practiced in a quiet place on a daily basis. When your mind is calm, you will be able to receive cosmic energy. To increase energy in the body quickly you can also focus on breathing through your base chackra and absorb energy from earth. Earth energy healing gives us grounding and helps embodiment. It is certainly a good exercise to support your body. Reiki is another method of receiving this energy and works on the principles of accessing cosmic energy as well as internal energy. Transformational Energy Healing is a 360 degrees approach and combines different healing techniques together. Can Cosmic Energy Really Heal? Healing through cosmic energy takes place only after you have received this energy from a healer or through your own self. Positive or good energy always helps in healing of the mental, physical, and spiritual self. Cosmic energy can help in healing you from inside out. The human mind and body are inscribed in an energy field that is nourished by cosmic energy. Human activities produce both positive and negative energy and when negative energy increases, we are faced with health problems. By receiving cosmic energy, you can reduce or remove the negative energy and create a harmony. Some of the physical benefits it gives include: •It helps in proper blood flow and reduces the workload of your heart •It helps in lowering lactate and cortisol, which are often associated with stress •It can help in reducing free radicals •It creates higher skin resistance and helps in healing cardiovascular diseases •It helps in removing all psychological issues including depression, anxiety, and irritability •It enhances the psychological self by increasing the feelings of self-actualization, and rejuvenation •It also improves memory In order to enjoy the benefits of cosmic energy healing, you will need to practice meditation and follow spiritual paths that will open the door of your mind toward receiving this life force. Learn more on the following pages: Earth Energy Healing Earth energy is considered an important spiritual energy force and can be received directly from the earth or through any life form rooted to the earth. Transformational Energy Healing We are surrounded by positive and transformational energy that can be used for healing, or that probably it is healing itself. http://www.spiritual-healing-for-you.com/cosmic-energy-healing.html

powerful waterfall

Waterfalls

• Waterfalls are highly useful water features. They contain all three types of water features. The waterfall itself represents the flow of water, and the basin the waterfall flows into is a body of water. The point where the waterfall hits the water is the water mouth. The water mouth is the highest concentration of energy. Waterfalls should always face the home, or towards the center of the home if it is an indoor waterfall. Waterfalls can produce a great amount of positive energy when used correctly. Because a waterfall consists of a flow of water, it is important to be aware of your home's energy centers before installing one.

Read more: Feng Shui Water Features | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_6776909_feng-shui-water-features.html#ixzz25YZDe9z2

Kundalini

"Kundalinî: 'She who is coiled; serpent power.' The primordial cosmic energy in every individual which eventually, through the practice of yoga, rises up the sushumnâ nâdî. As it rises, the kunalinî awakens each successive chakra. Nirvikalpa samâdhi, enlightenment, comes as it pierces through the door of Brahman at the core of the sahasrâra and enters!” Hinduism Today
"The Kundalini is your own mother. Your individual mother. And She has tape-recorded all your past and your aspirations, everything. And She rises because She wants to give you your second birth, but She is your individual mother. You don’t share Her with anybody else. Yours is a different, somebody else’s is different because the tape-recording is different. We say She is the reflection of the Adi Shakti who is called as Holy Ghost in the Bible. But She rises without any difficulty. Hardly any time it takes." — Shri Mataji
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man born be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God... Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is spirit." John 3:5-7

"It is important to understand about your own Kundalini, as Self-realisation is Self-knowledge. And the one who gives Self-knowledge is your own Kundalini because when she rises, she points out what are the problems on your Chakras. Now we say that it is pure desire. It is your chaste desire. It has no lust or greed in it. That power is your Mother and She Is settled down in the triangular bone. She knows everything about you just as a tape recorder. She is absolute knowledge. Because She is so pure that whatever chakra She touches, She knows what is wrong with that chakra before hand; so She is quite prepared and She adjusts herself fully so that you do not get a problem by the awakening. If any chakra is constricted, She waits and goes on slowly opening that chakra.

The Kundalini is the primordial power and is reflected in you. In a human being, it is like many strands of energy, like rope. This energy is all twisted together to form that Kundalini. In a human being the strands are 3 x 7 = 21 Nadis raised to the power of 108. When your kundalini rises, one or two strands out of this come up and pierce the fontanelle bone. It has to pass through the innermost nadi known as Brahma Nadi. It is a spiral movement throughout. The kundalini is spiral and nadis are also like a spiral. The outermost nadi is the right-side nadi, Pingala Nadi. The second innermost is Ida Nadi. She starts sending these threads through Brahma Nadi; by that they relax the centre. By relaxing of centre, the sympathetic nervous system also starts relaxing, your pupils start dilating and when it has pierced the Agnya, then the eyes will be completely dilated and shining. Then She enters into Sahasrara.

It is absolutely the pure light of knowledge of love, compassion and attention. All these things are in that energy. We know of many energies like electrical, light energy etc. These energies cannot think. They cannot adjust and work on their own. They have to be handled by us. But this energy itself is the living energy and knows how to handle itself. It thinks. If you see a seed being sprouted you will find at the tip of the seed there is a small little cell which knows how to go around the soft places, how to encircle the stones, and how to find its way towards the source. That cell has got a little Kundalini in it. But within you a tremendous force of Kundalini exists. When a realised soul says that he should have more compassion, as my compassion is not alright; my concern about others, my generosity is not alright, I have exploited other's love. Then this energy starts moving, giving you that greater dimension of love and compassion. If you do not want to grow in your awareness then She does not supply the energy which is stored in you.

The Kundalini is there to nourish you, look after you, and make you grow by giving you a higher, wider and deeper personality. All her power is nothing but love. She gives the power to forgive. Even when you think, the energy for thinking comes from Kundalini because you are asking her help.

The power of Kundalini is absolute purity, auspiciousness, holiness, chastity, self-respect, pure love, detachment, concern, enlightened attention to give you Joy. As a mother will try whatever is possible to give joy to her child, in the same way, this Kundalini has only one power and that is how to give Joy to her own Children. When we talk in the light of Kundalini, we have to understand that this light spreads in your life, outside your life and, expresses itself in a very beautiful manner.

When you worship Adi Kundalini, the reflection in you, which is your Kundalini, is very happy. Also the deities feel happy.

The power of Kundalini which is your own Mother has to rise and manifest itself, because of your Pure Desire. In your introspection, pujas, and in your Meditation, you should see for yourself why are you in meditation. It is for pure desire of compassion and love to be awakened within us. The growth has started and you will find that this shell which is human conditioning and ego will just break open. It is in the triangular bone, which comes up, manifests and can save the whole world. Just see the magnificence, the expansion, the greatness of this Kundalini which was within you and which came up in its full strength and has shown tremendous things.

The joy we feel during music recitals is because Kundalini is dancing. She gets happy because you ask for nothing but enjoyment of collectivity.

You are yourself fully connected when you are absolutely detached and your Kundalini is dancing. You are alone and never alone. This oneness with the whole gives you all the security and joy you want. That's why the Kundalini awakening means collectivity. Unless and until you want pure collectivity in your being Kundalini won't rise.

When you worship Adi Kundalini, you are trying to cleanse your Kundalini, as well and please the deities. This is an object. It cannot be changed. But the reflector can change. The movement of Kundalini depends on temperament of person. Kundalini can give you honesty, and faith in honesty by actualising the experience. Supposing you want to go to a garden and you are suddenly there. Then you will know that your desire is pure and it has worked out. All such miracles happen. The pure desire works out because it is powerful.

When it works, the whole thing works out and you develop faith. That faith is within you. Nobody can challenge you if you have faith. It will be done. Your pure desire is now being fulfilled, you are now connected, and you are now Divine. You are realised souls. You are different from others. For you, all this subtle knowledge is being absorbed, because your Kundalini is absorbing it. Whatever is absorbed is absorbed back by me. But that becomes like a barometer. You immediately know without thinking, asking, you know about anyone because Kundalini is the reflector. The better a reflector, you become, the more the Kundalini shows. Though Kundalini is an individual Mother, in her functions and methods She is just the same. You cannot cheat the Kundalini; She knows you out and out. We must meditate to get into thoughtless awareness by which we allow the Kundalini to grow."

The Paraclete Shri Mataji
Philadelphia, USA — Oct 15, 1993


Kundalini: The dormant, divine Evolutionary Force that enlightens and bestows immortality when activated
"What is Kundalini Really? More commonly known in western cultures as Holy Spirit, Kundalini is the ancient Sanskrit name for the primal life force that animates all living entities—the evolutionary force behind all living matter.... Shaktipat is a Sanskrit word for the process of activating the higher Kundalini-Shakti energy, initiating the process of spiritual growth and enlightenment and advancing personal evolution dramatically. This has also been called the "baptism by fire" and "second birth"—a truly sacred mystical experience.” Dr. Larry Jensen PhD, DD, MBA.

According to Indian tradition, man has seven chakras (centres of energy). The Kundalini force is said to be sleeping, coiled like a serpent, in the lowest chakra, called the root chakra. When this force is awaken, it begins to rise up through the spine. The awakening occurs through yoga, meditation, breathing exercises etc., and was called "the shorter way to God".

The most ancient Eastern spiritual texts, the Vedas, of India, tell us that the process of spiritual awakening by which one attains truth -awareness is called 'Self-Realization'. The Self Realized person lives in direct experience of reality—this is called "Jnana" ( a traditional sanskrit word meaning 'knowledge' or 'Gnosis'). Such a person is called a "Jnani" ('knower ' or 'gnostic' ) or "dwijaha" ('twice born'; first from a human mother to the earthly plane then secondly as a child of the Goddess, or Divine Mother, who gives the seeker their second, spiritual birth, Self-Realisation, into the plane of mystic awareness- gnosis! ).
Kundalini means ‘coiled energy’ and it refers to a power which lies in three-and-a-half coils in the sacrum bone called the Mooladhara which is distinct from, and lies above, the Mooladhara Chakra. (It is interesting to note that sacrum if Greek for sacred.) A pulsation is sometimes seen at this level during Kundalini Awakening. Like the Sushumna, the Kundalini is normally in a potential state. When it is awakened it ascends through the Sushumna, across the void to the top of the Sushumna. When the Kundalini emerges at this point, Yoga is said to have taken place. Yoga is impossible without Kundalini Awakening.
This happening of Kundalini awakening and ultimate union with a higher consciousness are described by a Sanskrit word ‘Sahaja’. This means literally ‘born with,’ spontaneous or effortless. The implication is that the entire mechanism is inborn — part of human anatomy — and is activated in a spontaneous and natural way without undue or extreme efforts. One analogy often used is the germinating of a seed. This happens automatically when the seed is placed in the Mother Earth.
When the Kundalini reaches the Agnya Chakra, one becomes silent and peaceful. The person sits with his eyes closed, so this is not a state of hypnosis, brainwashing or manipulation — just silence. The person is fully aware of himself and of his surroundings and is he wishes to, he can think. However, the person is very relaxed and his attention is not constantly being distracted by the normal flow of mundane thoughts. This state is not achieved by any effort of will or by any mental exercises on the part of the patient. It occurs spontaneously when a Sahaja Yogi, that is to say someone who has the state of Yoga and the expertise of the mechanism, awakens the Kundalini. But this is also an illusion as it the Divine Presence within that gives Self-Realization.
If one of the Chakras is damaged or defective, the Kundalini may be obstructed at that level. In such cases, it is often possible to see the pulsation of the Kundalini at that level with the naked eye, and to hear it with a stethoscope. This pulsation can also be heard at the fontanel and Adi Shankaracaraya called this 'spandakarika.'
As the Kundalini rises through the Agnya Chakra, it cools down the system, especially the cerebo-spinal fluid. This results in the balloons of the left and right Agnya becoming progressively deflated. Once this happens the Kundalini is able to reach the top of the Sushumna; the Sahasrara Chakra. At this point we can say that Yoga has taken place. The person feels the coolness, like a breeze of cool vibrations flowing in the fingers and palms of both hands. The sensations on the hands can, with very little practice, be used to ascertain the state of the Chakras. The nadis and the Chakras themselves begin to manifest in the conscious awareness, and what has so far been a hypothesis becomes part of one’s everyday sensory experience. Our fingertips, the base and center of the palm become extremely sensitive as the sympathetic nerve endings representing the different Chakras become enlightened. (According to the Prashna Upanishad, verse 3:6, there are precisely 727,210,201 nerves.) We can feel on our fingers our own selves and other people by a proper method of decoding, which can be taught to anyone who reaches this stage, in a month. Thus, the diagnosis takes place at a deeper level of our being through our sensitivity to these seven centres.
If one learns how to nourish the Chakras through the knowledge of Sahaja Yoga, one can cure the exhausted Chakras. Thus the patient is cured at the root of the disease. It is a scientific and logical method that exists naturally within ourselves, which gives us a balance, redeems us of our mental and physical troubles, comforts and counsels us.
PRAYER TO MOTHER KUNDALINI

Wake up Mother Kundalini.
Thou whose nature is Bliss Eternal—The Bliss of Brahman.
Thou dwelling like a serpent asleep at the lotus of Muladhara,
Sore, affected and distressed am I in body and mind,
Do thou bless me and leave thy place at the basic lotus.
Consort of Siva the Self-caused Lord of Universe,
Do thou take thy upward course through the central canal.
Leaving behind Svadhishthana, Manipuraka, Anahata, Vishuddha, and Ajna.
Be thou united with Siva, thy Lord the God.
At Sahasrara—the thousand-petalled-lotus in the brain.
Sport there freely, O Mother, Giver of Bliss Supreme.
Mother, who is Existence, Knowledge, Bliss Absolute.
Wake up, Mother Kundalini! Wake up.

KUNDALINI

The word Kundalini is a familiar one to all students of Yoga, as it is well known as the power, in the form of a coiled serpent, residing in Muladhara Chakra, the first of the seven Chakras, the other six being Svadhishthana, Manipuraka, Anahata, Visuddha, Ajna and Sahasrara, in order.

All Sadhanas in the form of Japa, meditation, Kirtan and prayer as well as all development of virtues, and observance of austerities like truth, non-violence and continence are at best calculated only to awaken this serpent-power and make it to pass through all the succeeding Chakras beginning from Svadhishthana to Sahasrara, the latter otherwise called as the thousand-petalled lotus, the seat of Sadasiva or the Parabrahman or the Absolute separated from whom the Kundalini or the Shakti lies at the Muladhara, and to unite with whom the Kundalini passes through all the Chakras, as explained above, conferring liberation on the aspirant who assiduously practises Yoga or the technique of uniting her with her Lord and gets success also in his effort.

In worldly-minded people, given to enjoyment of sensual and sexual pleasures, this Kundalini power is sleeping because of the absence of any stimulus in the form of spiritual practices, as the power generated through such practices alone awakens that serpent-power, and not any other power derived through the possession of worldly riches and affluence. When the aspirant seriously practises all the disciplines as enjoined in the Shastras, and as instructed by the preceptor, in whom the Kundalini would have already been awakened and reached its abode or Sadasiva, acquiring which blessed achievement alone a person becomes entitled to act as a Guru or spiritual preceptor, guiding and helping others also to achieve the same end, the veils or layers enmeshing Kundalini begin to be cleared and finally are torn asunder and the serpent-power is pushed or driven, as it were upwards.

Supersensual visions appear before the mental eye of the aspirant, new worlds with indescribable wonders and charms unfold themselves before the Yogi, planes after planes reveal their existence and grandeur to the practitioner and the Yogi gets divine knowledge, power and bliss, in increasing degrees, when Kundalini passes through Chakra after Chakra, making them to bloom in all their glory which before the touch of Kundalini, do not give out their powers, emanating their divine light and fragrance and reveal the divine secrets and phenomena, which lie concealed from the eyes of worldly- minded people who would refuse to believe of their existence even.

When the Kundalini ascends one Chakra or Yogic centre, the Yogi also ascends one step or rung upward in the Yogic ladder; one more page, the next page, he reads in the divine book; the more the Kundalini travels upwards, the Yogi also advances towards the goal or spiritual perfection in relation to it. When the Kundalini reaches the sixth centre or the Ajna Chakra, the Yogi gets the vision of Personal God or Saguna Brahman, and when the serpent-power reaches the last, the top centre, or Sahasrara Chakra, or the Thousand-petalled lotus, the Yogi loses his individuality in the ocean of Sat-Chit-Ananda or the Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute and becomes one with the Lord or Supreme Soul. He is no longer an ordinary man, not even a simple Yogi, but a fully illumined sage, having conquered the eternal and unlimited divine kingdom, a hero having won the battle against illusion, a Mukta or liberated one having crossed the ocean of ignorance or the transmigratory existence, and a superman having the authority and capacity to save the other struggling souls of the relative world. Scriptures hail him most, in the maximum possible glorifying way, and his achievement. Celestial beings envy him, not excluding the Trinity even, viz., Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.

Kundalini And Tantrik Sadhana

Kundalini Yoga actually belongs to Tantrik Sadhana, which gives a detailed description about this serpent-power and the Chakras, as mentioned above. Mother Divine, the active aspect of the Existence- Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, resides in the body of men and women in the form of Kundalini, and the entire Tantrik Sadhana aims at awakening Her, and making Her to unite with the Lord, Sadasiva, in the Sahasrara, as described in the beginning in detail. Methods adopted to achieve this end in Tantrik Sadhana are Japa of the name of the Mother, prayer and various rituals.

Kundalini And Vedanta

But when we come to Vedanta, there is no question about Kundalini or any type of mystical and mechanical methods. It is all enquiry and philosophical speculation. According to Vedanta the only thing to be destroyed is ignorance about one's real nature, and this ignorance cannot be destroyed either by study, or by Pranayama, or by work, or by any amount of physical twisting and torturing, but only by knowing one's real nature, which is Sat-Chit-Ananda or Existence-Knowledge- Bliss. Man is divine, free and one with the Supreme Spirit always, which he forgets and identifies himself with matter, which itself is an illusory appearance and a superimposition on the spirit. Liberation is freedom from ignorance and the aspirant is advised to constantly dissociate himself from all limitations and identify himself with the all-pervading, non-dual, blissful, peaceful, homogeneous spirit or Brahman. When meditation becomes intensified, in the ocean of Existence or rather the individuality is blotted or blown out completely. Just as a drop of water let on a frying pan is immediately sucked and vanishes from cognition, the individual consciousness is sucked in by the Universal Consciousness and is absorbed in it. According to Vedanta there cannot be real liberation in a state of multiplicity, and the state of complete Oneness is the goal to be aspired for, towards which alone the entire creation is slowly moving on.

The Mysterious Kundalini

Manastvam Vyoma tvam Marudasi Marutsarathirasi,
Tvamapastvam Bhumistvayi parinatayam nahi param,
Tvameva Svatmanam parinamayitum visvavapusha
Chidanandakaram haramahishi-bhavena bibhrushe.
"O Devi! Thou art the mind, the sky, the air, the fire, the water, and the earth. Nothing is outside Thee on Thy transformation. Thou hast become Siva's consecrated queen to alter Thy own blissful conscious Form in the shape of the world".

Kundalini, the serpent power or mystic fire, is the primordial energy or Sakti that lies dormant or sleeping in the Muladhara Chakra, the centre of the body. It is called the serpentine or annular power on account of serpentine form. It is an electric fiery occult power, the great pristine force which underlies all organic and inorganic matter.

Kundalini is the cosmic power in individual bodies. It is not a material force like electricity, magnetism, centripetal or centrifugal force. It is a spiritual potential Sakti or cosmic power. In reality it has no form. The Sthula Buddhi and mind have to follow a particular form in the beginning stage. From this gross form, one can easily, understand the subtle formless Kundalini. Prana, Ahamkara, Buddhi, Indriyas, mind, five gross elements, nerves are all the products of Kundalini.

It is the coiled-up, sleeping Divine Sakti that lies dormant in all beings. You have seen in the Muladhara Chakra that there is Svayambhu Linga. The head of the Linga is the space where Sushumna Nadi is attached to the Kanda. This mysterious Kundalini lies face downwards at the mouth of Sushumna Nadi on the head of Svayambhu Linga. It has three and a half coils like a serpent. When it is awakened, it makes a hissing sound like that of a serpent beaten with a stick, and proceeds to the other Chakra through the Brahma Nadi, which is also called Chitra Nadi within Sushumna. Hence Kundalini is also called Bhujangini, serpent power. The three coils represent the three Gunas of Prakriti: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, and the half represents the Vikritis, the modification of Prakriti.

Kundalini is the Goddess of speech and is praised by all. She Herself, when awakened by the Yogin, achieves for him the illumination. It is She who gives Mukti and Jnana for She is Herself that. She is also called Sarasvati, as She is the form of Sabda Brahman. She is the source of all Knowledge and Bliss. She is pure consciousness itself. She is Brahman. She is Prana Sakti, the Supreme Force, the Mother of Prana, Agni, Bindu, and Nada. It is by this Sakti that the world exists. Creation, preservation and dissolution are in Her. Only by her Sakti the world is kept up. It is through Her Sakti on subtle Prana, Nada is produced. While you utter a continuous sound or chant Dirgha Pranava ! (OM), you will distinctly feel that the real vibration starts from the Muladhara Chakra. Through the vibration of this Nada, all the parts of the body function. She maintains the individual soul through the subtle Prana. In every kind of Sadhana the Goddess Kundalini is the object of worship in some form or the other.[1]

Description of Kundalini

On the morning of November 18, 1996, at about 7:35 a.m. the father was asking Kash about his unique dream of Shri Mataji and putting the information into the computer. Kash's younger six-year-old son Arwinder, who was meditating nearby, suddenly opened his eyes and told his father that something yellowish had moved like a snake from his Mooladhara Chakra right up to the top of his head. He explained with hand gestures how it had snaked its way up, and was sure that it was in the form of a snake. Arwinder added that it was also very powerful as a flash of white lightning came out of his eyes when it reached the Sahasrara! He also added that he also saw different colors — red, yellow, green, blue — like "rainbow colors," one after another. (Probably he saw the different colors of the chakras.)
When Arwinder first told that he saw "something yellowish moving like a snake" he was questioned a few times to confirm the color as the father had not read or heard from any source the actual color of the kundalini. The quote below is from the book Kundalini Tantra, which was borrowed from a graduate of the Bihar School of Yoga (Yogi Alok Kumar Gupta) on January 1, 1997 i.e., after the above incident. Subsequently more information was obtained that confirmed Arwinder's description of the Kundalini.
"In the traditional descriptions of kundalini awakening, it is said the kundalini resides in Mooladhara in the form of a coiled snake and when the snake awakens it uncoils and shoots up through Sushumna (the psychic passage in the center of the spinal cord), opening the other chakras as it goes. (See Sir John Woodroffe's The Serpent Power.) Brahmachari Swami Vyasdev, in his book Science of the Soul, describes the awakening of kundalini in the following way: "Sadhakas have seen the Sushumna in the form of a luminous rod or pillar, a golden yellow snake, or sometimes as a shining black snake about ten inches long with blood red eyes like smoldering charcoal, the front part of the tongue vibrating and shining like lightning, ascending the spinal column."

Swami S. Saraswati, Kundalini Tantra, Bihar School of Yoga, 1984, p. 10

The Truth May Set You Free

The Truth May Set You Free

Theory: There is much confusion about the spiritual/psychic world. A little known fact is that some nasty thoughts in your head are not your own. You can develop the strength to resist them, and it is important you do so. Also, you MUST know that all that glitters is not gold.
Know that a lot of negative emotions, destructive thoughts, nasty thoughts, obnoxious imagery and so on are probably not products of your own mind, but of a nearby dark being's. To know that you are not crazy, that the voices really aren't yours, can be a great relief. Now you need to work on getting rid of them. Don't let the knowledge of outside influence make you irresponsible; you still have the duty to silence dark thoughts and to not act on them. Pray for the removal and rescue of those who speak inside your mind.
(Note: Sometimes negative emotions and destructive thoughts are not from a nearby dark entity's, but your nearby distressed family member, coworker, or friend! I've had a day where I was extremely upset for no reason and later realized I was picking it up from a coworker having US visa problems! If you are empathic or telepathic, you MUST be aware of your vulnerabilities and you should work on a close relationship with the loving God.)
Do not yield to temptations, and don't let life in this world push you into "selling your soul" for a short-term gain; this not only hurts others and yourself, but it helps dark ones get a handle on you for later attack. On the other hand, if you have done so already, don't despair. I heard from someone else a really marvelous line, apparently addressed from a good spirit to a lost spirit: "We know you sold your soul. But God didn't recognize the sale. Come on home"!
Do not assume you deserve what you get! Don't guilt trip yourself. Also, if you hear voices or subtle thoughts that say that you deserve suffering, or that the ordeal is actually a good thing, tell those thoughts and voices to go away --- they are likely coming from someone who is not looking out for your best interests. I don't think God wants us to suffer, even if suffering may sometimes be necessary. Even a karma debt does not have to be repaid by suffering; it can be repaid by good work, and by seeking God's forgiveness. God does not punish us, if we come humbly, and does not subject us to judgment trials. God applies mercy to the repentent, and loves the unlovable!
Do not consider suicide as an escape. Many suicides who have had near death experiences report that suicide is wrong -- some even say it is a crime, and many suggest great suffering will result. The general gist remains: don't do it. Suicide is what demons want you to do -- don't listen to them, and don't fall into their clutches. Don't give them reason to gloat in triumph (and they DO gloat - rescued suicides have reported hearing them) -- instead, seek God, ask God to rescue the demons or (if rehab is not possible) bring them to justice, and in the meantime LIVE and enjoy life. Remember, while there's physical life, there's also hope. Go, seek, ask, knock, and wait with patience when necessary.
Know yourself to be a soul that lives past death. The fallen can rise again. Even physical death is not the end, and there really is Light at the end of the tunnel.
Warning: If you meet spirits that claim to be angels, do not necessarily trust them. Some radiant beings merely reflect light or channel light (like optical fiber), instead of generating it themselves out of love. Some "angels" are more interested in making themselves your spirit guides, and slowly, imperceptibly make you dependent on them for guidance, aid, advice, information, and so on. They also tend to emphasize special treatment, telling you that you are somehow special or better than most other people. Finally, they tend to make reincarnation sound like the cure-all and end-all and something to be done over and over, but remember the highest of religious teachers have discouraged reincarnation throughout history. You do not have to reincarnate to "erase" karmic debts. All these are extremely subtle deceptions, but the danger is real. The road starts quite plain and straight and wonderful, but slowly, slowly, it curves away. Be wary! Here are some resources that might help you tell good from fake good.

Cosmogony

Cosmogony
By: Arnold Keyserling & R.C.L.
Three Worlds, Cosmology, Evolution and Natural Symmetry












Semiotics shows the development of speech power, numbers and music the systemic frame of awareness; together they form the original code of the mind. But matter also follows the same structure by mathematical necessity. We live in three worlds, structured according to the dimensions:

Try and understand this concept by first considering the left row, then the right row, and only then the middle row. In this way the understanding mind can, so to speak, rely on its two feet to support the middle. The left row is spatial, the right row is temporal. Both go downwards as the descending rays of creation. The middle is the ascending ray of negentropy.

The left spatial ray of creation shows the involution of diminishing energy on a microcosmic scale controlled primarily by electromagnetism. Energy becomes more involved with matter and self organizes itself into ever larger and more constricted systems. Going from the zero to the fourth dimension energy becomes more symmetrical, diminished and predictable taking on the characteristics of solid matter. The microcosm world is unfathomably small, and is only visible to Man with microscopes.

The right temporal ray of creation goes down showing the dependency and interconnectedness of matter controlled primarily by gravity. The macrocosm pertains to size scales much larger than Man.

The middle mesocosmic row goes up as the counterpointal ascending ray to the microcosm and macrocosm. It shows the evolution of life forms of increasing complexity of Self Organization and decreasing symmetry. It pertains to information, number and language. The mesocosm is the size scale of the world of Man.

The quantum of action which begins the left spatial row has infinite potentiality and energy, but no extension. The first full step in the involution of energy into form is the Photon which has about a billion electron volts of energy.(1) It can travel in any direction, which can never be predicted, but it is submitted to the velocity of light, 186,000 miles per second. There is only one kind of Photon; it has unit spin and no charge.

Next are the Electrons which come in pairs with opposite spin to the other nuclear particles. While the exact position of an electron can never be predicted, even when it is trapped in an atom, its directions of travel are constricted by the shells of the atoms and by relations between the nuclear particles. The nuclear particles have half-spin and are charged either positively, negatively or neutral. The nuclear particles have more symmetry and less freedom than the Photon.

The next step in the scale is the atom. An atom has a nucleus and up to seven shells. The distance of the atomic shells follows the ratio of the central diagonal of the multiplication table. The simplest atom - the hydrogen atom - has about 10 electron volts of energy. There are around a hundred kinds of atoms with various kinds of chemical properties. Again the atoms have more symmetry and less freedom than the nuclear particles.

The final step in involution is the molecule. The average molecule has about 1/25th of an electron volt of energy and comes in three forms: metal, salt and crystal. It has total symmetry but comes in countless variety with many kinds of properties.

The molecular level is where the direction turns and life originates. With life consciousness begins an evolutionary trek backwards to less and less symmetry and more freedom. But where did all of the energy come from in the first place to begin the process of matter and then life?

Current scientific understanding of the origin of the material Universe in time is called the "Big Bang" theory. It is the creation story of the "Myth of Science", the dominant belief system of modern culture. The Big Bang cosmology is remarkably similar to the ancient Hindu origin myth known as the "Breath of Brahman". Under the Big Bang theory the current space-time Universe was created in a unfathomably large explosion which occurred about 15 billion years ago. At the moment of origin all of the Universe, all matter and energy, existed together in total order and symmetry, called by scientists the "Great Singularity". Then the Universe exploded in the Big Bang, or exhalation of the breath of Brahman, and all started moving away from each other as the directions and time began. The Great Singularity began to break up and space and the different elements began to be formed. With this first breath a countervailing rhythm of arithmetic expansion and geometric contraction began.

We are still in the early stages of the expansion of the Universe where all Galaxies are receding from each other at the speed of light. This is the exhalation of Brahman. Expansion occurs as arithmetical electromagnetic growth. At the same time the force of contraction grows with the geometrical growth of gravitation.

Under one theory the expansion of matter and energy away from the center explosion point is preceded by black spheres. Where they meet, the Galaxies originate fractally. Billions of galaxies have been and will continue to be formed as the Universe expands. Within each galaxy billions of stars then form. In one such galactic arm, the Milky Way, our star the Sun is located. Around the stars planets are then formed and orbit the star. At this time it is not known whether all stars have planets, or only some, but it is known that many planets circulate around our star. The third planet from the Sun is our Earth. Most of the planets in turn have their own smaller bodies, or moons, which circulate around them. We have a single Moon which revolves around the Earth. This macrocosmic expansion process takes trillions of years, as billions of galaxies, stars, planets and moons are formed.



THE MYTH OF THE BIG BANG (a/k/a The Myth Of The Breath of Brahman)











Eventually the force of gravitational contraction will equal that of electromagnetic expansion. At that point the maximum size of the Universe will be reached, and the creative process wherein new galaxies, stars, planets and moons are formed will finally come to an end. The equilibrium point is the pause between the exhalation and inhalation of the Cosmic Breath. After that, the geometric force will begin to exceed the arithmetical, the direction will reverse, and the Universe will begin contracting. The inhalation of the breath of Brahman will begin. As all matter and energy converges, Black Holes will be created with greater frequency. Ultimately the entire Universe will be drawn together again into a single point, a vast black hole into which all space-time will inhale. This final Omega Point, the end, may in turn produce another Big Bang wherein Brahman begins a new breath, exhales again, and a new Universe is formed. If the law of fractal recursiveness holds true, the new Universe will repeat certain basic forms, but it will do so with new and unique variations and differences.

Microcosm and macrocosm are not causes, but parameters of evolution. The world of Man between the macrocosm and microcosm is called the mesocosm. Here living consciousness evolves into progressively higher levels of complex Self Organization. It proceeds from the mineral world, to plant, animal, Man, up to the Great Singularity, the subject of the Universe, God. These are stages of expanding integration of consciousness into individual being. The stages parallel the involution of energy according to the dimensions.

The ability to organize comes from within the conscious being itself, and is not imposed on the being from outside forces. For this reason scientists call this the Self Organizing principal or Auto Poiesis. Although the inherent ability to self organize is not predetermined, or governed by outside forces, at each level its evolution follows the patterns of one of the four chaotic attractors.

Point like Attractor - Crystal.

Circuit/Cycle Attractor - Plant.

Torus Attractor - Animal.

Strange Attractor - Man.


0) - The highest stage, beyond even the higher Man, is merger with God, the great singularity beyond name and form, as the real subject of Being, through synchronicity, love, and illumination: reaching the eternal moment.












The four attractors create cosmos out of chaos. God is both their origin and aim. The quantum after reaching the molecular stage is a parcel of God. Thereafter it incarnates as a separate self organized entity on the Mesocosmic level.

Self organized consciousness evolves upward on the mesocosm. It starts in the crystal form with viruses and the genetic code. Then it ascends to greater degrees of conscious integration. Entities organize themselves into ever more complicated and ornate systems. Life forms evolve, adapt, and bring coherence to larger systems in new ways. Thus the Universe continues to evolve and change. With each stage of the evolutionary ladder of self organization one direction of symmetry is lost and freedom gained.

(4) - The crystal in the fourth dimension has complete symmetry. The Point Attractors allow the energy in inorganic molecules to self organize as organic molecules. In this way they cross the bridge from the microcosm of lifeless molecules and energy, to the mesocosm of living crystals. With crystals, both organic and inorganic, everything is attracted to a single point, all line up in perfect order. All three axes, up and down, right and left, front and behind are the same. The molecules are in perfect symmetric order. The microcosmical geometric structure is balanced by the Moon, the weather it produces, and the four states of matter: solid, fluid, gaseous or fire. At the crystalline level the essential code controlling all further life formation is created, the DNA/RNA life structure. Life then uses these crystalline forms of amino acids to grow in size by cellular division, by scaling and multiplication.

(3) - The plant looses one symmetry: the vertical, up/down symmetry. The cycle attractors allow the simplest crystalline life forms to self organize to a higher form of consciousness where greater freedom is possible. The top of the plants, the crown, differs from the roots, and the two are connected by the stem. Now, only the left and right and front and back axes of a plant remain symmetrical. This is called radial or cylindrical symmetry: two axes of symmetry. Trees alternate between seed and gestalt, with the axis of all plant life pointing to the earth, and its energy received directly from the Sun through photosynthesis. There is also a vertical flow back and forth, from the leaves to the roots and visa versa, according to the cycle attractor.

(2) - Under the influence of the Torus attractors the next stage in the evolutionary ladder was reached: the animal. The animal has again freed itself of another symmetry, the front/back symmetry, with front as nourishment and back as excrements. The front and rear of animals are different, as are the top and bottom, but the right and left of animals remains symmetrical. This is bilateral symmetry with one axis of symmetry. The animals feed on plants and each other, and are directed by the four drives: nourishment, fear, aggression and reproduction in the double frame of survival and species instinct. Animals follow the Torus attractor, they engage in complex behaviors and are dependent upon each other and the environment in multileveled ecological systems.

(1) - Around 11,000 years ago the first Neolithic Man evolved from Paleolithic animal Man. From that time on we have had the potential to shed the last right-left symmetry by taming the Strange attractors. (2)

Since the human life stage is so relatively new, we are still born with the animals right-left axis of symmetry and must strive to attain true Humanity. Although there are some differences in the symmetry of the human face, overall we are as left-right symmetrical as the other animals. But with our neocortex abilities, our capacities of language and number, we can self organize out of this last constraint.

One of the keys to self organization is the coherent application of chance to ride the strange attractors. In this way we can use both the brains we are born with, the left and right hemispheres of the neocortex. The left hemisphere, turned to the cosmos and structure is digital, linear. The right hemisphere, turned towards chaos and chance has its origin in the nine numerals, the archetypes of fractal scaling. Each should be allowed to develop fully, to be different and totally asymmetrical. When the right brain is as strong as the left, a higher identity is created. The higher self follows the Strange attractors, epitomized by Mandelbrot set, z z¾ + c, and also corresponding to the musical octave and the Tao symbol.

Most of us are still right left symmetrical because our left brain so totally dominates the right. We have to shift our emphasis from cosmos to chaos, from left brain dominance, to right brain balance. Then the right is not just an imitation of the left, it is different, unique. The last symmetry is gone and now the two asymmetrical sides can cohere in a new singularity. The ego, subject of the left hemisphere, becomes the organ of the Self in the right hemisphere. It attains this by establishing true contact with the Other.

Right brain coherence comes through receptivity to the workings of the Strange attractors, to constrained chance. In the moments when this is realized, when we are in a coherent flow with the unpredictable turbulence of the World, we have attained the birthright of Man. We have realized the potential to self organize to a higher stage of evolution. As a whole being, in touch with both sides of ourself and others, we transcend the left-right animal symmetry. With two fully developed, yet distinctly different brains, we are autonomous, asymmetrical, truly free from outside manipulation. We have attained a higher inner coherence, a self organization in the midst of chaos. To animal man we seem like Strange attractors indeed. On the surface, and in the moment, our actions may appear haphazard and foolhardy, but over time the wisdom and beauty of the Human Man will be apparent to all.


The five stages correspond to the dimensions and mind layers:

Zero dimension Awareness makes possible integration of the four dimensions and the four states of consciousness. It allows Man to enter the fourth dimension and gives him access to the fractal forces of the Strange attractors.

By moving from the left to the right brain in regression you can relive past lives, past evolution, back to the origin of the Universe in the Great Singularity, and the exploding force of the primal Fire-Quanta. This regression back to the original primal Quanta puts you in touch with the source of Self-Organization, the Power of CHI. This opens you to the energy and force needed to maintain coherence in the fractal chaos of the fourth dimension.



















Now let us look at all of the energies together which can be understood as an energy field of Cosmic Mind. The following correspondences appear in Cosmic Mind today to make up the basic Myth of Science. Myth is not used in a derogatory sense, as just a myth, but in the sense of a true belief system which gives meaning to life. Science has largely replaced the old religious myths which were in tune with the feudal and ideological structures of the past. The following chart summarizes the overall cosmology of the myth of science and shows the relation of the five layers and the seven constituent parts.

The radiation of the photons is awareness through seeing and sensing. The electromagnetic energy of the electron allows awareness through smelling and thinking; the thermodynamics of the atom through tasting and feeling. The fission of the Galaxy becomes conscious by the power of speech, of the spirit creating new entities out of entropy. The fusion of the sun is the basis of the synergy of the soul, interpretation and reading, the creation of meaning. The gravitational energy of the earth is accessible through the sense of touch.

The mathematics of the molecular forces represents the basic structure of the Will. With living forms Will is the capacity for growth and reproduction through the genetic code. The subject self organizes and grows based on the strange attractor. New beings arise through fractal scaling according to the overall structure of the Cosmic Mind using the energies and mathematics of sound, the molecular vibrations or movement of matter, soul and spirit. With Man this process of the growth of being using free will was described by Buddhists as the creation of the immortal Diamond Body or the Golden Flower. By using free will in tune with the Strange Attractor and the energies of sound, our associative consciousness can change into Cosmic Awareness. The subject moves like a fractal in scales from the lower self imprisoned in deep molecular sleep, to the transcendent light of zero synchronistic awareness. This is the final aim of evolution, making sense of life and becoming co-creators of the manifoldness of the Universe.

METHODS/EXPERIMENTS: Further background reading and reflection on these ideas may help your understanding of cosmogony and assist in your escape from the last bondage of symmetry. The ideas of the Big bang theory are well known, see for instance the beautifully illustrated book by Colin A. Ronan The Natural History of the Universe. The ideas presented here on the corresponding dimension levels in the microcosm and mesocosm, evolution and change in symmetry are presently not as well known. These important insights were discovered by Arthur M. Young, the inventor of the Bell Helicopter. He founded the Institute For the Study of Consciousness in Berkeley, California and has authored many books on this and related subjects, see for instance his work: The Reflexive Universe: Evolution of Consciousness. His ideas on symmetry and cosmology represent a major breakthrough in scientific thinking. An earlier pioneer in this field is D'Arcy Thompson with his book On Growth and Form.

For more information on the rapidly expanding discoveries concerning Self Organization, see for instance Paul Davies The Cosmic Blueprint, Erich Jantsch The Self Organizing Universe. For a visual representation of the scaling of the universe, from the near infinitely small to near infinitely big, with Man's place in the middle, see the book: Powers of Ten by Morrison and Eames. There is also a film by the same name by Charles and Ray Eames available from Media Magic.

For Cosmogony to be meaningful, far more than intellectual understanding is required. There needs to be an existential apprehension of the dimensions on all three phases: micro, meso and macro. Here transpersonal psychology can help. Transpersonal psychologists have developed numerous regression exercises to allow a person to access the deepest levels of memory, even memories of times and events which occurred before they were born.

By using PrimaSounds and other tools and methods of guided imagery and active imagination, you can have a conscious transpersonal experience of: your past human lives, past pre-human lives back down through evolution, animal lives, dinosaurs, plant, first molecular life on earth, minerals, earth and moon formation, molecules, atoms, sun formation, electrons, photons, galaxy formation, quanta and even the Big Bang itself.

Through guided active imagination you can also have vivid experiences of future evolution projection: advanced intelligence, peaceful exploration of space, contact with the children of other suns, then other galaxies, up to the pause before Universe contraction, the final maturation of all beings in the Universe in a growing field of love, up to the black holes and the final omega point of cosmic-orgasmic unity of all with all, and then on to next Big Bang of a new Universe. Most regression exercises require a friend to assist you in the experiment, sometimes the guidance of a trained professional is necessary.

The new insights gained from Chaos research and fractals discussed in Chapter Two suggests that an alternative cosmology to the Big Bang theory, called the Infinite Universe theory, may receive further serious consideration and experimentation. Under this theory the Universe is like a fractal, it is infinite. No matter how close you look, how much you magnify, you will still find new smaller layers of form. Between any two numbers, no matter how close, there is an infinity of additional numbers. There is no building block, no ultimately small particle upon which the rest is built. There is only self similarity over scales spanning an infinity of ever smaller forms. In the same way no ultimately small elementary particle of matter may be found to exist. There may instead exist an infinity of ever smaller particles before the pure quanta of energy is reached. The same may hold true on the larger scale. There may only be ever larger clusters of galaxies and clusters of clusters, ad infinitum with no limit. If so, there was no Big Bang; the Universe would be infinitely large with no beginning point and no end


http://www.chanceandchoice.com/course-overview/cosmogony/

Healing Herbs & Spiritual Herbs

Healing Herbs
Comfrey Root
It is not known what makes some nettle plants absorb magical energy from the earth, but we are lucky they do. The strange, bright sheen on the leaves marks such plants. They can grow anywhere, even underground. However, the very same plant growing underground doesn't look like the same as it does on surface, but is more pale and grows weaker, instead.

Comfrey roots are used into healing purposes, both on surface and beneath it. To gain the beneficial effects of the plant, the roots must be grinded in mortar, and mixed with some sort of fluid, most commonly water. Some healers are known to use even resin or other sticky plant-parts in conjunction with comfrey-mass. Once ready, the gained concoction is put into a container that can be easily accessed and is lightweight to carry, usually into a glassbottle.

In times of need, internal usage of the comfrey-mass should be avoided completely, for this may or will be fatal to the imbiber. Instead, the salve should be spread across the damaged area of the user's body, i.e. broken bone or minor laceration.

Even though this quite useful plant is somewhat common around the world, it is still priced very often for it's general healing ability.

Glowing Nettle
Small plants that sparkle of their own accord, glowing nettle contains a magical energy that can be cannibalized for use in various healing potions.

Ember Flowers
Ember flowers are beautiful, sweet-smelling orange or yellow flowers. They have powerful healing properties that make them the essential component in the strongest healing potions and in resurrection balm. They are extremely rare.

Spiritual Herbs
Holly
This thorny green plant with the red berries is renowned for its usefulness in naturalistic rituals and alchemy. It is highly poisonous, and yet, in small quantities and properly treated, can make curing potions as well.

Crypt Shrooms
A rare variety of mushroom used in some poison and energy potions. Studied by Cochran of the Tower of Magi.

Asptongue Mold
A rare, dangerous mold, used in the creation of the most powerful poisons.

Energetic Herbs
Wormgrass
Wormgrass is twisted, wicked-looking, and defends itself with razor sharp edges. The youngest, freshest, sharpest blades are valuable in alchemy.

Unique Herbs
Toadstools
One of many poisonous varieties of mushroom. Toadstools are scattered throughout the land, which contributes to their diversity.

One extremely rare species of toadstool is the Borgia toadstool. It is native to the lower caves.

Graymold
Graymold is a sweet smelling, slimy, dark gray mold. Because of its scarcity and ability to cure almost any illness or injury, it is constantly in demand by healers and alchemists. It is best known for its use in graymold salve, though it is also used in other powerful potions. It is usually only found underground, but has been known to appear in isolated crags on the surface.

Mandrake
Since the earliest dawning of magical power, mandrake root has been the key ingredient of the most powerful rituals. In addition to containing much energy waiting to be unleashed, proper treatment can turn mandrake into a vicious poison.

Animal Part Ingredients
Fangs
Fangs and glands from asps, spiders, and even drakes are sometimes used in the creation of poisons. Intact sets are hard to come by, as most venom sacs rupture soon after a creature dies. Fangs from especially strong, magical creatures, such as spider queens and drake lords, are particularly valuable.

Retrieved from "http://encyclopedia.ermarian.net/wiki/Alchemical_ingredients"

The Magic of Five Seconds of Silence

The Magic of Five Seconds of Silence

You have heard that "silence is golden," right?

There are many teachers of the power of silence and you can buy books about the benefits of silence.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, "See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...we need silence to be able to touch souls."

Many of us spend our lives waiting to speak, forming our words, anxious to respond, ready to answer instantly when another stops speaking.

Today, as I was talking with one of my beloved spiritual partners, I suddenly felt a prompting to purposefully practice five seconds of silence before responding to my partner's statements. I suggested this to my partner and we both began to observe the five second rule.

The results were profoundly amazing - so amazing that we both became giddy with joy.

During those five seconds of silence, we experienced peace and a connectedness to spirit that I had not experienced before. Those five seconds of silence felt like pure consciousness, an acute awareness of my spiritual self.

We both became the Observers of ourselves, watching as our consciousness shifted and our energy vibrations were raised.

We began to giggle as we talked about how others would react to us if we began to exercise our new power of silence by pausing for just five seconds before responding to another's words.

Just five seconds.

We realized that during those five seconds of silence, we were in a state of allowing, receptive to Divine guidance, without the necessity of racing to be ready to speak immediately.

It is so simple, yet not easy to do. Can you imagine?

If you observe just five seconds of silence in a conversation on the telephone, others will respond with, "Are you still there?"

And if we practice our five seconds of silence with friends and family, they will say, "Did you hear me?"

And we can respond with, "Yes, I am here... Yes, I hear you... I am simply observing five seconds of silence before I respond."

Perhaps they will hear the peace in your voice or see the joy in your face as you begin to practice the art of truly listening, knowing that in your five seconds of silence you are in a state of receiving, trusting that your next words will be perfect and Divinely guided.

Try it! Simply pause to observe five seconds of silence before speaking in any conversation. Watch the shift in your consciousness and observe the peace that washes over you.

That is the magic of five seconds of silence.

http://www.whatismetaphysics.com/powerofsilence.html

About Koi Fish Symbolism

About Koi Fish Symbolism
The koi is an ornamental carp and there are at least 14 different classifications of koi distinguished by their color and markings. Many people believe that the koi originated in Japan; however, much of the ancient historical accounts place China as the first home to the koi fish. This fish has been used as a feng shui symbol and cure for thousands of years. Feng shui principles state that the koi is auspicious and attracts prosperity and abundance.

Koi Attributes
Regardless of its origins, the koi is a prominent symbol of feng shui. Many of the attributes of the koi symbolize several lessons and even trials individuals often encounter in life. The koi fish has a powerful and energetic life force, demonstrated by its ability to swim against currents and even travel upstream.

In fact, one of the oldest Chinese legends tells about a brave koi that fought its way upstream to reach the Longmen's Dragon Gate, a series of caves in the mountainside bordering the Yi River. The fish endured many hardships and overcame innumerous obstacles, but its tenacity helped it to be victorious. Its reward when it finally leapt over the falls at the gate was the transformation from a simple carp into a magnificent dragon god.

Koi as a Chinese Food Source
No symbol in the Chinese culture has a singular meaning behind its status, especially when it comes to feng shui symbols. The koi has a varied background of how it was elevated to the symbol status of being auspicious. One of the things to remember is that in less modern times, the koi was a vital part of the Chinese diet. The farmers raised the fish in their rice fields in a perfect ecosystem. The fish provided fertilizer for the rice crops while the aquatic life found in the rice fields sustained the koi.This is a good example of the balance in life that the koi represents. When times became hard, often during the winter months, the rice farmers would survive by eating the highly nutritious koi. Some feng shui experts believe this history of the koi and its importance in sustaining the Chinese people first as a fertilizing source for the rice crop and then as a direct food source was the beginning of the koi becoming a symbol of prosperity.



The koi is used in feng shui as various symbols. The most prominent one is as a bringer of good fortune, wealth and prosperity. If you wish to be successful in your career, or if you need courage when asking for a promotion, a koi symbol will imbue you with the fish's positive attributes.

Good Luck: The koi is a tried and true symbol of auspiciousness. If you're in search of a good luck symbol then this colorful carp is the perfect choice.
Wealth and Prosperity: If you wish to draw wealth and prosperity to you and your family then buy seven red carp and one black one. The number eight is an auspicious number of prosperity. The black fish will attract and absorb any negative luck destined your way.
Auspicious Happiness: The official symbol of auspicious happiness is that of a young boy holding a carp. The fish is vital to the Chinese culture and the symbol is often combined with other good luck symbols.
Decorative Symbolism: Red envelopes presented as wedding gifts, birthdays, and on New Year's Day are typically decorated with colorful koi often highlighted with gold.

Lucky Bamboo: Fu Gwey Zhu

Lucky bamboo meaning plays an important role as a living example of the feng shui elements of water, wood and earth.

History of Lucky Bamboo
When you place this plant in the correct pot, it introduces fire and metal to complete a balance of the five elements. This plant is one of the most recognizable feng shui cures. Its popularity is two-fold. The plant is elegant and simplistic in care requirements and it can survive in any kind of light.

Feng shui principles suggest using bamboo to attract vibrant fresh chi. Because the bamboo is a strong plant, it helps to energize your home.

http://feng-shui.lovetoknow.com/Lucky_Bamboo_Meaning

Lucky Bamboo: Fu Gwey Zhu
In Chinese, lucky bamboo is known as Fu Gwey Zhu.

Fu - Luck and fortune
Gwey - Power and honor
Zhu - Bamboo
Bamboo Symbolism
Bamboo has long been the Chinese symbol for strength. Many admire the bamboo's qualities of fast-growth and resilience.

Lucky Bamboo As a Gift
Many people give this kind of plant for a housewarming gift, birthdays, anniversaries, grand openings, awards, and other occasions. Having someone give you one increases the amount of luck the plant attracts to you.

Lucky Bamboo Meaning: Number of Stalks
Much of the luck that is associated with bamboo comes from the number of stalks bunched together or woven together into an arrangement. The number of stalks determines the kinds of energy the plant attracts into your home and life. The more stalks in the planter, the greater the blessing of good fortune and luck.

Lucky Log
This is a certain kind of bamboo that looks like a log with no roots. You'll want to place one end in water so it can grow leaves and continuously produce new leaves. Lucky log bamboo is symbolic of a strong life that's filled with prosperity. This plant is a favorite for businesses to give as gifts, especially to other companies since it promises to keep the business growing. Some varieties produce fragrant white flowers in addition to the healthy green leaves.

Two Bamboo Stalks
People often send two stalks of bamboo as an expression of love. This number also is said to double your luck.

Three Bamboo Stalks
The plant of three bamboo stalks is one of the most favorite number combinations to have in your home. It brings three kinds of luck to you:

Happiness - Fu
Long Life - Soh
Wealth - Lu
Especially career-related income such as a promotion
Four Bamboo Stalks
In the Chinese language, the word used as four sounds very similar to the word used for death. The number four has the same kind of connotation and draws sha (negative) energy. You'll never find a four-stalked bamboo plant in the Chinese culture; much less ever give one for a gift. To do so is extremely rude and would be interpreted that you're giving the recipient a death wish.
Five Bamboo Stalks
With this number there's one stalk for every area of your life that can bring you wealth. The overall energy attracted to a five bamboo stalk plant is one of health which is needed to benefit from any of the five areas of your life. You'll want to have a healthy career, healthy relationships, etc. The five-stalk bamboo reinforces each of the five areas of your life that can influence the level of wealth for each area.

Five Areas of Life:
Spiritual
Mental
Emotional
Physical
Intuitive
Six Bamboo Stalks
Six in the Chinese language also sounds like the word luck. Six stalks of bamboo attracts prosperity and advantages to achieve greater wealth.

Seven Bamboo Stalks
Seven stalks of bamboo bestows good health to you.

Eight Bamboo Stalks
Once more the Chinese language plays a big part in this number's law of attraction. Eight sounds like the word used for grow or thrive. Eight stalks also improves fertility.

Nine Bamboo Stalks
This is the symbol for good luck and bestows great luck to whoever receives a nine stalk plant.

Ten Bamboo Stalks
If you have a ten-stalk bamboo arrangement then the wish for you is to feel complete and complacent. The hope is that you find your life to be perfect. The sender want you to have everything in life just as you envision and desire.

Twenty-One Bamboo Stalks
If someone has gifted you with a plant with this number of bamboo stalks, then the well wishes for you and your family are being delivered in a very powerful overall blessing for great wealth and enduring health.

History of Hajj

Hajj literally means ‘to set out for a place’. Islamicly, however, it refers to the annual pilgrimage that Muslims make to Makkah with the intention of performing certain religious rites in accordance with the method prescribed by the Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him.

Hajj and its rites were first ordained by God in the time of the Prophet Abraham and he was the one who was entrusted by God to build the Kaaba - the House of God - along with his son Ishmael at Makkah. God described the Kaaba and its building as follows:

“And remember when We showed Abraham the site of the [Sacred] House [saying]: Associate not anything [in worship with Me and purify My House for those who circumambulate it [i.e. perform Tawaaf] and those who stand up for prayer and those who bow down and make prostration [in prayer etc.].” (Quran 22:26)

After building the Kaaba, Abraham would come to Makkah to perform Hajj every year, and after his death, this practice was continued by his son. However, gradually with the passage of time, both the form and the goal of the Hajj rites were changed. As idolatry spread throughout Arabia, the Kaaba lost its purity and idols were placed inside it. Its walls became covered with poems and paintings, including one of Jesus and his mother Maryand. Eventually over 360 idols came to be placed around the Kaaba.

During the Hajj period itself, the atmosphere around the sacred precincts of the Kaaba was like a circus. Men and women would go round the Kaaba naked, arguing that they should present themselves before God in the same condition they were born. Their prayer became devoid of all sincere remembrance of God and was instead reduced to a series of hand clapping, whistling and the blowing of horns. Even the Hajj call was distorted by them with the following additions: “No one is Your partner except one who is permitted by you. You are his Master and the Master of what he possesses.”

Sacrifices were also made in the name of God. However, the blood of the sacrificed animals was poured onto the walls of the Kaaba and the flesh was hung from pillars around the Kaaba, in the belief that God demanded the flesh and blood of these animals.

Singing, drinking, adultery and other acts of immorality was rife amongst the pilgrims and the poetry competitions, which were held, were a major part of the whole Hajj event. In these competitions, poets would praise the bravery and splendor of their own tribesmen and tell exaggerated tales of the cowardice and miserliness of other tribes. Competitions in generosity were also staged where the chief of each tribe would set up huge cauldrons and feed the pilgrims, only so that they could become well-known for their extreme generosity.

Thus the people had totally abandoned the teachings of their forefather and leader Abraham. The House that he had made pure for the worship of God alone, had been totally desecrated by the pagans and the rites which he had established were completely distorted by them. This sad state of affairs continued for nearly two and a half thousand years. But then after this long period, the time came for the supplication of Abraham to be answered:

“Our Lord! Send amongst them a Messenger of their own, who shall recite unto them your verses and instruct them in the book and the Wisdom and sanctify them. Verily you are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.” (Quran 2:129)

Sure enough, a man by the name of Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullaah was born in the very city that Abraham had made this supplication centuries earlier. For twenty-three years, the Prophet Muhammad spread the message of monotheism - the same message that Abraham and all the other Prophets came with - and established the law of God upon the land. He expended every effort into making the word of God supreme and his victory over falsehood culminated in the smashing of the idols inside the Kaaba which once again became the universal centre for the worshippers of the one True God.

Not only did the Prophet rid the Kaaba of all its impurities, but he also reinstated all the rites of Hajj which were established by God’s Permission, in the time of Abraham. Specific injunctions in the Quran were revealed in order to eliminate all the false rites which had become rampant in the pre-Islamic period. All indecent and shameful acts were strictly banned in God’s statement:

“There is to be no lewdness nor wrangles during Hajj.” (Quran 2:197)

Competitions among poets in the exaltations of their forefathers and their tribesmen’s’ achievements were all stopped. Instead, God told them:

“And when you have completed your rites [of Hajj] then remember God as you remember your forefathers; nay with a more vigorous remembrance.” (Quran 2:200)

Competitions in generosity were also prohibited. Of course, the feeding of the poor pilgrims was still encouraged as this was done in the time of Abraham, but God commanded that the slaughtering of the animals which was done for this purpose should be done seeking the pleasure of God rather than fame and the praise of the people. He said:

“So mention the name of God over these animals when they are drawn up in lines. Then, when they are drawn on their sides [after the slaughter], eat thereof and feed the beggar who does not ask, and the beggar who asks.” (Quran 22:36)

As for the deplorable practice of spattering blood of the sacrificed animals on the walls of the Kaaba and hanging their flesh on altars, then God clearly informed them that:

“It is neither their meat nor their blood that reaches God, but it is Taqwaa (piety) from you that reaches Him.” (Quran 22:37)

The Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, also put a stop to the practice of circling the Kaaba in a state of nudity and the argument that the pagans put forward to justify this ritual was sharply rebutted in God’s question:

“Say: Who has forbidden the adornment [i.e. clothes] given by God which He has produced for His Slaves?” (Quran 7:32)

Another custom which was prohibited through the Quran was that of setting off for Hajj without taking any provisions for the journey. In the pre-Islamic period, some people who claimed righteousness, having total dependency on God, would travel to perform Hajj begging food the whole journey. They considered this form of behavior a sign of piety and an indication of how much faith they had in God. However God told mankind that to have sufficient provisions for the journey was one of the preconditions for making Hajj. He said:

“And take a provision [with you] for the journey, but the best provision is piety.” (Quran 2:197)

In this way, all the pre-Islamic practices, which were based in ignorance, were abolished and Hajj was once more made a model of piety, fear of God, purity, simplicity and austerity. Now, when the pilgrims reached the Kaaba, they no longer found the carnivals and the frolic and frivolity that had once occupied the minds of the pilgrims there before. Now, there was the remembrance of God at every step and every action and every sacrifice was devoted to Him alone. It was this kind of Hajj that was worthy of the reward of paradise, as the Prophet said:

“The reward for an accepted Hajj is nothing less than paradise.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)

http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/663/

Persevere

Persevere with all your might
Persevere and put up a fight
Persevere and do what's right
Persevere through the night
Persevere through the pain
Persevere through the rain
Persevere and you will gain
Whatever is on your mind.

Sufism

Sufism

http://www.deepspirits.com/spirituality/sufism/

The word Sufi somes from Arabic and means pure, as in pure from differences and distinctions. In Persian sufi means wool, hence the supposition that Sufis were named by their woolen garments. Al-Rudhabari combined the two meanings defining the Sufi as 'one who wears wool on top of purity'. The Sufi path rises above the I, me, he or she, and as such it is also above gender issues.



"What is a Sufi?
One who does not separate himself
from others by opinion or dogma;
and who realizes the heart as the Shrine of God.
What does the Sufi desire?
To remove the false self and discover God within.
What does the Sufi teach?
Happiness.
What does the Sufi seek?
Illumination.
What does the Sufi see?
Harmony.


What does the Sufi give?
Love to all created things.
What does the Sufi get?
A greater power of love.
What does the Sufi find?
GOD.
And lose?
self"

Hazrat Inayat Khan

According to the traditional Sufi view, Sufism (or tasawwuf) and its teachings were passed on from teacher to student through the centuries, since Muhammad. Some call Sufism the inner mystical dimension of Islam. It aims to repair the heart and help it on its journey to the divine. Someone practitioning the tradition of Sufism is called a Sufi or Dervish.


Sufi Teachings & Beliefs
To overcome beliefs and disbeliefs by self realization;
Never to be enslaved to principles;
Best moral is love and praiseworthy is beauty;
To be pure from distinctions and differences by merging in the One;
Wisdom is the true religion;
Harmony is in justice, justice being in reciprocity;
Music is food of the soul and source of all perfection.


Sufi Practices
Common spiritual or mystical practices include Sufi Whirling (or Sema), Dhikr (Chanting), Muraqaba (Meditation) and Qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music.

The Five Spiritual Powers

The Five Spiritual Powers ...Sarah Doering
IMS Dharma Talk / Three Month Retreat / October 1999
www.Dharma.org

[Sarah Doering has had a long association with the Insight Meditation Society and with the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. On both boards for many years, she has been a devoted practitioner of insight meditation, and has been teaching at IMS for the past several years. Sarah is currently one of the resident teachers at the newly opened Forest Refuge.]


For forty-five years after his enlightenment, the Buddha wandered about northern India teaching. He spoke publicly as many as ten thousand times. But he was not teaching in order to argue philosophical theories. He was teaching for one purpose only: to bring to an end all the suffering which he saw around him.


The assumption underlying all his teaching is that we don’t have to be the way we are—that all the sorrow and pain and grief and fear that we all know is not necessary. It can be eliminated. New ways of being can be cultivated. He taught so that we may know not suffering, but happiness and peace. These teachings are trainings for a spiritual way of life. This means a way that is real and true, and beneficial for all beings, both now and in times to come.


Tonight I want to speak about five qualities of heart and mind which are known as the “five spiritual powers.” They’ve been called “five priceless jewels,” because when they’re well developed, the mind resists domination by the dark forces of greed and hate and delusion. When the mind is no longer bound by those energies, then understanding and love have no limits. These five powers are also called the “controlling faculties.” When they’re strong and balanced, they control the mind, and generate the power which leads to liberation. The five are faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom.


When I first heard this list, I was puzzled. I come from a Christian background. Faith seemed, of course, exactly right to be there. Wisdom, too, belonged on the list. But the others—effort and mindfulness and concentration—sounded very clinical and psychological and dry. Where, I wondered, was love? I did not in any way understand then that the cultivation of these five factors leads directly to love. They’re all necessary. They all work together and interweave very closely.


Faith—which here means trust and confidence in the Dharma—inspires an outpouring of energy. When energy is strong, then the effort to be alert and pay attention is easy. Mindfulness prospers and becomes more and more continuous. The stronger the continuity of mindfulness, the more focused and steady the mind. Concentration grows. As concentration deepens, in the stillness of an attentive mind, wisdom emerges. It’s the wisdom of emptiness, whose only expression is love.


FAITH


The first of the five faculties, faith, actually is a rather suspect word today. The most conspicuous examples of faith are in the various extremes of religious fundamentalism, where faith is often a coercive force, a force which is used to control insiders so that they’ll stay within the confines of the faith. It’s also a force that’s sometimes imposed upon outsiders in order to encourage them to believe. But faith in the sense that I want to speak of tonight has nothing to do with force. It has nothing to do with conventional belief. It’s an innocence of conviction, an open heart that is not afraid to trust, and so can move beyond the known. It senses the possibility of transcendence—that what seems to be, isn’t all there is. It senses that there’s some profound human possibility to be realized, even though it’s not immediately apparent.


Such faith is born in experience. It can’t be given. It arises spontaneously, out of seeing and knowing for oneself. From it flow devotion and gratitude and commitment. It’s a natural self-giving. It stems from knowing the problematic nature of life, from realizing that human existence is very imperfect. Because of this one is sensitive to what else might be, to some other way of being. Faith may arise from hearing the Buddha’s words that say there’s a cause for suffering, a cause that can be removed so that suffering comes to an end. It may arise from seeing someone whose presence, whose manner or words, are so compelling, that they suggest possibilities not at all understood. It may come from reading something that suddenly reveals a meaning that speaks to the heart. It may dawn through music or art or, as happened to me, from a glimpse of something seen in nature.


Each of us has our own story, which brought us here tonight. No one here is without faith. You came in response to an attraction to some wordless possibility—some possibility of discovery, of change, that’s implicit in these long weeks of silence. Faith is critical for a spiritual journey, for it’s through faith that we move from the known to the unknown. Without faith, not much is possible in any endeavor. If there’s no end goal which we particularly value, or if we lack faith in our own strength and ability to get to it, we tend to stay in a rut. We don’t go much of anywhere.


When faith first dawns, the mind is filled with brightness and love and devotion. But faith that’s new is vulnerable. If it meets a skeptic who doubts, and has many views and opinions, faith wants to run away and hide. At least I did, in those years. Because the source of faith is outside ourselves, we’re very dependent on its not changing in any way at all. But gradually faith is internalized. We see for ourselves that the teaching works. We discover that we can sit with physical pain and not be overwhelmed. We begin to taste the happiness of a concentrated mind. Faith deepens, and gives the courage to go beyond our former limits. We begin to allow ourselves to feel more of what we’re feeling. So much of what we feel, we close off, because we fear the pain will be too much to bear. But faith that’s been tested in the crucible of experience comes to know that even in the midst of suffering, there is calm.


When we meet difficulties, faith gives the courage to go on. It’s important to note, however, that faith is very different from hope. Hope is for a specific outcome. Hope is associated with expectation and desire. If hope is disappointed, sadness and fear or anger are the result. Faith is different. It’s trust in the ongoing process. It’s confidence that we can handle whatever comes—for in faith, we can. It’s knowing that each step we take is an unfolding of our life’s journey, even if we don’t know at all where we’re going.


Faith in the truth of the Dharma, by its very nature, implies faith that we have the ability to realize that truth. The whole movement of deepening faith is inward, toward more and more trust in ourselves, more and more trust in the understanding and the love within our own hearts and our own minds. Faith has a very great influence upon consciousness. That’s why it’s the first of these spiritual powers. It removes the shadows of doubt that are so debilitating. It gives a clarity to the mind, which is energizing


EFFORT


Energy, or effort, is the second spiritual power. These two words are linked, but they’re not quite the same. Energy comes first, and effort channels it, and puts it to use. Nothing happens without effort in any kind of endeavor, but especially, perhaps, in spiritual practice. This practice isn’t easy. The instructions are simple, but carrying them out isn’t simple. To be with the breath, feeling it, knowing it, and not identifying with it; to be with an emotion, a mind-state, feeling it, knowing, not identifying; to be with sensations, thoughts, the whole spectrum of experience, seeing it clearly and dispassionately—such work is not child’s play. A lot of energy is expended here just to get out of the pull of habit, the kind of gravitational pull of the mind that would get us and keep us in the grooves of habit that have been worn over years of time. The mind is used to wandering, just erratically wandering from one thing to the next, keeping itself busy with planning and hoping and fantasizing, fearing, complaining, judging. It doesn’t even know that anything might lie outside of its own limited scope.


Right effort is the effort to be mindful, and to bring the mind back when it wanders, so it knows what is happening right now. To do this is really a very delicate balancing act. On the one hand, hard work is needed, in the attempt to keep paying attention. On the other hand, there’s nothing to do, because awareness is already present. It’s just that we’ve been distracted. Right effort is not striving. Striving leads to clinging. It reinforces the sense of self, and can be very painful. Right effort isn’t trying to get anything, for there’s nothing to get. It’s not trying to penetrate something and go deeper and deeper. Rather, it’s the effort to listen with greater sensitivity. It’s a soft receptivity. Just total surrender, receiving and welcoming whatever is here.


When effort is balanced, without any strain, there’s no sense of, “I should do this.” Rather, there’s just a willingness to do. Out of that willingness there comes a more and more constant flow of energy. This quality of energy is bold and courageous. A Pali word describes it as “the state of the heroic ones.” It gives patience and perseverance in the face of difficulty. If pain arises, the heat of the energy burns away fear, and makes it possible to do what ordinarily is very difficult to do—to go right to the center of the pain.


There are many levels of effort. Like the gears of a car, one level leads to the next. But the key to them all is being willing to start fresh, to start all over again. At the beginning of each day, at the beginning of each sitting, at the beginning of each breath—to bring back the wandering mind and start fresh. As we become more skilled, effort becomes smoother and steadier, and mindfulness grows.


MINDFULNESS


Mindfulness is the third of the spiritual powers. It’s the one factor of mind of which we can never have too much. Mindfulness is the observing power of the mind, the active aspect of awareness. Mindfulness means not forgetting to pay attention, not forgetting to be aware of whatever is happening within us, around us, from moment to moment to moment. It’s a very subtle process.


When first we notice something, there is a fleeting moment of pure awareness, before the thinking mind jumps in. It’s a moment that’s nonverbal, pre-verbal. It has in it no thought. It’s a moment of seeing with very great clarity and no thought. The thing noticed is not yet separated out, but is simply part of the whole flow of the process of life. Perception then fixates on the thing, puts boundaries around it and labels it. Then the thinking mind jumps in, and the mind is back in its everyday mode.


Under ordinary circumstances, that first pristine moment of awareness is very brief, and it goes unnoticed. What this practice of mindfulness does is to prolong the moments of pre-verbal knowing. The effect of doing that, over time, is profound. It’s a kind of deep knowing which changes the way that we understand the world.


When mindfulness is present, it’s like an empty mirror. It sees whatever appears before it with no distortion. Mindfulness has no likes and no dislikes. There is no passion or prejudice to color what is seen. It knows things in the round, as it were—in their totality, just as they are.


The question, of course, is, “How can we come to such clarity?” “Interest” is the answer. Get interested in what’s going on. Krishnamurti once said that the way to watch thoughts is the way that you would watch a lizard crawling on the ceiling of a room. This seemed to me a very odd recommendation when first I heard it. I had no connection with it at all, until a few years later. Then I found myself on the island of Antigua, in the Caribbean. I had just arrived. It was late at night and I was half-asleep, but too tired to go to bed. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something moving on the wall. Attention woke up. It was galvanized. Now, what was moving was a lizard. It was a big one, maybe between nine and ten inches long from the tip of its tail to its nose. It was a dull, mottled brown. Nothing remarkable; it looked very ordinary. I sat, attention just riveted, as it climbed the wall, slowly crawled across the ceiling, down the other side, and then slithered out an open window.


The intensity of that brief little moment was so great that I can see every detail in my mind’s eye right now. Interest was amazingly total. Awareness was complete. There wasn’t a thought, an emotion, to disturb what was seen. All that was there was the seeing of each movement of this little creature from the moment it appeared to the moment it disappeared. Krishnamurti’s words came back into my mind then, and I knew exactly what he had meant. Interest makes the difference. When interest is there, awareness is total, and it’s effortless.


Now, the breath may not have the same compelling quality as seeing a lizard crawling on the ceiling, but the more careful attention we pay to it, the more we get into the habit of paying attention. Interest grows. Careful attention in itself creates interest, for it brings us close to experience—increasingly close, so that we see the texture, the detail, the remarkable wonder of experience. In the doing there comes a brightness and a vividness to things.


Emily Dickinson knew this quality well. She lived a very quiet life, saw few people, and spent most of her time alone in her room. Yet she was so attentive, and saw with such sensitivity and precision, that she could only sum up her experience in this way: “To live is so startling, there’s little time for anything else.”


Close attention opens the heart. When there is interest, real interest, there’s no judgment. Whatever appears is welcome. Acceptance is unconditional. Awareness has a benevolent quality, a friendly quality, about it, which leads to bodhicitta. This welcoming acceptance allows whatever comes to reveal itself in its fullness. Ultimately, mindfulness opens into the realm of the sacred. To speak of knowing things as they are, as they really are—what is that but spiritual talk?


CONCENTRATION


Faith… effort…mindfulness…The fourth spiritual faculty is concentration. Concentration arises naturally out of the effort to be mindful. It gives the power which makes mindfulness so effective. Concentration is often defined as “one-pointed attention.” In the context of insight meditation, it is steady, one-pointed attention upon a succession of changing objects. Concentration keeps attention pinned down upon whatever object mindfulness is noticing. As mindfulness moves from, say, the breath to a sound, concentration moves with it, and again keeps attention focused and steady. In each case it lasts for just a moment, because the mind moves so quickly. But it begins again in the next moment, with the same intensity. This so-called “momentary concentration” provides the power for the work of our practice.


The key to developing concentration is one word: effort. It’s the effort to pay close attention, to keep coming back. Usually the energies of the mind are scattered in a thousand different directions. The mind is all over the place, and its energy is simply frittered away in random thoughts and desires, hopes, fears, feelings. All the huge potential power that it has is wasted. But as the effort to be mindful becomes more consistent, these scattered energies come together and converge around a single point, and the mind becomes focused, like a lens. If parallel rays of light fall upon a piece of paper, they won’t do much more than warm the paper. But if the same amount of light is focused through a lens, the paper will burst into flame. In the same way, concentration focuses the energy of the mind, and gives it the power to cut through surface appearance.


As concentration deepens, the mind becomes calm and centered. It’s less reactive. It comes into greater emotional balance. We can more easily let go and let things be. The mind has a spaciousness which gives room for pain and anger and fear all to arise and pass, without our being broken by them, or needing to act them out.


Concentration is very powerful, but it’s only a tool. Despite its astonishing power, it cannot of itself lead to wisdom. When it’s balanced with mindfulness, the two together cut through conventional reality, and understanding unfolds by itself.


WISDOM


Wisdom is the last of the spiritual qualities. It is ongoing inspiration for the work of the other four, and also their fulfillment. Wisdom is not knowledge. It cannot be learned from books, for it is intuitive understanding that arises from close observation of experience. It is insight into reality, into the nature of things as they are.


One aspect of wisdom is seeing the omnipresence of anicca—impermanence. Wisdom knows that nothing in this conditioned realm will last. It knows that everything that arises passes away. It knows that change occurs at every level from the cosmic to the microscopic. A star, a civilization, a tree, a thought—each arises, evolves through time, disintegrates and disappears. Timetables differ of course, for every phenomenon and event. And change can be so rapid—or so slow—that it is not ordinarily seen at all. But the trajectory is always the same. Whatever is, will be was.


We may think we know this truth, and perhaps we do. But is it living wisdom? For each of us, the mark of impermanence reveals itself most intimately in our inescapable mortality. We all are going to die. However unwelcome that thought may be, death is at the end of every life. You and I are no exception. Everything that is born will die. But because we do not live our lives from this place of understanding, we suffer.


There is a constant clash between the nature of existence and our desires. In a world of radical change, we want permanence and security and enduring happiness, and they cannot be found. We live in an imaginary world, and grasp and cling to the way things used to be, or how we want them to be, and find it hard to accept the way they actually are. The result is dukkha—suffering, all the dissatisfactions and sorrows of the human heart. Dukkha is the second truth, which wisdom more and more deeply comes to know.


But the deepest lesson that wisdom has to teach is the fact of anattà—the fact that nothing is inherently substantial and real. We think that we are separate, solid entities, and struggle to protect and satisfy and gratify our precious sense of self, not understanding that at the closest level of examination, no permanent, unchanging self is ever to be found. The constituents of mind and body are, in fact, in constant flux. Body, sensations, thoughts, emotions, arise and disappear, arise and disappear, moment by moment by moment. Keen observation reveals that mind and body are an ever changing process, a moving energy field. There is no permanent being behind phenomena to whom it all is happening. There is no one here to suffer. A Sri Lankan monk summed this fact up very simply: “No self. No problem.” Yet this truth is baffling, and eludes us until the mind is purified.


The doors of perception are gradually cleansed as the spiritual powers gather strength. Mindfulness sees ever more deeply, and greed, hate and delusion diminish. Our endless likes and dislikes thin out and fall away. The confusion that clouds perception begins to dissolve. We glimpse the interweaving laws of impermanence, suffering and selflessness, and the knowledge is transforming. The way that we understand ourselves and live our lives begins to change.


We don’t hold on so much, and make fewer demands upon existence. We begin to relax, and ease more into the flow of things. We can delight in the good things of life when they are present, and accept change without protest when they end. The heart opens wider as it learns there is nothing to lose…


The sense of self lessens. We become less selfish, less self centered. As mindfulness reveals our dukkha and we experience its pain, we begin to feel the suffering of others. Boundaries disappear, and we turn to the needs of others as if they were our own. Gradually the delicate art of loving without possessing becomes apparent—the art of how to care, yet not to care. There is a growing sense of similarity, of oneness, of communion with all—which more and more means that the only possible response is concern and care for all.


Wisdom is very hard won. It comes from facing our own suffering and learning the profound lessons that suffering has to teach. The lessons are all about letting go. Not holding on to desire, but letting it go. Wherever we hold, the sense of self is present together with suffering. When we let go, self vanishes and suffering dissolves into lightness, ease and peace.


It is in the deep understanding of suffering that compassion comes to full bloom. For when the heart/mind no longer holds to anything, it is fully open. There is no self-centeredness and so, no separation. No I, no you. Love then is boundless, and ceaselessly responsive.