Meet and Grow / MyKunlun

Meditation Introduction...

nitewater — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:57:00 GMT

I. Introduction
Meditation is a very personal journey. All that anyone can give, as far as instruction, is a few exercises that can act as training wheels for slowing down the processes and rhythms of your thoughts and visualization of ideas. The end goal of all meditation (and even the idea of "prayer") is to have intense concentration on ONE SINGLE point (that point can be a thing, feeling, idea, symbol, vision, etc.) with NO tension (physical tension, mental tension, inner conflict... etc.). I'll write that sentence one more time without any parentheses: The end goal of all meditation is to have intense concentration and awareness on ONE SINGLE point with NO tension. As simple of a sentence as that seems, it's not easy... and there are obviously hundreds of ways to get to that final point.

Depending on how far you want to take this pursuit, you'll most likely confront a few assumptions involved with the practice of meditation and I'll try and list a few that I can think of off the top of my head. Some of these might sound weird or like stupid "New Age" philosophy, but they are important concepts that will probably accompany some of the biggest "breakthroughs" that can actually happen during meditation:

The answer to every question in the universe is inside you.
The Universe is the result of Consciousness.
Every human being has the potential to heal themselves.
Love is the most powerful healing force in the universe.
The intentions behind your actions usually play the most major role in the final results.
There is no such thing as death, it is only physical death.
When acting with true "unconditional love", one is outside the world of Karma.
When you change your mind, you change the universe.

II. Popular Methods.
The two major things that meditation will immediately improve and specifically aim to improve are a) concentration and b) awareness. Don't be too stringent with your definitions of these two things... awareness comes in many, many forms. In order to improve these two things, it is important to limit distractions and use techniques to slow down the body's physical processes and the mental "noise". All of these exercises will lead you to a place where you feel more balanced and "centered". I'll try and give a few different methods that target these specific results. These are basic and if you feel like you're having quick success with one of them or if you particularly enjoy doing one, I can start giving you some more intermediate methods that stick to the same "genre". With every single one of these methods, the goal is to do them for longer periods of time. One day you'll get to the point that you can balance or center yourself with a small bit of concentration and a few deep breaths, then you don't have to worry about how long you spend doing some of these exercises... and you might end up wanting to do them for several hours...

A. Going Inside the Body (Steps)

Sit comfortably with body straight enough that you know you're maintaining good posture. (a string should be lifting the top of your head straight to heaven and your perineum should be directly in line with that string)
Close your eyes and take about 10 deep ABDOMINAL breaths while feeling as if the breath enters through your eyes and finishes all the way down at the bottom of your pelvis and exhale imagining the opposite. Abdominal breathing means that with each breath you use your diaphragm and you fill your belly as if you're blowing up a beach ball that pushes on all four sides of your belly.
Now just breath normally visualizing the breath as being alive. It enters you and gives you life and when you exhale, it takes your stresses and toxins away. After you feel like you are doing this comfortably, start scanning your body and feeling for tension or squeezed muscles... or maybe there's a thought that you can't stop thinking.
You can make this whole exercise much more powerful and couple the breathing to a visualization. Imagine a ball of peaceful light in a spot 4 centimeters behind and below your navel right around where your center of gravity is. Imagine that your skin is inhaling and exhaling along with your actual breathing and that all of that energy from this full-body breath is going into and coming out of that ball of light. This is like your entire being is one huge cell that is pulling energy from the air all around you and breathing into and out of that ball of light in your stomach. Try and make sure you don't forget any patch of skin like the bottom of your feet or your entire back or even your whole head... your entire skin surface is breathing.

Notes:
i) If you're really serious about starting meditation and putting a lot of effort towards it, you should keep a journal and record what feelings or thoughts or effects come up from things that you try.
ii) When scanning your body, you can try and feel certain organs, or feel your heartbeat, or swallow some saliva and feel it move through your digestive system as if it was a healing, light-filled liquid that clears out your system.
iii) If you decide to try and concentrate on specific organs or points, there is a major center in a spot about 4 centimeters behind and below your navel. It is a stable place of peace and energy. Notice that the best martial artists are very very conscious of this "center" (especially since it is the location of our center of gravity) and even some of the best drummers actually keep their rhythm within this "center". [If you EVER feel light-headed or dizzy or even if you're stuck in a bad dream or nightmare, put all of your concentration and feeling into this spot in your belly and imagine roots growing down through your legs and deep into the ground. This is a very very good thing to practice when beginning meditation. It has saved me from some strange experiences that I still can't explain.]
iv) A very nice quote that goes with the body meditation: "Of course you have a big brain in your head. What you don't realize is that you have a bigger brain in your chest, and an even bigger brain in your Abdomen."

B. Eliminate Mental Noise and Improve Concentration (Listed here are several ways and you can choose how you want to go about this)

Take a small simple picture or drawing (most people use a Tarot Card because the imagery is very symbolic of the subconscious). Scan the picture in a systematic way (from left to right, top to bottom) and memorize it and keep the image in your mind. Now, with your eyes closed, systematically erase the picture in the opposite way you memorized it (right to left, bottom to top). When you've completely erased the picture, your mind will be surprised into being completely empty. As you practice this, your mind will stay blank longer and longer (this is one way to start "listening" to your subconscious).
In a dark room, light yourself a candle. When you light this candle, imagine that you are also lighting a flame in your heart that will burn brightly inside you while you keep your attention on the candle flame. Feel that this light is love. Concentrate on the flame and see your own consciousness and love in the light. Witness all the beautiful characteristics of the flame and feel those same bright qualities within the light in your heart that burns along with this flame. Stay at this for 5 minutes and slowly increase the time as you feel more comfortable and more "connected" with the light. When you blow out the candle, maintain a sense of gratitude and graciousness for the external and the internal light that is shining. Remember, that light is love, it should be honored the way we honor those we love. This is a great concentration exercise and will leave you feeling pretty positive.
Get comfortable... lay down or relax in a comfortable chair and close your eyes. Do some quiet abdominal breathing like the beginning of the "Going Inside Your Body" meditation. Once you feel like your breathing is calm and quiet, just let your mind go. If you're thinking about something, just try and watch as if you're watching TV or reading a book or listening to a concert. Don't fight it and try and stop it, just allow your mind to drift. Try not to fall asleep (remember, you're developing yourself and your mental awareness... falling asleep is nice and comfortable, but if you keep yourself aware, one day you might be able to step into your dreams without losing consciousness). As you do this more and more, your mind will slowly become less and less noisy. When you've gotten to the point that you can let it go and it remains quiet, you can start feeding it thoughts and questions and actually hear answers from your subconscious. This is like throwing a pebble into a lake and learning about yourself from the ripples in the water. When your mind is calm and relaxed, thoughts and actions will arise effortlessly just like when a master musician is playing music on stage and they don't even have to think about the instrument or the music.
This is a great brain power exercise... soooo challenging but you'll see drastic improvements in concentration, memory, and awareness within days. When daydreaming or experiencing a string of thoughts, constantly trace yourself back to a previous thought. This can be difficult at first. Basically, if you're walking down the street and you see an attractive person and you think about somebody that looks like that person that is from your old college and was friends with that guy who was from Amsterdam where people like to go vacation so they can smoke pot and take mushrooms and have weird experiences like John used to have when I lived at that house in New Brunswick, maybe I'll call John cause I haven't heard from him in a long time... Holy crap, how the hell did I start thinking: "I should call John?" Now trace yourself all the way back to noticing the attractive person that started that whole thought sequence. This is an AWESOME exercise for increasing self awareness and overall brain power. It will also make it easier to remember your dreams and keep an eye on the instinctual reactions that hold us back.

Notes:
i) The mind is a dangerous place to keep your energy. If a person meditates and constantly imagines moving energy up their body and into their head, they can become schizophrenic or develop abnormal nervous conditions. If you feel heavy energy in the head or dizzyness, etc... do that "rooting/grounding" exercise in the brackets [] from the previous section's Notes.
ii) Depending on how often you practice one or more of these, results will come pretty fast. The results might not be obvious when practicing, but you'll start remembering small details better, you might feel calmer, more in control, less likely to react based on emotion, more clear in your explanations, and you might remember your dreams more often.
iii) When practicing these things for a decent amount of time, it will become obvious when certain thoughts come into your brain from nowhere. This is your subconscious throwing thoughts at you or messages of intuition about things outside of you. I'm starting to get more of those strange thoughts that I didn't think of and I need to start writing them down so that I can figure out what they mean and where they're coming from. A journal is a very good thing when practicing meditation. We're all different and by doing meditation, we're figuring out the map to our own Self. It's good to keep updating the map and returning to places that we weren't sure about.

C. Visualization
The end result of knowing how to visualize is to create a scene or situation or to give your mind a thought (like in #3 of B.) and to allow it to live and breath as if you were witnessing a dream. I haven't been able to do this yet and I can't wait until I can... cause this is how to CREATE out of body experiences or to walk right into a dream without losing consciousness. I've had one accidental out of body experience and at least 20 dreams where I was fully conscious of the fact that I was dreaming, but I can't make these happen... yet. So basically, this is another meditation genre. There are many, many visualization exercises and you can make your own reality or create your own visualizations if you want.

Relaxation visualization. Lay down. Imagine a large ball of golden light that starts below your feet and slowly moves up your body from your feet, to your knees, to your pelvis, to your chest, and up to the top of your head and back down through your body to your feet. When the golden ball of light is moving across your body, it is relaxing every muscle it touches. When it has gone up and back down your body, you should be completely relaxed. This is a good way to completely relax yourself before bed, before sleep, or even if you're sitting down and feeling tense.
Basic Chakra Visualization. Sit comfortably or lay down. Imagine a huge bright golden disc of light way above your head. Imagine that this enormous disk sends down a bright beam of light to a 3-inch ball that is just above the top of your skull. Let this ball glow. Imagine that the same beam of light descends down into the center of your brow and there's another small ball of light there. Let this ball glow. Light then moves from that ball of light into a ball of light in the center of your throat. Glow. Then down to a ball in the heart area of your chest, glow, down to your solar plexus, glow, down to a spot right in the center of your pelvis, glow, down to another ball of light at the center of the spot where your legs meet your body and then down into a ball of light between your feet. Remember to let each ball of light glow for a few seconds or even a few minutes if you feel like it. When you've reached the final one in between your feet, imagine that the light circles around as if a fountain is flowing down and outward and then out and up and around your body and back up into the ball of light on top of your skull. Now just feel that light continue to circulate down and thru you and then circling back up to the top.
Straight visualization practice. Look around your room or the room that you're in. Take mental notes of tiny details and try to memorize the whole scene. Close your eyes and rebuild the whole room with the tiny details that you remember. If you miss details or you don't remember, try and imagine it or think harder about what you saw. If you can't remember, open your eyes and look, then close them and go back to imagining and seeing the details of everything again. If you're done and you feel confident with the mental picture, ask yourself how you feel about the room or the things in it or the state that it's in. If anything feels negative, open your eyes and change it... this is the first step in "magickal" action. When meditation and visualization are mastered, you can start to imagine future situations and create the potential realities that will result from these future situations and eventually CREATE the future.
More Visualization. I just started doing this and I've noticed that it will be extremely powerful once I can finally keep it going. Imagine 3-dimensional reality. When we close our eyes and see things, and even when we feel things on our skin, we are imagining 2D reality. 3D reality is a major jump in visualization because it involves being aware of a complete environment and not just viewing something from the outside. When I focus on a part of my body, I usually get this picture like I'm standing next to myself and looking at myself from the right. This is a major limitation to my concentration because I'm putting too much energy into creating a visual image of the FEELING that I'm trying to concentrate on. A feeling is NOT an image. A decent visualization that can help this 3D idea is to find a spot of tension in the body and to imagine that you are inside that tension and that you are a cube of ice. Now let yourself melt. If that is successful and you can melt all the tension, then try and make the water evaporate until all that tensed up energy is completely gone and will not return.

Notes:
i) Visualization, like all of these exercises, will only get better with practice... and trust me... it can be REALLY tough at first.
ii) Even though I separated these exercises into 3 groups, A, B, and C, it's obvious that each exercise does a little of all 3 things. Some are just better for different modes of concentration...
iii) Visualization is very very powerful for working with potential realities, Kind of like when someone tells a performer to see themselves performing well, or when a basketball player visualizes a shot going in. The stronger the mind and the stronger the visualization ability, the more success.

Good luck and feel free to ask questions. I know I put a lot down here but I didn't want to leave too much out and I wanted to give you the chance to see a bunch of different things that way you can choose one that has a better feel for you.

-eugene

First Post...!

nitewater — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:13:00 GMT

Hello Meet and Grow, Eugene here, running a post, testing the display, developing momentum of devoting energy to this community, asserting myself as a voice! Now I'm going to listen to the voices and post again when I've affirmed that my preferences are in order! Have a wonderful day and play with your chi!

Choosing a teacher / Guru, Researching the Lineage of a tradition.

Jazz — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:10:00 GMT

Before we take on a practice or accept some one as a teacher there is a bit of research we must do.

Lineage of a tradition is important.

Some of the lineages can be traced back. As an example in Zen, when one is initiated, they prepare a lineage chart. this chart traces ones lineage all the way back to Buddha. The problem with not having a lineage is that a teacher you are working with could have teachings that are not genuine. In most for a student to be given permission to teach, thier teacher verify that they are ready. Otherwise we can read book, take little from here, little from there and start teaching.

We should also do a bit of research about the teacher, see how they treat their students.

"It takes a teacher to show you that you dont need a teacher". In many traditions as Zen and Kunlun, teachers encourage you to not treat them as a Guru/Seifu. One does not have to/should not give ones power to another being. Its so easy to get aweeeed by someones presence and unconsiously gives one energy, give control to a teacher. We must always be in control, we must question every practice we are given and not follow anything blindly.

We should never make any one our Guru and give them all our powers. The real power is within you. A teacher can only show you, and you still have to do the work.

In Zen they have a concept of 3 pillars. Three pillars of zen: Belief, Doubt, Determination

Belief: First one must believe that the system works, even perhaps works looking/reading/seeing it.

Doubt: then once must doubt as to how/why it works. Doubt fuels your practice

Determination: One must have the determination to do the practice.

Choosing a teacher: I have read and heard that "ones teacher is allready there, its a matter of finding them or the student being ready and the teacher appears".

________________________________________

Having said all above, I somehow ended up to Max's seminar, and upon experiencing rare energy for myself decided to take the weekend course.

For me Max, was able to show me things that I have only read in books.
He would say again and again that we dont call him a teacher or sefu or guru. He was just giving it out, showing the practices to those that wanted it.

To me it seems - as Max has said that he has learned from many traditions: Bonpo. tao, Shaman, Tibetan...
He is a unique teacher and has a unique style of teaching.

I am sure that practices he is teaching, exist but in esoteric fashion. I dont think they have been widely given out. You would have to learn for years in India, China, Tibet to get some of similar practices. And then to you would never be allowed to show or teach them in public.

Even Max encourages everyone to not blindly learn a practice or follow any one, He says to go out and research the lineage, check out the teacher, talk to past students.

________________________

Buddha was once visiting a village and teaching, to the villagers said, we have a problem that some teacher comes and says to do this way another one comes and says to do it another way, our tradition says one thing, another tradition says another, What do we do ? Who do we follow ?

In reply to villagers in he said in (Kalama Sutta)

Dont follow anything because:
- a teacher says so
- a tradition says so
-your family culture says so
-your religion says so
.......

"Rely not on the teacher/person, but on the teaching.
Rely not on the words of the teaching, but on the spirit of the words.
Rely not on theory, but on experience.
Do not believe in anything simply because you
have heard it.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
Do not believe anything because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything because it is written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is
conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."

- the Buddha

Teachers are always there, its a matter of student to be ready
Ultimately if your heart agrees, then practice is for you and teachers is yours.

Reiki 1 Class in New Jersey

Jazz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:17:00 GMT

Tatiana, Reiki Master will be giving a Reiki 1 class.

Please let us know which date will work for any one interested in taking the class.

She will decide on date where we have most members being able to attend.

----------------------------------------------------------------

REIKI LEVEL I CLASS

Date: To be scheduled based on request.

Time: 12:30 pm to 5:30 pm( Sunday on those dates)

Cost: $150

Reiki is a laying on hands touch healing system of incomparable ease power.

Reiki is a tottally positive energy and can't never harm any living thing.

The more Reiki practicioner are on earth the more peace and unity between all of us wiil be.

LEARN ON REIKI LEVEL I

* History of Reiki

* Meaning of Reiki

* Body Energy, Chackras

* Hands positions for treatment of others

and Self Treatment

* Benefits of Reiki

RECEIVE ON REIKI LEVEL I

* Reiki attunment

* Reiki Treament

* Reiki Manual

* Reiki Certification

Reiki Master- Tatiana

Buddha - How not to accept others anger

Jazz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:14:00 GMT

A story that always sticks to me, that my grandfather used to tell me many times: Once Buddha was passing through a village and during his stay there he was giving a talk to the locals. During this talk, a local ascetic got very upset. He was upset as people had started listening to and following Buddha instead of him.

He got so angry that one day he came and spit on buddha's face and started shouting. At this Buddha simply smiled. Buddha's followers and local leaders were upset and wanted to take revenge. But Buddha stopped them saying that it was between him and the ascetic, they didnt need to do anything, and calmed them to wait.

The ascetic went home but could not sleep. Next day he came back and bowed to Buddha's feet and said, who are you ? what have you done to me ? At this Buddha replied, I havent done anything, All I did was to not accept your negative energy when you were angry. By not accepting it, the negative energy stayed with you.

Grandfather used to end it with analogy, If I have 10 dollars and I offer them to you, but you say No thanks! then who has the 10 dollars ? I do. But if you accept the 10 dollars add to it and give them back to me then the cycle continues...

Similarly, Anger is a like a coal, a burning coal. First it burns the person who has it, then they throw it others. If the other person accepts it, it burns them. They take it add fire to it, and then throw it back .... and cycle continues.

The Funeral - Who is hindering your growth?

Jazz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:13:00 GMT

One day all the employees reached the office and they saw a big notice
on the door on which it was written: 'Yesterday the person who has been
hindering your growth in this company passed away. We invite you to join
the funeral in the room that has been prepared in the gym'.

In the beginning, they all got sad for the death of one of their
colleagues, but after a while they started getting curious to know who
was that man who hindered the growth of his colleagues and the company
itself. The excitement in the gym was such that security agents were
ordered to control the crowd within the room.

The more people reached the coffin, the more the excitement heated up.
Everyone thought: 'Who is this guy who was hindering my progress? Well,
at least he died!'

One by one the thrilled employees got closer to the coffin, and when
they looked inside it they suddenly became speechless. They stood nearby
the coffin, shocked and in silence, as if someone had touched the
deepest part of their soul.

There was a mirror inside the coffin: everyone who looked inside it
could see himself. There was also a sign next to the mirror that said:

'There is only one person who is capable to set limits to your growth:
it is YOU. You are the only person who can revolutionize your life. You
are the only person who can influence your happiness, your realization
and your success. You are the only person who can help yourself.

Your life does not change when your boss changes, when your friends
change, when your parents change, when your partner changes, when your
company changes.

Your life changes when YOU change, when you go beyond your limiting
beliefs, when you realize that you are the only one responsible for your
life.

'The most important relationship you can have, is the one you have with
yourself'

Examine yourself, watch yourself. Don't be afraid of difficulties,
impossibilities and losses: be a winner, build yourself and your
reality. The world is like a mirror: it gives back to anyone the
reflection of the thoughts in which one has strongly believed.

The world and your reality are like mirrors lying in a coffin, which
show to any individual the death of his divine capability to imagine and
create his happiness and his success.

Why its so easy to fall into a Relationship but so hard to get out of one ?

Jazz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:11:00 GMT

This will be our topic for coming meetup. So please take time to think abou this topic.

Below from Osho Times site

Our daughter go through a depressing divorce...

We are a middle-aged couple watching our daughter go through a depressing divorce. How can we help her and her little girl get through this with less pain?
Below is Osho’s reply to a similar question:
To fall in love is so easy. Why is it so difficult to fall out of love? So many discussions, tears, fights, fears.... I don’t want to hurt the person I’ve been with, because it’s not that there is no feeling. I’m so confused. Can you say something?

Falling is always easy. You can fall in any ditch. Getting out is difficult. But you will have to get out. Once the love disappears the ditch becomes hell. Then there is quarreling, argument, nagging, and every kind of nastiness from both sides. Nobody wants to hurt; but because he is hurting, she is hurting, unknowingly they go on dumping their hurt feelings on the other.
In the first place, when you start falling in love, when you are still not in the ditch, that is the time to ask me, because I have a totally different kind of love affair which is called rising in love. Then there is no problem. Rising in love is beautiful, and getting out of it is very easy, because that will be falling down. Falling down is easy, keep it for the next step; for the first step, always use rising. The easier step you have done, now you have to do the difficult one.
And it will happen -- all these tears and conflicts, but nothing can bring the love back.
A simple thing has to be understood: love -- the love that you are talking about -- is not in your hands. You have fallen into it. It was not in your power not to fall, so when it comes, it takes you with it. But it is like a breeze, it comes and goes. And it is good that it comes and goes, because if it stays it becomes stale.
A little understanding is needed on both sides, that the love is no longer there. There is no need to hate each other, because nobody has destroyed it -- nobody has created it. It had come like a breeze, you enjoyed those moments; be thankful to each other and help each other to come out of the ditch. In a ditch, that is the only way. The man, to be really manly, should give his shoulders for the woman to rise up and get out of the ditch. And the man can find his own gymnastics, how to do it.
But nobody asks me before falling. This is strange! For thirty-five years I have been waiting for somebody to ask me how to fall in love. Nobody asks that, because if you had asked that I would have suggested, "Never fall in love. Try to rise." And rising in love is a totally different matter.
Rising in love means a learning, a changing, a maturity. Rising in love ultimately helps you to become grown-up. And two grown-up persons don’t quarrel; they try to understand, they try to solve any problem.
Anybody who rises in love never falls from it, because rising is your effort, and the love that is grown through your effort is within your hands. But falling in love is not your effort.
Falling in love -- that love is going to be disrupted somewhere, and the sooner it is understood that it is gone, the better; otherwise you become too entangled in a thousand and one things. Those are the things which make it difficult to separate.
When you fall in love, no questions arise. You are clean, the other person is clean. But when you want to separate, the days, the nights, the years that you have lived together, loved together, experienced something which is one of the most beautiful gifts of nature -- you go on becoming entangled.
You go on giving promises to each other... and it is not that you are lying or deceiving; in those beautiful moments those promises seem to be absolutely coming from your heart. But when those moments are gone -- and they will be gone, because it has been a fall, and nobody can remain in a fallen state for eternity. Someday he has to rise again. And the moment you start separating, all those entanglements, your promises, the other’s promises, create the complexity.
Rising in love is something spiritual.
Falling in love is something biological.
Biology is blind, that’s why love is called blind. But the love I am talking about is the only insight that is easily available to everyone. Just a little effort....
Love should come out of your silence, awareness, meditativeness. It is soft, it is unbinding -- because how can love create fetters for the one who is loved? It is giving freedom to each other, more and more. As the love grows deeper, freedom becomes bigger. As the love grows deeper, you start accepting the person as he is. You stop trying to change the person.
It is one of the miseries of the world that lovers are continuously trying to change the other person. They don’t know that if the person really changes, their love will disappear, because they had not fallen in love with this changed person in the first place. They had fallen in love with a person who was not touched by their ideas -- "Change this and that."
Rising in love, you become aware that the other has his own territorial imperative, and you are not to encroach upon it.
If love becomes freedom, then there is no need to separate. The idea of separation arises because you go on seeing that you are becoming more and more a slave, and nobody likes slavery.
But you always ask me when you are in the ditch and cannot get out. One thing is certain: I am not coming into the ditch to take you out! You two have to manage it. If I come in the ditch to help you out, you both will be out and I will be in the ditch! And I don’t know anybody whom I can ask, "How to get out of here?"
I have never asked a single question of anybody about my life. It is my life, and I have to live it, I have to solve its problems. I have never taken any advice, I have never accepted anybody’s advice which was not asked for in the first place. I have told those people, "You have to understand that advice is the only thing everybody gives free of charge and nobody takes."
Why bother? Advice given by a person whom you have not asked cannot be very wise.
The wise man never imposes his idea on anyone.
If somebody asks him, he simply gives his insight.
It is not a commandment, that they have to do it; there is no "should" in it.
I can say only one thing: you have given each other beautiful moments -- be grateful, be thankful. The parting should not be ugly when the meeting was so beautiful.
You owe it to existence that the parting should be made beautiful. Forget all your promises -- they were right when they were given, but the time has changed, you have changed. You both are standing at a crossroads, ready to move in different directions; perhaps you may never meet again. Make it as graceful as possible. And once you understand that it has to happen, gracefully or ungracefully, then it is better to make it graceful.
At least, your lover will live in your memory, you will live in the memory of the lover. In a certain way, those moments together will always enrich you. But part gracefully.
And it is not difficult when you have understood love -- which is a very difficult phenomenon. You fell without a second thought; you can understand that very easily love has disappeared. Accept the truth of it, and don’t blame each other, because nobody is responsible.
Help each other gracefully; in deep friendship, part. Lovers when they separate become enemies. That is a strange kind of gratitude. They should become really friends. And if love can become friendship, there is no guilt, no grudge, no feeling that you have been cheated, exploited. Nobody has exploited anybody; it was just the biological energy which made you blind.
I teach a different kind of love.
It does not end in friendship but begins in friendship.
It begins in silence, in awareness. It is a love which is your own creation, which is not blind.
Such a love can last forever, can go on growing deeper and deeper.
Such a love is immensely sensitive. In this kind of relationship one starts feeling the need of the other person even before the other person has spoken.
I have known a few couples, very few couples -- my acquaintance with couples is big, but I have come across only two, three couples who had not fallen in love, who have risen in love. And the most miraculous thing about them was that they started feeling each other without words.
If the man was feeling thirsty, the woman would bring water. Nothing has been said just a synchronicity. If the loved one is feeling thirsty, she must start feeling thirsty herself. A transfer is happening continuously, words are not needed. Energies can relate directly without language.
Such a love needs nothing from the other.
It is grateful that the other receives something when he offers, or she offers.
It never feels in any kind of bondage, because there is none.
In such love, sex may happen sometimes, may not happen for months, and finally will disappear completely. In this context, sex is no longer sexual, but only a way of being together, going as deeply as possible into each other, an effort to reach the depths of the other. It has nothing to do with biological reproduction.
And once they start understanding that whatsoever they do.... In sex only their bodies can meet, then sex slowly disappears. Then a different kind of meeting starts happening which is just a meeting of energies. Holding hands, sitting together looking at the stars, it is more than any sexual orgasm can give -- two energies melting.
Sexual orgasm is physical, is bound to be the lowest kind. Orgasm which is not physical has tremendous beauty, and leads finally to self-realization. And if love cannot give you enlightenment, don’t call it love. Love is such a beautiful word. When you say, "Falling in love," you are using the word in an ugly way. Say "falling in sex"; be true. In love one always rises, never falls. But first you have to come out of the ditch. Help each other.
Biology is not going to help. Just be human to each other, and understand the point that the love that was blinding you is no longer there. Your eyes are open. Don’t try to deceive the other that you still love, you still feel, but what to do? This kind of hypocrisy is not good. Simply say, "The feeling is no longer there. I am sad and sorry about it, I would have loved the feeling to be there, but it is not there. And I know it is not there in you either."
Once it is understood that the feeling is gone, now at least, just as human beings, help each other to get out of the ditch. If you help, there is no problem. But instead of helping, each wants to get it finished but doesn’t allow the other to get out of the ditch. They go on pulling each other down.
Understand. The reason is fear; the old love is gone, the new has not yet arrived. It cannot arrive in your ditch, you will have to come out first. So the fear is of the unknown.
The past was so beautiful you would like to repeat it, so you try to force it, the other tries to force it. But these things are not within your power to force. A forced love is not love.
If you have to kiss somebody at the point of a sword -- "Kiss!" -- what kind of a kiss will that be? Looking at the sword, you may kiss, but it will not be a kiss at all.
Any love enforced for any reasons, is not love. And you both know what love is, because you had been in those moments; so you can compare easily that it is not the same thing. Help each other to come out -- and it is very easy if you help each other -- and part in grace.
Next time try not to fall, but try to rise.
Don’t let biology dominate you.
Your consciousness should be the master.

Relationship - Image of a perfect partner

Jazz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:10:00 GMT

lets think and analyze the image that we carry in our mind of a perfect partner, how he/she should be like, how they should behave. What would make them a good partner?

Is time certain or uncertain?

Jazz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:08:00 GMT

Recently Alan in one of our meetups, asked the question "Is the universe helpful, dangerous or neither", similar to this is the question is a certain time favorable, unfavorable OR neither.

I think universe, time is what it is! Its how we react to it, what we do with it.

Our life is a like a game of cards. When we are born we are given a set of cards. Its how we play them. Some times we get good cards sometimes bad. We have to play and enjoy. Why get caught up in the cards, they are temporary for short time just like life.

Here is Osho's answer to a similar question:

"There are no 'times of uncertanity' because time is always uncertain. It is the difficulty with the mind: mind wants certainty -- and time is always uncertain.

So when just by coincidence mind finds a small space of cerainty, it feels settled: a kind of illusory permancence surrounds it. It tends to forget the real nature of existence and life, it starts living in a kind of dream world; it starts mistaking appearance for reality. It feels good to the mind because mind is always afraid of change for the simple reason: who knows what change will bring -- good or bad? One thing is certain, that change will unsettle your world of illusions, expectations, dreams..." P153 - My diamond days with Osho by ma prem shunyo

Protagonize

Jazz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:08:00 GMT

Written by Jason Hunter:

Do you remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books from when you were younger? You read a few pages, and come to a fork in the road. As your main character tries to escape the bad guys, he could either hope on a moving boxcar or hid in the bushes hoping to avoid detection. The fun of it all is going back through the story to see how it will all end, depending on each varied route you decide to take.

Protagonize would updates this concept by allowing contributions by the users. While there are countless websites out there that have an ongoing, round-the-robin formats for collaborative stories, Protagonize puts some handy tracking tools in there so that you can better stay afloat with the stories you like and those that you create. Other users can respond to your content, build on it, and take things in an entirely different direction.

Check it out...

http://protagonize.com/

About jbass

Born in Toronto, raised between Florida and New Jersey. My birthday is May 13th so if you want any brownie points from here on out, you'd better write that down. I enjoy hanging out with my friends, traveling, hanging out at my house and watching movies whenever I am not working. I run a web design company and have worked hard to get where I'm at. I do my best to make the best of any situation I'm in and always have a good time. I love all kinds of music, I am always listening to it and always looking for new bands to check out. Recently I've been into music in other languages. Without knowing what they are saying, I can really hear the beat. But I listen to anything and love to dance. I like every kind of food you can imagine, including sushi, thai, mexican, italian, chinese and anything else that is delicious. I'm currently single and totally happy with it, but I also love being in relationships and having someone to open my eyes to in the morning. I hate flaky people and people who have to be right all the time. I love meeting new people and hearing about the adventures that life has taken them on and sharing experiences with them. I consider myself an awesome friend and am always there for the people close to me. There's so much more I could write but I'm running out of space so how about you send me a message and we talk instead! And if you can't write me here, be creative and figure out another way.

Landmark Education

Jazz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:06:00 GMT

Written by Jason Hunter:

In the summer of 2000 I was studying in Florence, Italy. One day on my way home from class, I recognized someone from home and yelled out to get her attention. That evening we shared a meal and swore that we would make an effort to stay close once we returned home. Fast forward 2 years. It's about 1am and I am on my way back to my car in a lot on Washington Street in Hoboken. Out of the dark, I hear my name being yelled and look up only to see... the same girl. This time, we promise to each other to keep in touch and make plans as soon as possible. Once again, another year or so goes by and neither of us have called the other. Then one day, out of the blue, I get a message from her that she has a website venture that she and 2 friends would like to talk to me about (because I am a web developer). So, FINALLY a meeting is arranged.

In this meeting she tells me about her project. It's a website intended to help connect like minded people. Of course I thought this was a great idea and we spent hours going over ways to make it happen. At the end of the meeting she tells me that she is very excited to work with me because she can tell that I have something really special going on. She asked me if I'd ever been through a course called Landmark Education.

I had never heard of it but I am always open to new things and this was a way for me to spend more time with this special person who continued to show up in my life at the most random places and times.

That following Tuesday I went with her to an Introduction. The seminar was led by an Indian woman who had a presence on stage that I couldn't help but be intrigued. I remember she told a story about a little girl who once ran up to her father who was working at his desk and asked him to play with her. She said no, that he was busy, and the little girl ran off disappointed. She explained that the little girl, without knowing any better, metaphorically put on a pair of glasses. A few years later this same little girl was in school and asked if she could play kickball with a group of boys during recess. As most 10 year old boys will do, they said no and again the little girl walked away, placing a new pair of glasses on top of her old ones. When the little girl got to high school, she wanted to go to her prom with a boy who apparently wanted to go with someone else. Again feeling rejected, she subconsciously placed a third pair of glasses over her eyes. Now as you can imagine, this little girl can no longer possibly see clearly and every relationship she entered into was clouded by these glasses from her childhood.

The Landmark Education Leader proceeded to explain that what they do there, is help you to remove the glasses. It was a nice story and I could see that other people in the room really wanted more. I wasn't quite sold but I stuck around. I stuck around long enough for the woman to come over and introduce herself. When she did, I extended my hand to meet hers and could feel her energy transfer to me. I actually remember being shocked and telling her how nice it was to meet her. Although it seemed that most people had things "wrong" with their lives that they came to Landmark to "fix," at that point I was pretty open to what this could be. At the very least, I know that I would meet some great people.

A few weeks later I found myself back in the same room, along with about 100 other people. As the seminar began a few people started getting very agitated asking all sorts of questions accusing Landmark of brainwashing. The leader met each accusation with an explanation and eventually some of the protesters just got up and left. With a full refund of course. For me, I was still intrigued.

Over the next 3 days, we spent 10 hours a day listening to lectures and doing exercises. This is the Landmark Education curriculum . Up until day 2 I still had no idea what I was getting from it. Meanwhile, dozens of people were eager to get up on stage and talk about their breakthroughs to the whole room. For one of the exercises, I turned to talk with the person next to me and began sharing a brief history of myself. This person heard something I subconsciously had said and pointed it out to me. Basically, this was my story:

My parents divorced when I was 1. For the next few years, my father was for the most part nonexistent in my life (for one reason or another - depending on who I ask). At 10, my dad bought me plane ticket to come visit him in California. When I landed, I was introduced to a nice woman and her two daughters. I rode with him on his motorcycle, we went to an amusement park, to Mexico, I got to be in a pool every day... long story short, I had a great time and when I got home I was hysterical crying. Finally my mom called him and had me talk to him to calm me down. What he told me in that conversation was that the reason he wanted me to come out there was to get my approval of this woman he wanted to marry. I immediately stopped crying and began living my life. I say it like that because up until then, I don't have many memories at all. And from that point on, I remember almost everything.

Speeding ahead to my current life, I began to tell my exercise partner about my business. I mentioned that sometimes when I am in meetings with clients, that I feel like they look at me as if I was 15 year old kid. My partner quickly did the math. I was 25 at the time, feeling like I was 15. 25 minus 15 is the 10 years I have no memories. I still didn't understand what this really meant... until I called my dad on a break to share this with him.

He and his wife (the woman I had met 15 years ago), were driving and had me on speakerphone. I shared with them this story and my dad said to me, "Jason, I can't believe that you don't know how much you have always meant to me." ... I started balling. Right on 34th Street on the front steps of a church with hundreds of people walking by me.

In that moment, I finally got it. I was able to take off those glasses that the Indian woman was talking about and see clearly. That night when I left Landmark, I took a cab downtown to meet some friends for drinks. Every person I saw, including the cab driver, had a new aura around them. I felt more open and more powerful than ever before. Of course, none of my friends noticed anything different, but I knew I'd never be the same. For someone who went through life thinking they had such a deep understanding of life of his self, I all the sudden felt reborn.

Someone else once gave the glasses explanation a different way... He said that if you could think of your life as a filing cabinet, everything in your past is actually being placed in your future as well. So that when you get there, you are already looking at it a certain way because of the story you've already assigned it in your past. I'm sure you can identify with what he's talking about.

If I sat here to write all the individual things that have come to me because of the possibilities that I created for myself and my life in that weekend at Landmark, we'd be here all night. What I can tell you is that using myself as an example, someone who didn't know why I was there, I found Landmark to be worth every penny (about $350) and hope that you are open to give it a look.

If you are interested in learning more about Landmark Education, you can visit their website at http://www.landmarkeducation.com

What is Reiki ?

Jazz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:02:00 GMT

Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by "laying on hands" and is based on the idea that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one's "life force energy" is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.

The word Reiki is made of two Japanese words - Rei which means "God's Wisdom or the Higher Power" and Ki which is "life force energy". So Reiki is actually "spiritually guided life force energy."

http://www.holisticonline.com/Reiki/hol_reiki_what-is-reiki.htm.

Our New Jersey group meets once a week for: Reiki Circle. Any one that has taken Reiki or is interested in is welcome. Wednesday or Thursday nights: 7:30PM: 1 hour session to practice yoga and meditation. Please join our group check our schedule on: http://spirituality.meetup.com/76/

Zazen—Meditation: The heart of Zen Practice

Jazz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Zen meditation is a very simple technique of watching your breath and counting it from 1 to 10.

Sit in a comfortable posture.
Close your eyes.
Watch yourself breathing.
Count each breath by saying Oneeeeeeeee, Twoooooooo either on breathing in or on breathing out.
When you reach 10, come back and start from one.

If you find yourself lost, or forget the last count, or go beyond 10, simply consciously come back and start from one.

Zazen—Meditation: The heart of Zen Practice - Anyone Can Do It

(Below text is being quoted with permission from http://www.treetopzencenter.org/ . Its written by my Sensei Stefano Mui Barragato.)

The practice of Zazen is such a simple practice that anybody can do it. It’s easy. It doesn’t matter if you’re smart or stupid. It doesn’t matter if you have a high IQ or no IQ. Whether you’re literate or illiterate. Zazen is for all people.

One of the most revered Zen masters of all time is the Sixth Ancestor, Huineng. He lived during the T’ang Dynasty, in the early seventh century. He transformed Indian Buddhism into Chinese Buddhism. And then into Zen as we practice it today.

The Sixth Ancestor, Huineng, is so revered that a body of work ascribed to him is called a sutra "The Platform Sutra". This is the only text, other than the texts of the words of Shakyamuni Buddha, that is given the honor of being called a Sutra.

The Sixth Ancestor, Huineng was illiterate! And yet be became one of the greatest of the Zen masters. He did not have a high IQ. If he could do it, you and I can. Even a child can do it. Everyone can count at least from one to ten. Or one to five. Or even one to three. In fact everyone who breathes can do it. And since everyone breathes, everyone can do Zazen. It’s so easy that I’ll be able to give you the entire practice in just a few minutes.

Body Posture

You begin with your body posture. You can do Zazen sitting cross-legged on a pillow and mat. These are known in Zen language as a “zafu" and “zabuton" Or you can sit on a small, especially designed bench, known as a “sezar” bench. You place your legs underneath the seat of the bench. You’ll find this a very stable and comfortable way to do Zazen Or you can sit in a chair. You can even do Zazen lying down.

If you really want to be macho you can go into one of the lotus positions: full, half, or quarter lotus. In full lotus you fold your legs, placing your right foot on your left thigh, and your left foot on your right thigh. In half lotus you just either place your right foot on your left thigh, or left foot on your right thigh. In quarter lotus you place either foot just below the thigh.

There is another folded-leg sitting posture, called Burmese, in which you fold your legs, placing them on the mat before you, with both feet just below the crotch.

But the actual position—lotus, sitting on a bench or a chair is not important. The idea is to be still, and to slowly take control of your body. As your body is stilled your mind is stilled.

Now you may object and say, “There's no way I can keep my body still, even in a chair, or a couch, or wherever. I soon find my body aching and hurting. I soon feel strains and pulls in muscles I never knew were there. I would break out with an itch, here behind my neck, or on my head, and worst of all, on the tip of my nose. There’s no way I can sit still. I’ve tried it.”

I say to you don’t worry about that. The practice of “going back to one” that I will soon describe will take care of all your itches. All your strains and pains.

Be patient with yourself. Remember, even in your distracted state, even with all of your itches, muscle pain and spasms, you still will be able to do Zazen. Don’t worry about it.

“Going back to one” will slowly and very effectively calm your body. Calm the itches. Ease the pain. Bring your body to a state of peace. Your muscles will relax. Just be patient with yourself and with your body, and do the practice.

Breathing is a very important part of Zazen. Breathing should be abdominal. Bypassing your lungs, fill the tummy up so it expands like a balloon.

Place your hands on your legs, close to your body, fingers overlapping, thumbs slightly touching—just below the navel—encircling the spot of the body known as the Ki or Chi, or Joriki, which is known to be the most powerful “chakra” or power-source of the body. It is here that the strongest energy is generated.

Maintain this position and take a deep breath. After the belly is full with air, hold it for a moment, and then slowly let it out. In-breath. Out-breath. Then begin to count your breaths. I find the most powerful way of counting is on the out-breath.

Hold the count for the length of the breath.

So with your out-breath you would be saying “Oooooooooooooooooone,” “Twooooooooooooooooooo,” “Threeeeeeeeeeee,” etc. Continue until you reach the number “ten,” then go back to “one.”

Thinking

The old Buddhists identified two types of thought: random thoughts and reflective thoughts.

Random thoughts are the ones that pop up in your head all the time. They come and they go.

Reflective thoughts are one of the random thoughts you latch on to, entertain, develop, and get lost in.

However, you will eventually realize you are caught in a reflective thought, and as soon as you do, all you have to do is stop the thought and go back to “one.” It’s as simple as that. Just go back to one. No matter where you are lost—you may be counting “thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three” and at the same time lost in a thought, and then realize it, and say to yourself, “What am I doing? How did I get to thirty-three?” At that moment, just stop even that thought, and go back to “one.”

It is very important that you don’t fall into the trap of judging yourself for getting lost. Just accept the fact that you’re lost and without any fuss go back to one. No blame. Everybody gets lost. Now you know how to find your way. Just go back to one.

Counting of the breaths
Getting caught-up in a reflective thought
Realizing it
Stopping the thought
Returning to one is purifying.

By going through this process many times, you will lose count less often and your mind will become serene, even, calm, and best of all, rested.

Do not be afraid of thinking. Do not feel that by thinking you are doing it all wrong. That you are a failure at Zazen. It’s impossible to stop thinking. As long as you are alive and breathe you will think. Remember it’s not the random thoughts that pop up all the time that cause the problems. It’s the reflective thoughts. The ones you involve yourself in. You shouldn’t even try to stop reflective thinking. The point is not to stop thinking. The point is to go through the process.

This is the process of purification. And so paradoxically, the more you think—the more you find yourself caught up in a reflective thought—the greater the opportunity for purification.

The Mind as the Sea is the only practice I know of which rests, trains, steadies, and relaxes your mind. Zazen develops your mind to the point where it becomes the greatest tool you can have. Your mind is always working. Even when you sleep your mind is working. When you go on vacation your body rests. You lie down on the beach, take in the warm rays of the sun and relax. But your mind is still working, working, working. When you are sleeping your mind doesn’t rest—it dreams! And everyone knows how much work dreaming can be! When you do Zazen your mind rests. You mind is “let go” and is given the time to build its inner muscles. In this way your mind is strengthened and takes a rest at the same time. And most important, your mind is at peace.

Mind Purification

How to purify your minds. When I use the word “purify” I don’t mean it in the “holy” sense of the word, but rather in the sense in which a blacksmith places a steel blade into a red-hot forge in order to purify it of all extra dross and bits of metal that don’t belong. The steel then comes out of the forge red-hot and in its pure state. It can now be worked on. It can be fashioned, pounded into shape, tempered, and ultimately, sharpened into the finest blade.

Mind Purification Practice

Think of your mind as that piece of steel before it is placed in the forge. It is cluttered with a lot of junk and dross. The dross of the mind is the many thoughts you have. I’ve often likened the mind to a sea, and the waves of the sea as the thoughts of the mind. Sometimes, probably, most times, the sea of your mind is raging with the force of a hurricane with waves tossing and turning every which way. Zazen is one way to calm your mind. But I’m now going to give you another way of calming the thoughtwaves in the sea of your minds. And it’s a very simple technique that you can begin using right away. More about thinking.

First, the random thoughts. These are the thoughts that pop into and out of your heads all the time. They never stop. One thought tumbles in. Another thought pushes the first thought out, and that in turn is pushed out by another thought and so forth. This goes on all the time, because we are alive. That’s how the mind works. It’s impossible to stop this free flow of thoughts. And we wouldn’t want to stop it even if we could. That would mean we are dead.

Then, second, the reflective thoughts. When you stop one of the pop-up thoughts and play with it, develop it and work with it, you have a reflective thought. These are the thoughts that can give you a lot of trouble. These are the thoughts that are the waves of your seamind. It seems almost impossible to control these thoughts. But I’ll show you how to do it.

You simply return to “one.” You all know how to do that. As you have already experienced, once you get lost in a reflective thought you may go with it for quite some time without realizing it. But eventually you will realize you are stuck with a reflective thought, and then all you have to do is return to “one,” or whatever your meditation subject happens to be. But what about when you’re not meditating? What about in the middle of the night? Your thoughts are crashing about in your heads every which way and you can’t sleep they’re so busy. How do you deal with them then? Well one way is to get up and begin meditating. But there’s another way. And as I said, it’s easy. All you have to do is label the thought with one of three labels: Positive, Negative, or Neutral. Or, Wholesome, Unwholesome, or Neutral. Or Happy, Unhappy, or Neutral. Every thought can be identified and labeled with one of these three labels.

The Positive and Neutral thoughts usually don’t give you a problem. The big waves are the Negative thoughts. These are the ones that are most difficult to deal with. But you’ve also got to be careful of the Neutral thoughts, because they can go either way.

As soon as you label a thought as Positive, Negative, or Neutral, you gain control over it. Then, once the thought is appropriately labeled, you can deal with it. Labeling your thoughts is the way you control them. For instance, if you’re an inmate at an institution, say you’re lying down trying to sleep, but you’re thinking of your wife who didn’t visit you last Saturday as you expected. What was wrong? You can’t get to a phone until next Friday. Why didn’t she come? And you can’t stop thinking about it and begin to imagine all sorts of crazy possibilities. Your thoughts develop into a nightmare that you can’t control. At this point stop! Label that thought as Negative. Then you figure it out. “I can’t deal with this thought about why my wife didn’t visit me last Saturday, because I don’t have all the facts. And I won’t be able to get all the facts until I can get to a phone. And I won’t be able to get to a phone until Friday. So, I stop this negative thought now, and take it up again on Friday, after I make that phone call. “Basta” And that’s all there is to it. In other words, by labeling your thoughts you’re able, in a sense, to make an appointment with that troublesome thought and you are able to deal with it in your own time.

You take control. Before you labeled the thought it had control. But by putting a label on the thought you rob it of its power and take the power back for yourself. And that’s all there is to it! So to repeat this wonderful centuries old Buddhist teaching: label your thoughts as Positive, Negative, or Neutral. And then deal with the thoughts as you wish in your own time. Labeling your thoughts is another way to purify your mind. By doing this practice, slowly, the storm raging in your mind calms down. The waves of your seamind get weaker and weaker. Soon there are no waves. And your seamind becomes silent and still. Like a plate of glass. Now the moon up above, can be perfectly reflected upon the surface of your seamind. This image—the moon reflecting on the sea—is a classic metaphor of enlightenment. Listen to how Dogen Zenji puts it in the “Genjo Koan”: A person's becoming enlightened is like the reflection of the moon in water. The moon does not get wet nor is the water ruffled. Though the moonlight is vast and far-reaching, it is reflected in a few drops of water. The entire moon and heavens are reflected in even a drop of dew on the grass, or in a drop of water. Our not being obstructed by enlightenment is like the water's not being obstructed by the moon. Our not obstructing enlightenment is like the nonobstruction of the moonlight by a dewdrop. The depth of the water is equal to the height of the moon. As for the length or brevity [of the reflection,] you should investigate the water's vastness or smallness and the brightness or dimness of the moon. Mind purification practice is something you can do at all times, and especially during meditation. If you find, while meditating, that you’re being nagged by a troublesome thought, label it, deal with it, then go back to your meditation. You may find you want to deal with that thought right then and there. OK. Do it. But notice now you’re in control and not the thought.

Further refinements

1. Rate the thoughts of each category. Begin with low rated neutral thoughts; rate them numerically. Then go to negative thoughts and similarly rate them. Then turn to your positive thoughts and rate them.

2.Then look at the whole salad of your thoughts and what do you have? What does it—the salad—tell you about yourself? Is it where you want to be?

Where do you want to be?

What changes need to be made?

What needs to be added?

What needs to be taken away?

Apply this method to your words,your speech.your acts. Try to find a place in your home, or if you are an inmate in prison, in a corner of your cell, that you can use for the place where you do Zazen. Set up a candle, an image or photo of the Buddha, or of Christ, a flower, ( or a piece of fruit, or vegetable, like a jalapeño, if you are in a prison and not allowed flowers), a stick of incense, and presto, you have an altar. Try to sit at least once a day. Go through as many counts of ten as you like.

Begin with only a few minutes daily. It doesn’t matter if you sit for only a few minutes. What matters is the consistency of daily sitting. Slowly you will want to increase the time you spend sitting, until eventually you will be sitting for around a half-hour, or about the time it takes for a six-inch stick of incense to burn. A half-hour is a comfortable time to sit. After a half-hour your legs may get tired and sore. It’s good to take a break and stretch your legs. Walk around a bit. There is a formal way of doing this. It is called Kinhin or Walking Meditation.

Kinhin

After sitting for a period, you rise, and—still keeping your mind focused on your counting—begin slow walking. Place your hands across your chest, with the left hand closed around your thumb, and place your right hand over the left hand. This is known as the shashu mudra or hand posture. Keep your elbows slightly away from your body.

Begin your slow walk with your left foot, take a half step; follow with the right foot with another half step. Calibrate your steps with your breathing and counting. One half step, one breath, and the count of one. The next half step; another breath, and the count of two. Continue to ten then go back to one. Do kinhin for a few minutes then bow in place, keeping your hands in shashu; then begin fast walking, and counting. Do this for a few more minutes. Let kinhin last for a total of about five minutes. Then you may go back to your sitting Zazen.

And that’s it! That is Zazen! All you need to know.

Everything else is commentary. Everything else is extra. As you do this practice bit by bit your life will be purified. Your life will change and take on new meaning. You’ll find you are no longer slave to your passions, to your thoughts, to your instincts. You are no longer slave to your cravings. Bit by bit you take control. You now can do anything you wish to do.

If you are addicted to drugs, alcohol, tobacco, you can now begin to quit and take control these afflictive habits. You will be able to deal with whatever problems come up because, as your life and your mind are purified, you’ll be able to see things as they are. Such is the power of Zazen.

You can deal with anything that comes before you. Life is new, different, vibrant, exciting and, simply wonderful. This is true even if you’re locked up in prison. No prison bars can contain the inner freedom you realize. And the greatest thing of all is that your actions, and even your thoughts, are no longer controlled, or influenced, by other people, or anything else outside of you. You will be in control. And you will be at peace.

How to Balance work & relationships ?

Jazz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:59:00 GMT

We ended our weekly discussion with agreement that we need to acheive a balance in our lives.

When we get into a relationship, everything is so beautifull. One reason is that we are willing to sacrifice everything and give maximum time to our partner. We allow ourselves to miss classes, we leave work on time, call in sick....

But when honey moon period is over, we start paying more attention to everything other than our partner. Some times its the circumstances that require us to work more, attend events, take care of a sick family member.

What we perhaps need to ask ourselves is how I can balance my life. How can do everything else but still do my necessary part to keep my relationship going, alive, vibrant ? Lets all delve a bit deeper.... and come with our thoughts!

Tao Sutra "Attain the utmost in Passivity" - my comments

Jazz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:39:00 GMT

Attain the utmost in Passivity,
Hold firm to the basis of Quietude

The myriad things take shape and rise to activity
But I watch them fall back to their repose.

Like vegetation that luxuriantly grows
But returns to the root from which it springs.

To return to the root is Repose:
It is called going back to one's Destiny.
Going back to one's Destiny is to find the Eternal Law, "Tao"
To KNOW "Tao" is Enlightenment.
And NOT to know the Eternal Law, "Tao"
Is to court disaster.

These are my notes and understanding while working on above sutra, from the book "Living Tao" by OSHO. Please read and comment on your understanding.

"Attain the utmost in Passivity":

We are always active, doing something! this is how we work or how our mind works and stays alive. If there is a thought, there is mind. To be PASSIVE is to not do anything, to give in surrender, to observe, to be a witness - Mediate. 24 hours we are doing things and things.... if one hour we can be passive and stop. Let things happen and we simply watch.

Utmost Passivity: simply being passive is not enough. In being passive, we are trying, making effort to be passive. As we are trying we are still doing something and mind is still working... Meditation happens when we stop being active, surrender or forget about it being passive we simply observe. Its like trying to sleep, If you try to sleep it dosent happen. The moment you forget about sleep, you somehow sleep. Till you are excited, you cant sleep. The moment mind dosent have anything to do, we go to sleep. If we are trying to relax, it goes against relaxation as we are still doing something. Relaxation happens when we are not doing anything. Utmost in Passivity is when there is no effort to be passive.

Beautiful things happen, they are not done. Love happens, meditation happens, relaxation happens. We cannot make it happen. No one can force us to love, we could pretend but it wont be love. Material world is a world of doing, and Spiritual world is a world of happening.

Another way to look at Active and Passive is as Male and Female temperament. Males are more active; doing, women passive; waiting. Greatest thing happens to women, not men. She becomes pregnant, gives life! A god is to be born, women becomes a temple. Man simply remains a doer, outsider. To receive ultimate, we need to be feminine, witness, non-doer, utmost passive.

Ying - fire energy, Yang - water. We need to be more like water, flowing and less like fire, rigid.

"Hold firm to the basis of Quietude":

Mediate to reach the core of ourselves, in the stillness find the center. It is there! hard to find with all the thinking going on, but only matter of time if we keep trying. Once we find it, hold on to it.

"The myriad things take shape and rise to activity
But I watch them fall back to their repose.":

From the center and stillness we can watch things take place and they come back to stillness. When we meditate, we watch our mind and the thoughts go from one thing to other. Sometimes one thought leads to another, and on and on, and we realize and we come back to center. If we are centered or grounded, we watch things happen around us, people acting, but not being affected, we can simply watch without being affected.

"Like vegetation that luxuriantly grows
But returns to the root from which it springs.":

Everything goes back to origin. Spring comes seeds becomes plants and trees, then one day day they fall and go back to ground. Child is born, becomes old and dies back to origin.

"To return to the root is Repose:"

In west progress is seen as linear. In east its seen as circular.

In linear, everything moves in a line, and keep moving in a line, things are happening.... on and on, one thing to another. History is important, historical facts are important.

In circular, everything moves in a circle, things happen then they go back to the root, history is not relevant as its a circle. 'Sansar' the world for world literally means a Circle. History becomes less important, and is substituted by Mythology 'Puran'. In Puran we are concerned with the essential, in History we care of the facts. Who cares about when Buddha was born, what matters more is what he said. Buddha becomes a symbol of all Buddhas and what happened.

We are born and then we die, we return back the root. Life is a circle, death is repose. When we understand this, there is no struggle, there is acceptance.

"It is called going back to one's Destiny.
Going back to one's Destiny is to find the Eternal Law, "Tao" ":

This is the Eternal Law, to understand the circle.

"To KNOW "Tao" is Enlightenment.":

Once we know, we dont fight it, we live with it. A wise man moves with the law, a foolish man suffers. If we go against the law we suffer, no one is needed to punish us. You put your hand in fire, it will burn.

In our moments of happiness and bliss, we are with the law.

"And NOT to know the Eternal Law, "Tao"
Is to court disaster.":

To not be with the law, to go against the law, we cause our own suffering.

We create our own Heaven and Hell.

What is Kunlun Nei Gung?

Jazz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:32:00 GMT

Kunlun Nei Gung is an ancient, secret method of spiritual awakening. Kunlun is a reset process that is a part of your body already. When you do the method you activate that process. Whatever your body determines you need to do to realign your natural energy flow, will happen.

The position you take tunes/harmonizes your body with the one law or sympathetic vibration. You know you have attained it when you feel joyful, blissful and loving. The love aspect of the human being is the expression of the one law.

What this practice does, is to awaken a divine bliss feeling in the practitioner. It can be compared to a mild orgasm except that it is not sexual in nature.

This bliss expands as it rises and it is this process that raises your vibrational rate. At this higher vibration, emotional blocks and mental illusions dispel. Sometimes they are forcefully released and other times it is a smooth experience. Whatever you are holding can be let go of, but only if you are ready to be done with it.

When a block is released it creates a new channel for this bliss energy. When you practice regularly you can access and clear new levels of deep set tension like moving through layers of an onion.

As you become more clear, you become more magnetic.

You can then learn to project this energy outward to help heal others or you can chose to simply bask in your own empty radiance. In this state, knowledge comes as if recalling a memory. There is no effort but to follow your feeling.

It is different for everyone.

It can be a very smooth, blissful process as well. Any initial shaking, movements, emotional release, etc., is just you doing what you need to do to "right the ship."

You are in control the whole time and you can go as deep as you want or keep it very light.

Once you learn this practice, you do have to deal with what comes next for you. There is no question you will start to change. The practice will continue to work to clear you, but some changes might be difficult for people. You will have to face the parts of yourself you might not want to see. This is the great challenge on the path and the reason why so many give up.

Of course, grounding the energy afterward is very important.

This practice can open up the higher levels of understanding that would be very difficult to access alone. Not to mention the health benefits and the minor abilities that can be developed.

Prostration Practice before Kunlun

Jazz — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:32:00 GMT

Jazz" (Below was posted by Paulette in her Anouncement, I am posting it here so it can be searched and show up on main page)

Oscar showed us how to do this prostration sequence to help clear the central channel some more and build one's energy. He said the purpose of this sequence is to "annihilate opposites" and "create unity." The following practice brings heaven and earth together with the breath and movement: consciousness and life force merge as one. So I thought I would share this with others in the group who might be interested.

Here it is:

1. Start in mountain pose (standing with feet hip-width apart, fingers pointing down towards the earth, knees slightly bent.) Inhale arms over the head by circling the arms from the sides of the body upwards. Stretch the arms up above the head, and bring hands together (palms facing one another) letting the middle fingers touch.

2. Exhaling, push the chi (energy) down the front of the body- palms down elbows out to the sides to the level of the abdomen.

3. Inhaling, bend the knees and bring them onto the ground. Put hands and then forearms onto the ground and then place the head on the ground as well (underneath the palms.) This is the prostration part of the sequence aka child's pose. Exhale here.

4. Push up into table (aka cat pose) pressing hips and head up while you inhale.

5. Curl toes under and come into cow (also called phoenix) still in table but with arounded back. Bring the palms in front of the knees and push knees off the floor (with control). Put hands on the thighs and stretch the spine with bent knees while simultaneously exhaling. Keep the fingers widely spread while on the thighs. This is like chair pose with hands on the thighs for those of you who are familiar with yoga.

6. Inhaling extend the elbows out to the sides.

7. Come back to standing while exhaling. Bring the hands down the sides back to their original position (fingers pointed towards the earth.)

I hope to put a video on this soon.

Kunlun 1 training seminar: My experience, notes

Jazz — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:42:00 GMT

Kunlun 1 training usually starts with a free informational session on a friday evening to introduce people to the practice, show them some of techniques and give an opportunity for people to ask questions. I attended one of these sessions on May 2nd. A friend of mine had sent me an email about this session and asked me to come. Somehow I ended up going, without having any knowledge about the pracitice. Now looking back, it was probably meant to be as i tried to turn back and not go several times.

Well in the session when i got there they were talking about lineage and then demonstated how 2 people could go into experiencing Bliss by tuning themselves. 2 women sat next to each others touched a part of each others both arms, and within seconds went into crazy laughter. I found it amusing, but asked Oscar if he could some of these on a person who had not taken a prior seminar, He said that it would be hard and he could not do it. I was disappointed as I was skeptical, and for me I had to experience it inorder to belive.

Then they called another person and asked him to talk about his experiences. He came to front, and Oscar this time with his hand tried to project energy to him Or you could say move the person energy. People in the crowd, who had taken prior training OR were sensative were asked to open themselves to Kunlun. I myself at this tried to relax and go into a relaxed state. In few second the person on stage started laughing, and so did many in the crowd. After few minutes, radomly people would started laughing, and sometime then I caught the energy and started laughing too.

I can describe it as a kind of BLISS. I had only heard or read about it in books. Basically its said that after intense and long meditations there comes a times when person gets to stage of smadahi..... and feels Bliss. Well this kind of bliss i felt for the first time. It was like tremendous energy came to my forehead, it would come in spurts and kind of take over you AND like at those momments there was no mind, ONLY an awareness. And at those moments I would start laughing as it was such a pleasure. Later on I heard that when one gets to such a state, Energy can manifest as; Light, Bliss...

I was convinced at this point and wanted to take the course. Then the main teacher "MAX" walked in as he was late from the flight and spoke some more about practice, its lineage, and what and how we would be teaching. I was ready to take the course and hoped that it was affordable. I kind of wished that it was not a crazy amount like 1000 that I would just have to think a million times. Luckly it was $300 and I was ready to come next day.

I went home and surprisingly kept going back to that feeling of Bliss and would start laughing.

Introduction to Kunlun Spontaneous Nei Gung (Level I)

Participants can expect to learn:

Kong Jing – a special form of mediation to allow one to be empty, receive and ground oneself.
Maoshan 5 Elements Chi Gung – this breathing and standing Chi Gung will allow one to balance the five main organs of the body.
Beginning level of Kunlun Spontaneous Nei Gung
Initiation Transmission - I will transmit a portion of my magnetic energy to everyone so that one can be activated and use their own energy from within.

Saturday: Max started the session with first asking us to stand with our knees slightly bent and our hands on our sides with middle finger touching the legs. This calmed and relaxed us. This followed by teaching us following techniques: Red Phoenix meditation, Golden flower, and then Kunlun.

He talked a lot about his teachers, monastaries where he visited, his lineage, ..... It was so exciting to listen to all of it... I will post some of what I remember at the end of this blog.

Sunday: Amongst new techniques we learnt Spirit body travel, we received transmission of the lineage, and practiced each of the techniques we had learnt on saturday.

My Notes (with help of Yoda's notes and post):

Kunlun: This is a water path. Jazz, you must be like water, easy and flowing, you are too much fire. Example of a bamboo, if there is a storm, bamboo will break. If you are like grass, then with a storm wind you will bend and flow.

Spiritual warriors die young, fire will burn you.

This practice activates the divine bliss that everyone has within. It is similar to the energy of an orgasm but is not sexual in nature and can be 100's of times more.

When this energy becomes active in the body it starts an internal alchemical process of rapid change. As it moves through you it releases whatever blocks are in its way. This is why we say one hour can be equivalent to one hundred years in another system. It is that effective.

As the yin and yang channels merge in the lower dan tien, the bliss rises up the central channel of the body like champaign bubbles and the magnetic potential of the individual can then be realized.

He uses the term re-enlightenment because you are already enlightened, you just need to go back and realize it.

If you would like to build your jing chi prior to the seminar then celibacy is fine. It won't hurt. We recommend performing the upward draw to prevent the loss of your essence though, should you decide to have sex.

When the divine bliss is activated, by contrast creations of the mind are eliminated. That is to say, emotional/energy blocks and mental illusions which we carry are eliminated because they cannot stand up to the brilliance of divine bliss. This process can cause the body to shake or tremble like a wet dog shaking off water. People laugh, cry, scream, begin spontaneous yogic postures, sing, etc. It is always different because we are all holding different things inside. It is very odd looking, but afterwards students find they have lightened their load and many of them (like those at the first LA seminar) look years younger the next day.

Practice of Five Elements: Maoshan 5 Elements Chi Gung

Jazz — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:40:00 GMT

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Maoshan 5 Elements Chi Gung – this breathing and standing Chi Gung will allow one to balance the five main organs of the body.There are 5 postures that one stands and holds. One for each element and an part of the body.

1. Wood: stand with hands straight to sides

2. Fire: stand with hands in front of you with thumbs at eye brow level.

3. Earth: stand with hands in front of stomach area.

4. Metal: stand with hands straight up, shoulder level.

5. Water: stand with hands on side of body shoulders and elbows tucked.

This practice was taught to me in 2 variations:

Martial arts style: you do each posture for 7 or more
First time you try and do it within 1 minute or so you will have a hard time keeping the posture. It sound simple and easy, but since body is not used to it, mind and start complaning. In old days, a student would be asked to hold one of the postures for 2 days before being accepted into a monastery.
Tai chi, you do 5 postures in a flow.
You do the same excercises but in a flow slowly moving from one posture to another. A much easier way fo doing it

Its supposed to be a Grounding practice, If your mind is all over, it bring you back to ground and you become aware of your body, chi. It strengthens your body internally.

When you start out, always bend you knees enough that you cant see your toes. It’s a relaxed position that you can hold for longer period. The more bent you can handle as more advanced you are. Its like the Chinese martial arts horse stance.

Then you put one hand on the other in front of shoulders - crossing your hands.

Bend slightly to front, push hips back slightly – correcting your posture

And from this you move hands out to sides – wood.

He said the following as doing the tai chi form:

Wood (Liver) is consumed by Fire
Fire (heart) creates ash (earth)
Earth (spleen) creates metal
Metal (lungs) is tonified by
Water (kidneys).

Wood - liver, gall bladder
Fire - heart, small intestine
Earth - stomach, spleen
Metal - lungs, large intestine
Water - kidneys, bladder

Video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/O0Mg5wiiBdY&hl=en

Welcome to Community Server Blogs!

Jazz — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:35:01 GMT

A weblog (blog) is an online journal you can use to share thoughts, ideas, gripes, project status, or anything else you want. Blogs allow you to be a contributor rather than just a bystander.

Postings are arranged chronologically and can be categorized depending upon how the administrator has configured the system. You can view a post by clicking on the title from the home page where all users' posts are collectively shown. Once viewing a blog you can read other posts by that person or provide comments on postings.

Creating new posts is quick and easy. If you have the ability to post you should see a link (usually on the left) on your weblog's home page: new post. Clicking on this link takes you into your blogs administration pages for creating new posts.

If you don't have the ability to post, contact the site administrator and ask for your own blog.

Happy Blogging!