Unleash Stored Energy

Here is a practice you can do almost immediately.  It will unleash the energy that's been lying dormant for years in your first chakra.  You can do it subtly or vigorously depending on your intention.  I recommend starting off slowly.  You don't want to blow the top of your head off.

This first video explains the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67c3z60jBLg


The second video is Yogi Madhavacharya demonstrating the more vigorous practice.

                             http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Jq1ugvvuM

Enjoy

                                            

                      

Going

In the morning
there are thoughts
about this and that.

I shuffle to the room
that holds the cold
commode.

In the mirror
there is an image
reflecting
back at me.

Is it true
that it is me
or something
I am to be?

It hasn't been that long
since last I saw
my own
grandpa.

Yet there he stands
like an old grey ghost
waiting for
the host.

And when he comes
there won't be crying.
Just joy
in the going.

Intervening Thoughts

Thoughts that come into your head and not really necessary are called "intervening" thoughts. Intervening thoughts are most active before you go to sleep and after waking up.  When your body is not moving, the mind is energized by the flow of energy from the resting body.  These random intervening thoughts appear with greater frequency when energy ignites billions of neurons that have been inactive during the day.  You may have thoughts about things that need to be done, people you should call, conversations you have had or will have, what you should have done, what you should have said, and so on.

You might lie down to go to sleep and suddenly have a thought that you need to call someone not realizing it's 11:00 at night.  Or, you might have a "brilliant" idea about how to cook a great souffle and you feel like you should get up and write down the recipe.  You start thinking about an argument you had with your best friend and begin having a conversation with her as though she was present. There are so many thoughts that could be labeled as "intervening" it would take a book to mention them all.

Intervening thoughts can not only come while resting but also as dreams and while you are fully awake and active. Thoughts that are not intervening are those that have to do with maintaining life and survival.  Thoughts of being thirsty, hungry, seeking shelter, love, and problem solving are all rational, non-intervening.  Intervening thoughts are not necessary for survival.

You can't stop intervening thoughts - they are automatic and we all have them.  What you can do is learn to recognize them and simply let them be.  In other words, rest in their presence.  When you have a thought at an inopportune time, like when lying in bed, take a moment and ask yourself if it is absolutely necessary to be thinking this way.  If the thought is not really necessary, it's an intervening thought.

When you recognize the intervening thought immediately focus on your breathing and begin counting your breaths.  As you inhale concentrate fully on the air coming in your nose and down into your lungs. Feel your chest moving and your ribs expanding.  As you exhale count and visualize the number as though it is coming out of your body.  You can visualize the number in color if you like.

Take the breaths slowly and deliberately counting from 1 to 10.  If a thought appears before you get to 10, start over.  If you reach 10, begin with 1 again. Soon the intervening thoughts will disappear and you can go back to what you were doing with peace and without interruption.

You Are Invincible

Before your father's sperm fertilized your mother's egg you were empty space existing in the entire universe.  Out of nothing emerged you.  Before you existed there were no thoughts, ideas, values, feelings, images.  A vast emptiness suddenly condensed into a single cell that kept dividing into an embryo, a fetus, a child, an adult.

In essence you came from quantum energy from out of the cosmos.  The body, the consciousness, the thing you call "you" is made of the same stuff that exists everywhere.  Every subatomic particle and non-particle that exists in infinite space exists in you. You are made of the same stuff that everyone and everything is made of.  On the quantum level there is no difference between you and the earth and everything on it, in it, and that which surrounds it.

The only thing that keeps you separate from what you really are is your thinking that you are separate.  Thoughts of past events keeps you in the dualistic mode of reality.  Stop thinking for one minute and the "you" becomes the "not you."  Do not contemplate, do not think, do not imagine or visualize.  You are energy and empty space of the cosmos. 

The Objective of Meditation

According to the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali, "meditation is the ability to direct the mind, the ability to develop faultlessly your interactions with what you seek to understand, and to gain complete integration with the object of your understanding" (sutra 3.7).

The objective of meditation is to follow a path that will transform and awaken us so that we understand what we are. The perceived and the perceiver are one and the same. In other words, the end result of meditation is for the seen and the seer to merge as one.

The biggest obstacle in life is our inability to see beyond ourselves.  We tend to focus entirely on the view through two eyes of a skull and perceive only what is directly in front of us.  This narrow view is a trap we cannot think our way out of.  What is needed is a clear and calm mind; one that is unencumbered by interactions with inner and outer distractions.

As you become more proficient in the practice of meditation all mental activities are observed by you the Perceiver.  "The Perceiver is no longer coloured by the mind" (sutra 4.34).  The objective is to awaken the higher forces within you and allow them to connect to the True Self.  This allows you to become independent of - and free from - the random and erratic psyche.  Once you have mastered the power of independence you can then take that freedom with you wherever you go.

Sadness

The feeling of sadness is an emotion brought on by a thought.  The thought may be about the past or it may be of the future. The thought might even be about the present. You might think about someone you loved and feel sad because they are no longer with you.  You might think of something you desire and know you can never have it. You might be thinking about how lonesome you are and there is no one for you to talk to or to comfort you.  Sadness can spread over you like a dark veil.

From where did the thought appear?  What initiated the thought in the first place?  It may have been an external event that triggered the thought or it may have been something inside of you.  Whatever it was, it caused a thought and the thought grew into an emotion. The emotion in this case is sadness.  It's okay to be sad but you don't want it to grow and fester.  Long term sadness can be detrimental to one's health and well being.  Sadness can turn into despondency, depression, and grief bringing dark, grey misery.  You want to stop the sadness before it spreads.

When sadness comes over you, for any reason, feel where it is in your body.  See if you can describe it. You may feel it in your heart as a heaviness, in your head as a throbbing ache, in your stomach like a knot tightening.  Some people describe sadness as a feeling of total body weakness, as though energy has been sapped from every pore and cell. 

By feeling and describing the emotion allows you to be the observer and it the observed.  This puts distance between you and the sadness. The sad feeling becomes an object.  Feel it, describe it, observe it.  Put the sadness out in front of you and study it.  Allow your awareness to expand around the emotion and watch the sadness dissipate like smoke and slowly disappear.

In The Beginning

In the beginning
I thought I understood the truth.
It was clear and complete.
There could be nothing more.

Consciousness and matter
fully embraced each other.
But I still clung to life.
There was fear in my heart.

Then the light shone through.
It allowed me to see the seer.
Consciousness, matter, and energy
dissolved back into the creator.

It filled me with joy and humbleness
knowing I cannot be thrown back
into the cycle of birth and death.
The seer and the seen are one.

What is left
is the light of pure awareness.
To live in the world and yet
be free from it.

LIve Forever

Life cannot be lived looking backwards and it cannot be lived looking forwards.  It can only be lived now.

 

We are often trapped in the struggle to remain afloat in the turmoil of everyday living that we often forget we are here right now, not then and not when.

 

Thinking of the past and looking to the future doesn't allow any time for the present - the golden present that we are living this very moment.  Our busy lives often take us away from this precious time of living.

 

 To live in the moment is to live forever.  

 

A Cry for Help

 I teach yoga and meditation to combat veterans who have come home.  Many of them have PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), TBI (traumatic brain injury), and amputations.  The article below accurately describes the problem they are having.

                http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/veterans-suicide-rate-87077.html

We need more people willing to teach yoga and meditation to these brave warriors. They are falling between the cracks and there aren't enough trained yoga and meditation teachers willing to work with them for free. If you want to get certified please contact   www.connectedwarriors.org or www.warriorsatease.com. They are certifying agencies that are willing to help you help veterans.