Meditation Secrets Revealed

Once upon a time, in an island there lived six feelings and emotions: Happiness, Knowledge, Love, Sadness, Richness and Vanity. One day they discovered that the island began sinking! So all of them built boats and canoes and left, one by one. Except for Love. Love wanted to delay abandoning her beloved island as long as possible.

When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help.

Richness was passing by Love in a boat. Love asked, “Richness, can you take me with you?”

Richness answered, “Sorry, Love, I can’t. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat, so there is no place here for you. With both of us in here we will sink for sure.”

Love next asked Vanity who was also sailing by, but Vanity offered the same answer.

“I can’t help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat,” Vanity answered.

Sadness was close by, so Love asked, “Sadness, take me along with you.”

“Oh . . . Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!”, sadness said in a gloomy voice.

Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so preoccupied with her happiness that she did not even hear when Love called her.

Suddenly, there was a voice, “Come, Love, I will take you.”

It was an elder with a tattered head scarf. An overjoyed Love jumped into the boat. When they arrived at a dry land, the elder went her own way.

Love looked around and saw the Knowledge who was the first to have landed there a while ago.

“Who Helped me?” Love asked.

“It was Time,” Knowledge answered.

“Time? Why time?” Love was surprised.

“Because only Time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is.” The Knowledge smiled.

New research coming shows that even 8 weeks of meditation can create changes in brain chemistry and structure. Excerpt from Science Daily published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging

ScienceDaily (Jan. 21, 2011) — Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers report the results of their study, the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain’s grey matter. To read full article click here.

In darkness there is suffering and pain. Filled with low places where fear dwells and rears its head. This darkness is ignorance of the real.

In the light the good shines bright. Where goodwill towards ourselves and others prevails. It is the place where truth and joy dwell.

Thus, it is said that there are only four kinds of people in the world:

There are those that move from darkness towards darkness.

There are those that move from light towards darkness.

There are those that move from darkness towards light.

There are those that move from light towards light.

Which one are you becoming?

Which does the world need you to become?

Two Monks

Click to hear the a short story of two monks, and what they can teach us

about letting go of past burdens….

I began my journey in yoga over ten years ago and as I reflect back on the path that I have taken I can see that it is not one but many. Few people who become interested in yoga, or any other spiritual tradition follow one path strictly, the majority of people that I meet have dabbled in this and that and naturally have combined elements of multiple traditions to suite themselves. I too have dabbled in many traditions and there together these paint a picture. Imagine if you will a tree with a solid trunk and three large large branches. The branches constitute three distinct schools of thought in yoga that have evolved out of the Vedic literature and Samkhya philosophy of India. They are Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, and Raja Yoga.

My path has been to combine the three of these together into my daily life and by weaving them together with the goal of involution. It is the process of looking inward to find the understanding to internal problems and wisdom of the outside world. While it may seem counter intuitive to look inside for outside understanding let us consider the fact that the world does not exist without our minds to interpret what our senses are taking in. Therefore it is reasonable to presume that as we involve and develop our understanding of ourselves, the mind – the focus of our study changes and with it all reality. This is the simply yet powerful truth behind all spiritual practices – look within!

My practice is also founded on four guiding principals they are: simplicity, patience, love, and contentment. These four principals while difficulty to embody, form the core teachings of yoga philosophy and the three schools of thought outlined above.

Bhakti Yoga – the yoga of devotion and self surrender. This is said to be the simplest and easiest path because we are not asked to do anything but give up all control. All doer-ship is released until our life becomes the silent mantra to a higher power, “I am your tool, through me your work will be done”.

Karma Yoga – is the yoga of action, in this practice we practice non-attachment with every deed, word, and thought.

Raja Yoga – also called Ashtanga yoga is the synthesis of the above two and focuses on controlling the mind in order to bring it into stillness.

These three are designed for different people, different personalities. My journey has been to combine them together and practice continuous self-dissolve through giving up all of my actions to a higher power. When something happens, I practice non-attachment. After every action I say – “my work it is complete.” Whatever happens, however people react, their reactions will not have an effect on me. I am still, I am complete, and my actions are complete. The only way I am able to do this is because I have decided that in order to follow this path I must be 100 percent invested in whatever I do. I stay completely present and invested. Once my work is done, I step back from it and observe it as if it is whole and perfectly complete. Not mine anymore, I have given it up to the universes to do with as is needed. Finally, through the practice of Hatha yoga I practice cleansing the body and preparing to withdraw the senses. Following this, I observe the breath – the fundamental principal and living force within all of us. It is the main sources of prana that we take into the body and pranayama or breath control is practiced to take in more prana and direct it into the higher energy centers within the body. Meditation begins to unravel the mind, one moment at a time. Revealing the judgments, flaws, patterns, and streams of thought within. This is no simple task, by simply sitting back and observing the mind we are able to delve deep into the nature of the mind unlocking our true potential and spiritual beings.

Majestic. This is the only way to describe the feeling that one gets when in deep meditation. Time stops being perceived as a fluid stream of past present and future, rather it begins to slow down and break into sperate moments of now, not now. The river of streaming thoughts slows, halts, and begins to reflect the true nature of our being – full of stillness and completely whole in its infinite beauty. Like a dazzling diamond that has been taken for a series of scattered lights. Awareness, empty of mind it stands alone in this brilliant light. This awareness is pure consciousness revealed to stand apart from the mind, normally entangled within the realm of thinking. By halting the tumultuous wheel of thoughts we see through it and beyond it – into the depth and mystery that is unexplainable.