shirleytwofeathers
My silence, like an expanding sphere, spreads everywhere.
My silence spreads like a radio song, above, beneath, left and right, within and without.
My silence spreads like a wildfire of bliss; the dark thickets of sorrow and the tall oaks of pride are all burning up.
My silence, like the ether, passes through everything, carrying the songs of earth, atons, and stars into the halls of His infinite mansion.
~Paramahansa Yogananda
Stand with your feet apart and your arms raised even with your shoulders to form a star. With the left palm up and the right palm down, breathe in the grounding energy of the Earth and exhale any scattered energy through your mouth. Continue to breathe in this fashion until you’re totally relaxed.
Then call on the Sun, saying something like:
Father Sun, Who turns the night
Into the day with golden light
I give thanks for all You bring:
Warmth, strength, hope, and other things
Like laughter, joy, and true affection
And for holding me in Your protection
I thank You for my life this day
Please bless me with Your golden rays
And with Your wisdom, warm and bright
Please open me unto Your light
Into my body let it swell
Infusing each and every cell
To energize ’til the day is done
This I ask You, Father Sun
Repeat the invocation twice more, and stay in the position until you feel the energy begin to swirl through your body.
From: Everyday Sun Magic
The Gayatri Mantra is considered the most potent recitation for attracting spiritual and intellectual enlightenment. It calls for the celestials to shine their light of awakened consciousness on all of the physical and spiritual realms, as represented by our chakras.
The Mantra:
Om Bhu, Om Bhuvaha, Om Swaha
Om Maha, Om Janaha, Om Tapaha, Om Satyam
Om Tat Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
Dhiyo Yonaha Prachodayat
The Meaning:
“O self-effulgent Light that has given birth to the luminous planes of consciousness, who is worthy of worship and appears through the spiritual lens of the sun, illumine our intellect.”
Here’s a Video:
You might notice that the video version is slightly different than the one detailed above, which is from Healing Mantras by Thomas Ashley Farrand. I love how happy and musical the video version is.
At sunrise, sit facing the sun. Meditate on light, on the dawning of a new day. Ask yourself what it is you wish to bring into your life. Thank the sun for illuminating your path.
At sunset, watch the sun as it disappears over the horizon. Reflect on your day and the coming darkness.
- What shadow aspects of your being do you need to confront?
- What do you want to release, or complete in your life?
- What do you need to work on in your night dreams?
Give thanks and make an offering to Father Sun; receive his blessings and gifts.
From: Circle of Song
You may sometimes find yourself longing to sit and do nothing, yet when the opportunity presents itself, you may not know how to enjoy it.
That’s largely because our society is very goal-oriented. We tend to always be going in a certain direction and having a particular aim in mind. Buddhism, on the other hand, has a certain respect for enlightened “aimlessness.” That teaching says you don’t have to put something in front of you and run after it, because everything is already there inside you. The same is true with sitting.
Don’t sit in order to attain a goal. Each moment of sitting meditation brings you back to life. Whatever you are doing, whether it’s watering the garden, brushing your teeth, or doing the dishes, see if you can do it in a way that is “aimless.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
15 practical steps Thich Nhat Hanh says we can take to bring mindfulness to our work:
- 1. Start your day with 10 minutes of sitting in meditation.
- 2. Take the time to sit down and enjoy eating breakfast at home.
- 3. Remind yourself every day of your gratitude for being alive and having 24 brand-new hours to live.
- 4. Try not to divide your time into “my time” and “work.” All time can be your own time if you stay in the present moment and keep in touch with what’s happening in your body and mind. There’s no reason why your time at work should be any less pleasant than your time anywhere else.
- 5. Resist the urge to make calls on your cell phone while on your way to and from work, or on your way to appointments. Allow yourself this time to just be with yourself, with nature and with the world around you.
- 6. Arrange a breathing area at work where you can go to calm down, stop and have a rest. Take regular breathing breaks to come back to your body and to bring your thoughts back to the present.
- 7. At lunchtime, eat only your food and not your fears or worries. Don’t eat lunch at your desk. Change environments. Go for a walk.
- 8. Make a ritual out of drinking your tea. Stop work and look deeply into your tea to see everything that went into making it: the clouds and the rain, the tea plantations and the workers harvesting the tea.
- 9. Before going to a meeting, visualize someone very peaceful, mindful and skillful being with you. Take refuge in this person to help stay calm and peaceful.
- 10. If you feel anger or irritation, refrain from saying or doing anything straight away. Come back to your breathing and follow your in- and out-breath until you’ve calmed down.
- 11. Practice looking at your boss, your superiors, your colleagues or your subordinates as your allies and not as your enemies. Recognize that working collaboratively brings more satisfaction and joy than working alone. Know that the success and happiness of everyone is your own success.
- 12. Express your gratitude and appreciation to your colleagues regularly for their positive qualities. This will transform the whole work environment, making it much more harmonious and pleasant for everyone.
- 13. Try to relax and restore yourself before going home so you don’t bring accumulated negative energy or frustration home with you.
- 14. Take some time to relax and come back to yourself when you get home before starting on household chores. Recognize that multitasking means you’re never fully present for any one thing. Do one thing at a time and give it your full attention.
- 15. At the end of the day, keep a journal of all the good things that happened in your day. Water your seeds of joy and gratitude regularly so they can grow.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
Hugging meditation is something to practice with people you love and trust, particularly if you have been upset with each other. To begin, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and visualize yourself and your beloved three hundred years from now. Then, open your arms and hug your loved one.
If we can see the impermanent nature of our self and our loved one, we can realize how precious every moment is that we have together. We won’t want to waste our time together by being angry and hurting each other.
When you hug someone, first practice breathing in and breathing out to bring to life your insight of impermanence. “Breathing in, I know that life is precious in this moment. Breathing out, I cherish this moment of life.” You smile at the person in front of you, expressing your desire to hold him or her in your arms. This is a practice and a ritual.
When you bring your body and mind together to produce your total presence, full of life, it is a ritual. You hold the other person in your arms gently, and breathe in and out three times, cherishing the other person’s presence. Then you separate and smile to each other again – a smile of gratitude and love.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
If you empower your feet with the energy of mindfulness, your feet become the Buddha’s feet. You may have seen people who walk with the Buddha’s feet; you can tell just by watching them.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
‘Rest in natural great peace this exhausted mind,
Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thoughts
Like the relentless fury of the pounding waves
In the infinite ocean of samsara.
Rest in natural great peace.’
.
~Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche
“If you remain closed, you remain dead. It is as if when the whole sky was available, you were just looking from the keyhole. Of course you can see a little sky from the keyhole also, and sometimes a ray of sun passes by; sometimes you can see a flickering star. But this is unnecessarily hard and you remain poor unnecessarily.”
~Osho
Just try one small experiment….
- When: “Every night before you go to sleep.”
- Duration: 20 minutes
Step 1: Walled Off:
“Just stand in the middle of the room and look at the wall. Concentrate on the wall; not the door, the wall. Think of yourself as just a wall with no door in you; completely closed. Nobody can enter you and you cannot get out — imprisoned. Almost become a wall, psychologically. Let your whole energy become a wall, a china wall.
“For ten minutes become the wall and become tense, as tense as you can become. Drop all openings and become absolutely closed…what Leibnitz calls a monad, a windowless atom; completely closed within yourself. You will start perspiring, you will start trembling; anxiety will arise. You will feel as if you are dying, as if you are entering your grave. Don’t be worried — enter it. Bring it to a climax — this tension, this contraction, this shrinking.
Step 2: Become A-Door-able!
“Then turn, look at the door, keep the door open and become a door. Start feeling that you are becoming a door; you are not a wall. Anybody can come in you; there is no need even to knock. And you can go out; there is no barrier. Relax…relax the whole body and the whole feeling. Expand. Remain standing there but expand. Feel that you are filling the whole room. Feel that your energy is streaming out of the door into the garden. Just let the energy go out, and feel that the outer world is entering you.
“For ten minutes become a wall, and for twenty minutes become a door.
Step 3: Sleep “Then go to sleep.
“Continue this for at least three months. After the third week you will start feeling so open, but continue. I am giving you both so you can feel the contrast more easily.
In Summary
“Once you can understand your own energy — that it becomes a wall, it becomes a door — then you will become aware of a very beautiful dimension. Then you can feel others’ energies. You pass a man on the street; you can feel whether this man is a wall or a door. Now you have an inner understanding about it. Then if you want to relate with this man, don’t relate when you feel he is a wall, because then nothing will succeed. Only relate when you feel that he is a door.
“In the morning somebody may be a door; by the evening he may become a wall — because the whole day has been of struggle, fight, tension, anxiety, and one tends to close. So approach a person when he is a door, and the same person will be totally different.
“Approach your child when he is a door. Then he will listen, then he is ready to absorb what you say. Otherwise you go on shouting. He is deaf; he is a wall. Talk to your wife when she is a door. Make love to her when she is a door. When she is a wall, it is better not to disturb her. But once you know it as your inner feeling, then you can feel it everywhere.”
Found at Osho.com
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