.
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know
Be still
Be
.
Monday, 18 July 2011
Letting Go
Letting Go
.
let it go - the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise - let it go it
was sworn to
go
.
let them go - the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers - you must let them go they
were born
to go
.
let all go - the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things - let all go
dear
.
so comes love
~ e. e. cummings ~
(Complete Poems 1904-1962)
Prize-winning animation of Plato's cave
An excerpt from Plato's Republic, the 'Allegory of the Cave' is a classic commentary on the human condition. It is a story of open-mindedness and the power of possibility. We have adapted and brought it to life by shooting thousands of high-resolution photographs of John Grigsby's wonderful clay animation. To learn more, visit http://platosallegory.com
Sunday, 17 July 2011
GUIDED MEDITATION: I Am Chi Flow and Heart Center Meditation - Gorakh Hayashi
I Am Chi Flow and Heart Center Meditation
by Gorakh Hayashi Guided Meditation
Saturday, 16 July 2011
The mantra and how to meditate - a Christian perspective
Anyone who has ever sat down to be still immediately engages the first level of consciousness a little below the immediate surface of the mind’s daily functioning awareness. It is a rude awakening to the degree of indiscipline and restlessness in our monkey minds. St Teresa compared it to a ship whose crew has mutinied, tied up the captain and is chaotically taking turns to steer the ship. Some days may be better than others in terms of distractedness but even that only proves how wayward our surface mind is, how dependent on external conditions, how uncentered we are. . . ..
“Therefore I bid you put away anxious thoughts about food and drink to keep you alive, and clothes to cover your body. Surely life is more than food, the body more than clothes” (Matthew 6:26). We aim to be in the present moment, which is the only moment of reality, of encounter with the God who is “I Am.” Yet within seconds we are thinking thoughts of yesterday, making plans for tomorrow or weaving daydreams and wish-fulfillment in the realm of fantasy. “Set your mind on God’s kingdom and his justice before everything else, and all the rest will come to you as well. So do not be anxious about tomorrow, tomorrow will look after itself” (Matthew 6:33). [. . . .]
The discovery of our surface distractions is humbling. So it helps to remember that it is a universal discovery--why else did John Cassian recommend the mantra (he called it a “formula”) sixteen hundred years ago? . . . . At this discovery it is easy to be discouraged and to turn away from meditation. “It is not my kind of spirituality. I am not the discipline kind of person. Why should my prayer time be another time for work?”
What we need above all at this . . .stage is an insight into the meaning of meditation and the thirst arising from a deeper level of consciousness from the one we seem stuck at. It is here right at the outset, therefore, that we encounter, although we may not yet recognize it as such, the prompting of grace. It comes from outside us in the form of teaching, tradition, spiritual friendship and inspiration. From within, it comes as the intuitive thirst for deeper experience. Christ, who as Spirit is no more within us that outside us, seems to push from outside and pull from within.
It helps to understand clearly from the beginning what is the meaning and purpose of the mantra. It is not a magic wand that blanks the mind or a switch that turns on God, but a discipline, “beginning in faith and ending in love,” which brings us into poverty of spirit. We do not say the mantra to fight off the distractions but to help us remove our attention from them. Simply discovering that we are, however poorly, free to place our attention elsewhere is the first great awakening. It is the beginning of the deepening of consciousness, which allows to leave the distractions on the surface, like waves on the surface of the ocean.
Meditate for Thirty Minutes. Remember: Sit down. Sit still and upright. Close your eyes lightly. Sit relaxed but alert. Silently, interiorly, begin to say a single word. We recommend the prayer phrase "Maranatha." Recite it as four syllables of equal length. Listen to it as you say it, gently, but continuously. Do not think or imagine anything spiritual or otherwise. Thoughts and images will likely come, but let them pass. Just keep returning your attention – with humility and simplicity to saying your word in faith, from the beginning to the end of your meditation.
After Meditation, from Ken Wilber, “The Self in Transcendence,” NO BOUNDARY (Boston: Shambhala, 1985), p. 129.
If you persist at such an exercise, the understanding contained in it will quicken and you might begin to notice fundamental changes in your sense of “self.” . . .This . . .“center of the cyclone,” will retain its lucid stillness even amid the raging winds of anxiety and suffering that might swirl around its center. The discovery of this witnessing center is very much like diving from the calamitous waves on the surface of a stormy ocean to the quiet and secure depths of the bottom. At first you might not get more than a few feet beneath the agitated waves of emotion, but with persistence you may gain the ability to dive fathoms into the quiet depths of your soul, and lying out-stretched at the bottom, gaze in alert but detached fashion at the turmoil that once held you transfixed.
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We are all energy - and star-stuff made conscious!
In this video there is a fine statement about the whole universe being just interlocking energy systems.
.
As someone else said we also are 'star-stuff made conscious' - I always liked that - X billion years of development in 3 words!
.
I wonder what the great wisdom traditions say about us, and the world as a whole - as energy systems?
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Interfaith as Spiritual Federalism - a course on a page
Interfaith as Spiritual Federalism
gateways and teachers to feeling at one with the great wisdom traditions - an interfaith ‘course on a page’!
I came a long time ago to the understanding that there re many paths but one summit. I wanted a deeper sense of connection with other wisdom traditions. I wanted to feel the kind of nourishment that believers in those wisdom traditions feel. I wanted a gateway and a teacher that would give the connection I desired.
One key idea to come out of this is Spiritual Federalism - is the next goal for interfaith work? It’s an alternative to conversion mania. The world may have ended by the time the Christians have converted the Jews or Muslims the Christians or the Baha’is everyone else. Indeed conversion mania may bring the world to its end! Spiritual Federalism is simply the idea that if you are comfortable in your current wisdom tradition so be it. But if you have a universal heart and wish to reach out to find the oneness behind the various traditions you are like an American citizen - you belong to your State but you are also, via federalism, and American
These are the Paths, the Teachers, the Teachings and a video introduction for what I have to date;
Interspirituality, Perennial Wisdom, Universalism and Integral Studies - great teachers who show the oneness beyond the diversity (some of thse teachers apply to more than one category!)
THE PATH - Inter-religious/mystic
THE TEACHER - Bro Wayne Teasdale
THE TEACHING - Book
VIDEO Intros. - VIDEO
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THE PATH - Perennial Wisdom
THE TEACHER - Eckhart Tolle
THE TEACHING - Books
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THE PATH - Universalism
THE TEACHER - Karen Armstrong
THE TEACHING - Books
VIDEO Intros. - VIDEO
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THE PATH - Integral Studies
THE TEACHER - Ken Wilber
THE TEACHING - Books
VIDEO Intros. - VIDEO
..............................................................................................................................................................................................
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8 Major wisdom traditions
1 THE PATH - Sufism
THE TEACHER - Shaikh Kabir Helminski
THE TEACHING - Books
VIDEO Intros. - VIDEO
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2 THE PATH - Baha’i Faith
THE TEACHER - Abdu’l-Baha
THE TEACHING - Books
VIDEO Intros. - VIDEO
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3 THE PATH - Christianity
THE TEACHER - Brother David Stendahl-Rast
THE TEACHING - Books
VIDEO Intros. - VIDEO
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4 THE PATH - Buddhism
THE TEACHER - Thich Nhat Hanh
THE TEACHING - Books
VIDEO Intros. - VIDEO
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5 THE PATH - Hinduism
THE TEACHER - Eknath Easwaran
THE TEACHING - Books
VIDEO Intros. - VIDEO
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6 THE PATH - Judaism
THE TEACHER - Abraham Joshua Heschel
THE TEACHING - Books
VIDEO Intros. - VIDEO
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7 THE PATH - Quaker Universalism
THE TEACHER - QUG
THE TEACHING - US articles
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