Posts Tagged ‘meditation’

“There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 18th-century German Writer & Philosopher

Someone says “Meditation.”

Do you think “Om?”

No fault there, most of us think of sitting quietly in the sun next to a placid lake when we hear about meditation. This is normal considering the big bucks that go into the “Feel good and escape the rat race” industry nowadays.

They want you to believe that meditation requires a perfectly peaceful, luxury-filled lifestyle, a highly organized and beautiful environment. They are setting you up for failure.

But why would they do that you ask?

Because it is simple monetary psychology.

People are willing to pay for that which they believe they do not or cannot have. Why spend money to achieve a feeling or a reality that you believe you already have?

Make Yoga or Pilates or Meditation seem appealing to the masses and then convince those masses that they NEED certain THINGS in order to have that appealing reality in their lives…instant rags to riches story.

But what if the truth was that you can be active and be busy and get things done and still achieve the benefits of meditation?

That would make it so much more convenient wouldn’t it? If you needed only your mind and nothing else to meditate…I bet you would do it more often.

You would?

Well good! Because that is … Continue reading →

“We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.”
~ Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

Sadhana is a Sanskrit word that pertains to spiritual practice. It has been translated and used in many different ways but, in the modern Western usage, it has come to mean a dedicated spiritual practice, something done mindfully with the object of achieving a specific result. Most often this takes the form a 40-day practice involving certain mantras (words), mudras (hand gestures) and yoga poses.

At the beginning of August, I was inspired to join in a global sadhana being offered by Ramdesh Kaur at Spirit Voyage. The aim of this sadhana is Transforming Negativity Into Love, something we can all use, both personally and globally. I have never taken part in something like this before. Of course I have had personal spiritual pursuits that involved carrying out a certain meditation or dedication every day, but I’ve haven’t ever joined others in a sadhana of this type.

This 40-day sadhana consists of two different practices. The first is a series of four kundalini poses, each of which must be held for at least 1 minute. The second practice involves reciting an affirmation designed to bring about self love.

The affirmation, … Continue reading →

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.”
~Margaret J. Wheatley, Writer and Management Consultant

Meditation is a contemplative state which one enters in order to relax the waking consciousness. There are many reasons that people take up meditation and there are numerous benefits to incorporating a regular practice of meditation.

Meditation can be used to cultivate a deeper awareness of one’s relationships and surroundings. Calming the ego-consciousness (the judge) that lives within our waking mind and opening ourself up to receiving peace, allows us to recognize and, with diligence, to access a higher state of consciousness.

Why should you want to reach higher consciousness?

That is a very good question and yet, one that is very difficult to answer. You may want to reach higher consciousness for the changes that it makes in how you use your life. You may want to reach higher consciousness to develop new abilities. Or perhaps you would enjoy having a higher consciousness because of the differences your actions may make in the lives of others.

What can be said is that, through the regular practice of meditation, you will come to realizations, values and talents that you are very unlikely to arrive at without the aid of meditation. I say unlikely, I do not say never. Meditation is a tool, like a key to a door. It is not the key that makes the wondrous thing behind the door exist. That thing always existed, all that the key did was make it easier to reach.

The realization and changes that develop in you over time, while practicing meditation (things like, mindfulness, calm, spiritual oneness, empowerment) are subtle shifts in your level of awareness that will help you to, among other things:

-Form more healthy romantic relationships
-Fulfill your internal life purpose
-Expel toxins and illness from your body
-Speak and act with true integrity
-See the beauty in all things
-Cope better with change and challenges in life
-Build self-esteem
-Look and feel more youthful
-Gain spiritual awareness / inspiration from the divine
-Walk lighter on the Earth
-Appreciate the gifts that you have in your life
-Serve yourself and others with deep kindness
-Channel positive creativity through your unique self

So I suppose that the question is not why you should want to reach higher consciousness, but why you should not want to?

What does meditation mean exactly? I have heard so many different things about it.

Meditation means many different things to many different people. There are several approaches to meditation, several layers of … Continue reading →

“The greatest stories are those that resonate our beginnings and intuit our endings, our mysterious origins and our numinous destinies, and dissolve them both into one.”

~Ben Okri, Nigerian Poet and Novelist

I get so many requests to write more guided meditations like Reading the Trees. Sometimes the muse just will not descend. Of course, I write a lot of targeted meditations for my own spiritual path. But very few of them are appropriate for others. We are all on our own unique journey.

In response to the level of requests, as well as to a directive from the universe, I have decided to try my hand at visual meditation. Please go easy on me as its my first foray into such territory. Also, email and let me know if it works for you. If a lot of you like it, I will try to make it a regular feature here at Awaken to Light.

Of course, you can tell by watching this what my story for the meditation is. But I thought it might be fun if you make up your own story to the images. Include them in your comments. Or if you have a similar video of your own, feel free to … Continue reading →

The groves were God’s first temples.

~William Cullen Bryant, “A Forest Hymn”

A tree is an interesting entity in the realm of creation and in the realm of nature. It is a living being, an energy form that, more than any another, records within itself the knowledge and history of its surrounding environment.

A tree begins from seed, embodied within which is its own original energy. But then it amasses its self and its mature energy from the environment around it.

The trees are the books of time, just as their wood may provide fodder for the books of mankind, so, too, does the environment provide fodder for the books of the trees. The trees are like braille waiting to be read, like a musical recording waiting to be played.

… Continue reading →

“I am convinced that there are universal currents of Divine Thought vibrating the ether everywhere and that any who can feel these vibrations is inspired.”
~Richard Wagner, 19th-century German Composer

The divine self is your inner life force, your true motivation for living. The divine self is what powers you and makes you wonder. It is the soul light at your core that chose to be incarnate at this point in time.

The divine or higher self is that part of you that is ever-aware. The divine self has been aware and thinking since your birth in this lifetime and since your birth in every other lifetime. The body and the physical realm, in which we dwell, are but a vehicle for the higher self.

You are here because you have chosen to be here and because the energy force, that is life and awareness, has lessons to learn and exchanges to make that can only be accomplished by taking human or manifest form.

All that is, is light.

Though it may seem as if the physics of incarnation, of being born and of living in the busy, colorful, physical world of manifestation would cut us off from knowing the divine self at our core, it does not … Continue reading →