Its true. Being on the metaphysical path and knowing a few things does help:
one is, that there is less dread and sympathy for the traumatic situations (mass deaths, rapes, plane crashes, etc.) that people might be going through since it was their own choice and also their probable soul lesson. Also, death is a choice of that soul to leave the physical plane - how and when to leave the physical realm is also pre-decided by them itself and is a part of their soul plan before birth. It is not forced by anybody on them. Its all discussed before birth or the plan could be altered with their own consent during their physical life. So it is important for us , who are left behind by the souls who have crossed over, to not only understand this but also RESPECT their choice. When i came to know that we need to respect the souls choice of leaving the physical realm at that time (even if I may feel otherwise or feel sad), the trauma of death has reduced to a wee-bit extent. Ofcourse it is not easy, in fact quite difficult to understand and accept this. But the question is, if some lesson is part of a soul's plan, are the healers all over the world assisting/helping or messing with people's karma? Healing methods of all types i.e. reiki, pranic, soul level and all the other ones, have cropped up. Are we helping other souls by reducing their pain by our healing or are we hampering their growth and their soul plan, Alan Mcelroy? This blog post is in reference to the newsletter article by Alan Mcelroy - http://maitreya.co/articles/are-you-really-helping/ On one hand we talk about self respect and then we go ahead and abuse our body (by eating unhealthy, no exercise, too much laptop/mobile/TV, etc. :)
I did feel the same way when I received my sketch from you Laurie.
I was taken aback as I was expecting a/my spirit guide or loved one to come through but when I saw the sketch of my own probable past life, I didn't know what to do with it. :) But with this newsletter post of yours now I know. Maybe I will explore further on what this sketch of mine is all about. It sounds interesting. And of course to understand the impact of past lives and to work on changing energy that would be amazing. If you wish to read Laurie Regan's article go here -- http://maitreya.co/articles/past-life-regressions/ Quite often Laurie has giveaways on her FB page if you wish to check it out. Creativity, I have suddenly realized, is so important.
I say suddenly because it has hit me out of the blue, in my life few days ago - that creativity is needed to enjoy life. Until now I took creativity for granted, I guess. But suddenly it has taken an important meaning. Here, by "creativity" I don't mean by "doing/learning arts of a specific kind". I mean just doing mundane things with more fervor, with an individuality that is only me. Creativity brings hope. Creativity generates enthusiasm, enthusiasm for life. It induces to do things without expectations, with no worries about the end result. It generates joy for no reason, a lightness in self and a hope for the future. Such a thought of happiness would eventually spiral into a chain of abundant thoughts - Good Sign ! :) As opposed to this, there is depression, despair and those set of chain reactions. Hence its good to remind oneself of living creatively and to create more hope drop by drop daily. Afterthoughts - But in being spiritual, hope probably doesn't mean too much ! There is something greater than hope and that is faith. Not blind faith but a KNOWING kind of faith. KNOWING which is higher than hope and faith, brings in a silent peace and satisfaction. It is a space of no-rush, non-anxiety, only silent anticipation. I don’t know where to start. I am confused.
Reading your article dear Dennis Dossett today has brought up a few questions in my mind. Sorry to say but some of these are technical questions. And by my asking these questions loud, you don’t need to feel obligated to answer them :) The confusion was caused due to certain statements - "God is the doer" and "What thoughts will you think through me today, Lord?". The question that arose in my mind was "Aren't thoughts auto-generated?" because I know that I am unable to control my thoughts least of all generate them. I was having the understanding that these thoughts are due to our past life karmas or mental/causal bodies that we have carried forward and only when we clear/clean the karmas and the mental & causal bodies will we be able to "have" (not generate) better thoughts. So in such a case, isn't it primarily "us" who are actually responsible for our created thoughts. I am confused by the statement - God the doer! Then there is further confusion by the answer - “Only what you allow me to.” What does that mean? How can God or someone else be responsible for our thoughts? Most importantly how to get answers to our pertinent questions? Does this all mean that by regularly studying spiritual science , by practicing living in the present moment , we can be in the higher-self more often or simply be discretional of which actions to take based on the myriad less productive thoughts and choose only the thoughts that are for our highest good?? By choosing the higher productive thoughts , this would eventually bring in the much needed peace of mind, enthusiasm/enjoyment, fulfillment and eventually allow us to live "creatively" like GOD - a creator, Creating ! Afterthoughts - I do still have a tiny question here - But why do we need to do all this? What is the purpose of all this "creating" business !? [These questions are in reference to the newsletter articles written by spiritual master Maitreya and his team. They freely share their experiences in the chance that those who choose to read these stories may be helped or touched in some way. http://us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=07f9ee495163946d492ff4ab5&id=08782bef14 ] If it’s the daily stuff, day in and day out – then its routine.
And if it’s crazy – then it’s busy and tiring. I am torn between the two. At such times several questions run in my head - Whats happening"? why me? When are things going to change? I have waited too long. I quit! Is this needed for my learning? Is it that, that inspite of the ordeals my higher self/soul wants me to find my strength, it wants me to find my inner balance?? And I have, to a certain extent. But at such times, I have had no choice but to go into my "reserve" space (so to speak) and find my balance. It does make me feel ok (I will not deny, that its not enough but maybe it’s a start). This has helped me tide over for the time being and "march forward" inspite of the all the things happening around me. And how did I get here, you ask? Meditation and Mindfulness ! Practicing meditation daily and awareness whenever I can rememeber. It is said that , and rightly so, in order to live a fulfilled life - we need to understand that there are 2 important sides or "wings" which brings us into a state of balance. With only 1 wing we will be "off balance" (imagine a bird with only one wing trying to soar - it’s a futile effort). Hence one of the most important things to find inner strength is to learn meditation and practice it. I know its not easy, and its boring and there are multiple more exciting things to do in a day than meditation - oh! I have been through those thoughts. But believe me when I say this that for most people initially it is so. And you would need support of friends/co-meditators for meditating together, hearing and reading about the amazing meditation experiences that people have had (I read so many and still do), all of this is motivating. I needed to do this for more than a year or two before I was able to meditate on my own without the support. And I made lot of friends who gave me tips which was fun too. I still remember having the full moon group meditation at a friends place, the teas shared together in the middle of the night because its not easy to sit for long hours, meeting and sharing experiences and spiritual knowledge. Breath meditation is so easy to practice without any rituals of sitting cross-legged and there is no need to wake up early to practice it - anywhere and anytime is what I like. The breath is not physical, it is subtle so it is easy to observe breath. This eventually helps in releasing repeated thoughts. The other "wing" needed to have is mindfulness. Awareness, alertness!. In a way awareness is also the by-product of meditating everyday. Which means that automatically at times during the waking hours, we feel, experience the present moment as is, or we would observe our running thoughts like a 3rd person etc. But at lot of times, it is necessary to practice it to ingrain the habit in us. Meditation technique can be practiced. But how to practice mindfulness? Well, an easy way to do this is - to spare 5-10 minutes during the day , maybe at your desk or if you are travelling/sitting - and just bring in awareness into your body. Part by part. Just feel each body part starting from the top of your head to down or starting from the toe to up. Next feel the air on the skin - cool or hot, hear the sounds around you and don't judge. Just hear them casually. I think this is a good start to bring in awareness to the body. The other practice and an important one is to spare 5-10 minutes at your desk and just observe the thoughts that come in your mind without judgement. Just let them come and go. Don’t act on them. Just let them flow. Don’t get carried away by them by reacting on them and mulling over them emotionally. Don’t attach any emotional drama to those thoughts. Over time we can realize the futility of thinking or rather overthinking. And ignore most thoughts, atleast that is the end point. But what is the use of all of this? Well for starters, due to meditation and awareness, you can become aware of your own un-necessary and useless repeated thinking patters. The other thing is you become aware of your own body - if any niggles or pains start, due to awkward postures, you can come to know sooner and due to this, a physical illness can be avoided. The other benefit is there will be no un-necessary drama of emotions due to un-necessary thoughts since 99% of our thoughts are useless and generated without any assistance from us. Hence the emotional drama (e.g. self pity, victim-why me-feeling, anger, frustration, jealousy etc.) in our life will reduce over time. Dont forget that when certain emotions well up we can observe them rising and come to understand the thought and emotion relationship and this can be nipped at the bud or we can do something about it. The other day me and a meditator friend practiced this over Skype and reiterated it to each other. We all need reminders everytime. I have been wanting to slow down lately but nothing in ‘this’ world supports slowing down. Except maybe the ‘Universe’ :)
The other day I went for a lunch party to a restaurant. This restaurant is known for its unlimited food (bite sized portions of food are served every now and then- Indian thali meal). Oh my god! The amount of bombarding of food! I hadn’t even finished my earlier portion when the server served in the next portion. They didn’t even let us eat or enjoy the meal or even talk. The servers just kept coming in and asking us for more food. I don’t want to complain but this is what happened –there was no real “enjoying the food”. Don’t get me wrong, even I have been guilty of watching TV or talking while eating instead of enjoying the meal in mindfulness and eventually rushing through the simple things of life. I’m in a dilemma! At workplace, its like I should have finished the work yesterday. There is no such thing as slowing down, just rush, rush, rush! But when the brief moment arrives, like this, when sitting in contemplation or when I am in meditation and there is that teeny weeny space created in the mind, some "emptiness" is generated (empty here is not a bad empty but in a good way), some useful thoughts come in automatically. There is rejuvenation of self. I feel revived, lot more energetic. The breathing becomes slower. And I wonder if I can sustain this for long, is it possible to survive in this fast paced materialistic world? Is there space for space?? What does a person do in such a situation? How can a person find the space? Well it’s difficult, I can tell you that. But a good start is I guess to practice mindfulness - to be present and aware of the current activity we are doing or we could go within ourselves and observe our own body -- this would slow down the mind and bring some space. Anyway I won’t talk much about mindfulness since there is lots out there on how to practice mindfulness. There is also the master teacher – Thich Nhat Hanh – guru of mindfulness. If you wish to know how to bring space and peace, practice meditation and mindfulness. So anyway, an iota of space observed during the rush hour madness of the day gives a feeling like no other. Leaves you with wanting more, greedy for more. Ok not greed. Because that again is against the idea of slowing down, reeks of grabbing. Supposedly, everything will come to you whenever you ‘need’ it and not ‘want’ it. And we need only our "needs" to be satisfied, really speaking and that is enough to make us happy and peaceful. But how does one go about one’s life with expanding that iota of feeling good when slowing down? How can we have more such moments? I mean let’s face it, there are the outputs (at job or otherwise) that should have been provided yesterday and actually we are infact late today. Do we just ignore the deadline or the people by being an ostrich and put our head in the sand? To hell with the job?! Run away? Quit?! Ok. So no "conversations" happened with God yet (Neale Donald Walsh style) and no questions got answered yet. Right now all I can think of is ‘take it slow’ and forget about others or maybe find another job. Sometimes I teach meditation to my friends and colleagues.
In that meditation class I would teach how to meditate and run a 30 minute meditation and then the remaining 30 mins I might explain about some concept - obviously these are universal concepts and not my own. It could be something I read or learnt from my own spiritual teachers, used and found them useful or sometimes they could be just some Universal concept I have read about. Following is a small topic I explained to a friend who doesn't know anything about spirituality... "Forget about the past which is gone, stop worrying about the future which is not in our hands. Only live moment to moment. Live fully in the present moment with awareness without being influenced by your past /future. Stop judging your thoughts- let them arise like waves and go, without taking action on each and every thought. Intrinsically, there is no such thing as right or wrong, Only less productive thoughts or actions from us. Once we understand this more than half of our miseries will vanish." Maybe in the future posts I will have more detail on mind and thoughts and law of attraction. Harry Potter is one of my favorite books.
I have felt connected to Harry as if he is me. The Occult has always attracted me since my childhood & continues to this day. The magic wand, the broom-rides. I have enjoyed reading comic books that had stories of witches and one of my enjoyable characters was "Sabrina-the teenage witch and her aunts Zelda and Hilda". So much so that some of us naughty kids had named one of our neighbor "Aunt Hilda" due to her tall, gaunt, poker-faced countenance :) But the reason why I like Harry is not just because of my love for occult/magic but his strengths and weaknesses and how he learns to call upon his inner strength during challenging times, his overall goodness, the help he receives from his friends, teachers due to his goodness and the way he learns to believe in himself slowly and steadily in all the 6 books...all of this makes me feel close to Harry, as if he is me. Forbidden to enter certain rooms, gardens, levels in his Hogwarts school but still fascinated by it and getting into those places inspite of his fears, that would be me. Scared upto my wits but still fascinated by the astral worlds/travels and wishing to meet spirit guides, past life regression, akashic records. The thrill of it is like taking a topsy-turvy roller-coaster ride inspite of the fears. And the school vacation is over!
Feel the dread in the pit of my stomach recalling that time as if I was a child back again reliving the school days. The rules of the school and the dreaded exams. How did I go through that?! I looked forward to finishing school and going to college and working, in those days, although now I know that growing up and working is no cakewalk. Getting up early in the morning dragging myself out of bed and brushing my teeth with the toothbrush kept ready with the toothpaste on (yeah, mum or dad kept it ready), the classwork and the homework. The homework books had to be carried to school to show the teacher if we had completed the home-work. But the day I forgot, I use to rush home during recess to get my book or else get ready to be smacked by teacher. Which I couldn't avoid once, sadly. But what did I enjoy most at school? Eating a delicious lunch during recess (mum packed it for me), sometimes enjoying the most tasty vada-paav (Indian burger) at the canteen (no, there weren't cafetarias then), the small tidbits bought at the local seller - salted bor (berries), spicy/salty guavas, going home after school unlike some girlfriends who stayed back longer. This style of mine of going home immediately after school continued through college. Saturdays which were half days, I loved it when mom or dad came to pick me up , which was usually a surprise for me. I still remember those days which evokes such happy memories for me. Going home with mom or dad meant buying chocolate or bubblegum on the way. So much fun! If it was a rainy day (and boy did it rain at times!) school left early and if dad came to pick me up from school, paddling through the knee-deep water use to be fun. I also remember dad covering my new textbooks and notebooks with brown covers, every year without fail. Such fond memories of that. Do dads still do that? Whenever I recall those happy instances, they make me feel so good. Good old days! Although they will not be back but the memories are there to be enjoyed & relived. |
AuthorThis is a blog about my thoughts, my journey in life, insights I have had, help that I have received spiritually or otherwise, pretty much anything... Archives
November 2021
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