Category Archives: Thoughts

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10 Must-Read Spiritual Books That Will Honor Your Soul

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HEY! You clicked this link because your interested in getting smarter, living better, being more knowledgeable or simply passing an afternoon without Facebook? Well how are you do expect to finish a book if you can’t even give an article a try?

This list is a compromise between a few people who are important to me and my own searches. We hope to give you a list that will be practical and accessible, but most of all entertaining. If you don’t see something that you feel NEEDS to be mentioned please post it so everyone can see!

Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism: Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Well known for his severely blunt attitude towards nonsense in every form, Rinpoche Trungpa writes in a similar but compassionate vein. This is a must read for EVERY modern spiritualist out there. When I read this my own perceptions were more finely tuned.

We can deceive ourselves into thinking we are developing spirituality when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity through spiritual techniques.” ~ Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Finding Freedom: Jarvis Jay Masters

Masters wrote this from death row, the entire time he claimed his innocence. A highly emotional read for anyone, I would recommend this for anyone incarcerated, whose been through the system, or facing irresponsible life elements. This debuts the side of Buddhism in action you’ve never thought of. Masters creates his mala from Tylenol and jean fabric.

The Spiritual Teachings of Ramana Maharshi: Ramana Maharshi

This book is the varied conversations between Ramana and international spiritual seekers. Ramana’s style of teaching is famously non denominational. He asks’ Who am I’ repetitiously to convey his message. This book can be shared between religious groups with reliable ease.

Be Here Now: Ram Dass

Is probably one of the most famous western author of mindfulness and meditation. Be Here Now is the most commonly read of his books, but in seriousness you could pick up anything he wrote and find it alarmingly profound. He is one of a handful of authors that literally makes me smile or laugh with the beauty of his revelations. Covering a wide set of practices and stories of travel, you are bound to learn or laugh.

A Gradual Awakening:  Stephen Levine

Levine offers very practical and accessible meditative practices in this book. Many people I know started with this book to build their initial practice. From the ground up it is an excellent guide for the development and stages of mindfulness. As a fun tid-bit, if this bloke’s name seems familiar it may be because his son is Noah Levine (Dharma Punks, Against the Stream very good traveler’s reads)!

A Brief History of Everything:  Ken Wilber

This entertaining foray into key individual’s place in history. The focus sways over a staggering number of topics, everything from multiculturalism, ecology, gender wars, environmental ethics to equality. Wilber does a great job finding hidden connections and keeping audiences amazed.

The Places That Scare You: Pema Chodron

A student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Chodron definitely has no tolerance for bull. With out fear she will help readers grip the inherent wisdom and strength we already have. She aptly points out patterns and fear that keep us ‘where we are’.

The Awakening of Intelligence: Jiddu Krishnamurti

Not the most famous of his works, this book is a wider venue of ideas. He touches on ideas and concept that apply to ANYONE living in the modern world. He is a teacher if Vendata, and presents things in a non dualistic manner. This is probably not a beginner’s book as the content is very heavy. While I am always happy to to help a person start their path, I feel I neglect those further along. This one is for you my friends.

The Heart Of The Buddha’s Teachings: Transforming Suffering Into Peace And Joy  Thich Nhat Hanh

I love this man and his teachings more than any others! My bias is due to he was the first one to explain mental concepts to me, helping me grasp the nature of the mania that was destroying my life. This book is the most basic and fundamental aspects and view points into Buddhism. This former advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King has a way of inspiring compassion in ways that made me giggle. I handed my copies of his books to many a prisoner, who normally wasn’t Buddhist. They all, with out fail came back with new insights and desires to love. This book is highly recommended to anyone trying to figure out how to meditate or curious what Buddhism truly is.

The Self-Aware Universe:  Amit Goswami.
The Disappearance of the Universe: Gary Renard

This book covers a lot of scientific ground. While slightly outdated, it makes for an accessible read for most. Mainly focused on the Vedic side of science, it helps people understand concepts behind the nature of the universe and time, with the help of well written alterations.

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8 Meditation Myths: The Facts & The Fiction

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Meditation is a practice of discipline to regain control of the mind and build formations that are productive to us and others. This may seem like a vague description but meditation it is a general concept. That generality has run away from practitioners around the world. These misconceptions are intended to be malevolent, but in a way they are. They confuse and detract resources from a system that works. There won’t be any mention of specialized meditation. We’ll stay with basic meditative precepts, such as breath counting and mantras. Below is a list of myths and the explanation right below them.

Meditation Is Relaxation

I’ve heard people say ‘think only positive thoughts’ or ‘let your mind go limp’. These statements come from the stress management seminars that may have twisted certain ideas to reach their goals. Stress reduction, momentary happiness and relaxation are not the be-all and end-all for meditation. Some of  these things will happen to you but the goals of meditation are  more far reaching. The beginning stages are about learning to let go and simply ‘be’. This is just the first steps though.

Meditation Is Just Self-Hypnosis

There are some overlapping themes in therapeutic hypnosis and meditation. Both practices start by inducing a state of relaxation then there is ‘inner’ work that must be done. Hypnosis and some forms of meditation  utilizes visualization techniques and/or the use of repetitious phrases to change internal formations. But many forms of meditation (Zen “just sitting” or Theravadin mindfulness meditation) make no use of such tools. The overlap between hypnosis and meditation is only partial.

There are Technological Shortcuts

In the urge to have instant gratification a terrible and clever market has jumped to the fore front of the Internet to ‘give you the ability to meditate like a Zen monk, with the click of a button,’ and other similar claims for speed and perfection. ‘All you need to do is pay, put you headphones in for one hour for the next week and you’ll feel better in no time!’ If you take an hour out of your day to relax of course you will have a better perspective at the end of the week. This isn’t real meditation. some musical gimmick can not hold a flame to the compassion and love gained from hours of dutifully watching your breath.

You Must Sit In Lotus Position

That you can meditate while doing anything, in any position, baffles most people. True there are perks to the seated, passive forms of meditation, there are also perks to active meditation styles. Mobility is an issue that every can relate to. If you enjoy seated meditation but the versions of lotus hurt your joints, you can sit on a chair, or even lying down. As long as the focus is on your breath, you are doing well.

While Meditating You Have To Say ‘Ohm’

‘Ohm’ is a single part of a mantra. Many kinds of meditation have repetitious speech to focus the mind and will. Just as many do not, it’s all preference.

Meditation A Religious Activity

Meditation has been used by numerous religious groups as far as we remember. This doesn’t mean it is a religious activity. It is simply a highly diverse way expanding your mind, heart, and perceptions. I also hear people say meditation is an eastern thing. While many religious and spiritual activities include meditation in the East, meditation is found around the world practiced on some level or another by every group on the planet.

Meditation Is Escapist

Meditation is considered to be a mental escapism by some. They say meditation is “running away from problems,” “navel gazing,” “lotus eating,” or “disregarding the world.” I don’t understand this. To me living your life with no rest, no strong inner thoughts and never taking the time to focus on an event or experience is escapism. In a meditative state, you are face to face with many unsavory aspects of yourself and the world like, anger, pain, selfishness, suffering, war, craving, desire and delusional thoughts. The idea is not to run from aspects of ourselves and others, it is to stay and heal.

Meditation Is About Letting Your Mind Go Blank

This is the trump card of meditation myths. A part of meditation is build the character and efficiency of our mental voice. How does one do that when you don’t allow your voice to speak up? What does happen is the nonstop mental babbling begins to slow down and we observe mindfulness. This mindfulness becomes the moment we are experiencing, and that is what we see, feel, hear: the entirety of the moment.

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Backed By Science: Your Intentions And Thoughts Create Your Physical World

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Dr. Masaru Emoto is internationally renowned researcher and alternative healer. His water molecule experiments were featured in the film What the Bleep Do We Know? His experiments have the consistent theme of demonstrating human thoughts and intentions can alter physical reality.

This rice experiment is simple and easy to recreate. It calls focus to the different effect of positive and negative thoughts.

brain_simulation

Dr. Emoto placed portions of cooked rice into clear containers. He then labeled one ‘you fool’ and the other ‘thank you’.

He placed the containers at the entrance to a school. The students were instructed to say the labels aloud to the jars everyday as they entered the school. The results were astounding.

After thirty days of daily communication, there was a notable change between the two. The jar labeled ‘you fool’ decomposed at an accelerated rate. The negative thoughts and intentions had a profound effect of making the rice breakdown faster.

Science-Meditation-Mind-Molecular-Zen-BrainThe jar labeled ‘thank you’, showed almost no decomposition. The positivity helped to maintain the structure and health of the rice.

This evidence of thoughts interacting with the physical plain has far reaching implications.

We have yet to begin to quantify the exact exchange that occurs from our thoughts, but the implications are there, waiting for someone to unlock it.

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8 Zen Stories That Will Entertain Your Mind And Grow Your Perspective

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Zen is the Japanese practice of meditation and mindfulness. Here are some great, handpicked stories to bring joy to your sense of enlightenment.

The Buddha

There once was two instructors of the Buddha’s teachings. One, Tanzan, was strict in his life style, never drinking intoxicants or eating after 11 o’clock in the morning. The other, Unsho, was loose in his discipline, eating whenever and drinking whatever he pleased.

“Hello, brother,” Tanzan greeted him. “Won’t you have a drink?”

“I never drink!” exclaimed Unsho solemnly.

“One who does not drink is not even human,” said Tanzan.

“Do you mean to call me inhuman just because I do not indulge in intoxicating liquids!” exclaimed Unsho angrily. “Then if I am not human, what am I?”

“A Buddha,” answered Tanzan.

A Mother’s Advice

There was a Shogun master that was also famous Sanskrit scholar known through the lands. He would often give lectures to students and travelers. One day his mother wrote to him and said,

“Son, I do not think you became a devotee of the Buddha because you desired to turn into a walking dictionary for others. There is no end to information and commentation, glory and honor. I wish you would stop this lecture business. Shut yourself up in a little temple in a remote part of the mountain. Devote your time to meditation and in this way attain true realization.”

How To Write A Chinese Poem

A famous Japanese poet was once asked how to compose a Chinese poem.

“The usual Chinese poem is four lines,” he explains. “The first line contains the initial phase; the second line, the continuation of that phase; the third line turns from this subject and begins a new one; and the fourth line brings the first three lines together. A popular Japanese song illustrates this:

Two daughters of a silk merchant live in Kyoto.
The elder is twenty, the younger, eighteen.
A soldier may kill with his sword.
But these girls slay men with their eyes.”

How The Trees And Grass Became Enlightened

One day a fifty year old student of the Tendai school came to the master Shinken. The master rarely received visitors and almost never answered their questions.

“I have studied the Tendai school of thought since I was a little boy, but one thing in it I cannot understand. Tendai claims that even the grass and trees will become enlightened. To me this seems very strange.”

“Of what use is it to discuss how grass and trees become enlightened?” asked Shinkan. “The question is how you yourself can become so. Did you ever consider that?”

“I never thought of it in that way,” marveled the old man.

“Then go home and think it over,” finished Shinkan.

Every Minute Zen

Zen students must learn under their masters for at least ten years before they may teach others. Tenno was recently made a master and visited his friend Nan-in, who was also a master. The day they greeted each other was rainy, and Tenno was wearing wooden clogs and had an umbrella. Later, while taking tea Nan-in asked, “I suppose you left your wooden clogs in the vestibule. I want to know if your umbrella is on the right or left side of the clogs.”

This confused Tenno and he had no immediate answer. He realized in that moment he had lost his Zen. He studied for sic more years to find and keep his Zen.

Fire-Poker Zen

An old master used to tell his students about an old woman that owned a teashop. He praised her deep understanding of Zen. He encouraged them to seek her out. When she saw the students coming, she could immediately tell if they had come for tea or not.

If they came for tea she would serve them delicious tea with grace. If they came for teachings she would take them around the back. There she would strike them with a red hot poker. Nine out of ten could not escape her beatings.

Flower Shower

Subhuti was a disciple of the Buddha. He comprehended emptiness, the view point that nothing exists except in its relationship of subjectivity and objectivity.

One day Subhuti, in a mood of sublime emptiness, was sitting under a tree. Flowers began to fall about him.

“We are praising you for your discourse on emptiness,” the gods whispered to him.

“But I have not spoken of emptiness,” said Subhuti.

“You have not spoken of emptiness, we have not heard emptiness,” responded the gods. “This is the true emptiness.” And blossoms showered upon Subhuti as rain.

Everything Is Best

When Banzan was walking through a market, he happened to hear a butcher talking with his customer.

“Give me the best piece of meat you have,” said the customer.

“Everything in my shop is the best,” replied the butcher. “You cannot find here any piece of meat that is not the best.”

At these words Banzan became enlightened.

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5 Signs Your Third Eye Is Opening And How To Help It Along

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The third eye is more than a metaphorical or alliterative phrase for intuition. It refers to the very real anja chakra. This particular energy center stems from your pineal gland. For a more in depth summary of the pineal gland and its effects read and watch my summary here. This organ is known as the psychic gland, and from its physical placement in the center of our gray matter, the anja chakra spirals out. This chakra is the center of our intuitions. This chakra is made more powerful through repetition.

This video goes over the common traits and changes of your third eye opening. There are more than just these aspects but these are not only the most common but the most readily noticed.

Heightened Senses

All of your senses will be given a noticeable boost. It will be like living in high definition. Not only will the physical input will be more detailed, but your ability to comprehend this upgraded information will be reformed as well.

Clairvoyance

You will start to hear sounds and tasting sounds. No you are tripping, but you are now able to experience a sense and feel the other attributes tied to that particular sensation. You will see the kitchen has been cleaned and will be able to ‘hear’ your roommate’s comments on the task.

Dietary Changes Are Desired

As you can taste intention and have a heightened sense of taste and smell, the quality of you desired foods will be bettered. When I eat a burger from a fast food chain, I can ‘taste’ the impartial and loveless environment the burger was made in. I can ‘smell’ all of the corners that were cut to provide me an unnecessarily convenient and fast meal. You will be able to feel the ‘negativity’ in certain foods poorly fuel your body and weaken your spirit.

You Notice The Connections Between Life

All of these newly recognized aspects of life will fuel your raised intuition into making new connections you’ve never before realized. This high level of understanding, in both a mental and spiritual capacity, will lead to higher levels of empathy, respect and compassion.