A Sacred Key: A clearer understanding of vibration

 I realized this weekend (@ Luminous Soul Intensive with Manorama) how mantra is the key, the entire universe is vibration, creation was spoken in to existence... OM is the primordial sound from which everything was set into motion (again vibration!)  and the chanting of sanskrit aligns us with that primordial creative force…our bodies are thought constructs of the mind. Seeing is the mind making sense of the surrounding energetic environment in which we find ourselves, nothing is actually here (in an absolute sense), we aren’t actually here.  We are elsewhere. Our highest self reamains immersed in the blue sky of eternal bliss floating on a giant lotus blossom sitting and dreaming of being where we think (in the mind) we are, and are not. 

Just a dream. Nothing to attain. Nothing to gain. Nothing to understand or explain.  

Feeling the vibration opens the possibility of waking up. Like hearing the alarm clock. The mantra is that, it’s the alarm clock ringing, saying “Time to Wake Up!”. 

Meditation, Breath, Diet and Stress: Healing Your mind while bringing your life into balance Part I

We all deal with stress. Some stress can be good for us, pushing us to set and achieve goals.  But largely stress makes us tense, fearful and jumbled. Working harder and faster at jobs we often don’t like to do the whole time pushing our minds to concentrate when we’d much rather be picking flowers or taking long walks in the countryside. Stress is part of our modern life. The australian aborigines, it is said, have no word for stress in their language! But, not so for us ‘modern’ types. While I’ve given no serious consideration to making a sudden life change and running off to live in the wild there are lessons that can be learned from ancient cultures on how to handle the pressures of life with more grace and calm. 

The ancient teachings of yoga and ayurvedic medicine give us a holistic approach to handling stress. How we breath, eat and think may all contribute to either high or lower stress levels. Learning how to perform these common, everyday activities in the correct way can provide long term relief from stress, and give us some conscious control over how we are feeling. When we learn how to eat, think and breathe (yes, breathe!) in ways that nourish and support the natural functioning of the body, stress relief comes as a side effect of upgrading our habits.   

First, we must learn to breath correctly. Breathing is something we do everyday, every second actually. We can’t get along without it, yet no one knows how to breath correctly without first getting some coaching to better understand the mechanics of how we breath and how our breath affects our moods, emotions and our ability to focus the mind. The lungs are two sacks that inflate with the contraction of the diaphragm. The diaphragm, which is shaped like an umbrella, pulls downwards on the lungs, elongating them, which reduces the air pressure inside the space (by increasing volume) and air from the outside rushes in (by diffusion) to fill the semi-vacuum created by the expansion. Next, the diaphragm relaxes (and returns upwards) which compresses the lungs and pushes the air out. While this activity is going on in the lungs, the heart will typically have beat 6 times. The average ratio between breath and heart rates is 1 to 6, that is, one breath for each six heart beats.  

Armed with a basic knowledge of how we breath we can learn how to breath correctly. That is, calmly and deeply. You might want to first lay down on the floor, or other firm surface. Place your hands on your stomach and breath in. Did your stomach rise or fall? If it rose you are breathing correctly, if it fell, that is, contracted down towards the floor, then your breathing is reversed. This is very common, we are taught as children to stick our chests out when we breath. But we should be allowing the abdomen to expand, the larger part of the lungs is located in the bottom of the lung, which expands into the abdomen when the diaphragm descends. 

A way to correct your breathing, if you are expanding on the exhale is to lie on your stomach in the yoga posture called: makarasana or crocodile pose. Begin by lying on your stomach, fold your arms underneath you to support your forehead. In this position focus your attention on expanding the abdomen as you slowly and steadily inhale. Really feel your stomach as it presses against the floor and then, as the diaphragm relaxes and you exhale, the weight of the body will cause the abdomen to contract. This is a good way to begin practice of diaphragmatic breathing and will train the breath to move smoothly in and out as the abdomen expands and contracts. 

In the next article we’ll talk about diet, begin our discussion of meditation and see how controlling stress using diet and the mind can help you handle the day to day pressures of life. 

Till then stay calm, breath deeply and remember: Steady practice brings reliable results. 

A Zen koan:

Vimalakirti asked Manjusri, "What does it mean that the Bodhisattva enters the Dharma-gate of Not-Two?"

Manjusri said, "I see it like this: in all phenomena, there are neither words nor explanations, neither presentations nor knowledge;it is beyond all questions and answers. That is what I understand with 'to enter the Dharma-gate of Not-Two'."

Being and the words explaining being ....are not the same thing.

How you see yourself is how you see everything.

If your awareness shows you only the negativity within yourself, you will see only negativity in everything around you. If your awareness is positive you will see the  positive around you. Like sees like.

We have a natural affinity for seeing ourselves in others. A natural affinity towards compassion. When our perception is clouded. If we see only the dark within ourselves,  we then see only the the dark everywhere, in everyone and everything. We become blind to all else. Until we break free of our own limitation, we are caught inside a circle of darkness. We can not see outside the circle. What we see is what we reflect and what we reflect out reflects back to us, this is a cosmic law in action. If we are surrounded by our own dark self there is no mirror to reflect the light.

 We are limited (as part of our agreement to embody our-Self)  to seeing the world only through our own eyes.

How you see yourself is how you see everything.

Yoga means union, union of the individual with the Supreme. Yoga brings together the light and the dark. The sun and moon, left and right, yin and yang, internal and external. Makes all one. Joins together. Being, non-being, form and formless.

How you see yourself is how you see everything.

How can we see the world (and ourselves) through different eyes? There are only two ways, both arise from love.

Love of the inner teacher and the scriptures can show us the inner light, or devotion to an external teacher (guru: sk. def. One who leads from dark to light) and the scriptures open our eyes just wide enough to see the shining light within.

When we see the world as it is, in this moment, both the light and the dark, we are free. Light and Dark. It is us and not us. It is others and us as well. This encompasses everything.

How you see yourself is how you see everything.

(Sources: the Bhagavad Gita, Tao Te Ching, Tamil-Cube Sanskrit Dictionary)

A Short Essay on Contentment

The highest good is like water.

Water gives life to the ten thousand things 

and does not strive.

It flows in places men reject 

and so is like the Tao.

In dwelling, be close to the land.

In meditation, go deep in the heart.

In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.

In speech, be true.

In ruling, be just.

      In business, be competent.

In action, watch the timing.

No fight: No blame.

-Lao Tzu: The Tao Te Ching -CH 8

In his master treatise “Autobiography of a Yogi” Yogananda tells the story of Mahaguru Babaji appearing to him and  revealing  how householders can be yogis just as well as hermits in the forest. This is a change in a long tradition in the east where men (mostly) would go into the forest to meditate and attain enlightenment.  

Recently I attended a yoga masterclass with Sri Dharmamittra. Among the many things I learned that day,  he gave us a gem of wisdom,  “A person who is not content will not be able to meditate.” 

We may know that contentment (santosha) is one of the Niyamas , observances that serve as the ethical pillars of yogic practice.  Dharmamitra's comment started me thinking about just what is contentment and how is it obtained. He explained this by saying that we will find meditation difficult if we are worried about paying a bill, or our health, or some other temporal state of affairs. This way of thinking brought me back to the above quote from Lao Tzu. Contentment can only be reached when we are competent in our business, true in our speech, deep in our meditation etc…Being “like water”. Flowing with life instead of against it. 

Contentment destroys ego-

                   Swami Muktananda

How is it that different scriptures and writings, both ancient and modern teachers,  are all in agreement that contentment is a cornerstone in the foundation of a spiritual life? The primary sources of both revealed (those scriptures obtained thru divine revelation)  and reflective wisdom (scriptures obtained thru the internal self-reflection of great seers) confirm this. 

Armed with this knowledge we come back to the question: How do we go about obtaining contentment? Is there a single set of guidelines we can follow to obtain it?

I think there are, but the specific requirements may vary for each aspirant on the spiritual path.What allows me to be content with my life is not the same as what satisfies you. The seed of contentment is satisfaction. While so many say they: “can’t get no, satisfaction”, to quote Mick Jagger, we can begin by deeply examining of our relationship with popular culture to find the roadblocks to our satisfaction. Without feeling satisfaction we can not feel content. But it can be difficult to feel content with what we have while we are being assailed by the steady drip-drip-drip of advertising telling us that we just need THAT ONE MORE THING to make us feel whole. 

Maybe it would be easier to go off into the woods and meditate to obtain enlightenment! Or, can we find a way to meditate in a productive way that will give us entry to more profound states of being? 

Living in the world of mortgages and car payments and five dollar lattes, (not to mention the source of all discontent, advertising!) creates an environment where just being satisfied  with what you have is a spiritual attainment! While contemplating the existential subtleties of satisfaction and how to achieve it we quickly lose sight of the goal, enlightenment…Or do we? 

Cultivating a clearer philosophical understanding of contentment, and what that would look like for each of us, we can move closer to a better understanding of our ego and how (perhaps) we may be misled chasing after shiny objects. Releasing our endless, aimless, ambition to obtain, is a powerful step towards releasing our ego attachment and turning inward. Analysis of the Ego and how it is tamed is required before we can reach contentment.

Which gets us back to the question: how do we become content? The answer to such a complex question seems incredibly simple....by letting go. By letting go of the manufactured need to have more than we already have; letting go of the manufactured need to be more than we already are; letting go of  manufactured cravings that we realize (as we become more self-aware) are no more than the cravings of the ego. 

We need to release ego and direct attention to the inward journey. My own experience has shown me that when we are grateful for what we have, and what we are, the siren song of acquiring more possessions will, as if by magic, lose its magnetic draw. Being mindful of the messages we allow into our consciousness and the (resultant) stories we tell ourselves become the missing keys to the castle. When we are attentive to Being, and direct less energy to having, then contentment will naturally appear. 

Yes, it seems almost too simple! The nature of the ego (at least my own) is to make things overly complicated to prevent us from walking the path. Once we get the understanding then we have to walk in it! Keeping answers simple allows us to honestly gauge our progress...something which only we are in a position to accurately measure (with the exception of having regular contact with an enlightened master). If the ego can trick us into believing the answers to our spiritual questions are too complicated we may loose heart for the path and remain tied to the ego...which serves the ego quite nicely, but not our higher Self.