I worked on an article about the incredible personal growth experience I had at Vipassana, and was angling it to convince others to go also, because I wanted to share information about something that really opened things up for me.
This week, a friend who went had a very troublesome experience psychologically, and was sent home halfway through. I now believe it’s dangerous for some people.
I’m still going to write an essay about it, but it will end up quite different from the first draft.
Many physical diseases are caused by emotional stress. I know a lot of people (including myself) who have something that “flares up” when we react with stress. This is one of the reasons I seek to maintain equanimity more of the time.
Embrace and accept the illness and all the pain connected with it, as stressing about stress related illness creates more illness!
The Wounded Healer
http://www.tomkenyon.com/articles/woundedhealer.html
While most people are not particularly interested in biochemistry, and such things as the mechanisms behind disease, they are interested in staying healthy.
I called this article Emotional Cancer, because I believe that toxic emotions do, in fact, transform into disease. Now let me be clear here again—I do not believe that all disease is caused by negative un-owned emotion. Some of it is undoubtedly physically based. But some of it can be traced back to patterns of feeling, and this is no where more clear than with physical forms of cancer.
I’m learning that when we spend more focus on be-ing Love than seeking it, there becomes less of a need to need it. It’s a combination of the fact that when you feel you’re a whole person who doesn’t need to be “completed” you’re happier and that Love flows to us more readily when we’re genuinely confident and happy.
This passage from The Mayan Oracle describes it well:
As you become aware of the natural unity that exists within you, you will naturally attract other beings who have integrated and balanced their polarities. Or you will draw into your life opposites who can assist you in mirroring parts of yourself that are not yet fully balanced. As you unify your internal polarities, you will see profound results in your external world.
I have this recurring pattern where I write about concepts in earnest, feeling as if I really understand what I’m talking about. Then, soon after, the Universe teaches me the lesson in a more direct way and I realize I only had part of the picture understanding-wise, though conceptually what I said was still generally sound (in my view anyway.)
It’s weird, but it seems to be my process…
When life tests us
and we come out feeling weak
in my experience
dusting off the denial
taking on the pain of uprooting the past
and actually getting to work
(all with a smile)
are a better life strategy
than sitting around feeling sorry for yourself.
This video game uses gorgeous graphics and biofeedback sensors to teach peace and serenity.
Journey to Wild Divine
http://www.wilddivine.com
Wearing three finger sensors that track your body’s heart rate variability and skin conductance, you’ll learn to use the power of your thoughts, feelings, breath and awareness to:
* Increase relaxation
* Reduce stress and anxiety
* Restore balance and vitality
* Improve physical & mental wellbeing
I’ve been enjoying the emails I get from Christopher Westra since I ordered his I Create Reality e-book. While I wish he would emphasize the importance of being careful what we wish for more (& the ethics of it all) he has some compelling insights on how reality works. Here’s a sample from the latest email:
Essence vs Absence – ICR 57
What you focus on grows. This is a law of the universe. This is meant to teach us to use our focus (thought) wisely. I believe that we will have many learning experiences to come – we are just “cosmic infants” in the big picture.
One critical distinction we are meant to learn in this “reality” is between an essence (light, heat, good, abundance) and an absence (darkness, cold, bad, poverty).
Essences have a positive reality and a vibrational level. Absences don’t exist as “things”, they are only a lack of the essence.
If you focus on an essence, it will grow. If you focus on an absence (a lack of something), that lack or absence will also grow in your life.
Whatever happens
trust that it serves Divine will
and is thus perfect.
Here’s a fun website to browse around in: a reference guide to symbols! The classification system really resonates with my librarian side.
Symbol 26:6
http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/26/266.html
26:6 · When the longitudinal axis is diagonal the preceding entry sign’s structure is used to denote tones as the main note sign in the Western system of musical notation.
It is also used as a sign for galaxy in one US astronomical sign system, i.e. one of the largest entities of matter in the universe, a system consisting of billions of sun systems.
The E.T. 101 guidebook is designed to help guide humans to a place of higher consciousness. It’s an interesting twist on the concept of self-improvement.
Whether you can relate to extraterrestrials or not, it’s a cleverly crafted piece of wrting. I find it full of useful insights on navigating life on Earth.
E.T. 101: The Cosmic Instruction Manual for Planetary Evolution
http://fosieht.tripod.com/spirit/et_101_toc.html#top
The best cure for battle fatigue is not to battle. Although you may find it difficult not to inject a little sanity into the lemminglike rush toward death you see all around you, do not intercede. The old world is dying. It must and will come down. The best you can do is allow it to die as gracefully as possible. Whatever you put your attention on increases. For the sake of the ecosystem and the new emerging civilization, remove your attention from the death process and place it on the process of birth instead. Misplaced attention will just act to prolong the ending’s agony and delay your inevitable, exalted future.
Here’s a well-written article that mentions some of my favourite music coming out of beautiful British Columbia. Check out some of their work if you’re looking for something new and delicious to listen to!
Rhythms West
http://www.exclaim.ca/index.asp?layid=22&csid=779&csid1=4308
For artists west of the Rockies the music of the people has been and continues to be nourished by mother nature. Within the electronic realm, organic undercurrents infuse both creative energies and digital sensibilities. At work and at play in BC’s nature-endowed landscape, Pred sports days at the studio that include a walk in the woods, Bluetech takes a daily hike that leads him to five waterfalls, and Dhula enjoys a studio commute framed by the Cascadian mountain range. Streaming into the global music crosscurrents and its infinite distribution channels and audio banks, the West’s up and coming electronica producers offer a dose of both frontier spirit and creative pragmatism, blowing aside genre confines and fostering an ever-present eye and ear outside — not only on the local landscape but the global soundscape as well.
I’m back from my “retreat” (which was no vacation, but rather more like spiritual boot camp.)
The concepts that everything in our 3D reality is an illusion (and relatively unimportant compared to big picture reality) and that we’re really all one are not new ideas, but finding out that these things are true from an experiential level (rather than just through intellectual means) was rather profound.
I also found the root cause of an illness that I suffered from for three years and healing has begun.
My perspective has been shattered and rebuilt! There is truly nothing to worry about, even in the face of increasing “disasters” all over the World.
I will write an essay on this topic soon, but I must sit quiety with the experience for a bit longer first.
Vipassana is a great gift to humanity. Check it out, it’s free.
