Sunday, January 13, 2008
Reach Your Life Goals for Happiness
Self hypnosis is a great way to reach your goals in life. It is grasping for that inner power to achieve your objectives. Numerous people have successfully used self hypnosis to quit smoking, to lose weight, to fight shyness, to make better choices of partners, to sleep better, to release creativity or even to keep your every day mood balanced. Let's first clear the misconceptions on hypnosis. Hypnosis is a deep state of relaxation. You are aware of your environment. You can hear everything. It is the best way to gain control of your brain. Now you have real power to change or re-program some harmful emotional patterns in your mind. Hypnosis is a new branch in psychology. The patterns are located at the subconscious level of your brain. Hypnosis enables to reach that place and give a direct cure to the problem. When you are in a deep state of mind it is easier to fix the problem right away because you are in the emotion that leads you to the compulsive behaviors. Sometimes we just need that extra internal push to have the guts or the energy or the motor to jump at doing what we know we need to do. Self hypnosis is a possible answer. I have used self hypnosis to change my eating habits. It worked, and it is still working. I got rid of my constant craving for chocolate. It was a difficult battle without it. I have a friend who has been on medication for his panic attacks. He used hypnosis as a complementary treatment. His medication dose has been reduced at the time this article is published. There are even cases where women even gave natural birth with the power of self hypnosis. It is exciting to see the different applications of hypnosis to enhance your life. However, self hypnosis alone cannot solve all. You need to have a minimum of focus and determination to do the mental exercises that leads you to change your everyday choices. As you do them, it is getting easier and easier to reach your goal. You can use the help of a professional, who has a long experience career. They will charge you an hourly fee between 50$-100$. The sessions last for about an hour each. You have a number of sessions for the treatment that can range from eight to twelve sessions per problem to solve. It can be more or less. You also can download and unlimited number of mp3 hypnosis from hypnosisdownloads.com. You can put them on a CD later and listen to them on your computer at work or in your peaceful living area corner in your house. The membership fee is far more affordable then going to see a professional. You have the privilege of receiving two daily inspirational quotes that will help you keep your hard earned peace of mind. You'll also have access every two weeks to the 2 newest hypnosis mp3 downloads. With self hypnosis, you have help to reach all your goals and lead and happier life. You get all what life can offer because of the power of your healthy mind
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Numerology
This is arrived by adding the birth number and all the digits which comprise the current year.See how it is calculated. Suppose a man's birthdate is 23. His birth number is 2+3 = 5. Now 5 is added to the current year5 + 2+0+0+7 - 14 + 1+4 = 5In other words 5 is his Annual Number and predictions are given based on the Annual Number 5Effects of Annual Number 1 This year will be mixed for you. You will havetransfer of job and residence. Be ready for such an eventuality.There will be changes in your domestic environment & in your phys-ical state of health. This year in other words will be full ofchanges which affect your life.If the job which you are doing does not fetch enou-gh returns stop it for ever. You will be able to start a job whichis highly lucrative. You will get the goodwill and help of yourfriends and relatives. You need not think about it nor worry aboutit.Just find out a day when you can start the new venture.Remembernothing ventured nothing gained.If you are an employee you will have changes instatus viz you will get promotion. There is also a possibility oftransfer along with promotion.Even though you are happy about profession therewill be discontent at home. There may be partition at home. Thereis a possibility that you may stay alone for weeks.One of your close relatives will be hospitalised.There is such a chance.You will be beset by many an adversity. But ult-imately you will get the helping hand you deserve. So be courage-ous.Whatever you touch will be accomplished in time.Fortune will grace you eventually. You will live in a new house.Health will improve considerably. You will be unified with thosewho moved away from you. At the end of the year auspicious eventswill come after you. All is well that ends well. So be contented.Effects of Annual Number 2 This year will be very fortunate for you.You will lose some wealth which is most dear to you. But then you need notworry. You will gain in other ways what you have lost. Why worrythen?Your superiors will get angry with you. They will try to harass you. What can be done? One of your relatives will be sick. But then there is no scope for worry. He will get relief.The superior who behaved badly will reconcile with you.You will gettheir love & regards. You will sell cycle and buy a scooter.The members in your family will increase.There willbe the birth of a new born. You will distribute sweets. There will be events which make you alert. Dont jump into anything and do asper the situation.If you are a trader this year will not be lucrative for you. You will be taxed by the government.Otherwise your productswill be damaged.Will all these not affect your business? Why dont you team up with somebody who is trustworthy? Partnership will do good to you. So think about it deeply. You will be tormented by women.Take it as trivial. The problem will be solved automatically.This year will normally be good for you generally.So be cheerful.Do not be overwhelmed by problems.Problems are thereto be solved. Only the manly can face problems and solve them. With Grace Divine any problem can be solved.If you are not worshipping God start doing it now.Immense mental peace can be attained by doing so. Your income will increase.You need that also.You will be above want. Only good willcome. Effects of Annual Number 3 for one year You will get relief from many a suffering. Thisyear will give you both immense benefits.If you have been unmarried so far this year willsee the wedding bells ring out. Auspicious events in thefamily. You will be victorious in each & every affair. Youwill get hedonistic pleasure and all sorts of commforts.You will buy land and build a house.Your friendswill move away from you and scatter to all lands. This will dogood to you. There will be professional enhancement. If you goabroad seeking other jobs you will be back victorious. What elsedo you want?Fate may intervene with her torments at the endof the year having though that you have enjoyed enough. Fate willteach you a lesson. Be careful.Fate may involve you in a case & take you to courtAll this is due to property. Expenses spiral. You will find itdifficult to get mental peace. Unnecessary expenditures willtorment you.So be careful.Then loss of wealth & loss of reputationcan be avoided. If alert any difficultycan be solved.You have to propitiate the tutelary Diety.You havenot done it so far. So please do it immediately.Effects of Annual Number 4 This year will be very good for you.At home mentalpeace & contentment will prevail. But at times you may facefinancial adversity. There may be many sorrowful events. You haveto incorporate courage and not lose presence of mind. Do not forgetyour duties and responsibilites. If you strive for success you willdefinitely win.This year will be a turning point in your life.Strive for success & work hard for that.That is the reason for thiswarning. Prosperity who comes you should not be driven out. In yourlife both domestic & professional many hindrances and obstacles canarise. So be careful. There may be circumstances which facilitateloss of control of mind. You need not go to court for that. Soplease do not jump.Do not indulge in speculation.Victory is difficultin these ventures. The money which you spend for that should begiven as charity.If you want to go away from your land of domicileyou have to be very careful. Try to avoid journeys. Many crisescan happen to you if go. Your life itself may be in danger. Thatis why we say that you should be extra careful.Do not forget the Lord God.Effects of Annual Number 5 This year is not so good for you. You may receivean urgent telegram. If you open it it will be a dolorific affairfor you. It will be the death of a close relative. Anyway you may wail that the year has begun like this.But the successive days maybe far more happy.Are you involved in litigation? If so you will geta favourable decision. Victory is on your side. This year there isa chance that you may be successful in lottery & betting. With courage you can take chances in such gambling ventures. You will triumph.This year as the goddess of fortune graces you con-tinously what demerit have you got? Whatever you touch will turn to gold.If you are a trader all that you have to think is that why you dont have enough stock. You will be a marketing success.You will get relief from bodily ailments. Yourhealth will improve considerably.If you want to go abroad you will be able to.Does everybody get the chance to go overseas? This yearyou will. Utilise it properly.You won't have much financial problems. If you areworking under somebody you will have promotion. You may get atransfer to a distant place. Be happy with your family.There will be peace in the family. There will be more love in the couple. There will be relief from childlessness. There will be a newborn in the family this year.The goddess of Fortune will grace you week after week. You will have more happiness than usual. Live and enjoy !
Thursday, November 29, 2007
ShivaYoga
The term YOGA has a very ancient history dating back to the chalcolithic age. The inscriptions found in Mohenjo Daro and Harappa have revealed the existence of God Shiva, seated in a yogic posture. The term Minakanna obtained in the inscriptions suggested the early ideal of yogic discipline. In those remote days the yogis noted for their asceticism and discipline, were addressed as Minas. Father Heras observes, "that life of asceticism was practised in the pre-Aryan proto-Indian period, is evident from the fact that one of the inscriptions mentions "the learned Minas who dwell in the caves". Cave-dwelling was not ordinary in those days, when beautifully built brick houses were common. The learned Minas dwelling in caves could not but be ascetics".
Shivayoga has been sponsored by these learned Minas. Three things stand out into bold relief about Shivayoga.
1) It is historical for it has a history of more than 5000 years. It goes back as far as the chalcolithic age. It was prevalent in the Indus valley civilization. And from there it spread to Egypt, Sumeru and other Mediterranean countries.
2) It is democratic in the sense that everybody is eligible to practise Shivayoga irrespective of caste, colour, creed, rank, age and position.
3) It is scientific in the sense that it is entirely based upon the laws of light and electricity.
The term Minakanna is pregnant with meaning. In later days, it was translated into Sanskrit as Animishadristi or unwinking gaze. Crystal gazing is as old as the hills and the belief that it generates magnetism is equally old. It was only in 1850 that Baron John Reichenback discovered this magnetism and described it as odylic force. He announced that odylic force could be generated by crystal gazing and by crystal magnets on the human body and human hands. His experiments were conducted in the natural waking condition of a subject. Since then, odylic force has been photographed and there are reasons to believe that magnetic crystals and human bodies, send forth emanations which can be felt and sometimes seen by similar persons. The Ishtalinga, which is an indispensable means of Shivayoga, is a stone with a glazing covering. Since the steadfast gaze on Ishtalinga generates magnetism, Ishtalinga is a crystal magnet.
Ishtalinga is a miniature of Shivayoga. The worship of Shivalinga, in India, dates from a very long period. The worship of Shivalinga, as we have it in the temples, is the characteristic feature of Shaivism. There is another mode of worship known as Ishtalinga form of worship, and Veerashaivism or Lingayatism advocates this mode of worship. Ishtalinga is worshipped by placing it on the palm of the left hand so raised as to bring it in line with the centre of the eyebrows. Ishtalinga is made of light grey slate stone and to be kept intact it is coated all over with a fine durable paste prepared out of certain ingredients. The colour of the paste is blue-black or indigo. The colour of the naso-ciliary plexus or Ajna chakra situated in the centre of the eyebrows is also indigo. This colour represents Mahat or intuition. The colour of the covering of Ishtalinga and that of Ajna chakra being akin in nature, they act and react upon each other thus enriching the magnetic force or intuitive power. Animishadristi came to be identified with Samyama. Samyama or the concentrated gaze is the secret upon which the whole of Patanjali Sutra hinges. When one has succeeded in mastering this Samyama, one will come into the possession of occult powers. But Samyama is to be practised stage after stage, the higher one is to be resorted to only after the lower one has been won. Samyama should pass from gross to the subtle, from the subtle to the causal, from the outer to the inner, from the inner to the innermost. This gradation has been recognised by Shivayoga. In Shivayoga the process is threefold which involves Samyama on Ishtalinga, Pranalinga and Bhavalinga - the outer, the inner and the innermost. The concentrated gaze of the Ishtalinga reveals the inner light which is known as Pranalinga or Jyotirlinga. The gaze on the inner light leads one to the realization of the innermost light or Bhavalinga. When this innermost light is realized by the yogin, the knowledge of subtle things will be intuitively revealed. The Shivagamas and the Vachana literature of the 12th century, which preserve intact this ancient culture of Shivayoga, speak of its glory and greatness in eloquent terms.
The term Yoga has a variety of meanings but the generally accepted meaning of he term is union or harmony. The term Yoga is derived from the root "Yuj", to join or weld together. Just as in welding two pieces of the same metal are made to become one by the process of heating and hammering, so in Yoga the embodied spirit is made to become one with the universal spirit by certain physical and mental exercises. Yoga then signifies a spiritual condition of universal equality and God Union. When the individual spirit comes in contact with the universal spirit, then it realises its ultimate object of repose and all its movements acquire meaning and significance. Be it noted that, this union or contact is to be established in consciousness alone. If the union is effected through the repetition of Om, Soham or any other name of God, it is Mantrayoga; if through the catches, postures and breath control, it is Hathayoga; if through the control and concentration of the mind, it is Rajayoga; if through the discrimination between spirit and matter, between self and not-self, it is Jnanayoga; if through the development of finer emotions, it is Bhaktiyoga; if through the disinterested performance of actions, it is Karmayoga; if the union is effected through the concentration on the light reflected in Ishtalinga, it is SHIVAYOGA. In all these cases, union with the Universal is the one dominant and recurrent note, however different may be the process.
In Shivayoga the concentrated gaze on the light reflected in the Ishtalinga is of vital importance for it generates magnetic force which helps to galvanise into activity the dormant pineal gland.
The whole process of Shivayoga is directed to the awakening of this dormant pineal gland. It is a rudimentary organ in most people but it is evolving though slowly. It is possible to quicken its evolution into a condition in which it can perform its function of apprehending events comprehensively. It is the organ of cosmic thought as the eye is an organ of seeing and ear of hearing. The mathematical time which is only an illusion produced by the successive states of consciousness as one travels through the eternal duration. In Yoga Shastra this pineal gland is spoken of as the third eye, the function of which takes place through the middle of the forehead, which is marked by he Hindus with a tilak or spot therein. Hence in the symbolic representation of Shiva, we see in the middle of his forehead an opening with red flames issuing therefrom. This third eye or the pineal gland is atrophied in man, simply because his tendency has grown downward and his mind has got immersed in sexual pleasures. This eye and kamic organ are said to be like two pans of a balance, one of which has to kick the beam when the other grows heavy. Only when we outgrow Kama, lust or libido and make it as light as possible, that this pineal gland will reopen, that it will flower out into brilliance.
"We are wonderfully made", says the writer of the Psalms. But how wonderfully we are made, we hardly care to know. Few of us have any idea of the amazing variety and intricacy of the processes that take place in our bodies. We fail to understand the mysteries of our own bodies, which are as it were, nature's crowning master-pieces. The Yoga-science furnishes us with an authentic information of our body in the light of the most modern discoveries of medicine and physiology. The foundations of Yoga are laid in the solid physical structure of the human body. Man's body is indeed a miracle. The different systems that make it an organic whole show an extremely beautiful arrangement of parts and great skill in operation. The most important and complicated of them all is the central nervous system with its stem and innumerable branches spread out in all directions. This gives it an appearance of the tree. The flowers that blossom on this Tree of life are the Chakras and plexuses. The fruits at various places are the ductless glands. The fruit and flower are not visible to the physical eye. Only the bare tree with its branches and branchlets is to be seen. To enjoy the fragrance of the flower and the sweetness of the fruit, that is immortality, definite steps have to be taken. This forms the practical part of Yoga as an occult science.
Physiology has discovered functional hierarchy, and the levels of function are three - the humoral, the autonomous and the voluntary. Of these three the humoral is the basic and it plays an important part in the preservation of the body. The Yoga-science has recognized this fact long ago with an insistence on the electro-structure of the physical body. The humoral has for its essential function the regulation of all the chemical processes going on within the cells and is called metabolism. This function is under the rule of the glandular system. The chemical elements absorbed in food or otherwise are first turned into colloids by the various digestive processes and then passed into the blood, finally to be distributed as reserves by the endocrine glands. The research has been carried far enough to have gained for physiology synoptic vision of the whole humoral system and of the wonderful subtlety with which it meets all the needs of the organism and keeps the specifically human equilibrium. The thyroid deals with iodine, the pituitary with bromine, the parathyroids with calcium, the suprarenals with alkalis, the liver and the pancreas with sugar. The equilibrium is constantly maintained by vitamins. Physiology has ascertained the correspondence of vitamin C with the suprarenal hormones, of vitamin A with the thyroid, of vitamin E with the kidneys and gonads. Vitamin E acts exactly like the hormone secreted by the anterior lobe of the pituitary, vitamin D like that of the parathyroid and vitamin B has an antagonistic action towards the thyroid gland.
The theory of life as combustion is now superseded by one of electrical induction. The body can no longer be likened to a machine run by heat, whose activity is measured in calories; it has become an electric engine. In humoral system electricity is found to play an important part. Since living substance is in its nature colloidal, its isolated particles carry electric charges. These charges constitute a highly differentiated electric lining to the somatic substance of the body, whose chemical and organic complexity it arouses and whose activity it commands. J. C. Bose has already shown the existence and the physiological importance of this electro-structure in the plant, professor D'Arsonval of Paris and Professor Tchijewsky of Moscow have investigated its activity in the animal and in man. Now it has been established that the vital tonus is maintained by the electrical charges inbreathed with the air and carried by the blood from the lungs to the cells. Just as in the body the purely physical function is found to be a dynamic entity flowing along the nerves and ruling organic activity, so has the humoral and cellular function been seen to be equally electric in nature. The colloidal constitution of living substance has for its counterpart an organized lining of electrical charges. The chemistry of the cells and their metabolism has to be maintained by borrowing food and air from the environment. What we really eat and breathe are ions, that is, molecules plus electrical charges. These charges represent an all important factor in the maintenance of the vital tonus of the organism. It is on the basis of the electro-structure which maintains the vital tonus of the organism, the Yoga-science asserts that the physical body could be electrified to such an extent as to be literally free from disease and death. Allam Prabhu, a master-yogi of the Virashaiva faith, who flourished in the 12th century in Karnataka had attained such an electrical body which is known as Vyomakaya.
Physiology has recognized the importance of the middle brain and of endocrine glands. It has therefore set a value upon the pituitary and pineal glands. A special relationship unites the pituitary gland with the roof of the third ventricle on the one hand and on the other the whole system of ductless glands throughout the body. The third ventricle is a narrow slit lying near the base of cerebral hemispheres and separating the two thalami from each other. At the posterior end of this slit a small nodule of grey matter projects backwards and overhangs corpora quadringamina of the mid-brain. This is the pineal gland. It represents all that remains of the third eye which used to adorn the forehead of some of the lizard ancestors in far off times. This type of lizard is found only in New Zealand and it dates back to the end of the Paleozoic period in the Permian epoch. One of this lizard's features is that it has a quite developed third eye behind and between the usual two. This is known as the pineal eye and is represented in man by the pineal gland.
The pituitary gland is situated at the base of the skull with its two lobes, anterior and posterior. The pineal gland is connected with the posterior portion of the pituitary. The pineal gland is like a tiny pine cone about one eight of an inch in size and coloured grey, while the pituitary is about the size of a ripe cherry and attached to the brain by a stalk. The pineal gland is the negative pole being a counterpart of and complementary to the pituitary body which is the positive pole. It is for this reason Yoga-science observes that the pineal is to the pituitary what Buddhi is to Manas, what intuition is to reason. The pineal is of considerable importance for it acts on the nerve endings within itself and through them on the whole middle brain. The function of the pituitary is to control the development of the body to suit the development of the consciousness. It exercises this function through the other ductless glands. The chief change which it brings into organism is the awakening of the genetic functions by stimulating the sexual glands. But the pineal gland is there to prevent the pituitary from awakening the sexual functions too soon and acts as a check on anterior lobe of the pituitary. This is why the pineal is associated with the spiritual nature of man.
The pineal is the seat of cosmic thought. Human thought may be regarded as a result of suspended action, which the subject does not allow to proceed to its full realization. At each step new inhibitions intervene to prevent energy from immediately discharging itself in motive channels. This necessitates introversion or inward storings of energy until little by little thought is substituted for the inhibited action. It would therefore be a pity to confound introversion with an open retrogression, since the latter marks a stage backwards in the line of evolution. Introversion is an indispensable condition of self-realization. It is a rich and luminous simplicity which achieves the dispersion of analysis by surpassing and overcoming it. It is the fruit of the true intuition, the state of inner freedom. Hence in the complete introversion there is no loss of consciousness but a displacement of attention. Consciousness is dynamic, it is in fact something intensely mobile. When the exterior world has disappeared, the circle of consciousness contracts and seems to withdraw into the pineal where all organic functions and all psychic forces meet and there it enjoys unity. Herein lies the secret of Samadhi, herein lies an instrument for penetrating to the depths of functional consciousness or the supernal light.
All nervous energy which is connected with the pituitary is electro-positive and all somatic energy, that is, cellular and humoral which is connected with the pineal is electro-negative and the balance of these two polarised electricities is maintained by the electric ions in-breathed with the atmospheric air. The pituitary is physical in nature while the pineal is spiritual in nature; to raise up the physical to the spiritual constitutes the secret of Sadhana or worship, for by the meeting of the two energies which starts from the one and produce the other is enhanced and fulfils itself. This is how the union or the harmony between the two is achieved by Shivayoga.
The process is as follows: place the Linga on the palm of the left hand so raised as to come in a line with the centre of the eyebrows. Behind the back and just above the head an oil-fed lamp or candle should be placed so that the light of the lamp or candle is reflected in the coating of Linga. With half-closed eyes the devotee should fix his attention upon that light reflected in the Linga, the coating of which is blue-black or indigo serving to widen and deepen concentration. The concentrated gaze generates psychic heat or Tapas which stirs into activity the pineal gland. This produces psychic light or Tejas which, in turn, leads to the release of Ojas or thought force, which is at once a power of vision and power of execution. Shivayoga therefore lands one into a region of effective will and intuitive knowledge where to will is to create, to think is to see.
The pineal gland is an oval shaped body about the size of a pea lying in the middle of the head, behind and just above the pituitary. It contains pigment similar to that found in the eyes and is connected by two nerve cords with the optic thalamus. Since it controls the action of the light upon the body scientists have suggested that it is a remnant of the third eye. The third eye is an enigmatic organ having a universal history. It is the middle eye of Shiva, it is the eye of the Horas Egyptian tradition. It is the horn of the unicorn. The third eye is an organ apparently dormant but innately acquired by mankind, whose awakening is the right of every individual. It is an organ of inner vision which embraces eternity while our physical eyes look before us seeing neither past nor future. He who has opened this third eye can direct and control the energies of matter, see all things in the eternal now and therefore be in touch with causes, reveal the etheric records and see clairvoyantly. It is through medium of the third eye that an Adept can at any moment put himself in touch with his disciple anywhere.
The mechanism of the human body is composed of six systems, namely the nervous system, the respiratory system, the circulatory system, the digestive system, the excretory system and the endocrine system. The endocrine system consists of many glands situated at various places in the body. The pituitary and the pineal are in the head, the thyroid and parathyroid are in the neck, thymus in the thoracic cavity, the adrenals and gonads are in the abdominal cavity. They are called ductless glands because the hormones produced in them are thrown directly in the blood stream. Of all the glands the pituitary and the pineal are the foremost. Physiology and anatomy have already described the various functions of these two glands. But Yoga-science goes a step further and says that the pituitary is the seat of individual consciousness while the pineal is the seat of the universal consciousness. In the normal man these two states of consciousness are not in harmony. To bring about the harmony between these two states of consciousness is the object of Yoga. In Shivayoga the cosmic consciousness descends to meet the individual consciousness through the optic thalamic nerve. The meeting takes place in the centre of the eyebrows or the Bhrumadhya.
When the pituitary and pineal glands have become fully developed and stimulated, their vibrations fuse and stir into activity the third eye, the eye of the soul. This activity provides the mind with a sensitive instrument, a transmitter by means of which vibrations of very differing types can be translated, interpreted and rearranged. This gives man personal access to the wisdom.
During the embryonic development of the human race man's only organ was the one eye, or the etheric eye, with which he used to see all non-solid matter. As the earth solidified man developed his two physical eyes which can see the solid world but his etheric eye or the third eye receded, its etheric sight spreading all over the nervous system and having its seat in the third ventricle of the brain. The earliest people used only that middle eye or the third eye and were known as Cyclops.
As physical eyesight developed, the etheric eyed recessed, but although dormant as the pineal gland, it is only awaiting development and training to be reawakened. This training was a part of deliberate yogic process which was well understood and thoroughly provided for in the ancient wisdom. When the third eye is opened, the individual begins to see all the activities of the etheric plane, and he approaches much nearer to the causes and realities of life. He can see the thought-forms, entities and complex types of life which make up a vast world of teeming energies which the limited capacity of ordinary physical sight is unable to register.
The ancients knew all about the third eye and indicated it on the statues of their Gods by a knob on the forehead. The Egyptians trained the people in the use of this psychic centre in the temple of Maat. The god Maat was vulture-headed, because the vulture has a sight so keen as to be almost clairvoyant. When people responded to this training they became seers. They could see with the trained third eye, right through the body, as the X-ray does and diagnose a disease. All over the East and India, we find statues of historic man of wisdom with a knob or other mark upon the forehead indicating this type of achievement.
The scientists and medical experts have laboured in the field of biology and physiology to find out facts about the pineal gland. They opine that the pineal gland contains the most astonishing qualities which would be of immense benefit, if only we learn how to develop and use them. It can become a window of life through which we can realise a new dimension of consciousness. The pineal gland is a link between the physical body and the nervous system and holds the key to the opening of the third eye or the sixth organ. The third eye, far from being a spiritual symbol is in fact the pineal gland.
Three things emerge from the labour of the scientist and medical experts about the pineal gland:
1) The pineal gland is made up of two types of cells - pineo-cytes and astro-cytes. The latter are found throughout the nervous system, but they are not present in any other gland except the pineal. This is the first peculiarity.
2) Every organ in the human body depends on something else: nothing works entirely by itself. Even the heart which has its own nervous system is governed by magnetic currents flowing from the centre but the pineal, though linked with the brain, is not activated by the nerve cells that surround it. It appears to be activated by messages that reach it from the eyes - messages conveyed by the pupils rather than by retinal images. This is the second peculiarity.
3) The third peculiarity is that the pineal acts as a kind of built-in cosmic ray receiver. Cosmic radiation is now known to exercise a considerable influence over our everyday lives. Probably for this reason, occultism opines that pineal is the seat of cosmic thought.
Occultism suggests that pineal is the uterus of the brain. In sexual reproduction man uses the organs and Chakras below the diaphragm and friction is the mechanism. In the higher creative acts, the organs and Chakras of higher trinity are used. In this higher process, the mechanism is the spiritual discipline and endeavour. Hence the increased creative activity leads to the opening of the third eye.
The human brain has a fundamental resemblance to the human embryo. It represents the component parts of a bodily form, with the repetition of the endocrine glandular pattern which is hermaphrodite. The pineal and pituitary represent the male and female elements, while there are two perfectly formed little breasts, known as the mammary glands. When the pineal and the pituitary are aroused to a new livingness, they are stimulated to the point when finer vibrations and new radiations are set up. These finally impinge upon each other. Then the wonderful marriage within the head, between the pituitary and the pineal takes place. When this happens, the real consciousness is born and the sacred third eye flows into being.
In SHIVAYOGA the steadfast gazing at Linga is of vital importance because it generates magnetism which galvanizes into activity the dormant pineal gland. As a result of a sustained look at Linga, the transmuted energies rise up the nerve channel into the medulla oblongata through the pons, then pass down into the pituitary behind the eyes. The increasing pituitary radiations finally pass through the third ventricle until they awaken the dormant pineal and the third eye lights up between them. Thus SHIVAYOGA teaches us the technique of opening the third eye.
All eyes need a lens to give meaning to the light sensations. The third eye is not exempt and a lens is built into the aura in front of the forehead. The construction of the lens is the part of the necessary discipline that leads to the accurate perception with the organ of the inner vision. The crystal gazing indicates the nature of the mistery. Ishtalinga which is an indispensable aid to Shivayoga is a crystal magnet. For the formation of psychic lens to the accumulation of the material in the aura a focal point is created with the provision of a steadfast gaze.
The human eyes use a lens to concentrate rays of light on a sensitive region of the retina. Here photo receptors register light impression in clearly defined patterns which are then conveyed through the optic nerves by electrical impulses to the brain. It is the optic thalamic nerve that connects the pineal with the pituitary. Light energy flows from the pineal through the optic thalamic nerves to the two eyes. Eyes pour occult forces or unseen emanations which have been discovered by Dr. Oscar Brunler. He showed that the written manuscripts and the great works of the art carry impressions with them, the radiation of the human eyes which pour over them lovingly during their creation. Measuring in degrees biometric Brunler gave an average seize as 350. He found out that Bacon showed 640, Michelangelo registered 689 while Leonardo gave a reading of 725.
The third eye is a four-dimensional organ. Hence it flourishes in a situation in which control of time has become a developed capacity. Any sort of showing down of time will enable activity of the third eye to become facile.
Man is but a spiritual embryo. His potential is immense. Man has powers latent within him and they show everywhere in the paranormal phenomena witnessed as ESP, that is, extrasensory perception. All men manifest ESP when they are asleep. If man could retain consciousness while the physical body is asleep, his psychic powers could be recognised and used up by him. Restoration of that memory or self-remembrance constitutes the unfoldment of the third eye.
Sahasrara or the crown plexus, where the pineal resides, when stirred into activity the Sahasrara becomes the most resplendent of all the centres full of indescribable chromatic effects and vibrates with extreme rapidity thus opening the third eye through the awakening of the pineal. The realm of the Sahasrara is characterised by Chinnada, Chitbindu and Chitkala by life that pulsates, by the light that illumines and by the law that governs.
Finally, Shivayoga Pradipika, a valuable Yoga manual, speaks of Shivayoga as having four aspects - Shiva Bhakti, Shiva Jnana, Shiva Vrata and Shiva Dhyana. Shivayoga in one sense is integral, for it integrates Bhaktiyoga, Jnanayoga, Karmayoga and Dhyanayoga all in one.
Shivayoga Pradipika defines Linga as the connecting and co-ordinating link between Shiva and Shakti or as the unifying principle of truth and will. This concept of Linga is significant and valuable. Shiva is the Sat aspect of reality while Shakti is its Chit aspect. Shiva and Shakti are the transcendent and immanent, static and dynamic, personal and impersonal aspect of reality. There seems to be an apparent opposition between the two. There is no opposition because Sat and Chit become one in Ananda. That is why reality is spoken of as Sacchidananda. The one saving feature of Shivayoga is this that it has endeavoured to resolve this apparent opposition not by taking the aspects one after the other but by ascending to a height of spiritual intuition where the two are melted and merged into a perfect whole.
Shivayoga has been sponsored by these learned Minas. Three things stand out into bold relief about Shivayoga.
1) It is historical for it has a history of more than 5000 years. It goes back as far as the chalcolithic age. It was prevalent in the Indus valley civilization. And from there it spread to Egypt, Sumeru and other Mediterranean countries.
2) It is democratic in the sense that everybody is eligible to practise Shivayoga irrespective of caste, colour, creed, rank, age and position.
3) It is scientific in the sense that it is entirely based upon the laws of light and electricity.
The term Minakanna is pregnant with meaning. In later days, it was translated into Sanskrit as Animishadristi or unwinking gaze. Crystal gazing is as old as the hills and the belief that it generates magnetism is equally old. It was only in 1850 that Baron John Reichenback discovered this magnetism and described it as odylic force. He announced that odylic force could be generated by crystal gazing and by crystal magnets on the human body and human hands. His experiments were conducted in the natural waking condition of a subject. Since then, odylic force has been photographed and there are reasons to believe that magnetic crystals and human bodies, send forth emanations which can be felt and sometimes seen by similar persons. The Ishtalinga, which is an indispensable means of Shivayoga, is a stone with a glazing covering. Since the steadfast gaze on Ishtalinga generates magnetism, Ishtalinga is a crystal magnet.
Ishtalinga is a miniature of Shivayoga. The worship of Shivalinga, in India, dates from a very long period. The worship of Shivalinga, as we have it in the temples, is the characteristic feature of Shaivism. There is another mode of worship known as Ishtalinga form of worship, and Veerashaivism or Lingayatism advocates this mode of worship. Ishtalinga is worshipped by placing it on the palm of the left hand so raised as to bring it in line with the centre of the eyebrows. Ishtalinga is made of light grey slate stone and to be kept intact it is coated all over with a fine durable paste prepared out of certain ingredients. The colour of the paste is blue-black or indigo. The colour of the naso-ciliary plexus or Ajna chakra situated in the centre of the eyebrows is also indigo. This colour represents Mahat or intuition. The colour of the covering of Ishtalinga and that of Ajna chakra being akin in nature, they act and react upon each other thus enriching the magnetic force or intuitive power. Animishadristi came to be identified with Samyama. Samyama or the concentrated gaze is the secret upon which the whole of Patanjali Sutra hinges. When one has succeeded in mastering this Samyama, one will come into the possession of occult powers. But Samyama is to be practised stage after stage, the higher one is to be resorted to only after the lower one has been won. Samyama should pass from gross to the subtle, from the subtle to the causal, from the outer to the inner, from the inner to the innermost. This gradation has been recognised by Shivayoga. In Shivayoga the process is threefold which involves Samyama on Ishtalinga, Pranalinga and Bhavalinga - the outer, the inner and the innermost. The concentrated gaze of the Ishtalinga reveals the inner light which is known as Pranalinga or Jyotirlinga. The gaze on the inner light leads one to the realization of the innermost light or Bhavalinga. When this innermost light is realized by the yogin, the knowledge of subtle things will be intuitively revealed. The Shivagamas and the Vachana literature of the 12th century, which preserve intact this ancient culture of Shivayoga, speak of its glory and greatness in eloquent terms.
The term Yoga has a variety of meanings but the generally accepted meaning of he term is union or harmony. The term Yoga is derived from the root "Yuj", to join or weld together. Just as in welding two pieces of the same metal are made to become one by the process of heating and hammering, so in Yoga the embodied spirit is made to become one with the universal spirit by certain physical and mental exercises. Yoga then signifies a spiritual condition of universal equality and God Union. When the individual spirit comes in contact with the universal spirit, then it realises its ultimate object of repose and all its movements acquire meaning and significance. Be it noted that, this union or contact is to be established in consciousness alone. If the union is effected through the repetition of Om, Soham or any other name of God, it is Mantrayoga; if through the catches, postures and breath control, it is Hathayoga; if through the control and concentration of the mind, it is Rajayoga; if through the discrimination between spirit and matter, between self and not-self, it is Jnanayoga; if through the development of finer emotions, it is Bhaktiyoga; if through the disinterested performance of actions, it is Karmayoga; if the union is effected through the concentration on the light reflected in Ishtalinga, it is SHIVAYOGA. In all these cases, union with the Universal is the one dominant and recurrent note, however different may be the process.
In Shivayoga the concentrated gaze on the light reflected in the Ishtalinga is of vital importance for it generates magnetic force which helps to galvanise into activity the dormant pineal gland.
The whole process of Shivayoga is directed to the awakening of this dormant pineal gland. It is a rudimentary organ in most people but it is evolving though slowly. It is possible to quicken its evolution into a condition in which it can perform its function of apprehending events comprehensively. It is the organ of cosmic thought as the eye is an organ of seeing and ear of hearing. The mathematical time which is only an illusion produced by the successive states of consciousness as one travels through the eternal duration. In Yoga Shastra this pineal gland is spoken of as the third eye, the function of which takes place through the middle of the forehead, which is marked by he Hindus with a tilak or spot therein. Hence in the symbolic representation of Shiva, we see in the middle of his forehead an opening with red flames issuing therefrom. This third eye or the pineal gland is atrophied in man, simply because his tendency has grown downward and his mind has got immersed in sexual pleasures. This eye and kamic organ are said to be like two pans of a balance, one of which has to kick the beam when the other grows heavy. Only when we outgrow Kama, lust or libido and make it as light as possible, that this pineal gland will reopen, that it will flower out into brilliance.
"We are wonderfully made", says the writer of the Psalms. But how wonderfully we are made, we hardly care to know. Few of us have any idea of the amazing variety and intricacy of the processes that take place in our bodies. We fail to understand the mysteries of our own bodies, which are as it were, nature's crowning master-pieces. The Yoga-science furnishes us with an authentic information of our body in the light of the most modern discoveries of medicine and physiology. The foundations of Yoga are laid in the solid physical structure of the human body. Man's body is indeed a miracle. The different systems that make it an organic whole show an extremely beautiful arrangement of parts and great skill in operation. The most important and complicated of them all is the central nervous system with its stem and innumerable branches spread out in all directions. This gives it an appearance of the tree. The flowers that blossom on this Tree of life are the Chakras and plexuses. The fruits at various places are the ductless glands. The fruit and flower are not visible to the physical eye. Only the bare tree with its branches and branchlets is to be seen. To enjoy the fragrance of the flower and the sweetness of the fruit, that is immortality, definite steps have to be taken. This forms the practical part of Yoga as an occult science.
Physiology has discovered functional hierarchy, and the levels of function are three - the humoral, the autonomous and the voluntary. Of these three the humoral is the basic and it plays an important part in the preservation of the body. The Yoga-science has recognized this fact long ago with an insistence on the electro-structure of the physical body. The humoral has for its essential function the regulation of all the chemical processes going on within the cells and is called metabolism. This function is under the rule of the glandular system. The chemical elements absorbed in food or otherwise are first turned into colloids by the various digestive processes and then passed into the blood, finally to be distributed as reserves by the endocrine glands. The research has been carried far enough to have gained for physiology synoptic vision of the whole humoral system and of the wonderful subtlety with which it meets all the needs of the organism and keeps the specifically human equilibrium. The thyroid deals with iodine, the pituitary with bromine, the parathyroids with calcium, the suprarenals with alkalis, the liver and the pancreas with sugar. The equilibrium is constantly maintained by vitamins. Physiology has ascertained the correspondence of vitamin C with the suprarenal hormones, of vitamin A with the thyroid, of vitamin E with the kidneys and gonads. Vitamin E acts exactly like the hormone secreted by the anterior lobe of the pituitary, vitamin D like that of the parathyroid and vitamin B has an antagonistic action towards the thyroid gland.
The theory of life as combustion is now superseded by one of electrical induction. The body can no longer be likened to a machine run by heat, whose activity is measured in calories; it has become an electric engine. In humoral system electricity is found to play an important part. Since living substance is in its nature colloidal, its isolated particles carry electric charges. These charges constitute a highly differentiated electric lining to the somatic substance of the body, whose chemical and organic complexity it arouses and whose activity it commands. J. C. Bose has already shown the existence and the physiological importance of this electro-structure in the plant, professor D'Arsonval of Paris and Professor Tchijewsky of Moscow have investigated its activity in the animal and in man. Now it has been established that the vital tonus is maintained by the electrical charges inbreathed with the air and carried by the blood from the lungs to the cells. Just as in the body the purely physical function is found to be a dynamic entity flowing along the nerves and ruling organic activity, so has the humoral and cellular function been seen to be equally electric in nature. The colloidal constitution of living substance has for its counterpart an organized lining of electrical charges. The chemistry of the cells and their metabolism has to be maintained by borrowing food and air from the environment. What we really eat and breathe are ions, that is, molecules plus electrical charges. These charges represent an all important factor in the maintenance of the vital tonus of the organism. It is on the basis of the electro-structure which maintains the vital tonus of the organism, the Yoga-science asserts that the physical body could be electrified to such an extent as to be literally free from disease and death. Allam Prabhu, a master-yogi of the Virashaiva faith, who flourished in the 12th century in Karnataka had attained such an electrical body which is known as Vyomakaya.
Physiology has recognized the importance of the middle brain and of endocrine glands. It has therefore set a value upon the pituitary and pineal glands. A special relationship unites the pituitary gland with the roof of the third ventricle on the one hand and on the other the whole system of ductless glands throughout the body. The third ventricle is a narrow slit lying near the base of cerebral hemispheres and separating the two thalami from each other. At the posterior end of this slit a small nodule of grey matter projects backwards and overhangs corpora quadringamina of the mid-brain. This is the pineal gland. It represents all that remains of the third eye which used to adorn the forehead of some of the lizard ancestors in far off times. This type of lizard is found only in New Zealand and it dates back to the end of the Paleozoic period in the Permian epoch. One of this lizard's features is that it has a quite developed third eye behind and between the usual two. This is known as the pineal eye and is represented in man by the pineal gland.
The pituitary gland is situated at the base of the skull with its two lobes, anterior and posterior. The pineal gland is connected with the posterior portion of the pituitary. The pineal gland is like a tiny pine cone about one eight of an inch in size and coloured grey, while the pituitary is about the size of a ripe cherry and attached to the brain by a stalk. The pineal gland is the negative pole being a counterpart of and complementary to the pituitary body which is the positive pole. It is for this reason Yoga-science observes that the pineal is to the pituitary what Buddhi is to Manas, what intuition is to reason. The pineal is of considerable importance for it acts on the nerve endings within itself and through them on the whole middle brain. The function of the pituitary is to control the development of the body to suit the development of the consciousness. It exercises this function through the other ductless glands. The chief change which it brings into organism is the awakening of the genetic functions by stimulating the sexual glands. But the pineal gland is there to prevent the pituitary from awakening the sexual functions too soon and acts as a check on anterior lobe of the pituitary. This is why the pineal is associated with the spiritual nature of man.
The pineal is the seat of cosmic thought. Human thought may be regarded as a result of suspended action, which the subject does not allow to proceed to its full realization. At each step new inhibitions intervene to prevent energy from immediately discharging itself in motive channels. This necessitates introversion or inward storings of energy until little by little thought is substituted for the inhibited action. It would therefore be a pity to confound introversion with an open retrogression, since the latter marks a stage backwards in the line of evolution. Introversion is an indispensable condition of self-realization. It is a rich and luminous simplicity which achieves the dispersion of analysis by surpassing and overcoming it. It is the fruit of the true intuition, the state of inner freedom. Hence in the complete introversion there is no loss of consciousness but a displacement of attention. Consciousness is dynamic, it is in fact something intensely mobile. When the exterior world has disappeared, the circle of consciousness contracts and seems to withdraw into the pineal where all organic functions and all psychic forces meet and there it enjoys unity. Herein lies the secret of Samadhi, herein lies an instrument for penetrating to the depths of functional consciousness or the supernal light.
All nervous energy which is connected with the pituitary is electro-positive and all somatic energy, that is, cellular and humoral which is connected with the pineal is electro-negative and the balance of these two polarised electricities is maintained by the electric ions in-breathed with the atmospheric air. The pituitary is physical in nature while the pineal is spiritual in nature; to raise up the physical to the spiritual constitutes the secret of Sadhana or worship, for by the meeting of the two energies which starts from the one and produce the other is enhanced and fulfils itself. This is how the union or the harmony between the two is achieved by Shivayoga.
The process is as follows: place the Linga on the palm of the left hand so raised as to come in a line with the centre of the eyebrows. Behind the back and just above the head an oil-fed lamp or candle should be placed so that the light of the lamp or candle is reflected in the coating of Linga. With half-closed eyes the devotee should fix his attention upon that light reflected in the Linga, the coating of which is blue-black or indigo serving to widen and deepen concentration. The concentrated gaze generates psychic heat or Tapas which stirs into activity the pineal gland. This produces psychic light or Tejas which, in turn, leads to the release of Ojas or thought force, which is at once a power of vision and power of execution. Shivayoga therefore lands one into a region of effective will and intuitive knowledge where to will is to create, to think is to see.
The pineal gland is an oval shaped body about the size of a pea lying in the middle of the head, behind and just above the pituitary. It contains pigment similar to that found in the eyes and is connected by two nerve cords with the optic thalamus. Since it controls the action of the light upon the body scientists have suggested that it is a remnant of the third eye. The third eye is an enigmatic organ having a universal history. It is the middle eye of Shiva, it is the eye of the Horas Egyptian tradition. It is the horn of the unicorn. The third eye is an organ apparently dormant but innately acquired by mankind, whose awakening is the right of every individual. It is an organ of inner vision which embraces eternity while our physical eyes look before us seeing neither past nor future. He who has opened this third eye can direct and control the energies of matter, see all things in the eternal now and therefore be in touch with causes, reveal the etheric records and see clairvoyantly. It is through medium of the third eye that an Adept can at any moment put himself in touch with his disciple anywhere.
The mechanism of the human body is composed of six systems, namely the nervous system, the respiratory system, the circulatory system, the digestive system, the excretory system and the endocrine system. The endocrine system consists of many glands situated at various places in the body. The pituitary and the pineal are in the head, the thyroid and parathyroid are in the neck, thymus in the thoracic cavity, the adrenals and gonads are in the abdominal cavity. They are called ductless glands because the hormones produced in them are thrown directly in the blood stream. Of all the glands the pituitary and the pineal are the foremost. Physiology and anatomy have already described the various functions of these two glands. But Yoga-science goes a step further and says that the pituitary is the seat of individual consciousness while the pineal is the seat of the universal consciousness. In the normal man these two states of consciousness are not in harmony. To bring about the harmony between these two states of consciousness is the object of Yoga. In Shivayoga the cosmic consciousness descends to meet the individual consciousness through the optic thalamic nerve. The meeting takes place in the centre of the eyebrows or the Bhrumadhya.
When the pituitary and pineal glands have become fully developed and stimulated, their vibrations fuse and stir into activity the third eye, the eye of the soul. This activity provides the mind with a sensitive instrument, a transmitter by means of which vibrations of very differing types can be translated, interpreted and rearranged. This gives man personal access to the wisdom.
During the embryonic development of the human race man's only organ was the one eye, or the etheric eye, with which he used to see all non-solid matter. As the earth solidified man developed his two physical eyes which can see the solid world but his etheric eye or the third eye receded, its etheric sight spreading all over the nervous system and having its seat in the third ventricle of the brain. The earliest people used only that middle eye or the third eye and were known as Cyclops.
As physical eyesight developed, the etheric eyed recessed, but although dormant as the pineal gland, it is only awaiting development and training to be reawakened. This training was a part of deliberate yogic process which was well understood and thoroughly provided for in the ancient wisdom. When the third eye is opened, the individual begins to see all the activities of the etheric plane, and he approaches much nearer to the causes and realities of life. He can see the thought-forms, entities and complex types of life which make up a vast world of teeming energies which the limited capacity of ordinary physical sight is unable to register.
The ancients knew all about the third eye and indicated it on the statues of their Gods by a knob on the forehead. The Egyptians trained the people in the use of this psychic centre in the temple of Maat. The god Maat was vulture-headed, because the vulture has a sight so keen as to be almost clairvoyant. When people responded to this training they became seers. They could see with the trained third eye, right through the body, as the X-ray does and diagnose a disease. All over the East and India, we find statues of historic man of wisdom with a knob or other mark upon the forehead indicating this type of achievement.
The scientists and medical experts have laboured in the field of biology and physiology to find out facts about the pineal gland. They opine that the pineal gland contains the most astonishing qualities which would be of immense benefit, if only we learn how to develop and use them. It can become a window of life through which we can realise a new dimension of consciousness. The pineal gland is a link between the physical body and the nervous system and holds the key to the opening of the third eye or the sixth organ. The third eye, far from being a spiritual symbol is in fact the pineal gland.
Three things emerge from the labour of the scientist and medical experts about the pineal gland:
1) The pineal gland is made up of two types of cells - pineo-cytes and astro-cytes. The latter are found throughout the nervous system, but they are not present in any other gland except the pineal. This is the first peculiarity.
2) Every organ in the human body depends on something else: nothing works entirely by itself. Even the heart which has its own nervous system is governed by magnetic currents flowing from the centre but the pineal, though linked with the brain, is not activated by the nerve cells that surround it. It appears to be activated by messages that reach it from the eyes - messages conveyed by the pupils rather than by retinal images. This is the second peculiarity.
3) The third peculiarity is that the pineal acts as a kind of built-in cosmic ray receiver. Cosmic radiation is now known to exercise a considerable influence over our everyday lives. Probably for this reason, occultism opines that pineal is the seat of cosmic thought.
Occultism suggests that pineal is the uterus of the brain. In sexual reproduction man uses the organs and Chakras below the diaphragm and friction is the mechanism. In the higher creative acts, the organs and Chakras of higher trinity are used. In this higher process, the mechanism is the spiritual discipline and endeavour. Hence the increased creative activity leads to the opening of the third eye.
The human brain has a fundamental resemblance to the human embryo. It represents the component parts of a bodily form, with the repetition of the endocrine glandular pattern which is hermaphrodite. The pineal and pituitary represent the male and female elements, while there are two perfectly formed little breasts, known as the mammary glands. When the pineal and the pituitary are aroused to a new livingness, they are stimulated to the point when finer vibrations and new radiations are set up. These finally impinge upon each other. Then the wonderful marriage within the head, between the pituitary and the pineal takes place. When this happens, the real consciousness is born and the sacred third eye flows into being.
In SHIVAYOGA the steadfast gazing at Linga is of vital importance because it generates magnetism which galvanizes into activity the dormant pineal gland. As a result of a sustained look at Linga, the transmuted energies rise up the nerve channel into the medulla oblongata through the pons, then pass down into the pituitary behind the eyes. The increasing pituitary radiations finally pass through the third ventricle until they awaken the dormant pineal and the third eye lights up between them. Thus SHIVAYOGA teaches us the technique of opening the third eye.
All eyes need a lens to give meaning to the light sensations. The third eye is not exempt and a lens is built into the aura in front of the forehead. The construction of the lens is the part of the necessary discipline that leads to the accurate perception with the organ of the inner vision. The crystal gazing indicates the nature of the mistery. Ishtalinga which is an indispensable aid to Shivayoga is a crystal magnet. For the formation of psychic lens to the accumulation of the material in the aura a focal point is created with the provision of a steadfast gaze.
The human eyes use a lens to concentrate rays of light on a sensitive region of the retina. Here photo receptors register light impression in clearly defined patterns which are then conveyed through the optic nerves by electrical impulses to the brain. It is the optic thalamic nerve that connects the pineal with the pituitary. Light energy flows from the pineal through the optic thalamic nerves to the two eyes. Eyes pour occult forces or unseen emanations which have been discovered by Dr. Oscar Brunler. He showed that the written manuscripts and the great works of the art carry impressions with them, the radiation of the human eyes which pour over them lovingly during their creation. Measuring in degrees biometric Brunler gave an average seize as 350. He found out that Bacon showed 640, Michelangelo registered 689 while Leonardo gave a reading of 725.
The third eye is a four-dimensional organ. Hence it flourishes in a situation in which control of time has become a developed capacity. Any sort of showing down of time will enable activity of the third eye to become facile.
Man is but a spiritual embryo. His potential is immense. Man has powers latent within him and they show everywhere in the paranormal phenomena witnessed as ESP, that is, extrasensory perception. All men manifest ESP when they are asleep. If man could retain consciousness while the physical body is asleep, his psychic powers could be recognised and used up by him. Restoration of that memory or self-remembrance constitutes the unfoldment of the third eye.
Sahasrara or the crown plexus, where the pineal resides, when stirred into activity the Sahasrara becomes the most resplendent of all the centres full of indescribable chromatic effects and vibrates with extreme rapidity thus opening the third eye through the awakening of the pineal. The realm of the Sahasrara is characterised by Chinnada, Chitbindu and Chitkala by life that pulsates, by the light that illumines and by the law that governs.
Finally, Shivayoga Pradipika, a valuable Yoga manual, speaks of Shivayoga as having four aspects - Shiva Bhakti, Shiva Jnana, Shiva Vrata and Shiva Dhyana. Shivayoga in one sense is integral, for it integrates Bhaktiyoga, Jnanayoga, Karmayoga and Dhyanayoga all in one.
Shivayoga Pradipika defines Linga as the connecting and co-ordinating link between Shiva and Shakti or as the unifying principle of truth and will. This concept of Linga is significant and valuable. Shiva is the Sat aspect of reality while Shakti is its Chit aspect. Shiva and Shakti are the transcendent and immanent, static and dynamic, personal and impersonal aspect of reality. There seems to be an apparent opposition between the two. There is no opposition because Sat and Chit become one in Ananda. That is why reality is spoken of as Sacchidananda. The one saving feature of Shivayoga is this that it has endeavoured to resolve this apparent opposition not by taking the aspects one after the other but by ascending to a height of spiritual intuition where the two are melted and merged into a perfect whole.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Greater Benefits from Yoga
There are many factors that influence the quality of your yoga practice and your satisfaction with the overall experience. These factors range from the style of yoga you practice, the instructor you choose through to the environment in which you practice. Some of the factors you can easily control, others may be more dependant on what's available to you. When starting out practicing yoga, you should keep searching for the perfect combination that makes your practice the most satisfying and enjoyable.
There are however three factors that are 100% under your control, that affect not only your enjoyment of your practice, but just as importantly, the benefits you receive from each practice.
Challenge yourself
One of the purposes of yoga, like every exercise regime, is to incrementally improve your body's physical capabilities. Yoga of course has the added advantage that it also helps to improve many aspects of your health and well-being that general exercise cannot.
Even with these increased benefits, yoga is not a magic cure-all. Achieving these benefits requires your commitment and effort each time you practice. Achieving incremental improvements to your capabilities requires (and allows) you to further challenge your own physical limitiations. Over time gradual improvements result in large gains in your yoga abilities and the health benenfits of your practice.
In every posture you should be looking to make sure first that you are stable and comfortable in the posture. You should then be aiming to slowly and smoothly deepen the stretch as far as it remains pain free for you to do so. In all postures you should feel the stretch in the relevant muscles and deepen into the stretch in a controlled manner to avoid damaging your muscles and ligaments. Only through challenging your current abilities can your body develop, grow and strengthen to achieve new abilities, but also listen carefully to your body to know when to stop.
Breathe
Without breath and air, there is no life. Using this definition of the importance of breathing, it is not difficult to accept that correct breathing has an inpact on your health. There is a lot of discussion and research within the medical comunity into the importance and health benefits of yoga breathing. While these may well prove to be real benefits, adopting relaxed, controlled yoga breathing definitely helps to improve your overall yoga practice.
The natural tendency, when practicing an asana (yoga posture) that tests your physical strength or flexibility, is to tense your body and shorten your breath. This stressful breathing technique encourages you to tense your muscles and fight against the asana and the stretch. This is the opposite of the desired state for practicing yoga.
Instead it's important that you concentrate on your breathing, completing a long, controlled inhale exhale cycle that fills your lungs to capture the maximum amount of oxygen for each breath. Focusing on your breathing in this way, helps you to remain relaxed and allows you to be more aware of your physical condition enabling you to better feel the stretch, be aware of tension in your muscles and concentrate on releasing that tension and loosen to muscles you're working on. Through this increased awareness of what you body is telling you and by noticing and releasing tension in your muscles, it's easier to accept each stretch and go deeper into each asana and hold it for longer without injury.
Practice, Practice and Practice.
As with all exercise, the benefits only come with a commitment to regular practice. Only through regular practice of exercise does the body start to develop, strengthen, adapt and change according to the physical demands you are placing on it. Practicing yoga is no different. Regular practice helps to build the muscle strength required to hold asanas. More than that, you'll develop increased lung capacity and provide the regular stimulation to the internal organs that helps balance chemical and hormone levels. Frequent practice helps to learn any new skill or ability and yoga is no different. In particular repetition helps your body learn the correct position for balancing postures, to the extent that it becomes second nature - just like riding a bike. Another area where frequent practice is highly beneficial is learning how to slow and calm your mind, to purge your thoughts of the worries and stresses of the day.
A helping hand
Obviously there are no shortcuts to achieve these 3 keys to a more beneficial practice, but you can get help along the way. At Total.Yoga.Practice we are dedicated to helping yoga practitioners like you on your journey to a healthier and balanced mind and body. Every 2 weeks our Total.Hatha service provides our members with a fresh, hour long, professional yoga instruction video streamed directly to your computer via the internet, helping you to regularly schedule a challenging yoga practice into your busy life, even when you travel.
There are however three factors that are 100% under your control, that affect not only your enjoyment of your practice, but just as importantly, the benefits you receive from each practice.
Challenge yourself
One of the purposes of yoga, like every exercise regime, is to incrementally improve your body's physical capabilities. Yoga of course has the added advantage that it also helps to improve many aspects of your health and well-being that general exercise cannot.
Even with these increased benefits, yoga is not a magic cure-all. Achieving these benefits requires your commitment and effort each time you practice. Achieving incremental improvements to your capabilities requires (and allows) you to further challenge your own physical limitiations. Over time gradual improvements result in large gains in your yoga abilities and the health benenfits of your practice.
In every posture you should be looking to make sure first that you are stable and comfortable in the posture. You should then be aiming to slowly and smoothly deepen the stretch as far as it remains pain free for you to do so. In all postures you should feel the stretch in the relevant muscles and deepen into the stretch in a controlled manner to avoid damaging your muscles and ligaments. Only through challenging your current abilities can your body develop, grow and strengthen to achieve new abilities, but also listen carefully to your body to know when to stop.
Breathe
Without breath and air, there is no life. Using this definition of the importance of breathing, it is not difficult to accept that correct breathing has an inpact on your health. There is a lot of discussion and research within the medical comunity into the importance and health benefits of yoga breathing. While these may well prove to be real benefits, adopting relaxed, controlled yoga breathing definitely helps to improve your overall yoga practice.
The natural tendency, when practicing an asana (yoga posture) that tests your physical strength or flexibility, is to tense your body and shorten your breath. This stressful breathing technique encourages you to tense your muscles and fight against the asana and the stretch. This is the opposite of the desired state for practicing yoga.
Instead it's important that you concentrate on your breathing, completing a long, controlled inhale exhale cycle that fills your lungs to capture the maximum amount of oxygen for each breath. Focusing on your breathing in this way, helps you to remain relaxed and allows you to be more aware of your physical condition enabling you to better feel the stretch, be aware of tension in your muscles and concentrate on releasing that tension and loosen to muscles you're working on. Through this increased awareness of what you body is telling you and by noticing and releasing tension in your muscles, it's easier to accept each stretch and go deeper into each asana and hold it for longer without injury.
Practice, Practice and Practice.
As with all exercise, the benefits only come with a commitment to regular practice. Only through regular practice of exercise does the body start to develop, strengthen, adapt and change according to the physical demands you are placing on it. Practicing yoga is no different. Regular practice helps to build the muscle strength required to hold asanas. More than that, you'll develop increased lung capacity and provide the regular stimulation to the internal organs that helps balance chemical and hormone levels. Frequent practice helps to learn any new skill or ability and yoga is no different. In particular repetition helps your body learn the correct position for balancing postures, to the extent that it becomes second nature - just like riding a bike. Another area where frequent practice is highly beneficial is learning how to slow and calm your mind, to purge your thoughts of the worries and stresses of the day.
A helping hand
Obviously there are no shortcuts to achieve these 3 keys to a more beneficial practice, but you can get help along the way. At Total.Yoga.Practice we are dedicated to helping yoga practitioners like you on your journey to a healthier and balanced mind and body. Every 2 weeks our Total.Hatha service provides our members with a fresh, hour long, professional yoga instruction video streamed directly to your computer via the internet, helping you to regularly schedule a challenging yoga practice into your busy life, even when you travel.
Friday, October 26, 2007
SECREATS OF PRANAYAMA AND YOGA
Pranayama explained
As we become more familiar with yoga and the Indian tradition of the 8 limbs of Hatha yoga, we are likely to hear of Pranayama or yoga breathing and practice some of the techniques in this limb of yoga. While some styles of yoga encourage the combination of asana and Pranayama (primarily ujjayi breathing), Pranayama is a separate limb of yoga and is usually practiced separately to yoga asana.Pranayama is comprised of the root words "Prana" meaning breathe or life force, "yama" meaning control or discipline and "ayam" which means expansion. Translations of the meaning of pranayama include "expansion of the life force through breath control". In practical terms Pranayama refers to a set of breathing techniques that are used for relaxation, concentration and meditation.In a similar manner to the development of yoga asana, these Pranayama breathing techniques have been developed and expanded over the years by subsequent masters. The earliest references to Pranayama were made in the Upanishads. This reference was further clarified and refined by Patanjali in the yoga sutras, where he defined Pranayama as the 4th limb of yoga. Patenjali originally defined only 3 breathing techniques. These 3 techniques have been further expanded to the numerous techniques that exist today.The importance of Prana is emphasized throughout yoga. Many yoga masters illustrate this by demonstrating the importance of breath for sustaining life. A very effective illustration comes by comparing the time people can survive without food (a few weeks), water (a few days) with the amount of time one could survive without air (only a few minutes). Efficient and effective breathing is essential to take in the required amounts of oxygen in order to sustain daily activities. There are 4 stages to breathing in pranayama, should be controlled, these are:
Inhalation (Puraka) - which focuses on controlling the intake of air, keeping it smooth and efficient.
Internal retention of air (antara kumbhaka) - which focuses on controlling the retention of air within the lungs after an inhalation.
Exhalation (Recaka) - which focuses on controlling the expelling of used air and waist from the lungs.
External retention (bahya kumbhaka) - which focuses on controlling the retention of empty lungs after an exhalation. Many, but not all, Pranayama techniques focus on extending the time for each of these 4 stages of the breathing cycle. This includes developing a long, smooth and steady inhalation that lasts the same duration as the exhalation and making sure that the lungs are completely full or completely empty at the end of each. It also includes extending the length of time the breath is held with the lungs full and the lungs empty to increase the efficiency of the breathing cycle. Controlling the breath in this manner requires the use of the mind to resist the natural and automatic impulses and desires of the body to breath, particularly during the internal and external retention of the breath. Not only does the Pranayama have a direct impact on the brain through changes to the amount of oxygen brought to the brain through the blood, but focusing on the breath in this manner has a profound effect on the mind and concentration. All of which makes Pranayama an important to enhance relaxation, concentration (Dharana) and meditation (Dhyana).It is interesting and important to note that even the earliest descriptions of Pranayama included certain cautions relating to its practice and suggest following the guidance of a master. B.K.S Iyengar reiterates these cautions by referring to the fight between the mind and the body around the retention of breath. Without a stable state of mind and proper care this mental fight can lead deep mental dislocation and damage leading to a split in the personality or schizophrenia. It is unclear whether any cases have ever occurred as a result of practicing Pranayama.On a more practical level restricting oxygen flow to the brain can lead to faintness, light-headedness or dizziness. If any of these or any other pain or adverse effects are experienced during Pranayama, then the practice should be stopped and medical advice sought.
How does pranayama work
During respiration we breathe in air, and the lungs oxygenate the blood and expels carbon dioxide and other waste gasses from the blood in a process known as alvioli. Those gasses are expelled when we exhale. This process is subconscious or autonomic, and is not necessarily happening in a balanced and efficient manner.Pranayama relates to bringing mental consciousness to the normally subconscious activity of breathing in order to make it more efficient and balance the oxygen, carbon dioxide and other soluble gas levels in the blood. Through this consciousness we are using the mind to control the body. In yogic terms being able to control the mind is essential in for concentration (Dharana) and meditation (Dhyana). In practical term greater mental control helps to bring emotional control and balance and mental clarity.In addition to this pranayama aims to improve the efficiency of oxygenation of the blood. On average people tend to take short shallow breaths, a situation which is exaggerated when stressed or emotional. During this shallow breathing it is estimated that the average person uses only between half and two thirds of their lung capacity, with the remaining healthy lung surface remaining unused. This means that by breathing more optimally each breath can transfer up to fifty percent more oxygen into the blood to feed the body.When we breathe not all of the inhaled air is exhaled. Some of air inhaled and waste carbon dioxide remains in the lungs and windpipe during exhalation when inefficient, shallow breathing is used. This continues to recycle in the respiratory system reducing the amount of new oxygen available for avioli. By breathing deeply and completely emptying the lungs, far less of this stale air and carbon dioxide remains in the lungs improving the effectiveness of each breath.
What are the benefits
At the anatomical level Pranayama aims to improve the strength of the diaphragm and the capacity of the lungs to improve the efficiency of the respiratory system, helping to increase fitness and increase the amount of oxygen entering the blood stream per breath. This oxygen helps to provide essential energy for muscle and brain function.On a more detailed level pranayama is though to:
Increase concentration, creativity and cognitive brain functions.
Increase relaxation and calmness by releasing tension.
Improved mind and physical control, helping control emotions and relieve tension.
Improved signing through increases abdominal and diaphragm strength and control. Pranayama is also thought to help with the many medical conditions, with clinical trial evidence to support some of these claims. It should be noted that pranayama should be a compliment to current treatments and should be practiced under the guidance of an experienced pranayama yoga master.Specific conditions that respond to Pranayama include:
Asthma.
Allergies.
High or low blood pressure.
Stress-related heart conditions.
Hyperactivity.
Insomnia.
Chronic pain.
Some psychological conditions.
Metabolic and endocrine imbalances.
As we become more familiar with yoga and the Indian tradition of the 8 limbs of Hatha yoga, we are likely to hear of Pranayama or yoga breathing and practice some of the techniques in this limb of yoga. While some styles of yoga encourage the combination of asana and Pranayama (primarily ujjayi breathing), Pranayama is a separate limb of yoga and is usually practiced separately to yoga asana.Pranayama is comprised of the root words "Prana" meaning breathe or life force, "yama" meaning control or discipline and "ayam" which means expansion. Translations of the meaning of pranayama include "expansion of the life force through breath control". In practical terms Pranayama refers to a set of breathing techniques that are used for relaxation, concentration and meditation.In a similar manner to the development of yoga asana, these Pranayama breathing techniques have been developed and expanded over the years by subsequent masters. The earliest references to Pranayama were made in the Upanishads. This reference was further clarified and refined by Patanjali in the yoga sutras, where he defined Pranayama as the 4th limb of yoga. Patenjali originally defined only 3 breathing techniques. These 3 techniques have been further expanded to the numerous techniques that exist today.The importance of Prana is emphasized throughout yoga. Many yoga masters illustrate this by demonstrating the importance of breath for sustaining life. A very effective illustration comes by comparing the time people can survive without food (a few weeks), water (a few days) with the amount of time one could survive without air (only a few minutes). Efficient and effective breathing is essential to take in the required amounts of oxygen in order to sustain daily activities. There are 4 stages to breathing in pranayama, should be controlled, these are:
Inhalation (Puraka) - which focuses on controlling the intake of air, keeping it smooth and efficient.
Internal retention of air (antara kumbhaka) - which focuses on controlling the retention of air within the lungs after an inhalation.
Exhalation (Recaka) - which focuses on controlling the expelling of used air and waist from the lungs.
External retention (bahya kumbhaka) - which focuses on controlling the retention of empty lungs after an exhalation. Many, but not all, Pranayama techniques focus on extending the time for each of these 4 stages of the breathing cycle. This includes developing a long, smooth and steady inhalation that lasts the same duration as the exhalation and making sure that the lungs are completely full or completely empty at the end of each. It also includes extending the length of time the breath is held with the lungs full and the lungs empty to increase the efficiency of the breathing cycle. Controlling the breath in this manner requires the use of the mind to resist the natural and automatic impulses and desires of the body to breath, particularly during the internal and external retention of the breath. Not only does the Pranayama have a direct impact on the brain through changes to the amount of oxygen brought to the brain through the blood, but focusing on the breath in this manner has a profound effect on the mind and concentration. All of which makes Pranayama an important to enhance relaxation, concentration (Dharana) and meditation (Dhyana).It is interesting and important to note that even the earliest descriptions of Pranayama included certain cautions relating to its practice and suggest following the guidance of a master. B.K.S Iyengar reiterates these cautions by referring to the fight between the mind and the body around the retention of breath. Without a stable state of mind and proper care this mental fight can lead deep mental dislocation and damage leading to a split in the personality or schizophrenia. It is unclear whether any cases have ever occurred as a result of practicing Pranayama.On a more practical level restricting oxygen flow to the brain can lead to faintness, light-headedness or dizziness. If any of these or any other pain or adverse effects are experienced during Pranayama, then the practice should be stopped and medical advice sought.
How does pranayama work
During respiration we breathe in air, and the lungs oxygenate the blood and expels carbon dioxide and other waste gasses from the blood in a process known as alvioli. Those gasses are expelled when we exhale. This process is subconscious or autonomic, and is not necessarily happening in a balanced and efficient manner.Pranayama relates to bringing mental consciousness to the normally subconscious activity of breathing in order to make it more efficient and balance the oxygen, carbon dioxide and other soluble gas levels in the blood. Through this consciousness we are using the mind to control the body. In yogic terms being able to control the mind is essential in for concentration (Dharana) and meditation (Dhyana). In practical term greater mental control helps to bring emotional control and balance and mental clarity.In addition to this pranayama aims to improve the efficiency of oxygenation of the blood. On average people tend to take short shallow breaths, a situation which is exaggerated when stressed or emotional. During this shallow breathing it is estimated that the average person uses only between half and two thirds of their lung capacity, with the remaining healthy lung surface remaining unused. This means that by breathing more optimally each breath can transfer up to fifty percent more oxygen into the blood to feed the body.When we breathe not all of the inhaled air is exhaled. Some of air inhaled and waste carbon dioxide remains in the lungs and windpipe during exhalation when inefficient, shallow breathing is used. This continues to recycle in the respiratory system reducing the amount of new oxygen available for avioli. By breathing deeply and completely emptying the lungs, far less of this stale air and carbon dioxide remains in the lungs improving the effectiveness of each breath.
What are the benefits
At the anatomical level Pranayama aims to improve the strength of the diaphragm and the capacity of the lungs to improve the efficiency of the respiratory system, helping to increase fitness and increase the amount of oxygen entering the blood stream per breath. This oxygen helps to provide essential energy for muscle and brain function.On a more detailed level pranayama is though to:
Increase concentration, creativity and cognitive brain functions.
Increase relaxation and calmness by releasing tension.
Improved mind and physical control, helping control emotions and relieve tension.
Improved signing through increases abdominal and diaphragm strength and control. Pranayama is also thought to help with the many medical conditions, with clinical trial evidence to support some of these claims. It should be noted that pranayama should be a compliment to current treatments and should be practiced under the guidance of an experienced pranayama yoga master.Specific conditions that respond to Pranayama include:
Asthma.
Allergies.
High or low blood pressure.
Stress-related heart conditions.
Hyperactivity.
Insomnia.
Chronic pain.
Some psychological conditions.
Metabolic and endocrine imbalances.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
How to Meditate
Preparation
The preparatory practices prepare our mind for successful meditation by purifying hindrances caused by our previous negative actions, empowering our mind with merit, and inspiring it with the blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
Geshe Kelsang explains that we all have the potential to gain realizations of the twenty-one Lamrim meditations. As he says,
These potentials are like seeds in the field of our mind, and our meditation practice is like cultivating these seeds. However, our meditation practice will be successful only if we make good preparations beforehand. If we want to cultivate external crops we begin by making careful preparations. First, we remove from the soil anything that might obstruct their growth, such as stones and weeds. Second, we enrich the soil with compost or fertilizer to give it the strength to sustain growth. Third, we provide warm, moist conditions to enable the seeds to germinate and the plants to grow. In the same way, to cultivate our inner crops of Dharma realizations we must also begin by making careful preparations. First, we must purify our mind to eliminate the negative karma we have accumulated in the past, because if we do not purify this karma it will obstruct the growth of Dharma realizations. Second, we need to give our mind the strength to support the growth of Dharma realizations by accumulating merit. Third, we need to activate and sustain the growth of Dharma realizations by receiving the blessings of the holy beings. It is very important to receive blessings. For example, if we are growing outer crops, even if we remove the weeds and fertilize the soil we shall not be able to grow anything if we do not provide warmth and moisture. These germinate the seeds, sustain the growth of the plants, and finally ripen the crop. In the same way, even if we purify our mind and accumulate merit we shall find it difficult to meet with success in our meditations if we do not receive the blessings of the holy beings. Receiving blessings transforms our mind by activating our virtuous potentials, sustaining the growth of our Dharma realizations, and bringing our Dharma practice to completion.
From this we can see that there are three essential preparations for successful meditation: purifying negativities, accumulating merit, and receiving blessings.
If you like, you can engage in these preparatory practices by reciting the following prayers while contemplating their meaning,
Going for refuge
(We imagine ourself and all other living beings going for refuge while reciting three times): I and all sentient beings, until we achieve enlightenment, Go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. (3x, 7x, 100x, or more)
Generating bodhichitta
Through the virtues I collect by giving and other perfections, May I become a Buddha for the benefit of all. (3x)
Generating the four immeasurables
May everyone be happy, May everyone be free from misery, May no one ever be separated from their happiness, May everyone have equanimity, free from hatred and attachment.
Visualizing the Field for Accumulating Merit
In the space before me is the living Buddha Shakyamuni surrounded by all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, like the full moon surrounded by stars.
Prayer of seven limbs
With my body, speech, and mind, humbly I prostrate, And make offerings both set out and imagined. I confess my wrong deeds from all time, And rejoice in the virtues of all. Please stay until samsara ceases, And turn the Wheel of Dharma for us. I dedicate all virtues to great enlightenment.
Offering the mandala
The ground sprinkled with perfume and spread with flowers, The Great Mountain, four lands, sun and moon, Seen as a Buddha Land and offered thus, May all beings enjoy such Pure Lands.
I offer without any sense of loss The objects that give rise to my attachment, hatred, and confusion, My friends, enemies, and strangers, our bodies and enjoyments; Please accept these and bless me to be released directly from the three poisons. IDAM GURU RATNA MANDALAKAM NIRYATAYAMI
Prayer of the Stages of the Path
The path begins with strong reliance On my kind Teacher, source of all good; O Bless me with this understanding To follow him with great devotion.
This human life with all its freedoms, Extremely rare, with so much meaning; O Bless me with this understanding All day and night to seize its essence.
My body, like a water bubble, Decays and dies so very quickly; After death come results of karma, Just like the shadow of a body.
With this firm knowledge and remembrance Bless me to be extremely cautious, Always avoiding harmful actions And gathering abundant virtue.
Samsara's pleasures are deceptive, Give no contentment, only torment; So please bless me to strive sincerely To gain the bliss of perfect freedom.
O Bless me so that from this pure thought Come mindfulness and greatest caution, To keep as my essential practice The doctrine's root, the Pratimoksha.
Just like myself all my kind mothers Are drowning in samsara's ocean; O So that I may soon release them, Bless me to train in bodhichitta.
But I cannot become a Buddha By this alone without three ethics; So bless me with the strength to practise The Bodhisattva's ordination.
By pacifying my distractions And analyzing perfect meanings, Bless me to quickly gain the union Of special insight and quiescence.
When I become a pure container Through common paths, bless me to enter The essence practice of good fortune, The supreme vehicle, Vajrayana.
The two attainments both depend on My sacred vows and my commitments; Bless me to understand this clearly And keep them at the cost of my life.
By constant practice in four sessions, The way explained by holy Teachers, O Bless me to gain both the stages, Which are the essence of the Tantras.
May those who guide me on the good path, And my companions all have long lives; Bless me to pacify completely All obstacles, outer and inner.
May I always find perfect Teachers, And take delight in holy Dharma, Accomplish all grounds and paths swiftly, And gain the state of Vajradhara.
Receiving blessings and purifying
From the hearts of all the holy beings, streams of light and nectar flow down, granting blessings and purifying.
(At this point we begin the actual contemplation and meditation. After the meditation we dedicate our merit while reciting the following prayers:)
Dedication prayers
Through the virtues I have collected By practising the stages of the path, May all living beings find the opportunity To practise in the same way.
May everyone experience The happiness of humans and gods, And quickly attain enlightenment, So that samsara is finally extinguished.
Contemplation
The purpose of contemplation is to bring to mind the object of placement meditation. We do this by considering various lines of reasoning, contemplating analogies, and reflecting on the scriptures. It is helpful to memorize the contemplations given in each section so that we can meditate without having to look at the text. The contemplations given here are intended only as guidelines. We should supplement and enrich them with whatever reasons and examples we find helpful.
Meditation
When through our contemplations the object appears clearly, we leave our analytical meditation and concentrate on the object single-pointedly. This single-pointed concentration is the third part, the actual meditation.
When we first start to meditate, our concentration is poor; we are easily distracted and often lose our object of meditation. Therefore, to begin with we shall probably need to alternate between contemplation and placement meditation many times in each session. For example, if we are meditating on compassion we begin by contemplating the various sufferings experienced by living beings until a strong feeling of compassion arises in our heart. When this feeling arises we meditate on it single-pointedly. If the feeling fades, or if our mind wanders to another object, we should return to analytical meditation to bring the feeling back to mind. When the feeling has been restored we once again leave our analytical meditation and hold the feeling with single-pointed concentration.
Both contemplation and meditation serve to acquaint our mind with virtuous objects. The more familiar we are with such objects, the more peaceful our mind becomes. By training in meditation, and living in accordance with the insights and resolutions developed during meditation, eventually we shall be able to maintain a peaceful mind continuously, throughout our life. More detailed instructions on the contemplations and on meditation in general can be found in Introduction to Buddhism, Joyful Path of Good Fortune, and Universal Compassion.
Dedication
Dedication directs the merit produced by our meditation towards the attainment of Buddhahood. If merit is not dedicated it can easily be destroyed by anger. By reciting the dedication prayers sincerely at the end of each meditation session we ensure that the merit we created by meditating is not wasted but acts as a cause for enlightenment.
Subsequent Practice
This consists of advice on how to integrate the meditation into our daily life. It is important to remember that Dharma practice is not confined to our activities during the meditation session; it should permeate our whole life. We should not allow a gulf to develop between our meditation and our daily life, because the success of our meditation depends upon the purity of our conduct outside the meditation session. We should keep a watch over our mind at all times by applying mindfulness, alertness, and conscientiousness; and we should try to abandon whatever bad habits we may have. Deep experience of Dharma is the result of practical training over a long period of time, both in and out of meditation, therefore we should practise steadily and gently, without being in a hurry to see results. To summarize, our mind is like a field. Engaging in the preparatory practices is like preparing the field by removing obstacles caused by past negative actions, making it fertile with merit, and watering it with the blessings of the holy beings. Contemplation and meditation are like sowing good seeds, and dedication and subsequent practice are the methods for ripening our harvest of Dharma realizations.
Lamrim instructions are not given merely for the sake of intellectual understanding of the path to enlightenment. They are given to help us to gain deep experience, and should therefore be put into practice. If we train our mind in these meditations every day, eventually we shall gain perfect realizations of all the stages of the path. Until we have reached this stage we should not tire of listening to oral teachings on Lamrim or reading authentic Lamrim commentaries, and then contemplating and meditating on these instructions. We need continually to expand our understanding of these essential topics and to use this new understanding to enhance our regular meditation.
The preparatory practices prepare our mind for successful meditation by purifying hindrances caused by our previous negative actions, empowering our mind with merit, and inspiring it with the blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
Geshe Kelsang explains that we all have the potential to gain realizations of the twenty-one Lamrim meditations. As he says,
These potentials are like seeds in the field of our mind, and our meditation practice is like cultivating these seeds. However, our meditation practice will be successful only if we make good preparations beforehand. If we want to cultivate external crops we begin by making careful preparations. First, we remove from the soil anything that might obstruct their growth, such as stones and weeds. Second, we enrich the soil with compost or fertilizer to give it the strength to sustain growth. Third, we provide warm, moist conditions to enable the seeds to germinate and the plants to grow. In the same way, to cultivate our inner crops of Dharma realizations we must also begin by making careful preparations. First, we must purify our mind to eliminate the negative karma we have accumulated in the past, because if we do not purify this karma it will obstruct the growth of Dharma realizations. Second, we need to give our mind the strength to support the growth of Dharma realizations by accumulating merit. Third, we need to activate and sustain the growth of Dharma realizations by receiving the blessings of the holy beings. It is very important to receive blessings. For example, if we are growing outer crops, even if we remove the weeds and fertilize the soil we shall not be able to grow anything if we do not provide warmth and moisture. These germinate the seeds, sustain the growth of the plants, and finally ripen the crop. In the same way, even if we purify our mind and accumulate merit we shall find it difficult to meet with success in our meditations if we do not receive the blessings of the holy beings. Receiving blessings transforms our mind by activating our virtuous potentials, sustaining the growth of our Dharma realizations, and bringing our Dharma practice to completion.
From this we can see that there are three essential preparations for successful meditation: purifying negativities, accumulating merit, and receiving blessings.
If you like, you can engage in these preparatory practices by reciting the following prayers while contemplating their meaning,
Going for refuge
(We imagine ourself and all other living beings going for refuge while reciting three times): I and all sentient beings, until we achieve enlightenment, Go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. (3x, 7x, 100x, or more)
Generating bodhichitta
Through the virtues I collect by giving and other perfections, May I become a Buddha for the benefit of all. (3x)
Generating the four immeasurables
May everyone be happy, May everyone be free from misery, May no one ever be separated from their happiness, May everyone have equanimity, free from hatred and attachment.
Visualizing the Field for Accumulating Merit
In the space before me is the living Buddha Shakyamuni surrounded by all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, like the full moon surrounded by stars.
Prayer of seven limbs
With my body, speech, and mind, humbly I prostrate, And make offerings both set out and imagined. I confess my wrong deeds from all time, And rejoice in the virtues of all. Please stay until samsara ceases, And turn the Wheel of Dharma for us. I dedicate all virtues to great enlightenment.
Offering the mandala
The ground sprinkled with perfume and spread with flowers, The Great Mountain, four lands, sun and moon, Seen as a Buddha Land and offered thus, May all beings enjoy such Pure Lands.
I offer without any sense of loss The objects that give rise to my attachment, hatred, and confusion, My friends, enemies, and strangers, our bodies and enjoyments; Please accept these and bless me to be released directly from the three poisons. IDAM GURU RATNA MANDALAKAM NIRYATAYAMI
Prayer of the Stages of the Path
The path begins with strong reliance On my kind Teacher, source of all good; O Bless me with this understanding To follow him with great devotion.
This human life with all its freedoms, Extremely rare, with so much meaning; O Bless me with this understanding All day and night to seize its essence.
My body, like a water bubble, Decays and dies so very quickly; After death come results of karma, Just like the shadow of a body.
With this firm knowledge and remembrance Bless me to be extremely cautious, Always avoiding harmful actions And gathering abundant virtue.
Samsara's pleasures are deceptive, Give no contentment, only torment; So please bless me to strive sincerely To gain the bliss of perfect freedom.
O Bless me so that from this pure thought Come mindfulness and greatest caution, To keep as my essential practice The doctrine's root, the Pratimoksha.
Just like myself all my kind mothers Are drowning in samsara's ocean; O So that I may soon release them, Bless me to train in bodhichitta.
But I cannot become a Buddha By this alone without three ethics; So bless me with the strength to practise The Bodhisattva's ordination.
By pacifying my distractions And analyzing perfect meanings, Bless me to quickly gain the union Of special insight and quiescence.
When I become a pure container Through common paths, bless me to enter The essence practice of good fortune, The supreme vehicle, Vajrayana.
The two attainments both depend on My sacred vows and my commitments; Bless me to understand this clearly And keep them at the cost of my life.
By constant practice in four sessions, The way explained by holy Teachers, O Bless me to gain both the stages, Which are the essence of the Tantras.
May those who guide me on the good path, And my companions all have long lives; Bless me to pacify completely All obstacles, outer and inner.
May I always find perfect Teachers, And take delight in holy Dharma, Accomplish all grounds and paths swiftly, And gain the state of Vajradhara.
Receiving blessings and purifying
From the hearts of all the holy beings, streams of light and nectar flow down, granting blessings and purifying.
(At this point we begin the actual contemplation and meditation. After the meditation we dedicate our merit while reciting the following prayers:)
Dedication prayers
Through the virtues I have collected By practising the stages of the path, May all living beings find the opportunity To practise in the same way.
May everyone experience The happiness of humans and gods, And quickly attain enlightenment, So that samsara is finally extinguished.
Contemplation
The purpose of contemplation is to bring to mind the object of placement meditation. We do this by considering various lines of reasoning, contemplating analogies, and reflecting on the scriptures. It is helpful to memorize the contemplations given in each section so that we can meditate without having to look at the text. The contemplations given here are intended only as guidelines. We should supplement and enrich them with whatever reasons and examples we find helpful.
Meditation
When through our contemplations the object appears clearly, we leave our analytical meditation and concentrate on the object single-pointedly. This single-pointed concentration is the third part, the actual meditation.
When we first start to meditate, our concentration is poor; we are easily distracted and often lose our object of meditation. Therefore, to begin with we shall probably need to alternate between contemplation and placement meditation many times in each session. For example, if we are meditating on compassion we begin by contemplating the various sufferings experienced by living beings until a strong feeling of compassion arises in our heart. When this feeling arises we meditate on it single-pointedly. If the feeling fades, or if our mind wanders to another object, we should return to analytical meditation to bring the feeling back to mind. When the feeling has been restored we once again leave our analytical meditation and hold the feeling with single-pointed concentration.
Both contemplation and meditation serve to acquaint our mind with virtuous objects. The more familiar we are with such objects, the more peaceful our mind becomes. By training in meditation, and living in accordance with the insights and resolutions developed during meditation, eventually we shall be able to maintain a peaceful mind continuously, throughout our life. More detailed instructions on the contemplations and on meditation in general can be found in Introduction to Buddhism, Joyful Path of Good Fortune, and Universal Compassion.
Dedication
Dedication directs the merit produced by our meditation towards the attainment of Buddhahood. If merit is not dedicated it can easily be destroyed by anger. By reciting the dedication prayers sincerely at the end of each meditation session we ensure that the merit we created by meditating is not wasted but acts as a cause for enlightenment.
Subsequent Practice
This consists of advice on how to integrate the meditation into our daily life. It is important to remember that Dharma practice is not confined to our activities during the meditation session; it should permeate our whole life. We should not allow a gulf to develop between our meditation and our daily life, because the success of our meditation depends upon the purity of our conduct outside the meditation session. We should keep a watch over our mind at all times by applying mindfulness, alertness, and conscientiousness; and we should try to abandon whatever bad habits we may have. Deep experience of Dharma is the result of practical training over a long period of time, both in and out of meditation, therefore we should practise steadily and gently, without being in a hurry to see results. To summarize, our mind is like a field. Engaging in the preparatory practices is like preparing the field by removing obstacles caused by past negative actions, making it fertile with merit, and watering it with the blessings of the holy beings. Contemplation and meditation are like sowing good seeds, and dedication and subsequent practice are the methods for ripening our harvest of Dharma realizations.
Lamrim instructions are not given merely for the sake of intellectual understanding of the path to enlightenment. They are given to help us to gain deep experience, and should therefore be put into practice. If we train our mind in these meditations every day, eventually we shall gain perfect realizations of all the stages of the path. Until we have reached this stage we should not tire of listening to oral teachings on Lamrim or reading authentic Lamrim commentaries, and then contemplating and meditating on these instructions. We need continually to expand our understanding of these essential topics and to use this new understanding to enhance our regular meditation.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Soul & Body
KNOWLEDGE OF SOUL ----- WHY?
Lack of knowledge of one’s true self’s is the real cause of all human suffering and unhappiness. Man today identifies himself with the body, mostly sensuously. He does not know much about the immortal entity, called ‘soul’ which resides in, and functions through the body. Man’s ignorance about soul results in a ‘body-conscious’ or worldly approach towards life. His sub-conscious is constantly haunted by the fear of death, which he thinks, will deprive him of everything he possesses and holds dear. Human suffering on mass-scale caused by natural calamities and wars confuse him still more. These phenomena compel him to think at sometime or the other as to whether these happenings take place by sheer accident of ‘luck’ or there are definite laws governing the same. At times he also wonders as to who He is and what is he doing here? Why is everything so transient and perishable, with the signature of death on it? Unless these fundamental aspects of life are rightly understood, the body-conscious approach is bound to be there. Man’s ignorance about his true self leads him to the wrong conclusion that his physical existence is the be all and end all of everything. This results in his adopting wrong values in life, which in turn leads to his committing wrong acts and consequently cause suffering to him. No wonder, inspite of striving hard, he is unable to avoid sorrows and sufferings in life. Proper knowledge of one’s real self i.e. the ‘soul', its functioning and its role in the world Drama is, therefore, a ‘must’ for leading a peaceful, contented, happy and liberated life.
SOUL – THE PROGRAMMER
A human being is a 'soul' in a physical body. Just as a person who speaks and listens through a telephone instrument is an entity separate from the telephone set—in the same way, the 'soul' is an entity separate from the body. While the body is composed of five elements of matter and is operated through the mechanism of the physical brain by the soul, the ‘soul’ itself operates through its own faculties of mind, intellect and resolves(sanskars). The body, which is composed of five elements-- earth, water, fire, air, and ether are antagonistic to one another. Earth is dissolved by water, water is dried by fire, fire is consumed by air and air is absorbed by ether--but the soul in the body gives life to these five elements and makes them compatible with one another. The moment the soul withdraws from the body --the body supposedly dies --and earth merges in earth, water merges in water, fire in fire, air in air, and ether in ether. The body and its organs are only the agents or means to carry out the dictates of the soul. To explain it further it is not the mouth that speaks of its own, but it is the soul that speaks through the mouth-organ of the body. Thus the soul sees, hears, speaks and feels through the body. These functions are performed through the medium of the five senses of sight, sound, speech, smell and touch. Hence the soul can be likened to a programmer (user), the human brain to the computer and the human body to the robot. Just as a driver of any vehicle sits in the vehicle, but is separate from it, so also the soul who is the driver of the human body is separate from it, although residing within it. At the same time, the soul cannot do anything without body nor the body is of any use without the soul on this Karma Bhoomi ( World of Action). It is readily evident that the programmer, the computer and the robot are distinct and separate entities. However, since the soul has been in a physical body since birth, and birth after birth, gradually it has identified itself with the body. The soul is seated in a position in the center of the skull, just behind the pituitary gland, at the base of the hypothalamus.The surface marking between the two eyebrows--known as the 'eye center'-- 'Brahkuti' or 'the third eye', represents the point of exit and point of entry of the soul in the body. The soul (consciousness) enters the womb of the mother in the fifth month of gestation, which corresponds well with the first movement of the foetus experienced by the mother during that time. In Hindu culture, the bindi (dot) applied on the forehead between the two eyes by the sisters and mothers--and tilak applied by the brothers is the symbolic remembrance of the soul--atma-(point of light)--third eye--the eye of the intellect.
The mind is non-physical, feeling and thinking faculty of the soul, where thoughts are constantly in play. All thoughts and emotions originate in the mind. The speed of mind is the fastest and unparelelled among even the fastest modes of science. It can reach anywhere within a fraction of a second. Just a thought can take one to his remotest past and farthest place in no time. Being a subtle power, the mind does not come across any barrier of time and space. In less than a second the mind can go into the past or future, re-live and experience it and feel sad or happy as the case may be. It is rightly said, 'It's all in the Mind'. Sitting in his room man can think of the sun faster than light can travel from the sun to him. Mind should be distinguished from the ‘heart’ which is a physical organ. The ‘heart’ is not the seat of emotions—but the target of emotions, which are originating in the mind.
The intellect is the discriminating and judging faculty of the soul, which takes decisions, based on past stimuli already stored in and present stimuli currently being received by the mind. It understands, reasons out, discriminates and takes decisions. Intellect should be distinguished from the ‘brain’ which is a physical organ of the body. Brain is the center of the nervous system of the body and serves as the control panel for the soul to conduct and regulate the different organs of the body.
The resolves (sanskars) consist of the resultant impressions, generated by every thought, word, and deed upto a given point of time, which are then responsible for triggering or producing fresh thoughts. Therefore, resolves give birth to thoughts, which emerge in the mind, and if accepted by the intellect are translated into action, which in turn creates new impressions. This forms a cyclic pattern. Sanskars determine the overall personality of an individual.
Lack of knowledge of one’s true self’s is the real cause of all human suffering and unhappiness. Man today identifies himself with the body, mostly sensuously. He does not know much about the immortal entity, called ‘soul’ which resides in, and functions through the body. Man’s ignorance about soul results in a ‘body-conscious’ or worldly approach towards life. His sub-conscious is constantly haunted by the fear of death, which he thinks, will deprive him of everything he possesses and holds dear. Human suffering on mass-scale caused by natural calamities and wars confuse him still more. These phenomena compel him to think at sometime or the other as to whether these happenings take place by sheer accident of ‘luck’ or there are definite laws governing the same. At times he also wonders as to who He is and what is he doing here? Why is everything so transient and perishable, with the signature of death on it? Unless these fundamental aspects of life are rightly understood, the body-conscious approach is bound to be there. Man’s ignorance about his true self leads him to the wrong conclusion that his physical existence is the be all and end all of everything. This results in his adopting wrong values in life, which in turn leads to his committing wrong acts and consequently cause suffering to him. No wonder, inspite of striving hard, he is unable to avoid sorrows and sufferings in life. Proper knowledge of one’s real self i.e. the ‘soul', its functioning and its role in the world Drama is, therefore, a ‘must’ for leading a peaceful, contented, happy and liberated life.
SOUL – THE PROGRAMMER
A human being is a 'soul' in a physical body. Just as a person who speaks and listens through a telephone instrument is an entity separate from the telephone set—in the same way, the 'soul' is an entity separate from the body. While the body is composed of five elements of matter and is operated through the mechanism of the physical brain by the soul, the ‘soul’ itself operates through its own faculties of mind, intellect and resolves(sanskars). The body, which is composed of five elements-- earth, water, fire, air, and ether are antagonistic to one another. Earth is dissolved by water, water is dried by fire, fire is consumed by air and air is absorbed by ether--but the soul in the body gives life to these five elements and makes them compatible with one another. The moment the soul withdraws from the body --the body supposedly dies --and earth merges in earth, water merges in water, fire in fire, air in air, and ether in ether. The body and its organs are only the agents or means to carry out the dictates of the soul. To explain it further it is not the mouth that speaks of its own, but it is the soul that speaks through the mouth-organ of the body. Thus the soul sees, hears, speaks and feels through the body. These functions are performed through the medium of the five senses of sight, sound, speech, smell and touch. Hence the soul can be likened to a programmer (user), the human brain to the computer and the human body to the robot. Just as a driver of any vehicle sits in the vehicle, but is separate from it, so also the soul who is the driver of the human body is separate from it, although residing within it. At the same time, the soul cannot do anything without body nor the body is of any use without the soul on this Karma Bhoomi ( World of Action). It is readily evident that the programmer, the computer and the robot are distinct and separate entities. However, since the soul has been in a physical body since birth, and birth after birth, gradually it has identified itself with the body. The soul is seated in a position in the center of the skull, just behind the pituitary gland, at the base of the hypothalamus.The surface marking between the two eyebrows--known as the 'eye center'-- 'Brahkuti' or 'the third eye', represents the point of exit and point of entry of the soul in the body. The soul (consciousness) enters the womb of the mother in the fifth month of gestation, which corresponds well with the first movement of the foetus experienced by the mother during that time. In Hindu culture, the bindi (dot) applied on the forehead between the two eyes by the sisters and mothers--and tilak applied by the brothers is the symbolic remembrance of the soul--atma-(point of light)--third eye--the eye of the intellect.
The mind is non-physical, feeling and thinking faculty of the soul, where thoughts are constantly in play. All thoughts and emotions originate in the mind. The speed of mind is the fastest and unparelelled among even the fastest modes of science. It can reach anywhere within a fraction of a second. Just a thought can take one to his remotest past and farthest place in no time. Being a subtle power, the mind does not come across any barrier of time and space. In less than a second the mind can go into the past or future, re-live and experience it and feel sad or happy as the case may be. It is rightly said, 'It's all in the Mind'. Sitting in his room man can think of the sun faster than light can travel from the sun to him. Mind should be distinguished from the ‘heart’ which is a physical organ. The ‘heart’ is not the seat of emotions—but the target of emotions, which are originating in the mind.
The intellect is the discriminating and judging faculty of the soul, which takes decisions, based on past stimuli already stored in and present stimuli currently being received by the mind. It understands, reasons out, discriminates and takes decisions. Intellect should be distinguished from the ‘brain’ which is a physical organ of the body. Brain is the center of the nervous system of the body and serves as the control panel for the soul to conduct and regulate the different organs of the body.
The resolves (sanskars) consist of the resultant impressions, generated by every thought, word, and deed upto a given point of time, which are then responsible for triggering or producing fresh thoughts. Therefore, resolves give birth to thoughts, which emerge in the mind, and if accepted by the intellect are translated into action, which in turn creates new impressions. This forms a cyclic pattern. Sanskars determine the overall personality of an individual.
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