Song Of Milarepa

Milarepa - A Tibetan Buddhist yogi and poet, gives this simple but comprehensive picture of human life.

"Youth is like a summer flower - 

Suddenly it fades away.

Old age is like a fire spreading

Through the Fields - suddenly, it's at your heels.

The Buddha once said, "Birth and death

Are like sunrise and sunset

Now come, now go."

Sickness is like a little bird

Wounded by a sling.

Know you not, health and strength

Will in time desert you?

Death is like a dry oil lamp

(After its last flicker)

This world is impermanent;

Nothing, I assure you

Can remain unchanging.

Evil karma is like a waterfall

Which I have never seen flow upward,

A sinful man is like a poisonous tree -

If you lean on it, you will injured be.

Transgressors are like frost-bitten peas - 

Like spoilt fat, they ruin everything.

Dharma practisers are like peasants cultivating in the fields.

The Law of Karma is like Samsara'a wheel - 

Whoever breaks it will suffer a great loss.

Samsara is like a poisonous thorn

In the flesh - if not pulled out,

The poison will increase and spread.

The coming of death is like the shadow

Of a tree at sunset - 

It runs fast and none can halt it.

When that time comes.

What else can help but the Holy Dharma?

Though Dharma is the fount of Victory,

Those who aspire to it are rare.

Scores of men are tangled in

The miseries of Samsara

Into this misfortune born,

They strive by plunder and theft for gain.

When you are strong and healthy

You never think of sickness coming,

But it descends with sudden force

Like a stroke of lightening.

Sickness, old age and death

Ever meet each other

As do hands and mouth

Do you not fear the miseries

You experienced in the past?

Surely you will feel much pain

If misfortunes attack you?

The woes of life succeed one another

Like the sea's incessant waves - 

One has barely passed, before

The next one takes its place.

Until you are liberated, pain

And pleasure come and go at random

Like passers-by encountered in the street.

Pleasures are precarious,

Like bathing in the sun;

Transient, too, as the snow storms

Which come without warning.

Remembering these things,

Why not practise the Dharma?"

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Buddha's Eigthfold Path of Even-Mindedness

 

To have aspirations and ambitions is normal. To realise their ambitions, people toil hard and put in all efforts, even sacrificing family and personal lives. Yet, often this goal remains a mirage.

For instance, when your boss praises you for good work done, everything goes just right, and when you return home you begin to dream of all the things you can do with the support of your boss and the heights you can reach. Perhaps, the next time you meet him he is very busy in attending to some urgent work and is rude with you. Then you feel hurt and all your plans go out of the window. 

Suffering and frustration in life are inescapable. The root causes for this being uncontrolled desire and ambition. The cause of frustration can be removed through overcoming desires and drawing a line to craving for more. This can be attained by being mindfull of the way you think things should be. And out of mindfulness you begin to develop awareness of the things the way they really are.

To attain this even-mindedness in all situations, Buddha has laid down the Eightfold Path.

First, view the world in right perspective. Instead of imposing your expectations onto things, see things simple as they are.

Second, do not try to manipulate situations in line with preconcieved notions of how they should be. Just, work with what is.

Third, do not hesitate about what you say.

Fourth, give up the tendency to complicate the issues that could usually cloud relationships. Be simple and straightforward.

Fifth, it is only normal that you should earn your living. Many are disgruntled with their jobs. The truth is you should perform your responsibilities properly and be happy with what you do.

Sixth, make the right effort to see things as they are and work with what it is without aggression.

Seventh, be precise, clear and mindful of what you speak, perform and behave.

And lastly, be absorbed in things as they are, instead of being absent-minded and captivated by distractions.

The wisdom attained by this, provides a deep understanding of life in the right perspective.

The Buddha says that he who is wise & virtuous, gentle & humble, energetic & not indolent, remains unshaken in misfortune, is hospitable & friendly, unselfish & generous, impartial and liberal. He attains the true honor as a Human Being.

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The Cherokee Story

There is an old Cherokee story, that of the white and black wolf, that has become popular in the white world, but is only half told.

In it, the grandfather is talking to his grandson about how inside of each of us lives a white wolf and a black wolf. The white wolf is all that is good about us, and the black wolf is all that is bad. The white wolf thrives on justice and peace and the black wolf thrives on anger, fear and hatred.

What the white world has adopted of this tale is this:

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

In the white world, the story ends like this:The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

In the Cherokee world, the story ends this way:The old Cherokee simply replied, "They both win."

and the story goes on,

"You see, if I only choose to feed the white wolf, the black one will be hiding around every corner waiting for me to become distracted or weak and jump to get the attention he craves. He will always be angry and always fighting the white wolf.But if I acknowledge him, he is happy and the white wolf is happy and we all win. For the black wolf has many qualities - tenacity, courage, fearlessness, strong-willed and great strategic thinking - that I have need of at times and that the white wolf lacks. But the white wolf has compassion, caring, strength and the ability to recognize what is in the best interest of all. You see son, the white wolf needs the black wolf at his side. To feed only one would starve the other and they will become uncontrollable. To feed and care for both means they will serve you well and do nothing that is not a part of something greater, something good, something of life. Feed them both and there will be no more internal struggle for your attention. And when there is no battle inside, you can listen to the voices of deeper knowing that will guide you in choosing what is right in every circumstance.Peace, my son, is the Cherokee mission is life. A man who has peace inside has everything. A man who is pulled apart by the war inside him has nothing. How you choose to interact with the opposing forces within you will determine your life. Starve one or the other or guide them both."

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Tree Magic

Healing with Trees

Healing with trees is an ancient tradition and is practiced even today. Trees hold a significant place in the well being of nature lovers. The amount of wisdom that can be gained from trees is limitless. Trees are spiritual symbols of nature which represent patience, connectedness to earth, to always be in the present, optimum utilizing of resources, to reach high without losing the ground, to be available for others, and many more of such simple yet valuable pearls of wisdom.

Moreover, Indian culture holds a special place for the sacredness of trees and are often worshiped and prayed by people belonging to Hindu religion. Any temple in India will be found surrounded by at least a few trees within the temple premises and are offered prayers and thanksgivings.

Apart from scientific facts about the medicinal values of trees, nature lovers and spiritual seekers believe that trees help in cleansing the negative energy possessed by us. When a person feels lost or depressed, sitting under a tree gives much relief. Like every living form, trees also have an aura around them, and it is possible to connect to a tree and communicate for the exchange of energy, by which one can feel much relieved of worries and stress.

The documentary below demonstrates how one can practice Tree Magic in daily life.

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Signs To Know You Are Meditating The Right Way.

Often people who are new to the practice of Meditation will encounter many questions about their progress in meditation and whether they are doing it the right way. These doubts are very common and essential for those who practice meditation regularly. It is important to observe some subtle signs which will indicate progress in meditation.

Here are some of the signs which you can look out for the next time you sit for meditation. 

• Spontaneous Relaxation - Very often you may observe that some parts of your body relax by themselves. You may feel slight jerks in certain parts of your body after which there will be increased relaxation and you become comfortable with your posture. 

•  Subtle Vibrations - After few minutes of meditation you may notice your eyes and eye lids are subtly vibrating. This happens because you are consciously aware of your body organs. 

•  Sense of Rhythm in Breathing - You might begin to notice that your breathing follows a rhythmic pattern. This indicates you are developing better concentration in meditation. 

•  Paying Attention to Distant Noises - This is a very good sign which indicates you are being aware of external sounds. During the meditation you may suddenly become aware of the sounds around you like the chirping of birds or distant vehicle sounds. However, do not continue to consciously try to keep hearing such sounds or you would get distracted.

• Seeing Patterns of Moving Light - This is one of the interesting experience during meditation. You may see some strange patterns of colorful patterns of light. This is a very good sign which indicates you are focused "within". After the meditation session, you will realize that you were not aware of any external happenings when you could see the patterns of moving light.

• Feeling of Calmness - If you meditate regularly you will observe that you have a sense of calmness during meditation and throughout the day. Also, you may experience little reluctance to end the meditation session.

•  Vivid Dreams - Continuous practice of meditations will lead you to have very pleasant and vivid dreams. Sometime, you may notice that you sleep during the night is more comforting.

These are some of the signs which are difficult to notice and grasp, and one may often overlook during meditation. However, as you learn to practice deep meditation, your experiences will be much different and intensely comforting.

Apart from these, some very common signs which give assurance of meditating the right way includes, better concentration during your daily activities, being less responsive to external occurrences, a sense of equipoise in all kinds of situations, being more contemplative and many more which you can sense yourself if you pay little attention to the changes that happen in your lifestyle.

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Seeds of Thought

One of the most important principals for achieving success is to understand that your mind is like a garden bed where you cultivate and grow the seeds of thought.

When you plant a positive seed of thought in your mind and nurture it carefully, it germinates and grows until it leads you to take action.

As soon as you begin acting on your idea, your seed of positive thought becomes a seedling of positive action.

 If you continue to feed and encourage this seedling, it gradually develops into a tree of positive habit.

 

Once this habit has become solid and immovable, it is then only a matter of time before it blossoms to produce the fruits of success.

However it is important to be aware that the garden of your mind does not discriminate between positive and negative seeds of thought.

A negative seed of thought planted within your mind often leads you to take negative actions. These actions gradually develop into negative habits that will inevitably produce the fruits of failure.

When you understand that your thoughts lead to actions and your actions develop into habits and that it is your habits that determine your results in life, then you’ll appreciate why it’s so important to be careful about the seeds of thought that you plant within your mind.

One of the real secrets of success is to become a watchful caretaker over the garden of your mind and make sure that you only plant and cultivate thoughts that will develop into the positive habits necessary for making your dreams a reality.

So what does this mean in the real world?

It means that you should carefully monitor the thoughts that you are planting within your mind each day. Whenever you catch yourself planting or nurturing a negative thought, make the conscious decision to uproot and discard it.

For example, when Andrew went to see his doctor, he was told that he had high cholesterol and needed to lose 10kg. In response to this advice, Andrew joined his local gym and started exercising three days a week.

A few weeks later Andrew stood in front of his bed room mirror and assessed his reflection.

His first thought was, “I look exactly the same! All that hard work and I don’t look any different. This isn’t working at all.”

Then he stopped and realized that this was a negative seed of thought.

He knew that if he continued to nurture this negative perspective it wouldn’t be long before he started skipping sessions and pretty soon his exercise program would be a thing of the past.

Having recognized his negative seed of thought, Andrew made the conscious decision to uproot and discard it before it took hold in his mind.

He took a second look at his reflection and told himself, “Every training session is making me fitter.” This was a positive seed of thought that made him feel good about the action he was taking.

Over time, Andrew continued his training program while protecting his mind from the disempowering seeds of negativity. Eventually he reached his goal weight and brought his cholesterol level down to a healthy level.

So today I’d like to encourage you to become a watchful caretaker of your mind. Whenever you identify a seed of negative thought, uproot and discard it.

Remember, it is much easier to uproot a seed of negative thought than it is to chop down a tree of negative habit that has taken root over many years.

By planting and cultivating seeds of positive thought, you will set in motion a truly remarkable process.

In the same way that a tiny acorn develops into a mighty oak tree, your positive seeds of thought will germinate into the actions and habits that will ultimately lead you to success.

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Conscious Eating - Are you Eating Food the Right Way?

Are you eating the right way?

Eating is one of the most common activities of Humans and yet it is given least attention. Humans would not survive for very long if they did not Eat!. But what many people do not realise is that eating habits (the state of mind while eating) is as important as what exactly is eaten.
 With the fast pace lifestyle of present day, it is extremely important that the time you spend while eating is given certain importance.

Here are some of the points to be considered while you are eating :

1) What is the state of your mind when you sit to eat your food?
     Note that the food you eat will be digested properly when you are "Feeling Good" while you are eating. Good Digestion means, no digestion related disorders!!

2) Are you eating in a hurry?
     Next time you eat your food, make sure you are "Consciously Aware" of touching the food, chewing and swallowing it. Never eat in a hurry, give some time for chewing, feeling the taste and then swallowing.

3) Are you feeling the "Gratitude" for the food that provides energy for your daily activities?
     How many of you have ever said words like "Thank you", "I love you", "You are so tasty", "You are so fresh", to the food you eat? Try this next time and experience the new feeling.

Eat Consciously and Live Better.

Check out the sample video about Conscious Eating.

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Reality About Dreams

  'Dreams Are Real'

               Most of us were taught to believe in two separate realities. One is our waking reality, the other is our dream reality. In this formula, when we are in a dream state, we are in a world that is unreal. We disregard dreams as a mental exercise that happens while we sleep. All of the things that we create during those dreaming hours are considered not real. Waking consciousness is considered reality, and dreaming consciousness is treated as an unreality. I suggest you reconsider this belief.

      Imagine that your dreams are simply different aspects of the same reality, and that they contain teachers for you on your sacred path. Begin understanding that this is primarily a world of energy and only secondarily a world of material objects.

      To know your sacred self you need to perceive energy directly. This is what you are capable of doing in your dream state. The entire basis of your perception shifts from concrete objects to energy shapes. When this is part of your reality, your dream state becomes something that you share with other spiritually attuned beings.

Eventually you can be aware that you are dreaming while you are dreaming. This is called lucid dreaming. In lucid dreaming you can control your dreams and be able to dream awake. Through the process of dreaming you perceive other dimensions of reality, which are shut out by your conditioning.

     I am not writing about dream interpretation. I am talking about knowing your dream life and being aware of experiencing dimensions of a reality while you are sleeping, which will also become available in your waking moments.

Your dreams are created with the same body and the same brain as the rest of your perceptual world. It is all yours -- you do not leave every night and take on a new brain to experience your nighttime reality.

     Everything that you are capable of knowing and being convinced of in your dream has a potential for being experienced at all moments of your daily life. Everything! Yes, this is a radical notion, but it leads you to know the power of your energy body.

You enter your dreaming world with a complete absence of doubt about what you can experience. With that absence of doubt there are absolutely no limits. When you awaken to what you call your waking consciousness, you will have the same body, brain and perceptual equipment, but you introduce doubt. I believe that your dreams do not reveal things about you but that they are you. They are real and they can become highly effective in helping you to experience your highest spiritual self.

                                                                                                      

Suggestions for Releasing Disbelief in Dreams

        When you go to sleep, encourage yourself to be aware that you are entering your dream state. Just this awareness is the first step toward higher awareness through dreaming. As you drift off, make a mental note to yourself that you are about to enter the dream state and that you are pleased to be aware of it.

Make an effort, before you drift off, to consciously see elements of your upcoming dream.                                                                           Tell yourself you will make a note of an object, a room or a specific location while you are in the dream. Experience as much detail as you can concerning the object while dreaming. If it is a lamp, for instance, bring it closer to you with the power of your mind. Examine the color, shape and intensity of the light.

           You want to make direct contact with your energy body, that special body that coexists at all times with your physical body. By examining the content of your dreams you will give yourself access to this higher energy. You will prove to yourself that your mental energy is a phenomenon that you can manipulate with practice and effort. Eventually you will be able to access this energy in all moments of your life.

Your energy body has appearance but no mass. Get familiar with this appearance of your energy and know that it can transport you anywhere in the universe with your command. Sounds strange, but it is within you to make this happen. First in your sleeping dreams and then in your waking dreams.

        See if you can make yourself go from one dream back to another, and then return to the same dream. As you drift off, first become aware of your upcoming dreaming state; then, while in the dream, become aware that you are dreaming, and shift to another dream. After years of experience I have been able to do this only on an occassional basis. But give it a try. It will give you practice for the ultimate key to higher awarenes: cultivating the witness. (This is discussed in detail in Chapter 5.)

Make an attempt to observe yourself dreaming. Carlos Castaneda calls this the third gate of dreaming. In "The Art of Dreaming", he writes, "The third gate of dreaming is reached when you find yourself in a dream, staring at someone else who is asleep. And that someone else turns out to be you."

        This is a state of heightened awareness wherein your physical self is being witnessed by your energy self, and you are conscious of it taking place. You are conscious of simultaneously dreaming and watching yourself dream.

        This is a shift -- from what you've been told about dreaming, into a new world, a world that allows you to become a sleeping dreamer and a waking dreamer and to begin to punctuate your waking life with the magic of dreaming consciousness.

Become aware of your dreams and see if you can shift to lucid dreaming each night. When you awaken in the middle of the night, note the content and objects of your dreams, then reenter them while staying conscious of your dream state.

        It is in this realm of dreaming and waking consciousness that you are going to get to know the existence of the highest energy in the universe.

Excerpt from Dr. Wayne Dyer's book "Your Sacred Self"

Belief: Dreams are not reality

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Healing with the Sun

Sun Gazing

     Sun Gazing is an ancient practice which was followed by many spiritual seekers and saints several thousands of years ago. Sun is the biggest astronomical body of our solar system and the source of heat, light and energy for the entire solar system and also the source of energy required for existence and sustenance of all life forms. It is believed that Sun's energy when tapped by us during the right time and method, can possibly relieve us of all the illnesses and elevate to higher spiritual levels.

For more information and methods of Sun Gazing, please Download  the manual

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Truth About Hair

The Truth About Hair

and

why Indians would keep their hair long.?

 This information about hair has been hidden from the public since the Vietnam War .

Our culture leads people to believe that hair style is a matter of personal preference, that hair style is a matter of fashion and/or convenience, and that how people wear their hair is simply a cosmetic issue. Back in the Vietnam war however, an entirely different picture emerged, one that has been carefully covered up and hidden from public view.

In the early nineties,  Sally [name changed to protect privacy]  was married to a licensed psychologist who worked at a VA Medical hospital. He worked with combat veterans with PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder.  Most of them had served in Vietnam.

Sally said, ” I remember clearly an evening when my husband came back to our apartment on Doctor’s Circle carrying a thick official looking folder in his hands. Inside were hundreds of pages of certain studies commissioned by the government. He was in shock from the contents. What he read in those documents completely changed his life. From that moment on my conservative middle of the road husband grew his hair and beard and never cut them again. What is more, the VA Medical center let him do it, and other very conservative men in the staff followed his example.  As I read the documents, I learned why. It seems that during the Viet Nam War special forces in the war department had sent undercover experts to comb American Indian Reservations looking for talented scouts, for tough young men trained to move stealthily through rough terrain. They were especially looking for men with outstanding, almost supernatural, tracking abilities. Before being approached, these carefully selected men were extensively documented as experts in tracking and survival. 

With the usual enticements, the well proven smooth phrases used to enroll new recruits, some of these indian trackers were then enlisted. Once enlisted, an amazing thing happened. Whatever talents and skills they had possessed on the reservation seemed to mysteriously disappear, as recruit after recruit failed to perform as expected in the field.

Serious causalities and failures of performance led the government to contract expensive testing of these recruits, and this is what was found.

When questioned about their failure to perform as expected, the older recruits replied consistently that when they received their required military haircuts, they could no longer ’sense’ the enemy, they could no longer access a ’sixth sense’ ,  their ’intuition’ no longer was reliable, they couldn’t ‘read’  subtle signs as well or access subtle extrasensory information.

So the testing institute recruited more Indian trackers, let them keep their long hair, and tested them in multiple areas. Then they would pair two men together who had received the same scores on all the tests.  They would let one man in the pair keep his hair long, and gave the other man a military haircut. Then the two men retook the tests.

Time after time the man with long hair kept making high scores. Time after time, the man with the short hair failed the tests in which he had previously scored high scores.

Here is a typical test:

The recruit is sleeping out in the woods.  An armed ’enemy’ approaches the sleeping man.  The long haired man is awakened out of his sleep by a strong sense of danger and gets away long before the enemy is close, long before any sounds from the approaching enemy are audible.

In another version of this test the long haired man senses an approach and somehow intuits that the enemy will perform a physical attack. He follows his \’sixth sense\’ and stays still, pretending to be sleeping, but quickly grabs the attacker and \’kills\’ him as the attacker reaches down to strangle him.

This same man, after having passed these and other tests, then received a military haircut and consistently failed these tests, and many other tests that he had previously passed.

So the document recommended that all Indian trackers be exempt from military haircuts. In fact, it required that trackers keep their hair long. ”

Comment:

The mammalian body has evolved over millions of years. Survival skills of human and animal at times seem almost supernatural. Science is constantly coming up with more discoveries about the amazing abilities of man and animal to survive.  Each part of the body has highly sensitive work to perform for the survival and well being of the body as a whole. The body has a reason for every part of itself.                            

Hair is an extension of the nervous system, it can be correctly seen as exteriorized nerves, a type of highly evolved \’feelers\’ or \’antennae\’ that transmit vast amounts of important information to the brainstem, the limbic system, and the neocortex.

Not only does hair in people, including facial hair in men, provide an information highway reaching the brain, hair also emits energy, the electromagnetic energy emitted by the brain into the outer environment. This has been seen in Kirlian photography when a person is photographed with long hair and then rephotographed after the hair is cut.

When hair is cut, receiving and sending transmissions to and from the environment are greatly hampered. This results in numbing-out .

Cutting of hair is a contributing factor to unawareness of environmental distress in local ecosystems.  It is also a contributing factor to insensitivity in relationships of all kinds. It contributes to sexual frustration.

Conclusion:

In searching for solutions for the distress in our world, it may be time for us to consider that many of our most basic assumptions about reality are in error.  It may be that a major part of the solution is looking at us in the face each morning when we see ourselves in the mirror.

The story of Sampson and Delilah in the Bible has a lot of encoded truth to tell us.   When Delilah cut Sampson’s hair, the once unbeatable Sampson was defeated.

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