Unit 8

I think my favorite exercise to use is the loving kindness. I don't always feel this loving kindness, but when I catch myself being a "witch" I just stop and close my eyes and bring myself to a nicer place, a peaceful place. It really is not as hard as I though it would be. I feel so much better practicing loving kindness instead of letting stress take over my life. The other exercise that I would choose is communing with my animal spirit guide. I like the idea that we all have animal spirit guides to help in our lives. I want to learn more about animal spirit guides so that I can better understand their meaning.

Psychic Meditation (something I found and wanted to share)

Psychic Meditation on the Third Eye or Brow Chakra

Share Article |

Apr 20, 2010 Janis Masyk-Jackson

Learn how to develop psychic abilities and get psychic answers to questions with a simple psychic exercise of meditation on the psychic, third eye chakra.

The third eye, also known as the brow chakra, the sixth chakra, and the agya chakra, is located in the middle of the forehead. It is one of seven main chakras located throughout the body. According to Buddhist beliefs, these chakras work as energy points throughout the body.

The brow chakra is associated with wisdom, clear thinking, and intuitiveness. By keeping this chakra open, meditators can open the door to their intuitive side and begin to develop psychic abilities such as clairvoyance and telepathy.

How to Perform a Psychic Meditation Exercise

Begin this meditation by sitting comfortably with a straight back. Allow the eyes to gently close and begin to take deep, cleansing breaths. Focus only on the breath and get rid of any other thoughts when they enter the conscious mind.

Ads by Google

Want to Leave the Matrix?
Former Government Spy Shares Secrets on Bending Your Reality...
www.OneUniversalMind.com

Develop Psychic Ability
7 Skills to Develop Psychic Ability Skeptical? I Was Until I Read This
www.LearnRemoteViewing.com

Due to the sound vibration, a good way to access higher consciousness is by chanting the word "Aum," also known as "Om." Focus the mind on the chakra in the brow and begin chanting. While chanting, envision this third eye as it begins to open.

As it opens, visualize a bright, energetic light flowing in. Continue chanting and meditating until the eye is completely open and the area feels clear and energized.

How to Get Psychic Answers

With the third eye chakra newly opened, now is the time to try to develop intuition. Continue to meditate and think of a simple question you would like answered. Focus on the question and make note of the first thing that comes to mind after asking the question.

Although there is the possibility that the answer has come from your imagination, some believe that it's most likely that the answer was the result of a form of intuition. If possible, test to see if the answer is correct. With practice, meditation is regarded as a great way to develop psychic abilities.

Meditation Practice

When first learning to develop psychic abilities, it's best to do this full meditation. As time goes on, many find they have a diminished need to open and cleanse the brow chakra; therefore, this element of the meditation exercise can be brought down to once a week. Don't expect miracles overnight. It takes time to develop intuitiveness.

Psychic meditation on the third eye is regarded as a great way to develop psychic abilities, while simultaneously obtaining wisdom and clearing thinking, which can help in many areas of life. Many enjoy maximum benefits through frequent practice and through the cultivation of patience as one develops intuition.

Readers may also enjoy New Age Meditation on Tarot Cards, along with How to Learn a Mirror Scrying Meditation, and How to Learn to Meditate on the Heart Chakra.

Sources:

How to Meditate, Jyotish Novak, (Crystal Clarity Publishers,) 2008.

Meditation for Dummies, Stephan, (Wiley Publishing, Inc.,) 2006.

Read more at Suite101: Psychic Meditation on the Third Eye or Brow Chakra http://meditation-techniques.suite101.com/article.cfm/psychic-meditation-on-the-third-eye-or-brow-chakra#ixzz0oKnQiR9v

Well when I listened to "Meeting Asciepius" the first person that came to my mind was my great aunt Sarah. She died about 10 years ago. She was 70 something and was not able to hear or talk. She had several brothers and sisters that were born that way. They had their own sign language that they made up for themselves. I always had a special bond with Sarah. She always seemed wise to me and she was good to everyone. She had the sweetest turn about her. During this exercise I saw her wading the ocean, happy. I could feel her spirit and it made me happy. I really enjoyed this exercise, it brought back some very good memories. I also feel lighter in spirit myself.

"One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself"
To me I think this means that you cannot show or tell someone to do something that you do not believe in or use yourself. If you are going to tell other people to practice integral medicine you should practice it yourself. I know with what I have learned from the lessons it has made me a better person and other people can see that in me. I have had co-worker's tell me that I look happy and sunny. It feels good when other people can see it in you.

Well this week has been very eventful for me. I feel that I do not have the time to do all the things that I need to do. I am behind in everything! But there is some good to my week, I do have a interview for a higher management position in my company! Maybe some of this meditation stuff is really paying off! I think maybe I might be showing some more of my confidence because of the exercises that I have been trying! I don't know but, wish me luck!

The subtle mind

Well, I did not have much luck this week either, but I am optimistic that I will be able to make use of the exercises soon. I feel a person really needs to have mental piece of mind to be able to be healthy physically. Worry and stress will cause you to do unhealthy things like eating the wrong foods or eating just because its there. I want to be able to have that calm-abiding mind so that I can concentrate on my own well being for a change. If I am happy and healthy than those that are around are more than likely to be happy and healthy. Well, there is always tomorrow, Never give up!

Loving kindness unit 4

When I first listened to the audio, I just listened to it all the way through to get a feel for it. I played it again and tried to concentrate on what I was instructed to do, and what come to me was my mother. She died in November 2007 with cancer. I had such warm feeling that came over me when I saw her imagine in my mind, that I had tears come to my eyes, but it was a good feeling, not sad, just loving, something that I miss from her a lot! I ended up losing my concentration when my husband came in and asked what in the world are you listening too! So, I guess I need to make sure I will be completely uninterrupted next time I try. I really felt I was actually getting something from this exercise.

An Overview of Loving-kindness Meditation

I found this and just wanted to share.

An Overview of Loving-kindness Meditation

Loving-kindness meditation can be brought in to support the practice of 'bare attention' to help keep the mind open and sweet. It provides the essential balance to support your insight meditation practice.

It is a fact of life that many people are troubled by difficult emotional states in the pressured societies we live in, but do little in terms of developing skills to deal with them. Yet even when the mind goes sour it is within most people's capacity to arouse positive feelings to sweeten it. Loving-kindness is a meditation practice taught by the Buddha to develop the mental habit of selfless or altruistic love. In the Dhammapada can be found the saying: "Hatred cannot coexist with loving-kindness, and dissipates if supplanted with thoughts based on loving-kindness."

Loving-kindness is a meditation practice, which brings about positive attitudinal changes as it systematically develops the quality of 'loving-acceptance'. It acts, as it were, as a form of self-psychotherapy, a way of healing the troubled mind to free it from its pain and confusion. Of all Buddhist meditations, loving-kindness has the immediate benefit of sweetening and changing old habituated negative patterns of mind.

To put it into its context, Loving-kindness is the first of a series of meditations that produce four qualities of love: Friendliness (metta), Compassion (karuna), Appreciative Joy (mudita) and Equanimity (upekkha). The quality of 'friendliness' is expressed as warmth that reaches out and embraces others. When loving-kindness practice matures it naturally overflows into compassion, as one empathises with other people's difficulties; on the other hand one needs to be wary of pity, as its near enemy, as it merely mimics the quality of concern without empathy. The positive expression of empathy is an appreciation of other people's good qualities or good fortune, or appreciative joy, rather than feelings of jealousy towards them. This series of meditations comes to maturity as 'on-looking equanimity'. This 'engaged equanimity' must be cultivated within the context of this series of meditations, or there is a risk of it manifesting as its near enemy, indifference or aloofness. So, ultimately you remain kindly disposed and caring toward everybody with an equal spread of loving feelings and acceptance in all situations and relationships.

How to do it . . .

The practice always begins with developing a loving acceptance of yourself. If resistance is experienced then it indicates that feelings of unworthiness are present. No matter, this means there is work to be done, as the practice itself is designed to overcome any feelings of self-doubt or negativity. Then you are ready to systematically develop loving-kindness towards others.

Four Types of Persons to develop loving-kindness towards:

• a respected, beloved person - such as a spiritual teacher;
• a dearly beloved - which could be a close family member or friend;
• a neutral person - somebody you know, but have no special feelings towards, e.g.: a person who serves you in a shop;
• a hostile person - someone you are currently having difficulty with.

Starting with yourself, then systematically sending loving-kindness from person to person in the above order will have the effect of breaking down the barriers between the four types of people and yourself. This will have the effect of breaking down the divisions within your own mind, the source of much of the conflict we experience. Just a word of caution if you are practicing intensively. It is best if you choose a member of the same sex or, if you have a sexual bias to your own sex, a person of the opposite sex. This is because of the risk that the near enemy of loving-kindness, lust, can be aroused. Try different people to practice on, as some people do not easily fit into the above categories, but do try to keep to the prescribed order.

Ways of arousing feelings of loving-kindness:

1. Visualisation - Bring up a mental picture. See yourself or the person the feeling is directed at smiling back at you or just being joyous.

1. By reflection - Reflect on the positive qualities of a person and the acts of kindness they have done. And to yourself, making an affirmation, a positive statement about yourself, using your own words.

3. Auditory - This is the simplest way but probably the most effective. Repeat an internalized mantra or phrase such as 'loving-kindness'.

The visualisations, reflections and the repetition of loving-kindness are devices to help you arouse positive feelings of loving-kindness. You can use all of them or one that works best for you. When the positive feeling arise, switch from the devices to the feeling, as it is the feeling that is the primary focus. Keep the mind fixed on the feeling, if it strays bring it back to the device, or if the feelings weaken or are lost then return to the device, i.e. use the visualisation to bring back or strengthen the feeling.

The second stage is Directional Pervasion where you systematically project the aroused feeling of loving-kindness to all points of the compass: north, south, east and west, up and down, and all around. This directional pervasion will be enhanced by bringing to mind loving friends and like-minded communities you know in the cities, towns and countries around the world.

Non-specific Pervasion tends to spontaneously happen as the practice matures. It is not discriminating. It has no specific object and involves just naturally radiating feelings of universal love. When it arises the practice has then come to maturity in that it has changed particular, preferential love, which is an attached love, to an all-embracing unconditional love!

Loving-kindness is a heart meditation and should not to be seen as just a formal sitting practice removed from everyday life. So take your good vibes outside into the streets, at home, at work and into your relationships. Applying the practice to daily life is a matter of directing a friendly attitude and having openness toward everybody you relate to, without discrimination.

There are as many different ways of doing it as there are levels of intensity in the practice. This introduction is intended to help you familiarize yourself with the basic technique, so that you can become established in the practice before going on, if you wish, to the deeper, systematic practice - to the level of meditative absorption.

§

Venerable Sujiva's clear and comprehensive presentation in BuddhaNet of Metta Bhavana (which is the Pali term for the cultivation of loving-kindness) is a step-by-step explanation of the systematic practice. This section, based on the Visuddhimagga, The Path of Purification, is for meditators who are prepared to develop loving-kindness meditation to its fullest and thereby experience the deeper aspects of the practice.

A benefit of developing the five absorption factors of concentration through the systematic practice is that it will counteract the Five Mental Hindrances of the meditator: Sensuality; that is, all forms of Ill Will, Mental inertia; Restlessness and Skeptical Doubt. When the meditator achieves full concentration, five absorption factors are present: the first two are casual factors: Applied thought and Sustained thought, followed by three effects: Rapture, Ease-of-mind and One-pointedness or unification of mind. The five absorption factors have a one-to-one correspondence to the five mental hindrances, or obstacles, to the meditator: Applied thought, by arousing energy and effort, overcomes the hindrance of sloth and torpor; Sustained thought, by steadying the mind, overcomes skeptical doubt which has the characteristic of wavering; Rapture with its uplifting effervescence, prevails over feelings of ill-will; Ease-of-mind, by relieving accumulated stress, counteracts restlessness or agitation of mind; while One-pointedness restrains the mind's wanderings in the sense-fields to inhibit sensuality. The benefit of achieving deep concentration with this positive mind set is that it will tend to imprint the new positive conditioning while overriding the old negative patterns. In this way, old negative habits are changed, thereby freeing one to form new, positive ways of relating.

We also have, in BuddhaNet's Loving-Kindness Meditation section, inspiring instructions by Gregory Kramer of the Metta Foundation on teaching loving-kindness to children within the family context. Gregory gives practical advice to parents on how to bring the practice of loving-kindness within the home. In this way, we can hope that loving-kindness meditation will become a natural part of the Buddhist family's daily practice, and that one day it will be adopted universally as a practice to uplift human hearts.

May you be happy hearted!

http://www.buddhanet.net/metta_in.htm

Unit 3

Well here goes! My physical well-being would have to be rated a 3 because I could stand to lose weight and my blood pressure gives me problems sometimes. My spiritual well-being would have to be a 3 also. I am a spiritual person deep down, I just don't use it. My psychological well-being would also be a 3. I get aggravated a lot with my work and little things that should not bug me so much. I am working on my physical well-being by eating better and getting more exercise. I have lost 18 pounds this year and plan on losing more. In my spiritual well-being I plan on either going back to church or at least setting aside some time for my religious reading. I think I will try to start some kind of meditation exercise to help me psychological well-being. I just need to find something that will hold my interest. The relaxation exercise The crime of the century, I don't think I tried hard enough or gave it a chance because it did not seem to do a thing for me. I think I will try again when I know I will be home alone without other distractions.

Journey on relaxation

The first time I listened to the recording I almost fell asleep. The next time I tired to concentrate more and I did relax and I could feel my hands and arms feeling warming and heavier. It seem like my stress just went away! I am going to have to find more relaxation techniques like this!!