READ: What Does Karma Yoga Mean? by Ed and Deb Shapiro
April 4, 2012 by Ed and Deb Shapiro
Filed under •-Feature, Ego, Love, Meditation, Meditation, Mindfulness, Spiritual Guidance, Spirituality, Yoga, Yoga
If we act with kindness and without focusing on ourselves, happiness will arise naturally, like a flower opening in the sun.
Some people think that yoga means stretching, bending and twisting like a pretzel, or sitting crossed legged with our eyes closed and chanting Om. But if that is all we did we would be no use to anyone. We spent our honeymoon in India and lived at the Bihar School of Yoga, where the foundation of our training was karma yoga. This was brilliant, as it gave us the opportunity to deepen our understanding of what it really is.
Many great yoga masters have said that the greatest path of yoga is karma yoga, as it is the one that asks us to be the least me-centered. The teaching is very explicit regarding karma yoga, which is described as the path of action and selfless service, to renounce our own selfish pursuits and not to reap the fruits of our actions. Brad Pitt’s selfless work building houses in New Orleans, or yoga teacher and activist Seane Corn’s work with Youth AIDS are expressions of karma yoga. ”I realized that whether my yoga practice was fifteen minutes or four hours was irrelevant because it was not about how yoga can change me,” says Seane in our book, Be The Change, “but how I, through this practice, can begin to change the world. What I really felt was how dare I not step into the world and hold that space?”
Start by practicing selfless service for a day, giving in whatever way you can by offering kindness. How does it feel? Just one day of this can be transforming, so try doing it once a week. It doesn’t mean you have to deny or ignore your own needs—you are just as important as everyone else. But just for this time let it not be about you.
Tai chi teacher Arthur Rosenfield was in the drive-thru line at Starbucks. The man in line behind him was getting impatient and angry, leaning on his horn and shouting insults at both Arthur and the Starbucks workers. Keeping his cool, Arthur paid for the man’s coffee and drove away. When he got home later that day, he discovered that he had created a chain of giving that had not only continued all day but had been highlighted on NBC News. Within twenty-four hours it had spread around the world on the Internet.
“Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve,” said Martin Luther King. “You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
Karma yoga is creating goodness in the world. Do you treat your world with kindness or with aggression? Giving without any thought of getting is the most powerful act of generosity as it is unconditional, unattached, free to land wherever it will. But generosity can also raise fears about not having enough. Watch where resentment creeps in and remember that selfless action is just that: selfless.
On our morning walk through the alleys near our house we came across a back yard filled with used bicycles. Finally we met the owner. He had a bicycle shop in town and was collecting all these used bikes, repairing them, and then donating them to an Indian reservation in Montana. His goal was that everyone at the reservation, young and old, should have a bicycle of their own.
We see it in author Marc Barasch, founder of Green World Campaign. He decided that, “instead of cutting down trees to put words on a page, I wanted to plant some actual trees in the ground.” This year the nonprofit will plant millions of trees throughout the developing world, revitalizing barren land, helping sustain poor villages, and combating climate change. The slogan is, It’s amazing what one seed can grow.
And there is Aileen, a friend from England. In the last ten years she has created a farm in rural India. She sent us a photo showing her planting ‘flame of the forest’ tree seeds into starter pots. When these seeds become saplings they will be distributed to local school children so that each child will have their own tree to grow and tend.
Serving enables us to step beyond our own desires and to release any sense of separation. It takes us out of selfishness and neediness, and in the process we see our own self-centeredness in greater perspective. We discover that in giving we do not have any less. Rather, we gain so much. Let everything we do be of benefit to others.
Ed and Deb Shapiro are the authors of BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You And The World, with forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman and Winner of the 2010 Nautilus Gold Book Award. Deb is the author of the bestselling book, YOUR BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND, winner of the 2007 Visionary Book Award. They are featured bloggers on Oprah.com/spirit, HuffingtonPost.com/Living, and Care2.com. They have 3 meditation CD’s: Metta — Loving Kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi – Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra – Inner Conscious Relaxation. See: www.EdandDebShapiro.com
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Why Yoga Is So Misunderstood ~ How It Has Gone From the Sane to the Bizarre by Ed and Deb Shapiro
Yoga has come a long way from its roots in the east. As it has become more popular in the west teachers have added their own twist – both literally & figuratively. In the process of becoming so widespread, however, it often gets misunderstood by both teachers and practitioners…
Yoga ~ A Menopause Alternative to HRT by Mache Seibel M.D.
Twenty years ago during a particularly stressful period of work, I began taking a yoga class as a non-pharmacologic antidote. I was running a center for reproduction and women’s health, working 24/7 and needed a way to relax. I had the good fortune to enroll with a yogini named Hari Khar Khalsa, and I took classes from her for a period of time. One day after class I asked her if she would…
READ: Why is Love so Painful? by Pragito Dove
March 29, 2012 by Pragito Dove
Filed under •-Headline, Health & Well-being, Meditation, Meditation, Mindfulness, Spirituality
Love is painful because it creates the way for joy, for ecstasy, for bliss. Love is painful because it transforms you. Love is growth.
Love itself does not hurt. It is growth that hurts, the ego that stings.
Each transformation is painful because the old situation is being left behind for the new. Hence, fear arises.
The real problem is the mind. Fear lives in the mind and the mind wants you to hang on to a situation that is known and comfortable for you. The ego-mind resists change because it is afraid of losing control and feels insecure about the unpredictability of the unknown. Love means the death of the ego because love cannot be controlled, it can only be received, accepted. Love is fragile. One day it is there, the next day it may be gone, like the wind. We cannot grasp the wind in our fist. We can only enjoy and appreciate it while it is there.
For the mind, love is a dangerous path. Mind will advise you to avoid love but this is even more dangerous, because love is the central core of our lives. A life without love is a life that is withered and dried up.
It is because of the pain of love that millions live a loveless life, like a rotten seed that has never opened to flower to it’s fullest potential.If you don’t go into love, as many people have decided, then you are stuck with yourself. Then your life is a stagnant pool. You need to keep the energy flowing, like a river which keeps on flowing to the ocean.
So what do we do? Choose love! Always choose love because even though there is pain, to suffer in love is not to suffer in vain; it takes you to higher levels of consciousness. There is a positive, creative outcome for you. If you choose the mind you will also suffer but it will be useless suffering with an unproductive outcome. Life will be dull and you become neurotic from lack of love. To be afraid of love, to be afraid of the growing pains of love, is to remain enclosed in a dark cell.
The transformation is from control of the mind to vulnerability of the heart. And the agony can be deep. But you cannot have ecstasy without going through agony. If the gold wants to be purified, it has to pass through fire.
Love is fire.
Find your courage and love, fully and completely. Trust and live in your heart. Love takes you from the head to the heart and nurtures, comforts and heals you even as you pass through the fire. Love is ever-present to support you.
With love, the soul arises within you; the ego drops and the soul arises. Love is food for the soul.
You can ask yourself:”Is this pain for my growth?” “Is my heart breaking open to give and receive even more love?” Every time your heart breaks open, yes it’s painful, but it means your heart is expanding and deepening. The pain is good and productive for you.
LEARN from each experience, WATCH the ego and CHOOSE LOVE. Go through the dark night, and you will reach a beautiful sunrise. It is only in the womb of the dark night that the sun evolves. It is only through the dark night that the morning comes.
Here is a meditation to encourage and support you.
Meditation: Sixty-Second Stop
Benefits:
This powerful yet simple technique encourages the love in your heart to grow, and it attracts more love to you.
Close your eyes and become aware of your heart.It might help to place your hand on your heart. Bring in a memory of a person, place or event that brings you joy. Feel the happiness filling your heart with that memory.
Do this technique whenever you feel disconnected from your heart or whenever you want to increase the love in your heart.
With love to you, my reader. I look forward to your comments.
There is more information on my books, CDs, and workshops on www.discovermeditation.com
Pragito Dove M.A., C.C.H. is the leading authority on Expressive Meditation in North America. Using the principles she now teaches, Pragito transformed her pain and fear into joy and inner peace. Founder of the Laughing Buddhas Network and an internationally recognized master trainer, speaker, and meditation expert, Pragito is the author of two best-selling books, Lunchtime Enlightenment (Penguin Group), and Laughter, Tears, Silence (published in six languages). She has a private practice in Northern California from where she teaches highly acclaimed programs such as the Laughter Meditation Teleclass Program Series to an international audience! Pragito’s website is: http://www.discovermeditation.com
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5 Keys to Increase Self-Confidence by Pragito Dove
Self-confidence is a deeply-rooted feeling that we are ok, that we are loved, that we matter…that what we say, do and feel…matters.
When we are missing this key ingredient, life can be hell. So, let’s turn the hell into heaven right now with these 5 keys that work to unleash your self-confidence, joy and creativity. And here’s the good news: your self-confidence is already in there, just waiting to be freed up and expressed.
6 Reasons Why Meditation Appears So Difficult by Ed and Deb Shapiro
We were teaching a meditation program in North Wales, in the UK, in a quiet backwater near the hills. It was a peaceful day, everyone was happily seated, and we had just rung the gong to begin the morning session when a motorbike started revving right outside the window. It was a loud and annoying noise that continued – stopping and starting –while the owner did repair work. It reminded us how, in England, church bells can ring all day and during meditation retreats we would often be confronted with the question: how do you stop the bell? Answer: become the bell!
READ: 5 Keys to Increase Self-Confidence by Pragito Dove
March 21, 2012 by Pragito Dove
Filed under •-Headline, Health & Well-being, Insights, Meditation, Personal Growth, Reflection
Self-confidence is a deeply-rooted feeling that we are ok, that we are loved, that we matter…that what we say, do and feel…matters.
When we are missing this key ingredient, life can be hell. So, let’s turn the hell into heaven right now with these 5 keys that work to unleash your self-confidence, joy and creativity. And here’s the good news: your self-confidence is already in there, just waiting to be freed up and expressed.
1. Laugh, a lot, every day!
Laughter is the first key because this is the easiest way to get your self-confidence going. You get a powerful kick-start from laughter to get positive energy flowing. Make a deliberate practice of bringing more laughter into your life, every day. You might have to “fake it ‘til you make it”, at the beginning, but soon laughter flows naturally and spontaneously. Every child is born full of laughter, and that includes you. Laughter provides many dimensions of benefits for your body, mind, heart and soul. It erases fear(you can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time!), unleashes your innate joy and creativity, and enhances all your relationships, not to mention bringing fun, relaxation and love into your world.
2. Meditate!
Practice the laughter meditation. Stage one:laughter. Stage two: sit in silence. This is the easiest way to get into meditation and combines with the first key! The powerful effect of the laughter in stage one helps you drop deeper down, in the second stage, to discover the inner wisdom, silence and stillness that reside within you. As a result love, peace, creativity, joy, self-respect, and self-love arise, naturally and spontaneously. Your self-confidence is innate in these qualities. You find the wisdom to know that what you say, do, and feel does matter. You don’t need another person to tell you, you just know.
Then, whatever other people’s opinions are, YOU know that you have something special to offer the world and your presence here is important.We all matter.
3. Love Yourself!
Loving yourself is much easier once you have started your laughter meditation practice. Love arises naturally from laughter. In fact, laughter IS love, isn’t it? When we laugh, we open our hearts and are in loving communion with others, and with ourselves. Try it! Notice how you feel; notice how your own self-judgment is erased; notice how other people’s judgments are dissolved;and notice how your inner joy arises and fills you to overflowing with love,creativity, and a positive outlook. What we focus on expands. Keep your focus on loving yourself no matter what, and your self-confidence will soar. It’s true!!
4.Love others!
A natural outcome of loving ourselves is loving others. However, loving ourselves has to be the first step. We must fill up our own well first, then loving others naturally comes from our overflow. However, pay attention:loving others more than yourself creates resentment which grows like a cancer within you. And I am not saying don’t love others, I am saying keep a BALANCE and make sure the scales are tipped in your favor. The more selfish you are, the more you have to give. This might not be in alignment with what you were taught. For centuries women, in particular, have been conditioned that everyone else in the household is more important. It’s time to reverse that thinking and step into respecting yourself enough so that you know you deserve love as much as others. You cannot love others if you don’t love yourself.
5! Follow Your Passion
Whatever your passion is, do it! There is nothing that sparks your self-confidence more than immersing yourself in what turns you on, what brings you joy. The activity doesn’t matter so much as your quality of presence and joy with the activity. It cannot be something that someone else thinks you should enjoy, it has to come from YOU. And it can be anything from scrap-booking, to roller skating, to travel, to studying Chinese. Throw yourself into your passion and miracles happen. It can be your work or it can be something you only do at weekends, as a hobby. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you are enjoying yourself, coming alive, getting to know what makes you tick.
Your self-confidence will soar!
Implementing these 5 keys transforms your life into heaven on earth. Do it…and let me know.
For more information on the laughter meditation and Pragito’s work:www.discovermeditation.com
Pragito Dove M.A., C.C.H. is the leading authority on Expressive Meditation in North America. Using the principles she now teaches, Pragito transformed her pain and fear into joy and inner peace. Founder of the Laughing Buddhas Network and an internationally recognized master trainer, speaker, and meditation expert, Pragito is the author of two best-selling books, Lunchtime Enlightenment (Penguin Group), and Laughter, Tears, Silence (published in six languages). She has a private practice in Northern California from where she teaches highly acclaimed programs such as the Laughter Meditation Teleclass Program Series to an international audience! Pragito’s website is: http://www.discovermeditation.com
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5 Keys to Stay Positive in Challenging Times by Pragito Dove
Are you having trouble staying in a positive state of mind when challenging circumstances present themselves? The Universal Laws state: so without, so within. Everything is a mirror. We cannot change the reflection, but we can change the original(ourselves),and then, automatically, the reflection changes.
Going Inside ~ Direct Experience Is Like a True Kiss by Gangaji
To inquire into something is to open to it, to meet it, and to discover its meaning — or lack of meaning — from the inside of it.
Inquiry is generally recognized to mean investigating, and that definition serves the purpose well. However, in the sense in which I use Inquiry, it is not information that is provided by this investigation, but direct experience. To directly experience anything we first have to leave behind all preconceptions of that thing.
READ: 6 Reasons Why Meditation Appears So Difficult by Ed and Deb Shapiro
March 20, 2012 by Ed and Deb Shapiro
Filed under •-Feature, Meditation, Meditation, Mindfulness, Spiritual Guidance, Spirituality
We were teaching a meditation program in North Wales, in the UK, in a quiet backwater near the hills. It was a peaceful day, everyone was happily seated, and we had just rung the gong to begin the morning session when a motorbike started revving right outside the window. It was a loud and annoying noise that continued – stopping and starting –while the owner did repair work. It reminded us how, in England, church bells can ring all day and during meditation retreats we would often be confronted with the question: how do you stop the bell? Answer: become the bell!
An old monk in England once told us he was teaching next to a building site and a loud pneumatic drill started up. He said, “We had to become the drill.” For meditation is not about forcing the mind to be absolutely still. Rather, it’s a letting go of resistance to whatever arises.
There are many reasons why meditation can appear difficult or even challenging, listening to the noises outside or the incessant chatter in our head being one of them. We easily get bored if we do nothing for too long, even if it’s only ten minutes, and even more so if we are unclear as to why we are doing it. But what is it about something as simple as sitting still and watching our breath that evokes panic, fear, and even hostility?
After years of hearing a plethora of reasons why people find it hard to meditate, we have whittled it down to just a few:
1. I’m too busy, and I’m too stressed. Which can certainly be true if, for instance, you have a lot to do, like having young children and a full-time job. However, we are only talking about maybe ten minutes a day. Most of us spend more time than that reading the newspaper or surfing the web. It only appears like we don’t have the time because we usually fill every moment with activity and never press the pause button. There is no medical cure for stress but, as meditation is one of the best remedies, it’s worth creating the space for it.
The important point is that you make friends with meditation. It’ll be of no help at all if you feel you have to meditate, for instance, and then feel guilty if you miss the allotted time or only do ten minutes when you had promised to do thirty. It’s much better to practice for a just a short time and to enjoy what you are doing, than to sit there, teeth gritted, because you’ve been told that only 30 or even 40 minutes will have any affect. Meditation is a companion to have throughout life, like an old friend you turn to when in need of support, inspiration, and clarity. It is to be enjoyed!
2. My mind won’t stop thinking: I can’t relax, I just can’t! My thoughts are driving me crazy! Sound familiar? Trying to stop your mind from thinking is like trying to stop the wind – it’s impossible. The mind is described like a drunken monkey bitten by a scorpion because, just as a monkey leaps from branch to branch, so the mind leaps from one thing to another, constantly distracted and busy. When you come to sit still and try to quiet your mind, you find all this manic activity going on and it seems insanely noisy. It’s actually nothing new, just that now you are becoming aware of it whereas before you were immersed in it, unaware that such chatter was so constant.
This experience of the mind being so busy is very normal. Years of busy mind, of creating and maintaining dramas, of stresses and confusion and self-centeredness, and the mind has no idea how to be still. Rather, it craves distraction and entertainment. It’s not as if you can suddenly turn the mind off, but the experience of stillness is accumulative: The more you sit, then slowly the mind becomes quieter. Every time you find your mind is drifting, daydreaming, remembering the past or planning ahead, just come back to now, come back to this moment. Nothing else.
3. There are too many distractions, it’s too noisy. Gone are the days when we could disappear into a cave and be left undisturbed until we emerged some time later fully enlightened. Instead, we all have to deal with the sounds and impositions of the world around us. But – and it’s a big but – we needn’t let it impose. Cars going by outside? Fine. Let them go by, just don’t go with them. The quiet you are looking for is inside, not outside.
4. I don’t see the point. This is where you have to take our word for it! Some people get how beneficial meditation is after just one session, but most of us take longer – you might notice a difference after a week of daily practice or maybe more. Which means you have to trust the process enough to hang in there and keep going, even before you get the benefits. After practicing and teaching for many years, we can happily assure you it is well worth it.
Remember, music needs to be played for hours to get the notes right, while in Japan it can take twelve years to learn how to arrange flowers. Being still happens in a moment, but it may take some time before that moment comes—hence the need for practice as well as patience.
5. I’m no good at this; I never get it right. Actually, it’s impossible to fail at meditation. There is no right or wrong, and there’s no special technique. Deb’s meditation teacher told her there are as many forms of meditation as there are people who practice it. So all you need do is find the way that works for you and keep at it. You can sit on the floor, sit in a chair, do moving meditation such as tai chi or walking, watch your breath, repeat a mantra, or develop loving kindness. There are many variations.
6. It’s all just weird New Age hype. It’s certainly easy to get lost in the array of New Age promises of eternal happiness, but meditation itself is as old as the hills. More than 2,500 years ago the Buddha was a dedicated meditator who tried and tested numerous different ways of enabling the mind to be quiet. And that’s just one example. Each religion has its own variation on the theme, and all stretch back over the centuries. So nothing new here, and nothing weird or whacky.
Enjoy!
Ed and Deb Shapiro are the authors of BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You And The World, with forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman and Winner of the 2010 Nautilus Gold Book Award. Deb is the author of the bestselling book, YOUR BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND, winner of the 2007 Visionary Book Award. They are featured bloggers on Oprah.com/spirit, HuffingtonPost.com/Living, and Care2.com. They have 3 meditation CD’s: Metta — Loving Kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi – Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra – Inner Conscious Relaxation. See: www.EdandDebShapiro.com
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READ: Meditation ~ The Pearl In The Oyster by Ed and Shapiro
An oyster may not like that irritating grain of sand in its shell but it manages to transform it into a precious pearl. That’s quite a feat. Just like beautiful roses growing out of smelly manure, or a delicate butterfly emerging out of a caterpillar. It’s a process of transformation and, luckily, meditation does exactly the same thing for us, as through it we awaken to the exquisiteness of our own true nature. By sitting quietly with awareness of whatever is going on in our life, however irritating or challenging it may be, we can gain a greater insight by seeing round it, through it, and beyond it. In this way annoyance is transformed into acceptance,…
READ: Mindful Living – When You Need It Most by Jacquelyn O’Brien
Isn’t it unfair the way that life gets in the way of your practice? Whether you’re experiencing life challenges or pleasures, whether they’re large or small, they do have a habit of getting in the way of our time on the yoga mat or the meditation cushion. Sometimes we’re just using these life events as justifications for our own procrastination but sometimes they genuinely do get in the way of us going to a class or taking time to meditate,…
READ: Vernal Equinox – The Day of Light ritual by Tony Samara
March 20, 2012 by Tony Samara
Filed under •-Feature, Earth, Meditation, Meditation, Mindfulness, Nature, Spiritual Guidance, Spiritual teachers, Spirituality
The first day of the ancient calendars falls on the March equinox, the first day of spring, the day of light. At the time of the equinox, the sun is observed to be directly over the equator, and the north and south poles of the Earth lie along the solar terminator; sunlight is evenly divided between the north and south hemispheres.
It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical, vernal equinox, which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed. The moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator and equalizes night and day is calculated exactly every year.
In association with the “rebirth of nature,” extensive spring-cleaning is a wonderful ritual to honor as the birth of a new year. This is also extended to the personal aspect with ones intention of this day as it is especially powerful for the rest of the year and often will affect the outcome of the rest of the year. So, if a person is warm and kind to their relatives, friends and neighbors on the day of light then the new year will be a good one.
It is wise to begin with cleaning homes, known as ‘spring cleaning.’ This is observed days before the day of light. Clean every part of your house, dust furniture and wash carpets. This is practiced to welcome the new spring season with freshness.
On the day of light the fire ritual, where a silver urn with a small fire nourished by sandalwood and 7 haoma seeds and the silent contemplation of light, allows for the fire symbolically to purify the inner fire of Divine Love.
Everyone present to the fire ceremony can toss a sandalwood twig into the fire, intending the offering to represent the relinquishing of some attachment or psychological limitation that one wishes to be consumed by the fire. The ritual thus symbolizes the physical representations of surrendering and giving up desires and limitations to the light of Divine love.
Tony Samara, author of ‘Shaman’s Wisdom,’ ‘From the Heart,’ ‘Different Yet the Same,’ and ‘Deeper than Words’ was born in England, grew up in Egypt and also in Norway where he discovered the “Zen Buddhist philosophy”. This discovery eventually led him to the “Mount Baldy Zen Center in California, USA” where he learned the spiritual teachings of “Kyozan Joshu Sasaki.” He had curiosity to explore further the essence of spirituality and thus went to live and learn with shamanic communities around the globe including a period of time spent with some highly influential shamans in the Amazon River region and the Andes Mountains. Now people from all over the world visit Tony Samara to take spiritual guidance and experience being in his presence. http://www.tonysamara.org/
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READ: How can I be closer to my dream today? by Tony Samara
2012 is here and with its approach there are many interesting ideas, theories and reactions to the numerous changes we find ourselves in.
We are at the beginning of a New Era and many are reflecting on what has been and what they would like now to be a more fundamental part of their inner and outer experience and what their intentions are for this exciting era. Others find themselves reflecting as to how yet another year has slipped by without fulfilling all their goals and dreams…
READ: What You Want Already Exists by Hemal Radia
What you want is ready for you. What you want is outside of your door ready to come in. The moment you had the desire, it was ready…the Universe had what you want all ready for you, starting with it in vibration. Your job is to get into alignment with it via your vibration so as to let it in.
