The way an open heart operates October 7, 2009

What do we know about being open hearted? We may certainly understand what the media portrays as love; it is two people finding each other attractive, falling in love and marrying in one episode (after a small yet entertaining bust up, of course). For many people, this simplistic chain of events is their ultimate dream, and of course they are often disappointed when things don’t turn out exactly as they had hoped, and the dream fades aways under an onslaught of bickering or misunderstanding.

The heart is the seat of our love and home to our compassion. However all too often we are afraid ot open up and allow these wonderful qualities to flow as they should. We hide behind our fears, doubts and ambitions, displaying a false mask to the world to avoid being hurt. The result is the society based on illusion, hidden behind ego and posturing, never truly communicating as human being to human being. Small wonder then that the divorce rate is so high in the modern world, and that relationships come and go as the wind blows.

Removing anger April 5, 2009

Anger destroys. It ruins lives, relationships, careers, personalities.It scars children and friendships, and eats aways at the soul. No one would deny that it is a thing to be avoided, but unfortunately everywhere we turn we see evidence of the anger which lurks inside the human psyche. Newspapers are TV report constantly talk of angry groups and individuals; all of them infuriated by some injustice, decision or insult.

People are routinely described as “outraged” and “furious”, whilst little attention is paid to voices of conciliation or modesty. Critics vent their wrath on features to which they take exception; bad meals, bad art, rotten holidays. We seem to be fascinated by anger and rage and at the same time intimidated by it. Terrorists use anger and rage as their weapon of fear, and it works insofar as it creates a climate of suspicion and mistrust in their target societies.

 (image by me)

Yogis understand the reasons for the anger in modern times, and battle constantly to overcome this destructive emotion.

What is creativity? November 3, 2008

painting by Andrea Brück

We live in a time when creativity is seen either as a passport to material riches, or as something to be cynically criticised and attacked. Those who can, create, but timorously and always with a guarded eye turned towards the criticism of others. Artists doubt the value of their work, until they either give up in despair, or -hiding behind an artificially pumped ego – they manage to assert their mastery and gain recognition through sheer grit and dogged determination.

However as any true artist readily admit, real creativity is much more that a super charged ego, a fancy car and some astute self-promotion. It is a secret, magical alliance between talented and heartfelt application and divine inspiration. This combination of heart and spirit is what gives sublime art its power to shape epochs. We can always recognise the divinity of true art simply by measuring its enduring and widespread appeal.

What happens after self-realisation? October 8, 2008

  image by axinia

After getting self-realisaiton… we start to engage in a very subtle battle between the head and the heart, or we can say the ego and the spirit. Up until the moment we gain our self-relisaiton we will have been under the complete “control” of our ego; we have made decisions based on our desires and wants, we have experienced emotional crests and troughs, we have suppressed our true selves beneath an unconscious set of accumulated baggage which has ruled our lives.

How many of us have ignored the warning signs of a relationships which was clearly not good for us, but whoch filled some other need – usually fear or loneliness? How many have accepted situations which we truly did not enjoy, want or need, simply to maintain our popularity or status with friends and family? Who hasn’t acted impetuously and stupidly and not regreted it afterwards? These are all signs of a perfectly normal lifestyle, but one that has been governed by the ego and superego in us. A life of compromise governed by our weakness. Even when we thought we were acting from the heart!

What happens when you start to meditate September 24, 2008

 image by axinia

One of the difficulties that many people face when they first start to meditate is working out whether they are doing the meditation properly and whether it is having a beneficial effect. Strangely enough this is not so much an issue in the first two weeks or so as it is later on, after the initial period of familiarisation is over.

The early days of meditation are usually marked by a general feeling of well-being. For many people, this is the time that they will have experienced a true spiritual practice in action, and their subtle system really flowers under the attention. They feel happy, many start sleeping better and may find their heart opening in the most unexpected ways.

Know Thyself – it is about itellectual examination? August 3, 2008

 image by axinia

The exhortation to “know thyself” is often taken to require nothing more than a sort of intellectual examination of our personality. But in reality, real self-knowledge comes not from the mind, but from an experiencing of -and eventually a fusion with-our own complex spiritual system.

The ancient Seers literary spent their whole lives in deep meditation, trying to unravel the form and function of this mysterious and subtle system. Many introspections ended up frustratingly fruitless and empty, but from the few who managed to achieve genuine enlightenment, we have gained as invaluable understanding of the subtle spiritual instrument, energy channels and chakras.

Many of these insights must have been accompanied by direct physical sensations, which were then used to track these subtly energy flows and prove their existence outside of the meditative state.

Ask most people what they did on holiday February 26, 2008

 photo by axinia

Ask most people what they did on holiday and they`ll tell you about the great sights they saw, the grand events, the glamour, the extremes in weather, environment or people. But they`ll be hard pressed to remember the small things, like the market they passed through on the way to the cathedral, or the beautiful flowers they saw on the path to the beach house. Yet it is the small things which give substance to the reality of the whole experience. 

Meditation teaches us to enjoy the journey as a whole and not to waste time peering into the future to catch a glimpse of the destination. We learn that the flowers at our feet are unbelievably fragrant and beautiful, of only we would stop for long enough to appreciate them. We realise that patience is a power that cannot be cherished too much. It is the bedrock of peace, contentment and our spiritual desires.”All good things come to whose who wait”, is an ancient proverb, and how true it is.