My Personal Experience With Prayer And Meditation

"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens." --Baha'u'llah

PART SIX: My personal experiences with prayer and meditation.

I find that prayer helps me to quiet my mind, turning off my internal dialog. Prayer sets the tone for meditation which allows me to become more detached from my ego centered self image. Sometimes when I am trying to make a decision to solve a problem, I find that my mind is clouded by my emotions and prejudices, and I am unable to think things through clearly. Prayer helps me get past these two barriers; then I am able to meditate. Meditation allows me to witness my whole being from the center of the medicine wheel and I can clearly see the solution to any problem I have focused my attention on.

We all need a vision or goal to work towards. We need to know what actions we need to take to achieve our goals. We also need the will and determination to carry out the necessary actions to achieve our goals. Prayer and meditation will help you to achieve all of this.

All prayers are answered, however sometimes the answer is no. Prayers can only be answered by the actions you take. I find that if you are going to pray for something, it is best to pray for guidance. After prayer and meditation, if you look for it - then you will find the guidance that you need. Sometimes you will find it during the meditation. To have a prayer truly answered you still need to take action. If we do not take action then nothing will happen.

Please visit my Spiritual Transformation Store for books, music, and DVD's: MY STORE
(select the Shop tab at the top of the page – then scroll down to my Amazon Spiritual Transformation Store - for music click on DVD's)

Sixteen Principles for Recreating the World: (second set of five)

-Interconnectedness. Everything is connected to everything else. Therefore, any aspect of our healing and development is related to all the others (personal, social ,cultural, political, economic, etc.). When we work on any one part, the whole circle is affected.

-The hurt of one is the hurt of all; the honor of one is the honor of all. The basic fact of our oneness as a human family means that development for some at the expense of well-being for others is not acceptable or sustainable.

-Unity. Unity means oneness. With out unity, the common oneness that makes (seemingly) separate human beings into "community" is impossible. Disunity is the primary disease of community.

-No participation, no development. Participation is the active engagement of the minds, hearts and energy of the people in the process of their own healing and development.

-Spirit. Human beings are both material and spiritual in nature. It is therefore inconceivable that human community could become whole and sustainable without bringing our lives into balance with the requirements of our spiritual nature.

("Sixteen Principles" taken from "Recreating the World a practical guide to building sustainable communities" by Michael and Judie Bopp - e-mail: fourworlds@telusplanet.net)

To be continued next post, thank for your time and have a wonderful day!! --Larry
I invite you to explore my SOCIETY GUIDE.

Become More Receiptive

How to Open an Intuition Zone to Become Receptive by Patrick Mannon

To best activate your intuitive self, you should be in an open and receptive frame of mind, a sensitive place where your consciousness is attuned to insights and impressions, no matter how subtle or symbolic. This state is best attained when your conscious, analytical mind is detached, leaving you in a humble, non-judgmental mode, free of the dictates of logic and reason.

The alpha and theta states induced in the Intuition Zone guided meditations part the 'veils between worlds' and allow higher states of consciousness to dawn. It is in these twilight arenas that your intuition can be encountered in a more pronounced and tangible way.

All forms of meditation as well as many relaxation procedures can serve to quiet the voice of your conscious mind, opening you to the whisperings and messages of your intuitive senses. But the guided meditations of the Intuition Zone do far more than put you in a receptive state. They actively facilitate the engagement and activation of your intuitive senses and empower your intuition.

That said, you don't always need to be in a meditative state to work with and apply your intuition, and there are a great many exercises in the Intuition Zone program that explore this. The 'Earth-Light' meditation recording is specifically created to clear and align your energy system and connect you to source, leaving you more open and capable of receiving higher awareness. The purifying, centering and consciousness raising effects of this meditation make it a great opener for to any intuitive practice, as well as to making of yourself an open and willing conduit.

Your intuition is most accessible when you are functioning outside your normal, rational, judgmental mode of awareness. We most often experience such altered states when doing automatic, 'mindless,' or repetitive tasks, such as having a shower, knitting, washing the dishes, or doing chores, and so on. It is in these states that your mind switches off and higher inspiration and intuitive gestalts can find their way into your consciousness without the convoluted trappings of your analytical mind.

The Intuition Zone program includes the soothing meditation called, 'Inner Realm.' This meditation connects you with the personification of your Higher Self and makes it possible to experience their pure unconditional love, absorbing this energy at a fundamental level. During this divine union, you will dissolve the limiters and roadblocks that keep you from knowing the who you are, knowing the truth of reality and destroying the illusion of separation on which the ego thrives. When you experience the unconditional, divine love that your Higher Self has for you in every instant of existence, it will heal and blossom your heart so that you can experience more of the ultimate truth of reality - that only love is real.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Are you ready to empower your intuition with the divine guidance of the 'Earth-Light' and other guided Intuition Zone meditations? If so, simply visit this Intuition Zone review site to begin the liberation of your intuitive self. END

Please visit my Spiritual Transformation Store for books, music and DVDs. (for meditation music click on DVDs once you are in the store). Click on “MY STORE” (in blue below), then scroll part way down the page until you find My Amazon Superstore display. MY STORE - I also invite you to explore my - SOCIETY GUIDE

“The Earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.” –Baha’u’llah

NOTE: To Internet Marketers

Internet marketers that are responding to my email ads should read my Feb. 8 post ("Inspired Future And Success") - Then read my Feb. 4 post ("Financial Success Online") - And then read my Jan. 29/08 post ("Prayer Meditation And Internet Marketing"). --Larry

"The Earth is but one country and mankind its citizens." --Baha'u'llah

Prayer And Meditation

"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens" --Baha'ullah

PART FIVE: Prayer and Meditation

Prayer and meditation are the two most powerful tools that we can use to bring about our spiritual transformation. In fact this is the only means by which we can transcend to the centre of the medicine wheel. At this centre a person can see herself/himself as a whole person in a detached manner. Science has proven the beneficial effects of prayer and meditation on the person as a whole.

"If people find no room in their lives to pray or meditate, to reflect deeply on why they have been created and what they must do with their lives, and to listen with all of their being to the guidance of the universe, then those people are like birds who have not yet learned to fly. All the parts of the bird are present, but still something is missing. To be a whole person is to be alive in a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual way." ("The Sacred Tree", Four Worlds International Institute.)

Please visit my Spiritual Transformation Store for books, music and DVD's: MY STORE
(Click on MY STORE – Then click on Shop at the top of the page – then scroll down to my Amazon Spiritual Transformation Store)

Individual: Dynamics of Prayer

"While in Haifa, the beloved Guardian of the Cause gave to the writer (Mrs Ruth Moffat), the most concise, complete, and effective formula she has ever seen, for the Dynamics of Prayer. After saying to stress the need of more prayers and meditation among the friends, he said to use these five steps if we had a problem of any kind for which we desired a solution or wished help.

First Step. --Pray and meditate about it. Use the prayers of the Manifestations as they have the greatest power. Then remain in the silence of contemplation for a few minutes.

Second Step. --Arrive at a decision and hold this. This decision is usually born during the contemplation. It my seem almost impossible of accomplishment but if it seems to be as answer to a prayer or a way of solving the problem, then immediately take the next step.

Third Step. -- Have determination to carry the decision through. Many fail here. The decision, budding into determination, is blighted and instead becomes a wish or a vague longing. When determination is born, immediately take the next step.

Fourth Step. --Have faith and confidence that the power will flow through you, the right way will appear, the door will be open, the right thought, the right message, the right principle or the right book will be given you. Have confidence, and the right thing will come to your need. Then, as you rise from prayer, take at once the fifth step.

Fifth Step. --Then, he said, lastly, ACT; Act as though it had all been answered. Then act with tireless, ceaseless energy. And as you act, you, yourself, will become a magnet, which will attract more power to your being, until you become an unobstructed channel for the Divine power to flow through you. Many pray but do not remain for the last half of the first step. Some who meditate arrive at a decision, but fail to hold it. Few have the determination to carry the decision through, still fewer have the confidence that the right thing will come to their need. But how many remember to act as though it had all been answered? How true are these words--'Greater than the prayer is the spirit in which it is uttered' and greater than the way it is uttered it the spirit in which it is carried out.

The above statements belongs properly to the class of statement known as "pilgrim's notes" and as such has no authority but, since it seems to be particularly helpful and clear, it was felt that believers should not be deprived of it." (Principles of Baha'i Administration, pg 90-91)

To be continued next post, please feel free to explore my SOCIETY GUIDE. Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day! --Larry

Nature And Awereness

The Twelve Senses of the World of Nature by Jos Graf

Silence stillness immensity forest stretching endlessly snow covered, quietly breathing its tremendous, wide, conifer expanse And the sough of wind rising and falling Most beings here - plant or animal - are melded into this spacious and soul-purifying landscape As is the human But the human is also, at least in part, separate from the land. And human nature can discern, by way of the 12 senses, aspects and nuances of the natural world through these 12 portals.

The snow sifts down into the forest, falling windless and so light as to seem almost weightless, afloat in place. A deep silence holds sway, an ocean of stillness that invites entry. And there is space enough here for any size contemplation.

In the northern, boreal realm, across this endless range of semi-homogenous evergreen forest radiating its steadfast and grounded, robust energy - across the conifer deep - here and there, an accent counters the etheric expanse with an astral focus, an animal being - raven, jay, squirrel-hunting marten, wolf, moose, or chickadee.

Tracks in the snow tell the stories. A snowshoe hare nips birch tips from a fallen tree. A luxuriously furred marten pursues a red squirrel. Unless the squirrel quickly makes it to one of its underground dens it will become the marten's meal.

Sometime in the night the wolf came near. It came to investigate who was howling in the evening, howling like, yet unlike, another wolf (it's own sense of language revealing that, although the sound of my howl seemed very similar to a wolf's, there was a subtle difference). It came near enough to discern the scent of human presence, approached as near as it dared, always keeping a periphery of safety as it circuited the area of the cabin.

What curiosity was left unquenched? And in the daylight I could feel the wolf watching me from somewhere in the woods, as I went out on the frozen lake to investigate the passage of its own movement, the story told by its tracks.

Surely, from the wolf's point of view, it experiences the most challenge of interpretation (in a sense, the wolf's level of conceptual sense) from the human community. As is well known, the wolf can read, very intimately, the comings and goings, the various aspects of, the moose, and other inhabitants of its immediate neighborhood. But the human being becomes rich in enigma, embodies a broad range of Unknown in the sphere of the wolf's experience.

Snow-shoeing through a forest during a snowfall can be an ideal setting to attune to the landscape. Distractions are reduced - sound is muffled and visibility is confined to a radius of a few feet (of course it goes without saying that one has to exercise care, bring a compass and be good at orienteering, or you can end up in oblivion!) Overall, the Spirit of the boreal forest - the heart of the boreal forest landscape, like the heart of one of its trees, one senses, is golden, intricate, warm despite the climate, perhaps because of the climate, to counterpoint the cold.

In sharing this encounter with nature through the twelve senses, I will begin with the outermost, least penetrating sense and proceed to the deepest-registering sense (please note that the following presumes a basic understanding of the 12 senses. If the reader wishes to prime him/herself on this subject, use the links under "Further Resources" at the end of the article. Alternatively, information is readily available by entering an internet search via "12 senses" - and adding "Rudolf Steiner" can be helpful):

Touch.

The longer I touch the snow and ice here, the number grows this sense. Then, in turns, it is awakened by prickle of conifer needle, rasped by bark, or caressed by the soft feel of usnea moss. Whatever the sensate experience of touch, I have to admit that it defines my separation, the self's bounds, or at least the physical body's self-bounding. I do touch nature with this sense, but only her outermost surface, a Braille of rebuff, no entry past the outermost edge. As we continue down this list, we enter, increasingly, into the inner nature of things. But the sense of touch is the most external.

For example, when the wind gusts across my face, my sense of touch feels the impact of that gust, but my sense of temperature registers how cool or warm it is.

A manatee, with more brain space dedicated to touch than any other mammal, has a long-distance sense of touch. Whisker like hairs all over its body act as sensors, so that it can, in effect, "touch" from a distance.

Life.

After a long day of snow-shoeing my sense of life feels drained, very low in energy/chi, even despite practicing energy-enhancing Qi-gong along the way (I'm not by any means a master in the art yet).

Overall, as I undertake this trek, my sense of life is both enhanced and exhausted. My constitutional energy is put to the test, the body forces are working at their limit. However, the etheric energy of the forest is so resplendent that there is a constant influx of vitality. An interesting point to be made here is that in urban areas people have to enhance their life sense due to the lack of nature-borne vitality. In consideration of this, we can say, if asked what is truly the most valuable property in, say, New York, the answer is that Central Park has more worth that all the rest of Manhattan combined!

Migrating birds can detect and use magnetic fields of the Earth to navigate by. Is this so-called "magnetic field" actually part of the sense of life of the planet streaming forth? And are the birds, in a way, projecting their own sense of life outward to detect the Earth's energy in this manner?

Wolves are known to stare into the eyes of their prey before opting to attack, reading in their potential prey the nature of their sense of life, their overall constitutional strength and condition of health.

Movement.

This sense of awareness of the body-in-motion enables us to know where any part of our body is even with eyes closed. It is a sense that can be refined and enhanced, as in the case of intricate choreography.

When projected outward, we can sense movement in others. One evening, as I was bent over a campfire, cooking a meal, I could sense something passing over above me. As I looked up I saw an owl flying in the trajectory I had been sensing. The owl, as we know is capable of flying quite silently. I did not hear its passage, nor could I see it in any way, until after I looked up.

Tracks of a solitary snowshoe hare enter the woods, appearing to have crossed the frozen lake - a distance of about 2 miles. What could have drawn the hare across such an long open distance? Its progress would have been little noticed as its coat matched the snow so well (here again, a developed sense of movement projected outward would have helped to sense the hare's passage.)

Does the weasel sense the movement of mice and voles in the sub-nivean chamber beneath the snow, before it dives in?

Often have I watched a flock of shorebirds, or snowbirds, as they fly in complete unison, twisting, turning, diving, swooping as one. Here, the sense of movement has been refined and con-joined to each member of the flock, as though a single being is operating every nuance of movement. This particular example can also shed light on how the sense of ego operates within the realm of nature - more on that below.

For the whole version of this article visit the Earth Vision website.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

J Graf is the coordinator of Insight21 - http://www.insight21.net and the sister site, Earth Vision - http://www.evsite.net - - - doorways for the 21st Century. END

Please visit my Spiritual Transformation Store for books, music and DVDs. (for meditation music click on DVDs once you are in the store). Click on “MY STORE” (in blue below), then scroll part way down the page until you find My Amazon Superstore display. MY STORE - I also invite you to explore my - SOCIETY GUIDE