Tag Archives: wisdom

Taking Back Our Focus

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Information Fixation and the True Breakaway Civilization

It’s been quite a concern for me for some time now watching the growing information fascination phenomenon metastasize. It’s become contagious and extremely toxic for those who should have transcended this energetic level some time ago. If we are aware of the fact that we are co-creators of our reality, why are we fixated on this dark, false imposed one and its projection instead of what we know to be true and pure and empowering?

Sure, we need to be aware of what’s going on around us and see through this façade, but once we do, then what?

Why do we dwell on these dark temporal and clearly manipulative realities? Once we know they’re negatively charged and spiritually poisonous and clearly coming from the wrong source, why do we keep drinking at their well? Is the next purely logical step so hard to take? To break free of it and assert what we know to be the true alternative world? Or is something even more close to home afoot – having to do with our own personal issues?

Enter the Egoic Self Preservation Loop

For some reason we wrap our identity around what we participate in. Even though we have clearly found out that we each are the captain of our own sovereign ship, we still keep running around their decks and want to know every intricate detail of how their damned matrix tanker operates.

Where’s the cut off point? When is enough enough?

Never – but only if we’re operating in their system. That’s what it’s designed to be, a vortex. Entertain it and you become it. New and fanciful ways but part of it we are when we do this, when we’re caught in the fascination loop, for whatever personal or outside stimulated reason. This is where other forces are in full play, so our seeming reasons for being there are even convoluted within their false paradigm.

At every level. We are not strong enough to operate in their field. It requires a dumbed down vibrational change to be on their level, and at that level we are destined to lose – even if we appear to be so-called winning.

It’s a trap.

News Fever and the Grip of the Info Grid

I’ve worked in actual news rooms. It’s frantic, and oneupmanship is the skill of choice, even if only with yourself to excel at what you do, but it’s addictive. Stress is a known killer but it’s the operation system in the survival of the fittest world out there. Staying on “top” of what’s going on becomes a 24/7 addiction and it sucks – literally – sucking the very life out of you.

But ironically you feel very connected, and on “top” of what’s going on in the world. Your personal life might go to hell but you feel essential to the process, and thereby very connected and self affirmed.

It’s a drug. A vibrational source of fascinating deception.

The internet has made amazing things available like no other time in known history. There’s no doubt about that. But how are we handling it? Websites are awash in up to the minute breaking news, each trying to “keep up” with the latest, even with the best of motives. Just because it may be “alternative” doesn’t change this dynamic. We’re feeding off it, and feeding into it.

Where’s the break-off point? Shouldn’t we as conscious warriors recognize when we’re being played, drained and tripped off? It appears the alt-stream current is predominantly well into this mode. It doesn’t mean the reasons are all wrong and everything’s a psy-op or wannabe cash machine – it just means we need to find our own cut off point and listen to the prompts telling us when we’re caught in something.

As well as have the personal discipline to turn it off.

So much is at play, but yesterday’s truth can become today’s bullshit with just a spiritual nuance, a wrong source, or twisted application. That or just the overwhelming quantity of fundamentally negative crap can sink our once sailing ships – if we’re not careful.

Choose Your Battles – Don’t Let Them Choose You

Reactive living is a bitch. If we just react to everything that crosses our path or our screen we are not living very responsibly nor consciously. Time for meditation, being in nature, relaxing with friends, and doing personal energy work, are imperative.

More now than ever.

This has been the theme of the 3 plus months I’m taking to visit Europe and it’s been amazing, especially the energy work and allowing time to have my bearings reset and energy system rewired. It had to take movement from my previous surroundings and deliberately laying aside a good chunk of time to allow the process to take hold. As a result my life has radically changed, in some obvious ways but mostly in more subtle yet deeply profound ways.

And this needs to keep on. That’s the main message.

Taking the initiative on life instead of letting circumstances or the onslaught of information direct us is so empowering, howbeit challenging and somewhat disconcerting. Seeing new things means being confronted with new reponse-abilities. How much am I taking on board for real? How much will I let these new understandings of whatever sort affect the course of my life?

There’s always a lot of letting go involved in real change. Old habits, viewpoints, understandings, attachments, social contracts and on they go.

All I know is: When our authentic self is knocking on the inside of the door of our hearts we better answer and let it out, come what may.

Therein lies the key to the true breakaway civilization being born within and without us.

We Are the True Breakaway Civilization

It’s ironic how the intruders of our planet think they’re creating a technological breakaway civilization, capable of not only fully controlling our world but actually believing they can now invade and colonize other planets in their pathetic state. Psychopathy doesn’t begin to address the level of deviance of such a mind set.

Yet it exists. In our midst.

As completely out of touch with Creative Source these people, beings or hyper-dimensional sources are, they are very active and even walk among us in many forms, and exert empathy-devoid power with abandon. The question immediately arises: Why? Why do they exist in a Universe that clearly curries love, community and togetherness as the essential part of its most basic fabric?

Again, it’s not a time to be unconsciously reactive. All is good and essentially right – at a very profound level. Yet the paradox rides on. We are still in situations where we need to respond – but consciously.

Not only is this the great school of learning, but a great contest. But awareness of the overall must predominate. All is here for a very deep purpose, despite the hand to hand combat.

Again. A paradox of very great and profound dimensions. But here we are. Waking up to the grand design yet being called up to respond consciously and participate in meaningful ways.

Break Away!

While vibrations rise and the great awakening continues to erupt, the onus is still on us. How do we respond and at what level? Will we feed the lower level testing energies by fighting back on their level, or will we rise to new heights of awakened activism?

Not so easy to discern but once we do and literally break away from the parasitic mindsets and lower level understandings of our current situation things begin to make incredibly clear sense.

We are breaking away. As we affirm what’s right and true and live according to our convictions, we feel a tremendous difference in our reality. We’re separating from the host and parasite – the doomed cycle of entrapped slumbered-down civilization. Breaking away into a new realm of co-creativity and sense of tremendous empowerment.

It may appear vague at first, but it’s happening. On a massively broad scale as awakening souls feel the pull, but much more profoundly manifested by the vanguard of truly realized souls coming to life – activating and taking the necessary steps towards freedom.

Lead on, lead on. The movement works itself into the vein of transition. It’s not leadership nor followership, it’s co-creation, where our only time is in the now.

Manifest. But do it. All the way.

Love always, Zen

from:    http://www.zengardner.com/information-fascination-breakaways/

On Meditation & Wisdom

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New Study Links Meditation To Wisdom

| March 13, 2016 

New Study Links Meditation To Wisdom

by Derrick Broze,
ActivistPost

A new study has found an association between meditation and wisdom.

Researchers with the University of Chicago’s Department of Psychology have found that meditation, and physical practices such as ballet, might lead to increased wisdom. The study, “The Relationship between Mental and Somatic Practices and Wisdom,” was published in PLOS ONE.

The researchers gave 298 participants a survey that asked about their experiences practicing meditation, the Alexander Technique (a method for improving posture, balance, coordination, and movement), the Feldenkrais Method (a form of somatic education that seeks to improve movement and physical function, reduce pain, and increase self-awareness), and classical ballet. The participants also answered psychological exams related to various elements of wisdom, such as empathy and anxiety.

The team found that individuals who practiced meditation had characteristics associated with wisdom more often than the other groups. The types of meditation being practiced include vipassana, mindfulness, and Buddhist. The researchers also found that participants who practiced ballet had the lowest levels of wisdom, but with consistent practice of ballet individuals scored higher on measures of psychological traits typically associated with wisdom.

“The link between ballet and wisdom is mysterious to us and something that we’re already investigating further,” said Patrick B. Williams, lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Chicago’s Department of Psychology. Williams plans to monitor practitioners of both meditation and ballet for months and years to study the results over a longer period of time.

Williams also said that he believed this study to be the first to look at the possible link between physical practices and the cultivation of wisdom. Howard Nusbaum, professor of psychology, is a lead investigator in a research project on somatic wisdom. Nusbaum believes that understanding wisdom will lead to greater insights.

“As we learn more about the kinds of experiences that are related to wisdom, we can gain insight into ways of studying the mechanisms that mediate wisdom. This also lets us shift from thinking about wisdom as something like a talent to thinking about it as something more like a skill,” he said.

Williams stressed that the research was not looking to establish a causal relationship between wisdom and the four practices. “We hope our exploratory research will encourage others to replicate our results and look for other experiences that are linked with wisdom, as well as the factors that might explain such links,” Williams said.

The benefits of meditation have slowly been recognized by Western medicine as more studies confirm what many cultures have known for thousands of years: Meditation is a powerful tool. In November 2015, a study found that adolescents who undergo a mindfulness meditation program may see improvements in memory. In April, Anti-Media reported on another study that confirmed the healing power of mindfulness meditation. The study, published in The Lancet medical journal, found that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) may be just as effective as pharmaceuticals when it comes to preventing chronic depression relapse.

Meditation has also been used to help former soldiers suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In September 2014, TruthInMedia spoke with Heather Linebaugh about her experience with United States Air Force from 2009 until March 2012. Linebaugh worked in intelligence as an imagery analyst and geo-spatial analyst for the drone program in Iraq and Afghanistan. Linebaugh has suffered from PTSD and now works to promote natural treatments such as cannabis, yoga, and meditation.

The consistent practice of meditation can help one establish a balanced mind. By maintaining a balanced mind and learning to use meditation as a tool for peace and clarity we are helping promote a more compassionate world. If more people opted to begin meditating on a regular basis it is likely we would see an increase in wise, compassionate, and awakened minds.

 

from:    http://www.bodymindsoulspirit.com/meditation-wisdom/

Lessons from A Taoist Monk

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Nine Powerful Life Lessons From Studying with a Monk

29th June 2012

By Robert Piper – docakilah.wordpress.com

When I was 18 years old, I suffered from anxiety and stomach problems. A compassionate physician and practicing Buddhist referred me to a Taoist monk who specialized in meditation and martial arts. I ended up healing myself of anxiety and stomach issues by doing meditation, and went on a great journey of self-discovery.

Here are 9 lessons I learned while studying with a monk:

1. Keep trying until you get it right.

The most important life lesson I learned was trying something three times (maybe even four times) before you stop trying and move on. Also, this monk taught me that, even after multiple tries, you should work on different angles to approach things that are difficult.

If you keep trying, you’ll eventually get where you’re going.

2. The answer to your question is inside of you.

As part of the original monastery training, a monk didn’t answer direct questions from a student unless it was a well thought-out question. A Chinese proverb says, “Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.”

Some forms of Zen Buddhism use a very similar style of training. An old saying (by Taoist monks) goes like this: “In making a four corner table, the teacher shows the student how to make one corner. It’s the student’s job to figure out how to make the other three.”

They did this because they were preparing a student to deal effectively with problems in the real world.

I traveled to South Korea one time, and I found it fascinating how much you have to rely on your intuition when you don’t speak the native language of a country. I remember one instance, I had trouble explaining to the cab driver where my hotel was, and he didn’t speak English. So I had to get out of the cab and ask several people until I could find someone to tell the cab driver in Korean how to get to my hotel.

In life, whenever we try new things, we have to go into new places with only a small amount of information. The real world doesn’t give us all the answers. The greatest teacher is inside of us.

3. Real wisdom in life comes from doing something and failing.

Prior to starting meditation, I used to get upset when I’d try something and fail.

I’ve been in sales since I was sixteen. I remember going to work and getting so angry with myself because I didn’t get a sale. If I ever got rejected, I’d get upset with myself, and I’d want to quit my job. But I just keep failing over and over—until I became good at it.

I remember, when I first started doing meditation, I ran into several problems. For example, at first it was difficult to calm down; but if you stick with it, its gets easier and easier. I tried for only a few minutes, and then every day, I added more time onto my meditation.

When we struggle, we learn about ourselves and what we need to do to become stronger.

4. When you start to do meditation you recognize the egotistical mind.

Everything in the ego’s world is the result of comparing. I compared myself to other salesmen and would blame myself because I wasn’t making as much money as them.

When I started doing meditation, I began to build separation from this egoistical mind, which is consistently making these comparisons. A lot of us try something and get rejected, so we give up. Even worse, we blame ourselves for a long time and get depressed. When I started to do meditation, I began to identify my ego and was able to build separation from it.

That’s what happens when we meditate: We separate from the part of ourselves that dwells on comparisons, and start learning to live a life that isn’t driven by our egos.

5. We must be both compassionate and resilient.

The monk wouldn’t meet with me to train unless I called him a minimum of three times. I hated this part. I used to call and call and he would never answer. But this is how life is. How many times do you have to call or email someone to get something done in the real world? It’s usually several times.

Most of us blame ourselves when we try once to do something and fail. At the time, I hated this part of the training, but now I think it was the most important life lesson.

There’s a Taoist proverb that says, “Cotton on the outside, steel on the inside.”

It reminds us to be compassionate, but not weak.

6. Patience is a virtue.

The monk always made me wait—and I dreaded this.

For example, when I got to his house to train, he’d make me wait for a minimum of a half-hour, sometimes longer. We’d go out to dinner on Friday nights and he’d show up at the restaurant an hour late.

He’d tell me to meet him at a particular restaurant at 7:00. I’d get there and find out that he wasn’t there. So I’d usually be sitting in the restaurant by myself fumbling with my phone, acting like I was texting someone, while worrying about what everyone at the restaurant was thinking about me.

Keep in mind, it’s not like I could call him; I don’t think the guy ever turned his cell phone on. Then he’d show up at about 8:15 and act like nothing happened.

His first question was always, “How’s your mother and father?” (Of course in my head I’m thinking, “What do you mean, ‘How’s my mother and father?’ I just waited here for an hour and fifteen minutes.”)

But after a few years of this, it never bothered me; and not only that, it spread to every area of my life. Because of this training, I can honestly say that I very rarely get upset about anything. I never get agitated anymore when I have to wait in a long line or when someone cuts me off on the highway.

Patience is the gift of inner calm.

7. Detach from your ego.

At first, it’s hard to sit at a restaurant by yourself. You’re constantly worrying, thinking that people probably think you’re a loser because you’re sitting by yourself. But the reality is, you will never be happy if you care about what people think you!

Prior to starting meditation, I’d get upset over just about anything. Now, nothing really bothers me. Recently, I was in the airport and there was a several hour delay on my flight. I just used that time to do meditation. Ten years ago, I would have become extremely upset. An airplane delay would have ruined my day.

When you let go of your ego needs, it’s easier to accept and even benefit from whatever comes at you.

8. In Taoism, they say, “No self, No enemy.”

It’s the enemy within that causes all of our fears, worries, and insecurities. If you come to terms with this enemy within, it will impact every area of your life. It’s the identification with the “self/ego” that causes all of life’s problems.

How many times do we not go for something because of fear? Think about all the fears that we have conjured up in our minds that stop us from being truly happy. If you can conquer the enemy within yourself, you won’t have an enemy outside yourself.

9. Happiness come from within, and also comes from outside.

I learned this from observing the Buddhist Physician I met. He used to do meditation in his office before he would interact with his patients. He was one of the happiest and most compassionate people I’ve ever met.

By creating happiness inside, he was able to increase that emotional state by spreading it to others.

We must cultivate happiness from within, and work to spread it around to everyone we interact with. The monk used say, “Everyone has a purpose or a mission in life.”

We have to find happiness within, and also find our purpose on the outside.

About the Author

Robert Piper is a meditation instructor & the creator of monkinthecity.com. He studied with a Taoist monk for 9 ½ years & traveled to Asia & Australia in search of other meditation teachers. Robert is currently writing a book on meditation to make it more accessible for stress relief, health & happiness.

from:    http://wakeup-world.com/2012/06/29/nine-powerful-life-lessons-from-studying-with-a-monk/

Michael Beckwith on Super Wisdom

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Extended Awareness

by MICHAEL BECKWITH

There is an inner impulsion within the human being which is commonly interpreted as the engine that drives personal success, that earns credentials and accolades which result in magnificent acquisitions—the external more, more, more of which there is never enough to satisfy.  For even when we have succeeded in meeting many or most of our outer goals there remains an awareness of an illusive “something,” an emptiness that is yet unfilled.

Is there any validity to this awareness?  Is there something woven into the fundamental fabric of our being that urges us to seek fulfillment beyond the offerings of the external world?  Affirmative evidence is offered by Andrew Newberg, M.D., in his book on brain science and the biology of belief, Why God Won’t Go Away:

“As Gene and I sifted through mountains of data on religious experience, ritual, and brain science, important pieces of the puzzle came together and meaningful patterns emerged.  Gradually, we shaped a hypothesis that suggests that spiritual experience, at its very root, is intimately interwoven with human biology.  That biology, in some way, compels the spiritual urge.”

According to both ancient and contemporary spiritual traditions, there is a passageway into an extended awareness of our true nature, that aspect of ourselves that can be accessed when the preoccupations of the conscious mind are quieted. As we enter through this passageway, we lift the veil that hides the inner paradise in which we truly live, move, and have our being.  India’s great philosopher, Sri Aurobindo, aptly describes it this way:

“The full delight of being is intrinsic, self-existent, automatic; it cannot be dependent on things outside itself. In the spiritual knowledge of self, the first step is the discovery of the soul, the secret entity, the divine element within us.”

From this wisdom we can conclude that there is no permanent or ultimate fulfillment from anything outside of our essential Self, our soul-self. This leaves little wiggle room for us to postpone seeking out spiritual practices by which we may evolve an extended awareness of our at-onement with First Cause, which some call God, Brahma, Spirit, or no name at all.

Jill Bolte Taylor, a 37-year-old Harvard-trained neuroanatomist, experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the rational, time-oriented left side of her brain. Within a four-hour time span she lost the ability to walk, talk, read, or write. Her knowledge of how the brain works allowed her to recognize that she was having a stroke and seek immediate help.  At the very outset of her eight-year recovery period, her consciousness shifted into the right brain where she experienced a state of nirvana, what she described as an extended awareness of herself being “at one with the Universe.” Andrew Newberg explains this extended awareness:

“… various key brain structures and the way information is channeled along neural pathways leads us to hypothesize that the brain possesses a neurological mechanism for self-transcendence.”

The degree to which we activate this innate capacity to self-transcend, so do we cultivate an extended awareness of the Self.

As we progress in self-transcendence, the sense of separation or involvement with the personal mind expands into an awareness of the unique emanation that each of us is as an individualized expression of the One Mind that is everywhere in its fullness.  That which is happening cosmically begins to happen through us locally.  In such a state of awareness the plenitude, beauty, peace, joy, bliss, compassion—these transcendent yet eminent qualities of being are activated within us.  It is a process of awakening to our true nature which places us in harmony with the fundamental order of Existence. Modern Zen master Huang Po describes the ultimate state of being he calls One Mind in this way:

“All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but One Mind, beside which nothing exists. Only awake to the One Mind.”

This One Mind is the very life force that animates and sustains existence, the evolutionary impulse within the universe and each individual.

The personal mind—predominantly the left side of the brain—wants to figure out how all of this happens. The demand to know “how” is actually a delay tactic of the ego, a defense mechanism so that our sense of being a separate self doesn’t dissolve right on the spot!  Self-transcendence is our birthright.  Everything that we need is already within us, announcing itself through the inner impulsion to grow, develop and unfold.  How do we cultivate an extended awareness of Self?  First by an identity shift which acknowledges our at-onement with the One Mind. We then grow confidence in our capacity to become a fully enlightened being.  As an enlightened being, we live from a state of cosmic consciousness, a conscious awareness of our oneness with all life.

When we consider current scientific studies of the brain relative to the field of quantum consciousness, the evolutionary possibilities for the individual and our global family are limitless.  A genuine state of cosmic awareness expressing through an individual or a whole nation is distinguishable as scientific knowledge of life, life lived in attunement with cosmic laws.  Living from such a state of consciousness holds the potential for governing our world by a kind of super-wisdom which results in cooperation rather than competition, in unity rather than division, in oneness rather than separation.

from:    http://ervinlaszlo.com/forum/2010/06/13/extended-awareness/