Tag: inspiration

The Physical Body – The Field of Molecules

We have seen the basics of Soul and Mind in my earlier articles. Finally we will explore our Body.

Within our physical domain, we have an extended body, a personal body, and an energetic body. Our extended body is the environment, containing the never-ending supply of energy and information that is available to we. Every sound, sensation, sight, flavor, and aroma we ingest from the environment influences our body and mind. Although our senses may tell we otherwise, there is no distinct boundary between our personal and extended bodies, which are in constant and dynamic exchange. Each breath that we inhale and exhale is a reminder of the continuous conversation taking place between our physical body and our environment.

This recognition requires we to take responsibility for what is happening in our environment. As a human, we should be an environmentalist because we need to recognize that the rivers flowing through the valleys and those flowing through our veins are intimately related. The breath of an old-growth forest and our most recent breath are inextricably intertwined. The quality of the soil in which our food is raised is directly connected to the health of our tissues and organs. Our environment is our extended body. We are inseparably interwoven with our ecosystem.

Of course, we do have a personal body that consists of the molecules that temporarily comprise our cells, tissues, and organs. We say temporarily because although it appears that our body is solid and constant, it actually is continuously transforming. Scientific studies using radioisotope tracings convincingly show that 98 percent of the ten trillion quadrillion (1028) atoms in our body are replaced annually. our stomach lining re-creates itself about every five days, our skin is made anew every month, and our liver cells turn over every six weeks.

Although our body appears to be fixed and stable, it is continually metamorphosing. The vast majority of the cells in our body are derived from the food we eat. Hence physical body is called “the covering made of food.” To create and maintain a healthy body, yogis pay attention to the food they consume, minimizing the toxicity they ingest while maximizing the nourishment they receive.

The third layer of the physical body is called “the sheath made of vital energy.” There is a difference between the cells of a corpse and the cells of a vibrant living being. This organizing principle that breathes life into biochemicals is called Prana. There are five seats of prana in the body, localized in the head, throat, heart, stomach, and pelvis. These centers of movement govern the flow of life force throughout the body. When prana is moving freely throughout the cells and tissues, vitality and creativity are abundant. Yogic breathing exercises, known Pranayama techniques, are designed to awaken and purify the vital energy layer of the body.

From tomorrow we will explore about the Mind and Body influence.

Reference

A Practical Guide to Healing Body, Mind, and Spirit by Deepak Chopra, M.D. and David Simon, M.D.

What are the Sources of Knowledge?

Knowledge is power if we know. But do we know the different sources of knowledge? As we are exploring about mind, its good to know about these different sources of knowledge.

Inspiration, revelation, insight, intuition, ecstasy, divine sight and eternal bliss are the seven planes of knowledge. There are four sources of knowledge, viz., instinct, reason, intuition and super-intuition or Atma-Jnana (Self Realization).

Instinct

When an ant crawls in your right arm, the left arm automatically moves towards the right arm to drive away the ant. The mind does not reason there. When you see a scorpion in front of your leg, you withdraw your leg automatically. This is termed instinctive or automatic movement. As you cross a street, how instinctively you move your body to save yourself from the cars!

Instinct is found in animals and birds. In birds, the ego does not interfere with the free divine flow and divine play. Hence the work done by them through their instincts is more perfect than that done by human beings. Have you not noticed the excellent work done by birds in their building of wonderful nests?

Reason

Reason is higher than instinct and is found only in human beings. It collects facts, generalizes, reasons out from cause to effect, from effect to cause, from premises to conclusions, from propositions to proofs. It concludes, decides and comes to judgment. It takes you safely to the door of intuition and leaves you there.

Belief, reasoning, knowledge and faith are the four important psychic processes. First you have belief in a doctor. You go to him for diagnosis and treatment. He makes a thorough examination and then prescribes certain medicines. You take them. You reason out: Such and such is the disease. The doctor has given me Iron and Iodide. Iron will improve my blood. The Iodide will stimulate the lymphatics and absorb the exudation and growth in the liver. So I should take it. Then the disease is cured, by a course of these drugs, in a month. Then you get knowledge of and perfect faith in the efficacy of the medicine and the proficiency of the doctor. Then you recommend to your friends this doctor and his drugs.

Intuition

Intuition is spiritual experience. Intuition is the immediate knowledge of the Absolute, obtained through the eye of wisdom, as opposed to the knowledge of the external objects derived through the exercise of the senses and the intellect. There is direct perception of truth or immediate knowledge. You know things by a flash. Intuition transcends reason, but does not contradict it. Intellect takes a man to the door of intuition and returns back. Spiritual flashes and glimpses of truth come through intuition. Inspiration, revelation, spiritual insight come through intuition.

The mind and the senses require time and space to function, but the Reality which is beyond this temporal, spatial and causal order of things, can only be grasped and apprehended by intuition. Intuition is beyond relativity.

Self Realization

Self-realization (Atma-Jnana) means knowledge of the self or soul. The reason the term ‘realization’ is used instead of ‘knowledge’ is that jnana refers to knowledge of self based on experience, not mere intellectual knowledge.” Atma-Jnana, literally “knowledge of the soul or supreme spirit”. Atma-Jnana is above intuition. It is the highest form of Knowledge. It is the only Reality.

Reference

Mind – Its mysteries and control by Sri Swami Sivananda
http://www.adishakti.org/self-realization.htm
http://www.omkarananda-ashram.net/intuitive.html

Mind is like Water

Your body is like a hard shell. And your mind, the inner self is like water. You are like water inside. Nature of water is cooling and flowing. But when the innermost, which is like water, is burning with jealousy, anger, frustration and all the fires you put inside, then the water boils and its cooling nature disappears.

Then how does one cool the water? Just imagine a pot and underneath are all these burning sticks. To cool the water you have to remove these sticks. All emotions are linked with people, objects and events.

Catching on to objects, people or relationships hinders freedom, liberation. You are hankering for some greater joy that is not there, not going to be there. I will have greater joy if I have a better companion or if I have a lot of money or if I have a lot of freedom.

Money gives you a hallucination that you have better freedom. Your mind tells you that with more money one could have more freedom; could travel anywhere; do whatever one wanted; these hallucinating ideas come into the mind. And when this idea comes in the mind, it binds you. When you feel bound, you feel very stiff and there is no freedom. The moment you become soft and non-resisting inside, the stiffness drops, the feeling of being bound goes and everything else including wealth, comfort and prosperity follow.

So, remove all this firewood and the water will become cooler. Because “cool” is the nature of water. When all these other negative stresses, burning sticks are removed, water will possess all its natural qualities — humbleness, humility, and naturalness — just like the nature of water which flows down.

All the good qualities are inside us. Just like in an atom, the core is positive and the negativity is peripheral. Know that it’s not in the core. Your nature is calmness, coolness. If it wasn’t your nature, you would never feel at home in it.

When we feel weak and terrible, we want to speak to someone and seek sympathy and support. When we are stressed we feel restricted and crushed. In happiness our consciousness expands. This is happening in the spiritual path. People feel that they are not bound, and that inner softness is there. Mind means moods, thoughts, opinions, ideas, all these things that we collect. And, ‘no mind’ is meditation. Yoga, meditation and spirituality are about giving comfort to your soul and transforming all the negative tendencies in the mind.

When you meditate, you go off the influence of the mind and go into the self. The mantra of knowledge is – in this world there is no other. The mantra of love is — there is no one who doesn’t belong to me. When the mind is free from all impressions and concepts, you are liberated. When you know that everything is changing – all relationships, people, body, feelings – suddenly the mind, which clings on to misery, comes back to you.

A fulfillment, centeredness, a subtle solid strength comes from within. Then if fame comes, money comes, it doesn’t touch you. It comes or doesn’t come, it doesn’t matter to you.

Reference
http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/column_mind-is-like-water_1523347
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/168360/mind-like-water.html

Geetha Quotes

“The Self unfolds Itself,
by Itself, for its Self”

“Though I am unborn and of imperishable
nature, though Lord of all beings, yet
remaining in My own nature I take birth
through My own power of creation”

– Bhagavad Geetha

Subconscious Mind – Our Inner Guide

Last week we saw about Conscious, Subconscious and Super-conscious mind. This week we will continue to explore our mind further.

The mind is not conscious of the greater portion of its own activities. As man can hold in consciousness but one fact at a time, only a fraction of our knowledge can be in the field of consciousness at any one moment. Only ten per cent of mental activities come into the field of consciousness. Ninety per cent of the mental activities takes place in the subconscious mind. Messages, when ready, come out like a flash from the subconscious mind to the surface of the conscious mind through the trapdoor in the subconscious mind.

We sit and try to solve a problem and fail. We walk around, try again and again fail. Suddenly an idea dawns on us that leads to the solution of the problem. The subconscious processes were at work.

You repeatedly fail at night to get the solution for a problem in arithmetic or geometry. In the morning, when you wake up, you get a clear answer. This answer comes like a flash from the subconscious mind. Even in sleep, it works incessantly without any rest. It arranges, classifies, compares, sorts all facts and works out a proper, satisfactory solution.

Sometimes, you go to sleep at 10 pm with the thought, I must get up at 2 am in the morning to catch a train. This message is taken up by the subconscious mind and it is this subconscious mind that wakes you up unfailingly at the exact hour. Subconscious mind is your constant, trustworthy companion and sincere friend.

With the help of the subconscious mind, you can change your vicious nature by cultivating healthy, virtuous qualities that remain dormant in every human heart. If you want to overcome fear, mentally deny that you have fear and concentrate your attention upon the opposite quality, the ideal of courage. When courage is developed, fear vanishes by itself. The positive always overpowers the negative. This is an infallible law of nature. You can acquire a liking for distasteful tasks and duties by cultivating a desire and taste for them. You can establish new habits, new ideals, new ideas and new tastes and new character in the subconscious mind by changing the old ones.

Reference

MIND – ITS MYSTERIES AND CONTROL By SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA

Oranges n Grapes

A teacher asked Eight year old Student, “If I give you one orange and one orange and one orange , how many oranges will you have?” Within a few seconds Student replied confidently, “Five!”

She was disappointed. “Maybe the child did not listen properly,” she thought. She repeated, “Student, listen carefully. If I give you one orange and one orange and one orange , how many oranges will you have?”

Student had seen the disappointment on his teacher’s face. He calculated again on his fingers. But within him he was also searching for the answer that will make the teacher happy. His search for the answer was not for the correct one, but the one that will make his teacher happy. This time hesitatingly he replied, “Five”

The disappointment stayed on the teacher’s face. She remembered that Student liked Grapes. She thought maybe he doesn’t like oranges and that is making him lose focus. This time with an exaggerated excitement and twinkling in her eyes she asked, “If I give you one Grape and one Grape and one Grape, then how many you will have?”

Seeing the teacher happy, Student calculated on his fingers again. She wanted her new approach to succeed. With a hesitating smile young Student inquired, “Three?”

The teacher now had a victorious smile. Her approach had finally succeeded. She wanted to congratulate herself. But one last thing remained. Once again she asked him, “Now if I give you one orange and one orange and one more orange how many will you have?”

Student answered, “Five”

The teacher was frustrated and disappointed and thinking Student as idiot. She asked “How Student, how?” in a little dominating and irritated voice.

In a low and hesitating voice Student replied, “Because I already have two oranges in my bag.”

So in the End Student did teach you a lesson. What is it?

When someone gives you an answer different from expected. There maybe an angle or a reason that you have not understood at all. You will have to listen and understand, but never listen with a predetermined or expected answer ….

SOURCE
https://www.facebook.com/WisdomDawns