Cheyenne Steele's Blog

Archive for August, 2008

I want to learn to meditate. Where do I begin?

Published by shirley on August 27, 2008 under Yoga

Meditation is an art and it is good to know where to begin.  It is just like saying, ‘I want to be a dancer.  How to begin?’ 

 

If you are just beginning meditation, a good place to start is watching the breath.  

When the breath comes in and down, hold it a second and become aware of the silence there.  Then when the breath goes up and out, again, hold it there and become aware of the silence.  This exercise is to accustom you to silence.  When the breath is moving you will see mind…do not try to stop that.  But when you hold the breath for brief moment, there you can penetrate your awareness into the silence.  Just five minutes, practice.

Also watching the activity of your mind is beautiful meditation practice.  Your mind is always doing one of five things:

Right Knowledge

Wrong Knowledge

Imagination

Memory

Sleep

Sit with your eyes closed and focus your mind on the sensations you feel in the moment (air at nostrils, buttocks on cushion, birds singing, anything that is actually happening in the moment).  This is called: Right Knowledge.  Your goal is to bring your mind back to right knowledge whenever another modification has arisen.  While your mind is practicing Right Knowlege, other modifications WILL begin to arise.   Allow yourself to see them and label which modication you see.  You are either:
1.  seeing a memory…something that has happened before.
2.  you are imagining…something that might happen/you want to happen/something not real.
3.  you are reflecting wrong knowledge.  A fact that is not happening right then. (for example, you might actually have paper work on your desk at that moment, which is a fact – knowledge – but it is not a sensation at that moment.)
4.  Or you are experiencing right knowledge. A fact that is happening right then, like air on skin, buttocks on chair, fingers touching, sounds, breath at nostril, etc.  Right knowledge means your mind is in reality.  This is where you’d like it to stay, but you recognize when the other three are happening.  Enjoy watching them and label them, and come back to right knowledge.
5.  Is sleep….this just enjoy!  You may even be in deep concentration at some point and even see yourself sleeping.  But as beginners sleep may just occur.  No need to fight it.  Rest, enjoy.
Spend five minutes a day just watching this, and you will gain abilities to go deeper into the art.

Another exercise you might try is:  Emphasis the Exhale.  Mind creates such tension.  The inhale is life, and life is tension.  So to relax the mind and body, we exhale and hold it out for a moment.  Not until our body is in panic, no.  Just exhale ratio 1:2 or 1:3.  Exhale is death, relaxation.  It will give your body and mind extraordinary rest.  Try it for just five minutes.  You will see! 

These exercises look simple, but they are highly effective! 

I wish you perfect success in your practice.

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What Are Chakras?

Published by shirley on August 19, 2008 under Zen

What are Chakras?

Chakras are energy vortices.  A series centers which help to regulate the flow of energy in the subtle body, corresponding to glands and emotions, located (approximately) along the spinal column.  Chakras can be open closed, or blocked.  They are Indo-Tibetan in origin and part of the most energy and meditative practices in the world.

The body contains seven energy centers, known as chakras:

These include the Crown (7), Third Eye (6), Throat (5), Heart (4), Sacral (3), Spleen (2), and Root Chakras (1). 

Chakra Seven: Thought, Universal identity, oriented to self-knowledge.  This is the crown chakra that relates to consciousness as pure awareness.  It is our connection to the greater world beyond, to a timeless, spaceless place of all-knowing.  When developed, this chakra brings us knowledge, wisdom, understanding, spiritual connection, and bliss.

Chakra Six:  Light, Archetypal identty, oriented to self-reflection. This chakra is known as the brow chakra or third eye center.  It is related to the act of seeing, both physically and intuitively.  As such it opens our psychic faculties and our understanding of archetypal levels.  When healthy it allows us to see clearly, in effect, letting us “see the big picture.”

Charka Five:  Sound, Creative identity, oriented to self-expression.  This is the chakra located in the throat and is thus related to communication and creativity.  Here we experience the world symbolically through vibration, such as the vibration of sound representing language.

Chakra Four:  Air, Social identity, oriented to self-acceptance.  This chakra is called the heart chakra and is the middle chakra in a system of seven.  It is related to love and is the integrator of opposites in the psyce  mind and body, male and female, persona and shadow, ego and unity.  A healthy fourth chakra allows us to love deeply, feel compassion, have a deep sense of peace and centeredness.

Chakra Three:  Fire, Ego identity, oriented to self-definition.  This chakra is known as the power chakra, located in the solar plexus.  It rules our personal power, will, and autonomy, as well as our metabolism.  When healthy, this chakra brings us energy, effectiveness, metabolism.  When healthy, this charka brings us energy, effectiveness, spontaneity, and non-dominating power.

Chakra Two:  Water, Emotional identity, oriented to self-gratification.  The second chakra, located in the abdomen, lower back, and sexual organs, is related to the element water, and to emotions and sexuality.  It connects us to others through feeling, desire, sensation, and movement.  Ideally this chakra brings us fluidity and grace, depth of feeling, sexual fulfillment, and the ability to accept change.

Chakra One:  Earth, Physical identity, oriented to self-preservation.  Located at the base of the spine, this chakra froms our foundation.  It represents the element earth, and is therefore related to our survival instincts, and to our sense of grounding and connection to our bodies and the physical plane.  Ideally this chakra brings us health, prosperity , security, and dynamic presence.

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Zen

Published by shirley on August 14, 2008 under Zen

Man creates his own confusion just because he goes on rejecting himself, condemning himself, not accepting himself.

Then a chain of confusion, inner chaos and misery is created. Why don’t you accept yourself as you are? What is wrong? The whole existence accepts you as you are, but you don’t.

You have some ideal to achieve. That ideal is always in the future – it has to be, no ideal can be in the present. And the future is nowhere; it is not yet born. Because of the ideal you live in the future which is nothing but a dream; because of the ideal you cannot live here and now; because of the ideal you condemn yourself.

All ideologies, all ideals, are condemnatory because then an image is created in the mind, and when you go on comparing yourself with that image you will always feel that something is lacking, something is missing. Nothing is lacking and nothing is missing. You are perfect as far as there is any possibility of perfection.

This is how the ideal is created, and because of the ideal, you become condemned. Compare yourself with the ideal and you will never be perfect, it is impossible. If you say ‘if’, then bliss is impossible because that if is the greatest disturbance.

And I can tell you if you try first to make arrangements for the wrong to disappear, it never disappears. It is just like fighting with darkness. Your house is filled with darkness and you ask, ‘How can I light a candle? Before I light a candle this darkness has to be thrown out.’

Celebrate, become a blissful flame, and all that is wrong disappears. Anger, greed, sex, or whatsoever else you name, are not solid; they are just the absence of a blissful, ecstatic life.

Please feel free to share your experiences, challenges, successes, stories, and understandings as we learn to become still, silent, accepting, home.

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The Geography of Death

Published by shirley on August 10, 2008 under Tantra

The denial of death in the modern world is also a denial of transcendence. For science, death is an enemy- the ending of human life and creativity. For the fundamentalists, it is the call to extreme [or violent] behavior to dramatize their commitment, for they know that their thoughts are not worthy of God. Though faith is glorified, it is not really trusted. Nobody ever has enough of it. There are claims that make it seem almost universal, but really it is a scarce commodity. Death is a test and life is the time to cram for it. For the secularists, death is sleep and the negation of earthly life with nothing to take its place.

All of these understandings of death are limited – souls go to the place of death but then expect to stay there into eternity – perhaps with a god escort. But death involves travel, as does transcendent meditation. The greater the emphasis on the material world, the less emphasis there is on the places the soul may go after death.

Death is like an airport at night – there are many distant lights but their role is not explained. The soul finds itself out on the grass surrounded by runways. There are signals all around, but the individual cannot interpret them. And the soul is surrounded by the winds of flight, the karmic winds that determine the soul’s travel and next incarnation.

Whether the soul is on the lawn of the domestic or international flights is determined by karma, which weighs down the soul during its movement at death. Heavy karma, brings immediate reincarnation in unfortunate lives and unpleasant forms, and drops the person in the domestic area. So many poor choices were made, so much unnecessary suffering inflicted on others, that there is no chance for leisure travel or exploration. The mistakes must be atoned for as soon as possible, and the obligations fulfilled.

But for souls with less karmic obligation, the international terminal is not a terminal but a stopover. When the soul is not weighed down by obligation, there is more leisure time. One may call over a guide or even a travel agent, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various destinations.

Each culture has metaphors that work as living symbols in the afterlife. For some people, death is a caravanserai where groups of travelers meet and then journey. For some, it is an ocean where swimmers meet in their travels. There are inns, stables, and intermediate worlds. In the modern world, we have ports of call for ships, railroads, and bus stations. But I think the most apt metaphor is an airport.

For the unschooled traveler, it is a vast and chaotic darkness, with colored lights near and far, and no visible signs. But for one that knows the floor plan [and layout], it is clear and well organized.

At the domestic terminal, there is rapid transfer of souls based largely on heaviness and darkness of karma. Incarnation is based on viscosity and density. There are paths to incarnation from hundreds of levels – we could even say they are based on degrees of impurity. In the vast waves of souls, some rise and some fall, and at the end are thrown forth according to their karmic placement. It is an automatic process though there are guardians [to correct problems] in case of errors. The round of birth and death is fast in the realms of obligation and punishment.

The international terminal is less pressured and there are choices of destinations. Were one to look past the darkness [of the airport at night], the airport would appear as a great cosmic mandala with universes upon universes circling and spiraling. Here, will and intention can have as much influence as karma, and the soul has choice as well as necessity. Meditation upon mantras, visualizations, and calling upon guides and deities can determine one’s afterlife – or at least influence it. It depends on the weight of karma as to whether the person can follow his or her will.

The mandala shifts through time and space. It is the transformer of souls. There are many paths to the spiritual worlds.

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The Book of Secrets

Published by shirley on August 9, 2008 under Tantra

Welcome to Attainment!  Please join us as we explore the Tantra Sutras given in the Book of Secrets.  There are 112 Tantra Sutras given to center one’s being so you can experience Divine Presence, Self-Realization, Enlightenment!  Please join us as we learn the right understanding, right concentration, and the right practice of each one of these Tantras that will allow you to successfully experience the benefits of each technique!

This Wednesday we covered the Second Sutra from the Book of Secrets: 

 “As breath turns from down to up, and again as breath curves from up to down – through both these turns, realize.”

This technique deals with the breath.  People often think of the breath going in parallel lines.  But they do not.  Breath goes in a half circle; breath going out is the other half. 

Why is Shiva putting such emphasis on the turn?  Why are we watching the turn of the breath?  As it turns from up to down..and again from down to up?  I like how it is written in the tantra book.  It says: “If you know driving you know about gears.  Each time you change the gear, you have to pass through the neutral gear, which is not a gear at all! From the first gear you move to the second or from the second to the third, but alway you have to move through the neutral gear.  That neutral gear is a turning point.  In that turning point the first gear becomes the second and the second becomes the third.  When your breath goes in and turns out, it passes through the neutral gear!  In that neutral gear you are neither body or mind. It is here that you can “realize.”

When your breath is moving through the body, your mind is moving.  In class someone mentioned to me…”Shirley, it is difficult for me, because the breathing disturbs me.”  She made a good point.  It is not that the breathing disturbed her, so much as breathing IS the disturbance.  Breath connects body and mind, and when you are breathing..well, let’s say you are disturbed (big smile).  What I mean is there will be flucuations.  That is why we watch so carefully the turns.  It is here that there is no disturbance.  There is clarity.  You must watch with a very sensitive awareness, but it can happen.   And happen suddenly that you become aware of yourself.  Realize yourself without mind or body.  It is at these turns that it becomes possible. 

We spoke at length Wednesday about Enlightenment and what that is…and what it is not!  What being spiritual means…and what it does not mean.  Please feel free to give us your ideas on this, your understanding of enlightenment and spirituality. 

 

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