The New Life

I have become very motivated by momentary and more frequently occurring successes I’ve had with practicing stillness, thanks to the coaching of Eckhart Tolle and Oprah in the webcasts mentioned in the previous post. I want more of these experiences of being Presence behind the stories of my life. I had practiced Vipassana Meditation quite regularly many years ago and felt that meditation could support my wish to awaken. So, I decided to visit a Buddhist Zen Center near my home as part of the effort to revive my practice. I felt that through meditation I could build the strength for staying in the Now, as Eckhart Tolle calls it. Here is the story of my first day. I went to the Zen Center this morning and found it to be surprisingly refreshing and relaxing. The first time visitor teacher said that sitting in meditation can be relaxing when all the bones are lined up and actually, the methodology and having a way to do everything was very relaxing to me. I had a preconceived notion that Zen Meditation was very austere and difficult to learn and succeed at. Actually, it was more like learning your part in a play which was not too difficult and then you are free to observe your inner workings and eventually learn that impermanence is the quality of all things in this life. As far as succeeding, our instructor said that some people have spent years trying to perfect their practice, and that then they give up, realizing that we never reach perfection. So he said that we could go that route or just give up on perfection today and go on from there. In our 30 minute introduction “how to” session, I learned that as in the formal ceremonies of Japan, Zen meditation has an arbitrary, agreed upon form or way to sit, posture wise and way to hold your hands, etc. and the process is to focus in the posture and be mindful and that leads to stilling the mind, and opens the door to creativity and intuitive living. I actually enjoyed myself…in that very structured setting. I felt safe to be myself and was an interested guest in the ritual and ceremony and satisfied that I could play my small part. During my 30 minute meditation, I was more open to the many fears and foibles of my life rising to the surface because the physical position was set and the Play would last just 30 minutes. And I felt a bit freed of my burdens not to have to talk or listen to talk. One more thing – this experience was like visiting another culture, and because of my exposure to Taiji, and other elements of Chinese and Japanese culture, I was somewhat familiar with the unusual scene of dark robes, incense and chanting and bowing. I was amazed with the way this Zendo is replicating the way Buddhism evolved in Japan.

Take the opportunity to watch the 10 session conversation with author Eckhart Tolle and Oprah based on the material from Tolle’s book “A New Earth” on Oprah.com “http://www.oprah.com/”. Although the 10 week live webcast has concluded, video files are still available to view or download in Oprah’s website, bookclub tab. The early webcasts could be used as an introduction to reading the book. This book and webconversation are a great focus point for sharing stories with others…get your friends on board.Awakening to your Life’s Purpose is the book’s subtitle and this guide will give you the tools to live life to the fullest, to bring energy wisdom and creativity to every pursuit, no matter how seemingly mundane. You will also learn how to move on from the place of being controlled by ego and the pain of past experiences. These tools are a doorway to awareness that can be utilized by each unique individual. You will know right away if this work grabs you and if so, how to live, how to get through the day, no matter what it brings, can become a matter of practicing Presence of the Spirit within. The skillfully written text of “A New Earth” is footnoted with words and stories of wisdom from Christianity, Buddhism, Sufism, A Course in Miracles, psychology and more.

Impressions from past lives, both as evolving creatures in the universe and as human, with intent and will, manufacture the perfect balance and response of the current life. Impression/response. This response is who we are and our chioce in this game is to take the higher road, as well as choosing to see, to focus, from a balanced perspective.
Paraphrase from Discourses by Meher Baba

Emotional first aid…helpful in many of those pressure situations like insomnia, emotionality, confusion…. until you have more time to process and experience what the core polarity is.

here’s a great self help intro

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-the-Emotional-Freedom-Technique-%28EFT%29

The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don’t Use Them By Robin Lloyd, Special to LiveScience

posted: 27 February 2006 08:55 am ET

http://www.livescience.com/health/060227_happiness_keys.html

“It requires some effort to achieve a happy outlook on life, and most people don’t make it.”
”Author and researcher Gregg Easterbrook

Psychologists have recently handed the keys to happiness to the public, but many people cling to gloomy ways out of habit, experts say.

Polls show Americans are no happier today than they were 50 years ago despite significant increases in prosperity, decreases in crime, cleaner air, larger living quarters and a better overall quality of life.

So what gives?

Happiness is 50 percent genetic, says University of Minnesota researcher David Lykken. What you do with the other half of the challenge depends largely on determination, psychologists agree. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

What works, and what doesn’t

Happiness does not come via prescription drugs, although 10 percent of women 18 and older and 4 percent of men take antidepressants, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Anti-depressants benefit those with mental illness but are no happiness guarantee, researchers say.

Be Happy
University of Pennsylvania’s Martin Seligman offers questionnaires for assessing your happiness, beating depression and developing insights into how to be happier on his web site.

Nor will money or prosperity buy happiness for many of us. Money that lifts people out of poverty increases happiness, but after that, the better paychecks stop paying off sense-of-well-being dividends, research shows.

One route to more happiness is called “flow,” an engrossing state that comes during creative or playful activity, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has found. Athletes, musicians, writers, gamers, and religious adherents know the feeling. It comes less from what you’re doing than from how you do it.

Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California at Riverside has discovered that the road toward a more satisfying and meaningful life involves a recipe repeated in schools, churches and synagogues. Make lists of things for which you’re grateful in your life, practice random acts of kindness, forgive your enemies, notice life’s small pleasures, take care of your health, practice positive thinking, and invest time and energy into friendships and family.

The happiest people have strong friendships, says Ed Diener, a psychologist University of Illinois. Interestingly his research finds that most people are slightly to moderately happy, not unhappy.

On your own

Some Americans are reluctant to make these changes and remain unmotivated even though our freedom to pursue happiness is written into the preamble of the Declaration of Independence.

Don’t count on the government, for now, Easterbrook says.

Our economy lacks the robustness to sustain policy changes that would bring about more happiness, like reorienting cities to minimize commute times.

The onus is on us.

“There are selfish reasons to behave in altruistic ways,” says Gregg Easterbrook, author of “The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse” (Random House, 2004).

“Research shows that people who are grateful, optimistic and forgiving have better experiences with their lives, more happiness, fewer strokes, and higher incomes,” according to Easterbrook. “If it makes world a better place at same time, this is a real bonus.”

Diener has collected specific details on this. People who positively evaluate their well-being on average have stronger immune systems, are better citizens at work, earn more income, have better marriages, are more sociable, and cope better with difficulties.

Unhappy by default

Lethargy holds many people back from doing the things that lead to happiness.

Easterbrook, also a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institute, goes back to Freud, who theorized that unhappiness is a default condition because it takes less effort to be unhappy than to be happy.

“If you are looking for something to complain about, you are absolutely certain to find it,” Easterbrook told LiveScience. “It requires some effort to achieve a happy outlook on life, and most people don’t make it. Most people take the path of least resistance. Far too many people today don’t make the steps to make their life more fulfilling one.”

From The Art of Allowing Workshop, 7/19/03 Ashland,OR
http://www.abraham-hicks.com/ for information

(Notes from listening to the CD)

It is your natural state to feel wonderful.

You need to be in the proximity of the feeling/vibration state you want to get to.

You are capable of gradually reaclimating your vibrational frequency.

Some positive speakers might say:

Don’t be angry, be joyful….don’t be jealous, be loving…..don’t be sad be happy…

We say
Don’t be …….. sad be …………less sad
Don’t be Less sad be … partly sad
Don’t be partly sad be … hardly sad
Don’t be hardly sad be… seldom sad
Don’t be seldom sad be… sometimes glad
Don’t be sometimes glad be .. often glad
Don’t be often glad be… more often glad
Don’t be more often glad be … mostly glad
Don’t be mostly glad be …glad

And from chapter 18 in Ask and It Is Given, you have to be willing to choose a thought that carries a little better vibration ( and I might add, resist the temptation to skip all the middle steps and try to attach to the final, opposite thought..for me, my tendency is to want to immediately skip to the end when I notice a thought with a low vibration, but I have found that I will usually find myself thinking that low vibration thought again within a short time!), and after experiencing that for a time, choose a little better feeling thought.

Spiritual counseling combines traditional therapeutic practice with the awareness and respect for the spiritual key to of all of life’s dramas. As Einstein reportedly said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it”. We are constantly reaching outside our known world for answers to the big questions in our lives. Your path and process are unique and honored. Un-covering and dis-covering your wisdom and practice is the method of journeying.