If the earth’s population was shrunk into a village of just 100 people with all the human ratios existing in the world still remaining what would this tiny, diverse village look like?

48 would be male
52 would be female

69 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual

50 would suffer from malnutrition
70 would be unable to read
80 would live in substandard housing

1 would have a computer
1 would have a college education
1 would be pregnant
1 would be near death

6 people would possess 59% of the world’s wealth & all 6 would be from the US  

   Philip Harter, MD

The following is an anonymous interpretation:

Think of it this way. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness... you are more fortunate than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation.....you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death...
you are fortunate, more than 3 billion people in the world can’t.

If you live in a good home, have plenty to eat & can read, you are a member of a very select group.

If you have a good house, food, can read & have a computer, you are among the very elite.

If you have food in refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead & a place to sleep..
you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, & spare change in a dish someplace.... you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If your parents are still alive & still married....you are very rare.

If you can hold up your head with a smile on your face & are truly thankful....you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder you are blessed because you can offer healing touch.

If you can read this message, you have just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, & furthermore, you are more blessed than over 2 billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessings, & pass this along to remind everyone how blessed we truly all are.

At 60 I began to live inside of myself. I realised I’d had everything in my life except one thing: Intimacy. I had never really had intimacy & I’m not talking about sex, that’s easy. I meant intimacy for real where two whole people come to see each other & respect each other as whole people. Not just bringing the part that they think is lovable to the table & leaving the rest outside – but really bringing the whole person to the table. I said to myself ‘ok, if this is what you gotta do in order to get to the end of your life without regrets, then do it.

Jane realised that from very early in her life that she had developed a disease, a disease that she named ‘The disease to Please.’ She realised that the ‘pleasing’ mainly centred on her father but also mirrored her relationships with other men. “I would leave who I really was at the door in the presence of my father because I was afraid he wouldn’t like that part of me. I only brought to the table that which I thought he would find lovable.”

Jane believes that it all starts at adolescence because that’s when girls start to feel a beckoning towards womanhood  - the beckoning from society that they ought to be what others want.

I went through 60 years of being outside myself leaving this emptiness inside. It starts in adolescence & the emptiness fills with anxiety. You hear a lot of teenage girls talking of this emptiness & they begin to fill it with their own demons. Some fill it with plastic surgery, some with shopping, drugs, alcohol or gambling. I filled mine with a food addiction. When I turned 60 I really worked hard at understanding why I lived this way all my life.

According to Jane the difference between boys & girls is that boys seem to have their empathy gene torn from them very early in life whereas girls lose their voice as they move into adolescence. While girls lose their voice in adolescence, preferring to lose their relationship with themselves in order to be in a relationship with boys, boys on the other hand lose their relationship with themselves at five or six when they enter formal schooling. They’re told ‘Don’t be a mummy’s boy, don’t be a girl, boys don’t cry.’ They lose who they are. Their sensitivity is torn from them.

    Jane Fonda about her book ‘My life so far’

As the cycle of the year contains 12 months & 365 days so the human body contains 12 major meridians & 365 acupuncture points.

The natural rhythm of the body is to rest at least twice during a 24 hour cycle.

Yin & yang are also expressed in the capacity of the male for receptivity (yin) & the capacity of the female for activity (yang).

Haiyu lived to 113 yrs old, from 1513-1626, by eating herbs & fruit twice a week. He died in lotus position.

Sex between a man & a woman offers a life-giving exchange of yin & yang, resulting in a strong qi, resistance to illness & an increased longevity.

The man receives from the woman the yin of her vaginal juices & gives in return the yang qi of his prostatic juices & sperm.

This exchange of qi does not require ejaculation; indeed, for the most part it is best avoided.

Before lovemaking, breathing should be relaxed; the man & the woman should be filled with happiness & through kissing & embracing become attuned to each other. As the qi rises, more saliva flows & in kissing, they exchange & swallow each other’s saliva. (saliva is regarded as a precious juice) The qi continues to rise as shown in the woman by reddening of the face (heart qi), bodily movements (spleen qi), warming of the nose (lung qi), shinning eyes (liver qi) & moistening of the vagina (kidney qi). In the man, the rising qi is shown by the first stirrings of the penis (liver qi), enlargement & heat of the penis (heart qi) & finally stiffness (kidney qi). Only then must the penis be introduced, slowly & without force. Calm breathing should be maintained, assisted by breathing in through the nose & slowly out through the mouth. There should be no sudden, thrusting movement that might disturb the qi of the five internal organs. Exertion & sweating should be avoided to preserve qi. As the penis deeply enters the woman, the couple should both focus on the lower dantian, visualising it as a glowing red ball about the size of a hen’s egg. This will intensify the qi & reduce the desire for orgasm. If the man feels close to ejaculation, he should withdraw, no matter how often, be it ten times or more & as part of lovemaking, the sensation of reintroducing the penis will give both partners cause for renewed pleasure. When the man lies still, deep inside the woman, they are embracing both externally & internally. The kidney qi responds by rising in the face & the couple should lie mouth to mouth, exchanging saliva & gently moving together. The eyes should be closed, the breathing quiet & body relaxed. Qi is now flowing between the couple; the man drinking the yin & the woman the yang. This is a time of great intimacy, which is also one of sharing together in the yin & yang of the cosmos. When it feels right to conclude the act of sex, the couple lie together peacefully, feeling vitalised with strong qi. (Sun Simiao, 7th century)

The ancient texts give the following advice about ejaculation: for a man of twenty years, once in four days; at thirty, once every eight days; at forty, once in sixteen days; at fifty, once in twenty days; & at sixty, if the qi is strong, once a month.

When the woman is pregnant, she should conserve her qi for the baby during the first & last three months of pregnancy & abstain from sex for one hundred days after childbirth (while her yin is recovering from the blood loss).

In the case of certain qigong masters working at the highest level, the fusion of their own internal yin & yang supersedes the need to merge qi through making love. Instead the body merges with the taiji of the cosmos.

Animals vary in the amount of sleep they need: dolphins need none.

During slow-wave sleep ( & meditation), growth hormone is released from the pituitary gland beneath the brain, stimulating not only growth but also fat & protein metabolism essential to the repair & renewal of bodily tissues. Also during sleep (& meditation) the pineal body, an outgrowth of the brain, synthesizes the hormone melatonin, needed for the functioning of the thyroid, adrenal, & se reproductive glands.

“My mind is calm & I live my life without regrets. I never made a profit at someone else’s expense & so I have nothing to reproach myself for. (He won’t be drawn into anger.) That’s why my heart has never been diseased. Helping others-makes life meaningful. I am so happy to have no worries that I often just laugh aloud even by myself!”

    Li Xiangyang from China (102 yrs)

One study looked at 865 centenarians in Xinjiang province & 54 in Zhejiang province. The subjects exhibited the following defining characteristics:

They share a lifetime habit of light to moderate physical work. Many worked in fields. They continue with their physical activities, which include walking, jogging & doing fitness exercises or qigong.
 
They are honest, broadminded, optimistic & happy by nature. They remain emotionally calm & peaceful, showing no signs of anxiety or frustration. They are not competitive or materialistic but content with the basic necessities of life.

They value a simple & regular routine in their daily lives.

There were almost no smokers in the study. A minority sip a glass of wine with the evening meal.

The great majority are vegetarian, make a point of eating in moderation, & drink several cups of green tea daily.

They engage in recreational pursuits that maintain their mental activity & involvement in life: chess, calligraphy & painting, writing music, gardening & fishing. This research bears out the wisdom of a hundred generations. Calm & healthy body work together as one.

1. qi falling-tired eyes, loss of concentration.
2. qi falling-itching, skin disorders, weakness, irritability, aches, pains, headaches.
3. qi falling-musculo-skeletal strains, infections, clumsiness, MS & ME
4. qi falling-major accidents, life-threatening illnesses, stroke, heart attack, cancer.

Avoiding emotional stress gives peace of mind. Peaceful mind strengthens body qi. Strong qi protects the organs of the body against pathogenic qi, ensuring health & natural longevity.

From Listen to your body by Bisong Guo & Andrew Powell

For many years the Charga people have lived in harmony with nature on the slopes on Mt. Kilamanjaro. They planted up to 350 types of different plants in their home gardens within a multi layered system (original permaculture?) where large canopy trees sheltered smaller more fragile bushes & shrubs. E.g. mango & avocado trees sheltering banana & coffee plants. The whole community was almost invisible as forest surrounded each shelter. (true intelligent living, without greed, is possible even if it is rare)

My seven favorite forms of dysfunction in dealing with problems are listed below, (& I obtained a Masters degree in them all...)

1. Pretend it is not happening & it will go away (never did)
2. Blame the other person 100% (& give them 100% of my power in the process; very messy)
3. Dissociate from my unhappiness by either getting depressed, or by focusing on some unrelated small issue, knowing all the while that this minor issue really has nothing to do with the real problem
4. Receive really clear guidance, doubt it, refuse to follow it, & dig a bigger hole
5. Act confused/dumb/incompetent/helpless so someone else would fix it
6. Have a series of really good excuses for why the person/situation is the way that it is
7. Continue (against all rational evidence) to believe that the other person will change, & then everything will be okay

By Kim Fraser

In Pile of Jewels Sutra 9 main conditions of untimely death are mentioned:

1. Eating without moderation
2. Eating unwholesome food
3. Eating food before having properly digested our previous meal
4. Retaining undigested food in our stomach for a long time without eliminating
5. Vomiting digested food
6. Not taking the right herbs as medicine
7. Not having appropriate skills- such as trying to swim or drive a car without knowing how to
8. Travelling at the wrong time-such as driving through a red traffic light or jogging at noon at the height of summer in a hot country
9. Indulging in sex without restraint

An individual human consciousness is comprised of five koshas (sheaths or bodies)
These bodies are:

1. Annamaya kosha, physical body-a gross structure comprised of physical matter, such as carbon, nitrogen & so forth;
2. Pranayama kosha, energy body-a subtle structure comprised of primal energies that provide the physical form with life force;
3.  Manomaya kosha, mental body-a vibratory structure comprised of thought energy, which is thoughts & emotions generated by experience resulting from contact between the mind & the external world through the senses;
4. Vijnanamaya kosha, intuitive body-a more subtle vibratory structure comprised of intuitive energy that reflects insights about spiritual nature underpinning all experience.
5. Anandamaya kosha, bliss body-a star-like radiance too subtle to be seen or imagined, comprised solely of a reflection of the soul.

All five of these bodies are temporary vessels. The physical & energy relate to the physical world & exist as long as the physical life persists. The mental & intuitive bodies relate to the astral worlds & exist for the one reincarnational cycle. The bliss body is the dwelling place of the soul & exists for the duration of the evolutionary sojourn of the soul. But even this bliss body is temporal & distinguishable from the sat-chit-ananda nature of the soul. 
The yoga of devotion-Bhakti Sutras of Narada  by Prem Prakash

Peace comes from within, do not seek it without

Buddha

A man is born gentle & weak.
At his death he is hard & stiff.
Green plant are tender & filled with sap.
At their death they are withered & dry.
Therefore the stiff & unbending is the disciple of death.
The gentle & yielding is the disciple of life.

He who is attached to things will suffer much.
He who saves will suffer heavy loss.
A contented man is never disappointed.
He who knows when to stop does not find himself in trouble.
He will stay forever safe.

The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead.
He is detached, thus at one with all.
Through selfless action, he attains fufillment.

Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind rest at peace.

   Laozi, Daodejing

In trying to practice religion, 80% of people turn cheats & about 15% go mad; only the remaining 5% attain the immediate knowledge of the infinite Truth.

Do not talk of the wickedness of the world & all its sins. We see the world as we are.

We are born slaves to nature, money & wealth, wives & children & are going through an innumerable round of lives without obtaining what we seek. Such is the life-story of each one of us; such is the tremendous power of nature over us.
 
You are the same whatever you do, & you cannot change your nature. Your nature is pure.

The qualifications of the student:

1 Give up all ideas of enjoyment in this world & the next. We are here to know Truth not for enjoyment.
2 Intense desire to know Truth & God
3 The 6 trainings:

a) Restraining the mind from going outwards
b) Restraining the senses
c) Turning the mind inwards
d) Suffering everything without murmuring
e) Fastening the mind to one idea
f) Think constantly of your real nature

   Vivekananda

Pain in the legs is the taste of Zen.

   Yamada Roshi

Seek yea first the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God is within

Christ

We begin to walk on the road to happiness
when we learn the art of relaxation,
when we learn that relaxation
is a habit we acquire,
a healthy habit
every day....

Maxwell Malts

The art of awareness is keeping mentally alert to all that goes on around you.

It is being curious, observant, imaginative, that you may build an ever increasing
fund of knowledge of the universe.

Wilfred Peterson

I believe in you

I want to tell you that I believe in you;
I believe in your mind
and all the dreams, intelligence,
and determination within you.

you can accomplish anything.
you have so much open to you,
so please don't give up on what you
want from life or from yourself.

Please don't put away the dreams inside of you.
You have the power to make them real.
You have the power to make
yourself exactly what you want to be.

Believe in yourself the way I do,
and nothing will be beyond your reach.

Joleen Fox

A Master in the Art of Living

Draws no sharp distinction between their work and play,
Their labour and their leisure,
Their mind and their body,
Their education and their recreation.

They simply pursue their vision of excellence through whatever they are doing and leave
Others to determine whether they are working or playing.

To themselves, it always seems to be that they are doing both.

James A Mitchener

I may not know what I may seem to the world,
but to myself I seem to have only been like a boy
playing on the seashore and diverting myself in now and then
finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary,
whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Issac Newton

Women are told to get mammograms,
yet research shows that at least 10,000
unnecessary breast operations are performed each year

Iatrogenic deaths (physician caused) in the USA
100,000 die from hospital infections
100,000 die from prescription problems

Dr Howard Posner, MD

In the entire history of medical science,
there has not been one chronic metabolic disease that was
ever cured or prevented by drugs, surgery or
mechanical manipulations of the body.

In every case,....the ultimate solution was found only in relation to adequate nutrition.

Dr. Hans Krebs-Krebs cycle
Nobel prize winner

Realisation of consciousness is the end of all problems, all troubles. Your life then becomes an effortless activity.

   Barry Long

Solitude, silence & freedom are the nourishers of life. We think we are nourishing ourselves with words, ideas, thoughts, but though these things are the content of consciousness, they are not the content of reality.

   Vimala Thakar

What makes a good relationship is when you reach the point where your bags are packed to leave or you want to kill each other & then you work through it.

   Rob Thomas

Love lives in giving & forgiving. Ego lives in getting & forgetting.

   Sai Baba

Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.

A true spiritual teacher does not have anything to teach in the conventional sense of the word, does not have anything to give or add to you, such as new information, beliefs or rules of conduct. The only function of such a teacher is to help you remove that which separates you from the truth of who you already are & what you already know in the depth of your being.

True freedom & the end of suffering is living in such a way as if you had completely chosen whatever you feel or experience at this moment.

Most people lives are run by desire & fear.

You will need time until you realise that you don’t need time to be who you are.

When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.

When you have removed the two factors that are destructive of relationships:

1. When the pain body has been transmuted &
2. You are no longer identified with mind & mental positions

& if your partner has done the same. You will experience the bliss of the flowering of relationship. Instead of mirroring to each other your pain & unconsciousness, instead of satisfying your mutually addictive ego traits-you will reflect back to each other the love you feel deep within. The love that comes from realisation of your oneness with all that is.

   Eckhart Tolle

The only thing that gets better is your attitude, not other times or other places.

2% of people die from old age, 98% die from preventable disease or abuse.

   John Demartini

Yoga students who imagine they can proceed along the path without having to confront their own unconscious mind are greatly mistaken. If this confrontation fails to materialize, then even the yoga practitioner is afflicted by a neurosis.

There have been at all times some people who as they have grown old, & often very old, have not become senile but have from day to day grown richer in mind, wiser, more knowledgeable, powerful & potent, & who, like Goethe for instance, have even preserved the beauty of their bodies.

Only by those with a nervous system with the stamina needed to endure the last & most difficult cycle of the path & the high frequencies of the ever mounting tension without cracking under the strain.

   Sexual energy & yoga by Elizabeth Haich

Wilfulness leads to pain.

Life trapped in a pattern is suffering.

Stephen

There is only one fear, fear of being out of control.

Dr. Phil

“From moment to moment,” he began, “from moment to moment develop awareness, mindfulness, vigilance. From moment to moment, from moment to moment, develop wisdom, insight, equanimity. Experience all the different sensations throughout the body. Experience them all, hot or cold, pressure or tingling, pleasant or unpleasant, with equanimity, equanimity, equanimity. Do not get elated at the pleasant sensations, nor get depressed at the unpleasant ones. By your own experience understand that the entire physical structure, the entire psychic structure is phenomenon, phenomenon. Substanceless phenomenon, impersonal phenomenon. There is nothing that is static, nothing remains eternal. No hard core about which we can say this is I, this is me, this is mine. All is flux. All is flow, constantly changing, changing, changing. Impermanent, impermanent, impermanent.”

This was his entire teaching. Everything, without exception is impermanent, impermanent. There is no self, no ego, no me that rises above this sea of flux. And with nothing abiding, what can we possibly grab onto and say, this will make me happy? The truth of impermanence has no exceptions. Everything endlessly alters. That true nature of all things is the same. To look upon everything as being really the same is to develop equanimity. It was this that Goenka, through his demonstration and instructions, helped others develop. “Look upon all things equally,” he said, “and you will end your suffering.” 
   From ‘Journey of insight meditation’ by Eric Lerner

Tears are but the loving raindrops flowing from the cosmic soul within fertilising the soil of the heart impregnating the seeds of wisdom to help the blossoms of knowledge to permeate the awareness of a new found truth creating a garden of plenty.

   Ari the psychic 

Ignorance, having the twofold power of polarity, manifests as egoism, attachment, aversion, & blind-tenacity.  The darkening power of maya produces egoism and blind-tenacity; the polarity power of maya produces attachment (attraction) & aversion (repulsion).  Egoism results from a lack of discrimination between the physical body & the real Self.  Tenacity is a result of natural conditioning (belief in Nature & her laws as final, instead of belief in the all causative powers of the Soul.)  Attachment means thirst for the objects of happiness. Aversion means the desire for the removal of the objects of unhappiness.
 

In the sexual desire everyone has a very accurate thermometer to indicate the condition of his health. This desire is forced from its normal state by irritation of nerves that results from the pressure of foreign matter accumulated in the system, which pressure is exerted on the sexual apparatus & is at first manifested by an increased sexual desire followed by a gradual decrease of potency. This sexual desire in its normal state makes man quite free from all disturbing lusts, & operates on the organism (awakening a wish for appeasement) only infrequently.

Man’s involuntary nerves, however, irrespective of his will, are working continuously of themselves from his birth. When these nerves become fatigued they also want to rest and naturally want to sleep. This sleep of involuntary nerves is called Mahanidra, the great sleep of death. When this takes place, the circulation, respiration & other vital functions being stopped, the material body naturally begins to decay. After a while, when this great sleep Mahanidra is over, man wakes, with all his desires, & is reborn in a new physical body for the accomplishment of his various yearnings. In this way man binds himself to life & death & fails to achieve final salvation.

But if man can control these involuntary nerves by the aforesaid Pranayama, he can stop the natural decay of the material body & put the involuntary nerves of the heart, lungs & other vital organs to rest periodically, as he does with his voluntary nerves in sleep. After such a rest by Pranayama the involuntary nerves become refreshed & work with newly replenished life.

As after sleep, when rest has been taken by the voluntary nerves, man requires no help to awaken naturally; so after death also, when man has enjoyed a full rest, he awakens naturally to life in a new body on earth. If man can ‘die,’ that is consciously put his entire nervous system, voluntary & involuntary, to rest each day by practice of Pranayama, his whole physical system works with great vigour.

Life & death come under the control of the yogi who perseveres in the practice of pranayama. In that way he saves his body from the premature decay that overtakes most men, & can remain as long as he wishes in his present physical form, thus having time to work out his karma in one body & fulfil (& get rid of) all the various desires of his heart. Finally purified, he is no longer required to come again into this world under the influence of maya, darkness, or to suffer the “second death.”

   Swami Sri Yukteswar

 
To properly develop the earth chakra requires detachment from the earth element. One no longer seeks to accumulate matter outwardly but learns to appreciate it inwardly as a form of perception. One learns to enjoy the colours, textures, & shadows of the earth element like a display of magnificent mountains within the mind, but one has no desire to possess or hold them.

To open the water chakra requires that the physical sexual organ goes into a state of latency & the sexual drive is sublimated into a force of awareness. One learns to enjoy the flow & flavour of the water element a movement of delight, riding the waves of perception in the cosmic sea.

To properly open the fire chakra requires awakening the cosmic energy of fire (tejas) & letting it blaze forth. One must oneself become a fire & burn all the impurities within the body & mind, in which our personal motivations are effaced.

To open the heart or air chakra we must go beyond personal emotions & understand the cosmic energy of love behind all emotional fluctuations. This requires an opening to the universal feelings of compassion & devotion, & contact with the universal life force.

To open the throat or ether chakra requires being silent in the expanse of cosmic space, in which our personal voice is lost in the divine Word. It is merging into the cosmic ether in which the essence of sound abides as eternal knowledge.

Opening the third eye requires learning to live as pure insight, not requiring a body or even senses.

Opening the crown chakra means becoming one with the infinite, eternal nature of pure Existence in which the separate self disappears.

The Samadhi Breath

The Samadhi Breath is very subtle & arises when prana & apana are balanced. Ordinary respiration becomes suspended & an inner force of calm prana sustains both body & mind. In the samadhi breath, inhalation & exhalation become almost imperceptible. This occurs mainly through samana vayu functioning in the region of the heart & mind. The samana breath sustains metabolism & homeostasis on all levels, including a cellular level. Samana allows for hibernation, suspending body functions while maintaining survival. It has a similar action in samadhi. Method of The Samadhi Breath: After a period of prolonged deep breathing, once the breath has become full, rest in the state of calmness of breath in which breathing is no longer necessary. Place your awareness in the heart, in the core or centre of your being, & let all your energies return to it as their source. Let the breath flow imperceptibly like gentle waves on the sea. Experience the peace of mind that goes along with the peaceful breath. However, do not obstruct the natural flow of the breath. Should inhalation or exhalation be necessary, let them occur without strain or interference. The samadhi breath is the culmination of yoga practice & provides knowledge of the Self & the supreme peace of Brahman. 
 
Because desire is endless, happiness consists not in getting what we want, but in no longer needing anything from the external world.

Anyone whose periods of meditation alternate with periods of self-indulgence is in need of Pratyahara.

From Yoga & Ayurveda by David Frawley

Modern humans, stuck with an ancient brain, are like rats on a wheel. We can’t stop running, because we’re always looking over our shoulders & comparing our achievements with our neighbours. At 20, we think we’d be happy with a house & a car. But if we get them, we start dreaming of a beach house & a four-wheel drive. This is called the “hedonic treadmill” by happiness scholars. It causes us to rapidly & inevitably adapt to good things by taking them for granted. The more possessions & accomplishments we have, the more we need to boost our level of happiness.

The things that you desire are not the things that you end up liking. The mechanisms of desire (& wanting) are insatiable. Liking involves brain chemicals called opioids while wanting involves dopamine.
Wanting involves two ancient regions – the amygdala & the nucleus accumbens – that communicate using the chemical dopamine to form the brain’s reward system. They are involved in anticipating the pleasure of eating & the addiction to drugs. Happiness is neither desire nor pleasure alone. It involves a third chemical pathway, serotonin. Serotonin constantly shifts the balance between negative & positive emotions
Drugs based on serotonin, such as ecstasy, produce a relaxed sense of well-being rather than the dopamine pattern of euphoria & craving. In essence, what the biology tells us is that negative emotions are fundamental to the human condition, & its no wonder they are difficult to eradicate. At the same time, by trick of nature, our brains are designed to crave but never really achieve lasting happiness.

‘From happy yet?’ by Dorothy Wade

“Happy endings are stories that haven’t finished yet”

Angelina Joli from Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Abiding in God is the only true asana.

It is no help to change the environment. The one obstacle is the mind; it must be got over whether in the home or in the forest.

Make no effort either to work or to renounce it; your effort is your bondage.

    Ramana

 According to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle when you watch something it changes. This supports the practice of meditation to dissolve all internal obstacles just by observing.

 Five steps to better loving:

1 I accept you in this moment
2 I believe in your intrinsic value
3 I care when you hurt
4 I desire what is best for you
5 I erase all offences done against me

Christian preacher-unknown

 
“I am not aware of any factor in medicine, - not diet, not smoking, not drugs, not surgery, - that has as great an impact on our quality of life, incidence of illness & premature death from all causes as the healing power love & intimacy.”

    Dean Ornish

Apparently, synapses are constantly sending pain signals, (1st noble truth-suffering), it is only movement stops the signal whereas stillness allows you to feel the reality of your pain.
    Source unknown

The body has 7 problems to be solved:

1 How to obtain fresh air
2 How to obtain fresh water
3 How to obtain fresh food
4 How to obtain clothing
5 How to obtain shelter
6 The need for movement
7 The need for stillness

The male after climax experiences the neurochemical Tryptophan (sedative)
This is why he may fall asleep afterwards.

The female after climax experiences the neurochemical Oxytocin (bonding stimulant)
This is why she may be awake & want to be held afterwards.

    Unknown source

That which is deep sleep to all, even there the yogi is awake.

Krishna

“Beta” state of mind: 18 to 30 cycles per second, active, ordinary awake state, problem solving, general asana practice.

“Alpha” state of mind: 14 to 18 cycles per second, passive, relaxing on the beach, passive poses, savasana, pranayama, Praying or meditating-early stages, a valuable state.

“Theta” state of mind: 8 to 14 cycles per second, verging on falling asleep, deep savasana, deeper meditation state, very blissful state, deep pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana. Can be reached under the influence of drugs but the drawback is that there is very little alertness, too much physical damage and is transient.

“Delta” state of mind: 0 to 4 cycles per second, the mind is almost non- functioning, the deepest centre of your being. Very deep sleep when dreams have stopped and you will have no memory of where you were, Hindus and Buddhists define it as Samadhi, sleep comes to the mind but the witnessing soul is never asleep.

The bitter taste of low quality stays long after the sweetness of the low price wears off.

Unknown source

Nature always takes its own course: the wind blows, fire burns & water flows – all in their own majestic ways.

Swami Chidvilasananda

He sees who sees that all actions are performed by Nature alone,
& that the Self is actionless.

   Sri Krishna

All the activities of men are possible only because of the existence of God, but because of their ignorance they are not aware of it.

   Sri Sankaracharya

It is the nature of the mind to become like the thing it constantly thinks about. Whatever the mind dwells on, it identifies with & takes on its very nature.

It is said that only when a yogi can hold lotus for three hours has he really mastered it.
Remember that when you sit in the lotus posture for three hours, the 720 million nadis are completely purified. The purification of the nadis is the greatest of all purifications. Then the level of meditation goes higher & higher. For this reason you should devote a lot of time to the mastery of the meditation posture.

My enthusiasm grew so much that I wanted to spend all day & all night in meditation. But this was not possible, for one needs strength to endure the extraordinary force, strain, heat & power involved in meditation. One should do only as much meditation as one is capable of bearing & should practice good conduct, celibacy & self-control & eat pure food.

You should preserve your seminal fluid which is your radiance. Never forget that a radiant human being can be formed from one drop of semen. Remember the radiance of one drop. If you lose it, all the best powders & creams & rouges & lipsticks will not brighten your skin. The radiance of the sexual fluid is the vehicle of chiti shakti. It is the means for activating the kundalini & the highest means of making samadhi stable. Look carefully & see the condition of the man who has wasted his sexual fluid.

You may understand it like this: a mother has two children – one called ‘wealth’, the other called ‘poverty’ – and they are true brothers. In the same way, pleasure & pain, fame & disgrace live together like brothers. They love each other very much, & so they never live far from each other & never forget each other. Sometimes the elder brother welcomes us, & sometimes the younger. When he elder welcomes us we get wealth, power, prosperity & a kingdom. When the younger says to the elder, ‘Brother, rest a while, I’ll serve now,’ then we want beggary, misfortune & misery.

You have been searching for beauty in all four directions but you have not found it, & you have become tired. You look for happiness in movies & theatre, you wander for it from country to country, & still you do not find it. What happens in end? Looking for beauty you lose your own beauty & become ugly; looking for happiness you will find hardship & weariness.

You search for savor in various foods. You go to restaurants & nightclubs. What do you get? In the search for joy, you yourself become joyless. Your face shrivels, your money gets spent. In place of joy you get disease. Your life passes by. You do not find the real, joyful, pure & precious nectar that is in your heart.

The same thing happens in the quest of smell. You look for enjoyment in the latest perfumes, in sweet-smelling flowers; you apply the choicest scents from Paris. While you purchase fragrance, you become old & eventually you find only stench. O, man, meditate a little & see. You will find that at the place where the nose meets the eyebrows there is incomparable fragrance. Brother, in this place even bad smells are transmuted into pleasing aromas. There, the individual soul becomes full of the greatest bliss.

Because they thought about each other & meditated on each other all the time, Laila & Majnu completely lost themselves.  Laila thought about Majnu so much that she became Majnu, & Majnu thought about Laila so much that he became Laila. A poem I heard once describes Majnu’s state:

He is not worried about his food nor anxious for any gain;
He is not attached to his body nor does he cling to life itself.

Majnu had only one hope – that he might attain Laila.

Endless peace comes from renunciation.-The Gita

Man can find happiness by living in accordance with his station & upbringing. If he goes against this, then he will find suffering even in happiness.

Just as your body is pervaded by earth because it is born on the earth, lives on the earth & is absorbed into the earth, so the earth is pervaded by water because it born from the water. Water is pervaded by fire because it is born from fire, & fire is pervaded by air because it is born from air & air is pervaded by ether & ether is pervaded by God. In all this their is nothing that is yours. It is only the illusion of ‘mine’ in all this that you have to recognise & renounce.

There is nothing here, there is nothing there,
Wherever I go there is nothing.
When I contemplate, I see that the world is nothing,
There is nothing more than the realisation of my own Self.

This world is helpful; it is not even a little bit obstructive.
Why do you hate it?

This ego is the cause of all our afflictions. It has reduced God to a limited soul, turned happiness into sorrow & transformed the One into the many.

The enlightened man, since he has merit accumulated through countless births, will go through life supported by beauty & material wealth, but in spite of these things he will  not be born again, & he will not be trapped in worldly enjoyments. A yogi like this lives ecstatically, turning sensuous enjoyment into pure yoga. He finds his delight in the Self, not in the senses. To worldly people he appears worldly, but his state is that of a great yogi absorbed in the Absolute. For him, the whole of empirical existence is the Supreme Reality. This constant awareness of the Absolute is his meditation. Thus, his meditation cannot be interrupted even when he is busy in the world.

Chiti, who enters within us & fills us with Shiva, may bring us honour or disgrace, riches or hardship; these are the gifts of Her grace.
 
In spite of seeing the differences in the outside world, inwardly he experienced non-differentiation. He had fully realised the truth.

When in your meditation the mind becomes steady, the prana becomes very pure.

Through meditation the nadis are purified & many sicknesses destroyed.

Differentiation is at the root of all misery. Differentiation has made many suffer by making them dance in duality.

The sadhana of love/devotion is a very high sadhana.

Love is nectar. Love is immortality.

There is enough love in the human heart for not just one man but for thousands, but because of desire & useless thinking, an unfortunate person cannot see it. once he becomes free of these, he discovers pure, immortal & complete love. To find love you must first of all love yourself.
 

Understand that the ever-new joy that reveals itself in meditation dwells in the heart as a free, inspiring force. Develop this love & let it flow from you to others.

The truth is that your body is without fault. The body is made of the five elements & is home of your Self.

Think finally of ether, which reminds us of the detachment of the inner Self & which encompasses all activities in its vast space.

No matter how you make use of the senses, they are only helpful to you.

It is because your mind does not see any love in itself that it looks for it in others, that it searches for love through the senses & for objects of enjoyment in the outside world.

My beloved body, by your grace & help I have reached God. I thankyou. I have often inconvenienced & frightened you. I have made you go through so much anguish & torment of my behalf. But no matter what I did you always helped me.

You can try to stop the mind, but it will always want to move on. It runs on & on looking for happiness. If you want it to stop, you must plunge it in love, thrust it deep into the love of the Self.

   Swami Muktananda

The mind that is absorbed night & day in women takes on the nature of a woman.
The mind that is always thinking of maya drowns in the pit of maya.
The mind that is continually resting in Brahman eventually becomes that.

   Sundardas

Unattached to his wife & children,
Not having pride in the body,
Accepting praise or blame, honour or insult equally,
Enjoying pleasures as they come, but not indulging in them,
Without longing or conflict, without desire, he is liberated,
Either accepting the entire universe or nothing as his own,
Honour everyone, friend or foe alike,
Worshipping the whole universe, worshipped by the whole universe,
Wishing everyone well without selfish motive, without desire, he is liberated,
Neither maya nor the body exists. The universe is unreal, like a barren woman’s child,
Names & forms do not exist. God alone is complete in His fullness.
The individual Self is the same as the universal Self.
God is the divine essence of the world.
Holding this conviction, without desire, he is liberated.

Eknath Maharaj

He who continually perceives this entire universe
as a sport of the universal consciousness is truly Self-realised
beyond any doubt; he is liberated in this body.

   Sage Vasuguptacharya

The greater one’s material consciousness, the more he may be influenced by nature’s forces. The greater one’s Self-realisation, the less influence do nature’s forces have on him.

Perfection of the body consists of beauty, bright complexion, grace, strength & adamantine hardness. (Patanjali sutras)

Chinese alchemists refer to the purified body as a ‘diamond body,’ to indicate its almost indestructible nature. When the light of the soul shines without restriction one possesses an inner beauty, good complexion indicating health, relaxed & graceful movement, strength that emanates from within, & resistance to disease & the elements of the environment.

Roy Eugene Davis from The science of Kriya Yoga

With man, the cessation of all suffering is the heart’s immediate aim. The complete removal of all these sufferings so that their recurrence becomes impossible, is the ultimate goal.
   Sri Yukteswar

We are here to live skilfully & freely with enlightened purpose. For this, four soul urges have to be fulfilled:

1. To live in harmony with nature so that we have its full support & it has ours.
2. To have our life-enhancing desires easily fulfilled to effectively accomplish our purpose.
3. To be freely functional & receptive to life & have needs spontaneously met without strain.
4. To experience authentic spiritual growth that results in illumination of the mind & consciousness

One should be more interested in what kind of patient has the symptoms than in what kind of symptoms the patient has.

Vital forces are dissipated by excesses of any kind: worry, anxiety, extreme effort to concentrate, restlessness, too much talking & laughing, overuse of any of the senses, ingestion of toxic substances, insufficient sleep or rest, too much socializing & over work.

Vital forces are conserved by mental peace, emotional calmness, rational thinking, faith, moderate talking, prudent use of the senses, nourishing foods, sufficient sleep & rest, dispassion when interacting with others & the environment, relaxed accomplishment of purpose, meditation & divine remembrance.

At the level of soul awareness there is nothing that needs to be healed. At this level we are ever serene & whole.

Preoccupation with the body can lead to obsessive behaviours or to hypochondria ( a persistent, neurotic conviction that one is or is likely to become ill, often involving perceptions & complaints of discomfort in the absence of any supporting causes).

When we are fully enlightened, we can remove ourselves from the influences of the doshas & the gunas.

Our spiritual forces flow freely when obstacles to their movements are absent. Do these things:

1. Have the courage to live
2. Accept the fact that living can be spontaneous, fulfilling & enjoyable
3. Be on friendly terms with a friendly universe & care for & nurture the planet
4. Make wise choices
5. Be appreciative of life’s goodness & blessings
6. Demonstrate your compassion by serving others
7. Solve all problems with insightful understanding
8. Do everything you should do
9. Renounce behaviours that are not worthy of you
10. Don’t pretend to be a victim of circumstances. You are a spiritual being endowed with limitless capacities for acquiring knowledge & skills
11. Educate yourself & be as knowledgeable & effectively functional as you can
12. Pray & meditate everyday. Observe the teachings & practices of your religion or faith
13. Choose a lifestyle that is entirely supportive of you & your worthy purposes
14. Abide by the ways of righteousness: the spiritual, mental & moral principles & laws of nature that provide a firm foundation for living
15. Wake up, grow up (be emotionally mature & responsible), perform your duties, fulfil your obligations & flow in harmony with the rhythms of the universe
16. Be happy. Be thankful. Be soul-centred.

Seven tissues of the body: plasma, blood, muscle, fat, bone, morrow, reproductive tissue.

The eighth manifestation of the food transformation is a fine essence (ojas) at the juncture between consciousness & matter which is enlivening & regenerative. Its influence strengthens the body’s immune system & imparts the radiance of the vital health. It energizes the mind, contributes to powers of concentration & intellectual discernment, manifests as spiritual magnetism, & empowers resolve to experience rapid spiritual unfoldment & liberation of consciousness.

In 1963, the Indian saint known as the Shivapuri Baba left his body at the age of 138 yrs. He was a lifelong devotee of God & lived very simply. The first 25 yrs of his adult life were devoted to the study of scriptures & spiritual practice in the seclusion of a forest. Afterwards, until age 90, he travelled the world to meet with sincere truth seekers. For the remaining 48 yrs he lived at his quiet wooded retreat in Nepal.

Sadhu Tapasviji left his family when 55 yrs, he then visited ashrams & alternated seclusion retreats. He underwent kaya-kalpa (3 months of no speaking, first several days in deep sleep in a closed building then constant meditation, one meal a day of boiled milk & nutrition-rich foods & a herbal compound, he grew new eyes, teeth & hair), when 80, 150 & a few years later, dying at 168 yrs during meditation.

The freedom of spiritual mastery can be accomplished by purification of the gross physical, subtle astral, & fine causal bodies (including the mind). It is also possible by God’s grace.

According to ancient Vedic scripture:

1. Purification of the physical body can easily be accomplished by natural means;
2. Purification of the astral body can be accomplished by disciplined cultivation of patience in all circumstances.
3. Purification of the fine causal body & of the mind can be accomplished by meditative absorption in Om.

Physical cleansing is accomplished by having a clean natural environment, moderate fasting, eating pure foods, drinking pure water, bathing, enemas when needed, sweating, water & herbal oil cleansing of the nasal passages & sinuses, oil massage & the use of specific herbs. In some instances, for the advanced rejuvenation regimen, the burnt ashes of certain gemstones & metals (which have been purified by intense heat & ground to an extremely fine powder) are taken with herbs. These are believed to be extremely potent because, unlike food nutrients & herbal essences, they remain in the system for a long time. They must, however, be accurately prescribed, carefully prepared, & precisely used.

For a radical rejuvenation program, the subject must have an understanding of the philosophical principles for which it is being practiced, be a proficient meditator, be able to experience isolation for the duration of the program, have no external distractions or sensory stimulation & avoid reading or talking. A daily routine of gentle hatha yoga practice or simple stretching is helpful to maintain muscle tone, encouraging blood & lymph circulation & stimulating glands, organs & systems of the body. The idea is to create a ‘spiritual womb’ in which complete rest is assured so that the vital forces can be used to regenerate the body’s cells, tissues & organs. One’s awareness should be immersed in pure consciousness to the extent possible. Anyone who assists-by providing food & herbal substances, monitoring progress or rendering therapeutic aid such as massage-should not talk so that the patient can remain in a sustained meditative state. This is the time for complete surrender in the Infinite; not an occasion to engage in idle daydreaming or psychological self-analysis. Awareness should be removed from all distractions, including memories & mental & emotional states. As a result of deep tissue cleansing, absence of any situation which could cause damage or stress to the systems of the body, transmutation of vital forces &sustained super-consciousness, the brain secretes a substance referred to as a divine elixir or ambrosia (amrita), which further enlivens the physiology & strengthens the immune system.

Cleansing of the subtle astral body, the soul-covering or sheath of vital forces & the seat of feelings or emotions, is accomplished by disciplined cultivation of equanimity & patience in all circumstances.

It is a matter of learning to be calm, peaceful & insightful regardless of what is occurring within one’s own mind, the immediate environment or the universe.

Also helpful is to learn to flow with life’s rhythms & unfolding events, focusing on constructive matters & disregarding, when possible, that which contributes to mental confusion & emotional conflict. Above all, avoid contests with negative people or circumstances.

Deep-seated impressions of memories, beliefs & habits will be organised & disarmed. Their influential force will be weakened & neutralized. In this way, karma is eradicated because of your commitment to spiritual growth & regular meditation practice. Some mental conditionings will have to be confronted & discarded by choice.

When sunlight is filtered through eyeglasses or through windows of a building or automobile, its varied wavelengths are altered; more so when light is filtered through coloured glass. When sunglasses are worn to reduce glare, the tint should be neutral grey.

I salute the supreme guru, the truth, whose nature is bliss;
Who is the giver of the highest happiness;
Who is pure wisdom; who is beyond all qualities & infinite like the sky;
Who is beyond words; who is eternal, pure & still;
Who is beyond all change & phenomena &,
Who is the silent witness to all our thoughts & emotions.
I salute truth, the supreme guru. (Ancient Vedic Hymn)
   

Roy Eugene Davis-Ayurveda

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