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Spirituality – Religion
March 11, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 1 Comment
Increasing numbers of people in the developed world consider themselves spiritual without belonging to a religion. Some of the dominant world religions believe there is no spiritual life outside their confines. Let’s take some time now then to explore the differences between spirituality and religion.
Both spirituality and religion, at a core level are about our relationship with God, the Divine, the Mystery or Absolute truth, by whatever name you give it. From my point of view the similarities end here
Spirituality as I see it is an innate dimension to our existence and our relationship with the Mystery of life. Religions are manmade structures that seek to define and control our spiritual nature. Religions used to be a cultures one size fits all spirituality and in many parts of the world still are. Spirituality is personal, fluid and evolving. Religions are constructed with rigid and moralized belief systems.
Religion is based on faith and accepted beliefs which define the parameters of what is allowed to be believed. Ideas and beliefs beyond these boundaries are often
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out moreWhat Is Spirituality?
March 10, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 2 Comments
Spirituality, like so many things we refer to and speak of on a regular basis, is not so easy to define when we sit down and think about just what we mean when we use it. I imagine that a survey of this question would bring back as many different answers as the people who took it.
In this time, when so many are turning away from organized religion to find meaning in their lives, and with the vast proliferation of teachers and teachings, many people’s idea of spirituality may be a postmodern mixture of all kinds of different elements.
So here’s what I think. Spirituality is our conscious engagement with the process of our spiritual evolution. It is my experience that life in its very nature is a spiritual process of Consciousness evolving. We, in our individuated forms, are the living means through which
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out moreIndian Clerics Enter Muslim Religion And Yoga Debate
March 9, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
Even as I’m working on an article about the difference between spirituality and religion, things continue to develop in the religion and yoga story of Muslim fatwas on yoga.
Indian Muslim clerics have joined the ongoing conflict that has seen Malaysian and Indonesian fatwas against Muslims practicing yoga.
The word from the Indian seminaries is that yoga doesn’t contradict Islam and in fact they point to many similarities between the two. These more tolerant views are helping many Muslims who practise yoga resolve their dilemma in the face of the bans on certain elements of the practice.
It is also helpful to some Islamic scholars in Indonesia who agree. The feeling of many Indonesians is the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), which issued the fatwa against the ‘Hindu’ elements of yoga in late January, does not represent the majority of the Indonesian Muslim opinion.
Speaking in a debate at the first weeklong International Bali-India Yoga Festival last week Salman Harun, director of the Centre of Multifaith Education in Jakarta said better understanding of the art of yoga would ensure that such sever steps are not taken in future.
Also speaking at the festival Stefan Danerek, a scholar who has studied Islam and has also been practicing yoga for the past few months, went on to draw parallels between Islam and yoga claiming “The ’salaat’, (the ritualistic beginning of the Islamic prayer), and asanas are very similar. He said the focused concentration required, and even the manner of praying in Islam – is similar to yoga. From this he said one can draw a lot of parallels between the two,”
Personally I don’t know about that and it sounds like a desire to find similarities rather than them being apparent. Danerek ended the debate on an expansive note “Yoga is halal. It is not bound by religious and other boundaries. And just like the holy Koran teaches, it spreads the message of unity and peace”.
I say power to that thought. With a focus on the message of unity and peace that is common to all major religions we would live in a very different world with plenty of room for yoga and religion.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out moreComplementary And Alternative Medicine On The Rise
March 7, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
A report released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in December of 2008 showed that the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has increased significantly between 2002 and 2007. Specifically, the number of adults using acupuncture, naturopathy, massage therapy, yoga, deep-breathing exercises and meditation was seen to grow significantly.
In 2002, 2.1 million adults reported seeing an acupuncturist compared to 3.1 million in 2007- and increase of about 50% over five years. The most commonly used forms of CAM were (listed in order of prevalence) nonvitamin, nonmineral natural products (such as herbs and fish oils), deep-breathing exercises, meditation, chiropractic and osteopathic manipulation, massage and yoga.
The complaints that patients (both adults and children) most commonly sought out CAM therapies for were musculoskeletal problems such as back and neck pain or arthritis. And of the patients that used CAM, it seems that the therapies were used in more of a complementary fashion, not as alternates to other forms of care. As the report states: “The overwhelming majority of patients using CAM approaches do so to complement conventional care rather than as an alternative to conventional care.”
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out moreYoga Association Forms In Bali
March 5, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
Despite the ban on certain elements of yoga by the Indonesia’s top Muslim clerics, the first yoga association formed at the International Bali India Yoga festival.
Formed by Somvir, an Indian spiritual guru and academic who set up the Bali India Foundation to teach yoga more than 10 years ago, the association’s main aim is to remove misconceptions about yoga and spread awareness about it’s benefits.
"There are many yoga centres here in Bali and elsewhere but hardly anyone knows each other. This association will be like an umbrella organisation to exchange ideas, information and ultimately spread awareness that yoga is a medium to good health," Mr. Somvir said at the festival on Thursday.
According to Somvir, there are more than 10 million people practising yoga in Indonesia. A total of 30 yoga centres from various parts of Indonesia like Bali, Java and Lombo have came together to form the association.
"In Indonesia, yoga is becoming popular but many people still keep away from it thinking that it’s a mystic art that should avoid. We will try and disseminate information that yoga is just an exercise for physical and mental well being," Mr. Somvir added.
Although Somvir is the founding member of the association, the chief of the association is a Balinese woman entrepreneur who has been learning yoga at the Bali India Foundation for a year now.
"Sri is an avid yoga practitioner. Since nearly 90 percent of those practising yoga in the world are women, it’s only fair that a woman is the chief of the association," he said.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out moreIn Defence Of Mantra
March 4, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
I decided to write this article In Defense of Mantra as response to a post on Stephen Sashen’s blog called Mantra power from Sweden. The gist of what he says is that there is no difference between having the words of a pop song going round and round in your head and repeating Sanskrit mantras.
In the comments that followed many people agreed and accepted this idea. I myself left a comment on several occasions, they were never published, so no other perspectives are obviously welcome there!
Here is why I think there is a difference.
First let’s look out the nature of sound and words, in fact the nature of all things. On a fundamental level everything that exists is a vibration of energy. This is no longer a mystical point of view but is the accepted science of new physics.
Sound is created by the vibration of air in a particular pattern, and words themselves have their own vibrational pattern even as writing. The power of this has been clearly demonstrated in the groundbreaking work of Masaro Emoto. For those unfamiliar with his work he developed a
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out moreBhakti Fest- 3 Days Of Devotional Yoga Bliss
March 2, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
Bhakti Fest is a three day music festival celebrating devotion through chanting, yoga, meditation and community out in the desert of Joshua Tree California, September 11-13 2009.
The gathering will be on 450 acres of inspiring desert land to express love and devotion as one community through an enchanting array of activities, including:
Constant Kirtan Concerts. Artists include – Jai Uttal, Wah!, Karnamrita, Mukti, Mc Yogi, Arjun Baba and whole lot more.
Yoga Classes with Siva Rea, Mark Whitwell, Sarah Ivanhoe, Joan White, KristinOlson, Saul David Raye, Nubia Teixeira & Steve Ross
Private and Group Meditation
Vegetarian Cuisine
Midnight Fire Ceremonies (Pujas)
Hanuman Chalisas
Eco-Friendly Vendor Village
Camping, Cottages and Cabin Accommodations
Wellness Sanctuary: with massage, reiki, channeling and other unique healing sessions.
Dr Deepak Chopra will be there and Ram Dass will beam in by satellite.
Sweat Lodges: poured in the Lakota tradition, space is extremely limited.
Registration & Housing Rates
Before May 1st Festival Admission EARLYBIRD Ticket = $200 (after May 1 Festival Admission Ticket is $250)
CAMPING (BYO- tent ) $90 / person, no meals
RV SITE $125 no meals
BUNK BED (Dorm-Style) $175 / person w/meals
SHARED ROOM 3-8 $225 / person w/meals
SHARED ROOM 2 $300 / person w/meals
VIP CABIN (Only 6) $1,000 / 2 adults w/meals
VIP Cabin includes private patio and overlooks the venue.
ALL BEDS ARE SINGLE – BEDDING, TOWELS and SHEETS WILL BE PROVIDED IN ROOMS
HOUSING PRICES above include 2 nights stay and 5 meals on the premises.
(dinner – Friday, Saturday & Sunday/ breakfast – Saturday & Sunday)
50% of festival proceeds to four charitable foundations. Oxfam, Seva Foundation, Amma and RamDass.org
What a feast for body heart and soul, register or make contact at the Bhakti Fest website
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out moreThe Magic Of DOING What You Are Doing!
March 2, 2009 by Kate Mathers · Leave a Comment
By Kate Mathers www.magicofallowing.com
More on the freedom and joy of being in the present moment – Spot Meditations: Doing What You Are Doing!
As part of the Mindfulness Meditation courses that I teach, I show participants how to incorporate ‘Spot Meditations’ as part of their daily routine. These involve taking some simple activity and making a meditation out of it. You can ‘spot’ the opportunity at any point during your day, no matter how busy. And literally anything can become a beautiful exampleof mindfulness – of living with awareness – in the present moment. This is the magic of DOING what you are doing!
The benefits? Tension diffuses on the spot. Your mind slows down. You bring all five senses to bear on what you are actually doing. And if your mind wanders off, just bring your focus and your senses – sight, touch, sound, smell, taste – back to whatever you are actually doing, and really BE THERE for WHATEVER IT IS THAT YOU ARE DOING at that time! Most of the time we are either living in the past and thinking or worrying about something that we have or haven’t done, or we are away in the future thinking or worrying about some event that may or may not happen….. so try nourishing yourself daily (hourly if you like) with gifts of the present moment. Notice how liberating it feels. The scary thing is discovering how little of our time we actually spend in the present moment!
The transformative effect of this simple bringing of attention to the present moment is profound. In addition
to the diffusion of tension in our body and mind, we feel relief and joy and a sense of freedom when we bring our entire focus, our entire attention - including all our senses - to the present moment. This can be especially powerful when it concerns some routine activity that we usually carry out automatically, like cleaning our teeth, washing up, feeding the dog, answering the telephone, driving in traffic, eating a meal, preparing a meal, going for a walk, ironing, standing in a queue at the bank, gardening, walking up stairs……
You can use your senses to tune in at any given point during your day as to how you are sitting in your chair at your desk, how you are holding your pen, how you are using your computer keyboard, how you get up from your chair… and so on. Are you hunched over the desk? Are your fingers tense from gripping your pen too tightly? Are your wrists aching from bad positioning at your computer keyboard? Could you do what you are doing more effectively, expending less energy, if you were fully present?
As you can see, the range of possibilities is limitless!
Spot Meditations: Doing What You Are Doing!
Very broadly speaking, the following suggestions for spot meditations are biased towards those that might be more relevant for women in daily life. The next article will have suggestions oriented towards men. (Though, of course, all overlap.)
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For example, you can ‘spot’ meditate by consciously doing a simple activity such as hanging out the washing. Mindfully hanging out the washing means using your body with respect – balancing your stretching and bending movements equally left and right, enjoying the fresh clean smell of washed clothes, being grateful that you have two arms that can reach upwards, that you have a machine to do the washing; sensing the energy of the trees and plants around you, the sky above you, feeling the earth beneath your feet and the sun’s warmth on your back; it’s the difference between resenting the whole task as a chore and exploring it in mindfulness, moment by moment, and returning to the house enriched and balanced by the experience. If you use a dryer instead, incorporate the same sort of ideas in mindfully moving through the drying/folding process in a similar manner. See how many things you can identify to keep you in the present moment throughout the task. You can carry the same sort of ideas through to doing the ironing. With all of these, you can discover for yourself the magic of Doing What You are Doing!
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You can do a ‘spot’ meditation when you prepare fruit. BE THERE for the task. Really Do What you are Doing! This can involve noticing the way in which you hold, say, a mango, in between your hands, and feeling the shape, and then the texture and smoothness of the skin; being aware of the sensation of the knife as it pares into the flesh; the soft, yielding texture of the flesh as you cut into it, smelling the fruity aroma floating upwards; seeing and experiencing the orange energy of the colour; feeling the taste and texture once in your mouth;being grateful to all the people who have worked to bring that mango to your plate; being grateful that you have a mango to eat; it’s all about being fully in the moment as you prepare the fruit. The preparation and eating are themselves the meditation, when you are doing what you are doing!
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You can even make a spot meditation out of washing up. Make a point of actually being there as you wash the pots and pans, noticing the colours of the dishes or the gleam of the pan; aware of the texture of the food sticking to it, and the heat of the water; taking in the sound of the tap running, the smell of the dishwashing liquid, the texture of the bubbles;being grateful that you have food to cook; appreciating the fact that you have two working arms and two strong legs that enable you to carry out the task of washing up; it’s all about being fully in the present rather than somewhere in the future or the past. You’ll be amazed at how rewarding it is, at the reduction in tension, and the feeling of relaxation and peace. This is the magic of doing what you are doing – even when it is the washing up.
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Meditations like this can literally be just a few seconds long. For example, it’s raining while you’re wai
ting in car line
to pick up your child after school. Try focusing on the raindrops running down the windscreen. You could choose to focus on one raindrop only, and then on the next, and the next…….; or you could make the entire windscreen of raindrops your focus; whenever your mind wanders off, just come back to the focus of watching the raindrops running down the windscreen….. what they look like……. what they might feel like ……… be aware of any sound they make ………… imagine how the rain might smell ……..by the time your child is ready to get into the car, you will feel soothed and rejuvenated and refreshed. As opposed to irritated that you have had to wait,and resentful about the things you could have been doing instead. The Magic of Doing What you are Doing!The beauty of these ‘spot meditations’ is that we cannot help but Do What We Are Doing! This simple act brings us straight back into the present moment, where true peace, freedom and happiness lie. After all, the past is gone, and the future hasn’t arrived. All we actually have, at any given time, is the present.
email: kate@magicofallowing.com
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out moreThe Magic Of The Present Moment
March 1, 2009 by Kate Mathers · Leave a Comment
March 8, 2009 By Kate Mathers www.magicofallowing.com
Many of us run through much of our day without much focus on the present moment. In fact, we’re far more likely to be in the past or the future – often either beating ourselves up for what we haven’t done or achieved, or else worrying and stressing about what might be about to occur – and we miss the beauty and powerof the present moment entirely. Yet the restorative power of being in the present moment – even if only a few times a day – is truly magical.
Much is written about the power of tuning in to our breath, as it is a very convenient process to support awareness in our day-to-day life. As Jon Kabat-Zinn says in his book Full Catastrophe Living “As long as we are alive, it is always with us. We can’t leave home without it. It is always here to be attended to, no matter what we are doing or feeling or experiencing, no matter where we are. Tuning in to it brings us right into the here and now. It immediately anchors awareness in the body – in a fundamental, rhythmic, flowing life process.” The effect of just two or three conscious outbreaths can be remarkable. It’s often all we need to defuse tension, lower the metabolic rate a few notches and shift into a healthier state.
However, rather than trying to add more to a subject that is already well covered, I thought it would be interesting to talk about other ways of how we can tune in to being in the present moment, at any point during the course of our day – no matter what it is that we are doing. And reap the benefits of that restorative, re-grouping, powerful, centering energy that the present moment, and only the present moment, can provide. For example, try really being with yourself, mindfully, moment by moment, while having a shower first thing in the morning. This is how it might go……
Taking a Shower Mindfully
TRY: being aware of the way you step into the shower, what the floor feels like beneath your feet, how your arms and hands reach out to turn on the taps, the sound of the water flowing, the feel of the water as it flows over your body – each part of it, from the head right down the toes… be with the feelings of the water on your body, focusing on each body part in turn. Be aware of the smell of the water – can you smell chlorine, perhaps?… feel the sensations of the water on your eyes, your lips, on your face –the pressure, the pace…..be aware of allowing your feet to be fully grounded on the floor, letting the floor take your full weight………being fully ‘in your ribs’ will help you become completely grounded, so just put your attention in your ribs for a while, and feel how the body relaxes down, from head to chest, and from chest to feet, into the floor……….. be aware of the sensations of the soap in your hands and on your body, how it mixes with the water, what it feels when the soap is being rinsed off…..be aware of the movements you are making with your arms and hands, and your body in general, as you are washing yourself………be with your arms and hands as they reach out for the shampoo bottle, as you place the shampoo on your hair, as you massage it into your head….note the different movements, and what they feel like………and continue to pay attention in this way, right until you have finished the shower, and have mindfully turned off the taps and mindfully stepped out onto the bath mat…………and
TRY: seeing how long you can remain fully awake and conscious to each moment as you start to dry yourself and get dressed………
As the day moves along, there are limitless moments to tune in to, that can bring us back into the restorative space of mindfulness, return us to the magic of the being space – as opposed to the ‘doing’ – of the present moment. Life lived that way is all about the magic of allowing that to occur; minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, year by year ………
To finish, what better than a quotation from Jon Kabat-Zinn, that master of mindfulness and the present moment:
“The momentum of unbridled doing can carry us for decades, even to the grave,
without our quite knowing that we are living out our lives and that we have only moments to live.”
From The Full Catastrophe, by Jon Kabat-Zinn
email: kate@magicofallowing.com
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
