Tag: Sufi

Today: “When life is lived, everything comes to you” – Yogi Bhajan

SSSYWa“When life is lived, everything comes to you, but when you live life then you have to struggle for everything.” Yogi Bhajan

 

 

Meditation: NM091 – 19921110 – Self Emboldenment, Engagement, Vision

Today: “There are ways to feel relaxed” – Yogi Bhajan

SSSYWa“There are ways to feel relaxed. One is to feel that you are a part of the universe and that the universe is a part of you. You are just as beautiful as the universe. Without you, the universe is not beautiful, and you are not beautiful without the universe.” Yogi Bhajan

 

Meditation: LA873 Nao Niddh Kriya

See related posts

On Dying – Rumi

Listen, O drop, give yourself up without regret,
and in exchange gain the Ocean.
Listen, O drop, bestow upon yourself this honor,
and in the arms of the Sea be secure.
Who indeed should be so fortunate?
An Ocean wooing a drop!
In God’s name, in God’s name, sell and buy at once!
Give a drop, and take this Sea full of pearls.
Rumi

Kabir’s Wisdom

“The fish in the water that is thirsty needs serious therapy”

Poet Saint Kabir

Kabir01 

Guru Nanak meeting Kabir, Asian Art Museum, 19th Century, Opaque Watercolor

The renowned mystic, poet, and saint, Kabir, was born in Varanasi, India sometime in the early 1400’s, a time in history that parallels the lives of other great leaders, such as Guru Nanak. Some 541 hymns from Saint Kabir are to be found in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib and indeed it is said that in his lifetime Kabir reached “a remarkable synthesis of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and even Christian beliefs.”  Like Nanak, Kabir lived an extremely humble life on the outskirts of town, was a family man and a weaver. His writings were referred to as “banis” or “slokas,” having the express intent to evoke the highest truth and spiritual development for the reader. As evidenced in the excerpt above, “the glorious role of the mystic is to help us accept God more as He Is–and ever less than our prejudices and fears want him to be.” 

Kabir in Siri Guru Granth Sahib 

PRABHAATEE: First, Allah created the Light; then, by His Creative Power, He made all mortal beings. From the One Light, the entire universe welled up. So who is good, and who is bad? || 1 || O people, O Siblings of Destiny, do not wander deluded by doubt. The Creation is in the Creator, and the Creator is in the Creation, totally pervading and permeating all places. || 1 || Pause || The clay is the same, but the Fashioner has fashioned it in various ways. There is nothing wrong with the pot of clay – there is nothing wrong with the Potter. || 2 || The One True Lord abides in all; by His making, everything is made. Whoever realizes the Hukam of His Command, knows the One Lord. He alone is said to be the Lord’s slave. || 3 || The Lord Allah is Unseen; He cannot be seen. The Guru has blessed me with this sweet molasses. Says Kabir, my anxiety and fear have been taken away; I see the Immaculate Lord pervading everywhere.

Pages 1349-1350

*Love Poems from God, copyright 2002, Daniel Ladinsky 

reprinted from a communication from Sikh Dharma International

The Four Magic Treasures

Four holy dervishes of the second rank met together and determined that they would search the face of the whole earth for objects which would enable them to help mankind. They had studied everything they could, and had realized that by this kind of operation they could serve best.

They arranged among themselves to meet after thirty years.

On that appointed day they came together again. The first brought with him from the farthest North a magical staff. Whoever rode upon it could reach his destination instantly. The second, from the farthest West, had brought a magical hood. Whoever put it over his head could immediately change his appearance to resemble anyone in existence. The third, from his travels and searches in the farthest East, brought a magic mirror. In this any part of the world could be seen at will. The fourth dervish, working in the farthest South, had brought back with him a magical cup, with which any disease could be healed.

Thus equipped, the dervishes looked into the Mirror, to find the source of the Water of Life, which would enable them to live long enough to put these articles to effective use. They found the Fountain of Life, flew to it on the magic staff, and drank of the Water.

Then they performed an invocation, to who was most in need of their services.Into the mirror swam the face of a man who was almost on the point of death. He was many days’ journey away. The dervishes at once mounted their magic staff and flew, in the twinkling of an eye, into the house of the sick man.

‘We are famous healers’, they said to the man at the gate, ‘who understand that your master is ill. Admit us and we will help him.’ When the sick man heard this he ordered the dervishes to be brought to his bedside. As soon as he saw them, however, he became worse, almost as if seized by a fit. They were ejected from his presence, while one of the attendants explained that the patient was an enemy of dervishes and hated them.

Putting their heads one by one into the magical hood, they changed their appearance so that they were agreeable to the sick man,and presented themselves again, this time as four different healers.

As soon as the man had drunk some medicine from the Magic Cup he was better than he had ever been in his life. He was delighted — and being rich, rewarded the dervishes with a house of his own into which they settled.

They continued to live in this house, and every day they went their separate ways, using the magical apparatus which they had brought together, for the good of mankind.

One day, however, when the other dervishes were out on their rounds, soldiers arrived and arrested the dervish with the healing cup. The king of the country had heard about this great doctor, and had sent for him to cure his daughter,who was suffering from a strange illness.

The dervish was taken to the princess’s bedside, and he offered her some medicine of her own,but in the special cup. But, because he had been unable to consult the magic Mirror for the cure, it did not work.

The princess was no better, and the king ordered the dervish to be nailed up on a wall. He begged for some time to consult with his friends, but the king was impatient and believed that this was just a stratagem, and that the dervish might escape.

As soon as the other dervishes go home, they looked int the magic Mirror to find where their companion had gone. Seeing him on the pint of death, they sped on the magic Staffto his aid. They saved him in the nick of time. But they were unable to save the king’s daughter, because the cup was nowhere to be found.

Looking in the  magic Mirror, the dervishes saw that it had been thrown, by the king’s order, into the depths of the deepest ocean in the world.

In spite of the miraculous apparatus at their disposal, it took them a thousand years to recover the cup. Ever after the experience with the princess, thes four dervishes mad it their practice to work in secret, making it appear, through skillful arrangement, that whatever they did for the good of mankind would appear to have been done in some easily explicable way.

in Tales of the Dervishes
by Idries Shah

The Tale of the Sands

A STREAM, from its source in far-off mountains, passing through every kind and description of countryside, at last reached the sands of the desert.  Just as it had crossed every other barrier, the stream tried to cross this one, but found that as fast as it ran into the sand, its waters disappeared.
It was convinced, however, that its destiny was to cross this desert. and yet there was no way.Now a hidden voice, coming from the desert itself, whispered: “The Wind crosses the desert, and so can the stream.”
The stream objected that it was dashing itself against the sand, and only getting absorbed: that the wind could fly, and this was why it could cross a desert.
“By hurtling in your won accustomed way you cannot get across.  You will either disappear or become a marsh.  You must allow this wind to carry you over to your destination.”
But how could this happen?”By allowing yourself to be absorbed in the wind.”
This idea was not acceptable to the stream, After all, it had never been absorbed before.  It did not want to lose its individuality.  And, once having lost it, how was on to know that it could ever be regained?
“The wind”, said the sand, “Performs this function.  It takes up water, caries it over the desert, and then lets it fall agin.  Falling as rain, the water again becomes a river.”
“How can I know that this is true?”
“It is so, and if you don’t believe it, you cannot become more than a quagmire, and even that could take many, many year; and it certainly is not the same as a stream.”
“But can I not remain the same stream that I am today?”
“You cannot in either case remain so,” the whisper said.  “Your essential part is carried away and forms a stream again.  You are called what you are even today because you do not know which part of you is the essential one.”
When he heard this, certain echoes began to arise in the thoughts of the stream.  Dimly, he remembered a state in which he – or some part of him, was it? – had been held in the arms of a wind.  He also remembered – or did he? – that this was the real thing; not necessarily the obvious thing, to do.
And the stream raised his vapour into the welcoming arms of the wind, which gently and easily bore it upwards and along, letting it fall softly as soon as they reached the roof of a mountain, many, many miles away.  And because he had his doubts, the stream was able to remember and record more strongly in his mind the details of the experience.  He reflected “Yes, now I have learned my true identity.”
The stream was learning. But the sands whispered: “We know. because we see it happen day after day: and because we, the sands, extend from the riverside all the way to the mountain.”
And that is why it is said that the way in which the Stream of Life is to continue on its journey is written in the Sands.

from Awad Afifi the Tunisian
in Tales of the Dervishes
by Idries Shah

Orthodoxy and Heresy

“Nasrudin, is your religion orthodox?” “It all depends,” said Nasrudin, “on which bunch of heretics is in power.”

Awareness of Death

There was once a dervish who embarked upon a sea journey.  As the other passengers in the ship came aboard one by one, they saw him and – as is the custom – asked him for a piece of advice.  What he advised was: ‘Try to be aware of death, until you know what death is.’  Few of the travelers felt particularly attracted to this admonition.

While at sea a terrible storm blew up.  The crew and the passengers alike fell upon their knees, imploring God to save the ship.  They alternately screamed in terror, gave themselves up for lost, hoped wildly for deliverance.  The dervish sat quietly, reflective, not reacting.

Eventually the buffeting stopped, the sea and sky were calm, and the passengers remembered how serene the dervish had been throughout the episode.  One of them asked him: ‘ Did you not realize that during this frightful tempest that there was nothing more solid than a plank between us all and death?’

‘Oh, yes, indeed,’ answered the dervish. ‘I knew that it is like that at sea.  I also realize, however, that in living day to day there is even less between us and death.  In that moment of dread you were aware of death because you thought it was immanent.  Will you hold that awareness as you live this day?

You Didn’t Build That

Nasrudin (during his age, there was no car) has been looking for a parking place for twenty minutes already. He turns around, he waits, he drives a bit further, but finds nothing.

He has an important business meeting and he’s going to be late, but nothing, no parking space. Filled with despair he raises his eyes up to the sky and says:

“My God, if you get me a parking space in five minutes, I promise to you that I’ll eat kosher (halal) food for the rest of my life…”

And suddenly – O miracle! – right next to him a car drives away leaving an ideal parking spot.

So Nasrudin turns his eyes to the sky and says: “God, stop searching, I found one!”

Nasrudin Tells a Lie

One day Nasrudin and his friends decided to play a joke on the people in a village. So Nasrudin drew a crowd, and lied to them about a gold mine in a certain place. When everybody ran to get their hands on the gold, Nasruddin started running with them. When asked by his friends why he was following them, he said “So many people believed it, that I think it may be true!”

 

No Superstition and the Vagus Nerve – HNS Class Golden Bridge 2012-12-12

Hari Nam Singh
Sat Nam Rasayan® Class
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 -- 4:00 p.m.
Bodh Gaya Room
Golden Bridge -- Hollywood, California

Tune-in.  Ong Namo….

So what is it that’s supposed to happen today?

Student:  Lots of people are getting married today.  That was what they said on the radio.

Are they inducing labor, too?

Student: So that people don’t forget their Birthday maybe.  Lots of people are getting married today because they want their husbands to remember their wedding anniversary.

I guess that’s pretty practical.  Well, actually it makes sense.  For many years my wife and I could never remember what day our wedding anniversary was.  We had a tendency to think it was a day later for some reason.

Numerologically or astrologically you can discern certain tendencies that are produced.  It doesn’t mean that something’s going to go boom on one day or another.  We have in general tendencies to put a lot of energy into these things, thinking that one thing or another is really special.

It amounts to a lot of superstition that we hold.  Superstition is making an assumption about something because you think that something is supposed to happen.  It doesn’t mean that something isn’t going to happen.  We have the tendency not to base our perception on our experience.  Our experience is what counts, and really nothing else.  If we just assume something because everybody says this or that, that’s just really superstition.  So it’s really pretty useful for us to get beyond that tendency that we have of doing that, just be in the moment in the experience, and then see what happens with that.

We could relate with something through a numerological relation, and that has a lot of potential and perhaps even a lot of power; however, that’s just a matter of relating through our experience in that to see how we’re affected by that — not putting the cart before the horse and saying, “We expect this or that.”

That’s one thing that we’ve been working on a lot lately.  Especially in Guru Dev Singh’s Classes, the topic of superstition comes up a lot.  It’s something we can acknowledge, and don’t need to engage in so much.

So in order to mitigate that to some degree, Guru Dev Singh did give us this Meditation, which Yogi Bhajan gave us, which is useful in our time to be engaged with.  Is anybody doing this Meditation?  I thought we’d do that one.

Meditation For Faculty Of Self-Engagement:
Mudra:  Bend your elbows into the sides of the body.  Extend the forearms out in front of the body, and tilt them up at a 45-degree angle.  Have the palms flat, fingers’ pointing straight ahead.  The right palm faces the ceiling, and the left palm faces the floor.  The palms are at the level of the heart center, and the wrists are bent slightly.
Hold the position, and keep the spine straight the entire time.
Eyes:  Stare at the tip of the nose.
Breath:  Breathe long and deep in through the nose.  Breathe out long and deep through the mouth.  Mechanically breathe.
You are bringing a balance between Heaven and Earth in this posture.  Let your thoughts go.  Don’t work your brain.  It will take you through your non-reality, and go deep into Meditation.  Just breathe consciously.
Time:  22 Minutes, 45 Seconds
To End:  Inhale deeply, press your hands together in front of your chest really tightly, press hard.  Hold for 11 Seconds.  Exhale.
Inhale, really squeeze very hard, using the shoulders to add all the pressure you can.  Hold for 11 Seconds.  Exhale.
Inhale, squeeze your spine, vertebrae, muscles, hands, legs, everything, from the base to the top.  Hold for 20 Seconds.  Exhale.
Relax.

Okay.  Take your partner.

Round One :  Take your partner.  Open the space.  Feel how the sounds inside you are affecting your Field.  In particular feel how the sounds are affecting your emotional sensations.  Within you feel the sensations of flow.  At the same time feel the sensations of no-flow or where there is numbness.  Feel all those sensations at the same time.  Keep researching how the sounds are affecting you.  Where you feel sensations of numbness or no-flow, feel that from within Shuniya, within Silence.  Feel how it feels from within Silence.  Give it space.  Give space to all those places inside you that feel numb with the intention to alter the perception of those points to be more like those where you perceive a flow.  Relate with your partner.  Feel how that relation is affecting the flow in you.  With your intention in the Silence, give space to those points of numbness — the intention of altering the perception to that of increased flow.  Hold the relation in the Silence.  Come to conclusion.  Switch.

Round Two :  Take your partner.  Open the space.  Feel how the sounds are affecting you.  Feel the sounds inside you, in particular how they are touching emotional sensations.  In your Field of Perception, recognize sensations of flow and sensations of no-flow.  Allow that to be the Mandala superimposed on your Field.  Relate with your partner.  Allow your partner to affect your Field, still being aware of flow and no-flow.  Give space to those points of numbness in the Silence.  Feel those points within the Silence.  Choose to relate with your partner’s Vagus Nerve.  Feel in the area of your left eye and in your face any sensation of numbness.  Allow that to be present in the Silence.  Allow the Silence to affect those sensations.  As those sensations alter, follow the resistances down the length of the Vagus Nerve.  Give space to the resistances as you encounter them, researching the length of the Vagus Nerve through the body.  Allow the sensations of flow.  Balance the sensations of numbness to being more like the sensations of flow.  Allow the sensations of numbness and flow to begin to merge.  Feel it.  Don’t push it.  Come to conclusion.  Switch.

Round Three :  Take your partner.  Open the space.  Relate with your partner, and in particular the Vagus Nerve, and first of all the area around the left eye and the resistances in that area.  Allow them.  Give them space.  Allow those resistances to mingle with the sensations of flow in your body.  As the perception of those points of numbness begins to alter, follow the resistance down the length of the Vagus Nerve, down the face and the left side of the body.  Begin to recognize how all of the sensations of flow, numbness, and everything related with the Vagus Nerve are affecting your brain.  Allow all the sensations to appear as though they’re happening in the mind.  From that vantage research those sensations along the entire length of the Vagus Nerve, and feel the sensations as a whole.  Give space to that flow that appears in the mind.  Feel how it’s affecting all your sensations.  Let the nature of that flow as a whole come into balance.  Feel it inside your brain.  Balance the sensations there, and the sensations as they are suggested to the mind.  Let all of them interact as One Field.  Come to conclusion.  Switch.

Round Four :  Open the space.  Recognize your partner in you, in particular the space of the relation with the Vagus Nerve of your partner, and the sensation of the points of flow and the points of no-flow.  Feel those points in you, from the vantage of how it’s affecting the brain.  Feel those points of numbness in the brain, and how they’re affecting the flow of the mind.  Give space to those points.  Bring the points of numbness in the flow into balance.  Give space to the points of constriction in the mind.  Let them balance with perceptions that have more flow.  Allow the Field to be One Unified Space.  Just with your intention bring it into balance.  Come to conclusion.

So we can maintain some form of reference to sensations that appear in the body; however, we can allow them to be more generalized in a way that they become more diffuse and represented in a more unified way, something that appears in the mind as well.  By maintaining that reference to the body, we can see how we’re doing.  Where we place our intention is in the Overall Field, which includes more than just those specific sensations here and there.

So does anybody have any questions?

We feel something perhaps here or here, and they seem present in the body.  If we allow those sensations and feel how they’re affecting how our brains feel, we can begin to feel how that’s affecting the brain and affecting the mind.  So it’s not just those specific physical things, rather a little bit more diffuse and generalized.  So it’s not just there.  It’s more everywhere.

You can feel where there is flow somewhere.  Feeling where there’s numbness is a contrast to that.  So it gives you some point of a polarity that you can start to balance, not that you push anything through somewhere; however, you feel the difference.  You just give space to those places that feel numb.  We do that with Shuniya.  We go to that place that’s completely Empty, and then see what happens to the flow.  Shuniya is something that’s everywhere.  It doesn’t have a location.  So we would like to start to go beyond just having everything have a location.  Maybe that’s where we can start because our body is a Mandala, which can represent something that’s happening in our Perceptive Field; however, then we can take it further than that and include all perception.  Perception can include what’s happening in the mind.  That’s more where our intentions are held.  We use our mind.  So we don’t need to try to change the perception directly in some place.  There can be a lot of resistance to that.  So what we’re doing is making it a little bit more efficient.  That’s something that you can do more quickly.

You don’t have to believe ahead of time that it’s based in something that’s held emotionally.  You can perhaps discover where in the Emotional Body or in that part of your Mandala it’s appearing in you.  It will touch someplace in your perception where it’s appearing in you.  We deal with it directly there.  We don’t have to assume ahead of time that it’s anywhere.  We don’t have to give it a location.  Just allow whatever then appears in your Field as resistance, and deal with it there.  Just relate with it there.  If it is affecting some kind of emotion, then you can deal with that.  You can relate with that in that way there, and give that space.

It’s a good thing that you’re not thinking in terms of a disease or in terms of something with a cause-and-effect or something that has a position like a sore throat.  You may want to say, “Okay.  Let’s go with the throat here, and see what we can find in our throat.”  We don’t have to do that.  You can use your intention and say, “Well, let’s relate with the throat because that seems to be a gross manifestation.”  Beyond that it’s going to take you to someplace in you where you’re feeling something. You relate with it there, wherever you’re feeling it in you.  It could be an emotional thing.  It could be a flow perhaps somewhere in the body.  You let it be whatever it is.

If we do that, then we’re minimizing our tendencies to be superstitious about it.  Superstitious would be maybe, “Well, let me try to release a blockage in the throat.”  Well, there could be a big assumption in that because often things that happen with people and conditions are much more complex than that.  So the least that we can assume about something and the least superstition we can hold about it and the least belief we can hold, then the more effective we can be.

We’re finding that we can heal things in the most unexpected ways.  Whatever presents itself is your reality.  You can rely on your perception because your perception is what you know, just as it is, unfiltered, and without having to have the commentary, “Oh, well, this is that; this is that,” and start interpreting.  Feel it where it appears in you.  If you can remain stable in Shuniya, then something will start to happen.  You’ll get a broader experience of what’s going on, and allow the complexity of everything that’s going on to start to emerge.  You may find that you’re in a place, relating in a way that’s very different from where you started.

You could ask somebody, “Well, what’s going on?  How do you feel?  Where does it hurt?”  If you ask that question, that’s fine.  The answer is:  What happened in you when you asked the question and there was some response?  That’s the answer:  What happened in you?  Where did you feel that?  Where did you feel the reaction?  Where did you feel the sensation that appeared?  It will always relate with your question; however, you don’t have to interpret the Tiny Pet’s answer because that is irrelevant.  Do you understand what I’m saying?

When you apply an intensity to something like asking the Tiny Pet, “Where does it hurt?” that puts a little intensity somewhere.  There’s going to be a reaction, and it’s going to manifest in some way; however, you are relating with that Tiny Pet; and you’ll feel in you where that’s happening.  That’s where you start.  Forget what the words are of that they say, or not.  You could include that if you want; however, that’s not the point.  That’s not the answer.

Okay.  Maybe we had better finish.

Sat Nam.  Sat Nam.  Sat Nam.  (silent prayer….)