Saturday, August 1, 2009

Pay attention...

Meister Eckhart, the mystic, said, “To grasp God in all things – this is the sign of your new birth.”How often do we notice the presence of Spirit around us?

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin tells the 19th century Hasidic tale about the teacher who told his followers, “Everything that has been created in God’s world has a lesson to teach us.” Thinking that the teacher was engaging in hyperbole, one of his followers called out, “And what can we learn from the train?” “That because of being one minute late,” the teacher answered, “you can lose everything.”“And from the telegraph?” “that for every word you pay.” “And from the telephone?” “that what we say here, is heard there.”

Spiritual growth is concerned with paying attention to all the wonderful and magical things going on in our lives. We miss most of the wonders of life because we are not awake; we devote so much time wishing we were somewhere else, rushing to something else that might be more interesting. The English mystic, Evelyn Underhill, writes, “For lack of attention, a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day. Moments that may never again be repeated in our lives are often lost because of our busyness, our being in too much of a rush to notice them.”


Be Here Now

The philosopher Henry David Thoreau said, “Now or never! You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, and find eternity in every moment.” We can only pay attention to the magic of life by being in the moment. Be here in the moment, as an artist is here with focused attention, whether you are cooking, cleaning, praying, playing, reading or being with another person.

Buddhist teacher, Jack Kornfield, said, “The quality of presence determines the quality of life.”

One of the most important aspects of our spiritual journey is to see the value and the beauty of life as it shows itself to us in all its wondrous ways. As we open our awareness to the radiant world around us, more and more of its beauty flows into our experience, and worlds that before we did not see unfold in front of our eyes.

Nothing is Forever

What if this week we all begin to pay attention more fully to the signs of God in our midst? What if we slow down to notice all we have failed to see before? Imagine what wonders your attention would bring to you today.

Poet, William Carlos Williams, carried a notepad around with him. On it was written: “Things I noticed today that I missed until today.” Why would you fail to notice anything today? – it might not be here tomorrow.
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source: dynamiccentre.com

Friday, July 31, 2009

A chapter from the Silva Ultra Mind system. - creative Visualization

Creative Visualization
How You Can Use the Power of Visualization and Affirmations to Create “Lucky Coincidences”



We now come to the premier techniques for harnessing your mind’s power to shape your life and move you towards your dreams and aspirations.

This principles below will specifically teach you to .

We will teach you two techniques in this lesson.
Affirmations
Creative Visualization.

In our last lesson you learned how to use the alpha level of mind to gain creative ideas and inspiration. You are now ready for the next step. You will learn how to tap into your mind to shape your reality. Perhaps you’re looking to be more positive, to stick to your diet, to improve your golf swing or to end a bad habit. We’ll show you how you can use affirmations and creative visualization to reprogram your mind and reshape your attitudes and behavior.

It all starts with your imagination. Imagination is the ability to create an idea, a vision or an image of something new.

In creative visualization, we use the power of imagination to create a mental image of what we want to accomplish or obtain.

Your goal could be on any level
physical
emotional
mental
spiritual

You might imagine yourself driving that BMW you always wanted, owning a home in the country, married to your ideal mate, succeeding at your job or having $100,000.00 in your bank account.

No matter what your goal, the technique is basically the same. You imagine the desired outcome in your mind. At the same time, you repeat a positive affirmation about the goal. The affirmation is in the present tense.
Imagination is the beginning of creation.You imagine what you desire,you will what you imagineand at last you create what you will.

~ George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950)
The Scientific Evidence

There is strong scientific evidence that visualization can be used to dramatically improve your results in sports, public speaking, performing arts and anything else which involves practice.

In one study, Australian psychologist Allen Richardson conducted an experiment with basketball players making hoop shots. He divided the players in three groups.
Group A – was asked to practice their shots on a basketball court for 20 minutes a day.
Group B – was asked not to practice at all.
Group C – was asked to mentally rehearse shooting a basketball through a hoop for 20 minutes each day.

At the end of the study Group A improved their hoop shot ability by 25%. Group B, as expected, showed no improvement at all.

What was truly surprising, was that Group C improved by 24%, almost as much as Group A, even though they had not physically set foot in a basketball court.

There is also overwhelming scientific evidence that visualization can be used to heal the body. Doctors such as O. Carl Simonton have been helping patients recover from serious illnesses such as cancer by combining visualization with modern medicine. The patients often made dramatic improvements simply by visualizing their bodies behaving in ideal, healthy ways.

We’ll look at more of this fascinating evidence in our next lesson which will be on mind-body healing.

What we’re going to suggest in this lesson is something even more incredible.

Your mind’s influence is not just limited to improving your emotions, skills and physical body. Your mind can influence theworld outside your apparent physical control.

In other words, your mind can spawn amazing coincidences to move you towards your goals. The coincidences could be things that were seemingly unconnected to you and beyond your control.

The techniques we will teach you do not just make you more focused on your goals. They directly influence your reality.

Laboratory evidence pouring out of universities such as Princeton and Stanford has shown that volunteers are able to influence matter by their thoughts. So far the evidence has been limited to effects on random number generators, dice and electronic equipment. We will look at some of this evidence in Lesson Seven.

What is still lacking is scientific evidence that visualization can create “coincidences” in the physical world, outside your immediate control. This of course, is hard to test in a lab.

But thousands of scientists and millions of other people in the world do believe in this because they have experienced it in their own lives.

In short, just because an effect cannot be tested in a lab, does not mean it does not exist.

Some of the greatest thinkers in the world—Einstein, Edison, Jung, Carnegie and Goethe (the man with the highest recorded IQ, 210)—all believed in the power of the mind to create coincidences.

I believe that the mind has the power to affect groups of atoms and even tamper with the odds of atomic behavior, and that even the course of the world is not predetermined by physical law, but may be altered bythe uncaused volition of human beings.

~ Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, English mathematician and AstroPhysicist

Let’s take a look at some of these personal experiences. Millions of people worldwide have reported such coincidences.

On our web site we maintain a library of letters from people who have used Silva Ultra Mind System techniques to accelerate healing, gain inspiration, start a business, find a dream job, achieve goals, walk again after a car accident, earn a six-figure income, and find peace of mind.

Letters are sorted in categories:
Health
Personal Development
Career
Spiritual Development

You can access this library anytime by clicking here

Below, we have included segments from letters that we have received from students of the Silva UltraNubd System. These letters will give you some ideas of what can be accomplished when the mind is properly harnessed.
Letters from Students

The following are extracts from letters we have received from students in the past 12 months. These letters and more, are catalogued on our website
“Investment Success”

[The] technique already solved one problem with my investments. Two days after doing it, the broker called to inform me [that] my value was up 40% and he wanted to get together with me over dinner to discuss better and safer ways of protecting and increasing my assets. This is exactly what I programmed for.”

~ Jim from Illinois
“Mental Rehearsal for Sports & Public Speaking”

“I have received many great complements on my oral presentations which can be attributed to my ability to visualize the presentation before it happens. I have also used this technique in golf and kung-fu. Ever since then, it has helped me to become better at my game and master my techniques.”

~ C.S. from Warwick Rhode Island
“Weight-Control”

“I did [the technique] in which I saw myself making better choices about what I eat, and ended with the result of being my ideal size. Recently, I noticed that without struggle, I have made dramatic changes in the way I eat—much less fat and sugar and smaller helpings, yet I seem to be more satisfied and enjoying the taste of the food I eat more than ever.”

~ G.H. of New York
“Improving Your Career”

“I’m a sales-manager by profession, and I have to say the visualization is such a tremendous part of being successful in my field. Virtually every time I use it, I come close or hit the target on what I wanted to achieve.”

~ Jeff from Fort Wayne, Indiana
“Looking Better & Attracting People”

“I began to see improvement physically. My joint pain disappeared and my energy level was up. I also began to attract people—especially men, in a way that I had not before experienced. I also had people say to me I looked 10 years younger and wanted to know what I did. I lost weight.”

~ Mary from California

Let’s take a look at how you can start applying these techniques.
Basic Technique 1 – Affirmations

Affirmations are positive statements you repeat to yourself while in a meditative or alpha level of mind. Affirmations are always done in the present tense, as if the action has already taken place.

The concept was made famous by a French physician called Emile Coue. Coue was responsible for thousands of remarkable documented healings at the beginning of the 20th century. His remedy was to combine western medicine with the power of affirmations. Patients were made to repeat positive healing affirmations to themselves while in a relaxed frame of mind.

Coue’s most famous affirmation was “everyday, in every way, I am getting better and better.”

When done at the alpha level, affirmations tend to be countless times more powerful than when done at the beta, or waking state.

Why?

Because when you reach the alpha level of mind, your subconscious is brought to a conscious level—this means it’s easier for you to convey commands directly to your subconscious.

Several affirmations that we use in the Silva UltraMind System seminar include:

“I will always maintain a perfectly healthy body and mind”

“Positive thoughts, positive emotions, bring me all the benefits and advantages I desire”

“I am learning to use more of my mind and to use it in a better way”

You can also create your own affirmations:

Looking for job satisfaction? Try saying…

“I have a perfect career that I truly love and enjoy. I have great opportunities for advancement and I am earning a wonderful salary of __________ a year.”

Looking to slim down? Try saying…

“I only enjoy eating the right types of healthy, nutritious foods that are good for my body.”

“I love the feeling of increased energy I get after exercising.”

“Every day, I am burning calories and getting closer to my ideal weight”

Looking to attract abundence? Try…

“I’m so happy and grateful now that money comes to me, in ever increasing quantities, through multiple sources, on a continuous basis.”

Other affirmations you can use include:

“My relationship with _______ is growing.”

“I enjoy my work and am richly rewarded.”

“I have enough time, energy, wisdom and funds to accomplish all my goals.”

Before you start creating your affirmation, note these important rules:
1. Affirmations must be in the present tense.

Your subconscious mind does not think in terms of past, present or future. If you say, I want to be an excellent golfer then your subconscious understands this as a statement of wanting. What you then get is the wanting or desire to be an excellent golfer but not the actual abilityitself.

What you should say is “I am an excellent golfer”. Your subconscious understands this as a statement of your present reality. It therefore works to make this reality true.

Remember, replace I want with I am
2. You must believe that the goal is within your reach.

If you repeat an affirmation, but at the same time you’re secretly thinking you cannot accomplish it, you hijack the process.

When you first start practicing this you should start with small believable goals. As you achieve these goals your confidence in yourself and in the power affirmations grows. This allows you to tackle greater and greater issues.
The best way to implant an affirmation is to release your mind from all desire and intention.

Merely state the suggestion to yourself without passion as a thing that is already so. Something that is true is obvious and undeniable — it does not need to be shouted or defended. It simply is. Use repetition to reinforce the effects of the affirmation.
3. Affirmations must always be done as a positive statement.

If you’re trying to drop weight don’t say, “I am not overweight”. Instead say, “I am slim and healthy”. When you see a phrase such as “I am no longer ill”, the dominant image in your mind is that of illness. When you turn that around to a phrase such as “I am healthy and well”, the dominant image in your mind is then one of health and wellness.

Remember, always turn the affirmation into a positive statement.

Positive affirmations are extremely useful in causing fundamental change, not only in behavior and beliefs, but in the external conditions of life.

When a suggestion is correctly injected into the subconscious mind, the effect is nothing short of miraculous. It does not show itself overnight, however, but is gradual and cumulative.
Basic Technique 2 – Creative Visualization

While affirmations are good—Silva pioneered a technique that is far more powerful that using simple affirmations. This technique is called creative visualization.

This involves visualizing the end result of your goal or desire while you are in the alpha level of mind.

The concept of creative visualization has been known for ages. It gained renewed popularity in the 1970s when a Silva graduate by the name of Shakti Gawain wrote a best-selling book about it.

Just like affirmations your visualization should be done in the “present tense”. Lets say you’re looking to own a brand new car. You want to visualize yourself in the car and feel the moment as if it is happening this instant and not at some time in the future.

In other words, feel the sense of joy in owning the car, rather than the sense of wanting or the sense of desire for the car.

To visualize effectively Jose Silva suggests creating a mental screen in front of your eyes. This should be like the screen you see in a cinema. It should be forward, in front of your eyes, and raised at an angle of around 20 degrees. The screen should be at least 6 feet in front of you. Make the screen as large as you can, almost like a movie screen in a cinema.
Try it now.

Close your eyes and visualize the mental screen, raised slightly 20 degrees above the horizon, and at least 6 feet in front of you.

When you perform creative visualization you will project images onto this screen.

If you are looking to improve your sports skills, visualize yourself playing the game perfectly. See yourself making perfect moves, shooting every basket, making the perfect swing. Feel the joy you feel when you play the game well.

If you are looking to shed some pounds, see yourself healthy and fit. Feel the joy of having a beautiful body. See people complimenting you.

If you’re in sales, you can see yourself making the perfect pitches. See your monthly commission statements showing ever increasing figures
Enhancing Your Creative Visualization

If you have difficulty visualizing use a technique called streaming.
In streaming you mentally describe what it is that you’re seeing. Make the description as detailed as possible. For example if you’re trying to visualize yourself driving a brand new car, mentally tell yourself, “I’m seein the dashboard, it has beautifully carved silver dials, the leather has tiny checkered patterns on it…”

As you describe the image in detail you will find that the image also takes on more detail. This, in turn, gives you more things to mentally describe. One feeds into the other and your imagined image becomes more and more vivid.

Don’t get stuck on the term “visualization”. Different people have different dominant senses. The most common dominant sense is the sense of sight. This is why for most people the process of visualization works well. Some people, however, may have a dominant sense of touch or hearing or smell. These people may have difficulty “visualizing” but may be able to accurately imagine sounds, smells or feelings.

For these people it’s important to incorporate these senses into their “mental experience”. Someone who was born blind for example, can still engage in creative visualization, but rather then see images, they would create the mental experience by using their mental sense of smell, hearing, taste and touch.
How to Increase the Impact of Creative Visualization:
Make the image as realistic as possible Incorporate movement, make the screen three-dimensional. See colors and shapes. Use the streaming technique if you have difficulty visualizing.
Feel emotions associated with the image Joy, happiness, a sense of fulfillment. How would you be feeling if you had what you wanted? Imagine and explore this feeling. A thought without emotions has no energy and no force behind it. It is like running a car on empty. Feel the emotions of having what you want.
Bring in your other senses Feel the wind blowing on your face; imagine the scents involved with the images. Feel texture and temperature. The more senses you involve, the more real the image is to your subconscious mind.

Here’s one example. Picture an orange. Imagine the color of it. Is it bright orange and ripe? Then picture yourself peeling the orange. Imagine the smell as you start to peel it. Feel the juice flowing over your fingers. Then squeeze the orange and feel the flesh of the fruit. Bring it to your nose and imagine the odor of an orange. Imagine tasting it and bring back a memory of how an orange tastes in your mouth. As you can see, the trick is to make the image as real as possible by using all of your senses and emotions.

Remember the more realistic the visualization process, the better and faster the results.
How You Can Practice

You can combine your affirmations with your creative visualization to create a more powerful effect. As you’re imagining your goal, simply repeat your affirmation mentally, as many times as you feel necessary.

Don’t be discouraged if you do not get immediate results. We are all at different levels of spiritual development and some of us have years of negative programming and negative belief systems to overcome. But overcome them you shall. Creative visualization can be such a powerful process when done at the Alpha level that just five minutes a day of practice can undo years of negative programming.

Furthermore, once you get your first success your belief system gets strengthened and this will allow you to manifest your next goal a little quicker. Masters who practiceregularly find that they do not even have to go to a meditative level of mind and spend time repeatedly visualizing their goals. A mere conscious thought of their desire can set the gears in motion and create coincidences to direct them towards their goal.

Before we end this lesson we will share some other letters received from students who have taken the Silva UltraMind System seminar or used the home study program.

Keep in mind that these students attended the seminar or used the home study course, both of which contain advanced techniques beyond the scope of this program.

One can still get excellent results from just the basic techniques outlined in this program but you will have to practice much harder and start with smaller goals while you build up your belief system.


More Personal Experiences
“Powerful Healing”

“I was soon able to walk again, and within 6 months, was able to return to practicing medicine. I have advanced even further and made a move and am happier than I have been in years. Also, no headaches or any other pain. My medical knowledge returned totally intact.”

~ A Medical Doctor in Mississippi who was in a coma after a car accident
“Creative Visualization in Business Negotiation”

“I was put in charge of buying a large amount advertising space for my company. The company selling the space offered us the spot for $500,000.00. This was way above our budget. My CEO who is an excellent negotiator had been trying to get them down to $100,000 for months but had no success. Finally he dumped the project on me. I had no experience with this sort of negotiation but I used the Silva technique while in my meditative level to communicate with the advertisement seller and to request a better deal. The seller had been ignoring me for 2 weeks but that very next day I got a call saying they had agreed to come down to $100,000. I was surprised—we had been trying for months to no avail. By then my confidence was at a peak so I refused the offer and went to my meditative level again and asked for an even better deal. I mentally visualized myself in the negotiation and getting the deal I wanted. Again the results came hard and fast. The very next day I managed to get them down to $60,000. We signed the contract! My CEO was impressed that I managed to do this. Well I got a huge bonus. This was 2 months after taking the Silva Ultramind System seminar. Lets just say the seminar paid for itself 20 times over in a mere 2 months.”

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Conscious Innocence & Vulnerability

I have often heard from people that after a powerful opening glimpse of the unimaginable truth of their being, the demons of the past seem to arise more strongly than ever. Rather than the openness and innocence of "What is this now?" the response is often something like "Why is this bothering me again? Why don't these things just disappear? What is wrong with me that I don't experience permanent liberation?" On one hand, there is misery and suffering, and on the other hand, innocence and openness. These "hands" are the polarities of the mind. True innocence is the innate capacity of the heart to openly meet whatever is appearing when it appears, and to see it truthfully for what it is. I guarantee that most everything is not what it appears to be on the surface, but in order to discover a deeper truth, what appears must be met fully in innocence. Not the learned innocence of "but I'm innocent," but the natural openness of innocently not knowing.

True innocence is the capacity to directly experience what is here right now, without any demands that it look, act, or feel differently.

Innocence is openness, the willingness to see and to trust, even if what appears seems absolutely untrustworthy. True innocence is not naivete, nor is it delusion. However, it involves vulnerability. The willingness to be innocent is the willingness to be hurt. This willingness to be vulnerable is what the term "spiritual warrior" really means. Vulnerability takes more courage than being cynical, strong, or powerful. It takes courage to be open, innocent, and willing to be hurt.

Because of the nature of extremely close relationships, especially between parents, children, lovers, and partners, hurt is often experienced. So what? Hurt may feel like the end of the world, but it's not. Hurt hurts. The degree to which you are willing to be hurt, not wanting to be hurt but willing to be hurt, is the degree to which you are willing to love, be loved, and be taught by love. Love can be your teacher, though it never teaches withdrawal from experiencing hurt. Other people are not the source of your hurt, the source of hurt is the fact that you love. Trust the love. If love is to hurt you, then let it hurt you fully. Let it annihilate you. Let your heart break open so that an even deeper love can be revealed.

Most everything we do is to avoid vulnerability. We dress up in grown-up clothes, and play at doing grown-up work, in an attempt to escape the defenseless innocence associated with childhood. But innocence is not limited to children. It is possible for you as an adult to be consciously vulnerable and innocent. You can consciously hurt. You can consciously suffer. When you suffer consciously, suffering is revealed not to be what you thought. In conscious suffering, you are no longer fighting the suffering. You are consciously present in it. Then suffering itself reveals the Buddha, Christ's heart, God revealing itself to you on the mountain. If suffering is met as it appears, then suffering is discovered not to be suffering. But the intention is not to meet suffering to get rid of it. The innocent intention is to meet suffering as it is, even if it means feeling hurt.

Most people are more afraid of having their feelings hurt more than they are of having their bodies hurt. But the willingness to be hurt is crucial. Without the willingness to be hurt, there is no willingness to love, no willingness to die, no willingness to live, no willingness to be.

It is easy to see from your own life experience that no matter how much you try to run away from hurt, you still experience it. To stop the running, to turn and experience what is chasing you, open and unprotected, you have to be willing to be free. Are you willing to be free?

You can examine your life and see for yourself what you are running from, what you are trying to escape. It may be very subtle. But just in the seeing of it, there is the possibility of a deeper opening.

Everywhere I've spoken with people, I have heard this statement: "I want truth, God, and realization more than anything else-----why don't I have it?" When you honestly want truth, God, and realization more than anything else, you realize it is already here. People don't realize it is already here only because they still want it on their own terms.

Look into your life and see what stands in the way of fully and permanently realizing the truth of your being. See if perhaps you find the mindset of having it your way, on your terms, not wanting to feel this, or to see that, or to know the deeper truth. Then see if it is actually possible to feel it, to see it, to know it.

As a gateway to the experience of conscious suffering, and as a means of opening to vulnerability and true innocence, you can ask yourself this question: "What hurt am I unwilling to experience?" Do not look for the "right" spiritual answer, or lie to yourself, but simply open to what this kind of inquiry can reveal. The intention is not to fix or change the hurt, but just to see what is true.

Can you sense the energy it takes to avoid feelings of hurt? Review the ways you try to avoid hurt, what habits of mind you use to avoid it. Be willing to see the repeating patterns and to experience the price you pay for the avoidance, all of the time and energy you invest in avoidance. Just in this moment, what if you simply open to it all, avoiding nothing, welcoming all?

Are you willing to trust love rather than your mind's protection from hurt? If you are willing, then you will taste the possibility of living a life of love and conscious innocence. This is possible for everyone. Love is the teacher. If you are willing to surrender to love rather than trying to control it, love teaches you who you are.


Gangaji


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