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Thursday, June 15, 2017

Awakening

The Oxford American dictionary defines an enlightened individual as” a person that is freed from ignorance or prejudice.
Everybody wants to become enlightened but nobody wants to change.
This is the simple, daunting truth that has been staring back at me from the eyes of countless seekers over the years. “I really want to get enlightened,” they insist.  “But are YOU ready to CHANGE now?  I ask.  “What?” is the inevitable response—surprised and even slightly stunned.  And I repeat, “Are YOU ready to CHANGE now?  “What follows is always a strange and surreal moment of ambiguity, confusion, and backpedaling.  “But I thought you wanted to become enlightened…”
            It is a very rare moment indeed when the evolutionary impulse—arises in awareness, unimpeded by the endless fears and desires of the separate ego.  But it is infinitely rarer that, when that impulse arises, there is a bold and fearless response that says yes and yes and yes, now and forever.
            The price of radical transformation is always the same—we have to let go of fear and attachment.  And in that letting go, discover a completely different perspective on what it means to be alive.  But it is these two tasks—transcending fear and attachment and being willing to embrace a new way of seeing—that most seekers find so challenging.  When the spiritual experience sweeps through our entire being, spontaneously emptying us of fear and attachment and opening our inner eye to higher levels of perception, temporarily there is nothing to let go of,  Temporarily, we are lifted out of our unconsciousness, and the way we perceive reality and our place in it shifts dramatically.  And so it appears that a real transformation has occurred—that maybe we have indeed changed.  But when the intensity of the spiritual experience becomes the simplicity of life as it is, when we discover that we have not changed as much as we thought we had, how profound is our interest in the miracle and mystery of the revelation that just descended upon us?  Indeed, how much do we really want to change, even now that we have seen the yonder shore?  Are we willing to pay the price of permanent transformation, when it demands everything from us?
            More often than not, the spiritual experience, the taste of enlightened consciousness, merely gives us a glimpse of the possible.  In other words, the spiritual experience is rarely the end of the path.  But if we are sincere in our aspiration for genuine transformation, it can be the real beginning.  The beginning of a completely different life—one that is free from fear and attachment and informed by revelation and inspiration that comes from an unknown source beyond the mind.  But for this to be the case, we have to WANT TO CHANGE NOW.  When?
Now!
             Enlightened consciousness not only is founded upon the desire for change, but it is the only place inside all of us that ever thrives as change.  That means FREEDOM itself.  The freedom of enlightened consciousness is that relationship to the life process that, precisely because it holds on to nothing, seems to be changing all the time.  Of course, it isn’t.  One who is truly enlightened never moves, abiding permanently beyond this world of time and becoming, to be a striking manifestation of a passionate and unbridled creativity, a powerful force of conscious evolution in action.
            So you see, wanting to change now, fearlessly and wholeheartedly, really being willing now, not only is the door to the freedom of enlightened consciousness, but it is simultaneously its expression.

            So…are YOU ready to CHANGE now?  But I thought you wanted to become enlightened…?

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Awakening To Reality and the Path to Enlightenment

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
 The Brahman Dona saw the Buddha sitting under a tree and was impressed by his peaceful air of alertness and his good looks. He asked the Buddha:
"Are you a god?"
"No, Brahman, I am not a god."
"Then an angel?"
"No, indeed, Brahman."
"A spirit, then?"
"No, I am not a spirit."
"Then what are you?"
"I am awake."

-Anguttara Nikaya



Awakening To Reality and the Path to Enlightenment


The process of awakening to see and understand reality is not an easy task for human beings to accomplish, but all humans on earth should try to evolve to a higher state of consciousness. Most individuals that try to wake up to reality find out very soon that one can never wake up completely to reality, because you are looking at reality from the biological and physiological perspective of a living human animal, yourselves.  To understand how to wake up or become an enlightened individual, one must have an open mind and understand how the human brain works. A person must use certain tools that will help them control their mind, with such techniques as meditation, and self-awareness practices that can expand ones ability to stop or control certain thought processes from occurring in his or her mind.  One will have to accept reality according to your mind's intellectual abilities. The most limiting factor in a person’s inability to see life as it really is through other distorted delusions that you have accepted as reality in your mind.

First, what is meditation and how will it help us discern what reality is?    
Meditation is but one method of understanding reality. I believe that’s why many Buddhist Monks have used different techniques, for instance, a popular Japanese “Zen Koan” for example, which is quoted as, “What was your original face before your parents were born?” Is that what reality is? Of course, there are those limiting factors of your own mind, which will restrict your ability to understand the reality of the Koan. Your ability to meditate on this particular “Zen Koan” and come to your own conclusion of what it means to yourself is up to you and your intuitive abilities. 
Every individual must take their own path on the journey to enlightenment. If you look at life through your own mind's idea of reality it will become distorted by your subconscious mind, and your memories, beliefs, and feelings about these thoughts. So how can we separate our mind, and our feelings and emotions from the truth of what is real?

Second, we need to understand the human mind better and learn where our feelings and emotions come from in our minds.

To do this we must also learn how the human brain really works and how we formulate ideas from these emotions that occurred in our brain. Third, we need to train our mind and understand how to control our own brain functions.
 We also need to understand the role that the world around us plays in the way we think and feel this includes our biological body and the effect it has on our thought processes.

In the next essay in this blog called “How do you feel?” I discussed how feelings and emotions affect our thinking process. I discussed how we learn behavior as a child from our parent’s reactions to outside stimuli, as we also learn how they react emotionally to different situations happy or sad. We then move on to school where we emulate that behavior in groups, and we test the results through the reactions that we get from other people we observe. Some of our behavior is acceptable by society's standards, and some of our behavior is frowned upon and therefore discourage by others. From an early age on our parents devote their attention to us and we are the center of our world. This mindset is a delusion that we must overcome as time goes on and we perceive that we are not the center of our worlds, and other people have the same perception in their minds as we did. We may get into a disagreement with someone on the playground or in school and find that our opinion is not the only opinion that exists. We grow up and learn from our interactions with others that we are not the center of our world. This is the reality and may come as a hardship for some people or a great awakening for others because it is only through shedding the self that we can be free to change and see the truth of what reality is.

I will now briefly discuss the evolution of the human brain. 
Through science, we know the human brain has evolved over many thousands of years, and this fact is undisputed through anthropological findings on this planet as well as other scientific findings on the human species.  Neurologists now know through the study of the brain that the amygdala area of the brain relates emotions and then communicates them with different parts of the brain. The first part of the brain to develop was the spinal column entering the brain area called the "Medulla Oblongata," which communicates with the medulla area of the human brain, and the "Midbrain," or "Pons," as it is termed in science.  This area is where the two hemispheres of the brain begin to separate into the two distinct regions of the brain. This is the area that controls breathing and works with the Medulla to relay signals between the medulla and the midbrain.  The midbrain is right below the thalamus and above the pons. The midbrain is between them. What you need to understand is that the brain developed over a long period of time. The nerves from the spine evolved into our human brain.  It evolved out of necessity like most anything else on the planet earth. 
                              The Brain Stem

The brain stem, between the top of the spinal cord and the cerebrum, consists of the medulla oblongata, the pons, and the midbrain--each only about 1 inch long. Despite its small size, the brain stem is a crucial component in the central nervous system. The medulla oblongata, connected to the spinal cord controls basic body function, such as breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. Located on the anterior of the medulla, the pons relays movement information between the cortex and the cerebellum. At the top of the brain stem, the midbrain coordinates and controls many sensory and motor functions of the human body. Running lengthwise through the center of the brain stem is a network of neurons called the reticular formation. With long axons that spread outward to other parts of the brain, these neurons are key to the spectrum of brain states we call consciousness.


The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure in the brain; its name comes from the Greek word for “almond”. As with most other brain structures, you actually have two amygdalae. Each amygdala is located close to the hippocampus, in the frontal portion of the temporal lobe.
  Humans use this area of the brain for the fight or flight response when they are threatened by predators or other hostile animals or dangerous situations. This is where the seed of emotion is born in the human brain, and this information also relays information to the midbrain and pons area of our brain to control our adrenaline and breathing as well as other basic functions to survive. I will not get into all the details of the human brain anatomy at this time and the neurological implications to any great extent. Just to know that the human brain plays a part in formulating our conceptual view of the mind and how that view impacts us. 

 Scientists have now found that we use almost all of our brain including the white matter that was previously thought not to be used which is called the Cerebrum/cerebral cortex region. This part of the forebrain specializes in complex information processing and managing motor responses to sensory signals.  Our brain is a complex biological part of our bodies that are still not fully understood and neuroscience continues to learn new things through neurological experiments and studies of the human brain and our nervous system.

The path to enlightenment involves some understanding of how the human brain works. As we grow and experience different things in life we react and interact with others we gather information and we store that information as well as behavioral patterns in our subconscious mind. The conscious mind has been found to simply be the communication between different areas of the brain which formulate a narrow view of reality.

A wise Zen monk once said, "Reality is a mirror that has been fogged up by our personalities and mental views it is only through meditation that we can clear some of the fog from the mirror to see a small portion of reality."


So you see the reality that we see in life is simply based on what we know in our subconscious mind and how we gather this information to formulate opinions that are sometimes not based on fact, but on certain biases we have accumulated during our life, as well as some factual information, emotional learned responses, social knowledge, geographical location, and our biological and physiological existence as human beings. We can therefore never really see reality in its entirety. However, we can learn to see a greater amount of reality, and we can expand our consciousness and become more enlightened individuals.

             Meditation as a tool to gain enlightenment

Right meditation is not escapism; it is not meant to provide hiding-places for temporary oblivion. Realistic meditation has the purpose of training the mind to face, to understand and to conquer this very world in which we live.
-Nyanaponika Thera, "Power of Mindfulness"


 Buddhist monks have long sought to separate the self through meditation the no self-concept and no mind concept, which are the paths to see reality as it is without being distorted by a delusional existence of a self that does not exist within each of us.

Meditation is helpful in this respect, it is, therefore, necessary to train our minds to devoid the self and mind from existence. To see the universe as it is without you in it, and to see it with you in it is to see a glimpse of true reality. But nevertheless, we are limited to what our mind can store as factual memories and formulate the scientific factual information into a concept which you can, therefore, gain further insight from.


Without the use of language, we would have no thoughts so it is therefore limited in the scope of the language we use to define the terms that we use to determine reality. Words can have several meanings, and they can be easily misunderstood, it is therefore considered to be a problem to use words to describe enlightenment. Most Buddhist monks do not use words to describe the enlightenment experience. There is no goal to be achieved in meditation. And enlightenment is not something to strive for. You will obtain it if you let go of the self, and walk your dharma path every day of your life. Enlightenment is simply a state of being that you come to know through the truth of reality.  (Some call it self—realization without the self.) We will first discuss the process of meditation as it pertains to enlightenment and understanding reality.


 The different types of Meditation and its history


There are several different types of Buddhist meditation from the Buddhist traditions that I will discuss. Buddhism originated in India and originally was thought of in two different respects the lesser vehicle being called Theravada meaning, “Teaching of the elders,” Theravada promotes (individual) liberation from suffering and the” Mahayana which means,” Greater Vehicle, Which promotes liberating all sentient beings from suffering .”  Siddhartha Gautama was the founding father of Buddhism and discovered the middle path of enlightenment. This eliminated the need for starvation and certain rituals that pertain to abstaining from sex and all desires of the human mind and body. We will not get into a complete history of Buddhism at this time, there are several good books on the different styles and forms of Buddhism that you can obtain and read on your own. One such book is called, " The Way of Zen,"  However, when Buddhism reached Japan it no longer was considered a religion.  I suggest if you wish to understand how Buddhism changed over time and from continent to continent then I would advise studying the history of Buddhism from its origination to the present-day forms of Japanese Buddhism by reading this book. Buddhism started out as a religion that has been able to progress in time and adjust to the customs of several civilizations on earth, and even to become a non-religious way of life, which still retains its core of self-introspection as it was in its conception by the Buddha.

There is also mindfulness meditation which is homologous to Buddhism and is only meant to help one increase their awareness in the present moment. This is a type of meditation that is also similar to that which is used in the Japanese schools of Buddhism.

As more people turn to meditation, they need more simplified instructions so they can practice by themselves, without a teacher around. There are already many comprehensive books on Buddhism as a philosophy and on the theoretical aspects of Buddhist meditation. As I have said previously you are encouraged to read any number of those books as you wish, but try to stick to one that fits your needs, so you do not become confused.  

There are very few qualified teachers of the Buddhist style of meditation in the United States. Only those who follow the instructions given here can say whether they have succeeded or failed. Only those who meditate regularly and diligently can judge their effort. No words can possibly cover every problem that an individual meditating may run into. You will need to meet a qualified teacher eventually.  In the meantime, however, these are the basic ground rules; a full understanding of these words will take you a very long way.

As discussed previously there are several styles of meditation that are practiced in Southeast Asia and many other countries I will explain mindfulness meditation, which is similar to that of the Buddhist Japanese Soto and Rinzai sects. However, the Japanese Rinzai sect uses the "Koan," which is a type of riddle that cannot be solved mentally and only used by skilled Japanese Buddhist priests. Whereas the mindfulness method of meditation does not, and the only purpose of it is to increase one's awareness in the present moment.


 One such Japanese Koan riddle is, “what was your original face before your parents were born?” Another popular Koan is, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" There is no set answer to this type of question. The question has no intellectual answer; it is an intuitive answer that can only come from each individual doing the meditation, and seeing true reality as it is can be difficult to explain with words, but you will understand this more so, as you practice your meditation.


Meditation began in India and progressed later by the Buddha to the “Middle Path.” 
In Pali, the original language of the Theravada literature is called Vipassana and Samatha; these are the forms of meditation which originated in India



Vipassana can be translated as” insight,” a clear awareness of exactly what is happening as it happens. Samatha can be translated as” concentration” or” tranquility,” and is a state in which the mind is focused only on one item, brought to rest, and not allowed to wander. When this is done, a deep calm pervades body and mind, a state of tranquility that must be experienced to be understood. Most systems of meditation emphasize the Samatha component. The meditator focuses his or her mind on a certain item, such as a prayer, a chant, a candle flame, and excludes all other thoughts and perceptions from his or her consciousness. The result is a state of rapture, which lasts until the meditator ends the session of sitting. It is beautiful, delightful, meaningful, and alluring, but only temporary.

Vipassana meditation addresses the other component: insight. The Vipassana meditator uses concentration as a tool by which his or her awareness can chip away at the wall of illusion that blocks the living light of reality.  It is a gradual process of ever-increasing awareness into the inner workings of reality itself.  It takes years, but one day the meditator chisels through that wall and tumbles into the presence of light;  when the transformation is complete,  it is called liberation, and it’s permanent.  Liberation is not the goal of all Buddhist meditation. There can be no goal or striving to achieve enlightenment or liberation in meditation.  It is simply a way of life such as the ancient TAO; which is pronounced Dow in Chinese, meaning “The Way.”



A brief history of the religions that shaped 
              the use of meditation.


There are an enormous number of distinct sects within Buddhism. They are divided into two broad streams of thought: Mahayana also called the greater vehicle and Theravada also called the lesser vehicle. Mahayana Buddhism prevails throughout East Asia, shaping the cultures of China, Korea, Japan, née Paul, Tibet, and Vietnam. Most widely known of the Mahayana system is Zen, practiced mainly in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and the United States. The Theravada system of practice prevails in South and Southeast Asia in the countries of Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia.

Traditional Theravada literature describes the techniques of both Samatha (concentration) and vipassana (insight) meditation. There are 40 different subjects of meditation described in the Pali literature. Pali literature is the language of ancient India they are recommended as objects of concentration and subjects of investigation leading to insight. But this is a basic starting instruction to meditation, and I will limit my discussion to the most fundamental of those recommended objects: Breathing.

This is an introduction to the attainment of mindfulness through bare attention, and it is a clear comprehension of the whole process of breathing by using the breath as the primary focus of your attention. The individual can then apply observations to the entirety of his or her perceptual universe.


The individual meditating learns to watch changes occurring in all physical experiences, feelings, and perceptions, and betters to study his or her mental activities and the fluctuations in the character of consciousness itself. All of these changes are occurring perpetually and are present in every moment of our experiences.

How to get started with your meditation.


Meditation is a living activity and inherently experimental activity. It cannot be taught as a purely scholastic subject. The living heart of the process must come from the teacher's own personal experience. Nevertheless, there is a vast fund of codified material on the subject, produced by some of the most intelligent and deeply illuminated human beings ever to walk the earth. This literature is worthy of attention. Most of the points given here are drawn from those books.


If you have ever taken yoga classes you will understand about breathing techniques.  Start to breathe from your stomach inhaling slowly and filling up your stomach first, and then breath up into your chest cavity. This is a full breath. When you release the breath you reverse the process until you have emptied the air from your stomach last. As you practice breathing it is important to count how long it takes you to breathe in and out without becoming lightheaded, or of having the feeling that you are not getting enough air. When you reach this point count how long it takes to breathe in a complete breath and then count how long it takes to breathe out a complete breath. This will be the starting point of your meditation. If it takes you to the count of eight to breathe in and then the count of eight to breathe out and you feel comfortable with this method then its time to move on to sitting and breathing. (Do not speed up or slow down your breathing or it will affect your counting.) I will recommend that you start with the counting method of meditation, and later you will move on as you get more accustom to counting your breaths to not counting at all.


Sitting is an important part of meditation.  A base cushion is usually advised to begin with, this is called a Zabuton cushion and can be obtained from any online sources of meditation equipment. A larger smaller cushion is then placed on the larger cushion which is called a ZaFu. When you position the ZaFu cushion it is important that it is fluffed up and positioned to the rear of the Zabuton. You can have an altar or candlelit on the floor, (about 3 to 4 feet in front of you) if you wish. It is also advised to burn some incense if you wish. When you sit on the cushion to meditate, sit on the forward edge of the ZaFu and move back and forth to find a place of balance, keep your back straight and bow before you sit. When you sit,  try to sit in across your legged position which is comfortable for you.


             Positions of Meditation

There are several sitting positions such as the full Lotus, half lotus, and simply folded leg position with 1 foot resting on the opposite leg in the back of the knee area or the Indian position of simply pulling your legs in front of you. Some of these positions do not allow the stability you may need while you meditate however you should try to find the one that allows you the most stability; you can find diagrams of the positions online or in most books on meditation. When you are sitting your back should be straight and you should be sitting comfortably with your knees almost touching or touching your base cushion or Zabuton. If you cannot get comfortable in this position or you have injuries that prevent you from sitting in this way you can use a chair if you wish or you can lie completely flat such as in a yoga corpse pose. 

There is no reason that you cannot meditate. Meditation does not require this specific position. During the process of meditation, you will focus on your breathing and counting your breath to start with. You should keep your eyes slightly open and you’re back straight. Your gaze should be down at an object in front of you, which is what we talked about previously. Your focus must remain on this object throughout your session. Try not to let your eyes close and continue to stay alert.


The time you meditate does not matter you can start with 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening and gradually increased to 20 to 30 minutes at each session. You can add a bell to start your session. There is no set limit of how much time you need to meditate in the beginning.  You should strive to reach 20 to 30 minutes after a while. I find it helpful to use an egg timer, so I am not watching the clock all the time. In a zendo, meaning a place where Buddhist meditation is done in a group such as Zen Buddhism; they will have wood clappers followed by a bell to end and begin the session.  The sessions last 30 minutes or more and are called Zazen. This is followed by Kinhin which is walking meditation. A longer form of meditation will teach you a lot and can go day to three days to a week and is called a Zazenki, which is the Japanese Buddhist term for a longer meditation retreat and consists of zazen, meals, walking meditation or Kinhin, and the working meditation experiences are called "Samu" in Japanese.  There is no talking out loud and no reading during this period.  This is when you will come to a greater understanding of the state of enlightenment.  However, it is not necessary that you must do this but it is very helpful. 

In Summary, there are many meditation methods that you can use but I will explain a beginning method that works well to get people started. We will also compare some of the other methods of meditation to give you a different perspective.

First, let us start with the counting of breaths as you inhale, you will fill your stomach gradually up into the ribs and chest area. The tongue in your mouth should be placed on the roof of your mouth and your nostrils should be flared slightly. At first, you will hear some noise when you are breathing. However, it is your ultimate goal not to make any noise while breathing in and out that is the reason your tongue should be on the roof of your mouth. This is to keep the saliva from dripping down into your throat and forcing you to swallow making loud noises as you meditate. As you breathe into the count of eight or wherever you’re comfortable taking your breath and completing the process of filling your chest you may count the number you breathes in and out; this would be a method of breathing in one and breathing out two, you can count to 20 and then start over. If you lose track you must start over again.

 As you advance in your counting, you can count just the out-breath as one, or you can count in between breaths as one up to 10, and eventually reverse counting back down to one again you will keep this process up until you have exhausted your 10 minutes or 20 minutes whichever you have chosen for your duration of meditation.

So, the process in your mind would be, breathing in 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, One, and then breathing Out,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, then repeat the breath and count to the second number, breath in 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and count the number, "two" in your mind, this is your second breath, and then you will breathe out 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and so on until you reach 10 breadths.  Then you will start counting backward from 9 back down to 1 and back up again to 10. You will keep this method up for at least 6 months to a year. And then you will just focus on breathing.

If you lose count at any time you must start over again. Your mind will wander and think of thoughts from time to time when you lose count do not be discouraged by your mind wandering for this is the purpose of getting to understand how meditation works.

You are simply to watch your thoughts come and go and then bring your minds to focus back to your breathing and counting. Think of your thoughts as if they were clouds floating over your head, just watch them come and then drift away. Soon you will see where they came from and this will help you understand your subconscious mind and self that you have created. After a while, you will become better at this process.

Some times, for example, you may notice your mind thinking while you are driving in town someday, “oh that so and so pulled out and cut me off, what a sob.”  And soon you will catch yourself starting to say such things, and you will realize it is all coming from a self that does not exist except in your pre-programmed mind. Through your meditation and understanding of your thoughts, you will be able to stop your negative thoughts that enter your mind and replace them with understanding and kindness. “(Maybe the guy is late for work or his wife has to be at the doctor’s office,)” no one knows why people do what they do so don’t assume things.

If you do this for six months to a year then you will be ready to drop the counting and just focus on your breathing. You can still use a candle and incense if you wish.

The process of sitting meditation is called zazen in the Japanese tradition. Zazen is usually followed by Kinhin, which is walking meditation. practiced between long periods of the sitting meditation known as zazen. This type of meditation breaks up the sitting meditation of zazen and allows you to meditate as you walk and gives you greater awareness of your surroundings.

Mindfulness meditation also has walking meditation in much the same way as Buddhism.

Selflessness of phenomena is something that we notice when meditating. We think we are doing this already, but that is an illusion. Vipassana is the oldest of Buddhist meditation practices. The method comes directly from the Indian Satipatthana Sutra, a discourse attributed to the Buddha himself.

Vipassana is direct and gradual cultivation of mindfulness or awareness. It proceeds piece by piece over a period of years. One’s attention is carefully directed to an intense examination of certain aspects of one’s own existence, the meditator is trained to notice more and more of the flow of, his or her life experiences.  It is an ancient and codified system of training your mind, a set of exercises dedicated to the purpose of becoming more and more aware of your own life experiences. It is attentive listening, mindful seeing, and careful testing. This type of meditation is very similar to the zazen and sitting meditation and cultivation of enlightenment in the Japanese culture.

There are many other techniques such as closing your eyes while meditating and imagining a pleasant thought. Chanting a pleasant saying, however, this is not the type of meditation I am discussing at this time.

It is important to note that the eyes should be open slightly with a forward gaze downward about 3 feet to 4 feet in front of you.

This type of meditation should not be confused with other types of meditation in which your eyes would be closed. With the eyes, open one can focus on being aware of their surroundings as well as the thoughts crossing their minds. What this practice does is strengthen the mind and increase one's awareness to the point that you will be able to see the no-self or true self. The self you created in your mind is an illusion and does not exist in reality. The more you meditate the more you will understand this reality, and your mind will grow to a state of enlightenment.

The Buddha said" if you think you have come to know enlightenment then you have not yet reached it, and if you think that you have not reached the state of enlightenment, then you are enlightened. " Enlightenment is not a goal to be achieved from meditation but is a byproduct of your meditation and your ability to shed your ego and self as you think you see them. 

Constant practice is a requirement as any other exercise that you may do to become physically fit your mind also needs a regular schedule in which you can meditate daily. It is recommended that you meditate in the morning and in the evening on a regular basis. 

 You should start out in a quiet place.  However, I would strongly recommend starting with the counting method as you will soon notice how your mind will drift from your counting, and your thoughts will tend to wander, which will show you how out of control your mind really is. The term for this is called  "monkey mind."  This is long been a Buddhist saying when the mind wanders from one thought to another as if hopping from one tree to another.  


Advantages of Meditation and the Path of                                       Enlightenment.


 Human beings have created the self and their minds, and we have our illusions of life and a self which is the illusion of reality you have created, from your past and present experiences, worries, and frustrations our minds wander, depending on what our day will be, and what our worries are for that day, month, or year. Our minds will tend to wander from subject to subject, thought to thought, and we will be influenced by our subconscious thoughts and beliefs which we have developed over a lifetime of experiences. Words cannot fully explain what you are experiencing daily. Words limit us and soon you will be able to see past the words and become enlightened. 


Therefore, this guide is a method through the discoveries that neuroscience has made about the functioning of the human brain, and the study of meditation, that you will gain a better understanding of what is your reality and your limitations. knowing what makes your mind think of a self without the distortions and illusions that exist in your conscious mind and your subconscious mind. The path to enlightenment is not a goal to be obtained but it can be achieved through practice and effort.  
The path you take will be your own there is no beginning or end to this journey.
 Are you ready to Awaken to Reality and the path to Enlightenment? The Buddhist path to enlightenment follows the "Four Noble Truths" and The eight-fold path to enlightenment listed below. This is not a religion but a way of life in the Japanese Rinzai and Soto sects of Buddhism.  
                            The Four Noble Truths
1. All life is suffering. (Dukkha)
2. The cause of suffering is desire. (Samsara)
3. Suffering can be ended. (Nirvana)

4. The way to Nirvana is to follow the eight-fold path to enlightenment.


The eight-fold path to enlightenment

1. Right View or thought
2. Right intention
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action (Discipline)
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration (Samadhi)



Five rules one should live by:

1)   Be true to your word
2)   Don’t take things personally
3)   Don’t make Assumptions
4)   Always do your best
5)   Have your doubts, but learn to listen

 These 5 rules are from the "Fifth Agreement" by Don Miguel Ruz and are simple to remember. Spiritual seekers keep an open mind and are open to other ideas and ways to live by. 

 Jay Rondone



Friday, November 4, 2011

How do you feel?




An individual has feelings when an emotion cause affected their thinking processes.  It is all cause and effect.  Yes, we are emotional creatures that have to deal with our thoughts about those emotions. That is when feelings come into our reality.  Can we understand and control our feelings is the question that faces all of humankind.  We have not learned enough about ourselves and the way our minds work to understand these complex emotions. So let us ask ourselves the question, what is a feeling and how do feelings affect human behavior?

The definition of feeling is as follows:
“Feeling is the nominalization of the verb to feel. The word was first used in the English language to describe the physical sensation of touch through either experience or perception. The word is also used to describe experiences, other than the physical sensation of touch, such as "a feeling of warmth". [1] In psychology, the word is usually reserved for the conscious subjective experience of emotion. [2] Phenomenology and heterophenomenology are philosophical approaches that provide some basis for knowledge of feelings. Many schools of psychotherapy depend on the therapist achieving some kind of understanding of the client's feelings, for which methodologies exist. Some theories of interpersonal relationships also have a role for shared feelings or understanding of another person's feelings.


Perception of the physical world does not necessarily result in a universal reaction among receivers, but varies depending on one's tendency to handle the situation, how the situation relates to the receiver's past experiences, and any number of other factors. Feelings are also known as a state of consciousness, such as that resulting from emotions, sentiments or desires.”

This is the definition of feeling. However, it does not encompass the full and complete reason why we feel. We feel because of the emotions that we have. Emotions stem from our mind and they have learned behavior in some respects. The hypothalamus is a part of the brain in which emotions are formed. This is one of the first portions of the brain to have been developed in the early years of human beings. It is the foundation on which thought tends to arise. To further explain how these emotions came into being I will discuss further the many different aspects of the human brain and its functions.

For instance, the immune system, the body's front line of defense against disease; the cardiovascular system; the brain and nervous system—all have been explored independently. In recent years, however, neuroscientists working with psychologists and immunologists have forged a new scientific discipline with the tongue-twisting name of psychoneuroimmunology, or PNI, a field that explores the body's most subtle interconnections.

Much PNI research centers on a group of hormonal messengers called neuropeptides, which are secreted by the brain, by the immune system, and by the nerve cells and various other organs. What scientists have found is that the areas of the brain that control emotion are particularly rich in receptors for these chemicals. At the same time, the brain also has receptors sites for molecules produced by the immune system alone—the lymphokines and interleukins. What we see, then, is a rich and intricate to way communication system linking the mind, the immune system, and potentially all other systems, a pathway through which our emotions--our hopes and fears—can affect the body's ability to defend itself.

In the 1940s, Swiss psychologists and Nobel laureate Walter Hess experimented on the brain and discovered that he could produce two diametrically opposed energy states simply by stimulating different areas of the animal’s hypothalamus. One state was a kind of “passing gear" for heightened activity; the other was a state of very low energy expenditure characterized by deep rest and relaxation--the bodily equivalent of” neutral."

More recently, Dr. R Keith Wallace documented a similar state of profound rest in humans who practiced transcendental meditation.  Subsequent studies proved that this state could be elicited through any form of mental concentration that distracted the individual from the usual cares and concerns of the mind.  He termed this innate, hypothalamic mechanism the relaxation response.

When the relaxation response is called on, heart rate and blood pressure drop. Breathing rate and oxygen consumption declined because of the profound decrease in the need for energy. Brain waves shift from any alert beta rhythm to a relaxed alpha rhythm.  Blood flow to the muscle decreases, and instead, blood is sent to the brain and skin, producing a feeling of warmth and rested mental alertness.  It was by learning to induce the relaxation response that I began to reverse symptoms that were severe enough to send me to the emergency room.

How it was that stress was able to bring on these symptoms in the first place?  Scientists know that the relaxation response evolved as a means of protecting the organism from burnout.  Nature also provided the “passing gear" we called the fight-or-flight response.  I'm sure you felt it many times when you were suddenly afraid, when you were sure someone was breaking into the house, or when the plane you were on suddenly dropped as it hit a pocket of air.  Before you know it, you were breathing fast and shallow, your palms were sweaty, and your mouth was dry.  The fight-or-flight response means your heart is pounding, your blood pressure is up, your muscles are tense, your pupils are dilated, and your skin is covered with goosebumps.

This integrated response evolved millions of years ago because it ensured that the whole organism would be ready for action at the slightest hint of danger.  The response is still with us today, hardwired into the human body's communication system, and even though in our infinitely more complex world, danger can take the form of unpaid bills or boredom in a marriage or some unspoken dread produced entirely by the imagination.  Fighting and fleeing are not very useful options against such dangers. Nevertheless, through the fight-or-flight response, anxiety still has access to the pathway that elevates blood pressure and stress still activates pathways that lead to muscle tension and thereby to numerous aches, pains, and bodily disorders.

Anxiety has still other ways of making us more prone to illness.  In laboratory experiments, we've learned that stress, whether acute or chronic, releases a whole array of hormones that provide quick energy.  Two of these hormones--adrenaline and cortisol—are also potent inhibitors of the immune system.

Why should stress sometimes decrease immunity?  Some scientists find an explanation by once again looking back in evolutionary history to the most stressful event in an animal's life—the danger of a bloody attack by a predator.  The reason that damaged tissue from a man or woman could be mistaken by the immune system as foreign cells, resulting in an immunology: catastrophe--an immune reaction launched against the self.  In anticipation of trauma, then, the stressed immune system takes a temporary dip.

A fascinating psychological twist to this phenomenon came to light in a study of dental students at Myrin.  Dr. John Jemmott, Dr. David McClelland, Dr. Herbert Benson and others discovered that the stress of examination periods reduces the level of a particular antibody in saliva, and anti-body that is part of the first line of defense against colds.  Exam time is typically when students are most likely to catch colds, but the more important finding for their work was that the students who in psychological testing showed the greatest need for power were the ones with the greatest drop in antibodies!  The exams were much more a threat to them than to students with a more easy-going approach to life.

Other studies at Ohio State medical school done by Dr. Janice Kibcolt-Glaser and her husband, Dr. Ronald Glaser showed that exam stress decreased the function of an important type of lymphocyte called the natural killer cell.  These cells are responsible for patrolling the body and destroying virus-infected cells as well as cancer cells.  Exam stress also caused a precipitous decline in the production of interferon, a molecule that boost the function of natural killer cells and other types of immune cells.

Disease, however, is rarely a simple matter of isolated cause and effect.  While stress and helplessness can depress immune function, clearly we don't get sick each time we are stressed. It's far more reasonable to consider stress as one of the many factors that may tip the balance towards illness.

Each of the mechanisms discussed the hormonal messengers linking the brain and the immune system, the fight-or-flight response, immunosuppression, and the relaxation response—function in bodies subject to three other important determinants of well-being: heredity, environment, and behavior.

Some people are continuously lucky; their genes are programmed for health and longevity. Others, less fortunate, are genetically predisposed to high blood pressure, diabetes, or multiple sclerosis.  Even so, many people with the possible genetically linked disease stay well.

The one factor that has links to every determinant of health, other than hard-wired genetic constitution, is, of course, behaviors. We decide about our health habits—whether we exercise, what we eat, whether we smoke or drink. Just as important, our minds have the ability to spend our endless imaginings that are quite real to the body, imaginings that unleashed the hormones and neuropeptides that tell the body what to do.  Most of us are unable to control even those negative mental fantasies of which we are conscious.  Worse still, we're often unaware of what is going through our minds.  In the essays that will follow, you will learn how the mind works and how to control it in a way that maximizes your health.

Every time you miss your exit on the highway because you are daydreaming, then" wake up" to discover yourself miles farther down the road, you are demonstrating the power of the unconscious mind.  Once something is learned, we don't have to think about it consciously. The task simply repeats itself as soon as we initiate the program—in this case, by putting the keys in the ignition.  The rest of driving is second nature because our nervous system has been conditioned--or imprinted—with the driving pattern.

The same thing occurs in the subconscious mind with regards to prior learned and programmed feelings to situations that you may have encountered as a child or while growing up or simply in your past at some point. The subconscious mind is pre-programed from past learned responses that you have learned from your parents, teachers, social media, friends, family, and many other influential individuals that you encountered and held in high esteem at the time. The responses that you have learned are then programmed into your subconscious mind to be accessed when you need them. This is why you react to things that happen to you without thinking at times.

The conscious mind has been found not to exist in the human brain, but are just different areas of the human brain communicating with each other to form what we think of as our conscious mind.  The human brain gets certain information from the subconscious mind to react to every thought that you have, Cause and effect are key elements in the way in which the mind reacts to the world around it.  Example: (If you say or do something to me, I will respond with the information that I have stored in my subconscious memory tapes.) The neuroscience of how the human brain functions is undisputed and growing every day. We continue to discover how we think and feel the way we do and why. The “Theories of Human Development,” I believe will continue to enlighten us in the future.


So you can see that understanding feelings, emotions, changing attitudes; and the ways we live and interact with each other is a demanding process, and while the techniques are simple, the issues are subtle and complex.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Reality Defined Differently

             Philosophers, scientists, psychologists, and lay people define reality differently.

             In general, philosophers define reality by two primary methods.  The first, as articulated by Aristotle in the third century B.C., concerned sensory knowledge.  That is, Aristotle defined reality as that which can be detected by one of the five human senses, i.e., touch, taste, smell, hearing, and seeing.  Aristotle also contributed to the second method of determining reality, reason and logic.  Building on Aristotle’s work, modern philosophers use agreed-upon rules of reasoning, logic, and argument.  Thus, reality is that which can be shown to exist through logical argument.

            Scientists on the other hand, define reality by starting with the definition of what is called ‘the universe.’  The universe is the term that encompasses all of reality.  From that starting point, scientist then form hypothesis and conduct experiments in order to determine reality, its boundaries, properties, and dimensions, and aspects.  A thing must be able to be identified and measured if it is to exist.

            Psychologists define reality through human perception.  To the question,
“is there a sound if a tree falls in the woods when no one is there to hear it,” the psychologist would generally answer ‘no.’  Because reality for the psychologist is what people believe and are able to perceive.  Given the wide variation of human beliefs, psychologists do not concern themselves as to an ultimate definition of reality but the human response to the reality they report.

            Most lay people follow Aristotle’s insight and accept as reality what they can determine through their senses.  Lay people also rely on the collective wisdom of mankind, through myths, folk wisdom, community, family, friends, and through more recent developments, like books, schools, and mass media.

            In sum, there are different methods for determining reality, and some people, through their education and training, have developed specialized methods in defining a long human inquiry into the question of “what is real.”

JR