Essential Spirituality – who is guiding me?

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Updated: May 17, 2015

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Spirituality sectionI was browsing a spirituality section in the local Barnes & Noble – it looked pretty sad to me. Tarot reading, angel answers, psychic and astrology books – this is what Spirituality is reduced to on book shelves. This is what we have been warned against – lulling ourselves into a state of fake peace where some other supreme being or entity is supposed to send us inspiring messages and energy. “Explore the world of spiritual wisdom” is the underlying theme, but I wonder how much real change people are experiencing from reading these titles. I am not at all against these practices and as a matter of fact, I read horoscopes once in a while to receive encouraging messages. However, this is not true spirituality and it should not be called as such. The “side effects” of meditation and spiritual practices that rely on limited positivity are explained very clearly in Chapter 8 of “Harmony Meditation: from well-being to well-dying.”

In ZEN method for executive leaders today our teacher talked about a spiritual field which is different from the energy field. We were able to experience firsthand the relationship among energy, spirituality and chakras, and what the right attitude should be toward these phenomena and principles.

We learned that there are mechanisms that allow us to grow the ability to connect to higher purpose and wisdom. A study and practice of these mechanisms is the ultimate empowerment as it enables us to progress toward the bigger and brighter Self, toward the authentic alive peace with unlimited power and potential.

 

The infamous gut feeling – can we trust it?

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Updated: May 11, 2015

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Image from http://www.ipgcounseling.com/
Image from http://www.ipgcounseling.com/

In certain situations we may need to make decisions based on limited information. Some rely on a gut feeling consciously or subconsciously. But do we question how well our gut feeling does in retrospect? It’s hard to say because we can’t live our lives in parallel universes.

As a rationally inclined person, I use the gut feeling as the last resort in absence of all other information. After contemplating and reflecting on my past “gut decisions”, here is a few things I’ve been pondering on about trusting the gut feeling.

It’s now a common knowledge that “gut” has its own decision making process via the enteric nervous system, also known as “second brain”, which “can and does operate independently of the brain and spinal cord” [wiki]. So in a sense we resort to the second brain in the gut to make important life decisions.

The second brain takes care of many essential life functions, and produces a myriad of feelings and senses. What we eat and how well we absorb nutrients and eliminate toxins will surely affect our overall sense of well-being. To get a scientific perspective, read an article by Adam Hadhazy “Think Twice: How the Gut’s “Second Brain” Influences Mood and Well-Being”.

So then, can we trust our gut feelings? It depends. There are exceptional individuals who stuck to their gut feeling against all odds and became highly successful. For example, Steve Jobs. For a regular person like me, though, gut feelings tend to be much more banal – being afraid of the unknown and resisting the change.

From a statistical perspective, the second brain operations are largely based on past information and build-in mechanisms of dealing with new information, such as unfamiliar food, feelings, or ideas. If we have an unsettling reaction to the latter, we’ll try to avoid it at all costs. What if it is really good for us and can prove highly beneficial in the long term? What if we need to stick our gut and overcome the challenge? Most of the time following the gut feeling means sinking deeper in the old familiar self and missing a great opportunity.

Of course, we don’t need to challenge every decision our second brain makes. This will be an impossible task. Then how to tell when it’s time to override that decision? The first essential component is the ability to observe one’s own gut feelings and reactions.

With practice of harmony meditation the frequency of moments when a person is successful at recognizing himself or herself resisting new challenges and is able to question the second brain’s defensive reaction increases substantially.

When these precious moments of awakening happen, we can gently steer ourselves out of the rut and see new opportunities. We can take charge of the course of our day and ultimately, our lives. What else do we need? Direction. More on that later.

 

Constructive Deconstruction

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Posted: May 6, 2015

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Sometimes it seems we have to be broken down in order to rebuild ourselves.  I feel this way often and I sometimes imagine a big wrecking ball swinging at me.  Usually at these times I am shown something about myself that is very difficult to accept.  Some times it is pointed out to me and sometimes it is revealed through meditation practice, but every time it is very difficult.

There is typically huge resistance and I can feel it through out my entire body.  Then after hammer-682767_1280trying to cope with it a huge fury builds up inside of me.  I don’t necessarily want to experience it because it’s so uncomfortable but it has it’s usefulness as well.

When the fires settle there is a new starting point to build upon again.  From the ashes of a volcano comes beautiful islands.  From celestial bodies colliding violently came our solar system and the earth, and perhaps from an unimaginable violent fury expanded the biggest bang into the universe itself.

People sometimes think of meditation as just sitting there peacefully.  Yes that may be true too, and it may be true that people avoid what they have inside while meditating and drift off into a fleeting sense of life, something I have seen very often.  But if you practice Harmony Meditation, buckle up!  You have never seen such active in-action before, such explosive passion within yourself, and even unknown fury put into constructive uses.  Nothing gets wasted in Harmony Meditation, just transformed.

It is true that life as cold water can look much more peaceful because then you are not experiencing all the agitation and fury of energy that can come from being lit up on fire. But it’s also the agitation and fury of energy that gives us the will to push beyond what we normally would do.

Choi, Johwa (2014-01-31). Harmony Meditation: A new way to completion

In versus Out: How everyday activities can remind us who we are and who we’re not

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Updated: May 1, 2015

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One day while grocery shopping, I faced a lovely baby ahead of me and I naturally smiled at him. I was watching my smile and my mind. I suddenly felt glorious joy from deep inside myself like a subtle fragrance of a flower that would rise and directly after, the smile transferred from me to others around me.

On the other hand, one fine day that I could hardly acknowledge the blue sky directly through my own eyes and the flowers were blooming beautifully around me, seemingly unnoticed by me, my mind was so moody.

What caused the difference? Why did I feel that way?

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I guess because of my mind’s direction or flow.

I wonder if the bright mind, which was naturally blooming from inside me was naturally flowing out on my shopping day, but on the other day that wasn’t the case. The brightness from the outside took time to reach me. So, it felt like more darkness and emotional dynamics existed.

 

Your point of view from where you start to see from, in or out, is important.

Usually in the morning, I suspect when people wake up, they first pick up their cell phone. We can easily access information from the internet. We are not really feeling much regret over a lost opportunity to attend the special speaker’s lecture in person versus via online access, because we believe that sooner or later, we optimize opportunities available that way. So, we mistakenly behave inattentively to the person who’s speaking directly next to us, or sometimes to ourselves. We give more attention to the cyber-world than the visible real world.

Creativity doesn’t come from text materials, it flows out from the actual reading, feeling and doing.

How about creating your mind?

Do you want to pick up a book from the dusty shelf now?

Oh, NO.

Stay and feel this moment.

Savor “Who am I?” and its power.

Hundred shades of ego – brighter anyway

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Updated: April 28, 2015

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“How do you know that your ego is not getting ahead of you?” – my friend asked me recently. Good question. I thought about it and realized that I examine my ego quite frequently, on everyday basis. I am just not calling it ego anymore, and it does not necessarily have a shameful and regretful connotation.

When we were children, we were taught what was good and what was bad, and there was not much in between on this scale of black and white. If we keep judging ourselves and others with this primitive binary scale of zeros and ones, likes and dislikes, love and hatred, saint and evil, we’ll end up in a living hell. None of the important life questions can be resolved by applying the same answer to all people and situations. Same with the ego – it’s not all good or bad, there is much more to be learned about our egos.

The ego does not only show up when we do something terrible. We could be sensing it even if we just think something judgmental or express ourselves in a non-optimal manner. That’s not a peaceful existence, but is there a solution? Yes, there is.

In ZEN method for executive leaders training I took recently, it became so clear why the usual ways of dealing with negative feedback of ego do not work. Our teacher Johwa Choi explained why the type of meditation majority of people are practicing these days may be good for stress relief and relaxation, but not for someone seeking answers to who they truly are, someone seeking for authentic change beyond the physical and energy phenomena.

I won’t do justice to what we learned over two days of this one-of-a-kind intensive weekend training in this short blog, but I will say this. If we perceive our ego as enemy, we don’t get to know it well enough, and we can never become whole. It isn’t an option to live ego-less unless we die or become saints. Then our teacher advises us getting to know who we are intimately, including ego’s clever mechanisms of self-preservation. One of the fastest ways to see and experience this intricate relationship between thoughts, emotions, consciousness, the ego and the truest self is via a powerful method called ZEN method – Zero Enhanced Nothingness. I wish Gilbert Chesterton knew of this method when he wrote: “One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.”

Brightness anywayThrough meditation one can and should develop a better sense of who he or she is. Gradually the screen lightens up with a wider spectrum of colors – different hues and shades of ego and truest self are coming to life. These colors may be dark and depressing at times, but switching to a brighter scale becomes easier and faster with practice. To me this is where true freedom can be found – a place of brilliant brightness with the ego playing under its embracing rays.

A curious case of evolving from within

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Updated: April 11, 2015

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I find myself saying many positive things about my recent change in employment. My former colleagues say – wow, can this company be so wonderful? But I heard completely opposite things – people are hard to work with,  workload is not commensurable with rewards , and so on.

That made me think. Over the course of four years I’ve been practicing harmony meditation and changing myself inside out. The gradual change was not so much noticeable from day to day, month to month, but as I reflected on my journey, it became clear how different I am now.

Without further adieu, here is the list of areas in which I observed major shifts.

  • Collaboration –easy!

As I learned to accept my shortcomings in daily communications, I learned to be more tolerant to views and ideas different from mine. I stopped taking it so personally and became much more aware of the “wall building” process. Let’s face it, there are people we like and people we don’t like as much. As part of a team building exercise I recently took the Briggs-Myers personality test and I came out as a 90% introvert. So I know a lot about wall building and secluding myself to a safe comfortable place. Collaboration is not something that came naturally to me.

Wall building begins when we experience a negative emotion towards a person and we stop listening even though we hear everything that person says. As soon as I lay the first brick, the Bigger Self tells me – what are you doing? Put it down! I obey once, twice, many times, and everyday feels like a new day, every “old new” encounter is full of promise and opportunities for making it better. A new work environment is a perfect place to practice “open space” application within and around me.

  • Innovation – unleashed!

As I stopped wasting resources on emotions such as worrying, fear, feelings of inadequacy, I had more energy to invest in innovative problem solving. That energy did not just increase in quantity, but became purer and brighter, full of hopeful and empowering ideas. Sometimes I catch myself thinking – can I really do that? Am I smart enough to figure it out? Do I really have to tackle this big challenge? I pause and I breathe, and I watch the claws of the “smaller self” loosing its grip over me. Yes, I can if I decide to. Yes, I can choose to go forward into the unknown.

  • Having more fun – naturally

To me, one of the most rewarding experiences after years of practice and efforts was the ability to feel deep joy and happiness irrespective of external circumstances. That includes being joyful at work, as well as being happy on my own. Growing the power of savoring my true essence enables me with wiser choices at work, which does not go unnoticed by the management. Let’s see how much fun I have in the next six months or so. I promise to update you then.

Meditation as Medicine

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Updated: April 8, 2015

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Meditation is continuously making headlines as people and studies are increasingly showing benefits for physical healing and over all well being.

Meditation is being offered more and more in hospitals around the country. For treating all sorts of conditions and symptoms from headaches to HIV.

Recent research shows meditation’s soothing effects can be detected in arterial walls and in the brain. Once considered outside the mainstream, today more insurers are paying for meditation, both as a form of medication and as preventive medicine. -ABC News

The age old practice has shown to be useful for healing, happiness, and spiritual completion for thousands of years with no signs of slowing down.  Not only does it develop a sense of well being, but as I have experienced, it also leads to incredible self discoveries, independence, at the same time elevated social responsibility with practical applications and benefits for all.

www.harmonymeditation.com