Make The Zen Garden At Your Homes

Zen Meditation ,

Article by Harris Hill

Zen Gardens are mainly used in Zen temples for meditation. These gardens mainly contain rocks and gravels, and sand at times. Plants and trees in these gardens are ever changing with the seasons. As the plants mature they are pruned in to Bonsais. Enjoy couponers for savings on your landscaping and garden renovations. Japanese gardening is meant to bring calmness and focus to a landscape. Designed around six aesthetic principles that harness the beauty and power of nature, Zen gardens are meant to help those who wander through them forget the hectic world outside.
The purpose of a garden is to help quiet and focus your mind. Ponds in a Zen garden, for example, represent negative space, or the “nothingness” that is essential to Zen meditation. In addition, the sound of dripping water is meant to remind you to exist in the moment with each drip.It can be placed in a room where there is a window, or fluorescent lighting. It’s best to place it at least 2 ft-6 ft. away from the South/Southwest facing window, especially if you live in a hot and dry region. If your location reaches above 90F, place the at least 6 ft. away from the South facing window if it gets direct sun’s ray striking it. The intensity of the high sun in the warmer days can burn the cactus if it’s directly hitting it.
Zen Gardens are also referred to as “dry landscape” since there is no water incorporated in these gardens. While most of us relate to water as a relaxing element, The books uses the gravel, or sand to symbolize water, sea, or rivers. Get couponers deal for your garden renovations or landscaping needs. The rake is used to make abstract patterns to resemble waves, or ripples in the water which is why they are also called “mindscapes.” Thus, this is the Buddhist way to express the beauty of this world in Zen Buddhism.
In modern society, many of us live high stressed lives. Though we cannot, and should not run from it, but we too need our little own “mindscapes” to escape. I have re-invented the Zen Garden giving it a new life by transforming it into a modern decor. They are not only aesthetically please, but best of all they serve a purpose! A purpose this are meant to do.Stones, water, plants, bridges, and ornaments are essential elements of Zen gardens. Each element has symbolic meaning. Pine trees, for example, represent strength and patience, as enlightenment can only be gained by one who possesses these qualities. Placing a frog figurine in the garden represents sudden realization, symbolized by a frog jumping into a quiet pond.
A meditation garden is a haven from the bustle of everyday life. Relying on a few simple elements, the design of the Zen garden calms the mind and promotes a meditative state. The two main elements of a Zen garden are rocks, which represent mountains, and sand, which represents water. Check couponers.com for discounts on your garden and landscaping needs. The “sand” used is actually crushed granite or fine gravel. Decorative elements such as a bridge or a lantern are often included. A traditional Zen garden has little or no greenery; at the most, it may have one or two small evergreen plants.

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About the Author

I am a Business Consultant,and livestock farmer, as well as do a lot of Traveling, Writing, Cycling,Volunteering & enjoy life to the fullest.

The one consistent factor in everything he does is to remain open to all possibilities. It is this open mindedness couple with a eye for a deal that has led to countless joint ventures creating wealth for everyone involved.

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A few of the Advantages of Yoga

Yoga ,

Article by Morgenthalers Aplind

Some of the Advantages of Yoga

Yoga via meditation operates remarkably to accomplish harmony and helps the mind function in synchronization with the body. How usually do we discover that we are unable to perform our activities effectively and inside a satisfying manner because of the confusions and conflicts in our mind weigh down heavily upon us?

Anxiety is the number a single suspect affecting all parts of our physical, endocrinal and emotional system. And using the aid of yoga this things can be corrected. At the physical level, yoga and yoga poses have proven to become extremely efficient for different disorders.

Listed below are just some of the advantages of yoga which you can get.

Advantages of Yoga 1: Yoga is identified to amplify flexibility; yoga has postures that trigger the distinct joints in the physique. Such as these joints that are not acted upon with normal workouts routines.

Advantages of Yoga two: Yoga also increases the lubrication of joints, ligament and tendons. The well-researched yoga positions workout the various tendons and ligaments of the body.

It has also been found that the physique which might have began doing yoga becoming an inflexible a single could experience a fairly exceptional flexibility within the end on these parts of the physique which have not been consciously worked upon.

Advantages of Yoga 3: Yoga also massages all organs from the body. Yoga is maybe the only workout that may perform on by way of your internal organs inside a thorough manner, which includes those that hardly get externally stimulated during our entire lifetime.

Benefits of Yoga four: Yoga acts within a wholesome manner on the various body parts. This stimulation and massage in the organs in turn advantages us by keeping away disease and providing a forewarning in the first possible instance of a likely onset of disease or disorder.

A single of the far-reaching benefits of yoga is the uncanny sense of awareness that it develops in the practitioner of an impending well being disorder or infection.

Advantages of Yoga five: yoga provides a total detoxification in the physique. It gently stretches the muscles and joints as we as massaging the different organs, yoga ensures the optimum blood supply to various components from the physique.

Advantages of Yoga 6: Yoga assists inside the flushing out of toxins from each nook and cranny of one’s physique as well as providing nourishment as much as the last point. This results in advantages such as delayed ageing, energy along with a remarkable zest for life.

Benefits of Yoga 7: yoga is also a superb method to tone your muscles. Muscles which have already been flaccid and weak are stimulated repeatedly to shed excess fats and flaccidity.

But these enormous physical rewards are just a “side effect” of this powerful practice. What yoga does is harmonize the thoughts with the physique and these results in real quantum benefits.

It’s now an open secret that the will of the thoughts has enabled folks to achieve extraordinary physical feats, which proves beyond doubt the mind and body connection.

Actually yoga = meditation, since each function together in achieving the typical goal of unity of mind, physique and spirit which can cause an expertise of eternal bliss that you can only feel through yoga. The meditative practices through yoga help in achieving an emotional balance by way of detachment.

This in turn creates an extraordinary calmness as well as a positive outlook, which also has tremendous benefits on the physical well being in the physique.

About the Author

If you are looking for yoga information remember to go to our wonderful p90x site.

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Spirit Science 1 – Thoughts (Original) : Spiritual Lessons : Video

Spiritual Lessons , , , , , ,
Spirit Science 1 – Thoughts (Original) : Spiritual Lessons : Video

Spiritual Lessons :

Check out the revised Lesson 1 here – www.youtube.com In Lesson 1, Patchman begins your journey into the unknown with the basics. Thoughts, Emotions, and the power that they bestow upon you. I’m planning on making this into a weekly series (I did this in 1 week), but for the next 2 or 3 weeks or so I’m going to be a bit tied up, so lesson 2 and onwards should hit the web around the end of the month. I also want to focus my time on this and exploring this topic, so I’m interested in finding a sponsor or something like that to help spread and share the videos further.

Yoga Stories: Meditation Can Improve Your Brain Function

Grounding Meditation , , , , ,

Article by Thomon Wardle

If you’ve already tried your hand at yoga, then you may also have dipped your toe into the world of meditation. It’s powerful stuff and not just for people who grow pot and eat nothing but raw fruits. It’s something that I try to do everyday as it’s something that keeps me grounded and calm. It also helps with my intuition and inner confidence.

Recently, somebody in the academic world – namely the University of Wisconsin – noticed that meditation isn’t just some ‘new fangled’ practice, but it has great potential. A scientific study concluded that meditation can reduce stress, help with immunity and even help your brain to work better. Who would have thought that just by meditating for a few minutes every day, you’d be able to benefit from so many outcomes.

How to do it. It’s not difficult to do and if you want to try it for yourself, then all you need to do is to sit comfortably. Next, close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing. Feel the air as it passes up your nostrils and into your lungs. Do it again and concentrate so that you can do it slower and deeper. Whatever thoughts you get, then notice them but let them pass. Keep your focus on your breathing. When your mind wanders, bring it back and refocus on your breath. Once you’ve done this for 10 to 15 minutes – then you’ve successfully meditated.

Find other programs for variety There is plenty of information online about how to meditate. For example, there are websites, blogs and even podcasts that provide guidance on alternative ways to meditate. Some of the styles will take you on an inner visualised journey that will leave you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. Try looking at the podcasts for iPhone for this type of content.

Let’s just go back to that research for a moment, as there’s something else in there that’s very interesting. Apparently one of the outcomes from this research that was undertaken by the University of Wisconsin, was that meditation is as good for your brain as your body. The researchers up there studied some experienced meditators and found that they had more production of gamma brain waves. These waves have an association with clearer and more focused thinking. These gamma waves weren’t just in action during the time the meditation was taking taking place – they were there around the clock. They also discovered that there was not the typical age related thinning in the area of the brain that is used for attention and sensory perception.

This is all good news for all of us. It means that we can keep active mentally and physically for longer and this can go towards prolonging our health into our later years.

Oh and one more thing that you should know too. Apparently just 40 minutes of meditation can do a lot more for you mentally when it comes to being alert than a 40 minute catnap can. Having a nap can make you feel groggy for up to an hour afterwards, but you won’t need to suffer that if you replace the ZZZs with some meditation.

So with all of that evidence, it looks like meditation is finally being recognised for it’s powers. It will protect you against the negative outcomes of being stressed and tense, and it will support your immune system. It will even protect you against the ravages of time – what’s not to like about this ‘new fangled’ practice!

About the Author

Thomon Wardle is an experienced practitioner of yoga and pilates. Visit https://secrets2meditation.com/goto/?url=http://www.getfitwithpilates.com and view the range of yoga DVDs and pilates DVDs to get started with your weight loss with yoga. There is a free eBook worth £9.95 for immediate download while you are there.

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Utilizing Tai Chi Chuan Meditation to Rule the Globe

Grounding Meditation , , , ,

Article by Al Case

I had been studying Karate for a while, and I was curious about tai chi chuan meditation. I had read of esoteric meditation concepts in such arts as Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan, and it definitely did seem like something I wished to do. Heck, one book I browsed stated that if an individual can focus on simply one thing for as little as 3 minutes he could rule the planet!

3 minutes? Heck, that was absolutely nothing!

And if I did it I would undoubtedly be the most effective martial artist in the planet! I could well knock over walls, be a wafting, disembodied intelligence. No wall could control me! No changing booth could be immune from my kung fu powers!

At the time I was working in a plastics factory in San Jose. Being rather burnt out with making heat shrinkable tubes, I determined that the day had actually come when I would certainly understand martial arts concentration and command the planet.

Lunchtime, and I walked out to the parking lot and into the orchard next door. I chose a round stone for my one thing, and sat down on the curb. My thoughts filled with plans for exactly what I would most likely do when I had actually controlled the globe, I consumed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and psychologically equipped myself.

Done with sandwich, I positioned the round stone on the ground and sat cross-legged just before it. I could not do a zazen sitting posture, or a yoga lotus asana, or anything like that, so I figured sitting Indian fashion might probably need to do it.

I gave myself a shake, lowered my gaze, and concentrated on the stone.

It was round. Probably I touched on that, however I did observe that it was round. And the colour dirt. Well, of course, I had actually gotten it from an orchard and… I psychologically shook myself and required myself to cease thinking. I needed to concentrate, be a laser, command the planet. My eyes stared at the rock.

A short time passed. I speculated precisely how I was expected to realize when 3 seconds passed. It sure was a very long time. I tossed that thought out of the way and stared at the stone once again.

After a while, I was sure 2 minutes had actually passed. I proceeded, awaiting the heavens to open, anticipating God to bow down, awaiting the cosmos to open and enjoy me as their rightful ruler.

And, 3 minutes… at least I think it was 3 minutes… I was bored. Absolutely nothing was taking place.

I picked up the rock, tossed it over my shoulder and back into the orchard and… I instantly recognized something. The rock had not been dull… I was boring. The rock was merely sitting there, doing nothing, it was me that had actually made it, and reality, and life… boring.

I stood then, and life was never ever the same after that. I was never ever bored ever again. I often speculate where that round stone is. Heck, if I could possibly locate it I would certainly be up for one more 3 minutes of tai chi chuan meditation… the things I could possibly discover!

About the Author

Learn more about tai chi chuan meditation and true martial arts spirituality. Come over to ChurchofMartialArts.com

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Learn Mindfulness Meditation to Attain Self Realization

Mindfulness Meditation , , , , ,

Article by Kip Mazuy

Mindfulness meditation is really the essence of meditation and yoga. And if you practice this Zen technique given below not only in your sitting meditation but in your day-to-day life, it will help lead you into deep states of meditation and even self realization. Your natural experience of life will be one of unconditional peace and bliss.

Mindfulness meditation means to allow everything to come and go while remaining resting in the present moment. So first, allow yourself to breathe. Allow the breath to move in and out as it wants without trying to control it in any way.

And while you are consciously allowing yourself to breath, also allow whatever sensations you are feeling to be as they are. Do not concentrate on a sensation and do not resist any sensations, just allow whatever sensations you feel to be as they are.

Try this for now. Just allowing breathing to happen and allow feeling to happen. You should not describe the sensations, analyze them or think about them in any way. Just allow them while remaining resting in this moment.

Now the deeper part of mindfulness meditation deals with thinking. As you are sitting, now practice allowing thoughts to come and go. Do not try and control the thinking in any way. Just allow the thoughts to come and go. Experience the flow of thoughts coming and going rather than getting caught up in the content of the thoughts.

The challenging part in mindfulness meditation is to not get caught up in the thoughts. Allow the thoughts to come and go without getting involved with them.

It may help to passively let go of the thoughts as they come. Don’t try and push them away, there should be no trying to control the thoughts but rather as thoughts arise, let them pass by. Do not hold on to any thought.

This is a very important part of mindfulness meditation, especially if you are interested in self realization. Self realization means fully realizing yourself to be that which is beyond thinking, beyond the body and mind.

So give your full attention to allowing thoughts to come and go in this way. When the thought arises that you have to pick up the dry cleaning tomorrow, just see it as a thought arising and let it go. Don’t make it important or special, just see it as a thought arising just like any thought arising and let it go. Don’t worry about the dry cleaning.

Same with desires: if the thought comes up in meditation that you would really like some ice cream, let that thought go. Don’t grab hold of it and get lost in thinking about ice cream, just allow the thought to come and go. Surrender the thought into the silence of this moment.

When you identify with thoughts, there is an action of contraction, of gripping, of holding on to the thought. But in mindfulness meditation, there is no holding, no action at all; it is just allowing everything to pass without getting involved in any way. You are aware of the happening but not involved with it.

Then more and more you will begin to feel yourself not as the thinking mind, but as awareness, as presence itself. You will see you are not separate from this moment. You will see that thoughts are arising by themselves out of this moment and they disappear back into the silence of this moment. It is all one flow of energy. And the nature of this energy, the nature of this moment is unconditional peace and bliss.

In practicing this Zen mindfulness meditation technique, you will begin to experience this bliss, the bliss of being presence itself of being awareness itself. And in this you will even feel the bliss of thoughts arising and disappearing.

And it is this bliss that draws you into this moment more and more and leads you to self realization. The bliss begins to reveal itself in every part of your life. Walking will be bliss, driving will be bliss, working will be bliss, doing yoga will be bliss. Any action in which you are mindful will be experienced as bliss.

If you want to attain self realization then awakening this bliss is most important. And the most effective way to awaken this bliss is by receiving it from someone who has already attained self realization and radiates bliss. Simply by sitting with such a master, this bliss which is also called Shakti, Deeksha or Grace is awakened in you and deep states of meditation become effortless.

There is some amazing new sound technology available where with special recording equipment, this Shakti/bliss has been recorded and turned into sound. So simply by listening to some very unique meditation music, this Shakti/bliss energy is awakened in you.

And if you practice this mindfulness meditation technique while listening to this Shakti CD, then you will automatically begin to experience deep states of meditation, bliss and even self realization in a fraction of the time as it would trying to meditate without the CD.

You can listen to free samples of this Shakti sound technology music by visiting the “Self Realization CD” link below.

About the Author

Listen to Free Samples of a Shakti Sound Technology Proven to Awaken You into Deep Meditation & BlissVisit The Self Realization CD Website

For More Free Teachings on Meditation & Self RealizationPlease Visit The Spirituality & Enlightenment Website

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Meditation and Qigong, Part 3

Christian Meditation , ,

Article by Mark

But some things of the other sort, especially connected with exacerbations and mental disorders, ambitious people sometimes prefer to flaunt in public as some kind of achievement.

One girl, for instance, complains that no one in her town is able to explain to her what has happened to her. She apparently saw herself from some distance, she was hanging under the ceiling and then had some strange visions through the third eye… she saw a dream that she would become the brightest and the most gifted student of the Greatest Teacher… and then on a Web she saw the portrait of the Teacher… and what an odd coincidence! – “It was the Master So-And -So!.. That’s why I came to School Such-And Such! But my instructor seems to have no qualification. And he does not let me go to Shaolin! But I need it, I need it desperately! I must become his personal student!..”.

There are two ways…

The first one is called spiritual development.It is carried out through the start of the basic fundamental WCZ Qigong exercises regularly practice (it not necessarily to be Wu Chan Zhong Qigong, there are other good systems), through nourishing your spirit, rearing and developing it paying no attention to some side effects and not bothering oneself with some accompanying “boos” and visions, and through being occupied with an interesting job, family, friends…

One day you will understand it all yourself.The mind development through the intellect upgrading, discourses, arguments, reading, has no relation to spiritual development.The Being growing within is not a mind or logic chains in your brain neurons…This Being is different energy and information substance…

It simply takes time…

Imagine a newborn wolf-cub in a den…It is born blind… It has no muscles on his legs yet… It needs to develop… It has long way to go. But the development has already started and goes according to the Decree of Nature. And it demands it to start crowling and searching… Wolf-cub crowls and comes upon something warm, something wet… something tasty… Or it is not tasty? Got to try… It fumbles for this warm thing with its nose… feels it with its not yet strong organs of sense… it seems to little cub that this Is… and it seems that this Is Not… And so, – “seems to be, seems not to be” – baby wolf starts to suck milk out of his mothers teats… Now tell me, what books or disputes can substitute THIS?!

The time goes quickly and soon the wolf-cub starts to see something… some spots… but what is it? Is it worth wasting the effort and staring into the darkness? Baby should just feed and grow… Just grow and wait. And it will come, it will come its natural way. If this little silly-billy wolf-cob suddenly got the eyes of an adult wolf, it would have its little face split! The eye is something more then simply an eye… it is bunch of nerve fibres coming from an eye to the little immature brain. This little brain will simply die of not being prepared to such an untimely information and to development of alien physiological tissues…And there would be simply no room in that little skull for all the new, foreign, adult toolbox and apparatus… No, no… The face will definitely split, no doubt!

The wolf-cub should just keep sucking… And it will grow stronger one day…One day, it will timidly crawl out of the den following its mother who would watch baby’s first steps… And then… we know what happens then. We are not the first and not the last. Yesterday’s wolf-cub turns into an adult wolf and it has been going on this way for millions of years…

Everything in this world goes on this way, including spiritual development.When your little Being starts growing, the same story happens. Feed it, take care of it, help it develop… If you suddenly see some spots, some dots and obscure motion… Just ignore it… When you really come into the light, there won’t be any silly questions like: What has it been? Why no one is able to explain?

If these questions arise, then nothing has happened yet! Do not hurry to consider yourself unique and grown up… There is yet nothing that can leave your body yet. Was it a hallucination or was it sudden flow of some inadequate part of energy and information system? It makes no difference… If we get caught in an endless loop discussing IT over and over again, wasting our time and efforts analyzing IT – then we find ourselves following the second (and the most wide-spread) way which I call spiritual jerk-off.

***

Osho Rajneesh clearly said about this: “…There are persons who come to me. I can see that I am in front of them and they cannot see me. But they say they have visions, spiritual visions. Beautiful colours float in their minds. Kundalini arises, the snake-power, the serpent-power. It rushes towards the last chakra.

I am in front of them and I can see they are blind; they can’t see me. Their kundalini is arising, and they have tremendous light in their third eye. And they have come, so that I can confirm: ‘Yes, that’s so.’

If I say: ‘Yes, that’s so,’ they are very happy and fulfilled. If I say: ‘No,’ they are very angry. They become my enemies. And they cannot see me – but they can count the legs of the ants crawling on the moon. They are stone-blind. To hide their blindness, they create many fictions around themselves.

A man came to me. He said: ‘Just as it happened in Mohammed’s life, it is happening in my life. I receive messages in the night. God Himself, Allah – He gives me messages. But the trouble is that in the morning, I always forget what the message was.’ It happened in Ahmedabad.

I told him: ‘Do one thing. Keep a pad and a pencil just near your bed, and while you go to sleep,continuously go on remembering that whenever God reveals anything, your sleep will be immediately broken, and you will be able to write. And write it, whatsoever it is.’

He said: ‘These messages are tremendous truths. They can transform the whole world. The trouble is – I always forget in the morning.’

So I said: ‘You do it – and whatsoever it is, you bring it.’

Next day he came. He was very much worried and sad, and depressed, and frustrated. I said: ‘What happened?’ He said: ‘I cannot believe what happened. Whatsoever you have said, I have followed.I went on remembering while I was falling asleep that whenever the message is delivered, I will be able to get up immediately and write the message down. And it happened as you said.’

‘But then,’ I said,’why are you so sad?’

He said: ‘But the message makes me very sad.’

‘What was the message?’

He was feeling a little embarrassed. The message was: ‘Live a little hot. Sip a Gold Spot.’ The advertisement board was just in front OF his house. He must have been passing and…

So he said: ‘Please don’t say this to anybody, because I am very much frustrated. How did it happen? Is it some kind of joke God is playing on me?’

Your dreams are bound to be your dreams: ‘Live a little hot. Sip a Gold Spot.’ They cannot go beyond it! Your visions are your visions; they cannot be more than you. Your experiences are your experiences. They are bound to be below you; they cannot be beyond you. Your kundalini is going to be your kundalini; it cannot be a Buddha’s kundalini.

Ninety-nine percent is the possibility that you have been imagining. Man is so poor, he imagines in millions of ways to convince himself: ‘I am rich.’

If you have not been able to attain to the worldly things, then you start attaining to the non-worldly things. If you don’t have a bank balance here on the earth, then you have a bank balance there in heaven – but you have a bank balance.

Remember always: your mind is stupid. Mind as such is tupidity. Mind cannot be intelligence.Intelligence happens only when the mind has gone. Intelligence is not the function of the mind; it is the function of the whole. Mind is stupid, repetitive. It cannot know the unknown, it can only go on repeating the known – ‘Live a little hot. Sip a Gold Spot.’ Continuously looking at the advertisement board, it has become settled.

If you are born a Hindu, your kundalini will rise. If you are born a Jain, never – because Jain scriptures don’t advertise for kundalini. If you are a Christian, you will see Christ and the cross. But if you are a Hindu, Christ never bothers to come on your path. And the cross – never. You will see Krishna playing on the flute, because Krishna is advertised and Christ is not advertised.

All your spiritual experiences are nothing but conditionings that the society has given to you. Don’t rely too much on them, because death will force you to realize the fact that you lived a fictitious life – the opportunity lost.

Become aware that you have nothing. Once you feel that you have nothing, fear disappears, because fear is always part of the feeling that you possess something which can be lost – hence fear.

When you realize the fact that you don’t know anything, that you are blind, that you cannot see….

All that you have been seeing is your own projection. You create it and you see it. You are the director in the drama that you call your life. And you are the story-writer also. And you are the actor. And you are all that is happening. And you are the audience. There is nobody else. You are looking at it. You are creating it. You are directing it. You are playing a role in it.

Once this is seen – and this can be seen in a flash of light, just by listening to me rightly, it can be seen – then the whole drama disappears. This is what Hindus call MAYA, the world that you have created around yourself, which is not real, which is not there – your own creation.

When it drops, then for the first time, you are not blind; your eyes open. Then you