Monday, June 29, 2009

Exercise, week starting Monday, June 29, 2009

The group read through page 117 of Experiments. The exercise is from the same page:

Look for joy in living. Express joy in dealing with others. Live with an attitude of enjoyment of being alive in this place and in this special time in man’s spiritual evolution.

Whatever you do, don't shut off your pain

Whatever you do, don't shut off your pain; accept your pain and remain vulnerable. However desperate you become, accept your pain as it is, because it is in fact trying to hand you a priceless gift: the chance of discovering, through spiritual practice, what lies behind sorrow.

"Grief," Rumi wrote, "can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life's search for love and wisdom."

Sogyal Rinpoche, from Glimpse of the Day

Friday, June 26, 2009

Which half of your life is now?

“‘To buy and sell, yet never forget God.’ The ideal is that hand and heart work harmoniously together. Certain Western writers claim that the Hindu goal is one of timid ‘escape,’ of inactivity and antisocial withdrawal. The fourfold Vedic plan for man’s life, however, is a well-balanced one for the masses, allotting half the span to study and householder duties; the second half to contemplation and meditational practices.

“Solitude is necessary to become established in the Self, but masters then return to the world to serve it. Even saints who engage in no outward work bestow, through their thoughts and holy vibrations, more precious benefits on the world than can be given by the most strenuous humanitarian activities of unenlightened men. The great ones, each in his own way and often against bitter opposition, strive selflessly to inspire and uplift their fellows... Ahimsa, ‘non-injury,’ called ‘virture entire’ (sakalo dharma) in the Mahabharata, is a positive injunction by reason of its conception that one who is not helping others in some way in injuring them.”

—Paramahansa Yogananda
“Autobiography of a Yogi”
1945

Autobiography of a Yogi

Thursday, June 25, 2009

...his head just exploded into pieces.

We have been taught to spend our lives chasing our thoughts and projections. Even when the “mind” is talked about, it is only thoughts and emotions that are referred to; and when our researchers study what they imagine to be the mind, they look only at its projections. No one ever really looks into the mind itself, the ground from which all these expressions arise; and this has tragic consequences.

Confined in the dark, narrow cage of our own making that we take for the whole universe, very few of us can even begin to imagine another dimension of mind. Patrul Rinpoche tells the story of an old frog who had lived all his life in a dank well. One day a frog from the sea paid him a visit.
“Where do you come from?” asked the frog in the well.
“From the great ocean,” he replied.
“How big is your ocean?”
“It’s gigantic.”
“You mean about a quarter of the size of my well here?”
“Bigger.”
“Bigger? You mean half as big?”
“No, even bigger.”
“Is it . . . as big as this well?”
“There’s no comparison.”
“That’s impossible! I’ve got to see this for myself.”
They set off together. When the frog from the well saw the ocean, it was such a shock that his head just exploded into pieces.

- Sogyal Rinpoche, from Glimpse of the Day

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Enough with the 2012 worries, already!

Kevin Todeschi, executive director and CEO of A.R.E., talks about Edgar Cayce’s predictions for 2012. According to Kevin, we can look forward to three things in the coming Age of Purity: purity, global conscious, and spiritual consciousness. To find out more, watch the 6-minute video below.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

A fun, true something or other

You might get a little enjoyment out of reading this brief story, and I might get some answers: Me And My Lady Of Assumption. Enjoy!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Exercise, Week Starting Monday, 6/22/09

[Reading ended at bottom of page 114.]

Exercise from Experiments, page 113:

Choose and write down an area of your life in which you feel burdened. List the ways you have to work to feel this way -- the attitudes you have to work on holding, the behaviors you have to do to keep this feeling. Then select one item from your list and write a more constructive replacement attitude or behavior. Work each day for at least a week on expressing that replacement in this area of your life.

Example:
Burdened by:

· frequent arguments with Richard

Attitudes and behaviors

I work at:

· make an effort to recall past instances where I thought he was selfish;

· make an effort to feel resentful;

· make an effort to speak unkindly of him to others

Replacement:

· begin to speak in a more positive way of him to others.

...the bare soil itself...

"Our tendency is to be interested in something that is growing in the garden, not in the bare soil itself. But if you want to have a good harvest, the most important thing is to make the soil rich and cultivate it well."

- Shunryo Suzuki

Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Effect of the “Laying On of Hands” on Transplanted Breast Cancer in Mice

Abstract—After witnessing numerous cases of cancer remission associated with a healer who used “laying on of hands” in New York, one of us (W.B.) “apprenticed” in techniques alleged to reproduce the healing effect. We obtained five experimental mice with mammary adenocarcinoma[…]which had a predicted 100% fatality between 14 and 27 days subsequent to injection. Bengston treated these mice for 1 hour per day for 1 month. The tumors developed a “blackened area,” then they ulcerated, imploded, and closed, and the mice lived their normal life spans. Control mice sent to another city died within the predicted time frame.

http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_14_3_bengston.pdf

http://www.unblockyourlife.com

A.R.E. Northeast region monthly meditation, either 9 AM or 9 PM Sunday, July 5th

[Via Charlie Davidson:]

Namaste all,

I would like to invite you to join us for the A.R.E. Northeast region monthly meditation. If you would like to join us please meditate at either 9 AM or 9 PM Sunday, July 5 th using the following affirmation,

Be still and know that
I am one with the source of unconditional love, wisdom and harmony
as I express these in all that I do.

And at the end of the meditation please surround those on the Northeast prayer list with healing light as well as the region, everyone meditating and global consciousness.

A link to the A.R.E. Library newsletter for June is provided in the postscript below. In the newsletter is an interview with Edgar Evans Cayce.

And, at the end of this email is part of a Cayce reading
given in 1932 to the healing group. It has some information relating to meditation and the experiences' one may have.

Please note, this email is a week earlier than usual because I will not have email access until next week.


Thanks for joining in the meditation!


P.S.
  • If you have access to the web you might like this site if you like to listen to meditative music when you meditate. You select the music by clicking on the note and making your selection. And, it also provides a timer which you can set in minutes, to the interval you want. (You can copy the URL into your browser address field to access it.)

http://www.poodwaddle.com/meditation.htm

  • . Please join us each first Sunday. Or, if you would like to be removed from this mailing; or add someone else, please reply with "ADD" or "REMOVE" in the Subject line and email address in the email body.
  • A.R.E. Library newsletter with Edgar Evans Cayce interview
http://www.edgarcayce.org/are/pdf/libNwslttr609.pdf
  • If you do not receive the A.R.E.Northeast region prayer list and/or would like to be prayed for, please contact Zita at azkach@sbcglobal.net.
  • Edgar Cayce Reading

TEXT FROM READING 281-14


6. (Q) Is there any advice to us concerning those we are holding in meditation?
(A) Not as ones that would pry into the affairs of individuals, rather as that necessary element in the experience of others in seeking, in unburdening the conditions in their experience, know more of those things that hinder and that make those that seek afraid; for in the troubled heart comes those experiences that make for doubts and fears. Consider that even at the beck and call of the Master, and even in His presence, Peter began to sink. So we, in the weakness of the flesh, in the face of doubt and fear, often begin to sink and lose our way. So, when there is held by a group as a whole those STRENGTHENING influences that may make others know that, "Yea, a prayer is said," there is seeking - seeking - that the one faltering may be made strong in His might, His power. Remember, all, how thin is the veil between the sublime and the ridiculous. Make not thine self absurd or ridiculous in thine own eye, in thine neighbor's eye. Keep in the way that makes for LIFE - everlasting.


8. (Q) Please expand on the different circular vibrations which are experienced during meditation:


When felt in the lower part of body.

(A) As this may be expanded upon both from the metaphysical viewpoint and from the purely scientific also, well that those who experience these do not confuse themselves in the interpreting of that each may experience. Each must remember that the vibrations which are emanations of the Life from WITHIN are a material expression of a spiritual influence, or of a FORCE that may EMANATE from Life itself.

Now, consider, we are viewing both of these in the light of that which has just been given.

When an emanation or a vibration arises, it may only act upon centers within the human body that are sensitive to those vibrations WITHIN the body; else one may not become aware of such vibrations being present, or they may not become apparent; hence have within themselves passed from being an influence that is not of a nature other than that which produced same.

When these ARE interpreted properly, they become that which raises for each individual the ability to become aware of the influences from without and from within. These, SPIRITUALIZED, are the emanations that may be sent out as thought waves, as a force in the activity of universal or cosmic influence, and thus have their effect upon those to whom by suggestive force they are directed toward.

In the VARIED motions, as we understand, these arise; (as all things spiral WOULD), for one that WOULD become aware of such an emanation, such a vibration, such a force being active within themselves.

DO NOT use those vibrations to self's undoing, by the attempts to make for SELF other than a CHANNEL for aid to another.

9. (Q) When felt in the upper part of the body.
(A) All the same. We begin from one. We have passed on up to the head now!

10. (Q) [341]: Please explain the sensations during meditation of vibration running up through the body and ending in a sort of fullness in the head.
(A) The various portions, as given, represent the activities that are being set, either when considered from the purely scientific or from the metaphysical standpoint, as an active force emanating from the Life itself within. Then, these become all-embracing; hence the better understanding should be gained, whether used to disseminate and bring healing or for the raising of the forces in self. When one is able to so raise within themselves such vibrations, as to pass through the whole course of the attributes of physical attunements, to the disseminating force or center, or the Eye, then the body of that individual becomes a magnet that may (if properly used) bring healing to others with the laying on of hands. This is the manner in which such a healing becomes effective BY the laying on of hands.



Copyright 2006 by the Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. The Edgar Cayce Readings 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation.

Friday, June 19, 2009

The Rigpa, the nature of mind, is revealed

In the ordinary mind, we perceive the stream of thoughts as continuous, but in reality this is not the case. You will discover for yourself that there is a gap between each thought. When the past thought is past, and the future thought has not yet arisen, you will always find a gap in which the Rigpa, the nature of mind, is revealed. So the work of meditation is to allow thoughts to slow down, to make that gap become more and more apparent.

Sogyal Rinpoche, from Glimpse of the Day

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

"By bhakti alone he became the divine."

The great nineteenth-century Indian saint, Ramakrishna, was a master at creating huge outpourings of bhakti. He would writhe around on the floor at the base of the statue of Mother Divine he worshipped, sobbing and sobbing for the slightest touch from her inside. The more upset he got the more he would direct it toward his ishta, the statue. He seemed like a crazy man. All the while his bhakti was working like a laser beam, slicing through every obstruction in his nervous system. By bhakti alone he became the divine.

...The technique of bhakti is in redirecting our desires, harnessing them. Some people naturally find this ability. For others, it comes up over time, as there is more silence in the mind and heart from meditation. The inner silence cultivated in meditation is underneath the desires bubbling up, so we can see them like moving objects. We are a bit detached from the emotional energy in us. Then we can nudge it toward our highest ideal. Just a very easy nudging. No forcing. No big campaign. It is just an easy favoring of our ideal when we notice some emotional energy surging up. It does not matter if it is positive or negative energy.
...
This kind of procedure can be done with every emotion, positive or negative – with our feelings about everything we do.
...
http://www.aypsite.org/67.html

Monday, June 15, 2009

Exercise, Week Starting Monday, 6/15/09

From Experiments... page 112

Meet each of your crosses as if your work were symbolic of all humanity's attempt to deal with the specific type of difficulty. Record your experiences of working with this attitude in mind.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

What if...?

“What if Jesus was the only normal person who ever lived?”


Something to think about. The quote is paraphrased in this article by Bernie Siegel, MD.

Greater Boston area A.R.E. flyer available

A flyer for and about our local A.R.E. region is available online. Please feel free to share it with anyone who’s interested! You can find it on our local website, www.are-northeast.org/boston, and here’s the direct link.

Click to open

Download our flyer
(PDF, 2 pages, 340K)



Black and white copies are also available at Aantre’s during Malcolm Smith’s visit.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Communicating with animals

Bernie Siegel, MD, tells this cute story about how his lost cat Boo Boo was found, along with a little something extra:

Amelia’s Story
I became a believer in our ability to communicate with animals after Amelia Kinkade, an animal intuitive, who while sitting in California, told me via an email that she was seeing through the eyes of our lost cat Boo Boo, who had disappeared from our son’s home in Connecticut...

Healing sessions with Malcolm Smith 6/13-6/15

Healing Sessions with Malcolm Smith
June 13-15 / Sat-Mon @ 9am–9pm

Malcolm Smith is a gifted spiritual healer (website / video) and former coal miner who lives in Yorkshire, England. Malcolm works only through Edgar Cayce’s regional A.R.E. groups. Sessions are open to all. To ensure your space we recommend that you sign up as soon as you can. (Private sessions last 30 minutes and are held in a Braintree/Quincy area home. Call for pricing. “Remote” healing sessions also available, as are healing cloths.) To schedule an appointment, call Aantre (“On-tray”) Kennedy at 1-781-848-8860.

Click here for our local A.R.E. calendar of events, including Malcolm's information.