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Warriors Path ?
These are views and opinions by the author and contributors.
There you were going to
work - yet another day increasingly your becoming a bit fed up
unfulfilled thinking "there must be more to life than
this"...
At the office you're in a meeting, everyone's getting excited and
your sitting there with the thought "well if you look at
this... in comparison with the rest of the world it means
nothing, it's a game and you try and contain your laughter"
- You're there because you need a roof over your head and food on
the table. It's probably time you started to explore what's out
there. If you've read something like "the Celestine Prophecy" you have probably started a
journey....
Well what's next? All I can say is "Welcome" and perhaps you're just about to turn your life upside down !!
Well where do you start, heard phases/words such as shaman's, medicine wheel, sweat lodges, vision quests, stopping the world, breaking point, stalking, dreaming, chakras, energy. aura's....what do they all mean, well I hope to give a little insight here from my & others experiences. Feel free to send in your comments and suggestions. I'll incorporate them as this journey unfolds. What I intend to do is lead the way to various topics, explain them in detail then continue until the next topic so you can read from start to finish or 'dive in' on a topic section, due to space restraints the whole story won't be available at the same time however you can email for a complete file.
We have to start somewhere this maybe a time to recommend a book or two which should help and be a good introduction "Way of the peaceful warrior" by Dan Millman and "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho " listening to the books from a tape is something I've only recently tried however I can sincerely recommend it, it also seems to be a quicker way of assimilating the information. These books are very different and work at different levels. One is a modified life story of the author, the other like a fable easy to read but tackles some complex thoughts.
So your feeling a little
disillusioned and you want to explore this feeling and are asking
yourself why?
You will have to be a little disciplined with yourself to try the
practices I suggest however I think once you start you'll build
momentum and interest which will help to carry you further. You
may even give up and think this isn't for you or it's a load of
rubbish that's fine, just listen to yourself and follow that
which you feel is right and comfortable for you at this point in
time.
So are you ready?
What I want to try and start with is to get you into the habit of
practicing to quieten your mind, being able to just sit down do
nothing and think nothing for a period of time. A form of
meditating if you will which will aid you to find some of your
own answers. Easy you may think but wait and see!
Ok make some time for
yourself preferably early evening around dusk, find a comfortable
seat where you can sit upright with your back supported, sit down
without a light on and gaze out of a window or across the room,
nothing to it! now became aware of your breathing, take deep
breaths inhaling and exhaling for the same length of time, try a
count of 5, inhale 1...2...3...4...5... exhale 1...2...3...4...5
now try a count of 10 then 15 and maybe 20 now you should be
really relaxed(hopefully not blue!).
Now I used the term gaze because I don't want you to focus on
anything in particular but try to widen your view so you can see
everything at the same time, all the plants, trees, bushes in the
garden gently swaying in the afternoon breeze, the table, chairs,
pictures on the wall, all the white peaks of the waves in the
sea, wherever you are just see it all... easy huh! if you start
blinking or your eyes are watering you're trying too hard. Just
soak up these views and feel drawn to the gentle movement of what
your seeing.
Next listen to all the thoughts that are continuously battling for space in your head - what’s for tea, I' didn't like the way ..... talked to me today, where shall I go out to tonight.... listen to them, how many are there ? but don't argue with them or answer them e.g.: I think I’d like to have a Chinese tonight etc... just acknowledge that they are there, let them just float away, but say ok I'll deal with this later. You may find that there's just too many and they're constantly popping into your mind, don't worry this may take a lot of practice but you will eventually be able to silence them on demand and work towards quietening them for ever. Try and perform this task regularly, every day if you can for just a few minutes. If the weathers nice sit outside on the grass breathe in the fresh air. Just relax, just be.
Whenever you feel harassed or stressed due to work, family, everyday try and do this for a few moments, if it's not practical remember doing it with your mind picture yourself sitting there just being - this should help you to feel calm.
This maybe a good time to introduce 'meditation' to you, don't like labels and terms, think it sounds a bit weird well we probably all undertake a form of meditation without thinking about it. Do you commute to work, sit on the bus/train eyes closed but not asleep, do you go to the gym and switch off and just workout these are all forms of meditation you don't have to sit with your legs crossed and chant! I don't know many that do.
Although meditation is a mental discipline because we as humans are more than just brains with a methods of moving around we are composed of a mind, body and spirit and anything we do with either component has an effect on the others a term for thought here would be 'balance', so it's beneficial to our health, solve problems, self realization and I'm feeling brave here so I'm going to say spiritual growth.
Well we've already started our meditating so we are just going to take another step and perform a slightly different meditation, what your going to do is pencil in a 30 minute gap for yourself in your schedule perhaps a Saturday / Sunday morning find some space by which I mean a room or corner of the garden where you can be alone and not disturbed no door bell no phone, no kids, no partner(unless they're joining in, light a candle, incense if you wish I find Frankincense is very good.
Using a pre-recorded meditation tape would be a good idea as the visualization is explained and the time controlled('Rainbow Bridge' by Edwin Courtenay would be ideal, available from this web site) in the absence of this tape you can follow my suggestions. Sit down where your back is straight and supported you won't get pins and needles but you won't fall asleep close your eyes clear your minds as you've done before, it may help to visualize different colours one after the other red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, white(the significance of the colours will be explained later) as you do this take deep breathes exhaling for the same length of time you inhale. Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.
From the colour white imagine your in a new world one of your own creation you can do anything here meet people friends relatives be anyone, do anything......just explore this time and space......when its ready for you to come back again visualize the colours in reverse order white, violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red.
It will be useful if you can summon the discipline to jot down a few details in a journal, so you can see how your progressing and maybe analyze what you saw, also record how you felt before and after the meditation.
MEDITATION - As the dictionary says "exercise the mind in contemplation" well I think we'll leave that definition there.
Why do we meditate ? to quieten our mind, to help find an answer to a question, to relax, to further our spiritual awareness. There are many types of meditation, I'm not planning on diving into the differences for now - maybe at a later date.
The environment - As I've already mentioned you should have a space where you will not be disturbed, initially it's good to practice at the same time regularly so your body will learn to quieten itself at each session which will help. A candle, incense, low/no lights and a crystal are useful tools. The crystal can be a pebble size quartz which will comfortably sit in the palm of your left hand and shouldn't cost you very much. It is important to try and sit so your back is kept straight during the meditation.
The Practice - I'd like to recommend again here pre-recorded meditation tapes which relax you and talk you through, these are safe and come with different themes. Once you are well practiced you may find it just as easy with on your own.
It's good to meditate with others at times and be able to discuss what you see, don't forget take notes afterwards and have a go at interpreting. Having a book like "Signposts" may help with the translation of different symbols etc.
Dreaming : Talking about symbols leads us nicely into dreams and there interpretation we all have lots of dreams many seem as real as everyday life others we forget before we wake. Dreams can be a glimpse into the future or past, look upon them as a symbolic message which can be interpreted. The first thing I'd suggest is to get a notebook and pen by the bedside and before falling asleep hold the thought that when you dream you'll jot down a brief description of what happened in the dream so you can have a go at determining what it represents in your life. It may take a while for you to be able to do this but you'll eventually be able to and probably without at all be aware at the time! So often there will be a supprise for you on your notepad when you awaken!
The next step is to be able to manipulate your dreaming, the first step here is to be able to focus your attention. To practice this you must will yourself to look at your hands whilst dreaming, a handy tip is to wear a ring on your little finger so if you start feeling uncomfortable you can programme yourself to flick the ring with another finger and hence wake yourself up. But here's the chance to explore so give it a try...
Topics to be covered.....
Perhaps you've had stages
where you look unfavourably on someone, you may think they're
beneath you etc. what part of us judges others ?
Should we be doing that ?
Are we better than anyone else ?
You may have guessed but now we're going to talk a little about
the EGO the dictionary says something along the lines of
"idealization of oneself" , some say that once you've
conquered the ego you've reached a certain threshold however I'd
rather say that dueling with the ego is an everyday every minute
battle, be aware, very aware of it and pull it in all the time,
don't judge others or measure yourself against others be
yourself, having material wealth and possessions - what does it
mean or indeed matter does having make you really happy ?
CHAKRAS, AURAS, YOGA, CHI KUNG, SYMBOLISM, RITUALS and more....
RITUALS can and should be fun, they are in esscense a way of training our intent and focus in order to manipulate our energy and attention to achieve a specific task. They can be as elaborate as you want, however don't forget that the reason behind them should be 'pure' and for the good of all. Self gain and revenge are definately not a motive for ritual and can cause a lot of problems for you.
Feel free to send in your comments and suggestions. I'd like the "creative team" to be as large as possible so we can all learn