Morning Meditation

   

The morning is a great time to practice meditation, especially for people new to meditation or out of practice. The mind is closer to the state of freedom in the morning. Later in the day can be a difficult time to get the mind from frantic to calm. The bridge is shorter in the morning.
Here is an idea for morning meditation practice:

1. The first suggestion is important: Do not wake up to an alarm clock. I know this isn't possible for everybody, but perhaps it would be a good idea to redesign life, if possible, to allow the body to wake up gently. Recent research (and ancient wisdom) suggests that waking up to an alarm clock is bad for physical and mental health. Don't worry about what to do today or what's wrong with the world today. You can be a raging beast later this afternoon. For now just take things slowly.

2. The next suggestion is to practice meditation before brushing your teeth, washing your face, taking a shower, or drinking coffee. Drinking room temperature water is ok.

3. For the actual practice...

• Laying: Upon waking up, take it easy. Remain in bed and breathe. Begin your meditation right here. The mind is already calm and ready. Spend at least five minutes feeling life. You might fall asleep again here. That's ok. Start a new morning again when you wake up.
• Sitting: Next slowly get out of bed and sit at the bed corner. Continue breathing. Sit at the edge of the bed with eyes closed and a straight spine. Do this for five minutes and then slowly stand. There's no need to rush. The world isn't going anywhere.
• Standing: Finally, stand at the window or outside and absorb the scenery of the morning while taking in slow deeper natural breaths. Spend as long as you like here. The world around is coming alive and you are part of it. You may see things you normally miss and experience those things as they are rather than what they are. Move as slowly as the morning sun-god. If the gods can move so slow, then surely we mortals can too. There's actually nowhere to be but here. Don't be fooled into thinking otherwise.

Now you can begin the day with a pace set by your morning meditation. Brush teeth, drink more water, have coffee or tea, some food, take a walk, and if you must go to work, do so slowly.

“Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.”
― Henry David Thoreau

An Amazing Time In History

We live in an amazing time in history.
Here are a few things to consider about the time we presently live in:

• We can instantly communicate around the world through type, audio, or video in real time.
• We have virtually unlimited information available at our fingertips; the equivalent of a million libraries.
• Our governments are being exposed.
• We can quickly learn almost any skill with access to teachers and tutorials online. For example, you can learn to fix a broken table leg or cook an amazing omelet or learn a language fluently without having to go through an immersed apprenticeship. In the past one had to go to great lengths to learn to cook and other skills.
• We can interact with people of all nationalities and backgrounds. This expands our pool of knowledge and gives access to wisdom different from our own, which can exponentially expand our own knowledge and wisdom.
• In the past we only heard stories or saw pictures of our deceased relatives. We are now entering an age where we can watch video of how whole past generations lived.
• Alternative foods, building methods, energy sources, and ideas are available to us.
• Through a greater understanding of nutrition and exercise, people have the opportunity to be fitter and healthier than people in the recent past.
• The old restricting beliefs and standards of society are dying a slow death. This will allow the species to move forward.
• You can watch a nature documentary on HD TV and see a cheetah take down a gazelle. 100 years ago people only heard stories and some saw an illustration in a book of these far away mysterious creatures. Very few people ever witnessed something like this, now it is seen by millions.
• You can now learn far more at home than you ever could at a university. Autodidaction.
• We send spaceships throughout the solar system.
• Science has now proven that reality isn't reality.
• We are on the verge of discovering life on other worlds. It has already been proven mathematically.
• We have a deeper understanding of nature.
• There's a "spiritual" consciousness awakening happening around the globe that contrasts centuries of religious and political oppression.
• You have access to alternatives to the proposed status quo. You have access to alternatives to the proposed status quo. Again, you have access to alternatives to the proposed status quo.

Now what are we going to do with all of this information, capability, and potential?
You see, it turns out that it is actually YOU who is steering the ship.

The Textbooks For Life And Living

THE TEXTBOOKS FOR LIFE AND LIVING

To function maximally physically one must consume high quality food and exercise the body.
To function maximally psychologically one must consume high quality information and exercise the mind.
If more people than not read the following book list we would find a world transformed and transcended beyond its own confusion.
These are the textbooks I recommend for graduating to higher levels of life and sanity.

 The Bhagavad Gita

Excellent teaching for non-religious philosophy as well as religious practices. As with all religious texts there is more gained when read metaphorically rather than literally.

Tao Te Ching

As with many old texts there are many translations. All translations are imperfect, even from English to English and person to person! Interpretations may be tricky, and you may read passages from the Tao Te Ching multiple times and gain multiple insights. Never read with the blinders of dogma and certitude.

Science and Sanity

"Science and Sanity" by Alfred Korzybski outlines the tools and practice of General Semantics. It is a very long and difficult book to read. I have read it in bits and once from cover to cover. Alternatively I would suggest reading "Drive Yourself Sane" by Susan Presby Kodish and Bruce I. Kodish.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

This ancient text contains 196 sutras of Raja Yoga that can each be used as a tool towards higher mind.

Prometheus Rising and Quantum Psychology

When most people think of Robert Anton Wilson they think of his surrealist fiction books such as "The Illuminatus Trilogy" and "Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy". I find great understanding in his non-fiction psychology books. They are great tools for understanding the mind and unconvincing yourself of that which your brain tricks itself into thinking it knows. Understanding the functions of the mind and belief can help dissolve the ego fiction that rules the mind.

Freedom From The Known

Everybody's favorite anti-guru lays out a great lecture on embracing uncertainty in this mind-expanding classic.

Walden and Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau wrote "Walden", a transcendental observation of reality from his two year experiment of semi-isolation. It will offer an entirely new way of seeing your own world.
"Civil Disobedience" will transform your understanding of the importance of freedom and resistance to anything or anyone who wishes to impose upon your freedom. It greatly influenced Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr in their struggles against oppression.

The Book

Alan Watts was a great bridge between East and West thought. He was quite eloquent in his speaking and writing. Many think "The Book" is his best work. It covers topics that will take the reader out of daily petty concerns and into a bigger picture.

Critical Path

Buckminster Fuller's writing can be tough to read but well worth the endeavor. In "Critical Path" he discusses the importance of taking care of our world and the importance of taking care of each other instead of only self concerns.

NOW AVAILABLE! "The Poetic Realities, The Poetic Fantasies"

Now available...
"The Poetic Realities, The Poetic Fantasies" the book.
Buy it on Createspace and Amazon.

https://www.createspace.com/5230904

What Is Thought? (Krishnamurti)

What is thought?
Jiddu Krishnamurti

The Awakening Strain

The Awakening Strain

"Awakening" sometimes comes with many adornments: flowers, robes, good feelings, cultural adornments, artwork, support groups, etc. Cultural adornments can be easily passed off as superfluous bullshit, but these adornments can be tools for transcendence if they do not become dogmatic traps. Awakening comes with many great benefits and by way of various paths, but awakening isn't always all marshmallows and gravy.

Awakening, simply put, is transcendence. Transcendence is a beautiful path, but it requires work. For example, a musician really begins to feel music when they transcend the thought of music theory or structure, but the work is still required. Beyond the structure of music is where creativity begins. Music theory itself is not music, but a tool. A religious person can begin the process of true spiritual awakening when they transcend dogma, structure, or system. The symbols and adornments of the various cultural perspectives are tools much like music theory. A meditator achieves awakening by no longer consciously adhering to method and entering into a realm beyond the deliberate effort.

But the work doesn't end once the door is open. The awakened mind (in a relationship with the body) still operates with one foot remaining in the "real" world, and can often struggle to understand surface reality as it interrupts higher consciousness. It's much like swimming to stay above water. The awakened mind has broken through the surface to breathe, but is still doing the work and continues to get wet.

There are also the personal human confines -the relationship of the awakened mind to the animal. For myself, although "awakened" (or I should say "perpetually in the cycle of falling and awakening") I still enjoy a good fight, wood fired meat, horror movies, strange humor, sex, chocolate cake, and other earthly perversions. I still experience anger, judgment, worry, frustration, and fear (although to a lesser degree). These are not flaws to be corrected. These are animalistic tendencies to be observed and experienced. Much as yin has a relationship to yang, the awakened mind can have a relationship to the animal body. One does not necessarily need to derail the other. Despite my love of my inner animal, I also find greatness in the smelling of flowers, staring at trees, creating forms of art, intellectual conversation, deep meditation, and expressing love and compassion.

A lack of perfection is the journey of the awakening strain. There is never a cause to give up, just enjoy the adventure, for no adventure is an adventure if it is perfect. Certainty has no place in awakening, but uncertainty comes with its own strains that are well worth embracing. The work continues.

"Awakening is possible only for those who seek it and want it, for those who are ready to struggle with themselves and work on themselves for a very long time and very persistently in order to attain it."
-G.I. Gurdjieff

"The Poetic Realities, The Poetic Fantasies" COMING SOON!

My next book "The Poetic Realities, The Poetic Fantasies" will be available soon on Amazon in Kindle and paperback format.

It is not a poetry book, but it discusses life, consciousness, meditation, art, philosophy, self improvement, science, spirituality, quantum physics, yoga, and the human condition. It is a very deep and unique book with plenty of entertainment, metaphor, and humor. In it you will find poetry, prose, aphorism, short story, and lecture. "A poetic reality is not the truth and a poetic fantasy is not a lie."

Visit my Amazon page for more info: http://www.amazon.com/author/larengreyumphlett

Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds

Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds

An excellent documentary explaining the higher orders of consciousness.

Part One- Akasha

Part Two- The Spiral

Part Three- The Serpent and The Lotus

Part Four- Beyond Thinking

The official Inner Worlds website:
Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds


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The Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita is one of the highest spiritual texts in human history. It is an ancient Hindu summary of the Vedic, Vedanta, and Yoga philosophies, and can be applied to life by anyone.

"He alone sees truly who sees the Lord the same in every creature...seeing the same Lord everywhere, he does not harm himself or others."

-Krishna

“The power of God is with you at all times; through the activities of mind, senses, breathing, and emotions; and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument.” 
-The Bhagavad Gita

“The nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons.They arise from sense perception,and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.” 

-The Bhagavad Gita

To read The Gita follow this link:

http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/index-english.html