VISA APPROVALS | The Mind is made of MAYA | Understand the VAIRAAGYA and the ABHYAAS - The Practice | BY JBLL @visaapprovals9149 | Uploaded 4 years ago | Updated 3 hours ago
Hi ....
OM Namah Shivaay ....
When you looked around you noticed things, and you noticed those things without thinking thoughts about them.
Just then when you noticed the light around you and then looked around briefly and noticed things, what you did was shift your attention away from your thoughts about these words and put your attention on what's happening around you.
Having your attention on words and thoughts or having your attention on what's happening around you is a choice you make about where to put your attention. If you choose to have your attention on thoughts, then thoughts will predominate, which in turn will obscure what is happening around you. On the other hand, if your attention is innocently noticing the light around you or innocently noticing things around you, then the light and the things around you will predominate, which in turn obscures thoughts.
To help you connect more with what is happening around you, do this exercise several times a week:
Notice the light around you and that you notice the light without thinking about it.
This exercise combined with regular meditation can help shift the balance from living life "in your head" towards living life more in the present moment.
In meditation thoughts tend to diminish at times and so you become more familiar with the silence and stillness that remain. Through meditating regularly, you become more and more familiar with that silence and stillness, which then helps you recognize and expand that silence and stillness in everyday life (see How To Meditate).
Spending time alone in nature is another way to become more familiar with and expand silence and stillness. Take long walks alone in the forest, fields or parks. (Note that when you walk in nature with someone else you tend to talk, which obscures silence.) To experience even deeper silence and stillness, put on a backpack, walk deep into nature and spend many days there alone. If you have children, take them camping and send them to a school held in nature that teaches them about nature.
For you however, meditation and time alone in nature may not shift the balance of thoughts and experience. For you, that balance may shift through gardening, dancing, yoga, singing, tai chi, sports, making music, knitting, etc. And when you notice the silence and stillness, stay with them and sink into them. Silence and stillness the absence of thoughts cannot be known through thoughts and words. They can only be known through experiencing them, just as you can only know what honeysuckle smells like by experiencing the smell. Words can be written about the smell of honeysuckle, but words can never describe, contain or convey the smell of honeysuckle.The above approaches can take the edge off the fear of death.We live two lives: we live life in our thoughts and we live life as our experience of the present moment.
Freedom comes as our life in thoughts diminishes and our experience of the present moment predominates.Freedom comes through learning how to balance thoughts and the present moment.
We developed the ability to think abstractly only about 70,000 - 95,000 years ago*. Apparently the part of life we live "in our head" today simply did not exist before that time, and instead human life was solely a series of immediate experiences, like the lives of other creatures. (To learn more about "The Rise of Abstract Thinking" see the last section below.)
Abstract thinking has certainly improved the human condition but it has also created some serious problems. Stress accounts for over 60% of doctor visits and much of that stress results from people continually thinking and worrying about the past and the future. Often we literally are not here but instead are in our head thinking and worrying. It appears that meditation and other practices were originally developed as ways to help maintain a healthy balance of the life we live in our head and the life we live as immediate experiences. In our Your Beliefs Quiz this question is asked: Are there times during your day when you notice you have no thoughts? Over 10,000 people have answered that question and 66% say they are thinking all the time while 34% say they notice some absence of thoughts during their day.Exercises,It appears that many people are thinking most of the time and would like to be thinking less.
As you read these words your attention is on the thoughts and ideas presented. As you read these words you are also aware of the light around you. Being aware of the light around you does not involve having any thoughts. Now stop reading this, look around briefly, and come back to reading this. Do that now. Look around briefly and come back to reading this. However when faced with life threatening medical situations, those approaches do not extinguish the fear of death for some people. In that regard recent research into a third approach from traditional religions is encouraging.
Hi ....
OM Namah Shivaay ....
When you looked around you noticed things, and you noticed those things without thinking thoughts about them.
Just then when you noticed the light around you and then looked around briefly and noticed things, what you did was shift your attention away from your thoughts about these words and put your attention on what's happening around you.
Having your attention on words and thoughts or having your attention on what's happening around you is a choice you make about where to put your attention. If you choose to have your attention on thoughts, then thoughts will predominate, which in turn will obscure what is happening around you. On the other hand, if your attention is innocently noticing the light around you or innocently noticing things around you, then the light and the things around you will predominate, which in turn obscures thoughts.
To help you connect more with what is happening around you, do this exercise several times a week:
Notice the light around you and that you notice the light without thinking about it.
This exercise combined with regular meditation can help shift the balance from living life "in your head" towards living life more in the present moment.
In meditation thoughts tend to diminish at times and so you become more familiar with the silence and stillness that remain. Through meditating regularly, you become more and more familiar with that silence and stillness, which then helps you recognize and expand that silence and stillness in everyday life (see How To Meditate).
Spending time alone in nature is another way to become more familiar with and expand silence and stillness. Take long walks alone in the forest, fields or parks. (Note that when you walk in nature with someone else you tend to talk, which obscures silence.) To experience even deeper silence and stillness, put on a backpack, walk deep into nature and spend many days there alone. If you have children, take them camping and send them to a school held in nature that teaches them about nature.
For you however, meditation and time alone in nature may not shift the balance of thoughts and experience. For you, that balance may shift through gardening, dancing, yoga, singing, tai chi, sports, making music, knitting, etc. And when you notice the silence and stillness, stay with them and sink into them. Silence and stillness the absence of thoughts cannot be known through thoughts and words. They can only be known through experiencing them, just as you can only know what honeysuckle smells like by experiencing the smell. Words can be written about the smell of honeysuckle, but words can never describe, contain or convey the smell of honeysuckle.The above approaches can take the edge off the fear of death.We live two lives: we live life in our thoughts and we live life as our experience of the present moment.
Freedom comes as our life in thoughts diminishes and our experience of the present moment predominates.Freedom comes through learning how to balance thoughts and the present moment.
We developed the ability to think abstractly only about 70,000 - 95,000 years ago*. Apparently the part of life we live "in our head" today simply did not exist before that time, and instead human life was solely a series of immediate experiences, like the lives of other creatures. (To learn more about "The Rise of Abstract Thinking" see the last section below.)
Abstract thinking has certainly improved the human condition but it has also created some serious problems. Stress accounts for over 60% of doctor visits and much of that stress results from people continually thinking and worrying about the past and the future. Often we literally are not here but instead are in our head thinking and worrying. It appears that meditation and other practices were originally developed as ways to help maintain a healthy balance of the life we live in our head and the life we live as immediate experiences. In our Your Beliefs Quiz this question is asked: Are there times during your day when you notice you have no thoughts? Over 10,000 people have answered that question and 66% say they are thinking all the time while 34% say they notice some absence of thoughts during their day.Exercises,It appears that many people are thinking most of the time and would like to be thinking less.
As you read these words your attention is on the thoughts and ideas presented. As you read these words you are also aware of the light around you. Being aware of the light around you does not involve having any thoughts. Now stop reading this, look around briefly, and come back to reading this. Do that now. Look around briefly and come back to reading this. However when faced with life threatening medical situations, those approaches do not extinguish the fear of death for some people. In that regard recent research into a third approach from traditional religions is encouraging.
