Tuesday, November 08, 2005
gratitude
3-D Gratitude
by Rebbie Straubing
If you’ve ever seen a school of fish swim right past your 3-D
goggles through the cool dry air of a movie theatre, you know the
impact of 3-D technology. It makes your moment more vivid. It
places you deep at the heart of things.
Adding a 3-D effect to your moments of gratitude can pop you right
into a wonderland of day-to-day life.
The 3 dimensions of gratitude function as a mantra that goes like this:
“I thank you. I thank Me. I thank God.”
Each segment of the formula serves a function. By feeling deeply into the meaning of
each statement, you can soak your senses in the richness of the 3-D present moment.
Thanking Others
“I thank you.” Here’s a commonplace phrase that finds itself tossed about mindlessly
on the waves of conversation. Sometimes it barely skims the surface of the deeper
issue. And yet, the words, “Thank you,” when spoken from the heart, satisfy a need in
the sender and touch the soul of the receiver. These words, when truly uttered and
openly received, birth a river of relationship that needs no further embellishment.
Structure: Thanking others gives us the first dimension of gratitude. It ranges from
thanking a stranger for picking up the pen you just dropped, to thanking the unknown,
unseen planners of your city for the convenience of your streets and sidewalks, to
thanking your mother for nurturing you through your infancy.
You can thank those you know and those you don’t for good things large and small.
Function: Practicing thanking others cultivates relationship. It heightens your sense of
interconnectedness with your world. It strengthens your awareness of the whole of
which you are a part.
Try This: Revise the words, “Thank you,” in your internal dictionary. Call upon these
words to establish deep awareness of how your spirit touches others and how the good
intentions of others stream energy into your experience.
Wake up every time you say, “Thank you.”
Say, “Thank you,” often.
Thanking Yourself
Here’s a less used phrase. Saying, “I thank me,” to yourself means, “I thank myself.”
Although you may not be in the habit of acknowledging your own efforts with gratitude,
it strengthens your energetic field when you do.
Structure: Thanking yourself gives you the second dimension of gratitude. It may take
the form of coming home tired and thanking yourself for having made your bed in the
morning. If you are a student and you create study sheets for yourself, you may want
to thank yourself when you prepare for an exam and your previous efforts speed up
your study process.
You can thank yourself for things you did, thoughts you pondered or any efforts you
made, this morning or during childhood, that benefit you in your now.
Function: Practicing thanking yourself cultivates centeredness. It expands your
energetic field and fortifies your spirit. It fosters independence.
Try This: Embrace the words, “I thank me,” as a new addition to your phrase
vocabulary. Call upon these words to deepen your roots and heighten your reach.
Close your eyes and say, “Thank you,” to yourself. Or say, “I thank me.”
Thanking God
If you spend all your time thanking others and yourself, you can paint yourself a pretty
good life, but it won’t pop into 3-D until you include the Infinite in your scheme of
appreciation. Nurturing a sense of awe deepens your capacity to authentically thank
God.
Then you thank God, you must consider who or what God is. Doing this, you realize
that God is impossible to comprehend. As you feel the incomprehensible nature of your
relationship with your Source, your own gratitude blankets you with the same divine
love for which you are grateful.
Structure: Thanking God shifts your gratitude into 3-D. It takes you from flat,
textureless tedium into grace.
You can thank God for anything and everything.
Function: Practicing thanking God cultivates your relationship with the Source from
which you flow. It relieves you from the burden of thinking you must control
circumstances. It inspires you to thoughts, words and deeds that harmonize with your
heart’s intention.
Try This: When your mantra takes you to the phrase, “I thank God,” release all tension
in your chest and abdomen. As you thank God for the blessings already apparent in
your life, open to allow in even more. Let your thanks act as a vortex through which
even more good can flow to you.
Release some tension, let go of some holding, open your spirit every time you say, “I
thank God.”
Now, as you walk through your life, even though you have no special 3-D glasses on,
your world will be deeper, lighter, richer and a much friendlier place. Walk with this
mantra: “I thank you, I thank me, I thank God.” You’ll live vividly at the heart of things.
© 2005 Rebbie Straubing
by Rebbie Straubing
If you’ve ever seen a school of fish swim right past your 3-D
goggles through the cool dry air of a movie theatre, you know the
impact of 3-D technology. It makes your moment more vivid. It
places you deep at the heart of things.
Adding a 3-D effect to your moments of gratitude can pop you right
into a wonderland of day-to-day life.
The 3 dimensions of gratitude function as a mantra that goes like this:
“I thank you. I thank Me. I thank God.”
Each segment of the formula serves a function. By feeling deeply into the meaning of
each statement, you can soak your senses in the richness of the 3-D present moment.
Thanking Others
“I thank you.” Here’s a commonplace phrase that finds itself tossed about mindlessly
on the waves of conversation. Sometimes it barely skims the surface of the deeper
issue. And yet, the words, “Thank you,” when spoken from the heart, satisfy a need in
the sender and touch the soul of the receiver. These words, when truly uttered and
openly received, birth a river of relationship that needs no further embellishment.
Structure: Thanking others gives us the first dimension of gratitude. It ranges from
thanking a stranger for picking up the pen you just dropped, to thanking the unknown,
unseen planners of your city for the convenience of your streets and sidewalks, to
thanking your mother for nurturing you through your infancy.
You can thank those you know and those you don’t for good things large and small.
Function: Practicing thanking others cultivates relationship. It heightens your sense of
interconnectedness with your world. It strengthens your awareness of the whole of
which you are a part.
Try This: Revise the words, “Thank you,” in your internal dictionary. Call upon these
words to establish deep awareness of how your spirit touches others and how the good
intentions of others stream energy into your experience.
Wake up every time you say, “Thank you.”
Say, “Thank you,” often.
Thanking Yourself
Here’s a less used phrase. Saying, “I thank me,” to yourself means, “I thank myself.”
Although you may not be in the habit of acknowledging your own efforts with gratitude,
it strengthens your energetic field when you do.
Structure: Thanking yourself gives you the second dimension of gratitude. It may take
the form of coming home tired and thanking yourself for having made your bed in the
morning. If you are a student and you create study sheets for yourself, you may want
to thank yourself when you prepare for an exam and your previous efforts speed up
your study process.
You can thank yourself for things you did, thoughts you pondered or any efforts you
made, this morning or during childhood, that benefit you in your now.
Function: Practicing thanking yourself cultivates centeredness. It expands your
energetic field and fortifies your spirit. It fosters independence.
Try This: Embrace the words, “I thank me,” as a new addition to your phrase
vocabulary. Call upon these words to deepen your roots and heighten your reach.
Close your eyes and say, “Thank you,” to yourself. Or say, “I thank me.”
Thanking God
If you spend all your time thanking others and yourself, you can paint yourself a pretty
good life, but it won’t pop into 3-D until you include the Infinite in your scheme of
appreciation. Nurturing a sense of awe deepens your capacity to authentically thank
God.
Then you thank God, you must consider who or what God is. Doing this, you realize
that God is impossible to comprehend. As you feel the incomprehensible nature of your
relationship with your Source, your own gratitude blankets you with the same divine
love for which you are grateful.
Structure: Thanking God shifts your gratitude into 3-D. It takes you from flat,
textureless tedium into grace.
You can thank God for anything and everything.
Function: Practicing thanking God cultivates your relationship with the Source from
which you flow. It relieves you from the burden of thinking you must control
circumstances. It inspires you to thoughts, words and deeds that harmonize with your
heart’s intention.
Try This: When your mantra takes you to the phrase, “I thank God,” release all tension
in your chest and abdomen. As you thank God for the blessings already apparent in
your life, open to allow in even more. Let your thanks act as a vortex through which
even more good can flow to you.
Release some tension, let go of some holding, open your spirit every time you say, “I
thank God.”
Now, as you walk through your life, even though you have no special 3-D glasses on,
your world will be deeper, lighter, richer and a much friendlier place. Walk with this
mantra: “I thank you, I thank me, I thank God.” You’ll live vividly at the heart of things.
© 2005 Rebbie Straubing
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Mental Diet
Practice: To focus on the culture of thoughts, ideas, impressions that you allow into your mind.
For a moment, imagine that the music you listen to, the television you watch, and the conversations you entertain, are food items that you chose to consume.
Does your mental diet serve your health and well being?Please think about it some more.
Is Fifty Cent an apple, a carrot, pork rinds?
Is the evening news a crisp salad of mixed greens and tomatoes, or a Coca-Cola?
What type of food is gossiping with friends?
Observe how you feel and how your thinking is affected by your mental diet choices. Be aware of that which you allow entrance into the mansion of your soul.
For a moment, imagine that the music you listen to, the television you watch, and the conversations you entertain, are food items that you chose to consume.
Does your mental diet serve your health and well being?Please think about it some more.
Is Fifty Cent an apple, a carrot, pork rinds?
Is the evening news a crisp salad of mixed greens and tomatoes, or a Coca-Cola?
What type of food is gossiping with friends?
Observe how you feel and how your thinking is affected by your mental diet choices. Be aware of that which you allow entrance into the mansion of your soul.
Transforming Anger
Transforming Anger
By Nikhil Gangoli
All of us feel anger and hatred from time to time. Eastern meditation and mindfulness techniques can help us manage and transform our anger so that the energy contained in the anger benefits us, instead of spreading misery to others and ourselves.
It is important to note that although anger causes us pain we should not reject it or disown it. Suppose your stomach or legs or some other part of your body grew diseased and caused you pain. Would you for that reason try to get rid of your stomach or your legs? Of course you would not. Anger can be transformed and the energy contained in it can be of much use to us. The story is told of Angulimala - a famous armed robber who had murdered 999 people. Yet a meeting with the Buddha changed him and transformed the anger within him. If a legendary criminal can transform his anger then surely so can we.
Think of your anger as a farmer would regard organic fertilizer. A farmer with garbage and organic waste knows that he can use it to grow nutritious fruits and vegetables. So also we can use the anger within us to grow spiritually and become awakened.
We can care for and transform our anger the way a mother cares for her baby - by practicing mindfulness whenever we are angry. The effect mindfulness has on anger can be compared with the way flowers respond to sunlight. At sunrise the rays from the sun reach the flower. The photons contained in the sun rays penetrate the flower. After 15 to 20 minutes the flower can no longer resist and she opens herself to the sun rays.
In a similar manner we need to practice mindfulness at all times and especially when we are angry. Observe the breath entering or leaving the body when you are angry. At the same time observe the anger within you without judging or condemning or rejecting it in any way. After some minutes the anger will open itself to you and fade away. The cause of the anger will be revealed and the energy contained in the anger will be available for your use.
Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese poet and Zen Buddhist master, says that we need to care for our anger the way a mother cares for her newborn baby. The mother may be cooking in the kitchen and yet the moment the baby cries out she immediately goes to see what is wrong. Because she is a skillful mother she soon finds out what is wrong - whether it is that the baby is hungry or the nappy is too tight or whatever may be the case.
In the same way, the moment we feel angry we need to care for it by practicing mindfulness. We can observe the breath. We can go out for a walk and make the act of walking our meditation practice. Observe the sensations in the feet as they land on the ground one after the other. At the same time observe your breath. You will soon know how many steps you take for each in breath and out breath. Walk in this mindful manner for 20 minutes to half an hour and your anger will open itself to you and be transformed.
Anger, left uncared for, spreads a lot of pain and misery not only in ourselves but also in others that we come in contact with. There is a natural tendency to lash out at others when we are angry and this has the result of spreading misery. If we practice transforming anger through mindfulness, we will not only be much happier and more peaceful ourselves but we can also care for others and share our happiness and peace. In this way our meditation practice will help in making the world a better place.
Thich Nhat Hanh has written a very insightful book on this subject - "Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames." Many effective ways of dealing with anger are explained.
Copyright © 2005 Nikhil GangoliFor more articles in this series and a free report on the connection between Quantum Physics and Eastern Philosophy visit eastern-philosophy-and-meditation.com. Find out why it makes scientific sense to practice these methods.
By Nikhil Gangoli
All of us feel anger and hatred from time to time. Eastern meditation and mindfulness techniques can help us manage and transform our anger so that the energy contained in the anger benefits us, instead of spreading misery to others and ourselves.
It is important to note that although anger causes us pain we should not reject it or disown it. Suppose your stomach or legs or some other part of your body grew diseased and caused you pain. Would you for that reason try to get rid of your stomach or your legs? Of course you would not. Anger can be transformed and the energy contained in it can be of much use to us. The story is told of Angulimala - a famous armed robber who had murdered 999 people. Yet a meeting with the Buddha changed him and transformed the anger within him. If a legendary criminal can transform his anger then surely so can we.
Think of your anger as a farmer would regard organic fertilizer. A farmer with garbage and organic waste knows that he can use it to grow nutritious fruits and vegetables. So also we can use the anger within us to grow spiritually and become awakened.
We can care for and transform our anger the way a mother cares for her baby - by practicing mindfulness whenever we are angry. The effect mindfulness has on anger can be compared with the way flowers respond to sunlight. At sunrise the rays from the sun reach the flower. The photons contained in the sun rays penetrate the flower. After 15 to 20 minutes the flower can no longer resist and she opens herself to the sun rays.
In a similar manner we need to practice mindfulness at all times and especially when we are angry. Observe the breath entering or leaving the body when you are angry. At the same time observe the anger within you without judging or condemning or rejecting it in any way. After some minutes the anger will open itself to you and fade away. The cause of the anger will be revealed and the energy contained in the anger will be available for your use.
Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese poet and Zen Buddhist master, says that we need to care for our anger the way a mother cares for her newborn baby. The mother may be cooking in the kitchen and yet the moment the baby cries out she immediately goes to see what is wrong. Because she is a skillful mother she soon finds out what is wrong - whether it is that the baby is hungry or the nappy is too tight or whatever may be the case.
In the same way, the moment we feel angry we need to care for it by practicing mindfulness. We can observe the breath. We can go out for a walk and make the act of walking our meditation practice. Observe the sensations in the feet as they land on the ground one after the other. At the same time observe your breath. You will soon know how many steps you take for each in breath and out breath. Walk in this mindful manner for 20 minutes to half an hour and your anger will open itself to you and be transformed.
Anger, left uncared for, spreads a lot of pain and misery not only in ourselves but also in others that we come in contact with. There is a natural tendency to lash out at others when we are angry and this has the result of spreading misery. If we practice transforming anger through mindfulness, we will not only be much happier and more peaceful ourselves but we can also care for others and share our happiness and peace. In this way our meditation practice will help in making the world a better place.
Thich Nhat Hanh has written a very insightful book on this subject - "Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames." Many effective ways of dealing with anger are explained.
Copyright © 2005 Nikhil GangoliFor more articles in this series and a free report on the connection between Quantum Physics and Eastern Philosophy visit eastern-philosophy-and-meditation.com. Find out why it makes scientific sense to practice these methods.
