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| | | | Sourceful greetings to all...
I am Alan Scherr, President of Synchronicity Foundation and one of the moderators of this forum. I would love hearing from all interested participants on the subject of your meditative / spiritual experience. Whether you are new to Synchronicity or are already practicing with us, what's happening for you on a daily basis? Are you moving beyond the mind into states of witness or unified consciousness or is meditation a battle with your thoughts? What kinds of experiences are you having on an energetic level? - feeling energy flowing / moving through your form.... openings and clearings.... hyper-wakefulness or "absence".... intoxication or heaviness.... insight and inspiration....
Please share your experience, that we may all benefit.
Isn't that what we would call practical spirituality?
__________________
Alan M. Scherr, President
Synchronicity Foundation
2610 Adial Road
Faber, VA 22938
434-361-2323 _________________________________________________________________ Hello,
I began meditating about a year and a half ago. This meditation was quickly enhanced when I purchased the five theta range "Sounds of Source" cds. Before this time I had battled with serious drug addiction and for about 7 months I stayed sober and the meditation experience helped greatly. My main issue is with discipline. As my past is full of painful memories which has contributed to a present not exactly fitting my preferences, my ego still stubbornly is attached to nonacceptance, resistance, pessimism, jealousy, selfpity, resignation, passing judgement and selfishness. For 5 years I used drugs and alcohol to escape my thoughts, feelings and emotions and the transition to meditation was at first amazing. But as with all things, the initial glow faded and meditation became more mundane and required much discipline to sit and practice. As life became more stressful and I experienced some events quite painful to my ego I no longer went to meditation but instead began to build up the inner resistance and self pity again. This led me back to drugs which I have been struggling with ever since. I receive the meditation toolbox and I understand the tools of affirmation and holistic experience. I understand that thoughts are just thoughts and they come and go like clouds in the sky. I understand that holistic experience means embracing all aspects of my outer and inner life and not selecting and rejecting. But understanding those concepts and living them are totally different. My thoughts and emotions continually weigh me down and have me constantly dwelling on the painful past and worrying about the amorphous future. At one point about a year ago I was on a spiritual high. I was practicing meditation twice daily using the cd's, I was practicing spiritual principles and I miss those times dearly. Whatever the cause was though, I lost that place of balance drastically. I tried to find a spiritual community to practice with but as a scientist I find all religion contains superstition and ignorant concepts I can't accept. I believe quantum physics reveals that reality is holistic and consciousness is fundamental. So I was drawn to synchronicity.org because it focuses on practical matters instead of dogma. As an introvert and loner, the loneliness I felt deep within was a constant thorn in my side. This kept me always on the brink of unbalance as I was constantly looking for, seeking and desiring human companionship. So after a couple of months all that renewal disappeared and I was back in the dark. At present, I am unemployed and have a spotty and troublesome professional work record. So I am still full of resistance to what IS. Also I am quite inactive and have a lot of time on my hands which leads me to dwell for hours on all that is negative and depressing which just landslides. This pushes me to want to escape with drugs. It is a bad cycle but one I intend all the time to end. I just seem to keep falling back into it. I have made a goal to start meditating using the theta range cds again and do it daily so as to build up a disciplined practice. I can see some progress but my intitial attempts were quite difficult as I couldn't stay focused for more than 10 seconds on my breath and my attention kept going to my thoughts. After a half an hour though the cd's did meditate me even though I lost complete focus and drifted into my thoughts for most of the time. I am beginning to try to get back to a life of balance. I would appreciate anyones feedback or comments. My email is copernicaz19@peoplepc.com.
Sincerely,
Ethan Martin _________________________________________________________________ Hello Ethan - I am happy to welcome you to the Synchronicity message board and am grateful for your sharing of experience. What you describe therein is not at all uncommon as many of us have struggled with addictions and other similar challenges. So, first of all, you are not any better or worse off than many and you are also among friends. The most important thing you have going in your favor is an intention to live consciously and to grow spiritually.
As you are already aware - real spiritual life includes a great "clearing" process and everything that is incongruent with our conscious intention comes to the surface to be addressed. All our illusions of separation, pain, lack of self-worth, victimization, disempowerment, etc... all must be brought to awareness and relinquished. Thus, meditation and a holistic lifestyle is not just love, light and bliss... but takes real courage and fortitude. Yes, you will fall down and feel challenged - and yes, you will get up again and move forward. It takes real focus. But it is the only truthful remedy for all the imbalances that we create in our lives and that keep us in limitation and misery.
As you have delineated your main challenge in terms of discipline - what I recommend for you at this point in your journey is to bring focus to your physical dimension (in addition to meditating regularly). The physical body is the foundation upon which everything else is based. Having subtle meditation experiences is dependent on keeping the denser dimensions in a state of balance. Otherwise, you are trying to build a skyscraper from the top down.
Specifically, you need to get focused in a balanced diet and exercise routine as a constant. We recommend the Zone Diet as presented by Dr. Barry Sears. Obtain a copy of "Enter the Zone" by DR. Sears - read it and begin right away to adapt to the new way of eating. This diet will specifically bring balance to your hormonal system which controls the emotions and feelings and through which you will start to feel much better in just a few days time.
Then, as another part of the balancing process in the physical dimension - you must have a period or two of vigorous, aerobic exercise everyday. Forty-five minutes to an hour a day would be ideal. Perhaps it could be divided into two periods of 25 - 30 minutes each. One of the exercise periods would be very helpful to have just prior to sitting for your daily period of meditation. That would help you to relax and settle more deeply into the meditation.
The point here is that meditation - even Synchronicity Contemporary Meditation - as powerful as it is - alone is not enough to bring the kind of balance to your daily life that you require. We must look at each dimension and address it individually along with meditation as the primary balancing technique. This is what is meant by a "holistic lifestyle". Start with the physical and then when that is moving along, contact me and we can take the next step toward balance, wholeness and fulfillment. For now, it is better not to focus too much on things like the ego, non-acceptance, judgment, etc. These are just the symptoms of a deeper causative level of imbalance which we all have to deal with - albeit in different ways. Trying to be non-judgmental for instance, is an exercise in futility when the bio-chemistry of the body is out of balance. With balance, all these issues can be addressed far more effectively. That is why Master Charles has placed so much emphasis on a holistic lifestyle - not just "meditate and everything will work out".
Ethan - Try this and see the results... in your meditation as well as your exterior life. Let us know how it goes and stay connected.
Sourcefully,
Alan
__________________
Alan M. Scherr, President
Synchronicity Foundation
2610 Adial Road
Faber, VA 22938
434-361-2323 __________________________________________________________________ In reply to Ethan's post above.
It seems that you're split between your experience of "nonacceptance, resistance, pessimism, jealousy, selfpity, resignation, passing judgement and selfishness" that you seem to consider negative and the need to escape from your "thoughts, feelings and emotions." The feelings that you describe (nonacceptance, resignation, jealousy etc) sound normal to me. Why escape from them? May be try to accept that you cannot accept them. Whenever there is a split, move a level higher, where the split no longer is. Ok I accept that I cannot accept my non-acceptance.
Do nothing. Just be as you are. The ego cannot change the ego.
I'm not a master or anything, just someone who's struggling with similar issues like yourself. I may be wrong... who know, but I had to say it.
Good luck. ________________________________________________________________ Hello again - I absolutely agree with the previous response to Ethan's post that the feelings being described are normal and there is no advantage in trying to "do" anything about them. Yes - the ego cannot change the ego.
What is being said here is that there is no right or wrong that we are attempting to seek or avoid. There is only our experience and, most importantly, our awareness in relation to it.
Master Charles (and many other sages and teachers of wisdom) have emphasized that "transformation is through awareness". To be aware does not mean to try and change or replace one attitude or behavior with a "better" one. With awareness, we see more clearly what is furthering our evolutionary process and what is obstructing it. Then, we are at choice and the choices we make create our new circumstances.
Meditation is about awareness and is therefore considered the primary means of transformation. Make that your focus and everything else will happen as it should happen.
Sourcefully,
Alan
__________________
Alan M. Scherr, President
Synchronicity Foundation
2610 Adial Road
Faber, VA 22938
434-361-2323 ________________________________________________________________ |
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