Spirituality Spot Found in Brain

Here is yet another scientific study that validates the importance of letting go of our illusion of self and control that emanates from our Ego. This must happen in order for us to get in touch with our True Nature, our Source, Self, or God. We are experiencing some kind of spiritual awakening today that is finally getting into the mainstream media and will hopefully start many on their Path with Heart. When the skepticism of the scientific mind begins to find proof of this spiritual connection in the testable material world, we can all rejoice at the prospect of humankind finally understanding the Oneness of All and lead us to transcend this "Me Definer". When one hurts another, one hurts oneself and everyone else at the same time. We are all One and we must work together just as the left hand naturally works in concert with the right. After all, we are one body, one organism, one Self. Such is the joy, the wonder, and the ultimate bliss of our True Nature!

Spirituality Spot Found in Brain

By Robin Nixon, from LiveScience

What makes us feel spiritual? It could be the quieting of a small area in our brains, a new study suggests.

The area in question — the right parietal lobe — is responsible for defining "Me," said researcher Brick Johnstone of Missouri University. It generates self-criticism, he said, and guides us through physical and social terrains by constantly updating our self-knowledge: my hand, my cocktail, my witty conversation skills, my new love interest ...

People with less active Me-Definers are more likely to lead spiritual lives, reports the study in the current issue of the journal Zygon.

Most previous research on neuro-spirituality has been based on brain scans of actively practicing adherents (i.e. meditating monks, praying nuns) and has resulted in broad and inconclusive findings. (Is the brain area lighting up in response to verse or spiritual experience?)

So Johnstone and colleague Bret Glass turned to the tried-and-true techniques of neuroscience’s early days — studying brain-injured patients. The researchers tested brain regions implicated in the previous imaging studies with exams tailored to each area’s expertise — similar to studying the prowess of an ear with a hearing test. They then looked for correlations between brain region performance and the subjects' self-reported spirituality.

Among the more spiritual of the 26 subjects, the researchers pinpointed a less functional right parietal lobe, a physical state which may translate psychologically as decreased self-awareness and self-focus.

The finding suggests that one core tenant of spiritual experience is selflessness, said Johnstone, adding that he hopes the study "will help people think about spirituality in more specific ways."

Spiritual outlooks have long been associated with better mental and physical health. These benefits, Johnstone speculated, may stem from being focused less on one’s self and more on others — a natural consequence of turning down the volume on the Me-Definer.

In addition to religious practices, other behaviors and experiences are known to hush the Definer of Me. Appreciation of art or nature can quiet it, Johnstone said, pointing out that people talk of "losing themselves" in a particularly beautiful song. Love, and even charity work, can also soften the boundaries of "Me," he said.

The greatest silencing of the Me-Definer likely happens in the deepest states of meditation or prayer, said Johnstone, when practitioners describe feeling seamless with the entire universe.
That is, the highest point of spiritual experience occurs when "Me" completely loses its definition.

"If you look in the Torah, the Old Testament, the New Testament, in the Koran, a lot of Sufi writings, Buddhist writings, and Hindu writings, they all talk about selflessness," said Johnstone.

We may be finding the neurological underpinnings of these writings, he said.

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Study: Doing Good Makes You Feel Good

I have been happily busy visiting with friends and family this holiday season and came across this article by Melinda Wenner on LiveScience. It is always good when science validates the wisdom of Jesus, Lao-tse, Buddha, and other less known enlightened teachers. With Christmas just ending, this interesting study reveals our True Nature so well and is just one more agreement with the Oneness of all. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I have and feel the innate need to open your heart to those in need and share the altruistic Love that is our Source, our Self, and the God within us all.
Namaste'



There's a new incentive to doing good things for others: It makes you happier, according to a new study.

Michael Steger, a psychologist at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, has always been amazed by how differently people lead their lives. Pat Tillman, for example, left the NFL to enlist in the Army and fight in Iraq and later Afghanistan (where he was killed), Steger said, but celebrity and socialite Paris Hilton continually pursues "a public life of shallowness."

Steger couldn't help but wonder which behavior makes people happier—seeking pleasure or doing good?

To find out, he and his colleagues asked a group of 65 undergraduates to complete an online survey each day for three weeks that assessed how times they participated in hedonic, or pleasure-seeking behaviors, versus meaningful activities, such as helping others, listening to friends' problems and/or pursuing one's life goals.

The surveys asked the subjects how much purpose they felt their lives had each day and whether they felt happy or sad. The subjects also completed two sets of questionnaires at the beginning and end of the study to assess how they felt about their lives more generally.

They found that the more people participated in meaningful activities, the happier they were and the more purposeful their lives felt. Pleasure-seeking behaviors, on the other hand, did not make people happier.

Realizing that some people may feel guilty about reporting pleasure-seeking behaviors, Steger and his colleagues then modified the survey questions slightly to make them seem less exceptionable, and asked a new group of students to perform the study again, this time over a four-week period. The psychologists got the same results.

"A lot of times we think that happiness comes about because you get things for yourself," said Richard Ryan, a psychologist at the University of Rochester, who was not involved in the study. But "it turns out that in a paradoxical way, giving gets you more, and I think that's an important message in a culture that's pretty often getting messages to the opposite effect."

In order to make sure that the relationship between happiness and doing good wasn't the other way around—that happiness instead leads people to do good things—the researchers looked at which tended to come first. They found that the subjects became happier after they did something good, suggesting that happiness does, in fact, come about as a result of doing good things.

Flowing Through Karma

Living within the law of Karma can be a wonderful experience if one just accepts the obstacles in life and turns them into positive, albeit surprising, experiences. This is where attitude is truly everything! As we encounter these unexpected interruptions, we have a choice to make - do we allow our Egos to draw us into the negativity of anger and frustration because we lost "control" over our well-made plans or do we accept the fact that we are really not in control and then find the positive opportunities that this new situation offers? Well, the sage chooses the latter, understands that this departure is simply a natural occurrence on one's Path with Heart, and continues in this new direction with a curious smile. This is how one can "cheat" Karma and prevent creating a negative Cause or, preferably, pass through this situation as an observer do not create any Cause . This includes the all-important wisdom gained from understanding the enormous benefits that arise from "going with the Flow". This is always a choice that each of us has no matter what the circumstances are. So how about an example....

I am currently reaping the rewards from letting go of this illusion of control and allowing my Path with Heart to make an unexpected change of direction that now has me enjoying an extended visit with close friends (family) that have always occupied a very special place in my heart. There are very few, if any, more positive and pleasant situations to experience. So here I sit typing a post to my blog on a laptop computer - something I have never done before! Something simple yet just another example of a positive experience born from an event that most would perceive as misfortune. You see, while traveling to the college graduation celebration for my "niece", my vehicle lost power and forced me to pull off of the highway many miles from my destination. It had to be towed to a reputable repair facility over fifty miles from my destination on a Saturday night and obviously causing me to miss this very important event that I had so looked forward to attending for years. This started a series of unexpected interruptions to the plans of several other wonderful people and presented each one with a similar choice of whether to allow this surprise to ruin their evenings or to just accept it as part of their respective paths and change course with a smile and a sense of adventure. All I can say about their experiences is that each one of them greeted me with open arms, kindness, and a sincere concern for my welfare. Every moment was, and continues to be, a wonderful and very heart-warming experience. There is no doubt that they chose the way of the sage and therefore, something with the potential to anger and frustrate, became a positive and rewarding experience.

Although we do not have Free Will because Karma rules our Destiny, we do have a choice in how we deal with the "obstacles" in our lives. We can choose to relax, accept, and enjoy the positive within all such events or we can allow our Ego to beat us up in it's frivolous attempt to "control" the situation and add yet another negative Cause(s) to our Karma with the resulting adverse Effect(s) that must be faced down the road of life. I am far more wealthy and blessed by my choice. Which will you choose next time?

Namaste'

Understanding Wu-Wei or Non-doing

I understand that this concept of non(t)-trying can be confusing. We are so used to trying to do or to control everything. We have strayed far from our True Nature and most have lost their way back. The whole point is simply that we are already in total control before we start trying to "control". This drive to "control" is your Ego fighting against your True Nature. In the calm center of the moment, the Present, when there is no thought or interference from the Ego, we are truly in control. The ancient Taoist principle of "wu wei" is exactly what I am talking about here. Please read this definition from Wikipedia:

"Wu Wei" means natural action - as planets revolve around the sun, they "do" this revolving, but without "doing" it; or as trees grow, they "do", but without "doing". Thus knowing when (and how) to act is not knowledge in the sense that one would think "now" is the right time to do "this", but rather just doing it, doing the natural thing.
"Wu" may be translated as not have or without; "Wei" may be translated as do, act, serve as, govern or effort. The literal meaning of "Wu Wei" is "without action" and is often included in the paradox wei wu wei: "action without action" or "effortless doing". The practice of wu wei and the efficacy of wei wu wei are fundamental tenets in Chinese thought and have been mostly emphasized by the Taoist school. The aim of wu wei is to achieve a state of perfect equilibrium, or alignment with the Tao, and, as a result, obtain an irresistible form of "soft and invisible" power." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei

All of the true disciplines such as Yoga, Tai Chi, the myriad of meditation practices, and everyday disciplines such as boxing, dance, and archery, teach this concept too. It is only in the Present, where no thought occurs that we are at our best. This is when we are all powerful and fully human. This is the only way to achieve oneness with our True Nature, Self, God, Tao, or whatever you choose to call "that which can not be named". It is our Source and is the Source of everything in the universe. It is who we are even though the Ego "says" we are something separate. The Ego is nothing more than interference - no different from static on a radio is as it drowns out a station you want to listen to. Tune out this noise and the signal comes in strong. Silence the mind and act without thought. "Doing" is acting with thought so your energy is scattered, not focused, and far less gets done. "Non-doing" is acting without thought so your total being is completely focused on the act and therefore all is done. "Doing" is hard work. "Non-doing" is relaxed and effortless. Simply put, doing and thinking oppose each other and diminish the act. Non-doing, in contrast, is acting without internal opposition so one's total ability is focused on the act. Chapters 48 and 38 of the Tao Te Ching by Lao-tse show the importance of non-doing:

The student learns by daily increment.
The Way is gained by daily loss,
Loss upon loss until
At last comes rest.

By letting go, it all gets done;
The world is won by those who let it go!
But when you try and try,
The world is then beyond the winning.
~ Translated by Raymond B. Blakney


Chapter 38(partial)

A truly good man is not aware of his goodness,
And is therefore good.
A foolish man tries to be good,
And is therefore not good.
A truly good man does nothing,
Yet leaves nothing undone.
A foolish man is always doing,
Yet much remains to be done.
~ Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English, 1972



The principle of wu-wei contains certain implications. Foremost among these is the need to consciously experience ourselves as part of the unity of life that is the Tao. Lao Tzu writes that we must be quiet and watchful, learning to listen to both our own inner voices and to the voices of our environment in a non-interfering, receptive manner. In this way we also learn to rely on more than just our intellect and logical mind to gather and assess information. We develop and trust our intuition as our direct connection to the Tao. We heed the intelligence of our whole body, not only our brain. And we learn through our own experience. All of this allows us to respond readily to the needs of the environment, which of course includes ourselves. And just as the Tao functions in this manner to promote harmony and balance, our own actions, performed in the spirit of wu-wei, produce the same result.
~ Ted Kardash

These Eastern concepts can be a little confusing at first but after one tries to understand for a period of time, then just relax, clear the mind, and you will understand.

Karma Rules So Why Try?

Karma keeps us coming back to the material realm until we overcome it. Few of us will cross this barrier. This does not mean we should stop trying. In fact, we should spend every possible moment letting go of the steering wheel of life and turning control of ourselves over to the infinite wisdom of the Present. It is only in these moments that we are living outside of Karma and therefore one with our True Nature - in the perfection of our Source or God. This is real Faith! This is when we are truly alive, in touch with our infinite goodness, experiencing the altruistic universal Love, and feeling the ultimate bliss of Empathy. One thought, though, and this paradise is gone. We are back to the world of Karma where causes chase effects like a dog chases it's tail. The more we try to get back to that magical place the farther away it gets. A perfect example is when you lose a thought. It is on the tip of your brain so you chase after it. You chase and chase and chase but it keeps moving away. How frustrating it gets so you chase even harder. Maybe your frustration even makes you angry at yourself - what a dummy I am! Funny, though, how as soon as you give up the chase, relax, and move on, you instantly remember the thought. Living in the wondrous infinity of the Present is exactly the same. You must give up trying. You must quit believing you can control, or are in control, of anything. Control is all an illusion created by your Ego. The only time you are truly in control is when you give up trying to control. By not-doing, all is done!

Karma still rules the day though. The Ego is very powerful and does not relinquish control easily. So why bother? You must understand that as long as you let your Ego create causes through thoughts and thinking actions, you are creating effects that will come back on you. Remember, when you are born into this material world, you have left blissful perfection and will now reap what you have previously sown. Welcome back to "Judgement Day"! You will be confronted by your leftover effects, good and bad, and will continue to create or cause more future effects. By letting go and shutting down all "control" by your Ego, all causes cease. No new effects are being created. The more often you can "stop the world" and live in the Present, the less Karma will effect you. The more often you experience these moments of pure Love, total Empathy, and overwhelming bliss, the more in touch you become with the suffering and needs of others. The more love you feel towards others who are struggling just like you to get through their "Judgement Day". You still create causes that create effects that will come back to you, however, your causes(thoughts and thinking actions) are more often kind, caring, and positive. The resulting effects will return to you kindness, caring, and goodness. Life becomes better. Your attitude becomes more positive. You find yourself driven to the aid of others whether that be a kind word and a smile to someone who desperately needs it or you are compelled to run to the aid of someone in immediate danger. Your world view is slowly but surely changing for the better and you feel happier with yourself, your material situation, and with your perception of others. The most important thing, though, is you find yourself living in the Present more often. Now that you are aware of the Power of the Present, you are automatically and unknowingly drawn into these beautiful moments - no trying, no controlling, it just happens.

As "they" say, "practice makes perfect". This age-old cliche' could not be more accurate! The more you experience the wonders of the Present, the more often you will experience it. The more often you experience it, the closer to perfection you get. The closer you get to perfection, the closer you get to overcoming Karma. The closer you get to overcoming Karma, the closer you get to Overcoming this World. This is "The Way" as taught by Jesus. This is "The Way and It's Power(Virtue)" as taught by Lao-tse in the "Tao Te Ching". Now do you know why you must try?


"If you stay in the center and embrace death with your whole heart, you will endure forever"
~ Lao-tse

Karma: Our Anchor to this World

This is my perspective on Karma that I have been promising for some time now. The essay "Overcoming Ignorance" by Jos Slabbert prompted me to present this essay on Karma that not only fits perfectly with the Taoist teachings of Lao-tse, "The Tao Te Ching" but also with the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, "The Way". The two together clearly explain the Law of Cause and Effect, or Karma, which is the ultimate principle governing human existence.



KARMA

Karma is the ultimate principle governing our human experience in this physical world. It is the the law - the judge, the jury, and the "executioner" - that rewards us for our good actions and punishes us for our bad actions. Karma is what many religious teachings refer to as "Judgement Day", however, it is not a day but is spread out over our lifetimes. We are our own judge because each cause(action, thought, word) births a resulting effect which is the reward or punishment, depending on the cause. As long as we create causes, we will experience the associated effect sometime afterwards. Our Karma started sometime in the distant past at the time our soul first arrived in this physical world. No one knows when that moment occurred but for all practical purposes, it was many lifetimes ago. Each of us is born into this world in a state of perfection but facing a long list of effects that will manifest sometime during our lifetime. We have no choice but to deal with the good or the bad effects because Karma is absolute, objective, and guaranteed. As long as we create causes, the consequential effects must run their course. All causes and effects, Karma, take place in the material realm therefore we are bound to this world for as long as there are effects to be dealt with. This is why each of us is born to a Destiny that is predetermined by the effects left over from previous incarnations. Hence, reincarnatiion is mandatory under the principle of Karma. Because we can not just choose to leave this world, we do not have Free Will. The choice we do have, though, is how we choose to deal with the events we are destined to experience. This is the key to our happiness and, for a few, the key to Destiny itself. The teachings of Lao-tse teach us how to master ourselves and return to our True Nature, Our Source, or God. I have studied the Tao Te Ching for about thirty years but have yet to find where it clearly addresses overcoming Karma. There are five chapters in the Tao Te Ching that pertain to achieving immortality* but the wording can be somewhat confusing. For clarity on this, I turn to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth which he called, "The Way".

This is where my perspective on Karma deviates from that of Jos Slabbert, the author of "Overcoming Ignorance". I have the greatest respect for his scholarly work but I just can not deny the whole point of the teachings of Jesus. By his own words, he exclaims that, "I have overcome this world". By any definition of the word "overcome", it means that he had been bound to this material world at some time in the distant past just as we are right now, however, he had overcome that which had bound him to this world - Karma. He accomplished the most difficult thing a human can do. He gained true Free Will, and escaped the grasp of this material world. The incredible thing about Free Will, is that he had the choice to come back to this material world to show us "The Way" to do what he did, overcome Karma. This is Not to be taken lightly! "The Way" is the absolute epitome of challenges that relatively few will ever conquer, yet it IS possible. Jesus exhibited the altruistic Love that is the essence of our highest level of existence when he chose to come back and show us "The Way". There is no doubt that it took many reincarnations, the eventual awakening we all must experience, the beginning of his Path with Heart, his complete mastery of self, a mastery of each and every moment in time, and a life completely lived in the objective Present. In other words, he stopped creating causes and his accumulated effects ran their course as he objectively flowed by each and every one of them. Eventually his accumulated effects reached zero, his Destiny ended, he was free from the grasp of Karma, and he overcame this world!! This is called "Heaven" by many Christian teachings, "Nirvana"* in Buddhism, "Moksha"* in Hinduism, and by many other names throughout the various cultures of the world. So where do we go when we die?

This is probably the most thought about question in the world. This is where different perspectives of the One Truth eventually became the myriad of religions in existence today. The origins of each one arose in the same way as when ten people who witness the exact same event "see" ten different events. They all saw the same thing at the same time yet each person interpretted the event differently. Anyone who has taken Sociology 101 has experienced this phenomena with a simple exercise all Sociology professors use to demonstrate perception. Ironically, and sadly, this variance in perception of the One Truth has been, and continues to this day to be, the main reason mankind engages in war and hate. If only the religious leaders of the world would come together to examine the very core of their beliefs, they would eventually find this thread of Truth at the center of all religions. My what imaginations we have! So, religions aside, where do we go upon death? I can tell you what little I remember from the two "near death" experiences I had in 1975. There has been two times since then where I was faced with certain death and I "saw" again what I had glimpsed at the moment of my "death". I experienced the most incredible state of perfect peace, perfect calm, perfect silence, and exctasy infinitely beyond mere words. I saw, and was engulfed in, the most beautiful golden light. A light so bright yet so soothing, a golden light that wrapped me in complete security and sereneness, a light so powerful that I could not resist it's pull on me even if I had wanted to. Wherever we go to rest between reincarnations is what I would call Heaven. The Taoist sage, Lao-tse, wrote "Mourn a birth and rejoice a death". I completely understand this truth for it is here in this material world where all pain and suffering occurs from the moment of birth until the moment of death. It is completely up to us how we deal with the challenges of life on earth and whether the Karma we create manifests as pain or as pleasure. This is the one choice we all have.

Namaste'


"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."
~ Jesus of Nazareth

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."
~ Jesus of Nazareth



* (Tao Te Ching) Immortality, Chapters 16, 33, 44, 50, 52.

* (Buddhism) Nirvana is the complete cessation of suffering; a blissful state attained through realization of no-self; enlightenment.

* (Hinduism) Moksha is the liberation from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth or reincarnation

A Simple Meditation

When I was training in and instructing Kenpo, my Sensei would lead me and the few other associate instructors in a meditation similar to this one before every Instructors Tech training session. He verbally directed this form of hypnosis starting with the feet and working on each muscle until we no longer felt our bodies. We became nothing but pure consciousness! It was an incredible experience that completely relaxed the body and calmed the mind to a state of unbelievable clarity and awareness. Our abilities to train and to Kumite became seriously enhanced. I suggest you tense each muscle first before relaxing it because this added technique increases your ability to isolate each muscle and also increases the level of relaxation. Enjoy!


A Simple Meditation

For those who have never tried meditation, a simple exercise is given here. It requires only a little time each day, or whenever you feel stressed, and can have a beneficial effect in a very short time. All you just need is a comfortable place to relax, some fresh air, and some peace. Simple meditation requires no special technique, just a little time and some patience.

Body....

Firstly, lie down on your back and take a few moments to get comfortable and gather your thoughts. Relaxation of mind and body go hand in hand, so begin by relaxing your body as much as possible, which is much more difficult than you might think. Pay special attention to any areas of tension, such as the shoulders or lower back. Here are a few time honoured techniques to help you relax:

If you have a reasonable grasp of the workings of the body, you can go through each muscle in turn, picturing it in your mind as it relaxes and lengthens. Start at the feet and work your way slowly up the whole body until you reach the top of the head. Actually visualise the muscles, tendons and bones and see them relaxing in turn.

If your knowledge of anatomy isn't so good, just work up through the body parts in turn and feel them all relaxing slowly in turn. Just let the tension slip slowly away...

A favourite technique of stage hypnotists to induce hypnotism is to try imagining that your whole body is very heavy or very light. Feel your limbs either sinking into the floor as if made of lead or rising up into the air as if attached to a helium balloon- many people find that this is very relaxing.

Whatever you do, don't worry if its harder than you thought or you don't seem to be getting very far, you'll improve with practice.

Mind.....

Having spent some time relaxing the body it is time to quieten the mind. Don't try to simply 'stop thinking', just take a back seat and detach yourself from your thoughts, be like a spectator, watching them drift through your mind and pay them no heed. Don't worry if you don't seem to be having much success, just relax and see what happens.

One of the best ways to calm the mind is to focus on some repetitive action, this is why mantras (repeated sounds) are used in some systems. Better still is to focus on the breathing, so once you feel relaxed in mind and body, take notice of the way you are breathing. Try to take slower, deeper breaths as low down into your abdomen as possible. If you have difficulty breathing into the abdomen, place one hand there, and the other on your chest - try and breath so that only your lower hand moves. Every time you slip and discover your mind drifting just gently return your concentration to your breath. Don't scold yourself, don't worry whether or not it's doing anything, just relax as much as you can and enjoy the time to yourself.

You can practice this simple breathing meditation as often as you like, and for as long as you like. Once you feel you have done enough allow yourself to slowly come back into the normal world, allow yourself a little time to notice how you are feeling, and slowly sit up, and then try to carry the relaxation with you into your routine life.

Above all, enjoy it and don't try too hard!

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