Reflect on the question above and share your thoughts with the rest of the community.
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i have lived in ansiety for over 17 years, so afirmations is the top practice that have been profound for me.
some afirmation came automatically to me now. i programmed the program jeje.
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I started mediation over 40 years ago thanks to Transcendental Meditation. Over the years, for me, it has evolved beyond the use of a mantra or resisting the monkey mind. So what I do is basically sit and be physically still. I may start with a mantra or affirmation; check in on gratitude; contemplate dinner, etc. Then slowly I allow my awareness to note what is going on within my body. Pain or discomfort usually take president, but I also choose to become aware of where the body feels whole, calm, and at ease. As I relax into being present most anxieties or frustrations simply fall away. Itâs not that I no longer have to deal with those, itâs just that when I come out of the meditative state I feel refreshed and able to respond to the world with a more clear and open mind.
Ken Wilberâs courses âIntegral Spirituality; Full Spectrum Mindfulness; The Future of Spirituality,â have been and still are food for my thirsty spirit. Sooo grateful.
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Minha primeira experiĂȘncia espiritual foi particularmente importante. Foi numa conferĂȘncia rosicruciana. Experimentei um grande silĂȘncio mental, profunda paz e conexĂŁo divina com vida. Desde entĂŁo venho buscando incessantemente o campo da espiritualidade.
A experiĂȘncia rosicruciana Ă© essencialmente gnĂłstica. Isto quer dizer: experiĂȘncia direta com o divino, ou conhecimento espiritual.
Entretanto, sua doutrina é profundamente dualista, o que acaba fazendo do aluno-pesquisador alguém profundamente descrente do mundo, da sociedade, do seres humanos, do cosmos material, etc.
Este é, com certeza, um dos motivos pelos quais busquei formas de integração entre espiritualidade e outros campos de estudo. Era uma tentativa de integrar em mim mesmo (e no mundo) algo que foi separado através dessa crença doutrinåria.
Além de dualista trata-se também de uma doutrina profundamente exclusivista, o que me fez buscar também a integração das vårias escolas espirituais.
Estas duas caracterĂsticas, dualismo e exclusivismo, me incomodavam profundamente. Mais do que isso foi motivo gerador de grandes sofrimentos psĂquicos e emocionais.
Até que desemboquei em Ken Wilber, que definitivamente me tirou desses dois imbróglios conceituais, a meu ver altamente perigosos.
O caso Ă© que o gnosticismo Ă© uma doutrina que reconhece atĂ© o nĂvel causal, o que faz com que naturalmente se pense no mundo fĂsico como um mal, uma ilusĂŁo perigosa, um grande vale de lĂĄgrimas, etc.
JĂĄ, quando se reconhece o nĂvel nĂŁo-dual (que vai alĂ©m do causal), que nĂŁo hĂĄ de fato uma separação entre as dimensĂ”es fĂsica e a espiritual a relação com o mundo fĂsico se torna muito mais amigĂĄvel, o que faz com que os estudantes-praticantes desta doutrina estejam em maior harmonia com a natureza humana e, portanto mais saudĂĄveis psĂquica, emocional e socialmente.
O exclusivismo Ă© facilmente derrotado atravĂ©s dos diversos mapas que Ken Wilber generosamente nos apresenta com as diversas tradiçÔes espirituais e seus nĂveis de ser e realidade absolutamente idĂȘnticos quando analisados comparativamente.
Hoje em dia tenho me dedicado ao estudo da meditação e Ă sua prĂĄtica, porĂ©m ainda nĂŁo incorporei ao meu dia a dia. Mas creio que em breve estarĂĄ devidamente incorporada, principalmente porque estou criando um espaço de meditação e outras âterapiasâ em meu novo empreendimento.
Abraços integrais!
PS. Poder ajudar alguém a compreender uma das situaçÔes possivelmente perigosas na jornada espiritual, jå me farå feliz. Obrigado pelo espaço!
Gosto muito e penso estar de acordo com o que vocĂȘ diz, Guilherme!
Mas sou novata na descoberta do pensamento de Ken Wilber, e ainda nĂŁo entendi o que Ă© o nĂvel causal, pode me explicar?
Obrigada!
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Uau, vc Ă© brasileira?!
Bem, nas filosofia de Wilber, que concentra um grande nĂșmero de estudos a cerca das tradiçÔes espirituais, costuma-se dividir os nĂveis transpessoais (espirituais) em: psĂquico, sutil, causal e nĂŁo dual.
Cada nĂvel transcende o outro e o inclui quando hĂĄ um desenvolvimento saudĂĄvel desses nĂveis.
Os nĂveis psĂquico e sutil correspondem ao que chamamos na tradição cristĂŁ de alma, os nĂveis causal e nĂŁo dual correspondem ao que chamamos espĂrito.
O nĂvel causal Ă© a liberação completa para algumas escolas, como para o budismo teravada ou gnosticismo. Ă o Nirvana do budismo ou CĂ©u para o cristianismo esotĂ©rico. Quer dizer a Causa suprema de todos os outros nĂveis de realidade (melhor dizendo, nĂveis de ilusĂŁo).
PorĂ©m, segundo amplos estudos e dados comparativos realizados pela Integral, hĂĄ ainda o nĂvel nĂŁo-dual que seria realmente o Ășltimo dos nĂveis. Este defendido por escolas como budismo Vajrayana ou Advaita Vedanta, do hinduĂsmo.
Ă uma diferença sutil, mas significativa a dimensĂŁo ou compreensĂŁo dual para a nĂŁo dual. Uma concentra-se na diferença - ou realiza a diferenciação - entre o mundo espiritual e o material. A outra concentra-se na integralidade - ou realiza a integração - entre um e outro, no Ășltimo e derradeiro nĂvel espiritual.
Abraços integrais!
I have been positively influenced by the approach offered in the Integral Life practice book/resources - so have over the past 8 years practiced forms to support different life focuses/modules - so meditation has been a constant but have varied the approach, e.g. did an 8 month meditation practice following Shinzen Youngâs Sensory Awareness approach to build my capacity to notice physical and subtle sensory experience both outside and inside. I engage in Aikido and Tai Chi/Chi Gong practice as an embodied form of spiritual practice, cultivating non-self (free objectivity) and non-dual (connected subjectivity) as expressed by Miles Kessler, Integral Dojo. A sweet and surprising discovery was a deepening of states of consciousness when practicing with training and samurai swords - practice sword forms seems to act as an antennae to focus what I have felt or would describe as spiritual consciousness through meditation. Still evolving in my practice - entering into Feldenkrais practice as a next step.
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Zen meditation. More succinctly, Zazen. More specifically; shikantaza.
Other types of meditation have come and gone in my life but as the practice of just sitting in non-dual awareness is embedded in everything else I find this practice most relevant and consistent. Having a teacher I have faith in and a strong connection to a tested lineage (Soto Zen) has encouraged me in times of laziness.
âIf you donât polish the mirror it wonât shine.â
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Iâve practiced the Taoist martial and healing art Taijiquan since 1999. Itâs a full kung fu system and the mother of western Tai Chi (which is a watered down version). It involves open-eyed moving meditation that trains body, mind and spirit. Based around the Traditional Chinese Medicine understanding of energy meridians, it progresses over time (years) from self-healing to martial then to medical application.
As a moving meditation it is quite conducive to the meditative state overflowing into daily life. It also provides an embodied understanding of Taoist philosophy.
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My two favorite spiritual practices are:
Music meditations
Iâve felt a spiritual connection with music and singing since I was very little. Singing hymns in church was my favorite part and really the only part that I didnât feel oppressed by in some way.
As I transitioned away from my religious upbringing, music became my primary means of connecting with spirit. I remember having several body-escaping experiences when one of my choirs would rehearse a song in a particularly acoustically responsive room or area (such as a stairwell or entry vestibule). I would feel swept up in the vibrations and whole with the universe. Once I graduated from college, my options for joining a choir were limited. I had started learning guitar as a hobby and I began spending time improvising (with guitar and singing) when alone at home. If I donât feel like playing guitar, I sometimes do drum meditations. On occasion, Iâve lost track of what music I was creating and the reverberations and harmonics of the surrounding walls and materials. My brain has interpreted this as multiple voices singing with me and additional drum rhythms. Some of these out-of-body and extrasensory experiences might be related to or enhanced by my synesthesia.
Dance meditations
When I dance for meditation purposes, itâs often a very grounding experience where Iâm completely in my body but also connected beyond it. Including both fast and slow tempos in the music choices has allowed for expression of varying energetic states and can direct my focus outward to universal connection (fast tempos) and inward to reflect on my interoception (slow tempos).
Iâm looking forward to when Iâm able to dance again so I can try out a dance mediation with the Sutras mixes that @corey-devos shared on the the music reflections thread/topic. It seems rather perfect for this type of use.
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Iâve found Dan Brownâs Pointing Out sequence of meditations and retreat to be very very helpful. This is essentially Mahamudra (and in fact closely follows Tashi Namgyalâs classic work). I believe our own Terry Patten speaks highly of the Pointing Out instructions in his new book âA New Republic of the Heart.â The Pointing Out instructions and Tashi Namgyalâs classic basically follow the stages of (i) self as construct, (ii) world as construct, (iii) awareness as construct and (iv) âŠ
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I walked into a free lecture with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium ~ Nov. 1967. I learned TM (Transcendental Meditation) in Feb 1968.
I did some volunteer âpainting the wallsâ at the Westwood Center on Gayley Street. I attended a group meditation with Jerry Jarvis at a big lecture hall at UCLA filled with ~100 peopleâŠSO AWESOME. And then walked over to the big auditorium on campus & watched Donavan performing.
What an incredible evening.
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In February 2001 I purchased a copy of Grace and Grit by Ken Wilber and read the story with my mate Annie Wallack. Thus beginning my relationship with Kenâs Integral Theory.
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My spiritual path is A Course in Miracles. The first time i completed all 365 lessons of forgiveness out of the workbook was in years 2006/7 and now i am practicing them again. My first spiritual practice was Transcendental meditation but i was meditating only few months. Many years i am theoreticaly interested in other spiritual paths. One is Sri Aurobindoâs Integral yoga which is known worldwide. The other two paths in which i am theoreticaly interested are unknown to the world becose those books are not translated in English language. One path is a combination of building an adequate mental model of the world as is âshownâ to us âthroughâ our elementary perception, together with the autotherapy in awake state and lucid dreams. The other is called âNaĆĄa jogaâ. It means âOur yogaâ. It is a combination of hatha yoga and Jungâs process of individuation. The first one is very complex and difficult to understand,at least to me. It is so fascinating to know there are many different practices of returning Home we never left⊠But as iâve said, mine is ACIM.
Best wishes to all from Slovenia.
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The other practice was starting TM after Maharishi appeared in Santa Monica Auditorium a free lecture. He touched me deeply in the mind and the heart. ~1968.
Even before this, the experience of LSD in 1966. The 2 experiences shattered total materialism. Before that I was a hardcore atheist with the complete works of Ayn RandâŠtotal materialism!
I continue to practice TM, more than 50 years now. Ken connected all of these practices and studying my own experiences in all 4 Quadrants. I am greatful for all of these experiences & practices!
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