Awareness - 12/14 - Third Monk

Jul 11, 2013Jun 17, 2016

David Lynch – Consciousness, Creativity and the Brain, Transcendental Meditation (Video)

David Lynch (Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man) explains his understanding about consciousness, creativity and the brain. Transcendental Meditation played a crucial role in developing his consciousness and boosting his creativity.

One lady in the audience says: I teach film, I make films. I would like to know what does meditation or how does meditation connect to your creative process or to how it might help the creativity of my students.

If you have a golf ball sized consciousness, when you read a book you’ll have a golf ball sized understanding, when you look out a golf ball sized awareness and when you wake up in the morning a golf ball sized wakefulness.

But if you could expand that consciousness then you would read the book with more understanding and when you look out more awareness and when you wake up more wakefulness – it’s consciousness. – David Lynch, Film Director

David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness Based Education
Introduction to Transcendental Meditation

Jul 8, 2013Jun 17, 2016

Inspirational Quotes to Refocus Your Mind

Inspirational quotes are perfect for refocusing the mind and reawakening the excitement that fills life with passion.

Happiness is Here. Not There

“The trick is to enjoy life. Don’t wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead” – Marjorie Pay Hinkley

Do Not Be Your Own Worst Enemy

“You are confined only be the walls you build yourself.”

Life is Not About Winning or Losing

“Take risks: if you win. You will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise” – Author Unkown

Moving Forward is About Moving Now

“Success will never be a big step in the future; success is a small step taken just now.”

Love Yourself, It Will Show

“Love yourself first & everything else falls into line.” -Lucille Ball

Laugh, Smile and Be Happy; It Does Not Need to Be Complicated

“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” -Lord Byron

Do What Drives You and You Will Go Farther Than Your Imagination

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”

Focus, Experience and Enjoy. Everything Is Happening Right NOW

“No matter how hard the past. You can always begin again.” – Buddha

Relax, Be Yourself and Leave Your Mark

“Work for a cause, not for applause. Live to express, not to impress. Don’t strive to make your presence noticed, just make your absence felt.” -Unkown

Let’s Fly Together Now

“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” – Salvador Dali

Let Go Of Duality and Embrace The Delicate Balance of Life’s Infinite Nature

“Stars can’t shine without darkness.”

Jun 24, 2013Jun 17, 2016

Psychedelics Provide Wisdom for Personal Growth

The following selected excerpts are from Tripping as a Tool for Self-Realization, originally published on The Psychedelic Frontier.
Psychedelics have a variety of uses, dependent on the user’s attitude. If you use them as intoxicants, you will become intoxicated. If you want to see pretty shapes and colors and “trip out” to music, then they will act as sensory enhancers. If you want a new mode of consciousness that leads you to experience life in a novel way, they will satisfy that urge.

These psychedelics can go much deeper than recreation. Those who never choose to explore psychedelics more seriously than as intoxicants or sense-enhancers will miss out on their greatest potential. Why stop at pretty sounds and colors when these medicines can catalyze deep epiphanies and lasting change?

Psychedelics Breaks Down Mental Conditioning to Reveal the Self

Psychedelics can show you your true self, dragging your insecurities and internal conflicts into the light for examination. Or mediate a conversation, even a partnership, with the subconscious. They unseat your deepest assumptions and lead you to question the most rigid of habits and biases.

Psychedelics are molecular battering rams, crumbling the castle called Ego and raising from the rubble a profound feeling of pure love and unity. Your real self is revealed, defenses down, moat drained, drawbridge lowered. A trip may be the first time you have a free reign in your own mental kingdom. A molecule may be the truest mirror you ever held up to yourself.

Going Beyond Recreational Use of Psychedelics

Myron Stolaroff, a researcher and advocate of psychedelic psychotherapy, describes how recreational use tends to taper off naturally:

The use of psychedelics is self-regulating in most cases. Their true purpose is to enhance growth and interior development. Used only for pleasure, or abused, the Inner Self is thwarted, which leads to unpleasant experiences and depression. Though everyone who pursues the use of psychedelics for personal growth must be prepared for the “dark night of the soul” experiences, those who seek only entertainment will lose interest in these substances.

“Tripping with intent” is not an alternative method so much as a complementary one. People use psychedelics for all sorts of reasons—to improve sex, deepen their connection with nature and other people, explore their internal emotional landscape, and so on. A focus on self-improvement, with proper preparation, method, and post-trip integration, will help bring more meaning to all of these activities.

For the whole article “Tripping as a Tool for Self-Realization”, please visit The Psychedelic Frontier.

Jun 18, 2013Jun 17, 2016

Alan Watts – Voluntary Versus Involuntary Choices. Are We Really In Control? (Video)

Alan Watts discusses the perceptually blurred line between voluntary and involuntary actions.

Going through everyday life seemingly exercising free will while apart of a larger system of life and creation is wondrous. You are not only a part of the big picture, you are the big picture.

Alan Watts – Voluntary and Involuntary Actions Transcript

You see the problem is this; we identify in our experience a differentiation between what we do and what happens to us.

We have a certain number of actions that we define as voluntary; we feel in control of those.

And then over against that there is all those things that are involuntary. But the dividing line between these two is very arbitrary.

Because for example, when you move your hand you feel that you decide whether to open it or to close it. But then ask yourself how do you decide?

When you decide to open your hand. Do you first decide to decide? You don’t do you. You just decide. And how do you do that? And if you don’t know how you do it; is it voluntary or involuntary?

Let’s consider breathing. You can feel that you breathe deliberately. You can control your breath. But when you don’t think about it, it goes on. Is it voluntary or involuntary?

So we come to have a very arbitrary definition of self; that much of my activity that I feel I do.

That then doesn’t include breathing most of the time. It doesn’t include the heart beats. It doesn’t include the activity of the glands. It doesn’t include digestion. It doesn’t include how you shape your bones, circulate your blood. Do you or do you not do these things?

Now if you get with yourself and you find out that you are all of yourself; a very strange thing happens. You find that your body knows that you are one with the universe.

In other words, that the so called involuntary circulation of your blood is one continuous process with the stars shinning.

If you find out that it’s you who circulates your blood you will at the same moment find out that you are shinning the sun.

Because your physical organism is one continuous process with everything else that is going on. Just as the waves are continous with the ocean. Your body is continous with the total energy system of the cosmos and its all you.

Only you’re playing the game that you’re only this bit of it. But as I’ve tried to explain there are in physical reality no such things as separate events.

So then remember also when I tried to work towards a definition of omnipotence. Omnipotence is not knowing how everything is done, it’s just doing it. You don’t have to translate it into language.

Jun 13, 2013Jun 17, 2016

The Fibonacci Sequence: Nature by Numbers (Video)

The Fibonacci sequence is an integral part of our everyday lives. So much so that we often don’t realize its all-encompassing presence.

Named after Leonardo Fibonacci, and initially devised to calculate the ideal expansion of pairs of rabbits throughout a year. The Fibonacci Sequence has become a tool that helps us to better understand ourselves, our reality, and our universe…

The sequence begins:

0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144…..on and on. By adding the two earlier numbers together, the next number in the sequence is revealed.

However, the true fun begins when you start dividing adjoining numbers within the Fibonacci Sequence. 5 divided by 3 is 1.666… 8 divided by 5 is 1.60… 13 divided by 8 is 1.625… And on and on.

Each division inches closer to the Golden Mean (1.618), although never actually reaching the number. The Golden Mean is considered the most mathematically beautiful structure, even historic builders knew of it’s aesthetically pleasing properties. The Parthenon and Egyptian Pyramids actually incorporated the Golden Mean within their architecture.

So next time you go outside, take a moment and ponder the thought that the world we inhabit is mathematically beautiful.

May 30, 2013Jun 17, 2016

Alan Watts – Society Conditions Children To Ignore the Present Moment (Video)

Alan Watts talks about how our society conditions children to live with constant frustration and worry about the future, and never learn how to live in the present. Society, A Perpetual Cycle by The Omega Point Project

We have an absolutely extraordinary attitude in our culture and in various other cultures, high civilizations, to the new member of human society. Instead of saying frankly to children, ‘How do you do, welcome to the human race, we are playing a game! And we are playing by the following rules, we want to tell you what the rules are so that you’ll know your way around, and when you understand what rules we are playing by, when you get older you may be able to invent better ones.

But instead of that, we still retain an attitude to the child that he is on probation, he is not really a human being, he is a candidate for humanity, and in just this way we have a whole system of preparation of the child for life, which always is preparation, and never actually gets there.

We condition the child in a way that sets the child a life problem which is insoluble, and therefore attended by constant frustration, and as a result of this problem being insoluble, it is perpetually postponed to the future. So that one is educated to live in the future and one is not ever educated to live today.

Now im not saying that let us drink today for tomorrow we die, and not make any plans. What i am saying is that making plans for the future is of use only to people who are capable of living completely in the present.

May 3, 2013Jun 17, 2016

GMO A GO GO? – Animation on Monsanto’s Food Poisoning (Video)

This sarcastic animation highlights the dangers of having our food controlled by a huge corporation (Monsanto) that prioritizes profit over public health.

Poor Johnny doesn’t like “healthy” food. What could possibly persuade him to eat all his “veggies”? – Produced By Natural News and Infomatic Films

More Information on Genetically Modified Organisms

GMOs are killing the Bees:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-of-the-bees-genetically-modified-crops-and-the-decline-of-bee-colonies-in-north-america/25950

Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/monsantos-gmo-corn-linked_n_420365.html

Gone to Seed: investigation into contamination of traditional seeds by Genetically Engineered crops:
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/our-failing-food-system/genetic-engineering/gone-to-seed.html

Institute on Responsible Technology- have consumer guides to avoiding GMOs, lists of ingredients that have a high likelihood of genetic modification.
http://responsibletechnology.org

Non GMO Shopping Guide
http://nongmoshoppingguide.com/

Apr 25, 2013Jan 25, 2018

Exploring Consciousness with Psychedelics – Graham Hancock Ted Talk (Video)

Graham Hancock explores the shamanistic use of psychedelics that create a state of being which brings us a greater understanding of our true nature and the nature of consciousness; in order to harmoniously balance our Earthly existence within the universe.

The War on Consciousness – Graham Hancock Notable Excerpts

…Another universal experience of Ayahuasca is the encounter with seemingly intelligent entities which communicate with us telepathically, now I’m making no claim one way or another as to the reality status of these entities we encounter. Simply that phenomenologically in the Ayahuasca experience they are encountered by people all over the world and most frequently of all, the spirit of Ayahuasca herself; Mother Ayahuasca, who is a healer. And although she’s kinda the mother goddess of the planet. She seems to take a direct personal interest in us as individuals. To heal our ills, to want us to be the best we can possibly be, to correct errors and mistakes in our behaviors that may be leading us down the wrong path.

Ayahuasca has been fantastically successful at getting people off harmful addictions to hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine. Jacques Mabbit at the Takiwasi Clinic a in Peru brings heroin and cocaine addicts out there for a month. Gives them 12 Ayahuasca sessions and they have encounters with Mother Ayahuasca during those sessions that lead them not to wish to take heroin up again anymore and more than half of them leave completely free of their addiction never return to it and don’t even have withdrawal symptoms. And the same incredible healing work was being done in Canada by Dr. Gabor Maté until the Canadian government stopped and intervened his healing practice on the grounds that Ayahuasca itself was an illegal drug.

What is death? Our materialist science reduces everything to matter. Materialist science in the West says that we are just meat. We’re just our bodies. When the brain is dead that’s the end of consciousness there is no life after death, there is no soul, we just rot and are gone. But actually many honest scientists should admit that consciousness is the greatest mystery of science.

…This is the paradigm of all spiritual traditions; that we are immortal souls, temporarily incarnated in these physical forms to learn and to grow and to develop.

Let’s not forget that Ayahuasca is not alone. That it’s part of an ancient worldwide system of the targeted, careful, responsible alteration of consciousness. It’s recently been shown by scholars that the Kykeon used in the Eleusian Mysteries in Ancient Greece was almost certainly a psychedelic brew. The Soma of the Vedas may have been a brew based off of the amanita muscaria mushroom. We have the DMT in The ancient Egyptian Tree of Life. We have the whole global cultures of surviving shamanism and what it’s all about is a state of consciousness that’s designed to help us find balance harmony, the Ancient Egyptians would have called it Ma’at, with the universe and to remain mindful that what we’re here to undertake on Earth while immersed in matter is fundamentally a spiritual journey aimed at the growth and perfection of the soul. A journey that may go back to the very origin to what made us human in the first place.

If we as adults are not allowed to make sovereign decisions about what to experience with our own consciousness, while doing no harm to others. Including the decision to use, responsibly, ancient and sacred visionary plants then we cannot claim to be free in any way.

Apr 18, 2013Jun 17, 2016

Neuroplasticity, Meditation and Happiness – Willoughby Britton Ted Talk (Video)

Neuroplasticity: The brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. Neuroplasticity allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to compensate for injury and disease and to adjust their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment.

In this Ted Talk, Willoughby Britton focuses on neuroplasticity and mindful meditation through the scope of happiness.

The practice of meditation builds stronger and healthier neural pathways that lead to better habits.

Willoughby Britton – Neuroplasticity, Meditation and Happiness Notable Excerpts

If we get everything we want and get rid of everything we don’t want; we’ll be happy. It makes sense. Totally logical. Totally wrong. That’s just not the way the data has turned out to be. We’re one of the richest countries on the planet but we’re not really one of the happiest. And the people that are the richest in our country are not necessarily happier than the poorest people in our country.

Getting what we want doesn’t necessarily equal happiness.

Another thing that we know about happiness…it seems to be inextricably linked to the faculty of attention, or more specifically; our pervasive tendency or habit to not pay attention.

A wandering mind is an unhappy mind.

Our brain changes with experience and we get good at what we practice…if you exercise your physical body certain muscle groups get stronger, certain movements get easier and they become effortless and automatic. The brain is no different. The neural networks that you exercise becomes stronger and the thought patterns and mental habits that are represented by those neural networks get stronger and become effortless and automatic…

The most powerful way to change your brain is not medication, it is behavior.

Apr 12, 2013Jun 17, 2016

Alan Watts – The Connection Between Dreams and Consciousness (Video)

Alan Watts describes the nature of consciousness through a series of dream analogies.

Reality is a dream we share as one.

Alan Watts – The Connection Between Dreams and Consciousness Transcript

If you awaken from this illusion and you understand that black implies white, self implies other, life implies death; or shall I say, death implies life. You can feel yourself not as a stranger in the world. Not as something here on probation. Not as something that has arrived here by fluke. But you can begin to feel your own existence as absolutely fundamental.

I’m not trying to sell you on this idea in the sense of converting you to it; I want you to play with it, I want you to think of its possibilities. I’m not trying to prove it. I’m just putting it forward as a possibility of life to think about.

So then, let’s suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream you wanted to dream. And that you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time, or any length of time you wanted to have. And you would naturally as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes, you would have every kind of pleasure you could perceive. And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each you would say, “Well that was pretty great, but now let’s have a surprise! Lets have a dream which isn’t under control! Where something is going to happen to me that I don’t know what it’s gonna be”. And you would dig that and come out of that and say, “Wow that was a close shave wasn’t it!”.

Then you would get more and more adventurous and you would make further and further out gambles as to what you would dream. And finally you would dream where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today; that would be within the infinite multiplicity of choices you would have, of playing that you weren’t god. Because the whole nature of the god head, according to this idea, is to play that he’s not. So in this idea then, everybody is fundamentally the ultimate reality. Not god in a politically kingly sense but god in the sense of being the self; the deep down basic whatever there is. And you’re all that! Only you’re pretending you’re not.

Mar 27, 2013Jun 17, 2016

Methods of Meditation for the Busy or Impatient (Guide)

If you are struggling with fitting meditation into your daily routine, this guide will help you ease into the practice.

Change Your Mindset About Meditation

Lower your expectations of meditation. Often the reason we are impatient about meditation is we want instant gratification. Replace that expectation with a desire to experience a “slow melt” of your stress.

Be open to non-traditional meditation. Meditation doesn’t have to be done in a seated position. Any activity in which you can slow down your mind, become more inwardly focused and more rooted in the present moment will pass the test for meditation.

Be kind to yourself. Don’t berate yourself for not being “good” at meditating. If you make the effort to meditate, then by default, you are good at it. It’s more a “do or not do” thing versus a “good or bad.”

Commit to slow down your mind for 10 minutes each day. You can obviously do this for longer if you want, but just take your time in building this habit by starting with 10 minutes per day.

How to easily incorporate meditation into your day. Transform some of the things you are already doing each day into mindful meditation:

Exercise Meditation

Any continuous physical activity over a period of time can work. Some great choices are walking, jogging, or yoga. Chores can work too such as sweeping, folding laundry, stacking wood, and washing windows.

The way to transform any of these activities into meditation is to first focus on your breath. Observe it. Modify it. Try long inhalations, holding periods, and slow exhalations if you can. Observe how each part of your body feels. When you start to feel the exercise endorphins kick in, you might also want to express those good feelings with a big smile, a raising of the arms and/or a deep “Ahhhh” sound. Silly? Maybe. Feels good? Definitely.

Bathing Meditation

The next time you shower or take a bath, create your own spa experience simply by flipping the switch in your mind. Let go of any limits. No time limits, no temperature limits. Breathe deeply. Close your eyes. Feel the water. Feel the sensations it gives your body. Allow the water to heal you by transforming your bathing time into a meditation. Focus on your breath and how your body feels. If thoughts involving the past or future come into your mind, observe them and send them packing by returning to your observations of your breath and body. What do you see, feel, smell, and hear?

Let go of words and labels by expressing your good feelings through meaningless sounds such as “aum,” “mmmm,” or “ahhhhh.”

Music Meditation

Listening to music naturally brings us into the present moment. It can also bring us to good memories or daydreams of the future. You can bring more meditative elements to your music experience by noticing how you feel while you listen, play or sing. Add full diaphragmatic breathing and some cannabis too.

Some other music ideas are to pick up that instrument you haven’t played in a while. Don’t worry if you play well or not. The point is simply to become immersed in it and to enjoy it. You also may want to try singing or playing percussion along with your favorite music. Don’t have a drum? Make one. Any object can be a percussion instrument. Just start tapping! Lastly, consider going to a music based event and enjoy. You will be engaged in meditation without any effort at all. No wonder we like music so much!

Hobby Meditation

Similar to the exercise, bathing, and music, immerse yourself in any project that you enjoy such as model building, knitting, car restoration, drawing, painting, crafts, etc. As you enjoy your hobby, add the elements of deep breathing, awareness of sensation, and focus on the current moment and you’ll be meditating. And in the end you’ll have a physical manifestation of that mediation.

Massage Meditation

Schedule a massage for yourself. As you enjoy the physical sensation, be aware of your breath. You may want to focus on one word such as Peace, Calm, Love, Ease, or perhaps a sound with no meaning such as Aum. As everyday thoughts enter your mind, pour them out with the simple mantra “empty the mind.”

> Meditation Techniques for the Busy or Impatient | Dumb Little Man

Mar 8, 2013Jun 17, 2016

The Science of Lucid Dreaming Methods Used by Richard Feynman (Video)

Here are the video’s lucid dreaming pointers in list form:

-Maintain a dream journal: this improves recall and lucidity.
-Reality checks: Remember to check the time often, even when you think you’re awake.
-MILD: Put that dream journal to use! Think of a recent dream as you fall asleep, while focusing on having a lucid dream. Try waking in the middle of the night for half an hour and then heading back to sleep.
-WILD: Keep your mind awake as your body slips into sleep.

Richard Feynman on the Fear of Sleep Paralysis

During the time of making observation in my dreams, the process of waking up was a rather fearful one. As you’re beginning to wake up there’s a moment when you feel rigid and tied down, or underneath many layers of cotton batting. It’s hard to explain, but there’s a moment when you get the feeling you can’t get out; you’re not sure you can wake up.

So I would have to tell myself — after I was awake — that that’s ridiculous. There’s no disease I know of where a person falls asleep naturally and can’t wake up. You can always wake up. And after talking to myself many times like that, I became less and less afraid, and in fact I found the process of waking up rather thrilling — something like a roller coaster. After a while you’re not so scared, and you begging to enjoy it a little bit. – Richard Feynman, Theoretical Physicist

> A handy guide to lucid dreaming, with additional tips from Richard Feynman | io9

Tag: Awareness