Meditation on Spring

This is my latest production, a brief (5-minute) meditation on spiritually preparing for Spring. More to come!

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This TeleMeditations podcast offers you a relaxing form of pranayama to use as a breathing meditation on appreciation. The podcast is 18 minutes long.

Breathing in conjunction with absorbing the higher meaning of the word ‘appreciation’ is a refinement technique.

Practice it to lift your whole being up in vibrational frequency. Note how the practice of breathing appreciation improves your life and your relationships.

After you listen to this podcast and practice breathing meditation, take note of your experience during your practice, and what if any results you have.

Take note of any changes, subtle or obvious. Ask yourself questions like:

• How do you feel from just doing the breathing?
• How do you feel practicing appreciation in your daily life?

I’d enjoy reading your comments.

Related articles:

• Appreciating yourself as you are
• Breathing appreciation meditation experience

Music for this podcast provided under Creative Commons licensing arrangement.

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A once-cherished belief held that you had to be an initiate in the Mysteries or a quantum scientist to explore macrocosm and microcosm theories.

Have things changed as our technology and culture advance at break-neck speed, or is that belief still valid?

The term ‘quantum’ has become a household word, but it’s difficult to take for granted.

Even those in the inner core of quantum science or initiated in the teachings of mystery schools can’t pretend to understand it.

Yet, as quantum theory becomes part of the growing, collective spiritual mainstream, people are drawn to it.

Without understanding its higher-mind concepts, we all can stand in awe of the possibilities quantum enlightenment presents for personal and even planetary transformation.

I gave a teleconference lecture on Quantum Enlightenment preceding one of my TeleMediations. It was based on some highlights from my thesis. Here is the meditation from that class. Enjoy.

Podcast Meditation. Listen only when you can be in a relaxed environment, and not while driving.

Peaceful flute, water and nature sounds match the inner support you find from the light. Plan to use this guided meditation to lead you deep within. You can sit or find any comfortable position for this session. Stay there as long as you like. If you want to use this recording to help you fall asleep, you can listen while lying down. Seven minutes.

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Do you love to meditate to Ravi Shankar?

Then you will enjoy the DVD from the live concert, Ravi Shankar In Portrait: Between Two Worlds. It was performed in the atmospheric Union Chapel in London, Summer 2002, with his daughter Anoushka, and with tabla virtuosi Bikram Ghosh and Tanmoy Bose.

The full length performance of “Raga Rangeela Piloo”, a BBC release, is available as a DVD set (my affiliate link). It celebrates Shankar’s life and music, and is featured with another long raga “Raga Anandi Kalyan”. Both ragas make the DVD worth viewing. The set also includes archive footage of Shankar’s key performances between the 1930′s and now, as well as interviews of Shankar. In the interviews on the DVD set, Shankar gives beautiful descriptions of the structure of Indian music. He also talks about his school, and provides glimpses into his personal life and family.

Click to preview video of Ravi Shankar In Concert, available as immediate download at Amazon (my affiliate link).

Om Surya Namaha is one of the twelve mantras to the sun given in the yoga meditation, Surya Namaskar (Salutation to the Sun). Surya Namaskar is the yoga asana (posture) for worshiping God by meditating on the Sun. As the energy provider for our solar system, the Sun is the primal representative of the inner sun of being.

The complete Surya Namaskar, which is helpful in support of the ability to concentrate, is a yogic meditation traditionally performed in the open air at dawn, facing the Sun.

But the Surya Namaskar is more than a physical exercise. It is a spiritual practice to dispel the darkness of our mind by the light of the inner sun. This is the aim of all true meditation. Our Sun, the star of our solar system, represents the highest form of divinity that we can see or contemplate.

The Yogi performs each of the asanas (postures) with a specific breathing pattern, chanting one of the twelve mantras for each pose. Each mantra is in honor of one of the twelve representations of the sun deity.

Below is a music video dedicated to the chanting of the Om Surya Namaha. Om Surya Namaha is the third mantra of 12 given during Surya Namaskar. It means, “Salutations to the God Surya, He who dispels our darkness.” Chanting this mantra is meant to invoke inspiration.

The purpose of meditation is stated so purely in this quote:

I bow to that which is the substance of all, which is all, the embodiment of the universe, the light on which the yogis meditate – Markandeyapurana

A study by the UCLA Laboratory for Neuro Imaging shows that those who meditate tend to have significantly larger volumes of the hippocampus and areas within the orbito-frontal cortex, the thalamus and the inferior temporal gyrus. These are all areas of the brain known to regulate the emotions.

44 people were examined, 22 were control subjects and the other 22 had practiced various forms of meditation. Those who practice had done so for between five and 46 years; the average was 24 years.

More than half of all the meditators said that deep concentration was an essential part of their practice. Most meditated for between ten and 90 minutes every day.

The study, however, does not conclude definitively that meditation necessarily produces brain development. Researchers suggest that perhaps those who are attracted to the practice of meditation were already endowed with more regional gray matter. If so, this could be a factor that first drew them to meditation.

Want to learn how to master your brainwaves? Click here to learn about a meditation program that helps you do this effortlessly (my affiliate link).

This Video is from a meditation MP3 on how to manifest what you want.

You can download the full MP3 recording as a gift when you subscribe to the free newsletter, Best Manifestation Secrets. As with all meditation audios, wait to listen when you are in a quiet location, free of distraction.

Do not listen to How to Manifest What you Want while driving or operating machinery or equipment.

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Practicing meditation is good medicine for the prevention of ailments brought on by stress

Prolonged stress can result in a multitude of disorders such as weakened immune system, emotional problems with depression and anxiety, and panic disorders, and now as shown by a new study, arrhythmia.

Many healthcare practitioners prescribe meditation as a way to reduce stress and help manage pain. This is nothing new; the Buddha prescribed mindfulness as medicine to help ease that physical discomfort.

Since we live in bodies that can become ill or uncomfortable we can use meditation to teach us to be skillful in alleviating that discomfort, by soothing the related stress.

The conventional wisdom, regarding meditation, is that it takes time to learn to meditate skillfully enough to do this, to steady the mind and avoid the frustration that makes stress – and pain – even worse than it already is.

So it makes sense to find the quickest way to correctly meditate, teaching your body to respond in a healthy way to stressful circumstances including ill health. Click here to learn more about a good program I recommend (my affiliate link).

Related articles

• How to deal with stress
• Meditation, stress reduction, and anger management
• Mindfulness: Potent Medicine for Easing Physical Suffering (psychologytoday.com)

Celebrate the Great Night of Shiva

Here is a video in honor of Shivaratri, the Hindu festival also known as the “Great Night of Shiva”.