Thursday, September 29, 2011

This Booked Changed Everything!

Book 2 – Ancient Wisdom, Modern World.  Ethics for the New Millennium by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

                If you ever wanted to read a book written by the Dalai Lama and weren’t sure which one, THIS is the one.  It’s the first of his books that I ever read and to this day it has changed my entire life.
                I have a hard time explaining the book though because on one hand it is simply written and easy to read and yet on the other hand it is intricately complex and delves deeply into the very vein of our existence. It breaks down the realities of our world and not only teaches us how to cope with them but opens up our minds to look at these realities in a whole different light. This different light makes it easier to cope with reality and helps us to live in it.
                This was my first ‘Buddhist’ text although it is not all about Buddhism at all. It introduced me to that spiritual path and it was a path that spoke to me in a way that I instinctively understood it. As I read this book the first time, even the second time, it was like he had written it just for me because so much of what he said made such simple yet complex sense to my mind and soul.
                This book not only changed my life, it changed how I lived it. From the way I react, act, and think about the world I live in and what I need to do to change that world for the better. It made me more grateful and compassionate and understanding of the world I see every day.
                Every day I remember – and sometimes have to stop and remind myself – about life lessons on acceptance that I learned from the Dalai Lama and his faith.  Things like accepting that the person who just cut me off in traffic and caused me to slam on my brakes maybe didn’t see me. Or maybe is so caught up and poisoned by disappointment in life that he only sees his own ugly face in the mirror every night and hates himself for it, which makes me sad for him and so I forgive him.
It was very hard to pick just a few passages to share with you but here goes…
Modern industrial society often strikes me as being like a huge self-propelled machine. Instead of human beings in charge, each individual is a tiny insignificant component with no choice but to move when the machine moves.” (Speaking of the Modern Society)
We begin to see that the universe we inhabit can be understood in terms of a living organism where each cell works in balanced cooperation with every other cell to sustain the whole. If, then, just one of these cells is harmed, as when disease strikes, that balance is harmed and there is danger to the whole.”  (Speaking of Dependent Origination)
 If there was ever a book that made me say ‘Everyone MUST read this book’, this is it.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

10 Books in 10 Blogs that Changed my Life!


 
Number 1 – A Handbook of Chakra Healing by Kalashatra Govinda
A very straight forward and easy to understand explanation of the Chakras and how they work, why they work and what they are.
I read this book from front to back and then developed my own chakra practice based on this book. I did it every day for 49 days, seven days for each chakra. This practice included gemstones, vocalization, yoga, meditation, affirmations, energy massage, aromatherapy, and homeopathic healing with plants. Not to mention the list of little things one can do every day to activate their chakras.
This book started me on my path to ‘healing’ myself and to finding happiness with myself. If ever I feel lost or ‘ungrounded’ I pick up the book again and read through the passages that helped me the most.
I learned how to associate any physical symptoms with emotional ones. I know that if I get a stomach ache, that means something is bothering me on an emotional level. If I get a sore throat, chances are I’m not communicating my needs and feelings as well as I should. If I get a rash on my skin, I know it means that I am feeling a little ‘unloved’ and need to find out why. If my feet get cold, I know it means I need to go work in the garden and do a little spiritual work as well.
Ever since I read this book and incorporated these practices into my daily life, I haven’t had to go to the doctor.
The book even touches on Chakras in children, from the womb to their first seven years, and afterwards. It’s amazing when I see that what it says is often true when I look at my own kids and others as well.
To end, I will leave you with examples of how to tell if you have blockages in your chakras as well as things you can do about it.
Need to work on your chakra if ---
Root – You are easily overwhelmed by life – take long walks, go barefoot, make direct contact with the earth.
Sacral – You feel that your creativity is blocked – Go dancing. Get creative, paint, sculpt, scrapbook.
Navel – You have a hard time recognizing/reaching goals –Spend time around a fire or light candles, look for things that excite you and pursue those interests.
Heart – You feel isolated or lonely – Love yourself, fill your house with plants, learn to be comfortable with touch, go for massages, hold hands, give out free hugs!
Throat – You say things you later regret – Keep a journal, take voice training or a course in public speaking.
Forehead – you suffer from anxiety or depression – Read spiritual books, philosophy books, keep a dream journal, daydream! Meditate under the stars.
Crown – You feel tired or worn out – Find the power in silence, go climb a mountain/hill, meditate in silence.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Silly Writers ‘Editing is for kids’


I am laughing my a$$ off at myself because in my goal to complete the editing of my ‘ahem’ finished story before I start NaNoWriMo, I sat and read the entire story. I have re-written and re-edited the first ten or so chapter so many times that they are pretty good, what I forgot to do in all that time was look at the rest of it.
I have three different versions of her history in this lifetime and four versions of her history in her past life. She speaks to various deities in this story and everyone of them repeats or has mistakes in them involving her story and their mythology. I have whole chapters that are nothing more than ‘Chapter 27 – write about Vincent here’ which never got done. I even have a whole scene that just stopped in the middle of it and never got finished.
What the hell was I thinking when I kept saying that it was almost done.
I’m not discouraged though, I’m laughing at myself and hitting myself in the head for being so silly.
Ah the joys of editing – seriously thinking I should give it to my kids and see what they come up with, might be better than what I come up with.
So to fix the problems here is a list of things I need to do…
1.       Write a short story about her past/present lives.
2.       Write a short story about her ‘big bad crime and punishment’
3.       Research a bit more on deities in actual books, not Wikipedia, lol.
4.       Finish unfinished chapters
5.       Edit it from start to finish.
And all of this in two months…I think the silly laughter is getting to my brain now…
So wish me luck, I’m sure there will be other posts about the process and the insanity (trust me this post is much better than the one I was going to do about impatient emailers, lmao)
Laughter is good medicine and even better when you can laugh at yourself.
So here’s a toast to writing, editing and all us crazy writers whose methods make no sense to anyone else!