Archives for May 2018

Happy weekend, Spiritual Warrior!

I released this body scan meditation earlier in the year, but I’m bringing it back because self-care — mental and physical — is so important.

I recently read an article on Vox.com titled “100 million Americans have chronic pain. Very few use one of the best tools to treat it.” I bet you can guess what one of the recommended treatments is…

Enjoy!!! Peace. -davidji

Welcome, Spiritual Warrior, to another edition of The Source in which we explore what happens when we find ourselves at a crossroads.

It never fails. Life tosses you a curveball; throws off your mojo; lays difficult decisions at your feet.  And, we find ourselves at a crossroads feeling confused and overwhelmed about what we really want.

We don’t acknowledge that so much of what we want is already inside. All we have to do is awaken what already rests within. For the process to work, we need to come from a place of stillness and silence – which allows us to be less conditioned in our assessments, and less knee-jerk in our reactions. If we can come from this space – with greater regularity & consistency – we will make decisions LESS out of fear and desperation.

We all have experienced making a choice out of fear, poverty consciousness, desperation, or constricted less-than thinking. Rarely is the outcome what we envisioned. In fact, most likely, you will feel even more confused or overwhelmed because after the dust settles, you will not have what you really, really want.

For thousands of years, the ancient oracles, shamans, sages, and seers practiced and ultimately mastered the Sacred Power of Presence in their lives. And although it’s not very complicated, in our modern world where mindfulness and meditation are readily available to all, most people still have not cultivated a present-moment technique that they engage in every day.

The ancient Chinese sage Lao-tzu is known for this powerful set of teachings, which reinforce the Sacred Power of Presence:

Do you have the patience to wait
until your mud settles and the water is clear?

Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?

The Master doesn’t seek fulfillment:
but not seeking, not expecting,
is fully present,
and can welcome all things.

As the swirl of life sweeps through you each day, allow these three powerful stanzas to become an ongoing contemplation. Gently rippling them through your thoughts will help you gain clarity, cultivate patience, and trust in the moment.

The ancient masters of meditation didn’t use apps or spa music to connect them to the present moment. They embraced the Divine Principle of One so purely, building their lives around daily present-moment practices, that they were able to effortlessly awaken the Sacred Power of Presence.

They infused their whole day into their present moments as opposed to inserting occasional presence into moments of their day. Buddha did not try to “squeeze” a meditation in between meetings, and the Bible is filled with references to Jesus praying throughout the day as part of his sacred devotion.

Cultivating a daily present-moment practice is much easier than you may think. And if we can accept the excuses of “no time” or “too busy” for exactly what they are—excuses (and lame ones at that)—then we can begin to integrate presence into our life and create a magnificent fusion of a fully present existence.

We know you weren’t too busy to send that text, “Thinking of you and sending love,” but if you did make some kind of excuse, stop reading now, and make sending that text your present-moment activity!

Practicing Presence

At first, “finding the time” to practice presence may feel like a chore, but this is the natural progression we all go through on our journey to stillness. The easiest way to connect with the flow more effortlessly is to practice throughout the day while you’re stuck in traffic, standing in a line, sitting in the bathroom, attending a meeting, or even taking a shower.

You can start out with an easy technique that requires no equipment called “16 seconds.” I’ve taught it to more than 200,000 people around the world, and it’s based on the ancient technique of mindful breathing popularized by the Buddha 2,600 years ago.

Start with a long, slow, deep inhale through your nose, and watch your breath slowly move into you and follow it down deep into your belly; then hold the breath in and witness it as it sits in your belly. Release your breath, and observe it as it moves back up, through you, and out of your nostrils. As you continue to exhale, watch your breath as you continue releasing it out, and observing it the whole time as it dissipates into the air. In. Hold. Out. Hold. Witnessing the whole time as you move through this simple four-part breathing technique. Each component takes about 4 seconds, with the whole experience lasting 16 seconds. You can approximate your time by counting along the way, or simply surrender to the process and see where it leads you. Sixteen seconds is all it takes to practice presence. And you can gently increase your presence practice to a minute by doing it 4 times, or to five minutes by doing it 20 times.

This time-tested process will instantly infuse all the conversations in your head with a tiny bit of stillness. The resulting newfound clarity in your mind will then start to subliminally pervade your choice making as your laser focus guides you in ways you never thought were possible.

This concentrated light of single-mindedness cuts through the fog of indecision, pierces the veils of confusion, and brings an instant settling down of emotions that would otherwise succumb to melodrama. Your tranquil inner dialogue evolves into a calmer and more composed outer dialogue.

The swirl around you slows, creating an inviting aura of tranquility that others appreciate participating in. And as all of your interactions start to proceed at a slower speed, you receive information more clearly, process it more objectively, and speak with greater poise and purpose.

Keep meditating, and i’ll see you in the GAP! Namaste. -davidji

All that we are arises from our thoughts, with our thoughts we create the world. Meditation is that key.

Each of us is holding onto something from our past that keeps us awake at night, and is standing in the way of deeper fulfillment or peace of mind. Healing is when we allow the universe’s natural process to gracefully unfold within us. There are 6 steps towards healing and making peace with the past. You can read about them here.

This weekend, let’s begin the gentle process of healing the past by letting go of what no longer serves us.

Mantra: Sat chit ananda

 

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Source.

Ayam atma brahma. (Atman and brahman are the same.)
–The ancient Mahavakyas, also called the great sayings

The Divine Principle of One is a natural law of the Universe . . . absolute, incontrovertible, and undeniable. All other laws of physics, math, science, and spirit spring from this defining principle of existence.

There is only One—and yet there is an infinite amount of its expression in our world—way beyond the nearly eight billion people who populate the planet. The divine thumbprint of the Universe rests embedded inside every particle, gust of wind, drop of water, blade of grass, and ray of light.

You are a magnificent and unique expression of this divine breath, flowing one-ness in every moment. And, yet, so often we look at our lives through a lens of separation, rarely recognizing the common threads that are woven through every aspect of our realities.

When you look at the world from the viewpoint of your own individuality, it’s easy to see yourself as a meaningless speck in the vastness of existence. Drill down farther and you are just one person out of the billions who populate earth.

When you go even deeper still, there are times when you believe that it’s just you, all alone. Sometimes it can be difficult to comprehend where we fit in the divine scheme of things.  As you lie awake in your bed at night, even if there is another person or animal lying next to you, it’s so easy to feel separate, even lonely.

But loneliness and aloneness are two very different concepts. When you are lonely, you are in a prison of sorts, feeling the pain of your separation. You yearn for another being to help you feel whole, another voice to listen to, another face to gaze upon, another body to feel, another person to soothe your aching feeling of estrangement.

When you are truly alone, you are whole – fully integrated into everything, liberated from your need to cling to another, released from any longing, and finally free to experience the ecstasy of your one-ness. In your wholeness, your Sacred Powers are fully awakened, and you have infinite choices at your fingertips that are not driven by some need to feel completed by another. In a state of true aloneness, joy is reawakened, your sense of divinity is restored, and you feel totally at home in your own skin—and delighted with your circumstance.

When you are in a state of divine aloneness, you can choose to either isolate yourself or connect with another, to surrender to your own magnificence or commune with someone else’s — build that bridge!

If you haven’t yet picked up a copy of Sacred Powers, do it this week and really explore the Divine Principle of One and journey away from the struggle and pain of feeling separate. Remember, we are not simply part of a collective of BEings. We are the same being.

Keep meditating and I’ll see you in the gap!!!

Namaste. -davidji

P.S. Check out this video on the Mahavakyas:

Photo sourced from thespiritscience.net

Happy weekend, spiritual warrior!

Abundance is the magnificence of the universe, which is whole, infinite … and everything that flows through it does so with ease. Resting at the core of our very being is abundance, and you can tap into it by opening ourselves — our most genuine self — to the divine flow of the universe.

Mantra: Ananda shanti ritam

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Source!!!

What code do you live by? Maybe it’s the Ten Commandments or the Four Agreements or the Seven Spiritual Laws. Or perhaps you live by the Golden Rule or the Three Gates. We’ve explored these codes over the past few months and here’s another one – The Eight Limbs! These are the paths to merging with the divine that the yogic sage Patanjali outlined 2000 years ago. They are:
• Yama
• Niyama
• Asana
• Pranayama
• Pratyahara
• Dharana
• Dhyana
• Samadhi

If this sounds like a lot of gibberish to you – do not despair – it’s all Sanskrit. This week, let’s just look at the first two limbs of YOGA – the yamas and the niyamas.

The yamas are the social codes of behavior that an enlightened BEing would live by. The niyamas are the personal codes an enlightened BEing lives by.

The original definitions of the 5 Yamas are:

  1. Ahimsa: non-violence;
  2. Satya: truth and absence of falsehood;
  3. Asteya: non-stealing;
  4. Brahmacharya: conscious choice making in our relationships;
  5. Aparigraha: non-hoarding – abundance consciousness.

The modern day guidance based on my translation is to walk through the world with a silent intention to be peaceful; truthful; non-coveting; mindful with our relationships; and filled with abundance consciousness. If we do this, we will float through each day with grace and ease.

The original definitions of the 5 Niyamas are:

1. Shaucha: physically and emotionally clean;
2. Santosha: contentment;
3. Tapas: austerity;
4. Svādhyāya: self study;
5. Ishvarapranidhana: surrender to God.

The modern day guidance based on my interpretation is to conduct yourself in each moment with purity of thought, word, and deed; seeing the miracles around you; being authentic in how you express yourself; being open to the teachers and the lessons in our interactions with others; and trusting in the divine plan.

These are ten beautiful principles originally designed to describe how enlightened ones see life. But here we are in 2018 with a reality that didn’t exist when Patanjali first wrote The Yoga Sutras.

Our life is filled with many more moving parts – a swirl that seems to build up steam with each year we spend on this planet. Car payments, home payments, kids, pets, technology, travel, staying healthy, keeping appointments, showing up at work, living our dharma…and so much more.

So here’s how we integrate: each week, pick a yama or niyama and see if you can weave it into every word, thought, and action throughout the day. Don’t beat yourself up when you find yourself in conflict. That’s the moment to congratulate yourself that you have the awareness that you drifted from your intention.

That’s true enlightenment – pure present moment awareness. And that’s how we change… by slowly flowing our intentions into our behaviors – our inner dialog into our outer dialog…our thoughts into our actions.

This week, I’m going to pick bramacharya – originally described by Patanjali as celibacy – but that was 2,000 years ago. My modern interpretation is to be fully present when you are with someone. To not take our human or personal or intimate interactions with others casually or for granted. To be more conscious in my communications and my exchanges with everyone I encounter.

What will you pick? Forward this to your friends and loved ones and let them choose a yama or niyama. And feel free to email me at info@davidji.com, and call me during my Hay House Radio show every Thursday 11am PT/2pm ET.

See you in the gap!! Peace. -davidji

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