Tantra

Orðið tantra þýðir: ,,reglur til að stjórna eftir," reglur þess sem drottnar. Sú deild bókmennta sem hér um ræðir er talsverð að vöxtum, eða alls sextíu og fjórar bækur.

Ekki er vitað hver er höfundur þessarar stefnu. En séu þessi rit lesin niður í kjölinn kemur í ljós að þegar á Veda-tímanum fyrirfannst esóterískur skóli í hagnýtri heimspeki sem enn er til og starfað hefur óslitið gegnum allar þessar aldir.

Svo gerður sé stuttur samanburður á tantra-heimspekinni og öðrum stefnum má segja að hinn hinsti veruleiki sem kallastbrahman í vedanta og púsusha í samkhya heitir shiva með tantristum. Samkvæmt vedanta er maya máttur brahmans, þ.e. sá máttur sem gerir birtingu alheimsins mögulega. Í samkhya kallast þessi máttur prakrti, en í tantra shakti sem beinlínis þýðir máttur.

Markmið tantrista er að upplifa einingu shiva og shakti, máttarins sem ríkir í alheiminum og hins hinsta veruleika, í óskiptilegri einingar-upplifun. ...

En tantrafræðin skoðast ekki einasta fræði, þau eru einnig esóterískt eða leynilegt yoga, og sem slíkur hefur tantrisminn ávallt verið hulinn dularhjúp og hrapallega misskilinn, einnig á Indlandi. ...

Sem fyrr er að vikið grundvallast allar stefnur í yoga á þeirri hugsun að maðurinn sé guðlegur í eðli sínu og bæði trúariðkun og yoga sé meðvituð viðleitni í þá átt að finna leið til að leiða þetta eðli fullkomlega í ljós. Í þessu samhengi fundu hinir fornu rishíar (rshi =sjáandi) og kenndu ýmsar leiðir sem allar kallast einu nafni yoga.

Hvað er kundalini-yoga? Úr ritum Sri Swami Gnaneswarananda. Brot úr grein sem birtirst  í vorhefti Ganglera frá árinu 1979. G.Á. endursagði.

Lærðu að hugleiða - Leiðbeiningar fyrir byrjendur frá Self-Realization Fellowship

 

How to Meditate — Beginner's Instructions

Preparing a Space for Meditation

Find a quiet, peaceful place where you can be secluded and undisturbed during meditation. Create your own sanctuary exclusively for your meditation practice.

Sit on a straight chair or cross legged on a firm surface — cover that with a woolen blanket and/or a silk cloth. This insulates your seat from the downward pull of subtle earth currents.

Next: Correct Posture 

Star Size Comparison

The mind and the ego ...

The mind and the ego are one and the same. 

Sri Ramana Maharshi

100 Benefits of Meditation

100 Benefits of Meditation

Physiological benefits:
1- It lowers oxygen consumption.
2- It decreases respiratory rate.
3- It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.
4- Increases exercise tolerance.
5- Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.
6- Good for people with high blood pressure.
7- Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.
8- Decreases muscle tension
9- Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.
10- Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome symptoms.
11- Helps in post-operative healing.
12- Enhances the immune system.
13- Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress
14- Enhances energy, strength and vigour.
15- Helps with weight loss
16- Reduction of free radicals, less tissue damage
17- Higher skin resistance
18- Drop in cholesterol levels, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease.
19- Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing.
20- Decreases the aging process.
21- Higher levels of DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone)
22- prevented, slowed or controlled pain of chronic diseases
23- Makes you sweat less
24- Cure headaches & migraines
25- Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning
26- Reduced Need for Medical Care
27- Less energy wasted
28- More inclined to sports, activities
29- Significant relief from asthma
30- improved performance in athletic events
31- Normalizes to your ideal weight
32- harmonizes our endocrine system
33- relaxes our nervous system
34- produce lasting beneficial changes in brain electrical activity
35- Cure infertility (the stresses of infertility can interfere with the release of hormones that regulate ovulation).

Psychological benefits:
36- Builds self-confidence.
37- Increases serotonin level, influences mood and behaviour.
38- Resolve phobias & fears
39- Helps control own thoughts
40- Helps with focus & concentration
41- Increase creativity
42- Increased brain wave coherence.
43- Improved learning ability and memory.
44- Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.
45- Increased emotional stability.
46- improved relationships
47- Mind ages at slower rate
48- Easier to remove bad habits
49- Develops intuition
50- Increased Productivity
51- Improved relations at home & at work
52- Able to see the larger picture in a given situation
53- Helps ignore petty issues
54- Increased ability to solve complex problems
55- Purifies your character
56- Develop will power
57- greater communication between the two brain hemispheres
58- react more quickly and more effectively to a stressful event.
59- increases one’s perceptual ability and motor performance
60- higher intelligence growth rate
61- Increased job satisfaction
62- increase in the capacity for intimate contact with loved ones
63- decrease in potential mental illness
64- Better, more sociable behaviour
65- Less aggressiveness
66- Helps in quitting smoking, alcohol addiction
67- Reduces need and dependency on drugs, pills & pharmaceuticals
68- Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation
69- Require less time to fall asleep, helps cure insomnia
70- Increases sense of responsibility
71- Reduces road rage
72- Decrease in restless thinking
73- Decreased tendency to worry
74- Increases listening skills and empathy
75- Helps make more accurate judgements
76- Greater tolerance
77- Gives composure to act in considered & constructive ways
78- Grows a stable, more balanced personality
79- Develops emotional maturity

Spiritual benefits:
80- Helps keep things in perspective
81- Provides peace of mind, happiness
82- Helps you discover your purpose
83- Increased self-actualization.
84- Increased compassion
85- Growing wisdom
86- Deeper understanding of yourself and others
87- Brings body, mind, spirit in harmony
88- Deeper Level of spiritual relaxation
89- Increased acceptance of oneself
90- helps learn forgiveness
91- Changes attitude toward life
92- Creates a deeper relationship with your God
93- Attain enlightenment
94- greater inner-directedness
95- Helps living in the present moment
96- Creates a widening, deepening capacity for love
97- Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego
98- Experience an inner sense of “Assurance or Knowingness”
99- Experience a sense of “Oneness”
100- Increases the synchronicity in your life

Meditation is also completely FREE! It requires no special equipment, and is not complicated to learn. It can be practiced anywhere, at any given moment, and it is not time consuming (15-20 min. per day is good). Best of all, meditation has NO negative side effects. Bottom line, there is nothing but positive to be gained from it! With such a huge list of benefits, the question you should ask yourself is, “why am I not meditating yet?”

Forget the past ...

Viðtal við Hemma Gunn þar sem hann ræði m.a. dauðann

,,Ég hef sem alkóhólisti farið í sjálfskoðunarferlið og það virkaði ljómandi vel á sínum tíma en það er ekkert í líkingu við þetta. Þarna breytast öll grunngildi algjörlega. Það sem skiptir máli eru börnin og sönn vinátta. Ég eltist ekki lengur við veraldleg auðævi. Eftir upprisuna fékk ég það sem ég var búinn að vera rembast við allt mitt líf, að reyna ná innri ró."

Hér fyrir neðan má hlusta á hljóðbút úr viðtali við Hemma en HÉR má lesa viðtalið í heild sinni.

 

 

New to mindfulness? How to get started

 

Mindfulness is being used in schools, colleges and universities to help teachers and students to improve their attention, interactions with each other, and understanding of others.

Lawyers and judges use mindfulness to listen to and present evidence and reduce distractions. In other work settings, business leaders, workers and HR departments are using mindfulness training to reduce workplace stress, improve focus, communication, creativity and productivity.

And mindfulness is widely used in the treatment of mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety. It’s also used to assist people with medical conditions, such as diabetes, fibromyalgia, hypertension and insomnia and to improve the symptoms of stress.

If you’re new to mindfulness, you likely already have some understanding of what it is and its benefits. Now you’ve made a decision to try it.

Many people have heard the definition of mindfulness: paying attention in the present moment, on purpose, nonjudgmentally.

But if you don’t have access to a mindfulness training program through your work or through therapy, how do you start a mindfulness practice?

It’s hard to learn mindfulness on your own. It is possible, just as it’s possible to teach yourself to play the piano by reading books and practicing on your own. Mindfulness can be learned on your own through books, apps, YouTube videos and other resources.

However, like playing the piano or learning a sport, good instruction can significantly improve your learning.

And so, the first step to a mindfulness practice may be to research work programs, the possibility of accessing programs through your insurance or a mental health provider or mindfulness opportunities in your community.  Many yoga classes or studios, for example, incorporate mindfulness into the practice or have a class that is devoted to mindfulness or meditation techniques.

But like a new exercise regime, once you’ve made the decision to try it, you may want to just get started. 

If that’s the case, you can try the following exercise, which is an example of a mindfulness exercise.

• Choose a time when you have 10 minutes to yourself and find a quiet place to sit comfortably.  Whether you are at your desk at work or in your home, clear the space of obvious distractions.  Put away phones, email and other distractors.  If setting a timer would help you stay focused, rather than worried about how much time you have, then set a timer.
• Acknowledge any thoughts or judgments you have about starting your mindfulness practice.  You may be uncomfortable, skeptical or excited.  Our minds are constantly thinking, so you may want to notice whether you are caught up in thoughts as you get ready for your practice.  If this is the case, simply acknowledge thoughts and emotions that come into your awareness and then refocus on getting settled and comfortable.
• Once settled and comfortable, you can choose to close you’re eyes or keep your gaze focused in one spot in front of you.  Take a few deep breaths and then begin by bringing your attention to your breath, as you breath in.  Notice the tip of the nose as your breath enters your body.  Continue to breathe normally, following your inhalations as your breath flows down into your lungs.  Notice your lungs expand as your breath fills them and then notice them begin to contract during your exhalations.  There is no need to change your breathing.  Simply notice it as it flows in and out of your body.
• Follow your exhalations, with your awareness, as they flow out of your body.  Notice your breath flowing from the lungs, up through airways and out your nose again.
• Continuing following your breath in this manner for 10 minutes.  The first few times you practice, you may find that much of your time is spent lost in thought, rather than focused on your breath.
• The practice of mindfulness is about beginning to notice these internal distractions and mind wanderings and, once noticed, to bring your focus back.  You may lose focus and bring your attention back many, many times over the course of several minutes.  Don’t worry, this is part of the practice.

When you practice a piece on the piano, your fingers are more likely to find the right notes with repetition.  In mindfulness, with practice and repetition, you will likely find that you are better able to keep your focus and are less distracted by thoughts and emotions that come up during your practice.

A piano teacher may help you to make a song come to life, by focusing on dynamics or by following the beat.  In the same way, learning mindfulness with an experienced practitioner can help you to improve your practice.

One of the appealing aspects of mindfulness practice is that it can be integrated into daily life, but to do that, you need to have times when you formally practice, either with instruction or by intentionally setting time aside for it on your own.  Research studies tend to find positive outcomes with 20 minutes of daily practice.

Simply becoming more aware might sound easy, but we often don’t realize how distracted we are in our lives.  Retraining our minds takes time and effort, but it’s worth it.  And what’s better to focus your awareness on than the everyday aspects of your life?

 

Sjá: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/06/03/new-to-mindfulness-how-to-get-started/

What is religion?