Hi Folks !
It's so good to be back !
I spent two months serving at the Bodhgaya Vipassana Center and learnt a whole lot about myself in the process!
The center, Dhammabodhi, is about 2 kms from the Bodhi tree where the Buddha achieved enlightenment and sitting a course or serving there is said to be at least 8 times more powerful than at any other place in the world.
Now, I believe it !
The whole of Bodhgaya is special.
It is said the last 7 Self- Enlightened Buddhas had meditated there and achieved their goal.
So it is not just the spot under the tree which is barricaded, nor those 7 places where he spent a week each meditating over how to teach the technique to millions who were suffering and wanted to get out of the cycle of birth - and - death like him which are 'holy'.
It is the whole complex.
And the manner in which those who come there, pay respect to him.
What do they do?
They sit down and meditate.
Silently.
There are groups from many countries who come and go around chanting and offering flowers but what you see most, is multitudes who are sitting quietly and meditating.
It is so peaceful.
You may have gone tired or upset or unsettled.
Once you close your eyes and go to your breath, you feel the peace seeping in slowly, enveloping you gently.
The vibrations of that place just calm you down and are powerful cleansers.
In Vipassana meditation, the introductory course is of 10 - days.
After a few of those, and regular daily practice, you move on to longer courses where you can go much, much deeper within your own mind and get rid of the ' Sleeping Volcanoes', as Goenkaji calls them !
They are the strong habit patterns of anger/ desire, craving/aversion which take us by surprise when we react with instinct.
Here, they come up, many times along with the root causes, and we can watch them, understand them and resolve them so that they go away forever.
In the 2 months that I was there, Dhammanodhi had a 30 - day and a 45 day course going simultaneously.
They were all senior meditators, many had already sat/served these long courses before and quite a few were Vipassana Teachers.
So you can imagine the strong, powerful vibrations of that place as they meditated mostly in their individual cells and once in the evening for a group sitting in the Hall!
They were from many countries, and all sat still like Buddhas as they went deep within.
It was an honour to make sure they were comfortable, had the food they wanted and that there was no disturbance.
The last bit was difficult at times, what with loudspeakers in the nearby villages and announcements in sports meets next door, but the meditators mostly took it as a challenge to their practice !
All those who serve, compulsorily meditate for 3 hours every day, and on long courses, we get to meditate more because we don't have to run after them to request them to keep silent or go in time.
Each of us could meditate for 6- 7 hours or more after doing our assigned work and for me, it was as good as sitting a long course.
At the end of the course, I gave Metta - my gratitude to the Buddha, to Vipassana and to the people who made it all possible right from his time.
And to everyone else - including you, dear reader.
Do you remember what is Metta ?
It is actually distributing your hard - earned merits, your ' Punya ', which you have collected after getting rid of your mental defilements.
Read the posts on 'Metta Bhavana ' and ' The Metta Sutta '.
Do a 10 - day Vipassana course in the New Year !
And send me Metta !
:)
Before I left, in the last post, I had mentioned a question sent by a reader which I had promised to answer after I came back.
The question is -
' mam, i just could not understand this future process. i thought PLR is about past and future is unknown. Please throw more light on it . What exactly it is ?'
A nice question !
And we go back to Maria !
' Let's start at the very beginning!
A very good place to start ! '
We started this whole journey for 2 reasons -
1. To experience all kinds of emotions
2. To enjoy creation
Most of us have come in a group of 100 - 150 and choose to be different relations or friends or even enemies depending on what we ( and they ) choose for those lifetimes.
We have been minerals, raindrops, mountains, rivers, seas and oceans,trees, flowers leaves, birds, animals, fish and insects and then humans.
When we evolve enough to plan before taking birth, we pay more attention to the whole agenda.
So, when you come for a Past Life Regression session I can take you to the Life - Between - Lives state when you actually sat and chalked out your current life in detail.
Now if you have come to find out if you should really take that business opportunity and give up this current job, I take you first to the LBL where you see what you have planned and why.
The answers can be amazing, to say the least.
One creative artist saw she had to choose very carefully between Tradition and Spontaneity.
She was currently stuck on Tradition, performing her dance exactly like hundreds of years before, taking pride in maintaining the purity but in a fix now because she was being pushed to allow children to be more free - flowing and spontaneous.
I took her ahead and let her see what would happen if she remained as she was and if she changed her mindset.
It was an eye opener and she was grateful for these insights.
Many want to know if they should marry this person or that, take this job or the other, and so on.
How does this happen ?
The future has not happened yet.
Only that will happen for which you take concrete, actual steps.
People have decided to get rid of their anger/ego/ambition and greed when they saw what it could do to them after a few years.
Similarly, one can go ahead by a few hundred years too, to check out on a personal level or a general one like Chet Snow did in the PLR Therapists' Convention.
At times, this works more powerfully than Past Life Regression but one has to remember that if one sees a great life after 2/3/4 or whatever years, it is not going to come because one has seen it.
There is no substitute for patience, forgiveness, hard work and love.
I shall write again in just a few days, to round up the year.
Take care.
It's so good to be back !
I spent two months serving at the Bodhgaya Vipassana Center and learnt a whole lot about myself in the process!
The center, Dhammabodhi, is about 2 kms from the Bodhi tree where the Buddha achieved enlightenment and sitting a course or serving there is said to be at least 8 times more powerful than at any other place in the world.
Now, I believe it !
The whole of Bodhgaya is special.
It is said the last 7 Self- Enlightened Buddhas had meditated there and achieved their goal.
So it is not just the spot under the tree which is barricaded, nor those 7 places where he spent a week each meditating over how to teach the technique to millions who were suffering and wanted to get out of the cycle of birth - and - death like him which are 'holy'.
It is the whole complex.
And the manner in which those who come there, pay respect to him.
What do they do?
They sit down and meditate.
Silently.
There are groups from many countries who come and go around chanting and offering flowers but what you see most, is multitudes who are sitting quietly and meditating.
It is so peaceful.
You may have gone tired or upset or unsettled.
Once you close your eyes and go to your breath, you feel the peace seeping in slowly, enveloping you gently.
The vibrations of that place just calm you down and are powerful cleansers.
In Vipassana meditation, the introductory course is of 10 - days.
After a few of those, and regular daily practice, you move on to longer courses where you can go much, much deeper within your own mind and get rid of the ' Sleeping Volcanoes', as Goenkaji calls them !
They are the strong habit patterns of anger/ desire, craving/aversion which take us by surprise when we react with instinct.
Here, they come up, many times along with the root causes, and we can watch them, understand them and resolve them so that they go away forever.
In the 2 months that I was there, Dhammanodhi had a 30 - day and a 45 day course going simultaneously.
They were all senior meditators, many had already sat/served these long courses before and quite a few were Vipassana Teachers.
So you can imagine the strong, powerful vibrations of that place as they meditated mostly in their individual cells and once in the evening for a group sitting in the Hall!
They were from many countries, and all sat still like Buddhas as they went deep within.
It was an honour to make sure they were comfortable, had the food they wanted and that there was no disturbance.
The last bit was difficult at times, what with loudspeakers in the nearby villages and announcements in sports meets next door, but the meditators mostly took it as a challenge to their practice !
All those who serve, compulsorily meditate for 3 hours every day, and on long courses, we get to meditate more because we don't have to run after them to request them to keep silent or go in time.
Each of us could meditate for 6- 7 hours or more after doing our assigned work and for me, it was as good as sitting a long course.
At the end of the course, I gave Metta - my gratitude to the Buddha, to Vipassana and to the people who made it all possible right from his time.
And to everyone else - including you, dear reader.
Do you remember what is Metta ?
It is actually distributing your hard - earned merits, your ' Punya ', which you have collected after getting rid of your mental defilements.
Read the posts on 'Metta Bhavana ' and ' The Metta Sutta '.
Do a 10 - day Vipassana course in the New Year !
And send me Metta !
:)
Before I left, in the last post, I had mentioned a question sent by a reader which I had promised to answer after I came back.
The question is -
' mam, i just could not understand this future process. i thought PLR is about past and future is unknown. Please throw more light on it . What exactly it is ?'
A nice question !
And we go back to Maria !
' Let's start at the very beginning!
A very good place to start ! '
We started this whole journey for 2 reasons -
1. To experience all kinds of emotions
2. To enjoy creation
Most of us have come in a group of 100 - 150 and choose to be different relations or friends or even enemies depending on what we ( and they ) choose for those lifetimes.
We have been minerals, raindrops, mountains, rivers, seas and oceans,trees, flowers leaves, birds, animals, fish and insects and then humans.
When we evolve enough to plan before taking birth, we pay more attention to the whole agenda.
So, when you come for a Past Life Regression session I can take you to the Life - Between - Lives state when you actually sat and chalked out your current life in detail.
Now if you have come to find out if you should really take that business opportunity and give up this current job, I take you first to the LBL where you see what you have planned and why.
The answers can be amazing, to say the least.
One creative artist saw she had to choose very carefully between Tradition and Spontaneity.
She was currently stuck on Tradition, performing her dance exactly like hundreds of years before, taking pride in maintaining the purity but in a fix now because she was being pushed to allow children to be more free - flowing and spontaneous.
I took her ahead and let her see what would happen if she remained as she was and if she changed her mindset.
It was an eye opener and she was grateful for these insights.
Many want to know if they should marry this person or that, take this job or the other, and so on.
How does this happen ?
The future has not happened yet.
Only that will happen for which you take concrete, actual steps.
People have decided to get rid of their anger/ego/ambition and greed when they saw what it could do to them after a few years.
Similarly, one can go ahead by a few hundred years too, to check out on a personal level or a general one like Chet Snow did in the PLR Therapists' Convention.
At times, this works more powerfully than Past Life Regression but one has to remember that if one sees a great life after 2/3/4 or whatever years, it is not going to come because one has seen it.
There is no substitute for patience, forgiveness, hard work and love.
I shall write again in just a few days, to round up the year.
Take care.
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