This is one of my favorite stories.  It teaches us the importance of cultivating equanimity in the face of life’s ups and downs, to find a calmness within ourselves.  Being able to be “non-reactive” to the negative aspects of life will help us remain calm, balanced and experience the inner joy.  As Swami Satchidanda often said, “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf!”

Here is the old story of a farmer and his horse:

A farmer’s most valuable asset is the one horse he owns.  One day it runs away.  All the townspeople commiserate with him, “Oh, what terrible luck!  You’ve fallen into poverty now, with no way to pull the plow or move your goods!”  The farmer merely responds, “I don’t know if it’s unfortunate or not;  all I know is that my horse is gone.”

A few days later, the horse returns, and following it are six more horses, both stallions and mares.  The townspeople say “Oh!  You’ve struck it rich!  Now you have seven horses to your name!”  Again, the farmer says, “I don’t know if I’m fortunate or not:  all that I can say is that I now have seven horses in my stable.”

A few days later, while the farmer’s son is trying to break in one of the wild stallions, he’s thrown from the horse and breaks his leg and shoulder.  All the townspeople bemoan his fate:  “Oh, how terrible!  Your son has been so badly injured, he’ll not be able to help you with the harvest.  What a misfortune!”  The farmer responds, “I don’t know if it’s a misfortune or not:  what I know is that my son has been injured.”

Less that a  week later, the army sweeps through town, conscripting all the young men to fight in a war…all except for the farmer’s son, who is unable to fight because of his injury.

We never know what life brings us and what those final consequences will be of each of those highs and lows in life.  But wouldn’t it be nice to learn to surf those waves?  To stay balanced and smooth instead of constantly reacting to those ups and downs?  That is what “living in equanimity” will bring us – the ability to accept life’s mysteries and the uncontrollable nature of things for what they are and to learn that the only thing we can control is our own reaction to them.

~ Excerpts taken from a Yoga Journal article “Calm Within” by Frank Jude Boccio

A person meditating on compassion for others becomes the first beneficiary.   ~~ Dalai Lama

The power of meditation can affect every aspect of our daily lives and our relationships with ourselves and others.  In our current lives, filled with so many distractions, it is important to remember how to look inward for happiness and peace.

Mastering Your Own Mind

Back when my son was 8 years old, he called 911 after I took away his Game Boy. I wish I’d been studying Buddhism back then, because I probably could have handled it a lot better. I suspect I wouldn’t have yelled at him while the dispatcher was still listening. And I bet I wouldn’t have been quite so wracked by dread when the police were questioning us in separate rooms of the house—at least until I overheard the other officer ask, “She took away your what?”

Most importantly, I know I would have forgiven my son much more quickly, and the whole thing wouldn’t have felt so traumatic. I might even have gazed upon him with compassion.

Looking back, I realize I was completely underutilizing my own brain. It is small comfort that so many otherwise sane mortals share this failing. Our attention flickers, our patience ebbs and—propelled by fear, malice, craving and other deeply inscribed passions—we lurch from impulse to action.

In contrast, practiced Buddhist meditators deploy their brains with exceptional skill. Drawing on 2,500 years of mental technology—techniques for paying careful attention to the workings of their own minds—they develop expertise in controlling the flow of their mental life, avoiding the emotional squalls that often compel us to take personal feelings oh, so personally, and clearing new channels for awareness, calm, compassion and joy. Their example holds the possibility that we can all choose to modulate our moods, regulate our emotions and increase cognitive capacity—that we can all become high-performance users of our own brains.

“What we’re talking about is a long-term strategy for cultivating the heart and mind to fully draw forth the beneficial capacities of the human mind,” says B. Alan Wallace, founder and president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. A Buddhist scholar who examines the interface between science and religion, he believes that much of human suffering is our own doing. Our feelings contract around threats to our sense of self and cloud our sense perceptions. We end up reacting, as if we had no other choice.

Meditation alters what we tend to think of as stable mental traits—anxiety, for example, or anger. Practitioners discover that feelings are events that rise in the psyche like bubbles off the bottom of a pot of boiling water. “They learn to de-identify with their emotions, making it easier to let them go,” says neuroscientist Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

As the result of an extraordinary convergence of scientific research into interior states and new understanding of an ancient spiritual tradition, says Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the pioneering Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, “Buddhist meditation is leading to an expansion of the science of what it means to be human.”

Ten Million Americans Can’t All Be Wrong

Some 10 million Americans say they practice some form of meditation. Buddhism is unique among spiritual traditions in its emphasis on psychology. Its core teachings encourage practitioners to shake off suffering and discover happiness. The very concept of self-improvement informs bhavana, the Sanskrit word commonly translated as “meditation,” though it literally means “cultivation.” “It has exactly the same connotation as when we say we ‘cultivate a garden,’ ” says Wallace.

It remains a radical notion in the West that benevolent states of mind such as concentration, kindness and happiness can be developed with practice. Apart from a growing “positive psychology” movement, many of whose leaders are in fact strongly influenced by Buddhism, Western scientists are still largely oriented toward healing the mentally ill, rather than improving the lives of the functionally OK. Recollect Freud’s humble goal: to transform hysterical misery into common unhappiness. Western science is content to believe that each of us has a more or less genetically determined set point for well-being—and that happiness and love happen to us.

The Buddha framed things differently. He taught that our default mode may be to suffer, but only because of ignorance. We can transcend our lot by learning to quiet the mind in meditation—not merely to relax and cope with stress, as the popular notion of Buddhism holds, but to rigorously train oneself to relinquish bad mental habits. Rather than being an end in itself, meditation becomes a tool to investigate your mind and change your worldview. You’re not tuning out so much as tuning up your brain, improving your self-monitoring skills.

“You stop being always projected outside. You start looking in and seeing how your mind works, and you change your mind, thought by thought,” explains Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk, scientist and French interpreter for the Dalai Lama. “The French intellectuals don’t like this. They say, ‘Let’s be spontaneous; passions are the beauty of life.’ They think that making an effort is not nice—a silly old discipline—and that’s why we’re such a mess. But many modern people understand the notion of getting fit with physical training.” So the idea of developing mental skills with meditation is gaining ground.

The Nod From Neuroscience

Encouragement for this new way of thinking comes from an unusual ally. Neuroscience is furnishing hard evidence that the brain is plastic, endowed with a lifelong capacity to reorganize itself with each new experience. “We now know that neural firing can lead to changes in neural connections, and experience leads to changes in neural firing,” explains UCLA psychiatrist Daniel Siegel. Violinists’ brains actually change as they refine their skill. So do the brains of London cabbies, whose livelihood depends on the sharpness of their memory. Likewise, through repeated practice in focusing attention, meditators may be strengthening the neural circuitry involved in the voluntary control of attention.

One Tibetan lama told Wallace that before training, his mind was like a stag with great antlers trying to make its way through a thick forest; the animal got snagged on branches time after time. But after many years of practice, his mind was more like a monkey in a jungle, swinging freely from vine to vine.

Such adepts are the Lance Armstrongs of meditation, says Davidson, whose pioneering brain scans of monks provide tantalizing evidence that emotions like love and compassion are in fact skills—and can be trained to a dramatic degree. Studies also suggest that the monastic life is not a requirement; even brief, regular meditation sessions can yield substantial benefits. Nor is a belief in Buddhism necessary. “I’m convinced that you can make a huge difference in your life if you start out with even 30 minutes a day,” Ricard says. “By maintaining the practice, there is a trickle of insights. Drop by drop, you fill a jar.”

One recent study at Massachusetts General Hospital found that 40 minutes of daily meditation appears to thicken parts of the cerebral cortex involved in attention and sensory processing. In a pilot study at the University of California at San Francisco, researchers found that schoolteachers briefly trained in Buddhist techniques who meditated less than 30 minutes a day improved their moods as much as if they had taken antidepressants.

There are many types of meditation, and they can be used to develop a number of mental skills. This attitude focuses on practices that address common emotional struggles. Through basic meditation techniques, it’s possible to cultivate a longer attention span, develop emotional stability, understand the feelings of others and release yourself from the constraints you place on your own happiness.

Attention: Stabilize the Mind

Computers, pagers, video games, telemarketing calls, nonstop e-mail—all blast our attention span to smithereens. Modern life does a swell job of distracting us. But perhaps the problem lies not in our cell phones but in ourselves. After all, we’re the ones constantly making choices about what to attend to and what to ignore.

The trouble is, most of us make these choices semiconsciously at best. We don’t even attempt to control our attention, perhaps because we don’t know how. Buddhists maintain that the capacity can be refined through a consistent practice of meditation: The mind is by nature unstable, inherently distractible, and meditation is a means of stabilizing it.

“Meditation is about paying attention,” says Kabat-Zinn. Cultivating concentration doesn’t just stabilize and clarify the mind, it can also improve creativity and productivity while enhancing relationships. Imagine if you actually paid attention 100 percent to your spouse!

The strategy that starts you on this road is mindfulness, which means both cultivating nonjudgmental awareness of a specific object and seeing deeply into things. A common approach is to focus on an object or on the sensations of your own breathing, noting every inhale and exhale, and patiently returning your attention to your breathing each time it wanders.

“You practice focusing on one object,” says Clifford Saron, a neuroscientist at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California at Davis. “You begin to observe the flux of moment-to-moment perception. With practice you can detect patterns in those fluctuations.”

It’s like you’re flexing a muscle in the brain. University of Wisconsin’s Davidson contends that the mental exercise of meditation strengthens and stabilizes neural networks in the medial prefrontal cortex—the brain’s executive control center, involved in the regulation of attention. “People don’t recognize that there is lots of plasticity in the circuitry,” he adds. “More than previously thought.”

The effort in the exercise is to balance awareness between dullness and distraction. To do so, you use the self-monitoring process that psychologists call metacognition: awareness of awareness. It’s what lets you know when, on the one side, you’re starting to drift off and need to muster fresh interest and, on the other, you’re getting distracted and need to bring your attention back. As you gradually fine-tune your concentration, you notice the habitual chaos of your thoughts and, gradually, the calm that lies behind them. “Awareness trumps thoughts,” says Kabat-Zinn, “because you can be aware of your thoughts.”

In his book, The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind, Wallace describes a nine-stage program to achieve quiescence, a state the Buddhists call shamatha (pronounced sha-ma-ta). As one Buddhist scholar put it, attention becomes “an oil lamp unmoved by the air; wherever the awareness is directed, it is steady and sharply pointed.”

Even among novices, studies show, a brief meditation session can be more effective than a nap in improving performance on tests that require concentration. But its benefits don’t stop there. Meditation can radically transform emotion.

Continue reading »

Mindfulness Meditation for Stress Relief

by HelpGuide.org

Meditation that cultivates mindfulness is particularly effective at reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions. Mindfulness is the quality of being fully engaged in the present moment, without analyzing or otherwise “over-thinking” the experience. Rather than worrying about the future or dwelling on the past, mindfulness meditation switches the focus to what’s happening right now.

For stress relief, try the following mindfulness meditation techniques:

• Body scan – Body scanning cultivates mindfulness by focusing your attention on various parts of your body. Like progressive muscle relaxation, you start with your feet and work your way up. However, instead of tensing and relaxing your muscles, you simply focus on the way each part of your body feels without labeling the sensations as either “good” or “bad”.
• Walking meditation – You don’t have to be seated or still to meditate. In walking meditation, mindfulness involves being focused on the physicality of each step — the sensation of your feet touching the ground, the rhythm of your breath while moving, and feeling the wind against your face.
• Mindful eating – If you reach for food when you’re under stress or gulp your meals down in a rush, try eating mindfully. Sit down at the table and focus your full attention on the meal (no TV, newspapers, or eating on the run). Eat slowly, taking the time to fully enjoy and concentrate on each bite.

Mindfulness meditation is not equal to zoning out. It takes effort to maintain your concentration and to bring it back to the present moment when your mind wanders or you start to drift off. But with regular practice, mindfulness meditation actually changes the brain – strengthening the areas associated with joy and relaxation, and weakening those involved in negativity and stress.

As you may already know, we carry all of the meditation seating props you need to be comfortable.  At our store, you can find:

• Zafus – small round or crescent shaped pillows to provide cushioning and support to maintain the correct alignment
• Zabutons – large flat cushions that will soften any pressure on knees, ankles and feet
• Benches – our current bamboo bench offers rounded feet to allow for all necessary adjustments to sit erect

Many of our items are available in a variety of colors, fabrics, and stuffing materials, allowing you to basically create a custom item that is perfect for you.

Here are some details on sitting in meditation and some proper breathing techniques:

Zen Meditation Instructions

~ from Zen Mountain Monastery in New York

Zazen is a particular kind of meditation, unique to Zen, that functions centrally as the very heart of the practice. In fact, Zen Buddhists are generally known as the “meditation Buddhists.” Basically, zazen is the study of the self.

The great Master Dogen said,

“To study the Buddha Way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self, and to forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.”

To be enlightened by the ten thousand things is to recognize the unity of the self and the ten thousand things. Upon his own enlightenment, Buddha was in seated meditation; Zen practice returns to the same seated meditation again and again. For two thousand five hundred years that meditation has continued, from generation to generation; it’s the most important thing that has been passed on. It spread from India to China, to Japan, to other parts of Asia, and then finally to the West. It’s a very simple practice. It’s very easy to describe and very easy to follow. But like all other practices, it takes doing in order for it to happen.

We tend to see body, breath, and mind separately, but in zazen they come together as one reality. The first thing to pay attention to is the position of the body in zazen. The body has a way of communicating outwardly to the world and inwardly to oneself. How you position your body has a lot to do with what happens with your mind and your breath. Throughout the years of the evolution of Buddhism, the most effective positioning of the body for the practice of zazen has been the pyramid structure of the seated Buddha. Sitting on the floor is recommended because it is very stable. We use a zafu – a small pillow – to raise the behind just a little, so that the knees can touch the ground. With your bottom on the pillow and two knees touching the ground, you form a tripod base that gives three hundred and sixty-degree stability.

There are several different leg positions that are possible while seated this way. The first and simplest is the Burmese position, in which the legs are crossed and both feet rest flat on the floor. The knees should also rest on the floor, though sometimes it takes a bit of exercise to be able to get the legs to drop that far. After awhile the muscles will loosen up and the knees will begin to drop. To help that happen, sit on the front third of the zafu, shifting your body forward a little bit. By imagining the top of your head pushing upward to the ceiling and by stretching your body that way, get your spine straight – then just let the muscles go soft and relax. With the buttocks up on the zafu and your stomach pushing out a little, there will be a slight curve in the lower region of the back. In this position, it takes very little effort to keep the body upright.

Burmese Position (front)

Burmese Position (side)

Another position is the half lotus, where the left foot is placed up onto the right thigh and the right leg is tucked under. This position is slightly asymmetrical and sometimes the upper body needs to compensate in order to keep itself absolutely straight.

Half Lotus (front)

Half Lotus (side)

By far the most stable of all the positions is the full lotus, where each foot is placed up on the opposite thigh. This is perfectly symmetrical and very solid. Stability and efficiency are the important reasons sitting cross-legged on the floor works so well. There is absolutely no esoteric significance to the different positions. What is most important in zazen is what you do with your mind, not what you do with your feet or legs.

Full Lotus (front)

Full Lotus (side)

There is also the seiza position. You can sit seiza without a pillow, kneeling, with the buttocks resting on the upturned feet which form an anatomical cushion. Or you can use a pillow to keep the weight off your ankles. A third way of sitting seiza is to use the seiza bench. It keeps all the weight off your feet and helps to keep your spine straight.

Seiza (front)

Seiza (side)

Finally, it’s fine to sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. You can use the cushion, or zafu, the same way you would use it on the floor – sitting on the forward third of it. Alternatively, you can place the zafu at the small of the back. It’s very important to keep the spine straight with the lower part of the back curved. All of the aspects of the posture that are important when seated on the floor are just as important when sitting in a chair.

Chair Position (front)

Chair Position (side)

The importance of keeping the back straight is to allow the diaphragm to move freely. The breathing you will be doing in zazen becomes very, very deep. Your abdomen will rise and fall much the same way an infant’s belly rises and falls. In general, as we mature, our breathing becomes restricted, and less and less complete. We tend to take shallow breaths in the upper part of the chest. Usually, we’ve got our belts on very tight or we wear tight clothing around the waist. As a result, deep, complete breathing rarely occurs. In zazen it is important to loosen up anything that is tight around the waist and to wear clothing that is non-binding. For instance, material should not gather behind the knees when you cross the legs, inhibiting circulation. Allow the diaphragm to move freely so that the breathing can be deep, easy, and natural. You don’t have to control it. You don’t have to make it happen. It will happen by itself if you assume the right posture and position your body properly.

Once you’ve positioned yourself, there are a few other things you can check on. The mouth is kept closed. Unless you have some kind of a nasal blockage, breathe through your nose. The tongue is pressed lightly against the upper palate. This reduces the need to salivate and swallow. The eyes are kept lowered, with your gaze resting on the ground about two or three feet in front of you. Your eyes will be mostly covered by your eyelids, which eliminates the necessity to blink repeatedly. The chin is slightly tucked in. Although zazen looks very disciplined, the muscles should be soft. There should be no tension in the body. It doesn’t take strength to keep the body straight. The nose is centered in line with the navel, the upper torso leaning neither forward nor back.

The hands are folded in the cosmic mudra. The dominant hand is held palm up holding the other hand, also palm up, so that the knuckles of both hands overlap. If you’re right-handed, your right hand is holding the left hand; if you’re left-handed, your left hand is holding the right hand. The thumbs are lightly touching, thus the hands form an oval, which can rest on the upturned soles of your feet if you’re sitting full lotus. If you’re sitting Burmese, the mudra can rest on your thighs. The cosmic mudra tends to turn your attention inward. There are many different ways of focusing the mind. There are visual images called mandalas that are used in some traditions as a point of concentration. There are mantras, or vocal images. There are different kinds of mudras used in various Eastern religions. In zazen, we focus on the breath. The breath is life. The word “spirit” means breath. The words “ki” in Japanese and “chi” in Chinese, meaning power or energy, both derive from breath. Breath is the vital force; it’s the central activity of our bodies. Mind and breath are one reality: when your mind is agitated your breath is agitated; when you’re nervous you breathe quickly and shallowly; when your mind is at rest the breath is deep, easy, and effortless.

It is important to center your attention in the hara. The hara is a place within the body, located two inches below the navel. It’s the physical and spiritual center of the body. Put your attention there; put your mind there. As you develop your zazen, you’ll become more aware of the hara as the center of your attentiveness.

Breathing

Breathing in Zazen

Begin rocking the body back and forth, slowly, in decreasing arcs, until you settle at your center of gravity. The mind is in the hara, hands are folded in the cosmic mudra, mouth is closed, tongue pressed on the upper palate. You’re breathing through the nose and you’re tasting the breath. Keep your attention on the hara and the breath. Imagine the breath coming down into the hara, the viscera, and returning from there. Make it part of the whole cycle of breathing.

We begin working on ourselves by counting the breath, counting each inhalation and each exhalation, beginning with one and counting up to ten. When you get to ten, come back to one and start all over. The only agreement that you make with yourself in this process is that if your mind begins to wander – if you become aware that what you’re doing is chasing thoughts – you will look at the thought, acknowledge it, and then deliberately and consciously let it go and begin the count again at one.

The counting is a feedback to help you know when your mind has drifted off. Each time you return to the breath you are empowering yourself with the ability to put your mind where you want it, when you want it there, for as long as you want it there. That simple fact is extremely important. We call this power of concentration joriki. Joriki manifests itself in many ways. It’s the center of the martial and visual arts in Zen. In fact, it’s the source of all the activity of our lives.

When you’ve been practicing this process for a while, your awareness will sharpen. You’ll begin to notice things that were always there but escaped your attention. Because of the preoccupation with the internal dialogue, you were too full to be able to see what was happening around you. The process of zazen begins to open that up.

When you’re able to stay with the counting and repeatedly get to ten without any effort and without thoughts interfering, it’s time to begin counting every cycle of the breath. Inhalation and exhalation will count as one, the next inhalation and exhalation as two. This provides less feedback, but with time you will need less feedback.

Eventually, you’ll want to just follow the breath and abandon the counting altogether. Just be with the breath. Just be the breath. Let the breath breathe itself. That’s the beginning of the falling away of body and mind. It takes some time and you shouldn’t rush it; you shouldn’t move too fast from counting every breath to counting every other breath and on to following the breath. If you move ahead prematurely, you’ll end up not developing strong joriki. And it’s that power of concentration that ultimately leads to what we call samadhi, or single-pointedness of mind.

In the process of working with the breath, the thoughts that come up, for the most part, will be just noise, just random thoughts. Sometimes, however, when you’re in a crisis or involved in something important in your life, you’ll find that the thought, when you let it go, will recur. You let it go again but it comes back, you let it go and it still comes back. Sometimes that needs to happen. Don’t treat that as a failure; treat it as another way of practicing. This is the time to let the thought happen, engage it, let it run its full course. But watch it, be aware of it. Allow it to do what it’s got to do, let it exhaust itself. Then release it, let it go. Come back again to the breath. Start at one and continue the process. Don’t use zazen to suppress thoughts or issues that need to come up.

Scattered mental activity and energy keeps us separated from each other, from our environment, and from ourselves. In the process of sitting, the surface activity of our minds begins to slow down. The mind is like the surface of a pond – when the wind is blowing, the surface is disturbed and there are ripples. Nothing can be seen clearly because of the ripples; the reflected image of the sun or the moon is broken up into many fragments.

Out of that stillness, our whole life arises. If we don’t get in touch with it at some time in our life, we will never get the opportunity to come to a point of rest. In deep zazen, deep samadhi, a person breathes at a rate of only two or three breaths a minute. Normally, at rest, a person will breathe about fifteen breaths a minute – even when we’re relaxing, we don’t quite relax. The more completely your mind is at rest, the more deeply your body is at rest. Respiration, heart rate, circulation, and metabolism slow down in deep zazen. The whole body comes to a point of stillness that it doesn’t reach even in deep sleep. This is a very important and very natural aspect of being human. It is not something particularly unusual. All creatures of the earth have learned this and practice this. It’s a very important part of being alive and staying alive: the ability to be completely awake.

Once the counting of the breath has been really learned, and concentration, true one-pointedness of mind, has developed, we usually go on to other practices such as koan study or shikantaza (”just sitting”). This progression should not be thought of in terms of “gain” or “promotion”; that would imply that counting the breath was just a preparation for the “real” thing. Each step is the real thing. Whatever our practice is, the important thing is to put ourselves into it completely. When counting the breath, we just count the breath.

It is also important to be patient and persistent, to not be constantly thinking of a goal, of how the sitting practice may help us. We just put ourselves into it and let go of our thoughts, opinions, positions – everything our minds hold onto. The human mind is basically free, not clinging. In zazen we learn to uncover that mind, to see who we really are.

The following short video offers a very brief introduction to awakening the Kundalini within us.

The first two minutes of this video discusses the So Hum Mantra, and the last six minutes allows you to practice along with Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati.

To read more about practicing the So Hum meditation, please visit their website page.

Whenever you feel like you could use a burst of energy, take a few moments practicing Breathe of Fire. Here’s a short introduction explaining how to perform this pranayama technique. Click on the image to start the video.

Breathe of Fire

The Vibrational Science of Mantra

An Interview with Jonathan Goldman

Integral Yoga Magazine (IYM): What is the science of mantra?

Jonathan Goldman (JG): There are a number of different sciences behind mantras. Some of are the “hard” sciences—physics, psychoacoustics, etc. Some are spiritual sciences like the different yogic practices that work with sound. One can see that chanting mantras, as observed years ago by Dr. Herbert Benson, helps induce the “relaxation response,” causing reduction of heartbeat, brain waves and respiration. On another level, as Dr. David Shananoff-Khalsa believes, recitation of mantras enables the tongue to stimulate the acupuncture meridians inside the mouth, particularly on the roof. Dr. Ranjie Singe found that chanting specific mantras caused the release of melatonin and that, because of this, there are many benefits, including shrinkage of tumors and enhanced sleep. It’s also been found that self-created sounds such as chanting will cause the left and right hemispheres of the brain to synchronize. Even just listening to certain chants has beneficial effects.

IYM: Is this what is referred to as “vibrational medicine?”

JG: Yes, vibrational medicine is the basis of many healing modalities, including homeopathy, acupuncture polarity therapy and Reiki. The basic principle is that the entire universe, including all the parts of our bodies, is simply made of vibration. This concept is supported by the new superstring theory of physics. When we are in a natural, resonant vibration, we are in a state of health, but if some part of the body begins to vibrate at a counter frequency, the energy becomes stuck and disease sets in. Vibrational medicine says that it is possible to use sound to project the correct resonant frequency back into that part of the body, causing it to return to a state of health. This can be done through electronic instrumentation or through using the human voice. Since sound can potentially rearrange molecular structure, the possible healing applications of sound are limitless.

IYM: In the film, What the Bleep Do We Know there was a Japanese scientist who demonstrated the effect of sound on water.

JG: Yes, Masuru Emoto demonstrated that water molecules are actually affected by sound and our intention. Intention involves our thoughts and feelings—it is the energy behind the sounds that we create. Emoto found that a molecule of clean water looked like a snowflake—very geometric. He had photographs of polluted water molecules, which at first looked like mud. After a priest chanted over the polluted water, it was photographed again and the water looked like a snowflake—the sound and intentionality had restored it to its pristine shape.

Fabian Maman, a French acupuncturist and sound healer took Kirlian photographs of hemoglobin blood cells that were exposed to different sounds. He took photos of blood cells exposed to an ascending chromatic scale—C, C#, D, etc. created on a xylophone. Each note affected the cell differently, creating a different shape and different Kirlian color. This demonstrated clearly that cellular structure and energy are affected by sound.

This was just an excerpt of an article from Integral Yoga Magazine.   Visit their site to read other excerpts or to subscribe to their magazine.

Following is an excerpt from an article called Mudra: Graceful Gestures from LifePositive.   The following descriptions of Mudras will give you a description on how to place your hands in different mudras and the benefits you can achieve.  Read through the examples and see which mudra resonates with you at this time and then incorporate into your daily meditation.

Note that there are many, many mudras….this is just a sampling.

Mudras:

These mudras are for everyone. They can be practiced for half-an-hour daily. It is advisable to sit cross-legged on your bed or on the floor while doing a mudra, but the Acharya assures that it won’t be ineffective if you do not follow this posture. You could even go for a stroll, with your hands casually tucked in your pockets, fingers folded in a particular mudra.

Mudras never generate an excess of energy, they simply seek an optimal balancing of prana, much like a thermostat. So next time you are ailing, remember it may just be an instance of maladjusted prana and an innocuous sleight of hand could be the cure.

GYAN MUDRA

The thumb and the index finger are brought together in gentle contact, not pressing hard, while all other fingers are kept upright. This is the mudra most people are familiar with.

Great thinkers such as Buddha, Mahavir, Christ and Guru Nanak are generally depicted in this pose. Its practice ensures mental peace, concentration, sharp memory and spiritual feelings.

It cures insomnia and mental disorders, and dissipates tension, depression and drowsiness. This is a must for those who aspire to develop telepathy or wish to acquire extrasensory abilities.

APAN VAYU MUDRA

(Also known as Mritsanjeevini Mudra)

Fold the forefinger down and touch the mound of the thumb. The little finger should be held erect.

It regulates complications of the heart. In a severe heart attack, if administered as a first aid measure within the first two seconds, it provides instant relief.

PRAN MUDRA

Touch the points of the little finger and the ring finger to the tip of the thumb lightly.

This is a life-giving mudra, it energizes the body and improves its vitality.

It helps to improve eyesight. A must for those who feel nervous, tired and weak.

SURABHI MUDRA

Join the little finger of one hand with the ring finger of the other and vice versa. Similarly, join the forefinger with the middle finger of the other hand and vice versa. Leave the thumbs free.

This controls rheumatic inflammation and sharpens your intellect.
APAN MUDRA

Join the middle finger and the ring finger with the tip of the thumb; the forefinger and the little finger should be held upright.

Provides relief in urinary problems and eases difficulty in labor and delivery. It facilitates the discharge of waste matter from the body and purifies the system.

LINGA MUDRA

Join both the palms and lock the facing fingers together, keeping one thumb upright. The upright thumb must be encircled by the other thumb and the index finger.

Makes the body resistant to colds, coughs and chest infections by generating heat in the body, and destroying accumulated phlegm in the chest.

It helps in weight reduction too, but has to be practiced with restraint.

The intake of at least eight glasses of water, and butter and ghee (clarified butter) as cooling agents in sufficient quantities is a must.

Due to the heat it generates, it may not be possible to practice this mudra with as much ease and flexibility as the other mudras. It might prove taxing and result in a feeling of lethargy.

SHUNYA MUDRA

Bring the middle finger down to touch the palm and bring the padding of the thumb on top of it, keeping the other fingers straight up.

Do this for 40 minutes a day.

This mudra is ideal for ailments of the ear, and also helps those of the nose and the throat.

Even five minutes of this mudra will help an earache.
VARUNA MUDRA

A bit like the Gyan Mudra.

Touch the tip of the little finger with the tip of the thumb while the other fingers are kept upright.

Regular practice ensures an optimum level of water in the body and heals all ailments connected with dehydration.

We hope to provide more detailed information on different Mudras, and their benefits, in future blog posts.  The following article provides some basic information on Mudras to get us started.  If you’ve been taking any yoga classes, you’re probably already familiar with some mudras, such as these two:

* Anjali Mudra – pressing your palms together in prayer position – generally at heart center or held when saying “Namaste” at the end of class.

* Gian Mudra – touching the index finger to tip of thumb, with the other three fingers extended – a common mudra in opening and closing meditations or breathing exercises.

Mudras to De-Stress You

By Shweta U Shah

Understanding Mudras:

Mudras are an integral part of the ancient practice of yoga. Derived from the Sanskrit word which means ’seal’, Mudras are simple hand gestures and finger positions. They have the capacity to energize and rejuvenate the body, cure diseases, prevent psycho-somatic and life-style disorders, suffuse you with a feeling of serenity, and strengthen your communion with god (the very essence of yoga).

Our body is in a permanent state of reflux and chaos. We receive innumerable sensory inputs and impressions through the day, combat work pressures, family demands, and fight a host of insecurities. Our body tries to strike an optimum balance and maintain equilibrium between the internal and the external. When the balance goes awry, we fall sick.

Mudras can help us achieve this balance in a subtle way and enhance our mental strength.

How will the practice of Mudras benefit you?

• Mudras strengthen the physical body, driving out toxins and perking up the immune mechanisms.
• Mudras are very good preventive therapy.
• Emotionally, these simple hand gestures, calm an over active mind, make you tranquil, and instill a feeling of love and happiness.
• At the subtle level, the Pranic energy or the vital force within the body is balanced and this practice also allows us to direct the vital force to various parts of the body, where the energy can be harnessed.
• Mudras balance the entire, body – mind – soul complex, and thwart the onslaught of stress. They soothe frayed nerves, calm the nervous system, and revitalize you.

Dr Shweta Shah is a life style expert with emphasis on alternative medicine and treatment. Her core areas include homoeopathy, diet, nutrition, yoga and acupressure therapy. As a Medical Content Writer she has also been involved in contributing several articles for health and wellness sites on professional basis. She also contributes to other websites with the objective of disseminating essential and healthy life style tips.

Visit zerodisease blog for regular information updates on health and wellness http://zerodisease.blogspot.com

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