Materialist dilemma; Humanity: 7 billion meat sacks

This morning I woke up and ate breakfast as usual while looking at the "news". Sadly my primary connection with mainstream media is Yahoo. I do not own a TV, nor do I read the news paper; my primary interest in the news is sports and weather. While browsing Yahoo this morning I was attracted to an article about a man in China who every day walks in iron shoes which weigh 440 lbs. He claims the shoes are a cure for back problems and hemorrhoids, and he attributes his success to an ancient Chinese system of healing called Qigong. The reporter, in the typical narrow minded mainstream media way states

 "Zhang, 52, credits his ability to move the shoes -- which he leaves outdoors, safe in the knowledge that they are close to impossible for most people to lift -- to the Chinese spiritual martial art Qigong, said to involve controlling the flow of supposed bodily energy. "

 Ok, this irritated me enough to write this blog entry. How in the hell can you say "supposed", there are examples all around us which indicate a flow of energy whether it be through a chemical reaction or though the various positive and negative forces which underlie all matter. What really gets me is the reporters apparent assumption that our egos and personalities must be all there is to being Human and that the physical aspect of who we are is essentially a subservient lifeless flesh bag. Its not the reporter I am disappointed with but Humanity as a whole who simply are too busy fighting over large screen TVs at Wal-Mart on black Friday to realize they are not victims of genetics, germs, political systems, and the Earth in general. I believe Humanity has some very deep root issues, we clearly no longer feel at home on this planet and certainly not in our own bodies. Our lives have become filled with unconscious actions which are detrimental to our well being; we over eat, work too much, or not at all, we wait around for the doctors to give us cures which they cannot give (treatments are not cures), and half of us workout like mad people fueled by some external superficial goal leading to burn out and the other half of us will drive a car 1 block to the 7-11 for a Pepsi. We run around looking for the next fitness trend, superfood, supplement, or guru to give us what we can already give ourselves, great health and vitality. Its simple folks: Do not forget you inhabit your body 24/7 and that you are not separate from the rest of humanity. If you look into the eyes of any person you will see energy and more importantly consciousness. Consciousness gets trampled over through excess movement of energy, every thought, emotion, sensation; all of which are essentially energy in motion. Your ability to truly connect with others depends on your clarity and the clarity of others. You will find if you endeavor to experience the supposed bodily energies many dis-eases will be cured or simply never manifest. Since I am in a complaining mood lets look at another example of ignorance which got under my skin. Keep in mind you become what you place your focus (hello! that means energy) on: a drug addict becomes the servant of the drug, and the materialist scientist never gets any deeper in his research because he never dwells deeply into his own being (as within so without)

Recently I was listening to a self proclaimed atheist, Matthew Alper, on one of my favorite radio shows. He is a scientist and researcher who has set out to find the structure in the brain responsible for a spiritual experience. He described many examples which demonstrate there is a physical structure involved with many human experiences. My response to this was a profound Duh! The one thing that agitated me was not his insistence that much of the Human experience is sensory and biologically oriented but that he seemed to insist this essentially explained away GOD. GOD (generate, organize, destroy), flow, Infinity, etc is everything and how Humans experience this everything determines how we evolve our society, individuality, and how we serve the planet which sustains our life. It's through various practices we learn to hone the human sensory system so that our spiritual experience of life is enhanced. The belief in GOD is not necessary, but faith is. Faith is expansive because it acknowledges there is more we do not understand about the Universe than what we do; it is a surrender to the bigger picture. The more we expand the mundane in our lives the greater our experience of life, and this is not done through belief, but Faith. Matthew pointed out there are various areas of the brain which flood with activity when a person contemplates or surrenders to vastness, and other areas where activity declines (those areas associated with the completion of tasks). Just because there is an activity shift in the brian does not make spiritual experiences less profound, because the real impact of these experiences transcends the moment and extends throughout the individual's lifetime leading to many more shifts in brain activity and a deeper understanding of ones purpose. We simply cannot measure the impact of an experience beyond the parameters of time and space 

The conclusion is that there is in fact a structure associated with spiritual experience, but it does not explain away the big picture which is Flow. Flow is the energy of creation which animates all life. Humans just simply have a specific way of differentiating this energy through inherited structure. We are meant to be spiritual beings, because there is a structure for it in our form. The body is Life and life has nothing to offer except Flow!

For more information on Kundaini Yoga, Innovative Nutritional approaches, or Human Design contact Akal: somaarts1@gmail.com

The REAL laws of attraction

To begin with, we are co creators not only with other people but with source itself (GOD). Last night I was considering what keeping a positive attitude meant to me. The answer was of course not so simple. Throughout most of my life, up till the last 10 years, my attitude has been largely ambivalent and simply involved with everyday existence without regard to the fact that I had any choice at all in how things unfold. I went to school because that's what you are suppose to do, I achieved a Masters degree fueled by marginal interest and heaps of professional low self esteem, and I simply flowed with life powered by external authority. When I began meditating about 15 years ago something powerful and rather sneaky began to happen to me, I was able to witness my thoughts/emotions both negative and positive. At the same time I was financially desperate, and feeling like I was carrying at least four other people on my shoulders at all times. My breathing was shallow, mind disturbed and body tense. So I went in search for solutions and stumbled on all these "life changing" self help books all of which essentially said the same thing, "think positive, do positive, and you will attract what you put off". Maybe, as a newbie to spiritual work, I was a bit over zealous, I thought real positive and was quick to beat down any negative thought which found its way to the surface, and something did happen, however it wasn't the new car I wanted or an easy way out of my money problems; what I received was more tension more suffering. So how could this be the laws of attraction clearly state you attract what you hold in your mind right??? The truth is you attract what you need in order to further your education on the Earth, negative or positive. I repressed the negativity in my life primarily because my ego was unaware that the origins of vibrations which Humans would prefer not too feel actually originate as a manifestation of our own nervous system brought out by either an external button pushers and/or internal physical/mental discordance. Essentially if the whole world were simply positive in Nature very little would get done, we are motivated by challenges, obstacles, and pain. Reflect for a moment on the current environmental challenges Humanity is facing. We have been extremely positive mind oriented and proactive about progressing our living conditions; however with all the progress we have set the Earth on an extinction trajectory. Excessive positivity without the caution the negative mind contributes will generate conditions which future generations are going to have to work on just because of our greed and impatience. Individually, it is true if you think nothing will go right then nothing will, the negative mind is protective, it exists for the purpose of rationing our growth so we receive what we need when we are ready. How we receive the lessons the universe throws at us will determine the organic growth of our positivity. As we cultivate awareness through meditation we stop identifying ourselves as our thoughts and emotions, after all they are just movement and impermanent so hence they are rather undependable if we are seeking something truly solid and stable. The ultimate control is surrender. Flow is the energy of all creation moving through each one of us in a very unique way. We all have challenges, however its through the cultivation of grace that these challenges are able to be viewed much more objectively and we can then see where the growth lies. Grace is a streamlining, it will naturally direct our energy to best serve spirit or the higher self. Don't force positivity, simply let it happen by cultivating a meditative mind; accept that we all have negative and positive aspects and in TRUTH they are equal; we may prefer positivity, however choosing only the positive while repressing negativity will only serve to limit growth. Surrender to flow, because that's where all the energy is. Finally, calibrate your life to pure consciousness/presence and enlightenment is a definite, it is after all our birth right. 

Inhale, Exhale
Akal

Interested in Deepening your Yogic practice or getting back in shape? I can help www.somaarts1.com

Love and Light and Mosquito Kisses

Let me begin this story with a warning to those of you whom are in love with logic and knowledge: The contents of this post may perplex you, vex you and leave you with the perception the author is out of touch with "reality". 

On the weekend of August 10th a friend and myself went camping in the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. If you live in the Midwest and have never visited Lake Superior you really should, just do it in the summer as the winters are brutal, obviously. This body of water is spectacular visually and energetically. During the days we camped on Stockton Island I experienced extreme lethargy, and a certain separation anxiety from the conveniences of modern day life; somehow I knew I needed a break from all the distractions and habits of my everyday life, I didn't even bring anything to read. Its been a wet summer here in the Midwest and the bugs are thriving. Every hike on the island always concluded with me scratching like a rabid animal and praying to the heavens for an end to the mosquito kisses. Somehow,  I suspected there would be no end to this suffering as the mosquito is just doing what it is designed to do. Even with all the scratching I noticed a very profound shift in my awareness. I looked around at my environment and felt completely present for the first time in months. My mind always in search for distraction was left with nothing to do and seemed to fall into a state of contentment with what was available, the purposeful animation and movement which all creation expresses without self consciousness. While surrendered into this deep state of immersion I suddenly realized the mosquitoes had been biting me in what seemed to be very strategic places, my hands, ankles, and directly on the spine at the back of my neck. This realization felt significant and yet my mind wanted to apply all sorts of logic to explain it all away, mind says "it's because those are the areas which you most often left uncovered". The logical mind was satisfied with this explanation, and it seemed to be driven to put the mystery asleep. My intuition had a very different perspective which was simple and appealed to my mystic side, "it felt significant, so it is; just let the mystery be solved thru revelation".

Like many sensitive folks, I have experienced occurrences which defy logic for most of my life; and like most sensitive folks I have felt limited in my freedom to express what it is I experience. The result of sensitivity often leads to repressed emotions, and the feeling of being cut off from others. Physically my emotional struggles manifested as tension in the shoulders/arms/wrists/hands, spaciness from being ungrounded, and a sense of my energy being divided. The hands and the feet are the physical expression of outward action oriented energy. For the better part of the last 15 years, since I have been meditating, I have worked tirelessly on understanding what it is to be Human. Having gained much wisdom, I was constantly badgered by my cultural conditioning and upbringing that this wisdom must somehow be practical. The result of all the badgering led me to teaching Kundalini Yoga for the past 8 years and there has been some relief to my tension issues. Even after connecting with new circles of like minded individuals I still felt incomplete in my ability to bring forth my understanding and express it clearly to a world which I perceived as dismissive. Recently I have stopped caring what others may think about what I have to say, along with a sharpened sense that I intuitively am able to measure the resistance of the other. As I began to wake from my self defeating illusions I noticed the fascia (the sheath around the muscle) began to release clearly pointing to the fact that the more tuned too flow we are the less resistance there is and less physical tension we carry. I began the practice of relaxing my energy into my heart and physical relaxing my shoulders. I also had to confront all sorts of false/protective beliefs, fears, and anxieties about my relationship to the rest of humanity. Kundalini energy began to flow, highlight my limiting beliefs and the fear of witnessing my own pain and short comings in a neutral and forgiving way.

Kundalini energy is often stated as being coiled up at the base of the spine around the tail bone. This energy is dormant until it is woken thru the process of reintegration of the physical body, enhanced sensitivity and increased awareness about all that we are. This energy is associated with the back side of the body (which is accessed when we turn inward in meditation), and directly related to the hidden parts of ourselves which because of fear we refuse to see. It is associated with the downward grounding movement of awareness and the gradual upward movement of this primal energy (the rebound effect). As the Kundalini energy burns through our illusions we are granted a new sense of connection and the understanding of the truth that All Is One. Flow moves through us and our inner experience is enlightened (nervous system illumination). 

On Stockton Island the mosquitoes were biting me in the same areas I was experiencing a reconnection with my higher calling (upward and outward moving energy). Because I accepted this as being significant and my refusal to limit flow at the point of belief/explanation thru logic; I began a process of understanding the humble mosquitoes message. The kiss of the mosquito no doubt leads to discomfort/suffering; however when perceived through the lens that all creation is hear to fulfill a purpose and that all physical matter when reduced to its most finite is light which we experience as universal love, I realized life on the Earth plane is a matter of learning and growing through the challenges we attract to us. The mosquito taught me that its often through pain/suffering/fear that we experience joy and love. I surrendered to this message and all of a sudden my whole internal being was filled with a sense of well being and light, and the welts caused by the mosquito lessened in intensity and healed much more quickly. Most of all I was free of my neurotic mad man scratching. The revelation led me to a graceful way in which I could perceive those pesky little guys, the bites continued but I was filled with the joy of having a sense of what it is my purpose is and the understanding that life's challenges are dualistic in nature and necessarily contain a silver lining. Through my eyes all I see are Roses!

Be Well

Through the utization of various techniques Akal helps others tune to flow and their higher calling: somaarts1.com, somaarts1@gmail.com