By Anastacia Mott Austin

The goal of Vipassana meditation is “the personal purification of the mind.” “It is the highest form of awareness ? the total perception of the mind-matter phenomena in its true nature. It is the choiceless observation of things as they are,” writes the Vipassana Research Institute on their website.

Similar to other forms of meditation, the idea behind the practice is to achieve the ability to observe the world and one?s surroundings as they truly are, without judgment.

The path to achieving this pure mind is related to the “three trainings” as taught by Buddha. The first is the observance of a “sila,” a code of behavior which includes refraining from killing, drunkenness, stealing, sexual misdeeds, and lying. Once one adheres to this code, it leads to the second training, which is a focus of the mind, called “samadhi.” With the mind deeply focused, the third level, called panna, can be achieved – the unbiased observation of reality.

Vipassana is described as a way to transformation through observation, particularly observation of the self, and the mind-body connection.

The Dhamma Siri group located in Kaufman, Texas, clarifies that through close and careful enough attention to one?s physical sensations and how they interact with the mind, one can eventually “dissolve” mental impurity and lead to “nibbana,” or freedom from all suffering.

“The scientific laws that operate one?s thoughts, feelings, judgments and sensations become clear. Through direct experience, the nature of how one grows or regresses, how one produces suffering or frees oneself from suffering is understood. Life becomes characterized by increased awareness, non-delusion, self-control and peace,” states the Dhamma Siri website.

There are three main schools of thought in Buddhism through which Vipassana can be viewed: Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana.

In the Theravada method, Vipassana is utilized to comprehend the Four Noble Truths as taught by Buddha. The primary focus is that the “I” doesn?t exist, and the goal is the dissolution of the essential self; the practitioner strives to attain the knowledge of self-dissolution.

In the Mahayana school, the practice of Vipassana revolves around meditating on two essential truths: conventional truth and absolute truth. One gradually realizes the nature of emptiness or lack of existence in all things through meditative observation.

In the Vajrayana method, the goals are similar yet employ the assistance of a guru.

Typically the technique is taught in ten-day courses at specific Vipassana centers with trained instructors. There should never be any charge for these trainings ? costs are covered by donations, and none of the instructors receive monetary benefits.

True mastery of the Vipassana meditation technique cannot be achieved in a ten-day course, and must be practiced over time to attain life-long benefits.

Though originally Buddhist in nature, Vipassana practice is non-sectarian and can be practiced by anyone wishing to achieve a purity of mind ? it is not necessary to become a Buddhist to partake in Vipassana.

The Vipassana Research Institute emphasizes that the practice is open to all, and that “the technique works on the simple basis that all human beings share the same problems, and a technique that can eradicate these problems will have a universal application.” Be certain to find a very good site to understand about Kabbalah from.

Do not think your mind is in control of you. YOU are in control of your mind! YOU use your mind. YOU can stop thinking those old thoughts!

life transformation

The only thing you have any control on is your CURRENT Thought! The Universe is a vast reservoir of energy! You can get anything you want provided you ‘know’ and ‘use’ the right techniques.

To help you in your mission, here is a special compilation of very practical and powerful affirmations you can use in your everyday situations on a daily basis!

-       ” Today, I open my mind and heart to the new vistas before me. I embrace change and accept unfolding possibilities. I am a fertile field available for God’s planting.”

-       ” Today, I accept divine timing . I allow the pacing of the Universe to be my own. I align myself with the tempo of my life precisely as it is unfolding.”

-       ” Today, I surrender my resistance to being large. I allow God to choose my size for me.”

-       ” Today, I stand firm in my own worthiness. My dignity is solid and enduring. My faith is the rock on which I build my life. I dare to risk and I risk my daring. I am large enough to survive my losses and enjoy my gains.”

-       ” Today, I pause to take stock . I count and appreciate my gains. I rest before going forward. I savor the journey I have taken already and the distance I have come.”

-       ” Today, I am led in large and small ways. I ask for vision and clarity and receive enough to steer my course. I accept my different forms of knowing. I cherish my seasons of clear-eyed vision and my times of simple faith.”

‘Heavenly Ki’ by Harvey Summers -download at iTunes: itunes.apple.com Reiki (pronounced Ray-Key) is a Japanese word for universal life energy. This energy is also know as ‘Ki’ (which means the same as Chi in Chinese), ‘Prana’ in Sanskrit and ‘Ti’ or ‘Ki’ in Hawaiian. Reiki, a gentle hand on healing art, provides an easy way to access healing energy. It is a powerful method which helps our bodies,minds and spirits to heal. The recording ‘Heavenly Ki’ by Harvey Summers is taken from the ‘Spiritual Vitamins’ CD release ‘Reiki’. This album of specially composed meditative music reaches out and touches your inner spirit helping you to embrace the fundamental Reiki principles – Just for today: let go all the anger and worry, count your many blessings and be kind to every living creature. Music samples from the album can be hear on www.bluedotmusic.net

1. Think daily. Meditate. Call it what you will but spend time each day alone with your thoughts. This surely isn’t the first time you’ve heard that advice, there’s a reason for that! There’s also a reason that this is the first step in the list. Doing the other things in the remaining nine suggestions without taking some time to reflect almost negates any benefit gained elsewhere.

2. Get in the zone. Not only will these be your most productive moments in life (the 20% of the time where you accomplish 80% of the results) but it will be a boost to your confidence that will alter the decisions you make elsewhere in life.

3. Make it a point to do something bold every day. Step out of your comfort zone, leave the routine even if for only a second. This might mean talking to someone that you generally wouldn’t talk to or starting a project that you feel intimidated by. There is no need to plan it in advance–though that might help at times, usually though you’ll find a point during the day when ‘two paths diverge in the woods’ and you have the change to take the one less travelled by. Take it.

4. Learn something new. Pick a topic, preferably something you know nothing about and learn something about it. A good source of inspiration for this can be the newspaper or Wikipedia. It helps to retain it if you have time to make a note of what you learned or explain it to someone else, but even if you don’t get the chance to do that, your brain will thank you for the new patterns you introduce as you learn something new every day.

5. Debate something. If you think you know about something, nothing will prove it like arguing it with someone who’s smarter or more informed than you. Find a friend you can debate with who has ideas that are different from your and who won’t be offended by debating them–this is easier said than done, but it can provide you with some of the best mental stimulation possible.

6. Spend time with a child. If you have one, consider yourself lucky, if you don’t, I bet you have friends who would be happy to let you borrow theirs for a few minutes (or hours). It doesn’t matter what age they are, children see the world entirely different. Look at it from their eyes. Be their hero. Appreciate what they appreciate. Enjoy the simple things again. You’ll love it and they’ll love you for it.

7. Go outside. If you don’t naturally spend time outside, make it a point to do it more. There’s something about the expanse of the sky that will bring out your inner philosopher.

8. Recognize what makes you happy. Reflect on the parts of your day that bring you real satisfaction. Everyone is working towards something, but what makes you happy now? Rate your overall satisfaction with your quality of life for each day on a scale of 1 to 10, focus on the things that happened that pushed the number higher rather than what made it lower. Try to incorporate more of what made you happy yesterday into today.

9. Stop broken thoughts. Broken thoughts are those subtle patterns that aren’t quite big enough to fall into the bad habits category. This means that despite their harmful effect they often escape under the radar. Broken thoughts often take the form of justifications. Examples? I’m just going to leave my dish here by the sink, I’ll wash it later (when you know your spouse will end up washing it). I’m bookmarking this article to read later (how often do you ever go back and read old bookmarked articles?). I’ll hang my shirt up later (when you know it will be there for a week before you touch it).

10. Don’t stress about it.

The purpose of improving your life is just that–improving it. A good way to tell if any of these steps are worthwhile is that you’ll feel better not only after you doing them but while you’re doing them. If you dread doing something it usually comes down to one of the following reasons:

• You’re not confident you can do it well, in which case you need to break it down to steps small enough to accomplish and start moving. If you start breaking it down only to find it’s completely out of your capacity then just let it go completely. You can only do what you can do.
• It’s not worth doing. If whatever it is doesn’t provide some innate satisfaction it may just not be worth doing. This isn’t a plug for hedonism, but the fact is that when you’re doing what’s right, generally it feels good at least at some level both while you’re doing it and after it’s done. (e.g. having the knowledge that it’s the best thing to do in the long run).
• It’s a task you find menial, repetitive, boring etc. Washing the dishes, mowing the lawn, cleaning in general, doing the budget etc. Many times these tasks can be enhanced by doing other things at the same time. Listen to an audiobook while you wash the dishes. Meditate while you mow the lawn (who says you have to be sitting with your legs crossed!) If you’ve got problems doing your budget it may be that you need to re-analyize your finances and get them in order. For these kinds of tasks it comes down to distracting yourself from the menial, automating the repetitive if possible or searching for the true root of the problem and fixing it.Life does not always have to be exciting and stimulating but there’s hardly anything worth doing that can’t be enjoyed at least to a degree.

Once you’ve eliminated dread then it’s probable that a large portion of the stress will be gone from your life. Of course there is no way to simplify every cause of stress down to one small list but you can at least eliminate most self-imposed stress and this includes stress imposed by trying to do things to improve your life.

That’s it! Hopefully you’ve been able to glean a bit of useful information from the articles over the last ten days. If you have (even if you haven’t) I’d love to hear about it in the comments! As I stated in the beginning of the series I really believe that if the things I’ve suggested in these articles are applied to daily life they will really improve the quality of your life and provide you with meaningful experiences and memories.