The Spiritual Path

THE SPIRITUAL PATH

To many people, Yoga is just some stretching exercises in tight revealing clothing. In fact, most Yogis wear loose fitting clothes in the East where it actually started. Most practioners will wear loose fitting clothing so that you do not distract other students with your sexy body or get distracted by others. Learning Yoga is a sacred thing. Similarly you do not fool around with Kung Fu or any other martial art. You can get seriously injured when you are distracted. You learn everything from a master / sifu / guru whom you have high esteem of. It is inappropriate and disrespectful to dress in tight fitting clothes. In fact many people wear tight fitting clothing and thinks it is sexy. They do not understand the implication to their health. Most people do not know about blood and chi circulations. Tight clothing hampers our movements. It also can cause the chi or blood to be blocked. Please read my article Healing FAQs  or visit my website www.TFFoo.site11.com for more information. Even sleeping on a certain side of the shoulder can cause chi and blood blockage as explain in the mentioned article. I have nothing against anyone wanting to be sexy. It is funny to think that meditation and Yoga exercises are suppose to make you healthy mentally and physically. The fact is there are many Yoga instructors, monks, nuns, masters and students actually seeking treatments for all kind of physical damages / discomforts as a result of incorrect practices.

Many years ago, I would never thought of myself as willing to do any manual work. Now I do it everyday. I was the Finance & Admin manager of a hotel belonging to a listed groups of companies. I am used to using my mind all the time and had neglected the physical aspect of my body. I guess it is karma that I do my own business. I have more time to pursue my interest in spiritualism and learning to get detached and rational about life.

A fellow collage mate ask me on how to solve stress and weight problems.
If your stress is from works, you have to face it head on. Be honest with yourself. Jot down which aspect of the work that stress you most. Take one little step at a time. How about try solving part of it first. The rest will be much easier. You need to set your priority right. The worst outcome would be to change job or business whichever is applicable. Always make sure you have done your best before going back. Remember that it is pointless to worry over something which you cannot change. For instance if you know your car battery is faulty, you should change it immediately. There is no point worrying your car might breakdown due to the faulty battery. In life people choose different path and have different destinies. There is no point worrying after you have done your best. You have to be rational.

You can do some chanting such as " Om Mani Padme Hum" if you are Buddhist. For Muslim maybe you can try "La i la ha i la wa" one thousand times. Some meditation will also help to calm down your mind. There are plenty of meditational centre everywhere.

Chi Kung if practiced on a regular basis under the guidance of a qualified master/instructor can bring you many benefits such as lowering your heart beat, promotes better chi and blood circulations. This should take care of most minor ailments. If you are tired you will naturally sleep better. You will also be able to become stronger when you are able to control and manipulate the chi. At this point you can even become a healer. I am not sure it will reduce your weight. You need to control your consumption of food. When you have reached a certain level perhaps you might not be that interested in food. I do not take much food but I am heavier and never hungry. There are many masters who are not disciplined with their consumption of food and doing daily exercises. Even they might get heart problems. You have to set your priority right.

Yoga is a system to help you live your live to the fullest.
Yoga can be divided as follows:
1) Exercises to tone up the muscles and bio-magnetism / chi
2) Meditation to tone up the bio-magnetism / chi and the mind
3) Introspection and Spiritual Awakening

Taoism

Regardless of whether you are Taoist, Buddhist or Hindu the above path is almost similar. For instance a Taoist disciple from Wu Tang Clan will have Wu Tang Kung Fu to tone up their muscles and bio-magnetism. Then they follow the Wu Tang's Taoist meditations. After that they have the Tao Te Ching and their masters' guidance to guide them on the spiritual path. Taoism is about cultivating Tao. The Tao is littary translate as a path or highway. The Tao is a way of life basing on the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tze. The water might be soft yet it still manage to cut through the rocks that happened to be in its way. A hero might be valiant but is no match for the beautiful maiden's trap (as in Samson and Delilah). It is because we see beauty that we see ugliness. It is always a comparison between this and that. If there is no comparison there is no beauty or ugliness. It is because you do not believe in someone that you make him/her a liar. How about my favorite Tao Te Ching's wisdom:

To know when one does not know is best,
To think one knows when one does not is a dire disease,
Only those who recognizes the disease as a disease,
Can be cured of the disease.

A lot of us are unable to differentiate what is right or wrong. To a drug addict, the drug is medicine while to others it is poison. Due to our lack of understanding of the nature of things, we are sometimes not able to differentiate what is right or wrong. Our perception of things might not be correct. It is when we are ignorant and still believe we are right that is most vile. Nothing can be done to help such people unless they are made to realize they are on the wrong path. For example, meditation is said to be good for our physical and mental health but trying to do meditation on our own without the guidance of a good master can be very dangerous. Some have gone mentally unstable to the extent of being insane. Over doing meditation for a novice can cause nose bleeding due to fever, migraines and the blood rushing to the head (which I had experienced about 20 years ago). Another example is, if someone fall down and out of compassion you might want to help him. If you are ignorant of first aids, you should call the ambulance and let the experienced medical personnel take care of him/her. If you ignorantly try to help, you might cause lots of irreversible damages and possibly permanent disablement to him/her. A lot of sufferings in this world can be avoided if only we are able to restrain ourselves from acting out of ignorance. Some of us even have the audacity to try to teach a "duck" (master/guru) how to swim.

This is the difference between a "superior" person who is one with Tao (ren sang ren) and the others. His heart is pure and with the ordinary people but take no credit for educating, prodding and helping them. Everything seems to happen on its own accord. That is Tao.


Buddhism

Similarly the Shaolin disciple will train on the Sholin Kung Fu, Buddhist meditations and Buddhist's scriptures and teachings. Buddhism is about the 4 noble truth, the 10 abstinence and 8 percepts.
The Buddha's first sermon after his Enlightenment centered on the Four Noble Truths, which are the foundation of Buddhism. The truths are:

1)The truth of suffering (dukkha)
2)The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya)
3)The truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha)
4)The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (magga)


The ten abstinences are :

1)Not killing
2)Not stealing
3)Not misusing sex
4)Not lying
5)Not abusing intoxicants
6)Not talking about others' errors and faults
7)Not elevating oneself and blaming others
8)Not being stingy
9)Not being angry
10)Not speaking ill of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma and Teacher/ Master)


Eight Percepts are :

1)Right View
2)Right Intention
3)Right Speech
4)Right Action
5)Right Livelihood
6)Right Effort
7)Right Mindfulness
8)Right Concentration

The Path is divided into three main sections: wisdom, ethical conduct and mental discipline.

Wisdom: Right View and Right Intention are the wisdom path. Right View is not about believing in doctrine, but in perceiving the true nature of ourselves and the world around us. Right Intention refers to the energy and commitment one needs to be fully engaged in Buddhist practice.

Ethical Conduct: Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood are the ethical conduct path. This calls us to take care in our speech, our actions, and our daily lives to do no harm to others and to cultivate wholesomeness in ourselves. This part of the path ties into the percepts.

Mental Discipline: Through Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration we develop the mental discipline to cut through delusion. Many schools of Buddhism encourage seekers to meditate to achieve clarity and focus of mind.

Of course these are only some basics of Buddhism. Hopefully I might have sown the seed for your quest for greater knowledge.


Indian Yoga

The Yogi's will have their stretching and breathing exercises to tone their muscles and bio-magnetism. They will normally be doing the Kundalini meditations. Then they will have introspections and spirituals discourse by their guru to help them. The Simplified Kundalini Yoga method by Swwarmiji Mahrishi is on how to live your life in a more rational way. If you want to know more about Simplified Kundalini Yoga courses in Malaysia (please click here). Beside meditations, those wanting to go far in spirituality should also look within (introspections) as follows:

1)The need of Introspection. The Greatness of Silence.
2)The Philosophy of Life
3)Analysis of Thoughts.
4)Moralization of Desire
5)Benefits of blessing.
6)Neutralization of Anger
7)Eradication of Worries
8)Realization of Self
9)Sinful Imprints and ways to eliminate them.
10)Life and Mind.
11)Philosophy Of Mind
12)Evolution of Universe
13)Action Imprints - Cause and Effect
14)Karma Yoga - Purifying of genetic centre
15)Peace in Family
16)Why Men differ?
17)Before Birth and after Death
18)Astronomy and Astrology
19)Evolution of Universe
20)Brahma Gnanam and Philosophy of Action and Result.

These are all included in four stages of Introspection courses. Of course you also learn many types of meditations.

What is the point of doing lots of meditation if your heart is not pure? Even in Taoism and Buddhism there is mentioned of being selfless, egoless, detached and leading a simple life. We must be able to rationalise everything. If something bad happens, do not be too sad. If something good happens do not be too happy. We should try to be detached and moderate (never in excess). Rationalised all the events and you will be able to have peace of mind.

It is the harnessing of the Chi/ Bio-magnetism / Prana that enable us to become stronger physically and mentally. It is through meditations that we started to get to know our inner self. It is the books / scriptures and gurus / masters that help us understand and overcome the difficulties on our spiritual path. Please click here if you want to know more about meditation.

POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE

POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE - Mind Control / Positive Thinking




Western meditation is based on teaching people to look at the positive side of life (positive mental attitude) and how to reprogram yourself (neuro linguistic programming) to lead a more meaningful existence. Most of these courses are based on how the mind functions. You will learn about the pituitary and pineal glands in our brain, the areas controlling our intuitions and extra sensory perceptions. Then you will be taught about the left and right brain function. You will also learn about the Alpha, Beta and Delta level of consciousness. Meditation is by way of sitting on a comfortable chair, relaxing, listening to the soft background music imagining and visualizing out what the course master teaches. This will normally take 3 to 4 days to fire you up on positive thinking and try to break away from phobias and bad habits. It is a way of reprogramming our mind to function more effectively. There is no focusing on the chakras or meridians points. Here you work at the subconscious level of your mind. It preaches you about mind over matters. What the mind conceives and believes can be achieved.

I can still remember how more than 20 years ago I was first introduced and learn what such mind control courses are about. The lecturer Dr. AJA Peter was a qualified Silva Mind Control instructor. Since then I have brought and read hundreds of books by authors such as Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich", Dr. Maxwell's Psycho Cybernetics series, Vincent Price's Positive Thinking series and Napoleon Hill's Positive Mental Attitude. Most of the books wrote about the importance of our thoughts. Some of these people even claim that the thought is more important than the end product itself. I think such statement is over zealous and does not make sense since we receives all kinds of thoughts whether good or bad. Dr Peter might want to suppress all bad thoughts but I think it is a futile attempt. We get all kind of suggestions all the time. Some of these thoughts are really nasty. It is not your fault, you are not the only one with such thoughts. We have to let it in and knowingly reject all bad thoughts not hiding from it. It is like a star sales person making a sales statement. If we do not accept the logic behind those frivolous statements, no sales will come from it no matter how good the sales person is or what he/she says. It is our acceptance of the thoughts that we have the end result. If I were to think of having fun with a certain movie star, it does not mean she will actually accept me. How can I have fun with her when she might not even accept me as her friend? While thoughts are a powerful tool, it can only be realized if we truly believed it will happen. What the mind conceived and believed can be achieved. For instance, if we noticed a person in a trance and who truly believed himself/herself to be a god, he/she is a god at that moment of time and can do lots of seemingly impossible acts such as walking barefooted on fire, cutting, poking himself with swords and sharp objects, speak in alien language, miracle healing, eating glasses and porcelain and many other normally impossible acts. Normally these people does not feel the pain even when they are bleeding. It is when they are out of the trance that the pain begin to be felt. If I really think I want to kill someone, it is only thinking and unless and until I have performed the act, it is only in the form of thinking. While thinking itself is bad enough and should be rejected straight away, it is not a crime to just think. If you keep on having negative and harmful thoughts, it will be hardly surprising if you do not enjoy life. But it is not a crime for killing someone mentally (i.e in your mind only and the person is totally unharmed). Unless someone can prove you have the psychic ability to manipulate your mind to kill someone and the person is dead, there is no crime committed. Some people when faced with such thoughts feel guilty and disturbed. Let me assure you that you have no control over the suggestions that surfaced in your mind (just as you cannot control what you dream). You can however reject the thoughts straight away (just like you can wake yourself up from a nightmare). Why waste time on a useless thought /dream when you can move on to something better. Be rational these are all not real. There is nothing to be guilty about.


We must always be positive in our thoughts. If we think we will lose/fail, it is almost certain we have already lost without even trying. Therefore when things does not look bright, always put up your best and who knows your next punch might put down your more powerful opponent. In life, we do not always have sunshine everyday. Therefore we must make the hay while the sunshine last. We should always be positive in our thinking and reject all bad and harmful thoughts. We have to reinforce our positive thinking and always look for the silver lining in the sky no matter how bad your current situation is. Always have a positive mental attitude. Maybe things are not as bleak as what we imagined. There is always a way out if we really put our mind to find it. If we give up there is absolutely no hope of success. Who knows, your unwillingness to give up might spring you some surprises when you finally see light at the end of the tunnel of darkness. It might be like David sling shot at Goliath. Your refusal to give up could make your opponent nervous like Maria Sharapova's refusal to give in to Li Na who had just won the 1st game and leading 4-0 in the second in an ATP final. Li Na was holding serve in the 5th set she just shoot herself in the feet. It look more like Li Na was trying to help Sharapova win the match. Do not give up but fight on with whatever little resources you might have and sooner or later you might find success.


The most important thing pertaining to human beings is the ability to use the brain to analyze and think. A human mind is always preoccupied with something regardless of whether it is positive or negative. If a human mind is endowed in negative thinking, he/she will be gloomy and living in fear of what lies ahead. On the other hand if a person is always thinking positively, he/she will be cheerful and looking forward to the future. In this world of ours, positive thinking alone will not guarantee us lasting happiness or what ever we are seeking for. The practicality and reality of everyday life has made it almost impossible to predict or diagnose. We have to be cautious and mindful of our actions to avoid the many traps set up by con-artistes /hypocrites (pretending to be your friends) and including naive people (who actually believe they were helping you but actually unwittingly make your life more miserable). Therefore we have to strike a balance between being totally positive (which is naive and easily conned) and pure negativity (which is fatal).


Badminton superstar Lin Dan (2 times Olympic and numerous times World Champion) was quoted as saying "There is no such thing as genius. In order to succeed, one has to perform the skill over and over again until it becomes natural. We have to work very hard to improve our weakness. It is this hard works which people normally does not notice that make one look like a genius executing extraordinary shots with precision and skill above the ordinary. Therefore a champion is a very hardworking genius." Albert Einstein said he has no special talent but he was extremely curious. Thomas Edison have ten thousands of failures after failures until he finally managed to invent the electric light bulb. Beside the real on the field practices, many sport stars now do mind conditioning to help them focus on their games. For instance Tiger Wood would visualized the ball being hit over and over again to see himself successfully hit the perfect "hole in one" shots. Most stars now employ psychologists to help them condition their mind to perform at their peak.

Similarly we cannot expect to be good in meditation or mind control without putting extraordinary efforts. Therefore many people took up Tai Chi or Chi Kung or Yoga for more than thirty years without much progress. There are others who took a year or two and yet become more successful. It is the effort and willingness to work very hard toward your objective that bring you results. If these seemingly invincible people have so much failures (certainly more than an ordinary person), it would be hardly surprising if the ordinary can also be successful too if they set reasonable and achievable goals and work very hard toward achieving them. Do not be afraid to fail. When you fail, you must try to learn from your failure. Analyse why you fail with friends, coaches and mentors. By improving yourself you become more and more likely to succeed the next time. If we are too afraid to fail, we will never be successful too. Ultimately it is the one success that matters as no one cares about the previous 10000 times Thomas Edison fail in making the electric bulb. Ben Franklin says "I have not failed. I have found 10,000 ways that do not work." Similarly it does not matter how many times the superstars fail, it is the trophies that ultimately matters and made them the champions. If we are to measure it the other way round you will find Thomas Edison as having one of the most failures in life. Similarly normal people who is either too lazy or afraid to try will have the least of failures and success.


Some of the authors of western meditation now has ventured into Yoga's terrain, where there is mention of chakras and ancient meditation. But ultimately, mind control is the science of reprogramming yourself (self hypnotized) to have a positive mental attitude, breaking phobias and bad habits. There is also mention of psychic abilities. Our mind is a super computer. If we really believe we can walk on fire, the fire will not harm you. The difficult part is to stop oneself from doubting himself / herself. What the mind conceives and believes can be achieved. Recently, it has also come to my attention that some authors are trying to tell people who want to be successful that we must be doing what destiny have in store for us. If our destiny is to be a healer, we will not be successful doing something unrelated such as be a lawyer. It make sense since each of us have different fates and it is easier to explain why some people can never be successful. Even the Ultra Mind Control talks about discovering our purpose in this world and work toward achieving it. It is sayings things that are different from the previous stand of what the mind conceives and believe can be achieved. In doing so perhaps we might also make the best out of life.


For those who would like to have a dosage of positive thoughts, please click this link Motivations