Gravity: The Movie (Spoilers)

Major spoilers for Gravity abound here - if you haven't seen the movie yet and don't want to know what happens in it, turn back now!

Public domain image from NASA showing Edward White performing a spacewalk

I saw Gravity, the 2013 film directed by Alfonso Cuaron and starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney on Saturday, October 5th. I went with my parents and husband - we saw it in 3D. I hadn't seen a movie in the theater since Life of Pi. As with Life of Pi, I was glad we paid the few extra dollars for the 3D experience.

First we saw a preview of Keanu Reeves' latest, 47 Ronin. Rick Genest is in it. I bet makeup artists love Rick Genest because he's, like, 90% done already when he sits in the makeup chair. But I digress.

Gravity, in some ways, is a very minimalist film. The only actors whose faces we see are Bullock and Clooney. For the first act, the backdrop is the earth, mostly covered in pillowy clouds but with bright stripes of human habitation shining through.

Sandra Bullock in 2009; Creative Commons image by Angela George

Later, we move through various human-created environments in space: first the destroying Explorer shuttle, then the International Space Station and a Soyuz module, then the Chinese space station and its escape pod. Those are very mechanized, artificial environments, and all are portrayed as overflowing with weightless human-made junk. However, the film starts out very starkly, with simple white letters on a black background reminding us that there is neither atmosphere nor gravitational pull in the void of space, and life in such an environment is therefore impossible.

I'm no great student of the films of Alfonso Cuaron; I think the only other one of his movies that I've seen is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. (It's my favorite HP movie, but that's not necessarily because of Cuaron's directing. I do think he did a great job, though.) I don't know anything about his philosophies, but I do think he tried to get us to notice something:

Space.

Is.

Death.

Creative Commons image

I mean, he told us essentially that in the opening titles. When we first meet the three astronauts engaged in their mission, though, they seem to be vibrantly full of life. Clooney's character, Matt Kowalsky, is engaged in snappy banter with mission control and the two astronauts who are aboard the shuttle as he tests a jet pack. Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock), a physician trained as an astronaut to test equipment with medical applications, is extremely focused on her work. The third spacewalker, Dr. Sharif, performs repairs while dancing.

Then, shit goes spectacularly wrong when the Russians blow up one of their own satellites, setting off a chain-reaction debris avalanche. The crew attempts an emergency evac, but it's too late: Kowalsky and Stone are the only survivors. (Zero points for ethnic diversity; there's one Indian-American or Pakistani-American character, and he's dead within minutes. We see his face only after the character's death and in a photograph.) Kowalsky manages to rescue Stone from her free spiral through empty space, but in the process of reaching the ISS, must sacrifice himself so that Stone has a chance to survive.

If the movie can be broken down to its most essential conflicts, they would be woman vs. nature and woman vs. herself, and this is essentially the story of one woman's survival. You can think of it as a female version of 27 Hours. But - and bear with me here - I think one possible interpretation of this movie is that Ryan Stone is NOT a survivor, but in fact dies in space and is reborn when she emerges from the Chinese space capsule in the ocean.

The most obvious reference to the fact that the human-made environments in space serve as a second womb for Stone occurs when she first reaches the ISS airlock. Stone strips out of her oxygen-depleted flight suit, closes her eyes, curls up into a fetal position and floats in mid-air, thick tethers serving as an artificial umbilical cord. The visual is far too obvious to be a coincidence.

And why would she need to be reborn? Because she's dead - not in an all-too-literal Sixth Sense sense, but at least in this metaphorical sense: she "died" when her daughter died. What does she do on earth? Work, then drive, listening to the radio. She goes into orbit to do the exact same things: work, "drive," listen to the radio. Listening to the disembodied voices on the radio is her way of disconnecting from actual, living human beings; she goes into a world of ghosts. In her ghost world, Stone learns she can talk to her deceased daughter again. She can talk to Kowalsky after his noble self-sacrifice; he can even answer her, offer her the Russians' hidden stash of vodka, and - most importantly - help her solve problems. She sees dead people, but fights to return to the land of the living. Space is death. The only life is life on earth.

(Yes, there is a neuro-biological explanation for why she imagines or hallucinates Kowalsky: she's turned down to the oxygen in the Soyuz capsule to less than what her brain needs, and she's experiencing oxygen deprivation.)

The International Space Station, with Soyuz capsule, in a public domain/NASA photo

So Ryan Stone saves herself, using the last bit of thrust the Soyuz possesses to reach the abandoned Chinese space station and return to earth in its escape pod. When she hits the ocean, her capsule catches fire, and rather than waiting to be rescued, she has to submerge it and swim out. Bursting out from a liquid-filled metallic womb, rising to the surface to take her first gasp of air? Definitely a birth scene, without a doubt. The last frames of the movie show Stone standing up in the sand and taking her first steps.

You could almost say there's an ecological message to this movie: care for the earth, because it's the only thing keeping us alive, and beyond it there's nothing but cold junk and death. Rebirth is clearly a central theme of the movie. You could say that Stone has been reincarnated after she's died and gone to "the heavens." Reincarnation is also suggested by the Buddha images the Chinese astronauts left on the monitor in their escape pod (the Buddha being one of the few enlightened beings able to escape an otherwise endless cycle of births, deaths, and reincarnations)*.

Creative Commons photo by Jakub Halun

Incidentally, the Russian capsule bears an image of St. Christopher with the Christ child on his shoulders. This makes sense for cosmonauts, because Christopher is the patron saint of travelers and sailors traditionally pray to him during storms. In this case, the "storm" was also caused by the Russians.

If you're one who believes in reincarnation in terms of a goddess-centered vision of the afterlife, then it might make sense to you that the earth itself is the goddess in this scenario. At death (and I think we can make the case that Stone is at least metaphorically dead when she leaves the earth's atmosphere, in the sense that she "stopped living" when her daughter died), one's soul leaves the earth/ascends to the heavens (as in Norse mythology, when the Valkyries come down from the sky on their flying horses and carry the fallen warriors upward), one is separated from the goddess, but then one returns to the body of the goddess (in this case, under the ocean, which is depicted as teeming with life), is born again, and lives another life.

Although the Gaia Hypothesis - that the earth and everything on it function as one living organism - is a scientific and not religious school of thought, people sometimes do adapt it to religious purposes - i.e. worshiping the earth itself as a deity because life cannot exist without it. Was Cuaron hinting at something like this when he directed this movie? I have no idea, but he plants some intriguing clues.

Alfonso Cuaron in a Creative Commons image by Gage Skidmore

*Someone please let me know if I am incorrect and that statue wasn't a Buddha.

This is an affiliate link:

Hollywood Classics Title Index to All Movies Reviewed in Books 1 - 24 by John Howard Reid. $0.99 from Smashwords.com
Another essential book for a film buff's library, this one is packed with information and reviews. Some of the entries are quite extensive. JHR provides all the information you need, including complete cast and production staff. I find JHR's information invaluable. I like to read not only who acted in a movie, but who made it, both top-billed and lesser mortals. -- Ross Adams in DRESS CIRCLE mag.

Goddesses in Eve Ensler's Memoir 'In the Body Of the World'

I finished reading In the Body of the World, the 2013 memoir by dramatist/activist Eve Ensler, on Monday night. Because I wrote about it in some detail on Book Club Friday last week, I don't feel the need to share my review here, although I did review it on Amazon and Goodreads.

Instead, I thought I 'd write about the goddess chapter in this book, in which Ensler - an atheist with an ethnic Jewish father and a WASP mother - calls upon the aid of two goddess-figures as she battles the cancer inside her. The chapter is called "Tara, Kali, and Sue." Although the chapters aren't numbered (they aren't in my ARC - maybe they are in the final print edition), it occurs approximately in the center of the book.

Yet before she starts chemotherapy, Ensler takes a pink shawl, lays it out reverently, and makes an altar to Tara and Kali. Tara is for protection. She calls Tara "the mother of all Buddhas" and says she fights off fear and demons.

Tara

My introduction to Tara came through a book called Bodhisattva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin by John Blofeld (Shambhala Publications - Boston - 1977). This book is the same age as me, and I think I picked it up at a yard sale. I wrote about Kuan Yin in The Smell of Gas, but it's difficult to say whether the book was intended to be research or just part of my usual habit of collecting feminist and feminine-spiritual books.

Blofeld writes, "...Tara, a beautiful deity able to manifest herself in twenty-one different forms for the sake of succoring sentient beings...emanating from the compassionate Bodhisattva, she is immensely popular in Tibet and Mongolia where her devotees credit her with two main functions: rescuing beings from present woes and assisting them to rid themselves of the delusions binding them to samsara....

"....Whether visualized as a sweet-faced matron or as a winsome sixteen-year-old maiden, she has two principal embodiments known as the Green Tara and the White. They are much alike except that, from her seat upon a moon disc supported by a giant lotus, the Green Tara extends one foot as though about to rise from meditation, whereas the White Tara sits in meditation posture and further differentiated by having a 'wisdom eye' in the centre of her forehead as well as eyes in the palms of each hand."

Blofeld goes on to say that Tara is merged with Kuan Yin in the popular Chinese imagination, and that she is beloved figure among Tibetan, Nepali and Mongolian Buddhists. Unfortunately, I don't know much else about Tara, but the idea of her seems to be strongly linked to the embodiment of the Buddha's compassion. 

Kali

Kali is for what Kali is always for: destruction. Death. Burning. Kali's destructive path of fire is ultimately constructive: she burns away what must be burned away so that life can continue. Here, she represents the lifesaving destructiveness of the chemo itself, the poison that will burn away the rapidly dividing killing cells.



Kali is also depicted with the third eye/wisdom eye in the center of her forehead. Tara is compassion, and Kali is destruction, but both embody wisdom - wisdom is essential in all things, whether saving a life from excruciating suffering or bringing cleansing through death.

Ensler's prayer reads:

"Burn it away, Kali, burn it away. Make it new. Take me to the core of holy destruction and death and let me survive your excruciating heat. Let me throw what isn't useful into your flame. Dissolve it there are make me new, make me whole. Burn off all the cells that are compulsively dividing and subdividing. Burn off all the parts of me that create separation and division. Burn off the stories. Burn off my contempt and my self-pity. Burn off all the ways I get ahead of myself and try to get ahead of others. And Tara, open my heart. Make me one with all sufferers."

Sue

The Sue of the chapter title refers to Ensler's therapist, who tells, her, "The chemo is not for you. It is for the cancer, for all the past crimes, it's for your father, it's for the rapists, it's for the perpetrators. You're going to poison them now and they are never coming back. Chemo will purge the badness that was projected onto you but was never yours....Your job is to welcome the chemo as an empathetic warrior, who is coming in to rescue your innocence by killing off the perpetrator who got inside you...fighting on your behalf and on behalf of all women's bodies, restoring wholeness, innocence, peace."

Calling on Tara, Kali and Sue works for Ensler. The chemo works. Her cancer retreats, and she lives to eat and work again. She lives to visit the Congo and see the City of Joy and the wild gorillas. In a Hawthornesque fashion, the book ends with a word repeated three times:

Rising. Rising. Rising

Actually, the closing line of "Rising" strikes several literary chords - not only Hawthorne's "Be true! Be true! Be true!" but also Maya Angelou's "And Still I Rise" and even the ending of Virginia Woolf's closing of Orlando, with Orlando rising up and crying out, "It is the goose!...the wild goose!," the elusive beauty that can never quite be caught the way the poet struggles to capture individual moments on the page, but the past is always elusive and the poet is always caught in the present.

The title, In the Body of the World, may call to mind the admonition among Christians, "Be in the world but not of the world" - in reverse. Ensler is asking us through this book to be in our bodies and of the world, valuing ourselves, valuing other people and valuing the planet as a whole. Is that opposed to Christian doctrine? Not at all. Christians remind each other not to value worldly, material things more than they value the eternal things, but that doesn't mean to neglect other people or let the planet come to harm. Having a hope for an eternal life isn't an excuse to cause or allow misery in this one.

When Ensler asks us to be of the world, she wants us to think about how our actions in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. or some of the other very privileged parts of the world can affect people in the less-privileged parts of the world - not because of some misguided "white savior complex" but in the very real sense that we're all made of the same fragile stuff. Whether there is heaven, reincarnation, enlightenment or not, we all have a very finite time in these human skins.

Yet we are rising. There's hope. No matter what our religion or lack thereof, at times we need to call on the wisdom of other human beings. Sometimes, too, we need to call on something greater than ourselves and our limited human powers. Sometimes even atheists have need of the infinite power and compassion of the Goddess, whether one imagines the Goddess as something part of ourselves or as separate from ourselves.


This is an affiliate link:

How to Meditate for Beginners: Tips and Trick Your Mind for Meditation by AssussA. $2.99 from Smashwords.com
Meditation aims to focus and quiet your mind, eventually reaching a higher level of consciousness and inner calm. It may come as a surprise to know that you can meditate anywhere and at any time, allowing you to access a feeling of tranquility and peace no matter what is happening to her around.

Exercises to Strengthen the Root Chakra ~ Guest Post by Jill Magso

The root chakra is connected to grounding, wholeness and overall security. It relates to a person’s center which is where inner strength can be found. The root chakra is located at the very end of the spine between the anus and genitals. It can affect many physical and emotional issues such as health, survival and even wealth. There are several ways that the root chakra can be kept healthy and balanced.

(Public domain image)

Muscle Contraction

The root chakra can be stimulated by contracting muscles in the anus and genital region for a few minutes each day. While sitting or standing the muscle is contracted inward and then relaxed on exhaling. The muscles can also be contracted during normal walking. 

Connection Strengthening Exercise

One of the primary connections of the root chakra is the feeling of being grounded. An exercise that reinforces this connection and opens the chakra begins by standing up straight yet relaxed with feet shoulder width apart. Bending slightly at the knees, the pelvis is pushed a little forward. The body should be kept balanced so that weight is evenly distributed over the feet. Press downward so that the body weight sinks to the soles of the feet and hold for several minutes. Another variation of this exercise includes rocking the pelvis back and forth while pressing downward.

Centering Exercise

This exercise designed to find the center in order to ground the root chakra and is performed each day for five minutes. It starts the person seeing themselves as the center blossom of an open lotus. Flower petals are seen lying around and begin to rise around the person one by one until they are covered in the petals. The person is in the center of the blossom and light is streaming between the cracks of the petals. The person is absorbed and becomes the lotus bud. The resulting peace and quiet is considered the center. The person stays in their center for a few heartbeats and then lets the blossom slowly unfold, petal by petal.

(Peter Weltevrede, Creative Commons)

Root Chakra Massage

One person can perform a root chakra massage on another in order to release a blocked chakra. The recipient lies on the back with a pillow under the knees. The person who is giving the massage sits to the right. The pelvis is lifted and the giver slides the right hand under the buttocks and gently presses the root chakra point. The recipient breaths and imagines the root chakra color of bright red to release its energy.

Puppet Stance

This yoga position is said to provide balance and to open the root chakra. It begins with standing with the body and head straight as though hanging from the center of the head. The knees are slightly bent and the buttocks are tucked under. With the arms up and breathing in, a connection is made with the sky and starts. Upon breathing out the arms go down and connect the sky with the center of the earth.

Physical Activity

The root chakra can be exercised and balanced by stomping the feet on the ground or marching. Squats are good for balancing the chakra. Dancing is said to be very helpful to grounding and opening the root chakra. Even housework like cooking and cleaning help ground the root chakra because of its connection to physical activity. In the summertime, going barefoot, caring for plants and hugging trees are activities which stimulate the root chakra.

(Public domain image)

Meditations for the Root Chakra

Yoga meditation is believed to ground the mind and emotion of each chakra. One meditation used for the root chakra starts with sitting on the floor or in a chair with the legs crossed. The spine is held straight, the shoulders relaxed and the chest is open. The hands are rested on the knees with the palms up. Eyes are lightly closed and breathing is low and deep. Awareness is brought to the location of the root chakra as the muscles are contracted and relaxed repeatedly for 3 to 5 minutes. Another yoga technique used to connect to this chakra begins with touching the tip of the thumbs to the index fingers. Concentration is made on the location of the root chakra in the area between the anus and genitals. The sound LAM is chanted for several minutes.

Interested in chakra healing? Learn more Root Chakra healing techniques

Related posts:

Relaxing into Meditation with author Ngakma Nor'dzin

The Call of Sedona ~ Journey of the Heart

Tao Song & Tao Dance by Dr. Zhi Gang Sha

"Meditation: Poetry and Spirit" by Ruby Sara

Excerpt from introduction - Tao Song & Tao Dance by Dr. Zhi Gang Sha

Leave a comment with an e-mail address for a chance to win Dr. Sha's book! Contest runs November 21-24, with the winner chosen by Random.org on the 25th.

What if you could relax, feel refreshed and rejuvenated by spending 15 minutes a day with a 3 word meditation-like mantra?

In modern society, we embrace various aspects of Chinese culture from understanding Yin Yang principles to designing homes using Feng Shui to referring to Karmic repercussions within our lifetime, to employing "mind over matter" to get us through the hardships. Now, Dr. Zhi Gang Sha takes us to the next level by teaching us a 3 word mantra that is designed to revitalize our mood -- and can be done while riding to work each morning, or a midday "power chant" (instead of power nap) by saying these words, "Peace, Love, Harmony" for 15 minutes a day.

In his new book, Tao Song & Tao Dance, Dr. Sha teaches how people can create positive energy through songs. He literally tells readers that you can sing and dance your way to enlightenment.

Reincarnation is a universal law. Human beings reincarnate.
Mother Earth reincarnates. Mother Earth’s
reincarnation goes through a cycle of phases or eras. Each one
lasts fifteen thousand years.

Mother Earth is in a transition period now. In the last few
years, we have seen more and more natural disasters, including
earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, floods,
droughts, tornadoes, and more. Financial challenges and many
other challenges are deeply affecting humanity and Mother
Earth. Millions of people are suffering from all kinds of sickness,
in the spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical bodies. Wars,
power struggles, greed—all kinds of unpleasant things are taking
place all around us on Mother Earth now.

You may be wondering why humanity and Mother Earth are
suffering like this. What are the root causes of the suffering?
What can we do about the suffering?
More and more people are searching for spiritual secrets,
wisdom, knowledge, and practical techniques to transform the
suffering of humanity and Mother Earth, in order to enjoy good
health, relationships, and finances.

There could be thousands of explanations for the causes of
the suffering. I would like to summarize my
personal insights in a one-sentence secret:

Bad karma is the root cause of the suffering
of humanity and Mother Earth.

Mother Earth is going through a special time of transition and
humanity is enduring great suffering because of bad karma that has
been created over thousands of years. War, killing, greed, corruption,
stealing, cheating, taking advantage of others, power struggles,
damaging Mother Earth, including cutting of forests, wrenching
natural resources from the land and the water, testing nuclear weapons,
pollution, and much more have created huge bad karma.
Karma is easy to understand. Karma is cause and effect. Humanity
has harmed each other tremendously. Humanity has damaged
Mother Earth almost beyond repair.

According to the spiritual guidance that I have received from
Heaven, Mother Earth’s transition could last another ten years
and become much heavier. The best way
to help humanity and Mother Earth get through this difficult
time is to join the hearts and souls of humanity in unconditional
service, which is selfless service to others. This will empower humanity to self-clear its bad karma.

How can a person self-clear bad karma? One must offer love,
forgiveness, compassion, and light to others.

Love melts all blockages and transforms all life.

When you experienced true love from your loved ones, from
your spiritual fathers and mothers, and from the Divine and Tao,
your heart was deeply moved, touched, and opened. True love is a golden key
to unlock any door in your life, in the lives
of your loved ones, and for Mother Earth.

Forgiveness brings inner joy and inner peace.

Think about all of your relationships. Think about you and
your spouse or partner, your girlfriend or boyfriend, your children
and parents. Have you ever been upset in any of these relationships?
Have you been irritated, angry, jealous, or had vengeful
thoughts? Think about other relationships—between companies, organization,
religions, and nations.

If unconditional forgiveness could be applied in all of these
relationships, peace and harmony would occur.
There would be no conflict on Mother Earth.
Forgiveness is another golden key to transform all life by
bringing inner joy and inner peace.

Compassion boosts energy, stamina, vitality, and immunity.

Compassion touches one’s heart and soul deeply. Compassion can remove
all kinds of blockages. Compassion boosts energy, stamina, vitality,
and immunity. Compassion is the third golden key to transform all life.

Light heals, prevents sickness, rejuvenates, and transforms
every aspect of life, including relationships and finances.

Light is the fourth golden key to transform all life. A human
being needs physical food to sustain and nourish physical life. A
soul needs soul food to sustain and nourish soul life.
Light is soul food. Love, forgiveness, and compassion are also
soul food. Light can remove all kinds of blockages to transform
health, relationships, and finances.

Love, forgiveness, compassion, and light are the four golden
keys to unlock any door in your life. In Tao Song & Tao Dance,
I will lead you in many practices to apply love, forgiveness, compassion, and
light to self-clear bad karma and to transform every aspect of
your life.

There are ancient secrets for transforming karma and Master Sha introduces these secrets along with Soul Power:

• shen mi (pronounced shun mee) - “Shen mi” means body secret. Many spiritual practitioners use special hand positions called mudras when they meditate. These special hand (and body) positions promote energy flow within the body to remove blockages. Where you put your hands is where you receive healing, rejuvenation, and longevity.

• kou mi (pronounced koe mee) - “Kou mi” means mouth secret. This secret is to chant mantras. There are many ancient mantras that are extremely powerful for
healing, rejuvenation, purification, and cleansing karma. What you chant is what you become.

• yi mi (pronounced yee mee) - “Yi mi” means thinking secret. This secret is to purify the mind. To stop negativity and think positively, with love, forgiveness, compassion, and light, is vital for purification and clearing all types of mind blockages. Where you concentrate in your body is where you receive healing, rejuvenation, transformation, and enlightenment.

• soul power, which is a most important divine technique that the Divine guided me to teach humanity. Soul Power means to say hello through soul communication. Directly call the souls of buddhas, holy saints, healing angels, archangels, ascended masters, lamas, gurus, and all kinds of spiritual fathers and mothers to come to heal and bless you. Souls, including the Divine and Tao, are available if you call them.

Tao Song and Tao Dance: Sacred Sound, Movement, and Power from the Source for Healing, Rejuvenation, Longevity,and Transformation of All Life by Dr. Zhi Gang Sha. Dr. Sha is the New York Times Bestselling author of the Soul Power Series with Atria Books (Simon & Schuster). He was trained as a conventional medicine doctor and a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. Dr. Sha is the founder of the Institute of Soul Healing and Enlightenment and is a grandmaster of many ancient disciplines, including tai chi, qi gong, feng shui, and the I Ching. www.DrSha.com

Relaxing into Meditation with author Ngakma Nor'dzin, guest blogger

Relaxing into Meditation teaches how to live contentedly with a sense of well-being. We discover spacious peace of mind even when our life circumstances are far from ideal. Relaxation teaches us how to relax the body and meditation teaches us how to relax the mind. We discover that total relaxation of body and mind is our natural condition.

1. Relaxing the body.
Stress and unhappiness manifest in the body, so we begin by relaxing our muscles. We can achieve this by systematically tensing muscles groups throughout the body and then relaxing the tension on the out-breath. We can stretch the body and move into various postures, relaxing as we breathe out.

2. Relaxing the breath
When we are agitated our breathing becomes faster and more shallow. When we slow and deepen our breathing we become calmer. We can harness awareness of the out-breath through visualising tension streaming out of the body as we breath out; and we can cleanse the breath through alternate nostril breathing.

3. Relaxing the voice
When we are happy we may spontaneously burst into song, but it is hard to sing when we are sad or stressed. We can therefore learn to relax through free energetic sound. We can sing yogic syllables and give ourselves permission to make as much noise as we wish without caring about the harmony or disharmony of our voice. We sing the sound Ahhhhhh for the length of an out-breath and release energetic tension with the sound.

4. Ready for meditation
Having relaxed the body we wish to retain this sense of comfort and calm when we start to meditate. It is therefore essential to find a sitting posture for meditation in which we can be relaxed but alert. Relaxing the mind is more difficult than relaxing the body so we want to be as physically comfortable as possible so that the body does not distract the mind. The body should be upright, balanced and unrestricted. The spine should be erect but relaxed. The body should be balanced and not twisted or placed in a position that requires effort to maintain. Blood needs to flow freely to all parts of the body and in particular to the limbs without constriction or pressure.

5. Relaxing the mind
Meditation relaxes the mind through letting go of thought to experience mind without thought. Thought is an intricate conceptual mesh that surrounds the still deep quietness of empty mind and acts as a filter for everything that we experience. To relax the mind we need to loosen and let go of this mesh in order to discover and understand mind when it is no longer defined by thought. Thought is a natural process of mind but thought is not the essence of mind. We can only discover ultimate relaxation if we learn to become familiar and comfortable in the empty essence of the nature of mind. We begin by using the breath as a focus and letting go of thought as we breath out. Over time we can let go of the breath as a focus and simply let go of thought whenever it arises. Gradually spaciousness develops in the mind and it becomes easy to dwell in the space of mind without thought.

6. Daily practice
Learning to let go of thought and relax the mind requires commitment and effort. Meditating every day gradually allows the mind to settle and let go of thought, and increases our capacity to concentrate and experience spaciousness of mind. It is more productive to meditate for a short period every day than it is to meditate for a longer period more occasionally. The length of our daily practice must be realistic and easily achievable so that it does not become a burden or a chore. Ten minutes of meditation a day is all that is required for meditation to become a life skill that is simply part of who we are. At first we will continually lose our focus and we may find this frustrating, but we must not develop self-deprecation. Whenever we realise that we have lost concentration we must celebrate this as a moment of re-emerging awareness. To recognise loss of awareness is to have regained awareness. Over time a commitment to practising Letting Go every day will produce startling results. We will start to understand our relationship with thought and develop increased awareness. We will start to feel more relaxed about who we are. We will start to feel less pressured by our life circumstances. We will begin to let go of self-centredness and find joy in being kind to others.

7. Further practice
When we have established a daily practice of Letting Go we can experiment with contemplative practices that change our ordinary view. We can examine our relationship with others through looking at how we interact with a friend, an enemy and a stranger. We can practise purification visualisation to discover clarity, and we can practise methods of developing loving kindness to enrich ourselves and develop openness and generosity.

Through relaxing the body we feel refreshed and invigorated. Through relaxing the mind we discover openness and clarity. Over time the moments of experience of mind without thought will lengthen and occur more frequently and this spaciousness of mind will start to sparkle in our everyday lives. We will start to notice our habit patterns and cease to be their victim. We will discover that we have a choice about who we are and how we live our lives. We will discover emotion as naked energy and sensory experience will become enlivened. We will find that we become more open, patient, tolerant and kind people through the spaciousness of mind we have realised. We discover open appreciation and enjoyment and awaken to our natural state of well-being.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A full explanation of relaxation and meditation exercises can be found in Ngakma Nor'dzin's book Relaxing into Meditation, published by Aro Books worldwide, ISBN 978-1-898185-17-8. For more information please see http://bit.ly/nrprim

Relaxing into Meditation is available from Lulu.com (http://bit.ly/nrprimlul), Amazon.co.uk (http://bit.ly/nrprimzuk), Amazon.com (http://bit.ly/nrprimzus) and other bookshops worldwide

This is an affiliate link:

How to Meditate for Beginners: Tips and Trick Your Mind for Meditation by AssussA. $2.99 from Smashwords.com
Meditation aims to focus and quiet your mind, eventually reaching a higher level of consciousness and inner calm. It may come as a surprise to know that you can meditate anywhere and at any time, allowing you to access a feeling of tranquility and peace no matter what is happening to her around.