“Thirteen and a half billion years ago, a mysterious pinprick, unimaginably dense and incomprehensibly hot, appeared out of the void of spaceless and timeless infinity and exploded with uncontrollable force, creating space, time, energy, and matter in the process. This “Big Bang” ignited the engine of creation, and in that very instant our whole universe was born. The varied tapestry of everything that exists today – including you and me – was already present, though undifferentiated like a mound of unspun fiber.” – The Master Key: Qigong Secrets for Vitality, Love, and Wisdom by Robert Peng.
Today, you begin your practice of Baudhika Ahimsa — Intellectual or mental non-violence.
Every living being with an inside and an outside has a hub feeling.
This hub feeling is the root of our being. This feeling begets feelings. These feelings create thoughts. These thoughts manifest words and actions.
Meditation creates the space to observe these feelings, thoughts, words, and actions, and choose the ones that are the least harmful.
We are reminded to do the most amount of good with the least amount of harm.
Consider this as you begin your practice of Baudhika Ahimsa, intellectual non-violence.
Be on the lookout for thoughts which, if they were manifested as words or actions, would be:
- harmful towards others,
- harmful towards ourselves
- approving of or allowing harm to come to others or ourselves,
- encouraging or hoping that harm comes to others or ourselves.
When you find that you have these thoughts (you will), it’s okay.
You’re human.
You’re probably a good person, with inharmonious thought patterns.
How do you begin to remedy this?
First, become more mindful of your own thoughts, using the Observing the Mind Technique.
Read this, then practice:
- Take in your surroundings, then close your eyes.
- Take three deep breaths and relax.
- Send your awareness up above your body.
- Turn around, seeing the room, and your own body below you.
- Watch the mind as though it were a TV. Simply notice what the mind is thinking.
- Mentally, say “the mind is thinking X,”
- Observe for a moment, until you feel the need to move on.
- Then, say this:
- Neti: I am not this mind.
- Neti: I am not this body.
- Neti: I am not this thought.
- Open your eyes.
Welcome back.
There were thoughts in the mind.
Good.
Neti reminds us that we are not the thoughts, just as we are not the clouds in the sky nor the waves in the sea.
Trying to catch and stop those things would be silly. It’s the same with the thoughts.
With Neti, we create space to choose another thought, word, and action.
The challenge, when you notice an inharmonious thought, is to mentally say “neti, neti, neti,” and choose different words or actions.
Consider, “if this thought were spoken or acted out, would this blatantly or inadvertantly bring harm to another?”
Remember every circumstance is different.
So, Here we go (which means, read this aloud):
“With every breath that I breathe, I am becoming more and more non-violent towards myself and others.”
“With every breath that I breathe, I am becoming more and more non-violent towards myself and others.”
“With every breath that I breathe, I am becoming more and more non-violent towards myself and others.”
Your path toward becoming a Panoptic Human, one who takes into account the whole at one view, who permits everything to be seen, advances.
In sanskrit, AUMM / OM is said to vibrate at the same frequency as the Universe and the spark of the big-bang,
Shanti means Peace.
So, I say Om Shanti to you.
The light of that divine-spark, the light of the big bang within me sees, and celebrates the light of that spark within you.
Namaste.
Robert Bill Jr 