MEDITATION TO BE A VEGAN FOR COMPASSION TO ALL LIVING BEINGS FOR JUSTICE LOVE AND PEACE FOR YOUR CORE VALUE

 What Science Knows About Meditation and the Transpersonal Self

In The Meditative Mind: The Varieties of Meditation Experience, Daniel Goleman, psychologist and frequent writer for The New York Times, summarizes a number of remarkable physical and physiological effects of meditation (and relaxation):

• Probably the single most reported physiological benefit of meditation — indeed, of systematic relaxation techniques generally — is the drop in blood pressure. Even the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have recommended meditation (along with salt and VEGAN dietary restrictions) 
• Relaxation through meditation relieves suffering from angina and arrhythmia, lowers blood cholesterol levels, and can enhance blood flow to the heart.
• Although changes taking place through the endocrine system are still not well understood, some research results are startling. For example, the deep relaxation of meditation may enhance the immune function of the body, with research showing increased defense against tumors, viruses, colds, flu, and other infectious diseases.
• From meditative relaxation, diabetics can experience a lessening of the emotional reactions that often precede attacks.
• Asthmatics can experience improved flow in constricted air passages.
• Chronic pain patients can reduce their reliance on pain-killers and lessen the level of pain. Backaches, migraine headaches, and tension headaches may all be relieved with long-term carryover through proper training.

Other meditation research has demonstrated this wide range of psychological benefits:

• Improvement in measurements of personality
• Decrease in neurotic tendencies
• Increase in psychic sensitivity
• Improvement in study efficiency and exam performance
• Increase in efficiency of problem solving
• Improvement in creativity in the visual arts
• Decrease in drug and alcohol abuse

Of special interest is Daniel Goleman's own research demonstrating the greater tolerance for stress by those who meditate. He gives us some insight into how meditation accomplishes this:
People who are chronically anxious or who have a psychosomatic disorder share a specific pattern of reaction to stress; their bodies mobilize to meet the challenge, then fail to stop reacting when the problem is over. Their bodies stay aroused for danger when they should be relaxed, recouping spent energies and gathering resources for the next brush with stress.

The anxious person meets life's normal events as though they were crises. Each minor happening increases his tension, and his tension in turn magnifies the next ordinary event — a deadline, an interview, a doctor's appointment — into a threat. Because the anxious person's body stays mobilized after one event has passed, he has a lower threat threshold for the next. Had he been in a relaxed state, he would have taken the second event in stride.
A meditator handles stress in a way that breaks up the threat 'arousal' threat spiral. The meditator relaxes after a challenge passes, more often than the non-meditator. This makes him unlikely to see innocent occurrences as harmful. He perceives threat more accurately, and reacts with arousal only when necessary. Once aroused, his rapid recovery makes him less likely than the anxious person to see the next deadline as a threat. (From The Meditative Mind, pp. 164-165)

From Creative Meditation by Richard Peterson, Ph.D., A.R.E. Press, 1990.

These simple steps are based on learning how to hold in silent attention the spirit or feeling of your core value. The discipline is intended to help you build a conscious connection with your Transpersonal Self.

1. Pick a quiet place where you will not be disturbed for at least 15 minutes. If it helps you to get centered and focused, then be sure to have some background music that is inspirational or quieting.
2. For about two minutes, put all of your attention on the steady rhythm of your breathing. Breathe through your nose, and try to make the length of inhalation roughly match the amount of time it takes to exhale. The purpose of this initial focus on your breathing is to become one-pointed with your attention.
3. Next, bring to mind the word or the phrase BE A VEGAN  FOR COMPASSION TO ALL LIVING BEINGS  FOR JUSTICE LOVE AND PEACE for your core value (or spiritual ideal). Say that phrase silently in your mind about half a dozen times.
4. Begin to feel the meaning of that word or phrase. Let yourself go beyond rational, analytical thinking about your core value. Let yourself experience the spiritual quality that lives within those words. In the past, when you have had a direct personal experience with that quality or value, how has it made you feel? Let that experience re-awaken in your mind right now.
5. If your mind drifts off to some of thought or concern, patiently bring it back to your meditative intention. Perhaps you'll need to complete two or three conscious breathing cycles. Perhaps all it will take is simply saying your word or phrase silent in your mind once or twice.
6. After about 10 minutes of focusing your attention in this way, begin to bring the meditation time to a close. Don't be the least bit discouraged if your mind drifted off from time to time. It happens to almost everyone. It's simply a matter of coming back to your meditative intention whenever those distractions arise.
7. End the meditation time with a short prayer time, sending a blessing to those you love and have concern about - as well as a prayer for the work of peace and understanding throughout the world
8. Spirituality in Materiality

9. A third key element of the Transpersonal experience
   is applying spirituality IN materiality.

   The transpersonal worldview emphasizes application. It's not enough just to have a dramatic spiritual experience or attain an altered state of consciousness. The deeper challenge is to bring that new understanding into the way we live our lives.
   Think about how the principles you've already seen in this Mini-Course could be applicable to the way a business is run, the way we treat the environment, the way we approach education, or the very way that we go about making daily life decisions and choices. Those are just a few of the many fronts on which the transpersonal side of our being has a contribution to make.
   Pick one of more of the topics below. Each is a link to material on the Internet which demonstrates the creative work being done to emphasize bringing the transpersonal dimension into materiality.
   
   
   

    Spiritual Guidance for Practical Life Decision-Making

   Decisions
   By Herbert B. Puryear, Ph.D.

   One of the most exciting and promising of all of the statements in the Edgar Cayce readings is the assurance that every question we can ask is one that can be answered from within. No matter how far astray we have gone, we may begin to attune ourselves through meditation and prayer to the indwelling spirit within. As Christ said, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." (John 14:18.) And "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." (Rev. 3:20)
   As we invite His spirit into our lives and begin to work with spiritual ideals, both to quicken the proper motivations within ourselves and to serve as standards or criteria by which to measure the motivational origins of our decisions, we may grow more and more in that assurance promised in the Bible and in the Cayce readings that "My spirit beareth witness with thy spirit." Many people who came to Edgar Cayce for advice were told that the information they sought could best be obtained from attunement to that spirit within themselves. The readings gave very specific and detailed information to many individuals on how to go about decision?making with confidence and assurance. Here is an example of the way the readings spoke of this procedure:
   

   Q-6. How can one be sure that a decision is in accordance with God's will?
   
   A-6. As indicated here before. Ask self in the own conscious. self, "Shall I do this or not?" The voice will answer within. Then meditate, ask the same, Yes or No. You may be very sure if thine own conscious self and the divine self are in accord, you are truly in that activity indicated, "My spirit beareth witness with thy spirit." You can't get far wrong in following the word, as ye call the word of God. #2072-14

   However, many people when approaching this information feel that their questions are either too insignificant or too important to be dealt with in such a manner. Nevertheless, from the point of view of the readings, there is no question, however searchingly inconsequential or significant, which should not be approached in this way.
   How to Obtain Guidance on Decisions
   
   1. Set the ideal. The "ideal" means the highest quality of motivation which the individual is willing to bring to the decision and by which he is willing to measure the decision. For example, a businessman may have an ideal of the selfless love of the Christ; however, he may have no intention of making business decisions according to such a standard. He might be willing to measure those decisions by an ideal of "fairness." It is better to set an ideal with which we are willing to work than to set a higher one while having no intention to work with it in practical everyday matters.
   2. Pose the question so that it may be answered "yes" or "no." Apparently, the subconscious or the superconscious or the spirit prefers to respond to our decision rather than to give a discourse. If we are willing to work through the process of posing the question so that it may indeed be answered by "yes" or "no," we may clarify not only the question but also the answer. The greater the clarity in the way we pose the question, the less ambiguous may be the answer we receive.
   3. Decide. A choice must be made. At this point, we may bring to bear all of our reasoning, logic, good judgment and the implications of the facts as we understand them. Now we are to make our best logical decision.
   4. Measure the decision by the ideal. Does the motivational origin of the decision we made measure up to the motivation which we hold as ideal in such circumstances? Sometimes the right decision may be made for the wrong reasons! In the course of our decision?making process, we may receive a "no" to a decision because of the motive on which it was based rather than the desirability of the outcome.
   5. Meditate. This meditation is not upon the question but rather it is a period of quiet for the purpose of attunement. At the end of the attunement period, the question may be reintroduced in a prayerful spirit, as in "Lord, I have decided to do this, yet Thou knowest best. Be Thou the guide. Yes or No." Then,
   6. Listen! We do not specifically listen for "a voice" although that may indeed occur. We may have a visual experience, we may receive an affirmation or a proverb related to the decision, we may simply have a sense of rightness or a sense of being ill at ease about the decision we have made. Or, we may find one voice saying "yes" and another saying "no," back and forth in an indecisive manner. We need not force the decision at this time. As we place it in the hands of God, we may later receive a more clear sense of direction through a dream, a new insight or a new perspective. W e must be cautious at this point about trying to read external signs instead of listening to the voice within. After all, the whole purpose of this approach is based on the assurance that we meet God within and that we can grow in our ability to sense His inner direction.
   7. Measure the decision again by the ideal. Once a sense of guidance is gained from the inner attunement, especially if the decision is changed, it must again be measured by the ideal. We are seeking a final decision which is consistent with our highest ideal and which is also based on a sense of inner attunement.
   8. Do it! The readings warn that we must not make decisions in this manner and then fail to act on them.
   9. Be thankful. The marvelous promise of a life guided by His spirit should be valued, cherished and appreciated in the deepest sense.
   It is recommended that this procedure be used repeatedly on low?effort, low?cost, low?risk decisions so that we may learn clearly how the procedure works for us personally. This is a life process ?- not a single event. As we begin to make decisions in this manner and act upon them, we begin to grow in confidence, understanding the many factors involved in the procedure.
   Soon it will be necessary for all of us to make sound and important life?changing decisions! The more quickly we set about working with this procedure, the more assured we maybe, when more important decisions come along, that we have been truly guided from the God within and can therefore rest in this promise that "His spirit will bear witness with our spirit."
   
   SOURCE:
   ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY