In the 1990s, society expended great resources investigating questions of management and leadership. Managers are fairly common; real leaders are extremely rare. Managers use people to make things happen; leaders make things happen for the people. Managers often lead from the back. They may watch to see what is popular, what seems politically correct, what will help them increase their own status and especially, what will help them increase their incomes. Managers tend to be utilitarian and opportunistic.
True leaders, however, always lead from the front. They are associated with the “four C’s”:
• Character • Competence • Compassion • Courage
When we find a true leader, we will find strong performance in all these areas.
There are so many definitions for the word “leadership” in the English language alone. Such a diversity of meanings for the same word indicates that people are confused about what it means. It is a complex topic.
The work of a true leader can also be listed in descending order of significance:
• To be • To do • To see • To tell
Similarly, we can categorize citizens in a general way:
• Inventors: Those who make things happen • Resenters: Those who watch things happen (and often complain about how they are happening) • Consenters: those who do not know what is happening, but who consent and go with the flow.
True leaders are always inventors. They are experts at making things happen. There are so many analogies to help us understand the qualities of a leader.
Here’s another one, relating to the attitude people have when they approach a hill intending to climb it:
• There are those who see the hill as an obstacle, and immediately give up their plans; • There are those who see the hill and decide to camp at its base • There are those who see the hill and proceed to climb it.
Those who quit are the types of people who become discouraged by adversity. They do not possess the perseverance, stamina or the deep commitment to attain the goal. Those who camp at the hill’s base may start off with enthusiasm, but they become distracted by the obstacle and lose sight of the goal.
Those who climb the hill despite the promise of difficulty have enough commitment to work for success. Their challenge is to maintain their vision and sense of mission, and by continuing to strive, they can achieve their goal.
Retired United States Army General Norman Schwarzkopf said in his analysis of losers vs. winners: • To a loser, it may be possible, but it is difficult. • To a winner, it may be difficult, but it is possible. • A leader says that nothing is impossible. • A loser will say, “It’s not my job” • A winner will say: “Let me help you do it” • A leader will say: “Follow me and do as I do”
Others have categorized people into winners and whiners. One should live one’s life by discipline, not emotion. • Winners, and especially true leaders, feel good when they do right • Whiners must feel good before they will do right • Winners say: “I will do it because it is right, and I will feel good knowing I acted properly” • Whiners say: “If I ever feel good about it, then I will do it” • Winners say: “I must believe it before I can see it” • Whiners say: “I must see it before can I believe it”
True leaders know that progress is motivating; apparent progress based on lust, greed and self-deception is actually failure.
True leaders make things happen, are winners, lead from the front and always keep the highest welfare of their constituents in mind. In this way, a leader will inspire people to come to a higher standard by their own superior qualities.
By Bhakti Tirtha Swami In the book “Leadership for an Age of Higher Consciousness Volume II: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times”
You hear about coaching and most likely are becoming familiar with what a “handler” is.
In show business – fashion industry – celebrity making machine world – a handler is common; even in politics there is a controlling personality who will not coach or support, but instead, their goal (or mission) is to control and most likely, if they cannot control they will eradicate.
So how to recognize and differentiate the coach from the handler?
The coach is someone who will fan whatever little fire you have regarding anything. He or she will listen to truly comprehend what you want and will support that. They will be a personality for problem-solving and forward thinking, strategically planning landmarks with you while holding you accountable in a very loving and caring way.
He or she will make you feel powerful, remove doubts from your mind while giving realistic insights and assistance for the structuring of your life, setting the stage where success can actually be achieved. The only thing in the mind of a real coach is your success, the success of your project and your life, in business or even marriage; so the sole focus is the achievement of your overall happiness and fulfillment in this life.
The handler is someone who is either naturally unbalanced, with a deep desire to control another; or it could be a straight up narcissist, with some having heavy sociopathic traits and if so, he or she will only want to control for pleasure, and most likely they’ll begin to take credit for everything you do while diminishing your past accomplishments. Overall it would be a person that comes into your life with a focus on manipulation (emotional and psychological) only to control. It could be someone who says they want “to help” by giving input and insights, but that would only be to forward their own agenda, be it for purely monetary gain – so being paid for their so called coaching services – or they could carve out a “friendship.” But again, for their own controlling and manipulative pleasures.
Depending on what your position in society is already, it could be someone sent (employed by someone else) to “handle you” and in this way, you would be put in line with whatever agenda the employee wishes. Some handlers will just come in and mess up one’s life entirely for both a pay check and personal sociopathic pleasure.
Yes! These characters are a minority, but are fantastic manipulators, so it’s good to know they actually do exist.
In the event you are looking to make advancement, and are humble enough to ask or just accept advice from anyone, be it a coach, a friend, or even a family member, please make sure that you know the difference in behavior so you can scan very closely what their agenda truly is. Observe how they proceed in regard to “helping you out” and most importantly, follow your in-tuition and gut feeling because that compass is a true guide. And don’t worry if the handler tries to ridicule you, just know that, if something feels fishy there’s probably someone fishy around.
And lastly, by knowing the difference one will avoid hiring a handler for a coach. It would be terrible to actually pay someone to control you and very likely, usher you into not accomplishing your heartfelt life goals.
The last few decades have seen a slow yet steady rise in the awareness and practice of permaculture in conservation and environmental communities. This growing understanding is both heartening and deeply necessary. It also gives rise to occasional pauses to take a closer look at what the term permaculture implies and means, and its true origins. In particular, this examination compels us to look at how permaculture, like much other wisdom deriving from pre-industrial, non-hierarchical, collaboration with land and nature, is at risk of being appropriated and colonized. The resulting reductionist approach seeks to create homogenizing formulas to work in harmony with the environment, a hallmark of mainstream western scientific materialism. This is anathema to what was originally — and still is — an indigenous science of working in partnership and reciprocity with the land and cycles of nature.
Bill Mollison in the garden of his Enmore, Australia home on January 16, 1989. | Greg White / Fairfax Media via Getty Images
The term permaculture — a fusion of “permanent” and “agriculture” — was first coined in the 1970s by two Australians, David Holmgren, and Bill Mollison. Both were academics in Tasmania. Holmgren was at the time a graduate student studying environmental design at the Tasmanian College of Advanced Education, and Mollison — also dubbed the “father of permaculture” — was a senior lecturer in environmental psychology at the University of Tasmania. The foundations of permaculture rest on two concepts: an understanding and acceptance of the diversity of whole systems, as opposed to the soil-degrading effects of industrial monoculture; and on the relational, slow-yet-dynamic practice of observing the land, and its many complex ecosystems.
Running Ditches and Slowing Water Paiute People Adapt Traditions to Modern-Day Gardens
That permaculture arose as a vital response to the dangerous environmental and human degradation of industrialization, and its toxic farming and agricultural practices is undeniable. Its philosophy is based on the common-sense truth that the human race cannot survive in any measure of health if the Earth is being poisoned. We are at a point in our evolution where anything less than an applied understanding of this idea spells disaster to our survival. In all of this, the propagation of permaculture is crucial.
What is at issue here is the importance of recognizing that permaculture’s roots lie firmly and deeply in the ancient, fertile, organic soil of indigenous science. To overlook and ignore that is to leave permaculture at the mercy of the dogmas of mainstream science, and the latter’s view of the manifold, complex systems in nature as nothing more than resources to be exploited. From this vantage point, humans control, degrade and exploit the land to become obedient, consummate consumers; and the indigenous science of cultivating a reciprocal, regenerative relationship with the Earth, in which the human acknowledges her innate connection to Earth, is dismissed as “unscientific” and empirically unsound.
The Potawot Community Garden, housed at United Indian Health Services’s facility in Arcata, California, incorporates elements of permaculture seamlessly into the center’s holistic approach to healing the Earth and body. | Still from “Tending Nature” episode “Healing The Body with United Indian Health Services.”
Without actively anchoring itself to the wisdom of indigenous science, permaculture is rudderless and vulnerable to invasion by the parasite that only feeds off its host, without giving anything back, ultimately destroying both.
Indeed, Mollison attributed much of what he came to create as “permaculture” to what he learned from the Aboriginals in Tasmania, and other Indigenous people around the world.
Permaculture is fundamentally then, an indigenous science. Its framework is a design system that incorporates core principles and practices from indigenous knowledge around the world, assimilating it with sustainable new technology that is making strides towards harmonizing this traditional wisdom with pioneering modern quantum science. As such, it can restore valuable ancient knowledge, while steering our industrialized society towards a more viable future based on regeneration and reciprocity.
In California, the Chumash, Yurok, Karuk, Hupa, and Miwok tribes have, for over 13,000 years, practiced and handed down the tradition of prescribed burning as a way of tending the land. As people Indigenous to California, and as guardians of Native wisdom whose cultural foundations rest on a reciprocal, reverential, subject-subject interaction with nature, the practice of prescribed burning sees fire as a necessary medicine for the land. For millennia, this method of small-scale, skillfully managed, intentional burning of dead or dying underbrush has been a way of regenerating the land, and significantly decreasing the risk of catastrophic, out-of-control, large-scale wildfires.
Given the devastation caused by wildfires in recent years, a result of climate change and rising temperatures, the art of prescribed burning is something that is finally being looked at by state fire officials and environmental agencies as a viable means of minimizing the risk of wildfires. Tribes are now working together to revive this ancient and practical wisdom of fire as preventative, restorative medicine through the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network. Crucially, state governing bodies are now beginning to work with tribes and their tradition of prescribed burning as a time-tested way of reducing the conditions that cause wildfires in our current, climate-sensitive age.
This restoration of Native wisdom is critical at this time because we are all indigenous to somewhere. There is as much to be gleaned from pre-Christian, pre-industrialized, indigenous old European culture and wisdom as there is from our more current understanding of what being native is. These traditional societies also operated within an Earth-focused, reciprocal, relational paradigm and were decimated through the terror of widespread witch trials and burnings. They also became colonized by the belief that man is here to exercise dominion over land and sea. These old, indigenous, pagan ways became marginalized at best, literally demonized at worst. What did survive we displaced to the fringes of society, viewed by mainstream science and “sensible” society as esoteric, crackpot nonsense — Fait accompli.
Permaculture’s ability to re-indigenize Caucasian people, to reconnect them with their indigenous wisdom traditions of working in partnership with the land, has the potential to stem the tide of the, frankly, crackpot notions of the colonial mindset. These notions are summed up succinctly in the unabridged subtitle of Charles Darwin’s landmark “Origin of Species,” which is: “By Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.” There is nothing that comes close to resembling “natural” about this type of “selection.” That this book is the cornerstone of what has been accepted science for almost 200 years, also coinciding with the Industrial Revolution, has alarming and multiple layers of significance. For this piece, however, our focus is on the importance of recognizing the core truth that permaculture is an indigenous science.
Why is this important? As a philosophy, practice, and movement, permaculture is gaining much support and momentum across the world. Inevitably, the reductionism of mainstream science and its focus on relentless hyper-productivity, are making insidious advances towards permaculture. This rise in awareness is a bid to dominate and reduce to formulas a system rooted firmly in the cultivation of a dynamic, reciprocal relationship between the human and the Earth, both as subjects. As with any relationship, this takes patience. Permaculture can thrive under the pioneering auspices of new quantum science and technology that is discovering that what the ancients knew to be true is also empirically verifiable. The findings of this new science accept the wisdom of indigenous science — and permaculture as a product of it.
As Bill Mollison, the “father of permaculture” so articulately put it:
“Each such cycle is a unique event; diet, choice, selection, season, weather, digestion, decomposition and regeneration differ each time it happens. Thus, it is the number of such cycles, great and small, that decide the potential for diversity. We should feel ourselves privileged to be part of such eternal renewal. Just by living we have achieved immortality — as grass, grasshoppers, gulls, geese and other people. We are of the diversity we experience in every real sense.
“If, as physical scientists assure us, we all contain a few molecules of Einstein, and if the atomic particles of our physical body reach to the outermost bounds of the universe, then we are all de facto components of all things. There is nowhere left for us to go if we are already everywhere, and this is, in truth, all we will ever have or need. If we love ourselves at all, we should respect all things equally, and not claim any superiority over what are, in effect, our other parts. Is the hand superior to the eye? The bishop to the goose? The son to the mother?…
“Stupidity is an attempt to iron out all differences, and not to use them or value them creatively.”
We must safeguard the permaculture movement against colonizing influences that seek to reduce it to a system of sterile formulas if we want it to remain a powerful agent of healing for the Earth — and for us. It has to be seen for what it is: an indigenous science.
Potawot Health Center: A Holistic Approach to Healing
“Every individual in the world, regardless of cultural background or race, has an indigenous soul struggling to survive in an increasingly hostile environment created by that individual’s mind. A modern person’s body has become a battleground between the rationalist mind — which subscribes to the values of the machine age — and the native soul. This battle is the cause of a great deal of spiritual and physical illness.”
The relatively new science of quantum physics is discovering what indigenous science has known for millennia: we live in a world where all matter is sentient, a subject-subject stance. This traditional knowledge is very much at odds with the fictions of the lifeless, mechanical “objective” world over which humans ruthlessly rule that has been the prevailing dogma of mainstream science. Permaculture can remain immune to the parasitic disease if colonialism of its origins are grounded in indigenous science, and with this new science as its companion and benefactor. It can be a powerful movement of authentic and radical change that it has the potential to be.
“Permaculture’s focus on symbiotic relationships is informed by the concept of ayni, a Quechua and Aymara word for sacred reciprocity, an ethic shared by many traditional cultures and sometimes translated as ‘today for you, tomorrow for me.’ If the permaculture movement can successfully integrate and spread indigenous science in a way that truly benefits both traditional and modern cultures, perhaps this exchange — this sacred reciprocity — has the power to help guide the future of the planet.” – cultureofpermaculture.org
Indigenous science is unequivocally a science, and the system of permaculture is a recent offspring. A dismissal of it as such is a telltale sign and symptom of the colonizer and its unnatural selections.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rohini Walker is a writer, editor and nature enthusiast. She lives in Joshua Tree, CA and is the co-founder of Luna Arcana, a desert-focused arts & literary print publication.
This article was originally published in support of Tending Nature, a KCET program exploring how traditional practices can inspire a new generation to find a balance between humans and nature.
Chanting Yoga combines two of the ancient processes of yoga – meditation (dyana) and repetition of mantras by concentrating on sound vibration.
Chanting Yoga offers a practical solution to the pressures of our time. According to the vedic calendar, we are now in the age of Kali which has also been called the Machine age or the Iron age. It is a time when it is practically impossible to practice traditional meditation because we are constantly exposed to noise – traffic, mobile phones, music – which has become an integral part of our existence. The nature of the mind is to be restless and this makes it extremely hard to concentrate on what we are doing let alone sit in tranquil meditation. Plus the pace of life makes it hard to find any time for our self.
Chanting yoga is perfectly suited to this modern time of stressful and busy lifestyles:
• You can chant anywhere and anytime • You can chant alone or in a group • You can chant at work, while traveling or at home • You don’t have to wear anything special • You don’t have to sit in a particular position • You don’t have to carry out any gymnastics
Chanting Yoga is a sublime and simple process by which one can attain peace of mind, bliss and everlasting happiness. From the vedic age came the idea of meditating with a mantra – a word or sound repeated to aid concentration. “Man” is mind and “tra” is to liberate. Therefore chanting of mantras frees the mind from entanglements.
Chanting yoga is based on the concepts of self-regulation, relaxation, and holism. If one wishes, these concepts can be extended metaphorically to create a philosophy of living, encompassing diet, health, lifestyle and relationships with others and the world.
The benefits of Chanting Yoga
Success without stress • Reduced stress • Increased focus and concentration • Enhanced creative intelligence • Higher productivity
Better health • Reduced depression and anxiety • Increased physical health • Longevity in elderly
Part of a philosophy of living
• Diet: determining ones diet based on ones physiology and season, promoting optimal nourishment and balanced diet. • Health: physical fitness and good health through prevention – learning to prevent ill health through balanced daily and seasonal routines, proper diet, and higher states of consciousness. • Lifestyle: relaxation and leading a life which is in harmony with law of nature by successfully controlling the expression of the “self”. • Relationships: the deeper goal of yoga sifts out the unreal from the real thus enhancing relationships and family life.
How will Chanting Yoga help you?
A study on meditation in the workplace showed that meditation: • Reorganizes your energy and vital force. • Heightens resistance to common diseases (viral infections). • Pranayam and meditation is known to boost your immune system. • Managing negative emotions/feelings means an individual can achieve success at a higher level and an organization can perform closer to peak efficiency. The bottom line is increased job satisfaction and bigger profits. • Meditation has been known to be effective in reversing heart disease, dealing with negative emotions, reducing stress, lowering blood pressure, diminishing anxiety, stopping smoking, weight loss, eating disorders, addictions, boosting the immune system, and improving sports performance. • Helps to gain control of your emotions and mind. • Regularity and punctuality. • Better understanding in family and social life. • Increases memory. • Enhances Virtues like straight forwardness, generosity, honesty and productivity. • Awakening our original consciousness. • Experiencing great peace and supreme knowledge. • Strengthen and recondition your entire body. • Regain youthful flexibility in spine and limbs. • Asanas (physical postures) have shown to improve the flexibility of the spine and help in the mobility of the joints. • Redistribute weight- With the practice of asanas and meditation one can achieve weight loss to a greater degree in a short span of time. Weight can be reduced faster then most diets.
Please read other articles regarding our practices here, here, here, and sign up for our next fabulous CY Retreat here!
For many, the concept of food combining—the idea that some foods digest well together while others do not—is entirely new, and somewhat foreign. But according to Ayurveda, it is an essential part of understanding how to eat properly, just as discovering one’s constitution and state of imbalance is important for one’s Ayurvedic self-discovery. Careful food combining can dramatically improve the quality of digestion, support the body in receiving a deeper level of nourishment, and positively impact our overall health.
However, most people in the modern world are accustomed to eating a number of foods that do not usually digest well together (like fruit with nuts, or beans with cheese). So why does it matter? The Ayurvedic perspective is that each food has a distinct combination of tastes and energies—and a corresponding effect on both the digestive system and on the body as a whole. Combining foods with radically different energetics can overwhelm the digestive fire (agni) and can cause indigestion, fermentation, gas, bloating, and the creation of toxins.1 This is why proper food combining is so important. Of course, certain combinations disturb the digestive tract more than others—an important consideration if this practice is entirely new to you. Regardless of your particular habits or symptoms, paying attention to how you combine foods can provide a valuable opportunity for insight, healing, and improved health. Remember, food combining is not about imposing black and white rules. It is one among many powerful Ayurvedic tools for improving digestive health and overall wellness.
A Balanced Approach to Food Combining
It is usually best to embrace the idea of food combining slowly and gently, allowing plenty of time to make the necessary adaptations. Some of the recommended adjustments are relatively simple; others can require a major recalibration in our habits, or be met with resistance. Often, simply developing an awareness of the improper food combinations that you eat somewhat regularly is a great place to start. Notice which foods you combine that may be difficult to digest together, and how often you indulge in them. Become aware of how you feel afterward. Do these choices affect your energy level, your digestion, your elimination, the coating on your tongue? Are particular combinations more noticeably influential than others? These are all important pieces of information. They can confirm the importance of proper food combining and can help each of us to identify the food combinations that are the most disruptive to our systems.
When you are feeling motivated and decide that you are ready to start adapting your diet to accommodate more supportive food combinations, consider tackling just one change at a time. Perhaps you’ll start by eating fruits alone, rather than in combination with other foods. Over time, you can gradually progress toward the ideal. While it would certainly be nice to avoid improper food combinations altogether, reducing their frequency can also be incredibly beneficial. If you do find that some specific food combinations are more problematic for you or your loved ones than others, focus your efforts on changing just those in the beginning. The most important first step is to become aware of your needs and your habits; from there, you can evolve an approach to food combining that works for you.
Combinations to Reduce or Avoid
The following list highlights incompatible foods and offers suggestions for more appropriate combinations. It is meant to be a helpful guide, not an exhaustive list. In fact, you may be aware of other combinations that do not work for your body. Honor those instincts. Because this resource is meant to help you determine optimal combinations at a glance, there is some repetition. Combinations listed in all caps are particularly challenging.
Compatible and Incompatible Foods: A List
Yes, some of these are staple combinations in many households. Pizza and a number of other beloved Italian dishes combine nightshades with cheese. And who among us hasn’t enjoyed beans with cheese at some time or another? Then there’s the fruit and yogurt taboo… So much for about 80% of all available store-bought varieties of yogurt; next time you indulge in a fruit-flavored yogurt, pay attention to how your digestion feels afterwards.In addition, there are some specific preparations that are challenging when combined with particular foods.
Supportive Food Combinations in Ayurveda All of these rules can feel overwhelming, even irritatingly complicated. But, the rationale behind proper food combining really does make sense. Ultimately, combining mismatched foods generates ama , a toxic substance that is often at the root of imbalance and disease.2 But, for those of you who would like to understand a little more about HOW and WHY these food combinations tax our bodies, here are a few specific examples:
Bananas and Milk
Though commonly eaten together, bananas and milk are challenging to digest together because their qualities are so different. Bananas are heating while milk is cooling. That alone is problematic. Further, bananas become sour as they break down. So now our digestive fire has to process a sour substance and milk at the same time. Ever added a squeeze of lemon to milk? Or maybe you’ve poured a little milk into a tangy, fruity tea… only to watch it curdle instantly? What happens to these mismatched foods in the digestive tract is not much different. When bananas and milk are eaten together, their opposing qualities tend to smother the digestive fire and can disrupt the balance of intestinal flora, which results in the creation of toxins. This combination also frequently causes congestion, colds, coughs, allergies, hives, and rashes.2 A similar situation arises when we combine any sour fruit with milk.3
Eating Fruits Alone
The reason fruits are best enjoyed on their own is that fruit is usually somewhat acidic, fairly simple to digest, and often digests quite quickly. When fruits are eaten with other foods, there is usually a significant discrepancy between the amount of time required to properly digest the fruit versus the more complex food. Inhibited by the more complex food, the fruit tends to move through the digestive tract too slowly and can cause fermentation, gas, and bloating. In addition, the combination typically introduces a number of conflicting qualities into the digestive tract all at once, which has the potential to overwhelm or stifle the digestive fire.
Nightshades and Cheese
This combination is simply too taxing for the digestive fire. A nightshade is a common name for a member of the plant family Solanaceae, which includes potatoes, bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, cayenne peppers, paprika, tobacco, henbane, belladonna, datura, and over 2,500 other plants. Nightshades contain alkaloids, primarily as a means of defense against being damaged by insects. The alkaloids can be anywhere from mildly to fatally toxic to humans. As a result, diverse cultures around the world have long held an intriguing relationship with the nightshade family. Some have been used to make poisons, some contain incredibly addictive compounds such as nicotine, some are mind altering, and others create an incredible sensation of heat in the mouth.4 The bottom line is that nightshades contain a complex array of compounds that, once ingested, lead to a potentially dramatic cascade of chemical reactions in the body. Ayurvedically speaking, all nightshades are believed to be somewhat difficult to digest and to have the capacity to disturb the doshas. When we mix these inherently challenging nightshades with cheese—which is heavy, oily, and also difficult to digest—we can quickly overtax the digestive fire.
Beans and Cheese
Beans and cheese are similar in that they both tend to be heavy and are often difficult to digest. In order to break down properly, they both require a good deal of digestive strength. But, the similarities end there. Beans tend to taste mostly astringent and sweet, can be either heating or cooling (depending on the type of bean), and usually have a pungent post-digestive effect. Cheese, on the other hand, tastes predominantly sour, is almost always heating, and usually has a sour post-digestive effect. The post-digestive effect of different foods occurs once that food has moved into the colon; it affects the urine, feces, sweat and tissues—sometimes even at the cellular level. Two foods with distinct post-digestive effects are typically quite different from one another. This is the case with beans and cheese; when they are eaten together, they tend to overwhelm and confuse the digestive fire. Meanwhile, their combined heaviness makes them even more difficult to process, often resulting in poor digestion and the accumulation of ama.
Ease Into It
Embracing the wisdom of food combining slowly helps us to cultivate a refined awareness around how our dietary choices affect us. This heightened sensitivity can be an invaluable asset, regardless of how quickly we are able to replace improper food combinations with more supportive ones. Be gentle with yourself, progressing at a pace that works for you. You might find it helpful, on occasion, to take a moment to reflect on how your digestion and your overall sense of wellness have changed over time. Proper food combining tends to awaken the body’s innate intelligence, so for most, embracing good food combining habits gets easier with time and practice.
Much of the information contained in this article came from Dr. Vasant and Usha Lad’s cookbook: Ayurvedic Cooking for Self-Healing. Our deepest gratitude to them both for sharing an enlightened understanding of how to eat Ayurvedically.
RECOMMENDED An Ayurvedic Approach to Losing Weight
MORE FOR YOU The Importance of Healthy Digestion The concept of agni, the Sanskrit word for “fire,” is rather essential to the Ayurvedic tradition. Ayurveda views agni as the very source of life. It is said that a man is as old as his agni and that when agni is extinguished, we die. Perhaps even more significantly, Ayurveda teaches us that impaired agni is at the root of every imbalance and disease. So the importance of agni in Ayurveda simply cannot be understated.
Geopathic Stress (GS) is the phenomena whereby subterranean running water and Earth Grids (Curry/Hartman) can negatively influence the health of nearby inhabitants.
Earth Acupuncture and consultation regarding placements of sitting or sleeping areas form just part of my survey, the result of which can aid in the dispersing of GS and the subsequent relief from illness.
Geopathic stress survey includes: Geopathic stress & dowsing
Water lines & grids crossing – visual
Non-physical phenomena
Hartman Grid
Curry & other grids
Feng-shui & Vastu
Case history & Predecessor debris
Remedial measures
References
A Geopathic stress consultation includes:
1. Assessment of local Geopathic stress. This entails dowsing for polluted underground streams and energetic grids in and around the house using the Von Pohl scale 0-16. Negative influences can then be dissipated with Earth Acupuncture.
2. Energetic assessment for elementals, spirits and other non-physical energies. The environment can then be carefully harmonised for natural healthy human co-habitation.3. Suggestions for the alteration of the environment utilising remedies from Feng-Shui/Vastu and Yoga
Object 1: Various effects of underground water veins as illustrated by Dr. Joseph Kopp
Geopathic stress & dowsing
The term Geopathic Stress is used to describe negative energies, also known as ‘harmful earth rays’, which emanate from the earth and cause discomfort and ill health to those living above.(1-4)
Earth energies can be bad, good or neutral. The word ‘geopathic’ is derived from the Greek words, ‘Ge’ meaning ‘the Earth’, and ‘pathos’ meaning ‘disease’ or ‘suffering’, so literally ‘suffering of the Earth’.
The surface of the earth is woven with a pattern of etheric threads identical in energy and importance to the acupuncture meridians of the human body.
These are responsible for the health and growth of the natural kingdoms of the landscape, and any interruption to their strength and harmonious flow has subtle but profound effects upon the health of the local natural life. (5,6)
The resulting etheric disharmony manifests as a lowered quality of the local natural life forces, often through the medium of what have been known in European geomancy as ‘Black Streams’. These are local capillary meridians of energy and information field flowing with underground water veins that have become toxic, whose yin-yang balance have been distorted on the side of excessive yin, i.e. stagnation. (7-9)
This is often a result of local landscape trauma along their path, maybe even be some miles away. Ascendance of degenerative over generative and regenerative influences on humans and animals occurs in places lying directly over such streams. (10-14)These bad streams are known in the Feng Shui tradition as channels of underground ‘Sha’, toxic energy. (15-18)
Just as local geology determines the local soil and vegetation, and therefore the whole natural ecology of an area, so it also affects human consciousness. (19-21)
Underground water streams, even when not ‘black’ or ‘Sha-bearing’, and geological faults are known to have an effect on the geomagnetic, ionising radiation, and etheric fields around them. (22-24)
As the Earth rotates on its axis, it functions as an electro-magnet generating electrical currents in the molten metals found within its core, and an electromagnetic field on the surface which oscillates at an average frequency of 7.83 Hz, and as German scientist Hans Burger – who had developed first EEG machine – discovered that this frequency is almost identical to the range of human Alpha brainwaves. (25)
Life on earth has evolved with this background magnetic field, and creatures are accustomed to living within its presence and are able to cope with the slight fluctuations over time caused by electrical storms and the sun’s activity.
German physicist W.O. Schumann identified and published detailed explanation of this frequency in 1952 and it has become known as Schumann Resonance (7.83 Hz). (26,27)
Geopathic stress (GS) represents a distortion of this natural frequency (Schumann Resonance) by alteration of electromagnetic fields created by streams of water flowing underground, geological fault lines, underground caverns, and certain mineral deposits (notably coal, oil, and iron). For example, where natural Earth’s vibration of 7.83 Hz crosses a water vein 200 – 500 feet below ground, Geopathic ‘stress lines’ vibrating at up to 250 Hz can be created. (28-30)
Any distortion of natural Schumann waves creates a stress with the potential to weaken the immune system of any mammal living above the distortion, leading to greater susceptibility to viruses, bacteria, parasites, environmental pollution, degenerative disease, and a wide range of health problems. (31,32)
Man-made disturbances to the earth’s surface can give rise to further distortions. Examples include canal, railway and road cuttings and embankments, bridges, tunnels, quarries, mines and underground bunkers, sewers, drains, buried utility pipes and wires, dockyard pilings, metal fence posts and road-sign poles; building foundations, particularly taller buildings with steel pilings, ground-levelling and excavations; as well as artificially created electromagnetic fields from overhead or underground cables and electricity-generating stations and sub-stations. (33-35)
Many dowsers use a 0 – 16 scale known as the Von Pohl scale (after its originator) to measure the strength of geopathic stress, in which 0 represents the healthy 7.83 Schumann frequency, and 16 an extremely strong locus corresponding to 250 Hz. (36,37)
For example, people who are sleeping on a GS locus of 9 or more (perhaps a combined score from the presence of several geopathic features) are likely to develop cancer (38,39)
Clients will often report, that in a certain room, things are constantly getting broken or arguments starting, this is clear evidence of Geopathic stress. A much lower scale perhaps but still disruptive. Other signs of lower scale Geopathic stress include irritation, anxiety depression and restless sleep. (40-43)
It is of great importance to dowse the area where one sleeps for water lines which could be energetically polluted (Sha streams), if discovered it is vital to clean the water stream but ultimately it is best to move the bed completely. (44,45)
Object 2: Examples of grid crossing with water lines and resulting illnesses
Object 3: Grids crossing with underground water lines – Scott-Morley A., JAM, 1985
This complex example shows an extreme possibility of geopathic stress. The bed is situated over a negative intersection of the Curry Grid which happens to coincide with a negative intersection of the Hartmann Net. Below the bedroom are two underground streams which cross. Thus, the bed is over an extremely yin geopathic area. Over a period of time the occupant would have a high probability of developing cancer (69)
Non-physical phenomena
Astral projection is easier and stronger along the paths of ley-lines. Vampirism is associated with the discharging energy fields and poltergeist phenomena and other materialisations with the charging field zones. Any geomagnetic disturbance is mirrored on every plane. (46,47)
Hauntings of earth-bound human ghosts and other entities, including poltergeist activity are invariably tied to negative earth energies. The relationship between haunted houses and ley-line crossings is well known. (48,49)
Ghost, spirit release and exorcism performed without attention to cleaning up the local earth energies can sometimes result in a new crop in the next day. (50,51)
Dislocated nature spirits and disturbed landscape entities can also hold trauma to the earth’s etheric web within the landscape, and are often the bearers of emotion (apathy, grief, fear, anger, etc.) in the atmosphere of a place (52-54)
The ancient eastern sciences of Feng-Shui and Vastu as well as western Druidic and Shamanic cultures speak of the energetic dis-integration of the levels of spirit, either after death or during heightened times of shock, abuse or unusual spiritual or physical emergencies. There is strong evidence drawn from a variety of case studies that demonstrate a relationship between such breakdowns in the layers of intrinsic life force and serious health abnormalities and disease. (55-58)
Obsessive behaviour, extreme emotion, trauma and addiction are often attributed to some form of energetic debris that can attach to such corresponding vibrations. This debris can often be related to trauma connected to the land, properties or vibrations from the surrounding area. (59,60)
A practitioner of Geomancy will teach the skills whereby a client can positively transform their local environment by effectively managing the energetic vibration. (61,62)
1. THE HARTMAN GRID
This was described by Dr Ernst Hartmann in the 1960’s. The network appears as a structure of radiations rising vertically from the ground like invisible radioactive walls. From north to south they are 25cm. wide and encountered at constant intervals of 2m., while from east to west they are 15cm. wide and the distance apart varies according to latitude from 1.2m. in Reykjavik, Iceland (63.36°N) to 2.06m. In Ried, Switzerland (40.50°N). (63)The north – south rays are Yin and linked to humidity, cramps and all forms of rheumatism. The east – west rays are Yang and linked to inflammations.Where ever two rays cross – a “Hartmann Knot”, a geo-pathogenic point is found.
The intensity of these lines increases three to four-fold at night when there are less free ions, just as radio waves are received better at night. Twenty-four hours before the arrival of an atmospheric low pressure zone, a 100% increase of gamma rays is found (up to 300% on volcanic soil) on the knots.
Twelve hours before an earthquake the thickness of the ray triples: beside the central ray appear two other weaker rays to left and right which are not normally detectable. At this time dogs howl, birds flutter madly in their cages, some cats hide under the quilt, and some people feel sick or need to sleep. During an earthquake the Hartmann network becomes twisted and distorted, but is restored half an hour later to symmetry.
Dr Hartmann suggested that both Curry and Hartmann lines are earthing grids for cosmic rays that can be distorted by other energies such as those coming from a geological fault. This network penetrates everywhere in dwellings or on open ground, but Blanche Merz has found the grid to be pushed outside certain sacred structures such as the Egyptian pyramids and temples and Himalayan Buddhist stupas, creating a dense protective wall composed of up to seven rays around the perimeter, and a ray-free interior. (66)
Object 4: Example of Hartmann grid (Between these geometric lines lies a neutral zone)
Curry Grid
This grid, described by Wittman and Curry in the 1970’s, has much in common with the Hartmann grid, but is oriented 45° from north. The south-west to north-east grid lines repeat every 2.36m, and the south-east to north-west lines every 2.7m. The lines are approximately 75cm. wide, with medically significant double negative lines repeating every 50m. (67)The double negative crossings are associated with sleep disturbances, depression and other nervous reactions, inflammations and rheumatic diseases; and also with the sites of stocks and pillories, and hellebore plants. Double positive crossings encourage enhanced cell enlargement and proliferation, even to the point of cancerous growth. (68)
Other grids
There are a series of other such grids detectable by dowsing, which can display beneficial as well as deleterious crossing points. The experience of the Fountain Groups (groups directing spiritual healing into the etheric landscape at the local or borough scale) has been that the dominant grids related to human consciousness can change with respect to strength, scale and conformation over time.
Object 5: Example of Curry grid (Dr. G. Schneck, BSD Journal, June 1995)
Vastu and Feng Shui
The ‘Vastu Purusha’ or the ‘Embodiment of energetic vibration’ is what is sometimes referred to in the west as the good vibes or nice spirit of a house or home. If the embodiment is good or the energy is rightly placed, then it can contribute to the health and well-being of the inhabitants. (70,71)
If clutter is accumulating around the ‘finance area’ of one’s room or house it will indicate a constant financial struggle to the trained eye of the Practitioner.Feng-Shui also places great emphasis on the placement of entrances, seating areas, bedrooms and empty spaces. Decorations, clutter and the arrangements of electrical equipment for instance can also impact on energies and how they are locked in time and space. All of these factors are crucial to the health of those residing in these spaces. (72,73)
It would be expected that after a treatment for illness or a health consultation, that a client would see some improvement in condition, perhaps three steps forward. Very often though once the client returns to his everyday or home environment there follows an unfortunate two steps backward and this is because of the very close co-relationship between the local Earth Pathology, the clients house and the very health of that client. (74)
According to Feng-Shui – houses play an important role in our lives, they have function, they have purpose and like a library serves study and a department store serves shopping, a house will serve the security and comfort of home life.
The location, surroundings, layout and contents of this nest can have a profound influence on the health wealth and happiness of its residents, a truth that is most unfortunately lost to the west. The microcosm of one’s house can reflect into the macrocosm of one’s world. (75,76)
Case history
A colleague, Vastu Practitioner and Geomancer lived in cul-de-sac for 15 years, they noticed that one particular house down the road was never occupied for long and was regularly resold.
From the local community, it was discovered that the house always attracted couples but that the couples would split or divorce after living together there. In the space of 15 years 5 couples had split or divorced, some within months of arrival.To make the connection between these events and the positioning and layout of the house may come as a surprise to the layman but not at all to the trained eye of those qualified in Feng Shui, Vastu or Shamanic Geomancy. (77)
Further Examples of Geopathic disharmony and predecessor debris:
– part of property built at different time
– original aim of the land not being honoured
– energetic debris from previous owner
– karmic debt of land or owners
– disharmony or curses from neighbours or others
– inappropriate locations of entrances or toilets or other architectural faults
Remedial Measures
Earth acupuncture is one of the most essential tools that can be used in curing local grids and polluted streams. However, the discharging of pollution in difficult cross-lines and grids through placement of permanent objects, is another useful means. (78,79)
The building in of features incorporating the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and wood (Flowers and plants, candle, incense, water feature, wind chimes, sound features, colour changes etc) can go a long way to co-create local balance. This is standard practice in Feng Shui. (80)
Wood and plastic will conduct energy differently; photographs of nature and family carry energetic potency; mirrors can be conflicting or suitable depending on placement; statues, emblems or totems of war or dead animals as highly unsuitable in most environments; water features stimulate growth in one place and impairment in other. These are all very important considerations.
It is a useful practice to identify the various sectors of the house, those that relate to relationship, business or communication for instance. Then to maintain a deep awareness of their significance and to consciously alter the areas appropriately, the result being that intentionally and subconsciously, change can begin to occur in the energies of the household, a type of self-induced hypnosis in relation to the living environment. (81-84)Ancient practices in the East often used Yantras and Mantras.
A Yantra is a geometrical structure which holds a certain vibration. It is sacred sound incarnated into an image or form; it has the potency to affect the vibration of the environment in which it is placed.
Mantras are the chanting and invoking of sacred sound vibration. One can set up an area in the home or an altar, for meditation or connection with the divine. (85,86)Techniques for raising one’s vibration to a level higher than that of the known pathologies, is an esoteric practice that is one of the best-known secrets in many traditions of yoga and tantra.
Historically, numerous schools of alchemy famed for creating gold were actually in the business of transforming ego into spirit to manifest a real and lasting purity of heart. (87-89)For a long time, the so-called progress of technology and development has left mankind out of touch with nature, the land around us, even our own bodies and the resulting disharmony of spirit has led to the widespread development of poor health and disease.
Not a moment too soon, some of this ancient knowledge is being re-discovered, sound vibration can actually transform life, illness and everything we know, an example being bio-resonance and frequency generating impulses that are shattering cancer. (90-96)
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Written by Andre Motuz (BScHons, LicAc, MBAcC) is a professional Geopathic Stress surveyor and Earth Acupuncture practitioner with clients in London, throughout the UK, Europe and across the globe.
“The numerical coincidences (necessary for an anthropic universe) could be regarded as evidence of design. The delicate fine tuning in the values of the constants, necessary so that the various different branches of physics can dovetail so felicitously, might be attributed to God. It is hard to resist the the impression that present structure of the universe, apparently so sensitive to minor alterations in the numbers, has been rather carefully thought out.”
Paul Davies PhD, physicist
3D illustration of neurons (brain cells) and nerve synapses in the human brain, the most complicated organ of the human body. The human brain consists of an average of 100 billion neurons and the human body consists of about 75 trillion cells. The complexity and the organizational level of the human body and brain are indescribable. But even the structure of the smallest atom, the hydrogen atom, appears to have a complexity and a structured balance that cannot be comprehended. From the smallest sub-atomic particle, up to the living organisms and clusters of Milky Way systems, the universe is permeated with an indescribable level of organised complexity
The first atheistic proposition: complexity is the result of chance and chaos
Most committed and outspoken atheists come from the world of science and philosophy. Dawkins and Baggini for instance, are considered to be authoritative academics. They believe in the scientific method and they often consciously position themselves as being completely opposite religion— which they call ‘superstition’ — to show that they represent reason. They suggest that religion belongs to the realm of emotions and feelings, where people can vent the thought that they ‘feel that there has to be something more’. They are firmly convinced that there is no, and that there cannot be any rational or scientific foundation for the proposition that the universe arises from and is governed by an intelligent power.
Please continue reading or download your free PDF here.
Join us near the costal ‘historical monument’ town of Paraty, Rio de Janeiro State ~ Brazil
The Eco-Village and the Hotel Dharma Shala are in the mountainous jungle on the coast of Rio.
The Eco-Village has: Many waterfalls in the mountains, near gorgeous preserved beaches; vegetable gardens, cows, exotic tropical birds, wild bananas, tropical fruit trees, fresh ‘ahimsa milk’ and a beautiful temple.
View from the Eco-Village
The Retreat offers: Vegetarian and Vegan organic meals Daily hikes to different waterfalls Chanting & Asana Yoga classes Ayurvedic teachings Vegetarian & Vegan Cooking classes Kirtan (spiritual music sessions) ‘Cinema and the Psyche’ workshop
Massages, one to one therapy with the Ayurveda, Natural Medicine Doctors and Counselors, day or half-day visits to the historic town and preserved beaches nearby can be arranged but are not included.
We will also have music and other performances during a bonfire on the last night.
HOSTING AND GIVING SEMINARS
ARADHANA DEVI DASI: Chanting Yoga ~ Mantra Meditation MATTHEW JOSEPH MORREALE: Cinema and the Psyche workshop. ‘Cinema and the Psyche’ is an exploring into the nature of cinema, the psyche and how they interrelate. KIRTAN: (spiritual music) bhajan leaders from Brazil
Ana Lucia Alves (Aradhana dd) and Matt Morreale
ROOMS ~ SEMINARS ~ PRICES Seven Days and Six Nights
For Prices, Packages and the booking form to secure your place, please contact us.
Many beautiful and spacious rooms
Package prices include all seminars and workshops, its certificates and all meals. Not included: Flights and pickup /drop off at the Rio de Janeiro International Airport. Pick-ups with our Van (12 persons) cost $60 each way.
Is ‘Chanting Yoga’ a science? Can we trace the origin of chanting? Do we need to understand what we are chanting? Can the power of sound alter cellular and molecular structure – the DNA encoding etc.? I don’t know how to sing or chant, does it really matter? How much it will cost me?
Facts about ‘Chanting Yoga’
Thoughts are silent sounds.
Chanting Reduces Anxiety and Depression by balancing the nervous system.
Traditional Yoga, Ayurveda, and Sanskrit sources have demonstrated millennia ago the multidimensional effects of chanting yoga.
We become Compassionate to all living beings.
The effects of chanting boosts the immune system and can be rationally explained.
Chanting and heart healt
There are a number of different “sciences” behind chanting. Some of these are the “hard” sciences such as physics and psycho-acoustics. In order to sustain its findings, such sciences require a deep rational thinking, which is just a small aspect of the vast intelligence. In contrast, the Spiritual sciences such as the different yogic practices that work with sound, are evaluated with a much subtler aspect of the intelligence. Much has being written about this since yoga in its various modalities has moved to the west.
Recently, many doctors and scientist are becoming interested in the Chanting yoga phenomena. The following are just a few of the all increasing health professionals convinced of their therapeutic effects:
Dr. Herbert Benson states that chanting helps induce a “relaxation” response which causes reduction in heartbeat, brain waves and respiration.
Dr. David Shananoff-Khalsa believes that mantric recitation enables the tongue to stimulate the acupuncture meridians inside the roof of the mouth.
Dr. Ranjie Singe found that the chanting of specific mantras caused the release of hormone melatonin, and is investigating the importance of this in the healing process. So far, he has found that there are many benefits including shrinkage of tumors and enhanced sleep.
Can we trace the origin of chanting?
I have found that virtually every culture and tradition includes chanting and singing in their spiritual and health practices. Recitation of prayers is found worldwide and has been with us since the dawn of humankind. We find this common pattern in Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Islamic and many other cultures. Whether it is a shamanic or pagan tradition, you will have some aspect of chanting that could be considered Sacred chanting in their rituals and prayers. Sometimes these chants are used to invoke Divine entities. Other times they are used for healing or to ask for some boon such as bringing rain. In my experience, chanting is most commonly used to bring the gross fulfillment of desires.
Do we need to understand what we are chanting?
Anyone who has cultivated the habit of chanting will realize that chanting gives a pleasure that transcends the senses and elevates one beyond the boundaries of time and space. Chanting delivers us from our sense of dependency on temporal enjoyments which are always fleeting and limited. Chanting will move one past this unfulfilling existence to one’s true nature and destination regardless of whether one knows the meaning of the chant or not. I once heard it said: “as music has charms to soothe a savage beast, so the spiritual sound of chanting soothes the restless mind.”
Can the power of sound alter cellular and molecular structure- the DNA encoding etc.?
A great deal of research has been done recently into the power of sound. As a result of this research, it was proven beyond a doubt that sound can alter molecular and cellular structure.
In the 1960’s, a medical doctor named Hans Jenny conducted experiments which showed that sound was able to actually create form in various substances such as sand, plastics, liquids, and water. He would place these substances on a steel plate and then using a crystal oscillator, vibrate these plates with sound. Quite astonishingly, the various substances took on the most organic looking shapes—they looked like microscopic organisms or underwater life. He called this work Cymatics.
A Japanese scientist, Masuru Emoto, demonstrated that water molecules are actually affected by sound and our intention. Intention concerns our thoughts and feelings. Intention is the energy behind the sounds that we create. Mr. Emoto found that clean water looked like a snowflake, very geometric. Polluted water looks like mud. Mr. Emoto has taken photographs of polluted water, which at first look like mud. After a priest has chanted over this water, new photographs were taken again. This time, the water looks like a snowflake, the sound and intentionality has restored it to its natural harmonious shape.
The work of Fabian Maman, a French acupuncturist and sound healer, has taken Kirlian photographs of hemoglobin blood cells that were exposed to different sounds. In particular, he took photographs of blood cells exposed to an ascending chromatic scale created on a xylophone. Each note effected the cell differently, creating a different shape and different Kirlian color.
The information above represents a small sample of the work that has been done to demonstrate that cellular structure and energy are effected by sound.
I don’t know how to sing or chant, does it really matter?
The good news is that one does not need to be a good singer or even know anything about music. Chanting is not about singing in the usual sense. It is not about memorizing complex lyrics. It works whether it is done alone or in a powerful group kirtan. It works whether it is done softly or in full voice, as long it is from the heart and with the belly. Although for enhanced effect, one can add eye-focus and a gentle hand mudra, and eventually you may wish to go to a singing classes, these simple steps can easily be included later. The key is to simply begin chanting.
How much it will cost me?
Here is more good news, chanting is absolutely free. All one need do is try and enjoy. It won’t work if you don’t do it! All that is needed is some time and an open heart. The benefits of chanting cannot be established through reasoning and intellect. It can only be experienced through devotion, faith and constant repetition of the chanting.
Facts about chanting Yoga: “Thoughts are silent sounds”.
More and more people are aware that our thoughts reflect and affect our mood, our attitude and our general health. Our thoughts are silent sounds–a type of vibration. The more refined our thoughts, the more elevated our vibration.
The entire universe was built on sound (Word), which is nothing but vibration. By vibrating a certain combination of sounds, we tune in to different levels of our intelligence, specifically, consciousness. Thus, chanting mantras is a conscious method of controlling our moods, and in turn, our frequency and resultant all-around radiance, much like changing the channel on the television.
Chanting Reduces Anxiety and Depression by balancing the nervous system
By combining sound, breath and rhythm, Chanting Yoga channels the flow of energy through the mind-body circuit, adjusting the chemical composition of our internal states and regulating brain-hemisphere imbalances, contributing to a natural abatement of fear and despair–emotions that underlie both of these common afflictions. By balancing the nervous system, chanting regulates the chronic stress and tension that is the norm for many people in today’s hyper-stimulated lifestyle. By balancing the endocrine system, chanting normalizes hormone production, which balances our moods and overall sense of well-being.
Traditional Yoga, Ayurveda, and Sanskrit sources have demonstrated millennia ago the multidimensional effects of chanting:
During the practice of Chanting Yoga, the breathing (prana) cycle is altered to a greater or lesser extent depending upon the number of syllables and consonants of the particular mantra. Through this process, one is able to influence the Subdoshas of Vata namely prana, udana, samana, vyana and apana. This in turn, will bring balance to oxygen-blood ratios, thereby improving the following: a) nutrients absorption; b) optimum function of organs of actions; c) general circulation including the blood flow, the lymphatic system and nerve impulses, and elimination via excretory organs.
Sound (akash), Breath (prana), and Matra (rhythm) combined with Dhyana (meditation) directs harmoniously the flow of energy (prana or Chi) through the (shrotas) body channels. This will adjust and balance Agni (metabolism) and homeostasis. As a result, the physiology known in Ayurveda as doshas (Vata), (Pitta) and (Kapha), the dhatus, and malas are functioning in harmony. Chanting helps one to deal with stressful factors and brings an overall sense of well-being and relaxation. This in turn, triggers a cascade of beneficial influences which aid our General Health (Swasta Vrita).
We become Compassionate to all living beings
Chanting transcendental mantras brings an understanding of ourselves as one and different from God (Sadhaka Pitta). It awakens our original nature and love within us. As George Harrison has said often in his Bhakti practice, this type of chanting is “a direct connection with God.” When our spiritual identity is awakened, we experience the unity and diversity of all life. Our capacity for compassion naturally grows, allowing our daily lives to be free of conditional mistakes such as blaming others, hate, jealousy, envy and pride. With the elimination of these negative concepts, all that remains is pure love.
The effects of chanting boost the immune system and can be rationally explained
Perhaps the key to rationally understand the power and effects of chanting on human physiology are the upper palate, the movement of the tip of the tongue and breath.
The Upper palate is at the base of the hypothalamus, which is the control center of the physical body. It regulates communication between the Doshas Vata and Pitta and its sub-doshas (the nervous system and the endocrine system). My own repetitive experience found that the hypothalamus controls the entire nervous system (Vata ).
The tongue taps certain points along the roof of the mouth, sending signals to the hypothalamus. These signals regulate the chemical activity streaming into all parts of the brain and body.
Breath adjusts all the rhythms of our body, such as the familiar circadian rhythms; but also the lesser known ultradian rhythms, which monitor the smaller-scale energy cycles that occur throughout the day. Due to our hectic life style our nervous systems are often overtaxed. These rhythms are thrown out of balance. However, through the art of chanting we begin to bring a state of balance. When breath and sound are working together, we realize the magnificence of Life and how God became sound. One will also realize also that words are only approaching the tip of even greater benefits!
Chanting and breath brings positive effects on the parasympathetic nervous system (the nervous system that tells us everything is ok). These effects are multiplied and the healing response is triggered, which translates into healing and stronger immunity.
Chanting and heart health
According to the Heart Math, chanting is known to promote general wellbeing, and it is great benefit for the cardiovascular system. One reason for this may be that singing demands a slower than normal respiration, which may in turn affect heart activity. Coupling of heart rate variability (HRV) to respiration is called Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). This coupling has a subjective, as well as a biologically soothing effect, and it is beneficial for cardiovascular function. RSA is seen to be more marked during slow-paced breathing and at lower respiration rates (0.1 Hz and below). In this study, we investigate how singing, which is a form of guided breathing, affects HRV and RSA.
Rhythm: Through repetition of the mantra, patterns of sound are inscribed onto the brain. The unconscious becomes the conscious. The automatic becomes the deliberate. The mindless becomes the heartfelt. The repetition frees us from our destination-fixation, that desire to rush to the end. The repetition is the whole point. Through repetition, the mantra washes over us, as the waves in the sea gradually get us wet.
Projection: When we chant from the navel point while articulating the mantra, we not only stimulate the upper palate, but we vibrate the central channel by which prana, or life force, flows. For millennia, yogis have referred to this as the shushumna. This dual process is said to move us into the realm of anahat, or unconditional love.
So far everything looks great, but how long will it take to achieve this promises?
Everybody is unique, so how long it takes will depend the degree of dedication and determination over a period of months and years. Although we experience glimpses of the above mentioned benefits almost the same day, this taste will encourage us to go deeper into the chanting Yoga. In the guidelines below, you will be given an idea of what can be accomplished in a certain period of time. This will help you to set realistic goals.
Reprogramming our habits
“It takes 40 days to break a habit; 90 days to gain the new habit;
120 days and you are the new habit; 1,000 days and you are Master of it.”
Chanting from minutes to hours will bring the following benefits:
3 minutes affects the electromagnetic field, the circulation and stability of the blood.
7 minutes begins to shift brain patterns, and the magnetic field surrounding the body increases in strength.
11 minutes begins to change the nervous and glandular systems.
22 minutes sees the three minds (i.e., the negative, positive and neutral minds) come into balance and begin to work together; the subconscious mind begins to clear.
31 minutes allows the glands, breath, and concentration to affect all the cells and rhythms of the body. Endocrine secretions are completely balanced as is the ethereal energy of the chakra (junction points of physical and spiritual centers).
62 minutes changes the gray matter in the brain. It stimulates the frontal lobe of the brain, as well as the pituitary and pineal glands. You work through the physical body, the emotions and mental states, stimulating higher, more subtle aspects of the self. The subconscious “shadow mind” and its psychological projections become integrated.
2 1/2 hours changes the psyche in its co-relation with the surrounding magnetic field so that the subconscious mind is held firmly in the new pattern by the surrounding field. You totally remake your psyche. These changes persist throughout the day and are reflected by positive changes in mood and behavior.
The philosophy of Acintya Bhedabeda Tattva embodies the quintessence of all systems of Indian philosophy. Indian philosophy, embodied in the Vedic literatures, is over 5000 years old and inspired the birth of the two great Eastern religions, Hinduism and Buddhism. It has also greatly influenced the western world, particularly over the last 200 years. Most systems of Indian philosophy propound the view that the universe is fundamentally one, part of and pervaded by the Supreme Being, from whom it has emanated. As such, they maintain that the universe is not the outcome of blind chance, but that it is the result of intelligent design and that it has meaning and purpose. Furthermore, according to most systems of Indian philosophy the material universe, in which we live, is only part of an infinite and spiritual universe. Both the material and spiritual universe are considered energies of God, the Supreme Spiritual Being. The spiritual universe is defined as God’s internal energy, and the material universe His external energy. All living beings in the material world are essentially spiritual, and part of His internal energy. Finally, according to most systems of Indian philosophy, God is defined as a transcendental Person, endowed with consciousness, attributes and form, and who stands at the center and source of his infinite energies and emanations.
At the cornerstone of this world view is the notion that God, and the universe emanating from Him, are essentially one and different. He is one, in that He is the origin of, and pervades all beings, and He is different, in that His energies have their own independent existence and identity. This independent existence and individual identity accounts for the world of many-ness and variegatedness.. The problem is, that the principles of oneness and many-ness contain a logical paradox, and appear to be mutually exclusive. On the bases of logic it is indeed hard to reconcile how one entity can be one and many at the same time. Within the different schools of Indian thought, philosophers and mystics have attempted to resolve this paradox by emphasizing one principle over the other, thereby reducing e.g. many-ness to a by product of oneness. Some schools of thought, taking a more extreme position, have even postulated that only oneness is real, and that the many-ness constitutes an illusion. Throughout the history of Indian philosophy this theme, and its implicit paradox, has been at the center of philosophical discussions.
Thereby the oneness and many-ness principles do not just confine themselves to the relationship between God and His creation. The principle extends to virtually all areas of philosophy and science, such as the relation between matter and consciousness, between qualities and substance, between particles and fields, between energy and matter, and the personal and the impersonal. Interestingly, therefore, it appears that the principle of oneness and many-ness, with its inherent paradox, extends to all areas of reality.
Within the history of western philosophy we also find the constant recurrence of the oneness versus many-ness theme, resulting in different schools of opposing thought. Thereby the parallels between Indian and western thinking are striking. Most notable is e.g. the discussion and debates that have flourished on the issue of realism and idealism, or the relation between matter and consciousness, during the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe.
The great 16th century Indian philosopher and mystic Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu formulated a new principle, shedding light on the paradox, and making explicit what was already acknowledged implicitly by many great Indian thinkers. Caitanya stated that the principles of oneness and difference are inherently inseparable, that they always exist simultaneously, and that their simultaneous existence lies at the core of all metaphysics. He furthermore stated that the simultaneous existence of oneness and many-ness is called Acintya in Sanskrit, which means “inconceivable”. Inconceivability implies that this aspect of reality is inconceivable to the human and finite mind, and transcends the principles of logic. The philosophy of Caitanya has been formulated in Sanskrit as “Acintya Bhedabheda Tattva”. Acintya means inconceivable, Bhedabheda means simultaneous oneness and many-ness, and Tattva means principle or truth.
The problem is, of course, that if we abandon and ignore the principles of logic, then we may be forced to accept any irrational worldview, and loose our ability to analyze and verify scientific and philosophical theories. For logic lies at the core of all philosophy and science. The principle of Caitanya however, makes a noticeable difference, in that Acintya Bhedabheda Tattva should not be considered ‘illogical’, but rather it should be considered ‘supralogical’. The difference is that while a supralogical principle may appear to defy the laws of logic, the principle itself can be perceived and verified by means of direct perception, and has an empirical foundation. As such the principle of Acintya Bhedabheda Tattva can be observed in many phenomenon and occurrences in this world.
A good example is the perception of a red rose. As mentioned before, the discussion on one-ness versus many-ness has extended itself to all aspects of philosophy and science. In the western tradition, two schools of thought emerged on the issue of the relation between substance and its qualities. One school, called the realists, founded by the Greek philosopher Plato, stated that qualities and substance are in fact two different realities. E.g. Plato postulated that there is such a thing as universal ‘redness’, that becomes superimposed along with other universal qualities, on a particular material substance, thereby creating a red rose. Plato therefore viewed qualities and substance as being different. Many centuries later another school of thought emerged, called the nominalists, that disagreed with Plato, and postulated that a quality can never be separated from its substance, and that quality and substance are in fact one and the same. This discussion is a very good example of the paradox inherent in the relation between a substance and its qualities. The fact is, that they are simultaneously one and different, and that while this may transcend, or defy, the laws of logic, our perception of the red rose confirms the principle.
Another example is the spatial perception of an object, say a coin. While the coin is one, it has many sides, an inside as well as an outside, an upside and down side. These different sides establish an element of many-ness within the object, that is simultaneously perceived as one object.
In modern physics the relation between particles and fields has been a subject of many discussions. Scientists have observed that a field, or wave, sometimes behaves like a continuum of energy (oneness), and other times behaves like a stream of finite particles (many-ness). The phenomena has in fact been named “wavicles” clearly establishing the simultaneous oneness and many-ness of these manifestations of energy. The discussion reflects the underlying principle of Acintya Bhedabheda Tattva. Following this theme, modern physics leans towards a worldview whereby the universe is seen as a unified field of energy, from which finite particles, in the shape of matter, emerge as a continuous process of creation. These finite particles can at any time revert back to their non-finite energetic state, which paints a picture of oneness (the field) and many-ness (particles) continually interchanging, and in fact simultaneously coexisting.
There are in fact many more examples that could be adduced to illustrate the principle of Acintya Bhedabheda Tattva, and that confirm the principle by means of direct perception. As such the principle is not illogical, but should be defined as ‘supra-logical’, transcending the limitations of the finite human mind.
Ultimately the philosophy of Acintya Bhedabheda Tattva explains the relationship between God and His creation, and more specifically, it also explains the relationship between God and living entities, such as ourselves. The philosophy of Acintya Bhedabheda Tattva states that this relationship too, is characterized by simultaneous oneness and difference. We are one with God in a qualitative sense, however we are different quantitatively. In quantity God is infinite and we are finite. It is therefore a mistake to assume, as some Indian schools of thought have advocated, that man is identical to God, and fundamentally one with Him in every respect. We are not God, merely small parts of God, with a limited degree of independence.
Acintya Bhedabheda Tattva also sheds light on the identity of God Himself. It maintains that while God is a transcendental Person, he is simultaneously impersonal as well. The relationship between the personal and impersonal too has been the subject of many philosophical arguments. While consciousness and form represent the personal aspect of God, infinity and all-pervasiveness represent the impersonal aspect, which attributes appear contradictory. Acintya Bhedabheda Tattva maintains that they both exist simultaneously, and that they complement each other. God is simultaneously full of form and formless, finite and infinite, personal and impersonal.
The philosophy of Acintya Bhedabheda Tattva, as expounded by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, therefore represents a revolutionary new paradigm in our ability to understand reality, and it in fact resolves many of the apparently irresolvable paradoxes that have dominated philosophy and metaphysics in the east and the west for thousands of years.
