Meditation
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Peace Tay and Kyle,
Glad to see the new avatar worked out, Tay. Dali's works are remarkable. They sometimes effect me on a level that is difficult to describe...a gut reaction that takes time to sort out at the conscious level. Maybe this will make sense to you somehow, but it's almost as if I "smell" the paintings without any involvement of the sense of smell. Or maybe I'm just at a complete loss of words to describe the sensation.Dali is the master of Surrealist Style of painting. The imagery of the paintings are the imagery of dreams and nightmares. Thats why we react to them as we would react to dreams and nightmares A sense of bewilderement and fascination and fear.
These images surfaces from the deep "unconscious" part of our self, that is why we find Dali's painting unsettling and fascinating. But the power of symbolism in Surrealist Art, I think is, its defining characteristic. The ants crawling on the melting clock, elephants on stilts and giraffes on fire, these things take you beyond the rational to realm of the imaginations, just like experts Meditators try to go beyond the rationality of everyday thought patterns so does Dali's paintings...
Regards,
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Peace be upon you Sytalls,
Very deep post! And I agree that my Free Minds family, without having met any of you personally, holds a very high place in my life. Your statements about how you felt as you were reading the posts for the first time is similar to when I read some articles on Submission.org. Scary yet liberating at the same time. I say scary because unlike you, I was unaware of this viewpoint, but it was all making sense (unfortunately I swallowed the 19 with it for a time).
Regarding salaat, I only see dawn and dusk, but certainly more than what is recommended cant hurt. wink
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Peace all
I lost track of this thread for a while.
LT, thanks for putting what I was trying to say about Dali (and surrealism) into the right words. While I understand something about art, it's not at the top of head...clearly! Whenever I go to an exhibit or visit a museum, I admit I have to brush up ahead of time. Even then, it is always better if I do a lot more listening than talking.
Idolfree, I thought I'd better say that I do agree with you about dawn and dusk being the only times mentioned in the Quran. Those are my times to listen to or recite certain suras as part of my salat, and has to do with the vibrational thing Tay and I were discussing on another thread.
The other times, I use for simple prayers and/or meditation...sort of "stop and remember" breaks in the day that I somehow knew were right for me.
There's a saying that Christians often use when talking about when they feel inspired to do something. They say, "God laid it on my heart." ) I think that's a pretty good description.
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Peace be upon you Sytalls,
I have no disagreement regarding the extra times you choose to stop and meditate. I am certainly in full agreement with the timings of dawn and dusk and that they are ceratinaly special times in the energies of the universe.
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Peace be upon you all,
I was doing research on "shaytaan and ca,e across the following verse which, in my opinion, furthers the position of meditation being related to "salaa"
(811) When the slumber/dozing/lethargy covers you, safety/security from Him, and He descends water on you from the sky to clean you with it and eliminate/wipe off the shaytani's filth , and to bond/encourage on your hearts/minds and affirm/strengthen with it the feet.
Meditation is the act of going into trance, a relaxed, peaceful state, in order to get wisdom(rain) from the God to remove the stain of shaytaan. The God says to seek help through patience and salaa. This is what prevents evil deeds.
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Salam Idolfree
now, i have a question. How do you know when you have achieved "stillness of the mind"
And, I learned somewhere that the process of CHEWING helps you think because when we chew, our brain thinks we are getting in more food, so it releases stored glucose into itself and the rest of the body. That means chewing gum can also be a form of meditation. -
Peace be upon you Pheonix1,
now, i have a question. How do you know when you have achieved "stillness of the mind"
I would say that is when you have no thought drifts entering your field of awareness. You are only conscious of BEING CONSCIOUSNESS ITSELF.
This is all I can say regarding that until I verify it for myself as I am in the process of doing. It takes time to get there, to build up good posture, breathing properly and stomach strength.
Regarding gum chewing, if it makes you think more, than it is not what you want to do to meditate, we want to stop thinking because thinking prevents us from listening.
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Peace be upon you,
I wanted to add, this is also why one must lock thier eyes on thier nose or at the point betwen the eyes because eye movement creates thoughts. We can see this in sleeping, when we dream, the eyes move following the thoughts/images, when we dont dream, the eyes are locked, and it is this time when we go back to the SOURCE to be rejuvinated.
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Salam Idolfree,
i know that breathing deeply helps us relax, but
dont chewing and breathing ultimately lead to the same thing, more energy to your brain?
Also, i'm having some trouble breathing with my lower abdomen. and my posture.
and again about chewing, it doesnt have to be food, it can be anything. And i read something about how to meditate while chewing(with steps and everything), but again, saying im a novice at meditation is an understatement, so help me out. Also, when i asked my friend at school if he meditated, he goes "no... i masturbate." D -
Peace be upon you Pheonix
i know that breathing deeply helps us relax, but
dont chewing and breathing ultimately lead to the same thing, more energy to your brain?
I dont know what chewing gum does, but according to what yuo stated before, you said it helps you to think. What we are trying to do is to remove all thoughts. So chewing gum would give us the opposite effect of what we are looking for. It is our own thoughts that block out the God's "voice".
Also, i'm having some trouble breathing with my lower abdomen. and my posture.
I can recommend the book "Tree of Life meditation" by Ra Un Nefer Amen
and again about chewing, it doesnt have to be food, it can be anything. And i read something about how to meditate while chewing(with steps and everything), but again, saying im a novice at meditation is an understatement, so help me out. Also, when i asked my friend at school if he meditated, he goes "no... i masturbate."
Well tell him he is wasting a lot of "life force" (ruh) by masturbating.
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salam
about chewing, what i meant was that it gives your brain energy and that would mean a better ability to think, or concentrate or whatever. But whatever it is, it should be good for meditation because breathing is good too.
and what is "life force?"
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Peace be upon you Pheonix1,
about chewing, what i meant was that it gives your brain energy and that would mean a better ability to think, or concentrate or whatever.
Well first thing I guess would be to figure out what it does (think, concentrate, or whatever). We have to nail it down in order to work though it. If it is about thining then no, we are trying to STILL our thoughts in order to "hear" the God.
But whatever it is, it should be good for meditation because breathing is good too.
Breathing is good because it can be proven objectively. Until you are certain about what chewing gum does, I wouldnt say it "should be".
and what is "life force?"
Life Force is the Divine Energy that underlies all material exsistence. It is the difference between a dead body and a live body. It is what this reading(quran) refers to as "ruh", what chinese refer to as "chi", Hindus "prana", and what the Holy Spirit of the Bible is supposed to refer to. It expresses itself as EMOTIONS (energy in motion).
There is a whole science of acupuncture that deals with manipulating this energy, as well as Chi Gong and Tai Chi, etc.
When we avoid anger, sadness, fear and all other incorrect expressions of this energy, it is the vehicle that puts us in the right place at the right time and brings things to us that we need. But we have to be at PEACE/NON EMOTIONAL for this to work. This is what SOLOMON helps us to understand (Solomon comes form the same root as PEACE S-L-M)
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Peace idolfree1,
Life Force is the Divine Energy that underlies all material exsistence. It is the difference between a dead body and a live body. It is what this reading(quran) refers to as "ruh", what chinese refer to as "chi", Hindus "prana", and what the Holy Spirit of the Bible is supposed to refer to. It expresses itself as EMOTIONS (energy in motion).
Do animals have a "ruh"? because they are living creatures, and going by your definition they should "possess" a "ruh", while in the scripture only humans have a "ruh" given by the god.
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Peace be upon you Someone,
Do animals have a "ruh"?
"ruh" just means energy. It is that which animates, which is where animals got thier description.
because they are living creatures, and going by your definition they should "possess" a "ruh",
The way you are wording it, I am wondering if you are refering to the nafs(spirit).
while in the scripture only humans have a "ruh" given by the god.
Where does it say that?
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Salam someone, there is someone on this forum that shares your view. check out the "created from mud" thread in the science section (last page by the way).
As for me, im still confused as to what ruh is. If what your saying is true, idolfree, then isnt it also true that we get energy to live and move through the food we eat? is food what gives existence to the ruh?
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Peace be upon you Someone,
I wouldnt put it that way. The "ruh" is just energy. Animals have energy too. So do plants and even minerals.
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Peace be upon you Pheonix1,
As for me, im still confused as to what ruh is. If what your saying is true, idolfree, then isnt it also true that we get energy to live and move through the food we eat?
Absolutely!! We get it from eating food, breathing air, etc.
is food what gives existence to the ruh?
No, the energy in the food is "ruh". The "ruh" is what moves things.
The ancient Kemau called it "Ra", but foolish egyptologists say it means "sun god", NO NO NO! They could not understand the teachings. It refers to the solar energy (tears of the sun) from which all things eminate, and why many cultures did indeed wrongly worship the sun.
"Qi(chi) is the word which encompasses the meaning of all vital activities and substances in the human body. It is a the "Life Force" of all living things as well as representative of all energy within the universe. It is a word which is not fully understood by the Western mind and therefore it is not always accepted as existing. However, more importantly than dwelling on its definition, it is important to understand Qi through its function, as Qi is the foundation of Oriental Medicine."