Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your
contribution is not tax-deductible.)
PayPal Acct: 
Feedback: 
Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):
| [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1 ] |
TAMING THE HEDEHOG Buddha (reportedly) compared the mind with a monkey - (always restless, never at peace) - taming the monkey is said to be the hardest thing in the world. I suggest we let the monkey play ! ... however it seems comparatively easy to tame the lower brain ... I call it the hedgehog brain ... This simple idea is that by direct contact with the lower brain ... through tasting smelling breathing listening or singing exercises ... we can develop a more realistic feeling of who and what and why we are. ___________________________________________ HOW TO DOZE and OTHER KEYS TO PEACE AND HAPPINESS Probably the best starter is the SENSE OF SMELL and SCENTING the world around you : Flare the nostrils consciously as you breathe in (and even with this first small step, notice how it opens your cheeks and eyes) - maybe tilt the head back a little - you can experiment with small sniffs and long slow inhalations ... More important seems to be letting the air/scents linger or hang in all those cavities under your eyes, behind the cheeks, at the top and back of your mouth, ... and isnt it interesting how when we start using all those little cavities - they sort of start waking up ... and your cheeks start to fill out ... i sometimes wonder if its only me who can be so stupid, but after 60years inclusive 2 yrs special training, i am only now starting to discover that if i breathe out through the nose it disturbs the ligering scents - so my recommendation may be to breathe out through the mouth (see note*). Only practice for ONE MINUTE at a time (because otherwise it will get complicated for humans who are not used to it - you will get dizzy - see note* ) ____________ TWO MODES i believe many animals may laugh at the idea, but for beginners, it is useful to think of the senses as having an active and a passive mode. The passive mode uses no effort, for example, when dozing, you will find that you can still let the scents linger, but make no effort to flare your nostrils etc. ________________________ The PERIPHERAL VISION Focus on a point infront, but then, be conscious of what you see with your peripheral vision. Start at the sides simply trying to see colours and vague shapes. Here is a trick which will help you become aware of your peripheral vision at the sides : practice on a bus or even better a train - fix your eyes somewhere upfront (on the roof so no-one disturbs you) and then just be aware of the things passing by the windows on both sides. To exercise : Focus on an uninteresting point up infront of you (not the computer-screen, it is far too bright), then go round, by directing the attention (NOT the focus) downwards, finding a „peripheral-focal point“ on the floor, then sidewards, then upwards. To start with you will need "peripheral-focal points". To exercise further you can divide the periphery into 7 or 9 little points ... (ie. NOT inwards towards the "third eye", maybe there could be some special reason to do this, but animals have no need of it, initially i find it has only a confusing effect - maybe using this inward central periphery is only useful for a duck or a goldfish). Now, just look ahead and hold your head normally, but simply DONT FOCUS - use your peripheral vision ALL THE WAY ROUND. I cannot explain it, but please try it, if you can concentrate on being aware of what you see around the periphery for half a minute, isnt it interesting how all your face muscles start opening up, and relaxing ... maybe you will start smiling, maybe you will have a happy feeling ... _____________ FASCINATING It is astounding how most other animals EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE TRAUMATIZED through cold, hunger, storm, even illness, they seem to have no trouble, in times of plenty, dozing in the midday sun, in a state of easy relaxed readiness ... any dog or cat owner knows this dozing state of watchful readiness. Its like we used to do when the weather was good and we had all we needed in life - sitting by the caves and in the trees .... relaxing, smelling the wind and listening far into the distance ... for food and danger .... for anything and everything which was around ... I am fascinated (and dont really understand) but I am amazed at how this state of the senses : dozing in watchful readiness ... is ALSO a state of happiness and peace of mind. ____________________________ LISTENING IN THE DISTANCE I discovered listening into the distance first consciously when lying at night by a long winding country road where I could hear one car every 5 - 10 minutes and then follow it for miles and miles into the distance, and felt how almost (felt like) it opened the pores behind my ears ... oh and released all the stress of months and years of noisy city. Bird song is the nicest to start with, but it works with passing cars, or even airplanes. It works particularly well at distances. It does not work easily in small rooms with closed windows - but in the country or even in a city AT NIGHT ... listen all around you ... search for sounds happening a mile to the left, the distant road on your right - a plane above, a neighbour 3 rooms away ... and then just relax, being open and ready for any new sound ... (for tinitus and headaches see *note) ... I find this listening exercise is the EASIEST practical technique to quiet the everlasting chatter in our upper brain, ... i also believe it is the simplest and most direct way to experience a sense of peace of mind.again, hours of concentration will probably be counter productive ... but 10 minutes flexible creative dozing should now be possible - with listening as basis - now and then sensing smell - and occasionaly checking the taste in your mouth and throat ... __________ THE BODY i believe to "creatively doze" longer than 10 minutes we would need to start being aware with our body, ... almost listening with the body ... (i start to wonder if among animals, hair and fur might also have a function as antennae ...). I am fairly sure that - without the knowledge that we have lungs which are pumped by a diaghphram - the experience of breathing, would be an experience of the entire body expanding and contracting ... an experience which every amoeba knows and values ... ____________ MY PLEDGE All these exercises are very easy to do. They are easy to do because they are totally natural. They are natural because they are/were a life necessity - All animals have been doing this for millions of centuries as a necessity for survival and i believe these simple exercises will give you a sense of life which is very basic and realistic, - which would help many people to be a little more comfortable in their skin ... a little more at home in their body ... a little happier and with a little less need for the never ending babble in our upper brains ... These exercises do not require any higher inteligence to understand any deep mystical paradoxical philosophies ... no unbelievable tests of faith ... and no money! Essentially, all you need is a bit of common sense and an attitude of wanting to enjoy life ... NOTES* note - normally, to give the body all the time possible to assimilate oxygen etc., a healthy persons out breath should take about twice as long as the in breath. To exercise scenting, you will want to reverse this, you will want a quick out breath. To do this you could contract your diagphram and push the air out through your mouth, but you will probably get dizzy experimenting - This is one reason why the simplest and safest way is to exercise only for one minute at a time to give your body and mind the time they need to digest the experiences, ... if you are ambitious then do the exercises 5 times a day but only for a minute each time ... *note - i have an important question: when dogs and cats doze, do they beathe out through their mouths? and then, when they doze inside and outside, is it different? (do animals use their own inner smell to block off unpleasant outer smells? How much is their own inner smell a form of self confirmation?) *note - when listening, if you have peeps or buzzes or even pains in your head try to listen out through and beyond them ... i dont have tinitus or migrane, but i find i can clear up my minor peeps and pains, by "listening out through and beyond them" i find they go quieter and then disappear, ... maybe it also has something to do with listening to the whole environment around *note - I "discovered" the peripheral vision, while doing the chi-gong exercise of looking over the left shoulder, through the corner of the left eye, then repeating this to the right - (gently turn the head) - To look as far as possible, one must open the corner of the eye - (use your common sense as with all experiments). *note - I could swear that every section around my eyes is connected with different feelings ... at present and just roughly, my sense is that the lower peripheries are connected with worry bereavement, the upper with happiness and peace. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- PERSONALLY The first experiences and ideas for this essay ocurred around 25, 12, and 15 yrs. ago. Over the years i have slowly gathered experiences and ideas. Since 3-4 yrs. i have been taking it more seriously, and now, every day enjoy 2-3 minutes or so, of sensory yoga, as part of a flexible creative daily prayer routine i have never heard or seen anything like THIS published anywhere ... how important might these ideas be for other people? if someone, anyone, would start thinking about these ideas and experimenting - please contact me ... and particularly young people, because ideas and feelings like this need years to develop ... and i would really like to help others to build on these ideas ... __________________________________________ |