alifelongme

Imaginaiton

2023-03-27T15:55:16Z

Discursive meditation revealed something I did not know about myself. I realized I have problem with imagination. What I always thought is imagination is actually visualization of something others imagined. I never had any problems with THAT. However, left to my own devices I tend to think in abstract terms and stop at that. Coming up with different particular examples for an abstract concept is always a struggle. I try to remember of things that I read or encountered in life, but without more explicit prompts I’m usually pretty lost. I think it is a lack of imagination on my part.

I read a lot and that helps somewhat. However, I’m not happy with the fact that Analogies and metaphors do not come for me as easy as I’d like. Or maybe it should be this way and THAT is the point of discursive meditation?

Btw, I recently realized that what I thought is metaphor is actually analogy. Analogies are easier for me than metaphors because I’m used to “translating” words into numbers and graphs and back. Coming up with words that translate into images and feelings is a different story.

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GSF: Meditations

2023-03-21T21:55:59Z

Awhile ago I started my journey in the Golden Section Fellowship. I will use this space to post some thoughts about the practice and challenges I encounter along the way.

I also joined the discussion forum created by one of the fellow GSF traveller. These posts may be a duplicate of my posts there.

Meditation has been the most challenging practice for me so far. It is not that it is difficult, I am used to sitting quietly, thinking and pondering things in my head. I used to scare people by my sitting still and just looking at the wall in front of me, thinking. People would come to me asking what’s wrong and I’d say, “Nothing, I’m just thinking.” :)

But this habit was playing against me, I guess, since I stalled at preparation for meditation part. It seemed unnecessary because I’m already used to sitting quietly and being relaxed thanks to yoga practices in the past. And I would get impatient, wanting to start thinking right away.But after comparing the quality of my meditation with and without the prep, I have to admit it is necessary.

So, I decided to devised a little cheat way around my reluctance to do the prep work and use a prayer during the time of breathing. But since I’m not a religious person and was never able to embrace any faith (not for the lack of trying, let me assure you), I had no prayer I could meaningfully use. Therefore, I thought I’d make one myself. Here it is:

By enlightenment of Air,

By intention of Fire,

By wisdom of Water,

By Earth manifest,

By Spirit Below,

By Spirit Above,

By Spirit Within,

I pray to be blessed.

And now I use it for my four fold breathing. The whole prayer takes 30 seconds by the clock since it has 8 lines total and I use lines instead of counting one, two, three, etc. Repeating the whole verse 10 times takes exactly 5 minutes,I can use my fingers to count, not look at the clock, and not worry if the time is correct.

I use it to count the shuffle times with the oracle too, saying the last line when I cut the deck.

I also use this prayer when I know I’m going to face a challenging situation. I just say it in my head and change the last line to “Protected and blessed” to make it an affirmation.

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Thoughts

2022-02-19T20:48:17Z

Anything that looks “free” or a “great bargain” at the moment inevitably turns out to be the most expensive thing in the long run.

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Thoughts

2022-02-17T19:52:11Z

The tragedy of an individual is the inescapable sociality of being.

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Thoughts

2022-02-17T19:49:01Z

Achieving anything of significance, in this life and beyond, calls for consistency of effort and discipline of moderation.

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