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Archive through January 26, 2011

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Johnnybalmain
Member

Post Number: 117
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2010 - 04:22 am:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hi Bianca,
I had the problem where the candle light hurt my eyes to such an extent that I found it difficult to concentrate because of the strain. So I decided to use a colour print of a lit candle instead and found it was much easier on my eyes. This then aided me in retaining my concentration level.
Peace John
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Smukhuti
Member

Post Number: 450
Registered: 06-2009
Posted on Thursday, October 07, 2010 - 09:30 am:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The trick is to look into a region around the wick of the candle where the eye doesn't hurt. A couple of millimetres on either side really hurt. A benefit of practicing with candle light is that if the attention moves from this region, it hurts, so initially the mind is kind of forced to maintain attention. After sometime, the eye gets used to the brightness and the mind get calm and it is possible to focus on the brighter parts. It is just my suggestion.
Salome.
Suv
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Aburns87
Member

Post Number: 21
Registered: 05-2008
Posted on Friday, October 08, 2010 - 02:07 am:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

hey john,
another option to help if the light is too intense for your eyes is to wear sunglasses...
just a thought
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Markcampbell
Member

Post Number: 558
Registered: 10-2008
Posted on Friday, October 08, 2010 - 10:24 pm:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Focus on the blue part of the flame at the bottom and don't look at the "firey" part .I know , it's all firey .
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Indi
Moderator

Post Number: 552
Registered: 06-2006
Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 - 08:58 pm:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Re the origins of Billy's meditation method:

Here is the finished summary. I have removed the first part made earlier, and replaced with this one.

******
Summary made by Robyn Foley October 2010

The following is a summary of my own translation of the mentioned book and may contain errors.

From the book ‘Lehre und Kunder der Wahrheit’ by Hans-Georg Lanzendorfer
Pps. 381-401


‚Eine Spurensuche über die Herkunft der Satipatthãna-Meditations-Methode (Achtsamkeit-Meditation)‘

‘A search for evidence of the origin of the Satipatthana meditation method (Mindfulness Meditation).’

********

In the book 'Lehre und Kunder der Wahrheit' the author Hans-Georg Lanzendorfer, writes about what he found when researching the origins of the method of meditation called Satipatthana. Satipatthana is the meditation that teaches ‘gewaltsame Gewaltlosigkeit’ often translated as ‘forcible non-violence’. (I will post further on this definition shortly).



(The Satipatthana-Meditation Teaching (mindfulness meditation) is a central component of the Spirit lessons (GL) in Figu and at the Semjase-Silver-Star Centre (SSSC) in Switzerland. This method is described in detail in BEAM’s book ‘Introduction to Meditation’, which is an introduction to the true meditation and its practical application and explanation of its effectiveness in everyday human life.)

Hans writes that the Satipatthana meditation method does not come from Buddhist mysticism as thought.

Since Billy wrote 'Einfuhrung in die Meditation' in 1979, rumours about its origins have circulated around FIGU circles about Billy having developed it. However, the origins are not from Billy, but rather demonstrated and taught to him by knowing and wise people. Billy has however, improved on it since his role as messenger and prophet.

From the 249th and 355th contact, Ptaah says this about the Satipatthana meditation (Mindfulness meditation):

Its real origin lies millenniums in the past in a very far away world (not in our galaxy) from the prophet Nokodemjon. (this connection can be found in ‘OM’> cannon 31 verses 51 onwards.) and had been shown to many peoples throughout space (just as he had offered the people knowledge of acupuncture as well).

For millenium, the teaching of Satipatthana meditation was hidden, and only handed down through the generations to the descendants.

Some years after the death of Buddha, the Nokodemjon meditation teaching was continued on and recorded by the monks of the order of Pali-Buddhism in the Pali-texts.
In the 1930's in the former Ceylon, a Buddhist monk named Therunnanse attempted to translate the Satipatthana meditation teachings from the Pali texts into other languages. After the war the plan was completed.

This rediscovery and revival of the ancient Satipatthana meditation is due to a personal contact between Sfath and the Buddhist religious superior Mahatmya Mahaprajna who was ethnically a German named Theophil Finzel from Hamburg. The contact occurred for 48 years and ended in 1907 when he died. Sfath in fact gave this monk the first German translation that he did himself.

In 1879 this head monk explained the Satipatthana mediation to the other monks. The knowledge of it also spread through India and Burma in an indirect way. In Burma, the teaching was thought to be from Buddha, and from this the Burmese School of Satipatthana was born.

Hans mentions that there is more in depth information about some parts of the history of satipatthana to be found on the following website:

http://www.palikanon.com/diverses/satipatthana/satipatt_06.html

Here can be found more information filling in possible activity leading to the renewal of the old teaching of right mindfulness meditation and has been included in the book. Following is some of that:

(In Burma, it was a monk named U Narada (1870-1957) who taught others the practice of the mindful path. He had been looking for a method of meditation that offered direct access to the high goal of Buddha's teaching. He travelled through Burma, seeking instruction, without satisfaction.

In the Sagaing mountains he came upon a monk in a cave who had reached the high effective path of ariya-magga, who asked U Narada why he was searching for something outside the word of the Buddha and the Satipatthana. This led U Narada to study carefully once again the teachings, and to deeply contemplate them to eventually develop the principles and practice of right mindfulness and this ancient tradition was revived anew. It is from here that the Burmese School of Satipatthana was born.

U Narada widely known in Burma as Jetavan- or Mingun-Sayado died on 18th March 1957, 87 yrs old.)


22 years after the death of Mahaprajna it was the Rev. Zimmerman in Bülach Switzerland who was contacted telepathically by Sfath.

Zimmerman and teachers Hans Graf and Gustav Leemann were to play a fatherly, helpful and sympathetic teaching role in the life of the young Eduard Meier.
Sfath had been contacting Eduard Meier since he was 5 years old, and imparting much knowledge to the young boy. Between the eleven years 1942-1953, Sfath instructed Eduard in the Pali scriptures of the old Satipatthana meditation, that he had translated into German.

The Satipatthana meditation was to play an important role in Eduard's education, as he had vast amounts of knowledge and teachings to process as well as learning various techniques of consciousness control. He would use this learned meditation form to teach the core group members later on.

In 1948 when Eduard was just 11 years old, whilst a pupil of Gustav Leemann in the fourth grade, he wrote, (helped with spelling by his teacher) an 83 page article about the Satipatthana meditation, based on the knowledge gained from Sfath. He used an old Olympus typewriter that belonged to his uncle.

Gustav Leemann was so impressed with Eduard's work, that he had made 200 copies of the 83 page article and sent them to many of his friends. This was financed by an Indian businessman from Calcutta, Natwar Vajpayee who also had an interest in Buddhist mysticism, and it was printed in Zurich.

An Indian Buddhist monk Rahat Sanghanan, also known as Maha Chohan came into possession of a copy in 1948. Eduard had become acquainted with him earlier during a visit with Sfath, and therefore he was no stranger to Billy. This monk was able to speak German, and his translation assistants translated all 83 pages of the article into English within two months. Copies were made of both the English translation and the original German and in that same year, 1948, copies were sent out to many other Buddhist religious elders and several ashrams.

It seems that it is at this juncture that the origin of the translation by Sfath and the consequent 83 page article written by young Eduard became deliberately or unwittingly disregarded!

In 1953, Asket continued to teach Eduard after Sfath’s involvement. So, about 6 years after Sfath’s original translation of the Pali texts, Asket provided Eduard with another German language translation. Using Asket’s translation Eduard in 1954 revised and edited his mindfulness meditation article.

Eduard, now 17yrs old, accompanied by Asket, then presented the revised work to the monk Maha Chohan (otherwise known as Ra- hat Sanghanan). The monk made 2100 copies and once again distributed them to his colleagues.

Eduard then embarked on his travels to 43 countries during the next 11 years, learning from many different teachers. In 1964 BEAM stayed for some months in Mahrauli/India in the Ashoka Ashram where Asket was observed by a few of the inhabitants, walking with one of Billy’s teachers the monk Swami Dharmawara and Billy.

Whilst at the Ashram, in the spring/summer of 1964 over a 3 month period, Billy revised once again his article on Satipatthana meditation, and it was translated by Swami Ramana Sarma into English and 2600 copies of this edition were printed.

In the 16 years since Eduard wrote the first 83 page article about the Satipatthana meditation, various different other meditation books had appeared whose authors reworked Billy’s work and Sfath’s and Asket’s translation, without mentioning this fact in any way whatsoever.
Also, one of Eduard’s original 1948 copies had come into the possession of the German Buddhist monk Nyänaponika (born Siegmund Feniger in Germany) in an unknown way, who in 1950 published his own writing in German under the title ‘Geistestraining durch Achtsamkeit’ (Mental training through Mindfulness). Nyanaponika, like other authors omitted to mention the true source of his writings being the work of the young Eduard Albert Meier , Sfath or Asket, even though it should have been evident they were not the originators, being unable to understand well either the Pali texts or the Sanskrit writings.

Thanks to Gustav Leeman, by publishing Eduard Albert Meier’s article on the Satipatthana Meditation method, information about this important meditation method has spread all over the world.

(Message edited by indi on October 18, 2010)
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Elba
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Post Number: 37
Registered: 03-2010
Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 11:35 am:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

thank you Robin por this translation .. very interesting ...
Elba
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Elba
Member

Post Number: 38
Registered: 03-2010
Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 12:54 pm:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Dear all , I'm dealing with a situation regarding meditation :

The last year in October 2009 , I had an accident and my car was a total lost .. yes .. almost !!!! ( my first thought it was how comes I did not see that happen ??). A few days later I remembered that I had a dream about my car accident(maybe 1month ago) : In my dream I coundn't see a lot because seem's smoky or foggy, with some white smog .. but enought to see what side the crash was and how my car ended up!!!.. exactly how happened in the reality !!!.. the white smog was my steering wheel air bag blowing !!(and everythig happened like in slow motion with no sound that for seconds I asked myself if I was dreaming or not ) ,,
By that time I started to meditate regularly, probably 2month into Spirtual Teachings .. I felt scared

After another 2 months or so I had another dream .. againg with my car .. like something happen to mi right front wheel. I could see that it was day time .. then I woke up ..
That day when I use my car I remenber my dream and decide to drive extra- carefully and slowly .. and there it was a crashed mirror in the middle of the drive way exactly positioned in the right the side but I avoided it ... that could have been a coincidence, but I felt good with the thought that I could avoid some bad hapennings !
...
Later the dreams continue .. with bad dream , dreams that make me scare ..
I consider them myself like a warning and I have to figure them out when it's a warning or when is a product of my fears or inconsciousness .
However I have stop meditating .. and I dont have those special dreams anymore ..Im afraid .. I don'tn want to know ...Help ?...

PD :I don't use drugs o smoke anything .. (hahah)and despite that because my logic sometimes I was able to tell o know little things in advance I never have this kind of dreams before ..
Salome
Elba
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Rarena
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Post Number: 620
Registered: 10-2005
Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 03:44 pm:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hello Elba,

This is the meditation section and your question is about dreams... The vehicle (car) in dreams usually pertain to your direction in life.

Telephone dreams are about communication. Pay attention to them to see where your life is heading... and meditate to interpret correctly.

You are in charge of your life... dreams do not control your life... you do.
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Matt
Member

Post Number: 151
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 06:29 pm:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Robyn, thanks also for that interesting bit of information.
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Elba
Member

Post Number: 40
Registered: 03-2010
Posted on Monday, October 25, 2010 - 11:55 am:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hello there : Thank you Rarena for your comments to my posting ..Sorry if I was confusing ..What I meant was if Meditation have any relation with premonition dreams wich it was the case of my car accident..
Salome
Elba
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Rarena
Member

Post Number: 621
Registered: 10-2005
Posted on Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - 07:32 am:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Dear Elba,

It was my pleasure... It is my understanding that whenever we get closer to understanding our connection whether it be via meditaion or thought... we are more able to utilize those connections more efficiently.

As to seeing ahead: that is apparently normal for humans when we become more connected to our true selves through our subconscious... in other words we are not conscious of it at this stage of Earth human evolutionary development.
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Markjr
New member

Post Number: 3
Registered: 02-2010
Posted on Thursday, October 28, 2010 - 11:08 pm:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hello Elba,

I recommend reading Billy's Concentration – Meditation – Sleep excerpt from "Stimme der Wassermannzeit“ . You can find it at

http://us.figu.org/portal/SpiritualTeaching/ConcentrationMeditationSleep/tabid/178/Default.aspx

Hope it helps! (if you haven't already read it that is )
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Fredrik
New member

Post Number: 1
Registered: 11-2009
Posted on Friday, November 05, 2010 - 09:26 am:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hello everyone
I have been taught that I must not meditate more then 20 minutes per session. I am told that bad things then might affect me. Can someone tell me if this true? If,what are the possbile threats after passing 20 min? Are there outside forces that can come in to me?
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Markcampbell
Member

Post Number: 568
Registered: 10-2008
Posted on Friday, November 05, 2010 - 07:52 pm:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Fredrik ;

I hope this answers your question at least in part, from : http://us.figu.org/portal/SpiritualTeaching/ConcentrationMeditationSleep/tabid/178/Default.aspx

(just a few paragraphs from the top of the first page)

"The reason for it lies in the fact that if exercises are prolonged or too long, the danger exists that an inner weariness or conflict occurs. If a concentration exercise lasts long, two or three hours etc., then time is spent with it, but if the consciousness falls under the influence of an inner weariness or conflict, the meditative concentration exercise becomes ineffective.

It therefore does not gain the effectiveness, as it fundamentally should. Therefore it is of importance to begin first of all with short exercises from which small results arise, which leads to the fact that in the meditation also joy arises when it is practised. However, if an exercise or a session is carried out for too long a time, which has an uncomfortable effect, then the danger arises that everything appears daunting and the whole thing is thereby given up immediately."
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Bronzedesk
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Post Number: 137
Registered: 01-2009
Posted on Saturday, November 06, 2010 - 06:17 am:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Lots of people limit their possibilities by giving up easily. Never tell yourself this is too much for me. It's no use. I can't go on. If you do you're licked, and by your own thinking too. Keep believing and keep on keeping on. It took me some or so years to figure that one out! Right... Mark ???
First you forget names, then you forget faces. Next you forget to pull your zipper up and finally, you forget to pull it down. George Burns
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Mahigitam
Member

Post Number: 306
Registered: 02-2009
Posted on Saturday, December 25, 2010 - 07:32 am:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Regarding COncetration Meditation,

1] IF one skips doing meditation for a day, say on fourth day(8 min),should we start the whole process once again or can we continue doing the fourth round meditation(8min) on the fifth or any subsequent day?

2] If one completes all 21 days, with partial success, which means not able to focus completely but with distraction on most or atleast in some of the given 21 rounds..should we repeat the whole process(21 rounds) again and again until we reach the state of high concentration which may take days/years/decades
What a thing is relationship, if we closely observe, relationship is much more subtle, more swift than lightning, more vast than earth, for relationship is life - Jiddu Krishnamurthy
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Memo00
Member

Post Number: 455
Registered: 03-2004
Posted on Saturday, December 25, 2010 - 07:55 am:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hello Mahigitam

I remember that Billy has answered similar questions in the Questions to Billy section, he said that we should take those decisions by ourselves, (if we should start all over again with something, if we should do certain exercise more or less days, minutes, etc).

He has also said that there exist innumerable forms of meditation and also that there exist as many different paths as there are different persons in the world.

So, as i see it, all the explanations on meditation are a guide based on the practical experience of thousand or maybe even millions of years, but are not "the Truth" in itself, they are a path but there exist infinite paths. To have selfdiscipline and to be able to concentrate to do certain things is good and necessary, but ultimately you have to decide what is better and what works for you.

Salome
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Davidmg
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Post Number: 79
Registered: 03-2008
Posted on Saturday, December 25, 2010 - 09:47 pm:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It will not matter if you skip a day, You are teaching your mind how to focus not to count.

Davidmg
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Davidmg
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Post Number: 80
Registered: 03-2008
Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2010 - 11:46 pm:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Meditation is the moment

Meditation is not the past nor is it the future. It is the moment. Just as we observe the peacefulness in the rising of the morning sun, to later become the calmness of the setting evening sun, both are moments in our present time, as we experience it. In its' simplicity the sun has but one devotion towards a single purpose and you cannot force the rising nor the falling of the sun come any sooner than what this phenomenon has taken place for millenniums.

With that in mind, negative affects can happen when you force the mind into meditation. When forceful attempts are made to initiate meditation it can be like a rock that has been thrown into a pond, as the surface has already become disturbed and cannot find rest, therefore the goal of stillness is unobtainable. For if that is any person's will, then they must also realize that peace will rarely come to them when they still conceal rocks in their pockets.



Every day the arising of our unobserved thoughts is related to forms, feelings, senses, perceptions and emotions of past and future. Even during meditation if you are not able to observe attentively at the precise moment you will find yourself drifting back into the past or forward into the future. At that moment, thoughts with judgment, prejudice and emotions automatically spring up again. However, if we are precisely mindful of the present moment then defiled thoughts dissolve and observing awareness takes their place. It is acutely important to
use precision in being aware of the present moment.


So should we, with the moment to observe ourselves during the practice of meditation by breathing in and out with precision, as in the comparison in the rising and falling of the sun as we focus on the completeness in the breathing of the moment and until your mind radiates into a singular process of thought.

When you are able to deeply watch with intensity and with precision, you can experience a psychological phenomenon in its true nature. When this happens it will forever change the perception of what has happened and what will happen in your current existence here on Earth. Unfortunately for the most of the world this experience will go unnoticed. Truly obtaining such a mindful state is of great bliss and joy. When a person reaches such a wonderful state, nothing in this material world can replace its' value, ever.

Davidmg
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Sparky
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Post Number: 38
Registered: 03-2009
Posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 - 05:09 pm:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

For the Concentration Exercise I was wondering whether I am to internally or literally say the word "Sun" or visualize the Sun in my mind or what? Saying the word "Sun" just seems like chatter while visualizing seems more calm.
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Scott
Moderator

Post Number: 2090
Registered: 12-1999
Posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 - 08:26 pm:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Sparky,

I had the same question last year:

Hello,

I have been practicing (again) the concentration exercises outlined in the book "The Psyche" The first part of the exercise involves staring into the base of a candle flame for progressively longer periods of time while thinking of the word "sun".

What I have not been able to grasp from this explanation is how do you think of the word "sun"? I can see the word in my mind and I can also repeat it to myself, I wonder is this what is meant by thinking of it?

Thanks
Scott


Phi_spiral
Member

Post Number: 530
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Saturday, July 31, 2010 - 09:17 pm:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since your visual focus should be trained on the candle flame, do not try to see the word “sun” in your mind as that would be a distraction. Neither repeat the word silently to yourself. Rather hold the concept of the sun gently in the background. That is my understanding
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Markcampbell
Member

Post Number: 601
Registered: 10-2008
Posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 09:15 pm:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

As if the candle flame were the sun , or part of .
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Sitkaa
Member

Post Number: 424
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 10:49 am:   Edit Post Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

As the candle flame is the sun, or if you like, part of.

This is a true statement.
Can you see how it true, not just by analogy, but literally?
How is a small candle flame, one disparate from another, a part of the sun?
Fur leben.

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