I understand this concept already through martial arts training with a friend of mine back on the east coast. He taught me Ta-Chi movements which is the same as this particular exercise. Martial arts focuses on avoiding confrontation yet having the ability to defend oneself if necessary. I find that sitting in total silence inside my home while listening to the water flowing in the stream out in the back with headphones on allows me to hear the heart beat clearly.
The loving kindness and subtle mind exercise are the same. The only difference is the voice. The voice is very powerful and can create calm or chaos. Whoever this woman is for this particular exercise, I hear a more affirmative and forceful tone. She is not reading with feeling at all. She needed to be grounded herself before recording.
The spiritual, physical, and mental are all connected via the brain. The thought or presence of a spiritual presence will change the physical stature within the body resulting in a sense of calm and possibly an appreciation for life itself.
I have always incorporated these pieces throughout life. As I type this, I can state that losing my mother at an early age was a good thing because I learned to appreciate life in its entirety. I would not have been able to fully grasp and understand faith, perseverance, love, failure, success, ego, sex, envy, God/the universe, religion, the difference between an acquaintance and a friend, the true meaning of family, my purpose for being born, the reason why my parents behaved the way they did, understanding spirituality, and the list goes on and on.
Matthew, I found your blog post very interesting. I thought your viewpoint that you found the two meditations the same was quite interesting. I can see how you would say that, even though I found it different. I do agree with you that the woman on the Subtle Mind mp3 did need to ground herself prior to recording. I thought that you can hear her mind wander a bit while she is talking.
ReplyDeleteMatthew,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great reflection on the subtle mind exercise. I had not thought about the woman not seeming to be calm or grounded during this recording. But, now that you point this out, I completely agree. While doing this exercise I found that every time she would talk it startled me a bit. Had she been more calm and soothing I think there would have been a better transition between the background music and the speaking.
Also, I am very sorry that you lost your mother at a young age, it is very admirable that you have made such positive life choices due to this tragic life event.
Hope you have a wonderful week!
Kristen
Matthew,
ReplyDeleteIn a lot of ways loving kindness and subtle mind are similiar, when you lose someone close at a young that does have influence on how you live your life. Also when you have some sort of spiritual activity along with physical can make a huge difference in a mental overall and mental stabiltiy.When a person has stable spiritual health is happy person and know how to control what may be stress triggers when you need to take a moment for you to calm and collect yourself.
Matthew I noticed that you mentioned about martials arts and Tai Chi. Does these two types of practices help you relax better than the Subtle Mind and Love and Kindness. Sound is the same but the voice is different. What else do you recommend as good relaxation techniques?
ReplyDeleteWarren
Matthew,
ReplyDeleteI too can relate to you and your perspective on life and the thoughts of how this was affected by losing someone at an early age. I have lost many loved ones in this life time and it definitely gives you a broader look on the entirety of life and the feelings and events that you have listed in your post. I have thought about adding Tai Chi as a technique in my life to look more at the inner part of me, do you recommend this for reaching this aspect that I am trying to look at of the ego?