Optical Illusion - see how busy your mind is

[Devaraj Ishaya]

Hi All

I came across this image recently. It can be used as a feedback mechanism to show you how busy your mind is. Are they spinning or not?
Look at the image again after you have meditated for a while. And now?

Our brain is our sense organ. It is the filter through which we perceive our world.

My point being, the stiller the mind is, the clearer we are able to perceive.

I hope you find it enjoyable!
Peassss to all!
D'raj



Mini version:

This one may be too small to have the full effect, so right-click "save image as" and save it on your computer. Then open it up to see the full size image by double-clicking it.

[Tory LaPointe]

Hi D'raj,

WOW that's illuminating. Thanks!

Tory LaPointe

[AnnieInfinite]

That's amazing! thanks for posting this, have a wonder-filled day, Annie

[Sharyn Hayes]

Thank you Devaraj,

I find this really helpful. I'm fairly new to meditation & am often wondering if I'm reaching the state correctly. So this will be a useful training tool for me to try & measure myself against.

Love, Light & Blessings,
Sharyn

[Devaraj Ishaya]

Hi Sharyn

If I may suggest a little exercise to help you play with meditation...
(I took this from an article a friend wrote on meditation and golfing.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Mastering-The-Inner-Game-of-Golf&id=1...
I have changed it a little... )

Let’s try this for starters. In a moment I want you to close your eyes and watch what is happening in your mind. As you close your eyes be gently alert and watch the thoughts move through, and as they do count them – 1, 2, 3, etc. Keep your eyes closed for about two minutes. Close them now.

So, how did you do? Were you able to count them? If not, try again, but be gentle. So how many were there – 4, 10, 30? The number doesn’t matter, but what is important is that you can begin to experience that you are not your thoughts. Your thoughts are actually something outside of you. You are that which can be aware of them. Just like watching cars going by on the highway we can watch safely from a distance.

But just like on the highway the trouble starts when we start getting in the way of things! When we resist or get involved in thinking the thoughts, we lose ourselves (our true selves!) and begin to experience whatever the content of the thought is. (In other words we start identifying with the thoughts which is like grabbing a bumper on one of those cars passing by. We get bruised and banged up until we let the bumper go. Unfortunately it may not be a split second before we grab another bumper, and that is how we live our lives. Painful isn't it?) ....

So using this simple method is a great way to make a change. You don’t need to change your thoughts. That’s worth repeating. You don’t need to change your thoughts! You’re not the one that’s making them anyway. All you need to do is to change your relationship with them. So for example by taking a moment to count them, the thought, “I have half an hour to run to the grocery and get groceries for dinner,” and all the pressures that come with it, simply becomes thought number 5.

Now I’m not proposing that you wake up and start counting your thoughts all day long - the average person has over 200,000 per day! What we are doing is making a start.

So let’s progress this a bit. This time when you close your eyes for two minutes don’t count – just watch. Go ahead.

How was that? The more you do that, gently observe, the more you will experience the mind becoming quiet. Being the observer, not judging or resisting any thought begins to help you be free of their influence and will make you a better person, and improve how you experience all of your life.



I hope you found this enlightening! There is so much more I can say ....
Most meditation practises make having a quiet mind the goal. The Ishaya's believe meditation is not so much about the thoughts in the mind, as it is our relationship with those thoughts. If we are detached or indifferent to them, with time the mind will naturally quiet down.

I know I am new here, but if I may be of further assistance to you Sharyn or anyone else, please don't hesitate to e-mail me.

With that, I send you Praise, Blessings and Grace
Devaraj

[Tory LaPointe]

Wow Devaraj,

That's a great way to look at it. Like counting sheep.

Thanks!
Tory

[Devaraj Ishaya]

Yes!
Just to be sure that the point is understood ... it has nothing to do with actually counting anything! It is more about our relationship with the thoughts. Sitting back and watching the thoughts in a detached manner. Putting a little distance between our True selves (the pure silent consciousness that watches) and the thoughts. All those voices and commentary in our heads are just that, noise. They have no weight of truth to them. So why do we keep paying attention to them? Habit, nothing else.

As a society, we have never heard anyone say that we are not our thoughts! Our thoughts don't have to affect us, our moods, our self worth. How many of us are walking around now with the voice of someone we looked up to as a child, telling us how XYZ we are. Our Mom, Dad, an uncle or a teacher ... And because we keep hearing those voices in our heads over and over again, we believe it!

.... I will leave that hot potato for another time.... ;)

Peace Y'all!

D'raj

[Tory LaPointe]

LOL I use those examples in my readings often. And they are hot. Not only what we are but what we aren't.

Thanks again D'raj

[AnnieInfinite]

What is great about this meditation which is a variation on one I teach my classes, is that you learn to detach from your thoughts and it becomes so much easier to break old worn out patterns in your life, once you learn that you do not have to follow every thought through to an emotional response.

This is one of the meditations that we say helps to clear the crown chakra, as it helps us clear our ability to 'talk' or communicate with spirit as we detach from the many thoughts that loop in patterns through out our moments and days and lives... and when we are able to do this our head-space clears enough for us to 'hear' much more communication coming from the divine field...

blessings Annie

[Devaraj Ishaya]

"God's voice is Silent!"
...that is what my teachers would say, among other things. They would laugh when someone would say that they were waiting for this big booming voice to tell them who they are and what they are supposed to do.

I experience it more as an intuitive knowing, a nudge to move towards something ...
The mind usually follows with its chatter trying to explain, justify and/or make a story around what the intuitive download was about.

I am able to catch the verbal chatter for what it is most of the time, but for me what I see in myself is the lack of discipline and the trust to actually follow through with the inner nudge, 100% of the time, the surrendering to God's Will..... hmmm... interesting...

The game of expanding consciousness continues...

:) Peasssss!
D'raj

[Devaraj Ishaya]

Hi all
I just noticed that I have not acknowledged and let in the Thanks! from everyone.

So I want to say: You are Welcome!
And Thank YOU for appreciating!

It is gratifying to be able to add to someone's life.....

:) Peace, Blessings and Grace
Devaraj