A Clear Mind

A Clear Mind...

A clear mind helps us think smarter and improve our memory. But if you want spiritual growth, that is just the beginning, you will find so much more that you can achieve with a clear mind!

A clear mind helps us handle things in better ways. At the same time, we are able to be more mindful on every bit of our action, every piece of our thought, and every thread of our emotion. Further practice brings us awareness to even very subtle emotions, feelings, and hidden (and also usually ignored) thoughts.

Every moment when our mind is clear, we feel lightness, joy, and peace in our hearts.

Every moment when our mind is clear, we are more able to observe ourselves, clear our obstacles towards our Higher Consciousness.

Calm people can observe our own conscious minds.

Calm people with clear mind can observe our subconscious.

A mind with clarity and luminosity can get into our unconscious! Read people beyond their words, and see things beyond their appearance.

Step by step, we will discover ourselves more and more, understand ourselves deeper and deeper, both on the bright and dark sides of ours. With luminosity (or correct knowledge), we will know what in our minds are good to keep, and what should be cleared away for a better self.

Following daily routines without thinking is just to get our minds more and more dumb. Following the busy rhythm of this crazy world without a clear mind is just to get our mind more and more numb.

A clear mind is always ready for us to delve in. Try to observe and reflect on every bit of our action, speech and thought! The more precise our self-observation is, and the deeper our introspection is, the greater we can improve to a better self. Wisdom is then gained, and sufferings are then cleared.

Meditate and contemplate on our minds can bring us faster and greater progress, observable and solid change! Just a few minutes everyday, you will notice this amazing change!

Namaste.
Sally Chung
18 March 2016

Is Anger and Hatred really our constant enemies?

I read a quote this morning ...

"Anger and hatred are our real and constant enemies. It is they, not our temporary adversaries, that we need to fight and conquer. As we have not trained our minds to weaken their power to harm, those emotions continue to disrupt and negate all our efforts for inner peace."

... quoted from a book written by a very great teacher.

Emotions are present in everybody's mind. The differences among us are just on how they are triggered, why they are triggered, and how agitated they have been triggered.

All kinds of emotions are actually children of our mind. Happiness, sadness, excited, loneliness, also anger and hatred are all children of our mind. To be exact, they are all children of our deluded mind.

When we are not able to see things clearly, and we are not able to keep our mind calm and still, emotions arise. 

Every kind of emotion happens because of some reason. Just as when we look at our children, we may not be able to understand why they act like this, respond like that, speak in such a way, etc. But we all love our children. Just like that, we should love our emotion, every bit of our emotion.

Whenever we think our child act or behave inappropriately, it is of no help to just stop them, and suppress their behavior. The more we love our children, the more we want to understand them. We then try to talk to our children, see how they think, what triggered such an action or behavior. 

Then, everything is the same as to our emotions. The emotions come out from our mind. We may not know why they appear, how they happen, but they are from our minds. 

A brave person, especially those who want improvements, and those who want the ultimate way to get rid of suffering from their emotions, should treat their emotion as their dearest children. Give patience, and be sincere to our dearest children, the emotions. Listen to them. At the very beginning, our children do not know how to express themselves. Be patient, just be with them, give them time to organize themselves, then they will be able to tell you bit by bit. The more you practice your patience and give time to your children, they will learn better and better to express their feeling, they will be more capable to tell you what happened to them, and to let you understand them more and more, deeper and deeper.

Once your children feel that you are really care about them, their behaviors and attitude will change, automatically! From unwanted behavior to lovely and kind behavior. Remember, your emotions are just your children. Show them love and patience. The anger and hatred will be dissolved by your love and care. Transcend them!

And eventually, neither a bit of anger nor hatred will appear in your mind. Your children will become very lovely, understanding, and calm.

Be true to ourselves, be patience to our heart, be brave to face every bit of our emotions, because they are our dearest children. Then all you have in your heart is love and care, nothing else! 

So beautiful, peaceful, and joyful!

As I don't want you to have any prejudgment, I didn't mention where the quote is originated. For those who want to know, please tell me. (syschung@gmail.com) I will give you the answer.  

Namaste.

Sally Chung

8 March 2016

The meaning of OM ... OM 的意義

OM 其實是宇宙間存在之能量震動的聲音。當我們離開了鬧市，身處寧靜的大自然當中，尤其在萬里無雲的夜空底下，漫天星閃。蓋上雙眼，讓自己融入於這宇宙時，靜心聆聽一下，我們便能聽到這宇宙的聲音。這是一種穩定而祥和的聲音。

所以，當我們唱頌 OM 時，實則是讓自己跟大自然共創和諧。身處鬧市的我們，每天都糾纏於停不了的事務、無時無刻穿插於人群之間，如何能找回內心的平靜?

若想有著更美麗的感受，在每次唱頌 OM 時，同時思想著大自然的寧靜、美麗、偉大、可貴。。。 我們便更能融入於大自然的懷抱，享受她給我們的寧靜、祥和的美麗感覺。唱頌 OM 時，我們更應同時抱著感恩的心，感謝大自然 our Mother Nature 給我們所有這刻身邊的人、事、物、情! 我們要感恩! 更要珍惜!

愛著大自然，love our Mother Nature, 珍惜大自然, treasure our Mother Nature!

一天，若你能練習得到 Yama, Niyama, Dharana, 和 Dhyana 的某一境界，你便已能輕鬆地，無時無刻，甚至在忙碌中、人群中，也能聽到這宇宙和諧的聲音了。她也就能無時無刻給你寧靜、祥和、安穩的感覺。

OM is actually the sound of cosmic vibration. Sometimes when we are in a very silent place, we can hear that with our ears. We try to resonate with the Mother Nature, with grateful to our Mother Nature, and always do our best to preserve our Mother Nature. 💖💕

Keep on practicing Yama, Niyama, Dharana and Dhyana, you will one day be able to hear this peaceful and beautiful cosmic sound, no matter when and where you are! You will always feel calm and peace in your heart with your daily business. You will feel joyful everyday! And joyful every moment!

Namaste.

Sally Chung
6 March 2016

What is Yoga?

What is 'Yoga'?

After experiencing the ups and downs of my life, together with my life-long learning, at this stage of my life, I would describe myself as a spiritual person, rather than a religious person. I found myself being a truth seeker, rather than just following rules or dogmas from any religion.

I studied the Bible, Buddha's teachings, Hindu sutras, the Chinese Yi Jin, and different science subjects such as physics (from quantum mechanics to cosmology) and psychology (from neuroscience to counselling and hypnotherapy), all trying to understand the ultimate truth on the universe and human, and how to make this world a better place, a more beautiful place! And help all those who are suffering, not just human, but also all sentient beings.

All these knowledge and experiences bring me more confidence to say that, "YOGA IS REALLY A SCIENCE SUBJECT!"

Yoga is in fact a scientific, and systematic system, which provides different means to help each of us to attain our goal. Either you want physical health, mental health, or have a spiritual goal.

The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali and Hatha Yoga Pradipika are two very very important textbooks for all those who want to understand and practice yoga. Patanjali highlighted the eight practices of yoga, which guide you through until you reach your goal, from the very basic physical level, up to the highest spiritual goal you have, the realization of the Highest Consciousness, the omniprescence and omniscience Consciousness, (Jesus for Christians, and Dharma for Buddhists and Hindus, etc.)

Among the 8 practices of yoga, some of them you can take at the same time, but some of them can only go one-by-one, because you will need the foundation to be built well and firm.

Those eight practices are:
1. Yama
2. Niyama
3. Asana
4. Pranayama
5. Pratyahara
6. Dharana
7. Dhyana
8. Samadhi

I would like to share my understanding and experiences on these 8 practices.

Yama - It contains the rules of conduct, such as non-violence, always telling the truth, non-stealing, forgiveness, compassion, etc. It guides us how to act responsibly as a member of the society. Following these yamas, we will have a society in harmony.

Niyama - it contains observances such as austerity, contentment, faith in Supreme Consciousness (or God), studying sacred scriptures, modesty, etc. Following these niyamas helps our lives to be more fulfilled, content, and meaningful. Contentment and satisfaction will grow deep inside our hearts.

Asana - The physical movements or postures which systematically strengthen and stretch our muscles, train our physical body for better health, and also as a preparation to our spiritual journey, if we want it.

Pranayama - Through yogic breathing exercises, it empowers our body and cleanses our respiratory system as a start. It gives energy to our organs, muscle tissues and cells to perform daily routines. it provides energy and even stimulates our brain for better and brighter functioning, such as memory and creative thinking. Together with the asanas,  we can start off our journey towards our spiritual goal!

Pratyahara - It is the withdrawal of senses. Everyone can understand what it is when we think of sleeping. We shut off all senses of the physical body, we ignore any sound, smell, touch, light from the envirnoment. Of course, different people have different level of sense withdrawal at sleep. However here, Pratyahara means there is sense withdrawal but the mind is still clear and conscious. For example, when you are very concentrated when watching a movie, you can ignore things happen around you. But, how can you do it when it is without the movie? Then you need to train your concentration on meditation. Then you can attain a still and clear mind, which is needed for your ultimate spiritual goal, or realization of the Supreme Consciousness, or union with God.

Dharana - This is the concentration or the one-pointedness needed for our meditation, to achieve a still and clear mind.

Dhyana - This is the practice of meditation and contemplation, that you need to spend time and effort on. With more and more practices of meditation, and with longer and longer duration for each meditation session, your state of clear and still mind will be getting more and more stable.

Samadhi - This is the stable meditative state of the clear and still mind. Atttaining samadhi, you will feel joyful with calm and peace, your mind is so clear that you can see the ultimate truth from this phenomenon world. Believers will be able to attain union with God, or realization of the Supreme Consciousness. Your ultimate destination in fact depends on your true believe. STAY FIRM WITH YOUR BELIEVE, NOTHING WILL MOVE YOU AWAY FROM THAT. Trust me!!!

From the above, you will see that yoga systematically provides you with many scientific methods to achieve your goal, no matter which level (either you want physical health, mental health, or have a spiritual goal) you target at. And yoga is good for any believes or religion you have.

Only one point you need to bear in mind, the higher your goal is, the more important is the role of your teacher! Carefully choose your spiritual teacher to guide you through, and help you overcome the obstacles on your spiritual journey. Make sure your teacher is trustworthy and capable for it!

Feeling ready? Start off now! Yoga is for everyone!

Namaste.

Sally Chung
6 March, 2016