Words Have Energy And Meaning

I was in awe of how the Universe is always listening. I took my practice seriously, and it felt good to just focus on repeating these sacred sounds. And then, when chanting opened up space and opportunity for me, it was exhilarating. When I was able to see the correlation between the intentional chanting and new possibilities in my life, it gave the practice even more significance. And now I recognize that the Universe is also constantly communicating with us if we’re prepared to listen through meditation and mindful awareness. It is a pleasing practice for the day, the evening, and even the middle of the night. One hundred eight is a sacred number in Hinduism. It symbolizes spiritual completion. It’s easier to keep count on a set of mala prayer beads, but you could use your fingers if you don’t have beads on hand. Keep in mind, though, that it will be a bit more challenging without the beads. Traditionally, you hold the mala in the right hand and drape the beads over your middle finger, with the last two fingers stacked under them. Then you use your thumb to roll one bead at a time toward you as you chant one round of mantra.

Hearts Full Of Soul

The index finger does not touch the mala beads. Each mala will have a guru bead, which is usually indicated by a tassel attached to it. You begin with the bead adjacent to the guru bead farthest away from you, pulling one bead toward you at a time as you chant. You do not cross the guru bead, which is why you flip the mala when you’ve done a full round. Of course, this depends on how many rounds of 108 you would like to do. You’ll want to hold your mala at heart level as you practice japa. You would normally practice seated, but you could do it lying down if you are up in the middle of the night. To practice japa without a mala, use your hands. Use the left thumb to keep track of the rounds, skipping the index finger counting and only using the three sections of each of the last three fingers. Three sections times three fingers is nine. Twelve on the right hand times nine on the left hand is one hundred and eight. Find a mantra that interests you.

A Positive Mental Attitude

Explore on your own or look at the mantra list in the previous section. The dream space is an indispensable component in our lives. Our dreams are filled with limitless resources of wisdom and possibility. Whether you are someone who easily recalls dreams or someone who feels as if you don’t dream at all because you can never seem to remember dreaming, everyone dreams. It’s a mysterious but essential physiological process. During this sleep cycle, there is a temporary paralysis of your arms and legs to keep you safe in dreamland and not act out your dreams! We will explore the different ways to connect to dream time so that you can begin to utilize the potency of your dreams in your waking life. As you read or hear these words, slowly and surely, the energy opens spaces of awareness in your system. Words have energy and meaning. Thoughts have energy and meaning. Intentions have energy and meaning. How might we embody more awareness and spaciousness in our waking lives to create more awareness and spaciousness in our dream lives? Take a gentle breath in and a long breath out. Close your eyes for a bit, allowing your breath to simply be as it is.

Forget To Remember

Take a minute or two to just be with your breath. How might this meditation support me? How do I want to feel? Hold this intention in your mind’s eye. Hold this intention in your heart space. Feel this intention in your body. Breathe gently in and gently out. Allow your breath to flow through your intention, mixing life force with the electrochemistry of intention and thought. In quantum mechanics, a wave does not become a particle until it is observed. Rituals have no meaning until you find what resonates for you. So much comes through the dream space that we are not harvesting. There have been so many dreams that have made big changes in the world. Scientific breakthroughs have come through the dream space, like Einstein’s theory of relativity and Bohr’s discovery of atomic structure. The story goes that Niels Bohr had been trying to understand the structure of the atom but to no avail. It wasn’t until he had a dream in which he saw an atom’s nucleus and the electrons spinning around it the same way planets orbited the sun that he understood. Upon waking, he felt that his dream was accurate. He set out to find evidence to prove that his vision was correct and was successful in doing so. Similarly, it’s said that a teenage Albert Einstein dreamed of sledding downhill and going faster and faster until he approached the speed of light. In the dream, Einstein noticed the stars changing relative to his own speed. He apparently attributed his scientific career to being inspired by that dream. How are we able to see through our dreams? Perhaps when we journey through the dream space, we let go of our notions of self and allow ourselves to meld into what Carl Jung called the collective unconscious. This may be where we divine the truth. The dream space is rich, fertile, sacred ground. We might have bizarre dreams, lucid dreams, scary nightmares, as well as deeply profound dreams. How might we honor this hallowed ground of mystery? We honor it by paying attention. It wasn’t until many months after my mother died that I finally dreamt of her. It seemed as if everyone else around me had dreamt of her as if she were making visitation rounds through the ethers. In the dream, I was holding her hand so tightly. I woke, feeling the softness of her skin.