Sorry for the cut and paste job everyone, I did not know I was on the hook for tonight, but I don't think it will hurt to focus on campaign intentions one more time. I am extremely busy taking care of things for my mom who is not doing so well, so this might be my last contribution to Monday Vigil for a while. We plan to start at 8PM Eastern time, but if the time doesn't work for you just join in when you can. Peace to all.

Promoted by Rain

Probably one of the most difficult things for Westerners to comprehend about Eastern faith traditions is the concept that this physical reality is an illusion. There is only one true Reality, the limitless, blissful matrix underlying and existing within all creation, which some people call God, and which I call That. The illusionary nature of physical reality is a huge subject, but for our purpose here we are going to think about duality, how it affects worldly actions and the impact created by inner action.

Tonight is a repeat of the Monday Vigil from March 31, in which we once again held a vigil of focused intention. Below the fold you will find the list of intentions we used that evening with minor edits and additions. Our regular start time is 5PM PDT, 6PM MDT, 7PM CDT and 8PM EDT, but if the time doesn't work for you, join in when you are able. Read through the list and depending on your own faith tradition you may either pray for the list of intentions, or hold them in a meditative focus. And of course if any of them are offensive to you, feel free to ignore them.

Many people have the idea that yoga is a set of funny postures named after animals into which people are required to contort their bodies in order to achieve some known or unknown benefits. Yoga is actually a comprehensive philosophy and discipline for which there are teachings covering every aspect of life and death. The goal of yoga is union with God, and a simple deffinition of the Sanskrit word yoga is to yoke or unite. The physical practice of those postures, called asanas, is known as Hatha Yoga, and within the teachings of Hatha Yoga there are different schools of Hatha Yoga practice.

Promoted by Rain

For those of you who are newer to the Street, and perhaps were not around for the beginning of Monday Vigil, I would like to revisit our first experience of meditating as a group here on Street Prophets. Meditating in a group is always a special experience, and it was a surprise for those of us who participated in that first vigil that group meditation was just as powerful when the group was not physically in the same location. It was on the eve of the election in 2006 that Rain posted a diary with a list of intentions regarding the election that would take place the following day. Several people were attracted to the idea and we agreed to "meet" to put energy toward the listed intentions at a time which we negotiated, 8PM Eastern, 7PM Central, 6PM Mountain and 5PM Pacific time. It was such a powerful experience; after it was over we agreed we would like to maintain the practice, so regular Monday Vigils became a feature on Street Prophets. You can read the original diary and ensuing discussion here.

Promoted by Rain until after the Vigil

For some time I have been entertaining the idea that a cosmic joke is being played on us poor humans. Life as a human is spent in this place where there are an infinite number of noisy distractions, and a description of most of them could be prefaced with, "You know what's wrong with…?" If we pay attention to our stream of thought, we find that most of the time we are thinking about things that dissatisfy us in one way or another. Tonight in the Monday Vigil, let's see if we can get off that merry go round for a while and get in touch with the warm fuzzies. In general, we begin at 8 PM EST, 7 PM CST, 6 PM MST and 5 PM PST. If the time is not good for you, join in when you are able.

Promoted by Rain until after the Vigil

For some time I have been using a healing technique that is meant to bring peace to the user. It comes from a healing modality developed in Hawaii called Self Identity Ho'oponopono.There is nothing about it that makes it incompatible with any faith tradition, and in fact it is all about practicing what Jesus taught.

In a Detroit Free Press article entitled  
Three Cheers for Earth, Free Press Staff Writer Margarita Bauza relates the story of a local bikini bar that has installed $70, 000 worth of environmentally conscious upgrades. What, you may wonder, is a story about a bikini bar is doing here at SP? I like to draw attention to good things that go unnoticed. The best news is frequently found in the business sections of newspapers. Away from all the sensational drama and gore of the front section, there are often small items along the sidebars about companies that are moving towards more holistic operating practices. Since this article was featured on the front page of today's business section, I thought I would share it with all of you, a little good news for a Friday. In any case, I bet the title got your attention. ☺

Promoted by Rain until after the Vigil

In the world of the fruitcake, it is an accepted truth that what we give our attention to multiplies. Pay attention to all the things we dislike and the Universe brings us more. Pay attention to what we like and we get more of that instead. This explanation is more than a little simplistic, but there is something to it, and it is one reason why it is so important to spend time being grateful for our blessings. The Monday before Thanksgiving, meditation on gratitude seems to be a no brainer. Starting tonight at 8 EST, we will meditate on gratitude, but with an unusual twist.

In today's Detroit News there was an article about a mutated form of the Common Cold Virus that has killed ten people.

The illness made headlines in Texas earlier this year, when a so-called boot camp flu sickened hundreds at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. The most serious cases were blamed on the emerging virus and one 19-year-old trainee died.

"What really got people's attention is these are healthy young adults landing in the hospital and, in some cases, the ICU," said Dr. John Su, an infectious diseases investigator with the CDC. (snip...)

There are no good antiviral medications for adenoviruses. Patients usually are treated with aspirin, liquids and bed rest.

Promoted by Rain until after the Vigil

As long as we have been observing Monday Vigils, we have never done mantra meditation, so I thought tonight we would give it a go, starting at 8 Eastern Time, 7 Central Time, 6 Mountain Time and 5 Pacific Time.  Below I have suggested a couple word-phrase mantras from the book Seven Lessons in Conscious Living, by Roy Eugene Davis. When using these two syllable mantras, the meditator mentally recites the first syllable on inhalation and the second syllable on exhalation. As your intention becomes internalized, you will find yourself beginning to mentally listen to the mantra rather than reciting it.

The constructive, vibrational influences of the (word-phrase) mantras hong-sau (pronounced hung-saw) and so-hum enliven the nervous system, reduce stress, and introduce calming, transformative influences into the mind and body.

Promoted by Rain until after the vigil

Last week we began a series of Monday Vigils in which I am experimenting with sharing a healing blessing that I have been receiving for some time. (If you did not read last week's diary, I encourage you to follow the link for more a detailed explanation.) This experiment will continue up to four weeks, as long as the participants want it to continue.