Buddhist Healing Practice

Buddha-medicine

It’s a given that coming from being a hard-core atheist, I would have a lot to learn about the world’s seven great religions. It’s not to say that atheists don’t know about these things, but it’s unlikely that most have gone into any great depth of study. I don’t like to speak in terms of absolutes, so allow me to add the disclaimer that there are always exceptions to the rule.

Along my journey out of the abyss of atheism, I recently attended a gathering of about 20 men and women from employees from local Raleigh towing companies to bio engineers for a Buddhist Healing Practice. Never having had an experience of this nature, I was curious, but nothing more. Ailments from the physical to the mental were addressed and the only requirement on my part in attending was to keep an open mind.

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Running On AutoPilot

sleeping cat

In between heaving dead cats the other day I came across several videos that explained why some days I want to heave dead cats more than other days. (In all actuality, I would not heave a dead cat if it bit me.) With my purr ball Roxie snuggled next to me, I perused Youtube and found a very insightful explanation of one of the most common of all human conditions. Most of us run on autopilot. We limit ourselves to patterns of thought. We restrict ourselves to merely thinking rather than choosing.

Life always gives us some form of limitation. What is abundantly clear is how we choose to deal with it, and how conscious will comes into play. The other day I was watching a neighbor’s house get a new roof. Apparently, the roofer didn’t require his crew to wear safety equipment. They looked capable enough, but one false step and it would be a thirty foot drop. Limitations are sometimes for our own good, and if we are paying the least bit of attention, we learn to know when to put on the safety gear and when to decide we don’t need it.

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Unseen Influences

world_chaos_sign_by_fishq-d4rgkfp

Have you ever awakened in the morning feeling emotionally funky and you don’t know why? You didn’t party the night before and drink too much, you didn’t go to bed after an argument with your spouse, no nightmares, you aren’t physically sick, it’s a beautiful sunny day, but you just feel like being grumpy.

The next step is your mind starts to troll for something to hang your emotional funk on, and usually it will find something, anything. The dog is old, your neighbor painted his house NAPA blue, you are 2000 miles overdue for an oil change on the car . . . something. Maybe nothing of substance, but that doesn’t necessarily matter to the mind. It just needs something to chew on.

We all have the occasional morning like this. Realistically, we can’t expect every day to start with the mental equivalent of a luxurious limo service Kitchener can give us on the road to an awesome day. I’ve concluded it’s just fallout from being human, or heaving dead cats.

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Acceptance and Awareness

awakening

What I’ve come to realize is that acceptance won’t come until you are ready. No matter what it is, you literally cannot see it, hear it or even imagine it until you are ready. This is a lesson I personally learned after a lifetime of wearing blinders that I didn’t even know I had on. I couldn’t entertain the thought of a higher power, especially when labeled with the “G” word. Come on folks get a grip and stop deluding yourself with fairy tales of magical beings who keep our breath flowing and our hearts beating. My opinion; get real.

We often find ourselves acting as cheap towing Aurora Colorado would do to serve old beliefs, but most of this is simply out of habit. Life is complex enough as it is without stirring a pot that creates an entirely different recipe. So avoidance is big. For me, however, when the time came, it took more effort to avoid what I was ready for than it did to hang on to old belief patterns. It was like stepping out of a tight shoe when I realized I didn’t have to defend a position that never quite fit my philosophical size.

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