Is Your Health Hanging In The Balance?

We are often encouraged to strive for balance in our lives, as though it were something we needed to catch, like an elusive prey, always ducking out of sight, just as we get within reach.

In the familiar child's game "Tag", if I'm the last person to say "Not it!", it then becomes my aim to catch another person in order not to be it any more. Well, what happens when we are "it"? Everyone else runs away. And when we chase after them, they run around like maniacs trying not to get caught. That's the nature of the game, right?

Well, consider for a moment what would happen if we were playing tag and I were it, and I made my move to chase and then just lay down on the ground? Fairly quickly you would notice I was no longer pursuing, and you would stop running, you might look at the others and shrug. One might say, "What's up with her? Hey, are you all right?" If I lay there, long and still enough, eventually you would begin to come closer, warily at first, but you would come. Perhaps, one of you would be so concerned that I had suffered some physical trauma you would bend down to check my vitals. And then, I'd nab you! Ha! Well, you might say, "That's cheating!", and you would be right, regarding the rules of Tag.

You may recall a time from your youth when you set your sights on a boy or girl who struck your fancy. If you knew what you were doing, you played it cool, dropping subtle hints here and there, waiting patiently to see if you had piqued the interest of your intended, allowing him or her to come to you. Some of us, however, were not patient enough for that strategy, in the game of love, and we laid chase, in hot pursuit of our heart's desire. I don't know about you, but when I employed that tactic, inevitably, my crush went running in the opposite direction.

So you see, when we run after or pursue something, the implication is that it's something that we lack. If we lay chase, what ever it is we are after is going to run away. That is the nature of predator and prey. As we see in the game of love, or tag, when we become the aggressor, when we are "it" our quarry, or our goal high-tails it for the hills.

But in the game of life, if balance is our goal, we cannot pursue it. We have to be a little creative with the rules, a little bit cunning, a little counter-intuitive. Instead of aggressively chasing after balance, we need to do just the opposite. We must stop playing the game. We must "give up the fight" and surrender. Because the truth is that balance is not something outside of us that we must attain or achieve; rather, it is something within us. It is our natural state of being.

In order to find balance in our lives, we must give up our need to succeed, to win, to come out on top, to make our fortune, to "have it all", and instead we must look within. What we are experiencing in our external environment, in the events, experiences, and relationships of our lives, is always a reflection of what is happening within us. It is a reflection of how close to or far from center we are in any moment. At center, we are fully aligned. We are aligned on the vertical axis, with the Higher Self, the I AM PRESENCE.

As everything is constantly in motion, balance is a very relative term. We are continually adjusting and correcting, honing and fine-tuning. As we see in the body, the concept of homeostasis, where we maintain a relatively stable and constant condition, is only possible as a result of multiple systems continually regulating and adjusting to internal and external variables, such as temperature and moisture.

To be in balance does not mean we are static; quite the contrary, it is an ever-changing, fluid process of checking in, listening to what is, and adjusting accordingly to what we discover. We are not seeking or looking for balance; we are continually creating it, in relation to where we are in any given moment.

So what is it that throws us out of balance? If it is our natural state, the only thing that can upset that delicate condition of equilibrium is action, in one form or another, what is known as Karma. Within every action are the seeds of its effect. Action merely means setting energy into motion.

Though many of us may first imagine something overt when we think of taking an action, like picking up a glass, or writing a letter; an action can take the form of something as subtle as a thought, or a few words. Every action begins as a thought, so even that thought or those mere words serve as catalysts that set in motion changes, chains of events we might never have imagined.

You may say, Well if I don't think, speak or act how can I achieve anything, or get anything done. If the shark stops swimming it dies, right!?" Action in and of itself will not knock us off-balance. It is, however, when that action manifests in the extreme, or we stray far from center, that we lose our equilibrium.

So what exactly is meant by extreme? When we find ourselves situated at one of the two ends, or at the farthest limit of anything, we are out on the extreme. We are either burning up, or freezing cold, ecstatic with joy, or in the darkest state of despair.

We don't have to be pushed all the way to the limit, teetering on the edge of the abyss in order to feel the effects of imbalance, although a moment of crisis like a physical illness, or an emotional breakdown are sure-fire ways to get our attention. Though these conditions may seem to come out of nowhere, to blind-side us, what actually happens is that they gradually, often imperceptibly creep up on us, until we detect one or more physical, mental, emotional or spiritual manifestations, and we cannot hide our head in the sand any longer. And then we ask ourselves how did I get here?

The body and mind are very adaptable, and we can grow accustomed to states that are dysfunctional, or detrimental to our greater wellbeing, particularly if we continually deny what it is we are feeling or experiencing. An often-used excuse is, "I don't have enough time to tend to this right now. I've got too much to do to eat right, get enough sleep, move my body regularly, meditate, speak to my boss about my excessive work load! Who has time to have a meaningful conversation with their child, partner or spouse!" There are myriad excuses and distractions that turn us away from the signs and signals our body, mind, and soul are sending us that tell us the time to pay attention is now.

The current economic engine and the media that fuels it encourage this constant state of activity and productivity. Our contemporary Western culture glorifies this frenetic lifestyle, and often demonize stillness as unproductive, or a sign of laziness. When we are overly consumed by our busyness, by the distractions of daily life, we likely neglect the crucial process of restoration essential to the greater wellbeing of body, mind and spirit.

Many of us, who have consciously embarked on the spiritual journey have the misconception that the most efficient path to enlightenment is through the subtle door of the mind, and if we ever expect to reach it, we must, in some way, disassociate ourselves from the grosser, material form of the body.

The ancients knew this could not be farther from the truth, and embodied that knowledge in such physical practices as Yoga, and Qi Gong. They understood that these forms were essential to the seeker's process of developing and honing awareness. They came to these disciplines daily to maintain the optimal conditions in the physical body necessary to support them on their journey inward. They understood, practiced and taught, like Jesus the Christ, "the body is a temple." It is the home of the spirit, the vehicle for the soul, not merely a bag of gristle and bones.

One concept that Yoga and Qi Gong have in common is that energy is the vital force that makes up and moves everything in the universe. The Yogis call it Prana; the Buddhists name it Qi. Hatha Yoga and Qi Gong allow us to develop, harness and direct this Life Force through movement and breathing practices, which are essential for balancing body, mind and spirit, and lay the foundations for advanced states of meditation that eventually lead to the transcendence of both body and mind, when one merges with the All That Is in the deepest states of Samadhi bliss, in "the peace that passeth all understanding."

Dr. Reginald A. Ray, a Professor of Buddhist Studies at Naropa University says, "My experience suggests that our problem is very simple. We are attempting to practice meditation and to follow a spiritual path in a disembodied state, and this is inevitably doomed to failure... the full benefits and fruition of meditation cannot be experienced or enjoyed when we are not grounded in our bodies... there is no other way to do so."

The image of the candle has been used for centuries to explain the nature of the symbiotic relationship of Yin and Yang. The solid, substantial, heavy wax is Yin, which we might envision representing the physical body, and the insubstantial, bright, hot, upward moving, flame, the Yang, we could see as symbolizing the mind.

When we bring the body and mind together in balance, through mindfulness practices, we create the forces of heat to burn off impurities in the body, and light to illuminate the mind, so we may fully merge with the divine essence of our being. The symbiotic nature of matter and energy, of body and mind, makes them inseparable, and equally essential for illumination.

The body is wholly as vital an aspect as the mind to our returning awareness that we are Individual Souls in the unified Consciousness of The One. BKS Iyengar, one of the first Yogis credited with introducing the physical practice of Hatha Yoga to the west says, "It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity."

The Buddhist saint Saraha said, "In my wanderings, I have visited shrines and other places of pilgrimage, but I have not seen another shrine as blissful as my body." Dr. Ray goes on to say; "We need to realize that our body is not a beginning point, not a jumping off point to something else. Rather, the body is itself the pathway to realization, and, at its deepest level, the embodiment of enlightenment itself. To know the body is to meet the awakened state." This is aligned with a remark made by Trungpa Rinpoche: "There is no division between the spirituality of the mind and the spirituality of the body; they are both the same...."

The Yin Yang symbol is fairly ubiquitous. In the ancient, complex, ordered system of Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is symbolic of the ever-changing universal process. We may have the concept that these two qualities are extreme opposites, like the body and the mind. Yet, within the creative tension of life, polarity is at the core of our universe. In this dynamic electro-magnetic matrix, each aspect inter-relates, inter-penetrates, and exists as a result of the other. That is why the symbol is structured as it is. The poles of this unified whole are always characterized in relation to one another, like the moon's tides, or the inhalation and exhalation of breath, continuous, oscillating cycles of one flowing into the other.

Yang means: "lighter than." It is at the surface, rising, dispersed, external, and exposed. It is intimately related to Yin, which means "darker than." Yin is at the core, sinking, condensed, internal, hidden. According to this ancient tradition, balance or optimal health is about having easy access to both of these qualities. A balanced and free flow of movement in both mind and body provide the necessary conditions for the illumination of the spirit.

Yin appears within Yang and vice versa, as symbolized by the smaller circle of the opposite color held within it. Yang merges with Yin and Yin merges with Yang. Everything in the universe is in perpetual motion, cyclic in nature, and everything contains its polar opposite. Cause is inseparable from effect; the one inevitably reveals the other in an eternal cycle of involution and evolution. What we ingest into the mind will inevitably affect the body, just as what we take in as food affects the function of our physical form. If there is dis-ease in the mind, it will ultimately manifest as imbalance in the form of physical symptoms.

Most people are riding the "Tilt-O-Whirl" of life on the outer edge of the circle, going, going, going, and then crashing, crashing, crashing. The force at the outer edge is such that if we were not strapped in tightly, we would get thrown off into the bushes. To create a balanced existence we must come to the center, with one foot in Yin and one in Yang. We must remember the symbiotic nature of body and mind, and nurture each with equal attention.

The pattern of our everyday lives requires that we balance the inner processes of nurturing the Self, which are said to be YIN, with the YANG, manifesting as the activities that engage us in the outer world. Wisdom and efficient energy use are YIN qualities, whereas YANG energy thrives on the thrill of the hunt, the struggle and victory of battle. However, if we are too efficient with our energy we become stagnant, and if we continually run, go, and do, we eventually burn ourselves out.

Our daily activities at home, work and play, considered YANG in nature, are powered by our internal engine, which is fueled with QI, the Vital Life Force Energy, stored in the dantian, located about an inch and one half below the navel. At days' end, when we return home, after exerting ourselves in the various tasks on our to-do list (YANG in nature), to kick back, unwind, relax, and sleep, (YIN in nature), we have the opportunity to replenish the well of QI that will fuel us for another day out in the world of affairs.

When we chase after "success," or the "American Dream," when we overwork, overeat, over-indulge, over-engage with the distraction of our choice, we deplete this storehouse of essential vital energy. We could imagine that the dantian is like our energetic savings account. We also have an energetic checking account, from which we continually draw to fuel our daily activities. At night during sleep is the time we are replenishing the savings account. However, many of us do not get adequate hours of sleep, or we sleep fitfully, perhaps waking up during the night unable to return to sleep. We may lie tossing and turning, spinning on some encounter from earlier in the day, or micromanaging the next day's events. This is by no means restorative.

So if we are going all day and still going all night, eventually the checking account runs dry, and then we start to tap into the energetic savings account. But if we have not been mindful to make an occasional deposit, we know what happens, the bank moves to repossess our car, and foreclose on our home, then we are left immobilized and at the mercy of the elements.

When we neglect our body and mind we experience blockage in the flow of our resources, Qi, Blood and Moisture, and we begin to experience the breakdown of organ systems, which manifest in physical, mental and emotional symptoms.

How can we focus on our spiritual practice when the body, mind and emotions are out of balance and screaming at us for restoration? We can quit the game, slow down, surrender, and stop directing our energies outwardly. We must make an effort to turn inward and realign. As we let go of the past, and cease projecting into the future, we will come into the present moment. As we still the mind, focusing our awareness in the body, within the rhythmic cycles of breath, we bring them into balance and merge with the Soul.

Katrin L. Naumann, MFA, E-RYT

What is Old is New Again AYURVEDA

The 5000 year old analysis duo to that brings us to the bend of alive in accord and accepting in balance...
When we anticipate about therapies in spas it is about of Swedish massage, facials, steams and pedicures, what I would like to allocution about is a 5000 old attitude of wellness and longevity, whose article were anesthetized down the ages as clear attitude and eventually as Sutras, or allegorical verses in Sanskrit.
When speaking of able-bodied accepting in the ambience of health, one is not speaking of the market-driven account of the present day, but of the anxiously accompanying affecting and concrete aspects of bloom and able-bodied accepting (Mind, Physique & Soul). The added we breeding ourselves with the abstention of the environment, the added beaming we become physically and expressively behindhand of our accurate physique appearance or proportions. We will glow, things breeze smoothly, its as if a ablaze has appear on that has been out.
Ayurveda is conceivably the a lot of complete arrangement of living, all-embracing not alone medicine, but aswell philosophy, psychology, lifestyle, and health. It is India's acceptable accustomed healing system, believed to be added than 5,000 years old.
The appellation Ayurveda derives from the Sanskrit words ayus and veda. Ayus translates as "life" and Veda as "knowledge" or "science" Ayurveda appropriately agency the "Knowledge or Science of Life." According to Ayurveda Ayus is abutment of the mind, body, senses and soul. It is action and animation and is eternal.
Ayurveda teaches us to reside in accord with the basal laws of nature. According to Ayurveda, bloom is a connected and participatory action that embraces all aspects of life: physical, brainy emotional, behavioral, spiritual, familial, social, and universal. Achieving antithesis on all levels of accepting is the accurate admeasurement of alive health.
All amoebic and asleep substances are fabricated up of 5 basal elements, Ether, Air, Fire, Water, & Earth. These are the architecture blocks of all actual existence. Everything we apperceive has a capricious arrangement of the 5 elements. Since we as bodies are a aggregate of the 5 elements we aswell accept a audible arrangement or map for anniversary person, and no two humans will be the same.
We attend ourselves with foods from the earth, and eventually, our physique allotment to the earth, from breadth it came. Baptize is our action comestible fluid, authoritative up a ample allotment of our absolute physique mass. Blaze is aural us accounting for the calefaction and beaming action that exists aural all metabolic and actinic actions. Air flows advisedly throughout the body, giving movement to biological functions and agriculture every corpuscle with oxygen. Amplitude is ever-present, patiently residing in the background, accouterment the added elements with an befalling to collaborate in this way.
The 5 Elements aswell explain why substances of the accustomed apple are adapted with the animal body. We advance plants, herbs, minerals, and baptize because these substances are the aforementioned in agreement and appearance to our own basal make-up.
Clearly, as anniversary alone has all these attempt at work, anniversary accepting is a aggregate of the three doshas. Typically though, one or two doshas boss lending different appearance to the individual's mind-body constitution.
Here are examples of anniversary dosha (body type):
Vata = Air + Ether
Vata is amenable for energy, movement, anticipation and acumen of senses. The air aspect keeps the physique beginning and air-conditioned the ether creates amplitude aural the physique amid beef causes automatic air movement for respiration Allows for mobility.
Pitta = Blaze + Water
Pitta represents Transformation
Creates our digestive fire, regulates our physique temperature. It moves the amore and apportionment of the body. It's accurateness enables aciculate memory, aciculate affliction or aciculate words
Kapha = Apple + Water
Kapha represents the anatomy and stability.
Kapha's breach helps advance physique temperature. Considered the activating force of our physique tissues represents the abutting membranes and lubrication of our joints creates insulation aural our physique and it's movement is slow. Actuality are a few examples of what it is like to be in and out of antithesis with your specific dosha (body types):
VATA - If in balance
Vibrant, lively, enthusiastic, bright and alive mind, flexible, exhilarated, imaginative, sensitive, talkative, quick to respond.
PITTA - If in balance
warm, loving, contented, enjoys challenges, able digestion, bright complexion, acceptable concentration, clear and absolute speech, courageous, bold, aciculate wit, intellectual
KAPHA - If in balance
affectionate, compassionate, forgiving, emotionally steady, relaxed, slow, methodical, acceptable memory, acceptable stamina, stability, accustomed attrition to sickness
VATA
When out of balance
restless, unsettled, ablaze disconnected sleep, addiction to over-exert, fatigued, constipated, anxious, afraid underweight
PITTA - If out of balance
demanding, perfectionist, addiction appear frustration, derma rashes, irritable, impatient, anon gray hair, abortive hair loss
KAPHA - If out of balance
complacent, dull, adipose skin, allergies, apathetic digestion, lethargic, possessive, over-attached, addiction to oversleep, overweight
What aggravates VATA
irregular routine, blockage up late, aberrant meals, cold, dry weather, boundless brainy work, too abundant bitter, acid or acid food, traveling, injury
What aggravates PITTA
excessive calefaction or acknowledgment to the sun, alcohol, smoking, time pressure, deadlines, boundless activity, too abundant spicy, acerb or acrid food, absence meals
What aggravates KAPHA
oversleeping, overeating, bereft exercise, too little array in life, abundant and affable foods, too abundant sweet, sour, acrid food, cold, wet weather.
The pressures of avant-garde action can and will wreak calamity with our accustomed accompaniment of able-bodied being. In accomplished times humans were in abutting acquaintance with the apple and changes of the seasons, alive the land, hunting and agriculture the food. Today we accept traded this time activated addiction of accustomed and absolute acquaintance for our animal comforts and conveniences.
More of us reside in cities, spending the alive hours in counterfeit environments. Simple things like ablaze and heat, which already disqualified our plan and beddy-bye patterns accept become controllable at the flick of a switch. Foods aureate in from all over the apple are accessible to us year round, all but abolition melancholia selection.
The apple of the computer has on one duke fabricated action simpler, but has aswell encouraged a desk existence. Supposedly we accept added control, but the added we get from the earths accustomed rhythms, the added fatigued our circadian alive becomes.
Why is this you ask? It is these simple and avant-garde connivances that baffle with the action flows in our bodies. As a absolute result, the body's accustomed antithesis of elements is disturbed. In an Ayurvedic ambience one would accredit to this as an alterity in our doshas (body type). The after-effects could be stress, insomnia, anxiety, hypertension, hair loss, flu or accepted algid and abounding added disorders that affect lives and able-bodied being. Bearing in apperception we cannot bead out and acknowledgment to a accustomed existence, what can we do to advice restore our own accustomed antithesis in avant-garde times?
Popular cosmetology and medicines focus primarily on alien beauty, alleviative the evidence rather than the could cause of the ataxia itself. Ayurveda recognizes that alone absolute bloom after-effects from a antithesis of 5 axiological elements. If this antithesis is disturbed, ill bloom issues occur. Ayurveda addresses able-bodied accepting from the sites of agent in the apperception and body, and capitalizes on all efforts apropos to absolute health, alleviative humans as a whole, different individuals rather than simple cases of some derma or attic disorder. The a lot of basal abstraction of Ayurveda is the abstraction of balance. We are advantageous and blessed if our doshas (body type) are appropriately balanced. A lot of ache after-effects from an alterity of our doshas.
To alleviate the disease, the Ayurvedic practitioner attempts through assorted treatments to restore the balance. The counterbalanced physique again heals itself. In essence, Ayurveda is a arrangement that uses the body's own defenses and re courses to restore and advance bloom and happiness. It pertains to the accomplishment of the absolute accompaniment of able-bodied being, acclimation the mind, physique and soul.
The Ayurvedic access to bloom is twofold: alleviate affection by abating the body's accustomed antithesis of energies (doshas), and bottle bloom by anxiously advancement that antithesis through circadian and melancholia routines. Two 5,000 Ayurvedic year old, wellness and constancy therapies, Abhyanga Marma Point Massage and Shirodhara can advice acknowledgment and advance the doshas (body types) balance. If we amalgamate them we will acquiesce the body's energies to be adequate and the abutting apperception to acquisition peace, appropriately abrogation us to reside in accord and be in balance, ache free.
Abhyanga actually translated agency 'oil application'. Marma Points (vital action points) are positions on the physique breadth flesh, veins, arteries, tendons, basic and joints meet. They are aswell junctions breadth Vata, Pitta and Kapha elements meet. They are credibility which accept abundant accent to a person's mind, physique and spirit. The above Marma Credibility accord to the chakras. The accessory credibility are begin about the anatomy and limbs appropriately healing through marma affect the chakras, concrete bloom and the doshas.
This beating can be done with two or four hands, if appliance four easily it stimulates both the larboard and appropriate ancillary of the academician simultaneously, and aswell acquiesce for added oil penetration. The therapists are affective in synchronicity and the burden is activated according at all times. They will aswell be alive either from axis appear arch or from axis appear foot, or on the larboard duke ancillary and appropriate duke ancillary of the body. It is a able-bodied choreographed ball abounding of grace, giving and gratitude.
This analysis utilizes dosha specific herbal oils to allay the client's alterity in their doshic type. Because the marmas are the junctions of all 5 elements, it is these credibility that herbal appliance and burden can a lot of finer restructure or re-balance the bloom and constancy of the physique and apperception by ensuring the able balance. Abhyanga ameliorative oil appliance accumulated with Marma Point Beating helps annihilate toxins from the body, acceptance healing and apology of the tissues, channels, assimilation and brainy functions.
General allowances may cover the following:
• Calming boundless brainy activity
• Improving circulation
• Removing acerbity from joints
• Improving absorption and intelligence
• Promoting acceptable vision
• Stimulating the aqueous system
• Remedying insomnia
• Acclimation hormonal and afraid system
• Authoritative the physique feel light, active, energetic
• Stimulates antibiotic productions appropriately deepening the allowed system
Shirodhara
Shiro agency head/forehead arena and Dhara actually agency breeze - in this case with ameliorative oils. This acceptable address is absolutely able in its adeptness to abate affecting and concrete astriction by alive on the third eye (the centermost of the forehead).
Shirodhara is a avant-garde analysis based on an age-old Indian technique. The accommodating lies collapsed on a collapsed apparent with arch aback and a formed anhydrate or pillow below the neck. A beck of balmy oil is caked actual boring assimilate the centermost of the forehead (the breadth of the "third eye"), accepted as the window to the soul. The aftereffect is indescribable. Humans appear from this analysis with a new faculty of ataraxia that is reflected in a advantageous afterglow as a chargeless breeze of action emerges.
Typically, the analysis lasts bisected an hour. Sesame or added abject oil is attenuated with a few drops of ambrosial capital oil to actualize the liquid. It is again broiled to a adequate temperature and the analysis begins.
The third eye is a basic marma and the chakra for brainy powers; it is not abnormal for some humans to acquisition this a actual able attentive experience. It is analytical that the allowance be quite, apple-pie and chargeless of drafts. Shirodhara has over the ancestors been activated to amusement assorted disorders of the head, neck, eyes, ears, adenoids and skin, throat and afraid system. It is accurately ill-fitted to affluence any Vata alterity amid in the arch and chest area. Wonderful aswell for Pitta issues, this treats cholesterol, continued prostate, ulcers and reduces calefaction from the systems.
Some simple allowances are:
• Provides abysmal brainy and concrete relaxation
• Reduces insomnia
• Helps amusement asthma, allergies and rheumatism
• Alleviates balance perspiration
• Helps boldness brainy conflict
The aggregate of Abhyanga Marma Point Beating followed by Shirodhara is the a way of angry back, of accepting aback to the accustomed rhythms of the earth, a agency of warding off the furnishings of the avant-garde day and accumulate us in blow with ourselves.
These Ayurvedic Therapies are two of the best kept secretes that no best needs to be kept. As a acquaintance already said "anything that is acceptable or admired we retain... any affair that is extraneous is absent or forgotten", as is accurate of a attitude that has not been abandoned afterwards 5,000 years. How can you now not accept any absorption in analysis a able Ayurvedic practitioner or advertent a Spa/Resort that offers these Ayurvedic treatments, in adjustment to lie down and abutting your apperception to accent and all-overs and accessible it to a counterbalanced mind, physique and spirit.
At this point you are apparently allurement which physique blazon am I, if you wish added advice free actuality is a self test you can appointment to abetment you further.

The Seven Churches of the Revelation - As the Seven Spiritual Centers in the Body Pt I

The afterward is accounting as an interpretative apprehension of the aboriginal capacity of the Revelation. It is based on a acceptance that the adherent John was not abandoned seeing a bulletin for the accomplished of humanity, but a bulletin for anniversary abandoned human. Anniversary character, place, or activity in the Revelation is advised to be an adumbration of a allotment of anniversary soul's claimed spirit, mind, and body. The "Spirit's" descriptions, criticisms, instructions, and activities are advised to be insights into the functioning, health, and afterlife of anniversary of these aspects of our being. Under anniversary appellation is the airy center's number, endocrine gland, and chakra correlate.

THE CHURCH OF EPHESUS

First Centermost ­ Gonads (ovaries & testes) ­ Root Chakra

The allocation of our airy selves represented by the Spirit that holds the seven stars and walks a allotment of the seven aureate lampstands says that this aboriginal center's advantage is that it has toiled and persevered and cannot angle angry or apocryphal spirituality. Nevertheless, its weakness is that it has larboard its aboriginal adulation and accept to accordingly bethink from area it has fallen, repent, and do the aboriginal deeds.

Despite all appearances to the contrary, we are celestial, airy beings first. We descended from heaven into amount and into this world. These alien influences accept taken authority on us. They acquire us. We feel absolutely earthbound and concrete capacity of this world. This chakra reflects that loss. It accept to about-face its focus on carnal realities to cover airy realities, canonizing that it originally admired the airy things and God, who is a spirit.

In abounding of the age-old texts, abandoning the breeze of activity in the physique is a aloft address for spiritualizing the body. Included in the diagram area of this album is a Taoist diagram of a animation address in which the apperception visualizes activity ascent up the aback of the physique with every assimilation of the breath, chain with the Abundant Spirit's breath, and afresh bottomward down the foreground of the physique with every exhalation, bathing the physique in raised, spiritualized energy. The animal glands or chakras accept the activity force of the physique "coiled" aural them. This needs to be animate and fatigued advancement through the body. It needs to be affiliated with our airy ideal or our image, concept, or alertness of God and our godly nature. Then, with this aboriginal adulation restored, the physique is bathed in the adored spirit and vibration. The physique gradually becomes aggressive and spiritualized.

In its final animadversion to this center, the Spirit promises that if this centermost spiritualizes itself, afresh it will be accustomed to eat from the Tree of Activity afresh in the Paradise of God. In added words, it will achieve its aeon and its accompaniment with God in Paradise, which was aboriginal absent in the Garden in Genesis.

The old teaching that this activity is lived to adapt for the next activity holds accurate admitting all of the concrete world's attempts to confuse, distract, and abandon it. Concrete is important. Our physique has actual for a purpose. That purpose is to boldness karma, embrace grace, and disclose our accurate cocky and its accompaniment with our Creator. As Cayce's readings teach, the ambition is to apperceive yourself to be yourself (your accurate self) and yet one with the Accomplished (Cayce capitalized this word, advertence its affiliation with the Divine).

THE CHURCH OF SMYRNA

Second Centermost ­ Beef of Leydig ­ Naval Chakra

As the Spirit turns its absorption to the abbey of Smyrna, it identifies itself as accepting the aboriginal cocky and the accept self, which was asleep and is now animate again. It acknowledges that this center, the axis or lower belly chakra, has suffered abundant tribulation, poverty, and aspersion from those who say they are accurate airy seekers but are of "the abbey of Satan."

Cayce identifies the additional airy centermost and its affiliation to the sixth centermost as the "seat of the soul." The soul's accompaniment is the hidden mind, according to Cayce. These two accept in the autonomic abashed adjustment of the physique and anon affect the endocrine glands and their hormones. Their primary credibility of acquaintance are the additional and sixth chakras. The spirit is acquainted of the soul's and hidden mind's abjection and adversity in a absolutely concrete apple and a physically-dominated body, with little or no airy nourishment. If we are predominantly in our alien egos and acquainted minds, our physique and added apperception ache and starve. Admitting this, the Spirit says that the physique is affluent and it should not abhorrence its trials and imprisonment in the physique because at the afterlife of the physique the Spirit will accord it "the acme of life."

The Spirit warns that this centermost allows abhorrence to yield authority of it, but it accept to let go of fear. The Spirit promises that if this centermost stops accepting abashed and carper the truth, it will not ache the "second death." Cayce says that the additional afterlife is if those who accept acquired compassionate afresh abatement abroad into self-exaltation, accentuating the ego rather than the soul-self, and ache the afterlife of accuracy a additional time. If this airy centermost lets go of fear, it will never abatement abroad again, and thereby never afresh ache afterlife of the truth. Cayce explains it this way: "For there is set afore thee acceptable and evil, activity and death; accept thou. For the spirit of accuracy maketh alive. Fear, doubt, condemnation, bringeth doubt, illness, fear, and afresh dissolution (disillusion?); and the acropolis to be climbed again." In added readings Cayce says that accomplishing what we apperceive is right, admitting the challenges, will abolish fear. We absolutely don't wish to arise the acropolis afresh or acquaintance the afterlife of the accuracy a additional time.

THE CHURCH OF PERGAMOS

Third Centermost ­ Adrenal Glands ­ Solar Abdomen Chakra

As the Spirit approaches this third center, it describes itself as the one with a two-edged sword, absolute this center's ability to apply a weapon that can cut for acceptable or evil. The Spirit acknowledges that this centermost captivated fast to "my name" and did not abjure "my witness, my affectionate one"; even admitting this centermost is "where Satan's arch is" and "where Satan dwells." Over and over in the Cayce volumes we acquisition the abstraction that aural anniversary of us is both the Angelic One and the Angry One, angry for ability and ascendancy over us. Thus this centermost is a a lot of alarming and potentially able chakra. Accustomed the activity of the able solar abdomen and the adrenal glands' "fight or flight" hormones, this is understandable. In abounding yoga texts, its ability is generally articular as additional abandoned to the acme chakra. According to Cayce, during concrete advance and even during meditation, if the antithesis is maintained, the activity of the life-force, the kundalini, crosses the solar abdomen anniversary time it passes to addition center.

But this centermost is aswell the abode of anger, abrupt reactions, and spirit-killing urges. The Spirit identifies its weaknesses and vices as bistro things "sacrificed to idols" and committing "acts of immorality." Uncontrolled, the Spirit says that this centermost throws "stumbling blocks" in the way of our airy efforts. It accept to stop this. If it does, afresh the Spirit promises that it will "eat of the hidden manna" and "receive a new name."

Cayce says that "my name" in ballad 13 refers to our abiding name that abnormally identifies anniversary of us from a allotment of the blow of creation. Somehow abysmal aural anniversary of us, the Spirit says that we accept not absolutely denied this aspect of ourselves. We accept not asleep the attestant to our airy attributes -­ a attestant that whispers aural our own conscience. If we acculturate this center, afresh a new name will be accustomed to us, a name that abandoned we who accept it will know. The adherent John receives his name accounting aloft a white stone, advertence that it will endure, or as we would say, "it's accounting in stone."

The blessing refers to this center's desires for concrete gratification, generally adumbrated as bread; yet, as Jesus so affably put it, we do not reside by aliment alone, but by every chat that comes out of the aperture of God. These words from God's mouth, Cayce says, are the hidden manna. As the Spirit warned, it will arise aloft this centermost "quickly with the brand of my mouth" if it doesn't affected its abrogating influences.

This centermost is acutely important in our all-embracing physique growth. To subdue the able urges and acrimony that this centermost can aftermath and to activate and attend its ability for grace, forgiveness, and affection is critical. Anniversary of us wields a brand of abundant annihilative or effective power. Mastering our ascendancy over it physically and mentally is a airy achievement.

THE CHURCH OF THYATIRA

Fourth Centermost ­ Thymus Gland ­ Affection Chakra

Now the Spirit moves to the fourth center, anecdotic itself as the Son of God with eyes like blaze and anxiety like accomplished brass. In added words, it has the eyes of the spirit and the compassionate that abandoned comes from accepting activated in the boiler of circadian life. It acknowledges that the affection chakra has charity, faith, patience, service, and acceptable works; the a lot of contempo works accepting greater than the aboriginal works. But it aswell has one aloft affair with this center: it lives activity after adulation and spirit, gluttonous abandoned delight and pleasure. This is represented by the apocryphal astrologer Jezebel, whose adage is to get all you wish no amount how you access it and by acts of fornication, which is sex after love, actuality adumbrative of active physically after airy ideals. Afresh the Spirit warns that unless the affection centermost changes its means and holds fast to the acceptable that remains, it will ache "great tribulation" in the bed it has fabricated for itself. If Cayce was asked about the abundant tribulation, he answered:

The abundant adversity and periods of adversity ... are the adventures of every soul, every entity. They arise from influences created by man.... Man may become, with the humans of the universe, adjudicator of any of the assorted spheres through which the physique passes in its experiences. Hence, as the cycles pass, as the cycles are passing, if there IS arise a time, a aeon of readjusting in the spheres, (as able-bodied as in the little earth, the little soul) - seek, then, as known, to present cocky spotless afore that throne; even as ALL are allowable to be circumspect, in thought, in act, to that which is captivated by cocky as that all-important for the afterpiece airing with Him. In that address abandoned may anniversary atom (as man is an atom, or corpuscle, in the physique of the Father) become a consort with Him in bringing that to canyon that all may be one with Him.

The Spirit goes on to affiance that if this centermost changes, afresh he "will accord him the morning star." The morning ablaze is a ablaze planet apparent in the eastern border afore sunrise. Venus is the a lot of ablaze planet in our solar adjustment and for bisected of the year appears as the morning star. In abstruse traditions, Venus represents love, harmony, and beauty. Cayce identifies the planet Venus with the affection chakra.

Saint Paul says that adulation is "the greatest." Jesus identifies it as the top commandment, accretion up the works and article of all the laws and prophets. Added songs are accounting about it than any added aspect of animal experience. Throughout the Bible, adulation is a lot of important and powerful. But if we anticipate of power, even airy power, we rarely anticipate of love. Yet, from Genesis to the Revelation, the Bible indicates that adulation evokes the highest, a lot of godly of admiral and in fact is the attributes of God. Adulation brings us abutting to our true, all-powerful attributes ­ our adorable nature. Abounding biblical passages advise that of all the things a getting can apprentice and do in this world, annihilation reflects Godliness added than love.

The two greatest commandments are activate in the Old and New Testaments. The aboriginal is activate in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:37:

"You shall adulation the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."

The additional bidding is activate in Leviticus 19:18 and Matthew 22:39:

"You shall adulation your acquaintance [plesion, acceptation a 'close-by person'] as yourself."

The adherent Paul's acclaimed adulation annual is activate in 1 Corinthians 13:13: "Now accept faith, hope, and adulation [agape], these three; but the greatest of these is love."

Paul describes adulation beautifully: "Love is patient, adulation is kind, and is not jealous; adulation does not blow and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not yield into annual a amiss suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Adulation never fails."

Peter's adulation admonition is in 1 Peter 4:8: "Above all things, accumulate animated in your adulation for one another, because adulation covers a aggregation of sins."

John wrote in 1 John 4:7-12: "Beloved, let us adulation one another, for adulation is from God; and anybody who loves is built-in of God and knows God. The one who does not adulation does not apperceive God, for God is adulation .... If we adulation one another, God abides in us, and His adulation is able in us."

Edgar Cayce gave over two thousand readings teaching airy seekers to live, think, speak, and accept in love. Actuality are his comments to four altered people:

"Let the adorableness of your joy, in manifesting the ablaze and adulation as apparent in the Christ-Spirit, that makes for the new song in your heart, accumulate you in your circadian walks of life."

"Let others do as they may, but as for you and your house, you will adulation the active God. Apperceive His adulation is acceptable to accumulate you. No amount what may be the trial, His adulation abides, and He is not absent of your prayers."

"The adorableness of your activity rises as a candied aroma afore the chantry of mercy. Yet it is not cede but peace, grace, and benevolence that we would apparent a allotment of the accouchement of men. For God is love."

"Keep your paths straight. Apperceive in whom you accept believed, as able-bodied as in what you believe. For the adulation as passes compassionate can, does, and will accomplish your alleyway brighter. Accumulate in that way."

Jesus presented adulation on altered levels, anecdotic the accomplished adulation in this generally quoted passage: "No greater adulation has a person, than to accord up his or her activity for another" ­ not accurate death, but giving up self's desires for another's. It is cerebration added of what addition may charge than what cocky may want. Cayce said that Jesus had a abstruse adoration that he afresh to himself, "Others, Lord, others." This kept the Father's ability that flowed through Jesus on the appropriate clue ­ not glorifying himself but absolute the Ablaze and Adulation that flowed through him ­ God's love, our Father's and Mother's love. Jesus acclimated this to do acceptable and acclaim the Father rather than himself. Selfless admiring is the ideal ­ giving and caring after apprehension of accepting something in return. Yet this accept to not be self-destructive. No one could allege Jesus of accepting a chump of self-deprecating love. He generally broadcast a boxy love. Those about Him generally bare truth, justice, and a bright position on God's ways, not pampering. Jesus cared so abundant for others that he would not let them abide in their black or misunderstandings. Yet he never accursed them. Rather, He alleged their mistakes to their attention. He aswell showed a arresting faculty of their disability to handle the abounding truth, allotment to be patient: "I accept yet abounding things to say to you, but you cannot buck them now," John 16:12.

Achieving ideal adulation in the affection centermost is important to physique growth.

THE CHURCH OF SARDIS

Fifth Centermost ­ Thyroid Gland ­ Throat Chakra

The accent delivered by the Spirit identifies this centermost with the throat ­ the approach of speech. The Spirit explains that the accent comes from "the seven alcohol of God and the seven stars," which are the sum absolute of all seven centers acting in accord with God's will. The Spirit acknowledges that this centermost has acceptable deeds, a name, is alive, and abandoned a few aspects of its activities are "defiled." Nevertheless, it is asleep to the absolute accuracy and is imperfect. The Spirit encourages this centermost to strengthen itself because it is afterpiece to afterlife than it realizes. If it strengthens itself spiritually, afresh it will be clothed in white raiment, its name will not be blotted out of the Book of Life, and the Spirit will accede its name "before my Father and his angels."

Notice how abundant of this centermost is articular with will and speech. Cayce says that one of the aloft accomplish to abounding airy alertness is absolution our will become accessory to God's will. He generally recommended an affirmation such as this one from the Search for God Study Group readings (it was recorded in basic letters): "THY WILL, O GOD, BE DONE IN ME, THROUGH ME, AS THOU SEEST; FOR THE DESIRE OF MY HEART IS THAT I MAY BE THE CHANNEL OF BLESSINGS TO OTHERS IN THE WAYS AND MANNERS THOU SEEST; NOT MY WAY, O LORD, BUT THY WAY." This is evocative of Jesus' affectionate adoration sessions with the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, in which he prays three abstracted times for the Father to abolish the cup of beheading from him, but abandoned if it is the Father's will, not just his will. At the end of the third prayer, Jesus knows it is the Father's will that he alcohol from this cup, because admitting its concrete outcome, airy celebrity will be accomplished and the beef will be aloft up afresh to activity spiritualized and everlasting.

The words of our mouths, the thoughts of our minds, and the animosity of our hearts charge to be antiseptic of self-aggrandizement, self-glorification, and self-exaltation. They accept to be channels of God's words, thoughts, and animosity abounding through us. The throat centermost is the projector of words, and words can alleviate or harm. It is aswell the centermost for will. According to Cayce, no added allowance from God is added affecting than our will ­ not the stars in heaven nor the tricks of the devil can yield abroad chargeless will.

This center, acting in accord with God's will, can accompany all the centers to a college vibration, a college consciousness.

THE CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA

Sixth Centermost ­ Pineal Gland ­ Acme Chakra

As the airy cocky approaches the sixth center, amid abysmal aural the brain, it refers to that allotment of itself that is "holy, true, has the key of David, opens and no one can shut, shuts and no one can open." Which is to say that abandoned the airy allotment of our accepting can acquiesce the airy action to proceed. This is advised to be one of the a lot of angelic centers in the animal body. It is the abode of "the arise of God," according to Cayce. If we animate this centermost with the Spirit and airy intentions, afresh we draw all the lower centers up to this top abode and affiliate them with God's Spirit.

The Spirit acknowledges the works of this center, adage that it is has kept his chat and not denied his name. This centermost knows the accuracy of its airy attributes and admitting how anemic it has become from the actual struggles, it retains the accuracy of its absolute attributes and purpose for life. This is the abandoned centermost that the Spirit finds no accountability with. There is annihilation this centermost has to do except abide to authority assimilate its truth. Therefore, the Spirit promises to draw all the beef of the physique afore it and accomplish them bow to its truth. It aswell promises to accumulate this centermost from the allurement that has and is advancing to the blow of the body: to analysis the body's accurate desires, whether they are airy or carefully actual and self-centered.

In Patanjali's arrangement, the acme chakra is the accomplished centermost in the body, the kundalini accepting risen up the spine, confused through the academician to the brow, and culminated at the aperture of the crown. In Revelation 3:11, the Spirit in fact mentions the "crown" in advertence to this center. In Cayce's arrangement, the activity flows up the aback to the abject of the brain, afresh to the centermost of the brain, area the pineal gland is located. Stimulating the pineal opens this acme chakra.

If we absolutely activate this center, afresh the Cocky promises to accomplish us "a colonnade in the temple of My God" and we will "never go out from it again." The Spirit will aswell address the name of God, God's city, and the Spirit's new name aloft us.

Opening of the acme chakra is aswell associated with experiencing the Angelic Spirit. How did the Angelic Spirit arise a allotment of the disciples? In the anatomy of tongues of blaze on the acme of their heads, aloft the bendable spot. The accident is declared in Acts 2:2-4: "Suddenly there came from heaven a babble like a violent, hasty wind, and it abounding the accomplished house. There appeared tongues as of blaze and it sat aloft anniversary one of them. And they were abounding with the Angelic Spirit." Prior to this experience, at the Accept Supper, Jesus breathed the Angelic Spirit aloft the aggregation and explained, "The Comforter, the Angelic Spirit, whom the Father will forward ... he will advise you all things."

In the aboriginal times of the Hopi, fable says that some of the humans absent and chock-full allied with the Creator. Others remained loyal and at-one with the Creator. To these the "Great Nephew" appeared, cogent those that were still gluttonous to abet and that they were to be a Chosen Humans to abide a new apple that he was about to create. He told them that the centermost on the acme of their active would adviser them to this new world. This close acumen would accord them the afterimage to see a assertive billow which they would chase by day and a assertive ablaze which they would chase by night. It is alluring how agnate this allotment of the Hopi fable is to that of the Israelites. Recall how the Lord told the Israelites that they were to be a Chosen People, and led them out from a allotment of the others to a promised land, instructing them that His attendance would be with them in a billow by day and a cavalcade of blaze by night.

When the abundant Nephew had accomplished instructing the Hopi Chosen People, all over the Aboriginal Apple the Chosen Humans disappeared. Their villages were empty. The houses, temples, and fields ­ all empty. Abounding of those larboard abaft alleged out to them, "Where are you going?" To which the Chosen Ones replied, "We are afterward the billow and the star." The others laughed and said, "We see no billow or star." The Chosen Humans explained to them, "This is because you accept absent your close eyes that came from the acme of your heads."

The top of the arch is the acme chakra, a a lot of important airy center. Cayce identifies it with "the mount," and states that abandoned those who accept accomplished "the awakening in the mount" may apperceive the accuracy and access absolutely into the Creator's attendance to accept the consistent guidance. He goes on to say that as this centermost is animate and our soul's memories acknowledgment to consciousness, advertence that this accident is what is referred to if Jesus said "The Counselor, the Angelic Spirit, whom the Father will forward in my name, he will advise you all things...." -John 14:25.

Let's burn afresh our acme chakra. Let's arise to the arise of college consciousness. Let's accessible the bendable spot, through which our physique aboriginal entered this body, and accept the close vision, the close guidance. The Hopi apocalypse says that anon a new date of activity will begin, a date in which abandoned those who are accessible at the acme of their active will be able to apprehend and see and apperceive the way.

THE CHURCH OF LAODICEA

Seventh Centermost ­ Pituitary Gland ­ Third-Eye Chakra

Finally, the Spirit arrives at the accomplished centermost in the body. The aspect of our airy cocky that is in this centermost is "the Amen, the affectionate and accurate witness, the Beginning of the conception of God." This is the adept gland of the body. But the Spirit is agitated with this centermost because it is "neither algid nor hot." Because it is blood-warm about the spiritualization process, the Spirit is accessible to "spit you out of my mouth." This centermost says that it is affluent and needs nothing, but the airy cocky challenges that it is in fact "wretched and afflicted and poor and dark and naked" (harkening aback to the aboriginal sin in the Garden, area Adam and Eve hid from God because they were naked). Amazingly, this centermost has no redeeming qualities and no advantage to acknowledge. The Spirit gives none. This centermost is brackish and lukewarm, accidental annihilation to the all-embracing spiritualization of the body. The Spirit accordingly warns it to get accuracy artificial in the fires of the Spirit, white apparel of abstention that its dishabille will be clothed, and eye analgesic to bless its eyes to see the absolute truth. However, in a abuse way, the Spirit acknowledges its adulation for this center, saying: "Those whom I love, I advise and discipline." If this centermost will acceleration up and conquer, afresh "I will admission him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself baffled and sat down with my Father on his throne."

Cayce's readings analyze this centermost as the third eye, on the forehead. Almost all yoga books analyze the third eye as the sixth chakra and the acme as the seventh. If Cayce was asked about this during a reading, his acknowledgment was that he did not affliction what others were saying, but he was giving the actual arrangement. In some of the illustrations in this booklet, you'll see how the classical adumbration supports his perspective.

But the absolute accent of this centermost is that it is blood-warm in a lot of humans and needs to be aggressive with a college ideal with the activity of the activity force accumulated with the Angelic Spirit. The Egyptians advised the eye, the individual all-knowing eye, to be one of the accomplished images of God. To activate this center's accurate attributes and accompany beam to the accomplished of the physique and mind, this centermost accept to afresh acquisition activity for the quest. It is like a dying ember and needs the animation of the Angelic Spirit aloft it to re-ignite its fire.

To be continued.