Void

The void is that which stands right in the middle of 'this' and 'that'
The void is all-inclusive, having no opposite -there is nothing which it excludes or opposes
It is a living void, because all forms come out of it and whoever realizes the void is filled with life and power and the love of all things

This is a quote by Bruce Lee from the Tao of Jeet Kune Do
It can obviously be applied to the experience of everyone and here is my version of it,

The 'void' he refers to appear to be our thought- but in fact it is more than that- our mind and higher self
It exists in between our physical body and none physical thoughts
our higher self is only called higher as it is greater than the ego, so without an ego our higher self is just our selves
It does not judge what it experiences, as it knows way far greater than words, for learning is the real adventure
As it does not judge, it has no likes or dislikes, friends nor enemies, it treats everything as a part of itself, as experience belongs to the experiencer
It is a living void means it is alive and real, as all we perceive comes out of it 
Those who find their higher self, or real self, [or learns to disregard their ego] will be filled with life and power and real love of all things

Thought

If past, present and future exists all at the same time, then does our reincarnations only depend on the lives of which we learn of?

In another way, by purely learning about experiences other than our own we allow ourselves to understand new kinds of information which forms seedlings in our brain which our thoughts stem from, which influences the way we we perceive everything, does it not?

Breath

Yesterday I had some trouble with my breathing during meditation

This was probably due to the fact that all my presentations for uni are due next week and I have just been very caught up with it all as I have been trying to achieve my best this year

After I had brought my attention to this issue I was able to access where those thoughts were forming and restructure them into giving my head more time and space and that everything will work out fine as long as I made the most of my positive energy

After my meditation my thoughts kept lingering on the previous breathing issue and trying to visually picture what happened to my lungs when I couldn't manage to take a full, deep breath

I have read about this somewhere before, I thought to myself, it must have been from reading about Chinese philosophical body breathing techniques where the inward breathing, inspiration, and outward breathing, expiration, were deconstructed to be able to figure out the importance of balancing our breath

I couldn't fully remember what it was all about so I decided to do some research on it and found that there weren't too much information on this aspect of breathing at all

So I would like to share with you what I discovered and hope it can assist in understanding our way of breathing and how it is connected to our physical and emotional health

It is said that our heart rate increases when we breathe in, and decreases when breathing out, therefore traditional ancient Chinese medicine stated that a person has to balance exactly their inward and outward breathing as an excess of either can lead to bodily disharmony
It is also stated that a person's emotional state can be read by their physical breathing- a person can be seen as impatient, or anxious when their inspiration is longer, or lacking in expiration and vice versa can depict them as lacking in energy and experiencing fatigue

love and war

Sometime last year, there was a huge outrage on the war between China and Japan over the island they were fighting for and it brought so much pain and hatred to the citizens of each country

Japanese brand cars got smashed in the streets of China their companies belonging to Japan went broke as the Chinese citizens stopped supporting them

There was just so much hatred and fear and it all feels like a bad dream

Then I came across a Ted talk about a graphics designer who brought the Iraq and Iran citizens together by spreading loving messages to each other via facebook
He had made a very good and clear point that we all love the things we find a connection to, therefore both sides posted pictures of themselves with the message that they do not want war but want to love each other

This was just so powerful and inspiring that I really hope for the Chinese and Japanese citizens to see it

Just recently there was another outburst where a Chinese movie received zero views at the cinemas in Japan which then caused the Chinese citizens to spread the message to not give the new Japanese movie any attention when it reaches China

It just feels like unconscious fighting of children who don't know what they really want as they are blinded to it by the higher power who controls them

I wish to gather more people to help create a movement against this war and wake the people up to a new light and way of living with love as they would love a family member

We all love things we find a connection to and fear only arises when we don't understand a person or situation, and if they then present themselves as a threat against us, hatred brews and takes over

However if we are conscious towards this hatred we can be a bigger person and that brings us an unlimited amount of light and hapiness

Existence

How can we doubt the forces of nature and disrespect it when nature is the root of our existence? Human beings, unlike other earthly creatures seem to lack the ability to experience life in sync with the earth. We developed another form of communication through language in order to comprehend our own thoughts and exchange them with others. We had to force ourselves to develop tools and enslave other creatures in order to survive.

Now think about the other creatures on this earth that can communicate with each other just as much using no language but actions and emotions. Doesn't it just make you realise life doesn't have to be as complicated as it turned out to be, that we do not need to depend on money for happiness or material things.

I realised today that there is a whole other system of existence beyond what the human beings constructed up to today. We tend to think how much greater we are compared to other creatures on the earth only because we use tools and communicate with words. However because of this over confidence we are blinded to the dimensions of existence experienced by other beings. There is much more to life than just living. Think about it, what would we be experiencing had we not developed words as language and labelled everything in order to simplify it? We would be experiencing.

Meditation and Exercise

Can you keep the spirit and body without scattering?
Can you concentrate your mind to use breath, making it soft and quiet as an infant's?
Can you purify your contemplation and keep it from turbulence?
- Lao Tsu, chapter 10 of the Tao Te Ching

When I first soul searching I found meditation to be a very helpful exercises for developing a quiet mind. It has now been one year since I first started and I can feel myself understand the techniques more each time I meditate.

In the beginning it was hard for me to focus on even the smallest things such as keeping my eyes closed and relaxing my body. After that I was faced with the challenge of keeping a clear mind and meditation became a much more pleasant thing for me to do.

I had always noticed a ticking sound inside my head throughout the whole process as soon as I shut my eyes, it was like the ticking of a second hand on the clock, tick tick ticking away each second I experienced. Visually it seemed as if I was looking into the insides of my eyelids, sometimes I could see a little ball of light that differs in colour and sometimes it was just static dots everywhere.

Recently I became more active with such exercises and included Falungong into my daily rituals which took place before meditation. A contemporary zen master, Huai chin Nan, made a deep study of Taoism which suggested using meditation and exercise together: "After sufficient sleep, with vitality renewed, one should then meditate again. If he finds, however, that there is no fatigue in mind or body, it is better to get up to do a little exercise. The spirit thus roused, he will be able to maintain an appropriate and stable state of quietude." Professor Nan mentions in his book it is helpful for meditation to perform Chi Kung(Chinese exercise) or Yoga beforehand. Also after meditation, one can use light exercise. Tai Chi Chuan is a moderate and soft exercise that combines well with meditation.

Fa Lun Gong is a recently introduced Chinese exercise that is also similar to Tai Chi Chuan. I was attracted to its philosophies and poetic structured movements and therefore was inspired to practise it before meditation. I found this pairing of exercise and meditation to be most helpful as it helped my mind and body to settle without any intended force.

Since practising this new technique my meditation experience seem to have altered. The ticking sounds are now replaced the word "now, now, now, now" and visually the static spots has gone and the little sometimes morph into a little purple and green butterfly flapping its wings around my inner eyelids in a somewhat playful manner. I found this very fascinating and was in awe for some time though I did not share it with anyone around me as they do not understand or are interested in meditation and spirituality yet.

I hope my experience will inspire someone to try out these techniques which can be accessed easily via the internet. Falungong is taught by its original source on YouTube and I really encourage those who attempt it to go on the Falungong website and read about the poetic structured exercises and incorporate them in your mind while practising.

I understand there were, and still are big issues relating to Falungong in China regarding to the government being intimidated by its influential power. I believe everyone has their opinions about it and the topic will probably not be resolved easily but practising it does no harm and I truly find it a positive experience.

Hole in a flute

I am a hole in a flute that the Christ's breath moves through, listen to the music

-Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz c, 1320-1389