Living Ahimsa

Living Ahimsa is a peace vow which anyone can take. 'It is about taking back the world. That is, the world within - by cultivating harmony in our thoughts, speech and action.'

Mother Maya, the founder of this movement, is touring Australia. Her interactive session on meditation was amazing! Here are the notes:

You can find solutions to challenges through meditation.

Breathing

Breath enlivens memories within us (past lives, cells etc).

When you wake in the morning, the breath needs to be stronger in the left nostril. You can test this by breathing on the palm of your hand, first with one nostril, then with the other. If the breath is stronger on the right, you can balance that by doing the following exercise:

1. Make your left hand into a fist.
2. Place it under the right armpit.
3. Breathe in first through the left nostril with the right one closed, then out through the right nostril with the left one closed, using your thumb and two fingers of your right hand to close and open your nostrils (nadi shodhan).
4. After 5 minutes, test the strength of the breath in each nostril once again.

You only need to do this once - the body intuits what you want; you don't need to force it.

The left nostril is lunar, the right one is solar. The right nostril should be stronger at night.

To do anything (thinking, action), you need the breath force.

Ahimsa

This is a Vedic word meaning to have an intent not to hurt (not causing harm by thought, word or deed).

We can choose to hold our awareness of grief, hurt, happiness etc hostage. We all have a set of memories, but our true gift is awareness. If you get caught up in your bundle of memories, you will shadow your awareness.

Surrender to what you don't understand. Surrender is the only solution.

'I am awareness.' Diffuse your memories by making awareness come first.

Don't depend on the mind to solve the 'junk'.

Meditation

Meditation is a break into consciousness. Meditate to preserve the sanctity of your human inner space.

The human vibration is more powerful than any other species (because we can choose, reflect etc). Therefore we should aim to influence the world in positive ways.

We have the power to change through our own actions.

Our energy reaches out beyond ourselves. We are the caretakers for that energy inside ourselves.

We control the cultivation of happiness or unhappiness - it is a seed. What we can't control is these feelings spilling out and affecting everyone else, so it makes sense to nurture the happiness seed!

Our role in meditation is awareness. We are awareness.

We don't meditate to control the mind. Meditation is being present in the awareness and not engaging the mind but accepting it for what it is. Let the mind be free.

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Meditation practice:
Do this for half an hour (if you can).
Here are two interpretations of 'Om Namah Shivaya' - My reverence to that which destroys my ignorance or Om and salutations to that which I am capable of becoming.

1. Use mala beads (108) to count.
2. As you count the beads (in your own time) chant 'Om Namah Shivayah' (once per bead).
   
3. Practise first out loud many times, then say silently.
4. Use your breath and go at your own pace.
   
5. Be aware of (observe) everything but engage with nothing (detach).
6. Go back to the mantra if you start to focus on your thoughts.
   

These two activities practised together will help you to disengage from responding to the mind. They are focal points.

The mantra is your rescue at all times. You can chant Om Namah Shivayah while driving, sitting in a train, walking etc.

The inner witness observes, and works with the awareness.

Distance, do not attach.

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Awareness brings a solution to problems:
If you have been the cause of hurt because of your actions:

1. Sit in yourself.
2. Create a skeletal experience of the situation.
3. Sit with the unease and observe; hold it in a kind of space and be the inner witness.

The solution is in the inner witness.

'I trust, I surrender to my witness.' We have to learn to trust.

Call on your awareness - the witness or observer.

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We are by nature spiritual. Seek to know 'god', the divine (the atman, self).

The senses report to the mind; the mind is the 'editor'. The intelligence is in the higher mind, which works with your awareness.

The witness is there to keep the balance.

Often we don't know our questions.

'I am the chief instrument of peace within me.'

There will be fluctuations in our awareness. Remember to keep yourself in a state of balance.

The Ahimsa Vow

You can take this vow on the Living Ahimsa website.

I take the vow of Ahimsa
In my thoughts, speech and actions.
I take the vow of Ahimsa
I make inner harmony my first priority.