Soul Exploration Of YOU

Exploring the Soul

Living a Spiritual Life

Throughout the journey from birth to death, many people choose to question life, strive for improvement, seek out knowledge, and search for the divine. Simply put, this is the essence of spirituality. One’s spiritual practice can take on many forms, because embracing the spiritual is a very personal pursuit. While many people do relate their spirituality to a God or Goddess, this quest for the divine, or oneness with the universe, always springs from within. It doesn’t matter where you find your spiritual path. We are all fundamentally spiritual beings and the essence of that lies in knowing one’s true self and finding a peace that comes from within rather than the outside world. It is in remembering this that we awaken to our personal path.

The spiritual path springs forth from a daily routine that reaffirms our personal connection with a purpose or a way of life. Practicing compassion, gratitude, appreciation, forgiveness, generosity, meditation, and taking care of one’s wellbeing can all be a part of one’s spiritual life. If you are new to exploring your personal spirituality, remember that this is a process. You may want to spend a few moments each day giving yourself a spiritual gift. Try a new form of meditation, visit a sanctuary, or explore a specific deity.

Accepting the importance of spirituality can be a healthy decision, because a spiritual practice tends to include habits that promote healthy living. Take the time to carefully determine the action, thought, and ritual that most speaks to your soul. Remember that your most profound spiritual experiences may also come from the simple intricacies that make up your life. See the interconnectedness of all things. As you explore your “inner work,” you will be walking your spiritual path and feeling your oneness with the universe.

With all of the things going on in the world today, now may be a good time to stop and check yourself out. By doing this, it may help YOU to deal with all that is taking place in this time of need for well thought rational decisions. Your soul and inner self have all the answers and guidance YOU need. Use YOU!

Get Intouch With YOU,

Bobby Sharpe "Dragon, Book Of Shang": "Dragon, Book Of Shang" Updates & NEW Reviews www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

Meditation, Prayer & YOU

Asking And Receiving

Prayer And Meditation

Prayer and meditation are similar practices in that they both offer us a connection to the divine, but they also differ from one another in significant ways. Put simply, prayer is when we ask the universe for something, and meditation is when we listen. When we pray, we use language to express our innermost thoughts and feelings to a higher power. Sometimes, we plumb the depths within ourselves and allow whatever comes to the surface to flow out in our prayer. At other times, we pray words that were written by someone else but that express what we want to say. Prayer is reaching out to the universe with questions, pleas for help, gratitude, and praise.

Meditation, on the other hand, has a silent quality that honors the art of receptivity. When we meditate, we cease movement and allow the activity of our minds and hearts to go on without us in a sense. Eventually, we fall into a deep silence, a place that underlies all the noise and fray of daily human existence. In this place, it becomes possible for us to hear the universe as it speaks for itself, responds to our questions, or sits with us in its silent way.

Both prayer and meditation are indispensable tools for navigating our relationship with the universe and with ourselves. They are also natural complements to one another, and one makes way for the other just as the crest of a wave gives way to its hollow. If we tend to do only one or the other, prayer or meditation, we may find that we are out of balance, and we might benefit from exploring the missing form of communication. There are times when we need to reach out and express ourselves, fully exorcising our insides, and times when we are empty, ready to rest in quiet receiving. When we allow ourselves to do both, we begin to have a true conversation with the universe.

For me personally, meditation is the ultimate connect with the universe, the Earth and, myself. Whatever works best for YOU is what YOU need to follow to make YOU happy and complete.

Elevate & Meditate,

Bobby Sharpe Dragon, Book of Shang www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

A Thought For '08

The Great Invocation

The Great Invocation is a synthesis of meditation, prayer and affirmation. The term invocation means "calling down," "calling forth," "calling into." It is a request, a demand, an appeal to higher energies and intelligences.

This might not be a bad way to start the new year. We know that alot of YOU/US need to call and appeal to something.

Higher Energies & Intelligences Rule,

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe Dragon, Book of Shang

Turiya, The 4th State Of Consciousness

Turiya

In early Hindu philosophy, turiya (also called caturtha) is a state of pure consciousness, or the experience of ultimate reality and truth. It is a fourth state of consciousness that underlies and at the same time transcends three common states of consciousness: (i) the state of waking consciousness (jagrata), (ii) the state of dreaming (svapna), (iii) and dreamless sleep (susupti).

Turiya Transcendental Consciousness

Human experience tends to encompass three main states of being—jagrata, the state of waking consciousness; svapna, the dream state; and susupti, the state of deepest sleep. In jagrata, our awareness is focused outward, just as our awareness turns inward when we exist in svapna. The self—the seat of all awareness—survives as an autonomous entity in susupti, when it is tethered to neither body, nor mind. Understanding that this is so makes existence in a fourth state possible. Early Hindu philosophy told of another state of consciousness known as turiya, which underlies the common states of consciousness while also transcending them. In turiya, the self does not think, feel, or do, but rather observes thought, emotion, and action. We are, in this fourth state of consciousness, blissfully whole and, for the first time, capable of truly understanding the totality of the universe.

The existence of turiya is proven by the simple fact that we are wholly aware of our existence in jagrata, svapna, and susupti. The source of this awareness is the pure essence of self, which lives through and witnesses the common states within us. We connect with this element of humanity when we enter the turiya state. To achieve turiya, you must consciously isolate yourself from both the corporeal self and the mental self. Accomplishing this is a matter of extreme self trust, as you must first be confident that your existence in a higher plane of consciousness will not compromise your ability to navigate effectively in the physical plane. Meditation practiced with the mantra "I am the soul," can help you let go of the need to be grounded in body or mind. As you unlock the key to the fourth state of being, remember that turiya has no limits and no endpoint. It is infinitely transcendent, which means its potential is forever expanding.

The self you discover in turiya is the representation of your permanent, intrinsic, essential, yet all-encompassing nature. You are a unique individual and you are a vital part of a larger universal life force that transcends everything on earth. When you touch this part of yourself through meditation, the manner in which you experience the three common states of being will change profoundly. Reality and truth become more clearly defined, allowing you to perceive that which lies above, below, and beyond the human experience.

This should give YOU something to think on for awhile. Who knows how different and/or, better your life may be if YOU can reach this level? Give it a try, got nothing to lose.

If YOU would like further reading on this, go to Turiya - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The more YOU know, the more YOU grow,

The more YOU grow, the further YOU go"

Bobby Sharpewww.myspace.com/akuasharpe Bobby Sharpe's "Animalz"