Tag Archives: mind

Saluting the Sun #1: Standing Prayer and Mountain

Tadasana 1 and Tadasana 2: Urdhva Baddha Hastasana            “People do not pay attention to the correct method of standing,”1 says BKS Iyengar in his comments on this basic, initial pose, from which everything else emanates. May … Continue reading

Posted in Salute to the Sun | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Seeing the beauty #2

“Giving your complete attention,” I said in Seeing the beauty #1. Observe. Let’s mine that idea a little, because its influence and impact spread out into all areas of the process of balancing the Ecology of the Soul. Observation is … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Seeing the beauty #1

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. Confucius  Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. Franz Kafka  The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Spiritual / Physical / Conscient

Spiritual/physical; matter is energy and You are energy. Yoga allows you to experience the flow of energy in your body; it opens your physical ‘channels’ up to that universal force. Chinese medicine and a host of other Eastern schools of … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dispassion & Detachment

8 August 2015: The manuscript for the book is done, copy edited and waiting only for final versions of the illustrations done by my long time friend, accomplished musician and all round good egg @Michael_Munday. It goes back to the … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes, The Critical (but positive) Enquiry Track | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Grace and Gratitude

They’re all talking about it, the Law of Attraction folks. And a good few more besides, many if not most if not all of the West Coast philosophers, gurus, spiritual teachers and self help leaders, all busily sending their daily … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hope, Positive Thinking and Disappointment

In which we explore the tension between positive thinking and protecting yourself against disappointment. You guard against disappointment by not having high hopes. Be optimistic, positive… but detached. Otherwise, if you just ‘un-hope’ yourself so as to avoid disappointment, you’re already disappointed anyway. … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Past, presence, balance

‘If your mind carries a heavy burden of past,’ says Eckhart Tolle, ‘you will experience more of the same. The past perpetuates itself through lack of presence. The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future.’ … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes, The Critical (but positive) Enquiry Track | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Phew, nearly left me mind behind there

It’s a quote from a lone stoner, tripping on something very long and strong, that we picked up hitchhiking after a gig many years ago. We giggled then; we giggle now. The Mind as an oft-misunderstood faculty comes in for … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes, The Critical (but positive) Enquiry Track | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Silence in the throat

Vishuddha, the fifth chakra, is located in the throat. It governs self-expression, independence, fluency of thought, hearing and speaking – communication, in other words. Which is why in the Ecology of the Soul, the power of communication rests here. Meditation … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How does a pinpoint create so much light?

How does a pinpoint create so much light? You’re subsumed, enveloped, overwhelmed, inundated, engulfed, absorbed, obliterated, swallowed up… in a voluptuous ocean of bliss – of your own making. Not even of your making, because this is You. This is … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dark to Light: The Mouse Hole of Your Mind

Heard the one about the mouse hole? No, not a joke but a tried and tested method of quieting the mind. Eckhart Tolle mentions it in (I think) The Power of Now. As you sit in meditation and settle yourself down, … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Making inner space

In the early days of my Hatha Yoga study I was privileged to be taught by the powerful, beautiful and eloquent Angela Farmer, who I notice is still working and teaching all over the world (http://www.angela-victor.com). She had a little … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Chakra Christmas Tree

Who knows where it comes from or where it leads. In this case it’s not rocket science to answer the first question: it comes from the ancient wisdom of the Chakras, which I touch on here and there on the … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Magic Minute #5: Nature is cruel love

So we’re looking at the two sorts of energy, both of which, when all the bits and bobs, surface accoutrements, distractions and detours, are stripped away, are best understood as Love, because they are life, and if life isn’t love … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Magic Minute #3: Power Seeds

Power Seeds are mental devices, thought triggers to create, enhance or encourage Soul Consciousness, and hence change your actions. They can be aimed at specific behaviours or specific problems, or they can be random insights, even word games, which lead … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Magic Minute #2: Insight

Almost every word in the English language – or any language for that matter – can be a trigger for a meditation. Thinking about the process by which we can get people to start exploring what’s going on inside their … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Wisdom of Home

This is a theme that pops up in the book right at the beginning. Always useful to look at the origins of words and how their meanings truly resonate. Eco, or in the Greek (where are the Greek characters?)οἶκος, means … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Conscious, Conscient Being with a Conscience

Word games, here. But I love it, and in truth there is a lot of benefit in mining the meaning of words, ‘churning’ it, as they say in Raja Yoga. Look at the roots of the word, how it has … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Peace of mind – a piece of my mind

This is a ‘today I have been thinking about…’ post. Much of the thinking around the Ecology of the Soul comes from deconstructing words, really digging into language, figuring out why we say the things we do and how they reflect … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Soul conscious, body conscious

The Ecology of the Soul is about consciousness, which, as we all know – or would, if we stopped to think about it for one moment – operates at different levels. Mostly when we say we are aware of our own consciousness … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Blackboard Blog #5: Build a fire inside, solve your own energy crisis

Moving  away from those nasty vices, we continue on the theme of Energy. We make the connection between energy efficiency in the accepted eco sense (buildings that don’t waste energy, cars that use less energy to achieve the same performance, … Continue reading

Posted in The Blackboard Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Blackboard Blog #3

Oops. Got distracted from the Blackboard. Here’s one of the really early ones. You’ll have to ignore the shopping list and daily family reminder stuff. In amongst all that is some ancient wisdom, as I’m sure you can see: Create … Continue reading

Posted in The Blackboard Blog | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Blackboard Blog #1

The Blackboard in the Kitchen has a special ‘testbed’ relationship to The Ecology of the Soul. It’s where I chalk up ideas as they occur, usually late at night, so I can look at them again in the morning and … Continue reading

Posted in Magic Minutes, The Blackboard Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment