Sending a beacon of light, love, energy and new connections

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away

DO WE HAVE ANY INTERESTS IN COMMON?  Be bold, be daring, drop me a line and let me know what they are.  Also an important message for you, and a few updates from me.

I have had tremendously positive experiences with those I have met on here so I am sending an invitation to check it out and see if we have any interests in common and if we do, drop me a line and tell me about it and introduce yourself.

Interests
The exploration and expansion of consciousness, Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism, meditation, altered states of consciousness, The Universe, Buddhist practices of loving kindness,compassion and engaged buddhism

people, ideas, spirituality,

health, wellness, bodybuilding, fitness, supplements, nutrition, natural substances, brain wave entrainment,

extreme sports - skydiving, hang gliding, mountain climbing, Free Running/Parkour/Urban Tricking, Martial Arts (Not for fighting), again -Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away

reaching the Pinacle of Human Experience and Capability,  experiencing all the possible human experiences I can.  Travel, Adventure Travel, foreign travel

helping others, volunteering, disaster/humanitarian relief, emergency medicine,

environmentalism, humanitarian causes, liberty, freedom, peace, sensible government, computers, the internet,

music, art,

ITS A BIG WORLD and I am interested in thousands of things. Challenge Me.  Show me the next moment that will take my breath away.


MESSAGE TO YOU
No matter what happens in your life, never let the door to your heart slam shut.  When it does it can take an incredibly long time to re-open.  When you close that door and cut yourself off from love you cut yourself off from the energy of life and the spirit, the mind and body wilt from lack of light.  There is no more damaging thing to the progress of the spirit then to be cut off from love.  Sometimes it's something we have to work on.  For me it's going to meditation and practicing love meditation. 

The Buddha said that a moment of love meditiation is sixteen times more powerful then all the energy of the suns and stars.  There are many variations of love meditation and ultimately every version must be customized to your own practice.  There are general outlines of how to do it, but their are no perfect instructions except for those that arise from deep within.  A couple ways you might start are to sit quietly and focus your mind on your breathing to calm yourself, after you have achieved meditative centeredness then you can shift your attention to focusing on someone you love deeply.  I recommend that you think of several differnt people or beings that you love in different ways, so as to expand your definition of love to all inclusivness.  Eventually you expand this loving energy to include others you like, family and loved ones, and then to people you are neutral about, then even to those for whom you have negative feelings.  As your meditation continues, continue expanding your love farther and farther out until your love encompasses all living beings.

Another method is through the doorway of compassion.  For those in deep suffering or personal hurt this can be an effective way to get there.  It starts with holding either your present pain and suffering in focus or else recalling times in your life when you have been badly hurt, sick, betrayed, or wounded in some way.  The challenge at this point is simply to sit with with that suffering, and not to push it away, but to hold it with a gentle, open and vulnerable heart.  You may even weep, but this is not to be avoided.  Allow what ever reactions happen to come up and be what they will.   If you find it overwhelmingly painful, you might try to just observe it as the watcher/witness.  Simply observe that there is pain in this body and mind and it feels like this, and it has this effect and so on.  The idea is to become completely intimate with the nature of your own suffering.  Now this is not purely for masochistic purposes, this has a greater aim.  As you sit trully and completely, vulnerably aware of the depth of all of your own suffereing, holding it all and pushing away none, you will find something amazing arising.  When you have felt it all fully, you will develop a deep wish for no other being anywhere to experience this pain, this illness, this feeling, this suffering.  When you have sat with all of your own suffering and a deep wish for no other living being to experience suffering, a loving compassion for all living beings is born.  As you slowly shift your focus from your own pain to your wish for no living being to experieince this suffering, compassion can not help but to arrive and your compassion for the suffering of living beings gives way to a desire to allieviate the suffering of other living beings and a deep loving compassion for all that lives.  Take this compassionate love and expand it outward continuosly to include all living beings everywhere.  And then there too you have arrived at a deep experience of love meditation.

Practice this with sincerity and intent, and watch the blessings of loving kindness and compassion begin to flow into your lives.  Without expectation, simply observe the quality of relationships with others.  Observe how animals react to you.  Watch your feelings of wellbeing, happiness, hope and contentment.  Simply observe the conditions of life as you practice this mediation over the course of at least a couple weeks, and hopefully indefinitely.  Love meditation can crack some the toughest,  most stubbornly resistant problems when all else seems to be of no avail.  The key to this though is to allow it to unfold as it will, free from the restrictive enviroment of yet more expectations.  Release any expectations you have and simply let the miracle of love meditation bloom in your life.


 UPDATES
I am enthusiastically getting re-started on writing an in depth meditation book unlike anything currently out there.  Stay to tuned for excerpts from that and see what it is I want to say to the world.

Although this was orginally written in an email to a friend, this is a great summary of what's up with me.  What is it that you most need, that challenges the most, that troubles you the most, that most needs some help, that your most excited about...Dare to take the next step drop me a few lines, I might just be able to give you your next vital clue.

The week has been busy again, with lots going on heading into the weekend.  Even with all the small things that need to be taken care of I am feeling energized and ready to take on what must be done.  Being able to participate in the ongoing healing of a number of others has my energy on high.  There is a lot of love flowing forth from me and in turn flowing back in from the universe.  It's funny how when I am giving the most from the center of who I truly am is precisely when I am most energized.  It's been pretty awesome, I've been in the gym seven days a week and not feeling exhasted or fatigued at all from it, my diet is incredibly healthy, and in general I am feeling physically the strongest I have ever been.  Spiritually is following closely behind as I again refocus on meditation, incorporate Yoga, and return to in depth spirtual study. 

Amidst all this fun, I am also preping for the relief trip to Burma, training in PTSD assessment, treatment, group treatment, psychological first responder studies, and special topics in refugee and cross cultural issues.  Much of it I already know, but I want to be certain that I am operating with the best possible practices and the latest information available.  I am about to undertake some language training as well. A significant portion of my gym workout is devoted to physical training specifically for the types of things that I may have to deal with on the ground in Burma/Thailand, endurance, long distance treks/runs, carrying heavy loads and all that fun stuff.  Thank God that I have a purpose, I generally despise extended heavy load cardio, it's just not fun, but when you know your life or the lives of others may depend on the preparation you do today, one finds a huge resevoir of energy to keep going.

I am looking forward to the trip a great deal in terms of having a very real opportunity to apply Buddhist/Dharmic psychology and concepts in the treatment and care of critically stressed individuals.  The experience will be invaluable, and I can't imagine what I would rather be doing then helping those who need it most.

Anyway, I am pretty stoked about everything!  It's great to feel strong, healthy, energized and excited for the future, as well as experiencing deep peace and spirituality arising out of compassion for the suffering of all living beings.  It's a good place to be, its an incredible place to be.  I am just beginning to live the most extraordinary lucid dream in the history of existance.  Care to joing me?  Ready or not, lets do this!  Ready , set, go!

Namaste,

Chad