Peace Practices

Please add your favourite peace practices and suggestions here:
<B>:)</B> just breathe. and cultivate the inner smile. (yosy)
Be with us in 2005 ... Stay tuna d
Metta practice
suitable for Tantric Theravadins (with Christian
origins)
1. Sit until the Being is calmed
2. Engage the Buddha (or the Christ or the Allah)
3 Be the Buddha (or resonate with the engaged)
==Zikir-Japa-Mantra-Affirmation==
Some people use Peace as a mantra
or combine it with Om Shanti 
Mother, Father, Guru, God
My favourite mantra is OM HA HUM 
that would mean somewhere people can log in and hear someone chanting
praying (in a tradition of their choice)
I am willing - Put me down for Guru Rinpoche and Allah Akbar
and Om Ha Hum's 
== Positive affirmation ==
This is from the ALMS program
which you can read out aloud or to your subconscious
to good effect
: You are the Beloved
: The presence made manifest
: Prepare to ease yourself
: into a comforting mind state
		
: Calm and breath out gently
: Slow awareness into comfort
: Feel eased into calm . . .
: Enter deeper calm
: a rhythm
: a formless pattern
: Harmonise and align with calm awareness
: Breath ever more deeply . . .
: more comfortable and at ease
: Breath ever more deeply
: Deeply feel Relaxing
: comfort and ease and well being
: Feel able to will your true intent
: improve your situation
: Develop your potential
: Feel centered and able
: simplify and improve your manner
: develop contentment in surroundings
: Increase in practice and awareness
: develop perceptive awareness
: increase the True Will
: Develop potential
: develop direction
: develop subtle perception
: Find the True Self
: Express the True Self
: Go further into CALM . . .
: ever more calm . . .
: The body and mind work together
: Healing and Feeling Well on many levels
: Allow the right thoughts to enter your mind
: Freeing it 
: Enhancing it
http://bali.co.kr/zoo/image6/%B9%E9%B7%CE01%C1%DF%B9%E9%B7%CEEgret.jpg
From :
'Is It Good To "Let it All Hang Out?"
Psychologists now say that this is a dangerous myth. Some people use this theory as a license to hurt others. Research has found that "letting it rip" with anger actually escalates anger and aggression and does nothing to help you (or the person you're angry with) resolve the situation. It's best to find out what it is that triggers your anger, and then to develop strategies to keep those triggers from tipping you over the edge...'
From :
'Our thoughts cause our anger.
If you are mad at someone, it is usually because you think that he meant to be disrespectful or uncaring. Since we can never be sure what another person meant, however, we may be wrong about his motive. Most arguments start from such misunderstandings. Remember: it is we who make ourselves mad!...'
From :
'Everyone gets the angries. But sometimes they make us say and do things that we don't really mean. We can learn how to release those mads in safe ways, so that no one gets hurt and we feel better. Ask yourself, "How would the quality of your life improve if you used your anger in safe, acceptable ways?" ...
The Art of Peace
---
== Idea for building a Happy World (using Anapana) :: ==
Anapana (awareness of breathing) is the first step of Vipassana Meditation, which 
results in a concentrated and peaceful mind. This exercise can even be done by kids 
of 8 years. 
I feel that Anapana should be integrated with school education. It can impart 
moral values to children at an early age very effectively. It also helps students 
become more intelligent and sharp. So, it is extremely valuable for students. 
If we integrate Anapana with education, I am sure we will have much better 
world citizens, who will build a happy world. This integration is 
very easy. Anapana exercise will just require 10 to 20 minutes per day! 
Anapana has tremendous potential and results in making the mind very 
concentrated, happy, and creative. Anapana results in betterment of the mind. Mind is the root of all actions and achievements. Hence, Anapana achieves improvements in all spheres of life.
Some specific advantages of Anapana are given below
1) Concentration of mind increases
2) Awareness and Alertness of the mind improves
3) Mastery over the mind improves
4) Memory becomes very sharp
5) Decision-making power improves
6) Self-confidence increases
7) Agitation, fear, tension, nervousness and stress decreases
8) Capacity to work increases
9) Better performance in studies, sports and extra-curricular activities
10) Ability to understand and express increases
11) Mind becomes healthy, wholesome and strong
12) One becomes full of good wishes for others
More and more schools have already started imparting training of Anapana to 
students. Vipassana centres around the globe offer such courses for individual children 
and schools. Kindly refer the links http://www.vri.dhamma.org/anapana/index.html and http://www.vri.dhamma.org/anapana/school.html
I am listing some more links which shed more light on what Anapana can do 
for children/students.
 http://www.vri.dhamma.org/research/94sem/edu1.html
 http://www.vri.dhamma.org/research/94sem/child.html
 http://www.vri.dhamma.org/research/94sem/child2.html
Kindly feel free to contact me for any clarifications/comments/suggestions/criticism.
Wishing You a Happy and Noble World,
Vikas Nagpal (vikas.nagpal@gmail.com)
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==Vipassana : The Path of Happiness==
Vipassana 
------------------ 
If end of suffering (or unconditional happiness) is the goal, Vipassana Meditation is the path to be taken. 
It is a well-defined, well-detailed, do-able by you and me, and logical path, and is the teaching of Lord Gautam Buddha. As we know, Buddha had a similar task at hand - understanding and eradicating suffering. 
Theory 
--------------------------------------- 
There are three parts of Vipassana 
1) Sila : One becomes a noble person in speech and deeds 
2) Samadhi : Concentration : One takes control over the mind and has the capacity to focus it entirely on a chosen object. 
3) Panna : Wisdom : One gets experiential wisdom of the mind-body process. This is different from heard or intellectual wisdom, which is typically somebody else's wisdom inherited by one. It shatters so many conditioning, mis-concepts, pre-judices etc. 
Vipassana is essentially the Noble Eight Fold path discovered by Lord Buddha. It has three sub-parts : sila, samadhi and panna. 
Pointers for Intellectual Wisdom 
------------------------------------------------- 
1) A book titled "The art of living" by William Hart (Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka) Publisher : Vipassana Research Institute. 
	(The Hindi books "Dharma : Jeevan Jeene ki kalaa" and "Nirmal Dhara Dharam ki" are also enlightening books)
2) The starting article http://www.dhamma.org/art.htm
3) Sites : http://www.dhamma.org and http://www.vri.dhamma.org
4) A wonderful FAQ : http://www.vri.dhamma.org/general/question.html 
5)Lot of articles : http://www.vri.dhamma.org/archives/index.html (Do away lot of false/ignorant conditioning of the mind)
6) VRI Publications : http://www.vri.dhamma.org/publications/publist.html 
7) Links on Anapana (which is very effective for children and students)
 a) http://www.vri.dhamma.org/anapana/index.html
 b) http://www.vri.dhamma.org/anapana/school.html
 c) http://www.vri.dhamma.org/research/94sem/edu1.html
 d) http://www.vri.dhamma.org/research/94sem/child.html
 e) http://www.vri.dhamma.org/research/94sem/child2.html
8) Links about Vipassana and Anapana : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Why_Vipassana/links
Pointers for Experiential Wisdom 
------------------------------------------------ 
One needs to attend a 10 day concept+practice course offered by S.N. Goenka and his teachers, in many locations World-wide. 
Some facts about Vipassana 
------------------------------------------- 
1) Vipassana is not for any sect, religion or isms : A christian will become a good christian. A Buddhist will become a good Budhhist. A Hindu will become a good Hindu. A XYZ will become a good XYZ 
2) Vipassana says nothing good or bad about any religion, be it Buddhism, Hindu-ism, Sikh-ism, XYZ-ism 
3) Vipassana neither says that God exists, nor denies it. It says nothing in this concern. It is universally applicable, for believers-in-God, and for non-believers-in-God. It is for rich, poor, educated, illiterate, all colors, all castes, all humans. 
4) Vipassana is based on truth, on the reality. It requires no belief. Come and Experience and See for yourself, inside yourself. The reality, we live in, is apperant reality. Ultimate reality is very different, and need not be told/read. It can be experienced, if you practice. 
5) Benefits are here-and-now. At each step, you get a reward. 
6) You do not have to sacrifice the worldly life at all. A family person becomes a good family person. An Employee become a good employee. A citizen becomes a good citizen. A human becomes a good human. 
7) Do not try to do the Meditation after reading a book, or hearing from another student. The first experience of Vipassana must be in the 10-day course. This is because, there is only one correct way to do a thing right, while there are ten thousands ways of doing a thing wrong. Ofcourse, at intellectual level, you can read/discuss to any depth. But, do remember that it is experiential wisdom which helps finally. Intellectual wisdom acts just like an inspiration (and is very important in that sense. Most of the people fail, because they never take the first step, due to conditioning/ignorance/...) 
8) Many methods exist to clean the conscious mind. But the sub-conscious mind does not think. It just feels, reacts and creates defilements/impurities. Vipassana goes to the depth of sub-conscious mind too, and cleans the entire mind. Cleaning the conscious mind at intellectual level, and keeping the sub-conscious mind is like sitting on a sleeping Volcano.
For More Details
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Groups :
1) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/insightpractice
2) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/random_vipassana_list
3) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Vipassana_Meditators
4) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Why_Vipassana
Contact :
1) You can contact any Vipassana Center
2) You can contact me at vikas.nagpal@gmail.com. Your comments,suggestions, clarification-requests are welcome.
Wishing You a Happy and Brilliant Mind,
Vikas Nagpal (vikas.nagpal@gmail.com)
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