Working with the Readings

Posted on March 16, 2014 by webmaven

Question arose about how to work with the Angels Healing Journey material and I wrote something up. In retrospect think that it looks like a good summary of the ways that one can work with the Labyrinth Readers Society materials, so I will post it.

You can go to www.theclearlight.com and you will see a lot of material about how to do readings. Using the AHJ is much like using the American Book of the Dead, so the information there, especially in the “How to Do a Reading” section does apply.

caregiving end of life care

Take care of yourself!

You can also join our very active discussion group the LRS Forum on Facebook where we talk about doing readings for the benefit of others and discuss a new service technology called “orb runs,” FYI, I wrote an article about the relationship between reading and “orb running” on this caregiver website. 

We also have study groups which meet live on the internet in various chat venues. Several are currently active at the prosperity virtual ashram on the second life platform.

If you don’t know about the ashram you can read about it here: What is Ashram Work?

It’s easy to get to the Ashram, go to secondlife.com and choose an avatar. Download the free environment. Go to prosperity//the link below, then please send us your avatar’s name. There are many ongoing programs.

One location in secondlife where we offer an open meeting and discussion on Tuesday evenings 7pm PST is: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/prosperity/113/207/2011

Finally, we are in the process of developing a home study course for working with the readings. It will be oriented around the American Book of the Dead but the skills of doing readings apply to the Angels Healing Journey as well.

Thanks – Grant

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Eight Buddhist Prayers to Benefit the Dead

Posted on March 10, 2014 by webmaven

This is a beautiful e-book (about 30 pages) with prayers about death and dying from a Buddhist perspective:

Eight Buddhist Prayers to Benefit the Dead

medicine buddha

Prayers for the Dead

 

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Restart Living – Chronic Disease Self-Management Information and Workshops

Posted on March 6, 2014 by webmaven

This looks like a good program for those with chronic medical conditions. Based on the work of Kate Lorig and others at Stanford, the chronic disease self management program. The site below will direct you to sign up for an online workshop that actually looks like it has real content and is authentic, ie not a corporate sponsored sham. Be sure to watch the videos to find out more:

Restart Living – Chronic Disease Self-Management Information and Workshops.

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3 Years in Print, A New Edition, and 25K visitors to our website!

Posted on February 22, 2014 by webmaven
caregiving, hospice, nursing and palliative care

Caregiver Revolution

We’re coming into a busy spring season for Caregiver Revolution as we celebrate our 3rd year in print and, very soon, over 25,000 visitors on the caregiver website. You could be the one who puts us over the mark!

We’re also scheduling events for the fall conference season and our publisher has just agreed to support a second edition (with TONS of new material) which which will be coming out later this year.

How you can help – healing orb runs and readings for the benefit of those you love.

Prayers for healing and for those who are dying.

Caregiving, Hospice, Nursing Conferences

Caregiver Tips and Tools

 

Thanks, everyone, for your support!

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At end of life, an Encoded Prayer?

Posted on January 29, 2014 by webmaven

Here’s an intereting story about the mysteries that surround life and death:

Internet community helps crack dying grandmother’s code on note cards 

Truth or conjecture, no matter what we think, it’s an interesting concept that communication can take place in all kinds of ways for those who cannot communicate through speech and normal writing.

And then there is the mystery of prayer. As the New Yorker eloquently writes:

“Now, every prayer is a mystery, even if it’s not written in a code that takes two decades to crack. Even the very impulse to pray is mysterious. The faithful may understand their prayers as an act of obedience, though even they may wonder why desires must be articulated to a deity who knows all. Others believe that prayer affects the one who offers it, not necessarily the one who receives it. How one should pray—not only which words, if any, to use, but also which postures to inhabit—remains an active conversation in many religious communities, and the yearning to pray “better” or more “effectively” sustains an industry of gurus and guides.

Prayers can be as private as a whisper or as public as a pop song. Dorothy Holm, the author of these cards, crafted a prayer that was both, but it was the conventional prayer that she recorded that allowed her code to be broken: the recognizable triple “amen” first oriented the code breakers, and the well-known “Our Father” confirmed their cryptographic instincts. If she had not used a conventional prayer, her code might never have been figured out.”

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Tai Chi and Mindfulness – daily practice

Posted on January 6, 2014 by webmaven

“Much, much there is, grasshopper, about this tai chi…”

In perusing the new popularity of tai chi it could be said that people think of it as a system of  kind-of-complicated movements devised to be performed verrrrrry slowly to teach concentration and breathing meditation which will give lots of related health benefits.

Well, guess what? This is actually just a small part of the story. Tai chi is an ancient, very complex system of developmental teaching which, as it is embodied in the movements, holds it’s secrets very well.

Approaching its comprehensive teachings you should understand that tai chi is an incredibly sophisticated philosophy and system of training with an amazing history spanning centuries of evolution through warlords, feuding families, esoteric monasteries and hidden schools of martial arts. A synopsis of this history is quite well described in Waysun Liao’s Tai Chi Classics, and his respect for the tradition coupled with the sincerity with which he conveys his knowledge are admirable.

Here we want to talk about a practical thing, about turning your tai chi practice into a daily, hourly, minute to minute affair of very beneficial mindfulness practice. Master Liao helps us by giving the following exercise (here he is talking specifically about coordination):

“For example, each time you go to answer the phone, the entire body moves forward to pick up the receiver. As the receiver is lifted from the cradle, you should imagine that it is very heavy and fragile and so requires your full attention and the entire strength of your body to lift it. The same type of practice can be applied when you use your silverware at meals and so on. Moving the body as one complete unit aids in the free unobstructed flow of ch’i. Therefore constantly practicing in this way will serve as a reminder to your mind and body systems and will increase natural coordination and consequently the awareness of ch’i within the body.” p.43

Liao talks about relaxation, shoong, just as descriptively. To practice tai chi one has to learn to be completely completely relaxed as if the muscles in the arms, for example, didn’t work at all. Feel as if the arms are completely useless…unable to move, totally heavy. Feel the shoulders drop. Feel how deeply relaxed that is. This approximates the total relaxation of a tai chi practitioner, who keeps this feeling active even while he is moving.

“In tai ch’i meditative movement practice, relaxation means to give yourself up completely both mentally and physically.It means to yield: yield totally to the entire universe, yield to the infinite.“p.31

Bringing this sense of awareness and relaxation to everyday tasks – this is the real practice. Stay mindful. Use your warrior’s perseverance to continue with your efforts despite the fact that you will inevitably forget time and time again. This is tai chi in every day life.

 

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