What is Spirituality All About Anyway?

[CamLy]

Spirituality is the fundamental part of all of our religious and philosophical systems. It is the core of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and all other religions. It is also at the core of every thought system that we as humans have ever created: modern physics, communism, atheism, humanitarianism, and all the others too! This is because we, as humans, all have the same basic needs and wants. Like it or not, we all wear trousers or skirts, and eat a meal or two (if we're really lucky) each day. So, spirituality is concerned with our deepest and most important desires for happiness, peace, and a bit of fun.

The spiritual part of our nature is subtle and ordinarily quite difficult to fully experience. It is usually so deep down inside of the heart that, most of the time, one can barely hear it. The many experiences and sensations of mind, body, and the external world also tend to drown it out. Thus, spiritual practice is all about learning to get in touch with our most precious part, our spiritual nature.

Spirituality builds upon personal psychology and well-being. But it is not the same thing.

For more information about the basic ideas underlying spirituality, you can read the next section.

[CamLy]

What is Spiritual Healing?
Any technique that uses subtle energies for healing.Such energies are only now starting to be recognised by western medicine. Most eastern medical systems have acknowledged and used such forces for hundreds to thousands of years. "Chi" and "prana" are two of the better known names for these energies. They are related to, and can be directed by, a person's consciousness. Because of this, one can receive such healing forces either in the presence of, or at a distance from, the healer being worked with.

A Healing Meditation
Sometimes, if we are not completely swamped under, problems can indirectly bring about a deepening of our own wisdom and compassion for others. This can occur if we remember that life is a mixture of both good and bad circumstance, and that there are many others who have very similar--or worse--problems with just the same issues that we do.
One thing that you can do is to offer up your own pain for the benefit of others. A good technique derived from Tibetan Buddhist practices is as follows:
1) Acknowledge the problem and your pain; open to being with it; you don't have to approve of pain, but to best handle it, you need to experience it fully so that you are in a position to let go of it.
2) Realize that pain--along with pleasure--is a fundamental aspect of this world that we live in: it's a package deal--they come together.
3) Understand that lots and lots of folks have it as bad, if not much worse, than you do with exactly the same problem.
4) Muster up a little (or as much as you can) empathy for all those other folks; wish that somehow you could help them too.
5) Develop the wish to take on their sufferings with this problem through a kind of transference. Imagine that your very real pain now somehow includes a portion (if even only a tiny one) of their sufferings and thereby relieves them of some of their pain.
6) Visualize that, as well as taking on some of their suffering, you also give them some of your happiness to help them as well. You can imagine their problems coming into your heart as thick black smoke, and your goodwill streaming out to them as pleasant white light.
7) You should feel that the black smoke also helps to utterly destroy your own confusion and unhealthy relationships with your problem. This should lead to a feeling of joy.
8) If you would like, you can coordinate this visualisation and imagination with your breath. Breathe in their problems and breathe out your happiness. Breathe naturally throughout.
9) Continue with this for a while until you feel a sense of completion.
It is a wonderful practice and can help balance out the personality. And don't worry, it won't bite! It may seem practically ludicrous to go asking for more trouble on top of all that one already has, but due to the interconnected nature of the world at physical and metaphysical levels, this practice helps to open the heart and can literally contribute to physical and emotional recovery.

[CamLy]

How to Get Free Spiritual Healing
Typically spiritual healing is used to shift subtle energy patterns that may be obstructing the healthy functioning of life in the ordinary world of mind, heart and body. Healing is usually directed to an individual but it can also be helpfully sent to practically any collection of beings or situations. In general the more specific the target for healing is, the more energy that is available to promote recovery and well-being.

Healing is not counselling! It can be used as an aid but most practitioners do not have access to sufficient power or good merit to literally shift the mental state of a client. The most practical approach for emotional and mental work is to supplement counselling with spiritual healing. The counselling helps slowly shift a person's thoughts and feelings, and the healing shifts energy patterns so that the overall change process is facilitated and quickened in a gentle way.

Methods that are commonly used for spiritual healing work include:

• Prayer
• Visualisation (understanding, caring, healing, protecting)
• Channelling of spiritual energy (for instance: qi, prana, reiki)
• Devices that transmit healing forces (for example: radionics)
• Channeling of Spiritual Helpers and Guides
• Personal spiritual realisation
• Advanced levels of concentration
• Psychic abilities
• Bodhicitta (Universal Compassion)