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Spiritual Observations:
The underlying themes that seem vital to all religions worldwide are love and meditation with God. Prayer is a kind of meditation. Yoga and spiritual dances are also forms of meditation. For more information on meditation I suggest Jewish, Tibetan and Hindu practices as well as practices by your local religious elders. Various websites exist on the Internet (on meditation/yoga) and books are available at amazon.com and your local university library, and books on yoga are equally valuable. Many books on meditation and yoga have been published.
Caution: Meditation/yoga without formal instruction has been known in some cases to cause mental illness, and cases of this have been cited in India. I suggest books, but an instructor is necessary for beginning practice. Please do not overdo your meditation or yoga practice without a teacher. 'Running energy' up and down your spine can lead to mental illness and has for many. Even if you have good books on meditation and yoga I strongly recommend that you find a teacher to teach you. Take it slowly!
Meditation is experienced in an uncountable number of forms; the process of traditional Buddhist seated meditation may not work for you. There are many kinds of meditation, including dancing, trance states, ritual, etc. There are tons of books on yoga and meditation at amazon.com . Just type in yoga in the 'books' section and find a favorite. One recommended beginner book is Yoga: the Spirit and Practice of Moving Into Stillness by Eric Schiffmann. Also, your local library probably has a book on this incredibly powerful and transformative art of spiritual awareness.
See also Meditation_Society-of_America and 21_Free_Meditation_Techniques . International websites (and groups) focusing on yoga include Hare_Krishna, Sivananda_Yoga and Ananda_Marga. A group that conducts meditation worldwide (and a good resource hub for your area) is Association_Zen_International For those that meditate and want to heal in a way that Christ may have, see the book Hands of Light by Barbara Brennon (highly recommended).
The fundamental object of yoga and meditation (both are unions with the spirit in a particular form, also generally called 'yoga') is to slowly, gently open your chakras (an Indian word) over time to the spirit that is within and all around us. How you do that is a personal process, and local religious groups native to your area probably have a method of doing this. Again, you will need a teacher to do this safely. The main point to understand is that it is the chakras, the nerve centers and glandular centers of the body (at least 7 along the spine), that open to the spirit through yoga and meditation. The reason this is so important is that when you are open to the spirit God can teach you through your own religious understanding, by opening you to your own inner voice ... and that teaching is vastly more valuable than morals or law or any imposed religious doctrine. It is actually how we learn to fulfill and actualize our being into the fulfillment of our selves, to be the truth of who we are and what we were meant to be.
Opening the chakras, listening to the spirit and the inner voice of our being in political terms is actually our evolution. I think that one day we will live in a world without law, without religious indoctrination, and we will be free to grow and actualize to the fullness of our truth and being, collectively. That will be heaven on Earth, and it is an ongoing process that we can tap into anytime. And in survival conditions, opening the chakras unquestionably leads to survival and new growth.
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