To GeorgeSon ~ Head to Heart ~depression

[Guest guest]

Ammachi, GeorgeSon <leokomor> wrote:

> Om Namah Shivaya: Health problems persist.

> This has sunk me into depression as well.

> GeorgeSon

>

 

Om Amriteswaryai Namaha,

Dear GeorgeSon,

 

I too have similar problems with depression, etc. Have been thinking

about you and this just came to me: Imagine Amma in the lotus of your

heart. Also imagine a stream of thoughts( positive, negative, sad,

etc) like a darshan line ~ from head to heart. Imagine each thought

flowing from head to heart and being embraced by Amma in the heart.

Let our heart welcome all thoughts( positive, negative, sad, etc )

as Amma welcomes all in the darshan line.

 

Only hesitation in sending this is that in Amma's Presence, She may

guide you differently. In which case, it is the thought that counts.

 

Wishing you all the best for your highest good. And thanks for

reading the prayer list in Amma's Presence.

 

Om Hrim Namah Sivaya,

amarnath

 

PS ~ perhaps this lengthy background will be useful for someone ~

Perhaps the above is a culmination of my struggles which I describe

below and wrote about to a friend who received a Jesus mantra from

Amma :

 

Jim, many years ago I had a most amazing experience where my mind

descended from my head into my heart and my heart opened to God's

Vast, Pure, Self-sufficient LOVE. The experience is really

indescribable. But it did not stay with me and I did not understand

how to get there again. Since then I have been obsessed how to get

from head to heart because most of the time I seem to be stuck in the

head. And if my understanding of Amma's teaching is correct, "being

stuck in the head" is the major problem and all our spiritual

practices are to get unstuck and find our way back to the heart.

 

The following are some confirmations of my experience :

 

1. Amma's words "In order to experience spiritual bliss, the head

must drop down into the heart."

 

2. Sri Chinmoy's words "Grab the mind( thoughts in the head ) and

pull it down into the heart."

 

3. from Philokalia "Carry your mind, i.e, your thoughts, from your

head to your heart."

 

4. from Philokalia "If after a few attempts you do not succeed in

reaching the realm of your heart in the way you have been taught, do

what I am about to say, and by God's help you will find what you

seek. The faculty of pronouncing words lies in the throat. Reject all

other thoughts (you can do this if you will) and allow that faculty

to repeat only the following words constantly, "Lord Jesus Christ,

have mercy on me."[ Jim, you can use your Jesus mantra that Amma gave

you ] Compel yourself to do it always. If you succeed for a time,

then without a doubt your heart also will open to prayer. We know it

from experience."

This says that japa( repetition ) will purify the mind and make it

possible to descend into the heart. Amma also says so.

5. After a massive heart attack, little chance of survival and quite

a bit of depression and desperation, Lester Levinson started

replacing all past negative memories with positive, forgiving,

accepting and loving thoughts and each time he felt a release in his

chest( heart chakra ) he felt better and better. After only three

months, amazingly he was enlightened, recovered his health, and lived

a spiritual life for 42 more years.

Somehow, due to God's Grace and some mix of bad/good karma, his ego-

mind must have been descending into the heart and dissolving there

quite rapidly.

7. Ramana Maharshi encourages to do self-inquiry( ask "Who am I?" )

and follow the "I" thought back to its source( the spiritual

heart ).

>From above suggestions, I have been experimenting and here are some

suggestions how to start your own experimenting :

On the inhalation ~ breath in your mantra into the head ~

pause ~ notice the silence ~

then ~ on the exhalation pull your mind( whatever thoughts there may

be ) into the heart( middle of chest ) ~

pause ~ notice the silence ~

repeat just a few times but frequently during the day ~

you may want to start with three deep( but comfortable ) breaths ~

then continue breathing normally without forcing anything ~

keep experimenting until you develop a comfortable routine ~ do not

make it an inflexible technique ~ keep it flexible and see what works

for you ~ see other suggestions below

when working with breath, do not force anything, be gentle ~ just do

it a few times at a time but frequently ~

Or, you can develop your own approach. I told another friend to try

pulling the mind into the heart. And, he simply does it ( without

focusing on breath or mantra ) and stays in the heart for a few

minutes at a time. He says it takes his grief away.

 

Another approach is to take a very simple word like( God, Ram, Peace,

Love, Ma, Om, Light, Amma, Jesus, "I", etc )

repeat it ( God_God_God_God__God___God____God )

and notice the spaces( gaps ) between words. Perhaps, during the

spaces the mind settles down descending to the heart.

 

Of course, when Amma says( MaMaMaMaMaMa ) She says it very rapidly

without any spaces. So, try and see what works for you.

 

Let me know how it goes.

 

Prayer without Ceasing ~ from The Way of the Pilgrim ~ God's Call to

the Pilgrim

He took my request kindly and asked me into his cell. " Come in,"

said he;... We went into his cell and he began to speak as follows. "

The continuous interior Prayer of Jesus is a constant uninterrupted

calling upon the divine Name of Jesus with the lips, in the spirit,

in the heart; while forming a mental picture of His constant

presence, and imploring His grace, during every occupation, at all

times, in all places, even during sleep. The appeal is couched in

these terms, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. One who accustoms

himself to this appeal experiences as a result so deep a consolation

and so great a need to offer the prayer always, that he can no longer

live without it, and it will continue to voice itself within him of

its own accord. Now do you understand what prayer without ceasing

is!" (Emphasis added.)

"Yes indeed, Father, and in God's name teach me how to gain the habit

of it," I cried, filled with joy.

He opened the book [The Philokalia], found the instruction by St.

Simeon the New Theologian, and read: " Sit down alone and in silence.

Lower your head, shut your eyes, breathe out gently and imagine

yourself looking into your own heart. Carry your mind, i.e, your

thoughts, from your head to your heart. As you breathe out, say Lord

Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.' Say it moving your lips gently, or

simply say it in your mind. Try to put all other thoughts aside. Be

calm, be patient, and repeat the process very frequently."

I listened closely and with great delight, fixed it in my memory, and

tried as far as possible to remember every detail.

[The Pilgrim found a place to stay in a village nearby. As he tried

to practice this new way of prayer he found himself] "tired, lazy,

bored and overwhelmingly sleepy, and a cloud of all sorts of other

thoughts closed round me." [His friend and spiritual director, the

monk, said] "My dear brother, it is the attack of the world of

darkness upon you. To that world, nothing is worse than heartfelt

prayer on our part. And it is trying by every means to hinder you and

to turn you aside from learning the Prayer. But all the same the

enemy only does what God see fit to allow, and no more is than is

necessary for us...2

He turned to the teaching of Nicephorus [in The Philokalia] and

read, " ' If after a few attempts you do not succeed in reaching the

realm of your heart in the way you have been taught, do what I am

about to say, and by God's help you will find what you seek. The

faculty of pronouncing words lies in the throat. Reject all other

thoughts (you can do this if you will) and allow that faculty to

repeat only the following words constantly, " Lord Jesus Christ, have

mercy on me." Compel yourself to do it always. If you succeed for a

time, then without a doubt your heart also will open to prayer. We

know it from experience.'

"There you have the teaching of the holy Fathers on such cases," said

my [director], " and therefore you ought from today onwards to carry

out my directions with confidence, and repeat the Prayer of Jesus as

often as possible. Start with three thousand times a day. Whether you

are standing or sitting, walking or lying down, continually

repeat 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me'. Say it quietly and

without hurry, but without fail exactly three thousand times a day

without deliberately increasing or diminishing the number. God will

help you...

[Later his director told him to say the prayer 12,000 times a day.] I

did as he bade me. The first day I scarcely succeeded in finishing my

task of saying twelve thousand prayers by late evening. The second

day I did it easily and contentedly. To begin with, this ceaseless

saying of the Prayer brought a certain amount of weariness, my tongue

felt numbed, I had a stiff sort of feeling in my jaws, I had a

feeling at first pleasant but afterwards slightly painful in the roof

of my mouth. The thumb of my left hand, with which I counted my

beads, hurt a little. I felt a slight inflammation in the whole of

that wrist, and even up to the elbow, which was not unpleasant.

Moreover, all this aroused me, as it were, and urged me on to

frequent saying of the Prayer. For five days I did my set number of

twelve thousand prayers, and as I formed the habit I found at the

same time pleasure and satisfaction in it.

 

The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way, translated

from the Russian by R. M. French, S.P.C.K., London, first published

in 1930, reprinted in 1963, pp. 1-17.