An Exercise for Experiencing the Joy of Being

You can sum up all the religious and spiritual teachings that have ever been by simply doing this. You can cut right to the heart of the matter.

Will you do it?

In A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, Eckhart Tolle recommends the following exercise:

Go to the hands directly. By this I mean become aware of the subtle feeling of aliveness inside them. It is there. You just have to go there with your attention to notice it. You may get a slight tingling sensation at first, then a feeling of energy or aliveness. If you hold your attention in your hands for a while, the sense of aliveness will intensify. . . . Then go to your feet, keep your attention there for a minute or so, and begin to feel your hands and feet at the same time. Then incorporate other parts of the body--legs, arms, abdomen, chest, and so on--into that feeling until you are aware of the inner body as a global sense of aliveness. (Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, pp. 52-53; to see the entire excerpt, click here)

THIS IS JOY EXPERIENCED IN YOUR PHYSICAL BODY! This IS the joy of being!

Excerpt on Inner Body Awareness from A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

If you are not familiar with "inner body" awareness, close your eyes for a moment and find out if there is life inside your hands. Don't ask your mind. It will say, "I can't feel anything." Probably it will also say, "Give me something more interesting to think about." So instead of asking your mind, go to the hands directly. By this I mean become aware of the subtle feeling of aliveness inside them. It is there. You just have to go there with your attention to notice it. You may get a slight tingling sensation at first, then a feeling of energy or aliveness. If you hold your attention in your hands for a while, the sense of aliveness will intensify. Some people won't even have to close their eyes. They will be able to feel their "inner hands" at the same time as they read this. Then go to your feet, keep your attention there for a minute or so, and begin to feel your hands and feet at the same time. Then incorporate other parts of the body--legs, arms, abdomen, chest, and so on--into that feeling until you are aware of the inner body as a global sense of aliveness.

Spiritual Clean-up on Aisle Five

This article was originally published by Technorati on 20 February 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

The Good News Gazette is reporting on a Washington Post story about Rev. Anita Naves, who has taken up shop . . . well . . . inside a shop.

After her ordination, Rev. Naves searched for a proper venue to start up a church. For two years, nothing materialized around her home in Temple Hill, MD, in the Washington, D.C., area.

But as they say, when God closes a door, he opens a produce section.

That's when Naves says she felt God's urging to check out the community room at a new Giant Food store in District Heights, MD. She arranged a meeting with an assistant manager.