Notes for Sunday, May 6

May 6, 6247 (2007)
UNOFFICIAL NOTES

Completed walking Meditation

• Baba Natambu explained the use and benefit of walking meditation
• Benefits of walking meditation include better health, greater "mindfulness", better digestion, greater strength and ability to walk longer distances, etc.
  
• Playing the Wo'se meditation CD, everyone participated in walking meditation
• Found it easier to maintain balance without shoes; makes reference to aligning ones energy with the ground
• With walking meditation, your steps should match your breathing, rather than forcing your breathing to match your steps
  

Background on Kemet and Indus Valley

• References a map of the area, and contrasts Kemet, Meopotamia, China and the Indus Valley
• Brief overview of the Ancient Indus chronology (see map above)
• Shared picture of Indian dancer (see image above)

Meditation

• Sharing early images of meditation from India; showing a figure which appears to be in a "lotus" position (the stone image is from about 4K years ago)
• The figure is depicted in nature, and this is a reoccuring theme
• Initially there was no one shown in meditation, but began as a pillar, with lions facing the four cardinal points

Buddha

• Early effort was to survive on a "nut" a day, shows picture of a "skinny buddha"; later we see the more common image (larger, disk in back, particular hand shapes)
• "Skinny" Buddha is from Tibet; one day he got so skinny and weak, that he almost drowned; having no one around to teach him
• Contrasts classic picture of Buddha with an image of Asar
• Shows columns, which are said to be the backbone of Asar, earliest images of the djed (column)
• The djed represents the tree which enclosed his body
• Tamarisk tree comes up often
• Aspect of the soul, which is the "shadow" (kaibit)

• Emphasizes that it is easy to get lost, if you're not willing to dig deeply into the teachings

Reasons for Practicing Meditation (Exercise)

• Everyone shared takehome exercise
• The exercises asked for participants to explain what they hoped to gain from the course, and to identify how they would measure whether they had obtained their goal
• Participants spoke to meditating more often, developing better technqiues, study in an environment with own "folks", get a better understanding of meditation

Exercise

• Need someone to read "The Destruction of Mankind" from Budge ("Gods of the Egyptians")
• Need "Coming Forth By Day" read the "I'm making a transformation into a Lotus"