I'm used to offer at least a small animal every day to The Deity, and a more substantial sacrifice in special occasions, whenever I can afford.
Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
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Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#12I got a little shrine with little nick nacks that mean stuff to me. Stuff that represents members of my family, money to bring money, a compass and a few books. I light a candle there every now and again.
I'm no longer Christian, but the Lord's Prayer is so thoroughly burned into my brain it helps me tune out and sleep sometimes.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#13Mostly karma yoga: I'm working towards various big goals which largely benefit other people or manage crises. When I was younger, lots of meditation in the Nath tradition (sort of Hindu dzog chen - Nepalese, so there was a lot of cross talk with Tibet, Mahasiddha stuff).
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#14Not sure if it counts as spiritual, but for 10 years I've consistently done subconscious, mind+body healing exercises. It's been profoundly transformative.
Prior to that (and for quite a while after) I had a huge amount of drama and chaos in my life, and after searching far and wide for answers (starting with the usual stuff - mainstream therapy, meditation, etc) I learned about these healing practices, which address the physiological reactions that happens when we experience triggering events.
Over time, my practice has developed into this: try to live a normal, well-functioning life, do my best at whatever I do. When things happen that trigger reactions - anger, resentment, arrogance, jealousy, contempt, shame, etc, or anything that makes me feel a jolt or even very mild visceral reaction, undertake the practice, which enables me to find where in my past the reaction comes from, then do a brief breathing exercise to let it go. Rinse and repeat. Over time, the reactions weaken, my overall stress burden diminishes (along with physiological issues like inflammation, chronic pain, etc), and bit by bit life gets simpler and important indicators like relationships and career steadily imrove.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#15I practice Zen meditation for almost 9 years. I also can teach entry levels.
The transformation it brought is unimaginable.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#16Chi Kung and Kriya Yoga.
The former takes care of all my health and well-being needs and spills over into the spiritual practice side.
Th latter does whatever it does on the spiritual side and also spills over into health and well being.
One is practiced with the aim of achieving something the other sort of practices itself. :)
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#17Not sure if it counts as spiritual, but for 10 years I've consistently done subconscious, mind+body healing exercises. It's been profoundly transformative. Prior to that (and for quite a while after) I had a huge amount of drama and chaos in my life, and after searching far and wide for answers (starting with the usual stuff - mainstream therapy, meditation, etc) I learned about these healing practices, which address…
I’d love to learn more about this. Do you have any links or resources you would recommend?
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#18Daily mass. It does not feel spiritual every single day but most days the mind is focused, and I feel calm and a sense that I’m part of something greater than the immediate world of work, family and daily concerns.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#19What I do spiritually: Meditation - it's proven to have health benefits, even in purely non-spiritual setting. Besides that: trying to be good in general, etc. Experience love and gratefulness.
What I think it's there: My main point of inspiration are "near death experiences". There is solid evidence they are not just hallucinations of dying brain. The primary argument that they are not hallucinations is obtaining independently verifiable information observed during "leaving the body" during near death experiences. Ed Kelly (professor at UVA DOPS) said that he collected over 100 cases, when the person leaving the body during the NDE observed information that couldn't be physically observed, known prior to NDE, guessed or hallucinated using known information and credibility of verifying professional wasn't questioned. Many of the reports included information obtained minutes after the cardiac arrest. Many of the reports included reports from different locations (e.g. Wife traveling to meet dying husband with 4 people, earlier than planned). People blind from birth describing independently verified visual information.
Some examples and links to investigate (copy doi to scihub if you don't have access):
0. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6172100/
1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01406...
2. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2190/KNTM-6R07-LTVT-...
3. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.456...
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL1oDuvQR08
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-91QXXsyEc
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6172100/
Besides NDEs, check research at UVA DOPS https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/ . Check irreducible mind book - there is surprisingly vast amount of scientific evidence that something spiritual is real, just that majority of scientific community refuses to even consider it.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#20I'm part of a church where we take ayahuasca a couple times a month while performing our rituals. Day to day is the usual self-awareness plus christian deal: meditation + attempting to do good, try not to be a dick to others etc.