The Pulse IAM Newsletter Institute for Applied Meditation, Inc. www.Applied-Meditation.org 1-888-310-7881

April 2006   Editors: Jeanie and Porter Underwood

Dear Friends,

IAM is an institute of applied meditation. I have 2 questions for you at this time:

1. Are you meditating?

2. To what are you applying your meditations?

I ask you these questions in such a direct manner because according to my experience the time has become rather urgent.

Today when I drove home from the supermarket, I heard a report on NPR that the US regime is preparing for war with Iran. If we attack Iran, it will be a disaster for the world, in my opinion. Just yesterday at the conference, "The Triangle of Empowerment", where Puran and I presented, Gladys McGarey, MD, reported Edgar Cayce had said that if there would have been a group of just 67 people praying and meditating together, the First World War could have been averted. Can you see where I am going -- it is a question of critical mass and it doesn't take very many meditators to cause an intervention.

I am asking you to apply your meditations to this act of Love toward the world, the mothers, children, fathers of this country and all other countries who could get involved in this war. Let's invoke Love, Harmony and Beauty in this situation, now. Let's believe that we have the power to affect things, and not be afraid. Let us remember that we have experienced a miracle in our lifetime which we never thought could happen: The downfall of the Berlin Wall. The world is now in need of another miracle of that sort.

Through applying our meditations we increase the power of the Heart in the world.

With Love, Susanna Bair

Q: "What do you really expect will happen to people who meditate on their heart, using your method of Heart Rhythm Meditation?" A: The overall effect is that it allows people to make changes in themselves. There are three things necessary to effect a change: a clear vision of what you'd like to become, the energy to overcome inertia, along with the sensation of energy in your body, and emotion in the form of longing and strong desire for change. When you meditate on your heart, the first effect is that the practice brings your attention into your body. Some people don't feel their body unless it's in movement or in pain. Just being able to feel your body is healthful. Most meditations take you out of your body; a focus on sensation is strengthening and centering. (energy) Second, finding your heartbeat brings attention to your heart. By concentrating on your physical heart you become aware of your emotional heart. The heart has a different point-of-view on your life. You gain that point-of-view by contemplation, by going within and seeking to identify so strongly with the feelings in your heart that you become your heart. This comes from concentration, and it will change your attitude toward others and yourself. (vision)

Third, the coordination of the heartbeat and the breath creates power in your heart, which you experience in your body as magnetism and pressure. This gives you the energy to be the way you'd like to be and to accomplish what you most wish to accomplish. (energy, again) Fourth, along the way somewhere, not necessarily in this order, the emotions of the heart become much more conscious. You remember many stored emotions that have not been resolved. Life becomes more emotionally rich. You find emotions behind the emotions and you find that any emotion connects to every other emotion. There develops a desire to better understand these layers and types of emotion. (emotion) Fifth, the experience of who you are begins to shift, and you begin to remember a notion about the purpose of your life. This is critical. The self-concept of identity is the filter that gives you access to some of the emotions over others. The feeling of your purpose is what gives you a reason to commit to a meditation practice that will guide you to its fulfillment. (vision, again) Sixth, I hope for the experience of being connected to all beings, and to the One and Only Being. This may begin as a feeling of presence in the room where you're meditating. Or it may come as an emotion of humanity, much bigger than your own emotion. Or it may be that you just switch into the state of unity. (combination of vision, energy and emotion) I think you can see why I'm so excited about meditating on the heart. What could be more worthwhile than the discovery of the beauty and power of your heart and the connection, through the heart, to all others? Heart Rhythm Meditation is clear and easy to follow, and has practical benefits for life.

"The real meaning of crucifixion is to crucify the false self, that the true self may rise. As long as the false self is not crucified, the true self is not realized."

Those who rejoice in the joy of another, though at their own expense, have taken the first step towards true life. If we enjoy a beautiful thing so much that we would like to have it, and then give that joy to another, enjoying it through his experience, we are dead. That is our death. Yet, we live more than he. Our life is much vaster, deeper, greater.

Seemingly it is a renunciation, an annihilation, but in truth it is a mastery. The real meaning of crucifixion is to crucify this false self, and so resurrect the true self. As long as the false self is not crucified, the true self is still not realized. By Sufis it is called Fana, annihilation.

There is a poem by the great Persian poet Iraqi in which he tells, 'When I went to the gate of the divine Beloved and knocked at the door, a voice came and said - Who art thou?' When he had told, 'I am so and so', the answer came, 'There is no place for anyone else in this abode. Go back to whence thou hast come'. He turned back and then, after a long time, after having gone through the process of the cross and of crucifixion, he again went there - with the spirit of selflessness. He knocked at the door; the word came, 'Who art thou?', and he said, 'Thyself alone, for no one else exists save Thee'. And God said, 'Enter into this abode for now it belongs to thee'. It is such selflessness, to the extent that the thought of self is not there, it is being dead to the self, which is the recognition of God.

(Our thanks to Richard Shelquist www.wahiduddin.net for his website and daily "Bowl of Saki," from which this was taken.)

Joan Tanner is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Bakersfield, California. Her presence and joy at our annual retreat at the Abode in New Lebanon, New York, lights up and enriches our lives.

What a glorious time of year, Easter. Many symbols represent this time of year. We, as children who were raised in the United States, recognize the Easter bunny, colored eggs, Easter baskets filled with all kinds of delectable candy, and the Easter lily. To me, as a born again Christian, the real meaning of Easter is the death and resurrection of Jesus, my savior. Let me take you on my personal journey on how I became involved with Heart Rhythm Practice.

Many years ago, I had a yearning to know God more intimately. I had studied and taught the Bible, gone on missions and had many different ministries within the church and in the community. About 7 years ago, I was yearning for a closer relationship with God. I did the usual: I prayed more, studied more, went to church more, got more involved with ministries, but none of those things made me feel closer to God. I did what had been taught to me which was to fill my mind with God and act accordingly. However, I had all these feelings and still I was no closer to the desire of my heart. Through many unusual experiences, God directed me to meditation. It was with Heart Rhythm Meditation (HRM) that I finally was able to experience the closeness with God that my heart was yearning for. Since my profession is to listen, it became evident that I was learning the skills to listen to God. Now, I needed a vehicle in which to BE STILL and listen to God. HRM was the vehicle.

Now my real struggle began: to integrate my Christian beliefs and the basis of Heart Rhythm practice, which is Sufism. It took a year for this process. I struggled to share my wonderful experience with my Christian friends for fear of being ridiculed and told how wrong I was, but I thought how could it be wrong when I now had finally experienced the true relationship with God that I had yearned for? Through trying to write a book for Christians on meditation, I was able to spend a year searching and researching the Bible for answers. What a great surprise evolved! I was learning to read the Bible through spiritual eyes and realized that the Bible was being presented to me on a higher level of understanding. I am ever so grateful for the experience of Heart Rhythm Meditation and the lessons on my path, and most of all, for falling in love with God and satisfying the yearning.

Your beloved of the path and the journey,
Joan Tanner

Dear Jeanie,

I wanted to write and thank you and those who work with you to put the newsletter into print every two months. You do a great job. Each article is moving and informative.

Your words describing your reasons for being on the board caused a special impact for me. For some years I have heard of and meditated on "the wish of the heart" with minimal true success. Catherine Warrick, my mentor, talks about this period in my life as the one when I can fulfill those unrealized dreams, only to me I have been still searching for what they are. For some misguided reason, when I sat with the wish of my heart or I spent time trying to ascertain what it was that I wanted to accomplish, I always dwelt on the very realistic, concrete side of life. I will finish my book this year (come hell or high water), but I don't know if I really want to write another. I want to continue learning, searching and growing, but I only want to learn what interests me. While a new focus is great, I don't think it will ever become official with a degree. There is always a trip to be made, a place to go that I haven't been, but there are so many that this does not necessarily generate the passion that "my heart's wish" suggests.

Your insight into removing "the black hoods" from the eyes of those that were in front of you was an insight for me too, because I realize that my heart's wish also is to open peoples eyes, or maybe more accurately, to help to defeat prejudice and encourage ecumenism among all. Of course now I have to find some realistic plan for this (and I am still one of the greatest procrastinators going).

My love to you, Porter and the rest of the Bakersfield community,
Geraldine Miles