Cosmic Love and Its Loss

Sami Rafiq presents on how Sufism and Rumi deal with the universe's relationship with human beings. We are all recipients of divine gifts through nature but we seem to forget that sacred relationship and hence the destruction of our spiritual destinies and the environment. She will conclude with how breathing binds us to the Divine and the Universe and some breathing exercises of a Sufi order to awaken our spiritual self.

Dr. Sami Rafiq is a professor of English at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. She is a translator, writer, poet and novelist who celebrates human values. Sami Rafiq had her education from St. Mary's Convent Naini Tal and Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior. Her undergraduate and graduate studies are from Aligarh Muslim University in India.She is the founding editor of Cloverleaf: Journal of Education in Evolvement and All Encompassing Spirituality, http://cloverleaf.spiritualeducation.org/.

The Subconscious and the Feeling of Love

We all know that there are different dimensions of love. There is the ordinary lustful love of which we all are naturally aware. It may limit us by romantically binding us with one individual. Then there is the unbounded love full of tenderness and fellow feelings but devoid of both lust and romance. Christine Grauer presentation indicates how we can discern body sensations characteristic of various dimensions of love. To do so we must be in a state of calm resulting from an attenuation of unconscious natural instincts and subconscious emotions.

Our natural instincts such as fear of death works unconsciously. Love totally disappears in its wake. Our subconscious emotions in their ferocity at best may keep us in lustful love without any consideration of another. It is only when the subconscious emotions are in a controlled state that there is room for the other in romantic and lasting relationship. But when you love one in this way, there is no room for another. Loving all can happen only when the subconscious is transcended.

Deliberate deep breathing works through the unconscious to successively reduce the ferocity of the subconscious leading to its complete transcendence opening the door for the unbounded cosmic love.

A mother, an editor, a writer, a speaker, a life coach, a yogi, a runner, an avid reader, a home renovator, and a corporate nine-to-fiver, Christine's life purpose is to be an inspiring agent of deliberate change to contribute to a world where love and peace prevail and where people consistently act with love and compassion, regardless of external conditions. She achieves this through her mission of helping people awaken and master their inherent power so each can reach their greatest potential and live with resilience, happiness and love. Christine completed her Master of Science degree in Human Biology and Nutritional Science and a post-graduate Certificate in Adult Learning from the University of Guelph. She has spent her entire career in health sciences and adult education and training. She's been an avid spiritual seeker for the past 20 years and continues to be a fervent student of life. She completed Reiki Certification, Energy Codes training in Bioenergetic Medicine, Breathing for Better Health and Wellness training, and an intensive Spiritual Life Coach Certification program. Through extreme life challenges and her self-discovery and training, Christine has realized the essence of her Being. Regardless of external conditions, she walks her talk and lives each day with joy, vitality, unconditional happiness and love, and she is an unstoppable force in helping others to experience the same in their lives.

Want to be all loving and compassionate? Just Breathe! 

Ancient India had a strong and abiding tradition of seeking. Nothing was outside its scope. The tradition identified a missing link between things as they appear and as they really are. They called it attention (Sanskrit: dhyan which in Japan became zen).

Because of our “attention deficit”, we see and we see. To our senses, the universe appears fragmentary. If we learn to pay attention, we begin to see its interconnectedness. We also begin see it as one whole emerging from an unidentifiable infinite and infinitesimal. Isn’t that what science of today teaches?

It is this “attention deficit”, that is the root cause of human suffering. That was the discovery of the ancient Indian seekers. It was rediscovered by Gautama, the Buddha some 2600 years ago.

Why did the Buddha need to rediscover it? Because everything in the universe is temporary. So too was the seeking tradition of ancient India, ancient even in the time of the Buddha. But that is only one part of the answer; the other lies in that attention is personal, it must be rediscovered by each and every one of us otherwise, for us its “deficit” persists.

The ancients named the easiest strategy of training attention as Pranayama; the Budhha compliled it in his Anapanasati Sutta. 

Life happens automatically and breath, a vital function of life, also happens automatically. Learn to pay attention to breath and we learn to make life happen. In it lies our health and wellness. In it, also lies our capacity to see the all-inclusive oneness of all that exists. That eye of all-inclusiveness cultivates a heart full of unbounded love and compassion.

Join us to explore the tools and techniques from the wisdom of ancient spiritual seekers of the world including Gautama, the Buddha.