What's in your spiritual toolbox?

SilentBreeze said:

I do a lot of journaling too -- well I used to. Gratitude is another big one.

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I do journaling as well. I consider my tarot blog one form, though I do use a written one as well. I pull a lojong card and a recovery card each week, and think about how their meanings reflect on my life during that week. I also try to write down something I am grateful for that occurred that day, even if it is something small. I made a set of 'runes' with symbols for spiritual principles that Alaska Laser Maid (Wales Woman here on AT) made for me. At the beginning of each new year, I make a wheel of twelve sections and pull one for each month. It gives me a focus and intention for the months, and reminds me I need to practice them rather than just read or write about them!

For information on the practices listed above, go to:
http://www.contemplativemind.org/practices/tree

Another link with additional practices:
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/features/view/27713/spiritual-practice-toolkit

BodhiSeed said:

It was also recommended to choose a mantra in a language one didn't think in to help with doing this. I think the purpose was to rein in the thoughts a bit; when using familiar words, our minds can often go off on tangents.

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I use Greek and Latin in my art for that reason. I know them both somewhat, but I don't expect my viewer to have more than a passing familiarity. It means the text does have meaning, but it is also free to work as a visual element.

Listening to Rammstein is like this; I suspect I wouldn't like them if I spoke fluent German. The songs would be too narrative.

Love your “Tree of Contemplative Practice” BohdiSeed

So - I can split my spiritual toolbox under some of your headings with my popular ones listed first, and those done erratically below them:

Movement
- Wing Tsun Kung Fu (weekly classes and home practice, includes Chi-Gung/Qigong)
- Walking meditation in the woods (1 - 4 times monthly)

- PT bouncer (trampette) including the 4 elemental directions.
- Yoga
- Bellydance


Ritual
- Wiccan ritual format alone (c.4 weekly). Creating sacred space wherever I am,
and following a ritual protocol that includes chants and invokations to select Deities and
spellwork.
Following the Wiccan wheel of the year.
- Wiccan ritual format in pagan groups (once monthly)
- Small rituals daily. Morning and evening chants (like prayers), chants or
ritual actions with or without tools - before and after work (clearing the space, ground and centre). Ritual bath weekly.
- Pagan grace at meals sometimes (in my head - my companions are rarely Pagan - except at group ritual where grace is a part of the ritual protocol).


Stillness
- Tarot card contemplation or path working (weekly)
- Contemplating surrounding sounds or silence
- Listening to recorded nature sounds or sitting still to a meditative track.
- The "slow space" of stroking my cat or playing with her

- Focus on the breath
- Mantra (English and Sanskrit)
- Single object focus
- Visualization
- Loving kindness and gratitude


Creative
- Tarot journaling/diary

- Pen and ink artwork
- Colouring books


Activist
- Attending lectures, workshops and talks
- Support of human rights and animal welfare and environmental causes

My toolbox is the deep me, at whatever given moment. It varies according to mood and desire, and ability at any given time.

I just go with my flow.

Bodhiseed, I love this tree. I'm not sure about the 'generative' part. I'd have put some into stillness, and perhaps called it 'learning' ... I guess learning is about generating new knowledge, new understanding? So generative in that sense.

It's interesting to think about these different 'branches' in different faith traditions.

I had an argument with a relative a while back, when I mentioned, by way of making conversation and hoping to say something positive about religion, that I felt that the modern protestant faiths had lost something of the 'magic' of God. They took offence at my use of the word 'magic', and the conversation quickly devolved and I gave up.

What I meant by magic was the sense of the transcendent. My experience of the Anglican faith at that point was of mostly empty, ugly buildings, prayers that weren't rote but were also somewhat formulaic and heartless, and sermons that always seemed to be lectures about giving, just before the plate went round. Oh and dull old tunes, badly sung with a bad organ.

In comparison the Catholic cathedral, with its lovely stone, and people bending their knee and singsong voices and incense and stained glass - here was an *experience* of God. Or something like it. If I was going to be Christian, I'd probably be a disobedient Catholic.

My relative didn't grasp at all what I was trying to say about the physicality of the experience, and the idea of God as a source of wonder that was somehow lost in all the dull moralizing. I get excited about literature - to me ideas are thrilling, and I have 'moments' reading what others would think is dry Latin philosophy - but there's a great chasm between that and a lecture that browbeats you about whatever imaginary moral transgressions are the topic of the week.

Tanga said:

Love your “Tree of Contemplative Practice” BohdiSeed

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I wish I could take credit for it, but I just found it on their website.
Thank you so much for your detailed list! You reminded me of several practices that have been collecting dust that would benefit me, primarily yoga and chanting. Seeing your list encourages me to make time for practice!

Padma said:

My toolbox is the deep me, at whatever given moment. It varies according to mood and desire, and ability at any given time.
I just go with my flow.

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I think if I am mindful of the moment, then I could be practicing while going with my flow too!

euripides said:

Bodhiseed, I love this tree. I'm not sure about the 'generative' part. I'd have put some into stillness, and perhaps called it 'learning' ... I guess learning is about generating new knowledge, new understanding? So generative in that sense.

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I only knew about the loving-kindness meditation, which is a way to generate compassion for yourself and others (beginning with those you already love and moving outward). I had to go to the website to find out what was meant by 'Beholding':
"Beholding exercises change the ways in which we see the world, enhancing one of the primary means through which we interact with the world: sight."
I might have to look deeper into this one!

euripides said:

I felt that the modern protestant faiths had lost something of the 'magic' of God. They took offence at my use of the word 'magic', and the conversation quickly devolved and I gave up. What I meant by magic was the sense of the transcendent.

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I know just exactly what you mean! I have a friend who is a retired Episcopal priest who speaks of the 'numinous' - a feeling of mystery and awe. I can connect to that much more easily than a prescribed deity. I was just listening to a podcast that interviewed Jewish author Lawrence Kushner, and he said he asked a group of jr. high students if any of them believed in God. None of them raised their hands. But then he asked if any of them had experienced or felt God, and all of them raised their hands!

What a lovely thread! I've enjoyed each post here & Barlywine, you sound so much like my husband, I had to laugh.

In my spiritual toolbox a rosary will always be the number one "tool". I love to meditate on the rosary and do so most days, though I have been known to miss a day too. I always have a rosary on me or nearby.

My "daily" routines...not necessarily "things", but the routine that I stick too daily, such as:

* daily meditation's
* my tail chi practices
* breathing & grounding exercises

Other items that I find necessary in my spiritual toolbox are crystals. I keep some at both homes, scattered throughout the house. They comfort me.

Being in nature & noticing it mindfully.

My own mindful thoughts too. I am not good at journaling, but I find it important to think of what things I have and remember to be grateful for these things. I'm a fortunate & lucky lady and find it wise & important to share what I have with all I come in contact with.

Talking to & remembering my deceased loved ones. I talk to them daily & I know they walk with me & guide me. Helping me when I need and ask for it. They are a very important part of my spiritual toolbox.

Oh, I forgot one very important item that I have learned to keep in my spiritual toolbox. Every morning, when I wake up, I smile & give thanks for the day before me. As a teenager, I learned this from a great aunt who expressed the importance of starting each day with a smile & to be thankful for the start of a new day, whatever it would have foryou.