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Spiritual Living for the 21stCentury

CREATING ACREATING ACREATING ACREATING ANNNN ENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENT

FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTHFOR SPIRITUAL GROWTHFOR SPIRITUAL GROWTHFOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Andrew Marshall

January 2012

The first of a series of eleven articles for 2012

For more information, visit

www.joyousness.org.uk

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and plants can be used creatively to

enhance our home space and the light

should be good and comfortable and so

on. The home doesn't need to look like

something out of a design magazine but it

should all be pleasing to the eye oureye, that is, rather than someone else's.

All this is important because how we react

internally to our environment affects our

energy and if our energy is low, our

consciousness will reflect that. So

everything about our home should be

pleasing and, if there are some aspects

that would like to change but are unable

to, then we should simply accept them as

they are for the time being and not feel

down or frustrated about them.

We perceive our surroundings through all

the senses and although sight is the most

obvious, we shouldn't neglect sounds and

smells. Some people like to have a radio

or television on almost all the time and

unless they are actually listening to the

broadcast, these can easily just become

background noise. It is good, sometimes,

to have silence so that the home is

peaceful, providing a quiet atmosphere toallow the energy of our bodies to settle; it

is good, too, to play pleasant music

occasionally and to listen to it with our full

awareness. As for smells, there is a whole

industry engaged in providing

innumerable scents for the home or

office. Most of the commercial home

fragrances are designed to mask other

odours and many have a chemical base.

For our home to be uplifting, it is far

better to have the fragrance of freshflowers, good quality incense, such as

pure sandalwood, or an essential oil that

is pleasing to the nose.

Our bedroom should be a place of rest

and although that should be self-evident,

there is a growing tendency for people to

have televisions in them. Although it is a

matter of personal preference, watching

television immediately before retiring can

disturb the quality of sleep as it enlivens

the mind and the nervous system. If we

practise meditation, we may eventually

come to discover that sleep has

significance beyond mere rest and can, for

example, provide the experience of clear

light in dreams. Awareness is not just

something for the daytime or wakinghours. Also there is, or can be, a

particularly fine quality to consciousness

first thing in the morning and the

intrusion of television or radio negates

any benefit that can be drawn from that

precious time of day. Consciousness

needs nurturing but is often forgotten

when we are busy with our "toy box"; we

have to prioritise quality over quantity

when it comes to engaging the mind.

The Vital AspectsThe arrangement of our personal

environment, our outer world, often

reflects our inner one. If we have a

cluttered mind, our daily life and our

surroundings will probably tend to be

cluttered, too. A reluctance to throw out

or recycle things that we have no further

use for is a sign of mental attachment

an attitude of not being able to let go. Itcan become a vicious circle because if our

surroundings reflect our minds to at least

some degree, each is likely to reinforce

the other. So if our mind is on the

muddled side and we tend to be untidy,

giving rise to a cluttered workspace, for

instance, then our cluttered surroundings

will just prolong our unclear or over-busy

mental state.

But there is a more subtle aspect to ourlocal environment. When we analyse any

object or structure, it is difficult to find

anything permanent or solid about it.

Everything is made up of whirling particles

of energy and even those particles have

no permanent substance. Even the space

between the walls, furniture and

everything else is filled with energy. Our

bodies, too, have no permanent basis and

are in a constant state of change. We

know that our mental state affects energy

because when we have a pleasurable

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thought, the body reacts in one way

whilst a negative thought will cause it to

react in another. As thoughts and the

emotions that accompany them change

the energy in our bodies, the energy field

that surrounds us is also affected.Everything affects everything else.

From science, we know that everything is

energy and that energy is affected by

vibration. Vibration is movement of a

particular pattern and frequency or

wavelength. Certain types of vibration

give rise to the formation of shapes, some

result in sound, some in heat, some in

light and so on. Then there are those

waves of energy that we cannot perceivethrough our human senses such as radio

waves. We know they exist but they are

too fine for our eyes and ears to detect.

For thousands of years, there has been a

body of knowledge regarding the positive

effects of sound and vibration on

individuals and on the environment. Some

of these sounds are in the form of music

and rhythm. There is today still a hugely

popular tradition of "gandharva veda"music, where melodies and songs are

played for different times of the day, in

harmony with the energy patterns that

change with the various periods of the

diurnal cycle. When played at the

appropriate time, gandharva veda music

can enhance the well-being of the

listener; moreover, it is said that the

sounds also enhance the energy of the

immediate environment. Such music is

readily available in recorded form. Othertypes of sound are mantras spoken or

chanted patterns of sound consisting of

just a few or sometimes a greater number

of syllables. Some mantras are said to

have specific attributes, to aid healing for

example. One of the most popular and

well known is om mani padme hum,

sometimes described as the mantra of

compassion as it is said to "warm the

heart" of the person using it.

So far as our personal environment is

concerned, the use of wholesome sounds

helps to create a supportive atmosphere.

It has been known for a long time that

plants and animals respond to different

sounds and it is a rare person who cannotsense when a place has a "good feel" to it

or a bad one. We cannot say what gives

rise to such feelings; sometimes it may be

because of a mixture of what we see and

past memories but on occasion it must be

because we are responding to the energy

of the environment itself.

Emotional, mental and

spiritual influenceProbably the most important aspect that

deserves our attention, because its effect

is so profound, is the influence of love in

the home. Here is an extract from the

book Awakening Hearti

that touches the

point:

Love in the home

It is so fundamentally important to the

spiritual, mental and emotional well-

being, as well as the physical health, ofthe human race that each and every home

is filled with love. It doesnt matter if we

live on our own or in a household of many.

If love is absent, the home is not a healthy

one. Although that is obvious, or should

be, it may not be at the forefront of most

peoples minds that the greater the love

there is in a home, the healthier it will be

for everyone within it. This love isnt

something that is reserved for our nearest

and dearest; it is love for the whole ofones home environment

If there is love for the home, there is a

deep respect for it and for everyone who

steps into it. The home should be a place

of sanctity and a refuge from the bustle of

the outside world. We should feel blessed

as soon as we enter and we should bless

the house also not in the form of words

necessarily but simply from a level of

feeling, which may be a mixture ofgratitude and an intention of goodness. By

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doing so we immediately uplift our

surroundings and at some level everyone

who enters the home receives a positive

effect from the general energy of the

place. Whether we live in a grand house

with beautiful gardens or in an apartmentor bedsit is immaterial. The important

thing is to create a pleasant, supportive

environment or build on the one that is

already present.

Within the home we should smile and go

about our activity easily. If we do

everything with haste or a misplaced

sense of urgency, we cannot fill what we

do with the wonderful heart-energy we all

possess. Nearly every home has cluttersomewhere and we should take steps to

de-clutter on a frequent basis. Where

there is clutter, there is stagnation and

untidiness which reflects on, and impinges

upon, our mental state. For love to fill the

immediate world of our home, the place

where we live and rest our head at night,

it should be entirely free of negative

influences; happy and peaceful and filled

with joy. For some people that might seem

a tall order, particularly if other membersof the household are noisy, untidy and

dont share a similar view. It might seem

impossible also if we are troubled by

neighbours who are difficult.

Nevertheless, if our intention is good we

will have considerable impact on the

energy of the home in spite of difficulties.

Our home in many ways creates a basis

for our everyday consciousness. If the

atmosphere in the home is unsettled, so

are we. If it is happy and bright, then weare too. Whatever we do outside, whether

it is work, study, caring for someone,

running errands or recreation, our

consciousness in that activity is deeply

affected by the atmosphere we have

created in the home. Do we welcome

visitors warmly or are we guarded and

insular? If we have created a mental

moat around us, it will be reflected in how

we react to the world and others will not

receive the wonderful warmth we are

capable of giving out. On the other hand,

if we invite many guests with the ulterior

motive that they will think well of us, our

acquisitive and proud nature will taint

what we do in our daily life.

If every home on our planet were filledwith warmth, joy and happiness, if every

single dwelling radiated love and

generosity of spirit, wouldnt the world be

an amazing place? Just one happy home

affects the environment, and many can

completely transform it. We might think

that our home is already filled with joy

and there is nothing further to be done.

But every one of us can further enrich our

surroundings because we are all capable

of greater love. There is no end point, nostage at which we can say, Thats it,

because life isnt like that; it never stops

evolving and neither will your heart or

mine.

Lastly, we should never underestimate

the influence of meditation, not only on

ourselves as individuals, but on others in

our everyday environment and on our

surroundings, too. Meditation settles the

mind and the body. When we meditate,we help to construct a better world. If our

personal environment is good, it supports

the growth of our consciousness and that

of others also.

Steadily increasing numbers of people are

practising meditation and, as this

tendency grows, human consciousness as

a whole benefits more and more. In spite

of all the bad news around, this is a

wonderful time. The future is bright andwe can help to add to that brightness

wherever we are.

Andrew Marshall

January 2012

Andrew Marshall 2012

iFrom Chapter 4,Awakening Heart: The

Blissful Path to Self-Realisation, Radiant Sun

Books 2011