Meditation, the Spotlight on you

A`udhu billahi min ash-shaytaan ir-rajeem

Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem

Our constant request is to receive support at every moment from our Masters, seals of Messengers, and our Creator.  When we are not showing that we are in need then why support has to reach us.  God says in the holy Quran: “Ask from me, I’ll give you more”, “Be Thankful and I’ll give you more”.   The duty of the servant thus becomes to ask his Lord for support in everything and show humility by being thankful.  The more he is thankful the more support he receives.  Meditation/Muraqabah gives an individual the opportunity to isolate themselves from the outside noise of the world and start to look inward.  They begin to put the spotlight on their inner self.  This spotlight is not for anyone but for you to see all the unpleasant that exist within you.  It is a slow process where the major outer layers have to be exposed before you can bring out all the negativity in you.

We have to ask.  We have to show that desire within us that we are in need.  Our nature is not to do much until we are put through difficult circumstances that we begin to seek help from the divine.  It is also the waves of emotions the self experiences through everyday life which slowly begins to push it toward depression.   These become the causes and we seek an effect to overcome them.  This desire of needing help begins to appear in our heart.  When this desire is given a little attention it will move us to do things that we did not think we were capable of doing.  That becomes the initial step toward finding a spotlight.  A source of light that can heal us.  The healing we are truly in need of is for our inner self.  The self which is riddled with bad desires and covered with negative energy.  When we are affected by a physical illness, majority of time we have to take medication and send it inside our bodies.  That medicine travels throughout our body via the blood.  That blood is touching every segment of our body and the medicine is delivered to the part that requires healing.  The medicine has to go inside our body to cure the sickness.  Imagine how we have to cure a soul that is ailing.  The soul is created from light and a pure energy.  Everything negative covers the soul with darkness and everything positive nourishes its light.

The heart of a true master is the spotlight that can nourish our soul.  The Prophet Muhammad(s) said, 'whoever knows himself, will know his Lord.’  How can you know yourself?  When we want to see our physical self we look in the mirror.  We also need a mirror for our inner self.  The heart of our master is like a pure mirror reflecting the divine and heavenly lights.  Their good characteristics and behaviors will make you to differentiate between the bad that exists in you.  But you have to show that desire first.  You have to be in need and ask with humility.  Humbleness is to lower the self by showing you are in need of help.  Our Master Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Qabbani said recently ‘step on your ego.’  These are like bullet points we have to keep in front of us and constantly remind ourselves.  They are needed when your feet and hands are moving toward bad desires.  They are needed when the bad self is in your way stopping you from good actions.  When you lower yourself it takes away arrogance from the heart. 

 Meditation is important to reflect and seek the light of your master.  His light will begin to show the negative behaviors and characters we carry.  His light is not only to expose the bad self but also a source of healing.  The more you reflect the more light they will send for you to take away the darkness from your heart.

Health Conditions That Are Benefited By Meditation

NurMuhammad.com

Drug Addiction

The Meditation technique has proven to be a successful coping strategy in helping to deal with drug addiction," a useful tool in psycho-neuro-immunology (PNI) by helping to control the immune system, and an effective manager of stress and pain.

Prolonging Life Expectancy

A strong link has also been established between the practice of Meditation and longevity. Only two factors have been scientifically determined to actually extend life: caloric restriction and lowering of the body's core temperature. Meditation has been shown to lower core body temperature.

 

Stress Control

Most of the people who get on meditation do so because of its beneficial effects on stress. Stress refers to any or all the various pressures experienced in life. These can stem from work, family, illness, or environment and can contribute to such conditions as anxiety, hypertension, and heart disease. How an individual sees things and how he or she handles them makes a big difference in terms of how much stress he or she experiences.

Research has shown that hormones and other biochemical compounds in the blood indicative of stress tend to decrease during Meditation practice. These changes also stabilize over time, so that a person is actually less stressed biochemically during daily activity.

This reduction of stress translates directly into a reduction of anxiety and tension. Literally dozens of studies have shown this.

Pain Management:

Chronic pain can systematically erode the quality of life. Although great strides are being made in traditional medicine to treat recurring pain, treatment is rarely as simple as prescribing medication or surgery.

Anxiety decreases the threshold for pain and pain causes anxiety. The result is a vicious cycle. Compared with people who feel relaxed, those under stress experience pain more intensely and become even more stressed, which aggravates their pain. Meditation breaks this cycle.
Childbirth preparation classes routinely teach pregnant women deep breathing exercises to minimize the pain and anxiety of labor. Few call it breath meditation, but that's what it is.
Meditative techniques are also a key element in the Arthritis self-help Course at Stanford University. More than 100,000 people with arthritis have taken the 12-hour course and learned meditation-style relaxation exercises as part of a comprehensive self-care program. Graduates report a 15 to 20 percent reduction in pain.

In one study overseen by  72 percent of the patients with chronic pain conditions achieved at least a 33 percent reduction after participating in an eight-week period of mindful meditation, while 61 -percent of the pain patients achieved at least a 50 percent reduction. Additionally, these people perceived their bodies as being 30 percent less problematic, suggesting an overall improvement in self-esteem and positive views regarding their bodies.

Meditation may not eliminate pain, but it helps people cope more effectively.

Cancer and Other Chronic Illness

Meditation and other approaches to deep relaxation help center people so they can figure out how they'd like to handle the illness and proceed with life. Dr. Ainslie Meares, an Australian psychiatrist who uses meditation with cancer patients, studied seventy-three patients who had attended at least twenty -sessions of intensive meditation, and wrote: "Nearly all such patients can expect significant reduction of anxiety and depression, together with much less discomfort and pain. There is reason to expect a 10 percent chance of quite remarkable slowing of the rate of growth of the tumor, and a 50 percent chance of greatly improved quality of life."

Heart disease.

Meditation is a key component of Ornish therapy, the only treatment scientifically proven to reverse heart disease.

High blood pressure.

As soon as Dr. Benson learned that Meditation reliably reduced blood pressure in meditators, he taught the relaxation response to 36 people with moderately elevated blood pressure. After several weeks of practice, their average blood pressure declined significantly, reducing their risk of stroke and heart attack.

Infertility

Couples dealing with infertility may become depressed, anxious and angry. To help them cope, Alice D. Domar, Ph.D., a psychologist at the Mind/Body Medical Institute, taught the relaxation response to one group of infertile couples. Compared with a similar group of infertile couples who did not learn deep relaxation, the meditators experienced less distress-and were more likely to get pregnant.

Psoriasis:

This disease causes scaly red patches on the skin. A pilot study at Dr. Kabat-Zinn's clinic suggests that compared with the skin patches of people with psoriasis who receive only standard medical therapy, the skin patches of those who also meditate clear up more quickly.

Respiratory crises

Asthma, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) all restrict breathing and raise fears of suffocation, which in turn makes breathing even more difficult. Studies at clinic show that when people with these respiratory conditions learn breath meditation, they have fewer respiratory crises.

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS), Tension Headaches

Meditation can ease physical complaints such as premenstrual syndrome (PMS), tension headaches and other common health problems.
Meditation gives people a psychological buffer so that life's hectic pace doesn't knock them out. Practicing meditation is like taking a vacation once or twice a day. When you nurture yourself, you accrue tremendous spin-off benefits.
For example, when you are under high stress, it can worsen symptoms of PMS because stress can cause the muscle tension associated with PMS complaints such as fatigue, soreness and aching. On the other hand, when you meditate regularly, you dramatically reduce your body's response to stress, and that can ease the discomfort associated with PMS. The results may not be apparent for several months. You will probably need to meditate regularly for several months before your body responds positively.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Ulcers, and Insomnia

Meditation can also improve irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers, and insomnia, among other stress-related conditions. Eighty percent of the people who use meditation to relieve insomnia are successful.
Meditation can help prevent or treat stress-related complaints such as anxiety, headaches and bone, muscle and joint problems. Meditation also provides an inner sense of clarity and calm, and that, in itself, may help ward off certain illnesses.

Fibromyalgia

According to one study, meditation may relieve the discomfort of fibromyalgia, a condition that causes fatigue and intensely painful "trigger points." When 77 men and women with fibromyalgia followed a ten-week stress-reduction program using meditation, all reported that their symptoms improved. And half described their improvements as "moderate to marked."

The Healing Power of Sufi Meditation

" This is a revealing book that i recommend to everyone to read it and learned it.

Muhammad Nazim Adil Rajab 2010"

" Everyone Should Read this book, Muhammad Nazim Adil Rajab 2010"

Foreword by Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al Haqqani