Food/Thoughts/Interests

~ My current food habits

I eat once or twice a day, but I 1)overeat and 2) I eat very late, after 23, when I come home.

The body needs some rest, it sleeps at night, it doesn't work, thus all that undigested food, no good.

~My current food preferences

bananas !!!

tangerines !!!

parsley !!!

apples !

red pepper

green onion !!!

lettuce

buckwheat

No juice. It's not that I'm against it, no. But somehow I don't need it now.

~ Water: OK, 2 l a day

As I eat in the evening or at night, I can drink water whenever I want during the day, and I do.

~ Bronnikov

*This week, 8.02-12.02.10, I took part in a training to improve my sensitivity to energies, to give an impulse to developing the right side of my brain. It's a very short training, 4 hours a day, 5 days in a row, but even in this very short period I've experienced so much and I'm so grateful for that!

*Of course, I want to be able to see without eyes as can children in the video, to control my energy fields, to heal, but my current abilities are very far from these powers. The other trainees were more sensitive than me in the majority of exercises, my energy channels are seriously blocked :(. I'm happy I started to feel something, but with the help of visualisation while the exercise is on mere feeling. A lot to work on.

~ Physical exercise

I want to do something! Not that I know I should, I want to do it! A qualitative change.

~ Death

*I'm reading a book by Dr. Michael Newton on the life of souls after death of the physical body. He hypnotically regressed his clients to a point between lives--after death, but before birth. He shares the knowledge he got from years of research, i.e. of his hypnotherapy practice, in several books. Maybe they're popular in the US, but it's the first time I've come across them. Very interesting. And one of his patients told him an old but simple truth - the only important thing in this "material" world is our way of life and how we treat each other. Our social status, our circumstances don't matter at all, what matters is compassion and acceptance of others.

*According to the Vedic beliefs, everything natural has a soul - a human; an animal, a reptile etc.; a flower etc.; a stone etc. And depending on the 'sins' and necessities of each soul's development, the next time it's on Earth it chooses the right type of body. Well advanced souls don't return to the Earth. In Buddhism an advanced, enlightened soul frees from the Saṃsāra wheel of suffering (i.e. frees from being born on Earth again). So there's a goal in life - to become enlightened.

I believe in reincarnation, and so Newton's book is lying onto a well-prepared ground =).

~ 2012

I'm really interested in the "mystery of 2012", but I'm not afraid because I share the view about the qualitative change in (human) consciousness and appearance of a new human (the next level of our evolution, so to speak), which actually is a gradual process and is already happening (all the indigo and crystal children, more people awakening etc.). I hope there won't be any planetary alignment-specific natural disasters etc. on our planet, but I like the idea of the survival of people with higher levels of consciousness. Thus, spiritual growth is the path.

~ Animals and animal communication

*My dad read some books by Blavatsky 10-15 years ago, and I read several pages. It was very interesting but hard to understand. Later I was trying to understand the differences between man and animal (in all aspects) and found her essay "Have Animals Souls?". Much later I read different theories/beliefs, and now I believe everybody has soul.

*I've just learnt about animal communicators. It's amazing. The story about horses impressed me a lot. I'd love to be able to communicate with animals!

~ Dreams, sleeping, visualisation

*I've read a lot about the essence of dreams and the potential of using dreaming to change one's life. There're different theories and different ideas on that. Nevertheless many psychologists, psychiatrists, modern brain researchers, astral travellers, healers agree on the fact that something's going on there when we sleep, not just resting.

*Well, the body needs rest, of course. Those who experienced different unfavourable life conditions say hunger and thirst are not comparable with sleep deprivation. My personal record of staying awake is about 36 hours, and I felt really bad then.

*However, there's another important function of sleep. [B]est current hypothesis is that human require sleep to properly accumulate and apply what we learn. We need it to process all the new information we receive during the day. And information isn't just numbers or words, it's virtually everything - sounds/noises, movements, gestures... - all the signals from the world that we notice.

*Many say when you sleep your soul/astral body travels to different places or even different worlds, and one can learn to do it. I've read a book on how to start but I'm afraid to do it without personal assistance and support from somebody experienced. So I leave it for now.

*Then, they say it's the period of time when you can plan your future, receive answers, solve problems. If you want to learn a poem by heart, do it before you go to bed. If you're thinking over a problem all day long, you might get an answer/a solution in your dream or next morning or at one of the many microsleeps we have during the day. It works.

*Recently I've learnt one nice technique - instead of repeating affirmations (which don't work under many conditions) simply make a special why-question out of this affirmation and ask it yourself before falling asleep. For example, I am healthy becomes Why am I healthy? Our subconscious part will find its reasons and as a result you will become healthy with due time. I'm going to practise this one.

*One morning last week I woke up with a clear understanding of how to call myself when I want to communicate with the real I. Olen'ka. That's so sweet =) (it's a pet name for Olga)

*I haven't learnt to meditate yet, but when I close my eyes I start seeing many vivid pictures, one after another, or films or cartoons, in bright colours. I like it very much. But as I learnt at the Bronnikov centre training, there's a problem - I don't usually control it, it just starts. So I'm going to learn to give orders myself and stop it if I don't have a full control.

~ Aims and goals

The importance of having a goal in life has been talked over here and there, but still not everybody understands what he really wants to achieve - it's really hard to hear what your soul wants! I haven't realised what they are by now, but I have invented some nice goals for me =) and I'm happy about that =) But 1) I forget to think about them regularly and don't have a plan of how to achieve them, so the steps I'm taking may not coincide with my optimal path. 2) My goals are in the field of spiritual and physical development, I don't want to think about money while I have to.

get prepared to give birth =)

saint

Some quotes in RU with my rough translation

From the book by Kapten (Ю.Л.Каптен)

1)
"Болезни возникают в теле в основном по следующим причинам:
-сон днём,
-бодрствование ночью,
-чрезмерность в сексе,
-движение в толпе,
-потеря правильных отправлений,
-плохая диета,
-утомительная умственная работа"
стр 190

"Illnesses arise in the (physical) body mainly from:
-sleeping at daytime,
-staying awake at night,
-excessiveness of sex,
-moving in the crowd (?),
-(?),
-bad diet,
-tiring brainwork "
page 190

2)
"Спокойная уверенность в том, что самое лучшее обязательно случится" стр 191

3)
"... рассматривает грех как практическое или умственное действие или чувства, которые затрудняют, препятствуют духовному развитию человека" стр 199
~ "... see the sin as an action in practice or in mind or feelings that impede spiritual development of man" page 199

4)
"... покаяние есть не что иное, как психологическое действие по приведению в соответствие высших духовных устремлений и ценностей индивида с конкретной самооценкой его практической деятельности" стр 199
"... repentance (of sins) is nothing else but a psychological action of bringing into harmony 'the higher spiritual aspirations and values of the individual' and concrete self-assessment of his practical activities" page 199

5)
"Ложное чувство вины, ощущение своей греховности, по сути, препятствуют дальнейшему росту духовности, затрудняя прогресс" стр 199
"False guilt, feeling of their depravity, essentially, impede further spiritual development, making progress more difficult" page 199

From a lecture by Torsunov: hierarchy
^ реальный контакт с объектом
| медитация (концентрация ума для достижения связи с объектом, материальным или
| духовным) личностная или безличностная, на слух (поёт и слушает святое имя)
| практическое знание
| теоретическое знание

^ real contact with the object (when you see God you don't need to meditate any more)
| meditation (concentration of mind in order to connect with an object, material or
| spiritual)
| practical knowledge
| theoretical knowledge

Meditation

Dad gave me a book which is really worth reading. (RU) Рекомендую: познавательно про медитацию в разных религиях на востоке и на западе.
Ю.Л.Каптен, Основы медитации (вводный практический курс). Самара: ИЧП АВС, 1994.-362с.

Why not Economics any longer

Listen to yourself. What is it what you really want to do in life? Not those goals imposed by the society or even very caring relatives. I'm still struggling with my mum, she has her own vision of my life, she still thinks I belong to her when I can belong to myself only. My university mates are buying flats in Moscow and good Japanese cars, and my mum wants me to make a lot of money as well. But my view of the world is different, I don't want to be striving for money all my life, I am grateful to and for what I have now.
Do I want to be an office rat? Work long hours inside concrete buildings with poor ventilation stare at a PC? Or work for a company that is one of the leaders in doing harm to the Earth? No. The first step is to realise what I don't want. Done. The next step is to realise what I do want. I started to move in this direction. I believe that doing something with languages (translating, teaching) will minimise my own negative impact on the environment.
There're many books by those who realised 1) how beautiful the world is 2)that we human beings are (supposed to be) its co-creators 3) that abundance is here, we must only see it 4) that the power of our thoughts is limitless, and dreams&wishes do come true, with a lag in time 5) that love and gratitude do miracles 6) that giving (love) is better than taking (love) 7) that we are not human beings having a spiritual experience but spiritual beings having a human experience, etc etc etc ........ Many authors are of the late XXth century, still alive and writing more. Many cite Bhagavad Gita, the Torah, the Bible, the Qur'an. Many cite other modern authors, usually healers, naturopats, psychologists. I've read quite a few. Many books are very interesting, well-structured and the ideas are so simple and I've heard them so many times, that it's surprising how come I've never really processed, so to say, those thoughts myself.
It takes time and effort to become aware of the negativism of our thoughts, the many stereotypes we automatically absorb while growing up. But once you start tidying up your mind :) you find it very exciting! You gain that independence in thoughts that many of us really dream of. In my life only the last couple of years brought me this new perception of myself, so I am quite new to this self-improvement field. But those several gleams I've had so far were really amazing! I absolutely agree with somebody who said that if you recall only one prayer a day let it be "thank you". Being grateful not only in words, but really feeling it is a marvellous inner experience which opens doors to abundance in the physical facet of our world as well.
Economics is about decisions on allocation of limited resources. In Microeconomía by Michael Parkin (I have a Spanish edition) I read: "Todas las preguntas de la economía surgen de un hecho sencillo e ineludible: no siempre se puede obtener lo que uno quiere. Vivimos en un mundo de escasez". And this is exactly the idea I don't support any more. The universe has everything a human being might need, and it's a matter of time to receive it (let's not think of what time is for now). How much time is needed depends on the person's qualities, openness to the abundance etc. But beware! Be careful in wishing something! You will get it, and what will you do then? ;)

Grocery shopping / Emotions, habits, traits of character

My monodiet development:
Fruits separately. Sprouts (wheat seeds and mung beans in germination) separately. Vegetables and root crops both separately and mixed, but already minimizing the number of ingredients per "salad". Dill, parsley, green onion, coriander and similar both separately and cut into "salads". Cucumbers, cauliflower, marrows, sweet paprika on their own. Tomatoes with garlic or with radish, or guacamole (tomatoes with avocado, garlic, lemon juice - could be without lemon juice). Korean style carrots.

Bananas: I guess the majority of bananas nowadays are GMO, and when I learned this I even avoided them for a while. But as for now I still do love them, and it's not good to suppress one's wants for a long time =) So I've been buying and tasting every brand I came across. Now I find tasty only one type of bananas, those with Gold Sun Ecuador sticker. I hope to enjoy a lot bananas somewhere in southern Europe when I'm there in late August (if I'm there...)

Tomatoes: I remember the pleasure I got from tasting Turkish tomatoes in Istanbul after my long Dutch experience. It was a drastic change then. Turkish tomatoes sold in Russia are really bad, and the tests by Roszdravnadzor (a governmental agency for health and all kinds of safety issues) show in many tomatoes a very high residual chemicals level, above the standards (but still they are on the market - it's Russia...). These are actually the only tomatoes reported to contain a high residual level of fertilizers on the market. I doubt it, as there are tomatoes from Spain and Holland which don't smell or taste like tomatoes. We avoid them. The tomatoes that taste good are imported from Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, and the prices range from 150 to 250 RUR now (1 EUR~44 RUR) while other tomatoes cost 100-120 RUR a kilo.

Young garlic: just wonderful. Smells nice, contains much more water than late summer garlic. Yes, it's possible to eat several cloves in a monodiet way =) But usually I squeeze it on tomatoes.

Weekend market: summer is coming and the choice is bigger and bigger, and finally there is radish (it's not common to have radish in winter here, only at some supermarkets, looked at as very "artificial"). They all claim on their price-tags it's from Krasnodar (the most southern region of the RF), and I believed them. The second time I came to buy radish I saw some small Israeli packets with radish beyond the counter lying in the same place where the very big packet with what they called Krasnodar radish. They just opened the small packets and put the radish into the big packets from which they eventually took it to weight for the customers. I don't have anything against produce from Israel (I am not very familiar with it, usually it's not bad, their sun gives it all its love). But I try to minimize my chemicals intake =) so my first choice is produce from the countries of the ex-USSR. When I commented my finding to the seller, she just asked me with a sigh if I was taking that or not. I felt offended and went away. A women at a stall nearby was honest with me and said her radish was from Poland. At another stall radish looked different and I was told that that one yes was from Krasnodar.

Changing the character and my reactions: everything is changing automatically, with all I've been reading and watching. But many of my traits of character and reactions need intentional and deliberate efforts to change, and it's hard. By now I have found the most important issues, not through a meditation, but through a systematic deep contemplation, have written them down and realized that I had never seen them so pronounced in me before nor has my mom. I believe learning oneself is the most interesting thing on Earth (the second interesting thing is exploring Nature). The most destructive emotions and habits are as follows: feeling shame (испытывать чувство стыда), censure (осуждение), envy (зависть), pity/compassion (жалеть, жалость). I know that according to the standard modern paradigm it's good to feel compassion and shame. According to many healers it's not as it is self-destruction on the energetic level which passes on to the physical level (physical health, life in the material world), so the way to improve the energetic level is to change the habit from feeling pity etc. to shedding love to everyone. I believe the healers. Their words are in line with Hinduism and Christianity. But although I understand what to do many of my reactions are changing extremely slow.
I have also started to realize what my fears are. An enormous amount of work is ahead. Every time I learn something new about the world and about me I am happy for a while but then realize that there is even more to know. And the world is getting bigger and bigger! A wonderful sensation!

Closer to the raw mono diet/ On the path to becoming the master of my life

I am starting to move away from making salads and mixing everything. Can eat oranges and tangerines together or avocado with dill and parsley, but already half of the "meals" consists of one type of product.
I am reading the 3rd book out of the 4 on the role of our thoughts and intentions in the creation of our worlds (plural, yes) by Sinelnikov (in RU only). Very similar to transurfing, but less selfish, focused on the idea of the necessity to change oneself in order to change one's world - the same idea as in the Vedic tradition. I think Sinelnikov's books and books on transurfing nicely supplement each other.
Choosing the main goal in life is not easy.
Great changes await.

Temperature and food today

Halloween has nothing to do with me and I have nothing to do with Halloween =)
36.6C in the afternoon.
Eating too much since several days ago. And today, all the afternoon can't stop eating. My poor stomach. Started with a banana at the shop where I did the groceries shopping. Continued with another banana at home. Then a couple of kakis. After that a salad (small cucumbers, cauliflower, cranberries, tomato, red cabbage, green onion, lemon juice). Fell in love with onions recently... According to the Vedic ideas about food, onions and garlic are not sattva and bring negative traits of character to those who eat too much of them, but at the same time we need all 6 tastes in our daily ration. The tastes in my ration are sweet (sweet fruits, some 80%), sour (berries, some 5%). So I do need some bitter taste.
350g hazelnuts and 200g walnuts, oranges and tangerines.
I know many new raw foodists pass through this period of overeating, so my time has come =)

Fasting

Since July I keep a fast on ekadashi. I am young and of delicate constitution, so a couple of days per month is enough and good for me. Fast in the Vedic tradition means no food, no drinks, not even water; being awake the night to dwadashi; meditation and praying; listening to saint and wise people more than usual; doing more good than usual, give alms, help etc. They say if you do all this, your sins will be forgiven and in the next life you will be born on higher planets.

I am very interested in the ancient eastern philosophy and beliefs. I respect beliefs, ancient and more modern, but myself I am far from any Ecclesia. So a fast for me is mainly no food, no drinks. I chose to keep a fast on ekadashi because I felt the need for purification and cleanup in both physical and spiritual ways. And I believe that when many people believe in one and the same thing, they create a very powerful image of it, and the image influences everybody. Thus, together with giving rest to my body, I do something good to the spiritual part of me as well.

Time and meals

According the Vedic knowledge it is extremely important to eat certain products at certain time or I would say not to eat certain products at certain time. Fruits are governed by the Sun, thus, they must be eaten in the first part of the day when the Sun is active during several hours after the meal to have enough time to digest it. For example, at 6-8 o'clock for breakfast. Vegetables are governed by the Moon, thus must be eaten for lunch at 11:30-13:30 and dinner at 17-18. They recommend cooked vegetables for dinner because fresh food gives too much energy, not necessary in the evening as it prevents us from falling asleep. It is recommended not to eat after 20.
From the personal experience of raw foodists they can eat at any time of the day without feeling discomfort in the stomach, and some 5-6 hours of sleep is really enough for them.