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HEALING THROUGH SPIRITUALITY

I was searching for a volunteer position, when I came to a Buddhist College which offered a position that was a fit for me.

The Buddhist Centre was in Todmorten, near Manchester. Searching for volunteer work introduced me to Buddhism. This encounter with Buddhism was by chance. Because I never could imagine to go to a Buddhist Meditation Centre. But the idea excited me very much. Someone assesses that nothing comes by chance. The chance, the fatality does not exist.

For many people the events, the circumstances of the life depend upon our mind. If our mind is clear and focused on a goal, what does it matter is our mind. On the other hand, our mind is also involved with the external world. For instance, if we switch off our mind the world disappears. Our mind is in some way linked with the external world.

So, to be clear, I wished to meet Buddhism and the circumstance to actually meet Buddhism came by itself, when I was not looking for it, in fact I was looking for volunteer work. Some people call what I am saying the law of attraction. Your thoughts influence the chance. The Law of Attraction argues that thoughts (both conscious and unconscious) can affect external things.

The same concept is expressed by Jesus, in deepest way. Jesus says: if you have enough faith you can say to this mount move on and it will move on. That means, your willpower, your faith, affects the external things.

In the Buddhist Centre of Todmorten, I met the New Kadampa Tradition. At the beginning, thirty years ago, there was only one centre in Ulverston. Now there are more then eight hundred centres all over the world.

What did I learn reading the books of the founder of the Western New Kadampa Tradition and attending the meetings in the New Kadampa centres?
1)- First I learned what is the meaning of delusion. In Italian language we don’t have such a words and it is difficult to translate in our language.
According GESHE KELSANG GYATSO, the founder of New Kadampa Tradition, “delusions are distorted ways of looking at ourselves, other people, and the world around us – like a distorted mirror they reflect a distorted world.
2)- I learned the meaning of self- grasping and self-cherishing.
The main reason we do not cherish all living beings is that we are so preoccupied with ourselves, and this leaves very little room in our mind to appreciate others
3)- The third thing I learned was the concept of impermanence. Everybody knows what impermanence means, but meditating upon impermanence makes us more aware of the futility of our human things. Everything is impermanent, money, riches, love, friends. Sooner or later we have to part from them, because of the death. But if we think carefully, even in life time nothing is permanent. Everything changes, our friends, our lovers, our jobs and so on. Trying to make stable what is not by its own nature stable, is one of the main delusions.
4)- The forth thing I learned was the technique of meditation. Which I do for myself, with a slight variation I made.
The technique is this: first watch yourself. Why it is very important the observation of ourselves?
For understanding the importance of the self-watching we must have a look to how we are made. According to the Buddhists our mind has three layers: The gross mind, the subtle mind, the very subtle mind.
According to Osho it exists the Heart and the Mind.
The watcher is the heart or the very subtle mind or the witness. Through this observation we see who really we are, our true being, devoid of delusions. In fact delusions are not our real nature, they are just an addition, a projection of the mind.
After watching yourself for a while, watch your breathing, watch the air which passes through your nostrils. Watch the breath which goes in and out. When you breathe in, imagine that a white light is coming inside your body through the crown of your head and reach you heart, when you breathe out imagine the air goes out in the form of a black smoke, carrying with it all your anxieties, worries, delusions. This black smoke then dissolves itself on the floor.
It is a very powerful mediation. It can take just few minutes. I apply it whenever I am involved in a difficult situation or want to relax.
My tagline is: Live a spiritual life and you will heal!
I am Ettore Grillo from Enna, located in the center of Sicily, where I live. My website is www.ettoregrillo.com My blog is http://grilloaegauthorblogs.com
The book I have written is “Travels of the Mind”. It is available at http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TravelsOfTheMind.html
Ettore Grillo, author of “Travels of the Mind”

THE TECHNIQUE OF WATCHING ONESELF

What can I do to eliminate delusions and negative emotions?

I don’t fight against them. Whenever I am in the grip of anxiety, I don’t strive to suppress my emotions, I just watch myself, as if I were an external spectator.

The suppression of instincts, delusions, and negativity, has two heavy contraindications.

The first contradiction is that if we try too hard to suppress delusions and negative emotions like envy, rage, anxiety, fear, panic attack, we will actually fortify them.

One of the strongest emotions is sexual desire. The more we strive to suppress it the more we become attached to it.

World religions have taught us that sex is a sin. In my town, in the centre of Sicily, we boys were inculcated the idea, both in the families and in the churches, that sex is a capital sin. The result of those teachings was that we talked of sex all the time, and it had a central part in our life.

Likewise, other emotions act similarly. Sometimes we quench our hope to attain what we are not allowed to reach, but the more we quench our emotions the more we are attracted to the forbidden fruit.

The second contradiction is that whenever we strive to be different from what we really are, we extinguish ourselves, our character, our personality, and transform our real nature, becoming a person different from what we are. For instance if the core of our being is the selfishness and we tell ourselves:” from now on I must be different, I want to be an unselfish person, I want to become a holy man”, I go away from my center, I become a different person, I kill my creativity and I act in the life like a robot. My real nature is selfishness but I act like an unselfish person.

Since I was twenty-years-old I tried to suppress my true nature, which is to be an envious person. I tried hard to suppress my emotion of envy whenever it rose up, but acting like that, killed me. I lost my spontaneity, I become another person.

Nevertheless the negative emotions, like envy, jealousy, possessiveness, do not help us in our daily life, even though they are the core of our essence. In fact they prevent us to have serene relationships.

Therefore it is necessary to eliminate them.
How can we eradicate the negative emotions? What can we do, whenever bad instincts, lust, envy, anxiety, depression, possessiveness rise up, trying to overcome us?

The solution is simple: watch yourself! If we are able to watch ourselves in the same instant when our action is happening, like if we were a watcher of our person who is acting, then, over the time, we will realize the uselessness of our negative emotions, which do not help us at all and, furthermore, do not affect the person who is the object, for instance of our envy.

Hence the elimination of identification, attachment, delusions and the negative emotions is fundamental for living properly our life, but the only way for doing that is the observation of ourselves.

My tagline is: watch yourself and enjoy your life!
I am Ettore Grillo from Enna, located in the center of Sicily, where I live. My website is www.ettoregrillo.com My blog is http://grilloaegauthorblogs.com
The book I have written is “Travels of the Mind”. It is available at http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TravelsOfTheMind.html
Ettore Grillo, author of “Travels of the Mind”

HEALING THROUGH MARTIAL ARTS

The stream of life led me to Tokyo for studying martial arts. Never I had studied martial arts before. I went to Tokyo, by chance. So I came across a very powerful martial Art called “Shintaido”.

This martial art is not well known, but I assure you it is very effective.

Today the goal of martial arts is not that of fighting, but of forming the person. The martial arts in which I have experience include Shintaido and Aikido. I practiced Shintaido in Tokyo and Aikido in my town when I came back from Tokyo. The former opened my heart, the latter opened my mind. Why are these two martial arts so effective? Because they are Holistic disciplines. According to the holistic conception, mind and body are linked. So the body affects the mind and vice versa. If you have a stiff body, you cannot have a quiet mind. Vice versa: if your mind is distracted, suffering, tense, your body will also be tense. When I was studying holistic disciplines and Thai massage in Thailand, I met an English man who aimed to make in England a massage center for healing mental diseases, through massage.

The exercises of Shintaido help to open your heart and your whole body. Many exercises are performed letting out a big shout and through this shout you let go out all your negative energy. Through the shout you get new energy. Also in Western tradition there is something like that. In the Iliad, Homer tells about the invincible Achilles who before moving against his enemy used to utter a shout so powerful that his enemies fled on hearing it.

Through Shintaido, I learned that what most matters in our life is the energy which each one owns. If you have inner energy you can cope with whatever situation in your life. Your posture affects your mind, your thought, your way of living. Getting used to have an upright posture with open chest, is very important for opening your mind and your heart.

Once I was member of an esoteric association and also of a Catholic movement called neocatecumenale. In both meetings we were told to not cross our legs, because crossing our legs we assume a closing position and also our mind is affected and the energy cannot circulate well. Also if we look at the traditional meditation position, we’ll see that legs are very wide open, the spine is upright. So for the circulation of inner energy and the opening of the mind. In daily life, if you look at a shy person, you will see that he or she tends to have stooping shoulders. The bold and strong person assume an upright position with open chest. His mind affects his body and vice versa. So the physical activity, for having healthy and strong body is very important for our mind and our spiritual quest as well. Romans used to say: “mens sana in corpore sano” which translated means “ healthy body in healthy mind”.
Also Aikido is a very important martial art. Attending to Aikido I learned some important teachings which I apply also in my life:
1)There are some exercises in Aikido, you cannot perform if you look at the opponent. “ Don’t look at your opponent! Otherwise he will eat your soul!” Our teacher used to say. I apply this teaching to my life. Whenever I have to act, to perform an action, to live my life, I don’t look at the other people’s opinion, what they might think or how they can judge me, neither I look at my opponents. I act without looking at the others, but I follow my heart, my mind.
2)There are exercises in Aikido where you have to act in the right moment, timely. If you act too late or too early, your opponent will win. This happens also in our daily life, sometimes we are too early or to late in our action. So we waste the opportunities of job, relationships, love and so on. Being timely, neither to early nor to late, with the appointments of the life is what I learned through Aikido.

My tagline is: fight for yourself and for others
I am Ettore Grillo from Enna, located in the center of Sicily, where I live. My website is www.ettoregrillo.com My blog is http://grilloaegauthorblogs.com
The book I have written is “Travels of the Mind”. It is available at http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TravelsOfTheMind.html
Ettore Grillo, author of “Travels of the Mind”

IDENTIFICATION

Once upon a time, there was a bee that, flitting in the grass among the flowers, delicately alighted now on one flower after another to suck the precious nectar. Finally, it landed on an extraordinary flower, the most beautiful in the meadow, which emanated a perfume so intense and so delicate that the bee became fascinated and enchanted. It was so inebriated by that wonderful perfume that it would never have parted from that flower. So, it kept sucking at the nectar and smelling its special perfume, and it lingered inside the corolla, almost forgetting that it had to go back to its hive. While it was so stuck to that marvellous blossom, an elephant arrived unexpectedly and with its trunk pulled the flower out of the ground and cast it at a certain distance. The flower, without its roots in the ground anymore, shut itself up immediately and the bee remained trapped inside the petals without any chance of getting out alive.”

The meaning of the story is simple and intuitive. You have to strive to become not much attached to the pleasures of the earth, otherwise, you will get trapped and will lose the light of your mind, just as happened to the bee.
What is the identification?

For understanding the “identification” you can look at a cat when it is chasing a mouse or a lioness when it is going to jump on its prey, or a hunting dog like a setter or a pointer, in the act of pointing the rabbit or the pheasant . All these animals are so stuck to their own objective that they cannot see other, in that moment the world disappear, it exists only two subjects the predator and the prey.

The identification can happen in every sector of our daily life: in the businesses, for instance, whenever a deal is reputed extremely important; we consider that deal as if our entire life depended on it. Sometimes in order to make a good deal we move against our moral code.

Often the identification happens in the field of the feelings. For conquering the heart of a person we like very much, we lose the light of our reason, we fight against our rivals in love.

Sometimes we are so attached to our man or woman that we are even able to commit illegal actions for pleasing him or her.
In all these situation the result is that we lose the important deal, as, because of the identification we don’t use properly our brain, and in the field of the love, we even lose our lover, because no one like to stay with someone who is too attached and consider the loved man or woman like a possession.
The identification is at the base of the “delusions”. Free from delusions we live better, we are more alive, more strong. My book can eliminate many “delusions”. It gives strength and inner energy.
My tagline is: Live, live, but put aside the “identification”!
I am Ettore Grillo from Enna, located in the center of Sicily, where I live. My website is www.ettoregrillo.com My blog is http://grilloaegauthorblogs.com
The book I have written is “Travels of the Mind”. It is available at http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TravelsOfTheMind.html
Ettore Grillo, author of “Travels of the Mind”

In the ancient city of Rome, a day a poet Horatio came across a friend of him, who was always discontent and unsatisfied, longing for a better life. For attaining that, he always was moving from one place to another, from one country to another. He was travelling extensively throughout, at the time known world, hoping the new environment could give him that well being which he was looking for. Nevertheless, every time, the new environment did not improve his situation and he continued to be unsatisfied. He felt ill at ease even more.

After the two friend had a good chat, Horatio said:” Caelum mutat non animus”, which translated means “The sky changes, not your mind”. Even if the sky over us is different, we are still the same. So we cannot find our happiness changing town, buying a new car, getting a new job,  purchasing a new house. All these remedies sound like fleeing, escaping from something which  lies inside.

Nowadays people try to fill their inner void, working all day long, reading books from morning to night, playing various sports. In my case I, like Horatio’s friend, have changed places many times, travelling extensively.

Can all those activities give a solution to the problem? The answer is no.

I think in our earth journey we need both inner and Outer Help, whatever you like to call the latter: God, Existence, Absolute. The Outer Help led me to Southall, in the midst of Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims; to Chiswick and Rome, where I came across two Angels; to Paravati and Calascibetta, where I met persons endowed with special powers.

The Outer Help led me to Tokyo for studying and to learn Shintaido, a very powerful martial art.

The Outer Help led me to Kissleg and Interlaken, where I met two American teachers and to New York where I deepened the secrets of Yoga and Vedanta.

The Outer Help led me to an esoteric society, called “Martinisme”.

The Outer Help led me to a Buddhist Meditation Center where I learned the difference between “desire” and “attachment”. Desiring peace, love, harmony is not bad. What is bad is the “identification”, that is not being able to be separated from the object of our desire. Also the self-grasping and the self-cherishing are negative. They originate from the delusions. The Buddhists taught me the difference between brain and mind, which are two different entities. You can operate surgically the brain, but you cannot do the same with the mind. The Buddhists taught me how to meditate.

The Outer Help led me to Chang Mai where I studied the holistic disciplines, the body energy lines and the therapeutic massages.

The Outer Help led me to Africa, in villages without electricity and running water. There I studied religions, rites and burials. My book contains plenty of information. It can solve many existential problems. It can help on healing anxiety and panic attacks. It points out a new way of living.

Author Biography

I am Ettore Grillo from Enna, located in the center of Sicily, where I live. My website is www.ettoregrillo.com The book I have written is “Travels of the Mind”. It is available at http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TravelsOfTheMind.html

Ettore Grillo