Dear Blogger, 
Those of you who have been going to You Tube to view lectures on the talks (that match and add to these blogs) will find that they are no longer there. For various reasons they have been privatized so now you will need to go to my web site davidcumes.com and view them under Videos in the menu. 
There is an upcoming talk on April 20th on Joy. The talks that are filmed take several weeks to master and down load to the site. The blog and the talks supplement each other and are not exactly the same.

JOY & GRATITUDE # 6

The Ancestors

Meaning, Love, Gratitude, Light and Laughter 
are all interrelated and critical for our being in Joy.



 The Ancestors' also teach that the 
Three L's - Love - Light - Laughter (Norman Cousins healed himself of a debilitating auto-immune disease by watching funny movies and wrote a book about it called Anatomy of an Illness.)
are the best remedy for dispelling any darkness. 

The Ancestors

Joy is Soul activity!
Gratitude flows up the higher chakra hierarchy toward Joy. Joy requires integration of many factors invoking all the higher chakras. It begins with the opening of the Fourth Heart chakra and follows through the expression of Gratitude through the Fifth chakra of Creative Expression and how imaginative we can be with our intentions. It also requires the intuitive wisdom of the Sixth chakra combined with some of the recent Understandings (i.e. the Sephirot of Wisdom and Understanding) - of Positive Psychology and neuroscience that confirm Gratitude as powerful spiritual practice. 
Gratitude is also part of Bakti or Devotional yoga - love for the Creator which is also amplified through the energy of the Fourth and Fifth chakras. This also applies to Karma or Service oriented Yoga (the Hero/ine's Journey) when we open the heart and creatively manifest our service to the planet and all beings.
Gratitude is spiritual practice. 
When we ask for things in our prayers this is Supplication rather than Gratitude. Supplication is acceptable if the requests are for the greater good rather than purely for ourselves i.e. for our Karma yoga.

Robert Emmons, a Gratitude researcher, confirmed the spiritual affects of gratitude and emphasizes that we are all recipients of unearned gifts. A Gratitude attitude should be our birthright because if not for the miracle of our birth we would not even be here. 

Neuroscience and F.M.R.I. studies have shown that a Gratitude practice increases neural activity in the prefrontal lobe of the brain ("Spacious or Big Mind".) This activity is similar to that seen in advanced meditators who naturally default to their prefrontal lobes, the locus of our higher intentions.  For most of us, however, our default activity resides in the primitive, survival centers of the brain (Monkey or Narrow Mind.) Ongoing Gratitude  has lasting effects on the brain since Gratitude can lead to more Gratitude and this positive feedback loop keeps the prefrontal lobe activity stable.

The heart has the largest focus of electromagnetic energy in the body. The Heartmath institute confirms that the heart sends more signals to the brain than vice versa. When the heart is in normal  Coherent rhythm we have positive emotions and better cognition. When we radiate love and compassion into our local environment the heart also generates a Coherent electromagnetic wave around us which positively affects others. 
The Maharishi university confirmed this Coherence effect in a study. They showed that when a critical number of their devotees meditated regularly in a city the crime rate dropped (the Maharishi effect.) Furthermore, prayers and meditations for peace and healing work - the more folks doing it, the greater the community Coherence and the greater the effect. There also is a global Coherence (the "butterfly effect") and the Ancestors and yoga philosophy confirm that this energy even extends into the supernal realms as well. Joy seems to emanate as a result of the Coherence of the heart chakra not only to ourselves but all around.

"I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am a decisive element: it is my personal approach that creates the climate; it is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated and a person is humanized or dehumanized. If we treat people as they are we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming." Goethe

It all depends on the heart chakra - the planet would be so different if we acted like Goethe suggests.

Emmons designed a series of Gratitude exercises for his students and showed improvement in their: 

 Well being and spiritual focus 

 Enthusiasm, alertness and energy 

Exercise routines 

 Optimism and sleep

Determination and reaching goals,

Helpfulness toward others

Relationships 

In other words their Joy and Happiness factor

In summary it seemed as if:

You practice Gratitude you became grateful and open the heart.

There was a tendency to pay this vibration forward to others...

The Ancestors

They began to enact more random acts of kindness.

The Ancestors teach the following principles that are in alignment with Emmons.

                 

       

It is important to receive graciously even if it's not something that we want. Just a a simple thank you helps.

These last "doing for its own sake" principles are also good karma as is Joy. We will be held responsible for any pleasures from the Creator's "rivers of pleasure and good" that we did not legitimately enjoy.

Click on the link to highlight and play

11_Golden_Husks.mp3