Why I blog on this dog-gone blog

Lest I ever be accused of having my act together I would like to be perfectly frank:

At least with life in general. With this blog, however, I can confidently say:

So, What am I doing? Why did I start this blog? Where did it come from? What is it doing here? Where is it going?

But seriously though, I made this blog for more than just sharing my awesome dog-themed humor, and that's what I wanted to talk about in this post.

First I guess I should explain why I decided to start a blog in the first place. Honestly though, I don't really know how the idea got in my head. It just crawled in there and decided to stay until I started typing. I suppose I also wanted to have a forum where I could comfortably discuss my occasionally weird thoughts and ideas.

Now, after I decided, for what ever mad reason, to start a blog I had to decide what kind of blog it would be. I felt like it should be gospel oriented. But in looking at the other blogs out there none of them really felt my style. Sure I like to keep up to date on Church news, but there are other blogs that do that far better than I ever could. I also like to occasionally delve into the jots and tittles of the scriptures, but I don't feel like I'm smart enough for that. I finally thought that meditation was the way to go. I'm no expert, mind you, but I do know a thing or two about a thing or two in regards to meditation. But mostly I felt like it was important to encourage meditative practices in the church.

Now we're at the part I wanted to get to; 

Why I Feel This Blog Is Important.

A simple search on lds.org will show you that meditation is part of the gospel and important to our growth as disciples and human beings. The voices of prophets and apostles both modern and ancient are loud and clear on the importance of meditation. But I don't think Mormons, as a group, really know how to meditate.

The problem as I see it is not that we don't meditate, many members do. The problem is that we never talk about it. We rarely meditate in front one another. Currently the way us Mormons learn to meditate is from our Sunday school teachers telling us to think about stuff and figure it out on your own. While this does lead to a uniquely personalized meditation style for the user, I think it leaves us at a terrible disadvantage.

We can learn so much from each other. I can learn so much from you, from this blog. I'm not crazy or stupid enough to think that this little blog could change the world (full disclosure, I'm almost that crazy and/or stupid) but I still feel that this is important to talk about.

Now another part I wanted to get to;

The Part Where I Start Hounding My Readers

See what I did there? Hound? Dog? Call? COMEDY GOLD!

Now, I'm a little self conscious about, well, everything. So whenever I think of trying to plug this blog on other sites I think, "But then what would those strangers who I've never met before and never will meet think of me? Will they hate me? Yes. They'll probably hate me. I'd better not."

So, I'm enlisting my readership to do what I am pathologically incapable of doing. Please, share at least one of my posts with a friend, neighbor, acquaintance, stranger, mortal enemy (I'll allow you to dip the post in poison for that one), etc.. If none of my current posts seem to be something that you want to associate with (perfectly understandable response), send an idea for a better topic to segolotus@gmail.com and I'll whip you up a special post.

If you do that, I'll make a real effort to stop my neurotic self-doubt and share my blog with the world. 

Or at least share my blog with a dog.

Nameste y'all,

Michael

Love-dovey

I've been thinking a lot about what to write about this week. I wondered if I should write about current events in the Mormon world, but I figured that I don't have enough followers who are worried about Brother Dehlin to justify that. I also thought about geeking out about the meditative prowess of Enos, but I figured I would save that for later.
Finally I decided to talk a little about a certain holiday coming up real soon...that's right, National Flag Day (Canada)!  Valentines Day!
Or rather, I want to talk on the theme of love..kind of...just bear with me for a while.

Yep, I went there. I'm sorry I'm not sorry.

Now, I'm kind of a quiet, reserved person. Actually I'm a very quiet and reserved person. And I can definitely support what they say, it's always the quiet one you need to worry about. But not because we'll go postal on everyone. It's because quiet people tend to notice a lot more than you think.
So, here's a few things I've noticed.
1. Nobody sits quietly and listens to the prelude music at sacrament meeting. Everyone talks during the prelude music. That's just sad to me. Especially in my current ward, we have some extremely talented people who play glorious and uplifting music before the meeting. It's tragic to me to think that while they could be cleansing their minds and souls in preparation to commune with their Savior they instead choose to talk about the latest episode of The Bachelor. Don't get me wrong, though, I get it. People are social and like to talk with each other. It's entirely healthy and normal. There are also quite a few conversations at that time that are important and entirely appropriate. But far too often the chatter becomes a noisy din of gibberish that becomes so loud on can't even hear themselves think. I'm sure everyone would agree with me when I say that nobody should ever be denied the the ability to think, especially in a church. I get a little upset with this not only because of how important it is that we sit and meditate before the sacrament, but also because this is such an easy problem to fix. If you want to talk with friends, arrive a few minutes earlier and talk in the foyer, or hold off on talking to them for an hour, or perhaps just lower your voice to a whisper. Watch yourself and what you do in the minutes leading up to sacrament meeting and you will see who you love more, the Savior or your friends.
2. People don't talk to people they don't really know. I often hear stories about how friendly our churches are. How everyone is so warm and friendly. I honestly can't say that I ever experienced that. I suppose it's because people see me and, knowing that I tend to keep to myself, assume that I prefer it that way and leave me alone. At times I do want to just be with my thoughts, but other times I desperately want somebody to just talk to me. I would just like to point out to anybody reading this that the people who need to see kindness the most will never say so. Speaking for myself, I've worked though many problems on my own and often approach my problems with the mentality that this is something I will have to deal with on my own. I wish I didn't have to think like that, I wish there was another option, I wish that some outgoing soul who can hear the Spirit's voice would just give me a little encouragement. I don't know how many others find themselves in a similar situation and I shudder to think how many of those have had their faith and hope crushed under burdens that could have been lightened. Being alone has made me stronger and taught me to rely on Christ and the Spirit for support, but still, I wish that just one person who is willing to cheer me on.

I think the main problem is that we don't really think about why we do or don't do the things we do. But we really need to. God filled our heads with think meat for us to use it. So I would encourage you to take the time in your meditations to think about how you show your love and who you show your love to.

Now, if you made it all the way to the bottom of the post here, congratulations! You're reward is...a small sense of accomplishment. Also you get to read about the site's new E-mail address segolotus@gmail.com. If you have any questions, concerns, ideas for future topics, fiery rebukes, watery rebukes, etc. send them there. or use the new thing-a-majig on the side of the page.
Namaste y'all
Michael

Put on the Chakras of God

Recently I tried a chakra meditation. Chakras, for those of you not in the know are positions on the body where, according to certain ancient meditative practices, energy pools and converges. Each school has a different idea of where these chakras are and what the represent. The guided meditation I used seemed to agree with this school. The meditation was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but there were a few things that I didn't like. Namely, it wasn't Mormon enough.

Close, but not really.

So, I thought I'd restructure the chakras into something use Mormons are familiar with. The closest parallel I could find was the Armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-17). So, here's my restructuring.

First there are about 7 chakras.

1. Crown. Located on the top of the head and deals with understanding.
2. Third eye. Located between the eyes. Deals with perception and intuition.
3. Throat. (Gee I wonder were that one is). Associated with communication.
4. Heart. Located in the center of the chest. Focuses on love and compassion.
5. Solar Plexus. Located behind the belly button. deals with power and will.
6. Sacral. located in the middle of the hips. Focuses on sexual desire, pleasure, and procreation.
7. Root. Located at the tip of the tailbone. Deals with basic survival desires (food, shelter, security).

With the Armor of God there are six parts.

1. Helmet of Salvation
2. Breastplate of Righteousness
3. Sword of Truth
4. Shield of Faith
5. Belt of Truth (loins girded)
6. Feet shod with Peace

Now to compile the two. 

• The Helmet of Salvation absorbs the Crown and 3rd eye chakras and encompasses the entire head. It focuses on what we think and know and our perceptions of the world. We should make sure that our thoughts and perceptions are in harmony with the concept of salvation. Not only knowing what needs to be done to achieve salvation, but also to see the world around you as something worth saving.
• The Breastplate of Righteousness replaces the Solar Plexus chakra and covers the torso down to the hips. While the Solar Plexus chakra focuses on merely acting and doing, the Breastplate focuses on acting and doing righteously. 
• The Sword of Truth takes the place of the throat chakra and is moves to your dominant hand (if you're ambidextrous just pick one and stick with it). The sword is the only thing here that is intended to extend, just as our words extend to others. We must speak truth and dispel lies. 
• The Shield of Faith takes the place of the Heart chakra and is placed in the unused hand. Faith is at times, the only defense we have against certain attacks. This is essentially our testimony. What we know through the spirit. 
• The Belt of Truth replaces the Sacral chakra. It covers the hips and groin area. It still focuses on sexual desire, pleasure, and procreation but with a noticeable change; it focuses on the truth about sexual desire and the like. Satan has spared no expesnse at confusing and spreading lies about sex and desire. The best defence for this is to learn the truth about those things and to use the power and engery of those desires responsibly and properly. 
• Finally the Boots of Gospel Peace. This replaces the Root chakra and is located in the feet and lower leg. The feet are our foundation and represent our most basic goals. This is like the rock the wise man built on. We must focus our goals and foundation on the Gospel.

Here's a suggested cleansing meditation using the Armors.

As always, find a comfortable place to sit or lie down where you can be undisturbed and you won't fall asleep. Close your eyes (if you want) and start breathing.

First get into a meditative state with a few deep, relaxing breaths. As you breath imagine that you are breathing in clean, pure air and breathing out any negativity and uncleanliness. In breaths are accepting the Atonement into your life and out breaths are Christ pulling impurities from you.

Next pick any of the six Armors to start with. You can start with where you need the most help or where you need the least help. You can also just start at the top and go to the bottom or vise-versa. It's up to you. Once you know which Armor you will start with focus on that area. As you breath, think about why you need that armor and how you have used it in the past. Imagine that the pure cleansing air you breath in goes straight to that area and as you breath out any flaws or dents or scuffs on your armor are pulled away and bit by bit the armor becomes stronger and more polished. 

Continue polishing your armor until you are satisfied and then move on to the next one. Once you have gone though all the Armors take a few more deep cleansing breaths, imagining that the purity travels throughout your whole body and breath out any negativity and uncleanliness. Gently open you eyes  and come out of the meditative state.

So, there's my thoughts for the day. But I still don't know what to call this thing, maybe the Armors meditations? Any suggestions?

Namaste, y'all,
Michael