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*Adya Sampradaya comes from the Sanskrit Language. Adya means original or primal. And Sampradaya means cherished knowledge given forth carefully. Each edition features articles on healing and personal growth, traditional wisdom from around the world and the news that affects our lives. "Ben Oofana is one of the most genuine people I have ever met. He walks his talk and it all comes from his heart." "Ben helped me get my life back. When we first met I was a confused, angry and broken person and my body reflected all of this pain. I was also very determined to heal. Session by session, Ben gently and patiently guided me through the process of opening up to the pain, releasing it and replacing it with what was important to me. I began to feel less fragmented, more whole; living less in the past and more in the present.
Ben’s medicine is strong; it is a process that requires commitment and taking responsibility for yourself.
That is true healing.'
"I had a very difficult childhood and before meeting Ben I often felt that I was looking at the world through a window, or that it was only a dream. I also had a low tolerance for stressful situations and would be completely worn out after a tough day.
After two sessions with Ben I noticed that I no longer had the feeling of being separate from the world around me and I cope with stress and conflict much more easily now."
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The Evolution of Consciousness My feelings have been a source of guidance throughout my life. I was drawn to American Indians from the time that I was very young. I felt a very strong sense of connection with these people. And I felt very strongly that I wanted to experience the native spiritual practices and to live among the American Indian Tribes. I began to learn about the native doctors and I immediately had this feeling that this is what I wanted to do with my life. I worked at whatever jobs I could find, opened a savings account and began to put money away. I bought a car at seventeen with the money that I had saved. And then I made my way to Oklahoma and found myself living among the Kiowa tribe. I started going into the peyote meetings. I knew that I was touching the surface of something so vast and so powerful. I felt such a powerful desire within me for more. Some of the tribal elders would tell me stories about people who went out on the vision quest. I had this incredible feeling inside of me that let me know that this is something I have to do. I finished high school while I was living among the Kiowa. I went on into college right afterwards. I completed the first two years, but my grades started to fall into my second year. I had this feeling that I wasn’t really doing what I was supposed to be doing with my life. I spoke with two of my friends about my true desire, which was to train with one of the native doctors. That’s when I decided to approach Horace Daukei, who was the last surviving native doctor among the Kiowa Tribe. The thought of taking off on my own to go live among the American Indian tribes at such a young age evoked a lot of fear, but I felt that this is what I needed to do. Listening to the fear would have caused me to completely miss out on this opportunity and I would have never realized my life’s purpose. I had to keep my vision to myself for most of those years, because I knew that most people would not understand. I learned to trust my own instincts by paying attention to how I felt. My feelings helped me to get in touch with my needs. I did whatever I could to address my needs and that’s making it possible for me to fulfill my purpose. Horace transmitted portions of the healing powers that he worked with to me during my apprenticeship. These healing gifts began to take root within me and develop over time. I had internalized a lot of pain from the abuse that I experienced during my childhood and adolescence. In some ways it felt like Horace had poured hydrogen peroxide into all of my old emotional wounds. It wasn’t easy, but it was a process of purification that I needed to go through. The intensity of the feelings and emotions that surfaced left me feeling overwhelmed at times. I went into therapy and that helped me gain an intellectual understanding of what I went through and why I felt the way I did. But it did nothing to stop the pain. The pain totally consumed me and left me feeling overwhelmed. It was so excruciating at times that I didn’t want to eat, to go anywhere or do anything. But I had an instinctive sense that caused me to dive right down into the middle of all those painful feelings. I began to breathe softly and deeply. I found that took me further into the depth of the feelings, emotions and sensations. A greater intelligence residing within my body began to take over at some point and my body would begin to breathe itself. It would often feel as if something broke open inside of me and I could the pain coming out of my body in waves. Parts of me had never grown or matured because they were still frozen in the past. That prevented me from living in the here and now. I had grown numb to much of the pain and conflict, yet it continued to live on the inside of me. Those unresolved issues and emotions would often project onto people that I encountered, so that the early experiences of abuse and abandonment were often played out in my adult relationships. Many of us continually recreate our past. Patterns of loss and having been abused were so deeply wired into me and I seemed to continually attract the same kind of person and experience. Feelings of abandonment, loss and unrequited love can be very painful. I just kept breathing into the feelings and emotions that surfaced. And then I continued to receive deep tissue massages, healing sessions and go on vision quests whenever the opportunity presented itself. I used all these tools to reformat myself and build a whole new foundation. I worked myself out of the painful depression and into a much better space. There will always be challenges to face and issues to work through, so I continue to work with the breathing practice on a daily basis. There are times that I forget and get caught up in the drama. I have to be attentive and remind myself to breathe into whatever I feel in response to what’s happening in my life. I find that the practice makes it easier to digest whatever feelings and emotions come up. I can resolve the issues much faster, adapt to the demands of my current situation or let go of what’s not working and move on. I continued to explore and to develop many versions of the breathing practice. And then I began to teach these practices to everyone I work with. There are four basic steps to the breathing practice:
What’s happening? What are you feeling in response to it? Now let’s go beyond the mental chatter. Let’s get out of the head and do down into the body. Stop and notice what you actually feel in response to the issues affecting you or what’s happening in your life. Is your body tense? Are you feeling sad, angry, fearful, anxious, or upset in response to the issues concerning you or a person or situation that you encounter? Where are the feelings the strongest in your body? Breathe softly and deeply as you center your awareness in the middle of the feelings.
Feelings and emotions usually go through a series of stages or progressions as you breathe into them. The feelings will often dissipate as they lose their emotional charge. Our feelings can also intensify as the deeper layers of emotion come to the surface. You may initially experience a feeling in the middle of your chest and find that it moves further down into your abdomen or some other part of your body as you continue to breathe into it. You may experience a whole series of feelings and images. Feelings of frustration could lead to anger. The anger can then change to a sense of resignation that you are not able to do anything to change a situation. And that may eventually lead you to a place of acceptance that allows you to let go and move on with your life. Or you may experience strong feelings that compel you to pursue some alternate course of action. This breathing practice stimulates the creative part of your mind and you will often find the answers and solutions that you need. The feelings that you experience in response to what’s happening at this time in your life can also evoke memories and emotions connected to issues and events that took place during earlier parts of your life. You become more aware of the core issues and themes that are playing out in your life as you continue to go further into the source of the issues. The healing intelligence residing within your body and mind will teach you a great deal if you go into this practice with an openness to explore and learn. Just allow the feelings to be as they are and continue to follow them as they go through their progression. Our minds are overly active, and we will often find ourselves drawn into some fantasy scenario or caught up in our thoughts. That’s normal. You will never completely stop the mental chatter, so just acknowledge it and then refocus you attention on your feelings. Many of us have lived in our heads for so long and we are generally not very conscious of what we are feeling. The range and depth of your feeling awareness will increase as you continue to work with this practice. People often experience tremendous resistance to their feelings, emotions and issues because they can be so uncomfortable at times. All of us have wanted them to go away at some point. But that’s never going to happen. What usually happens is that people push their feelings and issues down inside of themselves. We internalize all the feelings, emotions and issues that we fail to process. Whatever we fail to digest becomes part of our energetic make up. And that causes us to attract more of the things that we do not want into our lives. Parts of our consciousness freeze up. These parts of ourselves cannot grow or evolve. Unprocessed emotions and issues end up getting pushed down into our bodies where they remain indefinitely. The residue of all these feelings, emotions and life experiences settle into the organs and tissues. The heavy dense accumulation of residue deprives the cells and organs of our body of the essential life force that is needed to facilitate consciousness and maintain our health. The toxicity of our undigested emotional residue causes our bodies break down at a more rapid pace and we age faster. Our thoughts, feelings, emotions and life experiences need to be digested. The breathing practice that I’m teaching here will help you to consciously facilitate your body and mind’s own natural digestive process. You can initiate this digestive process by breathing into what you feel in response to the issues that surface or the events that unfold in your life. Breathe into the feelings associated with any conflict, issue or stressful situation that you are faced with. The feelings and issues will begin to sort themselves out. You will gain clarity and feel a greater sense of resolution. You will find it easier to adapt to the changes taking place in your life. Your instincts or that deep inner sense of knowing that you feel in your body will grow stronger. This will give you a clearer sense of purpose and direction in life. Your whole sensory range expands as you continue to work with this practice. You’ll also experience more enjoyable feelings and sensations. Breathe into them too. You will become much more comfortable with yourself and be more present in your body. And you will go through a continual process of evolution as the various parts of you grow and mature. ©Copyright 2008 Ben Oofana. All Rights Reserved. This content may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation and information intact, without specific permission. |