The Center for the New Age
New Age philosophy is promulgated in a number of locations throughout the United States and the entire world for that matter, but no one place is more popular, or more widely known as the center of New Age than our own Sedona.
There is something immutable about Sedona’s new age presence that no other site can emulate. Maybe it is the magnificent red rocks, or the astounding vortex locations, or the cerulean sky and the perfection of the climate that make this nirvana. Whatever the reason, Sedona is certainly the place to visit if you are seeking beauty, pleasure, and above all, enlightenment.
While you are enjoying the energy of this vacation paradise, stop in at the Center for the New Age, the oldest and largest metaphysical shop located on Oak Creek in the heart of Sedona. We offer any and every component of the New Age including gemstone jewelry, incredible crystals, deities, books, cd’s and a wide variety of Feng Shui cures. In addition, we have more than a dozen psychic readers and healers to help you on your life’s path.
The Center for the New Age is located at 341 State Route 179 and we are open seven days a week from 8:30 am to 8:30 pm. Come visit and be enthralled with our many aspects of the New Age!
Vajradhara
Vajradhara, the indestructible lord of all mysteries, master of all secrets, is an exoteric representation of the primordial Buddha.
Vajradhara represents the essence of the historical Buddha’s realization of enlightenment.
Historically, Prince Siddhartha attained enlightenment under the bodhi tree in northeastern India over 2500 years ago and then manifested as the Buddha. Prince Siddhartha’s achievement of enlightenment, the realization, or wisdom of enlightenment itself, is called the dharmakaya, the body of truth.
His teachings encompass the Four Noble Truths –
- The Truth of Suffering: All is suffering.
- The Arising of Suffering: Suffering arises from desire and delusion
- The Cessation of Suffering: Nirvana is the solution.
- The Truth of the Way: How to achieve Nirvana.
And The Noble Eightfold Path that describes the way to the end of suffering. It is a practical guideline to ethical and mental development with the goal of freeing the individual from attachments and delusions; and it finally leads to understanding the truth about all things. This path is divided into three categories Wisdom – Ethical Conduct – Mental Development and encompasses:
- Right View is the beginning and the end of the path. It simply means to see and to understand things as they really are and to realize the Four Noble Truths. Right view is the cognitive aspect of wisdom and it means to see things through, to grasp the impermanent and the imperfect nature of worldly objects and ideas and to understand the Law of Karma. It begins with the intuitive insight that all beings are subject to suffering and ends with complete understanding of the true nature of all things.
- Right Intention refers to the kind of mental energy that controls our actions. Right intention can be described best as commitment to ethical and mental self-improvement. Buddha distinguishes three types of right intentions – the intention of renunciation, resistance to the pull of desire; the intention of good will, resistance to feelings of anger and aversion; and the intention of harmlessness, meaning not to think or act cruelly, violently, or aggressively and to develop compassion.
- Right Speech is the first principle of ethical conduct. The importance of speech in the context of Buddhist ethics is obvious – words can break or save lives, make enemies or friends, start war or create peace. Buddha explained right speech thusly: abstain from false speech, especially not to tell deliberate lies and not to speak deceitfully; abstain from slanderous speech and not use words maliciously against other; abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others; abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth. In simple terms, this means to tell the truth, to speak friendly, warm and gently and to talk only when necessary.
- Right Action is the second ethical principle and refers to deeds that involve bodily actions. Again, the principle is explained in terms of abstinence – abstain from harming sentient beings especially from taking life and doing harm intentionally or delinquently; abstain from taking what is not given which includes stealing, robbery, fraud, deceitfulness and dishonesty; abstain from sexual misconduct. Positively formulated, right action means to act kindly and compassionately, to be honest, to respect the belongings of others, and to keep sexual relationships harmless to others.
- Right Livelihood means that one should earn one’s living in a righteous way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully. The Buddha mentions four specific activities that harm other beings and that one should avoid for this reason – dealing in weapons; dealing in living beings (including raising animals for slaughter as well as slave trade and prostitution); working in meat production and butchery; selling intoxicants and poisons such as alcohol and drugs.
- Right Effort is detailed in four types of endeavors that rank in ascending order of perfection - to prevent the arising of unwholesome states; to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen; to arouse wholesome states that have not yet arisen; to maintain and perfect wholesome states already arisen.
- Right Mindfulness is the mental ability to see things as they are, with clear conscious. It is anchored in clear perception and it penetrates impressions without getting carried away. Right mindfulness enables us to be aware of the process of conceptualization in a way that we actively observe and control the way our thoughts go. Buddha accounted for this as the four foundations of mindfulness – contemplation of the body; contemplation of feeling (repulsive, attractive or neutral); contemplation of the state of mind; contemplation of the phenomena.
- Right Concentration refers to the development of a mental force that occurs in natural consciousness, namely concentration. In this context, concentration is described as one-pointedness of mind, meaning a state where all mental faculties are unified and directed onto one particular object. The Buddhist method of choice to develop right concentration is through the practice of meditation. The meditating mind focuses on a selected object. It first directs itself onto it, then sustains concentration and finally intensifies concentration step by step. Through this practice it becomes natural to apply elevated levels of concentration in everyday situations.
These two teachings of the Vajradhara constitutes the gist of Buddhism. Great emphasis is put on the practical aspect because it is only through practice that one can attain a higher level of existence and finally reach Nirvana. The eight aspects of the path are not to be understood as a sequence of single steps, instead they are highly interdependent principles that have to be seen in relationship with each other.
The Vajradhara is depicted carrying two ceremonial objects – the Bell held in the left hand, representing the female aspect as wisdom. The Dorje, the thunderbolt held in the right hand, is the male component as method. Together, they represent union of wisdom and method, or the attainment of "enlightenment."
In this holiday season, bring the energy of the Vajradhara into your life and enjoy peace and contentment, health and joy. We wish you all a Happy, “enlightened” New Year!
We have 13 psychic readers and healers at the Center for the New Age. They are pictured on our website and are available for readings – in person or via phone – on a daily basis. Please call our concierge at 928-282-2085 for more information or to book an appointment with any of our readers.
