passerby

while i'm all for psychedelics, I also judge these types of people (high level meditators, gurus, teachers, whatevers) by their actions, to glean an idea of whether what they are doing seems to be working. And Culadasa was recently stood down because he was banging hookers and some students who were not his wife... many of his actions were against the most simplest morals that Buddhists (and all spiritual systems really) hold

There is an Australian botanist and entheogen explorer, Julian Palmer. He believes he has found the plant that was refered to as Soma in the Rig Veda. When testing it he found it has high levels of 5meo. Its called Phyllodium Pulchellum. Its only really just picking up interest (since he only recently talked about it). A few guys on the forums about growing entheogens have only just started with the seeds, so its gonna be a while before much real info starts coming out here is the video where he first mentions it, most of it is kina boring (unless your a botanist), but somewhere in there he does talk about his trip reports with it. he is still looking into it, but its obviously a slow process for 1 person so info is slow.

Anyone used The Monroe Insititute programs with their Hemi-Sync technology (binaural beats). There is a lot of good reviews out there (for their online programs and their 5 day intensives) There is even declassified CiA papers about how they used this for remote viewing and PSI in government projects (which apparently are still going on) also a guy called Tom Campbell and his 'my big TOE' (theory of everything). apparently it is the best explanation of simulation theory currently around. (he was involved with the founder of Monroe institute)

this thing is pretty expensive (but you could probably make your own if your handy), but it uses solar evaporation to obtain your purified water, which is the actual process water gets evaporated in nature (not by boiling the water, which is very violent to the molecules, which is why it comes out 'dead' and unnatural) if you want health, be in and/or replicate nature http://www.solaqua.com/solstils1.html

i'm not willing to try it because I don't have access to a guru who has mastered the sungazing sadhana who can guide me to do it correctly myself. The best anyone can do is read all the info on the internet, then take the gamble (and i'm not a gambler) I mean yeah, looking at the very very morning sun for like 30 seconds would obviously be fine. but thats not really what we are talking about when discussing the full sungazing protocol (sinces its supposed to be worked up to like an hour).

cancer cells are also a part of us, doesn't stop the cancer from spreading to the point of killing the host altogether (if they get out of hand... managed they don't cause any meaningful damage...)

psychedelics are made from earth elements (they grow in the ground), so they are actually much more grounded than you think (yet people still have trouble with them, SOMETIMES). also, everything you consume is just a stepdown of prana (which Is why we need to consume food. we are consuming a grosser form of prana life energy because we can't handle the more finer/subtler forms of it... that's why eating tons of meat is really bad for you coz the animals eat the plants and the prana is then flesh which is the grossest form, then we eat that... that is only the very basics of it.) that's why only very few actually advanced yogis can actually sungaze and do specific pranayamas, and live mostly off of that (combined that they are in meditation 90% of their time which uses less energy). basically, people claiming to have transcended the need for food are just trying to imply "my shit doesn't stink. infact I don't shit at all, i'm so pure and have a pure bumhole,

I used to be really interested in sungazing (never tired it tho), but I concluded that you have to 'purify' your subtle body channels (or whatever its properly called in the yogas) otherwise your system will get fried (the eyes being on the frontlines, go first). obviously its not some quick process, it of course would take years (it most likely would involve some sort of surya namaskara and candle trataka sadhana for several years. that is only a guess btw). that's why you can't do this shit without a proper guru (of which there are none remaining that any of us would have access to). you would have to learn to properly ground yourself into the earth (however that's done. most likely very similar to qigong techniques). remember the sun is a celestial body, and man is a balance of earth and cosmos so you can't just take in pure cosmic energy without being connected to the earth (of which you are made up of) to give an outlet to dissipate the excess energy. (its obviously not as easy as just standing barefoot on the earth, that is suuuch a misunderstood and underemphasized part of sungazing) its wayyy to complex for us to just read of a few people doing it and then trying to do it outselves.

most the students that actually become enlightened continue on "chopping wood, carrying water". so obviously you never hear that xyz amount of xzy practitioners become enlightened. People have became enlightened thru every religion and sects of those religions. People have even became enlightened thru sports (rarely these days, due to huge egos created by being broadcasted on tv, and everything else involved with being a 'modern' athlete that keeps them bound to the world) zen is certainly one of the more effective systems

your ayurvedic 'doctor' is BS. If you want to learn real Ayurveda, read this blog. but be warned, once you start digging into it, you will be very frustrated with the lack of real knowledge available to you start with the earlier articles (otherwise you will be completely lost) https://trueayurveda.wordpress.com/2012/02/ this also isn't just about Ayurveda, but 'yoga' and even astrology as well. Most posts are very hard to digest, but if you want the real info, then this is where you need to be looking.

everything is just energy that is sensed with your sense organs then decoded in your brain?

how many times have you used this substance? does it give the same effects everytime you use it? is it something that other people have taken or are you the first? when will you name it?

its definitely attachement, my man. Which is a hinderance along the path, unfortunately. That is why most yogis have long beards, the original intention of growing their beards long was to make themselves look unattractive (coz if you know your unattractive, then its easier to stop thinking about looks)… But nowadays that gurus are becoming a 'thing' people are associating long beards with wisdom (sadhguru doesn't help ). Its starting to have the opposite effect. many are trying to grow long beards to 'fit the image', which is completely against what was intended. Also, it kinda ties into hippy culture as well: I have a long beard, people will know "I've done lots of psychedelics and experienced crazy states they cannot imagine". also, that's why buddhist monks have to shave their head, because hair is a big symbol of someones beauty. so they must shave it all off, so they all look the same, "i'm not a snowflake". And that once in 12 year ceremony in India where the cave yogis come down, they come down completely naked. they have no shame if people see their thumb tac sized willy, they do not give a fuck. (and its got nothing to do with nudist philosophy) saying that, I have both a long beard and long hair (but not a thumbtack sized willy ) but I am nowhere near any impressive spiritual 'level' at all, and I admit I have a very heavy attachement to my looks

@Jordan94 find the Trataka sections in the index of this online book, then find those pages. It contains more info on trataka than anywhere you will find online https://archive.org/details/DharanaDarsanaYogicTantricAndUpanashidicPracticesOfConentrationAndVisualisationS

thousands upon thousands of people have taken psyches (and that's just people who talk about it on the internet), and none of them have ever reported that. it has to be something else. You should get your diet and sleep in check first and foremost. if its true your a vegan, then you might wanna consider eating meat a few times a week. maybe see a reputable Chinese Traditional Medecine practitioner and acupuncturist in your area

Check out the reddit r/streamentry and r/themindilluminated Culadasa was recently (like over the last week) stood down due to it coming out hes been having sexual relations with many people who are not his wife. I don't know too much about it, but it was a big thing over on those sub reddits during the past week. another guru scandal btw, this shouldn't deter you from his book, the techniques are still solid. but once again, don't forget to "kill the buddha" heres the link to the one in the streamentry sub: https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/comments/cspe6n/conductcommunity_culadasa_misconduct_update/

if you can't see a teacher in real life (btw, taichi/chigong is starting to go the way of yoga, in that it is mostly being taught as the superficial physical movements with little knowledge of the deeper esoteric/metaphysical. its not as bad as yoga, but its starting to get that way, simply due to increased interest. you know how us westerners destroy everything) Anyway. there are obviously lots of videos, but i'll recommend this guy, Stephen procter, I believe him to have some degree of enlightenment, and he is a very kind and generous person, he has basically put all his knowledge out there for free. I seriously doubt his name would ever be involved in a 'guru scandal' which is so popular nowadays. He has a step by step video series to begin a particular form of tai chi, I think it would be great for anyone to build their foundation: http://www.taichihealthforlife.com.au/intro 108 1.html he also has a 1 year step by step course on the satipatthana sutra (mindfulness in everyday life): https://www.meditationintheshire.com.au/mindtrain/mindtrain-main.html all for free again

have you done psychedelics? do you think they really have their own 'spirit' edit: I just read you have done psychedelics in another thread haha. Still interested in the 2nd question

I think the only way to resolve this is if @Leo Gura and @winterknight agree that they will dedicate 1 year of their life to expore the others perspective. by leo doing a year of analysis, and knight doing moderate to large doses of psychedelics periodically for a year. Then after 1 year they can to a talk together for us and tell us what they think then. But that probably won't happen so I think this would just be a never ending back and forth. I think we should all just agree that both are helpful and that ideally both should be done, but either one on their own has its pros (psychedelics: more direct, and faster. Analysis: sober, and more integrated) and cons (psychedelics: more chaotic, less clarity. Analysis: slower, varying skills of practitioners) maybe leo, you should pick 1 or 2 of your videos that you thik knight should watch, and knight can then have a better understanding of your point of view, then he can respond or post 1 or 2 of his videos as contrast (since lots can get misunderstood in a text back and forth)

@winterknight Do you think that one of psychedelics main usefulness is in complete beginners? because myself and my 'spiritual sidekick' (best friend) when we both decided to start meditating, we didn't really benefit from it at all for like 6 months, then one day, we both took some shrooms, and boom its like it all just clicked and now we are so much farther then where we were before. (its like we received out Personalized meditation guidance downloaded directly into our brains. better than listening to all the teachers in the world) Like some people say, psychedelics can give you the first glimpse of the direction you need to go, then you can go there yourself, and maybe take more glimpses when you need them?

lol dude vaping aint gonna do shit to you, your fine bro! I was talking about myself being exposed to industrial grade pollution due to my previous job. even then, last year I did a lung function test and it came back normal (but that doesn't include imaging which would show if there is cancer or glass like particles in the lungs). I wanna get ct scan as well but apparently getting ct scan gives you a 5 percent chance of getting cancer, so I don't really wanna do it. its gotta be a psychological thing (same with me, as my lung function test was normal). I remember reading that if you focus on shit like this then you end up causing your own issues (like the lung issue). I guess it could be called blocked energy. You should see a reputable traditional acupuncturist (i'm looking into one myself) and then maybe also doing qigong as well.

@Jordan94 There is 2 subreddits dedicated to the book if you wanna check out. The first is actually called the mind illuminated, and the second is called r/streamentry which is based heavily on the mind illuminated

i don't really have an answer, but i think i have the exact same problem. But it is also compounded because i have been exposed to many industrial lung pollutants so now its always in the back of my mind that my lungs might be fucked. The only thing i've thought of is maybe taking up Qi Gong and telling the instructor my concerns so he can give special attention to teaching me the correct breathing

I wanna be able to do full lotus, or ideally Siddhasana pose for meditation, but i'm not flexible enough (haven't exercised or stretched for years lol) Have any of you found any decent vids on youtube that gives good instructions on how to gain flexibility for these poses? coz all the ones I found are just showing what the posture is and how to get into it (like you already got the flexibility for it). I'm not looking for actual yoga session vids either, i'm not looking to start yoga (just wanna get into 1 of the 4 meditation asanas described in the ancient texts) I think you know what I'm getting at.

^^ I very much want to know about that as well. That was sort of what I was trying to ask with my question on pranayama (since pranayama is apparently a big part of purifying the karmas) coz I've read some people say bla bla its all you, its all an illusion (which would also mean the vast database of the Vedas is an illusion), but then I read people say bla bla its only the beginning of the road (and that the Vedic texts are so utterly advanced, and that it contains literally everything anyone could ever need)