who chit

I'm not ragging on your spritual path,that's fine. I'm pointing out what most christians end up doing,which is ragging on other religions as being wrong or defunct somehow,which is a total insult to those who follow those religions. This is why Christianity gets a bad rap.

There is no rock,"out there". There's light waves bouncing off an object,sensed by the eye,interpreted by the brain, and reflected in the mind as what is conceptualized as "rock". Just like there is no spoon

You've heard of bhakti yoga right. This is the same thing.

Your dealing with the subtle energies of the body,brain and nervous system. It's a scientific method of controlling the life force in the body by conscious will,primarily in the spinal cord. This life force,kundalini energy,can have ill effects on the mind and body if not well regulated. It can be compared to an electric current going into a light bulb. The higher the voltage,the more current running into the light bulb. If too much voltage is sent to the light bulb,it will damage the light bulb. Regulate the current by slowly and gradually increasing the voltage,and the bulb will get brighter and brighter, without taking damage. Make sense?

You gotta understand,he was taking the sledgehammer to his self. While we are not the body,there is no arguing the fact that,until physical death,we still have to contend with the body. In that sense,intense spiritual practice affects the energy of the physical and subtle nervous system heavily. Consequences will be had,there is no avoiding that. He went through some heavy,heavy purification.

TM is solid. I've done several different meditation methods over the years, but TM made the most impact. I learned it combined with Kriya as a practice,a few years ago and continue to use it. These two together are a powerful mix. Good post. Thanks for sharing.

I agree 100%. What I described above is absolutely not "enlightenment", just an awakening. What you described here, I totally agree with "wholeness, completeness thus cannot be an expression by any other than universal love and clarity/purest state of being" What I described above happened over 2 1/2 years ago. Ever since it has been a gradual integrating into that wholeness of pure being you so eloquently described.

Ok, lol. I'm not going to argue, but you may want to check you're not being hypnotized yourself. Christianity is notorious for claiming to be the only way to god, and use fear and shame to convince others the same. Hellfire brimstone,and judgment for all ye deplorable sinners, if Christ is not worshipped. Btw, Jesus was/is a cool cat in my book. What has been done in his name and the absolutely misinterpreted mess that has been made of his message by many "holier than thou" ignorant people, is an atrocity. Be careful not to get sucked in and be one of those people.

As I stated, I was not meditating in samadhi. I know very well what samahdi is.

Take it for what it's worth, but my awakening was beyond the body. It can, and does happen. So, for around 5 hours,I was everywhere and nowhere, everything and nothing, boundless beyond the body. It was sudden and unexpected and I was in shock for what seemed like just a couple of minutes, before realizing what was happening. There was no sense of time, so that's just a guess. When I finally regained the body, around 5 hours had passed. Just to be clear, I want to add that I was fully awake, sober and active. Not meditating in samadhi, sleeping/dreaming, tripping or hallucinating. And I've never done psychedelics. So yeah,I was "God" for 5 hours. A life changing event and what I would certainly call a rebirth. My critical thinking ability is just fine and still intact.

@Arnold666 This is from an earlier response from another thread,and pretty much the only thing I'm familiar with about Jung. But it addresses the change you asked about.

Lol. Hell of a conundrum to be in. Confusion,"I don't know" is a much better place to be than, "I know". "I know" means the end of any possibility of ever knowing it.

No doubt.. It's watching you trying to fathom it. Kinda like this :-)

Good deal. If you can access that silent space you're doing good. During waking state,be vigilant about remembering and bringing attention back to that as soon as you're aware attention is lost in thought/ego distraction. Thought and ego are not separate, so when thought arises,ego arises with it. Work on not grasping at thought, try to settle back and let it pass. Definitely takes discipline because it's an engrained behavior to the point of being automatic. This is supposing you're not doing that already.

I don't think the narrator is Jed, not 100% sure though. Reading the book would be much better imo. More engaging. He's a good writer for sure. I was engaged enough to read it in one sitting. That's usually not the case, lol. There's a free pdf online if you look for it.

Have you tried inquiry? The beginning of thought is the "I" thought. Inquire into the source from which the I arises.

Haha, Jed is a straight shooter. I talked to several people who read The Damndest Thing, that got psychologically depressed for a while after reading it. The only reason is they had a pre-conceived idea of what enlightenment is supposed to be. He really hits on the self destruction aspect, in a rather cryptic way.

Ime, it took a while, close to 7 months to get through the meaninglessness. It was a depressing time for sure. Eventually, for me, it naturally turned into, the freedom to be,do whatever. More significant, imo, is the freedom to just enjoy being. Doing, not doing will take care of itself. If wanted, one can make up an entirely new BS meaning. At least now you know it's complete BS. Before there was no choice, It was just assumed, and deeply believed it had meaning. There's really no need to create a new meaning though. Life is fuller, more vibrant, free'er and much more enjoyable without placing conditions upon it. No need to put on a personal façade or be anything special. Just relax and enjoy the mysterious miracle.

Saw Yoga vid pop up on YT that peaked my interest. Enjoyed his honest and well spoken take on the subject, and checked out the forum. He's got a nice gig going on. Thanks for sharing your journey on the path with us Leo. Decided to hang around for awhile for the same reason. And the fact there are fellow truth explorers to exchange, self reflect and mingle with.

More and more therapies like ACT, are employing spiritual based methodologies/practices into their programs more and more, because there is thousands of years of proven evidence of them having healing affects on the body-mind. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I believe it was Jung who brought the idea of employing aspects of spiritual based practices, and cutting out the "spiritual" part obviously,to western psychiatry. He traveled and studied the methods of the yogi's for awhile (a couple of years??,not sure),and wrote a book based on his research called "Kundalini" I believe. Anyway it was considered revolutionary in the day. And, by happenstance of studying the eastern practices, Jung himself became enlightened. There is a clear distinction in the change of his being in his writings, prior to his study of eastern practices and afterward. He had an energetic (kundalini) sudden awakening,went through the dark night of the soul, and eventually , came out the other end a changed being. And he kept a journal throughout the whole process. What do I think of the therapies? I don't have any experience with them so I can't form a reliable opinion. I suppose like anything else, some would get benefit, and others wouldn't. With spiritual practices, you're going beyond the mind altogether. Why cope, when you can transcend the BS altogether?.

Zero. I was in martial arts at the age of 9,and my teacher led me to see a Bruce Lee movie. He was a bruce lee fanatic. I too turned into a "Dragon" fanatic, and watched every movie (only 4 1/2 ),and read every biography and book related to all things Bruce Lee. He was Chinese, so I got interested in the culture and found the "internal arts". Which was the start of my spiritual interests. Honestly didn't give a crap about spirituality, it was just exotic and mysterious and fed my imagination. Shaolin monk warriors and all that shit. I meditated for no other reason than to feed the monk warrior fantasy, loll. Interestingly though, it led to an inner energy experience. Heat in the body and a feeling of expansion beyond the body. It was fun and playful, no serious spiritual intentions. Interestingly, and not so great, I began having seizures after the aforementioned experience. For four years. Then they stopped. Doctors could never find a cause, and it is just my assumption that the energy experience was the cause. So,be careful playing with that energy kids . Some of you have started the Kriya practice, and reading some of the posts, some of you are doing too much too soon and having unwanted side effects and physical symptoms. Be careful. I scrapped anything spiritual after that for several years, until mid twenties and got back into meditation for stress, mood related issues. Did that off and on, nothing serious. Honestly I just grew out of the mysterious spiritual stuff, and chalked it up to BS belief. Enlightened folks were just imagining all that shit . Tolle's books convinced me it might not be bullshit. So, I started seeking a "proven" method of practice, and TM was it. Until Sadhguru showed up on YT,loll. This was the dude I, unknowingly, was looking for. "When the student is ready, teacher will appear" and all that jazz. That was my official initiation into the spiritual game. Had absolute reality awakening experience which, whether wanted or not, means "spirituality" is for life now. Caught in the tiger's mouth,and no escape . Given there's no death mishap anytime soon,permanent abiding is a definite possibility. Since that is fully dependent on grace, regardless of how much practice is done, it's not a guaranteed thing. Spare the "you're already that" jargon. Yes it's true, but if anyone thinks you just slip on into permanent abiding non duality, you're in for a rude "awakening", loll. Some get there with little to no effort, but that's the exception, not the norm.

Just getting someone who is oblivious of spirituality, to look inward, is difficult. Spirituality is usually the last frontier after all other sources for fulfillment, happiness, healing have been exhausted. Primarily because it is usually associated with religion. And also the new age woo woo bs associated with it. Societies' heavily dogmatic adherence to all things matter/materialistic and the scientific paradigm also contribute. The burden of proof,that there is an inner dimension beyond suffering,lies on the spiritualist. If the sufferer is to the point of giving anything a try,it would be easy. Others won't be so easy to convince. The word enlightenment needs to be trashed from the get go. Most just want abiding peace, contentment. Not to annihilate their identity. Psychiatry isn't much more a reliable source than spirituality. Usually it's meds and talk therapy. CBT has proven to be a decent modality. But then again, it's based on "being aware of unrealistic thoughts", (what thought isn't,), and challenging them with more realistic thoughts to affect behavior change. Watching thoughts has been in spirituality for thousands of years. There's also the very real fact, even though they will deny it, that most actually have a certain "friendship" with their suffering. Their sense of identity is so wrapped up in the story of "my suffering" they would rather cling to that, than to affect any change. Only when it gets to the point of being absolutely intolerable, will there be a willingness to do something about it.

Very nice. This is Kriya's primary benefit, stilling the mind. With ever increasing stilling of the mind, comes a space or gap between awareness (witness),and the objects (thoughts,emotions,feelings etc.) arising/appearing,in/to it. In that space,there is more receptivity, and clearer perception to grasp the deeper meaning behind the words. With time and ever deepening into stillness,there will also be the capacity to connect to the higher dimension of intelligence (akasha) responsible for getting spontaneous deep intuitive insights, realizations, and "wisdom knowledge". Continue with the kriya, and these "side" benefits will continue to grow.

With cessation of desire to know or not know,there's only isness or being. No knower to know or not know. Which could result in this,

Thanks. Yeah,breath of fire is what I termed as bhastrika. It's been a constant part of the practice since the beginning. Doing it prior to Yoni Mudra with the 3 bandhas, really lights up the inner eye (ajna).