John West

I've got a few questions for the practice (I have the book): Is Medulla the point on the back of the head? Because in one picture (page 98) it seems like it is the chakra, but on the other pages it's said that it is a ksetram. For the concentration practice (lesson 4): Do you focus on the visual field where Bhrumadhya lies or the feeling / touch sensation? For First part of Kriya Pranayama (8) & Maha Mudra (9): Same question, do you literally visualize the energy going up and down (literally, so in your visual / seeing imagination) or do you "feel" it up and down your spine (like a (inner) touch sensation)? Otherwise I can visualize (as from visual) warm and cold which would be necessary. And if it is about feeling it, do you try to feel it actually through the spine or along the ksetrams on the outside?

I find it very difficult to find a good SDS posture because I feel very strong pain in my body after 2,5h. I usally do it on a normal chair, however, when my bodyweight is sligtly on one side, I start feeling enormous pain on one part of my butt (where my bodyweight is). I tried cross-legged, but I feel extreme pain in my knees there, even after 30 min or so. Also, my legs fall asleep quickly and last time it happened in a SDS sitting, it didn't "woke up" completely for an hour or so. I dont know if I need more mindfulness abilities to reduce the suffering or if I can do something differently so that the pain is not as intense. I think without that pain, I could sit longer (not sure about that however). Have you any posture or other recommendations?

First of all thank y'all. I do it for that long time probably once a week, whenever I have time. I combine it with the Do Nothing Technique. I really noticed that after having all kind of stuff going on in your mind (sex thoughts, other irrelevant thoughts etc.) you enter a place of just silence. Yesterday I actually had sort of an enlightenment experience for a second or so with this technique. But than my ego came back quickly. I dont know if these long time periods are needed, because I usally have the most intense "breakthroughs" (I'm still a newbie in spirituality, so it's not incredibly deep) after an hour or so. However, I dont know if the expectation to sit for 150 min or longer actually creates a mentality of "ok, fuck it, just sit". Because with shorter sessions I usally tend to think "it should be over soon, why does it take that long" which maybe interrupts. Try it out, work your way up (add 5 min to the clock every time) and see. But really try "do nothing", works best with this for me. And dont be frustrated, it took some time and trials until there happened something.

Hey guys, I've been doing consciousness work for the last 4 days for about 6-8h per day (except yesterday, there it was a little less), but generally the last few weeks I did a lot of consciousness work, more than I usally do. I watched the ego backlash video, but now I really realise what that means. I feel very depressed right now (as I've been for the last few weeks where I increased my amount of consciousness work). I thought I could handle this with my mindfulness skills, but it turns out to be very challenging. I'm meditating for more than 1 year now every day and do self-inquiry, Kriya Yoga and generally spirituality work for 3-6 month every day. I can't exercise right now (usally big distraction for me) because of an injury and my (first ever) girlfriend broke up 3 month ago (and started a relationship with my best friend and I always see them at school) after a 4 month long relationship, maybe this is also creating this whole depression/loneliness/anxiety/uncertainty within me. I used to feel happy (at least I thought, now I'm not sure wether I just deluded myself about that) but times of feeling good are rare these days. I think I could distract myself and avoid suffering that way, but Leo told us to go through the suffering. I was depressed 4 years ago and came out of it stronger. From your experience, would you say that I'm going too hard with consciousness work? If this can bring me through this, by all means, I want to continue like this. I can probably live with that if it doesn't last for more than a year, maybe even two years. But I fear that I get myself into more neuroses etc. and end up throwing that entire Personal Development thing into the trashcan. I fear that I'll create irreversible results. I'm under 20 btw. and masculine if this is somehow important. Also a big problem of mine is that I hear things like "happiness is found in the present moment", and I kind of get what is pointed to, but I put pressure on myself and think that I "need" to be happy right now. And then obviously it doesnt work, which also creates this unhappy bubble I am in right now. I know you cant help me, but maybe there is someone in this forum who went through a similar situation like me and used it to grow themself consciously and emotionally. Because I sometimes wonder wether all this enlightenment/consciousness work is coming too early in my development. Thank you for reading such a long text from a foreigner. Merry christmas

If I go a little bit slower, will it just take longer to fully awaken? Or does slowing down lead me away from the path to awakening? Because I wouldn't consider myself to be very conscious, I can't even clearly distinguish between direct experience and concepts. I dont know if I can handle this pace for a long time.

I've stumbled on binaural beats and have used them fro a few days now. On the internet I usally just find that people use this to program their subconscious mind to create success or use it to be more focused or before bed to fall asleep. That's not really what I'm shooting for. I want to purify myself of all beliefs and mind chatter instead of creating positive ones upon the already existing layer of beliefs. So how can one use binaural beats for spiritual purification or to raise awareness? Which frequency and generelly what other things would you look out for? Or would you recommend them at all for these purposes?

Well if that is the case, I wont use them since I can meditate just with myself without some stimulus. I just thought this would have more profound benefits like shamanic breathing or psychedelics if used over time. But maybe I'll go with these two alongside self-inquiry, Meditation and Yoga to really boost up my practice and emotional healing.

What would you consider to be more conventional? Meditation? self-inquiry?

I want to meditate a lot and do more inquiry, shamanic breathing etc. But I dont know wether this is too much for me. Leo said in his ego backlash video that one need to find a moderate pace to grow because otherwise you backslide. And I recognized similar things earlier in my journey when I tried to implement too much habits into my life. So what would you recommend. I'm into spirituality for 4 month now, however, I'm meditating for over a year daily (at minimum 20 minutes, but now probably around 1-2h). I want to do more, but I'm a little uncertain if I will fall even further back. And it's kind of true that sometimes less is more, but on the other hand might this be an excuse from my ego not to do the work. I probably need to find the balance myself, but maybe you can offer me some advice, so I dont fumble around in the dark completely.

Ok, thank you all. I've seen the video on proper expactations. I know probably a lot about the ego, however, I am also aware that in the situation of a backlash, it's more than just knowledge. So that was my concern. But I'll go and do more Let's see how it works

Hey guys, I often find myself stuck inside of a cycle. For example: I hear someone saying: "You won't be happy if you search for happiness". But I don't really know how to apply it, because if I try not to search for happiness, then my motivation behind that is to find happiness. And if I would try to stop having that motivation, it would basically come from the same motivation. And this is basically an endless cycle. I really dont get it how to break out of this. Are there practices you would recommend? I find myself often stuck inside of these cycles, for example in a negotiation, where you are better of, when you dont need to win, but doing so comes from a need for winning if you understand what I mean. Thanks