The Blind Sage

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Posts posted by The Blind Sage

  2. Posted

    @Leo Gura
    The slideshow you posted is incredibly useful.
    There's plenty of topics you've previously covered that will take decades to deepen my understanding of...I used to go back and skim through the content to review. It didn't work very well because the lectures are so long, you either end up skipping important parts or speeding up the video so much you don't process it very well. I ended up making my own notes


    Having the notes you make your talks off of for all episodes would be amazing

     

     

  4. Posted

    2 hours ago, Optimal_Prime said:

    love cults. hope you're only half joking. 

    This forum certainly isn't a cult, but any community is guaranteed at least some aspects of group think. One of Leos most underrated series is the one on cult psychology, highly recommend you listen to those, but for someone new to the channel maybe don't start with that
     

     

    On 11/8/2024 at 9:42 AM, Optimal_Prime said:

    What are the shared knowledge structures here. What would be good content to consume to learn about that? Say, key videos from the channel? 

    1. Deconstructing Science & various other epistemology videos:

    Mixed playlist of my favourite videos-https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWq2PmY0jhcpCShDDL_H4D3CDdw4Y9DXm

     

    2.Developmental Psychology

    Spiral dynamics playlist-https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWq2PmY0jhcpz1T8_HCUrhuw0mRp1z7Aq

     

    9 Stages of Ego Development playlist-https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWq2PmY0jhcoNIKRajYfmHfvJHBGJUEKa

     

    On 11/8/2024 at 9:42 AM, Optimal_Prime said:

    or even better, you reading this, what do YOU believe and how do you see the world, where does this forum fit in? thx

    This video would have all the answers to this question + more:

     

  5. Posted

    13 hours ago, Elton said:

    @Leo Gura can you please let us know about your course? 

    I am following this post for 4 months waiting anxiously for the release.

    You said this was the key to actualize all the theory.

    I need this desperately.

    @Elton It's delayed because he has health problems:

    In the meantime there's plenty of stuff you can do. Check out his booklist for info on subconscious mind reprogramming

  7. Posted

    It's certainly limited, but all lenses are not the same, it would be foolish to think so.

    This particular lens is particularly useful, since it allows you to make sense of the bigger picture of human development on a societal level and an individual level and an astoundingly clear way. Notice the word useful, meaning it's value is relative to how well you can apply it and make sense of things.

    He's pointed out its limitations plenty. When he uses the model he's not going to keep repeating it's limits each time he does it, that's on you to fill in the gaps and contemplate...

    I hope your your view of SD is not based on Leos videos alone, that series is just the tip of the iceberg. There are books on applying SD to geopolitics as well as the SD book itself. Not to mention, other developmental psychology models exist as well

  8. Posted · Edited by The Blind Sage
    Addtional info & corrected wrong name

     

    Ben Patrick had multiple knee surgeries and was told he would never be able to compete in his sport again (basketball) by his doctors.

    He took matters into his own hands and studied knee mechanics to rebuild his knee joints. Unfortunately, the natural sciences aren't the only fields riddled with dogma. Sports science stigmatized knee movements that involved knees moving over the toes. Several decades ago they found that such movements cause extra pressure in the knee joint. And although this is true, the consensus about it's implication was wrong. It was believed that it would erode the knee, but in fact it was the opposite. Safely doing such movements would cause adaptations that actually strengthened the knee joint.

    After discovering this, he's mastered knee health, explosiveness & longevity, helping a lot of people with knee issues (including me) regain their athleticism. Awesome bloke.

    Check out the full podcast on JRE:



    And also some valid limitations of his work from a sports scientist:

     

  9. Posted

    5 minutes ago, PurpleTree said:

    I don’t know i’ve never really tried it tbh. 
    i tried some of his YouTube stuff but i found it ineffective. A buddy went to a talk of his. I thought about buying his book once but i’m now glad-ish i didn’t because maybe he’s a diddler of sorts?

    You wont learn any proper techniques from Sadhguru online, you'd have to take an in-person program for that. Might as well use Sam Harris's app

    His books vary in quality. Some of them are bad, just rehashes of his talks on youtube.
    A few of them are pretty good, most notably "Karma, a yogis guide to crafting your destiny"

  10. Posted

    On 10/6/2024 at 2:11 AM, PurpleTree said:

    Has he really?

    I mean there are Yoga studios everywhere before Sadhguru was popular in the west and even Sam Harris had a meditation app.

    Yes, he absolutely has.

    Yoga in the studios is not yoga lol...It's exercise. And not even effective exercise if you ask me. If you're looking for physical health I can't see studio yoga being better than lifting, pilates, mobility training, plyometrics, cardio etc. I guess it'd be ok for mobility but even then, if you're an athlete its such an inefficient way to train theres much better stuff today.

    It's got bastardized sprinkles of authentic stuff in there like a few minutes of nostril breathing, maybe some chanting, maybe one asana in the sequence is accurate but even then, asanas need enormous levels of attention to refine your energy system, they don't just work because you've assumed the posture. It's adulterated stage orange/green trash, it's got nothing to do with genuine spirituality and mysticism. It's just a facade.



    Also, you can't compare a meditation from an app to kriya yoga lol, they're of a completely different level of sophistication:

    Don't get me wrong, there are other organizations that offer potent kriya yoga, but none of them even come close to the level of impact Isha has imo.

    I've said it before and I'll say it again - Dismiss Sadhguru all you want, it wont ultimately wont matter, this work is about you, not him. But to dismiss the practices, you'd have to be a fool/ignorant. 

  13. Posted

    @-Rowan

    On 6/28/2024 at 7:48 AM, -Rowan said:

    Hello folks. It’s been a while since I posted on the forum. Anyone who has had 6 months to a year to compare between Sadhguru’s Shambhavi Mahamudra vs a traditional Kriya routine as outlined in the books?
     

    I’m wondering which has more benefits in terms of concentration, mental clarity, focus, enhanced consciousness. I have switched between both (6 months each) and I’m liking the physical health benefits from Shambhavi but don’t go as deep in meditation as traditional kriya.

    I did the JC stevens Kriya for about 6 months approximately 5/6 years ago. I stopped because I started getting some nasty side effects (emotional instability, heat flashes, etc), I was only open to try out Ishas Kriya yoga because of this so I learned Shambhavi through IE.

    After 5 years of Shambhavi I can say that I've gained much more enhanced consciousness from Shambhavi than I did from JC's Kriya. Not necessarily because it's better but because kriyas are like skills, you have to learn how to activate your prana which will take years and decades to refine. 6 months of Shambhavi was the turning point for me actually. That was when things started to click and the kriya felt much more potent. This was after 6 months of JC's kriya so perhaps it may take longer for others than if they only learned Shambhavi.

    The main kriya taught at Isha is through the Shoonya program- Shakti Chalana kriya (SCK for short). You'll likely need to travel to the Ashram for this.
    Shambhavi alone is great for people looking for a more pleasant life but SCK is when things start getting serious in terms of growth. There will be a synergistic effect between the practices. Improved mental clarity, focus and enhanced consciousness has definitely been there for me.

    Hope that helps

  15. Posted

    12 hours ago, sholomar said:

    There's nothing wrong with seed oils as long as they aren't rancid. Of them, canola has the best nutritional profile. I don't eat a ton of them but I don't fear them. There aren't actually many if any peer reviewed studies or meta analyses showing the supposed "inflammation" these seed oils cause.

    More likely cause of systematic inflammation is combining excessive fats and carbs together with a calorie surplus. Being fat itself causes most of the problems. Fats cause an insulin resistance effect on the body when combined with excessive carbs can lead to glucose spikes. People in western nations overeat, stuff like eating entire pizzas. Most established first world government health institutions such as the american heart association say seed oils are fine in moderation, because they are.

    If you want to be able to feed 8 billion people you can't feed them all on local whole food diets. You need preservatives and mass food production to efficiently produce food... that means lots of grains and seed oils as your base, and that's fine if people don't overeat. This obsession with "ultraprocessed" and "genetically engineered" foods is overblown in my opinion. They can be made healthy if done properly.

    I find most youtube content is sensationalized and designed to appeal to a niche audience. Most content creators are trying to monetize their efforts by catering to the algorithm. That's fine, but it tends to create echo chamber thinking and subreddit type cult movements. The vegans and carnivore types are the most obnoxious of them all... create an extreme diet and try to peddle it to the masses and force adoption.

    Thank you, your perspective is quite insightful

  17. Posted

    5 hours ago, Breakingthewall said:

    That in an organization of thousands of people there are irregularities is inevitable. The problem with sadhguru is not that, it is that he lies on a spiritual level. Make up stories to attract followers. That doesn't seem honest to me, it seems like shit to me.

    @Breakingthewall I don't know what you mean by lying 'on a spiritual level'. Can you please clarify on this point?

    His narratives are definitely shady tho, here's a video on this topic:

    I've watched this video a while ago so it's not fresh in my memory but I recall many points OP made in the video as generally twisting the narrative to put SG in a bad light so pls take the video with a grain of salt.

    Despite that, theres some good points he brought up that made me question SG integrity.

    In any case, the points I made on my previous post on this thread still stands - you'd be a fool to dismiss the Isha practices, they're amazing.

  18. Posted

    11 minutes ago, Princess Arabia said:

    I am familiar with devotion. I do that spontaneously, but not to anything or anyone but my own being, presence. I put my hand on my heart and feel the presence or however I'm doing it at the time. You're still speaking about devotion to something outside, that's fine, but not for me. In the end, it really doesn't matter, it's just a matter of taste and preference. All I know is I'm all there is. Not Princess Arabia because that's just a name that represents an Avatar. Life itself, existence.

    Cool, I hope to be in that space someday

  21. Posted

    41 minutes ago, Princess Arabia said:

    I like this. Nothing wrong with listening to gurus or Spiritual teachers. For me, it's when they are worshipped or idolized that's the difference. They're the only ones I listen to, the only person I share, the only message I resonate with.....all these are symbols that you're idolizing.

    If a message isn't filled with love or showing me how to go within and harness my own powers, water my own seeds or is somewhat focused without, to me it's not the real message or it's useless. I'd rather the message that there's no one, no free will, nothing is happening and it's all a dream, nothing matters, you're already dead, all that you can't do anything with and is of no value to the individual, than a message telling me to look elsewhere other than within for anything on the Spiritual level.

    like everything else, there's shades of nuance and levels to doing things. There's unconscious worship for which of course nothing needs to be said about that.

    But there's also conscious forms of worship, aka devotion. And they need not necessarily be to a human. Often times they're to deities
    This is what I understand about devotion:
    You aren't idolizing a symbol, that's not the point. You're using your emotions to become receptive to their presence, and that presence is what you will root yourself in and transform. Certain accomplished yogis and deities have a palpable presence, you will know what I speak of if you are able to spend some time with them.

    I'm not of that temperament, and dare I say if you're attracted to Leos work you probably wont be. So I stay away from it but I have no problem with someone else using devotion as a tool for dissolution as long as it's done well and they know the potential risks involved

  22. Posted

    2 hours ago, Buck Edwards said:

    He is not, trust me. This thing is just blown out of proportion. Sadhguru cannot control what others are doing. Sadhguru is quite high conscious and decent. It's sad that such stuff happens in spiritual circles and people lose trust. I hope it all works out in the end. 

    @Buck Edwards Oh yeah he's for sure not a fiend, I was just making a point that the work is not about him

  23. Posted · Edited by The Blind Sage
    Corrected some typos

    I've taken most of the advanced programs Isha offered to householders. Not all of them, but all of the main ones I have done. Here's my take:

    Isha practices are the real deal - everything else *can be a distraction
     

    If not for Sadhguru, I would not be empowered with the tools capable of transforming my experience of life in incredibly profound ways I'm still continuing to discover. Hence, I am ever grateful to him, and have a huge respect for what he's managed to offer to so many people, but the person that he is ultimately does not matter. This work is not about him, it's about my/your own growth. Both groups often forget this, the evangelists and the haters.

    As a nuance, devotion to a guru can be very useful to ones growth, check out Ram Dass's (Richard Alperts) talks on youtube. But as mentioned before, this can come with all sorts of issues like groupthink, exploitation, etc.
    Either way, it's genuinely not necessary. Sadhguru has even said it himself:
    "Kriya Yoga requires nothing but dedication towards the practice. As you refine your energies, there is no way you can remain untransformed."
    I would be very sad if it turns out Sadhguru is some fiend lol, but it wont change a f*ckin thing in regards to how I view the practices they teach.

    Unfortunately, I cannot use psychedelics because they cause Insomnia for me. If this doesn't sound like a big deal to you, try sleeping once every 2/3 days and see how your life falls apart in less than a week. So, regular practices are the path I must walk if I would like to grow spiritually, and Ishas practices is what my instincts have told me to stay with (so far).

    I practiced Samatha + Vipassana (Goenka style) for 3/4 years. The practices at Isha are far, far more potent and sophisticated. (I don't mean to upset any Vipassana practitioners, I am simply sharing my experience of these practices).
    I may leave Isha practices someday, I can't say for sure, but I know that you'd be a fool to dismiss the baby with the bathwater. They're amazing.

    Trust your instincts, commit to whatever grows you, and forget the distractions is how I see things.