Jkhv1

Hey guys, 6 months or so into the beginning of my spiritual journey about 4 years ago, I noticed that the trees seemed to glow. Well perhaps "glow" isn't the right word. But they visually seemed suddenly more vibrant and splendid, looking captivating, making other things like cars and buildings look mundane in comparison. They most definitely didn't look the same as they'd done my whole life. I notice that trees on holy ground such as churches or mosques or temples seem to look even more vibrant. This is something that has stayed with me ever since. I haven't come across any explanation or reference to it when I've tried looking it up online. Any light that can be shed on this/similar experiences? Cheers!

@Arzack yes, Leo Gura and nobody else

Nice to see everyone joining in the WHM wave ? Little warning - no more than 4 rounds guys, and don't do this underwater! Happing Hoffing

And what more of a better reason is there to now start regularly practising the Wim Hof Method?

@electroBeam I've been a reiki teacher for 6 months now, and a reiki practitioner for almost 2 years. The best way that I know how to get people to experience Reiki if they're not suffering is to give them their Attunement, or Placement to make them a healer. This is an energy transmission that enables one to be able to connect to Reiki at will by opening up the chakras in their hands. During this Placement, many of the 24 people that I have taught have experienced things like flashing colours during the transmission, very very hot hands, strange dreams, a change in either their physical health (such as not being so tired during the day any more) or a simply engulfing sense of relaxation at the time that it's done. Whilst many of the people I have taught haven't gone on to regularly heal others, they still managed to experience Reiki in the transmission itself. If anything, I hope that the work I do shows people that there's more to life than gross material form, even if they don't heal people with their new ability. So in short, just learn from someone and hopefully that'll satisfy your interest!

I've read this version mate... I can't say I really enjoyed this. My path has been Self Inquiry, and Prabhupada focuses on bhakti (devotion to Krishna) which I can't really resonate much with. If you resonate more with non-duality, get the Bhagavad Gita but from a writer who has a non-dual commentary. I'm afraid that I don't know precisely what authors do have non-dual commentaries of the Bhagavad Gita, but I'm sure someone on this forum can help

It just doesn't ring true to me that one could be like Jesus or the Buddha if one swallowed enough pills, or injected enough stuff into their rectum. Sure, you could temporarily visit the state of consciousness that they may have been in, but to stabilise there...? I'm also in agreement with the earlier point made, about it potentially being the drugs that are taking their toll on the body. Massive respect to Leo for all that he's done to help me on my path, but I find it difficult to get behind this.

I wouldn't really say all religions are detours on your path to enlightenment... I'm not part of one myself, but various practices and techniques from different religions have helped me along the path. Whilst religion might be corrupted to some extent, I think that it's important not to overlook the golden nuggets in them.

@actualizing25 I'm speaking from my own experience, but from what I've seen and read, it is a common thing to initially seek to end suffering, and then realise that there's so much more than just your ego's needs

I think that's how a lot of people, including myself 3 years ago, begin the journey: with a deep dissatisfaction with life, or suffering. How attractive a life of not suffering would be! However, with experience, insights and spiritual practice, the motivation gradually changes. Now, the most important thing to me is knowing who I actually am, for Truth's sake.

@Gneh Onebar Nope, not 'finished' yet. I did make a promise to myself before starting to heed Leo's advice and not use the LOC map as the final word on whether I have "finished" - it does seem like giving away your authority to your facilitator if someone from another part of the world says "you're at 1000" and you think "right! That's that, then. They've said it. I'm there." So what I'm going to do is once I'm declared to be at 1000, just follow my intuition and see if I do feel that there is more, or if this really does feel like I've found what I've been seeking. If I do intuit that there is more, I'll carry on with the spiritual work.

Glad to see some more fellow RASA recipients on here... Looks like @LfcCharlie4 has done a good job getting the message through! @wavydude Evaluating my own experience and putting on my ultra sceptic hat, I could possibly say that the relaxation and tingling I feel on my head, hands and feet whilst receiving the transmission could be placebo, but I wouldn't know how to explain away the moments of expansion I felt in the 700s. I wouldn't be able to say that the Divine Love that reduced me to tears on multiple occasions in the 800s was placebo. It'd be tough to argue that the Spiritual Heart on the Right awakening, along with the bliss that comes with Being in it, is placebo, or the natural dropping away of a lot of my desires. @Gneh Onebar the purging face is definitely no joke... The transition from the high 500s to the 600s absolutely kicked my ass. Well done for running the test guys!

@SriBhagwanYogi I think it's best that I stick to self inquiry, as it's been a part of my sadhana for a long time now, and I've managed to perfect that technique over some time. @Aaron p I'm afraid I'll have to stay well clear of any psychedelics... I'm in the line of work where I'll lose my job if any of that gets found in me hahaha. But food prep is a great suggestion, thanks!

Hey guys, I'm planning on making it an aim to find at least one week in 2020 where I go off somewhere outside of the city that I live in and do a Self Inquiry retreat. I was just wondering how I'd go about structuring it, and so I thought I'd get you guys' opinions (especially those that have been on any form of spiritual retreat in the past) on how best to go about it eg. How much sleep? How long per self inquiry session? Mix it with meditation or no? The many other considerations that I'm sure I'm not thinking of etc etc... Thanks!

@Amandine as horrible as that sounds, what seems to be a commonly recurring incident with children that have suffered abuse from their parents is animal abuse. Perhaps this could be a way of understanding the person in your example a little more? The human psyche is a complex enough thing without having the people that brought you into this earth causing you physical, malicious harm on what can be a continual basis at a time in your life that you're absorbing so much information about the world. Perhaps it's this early introduction to violence from people that are supposed to nurture you that cause your 'normal' to be different to another person's 'normal'?

I'd say pick one or two techniques for enlightenment and get really good at them rather than being the jack of all trades, but the master of none. I personally use meditation and self inquiry as my 'enlightenment techniques' and then I use the Wim Hof Method for my health, and I use/teach reiki to heal others.

I could see auras very clearly for a few days after reading the Bhagavad Gita... I looked up from reading it whilst sitting on a swing and boom, out of nowhere, everyone around me (about 40 people) had an outline around them. Even dogs. Babies and young children seemed to have the biggest outlines. It gradually went away after a while, but I knew how important it was not to cling to these things if it was really Truth that I sought, so it didn't bother me so much.

I personally split up my meditation throughout the day. It feels more focussed, and I tend to fall asleep if I'm meditating for longer than 30 minutes.

"Feeding your Demons" by Tsultrim Allione has been a very practical and simple, yet powerful book that contains within it a practice for dealing with "inner conflict".

Beautiful

@WelcometoReality I can't say I'm entirely sure, to be honest. It would make sense that he developed the enlightenment model after reaching what he deemed to be reaching the final spiritual goal, but I'm not 100% on that. Also, another thing to note is that integrating LOC 1000 is said to be a lifelong process of falling deeper into the infinite. I have raised the objection with my RASA giver: "wouldn't a sadhana accelerate this fall into the infinite?" to which the response was that this notion of controlling the fall into this infinite well will be dropped in time. Again, I can't really do much apart from mentally speculate at this point, but I like that the claim he made was verifiable: either this notion is dropped by me once I reach LOC 1000, or it isn't.

@aklacor727 Any time

@WelcometoReality In Ramaji's book, in his earlier stages of enlightenment, he talked about having the sense or intuition that there was more to life than whatever his current experience was. Upon reaching 1000, he stopped having the intuition that there was more to his journey, unlike his earlier experiences at lower enlightened LOC stages: "It will not be like the void. It will not be a blank or neutral emptiness. It may seem like it is Nothing, but it is a Fullness. You will have confidence in this destination because at long last all of the yearnings of your heart will be answered. You are finally home. You know you are home. You know it."

What may be interesting to note is that at LOC 1000, I am told that there comes a strong intuitive urge to simply stop seeking. The seeker has become the finder. How true this is, I am not sure as I'm not at that LOC, but what I like about this claim is that it's verifiable. Either I do feel the need to carry on seeking or I don't. At the moment, I do intend to carry on seeking after I have reached LOC 1000 so that I'm not being trapped by an enlightenment model, and I will be surprised if I do actually get this strong intuitive urge to just "stop" after the thousands of hours of seeking that I have put into this, but I'm open to anything. I've been given a hypothesis, and now I'm looking to 'run the test' and see.

@aklacor727 as far as "activated" or "opened" chakras go, a Reiki Practitioner wouldn't be able to know unless they had some sort of innate psychic ability that's different but used in conjunction to Reiki. Therefore, I'm not really sure where this whole "open" or "activated" thing comes from. I think I'd agree with Leo on this and dismiss it as hearsay. When a Practitioner places their hand on a chakra (or indeed, any part of the body), a tingling or variation in heat can be felt by the Practitioner - and by the client, if they are energy sensitive - suggesting that Reiki is needed in that place. Reiki heals on a physical, mental and emotional level, so feeling tingling means that some sort of healing on one or more of these levels is needed. For example, a crown chakra that might need healing may be indicative of a person overthinking, being depressed, being anxious or other things. Reiki works to heal these issues away.