Ludwig

Yes, very good book. @Toby I'd say it's more for the "advanced" spiritual seeker who already has had some glimpses and understandings about the nature of the self.

@David1 I posted about it on this forum before. There are many types of Ayahuasca which affect you all in a different way. So here are my experience and recommendations I hope it will help you: I highly recommend this video up from 1:16:25. It's about drugs and self-realisation. I made the same experiences he describes and i can totally agree. I used Mushrooms and Ayahuasca. Especially Ayahuasca can turn your whole world view upside down. I could literally see peoples egos, know their life story, see their emotional body etc. I was out of my body which nearly freaked me out, i experienced life as one of my family members, and had long moments (5-6 hours that felt like 10 minutes) in ecstasy. To some this might sound attractive, scary or worth trying, but i would never recommend it to anyone. If you need to see these things it will anyway happen. What i want to stress is: Humans everyday conciousness is in such a way that he is able to survive on this planet in his physical form. What psychadelics like Aya will show you is that there are infinite levels of conciousness that can perceive this world. So you can meet anything possible, talk to holy beings in the realm of gods or whatever. But you can never expect such things, Aya shows you only the stuff you are capable of handling. It confronts you directly with all your suppressed subconcious AND the collective unconcious of the world. This might for many people be more painful and frightening than they could ever imagine. For those whose calling it is to experience these realms i want to give some advice. Please take it deep into your heart: You need to have done quite some work on yourself, you have to be comfortable with yourself alone (some spiritual maturity) It has nothing to do with enlightenment - enlightenment is NOT a state of mind SETTING is MOST important (it should be a complete fearless environment, you should trust the shaman and the crew around 100%!, workshop should be at minimum 3-4 days) Whatever happens during the ceremony (it can seem that you will die!) DON'T resist, no resistance at all, LOVE EVERYTHING!! that comes up Don't do it unless you can't do otherwise

So my second hack is using twilight on my smartphone and laptop. It's an app that adjusts the brightness of the display to the time of the day. It imitates the colour temperature of the sun, so in the evening for example your screen will be warmer. (little more red and little more dim) This relaxes your eyes and brain. I also try to avoid electronic devices as much as i can 2h before sleep. The App is free.

Great suggestions from you guys. Definetly check myofaszial release techniques and have a stretching routine that covers your tight spots. Yes, Voodoo Bands are awesome you can even use them on muscle (and not only ankles) when you are advanced. Besides that, breathing is huge. Breathe as deeply, natural and conciously as you can. But don't force anything, it get's easier with time. As you exhale go deeper into the stretch, as you inhale come a little out of the stretch. With the next exhalation go even deeper... Also drinking enough water is a great point besides nutrition. Definetly experiment what works for you. For me for example if i would eat meat my flexibility goes down a lot. I even feel changes with dairy. So you might want to avoid foods that make the ph-level of your body too acid. And be patient. Flexibility improvement comes in longterm circles, so expect some days where you seem to be at day one again.

@tomasCZ Personal development only works to some extent. That's why you get lots of ups and downs but never seem to get there - to this authentic you, that is in complete alignment in his whole expression of himself. Your SELF - your accumulated believes about you, your entangled emotions and thoughts- prevent you from feeling real and genuine. The less of SELF there is the more of flowing is there in everything you experience. Why do people drink or distract themselves? To get some rest from their self. To sum up the hard truth: As long as there is a self, as long will there be a sense of lack, of incompleteness. That's the way to go, self-inquire, push your limiting believes by just doing everything you are afraid of (and laughing afterwards how stupid you were ;)), meditate, try expressing your genuine being by being creative, singing in the shower, whatever. Become a fool, a little child. Smile at your self, tell yourself on every occasion how marvelous your imperfections are. If you can't do this then love yourself for not being able to love yourself. Also ground yourself by going in nature, doing yoga, bioenergetics etc. The limiting believes are manifested in your whole body, your muscles are tight, your whole system is contracted, you are imprisoned by your mind to an INSANE degree. If you can't flow and be comfortable with yourself in such everyday situations you are extremly messed up. Be honest with yourself, face the truth. Accept it and work from there. I know from which place you are speaking, i was there myself. Your problem isn't the lack of skills or secret techniques. Your problem is that you can't be comfortable with yourself. You have no idea who you are. You never touched the completeness and utter perfection of your being. How you are on the inside will be reflected on the outside. I guess it is clear now? Stop running from your SELF that you avoid on EVERY occasion (I'm bored let's do..., I'm uncomfortable let's distract..., ) So face yourself it will be well worth it. I hope this is helpful to you. All the best. @stalker Thanks for the $ 10 000

You can move if you have to - no problem. Please don't get obsessed with techniques. Be gentle with yourself. Whatever comes up just BE that. When you feel you're moving because you are tired notice it and consciously bring yourself in the right position. Once again obsession with breathing techniques, meditation techniques (am I doinig it correct?), etc. are a very common trap in which many people fall. Meditating their asses off for years just to perfect a certain technique. It's not about that. Whatever you are, whereever you are - that's enough. Just BE it.

I'm not sure if i understand you correctly. What i meant was that it might be difficult to use dynamic yoga as meditation in the beginning because you have to focus on so many things at a time. So it's nice to do some extra meditation in a sitting posture where you can only concentrate on one thing at a time. The concentration and clearity you get with the sitting will soon be possible in movment. (e.g. yoga) And yoga stretching in turn makes it easier to sit longer times on a cushion.

Yes, that's true. The point is that for lot of people the hip flexors and adductors (because of lots of chair sitting) are far to strong in comparison to the abdominals and the upper back. That can lead to a bending forwards when the back and belly get tired but the huge muscles in the legs and hips are still strong and pull you down.

I highly recommend this video up from 1:16:25. It's about drugs and self-realisation. I made the same experiences he describes and i can totally agree. I used Mushrooms and Ayahuasca. Especially Ayahuasca can turn your whole world view upside down. I could literally see peoples egos, know their life story, see their emotional body etc. I was out of my body which nearly freaked me out, i experienced life as one of my family members, and had long moments (5-6 hours that felt like 10 minutes) in ecstasy. To some this might sound attractive, scary or worth trying, but i would never recommend it to anyone. If you need to see these things it will anyway happen. What i want to stress is: Humans everyday conciousness is in such a way that he is able to survive on this planet in his physical form. What psychadelics like Aya will show you is that there are infinite levels of conciousness that can perceive this world. So you can meet anything possible, talk to holy beings in the realm of gods or whatever. But you can never expect such things, Aya shows you only the stuff you are capable of handling. It confronts you directly with all your suppressed subconcious AND the collective unconcious of the world. This might for many people be more painful and frightening than they could ever imagine. For those whose calling it is to experience these realms i want to give some advice. Please take it deep into your heart: You need to have done quite some work on yourself, you have to be comfortable with yourself alone (some spiritual maturity) It has nothing to do with enlightenment - enlightenment is NOT a state of mind SETTING is MOST important (it should be a complete fearless environment, you should trust the shaman and the crew around 100%!, workshop should be at minimum 3-4 days) Whatever happens during the ceremony (it can seem that you will die!) DON'T resist, no resistance at all, LOVE EVERYTHING!! that comes up Don't do it unless you can't do otherwise Much love.

Beautiful, this brings so much joy to my heart. Please keep it up. It reminded me of http://www.bentinhomassaro.com/read/infinite-expansion-endless-love Much love

Yes, that's it. Finding the beauty and dignity, the utter perfection in every conditioned thing from a place of total freedom and abundance. Experience yourself in every possible way be it ever so mundane. Enjoy yourself.

Definetely. No bullshit there, very practical no woo-woo advice.

I've been there. First recognize "extreme introvert" is just a lable, it has nothing to do with you. It's your perception of yourself due to the environment you are in. It's completely realtive. The ONLY problem is that YOU are not comfortable with being silent, with being yourself. You might not be aware of this but your body and your energies instantely reflect it to you when you look at the other person. That gets your mind thinking and you know the rest of the story... Remember that people can be comfortable around you even if you don't say a single word - If you are so with yourself. It's that simple but you have to invest some time in this. Do self-inquiry - Where is this believe coming from?, If i think this believe where do i feel it in my body?, When do i feel this way?, How often? etc. - meditate, ground yourself, become aware of your body, do yoga, whatever... Once again, it's 100% YOU nobody else.

Shinzen Young is - without any doubt - self-realized. Yes, first realize what you call the All-Is-Consciousness paradigm. But it's not all about that. Living in delusion or fully awake - there isn't a difference. But one has to realize this for himself and than live freely in "both" worlds.

What is lacking?

Edward Frenkel

I suggest that you try body scanning. You basically scan every part of your body one after another with your attention. This may take some time when your lost in your thoughts a lot. For example beginn with your feet. Put your whole attention on them until you really feel them. Try not to lable, just feel the sensations in your feet. You can close your eyes to do that. Continue with every part of your body. As you progress in the practice with time it will become easy even during the day to keep your attention on your body instead of your thoughts. When thoughts come while you pay attention to a body part that's fine. Just be patient and return to the body sensation. That's just one way but learn about meditation in general and find out what helps you (by practicing). There are dynamic meditations as well, Elliott Hulse has some good advice on this on YouTube. Search Elliott Hulse Bioenergetics.

Only because you feel very bad sometimes you are able to feel good on other times. If you didn't know cold you would never know hot. Your problem is, that you are attached to an image of your best football version. In your mind you have to always play like this version in your head otherwise you are a failure. These thoughts make you feel stuck during the game. The reason is for example that you consciously or subconsciously check every move you make on the pitch in your head BEFORE you actually do it That stops you from playing intuitively and joyfully. Meditation can help a lot with this, getting out of your head and into your body. It will also help you let go of the expectations that hold you back. I hope this is helpful to you.

It's not easier. It just seems so from most peoples perspectives due to the conditioning all around. It actually takes a lot of work to keep the false story, the sleeping state going. That's where 99% of our energies go into - feeding the story of ourself. In Yoga or Hinduism they speek of the four episodes, Yugas, that determine the conscious state of reality. Depending on the Yuga, humans and all other existence are more or less away from truth (more or less asleep). That's the game. You can check Sadhguru or Yoganadas Gurus on these things if you want to learn more.

Like any other teacher, one should not take Jed McKenna literally. From a self perspective the things Jed describes can be quite accurate. They are great warnings and pointers on the way. Nothing more nothing less.

When you have the spiritual maturity, yes. When your life is in balance, when you are rooted in reality, yes. When you have a genuine teacher, who is able to look at the whole picture, yes. Otherwise things can get out of order very quickly. If your whole system isn't ready for the change in energies it can cause a lot of suffering to you and others around you.

For starting out with meditation, make it the first thing in the morning or the last thing in the evening before you go to bed. Remember that meditation is NOT about states of mind or conciousness. Don't compare yourself in meditation with yourself after meditation, you don't need that. Just give yourself fully to whatever you are doing. Just as you ARE in the given moment, that's enough. Take your time and be patient with yourself. I hope that helps.

Yes, there is no past and future. Ultimately speaking. But there is no present moment either. For having a present there must be something that isn't present. When is this present moment you are speaking off? Now? Or what about now? Only mind can live in such a thing. A present moment is only there when there is someone to live in it. Is there? See for yourself.

That's great advice. I'd add that you look into your body where the anger is manifested. Is your jaw tight? Your neck? Look and feel where the anger is, after you worked through the mental talks and images of your anger. What you will find isn't "anger" because that's just a lable, but unnamable sensations that are the root of your symtoms. Then use body work and patient attention to give them space to release themselfes. I hope this is helpfull to you.