Esoteric

@JalenS23 Humans at harsh environments had to go beyond their capabilities and use their brains to the max to survive. Getting harshness thrown at you actually make you stronger and more capable if you endure it. Have you noticed that privileged kids who got everything served to them are not very pleasant to be around. Shouldn't that say something?

@CVKBT Hello, sorry for a late answer, I don't get notifications when someone tags my name. @Serotoninluv@cetus56 If any mod could look into that I'd appreciate it, been having that problem for over a year. Thanks. Regarding your question. I'd say it's not that important if it counts technically as a pranayama. If you start out doing pranayamas and enter breathlessness, very subtle breathing or parvastha, you're golden. This is what you want, even if you enter subtle breathing after 1 pranayama you always abide in stillness if it becomes accessible. Forget everything about technicalities or traditions and abide in stillness for as long as possible. Good luck in your practice.

@Endangered-EGO If you feel bad and that your nervous system gets stressed you need to take it easy on yourself. Like I said check out the FREE course on Tantrika Institute. You can ask questions there and Chris also have a facebook page from what understand. Be smart about this and be gentle on your system. Like I said look up grounding techniques and focus on that as your body adapts to the energy. No need to rush things, especially when it comes to this.

@Endangered-EGO Congratulations. Treat this process with reverance and respect and dare to be open because it is a blessing. When you feel shakes and vibrations in the base you need grounding, look that up. My suggestion is to buy a book from Jason Miller called The Sorcerers Secrets, it has a great middle pillar ritual that can help you clear and feel your central channel. Also on gaia.com Christopher Wallis has a Tantrik Pranayama technique that is tremendous in the morning for clearing the 3 channels. Gaia is a great great resource I have found, it's not simply shallow asana routines, it has great tutorials for energy work as well. His Tantrik Micro Meditations on there are gems too. Christopher Wallis also have a course for free to get you through the basics of Tantrik Yoga. Look up Tantrika Institute. Also check out his videos on youtube about kundalini, he clears up a lot of misconceptions. Check out all of his work. He is both a great instructor and a scholar of Tantrik Shaivism.

What do you think? Isn't the answer obvious? Hey, I go to a massage therapist that makes me feel just alright afterwards. Doesn't feel really natural. I also also go to this other massage therapist where I feel amazing afterwards. It just feels so right. Which one should I keep seeing?

@Hermetics Esoteric was actually a metal band I used to like in my teens lol. I like the name. Anyway, I see that you are suffering much right now. I know how it feels to have that whirlwind of anger in you that you can't accept. Sending love to you.

I suggest you look into a species known as humans

Parvastha is not a practice, it's what you enter when the Kriya practice has made you calm and relaxed enough to abide in non-dual awareness, when that stillness becomes accessible you enter it and drop everything else. So basically for a beginner it means to just rest as I AM (to the best of your abilities) after your pranayama.

This forum is an amazing resource if you use it properly. There are quality content and posters here that have really made an impact on my spiritual progress. Of course there is a ton of mental masturbation and a lot of spiritual egos, devilry and all that jazz. And I see posters complaining about the harshness and bad stuff here sometimes.. But if someone really irks you, you simply ignore those users content or take it with a grain of salt and filter in the good useful and practical stuff. It's really not that hard.

@electroBeam Looks like you have a very shallow and naive view on what Tantra is. To say it is a "about magic" just reeks of ignorance. You demonize other people and traditions while elevating your spiritual system that is so direct, pure, open-minded and perfect. See the irony?

@Bridge to Infinity What techniques are you doing? How long have you been meditating? Surely you are not lost in thoughts your entire sit? There must be at least a couple of recognitions that your mind has wandered? When it has you simpy go back to the meditation object, until your mind wanders, and then bring it back again. That's it. This is not a process that will be smooth in the beginning. You just have to be patient and dedicated to your practice. You WILL get lost in thoughts, there is no miracle remedy for that. You simply notice it and return. If you keep doing that you will get better and better, even if the progress can seem painfully slow in periods, you will get progressively better at it.

@ardacigin Ok interesting stuff, thanks for sharing. I started reading Brasington's book today actually. Looks like you're doing good progress

@ardacigin Thanks, very informative post. When you enter the jhanas are you still working consciously with the attention and awareness dynamic? Edit: Saw you more or less answered that question as I wrote that post

Hey@ardacigin , very helpful and interesting stuff as always. To simplify things and to ge the terms clear, basically a good samatha practice would be to have stable attention while maintaining peripheral awareness? And playing with the dynamics between the two. And an insight practice would mean to completely remove the stable attention part and just keep peripheral awareness on max. Is that fair to write? In your opinion, for a beginner to build continous stable attention would the best tactic be to just get back to the meditation object over and over again when the mind wanders, or work with stable attention/peripheral awareness from the get go?

@actualizing25 Yes, what I am saying is do the practices with commitment and dedication. There are people who meditate for decades with very slow progress, don't be one of them. Just because you sit on the cushion for years doesn't automatically give you amazing results, you also have to do the actual work.

@actualizing25 Of course, but in the end it depends on you, how you organize your practice, how you learn from mistakes, how honest you are with yourself and most importantly your desire for truth. Just doing Yoga for x amount of years doesn't really mean anything if you think it will magically make you enlightened one day. You have to be consciously brave and keep withdrawing from external desires over and over again. A practice like yoga can help create a space in you, where you can rest and withdraw from the seduction of the external world, but will you? Do you really want to?

@Nak Khid lol never

Thread locked for absurdly low quality. Calling it now.

@Amandine In my experience

@Matt8800 I don't know, I have no idea. But an explanation could be that you continue to reincarnate because of the desire to experience. And as individuated consciousness you continue to do this until you exhaust yourself completely till there is no other desire left but to merge with the infinite.

@MountainCactus Ok, thanks for clarifying. Much appreciated. I will see if I can find the video, it was in the comment section on one of his videos, and I think the question wasn't even related to the vid. But I will see. Edit: Oh and what you wrote about placing an OM in the actual chakra where negative emotion arise sounds like a great idea. I will experiment with this during those intense ego backlashes days, thanks

@MountainCactusInteresting. But from my understanding, and please correct me if I am wrong, doing spinal breathing while placing OM's is Kriya Pranayama, right? He did not teach this? While Om Japa is placing OM's in the chakras but you forget the breath. So spinal breathing, or what the technique Kriya Pranayama is, was invented by either Sriyukteswar or Yogananda? I will read Garland of Letters, been meaning to check that out for a long time. Also I read in a youtube post from Forrest Knutson that you shouldn't do Om Japa in the chakras for too long. Do you agree? If so, what is "too long"? And what is the reasoning?

@Matt8800 Thanks. I read Flower's book, was a nice read. Might check Setnakte's as well. To me it seems like there is quite a difference on what is considered LHP in Shakta-Shaiva Tantra, like the Kaula and Trika schools, and what the west took and put under the LHP umbrella. If you are a tantric practitioner, to me, it is a no-brainer that the LHP is what is clearly the most healthy path. To not conform, the healthy view on sexuality, the feminine etc. That is also clear historically if you look at India, that the healthiest most prosperous societies were clearly left streaming and Goddess worshipping. However when it comes to the west and the LHP, and the major difference, is the obsession to not conform even to nature it seems. The will to continue as an individuated self that refuses to merge into the whole. To just settle at blissful communion with the Divine, hoping your individuality will go on eternally. To me it seems like a red flag and a trap. Crowley is a really confusing figure, isn't he? On the one hand he seems like a very intelligent man that has made a huge impact on the occult in modern times. And not just as a shocking figure, but as a well respected contributor that is praised by a lot of todays big names in the occult. On the other hand he seemed really troubled and like a huge egomaniac that wanted to boast about his abilities.. I like to view the occult as a F1 race car. You have a powerful beast under you, and with it you have the chance to get where you want, and really fast, but can you handle the machine? Will it get to your head? Seems like Crowley crashed his real bad.

@MountainCactus Chakras seems like one of the most muddy and confusing things in all spirituality. You see people with decades of experience dish out completely different explanations of the functions of the chakras and what they represent. Some Tibetan masters say not too stay too much on the anahata as it could result in complications, while others say it is one of the safe ones to rest at. Some say you can rest at ajna and others say you can't make "war on the brain". Muladhara is not safe to rest at either, nor the sacred chakra. Manipura seems like the universally accepted one to rest at from my understanding so far, but there arises the question whether it is actually at the point of the navel or slightly below, and that is called lower dantian/hara in other systems. It's a damn mess lol. Also, are you saying Lahiri didn't teach/advice Kriya Pranayama at all?

I like it. Though personally I would prefer "pranaoia", then you would keep the same letters from the original word.