ajasatya

@Ilya all you need is theory that leads to practice. knowing things just for knowing's sake is a waste of mental energy. in zen we practice letting go of knowledge. i had been a knower for a long time. nowadays i am simply practice, presence and contentment. the more you practice, the deeper Truth will install in your life. as you develop your practice, you can let go of knowledge and just live the Dhamma.

@AlexB one of the best experiences i've ever had was living in an ashram. i paid with my services, cleaning the space and teaching yoga/zen.

@Akshay there's nothing more powerful than self observation 24/7. be aware of your patterns and make the emotional effort to break them. it's not an easy task, but if you do this very assiduously, you'll be free in a few years. most people have to wait until deathbed in order to realize how pathetic they allowed their lives to be.

@Jakob Eiring online kundalini yoga classes are pretty safe and powerful

i'm here just to say that it makes no sense discussing about the awakening process of someone else. and it gets even dumber when there's arguing involved. only jim carrey knows how it feels to be jim carrey.

oh wow, i just read those things you said. if you think that a social contract is necessary to live a happy intimate life, get ready for your biggest heartbreaks ever. it works the other way around. a happy intimate life is necessary for a social contract. this is the funny part about human suffering: when your life is driven by the fear of suffering, that's when you suffer the most!

@Shir marrying someone you don't even know sexually (and who doesn't even know you sexually) is a HUGE trap. sexual chemistry is a mysteriously rare thing. and you want to marry before getting to know yourself sexually. this is an EVEN BIGGER trap. your protective mind might be thinking "but i know myself sexually". no you do not. and you won't know yourself sexually until you experience yourself with an intimate partner. dirty talks, dirty reads, dirty thoughts, porn and masturbation are thousands and thousands miles away from what you really need in order to understand your deepest sexuality. if you get attached easily, THAT'S an emotional issue that should be addressed with utter priority. this behavior comes from a series of beliefs that make your life less graceful and enjoyable.

listen to him/her. ask, relax your body, make eye contact, breathe consciously and listen very deeply.

it's not about the teachers, really. it's about our thirsts and willingness to experience Truth and embody It. if you truly want enlightenment, you'll find the right teachers at the right moments. the way you ask, it feels like an attempt run away from self responsibility. it's like an attempt to put a competitive element where it's not even welcome. would you be open for a long retreat experience? do you have the courage to face all of your mental trash? these are way more interesting questions for us to ask ourselves.

@Ryan_047 find the root cause of your anxiety. it's not coming out of nothing. related:

hello there. nice initiative. about the question above, there's really no right answer. you can pick either one. i chose the balance between Truth and career because i knew that i was going to have a LOT of spare time during the masters degree. if i knew that i wouldn't have that huge amount of free time, i'd probably have gone for full Truth realization BEFORE starting the master degree course. look, there's no rule for that. you're free. you just think otherwise. and welcome. this forum is a good place

@zenjen nice! after my first deep insight i started to work on my emotional barriers. making deep eye contact, talking to girls with a relaxed body, hugging without malice. it's a painful and happy journey! oh, i also started working on my body with the help of skillful yoga teachers. being alive feels very good now

@Preetom that's when it gets real. acceptance. don't attach to any particular state.

when you stop wasting your sexual energy, it accumulates. and if your body is not healthy enough to make your sexual energy flow freely, you'll feel exactly these things that you're feeling. there are methods to channel this sexual energy (creative energy) to improve your life in incredible ways. this is not a belief. i'm talking from direct experience. i am an yogi. if you practice yoga assiduously, not only these uncomfortable sensations will be extinguished but also you will experience higher possibilities of being human. from lower to higher chackras: material detachment healthy relationships willpower compassion and unconditional love creativity and expression intuition and mental focus transcendence, freedom from the egoic illusion

it's fundamentally pointless. but you, as existence itself, cannot stop existing. so you better enjoy eternity! it's ok to embrace roles as long as you don't confuse yourself with them. being hungry sucks. starvation sucks. so i work not to be hungry and to allow as many people as i can not to be hungry as well.

hospitals are for emergencies. besides those acute cases, full self-responsibility is one of the greatest things in Life.

great thread. adyashanti has published a lot of teachings about teaching. they were extremely helpful because i could learn how to teach myself better. and then my way of teaching others improved as well.

@The Monk there are i) direct experiences with insights, ii) direct experiences without insights and iii) insights without direct experiences. only you can say accurately, but i think it was the first case. just don't think you've arrived. the goal is to get to a state of infinite training, in which we're constantly working for our integral health: physical, emotional and mental. it can transcend and we can start working for the integral health of those who live with us and even for the integral health of the planet. but achieve a solid state of physical, emotional and mental health first because that's the hardest part.

@The Monk it seems like "you" have seen "it", meaning a moment of union. but that's not mastery yet. Reality goes on. and Reality experiences Itself much better through a healthy body/mind. don't come up with excuses to stop taking care of the body/mind. it's ok to lose motivation to go to the gym... it happened to me and then i started an assiduous practice of hatha yoga, which has nothing to do with narcissism.

people who don't have at least a few years of rigorous meditation practices are usually drown in heavy cycles of harassing self talk. the untrained mind goes like this i'm gonna prove them wrong i can't do it because i have to fix my past first if only i was more <...> and less <...> i will be happy when <...> i feel unhappy because of <someone else> i have to look good because i need to impress others and the trained mind goes like this i love doing it so i'll do it i am alive now. i am free now. i love the way i am i feel content now the other person hurts me because he/she is in deep suffering i love taking good care of my body and feeling healthy the list could go on and on. the ego perspective is selfish, needy and narcissist. Truth perspective is compassionate, content and filled with self love.

@Santiago i don't have much to say. i've read some of your posts and i can see your struggle to develop a proper way of introspection. you're doing great. if you commit to being completely sincere with yourself, you'll be just fine. it can take months, years. but you'll be definitely on track.

i agree. the thing is that positive way may look negative because we do need to hear/read some harsh things sometimes. the way that i behave in this forum really depends on the needs of the other person. sometimes my heart really melts and sometimes i'm very sharp. people really need the solid truth behind the lies that they tell themselves everyday. i think this is a requirement for human prosperity as a whole.

bla bla bla. those with the attitude of a victim are fated to failure.

you treat yourself like crap.

there's nothing right nor wrong with existing. i am simply here. the idea that a person who embodies Truth dies physically comes from the limitations of human language. the teachings about letting go of desires are supposed to drive the seeker towards a state of contentment. the process does feel like death though. in the end, there's nothing wrong with desires. but attachment to desires cause suffering.