Consilience

Answer to the post’s title - Yes. Physical yoga helps psychedelic trips because of the way yoga affects the emotional/energy body. No. Meditation alone can open radical possibilities. Contemplation, spending time in nature, just sitting in silence, immense suffering can all increase spiritual possibility as well.

Start working through The Mind Illuminated, it has what you're looking for. The rewards of a deep concentration practice are truly a gift... Once you can start accessing Jhana’s and deep Samadhi states it’s game over, you’ve truly discovered one of life’s greatest treasures.

I would say never forget that ultimately you are the authority of your understanding of what is true. All perspectives are limited and partial. However, be open, willing and trust the intuition that guided you to such a powerful commitment and willingness to pursue Truth and study with Ralston. Apparently the Buddha once said the Dharma (Truth) was a vast forest, and what he taught was but a single leaf. Id consider Cheng Hsin to be yet another leaf, but a pretty big leaf! I do believe this is the last opportunity anyone has to work with Ralston in an apprenticeship format, you are quite fortunate to be able to study with a master like him before he fully retires. May your experience yield deep consciousness and transformation.

I would suggest orienting your relationship with the mushroom as a student teacher relationship. Treat them with reverence and intentionality and they will recognize this. Understand they can teach in counterintuitive, twisted, and symbolic methods that often times will not make sense until post or even subsequent trips. Ive had mushrooms teaching me things beyond time and space, like a mushroom trip beginning it’s preliminary teachings a couple days before the actual trip merely because the intention of the trip had been set. The mushrooms quite literally began their lessons beyond space-time. The specifics and possible metaphysical mechanisms for how this is possible is beyond the scope of my reply, but just understand psychedelic mushroom species are very ancient, and incredibly twisted teachers. Mushrooms very much seem to possess a spirit of their own and as you work with a particular species of mushroom, the two of you learn more about the other. LSD on the other-hand seems to amplifying your own mind and emotions, whereas mushrooms seem to be a communion of two spirits, your’s and the shroom’s. Ive found contextualizing mushroom trips in this student-teacher relationship has allowed me to learn, understand, and integrate the “art” of mushroom tripping much more effectively. To ground this perspective in practical light - Ive been working with a species for about 3 months now and its moved into progressively deeper explorations of Absolute Love (among other things). The first trip felt like an energetic attenuation with the mushroom, like my body, mind, chakras and the spirit of the mushroom where feeling one another out in some sort of psychedelic dance/merging. It’s felt as though they’ve learned more and more about who I am, my intentionality, my traumas, my ambitions, desires, and even shadow elements of the mind and equally, Ive learned about their spirit and energetic orientation. The more I respect and work towards integrating their lessons, the deeper the lessons go. In this case, if you set out to intentionally start uncovering the shadow elements of the mind and your intentionality is of honesty, sincerity, integrity, the mushrooms will see and recognize this within you. Id worry less about “how” to use them to draw out x, y, and z and more about how can you surrender to them as wise teachers, how can you energetically, psychically, and physically open yourself up to their teaching style and lessons? How can you work with them not just in one trip, but over multiple sessions as the two of you learn about one another at deeper levels. Now I will say, this entire framework is entirely relative. It’s simply a context from which I personally use when it comes to mushrooms. You may not find it helpful. Furthermore, none of it is Absolutely True however you can think of it as a temporary vehicle to move you towards the Absolute or uncover the shadow elements of your mind. Last tip I have - expand your perspective of trips not as a singular trip, but as an overall journey. You’ll start noticing patterns that emerge not out of one trip, but across multiple that only exist in a meta point of view. I find mushrooms to be especially like this because of their counterintuitive and twisted nature.

This is your problem. You’re spending too much time on the phone, reaching out and trying to lock her time down.

Happy you find your way. Please keep in mind though that a mountain has multiple paths to the top. It sounds like surrender is what you needed, but be careful prescribing that to all seekers. Some seekers actually need to desire harder, they bullshit themselves thinking they want the truth, but in all honesty they’re still resisting even the desire to desire the truth. Getting clear on the fact that you want to become conscious and stop living in the web of lies our mind’s construct is a critical step for many enlightened beings. For my personal awakening process, practice, discipline and effort have all been instrumental. Do I claim these are absolute positions all must have if they want “the truth?” No. Hell surrender is critical as well. The thing is, Truth is totally off the radar of effort and no effort, work and surrender. All dualities and positions will collapse. Any position you write from will not lead to truth, even the position of letting go of all positions is not it. A total paradox.

I think this is actually in alignment with the Buddha’s idea of emptiness. Pretty sure he taught an emptiness so radical that it rejected even the present moment. Really cool! Also yes spot on about the 2nd and 3rd person perspectives reality is capable of taking on. Ive had trips where Ive experienced living thousands of lives simultaneously and now that Im sober, I struggle to even remember what that was like other than at the time it was a direct experience of collective “selfing.”

OP is explaining that distance is a relative concept. It is not Absolutely True. Obviously. Nice insight! One technique you could use to deepen this understanding is during walking meditation, become aware of how you aren’t moving. You’re remaining completely stationary despite the augmentations of perception moment by moment that give rise to the feeling of moving through space.

Just my random 0.02, I believe psychedelics cannot replace the need for manual practice for the population. For example, I've found the only way to really integrate and embody the insights I've had on psychedelics is through rigorous manual practice. But on the other hand, psychedelics seem to provide rocket fuel for the rigorous practices that I fail to see in those who only do manual practices... It's a really interesting balancing act, and one I'm still trying to figure out.

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Well every time I meditate now I get “high.” Ive been having multiple sessions per week that are about as powerful as low doses of psychedelics but Im dead sober and Ive only been seriously meditating for just less than 3 years. I say this just to give a counter example to your idea that it’ll take more than 10 years to get serious results from practice. However Ive also explored a wide variety of techniques, read and listened to a lot of different teachers, have explored psychedelics and have heavily trusted my intuition. Actualized.org has been indispensable on my journey. I bet if Id blindly started following one teacher I wouldn’t have been able to make serious progress.

That’s awesome to hear! My biggest piece of advice would say be extremely vigilant about not grasping for stages. That’s TMI’s biggest flaw is that its practitioners can unconsciously start creating attachments to making progress which will actually stop progress from unfolding. It’s also really not in the spirit of meditation practice to be grasping for stages and states. If you find yourself having become attached or are getting burnt out, Id switch to something like Do Nothing or Shinzen’s See Hear Feel. I spent about 2 months where I took a complete hiatus from TMI and focused exclusively on the Do Nothing and S/H/F techniques. When I returned to TMI practice, Id actually established myself in a higher stage of practice than when I left, despite not practicing it at all. Once you’ve gotten to stage 6, Id also start looking into Jhana practices. “Right Concentration” by Leigh Brasington is a good complimentary book for Jhana practice. Taking the time to develop shamatha and the Jhanas will start to facilitate psychedelic like states during practice, states that make perception feel spacious, fluid, flow like, expansive and empty. These states will start to really peel back the veil between the subconscious and conscious mind; the mind starts to “unify” the whole system with itself. Note this isnt the same as Absolute Truth, however from a relative pov I find this unification of the mind to be incredibly valuable and powerful. Feel free to dm for specific questions.

This. Jhana states are much more powerful than meditating while high. You get the pleasure, heightened perception/awareness, but without the mental fog and lack of focus.

Samurai Champloo wont seem spiritual at first but if you really contemplate the characters I find it to be quite spiritual. The ending is especially spiritual... although again not in an obvious way. I also feel that Cowboy Beebop is spiritual as well... it shows the consequences of samsara imo. I doubt the creator had this in mind, but when you make it to the ending and piece together what the show’s been building towards, I find it to be incredibly spiritual.

How worried are you all that something very un-democratic will happen in AZ and Trump will steal the election? One thing we all still have to account for is the 2020 variable... AKA IT'S 2020 D:

Yes. Like full 8 hours of sitting with brief breaks, intentionally working with fatigue. I bet it would work best during a retreat while you have some meditation momentum

So did mine, but I don't know how machine voting works. As in, I don't know the mechanics of the machines counting.

Anyone have any insight into the whole sharpie thing? I'm seeing republicans on FB claiming AZ needs a recount because sharpies aren't picked up by voting machines??

How can anyone declare a victory after election night if mail in ballots are still being counted? Genuine question

Just found an intro to this book. Dude literally exactly the kind of book I've been looking for on my journey. Thank you for the recommendation even though it wasn't for me haha.

Yaza helped me. I did yaza during a meditation retreat and 1 month post retreat and my relationship with fatigue has radically shifted. Ive also stopped eating so much during the day. I'll do IF until around 11am-12pm, eat a small lunch, eat another snack in the afternoon, and then eat the majority of my calories at dinner. Sleeping 8 hours is non-negotiable for optimal energy. Exercise, eating fruits and vegetables, hydration, and yoga all are needed as well. The older I get, the more that if any of these items are off the more I'll feel my energy levels dip.

bingo

Yeah if your goal isn't enlightenment, then self inquiry is pretty useless. With Kriya, I felt like all of the various focusing techniques were just too complicated and unnecessary. What are we training with meditation? Fundamentally, we're training mindfulness which could also be called awareness. What is mindfulness? I like Shinzen Young's definition - Concentration power, Sensory Clarity, and Equanimity. These three skills are the skills that yield the results of meditation. These three skills are what purify the mind, heal the emotional body, build physical pliancy, and essentially raise one's level of consciousness in the long run. I'd also throw in attentional stability as an important subcomponent of the concentration power piece which is where The Mind Illuminated comes in which Shinzen doesn't really address in his system. Kriya felt like it was overcomplicating the whole process while also missing what the primary aim of meditation practice is all about. Mainly, training those three skills to apply in every day life. Even if I were to use Kriya meditation techniques, at the end of the day I'd still be training concentration, sensory clarity, and equanimity. Furthermore, I want a meditation technique I can use all day every day. Kriya is really not conducive for life practice, but something like anapanasati (mindful breathing) from TMI or even Shinzen Young's See Hear Feel technique I can easily do all day long. But Kriya definitely has its fans. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the aim of Kriya or what types of benefits are available. I'd be curious to hear other's take. I believe some of the breathing techniques could be helpful for purifying emotions, but as far as building mindfulness.. Eh?

I've never had great results with Kriya. The Mind Illuminated took my meditation to another level. I basically feel like I'm high dose microdosing every time "I" meditate now. Id also recommend contemplating with Self Inquiry. Self Inquiry + serious meditation + psychedelics = bruh