Mada_

What is a good indicator for being eligible for this work? It feels like a question I shouldn't be asking but it is on my mind a lot. I've had a few mystical experiences, on psychedelics and off, so that feels like a good sign. But then I'm also extremely ADD and am constantly failing self-inquiry sits. Is there an indicator that I'm not cut out for this work? And if so, there doesn't seem to be anything else doing in life, the rest is ephemeral pleasures and suffering. I think I get super paranoid about it because Leo stating in his recent retreat notes "there is no cure for lack of existential wonder", but I think I would really like to know what this is, but how do I know I'm not just pretending or bullshitting myself? Are these just the chances we take?

I'm 18 at the moment and have had two lsd experiences. My last one was very very healing, i took 200uq and had some great insight. On the comedown though it was quite just quite intense, and i would sometimes mistake thoughts for hearing it as a voice. So I'm thinking now I'll just wait until my 20's to take it up a level, develop myself through reading, contemplation, the work and general self-help stuff so i can be absolutely sure those experiences count. Do you experienced psychonauts on here think this is a good idea? Or am i being to cautious and in doing so stalling some potential major breakthroughs?

So last night it was my friend's 18th, i rocked up around 7pm and was enjoying myself. I said hi to some people and was sitting around, tending to a fire pit, and it just dawned on me that everyone who was drinking and smoking was destroying their potential. Like it just made me so upset that they were doing so, it triggered me almost to the point of crying. My friends were planning to go to a nightclub afterwards, but i was going to head home and do some yoga and self-inquiry. And understandably they wanted to know why i wasn't coming out, they offered me money and all of their condolences to try to convince me, but for some reason the prospect barely dawned on me, like i didn't even question myself, my mind was totally blank and i just watched them speak, whilst my body held tention. Then i said "what exactly do you all want out of life", one girl said "death", my brother said "fulfillment", my friend said fulfillment also and i think my other friend said "happiness". So i said "well i want depth out of mine, and going out to town seems to me that it would totally detriment what i want out of my whole life, so that's why I'm not going". Which was met with a back and forth of "what, I don't see that, you can leave straight away if you don't like it, it's just like this party but more lights lol" which i guess they had a point about, but like it does go against my values of consciousness and prosperity, but then only symbolically in a sense, as they are right in the fact that I get to choose how i interact in that environment. Walking home i was just holding so much tension and I didn't know why, it's like i was so closed minded to what they were saying that my heart literally closed over. But it dawned on me that these conditions to conduct enlightenment work are all assumptions, and counter-intuitively going to a night club possibly would remove the stick from my ass. And it was my friends birthday, and i told her before that i would only go out for her birthday, but i went back on it by saying it went against my values. In conclusion, I'm fearful of my culture, but I'm also fearful of how I often selfishly interact with my culture, and i don't know how or if i can get over myself - haha but a chance I'm more than willing to take.

@Rigel @sgn @d0ornokey @How to be wise Thankyou very much for your replies, your words have been very helpful. ❤❤

I'm Leo's recent retreat notes from his 30 day retreat, he said that there is no cure for existential wonder. It doesn't make sense to me how you could know that. So Leo, presumably someone with lots of existential wonder, can conclude that someone with a different experience than his own mind cannot change it. But i have felt like i had not a lot of existential wonder at one point, but then as life becomes more beautiful and i notice the patterns woven into my skin i feel like my wonder gets deeper. I must say before I started consciousness work I found a passion for philosophy and personal development, but my question is how can you just make that conclusion that there is no cure, when in my experience it seems to develop itself deeper.

I had this weird spontaneous urge to become a sustainable architect the other night. I'd had the idea circling in my head after attending a biophillic design seminar but it doesn't on the surface wholely interest me. I then drew a small building on paper to see what it felt like and it was just beautiful for some reason, i felt extra loving whilst doing so. Could this be a distraction/delusion? It does seem cool the idea of being a yogi architect, that's what I was invisioning.

Do you think achieving your life purpose could have been possible without your initial success with your marketing business? Apolagies if already stated later in the life purpose course.

Hahahaha. Thankyou for this question. Rather than "I'm an incompetent escapist who doesn't study", i can just implement these habits because i see their value

I have come to this conclusion because a definition i found matched me. In relation mostly to my school work, i allow it to irritate me as i feel my time would be better spent doing 'my' research, when i begin a life changing book the textbook summaries of topics im given at school just seen 10x more tedious. I have inquired and decided i could just use it as a platform for me making shit, as I'm doing a few creative subjects. But i feel as though my other pursuits in life, my existential research and life purpose out way academia. Yet if I son learn how to tackle drudgery, is this a recipe for failure? It doesn't seem directly applicable to my entrepreneurial ambitions. So why bother? Is there something I'm not seeing?

Are you in a long term relationship Leo?

Has anyone here volunteered at Sadghuru's ashram? Would you care to share your experiences? Peace

@Salvijus How would I need to prepare myself for volunteering at the ashram, is there a standard of physical fitness?

@Salvijus awesome! Thankyou

Australia

I finish high-school soon and am thinking about being initiated into a kriya tradition. I have J.C Stevens book and practice daily, yet i feel having a live experience would just be better suited to me. I resonate with Sadghuru as a teacher, yet i can't find any initiation events of his online. Has anyone been initiated into this tradition? Are there any other kriya traditions that people have been initiated into that they found very beneficial. My goal is to accumulate strong enough practices that I could take to a cave in the future if I chose to go there, that's just how I see being self-actualized, being as a system larger than life, able to survive an extreme experience if I wanted to do so. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Peace

I'm finishing High School soon, so I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for business seminars, beginner entrepreneurship programs etc. As I would like to start my own business next year. Peace and thankyou

@Preetom @Nahm @FoxFoxFox Thankypu everyone, this has been very helpful

So can i just sit in stillness and ask questions? or must I intensely focus on the observer? When i focus intensely the present feeling of not-knowimg goes away and it feels like I'm just frantically creating tension.

I feel like I'm running round in circles. I don't know whether I'm doing enough work, but then I have this gnarly ego backlash and this depression that comes and goes. I feel like i waste every minute that I'm distracted, yet I don't know what that minute should have been occupied with. My practices were really neurotic for a while, i was doing heaps of meditation and self inquiry but not getting anywhere, it just felt like i was 'doing' lots of stuff and not fucking with my own reality. I've tried toning it back a bit and doing more contemplation which i really enjoy it and I get actual recontextualizations from doing that practice. Does these sound like good signs, neutral signs or negative signs to anyone who has been through the motions?

Intention: address merit of self-doubt and hatred. Coming up at around 12:00pm i felt this growing sense of pleasant tingling sensations all through my body. This growing sense of love over came my heart to the point where it burned. The tensions in my body then became as clear as day and my worries all started seeming stupid, the emotion ludicrous in the face of love. Then i realize the mistake i made was when i got up and left the room, the reason for this is because i decided that my life is so precious and beautiful and it could slip away and i was just wasting it not being in the present moment, i felt this overwhelming sense of love for life and being made me want to leave and just conquer the world. This was my first breakthrough dose after a my first trip being a 110 so i kind of forgot the advice i was going to follow to he honest, which was to be still and do nothing. Which showed me that i think I am mindful but I'm really not. It began to show me how insanely tight my body was, which seemed apparent as a huge factor of my digestive issues. I was able to bring my awareness to where my spine needs pressure of and i realized when integrating 1) I'm just not in tune with my body and kind to my body and its kind of disgusting, it was just so obvious that life is beautiful and i was trashing it by having good posture and relaxing and just loving it 2) and i realized due to this I'm not comfortable doing yoga until i correct my spine, and i should actually do more research on the risks out of compassion for myself. I've been doing kriya yoga for a few months now and i just feel irresponsible not looking into it more to assess the risks before continuing-i believe this will help me surrender more to the practice in the long run. I need to become more In tune with my body, and it was clear that my neuroticism was the root my distraction from it. I then became aware of how horrible i am to myself, this relating directly to my intention, was an important insight into my own propensity for self love. It was disgusting how thought would beat itself up for failing when failing was good, failure was wonderful (not denying it can also be very detrimental, especially in the context of the use of psychedellics). But i realized there is just not point in beating myself up about things and trying to stress and argue with reality, it is better to love myself and surrender to mystery because the truth is I'm just trying to figure life out at the moment and I'm fine with that. At 17, i was able to realize I'm at a really early chapter in my life and that i should view it as a creating process not an entirely linear scheduled one. And is now clear i can i my thrive if i fully love and accept myself, life will just be more fun and productive then. I will make Byron Katie's 'the Work' a regular part of my week, doing the technique at least three times a week. I'm very addicted to my monkey mind, when I'm not focused on the present moment I'm lost in fantasy. I'm going to be as mindful as possible, and purchase shinzen youngs books to help with this. Conclusion: there's much consciousness work to do, after feeling what it felt like to have clearer body awareness i realize i need to become more mindful and begin healing my body and just being kinder to it. I also need to fully love myself unconditionally, i cannot optimize if i do not embody unconditional love. Whilst being aware there is lots of work to do, i have fucked around for a while which i forgive myself for but it is also an injustice to myself not to live to absolute full potential, because my life is so precious and could slip away at any moment.

I think i have an odd spine shape and i have been doing kriya work for about a month and I'm paranoid that this will have a negative effect. My spine bends outwards multiple times if that makes sense, there's a curve in the lower back aswell as the upper. Also i was doing a cobra pose and i think it pushed one of the verterbraes in on my lower back which is stressing me the fuck out. And finally to the people who will reply with "you shouldn't learn kriya from a book" and "you can't go back, you're in it forever, etc. Etc." i am well aware. I will admit i was probably a bit naive not researching enough whether kriya was suited for me, but now i am here, making progress and feeling stressed about things i may not be able to see. Thankyou

We tend to attempt to repress parts of the psyche we believe to be detrimental whilst doing consciousness work, in hopes that we will transcend it. For example trying to get rid of thought instead of learning to let go of it. I've found trying to repress it comes with an emotional excess, so when i would try to repress the thought which i believed to be bad, it would be cleared with the sensation of stress. I have a feeling this is a waste of time and a very common behavior, people become aware of things that they are told are bad and they see the logic in this notion so they try to shoo it away.

Does anyone have any general tips on how to practice yoga more precisely. So common mistakes and thing that people feel have held them back personally. At the moment doing routine 2-3 times 20 minutes each session per day. Have been practicing my current yoga techniques for 3 days but did a month or so of a similar routine a few months ago. - Nadi Sodhana x 10 - Ujjayi Pranayama x 10 - today started doing 10 rounds of Talabya Kriya - 10 minutes concentration

This path has been so interesting and I've found such a cool way to spend my youth. I wanted to share an insight i had after starting a kriya practice after stopping for a while. I have wasted so much time trying to go around my impurities, and have come across a frantic attitude towards awakening rather than determination. Discipline is not behaving the right way, discipline involves both a level of control and acceptance. Disciplined acceptance, of things as they are. Yes i must and should transcend "now", but the mind seems to perceive the now much differently to how it really is.

It was huge, it was everywhere, it was nothing. The ego backlash was fucking hard, but everything feels different the observer can still be observed. Everything became less serious and there was this slight tinge of insanity. As I'm writing this I'm thinking maybe the ego backlash wasn't as hard as i thought it was and i just went full circle, which is a kind of brilliant mindfuck and feels like a profound cosmic joke. Yes it is so empty, like magically empty. I am writing this because it felt like i was "high cosciousness" before, and now i wouldn't even call myself enlightened and emptiness is consuming everything i thought i was. And i want to share how humbling to the ego that experience is, because i literally can't imagine the sheer fucking cosmic floatitude the people who are much older than me and much more disciplined. But this shit is fucking worth it, it's magically empty. But anywAy - could someone who's obviously further than me share some insight on the feeling of insanity stuff?