CVKBT

Thank you for clearing up!

Hey guys, I'm currently working on my ability to be funny. In Leo's video, one exercise is the affirmation: "I see funniness everywhere". The affirmation sounds really smooth in english, but not in my native language and I enjoy it more, affirming it in english. Will the affirmation still work, even though I'm not affirming it in my native language? Will the outcome of the affirmation change, when I slightly alter the words or the way the sentence is built? I'd assume that the importance doesn't lie on the exact words of the affirmation, but rather the meaning of it, right?

@JosephKnecht Maybe Can you provide an answer?

Everytime I'm angry at someone or reflect back on my own path, I clearly see that we are all just the sum of our environment (I as Ego; not Consciousness). If someone pisses me off big time, I think very quickly of the chain reaction, that led to this situation of him pissing me off and me being pissed off. Why am I being pissed off? Clearly because of some past experience, which shapes my reaction. Why is he pissing me off? Because the way his environment shaped him, made him act like he does. Not more, not less. The same applies for love, passion, hate, frustration, depression and any other emotion or reaction. And maybe even Consciousness? What are your thoughts about this?

Yes! The latter is definitely very applicable for day to day life. I'll stay observant. I will definitely check these out! @Nahm Thank you very much for the detailed answer! That's a whole lot to contemplate there for the coming time... I really do appreciate it, thank you

@Meta-Man That makes sense. Never had a non-dual breakthrough whatsoever, but I can still comprehend it from an energetic or a materialist standpoint. My movement necessarily implicates the movement of my surroundings. @Nahm I gotta be honest, I don't quite understand the "infinite can not know finite" part, since (by theory) the infinite is precisely the finite? At the same time, I really don't care about the theoretical stuff that much, experiencing it directly is way more intriguing for me. To experience what you are talking about, I'll probably need to be in a really high state of consciousness I guess. Nevertheless I think I understand the following: I strongly believe in the story of "sums being made up" and reactions being reacted. Slowly but surely I recognize how I'm reacting to things, that are not me. I guess one day I will realize that there never ever was somebody, who was reacting to the things around him? Why did you put the actually in italics? Do things change, when we exist in actuality? When we tune in into actuality, does the false identification fade away?

Such an OG.

What helps me is to have a constant practice + experimenting with other techniques. For example, my Kriya Yoga practice is daily and I often find myself unmotivated to do it. But I still do it. Sometimes in the end, it was worth it, sometimes I was still left unsatisfied. Yet I still wanted to experiment with "my" Consciousness. So what I did was just curiously trying stuff out. Be it with or without technique. Sometimes I just sat for half an hour and kinda treated it like a psychedelic trip (e.g. let come what comes; basically did nothing, but not as a technique). Other times I put on binaural beats. Sometimes I stumbled upon different styles of meditation, from zen to woo-woo New Age type of stuff. The point I want to make is, to just stay curious about your own Being and not be afraid to dabble with other stuff. What I found was, that the experimenting with other stuff always grew my appreciation for my main practice even more. Gotta admit that it can sometimes be reaaaally boring, but in the end, I'm infinitely grateful that I was sticking to my guns and just kept doing Kriya Yoga daily. It really brought me places, and I'm just in the beginning phase. So experimenting really helped me getting out of going through the same motions over and over again, since it gave me new perspectives, experiences and insights. The only "danger" I see with experimenting a lot with other practices is, that you may half ass everything without really getting deep. And experience chasing is also a great trap I fell into often times. Of course, reading and listening to spiritual material can reignite the fire in you. But also psychedelics, if you dare, will give you mindfucks that can only make one curious. After my ego got erased to a great degree by mushrooms, my respect for Kriya Yoga and especially Consciousness just blew the roof off. A final note, which is probably not for you, but for others: burning through your karma (e.g. chasing material pleasures until that desire is depleated) helps a great deal. This will make your curiousity for higher things come back naturally and more focused than ever. I still have a lot of karma to burn through, so I do both: going for awakening + chasing material pleasures until I'm fed up, to keep me on the path. But that's just me. Hope you could get something out of the long post.

I was super stoked to see this video. Sadhguru plans to return deeper into spirituality again. In the video he says, that he will continue his activistic work for about a year or so. After that, he will remove the language he uses to speak to the masses and speak more directly about spiritual topics. A foretaste seems to be given in his new book "Death; An Inside Story: A book for all those who shall die". I live in Europe and can't order it yet, so did anybody read it? I'm expecting some profound, high quality teachings. Not the weak sauce type of stuff, which is tailored for mainstream audience. Around that time I'll be finished with my university too, so I will safe some money and fly straight to his Ashram. I want to receive my first initiation to Yoga by Sadhguru himself and really understand, what Yoga is all about. Books, online courses and some videos can also teach you quite a lot, but it most probably is unparalleled by an initiation from a true Yoga Master (whom I can trust). Really looking forward to this..

@An young being Information on the occult? Fuck yeah, this sounds interesting! I'm especially excited, what he writes about Mahadamadhi. Thank you for the quick recap! ??

Recontextualization. So good hahaha.

Yes! The Guru within is key. It's a step-by-step process. Someday, I will see for myself.

@nistake Kinda sounds ridiculous to relearn chewing, but it's true! I often find myself just swallowing the food half chewed, it can be really hard breaking habits Best part for me is the fruit turning into juice in my mouth..so good hahaha. I never noticed that, before chewing more often!

Good point! The rule of thumb is, that you want a homogeneous mass in your mouth. Some people count their chewing 20-100 time, but that's really tideous and unnecessary lol

It's always really humbling to remember every once in a while, that you ain't shit, compared to the sheer size of the observable universe. Yet, everything observed happens within your own consciousness

Thanks a lot for the recommendations, I will definitely check it out! I agree, studying Tantra sheds a huge light upon the complex yogic system. You understand more and more why you do for example the Kriya Pranayamas and why they lead you towards Parvastha etc. I guess you just gotta be careful not to make a mental masturbation exercise out of that hehe. I've seen Wallis' video on Kundalini and already found it of big value. I'm excited what I will learn out of your recommendation!

Very nice, thank you! I was already intrigued about Shaiva Tantra because of Christopher Wallis' book. This foundation can be a really important step towards a clearer understanding of Yoga, both Tantra and Kriya.

@dimitri True, only the ego wants to change things, which it doesn't like. Nevertheless, I think in the perspective of a human being, one should strive for healing on all levels: psychological, physical and spiritual. @Leo Gura I thought so..BUT I was able to heal my allergic symptoms to a great degree, only through the power of consciousness. Credits for this go to James Fadiman and his "Symphony of Selves". I might make a post about it sometime in the future!

Say you're tripping on any psychedelic and imagine your healing, how would you ensure that those healing effects will last beyond the trip? Daily affirmations, positive/loving intentions for your own body, and of course meditation, healthy food, sports, good friends/family (all that "basic stuff")? I have some physical healing to do, where doctors couldn't help me and have no clue. I gotta fix this myself. Btw on the path of finding a way of healing, I've received extremely valuable lessons along the way, which I think are an essential part of the healing.

@Marianitozz Thank you for your answer, as far as my life is concerned, thanks to Leo I'm kinda in 24/7 reflection mode..but maybe something from the subconscious is boiling up. May I ask how the symptoms express in your life? @DrewNows Indeed they are scary, but I also find them extremely attracting in the sense of curiousity! If it wasn't for that curious instinct, I would have left this path long ago. Thank you for your suggestions, especially now being (honestly) aware of the ego and the situation will really be an aid.

Hi! I'm not sure if this is the right thread, as this could also be a case of going nuts. Nevertheless. Since my Kriya Yoga practice has been getting more and more powerful (just in comparison to before, I never had any crazy "awakening experience" or super trippy stuff) a phenomena has been happening to me. It's already happened a dozen of times but the last 3 times, it really attracted my attention. I'll just give you the examples, you will understand what I mean by experiencing "no memory": 1) I was studying for the university in my garden. I'm on page 3 in my book. I look up, gaze through the garden and look back down again at my book. Out of nowhere I'm on page 5 (if the wind had flicked through the pages, I would've noticed. it's pretty noisy). No memory at all, that I've had flicked through the pages. 2) I'm playing FIFA and the match against the opponent starts. 5 mins went by, I look at the score and the opponent has shot a goal??? When did that happen?? Again, no memory. But in this case, I actually tried to remember so hard, that I remembered how the goal was (maybe, if I'm not tricking myself) shot. 3) This happened just now. I'm in the middle of my Kriya Yoga practice and I'm at round 3/3 of Maha Mudra. As soon as I began the third round, I only could find myself exhaling with both legs pulled towards my body (which is the very last movement if you don't know). Once more, no memory of doing the previous movements of Maha Mudra. Now I actually don't freak out too much, because I think these are just pretty "severe" moments of monkey mind, where I'm so lost in thoughts that I forget just about everything around me (this only happens when I'm more or less alone with my inner voice). Plus I'm guessing that this isn't something that's special to me, but something that's happening to everyone. And maybe I'm getting conscious of just HOW MUCH we are lost in thoughts, concept and ego. But then again, I don't want my spiritual ego to build up even further, so I try to hold back my judgements of other peoples' minds. Looking back at myself, I was just shocked at how lost I could get. I'll just throw some more words in here, which could be further descriptive: unaware, unconscious, autopilot, loss of attention, not being present, life passing by, "What happened?", [______] In conclusion, these could be positive symptoms. But since I don't really know, I'd like to hear some more opinions on this. Maybe this could be a serious problem. Has anyone experienced something similar to this? If yes, how did it unfold, for good or for worse? (Probably extremely different for everyone, but just curious) Thanks a lot for reading this far! I appreciate you!

When doing visualization exercises, am I in a cross-section between Concept and Actuality? For example Kriya Pranayama: you visualize energy going up and down your spine as you breath. The concept would be the Pranayama technique, which you project onto reality (here, the present moment you find yourself in). You visualize so intensely, that it actually becomes a reality and you literally feel the energy in your spine. At this point, we would be at Actuality, right? Because now, it isn't just a concept, but something you can observe and actually feel in the present moment. It becomes something actual. It is an experience happening. By visualizing, are we shifting from Concept to Actuality? Making the concept something real and actual? Is there a mistake in my thinking? I ask this, because when I first started doing Pranayama techniques, I couldn't feel anything. I needed almost half a year of visualization exercises to get a more or less solid feeling of Prana in my spine. The concept of Pranayamas didn't translate to actuality at first. But now I'm not even visualizing anymore, I just feel it. Hence the question. Thank you for all answers

Thank you @Scholar @Leo Gura for shedding light on this! @Edan Holy shit, this sounds like an interesting experiment. Even though pulling Prana is not a concern for me anymore, I'll try it, since I had one super intense meditation on the spine and chakras with Sadhguru in my dreams. Even though I'm usually super unconscious in my dreams, once the meditation started, I had the same "wakefulness" state as in a normal meditation. I never fell so quick and deep in a trance state before. I suck at lucid dreaming, but I'll definitely try it! Thank you for your suggestion.

Of course, while doing Yoga I'm not poundering these questions. They just came up after watching Leo's video on Actuality. Do I understand correctly, that conscious imagination/visualization is also actuality? That would make sense for me, since there is an awareness watching within the imagination.