Ishanga

We (Humans) invented these things out of Un Awareness that we are God/Absolute. We have Free Will if we are Conscious that we are God/Absolute. Would One rape, torture, have slaves if they know they are God? I don't think so.. So its a matter of Awareness, not of God inventing things, Absolute/God is just a Potential/Possibility making machine, we are the tool by which the Potential is being expressed, and we have choice as to how it is being expressed, dependent on how Conscious/Aware one Is!

Surrender is one way, there are many other ways, for some Surrender is more natural, for other it is not, that is why we have a many methods, many Gurus, many ways to do things...which is why if Your Awareness of these things is low a Guru/Mentor is needed, and for most in this world today their Awareness is super Low. Things like Devotion and Surrender don't work well, the ppl just can't do it, for a very tiny few it does, but all of Us can work on it and make it part of the whole, like Bruce Lee said with his Jeet Kune Do philosophy, "Use what Works for You, Reject what is Useless for You..", since each of Us had different Karmic Makeups, we need guidance!

I use gummies on the weekends to relax, it makes time slow down and a certain sort of disassociation happens, I become lazy, hungry and more focused lol. My research into it tells me the Psychedelics have their time and place in usage, if You rely on them totally for Spiritual Awakening it probably won't work, Leo may be the exception but he has also done lots of Sadhana too to supplement it.. I for sure agree, that one should do the Sadhana first, get to a point of Awareness that already brings about a natural sort of Peace and Knowing, if Your stuck there then maybe use psychedelics to give You a peek over the fence, which basically inspires You in your Sadhana practices, but don't rely on them totally, it will more than likely lead You astray... In the end for real Transformation to happen, You have to make it happen naturally meaning without the use of drugs or anything external other than Spiritual Practices.. Find a Guru or Mentor and practice that works for You, stick with it, know Your intentions and goals then let it work its magic!

I use it for Entertainment and to trigger my Ego so I'm more Aware of it!

Also if You Suffer another's Suffering You are adding to the Suffering in this world and it disempowers You tremendously, it may cause You to be bitter, angry, and want revenge which leads to not knowing Absolute or any sort of Spiritual Awakening IMO!

As Leo has stated, all things are possible, if Love is possible so is Hate, and if Kindness/Gentleness is possible so is Torture, so the key is that Human Beings have access to Free Will, they can decided absolutely how they want to be within themselves, obviously someone that Tortures another is not in a healthy place and is completely Unconscious of Absolute/God/Love/Bliss, this may be due to many factors, all You can do is gain a High Level of Awareness of Absolute, and know You are this, and then either leave this realm, Body/Mind complex or live here and be the light You want to see, hopefully that Empowers more to do be and do the same!!

@Gidiot I think Osho used Controversy to gain an audience and then a group of ppl that can progress on the Spiritual Path, he showed that a Guru does not have to play the old role of being poor, doing nothing and living in a cave, he broke that mold, but ppl judge him based on their own moral code, so it filters their perception of him.. For sure he did more Empowerment than Dis Empowerment for the world, he was very wise and a very good communicator, just from that one can transform!

I think this relates to the so called "6th sense" or an ability to sense/be aware that is beyond the normal 5 senses.. When in Deep Sleep the 5 senses are still working, everything is still being recorded but we are not Aware of it in normal consciousness. Normal Consciousness is Survival based, our senses gives us enough data to live another day generally, the Spiritual Masters over the millennia have been sharing and teaching us ways to Perceive and be Aware beyond the Survival based senses. The AUM symbol represents the 4 States of Consciousness, Waking State, Dream State, Deep Sleep State and High Consciousness State, the whole goal is too have Your Awareness rooted in the High Consciousness state or Chitta, which is Absolute or Source Intelligence. But what is it that is Aware of this Chitta? It is the Atman or Soul per say, which is basically what we really Are, we are not the Body or Mind or Karmic Substance that allows Creation to exist, its Pure Consciousness, when Your intouch with this Bliss is natural...Via Spiritual Sadhana or practices a Human Being can be intouch with this on a constant basis. My Guru says Deep Sleep is practice for Death as the two are related, Your Body and Mind and Karma are still in play while in Deep Sleep, if Your Awareness is high then You can be Aware of everything while in Deep Sleep, he also says the Deep Sleep state can be achieved while being Active and Doing things in the world, one can be very relaxed, no stress fight/flight response while working, thinking, and living a normal life, its just a matter of mastery of the System...The first goal is the realize that You are not the Body or Mind, when that space is Experientially there, then things start to progress..

@Cathy92506 Its not a fantasy, but it will not happen for most. Its like a poor person looking at billionaires and saying "I want what they got", but its a too far away goal to go for, first get Yourself out of poverty, then be stable financially, then start building wealth from there.. The problem lies in too much sharing, too much goal orientation, and not dealing with what and where You are at right now. If You suffering in any way, then Cosmic Enlightenment is not going to happen for You, so first deal with Your suffering on a permanent basis then see what Potential lie ahead, see for Yourself Experientially what is beyond this daily Suffering pattern because if Suffering is possible daily so if Joyfulness daily and naturally, get to that point and go from there, forget Enlightenment, just go step by step...

This is because only Humans can Experience the sublime or Subtle aspects of Reality, Reality goes from Subtleness to Grossness, the Absolute is the most Subtle, Physicality is the most Gross aspect of Reality, Humans have a built in desire to be more than what they are right now, whatever that is. Right now on this Earth we have Humans representing all aspects of this, ppl living the most grossest aspect of reality, where only the physical aspects, survival aspects of Reality appeal to them, others, a very small % of Ppl live at the highest or most Subtle Aspects of Reality (see Leo and others), their actions and shared experiences reflect this, But its all a matter of Awareness, if Your Awareness is Low then You live Survival only, Survival is about Accumulation, Gathering of Ppl, places and things, ego gratification, a feeling of Separateness and lack, if your Awareness is high level, then these things will mean little to You, you will still have to feed the body, relate to others but it doesn't rule You like it does most today... Spirituality is about raising Awareness so that the highest Potential is within Your Experience and reflected in your Actions. Living below Your Potential too me is the biggest problem today in the world and is tragic imo...

The process of Life after Physical Death, what happens, a few things can happen! Sadhguru explains a process after death, the river test which decides what happens with disembodied being and decides next birth will happen or will they just hang around. depending on your karmic structure and karma one will either get dissolved in this pool of energy or hang around...

@Wiz No... Meditation is too general a word, it really doesn't mean anything other than sitting cross legged with eyes closed but that can be called sleep too.. Everything is according to needs and wants and levels of Expertise... If all You want is peace then do a certain sort of practice, if You want more clarity another sort of practice, but if You want to go all the way, it means a totally different thing than sitting eyes closed and cross legged for 20min a day.. But generally it is good for Us to be more silent of mind, calmer in emotion and healthy body wise which practices can for sure help with, a mentor is needed to help guide ppl, when they go solo too much it messes things up big time...

Thoughts come from our Brains and Intellect, our 5 senses are always on, even in deep sleep, we are always recording what is going on around us, smells, sounds, touch, seeing, tasting, but we mostly are not conscious of 99% of it, so it goes deeper into the Unconscious Mind, where it sits and stirs up Thoughts that seem to come from nowhere.. The cause of all of this, for ppl to think thoughts come from heaven, god or silent ground, is simply UnAwareness of what is going on within themselves.. There are 4 places of action going on all the time since birth and end with death, Body, Mind, Emotion, Energy Action, again most ppl are Un Aware of 99.999% of all the actions taking place in these 4 areas, so when something happens within them that comes up they say it came from somewhere else.. This is the game of Karma, Karma is the residual result of all the previous actions You have taken, and the consequences of it, as all actions have a consequence.. If we were highly Aware we would focus our thoughts or just leave them behind and not be used by them as we are today, so they say the avg person is having some 50K thoughts per day, the # is getting higher, we are addicted to our thoughts/intellect/mind, hence why all the questions/answers/questions to the same subjects on the forum and endless debates about Reality, most of which is not Truth...

There is no Mind that questions, comes up with answers, is curious and then asks more questions for God/Absolute.. Its like You know how many fingers You have on your left hand, no one can question it right, they say you have 3 fingers on your left hand, but You know You have 5, so there is nothing to do with it. So there is no "Knowing" when it comes to the Absolute, these knowing, not knowing, are concepts, they serve a purpose on the Survival level of life only, where we have what we have on this Earth, Duality, Karma, Bodies, Survival instinct, ego's etc... As a Human You can live and experience beyond this Survival Level of Awareness, You can go all the way and be in touch with Absolute level of Awareness aka Enlightenment..

In a Relative sense, there are plenty of problems, Gaza is a huge huge worldly problem.. You not having enough $$ to pay the bills is an individual problem, on and on it goes, its all Societal Based, if You lived off grid, off the map in some isolated place, self supporting, self capable of feeding and providing basics, none of the societal things would affect You, so in that sense there is no problem for YOU. In an Absolute sense there is no problems, because there is no physicality, no mind/brain, no individual bodies, no society, no earth, no Universe, so obviously in that sense that cannot be a problem to even be possible to exist... So it depends on where Your coming from, what is Your experience of Life, Relative/Subjective or Absolute/Objective.. As as Human You get to choose which Experience You want to have...

Saying "God is Everything", for me anyways that translates to Absolute is Potential, unlimited Potential and Possibility, which is also the meaning of Infinity in my mind. That means somewhere, somehow, what we have here on this Earth, which is the only place where life exists as far as we can prove, there is Us, Humans, and trillions of other life Forms, there is Duality, Physicality/Materialism, Karma which is basically cause & effect, there is individualism and all For me it simple, we are just an expression of a Potentiality Equation, since in the Absolute or God realm, there is no duality, physicality or karma, its a place of pure Potential, Oneness, Completeness. Earth is not Complete, its all connected, there is a sense of Oneness here on Earth, Your Breathing and Eating, this comes from the Earth, Your completely connected to the Earth via that alone and many other aspects, but its not a Complete place... Spirituality is all about getting intouch with this Absolute Experientially while Embodied, in this Earth place with duality, karma and such in play... You find out You are not the Body or Mind, once that is true for You Experientially, then Suffering is impossible, then life opens up and Your close to Truth/Reality than believing You are this Body or Mind...

Yes and No, there are Natural States, but of course there has to be somethings in place for this too be,, When a child is given love and security and a pleasant environment/stable parents, they will be happy. When a Cell is in a giving environment it thrives, when the environment is not so giving the cell may die or decay, its like this with everything.. Problem today is most Humans are too Intellectual, meaning their thinking rules them, they are past/memory future/imagination orientated, they crave and desire on that level only, which will lead to suffering.. Awareness is just another form of intelligence, but its not based on memory (there are many forms of memory, like genes, not just the images in your head, karma is this), once You are accessing Awareness more in Your life, then it opens up, then Peace and Happiness are as natural as hunger...

I've been stating the samethings that Razard86 is, but Your giving me grief for it, but totally agree with him... Things that make me go Hmmmm....

And that is your opinion, is it more valuable than mine?? No its not, all we are doing here is sharing opinions, which is actually anti spiritual, and all of them are equal, and most all of them will be forgotten about next week, so I am saying Happiness is natural for Us, others say Suffering is, that is their opinion, some will buy into that, others will not. Their Karma will determine how it plays out!

Everything in this world is a cult, this place is a cult, work and companies/corps are cults, schools and all organizations are cults, its just that some are not so healthy for us and some are, its this way for everything, its up to YOU to decide how it affects You.. Once You try to do something whether it is big or small, you'll create enemies... I've been involved with Martial Arts since 1988, my first instructor/Sifu I idolized him, studied every move he made, I eventually taught for him, met his parents, got into the inner circle, got to know the real person, deep down he's a good guy, but he had to do things to make things work, which cost me plenty.. I'm not long involved with him, but I don't regret my time with him, I learned allot (what to do and not do), the almost samething happened with my next instructor or coach, so these things happen, I don't have malice against any of them, or Sadhguru, he's doing what he has to do for his own reasons and motivations. Anyone can say anything, produce any sort of video and publicize it, Sadhguru will still go on doing his thing, he doesn't care, and more ppl will follow him, for sure some of them go overboard and worship him, from what I know he does not want this, he's stated many times he wants Undercover Yogi's, ppl out in the society living the life of a Yogi on the inside while performing normal everyday activities and family life... but he has a business to run, money has to come in to support Isha's activities, that is simply the way it is in the world if You want to do Big Things... Love him or Leave Him, no one cares really!

Mystics, Guru's/Teachers have to go with the times and the sort of People that are here today, and not act or behave like the ones in the past, they adapted to what sort of ppl were there back then...

Most of the above is due to Unconsciousness on how our system, how the Human mechanism works, which is the whole point of engaging in a Spiritual Path, so that the Potential within each of Us becomes Conscious too Us, when that happens one Realizes our natural state is Happiness, not suffering.. Most all suffering happening today is mental/emotional, not many are being tortured daily by someone, but most are self suffering, not accepting, living past/memory or future/imagination states not present in the moment or Accepting things as they are...

When he said "Wanting Happiness is rooted in Suffering". too me that translates as Suffering is the natural state of a Human Being... Its a natural Desire, not a Mental or Intellectual desire, since the Body and Mind work more effectively when one is in a Pleasant or Happy State, that means we are meant to be this way naturally...By Naturally I mean this is how our system works best, today ppl are self sabotaging themselves, they cause their own suffering for the most part due to a lack of Awareness of how this system works... Suffering or Pain causes the Body and Mind to be worse off, fight or flight, yes we need it too survive but sustained states of it lead to disease and ill health and no empowerment...

I disagree, it is more natural to want to be Happy than too Suffer, that is a certainty. We are capable of Experiences, if we weren't then none of this would matter, so because that is so Happiness (and above like Bliss, Ecstasy) are all Available to Us, as are their polar opposites, but as I said before, Happiness (not pleasure seeking, 5 senses satisfaction) is Empowering for Us, its heals our Bodies and Mind which are our basic tools to use while Embodied!!

Happiness is way more natural too Us than Suffering, I would say most of the Suffering today is Mental/Emotional, of course there are some that suffer a disease and pain from it or live in horrendous places (Gaza), but that is not the majority, most are Self Suffering because they don't know how the Mind or Emotions work... Just look at Yourself as a 4 or 5 yr old, or any kid, they are much more naturally happy than adults, if the basics are there, they play and have endless energy, but when we grow up in today's world its too mind/intellect orientated which is why we suffer so much... Happiness is not the goal of Spirituality, its just the foundation upon which the path is built upon...