student

Karma if you do, karma if you don't.

I don't know what's that, but I know that to be finite means to be a human.

I think I can see the face of Jesus on it.

How much have you paid for it?

Every day, man. You can't really escape it. In fact, you can't really get to decide anything. It just happens.

@Heaven Check out Mircea Eliade's book "Yoga: Immortality and Freedom". It's a comprehensive book about Yoga. You don't need to read it all, just the first two chapters (even though all of it is valuable). I'm talking mainly from what I've personally experienced throughout the years and my afterward analysis. Many things read in that book confirmed my analyses. It has also organized the clutter in my mind about what yoga is, what's it's goal (= liberation, it also explains what is that) and why one practices it.

@Javfly33 No. This greatly depends on your physical, emotional and mental well-being and overall maturity. It greatly depends on your maturity, how reactive you are, how able are you to concentrate. Concentration meaning how likely are you to be distracted. React spontaneously to external factors. Let's say you are "blissful", then in front of you appears a person at the polar opposite. Can that influence you? Will you become nasty in response to that? Will you get back to your old habits, whatever that is? Get back gradually at your "normal" default? Being blissful has requirements. Maturity. Which can only be achieved through time doing practices that improve your physical health, mental capacity to concentrate, and purify your emotions (no "negative" emotions like: shame, guilt, embarrassment etc. [all of these are directly connected with the mind] [when you react, you react at all 3 "levels", because they are interconnected]) Blissfulness, clarity is gained when all of these are absent (less and less blockages). It just "appears". It is not a state. It is just being. Just like your present moment, but with an expanded consciousness. It becomes the new default. It is an expanded consciousness due to your practices that only served to purifying your entireness (body, mind, emotion). The way you will keep it is through maturity. Not being able ever again to react like you reacted in the past. You actually become a different person. I personally have back problems. Which I assume has to do with my capability to pierce all the way into Reality. Feel it at its fullest. Because when you are in the process of experiencing it fully, you can feel in your body energy flowing, it feels feels like "electric power". If you have some blockages, emotional, physical, you won't be able to experience it fully. There'll be a "ceiling". You know that you can go further but can't because of physical stiffness, mental blabbering about "yourself" and what is happening etc., emotional blockages (can't or don't want to feel whatever is happening fully, because it is too "big" etc.). To know what is possible, aka to know what you don't know, you need to step out from your bubble. We all are in a certain bubble. Subjective bubble (based on our history of life). If that bubble is pierced you will find yourself in "neither this or that". You will see with clarity that everything is spontaneous and everything is possible and can be created right this moment. But yeah, enough words, you need to experience this for yourself. There are a million ways to experience this, but meditation, yoga helps DIRECTLY with this. The moment you are putting yourself to do it you are trying to get out of the "normal" perception.

I don't have that proof (interviews, books etc). I personally only watch videos or read books by already accomplished individuals (yogis etc.) People that attained liberation. My only proof is 1. My actual experience. I've had my first mystical experience by accidentally meditating [relaxing completely and trying to think of nothing]. I have a neurotic environment, family, so it was pretty easy for me to just wanna "throw" it all out naturally (my thoughts, sensations etc.) 2. Conversations I've had with non-spiritual seeking folks. I don't hold myself back in talking about my mystical experiences. I must mention that these people although not "spiritual" they are educated, wise, intelligent people, can be found in a scholastic environment. Not intelligent at all in the spiritual sense (they may have no interest in religion, god, spirituality etc.), but very receptive of life. The more receptive, aka not close minded, the more your consciousness expands. The more open, the more freer. Less boundaries. By being receptive you judge less, you are more humble, less knowing (although they have plenty of knowledge). By just being receptive, welcoming life with hands wide open, you are able to experience all sorts of "unusual" things, for example, tears of joy flowing by just "existing"/"be"-ing, being suddenly one with your cat, the wind that you hear outside (in that moment "outside" doesn't exist, also "hearing" ---> it is all One). Love being literally the air, and at the same time not feeling yourself anymore in your body, aka being everything. These things can be experienced, even if only for a few seconds. Some of these people also have an intense life of their own. They have a LP (using the terminology Leo uses), or at least some kind of activity they put their mental, body and emotional efforts in. This can lead to experiences of non duality. This is achieved through concentration. Deep concentration. You need to understand that concentration means, in other words, being distraction-less. Meditation is that, Yoga is that. But you don't need to meditate or know what that is. You can paint something, write intensely, compose music. Maybe you can find proof in these areas rather than searching on the internet for "spiritual" folks. What is rare is not non-dual experiences but liberation which is a totally different thing. That's... a life purpose itself. Knowledge expands your consciousness. But your first mystical experience doesn't depend on that. It only depends on your open-mindedness. Nasty people won't experience this. They are too distracted, preoccupied with other things. You don't need to believe in god to be open minded. Read spiritual books. This does nothing. Just have respect for life, people, feel free inside. It is all experiential as you can see. After you read a book what you are trying to do afterwards is to actualize it, isn't it?

Who cares about Eckhart Tolle? Bliss is when you give your full attention to yourself. Is when you reach contentment. Don't need anything or anyone anymore. The external was a "hoax", only the internal mattered. All your desires were wrongly directed towards the exterior (people, places, objects, body, food etc.) to get those little satisfactions/highs which could have been experienced in its full intensity if you would've just sat down with yourself in silence. What is out of your experience shouldn't matter. It is useless and a waste of time. Eckhart Tolle is an external object which you have 0 knowledge of.

The experience of "non duality" is not dependent on knowledge. We are all made in a way to be able to penetrate into reality (non duality). Even if one hates the word "spiritual", "mystical", be a "scientific/logical" person etc. it doesn't matter, because the reality of who you are doesn't change based on what beliefs you hold. Still, the beliefs can hold you back from experiencing non duality, because that first experience is greatly based on open mindedness. The more freer you feel, the better. You cannot feel free when your mind is always talking, knowing. The only problem that could possibly exist if you don't have the esoteric knowledge on what you just had experienced, is that there will be low chances of furthering that experience. Of re-experiencing it and deepening it. You need to actively WANT it. If you want it, knowledge about it will be immediately seeked, and when you have it it only acts as a guidance to the experience. The experience is devoid of "knowledge". summary 1. You can have a mystical experience without any knowledge. 2. After you have it you will either seek knowledge about it or not. (if not you will either start blabbering non sense about it or not talk about it at all and forget it eventually) 3. You will get the knowledge and seek the experience ACTIVELY. 4. When you will be experiencing it the knowledge becomes obsolete.

Suicide is at the polar opposite of "enlightenment". You need to be very deep into the dream/maya to commit it.

Yeah, they provide value. Personal-development level value. Nothing special. Just money to make, marketing, and ego. Just your average Joe in front of you, its desires and undertakings. Everything is on repeat. Do you see this? It is either getting lost in maya or liberation (turning to oneself).

Yes. It is good whatever makes you pursue awakening in a SERIOUS manner. Meditating for long periods of hours, for example, etc. You will only reach it if you are this hardcore. It is okay. It only matters to do the work. The meditation. After you do it the motivations will vanish just like anything else. You can use whatever illusion you want to help you in the pursuit for liberation.

Manage to stay still for an entire day. You will get plenty of knowledge. You will truly become a sage.

@WHO IS yes, there is someone, but it has no substance. Your trip told you the truth. You stand on quicksand.

Your life is a defense mechanism. Your entire life is it. Your life should be thrown into the garbage. And make space for a new way of being. You should empty your cup first. Whatever you do notice it is ephemeral and finite and doesn't give you meaning. Survival doesn't give your meaning. The defense mechanisms, regardless how well put into order for your survival here on the planet, it doesn't give you the ultimate wisdom and freedom. "Defense mechanism", defending what more exactly? --> Your current perception which is full of layers upon layers of illusion, aka your history of life. Renounce that and you won't have defense mechanisms. You won't fall anymore into auto-pilot, defending that which is at the core of all your behaviours, thinking pattern etc. There should be nothing at the core. The premise should be the void, or God, absolute, nothing, or however you name it. Get rid of that which starts all those ugly habits. Put more attention to that not the habits themselves.

You are either projecting or liberated. You are either ignorant or liberated. To not project means to not have a self. It's a pretty extraordinary thing to understand anything from your exterior. Because the only way to understand is to renounce what you call yourself (the know-it-all identity). Do not know anything and you will not project. You are either ignorant or turned inwards for the purpose of liberation (the cycle of always being something). We are all in the same boat. It is either compulsive behaviour, living in your own world or you are either interested in renouncing your silly history of life (the source of all projection). To know the other means to shut up. To have respect for the other is to let the other be. Not existing is the greatest favour you can make for the other (no joke here).

Possibly. But the same stare can be found in people who are lost in illusion (maya). No one is there either. The body is mimicking, reflecting the quality of the one inside it. You should not be focused on the appearance (body, any parts of it) but rather on the whole. "The whole" is not solely the body. Body is only a part of the whole. If you focus on the parts you will be stuck in a myopic perspective. You see the whole when you take a 3rd perspective. Look at the person as a whole. Everything external is actually pointing to the internal. People are always letting out their internal, through everything not only their eyes. What is that which they let out? Don't let "you" judge. Let them judge themselves to you. If that makes sense. Take a bystander position. Do not involve. Everything is letting itself be known naturally.

It is not the other which you are reacting to. You are not reacting to objects or persons. Things are always seen through a filter. Through what you know, believe in; your personal history of life, all you've experienced and your reactions to it. You have ideas about things. Your reaction is not connected to the experience itself. To that which simply happens. You are only reacting to what you project. You are either in a bubble, in your own world, or see things as they are. Seeing things as they are is devoid of any "self"/history of an "I" who interprets the world.

Then what is that which is changing? For example, let's say that i cut my finger and now i have a wound. My body is different from a moment ago (which is memory --> imagination). I get it. But what is this which still can change? Can you explain this? There are things that i have in the present which i didn't have in the past. My body ages in time. Time doesn't exist. Only the present. But there is still change happening and then physical death some day. So do i also imagine aging (for example), "material" changes?

Thank you for the responses. For the developing a healthy body I think it's enough to focus for now on the less potent exercises. I'll see how things will go.

Is it safe to practice kriya yoga if you have some back problems? For example mild scoliosis, kyphosis etc. Are there any dangers that can come with a spine that's not completely straight?

Someone who is "highly conscious" is content with themselves. The energy is flowing unhindered. The body is a vehicle of "God" energy, When you get there (get, as you put it, "highly conscious") you are being content with yourself. You do not need anything or anyone. The body and your clear seeing of the world makes the entire energy that it can hold to flow. You do not need anyone or anything. It is just a decision to "share" your energy with someone else. I put it in quotes because you do not actually share. You can not share Unity. It is simply unity. To be content, to reach contentment, means that you can not give and can not take anymore. You don't need to. It is unity. There isn't a difference between a man and a woman. There isn't. Metaphysically speaking. Above it all, there isn't. But until you die (leave this planet) there IS a difference between a man and a woman. You are still being influenced by your own body and the way it is uniquely constructed. We are not the same. Not one man is the same. The body is unique and it influences you differently.

Very good insights. But the solutions he proposes are rather for an unrealistic, not yet mature enough world.

99 percent of people do not see a "glitch in the system". Everything is manifesting accordingly, comfortably. 99 percent of people when they aim for "truth" (a word they have no comprehension of) they actually aim for a resolution of a conflict (suffering) in their lives, a conflict fattened to large dimensions. So what they aim for is happiness (but they call it "truth"), aka freedom of that which they fattened to grand dimensions. (so they aim for "freedom" of a certain personal conflict. They do not aim, for example, for the riddance of all possible conflicts. They are not aiming for themselves not being able ever again to create conflict. They never get there. They stay at "surface" level.) 1 percent of people aim for that which is beyond it all. Suffering or happiness, ups or downs, sunny or rainy etc. ---> It is all ephemeral and false. They just wanna "sign-out" and are tired (or "too familiar") with everything that surrounds them. If 99 percent see something significant in having a comfortable place (home), a comfortable partner/wife/husband (family, sex), good job (it can even be one's life purpose), friends, events, places etc., well there are some people that do not see any substance in these things whatsoever. Are they seeing them as "futile"? No. It's just that everything is happening on a surface level. They somehow are too familiar with everything that surrounds them. Nothing is novel. Everything already happened. Everything is on repeat. And on top of it all, their self is nothing more than also these ups and downs, these things that always change. Their self is also in this ocean/reality of ever-changing objects. (we can call it "illusion") Then who am I? There comes this question after seeing all these things. It's nothing but a house of cards. It is nothing but just a fragile "reality". Which 99 percent aggrandize it. Puts it on a pedestal. They don't really "identify" with it, they just get sucked into it. They really like those things that have no substance whatsoever. And they go like that forever. They see no dead-ends in those activities they take part into. They do not see themselves moving into circles. Being on auto-pilot. Reacting endlessly to simply nothing. It is just a matter of time. A matter of time until people aim for that which is beyond it all. Until then, they are looking and interacting with by-products of that which is beyond. Until one aims for that, you call them "unconscious". Life is practical. Life is beautiful. Life is worthy of being seen, touched, lived in. But you can't actually do that if you transform the relative (ephemeral, that which ultimately vanishes) into something absolute. See things for what they are. first and foremost. This reality is not permanent, it is not "solid". It is just a by-product. Are you conscious of this?