Salvijus

Hm 🌟

I thought I'd share a similar account told by Swami Yogananda. I met Hamid Bey, with his good friend, Dr. Hereward Carrington, in Buffalo recently. I was quite impressed with the beautiful spiritual gleam in Mr. Bey’s eyes. I sang the song, “O God Beautiful!” for him. Ever since then he has been singing it. Hamid Bey is an Egyptian from the Soudan, famous land of sheiks. He was reared under an austere mystical training, and the feats he performs are a part of the religious rites of his sect. Mr. Bey showed me that by touching anyone’s wrist he could divine his thoughts. Each thought has a certain vibration and by contact with the pulse of the person thinking the thought. Mr. Bey receives the same vibration and consequently thinks the same thought. Later, he demonstrated to me his method of physical trance, in which he fell into my hands, breathless and almost lifeless. The stethoscope revealed that his heart-beat, at first fast, slowed down to an intermittent beat, and then got very slow. Mr. Bey can remain underground, buried for twenty-four hours, sealed in an air-tight casket, and can hold a thousand pounds on his chest. He controls his pulse at will–its beats appeared and completely disappeared at his will. He also pierces his body with long needles without bloodshed. The marks, almost instantaneously disappeared after the needles were withdrawn. He thrusts these needles into his throat, cheeks, and tongue without pain. He can produce blood from one puncture and withhold blood from another. Most of these things he performed right in front of me. In the various cities where he visits he often gives demonstrations before gatherings of eminent physicians and surgeons. In New York City he submitted to burial for three hours. On this occasion his body was sealed in a casket and placed six feet underground. The doctors who were present admitted that they could not explain the feat other than by Hamid Bey’s declaration that by self-imposed catalepsy, he renders his body almost lifeless. Passing needles through his cheeks and certain other of Mr. Bey’s feats are performed, after long practice, by manipulating glands of the throat and by pressing certain nerves on the head. These are very interesting physiological phenomena showing that man can control the functions of the heart and all other organs of involuntary action. This is known to Hindu Yogis and Swamis who practice Yoga as well as to mystics of other sects. Of course, it must be remembered that without love of God and without wisdom, such control and feats are just physiological jugglery and a detriment to spiritual realization. But Hamid Bey loves God, and he tells me he loves Him more and more since he heard the song, “O God Beautiful.” He has a good wife. “I often wake up in the night, sit upright, rebuke sleep away, and talk to Him,” he told me. “At first my wife did not understand to whom I talked. But now she does, and we both love ‘God Beautiful.'” O, how I love to hear him say that! I told him to tell everyone wherever he goes, that prayer without love of God is meaningless, and that people should talk to God every night when no one is watching or listening. That is a sure way to know God easily. Otherwise, a thousand shows of prayer will fail to accomplish any spiritual result. I told Mr. Bey to produce trance by love of God, rather than merely by glandular pressure, as results produced by devotion are safer and greater. Generally, it takes another person to arouse Mr. Bey from his trance. But, in the conscious trance of devotion, or Yoga, one never loses consciousness, but transcends the material consciousness and comes back to consciousness of matter at will again. That is the conscious communion with God that Yogoda aspires to teach. Mr. Bey can put small animals and sometimes certain types of men into the cataleptic state. Medical science as well as metaphysical science should investigate the results and possibilities for usefulness of such phenomena.

Hmm, very interesting read. I wonder why he chose to step on your toes so hard and if he was concious enough to feel the internal conflict within you. Or if he's just playing by the book. Well at least you're still alive, so that's good I think your feelings towards the group might change after the initial backlash. Hard to say, I'm kinda curious myself now how concious that guy was and if he's really worth engaging in because his ways are quite old fashioned and traditional whereas modern people have a different psychology and require a different approach but anyways... Meeting the head Sheikh would've been a nice experience tho, maybe he can levitate or smth . But at least you got the main thing. Did you notice any change in your practice?

Okay, I'll believe you.

I doubt the first quote is actually from Rumi. It has a super lame energy behind it. The second one I quote feels much more Rumi-like.

"Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?". Rumi

All of us ❤️

@Spiritual Warfare if earth was truly hell, you wouldn't be such an awesome human being.

Strong

To Ascend into glory.

Here he's making that distinction, using self as being and ego as self. Self "rose"; it is extrinsic to being--and perhaps paradoxically not different in nature, but this is beside the specific point we are dealing with now. The way I see it is that there is only one Self. The expression of the Self can be pure and unobstructed (in which case it feels like a downpouring of Love) Or the expression of the Self can be distorted because of defilmemts in the body-mind conditioning due to false perception and false identity. Because of these defilement, when the pure light of the Self enters the body-mind system, the Light gets distorted into fear and self-grasping. The fear and self-grasping creates like a capsule where the pure flow of energy gets trapped. This captured capsule of energy is the entity in itself that usually goes by the name ego, with its own set of conditioning, fears, beliefs, values etc. As a practicioner begins to release self-grasping, false identity and limiting beliefs, the trapped energy begins to release itself and become restored in its original form (love and wholeness). If the entire ego capsule is released, there is an experience of being united with Everything and Everywhere and a sense of great Love. And a realization that all this love is the expression of the Self and you are That. You can also realize that all this love is dancing inside an infinite void. And that these are the two sides of the same coin. Sound and Silence. The Self in motion and the Self in potential. It's all One Self in the end.

Enlightenment is a sort of metaphysical castration of your balls (pride, arrogance, ego) in a way. So it's easier for women because they don't have them. At the same time you need to have balls to dare to climb the highest peaks. To be willing to drop everything for something otherworldly. And women struggle with that more I believe It's all about balls in the end.

That's the spirit 😎

The funny thing about life is, even if you're the president of the world, your mother still remains an authority over you on some level somehow.

Reminds me of my mother. I never disagree with her either lol. If there's anyone I would lose an argument against it's her

If you were to eliminate the vagueness and fuzzyness over what this fundamental thing is, It would become a master guru level answer. But I enjoyed what you wrote. It sounded like something I would say, hehe. Nice

It's the most perfect thing I ever read Nah, if I was to add something. I would rise the question why is it that the belief is so hard to shake off? Like I can intellectually understand that the ego is illusiory yet the belief that I'm the body is still ruling me and manifestation in my behavior and my psychology. So why the belief is so difficult to go beyond. If that question got answered, then the answer would have more depth and would add a layer of clarity of what the ego really is imo. But overall it was a good definition.

I find my own reaction interesting to observe. It feels to me like I would probably agree with you no matter what you say

Lol. The masters do that to show off sometimes. Nobody stabs the people for the initiation. I wouldn't worry about that lol. It will probably be a blessing and recitations like you said. The significance of an initiation is that it opens a portal of light in you, new states of conciousness and energy that would not be available to you before become available. And it excelerates one's growth profoundly. I would seek for initiation somewhere somehow. If not this teacher then somewhere else. In my personal experience, without initiation you're not even on a spiritual path yet. Just a dabbler. Playing in a pool with yourself. The difference it makes is the difference of a galaxy.

This description of ego is not wrong but it's very superficial and lacks a lot of depth to it.

Having no memory of yourself does not disprove the existence of ego same way having insufficient awareness to locate the ego doesn't disprove it's existence.

I just told you in the previous comment. I was explaining things from direct experience and awareness, not assumptions and philosophies.

Nice

Yes, it's objective. Ego is an energetic substance that is tangable, observable. This energetic substance has a certain density and quality to it depending on how dense one's ego is or how much a spiritual practicioner has dissolved it. The mass of energy can manifest in many shapes and forms in the body and in the psyche which are also observable and tangable. This energy also functions as an anchor to the body. When you say "I" the word is pointing to something and doesn't just float in the air. That location is the anchor to your body. That location is a legitimate location that can be traced down. It's because of that anchor that we feel if something happens to the body, it happens to "me" and as if we are "glued" to it. If that anchor is broken, that is when our sense of self expands to be Everything and Everywhere. (at least for a moment) So yea, both the ego and its location are a tangable and observable phenomena and not just a fancy philosophy. But sufficient awareness and practice is needed to start with so that awareness would be sharp enough to penetrate deep enough where one can brake the identity fully. And most people don't have that. So they jump to wrong conclusions that ego doesn't exist. But it's just lack of awareness in the end.

Love or fear. There's no other decision in life I would say.