Sagar Takker

I had a strong opinion of Sadhguru as someone who was putting out more of spiritual entertainment content and talking less about the path (teachings, practices etc.). While I would still stick to this opinion, I discovered a whole different side of Sadhguru recently. In November, I went through Inner Engineering Online. While this is a very basic program (covers some very basic principles), it gave a peek into the practical aspect of Sadhguru's 'true teachings.' Last Sunday, I took part in initiation into Shambhavi Mahamudra. It's a Kriya Yoga technique. I have gone through Leo's recommended books on Kriya Yoga. Shambhavi Mahamudra incorporates the same basic techniques to form a more or less similar practice as shared in those books. Yesterday, I subscribed to Sadhguru Exclusive (a feature on Sadhguru app) in which they share content which I would say is meant for 'serious seekers.' There, he is more into talking straight, much like Jed McKenna, but a little more compassionate and tactful. I am still in the initial phase of seeing this side of him. So I am not holding any conclusions tightly. In any case, I recognise that becoming a blind follower can be detrimental, yet being too skeptic is not very beneficial either.

The Kriya technique shared in the book on Leo's list has more or less the same components as Shambhavi Mahamudra. The breathwork and other processes involved in both are similar.

It was explanation and practice of the technique. I am not sure about energetic transmissions part; there was nothing of that sort at least in a conspicuous way.

I would suggest the same. I had a severe lower back pain that didn't seem to budge. Then, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) did the work.

04:15 Wake up, drink a glass of water, do oil pulling, light stretching 05:00-06:00 Shambhavi Mahamudra practice (~40 minutes) + 20 minutes of Neti Neti 06:00-06:30 Workout 06:30-07:00 Reading

Why not get enlightened and see for yourself? Trying to understand intellectually is like trying to taste a lemon by talking about it.

Mine is called LiveProfound: https://bit.ly/liveprofound Sharing about Spirituality, Personal Development, Emotional Mastery etc.

Check out Outrageous Openness by Tosha Silver. It's an excellent book on letting go and surrendering. The author shares an experience where someone conned her of $5000 and how letting go and forgiving resulted in getting the money back. Kris Dillard's Youtube Channel (Power of Quiet) can be of great help if you want to learn Sedona Method for free.

"If life can manifest the DNA molecule on its own, not to mention create the human brain, how is it that we feel that we have to control everything on our own? There must be another, more sane way to approach life. For example, what would happen if we respected the flow of life and used our free will to participate in what’s unfolding, instead of fighting it? What would be the quality of the life that unfolds? Would it just be random events with no order or meaning, or would the same perfection of order and meaning that manifests in the rest of the universe manifest in the everyday life around us?" These questions appear in one of the first few pages of the book. The rest of the book does an excellent job at demonstrating what a life looks like if lived in alignment with 'Infinite Intelligence.' The author had a sort of a spiritual experience when he first identified that the voice in his head was not who he was. He started his journey with wanting to quiet his mind down. At some point, he started ignoring the voice in his head to take directions about what to do and what not to do. And instead started 'surrendering' to the flow of life. Following this simple way, he ends up buying a land in woods to live alone. Eventually, over some years, it grows into a spiritual community. Ends up in a contract to build a house for someone, which eventually turns into his first and very successful business venture. Ends up writing a program for a medical system, which eventually turns into a big, billion dollar business. Instead of writing about the book or the story, I would prefer to share my experience with applying its teachings. Here’s one: My personal experience has been that very major decisions in my life are not made by ‘me.’ Decisions just tend to happen. Mostly they don’t make any logical sense but in the end, everything seems to fall into place. As if there was a higher intelligence, much more intelligent than my conscious mind, orchestrating everything. Around three years ago, I ended up working in bank. It was not something that I ever imagined I would do. I had hit a sort of dead-end in terms of my career situation; I had no idea what I could do to earn a living. The first thing that appeared in my radar screen was a bank job. I started preparing for the entrance exam, aced it and got in. All those who cleared the exam were invited for a three weeks pre-induction training. The training happened near the same city I live in - Delhi. Most of the people who were in the training were from Delhi or nearby areas. During the training, a rumour spread around that we were all going to get posted in Mumbai (which is around 1500 km from Delhi and has very different culture, weather conditions, food etc.) Most of the other participants, almost everyone, got so anxious about the whole thing. Mumbai is far more expensive and way too different from what we all were used to. I, on the other hand, surrendered to the ‘will’ of life. Turns out that while most others struggled a lot with the transition, I had a really good time. Many others had a difficult time finding a flat to rent; they spent days in order to find a suitable place and mostly ended up in kind of ‘okay’ flats (far away from their workplace, not ventilated or sunlit enough, etc.). I didn’t think much about finding a flat; went with the flow, saw a couple of options and ended up renting a beautiful small flat (well ventilated, abundance of sun light, 30 minutes away from workplace). Most others struggled with making an arrangement to get their daily meals. One could either learn to cook or settle for a not so satisfying (or healthy) local restaurant food (called tiffin service). I ended up meeting a lady (she lived in the same compound, just a few blocks away) who cooked really nice food. I used to get my meals at a really low price (almost half what others would usually pay) and the food quality was super excellent. Moreover, I developed a deep emotional connection with the lady. I used to call her didi, which means elder sister in Hindi. It brings tears to my eyes how everything orchestrated in such a Divine way. At my work, I learnt so many things which would serve me greatly in life. I got valuable technical knowledge about banking, finances, managing and investing money. And I learnt a lot of life lessons about diligence, managing emotions, building connections, dealing with people etc. What helped me a lot along this whole three year journey was this attitude to surrender to life’s intelligence. I had many challenges too. By many I mean a lot many - there were many difficulties. But everything used to fall into place sooner or later as I let go and surrendered. Most of it was not planned by me. Most of it was Divinely Orchestrated.

Many of us are interested in Shadow Work. Until Leo decides to publish an episode sharing his knowledge on the topic, this book (and Carolyn's work in general) is something that I would recommend every one must check out. Existential Kink (EK) is a powerful shadow work technique taught by Carolyn Elliott. The basic premise that she starts with is, 'Having is the evidence of wanting.' Which means, a part of us deeply desires whatever shitty circumstances, situations, people, patterns etc. we have in our life. Nay, (the part) not just deeply desires but loves them tremendously, gets orgasmic bliss out of them. This part is our Shadow and it's unconscious. Before you jump up and say there is no part of you that deeply desires these challenging situations, please note that it's unconscious, which means you are not aware of it. The technique (EK) is about getting on the side of this part and deeply loving, getting off on the situation (and the sensations it causes in your body) that you don't like. This act of loving the Shadow, 'Unites our Will.' Most of us have divided wills. For example, let's say I want to make money by starting a business. Then, of course, the conscious part loves the idea of making money and being my own boss etc. But on an unconscious level, I might love comfort more; I might have an aversion towards all the hard work, decision making, marketing, learning etc. that is required in order to successfully run a business. This division of will would keep me stuck. I would find myself starting to work on my ideas but after making some progress I would self-sabotage my efforts. Well, there is actually no self-sabotage! It's just that the Shadow, which loves the comfort, decides to take charge and push her agenda over my conscious intent. This, to my conscious mind, would appear to be so confusing. 'Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.' - Carl Jung However, if my will was united, I would find myself working effortlessly and joyfully and harmoniously towards my goals, even if I continue to fail or see lack of results. My experience: I wanted to work on my life purpose for a very long time. I 'struggled' for 6 long years to finally start working on it consistently. The pattern was that I would start working on something, then see no results or get tired of all the hard work, and stop working on it. For the first two years, I tried and failed many times and then stopped trying. It felt like I met a dead end. Thus, I started working towards getting a job. It took me around a year to prepare and get done with the process of getting a job in a bank. I worked there for three years. I recently quit my job in order to work on my Life Purpose. I was living on my own when I was in the job, in a different city. When I quit the job, I moved in with my parents. It's been around 2.5 months since this move. I got to know about EK around three years ago through Carolyn's blog, around the time I started preparing for the job. But back then, the book wasn't published. So even though I tried and did see good results with the technique, I wasn't able to do it properly and consistently. A few months ago, the book was published and I was quite excited about it. I pre-ordered it and received an EK guided meditation as a gift, too. Lucky me! So when I returned home and started working on my Life Purpose, I also started practicing EK consistently. And man, did everything shift so quickly! I started with the practice by loving the pain of having this, 'start and stop' pattern. As I continued to love this pain, I discovered a deeper unconscious pain of being a burden on my parents. I discovered a part of me that deeply loves being dependent on my parents. I was totally unconscious of its existence. If someone had pointed this out to me, I would have shrugged it off as something so stupid. Consciously, I have not a tinge of desire to be dependent on my parents. Of course, it is quite taboo for a grown up to be dependent on one's parents. But the 'inner child' loves it anyway. The result is guilt and shame. Guilt and shame keeps us stuck. Which is what was happening with me. I have been doing EK on this pain and it has significantly dissolved. I have been working my ass off on my life purpose and LOVING the process. I work for hours in FLOW. PLEASE NOTE that EK practice is not all roses. It's the very opposite of that. It's like going through deep shit and not minding it. For example, I don't mind being a burden on my parents for the rest of my life. You can imagine how hard it is to accept and love an idea like that. On the other hand, there is so much freedom in being able to love myself so deeply. This freedom unlocks so much energy to work on my conscious intentions. I know I have written such a long post but I want to get across the power of EK as accurately as I can. It is LIFE CHANGING. I wish you a profound life. Warning: You might find Carolyn's personality a bit weird (she calls herself a witch). However, be as open minded as you can about studying her work.

The videos about sharing my experience with the Inner Engineering Completion course did well; better than other videos. They got the channel some 10 subscribers. I am feeling an uncomfortable sensation in my eyes as I write this. I don't want to look at the screen. Since I started working on this project, I have spent a lot of time staring into screens. It's part of the process. Maybe my aversion is causing more suffering than the actual act. I would work on letting go of my ideas and see what happens. I am very grateful for all that's happening. I also subscribed to Sadhguru Exclusive yesterday. It seems very much worth it. So many insights available there. I also got to see the Jed McKenna like side of Sadhguru. Mostly he seemed beating around the bush in his Youtube content. But I have been discovering in him, in more and more ways that which I really look for.

A life of purpose; adding value, serving, loving. A focused life; no social media, no distractions, no addictions. A life of gratitude; experiencing gratitude in everything, especially the 'unwanted, bad' stuff. If something wanted happens, good. If something unwanted happens, great! A life of wisdom; studying and implementing the highest wisdom. A life filled with fun; because fun is lovely. Living a profound life.

I got 'initiated' into Shambhavi Mahamudra yesterday. It was a nice experience. Since I attended Inner Engineering Online, I have started respecting Sadhguru more. Especially after watching his tears during some sessions endings; that melted my heart. The channel has grown in terms of subscribers. It's on 99 as I write this. The first benchmark, 100 will soon be hit.

No. The experience shared about Alex is similar; in fact, it did help me become aware of my own shadow desire.

@Captain_Diabetes Did you read the book, my friend? Accepting the shadow doesn't mean taking it's commands.

Existential Kink by Carolyn Elliott is a powerful shadow work technique that can help you quickly shift the challenging situations of your life. I have written a detailed post under Self-Help Product & Book Reviews. I hope this doesn't violate forum rules. I just don't want anyone to miss this amazing work. Here it is:

In case you want a guided EK meditation, here's the link: http://carolyngraceelliott.com/ek-bonus

I created a video titled, 'See Everything As A Blessing.' I was tired. I had been procrastinating on posting on Medium. I just pushed through the resistance and wrote a small post on medium and embedded the video at the bottom. I wonder what kind of response will I receive. We'll see.

Let's consider what creates maturity in someone. If you observe carefully, there are two major factors that help in development of maturity. Life experience and suffering. So to be more mature, get more life experience and face more suffering. To get more life experience, you don't necessarily need to wait to grow old. You can get it by reading, traveling, listening to mature people, trying new stuff. To face more suffering, you don't necessarily need to create it. There is a lot of suffering present in one's life that one usually doesn't pay much attention to, and tends to ignore. Instead, stop ignoring it and start facing it. Specifically, one way to accelerate the process of maturity could be to do opposite of each point above deliberately. For example, deliberately 'Not doing what we say we will do.' Do this. And consciously 'suffer' the consequences. This is not to guilt yourself to stop doing this. But to get crystal clarity that doing the behaviour causes you suffering.

Well said! @levani Take small steps, friend. Small steps + consistency + time + patience = Mastery

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I need to slow down, be more relaxed and get more clarity on what's and how's. I have been doing a lot of busywork and getting distracted quite often. I look a lot into screens these days and have been getting dark circles around my eyes. That's a sign I shouldn't ignore.

Combining EFT and EK is a wonderful idea. In my experience, it works really well; in fact, it gets better. Carolyn also recommends EFT (and The Work of Byron Katie, Sedona Method/Release Technique too) in her book. I often combine all the above mentioned tools and they all work well together. In my opinion, one should definitely learn all these four tools. That will skyrocket one's emotional growth. Here's a video I made about sharing my experiences with these tools:

It's not about pretending. When there is fear, feel it, observe it, be one with it. Let go of resisting it or wanting to change it. Be with it. That's a much better way of dealing with any unwanted emotion. Anything else would be some version of suppression/repression, escaping or expression. Which don't work as effectively as allowing the feeling. Refer to Letting Go by David Hawkins to learn more about this. You can also look into EFT tapping. It can help you with releasing all kinds of unwanted emotions.

Wonderful! Good luck with the practice. Enjoy the kinky experience.