Viking

please share any exercises that will get one accustomed to sitting in a meditation pose. i read that the knees could be damaged if one is not accustomed to sitting in a certain pose. i would guess other damage could be done beside the knees. should one continue to sit if he has pain? (in case also his body is prepared to the position)

@tsuki you're right. I have to use my intuition, thank you !

Yesterday and a month ago I went to a cycle breathing practice (it has something to do with osho). when we breath without any pauses between inhaling and exhaling, weird stuff starts to happen. for me, it was the shaking of my face and nose at first, and then intense energy in the palms. the instructions were "to do what feels right" whether it be screaming or moving the body. the first time i did it, a month ago, i ended up feeling intense love and crying at the end of the practice. It also healed a lot of my social anxiety. The second time I did it, yesterday, I moved my body in a pleasant way and felt intense energy throughout my whole body, shouting. at the end though, this is the most important part, I felt a very strong feeling in my upper neck from behind and on the top of my head. when i concentrated on that energy, my whole body was filled with joy and bliss, I didnt feel that way since I was a kid (while a kid I was unaware of it, that feeling faded away with time as i grew older). then it dissipated after a few minutes. today, during my morning meditation I felt a weird pleasant feeling in my tailbone and it sometimes spread from that concentrated spot for a few seconds and went again into the tailbone. my body feels pretty exhausted right now. you cant believe this shit until you experience it. all of what happened with me i connected theoretically to chakras and kundalini energy. I never really studied that stuff but im aware its a thing, and yoga is the way to go on with it. now im wondering if to study more about it. I have a ton of other stuff to do, like the life purpose course, meditating, consciousness/belief work, emotional mastery, reading books, so its hard to allocate time for it, so i have to choose wisely. I wonder if I have a certain susceptibility to the kundalini path, since just after 2 times of doing "some" breathing exercises having such amazing experiences. I mean maybe im "built" for that path and that path would resonate better with me and would give me faster and better results than the other paths. Im just speculating, I would like to know what are your thoughts on it and whether it seems like im bullshitting myself.

I want to add to what @Nahm said. If you have OK control over your mind, if you aren't addicted to food, porn, relationships etc. too much, thats a good indicator you are not a slave to your mind. to use psychedelics for personal development, you cant have a scattered mind, you have to have concentration ability, you have to be detached enough from your thoughts, to know how to let go, which meditation trains. that's for serious concentrated growth though. If you want to just face your fears, discover what you want from life, just to see what possible, you can do psychedelics without any mind training, though take a low dose.

Sadhguru often talks about "if you could control your state of mind, wouldnt you be always blissful". What are the practical means to controlling my state of mind? im meditating everyday 30 minutes (lately twice a day) already, what needs to be done more? I want to have my happiness coming from within and not dependent on a girlfriend, a life purpose, friends, books, whatever else. what practically should I do? how do i control my state of mind so i will be blissful all the time?

@Chrissy j wow that video was really really good, thank you.

@Saumaya i actually started to read recently "the book of not knowing" @Slade thank you. actually i dont think i ever experienced love to a high degree. never been in a relationship and my connection to my family was always dull. because of that i doubt a little the love hypothesis but i will try to read more about it now. @Preetom thank you

@Saumaya well, pursuing enlightenment is meditation, no? and what do you mean by consciousness work

@Saumaya @Psyche_92 @Shin its so counterintuitive it doesnt make sense to me, even though i heared it so much times. the question then i guess is:how? if meditation is not enough

concentration is the most basic and widespread meditation method. the "no manipulation" technique is a very tricky one and is actually the more advanced one.

it depends on the meditation, but generally, the whole point of meditation is to gain control over your mind, to catch your thoughts and not let them control you. set yourself not to move during meditation even if its uncomfortable and to not check the time. in case of mindfulness meditation or breath awareness, or most other meditations other than "do nothing" really, you HAVE to control your mind, setting your awareness back on the breath or whatever your concentration object is. thats why you're having troubles, you're misunderstanding "let it be". in case you did a meditation which doesnt require concentration, because of your description I would change it to a concentration one, like breath awareness, just to stop being a slave to your mind. a tip: whenever you notice a thought popping up like "i need to check the time" or "i need to rearrange my seat" come back to your concentration object, that's how control is gained over the mind. a book i strongly suggest reading is "conquest of mind", a really good book that changed drastically my view of meditation.

i got the passage reading meditation technique from the book "conquest of mind". its basically i get an inspirational passage (for example the prayer of saint francis) and continuously repeat it in my mind, if the mind goes off, bring it back. what do you think about this meditation? how does it compare to breath awareness?( which im doing right now) what are the downsides/upsides of it? what is your experience with it? its just that just now i feel like im starting to get deeper into the breath awareness meditation and transitioning into another meditation takes away progress, so i wonder if its worth it.

@Shanmugam thank you, I think i've fallen into that trap. I will read it today.

by neo-advaita you mean that one's spiritual practice is only listening to teachers to hope to get the wisdom of enlightenment?

@Shin i do that all the time, what is meant by 100% of it?

@egoless how do I know if im resisting? to accept what exactly? what should i do? lay and tell myself "i accept myself"? what to practically do?

I think the NUMBER ONE thing thats preventing my growth is laziness. its extremely manipulating my whole life. sometimes im aware of it, sometimes im not. It's when I dont go that extra step in understanding something for example. it's saving energy for whatever the fuck reason. how do I eradicate it? how do I not have the feeling of laziness? or it cant be helped but had to be dealt with? i think its a habit, so to undo this habit I guess I have to be aware of it and act the opposite forcefully?

@Nahm I will try. thank you.

@Nahm im exercising regularly. and I dont think you get what kind of lazy im talking about. it's not like i dont want to do the things I have to, but i have a mental habit of taking the easier route that requires less energy and to do the hard route theres resistance.

are there any good books or techniques for it? share them here please.

I think I had some self esteem issues when I was younger. maybe theyre still there but not in my conscious mind. the need for being liked is largely unconscious for me, I understand intellectually I think that being liked will never fulfill me but I notice patterns in my behavior that seem to orient me towards being liked. I also dont value love at all (maybe because i havent loved much in my life), but when I think about someone loving me I get uncomfortable. how do I work on it?

Do you mean that 0% of the growth comes from insights and 100% of the growth comes from training the mind and body? psychedelics can provide profound insights, which can help grow the body and mind, or accelerate the process.

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge , there are a few books the first 2 are the best. its not just tips on how to trip but a whole story. it's very interesting though.

im clearly not qualified to say anything but there are words that my mind can produce that might make you understand stuff: what does that disinterest feel like? you could take some psychedelics if you use them sometimes, serotonin and stuff "interest" is a feeling that is caused by rubricizing (putting labels). you first think about whether you should do something, then you have interest/disinterest. that means that you do have thoughts no? if you'd do something without thoughts I guess it wouldnt matter if you had or didnt have interest. maybe youve become directly conscious that nothing matters but not yet that the "not mattering" doesnt matter.

Lately, everything that I need to do, from doing the life purpose course to studying to reading is met with resistance. Also when I start doing the task, it doesnt get any better, I just become tired and do the task lazily. I cant help myself, everything is just met with such annoying resistance. I have a feeling that whatever I do is worthless. I always have in the back of my mind that what im doing is the wrong way of doing it. For example when I read a book i have a feeling that I will forget what I read, or I wont gain anything from a book. I can help these feelings, im aware of them but thats it. ive never read a book that made a significant change in me, but i havent read many books so thats probably why. also i didnt apply the knowledge from these books because i had no idea how to. or maybe i had resistance to do it, i dont remember. maybe one of the reasons to my low motivation is that I see only work and no results at all.