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Found 2,474 results

  1. @Fidelio There are certain things a seeker will intuitively understand as he proceeds with the journey. He doesn't have to wait until enlightenment to know all those things... Even when you listen to a true Guru, you will intuitively understand what he says is true.. Eckhart Tolle talks about this as well. He says that when you hear something which is true, the truth in you will respond to it and say 'yes, this is true'. When I heard him saying, I could immediately resonate to it. I did go through a spiritual awakening three years ago. But I stopped seeing enlightenment as serving any purpose way long before that. Seeing enlightenment as a means to something is a trap. We don't have to make it very complicated. If you see enlightenment as a means to an end, thats fine for now. That is how every one has to start his journey.. There is nothing wrong in it. It is a part of the whole process. But slowly, as a person goes through his journey, he starts to crave for enlightenment. This is natural.. At one point in life, I wanted to 'be' enlightened at any cost. It was a life or death question.. But then I came across the perfect teaching I needed on time.. I heard 'You are already that, there is nothing to change, nothing to do, nowhere to go... '..I came across many teachings of Advaita. I also understood that the very desire that I have for enlightenment was actually delaying the whole thing. If I have heard this teaching when I started the journey, It would not have made any sense to me.. But it took another 6 years after I heard this teaching for me to go through a transformation.
  2. There is no home, there are only houses. We try to make homes out of houses, but in fact, home is projection - there is only a house - it feels cold. We need a home: we want something cozy, something that belongs to us, something to which we belong. Something which is an extension of our being, something which we can make part of us; something which is not just a place where you live, but which becomes alive with you. A house is a dead thing; a home is a living entity, but it is a projection. So those who are searching for a home will find themselves frustrated again and again because they will find again and again that it turns out to be only a house. Home was their idea. It was their illusion, their hallucination. It was their poetry, their romance. They have been weaving and spinning something invisible around the house which nobody else can see - only they can see it. But it is just a mind game. Man is born homeless, and man remains his whole life homeless. Yes, he will make many houses into homes and he will get frustrated. And man dies homeless. To accept the truth brings a tremendous transformation. Then you don't search for a home - because home is something there, far away, something other than you. And everybody is searching for a home. When you see its illusoriness, then, rather than searching for a home, you will start searching for the being that is born homeless, whose destiny is homeless. There is no way to make a home. And this is a miracle: the moment that you realize that there is no way to make a home, then this whole existence is home. Then wherever you are, you are at home; because now there is no question of making a home - now there is no question of creating an illusion. You have accepted your homelessness, not with any unwillingness, any resistance, but joyously, because it is good that you are born without a home; otherwise that home will be an imprisonment. Just think, if people were born with a home, they would be born imprisoned. To be homeless is to be free. It is freedom. It means there is no attachment, no obsession with anything outside; that you are not in need of getting some warmth from the outside, but that your warmth is within you. You have the source of warmth inside; you don't need it. So wherever you are - without a home - you are strangely at home. The people who are searching for a home are always getting into despair, and finally are going to feel, "We have been cheated, life has cheated us. Somehow it gave us the desire to find a home - and there is no home at all, it simply does not exist." We try in every possible way: one finds a husband, one finds a wife, one brings children into the world.... One tries to create a family - that is a psychological home. One makes, not a house, but tries to make it almost a living entity. He tries to make a house according to his dreams - that it is going to be a fulfillment of warmth, that in this coldness.... And it is vast, the coldness of existence. The whole universe is so cold, so indifferent, that you want to create a small shelter for yourself where you can feel that you are taken care of, that something protects you... that it is something that belongs to you - you are an owner, not a homeless wanderer. But in reality this kind of idea is going to create misery for you because one day you will find that the husband you have lived with, the wife you have lived with - is a stranger. Even after living together for fifty years, the strangeness has not disappeared; on the contrary, it has deepened. You were less strangers on the first day you met. As time has passed and you have been together, you have become more and more strangers to each other, because you have come to know each other more and more - and now you don't understand at all who the other person is. The more you have known, the less you know. It seems that the more you have become acquainted with the person, the more you become aware that your ignorance about the other is absolute... there is no way to destroy it. Your children - you have thought they were your children, and one day you find they are not your children. You have been just a passage they have come through. They have their own lives - they are absolutely strangers. They don't belong to you. They will find their own ways and their own lives. Who is with you? Nobody is with anybody. You are in a crowd always, but alone. Either alone or in the crowd makes no difference: either in a home or just a wanderer - it makes no difference. I have never had a home. When I left my father's house for the last time, I told him, "I will not be coming back again, because this was only a commitment to my maternal grandmother. She had a promise from me that I would come back at least at the time of her death. So just to keep the promise, I have come. Now there is no longer any commitment." My father said, "You always say strange things - this is your home!" I said, "That's where we differ. Neither is it my home nor is it your home. But you continue to live in an illusion and one day you will understand that this is not home." And I told him a famous Sufi story I have told many times. The king heard one night the sound of footsteps, somebody walking on the roof of his palace. He could not believe it. The palace was so well guarded - how had somebody reached the top? He shouted, "Who are you?" And the man on the roof shouted, "You should ask it of yourself first: who are you?" The king rushed out and called the guards to catch hold of the man, but he was not found. And the next day, again there was a stranger. But the king recognized the voice - it was the same man. And the strange behavior that he had shown the night before... to walk on the roof and then to talk in such a way, and to say to the king, "First you should ask, who are you? You don't even know that and you are worried about me! You do your business - I'm doing mine." The man was fighting with the guard at the gate of the palace and saying, "I want to stay in this caravanserai for a few days." The guard was saying again and again, "You seem to be an absolute idiot; this is not a caravanserai! This is the palace of the king, his home!" And the man said, "Then I would like to see the man who lives in such an illusion." The king was listening: he recognized the voice. He called the guard and said, "Bring that man in." And he asked him, "Are you the same man who was on the roof?" The man said, "Yes." "And what were you doing there?" He said, "My camel was lost, so I was searching for it." He said, "You seem to be really mad! Your camel was lost on my roof? Has anybody ever heard of camels getting lost on the roofs of houses? And now you are fighting with my guard and calling my home a caravanserai! This is very disrespectful to me: I am the king, and this is my home, and you have to learn how to behave!" And the man started laughing. He said, "Strange! You are telling me to learn how to behave, and you don't know at all what behavior means! Because I came here once before, and I found another man in your place. He was also saying that this is his home. I had come before that too, and there was another man and he was also saying that this is his home. Now you are saying this is your home!" The king said, "That man was my father, who has died. And the first time you came you met my grandfather." The stranger said, "That is what I wanted to make clear to you, that they called this their home, and then they had to leave it behind. They could not take it with them. It is a caravanserai. This is an understanding, that many people have been here who thought it was their home, and they are all gone. You will be gone when I come next time! When so many people stay here and come and go, this is a caravanserai!" "And I also wanted to stay for a few days, so what is wrong? You will stay a few days, your father stayed a few days, his father stayed a few days, and this has been going on for centuries. But I am not illusioned: to me it is a caravanserai." I told my father, "One day you will also understand that this is not home, because in this world we are born and the day we are born, we start dying. You can call your homes your graves, but you cannot call them homes, because you are only dying in them, you are not living!" And since then I have been in many houses which people thought were my homes, and I have been telling them that they were not, that there is no possibility. It is good to understand that we are wanderers, gypsies - searching for something, certainly. But the search can either be for a home... that means some security, some warmth, some coziness, some love from the outside, from somebody else - and that is the wrong way. That is the way of the worldly man - and he always ends in misery. A sannyasin basically recognizes the fact that the search is not for a home, the search is for: who is this being? - the being who is born homeless, and will remain always homeless. Don't search for the home, because there is none. Search for your self, because there is one! And finding that one, suddenly, miraculously, the whole existence becomes your home. And you don't create it, you don't project it, you don't make it. Suddenly it is a revelation. You cannot believe how you have been missing it up to now. The home was always where you were. The gypsies have a better name in the Indian language. The gypsies are basically from Rajputana in India. They got the name "gypsy" because they first went out of India to Egypt and from Egypt they entered Europe. It is Egypt that gave them the name "gypsy" - from Egypt. But they are really people from India, and in India their name is "khanabadosh." That name has tremendous beauty. It means a person whose home is on his shoulders; so wherever he goes, he is always at home. The word khanabadosh is tremendously significant: khana means "home", badosh means "on your own shoulders". It is not visible, it is there, but it is revealed only to those who can find who this wanderer is, who this seeker is. Rather than going after the sought, search for the seeker. And finding the seeker, you suddenly find the whole existence is your home; wherever you are, you are at home, even in a hotel. Because every house is a hotel and every place is a caravanserai. So it is a question of how you look at things. When I was in India, I was at home; when I was in America, I was at home. When I am in Nepal, I am at home. And tomorrow I don't know where life may take me, but wherever it takes me, I will be at home. That, nobody can take away from me for the simple reason that I am not making any projection which can taken away. Just finding yourself, you find that the whole existence is your home. Osho ~ Light on the Path
  3. If you want quick results, Osho Dynamic Meditation is a revolutionary meditation, a jet-speed method for inner transformation. Morning is the best time to meditate. It can be done alone, but can be even more powerful if it is done with others. It is best to have an empty stomach and wear loose, comfortable clothing. Download Dynamic Handbook e-book – Dynamic Handbook
  4. That's cruel. @Damir Elezi is saying that she is a lovely person. He used to enjoy the relationship and she has been very supportive and loving. He the only person she can really relate to. Whenever he bring up something about breaking up, she pretty much begs him not to break up with her. That is enough to continue the relationship. If there is no improvement, it only shows that they don't know art of living. Both of them keep fighting over small bullshit things almost every time they see each other. So, both of them are immature. Learn to love totally , unconditionally. Love is painful because it transforms; love is mutation. Each transformation is going to be painful , but if you escape , you will not grow.
  5. You can meditate, force yourself to be silent, but you will miss Atman, true self. You will look sad, dull, dead, unintelligent, for the simple reason that you have chosen a shortcut and there is no shortcut. You have avoided the complexity of spiritual transformation. You have chosen meditation, you have forced your mind to be still. It is a negative state; your mind is only empty, not silent — forcibly made still. But it is not a natural growth of silence. Many people have tried to meditate without bliss because it is simple, less complex. You have to take only one work upon yourself: that you have to still your mind. And you can force your mind to be stilled, but you will become sad, you will have a long face. It is easy to meditate if you don’t want to be blissful — it is very easy to meditate. Truth has to be total, truth has to be whole. And the whole truth is: bliss PLUS meditation. It is difficult of course, arduous, to manage both. A meditator is not identified with his mind but he can use his mind whenever he needs. He will become more intelligent, but he is able to turn the mechanism of verbalization on and off. Unnecessary chattering of mind will not be there. When you are existing as a social being, the mechanism of language is needed; but when you are alone with existence, you must be able to turn it off. If you can’t turn it off – if it goes on and on, and you are incapable of stopping it – then you have become a slave to it. Mind must be an instrument, not the master. When you walk, you need to move your legs. But if they go on moving when you are sitting, then you are mad. You must be able to turn them off. In the same way, when you are not talking with anyone, language must not be there. It is a technique to communicate. When you are not communicating with anybody it should not be there. If you are able to do this, you can grow into meditation.
  6. If you just do meditations and nothing else that is like preparing and preparing and never going to the examination. The test has to be there every day. People need to change the attitude that exists about work, particularly in the Western mind. Meditation should be part of the work, not separate from it. Work is a necessary part of your transformation. Work and relaxation are not contradictory. In fact, the more you put yourself into work the deeper you can go into relaxation. So both are important. The harder you work the deeper you can relax. Work is valuable. It will bring humbleness and silence. People should feel that their work is something very special, and that whatever work they do is respectable. The emphasis should be on full-time work. 6 hours a day is perfectly okay. For 6 hours you should forget everything else – forget the whole world, forget your problems – whatever work it is, be total in it.
  7. It seems many of the practitioners with the intended goal of spiritual transformation prefer to go with the intense vision quest styled experiences. While that can be often inspiring through the revelations from it I found my most effective lasting work came during the time I was microdosing. It's all the rage currently in silicon valley and the tech start up culture but I was doing it nearly 30 years ago without calling it that. There was even a period of time of almost two years where I took mushrooms every day but the dose was small so I could carry on with a typical day in the life of what I had going on. Since I am so fluent in the psychedelic experience I didn't need to have an intense trip to gain the breakthroughs and shifts in my paradigm, less was more for me in this type of exercise. It also was beneficial to be able to see ordinary every day life through this shifted prism instead of be so submerged in an intense trip that wouldn't be suitable to be in such public settings. I know that many set time aside for an intense trip and put themselves in an environment that is safe to experience it but I went the other way with my practices during this period of time. I used less of a dose and exposed myself to more of the world, not an increased dose and secluded away from the world. This allowed me to be exposed to all of the various association triggers in actual life while being to process them through the purview of the shifted prism. Using a small dose in a morning cup of tea allowed me to function in every day life seamlessly. So instead of getting a breakthrough in perspective in the abstract that I would then have to contextualize and find a way to carry over to real life from a memory of it I was already experiencing it in life in the present moment already contextualized and orienting my perspective in real time. I had significant emotional and mental trauma to transcend in which this method of use had a dramatic and lasting effect in me.
  8. Yoga is discipline. It is an effort on your part to change yourself. Many other things have to be understood. Yoga is not a therapy. In the West many psychological therapies are prevalent now, and many western psychologists think that yoga is also a therapy. It is not! It is a discipline. And what is the difference? This is the difference: a therapy is needed if you are ill, a therapy is needed if you are diseased, a therapy is needed if you are pathological. A discipline is needed even when you are healthy. Really, when you are healthy only a discipline can help then. It is not for pathological cases. Yoga is for those who are completely healthy as far as medical science is concerned, normal. They are not schizophrenic; they are not mad they are not neurotic. They are normal people, healthy people with no particular pathology. Still, they become aware that whatsoever is called normality is futile, whatsoever is called health is of no use. Something more is needed, something greater is needed, something holier and whole is needed. Therapies are for ill people. Therapies can help you to come to yoga, but yoga is not a therapy. Yoga is for a higher order of health, a different order of health – a different type of being and wholeness. Therapy can, at the most, make you adjusted. Freud says we cannot do more. We can make you an adjusted, normal member of the society – but if the society itself is pathological, then? And it is! The society itself is ill. A therapy can make you normal in the sense that you are adjusted to the society, but the society itself is ill! Yoga is not therapy; yoga is not trying in any way to make you adjusted to the society. If you want to define yoga in terms of adjustment, then it is not adjustment with the society, but it is adjustment with existence itself. It is adjustment with the divine! If your mind has come to realize that whatsoever you have been doing up to now was just senseless, it was a nightmare at the worst or a beautiful dream at the best then the path of discipline opens before you. Patanjali takes it for granted that you are interested in yoga, not as a hope, but as a discipline, as a transformation right here and now.
  9. You can learn a technique for meditation, but technique is not meditation. Meditation happens, you can not do it. It is a growth: a growth of your total living, out of your total living. Meditation is not something that can be added to you as you are. It can come to you only through a basic transformation, a mutation. It is a flowering, a growth. Growth is always out of the total; it is not an addition. You must grow toward meditation. This total flowering of the personality must be understood correctly. Otherwise one can play games with oneself, one can occupy oneself with mental tricks. Language must be dropped. I don’t mean that you have to suppress it or eliminate it. I only mean that it does not have to be a twenty-four-hour-a-day habit for you. When you walk, you need to move your legs. But if they go on moving when you are sitting, then you are mad. You must be able to turn them off. In the same way, when you are not talking with anyone, language must not be there. It is a technique to communicate. When you are not communicating with anybody it should not be there. If you are able to do this, you can grow into meditation. Meditation is a growing process, not a technique. A technique is always dead, so it can be added to you, but a process is always alive. It grows, it expands. Whenever someone begins meditation, he will become aware of many things of which he was not previously aware, and because of that awareness he will suffer. This is how things are, and one has to pass through them. So if you start meditation and you do not suffer, it means it is not meditation, but just a hypnosis. That means you are just drugging yourself. You are becoming more unconscious. With a real, authentic meditation you will suffer more, because you will become more aware. You will see the ugliness of your anger, you will feel the cruelty of your jealousy, you will now know the evidence of your behaviour. Now, in every gesture, you will begin to feel where a hidden animal in you, and you will suffer. But this is how one grows. Growth is a painful birth. If you do not escape, if you remain there with your suffering, one day suffering will disappear and you will have grown into more awareness. Suffering disappears in two ways. You become unconscious; then suffering disappears for you. But, really, suffering remains there. It cannot disappear. It remains there! Really, your consciousness has disappeared, so you cannot feel it, you cannot be aware of it. If you become more conscious, in the meantime you will have to suffer more. But accept suffering as a part of growth, as a part of training, as just a discipline, and then one day, when your consciousness has gone beyond your suffering, suffering will disappear not just for you – it will disappear objectively. Use suffering as a stepping-stone; do not escape from it. If you escape from it, you are escaping from your destiny, from the possibility of going beyond knowledge by using suffering as a device.
  10. Why can't we do both? There's nothing restricting us from doing both self development and enjoying what we like at the same time. In fact, that is the ideal way to express oneself authentically. Although, if just chasing after self serving things were satisfying them there wouldn't be as many miserable people as there are since most are doing only that anyway. Often, the most significant transformation that someone can have is to be more fulfilled in life as it is and not what they change about themselves.
  11. Youth is the best time for inner transformation because youth is the most flexible time. Children are more flexible than young people, but they are not so understanding. They need a little experience. Youth is exactly the middle; you are no longer a child, no longer ignorant of life and its ways and not yet settled as an old man. You are in a state of transition, and the state of transition is the best time. Of course most of them cannot sit still like an old man too long, but there is no need to sit like an old man for longer duration. Someone asked Buddha, ”How shall we meditate?” Buddha replied, ”Whatsoever you do, do it with awareness; this is meditation. Walking, walk attentively, as if walking is everything; eating, eat with awareness, as if eating is everything; rising, rise with awareness; sitting, sit with awareness; all your actions become conscious, your mind does not travel beyond this moment, it remains in the moment, settles in the moment – this is meditation.”
  12. It's the motion of your attention. That's why 'we' wanna educate the attention by various techniques. The more the attention is educated to be deliberately on the things which the will wants, the more transformation of the subconscious into the consciousness will be possible and available. If you are gonna ask the 'unconscious' now though? I'm out for now? see you later!? But, it's important not to get confused about the definitions, what Leo wrote is important to keep in mind, "You're thinking of consciousness as human awareness. That's not what is meant when we say everything is made of consciousness. What's meant is more like: The substance of everything is no-substance, which is consciousness." otherwise your fundamental sensation of life could get off-track, which seems as if it's not a big deal at all at first but, then people start to experience reflections of it unconsciously in their lives without understanding why they feel empty or unsatisfied..
  13. You are lucky, you have wasted on 4 years and realized it. People waste their whole life, some after sex, some after money, some after fame ; when death comes they find they are empty, society has fooled them. Only few persons like Buddha die contented. Depression is a common mental disorder. Globally, more than 300 million people of all ages suffer from depression. Most of them have some experience with the opposite sex. Experience with the opposite sex doesn't necessarily end your miseries. But you gave better opportunity to grow into a mediator. Unless you are frustrated with yourself, there is no possibility for transformation. They are searching happiness and contentment in wrong direction. After a long journey, they will find that they are empty inside, but they will pretend to be happy in front of others to hide their tears. You find the source of blissfulness within you. Blissfulness which is not dependent on your circumstances. Find the knack of meditation.
  14. There is no fixed road. Everyone is on a different road; we are not on one road. Even if you are following one technique of meditation, you are not on the same road as someone else who is doing the same technique; you cannot be. There is no public path. Every path is individual and personal. So no one’s experiences on the path will be helpful to you; rather, they may be damaging. Someone may be seeing something on his path. If he says to you that this is the sign of progress, you may not meet the same sign on your path. Meditation for me is not a child’s play. It is a deep transformation. On the path nothing more is needed than patience. The whole of life has to be meditative. Only then will you begin to feel things. And when I say that the whole life is to be meditative, I do not mean to go and close your eyes for twenty-four hours and sit and meditate – no! Wherever you are you can be sensitive and that sensitivity will pay. Only with this capacity of being aware of all things happening around you will you develop the capacity to feel what is happening within. Meditation is simply the name for life lived with awareness. Meditation is a lifestyle, not an activity. You can meditate for one hour every day to learn, to refresh, to give more energy and more roots – but don’t be satisfied that that’s enough.
  15. Kundalini ist the primordial force present in the human organism which lies "coiled" three and half time in the sacrum of the spinal cord or the Muladhara Chakra. Once aroused through meditations, yoga or pranayama it begins it's ascend through the spinal cord or chakras until it reaches the crown chakra. Once it reaches the crown chakras the human individual consciousness merges with that of the universal. A human being is composed not only of the physical body but also the astral body and the emotional body. On the awakening of kundalini if your emotional and astral body are fully cleansed kundalini can pass through the chakras. But since no one has a pure astral and emotional body kundalini will start working to clear out your " shit". This is known as the cleansing phase or "hell". This phase is also called nigredo in spiritual alchemy where basic lead is transmuted into gold. The subtle meaning of alchemy is the transmutation of the "leaded consciousness into golden consciousness. So basically the esotericalchemists where using the pirma materia ( kundalini ) to acheive this. . Kundalini transformation is a physical process meaning that the whole entire biology of the organism changes in order to fit kundalini's regimen. Please do your research on the topic. The aim of this thread is to give you a direction on where to look. here are some links that would help : http://ourlightbody.com/ http://realitysandwich.com/92275/introduction_u_g_krishnamurti/ http://www.kundaliniconsortium.org/2017/03/kundalini-transformation-part-01.html https://manly-hall.blogspot.de/2013/09/spinal-column-and-kundalini.html
  16. @Preetom i like to talk to people and to listen. i like to know what makes them happy and sad. i like to look at their eyes and be able to really see them. i like to see children running and playing around. i like to see people healing themselves and shining like the big old sun. i like to dance and i like it when people dance with me. i did write a short journal. you can find it here. during my transformation i tried to write a book but i wasn't able to catch up. recently i've written a short book. it's in portuguese, though. about the 24/7 mindfulness practice, go for it. it's the best gift you can give to yourself and mainly to everyone around you :). pura graça.pdf
  17. @ajasatya What motivates you to live every single day? Do you have a particular set of values? And about your transformation, is it something you feel totally complete or is it blooming into new territories as days go by? P.S: Can you please start a journal here in this forum where you will share your insights regularly?(1-3 times a week would be fine) Stuff like what was your previous perception of reality and how it has transformed now. Any tips, suggestion would be nice. As a fellow guy trying to go mindful 24/7, it would help a lot for me and others I'm sure. Just a few hours of mindfulness this morning revealed to me how gentle and soft our emotional health is. and how we abuse it unknowingly all the time and been probably doing it for decades
  18. I am in the middle of a big transformation inside of myself. In the last four months I have been meditating a lot and after some time a LOT of emotions have begun to come out. I reailzed I have been living in a dream (mostly a nightmare ) for all of my life and that almost all of my personality has been deeply shaped by strong traumas I had in the first years of my life. I am almost 21 years old now. At the end of March I have been to a Vipassana meditation retreat and there I had a very strong emotional reaction and since then I began deepening the awareness over myself a lot. I have been then to a holotropic breathwork session and there too I had deep realizations and releases. In the last 2 months almost every day during meditation I had emotions coming out and I had also a very intense experience of oneness . Also, the levels of my consciousness have increased so much ! I have spoken about these experiences with a therapist and a bit in some sharing groups but I am alone in doing the process and emotions are still coming out : I am in the middle of a deep spiritual crisis . I want to go in a place where I can have support from people who can understand me and help me. Continuing the process alone is becoming hard and my mood and motivation are starting to decrease. Most normal people cannot understand these things and I don't have really anyone with whom I feel really grounded and with whom I would speak to now. Do you know of any community or center in Europe where I can receive support and stay there for some time ? Like some kind of spiritual community where I can both meditate on my own and have some emotional releases and speak with people that are supportive and understanding . In the meanwhile, it is ok for me also to Skype with someone who understands about these things. Do you know where can I find someone like this ? Most conventional therapist don't really seem to understand these kind of processes . Any other helpful advice would be great, thank you .
  19. Would you say doing 5-MeO has facilitated the personal transformation process? As analogy, in RPGs, you can train many skills, but paying for a membership can boost the rate in which you get xp in any/every skill. From what it sounds like, 5-MeO and awakening experiences help you drop inner resistance and gain xp faster.
  20. @Annetta Modern man is a very new phenomenon. No traditional method can be used exactly as it exists because modern man never existed before. So, in a way, all traditional methods have become irrelevant. For example, the body has changed so much. It is so drugged that no traditional method can be helpful. The whole atmosphere is artificial now: the air, the water, society, living conditions. Nothing is natural. You are born in artificiality; you develop in it. So traditional methods will prove harmful today. They will have to be changed according to the modern situation. Another thing: the quality of the mind has basically changed. In Patanjali’s [the most famous commentator on Yoga] days, the center of the human personality was not the brain; it was the heart. Before that, it was not even the heart. It was still lower, near the navel. The center has gone even further from the navel. Now, the center is the brain. That is why teachings like those of Krishnamurti have appeal. No method is needed, no technique is needed – only understanding. But if it is just a verbal understanding, just intellectual, nothing changes, nothing is transformed. It again becomes an accumulation of knowledge. I use chaotic methods rather than systematic ones because a chaotic method is very helpful in pushing the center down from the brain. The center cannot be pushed down through any systematic method because systemization is brainwork. Through a systematic method, the brain will be strengthened; more energy will be added to it. Through chaotic methods the brain is nullified. It has nothing to do. The method is so chaotic that the center is automatically pushed from the brain to the heart. If you do my method of Dynamic Meditation vigorously, unsystematically, chaotically, your center moves to the heart. Then there is a catharsis. A catharsis is needed because your heart is so suppressed, due to your brain. Your brain has taken over so much of your being that it dominates you. There is no place for the heart, so the longings of the heart are suppressed. You have never laughed heartily, never lived heartily, never done anything heartily. The brain always comes in to systematize, to make things mathematical, and the heart is suppressed. So firstly, a chaotic method is needed to push the center of consciousness from the brain toward the heart. Then catharsis is needed to unburden the heart, to throw off suppressions, to make the heart open. If the heart becomes light and unburdened, then the center of consciousness is pushed still lower; it comes to the navel. The navel is the source of vitality, the seed source from which everything else comes: the body and the mind and everything. I use this chaotic method very considerately. Systematic methodology will not help now, because the brain will use it as its own instrument. Nor can just the chanting of bhajans help now, because the heart is so burdened that it cannot flower into real chanting. Consciousness must be pushed down to the source, to the roots. Only then is there the possibility of transformation. So I use chaotic methods to push the consciousness downward from the brain. Whenever you are in chaos, the brain stops working. For example, if you are driving a car and suddenly someone runs in front of you, you react so suddenly that it cannot be the work of the brain. The brain takes time. It thinks about what to do and what not to do. So whenever there is a possibility of an accident and you push the brake, you feel a sensation near your navel, as if it were your stomach that is reacting. Your consciousness is pushed down to the navel because of the accident. If the accident could be calculated beforehand, the brain would be able to deal with it; but when you are in an accident, something unknown happens. Then you notice that your consciousness has moved to the navel. If you ask a Zen monk, “From where do you think?” he puts his hands on his belly. When Westerners came into contact with Japanese monks for the first time they could not understand. “What nonsense! How can you think from your belly? But the Zen reply is meaningful. Consciousness can use any center of the body, and the center that is nearest to the original source is the navel. The brain is furthest away from the original source, so if life energy is moving outward, the center of consciousness will become the brain. And if life energy is moving inward, ultimately the navel will become the center. Chaotic methods are needed to push the consciousness to its roots, because only from the roots is transformation possible. Otherwise you will go on verbalizing and there will be no transformation. It is not enough just to know what is right. You have to transform the roots; otherwise you will not change. When a person knows the right thing and cannot do anything about it, he becomes doubly tense. He understands, but he cannot do anything. Understanding is meaningful only when it comes from the navel, from the roots. If you understand from the brain, it is not transforming. The ultimate cannot be known through the brain, because when you are functioning through the brain you are in conflict with the roots from which you have come. Your whole problem is that you have moved away from the navel. You have come from the navel and you will die through it. One has to come back to the roots. But coming back is difficult, arduous. Traditional methods have an appeal because they are so ancient and so many people have achieved through them in the past. They may have become irrelevant to us, but they were not irrelevant to Buddha, Mahavira, Patanjali or Krishna. They were meaningful, helpful. The old methods may be meaningless now, but because Buddha achieved through them they have an appeal. The traditionalist feels: “If Buddha achieved through these methods, why can’t I?” But we are in an altogether different situation now. The whole atmosphere, the whole thought-sphere, has changed. Every method is organic to a particular situation, to a particular mind, to a particular man. The fact that the old methods don’t work doesn’t mean that no method is useful. It only means that the methods themselves must change. As I see the situation, modern man has changed so much that he needs new methods, new techniques.” Osho, The Psychology of the Esoteric, Talk #4
  21. Anyone who says , there is direct and simple method which is suitable for everyone is deceiving you. J. Krishnamurti was insisting his whole life that there is no technique for meditation. And the total result was not that millions of people attained to meditation; the total result was that millions of people became convinced that no technique is needed for meditation. But they forgot all about what they were going to do with the obstructions, the hindrances. So they remained intellectually convinced that no technique is needed. It is easy to meditate if you don’t want to be blissful — it is very easy to meditate. Many people have tried to meditate without bliss because it is simple, less complex. You have to take only one work upon yourself: that you have to still your mind. And you can force your mind to be stilled, but you will become sad, you will have a long face. They have avoided the complexity of spiritual transformation. They have chosen meditation, they have forced their mind to be still. It is a negative state; their minds are only empty, not silent — forcibly made still. But it is not a natural growth of silence, it is not the flowering of silence. Their silence is like the cemetery, it is not the silence of a garden. You can meditate, force yourself to be silent. the whole truth is: bliss PLUS meditation. It is difficult of course, arduous, to manage both.
  22. @Leo Gura I see, thank you. As for being hardcore, it's a long-term goal, but I'm not shy to admit that I need to do a lot more prep before handling that level of work. I've minimalized my life to just consciousness work and life purpose, but I still sort of have to tip-toe around the intense work since I was overwhelmed by going full blast without much prep, so now I spend a lot of my time reading up on the theory while being more mild with the practice since I'm a rookie. Are you referring to the post-enlightenment work you and others talk about, such as embodying Truth and working on the unhealthy ego structures? I'm a bit confused about that as well (I'm going to be hitting up Peter Ralston's series pretty soon and I know he discusses that). Ingram talked about training in morality as an important part of development on the path, and I know a lot of teachers emphasize things like love and compassion, but I don't get if I'm supposed to intuitively grasp right action as a result of my practice or if that is an endeavor of it's own. You speak about this sort of stuff here: Is this stuff part of pursuing Enlightenment, or is it transformation advice that isn't necessarily about pursuing Truth, or both?
  23. All our problems are very small, but our ego magnifies them, makes them as big as it can. The ego cannot do otherwise; its anger has also to be great. When you are angry with someone and you throw your anger on him, you are creating a chain reaction. Now he too will be angry. There is no need to throw anger on anybody. You can go to your bathroom, you can go on a long walk – it means that something is inside that needs fast activity so that it is released. Just do a little jogging and you will feel it is released, or take a pillow and beat the pillow, fight with the pillow, and bite the pillow until your hands and teeth are relaxed. Within a five-minute catharsis you will feel unburdened, and once you know this you will never throw it on anybody, because that is absolutely foolish. The first thing in transformation then is to express anger, but not on anybody, because if you express it on somebody you cannot express it totally. You may like to kill, but it is not possible; you may like to bite, but it is not possible. But that can be done to a pillow. A pillow means ‘already enlightened’; the pillow is enlightened, a buddha. The pillow will not react, and the pillow will not go to any court, and the pillow will not bring any enmity against you, and the pillow will not do anything. The pillow will be happy, and the pillow will laugh at you.
  24. @faith When meditating, working on yourself, if you wonder whether you are making any progress or not, know well that you are not making any progress – because when progress is made you know it. Why? It is just as when you are ill and you are taking medicine. Won’t you be able to feel whether you are getting healthy or not? If you do not feel it and the question arises of whether you are getting well or not, know well that you are not getting well. Well-being is such a clear feeling that when you have it you know it. But why does this question arise? This question arises for so many reasons. One, you are not really working. You are just deceiving yourself. You are playing tricks with yourself. You are less concerned with what you are doing and more concerned with what is happening. If you are really doing it, you can leave the result to existence. But our minds are such that we are less concerned with the cause and more concerned with the effect – because of greed. Greed wants to have everything without doing anything. So the greedy mind goes on moving ahead. Then the greedy mind asks, 'What is happening? Is something happening or not?' Be really concerned with what you are doing, and when something happens you will know it. It is going to happen to you. You need not ask anyone. There is no fixed road. Everyone is on a different road; we are not on one road. Even if you are following one technique of meditation, you are not on the same road as someone else who is doing the same technique; you cannot be. There is no public path. Every path is individual and personal. So no one’s experiences on the path will be helpful to you; rather, they may be damaging. Someone may be seeing something on his path. If he says to you that this is the sign of progress, you may not meet the same sign on your path. The same trees may not be on your path; the same stones may not be on your path. So do not be a victim of all this nonsense. Only certain inner feelings are relevant. For example, if you are progressing, then certain things will begin to happen spontaneously. One, you will feel more and more contentment. Really, when meditation is completely fulfilled, one becomes so contented that he forgets to meditate – because meditation is an effort, a discontent. If one day you forget to meditate and you do not feel any addiction, you do not feel any gap, you are as filled as ever, then know it is a good sign. Do not make meditation a habit. Let it be alive! Then discontent will disappear by and by; you will feel contentment, and not only while you are meditating. If something happens only while you are meditating, it is false, it is hypnotic. It does some good but it is not going to be very deep. It is good only in comparison. If there is nothing happening, no meditation, no blissful moment, do not worry about it. If something is happening, do not cling to it. If meditation is going rightly, deep, you will feel transformed throughout the whole day. A subtle contentment will be present every moment. With whatsoever you are doing, you will feel a cool center inside…contentment. Of course there will be results. Anger will be less and less possible. It will go on disappearing. Why? – because anger shows a non-meditative mind, a mind that is not at ease with itself. With meditation you will be more and more happy with yourself – remember, with yourself. These will be signs, the general signs. So do not think you are achieving much if you are beginning to see light or if you go on seeing beautiful colors. They are good but do not feel satisfied unless real psychological changes are there: less anger, more love; less cruelty, more compassion. Unless this happens, your seeing lights and colors and hearing sounds are child’s play. They are beautiful, very beautiful; it is good to play with them – but that is not the aim of meditation. They happen on the road, they are just by-products, but do not be concerned. In a relationship, observe what is happening. How are you behaving toward your wife now? Observe it. Is there any change? That change is meaningful. How are you behaving with your servant? Is there any change? That change is significant. Meditation for me is not a child’s play. It is a deep transformation. How to know this transformation? First you will feel your inner transformation in your outer relationships, and then you will go deep. Then only will you begin to feel something inner. So probe into, penetrate your relationships, and look there to see whether your meditation is progressing or not. If you feel a growing love, unconditional love, if you feel a compassion without cause, if you feel a deep concern for everyone’s welfare, well-being, your meditation is growing. Then forget all other things. With this observation you will also observe many things in yourself. You will be more silent; you will have less noise within. When there is a need you will talk, when there is no need you will be silent. You will feel more at ease, relaxed. Whatsoever you are doing, it will be a relaxed effort; there will be no strain. You will become less and less ambitious. Ultimately, there will be no ambition. Even the ambition to reach moksha will not be there. Even the desire for liberation is a bondage. Even the desire to be desireless is a bondage. One thing more: whatsoever you are doing, do not think that results will be coming in the future. If you are doing something real, results are here and now. In inner work, if you have meditated today, results are not going to be tomorrow. If you have meditated today. the perfume of it, howsoever little, will be there. If you are sensitive you can feel it. Whenever something real is done, it affects you here and now. So meditation is not just a certain thing which you do for one hour and forget. Really, the whole of life has to be meditative. Only then will you begin to feel things. And when I say that the whole life is to be meditative, I do not mean to go and close your eyes for twenty-four hours and sit and meditate – no! Wherever you are you can be sensitive and that sensitivity will pay. Then there will be no need to ask, 'Am I progressing or not?' Only with this capacity of being aware of all things happening around you will you develop the capacity to feel what is happening within. Osho, The Ultimate Alchemy, Vol 2, Talk #18
  25. Yes , Spirituality is very contagious but real transformation happens in presence of an enlightened master, if you are open and receptive. In the East, we have developed a science: if you cannot find a soul mate, you can create one. And that science is Tantra.