Hag

About "Hindu discussion" becoming "Vedic" : Vedic implies this is about the oldest tradition of Hinduism. What about Upanishads ? Sankara ? What about Indian teachings unrelated to Hinduism (even if Hinduism itself tends to assimilate them) such as yoga, samkhya, or Indian martial arts ? "Hindu" was more encompassing than "Vedic". If other Indian traditions are also to be discussed there, maybe calling the section "Indian" would be clearer.

I usually do breath observation, often seated in siddhasana (I'm training for padmasana). It has been from the beginning my main meditation practice, the easiest (as of less stressful) and the one that gave me my first spiritual results. I still do it, experimenting with feeling parts of the body at the same time as the breath, or with the new sensations I am getting through asana, pranayama and my whole "observe quietly everything" approach. I am now also taking it less seriously (or more seriously depending on the point of view ), away from the "I must sit and focus and not be distracted and breath for x time" to simply doing it when I can to relax, refresh, never forcing, always observing simply what's there. My familiarity with this now allows me to get in meditative states while walking (awesome to do walking in the woods), on public transportation, whenever I feel like it. I have done mantra meditation for some time, but while great for clearing the mind and focusing, and probably doing a fair energy cleansing, I find it limited in its reach and more suitable as a preliminary or grounding practice. Its has a great advantage in being foolproof, so great to do when you are troubled and not sure to be in the state for other practice. Observing a fixed point at a distance is also nice, but I need to be out in the country to do it.

Do you have further information or material on the topic ? It is the first time I hear of this since I read a radiestesia treaty looong time ago. It was mentioning different kind of beams emitted by pyramidal and half-spherical solids (included a powerful "green ray"). Is is related ? Thank you for these threads by the way. Something I learned recently from an archeologist that is studying neolithic period is that around Stonehenge times there used to be stable societies of hunter gatherers, counting hundred of people, with no difficulty to find food for anybody. In many places, it seems that agriculture has been more a cultural choice than a necessity.

Animals, in particular birds, seeing what human can't is a common trope in traditional tales of Brittany. They usually know and tell about death in particular. Oral tradition even recalls that there were people known to understand the language of animals up to the XVIIIeme century. One story I like tells about this noble Breton peasant, fair and knowledgeable, who goes to the fair to sell two of his oxen, a job he does often and for which he is known to be good. But this day, he fails to sell any of the beasts and in the evening brings them back to the farm. The oxen are walking slowly, and as the man tries to hurry them one ox tells him "You should be the one to hurry, because you will be dead before midnight". The man then instruct some child to run to the village to order a coffin and a mass, and indeed he dies soon after he is back at home.

Well you can grow oranges you know.

I read (from Eliade I think) that Gautama was following the Indian way of not answering to questions deemed irrelevant (such as "why is there something instead of nothing ?"). It makes sense then he would refuse to discuss this matter that by definition escapes words, and indeed has little impact on practice. Maybe going with the "emptiness" approach was also a mean to prevent further speculation, and make sure Dharma students were not distracted by trying to conceptualize or rationalize a named entity (as it is common in the Vedanta for example, with whole Upanishads dealing with the Brahman itself).

With this view, would you say Buddhism may considers the existence of a transcendental reality (or truth - I am thinking about something akin to Hinduism Brahman), simply one that we cannot grasp or conceptualize ? Or does Buddhism considers this question moot anyway ? Thank you.

If you really want to kill yourself, like it is your biggest dream, do it. Why shouldn't you ? If you want to kill yourself because you feel helpless otherwise, tell yourself that whatever happens, death will come to you anyway sooner or later, so why force it ? Just do whatever you want meantime. You can still kill yourself tomorrow. (Some activities that I helped me go through bad times : spending some time in nature, away from civilization, drawing, listening or making music, walking hours without goal)

You can increase freedom of movement in a joint two ways : by stretching muscles and stretching ligaments. Stretching muscles/tendons is a good thing : it increases flexibility while keeping the joint protected from dislocation by ligaments. You stretch them by increasing the amplitude your already-existing movements. Muscle works is associated with more or less pain and soreness. Stretching ligament is mostly painless and happens when you force a joint to move a non-natural way. After some time, they loosen. The problem is that your joint is no longer protected from dislocation, and that when a ligament is stretch it stays that way. You better have some strong muscles around to protect the joint. I would be most careful around the knee. There is nothing to gain by being able to flex it sideways.

I have been taught that sushumna follows the spine, while ida and pingala start at ajna chackra respectively from left and right side and go down along sushumna, crossing at each subsequent chakra, before meeting one final time at muladhara. Sadly, since my yoga training was overall a beginner one we did not go further on the topic. However, this system seems to be the most common one to be used for yoga energetic explanations. This is what you find on all these new-ages chakra images everywhere. But I am not making sense of it, it simply does not match what I am feeling during pranayama. I found that in Tibetan Buddhism the energy channels were more of a central pillar (distinct from the spine, and with a green light at the heart, matching anahata chakra) with two lateral non-crossing channels, and even found some explanation where ida and pingala are going all the way down the legs to the sole of the feet. To me, this is the most "realistic" view, but I am wondering on the reasons of all those different explanations. While this does not stop me from practicing nor trusting my sensations, I am interested on your knowledge on this topic. Thanks !

Breath retention is a common practice in hatha yoga, however it is considered an advanced technique, maybe due to the real -physical or energetic- risks associated. If you still want to do it, bandha are to be maintained to "lock" the body and prevent prana loss. When doing breath retention in a sitting position, common bandha are jalandhara bandha (for the throat, also blocks air passage to prevent forceful retention) and mula bandha (for the base, also helps to focus). Uddhiyana bandha (for the abdomen) can be maintained during breath retention with empty lungs. But as neti neti said, breath retention should never be forced but be the consequence of a still mind.

Hello all, I have been having some interest on this whole spiritual practice thing for a while, maybe coming from my Breton culture and its association with megalith stones, secret telluric currents and its fascination, if not familiarity, with death. Later on, during some bad years, I went to try yoga, because I heard about it, and I was ready to do anything to alleviate the (mental) pain. To my surprise, I liked it a lot, and went to randomly practice for some time, until February 2017, where, at the occasion of a long trip to India, I took a one-month 200 hours hatha yoga course. Its focus was on traditional hatha yoga, mostly asana-based but with a fair part of pranayama, mantra meditation, anatomy, kriya, mudra, etc. All in all an excellent experience that left me stronger, suppler and more confident than ever. Since then I have been maintaining an more or less regular practise, getting familiar with a range of asanas, and watching with my own body and its strange inner workings. I also do breath and mantra meditation, pranayama, massage and sexual tantrism. And swimming, that complements very well all of these. I had a breakthrough a few month ago, when I started to feel energy moving around in my body while breathing, and since have been experimenting on "what the hell are those new sensation I am feeling ?". I also had a couple weak kundalini experiences, but around this time I did a severe if not totally unexpected burn-out at my job that left me exhausted. I still have two months to go before starting a new life more fitting to myself (ie in the countryside), meanwhile I have decided to reduce my practice, since I was feeling it had become routine and mindless, and I was afraid I was going to hurt myself. Less asana, more meditation, but also less objectives, more compassion. Lately, I stumbled upon an introduction to acupuncture (by Lavier), which gives a broad approach to the daoist vision of the human body. While I have yet to finish it, I am finding it very interesting and I hope I will be able to make some use of it. I found this forum by chance, and after lurking for a while it looks like a nice place to talk about things that are not much discussed elsewhere. So here I am. Have a nice day.