dwai

It is called svapna yoga and is part of several tantric traditions such as Kashmiri Shaivism and Sri Vidya. Kundalini is part of the spectrum of modalities employed. Of course that’s not to say you’ve not come up with your dream practice completely independently. But the point is that the practice (even if you’ve undertaken it piece meal) is part of the kundalini tradition. I was referring to how you colored the word samskara to mean a negative thing exclusively.

if you can do it without using that methodology, good luck to you It’s not about what’s been taught but what has empirical evidence to support its efficacy. Do you know why “kundalini” yoga is so hard? Because it doesn’t work for most people. Why? Because it is too complicated and most people don’t have the discipline to practice it. Incidentally that lack of discipline is why any other practice doesn’t work. what you describe as your method IS yoga. And it seems to rely heavily on Kundalini yoga to be precise. I have never said anything of that sort. Au contraire, Realization cannot be brought about by anyone other than the one who’s seeking it. What can be done is point at what nondual realization is. Well, you have just distorted the meaning of the word to fit your view

in order to process emotional trauma one needs to create distance from the mind which acts on those emotions (such as experiencing sorrow, anger, guilt, depression, self-loathing etc). If you can’t do that, you can’t resolve them. One needs to first identify the problem (for which distance is needed) and then identify the cause of the problem. Any mindful repetitive action will help create the separation between the mind and the awareness. Yoga is absolutely one excellent way to do it. if it works for you, more power to you. It depends on what kind of preparatory work has been done. I would venture to say that without proper purification of the mind, nondual realization is not possible. And not all samskaras are bad. For instance If you have the samskara of helping the needy, what purpose would it serve to removing it? Sure, if it works for you. Do let us know how it’s panned out for you.

Not knowing one’s true nature as consciousness in which all phenomena arise and dissipate, when action (karma) is taken in pursuit of pleasure or in avoidance of pain, it sets into motion patterns of behavior that accumulate and lead to more such action. In essence a chain reaction of actions leading to more action.

Fascinating! I think you’re mistaking the symptom for the cause. If you focus on treating the symptom you can’t cure the disease. The root of karma is delusion/ignorance.

Interesting. What is the root cause of “karma” according to you?

Advaita Vedanta clearly states that you get what was always yours and you lose that which was never yours to begin with. Instead of looking at nondual systems as transcendence models, I would suggest to look at them as models to dispel delusions (about identity, etc). How does one dispel a delusion? By first becoming aware that it is a delusion, and further by recognizing what is causing the delusion. The source of delusion is the ego which assumes ownership of labels meant for categorization. this works for all forms of identification (gender, nationality, job, skill, and so on). This even extends to emotions. The identification can happen for both positive or negative attributes. The positive part is obvious to most - if someone is good at something, and they get social approval etc, their ego will fixate on it. But it can happen for negative (someone their intellect would rationalize as undesirable) things too. There’s an upanishadic parable I'm reminded of. There was a washerman who lived in a typical Indian village a long time ago. He has a donkey that he used to carry his load of clothes every morning to the riverbank where he washed dirty clothes, dried, folded and delivered them back to his customers in the village. One day, he had a big argument with his wife, and absent-mindedly he loaded that day’s clothes on the donkey’s back and walked to the riverbank. As he unloaded the clothes off the donkey’s back, he sought to tie the donkey to a branch of the tree where he usually left it, before proceeding to do his washing. But he realized that he had forgotten to get the rope he used to tie the donkey. And so he was in a fix, because the thought that if he left the donkey untied under the tree to wash clothes, it would wander off. The washerman was poor, and he couldn’t afford to lose the donkey. But he couldn’t go back home either, because his day’s livelihood depended on him washing and returning the clothes to his customers. If he didn’t work, his family wouldn’t eat. As he stood there looking stressed, the village wise man, who was walking by, asked him what was wrong. He explained the predicament. The wise man said, “listen — this is a donkey, it’s not known for its intellectual prowess. Just pretend like you’re tying it up, and leave for your work. It will be there when you come back.” Given that it was the wisest man in the village who gave him the advice the washerman followed the instructions. And sure enough, when he came back with his washed and folded load of clothes from the river bank in the evening, the donkey was standing right where he left him, happily munching on the leaves he left for him. He loaded up the donkey, and tried to walk back, but the donkey wouldn’t budge. No matter what he did, it wouldn’t move. He pleaded, cajoled, raged and beat the poor beast, but it was as though the donkey was transfixed in the very spot where he had left him all day. luckily for him, the wise man whose advice he had followed in the morning happened to be returning to the village around then. Seeing the washerman distraught again, he asked “what is the problem now?” The washerman explained what the problem was. The wise man laughed and said, “it’s very simple. Remember how you had pretended to tie your donkey up in the morning? Now pretend to untie it.” Although skeptical of the solution, the washerman followed the instructions. And lo and behold the donkey happily started walking away from the tree. The washerman profusely thanked the wise man as they walked back together to the village. He asked for an explanation as they were walking back. The wise man explained, “donkeys are creatures of habit. Whatever you train them to do, they will do. All its life you’ve trained it to respond to the tying and untying of the rope. It learned early on that it couldn’t wander off to graze elsewhere, so it didn’t wander off when you pretend tied it up this morning. It also learned that it couldn’t move without being untied first, as it would hurt if it tried to walk away while still tied to the tree. So it waited for you to untie it.” Now let us consider a hypothetical person who has suffered a lot of emotional trauma. It is likely that their ego has to attached to this as an identity. Why? Habit/familiarity. The mind is comprised of four functions. The field of thoughts we normally associate with the “mind” - - called manas in Sanskrit. The intellect (aka buddhi), which helps in analyzing and understanding. The storehouse of memories and feelings (aka chitta) from which both memories and feelings are extracted when we experience any phenomenon (this happens in a flash, and the intellect then uses these to evaluate and label/categorize it - such as good or bad, etc). Finally is the ego (ahamkara) that affixes ownership of the label/category (such as my memory, my feeling as so on). The ego is like the donkey, it fixates on these labels and categories and stays attached to them. Just like with the washerman, as long as the donkey was expected to do the right it without the right conditions, it didn’t follow the commands given by the washerman. But once the washerman (informed by the wise man in the parable) figured out the right conditions to make it behave properly, the donkey followed the commands happily. Nondual traditions don’t transcend manas, chitta or ahamkara, but using the intellect (buddhi), overcomes the tendencies they are susceptible to, to become free of delusions. Emotions don’t need to be transcended or transmuted, but rather they need to be recognized along with their triggers, and that will allow us to release ourselves from their bondage.

Sunlight is yang and promotes yang qi. Too much exposure can deplete yin. There are certain times of the day to avoid direct sunlight exposure (for example in India it is the noon to 3 pm time in the summer ) depending on where in the world you are. Also it is not advised to practice things like qigong, yoga etc in direct exposure to strong sunlight (or for that matter heat, cold or wind). The reason being that you need to be in an environment where you can sense your qi and if there are external stimuli at play then your mind is not attuned inward as easily. A distracted mind means scattered qi.

This thread is going into slander territory. Please be responsible and refrain from posting slanderous and wild conspiracy theories.

Indeed! I don’t know what happened to Joey, he is a good-natured person (based on the limited interactions I’ve had with him over several years via FB).

But Brahman is never “unawakened”.

I agree. I’ve had the good fortune of being in the presence of a few swamis who I know are realized (including swami sarvapriyananda). There is something that happens beyond a mere exchange of words. Similar is my experience with my Sifu - being in his presence has a profound stilling effect on the mind. I agree with this too. I do think that a realized person’s field has an effect on a qualified listener. This doesn’t necessarily require physical proximity - it could be remote/videos too. I’ve had very interesting things happen when I listened to Eckhart Tolle a few times.

As immortalized by the Bard par excellence of Daobumia, Apechius the mellifluous!

@Apech has agreed to volunteer time as a moderator. Please welcome him back to the mod team.

It was not so much that he didn’t respect authority based on transmission, but demonstrated a lack of respect in general.