dwai

Just stand with feet shoulder width apart, toes pointing straight ahead. Bend your knees slightly (not extend beyond toes), relax your lower back, hands to the side or fingers touching your thighs lightly. Tuck your chin towards your chest slightly, and very slightly lean your upper body forward. Stand like this and breath slowly, from your lower abdomen. Stand for 3 or 4 sets of 9 breaths. Each breath is one full inhale and full exhale cycle.

There are indeed a few who can light the spark in you. But really being free is a personal choice. You can choose to stick to your mind/body oriented habits or choose to disassociate from them. Really it is that simple...stop taking your mind-chatter and body-sensations to be who you are. As you are not. Then we are getting somewhere. Sometimes "masters" talk and it seems like double talk. But it is not. Other times it is. Sometimes it simultaneously seems like truth and bullshit. It depends on who is listening. We each decide based on our intelligence and cultural background what works for us, what makes sense to us, etc etc. This easy path is not that easy...until it becomes easy.

There is intellectual knowledge (and philosophy) and then there is experiential knowing (direct experience). If you ask me, it's better that a practitioner picks one discipline and follows through with great sincerity, so they attain the realization offered by the system. If this is not done, basically these discussions just remain in the intellectual realm and don't serve much purpose. Instead of trying to prove or disprove one or the other tradition, the seeker should stick with the one that fits their present mentality and understanding. Best, Dwai

What is "enlightenment" in the first place? I'd rather be truly free

Most of these sages don't say they are enlightened. They don't hold positions. They are free from labels and categories. They just say what the need arises for - they don't speak with their minds and intellects, they are beyond those. If we approach their words from the realm of mind, they seem contradictory. We have to approach from beyond-mind or no-mind, to understand. I'd recommend listening to the Ashtavakra Samhita talk I posted in the Hindu sub-forum...that'll help clear some things up (or make them more muddy for many...but that is par for the course).

Don't know about prophets, but sages like Lao Tzu, The Buddha, Adi Shankaracharya, Ramana Maharshi all spoke of the same thing, in different words. That, knowing which one can be considered to be enlightened, is indescribable and ineffable. So the words they used to articulate it could be in terms of "Neti Neti" (Not this, not that) or in terms of Silence or in terms that can be considered world-negating - "All this is unreal, only That is real" or in terms that are world affirming - "All this is real, but just a projection of That absolute reality". The Buddhist approach is "Neti Neti" -- "That is neither this, nor that...neither existent, nor non-existent". There is no absolute "being". The Daoist approach is, That is the "mother", and from it rises all creation, but the Dao is not a being, as it is beyond being and non-being. The Advaita Vedantic approach is, That is the "source and ground" and all of creation is just appearances of modifications of that, arising and falling away in that". That is the ultimate reality and everything is just an appearance. All three are just perspectives which are equally valid and just different ways to get to the same essential understanding.

The mainstream media in India is pathetic and virulently communist/Marxist. Most of the opinion makers therein are products of the JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) which has been a bastion of Marxism and Maoist ideology. They had it good for so many years, until Modi and the BJP won a landslide majority verdict and are continuing to make inroads even in the most entrenched seats of these ultra-leftist ideologies. People are waking up, as the youth now bypass mainstream media anyway. It is both good and bad (another negative extreme has manifested here in the US with the election of the orange man).

Mr Modi is really a reluctant politician. He was ready to renounce samsara and enter the RamaKrishna Order, but was then asked by the Head Swami of the order to enter public service instead. He is a true karma yogi, and cut from the same cloth as the Indian freedom fighters. His humble background clearly gives him a first hand view and empathy for the underprivileged, and he had made many good moves since he took office. India has been systematically kept "backward" by the former powerlords - a system that encouraged nepotism, ideological manipulation and divisive mindsets. They cultivated an environment of sycophancy and servitude, which the current government is changing, by putting boots on the rumps of the civil services.

If one has a good teacher, yes. Otherwise, may be

if you are sensitive to it (many here are), Mysore is extremely powerful as a shakti sthala (one of the primary 18 power spots in India). I grew up in Mysore and didn't realize this until I went back for a visit last year -- the energy there amped my spiritual state up by several notches.

Another way is the direct path - Self Inquiry. Ask constantly "Who am I?" and trace back to the source of that question..."Who asked that question? Who is seeking the answer?" Every time a thought arises, ask "Who am I?" Even when we start down this path in a mechanical basis, eventually one day the reality becomes apparent. All it takes is a minor adjustment to remember to do this as a practice all the time. This will eventually spill into sleep/dream time as well...

You can go to Maisuru (anglicized to Mysore) in India and find some really good Yoga teachers (but more Postural stuff primarily). Pattabhi Jois' grandson teaches there, as do other not-so-famous teachers.

People had predicted there will be negative fallout from it, but it actually has helped things with the masses it seems. The current Federal Govt's Party ousted incumbent, entrenched parties in the largest state of India (UP) elections with a massive margin. Here's a perspective on the result of the demonetization efforts - http://postcard.news/how-pm-modi-has-broken-the-back-of-communist-terrorists-maoists-in-last-3-years-while-upa-was-helpless-in-10-years/

Nisargadatta Maharaj referenced it many times

Not really surprising. Shows that people are moving away from politics of separation and fear to politics of hope and development.

Happens to me all the time (meaning - a lot). The mind interprets this with a sense of foreboding (apprehension that something bad is going to happen) -- but usually does not. I think in some alternate reality, something "bad" really happened following that moment. There is a dream like quality immediately following this. EDIT - Sometimes memories of an entire chain of events following the deja vu flash through the mind. Usually too quickly to comprehend. Sometimes things slow down just a bit.

Start by standing for 5 minutes at a time and building up to 30 mins and progressively to longer than that. I'd recommend supplementing with taijiquan which you can do as single form as well as the choreographed long forms. Single form work involves standing by physically freezing postures as well as moving.

That's why practice and knowledge go hand in hand. Edit: adding more context. Jnana doesn't necessarily need to come only via reading scriptures or books. Even these exchanges on Daobums have had a profound impact on my spiritual practice (and I'm sure others will vouch for the same). Daobums is mainly Satsang (company of spiritual people) for me, as that too take us further down the path of Self-realization. Even those who don't agree with me. My arguments with many a buddha bum helped me study both aspects (Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism) in greater detail, and with more rigor.

That's why Jnana (knowledge) is important. It could be staring someone in the face for years, and yet they suffer because their jnana is not complete. I struggled for years with this, not fully understanding what is it that the contents of my mind-stream being exposed to me, meant! What it implied...

Is Presence an experience at all? Or is Presence the real thing with experiences appearing as past and future? There is something surprisingly understated with direct realization, almost anti-climactic when juxtaposed against the romanticism that is the lore surrounding it.

Because you have always been the Self and yes the shift in perspective has permanence.

If it is an experience then it is not it. The Atman/Self is not an experience at all. It is a realization and a subtle shift in perspective. How can you experience your Self? It is not possible.