dwai

Be still and silent and know that which you truly are is already enlightened.

There is no free will. That is part of our collective delusion

As is described, he is a reincarnated disciple of Babaji and continuing his spiritual journey in this life.

When all the energetic "water wheels" are active and turning, the feeling we get is of circulation down the outer sides of the legs through the soles and up the inner sides of the legs up to the Kua. This circulation occurs simultaneous to what is called the microcosmic orbit. Also simultaneously there are arm water wheels that are turning as well. The feeling I get when this happens is a lightness (literally like there is a soft, luminous flow inside the legs (and all through the body actually).when the energy circulates this way, the feeling is like the breath rises up from the heels. This is what I consider "breathing from the heels"...

You are a perfectionist, it would seem Even you sarcasm is perfect..and gets mistaken for seriousness. I have that effect sometimes, but only in direct interactions

To not confuse the matter further, in the Vedantic tradition of Hindu dharma, enlightenment is sudden. It is explained as such - practice/sadhana is like tending to and watering a fruit tree. Enlightenment is like the ripening of a fruit. When the fruit is ripe and ready, it will "suddenly" break free from the tree and fall to the ground. In terms of meditation and jnana (spiritual knowledge), all the studying and contemplation, supported by a proper mediation practice is preparatory. When the individual is ready, realization is sudden and complete. The knowledge and contemplation helps the mind understand and "fall in line" when the practice occurs. Eventually, the mind falls into the source of everything (we call it the True Self, Atman or Brahman, Daoists call it Dao) and ceases to exist. Then all that exists is the unending awareness of that Non-Dual IT. That is immortality. The cessation of the mind (called Manonasha or Mind-destruction) happens suddenly, though the process to get there is gradual.

IMHO, the biggest roadblock to true progress in terms of both paradigm shifting scientific breakthroughs as well as social re-organization such than most humans can actually focus on what is their primary objective - Self Realization is the concept of money. Indeed, in the not so distant future, AI and robotics can pretty much offload most of the mundane work from human beings. Ideally, that should free up most people to devote their time on scientific, artistic and spiritual endeavors, purely from the perspective of improvement and cultivation of progressively higher quality. However, I don't think that will be possible. Our system requires the haves and have-nots, just as much as the world requires both yin as well as yang. In terms of what the substance (which is broken into the haves and have-nots) is in today's scenario - is wealth. For all intents and purposes, people in the world today (erroneously) correlate financial wealth with a host of other things which should really not be correlated - such as health, happiness, peace of mind, etc. If for some reason we were able to do away with wealth as the basic element of social existence, it would become something else (in some way related to wealth anyway - knowledge, power, etc). That is the curse of duality....for movement (change) to occur, there has to be two poles. Without the polarity, duality falls apart. The only escape is to discard the polarity entirely...go from dual to non-dual.

There is no single rule within "hinduism". Typically there are the right hand and left hand paths in Tantric traditions, which deal with these types of work (kundalini). The right-hand traditions focus on celibacy, avoidance of certain types of foods, abstinence (alcohol, intoxicants, etc). The left-hand tradition deals with realization via things that are forbidden in the conventional sense. They call it the three "Ms - "Mamsa, Madira, Maithuna" (Mamsa - Meat, Madira - Alchohol or intoxicants in general and Maithuna - sexual activity). The Left-hand path is not one of wanton debauchery, as there is a very ritualized approach to these practices and must be learnt from a bona fide teacher.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has a good article on this topic -- http://www.artofliving.org/what-swadharma

Indeed...but also they are creations of our own Self, which is nothing but pure consciousness

I'm not quite well versed in Shaiva concepts...however if I consider for a moment the tanmatras and tattvas of samkhya, then those too fall in the domain of duality. They might be very great as metaphysics, but doesn't do anything from absolute nonduality pov, IMHO.

Well the jiva is not the true self per advaita Vedanta. It is the limited self, governed by the limiting adjuncts like body, mind, etc.

That is the Self. One without an other. All else is just appearances

We tend to get caught up in labels too much IMHO. Non-self in Vedanta tradition is what is called "jiva"...

Kundalini doesn't get stuck. It does it's work as a fetus grows Up into a teenager. Then it goes and becomes dormant in the mooladhara chakra until awakened again as part of kundalini kriya. Kundalini is however not different from our true self. So we either use a Jnana way to reveal the self and that raises the kundalini up or work on raising the kundalini to eventually reveal the self.

http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/41245-antahkarana/#entry696008

That is my understanding on this topic as well. However having only philosophical knowledge without a practical aspect is problematic as it might end up in the teacher leading the student on a convoluted path even though the practice is very simple. I think the presupposition is that the bauddha jnani also has a somewhat mature practice. It has to do with anumAna (intuitive inference) vs pratyaksha (direct experience, which the Paurusha jnani has).

A current thread by Gerard (titled Lust and the undeveloped mind) brought these verses from Adi Shankara's Bhaja Govindam to mind... Read the entire composition (and associated translation) http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_vishhnu/bhajagovindam.html?lang=sa

Thought I'd add some more context. Strangely just after posting my latest comment about understanding why one might choose to remain separated as an experiencer of the joy and bliss, I happened to be open a book on the Ishopanishad and lo and behold! The very same topic popped up. The explanation is very simple and yet eludes the intellect (even for those who have spent significant time doing atma vichara). All experiences are really of the Self...so those objects of the sensory apparatii, that cause us pleasure - tastes, sounds, sights, touch and mind - are all in our own consciousness. These are just small fractions of the bliss that is inherent of the Self - satchidananda! This consciousness, though conditioned is still our own Self (atman). So when there is no separate experiencer, the infinite bliss of the satchidananda is all there is. So it is wrong of the individual (limited) self to shy away from losing its limited identity out of fear of losing the bliss. This is what is called being "penny wise and pound foolish"

Yes.

This is a very subtle nuance that the intellect finds hard to deal with, imho. As with all other aspects of jnana, when the seeker is ripe, it will make sense. Otherwise it will seem either laughable or as though the words of a mad-person! However, ultimately, this jnana is the logical conclusion, although it itself is beyond logic and the intellect. We are so used to rolling in the fields of concepts and percepts that we cannot imagine existence without these. For some it is eventually clear (or even spontaneously for yet others), however, there is a strong desire for separation. For instance, once I had a deep and profound understanding of how "That" is nothing but pure love and pure joy. Yet, in and by itself, the love or joy didn't mean a thing. I was able to enjoy the love and joy, at least even as a partially separated being. I was listening to music that was so divine with love and joy, I knew there was no other way that things could be. While the love and joy made me weep, the tears were both of love and joy, as well as of the aversion to the fact, that ultimately, there will not be the littlest of the little "i" to feel the love and joy as an experience. I realized then, why many devotees are unable to separate themselves from their "ishta devata"...yet these are still musings of the little "i"...I hope I was able to express myself somewhat clearly... Sugar cannot taste it's own sweetness...its nature is sweetness. Only a being other than sugar can taste it's sweetness. Can we then fault most people for not wanting to merge completely with the sugar?