dwai

None of the accusations are true. Sai Baba was a truly realized being...I have a few stories about him told by my teacher (who is perhaps one of the most spiritually powerful people I have met and directly experienced the power from). My teacher was a daoist/taiji guy who started getting visits from Sai Baba and eventually became a devotee. Sai Baba has helped my teacher in many ways...including protecting him and another student from imminent danger as recently as 4-5 months back.

Don't practice from a book. I would recommend finding a Tamil siddha yoga teacher. The system is methodical and safe in terms of practice. The kundalini will rise on its own once you have purified the channels and start the pranayama practice.

He was legit, though much maligned for his popularity...which didn't diminish one bit ( even now)... There has been a conspiracy against Hindu gurus in both Indian as well as western media. In India it is fashionable to browbeat Hinduism and its gurus for all of India's troubles. Doing so gives these morons "secular-liberal" street cred. Which gives them legitimacy with the west.

Witness the thoughts flow by Not attaching nor identifying helps The intrepid Self

The feeling of the "tailbone" and dropping the qi involves relaxing the lower back and dropping the "tail". Sifu emphasizes using the "energetic tail" as a counter-balance to many movements. However, when one of the senior-most students of Sifu visited my home last friday, he emphasized the role of the tailbone/lower back and the relaxation of the kua. After following his directives, I noticed that the tail when dropped properly, aids in the qi flow to the legs and feet and the returning flow back to the mingmen point. Also, the raising and sinking of the forms affects the "energetic" feeling of the tail and standing "too straight" ends up pinching the flow in the tail. So, always there is a little "sunken" physical form (not straightened/fully standing tall). The knees are bent slightly to allow the energy to not pinch in the tail.

Always awesome to read your views I meant when we rise in a form (say like upward and downward). What is said about standing straight with knees locked being bad, when I stand straight like that (knees not locked, but close enough), I find the energy in the tail getting "cut-off". If I however maintain a slightly more sunken form (the physical shape being more rounded i.e.) , the tail energy stays active...

With children I think it's more a case of the pleasure of creating something. It doesn't matter to a child if it is permanent or temporary. The creativity that fuels building a sand castle (or anything creative that a child does), is the pure flow of energy and intelligence. They don't attach (until a certain age) to their creations...they just do and that's it. My 8-year old daughter still doesn't care if we keep or throw away her drawings and paintings. She does it because it makes her feel good...she draws and gifts people a special drawing or painting. I've seen many kids do that....

The tailbone does feel "alive", if that makes sense. It adds to the feeling of a longer "energetic tail"....when your torso turns right, the tail whips to the left, in a diagonally opposite direction. Vice versa... I was joking with my buddy that I feel like an alligator or a T-Rex when that tail feeling comes about...

The irony is that we want to settle for "tolerance". We should be pushing for mutual respect. Tolerance is a very low bar to set... While I respect the rights of people to feel superior about their theology, I don't think that automatically means I should accept their bad-mouthing Hindu deities without admonishing them for their immaturity (especially on a forum with practicing Hindus and to discuss Hindu dharma).

Yes I try to apply this rule to everything. Work is an interesting learning opportunity. I realized long ago that usually my 50% is like the 100% of most people. Also remember that our 100% is not a fixed thing. It will grow higher with time and practice. In any case, yes it can be detrimental to career growth. But it is also the case that i tend to "need" career growth less as my practice matures. If I get what is needed to live a comfortable life and provide for my family, I'm okay with it.

I had to say this...as a practicing Hindu (by birthright as well as by practice) - in that case, stick to your own religion. No need to malign our deities (not that they will feel offended - just as grown ups don't feel offended when toddlers say embarrassing things)...

It feels like a flowing current inside. In the dan tiens it swirls and spirals like smoke. Qi has always felt "cool" to me. Like cool stream water flowing inside my body/meridians. When it condenses on its own, it feels like there is a fluid compression inside...like hydraulic pressure, only much softer (if the liquid was several times less viscous than water even). Jin feels different though - it feels like silk/satin in my body. Can't think of any other description Externally it feels like a force field. Like how an unpoppable bubble might feel. When it flows sometimes through me I can feel it like air flowing through me. When I do see it, mainly in the dark, it is like mild glowing white smoke.

Excellent video.

That sounds a lot like Sri Sri Ravishankar's Sudarshan Kriya. Only the bahya kumbhaka happens on its own. Minutes at a time...there is no breath. Mind is still until suddenly you have to breath again...

I find BK Frantzis' 70% rule very pertinent. Never go beyond 70% of your max capacity. Strength, stamina, range of motion etc. As you relax more, you will naturally raise the ceiling on your limits.

I think as it is the case with everything else, there is a time for something to happen. It doesn't happen sooner or later than when it is meant to. When we meditate, we are the observer. The mind, body etc are the objects of observation. When we turn the observation on the observer itself, it becomes apparent that the observer is unchanging and still. So observing the observer results in staying in the stillness. It is not easy though..as the tendency is to go out and pick objects that change. That is the nature of the conditioned consciousness. In a way, in meditation, the consciousness is observing the mind stuff. When consciousness focuses on pure awareness instead (or consciousness itself), it rests in the stillness and becomes still. Being still, it is free of objects - so empty. And emptiness pervades. This is what I suppose is what the Rishis mean by "rest in the stillness" or "stay focussed on the Self". The mind starts over and over again...and it is hard to be patient enough to break out from the pattern of "observing things" to "observing no thing". But have to gently go back to the observer.

Hi Bob, Maharaj's teachings are about Self discovery and Self inquiry. He does not talk about Lord Shiva or Shakti. He only talks about first identifying then being in the "I am"-ness (Pure Being) and then further, the "absolute principle" which remains after even the "I am"-ness dissolves.

Wrote this last year... Standing you are in motion Moving you are still The mysterious force acts Empty cup and then you refill Up is down and down is up front is back and back is front Right is left and left is right mysterious force fills the empty cup Do you breath in or breath out? There is one within the other infinitely regressing intertwined within each other They say its not real it is all in the structure your mind plays tricks it is biomechanical architecture What they don’t know is that they just cannot feel the mysterious force that is spinning the wheel Why is it that they cannot feel? because their cup isn’t empty they cannot refill… The old has to go for the new to arrive effortless effort striving without strive The mysterious force is all that there is to know is to feel the spontaneous bliss

Evidently!

Bwahahaaha!! That's exactly what I felt like when I did it for the first time

The distinction is very fine IMHO. When mind has objects it is my mind. When mind is on observer, there is no mind essentially because there are no "objects" per se (as there are no thoughts). But the switching between objectless consciousness and mind (consciousness with objects) happens very rapidly. The merging of observer and observed is possible more in seated meditation IMHO where all external stimuli are artificially removed (closing of sensory apparatus). In a daoist seated meditation I learnt from my first teacher, we "close" all the "orifices". Including the 5 sensory organs, crown point, the excretionary organs and the knees (closed with palms). Then we are truly "shutting out the external world. But to do that while walking or with eyes open or during taiji it takes on a different effect. Organs still sense but nothing (no one) grasps the sensing. The stimuli appear and fall away. That's why it's also very important to do moving meditation along with seated meditation IMHO. The objective is to be "Self-absorbed" all the time...and I mean that without our general negative connotation associated with it of course! The identity part is nothing but a label right? An identification with the body and mind. If the mind stops (no thoughts), what is there to do the identification? Wu Wei like you said earlier - no attachment. So for day to day purposes yes the body has a name (GOT references only in hindsight here). But really, it doesn't matter...

Someone commented about how the observer cannot observe itself. When watcher watches itself, the subject and object merge and there is only aware stillness