dwai

They want seth back or another body to make their numbers...old saying goes that there's safety in numbers...

And generically, bindu means point or dot. Great explanations guru...

Www.medhajournal.com

Interestingly enough, the author of that critique is a highly accomplished physicist at the ucsc

I interacted with sri qazi thru the auspices of my website in the past...

Meera nanda...hahaha I think she is full of shit...and the author of being different has quite masterfully shown how illogical her logic actually is. We had a series of discussions on meera nanda on my website.. Chindu is a militantly communst and anti-india, anti-hindu propaganda machine...

I recommend kamalakar mishra to that list

I havent read the book...but baes on the comments it seems like cockamamie extrapolations and innovations...why do you find it fascinating?

Wtf? When did kali's followers murder people gleefully?!? When and where did this happen? Most of east and north-east india are Kali devotees. My family primary deity is Mother Kali...never seen anyone murdered in her name. Seriously man...i expected more from you than dumb western sterotypes...

I'll see if i can make a short audio clip and post it here...or find a good one online. A good all purpose mantra can be om...just sit and chant with a relaxed straight back. Vibrate the sound from the base of your belly/lower back ending with the sinus cavity. Om is oh, uu as in ooh...and ma as in mum...key is to pronounce it with the phonemes...

Its pretty good. See if you can borrow it from your public library though...and pls dont expect ancient secrets being revealed

AFAICT, you would vibrate higher so you are ignored. ie, psychically/energetically you are invisible to those who aren't at your frequency. If they don't notice you, you are left alone. Kind of like how Lao Tzu was...like many high level masters are...mistaken for fools, beggars, etc -- indeed it's hard to become a nobody.

Increase the frequency of your energy vibration. The faster it is, the less prone you will be to such drains. My teacher uses the analogy of radios. We normally operate on a standard frequency which everyone else can access, more or less. By raising the frequency we simply put ourselves out of their reach. I felt the difference while doing push hands with my teacher. As he raised his frequency, it became harder and harder to even sense where he was, despite the physical contact. So, the exercise was to alter my own frequency to try and match his...

Who is Yogani? Is she an ascetic or one of those new-age loonies?

dan tien is not constantly in one position....it is moving and spinning around. So you can feel it towards the surface. It should be a substantial area first (like a large hazy ball of energy) and then as you progress it should shrink down to a point. The way my teacher puts it...the LDT should be like a collapsing star...the qi should sink into it. We close out our meditation with focus on the LDT...bringing down the qi into the LDT and then shrinking it into a point (as much as is comfortable). The point to remember is to not force it...just as much as naturally happens. With time it will get easier and smaller. Remembering that the Qi follows the Yi (mind intent), by simply thinking of qi sinking into the LDT will make it sink into it. It might feel slightly painful (very slightly) at first...but that'll go away soon. If you move your attention away from the LDT, the Qi will naturally flow to that area...so for cultivation, retain your attention to the LDT. When attention wanders enough, you'll know that the meditation/closing is over. Another thing is to not do too much "mind" stimulation after the meditation...sit quietly for as long as feels good. When the mind starts to wander is when you should know it's time to get up and move around.

Hi Sun, Does something good really come from it? Does it serve any purpose to let people do the physical aspect and substitute the theory behind the practical with something else? How would it be if we did experiments with the LHC but tried to apply Newtonian mechanics theory instead of quantum mechanics? I know it's a bit of polemic but the analogy is apt.

With one caveat being that it is best suited for dharmic systems...given that its end-goal is dissolution of the ego and realization of the True Self (ie it can result in cognitive dissonance for non-dharmic systems). BTW, I consider Daoism as part of the Dharmic traditions...

Yoga is generic enough that even the buddhists have adapted it... So while yoga is the practical aspect of samkhya, it is compatible with advaita vedant, vraious tantras etc. Yoga is about dissolving all objects and be pure consciousness....and there is nothing beyond that from an ontological perspective.

This is not an issue in the secular sense. It becomes problematic in the esoteric realm. I've encountered many many such individuals who start off with best of intentions and end up doing a u-turn (or worse, get deluded into thinking they have reached nirvana or some other such thing) because of a lack of context and inability to stop using their "old lens". The opposite is far less and those are indeed special individuals who do manage to pull it off. It takes maturity and a good understanding of the processes that govern our thinking and behaviors. I think most of what is happening is simply appropriation of the original systems and re-creation of some weird hodge-podge. An example of a good way to transmit the knowledge is how Bruce Frantzis does it. He gives full credit to his teachers, quotes the original traditions from where he is developing his knowledge. He also acknowledges the portions where his interpretations are derived from his cultural background. There is no duplicity, confusion or dichotomy. Indeed nothing lasts for ever and if there's something worthwhile to add to it, do so by all means. But don't denigrate the system which has given you much and definitely don't try and obfuscate the source as a means of greater marketability. Many such "teachers" try and rationalize the phenomenon of hostile appropriation by stating "at the end, it's the wisdom that matters". But the means matter too...not just the end. PS. I am not referring to you Sun...its just a generalization based on observations. Eg: aberrations such as Christian Yoga, Jewish Yoga, etc. Whatever does that even mean?!? By stripping the tradition from Yoga, you get only the shell with no substance. While it can provide physical exercise, it won't do anything substantial from the esoteric angle. Here's an example of the level of ignorance that drives this phenomenon -- http://praisemoves.c...native-to-yoga/

First part is great...second part....hmm....I'm not so sure it's for me (though at times I'm inclined to say so as well).

I think your point is very valid but the fact of the matter is that it is applicable to all the Eastern systems. I think vice versa is very different, because of the colonialism history (in most Eastern nations).

Give the book a shot. I suspect that you will be surprised. I had a similar reaction to the topic when I was first introduced to it...but after considerable thought, it makes sense (and a lot of confusing things I've encountered make sense too, in retrospect).

Aaron, Please read the book. It challenges the very premise of Universalism as defined through the Western paradigm and explains how/why it is inextricably intertwined with religious ideology of the West (ie the abrahamic system). The main point understand is that from an Eastern perspective, the socio-cultural background from which these systems arose, there is an easier process of accepting/understanding each other as opposed to the Western perspective, which is radically different. If I have to write this out in detail, I'll have to reproduce the entire book here, which is kind of silly, since I cannot do better justice to the topic than the author has in his book (through decades of meticulous research). I know the author personally (and have worked with him on a project in the past) and he is a genuine individual. To make an analogy, try and understand it as the difference between quantum mechanics and classical newtonian mechanics. These are radically different and one cannot understand quantum mechanics through classical lens and classical mechanics through the quantum lens.