CarsonZi

Namaste NeutralWire and sorry if I am confusing you....not my intention! What I mean when I say that there are no "successes" or "failures" is simply, we do what we do, and everything that happens is happening according to the will of God. WE as simple humans may see something we do as "in error" and indeed it may have been by some perspectives ours included...BUT this mistake is what we needed to make in order to continue on in our journey. Nothing happens by accident, everything has purpose and beating ourselves up over mistakes (or successes) is not productive. Learning from these mistakes is necessary so we don't repeat them, but making mistakes is natural and necessary. So in that respect there is no "successes" and no "Failures", there is only what IS. Make more sense now? Love, Carson

Hi Billy K, I know....I am in Canada. I'm willing to send it to you regardless. I enjoy sending people I don't know little presents in the mail. That's just how I do. haha. I believe so....Real Love isn't that old and he also has titles like Real Love in Marriage etc. so I'm pretty sure he is still writing. Real Love is definitely still available for order as a friend of mine on the AYP forums just ordered it for herself and she lives in Norway so......you can get it if you want. Doesn't matter...IMO there is only one and that is LOVE. Buddhist, imitation, blah blah blah, all comes down to Unconditional love....for everyone and everything. You wouldn't think so, but for me, the AYP (Advanced Yoga Practices) books (by Yogani), Real Love (by Greg Baer), Loving What Is (by Byron Katie) and Autobiography of a Yogi (by Paramahansa Yogananda) are what: 1. Got me off a 12 year addiction to drugs. (IV meth and heroin, methadone, ketamine, marijuana (a quater oz per day) and much more) 2. Put me in touch with my Inner Silence 3. Awakened my kundalini 4. Opened my Anahata chakra 5. Forced me to change my career from a corporate job to working at a homeless and rehab shelter teaching meditation and more. Don't underestimate the power of the written word. Especially divinely inspired written words. Love, Carson

Namaste Billy K, Yes indeed. I would expound on them all, but I will instead suggest again that you pick up a copy of "Real Love" by Greg Baer. He explains all the techniques much better then I can on an Internet forum. (not to mention they are his ideas in the first place ) If you want me to mail you a copy just send me a private email with your address and I will put one in the mail. Best of luck. Love, Carson P.S. Love is Love is Love. Romantic, conditional, imitation, these are all just incomplete versions of REAL (Unconditional) Love. IMO of course PPS. The definition of Imitation Love is not people having something in common, it is people using Getting and Protecting Behaviors" (running, attacking, lying and acting like a victim) to get "Imitation Love" (praise, power, pleasure and safety)

Welcome Tsurgi_Oni. Look forward to hearing of your journey thus far. Love, Carson

Namaste Billy K! Great topic. In general, from my experience, most people fall in love with someone because that someone makes them feel good about themselves. I consider this "Imitation Love" as described by Greg Baer in "Real Love". I would say this is not love, but sexual attraction and a species survival tactic. REAL love, also known as Unconditional Love, is just that, unconditional. Heartache is what happens when you are looking for Imitation Love and are used to getting it, but are not. IMO. Yes, I don't give much credence to this either. We fall in love all over the place because we recognize in others what we love about ourselves. If we can turn that desire for love into bhakti for ourselves we will soon find that we are "in love" with the entire of humanity. And this is truly a beautiful thing from my experience. Love is all there is. The feeling of seperateness from this Love is what drives us to fill the void with Imitation Love. This only makes us feel better for the short term. Love-Hate relationships occur when individuals get attached to other individuals that make them feel good about themselves sometimes and horrible about themselves in others. This is classic "conditional love". Noone benefits from this. Real Love is absolutely 100% positive. But there are different kinds of love as I have stated above. I was addicted to IV heroin and then methadone for over 6 years, so I know all about Imitation Love and the effects it has on a person. I can guarantee you that the kind of love you are talking about will never make you satisfied for any length of time and Unconditional Love is necessary to see past this. I suggest you have a read through "Real Love" by Greg Baer, it is truly revelatory. Best of luck. Love, Carson

Namaste Steve, Anger and it's lesser degrees frustration, aggravation, irritation etc. all stem from having issues with reality. People will suffer. That is reality. To argue with what IS, is to seperate ourselves from the Love. The best thing we can do is accept what is and work on ourselves. You got it Bro. Best of luck. Love, Carson

You can if you hit your head hard enough! haha

Namaste xuesheng, If the meditator is improving the whole world is improving, agreed. I wouldn't agree necessarily that it is a "small" part though. Each person actively engaged in a sadhana of any kind is going to positively influence everyone around him. This can make great changes in the world....small, maybe on the grand scale, but I choose to see this as BIG changes. Just my perspective and really only semantics. Sorry for digressing. Noone. Well I guess maybe I did, but I didn't necessarily mean it how you are taking it. I personally see this a "running". Escapism. I find it much more difficult to be a serious householder Yogi, then to sequester myself in a cave somewhere. I don't consider these meditators any more "serious" then anyone else actively engaged in personal sadhana. My opinion nothing more. Selfish yet who benefits? Everyone, so is it really all that selfish? wink wink. My opinion is the same. Blessings and namaste. Love, Carson

Namaste NeutralWire, Sorry, just reiterating myself I guess. Not necessary and I am sorry for repeating myself. That's fine my friend.....to each their own! I personally chose to let go of trying to "find" something that I know exists within myself. To me it was more a matter of "realizing" as opposed to "seeking and finding". But again, to each their own. Everyone, not just magicians must act in the physical world, but that doesn't mean we need to "seek" anything. Everything you seek you already have. IMO of course. I agree 100% with this statement. Thank you. The way I see it, there is are no "successes" and there are no "failures". Everything is what it is. Learning to love what IS, is the real key IMO. Understood, but you are still missing what I am trying to get across with this....without expectations of what "might" or "should" happen if you engage in any particular activity, the only outcome possible is pure happiness. That's all I was trying to say. Hope that makes a little more sense to you. You may think so, but once you realize true happiness that has no bearing on anything, being fit, being unfit, being healthy or being sick means nothing....you are not your body, and the journey does not end in death. I personally prefer to let my "inner guru" guide my actions. Thinking too much about "right reasons" and such puts my mind in too much control...I prefer to let God do with me as he sees fit, and I try to just get outta the way. When you are happy with what IS, then all there is is fun! Life is a big joke! Don't take anything too seriously. A good analogy, but we (humans) are not like cheetahs. We have "rational" minds. We do not operate purely on instinct. If we did, things would be a lot different. Probably better Thanks again for the stimulating conversation, hope I haven't offended you by not agreeing on everything 100%. That's the beauty of this community in my eyes. So many people with so many different practices and so many different perspectives. So much to learn from this forum. I love it. Namaste. Love, Carson

Namaste apepch7, I guess the difference between us then is that I personally see intent and expectation as intrinsically linked. Can't have one without the other from my perspective. But that is just my opinion and we are all entitled to our own.. I can respect yours I hope you can respect mine. Yes, I can agree with that. And when we start it is always with an egoic intent....but what I have found through personal experience is that once we start the practice of twice daily meditation, our intent for continuing changes. We stop doing meditation because of the reasons we started (ie. I think meditation will make me a better person) and start continuing meditation because it IS making us a better person. (not believing but knowing through experience.) And then as we continue even that intent will change....for me I now do meditation not for my own benefit but for the benefit of those around me. Make any sense at all? A healthy understanding by any perspective. Meditation CAN be habitual, and it is very powerful when done this way. This is my personal experience and your milage may vary as always. When I sit down to meditate and think anything about any sort of outcome, this is less productive then just sitting down to meditate like I sit down to eat. This is just my experience but it IS my experience none the less. And yes, TRYING to meditate without the mind is not productive, BUT actually meditating and not clinging to thought is more productive (again in my experience) then allowing yourself to get caught up in mind stories while you are "trying" to meditate. I will look for it. Thank you for the suggestion. Namaste. Love, Carson

Hi NeutralWire, Ok sure. Good. But don't let it get you down and stop meditating if for whatever reason that experience doesn't continue. All states are impermanent. What goes up must come down if you get my drift, wink wink. But does fitter equal happier? If you jog because it is fun for you, then by all means jog away! But if jogging is a chore and you are only doing it with the expectation that it will somehow make you a happier person, then... That's ok! You feel how you feel and that is great! I think what Pema Chodron was meaning was more along the lines of "your happiness shouldn't be contingent on a relationship...any relationship." Yes indeed it has been interesting and I am glad that there are many roads to the same destination as well. Gratitudes for your perspective....it helps to make a more well rounded approach for all of us! Love, Carson

Hi NeutralWire, I think perhaps...... A quote was expounded upon at my meditation group last week and I would like to share the general jist of it as it is plenty applicable to what we are talking about here in this thread... Pema Chodron said something along the lines of this: We often come to meditation or any spiritual discipline with the expectation that it will make us a better person...Very similar to our way of thinking when we set out to start a new physical exercise or buy something new....We may start a new regiment of jogging every morning with the expectation that this will make us a better person...this is the same way we think when we say for example, go buy a new house....we expect that this new house will make us feel better about ourselves...same thing with meditation. If we sit down to meditate with the expectation of it making us a better person we are trapping ourselves in expectations that are not realistic. It is wrong to think that if you could only get along with your boss at work that you would be a happier person....same with meditation...if you meditate with the expectation that it will make you a happier person you are again trapped by your own expectations and are really just setting yourself up for disappointment. Meditation is to be done without expectations, for when it is done like this, and only when it is done like this, can you truly experience the joy of simply being. This is not a direct quote, and should be seen as my interpretation of what Pema said, but this is the general idea he was putting forward. Love, Carson

Hi sykkelpump, You can read about the practice of AWA here: http://www.albigen.com/uarelove/awa_instructions.aspx Love, Carson

Namaste apepch7 and thanks for the reply! OK. And based on what you say later in this post, I gather your intention in meditation is to "understand" correct? Can you not be disappointed coming out of meditation with this intention if you come away feeling more scattered, confused or restless? This can and does happen (at least occasionally) correct? So wouldn't it be more beneficial to let go of your intentions and just DO meditation like you do something that is habitual and done without any thought whatsoever? Exactly. Meditation (IMO) should be done without thought for who or what benefits, without desire for any outcome or experience, and should be done habitually without expectation. I don't find it that difficult to "achieve" this, (if you can truly "acheive" anything) in fact I find it more difficult to go into meditation with expectations. But that is just me and we all have different karmic obstructions. Mine were mostly related to being a drug addict so......we are all different. Many roads to the same destination. Love, Carson

Hi again NeutralWire, I think suffering comes from attachments. Whether that be attachments to specific desired outcomes or experiences, attachments to states of mind, attachments to comfort, attachments period. Judgements stem from perspective which stems from attachment to having the correct perspective. If that makes ANY sense at all Love, Carson Hi Little1! Thanks for contributing! I really agree with this statement! Setting goals period is what I am talking about here. Setting goals (other then to be happy today, right now) is the best way to "remain the same old idiot". Where is there to stop? Can this journey ever be done? Even in death? IMO no. Beautiful quote. Thank you. Love, Carson Hi xuesheng! Thanks for your input! Seems practical. Not sure if you are meaning that the meditator is the one improving but to me meditation for the benefit or the rest of the world, not ourselves, would be more of a noble cause then to meditate for your own personal benefit though. Perhaps that is what you are meaning, not sure. Yes indeed. To know with the mind and to know through personal experience are two completely different things. To know one thing in the mind is great, but you just may find that what you know in the mind may be disproven from one day to the next by personal experience. Only you can know the ultimate Truth for you. Something that cannot be taught. Keep up the good responses! Love, Carson

Hi Neutral Wire, and thanks for your contribution! I'm not an expert on Bardon by any means, but what you are saying sounds basically the same as what I am saying. It's all about intention. If your intention is just to DO meditation ("If I sit to watch my breath my intention is to watch my breath") then that is the same as "Seek nothing but to cease seeking", but if your intention is to "get somewhere" such as moksha, liberation, no thoughts, no Self etc etc, then the intent pushes into the realm of expectations, and CAN lead to suffering. It is hard to convey things like this with words, but I am trying my best . Love, Carson

Of course! As I said "SEEK nothing but to cease seeking" I realize this is a divine paradox from any perspective. Love, Carson

Yes of course Scott....Wasn't meaning to say that the AYP way is the "right" way....just was meaning to mention that some forms of meditation can cause sleep disturbances if done directly before bed. Love, Carson

Hi Unconditioned, In the system of Yoga I practice/teach (AYP) we recommend NOT doing meditation before bed or directly after eating as this can make it more difficult to sleep and digest. Personally I think it is vital. With the regular practice of meditation it is easy for the body, mind and soul to transcend old patterns. With sporatic practices we are much less likely to get the full benefits of meditation and sadhana practices. Love, Carson

Hi Hyok! Don't you think though, that any intention will lead to expectation which in turn leads to suffering? Love, Carson Hi Buddha and the Beast! (awesome name by the way ) Isn't any "control" you think you have just maya? Illusion? Love, Carson

Hi apepch7! So how do you feel when you sit down to meditate with the intention of understanding and discovering something/yourself and you come away feeling the same as you did going in, or worse? Is it still possible to be satisfied with your "progress"? Would you not be much more happy and content with what IS, if you sat down to meditate with no intentions of ANYTHING, and were just happy to sit in silence for a while? Do you think you gain nothing from sitting to meditate with NO intentions? Just questions. Love, Carson

Hi Unconditioned! Meditating with a "goal" in mind is counterproductive from my perspective. If you believe there is "somehwere to get to" how can you already be "here", living in the "present/now"? The reason for meditation (IMO of course) is to help purify the nervous system so that clarity/reality can truly be experienced and truly be appreciated for what it IS. In reality there is no DOER. You are the Doer the Doing AND the Done. A saying that came to me a few months ago out of Deep Meditation was "Seek nothing but to cease Seeking", and for me this is my intention behind sitting to meditate (and doing energy practices etc). Enjoying the conversation, thank you for contributing. Love, Carson

Is it not enough just to DO meditation, or is it necessary to do it with Intention? Does Intention not lead to potential disappointment should there be no obvious fruits of your labor then? Love, Carson

I personally work for a company that makes most of the commercial airplane engines available on the market today. I do not personally know enough about "chemtrails" to comment, but I CAN say with extreme certainty that when a commercial jet is flying, the only substance that is designed to be emmited as a waste product is water vapor. And water vapor dissipates pretty quickly in the upper atmospheres. There may be a place on the aircraft unknown to us (that work in the industry) to store and release chemicals with the waste water vapor, but it is not connected to the prebuilt aircraft engines. Something like this would have to be custom installed by someone other then the company I work for. But if you are witnessing contrails "spread out into a haze" and remain that way for any length of time, this is not possible with the amounts of water vapor emmited by an aircraft engine. This is all I know as fact. Love, Carson

Hey Scott! If you are a Mike Patton fan and if you haven't already checked out "Lovage" I would suggest you have a look for the "Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By" album. You just may enjoy. Love, Carson