konchog uma

i found it on demonoid, if you don't have a membership, PM me and i'll email you the torrent. can i say that on here? is that kosher? sorry mods if it isn't.

http://www.possessingme.com http://your-depressionresource.com/ _________ Meditations clinically proven to reduce the chance of relapse. In a study by John Teasdale et al in the UK he evaluated patients who had experienced 5 or more episodes of depression in their life. One half just received normal counselling whilst the other half went through a Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). MBCT incorporates Buddhist style mindfulness meditation along with exercises to help them understand how thinking patterns influence their feelings. MBCT patients were found to have a relapse rate of 36% compared to the control group of 78%. source: http://overcomingdepressionblog.com/category/relaxationmeditation/ _________ just because it irks me when people tell me "its on the internet but you'll have to look it up yourself haha"

I like that book. I am weaning myself away from meat right now (down to occasional fish at present) largely because of his influence. There are a lot of reasons really, but he's definitely one of them. i am watching a 2 hour video by him that is called "Spiritual Nutrition" although i am only 15 mins in, and i can't quite tell if it is a promo for the book, or for the info in the book, or what. Thats what it seems like anyway. Its just him addressing a room full of yoga people so far. The torrent is out there tho, if you can find it, its pretty cool so far. I have 1hr 45m to go however, so i don't know what the whole thing is like.

i have never seen anything quite like this. It seems pretty conceptually abstract, so if you are hungering for meaning, good luck. Or maybe i am just not deep enough to realize what the artist is trying to say! Either way, gorgeous eye candy! http://io9.com/5891265/this-is-the-most-gorgeous-body-horror-youll-ever-watch

theres a lot of reasons a person can be cold. as far as i know they deal mostly with circulation, and vegetarianism doesn't have an effect on circulation one way or the other. also, b12 is stored by the liver for a long time (years) so you needn't take that much of it as a suppliment. Look into it for more precise info, im not qualified to give advice.

you might think you have some slick logic, but thats not actually the case cowboy. Your big no isn't to me, its to yourself. I didn't say diabetics should try meditation over insulin, you did. Get things straight before you think about playing word games with me. If you're going to respond to something I said, respond to something I said. If you're going to make up both sides of the conversation to suit your own agenda, have fun talking to yourself, cause I'm done talking to you. your faulty logic is this: you are treating all pills as if they are the same. I'm afraid you're going to have to engage on a bit higher level of rationality to keep my interest in your thread. As it is, i'm through talking to you. Good luck with your life, and with keeping track of which pills you're taking.

thanks rainbowvein, and thanks everyone!! :wub: thanks too for your inspiration everyone (on all those other threads ) without you bums i would surely not be stretching and sitting the FL now. @mokona: if there was a sticky i would have used it. There are so many previous threads, i didn't really care for any of them, and didn't feel like resurrecting the beast which is drew hemple on top of that. No disrespect to DH, its just how i felt at the moment! so i went with it...

there are blogs of people who turned to meditation (mostly buddhist, very accessible and "harmless" varieties) and overcame major diagnosises like psychotic depression and schizophrenia. They are off their psyche meds and living happily. i don't remember the names of those blogs, but i have seen them. if you google, you'll probably find them. i'm short on time so i'm not going to search for links. My apologies. also, pills don't treat the root causes of psychosis, they treat the symptoms, so there is not a direct comparison to be made in that regard. Nobody has ever been cured of depression by anti-depressants. Nobody has ever been cured of schizoid conditions by anti-psychotics. They just suppress the symptoms. Meditation can change the mind and body. Yes, body. It affects neurochemicals and hormone levels, and also can affect changes to the energy body and physical body of a meditator in subtle but profound ways. Also, pills give people side effects, like cancer. But like i said, there's not even a direct comparison there so its a moot point.

Hello bums! I would like some input as to which translation of the VijnanaBhairava is your favorite. I had a really powerful shivaratri and would like to deepen my study/practice. I would like a version that is not academic, but has spirit and soul. My favorite thing about shaivism is that its so rich and vibrant, and i engage it to balance out the dryness of buddhism and the loftiness of daoism. Shaivism is like the mud i love to roll around in and i'd like a book that reflects that, if you could recommend one or two i am leaning toward lakshman joo or daniel odier but i am open to anything!! thanks

http://planetsave.com/2012/02/24/seattle-to-creat-nations-first-public-food-forest/ pretty sweet

Well shaivites keep themselves immaculately clean as far as i know, its one of the niyamas i think. Anyway, i appreciate your consideration. I wouldn't have used the same words with a shaivite swami, so in that regard, i can understand you calling it into question. Best to you too.

Those links cite the negative experiences of the cultish Trancendental Meditation movement, and the stories of someone who followed Bagawan Shree Rajneesh, who was deported for terroristic activities. Meditation can be bad for you, but to me, thats because the mind is powerful, and meditation can be powerful too. If you are meditating under the guidance of people who are going to use that state to entrain you to lower vibrations in a cult-like way, it can be extraordinarily destructive. If you are meditating under the guidance of an awakened master, you are more likely to awaken than, say, someone who doesn't meditate because they heard it was bad for them. So like anything else that has the potential to be powerful, be careful with it. Are knives bad because careless people have injured themselves and selfish people have caused harm with them? No. If i were in the wilderness with only one tool it would be a knife. The scalpel has saved numerous lives... So if you are going to learn meditation, learn from someone you have researched, in a spiritual tradition that has proven benefits. You can know by the quality of the teachers a school or master has spawned, and by the reputation of that school or master as examined from many angles. Do research before you involve yourself in anything. Saying meditation can be bad for you is like saying food can be bad for you because some of it is surely spoiled.

cool stuff, i just ordered some pu'erh (of course) and some ancient forest tea from (of course) MountainRoseHerbs http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/tea_bev/tea_black.php#t_b_t_af looking forward to trying some ancient tea

Recently, i had a powerful awakening that i wrote about in the vedanta forum in a thread called Layayoga by Goswami. For the first 4-5 days afterwards i could very easily see, with my mind's eye, the energy as it was, lightning bright and slightly blue with a tinge of violet. I even saw the tiny thread of it between chakras once or twice before i knew the nature of the sushumna (that it is very thin). However, as days go by i find it harder to see in my minds eye, and if i do see it, it is bright but not lightning-bright. I am not worried, because it told me that i should not depend on the inner vision of it and that it can manifest unseen and unknown to me. I am also not worried because i can still FEEL it, and that it what is important. When it has awakened and climbs, i get a feeling like night air in my back and when it gets to the sahasrara, and beyond, i feel cool throughout, very pleasantly so. I feel the sense of bliss that accompanied it at first, and in many subtle ways i feel that it is very much a part of me now. I feel as it rises my chakras "bloom" and awaken to vibrancy, and basically have all the sensations except i can't see it so i wonder "how can i not see it its so bright??" I wonder about the normalcy of this (if thats the word for it?), because i have read that sometimes shaktipat can awaken the mother kundalini for a while, but that it can possibly go back to sleep. I would like to ask the more experienced of you bums about this, mostly for fear of losing this wonderful blessing I don't know what a person can do to keep it from going back to sleep. I use the mantra Hum Hamsa and concentrate on the dormant kundalini in the form of a coil of brilliant light around a linga in the muladhara. I practice 1-4-2 pranayama. Sometimes it takes 15 minutes to even get a hint of bright light, sometimes its almost immediate. I have more success first thing in the morning. Does the visualization of it come and go for others out there? Does it fluctuate, and if so, are the fluctuations i describe normal? Or might i be losing it? Do you have advice on how to cultivate it in the beginning? I feel largely like its the doing of the kundalini, so that i don't indulge in the brilliant display of it and focus instead on the feelings of wakedness and bliss, which are more relevant. At least, like i said, thats what she told me. So thanks for humoring me cause i feel like this is coming from an insecure part of my psyche but i'm really curious as to whether this just happens, or what? Thanks in advance for your advice. Blessings

yes thanks!

I should say that I have been learning a wonderful meditation from UTI for the last 3 weeks. Its a keeper. Thank you UTI!

I did not claim to be a psychologist, nor does one need to be a practicing shrink in order to apply the principles of psychology to, for example, conflict resolution. There's no need to be so rude, and that rudeness doesn't reflect poorly on me, just you. And my choice of words wasn't careless in the least. It was meant to express my appreciation of Shaivism's earthiness and groundedness. I will take it that the issue is yours since you are the only one offended by my turn of phrase, and i will attempt to be more sensitive when dealing with you in the future. Blessings.

nice thread

You seem angry. I'm sorry, i just like to read. I don't take spirituality or Shaivism as a fast food menu, and i wonder what in the world you are talking about. If i have offended you, please explain how and why, and i will be more careful in the future. Feel free to send me a PM or work out your issues with me in a more appropriate way than idle slander on these forums. There's already enough of that.

Perhaps its stupid, and perhaps it isn't. You are welcome to interpret my words in any way you wish. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Shaivism, so i don't feel a need to expound or explain to any further extent. I know what i meant. I would point out though that i don't see myself as somehow better than or higher in importance than the many animals of creation that like to roll in mud. When i was a child i loved to play in the mud. Now that I'm all "grown up" i find myself in company that is offended by the idea. ??? Om PrithiviDhatu Bhumideviya (salutations to the dirt, it is the living planetary deity!)

i'm honored, but i think what's been said here is pretty awesome. I didn't feel like i had much to add. Its true that the jade pillow is isolated in kuji-in with retsu, the 7th kuji. I feel like mine is still opening, and as i progress in my kuji-in practice, the area that is affected by the mudra and mantra becomes something i relate to the talu chakra instead of the jade pillow. IMAGE REMOVED AT REQUEST OF ARTIST So maybe for some people, like me, the jade pillow is a gateway to deeper body awareness and mystical ability. But i'm not sure about that. I have never learned anything about the talu chakra from a teacher or guru, so i sort of associate it with the deep dreaming consciousness that is unaffected by events, kind of a transcendental acceptance. Thats mostly from kuji-in teachings on retsu! I have no idea what some other people might believe the talu chakra to do. Although it was mentioned in Layayoga by Goswami, he says he can not expound on the meaning of talu, that one must learn directly from a guru what it means. So i have never been sure if the retsu philosophy is really what the talu chakra is about! " ...the limits of perception become malleable, where long hours can not be tiring, and short moments do not seem fragile. It is the place of remembering oneself as spirit. Henceforth, human time becomes of lesser importance, so remember to give adequate attention to your human schedule. Things that are too big or too small lose that distinction, and concepts that might have been hard to grasp become yours to appreciate. From the moment one remembers their wholeness as and with spirit, the eternity and brevity of ones existence lose their distinction and gravity. Retsu (the jade pillow) is the point from which we can glimpse the impossible, or things that don't make sense to the rational mind. It is where we live as spirit, inhabiting our human temple. It is the transcendance of the limitations of the human side of us into un-worded consciousness and spiritual truth." I can apply all that to talu more easily than the jade pillow, but then again, i am almost always doing mudra and mantra when i focus on talu, and that mudra and mantra are associated with those concepts in my mind. So maybe i am superimposing it! hahaha in other words, i didn't say anything because i am not sure i have any idea what i am talking about hahaha

sure and i'm not saying i never use discrimination or judgement. I'm just saying that that is a layer of awareness, and that there are deeper layers. btw humans are animals. I can't prove to you with science that we have instincts and genetic knowledge, but i think we do, and that language and logic overshadows them. Why would our genes not store genetic knowledge while animal genes do? That makes no sense. so i think the organization and deduction is the overshadowing logic, and i think there are deeper layers of awareness at play at the same time.

firstly thanks to SereneBlue for turning me on to this awesome book. The Little Book of Hercules http://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Hercules-Physical-Spiritual/dp/0972190716/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329966932&sr=8-1 In it William Bodri discusses the 12 labors of Hercules in Greek mythology, and explains how they are metaphors for the awakening of a person's energies through spiritual cultivation. I am about halfway through it, but this book has awakened me to several things, notably, the deeper meanings behind stories of old greek, christian, chinese, and various origins, which bodri elegantly explains the metaphoric meaning of. It has also explained several completely bizarre things that i have experienced as stages on the path, and given me a sense of relief that i am not some sort of freak, but that these bizarre occurances happen to those who cultivate their energies! Stuff i have never seen anywhere else or heard from teachers, but have experienced. Its a very thorough book, and i highly recommend it to anyone who is cultivating themselves spiritually, whether they are having kundalini experiences, which the book focuses extensively on, or not. also on the back burner, til i'm done with The Little Book of Hercules: Kivas of Heaven : Ancient Hopi Starlore http://www.amazon.com/Kivas-Heaven-Ancient-Hopi-Starlore/dp/1935487094/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329967388&sr=1-1 Self Realization in Kashmir Shaivism : The Oral Teachings of Swami Lakshmanjoo http://www.amazon.com/Self-Realization-Kashmir-Shaivism-Lakshmanjoo/dp/0791421805/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329967461&sr=1-1

nope bodri hasn't mentioned them. I gave them as an example of things moving in a somewhat orderly fashion through stages of progress (and the states that accompany them) I think bodri speaks from a fair amount of actual experience, because when he parrots nan huai chin he says "my teacher says.."

his focus is on universal phenomena. Yes they are different for everyone but have themes, and the themes is what he is focused on. i recently have been beginning to experience the 5th and 6th anapanasati stages. When i experienced the 4th, it manifest to me in my own unique way, but it was in accord with the formal definition of the 4th stage. (I thought i might have had a realization of emptiness, but xabir showed me the 16 anapanasati stages and it made perfect sense with "where i was" on my path.) So in my experience there is something valid about a progression that is more or less universal. It tends to move from gross to subtle, roughly speaking.