Rishi Das

Thanks a bunch for the links suninmyeyes, greatly appreciated! Enjoy your travels! EDIT: Just finished watching and really enjoyed the movie. A quote from the end if I may... "If the baby in the darkness of its mother's womb were told: "Outside there's a wonderful world of light, with high mountains, great seas, undulating plains, beautiful gardens in blossom, brooks, a sky full of stars and a blazing sun...And you facing all these marvels, stay enclosed in darkness..." The unborn child, knowing nothing about these marvels, wouldn't believe any of it. Like us when we are facing death. That's why were afraid."

Thanks a lot for the input humbleone! Greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the reply Harmonious. A PDF would be a phenomenal find!

Nice, thanks for the heads up. Keep us posted on how it turns out; might have to go searching for it.

For anyone interested, Gabriel Cousens has a really great book that goes into detail about what he calls "Spiritual Nutrition" which is basically a live food, vegan diet. The book is packed with tons of information about nutrition and it's correlation with spirituality. Overall a really great read. Spiritual Nutrition

Definitely an excellent metaphor!

1 meal a day (I like to get it in while the suns still up); snack on water or tea before and after. Never felt better! Definitely didn't just hop on the 1 meal a day plan though; gradually took some time to get there, adjusting along the way.

I would argue meditation is meditation, I just don't see there being thousands of ways you could do it. However I see how the newly coined term "meditation" would confuse one into thinking that it was a nice way to clear your head and relax.

Thanks for the links Creation.

I think that pretty much sums it up. In my opinion for most people that go about it alone the process can go a number of directions all leading the opposite way from where your looking to go. Self delusions a bitch, the ego will conjure up anything to hold on.

As someone who has been practicing tantra for over 10 years, i'd love to hear your take on it.

Which teacher are we talking about? There are several listed in the article. In my opinion the teacher teaches what he/she thinks is best for his/her students to attain self-realization, that doesn't mean that the teacher needs to follow the same strict guidelines. If a teacher has attained self-realization/enlightenment then all boxes are open, no guidelines or restrictions exist. We that are unenlightened should be grateful that the teacher is even teaching. The fact that these people are being put down by there own students is ridiculous and goes to show they were never there seeking in the first place; instead it's more like they decided they wanted to feel like "good" people so why not belong to a spiritual group. Everyone must be a "good" person if they are involved in spirituality right?

I was going to steer clear of this one altogether but... I have to say: while his first post may have been a little harsh, i'm still with Twinner on this one. I mean we are talking about Tantra right? I've always known Tantra to offer a world-embracing vision of the whole of reality as the self-expression of a single, free and joyous Divine Consciousness. Point being that nothing exists that is not Divine; one is subject to use whatever means necessary to reach out and embrace God. I see the counter arguments coming because of the complete breach in social mores. The path wasn't meant to be all "fluffy bunny;" it's about breaking down those walls which have been built so high, and using whatever means necessary to seek communion with the divine. That being said, sex is one of those things that seems to shake many people to there core. I guess I too just don't see what the big deal is? If it was one woman or many, what's the matter? Consensual sex is consensual sex, and really who is anyone but John Friend to say that it was taking advantage.

Whoops my mistake! Thanks for keeping me on my toes mYThmaker; probably the only part of my diet where I sway from the vegetarian lifestyle.

Shouldn't have to supplement with B12 if your eating eggs. Quinoa is also a great add in to any diet especially a vegetarian one. Make sure your getting your omega 3's (flaxseed, fish oil) If your eating beans looking into sprouting them, tons of benefit there.

Can Meditation be bad for you? It not only can be bad for you, it is bad for you. If done right it will eventually kill you.

Sorry, coming into this one late; haven't read through as well as I wanted but thought i'd jump in. I apologize if what I am going to say has already been said. As taught by my teacher, most westerners stumble upon reverse breathing as a result of being "fashionable modest." People don't want to breath naturally (lower abdominal breathing) because most people are self conscious about looking "fat." It's more of a burden than a blessing. As i've been taught, reverse breathing can have major negative effects on the nervous system if one is not ready for the reverse breath. Reverse breathing is a natural process that begins when the sympathetic nervous system is activated leading to cortisol being released into the blood which is not something one necessarily wants. Anyone who consciously exercises will tell you that when fatigue sets in and things get strenuous, the reverse breath naturally kicks in. Although I can't find research to support my claim, I would say that the fact that no baby has ever come out reverse breathing hints at the fact that lower abdominal breathing is the natural way, and therefore reverse breathing should naturally arise instead of being training it to come about. I guess my point for throwing all that out there is to advise people to be careful when it comes to consciously training the reverse breath. If your anything like me, it would be better to train lower abdominal breathing as opposed to the reverse breath. I unfortunately was one of those people that from an early age made a bad habit out of the reverse breath, causing shit like asthma and anxiety to pop up. Now that I am en-training the complete breath things have drastically changed for the better; asthma has pretty much disappeared and anxiety is no longer an issue. I see where the "idea" of the reverse breath sounds cool to people who are looking to become "qigong/taoist masters" but I think the real secret is that the reverse breath will organically arise when the reverse breath is needed.

Sounds to me like real practice, real meditation is just now starting. Get out of your way, all you gotta do is sit back and witness. Make it ok to just let go, don't be so hard on yourself; the real healing begins when you allow the hurt to hurt, when you cry because you feel like crying, scream when that's all that's left to do is scream. Self effort is only half the equation. When you are ready to accept, spirit will come and grace will descend upon you.

Thanks for sharing lifeforce, interesting story indeed!

With a pure heart declare your intention; let go, surrender to all that arises. Let grace descend upon you and get the hell out of the way. Let the witness, witness. Let go of yourself, let go of faith, let go of logic, let go of reasoning; just be. Much easier said than done but the point is to not worry so much, all it takes is a pure heart and the ability to let go; surrender.

Are you saying that your correlating the music/lyrics with how your friends are feeling? I understand the correlation with the singer/songwriter and guess I can see how that fits in with friends but then again I know a lot of people that listen to what they listen to just because everyone else is listening to it. I know for me I get a feel of people's feelings just by standing around them; music or not. A person's body language, their facial expressions, and just the overall energy definitely sums it up nicely.

Not really much info in Robert Monroe's 3 book series on how to do it, but a great read nonetheless as far as OBE's go. As far as hemi-sync goes (Monroe's OBE program which includes binural beats), ended up purchasing it, did it for about a month or two and then burned out. Can't say it wasn't effective, however i'd personally rather spend that 30 minutes each day sitting in meditation or shaking If your interested in the hemi-sync program shoot me a PM, maybe we could work something out.

Sounds about right. Then again... Wouldn't want anyone goin all 'dragon body' standing in line at Starbucks

Secret to brewing up a good Pu erh...rinse once before steeping. Was taught to me by my teacher, definitely enjoy it much better that way.

Nicely put, definitely enjoyed that. As for the bolded; I must have stated what I meant incorrectly in the post you quoted, hopefully I made what I meant to say a little more clear in my statement above.