Antares

one of the positive changes that happened to me recently... i was struggling for the right diet for few years and was not successful. but last couple weeks something dramatically changed. i eat only once a day some grains with ghee and then only drink juice or milk and i am not hungry at all. i do not want any sweets or anything else. just some grains and warm milk and fruits. and i dont want alcohol at all. i just finished my ayurveda cleansing and still cleansing stomach, and want to do shankh prakshalana with salt water and continue my once a day meal with drinking liquids. if i do this i feel more light myself. but it is difficult to overcome negative thoughts. it is a real challenge. *** It doesn't matter what anybody says or does. You must be an impeccable man yourself. The fight is right here in this chest. It takes all the time and all the energy we have to conquer the idiocy in us. And that's what matters. The rest is of no importance. To be an impeccable warrior will give you vigor and youth and power. I have taught you to be dispassionate. The world of people goes up and down and people go up and down with their world; as sorcerers we have no business following them in their ups and downs. The art of sorcerers is to be outside everything and be unnoticeable. And more than anything else, the art of sorcerers is never to waste their power.

I like this: Power comes only after we accept our fate without recriminations. * * * When one has nothing to lose, one becomes courageous. We are timid only when there is something we can still cling to. A warrior doesn't seek anything for his solace, nor can he possibly leave anything to chance. A warrior actually affects the outcome of events by the force of his awareness and his unbending intent . * * * You must lose your human form. You don't yet know about the human mold and the human form. The human form is a force and the human mold is ... well ... a mold. Everything has a particular mold. Plants have molds, animals have molds, worms have molds. Sorcerers have the avenue of their dreaming to lead them to the mold. The mold of men is definitely an entity, an entity which can be seen by some of us at certain times when we are imbued with power, and by all of us for sure at the moment of our death. The mold is the source, the origin of man, since, without the mold to group together the force of life, there is no way for that force to assemble itself into the shape of man. The human form is a sticky force that makes us the people we are. The human form has no form. It's anything, but in spite of not having form, it possesses us during our lives and doesn't leave us until we die. A warrior must drop the human form in order to change, to really change. Otherwise there is only talk about change. One cannot change one iota as long as one holds on to the human form. A warrior knows that he cannot change, and yet he makes it his business to try to change, even though he knows that he won't be able to. That's the only advantage a warrior has over the average man. The warrior is never disappointed when he fails to change. The only thing that makes you think you are yourself is the form. Once it leaves, you are nothing. A warrior without form begins to see an eye. The formless warrior uses that eye to start dreaming . If you don't have a form, you don't have to go to sleep to do dreaming . The eye in front of you pulls you every time you want to go. Everything has to be sifted through our human form. When we have no form, then nothing has form and yet everything is present.

Aliens? Are they kind (good)? Is not it mind game? Is it spiritual to have such connections? I am reading C. Castaneda's books again after 8 years and find it very inspiring. But many authentic traditions (even taoist) stand to avoid these contacts. Do you do any special practice like lucid dreaming? I am just trying to be more aware at the day time and consider it as a dream and not to miss my practice. As for late practice meditations from DVD2 it does not make me "awake", I do not do 90 80 50 20. And sleep very well. I just wonder should we develop lucid dreaming or may be we need good rest at night time? Taoists say it dispersing much jing. And they even do some practice to avoid it. (I just have suspicion that Castaneda was taught in authentic lineage )

Just avoid flour, bread, wheat, musli and white rice. Other grains and buckwheat must be soaked in warm water for at least 7 hours prior to cooking it.

There are other grains except of wheat. I like yogi's recipe of kichadi - boiled brown rice and lentils with ghee. I, personally, do not eat wheat. Sometime I have spelt.

Yeah, but what about THIS guy here, what is he eating? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkMbMJ9JFaY He was vegetarian. Not eating grains is symbolic meaning in taoist texts. Grain was associated with "working in fields with peasants" (grain is main food in China and many people engaged in the work in fields) and the meaning is not to fall in mundane goals, feelings and emotions like all other people do. It means not to be attached to the mundane objects and does not mean dietary recommendation to avoid eating grains. Paleo diet? It is your personal business. But I can not recall any genuine taoist or yogi who were eating meat. But grain is the main food in monasteries in Asia.

I did it many years ago. I did not benefit from it. There are many different aspects in yoga. I think one needs to have eastern mind and way of life to benefit much from it. As far as I know Maharshi died of cancer

Just forget about Patanjali for a while. He was just researcher of yoga. I would suggest you better to read This is more practical and this is one of the best text on yoga. Does not matter you practice with music or not if you are practicing not correctly. No guru no yoga. Only guru can explain what is there in the text. Otherwise it is only yoga therapy.

Nice to hear you have engaged in consistent practice. And I can only wish you the best. But I know few people who have been practicing 5 tibetans for many years and are not getting what is promised in the book. They benefit from it. But remember we are talking of spirituality. But not of therapy. As for kriya yoga you would need a knowledgeable person who will transmit it to you.

For example in traditional yoga there is hatha yoga which came from natha sampradaya. But traditionally all asanas were connected with 84 mahasiddhas. In the beginning Guru would give you mantra of Gorakshanath and in general there are many mantras. Gorakshanath is Shiva as they believe. This is foundation. Ashtanga yoga subsume hatha yoga. They say no guru no yoga.

Sitting, standing still, moving. There are just so many ways to use all or any of these to achieve ones goals This is purely western approach to seat, stand and move. Yeah it can be something like that in taoist tradition but there is difference between them and even there there are many chikungs derived from authentic taoist neidan. Yeah, people getting benefits from it but the issue was about spirituality - liberation from all karma. When we are talking about Indian spirituality we must discern traditional texts and talk to guys from Indian authentic tradition. It is not to stand move or seat. It is philosophy and way teachers teach how to perceive the world, how to live, and only then there asanas etc. Western guys talking of this too. But talking and knowing is not the same. They will tell much for your money

Theoretically Yes! It is common theory which you can read almost in every book. Go to India and you will find 1000's books there on yoga with this theory. There are loads of different streams of yoga in India. And MOST of them are yoga therapy where people doing some asanas and pranayamas. And only some small percent out of them all is authentic spiritual yoga tradition. All styles that we know in the West are the same subsume yoga-therapy. Yes. It will make one healthier and happier but many people getting injuries. And yes they use this 8 limbs theory because they read about it in books. (yoga sutras). Map is not the territory. You can compare for instance sutras of Patanjali and Tirumantiram Tantra. Two of most ancient texts. Plus you can read Bhajrav Vigyan Tantra of Kashmir Shaivism and then talk to people who was in India and studied there in a traditional sampradaya. They certainly distinguish traditional authentic yoga from the new age yoga therapy. There are many really high level yogis who merely doing asanas and much more yogis who are very flexible but not spiritual. In traditional sampradaya they will not teach any asana first year and you will be just living there with Guru who teaches some another aspects of yoga. But when you come to yoga therapy guy he will teach you asanas straightforward. But what he will teach else? Yoga is not asana. But I can agree that pranayama helps to gain more prana and cleanse

Is Ashtanga Yoga spiritual? Does the practice make person spiritual just by doing asanas and pranayamas? I would agree that it would cleanse mental and physical body to some degree but not sure it would make person spiritual without considering other aspects of yoga. People have loads of samskaras inherited from many previous lives. OK it might depends on many personal factors as one's personal karma, readiness to put everything to one goal, good yoga teacher and steady practice. But the fact we must consider here that western yoga in not really authentic yoga and it is mostly like calisthenics. Would this yoga even being practiced many hours a day make somebody spiritual? Was P. Jois mentioned above really spiritual? Any evidence of it? Was not his yoga distorted in the West? Did he reveal everything to his students and do they teach all this correctly? I am doing yoga at the moment but use only some elements from there. But I do accent on other practice. I think we can use different tools on the path but do the accent on the major method. What is good in yoga there are many free or almost free and easy accessible practices which can be very handy to use. I, personally, do some surya namaskar as warm up and basic pranayamas and I introduced yin yoga to my practice. It seems to be very beneficial type of yoga deriving from chinese dao yin with some elements of indian yoga. I personally looking for more flexibility and calming the mind for the meditation. Also I ordered Paulie Zink's dao yin DVD's. Looks like he reveals some interesting aspects there.

Nice list. I have the book Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines, by W.Y. Evans-Wentz (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1936) There are 7 books. A friend of mine who has been in yoga for some 18 years used his description of yoga tummo and got loads of profound benefits and he recommends this book for everyone but he says that it is very much symbolical and one is not to do everything the same way as it is described in the book regarding visualizations and many other "local cultural " features but it is good for general understanding of the processes of internal alchemy. He took only this from the book. As for other books I just wonder what are the benefits of reading it? IMO it only can confuse practitioner in a mass of theories of contemporary researchers. As for Evants Wentz book on "internal heat" he only paid money to tibetan monks who translated it from authentic source and it is one of the most authentic source on the alchemy of Yoga. All other books seem to be just about chikung which was created recently and it is only superficial glimpse on the taoist alchemy

Gurudass Singh "Adi Shakti Namo Namo..."

ShivaShakti, you wrote you have experience in tantra yoga. Did you practice pranayama? I am doing cleansing program now and included short pranayama complex to my daily practice for physical and mental cleansing. And if I do 2 hours of yoga practice and some 1 hour 30 minutes of FPCK I feel somewhat agitated and hard to wake up next morning. I agree with Friend that much practice might be not very good at all at least in the beginning. I have vata dosha constitution along with pitta and weather affects my vata dosha much and i think it is getting on my way of practice. Hope cleansing with right diet and practice will help to balance my energy. I am not I should practice FP more than 2 hours daily. May be it is just enough

Thanks. But I am doing qigong and yoga (yin yoga) at the moment. I wanted to do Lao Xie's bagua chikung but I am not sure if I would do it right and I want to concentrate on another qigong for awhile until I have result in one qigong. Actually I wanted something for flexibility and kidneys and liver strengthening and yin yoga meets my requirements. It is difficult to learn such advanced MA without good teacher and I am not sure I really need martial skills as far I am concerned more about health and happiness. I contacted local BKF's instructor and asked him few questions about what he teaches and how it is really effective and he "forgot" to reply after I asked how it is effective for him like "oh, sorry i forgot to answer you " and then no answer again... And they overcharge people. I do not want to pay even a penny to such a people and looks like I lost interest to MA. I have experience in internal MA for over 3 years and I am kinda disappointed in it as instructors often overcharge people and did not provide good quality stuff. I do not want to pay money which are hardly earned and listen their blah blah blah... how i am cool and you are in shit. It is difficult to find good teacher in internal MA and when i happen to find one I will engage in it. But not for big money. I can do something else otherwise like yoga, dao yin or qigong

There are many yoga and chikung styles. How to compare them? Yoga means unity. Qi gong - work with qi, energy. What you want to compare? Unity with qi?

Lol. Compare? How? What does it mean to compare? Lol. This is long life journey

I gave the link on authentic yoga source according to which the path is three folded Did you read it? There is difference in letting energy to accumulate (relaxing in a posture or breathing quietly) or force it to happen. But authentic methods do not mean only seating or watching something. If you take posture and relax energy flows naturally. A good example is Kouk Sun Do (the link above). It combines dao yin - opening channels and pranayama in postures to accumulate jing in lower TT and finishing exercises to bring this qi to the whole body. As simple as that I just do not have any instructor on this at the place but one day I will engage in it probably. The same in Yin Yoga you just relax in a posture and breath. And then meditation. But all is done in meditation mode. This is NOT forced method. It is about awareness. Methods help to cleanse physical and mental blockages

Why are you talking of forced methods? You do not have to go to yoga studio. The investigation is only one of the methods coming from advaita. Which is came in turn from kashmir shaivism. But this is the highest methods. They call KS as trika - three - fold spirit. path: Of course better to have teacher in Yoga but there are quite powerful chikung (neikung) systems which are complete systems. And yoga could be just addition for balance and health (as dao yin) if your system is lacking it. Pranayama is good anyway for cleansing both physical and mental

You can do both jogging and yogging. Yoga and ChiKung. There is Yin Yoga (Dao Yin) which is good for flexibility and health. Yoga can be spiritual even if you do not have enlightened teacher in Himalayas. Yoga is not asana only. There are many other spiritual techniques sucj as pranayama and meditations.

I just have looked around for the yoga stretches and pranayam and stumbled upon ashtanga yoga. But it seems to be more physical approach which is very yang. Also I have stumbled upon yin yoga by Sarah Powers which is actually derived from dao yin but combined with Indian and buddhism approach and explained more in TCM semantics what I personally was looking for.