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YogaIsLife
641 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 26 2009 : 4:01:16 PM
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Hi,
I was wondering what would be the best technique for mental acuity and discernment. With discernement I mean the ability to be able to be better present in every situation, judge them better from a point of view of decision making, and knowing the truth behind them (am I asking too much?  ). In short clear-seeing. Maybe some call it intuition. That clarity that exists when one clearly knows for sure (not necesarily with the mind) a solution (even if the solution is that there is no solution!) when a problem arises and then (this is what I aim for really) any shred of doubt vanishes and one rests in peace.
That is one of the problem that plagues me for years now. I lost that feeling that a lot of people seem to have - to be able to KNOW. Just know, in the heart or something. To be at peace. (I overthink - my shiatsu therapist says it does not help my lack of spleen... )I think everybody is able to do this in one way or another and I think I was better at it when I was very young but somehow I lost my way!
Maybe Deep Meditation AYP style is the solution, I don't know. What do you think? How does a meditation with a mantra opens our intuition? It has helped me termendously in many avenues of my life (mainly stability) but I still lack substantially in this.
Thank you all. |
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themysticseeker
USA
342 Posts |
Posted - Feb 26 2009 : 6:05:18 PM
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| Hi, The seat of the mind is the heart. Meditation calms the thoughts; it relieves the brain of intellectual expenditures. Then, your true mind, the heart, the intuition is open to be the master of the house. Your intellect, well rested can respond to the heart's command much faster, precise, clean, correct. Meditation is the way to be super fast, super bad, and get way more Mclovin... |
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YogaIsLife
641 Posts |
Posted - Feb 26 2009 : 7:15:03 PM
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Awesome reply TMS, thanks. clear and...super cool
So mantra meditation has that effect as well hein? to clear/rest the intelect so that the heart can shine through? |
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Parallax
USA
348 Posts |
Posted - Feb 26 2009 : 9:28:49 PM
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Hey YIL!!!
Great response from TMS above, and yes mantra meditation is a powerful process for developing this inner stillness. The more we cultivate inner stillness, the more we are in touch with the infinite intelligence that resides in each one of us. As we develop our inner stillness in meditation, increasingly we experience this stillness outside of our meditation time. Our thinking becomes clearer, our intuition more refined. We tend to make "better" decisions. Its like wiping the mud off of the windshield, so much easier to see the right way to go!
More and more frequently at work I get asked, where did you get that idea? How did you think of that? Mostly my reply is "It just came to me". From where? The Stillness.
Stay diligent with your twice daily practices, the intuition grows over time. You are very much on the right track.
Peace & Namaste |
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YogaIsLife
641 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2009 : 02:55:52 AM
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Hi Parallax and thanks for chiming in!
Actually I really loved Yogani's last lesson ("311 - Inner Silence, Eating Habits and Mind-Body-Spirit Connection") and it seemed to come at the right time to answer my question. I think it was a beautiful lesson and funny how it says the same as TMS above - the heart is not only the seat of the mind but the place of the mind-body-spirit connection. Somehow I feel this to be true and also that life is but a play of polarity energy. Life is a dream!
The only thing that "bugs" me is how come the repetition of some syllables in the mind can help rest the intelect and allow one to feel the heart? I guess I am trying to figure this out with the intellect itself but it just does not make sense to me. I guess I must forget it. I am having clearly results from meditation and will continue. It's just that somehow sometimes I wished I could understand this one better as I would flow much easier with it and be even more easily motivated. Well, I guess it will come to me as I continue, as everything else seems to do... |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2009 : 08:49:48 AM
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quote:
The only thing that "bugs" me is how come the repetition of some syllables in the mind can help rest the intelect and allow one to feel the heart?
Hi YIL,
Here is how I see it..
Repeating a mantra like we do in the AYP meditation does three things in my experience, first during the process of saying the mantra and losing it and then coming back to it, we learn how to let go, surrender.. By not trying to control the mantra we are un-learning our mind's need to control and in the process gently letting go/surrendering to our ishta. This is the hardest step for many, just allowing the mantra to take over and in the process losing your mind.
Second thing it teaches, is to access the gap.. the silence that is really us. During meditation, the point where we realize we are off the mantra and go back to the mantra we actually touch the silence. As we continue with meditation, this gap expands and we find we were lost in the silence.. between no mantra/no thought and mantra. Here we touch our heart.. in the gap, when the mind is lost for a few mins the heart has a chance to overflow into our lives. Many people experience this (even if for a fleeting moment), but don't know it.. it is a moment when people see that perfect sunset or sunrise or see the face of their new born child for the first time or fall in love, at those moments the mind is silent and heart is experienced (the gap in thoughts is experienced). Most people don't realize that the feeling of loving was experienced because for those few min the mind was not there, they actually think it was the other object involved that gave them the feeling of the overflowing heart and get attached to that object and try to recreated that moment. As long as the mind is trying to recreate the feeling experienced without the mind, it's not going to happen. This is what meditation does to us, slowly expose us to the gap again and again, and hence we experience our heart again and again.
Third is the vibrational qualities of the mantra purifying our nervous system as we meditate on it. Yogani explains this in Lesson 188 - Q&A – Mantra Design 101. The mantra will slowly break down the obstructions and hence make it easier to experience our heart.
Rome was not built in a day, it is a process, twice a day, 20 min, meditate and allow the mantra to do what it does. The more we try to figure things out, the more we are involving our minds. Enjoy the process.. it is a wonderful journey with so much joy, so many pleasant surprises and so much to discover along the way. |
Edited by - Shanti on Feb 27 2009 09:04:36 AM |
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themysticseeker
USA
342 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2009 : 09:19:25 AM
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There are three kinds of attachment: from ignorance, from lust and from hatred. Actually, the last two originate due to the first. Ignorance is the root of all attachment, and, hence, suffering. The Stillness is synonymous with bodhi. Why this is the way it is... is a great mystery. It is a wonder.
Your effort to know is due to ignorance, not knowing. That which you try to articulate is beyond the reach of your intellect. Your effort to articulate is your suffering. For the bodhi mind to expand within you, you must have some faith at first. As you release your attachment to knowing, you lose focus on points, and your awareness expands as vast as space. It is a great and amazing wonder.
May all beings achieve enlightenment...
Love,
TMS |
Edited by - themysticseeker on Feb 27 2009 09:26:27 AM |
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Katrine
Norway
1813 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2009 : 09:38:25 AM
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Hi YIL
quote:
The only thing that "bugs" me is how come the repetition of some syllables in the mind can help rest the intelect and allow one to feel the heart? I guess I am trying to figure this out with the intellect itself but it just does not make sense to me. I guess I must forget it. I am having clearly results from meditation and will continue. It's just that somehow sometimes I wished I could understand this one better as I would flow much easier with it and be even more easily motivated. Well, I guess it will come to me as I continue, as everything else seems to do...
Yes!
It's great the way you always answer your own posts so beautifully, YIL
Yes - all will come to you as you continue to cultivate stillness the way you do.
Just adding one aspect: It is also crucial to act according to what is intergrated. There must be a willingness to implement whatever new understanding there is. To not let the fear of making a mistake choke the ability to move with the flow of the universe.
If you are always open to the fact that reality is always different from what you think it to be.....this slightly "bugging" feeling......this in itself will let you stay open to experience what seems now to be "outside" your experience of reality....to always be willing to be slightly "outside" of your comfort zone is bound to give further birth to creativity......love...clarity.....since you in fact don't know what to do.....what is beyond this horisontal knowing has a chance to come through
quote:
With discernement I mean the ability to be able to be better present in every situation, judge them better from a point of view of decision making, and knowing the truth behind them (am I asking too much? ). In short clear-seeing.
This is a theme running through all of life here too....
Here it is like this: No matter what insight....no matter how ecstatic the experience.....no matter how clearly something is discerned.........when acting on it.....there must also be a willingness to let go of it . Because nothing is static. It is this letting go that will engender further flow. This is a constant challenge here.........wanting to hold on......... but to live as Life.....as love....is not about..."collecting" experiences. It is a new decision every second. Yet - the dicision is always the same: To listen.....and surrender to Silence again and again and again.....so that the synchronization to the flow can happen anew and anew and anew.....
If the universe is always expanding - and we are that expansion - then....in order to stay in stillness....it is crucial that we move with the flow. Or else there is stuckness..... Silence is always in depth....it is not linear like the mind set. Silence is only both vertical and horisontal in the point of Now. It is this Now that is the Heart.
So....when the ability to stay present develops....through deep meditation and other practises.......then more and more the experience is that everything changes at the same time as nothing does.
Knowing less and less.....and yet the feeling is.....that the living is more and more true......
There is a smell of spring here now.........the sun is up when going to work in the morning.....and it is still up when going home......the birds are singing in the morning......
So much to be thankful for 
I wish you all the best, YIL.
You already supplied all the answers yourself......just felt like joining the choir
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Katrine
Norway
1813 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2009 : 09:39:53 AM
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Thanks TMS
We cross posted |
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YogaIsLife
641 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2009 : 11:25:03 AM
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Hey Katrine, thanks for joining the choir 
I don't have the time now but thank you all for engaging with me. Yes, all is well. I think (oops..that evil word again!) I understand. All is well, my heart will open. It is happening already
Yes, Rome was not built in one day...Thank you all for the help, it is great to have a place to express our doubts. |
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atena
113 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2009 : 2:04:23 PM
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Personally, I don't know about techniques... only sure things are the never-ending cycles of pain and resistances and I so hate this... and becoming tired. Only the pain is real...
I know I shouldn't spoil the atmosphere of the forum with this dirt but can't help myself. Will delete this post probably soon. |
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CarsonZi
Canada
3189 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2009 : 2:06:01 PM
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Atena,
This too shall pass my friend.
Love,
Carson |
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Katrine
Norway
1813 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2009 : 2:20:24 PM
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Hi Atena
quote:
Personally, I don't know about techniques... only sure things are the never-ending cycles of pain and resistances and I so hate this... and becoming tired. Only the pain is real...
This is almost a direct quote from my diary years back....you are not alone feeling like this.......it is just that people don't usually express it openly, Atena
quote:
I know I shouldn't spoil the atmosphere of the forum with this dirt but can't help myself. Will delete this post probably soon.
Please don't delete, Atena......
This forum is not about keeping a "clean atmosphere".....it is about Life.....all aspects of it.
It is funny....but I never thought of meditation as a "technique". It was simply something that came my way...that I became attracted to. And then just started doing it.
And then eventually didn't stop doing it.....because of the attraction to inner peace.
Much love to you. |
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jillatay
USA
206 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2009 : 3:27:48 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Katrine
It is a new decision every second. Yet - the dicision is always the same: To listen.....and surrender to Silence again and again and again.....so that the synchronization to the flow can happen anew and anew and anew.....
Dear Katrine,
YIL sent me here in response to my whining last night about the mantra v. breath. I love your post and like YIL perhaps I think too much but...
While the above method "works" (I know it does) it sounds like duality to me. To decide over and over it to plunge once again into the separate which is necessary to even make a decision it sounds contradictory. Perhaps there becomes a time where it all gets seamless and unified. Is that your experience?
Love,
Jill |
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Katrine
Norway
1813 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2009 : 3:52:11 PM
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Dear Jill
quote:
While the above method "works" (I know it does) it sounds like duality to me. To decide over and over it to plunge once again into the separate which is necessary to even make a decision it sounds contradictory.
Yes...*laughing*.........perhaps not the best way to express it...to call it "decide"....
Hmmmmmm.....
And yet.....it is the decision to never decide. To always surrender....so that what is already here can surface and flow unhindered through us.....
quote:
Perhaps there becomes a time where it all gets seamless and unified. Is that your experience?
Yes and no. Reality is seamless and unified. But here....the surrender is not
That is why there is need of vigilance......
Yes....it is a kind of effort.....to stay alert......but less and less effort as time goes by........and not necessarily in a straight line........
I hope this was some kind of answer
Love to you too. |
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jillatay
USA
206 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2009 : 4:55:49 PM
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That fits really more into my own experience of surrender. Thanks for clarifying.
Love,
Jill |
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themysticseeker
USA
342 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2009 : 5:59:07 PM
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In deep meditation, whenever a thought or impression arises one must remain aware and be firm in inaction, not to hold or follow. This is mindfulness; here the breath vs mantra distinction ends, because in samadhi there's no breath or mantra. Really both are good. For some people who are excessively verbal, they may have 20 different discourses coursing at once. For them, mantra is just another convo happening in their city of mind. Pranayam and retention are more helpful. There's no one size fits all. So be flexible.
Duality doesn't exist, so if you are a non-dualist there's no point in debating about dualism. The debate is non-dual and is like a lesson from the guru. If you are a dualist, then debating about dualism is non-dual, because you have to understand nonduality to counter it. If you understand nonduality then that is nondual. Once you understand nonduality, you understand the highest truth; so there's won't be any further defense of duality.
I am a dualist. Until I am enlightened, my attachment to discrimination and judgment holds my mind in two, self and other. If I am a nondualist, I will never say, "I am a non-dualist"; I will say, "I am a buddha."
Love,
TMS |
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Best technique for discernment?
