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Enlightenment Milestones

First year of AYP

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fmyoga

Germany
34 Posts

Posted - Dec 09 2018 : 4:13:54 PM

Namaste

I started practicing AYP nearly exactly one year ago. Two months before I meditated for the first time with a mindfulness meditation focussing on my breath, before discovering AYP in search for a free version of TM.

What brought me onto the spritual path?
I just discovered the topic of meditation and felt that this could make me more relaxed because I couldn�t really find peace in my life.

How was my journey on the AYP path until now?
Starting out with Deep Maditation in the first weeks/months I could really feel more and more lightness in my daily life just after starting out.

I got caught in thoughts often in the beginning phase but the progression and deepening was going on. I could be more still and less entangled in thoughts in my daily life. I started waking up earlier in the morning and had a lot more energy during my day / was less tired as before. So to me that felt really like never something changed my life so much as this.

In the meantime I read all AYP books. After a few months I started with Spinal Breathing. This was when I experienced my first setback in March. After starting with that I felt less open again and self paced with the Spinal breathing before slowly starting it again after a couple of weeks.

In this time after starting with SPB i felt nothing while doing it (the clumsy stage). My sleep got really strange for a couple of weeks in April, I couldn�t fall asleep well and often felt like I have not slept at all. But I wasn�t totally done the next day, it was still enough energy in my days.

After that my sleep settled and summer started. (I also added asanas) My practice got deeper to the stage that in SPB i could feel the energy rush through my spine while doing it.I added more advenced stuff to my SPB (Siddhasana etc.) DM also got deeper.

The summer was great and in addition to my practices I went out skateboarding for about 1/2 - 1 hour nearly everyday. So i had a grounding practice which I really enjoyed. During the whole summer it felt like an ever progression in my spiritual practice. More openness in life and deepening practices.

Mid summer I also started reading lots of books of advaita teachers and self inquiry. Adyashanti, Rupert Spira etc. I really got to understand what self inquiry and non duality is about and totally enjoyed reading and experiencing those AHA moments.

So as the winter came in about 3 weeks ago I started to feel a little setback again after an endless summer of progress. Life got a little harder agaian, more stress in my job and people testing my ability to absorb things. And less sport because of bad weather.

What i noticed is that my openness was stillt there but not so consistent as before. Since one week I have lots of thoughts and feelings arising in meditation and in daily life again. And in my sleep I experience a lot of dreams about crazy things people situations after having no dreams for a long time. I can fall asleep well but in sleep I dream lots of stuff. I feel like a lot of stuff is coming up right now. I is just a natural wave on the path where purification of a lot of stuff which is still hidden is going on.

I did rarely skip any session the whole year and still have bhakti.

Thanks everyone

Dogboy

USA
1795 Posts

Posted - Dec 09 2018 : 7:58:24 PM

Congrats fmyoga! Consistency and discipline are so important the first year, and it is good you took self pacing to heart. It is a practice and discipline in and of itself. There should be no rush moving forward; stability is the best thickener for your spiritual gravy

I have read dreams (REM) are considered "emotional therapy" where your mind conjures up imagery and situations for you to come to terms with any loose, emotional threads. Many years ago, to make sense of my dreams, I would write down dreams immediately upon waking and 'free associate' all the nouns and verbs. By doing this you notice patterns of relavence in your current life. After a while I didn't need to write them down as often, as I became more adept at knowing what my dreams were hinting.

Thanks for the update and keep on trucking!

SeySorciere

Seychelles
1280 Posts

Posted - Dec 10 2018 : 06:42:32 AM

Nice to read your journey Fm. Thanks for sharing.

Sey

BlueRaincoat

United Kingdom
1634 Posts

Posted - Dec 11 2018 : 11:51:39 AM

Many happy returns fmyoga!

fmyoga

Germany
34 Posts

Posted - Dec 12 2018 : 06:13:37 AM

Hope to inspire some people to stay on track, thanks guys! The key is the consistancy, I never skipped anything and never had the will to do so because bhakti is there everyday ans life is slowly unfolding and experienced better.

After one year my routine consists of asanas (10min), Pranayama with some additions (10mins) Deep Meditation(20mins) and added 5mins of Samyama in the end but currently let it go because my purification seems really strong in the moment.

sunyata

USA
1457 Posts

Posted - Dec 12 2018 : 10:47:28 AM

Congratulations!! Thank you for sharing.

lalow33

USA
966 Posts

Posted - Dec 16 2018 : 2:51:02 PM

fmyoga

Germany
34 Posts

Posted - Jan 04 2019 : 08:30:51 AM

I recently realised that after reading and intellectually understanding classic advaita literature my self inquiry was still mostly on the intellectual level. The books by Jeff Foster helped to discover that and be more in the practice of deep acceptance of the uncertainty of everything.

sunyata

USA
1457 Posts

Posted - Jan 04 2019 : 2:27:51 PM

quote:
Originally posted by fmyoga

I recently realised that after reading and intellectually understanding classic advaita literature my self inquiry was still mostly on the intellectual level. The books by Jeff Foster helped to discover that and be more in the practice of deep acceptance of the uncertainty of everything.