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lightandlove
Germany
85 Posts |
 Posted - Sep 07 2021 : 11:37:26 AM
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Hi everyone :)
In the Satsang Cafe I think of many people from all over the world coming together to share. All of us are on some kind of journey or another and everyone has a story to tell about how they came here.
Likely, it is very different for all of us. Also, most of us live very different lives. But what connects us is our journey and our practice. We are here to share what we learned and get inspired by each other.
So from everyone who wants to share, I would be interested to hear your story. Here are some inspirations:
What inspired you to take this path?
How did you come to AYP?
What's your philosophy on life and your journey?
What has been important for you, what has been difficult?
Did your life change in any way because of your practices? And if so, how?
What about your friends and family?
What have been the most profound realizations you came across?
Any specific experience you want to share?
What's an advice you would give?
What are you currently going through?
Anything else you would like to share :)
Looking forward to hear your stories.  |
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interpaul
USA
551 Posts |
Posted - Sep 08 2021 : 10:31:49 PM
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lightandlove, Surprised you haven't had any response yet. Maybe too many questions?  I have been one of the more active people posting on this site for the last couple years and have answered many of your questions with many of my posts. I continue to be surprised and pleased by the scenery on the path but most importantly by the gradual stillness that is emerging. It is definitely a gradual process of transformation. For me it is a slow progression from fear to acceptance. From attachment to surrender. it has been the most meaningful undertaking I've done in many years. |
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Zaelithe
United Kingdom
33 Posts |
Posted - Sep 09 2021 : 11:39:46 AM
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Hi Lightandlove, that is quite a set of questions! Perhaps the best way I can share an answer is by telling a little of my ‘story’. I think I had early Bhakti - rather than pop star posters on my wall, in my early teens I had Buddhist quotes and bits from the Tibetan book of the dead - weird kid. There was no tradition or history of religious or spiritual activity in my family or social groups so I was making my own way.
Over the subsequent decades I had periods of intense seeking and periods when the activities of the world took over. I wended a very zig zag path finding small nuggets of gold but also lots of blind alleys and dead ends. Attracted to different teachings and groupings over the years, I nearly always found myself repelled by dogmatism, cultishness, ego and spiritual competitiveness (so how many Vipassana retreats have YOU done? Etc.)
After a few of these in latter years, I decided upon a course of ‘no authority’.
Following a dark night of the soul experience which coincided with a period of intense meditation, I had a Kundalini awakening about which I was entirely ill informed and ignorant. I was getting quite a lot of overload symptoms but didn’t know what they were, although intuition told me to tone down the meditation. It was then that a link for AYP appeared in something obscure I was reading and I followed it - it was like the sun coming out after a darkly clouded day.
I read continually for about a week and found descriptions, answers, techniques and wisdom that gave me the tools to get myself back into balance, but also, a system and ethos that made sense to me in a way that nothing ever had - all said in plain clear language! The irony was not lost on me that after my ‘no authority’ decision I found my spiritual home in something that has ‘the guru is in you’ as its motto!
So here I am, more than three years later, now knowing enough to know what an absolute beginner I am, but content to move on steadily in the knowledge that I have access to a global group that supports me in a way I would have found unimaginable in the past.
I don’t post that much, but I read a lot, and appreciate all those who have eloquently shared in the past and elicited such wisdom from those who have walked further. For me, AYP is a jewel beyond price and Yogani and all those who have helped him have my enduring gratitude. |
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lightandlove
Germany
85 Posts |
Posted - Sep 18 2021 : 11:08:08 AM
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Interpaul, I hope the questions are not taken too seriously, but rather as an inspiration to think about or recall the journey :)
Maybe it is so still here because everyone already is present in stillness and not in the past or future 
I feel the emerging stillness as a going back home more than a going somewhere. Maybe that's why it feels so meaningful and familiar. We've been here and we are here already. From now to now.
Zaelithe, AYP is a true gem with it's "the guru is in you" approach. I also always repelled when people told me things like you can't practice this or that if you don't have a guru. Or you need to get initiated first. At one point, a few months before I found AYP I decided to go for a kriya initiation. It was interesting, but basically I was the same person as before. What truly always worked was the self exploring. All the teachers I met are very helpful, but what matters in the end is the own process, which is independent of these outer circumstances. There is this saying "If a pickpocket meets a saint, he sees only his pockets." |
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