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JDH
USA
331 Posts |
 Posted - Jan 28 2011 : 01:57:42 AM
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Wow
Duh
I just got a peek through the clouds. It's bright out there!
Experience does not need to be translated, although it's extremely useful to be able to do so. Ah silence.
The crown opened a bit. And loads of karmic beliefs and habits were falling off. Lots of personal self-inquiry released.
Thanks Carson - for some recent post which reminded me that after 5 months of extracting myself from marijuana addiction, it was time to open that jar again in a more responsible way. |
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Yonatan
Israel
849 Posts |
Posted - Jan 28 2011 : 02:55:37 AM
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Peace!!! |
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CarsonZi
Canada
3189 Posts |
Posted - Jan 28 2011 : 10:13:48 AM
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Hey JDH
quote:
Originally posted by JDH
Experience does not need to be translated
Yesssssss.  This has been the "trip" I have been on for the last little while now too. Culminating today with a new tattoo. 
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic....OPIC_ID=9099
It is so beautiful to just allow the mind to be silent for a moment or two and embrace Life without the experience being translated into language. My new favorite saying is; "I am having a serious love affair with the moment." This is my "poetic" way of saying that embracing each and every moment, without translation (as much as possible), is one of the most loving things we can do for ourselves.
quote:
Originally posted by JDH
Thanks Carson - for some recent post which reminded me that after 5 months of extracting myself from marijuana addiction, it was time to open that jar again in a more responsible way.
You're welcome. But just to be totally clear, I'm not recommending anyone smoke marijuana. That said though, we each have our own personal inclinations, and if someone has a draw towards smoking ganja, it is possible to use it in a responsible (and spiritually productive) way IME. This opinion is always subject to change though.
Here are some of my notes from "the field" with regards to the "spiritually productive" use of marijuana.
-Use it no more then once every two weeks (at an absolute maximum.... even less then that is best).
-Use it as an "adjunct" to practice (meaning, don't get high and then go raid the fridge and flick on the boob-tube) 
-Don't over smoke. When the tolerance is low (which it will be if you are using at an absolute maximum of twice a month) only a few hits of good quality cannibas will be more then enough.
-Don't get attached. If you find yourself craving the experience, then you should back away and give yourself plenty of time to work through that attachment before revisiting again.
-Make it sacred. Before smoking, offer the experience to the Divine as an "offering."
-Remain completely conscious when smoking. Stay in the moment.... stay with the experience of preparing, lighting, inhaling, exhaling, etc and don't "drift off." Make every movement, action and thought with as much awareness as possible.
-If you do asana after smoking, don't overstretch.... it is easy to overstretch when high in my experience.
-Don't talk to anyone after smoking, don't write anything after smoking, just go inside, do your practices and remain silent. Don't get distracted (which I find can be very easy to have happen). If you are using it with the sole intention of spiritual progression, then smoke, do practices, and stay silent.
These are essentially the guidelines I have come up with for myself.... your milage may vary.
A couple other notes....
-Ganja increases the sensitivity to internal energy. But these energetic sensations can be easily attached to and make one want to smoke more often (to have that same experience again). DON'T DO IT. Sit with the craving and watch it naturally dissolve. This can take a few days.
-Ganja makes the mind want to talk talk talk. This gives us an opportunity to truly be dispassionate with the mind stream and to simply watch the thoughts, but it can also make it easy to lose the original purpose behind partaking. Stay conscious.
-There can be an "energetic hangover" the next day which can result in a day of depression and craving. Expect this.
One other thing I have noticed. If I smoke, practice, and then go through my postings/writings etc, it is VERY easy (for me) to see "ego pockets." I find this quite productive. I have a different perspective after smoking and practicing and it seems that I can "see through my own bulls*&%" much easier. I have found that if I smoke, practice, and then read through everything I have written over the past few weeks or so, I get a very clear view of where the ego is still hiding. This can be quite painful, but also quite spiritually productive for me. I usually find myself not writing anything for several days after smoking simply because it is very easy to see the ego in "the talking."
Hope this was helpful in some way.
Love!
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JDH
USA
331 Posts |
Posted - Jan 28 2011 : 12:12:09 PM
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Very helpful Carzon. Hangover in progress here. I'm thinking once per four weeks max personally. Maybe even more.
It's amazing that you are getting regular inner silence now. Last night was my first time that my concept "inner silence" finally connected with the experience of it. Looking forward to more such experiences. |
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JDH
USA
331 Posts |
Posted - Feb 11 2011 : 12:31:10 AM
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To let it go into silence, it has to come from silence.
Samyama does itself. When it's working, intention appears and disappears like a bubble out of nothing - "MY" intentions, happening on their own, out of nothing. If this could be true of the little thought of "love" could it be true for everything, literally everything?
This samyama is a continuous flow with infinite power (since it's everything). My finite nature is integrated into this flow from nothing as I do more practices. By definition, life is a flow from nothingness, constantly recreating itself, living and dying. And the connection point, the flowing peak right between the two flatlines of nothingness - is sex energy. Everything, everywhere, is sex (as a recreative force) flowing out of nothing.
Somehow AYP is not only making me aware of this, but even allowing it to happen. I don't know why it must be done bit by bit. Somehow the sex energy of everything overloads the nervous system? Or something. |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Feb 11 2011 : 07:37:49 AM
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How beautiful JDH!!!
It is necessary for it to happen bit by bit because, yes, you have it right... if too much is released at once it will overload the nervous system. There is so much karmic muck to clean out... and then when you open enough, it's not just your own karmic muck, there is the clearing of other people's karmic muck. Our practices make our nervous system stronger and we can slowly increase our capacity to heal ourselves and others. But if we take things on before we are ready, we will fry out the circuit (nervous system) with overloads. It is careful treading all the way.. cutting back when needed and moving forward when ready.
Samyama on automatic, that is the best thing that happened here... my entire life is now samyama... everything can be related back to picking up from stillness, sustaining and letting go into stillness. http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic....OPIC_ID=3489
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic....D=3489#30424
Thanks for sharing. |
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JDH
USA
331 Posts |
Posted - Feb 11 2011 : 10:37:47 AM
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That's amazing that you're experiencing that all the time. :) So far it's only that little thought right at the end of practices for me. And then the door slams shut on all that within a few seconds of getting up after rest. But I do still ask myself - what if it really was everything? And life feels kind of spooky and more alive (just a hint or flavoring) - a similar feeling of being afraid of the dark when I was a kid, the fear that anything could come out of that darkness.
This karmic muck that is holding back the experience, I'm still hoping to get some insight about that. On the one hand it seems to be things like habits, thought-structures, etc that have been learned. On the other hand it seems like it must have some much deeper roots - like some kind of in-born fear that upon letting go of everything, that everything would cease to exist. Just some half-baked theories. Hopefully there are real insights to this coming.
Those are good links. I had been wondering about doing samyama on my own personal greatest attachments. The things that I regularly get caught up in for hours at a time would seem to be the best to practice letting go of. For now though I'm keeping the AYP sutras, but once I'm more stable with it, I'm going to try this. |
Edited by - JDH on Feb 11 2011 10:42:20 AM |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Feb 11 2011 : 11:12:20 AM
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Think about it this way, few months back you did not know what you are experiencing now was possible.. right? You may have read other people write about it and have an image of what it may have been like? Now that you are experiencing it, is it anything like you had imagined it to be?
When you are experiencing this, do you ever think wow.. this is amazing? You may think it later on, but when in the experience you don't go ... wow.. this is amazing... right?
Like that, my words may seem like a huge thing to the imagination, but when it happens it is so normal... and it is so different from what my imagination of it was. 
I am really happy for you JDH.
Moments/experiences like this keep us going. We chisel away... little by little... and soon the divine is revealed to us.
All the best.
PS: Yes, great idea to stay with the 9 sutras in samyama. Do you practice any kind of self-inquiry? If not, read Loving What Is by Byron Katie... I have found it very helpful to take her technique into samyama later once you are comfortable with samyama and her technique.
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cosmic
USA
821 Posts |
Posted - Feb 11 2011 : 11:31:32 AM
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| Thank you. This is beautiful and inspiring |
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JDH
USA
331 Posts |
Posted - Feb 11 2011 : 12:27:53 PM
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You have a great way of explaining things Shanti.
Sometimes amazing things happen, but mostly yes - the grand theories in the writings are happening as mundane, normal parts of life. I'll keep chiseling away.
Not much intentional self-inquiry going on here. Sometimes I entertain particularly powerful self-inquiries that come up during sitting practices, but otherwise I just let it unfold on its own. So far self inquiry has just been an effect of practices for me (it's noticeable when certain karmic things drop away), not a cause yet.
I have not read Byron Katie, but I did look into her work, and it seems similar to "reframing" psychological techniques which challenge the assumptions and contexts of experience. I will check it out if I should feel the call to amp up self-inquiry sometime.
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Feb 11 2011 : 4:08:06 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by JDH
I have not read Byron Katie, but I did look into her work, and it seems similar to "reframing" psychological techniques which challenge the assumptions and contexts of experience.
After you read Katie, do let us know if it is similar to any of the "reframing" psychological techniques that you know of.
American Baba introduced us to REBT at the NJ retreat which is very similar to The Work..
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