Inedible

Wherever you are, you must be there for a reason. It helps to learn what that reason is before running away and saying you are just looking for a teacher. I think a lot of people who go around the world in hopes of finding something they think they can't find at home are just lying to themselves.

A book I've been reading recently mentioned that studies have been done on a person's capacity to be happy, showing that 50-80% of the causes for happiness to be genetic, varying from one study to another. In many ways I find that I am a little happier than my parents but for the most part it is only that I am simply less unhappy than they are. Rather than suggesting like so many other authors do, the one who wrote the book I'm reading suggests becoming more involved in your life and adding meaning to it so that your life will be more satisfying. By having more disruption in your life you may find yourself actually feeling more negative emotions, but you will at least be feeling something instead of just watching the clock run down. Oddly enough it will be much more satisfying.

http://www.cyberastro.com/ceremonies/mangla.asp

I don't know if I'm understanding correctly or not, but it sounds like you can get a membership at that site and then pay them to do the mantra for you.

It is interesting that the term Shaktipat would be used more outside of India than in India. It is a type of Diksha for the purpose of activating Kundalini in the student. It seems to be fairly popular in Indonesia. The way I hear it explained most often is that it is like using a lit candle to light another candle. Shaktipat can be given both in person and at a distance. The simplest way of doing so is by thought, where the teacher has the intent to give Shaktipat and the student is open to receiving it. Eye contact is another option. It can be done with a simple ritual or it can be made very elaborate. The way it is done is usually determined by the needs of the student.

If you really have to ask, you are a genius and I need to find out how you do it.

In general online, if you have to ask if your Kundalini is awake you will be told that it is not. If you just say that something you experience is due to the fact that your Kundalini is awake then most people will just tend to go with it. There are a lot of people like me out there who do not have a regular teacher. It sounds like you are one of us. If you want to be sure your Kundalini is active so you can move on with your practice, I suggest you go the same route that I did: receive Shaktipat.

The purpose of religion is to tell people something to make them feel better. Someone told B what they thought she wanted to hear, and now the tendency will be to tell you something to make you feel better about how that worked out. There isn't anything wrong with that; it is what we are trained to do. No one really wants to be put into the position of having to say "I don't know" - especially religious leaders, who are supposed to be there to protect us from uncertainty.

How many time does Pranayam take to cure High blood pressure? Does it cure high blood pressure permanently? Can diabetes be treated by Pranayam?

Before you start doing pranayama, you should have some experience working with asana. This helps to relax the muscles which helps to correct aspects of posture that block the full range of motion of the lungs and the rib cage. This makes it much easier to take in a complete breath without having to use force to get the lungs to take in more air.

A few months ago I took a class taught by a chiropractor on something called Somatics. He said that I could find a good book on Amazon.com but I don't recall which one he said to get. It surprised me how effective it was at removing lower back pain. It was being taught as a way of making the body more flexible so that it would be easier to work with asana or to do chi kung. It works by re-training the way you perceive your body and its groups of muscles in particular. You might find it makes an excellent warmup for doing asana and it only takes a few minutes per day after you initially learn it, so you could have a solid foundation in asana in only a few months.

To begin with, I suspect you already know about how to suffer and how to fail to gain lasting happiness. You do not need to study failure. It comes naturally. Instead, focus on lasting happiness and other forms of success. Learn what gives support to your practices and how you can have more of them in your own life. Be willing to start over as many times as you have to.

Just to make it simpler (rather than following the link, I'm going to try to put them here)

My interpretation of this thread was that it was about ways to keep Goddess Kali in mind at all times, as much as possible. My earlier response was that it would help to place reminders of Her where you spend the most time, both in your home and at work or school, although in public you will want to be a bit discrete about it. Another suggestion I'd like to offer is to make "silent sound" subliminal recordings for the purpose of remembering Goddess Kali, her activities, the things she carries in her hands and what they mean, and anything else you need to keep in mind about Her.

Buddhism and Hinduism grew up together over the years. Hinduism as we know it now came after Buddhism; I always forget what it was called in Buddha's time.

Now that is inedible, new-age ooga-booga.

Do you mean it is a bad translation or that it is not an authentic Gita?

I'm quoting here from Ashtavakra Gita A New English Translation by Bart Marshall:

For chronic sinus conditions, I'd suggest neti and trataka. Yes, trataka has more to do with your eyes than your sinuses. It just happens for me that sinus problems make me drowsy and the trataka helps with concentration and alertness.

There is no time or location that the jiva is dreaming from. Those qualities are part of dreaming.

Besides that, the dreaming thing is just a metaphor. You could even say that the internal dialogue everyone complains about is dreaming that you can wake up from.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/maturity

<CITE minmax_bound="true">American Heritage Dictionary</CITE> - Cite This Source - <CITE minmax_bound="true">Share This</CITE> <!-- google_ad_section_start(name=def) --><TABLE minmax_bound="true"><TBODY minmax_bound="true"><TR minmax_bound="true"><TD minmax_bound="true">ma·tur·i·ty (mə-tyŏŏr'ĭ-tē, -tŏŏr'-, -chŏŏr'-)

<!--BOF_HEAD-->n. <!--EOF_HEAD--><!--BOF_SUBHEAD-->pl. ma·tur·i·ties

<!--EOF_SUBHEAD--><!--BOF_DEF-->

1. <LI minmax_bound="true">
   1. 
      
   2. <LI minmax_bound="true">The state or quality of being fully grown or developed. <LI minmax_bound="true">The state or quality of being mature. <LI minmax_bound="true">The time at which a note or bond is due.
      
   3. The state of a note or bond being due.

<LI minmax_bound="true">

1. <LI minmax_bound="true">The time at which a note or bond is due.
   
2. The state of a note or bond being due.

[*]Geology A stage in the development of streams or landscapes at which maximum development has been reached or at which the process of erosion is going on with maximum vigor. Maturity of a landscape continues throughout the period of maximum topographic differentiation or until about three fourths of the original mass is carried away by erosion.

 

Not very helpful, is it?

 

Can an organization actually become mature, or just the individuals it is composed of?

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It used to be traditional in Hinduism (or so I have been told) to get an education, get a job, marry, have children, and then retire from the world to take up Yoga. It didn't make sense to me because it is possible to get run over by a bus any day and retirement to do Yoga may never come. Now I have some respect for this route, because in so many ways becoming entrenched in this world and acting out roles without getting caught up in them is far more difficult than going monastic early in life. It is possible that going directly into the monastery is like going from living off of one kind of parent to living off another kind of parent without ever learning to be an independently functioning adult in the world.

Everyone has faith. The question is what you put your faith in. To be honest I think it is time for all religion to die. Maybe even pure science as well. Too many people are using religion (including science) as a way of distancing themselves from their own lives. I want to go around kicking away the supports people use to avoid living their lives while they wait for the clock to run out so they can collect their eternal reward.

Looks like I get the same wisdom even better from people like below, no need for a spiritual forum.

 

Call me dense, but are you being sarcastic or are you agreeing with me that it is a bad thing to be unable to surf the disruptions involved in living in this world?

Just looking at the beautiful woman is surely not illicit sex as you yourself know quite well.. It is the intention behind the looking which tells whether it is illicit or not.

 

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu set a perfect example and said that even looking at a wooden form of a lady can cause agitation...

Personally I like to be agitated from time to time.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying pleasures of the senses. The problem comes from grasping at them and wishing to hold on to them forever. Even sex is not a problem until you make it into something it isn't. Relax. Learn to breathe correctly. It is like with food ... if you are starving, then walking into a bakery will be as indecent as a strip show. Still, we don't blame the chef. If you want to be celibate, you are not supposed to do it by being asexual. That's cheating. The purpose of celibacy is to redirect the energy of your sexuality to the upper chakras. This is much easier to do if you can avoid being tense about sex. Fighting sex is what keeps it locked in its lower chakra form. That's when it starts to get ugly, and that's when even wood statues start to look really hot. It is like being so hungry you are willing to try eating packets of ketchup or mustard. Still, the point I am making is that your relationship with your own sexuality is what determines how you will react to various "temptations" as they present themselves. If you find that your mind turns negative as a result of seeing something or someone, you can blame what you see for how you feel, but you would be better off recognizing that you are the one responsible for how you feel.

The self-sabotage I refer to takes two forms: knowing that I should do something but not doing it, and knowing that I should avoid doing something yet doing it anyway. These both are symptoms or side effects, rather than the main problem. Something needs to be done to fix the main cause instead of just running after the symptoms. Personally I don't believe it is difficult to love God or to obey God's laws under the very specific circumstance that you really know God instead of simply having been told a lot of things about God. Never mind knowing God directly ... I almost always feel that I don't even know myself. Getting back to the main problem. God has given me free will, but its expression has been twisted. I frequently do things I know I shouldn't do and rarely do the things I know I should even when I actually really want to do them. It feels like the circumstances of my life's situation have more power to drive my actions than I do.

Basic self-interest is a reason to learn to love God. If you have basic self-interest mastered, and loving God is the best thing that you can do for yourself and everyone else, then it would follow naturally. If you don't love God, you must not love yourself either and that is why you are holding yourself back from something so positive and natural, yes?

Yes, self-sabotage. As long as I'm doing it, can I really love myself, God, or anyone else? Naturally, there is a certain amount of resentment being generated toward all three in response to my own self-sabotage.

I'll try to ask a different way.

It is said that God loves me and that God wants only good things for me. What if I don't love myself and maybe I keep finding ways to punish myself and then I blame God for the results?