dwai

It changes with your mind. More scattered your mind, more you expend your chi. More still your mind, more focused your chi becomes. Think of it like light through a prism becomes scattered, and light in form of a laser, concentrated and focused to a powerful point. I’m not sure what dipa ma is. But if I understand what you’re asking, Your mind is either still or not. On one end is stillness of the mind, and the other end is scattered mind with thoughts flying through it all the time. I think it’s best to start another topic if you have other questions wrt mind and Qi. The OP was about Anandamayi Ma.

Why don’t you try? Effects will be permanent after you learn how to meditate properly.

Your chi is just the active aspect of your awareness. By resting as awareness, your mind will become stilled. If your mind is stilled, then your chi will be focused. Her presence makes it easier to still the mind, resting as awareness. That is meditation. Just be, as awareness.

Ok then that IS her energy/presence. It induces great stillness and clarity, as I found sitting in that room. What do you get when you connect with that feeling, and meditate?

There IS no higher rung of the ladder, imho. This knowledge and it’s realization is the ultimate knowledge. There is no further evolution. It results in “prapancha upashamam” or freedom from the bondage of the Universe/samsara. After realizing this truth, the sage is free to be as it pleases him/her.

I don’t understand what you mean. What is ASMR?

Hi Vismund, as I was reading your post, I felt like there were parts of my own life experiences that were being described, starting with a similar peak experience that your awakening started with. I would suggest, as some others have, that you had an awakening experience, but due to karma from your previous lifetimes, wherein you must have had put in sufficient spiritual work. Even your issues with addiction, suffering etc are a result of past life karma being unfolded. Many of us go through these. Consider them as opportunities to cleanse the conditioned mind so that you can allow the awakening to fully shine through. If you don't mind me asking, Are you looking for a teacher or are you looking for someone to confirm what you have known/suspected all along? If it is the former, I'd recommend you identify one tradition that resonates with you most and finding a bonafide teacher in it (given the you seem to have done extensive studying across various spiritual traditions). You might have to start from scratch, as a beginner. But it is good to have a beginner's mind. If it is the latter, many here will confirm what you already know. But that won't help you much in "owning your awakening". For that, you have to do some work in this lifetime. Otherwise, you might have to come back again one more time. As to what that work entails, only your selected teacher will be able to tell you. My advise to you is, once you find a good teacher (and you will know when you do so), dedicate yourself to following his/her teachings. Be sincere in your practices, and genuine in your desire to fully manifest your awakening. If you do so, you might attain liberation in this lifetime.

The rub lies in the fact that this knowledge can be directly experienced. It is as real as our experiences are. If we can use our sensory perceptions and our mind and intellect, we can directly experience/realize this truth. Thats why this is called the “Direct Path”. Modem people have both the ability to use their minds/intellects and the able to use their sensory perceptions. Hence they are adequately equipped to learn this. Only two conditions are required - a strong desire to know An empty cup, as the saying goes

Any place where ever great masters used to spend time in gets charged by their presence. The energy of the room is tuned to their frequency. If you can't feel the energy, but only know how to meditate, you will be able to meditate much better in such a space.

It takes time. With practice, you don't have to "think" the connection anymore. It will happen as soon as you stand in preparation/wuji posture. I'd recommend the following. Split the "connecting" down into segments. Stand in Wuji. Become aware of the soles of your feet and the palms. Become aware of the bubbling wells and the lao gong points. Do this for a few weeks. It will become natural eventually. Next, work on the shoulder's nest and the kua. Same process. Then work on the elbows and knees. Then work on the wrists and ankles. Finally when you are naturally able to feel the connection, then just do all of them at once. You will find that it'll be much easier, and will require progressively

i sat and meditated here this afternoon. The room is still vibrating with her presence!

The assumption is that there is an "other" Self that you need to discover, apart from your "current self". The other Self is awesome, wonderful, peaceful, blissful and enlightened. The current self is ridiculous, pathetic, weak, always suffering, etc etc There is no other self. There is only the Self. Liberation is not anywhere else but right here. Liberation is not in some other time, but right now. Right here, right now. That should be the mantra. If someone smokes pot and realizes this (and it is possible to do so, but the realization doesn't last as the old habits of the acquired mind come back after the "high" is gone), they will eventually have to turn on to a more wholesome path. I personally know one who went down this path and eventually stopped all that and now leads a wholesome life, does selfless service etc. Eckhart Tolle is perfectly capable of pointing the seeker to that which he/she is seeking. I think what is being missed is that not every one is born with the same karma. Some have had enough "doing" in their previous lifetime(s), that just a little nudge is sufficient. Others have to work a bit hard to clean up that acquired mind. All the work is only for cleaning up the mind. That is all. Realization is already there. Clean up the mind, realize what you truly are. Simple formula. And it works too...if one is sincere in their seeking, and has an empty cup. Many people get irritated, some even incensed upon reading what I just wrote. But it doesn't change the fact that it is the truth...

Excellent post. Thanks for sharing. BTW, when I said pratyāhāra, I didn't mean to make it sound like it is difficult. For me, pratyāhāra started on its own when I was starting off in yoga practice, with a simultaneous study of Patanjali's yoga sutra. I know now that it was due to past life samskāras. It is as simple as letting the senses fall back inward. There is a similar taoist meditation too, where we turn the senses back into the lower dan tien (explained like this to me -- see the dan tien, taste the dan tien, feel the dan tien, hear the dan tien, smell the dan tien). Eventually it results in a deep samādhi, and a cessation of thought complete. Though we like to categorize these things, it is never a clear distinction between the stages, though there is a bit of a sequentiality, there are more overlaps. Between pratyāhāra, dhāranā and samādhi, though there is a chronology initially, they sort of blend into each other, ime. When it comes to the senses, I like the Daoist adage - "The five tastes dull the tongue, the five colors dull the eyes, the five sounds dull the ears and so on...". More we are caught up in pravritti (outer manifestation), the farther we go from nivritti (returning to the inner source). Even with the internal experiences, getting caught up in phenomena is a certain way to bondage of a higher kind. Therein lies the traps with Siddhis etc. Of course, there are generic disclaimers meant for the general public, and another set of directions/guidances for adhikārīs (qualified individuals). This is excellent and congruent with my intuitive understanding of the kriya process. The key is then to completely recognize one's identity (and after recognition, remain as such) as the pure awareness, and actions (or non-actions) spontaneously manifest as needed. This is sahaja samādhi. BTW, this is also the way of the advaita vedāntic tradition, as well as the daoist tradition I belong to. Nirvikalpa is the means by which the mind is dissolved. Becoming the samādhi is the what is needed. That is jivanamukti (liberation while embodied). Of course, there are levels of understanding depending on the maturity of the practitioner. At one point, people think Nirvikalpa is all. Then we realize that there is something else too called sahaja state (or turiyāvasthā). I truly appreciate the insights into Kriya Yoga.

From the Advaita point of view, there are five attributes to any thing. Three contribute to what is called "brahma rupam" (or the nature of Brahman) and two that contribute to "jagat rupam" (or the nature of samsara/transactional reality). Brahma rupam comprises of "Asti, Bhāti, Priyam" (or Beingness, Illumination and desirability). Jagatrupam comprises of "Nāma, Rūpa" (or Name and Form). To apply the above information to understanding "form is empty and emptiness is form", consider the following -- The Names and Forms are many and ever-changing. So "Form is empty" alludes to fact that names and forms lack self-nature (Svabhāva shunya), and therefore are "empty". The flip side of it is "Emptiness is Form", alludes to the fact that the underlying stuff "awareness" is empty, yet forms and names appear in/from/to it. Thus, Names and Forms are nothing but appearances of the same emptiness (which is not empty). To extrapolate further, when stuck with the understanding that duality (name and form) is somehow permanent and real, samsara is bondage. When understanding that the underlying reality of duality is emptiness (Pure objectless awareness/consciousness), Samsara is Nirvana.

In my experience, single pointedness only comes from the yogic method of pratyahara (sense withdrawal) followed by dharana (concentration on an object of meditation). Sensory experiences can be a hurdle in the path of attaining single-pointedness. I've seen this both from the Yogic as well as the Taoist meditation perspective. I found that there is a "kill-switch" (i'm not sure how else to describe it), which is a mental thing really. As the energy swells and builds up, literally sending wave after wave of pleasure through the body, by switching to witness mode instead of experiencer mode, the energy gets transmuted into something far more powerful than sexual energy. The hard part is to let go of the experiencer mode. It is so ingrained in us, and the drive for gratification is so high, that it is hard to do so. However, after being able to do this one time, it can easily be repeated, and eventually it becomes the natural thing. +1 Yes. It becomes the natural space eventually.