rgnyc Posted March 28, 2014 I am new to yoga and meditation. I started practicing AYP yoga due to the effects of a Kundalini awakening a couple of months ago. Prior to that, I had no experience with yoga or any meditation system, and don't have the background to evaluate what's good or bad, except for common sense, and good intuition. I found the site on the net; it looked good, and wasn't hustling anything. I was impressed that Yogani was basically giving all this stuff away for free, and I still think that's a great idea.  I've been at it for about two months. DM seems to produce noticeable results, but I see some people here claim that the practitioner sooner or later hits a dead end due to flaws in AYP methods.  I discovered taobums.com when looking up Yogani on Google to see if there were any possible negative references to him or AYP as part of due diligence to see if AYP was OK to work with. I saw Tibetan_Ice's claim that Yogani and he had a run-in on Amazon, but nothing else, so I let it go for the time being.  I recently tried posting my concerns whether yoga produces results that are "real" or illusions on the AYP fora, in the “Yoga, Science, and Philosophy” section, and included references from "Stripping the gurus" by Geoffrey D. Falk.  Well, that got the post rejected for "guru bashing". So how can you have an open discussion about the negative aspects of something you propose to devote a large portion of your life to if you can't bring up any negative aspects?  Smelling trouble, I signed up to this site to see how things go. I still think an online yoga resource site like AYP would be a good thing, but without the overly restrictive moderation of discussions. After all, we're adults who are trying to work out things that are core to what it is to be human, and maybe divine too.  What do you think of doing something like AYP here, but in an actual “open source” community-based way. Just because AYP has flaws doesn't mean the idea of a community-based online yoga instruction site is no good. Or does it? Does yoga have to be transmitted by a traditional guru?  At the very least, perhaps some suggestions on how to get started for people like me who have no background. There's so much to choose from, how does one know where to start? Is there a consensus among the cognoscenti here of what's good and, more importantly, what's bad?  Oh, and one more thing: Since I'm nowhere near self-realization, enlightenment, or whatever the correct term of art is, I will probably express myself in terms of dualism. I don't “get it” yet, so please be patient.  Cheers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chang Posted March 29, 2014 Hello and welcome to the Tao Bums. You will find no consensus here regarding what is good and what is bad.  “And what is good, Phaedrus, And what is not good— Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?”You will now be able to post freely on the forum and I do not doubt that you will receive many replies to you questions. You must realise that it is for you to decide what is your best path and I wish you well.  Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of the Lobby and take a look at the forum terms ans rules http://thetaobums.com/topic/19575-forum-terms-rules/ This covers all that you need be aware of when getting started.  Good luck and best wishes,  Chang 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yascra Posted March 29, 2014 (edited) Hi there and welcome to the forum What do you think of doing something like AYP here, but in an actual “open source” community-based way. Just because AYP has flaws doesn't mean the idea of a community-based online yoga instruction site is no good. Or does it? Does yoga have to be transmitted by a traditional guru? To the guru question I would say no, actually many Yoga postures etc. will happen to you naturally if you just cultivate/practice/do your energy stuff correctly, which might well happen by kind of a "higher intuition", or even slight memories of practice in past lives.If it's happening so fast to you, this life here will hardly be your first one in cultivation And, as there are lots of not-so-useful advices in the overall "pool" of nowadays spirituality, sometimes extremely close to good ones .. it might sometimes be better to rely on your own memories of "better times" than try to find good advice here and now.I'd say you're lucky to have found this place, I am quite selective about whom I spend my time with, but some people here are really great Concerning that AYP-stuff, I've not been there, but pleease, this here is taobums.. if you want to make up things with the AYP-guys, then write this stuff to them. Different communities have different energies, aims and histories. It's understandable that you're upset due to injustice, but if you have issues with them, make it up with them, otherwise that's not very fair towards the people here .. and my experience with the overall tone here is that you are very well allowed to be critical (I should know that, I can turn into a monster when you forbid me to think ), as long as it's critical thinking, and not just running around and insulting people At the very least, perhaps some suggestions on how to get started for people like me who have no background. There's so much to choose from, how does one know where to start? Is there a consensus among the cognoscenti here of what's good and, more importantly, what's bad? Chang already wrote something towards that good or bad thing. I'm afraid that you won't get far without learning a lot of new stuff. So, as learning tends to work best when you're sincerely interested in something, what are you interested in? Oh, and one more thing: Since I'm nowhere near self-realization, enlightenment, or whatever the correct term of art is, I will probably express myself in terms of dualism. I don't “get it” yet, so please be patient. I for my part am myself nowhere near self-realization and therefore not very patient, but actually communication hardly works purely non-dualistic, and whoever fools himself about that largely misses something, if you'd ask me Welcome here and have fun on this board All the best Edited March 29, 2014 by Yascra Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GrandmasterP Posted March 29, 2014 Welcome to TTB. There's no 'concensus' here that I've found so far. It's a good place to find out what people think though. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites