i took a yoga class last semester which included some basic meditation techniques. the meditation part pretty much consisted of focusing on breathing/charkas and completely relaxing the body, i didnt get very much out of it... maybe not relaxed/focused enough? supposedly you can reach other states of consciousness through meditation and or yoga alone. moving through yoga positions with a body high feels really cool, but its more like an extended stretching session for me rather then a spiritual experience. i was wondering if anyone frequents these activities while under the influence and how does it enhance or alter your trip? any experiences with tips or techniques would be helpful.
The Asanas of Hatha Yoga, which are the bodily positions we move into, are not initially the immediatley spiritual part of practice because when you are learning them, most of us are not born so flexible and patient, so we have to gain control over the extremities and get used to staying in those postures for extended periods of time without feeling any different than if we are relaxing on a sofa, and then you can begin introducing Dyhana (Meditation) to the postures. Asanas are mostly concerned with regulating blood flow, moving the toxins in your blood around so that your pumping cleaner blood and you hasten the metabolism. It is said that certain chemicals put into our bloodstream from unhealthy foods, as well as fecal matter, circulate and end up flowing around the brain. Asanas force clean blood into the brain and it is believed that this takes away negative emotions and relieves stress on the mind. So, before we can begin to reach higher, transcendental states of awareness during yogic postures outside of the Lotus position, basically we have to learn how to walk before we can fly. Hatha Yoga is very important to bodily health and regulating mood, as well as retaining youthful appearance and energy. How your skin looks will reflect how healthy you are on the inside, and I cant think of a more beneficial and positive approach to bodily health than this daily practice. During psychedelic trips, specifically with LSD, I sometimes spend the duration of the comeup lying on my back with my legs straight up in the air, and I dont notice my mind transitioning into deeper states until Im fully turned on, negating the entire uncomfortable waiting period when you get jittery and nervous due to the flushing overwhelming effect of the energy LSD pumps out of your head into your body. Regarding higher states of being/awareness, you should look into Kriya Yoga, my personal Guruji Paramahansa Yogananda details his lineage perscription to approaching this form of Yoga. If you look into it, you may want to check out the Self Realization Fellowship lessons, though over the years I've more or less turned my back on them and go to Yogananda in spiritual communion during Dyhana alone for advice. But that is something that no one can be expected to perform until it dawns on you outside of your own will, according to your karmic disposition and willingness to receive guidance from divine will rather than man who gets paid to teach you. Kriya Yoga is the art of breath control, and the point is to steady and slow your pulse and breathing to a near death state, so that if a person was watching you they would think you had died. It is in this state, that it is said the connection to the sense organs and thought generation is severed temporarily, enabling the soul beyond astral planes into causal planes to be embraced and our true Nature of being is realized, thus, Self Realization. This kind of spiritual experience tends to come off as psychedelic at first, but the more you progress, the more you get into states that reveal experience completley outside of the realm of the mind. True Samadhi comes from negation of connection to the body/mind dichotomy when Soul Bliss is realized, Sat Chit Ananda. The Kundalini Devi is the initial steps all yogis take wether they know it or not, the rising of the root of our awareness into the crown chakra, rejoining consort (Material Nature, Maya, Prakriti with it's prana flow) with Shiva (Lord of Destruction, or in more applicable terms to the West, the dispeller of illusion, the destruction of false ego unreality transformed into the unity of One that is God). It is said that our very being is manifested by the Devi, and She is the cause of our seperation from God, but She is at the same time the cause of your new birth into Sat, or higher truth, redirecting the will of man into the will of God that you become a vessel of Love rather than living the illusion of Nature. Anything I could have to say beyond this is worthless because it is through direct experience that the beginning stages of Samahdi are developed, and I fail with linguistic talents to expound upon that which is beyond mind. When you use the mind to approach God you will always return empty handed, and the more we rely on our perceptions the further we are pushed away from Self realization. It's not so much a matter of belief or faith as these are hopeful desires planted within the mind for those who have yet to be turned onto God. It's a matter of our unravelling karma, the blueprint coded program that sustains us, and like everything, when the position for your neural chemistry is altered to design pathways in the brain which enable reception of higher truth comes about, God will start to reveal things to you, without you even having to look. But in the meantime, we just study and learn what we can, use the Hatha Yoga to keep healthy and use the Dyhana to learn patience and self control. God Bless +
Look for no state but the state you're in, and you'll eventually perfect the meditation. The mastery of life put simply
i've been doing yoga.. meditation.. for about a year now, at first.. it was pretty much just stretching, or trying to unwind, release my stress, etc.. it wasn't until i became enlightened through self-help spiritual books, focused more on my inner being, became more positive and open minded.. and found an existence beyond the physical world did i finally feel some real power that yoga/meditation brings! it takes a lot of.. not focusing.. but focusing.. you see, if you're focusing too much i find your 'focus' is really 'thinking'.. and your relaxation through your body isn't relaxation but rather you just being so focused on your mind and thinking that you forget about your body.. and that holds you back from the astral plane.. so if you learn to completely just.. almost.. nonexistent does the trip of meditation begin.. and you enter a whole new spiritual place.
well, what i'm trying to say is to practice and do it more.. or just continue doing it atleast, and every time you do, you should be able to go deeper and more dis-attached from the physical world therefore, should be able to enter and feel (rather than visualize) the spiritual world.
Well, I'm about to resurect this thread, because lately I have been channeling the rgeat Shiva, who has become my father, and who has had so much to teach me on this path. I have found that one of my primary duties or programmings is to help teach about the use of psychedelics in yoga, which of course is a topic much obscured and blocked out. I mean, come on, how many of these stupid mother fuckers going to gyms and corney yoga studios to practics hatha yoga, even kundlaini yoga, would be interested in eating the mushroom beforehand? Hahaha! Not many. But some of you get it.
