Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
One can ramble on about mystical experience, but without the proper exercise of reason and specific safety guards in place within oneself to discern between fantasy and reality, “mystical experience” will either empower one’s clarity of perception or feed one’s illusions.
Let it be clearly understood, even tranquility or equanimity is not enough to uncover certain blind spots. This is evidenced by the fact that you have all sorts of equanimous sages, peaceful human beings, and highly revered beings, who, nevertheless, differ tremendously from each other in their understanding, sometimes mutually incompatible views. Somebody here must be hallucinating in spite of peace of mind. And it may be a gift to discover one day, after realizing profound peacefulness, that you yourself also may still be clinging to your illusions.
Experience is one thing, the narratives manufactured about the meaning of experience, due to confirmation bias, is another. If only this lesson can be absorbed, it will transform the meaning of what is “mysticism” into something which many others, succumbed to their mystical illusions, would find almost unrecognizable.
9 - 3
Conceptions of God reveal far more about the mechanisms of the human psyche than anything having to do with existential reality. The failure to recognize this has been part of the escapism of the ages for theistic religions.
2 - 0
Q: In Soto Zen, during Zazen, would it be accurate to describe your focus as being on the "feeling or awareness" of the experience, rather than on the "thinking or analysis" of the experience?
Unfortunately many of other responses I've heard for your kind of inquiry has been filled with the typical, cliche "zenisms" that render things completely impractical. They will say something along the lines of "don't worry about that, just sit", or "just be". In fact even to say "just sit" as a default response to your kind of inquiry - never adapting the answer to the individual, shows a certain kind of arrogance.
The most intimate knowledge of oneself and the nature of reality that is possible is the vacuum of one's own awareness. Outside of consciousness, there is no knowledge of anything at all which is possible. So zazen - if you want to commit the act of oversimplification, can be seen as a spontaneous resting of one's perception, - not onto the objects of experience, but that background awareness. It is resting in "pure being", and how can awareness itself be attached to the objects of experience? It is the very vacuum in which all experience manifests. So naturally, one settles into equanimity, non attachment and spontaneous non grasping.
Though to be technical - because the mind of non grasping is liberated from attachment to knowledge, even everything above which I've just said is then rendered irrelevant. So the maxim of "just sit" holds true.
But for those who find it difficult to "just sit", a more technical understanding can help clarify matters rather than relying on oversimplific and cliche "zennisms".
4 - 0
Repetition has a certain value. You simply must learn how to extract the essential value. If repetition is combined with internal listening, it is setting the wheels of meditation in motion. This internal listening is a voluntary process of attention. Now how will you genuinely pay attention if repetition is centred around attachment to the outcome? You have turned repetition now into an ongoing cycle of ignorance.
The conscious approach to repetition is that it is a way to absorb information and, by degrees of sensitivity, extract what is essential from it. But one first learn the trick of alchemical effort.
If repetition and discipline is to help break away from this cycle of ignorance, there is no alternative but to learn the lesson of “right effort”. Either way, somehow, one must find a way to allow a creative intelligence to express itself without clinging to the illusions that come with the territory of one’s own creative spirit. This is not even a domain limited to mysticism or spirituality. It is relevant for any creative individual who is seeking to uncover their potential as a sentient being. And it is my conviction that every human being is a reservoir of creative forces - whether they know it or don’t know it.
#innerwork #innertransformation #selfknowledge #creativity #spiritualawakening #zen #jnanayoga #patanjali #meditation #shadowwork #mysticism
10 - 2
About to begin todays morning sessions with students. And good morning 🙏🏻
Like the illusion of the rising and setting sun, the cycles of wakefulness, dream, sleep, is continuous from birth till death. All the while, impersonal consciousness remains with its persistent power, immune to suffering, untouched by pleasure and pain, an eye which never sleeps.
Blessings and namaskar 🙏🏻
10 - 0
Dualists have known of samadhi, non dualists have known of samadhi, atheist charvakas have known of samadhi, theistic Brahmanism has also known of samadhi. The gurus of the Upanishads no doubt have been immersed into it though they speak of Atman (Self), and the Buddhist sages have been all too familiar with it has yet they have spoken of Anatman (No Self). Even the superstitious cultures that have employed psychedelics in shamanic rituals have known of samadhi.
So many different views and belief systems, yet all have had a familiarity with samadhi. That alone is the evidence that in spite of samadhi, a fair deal of mental projection has managed to continue nevertheless.
Put Samadhi in it's proper context instead of exaggerating it's importance. The equanimity and magnification of perception that takes place in samadhi, on its own, only offers some degree of mental purification. Otherwise, it is insufficient as far as liberation from the projections of the ego is concerned. Samadhi must become a vehicle through which striking wisdom must manifest and it is this particular mixture of samadhi with refined wisdom which is the gamechanger.
11 - 0
UPDATE: Derek Sherinian (ex Dream Theater, Planet X, Sons of Apollo) will be a special guest on keyboards on the upcoming record for the track “Visitations From The Shadow”.
Pleasure to be collaborating with such a monstrous talent!
#dreamtheater #sonsofapollo #keyboards #guitaristsofinstagram #newalbum #albumrelease #progressivemetal #progrock #guitarist
17 - 2
The inner struggle of humanity is not a dichotomy of good versus evil. It is a battle of ignorance set against wisdom. But what exactly is meant by ignorance? There is no one who lives who is not ignorant on many levels. Who here is omniscient? One may be ignorant of physics, another of sculpture, and another of botany, economics, history, and so on. This is not the kind of ignorance I mean. By "ignorance", I simply mean attachment to mental projections and blind spots that prevent you from true knowledge of the nature of self. The uncovering of this and the embodiment of knowledge, not as a theoretical exercise, but as an intimate way of being - this is wisdom.
20 - 1
Hello everyone! I have just created a Facebook page to support the new record. Please like, support, and stay tuned! Many updates coming soon
www.facebook.com/pages/category/Musician/Amir-Mour…
7 - 0
I have seen many statements on Facebook where the idea of fear of dying from the virus is being ridiculed, it seems usually among the conspiracy theory types. The question is, what do you expect? Absolute fearlessness of a Buddha among the masses? Does this seem statistically sound?
There are those who are afraid of the virus and do indeed live in fear of death from the disease, and while this is a trigger of suffering, it is only a by-product of much time spent in neglect of self-knowledge. It is a tremendous arrogance that such people are being ridiculed for such a natural response. Fear of death is deeply imprinted into the body, it is the ancient biology of animal nature, the opposite side of the coin from the will to live. It often takes the immense dedication of time and energy with a life continuously one-pointed on self-inquiry to be able to transcend it. It is then only inevitable that most will be terrified of infection and fear of death from the virus.
There is one major psychological reason for this phenomenon - and it is that normally the individual who expresses such criticism assumes himself to be immune to death from the virus, and therefore above it. This breeds much insensitivity. This insensitivity is only further enhanced with beliefs that the numbers of deaths worldwide that are reported are deceptive exaggerations of evil masterminds in government who desire to tank their own economies in order to satisfy some sadomasochistic desire.
10 - 0
Amir Mourad is an Egyptian-Canadian yogi, contemporary mystic, teacher, guitarist and composer. After coming to a series of inner transformations and self-realization during a six-year period of living as a hermit,, he founded Shunya Yoga. A combination of Raja Yoga and Tantra Yoga, Shunya Yoga is a method for self-knowledge, inner transformation, and overcoming of mental obstacles leading to what has been called mukti (liberation) or Nirvana by the ancient sages and yogis.
Amir Mourad's work is an effort to assist social transformation through the transformation of consciousness. Belonging to no particular tradition and addressing both concerns for individual and social well-being, his teachings have covered areas including self-knowledge, meditation, the problem of attachment to knowledge, social transformation, enlightenment, death, morality, and doubt in the search for Truth. Amir Mourad presently teaches through programs and satsangs in Montreal, Canada.