Dissolving the "I". Becoming "ONE"

[davidsun]

Originally Posted by ImthatIm

I really like this line. Davidsun.

ImthatIm.

[Shivani Devi]

I will tell you all about my own true life experiences (to answer Jay's queries).

Like many others, I was born, grew up, got married, had kids of my own..

Now, before we get into the semantics about 'who was born?' or 'who had children in order to claim ownership?'

I married my yoga teacher back in the '80's...an Indian Sadhu from Himachal Pradesh who was a student of Swami Chidananda Saraswati...we both were.

After marriage, we had two daughters...when the girls were 18 years old, they made the decision to cut all ties with the family and move on with their own lives without having either parent in it.

A few times over the past 15 years we have held out olive branches (and hope) and all we get is a card every Christmas letting us know they are still alive out of some kind of filial courtesy.

Were they victims of abuse? Hell no! They were the victims of overprotection, of being spoilt rotten, of being brought up in a communal setting...and they hated it - and everything that God, Spirituality and Religion ever stood for...bye bye. LOL

It was difficult to break the attachment to one's own flesh and blood...it took 5 years of grief and hysterical tears, thinking I had "lost" something...they were actually doing me a favor and it took me 5 years to realise it.

Now, I dropped that attachment and if I could do that, what else is left? Who is Arjuna slaying when Arjuna is not Arjuna?

This is neti neti..

ALSO known as Chitti Vritti Nirodha according to Patanjali...
It is the non association of the attachments to the fluctuations of mind!

Am I my thoughts? Neti Neti

Then from where does the thoughts arise and where do they go? What is observing the thoughts? Neti Neti

Okay, ao I am now in Nietzsche's void..what next? Neti Neti..oh and trust Shiva..

Do I get to say "Neti Neti" to Shiva?

Only to your concept of what you believe Shiva to be....Neti Neti..Aham Brahmasmi.

[Unseeking Seeker]

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@ Shivani each has a tale to tell but you tell it so well!

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[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by Unseeking Seeker

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@ Shivani each has a tale to tell but you tell it so well!

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Thanks my love.

I am just wondering if y'all ready for the bit where the Vrittis (waves of thought on the ocean of mind) creates Samskaras due to repetitive thought patterns and it is the accumulated Samskaras within the Vignamayakosha which survives death (as Karma) and enters other meatsuit with the sutratman prana (Jiva) yet?

Well, I just put it out there anyway..Vedic Neuroscience 101 according to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras..

[FairyCrystal]

Originally Posted by jay.kishan

This is only about last night, i met an indian guy who had never meditated and is pursuing his masters in physics. I asked him what does he know about the universe from science perspective and he said none but he had some other experience.

He said : I was walking on the streets in Indore, and suddenly. I went into an space. Where there was NOTHING but just one thing,
He never meditated nor any practice but i could feel him and see him that he couldn't discribe it .

He was saying that i was not there, i dont know. The I, the witness was not there. But there was something and just onething which was the only truth. Rest is all fake .

He had a glimpse of what we all want to achieve through meditation
This guy is my new friend and guys this is funny but the moment i saw him and interacted with him.

I dont know why but i had this intuition that this guy has some mystery to disclose. And see. When he told me this last night. I couldnt control my smile

Does make me wonder what you think 'we all want to achieve through meditation"?
I meditate to align with Self, sometimes for no other reason than that it feels good, sometimes because I'm not feeling too good, sometimes to get answers etc. But I never meditate to feel at one with All that Is. I do btw think you need to be in alignment with Self in order to be able to feel connected to All that Is.
I have had it happen, moments, and it feels glorious for sure to feel so incredibly connected!

I'm wondering if there could be a difference in this between men & women? Feminine energy (so this could also be men with lots of it) is all about oneness. The masculine on the other hand is about distancing so it can have an awareness of "I", individuality, and from this take action, create and so on.
These two energies perfectly complement one another of course, feminine without masculine would come to nothing. We also need the "I". After all we are living a physical life, not just floating somewhere up there. That's not what we came here for either.
But in any case, it could be that for men this is more important/more difficult to achieve than for women (feminine energy) as it's related to the masculine wound, which currently really requires healing for mankind to be able to move on.

I digress a bit, but I think it might be part of that.

[davidsun]

Originally Posted by FairyCrystal

Does make me wonder what you think 'we all want to achieve through meditation"?
I meditate to align with Self, sometimes for no other reason than that it feels good, sometimes because I'm not feeling too good, sometimes to get answers etc. But I never meditate to feel at one with All that Is. I do btw think you need to be in alignment with Self in order to be able to feel connected to All that Is.
I have had it happen, moments, and it feels glorious for sure to feel so incredibly connected!

I'm wondering if there could be a difference in this between men & women? Feminine energy (so this could also be men with lots of it) is all about oneness. The masculine on the other hand is about distancing so it can have an awareness of "I", individuality, and from this take action, create and so on.
These two energies perfectly complement one another of course, feminine without masculine would come to nothing. We also need the "I". After all we are living a physical life, not just floating somewhere up there. That's not what we came here for either.
But in any case, it could be that for men this is more important/more difficult to achieve than for women (feminine energy) as it's related to the masculine wound, which currently really requires healing for mankind to be able to move on.

I digress a bit, but I think it might be part of that.

Apropos of your thoughtful ruminations about consciousness and experience of 'connectedness' or 'togetherness' (hence 'Oneness') versus distance/distancing/separateness), FairyCrystal, quoting from near the end of my treatise:

Psychospiritual communion in a Spirit of Love and Joy is what is most relevant to actualizing the kind of Life I speak of: Conscious affirmation and appreciation of intimately (via mutual recognition and empathy) shared thoughts and feelings, whereby and wherein one whole-mind-n-heart‑edly embraces and revels in the fact that whoever or whatever one is in the presence of is a wonderfully familial being-doing aspect of The Flow of Life Itself,* any differences between one’s own and others’ worldly situations and/or conditions notwithstanding!

Footnote*: It is because they have ‘spousally’ embraced The Flow of Life Itself that Cosmically oriented and committed individuals [personally!] don’t think of themselves as being ‘alone’ and no longer feel ‘i’solated even when they aren’t with others who are especially ‘in synch’ with them, the way people who haven’t yet done so naturally do. As the apostle Paul testified: “I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from [The Flow of Life Itself].” (Romans 8:39); albeit, instead of the words I placed in brackets, he said “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” to express what he meant because of the particular way in which he conceptualized what said words reference.]

[enaid]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

Do I get to say "Neti Neti" to Shiva? Only to your concept of what you believe Shiva to be....Neti Neti..Aham Brahmasmi.

IMHO it’s all concepts, and what isnt is impossible to describe; so I would humbly submit that, yes, you do get to say neti neti to god.

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by FairyCrystal

I'm wondering if there could be a difference in this between men & women? Feminine energy (so this could also be men with lots of it) is all about oneness. The masculine on the other hand is about distancing so it can have an awareness of "I", individuality, and from this take action, create and so on.
These two energies perfectly complement one another of course, feminine without masculine would come to nothing. We also need the "I". After all we are living a physical life, not just floating somewhere up there. That's not what we came here for either.
But in any case, it could be that for men this is more important/more difficult to achieve than for women (feminine energy) as it's related to the masculine wound, which currently really requires healing for mankind to be able to move on.

I am curious why feminine energy is all about oneness while masculine energy is all about individuality. Is this actually true?

There is the perspective that the Absolute manifests as Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha is Spirit which expresses purpose and the masculine principle. Prakriti is Matter which expresses intelligence and the feminine principle. The two combine to give rise to Consciousness.

When we talk about states of Being and Oneness we are dealing with consciousness, which is beyond all gender. It is consciousness which identifies with Oneness or individuality. Consciousness has experienced countless incarnations as both men and women, but spiritual attainment is all about consciousness, not the sex of the physical body.

Peace.

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by enaid

IMHO it’s all concepts, and what isnt is impossible to describe; so I would humbly submit that, yes, you do get to say neti neti to god.

If you just give me a moment to compose myself after reading your user name backwards... realising it is also my own..

Many of the greatest traditions advocate destroying the last thing which stands between their concept of who they believe themselves to be and the potential of who they could become....love.

http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1977...7/ramaks.shtml

Tota Puri could also not accept Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's love of Mother Kali either.

Kali was the only thing Sri Ramakrishna could not say "neti neti" to ..so, is love a concept?

In the end though, the Bhakta realises that in order to experience the love the God(dess) has for them, they must be fully prepared to sacrifice EVERYTHING! ... and "everything" also includes whatever they feel deep in the heart...the key word in all of this "dissolving I" stuff is.. surrender.

In the end, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's said "I would rather taste sugar than to become the sugar" However, one only gets to say that after the comparison has already been made.

The Zen folk say: "If you see Buddha on the road, kill Him".

There's a reason why Buddhists have the term and practice of Anatta (non-Self or non-God ..if those two could ever be interchangeable).

It is because "Buddha" is just another concept and they may as WELL have a "Self" or a "God" if Buddhists were only going to worship Lord Buddha instead of going after Nibbana.

[FairyCrystal]

Originally Posted by iamthat

I am curious why feminine energy is all about oneness while masculine energy is all about individuality. Is this actually true?

There is the perspective that the Absolute manifests as Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha is Spirit which expresses purpose and the masculine principle. Prakriti is Matter which expresses intelligence and the feminine principle. The two combine to give rise to Consciousness.

When we talk about states of Being and Oneness we are dealing with consciousness, which is beyond all gender. It is consciousness which identifies with Oneness or individuality. Consciousness has experienced countless incarnations as both men and women, but spiritual attainment is all about consciousness, not the sex of the physical body.

Peace.

Feminine and masculine energy is not about gender. I DID include that clearly between brackets.
Read about Yin & Yang. Yang also has some Yin and vice versa.
Of course women tend to have more feminine energy and men masculine energy, but it's not always that way.
And yes it really works like that. Creation and expansion would not be possible if it wasn't for the difference between the masculine and feminine energies.