Nonduality and "The Guru".

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by sentient

With genetic flow from India - I was referring to this old study:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-1...tralia/4466382

Gondwana broke up about 180-200 million years ago.

Interesting article and although I am aware that Gondwana broke up millions of years ago, but why that word appears in Sanskrit, referring to a race of people is beyond my comprehension.

Although I would also say that the history of mankind dates back a lot further than about 50,000 years...maybe not 180-200 million years ago, that is a stretch, but I'd say close to half a million years according to the Vedas...but then again, according to the Hindu version of Yugas...four Yugas are about 200 million years (a day of Brahma) and people existed in Satya Yuga and we are now in Kali Yuga...so yeah, I can't work that one out either. =/

All I know, is that before the last Great Flood, there were land bridges existing from South East Asia to Indonesia and from Indonesia to Australia, so the migration of Aboriginal people from India would have been possible...and they probably brought Rudraksha seeds with them and planted them here.

[sentient]

Blue Quandongs probably are of Gondwana origin.

[Shivani Devi]

I'm also going to give Sri Yukteshwar Giri a mention here...a Guru which many respected and admired as being Swami Yogananda's Guru.

He proposed that instead of "years" as the yugas prescribe, they were 'moons' or 'months' and humans were around for the last great precession of the equinox which occurs once every 25,000 years or so...and they say that the Mahabharata which occurred some 30,000 years ago marked the transition from Dwarapa Yuga into the present Kali Yuga...and basically a Yuga was a full precession of the equinox instead of being 'millions of years'...but he was laughed at by the whole Hindu establishment...his findings and himself became totally discredited and he lost his whole 'respectable guru' status.

[Gem]

I have to plug Gangagi because, you know, gender equality and all that...

[revolver]

Originally Posted by Gem

I have to plug Gangagi because, you know, gender equality and all that...

isn't that a pain when you hear them go on about gender this and gender that.

[sentient]

A quote from a book, I have never read:
Guru Nanak:

It is God’s will and order that prevails and the God/Guru-centred ones are those who can perceive this God’s design/will and transcend their individual selves to be one with the Universal self.

[jonesboy]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

Yes, I would very much like for that to happen.

I am not deliberately showing any disrespect to your kind self, but I would actually like to understand the background, philosophy and teachings of the personage you describe, before making up my mind as to whether he is 'suitable' to be my Guru. I don't go by any 'face values'...but in light of that, my whole post about my experiences with Gurus from the DLS seems to have gone by the wayside in regards.

Also, there's this little issue about any Guru 'preaching to the choir', as it were...any Guru can come up and tell me that "You are THAT" and try to enlighten me...but I'd be like "yeah, I know...been there, done that...NEXT".

In fact, having studied the works of Adi Shankaracharya, Swami Krishnananda and even Abhinavagupta himself, I could 'out-Advaita' anybody on here...if I was really interested in actually doing that.

...and of course (with all due humility and respect) my Shakti has gone through the roof also (with the help of my "inner Guru") and like you said before, achieving Nirvikalpa Samadhi is one thing, but attaining Sahaja Samadhi another...so I tend to view all of these Gurus as 'nothing special', but that is my own spiritual bias which has also come about through direct experience.

That being said:



Welcome to the forum. =)

Yeah, I don't miss much. lol

Here is a little of his story. I would provide a link but unless you are a taobums member you can't read it.

Since someone asked and a few others piled on with messages, I thought I would share some of my personal experiences...



I grew up in the midwest part of the US with sort of a classic low key christian background. My family was pretty religious, but nothing crazy. I would feel what people call "energy stuff" from a very early age, but never really associate it with anything as I just assumed that everyone had stuff like that.



Had a big pickup in energy stuff around college, but still didn't really think much special about it until a deeply religious friend from eastern europe came to me one day and said that he was going to have his personal fight with the devil and he wanted me to kill him if he failed/lost the battle. He also seemed to think that I knew completely what he was talking about. Clueless and concerned, I tried to calm and talk him down. Rather than digging deeper into it, we graduated and I went off to graduate school. Got married, had kids, worked on my career, life in general and sort of forgot about all of the energy stuff.



Then about 18 years ago I had sort of a shift. My business career had been going very well and it seemed like I always had total control of the situation. My middle daughter was 3 at the time and was sort of childishly throwing a temper tantrum. Like she knew it was all a game just to mess with me. Normally in control and pretty naturally calm, I was starting to begin to lose it. Suddenly, she stopped, jumped into my arms and said..."Daddy, I just love you so much..." Something shifted in me at that moment, almost like something descended into me.



The next day I woke with sort of vibrations in my head. I would have probably thought it was a brain tumor, but with the vibrations came a deep sense of peace. Playing with it for a while, I quickly found that I could move those vibration around my body. Later noticing that some places in my body were kind of like dead zones with no vibrations.



Well, as you can probably guess, Christian guys from the midwest don't normally come across (or discuss) things like that. Always interested in different religions in college, I started doing more research on such things. Found some books on things about Kundalini, but my experience seemed very different than what all of the books said. Not initially finding much useful in books to fit my situation and not knowing anyone to really talk to, I instead sort of just kind of experimenting with the energy stuff.



Maybe more later...

It has been pointed out to me that my story seems to be missing some points. In particular, things like what happened energetically with the hug with my daughter. Also, what about things like meditation and practices in those earlier years. I had been thinking about describing more major events or experiences of opening, but maybe it makes sense to give a little more context. And then also, give more specific energetic/spiritual understanding of what happened given the benefit of my current perspective.



Given that, I should probably say a little more about those early years. I have never really been a formal meditator, but looking back while I did not have formal practices, there were two things that I would regularly do that had there equivalent. First, I would listen to music. But, by listening I mean that I would "just listen". All mental activity would stop and I would maintain that state of listening for fairly long periods of time. My second (in hindsight) practice was that I would pray (to the Holy Father) every night before sleeping. But, my prayers were not asking for anything, they were much more like quieting my mind, asking for guidance, and finishing with sort of "thy will be done". Then maintaining the mental quiet go to sleep in that state.



Additionally, during those early business years, I travelled a lot. Almost constantly on flights and a lot of free time at night. So that just listening to music and then later just playing with energy would be hours per day. Also, on some trips I would have so much energy flow that I would be racked with shakes and chills for hours at night in the hotel room.



Going back to the event of my daughter... energetically it was like I had become a super charged energetic bubble of self trying to mange and control it all. My daughter's child like love sort of out a huge crack in that bubble and kind of like the air started rushing out. Looking back, that event opened what I would now call the "inner heart" or "8th chakra".



That crack in the wall brought the opening with the "peace that passes all human understanding"...



Possibly more later...



Note: I don't see the point in talking about books that I found to not be useful. Also, different books may be right for each person depending on their path. But, happy to put together a list of books that I have found to be pretty accurate about stuff in a separate thread.


For those interested there are many past threads discussing the inner heart/8th chakra. But, try to describe it can be very challenging as it is really more like a fundamental shift than a "thing". It is also particularly hard to explain with astral types as they tend to think of it as chakras above the head that they can see.



Maybe try to think about it like this... People live in a bubble of (individual) self. What people call chakras or dantiens are kind of different layers (or sheaths) of those aspects of self. The higher you go in the sheaths/chakras the more of the dimensional universe you can see or perceive. But, while no matter how big the bubble gets, while inside of it you have a relative dualistic view of reality. You may be able to see in the distance or another dimension, but there is still an individual bodymind "you" that is seeing it. When you start to crack open the bubble of self, you start to kind of shift from "seeing" to more "being". Like what to used to be on the outside with seeing as separate is now known to be on the inside.



It is called the inner heart because the first thing noticed is kind of like a universal human soul layer. It feels like first your family/friends and then later everyone are in (or can be accessed) inside your heart. With focus, you literally can feel other beings heart beat.

There is more but I thought that would be a good start.

[Gem]

To me it doesn't matter which way a person is influenced be that the NA TA ND or other. As when you believe things due to the authority figure who says them, you lose your own sensibility, and the whole idea isn't to be like, 'Ramana said it therefore it's right' - it's to recognise that the discourse is produced to be persuasive.

[revolver]

Originally Posted by Gem

To me it doesn't matter which way a person is influenced be that the NA TA ND or other. As when you believe things due to the authority figure who says them, you lose your own sensibility, and the whole idea isn't to be like, 'Ramana said it therefore it's right' - it's to recognise that the discourse is produced to be persuasive.

Well said.

[sentient]

Originally Posted by Gem

To me it doesn't matter which way a person is influenced be that the NA TA ND or other. As when you believe things due to the authority figure who says them, you lose your own sensibility, and the whole idea isn't to be like, 'Ramana said it therefore it's right' - it's to recognise that the discourse is produced to be persuasive.

Not always as it seems.
It is like when you sometimes “spherically” know something. You know it and you know how to use it, function in it, but that knowing hasn’t crystallized into a clear left hemispheric concept as yet.
At those times your subconscious sometimes brings your attention to a “quote”, which you do recognize as what you wanted to say - “who” said it doesn’t matter at that point.

Another scenario is that one feels like a worm in a hook saying something others have said so much better.