jimg - 2008-08-06 1:38 PM



I have heard that our true nature is "light, expanded consciousness and bliss" and I have had small glimpses of it. But I have not been firmly established in it. My life is not pervaded by light, expanded consciousness and bliss.

jimg - 2008-08-05 4:06 PM

nishshreyas - the one which is such that there is nothing better than that

Is that a goal or a way of life?

Shakuhachi - 2008-08-05 9:54 PM



Pretty difficult to fathom consciousness that is not mental. While the mind is limited in handling mediation experience it seem like our consciousness of meditation should be able to have some staying power in the memory. Otherwise it is unconscious consciousness, which makes no sense.

remezsa - 2008-08-16 12:08 AM

persistence, motivation and constant training can change this habit, and make the mind calm and obedient.

===>Who is your mind obedient to?



Tell your mind that you expect it to be silent for the duration of the meditation

===>Who is telling your mind to be silent? Who knows whether or not your mind becomes silent?

remezsa - 2008-08-17 3:08 AM

The mind is always in a state of restless thinking, going from one thought to another. It is a deeply embedded habit, but persistence, motivation and constant training can change this habit, and make the mind calm and obedient. It helps if you give yourself a little talk of a minute or two before starting to meditate. Tell your mind that you expect it to be silent for the duration of the meditation, and that you will think and discuss any important subject after you finish meditating. It also help if you think a moment or two about the benefits of meditation before starting to meditate. This can also make it easier to disregard thoughts that try to enter your mind during meditation. I have also found that practicing concentration exercises makes it easier to disregard intruding thoughts and keep the mind quiet.

jimg - 2008-08-26 5:13 PM

. You ARE thoughts, sensations and emotions.

Ram - 2008-08-27 9:02 AM



This is the purpose of being on a spiritual path and having a spiritual practise. We associate ourselves with our thought and believe the thoughts and suffer all the ramifications from this association. The ego and the mind are connected and have you believe this to be true. You are bound as a human being as long as you believe this.

===>I do not wish to comment on your personal religious beliefs and/or practices, but would like to comment on the anatomical reality of how the brain works. Your consciousness, your ego, your thoughts, your perceptions, your dreams etc are all different aspects of the basic function of your brain. Although some of these functions can be altered or eliminated through drugs or injury, a healthy individual has a healthy function of all of these. This has been scientifically proven by people injuring part of their brain and as a result losing different capacities. Examples being: the ability to make moral or ethical decisions, the ability to plan, the ability to understand language (even though one hears it perfectly), the ability to remember, the ability to recognize your body as your body, the ability to feel emotions, the ability to feel sensations, the ability to feel empathy for another etc etc etc.

Once you start to experience your own consciousness through meditation you start to EXPERIENCE that you are not these thoughts. You see them as they are. conditioned mental patterns that come and go. Seriously can you actually believe you are what goes on in your mind? Most of us would be schizophrenic if we did.

===>Without consciousness, you are not aware that you exist, think, act etc. You start to experience your own consciousness the moment that you are born. You are your thoughts just like you are your foot or your kidney. They are part of you. If your thoughts are not part of you, who are they part of? Yes, your thoughts are conditioned mental patterns that come and go. That does not make them not part of you. You are the sum total of many different parts that through the practice of yoga can work together more harmoniously.

Consciousness is not science although science has tried to explain it through quantum physics. The great beings have said your true self cannot be measured by scientific instruments. Realized beings still have thought patterns but they are not identified with them. That is the difference between a "regular" person and someone who has merged with consciousness. Those of us who have followed a spirtual path and have meditated or chanted for years have had a glimpse of our true self. Our minds are becoming purified only to experienc our true self.

===>Science is explaining what consciousness is and how it works. It is called neuroscience not quantum physics. There have been many significant breakthroughs in the last 20 years! Read "Wider than the Sky" by Nobel Prize winner Gerald Edelman if you want to know more about the nature of consciousness. There are many other wonderful books on the subject.

At some point people have to stop questioning everything and actually start practising.

===>I agree that practice is extremely important, but when you stop questioning, you are dead, a mere computer loop following the same worn path over and over. You are only really alive when you are growing and questioning is an essential part of growth.