|
|
| Sniperdoc, please excuse my mistaking you as Andreas.
I don't think that there is a "true" self or artificial self or whatever. There is only your current perception of yourself. You can call it anything that you want. Whatever you call it, it is again "not that".
You can view yourself or project yourself in many ways, all of which are equally "true" because that is what you currently believe and that is what "truth" is, at least to you; any other "truth" does not exist at that moment. Other people have their own unique "truths" although we usually have culturally generated common truths and are therefore able to communicate to some degree. When people have "truths" that are far enough out of the norm for their time and place, they are usually considered mentally ill, a visionary, crazy, a witch, a saint or whatever and either worshipped, killed or locked up.
Your "true" self is just another self generated projection.
By removing layers of self image,
like: my mother said I was lazy, my teacher said I was stupid, my girlfriend said I was handsome, my boss says I am a hard worker, I like to think of myself as caring and compassionate, I want to view myself as an enlightened yogi, I am smart, I am fat, I am a good person etc etc etc,
you become more aware of what is happening in the present moment as opposed to what memories of external and internal projected images you hold on to and try to squeeze the present into. You then become more aware of what is actually happening now, without all the filtering, coloring and bias of these obsolete layers of self image. You also have a lot more energy as it is a lot of work trying to uphold that self image to yourself and the world.
Only then, when you are not trying to re-create the present in your lifetime of accumulated self images can you experience something new. I don't think that transformation can come out of the old, out of memory. I think that it is a result of the new that comes from seeing in a fresh and new way, as in ongoing re-birth. I think that heaven and hell as well as reincarnation exist in this life, not in some imaginary after-life. I think that we make this life heaven or hell and we have the ability to let our old self die and be re-born (psychologically, not mentally or physically) every day.
Please excuse my rambling.
Edited by jimg 2010-08-06 8:18 PM
|
|
| |
|
| By being re-born or reincarnated, I do not mean giving yourself a new name or identity, either in the real or the virtual world.
This is not a further level of make believe, but rather a reduction of make believe.
I am not against make believe. Without it we would have no art, music, dance, theater, stories, poetry, myths or religion. I am only saying that it is important to distinguish between what is make believe and what is not; what is symbolic reality and what is actual reality; what is a poetic representation and what is the actual thing.
If we are not honest with ourselves at this level, honesty with others is probably impossible.
|
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 436
 
Location: Washington DC | dhanurasana - 2010-08-06 7:04 PM
Tonmoy, you are welcome to my salad...after all of this petty bickering i need some fatty food to replenish ojas.
Really? I will come...
Thanks.. |
|
| |
|
| Dear SniperDoc,
I truly appreciate the sincerity of your statements. I want to say that indeed I created new accounts, it was simply because I could for some reason not access my AndreasMamet account, no matter how hard I tried, and then I really enjoyed the forced circumstance. I will create perhaps 5 more new names, if that is what it takes to expose the tremendous separation and competition that is going on on this site, all in the name of Yoga, being a Yoga teacher, etc.
I find that especially the new generation of Yoga teachers is severely severed from the world of meditation and really does not have the basic experiences of meditation in their lives. That is profoundly sad, but now we have a teacher who has a diploma from some 8 week Ashtanga course and ready to show the world what yoga is. Again, a sad state of affaris.
Again, I appreciate your in-depth authentic sharing, your courage to speak about the truth of your situation in all its implications, a true breath of fresh air. And to you, to you only, I say, that if you find yourself offended by my using the Swami Id (which is actually the name given to me 34 years ago, please accept my apologies, For me it was just a public joke, a tool to get a deeper message across. For the rest, expect 12 more IDs coming up.
I am also operating, no matter under which ID, under the following assumption: I can subject any statement to a simple test: I can ask myself, on a scale from 1 to 10 how truthful is this? Then I can ask again, on the same scale, how comfortable is this to hear? And then again, how relevant is this for me?
I apply this a lot and it works wonderfully for me. |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 7
| @Swami:
Call yourself Buddha, it matters not to me since those are just words. 
@Jim:
As far as Neti Neti, I thought that Neti Neti is just the "instruction" or "path" to attain higher states of being or self realization.
I have to totally disagree with your statement:
"Your "true" self is just another self generated projection."
If I recall there are several levels of the "spirit" realms. We have the physical, the ethereal, a few others and then the "one" and last layer... or realization of being one with God, Self, Buddha, Allah, etc whatever you prefer.
I'm not sure what I experienced. The way it FELT to me was like true understanding that the physical existence is not my true self. That there is more to this existence than me being "some guy".
Now I do understand that the Ethereal realm is still a projection of how we perceive ourselves. But, if we understand that concept, then we can actually affect changes in the physical realm by making changes in ourselves and our surroundings within the Ethereal realm. Those would probably have to be done when we attain a higher level of Neti Neti experience and we understand that what we see in the Ethereal plane is not real either.
I believe that once we accept and understand that we are ALL one, that we ARE "God", and that we feel nothing but joy and love and acceptance, that we have attained the highest level.
Neti Neti is truly a wonderful tool to reach those higher levels of enlightenment and once I have the proper mindset, I will look further into this as I'm sure it would really help me experience my Taijiquan practice on a whole other level.
Edited by sniperdoc 2010-08-11 11:11 AM
|
|
| |
|
| sniperdoc - 2010-08-11 8:03 AM
I have to totally disagree with your statement:
"Your "true" self is just another self generated projection."
Now I do understand that the Ethereal realm is still a projection of how we perceive ourselves.
Edited by jimg 2010-08-12 12:29 PM
|
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 7
| TRUE SELF... there is no projection... it is just you. When you're in the Ethereal Plane or in the Astral Plane... what you're experiencing as YOU is still your own perception of you. i.e. your karmic perception of yourself.
E.g. In the physical plane, now... today, you are missing your arm, in the ethereal plane you would see yourself without an arm because in a past life experience you were a warrior and had your arm chopped off. Yet once you come to find your true self, the one-ness with "God" (I use the term God lightly, because quite frankly I'm not a believer in a God) you'll find that an "arm" is just a projection, it's just a concept that is immaterial.
This is where we get into the concept of The Secret or Creating and Manifesting. What you want in real life, think about it and meditate on it and if you can materialize it in the Astral plane, it'll happen on the physical plane. Granted, you won't magically regrow an arm when you start visualizing yourself as whole and complete on the Astral plane, but you might just get a sensation or feeling like your arm is there... as if you could use thin air to pick up a glass of water. Heck... even the concept of planes themselves is a physical limitation placed upon ourselves by our spirits. All a part of the process of reincarnation.
I think once we as humanity understand that what we're experiencing in the physical sense is just... immaterial... that we could travel to a whole another galaxy in a split second by just thinking about it... that the need to breathe is really just a self-imposed limitation... and that things such as greed, want, hate, or any negativity is just plain illogical... That will be the day mankind is mature.
If you really and truly experienced your True Self... there is no longer the concept of I... because you are one... one with every spirit, one with "God", with existence. There supposedly is joy, love and welcome.
Can I verify this... no. This was only taught to me by my Hypnotherapist who uses a lot of Indian philosophies in his practice. For my wife and myself, I didn't really see the 410 hour hypnotherapy course as a hypnotherapist course. For me... it was purely an awakening to another way of existing.
But... I digress the discussion from the concept of Neti Neti. Essentially, Neti Neti can get an individual to the root of existence or the root of self. If you regularly practice Neti Neti meditation and you've reached a point where "I am not this, I am not that" doesn't apply anymore, then you should share your experience 
Despite what some may claim... any experience can be put to words in one way or another... 
Edited by sniperdoc 2010-08-25 4:50 PM
|
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 11
Location: USA | AndreasMamet - 2010-07-28 9:03 AM
Here is how it works: Each time you have a perception, such as a thought, experience of the senses, feeling or emotion, you stop for a moment and you reflect by thinking in response, "I am not this thought, I am not this body sensation, I am not this emotion." You do this continuously. Of course, you have to catch each changing perception. Since perception and the levels of perception change all the time, you have to continuously alter your response. "I am not this itching of my nose, I am not this worry thought, I am not the perception of the sound of traffic", etc. You have to stay very alert.
You can practice this in sitting meditation or as you pass through the day.
This method relates to experiences that are neutral, negative or positive. It is human to look at ones's negative experiences and want to say, sure I am not this - sigh of relief - and actually it is surprisingly healing in the way of getting past pain.
However, if a person has powerful positive experiences, such as great joy, or is wealthy and famous, the mind will not be happy to practice saying, "I am not my powerful position." Since we really LOVE to identify with this stuff. So, to use this method when you are flying high... will bring enormous revelations that will take you beyond the flying high. It will simply take you beyond high and low.
This method is hugely powerful if you can stay with it. As said, it will bring to you astounding insights as you peel the onion of your existence.
In a distant kind of way, this, to me is similar to the other Law of Relativity (although it may be related to Einsteins in some way), where nothing in life is good or bad. What makes things good or bad is what we choose to compare them to. For example, $100,000 annual income is small if you choose to compare it to someone who makes $10Million per year, however you're doing incredible if you're comparing it to someone who makes minimum wage.
What is the benefit to detaching yourself from good emotions? The Law of Attraction says that if you feel good, you attract more feeling good, so why would we want to detach ourselves from the good emotions and experiences?
If someone continues to peel the onion of your existence, what are they likely to find?
Please don't mistake my tone as aggressive, I'm just honestly curious, as this is an interesting concept and exercise to me. |
|
| |
Neti Neti
