Advanced Yoga Practices Plus Main Lessons - Expanded and Interactive
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Lesson
38 - What is
Your Time Line?
(Audio)
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Addition 38.1 - Expanded Discussion
on the Importance of Self-Pacing
(Audio)
Addition 38.2
- Quick Advice on Self-Pacing for a Long Term Meditator
(Audio)
Addition 38.3
- Frantically Trying to Do It All in This Lifetime
(Audio)
Dec 9, 2003
We have a bit of a dilemma. It has to do with time. We are now ready to move
the discussion on into the next area of advanced yoga practices. The question
is, are you ready?
"Yes," you say, "I want to read about it."
The dilemma is not so much in the reading. It is in the application of the
knowledge, how to go about that.
The lessons being written here are the result of decades of experience in yoga.
It will take six months or so to fully describe for you how to do the most
important advanced yoga practices, and what their effects will be. Once the
writing is complete, you will be able to read it all in just a few days.
Obviously, it would not be advisable for you to begin all of these advanced yoga
practices in the time it would take you to read about them. It would not be
possible. Each stage of practice requires a substantial period of acclimation
before the next stage can be successfully entered. If one tries to run before
they have become reasonably adept at walking, there is a strong likelihood they
will fall flat on their face. This is also true in taking on advanced yoga
practices. A gradual build-up is not a luxury - it is a necessity.
So, that is the dilemma. Having received all this powerful information on the
front end, how will you build up your practices in an appropriate manner over
time? It boils down to finding what your unique time line will be, your pace,
and being methodical about building up, being careful not to take on too much at
once. Everyone is different and has a different capacity for taking on new
practices. You will have to find your own pace, your own time line that is
progressive for you, yet stable.
The challenge used to be in finding the knowledge. Here, the challenge is in
applying it as expeditiously as you are inspired to without overdoing it and
falling off the wagon, so to speak.
In the old days, it was said that it was better to receive powerful spiritual
techniques lifetimes late, rather than a minute too soon. Practices were doled
out sparingly over long periods of time on an individualized basis. This hardly
fits with the fast-paced, mass-market information age we now live in, where, in
many fields, new applications of knowledge supercede the old every few years.
There is a need to speed up the transmission and integration of the knowledge of
advanced yoga practices. It needs to be simplified and codified in ways that
will bring it into the mainstream of this scientific age. It has to be turned
over to the people, and the people must decide how it will be applied for
practical benefit for present and future generations. It must happen, or the
methods of transmitting this knowledge will remain in the dark ages, and few
will benefit. The world can no longer afford to be without effective and freely
available methods for unfolding the inner nature of humanity.
There are those who say, "Do not throw pearls before swine." Two thousand years
ago this may have been good advice for those who had spiritual knowledge. If
they were too open in its dissemination, it was likely they would be attacked by
an angry, superstitious mob, and executed soon after. Consequently, spiritual
practices have been kept secret, even as the scientific age has blossomed all
around us. Times have changed, but the methods of sharing spiritual knowledge
have remained largely frozen in the past.
Today, we need a more open approach. We stand at an important juncture in
history. Can we continue to sit by and regard the human race as a mob, as swine,
undeserving of the knowledge that will transform it? No. Humanity is more than
that, and deserves to have the means to experience its true nature. It is time
for change.
We stand on the edge of a massive shift in human awareness. Its consequences
exceed the realization centuries ago that the earth is round and not flat, and
that the sun is the center of the solar system and not the earth. The
realization occurring in the present is that the interior of the human being is
the center of divine experience, of God, and of Truth. It is not somewhere else.
External experiences, whether they appear divine or not, are but mirrors of the
internal experience of the human being. Every human being is a window, a portal,
from this world to the infinite, and from the infinite to this world.
These lessons give you the most important tools of human transformation, the
means to open the portal in you. The decision-making on what practices to do is
in your hands. It is no different than applying any form of knowledge. We are
all familiar with learning to apply powerful technologies prudently and
beneficially - automobiles, household machinery, modern medicine, electricity,
the unlimited information of the Internet... We can use these things effectively
within a reasonable learning period. This is an instruction manual on advanced
yoga practices. Wise practitioners will know what to do with it. Others will let
it go by, and it will incubate for a while, which is part of the awakening
process also.
The knowledge is here. It is suggested you take it in. But don't act on it all
at once. Take it one step at a time. Become comfortable in a practice before you
add on the next one. The more we evolve in our practice to a comfortable
routine, the easier it will be to take on something new. It takes time.
We have already added cross-legged sitting to our meditation routine. Have you
been making good progress with that? We are about to embark on a new leg of the
journey - pranayama. Pranayama will evolve into a complex practice with
far-reaching effects. We will build it up with simple, logical steps. Even so,
if you are uneven in your meditation practice, and trying to get in cross-legged
position at the same time, taking on pranayama will be too much for now. Way too
much. So wait until the meditation and crossed legs are stable. You may be one
who skips the crossed legs altogether. That's okay. Still, be sure your
meditation is comfortable and in a steady routine before taking on pranayama.
This message of taking it gradually will be repeated over and over again as we,
in very few pages, step through eons of powerful spiritual knowledge designed
for opening your inner doors.
The dilemma of timing will be resolved if you respect the power and delicacy of
this knowledge, and apply it responsibly in your life. It is recommended you err
on the side of sticking with regular, stable practice. Always consider carefully
before you add a new practice. If you overdo and feel instability, back off to
your last stable platform of practice. There you can regroup and take your time
while considering the best way to move ahead.
Meditation is the core practice. With it alone you will go far. Everything else
is designed to enhance the process of meditation, to enhance the flow of pure
bliss consciousness through the body and in the surroundings. If it is only
meditation you are interested in, it will be enough. If you are interested in
more, there will be plenty for you here.
The guru is in you.
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Note:
For a detailed discussion on the
structure and pacing of self-directed spiritual practice, see the
Eight Limbs of Yoga Online Book.
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