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Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle
    #10648817 -

I just finished reading Ram Dass' Be Here Now and although I find his words of wisdom helpful, my daily routine is now filled with guilt.

When I play a video game I feel like I should be meditating. When I eat the pork dinner my mother makes me it taste almost intolerable. When I am enjoying a hot shower I remember the enjoyment will only reinforce my egos desires. I feel guilty sleeping on my new mattress and not on my floor.

Am I not strong enough to pursue the lifestyle of a Yogi? It's just so hard. Even my meditation which has previously been rewarding is filled with this unsettling feeling, like I am impure.

Does anyone trek down the Yogic path? Has your journey been fruitful or equally dismal?

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: c0sm0nautt]
    #10648856 -

I spent a time with the same "problem" and I gladly have developed the guilt I used to have into a less specific and more useful overall sense of awareness.  You have to realize, a yogi is just another cog in this machine.  The yogi fills a very important role, but it is no more or less important than any other.  Most yogi's are egotistical, in that they only pretend to let go of their selves, which leads their personal glee to be balanced by constant shame, guilt, and exclusion.  If you want to achieve what the yogi achieves, then you must cultivate within yourself the same sort of constant awareness, combined with the assurance that your words mean nothing, and furthermore, that everything is equal.  Once you have that down you can eat your steak without fearing invisible and unreal karmic justice.  Think of karma like this, you reap what you sow, but there are always weeds and drought to foil your ego-centric plans, let go.  Still, you're more likely to grow roses if you plant them then if you didn't at all.

Edited by xFrockx (07/09/09 06:02 PM)

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: c0sm0nautt]
    #10648881 -

Guilt is counter-productive to a spiritual path.  Enjoy your carnal desires just as much as you enjoy your meditation.  There is nothing wrong with gratifying the ego just so long as you remember that the ego isn't everything.


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We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: c0sm0nautt]
    #10648955 -

Yoga doesn't mean suffering to me. I do my best and that is ok with me.

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: c0sm0nautt]
    #10649260 -

c0sm0nautt said:
I just finished reading Ram Dass' Be Here Now and although I find his words of wisdom helpful, my daily routine is now filled with guilt.

When I play a video game I feel like I should be meditating. When I eat the pork dinner my mother makes me it taste almost intolerable. When I am enjoying a hot shower I remember the enjoyment will only reinforce my egos desires. I feel guilty sleeping on my new mattress and not on my floor.

Am I not strong enough to pursue the lifestyle of a Yogi? It's just so hard. Even my meditation which has previously been rewarding is filled with this unsettling feeling, like I am impure.

Does anyone trek down the Yogic path? Has your journey been fruitful or equally dismal?



Kill the Guru and get on with  your life.


--------------------
"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: Icelander]
    #10649487 -

Kill him, I'd like to make contact first. :/

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: c0sm0nautt]
    #10649654 -

It will not happen overnight.
The spiritual highs will become longer and higher over time.
but, when you do fall, you will also fall faster and harder.
The key is to not judge yourself with labels, but to merely love yourself for continuing to try.

Ram Dass's book is not a one time read. Keep it near to go back to from time to time. He himself struggled with the same issues you speak of now.


I have been on a yogic path for merely two months. It's fruitfulness is almost exponential. and like I stated before, the higher you go, the harder you fall.

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: Fraggin]
    #10650024 -

I can empathize OP.  I agree with most of what everyone else has said.  Just keep doing what you do, but with more awareness.  Being aware does not mean that you must feel ashamed or guilty.

If it's any consolation, you'll eventually forget about all these feelings that you feel, and it will be a new day.


--------------------
Let that which doesn't matter truly not matter.

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: c0sm0nautt]
    #10650302 -

I feel for you, really. I was given BE HERE NOW during a tough acid trip in a dorm room in college, early in 1973. It changed the course of my life and I have given copies to many people. I slept on the floor for years, practiced celibacy during my early 20s, was vegan for 3 years, practiced Hatha Yoga religiously for years on end, went through seminary, visited yogis, Sufis, swamis, Hasids, Catholic monks, etc.
Know what? Buddha himself gave up austerities to find the Middle Way. Jesus bids people that we celebrate life - not wallow in excess - but discern the difference.

The path is not to untangle all the knots which weave the fabric of our lives and return to the condition that we were before we were born. The path is toward transmutation, rebirth or resurrection - the upward arc. Meanwhile, all we have to do is get sufficiently centered to see the entire view - where we have come from and where we are going, while remaining steadfastly in the Eternal Here and Now where nothing is [ecstatically!] happening at all. Even as we struggle to draw our last inspiration followed by our last expiration - and expire - we Witness the entire drama with "Unbearable Compassion." THAT is all we need to do, Witness life from the Heart Cave with Unbearable Compassion, and all our action will be consecrated because we will be Whole in the midst of fractured existence.

"Life, like a dome of many-colored glass, stains the white radiance of eternity."
- Percy Bysshe Shelley



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γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: MarkostheGnostic]
    #10650321 -

Haha! :lol: The exact same thing happened to me after reading Be Here Now like 2 months ago.

Listen to what Fraggin and Markos are saying, and remember Ram Dass' own words:

"BUT WHERE DO WE BEGIN? -- The answer is simple: you begin right where you are."
- Page one of the Cookbook for a Sacred Life section.


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Weedmaster P knows the truth.

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: MarkostheGnostic]
    #10650585 -

I too can relate with the OP. Markos hit the nail on the head with this one, well worded reply :thumbup: Experiences like OP is describing reminds me of a page in Be Here Now that reads: "You can't rip the skin off the snake", and I think it applies perfectly to what we are talking about.

I interpret that phrase as saying you can't change your ways too quickly, it is something you work towards gradually (living a life with a more yogic element to it). You can still go through your old motions but by remaining present, you can experience them fully and if a change needs to be made, it will occur in the moment free of guilt and other emotional baggage. Let it flow in/out naturally.

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: laserpig]
    #10651039 -

Quote:
"BUT WHERE DO WE BEGIN? -- The answer is simple: you begin right where you are."



Is that supposed to be wisdom? It is impossible to start anywhere else.


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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: c0sm0nautt]
    #10651068 -

I've seen Mr. Alperts mansion, I guarantee he doesn't sleep on the floor.

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: C.M. Mann]
    #10651081 -

Spiritual gurus and preachers are always about how YOU should live. The rules do not apply to them.


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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
    #10651086 -

OrgoneConclusion said:
Quote:
"BUT WHERE DO WE BEGIN? -- The answer is simple: you begin right where you are."



Is that supposed to be wisdom? It is impossible to start anywhere else.


how about tomorrow? OR After this last pack of cigarettes? Or once my kids are out of school?

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: Fraggin]
    #10651143 -

So? You will still start where you are.


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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
    #10651152 -

Yeah, Be here now.

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: Fraggin]
    #10651166 -

He should have titled the book, 'The Obvious and the Superfluous'.

How is giving one a command that can only be performed in one possible way  supposed to be helpful?


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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
    #10651172 -

OrgoneConclusion said:
He should have titled the book, 'The Obvious and the Superfluous'.

How is giving one a command that can only be performed in one possible way  supposed to be helpful?


Because not just anyone knows how to naturally live in the moment wholely.

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Re: Guilt Ridden Yogic Lifestyle [Re: c0sm0nautt]
    #10651904 -

c0sm0nautt said:
Kill him, I'd like to make contact first. :/



I'm guessing you wouldn't.


--------------------
"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

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