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ChiefGreenLeaf

Registered: 01/11/07
Posts: 1,596
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Raja/Astanga Yoga
#7273763 - 08/08/07 09:46 AM (16 years, 5 months ago) |
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Anyone have any experience with this. My yoga teacher said I was the best in the class as far as hatha yoga is concerned. He told me to look into the 8 limbs of yoga and whatnot. It looks like a solid way to live, but i have two problems celibacy and sobriety. I can't stop sexing and . Are these aspects that important?
I want to hear what yoga has done for you all. I would tell you my story but maybe latter. I have to go to work.
Edited by ChiefGreenLeaf (11/27/08 07:11 PM)
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MarkostheGnostic
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Registered: 12/09/99
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There would be too much to tell since I've adhered to Patanjali's system for over 30 years. It is not necessarily celibacy, but chastity (Brahmacharya) that is important. Sex outside of a love relationship indicates that a person is not yet ready to practice Raja Yoga. The Yamas and Niyamas are preliminary but necessary ethical and moral constraints. Living in the Svadhisthana Chakra for its physical pleasure does not dispose one to entering states of mind that are Holy. Holiness is always entered into through the narrow gate of Compassion for others, and playing is not praying.
Make no mistake about it, Yoga (Union) is with the Divine regardless of which school's terminology one wants to use. It is not about 'getting high' or 'blissing out,' and it serves as a complete model for human development. Smoking tobacco is completely ridiculous since pranas operates on healthy breath, and cannabis is contrary to the methods and goals, even though some sadhus in India smoke to 'open their hearts' and 'sing to God' as the claim goes. They are not true Yogis because they are increasing illusory states (howsoever pleasurable, but again, pleasure is a Svadhisthana preoccupation even sublimated in non-sexual forms). Being stoned does not facilitate clarity, concentration (Dharana), meditation (Dyhana) and especially not samadhi.
Lots of American books on Yoga demonstrate mere physical flexibility and strength. Those individuals are into selling themselves through a 'body beautiful' mentality. The place of asana, within the wider 8-limbs is not understood by them. (See Vishnudevananda's The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga) for a really good basic understanding of integration of asana in Ashtanga/Raja philosophy.
Shanti.
-------------------- γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
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leery11
I Tell You What!

Registered: 06/24/05
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Last seen: 8 years, 9 months
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does masturbation fall into "sex without love?"
-------------------- I am the MacDaddy of Heimlich County, I play it Straight Up Yo! ....I embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow, to feel inspired, to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human...... Om Namah Shivaya, I tell you What!
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Quote:
MarkostheGnostic said: They are not true Yogis because they are increasing illusory states (howsoever pleasurable, but again, pleasure is a Svadhisthana preoccupation even sublimated in non-sexual forms).
Begging your pardon, but I hardly think you're in a position to tell people who live such an austere lifestyle that they are not true yogis simply because they partake of a plant which is sacred to their god, Shiva.
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leery11
I Tell You What!

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Re: Raja/Astanga Yoga [Re: Silversoul]
#7284242 - 08/11/07 11:20 AM (16 years, 5 months ago) |
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indeed if one consumes a large quantity of cannabis, the mind stays that way for a while, a few days or so. if one does this daily they have a haze.
if one consumes an enormously light amount of cannabis one simply has the alpha-brainwave characteristics without any haze or stupidity or slowness. this is a very clear feeling and completely conducive to meditation. i do not know if markos is familiar with that, but I do trust he more or less knows what he is talking about in terms of the substance.
this is now an authority game, he is clearly far more experienced with meditation, however, he may not have experienced what i have with the influence of just a light light dose and the deliberate following of the mind into its natural resting place of great clarity.
and it was clean. i know the dirty side of cannabis very well, but i do know it was clean
and hence this becomes an authority game in my mind. for the most part i wouldn't encourage absolutely anyone to toke up because they have the tendency of toking from the perspective of the indulgent stoner rather than the respectful contemplative. and this involves bongs and massive doses rather than the light yin delicacy needed for what i have experienced
and i'm not really sure that i can even have the respect to really do this unless i create a ritual for it.
-------------------- I am the MacDaddy of Heimlich County, I play it Straight Up Yo! ....I embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow, to feel inspired, to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human...... Om Namah Shivaya, I tell you What!
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MarkostheGnostic
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Re: Raja/Astanga Yoga [Re: Silversoul]
#7285936 - 08/11/07 11:29 PM (16 years, 5 months ago) |
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Why not, Buddha thought as much, and he was a successful yogi, unlike most of the others.
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
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Loc: The Barricades
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Quote:
MarkostheGnostic said: Why not, Buddha thought as much, and he was a successful yogi, unlike most of the others.
He was also an atheist, so I wouldn't expect him to understand one's devotion to Shiva.
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MarkostheGnostic
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Re: Raja/Astanga Yoga [Re: Silversoul]
#7302511 - 08/16/07 09:08 PM (16 years, 5 months ago) |
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I expect he did understand - more so even than the devotees of any named deity - as if there were giant invisible deities at large, separated from the Ground Consciousness which Buddha called Sunyata. Theistic-atheistic is another conceptual extreme. Expectancy that an 'outside' agency in the name of 'a' deity, was going to intervene in one's life is another case of one's identification with false selfhood. Ultimately, one's Real identity is not separate from the Ground which 'mind' projects 'out there' and worships. Even grace, which Buddha taught not to depend on is a quality of the Unconditioned Ground. Identification with Being apparently aligns one's mind in such a way that the object of desire co-exists with the desire and causality of grace is assumed, when it is actually an acausal relationship. God is Good.
-------------------- γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
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tekramrepus


Registered: 02/20/02
Posts: 2,253
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I don't think buddha was an atheist or theist. He didn't claim to be either, from what I understand of the scriptures. He taught a method to end suffering, a way in which mankind could unbind his limited awareness.
As for cannabis, Ill have to agree on that point. Although my meditation teacher of 3 years smokes cannabis, two her teachers were enlightened (or maybe that isnt the word to use.....they both were in a constant state of samadhi), they both recommended to her to stop smoking cannabis.
However, I dont think that should prevent you from practicing raja yoga. Practice your heart out. If you get deep enough in the practice, you will naturally lose interest in getting high and casual sex.
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