Are there any members of SRF here in the Nexus - out of curiosity?

I am not a member, but I practice kriya yoga.

Peace.

I was initiated in 1979 and followed through with the Kriya lessons. Honestly, I don't consider myself a proclaimed SRF member, in the very strictest sense... but Paramahansa Yogananda inspired me and helped to ignite a fire in my mind and heart, that will never ever die.

Organisations have their downside, so I can't be wholly committed to any single school of religious theology, branch of yoga or spiritual affiliation. But definitely, the practice of Kriya Yoga has aided my awareness to bloom exponentially (along with Zazen meditation, Hatha Yoga and Tai Chi Chuan).

Thanx for initiating a head count! I am curious to know how many of our Nexian members embrace this Sadhana. There are a lot of Kriya folks in this fine community, relatively speaking. Be they inspired by the Self Realization Fellowship, Ananda or totally independent of affiliation... the message of Mahavatar Sri Babaji Maharaj is echoed in the hearts of some of our Nexus family members.

Sometimes the brightest souls amongst us, are silently centering on the Light and sound of the Indivisible Divine Being (AUM). when they touch down, it would be fine to hear their voices.

"Truth is One, paths are many."

Peace, light & love ~ RS

Very nice to know. While I'm a member I did it for the lessons. The organization, and I think Yogananda kind of foreshadowed this, seems to have gotten away from his original teachings some. So goes it for organizations. I haven't taken the Kriya initiation yet... just not there yet but I will get there. Thanks for replying, I'm trying to integrate the DMT experience into my spiritual practices and knowledge and was just curious if others came from similar spiritual paths.


blessings,

Pup Tentacle

I wholly agree. I didn't want to slam the SRF, as many fine souls have passed through their teachings. That being said, the organization, as an entity, has become rather dogmatic and frankly, xenophobic.

I parted ways with the SRF folks, 30 years ago, on very good terms. Honestly, it was just too rigid a group for my needs and aims. But it led me to brighter horizons and I honor the work that went into it's complex structure. It's unfortunate, that like any type of humanoid church/society/religion... it gets lost in the business of external conceptualizations, dogmatic fixations and certain distasteful hierarchical constructs.


I feel that any form of conscious mind-expansion, particularly deep meditation, is a wonderful mix with psychedelics, especially prior and during DMT and Ayahuasca experiences. For my own journey, I use my daily Sadhana to attune myself to the Unified Field of Being. Entheogens help to facilitate peak experiences, which reveal the higher realms, lucid flashes.

Brief interludes with psychedelics can lead the seeker into levels of supra-consciousness, like Nirvikalpa Samadhi or Satori. Temporary as they are, as with DMT immersions, they are previews of where we are to eventually arrive, as evolving souls. Sacred Medicines gift those who use sound judgement, are sincere in their hearts and desire to learn... how to effectively shift their awareness to the Inner Light and the Sound Current.

Still, they are short glimpses into states of mind that leave us wanting more and more. Of course, it's endless, really. I encourage you to keep practicing your Kriya Yoga and merge your epiphanies with Spice, to fuel your quest for the Infinite Spirit.

No reason to go through the initiation...and honestly yes you are ready.
I honestly didn't make much progress at all with meditation until I started doing Kriya Pranayama. Then it was off to the races. Then I hit a long lull and started intermixing raw awareness based Vipassana in and that is when the real magic started.

Today I typically do something like this.

I start off with Hong Sau for a few breaths, then switch to Kriya Pranayama for 15-20 minutes. I usually get my breathing rate down around 1-1.5 breaths per minutes during this time period. I also practice several version of Kriya pranayama. In fact deviating from the standard practice ultimately allowed me to actually feel the energy moving in my spine and thus brought the practice to life. After my kriya period I'll switch to vipassana meditation. and become aware of every sensation in my body completely and totally. This is the practice that has generated the most profound changes in state of mind, but I was horrible inadequate at vippassa until I sharped my concentration with Kriya Pranayama.

Don't become a slave to a technique. Understand what the technique is supposed to teach you and then learn it. A better analogy. Classical musicians can play the hell out of an instrument right up until the time they have to improvise. Then they are like school children holding any instrument for the first time. The improviser learned his art by learning how to play other songs and then changing them up until he fully mastered his instrument. tis route allows him to play from the heart/brain. The classical musician learned his art by repeatedly playing the exact same piece time and time and time and time and time again. While the classical guy will be 10 times better technically most of us would agree that the greatest musicians are those that can play what they feel when they want to and not just want a bunch of notes on a piece of paper say. Same with meditation.

Read the links from the thread I started below, if you haven't already discovered them. The practice the Kriya Pranayama technique until you get comfortable enough with it and then start experimenting. It's your bodies energy. Push it around. Have fun with it.

https://www.dmt-nexus.me...aspx?g=posts&t=18786

Same here, my brother-friend. It was when I added Zazen mediation into my Kriya practice, that something wonderful began to gestate in my soul, the very epicenter of my awareness and fulcrum of being.

You see, often we substitute new habits and fixations, thus supplanting the prior conceptual illusions we have been subject to perceiving, as reality. Our lofty spiritual goals, methodologies, thought-forms, Sacred epiphanies and the process of training our minds... are extremely valuable for the seeker, no doubt about it.

Still, when we find ourselves becoming cogs in a wheel of grandiose, spirituality-religious conceptualizations (however sincere and spiritually-inclined they are) we simply begin to dream a whole new, and far, far subtler illusion of reality. We become fixated on the texture and contour of The Path and this itself, can sometimes cause us to loose sight of the ultimate destination. Well, technically speaking, the journey is the destination... but you know what I mean?

Ritual has it's greatest value when it leads one into ego-death and a kind of erasure or temporary, self-obliteration. Ritual becomes rather empty and feeble, when it becomes a static repetition. It's all about finding The Balance.

The Tibetan Rimpoche, Chogyam Trungpa, used to coin a descriptive phrase I found most relevant to my own sadhana, back in the late 1970's. He called it, "spiritual materialism". Not to say that our efforts are doomed to an inevitable trap, within our own mental gymnastics.

It's just our nature as human beings. We can have the darnedest time seeing the forest for the trees (naturally so, being monkeys with ambitions of awakening from Brahman's cosmic dream). :idea:

In short, as Alan Watts often warned, when we "try not to try", or rather, we use our ego's desire to awaken from our personal earthly slumbers,... we must eventually sacrifice our cherished deities, the patterns and terrain of our our spiritual path. We must transcend those same methods and to a certain degree, the very lifestyle and conceptual formatting we have worked so very hard to create.

Sometimes we just need some emptiness within the whole paradigmatic equation. It's very good and highly enlightening, to embrace the Void and allow the mind to become still. In essence, to become the silent observer of the phenomenon of self.

Don't become a slave to any technique, Kriya Yoga included. As Sri Swami Satchidanada used to poignantly express, back in the good ole days, "Truth is One, paths are many." There are many, many wonderful and highly useful ways to become more attuned and aware of the present moment, the here and now. Each methods facilitates our eventual ego-death and the silencing of our mental dialog. An avenue towards a pure, spontaneous moment, a crystal-clear state of unwavering focus.

So, we can develop our favorite set of practices and this is primary to achieving any results form their effects but... we must be wary of this training becoming further bondage for the soul wanting freedom. I believe that we are forever meant to expand our perception and explore the limitlessness of consciousness, itself. There is all of eternity, an ever-opening eye seeking sight, to exponentially bloom in such an exquisite manner.

When we train ourselves to be so clear and still... we acknowledge the perfection of the Oneness and Indivisibility of The Godhead and in so doing, access deep immersion within the Omniversal Being. Our truest self and core of being.

there are several versions of kriya yoga out there which differ quite a lot in the techniques used

doesn't matter which one you choose as long as you get initiated with a complete sequence and master that one



first rule of kriya yoga.... dont talk about kriya yoga

Amen.



Silence.

I appreciate the input

Thanks & Blessings

I never met a single disciple of Yogananda, either direct or 2nd generation, who was enlightened. And I have met quite a few of them. ..With the possible exception of one guy.

Have you met other enlightened people?

What does it mean to be enlightened?

Back in the day (consisting of a nine, seven and two small numbers) Yogananda was my first intro to this stuff. Got hatha yoga lessons from a guy who was deeply into it, but other stuff as well, and it's led to where I am today. I'll always have the deepest respect for Yogananda and his lineage. So some will describe one's accumulated affiliations as consisting of a "root" guru, as well as many other gurus. Maybe its something like that for me, but there isn't a week gone by where I don't think about something in Autobiography of a Yogi, a groundbreaking book to me!

WANTED!
DEAD, ALIVE
NEITHER OR BOTH

I agree with joediet, this concept deserves more specific quantification and I honestly don't feel there is any any endpoint to immersion within the Light. "Enlightenment" is not something we can easily define, except perhaps to ourselves?

As an allegory, the evolution from total darkness or spiritual ignorance, to full illumination, is measured by a million phases of delineation and attunement. Essentially we are all pilgrims in this lifetime. As the sunrise doesn't just happen instantly, like turning on an electric light-switch, it gradually become lighter and more effulgent, until the day is fully dawned. Naturally, and I feel humanoids are quite similar in this regard.

And from you statements, you seem to imply you have met enlightened beings? I certainly have. Well, from my own subjective dream and biased quantification. This is merely based upon my own judgement about these sorts of things.

Please elucidate further, though, I am fascinated to know your thoughts. How do you feel about Sri Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, himself? Would you label him an enlightened being? I would, by my definition of the term. I believe he was an advanced sage in his own right. An old soul, so to speak. One of many great Masters who lived in the 20th century.

That being said, I have to agree that just because one studies under the guidance of a realize soul, doesn't necessarily mean that we ourselves, will attain such a level of higher spiritual awareness. The techniques are really just methodologies, after all.

The path is a journey and I believe the journey is eternal. It is an endless dawning. Awakening from our illusion is more than just a repetition of the techniques, it is a lasting shift in one's own conscious-awareness. It is an unfolding... or rather, more of an exponential blooming.

And furthermore, I hate to concur but I must, organizations cannot replace direct teacher-disciple relationships. This is where I personally differentiate my stance from the SRF. I haven't a cult bone in my body... and shy away for organizational religious constructs. But it's cool for anyone who does and I do not judge anyone else's Dharma.