Comments on: Enlightenment,Meditation and Alzheimers.

By: roman

roman — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:49:16 +0000

‘Going to leave this broken down palace,
On my hands and knees,
I will roll, roll,roll.
Just remembered that the palace comes out of Steinbeck’s Cannery Row. An open palace for all the bumbs, hobos and and anyone who is an odd one in. Beautiful losers.

By: Lokesh

Lokesh — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:54:49 +0000

There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go, no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone.

By: roman

roman — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:36:52 +0000

SD,
As you say, it didn’t come easy.
‘For one year it was impossible…just to keep myself alive was a very difficult thing, because all appetite had disappeared. Days would pass and I would not feel any thirst. I had to force myself to eat, force myself to drink. The body was so non-existential that I had to hurt myself to feel that I was still in the body. I had to knock my head against the wall to feel whether my head was still there or not. Only when it hurt would I be a little in the body…For one year it persisted. I would simply lie in the floor and look at the ceiling and count from one to a hundred then back from a hundred to one. Just to remain capable of counting was at least something.

‘My condition was one of utter darkness. It was as if I had fallen into a deep, dark well. In those days I had many times dreamt that I was falling and going deeper into a bottomless well. And many times I awakened from a dream full of perspiration, sweating profusely, because the falling was endless without any ground or place anywhere to rest my feet. My condition was full of tension, insecurity and danger.’
(Joshi, ‘The Awakened One’).

We know what happens next.
There are many similar accounts by mystics from all over the world and throughout time as Sudhir Kakar, in his book ‘Mad and Divine’, points out. Brain chemistry, inflated ego, a breakthrough, a bit of everything, blah blah blah.

By: dharmen

dharmen — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:57:45 +0000

You should now be able to submit topic if you want (check your email).

By: Sw. Bodhi Vartan

Sw. Bodhi Vartan — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:30:06 +0000

Lokesh says:
“SN is enjoying a long-awaited renaissance, going by Roman’s comment and some of the other commentators, that is.
I’m very happy to see that and hope this development continues. I think the possibility exists that SN can host an exchange of real communication, where useful and creative ideas on some of life’s deeper aspects can be explored. We have Frank to thank for this thread. Let’s keep ‘em coming and not forget to inject a wee bit of humour now and then to keep us all smiling.”

I know exactly what you are saying. I have ten years experience of online forums and once they get ‘really interesting’ they get too-busy to be able to get one’s head around. The last fun-forum I was on, took eight years to get too-busy, but in the sannyas world that can happen in a month. (Plus we need emoticons.)

I don’t know how to start a thread. I tried using the contact form, but either that is the wrong process or my subject wasn’t relevant enough. I wanted to ask the question: As sannyasins, do we have anything in common with each other?

Love is not when we are looking in each other’s eyes but when we are looking in the same direction.

Vartan

By: satyadeva

satyadeva — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:13:10 +0000

From what I’ve understood (not from personal experience though, I’m a long-term wader-in-the-shallows) that’s surely the experience of most, Vartan, agreed. Although having a certain ‘realisation’ wouldn’t necessarily equate to ‘enlightenment’.

As one master has said, “There are realisations and realisations” – various profound insights, at various levels…a gradual undermining of the ‘self’….

In a way, Osho’s description of his own enlightenment could be misleading in that it might appear that it somehow ‘just happened’, without much previous ‘work’. Except the preparation in ‘past lives’, of course…But how helpful that idea is to us might well be debatable.

By: Sw. Bodhi Vartan

Sw. Bodhi Vartan — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:06:28 +0000

As we are speaking of altered states due to physiological quirks, sleep paralysis is probably the juiciest. We have a switch at the top of the spine. When we wake up, the switch closes and the body responds to the brain activity. After we go to sleep, the brain activity (dreams, etc.) has to carry on so the switch opens up to separate the body from the brain activity. If the switch closes during sleep, that’s when sleep-walking happens. Sleep paralysis occurs when the subject awakes while the switch is still open. The sensation of not being in control of the body is interpreted like something heavy is pinning the body down and thus stopping it from moving. Another weird aspect of the experience is that the subject feels that there is somebody else, or something else (often alien) in the room. Try the link below but also do your own research, as it is a historically fascinating subject.

Sleep Paralysis

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

Ever heard of Alien Hand Syndrome? Don’t start me, I am a savant. Hehe.

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

Vartan

By: dominic

dominic — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 11:51:46 +0000

Are you trying to tell us something, Frank?
I think we’re all pretty liberal-minded here.
You look nice today….

By: frank

frank — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 11:35:09 +0000

Dharmen,
Work?
Would you mind your language please, there are ladies present!

By: dominic

dominic — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 10:34:56 +0000

Hee-haw! Frank. Let us bray.
From an assaholic in recovery from all Ass-ended Masters.
How about a pen for muttonheads and all baaa-baaa jis for some satsang bleatings ?
Glad to hear you’re finally talking turkey about this (gobble gobble.)
Don’t know if we’re all ass lionhearted ass you are and ready for ‘cold turkey’.
Might be a cock and bull story.
What if there really is a bono fido Can-guru out there, cross it with my inner sheep or llama and I’d have a woolly jumper for Hari Christmas.
Sorry to rabbit in
yours Swami Cuckoo