The re-formatting of the mind

[Anthem]

Over the last who knows how long, I have observed the re-formatting of my mind. The best way to explain it would be that I used to have all these rules and formulas to operate in the world: "If I am friendly and funny people will like me", "if I am good at things people will acknowledge me", "if she doesn't say hello to me, she doesn't still like me", "if I don't sleep enough, I won't perform well the next day" etc., etc.  It doesn't really matter what the thoughts are but the truth is that all these thoughts that we carry around in our minds about the way the world works can at best be described as "darn good guesses". There is always a small chance, no matter how dead obvious something seems, that it just might not be as we think it is.

So where am I going with this? Well the thoughts and rules that used to define my world have been slowly dismantled one by one. I never know what to think any more, yesterday's rules just aren't true anymore. Just because she doesn't say hello to me, she might still like me, how the hell do I know?!

This was the first part of the process, every rule of interaction with others has been opened up to include all possibilities, it is like the ultimate open-mindedness. By not knowing, I am more present and in the moment free to be and adapt any way I need to and more importantly I am not carrying around judgements with me that hurt or disempower me. I am free to interpret the situation any way I want to, I usually choose the ways that are more favourable to my well-being of course!

The latest part of the process has been that I can no longer assign any meaning to what happens in my life. For example, something pokes me, does it hurt or is it just there? I feel very busy at work, is it true, or am I embellishing things, am I really as busy as I think, let's write it down and check it out. Lights shot out of my ass while I was meditating (just joking btw.), does it mean I'm enlightened now, how I can I know what it means? I can't! So I just look at whatever I see,  I just be, whatever happens happens, I'm just along for the ride here or so it seems! The result of this so far has been spending a lot more time in the here and now. Why not? Nothing else is real any way!

It also seems to be an accelerating phenomena, I wonder if others here are experiencing the same way, please feel free to comment.

[weaver]

Hi Anthem,

It's interesting to read about your transformation of consciousness, thanks for sharing! It seems that this is the work of the venerable Kundalini, at least in part. I experience changes in similar lines, if not as radical (yet), and I'm only in the initial stages of ecstatic conductivity. What I find mostly is the opening of all possibilities in the interactions with others. Stereotypical patterns of opinions and interpretations of situations are being broken down, making unexpected ways of working out situations appear, which can often be enlightening. Then we have inner silence which creates an inner calm even if the outer situation is not so calm.

While the open-source knowledge of AYP this far deals to a major extent with the actual practices, which of course is most important, it is interesting to add more and more knowledge of the effects that are produced at various stages, and this is where all of us come in to share.

As far as understand, in short terms (please add or correct if wrong or incomplete):

Inner silence produces: calm, stability of mind, ability to be cool and think clearly at all times, the witness that is free to not identify with the thoughts and emotions.

Kundalini produces: ecstasy, unconditional joy, siddhis, access to non-physical realities, re-formatting of the mind = breakdown of the sense of individual ego with the whole structure that it has built up, like opinions, values, interpretations, expectations, rules and habits.

Merging of the two produces: complete freedom, consciousness of unity, outpouring divine love, complete enlightenment.

[Balance]

Thanks for sharing that[]

I too am at the beginning stages of ecstatic conductivity, kindergarten even, but have to chime in here with the same kind of report. I am experiencing changes as an ever-deepening experience of a new self opening up. Sort of like my life is beginning to take on a life of its own. There is a smile always pulling me back to center, even when I'm not necessarily "happy," and I find myself "out there" as well as "in here"; another being I had forgotten about, new and ancient at the same time. Things (stuff) are falling away, no longer important anymore, and I can let go. I don't need to hang on to this and that. There is a core of bare-bones simplicity that needs nothing that is showing itself beneath the useless.

peace, alan......I have no path--I am the path

[Shanti]

Thanks Andrew . Only yesterday I was telling a friend how my outlook towards life has changed completely in the last 2 years.. since I started AYP. How I had the need to analyze all the details of  what was happening and why and when and where.. it seems so redundant now. It feels like such a waste of energy trying to figure out and blame and reason.. finally nothing was really ever in my hands.
Everything that has to happen is going to happen.. I just continue living my life the best I know how and everything falls in its place so beautifully.

"Weaver Said: Kundalini produces: ecstasy, unconditional joy, siddhis, access to non-physical realities, re-formatting of the mind = breakdown of the sense of individual ego with the whole structure that it has built up, like opinions, values, interpretations, expectations, rules and habits. "
Thanks Weaver.. a very good explanation to all the changes occurring...

"Alan said:I am experiencing changes as an ever-deepening experience of a new self opening up. Sort of like my life is beginning to take on a life of its own.
I have no path--I am the path"
Ditto Alan.. very well said..

[Sparkle]

Thanks for the thread Andrew
Your description fits very well to what I am experiencing also.

Sometimes I get the impression that there is a connection here between us and that maybe with the energy of the forum, the daily practices and the group meditations, there is an accelerating process born out of group participation.
Anybody else feel this?

[Balance]

Yes, I do feel this. I'm actually getting a feeling that it is not just this group and forum but is a worldwide phenomenon. Let's make wild-fire!

peace

[Shanti]

quote:Originally posted by Sparkle

Sometimes I get the impression that there is a connection here between us and that maybe with the energy of the forum, the daily practices and the group meditations, there is an accelerating process born out of group participation.
Anybody else feel this?

Yes Louis.. I agree.. Spooky

[Wolfgang]

I feel very similar ...

May the force be with us

[Balance]

I want to explain what I mean by a worldwide phenomenon of awakening. You all may have thought I meant a rising collective consciousness kind of thing. I like to think that's true. But whether or not it is there are a growing number of people finally accessing the most effective techniques. Like yogani, there are other teachers who have come thru a similar life of searching and have accessed these techniques and become successful with them, and are now offering them to the world. My teacher is also one of these wonderful people, and there are others. Thru this offering from the Guru, in answer to our hearts' calling, there are great numbers of people worldwide now living their yoga.

Smile[]alan

[Balance]

Sorry! I got a little carried away and side-tracked the conversation :-)

[Anthem]

Hi Weaver,

Great thoughts!

 

quote:As far as understand, in short terms (please add or correct if wrong or incomplete):

Inner silence produces: calm, stability of mind, ability to be cool and think clearly at all times, the witness that is free to not identify with the thoughts and emotions.

This is the way I see it too, when the inner silence/ spirit/ being/ emptiness comes into greater balance within the body there is more calm, stability of mind etc. To me, spirit is truth and "made of" love. When the truth of spirit touches thought, the thought eventually evaporates against it. I often see my thoughts run up against spirit and then I say something like "wait a sec, that doesn't seem to be true"!
 

quote:Kundalini produces: ecstasy, unconditional joy, siddhis, access to non-physical realities, re-formatting of the mind = breakdown of the sense of individual ego with the whole structure that it has built up, like opinions, values, interpretations, expectations, rules and habits.

We're probably saying the same thing, but I don't see kundalini as producing things, I see it more as when the energy is free-flowing through the body and mind these things you mention come to be as the "body/mind" become fully functioning. The kundalini energy has always been there, but once that abundance is released, I think it presses with more intensity against blockages helping them to fall away more quickly. I think the energy in the body and mind is intent on flowing without opposition!
 

quote:Merging of the two produces: complete freedom, consciousness of unity, outpouring divine love, complete enlightenment.

I don't know where the merging of these two lead, but I see that they merge within us, somehow intertwined life/ spirit in balance, one from above, one from below.

[weaver]

Anthem,

I see these things the way you see them too. I may have been too simplistic in trying to summarize them in too short and dry-cut statements.

[david_obsidian]

It also seems to be an accelerating phenomena, I wonder if others here are experiencing the same way, please feel free to comment.

What you are going through seems to be something like the discarding of reference-point.  Does that make sense?  The discarding of a framework that the mind returns to.  The mind gets leaner,  relying on its own intelligence more.

I've been going through that on an on-going basis over the years.

The process can be disconcerting because some of the frameworks are, or rather were, useful in their time.  They were a good thing -- once.  Now they aren't,  just as the smokey oil-lamps have to go when the smokeless, brighter, electric light comes.

There was a time when I knew what to think.  Now I don't any more.  I just think when I have thinking to do and stop when I don't (with various lapses).

What is enlightenment?  I knew once, and I was wrong,  now I have no firm idea, but a better idea than I ever had.

The processes are various and everyone seems to go through them in different ways.  Are there any completely unifying principles?

That the mind-body becomes leaner,  clearer,  cleaner, quieter and more accurate,  which could be called the 'purity of the mind';  and the heart more loving,  which could be called 'purity of the heart'.

And maybe that's about it for completely unifying principles, I don't know....

[weaver]

Very thought-inspiring statements David!

Then comes the big test, is this new "purity of mind and heart" or "becoming leaner", with possible confusion because of not knowing what we thought we knew before, preferable to the apparent "security" that we thought we had before when the old frameworks were in effect? Is there the possibility that we may think it (the loss of the frameworks) is preferable because we are supposedly step(s) closer to 'enlightenment'? Are we closer to being enlightened when we know less?

These are just challenging questions that popped up in my mind. From my personal point of view, I experience it as more preferable to know less if I see what I felt as certain or secure before as an illusion plus being aware of and recognizing the fact that what I don't know now is still fine, I'm still happy with not knowing, because it is the truth. And I'm still happy with not having firm opinions etc. about some things like before. It's refreshing to drop some stuff. But if I wasn't happy with the changes and dropping stuff I guess I shouldn't be on this path. Will I be happy with dropping stuff until the end when there is nothing more to drop? I don't know. Possibly if there is enough inner silence. Will I have to drop that too? I hope not.

[Anthem]

Hi Weaver,

Simple has got to be the better way to go![] I just like thinking these thoughts through at the moment, it helps them to become more clear in my mind.

*  *   *

Hi David,

Great insights in your post, I agree with the dicarding of the reference point. You must have surely been a jnana yogi in a past life the way you are able to think things through!

all the best,

A