The concepts of meditation and yoga are commonly understood in a casual way by pretty much everyone in Western Culture today. This awareness is largely due to the efforts of the three prominent teacher Vivekananda (1893), Yogananda (1920), and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1959). These spiritual leaders left a lasting impression on the country in the form of many new seekers looking for this eastern vision of enlightenment and a layer of intermediaries to support these many seekers in lieu of directed access to the guru.
These intermediaries dispensed the knowledge and techniques in the manner of the sowing of seeds onto the ground (i.e. those who aspire to know). If the ground was fertile, the seeds would germinate, take root, and grow. Given the right conditions, these seekers would forge ahead and complete the journey of discovery on their own. In these very rare cases (most simply give up), the fruit of these efforts is the ‘homegrown’ enlightenment of the pioneering seeker who is largely left to their own devices to fill in the gaps of understanding to complete the journey and interpret the results.
I was one of those new seekers. I never had any direct connection with my guru. Rather, I dealt with intermediaries acting remotely on his behalf to a point in time, and after that, I was totally on my own to sort through these experiences and transitions that I now believe were set in motion by these eastern practices of yoga and meditation.
At first, I was in the company of many others as I plunged headlong into the commitment to the practice of meditation with the conviction of a person obsessed. The years passed, and while the general quality of my life was on a steady upward trend since starting meditation, the first decade slipped away without my much desired enlightenment. I added the practice of the Siddhis to my regime, and remained committed to my new/longer routine. The trend of steady progress continued as I remained steadfast in my practice. Friends using the same technique came and went as I remained regular and steadfast, but I continued to diligently plod along.
At some point a few decades later, I was all alone in my immediate world in my pursuit of enlightenment. I had lost contact with everyone else practicing my particular technique, and in fact, I had little contact with anyone on a similar path of any technique. I continued to relentlessly forge ahead into I knew not what. I shared my experiences and practices with no one after I had been set adrift by circumstance. All the while, knowing that I was slowly but steadily growing and changing.
These intermediaries dispensed the knowledge and techniques in the manner of the sowing of seeds onto the ground (i.e. those who aspire to know). If the ground was fertile, the seeds would germinate, take root, and grow. Given the right conditions, these seekers would forge ahead and complete the journey of discovery on their own. In these very rare cases (most simply give up), the fruit of these efforts is the ‘homegrown’ enlightenment of the pioneering seeker who is largely left to their own devices to fill in the gaps of understanding to complete the journey and interpret the results.
I was one of those new seekers. I never had any direct connection with my guru. Rather, I dealt with intermediaries acting remotely on his behalf to a point in time, and after that, I was totally on my own to sort through these experiences and transitions that I now believe were set in motion by these eastern practices of yoga and meditation.
At first, I was in the company of many others as I plunged headlong into the commitment to the practice of meditation with the conviction of a person obsessed. The years passed, and while the general quality of my life was on a steady upward trend since starting meditation, the first decade slipped away without my much desired enlightenment. I added the practice of the Siddhis to my regime, and remained committed to my new/longer routine. The trend of steady progress continued as I remained steadfast in my practice. Friends using the same technique came and went as I remained regular and steadfast, but I continued to diligently plod along.
At some point a few decades later, I was all alone in my immediate world in my pursuit of enlightenment. I had lost contact with everyone else practicing my particular technique, and in fact, I had little contact with anyone on a similar path of any technique. I continued to relentlessly forge ahead into I knew not what. I shared my experiences and practices with no one after I had been set adrift by circumstance. All the while, knowing that I was slowly but steadily growing and changing.
Finally after 40+
years of regular (obsessively regular) meditation, yoga, and siddha practice, I
feel that I have experienced a major shift of consciousness. There was not much to report in the slow
steady changes that preceded this most recent major shift. This major shift was the quantum leap that
created something worth discussing. This discovery is part of an ongoing event,
but enough materials have been collected at this point to begin a discussion about my experiences and findings.
Without any direct contact with teachers, guides, or even many fellow seekers, I have arrived somewhere, but I am not exactly sure where this place is. It seems pretty significant to me now, but it is not exactly what I had imagined when I started this path 40+ years ago. In the light of this new clarity, so many things that were so confusing before all seem to make perfect sense to me now.
This transition appears to have happened across the four primary areas of my being; physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. The changes were working in parallel with staggered starting points and different times of completion. The physical transition was first followed by the intellectual and emotional. The spiritual was the last to start, and at the time of this writing, these transitions are still ongoing in the form of a cascading series of revelations and insight and physical changes to my body.
Clearly from my new perspective, a state of consciousness does exist that is very consistent with the descriptions in the ancient texts. I now live it every day. Maybe this is how it is for everyone as they advance in age, but as I look around me now, that does not appear to be the case for most everyone else that I see.
This place exists deep inside every one of us. It is a place where there is no fear, no longing or regret. A place in which there is sanctuary from all the selfish worldly things that otherwise would disturb our sense of peace. Where we can take comfort in the truth about who we are without worry about what others might think. A place where there is a fountainhead from which springs the answers to all our questions.
There is a degree of freedom that comes with these revelations that is greater than anything I could have imagined. It is a freedom from all the things inside us that stifles our action before we even attempt them. This freedom comes from a level of honesty that was not possible for me before the transition. It is a freedom that can only come from being totally honest with yourself.
Time spent in this place is not burdened by things that happened in the past or a fear of what may happen in the future. Every moment is lived and enjoyed in that very moment.
These blog posts will provide further and more specific details about my western experience of this very eastern concept. I hope that relating my experiences can be helpful to others, and comments from others about their personal experience would be most welcome.
Without any direct contact with teachers, guides, or even many fellow seekers, I have arrived somewhere, but I am not exactly sure where this place is. It seems pretty significant to me now, but it is not exactly what I had imagined when I started this path 40+ years ago. In the light of this new clarity, so many things that were so confusing before all seem to make perfect sense to me now.
This transition appears to have happened across the four primary areas of my being; physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. The changes were working in parallel with staggered starting points and different times of completion. The physical transition was first followed by the intellectual and emotional. The spiritual was the last to start, and at the time of this writing, these transitions are still ongoing in the form of a cascading series of revelations and insight and physical changes to my body.
Clearly from my new perspective, a state of consciousness does exist that is very consistent with the descriptions in the ancient texts. I now live it every day. Maybe this is how it is for everyone as they advance in age, but as I look around me now, that does not appear to be the case for most everyone else that I see.
This place exists deep inside every one of us. It is a place where there is no fear, no longing or regret. A place in which there is sanctuary from all the selfish worldly things that otherwise would disturb our sense of peace. Where we can take comfort in the truth about who we are without worry about what others might think. A place where there is a fountainhead from which springs the answers to all our questions.
There is a degree of freedom that comes with these revelations that is greater than anything I could have imagined. It is a freedom from all the things inside us that stifles our action before we even attempt them. This freedom comes from a level of honesty that was not possible for me before the transition. It is a freedom that can only come from being totally honest with yourself.
Time spent in this place is not burdened by things that happened in the past or a fear of what may happen in the future. Every moment is lived and enjoyed in that very moment.
These blog posts will provide further and more specific details about my western experience of this very eastern concept. I hope that relating my experiences can be helpful to others, and comments from others about their personal experience would be most welcome.
