ex-BK meditation

[bro neo]

ex-BK Raja Yoga is probably a more accurate name for this, but ex-BK meditation is more suited, let me explain. ex-BK because this meditation technique(s) incorporates all the skills we picked up in our time as a BK and now may have sitting on a shelf somewhere collecting dust. Also ex-BK because we take out all the elements of Raja Yoga that involves open-ended theories and dogmas. Raja Yoga because this meditation is design to be a Yoga (connection) that makes us Rajas (sovereigns). Not Raja Yoga and meditation because I personally associate the term Raja Yoga with the equivalent of root canal so ... meditation.

So we can use everything we have picked up during our spiritual university days (or prison sentence, depending on how ya want to look at it) with the BKWSU and what we have discussed and dissected here on this forum to create a grand, perhaps the grandest meditation around. Anyways this is my v1.1. Surely others more creative will come along to spice things up.

Yoga starts with the central command center. In Raja Yoga it’s the soul and intellect controlling the mind and sanskars. Those things are intangible so I am not going to touch them here (although the 3 powers of the mind is a very workable model to incorporate). What we can prove is that we have a brain for thinking. The brain thinks much better when the brain waves are slowed, and our oxygen is increased. So step 1 is deep breathing. There are many techniques on breathing, so choose one ya like and experiment.

Step 2: Yoga. Yoga is connection. Connections are established by communication. I see 2 main channels to attempt to establish a connection with: to energies, information and intelligences within our body and all of the above out side the body.

First internal connections. I am not peace. I am a complex human animal made up of many different parts that can work separately and in unison. How detailed and complicated we make our personal connections will vary depending on personal preference. If you are a very detailed orientated person like me you may want to establish conscious connections with all the main parts of self. If you’re a lazy person, also like me, you may just want to establish a conscious connection with your body mind as a whole unit.

First the detailed explanation. If I am feeling stressed or just want to feel peaceful I don’t need to connect to an imaginary ocean of unlimited peace to feel peaceful, far from it. I do step one, and focus on my brain, or pituitary gland (what ever) and use language to communicate to it. "I want to feel peaceful. Please release the chemicals that create the relaxation response. I deserve to feel peaceful because I am a hard working lover of ice cream and you are a great brain. Ah very good. Now I want to feel more peaceful. Yes, now more peaceful. Good brain, I love you." Some thing like that. Now mental-verbal communication may not be best with you, I only choose it because it’s most common. Alternatively we could play a song in our head, create a picture in our mind, or rub our scalp all with the intention to communicate with our brains that we want to feel peaceful (or more secure, loved, focused, whatever it is we want to feel).

If we don’t consciously play a part in how we feel, how we feel will be dependent on our subconscious and environmental predicament. I mean we could always just go for a jog or play baseball to feel better, but here we are talking about harnessing the skills we learned as BKs for the maximum benefit. The sorce of peace is not from some intangible ocean, but from the chemicals released from our brains, so why not have direct Yoga with the source? The brain.

Now the brain is not the only part of ourselves that releases chemicals that we associate with good health, wellbeing and being naturally high or intoxicated so this kind of self body management should be done to the other main parts of the self, heart, kidneys etc. Another Idea is to consciously guide the regulation of self by having Yoga with our chakras, one of the scientist from the “What The Bleep” movies, Candice Pert, has validated chakras as regulatory centers of ourselves and main conduits of personal energy. Alternatively this could all be done with the body as a whole.

This is the Yang of this mediation, the Yin is about listening, coaxing out information and establishing rapport; being receptive. If my car is tired, runned down and about to run out of gas and I just keep telling it to go faster and faster, eventually I am not going to be able to go anywhere. Getting information from my car and understanding that it needs gas, an oil change and a tune up will allow me to make it function at it maximum capacity and feel good.

Next time, Yoga with archetypes that represent external energy and intelligence.

[fluffy bunny]

I never really understood the need for "peace", the hard sell on "peace on mind". I have come to think of it as an early re-marketing suitable for Westerners and that peace of mind stuff, the opiate experience.

"I am a dynamic soul ... I can achieve and make change ... I am energy to think, analyze, create, expand, explore ... I am not tied down by artificial limitation ..." etc

[bro neo]

Indeed. Towards the end of my BK days I wanted to learn Hindi so I could understand Murlis with out faulty interpretations. That didn’t get very far, but one thing I did discover was Shanti doesn't actually mean peace as most people understand peace. Shanti means a complete fulfillment, a contentment of silence as apart to just not kicking someone’s arss.

[howiemac]

Shanti means a complete fulfillment, a contentment of silence

Thank you Neo for this insight - yet another piece of BK dumbing down (at least in the English version of 'Gyan'). Om Shanti recast as "I am fulfilled" is so much deeper than "I am peace", and a much more relevant feeling to use in pursuit of Yoga. "I am silence" works too, for one who has experienced the yogic state, though I am sure the seva-oriented BK masses would reinterpret this one as "I am not talking out loud"! As it is they seem to see meditation as "sitting at peace" which they then interpret as being physically still and not talking ...

Neo, I do appreciate your attempt to reinvent meditation in a way that is free from BK dogma and ritual. I feel this is a very important thing to do - Yoga is the clean baby, so lets not throw it away - we don't need the dirty bathwater, so let's find some clean new bathwater for ourselves. And why not have some bubble bath or salts, or even a plastic duck if that works for you ...

I too find that breathing is relevant to achieving Yoga, at least in the early stages. I also have found that saying OMMMMM out loud works a treat too - the throaty vibrational thing has a centering power of its own. And an upright posture helps, without being essential - there is value in many of the things that the BKs dispensed with in their strip-down of Raja Yoga.

I also like that you are reinterpreting Yoga as a connection with yourself, rather than with Shiva or some other personification of God. I now see Yoga as a connection with the inner or higher self, the divinity that we all are at heart, or in our core. There is no need to look for an external entity to link with now that we have turned your back on the array of BK spooks. Some might still prefer to lose themselves in a universal or supreme God, depending on individual beliefs, but this is not necessary to achieve a state of yogic silence and bliss.

We can all re-establish connection with the supreme inner love that is within each and every one of us, and we don't need to adopt an Eastern lifestyle or religion, or a kooky diet, or be celibate, to do so.

[fluffy bunny]

We can all re-establish connection with the supreme inner love that is within each and every one of us, and we don't need to adopt an Eastern lifestyle or religion, or a kooky diet, or be celibate, to do so.

It is a frightening challenge to the BKWSU to suggest that anyone not following their dogma and expending their energy engaged in their social order could have "Supreme" experiences ... but, of course, they do.

Let's all grumble the spiritually monopolistic mantras together under our breath now, "... new souls ... fruits of Bhakti ... living off their karma ... limited experience ... not Baba's children ... bhagats." etc.

Personally, I still find it hard to go near any form of meditation and so I envy you if you are so sure that you are apart from the BK experience or that the BK experience is just a usurpation of some universal experience.

[bro neo]

Thanks howiemac. Indeed how we frame our ideas impact severely how we experience them. Also your input on sounds, vibrations and posture have a lot of benefit and backing from research.

And no doubt, anything spiritual can be distasteful to us ex-BKs (justifiably) at times.

[alladin]

Hi , Howie. I always get enthusiastic about syncronicity when I see it manifesting, and the last days I was thinking and discussing privately and on the Forum, about the Inner self, claiming back rights and powers and qualities that I felt had been "hijaked" by the BKs. Well, ex-l was using the term "usurpation" in a parallel context. Different words, same wave we are riding, same concept and same need for dignity and freedom. Humility is an essential ingredient in personal transformation, but allowing others, including "God" to belittle us all the time, can be very dangerous and stop our progress altogether.

[bro neo]

Archetype is a word that has different meanings and when I use it here I am not referring to it as traditionally defined by Carl Jung. Here for the purpose of our use I define it as: an Image we create that represents something or a symbol we create which represents a form of intelligence or energy.

About 8 or 9 years ago I first read about this definition of archetypes. It was while doing research as a BK (reading at a library, naughty me). The details of the story were from some medical book, it went something like this.

There was a boy with sever cancer. He was hospitalized. Then one day the cancer was gone. The doctors were astonished as to what happened. The boy told them that he visualized the cancer as, I think it was the Death Star from Star Wars, or some kind of evil enemy. He would visualize himself as a Jedi Knight and would destroy the Death Star again and again, everyday. This is how it was done.

For BKs the archetype of God is Shiva, a point of light or BapDada, Brahma and Shiva combined. For years after leaving the BKs I continued to do Yoga with an archetype of what I referred to as the perfect all loving God (a lot more words but basically that). With my experiences and experiments, if the archetype is defined clear enough, it will have a seemingly separate intelligence (from my own) with a distinct personality.

To have accurate communication however, I have found it a bit difficult as my own thoughts would get jumbled in with the messages I seemed to get from my archetype of the Supreme Form of God. My solution was to make sure I was as egoless as possible before Yoga and also ask and clarify information I got form my archetype several times before acting on the information. The results were usually quite good, in a practical way (not really magical or psychic).

I stopped doing this a short time after I found this forum. I think it was because I finally had enough of having Yoga with something that may or may not be real. I still have Yoga with other archetypes sometimes to gain valuable insights from different perspectives.

Now something different all together. The meditation technique I am about to explain, IMO, is extremely profound in its truth and transformative effects. It is also something I am sure BKs and other fanatics would call absolute blasphemy. So if you wanna stay happy with what you got and not have your whole world turned topsy tervy, DO NOT READ ON! It's not for everyone.

I warned you.

Aren't you just sick of lies? Haven’t you just had enough of things which may or may not be real, iffy theories and dogmas of what is and what must be? I bloody well am. Well this following meditation is about real.

I am defining this as I personally experience it so bare with me if it's hard to relate to.

Our attention can focus in 2 main areas: external and internal reality. This is what's real. Let's expand this once. We can focus our attention externally into our bodies and also into our environment. Internally we can focus on what comes into our mind (or inner world) and experiences which we create. So 4 different realms where we can focus our attention into.

The following part some might disagree with, but that's good. When we focus into the body we can connect to our cellular or instinctual intelligence. When focused inside, we can focus on our emotional as well as intellectual intelligence. A bit abstract but what I am implying here is that we have an instinctual animal part of self which is a form of intelligence (let's call this CI for cellular intelligence) probably rooted in the nervous system and lymphatic brain and we also have a processing capacity of ordering and managing information far superior than other life forms on this planet (let’s call this observational intelligence, OI) probably in the cortex.

Now the good part, or should I say God part. With the power of our OI we can create thoughts, states and even entire environments within our inner reality. This is real. As real as a dream, thinking and experiences. It is the realm of created inner reality as apart from inner reality created by our subconscious, CI or what ever else. I believe this is where evolution is pointing us to expand.

Surely we have read enough about how what we think and feel affects the world around us, and we know the benefits of prayer and meditation, but I for one can’t do it unless I know it’s for real. This is. Within this created reality, which could be a dimension not accessible by other life forms on this planet, we have so much power. Perhaps evolution has gotten us to this point. Anyways now what? We create God. This God is real, this archetype is the representation our highest virtues in accordance to what we know and believe. But this is our thought, so the next step is to become God. We focus our attention within this archetype, we put on this body and feel and experience of being a God, like perhaps the Pharaohs of Egypt we enter a totally altered state. How we define God is important.

Of course being ex-BKs and lovers of truth, we must abide to limitations, but we have so fewer limitation in this realm then say the external realms. In this realm we can experience absolute contentment, “I am complete and whole”. I believe contentment might be the prime requirement of this God stage. We have to truly be content with just being. Uh this might be tricky for some, but for me its basically stating the fact that everything is fine. CI will disagree especially if focus drifts to it, but this is good.

Now from this seat of the God stage we then can do the Yoga as explained above with the CI. I don't think we should force CI to do anything, but to manage it with love and authority. My experience so far is understanding emotions as being a result of animal instinct in regards to human social behavior. Acknowledging emotions and thanking CI for this information and then reprogramming CI in accordance with what society is today will do wonders.

Human instincts, in general are way out of date, unless you live in a tribe and still wear animal skins for undies. Emotions seem to be a level of perception which most people in today's world have a hard time interpreting. Since they don't understand the information they suppress it or it suddenly takes them over in a rage. If someone said to you "Your boss doesn't like you" in Swedish, you wouldn't understand and would eventually get annoyed at the constant badgering, but if you did understand Swedish you would thank the source of the information and use it as appropriate.

I don't think humans are done evolving, as a people we still have many problems, this meditation could indeed be our direction. The power of contentment has tremendous transformative results on our brains, bodies and environment. When our minds are quite and the brain is slowed I have heard DNA changes. Mentally we are much more open to inspiration.

So in essence (with all bro neo's questionable theories aside), the real meditation is this. Creating a God in our minds, knowing this is an archetype of information and beliefs, focusing our attention into it and experiencing ourselves as this complete, content, but evolving God self (or higher self) and experiencing the transformative effects. All real, everything self define as par belief, establishing hard core responsibility (for our own body and mind) and becoming free from all forms of unhealthy dependence (ideally :) ) . Plus it feels really good.

[pilatus]

Thanks for this thread bro neo - a lot of food for thought/meditation, which I'll add to/combine with my own ex-BK/body-focussed method.

The "CI part" is related to tuning in to the different systems within the body (respiratory, cardiovascular, lymphatic, muscular/skeletal etc). You're quite right that (at least for most people) the key to getting started is breathing and my other half's much better at using to breathing to get into yogic state than me. Some of my biggest developmental challenges have been related to the respiratory and nervous systems and their interaction with the cardiovascular and endocrine systems.

The next part is related to the field of bioenergetics as originating with Wilhelm Reich and developed by psychologists who teach at the Praxis Centre of the Cranfield School of Management. The bit which I've been working on more recently is my interaction with a Christian view of God merged with selected archetypes (in the Jungian sense) and/or subpersonalities.

Will expand on this more later - I don't have time to do it here and now in the comprehensive way which you have. I also need to work at it in a more committed way, so that it's rooted in more consistent practice and experience.

Again thanks for your inspiration and best wishes ... :idea:

[paulkershaw]

I think it was because I finally had enough of having Yoga with something that may or may not be real. I still have Yoga with other archetypes sometimes to gain valuable insights from different perspectives. When we focus into the body we can connect to our cellular or instinctual intelligence. When focused inside, we can focus on our emotional as well as intellectual intelligence. Plus it feels really good.

One aspect of this forum is that it certainly provides many alternatives for readers to make choices about! cannot get stuck if you're on this forum ...

A recent posting/thread about Yoga and health did not really lead far but I feel that one should have Yoga with the body too. We cannot escape the fact that our 'organic vehicle' is part of who we are as are the emotional, mental and spiritual aspects too. They're all real. So why deny the body love?

Don Stapelton is a Yoga Teacher residing in Costa Rica who has written a book called Self Awareness Yoga and its interesting to read about his concepts of going in and out of the body in order to become aware and how this awareness creates a state of well-being.

In my own experience, doing physical Yoga /or connecting to my body/learning and teaching massage therapy has been of great benefit on so many levels and has awakened deep interest in how the physical side functions creating a more knowledge-able working consciousness of this awesome physical energy I call 'my body'.

[mr green]

I cannot meditate anymore it's too scary.

When I sit down all that non-visible light starts emanating from my forehead, it's almost automatic.