• Introduction
• Questions

Introduction

My sole desire is to give you the truth — Lord Krishna praises the technological yogi. - Paramahansa Yogananda [Ak 398; Pa, ch. 26]

The goal of this work is to give some essential meditation information freely. The work is a collection of articles, and the focus is on technicalities and advancing skills. A certain breathing method (pranayama method) and a meditaton method are mentioned from time to time. They are also explained i detail:

1. The core of kriya yoga is a very gentle breathing technique, which you get here for free.
2. The hong-so meditation technique used a mantra to go along with the natural in- and outbreathing. You may learn that method too for free. It is online.
3. Much of the information may apply to other methods too.

A large part of the work is rooted in actual questions and answers. Therefore the Q & A (question and answer) format has been kept more or less. Along with Q & A sections are sections that contain added information. Also, many quotations are interspersed. What is more, the real-life value of some of these essential teachings may not be grasped all at once. Be prepared for that - but how? By meditating, for "To understand some yoga teachings, you need to be a yogi."

Rotten Apples and Id: Domino Effects

"A rotten apple quickly infects its neighbour," or pomum compunctum cito corrumpit sibi junctum (Latin).

If just a few pillars in a tall building are at fault, the whole building can fall. Just a few marring decrees of a trusted guru or trusted friend may ruin a life. Just a few wrong or individually unsuitable notions may do, due to spreading effects in the worst cases, where, "If anything can go wrong, it will. (Murphy's Law)." And we should be prepared for worst case scenarios to be able to bulwark against, prevent, or counteract some of them, if not all of them.

Disintegration may spread, do havoc, and create ruin. The more trust put in wrong teachings, and the more resources funnelled into them, the worse the results may be. So we should correct faulty guru statements and reduce guru drivel so as to hinder that fools are made and next made use of.

The family is a haven for regulated id unfoldment. If all runs nicely and well through the stages of living, there is good hope that the budding grown-up will not suffer from severe trauma, lacks and deficiencies.

Congenital id-development. Sound, natural-id unfoldment (life) based life is seldom or never had by conform stagnation; progressive disorientation deterioration; very faulty mind-development; or rotting (corruption), you go wrong. What could be irrepairable - such as grave corruption - has to be avoided. Underlying causes may have to be detected so as to go against faulty "developments" much more proficiently.

If your natural family did not furnish what was needed for your basic id drives, you may have longings that carry on, get fixed, and spill over into adult life. In other words, the love and care and other good things you did not get from Mom and Dad and friends, may easily be played on by a demagogue, to create havoc for you and use you too. Such play on unfulfilled id (libido) seems to be at work in cults the world over. If it is a fault to seek fulfilment "in the skies" by wailing for God Mom - something that Yogananda and his fellowship has half-ritualised - maybe your mother-relations were strained. His were. Suppose woman relations did not work out well for him and yourself when you were young and in gestation. Maybe some id-sides did not develop all right. Being seek to be straight in conform matters than seeking grossly vicarious outlets. Conform uprightness may help far more.

The id that is caught, fixated and next made use of in some way that blocks natural development, may engender hate, which may be suppressed too. If so, you have entered some vicious circle. Its effects on you may be perceived in a blatant lack of caring for things beneath you, and in your care.

It could pay to check well that your mind is fairly sound and that you are well-founded before you take up yoga meditation or listen to various Yogananda's counsels, including his crying for Mother God year in, year out. Crying for God is a bad practice that may get hard on the nerves, and which goes directly against one foremost direction of yoga, which includes the guidance of Lahiri Mahasaya: He says one should not expect anything from doing kriya; during a meditation (dhyana) session, that would be good. The focus during meditation is to be on doing the handy method(s) technically all right, to say the least.

The Self is not had by a show of flowery descriptions. He is Intelligence. All the scriptures fail to describe Him. - Lahiri Baba, (Shyama Charan Lahiri), also called Lahiri Mahasaya) [cf Hw 186-87]

Try to be a little smarter than those who get caught otherwise.

Questions

Daya Can Be Hard

Disappointments derive from expectations. Daya is Sanskrit for compassion and is related to grace. It can be hard to gain it and manifest it too. It should be wise to consider whether:

• She is fair, intelligent, objective.
• She thinks in broad terms and is concerned with [what is beyond] her town. or planet. She is likely to become involved in community affairs, social organizations, and groups. She enjoys being part of a group endeavour.
• Her strong points include her concern for human welfare.
• When she is with a group of friends, she thinks about the group as a whole rather than just about himself. This can cause problems.
• She also has a strong sense of responsibility and is very conscientious in fulfilling her obligations.
• She is friendly with people but sometimes she finds it difficult to form close relationships [he's monastic-looking].
• She is interested in something, loves it . . . love seems to get deeper and richer and more satisfying for her with time.
• She develops extremely large facilities for furthering research and development of new technologies. Increased cooperation and communication throughout the world assists his in this.
• She is part of a group of people that is highly intuitive, emotional, and sentimental.
• She is of a curious and inquisitive bunch.

To some, living is slowly dying. What we express from ourselves, may get lost by that slow dying-out, unless we are upright, a lot of us. If not, by following your interests with glee and laughter, you could lose things from within, unless other factors get into it. If so, living may turn into a sacrifice for the lack of standard uprightness.

The one who lacks uprightness, may get socially accepted and not be counted as inferior by living out certain vices morally well. For example, those who are bent on killing others might become officers and defend their countries honorably.

Daya is a tricky subject. If by mercy and grace we let scoundrels get away with bad things they do and are up to, we take part in deterioration of life. So, through Daya life may be prolonged, but is it well lived? There are hints about losing id in the list above. It implies that being a satisfying or sentimental friend could be a slow-working danger, believe it or not.

Hence, we should not be too merciful.

Interesting, but interesting enough?

When you exercise, the need for energy makes you breathe heavily, and eventually you gasp. If you learn to tune in to some delicate nuances of gasping (they are there), without running and cycling for an hour first, you are supposed to increase the prana (life energy) intake thereby. But that is not all to it. The core kriya method is shown in detail here: [Link].

In Patanjali yoga similar facets and other facets of breathing are termed pranayama, and the basic technique of kriya yoga is pranayama. The panting is much silent, almost inaudible, and does not deal with hyperventilation.

The surplus ado thus gathered, is used to "magnetise the spine and brain" if it is followed by delving inside the mind (pratyahara and dharana) in the terminology of yoga.

Many diving (meditation) methods use a mantra - one or more sets of syllables - that is to be think-intoned.

After clever gasping comes delving, and the long-run effects of that could be good. It depends though. I would not focus on the bad sides of everything involved, but on clarifying what gives help, and extracting the salient features so that they could help even better - in a nutshell.

Q: I'm sure alternative medicines have some element of healing to them. Maybe its placebo effect - the mind somehow overpowers the body.

Some such means have prolonged my life, and have ensured thriving too. I recommend some such means heartily.

Q: As far as I am concerned, I have had precognitive dreams before and the subsequent deja vu . . . I was thinking about the mind-body relationship recently and how it is possible that the universe is just a mind. At least, if evolution has a goal, it could be said to be self-consciousness. . . . [And] nobody says that lightning has a soul.

In Veda times they thought that natural forces like the wind (Vayu) were gods, and hence had soul. And . . . lightning and thunder is supposed to contain the awesome presence of Thor [Norse thundergod, somewhat like ancient Greek Zeus and Vedic Indra].

The New Testament says everybody lives and moves in God - the maker. There is room for principalities and powers in Biblical thinking.

Q: Can we truly say that the mind is not a part of the body and vice-versa? I don't think so.

Nor do I. Psychosomatics supports parts of the atman(soul-god)-mind-body thing too.

On Belief

Tao is Dao. The two different spellings tie in with (a) the Wade-Giles transcription system; and (b) the now current Pinyin transcription system of the Republic of China. I use both. In literature, the 'Tao' spelling is preponderant. Basic Tao teachings form part of the Gold Scales' informal lessons on gaining GOLD EGGS . . . [Link].

Q: I have known a couple of psychics in the past that have read my mind though. One of them was a very attractive woman.

Such things may become easier to deal with in time.

Q: Do you believe in life after death?

"To be poor without being free is the worst state into which a man can fall," they say in Michigan. It is a proverb. . . Have you read Rudolf Steiner about such things?

You see, death is not the grave as many people think. [Edgar Cayce]

Q: Do you have any ideas about life after death?

Yes. Not all of them are private, either. I should say it pays to be warned of the effects of certain doings and so on here on earth. There is a vast body of literature to that effect, for example.

Yogananda has something on that subject too. However, some of the things he say are in confidential SRF lessons; not everything in them is found in published books and Internet articles in the public domain.

Among the thought beings to be found in spiritland is also the thought of our own physical corporeality. [Rudolf Steiner]

In a moment the body may be taken away from the soul by death, and the separation is not painful at all. When that "operation" is over, you have no need of time, dress, food, or shelter, for you no longer have to carry this bodily bundle of flesh. You are free of it. And you are still you. - Yogananda, Ak 217-18]

The rishis of ancient India analyzed death as the withdrawal of the electricity of life from the bulb of human flesh with its wires of sensory and motor nerves that lead to the different channels of outward expression. - Yogananda, Ak 213]

Q: Tell me what you believe in.

I have great trust in GOLD EGGS in many ways, and in a special sort of homeopathic remedies and Bach essences. For one thing, simple Gold Eggs Essays (especially their summaries) help me to see how to draw benefit, if possible even from a cult membership. It is more difficult to benefit from narcissists.