Meditation 2.0 ?? !!
Just listened to a 90-minute podcast from Integral Enlightenment.
The "value proposition" was interesting:
- If you've had peak enlightenment experiences, perhaps you've noticed they tend to be temporary.
- They suggest they have a way to make the experience last!
That is a most intriguing proposition, so I signed up for it. I'll put a review in another post. This one tells why I signed up.
You see, my first peak enlightenment experience was about 26 years ago. It was the gratitude meditation I wrote about recently, prompted by Grandmaster Dr. Tae Yun Kim.
It lasted 2 weeks. In the years that followed, I had a few more peak enlightenment experiences, each lasting about week (one from a forgiveness meditation, another from a connection-with-love meditation).
At the end of my martial arts training, I reached a deep epiphany that had me crying for 2 days, feeling totally empty for 3, and then bathed in love for a week. (All solo, mind you. There was no group contact during that time. A lot of "internal processing" was going on!)
Then came Ipsalu Tantra, and a connection with Babaji Nagaraj that had me kneeling on the floor, crying, grateful for the power, love, and majesty of the connection.
That time, I couldn't sleep for three days. Every time I laid down, a new burst of insights occurred. I had to leap up and write them down, to preserve them and share them with others! In the end, I had to ask the connection to be reduced. I needed the sleep! It was a like a 200 amp circuit going into a 10 amp fuse. There was only so much I could manage!
After that, there was wonderful emotional clearing of early life traumas in a Sexual Wholeness workshop taught by Lexi Fisher and Kip Moore in Palm Springs, followed by an incredible opening to God!
Then came the wonderful experience of pranayama and Kriya Yoga techniques taught by Swamiji Asanganand Saraswati. More peak moments.
Finally, there was the Ananda Raja Program. In addition to the awesome atmosphere and the techniques they taught, I came to understand the technique I dubbed the "Orbital Lift" (available as an article on this site).
Thanks to the Orbital Lift, I am in a more-or-less constant state of "semi-enlightenment". Things get me down at times, but I bounce back up rapidly. And it doesn't take much to lift me up into something closer to a peak state!
So for me, it has taken some 30 years, counting from when I started the spiritual growth process in my martial arts training, to achieve something close to full-time enlightenment.
But despite all the growth, many questions remain:
- Is the Orbital Lift a "magic bullet"? Or was it the keystone in an arch built from the many bricks that preceded it?
- Is the peak enlightenment experience something that is accompanied by, or equivalent to, a massive internal flow of "subtle energy"?
- If that flow is internal, why does it seem to come from outside, on high?
(From my experience, enlightenment is a blessing--a gift that is bestowed on us. As far as I can tell, "Advance Gratitude" for the awakening is the key to receiving that blessing. It opens the heart and invites the energy in!) - Are the "emotional clearing" processes required to clear the energy pathways? (I suspect it is)
- If so, how best to identify the areas where blockages exist, and how best to clear them?
- Finally, how best to tap into that majestic, 200 amp source of power and love, without burning out the 10 amp fuse—and maybe even growing it to 15 or 20 amps!
I don't all the answers to come from one webinar. And I confess to wondering what the sales pitch must be at the end of it. (Surely they are selling something.)
But at the same time, I'm certain I will learn something. Something valuable. Something that may help me personally, or something I can use to help others achieve that blissful inner state of enlightenment without taking 30 years to get there!
Either way, I think it will be worth the time I spend on it.
:__)
eric Armstrong
MeditateBetter.com
author of Bench Yoga (available at Amazon)