Hello all,
These days I had to deal with dark personality and also sometimes hypermasculinity. It was linked with the navi kryia, i clearly felt it in the belly region. This appears every 2 weeks and lasts one day long.
SB helped me immensely to deal with these situations, it works like a hard reset.
When it happens I don’t do anything yogic for a few days, and then I start over and it’s not coming back, so I assume I picked the right rythm.
Even tough it’s hard sometimes, I’m very glad to experience this, because these are good indicators that AYP is working.
I’m now asking the question : to which extent is discomfort a good thing ? I think that after a certain point of the journey it’s necessary to experience some conscious leaving of the comfort zone. Would you say it always the path have to be confortable at every moment ? You can share your own experiences as well !
Personally I have found that it has never been beneficial to experience discomfort on the spiritual path. I have found that if avoiding discomfort is possible through choosing effective spiritual practices and through self-pacing and grounding, then the overall journey is always faster.
In the old days there used to be a belief that a certain amount of pain had to be endured, or that it was good to “push through” discomfort in order to come out the “other side”. But those beliefs are becoming less common in the spiritual community and I believe they will eventually go the way of the dodo.
There are a lot of sayings in yoga like “Chop wood carry water” and it’s alright. But “No pain no gain” is not one we should embrace.
“Sthira sukham asanam” is more appropriate, it means that your yoga practice should be comfortable no matter what pose you are in. If you have an itch scratch it, if you decide to cut your practice short decause of physical discomfort do it.
If you experience mental discomfort try ignoring it, or concentrate on your technique.
Yoga is not a battle it’s more like taking a nap, comfort is prime
There is an english saying " Only fools can be uncomfortable".
My wife actually ́noticed that I talked to her more like a “macho”, not the way I talk to her usually.
For the dark personnality, it’s more like something deep inside of me were taking control of me, it happened a few times these years, hopefully not too often. It’s not so easy to describe but very powerful. Again spinal breathing helped me a lot to overcome these
Many thanks Christian, I saw a lot of your videos, which helped me a lot.
Maybe it̂’s some sort of attachement in me, that say I have to endure things, to get a final result.
I know it’s not the way of yoga, surely it isn’t.
But at the other end, there were a long time where I wasn’t engaged in any practice, and totally left meditation for months, and losing habits. But still were desire to realize myself, just focusing on other priorities.
I know the core practice is the “self-pacing” itself. It strongly resonnates with the “middle path” in the teachings of Gautama. I have this intense involvement when I do something (including the sitting practices) it becomes almost vital. This leads to a strong bhakti which is appropriate.
The self pacing is really not natural for me, and I’m struggling a lot with that. Isn’t it paradoxal, since the goal is the end of the struggle ? I might conceive it from an intellectual point of view but how to implement it correctly ?
Thanks a lot. Niels
I always have in mind the story of Eckart Tholle:
One day he was feeling depressed, and he spent an horrible night, having to deal with anxiety, paranoia, and so on.
The day after when he opened his eyes, he saw a totally different world, could see objects in his room he has never seen before, enjoying traffic noises as if they were god given, and so much more things.
I’ve listened also to various testimonies about the so called “dark night of the soul”, where one has to experience a deep dive into the abyss, to finally be confronted with the mystery of the human soul, which in the ends leads to ego dissolution. @alain clement you mentionned in a previous post, that it is always darker before dawn (I may not state it correctly ! ).
@Christi your testimony shows also that there is not a mandatory « dark path » out of the attachement.
I will just get a rest for a few days, then I will see where tomorrow brings me
Sometimes people do experience things that are painful and difficult. But if we have the choice not to experience those things, then we should take it. That goes for people experiencing anxiety and paranoia etc. and also for people experiencing the dark night of the soul. If people choose to suffer, that can lead to attachment to suffering and can prolong the spiritual journey as they may need to spend weeks, or months, in recovery mode.
My take on this is a nuanced contrarion one. “Obstructions” surface as a result of my practice. I experience these as old behaviors, ideas, and outgrown belief systems. My practices seem to bring attention to the contradictions I live. I see this as a gift. I no longer run from what my intuition (witness) provides for me to consider. In my experience and current belief system change only comes from being brave enough to face these revelations. AYP practices offer me a richer connection with prana helping me to face these challenges and grow. As I stated this is a nuanced approach which does require discernment and self pacing.
Word. Whenever we have a choice, we should make use of that. We may not have a choice for a while and see opportunities pass by, seeing us still jumping on the trains, although knowing they lead us nowhere, or into suffering or darkness or whatever. But in time, things will open up, and our ability to choose joy over our stubborn patterns increases. This is subtle favoring in action, helping us to find delight.
