I was looking to reaffirm that I use the word Scenery correctly and Kirtamans first post here made it very clear. Furthermore, this post is gold!
I totally concur with the OP, that the advice on scenery is incorrect, There are certain visions that are indicative of important spiritual events occurring but you have to go to the visionary yoga traditions of Tibet get any understanding. The highest yoga tantras and the Great Perfection traditions of both Buddhism and Bon work very closely with particular visions. They have identified a system of luminous channels which serve as pathways for luminous awareness. The body is literally wired for vision.They are a soteriological dimension of the body. The most important is the crystal tube which runs from the heart to the eyes. Through this the luminous awareness at the heart can project itself out of the eyes into the world and see itself, allowing the ultimate to recognise itself. I know this from personal experience also. The only book on the subject of visionary yoga is Naked Seeing by Christopher Hatchell. https://www.amazon.com/Naked-Seeing-Perfection-Visionary-Renaissance/dp/0199982910
Hi Maverik Angel,
AYP is a particular system of yoga that uses certain practices. These practices do not change as visions or spiritual experiences arise. They are designed to take someone all the way home, without changes needing to be made along the road. For example, Deep Meditation remains the same all the way to the arising of unity, bliss, self-realization and divine love. Spinal Breathing remains the same all the way to the end of the process of kundalini and the arising of ecstatic living.
So, the teaching on scenery in AYP is correct, because of the specific nature of the practices being used. It is correct within the specific context of the AYP system. When experiences arise, they can be enjoyed, just as we can enjoy the passing scenery occurring out of the car window when we are driving into the mountains. We can even stop the car for a while and get out and enjoy the visions. But the visions are not the destination. The destination is beyond anything that can be perceived with the senses, whether they are external senses or internal senses.
There are some systems of yoga that require people to change their practices depending on the scenery that is arising in the moment. These paths are perfectly valid paths, but they use a different system. Of course every time someone changes a spiritual practice, there is a clunky stage they have to go through, to settle in with the new practice. So, having a system that requires changes to practice methodology, depending on scenery arising in the moment, is not necessarily better. Another problem that I have seen arise occasionally in these schools, is that people can begin to become attached to the scenery. If the scenery arising gives people a sense of attainment and progression, then there is the danger of identification with and addiction to particular experiences. These are just potential dangers to be aware of, not necessarily things that will arise for everyone.
So, all methodology has its pros and cons. For AYP, Yogani deliberately chose practices that were not dependent on scenery arising. For example this is one reason that nada yoga is not used in AYP, because it is dependent on inner sounds being present. See this forum post on that:
https://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6517#58326
Christi
I’ve been entering samadhi for over a decade . DM is very much capable of allowing you to enter there. It’s actually amongst the most effective routes . But that’s really besides the point, you can enter samadhi over and over and still have horrible problems that are truly self created. It’s not the goal , it is sort of an amplified means to the goal.
If one can enter samadhi with regularity, it would mean witness and inner silence should help inquiry into those horrible, self-created problems. If a yogi cannot sense their role and responsibility in problems, then perhaps they are too attached to the scenery instead of the road.