Hi Katrine,
I love your post and I think your written english is excellent, something you wrote, I think by accident, stood out to me in a funny way:
The “trying to do it” implies that something is not quiet right.
I think you may have meant quite and not “quiet right” but if quiet was intentional then it makes your sentence perhaps more true than with quite! 
Does this make sense???
Anthem 
How brilliant!
I certainly didn’t plan it. This sort of thing sometimes happens when I write poetry too. I don’t 
quiet 
understand the layers of my own writing until the poem is finished…then it “laughs back at me” with deeper meanings than I anticipated. I love it!
I am also in love with the English language…there is actually a story behind that. I might post it sometime.
Yes and no!
That’s why I love it
Thanks, Anthem !
May all your Nows be Here
Katrine, random question, do you practice asana?
Thanks Katrine,
very well explained about a difficult subject.
I understood what Almaas was trying to say, but that subject always brings up the dilemma you wrote about.
As we gain a higher consciousness, sometimes we look back on where we were and think it was all wrong. But it wasn’t wrong; we’re just different now.
It is my belief that the ego is a tool that was given us that is necessary for survival in this world. Thinking (logic) is another similar tool.
When our consciousness was lower, we used those tools way too much, and
made them too important.
Now we realize we still use them, but not very much. Just a little bit
where they are appropriate, then favor not using them.
It’s alright to think and set goals, then return to the present. It’s like Mother Theresa helping poor people. She may have had a goal to help as many as she could, but her actions took place one moment at a time.
And then there are times when you don’t need to think of the future at all
because God lays out things for you to do.
No, Jim, I don’t. I have never had any training for asanas. (I just picked it up from a book when I was 18). After the breast removal I was in pain for 3 years - the scar tissue made it difficult to do Yoga. Then I found qi-gong and I thought it was great.
Funny you sould ask this, because my back “came off” again two days ago (the snow shovelling episode is probably not fixed).
Question:
Can all the constant ecstacy contribute to “a loosening” of ligaments etc?
I am going to see my chiropractor tomorrow. One visit with him usually fixes the problem.
Question:
Can you recommend an asana I could do right now? (It would have to be an easy one)
May all your Nows be Here
Can’t recommend over the internet, no, sorry. Got to be very careful when you’re injured. Glad the chiro helps…easy solutions are a great thing.
absolutely. it’s much slower though. Asana is a coarse method to dissolve large blocks. Meditation is a fine method to dissolve subtler blocks. Physical blocks (which is what inflexibility really is) are the coarsest kind. So it’s a bit like using very fine sandpaper to do a rough sanding job, but in the end, the answer is yes: if you meditate and do no asana, your body will slooooowly loosen up. But if that’s your goal…do asana, it’s quicker.
Jim wrote:
I understand Jim.
As always - when I am forced to slow down (my back), I become aware of “grey” areas in my life. Issues that I have put off creeps up on me. Afterwards I make the needed adjustments and all is well. One of the things this back episode did for me: I decided to include Samyama at the end of my practises. I think it will help my energy flow. I only use one of the prayers, though: Love.
When my back heals I will start with assanas. Which is your favorite assana web site?
May all your Nows be Here
Hi Weaver,
This was so ‘dead on’ for me. Thank you for it.
I believe I will attain enlightment in this life. I am not saying that in a braggy way or anything like that. I just have come to see that our minds are very powerful and what one believes one can achieve.
I remember…I was sitting with a swami some years back and there was about 100 or so people in the room and he asked the question:
“Who believes they will attain enlightenment in this life?”
Only one person put their hand up. (I couldn’t believe that only one person did.)
He looked around the room and said… “and so it is.”
The point was a powerful one for me.
I have small glimpses of that possibility. So I continue on…
I love what Yogani said about “You can only have it by giving it away” To have the aspiration to benefit all mankind with the friuts of one’s practice. Beautiful.
Katrine… What a poet!!!
Your work is sublime. Thanks.
Thank you, Babaly
It means a lot to me when the poetry reaches home
May all your Nows be Here
Katrine,
You say “But it became a more focused drive when I let go of the “becoming enlightened”-thing.”. Is this how it is supposed to be? Is it because of the law of karma yoga that Bhagwat Gita talks about- to focus on dury only not on results?
Hi Maximus, I think Katrine is away at the moment.
Louis
Hi Friends,
One could say
Now - this moment - there is enlightment - nothing more to achieve - everything is perfect.
But is it really so ?
If not, how to make it happen ? Will it happen on its own ? how long ? how long ?
That is what we all want, we may accept it or deny it, it is our destiny, for this purpose is ‘i am’ here - to seek and to find. One can say “I Don’t want to be Enlightened” but every particle of creation craves for it - knowingly or unknowingly.
Buddha has said that desire is the cause of all suffering,
Desirelessness is desirable, but impractical.
Desire for God is the greatest of all desires, only when god is convinced that there is no other desire in your heart will he come.
Could someone please send a little enlightment my way … that is the supreme desire or my yearning heart.
That reminds me of a song
Ah! Sweet mystery of life, at last I’ve found Thee!
Ah! I know at last the secret of it all -
All the longing, seeking, striving, waiting, yearning;
The burning hopes, the joy, and idle tears that fall.
For 'tis LOVE, and love alone, the world is seeking;
And it’s love, and love alone, that can repay;
'Tis the ANSWER, ti’s the end and all of living,
For it is love alone that rules for aye.
Anyone heard that before ?
Bliss to you,
Mufad.
I think it’d help if you gave me your definition, Mufad…
What is enlightenment?
Hi Scott,
I define enlightenment the same as everyone does.
See the first post made by Jim,
I was responding to that.
That which fills the void for jim is enlightment for him. It is the final treadmill he needs to get on to.
It is worth striving for it, no matter how long it takes.
One cannot do ayp practices without the drive, without the devotion (bhakti), like an automaton, like you brush your teeth.
You have to be on fire for god.
Amen,
Mufad.
hi Jim,
Did not go through all the three pages, just the first post of yours. You need not get enlightened, once your crave to get better dies, once your aspiration trying to fill the void goes offf, YOU ARE ENLIGHTENED because this is one feeling you will never know when it comes.
Satyan
Nah, I don’t have all the symptoms
Also, I still get caught. It’s like flip-flopping.
Hey Ramon,
Its great seeing you here at AYP.
You rock you cheap spiritual drunk I am so glad your method has produced such blissful results. Has your technique refined to the point of getting past your bliss tolerance you spoke of a few years back?
I have started doing this practice recently (about 2 months) and enjoy it. I feel more stable and the entire practice is rewarding.
Jill
aum
sublime thoughts and sharing, divine friends!
each one of us perceive the awakened state in our own beautiful and unique ways, written in eloquence:)!
in the state of being awakened is the oneness and the deeper desire for more of this oneness. set free to experience joys of the freedom and yet the climb above to experience oneness for its pleasures and pains of all.
above is the knowing of ourselves as the eternal blissful spirit and also with the knowing of our temporary stay in human realms with values of time given to evolve.
much as the fulfillment of buddha’s karma:)! perhaps this is the wonderful time of ‘now’ when we are all in it together sharing breath and that beyond beyond breath.
the karma of oneness that is set alight in knowing purpose when awake!
just little thoughts shared!
aum
nandhi
aum
yogam is the attainment of oneness, inspired in purpose.
the sacred fire awakened within through our breath garland each moment is yoga- the fire pot within so awake! each delicious moment the juicy seedless fruit. knowing these joys is the discipline in yoga.
blessings of each to each!
jai guruve thunai, thought be source
aum namah sivaya
aum
“much as i brush my teeth.”
love you angelic brother jim!
vannakam… namaste!
gratitude for the kind, nurturing shared breath 
each day passes and the human body adorned is worn and yet a daily awakening to the inner fire’s truth of divine form. form that we are in.
we slip into time consciousness- mother goddess of time, mahakali. our awakening to death as daily journey and new birth each day enables the awareness to reach as turiya through the three states below in human consciousness.
in essence of the little strokes, the gentle maintanence, the middle path. the delicate holding of joys in the journey.
when entwined with our beloved, each stroke is orgasmic, getting skillful and with the flow in time to be complete to awaken to the larger circle that is from our sun like radiance the witness, though an impatient one some times
as in journey’s delightful window is our knowing dharma within karma and karma within dharma.
alight, each moment in its perfections allows source as sacred joys to be awareness as spirit in the body shrine- aware of purpose.
the supreme purpose each of us have been born to awaken to.
being alight in knowing primal joys, we are siva, the lord of detachment, the supreme renunciate, the yogi gurunatha.
each of us this, the awake in oneness and the inspiring energies of purpose that showers wellbeing, rejuvenative childlike joys and each moment, our manifestation.
mother kundalini is the sacred treasured gift humanity had to progress in many past births to receive as in our awareness within our daily yoga. we are each experiencing her in our daily yoga as joys of fulfilled harmony of oneness- the calm, tranquil perfect bing. hence the yogic discipline out of love to worship sacred kundalini.
who will not love being more and more an angelic being 
will one who sees love and god in all the living ever wish to kill another being? quite the opposite. example- we see life and the living in even plants and the plants serve us merged in the ancient knowing as in ayurveda, returned back to us as in oneness gifts.
the worship is our religion that sets us free to be compassion and the inspiring co-creator of our daily journeys, each stroke knowing joys of infinite patience and the tending to the human shrine we are in- while knowing time as in human household spent to attain completion, the sacred surrender to delightful ever joyful knowing!
the physical serving of all enables the receiving of divine from all too- hence the oneness that enables our human realm to always receive grace in our ascendancy.
awake in shared joys, love, blessing and a hug of oneness to each.
gratitude of the moment!
aum