A new beginning!

 

Opened

Today, is the autumnal equinox and the perfect opportunity for me to start my 6 month yoga experiment.

This is my first attempt at blogging, so please be gentle with me, I am hoping to learn as I proceed.

My magical intention is to buckle down to a strict Kriya yoga regime for at least 6 months, whilst communicating my experiences, to you, here, now.

For reasons thus;

• I have experienced some dazzlingly amazing things through the practice of Kriya Yoga and I am desirous of furthering my understanding, knowledge and wisdom.

• Hopefully my blogging will go hand in hand with the practice and encourage me if the going starts to get tough. I am much less likely to throw in the towel if I believe I will be publicly shamed for giving up.

• I shall be anally posting my pranayama times on an accompaning page so I can chart and look back on my progress with a proud, yet humble smile 🙂 This process should also provide a mental ‘carrot’.

• I wish to share my findings with fellow seekers and hope we may both learn something  from this experiment. If what I am attempting can help a single soul than I shall be a happy bunny.

• I am desirous to firstly find, then develop, my ‘voice,’ through the process of blogging. I guess one fast way to learn how to swim is to jump right in.

SPLASSSH!

• Lastly, to make some new quality friendships on this journey and acquiant like-minded spiritual souls.

At the age of seventeen I first read Carlos Castenada‘s seminal work, “The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge.” This wonderful book opened my mind to a new view of the universe.

I first got into yoga about 10 years ago when my then girlfriend began studying teacher training with the British wheel of yoga.

Sri Yukteswar

I read a lot of yoga books, including “The autobiography of a yogi” by Parahamsa Yogananda, which struck a chord with me and gave me hope at a time when my Dad was in hospital and I was in need of new direction. This book is simply stunning. The authors Guru is Sri Yukteswar, My personal hero.

This book led me to “The spiritual science of Kriya yoga” by Goswami Kriyananda which felt right for me and I began to practise more seriously. I spent 6 months simply following warm ups and stretches whilst also practising Tratak, a process for purifying the third eye. I continued gradual learning and worked my way through the different yoga asans, (postures) until I was starting to get the feel for them.

I progressed into the four inner limbs of yoga after assimilating yama and niyama into my understanding. Sense withdrawal, concentration, meditation and eventually Samadhi I read about and absorbed.

Learning and knowing are two very different things. One can study every possible written work but without actual experience one merely believes rather than knows.

A person born in a landlocked country may hear about the sea from others or read about it in a book, but until they actually experience an ocean for themselves, they have not yet acquired the knowledge and experience of which such an encounter engenders. I hunger for such knowledge.

I  also became interested inand influenced by Taoism and found the Tao Te Ching to be an invaluable source of ageless wisdom.

Mantak Chia’s soft QiGong exercises also resonated with me and I regularly practised the micro cosmic orbit and the five organ inner smile.

Shamanism sang its sacred song to me by way of a close friend from Peru and I have been lucky enough to experience genuine Ayahuasca rituals.

I began combining elements from Kriya Yoga, Qigong  shamanism and other influences in what felt like a natural way.

Other major influences have come from Carlos Castaneda, Robert Anton Wilson, Terence McKenna, Dr Timothy Leary, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Aldous Huxley, Grant Morrison, James Joyce, David Deida, George Orwell, Milton Erickson, Aleister Crowley, Ken Wilbur, Carl Jung, Robert Munroe and Hemi-sync, Tibetan Bon Po , Richard Bandler, John Grinder, Hayao Miyazaki, Patrick Holford, Eckhart Tolle and more, I shall add as I recall..

Swami Kriyananda

In my 30^th year I experienced my first real breakthrough and had a profound mystical encounter. This experience changed me on a deep level. It also shocked and awed me. I did not practise for about a year as I struggled to assimilate this tremendous experience. I eventually continued until in my 33^rd year I achieved another major discovery even more powerful than the first. This experience took even more assimilation time and eventually I began to work seriously on myself, clearing out old habits, addictions and negative influences.

I quit smoking after 17 years. I struggled to quit nicotine for a long time and have now successfully quit smoking completely since January 2010. I have stopped all alcohol for 6 months now. For the past 3 months I have cut sugar out of my diet.

I am now at a place where I feel I am ready, and hope you may join me, for the next attempt at a climb on the highest peak known to mankind – God consciousness.