Please join Mahasweta Mitra (Shanti, at the AYP Forums) and Doug Sandlin (Kirtanman. at the AYP Forums), co-founders of Living Unbound, and AYP asana instructor Rohini Nellore (Rohini, at the AYP Forums), Sept. 27-29, for a weekend retreat at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the beautiful Berkshires region of western Massachusetts.
Mahasweta Mitra
We will be offering a weekend introduction to Advanced Yoga Practices (the practices are advanced; you don’t have to be — no previous experience with yoga or meditation is required), and kirtan (yogic chanting / singing). For more information and/or to register.
Doug Sandlin
AYP Deep Meditation and Spinal Breathing are the foundations of the daily practices that we recommend via Living Unbound, and kirtan is an additional and highly-enjoyable activity and practice that is popular with attendees at our retreats. The asanas (body postures) will be led by Rohini Nellore, a certified yoga instructor who runs regular private and group yoga classes, and who has led our asana sessions at other AYP retreats — which always receive enthusiastic reviews.
Rohini Nellore
While this is an Advanced Yoga Practices retreat, the principles of Living Unbound are inherently part of our retreats — we always spend time both inside and outside of the retreat sessions discussing the teachings, techniques and resources that each of us can make use of in our daily lives outside of sitting practices, in order to enjoy peace, freedom and fulfillment — living unbound — ever more completely.
Participants at our other retreats have found them to be enjoyable, inspiring, fun, and in some cases, life-changing.
One of the main reasons for so many people finding benefit in our retreats is that we address the reality of the benefits of practices and perspective that some call spiritual in ways that are truly independent of any traditions. AYP and Living Unbound work equally well for people of all religion, and of no religion; for people with years of spiritual practice, and with none at all.
As always, this weekend retreat will be both fun and profound — and will provide you with tools you can use beneficially, every day, for the rest of your life. Hope to see you there! If you know anyone else who might be interested, please feel free to forward this info — all are welcome.
If you have any additional questions, please use our contact form, or email info@livingunbound.net
If you’re interested in ongoing peace, via a simple, daily program, please listen to the following interview (link below) with our friend, fellow AYP contributor, and fellow AYP Retreat teacher, Carson Zi.
In this interview, Carson discusses the ongoing benefits in his daily life, from his Advanced Yoga Practices (AYP) routine – and please note: it’s the practices that are advanced – you don’t have to be. He also tells his story, which is one of the more dramatic examples of how effective practices can take any of us from the depths of despair, or from the volatility of life’s daily ups and downs, to the peaceful reality that is actually our inherent nature.
In a few short years, Carson went from immersion in horrific heroin addiction, to a failed suicide attempt, to discovering AYP, to continual improvement in his experience of ongoing peace and fulfillment in daily life. Not long after starting AYP, Carson began to notice some fairly dramatic results, including the ability to stop a high daily dose of methadone (prescribed for treatment of heroin addiction), without experiencing any withdrawal symptoms, something even his doctor couldn’t believe. Even more dramatic, though, has been the ongoing improvement of Carson’s experience and quality of life, which is continuing even now.
As Carson says, “Yoga saved my life.”
Today, Carson enjoys a happy life, and contributes to the world around him by sharing AYP with others, which includes leading AYP retreats that can help any of us realize the power of ongoing inner silence, and to deepen both our practices, and our living experience of ongoing peace.
We very much enjoy working with Carson at our AYP Allentown retreat and at the AYP Support Forums. If you are interested in joining us (Doug, Shweta and Carson), at our annual AYP Retreat in Allentown, Pennsylvania, it is taking place on the weekend of September 16-18 at the Mensch Mill Retreat Center. For a bit about what these retreats are like, here are some retreat experiences and reports from last year’s retreat.
Carson has contributed here at Living Unbound as well, via the following articles:
You can also visit Carson’s main website, Blissed Yoga.
As mentioned in the interview, like physical exercise, the practices of AYP involve brief daily practices which then yield results throughout the day. If you are also interested in ways to enhance your daily experience of ongoing peace via simple teachings, techniques and resources that you can use throughout the day as well, beyond the daily practices of AYP, that is what Living Unbound is for, and we invite you to take a look at the Living Unbound lessons, as well.
Ongoing peace truly is available — and we invite you to join us, and find out for yourself.
“I reach for a piece of wood. It turns into a lute. I do some meanness. It turns out helpful. I say one must not travel during the holy month. Then I start out, and wonderful things happen.” ~Rumi
Like that, if we meditate and keep dancing, we will find our way. That is where our responsibility lies. Divine life is filled with paradox, and ever opening. Better not to second-guess it too much … though that too is part of it.
The guru is in you.
~Yogani
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Ego is just a concept, a word to describe consciousness identified with the objects of perception. Or, as the Buddhists say, “attached” to the objects of perception. The mind itself will not become dead until we are dead. It goes from being a tool of identified self (small “s”) to being a tool of unidentified Self (big “S”). What becomes dead in this life is identification of our awareness as self with all that appears in time and space. That is not death of the mind, or even of the “I thought” we call ego. We just come to know it for what it is, through the increasing presence of abiding inner silence (witness) cultivated in spiritual practices. It is the illumination of the mind in a divine outpouring, which then can awaken the unending joy of Oneness in time and space. It is the same thing that has been talked about by the sages of old, and modern ones too. It is the same experience. Only the words describing it may be a little different.
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From the perspective of the individual, thoughts are only omnipresent when consciously released in omnipresent abiding inner silence, which is cultivated through deep meditation. Before that, thoughts are only objects of perception with which we are identified locally. It is the samyama effect (release in stillness) that enables thought to become omnipresent, and therefore infinite in speed.
Before the samyama effect, a thought is like a picture. After the samyama effect, a thought is the thing itself, and far more influential via the infinite creative energy of divine outpouring that occurs when the mind is surrendered in stillness.
Kundalini awakening is a partnership between ourselves and the divine. Have you taken ownership of your role in this partnership, or do you consider yourself to be a victim in it?
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“Uncertainty” is an interpretation of the flow of life, isn’t it? A “story.” This raises the question: Are we navigating a sea of uncertainty, or a sea of ecstatic bliss? It all depends on our point of view, and that depends on our relationship in stillness with the flow of life. Uncertainty is actually quite certain, isn’t it? Why argue with it? It can be very tiring. Much easier to go with it. We have plenty of choices as we move through — unlimited possibilities for uplifting the whole thing.
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This is the process of purification and opening, which we gradually learn to surrender to. With self-pacing of practices in play to keep things on an even keel.
First it is only about us. Then it becomes a partnership between us and the process of awakening. Finally, there is only the awakening, and the divine outpouring.
Fear evaporates along the way … what remains is stillness in action.
The guru is in you.
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Anyway, I generally don’t say “I am THAT.” I say “We are That.” There is a difference. One separates us, and the other brings us together.
What else do I have to say about it? Not much. Better to meditate daily and find out for yourself what THAT is. You will see there is nothing to fear. Who fears freedom anymore, having tasted even a little of it?
Until there is abiding inner silence, these kinds of discussions are mostly mind games — building castles in the air. Not that we should not have them. But we should know them for what they are — scenery that cannot enlighten us. Only effective practices can do that.
So practice wisely, and enjoy!
The guru is in you.
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~By Yogani*
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But, you know, after it is all said and done, it boils down to the one question that has no answer: Who or what am I?
No answer? But aren’t we pure bliss consciousness, the One, the Void, the Tao, and all of that? Surely this is the answer. But that isn’t the answer really. That is a structure in the mind, a concept. Not the thing itself. The who or what we are is not of the mind. It is beyond the mind. It is the infinite sea that mind is swimming in, which the mind is constantly trying to make into a solid concept. Trying to make solid what is fluid, invisible and without attributes. The mind is the proverbial fish that cannot see the water it is swimming in.
While there can be no answer to the question “Who or what am I?” we can realize we are that, become that, simply by letting go of the need to know. As soon as we surrender the heart and the mind, we are unadulterated That. This is not an answer. It is a condition. A non-experience of the AM-ness underlying the inner and outer din of our lives. We can only talk about it in a removed way.
Then, somehow, magically, mysteriously, this AM-ness is able to move within and through us, and express on this earth plane, as Love. We may ask, “How does this happen?” There is no answer to this question either. We can set up the conditions for it to happen through daily spiritual practice, but we cannot say how it happens, or why it is. It is beyond the rational mind. That is why we call it “Divine,” which explains everything, and nothing. We can have faith in what is, even if we cannot explain it. It has always been this way with human beings. When we don’t know, we call it “God,” or something that depicts the unknown, and our reverence for it. In time, we recognize that these too are concepts we transcend when we become the reality which they attempt to describe.
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Revenge is not self-defense. It is aggression, and will lead to complications.
It is aggression, and will lead to complications. It all depends on our spiritual condition. We will act as we must, according to our awareness. The trick is to expand our awareness, which will elevate all of our actions to a higher level of morality.
In truth, no one is injured, for ultimately we are beyond events occurring in time and space. We are pure bliss consciousness. As we advance in practices and on our path, we find this as direct experience, and act accordingly.
On the other hand, current perception is 100% of our reality, and we must live from where we are. In that case, some common sense can help keep us out of the ditch – paying attention to the basic precepts of yama (restraints) and niyama (observances), and to the laws of the land wherever we are living. It is certain that acting with personal intent to injure others will injure us, just as breaking the law of the land will lead to unwanted consequences in life. So it makes sense to keep this in mind.
If someone is harming you, it is reasonable to protect yourself, and take steps to prevent repeat injury from the same source in the future. However, it is not in your best interest to attempt to injure the other for revenge. That kind of “justice” is fleeting, and will only lead to further cycles of injury to you and others.
Prudent self-defense and forgiveness make good partners. “I love you and forgive you, but will not permit you to do that” is the way to handle those who are prone to inflict injury on others. It may mean exiting a relationship altogether, with no hard feelings. Actions performed on that basis are not personal. They are divine flow. But we may find anger mixed in, so it is good to pause to consider the consequences of our actions before moving ahead.
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*He had drawn this as a bookmark to indicate something in a book he send me. I think it is cute… so thought I’d share it. :) -Shweta
We looked at how Samyama works in the lesson “The Workings Of Samyama“. Please review that lesson prior to moving ahead with this one. This is a slightly more advanced technique and will be helpful to those of us who have experienced some degree of inner silence and have practiced the core Samyama practice for a bit, or any other practice that works with inner silence and letting go.
As we get past the mechanical phase of samyama, and we begin to get familiar with the two main components of samyama, the letting go of a thought/word into stillness and the outward movement of the stillness that happens during the practice of samyama, then we can begin to apply the technique of samyama to many of our other practices. One such application is samyama and self inquiry.
Self Inquiry:
It does not matter what kind of self-inquiry we practice; what is important is that we practice self-inquiry, when inner intuition lets us know we are ready to do so. The reason for this is very simple, yet very fundamental, and it is one that can shave years off our journey to Living Unbound in reality. The reason that practicing self-inquiry is important is that while our daily sitting practices (meditation, breathing) clear out the neuro-physiological issues which keep the ideas of our non-wholeness and separation in place, there is limited benefit to this facet of daily practice, alone. Why? Because while we’re making positive changes in terms of our neuro-physiology, we’re undoing those changes by re-creating those very same issues, via our conditioned thinking and behavior in our day-to-day lives.
There is a saying: “Sewing with one hand, while unstitching with the other”. This saying refers to this dynamic that we’re discussing here (benefiting ourselves with daily practices, undoing those benefits with our thoughts and behaviors in daily life). How does this work? Very simply: the ego-centric body-mind stores impressions (memories) of events, based on the magnitude of association with either pleasure or pain. Daily practices help to undo the conditioning of a lifetime in this regard. However, we tend to operate from this limitation-based conditioning during the rest of our daily life (meaning: we react to people and situations with the same kinds of conditioned evaluations, in general, that we have, over most of our lives, based on our personality, culture, family of origin, and so on). We tend to do this less and less as the momentum of daily practices hits exponential levels, but this dynamic (sewing with one hand while unstitching with the other) is still present, and still delays our experience of Living Unbound, in reality, especially in the earlier phases of our daily practices. Which is where this lesson comes in.
And where self-inquiry comes in. Self-inquiry helps us to both identify and release the erroneous views which block our awareness of our inherent wholeness and unity, thereby supporting and augmenting the clearing that we do in our daily practices. There are many of us who, unfortunately, meditate for ten or twenty years, only to find that our lives are plagued by some of the same erroneous view which plagued us when we started. There’s no reason for this; sitting practices can take us to Living Unbound in reality, in a fairly short period of time, if we allow them to do so. One of the most powerful ways we can allow them to do so, is to practice self-inquiry in our daily lives.
And so, again, it does not matter what kind of self-inquiry we practice; it can be The Living Unbound style of identifying mind stories and letting go, or Byron Katie’s style of asking four questions and letting go or the advaitic way of asking “who am I” and letting go, but adding some self-inquiry to our lives along with meditation, will help us experience the joys of Living Unbound that much more quickly.
Samyama and Self Inquiry:
And so, let’s take a look at how we can combine the practice of samyama with the practice of self-inquiry.
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Living Unbound: Identifying mind stories: As we go about our day, and we feel a moment of discomfort, we identify the mind story (see Living Unbound: Identifying Mind Stories) that is causing the discomfort, and we drop the story into stillness, exactly as we do with the other samyama sutras in our daily practices (the only difference being: with inquiry-samyama, we’re not sitting in meditation, but going about our day, and we’re doing the samyama with a reaction, rather than with a proactive intention; other than that, though, the mechanics of the practice are essentially identical). We do it again and again as a given reaction comes up naturally. We do not keep the story or the emotion in place just so we can practice this technique, but when the emotion or the story comes up organically, we see it and we drop it into the stillness. So we don’t make the emotion stronger by thinking about it, we just bring it up and before the mind can grab it and make it a full-fledged story, we drop it into stillness.
Why?
Because releasing into silence puts us in touch with our inner stillness, beyond the reflections and reactions of surface thinking. We suddenly have “broadband access” to our deepest levels of will and awareness, if only we will stay out of our own way by allowing our awareness to rest in silence, after we have released the thought or feeling, using the samyama technique. This can be difficult at first, but with practice and faith (trusting the process and the answers that come up from this stillness) it gets easier and more natural.
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Byron Katie’s Work: We ask the question, “Is it true?” and drop it into stillness. We don’t try to find an answer. We let the stillness give us the answer. Many times, thinking mind will not know what the answer is, or it will try to generate a reactive answer, but there will be an inner, intuitive knowing, regarding the solution. When this technique works, the 4 questions really become just 1 question. “Is it true?”, and instead of “how would I feel if I did not have this thought” and “Can I turn it around”, you just drop it on the inside, and let the sea of inner silence and wisdom provide the answer as and when it does. This takes some faith in the beginning, but soon enough, it becomes an inherent part of our conscious living, and eventually, of Living Unbound in reality.
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Advaitic Technique: This is a sitting practice and is to be done along with the core samyama practice. This has been explained beautifully in Yogani’s lesson Adding Self-Inquiry to Core Samyama Practice: “In addition to the 9 words/sutras Love, Radiance, Unity, Health, Strength, Abundance, Wisdom, Inner Sensuality, Akasha – Lightness of Air, we add a new sutra – “I-thought – Who am I?”. The procedure is the same. We pick each word/sutra and let it go in stillness for 15 seconds. We do this twice with each word/sutra. At the end of the 9 sutras we pick the words/sutra “I-thought – Who am I?” and drop it into stillness for 15 sec then pick it up again, and drop it into stillness”.
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This Samyama-Self Inquiry variation involves picking up a question, problem, an emotion, a feeling, or a thought that may be bothering us and releasing it into stillness. We pick it up at a “fuzzy” level, before it becomes a concrete thought/feeling and before the reactions of thinking mind can grab the thought or feeling, and make a story out of it, or give it a logical answer. Then, as always, with samyama techniques, we release the thought or feeling into inner silence. At first the dropping can be by just stopping the thought and being in the stillness of non-thinking, even if it just for a few seconds. As we continue with this practice, the process will become more organic, wherein we will pick up the thought/emotion and let the stillness dissolve it. In the process, and sometimes later, at a different point in our day, answers will arise from that same inner stillness. We have all experienced this experience of answers arising from stillness at some time or the other in out lives. It’s called intuition, those times when we have known the answer to something from within; knowing that we know, without knowing how we know. This is our inner stillness, the depths of our consciousness, speaking to us. By doing self inquiry samyama style, we are tapping into the our stillness, where intuition arises, and hence taking self inquiry to a new level of knowing; true unitive knowing, beyond the limitations of thinking mind; the freedom beyond imagination that is actually, ever Living Unbound in reality.
There is a practice described by Yogani in the AYP lessons called Samyama. It is an advanced technique, but Yogani has a wonderful way of separate the wheat from the chaff and simplifying a practice so it can be practiced by anyone. The only prerequisit for this practice is to have some inner silence when we sit for meditation.
The technique as described in the lesson: Lesson 150 – Samyama practice (The technique below is quoted from that lesson, but please do read the entire lesson here) :
Meditation is the process of bringing the attention inward to stillness, inner silence, pure bliss consciousness, the witness state, samadhi.
Once we have some inner silence, even just a little, we have the opportunity to begin to operate from that level of infinite potential in us.
You will recall that in meditation we use the thought of a sound with no meaning, the mantra, to systematically allow the mind to go to stillness. It is in letting go of any meaning, language or intellectual content, and just easily picking up the thought of the mantra, that are able to dive deep into pure bliss consciousness. The nervous system also goes to silence with the mind, and our metabolism slows way down.
With samyama, we begin to go the other way. After our meditation time is up, we rest for a minute or two and we transition into samyama. We begin with an easy state of not thinking, just resting in our silence. If thoughts are coming, we just let them go without entertaining them. In samyama practice we do not entertain the mantra either. We start by not favoring anything but being easy in our silence, however much silence we have from our just completed meditation session, and naturally present in us from our months or years of daily meditation. This is the starting point for samyama — silence.
The only prerequisite for doing samyama practice is having some inner silence. For most people this is after a few months of daily deep meditation, as covered in the early lessons.
Now we are ready to begin samyama practice. Here is how we do it.
With samyama, we are initiating meaning in silence. We do it in a simple, easy, systematic way. First we create an impulse of meaning in silence, and then we let it go in silence.
Let’s begin with “Love.” It is a good place to start with samyama. In samyama it is suggested you use your most intimate language, the language that goes deepest in your heart, whatever it may be.
In your easy silence, pick up, just once, the fuzziest feeling of the word “Love” in your own language. Don’t deliberately make a clear pronunciation, or mental images of this or that scene or situation that represent Love to you. Just have a faint remembrance of Love, and then let go into your silence, the easy silence you are in as you pick up the faint meaning of Love. Don’t contemplate Love or analyze it during samyama. Don’t think about it at all. Just come to it once in a faint, subtle way, and then let go into silence. It is a subtle feeling of Love we are coming to, nothing more, and letting it go. Like that.
Having thought “Love” once, be in silence for about fifteen seconds. If any thoughts come, let them go easily. Don’t look at the clock. With a little practice your inner clock will tell you with good enough accuracy when fifteen seconds is up. Just be easy in silence for about a quarter of a minute. Then pick up the faint, fuzzy meaning of “Love” again, and let it go again into your silence for about fifteen seconds again.
That is two repetitions of samyama – twice picking up Love at its subtlest level of thought, and twice letting it go into inner silence.
As with all advanced yoga practices, the real benefits from samyama are to be found in long term daily practice of a particular routine of sutras. If we keep changing sutras around every day or week, and are irregular in our practice, the results will not accumulate. If we want to strike water, we will do best to keep digging in the same place. In advanced yoga practices we can do samyama after every meditation session before we go into yoni mudra kumbhaka (if doing that then) and our ending rest period. Samyama is a continuation of our meditation practice. First we are going in with meditation, and then we are coming out with samyama.
For this purpose, a balanced series of nine sutras are given here. The suggestion is for each to be done for two cycles of samyama, two times with about fifteen seconds in silence for each sutra, and going straight through the list in order like that. In a few days they will be memorized and easy to navigate through using the method of samyama, going gradually deeper in practice with each session. The sutras are:
Love
Radiance
Unity
Health
Strength
Abundance
Wisdom
Inner Sensuality
Akasha – Lightness of Air
Each sutra is to be taken in its entirety, with the fifteen seconds in silence afterwards. For example, “Inner Sensuality” is a single sutra followed by fifteen seconds of silence. It is for pratyahara, introversion of senses. “Akasha – Lightness of Air” is also a single sutra, followed by fifteen seconds in silence.
The meanings for the sutras can be translated to your deepest or first language, as discussed above. All except “Akasha,” which is a sanskrit word meaning, “subtlest ether, inner space.” We know from physics that we are ether, empty space inside, nothing really solid in here at all. Our body is that, and when we do samyama on “Akasha – Lightness of Air,” we begin to feel very light.
If you do each of these nine sutras twice in your samyama session, it will take about five minutes. If there is a particular one you feel the need to do more of, then add that on to the end and do samyama with it for another five minutes. The cycles remain at fifteen seconds, and we just keep going with that for five minutes, by the clock for that last five minutes. If there is no preference, then you can do the lightness sutra for five minutes at the end. It is very powerful. It is a mental kundalini technique that brings much energy up through the nervous system. It is not uncommon to experience physical symptoms such as panting (automatic bastrika pranayama) and “hopping” during samyama with the lightness sutra. If this happens, make sure you are sitting on a soft surface like a mattress. There can be various symptoms manifested with the other sutras as well. We are moving the infinite inner silence within us, so the manifestations coming out can be very real and noticeable. Patanjali calls these manifestations “supernormal powers,” or “siddhis.”
Excellent overview of the deeper stages of meditation by Yogani (author of the AYP Enlightenment Series), at the AYP Forum.
Any or all of the variations in experience (and mantra) you mentioned above are fine. The particulars are not important. What is important is the intention.
If the intention is to favor the mantra when we realize we are off it, and allow it to go however it will (patterns do not matter), then this will lead to losing (refinement) of the mantra, which is the cultivation of inner silence. This is the process we keep repeating easily for the allotted time of our meditation session.
If the intention is to analyze, control, question, modify, report, etc., this will not be meditation. And it will not matter what system of meditation we may be following. All meditation procedures involve systematically going beyond the object, whether it be mantra, breath, nada, vision, sensation, concept, or whatever.
It is dharana (attention on an object), becoming dhyana (natural dissolving of the object), becoming samadhi (absorption in inner silence). These are the last three limbs of the eight limbs of yoga, which gives an indication of how important this process is in the overall scheme of yoga. Samyama also utilizes these three limbs, in a different way.
Obviously, choosing and sticking with a method of meditation is important. We can’t cross the vast ocean of samsara (impurity/illusion) in two or more boats at the same time. It is all about developing and maintaining consistency in practice over time.
This is the only question we need to be asking ourselves about meditation: “Am I in a consistent practice with a proven method?” All the rest is diversion.
We can never, ever, ever! put it in a mental bottle. Meditation is about emptying the bottle, and dissolving the bottle. So all this talk is not very relevant – only to get rid of doubts about the simplicity of sitting down and doing it every day. That’s all. If it is going to keep going in endless circles of mental analysis, etc., don’t expect any serious meditator to take that ride with you for long. It is not about creating complexity. It is about releasing into simplicity. Meditation is for that.
“Each light in the world increases illumination for all, and so it is with the many and diverse teachings and works underway that hold the intention of uplifting and transforming human consciousness, and so, naturally, I will hold you and your work in my thoughts and prayers, wishing you every success in your endeavors.”
~Tau Malachi
Founder of the Sophia Fellowship, and author of Gnosis of the Cosmic Christ, and other books in the tradition of Gnostic Christian Kabbalah.
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“aum namah sivaya happy to receive your intent and endeavor vision at this auspicious mahasivratri time of tapas. may your endeavor be fulfilling, inspired and awakenings celebrated. jai guruve thunai”
“Your new site looks great. The more paths up the mountain, the more people will find their way. Best of luck with Living Unbound!”
~Wayne Wirs,
Founder of the Down-To-Earth Enlightenmentsite and blog, and author of Fading Toward Enlightenment, and other books regarding Down-to-Earth enlightenment for all.
Sri Yantra By Yogani. 
