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lazyyogi · 22 hours
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Anyone familiar with Damien Echols?
I loved his episode in Midnight Gospel.
Recently I started reading his book High Magick and I was struck by how much of what he presents as ceremonial magick feels so much like kriya/kundalini yoga and tantra.
When I was into esotericism in middle/high school, I was always turned off by how stuffy and needlessly complex ceremonial magick came across. But Echols is very easily changing my perspective 🤯
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lazyyogi · 3 days
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meditation protip #34
Very rarely in our typical daily lives do we find ourselves both fully focused and also very relaxed. We often tense up when focused and we zone out when relaxed.
In meditation practice, you learn to bring relaxation and focus together.
You may find yourself leaning more toward one way or another but with practice, the two will balance nicely.
It is easier to be focused for longer periods of time when we are relaxed; it is a less rigid and less brittle form of focus.
More natural, less forced.
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lazyyogi · 5 days
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Someone sent me a letter that had one of the best quotes I've ever read. It said "What is to give light must endure burning." It's by a writer named Viktor Frankl. I've been turning that quote over and over in my head. The truth of it is absolutely awe-inspiring. In the end, I believe it's why we all suffer. It's the meaning we all look for behind the tragedies in our lives. The pain deepens us, burns away our impurities and petty selfishness. It makes us capable of empathy and sympathy. It makes us capable of love. The pain is the fire that allows us to rise from the ashes of what we were, and more fully realize what we can become. When you can step back and see the beauty of the process, it's amazing beyond words.
Damien Echols
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lazyyogi · 6 days
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meditation protip #34
Very rarely in our typical daily lives do we find ourselves both fully focused and also very relaxed. We often tense up when focused and we zone out when relaxed.
In meditation practice, you learn to bring relaxation and focus together.
You may find yourself leaning more toward one way or another but with practice, the two will balance nicely.
It is easier to be focused for longer periods of time when we are relaxed; it is a less rigid and less brittle form of focus.
More natural, less forced.
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lazyyogi · 10 days
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If you had a spirit guide…
…what would it be like? 
If a perfect multidimensional being were to interface with your consciousness in order to facilitate your awakening process, in what form would it appear to you?
Would it seem angelic or earthy or cosmic?
Would it be physical or just an intangible presence? Or perhaps a sound?
Would it be humanoid or animal or entirely alien? 
Would it go by the name of a god(dess), spirit, or demon?
Would it have a sense of humor or be dry and direct? 
Would it present a known gender or a yet to be discovered gender or a nonbinary gender or be entirely undescribed by gender?
How would it talk to you? As a beloved a child, a lover, a friend, a partner, a soldier, a monk, a sorcerer?
What sort of advice or empowerment might this incredibly powerful being bestow upon you in times of need?
A fun exercise. You’ll get the most out of it if you don’t take it too seriously.
LY
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lazyyogi · 10 days
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For the wise, rocks on the path will become steppingstones, not obstacles.
Osho
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lazyyogi · 11 days
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Make it your practice to withdraw attention from past and future whenever they are not needed.
Eckhart Tolle
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lazyyogi · 14 days
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The distortion of truth is far more dangerous than an outright lie.
A lie can be shattered and vanquished by disproving its premise or by uncovering the facts. A lie is a fragile thing made vulnerable by its own falseness.
A distorted truth, on the other hand, borrows the solidity inherent in truth and uses that strength to uphold a falsehood. It cannot be as readily banished or dismissed as a lie.
Now consider our perception:
When we perceive something that isn’t actually there, it is called a hallucination.
When we (mis)perceive something and believe it to be something else, that is an illusion.
Thus, when speaking of illusions in a spiritual context, it is not a dismissal of the practitioner’s personal experience. To say this or that is an illusion isn’t declaring it to be hallucinated. It is a reminder that some distortion of reality is occurring, which produces illusion and therefore suffering.
When we are unaware of this distortion, or still experience a distortion as if it were real, then we are ignorant of the underlying reality. This is not a personal judgement. Spiritual ignorance is temporary and not a characteristic personal to an individual; it is inherent in the misperception of being only an individual.
It is due to illusion that we suffer, that we experience divisions where there are none, enemies where there needn’t be, fears where there shouldn’t be, and seek freedom and happiness where it cannot be found.
LY
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lazyyogi · 14 days
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Forgiveness is about making peace with reality. It means you let go of your inner resistance regarding present circumstances and what led to them. As a result, you are free to fully focus on how to move forward productively. Forgiveness does not mean that you approve of what you are forgiving. It is not the same as condoning. When you forgive yourself, it means you are being gentle and honest. When you forgive others, it means you are being compassionate and sane.
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lazyyogi · 14 days
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The distortion of truth is far more dangerous than an outright lie.
A lie can be shattered and vanquished by disproving its premise or by uncovering the facts. A lie is a fragile thing made vulnerable by its own falseness.
A distorted truth, on the other hand, borrows the solidity inherent in truth and uses that strength to uphold a falsehood. It cannot be as readily banished or dismissed as a lie.
Now consider our perception:
When we perceive something that isn’t actually there, it is called a hallucination.
When we (mis)perceive something and believe it to be something else, that is an illusion.
Thus, when speaking of illusions in a spiritual context, it is not a dismissal of the practitioner’s personal experience. To say this or that is an illusion isn’t declaring it to be hallucinated. It is a reminder that some distortion of reality is occurring, which produces illusion and therefore suffering.
When we are unaware of this distortion, or still experience a distortion as if it were real, then we are ignorant of the underlying reality. This is not a personal judgement. Spiritual ignorance is temporary and not a characteristic personal to an individual; it is inherent in the misperception of being only an individual.
It is due to illusion that we suffer, that we experience divisions where there are none, enemies where there needn’t be, fears where there shouldn’t be, and seek freedom and happiness where it cannot be found.
LY
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lazyyogi · 18 days
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Every problem implies its own solution. However, often it takes setting aside our preferences in order to see it.
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lazyyogi · 20 days
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Meditate More
Just came across this old piece of writing of mine, in response to an old ask. Thought it appropriate to repost:
If you feel offended about something, you haven’t been meditating enough. 
If you feel the need to defend yourself, or justify your viewpoints, you haven’t been meditating enough. 
If you fear death or doubt its ability to truly touch you, you haven’t been meditating enough. 
If you can’t take joy in sitting under a tree on a beautiful day, you haven’t been meditating enough. 
You can also substitute “meditation” with “contemplation” in the sentences above. We can’t be meditating all the time but if you have to use your mind, use it to create clarity for yourself. 
Namaste, friends. :)
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lazyyogi · 20 days
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Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes your eager. Stay eager.
Susan Sontag
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lazyyogi · 24 days
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The secret to adulting is this:
Learn how to reduce your resistance against the things you know you have to do.
You don’t have to like it or enjoy it. You just need to stop avoiding, delaying, or ignoring what you know to be in your best interest.
With repeated experience of the benefits, you will learn a new kind of appreciation for the practice we call “adulting.”
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lazyyogi · 28 days
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Quite often when we hurt each other, it isn’t due to lashing out with the intent to wound.
More often it is simply due to carelessness.
Carelessness happens when we are not mindful of the dynamics at play beyond our own direct experience. It happens when we don’t think of how our words, perceptions, and actions affect others.
This is also what it means to be self-centered. It is when our understanding and experience of the world is only in relation to our sense of self, the ego.
Understanding this can help us to not take it so personally when others hurt us, to discern that this has more to do with them than it does with us. At the same time, understanding this also helps us to be more mindful of how we may hurt others, to take responsibility for it, and to make amends when possible.
LY
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lazyyogi · 29 days
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Intense presence is needed when certain situations trigger a reaction with a strong emotional charge, such as when your self-image is threatened, a challenge comes into your life that triggers fear, things “go wrong,” or an emotional complex from the past is brought up.
In those instances, the tendency is for you to become “unconscious.” The reaction or emotion takes you over — you “become” it. You act it out. You justify, make wrong, attack, defend. . .except that it isn’t you, it’s the reactive pattern, the mind in its habitual survival mode.
Identification with the mind gives it more energy; observation of the mind withdraws energy from it. Identification with the mind creates more time; observation of the mind opens up the dimension of the timeless. The energy that is withdrawn from the mind turns into presence.
Once you can feel what it means to be present, it becomes much easier to simply choose to step out of the time dimension whenever time is not needed for practical purposes and move more deeply into the Now.
This does not impair your ability to use time — past or future — when you need to refer to it for practical matters. Nor does it impair your ability to use your mind. In fact, it enhances it. When you do use your mind, it will be sharper, more focused.
Eckhart Tolle
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lazyyogi · 29 days
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Essentially everyone is walking around with some form of trauma lodged within them.
These traumas, these wounds, are our triggers, sore spots, cringy insecurities, or deepset fears.
The majority of us have found ways to cope. Ways to compensate for, avoid, or otherwise circumvent our hidden wounds. That way we remain functional despite our hidden damage.
But coping is not thriving, nor is it healing. It is just easier than doing the self-work.
To seek out and heal your traumas is a deeply uncomfortable and unpleasant experience. It can be so uncomfortable and so scary that sometimes we prefer to keep our traumas over healing from them. And we learn to justify this by assimilating those traumas into our identity. This only makes things more difficult, because any suggestion of healing that trauma becomes an affront to your very sense of self.
Needless to say, although the result is powerfully liberating and an immense relief, the process of healing can be a rough time.
Which is why I notice that the people who tend to actually heal their own traumas are the ones who at some point had been rendered non-functional by them. They had no choice but to find a way to heal.
Once you've healed from an internalized trauma, you're more likely to do so again for other traumas. You understand through your own direct experience that the temporary suffering of the healing process is worthwhile to endure over the cyclical suffering of the unhealed wound.
My challenge to you is this: Become aware of the ways in which you cope. Discern what internalized trauma is causing you to rely on coping. And then observe the ways in which your coping mechanisms are selling you short. Observe the things--the freedoms--you give up in order to continue coping.
Eventually through repeated observation and contemplation, you may become intolerant of just coping. You may develop the urge for freedom.
Healing from a deep trauma will only ever happen in its own time. Sometimes we have so much going on that it needs to be addressed at a later point, from a position of greater strength and groundedness. But that doesn't mean we cannot start preparing ourselves for that moment now. Today.
Otherwise, we will live the rest of our lives resigned to a tolerable form of suffering because we refuse to tolerate the temporary discomfort of healing.
And we will also be inflicting our suffering on others, because at some point people will invariably activate our triggers--whether intentionally or accidentally.
A book I always recommend is The Places That Scare You by Pema Chodron. It is a pragmatic and insightful text that guides the reader through the practice and process of looking within at all the things inside us that make us feel squeamish and uncomfortable. This will gift you with an incredible power.
May all beings be free. May all beings be healed.
LY
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