Meditation is erotic

I believe that "passion" and "desire" are being used in the sense that the Stoics use them. Passion is the engulfment in emotion causing a loss of mental discipline and composure, a lack of passion means clear judgment and inner calm, when one is not ruled by one's emotions. And desire is meant to mean be an insatiable yearning for something wordly or material that results in a lack of freedom. When we eliminate our desires, we are free from them, we may indulge in them but we rule them, not the other way around.

 

not

 

What you have described here as 'identity' is what is known as Karma.
It composes the entire complexity that is the drama of life.

Through actual meditation, or dhyana, one not only has beautiful experiences,
but there comes a gradual understanding and experience of the unified Identity of all life.

Dhyana is initiated by the practice of dharana, which is one-pointed concentration.
Dharana is aided by undertaking Yogic practices such as yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, etc.

Om Namah Sivaya

 

Quite an interesting thread, I've enjoyed reading it, thankyou.

On the surface there seems to be tension between the right and left hand paths, though of course both are balanced upon and require elements of each other suffused between them.

Due to different natures of different people, different energies are dealt with and incorporated into a person's being and experience of life in different ways. We are all microcosmic manifestations of macrocosmic elements; spiritual, physical, social, environmental and so on. The "best" path is always the path that helps an individual to use their particular make up to garner the best possible results. To others this may appear totally wrong, but who gives a shit?

The truth is spiritual experience maybe gained through sitting alone in a cave for a lifetime, eating shit, strict celibacy, sex and/or drugs, chanting mantra, meditation on a corpse. The outer form is not important. The factors most important are the innate potential of the individual and the power of the teachers (who or whatever they maybe) the individual encounters, both of which are interdependent.

In my own life I have gone through periods of strict discipline. I've also gone through periods of all sorts of indulgence. I've come to find a balance between both is important to garner a healthy life with plenty of good wood for my spiritual fire.

When I dance waves of pleasure wash over my whole body, sometimes it is erotic, sometimes it is like light shining on the surface of a lake, sometimes I'm floating in endless space. I let all these things take their course and I sit and meditate. I have learnt from authentic and traditional teachers and lineages who embrace wild pleasure as much as they embrace strict discipline, both are doorways, both should be experienced (or not) in appropriate manifestations according to the individuals nature.

 

I wish to embrace experience as it and I try (althought I sometimes fail) not categorize them into right/left thinking. I beleive there is tension between paths, but not between two opposite one. It's far more complex, it's beyond my understanding. Balance is important... but balance of what ???