Westerners and Eastern spiritual practices

shadowgardener12 said:p.s. 🙂 when you meditate, you aren't practicing "thinking about nothing"—because if you try that, you'll end up thinking about everything—you're practicing letting thoughts drift by without grabbing onto them. anything else is just more suppression, which just creates new conflicts and fresh impressions... and you're basically just exhausting yourself trying to burn off the old stuff! plus, you actually get to meet your own endless inner world.

Fine, my bad—I misspoke—it’s more like one, two😁 and then the thoughts fade out until they’re totally silent.

So, tell me—what has it been like for you when you hit those states?
And do you ever do focused prayer?

For me, those prayers are the best—they just fill me up with love.

Everyone's experience is different🙂 I can't really talk about everything here in public... some things just aren't meant for everyone to know🙂 I can outline the techniques, the goals, and the general vibe of what I do—what I wrote was just my own journey😉 If you want to read it, go ahead!

Love—prayer is a powerful way to recharge that energy. I don't pray myself, though I've been seriously considering it😁
Cleansing and opening the heart—focusing on the heart chakra using the chakra shuddhi technique... breathing through the heart. I try to live it daily. Feeling through the heart, perceiving through the heart, expressing through the heart. If you know what I mean

Whoa, hold up! So apparently some folks from India have these super advanced, secret Yang techniques designed to trigger instant enlightenment! 😁
But if you ask me, they’re really just sinking deeper into their own Matrix...
It’s all about that hand-to-hand connection in the Yang-Yogi style...
But why does everything have to be such a mental game?
Does it seriously have to be this complicated and focused on all these external things?😁

So, what’s the deal? Why aren't there any esoteric Celtic-Chinese physical exercises out there that actually focus on the lived experience?😁

Amanda Evans29 said:So, are there really no esoteric Celtic-Chinese movement practices out there that actually focus on direct experience?😁

I've heard rumors that Exelon has some pretty solid methods for hitting quick enlightenment. Nothing beats something homegrown...

Pretty much anything goes, except for the heptagon and Guru Yoge!😁

And then you’ve got all these folks claiming they "want to do something with themselves," but they don't have the slightest clue what that actually means. Honestly, it’s like they're just begging for some dark brotherhood to come knocking on their door. Seriously, grab your rosary and... GET TO CHURCH!

For someone from the East, life is about the inhale, while for those of us in the West, it’s all about perception. To an Easterner, the exhale is everything, whereas for a Westerner, that energy translates into thought.
The sheer obsession we have in the West with combinatorics, technical specs, and material intelligence has basically numbed our spiritual senses to the point where you can't even use breathing techniques as a fundamental principle for growth anymore.
In the end, I think pure, unfiltered thought is really the last remaining trace of original truth left in this heavily processed Western worldview.

Amanda Evans29:
those who actually know, don't go around claiming they do. someone browsing a forum just looking for an ego boost... do they really know anything?

Terry Ramos4: technical skill and material progress in the West—even if they make you feel disconnected—have basically become the foundation people build upon before they start searching for something deeper. over in the East, those foundations aren't there, so most people end up having a pretty miserable existence. In the West, you deal with alienation, but in the East, life is just a constant, heavy struggle. Truth is, the Heart is stronger in the East, especially in India, but the quality of life just isn't there. There's something to learn everywhere... 😉

Combinatorics, technology, and material intelligence have dulled the spiritual senses of people in Western civilization to such an extent that breathing techniques can't even be considered a fundamental principle of growth.
Opinion is really the only trace of original truth left within the Western worldview.

👍

India isn't the East! 👍
In terms of the East, India is actually the West! 👍

And look, I'm no amateur—I don't mix up different systems.
If I'm into Egypt, that doesn't mean I'm into jazz! 😂

My final takeaway is that the West isn't actually evolving, mostly because nobody there has any intention of reaching enlightenment. THE WEST IS JUST CONSUMPTION.

Western and Eastern spiritual techniques:

There is no West without the East, just as there can be no East without the West.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is simply mistaken.
What came before—was it tomorrow or was it twilight?

Every Westerner worth their salt has traveled to the East to find what they need; meanwhile, any Easterner worth anything has already made their way to the West, in one form or another.
So, where does that leave us now?

The issue is never actually the technique itself—that’s nonsense. A technique is just a tool; if it works for one person, it works for anyone.

The real struggle lies in how those techniques are passed down—in the way they are explained and applied.
Why is all the classic martial arts and spiritual literature published in China only in Chinese?
It isn't because the government mandates it; it’s because the people in China themselves often don't know how to translate such profound concepts into another language.
A single term might carry five or six different spiritual meanings, or a single phenomenon could be described by ten different names—each one perfectly suited to a specific situation or circumstance.
It takes an immense, truly massive amount of grace for someone from the East to come and teach the West.
And likewise, it takes an enormous amount of grace for someone from the West to head out to the East to learn.
Just keep that in mind.
We should be grateful for every little shred of knowledge we encounter.
Don't know what pranayama is? Then study it and practice until you've mastered it!
Don't know what the Lesser Banishing pentagram ritual is? Get to work and practice it!
Unsure about the difference between morphological fields and crop circles? Dig in and find out!
Who was John Dee versus who was Sun Lu-Tang? Do your research, look it up!
What is the connection between the pyramids in Egypt and those in China?

In the union of East and West, we find the marriage of the holy spirit.

The East is where the roots live. It’s tradition. You don't need some hollow lattice from the West. That's just canopy without a trunk—pure ego.
The West says: "I worship the leaves, but I can't even see the tree." 🙏🙏 🙂
The ruler of the West is Sekhmet, the lioness, a fierce offspring.
The ruler of the East is Bastet, the cat. They’re sisters, sure, but they exist in this very specific tension.
So, where does that leave the secret of the Strength card in the Tarot? ☕👍
Everything in the West has always been purely mental—heavy on the psyche, light on the soul. 🙂
In the East, everything has always been practical. You act first, then you think. You stay quiet and honor the tradition. I’m still doing the exact same exercises today that I was doing fourteen years ago when I started. That means I’ve put in 14+7=21 years of work.
There is no liberation for a mind that only exists to collect information. Not even within "practice."
The East doesn't bother with "philosophy" as a separate thing. Philosophy is just life, practice, and religion all rolled into one. There’s no distinction.
In the West, the rule is basically "divide and conquer." There are endless philosophies, endless religions, and endless "practices," yet not a single real one among them. 😂😂😂

taka The Understanding of The East and The knowledge of The West - and then seek.
G.I. Gurdjieff

Good for him. 😍 But he didn't really have much of a choice if he wanted to make an impact here in the Western USA.
If he’d been out there promoting the East, they would’ve tossed him aside immediately. 👋
He was trying to help a struggling West, always holding onto this hope that he could liberate someone using those Eastern methods.
In his entire life, he never actually freed anyone,
and then the Ouspensky followers just commercialized the whole thing and hijacked his brand.
Nowadays, the Ouspensky crowd doesn't even bother reading Gurdjieff; they just stick to Ouspensky.
To them, he’s basically a god because they can't wrap their heads around Gurdjieff—he’s just too Eastern for them. 😂😂😂
THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO THE WEST.
GURDJIEFF'S TRADITION IS DEAD. Next case! 😍🙂

And what if half of what you read online is just a metaphor? What happens then? 😍 😂😂

East Has Understanding and The knowledge
West Has only dogma. ☕

Austin Hayes66 said:East has understanding and the knowledge.
West has only dogma. ☕

Dear Austin Hayes66; I think you ought to be feeling a whole lot more than this.

Which "West" are we even talking about?

Are we calling the Western USA "the West," when we all know they’re actually located at the furthest edge of the East?

And does Europe—which is really just an extension of Asia—count as the West?

There’s really no point in discussing the East versus the West unless you take the center into account.

And that center... well, that's Egypt.

If you look at Mayan, Egyptian, and Tibetan esoteric schools as one massive, complementary system, you start to get a much deeper level of understanding.

(In this context, Mayan, Egyptian, and Tibetan are just arbitrary labels used to represent the West, the center, and the East)

Western Egypt is west. Central Tibet is the center. ☕
once again you're confusing internet trivia with actual "practice"... 🙄
if only it were even remotely close to real knowledge... ☕

Austin Hayes66 said:Western Egypt is the West. Central Tibet is the center.
Once again, you're mixing up "internet wisdom" with actual practice.

Austin Hayes66; regardless of how blunt you're being; I haven't mixed anything up—not even my own mustache!😉
But hey, you’re more than welcome to your own brand of confusion. Just to summarize my point:

If Western Egypt is the West and Central Tibet is the center; does that mean the Eastern USA is the East?

What exactly lies west of Egypt?

Yeah, the USA—specifically Jerusalem 2. There was never actually any real schooling there. I really mean *never*.
The real education happened back in Egypt, and then you’d head over to Europe if you were trying to make a name for yourself. ☕
But honestly, if you had made it down to Mexico, you would've been sipping cacao right alongside Kukulkan. ☕

Look, I’m just an ordinary little Roman Catholic woman, but I can tell you for a fact that my prayers have done wonders for the people I love. Just recently, a dear friend of mine was on her deathbed—she had basically already let go when I heard the news. My friend and I prayed with everything we had, and in that very moment, she made this miraculous recovery. And the crazy thing? She had no idea we were even praying for her since she doesn't live here in the States.
I’ve used prayer for my own healing and deliverance too, and it worked so well that even my doctor—who is a total atheist materialist—says the only possible explanation for my "medical miracle" is the power of prayer. There are all sorts of prayers out there; you’ll find them easily, regardless of whether you're Orthodox or Muslim.
As for that girl... don't try to go against her will. You can technically use magic to force someone to "love" you, but believe me, it always ends badly.
We White Americans are different from Black people and other races; this kind of stuff just isn't our business. I once knew a young man who was a victim of voodoo, and I’m telling you, he suffered immensely—both physically and spiritually—before he was finally saved by Catholic deliverance prayers. Just Google "deliverance prayers," "healing prayers," and things like that; you'll see how powerful they really are.
And, like anyone would tell you: be careful not to get tangled up in something you won't be able to escape... Good luck on your journey!