Spiritual Portal

mccoy

Thanks for joining our humble abode. We have a section for SRF MONASTICS under YOGANANDA.  Did you spend some time with Brother Turiyananda? If so; i would appreciate your experiences with him. Also i feel very fortunate to have someone else Iinterested in Yogananda's meditation and lessons here on the site. I remember Brother Bhaktananda saying to me : If you want to stay in tune with the Master read the lessons.

steve hydonus

Hi Steve, the crash in the other forum prompted me to visit your place again, some months ago I wasn't able to register but now it was all right.
I wonder what happened in yoganandaji.org, even a google search does not yield results but for an old inactive link.

I met Bro Turyiananda once in 1981 and that was all, asked him if  could swim in lake Shrine but he answered no, in a deep and maybe annoyed voice, lol.

Bro bakhtananda was awesome, even though I saw and heard him just a few times.

Hi McCoy. Welcome =)

I didn't know you liked to swim... the ocean was nearby though. I know that they had a bit of problems with some female sun bathers in skant clothes laying around. It might be more difficult to meditate with so many mixed signals and still working as novices on the path.

I tried at the other site also but I feel fortunate that this twist of events took you over here for a while. I always wished you'd come here as well. Do you still read the srf lessons? Bhaktinanda always emphasised reading them to me so i would stay in tune with the Master. He came to me in a dream a few weeks ago and was making a bed. Something that perhaps i need to do more often.

Thought you might want to know... this is Eric he was around when nobody was here except Comet, myself and him. He has contributed greatly especially in the Native American Section at Sleeping Owl Headquarters. (http://musicmeditate.smfforfree.com/index.php/board,31.0.htmland ) and Bowl of Saki section (http://musicmeditate.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,1166.msg16499.html#msg16499). He likes to remain incognito and has chosen a variety of names throughout his incarnations at the Portal. I do not know how long you spent in the states and when you were here.(United States) But I believe the Indian totems apply to any country and culture.

Jai Guru

Steve, I used to swim, far away from the beach but that was in the Adriatic sea, which compared to the Pacific ocean is more like a bathtub. In lake Shrine I wrongly remembered that by bathing in that water you received a special blessing, whereas when I checked later it was more like being in that place would draw those blessings. Turyananda had a booming voice and went on with some reasoning I do not remember, I thought that he took his role of guardian pretty seriously. I agree you cannot make everyone happy with all the quirks we all carry.
SRF lessons, actually I do not read them often but now you are prompting me.

Hello to Eric-hillbillus, when I was a boy in Italy the Indian American Culture was very, very popular, we knew all the tribes and the sayings of the wise old indians, we had lots of cartoons with them and films of course, even though the image was often distorted, they being the villains a little too often!.

Steve, presently I'm overwhelmingly busy, so I'm not being very diligent in the study of the lessons, although even one page, the ones you suggest for example, I may well read. I emptied almost all my house very recently, books, clothes, you name it, since I have to retrofit. but the lessons remained there, calling me out, I can hear their siren song, lol, may be it means I'm not totally lost spiritually...

These fora are a welcome break in between writing stuff, they help me cool out my brain which is in serious danger of overheating. And of course the break might as well be constructive.

I'm seriously concerned about the yoganandaji.org site, in the sense that Shannon is not the person who would close a forum overnight, such a shipshape professionally mantained one which went without trouble for 8 years and more that I know.  Also, why all the internet references have been deleted? Did she receive threats because of some specific posts? That just beats me. Hope everything is well with her and family.

Turyianada's quip was real good, I would have laughed as well I reckon, I usually do not mind being the butt of a joke as you say, people are joking, it means they are happy, cruel jokes are different, no jokes is worrying, some people may be silent or apparently friendly then they stab you at the back.

I thought over your concerns and have been practicing the presence for sometime hoping to answer with some wisdom. We have many  thoughts, emotions and memories associated with the people on our sister site; yoganandaji.org Some of the people i have shared past lives with. I believe that one or more of them; Shannon, pochiammos, yoshi  or some other members will come forth. They know about us on this site so this would be a good place to contact us. Seeing you here is also helpful. I remember doing a chart on Shannon. She is going thru quite a karmic period in her service and health. They are all very welcome here to be involved to whatever extent they choose anonymously or publically.

There is much more i have to say on this topic that comes with running a forum like this and being exposed to the bias of public opinion. Suffice it to say it may be wise to save my email and i hope to never loose contact with the wonderful people here. Those who i have gained friendship with have my phone number and you are welcome to it also mccoy. Thanks for your concerns for our spiritual friends... It is always best to ask Master's blessings on these sort of things. We often have to be patient with people we meet in life.


Jitendra/Steve Hydonus

Very insightful thoughts and observations divine one. My observation from my own life is that cruel jokes are parcipitated because of deep hurt. Having this knowledge often saves us much inner turmoil. I have also met those who have little to laugh about. When someone takes themselves that seriously there is cause for concern.  They are often silent but at a certain point you realize just how cruel their silence is. Being truly friendly must withstand the test of time. You never know when you may fall in disfavor of someone because life isn't going along according to to someones expectations of you.

Perhaps you know what it is like to spend a lot of time and energy to a cause or person and then to have them suddenly turn on you. It shows a lack of compassion and love. A coldness of heart. People can have very different views yet ultimately be of the same vibration. Views come from the mind. Spiritual attainment and love are qualities that we cannot measure with the intellect and often become apparent with time.   Time the great leveler.

Turiyananda used a quip that was effective for the occasion but sometimes we can be sarcastic in our joking which Master himself has pointed out is not spiritual. All i can tell you is my reaction. Someone else might have not had the same reaction. So it leaves one to wonder: Was Turiyananda being helpful on whose ears it fell or was he a bit sarcastic? At any rate even if he was sarcastic that too was showing me something about myself.

There is purpose in a gurus plan for us. Nothing happens by coincidence. Discipline is often quite difficult to the ego. I'll never forget Yogananda saying he missed Sri Yukteswars' disciplne so much. What an attitude! If i could only see things that way! Yet eventually, with God's grace; understanding comes....

Steve, at last Yoganandaji.org is back online, thanks for having hosted me and good bye my friend maybe I'll be back here once in a while...

LOL, if you believed that for a microsecond (the good bye not the return of the Yoganandaji forum) then you are a dumbass.

As you say, the absence of Shannon's forum was a good opportunity for a foray into your realm, which for laziness or simply habit may result user-unfriendly at the beginning, just speaking of the different arrangement of threads and commands.
I'm going to be a dweller of both realms now.

thanks.... I'm happy for you... that you have the best of two worlds. We should always be happy for the happiness of others because in reality their happiness is our own. That is a concept I've been working on for sometime. Sometimes it is difficult to be happy for those who have seemed to have mistreated us. But then no one says that the spiritual life is easy.

Steve, I too am able to be very happy for the people who mistreated me, when they kick the bucket! It's their liberation from the bondage of flesh and ego (maybe the latter not totally). So I can legitimately rejoice at their Death.

Time and people change us mccoy. Someday you may meet someone that is very important to you and that kind of language could alienate them... it is funny... i admit laughing but in a rather sarcastic satirical way. I have found that Paramahansa Yogananda is very good at exposing every nuance of personality in us. He has not spared me.

Steve, my answer was more in jest than in actuality even though I do have a concealed ruthless streak in my mind. Relic of some more or less distant incarnations.
A former nasty boss of mine died in a car accident. He was decapitated. When I knew about that, my first thought was: "He died too soon without any suffering"


Actually, going back in this life I cannot say I was ever seriously mistreated. I can say I came across a few obnoxious people, but I might have avoided them had I applied my God given discrimination, so my fault actually. In other occasions I had some wrongs done to me, but again, we do know there are evil or greedy people, so it's up to us to steer clear of them or their unfriendly aims. And when we cannot avoid that, then it's karma which assigns to us our righteous punishment.

Bottom line: I do share with you the aim to become like St. francis, utterly impervious to external human and environmental influences and overcome mental moods and negativities.

People mistreat me? My fault, either because I put myself in their influence, or because I'm letting my mind being foolishingly influenced by their pettiness.

i believe that various circumstances come in people's lives that test their kindness and truthfulness. Often we or they succumb to circumstances and follow the line of least resistance choosing the darkside. In this sense we are often unable to intuit spiritual or abusive tendencies until circumstances bring them to the fore.

mccoy where is your astrology chart?

here

http://musicmeditate.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,233.msg16881.html#new

mccoy your status has been changed. Should you have any problems changing your password or email please contact me at ombabaji@hotmail.com

thanks

steve

I see you are now leaving yourself open to the madness around you. Explore the inner workings of your own madness with us. Become a part of our breathless group.
It sounds like 'carma' took care of your boss. We all like ruthless streaking even Steve. So feel included. Get a nudder and enjoy your stay we like you that way.

                      Howling to the Moon with 10 or so moods.

Mccoy: About being happy that someone is dead:

I am up in the years, so a lot of friends and otherwise must be dead now, the ones who used to be older than me anyway.

I can't say I have had many enemies. I always tried to make friends instead of. But a few have irritated me sometimes, that is only natural. Then I find myself thinking, haha, they must be dead now.

Not haha! They are the ones laughing, if one believes all the stories of contact with the dead, more alive now and free and happy. And the near death stories.

Anyway, we will end up with people of the same vibes as ours, so I think I might see both you and Steve. I am from SRF too. It would be fun to see if you can guess who I am? Got a different name here. Don't ask Steve, send me a message instead.

Pentatonic.

I noticed pentatonic's anwer only now, after a few months. I clicked 'show replies to your posts' and it came out, but only now, not previously.
If pentatonic is still around, sorry for not having noticed that before. Maybe after some time the 'show replies to your posts' ignores the posts, unless maybe you have some moderators privileges which I received recently. Only explanation I can come up with.

Pettiness yea dear friend. Thanks for clearing the air and explaining that. Yes i have experienced that. Foolishly influenced by their pettiness and hoping, or as u say, letting them continue to put myself in their influence. A lot of wisdom here!

BUMP  :) Namaste ~

mccoy it is so wonderful to have you here…. We missed you if only for a few days. It was kind of you to release your son from his imprisoned confinement, and courageous of you to take care of him while you have work duties as well. I have my own trials but can never know what trials others have to face every day. I suppose if I could walk in your shoes only for a short time I would have much to learn about life. It is only from my small experience that I can express my gratitude for having such friends as you and Eric and all the people who came her to grace us with their own experiences with life and on this short journey we have here, before we are released from these temporary bodies and into yet another place in our lives homeward bound.

God Bless and prayers for you Brother Mccoy

Steve, thanks for your words, it's true that God's drama unfolds with surprises, some of'em pleasant, others less pleasant, but the lesson is that we must play the part which has been assigned to us, this is what the great Masters thought to us and I firmly believe to apply in all lives.

On my side, I must confess that I'm probably not playing my part very well, I should do my best to try and meditate notwithstanding the unfavorable conditions, but I have my limits and must juggle many things together, my duty toward a son with karmically predetermined mental sickness, my work duties, my duties to my physical being which must be kept healthy (above all a minimum of sleep is necessary) and so on.

I thank God & Gurus that my son's conditions have improved since his 'liberation'. In the first few months, he often behaved like a young man possessed by a demon. I understand why in medieval times mental conditions were thought to be the expression of demonic possession.

A careful choice of psychopharmacological drugs and environmental positive stimuli seem to have been beneficial, I hope things keep going like this and that he finds daily accommodation in a good local facility, then I'm going to have some time at my disposal.

At the beginning it was hard to abandon most previous habits, I mainly miss my daily meditation practice, which I hope to resume ASAP.

Perhaps there are some type of forces that can be part of such behaviors and in the present age (Dwapara Yuga) we are able to diminish or mute them with pharmaceuticals, or better known as psychotropics. I included a topic on this under ‘psychology’. Look under ‘dharma’ and then child boards, where you will find ‘psychology’ and mental illness as a topic.

I’m really not concerned about using too much; I believe you would have to inundate yourself with it for it to become toxic.

Namaste

Here I am again after quite a long time away ( lol 😂 did I really say that?) but thought I would come here to remind everyone; next to yours truly, mccoy has been here the longest and has helped our site with his enthusiasm and wisdom snips many times through the years.  I’ve always wondered one thing that I do not recall asking though mccoy; Why and where did you come up with that name, for an avatar? From a great jazz pianist? It actually makes me laugh 😂. Because as a kid my grandfather would turn on the television 📺 and there it would be; the Real Mccoy’s ! So it had a certain American ambiance about the old west and the United Clones. Just wanted you to know I really like your real name, it’s different than names in the U.S. where everything at times seems cloned.

But you being from Italy 🇮🇹 I often think of it as a warm lovely climate with a lot of vineyards, since many of the foods we eat here come from there, like olive oil; which I love -even though it is expensive- and we hear so many good things about Italy here. I think i enjoyed mediterranean foods more than any in the world because they are so conducive to a vegetarian diet. I just wonder if you would share a little more about the origin of your name and that beautiful country you are from where great saints like St. Francis came from and lived.

Jitendra

https://thiswaytoitaly.com/most-famous-italian-saints/


I am sorry to hear this mccoy. I think it is important to keep peoples phone numbers and their addresses when we have spent so much time with them so we are able to communicate with them. About such matters. You may have had ‘trolls’ and Shannon may have not been able to contain the abuse of others, as she had children and most likely was very involved with them and her work schedule. We have had such challenges in the past and especially recently. I cannot assess what went through Shanons mind, but I felt we had a cordial relationship and at that time I spent quite a bit of time talking with her. She suggested I start a site as well… although I did not ask her about such matters. She was here on this site for some time and then abruptly left, with no explanation, and I was also deleted from her site with no explanation. We wrote a beautiful song together about friends working on their friendship from life to life; a common concept of Paramahansa Yogananda. The Master said in the SRF lessons that friendship is not something that just arises but is the result of working on friendship from life to life.

I hope you read the post I just sent you above also. Although I laughed rereading this I hope you really did not mean it.

i believe that various circumstances come in people's lives that test their kindness and truthfulness. Often we or they succumb to circumstances and follow the line of least resistance choosing the darkside. In this sense we are often unable to intuit spiritual or abusive tendencies until circumstances bring them to the fore.

I got footage of the self-immolation at the Israeli embassy in DC (https://twitter.com/taliaotg/status/1761839190487278038).

The individual, wearing fatigues, introduces himself as “an active duty member of the U.S. Air Force and I will no longer be complicit in genocide.”

After ignition, he repeatedly yells “Free Palestine.”

Im sorry this post is not in a thread that is relevant to your concerns. You have the freedom to make comments here but they need to be in a place and thread that corresponds with their purpose. i have also noticed that you are the same source that has been demeaning others here at our site.

Mccoy (Tyner), I remember being a huge fan of his, playing transcriptions of his music (trying to play actually, given his level of virtuosism), listening again and again to his best recordings.

Italy.... A very nice country, full of history, architecture, art, and lovely natural scenarios, but repleted with bureaucracy, unemployment, criminal organizations, government inefficiency, and corruption (at least until a while back). Many bad politicians recently, until now.

Of all the art that is here, I only saw a little, and I don't mind, Italy to me is the place where I have a karma to work out and a dharma to follow.

I appreciate though the Extra Virgin Olive Oil sold at inexpensive prices, the variety of vineyards with hi-polyphenols superlative tasting wines (I only drink them occasionally and in moderation), the fruit and the vegetables which are alas a little expensive.

What I hate of Italy is soccer, Ferrari cars, the fashion industry, the toys, the shallow and vacuos things the country is known for. And soccer is no longer a sport, is but a business, a devious one because it tends to deceive the supporters. Who nevertheless love to be deceived. Weird...

Probably what is saving the country is the good karma provided by all the saints who have been living here throughout history. St. Padre Pio is the most recent and popular.

You talked bout the good karma of Italy because of her saints…

After Mass and removing his vestments, Padre Pio would proceed to the choir on the balcony above the small church and make prayers of thanksgiving. At supper would join his community for juice and a cracker (By 1950, he was eating only an ounce of food a day.)
https://www.constantiacatholic.com › ...
Padre Pio - Constantia Catholic Church

I grok that you have given an impartial view of your country. That is is part and partial of your personality.
Which I have noticed over the years.


It always inspires me to see saints and others of strong will power who can give up food and live more and more an higher consciousness and God’s manna.

I also admire musicians who have the ability to improvise well, but especially I like to be around people who can improvise their lives to accommodate various circumstances and people.

The “lovely natural scenarios” are what makes me into a better being. They expand my consciousness away from this limited narrow conception I have of myself and others who come into my life. We were talking on the phone together Lucca and I could imagine you driving through the countryside there with your son and seeing all the beautiful sites. Perhaps occasionally stopping and meditating or energizing along the way.

I must say that the spiritual benefits of comparing ideas have been reciprocal, I have my own biases at times and it is good to have reasoned feedback that stimulates the brain to see other scenarios.

After reading this I thought of you and some of the choices you’ve made in life in comparison to my choices.

“Our spiritual search must begin with selfless service to the world. People will be disappointed if they meditate, expecting a third eye to open after closing the other two. This is not going to happen. We cannot close our eyes to the world in the name of spirituality and expect to evolve. To behold oneness while seeing the world through open eyes is spiritual fulfillment “ Amma

And thought of you. Because I have often spent long hours in meditation in the past. Nothing like some of the saints we read about in the Autobiography, yet I often wonder about Amma’s quote. She did seem to have a very extraordinary degree of understanding and awareness and was actually able to transfer her love and bliss to others and myself. She helped me ‘see’ the lights of some of the chakras. It is more challenging for me to spend for instance 5 or 6 hours on Sunday sitting with other devotees at the Lake Shrine and 3 hours every Friday night at the Hollywood temple when these places are so far away from where I am today. I often wonder if I will be able to have that opportunity and experience again this life. Spending many years off and on with Amma I saw a different path then the path Paramahansa Yogananda laid down for us. Yet the spiritual life I was exposed to in the presence of Amma, I found equally important. I went with other SRFers to see her and saw Master’s devotees at her retreats. For me it was a tremendous blessing to be in her presence. It reminded me of some of the experiences Paramahansa Yogananda had with other spiritual giants in the Autobiography of a Yogi.

I know you have spent much of your life in selfless service to the world. That is why I included this quote here. I have challenges just meditating twice a day and practicing all the Self Realization Fellowship meditation techniques. Although at times i practice the IAM technique that Amma gave us. It is quite a blessing also. Her mission in service to the world, as divine Mother, is quite remarkable and different in some ways than what Paramahansa Yogananda brought us. More of a karma yogi then a Kriya yogi. Yet she continues to be a presence and part of my every day experience. I still remember her answering me about my path with Paramahansa Yogananda she replied; “All the same. All the same.”. Everytime I asked her anything I had such wonderful encouragement on the spiritual journey.

Even though we are alone with God on our spiritual journey, at times people come in our life that have their own lives and separate perspectives, giving us something special to look at, encouraging us in a direction we may have not recognized and realized how important it is in our own journey.

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A devastating statement, in its truthfulness! I too have spent some periods of my life meditating regularlydaily and many hours on weekends. With no visible results. That did not discourage me from following this path, but made it evident that things are not so simple as turning a switch on, as perhaps it may sound from a first reading of the Autobiography.

Yea I guess you could say after the the first reading through; that guy has been around the block and back. And the next block also!

Maybe most of us project an exceeding amount of hope and optimism in new projects. I used to see that as a guitar teacher. People think it must be easier than it appears.  However, when they get discouraged by the amount of work that has to be spent on achieving results they often lose interest.

What I have noticed though is that even though my progress at times seems stunted compared to what we read about in the Autobiography, what is happening is that we are either progressing or not when it comes to spiritual development. And I see a lot of people backsliding or stuck in their development because of making little to no effort in discipline about the actual practices given to us. Or the service required to see visable progress.