Ennio on the Breathless State

A major milestone as you advance in your spiritual practice is the attainment of the breathless state. Below is an excerpt from Ennio's book on this subject. He begins by first talking about Japa.

The teaching of Swami Ramdas regarding how to practice Japa is extremely simple. You utter Rama's name (Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram) any time, amid all of life's distractions, whenever there is a momentary return of your consciousness to Self-awareness. When this happens you feel the ensuing joy and you concentrate on it as long as possible, while repeating your Prayer. In this way you perfect your surrender to God. This is to be practiced when facing every event, every day, and in every circumstance. At Night, when free from worldly duties, you devote yourself to intense practice of Japa. Swami Ramdas stuck to that practice and was actually rolling in a sea of indescribable happiness.

"Repeat the one name ‘Ram’ at all times of the day and at nights when you are awake. You may be sure that you will not feel lonely or miserable as long as you are uttering that glorious name. Where this name is sounded, or meditated upon, there resides no sorrow, no anxiety – nay, not even death." (Ramdas)

Helped by a mala (rosary beads), I started to practice reciting Japa aloud 108 times during a walk (the number of beads in a mala), and mentally during the remainder of the walk.

Even though the oriental traditions recommend doing Japa mentally, I know for certain that it should be done aloud – at least for about a hundred times. The sound of that Mantra, which I had already heard in a spiritual audio recording, was very pleasant. I loved to prolong its vibration, make it vibrate in my chest and invest it with my heart's aspiration. My attitude was not that of a supplicating and sobbing devotee, but that of a man who rejoices, being one step away from his goal.

Since I observed while doing it an irresistible impulse to put everything in order, I thought that the Mantra could work in a similar way by cleaning out my mental stuff and putting my "psychological furniture" in order. Even though sometimes I felt a bit dazed, I maintained the determination never to discard this practice.

I practiced Japa every morning and Kriya every noon in the open countryside. One day during my Kriya session while relaxing with the mental Pranayama (placing my awareness in each Chakra for 10-20 seconds each), I distinctly perceived a fresh energy sustaining my body from inside. I realized my cells were breathing pure energy which didn't originate from the inhaled air. The more I relaxed, the more I simultaneously became aware both of the Chakras and of the body as a whole. The breath, which in the meantime had become very short, eventually reached immobility, like a pendulum gently reaching the equilibrium point. My mind settled down. This condition lasted a few minutes without any feeling of uneasiness; there was neither the least quiver of surprise nor the thought, "Finally I have it!" The event was enjoyable beyond words: in a bluepainted profundity, I was mercilessly crushed by the beauty of nature and, at the same time, situated above the whole world. All was incredibly beautiful, beyond imagination! I was not breathing and I did not feel the need to.

In the following days the same event happened again – always during mental Pranayama. Before starting my routine, I looked at the surrounding panorama and wondered if I would again experience that state. I did! I was astonished; it seemed impossible that Japa, one of the simplest techniques in the world, could produce infallibly such a valuable result! Compared to the breathless state (which was "solidity" itself), my past experiences during Kriya practice seemed vanishing, elusive, like luminous reflections on water. Where my best intentions had failed, Japa had produced the miracle! There was a perfect association between the practice of Japa and the attainment of the breathless state. Every day I experienced it for myself.

This reliable result created a moral strength in me that turned into a calm euphoria permeating my entire day. While talking to others I remained effortlessly centered on the feeling of unchangeable calmness, without being involved in the images arising from the words. This new way of living was like walking out of a dark stuffy room into sunlight and fresh air. The magic of this bright dazzling Prayer which spread into each facet of my life confirmed in me the belief that Japa was the only tool capable of extracting "something perfect and sublime" from my life.

Ennio on Kechari Mudra

The above video of Kechari Mudra is from Ennio's Video Downloads page. He has many other videos you may want to check out which augment the information given in his book. Below is an excerpt relating to this particular video of Kechari Mudra.

Kechari Mudra: This Mudra is carried in one of the two following ways:

1. By placing the tongue in contact with the uvula at the back of the soft palate.
2. By slipping the tongue into the nasal pharynx touching, if possible, the nasal septum.

According to Lahiri Mahasaya a kriyaban should achieve it not by cutting the tongue Fraenulum but by means of Talabya Kriya [see video]. Kechari is literally translated as "the state of those who fly in the sky", in the "inner space". Kechari is compared to an electrical bypass of the mind's energetic system. It changes the path of Prana flow causing the life force to be withdrawn from the thinking process. Instead of allowing the thoughts to jump like frogs here and there, it causes the mind to be quiet and allows focusing it on the goal of meditation.

We do not realize the quantity of energy we squander away when we get lost in our thoughts, in our plans. Kechari turns this pernicious way of exhausting all of our vitality into its opposite. The mind begins to lose its despotic role: the "inner activity" happens no more by the thinking process but by the effortless development of the intuition. Coupled with Kriya it is a substantial aid in clarify one's complicated psychological structures.

A more elusive claim is the experience of the elixir of life, "Amrita," the "Nectar." This is a fluid with sweet taste perceived by the kriyaban when the tip of his tongue touches either the uvula or the bone protrusion in the roof of the palate under the hypophysis. The Yoga tradition explains that there is a Nadi going through the center of the tongue; energy radiates through its tip and when it touches that bone protrusion, this radiation reaches and stimulates the Ajna Chakra in the center of the brain.

Below, Ennio describes his own experience with Kechari Mudra.

After three months of serious practice I achieved Kechari Mudra and realized that my exhaustive search for the original Kriya had come to an end. I followed this teacher for six years. Hereafter I summarize the reasons for my enthusiasm and why I later broke off with him.

Returning home after the seminar of initiation, unexpected internal changes created a very positive period for me, even if it could not be defined as calm. Kechari Mudra brought me a feeling of "dizziness" that lasted some days; my mental faculties seemed to be fogged up, but when all that ceased, my Kriya flew high.

Inspired by this new condition, comparing it to that of the mystics, I realized how difficult it is to live, carrying out daily worldly duties, without being paralyzed by such bliss! Some days I was so happy that when I went out for a walk, if I met someone and stopped to listen to him, no matter what he said, a sudden joy would expand in my chest to the point that I could barely hold back my tears. Looking at the distant mountains or at other details of the landscape, I would try to direct my feeling toward them in order to turn my paralyzing joy into aesthetic rapture; only this could keep back the joy clutching my being, only this could hide it.

I believe it is legitimate to ask why do Kriya organizations not teach such a simple technique as Talabya Kriya, preferring to perpetuate endless political arguments and speculations that continue up to the present day?

Below is my own video of Talabya Kriya and Kechari Mudra.

Kriya Yoga: Synthesis of a Personal Experience

Ennio Nimis has been studying and practicing yoga since the age of 15 and after becoming an adult has focused exclusively on Kriya Yoga. He has now written an excellent book on the subject with all of the details provided. The book is available to download for free from his web site: Kriya Yoga Info. Below is the inspiration that led him to writing this book.

It was winter. One day I went skiing in the nearby mountains with a couple of friends. All went magnificently. During a break in the afternoon, I managed to find time alone. I found myself looking at the mountains that marked the boundaries of the distant horizon in all directions. In less than half an hour the sun would paint them pink – with an intense hue on their eastern side and tinged with blue on the western side. I imagined India to be right behind them, the Himalayas being their continuation. My thought went to all the Kriya enthusiasts who found, as I did, insurmountable obstacles to the understanding of that beloved discipline. All those obstacles seemed to me an absurdity that wore the clothes of a nightmare – I felt an infinite rebellion.

I visualized a book on Kriya explaining every technique in great detail. How often had I wondered what would have happened if Lahiri Mahasaya or one of his disciples had written it! My imagination led me to fantasize about its cover, to skim its few pages – sober, yet rich in content. If this book existed, we would have a reliable manual of Kriya that restrained the many small or large variations made up by various teachers. Perhaps some annotator would try to force its meaning into his own theories. Nay, I was positive that some pseudo-guru would say that the techniques described in it were for beginners only, while there were much more complicated techniques that could only be passed on by an authorized teacher to chosen disciples. Some would swallow the bait, contact the author, and pay good money to be introduced to rubbish that he had assembled either through fancy or borrowed from some esoteric book...

This happens; it’s part of our human nature. However, sincere researchers would surely be able to recognize the strength and self-sufficient intrinsic evidence of the original text.

It is a shame that no one had written that book! For the first time I dared to let my thoughts stray toward what could happen if I wrote it. It would be hard, yet possible, to summarize the totality of my knowledge of Kriya into a book – welding together techniques and theories through a clean, rational vision. The intention was definitely not to celebrate myself or lay the foundations for yet another new school of Kriya. If I were to describe my experiences, it would only be for the purpose of clarifying theoretic and technical explanations. There would be no more rhetorical claims of legitimacy and riddle-like sentences to confuse readers or have them guess at technical details or create further doubts in them! How beautiful it was to dream of a book which would prove its validity by reproducing Lahiri Mahasaya's thought in the simplest and most logical way, in a complete, harmonious set of techniques!

I will be examining Ennio's teachings in greater detail in future posts.

Creating a Life Together

The book "Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities" is an excellent resource for anyone interested in joining or starting an ecovillage or intentional community. It provides step-by-step practical information on how to create a successful ecovillage. Here is an excerpt from the Introduction.

The Successful Ten Percent

I’ve since learned that EarthDance Farm’s experience is fairly common. Most aspiring ecovillages and community groups — probably 90 percent — never get off the ground; their envisioned communities never get built. They can’t find the right land, don’t have enough money, or get mired in conflict. Often they simply don’t understand how much time, money, and organizational skill they’ll need to pull off a project of this scope.

I wanted to know about the successful ten percent, those groups that actually created their communities. What did they do right?

I’ve sought the answer to this question ever since, in my years as editor of Communities magazine, and by visiting dozens of communities and interviewing scores of community founders. And I’ve seen a definite pattern. Generally, founders used the same kinds of skills, knowledge, and step-by-step processes to create widely different kinds of communities, from urban group households or rural ecovillages.

Creating a Life Together is an overview of that process, gleaned from some of the most innovative and successful community founders in North America. This is what they did, and what you can do, to create your community dream.

To give you an idea of the level of detail that the books goes into, here is the Table of Contents.

Introduction

Part One: - Planting the Seeds of Healthy Community

Chapter 1 - The Successful Ten Percent — and Why Ninety Percent Fail

• Lost Valley — How One Group Did It
• What Works, What Doesn’t Work?
• The Successful Ten Percent
• Why Ninety Percent Fail
• “Structural Conflict” — And Six Ways to Reduce It
• What Will it Cost?
• How Long Does it Take?
• How Many People do You Need?

Chapter 2 - Your Role as Founder

• What Kind of Person Founds a Community?
• What Else You’ll Need
• “If Only I Had Known!”

Chapter 3 - Getting Off to a Good Start

• Don’t Run Out and Buy Land — Yet
• When You Already Own the Property
• Organizing Your Group
• Getting Real about Finances
• Collecting Funds
• Raising Money from Supporters
• Attracting and Integrating New Members
• Creating “Community Glue”
• Pioneers, Settlers, and the Flow of Members

Chapter 4 - Community Vision — What It Is, Why You Need It

• Sound a Clear Note
• Elements of a Community’s Vision
• Your Vision Documents and Vision Statement
• Do It First

Chapter 5 - Creating Vision Documents

• More Than One Vision?
• A Sacred Time
• “That’s Not Community!” — Hidden Expectations and Structural Conflict
• Exploring the Territory
• Sharing from the Heart
• Writing it Down

Chapter 6 - Power, Decision-making, and Governance

• Power — The Ability to Influence
• Focused Power, Widespread Power
• How Consensus Works
• What You Need to Make Consensus Work
• “Pseudoconsensus” and Structural Conflict
• Agreement-Seeking — When You Don’t Want to use Full Consensus
• Multi-winner Voting
• Community Governance — Spreading Power Widely
• More than One Form of Decision Making?
• What Decision-making Method Should You Use?

Part Two: - Sprouting New Community: Techniques & Tools

Chapter 7 - Agreements & Policies: “Good Documents Make Good Friends”

• Remembering Things Differently
• Giving Yourselves Every Chance of Success
• Your Community’s Agreements and Policies

Chapter 8 - Making It Real: Establishing Your Legal Entity

• Why You Need a Legal Entity — Before Buying Your Property
• Using a Lawyer
• Finding the Right Lawyer

Chapter 9 - The Great Land-Buying Adventure

• Legal Barriers to Sustainable Development
• Shopping for Counties — Zoning Regulations, Building Codes, Sustainable Homesteads, and Jobs
• The Proactive Land Search
• Friendly Loans from Friends and Family
• Onerous Owner-financing (Better than None at All)
• Do-it-Yourself Refinancing with a “Shoe Box Bank”
• When One Person Buys the Property
• Acquiring Fully Developed “Turn-Key” Property — Confidence, Persistence, and Negotiation
• If at First You Don’t Succeed …

Chapter 10 - Finding the Right Property

• Choosing Your Site Criteria
• How Much Land Do You Want?
• Raw Land — Lower Initial Cost, Years of Effort
• Developed Land — Electricity, Toilets, and Showers
• Fully Developed Turn-key Property — Move Right In (With a Big Financial Bite)
• Buying Property like the Professionals Do
• Conducting the Search — On Your Own or with a Real Estate Agent
• Investigating Likely Properties
• Taking Property Off the Market While You Do Further Research

Chapter 11 - Neighbors and Zoning

• How Zoning Issues can Impact Community Plans
• Zoning Issues and Your Property
• Gambling with Former Use Permits
• Seeking a Zoning Exception
• Negotiating for What You Want
• Zoning Exceptions, Neighbors, and Public Hearings

Chapter 12 - Financing Your Property (Loans You Can Live With)

• About “Renting Money” — What You Should Know
• Private Financing
• When One Member Buys the Property
• Protecting Your Sole Owner with a Triple Net Lease
• Owner Financing
• Bank Financing
• Drawing on the Cohousing Model
• What about Grants and Donations?
• Refinancing Your Property

Chapter 13 - Developing Sustainable Human Settlements

• Earthaven’s Development Process
• Listening to your Land
• Creating your Site Plan Yourselves
• Avoiding “Urban Refugee Syndrome”
• Creating Privacy in the Midst of Community
• Designing for Conviviality

Chapter 14 - Internal Community Finances (Can We Afford to Live There?)

• Rural Communities — How will your Members Make a Living?
• The Risks of Community Businesses
• Keeping Member Assessments Affordable
• Joining Fees
• Housing Arrangements
• Site Lease Fees and the Debt Load
• Labor Requirements
• Building Equity
• Can People Afford to Join You?

Chapter 15 - Legal Entities for Owning Property

• Checklist for Choosing a Legal Entity
• How You’ll Hold Title and Arrange Members’ Use Rights
• Organizational Flexibility
• How You’ll be Taxed
• Overview: Corporations and Non-profit Corporations
• Limited Liability Companies (LLCs)
• Homeowners Associations — Tax Advantages (and Disadvantages)
• Condominium Associations
• Housing Co-ops — Separate Ownership and Use Rights
• Non-exempt Non-profit Corporations

Chapter 16 - If You’re Using a Tax-exempt Non-profit

• Advantages of a 501(c)3 — Donations, Tax Breaks, Limited Liability
• Disadvantages of a 501(c)3 — Onerous Requirements, Irrecoverable Assets
• Land-Owning Entities and 501(c)3 Corporations — The Best of Both Worlds
• How One Group Retained Control of its Board
• Title-holding Corporations — Collecting Income from “Passive” Sources
• Private Land Trusts — Protecting the Land
• Community Land Trusts — An Irrevocable Decision
• For “Common Treasury” Communities — 501(d) Non-profit Corporations

Part Three: - Thriving in Community

Chapter 17 - Communication, Process, and Dealing with Conflict: The Heart of Healthy Community

• The “Rock Polisher” Effect
• Nourishing Sustainable Relationships
• The Roots of Conflict: Emotionally-charged Needs
• High Woundedness, High Willingness
• Seven Kinds of Community Conflict We Wish We’d Left Behind
• Twenty-four Common Sources of Community Conflict
• The Fine Art of Offering Feedback
• Receiving Feedback — Listening for Kernels of Truth
• Threshing Meetings
• Creating Specific Conflict Resolution Agreements
• Helping Each Other Stay Accountable to the Group
• A Graduated Series of Consequences

Chapter 18 - Selecting People to Join You

• Select for Emotional Maturity — the “Narrow Door”
• But is it Community?
• Passive Victims, Outraged Victims
• Membership Screening and the Law
• Dealing Well with Saying “No”
• How Can You Tell?
• Questions, References, “Long Engagements”

Appendix 1 - Sample Community Vision Documents
Appendix 2 - Sample Community Agreements
Appendix 3 - Setting Up and Maintaining a 501(c)3 Non-profit

Prediction Failed, What Now?

The long awaited day of December 21, 2012 has now come and gone . . . and nothing of any significance happened. The EM field weakness predicted by the Founders for that day did not materialize.

At the end of each Precessional Cycle, the Earth and the solar system pass through what is called a region of scalar electromagnetic impulses, or an area of space in which the EM field polarities become weaker. This weakness in the EM fields sometimes (but not usually) causes the north and south poles of the Earth to reverse polarity.

The geomagnetic field plot for December 21st was the same as any other day with no difference in field strength seen. It is unfortunate that this prediction failed to materialize, but no doubt part of the overall plan for humanity. It is also important to note that the trends described by the Founders are certainly present (i.e. financial crisis, climate crisis, energy crisis, etc.), and many of the other things they mention may still be true, but we won't know with any certainty until we actually experience them.

So what now? The only reason I was waiting for December 21, 2012 was to know who I should consider including in my plan to build an ecovillage. So now that nothing has happened to change anyone's beliefs, I will only seek out those that are already predisposed to the idea of living in an ecovillage. So if you live in the Ottawa, Canada area and are interested in participating in my ecovillage project, please email me at manoj.the.yogi@gmail.com and we can discuss. Here's an overview of my ecovillage vision.

The Precessional Alignment (part 5)

This is the fifth and final post in a series of posts that discuss the precessional alignment of December 21, 2012 in detail. The Founders cover this topic in chapter 7 of the book "Earth Changes and 2012: Messages From the Founders". Here are their concluding remarks.

The period of time representing the exact alignment (the ending and beginning of Precessional Cycles) is about three days duration in Earth time. The exact midpoint of the next precessional alignment is around 23:00 GMT on December 21, 2012. For about 36 hours before and after this time, the energies of the alignment will be at maximum and the portals opened around the Earth will be causing major shifts in souls. Please remember, beloved Creators, that the actual rotation of the Earth will not change significantly. The sun will still rise in the east and set in the west, and the days and nights will still be roughly the same length as always. This is an electromagnetic phenomenon, not a gravitational or rotational one.

Now to rephrase all this in metaphysical terms, we could say that each Precessional Cycle and Galactic Cycle (precession of the axis and revolution of the solar system around the Milky Way) represent lesson points in a soul's evolution. Every time the precession aligns the Earth with the galactic core, it correlates with another level of soul initiation, or an opportunity to review what the soul has learned since the last cycle. Since everything in this universe operates in spirals, the scenario will change each time the Earth cycles through. So with the approach of the end of the present Precessional Cycle, slated to occur in your year 2012, souls will again have an opportunity to align themselves with the energies of the galactic center. EM energies will surge through the core of the Earth and be distributed first along the ley lines and then across the entire surface of the planet, and souls will have another chance to realign themselves and take stock of what they have learned since the last alignment.

The region of space through which the solar system passes changes with each Precessional Cycle. The particular energy fluctuations associated with this current pass-through are significant in that they mark a similar alignment to what was present about 108 million years ago when the first major wave of individualization began with souls moving out of the Godhead. Therefore, it will seem to many that they are returning home, when in fact, they are simply re-experiencing what occurred about 108 million years ago, but on a different leg of the spiral. In actuality, your souls are already home and always have been, even though many aspects of your souls have been journeying among the cosmos since the differentiation from the Godhead.

Monitoring the Geomagnetic Field

With only 8 days now remaining until December 21, 2012, I've begun to monitor the earth's geomagnetic field on a daily basis using the Space Weather Canada web site. The plot above represents the data for today. Note that the plot uses Universal Time (GMT), so today is already over, and that virtually no fluctuations can be seen. Click on the image to see the full resolution.

In my post "Validating December 21, 2012" from earlier this year, I had mentioned that I expect the fluctuations seen on December 21st to greatly exceed those of March 13, 1989 when the last major geomagnetic storm occurred near Ottawa. This remains my criteria for deciding whether the Founders' prediction for December 21st has been validated or not.

Since it is also possible that the internet goes down on that day making it impossible to access the Space Weather Canada web site, I also have a backup plan. This includes using the Android app Ulysse Gizmos, as well as a regular orienteering compass as seen in the image below.

However, I've discovered that these sources are easily influenced by computers, TVs, power lines and any other electromagnetic source they are near, so they are far less reliable than the Space Weather Canada data. So hopefully, the internet either stays up, or the Space Weather Canada data becomes available once internet connectivity is restored.