In or out - Where are we stuck

This is a 88ft deep well is located on the land of Quinta da Regaleira, near the town of Sintra, Portugal. 

The well was never used as a well and, in fact, was never built to serve as a water resource at all. It was actually built for secret ceremonial purposes. It has a spiral staircase of 27m to the bottom.

Initiation Well looks like an inverted tower. 

It is either a journey into depths of Mother Earth or a rise up into light. 

A well represents death/rebirth allegory, typical within many mystical traditions.

Journey through well is like a rebirth through Mother Earth’s womb.

Now, Initiation Well in Quinta da Regaleira Park, Sintra, Portugal, under UNESCO Protection.

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Picture of bottom of Initiation well from Wikipedia.

Descriptive text from Wikipedia 

Initiation Wells

The Initiation Wells (also called initiatic wells or inverted towers) are two wells on the property that better resemble underground towers lined with stairs. These wells never served as water sources. Instead, they were purportedly used for ceremonial purposes. The tunnels described above connect these wells to one another, in addition to various caves and other monuments located around the park.

Of the two wells, the larger one contains a 27-metre spiral staircase with 23 small niches on the side. The nine flights of stairs could be linked to the Knights Templar, which had nine founders. They might also symbolize the 9 churches of Hell from Dantes’ Inferno. At the bottom of the well is an inland stone compass with the Templar cross. Other references may be to Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism rituals.

Carvalho Monteiro was possibly an initiate of the Knights Templar, a Catholic military order. This medieval order originated in the early 1100’s and likely disbanded in the 1300’s. However, groups like the Freemasons revived their rituals and traditions hundreds of years later. It is believed that initiations at Quinta da Regaleira began with blindfolded candidates entering one of the wells. They purportedly held a sword close to their heart and descended the 9 flights of stairs. Once they reached the bottom of the well, they walked into a dark labyrinth and needed to find their way up towards the light then to the chapel, where they were welcomed into the brotherhood.

The smaller well contains straight stairs that connect a series of ring-shaped floors to one another. This well is also called the 'Unfinished Well'.

Kundalini Jagruti - A Sahaj Yoga Practice

Kundalini Jagruti - A Sahaj Yoga Practice

                  Picture source adishakti.org

Kundalini Jagruti is a Sadhana. I have formulated a Sahaj Yoga practice, which can be practiced 24x7 no matter what we are doing. It rewards equally well for obtaining spiritual emancipation.

1. The first three centres represent basal tendencies or urges - anal, sexual and urinary excretion. Not actually - symbolically. Managing urges, impulses, drives and desires (including giving back) is the first step.
2. Next is managing hunger. The urge to consume not only food but greed generally.
3. Next comes cleansing the heart i.e. managing the emotional hypes of sorts - we get caught in harmful feeling - emotional down-spins and log-jams. Disposing them is a lifelong enterprise. The minimum list is of anger, hate, jealousy, hurt, pain, sadness, feeling low, grandiosity, pride, cornered, left out, loneliness, fear, anger, insult, injury, guilt and scheming.
4. Third is of swallowing. Swallowing represents taking in, accepting, receiving all that is given, taken or delivered in many modes dispassionately.
5. Fifth is introspecting. It means fitting all experiences, all knowledge, all reasoning, all evaluating and assessing, all concluding into this one statement - All is One and this One manifests as All. It shows up in the minimum forms of being, existence, thought, consciousness, witness, self, life and spirit. The shortest description of it all is ‘Not Two’.
6. Sixth is merging with the one initially notionally and then experientially.
7. Seventh, the last is staying absorbed in the absolute one . That is the sahasrtrara.

This is expressed

1. The Suratul Husna of ‘The Qur-an’ elaborates as follows : One (not two). Neither born nor begets. Without flaw or blemish.
2. As an ancient Vedic statement Aham Bramhasmi - the Self is the Universal One.

The Kundalini Jagruti Process is also expressed through the Ten Ox Herding Pictures.

It is also expressed through the 64 hexagrams of I Ching

It is also expressed as laya in Tao Te Ching.

In a moment, in this moment

You have a seed: when you look at the seed you can find no indication of the flowers that will grow from it. There is not even a clue of what it can be. Will it be a lotus- blossoming in the water but remaining untouched by it, dancing in the rays of the sun? And the sun too may become jealous of its beauty, of its tenderness, of its incomparable glory and grace. Its perfume will fly into the sky. Looking at the seed, this cannot be known. Looking at the seed, one cannot even imagine, cannot even guess. But one day it

happens.

Erase the Ego - Gain Spiritual Emancipation

Erase the Ego - Gain Spiritual Emancipation

Here are prescribed simple steps to taste spiritual emancipation in a few minutes without any practice.

Spare 30 minutes to an hour to complete the process. 

Whatever our age. Mine is 73. We start with our present age and ask these questions for previous (reducing by 10 years) ages till we reach the age of 3 years. (Jump from 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, to 3). One can choose to write down the questions and answers specific to ages as applicable. 

Tap this link to obtain a printable PDF of the questions. Questions

For me I will ask for ages 63, 53, 43, 33, 23, 13 and 3.

1. Where was I living.

2. What was I doing.

3. What was my family like.

4. How was my life.

5. What did I think about myself. 

6. Did I have a name? What was it.

7. How did people address me - socially, at work, at home, by siblings.

8. What made me feel proud.

9. What made me feel hurt, pained, insulted, ignored, left alone, not regarded, slighted or blamed.

10. What made me feel angry, sad and anxious.

11. Did I own a self identity which when hurt made me feel hurt.

12. Could I forgive and forget wrong done to me.

13. Did I yearn love, affection and praise. 

14. Did I recognise : Ah that's me.

15. Did I possess a sense of self.

It is at the age of 18 months that we for the first time recognised ourself as in : Ah, that's me!  When we looked at ourself in the mirror. The self was born at that age. Till then we were a first person pronoun, I, He, She without ego. 

We had a fully functional biological existence at the 23rd week of foetal life. The systems are functioning since then.

Till then we were passing through the germinal stage of 0-3 weeks after conception, then the embryonic stage from 3-8 weeks after conception, then developing foetus 8-23 weeks after conception and developed foetus waiting for delivery pains 23-40 weeks after conception. Tap this link to read about foetal development Foetal Development

Earlier to conception we were an egg for the age of our mother's life to delivery plus age of her mother's life. If I was born when my mother was 24 and she was born when her mother was 24 then I spent 48 years waiting to be conceived. My mother's reproductive system was developed when she was passing through 9-10th week of foetal life.

Prior to that our existence was food that our grandma ate. 

So we are born of food, are sustained by food, and are an expression of food. The food partaken by our grandma was eaten by others too.

Food is organic as well as inorganic.

That is our true existence.

Prior to that backward timeless energy assuming and changing forms and existence 

We ourselves have been living for millions if not billions of years.

We are not distinct from any one or any body.

Our core identity is one. One-ness describes our identity.

A rope is mistaken for a snake in dim light.

A snake is mistaken as a python, green snake, water snake or a cobra.

My snake has a name too - I call it Tinku. I possess it.

So also we think of ourself as distinct from everybody else. It is an illusive sense of identity. 

We can journey backward and realise our true identity of being the universal one.

Emancipation is at hand for the asking if only we care to know and realise it.

To know more read verses 65 to 75 from Ashtavakra Gita Chapter 8 Part 2 with special emphasis on Verse 70 highlighting illusion by tapping this link Pt 2 Ch VIII ASHTAVAKRA Gita and tap this link for reading the entire Ashtavakra Gita Full Ashtavakra Gita

Emancipation is denied because we are unable to give up the possessive I, mine. No only that we action it by adding sense of possession to it. Thus we convert illusion into reality, then hold on to it as if it is for fact. Ego is generator of all ails. It is the thread that provides possessiveness. Removing or burning the thread returns the beads to the universality of their existence. We do not give it up. We dissolve it whenever it becomes an impediment to our release from bondage. Example of a washerman's donkey is given in shastras to explain how illusion of belonging is generated. 

To read the story tap this link Five Stories for Audio of Five Stories tap this link Five Stories Audio

I am That

I am that. Signature statement of Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Explained by Papaji (Harivanvsh Lal Poonja) on how Ramana Maharshi put forth resulting in the liberation of Papaji.

What appears and dis-appears is not real.

You saw him (Krishna), he dis-appeared. You remained. The seer remained. Now find out who the seer is? The real seer is beyond all this. The seer is the abiding source and substance of all that exists. It is called the self. It has nothing to do with mind or the personality. It is the continuous presence that abides timelessly and formlessly as the real nature and heart of all beings. We live in the illusion that we exist overlooking the abiding presence. Directing the mind to the source. This is the enquiry to be pursued. Get the mind to face the source. What is mind? Thought. What is thought. I. Let the I face the source. Now this facing the source is called enquiry. Now the I is facing the source. Just like mirror, reflecting. When you look at a mirror, what do you see? Our reflection. When we keep aside the mirror, where does the reflection go? Back to the face. No this I was enquiring from its own source which was reflected to the mind mind to the senses, senses to the body and body to the objects. So this universe. So this is the method of Ramana Maharshi. Striking at the root of the mind. Other kinds of practices are with the mind. Result will be mental. Or with yoga, physical. By striking at the root of mind, mind is no more. So by getting the I to face its source. The I merges with the source. It becomes that. Thus the man will experience the ever abiding freedom.

For interview of which this is a transcript see this YouTube Video.

https://youtu.be/k-7Iip6lk8Q

Where does Emancipation lie?

Good visualisation .

Delusion is occurrence.

Clarity is tool.

Realisation is the objective.

It's goal and becoming.

Seek it.

Become it.