https://hypernotepad.com/n/47d234e4ac57a6b0

Here's a guide for anyone interested in dipping their toes into spirituality, without having to immediately jump into any specific religion. Plenty of resources on teaching yourself to think critically of any propositions you may run into and how to get started with actual spiritual practice. Also covers things to look out for when you consider joining a spiritual community.

On Lemmy, there are a couple of religious communities but most are kinda quiet.

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Other:

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You can search for more of course but many are dead. If you mod a religious community, do send me a message and I'll add it - provided that your space is inclusive.

There's also a general spirituality community on Beehaw but the instance is more selective about who they federate with:

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I’m new to the path of awakening. After listening to Aaron Doughty's "Heightening Vibration" meditation for a week, I’ve started hearing radio (or TV) static in my left ear—mostly during moments of silence, even without focused meditation. I do hear it in my right ear as well, but the left has additional "sound effects" and is louder than the right.

I’m here to ask: Where do I go next? Pineal gland activation? Astral projection? Should I keep doing the heightening vibration meditation for the full 21 days (as mentioned in the video description)?

Again, the static happens when I’m just sitting in silence and doing my own thing. Heck, I can hear it right now while typing this. It arrives without any focus required.

Here’s what I need from you:

What should I do?

How long should I continue?

How will I know when I'm ready to move on to the next step (pineal gland activation, ego death, focusing on a dot, astral projection, etc.)?

What should I watch to learn more about spirituality? (I need information as I am figuring this out as I go.)

What should I avoid? (For example, focusing too hard or naming things during spiritual meditations—something I learned from eight months of failed astral projection attempts.)

Video recommendations: I prefer videos over reading, so please share some.

That’s it. Guide me through this journey of spirituality, from a beginner growing into strength and wisdom.

Oh, I almost forgot my goal: I want to astral project on command, with ease, every day (like slipping on clothes), going wherever and whenever I please.

It is for knowledge of the universe; I'd like to know everything about this world before I die.

Thank you.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47021727

Crossposted from https://lemmy.world/post/45492994

From 365 Tao: Daily Meditations by Deng Ming-Dao.

Another post reminded me of this movie trilogy and my gripe with how people at best draw the "the world is a simulation" idea from it. The directors have been clear about the influences of eastern philosophy. Which only gets more personal for them with the subtext of also exploring the experience of being transgender, and how genders are just social agreements with no inherent, fixed reality.

There are pretty pretty heavy hints in the movie (including the last one having an Upanishadic mantra in the soundtrack:

Asato mā sad gamaya (from the unreal, lead me to the real)

Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya (from darkness, lead me to the light)

Mṛtyor mā’mṛtaṃ gamaya (from death, lead me to immortality)

Unpacked here (a bit, but it’ll correct the likely, immediate misconceptions people unfamiliar with eastern philosophy would get)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoEcSc064YY

The irony is that despite its philosophical depth, The Matrix became shorthand for "what if life is a video game," which to me seems like a convenient escape from the harder questions around how we perform reality, how we cling to narratives as if they’re absolute. The Wachowskis didn’t just reference Eastern thought. They used it to ask, what can you actually truly know to be REAL?

Just wanted soapbox for a bit because I don't wanna lecture in the other thread...

(oh and let's not even get into how incredibly badly the "Red Pill" symbolism got corrupted to be the polar fucking opposite of what it was in the movie...)

I am just curious if anyone knows of some active communities on lemmy that are similar to this one? I am also interested in more esoteric subjects like astral projection, shifting, synchronicity, awakening, etc...

This touches on spirituality, and it's interesting how Stoicism, independent of Indian thought, also had the idea of the Logos and Pneuma, which kinda parallel Vāc (though the Wikipedia article isn't great, the in-depth Vāc teaching is a bit esoteric) and Prāṇa.

I think it's also worth highlighting the idea that a "word" is what gives rise to material universe. As indeed is my experience, true reality is prior to words. Words are never the thing itself, except for the word "word".

(Also, Stoicism really needs to be washed clean of Broicism)