The Ego Friendly Banter

Those who seek liberation for themselves alone cannot become fully enlightened. Though it may be said that one who is not already liberated cannot liberate others, the very process of forgetting oneself to help others is itself liberating. Therefore those who seek to benefit themselves alone actually harm themselves by doing so, while those who help others also help themselves by doing so.

Muso Kokushi

2 days ago | [YT] | 1

The Ego Friendly Banter

Happy Guru Purnima 🌕

Guru is the creator, operator, & destroyer. Guru is mother, father, & all relations. Guru is everything, everywhere, all at once. My countless prostrations at the feet of my Guru, the omnipresent Guru Tattva which takes different shapes & forms to teach the lessons it has to & inspires me to relay those lessons with others. Bowing down countless times to it to the end of space & time. 🌀🌸🔺♥️🔻🗝️♾️

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1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 7

The Ego Friendly Banter

The last few months have been incredibly intense, painfully transformative and a complete reinvention. I hope everyone here is doing well and taking care of themselves.

2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 3

The Ego Friendly Banter

SOME IMPORTANT REMINDERS (might get a bit personal):

1. Spiritual purity or the concept of purity, for that matter is an illusion and a construct of the ego.
2. You are allowed to deal with different people differently when necessary. Being kind should never be equated with being dumb. Never let anyone treat you like you are dispensable or a doormat.
3. Your shadow is nothing to run from, ignore, or condemn, but rather to fully embrace and integrate.
4. Your rage and anger are sacred. It is valid and natural to be Saraswati while also being Kali.
5. Never confuse suppressing your emotions & make-believe stoicism with handling them better by consciously witnessing, understanding them, and only then acting. Suppression breeds disease.
6. You are under no obligation to be the same person you were a moment ago.
7. Someone not choosing you is a reflection of you not choosing yourself, because if you chose yourself, you would never put yourself in a situation where someone else has the right to view you as an option.
8. There’s a difference between limerence and love. Never confuse the two, even if you consider yourself intuitive, an empath, or all those labels. Once you work on your abandonment issues, you’ll realise the one thing or person you're obsessed with is often exactly what you don't actually want.
9. No ritual, worship, deity, or routine is of any help if you aren’t willing to do the inner work and see your own muck. It’s a task of the brave! Humble yourself before life does it for you.
10. Any type of sadhna should always be accompanied by grounding practices and mantra shields (called kavachas), because there are beings in different realms and frequencies who wish to be freed and seek a sadhak's life force. Depression and misfortune are not always karma; sometimes, they are these negative influences.
11. Being prone to negativity of any kind leads to and stems from, a lack of faith and weak root and solar plexus chakras. Once strengthened, one becomes grounded in their own core, where God resides.
12. Most blockages come from the heart chakra, and that’s the region where most trauma is stored. Working on it strengthens everything else, but one has to be completely open to being wrecked emotionally (for a while). Have faith. Have patience.


I’m not trying to scare anyone, just sharing things I’ve learned the hard way. As for me, it was always a failure on my part. As an Afghan saying goes, "If you feel far from God, who moved?" It has always been me. It was always me who, in my desperation and utter foolishness to change or control things, went through some really nonsensical, confusing ordeals, instead of believing my Guru and shutting the f**k up & doing as asked. I am eternally grateful to Him for putting up with so much stupidity, and ashamed of myself for not knowing better, or if I did know, for not acting on that knowledge and instead being ruled by irrational fears, projections, and thoughts (99% of which are useless distractions). But then read point 6. I’m still in the process of constantly reminding myself of it, and it brings instant consolation & surprising changes.

Love,
P

P.S.: DO NOT BELIEVE ANYONE BLINDLY. NOT ME EITHER.

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 7

The Ego Friendly Banter

अर्जुन उवाच |
एवं सततयुक्ता ये भक्तास्त्वां पर्युपासते |
ये चाप्यक्षरमव्यक्तं तेषां के योगवित्तमा: ||

arjuna uvācha
evaṁ satata-yuktā ye bhaktās tvāṁ paryupāsate
ye chāpy akṣharam avyaktaṁ teṣhāṁ ke yoga-vittamāḥ

☀️ In the last chapter, Arjun saw the cosmic form of the Lord, which encompasses the entire universe.  Having seen it, he preferred to behold God in His personal form, with Attributes, Qualities, and Pastimes.  So, he is now curious regarding who are more perfect—the devotees who worship the personal form of God or those who worship the impersonal Brahman.

Arjun’s question once again confirms that God has both aspects—the all-pervading formless Brahman and the personal form.  Those who say that God cannot possess a personal form limit Him, and those who say that God only exists in a personal form also limit Him.  God is perfect and complete, and so He is both formless and possessing forms.  We individual souls too have both aspects to our personality.  The soul is formless, and yet it has taken on a body, not once, but innumerable times, in countless past lifetimes.  If we tiny souls have the ability to possess a form, can the all-powerful God not possess a form whenever He wishes?  Even the great proponent of the path of jñāna-yog, Jagadguru Shankaracharya, stated:

mūrtaṁ chaivāmūrtaṁ dwe eva brahmaṇo rūpe, ityupaniṣhat tayorvā dwau
bhaktau bhagavadupadiṣhṭau, kleṣhādakleśhādwā muktisyāderatayormadhye

“The Supreme entity is both personal and impersonal.  Practitioners of the spiritual path are also of two kinds—devotees of the formless Brahman, and devotees of the personal form.  But the path of worshipping the formless is very difficult.”

Clicked this image at Badrinath.

1 month ago | [YT] | 5

The Ego Friendly Banter

Amazing words on SOULMATES from Ch.21, Only Love is Real by Dr. Brian Weiss!
✨
“You will not always marry your most strongly bonded soulmate. There may be more than one for you, because soul families travel together. You might choose to marry a less bonded soul companion, one who has something specific to teach you or to learn from you. Your recognition of a soulmate may occur later in life, after both of you are already committed to your present-life families. Or your strongest soulmate connection may be to your parent, or to your child, or to your sibling. Or your strongest connection may be to a soulmate who has not incarnated during your lifetime and who is watching over you from the other side, like a guardian angel. Sometimes your soulmate is willing and available. He or she might recognize the passion and the chemistry between you, the intimate and subtle bonds that imply connections over many lifetimes. Yet he or she may be toxic for you. It is a matter of soul development. If one soul is less developed and more ignorant than the other, traits of violence, greed, jealousy, hatred, and fear might be brought into the relationship. These tendencies are toxic to the more evolved soul, even if from a soulmate. Frequently rescue fantasies arise with the thought, I can change him; I can help her grow. If he does not allow your help, if in her free will she chooses not to learn, not to grow, the relationship is doomed.

Perhaps there will be another chance in another lifetime, unless he awakens later in this one. Late awakenings do happen. Sometimes soulmates decide not to get married while incarnated. They arrange to meet, to stay together until the agreed upon task is completed, and then to move on. Their agendas, their lesson plans for the entirety of this life, are different, and they do not want to or need to spend all of this lifetime together. This is not a tragedy, only a matter of learning. You have eternal life together, but sometimes you may need to take separate classes. A soulmate who is available but unawakened is a tragic figure and can cause you great anguish. Unawakened means that he or she does not see life clearly, is not aware of the many levels of existence. Unawakened means not knowing about souls. Usually it is the everyday mind that prevents awakening. We hear the excuses of the mind all the time: I’m too young; I need more experience; I’m not ready to settle down yet; you are of a different religion (or race, region, social status, intellectual level, cultural background, and so on). These are all excuses, for souls possess none of these attributes.

The person may recognize the chemistry. The attraction is definitely there, but the source of the chemistry is not understood. It is delusional to believe that this passion, this soul recognition and attraction, will be easily found again with another person. You do not run into such a soulmate every day, perhaps only one or two more in a lifetime. Divine grace may reward a good heart, a loving soul. Never worry about meeting soulmates. Such meetings are a matter of destiny. They will occur. After the meeting, the free will of both partners reigns. What decisions are made or not made are a matter of free will, of choice. The less awakened will make decisions based on the mind and all of its fears and prejudices. Unfortunately, this often leads to heartache. The more awakened the couple is, the more the likelihood of a decision based on love. When both partners are awakened, ecstasy is within their grasp.”

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 3

The Ego Friendly Banter

😭

1 month ago | [YT] | 3

The Ego Friendly Banter

This is a very powerful dharani to evoke compassion, clear negative karma, generate merits, & invoke protection. I recommend watching Manas Puja video to understand the context properly. To know more or listen the chanting, look up Cloud of Offerings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Video Link : https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tGaEDH0...

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1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 4

The Ego Friendly Banter

The month has been intense, heavy with lessons, none of them easy.

The most important one I’ve learned on this path is without embodiment, it’s all chatter. The word spiritual has been so abused. You must have noticed I almost never use it. Physical and spiritual aren’t separate. Without bringing knowledge down to earth, without practicing it like wisdom, we’re only fooling ourselves with more labels, adding tags to feed an ego that never gets satiated. Bulleh Shah said, “The one who suffers, wakes up because of the suffering; without it, no one does.” It might sound like a projection on his end to some but I truly believe it to be true. Following mindfulness or teachings & actually practicing them are two absolutely separate things.

A so-called “spiritual” person (with no exceptions), when faced with real adversity, gets a brutal reality check. That’s when you measure how much of it was real. We often equate spirituality with detachment, even aloofness, as if human connection is a distraction. But then you find yourself in a hospital bed, unable to do the simplest things. Pulling up a sheet. Peeing. Your body aching, your power to move gone. And in that moment, the love that arrives from those around you, those who love you despite everything, rules out all possibility of aloofness. You cannot hide from their all-encompassing love.

Or you are ninety years old, losing teeth, leaning on a walker, waiting for death to come any moment. And your love for your spouse grows deeper by the hour, because they are traveling with you on the same ephemeral boat, grappling with mortality, the fear of losing the other, and the numbing power of an immortal love.

Spirituality is not holding a vajra and a bell, not playing gongs every morning to feel mindful. From my small, human-brained capacity, I’ve learned it’s that living fully in the world without fear of losing your joy. Feeling your joy like there’s no tomorrow. Doing everything for the love of doing it, then letting it go when it’s time. And still not stopping yourself from feeling the emotions, even when your body shivers with terror, sorrow, anger or regret. Even when it breaks you.

It is what it is. Over and over, life teaches the same lesson until we finally learn it, the nature of life itself. Detachment without losing our humanity, without losing our grounding is for the brave. That I feel is true embodiment.

Labels are for everyone. You can pick them up by the kilo through books or reels, every single day.

Love,
P

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1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 4

The Ego Friendly Banter

https://youtu.be/ESVLE2jX-8k?si=O7_Dd...

1 month ago | [YT] | 2