My comments on the despatch - story from Greta Mo're, Australia is as under ::::)

On the basis of my experiences, I feel Kundalini or Sahaj meditation and Vipassana can be integrated, as Kundalini jagran is part of vipassana ...
I mostly agree to this ...... "It was an extremely difficult practice to do outside of the structured and controlled environment of the retreats. It was not something a layman could easily incorporate into their hectic normal everyday lives and the concepts, all lofty ideals, were no longer achievable as, even in Buddhism, people had lost their true understanding of their meaning.
The concept of Kudo, was mostly practiced as lip service and self promotion. Or, the concepts were followed by rote and put into practice without true insightful understanding. The Vipassana technique had been designed to give insightful understanding into the nature of things."

Sheel, Samadhi and Pragnya all the three are required for purification and all the three help each other ( by using the sensations as tools, we develop the wisdom and realise by experience ::::} how essential it is to follow sheel-sadachar & samadhi to strengthen the purification process ) ... and to that extent, we need to be more careful in following sheel as regards samma ajeevo, vacha, kammanto (:::) samma samadhi, vyayamo, sati, ditthi etc, truth, ::::) {not generating anger, hatred, illwill / animosity which stimulate violent / killing instinct, not stealing}, but ............ it is my submission that world atmosphere being what it is with negativities, it is herculean task to do the same and without truth / sheel, meditation weakens (experience = so what can we do ...?)

Vish ...

My analogy of The Lord Buddha's Middle Way to the path of Kundalini and Sahaja Yoga ...

By Greta Mo're, Australia

Having grown up in Myanmar till the age of 14 years, I was surrounded by the culture of Buddhism and I had become accustomed to seeing monks on their early morning rounds for alms. Of pagodas and of religion being an intergral part of ones life. I also grew up with the notion that one must do good in this life to accrue merit so that one would be given a better life in the next rebirth. The concept of "ko-chin'sa', meaning to puts oneself in the place of the other was drilled into us, as was the need to use our commonsense and discrimination in our daily life. Giving alms and being generous with food and to strangers was also something we were taught.

However, I did not belong to this religion by birth. I was born into a Catholic Christian family. Our ‘culture' imbibed more of the western happenings and it was expected of us to adhere to this. I was also taught that if I went to explore any other religion I was sure to go to hell. To my childish imagination, I expected perhaps a thunder bolt to come and strike me. So, I looked from afar and never went into the silent pagodas that dotted the landscape.

I sort of imbibed the culture of my country in an indirect way. However, one day I was invited to a friend's birthday party. Her house was located at the top of a street that led into a village and there was a pagoda called Ko-dhat'gyi Phaya, meaning the Nine Storied Pagoda. It was a dark brown wooden structure and there were many rooms some of which opened out to the nature. The pagoda seemed to be part of the landscape. I noticed the silence and coolness within the building and wondered at the silent golden statues of the Lord Buddha. As usual, everything was spotlessly clean.

I had gone with my friend and two of her Burmese girl friends who were Buddhist. My friend was a Euro-Asian like myself but considered herself very stylish and of the times and so did not care much for the scare tactics that our families had used to keep us away from exploring other religious beliefs.

As is the custom for the Buddhist, when visiting such holy places, they always perform a ‘phu-jya' or bowing before the statue, their foreheads touching the floor and their with joined hands recite a silent prayer before the statue of the Lord Buddha. I watched the Burmese girls do this and I saw that my friend also followed suit. I noticed that nothing extraordinary happened to any of them except that they seemed have gained an inner pleasure from having performed such a worship. So, being an experimental sort of personality, I followed and did ‘phu-jya' as well. I loved the sense of peace it gave me and there was a sense of having done something quite special. I also noticed that no lightening bolt had flashed from the sky and that nothing untoward had happened to me. So it was that turning point in my life, the first of many that broke the myth of the beliefs that were a part of my Catholic religious upbringing.

I never forgot that beautiful moment of being inside the temple and somehow it added to the sense of questing that was a part of my nature. I was on a quest for something but I didn't know what it was. Years later, after spending 12 years in Australia, I really needed to go back and explore my roots. I felt cut adrift and needed to find out what was my anchor. However, I couldn't just fly home like most people would as the Myanmar authorities did not, at that time, allow ex-nationals to return, not even for just a short visit. The sense of isolation was quite profound.

So the next best thing was to explore the Buddhist culture I had seen all around me. I reasoned that the main religion of a country was what shaped the culture of that country. So to understand the Burmese I felt I needed to study the Burmese style of the Buddhist religion. I also remembered that a lot of it had to do with meditation and reciting slokas.

Just as I had finished forming the desire in my mind I encountered a couple of people who actually were practitioners of the Burmese style of Vipassana meditation.

I booked myself in and monks from Myanmar were the guest teachers. Out of the 20 day retreat, I did 10 days and in that time realised all that this Buddhist meditation could teach me. I also felt I had done this in my previous life and that it was not what I had to search for. But as there did not seem to be any other alternative, I decided to continue to practice the meditation at home until I found that which would stop the feeling of questing in me.

It was an extremely difficult practice to do outside of the structured and controlled environment of the retreats. It was not something a layman could easily incorporate into their hectic normal everyday lives and the concepts, all lofty ideals, were no longer achievable as, even in Buddhism, people had lost their true understanding of their meaning. The concept of Kudo, was mostly practiced as lip service and self promotion. Or, the concepts were followed by route and put into practice without true insightful understanding. The Vipassana technique had been designed to give insightful understanding into the nature of things. The Burmese Buddhist whom I personally knew also followed their religion just as I had once followed my Catholic religion. By route and lip service.

"I decided that what the Buddha had said was true but that we lacked the means to understand it properly."  I kept an open mind about things and kept on searching. It led me down many paths some of which really got me into trouble, health-wise.

Then one day just when I had given up the thought of ever finding what I was looking for - it was difficult to know what that could be as I didn't have a name for it - I reconnected with someone I hadn't seen for quite some years and he invited me over to their home for dinner. When I arrived there I realised that it was collective house and that the people who lived there were all practitioners of Sahaja Yoga. It was a large house and the people there were from all different age groups, like a large extended family that I had grown up in, in Myanmar.

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Freedom :::) Our Birthright

freedom @ enlightenment is our birthright

From nowhere ... when I'm least expecting them and when I am in nature doing just nothing, totally silent watching / observing / listening to nature or am charged up to do do or solve or take up some challenge, like when in the Lateral - Thinking (Creativity) workshop, the mind produced maximum number of ideas (SOLUTION) from nowhere or is it everywhere - the ocean/sea of consciousness the field of quantum energy; sometimes while reading some inspiring book or journal, they pop up ~ let us wait and get more insight :::: Nature inspires me thoroughy alongwith the oneness and positive compassionate feeling .... 

:::::: {" A creative person is internally directed and all his ideas come from inner / spiritual - brilliant.... bright light base. In reality or actuality the infinite TRUTH works through the creative person. Action in inaction / spontaneity is the hallmark of a creative action. "  this is quote from the write-up 'Anatomy of a creative - bright mind' by me ~ hope it makes sense}

a vish ...