666 Shining sloth 88 said:
Yes!
It is very interesting indeed.
I have noticed this to an extent too.
Breathing is such a great tool.
Breathing, The 1st & 2nd Bandha, mental affirmations, visualisation/intent & of course Void (which is a given at all times personally) are really cool because they are all stealthy.
You can do all of the above in the middle of a crowd and nobody is aware of what you are doing.
Vibrating mantras mentally is also effective to an extent but a lot less than vibrating them aloud.
I can't remember the amount of times such knowledge has helped in dire situations.
Void meditation is so underated in my opinion.
I think you should almost always strive to keep an empty mind. Chases away unwanted thoughts & magnifies the ones that are actually wanted and important!
There's also something that was called "Guarding the one". It's basically just keeping your attention on your body. Eventually, you begin to feel your others bodies also. This technique, in my experience, is good to stay grounded.
It also helps a lot with Void meditation making it easier.
Focusing one's breath is very beneficial too.
Maybe you are already aware of some if not all of this stuff but it came to mind and I thought I'd share this.^-^
Good that you mentioned the first two bandhas cuz I have been observing something from that.
Don't know if you saw my other post mentioning orgasms because it was right after a day when I did a particular RTR that felt 'physically pleasurable' (but also not the easiest).
Long story short, I had decided to mix the Breath of Fire breathing technique with each word from the RTR, not very forcefully during the exhale but still stronger than how I normally say the words.
This, after a minute, turned out to be sexually/physically stimulating me at each word: I'd notice how I would apply Moola Bandha and Uddiyana Bandha unawarely at each exhale, to the point of feeling pretty dense sexual energy taking place around the first chakra.
Another thing I noticed about the Moola Bandha in particular: somewhere on the JoS, HP Maxine mentions that there is a 'myth on ways to raise Kundalini', one of them involving 'inserting hot water in the anus'.
While I made a funny face probably every time I ever read that bit, I have observed something from my experience. Sometimes, especially when I last tried awakening my chakras with the techniques from the JoS and still failed to feel any energy, I mixed some yoga during the shower, just felt inspired to try. Turned out, the hot water during the Cat and Cow double asanas (where you arch and bend your back when you inhale or exhale) hitting ones body and reaching in your ass kinda
forces one to apply Moola Bandha (to protect oneself from too much heat), and I thought.. "maybe this is where the myth comes from".. I think it's probably some monk's observation while meditating in hot or cold water. Not how one raises Kundalini but perhaps a reference to understand how this belief came to be...
And good thinking about the stealth factor, unless you're verbally vibrating words or affirmations, no one will know what you're up to, the average ignorant mind will eventually just think you're lost in thought or something.
Mentioning the Void (sorry if it seems everything you're saying makes me think of something new to talk about for ages lol) made me remember some personal observation (that word again lol).
I have always had great trouble silencing my mind for meditation. Thoughts just pour in from everywhere and it makes things the hardest. So I thought: can I really ban all thoughts at once? Wouldn't it be simpler to just focus on less things?
Example.
Picture yourself inside a room with ten light sources. It's pretty hard to see any shadows, isn't it? Well, try turning off one, two, nine light sources.. when there's only one left it suddenly becomes much easier to focus on other things, because the light is only one.
In my understanding, if you can't completely ban thoughts and more will keep coming, then try slowing down your mind by making it focus on one only thing.. like a sound for instance. I find it particularly easy to play music in my head in a really accurate way, but you can use whatever sense or memory you feel comfortable controlling. This, when you focus part of your attention on that something, leaves all the rest of your attention span free to pick up on other things, astral things, making it much easier to perceive and connect with the Gods.
This at least is my own experience, and as we are all individuals with different skills and starting points (depending on our oast lives' progress) you may or may not find this useful too.
The 'Guarding the body' sounds similar to another meditation concept I found to be pretty useful so far.. I just call it 'going within' as you focus on the inside of yourself. Musashi Miyamoto said 'seek nothing outside of yourself, everything is within'. Since I started embracing this concept I have been seeing some conceptual points about reality, like for instance that 'reality' doesn't exist, that it's only a projection of how you feel it and want it and change it. The only downside of this thinking is that (in MY opinion at least) this makes you less inclined to rely on the Gods in the slightest, coming to think of oneself as 'the only thing that truly exists'... which MIGHT make sense when one considers the fact that having we been created by our Gods we also share their blood, energy and all that makes us what we are... meaning that by focusing on our inner/truer self we actually end up becoming closer to our Gods than if we just tried to find them elsewhere, outside of ourselves.
Makes sense?
Ok I'll close for now lol before you fall asleep with all these theories.
HAIL SATAN!!!!