Akira the Don- New Alan Watts lofi... enjoi:)

Thanks for sharing. I've heard part of this before but not the whole thing! There's definitely been parts of my life when I was addicted to Alan Watts Chillsteps.

 

Yeah Alan Watt's perspective is so refreshing. Thinking about life as a drama... it really helps take the sting and drama out of the bad times.

First time I came across Akira the Don was in the this video.



Haven't really checked out any of his non-Alan Watts stuff. Some of the people he uses for sound clips I'm not really interested in personally. But I do like his Alan Watts stuff!

Oh I'd love it if he did Ram Dass! He's another teacher who's helped me through some tough time. I've religiously listened to all of his podcasts on BeHereNowNetwork.com at least 3 times.

Not familiar with David Foster Wallace. Terence McKenna: I like a lot of his stuff but I'm mostly into spiritual stuff and with McKenna to get to the little nuggets of wisdom he shares you have to go through a lot of his personal theories about psychedelics and machine elves. So haven't listened to him since college. I dunno maybe Akira selects out the good stuff though.

BTW if you are looking for similar music with Ram Dass, check out East Forest's collaboration with Ram Dass.

 

Haha, thank for your kind words. Dunno what to think about being compared to the illustrious Robin William lol. I like quoting wise people because I always feel they say stuff much better than I could ever say it. Love that part of the movie! Yes life is a play, life is a game, a dance. Contribute to it lovingly in your own way and don't worry if it goes all wrong. That's as beautiful as if it went all right.

I've heard of Mooji, bought a couple of his books and listened to some of his talks. For some reason he hasn't resonated with me much though. Everybody has their teachers, I don't think he is one of mine, but sounds like he is one of yours! One thing I love about him though is how gentle he is and how infectious his laugh is.

Krishnamurti I love. I have a couple of his books. I like his intellectual approach. I think that's why he appeals to me. I definitely am intellectually oriented rather than heart-oriented (jnana yoga vs bhakti yoga to use Hindu terms). That's perhaps why the teachers I tend to resonate with use the intellectual approach. I love Rupert Spira, for example, of the nondualist school. And Swami Sarvapriyananda who teaches in the Advaita Vedanta tradition at the New York Vedanta Society.

Russel Brand- I didn't know he did spiritual stuff! I've seen a couple of his videos on addiction and pornography and they were quite good.

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10 being heart and 0 being intellect?

Certain schools in Hinduism like Advaita Vedanta have a very helpful classification of the different paths to liberation. I like it a lot. There are four basic paths that lead to liberation: the path of knowledge (jnana yoga), the path of love (bhakti yoga), the path of action (karma yoga), and the path of meditation (raja yoga). I've linked to a Swami Sarvapriyananda video on each path where he explains what it is and how it can lead you to liberation. People are naturally drawn to different paths according to their basic disposition.

Each path sees the problem we face different and provides it's own solution.

For jnana yoga, the problem is we mistake what we see in this world for reality. This is commonly called maya- or illusion. The solution then is knowledge. To be able to see clearly. This can be accomplished by practices like self-inquiry and Rinzai Buddhist koans which are jnana yoga practices.

For bhakti yoga the problem is we don't love enough, or that we love the wrong things (such as money) and hurt other people to get those things. The solution is to direct all your love to God instead of money or sex or whatever. Praise and worship songs as well as hymn singing in Christianity and kirtan in Hinduism are bhakti practices.

For karma yoga the problem is that we are selfish and try to control the world and others. The solution is to be unselfish and serve all others, instead of just serving ourselves. Obviously any activity that helps another person in some way is karma yoga, but so are practices that use the body and movement such as Tai Chi and Hatha Yoga.

For raja yoga the problem is our mind is too chaotic and muddies up our vision of reality so we don't see thinks clearly. The solution is to settle down the mind so that when it is quiet we will be able to experience how reality really is. Things like meditation or focusing on a certain phrase such as mantras, the Jesus prayer, or reciting the names of Allah is raja yoga.​

I definitely think I'm a jnana yogi, with a secondary emphasis on raja yoga. I prefer to approach the divine through the faculty of the intellect by using intelligence to outwit the ego and go beyond the mind. People like Krishnamurti and Ramana Maharshi were jnana yogis. I would include Alan Watts here too.

Someone like Krishna Das on the other hand (and Ram Das too to an extant), or the ISKON "Hare Krishna" people (as well as those Christians that go to churches where they mostly sing praise songs all the time) are bhakti yogas. So was Ramakrishna, in my opinion.

Karma yoga uses the body and the faculty of movement and performance to approach the divine. People who are karma yogis tend to spend a lot of time serving others. Mother Theresa and Mahatma Gandhi were good karma yogis. Most of Islam is karma yoga I believe because of the Islamic emphasis on ritual, serving others, fasting and other kinds of religious activities.

Buddha is probably the most famous raja yogi. Patanjali, who wrote the yoga sutras, was also a raja yogi.

Obviously it's ideal if you incorporate some of all of these paths into your practice. And every religion does, though they all have a focus (Christianity is bhakti, Islam is karma, Buddhism is raja). I'm mostly jnana oriented with a secondary emphasis on meditation and karma. I find bhakti really difficult. Other people might find bhakti easy and use that love to serve others (karma), while others just love meditating (raja) and use that meditation to peer behind the curtain of reality (jnana). Everyone's disposition is different, and you have to find your own unique path.