--- In [email protected], Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> Samyama's good side is that it helps fine-tune and hone our ability > to discriminate finer aspects of awareness, it's downside is that if > it is used for siddhis (e.g. yogic flying) we become more outward, > more materialistic and fooled by the power of our own delusions (maya- > shakti).
You can assert this all you want, though you should take into account the maxim, "knowledge is structured in consciousness". Your consciousness. There is no inherent downside in performing siddhis, when done properly. To assert that there is some incontrovertable downside to performing siddhis sounds like the preachers of old asserting that "money is the root of all evil". There may be conclusions reached by sages in the past, then misintepreted and propagated by others for their own means. To say that the performance of siddhis will somehow make a person more outward and more materialistic completely denies any knowledge of the integration of enlightenment. Your emphasis on scholarly distinctions and divisions sounds *very* materialistic, and something you are probably working on personally. However it does not support the truth of so much spritual knowledge, the goal and experience of which is Unity.
