stirling

Hello and welcome, Ichor! There are sources for many of your interests... I can personally help you with shikantaza... start a topic or message me.

Nyingma. Dzogchen. My main practice was and is something like this: https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/jamyang-khyentse-chokyi-lodro/key-points-on-trekcho While I am a Soto Zen teacher, the basic practice of shikantaza is essentially the same. It is very simple, really: Leave things as they are, be present with what arises. Don't do that. It isn't making you super-human, it is intended to lead you toward what you really are. I was taught sky gazing. It is valuable, but only if it is done in the spirit of the article above. In fact, I would suggest the goal of practice would be to infuse ALL experiences with the spirit of that practice. Leave things as they are. Rest in presence whenever possible. As far as benefits for health, vitality, energy levels, I don't have specific comments, but certainly reactivity, anger, and mental chatter should be diminished, which might make you more optimistic. Know all appearances through emptiness. Leave things as they are. Do not follow thoughts. Be present with what arises. Do this everywhere, as often as possible. Have you had pointing out instructions? Did you get an experiential glimpse of emptiness? If not, I would find a teacher who can give you this in person, it will greatly improve the efficacy of your practice. Are you on Vancouver Island?

Be careful around the idea of "secret" teachings. All traditions have them, but they tend to be very simple and uncomplicated at their core, and for good reason... that's what really works. My initial encounter in the Nyingma tradition was to learn shine' meditation, and pointing out almost immediately... which I didn't understand even intellectually for some time. My initial training was to simply watch the field of reality arise and pass and witness it. In the interrim I moved, and then I went to a Gelug teacher who got me doing Lojong and other teachings (Lojong is wonderful, actually), but it led to years of mild confusion. Though I think it is changing, it used to be that most Tibetan schools I encountered might start you with more complicated "preliminary" practices. In the 20 years I practiced in the Nyingma school I also bounced around the Gelug school, depending on what was around, but it took me 10 years in the middle to find the lineage I started with and get back on track. In my teaching I always give the students the full menu from day one. Some preliminary practice will follow. Here are some words on this approach, which I agree with:

Yes, absolutely, and without a doubt. No. Complete realization does not include a transformation of the body... it is MIND that is transformed. What changes is your UNDERSTANDING of what the body/world/self/time/space are. No. The actual understanding is very simple, and never changes, but dualities continue to fall away afterward.

All that is necessary in Buddhism is to realize emptiness by resting in it. No energetic component is necessary.

Welcome to the board! Hope you find what you are looking for.

You have to make a first post in the Welcome section to post elsewhere. Tell us a little about yourself, and what brings you here.

I honestly hadn't really thought about it... but yes, true. Heat makes things expand, cold makes things close up. Huh.

The primary feelings that arise are fear and love. Anger is contraction, love is openness. Anger comes from fear. Anger naturally arises and passes until there is no resistance to the reality of things as they are, meaning that there is no further contraction.

Actually, how you respond ALWAYS matters. If you respond to the input of the world with depression, anxiety, etc. that will be your experience of the world. It may as well BE the world. A thief, for example, ends up being someone who is always worried about the security of their things. Our behavior informs our world-view, in my experience, so it is worth adopting and experimenting with different world-views.

What matters is our intention, and how to respond. You think of your contribution as futile, but you should consider trying this experiment: For a week, cultivate an attitude of wishing every being and object you encounter well. Have hopes that they feel loved, and safe. Think of all of them as innocent. When you encounter others, greet them with a broad, REAL smile. Wave to strangers, and be ready to help people with their groceries. Watch what happens when you do this at a store, or on the street. Watch people with scowls spontaneously match your smile and attitude and walk off sharing it with others. Yes, we are only a small part of the universe, but our ability to impact is it actually outsized. Your love and kindness, your smile, could travel miles and make it through hundreds of people. What impact does a smile have? How do you feel when someone smiles or waves you on? What happens to your anger? This little piece of magic is what I find most humbling.

My deepest, fondest well-wishes for this to come to pass for you. _/\_

You could google "Buddhist self-immolation", or read stories of how Tibetan monks were tortured after the invasion by China to find out how they handled it. It isn't comfortable reading.

What does all of that actually mean in experience? Are you aware of those individual elements in everyday life, and how would you know how their union would be known? What does "energy" mean in this context? How would you know that the awakening experience of any individual didn't have those elements, whether or not THEY were aware of it. What actually matters about "awakening" is the shift in perspective and understanding that happens. No two experiences of awakening are the same (that I have encountered), but where the permanent perspective and understanding shift have occurred it is generally completely clear when a "realized person" encounters "another". You might describe what happens with a philosophical system that includes "trancendent" shiva aspects and kundalini/shakti elements, or any number of other conceptual constructs, but the actual realization blows all causal explanations out of the water. This is why, on awakening, Buddhism says that 3 fetters are released: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_awakening#Outline The "stream enterer" now sees through the delusion of having a solidified identity, knows that no rite or ritual is the thing that enlightens, and that without doubt the teachings point to something real.

In Zen it is commonly known that in the intervening period (years usually) between being newly awakened and complete stability of "no-self" there will often end up being a new "self" constructed around the awakening realization, creating an illusory "enlightened self". It is also called "Zen sickness". It is usually an early feature, and actually feels terribly dry and uncomfortable, so it is usually realized and dropped, or pointed out by a teacher. It is entirely developmentally appropriate, and a good case for someone to have a teacher to get them into doing some compassion training which usually clears up the matter. The ego IS very tricky... it feels like it is in danger of extermination, but this is a misunderstanding, it is never exterminated but instead simply seen for what it has always been.

Shiva, kundalini or not this is where Buddhism (at least Mahayana and Vajrayana) begin. I wasn't aware of them, but had a quick look. Interesting stuff. I certainly couldn't make any correlation with the first two, but could certainly say that what I was working with could be described like the Rudra Granthi in terms of the conditions that covered the event. I was in the process of dropping the last vestiges of "self" and this presented as an impediment in meditation. https://hridaya-yoga.com/the-granthis-the-3-psychic-knots/#:~:text=Rudra Granthi,the knot of Shiva”). In this case I would say that attention was called to it, but yes, I am also a purist in this respect. .... yes, like that, actually. I haven't witnessed any correlation, but I wouldn't say it is impossible. As I say, to me it appears to follow something, rather than be directly involved, if at all. Right. OK. Yes, I have read some Adyashanti, and another much more obscure author who I believe to be legitimately awakened... and of course some Eckhardt Tolle years ago. I think it IS possible to have someone say something to you and awaken, but you would have to be fairly clear of obscurations beforehand. In Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, we assume that the fabric of all things is ALREADY awakened to non-dual reality and sometimes just needs a poke, so many students just need a pointer at the very start. It was done to me, but it took another 20 years. I completely agree with this assessment of reality. It is obvious once you see it. I wasn't aware of the knot until I sat that day noticed the tight warmth of it in my forehead, and was able to "cut" it (if that is what happened) in about 20 minutes, so deciding WHEN that "process" starts probably matters?

From everything I have ever gathered about kundalini, it is best left to do its thing, and is usually a co-arising by product in SOME spiritual growth events, though not necessarily complete insight. I have read accounts of people who have had adverse effects by trying to manipulate it. My small experience with something that might be labeled kundalini was when meditating once and putting attention on a perceived "knot" in my skull; with its dissipation was a series of electrical shock sensations in the same area. Some Buddhist schools have manipulations of subtle energies as relative practices, but in what I have read and learnt first hand it isn't that what is taught has any real existence, they are most often frameworks of visualization that could be approached any number of ways. Circling back, I am curious about what you labeled the "modern" non-dual movement - who are some proponents and what are some of the core published materials?

I think you'll find a fertile ground for exploration and questioning here. Welcome!

Welcome to the board! An intriguing question!

There isn't really any need for an ethnic element, though some words in other languages have a conceptual accuracy that is unrepresented in most Western thought, like "dharma", or "rigpa" for example. In my opinion the spiritual path could be reduced to a very simple set of instructions, but most people will fail to understand what is meant by them. For example, how to change suffering is covered wonderfully here: ...but most people will need substantially more guidance in learning to find the stillness necessary to stop the identification with their overwhelming personal dialog.

Well... it was nice to briefly understand what you were talking about, but you've made yourself inscrutable again. My hat's off to you... you truly are an enigma, Bob.

I'm sorry the idea upsets you. Isn't it "grace" that enlightens in many of the Hindu (and Sufi) philosophies? What you can do ahead of that is prepare the playing field. Practices can get the mind to the point where it is receptive, open and spacious. The openings for realization tend to happen where there is this stillness, in my experience.

You might have a different experience, but, speaking for myself, I worked through a lot more trauma in meditation than counselors offices. What would natural dissolution mean to you? By "removed", do you mean that they no longer effect your behavior? I see what you mean now. One could decide that kundalini is somehow necessary, or is present in both processes, but I have never seen evidence of it in this context, and am unsure that kundalini has been a real feature in my path besides on particularly interesting episode, which might have been kundalini, or not.

Yeah... I'm still lost. Have a lovely day Bob.

How do you go about destroying them at their roots? Do they no longer exist? We can drop our attachment or aversion to past events by understanding what they are, and why they formed in the practices we use. Eventually they just become memories that have no power to color experience. Fortunately you can do the same thing (taking much more time) using psychological processes, but my experience with both is that the net effect is precisely the same. I honestly don't know how anyone would remove the stories. It seems to me that they are just part of reality in the same way that history is. JFK will always have a murderer, our grandfathers will have died in WWII, and we all remember the child we were that experienced trauma. I see this part of liberation as being able to realize that reality is just how things are today, and not see the world through those traumas.