Nuralshamal

Thanks for sharing your 2 cents @Shakti Abby

Dear Dao Bums, Today I'll share my experience with "Guru Karunamaya" and his teachings of Sri Vidya (a branch of spiritual practice in Hinduism). I have tried many things under the sun, but I am extremely positively surprised by the power of his teachings. Intro to Sri Vidya: Your body, energy, chakras, aura, psyche etc, is a perfect replica of the universe. This is called the "microcosm" and "macrocosm" idea. How the energy flows in your chakras and nadis, or energy centers and energy channels, showcases how your mind works, as well as how your life is working (and will work in the future). If the energy is flowing freely in a particular chakra and its nadis, it means your life is flowing freely in that particular area. E.g. regarding work and money, sexuality and pleasure, power and fame, love and relationships, manifestation and communication, understanding and wisdom, spirituality and oneness with the universe, etc. By opening your chakras and nadis, you also open the corresponding areas of your life. You then progress through the "sri chakra" or "sri yantra". This yantra holds all yantras, all gods and goddesses, all chakras and nadis, and all areas of your life. The beginning practice: You start from the outside perimeter, and then work your way through it. You end up in the center, the "bindu", the point, the dot.. The divine The outside perimeter (bottom left corner, the outermost square line) corresponds to the elephant God "Ganesha" or "Ganapati". This energy corresponds to the root chakra (muladhara chakra), and general stability and trust in your life. This also includes basic needs like work, security, fincances etc. When you get the deeksha (initiation) into the "ganapati" (another name for Ganesha or the elephant God) you start opening this chakra. With the shaktipat (energy transmission) of the teacher, you get a boost to your own process. Then you recite 100.000 repetitions of the mantra. This makes the mantras energy "flower" - both in your chakras and nadis, your physical body, as well as your life. This will give you physical health, heal any problems related to the anus, spine, legs and feet, bring you emotional and mental stability as well as trust, energetically it will open your muladhara chakra and its nadis, in your life it will attract a job to you (if you're looking for one), otherwise it will make your work situation stable. The scope of continued practice: Further, you continue this journey of self-healing alongside realization of ever subtler levels of the Divine, inside and out (your body, energy, emotions, mind and soul, as well as your outside life). This is done by working your way through the Sri Yantra. There's a process for everything: opening chakras and nadis, getting a job, attracting more wealth, removing black magic and evil spirits, controlling the weather, overcoming racism, depression and other negative mental states, and it just goes on and on. The sri yantra contains everything. Also ALL the siddhis (supernatural powers, e.g. auric vision (called divya dristhi or divine sight), controlling the weather, healing of self and others, and so on and so forth). Ending blessing and prayer: May you all be blessed, and enjoy good health, long life, prosperity, happiness, wisdom and peace

Dear friends, Some time ago I shared the post below on another thread. I stumbled upon it again recently, and I felt it could potentially help a lot of people. That's why I'm reposting it now with some edits, as well as an "update" at the end of the original post. Here's the original post. ORIGINAL POST I will share in 4 points:1) Intro 2) My experiences with evil spirits 3) My experiences with black magic 4) My proposed explanation integrating viewpoints on evil spirits and black magic (Buddhism, Sufism, Martinus, Hinduism etc)IntroIn my opinion, this is an extremely important topic, that is extremely ignored, belittled and misunderstood by the vast majority of cultivators. Especially those with a western background. Also, even by high level masters who simply don't know about this particular area or haven't trained and studied it.My experiences with evil spiritsI have personally suffered many extreme and terrifying experiences, and no matter where I sought help, I was belittled, ridiculed, ignored or misunderstood.I have seen books flying out of shelves. I have seen bagpacks and other physical items dragged back and forth on the floor. I have experienced "wind" indoors, even though it was a closed off room with no windows. I have seen shadowy/smoke like figures physically moving around, experienced physical touch even though no physical beings are there and much more.When I sought help from a hindu monk, he advised me to start japa of my guru mantra when it happened. I did it... Didn't work.When I sought help from a high level "shamanic" qigong master (you would think spirits would be a walk in the park for a shaman), I was belittled and told "not to pay attention to this illusion I am experiencing". There's nothing illusory about physical objects being thrown around by an unseen force. It's pretty much as concrete as it gets. Almighty God bless him, and bring him to clarity and allow him to actually help people with his powers of qi.When I sought help from another qigong master specialised in healing, he told me to say a prayer and do a mudra. When it didn't work, he explained it away saying that "you're just not powerful enough to do it yet, you need to cultivate more. Be my one-on-one student for 2-3 years, meet me on on a weekly zoom meeting priced at 1.600 dollars for an hour, and then in a couple of years, you will be able to do it".This healing qigong master stated that I have a very loving and very spiritual energy, and that's why troubled spirits get attracted to me. They seek help and healing from me. That's why it worsens when I travel to new places or stay overnight at places that are not my house. The troubled spirits in that place see me and come to get help.I actually believed him, and met him 3 times, wasting thousands of dollars. It didn't work! And on top of that, the clairvoyant things he told me about me and my health were flat out wrong (he said I had weak sexual energy, ejaculated in seconds and drank a lot of alcohol which damaged my liver). I am at a very advanced level of sexual qigong and lovemaking, haven't touched alcohol in more than 10 years and make love for hours daily without ejaculating with very strong erection power.So after 3 meetings, I realized he was simply a semi-psychic (he did say correctly that I had a spine injury, although there were so many other things wrong about his psychic reading), yet pretty good healer (I could feel my back getting better when he gave healings), but most of all he was just thirsty for money. So, of course I stopped seeing him. Dear God, bring him to the straight path, let him let go of his greed for money and selfishness, and instead lead him to the straight path, that he may use his gift of healing for good.I then spoke with a highly clairvoyant sufi master, who did a check on me (for free). He related my entire life story regarding troubles with spirits (without me telling him anything), and he also stated that it's because I have a lot of "light" (noor) inside my soul. This is because of all the prayers and mantras I say each day (since I was a child). He said the spirits are troubled where they are (in "bardo" or "barzakh" as it's called in Islam), and seek my help.He said I should visualise putting up spiritual sign posts around my aura, my house, or anywhere I go that says "I am sorry, I cannot help you. I myself need help, that's why I pray to the light and get that light into me. Please don't come to me, I am in no position to help you, I myself need help, that's why I pray so much. You should yourself pray to the light, then you will get help".I tried it for some time, and it helped in my own house. However, when I went to new places, it didn't work. God bless this man, he is extremely loving, knowledgable and powerfully clairvoyant.When I sought help from another sufi (via the internet), he for free did a "spiritual check" on me. He stated that yes, I have some low level evil spirits around me. He gave me (for free!) a one week program of readings of salawaat (prayers to the prophet), and reciting "bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim" (the bismillah, "in the name of God) many hundreds of times in a day. Then blow on water and drink it.I did it for 7 days, and it worked! It was from his heart and soul he wished to help me. He did it for free.I sent him 100 dollars and said that it worked, and asked if I could keep training with him. I must have paid him only a few hundred dollars, yet I spent 6-9 months corresponding with him via email. He would give me different salawaat, dhikr (name of God), verses of the Qur'an and du'a (prayers). Whenever I did a program (e.g. 7 days, 11 days, 21 days), he would tell me how it went. He would give me feedback on the energy, without me telling him anything. He was very good, he helped me a lot, and he didn't ask much in return. However, after 6-9 months, because he wanted to remain anonymous, I felt that to be a bit weird after so long, so when I had completed a big program, I stopped corresponding with him. We haven't been in contact since.What became my go-to after training with this last sufi guy is 5 verses from the Qur'ran. Ayatul kursi (Verse about the Throne of God), and 4 verses called "the 4 qul". They are the last 4 verses of the Qur'an, and they all start with "qul" which means "say". It's Surah Nas (verse of Man), Surah Ikhlas (verse of Unity), Surah Falaq (verse of the Daybreak / rising sun) and Surah Kafiroon (verse about the Unbelievers).You recite each 11 times (11x ayatul kursi, 11x surah nas, 11x surah ikhlas, 11x surah falaq and 11x surah kafiroon). Then you blow on your right index finger, and visualise your hand coming down from the sky, and drawing a protective circle around the 4 corners of your home, and then finally around yourself, or the room that needs extra protection (e.g. bedroom, prayer room).This has been my go-to for more than 6 years. It has been the only thing that worked for me in this area. If you want to keep your house energy pure, you say 21x ayatul kursi, blow on a glass of water, and sprinkle it around your house. The combination of these two readings saved my life.God bless this man who helped me without demanding anything in return!Unlike these chinese qigong masters, just wanting money and doing nothing to help.Lately when I'm learning Sri Vidya, I feel that some of the mantras and rituals from Sri Vidya will eventually be able to give spiritual protection on an even higher level. There are 2 specific "deities" or energies generated from mantras and rituals for the navel chakra (Durga) and third eye chakra (Varahi) which specifically combat negative spiritual energies, including black magic, evil spirits, the evil eye etc.All of the above are my experiences and solutions for evil spirits so far.My experiences with black magicI have worked for the army in my country. One of my functions was as a translator and interpreter. I have been deployed several times to a UN mission in West Africa.On one of my deployments, there wasn't much work. We only worked from 6 in the morning to 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The rest of the time we we're pretty much on standby.Being stranded in a war zone, there's not much to do. So I spent all my free time reading, studying and practicing (mantras, meditation and qigong).I was in a very good spiritual state at the time due to so much practice, so I was seeing auras and energies most of the time.One time, we were training the local special forces to save hostages. The only building we could use was a big fancy hotel, yet no tourists (because of the war). So to survive, the owner of the hotel rented it out as a brothel.One day, in a break between exercises, I saw one of the prostitutes sitting on the other side of the courtyard (they just sat around and waited for the 3-4 hours that we and the local soldiers used it as a training compound). When she saw me, she started whispering something, and I saw a small cloud of black energy generating in front of her face. Then she did something with her hands, and started blowing towards me. This sent the small black cloud of energy across the courtyard towards me. It just landed in the outskirts of my aura, it didn't go in (thank God!). So nothing happened to me.When I was back in my room later that day, I meditated. Then I understood she was trying to do some black magic on me. Maybe she was trying to seduce or attract me. For a prostitute in a war zone, hooking up with a soldier deployed from Europe could be her ticket out of the warzone to a better life. Luckily, the energy wasn't powerful enough to penetrate my energy field (which was pretty charged at the time due to so much spiritual practice). And as I meditated, the cloud was just destroyed and disappeared from my field.One of the local maids cleaning my place actually put my tooth brush up in her vagina when she was cleaning the bathroom. She thought I didn't know, as I was sitting in the living room. I guess it's a primitive form of African black magic. If you ingest some of the fluids (spit, sweat or sexual fluid) of someone (especially if they say mantras while doing it), you can become more partial to liking that person (becaues you will have some of their energy inside your physical body). I bought a new tooth brush!Another woman working in the restaurant spat in my food and stirred it around to hide it. I ordered a new pasta You need to be very careful in many places of Africa, the Middle East, South America and certain parts of Asia. It's rampant with black magic and desperate people. Luckily they are usually not powerful practitioners, but you can still catch something if you're not protected and observant.My second experience is with my girlfriend. She comes from the Middle East, i.e. the vast majority of her family still lives there. When we got together, it was made public, her ethnicity in our European country as well as her family and relatives in her home country in the Middle East became aware of it. As soon as this happened, she started to fall sick.She would get wrist tendonitis, elbow tendonitis, sore knees, sore lower back, her vision would suddenly drastically reduce, she would get nauseous for no reason, got rashes, stomach ache, started to suddenly lose weight and appetite. For no reason!It just came suddenly out of the blue. She would suffer for some time and recover. Then a new problem came back. This continued for about 6 months. Before we made our relationship public, she wasn't sick even once. After we made it public, she kept continually falling ill again and again.After 6 months of this story of suffering and disease, once when I was meditating, I saw a cloud of red and black energy entering our house. It went to my girlfriend. Then it went into her wrist.That same evening, she started complaining that the wrist tendonitis was coming back.I was very surprised. I was praying and meditating, trying to understand what had happened. A few days later, I got a dream, where I saw planet Earth from above. Then I saw her country in the Middle East (Kurdistan). Then I saw clouds of red and black gathering and forming, and then they travelled to Europe to our country.When I woke up, I understood that God had heard my prayer, and given me this dream to let me know that someone in her home country was cursing her.That started an 8 month period of fighting this magic.First I consulted this qigong healer about it (the psychic one, who told me correctly about my spinal injury, but wrongly about alcohol, sex etc). He to my great surprise said that someone was putting black magic on my girlfriend, and that she should practice his "small universe" meditation to transform the energy.I was surprised he went straight to Black Magic as an explanation, even though I didn't tell him about my dreams and visions. We tried what he suggested, but it didn't work.Then I went to a hindu tantric, who has mastery over spirits, done sadhana (spiritual practice) in graveyards, and done many tamasic tantric rituals to control these spirits (e.g. animal sacrifice, bathing in blood, smearing yourself with your own filth and urine etc). When I spoke with him, he asked me to send a photo of my girlfriend.After 2-3 days, he called me and said that there is black magic on her. We should just worship and pray to God like normal, remain vegetarian, avoid alcohol, and when he visits our country, he will put a kavach (shield/armor) on her. From that day we spoke, everything stopped. So he did something remotely. After a few nights, I had a dream where I saw this swami doing something. A beam of energy went to the Middle East, where I saw someone had buried a charm inscribed with mantras and signs under the plot of one of my girlfriend's family's buildings. The beam from the swami went in and neutralized the black/red energy.I would again highlight that he did all this for free. It seems again that this phenomenon that spirituality costs money and is a business is mostly related to chinese qigong traditions. Sufis and hindus have helped me completely free of charge, just from their heart.It was about 2-3 weeks where it was completely gone, but then it returned.I tried many different sufi methods, prayers, Qur'an, tasbih (prayer beads). It was always the same. It would make it go away, but after a certain period of time, it would return.Later, after I had done a specific reading of a passage from the Qur'an about Moses fighting the black magicians of Farao, the black magic completely stopped. It took me a month, and you have to recite late at night. Then I finally had a dream where I saw this black magician in Kurdistan. Every new moon, or on specific astrological days, he goes to a kind of basement or cellar underground. Here he conducts terrible black magic rituals, involving animals, kidnapped orphans and other terrible things. That's why it's all black and red energy, because it's dirty and bloody what he does. It's someone from my girlfriend's family who's jealous of the part of the family that's gone to Europe.Then I saw him get hit with my one month program of Qur'an, and he lost all of his powers. All the energy drained from him, he became thin, weak and pale.After this it was about 6 months where we were completely free from this black magic. I thanked God and actually thought it was over. I felt kind of bad that it seemed my Moses-reading had damaged him, but I didn't mean to hurt him, I just wanted to protect my beloved girlfriend. It hadn't really hurt him, just taken away the energy he had built up and the evil spirits he was working with.After 6 months, he decided to start to try again, and start from the bottom to build up his energy (he was the most powerful black practitioner I've ever seen). But this time the things he sent were really weak. We just read some Qur'an and du'a, and it stopped.Finally, after starting Sri Vidya one and a half years ago, and we did a 41 day Varahi tarpana. Now we've been clear of black magic for about 1 year. I feel like we have built our spiritual protection so strong now, that we're mostly safe.My proposed explanation integrating viewpoints on evil spirits and black magic (Buddhism, Sufism, Martinus, Hinduism etc)I've highlighted a bunch of my experiences above. Now I'll try to make sense of it and provide an explanation.I'll use an idea of different dimensions of reality to try and explain why people misunderstand each other when it comes to black magic and evil spirits.For simplicity I'll just use the following terms:1) Physical (shared physical world, objective reality, different beings interact with each other in an objectively verifiable sense).2) Energetic (shared energetic world, objective albeit non-detectable reality for untrained people, objectively verifiable by people with their energetic senses open)3) Mind (inner, individual world, unique to you, subjective reality, there's no one else here but you)4) "Astral" (objective and shared reality with different beings interacting with each other through energy and mind)Buddhism:A big problem is that many Buddhists will brush these kinds of things off and say "it's all just mind". Someone even told me "spiritual beings viewed with ignorance, are demons", "spiritual beings viewed with wisdom, are devas". That sounds great philosophically, but it's a completely useless viewpoint when shit gets serious. Books are flying around your room, or your girlfriend is falling sick. It's not something mental, it's concrete and physical. You need to do something.Just like an intruder in your home trying to steal your stuff "it's just mind, it's just illusion". Yes, fine illusion when he slaps you in your face and rapes your family. You need to take practical action and protect yourself and your family.So all this "it's all mind" is great for a meditator going inwards, but it's not useful if you have a concrete, practical problem. Just like feeling hungry "it's just an illusion in your mind", no, you need to eat something.I feel like the misunderstanding is because the buddhist meditator is talking about "mind", whereas the person talking about problems with black magic and evil spirits is talking about the astral, energetic and physical dimensions.It's true that you can meet "darkness" in your own subjective mind, but this is not the same as the objective, shared reality in the astral, energetic and physical dimensions.Some people who are also generally confused and vague in their life experience will not have the ability to discriminate between "mind" (their own fears) and "astral" (a real, verifiable, shared and objective reality). These are the people that buddhists in general target when they say "it's all in your own mind", because they think it's just imagination. For these meditators getting lost in their own subjective minds, it's a great piece of advice. However, for people truly experiencing objective problems in the astral, energetic or physical domains, it's ridiculing, belittling and just not helpful advice.SufismSufism states that there are unseen beings living in an astral, objective dimension. They also differentiate between the subjective mind or ego called "nafs" and the astral world called "malakut" or world of light (angels are called malai'ka, or powerful beings of light).HinduismAlso differentiates between your own subjective mind, and the astral world.MartinusAlso differentiates between inner subjective world (mind, you and your own mind), and inner objective world (spiritual world, your soul and the soul of others).ConclusionI am sure buddhism also discriminates somehow between inner subjective and inner objective world, I just don't know the correct terms. Maybe someone can help me out?The reason that these qigong masters failed to help and just tried to extract money from me, is simply because even though they're master healers, the just haven't trained in and studied the astral world. They know about the physical, energetic and mind, they just don't know about black magic and evil spirits in the astral.The sufis who helped me, they knew about energy and astral, so they could easily see what was happening and what I should do. They had trained in this and understood it.Similarly, the tantric swami had knowledge and power to help us quickly. The black magician was just very powerful, so he could break the spell from the swami and start his black magic again after a couple of weeks by repowering his buried charm through rituals.Mostly when people belittle or ridicule black magic and evil spirits, it's just because they themselves didn't have karma in this area, so they don't know about it. That's why they brush it off as unimportant and not necessary, because it wasn't important to them in their cultivation. However, if you have karma in this area, there's no escaping it. You need to read, study and understand about it, then you need to train in it (mantra, meditation, ritual etc). Then you will master it and be able to go beyond it and continue your cultivation undisturbed.All traditions have sections of their teachings dealing with this, it's just not all masters who've studied this section of their tradition. Because they didn't need it, they state that no one else needs it (wrong assumption and bias to think everyone is like you and need the same as you did. Wrong. We're all different and unique, we need different things).God bless you all! UPDATE SINCE THE ABOVE ORIGINAL POST On top of our spiritual cultivation, we've employed some very basic truths in our everyday lives, which is usually taught at the basic level in most traditional spiritual teachings, albeit largely ignored or misunderstood by western people (myself included, that's why I'm emphasising it now): 1) "Conceal your blessings" (this is as to not invoke a feeling of lack in others, which could trigger jealousy, envy, evil eye or black magic - practically it just means not to talk about your succes in love, money or spiritual journey publicly (e.g. insta & fb) and even to your loved ones, close friends and family members. We just share it with each other, me and my girlfriend, celebrate our sucess and give thanks to Almighty God) 2) "Certainty" (Yaqeen in arabic) consisting of 3 points 1) everything is from God, 2) it's for my highest good, 3) it has a message for me, about something I need to change. For me the message was simply to accept that "evil" is indeed a part of God's creation, and evil spirits and black magic is real. I always shunned it off and looked down upon it as mere superstition. Nope, it's real! So take it seriously and take mindful precautions, it's simply a test from God. Don't lose your certainty, your faith, have full trust in God and do your daily spiritual work 3) The best spirituality you will find is free or very low cost - all the people and healers I splurged money on failed to deliver and actually help us. The people who had true love, compassion and heart were the most powerful, they helped us completely for free or at very low cost. All these commercial gurus are simply fitna, illusion, they're a Golden Calf or temptation from the straight path. Truth is hiding in plain sight, simple, yet most profoundly powerful. Be a good human being, trust God, have heart and mercy for your fellow human beings and the animals, and you'll be showered with a tsunami of power and protection directly from the Lord Most High. 4) The importance of "local" spirits - each place you go to have a Kshetra Palaka (Local Protector) or TuDi (Earth King/God) who are the Spirit Kings of that place. Further, there are also local spirits living in that location. If you do cultivation there without permission/friendship with the local Spirit King, you can start to get into spiritual trouble. This is a big part of traditional Hindu sadhana as well as Daoist cultivation. After each hindu ritual you give Bali Dhana (spirit charity offering) to the local spirits and the Kshetra Palaka, or in the case of Daoist magic or cultivation you say the An Tu Di Shen Zhou (Pacify Earth Spirit Mantra). It's even one of the Daoist Ba Da Zhou (8 Great Mantras) to be said daily. So be aware if you travel to new locations - make sure to include the local Kshetra Palaka or TuDi to be in harmony with the spirits of that place. 5) The importance of spiritual lineage (sampradaya). When you're part of a true, authentic spiritual lineage, you will also have much more spiritual protection and power. If you call upon your guru or master with the appropriate mantra and mudra, it's the combined energy of thousands and thousands of years of people doing spiritual practice coming to help you spiritually. A complete game changer!

Thanks for your response and positive feedback! There were 3 major milestones in my own journey, that gave me a lot of relief: Purify And Protect Yourself and Your Home (sufi method) 1) Sufi mantras (11x ayatul kursi, 11x surah nas, 11x surah ikhlas, 11x surah falaq, 11x surah kafiroon to form protective circle around the home, then 11x ayatul kursi to form protective circle around particular person, 21x ayatul kursi blow on water and sprinkle in house). Do daily. Protect Yourself, Strike Back (sufi method) 2) Sufi amal/wazifa (like a prayoga or kriya), Surah Ta-Ha ayat 68-69 "qulna la takhaf innaka anta'l a'laa...." said 100x each night before sleep, blow on the affected person 3x then make du'a for healing and protection, continue for at least 21 days in row without fail. Complete Self Healing, Self Protection and Stoppage (stambhanam) (hindu method, Varahi Devi) 3) Varahi Tarpanam, Puja and Homam complete stopped everything for us. The 41 day mandala invited some real challenges, especially around the 21 day and 29 day mark (negative energy try to stop you), but we kept going and suceeded in the end and found great relief. After this everything stopped permanently. Help from the outside is awesome, but for me I felt the universe gave me a big signal that I should also increase my own spiritual practice to always keep my protection strong. First step, work with yourself practically (do good deeds, avoid anything negative) So first tips would be for both you and your sister and her family to make sure you avoid all kind of sin that could attract negative energy; e.g. conceal your blessings to avoid jealousy, abstain from meat and alcohol, don't commit any sin, respect elders, don't backbite, do any kind of negative thoughts, words or deeds, make sure all your affairs are 100% in order, nothing illegal, concealed etc. forgive each other in family, maintain family harmony, be good to each other and so on. Second Step, daily spiritual work, personal connection with the Divine When that's done second tip is for all involved to level up their daily spiritual practice ; ideally we should all set aside some time daily to connect with our Creator, be grateful, pray, and also cry when we're helpless and ask for help and protection, cultivate that personal connection, love and humility as much as possible. Third step, help from outside Then third tip is to get extra help from the outside when faced with grave spiritual issue. In that regard I give some suggestions below: If you're open to sufism, you can contact brotherrahman.net - he's very heartful and sweet, very helpful, give you a lot of rituals for free on his site, gives free advice via email. If you study with him, he really helps you and does rituals and mantras for you. Depending on your budget he can be both very economical all the way to quite costly. Sometimes he has a bit of mood swings, temper and can be a bit grumpy, but it's usually just 2-3 days, but no matter what he always helps. Otherwise for Varahi, I didn't get anyone to do homa or anything, we did on our own (after we got sri vidya mantra diksha from Karunamaya at the time, later Devipuram also) I know Karunamaya is in UK right now, but I don't think he really does things like that (help individuals out), he's mostly about getting followers who complete all his modules, work for his organisation and build his peetham in India. You can give it a go, but he's usually quite inflexible and not that easy to talk to person-to-person. Lastly there is a very expensive guru in India, he has solid energy, if you pay, he gives (e.g. give mantra diksha, do yagnya or puja for you etc), but as soon as he has done the thing you paid for, he's still very quick to respond on whats'app, but he's very slow to do any related task (e.g. send yantras, malas, kavach etc). But you will feel his energy, he has done very solid sadhana, even quite non-trained people here in Europe felt energy 2-3 days before his yagnya, on the day of his yagnya, and were pretty spiritually impacted for months after. So he has a lot of powerful energy. I can share his contact privately with you if you want, just be warned he's pretty expensive. Let me know: 1) What makes you think they're suffering from black magic? 2) How would you like to proceed from here? (vis-a-vis all I wrote above)

Hey @Luharj, Thanks for your message Yes of course! What's your ethnic and/or religious background? Just trying to see who could be a good match

Dear Dao Bums, Has anyone here on the forum done SFQ level 5? I remember looking at it many years ago, where it boasted of secrets of connecting with ancestors, prolonging life, increasing jing and longevity, supercharging lower dan tien and kidneys for vitality, rainbow energy bone marrow cleansing, opening all spiritual senses and much more. In the commercial films from the retreat people were meditating in front of a large lake, with Chunyi Lin empowering each one-by-one using sword finger to their 3rd eye. When I look at the official page today, it's much more modest in its claims; now it's called "beyond qi" and talks about "advanced qigong", "advanced tian mu", "opening spiritual senses", "increasing healing power". However, I still would love to go for a sense of completion, having done SFQ level 1-4, and having used his qigong and meditation for many 49 day cycles, having had several very expensive one-on-one sessions with him, as well as healed maybe 20-25 people using his system. I always get a deep sense of personal satisfaction and delight when completing something, and taking level 5 would give me that. Further, it would of course also be super interesting to sample and experience first hand the "qi menu" offered (the tian mu and spiritual senses methods). So, looking for experiences here; anyone ever attended? If yes, what was your experience? God bless you

Update I've since this post explored more regarding yakshini sadhana. I will say that if you get diksha from a true guru or gurvi, and you follow the guru's instructions, there's no danger involved in yakshini sadhana whatsoever. As long as your intention is pure, of course, as well as your general energy and the way you live your life. Further, I will update and correct what I said about how easy it is to get siddhi. I've managed to read very small bits of Udameshvara Tantra, and the general mantras and prescriptions for yakshini sadhana found online are NOT the ones given in Udameshvara Tantra, even if the online page list this Tantra as source. For instance in the case of Kapalini Yakshini, you will actually need a guru to get you a Kapal, the actual skull of a deceased Human Being. I nearly fell from my chair when the Indian-based guru I spoke to suggested this to me. Further, the Kapal Siddhi Kapalini Yakshini gives is not just lucid dreaming, it transforms the Human Skull to a kind of portal to other worlds - you can communicate with deceased people, you can contact yogis, you can reach any astral being and you can also see the past and future. Regarding Sulochana Yakshini, you need to wear red and say 300.000 mantras on a river bank, only after completing that will you offer the 30.000 mantras into the fire (also on the river bank). Then she will present you with Paduka Siddhi or Seven League Boots, that will allow you to traverse the Akash, aka astral travel. Plus the mantra itself is different from what you can find online. Two pics of Sulochana Yakshini, wearing red, 2 arms, one holding a red rose for love, health, energy and vitality, and one holding the golden padukas (in some versions these carry wings, like Hermes in Disney's Hercules movie). The other pic there are 6 yakshinis present in the background and herself in the foreground, symbolizing that she energizes all 7 chakras in your astral body.

Dear Dao Bums, My post will be in 5 parts: 1) Intro to General Framework of Hindu Sadhana 2) Hierarchy of Beings 3) My Own Lifelong Orientation Towards Sadhana Being Challenged 4) Yakshini Experiences 5) Questions for You 1) Intro to General Framework of Hindu Sadhana In tantric Hindu sadhana, you connect with higher beings outside yourself in order to develop yourself step by step, until you also become a higher being. This is done using the 5 elements: Mantra Japa (space/energy element, throat chakra), Puja / Prayer Ritual (all 5 elements, focus on air element, heart chakra) Fire Ritual / Havan (fire element, navel chakra) Tarpanam & Marjanam / Water & Butter Ritual (water element, genital chakra) Bhojanam / Feeding people (Earth element). In each tantra, different combinations of the 5 elements and specific ways of using them are prescribed in order to connect with a higher being. 2) Hierarchy of Beings There is a hierarchy of beings from low to high. The higher the being, the more difficult it is to connect with it. The lower the being, the easier it is to connect with. However, higher beings are more spiritually evolved and therefore more benign in nature. Lower beings are less spiritually evolved. They can still be extremely powerful, but their nature is more malevolent. The hierarchy is something like (more or less): Deva / Devi (Devata) - literally light being, normally called Gods & Godesses Gandharva - bird-person, associated with music Apsara - celestial beauty, associated with sensuality, sexuality, attraction & beauty, sometimes dance Naga - snake people, often teach yogis meditation & spirituality Yakshini - female nature spirits, often protecting the treaures of the Earth Atma/Soul of Deceased Human Beings (people like you and I who are passed away) Bhuta - restless souls of deceased human beings Preta - hungry ghosts, souls of deceased people even more disturbed than bhutas Pisach - flesh eating demons, evil 3) My Own Lifelong Orientation Towards Sadhana Being Challenged My entire life I approached spiritual practice as a means of religious/spiritual liberation/salvation, in this life and the next. This would be called Fana Fi Allah in sufism, Moksha in Hinduism, Nirvana in Buddhism, Salvation in Christianity, Ren-Tien-He-Yi in Daoism etc. Of course each might differ slightly in how they define their "ideal end state", but my goal was always to reach the "ideal end state" proposed by religion/spirituality. However, as you know, this takes a long time, it can even take several life times! In the past couple of years I've been confronted by the fact that many people never care about this ultimate goal, they just quickly want either spiritual powers or material success, and use spiritual/tantric means to acquire that. And they actually succeed! This made me realize the intelligence of Hinduisms 4 goals of life: dharma, artha, kama, moksha. It's much easier to pursue the ultimate goal when your material life & wealth is settled, as is your needs for love and pleasure. It's like you're building on top of a stable foundation. So this idea made me more open to consider adding this as temporary "side projects" on my spiritual journey, of course never stopping the daily effort towards the ultimate goal. 4) Yakshini Experiences Lately one of my family members got yakshini mantra diksha for acquiring wealth. They even said on the course "this is nothing about spiritual advancement, this is only focusing on acquiring material wealth as soon as possible through tantric means". A remark I would have considered blasphemous just a few months back! As part of the program my family member got yakshini diksha, and related to me that the yakshini energy is extremely different and noticeably distinct from devata energy. This person has performed decades & decades of serious hindu sadhana for reaching the ultimate goal, so they have a lot of experience. Quite literally my family member said "it feels very active, very dynamic, very powerful & emotional, but also quite volatile. It feels closer to a human being. It's full of love, lust, energy, vitality & passion, but it also has anger & jealousy in it". Compared to what he describes as devata energy "settled, balanced, peaceful, benign, loving, accepting, Divine". Hearing this experience made me wonder and become curious about the validity & power of sadhana on beings lower than Devata in order to obtain quicker results in particular matters. Then I read the Uddamareshvara Tantra about the sadhana & siddhi of 36 yakshinis. The required sadhanas are extremely easy compared to the serious hindu sadhana I've completed daily for 10.5 years now (mantra japa, mantra chanting with a rosary, as well as innumerable rituals for all 5 elements). Yakshini Sulochana & Kapalini can give the siddhi of astral travel & lucid dreaming with as little as 30.000 & 20.000 (respectively) mantra chants, ending with a fire ritual (havan). This really allured me, because that is an extremely small & easy thing to accomplish compared to what I've completed over the last decade. But something inside me is still holding back, because of the "fear" of worshipping something less than "the highest" and the fear of "going down the wrong track" on my spiritual journey. Hence some questions for you! 5) Questions for You What have you heard about yakshini sadhana? What have you experienced from yakshini sadhana? All the best!

Hey @centertime, Bija mantras are like "basic building blocks" of energy. So yes, repeating the bija mantra of a chakra will activate the energy of that chakra. Bija means seed, it's the seed level of energy. E.g. 100.000 reps of "lam" will energize your root chakra. However, deity mantras do more than just that. On top of unblocking your chakra, the effect of repeating the mantra will fructify a whole host of benefits in your material and spiritual life. A deity is a living being. So bija is a seed in potential, latent and unexpressed form, deity is a full grown, living tree continously bearing a wide variety of sweet and nourishing fruits.

If you're from the first world with a high school education / upper secondary level education, you should be able to manage. I've been in contact with 3 Sri Vidya teachings so far: 1) Karunamaya, 2) Devipuram (same lineage as Karunamaya, actually Devipuram was founded by Karunamaya's Guru), 3) Sri Vidya Tantra Peedom (different lineage, south India). The materials from Devipuram were prepared by western people who are also western educated. They must have had a degree in design or something similar, the materials are of exceptional quality. Super clear, beautiful and well-structured. Similar to what you would read from a professional academic in the West - illustrations, set-up, mini-explanations, color-coding, the whole she-bang. Any person could pick them up and follow them - they're that good. The materials from Karunamaya are (sorry to say) quite poor. Without the oral explanations and visual demonstrations, you will most likely not be able to just pick them up and do the rituals. However, of course, if you do the online workshops, you can (with some strain). Sri Vidya Tantra Peedom are somewhere in between - pretty clear in explanations, however they usually don't provide materials for everything - only sometimes. They give the explanations, but it's usually up to you to take notes. If you follow the classes and actually practice what is taught, you will pick it up. If you're looking to start Sri Vidya, here are my pros and cons for learning from each: Karunamaya Pros Quite frequent online workshops Cons Indian-ly strict, not that friendly, loving, understanding nor compassionate from a westerner's viewpoint of a Guru Little bit expensive Mid to low-level quality of materials Cannot really be personally contacted and have one-on-one dialogue for guidance etc Mostly looking for donations, building his organisation and personal brand, increasing number of followers and making a name for himself Devipuram Pros Exceptional materials Guru Amritananda (even though passed away physically or in "maha-samadhi") is very high caliber spiritually When you connect with his energy it's very noticeable and really helps your sadhana Just 3 levels to get all dikshas and rituals The 3D Meru specifically designed by Guru Amritananda is really good and beautiful to use for puja and for meditation First level is free and online If you travel to the physical site, you can connect with the energy of a 3D Sri Yantra (Devipuram IS a Sri Yantra) Level 2 and 3 on site is exceptionally fairly priced, even though of course you will have to physically travel there Their live teaching is also very good - well-structured, evenly spaced with breaks, focus on hands-on training alongside theory, very good and friendly community - you can feel they're well-educated and used to westerners. Cons Don't host programs that frequently, so you have to be patient You can't really have a one-on-one personal relationship with anyone for on-going guidance in your sadhana, it's all somewhat mechanical teaching-wise "this is the program our guru set up, this is what we teach, nothing more, nothing less" and no space for a personal guru you can talk to, cry with, get guidance and reassurance Doesn't focus on occult skills or practical applications (prayogas) - everything is a clear-cut system you simply follow in a bhakti (devotional) manner Sri Vidya Tantra Peedom Pros Good technical explanations FREE 1 year program including initiations Can be completed online Focus on occult skills and practical applications (prayogas) Cons Depending on where you live it can more or less difficult time-zone-wise for the online courses You need to be very mindful in how you personally interact with the guru - the pro is that you can indeed contact him directly (whatsapp), however in 90% of cases he will wave you away with standard copy/paste responses - which can be very frustrating. However, every once in a while he gives pretty good and helpful personal feedback - he might even do a prayoga to help you with your issues. I felt this the first or second time I contacted him - he gave a pretty good, helpful and heartful personal response, and after a little while I felt a Narasimha energy come over me (which was an energy we discussed could help me with my issue, however I am not yet initiated in it, and as I live in western country there are no temples to go to). So I felt he did some small Narasimha prayoga and sent me the energy, which I thought was super nice and helpful. So with these high hopes I've contacted him once or twice more (over maybe 1-2 months), however all the other times he waved me away or semi-insulted me. So that was kind of a bummer. I think it depends on whether you get him on a "good day". But compared to the others, at least the possibility of personal contact and help is there, which it is not at all with the others. Wrap Up Depending on your personality and likes/dislikes, I would most likely recommend you not to start with Karunamaya, but opt for either Devipuram or Sri Vidya Tantra Peedom. If you like low-risk high reward, I would recommend you to simply sign up for the free 1 year program starting next month: you can see the 2 posters at the end of this post https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/56087-update-new-experiences-of-sri-vidya/ Then you can try it out and see if you feel it will be worth the wait to do Devipurams 3 levels (1 level online, 2 on-site). All the best! Sri Matre Namaha

Dear Dao Bums, I'll write this post in three parts: 1) Standing, holding your breath, sweating, jing to qi 2) Different systems and how they emphasize the body and the energy, jing and qi 3) Conclusion 1) Standing, holding your breath, sweating, jing to qi Recently I was philosophizing about "the foundation" in alchemy, qigong and meditation. When I have gone to train with different qigong masters, most of the other students are elderly, sickly, physically somewhat weak and the vast majority are women. Therefore the qigong training is more gentle, pleasant and relaxing. However, I've recently come to realize, that this is not how these qigong masters themselves trained. When you're young, fit, healthy and strong, qigong is not nice, pleasant and relaxing. It's brutal! When these teachers built their own "foundation", it's usually through long, very physically difficult standing meditation. Furthermore, it's through merciless continued breath holding. The "jing to qi" stage of course does contain the "transformation" of semen into energy. However, another meaning is simply that you go from "jing" (simply meaning the physical body) and to qi (the energetic body). This is done through starting out with grueling physical work, standing and perfect physical aligments. When you've then mastered all this, and can stand for a minimum of 10-15 minutes, you continue your standing practice until you reach 1 hour. Then your physical body is strong, your legs are strong, your jing (understood as physical body) becomes strong. To now take your awareness and development from mere physical training, or the jing level, you need to advance your awareness and training to the qi level. This is done through breathing. As you stand in the posture, you continually hold your breath again and again in the exercise. As breath is related to qi, holding your breath activates your qi. The combination of standing for long times in particular postures with merciless continued breath holding activates and builds your qi. You'll get warm and start sweating like crazy. After becoming accustomed to this, your jing (physical body) will be strong from long standing, and you'll have more qi than a regular person (built through continued breath holding). Finally, after having completed these two stages, you'll start to be able to feel the qi moving. It will first built in your dan tien, then it will start moving by itself. After doing this for a longer period, you'll start to become aware of your own qi. Firstly inside your body, then the meridians, then the organs. Later, outside your body, in the environment, around other people, animals, trees etc. I just realized that this is not really taught or emphasized with most teachers, because the majority of people coming are sick and elderly. They could never do this kind of training. Therefore the more gentle exercises are taught, for building and circulating the qi, clearing blockages and acheiving gentle healing and relaxation. 2) Different systems and how they emphasize the body and the energy, jing and qi Why does most qigong alchemy systems have this progression? From the physical body, to the qi? This is because if you focus too much on building the higher centres, the upper dan tien, you can actually deplete your physical energy, and thereby potentially your health. Therefore qigong systems have the idea of "overflow". You build an "abundance" of physical energy, and then you naturally let the energy overflow by itself. When the middle dan tien is then full, this overflow continues into the upper dan tien. After all dan tiens are full your development continues in spectacular ways; physical health, emotional well-being, peace of mind. In the yoga systems, there's a similar idea. You start with asana (physical postures, giving strength and flexibility to the body), then you also do pranayama (breathing exercises), and finally you do dhyana (meditation). However, in some yoga systems, the focus is more on the spiritual aspect (shen in qigong) than the physical body (jing). In Simplified Kundalini Yoga by Vethathiri Maharishi, you firstly activate the third eye chakra. This is to give the person awareness of the life force, attain peace of mind, and start to have the necessary mind-power to overcome bad habits (hurting themselves and others, physically or mentally). This is because morals are a emphasized A LOT, due to the thought of karma and of course harmony and duty to self, family and society. However, the next chakra that is strengthened is the muladhara chakra, the root chakra, the perineum (hui yin in qigong). Muladhara literally means foundation. Vethathiri said that everyone, no matter how spiritually advanced, must always do at least 2-3 muladhara-only meditations during the week. This is to keep the physical body strong and healthy, as well as maintaining a strong base for the rest of the energy system. So yoga (at least Simplified Kundalini Yoga) agrees completely with the daoist view that the foundation (jing, physical body, muladhara, hui-yin) should be strong. However, as Simplified Kundalini Yoga prioritizes peace of mind, meditation and of course morals, it's a speedier (albeit riskier in the daoist viewpoint) approach of opening the higher centres very quickly. 3) Conclusion For me personally, I've benefitted immensely from all approaches. The speedier approach in Simplified Kundalini Yoga was great for me, as I personally lean more towards meditation. You get tangible results very quickly, and can build up your physical and spiritual energy and awareness very fast. The slower approach in qigong I perfectly understand, and I've benefitted a lot from the gentle, pleasant approach to circulating and building energy. It's only the past couple of months I've realized that the brutal standing and breath holding actually has a lot of value. So it's something I've only started to experiment with. However, so far I can see it has a lot of power. If your foundation is very strong, your spiritual abilities won't come and go, depending on grace and/or karma, or whether you deplete your energy. It will be more stable, as it will be a result of overflow. If you go quickly into the spiritual level, and somehow deplete your physical energy, your development can go a bit topsy-turvy. So I value and have benefitted from all approaches, but only lately have I realized the benefits hiding in brutal standing and breath holding. I wanted to share this experience with all of you. Be blessed

Dear Dao Bums, Many of you might have read my former posts on Sri Vidya. I've since continued my journey. As always I'm looking for deepening as well as adventure. My adventures have led me to test out new avenues in Sri Vidya, namely occult spiritual skills. I've learnt one skill I'm now experimenting with, and am in the process of learning a second. This post will contain 3 parts: 1) Occult Spiritual Diagnosis Using The Goddes Bhadrakali 2) Occult Spiritual Protection As Well As Removing Negative Energy Forms 3) Continued Scope Of Occult Skills In Sri Vidya (Including Nagas or Snakegods) 1) Occult Spiritual Diagnosis Using The Goddes Bhadrakali I've spent now nearly 6 months learning this. First you get a Bhadrakali mantra initiation. Then you do daily mantra japa for some months. When ready you purchase a vamavarti shankha (left-hand natural conch). You then do prana-pratistha (infusing it with life force and Kali energy) on that conch for 8 days; 1 day with a big ceremony (2-3 hours), then 7 days with a smaller daily ceremony (about 1 hour). After having established a connection with Bhadrakali through mantra diksha and mantra japa, and then using this connection to do prana-pratishta on a natural conch, you're ready. There's a whole Kerala tantric system of using it. You simply need the conch, red flowers and a 5 wick diya (lamp). You can use it to get guidance and direction for life questions. You can use it to identify energy blocks holding you back (in money, health, love, sex, spirituality, any field), as well as get instant answers for which energy forms to use to remove those blocks (whether it's black magic, evil eye, evil spirits or a relationship issue). So far I've used it for myself, my wife and my wife's sister. Me and my wife asked it different questions, yet we both had the same energy block! That's was a huge shocker, as probability-wise the chances of getting the same answer using the conch is exceptionally small. So that means we've both been touched by a similar negative energy, it was the energy of a deceased person, who had been a great tamasic yogi during his life. However, we got different remedies to do. It's was super hard to go through with, but we managed. For my wife, we went back to the conch after doing her remedy for 3 days to check if it was fully cleared. However, only a layer of the block was cleared. The next layer was a different energy related to relationships. So she was directed to re-connect with 2 of her girlfriends. After doing that for 2 days, we checked again. This time the block was fully gone. She then asked about whether there was any energy block in another area of her life, but there wasn't. So she was all clear to move forward in a normal way. In my case I had to get a specific Rudra mantra. I will detail this in the next section. For my wife's sister's case, she asked whether she had an energetic block in her aura regarding finances. She got a yes. We then asked the nature of the block, it was something called "murti dosha". I was shocked when we got it. My wife and her sister were raised muslim, and murti means an idol. Murti dosha is when you daily and in a disciplined manner pray to a specific energy. You ask it for help, and in exchange for your dedicated worship, it helps you out. Murti dosha is when you suddenly and abruptly stop connecting to that energy, and the energy form gets offended. So I had to interview her a little bit "did you ever pray diligently to a specific energy form, asking it for help often, and making promises in return for that help?" - to my great surprise she said yes. I then asked her "did you then suddenly and abruptly stop connecting with it daily, and just leave it, even though it helped you, and you promised to give something in return, yet you didn't?" Again to my great surprise, she said yes. I was shocked, it didn't make any sense. No muslim prays to an idol. We then found the remedy for her, which was a specific Surah of the Qur'an she should recite 7x daily for 7 days to counter the block. After the reading ended, I asked her: "what energy form were you diligently praying to? And what did it give you, and what did you promise in return that you didn't deliver?". She explained that in a certain period of her life she was hospitalised and things were very bad. She then did diligent salah (muslim ritual prayer) and du'a (supplication or what we would normally call a prayer) to Allah, stating that if Allah helped heal her and get her out, she would always pray. Turns out she got well, yet after she was released she stopped doing salah and did other new age spiritual things instead. So the "murti" she had offended was Allah, who is a faceless and formless Divine Energy. I was really surprised and kind of shocked. But it made sense in some way. She had made a promise in exchange for getting well. She got well, yet she didn't deliver her part of the deal. It's really mind blowing what Kali can tell you through these rituals. Now for the next section. 2) Occult Spiritual Protection As Well As Removing Negative Energy Forms This is a 2 month training where mantras of Tvarita Rudra as well as Aghora Rudra are given. You also get Kavach as well as prayogas for using these mantras in occult ways. There are 3 modes: creation and the energy of sattva (the god Brahma), sustaining and the energy of rajas (Vishnu) and destruction and the energy of tamas (Shiva). Shiva takes many forms, again in 3 modes sattva, rajas and tamas. Rudra is Shiva's tamasic forms. So Rudra is the destructive energy (tamas), of the destructive energy (Shiva). I was told by Kali that Tvarita Rudra (meaning SWIFT Rudra) would help alleviate my personal energy block. I just got the mantra a few days ago and have been saying it all the time. So today I checked with Kali if it was enough and whether my energy block was cleared, to my great surprise I got a yes! Tvarita Rudra is indeed swift! Later in this course Aghora Rudra (Fearless Rudra) which is a very aggresive form of Shiva will be taught, Kavach which is an occult shield or armour of mantras will be taught, and finally prayogas or means of using these energies for protection and removing negative energy forms from yourself, others as well as places will be taught. Will keep you updated how it goes! 3) Continued Scope Of Occult Skills In Sri Vidya (Including Nagas or Snakegods) After experiencing succes with these occult skills, I've decided to learn more from this Kerala based Sri Vidya system. The next class is a yearlong free class: one is on Sri Vidya, the other is on Nagatantra. I'm very interested to connect with this specific lineage, as it seems it's a bit different from the other lineage I've been in. Karunamaya and Amritananda of Devipuram are more bhakti focused; simply do the rituals and daily japa to clear your karma, connect with Divine energy and in the end get spiritual liberation (moksha). So far it seems of course Moksha is also the final end goal, however this Kerala based school has also maintained a lot of its occult practices and skills (e.g. Bhadrakali conch spiritual diagnosis as well as Rudra for spiritual protection and removing negative energy). Further, I've for many years been curiously interested in understanding what all this "snake" business is. In South America they had snake gods, the vikings had the Midgårdsorm, there are many snake gods in Africa, there are snakes around Hermes' staff which to this stay still symbolises healing and the medical profession. In India, Nepal and Tibet they speak of Nagas, and in China they of course have the flying Dragons. The strongest and most powerful qigong I've ever learnt was Wu Long Gong or 5 Dragon Qigong from the Dragon Gate Lineage through Master Zhongxian Wu. Further, the Kundalini force is also symbolically depicted as a snake, and the most powerful meditation I ever learnt was Simplified Kundalini Yoga (SKY) by Vethathiri Maharishi. The young Guru from Kerala specifically says that Naga Tantra is exceptional for health and healing, so it's seem there's a connect with global snake cults (South America, Africa, Scandinavia, India and China) and health, power and healing (qigong, kundalini and now Naga Tantra). I'll keep you posted how it goes! If any of you are interested, here are the sign up posters for both of these 1 year long free online trainings.

Dear Dao Bums, Here is my experience with Tummo with Tulku Lobsang. I'll share in 2 parts: 1) Background & 2) The Course Itself 1) Background Since I was a child my father told me stories of naked monks in the snow of Himalaya staying warm through yogic siddhi power. How teenage tibetan monks had "exam" at school to see how many wet sheets they could dry with their body heat from sunrise to sunset using tummo. I learned from Tulku Lobsang that the accepted amount for a "good grade" is 21 sheets. In my late twenties I saw Tulku Lobsang on the show "Story of God With Morgan Freeman" where he meditates in a t-shirt in -5 degrees celsius seemingly unbothered by the cold temperature. Morgan Freeman wears cap, gloves and a big jacket. This reminded me of my desire to try out Tummo for myself. 2) Tummo Weekend Course The course was just 2 days. There was a lot of people, maybe 100 or so. I was there with one of my friends, who's also into meditation, energy work, out of body travel etc. The practical part of Tummo consists of physical exercises, breathing exercises and meditation exercises. The meditation method used is visualisation as well as focused awareness in your body. We meditated all together maybe 7 times at the course, and 5 or 6 of the 7 times both me and my friend felt very warm. We felt heat in our bodies due to the transmission from Tulku Lobsang. For me there was only 1 time I didn't feel much, and for my friend it was also only 1 time or so. So overall, we very both very happy with the course. However, I spoke to several other participants at the course. One was a girl sitting next to me, the other was a random woman I spoke with in a break. Neither of them really felt anything during the course. So my conclusion is that: 1) Tulku Lobsang is legit and does transmission for sure, 2) Whether you pick up that transmission is then apparently dependent on several factors. What these factors are, I of course can't say for sure. Both me and my friend have meditated with many masters for many years of our life, and have been exposed to spirituality since childhood. So it makes sense that in accord with previous karma (thought, words and deeds) you have built up a "vessel" in your soul to receive the transmission. The bigger your vessel to receive is, the more of the transmission you receive. I for example felt my friend received it much more than me. Interestingly enough, he's been mainly involved with Buddhist practices in his spiritual life, whereas I've been mainly involved with Hindu practices. Of course they're both branches on the same Dharmic tree, but maybe that's why he picked up more. He already is connected to the Buddhist stream to a much larger degree. The girl and the woman then maybe did receive something, however, their vessel to receive was smaller, hence what of the transmission they could pick up was proportionately smaller. So if you wish to try Tummo out, build your vessel to receive as big as possible through: 1) daily spiritual practice without fail (discipline - you reap what you sow, if you work more, you will in the end receive more), 2) have a big desire for the practice, the bigger the fire of your desire, the bigger your vessel to receive will grow, 3) be on the same "wave-length" as Buddhism, read about it, study, meet & connect with Buddhist people, watch interviews etc 4) when you finally learn Tummo, dedicate X amount of time to it daily for a specified period of time. The transmission is simply the seed, you need to water that seed daily for it to over time grow into a plant, then a bush, then a tree, and finally a mighty tree reaching far into the sky. Depending on your karma, it can take a couple of weeks, a couple of months, a couple of years, or a couple of decades to nurture that seed of Tummo into a mighty tree, allowing you to stay warm naked in the snow. I can say for myself, I think I will need at least 6 months to a couple of years of daily practice to be able to do that. I feel the heat, but there's still long to go to grow it so powerful. I wish you all the best with your practice!

Hey @snowymountains, thanks for sharing Very interesting stories indeed! I deeply appreciate the nuance, one story from "each side" of the question (it's psychological vs it's demonical). Super interesting. Seeing is believing! I didn't believe in any of these things and viewed it as complete superstition until it all happened to me. Luckily most of us don't have to go through these kind of dark experiences, hallelujah

Hey @Chang dao ling, he does come to India every now and then. Also sometimes Nepal and Bhutan. You can check out his tourplan here https://tulkulobsang.org/en/tourplan

Hey @Pyramidalcow, thanks for sharing your interesting perspective and curiosity. 1) There are indeed living traditions of exorcisms being done among the different Christian denominations. However, simply being religious or reading from a holy book is one thing, seeing and dealing effectively with the unseen world is completely different. It requires specific training over a long period of time to be effective. Just like knowing how to drive a car and having your driver's license is great, but rally racing is a completely different level. If a normal untrained person attempted to do a rally race at similar speed to the others, at best he would fail, at worst he would severely hurt himself or even die. 2) Yes, it's true that celebrities and influencers have a lot of people focusing on them, including negative attention. Many of them are also incredibly rich, just like you mentioned. However, interestingly, many celebrites are also incredibly miserable. They kill themselves, self-isolate, have severe drug and alcohol addictions, in and out of rehab, divorce here and there, affairs, marriage-hopping etc. Will Smith was seen to be a happy, healthy and well-liked celebrity for many years - then he slapped Chris Rock. A normal person wouldn't do that, it showcases a lack of inner stability. Similarly if you look at Ariana Grande, she's incredibly beautiful and has had success since a young age. However, I saw her at some evening talk-show, where she was incredibly anxious and talked in depth about her anxiety and about panic attacks and not being able to breathe. Those were just 2 quick examples. Look at sport-stars - even though they make more money in their 20s and 30s than a normal person could spend in their entire lifetime, many are broke, fat, injured, worn-down and miserable at 40. Of course I'm not saying that this is all due to evil eye or black magic, however I'm simply trying to nuance your perspective. You mentioned celebrities as a kind of argument against the dangers of drawing attention to oneself, citing their financial success as the main argument. I agree that many are financially succesful, however finances is just one domain of a succesful life. Love, relationships, meaning, happiness and inner wellness are some examples of other important domains, where being a celebrity doesn't necessarily guarantee sucess.

Hey @dindin, thanks for your message. Yes, anger was also something my paternal grandfather struggled with a lot, as do my wife and her entire family. I definitely think you can start to make peace through these rituals. We've both felt a change since we did the rituals last year. Her general family dynamics have also improved and become more harmonious. I know in the subcontintent there is a tendency that everything needs to be "a specific way", usually by your forking over your cash and surrendering your power to someone outside yourself, usually a guru or priest. If this authority truly has your best interest at heart, and they have knowledge and power, they can help a lot. Unfortunately, due to poverty and corruption, that is usually not the case. The vast majority are just mindlessly and mechanically "going through the motions" to take your money. If I were you, I would advice you to take matters into your own hands. Take the time to learn japa, puja, tarpana and havan yourself. Take responsiblity for your own life, empower yourself. No one from the outside is going to come and save you.

Dear Dao Bums,I'd like to share my experiences with ancestor worship, as all as hear your experiences with ancestors. A hindu holiday called "Pitru Paksha" (Fortnight of Ancestors) just finished, it was 16 days in total from the full moon on the 29th of September and just concluded here on the new moon 14th of October. In this period I did particular ancestor practices each day consisting of mala japa (mantras recited using a rosary), puja (prayer ritual), tarpanam (water ritual) and havan (fire ritual). I'll share my experiences in 4 parts: 1) My personal bias against ancestor worship 2) My reason for trying ancestor worship 3) My experiences with ancestor worship 4) Conclusion 5) Questions for you 1) My personal bias against ancestors worship Growing up very influenced by monotheistic ideas, I was always very biased against ancestor worship. Why worship spirits, when you can worship Almighty God? So I always kind of looked at worshipping anything but "The One Surpreme God" as a kind of waste of everyone's time at best, and on par with black magic at worst. 2) My reason for trying ancestor worship In spite of the above bias against anything related to clairvoyance, chakras, energies, spirits, higher beings, ancestors etc, I decided to try it. The reason being that over the course of my life, in spite of the above mentioned bias, it was practical life experience which taught me the validity of many of the above things. Through SKY I learnt that chakras are real, through terrifying experiences I learnt that black magic & evil spirits are real, through Hindu rituals, mantra & meditations I learnt that these things indeed work and can improve your life spiritually and materially. So because everything Hindu-related I tried actually "worked" practically, gave me results & experiences, I decided to give the Hindu version of "ancestor worship" a go this Pitru Paksha holiday. The reason being that my horoscope indicates "Pitru Dosha" or "Ancestor Problem". Another motivation to curiously be open to new things and actually try it. 3) My experiences with ancestor worship I'll share a bit about what I experienced from each modality below. 3.1 Mala Japa I committed myself to 110 malas of 2 different mantras during Pitru Paksha (as advised by Hindu astrologers). The first was "Pitru Dosha Nivaran Mantra" or "Remove Ancestor Problem Mantra". The second was a Vishnu mantra said to give Atma Shanti (Soul Peace) to troubled ancestors, namely Dwadakshara Mantra (12 syllable Vishnu Mantra). The first day while reciting my 7 daily malas of the Dwadakshara Mantra for Pitru Atma Shanti, I felt a peace come over me unlike any peace I've ever felt before. It was so deep, profound and restful, I never knew such peace existed. The next day during practice, instead I started having spontaneous memories of my maternal grandfather. This continued for about 2-3 days and brought me a lot of joy to remember. It was all things from when I was very young, because he passed away when I was only 11 years old. After that a period of about 4 days started where I would have memories of my paternal grandfather. I loved him very dearly, even though we mostly saw each other when I was a kid, and again the last 2 years before he passed away in my mid twenties. Further, the last 2 days, I felt some negative feelings related to wanting to love your family and truly loving them, but also feeling very annoyed and aggressive with your family because of their negative traits. After that I saw sporadic memories of different family members for a day or two, and after that a new phase started. During the remaining days, whenever I sat for japa of this mantra I wouldn't have memories, instead I would have feelings. E.g. feel restless, annoyed, irritated and many such minor negative feelings, however it was quite intense. As soon as I finished my 7 malas it stopped, and I returned to the mood I had been in before starting japa. On the final 16th day, the deep, profound and restful peace again enveloped my being, and I knew that I had helped my ancestors overcome their spiritual troubles and give them peace. As well as cleanse and purify their physical and spiritual imprints in my body and soul. The Pitru Dosha Nivaran Mantra was extremely powerful and energizing to say, even though it was a long mantra and took deep concentration to remember. It also took much, much longer to recite the 7 malas each day, as the mantra was so long. During the entire 16 day period, I mostly felt energized while doing it, and only a few times I felt restlessness and at another time extreme boredom. 3.2 Pitru Puja I did the puja daily with my wife, it's a very short puja where you offer your ancestors "the 5 offerings" (panch upachara) namely 1) sandalwood powder (gandham) for the earth element, 2) flowers (pushpam) for the space/energy element, 3) incense (dhupam) for the air element, 4) the flame of a lamp (dipam) for the fire element, 5) fruit (naivedyam) for the water element, 6) mouth freshener (tambulam), 7) finally burn camphor (kapoor) to purify the mind (manas). My wife has middle eastern background, and many of her ancenstors in the past century have fought and killed and been killed in wars, as well as endured torture, unjust imprisonment etc. During the first day of puja, I "felt" or "saw" 7 ancestors enveloped in a golden aura coming on my side, and I saw what must have been about 150 ancestors or so envoloped in a red aura standing on her side. When we offered the food, I felt a physical sensation of something "grabbing" into the food in my hand and "taking a portion" of its energy. As each day progressed, fewer and fewer ancestors would be there. My number reduced from 7 to 4, then to 2, and finally 0 would come. For her it reduced from about 150, to 120, to 70, to 40, to 10, and finally 0 would come. It was already after about 1 week of daily puja that 0 would come. I didn't know exactly what that meant, but I took it as a positive sign that they had been satisfied and were in no further need. We still continued the daily puja for the entire period, though I didn't feel like anyone came after that. 3.3 Pitru Tarpana During pitra tarpana, you offer water with sesame seeds. As a man I offered black sesame seeds, my wife offered water with white sesame seeds. You say a mantra and pour the water into a plate. I felt different positive & pleasurable sensations when offering to different ancestors (pitrus), but I couldn't identify a pattern of which ancestors triggered which sensations. Another thing I noticed was that the lamp we had burning (from the puja, we always did the two rituals right after each other) would seemingly change color and shine different lights! I was focused on pouring water into the plate, so I couldn't watch it closely, but it seemed it was a particular great grandfather or great grandmother, then the lamp would shine a dazzling rainbow light with shining silver specks in it. This happened about 3-4 times. I just took it as a positive sign that this ancestor received our offering. 3.4 Pitru Havan Towards the end of Pitru Paksha my wife's sister visited us. She unexpectedly called my wife up one day and said she'd like to visit. She stayed and stayed and stayed, even though she had work next day (also against the normal pattern), and late in the evening I said we needed to do a ritual and if she would like to participate. To our great surprise she happily obliged to participate in a fire ritual for the ancestors. We were both extremely surprised, as that's not something she would normally be open to, and especially this late on a weekday. So off we went and did the fire ritual, and she completely changed during the ritual. She has a general sad tendency in her mood, but when we did the ritual, the more mantras we offered into the fire, the more energized and passionate she became. Towards the end as we were to finally pour in all the remaining offerings, she jumped up and down and around the fire almost screaming the mantras. She was fired up!!! It was quite an interesting experience. Finally, on the new moon and last day of pitru paksha, me and my wife went alone to the nearby bonfire place to perform the "full" havan. We had performed a very shortened version to accomodate her sister's participation last time. It was extremely powerful. It was as if the fire was alive, it eagerly ate up all offerings, and on different ancestors names it would change color (the flame would be yellow, red, orange, white, blue) and it also changed its pattern (sometimes circulating in the fire pit, sometimes staying in a particular corner, sometimes suddenly rising much higher, then suddenly falling much lower) etc. Sometimes the offerings in the pit "exploded" which was very unsual, luckily we weren't hit by it. We took it as a communication from the ancestors, which ones we had a good karma with, who did we have a bad karma with etc. At the end of the ritual you walk clockwise 3 times around the fire, and at that point my whole being dissolved in extremely restful peace. I was shocked, because we were both in a quite energetic and dynamic mood, but like lightning, very suddenly and powerfully, when we circled the fire I was plunged into extreme peace. 4) Conclusion After completing all of the above sadhana (spiritual practice) during pitru paksha I must admit that I am now a firm believer in ancestor worship. It didn't feel spooky, scary, unnatural or any of the prejudiced ideas I had about connecting with "spirits". It felt very normal, very natural. It's still your family, they just don't have a body anymore. I truly believe you can really change yourself, your life, your destiny, your karma & your relationships by ancestor worship. My wife has always had an extreme rageful temperament, so has her family, at the drop of a hat they can explode. Since the very first day we started Pitru Paksha, she has been much, much calmer. I don't think she's gotten angry even once since, which is extremely unusual. Usually every day or every 2 days she will have a short ragefit. I believe now it's all the ancestors who died young in the war and are still full of violence, anger, rage & agression about the war, torture, imprisonment etc, they need someone to "see" them. See their rage, see their pain, see their anger, only then do they feel seen and understood, and then they can "let go" and move on. Now after all our prayers, they have found peace. Then they can move on, instead of "lingering around" my wife and her family, simply waiting for the right moment to "jump in" and express their rage through their descendants. We'll see how it goes from here, but I have a profound respect for ancestor worship now, and can imagine doing it every holiday suitable for it or when otherwise needed. 5) Questions for you What's your experiences with ancestor worship?

Hey! I really enjoyed reading through this thread I've watched all your youtube videos and read everything on your website. I personally know several people IRL who've taken and been very happy with your course. I really like your approach on everything being simple, physical, tangible, long term as well as the focus on health, tcm, herbs, lifestyle and so on. I would love to ask you about 2 things in your teaching system, namely 1) astral travel, 2) seeing the energies in the patients' meridians, organs, dan tiens as well as of course around the patient. What are your personal experiences about the above 2 things, what are your thoughts on it related to health, cultivation and dan tien development? Will definitely get in on the action and join your course probably the one in august. Look forward to hearing from you, All the best!

Yes, it's very true. I too didn't believe in any of this... until it happened to me! Thanks for chiming in

@idiot_stimpy That depends on the definition. Some systems will say yes, some will say no. I wil personally say no. In Simplified Kundalini Yoga (SKY) kundalini is the life force energy experienced as a vibration. It's of course somewhat related to breath and heat, but it's independent from it. Compare this to tummo and lower dan tien, which is related to blood and food qi, cultivated specifically by holding the breath again and again (thereby over time building more red blood cells). It's much more physical and related to the body.

@idquest Yes, I agree, when you reach a certain level spiritually, time and space are not a barrier anymore, as we're all connected spiritually outside time & space. "Where there are channels, there is blood. Where there is blood, there is tummo heat. 4 fingers below the navel and deep in your body near your spine is the door of your inner fire, to open and access it. In your sexual chakra or genital organs is the source of your inner fire" - direct quote from Tulku Lobsang continously said during the course during our meditations. Firstly it is felt in that particular area 4 fingers below the navel and deep in the body. Then you spread it using breath holds, physical exercises and of course visualisation. I felt it like that too: in the main area, then to each are we spread it to, slowly filling the whole body and finally merging with eternal space and filling that with flames too.

Hey @idiot_stimpy, thanks for your message! Yes, the idea about tummo is similar to the idea of lower dan tien in qigong and daoism. The idea is that the bigger and stronger you build your tummo fire or lower dan tien, the better your physical health will be. Furthermore, the bigger you build it, the more it opens the other channels and dan tiens (chakras in buddhism of course). If your lower dan tien or tummo fire is at maximum level, everything else on the spiritual path will be quite easy, no matter if it's opening chakras and dan tiens, mastering dream or sleep yoga, bardo yoga, healing yourself or others, acheiving deep meditation etc. This is because all these skills are dependent on chakras and channels (or dan tiens, meridians and 5 organ qi in qigong). Just take meditation as an example: when your middle channel is open (sushumna or chong mai) deep meditation is effortless. You can feel it physically, as both your nostrils will open completely (normally one nostril is more open, and the other is more closed). Then you feel incredibly refreshed and energized, very harmonious, and your senses effortlessly go inwards. A big tummo fire or strong lower dan tien will automatically open and unblock your central channel. So if you've mastered tummo, and you want to meditate, it will be very easy, as your central channel is open. Similarly dream yoga is dependent on the throat chakra, sleep yoga is dependent on the heart chakra, sex yoga is dependent on the navel chakra and sexual chakra. That's why Tummo is the base of many practices, just like lower dan tien is in qigong.

Dear Dao Bums, I would love to hear your story and experience of serious, long term, daily standing practice The pros, the cons, was it worth while, what did standing do to you / for you? Physically, energetically and spiritually. In order to kick of this exchange of personal, lived experience, I will also share my own experiences. However, please refrain from sharing theories, opinions, views of different schools, your viewpoints, these are all interesting of course, but I would like to keep this thread completely clean of that, and instead solely focus on lived, personal experiences. The end goal is to collect actual "data" on standing from real people, and see which patterns emerge over time, with more and more people sharing their stories. My Own Experiences So Far, 4 parts 1) 2017, First Encounter With Standing I first heard about the idea of long, static, standing meditation in 2017 from Lam Kam Chuen's book "Way of Energy". One evening during my deployment to Africa with the UN, I couldn't fall asleep. I thought to myself "okay, let me try this standing thing". I stood up and did my best, and managed to stand for what felt "like a really long time", realistically it was probably between 10 and 40 minutes. My experience was that each time it felt like "it's impossible to stand any longer, my shoulders are burning too much, my legs are too tense" or whichever physical thing was annoying me, I used my willpower to keep standing anyway. Each time I managed to "hold on", it was as if a kind of breakthrough happened, and the physical tension was relieved by a surge of energy. This happened maybe 5-10 times, and each time I felt energy surging in my body. When I finally finished and laid down to sleep in my tent (yes, it was a primitive army camp), I had the best and deepest sleep since maybe my teenage years. When I woke up in the morning and felt so incredibly refreshed, I made a mental note to myself "I must remember this standing meditation, there is really something here, some day I will explore it further". 2) 2018, standing as a supplement to lovemaking In 2018 as part of a daoist lovemaking and sex qigong retreat in Asia, there were some general qigong exercises taught to supplement the sexual exercises. There were 2-3 moving exercises which took about 5-10 minutes, and the other part was 4 standing, static exercises, each held for 5 minutes, totaling 20 minutes. When I tried these 20 minutes of standing, the instruction was not to blink at all during the whole time if possible, but if the eyes started watering, you could blink. To be honest I didn't experience anything at all, other than it felt kind of weird to just stand still and stare. Every 5 minutes you switched position, which was a huge relief on the shoulders. At this point I made a mental note to myself not to explore standing any further, as I didn't feel like it did anything for me. 3) 2022, 1 hour squatting monkey standing challenge I heard that the fastest way to build the lower dan tien and open the microcosmic orbit was through 1 hour standing squatting monkey. I decided to give it a go. It took me about 1 month to work up to standing for 60 minutes. What I experienced progressively during that 1 month while practicing was that I would get warm, start sweating, I would feel qi surging through my body, I would feel warmth in my lower dan tien, I would feel vibration in my microcosmic orbit, and towards the end I started seeing a light between my eyebrows. So I felt a lot of stuff going on energetically and spiritually. However, the posture didn't feel healthy to me at all. It felt like I was training my body to be slouched over because of the way you're standing, and the shoulders are slightly forward too. Instead of putting my physical body into alignment, I felt like I was training it to be out of alignment. In the end my conclusion was that I would revisit the practice in the future if I ever became desperate to work on my third eye, but for now I would discontinue the practice, simply because it didn't feel good for my physical body. I felt other practices I knew were faster, easier and just felt better physically. 4) 2023, 100 days standing like a pillar challenge This is the most recent, and is in progress. This is also what prompted me to start this thread, simply because I would love to hear your experiences. I'm about 31 days in as of today, and have had some quite interesting experiences. The first 25 days were progressively getting more and more hellish. It felt like my body simply was not designed to stand. No matter what I did, I just couldn't get my body into proper alignment, and especially my shoulders were killing me, no matter what I did. I searched online (including on this forum), and read everything I could about standing. I actually felt like there was not too much quality information out there; most was people either bashing it as a waste of time or downright dangerous, or people praising it like the holy grail. That's also why I wanted to make this post, I want personal, lived experiences, not people ideologizing. I want us all to share our own experiences to over time build potentially build empirical evidence. The only reason I didn't quit, in spite of me feeling like I was going through meaningless suffering daily, was that I found a facebook group called "1000 hours of standing". I joined the group and started reading. Someone had made the general rule "10 hours of standing will give results, 100 will give good results, 1000 will give best results". However, I would say I found the majority in that group saying that long standing is meaningless and just creates more tension in the body, or even worse, injuries. At that point I had accumulated almost 9 hours of total standing time, and I wanted to quit. That 10 hour rule motivated me to try a bit more. Lo and behold, a day or two after reading that post, something happened during my standing. Suddenly I felt my left hip "pop open" is the best way to describe it. It was as if there had been some kind of tension in there, preventing my hips from "hanging", and thereby preventing my lower and upper body from being connected and aligned. That same day, just towards the end of my standing (about 40 minutes), my right hip popped open. I was shocked! It was as if my body had been multiple different compartments of tensions, and with this hip opening (thanks only to time and gravity, it was completely outside of my own volition to do), it felt like my entire body became one, connected, physical whole. The last 4-5 days or so have been shocking to say the least. The hips both now "fall" open by themselves after about 5-10 minutes of standing, my whole body falls into alignment, and I can just stand and stand completely effortlessly. Everything has fallen into place. I stood 60 minutes yesterday, completely effortlessly! I am shocked. So I have something physical to show for it, at least for my self. Before I started, I just couldn't stand no matter what I did, it was literal self-torture. However, now my physical body feels more and more like one integrated and well-aligned unit, making it possible for me to effortlessly stand. I am yet to see what will happen from here energetically and spiritually, but I can see now how standing lends itself to meditation. The body clicks into position, and I can completely focus on simply meditating. I also feel very grounded after standing. But there are still about 70 days to go, so I will just have to wait and see what will happen (if anything). However, I would love to hear your experiences from long term, daily standing The good, the bad, the ugly, everything, just your personal lived experience. If standing cured your cancer, I want to know about it. If standing killed your grandma, I want to know about it. Look forward to hear from you! All the best

Thanks bro! God bless you