Nuralshamal

Pretty interesting interview I saw today (link at the bottom). She explains how self-cultivation and connecting to the universal energy will create spiritual abilities naturally through overflow and practice, as well as the blessing from the master. She then compares it to deity possession and keeping spirits, and how this way of getting spiritual powers actually drains your jing, qi and shen over time. So unless you know how to refill, you will shorten your own life span, decrease your vitality, decrease luck and wealth qi, and when whatever you're calling and relying on is done with you, it will move on to your family members and others close to you. In short, more or less an explanation aligning very well with the visions I got earlier, which I shared a couple of days ago Also makes sense compared to other Chinese masters like Zhongxian Wu (Master Wu), Chunyi Lin (Spring Forest Qigong) and Lie He (Ling Gui). They all look healthy and vital for their age. As does the woman in the interview I'm about to share (haven't stumbled across her before today - she's called Liu Xia). Also if you take a look at Tulku Lobsang Rinpoche who teaches tummo and is very focused on what he calls tantrayana and body-focused practices, he looks very healthy and radiant for his age. Here's the interview, it's just 2-3 minutes. Take heed my brothers and sisters, be mindful of cultivating your jing, qi and shen daily through qigong form an authentic lineage practice taught by a true master who radiates and exemplifies health, peace and vitality.

Dear Dao Bums, Question for you guys Do you have any interesting experiences with Jason Read and his Jasper Lake Maoshan Daoist Magic? I have seen a few posts here on Daobums about his books on daoist magic, but none about the actual daoist magic training with him. My own few observations A fellow qigong brother here on the forum that I'm corresponding with notified me about Jasper Lake Maoshan daoist magic training. I checked out his webpages and read all that I could, and am now reading through his book "Practical Daoist Magic". Webpages: I found the webpages extremely interesting, and I definitely felt what he's sharing to be real, authentic and substantial. I tried meditating on a talisman he's posted to connect with the energy of "the fire star" or Mars, and within 5 minutes I felt heat pouring into my body and getting heated up. I was extremely suprised how fast and powerfully it worked. I took this as a sign that what's he's sharing is truly legit! Book so far: The book is the same story in the sense that it feels very legit and authentic. All the history and mythology he's sharing is perfectly in line with what I've been taught by Master Zhongxian Wu (who I've learnt from for more than 6 years), as is his explanation for yin/yang, 5 elements, 8 trigrams (bagua) stems, branches etc. of course with some slight variations in their personal interpretations. His beginning practices "to cultivate magical power" is also similar to what I've learnt from Master Wu, namely building the lower dan tien, purifying & strengthening the 5 organ system, "retriving" or calling back the spirits of your organs as well as daily mantras for purification (mind, mouth, body, surroundings, pacifying spirits, calling upon the golden light etc). The idea of jing/qi/shen as well as mantra, mudra, visualisation and posture is also similar. All in all I feel it to be very real. What I especially enjoy is that as a westerner he explains things very clearly so that it's easy to understand from a western viewpoint. He also divulges the "secrets" of how things really work and explain the whole process as well as the end result. This is something my chinese teachers never do, they simply encourage you to practice, shoot down your questions, and never explain linearly and in a straight-forward way what things are, how they work, what the process is like, what the result will be or how to measure your progress along the way. The only thing that really made me stop and wonder, was that at some point in the book he says that 30 minutes before and after practice you shouldn't eat or drink (pretty standard advice), however then immediately after he says drinking "only cool water" is allowed. This is a huge shocker! Everyone knows that Chinese never suggest cold water, it should be either hot or lukewarm. This was a big suprise for me, and made me wonder and question how everything could be feel so real and authentic, yet this one basic thing was completely "off" for how Chinese qigong/TCM/cultivation usually rolls. Actually it was such a great shock that it made me question the authenticity of everything. Even though the fire star talisman worked (which I felt to build his credibility), and the explanations feel legit too (which also builds credibility) the advice to drink cool water was so off that it made me wonder and question everything about his whole story of training in China & Malaysia etc. This is what made me write a post here on the forum, I wanted to speak to my dao brothers and sisters and hear your experiences (if any) with Jason Read and his Jasper Lake Maoshan Daoist Magic training. I look forward to hear from you!

@johndoe2012 Thanks for sharing your personal experiences! Deeply appreciated Glad to hear about you and your mom's progress. Family harmony is so important in so many ways. All the best! Cheers

Dear Dao bums, I've been reading this blog on daoist sorcery on/off for a few years. There's a lot of interesting info on there. The "main thing" is that the teacher running the site talks about using Ku Man Tong to win the local lottery in Singapore. Honestly I never really took it seriously, I just thought it was kind of hilarious that someone would spend so much time and energy spiritually on something which seems so borderline useless - why not just make money in a normal way? I know Singapore is a well-developed country, surely it would make more sense to work your way up career-wise or start your own business instead of trying to win the lottery. But again, I know for sure I'm personally biased against so many things in life due to religious/conservative upbringing - eating meat, gambling, drinking alcohol, illicit sex, these were considered the end of the world morally and karmically, and a sure-fire way to self-destruction. However, now that I'm grown I see that these things are seen as completely "normal" by a lot of people, as no big deal. "Gambling Gods" and talismans are even a thing in Chinese Magic. So I work to let go of all this conditioning and just be open. Anyway, I just wanted to ask you; did any of you ever try contacting this guy? If yes, what was your experience with him? (him as a teacher, as a person, and of course whether his magic works). Here's the link to his blog: https://taoist-sorcery.blogspot.com/2025/03/my-fate-life-is-up-to-me-not-god-heaven.html I do think he seems quite sympathetic and well-informed in most of his posts, including the one I linked above. Let me know if any of you has experience with him

Dear Dao bums, I've been reading this blog on daoist sorcery on/off for a few years. There's a lot of interesting info on there. The "main thing" is that the teacher running the site talks about using Ku Man Tong to win the local lottery in Singapore. Honestly I never really took it seriously, I just thought it was kind of hilarious that someone would spend so much time and energy spiritually on something which seems so borderline useless - why not just make money in a normal way? I know Singapore is a well-developed country, surely it would make more sense to work your way up career-wise or start your own business instead of trying to win the lottery. But again, I know for sure I'm personally biased against so many things in life due to religious/conservative upbringing - eating meat, gambling, drinking alcohol, illicit sex, these were considered the end of the world morally and karmically, and a sure-fire way to self-destruction. However, now that I'm grown I see that these things are seen as completely "normal" by a lot of people, as no big deal. "Gambling Gods" and talismans are even a thing in Chinese Magic. So I work to let go of all this conditioning and just be open. Anyway, I just wanted to ask you; did any of you ever try contacting this guy? If yes, what was your experience with him? (him as a teacher, as a person, and of course whether his magic works). Here's the link to his blog: https://taoist-sorcery.blogspot.com/2025/03/my-fate-life-is-up-to-me-not-god-heaven.html I do think he seems quite sympathetic and well-informed in most of his posts, including the one I linked above. Let me know if any of you has experience with him

Dear Dao bums, I've been reading this blog on daoist sorcery on/off for a few years. There's a lot of interesting info on there. The "main thing" is that the teacher running the site talks about using Ku Man Tong to win the local lottery in Singapore. Honestly I never really took it seriously, I just thought it was kind of hilarious that someone would spend so much time and energy spiritually on something which seems so borderline useless - why not just make money in a normal way? I know Singapore is a well-developed country, surely it would make more sense to work your way up career-wise or start your own business instead of trying to win the lottery. But again, I know for sure I'm personally biased against so many things in life due to religious/conservative upbringing - eating meat, gambling, drinking alcohol, illicit sex, these were considered the end of the world morally and karmically, and a sure-fire way to self-destruction. However, now that I'm grown I see that these things are seen as completely "normal" by a lot of people, as no big deal. "Gambling Gods" and talismans are even a thing in Chinese Magic. So I work to let go of all this conditioning and just be open. Anyway, I just wanted to ask you; did any of you ever try contacting this guy? If yes, what was your experience with him? (him as a teacher, as a person, and of course whether his magic works). Here's the link to his blog: https://taoist-sorcery.blogspot.com/2025/03/my-fate-life-is-up-to-me-not-god-heaven.html I do think he seems quite sympathetic and well-informed in most of his posts, including the one I linked above. Let me know if any of you has experience with him

@stirling Thanks for sharing your thoughts I actually enjoy our exchange. Yes, I agree, this is also the view I was philosophically taught and forced myself to subscribe to most of my life, that we are Brahman or the Absolute. Which I still agree with I also really like and enjoy Buddhism and see all the benefits it brings, including its views. It's super helpful for meditation and self-inquiry, and really great to go to the Absolute. However, I always felt it weird and in complete opposition to my own personal basic experience of life, as well as that of the vast majority of people; firstly that the one true God doesn't exist, and secondly the individual as a True Person (as opposed to a construct) also doesn't really exist. The very first spiritual experiences I had was of this unique, individual Self, the Atman in Hinduism, the Ruh in Sufism, I felt it to be self-evident that this is the basic, fundamental reality for all of us. A bear, a cat, a fish, they're individuals moving about in the ocean of existence, full of other individuals. All one in the ocean, but each with their unique characteristica. Just like two raindrops (even though water) are completely unique in structure if you zoom in with a microscope. Similarly with snowflakes, or grains of sand, or even just two rocks. If you go and speak to people and ask how they experience themselves and their daily life, they indeed experience themselves as an individual interacting with other individuals. Of course great scientists and great saints see and experience reality in a profound way that the majority might not, but if what they come up with is in direct opposition to the basic experience of reality, of course we should be curious as to why, and which of these findings it really makes sense for us to take and live by as our own. Simply to hold it up to our own basic experience and see where it matches up and where it doesn't. Not as a final conclusion, but a temporary hypothesis. Just to avoid being mindless followers and instead think for ourselves. And I generally feel (myself included) that it brings more harm than good to take the conclusions of others from thousands of years ago and praise it as absolute truth, even if it doesn't match our own basic experience of life and of ourselves. I think it should be the other way around: firstly we investigate our own basic experience of life, then we sample the conclusions of the wise (scientists and saints) and see how it helps explain our experience. If I had done this I would have been a much happier and fulfilled man today, instead of living on group-think (no matter how well-intentioned) for decades. But of course I had to go through all these experiences in order to find my own truth, which is now resulting in my personal fulfillment and happiness. It kind of makes sense, that at the end of the day, fulfilling your own dreams will give you more personal happiness and satisfaction than fulfilling the ultimate dream of a complete stranger from 1000s of years ago. It's kind of like taking a tiger and training it to shave, beg for food, meditate and be a vegetarian, it's just silly. That's not the level it's at. It needs to live in harmony with it's evolutionary step, in Hinduism and Buddhism its personal dharma. Only then will it firstly enjoy personal fullfillment and happiness, but it will also serve it's intended purpose in the cosmos (the Brahman). Similarly that's what happened to me and honestly the vast majority of white, western people I've seen in my life. They're really a tiger, but force themselves to live like sheep. Or they're really a fish, but force themselves to live like a lizrd (just to give an example that's more neutral, I see the tiger vs sheep could indicate a bias, which wasn't my intention). Just meaning that they pursue something else than the basic truth of their life and station (as intended by the cosmos), so firstly they never find true happiness, and even worse, they actually avoid fulfilling their true dharma. If you're intended to be a lifelong celibate monk on a mountain, go for it. You'll achieve happiness and also serve your dharma. However, if you're intended to be a businessman, a family man, a warrior or soldier, a security guard, a tantric sex master, a scientist, you'll never find happiness as a celibate monk on a mountain, and most importantly you'll actually let down the intention of the cosmos. My intention is not to say that any path is superior, as I obviously think it's true for some people to go down that path towards the Absolute, my intention is simply to share my own personal experience in order to hopefully inspire people to think for themselves, and realize that if they're really a bear deep down, go live a bear life, if you're a fish, go swim, if you're a bird, go fly. Instead of trying to be a cat when you're really a dog If you're really an Absolutist, go for it! Surf in the Absolute, enjoy the cosmic experience however, if you deep down long for love, great sex, living a sucessful life materially, that's what you should go for, not what someone else prescribed a completely different people 1000s of years ago. So if your soul is really a Buddhist, go for it Stirling!! glad you're on your true path

Hey, thanks for chiming in! And thanks for clarifying. I like your use of lowercase self and uppercase Self, great way to illustrate it. Of course many viewpoints on this exist in different traditions. Maybe I can clarify a bit more what I meant with the Sufi view, which is so unique. Then again, it’s quite similar to standard, western ideas as well, going all the way back to Ancient Greek philosophy too, so it is indeed shared by many. Eternal, uncreated, unborn individual Self, or individual consciousness we could also call it. Incarnates forever in an ascending manner as mineral, plant, animal, human being and beyond. It’s always untouched and unaffected by experience. Then of course the well-known universal consciousness, maybe this is the capital letter Self you mean? Feel free to chime in here However the ‘self’, ego, pearl, what I was referring to before is a created thing, it’s a ‘soul organ’ if you will, the connector between the untouched and uncreated universal consciousness, manifesting as the individual consciousness, contacting or connecting these two eternally untouched consciousnesses (which are in reality One, just mentioning them for clarity) with this physical world. Not the ‘ego image’ we carry in our minds, the true, objective reality manifesting as the physical world. This soul organ, connecting organ if you will, is affected by everything we go through. Childhood, trauma, schooling, you name it. However, it can be developed, also through spiritual practice. This secret organ is what allows one to be functional in the world, yet not of it. Not as an ego or mental construct or idea, but as your true soul. It’s what’s alluded to in all our fairy tales - the individual goes through a journey and ends up transforming to a higher level. It’s your personal, magical adventure. All the beauty and magic of overcoming the obstacles we go through in life, and the material and spiritual rewards we earn, all are included. Most western people will never find true soul satisfaction through the eastern denial of a True, individuated self. I’m not denying it’s possible, of course there are great things to be learnt, but in the end most flush out the baby with the bath water. That’s what I’ve seen with myself, and also from a lifetime in spiritual circles (Hinduism, Buddhism and Sufism). I made a post about this difference between East and West recently, I see it as so important. This unique individual soul organ was what I was referring to earlier, not the psychological construct that is the false, ego-self (lower case, simply an empty idea, no substance). This soul organ is made of spiritual substance, soul, it feels incredibly at ease, contactful, personal and just soul-ful, fulfilling and is referred to as ‘the pearl beyond price’, the Mohammadan pearl in Sufism, and many different forms all over the world, especially as jewelry or alchemical substances. The above was the ‘cherry on top’, the magical missing piece in my own spiritual journey

Yes, that sounds very true. I don't want to bad mouth him or ruin his reputation, he also does a good deed by sharing and translating all this stuff, I don't hold any real grudge, contempt or animosity towards him personally. I just saw this pattern over many months, and was of course personally hurt by it (my wife freaked out because I had never had black bags under the eyes before), so it is indeed quite serious. I simply wish to give people a fair warning, so they can be mindful and make an informed and conscious choice

Dear Daobums, I've cultivated daily under Jason for more than 1.5 years now, and wish to give you all a warning, which is in pretty stark contrast to my former positive messages. WARNING He's a very knowledgeable guy regarding this exceptionally niche subject "chinese folk magic", and he's very good at explaining things to westerners. You can also get results from all his methods, provided you do daily cultivation in a serious manner, doing the 49 day cycles etc. HOWEVER, I feel a need to share this warning. If you see him in his interviews or join some live classes, he looks quite pale and always has big black bags under the eyes. In other words, he doesn't exude the vitality that's usually associated with high level internal alchemy and cultivation. This is of course a huge warning sign, it has also been mentioned on the forum before. Chinese Magic is super tangible, you can physically see and feel it, health wise, money wise, relationship wise, career wise and so on, including health. So him not exuding health is not a good sign at all. Epic health and longevity is pretty much the unique trademark of the chinese branch of magic and cultivation if you compare it to other systems around the world. Having cultivated with his teachings daily without fail for more than 19 months and interacted with him in classes, I got two visions I'd like to share. Dark Entity Siphoning Your Life Force Firstly, he's connected to some sort of dark spiritual entity siphoning his life force. That's why he looks so pale and black bags under the eyes. In my whole life I never suffered from this, even during brutal army life with zero sleep. Whenever I was in contact with him, suddenly my face also turned pale and lifeless, and I had huge black bags under my eyes. It would last for weeks and even months. Only after not being in contact with him for several months did I go back to normal. Secondly, you might know I'm also into Kabbalah and Sufism, which focuses on developing the ego so it gets refined over time and is transmuted into soul. This happens through working with oneself and one's ego actively. This is not there in the same way in Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism and so on, here you either transcend your ego, seek to destroy it, or just regulate it or tame it somewhat. It's not the very specific a grain of sand into a pearl transformation known from Sufism. For many soul qualities, there are 2 variants: ego variant (negative, before working with oneself, base state for most people on planet Earth) and the soul variant (positive state, either inherited or developed through inner work). They're usually referred to using archetypes, just like in fairy tales: e.g. Gremlin (trickster, devoid of fun, only gets joy from tricking and manipulating others), which is the fake ego variant of True Joy (being joyful without cause, just as a natural state), Satan or "The Beast" (hateful and vengeful, wishing to in the end destroy all that is good), which is the fake ego variant of true inner power (actually serving humanity), and there are many variants like that. E.g. lust is transformed over time to fulfillment, anger is transformed to strength and so on. His ego is a Goblin: meaning he's hoarding gold (all this knowledge of cultivation and magic), yet he doesn't understand the true worth of it. Meaning he's simply hoarding for hoarding's sake, instead of actually applying it. If he applied just 1% of what he knew (he's super knowledgeable), there's no way he would exude this lack of vitality, nor be the victim of some dark, spiritual entity. Lastly, he also tricks all people connected to him in a manipulative way. This is to "get them off their game", which then in the end opens the person to allow this dark entity to also siphon their life force. He has a pattern, it never fails. Let me explain and give examples. Manipulative Mind Games When it comes to classes, he will announce them. Everyone will pay and mark it in their calendar, spending time and effort to make time for it, looking forward to it etc. On the day he will post nothing and do nothing, simply wait back until confused people who had looked forward to the meeting start desperately messaging "what's going on? when's the event? where's the link?". This "chaos phase" is where people go into negative states, where they focus their attention on Jason, and this is where the evil entity can come in and feed off of them. Then he will post an excuse after sufficient people have been negatively impacted and the entity has been fed. It's the same if you make an agreement to talk with him. He will set a day. Then on the day he will wait for you to reach out. Then he will not respond. Finally after sufficient energy had been sapped he will cancel and come up with an excuse. Then you schedule a new day. On the day he will suddenly ahead of time say "i'm ready now". Then you reach out, he doesn't respond. Suddenly he says "oh sorry, something's come up, can you meet at this other time instead?". You go out of your way, change your daily schedule to agree. Then before that time he will suddenly call and say "it's now or never, something else has come up". So it's a kind of manipulative mind game, and it's each and every time, it's a pattern. It's just not one time, it's every, single, time. And it's the exact same pattern. It's a method this dark entity can eat the life force of all these people when they "spiritually" depend on him or open themselves to him, and then force them into negative states through the mind games. Conclusion So if you're into all this chinese magic, by all means, you can study and learn a lot from the rare materials and methods he posts, but just be extremely cautious if you decide to interact with him personally. A true master is content, as they practice what they preach and find true inner fulfillment, whereas this Goblin attitude shows that he has not harvested the true fruit of cultivation, namely contentment, chivalry, honesty, compassion and wishing the best for oneself and others (not to mention vitality!!!!). And it's nothing like the "testing" usually done by chinese masters; this I've unfortunately experienced first hand many times as well, where they test your commitment over time. The difference is the intent (testing to see your true mettle actually with the noble intent of eventually passing knowledge and power on to you, vs manipulating to get someone off their game and let the dark entity feed on your life force). Disturbingly for a self-proclaimed maoshan black magic master, he might not even know this is happening to him, or that the entity is making him do it. Or even more disturbingly, he might be fully aware, and still cooperate with it for whatever knowledge or power it gives him and consciously suck so many people's vitality. So be warned and tread wisely my dear brothers and sisters. Personal Epilogue I had personally really hoped I could be friends with him and skip this whole terrible chinese mind game culture, which I don't feel suits the straight forward western mind at all. Honestly I feel it's a waste of time. Even if you give someone the most powerful method, they would never be able to use it, as no one has the discipline to do daily cultivation. I see it all the time, I've taught almost 100 people SKY now, opening their chakras, empowering them, and no matter how blown away they are at the courses when they feel the energy, and they feel the boost to their health and happiness, none continue as daily practitioners. It's just a one-off experience, something to tell their friends. I think of these 100, maybe 2 actually knew the worth of "the gold" they were given and still use it daily. I would love to just talk to a "normal white guy friend" in a direct manner, exchanging experiences and growing in knowledge. Or even as a coach or mentor, seeing your personal life, energy and destiny, wishing you the best, and helping you reach your full potential with a personalized, individual approach. But instead it's been 19 months of cultivating with a goal of actually going somewhere "real" with Maoshan, instead of the more "pop" (albeit powerful and effective) health and healing qigong that's out there, and I have been blown away at these "forbidden" methods actually working, honestly I have, but I feel it's more due to the 12 years of daily meditation and 10 years of daily qigong cultivation I've already done, which allows the methods to work, than due to mentoring or coaching. If any of you out there know real masters, with real power, skill and cultivation, who're also "normal" in the sense they don't play games, you can actually talk to them directly, they want to help you, and they have the skills and power to do so, please let me know Wish you all the best, God bless you, be mindful, stay safe and take common sense precautions on your journey. Judge a person by their actions, which show their true character, not their words, which is just an attempt to show a certain image or facade.

Dear Daobums, Felt like sharing some of my realizations about God, Soul, East, West & the Enneagram. God & Soul - East 'n West In general Daoism, Buddhism and Hinduism as cultures are very collectivistic, it's all about the family, tribe, clan, caste or group. Further, the religions strongly emphasis the great, all-encompassing, impersonal Absolute. The universal consciousness. The Dao, Nirvana & Brahman. In Western culture and philosophy there's an enormeous amount of focus on the individual consciousness. The person, the soul, the individual. In the East it's all about giving everything up, melting, dissolving, disappearing, remove everything until only the universal remains and we escape this world and the issues of our personal life. The aim and focus is always the impersonal. In the West it's all about the development of the individual: virtues (things to cultivate), sins (things to avoid), achievements, development, personal fulfillment, it's all about the individual life journey in this world, the personal adventure, overcoming challenges and obstacles, evolving and acheiving your dreams. The aim is always the individual. The Enneagram In the enneagram there are 9 types of individual consciousnesses, or types of individual souls. According to the Diamond Approach and the Diamond Logos, a synthesis and further development of sufism, buddhism, daoism and modern psychology, we actually have 2 types, which gives us very important hints about why we came to this world. Each type has an ego-mission and a soul mission. The soul mission is why our soul came to this world, what we wanted to do, what we wanted to create and contribute, what we wanted to develop and experience. The ego mission is how our soul lost track of this due to family dynamics and instead got trapped in a particular soul quality. It got fixated on saving the family. The idea was to temporarily help our family to be more harmonious, to fix it, so we could then afterwards continue our soul mission. Instead suddenly one day we couldn't make the "switch" anymore between this world and the soul world, and we got lost/trapped/crystallised in the ego. This is between 0-7 years of age. Then from 7 to puberty, we grow and develop our ego psychologically, becoming functional members of society. Then in puberty we relive the same pattern, our soul reawakens temporarily, now instead of it happening as family dynamics, it's social dynamics with our peers. Here we actually live our soul-life for a little while, but towards the end of puberty the same thing, same pattern crystallises again. Here the only 3 natural, built-in God given opportunities remaining to re-awaken are souls effortlessly are romantically, sexually, when we get children and they from 0-7 years of age naturally live as souls, when we get grandchildren or great-grandchildren, or when we experience the death of our loved ones or similar huge crisis. Apart from these natural, built-in opportunities, spiritual practice is the last avenue of actively pursuing development. If you're an enneagram type 1, your ego-mission is to save the family by giving them "pink essence" or the soul quality of appreciative love. Pink, sweet, fluffy, feels like candy floss. However, your soul mission in this life is actually being a 4, living as your Point of Light, your atma, your individual, immortal consciousness, your soul identity. If you're an enneagram type 2, your ego-mission is to save the family by giving them "golden essence" or the soul quality of precious, merging love. Golden, sweet, thick, merging and relaxing, feels like golden honey melting you. However, your soul mission in this life is actually being a 5, living as your inner Diamond Guidance, seeing life with precision, clarity and precision, and guiding accordingly. If you're an enneagram type 3, your ego-mission is to save the family by giving them the "pearly stupa" or the soul quality of being an embodied, soulful person, effortlessly in contact with this World, yourself, other people and Being at the same time, being completely at ease, in autonomy and generating essence in this World as well as the world of Being. Contactful, personal, pearly, autonomous and at ease in your body. However, your soul mission in this life is actually being a 6, living as the formidabel, indomitable, unbreakable, unshakeable grey, white and brilliant citadel embodying steadfastness, discipline, solidity, protection and support. If you're an enneagram type 4, your ego-mission is to save the family by giving them the "Point of light" or the true, meaningful, immortal soul-identity. It gives a sense of meaningfulness, everything is magical, and you feel completely like yourself. However, your soul mission in this life is actually being a 7, embodying the Diamond Dome, the mind of Being, effortlessly seeing life and Being from innumerable angles, accepting, seeing, understanding and integrating understanding of all the domains of life and Being. If you're an enneagram type 5, your ego-mission is to save the family by giving them the "Diamond Guidance" or objectivity, clarity, precision and guidance. However, your soul mission in this life is actually being an 8, embodying essential strength, power and passion in this world. If you're an enneagram type 6, your ego-mission is to save the family by giving them the "Citadel" or formidabel, indomitable, unshakeable and virtuous way of life feeling supported and protected by Being. However, your soul mission in this life is actually being a 9, embodying the boundless states of the Absolute, the living Daylight and the Divine - a feeling of absolute simplicity and normalcy, everything is okay as it is. If you're an enneagram type 7, your ego-mission is to save the family by giving them the "Diamond Dome" the mind of Being, effortlessly seeing life and Being from innumerable angles, accepting, seeing, understanding and integrating understanding of all the domains of life and Being. However, your soul mission in this life is actually being a 1, living as pink, appreciative love. If you're an enneagram type 8, your ego-mission is to save the family by giving them embodied strength, power and passion in the Body. However, your soul mission in this life is actually being a 2, living as precious, golden, merging love. If you're an enneagram type 9, your ego-mission is to save the family by giving them the boundless state of pure Being, the Absolute, complete normalcy, everything is ok, everything is normal. However, your soul mission in this life is actually being a 3, living effortlessly, completely at ease, in contact with yourself, people, the world and Being, as the true, soulful and essential person. Implications On Ego vs Soul Life In The East & The West No matter which path you take, you will never feel personal fulfillment with it. No standardised path is a 100% fit to your unique, individual personal soul. For instance, imagine a 4 walking the Hindu, Daoist or Buddhist path. They're desperately trying to show the world and family the importance of Being your unique, individual soul, until they can level up and instead reach the Diamond Dome of the 7, the Mind of Being. Until they've graduated from being a 4, the path will actually work directly against them - everyday they're trying to show everyone the importance of embodying your unique soul, yet they're daily practicing to renounce this magical soul and instead go to the boring Absolute. Similarly, no matter which standardised path you follow, it will never quite "fit", and your soul will never really individuate and develop and embody your full potential. For instance, just look at every single prophet or Guru that ever existed. Did any Guru ever show up and simply preach "just follow the standard paths that are already there, that is more than enough". Moses showed a new path, gave the laws. Buddha revealed a new path, rebelling against a lot of the standards going on at the time. Jesus showed a radical new path from Moses, even rebelled against "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". Muhammad also went completely against the current establisment and suffered a lot for it. If the standard paths are sufficient, why do these great messengers of Being always go against them? They even go against their family, something that's quite a shocker, as most religions preach the importance of blindly obeying and following elders. Actually all of them rebel against family, religion, society, everything. That's also why they faced so much resistance in their time and day, as lazy people just want to maintain status quo out of laziness, or simply as mindless sheep followers. So if all our great examples didn't just follow the established paths, but broke out of them to reveal something new and unique, yet very individual, just compare the teachings of these great people. Everyone was a very unique person. They might all be in contact with Being, but they filter it through their unique soul. Moses embodied patience, yet he also had quite the temperament, and punishment and judgement was a big part of his message. Buddha was all about equanimity, compassion, clearing your mind and going into the Absolute. Jesus for instance embodied love, forgiveness, peace and power. Muhammad embodied steadfastness, inner support, human tenderness, yet also a sense of worldly and practical wisdom, knowing what it took to be functional in this world with trade, wealth, politics, women, sex and war. Hard to say, but Moses was probably one of the emotional types, either 2, 3 or 4. Or could've been a steadfast 6 or an 8 with a temperament. Buddha was probably a 5 or a 9, focused on a clear, objective mind as well as normalcy, just going into the absolute, let go off the craziness of this ego world. Jesus could've been a 2, very loving and helpful, soul mission of 5 - giving clear, precise guidance. If you read some of his sayings, there's a lot of clear wisdom and understanding there about life. Muhammad was so grounded, so practical, yet so heartful as well. Could've been a 6 maybe, steadfast and enduring. Of course God knows best. My point is simply to share what I've found in my journey, namely that just following a pre-set path will probably not do it for most when you're at the final stages of dismantling the ego. My Own Journey When I was I child I was immersed in the wisdom of the prophets (Christianity & Sufism) as well as the teachings of the Gurus (Hinduism & Buddhism). When I was a teenager I immersed myself in Christianity & Yoga, until I found the Diamond Approach and Diamond Logos which I felt integrated all I knew, and gave me the tools needed to experientially and in a bodily, felt and tangible sense discover these Truths inside myself in a real, soulful and essential manner, instead of a mental, theoretical, conceptual manner. In my 20s I was overwhelmed by practical life, and felt that always focusing so much on "how I felt" was actually detrimental to my functionality, I instead needed practical tools on how to navigate work, money, becoming and officer in the army, moving away from home, moving in with my girlfriend from a completely different culture, getting my bachelor's in business and figuring out how to function in all this practically. In my late 20s I finally felt like I managed to suceed practically in this physical, material world. Got deployed 3 times with the army, rose in the ranks, got prestige, money and authority, figured out girls, sex and relationships, and felt like finally I had managed to create that practical stability and know-how I didn't have in my early 20s. Similarly I felt I "hit-home" spiritually by leaving aside for a little while the whole ego-transformation, psychology and development, and went into the dimension of the life force through Qigong and Simplified Kundalini Yoga. It was practical, it was tangible, and it gave measurable benefits to my practical life. My sleep improved, my health improved, I had boundless energy, could heal myself and others, had epic sex through sexual qigong and lovemaking, get girls, felt at one with the universe through SKY, I was content, I felt like I had found what I had struggled with for 10 years - how to be a man in this world, health, wealth, love & happiness through right living and spiritual practice with the chakras, meridians, dan tiens and life force. Then I decided it was time to settle down, get a home, get a steady and stable girl - lo and behold, none of my life force practices could navigate this new jungle that opened up. She was a traumatized refugee from the Middle East with a completely different psyche and idea of what home life should be like, and there was a political change with the army's international engagements leading to my flourishing career niche slowly drying out. Suddenly everything was lost: home was chaos, work projects were dwindling, money was evaporating from my substantial savings, my health suddenly got messed up and no herb, mantra, mudra or qigong could heal it. What happened? The Universe forced me to get back into this whole Journey of emotions and ego-transformation. I stubbornly tried to use what I felt I had mastered, what gave me stability in my 20s, but the more gurus and teachings I sought out, my old go-to for fixing myself and my life (spiritual teachings and practices), the more I felt I was so incredibly dissapointed with these gurus - they said there were at such a high level, could do everything and were God's gift to humanity, but I realized they were just egos on steroids. They were still trapped in ego, defending a self image, trying to save the family, wishing to homogenize everything and everyone and shape the world into their own personal ideal - none of them felt human. This was kind of a crisis for me - the oasis of spirituality that had nurtured and supported me and fueled my trek through the harsh desert of life suddenly started poisoning me instead. What to do? Helplessly, I reluctantly got back in the Diamond Logos and the Diamond Approach and started working with my Being, my Essence, my Ego again. Suddenly I realized I was a 6 - my early family constellation had lacked a sense of grounding, protection, stability, security and guidance. None of my parents had a father figure when they grew up, and they had me as their first child when they're were only 20. So I had spent my whole life trying to provide my family with stability by always showing up, always doing the right thing, always being a peak-performer in school, sports and the army, always being this tremendous force of support and protection for everything and everyone (in the end, that's what soldiers do, they protect others). I had grown tired of Qigong, yes it had healed me, but I was sick and tired of the teacher not showing up in a personal manner, embodying his unique self. Instead he actually shuts down everything and everyone who embodies their unique soul, hitting them figuratively with his teacher-stick, as he himself grew up in communist China in a culture that pretty much says there is no individual, it's all collective, there's the great, mysterious impersonal Dao. I was looking for protection, support and guidance outside of myself (as a 6). Similar with the Buddhist teachers, Hindu teachers, none were real, individuated, soulful people - they were egos with superpowers (healing, prediction, psychic powers etc), but they didn't know about the journey of the individual soul. After so many years of disapoointment, I realized I was looking for myself (stable, supportive, protective) outside myself. I was trying to support everyone, but no one was supporting me to be my true self. The Universe did this on purpose - just like Muhammad smashed all the idols in the Ka'aba, Almighty God, The One Being, was smashing all my false idols. Like God had taken me through mastering my body, my mind, my energy, my practical life, now it was time to level up and start mastering Being itself - starting with my Ego as a 6. My whole ego is built around the family hole of "no support", meaning all my soul qualities and essence are all built on emptiness, invisiblity, no legs, no grounding, just floating around ready to collapse at any point. This had been my blindspot for all these years, always unconsciously dodging this soul-destroying hole of "no support" and as a survival mechanism desperately supporting the people around me (family, gf etc). However the only way through the hole is to jump in it. Just sit in the unbearable pain, watch and pray as Jesus said, mindfully observe as Buddha said - just BE. Then slowly out of the hole of no support, the support of Being slowly comes. Just like Josef in Egypt when he was imprisoned unjustly by Pharaoh's wife. He just sits and waits in the hole. However, day to day the plant grows, until finally it reaches the top and he manages to get out. That's an allegory for how to deal with our soul - just BE. And Being will slowly slowly, day by day start metabolising our ego content and produce the ingredients needed to heal us. No spiritual path or teacher could've brought me through this, only myself - but the guidance of the prophets and saints and of course the Diamond Approach and Guidance helped me figure out what was going on. All those years I spent trying to save my family, fix them, my every thought, feeling and action steered and motivated by my ego-mission. Now I see that support is inside myself, my own Being supports me. It's not social, it's not from family, it's not through mirroring or merging, it's from Being itself. Only by staying with my experience, literally Being with it, not by manipulating or fixing, that's what will grow the plant in the hole, produce the elements needed to administer healing. And now I see that I was actually always stable, loyal, steadfast, enduring, patient, formidable, uncompromising with Truth, but I thought I needed to give it to others. I actually just need to give it to myself. Now I feel like myself, like when I was a child - normal, natural, supported from the inside. Now I can live what my soul came here to do, just Be. As a 9, just journey into the boundless domains of the Divine, everything is ok, no drama, all is good. I see it with my wife too. She's a 5. Whenever we see her family, she starts philosophizing and analysing how to fix them and their life. Whenever we've been away from them from a while, she just wants to live passionately in her body, dance, have nice food, enjoy and celebrate the beauty of living a juicy life as an 8. But the slightest trigger will get her back, stuck on her ego-mission as a 5 to give clarity and precision to others to save them. Me2, suddenly I can get triggered and devise a plan how to support someone through their hard time, being there for them, guiding, protecting and supporting them. But that's actually not what I'm here for - I'm here to enjoy the Absolute. Conclusion Any path you follow can only take you so far. If you're discontent as an Easterner with a Western path, or a Westerner on an Eastern path, fear not, you're not alone. Our family, cultural and religious background, our social condition, our whole psyche is set up differently from each other. The enneagram as well as knowing your ego-mission and soul-mission can help you get back on track, reconnect with why you came to this world and not get lost. God bless you

Hey everyone, Just wanted to do a small update to what I've written earlier about the pros and cons of Devipuram, Karunamaya and Sri Vidya Tantra Peedom. Karunamaya To Karunamaya's "pros" I would add that he personally as a sadhaka has really put in the work. His mantra dikshas (initiation) are actually the ones I felt I got the most energy from. I feel like he's probably done the most sadhana personally out of the different schools, lineages and teachers I'm mentioning - aka he's the most powerful. Devipuram I would say a small critique of Devipuram since last - they cancelled an onsite program because out of 20 aspirants they deemed only 6 qualified, and they wanted at least 10 to do a program. From a practical perspective, it kind of makes sense. However, if you remember from last, I listed it as a con that there's very few programs, you have to wait several years. So if they were already super busy, it would make sense, however with them not really doing a lot of programs, it seemed odd and somewhat lazy. Further during their explanation of why they cancelled it, their main argument was that if other people from around India saw sri vidya students from Devipuram not being "qualified" (like I said, they said only 6 out of 20 were qualified), e.g. not doing all steps properly, that would reflect badly on Devipuram. So in short, it was actually an ego-reason! They care more about their own social standing and reputation than actually helping other people advance in sadhana. Compare this to Vethathiri Maharishi (founder of Simplified Kundalini Yoga, SKY) who in his early days as a guru took a 3 hour bus ride just to awaken the kundalini of an aspirant. When he got there, the aspirant wasn't even home! He had forgotten the appointment and gone to the city to see a movie in the cinema. Then Vethathiri waited for 7 hours until that person came home, awakened his Kundalini, and then went home. He even instructed my SKY teacher that even if there is just 1 person wanting to learn, you should teach. Something I've followed as a SKY teacher too. So his main motivation and concern is helping and assisting his fellow man. Compare this to Devipuram: slightly lazy and ineffective, main motivation is their ego-pride, social standing and reputation in Indian society, and even with 6 qualified students they would rather wait and have the students be inconvenienced than themselves hold some workshops. In short, they want others to carry "the burden" / the suffering instead of themselves making an effort. A person's behaviour, love and treatment of his fellow man is the only true measure of spiritual development in my opinion - not powers, energy, status, convenience, authority or anything like that. So felt like Devipuram made a wrong choice there, showcasing their true motivations. I feel like their whole approach is actually not focused on Sri Vidya, helping sadhakas advance, helping people and so on, Devipuram itself as a political project is actually their main concern. Compare this to the founding Guru Amritananda, he really wanted to spread love, joy, bliss and Sri Vidya. That was without a doubt his main motivation. Devipuram was just an extension of that. Think about all the social taboos he broke, all the criticisms he faced, he didn't care - he kept pursuing the spread of love regardless of race, religion, nationality and social standing. Sri Vidya is the most secret and occult Goddess worship, all the mantras and methods were highly secret, only taught to respected men over 40, just like Kabbalah. He opened it to all, and gave everyone mantras, methods etc, even people from other races and religions, no discrimination, we're all one. And all the nudity, eroticism and sexual methods, India is already super conservative, all brahmins, priests etc, all really critiqued him. Yet nothing could stop him. Just like Moses, Jesus or Muhammad. Moses was in the desert with wife and kids, he could've just stayed and enjoyed. But prompted by God, he had to endure so many tests, so much suffering, and even after managing to free the people, he had to endure their troublesome nature for 40 years in the desert! And he only saw the Promised Land, he never even entered. Like Jesus too, tortured, ridiculed, spat on and put to death. Even Muhammad, he was very respected and had high social status. He lost all that. The first 3 years after his revelation, he was spat on, they threw rocks at him, he lost all his status and respect, but he still soldiered on. I feel that's a great testament of a real man - truth over comfort. Only with the strength given from God can someone endure things like that and still soldier on. Amritananda as well. Vethathiri too, he also faced severe financial struggles and social ridicule, but that didn't stop him. They all kept on keeping on, following Divine Guidance, to help and uplift the very people that directly attacked and opposed them. Rama also - he could've gone against dharma and the vows of his mother, and just stayed in the palace. But he followed Dharma. Again, when Ravana kidnapped Sita, he could've just gotten a new girl, but instead he fought a whole war to restore dharma. Impromptu poem about truth over comfort: fight fight fight, fight with all your might, keep doing what is right, fight the good fight Sri Vidya Tantra Peedom I would change almost 100% what I said last time. I would not advice anyone to go for any of their free programs. Their paid programs are good, very technical and precise, however super slow. They spend 1-2 hours communicating what an average educated westerner would communicate in just 5 minutes. The best approach I've found is that, say in a 2 month program, you simply attend their "practice sessions" which are about 1x/month. The whole 2 month program you can get in just 2 hours, instead of 1 hour a week totaling 8 hours. And make sure it's paid. Here they're friendly, helpful, respectful and professional. In the free programs, my God, it's complete insanity. In all of my life I've never suffered such cruel and inhumane treatment. And I was 14 years in the army and deployed more than 3 times to warzones! It's like because it's free, they feel like "they want to make you pay", but instead of money, you give away your basic human dignity. So I would advice any sane, normal person, especially from the Western World to only opt for paid programs and thereby preserve your dignity as a person. The abuse, cruelty, inhumane and bad treatment on the free programs are torture to the human mind, heart and soul and completely divorced from what spirituality is supposed to be. There's a completely split between what they're teaching and how they themselves act as people towards you. I will say that I saw 2 very friendly, loving, helpful and just actually "normal" people volunteering, however the main people were exceptionally cruel, borderline evil to be honest. I dare not dream what they would do in a real position of power. Conclusion Now I've shared a bit further my experiences. My own purpose of course is simply to help as many people as possible - giving as clear, real, truthful and honest feedback about my personal experiences. So you have the best possible facts available before deciding if Sri Vidya is something for you. Of course you could experience it differently, we're all unique after all. But now you have at least 1 truthful testimony And lastly I will just say in general about Sri Vidya - it's really good it's so cozy to do the pujas, homas and tarpanas together. I feel Hinduism is just such a family-friendly religion. It's so much fun to do the tarpana (water ritual), it's like you're a child all over again, playing. Because in the beginning you build a figurine out of water and turmeric (again, it's just like being a child again, remember when you were little? Producing things out of clay was fun, for no reason, no ultimate objective, it's just play, it's a fun, creative expression). When you've molded it, now you have to aim and "shoot" the mantra energized water, and then you need to make sure the figure is completely melted again by the end. In the beginning of a 41 day mandala (daily tarpana), you might not be able to melt the whole thing, as you're simply not that skilled in shooting the water. However after a while you become a master, and you just melt that thing in no time. It's good, innocent and joyful fun it helps awaken your atma, your soul, your Point of Light, your spark, your innocent soulful nature of pure Being, free from concepts, ideas, self-images, ego and conditioning. Similarly with the fire rituals. Why do we enjoy bonfires? It's just cozy to hang around. And now you can sit in nature with your loved ones, under the trees and shining sun, or at night under the shining stars and clear sky, and have that cozy moment together, playing, throwing things into the fire, and at the same time it's worship. It's uplifting your spirit, producing energy, attracting positivity to your and your life. The mantra energized smoke from the purified offerings and incense all go up to the atmosphere, changing the whole aura and energy field of the place you live and indeed the whole planet. Similarly with puja. I remember when I was a kid (just 4 years old) my dad took me to a village in India for 1 month so he could meditate intensely. When we were there, he bought puja things we could use at home. I just remember when we got back home again, I just loved walking around the house ringing that big puja bell. For no reason - it was just fun It's fun in a very simple, basic, innocent and very soulful way. It's fun to light the camphor and wave it around. It's fun to do the rituals, and it's so cozy to do together as a family. Also because it's active, everyone can get involved so they don't get bored - the kids can shoot water during tarpana too, or help throw things into the fire during the "swahaa". Hinduism is really wonderful in that way. It reawakens that joyful, soulful innocence. I would say it reawakens your atma In the end it's not about gurus, lineages, politics, money, organisations, workshops or classes - it's about you, your soul journey, your joy, bliss, love and fun, you enjoying your time here on this beautiful, green, God-given Earth, living a fulfilling life and enjoying yourself, your friends, family and relationships, and living in natural, daily contact with the Divine within you and around you. God bless you!

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 Dao Bums, I've already detailed my "journey" with lucid dreaming since I was a teenager here: Part 1: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/53847-sleeping-qigong-and-lucid-dreaming/ Part 2: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/55610-my-experience-with-tulku-lobsang-medicine-buddha-dream-yoga/ Today I want to share some more recent experiences and insights especially pertaining to the importance of the match between you as an individual and the particular practices, teacher and lineage you learn from. Since my last update this is what I've done lucid dreaming wise: 6 months of daily medicine buddha, tummo meditation and nightly lucid dreaming as taught by Tulku Lobsang Rinpoche. 6 months of "golden light dream travel skill" as taught in Maoshan. Buddhist Practice: Here my progress was very linear. I started with about 1-2 lucid dreams a week with low control, then it just slowly increased to 3-4 dreams with more control, then ending with about 5 dreams a week with some pretty good control and interesting insights. Daoist Practice: I got a formal initiation quite some time ago, and it had been about 1 year of daily recitation of the "golden light mantra" alongside its meditation, before I stopped everything else in order to go "all in" with Maoshan. I first intended to try just one 49 day cycle and see how it matched up against my former buddhist dreaming practice. In the entire 49 days I think I had only 1 lucid dream. I was quite surprised - I had formal initiation (something I didn't have at all with the buddhist practice), on top of that I had cultivated the mantra, meditation and talisman used for more than 1 year before starting the dream practice associated with it. After the 49 day cycle, I felt an inner kind of "discipline" arising, like I wouldn't quit before I reached success. So I went on for 6 months with continous daily golden light mantra recitation and meditation, and nightly golden light dream skill. However, in the entire 6 months, while I did feel the power of the golden light mantra recitation and meditation increasing, I never had any lucid dreams. In the entire 6 months I had only 3. Personal Insights Looking back I tried to understand what happened. Looking even further back, I saw that even though trying different dream practices for 12 months (6 months buddhist, 6 month daoist) I never reached the same success as I did with a Bön method I did for just 1-2 months. With the Bön practice, I just read it in a book. I never even met the teacher face to face, nor got a formal transmission or initiation. Just reading the book was the only "transmission". Yet to this day, it's the one thing that just works for me. This inspired me to do a kind of meta analysis of all the spiritual practices I've done. I've tried a lot of things, something I've also been critiqued for both publically here on the forum in threads as well as in personal messages here. I saw that of all the practices I've gone through since 2013 (when I made the commitment to daily dedicated spiritual practice for the rest of my life - before that I had been practicing a few things sporadically since about 2003), there was a really small "greatest hits" list that just "worked" for me. 1) Simplified Kundalini Yoga (SKY) First one was Simplified Kundalini Yoga (SKY) I started in 2017. Since the very first day, I just hit home, I found personal satisfaction, and felt like I found "what I had been looking for" spiritually all my life. Since then, this has been my main daily practice which I never stopped. 2) Talisman Healing Qigong Second was "talisman healing qigong" with Master Zhongxian Wu in 2018. I was super sceptical about healing, actually didn't believe in it, but just by chance there was a chance to attend a workshop. On the workshop I was quite surprised that it seemed to work. However, when I did the 49 day cycle at home, I practiced on family and friends, and to my great surprise - it just worked! The word spread, and random people started calling me for healing. After this first 49 day cycle (this was just 1 talisman), I've since learnt and practiced 5 talismans (one for each element). It feels like a solid, reliable support for me - it's just there, it just works, and it was from day one. Just the whole surprise and power of it has also made it a mainstay in my practice - use it daily to bless and energize food, drink, sometimes if I'm with family and friends and they ask. 3) Bön Lucid Dreaming Method Just by chance, I read a book on lucid dreaming in 2021. I tried the usual "red syllable" in the throat method, I tried since I was a teenager, it never worked for me. As I read on in the book, there was a very simple Bön method where you visualise a crystal. To my great surprise, it just worked! And it stabilised, I predictably had lucid dreams every single night from that day. I was blown away! It was huge for me, decades of reasearch, reading, studying, workshops and failed practice was a thing of the past, it just clicked. However, I felt I got progressively more tired during the daytime as the days went on, this made me fearful, as I remember Master Zhongxian Wu critiquing buddhist sleeping and dreaming practices during one of his retreats, saying night time is for rest. So I stopped the practice, and my energy returned. 4) Becoming a SKY Master This was in the late fall into early winter of 2021. I went to the temple in India to get my last initiation of activating all chakras and learning as well as blessing and training to become a master myself, to help others progressively open their chakras in the SKY way. Similarly, it just clicked. Since that day I've initiated about 70 people, about 30 family and friends and 40 strangers on workshops. Every single one felt the power of Vethathiri and SKY, it just works. I'm amazed each time, the power just generates and flows through me (I'm just a vessel). I cannot even imagine how powerful Vethathiri must have been while in the physical body. 5) Bodily Pleasure of the Goddess, Sri Vidya This was more of a surprise, I gave it a shot on the recommendation of a close family member. With Raja Shyamala I felt a bodily pleasure in meditation I had never felt before, it was so incredible. Then I reached the Sri Meru Navavarana Puja (worshipping the golden 3D pyramid version of the more commonly known 2D Sri Yantra), and was blown away. I was so blissed out I could barely lift my arm. It was however incredibly time-consuming (2 hours daily), so haven't done it since completing my first 41 day mandala. But it's nice to know it's there and available. 6) Maoshan Black Magic Very recently some parts of the "black book" of Southern Maoshan has been posted as an online class. I've tried a few of the methods (even though I must admit I was quite scared and of course directly opposed to all forms of black magic), but realised it honestly wasn't that different from all the mantras, talismans and qigong methods I've tried before. It just depends on your intention: if you wish to help alleviate the suffering of yourself and others, while avoiding hurting yourself and others, there's not really anything to oppose (from my usual religious/spiritual perspective that's against black magic) about the method. Usually black magic is done using "impermissible" means (e.g. filthy and blasphemous objects and despicable acts with the intention of selfish gain to the detriment of "the greater good" (other living beings, nature, the universe, your fellow man)). However none of these are in the methods I've tried. There's been 1 particular practice in there (using mantra and talisman) that's honestly blown my socks off. This has also been a game changer for me, and opened up my mind and perspective about what magic is and what it can do, instead of just being "against it" in a very black/white way. Conclusion After these 12 years of daily comitted spiritual practice, there are just 6 items on my list. These are things that are reliable, secure, available and just works. When I compare that to ALL the teachers, teachings, practices, workshops and lineages I've been through, my God, those particular practices are simply precious pearls, so hard to find, so hard to come by and exceptionally rare. The list with all the things I've tried that just flat out doesn't work, or didn't work for me, or didn't really impact me or my life in any way - it would have a LOT on it. When I philosophize over the reason behind it, the only thing I feel arise in my heart is just the feeling of the importance of "the personal connection". Your soul is very particular and unique, just like a custom made lock. Only a very specific key can unlock it. You can insert 1000s and 1000s of keys, but no one will fit and open your soul, UNLESS it's one of these rare and precious pearls, gems hidden across this Earth for your soul to search out, earn through effort and ethical living, and finally receive to transform yourself and your life forever. I needed to roam, to explore, to cultivate adventure, to sample, but having now sampled so much, I feel that I now value these few practices much more. I think I will shift my focus to going further and deeper with these few precious pearls at least 80% of the time, then staying 20% open for new practices. If I had just "shut down" shop when I found SKY, I wouldn't have found these other precious gemstones, but on the other hand I can also see how over the past 4 years I've probably divided my attention 40/60% in favor of adventure and trying new things. With what I've learnt now, I feel it will be better to go to 80/20. I feel like I need to stay open, because you never know when a new blessing will emerge and change your life for ever, but on the other hand, the depth and power you get from cultivating just a few things ALL the way is incredible. That's the whole basis of gong fu - master just ONE thing, and everyone will bow their heads in honor of your achievement and you will use it to better lives of yourself, your family, your loved ones and society, alleviating the suffering of others while being a blessing to all living beings. So I guess my invitation to you now is: 1) What's the best thing you tried spiritually, that just clicked, that just worked? Did you stay with it? 2) Why do you think it matched you so well? How is it nourishing your unique soul in incredible ways? 3) Are you holding on to practices "just to stay disciplined, loyal and comitted", even though they're not really doing it for you? What stops you from letting go and trying new things? I pray all our souls will enjoy their adventure to the full, sampling, enjoying and adventuring, while also staying true to our unique course on the long term, and that we all may find the precious pearl of our personal soul, journeying in the mystery of the all-encompassing Absolute God bless you

Yes of course. Clear dreams with clear meanings, this is very nice. Shekina, tranquility, sense of ease and peace, I always get this from sufism, it's amazing. Answers and guidance to life problems during readings, alhamdulilah. However, what is too much for my current state is this: night time. At night time I see unseen Beings moving in the house, around me, around my wife, following us around, or standing and watching. It's like "living clouds" in the darkness. It might be positive Beings, it might be negative, I don't know. But they're clearly attached to us, and follow us around. E.g. if I get up at night to go to the bathroom, they're next to me, watching me. When I get out of bed they follow me. When I go to the bathroom they're in there with me, watching me, it's like they're energetically trying to interact with me. It just creeps me out. Are they good, are they bad? Why would they follow to the bathroom? Are they nourished from ingesting the energy of urine, because they aggressively reach out for it and actually get enlarged when they touch it. They grow bigger in stature and their movements become more aggressive and lively. And even though I say "audhu billahi min ashaitaanir rajim" they still just stand there. Even when I recite Ayatul Kursi, 4 qul, ayatun noor, du'a e noor, amana rasul, dhikr of ya hafiz, ya mu'min ya muhaymin, some of my greatest go-tos, they still just stand there unaffected. Alhamdulilah, I have yaqeen, I have trust in Allah, I believe in the power of Qur'an, Du'a, Dhikr etc, so I will say I have 90% yaqeen and tranquility even in the above mentioned scenario, but the last 10% is confusion and lack of understanding. How can a jinn which feeds on my urine to grow bigger and stronger even stand there when I utter the weighty "bismillahir rahmanir rahim?" how are they not destroyed immediately when I recite Qur'an? (I say it before entering bathroom). So these last 10% confusion and lack of clarity, and these Beings not reacting in the way it's usually described in Islam, I still have yaqeen, my conclusion just is I need some kind of guidance and protection of a trusted and powerful shaykh to pass this stage. Because even though I get stronger in my heart and have more yaqeen, ease and tranquility from year to year with all my practices, I have not found a teacher to guide me further. Of course it could just be a test, and if I make du'a and push through, keep doing my daily readings, I will pass that stage and Beings of Light will show themselves to me. Guardians of Surahs and Ayats, guardians of the holy names (asma ul hosna), powerful malaika sent to protect the righteous. I know in my mind all the teachings, we all have guardians (in kullu nafsil lammaa 'alaihaa haafiz - surah tariq), whenever Qur'an is recited there are angels listening, when you say audhu billahi min ashaitanir rajim, bismillahir rahmanir rahim all shayateen are blown away and malaika arrive. I know all this, and I have certainty it's true. However I don't perceive it yet. So feel like some one-on-one guidance would help me pass this stage in the future, inshallah. Thanks for asking brother, it actually comforts me to get it out through writing, it helps me see it more clearly and objectively and somehow digest it better emotionally, jazakallah khayran. Peace and blessings unto you my friend

I stumbled upon this website actually giving out a way to open the third eye. There is a long description of the third eye in nature, animals, different religions and cultures which I think is really good. After, there are some quotes from the Qur'an which are interpreted to be about the third eye. I personally don't find these interpretations so convincing, but to each his own At the very bottom of the answer is a salaawat which when recited 101 times at night before sleep will over time open your third eye. From my personal research, it seems this salawaat is taken from the very famous Dala'il al-Khayrat (a famous collection of prayers saluting the prophet). It's in Dala'il al-Khayrat section 4 line/verse 11. However, this is my personal research. On the webpage they don't give out a source. If any of you wish to experiment with it, these are my recommendations: 1) Obtain the guidance, protection and permission/ijaazat from a shaykh/guru/teacher before reciting 2) Follow the guidance given on the webpage about the times and conditions for reciting This is the link: https://en.roohanialoom.com/2020/07/third-eye-and-holy-quranhow-to-activate-third-eye/

@johndoe2012 Thanks for sharing! Just read through it all. Nice to get some insight into how they gazing teaching is done @doc benway Thanks for taking the time to share! So Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is your root teacher? Super cool, he was the first tibetan lama I ever met back when I was a teenager, my dad brought me with him to a tsa lung, dream and sleep yoga workshop and empowerment by him. Saw in my meditation last year that the empowerment he did back then stayed with my soul, as a seed, and actually helped me when I returned to dream yoga recently so very thankful for him. I agree sun gazing is to be approached very carefully. Vethathiri Maharishi also removed it from the system due to the associated risks. Anyway, normal people make it a "thing" to go watch sunrises or sunsets in beautiful locations (beaches, mountains, lakes etc). None of them go blind, and the whole point of the event is to do the forbidden "staring at the sun". I have tried sun gazing, it's incredibly powerful, did it during either sunrise or sunset. So during those 2 times it's the lowest risk possible during practice. What I referred to earlier is a sign of inner development, where you can stare into the brightest midday sun without it damaging your eyes. That's something I really love about Hinduism and Buddhism, it's also present in Daoism, Qigong etc - you can physically and tangibly "test" your achievements. What I've seen to be an epic trap for us westerners is the mind. We have such a focus on the mind and the ego due to our culture, society and education system. So many western practitioners get completely lost in a deranged fantasy world, thinking they're enligtened, have high achievements, are awakened or God forbid living buddhas, and most are not even at the beginning level. That's what I like about the scientific and measurable approach applied by the ancient masters - so as to avoid self-delusion, everything can be tested and measured. If you're at a certain level of meditation, this can be ascertained through objective tests. E.g. the famous needle to the arse for yab-yum or "bliss practice". If you don't feel pain, it means you're actually doing it right. Similarly if you can actually truly meditate, as in the "pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi" definition as given by Patanjali, you achieve different things depending on your object of meditation, this is of course also measurable. E.g. during pratyahara (first step towards true meditation) our senses are drawn inwards, so if people talk to you or there are noises close to you, you wouldn't even be able hear them. That's what really appeals to be in Tibetan Buddhism, there are observable and verifiable signs for each stage, as in the first and most basic tummo practice as given in 6 yogas of Naropa. If you can dry 21 wet sheets from sunrise to sunset, you're at an "average" level of achievement (of course the shortest day in winter in Tibet is about 10 hours or so, so it's one sheet per 30 minutes). I'm not shy to admit that I am nowhere near that it's an awesome reality check, to see one's true level, gives realistic humility and increases motivation to continue practicing. If all in science and the material world is measurable, why should Almighty God, who created math and science and measurements, not also make spiritual attainments measurable? So thanks for sharing, will dive into all that you sent.

Dear Dao Bums, Background I saw a post on FB a couple of years ago, where someone shared they had learnt a secret Himalayan system composed entirely of a progressive series of tratak or open eye gazing meditation. It supposedly is a fast track to enlightenment as well as various psychic powers. As far as I remember it was taught in a Bön centre on Vancouver Island (Canada). I suddenly remembered it recently and felt a strong inner draw towards it. Wish I had saved the post back then. Request for your valuable expertise, experience and knowledge Is anyone here on the forum a bön practitioner? Does anyone here on the forum know about Sherab Chamma Ling on Vancouver Island (Canada)? Has anyone heard of this special Himalayan Tratak System? Further Background One of the most powerful practices that really took me by suprise in Simplified Kundalini Yoga (SKY) was gazing meditation. In SKY's 4 levels, on lvl 3 your learn dipa tratak (gazing meditation on a ghee lit, natural cotton wick, natural clay lamp). On lvl 4 you learn darpan tratak (done on a mirror). Both of these practices changed my life, it's so incredibly powerful at increasing your life force energy, meditation power and much more. I know Vethathiri Maharishi (founder of SKY) took these 2 simple practices from a larger tratak system given by Vallalar Ramalinga (a great saint). However, I was never able to get anyone to translate his treaties on tratak. It's supposedly incredibly detailed, describing different tratak objects (sun, moon, different stars, mirrors from different materials, lamps from different materials, trees, precious stones, and difference between number and material of wick(s)). Lastly I was blown away by the simplicity and power of a bön lucid dreaming practice many years ago. Those 2 above experiences put together made me notice this FB post several years ago. However back then I was quite spiritually content, so just took notice, didn't save it. Recently I felt a strong inner urge to pursue it further, hence this post. Look forward to hearing from you!

Dear friends, Just a small update. I recently wanted to pick up third eye opening the sufi way. Again I did it for 3 months, achieved satisfaction and decided to stop. It is truly "mind boggling" when you start seeing these Beings, so again I decided I'm still not ready for it. I open the door, I enter the room, I take a look around, I go back out and close the door. Would like to continue if I have a close, trusted and authentic teacher who can also be my friend, who can "take me by the hand" as I open the door, enter the room, see what's there, then go FURTHER into the room under his guidance and protection. These are the new ayats and dhikr I learnt and used alongside the one mentioned earlier. Here listed for your convenience (please only attempt if you have a sufi shaykh you trust, or any spiritual teacher with third eye abilities you trust to protect you and keep you safe). Ayats (these are really powerful - for me the first one about Abraham was extremely effective) Qur'an 6:75 (Al An'am - The Cattle) "Wa kazaalika nureee Ibraaheema malakootas samaawaati wal ardi wa liyakoona minal mooqineen" (be aware that the z is usually pronounced as "th" in the English language, like the word "the" - you can hear it recited online and check your pronunciation) "We thus enlightened Abraham so he saw the worlds of light in the Heavens and on the Earth, and we made him from the ones who have certainty" *Certainty as in complete utter trust, confidence, tranquility, ease and conviction that everything is from Allah, it has a message for us, about something we need to change in ourselves, all is perfect in our creation and follows the perfectly preordained Divine plan) *Malakut is the word of the sufis used for "world of light" including the energy world of lataif (chakras), angels and djinn. It can also mean Kingdom. Surah Qaf 50:22 "Laqad kunta fee ghaf latim min haazaa fakashafnaa 'anka ghitaaa'aka fabasarukal yawma hadeed" "You didn't know about this, you were veiled, so we removed the veil from your heart, and now your sight is sharp!" Dhikr Ya Samiy ("Oh God, The All Hearing!" opens your third ear or spiritual hearing) Ya Basir ("Oh God, The All Seeing !"opens your third eye, see energies outside yourself, around people and other living beings, as well as unseen Beings) Ya Nafi ("Oh God, The Purifer!"open your inner eye, see your own heart, soul, energy etc, inside your body) Ya Allamul Ghuyub ("Oh God, The One Who Knows All Of The Unseen!") Combination dhikr Ya Basir, Ya Musawwir ("Oh God, The All Seeing, The Shaper/Fashioner!" - as in the shaper of creation) Salawaat (from earlier, mentioned for your convenience) "ALLAH HUMA SALLI ALA MUHAMMADIW WA AALI MUHAMMADIW NOOR UL ANWARI WA SIRRIL ASRARI WA SYEDIL ABRARI" "Oh God, send blessings on Muhammad and his family, the light of lights, the secret of secrets and the master of masters" Muhammad was of course a nabiy, a prophet, but in the inner reality used in Sufism and Kabbalah, not only were the prophets historical human beings of flesh and blood on this planet who brought guidance, they also represent different energies and chakras inside. Muhammad represents "the precious pearl", just like a pearl is formed in our physical world due to a grain of sand continously annoying the bare flesh of a poor clam, similarly we can transform the inner grain of sand that is the ego, if we go through all the pain that is destined for us through our personal destiny, life adventure and quest with grace, certainty and do our inner work all along. This transforms your ego to soul, bit by bit, the price is "the precious pearl". Similarly Abraham and Adam represent joy, kindness, curiosity and knowledge, the first energy we cultivate (we suddenly find ourselves on this Earth, naturally we ask "where did we come from, why are we here, and where are we going?" We start seeking guidance. Then comes David, the boy who faced and slew the giant. That's us bravely fighting our way out of "mass suggestion", mainstream ideas, capitalism, consumerism, social status, prestige, whatever holds us down and "asleep". We leave the safety of the dulled flock of sheep, simply slaves to their ego and mainstream society. This takes strength, that's the next energy we cultivate. Then comes Moses - stable, steadfast, trusting, taking one step at a time, through all the tests in Egypt, through all the tests in the desert, day by day advancing towards the promised land. That's us keeping our focus, daily discipline, never straying from the path, enduring and overcoming challenges, cultivating sabr and yaqeen, patience and certainty, trust in God no matter what challenge we face and keep going. Then Jesus - overcoming the fear of death (he was put in the grave, but came back - at this stage we induce ego death and get a glimpse of annihilation or fan'a. Similarly we open our hearts with love and forgiveness for all our fellow beings. At this stage the third eye naturally starts to open, and psychic abilities and phenomena start occuring. E.g. powers of healing, prediction, seeing auras, traveling in dreams etc. Love, power and peace. Finally Muhammad, the precious pearl, tying together all the other energies, making us a functional soul in this physical world, instead of an ego who acts normally like everyone else, only to experience the soul and heart during prayer and meditation before being lost in this world again. We become human beings, tender, adaptable and flexible in everyday, practical life. So these different "mantras" (ayat, dhikr and salawaat) activate the Abraham, Jesus, Moses and Muhammad energy in our lataif. Energy of knowledge, spiritual power, certainty and transforming our ego into a pearl. God bless you all

Hey @daofeidao, thanks for your message. Yes, lvl 1-3 is available online with manuals, videos, the whole she-bang. I took lvl 4 online during Corona, maybe the first/only/last time it was offered online. However, the old "lvl 5" workshop is now available too, albeit in person. The pre-requisite is simply lvl 1-3 and another online program. Here is the link, it's this March: https://www.springforestqigong.com/event/2025-03-beyond-qi-retreat-event-filter/ I think it's will be quite similar to lvl 4, maybe slight differences. So if you're interested, you can start daily practice, complete lvl 1-3 and the online course, and attend in person. I am also interested in going, but right now it seems I can't get the time off from work.

Dear Dao Bums, This is the post I always searched for; a no nonsense, personal description of my experiences with the Spring Forest Qigong system of Chunyi Lin. 1) First I'll give an intro as to my thoughts on Spring Forest Qigong and how it works in general. 2) Then I'll go through level 1, 2 and 3 of the system (there are 5 levels in total). 3) Thereafter I'll give a short summary of what I've covered. 4) Finally I'll conclude my post. Intro: There is an enormeous amount of qi transmission from Chunyi Lin in Spring Forest Qigong. Even though you simply follow the instructional videos online, or go to train with an assistant teacher, they're all connected to Chunyi Lin's qi. This is because a hallmark of Spring Forest Qigong is "connecting to the master's qi". Therefore, your personal individual energy system gets plugged in to the larger container of Spring Forest Qigong. Just like you pay taxes in the country you live in, and then in return you get access to education, school, health care, protection from police force and army, roads and traffic regulation etc. In Spring Forest Qigong, the "taxes" are simply practicing the system every day. In return, you get access to the qi of all Spring Forest Qigong Practitioners, Chunyi Lin, and the masters of Chunyi Lin which he's connected to (alive in China that he trained with, or simply master in spiritual form he is connected to). Therefore you can achieve good results very fast, as you plug in your energy system to a larger, shared container. Level 1 Here you learn basic standing exercises, which open your body and meridians, circulate and build your qi, as well as building your lower dan tien (the foundation for your physical strength and health, your physical vitality.) These exercises might seem basic, however, they contain everything you need to build up your vitality (jing, physical body) and energy (qi, energetic body). Level 2 Here you start to focus more on how to apply the qi you've built towards healing others; it can be people or animals. It can be through qi-massage or through qi transmission through your hands. You learn qigong exercises to increase your healing power through your hands. You also learn some qigong exercises to start to build your spiritual energy, your shen, your consciousness. This is because building this up will increase your healing power, as well as your ability to easier understand what's wrong with the patient and how to heal it. Level 3 Here you start to go more into the spiritual side of qigong. This is done through longer and deeper meditations, fasting, as well as some explanations about how the universe works. You also learn about the third eye and auras. Summary: In level one everything is covered for you to attain a strong, healthy body, good energy and a peaceful, relaxed mind. It has everything you need as an individual to take care of yourself and your health. You develop the lower dan tien. In level two you learn to share this with others through healing. You develop the lower and middle dan tien. In level three you go deeper, going into the spiritual side of qigong. This makes you stronger and more spiritual, as well as increase your healing power. Through meditation you start to develop your upper dan tien and third eye. Conclusion: This was a very short explanation of the system in general. I will provide information about level 4 as soon as I take it. Be blessed

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate you offering your guidance and experience. Feel we're kind of going away from the whole point of the thread about "gazing meditation system". So would love to get back on track and not get lost or sidetracked no matter how enticing or interesting the whole world of Buddhism obviously is. The past couple of days I've stumbled upon the term "thod rgal" as used for this practice. Have also found a book by a westerner called "Flavio" talking about and around this practice. However when reading his book, it was more like an academic work, an outsider peering in, and simply listing years, sources, different manuscripts etc. Not really what I'm looking for. I'm not looking for an outsider, a western academic giving an intellectual breakdown of the history of a practice as seen from the outside, from a western academic viewpoint. I'm looking for an insider, an actual sadhaka/or practitioner describing the practice progression. Like many yoga texts. Stages, signs of attaining succes at that stage, just the general progression from start to finish. Has anyone got an idea of such a text? Or a workshop/retreat being run based on this? Best example is something like six yogas of Naropa, 8-fold yoga of Patanjali, Parashurama's Kalpa Sutra on Sri Vidya, or even from my limited understanding Kalachakra as well. All traditional, well-established practices with clear progression, staged and detailed practices, signs of attainment of each stage and so on. In short, a practitioner's manual, not an intellectual nor philosophical study. Heartily welcome any of your valuable input on this

Thanks for sharing! I really appreciate it great points. Which lineage and practices brought you "back on track"? Read about Nyingma after you mentioned it, supposedly Tarthang Tulku has also taught this gazing system, however I haven't been able to see when/how/where, or if there are any current workshops or books on it. Have you heard anyone teaching a "complete start to finish" system mainly relying on gazing? Where one of the "end signs" is that a practitioner can stare directly into the sun during daytime without it hurting their eyes? I have done Sun gazing, Moon gazing, Star gazing, lamp gazing and mirror gazing as a part of SKY, and it completely blew me away. It's so incredibly powerful for increasing health, vitality, energy levels, optimism and really helps to be able to go deep in meditation quickly. I know SKY is simplified gazing, so would love to sample an unfiltered system with all elements present. Look forward to hear from you again All the best!

Thanks for sharing! Great stuff. Awesome you know the lama and can recommend him. I will definitely keep an eye out on him and his place, hoping they run the shiné again at some point. Just saw online that multiple monks around the world teach this system. With all your years of experience and expertise, would you happen to know any lamas, tulkus or the like hosting workshops on this particular gazing system? Or any books treating it in depth? It's supposedly a system on it's own, starting with mind, body and breathing exercises to prepare the physical and energy body, and in the end someone who's gone through it can stare directly into the sun during daytime without it hurting their eyes (a feat I've also heard mentioned by both my SKY masters as well as Master Zhongxian Wu). Always knew there was something special in gazing after my experience of SKY, but was never able to connect with any "complete" system from start to finish based on it. Would love to give it a go at some point

Thanks for sharing your own precious experience Great point about our limited time - succes indeed takes a long while of dedicated practice. Dig one deep hole to reach water, rather than 50 shallow ones Great point about sleep hygiene, would love to go deeper in sleep yoga too. An experience I forgot to mention earlier was the Daoist "sleeping qigong" taught by Master Wu. Unfortunately he's quite "Chinese" in his way of teaching, withholding lots of information, keeping secrets, but he definitely knows a complete system of sleeping qigong. I've tried it on all the retreats I've been on. It consists of posture, mudra and visualisation. Then because I was on a lot of retreats, randomly he'll give new pieces of information here and there, and then you can slowly kind of piece it together yourself. Had some interesting experiences for sure, the best was one "black out sleep on command". Even though I've done many 49 day cycles of it, it has only given me succes about 3-4 times. 2 times during retreats (when he first taught it), and 2 times during my own home practice. I've got pretty big sleep needs, 9 hours. With this "black out sleep on command", you simply do a small visualisation, and at the end you go into black out, dreamless sleep. Because the sleep quality is so good, deep and restful, I only needed to sleep 7 hours in those retreats. Would love to go further, as my big sleep needs have always kind of forced me to maintain strict sleep discipline (a good thing), but it takes some hours away from practices that can be done during waking time. Another qigong master from Australia even confided he knows a qigong master residing in a mountain temple that teaches a unique method of sleeping qigong, where you sleep just 1 hour and then feel fully rested. So it's definitely on my list after I hopefully "master" (pretty big word, but at least progress to a certain point) lucid dreaming. Pursuing sleep yoga further that is (just high quality dreamless sleep)