MysticNinjaSage

Hi friends, as a beginner to the esoteric, I'm aware that there are a great many traditions, methods, systems, schools, all over the world promising one type of results or another. Like myself, I'm sure there are many people who are willing to learn but don't know what or where to search. I'm looking to compile a list of these sorts of traditions and their aims/purposes and outlines so that beginners can have an informed decision about what an art entails and what their outcomes might be. Please, if you know of any esoteric/traditional schools/systems and their general overview and aims, please comment on them below so that new seekers can learn about what's out there so they can pursue what calls to them. (I will try to compile them in a word document and maybe make an edit and try to keep it all outlined simply at the top of this message as the list grows) Arts outlined, so far, below: Buddhism, Tai chi, Alchemy

@anshino23 (is it lotus neigong/internal arts academy?) and @forestofemptiness awesome, thanks so much for your contributions. I didn't want to translate your descriptions into point form so I just wrote at the top of the article that these traditions have been covered so people will know what they can find by continuing to read. If anyone wants to add any relevant info to a previously mentioned tradition, feel free. I hope this will be broadly informative for seekers. The nitty-gritty stuff will come when they actually embark on a practice but this thread should wet their appetite and give them a general idea of what they're getting into. I'm taking this from the mouth of a teacher of an art I know nothing of so if it's not accurate I'll just delete it but: Vedanta: Contemplative tradition, Knowledge-based system. Must be well knowledgeable in the scriptures of the tradition (Gita). There are 4 paths: Selfless work, Meditation, Knowledge, Devotion. The Goal is understanding our Divine Nature (which is one with all of existence?) Bhakti Yoga Bhakti Yoga is the path of love and devotion. The devotee approaches God through a loving relationship. This path emphasizes practices such as prayer, chanting, and meditation on God as a loving presence in our lives. Jnana Yoga Jnana Yoga is the path of knowledge. In this path the seeker uses reason and discernment to discover the divine nature within by casting off all that is false, or unreal. This practice shows us that the Supreme Reality resides within. Karma Yoga Karma Yoga is the path of selfless work. Those who follow this path do work as an offering to God and expect nothing personal in return. Karma Yoga teaches us to practice detachment and equanimity in our work, and to understand that the results of any actions are beyond our control. Raja Yoga Raja Yoga is the path of meditation. Meditation is an important practice in all of the paths as it allows us to experience higher states of consciousness where we achieve a deeper understanding of our divine nature. Sri Ramakrishna, a modern day saint and his student Swami Vivekananda, who brought Vedanta to the western world, emphasized the use of a mantra based meditation technique and symbolic images of the divine.

@forestofemptiness Please understand, the answers should be generalized and simplistic. Every human being looks slightly different but the general makeup of human being follows a similar and identifiable system. Heart, lungs, spleen, etc, skin, bones, 5 senses, etc. I'm not expecting anyone to be able to give every single system in existence down to its exact teaching down to the exact teacher. Saying that it's a taoist based system relying on cultivation of chi and following xyz methods to achieve abc result is good enough. Just that you named that many different schools is wonderful and gives people something to search for, but giving a slight overview of each is the intended purpose of this thread. You don't have to be a grandmaster of the system, but if you know more or less its method, aim and purpose and can share that, it is all that's necessary. If others have corrections then it can be edited later. I suppose that the amounts of upvotes on a persons description could show something of a unanimous agreement with the overview described and we'll go with that.

Fantastic @dwai This is exactly the kind of informative post that I was hoping to see build.

Am I wrong to assume that a system has a fundamental method and purpose? I'm not expecting a person to be able to tell me, or anyone, with any kind of certainty, that they will or will not be able to acquire x and y siddi and whether or not they will actually become enlightened by practicing it. Those are too subjective questions. The question isn't meant to attract answers like, "you'll just have to practice it and see what happens". The definition of a system is: "a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized framework or method." My question is trying to provoke answers that are very generalized and simplified, a basic overview and structure of a given system/tradition and to what end it was designed for. Of course someone might become enlightened through practicing tai chi, but that might not be its aim or purpose. It might simply be made to promote energy flow and overall health and flexibility. Is it impossible to give a drop-down list of methods, maybe like Advaita Vedanta, Neigong, Neidan, Zen Buddhism, Ch'an Buddhism, Taoist Alchemy.. I don't know.. I'm just throwing words out that I read. A seeker might fall on these words with a brief overview and find it attractive enough to search for. I'm just trying to provide that kind of table of contents with this question.

I was directed here to witness the awesomeness I'm a seeker of enlightenment, have passed through awakening, purgatory, and have had 3 illumination experiences but have since been unable to maintain or return to it. Any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've also begun neigong training in hopes that it will assist the path of returning to infinity and the virtues and purity. Thanks for having me and I look forward to learning from you all.

I never found any method that didn't seem like newage useless nonsense, but as I'm browsing this site there seems to be so much potential in these jnana and buddhist sorts of mental clarity and the information laid out and steps to be taken to correct ones understanding. It seems systematic and progressive in its approach and I think it would yield great results if I applied myself to one principal at a time until I gained some level of mastery before moving on to the next. I don't know what systems/traditions are out there and what their overall intended area of expertise is and I haven't had the time yet to browse and search if there's a topic that explains a general overview of each tradition and their types of practices but I would be so interested in learning about that to find out what calls to me the most. I've already made a word document with that intention, writing all these words down that I don't understand from these indian traditions and whatnot so I can look them up later, and eventually compile a list of traditions and what they do. Like Neigong does this and that, and the practice gives this and that, and this is the overall structure and progression stages. And then do that with everything else haha. Could be a cool way for people who are new to choose what calls to them. I agree with what you said, I think I'm very open and honest and I value truth and integrity highly. Mentally I feel that I'm extremely willing and ready to change in accordance with principles of enlightenment but my body has always been fraught with difficulties, difficulty eating, digestive problems, anxieties, underweight, lack of stamina, instant onset of nausea if I lie on my back or very often attempt any kind of meditation, etc. I've always felt like my mind is willing and my body is somehow dead-weight that my spirit and will have to drag along. I exercise regularly, I think I finally learned most of the causes of digestive problems, (there was a time 6 years ago that for about a year and a bit I had like 50 anxiety atks per day and was on the verge of dying because I couldn't eat, sleep, relax, etc, I think it might have had to do with oversensitivity to a smart-meter + other wifi type frequencies that destroyed my body over that time) but since I got rid of it and during the time I made up my mind that if I die, I die, but at least I'll die like a man and stand upright and I have no more interest in anything the mind tells me anymore. I don't believe it, I don't care about it, if it can't be silent then I want nothing to do with it. After that the mind lost its hold on me, I haven't had anxiety since, I've learned to sink my breathing to my belly and that helped me eat more and breathe better and I'm overall a lot better now. (I'm writing all this mainly because it's in the 'greetings' area lol and if anyone wants to know about me I'll just quote to here ) So to finally get to your response, I feel that I've done a lot of mental sorts of things already and an overamplified mind seems to be causing chaos to this oversensitive body, so I feel that a body type practice of chi might be beneficial to balance me out. I also believe that a powerful mind should reside in a powerful body and that weakness is not a virtue, so this frail-ish type of body would do well to pick up the slack haha. I have assumed that the energy system might be messed up after a lifetime of issues and so probably some kind of physical chi practice to work on improving the channels and system might rectify this deficiency. (also want to apologize for this wall of text.. I write stories sometimes and don't know how to stop once I get started >.< ) And @steve that comment felt very reasonable and puts aside a lot of my worries. I thought maybe energy is like magic and people can just hurt someone because they want to, provided they're on a higher level of power or understanding with it than the other. So me being clueless about it, I'd be at great risk in a situation where I'm surrounded by all you masters If that's not the case then I feel relieved haha. @ilumairen I totally agree with what you said. Trying to let go of something too soon, before you see it as being a problem, ends up creating problems. There's still attachment and since you haven't built up the conviction necessary for throwing it away, you're just going to pick it back up again later to see why you threw it away in the first place. Ultimately it needs to be fully understood why it's not worth having so it can be dropped permanently or maybe picked up very temporarily for a very specific purpose. Sort of like how pride is beneficial up to a point, after which it needs to be dumped.

Thanks guys for seeking to protect me, it's nice to see this kind of community. Since I'm new to this energy stuff, could anyone explain some things for me? Does anyone else have similar abilities to detect the state of my energy just by reading a text online? And if this is indeed possible, can a person remotely heal these sorts of conditions just like that? Does it somehow require consent? And, on the other hand, if a person wished to inflict harm and damage my energy or place a seal or curse, could it be done also just because they see a post online? I'm essentially clueless as to what can and cannot be done with chi or magic or whatever all these methods are and it would be very helpful to know what kinds of parameters these things have. If RiverSnake is right and I do have a seal on my energy that's causing a lot of imbalances, how detrimental is this for me and how easily/difficult might it be to remove? What sorts of measures could I take to purify and harmonize myself to overcome such a dilemma? Thanks for enlightening this beginner whose eyes are only starting to witness this wider world.

I had some visions when I was 6-10 years old about a levitating, meditating mystic in a mountainous, snowy area in front of a pond or small body of water, wearing blue garb and a blue veil and white hair down to his back. I could feel his power, intelligence, serenity, etc and that influenced my outlook on the world right from the start. I'd never heard about or seen meditation or spirituality but presidents and warriors seemed to pale in comparison so I decided to become like this being and followed my intuition on how to get there. Eventually I had the awakening experience at around 18years old, seeing what I am and what I am not. It hit me like a flash and I understood the difference between the self and the acquired self or ego. After that was purgatory, the mission to purge that ego, dissolve it, disentangle/unidentify myself with it, purify and cleanse it from my heart. It's like all the errors of the self and identity that exists as concepts and ideals and beliefs or things that come about as a response to the body, etc, all the things we're usually very proud of.. burn it in the fire and attach to it no value. After some years of doing this with dedication and consistency I had the illumination experience, becoming one with the environment, no conceptual mind, seeing things as they are, the ending of fear and separation, boundless joy and love and the perception of the divine in all things.. but after an hour that passed and I returned to the normal state again. Had that happen three times and never again. Trying to find an explanation for the experience, I looked online for what it could mean and, since I identified that levitating vision as a mystic, I fell on a wiki of mysticism that explained the levels of progression as awakening, purgatory, illumination, dark night of the soul, union with god. The description seemed to match my experience so I just use that terminology since I don't know anything about this or any other traditions. To answer your question, I think it probably is very similar to dark night of the soul except it works on a different grade. Purgatory cleansing the sins of the mind while dark night of the soul cleanses the sins of the soul. As far as I can understand from my experience, I always called my path a spiritual path but I think until now I've only ever been working on my body and mind. Only in the illumination state I was able to see the divine and have access to other modes of perception and heightened senses and I think that that is the first stage of actual spirituality. Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy it for very long haha, back to being another idiot So I don't have any experience with spirituality but ya I think the dark night of the soul is a very similar process of ironing out the soul and making it more in alignment with god or truth beyond the smallness of the person. Of course my opinion is just speculation.. For me I have to solidify my foundations and somehow enter illumination again more reliably.. probably.. Was directed here in hopes that it might help me along The descriptions of purgatory always seems like it's meant for death or after this life, but I really dont see it that way at all. It's definitely about the death of the self, so that's absolutely true, though it's the death of the 'false' self. And the torment and suffering is also fairly accurate depending on how attached you are to the things you have to give up/let go of. So it's all very dramatic and epic and awesome to see those purgatory situations, but I don't think it's all that miserable haha