Lucky7Strikes

:lol: :lol:

I'm not sure which angle this question comes from. As in, that all pleasures we experience in meditation is temporary or that meditation is just another hobby, like bicycling, that can give momentary joy that is nonetheless transitory. If it is the former, in my experience the pleasures of meditation have cumulative effect in our lives if we sustain efforts to continue the practice in day to day living and not just on the meditation cushion. If it is the latter, we'd have no way of knowing until there is insight and ability to see and experience life beyond this body and the process after it dies. Until then, I guess we have to have faith in masters who have come before us and has told us of their visions and insights, and hope that they were not delusional or liars.

That was beautiful!

Aiii, Xabir's created another monster. Maybe Nan Huai Chin is referring to people like you. Do you really have direct insight into what you wrote in that post? Not just "oh no self, just appearances, this, that, things just happening spontaneously, "self liberating"" crap.

Yes, hence my comment to you to go try holding your breath and tell yourself its just just another interdependently originated appearance. There is a Zen story that goes something like, A student came up to the master and explained to him how empty all phenomena is, how they were all dream like appearances. The master who was sitting there just smoking a pipe threw his ash tray on the student's head and the student screamed in pain. The master replied, "that's empty too eh?" Something like that. Anyways, my original comment was just that much of Buddhist mumbo jumbo here doesn't come from direct experience, stuff like the rebirths, the bardo, consciousness-only reality, escaping the cycle of rebirths. Usually it's limited to experiencing relaxation, spontaneity, mindfulness, bliss, sense of freedom, generally stuff of psychological nature. And I find a vast majority of practitioners are at these stages, especially in the West. You like Nan Huai Chin's writings right? I found it insightful when he mentioned how many Buddhists travel the path upside down, mistaking the cause and the effect, because they are so well versed in Buddhist ideology, like interdependent origination, the twelve links, anatta, emptiness, that their "enlightenment" and realization of these aspects of reality are often inevitably shallow, if not imitative. Discovering them yourself is very different than "seeing" their validity, so I find that what you wrote extensively on Yogacara and "thought based reality" to be mostly jargon and doctrine.

Um, my reply to Jetsun was agreeing to his idea that breathing or sleeping are different than dying, especially being aware of the process. Not that "Hey! I almost died once! Have you?"

Maybe he's right. But does him being right here matter much at all? I don't think so. Tao save world, Buddha save world, God save world. This is the one and only way. Your way is wrong. My way is the only way. Meh. How about people save people?

So you are not aware. So waking and sleeping are two different states for you. Sleeping doesn't "self liberate" does it? That's probably because you've missed the points of mine. Keep telling yourself everything is just arising and ceasing appearances. Maybe you'll be aware while you are sleeping. But if not, maybe when you wake up you'll be in a womb already . Just another appearance yeah?

@ Li Jiong After all those years meditating and retreats and internal work...

Just dropping 2 cents here... IME the key to rooting, as many have already said here, is making sure the spine is erect but naturally supported by the bone structure without muscular contraction all the way down to the feet. Most people have a curved spine due to too much sitting slouching. This closes the heart area and the channels running from the spine to the back of the head because that part caves in when you slouch. Then your organs become contracted from the forward weight of the skull also, which puts pressure on not only your organs but the muscles surrounding it as well. The shoulder muscles will get bunched up as your arms are going to hang forwards. Your hips will also jut outwards making energetic pathways between the hips, the spine, and the skull all the more difficult to connect. So straightening the spine, especially the upper portion to nicely weigh down on the mingmen, which closes the hip joints and the buttocks together and lets the weight from the skull directly root down to the ground with minimal muscle contractions or bunching up. When you walk you should feel light and connected to the ground.

I also had a similar experience in an accident where my body was completely shutting down and I was throwing up and barely conscious before going into a three day comatose state, but my thought were I remember oriented towards family and the willingness to live. It's always surprising how deep our compassion runs within us but it is so obscured until Boom! some tragedy or difficult times hit and what tends to go through your mind is just the day to day love you haven't appreciated as much in the normal things in life, like waking up in your home and seeing your family, eating breakfast...

Yes, in my opinion Simple Jack is a bit underestimating...

So when you don't dream, do you recognize that you are not dreaming? I'm a bit confused here, because from what I read you didn't write about the jhanas. You wrote out a lot of theory. Also, try holding your breath for a long time telling yourself that it is simply just arising appearances. Or as a Zen master would do, throw his ash tray on your head!

There is no separation between the two. Love, wisdom, compassion, insight, awareness, mind, heart, emptiness, anatta, I Am, all are varying ways of describing one color of experience of awakening. These terms are only meaningful if your path is analytical, like forming an ocean in your mind through descriptions when you haven't yet encountered it. You learn that it is blue, then that it is vast, then that it has this tendency to have waves, and foams, that it is wet, on and on. The terms are applicable also because people have different ways of cultivating. To someone who takes love and surrender as the path, they can fearlessly open themselves to reality to reveal itself. To someone who is more prone to the language of wisdom focuses on clarity and observation.

Why aren't you worried? Does that mean you've already proved to yourself of all that you wrote?

I meant cyclical existence. And you don't know what you wrote above to be true, that when your false belief in self is extinguished you have choice of rebirth or non-returning. That's only based on your faith in the suttas. Samsara and Nirvana are not just conventional mind experiences but phenomenal as well. Once your belief in self in extinguished, this does not liberate you from earthly existence right away. So what makes you think you are freed from cyclical Samsara? And earthly existence is unfortunately filled with grief and suffering for most. This is not just because of ideas of "self" but socio economic conditions and the pains and limitations inherent in the body as we age. Yes, perhaps the non-belief in self will help you deal with life, but if you let your path end there, you are just delusional. Also, the sufferings due to notions of self are overblown. There are plenty of people who hold ideas of self and are perfectly happy.

No one here truly knows why they wander in samsara. Namdrol's answer isn't any more valid than a novice's recitation of a sutta.

Nevermind.

Thank you. .

Is this a quote?

Then what about all the lights?

Xabir and CowTao, Why do you want to realize enlightenment? I think I have a sense about CowTao, but not Xabir. I would like to know your intentions for cultivation.

Hmm, found these instead. http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Four_visions and: http://kuntuzangpo.com/index.php/en/dzogchen/65-the-four-toegel-visions

The awakening of the heart center is compassion/love. This is the basis for the Bodhisattva. Bodhisattva isn't just realizing emptiness of phenomena, but the vow. The vow to liberate all beings is not conceptual but experiential. The heart energy is conjured through the vow and contemplating the suffering of others.