Mandrake

Thanks, that clarifies what you meant. In my experience, done several retreats and spending a lot on the cushion, there's a tremendous release of tension and energy, leaving me lighter, more energetic, and overall in better mood and health. Of those few I've met that end up with problems, they either have mental issues before embarking on a spiritual discipline, and/or they force things prematurely. Though there are nuances. Mandrake

CT, I know this comes from that teacher so it is not you that I object to. The Vajrayana standard thing to hide behind is to say that all things mantra need an empowerment. However, this is not true and not supported by sutras and experience of other branches. Also, keep in mind that there are things regarding cultivation that they have no idea about. There are members here that have had incredible hardship from serious kundalini manifestations, and when they asked for help from Tibetan lamas, these teachers were dumbfounded. For a certain practice, trust the associated lineage. I do. That's why I don't go to my Tibetan Vajrayana teachers for advice on things related to Zhunti. M

Virtue, What do you base this claim on? M

There are many threads about this in the forum archives so just use the search button. Buyer beware. M

This thread quickly devolved into crap. Anyways, I can add my own experience. White skeleton is a shamatha meditation and I've seen variants employed in monasteries in Sri Lanka, where they even had a real skeleton for display. One of the things in my own cultivation that gave me a lot of juice. M

The above chart avoids presenting the mountain of evidence against fruitarianism. It's easy to cherry-pick facts and line up them in a way that they seemingly point toward any extreme food-ideology of choice. M

This year is such a bummer to me. Was planning a trip to LA solely to have the opportunity to sit with Mark. Well, impermanence catches us all : ) Sahaj, I think I remember one old account of yours about Mark. I'm genuinely happy about the connection you got, and may it fully bloom and take you far in this lineage, this very lifetime. Mandrake

This is a great loss. A stupendously skilfull and accomplished teacher that I had the fortune to meet. He has many incredible students so the legacy and wisdom will go on and bless the world. M

To be fair to Frantzis, he spent considerable time recovering after heavy spinal injuries after a car crash. I've spent considerable time speaking to some of his more advanced students. Those conversations have been some of the most insightful I've had, and based on the mental and physical shit they managed to purge and heal together with my own experience, I do give credence to the guy. In general, guessing the motivations and priorities of a single guru is not a good measure of skill nor wisdom in my opinion; producing students with definite attainment is. M

With one important detail: This recommedation is for monks (actually a vinaya rule)! If you're at a monastery, you eat your last meal before noon. For many that in practice means one meal a day (been there, seen that). As a monk, your physical intensity is quite low and you spend considerable time in meditative states so your fuel needs are quite low. If you work a heavy industrial job, one meal a day is probably not what will work out in practice long-term. M

Megamorphg: No need to learn sanskrit, but nailing the pronunciation once and for all is helpful. >Is it not "ohm zhurli zhule zhunti soha"? That is the Chinese language transliteration. Which is fine if you use that version. M

megamorphg_ "Interesting... Any particular links you can share?" I had a friend who studied Indology teach me the basics. But checking around on google, there's nowadays tons of quite good resources to get you in the right direction, for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkwyNqsm8CQ http://learnsanskrit.org/sounds/consonants/voice " especially since I'm pretty sure the "chale" is referring to the popular hindu deity "kali", right? " Nope. The "cale cule cule cundi" is a play on cundi's name. Get the mantra in the IAST transliteration (which my previous response above isn't written in), check the links and other sources online, and you should be able to nail it. M

"It Menes you are not an offspring Of rhesus monkey (Rh rhesus )" Complete nonsense. Read up on the subject before spitting out absurdities. M

If you're after the sanskrit version and pronunciation it's a bit different than above. Trying to convey the pronunciation in English: (the 'h' are aspirated) Namah saptaanang samiak sang-buddha kotinaang tadiathaa om chale chule chundi swaha The 'ch' is the same sound as in 'ch'ange. There are sanskrit pronunciation guides online, so I'd recommend going through a couple and then you shouldn't have any problems at all. M

dmattwads, Vajrayana is replete with methods and practices to deal with issues like you mention. PM me if you want some more detailed info. Mandrake

Being here from the inception (G*d, has it been what, 13+ years already?) the trunk of this forum has for me been the old time members, with some colourful birds now and then visiting and sitting in the branches and chirping wonderfully in the foliage. You leaving fills me with both melancholy and with gratitude for all the amazing people I have the fortune to interact with, no matter the level. I've learned to embrace change so in any case: Heartful thanks for all the quality sharing in the past, and all the possible encounters in the future. Cats aren't board animals, and they sometimes need to sneak into the forest and rest. Mandrake

Ouch, I must have missed that :,( Peace and wisdom be with him. M

Vajrahridaya passed away?! That saddens me. Always wondered what he did post-ttb. M

http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/32579-eastern-philosophical-arts-practices-are-satanic/ You basically asked the same question in 2013. As for an answer, lot's of people have given great input, but if you're not willing to engage in trying out different viewpoints, are you really asking for feedback or are you trying to instill doubt in others? A question can be missionary work too. M Edit: Accidentally hit enter before finished.

In addition to above it needs to be said that visualization skills can be vastly improved for almost all people. The trick is never to tense. Agitated people (and Westerners in particular) tend to tense up a lot during visualization sadhanas, so it is important to check one's body now and then and check that the breathing isn't restricted and muscles aren't chronically contracted. The whole trick with visualization is to relax and allow the samadhi to grow. As your conceptual consciousness and focus gathers in the field of visualization, the quality naturally improves as better concentration and clarity emerges. From my experience, and from talking to a couple of fellow cultivators out there. In short: Relax away tension, and have patience. Mandrake

Trunk, Yeah, quite a list of 'em! Which one's have you found particularly interesting? And have you experienced mudras to work more potently the more arm-channels open? I'm very curious about the subtle body-physiology behind them but have a bit too little TCM under my belt at the moment to make educated guesses about it. M

Interesting. Many thanks for the pdf Trunk! Mandrake

Growing up with gardening, now living in a flat, I so miss growing my own stuff! I always encourage people to grow different varieties of tomatoes. The range of flavours and uses, and how they look is astounding. It's not only the red tomato for pasta and pizza-type. Mandrake

Nungali, How do you use these? I've only eaten them in marmelade and the taste was... novel : ) M

First of all, when it comes to the how-to of eating, I'm not obsessing over details since I don't think eating is a golden bullet to longevity, and secondly, I'm happy to be wrong when I can see adequate, accumulated studies after some decades still holding up. The body is incredible in how it can survive in a multitude of conditions. We as a human species have survived in ace-age environments, deserts, rain-forests, coastal areas, and you name it. I learned that we are not made of glass, but some purists seem to believe that based on their attitudes to nutrition. Suffice to say, I've experimented wildly with diet: I've been a vegan, vegetarian, raw-vegan, followed the Zone-diet, paleo, and some other tweaks. Nowadays I eat and change my diet to accommodate to the state at hand. My goal is to thrive, to have energy, and health. This mostly trumps all the other personal values I have on the ladder. Naturally, there are tons of situations that would change how I eat: being in retreat, having an extremely physically active life-style, being ill, undergoing surgery or skin-grafts, etc. Regarding Adventists, these people are religious, and I have a small amount of scepticism to groups whose founder got revelations from a god about diet (check it up). Lot of the reviewers were Adventists themselves, or vegetarians. Of course this blurs the lines. To contrast, Gary Fraser at Loma Linda University found that holding on to the diet lived 10 years longer. But, those who added fish to their diet lived longer than the vegans in the community. The point is that there is a difference between zero intake of specified nutrient, and some intake. We have a lot of micro-nutrients that we need in small quantities, but if they are not there, that's problematic. And if we get them in large quantities on the other hand, that's problematic too. So veggies vs meat is a false dichotomy. As studies I looked at indicate, the differences between health-conscious meat eaters vs vegetarians aren't that big at all. And then we have India with the worlds biggest population of vegetarians, and apparently no blue zones at all, not particularly renowned for their longevity. Contrast that with the healthiest countries in Europe (Switzerland, Scandinavian countries, Iceland) which all have quite high consumtion of animal protein. So it's a bit complicated. But I agree that the conclusion isn't "devour tons of steak and eat no vegetables." So yes, you're right in "minimal" if that means occasionally. The reasons that debates like this seldom lead to anything is that people have different innate values. And you know what, values aren't like physics where you do an experiment and discover something that holds true; values are subjective. I could switch between two opposing values that aren't inherently wrong, and still be well-argued. For me, one of those values is Nature and eco-systems. Not-killing isn't. So agriculture in general, even vegetables, destroy whole populations of species, kills animals, poisons future generations, destroy lands. So when people go vegan/vegetarian because they don't want to kill, I perceive that as dishonest. We're in a massive chain of death and life, and conveniently sealing off different aspects of how we live and turn a blind eye to some, does not work for me. Californian almonds, cotton, some varieties of salad, palm oil... are examples of crops that either take massive amounts of resources and/or cause extreme damage to eco-systems. But, I don't see people having the same vehement responses to people who consume these crops. In the end, there's lots that we can agree on. More variety in the diet is probably one point, and stop eating meat that is fed crap is another, veggies are delicious is yet another - out of many. M