Mandrake

Dao may be free, but so what? Tell that to random person on the street and see how it helps. The Pill isn't free, immortality isn't free, yang shen isn't free; these are things that help; Dao is there whether I'm an ordinary schmuck or not. The classic Daoist canon and tradition upholds supporting other cultivators and cultivation teachings; this includes treating scriptures with respect, preserving them etc. Mandrake

What a marvellous person! Thank you for posting this Flol.

Considering the amount of time he put in translating, the time that went into editing, the time that went into publishing, and, the very small number of orders he will get, $200 is probably too low to average into a reasonable hourly wage. The more I've interacted with powerful cultivators and occultists, the more I've come to understand that the Great Work will bar cheapskates to enter the Path. Mandrake

It's fun isn't it! After some progress all these subtle and invisible shapes are noted; they've influenced you all the time without you knowing. Now you can "hunt" the bastards hahaha ; D M

Of course you don't let your mind wander about all over the place when you inhale and exchale. Just follow the breath. When there is a pause, you note it and let go into it. As he mentions, your qi reacts when you do this correctly. In the beginning this pause may be very short - don't worry; over time, it will appear more often, and deepen too. It has to do with your mind and body transforming; don't force it. If you have a pause between exh. and inh. only, go for that. Don't manipulate the breath. Try to let your body breath when it wants without your mind altering it in anyway. Best of luck dmw! Mandrake

Incidentally, Mark Griffin at Hardlight also emphasizes the gap as a most powerful way to enter great samadhi. M

Wait wait, you don't mean:

Yes and no. Anapana is a technique that will lead you to the attainment of shamatha and even vipassana (depending on version). Simply put, shamatha (samatha in pali) is a unification and purification of mind and body; it can be attained by diligent practice of a valid method, be it anapana, kasina, skeleton or deity visualization etc. Mandrake

Thank you DRD! dmwatts: Open it up in youtube. Under the screen there are some icons, click on the white square with lines in it. Best regard, Mandrake

Hi TI: Yes, I listened to them (thank you very much to the person who introduced them, perhaps it was you ;-) ). I've also followed the recordings from Wallace's 1-2 yearly shamatha retreats. In pretty much each one of them the question "How long does it take?" pops up; each time, the answer has been, realistically ca 2 years for people of this age (hectic lifestyle, information overload, addiction to thinking and doing etc.). In a couple of episodes he also speaks about the year long retreat they had in the states, where Gen Lamprimpa taught, and Alan helped out. Gen Lamprimpa was one of Allan's teachers if I remember correctly. In that 1-year retreat, at the end, there was a meditator who each day had two sessions of 7 hours each. But, she hand't achieved shamatha yet. So it is not so very easy! You can listen to the retreats here: http://podcasts.sbinstitute.com/ I suggest for example (just some from my notes): 80 Mindfulness of the mind (3) Posted on October 10, 2012 58 Mindfulness of the body (4) Posted on September 27, 2012 83 awareness of awareness spring 2012 45:00 (about jhanas - if so, show me a miracle) 1:00+ How you need jhana to achieve the stages after stream-entry. (once returner, non-returner, arhat) 12 Mindfulness of the body (5) August 31, 2012 "Q6. How long does it take for people of varying faculties to attain shamatha?" 73 Settling the mind in its natural state, part 3 Posted on October 7, 2011 by diego Q1) if it takes 2 years to achieve shamatha... From the book, The attention revolution, page 214: "... the Tibetan oral tradition states that unders such optimal conditions, a person of'sharp faculties' may achieve shamatha in three months,..., and a person of 'dull faculties' may achieve it in nine months. This may well be true for monks and nuns who begin their shamatha practice after years of study and training in ethics. But in the modern world, this appears to be an overly optimistic forecast. This rhymes with what the monks told me. What do I mean with "mental taste"? Just that in the end the jhanas are bodily transformations as well since the body is a part of your Mind. In the Theravada, and in the Indo-Tibetan traditions it is noted that a meditator who has achieved jhana, can stay with the object for 24 hours with full vividness, senses imploded etc. and then rise up refreshed (one example in modern time is Dipa Ma). This is also referenced heavily by Indian yogic traditions where great samadhi masters could stay in samadhi for months. In the end, the great yogis of the past used these designations for certain states and achievements. We may use the same names to point to something different, but what the yogis had in mind stays the same, no matter our Orwellian word-tactics. May all inclined so attain shamatha. 'tis not a pissing contest, but something that just takes practice. All the best Mandrake

Liminal_luke seconded this, I do as well. If your problems are due to kundalini, these people can help out, as they've done before for people from this board. In the end, no one will force you to leave your suffering. Mandrake

TI: Interesting. I've followed pretty much all of Wallace's podcasts and read many of his books. He quite frequently mentions that for the modern person, 1-2 years is expected if all prerequisites are met. I lived in a monastery which specialized in shamatha. The western monks there confirmed that this is what the majority need if they want the classic shamatha and not just a mental taste of it. And now we're not even speaking about dhyana/jhana, which every second bum on the street seems to claim to have nowadays. Mandrake

Poverty is to quite a degree the result of lacking the internal, relational and societal infrastructures for producing, distributing and keeping wealth. You can sprinkle billions on some countries/societies, and in the end, the change will be nil. Idealists enjoy making these comparisons about the top x% earners with various parameters of poverty; there is a lot of research about the causes of poverty, corruption etc. and practical experience from the areas that suffer. A lot has to do with societal institutions and they will not budge just because of money. People underestimate how much time, people, knowledge and resources has to go into coming up with viable strategies for reshaping poverty stricken places to the better. Mandrake

Recently, Seth Ananda made a few replies where he expounded about invocation. My previous knowledge was limited, and very conditioned, and I thoroughly welcome these opportunities to poke holes into my rigidity. From what I understood, invocation can help you understand aspects that otherwise may be far off from you. Invoking Mars can help you understand valiant qualities, martial attitudes etc., invoking Isis will show you something else, and so on. Could this be used to teach you qualities that you may be quite lacking in? A man, hard, logical, not relational - could he through invocation of a suitable entity add compassion, feeling and sensitivity that he is lacking (to name one hypothetical example)? Would the experience be an instance, a short demonstration that he then can work toward, or does it actually alter things permanently? I find this very interesting, all input by you more experienced would be thorougly appreciated! Well-wishes, Mandrake

There are different stages of qi development, depths and types of qi. In the beginning the coarse subtle body is adjusted and fine tuned; to affect the dense structures in the body, a lot more is needed. If you have chronic tensions and wrong eye muscle patterns, qi will not necessarily adjust that. If you have elongated eyes (myopia), to transform that requires control over all your elements, which will require many years of full time cultivation to get. On the other hand, it could well be the case that your cultivation method uses energies for other things than restoring your eyes; in that case, keep your thick eyeglasses. "I think that if the Qi can affect the eyes significantly in meditation, one should be able to heal eye problems as myopia. Qi heals every part of the body, why not the eyes?" Qi, if it can affect eyes significantly, should be able to affect other parts equally. In theory it should be able to heal all body parts. Regrowing fingers, restoring lost senses should be possible in theory; I know people who this happened to, though it requires a bit more than hobby meditation. Mandrake

Interesting. Would you say that it is harder to smooth out your vices and quirks after the descent of power than before? Mandrake

Yes, he probably is.

Yahoo answers is hardly the place to go to for the knowledge of meditational physiology and contemplative physical transformations. Nevertheless, "let go" is the guiding principle on the path. Mandrake

Bump New interview up, yeay! Thanks Lin and Oolong! Mandrake

Or a Western, or, a Chinese. There is a vast difference in skill regardless of tradition. dmwatts will not find a genius just by going into a random temple or looking up the yellow pages.

I remember a man I met who was one of the very few on the planet who had inherited a special method of divination from China. Numerical it was. Quite strange to hear him - who had never met me - write out the years I've moved over seas, what body parts I damaged and when, promotions, gossip over women, exact things. I wonder over the topology of this space. It's as if you fold it here, then it will fold another way in another place, and a lot of other things take place. At certain times I've been dreaming very lightly and suddenly strange things happen simultaneously in the dream and around my household, at exact moments; small hints that the ocean is much deeper. I wonder how these old guys came up with these uncanny divinatory systems. But it is not only a domain of discrete units; it's also a continuous warping isn't it, an influence? Occasionally I marvel at times when I unconsciously walked into a persons life and afterwards heard that it was just the right time, and I helped them tremendously. It could be a friend who just divorced without me knowing, a guy who stood at the cliff or many other situations. I didn't know, but I just turned up! (I'm not a saint, not at all hahaha). I just lived my live but life creased in such a way that we met. So our whole beings participate. Change yourself, and your sphere of influence and all its tentacles expand and change. Another man I met was a master of a western system of divination. It was not based on intuitive reading or similar. He described what exactly I did for work in a certain city, what had happened with my family etc. Scary. But he was the best. The difference here is that he had pretty much tailored the method to himself; the method reflected him and he reflected the method. Incidentally, he had attained one of the powers of voice: what he said manifested; it's an interesting one, but I won't elaborate on it here. It's just that his special intelligence didn't stop at his vicinity. He also (as did the first above) notified me of the importance of knowing your correct birthtime if the method uses that: your fate changes tremendously by just five minutes; sometimes one minute makes quite a difference! Now when I have more experience myself, I smile at people who believe they can make others dig up secrets by throwing at them a quite liberally approximate time. What also was made quite clear is that you just can't encounter these guys according to your own wishes; it's deserved, your zhen arranges it for you, or conversely: the pattern prevents your from reaching them. Remarkable how people people believe that they can approach the secrets without a modicum of yuan, heng, li and zhen! Even if it is so square in the face as the methods utilizing the Yijing!

Would you think that this is the modus operandi of more accomplished cultivators? I.e. when you ask for help and assistance, it frequently unravels as ganying? I once was to move to California, and the year before, all these very strange coincidences started turning up. People who just happened to stop at the house I was visiting, a foreigner who was at a café who was from the town I was to move to and on and on. I never before experienced it as strongly, which was probably why I didn't understand the significance of it. Do you yourself use ganying actively? How/ for what? Thanks for quite a juicy topic! Mandrake

Lin, Always a pleasure to listen to you! Thank you, and also burning monk and oolong rabbit for your effort and generosity! A couple of things that you may perhaps speak about: The relationship between virtue and your mai and qi. How to handle severe situations in your life; how to change really bad circumstances to the better. How do you change your vices and become a better person, i.e. what is the methodology? Many buddhists and other cultivators I've met seem to misinterpret the scriptures and take an anti-joy, anti-pleasure stance, as if positive emotions and good feelings in the body are somehow bad; they end up shriveled and devoid of inner health and vitality. Perhaps you recognize what I mean? Care to comment on the joys and pleasures of life - from the smaller to the ultimate? All my best, Mandrake

How many years of extensive training and experience do you have in it?

Great, looking forward to this Lin Xiansheng! Mandrake