dwai

Been working with the trainer 3x weekly - this is the 3rd week now. Two workouts involve HIIT with body-weight and resistance based training. Between the two workouts I do fast vinyasa yoga. Interesting feeling in the body. Posture has changed, feel stronger without feeling like a cyborg. Qi sensitivity has dipped a bit, but the power seems to be there still. Other days I just do taiji practice. Still having to stand and release any tightness, but body is getting adjusted to the workouts progressively. Releases faster than the first few days of working out.

Okay so you've been doing this for a while. Very interesting. So what do you realize the essence of the meditation to be? Ok can you elaborate a little more about that? Also is it okay if I checked you out?

Looks like you've been very busy. I think of the list, the meditation and chi breathing are more significant for this case. What kind of meditation and what kind of chi breathing are you practicing? How long have you been practicing both? 9 months or longer? Could you elaborate please? Kundalini is not an ordinary power that gets activated just like that.

Do you have any practices currently that would result in the raising of Kundalini?

The swastika is a symbol of contentment and prosperity in the Indic cultures. Most traditional Indian homes have the swastika drawn on their front doors. It literally means “that which is auspicious”. One of my kungfu friends spent many years practicing Falun Gong. He claims the negative press it got was due to communist Chinese government’s propaganda. Apparently lot of terrible things have been done to falungong practitioners in China — such as being sent to prison camps simply for practicing it.

There are karmic conditions at play that most people don't understand. I doubt if many of the teachers do so either. That's why one is supposed to work on detaching, so that no more debt is accrued. Yet, the nature of teaching is very involved -- especially of practical spiritual traditions. In the old days, a student would have to jump through hoops to get accepted as a student. I know some teachers still do that. But some are more easily accessible...call it their karma I guess. In any case, by the time one became a student, they would have been tested by the teacher, as well as get an opportunity to test their teacher as well. Not much of that happens in today's world of seminars and workshops.

The sound varies from thousands of crickets chirping constantly, to thousands of wind chimes going off, to a high pitched ringing. Its not disturbing at all...quite entertaining. Sometimes there will be different frequencies harmonizing.

If you talk only about brahmacharya, that’s not enough. Brahmacharya is the first stage of development in the Hindu/Vedic tradition. After brahmacharya follows grihastāshrama (householder). Following that is vānahprasthāshrama (retiring to the forest for quiet contemplation) and finally sanyāsa (renunciation) where you perform your own last rites, give up your personal identity and relations, and dedicate your remaining life towards attaining moksha. If you mention the varnāshrama dharma you also have to consider the four purushārthas - dharma, Aretha, kāma and moksha. Live according to dharma, in the world, earn your living, contribute to society . Pursue sensory gratification too, so you don’t have any cravings to bind you to the world as you undertake the highest goal of moksha or spiritual liberation.

The problem with celibacy is that it is meant to be taken along with specific monastic vows. If you want to be a monk and spend your days in meditation and prayer, celibacy is good. But the urge needs to come from within, not intellectually or socially imposed. Best thing you can do is to stay away from pornography and have a healthy relationship with another human being. That involves love, sharing, caring and living life as a good human being (and I’m not suggesting that you aren’t). When you develop a loving relationship with another person, you open up your heart energetically too. It will expand you from your body-mind limitations to at least include another body-mind. Therein lies the key to cultivate your compassion and expand your mind. All these energy cultivation etc are great, but don’t obsess with them. They’ll not help if you don’t cultivate compassion and love. Find the thing you love and do it to the best of your ability. Good luck.

I think it has to do with the fact that we are basically awareness and the forms are interplay of energy. In the Indian traditions, there are three primary properties (gunas) of energy that combine in varying/different permutations and combinations to produce form. All the modalities of transmission, such as genetic, evolutionary and so on are a result of the interplay of these primary energy types. Satva (Illumination and clarity), Rajas (activity/kinetic) and Tamas (inertia/gravity). Maybe there are some primordial prototypes from which these variations arise. Just typing out loud here...if it resonates with anyone, please comment

I see the patterns repeat themselves in slight variations quite prolifically across ethnic boundaries. The same type of person can be Indian, Chinese, African and so on and so forth. That must've been rough. That is true of course. And also share the same conscious ground, hence same root of mind, etc. Is there any other way?

I discovered Glenn Morris much after I started down this path. He had some interesting ideas for sure.

It is a recognition of the certain recognition of not being limited by body and mind.

My experiences point to similar things. Sometimes it happens without our conscious control. When i I went to my master, he initiated me in the lineage with a transfer of power. After that I would wake up between 3-4 am, body asleep, mind fully awake. That’s when my master starts his practices every morning. It was like that everyday for months. Then I went developed my own routine I’ve had many such things happen to me.

What does that have to do with the OP? Are you writing about something else? Have you even watched the video?

Get to the point @Mskied. What are you trying to communicate? I’m missing your point amidst the long winded paragraphs. Please summarize?

My wife’s friend is a born again Christian. She is also all kinds of messed up. She likes to argue about the redeeming qualities of her faith, but lacks practical experience with anything remotely close to meditation or introspection. Logic is circular and always boils down to Jesus did this, did that. I asked her why doesn’t she keep her prayers personal - maybe meditate a bit instead of trying to convert us non-Christians. Her response was eye opening. She said that trying to convert people IS her way of praying. Strange thing is she is licentious, doesn’t do anything for her fellow human in terms of humanitarian support, complains and is envious etc, etc. She just believes that having accepted some guy as her lord and savior she has license to do all sorts of degenerate things. Contrast that with another friend from childhood, who is Christian too. When I met her and her husband after almost 30 years, I could literally see Jesus with her, at the causal level. Their presence was filled with compassion and love. Never tried to convert anyone. They serve people via charitable deeds and pro bono work (she’s a doctor and he’s a lawyer). Point I’m trying to make is, I’ll take a practitioner any day over arm chair experts You might be surprised to find how much Christian thought has influenced English educated folks in other parts the world - like India. The 200 years of British rule has resulted in decay of our traditional knowledge systems, especially in the urban society.

Had an interesting tai chi dream lesson last night. A teacher (don’t recollect who, wasn’t my master) expounded on the principles of taijiquan. He told me, tai chi is bone, mind and field. By bone i interpreted two ways - the skeletal structure and the bone marrow where jin(g)is stored. Mind is intent - Yi Field is the energy/mind field which forms the surface of our “bubbles”, and it’s surface tension is how our power works. Does any of this resonate with anyone? Would love to read your thoughts on it

The topic of "purification" bothered me for many years early on in my practice. To say "mind is impure" or "mind is defiled" automatically tends to evoke the feeling of "sin" etc in the modern mind. The reason why is because of the western conception of "sin", "original sin" etc have become surreptitiously ingrained into our psyche. Even someone who is a Hindu by birth and practice (such as moi) is affected by that. As a result thereof, we struggle with self-flagellation (mental usually) and it leads to self-loathing. The main thing that helped me is to realize that the mind is not me. It is a handy instrument. If we let our instrument wallow in crap, it will become crap-laden. Most of the modern onslaught on our minds is essentially crap of the world. Hence, the use of the term defilement would be apropos. There is no need to judge. Just notice and work towards cleaning the instrument up.

Have you tried modifying your standing to seated? Using the same type of postures, you can sit on a flat chair with your feet resting on the ground and get many of the same effects You can even do tai chi forms while seated on a chair. My master often shows this to students who have issues with their feet or balance. @silent thunder I saw your post right after I posted this comment. Nice!

More like your mental and emotional defilements affect the uncontrolled way of breathing. There is a definite sequence of causality here. That is not entirely correct. When we sit with our breath, the breathing automatically elongates and even stops. This is a sign of a mind that has been both purified as well as become single-pointed. The purification and single-pointedness of the mind will continue to increase until there is total cessation of thoughts, with only a luminous clarity remaining. This is a very nice description. Yogic pranayama (when done right) will result in purification and focusing of the mind, and it is done with active control. There are specific techniques in pranayama where we will apply internal and external breath holds (antara and bahya kumbhaka) along with postural locks to help direct the life force through the central channel. But these are advanced techniques and should only be done under supervision of an experienced teacher. It boils down to which tradition one is following. Even in Taoist traditions there are different ways. For instance, in our system -- as beginners we were told not to hold our breath. But later on we are asked to hold our breath during certain types of meditations. We do forward breathing and reverse breathing depending on what we want to do, and so on. And as OP suggested there ARE times when breath will suspend on its own, for minutes at a time. That is not a bad thing.

Agreed Awesome. Please lmk when you're in town. Would love to meet up (ducking from brickbats thrown by some chicago locals whom I've not yet been able to meet)

That's hardcore . A buddy of mine might have overloaded his kidneys doing extended standing in the past. Why I thought of him was because I think he used to interact with your teacher in the past (he's filipino too). Yeah we do the taiji forms (single form). One type of compression we do is called "condensing breathing". Initially when we want to send the Qi into the bone marrow, we use a little bit of muscular tension. Eventually the compression happens directly into the bone marrow without having to activate the musculature. I did study the yi quan way outlined by Jan Diepersloot in his book "warriors of stillness". Form wise (ie standing forms) there are many overlaps, but I think the devil's in the details - we do things differently.