Creation

Indeed. There are further distinctions to be made as well. Having more vibrancy in the body, more jing and qi, which could then be used to fuel sexual activity but doesn't have to be, as a positive result of practice can (and imo should) be distinguished from actually feeling more desire in the mind. I think even a Buddhist could see the former as positive: it is virya, one of the enlightenment factors. More desire in the mind is a different story. EDIT I see Nuralshamal already made this same point.

The person I learn from says this happens to people who do lots of standing over many years, but don't train the correct quality (song) in the body. They just get really good at holding the body rigid for a long time.

White Moon on the Mountain Peak by Damo Mitchell.

@Nuralshamal, what position are you standing in?

Hi James, I've seen your posts on other forums where I lurk. Always a pleasure to meet another devotee of the Surangama Sutra.

I would not equate pore breathing with whole body breathing. Any tradition that develops mindfulness of body and breath to a certain degree will hit on the sense that the whole body pulses along with the breath. But pore breathing is something specific to Daoist alchemy. The foundation is reverse breathing, where the abdomen draws in on the inhale, and qi is pulled into the dantian. A development of this to include the whole body is a subtle tightening of the skin in on the inhale, which seals the qi in the body - this is "pore breathing". Daoist alchemy is it's own huge, complete system. So the question is, given that pore breathing isn't the same as what your Buddhist teachers are teaching, are you still interested in it?

Right. There are, in general, two general things that vipassana can mean, that in my reckoning are really not even remotely the same. One is to develop the insight that phenomena in general have some universal nature, for example emptiness or the three characteristics. The other is to develop detailed and specific insight about the smallest constituents and causal connections between the specific phenomena of mental and physical experience. The latter requires jhana, the former does not.

I don't know what you mean by "corrupt practices", but I've heard that in many parts of the world, bribery is the norm. If you want something done, there is a gatekeeper that you need to give money to. This would be considered "corruption" where I am from, but could I call it corruption in a place where it is just how it has always worked? I don't know. As for adultery, I once saw a book that was all about the cultural differences in what was considered adultery. Where I am from, sleeping with someone other than your spouse, period. But apparently, other cultures have their own norms about when sleeping with someone other than your spouse doesn't count as adultery. Some examples I remember were if you pay for it, if you were drunk, or if you were on vacation. So are these other cultures corrupt? I don't know. At any rate, none of these questions or behaviors are unique to people in the "modern world". On the other hand, there are spiritual groups that think eating meat is grossly immoral, and that anyone who thinks they are a spiritual person but eats meat is kidding themself. Similarly, every traditional religion says any sex outside of marriage is immoral, period, even in what I would call a committed, exclusive relationship, and that if you are having sex outside of marriage and think you are a spiritual person, again, you are kidding yourself. I don't mean to imply moral relativism here, I'm just pointing out that insisting your moral standards are the right ones and everyone else's are wrong and corrupt is not something to do casually. I am quite curious about what morality might be beyond cultural construction and convention. At the very least, everyone has to live with their own conscience. Then there are considerations of cause and effect, and of social harmony to consider.

Both Dzogchen and Mahamudra emphasize realizing the (non-dual) nature of mind, and grew out of and are integrated with the Tantric Buddhist worldview and practices. But there are differences in approach. Mahamudra can refer to the result of combined creation and completion stage of highest yoga tantra practice of the Sarma schools, and it can refer to the system of shamatha and vipasyana meditation called the "four yogas" for directly pointing out and developing the experience of the nature of mind. Generally, these are practiced in tandem, the are called "tantra mahamudra" and "sutra mahamudra" respectively. Nyingma Dzogchen is a system of practices and principles for realizing and integrating the nature of mind that is integrated with the tantras of the Nyingma school. It's earliest form was also a form shamatha and vipasyana divided into four contemplations that were practiced alsongside the creation and completion stages of tantra, just like Sutra Mahamudra. But the tantras involved were different, for instance the "anuyoga" tantras that de-emphasized visualization and focused instead on feeling. Also, there was a tradition of revealing new teachings, leading to a development into new forms of practice, such as rushan, treckchod, and thogal, that do not fit the older shamatha-vipasyana and creation-completion stage paradigms. So in this sense Mahamudra is more conservative, more inline with mainstream late Indian Buddhism. There was also a development of the idea of a uniquely Dzogchen view, where the same practices could be done with different "views", Dzogchen being placed as the highest. So deity yoga, tummo, even ngondro, could be done with the "Dzogchen view" and this makes it subtly different from the same practices on the Mahamudra side. One non-technical difference in practice is that Sutra Mahamudra is going to have more of an emphasis on strong, one pointed concentration at the beginning, whereas Dzogchen emphasizes relaxation and openness from the beginning.

With your background in Srividya you might be interested to know that the Sakya tradition, among the schools of Tibetan Buddhism, has in many ways most faithfully preserved the Indian tradition it depends from. The Sakya Trichen is of course the highest lama in this tradition; I have only heard good things from those who have learned from him. The Chimé Pagme Nyingtik was a primary practice of many very highly regarded Tibetan masters, including the Sakya Trichen himself. It contains not only White Tara, but also Usnisavijaya, these are two of six of the primary Goddess of Mahyana Buddhism in India. So with your background, if you are interested in Tibetan Buddhism, this is about as auspicious an opportunity as you will find. Perhaps you can find out in advance what the samaya and daily practice would look like. It will be ritualistic Tantric goddess worship much like Srividya, which I know you have had great benefit and success with.

Someone here whose opinion I value enormously once posted something along the lines of, being obsessed with sex, and being afraid of sex and obsessed with not having it, are equally damaging. The opinion of some random guy on the internet: Developing competency in any core aspect of the human experience has its place. Just be balanced. Have some lofty pursuits that have nothing to do with base desires. But also learn how to have a job and make money, how to make your body strong and healthy, how to win friends and influence people, and how to attract and satisfy the opposite sex (or whatever your preference). No problem. Your lofty pursuits will ultimately go further this way anyway.

Bingo. Wim had trained Kung Fu and Hatha Yoga to a high level before coming up with his method. Yogic methods that are even remotely similar would require a huge amount of prerequisite training. The other issue is...method for what? It's not part of a complete system, it's just a way to make you really tough. Very popular with "bio hacking" types. So the question is, what do you really want? Honestly, there is a ton of free Hatha Yoga on YouTube, that would be a great foundation for any other practice you might want to engage in. Deep abdominal breathing and mindfulness of the whole body while doing challenging poses that require whole body strength and flexibility, but core strength in particular, is just about the best foundation you can have IMO.

This is a massive case of "does not follow". This kind of partially but not totally reasonable line of though is exactly what Drew does constantly, and it shows the distortions of his mind. Consider the following analogy: Many women are attracted to men who show signs of having a life of abundance (including but not limited to wealth). But does this mean that women are trying to drain men's abundance? You would have to be pretty deep down the misogynistic rabbit hole to say that.

No, I would take issue with both the terms annihilation and ego in this statement.

Hello and welcome LivingLight. I appreciate your enthusiasm for authentic teachings, practices, and realizations. There is no small amount of controversy about what path attainments actuall entail. Similarly, there is no small amount of controversy about what jhana entails, so, both things in the canon that are "attainments" with definite signs and progressions.

There are four texts on reasoning that are unanimously attributed to Nagarjuna. All of them in some sense are about how reality can't be grasped by ideas and concepts, but the foundation for the other three is the MMK. The translation of MMK that strictly tries to let Nagarjuna and his Indian Commentators speak for themself is that of Siderits and Katsura. Another title to check out is "Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka - A Philosophical Introduction" by Westerhoff. He covers material from all four above mentioned works, with a specific intent to not add in any interpretation of Nagarjuna in terms of other thinkers (Kant, Wittgenstein, Derrida, etc). Happy study _/\_

Try "The Buddha's Teachings on Social and Communal Harmony: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon".

Surely there are other ways to make the transformation permanent, seeing as not all realized beings can faqi? Is this how it works in your Buddhist lineage? Your teacher ran a clinic, right? Did he do qi projection? If so, was it always waiqi liaofa? A reasonable question.

Well, I brought up that it's in the Suttas and mentioned traditional commentaries have different interpretations of what it means, and asked freeform's opinion, since he is steeped in two jhana based traditions. I'm making a point to not make claims myself.

I did. It's in the Pali Suttas.

My interest in clarifying these points definitely isn't to then tell others they are wrong, or should be doing something else. Even saying people have "moved the goalposts" isn't actually a value judgement to me, even though I can see why someone might take it that way. _/\_

By this do you mean, that this happens in a way that is dramatically deeper, longer, or more complete of a stopping than in previous jhanas or samadhis? Because this could very well be what the Buddha meant when he said in the Suttas that the breath stops in 4th jhana, and later generations moved the goalposts to mean some type of less deep or complete stopping of the breath.

Oh, another bit about this, since being on topic is So, even among highly traditional expressions of Buddhisms, they can't quite agree on what the jhanas are. For instance, in the original Pali Suttas, the Buddha said the breath stops in 4th jhana. Some traditional commentaries say this is not to be taken literally, the breath just seems to stop (can't remember a reference for this). Some take it literally and say, "Why would you want such a thing, it's not important to practice this" (Vausbandhu). Others, like the famous Visuddhimagga of the Theravada tradition, take out any mention of the breath stopping at all in their description of jhana, as though it's no longer a criterion for determining correct jhana. And somewhere in the Chinese tradition, it got moved so that the breath stopping was a criterion for first jhana (Hsuan Hua and Nan Huaijin both say this). So will the real jhana please stand up? And the real kevala kumbhaka/tai xi for that matter. Would love to hear your take on this @freeform

He's in the same category as Osho, there are many who say he radically changed their life for the better, and have to come to grips with his considerable flaws in their own way given their gratitude towards him. Pema Chodron is probably the most famous example.

I could easily believe that the shift toward sudden awakening practices like koans and deemphaisis on the four dhyanas in mainstream Chan/Zen was to make real shifts in consciousness more accessible to laypeople, for instance when Chan became popular with urban literati, and when Buddhist monks were persecuted and forced to have wives and jobs. Though as a layperson that doesn't decrease my interest in sudden awakening.