Maddie

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Everything posted by Maddie

  1. Cultivation side effects

    Maddie replied to Maddie's topic in General Discussion

    Yes I agree. Unfortunately for years I was told even by monks that smashing the do more meditation button was the answer until I decided that it was not and stopped.

  2. Cultivation side effects

    Maddie replied to Maddie's topic in General Discussion

    Yes unfortunately there has been a fair amount of trauma in my younger years. When researching this issue with meditation I found that a small percentage of people usually with trauma in their past can actually trigger anxiety by becoming very relaxed. It's called relaxation induced anxiety. I've even found that doing a lot of dynamic practices such as zhunti mantra a lot can make me feel very bad.
  3. Buddhism claims to be the only path to total enlightenment. Either it's true or it's another religion that claims to be the only way?
  4. Sometimes I wonder what Jesus' level of realization was. He had some interesting things to say that sometimes sound very similar to the Buddha or the TDJ but I don't know if I ever get the same "ah ha" factor from him though.
  5. Throughout the suttas it always shows the Buddha meditating frequently and I've often wondered why if he had nothing left to do.
  6. It raises the question though. If there is no sense of self and no desire what would there be to cause rebirth?

  7. Evidnece for the super natural

    Maddie replied to Maddie's topic in General Discussion

    Well it almost seems like it times science wants to disprove things that seem rather difficult to disprove. Like during World war II there was a case when American B-17 bombers were about to bomb the monastery that saint Padre pio lived but then he flew up to the bombers and stopped them from dropping their bombs and the entire crew saw this and they recognized him later when the Allies occupied the town he lived in and they ran into him and apparently he recognized them as well and said oh you were the guy's wanting to blow everything up. Of course science says that none of that ever happened even though an entire bomber Crew saw the same thing with their own eyes and apparently Padre pio recognized them as well. Now how he got to that level to me is a more interesting question.
  8. The illusion of a self can be and is frequently developed.
  9. Probably within the last year or so I've been very much questioning my tendency to buy the party line so to speak. I used to be Christian of the hardcore fundamentalist type until I realized that their Bible wasn't literally true and it all fell apart from me. Fast forward several years and when I became Buddhist I pretty much brought the same mentality into it with me but lately have begun to think that the Buddhists also tend to embellish their stories a bit and also have somewhat of an agenda. Not to say I don't value it but I'm definitely rethinking my approach to any system as it's packaged to the public.
  10. I would do week-long retreats at monasteries with the monks where we would spend the vast majority of the day meditating. Additionally back when I was in Acupuncture school we used to have two week breaks in between semesters and I would take what I learned from the monastery and basically spend those two weeks doing nothing but meditating all day everyday.

  11. Curious person has some questions

    Maddie replied to CuriousMonkey's topic in Daoist Discussion

    This is a topic that I personally found confusing. it seems in general westerners think that Taoism one thing and Asians think it is another. In the end it was the lack of clarity that caused me to move on to Buddhism. In general most westerners are more interested in the internal spiritual cultivation aspects, and again being very general most Asians are more interested in the ritualistic religion side of it. A while back I began doing Qigong and just assumed that made me a Taoist lol. When I first began to consider myself a Taoist I assumed that everything I had done previously in my charismatic Evangelical Christian cult was all poo poo but as time has gone by and I reflect on the hours spent in silent prayer and contemplative Bible study I can recognize the cultivation that took place within me back then as well even though I wouldn't recommend it due to its ironic lack of compassion in spite of what Jesus taught and relative lack of wisdom in that it doesn't consider anything outside of its paradigm legitimate, yet I can look back and still recognize that cultivation did take place. I saw some pretty amazing things happen that at the time I saw her miracles but now I just see as a result of my internal cultivation efforts. But my general advice is if you like guidelines and structure that was a bit ambiguous but if you enjoy bracing the chaos then it's probably a good fit.
  12. Yes I agree and that's why I was following Orthodox Buddhism very rigorously. When I began to first experience side effects I was repeatedly told that there were none so I continued. Experience has shown me otherwise though.
  13. Yes that was one of the first things I ever got started with when it came to meditation. I found it to be effective but was also surprised by the trauma in each organ that it unlocked that I was unaware of and not expecting.
  14. Recently I have scaled back a lot as I felt like meditation was driving me crazy. I think I might have been trying to level myself up too soon. Now I mainly chant mantras and rely more on external cultivation methods such as herbs acupuncture and crystals. Is it doing as much as before? I don't know but I don't feel like I'm on the verge of losing my mind so it would seem to be worth it.

  15. Evidnece for the super natural

    Maddie replied to Maddie's topic in General Discussion

    Yes some video is not evidence at all since there's no way to differentiate that between a stage trick.
  16. Not that I claim to be enlightened at all but it is the goal for me and I have noticed that as I continue on the path that I feel more and more checked out from the whole thing like it seems small and petty and irrelevant, yet at the same time things like kindness and compassion seem to become more important.

  17. Looking for wisdom on semen retention

    Maddie replied to TaoistNoodle's topic in General Discussion

    I guess technically I still practice semen retention but from the celibate Buddhist perspective where there is no stimulation. This works much better for me or as instead of becoming sex crazed I have very little interest anymore.
  18. I think if you accomplish the first the other two come matter of fact. So the question is what is true nature? Is there true nature? The Buddha said there was atman, no self. So what does that mean for true nature?
  19. I suppose you did then.
  20. I think a very helpful thing in this case would to be to define terms more precisely. What is meant by ones definition of enlightenment? From a Classic Buddhist point of view it's rather straight forward it seems. Gain wisdom to see through delusion to let go of attachment to free one's self from rebirth in Samsara. As to other definitions I can not say much as I mainly know Buddhism.

  21. Looking for wisdom on semen retention

    Maddie replied to TaoistNoodle's topic in General Discussion

    And how does one do this?

  22. Looking for wisdom on semen retention

    Maddie replied to TaoistNoodle's topic in General Discussion

    What does that mean?

  23. Looking for wisdom on semen retention

    Maddie replied to TaoistNoodle's topic in General Discussion

    Yes I was struck by the irony as well.

  24. Evidnece for the super natural

    Maddie replied to Maddie's topic in General Discussion

    Agreed. Noteworthy perhaps, but not evidence.

  25. Evidnece for the super natural

    Maddie replied to Maddie's topic in General Discussion

    I didn't say I wasn't interested in that.