Maddie

If you look for everything that is ego, then perhaps there won't be any ego left in the end. Desire is the product of ego. Remove ego then the basis for desire disappears of its own accord.

I've come to realize that I react very adversely to meditation and some other cultivation methods. So much so that about half a year ago I had to abandon meditation. It would affect me very negatively emotionally. Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

The direction this thread went was unexpected by me. I suppose I had assumed people would be contemplating the existence or non-existence of "the gods" or other spiritual beings. I didn't really expect it to take the "qi powers" route that it took. That being said I would like to hear people's thoughts on the existence of deities and other such beings.

I'm not sure if this is what you meant in your post, but as an acupuncturist I do this approach on myself often with herbs and acupuncture. On myself I go beyond the usual clinical applications.

One could also ask, why should he not get paid?

Seeking power for the sake of power is of the ego.

From a Buddhist point of view usually seeking powers for powers, sake is discouraged as it tends to increase the delusion of the self, BUT typically powers tend to be a side effect of getting into the Jhanas. As far as immortality goes the Buddha said one of the things that creates suffering in life is impermanence such as birth, aging, sickness, and death. Since there has never been any being that didn't eventually die this would seem to indicate that immortality isn't possible.

Yeah, I get what you're saying and I think this is why for over a decade I have spent most of my free time in meditation. It was wanting to get past this that I was after, but it seemed that in my case this never happened. Haven't put me off at all, I appreciate it. No, I don't plan on abandoning it but rather finding another method that does not turn me into a crazy person.

Mostly lots of very strong unpleasant emotions. There's a small percentage of the population mostly people who have had childhood trauma that experience and called relaxation induced anxiety when they meditate.

Dynamic forms of Qigong were some of my first practices but I've not done that for quite a while.

To be honest I'm not really sure what the end goal of Taoism is.

Yeah I've seen that before, but at other times I hear of Taoist meditation masters saying to rid one's self of desire, so it gets a bit confusing. Also love your screen name, very creative.

I believe its the Mahaparanibbna sutta

Something else I had to mention that if I do to much of that also give me side effects is the Zhunti mantra. A little bit makes me feel pretty good, too much and its like instant dark night of the soul.

I think according to the Buddha this is one of the last wrong view to go before someone goes from Non-Returner to Arahat.

To me it seems like most of the major religions started with more or less the same basic idea but over time their major texts were meddled with by men more interested in their own personal power than spirituality. I think this is why all of the major religious texts have really good parts and some other parts that don't seem that great at all. A mix of genuine spirituality and man made ego added either later on, or at the time they were written.

Sometimes I like watching the atheists on YouTube because I do appreciate skepticism since in the past I was swept up into a cult and had I been more skeptical that would have not been the case but sometimes people call in and they have these examples of children remembering past lives and then researchers like Ian Stevenson follow up their past life claims and discover the details to be correct and they always just dismiss it out of hand. I mean yes obviously these things could be staged and faint but sometimes I feel like they're intentionally dense.

Yes, I stopped about half a year ago. I feel like I've been gradually improving since then.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Throughout the suttas it always shows the Buddha meditating frequently and I've often wondered why if he had nothing left to do.

It raises the question though. If there is no sense of self and no desire what would there be to cause rebirth?

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.