Maddie

I'd also like to connect the dots a little bit between practices that we currently have and their original hunter-gatherer shamanistic origination. One of the most obvious is singing and just as the shamanistic communities would gather around the campfire and sing we can see the most major religions these days incorporate some type of singing or chanting as a major part of their practice for connecting with the divine. Another is dance and often while they were singing around the campfire they would be dancing around it as well. Often the dance steps head specific prescribed movements in order to connect with the spirit world and a time when body and spirit we're not seen as being in contrast to each other but unified. Spirit would connect to body and body would connect the spirit. We see such body movements that relate to the energetic today and such practices as Qigong and yoga and the whirling dervishes in Islam as well as other movement based practices. Obviously there is the oral mythology which explained the creation of the world and the gods and the spirits and the human place and all of it which relates to the religious texts that all major religions have that attempt to explain these things. Often the shaman or medicine man or woman would Interstate of trance in order to access the world of spirit or the deeper levels of them self. It's likely these were the earliest beginnings of the meditative traditions that have come out of so many of the major religions. And of course there is ritual and ceremony which originally most likely simply related to survival things such as the hunt and safety but over time became more elaborate and branched out and evolves into all the various rituals and traditions that the major religions have today.

Does anyone here use this practice to go beyond the organs and go into the elements and shen spirits related to the organs? I'm curious because I do and have found using it this way to be very effective for inner stuff beyond only health stuff (which is very useful as well).

Here is my take on this as having practiced both traditional and mma in the past. First if feel like what a lot of people loose sight of is what MMA stands for. It is a mixture of Martial arts, and not a martial art in and of itself, though now days maybe it could be considered one. Second what did mma show us? The early days of the UFC were like a laboratory that showed us what worked and what didn't. The biggest thing it showed us is that if you have an excellent striking game and no ground game you are toast. Now actually this isn't a revelation because traditionally kung fu that was meant for the battle field had the same concept. You learned the various striking forms and chin na or wrestling. So basically the UFC was just a rediscovery of lost knowledge. Third it's not really about which style is better but how you train. One reason a western boxer is probably going to dominate a kung fu boxer is not because there is any intrinsic superiority to western boxing over kung fu boxing. The reason is because of how they train. The western boxer is going to spar with face contact which is training realistically for what you are going to do which is fight. Just doing forms (which is great for other purposes and I'll get to that in a second) is not going to prepare you to fight. Light sparing is not going to prepare you for full contact. If you're going to fight full contact, then that is how you need to train. Fourth how did it get this way? Well while battlefield kung fu in it's day was very effective on the battlefield the principles that made it effective such as learning to circulate ones qi well through the meridians for strikes also turned out to be very beneficial to health and well being. Basically the kung fu forms (or karate, or you fill in the blank) were a type of qigong form and people realized that learning these forms could and would make them healthier and happier people. So regular people who wanted themselves and their children to be healthy or heal an illness learned the forms for health not for killing or injuring and this is what predominately got passed on. This is why realistic sparring was removed. This is why a mixture of techniques was removed (why do I need to learn to grapple if this stand up form I'm doing now already makes me healthy?) In conclusion, what happened was that people were basically learning hard qigong for their health and forgot that the martial aspect was mostly removed and then wanted to take this health system and put it up against an actual fighting system and were quite disappointed. So if you want to fight, learn to fight, which means have a well balanced game, realistic striking (full contact including face contact), a ground game, ect... There are people from the traditional arts that do this like Lyoto Machida. If you simply want health and wellbeing then please by all means continue your martial art, just realize what it is for what it is, and that's great.

First, be kind to yourself, this is the most important yoga. Second figure out what you want. Do you want to practice celibacy or find a girlfriend. As long as you seek both you will be confused. Third again be kind to yourself, breathe, relax, accept yourself as you are now, you're already good enough. Forth, repeat steps one through three as much as needed. :-)

While true that Yi Jin Jing can and does increase physical strength it does a little more. Basically the whole reason I got into qigong in the first place was for mental wellbeing. I practice mostly Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming's stuff. As an acupuncturist have found his explanation to be one I agree with from personal experience and theoretically as well. The qi is built up to a high level in the arms by doing the set. Once finished the qi in the arms moves through the channels opening blockages and nourishing and healing the internal organs. This brings a deep level of health both physically and mentally.

You might want to see an acupuncturist. There is a condition called "running piglet" that while not exactly what you listed is similar.

I have read those explanations and am not really sure what I think one way or the other but what I do know is that I do really like this mantra. I feel really good while doing it and afterwards. I also noticed that after doing mantras to get "stuff" I tend to feel bad and I suppose with the goal to "get" one is strengthening the ego.

I still get the impression that you think of karma as an external force of divine judgment, rewards and punishments and being the case since we can not remember the actions that produced the majority of our karma then this system of divine judgment seems "unfair" It's important to understand that karma is created by the mind, more specifically the fourth skandha (or aggregate) which is volitional formations or our judgments and opinions about things, or the will, or intention. These willful or intentional acts always leave an imprint or a conditioning upon the mind called a sankhara. These sankhara's as mental conditioning in turn affect our thoughts and actions both conscious and subconscious. To not understand how our mental conditioning can affect our experience of reality is to not understand the true nature of the mind. As a personal example when I was younger I was less kind than I am now, in fact at times I could be quite cruel. The acts of cruelty left an imprint upon my mind and became the "reality" that I saw. I saw kind people as "boring goody goodies" and I did not want to associate with them. So instead I associated with unkind people which made my life quiet miserable but at the time due to the conditioning of my mind this was my "normal" even though I didn't like it and suffered quite a bit. Once I reached a point that I got tired of the suffering that comes from being around base people I began to meditate and learn about karma. I realized that in the past when a sankhara of anger or cruelty played itself out even though it was spent and done I would typically react to it in such a way that I would generate more and similar sankhara's of anger and cruelty, thus perpetuating the cycle, yet I still did not like the suffering that resulted and became bitter and hated the world for "doing this to me". Once I began to meditate I began to notice this process and with this awareness I began to not react to old sankhara's and simply let them use themselves up. Naturally it took some effort not to react to them as I had in the past, as was my habit, but by doing this I gradually began to create new habits of not reacting to old sankhara's and instead reacting as kindly and compassionately as I could thus creating new happier and gentler sankhara's. My life began to turn around slowly but surely and old patterns I had been in for all my life up to that point began to change (for the better). If bad karma is generated by the mind, so is good karma which means there is something that we can do about it. This is why when the Buddha was asked by people who and what he was, he would reply that he was awake. When we are asleep and dreaming the dreams play out and we do not have much control, but when we wake up we are conscious and can choose what we do. I do agree with your opinion about Trump personally and believe me I have pondered his karma more than I would probably care to. Here is the problem with him, and Samsara in general. Making the karma of wealth is pretty easy to be honest. All it takes is a little generosity. So what ever being Trump was in a past life had to have practiced generosity. You see this in Buddhist countries today, people love to give to the monks to make merit so their future will be prosperous. Pretty easy to do. What is much harder is developing wisdom. So if one is generous and makes merit they will very likely be wealthy in a future time. Unfortunately if they do not develop the mind there is great potential for the wealth to enable the defilements of the mind to have the opportunity to do what they were unable to do in the past when they did not have the means. Thus a lot of new bad karma is generated and the future is going to suck again and thus the Buddha said the cycle of Samsara is endless suffering. This is why its better to develop wisdom than only make merit.

Good questions. I'll try to give my take on this topic as it's a topic I have studied a lot and influences most of the decisions I make in my life. First of all karma as the Buddha taught it, is simply a law of nature much like gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the speed of light. It simply is a force generated by the mind and that's all, its cause and effect, just the same as if one pushed a boulder on top of a hill and the effect is for it to roll down hill. The point of gravity isn't to teach us moral lessons, it simply is. Of course if we are wise we can learn lessons from gravity, but gravity is just gravity whether we learn from it or not. Karma is not a form of punishment nor reward, again simply cause and effect. The notion of punishment is one of theistic philosophy, that there is a being that has opinions on our actions and rewards and punishes us accordingly. This is not karma, it is not personal. We don't need to know what we did wrong in a past life or last year or yesterday to know what to do now, for that is the past and there is nothing we can do about it. All we need to know is what to do in the present which is the only place we can ever be and ever are. I would also like to mention that karma does not only come to fruition in future lives but can and often does come to fruition in this life and sometimes relatively quickly depending on if the circumstances are favorable for it to do so. I have made a conscious effort to improve my karma and I have seen my life improve. I have also seen the karma from less than honorable things I've done come to fruition sometimes rapidly. I agree we can choose to do something about karma and many people do this constantly. The reason there are "rotten" people with money from a karma point of view is the result of being generous in a past life with out developing wisdom, an important thing to consider. Though I'm not sure what you would consider "fixing the problem" of rotten people having wealth? Actually its only a "problem" if we see it as one. It's important to remember in this Samsara there is always going to be suffering and inequality, thus the reason the Buddha said to work to escape it as though our heads were on fire. To me this is the same as disliking gravity. Yes I'm sure the parachutist who's parachute does not open hates gravity and thinks it is a dumb idea, but this is not going to have any effect on gravity. Or he can understand that there is gravity and take action to work with this law of nature like being very careful packing the chute or wearing a back up. Being mad at gravity is going to get him no where. I think this explains your understanding of karma. ;-)

One other thing I forgot to elaborate on was written mantras. Lately I feel that I am becoming aware of their potential power whether it be Taoist, Buddhist, Sanskrit, or even Islamic calligraphy. Some of them seem to have a certain power emanating from them. I don't know much about this topic but would like to learn more.

Lately I have been working with Hindu mantras. I have worked with various Buddhist ones in the past as well. One mantra I specifically had in mind as causing me woe was the "Kleem" mantra. I was using it to attract things to myself, but I realized that since this mantra's energy is red and my predominate aura color is indigo this was not resonating well with me, as it was too far on the opposite end of the spectrum. Also even though one of my reasons for using it was to get a certain job, I also feel that another motive for using it was ego based and that does not tend to go well for me either. Anyhow I had noticed that was would feel very bad for a while after chanting it and this was a fairly consistent experience for me. On the other hand I have been enjoying the Hare Krishna mantra and having good experiences with it. It also seems to offset the bad effects of the Kleem mantra. I feel like it makes me very happy and just love everyone a lot. A couple other mantras I've used as of late are Om which I found I shouldn't do much when driving as it makes me loopy lol, and the Ganesh mantra for the same purpose of getting that job, but can't say if that one made me feel bad. In the past I had used the Zhunti mantra extensively and had both good and bad experiences with it, but the rapid fruition of karma, specifically the bad stuff makes me hesitant to use it now. Is the "Om Amitabha Hrih" a variation of the Amitofu mantra from Pureland Buddhism? I would be interested to hear of your experiences with it.

I thought I would revive this thread and just ask about people's experiences with mantras. Does anybody ever have negative experiences with certain mantras? There are a few mantras that after I do I don't feel well for a while and I was wondering if anybody had this experience as well? Any mantras that make anyone feel really good? As a side note I was also curious if anybody has any experience riding mantras down as opposed to speaking them and if so what has been your experience with this?

I've been doing Dr. Yang's version from YMAA and even though I can do an hour of yoga even with quite challenging postures, I find myself exhausted after doing just one or two animal sets of this for some reason.

These days my primary practice is Buddhist insight/mindfulness meditation with some supplimentary yoga and health qigong, and a little mantra. I do the mediation for peace of mind, the yoga and qigong to help me sit in meditation.

This is the archeological consensus actually.

Lots of good stuff posted already, just thought I'd lay out a user friendly format since I really love this practice and use it frequently. Heart/Small Intestine/Tongue/Blood vessles. "Haaaaaa" louder for physical heart issues or tongue ulcers, sub-vocally for anxiety, desire, overstimulation, hate. Liver/Gallbladder/Eyes/Tendons/Joints/Ligaments. "Ssssshhhhh" louder for physical issues, sub-vocally for anger, stress, frustration Spleen/Stomach/Pancreas/Mouth/Muscles "Huuuu" (who) louder for digestive issues, sub-vocally for worry, or an over active mind. Kidneys/Bladder/Bones/Ears/Brain "Choooo" louder for physical issues, sub-vocally for fear and phobias. Lungs/Large Intestine/Nose/Skin "Ssssssss" louder for upper or lower respiratory issues and/or colon issues, sub-vocally for sadness and grief.

Does anyone have any experience with any of the various qigong and Taoist organ meditations like inner smile, healing sounds, ect. When I first began to meditate several years ago these were some of my first mediations. I had some interesting experiences such as repressed memories that came up and such. Just wondering if anyone else does or has done this type of meditation and what experiences you may have had?

"Five elements, Six conditions"

It's funny you say that, as I have before wondered if they were not one in the same simply interpreted by different cultures in their own way.

Easy answer for starters. Use Liver 3 on the top of the foot.

I can offer some explanation on the Buddhist perspective. The reason Buddhism teaches that Enlightenment or Nirvana is the final stage is one of if not the central teaching of the Buddha. The end goal as taught by the Buddha was not immortality but Nirvana which means cessation. The reason for this is that the Buddha taught three things that characterize Samsara and dissatisfaction. The first is impermanence (anicca) that nothing lasts forever within Samsara. The second is suffering or (dukkha) or unsatisfactoriness. The third is non-self (anattaa). Since the question asked here was why Buddhism teaches what they do as they do, I hope this at least explains why.

I think I initially started meditation because I thought Powers would be neat when I was younger. Then you develop a few abilities and you realize that they don't make you happy and that peace of mind is much more desirable. Anyway to answer your question I found that while doing the microcosmic orbit once the qi gets to your third eye let it linger there for a while during each orbit before moving on and after a few months of this interesting things begin to happen.

There are two basic categories in which everyone of us views our experience moment by moment, the first being through delusion and the second being mindfully. By far the most common view of experience is the view of delusion or non-mindfulness. It is this delusion (not seeing things as they truly are) that leads to the craving and/or aversion that leads to the suffering and frustration that we experience. This in turn gives rise to new reactions to deal with the previous reactions that arose out of delusion. As long as these new reactions also arise out of delusion they will lead to more craving, and aversion and then the dissatisfaction that these produce and so on and so forth potentially forever. An example is that typically when we experience an unpleasant feeling we tend to want to escape the unpleasant feeling, or stop it, or control it, or suppress it. If we experience a pleasurable feeling the general tendency is to want to cling to it, and/or seek more of it. Whether we seek to escape unpleasant feelings or seek more pleasant feelings, this conditions the mind with the habit or avoiding or seeking, which gives rise to more of these reactions in the future, thus never ending. The other option in reacting to experience is to be mindful of it. Mindfulness is the opposite of reacting, it is observing, and knowing. When we experience an unpleasant feeling the mindful approach is to simply know it for what it is as it arises. When we experience a pleasant feeling the mindful approach is to simply know it for what it is as it arises. As we continue to be mindful of our experiences the mind slowly begins to understand that these reactions it had previous had to experience were not making it happy, or were not beneficial, thus this is the opposite of delusion. For example if we become angry, there are a variety of reactions that could arise from a non-mindful state but two of the most common are to either get caught up in the mental content of our anger and react to it either externally or mentally thus conditioning the mind to give rise to further anger. Or one might realize that they feel angry and suppress it. Since suppression is a type of control and since control arises from a judgment, one might then feel angry at themselves for feeling angry in the first place and if this happens long enough the self judgment leads to depression. Either way neither reaction are based upon mindfulness, but rather delusion and thus perpetuate unhappiness. On the other hand if one becomes angry and one is mindful of the anger instead of reacting to the anger one way or another they observe it. They observe what this anger is, how it feels presently to be anger without getting caught up in the content of the anger, nor judging themselves for feeling angry. They simply want to know it. If there is tension in the body they allow themselves to feel the tension and know it simply as tension. If there are angry thoughts, they observe how it currently feels to be angry without thinking about what they are angry about. They realize that the state of being angry feels like suffering, and once the mind really understands what it is doing leads to suffering it lets go. Not reacting also does not give rise to the mental conditioning that leads to further mind states based upon delusion. One really good way to practice mindfulness is by noting or labeling what ever it is you feel as you are feeling it. So if anger arises say to yourself "anger, anger, anger", or if desire arises say to yourself "desire, desire, desire". Personally I do this with each inhale and exhale as it helps me to feel the experience in my body as well as giving me something physical to anchor it to, but this is not necessary. But as you say what ever it is you are feeling to yourself, observe how it actually feels to feel what ever it is you are feeling (or thinking) as you are feeling it in the present moment. One will quickly notice that all mind states that arise out of delusion whether they are craving or aversion are actually suffering, and it is this realization that causes the mind to let go, and it is letting go that leads to peace and happiness.

Or the three dan tiens?

If you want to learn the inner smile he is a good source ;-)