Maddie

Very interesting as I've been studying and practicing Buddhism for over a decade now and I've never heard of any of this but maybe that's because I studied primarily the Pali Cannon. So that makes me wonder if either it's hidden in the Pali Cannon like some things are supposedly hidden within the Dao De Jing or if it's a later development? Personally I have noticed through doing mindfulness and mantra getting these weird bumps on the ends of my heart lung and large intestine meridians and no one within Pali cannon Buddhism has been able to explain this to me or even seems like they know what I'm talking about.

If you would care to expand on that I'd be very interested.

Something I've found interesting on this thread so far seems to be the wide variety of opinions on this topic which seems to mirror the wide variety of opinions and views about this subject in general, thus the confusion.

This is exactly the question lol

I think if channels and qi can be made relevant to the topic of cultivating the mind through the body then it is on topic as long as it doesn't become it's own discussion.

I believe today there is a lot of confusion about what Yi Jin Jing is and what it's used for. YMAA has a book that describes it as a series of exercises whereas Damo Mitchell says it is something else. Aside from what it is, there seems to be confusion on what it's for.

Yes this is a good question. He obviously developed this system for some reason.

Interesting 🤔

I'm not really sure where to ask this question so I thought this would be as good of a place as any. For a long time my main practice has been Buddhism and there it's all about the mind and the body really doesn't have very much importance. I know systems like Qigong and yoga Asana are meant to be good for the body and the health but is that the extent of it or is it seem that there's a way to cultivate the spiritual side and the mind through the physical? And if so how does that work?

Here is a question regarding qigong systems. Which ones(s) are best for emotions?

What's trending these days?

Or giving random girls O's at McDonld's which isn't creepy at all lol.

I would say mantra is probably still one of my main practices along with mindfulness. Although I wasn't just asking in reference to myself but about side effects in general.

This was all chronological and sequential. First I was Christian. I'd say the side effects from that were guilt. After losing faith in Christianity I eventually got into Qigong a few years later. The side effects of this were all sorts of unpleasant emotions coming up.

No not at the same time lol.

If I'm going to be totally honest, I got into better shape just doing Pilates than Qigong.

Just curious what you base this on?

To me this is an interesting topic because even though I didn't expect things to evolve this way it seems that mantras have become my main practice. It really blows my mind how if you get the wrong mantra you can feel terrible and if you get the right mantra you can feel great.

Yes that can be one explanation.

Everyone thinks they want to know who they really are until they do.

If that is the goal then I think any of them would be helpful.

I have heard it said that only a fully enlightened Buddha really knows how chanting works. With that being said there are some mantras that transform your karma be accelerating the working out of your bad karma faster and in the most gentle way possible. I can attest that when I have done these mantras that life gets very uncomfortable, but afterwards old patterns do seem to indeed change. As to how it works I have no idea.

https://www.activeherb.com/zhibai/

I am at a new place of skepticism in my life where mere claims and statements are not longer good enough. If someone makes a paranormal or supernatural claim I want to know if its real or not based upon evidence as opposed to anecdotes, legends or opinions. I realize this rules out the claims of just about every religion and spiritual tradition on the planet. What I would like to know is if anyone has any solid verifiable evidence or proof that any of the claims of the spiritual, super natural or para normal are real. Does anyone have any objective evidence of this?

This topic has been the focus of a lot of my attention as of late. Here is the back ground. Originally I was raised a Protestant Christian. During college I came to realize that this belief system didn't make a lot of rational sense and lost faith in it. Fast forward a few years and I became active in Theravada Buddhism. It seemed very rational and made sense and didn't require much faith. It was easy to see that craving lead to suffering and to end suffering one needed to let go of craving by gaining insight into it. I also appreciated that the Buddha had an attitude of free inquiry that was based upon ones own experience. Herein also was the foundation of my own personal dilemma. As much sense as Theravada Buddhism made rationally, it didn't seem to be working for me in real life as far as making me happier and more peaceful. This being the case I began to experimentally try Mahayana practices even though they seemed less rational to me. The "problem" was that the less rational Mahayana practices seemed to work better at making me happier and more peaceful, where as Theravada practice seemed to stress me out often. Being as it is I currently have a predominantly Mahayana practice even though Theravada seems to "make more sense" to me logically. Had anyone else had a similar experience? I'm not sure why Theravada practice hasn't worked well for me even though it makes more sense to me?