Maddie

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?

I want to talk about a topic that I feel does not get much attention within Buddhist discussion (especially Buddhism in the West) and that is spiritual protection from harmful spirits, and other entities, as well as black magic and psychic attack from other human beings. It has been my experience in Buddhism in the West for Buddhism to be approached very skeptically and secularly. Not only has this been my personal experience but try googling the topic and very little useful information comes up as well. I would actually like to be one of these content and happy western Buddhist skeptics but unfortunately personal experience has not allowed this to happen to me. When looking for solutions to this problem on google most hits that come up are from either a Christian perspective or a pagan/wiccan one. I even tried to talk about this to a western monk at a nearby monastery but he just seemed to think I was superstitious. While I don't claim to be any particular sect of Buddhism most of my study and time has been from a Theravada point of view (but not exclusively). What I have found from this tradition so far that has been of some benefit are the Paritta chants, specifically the Rathana and Atanatiya suttas. Playing them on youtube seems to help to a degree, and chanting them myself seems to help even more (in English). I have found some Mahayana sutras and mantras to be helpful occasionally as well. But other than that I have not found much within Buddhism that seems to be helpful. Other things that so far I have found to be helpful from personal experience are not Buddhist but magic herbs and crystals which are basically from indigenous human spiritual practice for most of our evolution from pretty much everywhere in the world. I had tried in the past some Catholic practices (even though I have never been Catholic) and those seemed to be effective as well such as rosaries and attending mass, but couldn't really do it very long after I started reading the rest of what Catholics thought but maybe I was throwing the baby out with the bath water. Other than that I don't really know what else to try, and nothing has seemed to give me a once and for all solution. If anyone has had experience with such things and know of things that are useful, especially from a Buddhist perspective I would love to hear about it. I would also be interested in knowing what so little seems to be said about this topic, especially in western Buddhism?

I am an acupuncturist and practitioner of TCM. I would like to deepen my clinical practice and learn about the Taoist approach to TCM. Does anyone know of any good resources?

In the past in my evangelical Christian days the notion of reading the bible as a practice in and of itself was a pretty big thing as having spiritual efficacy. Later when I left Christianity I didn't think very highly of most things Christian so just sort of dropped this notion. But as after all break ups eventually one gets back on speaking terms with their ex and so I have been re-exploring this type of practice, by reading various sacred texts and scriptures slowly and mindfully and paying attention to any effects they might have energetically. To my surprise they do seem to have an effect on an energetic level. I especially notice things going on in my upper chakras (not really that surprising). The reason I am writing this post is because I wanted to know if other traditions teach that reading and studying the sacred texts and scriptures IS a practice, and if so what the effects are?

Well this time around I have not stopped but in the past I stopped because it got extremely uncomfortable. I think part of that in the past was because I would overdo it.

I'm actually glad I did it with another person because other wise I might have thought I just imagined it, but since we were able to recall the things that we did, the places we went, and the conversations we had out of body that was pretty convincing to me.

Um well yes, but it is going to sound odd, but back when I was in the Army so a long time ago, I was at a house party of one of my friends and I was sitting in one of his living room chairs and I felt like I was floating up to the ceiling. I guess he was just sensitive or something but he looked up and was like "did you know you are floating outside of your body". So later on he told me a good way to make it happen intentionally was to drink an entire bottle of Robitussin DM (I am not recommended one do this). I have no idea how he knew this but one night we sat down in my place and both chugged our Robitussin and in just a few minutes we both floated out of our bodies and went exploring together. Again I have no idea how or why that works, and no idea of how he figured that out.

Yes I agree, I like learning both sides as well. I think it helps with balance.