Jetsun

There is one simple technique here https://www.facebook.com/SpringForestQigong/videos/10154197627896953/ Personally I am not sure if that is a long term solution though

Jed McKenna used to say in order to get enlightened all you have to do is get a pen and paper and keep writing until you can write something which is completely true. If you stick at it then in a maximum of two years you will be enlightened or understand the nature of truth. No need to meditate or go to the Himalayas, just do that simple exercise.

There are basically two ways to go about it: 1 - You train the mind to become quiet in order to recognise the truth 2 - Through recognition of the truth your mind automatically becomes quiet The vast majority of paths go about it using the method of number 1 of trying to train the mind. My experience is that number 2 is more effective, the reason being that in essence a lot of the methods of number 1 are subtly violent, even coming from the view that the mind should be different and more quiet is a form of rejection, ultimately it is one part of the mind rejecting another part, one part trying to dominate another, just internal war and conflict which feeds itself and is never ending. Number two brings in an outside agent which is ultimately more powerful than the energy of the mind, eventually through recognition of the truth of its place in the grand scheme of things and when confronted by something more powerful than it which can't control or manipulate the mind surrenders and is eventually quieted through entrainment and by being starved of the energy of identification.

I am also interested in grounding techniques. My contribution is that food grown underground is grounding, so root vegetables. Ultimately though I think grounding is more about fully integrating your emotional life and traumas and issues so your body is a safe and calm place to inhabit, so you don't feel the need to try to go off anywhere else.

The only way to really know if they lead to the same place is to walk the paths experientially like Ramakrishan did, otherwise it is just a intellectual comparison.

What type of qigong do you practice and recommend? In terms of awakening I believe in a sense we are addicted to our drama, addicted to our thought forms and mind loops. One person I know told me one of the most useful books he read to aid the integration of awakening was 'Easy Way to Stop Smoking' by Alan Carr, not for the smoking but it explains the dynamics of all addiction, the fundamental premise being that when we really see clearly that we get absolutely no benefit from our addiction we let it go. Which is the same with ego, the problem being most of us are grasping onto it as tightly as a young child holds onto a toy and we react with equal fury if anyone tries to attempt to take it away.

Yeah sorry I meant Gospel of Ramakrishna I don't mean he was commentating on the Gospels. I think he approaches them from their own perspective, to see if they work, rather than overlaying his own concepts onto them. There is bound to be some of that overlay no matter what in every spiritual path we enter whether it is culturally native or not, but if one is coming from beginners mind to some extent the impact of that can be reduced.

I have been meaning to read the Gospel of Ramakrishna, apparently he worked his way through all of the main religious teachings and discovered they all lead to the same place, so he could teach as fluidly and deep about Christianity and Islam as well as Hinduism.

Its a method of enquiry, where you start from the perspective of you don't know the answer to your question, then just ask yourself throughout your day or when it seems appropriate what it is that you really want or what you are really looking for? ask and see what comes up. Or a better method is to kind of drop the question into your body and see what emerges. Or write down the question and write the answers which come up, then see if those answers are really true. Always question the answers which come up to see if they are really honestly true. The reason why i think that is so important is because most people don't really know what they want, or they think they want one thing but really it is another, for example many people get into Qigong saying they want enlightenment, but what they really want is power. Many people say they want enlightenment but when you ask what enlightenment is they can't answer. Personally it has taken me about 10 years to get clarity about what I am really looking for, if I had worked on clarity at the beginning it could have saved a lot of time.

My advice is to get really clear, honest and specific within yourself what you really want and what you are really looking for, just as an inner investigation without any tradition or teacher. If you do that then you are way ahead of most. After that if you want to understand Qi cultivation it might be good to start with someone like Chunyi Lin and Spring Forest Qigong. If you want to understand meditation try Alan Wallace and his books like 'The attention revolution'. And if you want to wake up and discover the truth of what you are go with Adyashanti.

I think karma is always trying to complete itself and release, it is us who prevents it from doing so usually through our resistance to it. So the inertia may be more down to how we react to karma rather than from the karma itself.

I think most of the teaching around this is lost, although it's probably one of the most important parts of ancient Taoist practice. The person who still seems to have some legit teaching around this is Wang Liping, he has a book with various meditations to be done at various times of the year depending on when certain energies are more prevailant, such as meditating on the energies of various stars etc. The book The Yellow Emperors Classic also has generalised information about when Qi is rising and falling and the sort of exercise you should do at certain times of the year.

What is the difference? In Buddhism some deities can be considered harmful, such as Shugden. In Christianity Lucifer is considered an angel along side all the other light angelic beings, so is Satan not a light being too? In terms of us to even say that we are light beings I think is to say too much, we are light and beyond light.

Has anyone else been able to reproduce his healings or advance in his system since Daskalos died? I always found his teachings fascinating to read about, but cautious about how applicable it is to learn.

My recollection is that emotional maturity was one of the most important lines of development in his system, which is why he prescribed psychological methods and shadow work alongside meditation. I never got the impression that he was far along that line himself, just my impression from hearing his interviews and reading his words, for example he would talk about hiring prostitutes to practice Tantra and would release pictures of himself shirtless to the internet. I don't want to derail this thread too much but there is a ton of stuff on the web about Ali Da anyone can look up, Wilber goes on to call Ali Da a "fuck up" after he hears about what goes on at his ashram. And I doubt you will find a single ordained Buddhist who recognises Big Mind as a new turning of the Dharma, that term is usually reserved for a few select exceptional masters throughout history, the method didn't seem to help Genpo Merzel himself that much But the main point about these guys I was trying to make is that they were all endorsed as modern Western Integral masters and all of them showed themselves up to be not particularly developed along some of Wilbers lines. So where are the examples of Integral development?

Yeah he has a good intellect, I don't personally rate him as high as you do, for example in the area of spirituality I consider Osho as having a greater intellect and a lot of Wilbers work is taken from Spiral Dynamics, but reading both of them did very little to actually improve the growth of my being or move me closer to awakening. Wilber is a map maker, but for me at least where I am now, developing spiritually is more about letting go of all maps, ideas and points of reference as reality keeps showing me over and over again that you can't pin it down. Often the greatest intellectuals have the hardest time of letting go of their maps which they cling to for security in trying to understand a constantly changing reality.

I think if you look at Wilber himself he imagines himself to be integral, but I don't see much evidence for it, I see little evidence of much ego maturity and a lot of insecurity. I see someone who periodically recommends Guru's as being examples of modern advanced Integral devlopment, but almost without fail they eventually get revealed as abusers or immature. He early on endorsed Ali Da Samaraj as a great master, but when the reports of abuse come out he retracts his support; then he says Zen teacher Gempo Merzel is turning a new wheel of the Dharma, who is later exposed as sleeping with his students; Wilber always heavily endorsed Andrew Cohen as a perfect example of Integral development, but recently Andrew wrote an open letter saying that he lacks the maturity to be a teacher any more and was using spirituality to hide from his issues. So clearly Wilber lacks practical judgement and examples of people in the real world who actually fit into his model.

You don't need permission to do anything, but I think it is a bit naive to think that just because you aren't separate from anything that it is always beneficial to merge with beings, you say that nothing can be taken from you but what about your health or mental wellbeing or being drawn into others issues which aren't yours to deal with, the whole issue of merging essentially means that the lines between what is your issue and anothers get confused. The assumption is that because you discover these beings from refined perception that they don't have ego, don't have issues to deal with and are purely here to help, but I believe that is a misguided assumption. For example the Dalai Lama has come out and named some Buddhist deities could do harm if you work with them, could make you angry violent, these are considered refined high beings by many but are still harmful to work with. Non-duality isn't a blanket pass that everything you do is fine, you aren't separate from poison but if you drink it it will do you harm.

Without lineage preparation and empowerment how do you know the divine being is what you think it is? how do you know they don't want something in return for their help? For example, say there are two high level beings in Jesus and Satan, on a certain level we are one with both and could connect with both energetically, but how would you be able to tell the difference between them? because Satan isn't going to appear to you to be all hot and fiery and appear really dangerous, he is going to try to appear exactly how we may image Jesus is going to appear and may do things which feel nice and feel good, Jesus on the other hand may do something to us which makes us feel like shit but ultimately is in our best interest

Everyone is subjected to the force of unconsciousness, which ultimately tricks us in a million ways and the further you go along the spiritual path the more subtle and clever it gets. Recognising that it even exists is a good step.

Yes I agree, I think it has been informative as to how different traditions go about this, or at least clarifies how Yidam practice goes about it.

So there is no separation between you and "it", but there is there still separation between your merge and everything and everyone else? You merge and become one with the deity, but you don't merge and become one with everything and the entire cosmos is that right?

Thought arises within the no thought space you are seeking, so what you are looking for is already here.

I consider Yidam as something different than connecting directly with a higher level being, Yidam involves visualisation while the connection to a higher level being is usually in the form of energy or information, which is usually in an altered state such as trance, dream or meditation. Do I know many people who connect to beings in the direct way? yes some. Do I have examples of people being tricked while doing Yidam practice? no I don't know anyone who does Yidam, but there are examples of people being tricked by spirits and beings throughout most of the traditions. Would you be protected with empowerment? well usually lineages have preliminaries and empowerments for a reason, often these things are worked out quite precisely over many generations.

I guess what I was pointing out in the OP is that how do you know it actually is what you think it is that you are merging with? You may think it is a divine being but it could be some other dimensional being pretending to be one. As I mentioned Tibetan Medicine recognises there are trickster spirits who may mislead you which exist as well as the guiding deities within Tibetan Buddhism. If you are doing a practice which is taught by a long lineage with replicated results then you can be confident in the line of masters before you whose shoulders you stand on, if not then who knows what you might be really dealing with.