Jetsun

The other thing I was looking at was the article 'Zen and the Art of Nourishing Life' http://nirc.nanzan-u...jrs/pdf/794.pdf from the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, which says that most of what we know Hakuin's views on the issue of nourishing life comes from his work Yasenkanna 夜 船閑話 (Idle Talk on a Night Boat) which apparently was written as a criticism of Taoists, but I think what he was criticising was the external Taoists who practice external alchemy not internal, as much of what he writes sounds very much like a lot of Taoist texts stressing the importance of storing your vital energy at the Dan Tien, but he was also very much concerned the issues of stagnation this can cause saying things like “if I control the mind and [fix] it to a single place, would there not be stagnation of vital energy and blood?” but the Taoist Hermit Hakuyu's response is here which I thought was quite interesting and explains the whole fire and water paths (spoilered as it's quite long) The article also explains what was meant by the term exhaustion which the healing egg meditation is meant to help heal: "What, in turn, causes exhaustion? The Byōmei ikai mentions two possible causes: one can either become exhausted by injuring vital energy and blood through their excessive use (rō) or by going beyond measure in consuming alcohol and sex.The consequences of exhaustion were dire." but also "I heard of the cause of this illness. It does not come from wind attack and cold chills. It is an illness that arises from the mind. For this reason, this illness is called a mind disturbance [shinki 心氣]. It is an illness that pains the mind.... This illness is difficult to cure with medicine" So it seems that exhaustion they are talking about can come from either excessive living or from excessive emotions or mind anxiety and the meditation is meant to help with both. "What, then, would constitute a viable treatment? Hakuin’s response to exhaustion was twofold. First, he advised those around him to bring the mind below as would a sagely lord while governing his people. Or, as Hakuin himself puts it, “when you focus your mind below you will never forget the people’s exhaustion (rōhi 勞疲)” (Yoshizawa 2001a, 228–29; cf. Yampolsky 1971, 44). According to the Yasenkanna, there are two excellent ways of bringing the mind down into the lower body, namely the aforementioned inner contemplation technique and what Hakuin calls the soft butter pill (nansogan 輭酥丸) method" Hakuin's claims the source of this butter method is from the Buddha but apparently he also mentions it is found in the work of the monk Tiantai Zhiyi 天台智顗 who wrote the magnum opus Mohe zhiguan 摩訶止觀. which includes a 'Ghee' meditation to help cure mental issues and anxieties, so that might be one source.

Most of the sexual techniques are not only for older men most were originally intended for monks in seclusion. The modern world is completely different in that you are bombarded with sexual immagery and stimulation all of the time, all of this stimulates your sexual centre whether you like it or not so releasing it once in a while is a healthy thing to do otherwise you will probably go a bit insane with all these unexpressed repressed desires being stirred up but with nowhere to go.

Yes I agree snowmonki, I meant my post more in rebuttal to the other posts above how it was not proper Zen or Taoism, explaining that it was used more as a conjunction to other methods not as replacement. I also agree its precise original origins don't really matter, Hakuin supposedly left up to 90 enlightened disciples and is widely regarded as one of the most important Zen masters in history, so if he recommends a technique wherever it came from it is probably worth investigating. Also as he wrote his own autobiography at the end of his life we can be confident it really did come recommend by him and isn't some story concocted by others, like many of the other techniques around.

I heard them talk about this in one of Nan Huai Chins books, it's a method to combat Zen sickness, ie spending too much time sitting around meditating or dwelling in your mind contemplating koans, which can lead to a whole load of physical and mental problems, not as a direct replacement for Zen training or Taoist cultivation . I read some really interesting stuff about it which I will post later. But also as a conjunction to this method he also said that the other useful thing to do to get energy circulating wasn't qigong or Tai Chi or anything but rather just plain regular physical labour and housework which works up a sweat, done with a touch of mindfulness.

It might depend on the attitude you take while doing the visualization, I heard one Lama say that if you do mental prostrations in your mind they are more beneficial than actual physical prostrations if done with the correct attitude.

You can't ban him, otherwise we cant get his reaction after the world doesn't end and nothing happens at the end of the year.

I don't really understand the gist of this argument anyway, the healing of things like Tummo are on a completely different level and nature than something like Reiki. You may go to to have a Reiki attunement for a health problem and it may help, which is the level its working on, while Tummo is the highest Yoga Tantra so it may help you become happy and harmonious no matter what is happening to you, it might not even help that much with many health problems but it should help your mind so that you aren't bothered by them. I don't know about Mo Pai but Buddhist techniques generally aren't concerned with healing on the conventional level at all, they are more about the ultimate level of becoming at peace with whatever is happening, but that doesn't mean you ignore the conventional level healing you just recognise the place and usefulness of both aspects.

The most powerful healer I have found was a pendulum dowser. Exactly what method he used I am not sure as he does all of his healing over the phone but his method of healing may be too far out for many materialists as he talks about removing curses and foreign implants and other strange things, but the person who recommended him to me said that he helped one of his friends recover from multiple organ failure the doctors said had little hope of recovery, so even though to some it might sound crazy and unscientific he seems to get results. Which is also evidenced by the fact that he doesn't advertise anywhere and isn't on the internet or phone book at all and does all his work by people passing on his number yet he is constantly busy with customers, so he seems to rely on fate or spirit or something to get people to see him.

Maybe, but the person behind the thoughts is self evident by the fact that you are communicating with them, (or trying to) so seems a bit ridiculous to deny that they exist, to me that is just a position on the nihilism side of the middle way of the great vehicle.

The Bliss of Inner Fire book just gives people a taster of Tummo, it doesnt provide full instructions it is just to give you a glimpse of what can be achieved so you are prepared to put in the work to master it. I know many people think that is the whole thing but that wasn't the understanding I got from reading the book. I think the Lama describes it as handing out a small peace of chocolate which gives you a nice taste but to get the whole bar you need to do a great deal more.

In my experience meditation isn't about about calmness or stilling the mind, it is about being with whatever you experience without being overly attached or aversive to what is going on. Whatever arises is good, whether it is an angry rage to kill someone or pure peace, its all good. In daily life this just translates as to just be with whatever you are experiencing as much as possible, don't go chasing peace or anything as this can just be more aversion.

Buddhism has some of the most detailed and profound teachings that exist on the planet, it is properly understanding them which is the problem and applying them to our modern lives and situation which can cause errors. It can possibly lead to spiritual suicide because it is actually quite subtle so if you fall off the balance it is easy to fall into nihilism, maybe far more easily than most other paths, but there are probably more examples of masters who have achieved realizations through Buddhism than any other path too, the results speak for themselves. Even in pre Communist China if you read John Blofelds books he searched the country for realised teachers and found that the vast majority who were considered as having achieved some mastery were Buddhist rather than Taoist. So I wouldn't write it off as useless just follow the Buddhas own words and don't believe anything anyone tells you about it without realising it for yourself, as it is subject to the same distortions and corruptions as all the other religions.

Breaking the circles can mean less suffering, can mean you live your life closer to the way things operate in the world so you live more in harmony, it may not lead to ultimate reedom from the merri-go-round but I wouldn't say it means nothing.

Some people think Hitler was a genius, he had higher ideals for mankind than just mundane life and strove to achieve it, he believed in a form of Darwinism where we are meant to create a race of superhumans. Then there were highly intelligent Nazi doctors and scientists who used their genius to experiment on people and create weapons of mass destruction. How did these people use their lives and the gifts they were given except by adding to the pool of pain and suffering.

I think most of us go round and round in circles non stop, until we receive a shock from the outside world where life itself challenges our patterns which creates a different input which can break the circle.

It seems to me that the most dangerous person is the genius without an evolved compassion who is lead by his head rather than heart.

Lots of good points to respond to. I think with the whole Guru yoga thing that may have been the best teaching for a particular people in a particular period of time, as mentioned there have been some strong individuals who came out of that environment like the crazy wisdom Guru's, but how relevant that method is today I am not so sure. Compared to agrarian farm folk of that time our lives are far more complicated and we are subject to far more negative influences from supposed authority figures that I don't see a great deal of good in bowing down to kiss the feet of another authority figure, as there is the issue of repeating the same patterns of giving your power and self away to others that was forced upon you aggressively as you were growing up. The whole no self thing has been done to death on here but I think there may be an issue with translation of meaning of a lot of these areas, I find the more modern writers tend to not to write about no self in such ultimate terms rather they say things like the self exist but not in the way you think it does, or like Apech says the self exists in a conventional sense. In terms of what your individuality really is the Sufi's say you have an "essence" and psychologists have called it your "real self". The Sufi's say as a child your essence is more active which is why a child is natural, but then it gets buried by your personality which cages it and encases it like a crust, so the first job in spiritual search is to correct the balance so that your essence becomes more active and your personality more passive and melt the crust a bit. I know Buddhism and others aim at relaxing the personality structures too but I see some Buddhists who end up more like lifeless Borg stripped of their humanity through this process rather more natural and human, so something is going wrong here with some people. Of course this is not what happens with everyone I just think it's worth examining the potential dangers. That is a good way of putting it, I don't want people to be adding extra fresh negative determinism onto their already existing load not just swapping one for another. The level of negative influence people suffer varies in degree but I don't meet many people who escape it, whether they realise it themselves is a different matter.

You can be too attached to your beliefs and thoughts and identity, but if you become too detached then you can fall into the extreme opposite into the pit of nihilism. So it is good to practice from the middle way.

I got it in PDF and read bits of it and it just looks like any other Dharma book so far, with explanation of what the ceremony is about and how to prepare with the usual stuff, it is about 500 pages long though so it may not be easy to work out what Grandmaster P is going on about seeing as he is being so vague and obscure about the whole thing for whatever reason I don't understand, unless he is just trolling as it is an easy subject to troll people about.

The Chinese have as much authority to create their own Panchen Lama as they do the next Pope, but the politics of why he is coming into the public eye more now is because about 45 Tibetans have set fire to themselves in a year self mutilating out of protest about the good job the Chinese are doing, so he is their man to promote the party line, and as we saw with the Arab Spring even one guy self mutilating can cause a whole world of problems so they are nervous. Also the long game is that when the DL dies they will be promoting him as the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, the problem being that nobody recognises him as a genuine Lama, so they have to try to start to build up his profile in the public eye if its going to work as he is their propaganda stooge.

Well the boy who was named the Panchen Lama in the Tibetan traditional way hasn't been seen since the Chinese authorities took him into custody for his own safety at the age of six years old, human rights campaigners are still fighting for his release. I will look it up then to try to understand what you are getting at.

How does a book about a Buddhist initiation ceremony translate into the PRC doing a good job in Tibet? The Panchen Lama was kidnapped as a child and was at the time the youngest political prisoner in the world, then the PRC put in their own stooge which nobody recognises as being genuine. It sounds like you have been swallowing the propaganda machine.