Cheshire Cat

For a small bucket, the water of a little pond is an immense quantity of liquid. The point of cultivation is not about filling the bucket with the water of the pond: that would be easy, Cultivation is about turning the bucket into a big water tank.

Hi Lataif, I began Qigong and cultivation with the secret hope that the overall healing effects of meditation would produce benefits for my eyes (myopia). It doesn't. Meditate with eyes open or closed, gazing at the nose... it doesn't matter: your eyes will remain the same, even if you get some bizarre symptoms like reddening, etc... it's all temporary and won't improve your eyesight. My very down-to-earth no-nonsense conclusion is that eyesight is related to a great extent with "tensions" in the muscles around the eyes and unless you do something very specific (eye exercises for hours) to heal them, nothing will improve with ordinary qigong regimes. For example, meditation will not relax the muscles that prevent your head from falling (fortunately), but by the same mechanism it will not relax the eyes. I've not yet healed my eyes because it seems to be a very very slow process that requires a lot of patience. Bates method is the way.

imho...

This is my personal view of the poem. Shamata is a state of stillness and rest: the more you practice it, the more you can adopt it in every situation... ... but there's always a limit, a situation in which your mind falls from the shamata state: for example seeing a beautiful lady, one can abandon his concentration and experience his lust. Vipasyana is a state of wisdom: everything that you perceive has the three marks (impermanence, no-self, un-satisfactoriness) or just emptiness if you want to talk mahayanically. Therefore, even if you experience lust, you cannot develop attachment. The process of death gives much troubles to the mind and it may destroy your shamata accomplishment quite easily. But if your vipasyana is strong enough, your mind is not affected by the experience: you have no fear, no desire and you may eventually become enlightened. To loss the shamata state at the point of death means to die as an ordinary being. To keep the shamata state at the point of death means to be reborn as a Deva. To have a strong vipasyana practice at your back means to reach liberation. That's my view.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/AIHrUUT58mc

After waking up in the morning, I find it very difficult to meditate or develop some wisdom. I need to walk a little bit, maybe drink a tea, eat a biscuit or two... only then I can try to understand death with widsom.

I think that to objectively measure psychological effects on the sense of reasoning, perception and emotions of an individual, we are bound to rely on instruments and procedures as accurate as the clap-o-meter (also known as applause-o-meter). Much of the time, people have a psychological trauma just because doctors tell them that they're supposed to have one. Our ancestors lived in terrible conditions, enduring wars, famine, pestilence, experiencing suffering ... yet, they was never even vaguely able to describe maladies and illness that could be associated with what we call "thrauma".

Another theory could be that the visible gland was associated with a state of sexual arousal which -in battle- would signify a trance of sacred berserk-warlike frenzy. A mighty warrior in trance state would have an erected penis in battle. From this, they thought that a circumcised man grows with a strong temperament, prone to warfare with a strong urge to fight: this is the primordial ideal of manhood. In addition, we know that the berserk state was considered sacred by the german tribes: circumcision is also a sacred commandment from God himself. In the bible we can read what God said to Abraham (genesis 17): "I am God Almighty[a]; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers." To walk before God faithfully and be blameless was the sayings of warlords: to walk means to march. This is a call of war. “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham,[c] for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” This is a promise of victory over all enemies from God. More sons means more soldiers. Kings are conquerors. God clearly speaks of the land of Canaan which will be conquered. Then, God commands circumcision of every soldier to fulfil this promise: "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you." This covenant is about military success and circumcision is the sign of this supremacy in war.

I've read in the Svoboda's trilogy "Aghora" that Nath yogis used to wear special earrings in a specific point of the ear for energetic reasons. Interesting!

Here's my diagnosis: the Governor Channel's Qi flows 2-3 times smoother that the Qi in the Conception channel. When you practice standing meditation or one-pointed meditation, the condition gets worst because these practices enhance this type of imbalance by increasing Qi flow. I suggest to practice a fragment of the MCO until your conception vessel is strong enough. That is: follow with your mind the conception vessel from third eye to perineum (don't spend more than seconds on third eye and perineum since they're parts of the governor channel). Meditate from the top to the bottom, don't reverse the Qi flow. Forget your Governor channel for a while. hope this helps

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What is missing in the West is the figure of the "worthy beggar": the spiritual seeker supported by the community because he represents High spiritual value and because he brings "good luck". Apart from this special spiritual figure, begging is a disease of non-tribal societies. Obviously, beggars are not to be blamed: may they be happy and may they be helped by good-hearted people.

You're repeating that "traditionally there are 3 main schools of vedanta", then I'm legitimate to ask: where does this "tradition" of classification comes from? Scholars say that Vallabhacarya's philosophy is vedanta and if you say that it's not, I think that it would be a good idea to clarify what are the elements and quality of a vedanta school in your opinion... and then see if those things are present in these philosophies which you consider unworthy of the title.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=siddhis+associated+with+chakras&l=1

Then it should go in your personal diary page. Here it's an open thread and if you write incorrect information, consider that your personal views mean much less than academic views... especially if you're unable to justify them in terms that go beyond your philosophical taste.

why? Is this a thread about your personal considerations? Achintya-Bheda-Abheda (अचिन्त्यभेदाभेद, acintyabhedābheda in IAST) is a school of Vedanta representing the philosophy of inconceivable one-ness and difference. [from Gupta, Ravi M. (2007). Caitanya Vaisnava Vedanta of Jiva Gosvami's Catursutri tika.pp. 47-52] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radhika_Ramana_Dasa

Yes, you did: it was something like this

The vedanta philosophies are: The Advaita Philosophy of Sri Sankara; The Visishtadvaita Philosophy Of Sri Ramanuja; The Dvaita Philosophy Of Sri Madhavacharya; The Dvaitadvaita Philosophy of Sri Nimbarka; The Suddhadvaita Philosophy of Sri Vallabha; The Achintya Bhedabheda Philosophy of Sri Chaitanya (The Hare Krishna Movement) for more info http://www.hinduism.co.za/schools.htm

Anderson did it in this thread. I asked him about his principles to understand what kind of questions he expected. You replied to that question directed to him which imply your willingness to take his arguments as yours. Since you consider yourself capable of realizations, I sincerely hope that you will somewhat realize that the absence of reason, logic and meaning in your posts could be best directed in playing with your children rather than talking with me. I don't claim absolute knowledge, but a certain amount of reason and logic... These means are the tools that intelligent people use to show if the argument is correct or not. I would be glad to receive replies that could show me where I'm wrong, but I got just an improper quote from Nagarjuna and no explanations whatsoever.

What? Never heard about Vallabhacarya? Never heard about pushti marga?

Mathematical rules cannot be applied to judge the quality (right or wrong) of my questions. Failure to recognize this is a cognitive problem of yours.

There's also bhakti-vedanta.

Yes, they are

These are not principles, but examples of mathematical rules that cannot be applied to the quality of my questions by definition.

Right and wrong are based on principles. Principles are different in distinct individuals. What are your principles?