Tibetan_Ice

Hi D I had kriyas too, but nothing serious... just rocking back and forth and occaisionally leaning all the way forward (head on feet). Oh, yes, the insomnia.. yuk.. feeling like you've plugged into 220 volts when before you were running on a D cell battery.. Well, I would recommend staying grounded, being out in nature, open parks, green trees, blue sky, fresh air. That, and taking B-complex to compensate for the emotional stress. That, and long hot sea salt baths. Also, try to eat heavier meals, meat, vegetables, lots of fibre.. Yes, on the way out, when you cleanse emotions and stored up blockages, you experience them again on their way out. You just have to get through the rough stuff, but it is never as bad as it seems.. nothing is permanent. Last thing I would point out to you... did you know that practices can have a cumulative effect? You could do a practice one day, and then two days laters you feel the effects. Therefore, it is important to understand that delayed reaction when analyzing cause and effect.. TI

Hi D I'm not sure how much background you have on kundalini. There is tons of info on the net, and that may be a problem, because you can find all-and-everything-about-kundalini, anything you want, and some of it is not correct.. However, since you like shopping at the wal-mart of web-sites, here is a quote from that website about awakening kundalini: http://www.meditationexpert.com/meditation-techniques/m_kundalini_yoga.html I think whomever wrote that article (was it Bodri?) kind of has a narrow view of kundalini. There is too much emphasis on the bliss part, and not enough about the burning of karma, the cleansing of the shushmna, and the free flow of energies, and the dissolution into 'space'. While I have read and heard that kundalini practice is not necessary to dissolve the body and mind into the central channel, that shamatha alone can do it, one discovers that one meets kundalini along both paths.. Also, the Bon practices incorporate a form a tummo and central channel practices, and those are preliminary practices for Dzogchen.. So, perhaps "Bodri" has a bad attitude about kundalini, or does not place enough emphasis on burning the fires? Or maybe he just doesn't want to deal with the powers and potential dangers of kundalini? Who knows.. TI

Hi Drew I was kind of surprised that you recommend the MCO for kundalini. MCO takes the outward path, and all kundalini wants to do is go up the sushumna to meet Shiva. I wondered about this and did a search for SFQ and "Kundalini and Chunyi Lin" and found this: http://thetaobums.com/topic/16067-interview-with-chunyi-lin-of-spring-forest-qigong/ So, it would very interesting to hear what Chunyi Lin does say about kundalini.. Also, in the book "Taoist Yoga", there is mention of the coccyx, when drawing the immortal seed up the tu mo channel. See pages 140 and 141. Here is just a bit: http://books.google.ca/books?id=5XDyCu1w58sC&pg=PT39&lpg=PT39&dq=%22although+the+passage+of+the+'precious+gem'+is+blocked%22&source=bl&ots=0P3TTvXOca&sig=aGffU7dvb5b3HdNB_Tx7Jq4WRk8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VjGlUd7RDsShiAL04oCoDQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA So I have to ask you, Drew, have you ever practised tummo, or taking the energy up the central channel and out through the top of the head? I know you have had many experiences and I've probably read most of them. I found them fascinating and interesting. But, do you acknowledge that there is a central channel (sushumna), and that it can dissolve all energies? Have you incorporated that into your meditation sessions? I don't think the vagus nerve is the central channel.. Just curious.. TI

Hi D Moving like that is called "kriyas". It is a well-known kundalini phenomenon, especially during shaktipat. http://ourlightbody.com/index.php/part-iii-human-metamorphosis/chapter-6-all-about-kundalini/what-are-kundalini-kriyas TI

Yes, it is good to do the meditation of "watching your thoughts" and putting space in between you and your thoughts (and emotions). Sometimes the emotions can be so overwhelming that you have to take action and dissolve them. Thoughts too. Learning to detach is a good thing. Learning to directly observe a thought and dissolve it is a great help. Just remember, nothing is permanent. Everything arises and passes if you just let it be. TI

Hi D Yes, the pain in the tail bone is the start of the kundalini activation. When this occured to me, I had pain so bad in the tailbone that I could not sit. This lasted for a week, but it did go away. It is the piercing of the knot at the tailbone. It shows that you've accumulated enough prana/chi to fill your lower body and now kundalini is trying to start it's ascent. In another of your posts (later), you said that you could sense your room-mate's bf energy. This is also another sign of kundalini. On several occaisions, I was just standing on the sidewalk when someone would walk by. As they walked by, I could 'sense' their entire being, knew what they were thinking, knew what they ate for breakfast, knew what their parents looked like.. it was like being them. At first it was novel and amazing. After a while, it was so digusting and overwhelming, to realize the complexitiy of mental accumulations and functioning of both your own and somebody else's mental constructs, to taste the mundanity and whole other set of desires, thoughts, hopes, etc made me recoil with disgust. A peron's being is so complex and most of it is so useless and trivial. Imagine, instead of one being's set of internal dialog, you experience two, or three other persons' inner dialog and thoughts at the same time.. You can see what garbage dumps we are.. For this reason, I stay away from crowds and spending too much time with other people. Luckily, disinterest seems to abate the kundalini surges. However, your story says to me that your kundalini is becoming active. It gets way more intense as your kundalini energy comes out to play. Yes, shamatha. The most powerful practice to activate kundalini (for me) is Eckhart Tolle's "Sensing the inner body". Basically you just sit and 'feel' the lifeforce in the body. You just focus on the feeling and hold that as your meditation object. Eventually, the body and mind dissolves and kundalini activates. Shamatha practice is very close to that. But shamatha practice doesn't seem to overload me, it is much gentler. I can't do the 'sensing the inner body' as a regular practice because I won't sleep (I just witness sleep) and I'm so sick of ecstasy that I'm trying to avoid it. Hopefully, you have cleared enough blockages that should your kundalini blow open, it will go up the central channel and out of the top of your head. Enjoy it and try to retain as much of the energy as you can. Good luck. TI

Hi, I have come accross two very interesting writings about Dzogchen. I thought I would share. http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_24_05.pdf I enjoyed the whole article, especially the part about "beyond paths, beyond initiations, beyond samayas, beyond.. And then, there is this article, by Rudolph Bauer, Ph.D http://transmissiononline.org/issue/the-awareness-of-awareness/article/the-magical-realism-of-dzogchen-as-expressed-in-the-unceasing-experience-of-spontaneity I enjoyed it so much as well as the meditation that I had right after reading it that I've decided to quote it here: After reading this very short article, I did a 1 hour meditation. I focused on expanding my awareness to be as large and infinite as I could get it... beyond the solar system, beyond the milky way, far beyond.. It was so delicious. I came to recognize the mind as a little fountain of light that bubbles up distractions, but the distractions soon dissolve away once you maintain awareness of infinite space. Actually the whole fountain dissolves away in insignificance.. TI

Hi D The goal is to focus on the "Whole body of the breath" or one complete cycle of breathing in, pausing (or little of no pause), breathing out, and the pausing (or little of no pause). Then, after one succeeds in paying attention to one complete cycle, you then strive to follow two complete cycles. (two complete breathing cycles) You build like that without distraction. You really have accomplished something when you can follow the complete breathing cycles for 2 minutes without distraction and without controlling the breath. The hard part is the gaps, or the pauses between the in-breath and the out-breath, because it is at those two points where the mind is most prone to stray. Probably because there is no longer any physical sensation at those points on which to focus. Or it may also be that the pauses are where either kundalini starts upwards or divine energy comes downwards and the extra juice makes it a little harder to control where the energy goes.. First you focus on the in-breath. It is easy because it is moving and it is all one motion. But then you hit the top of the in-breath and the mind has lost it's object. Then, the exhale starts and again, because there are sensations (you can feel the air moving) it is easy to focus on it. But, at the bottom of the out-breath, the sensations quit. The mind has lost it's object and you forget what you were doing. (or the mind is afraid to be without an object and it jumps on to the first thing it can find). (or, the extra juice gives life to a small subconscious thought that then takes over) What I did for a long time was to pay particular attention to those gaps and I made a real effort to complete continous mindfulness on one complete cycle. The first time I succeeded, it took such an effort that I didn't think I could do it twice in a row.. But I kept at it.. A good way to practice just that (getting throught the gaps) is to practice the "one-breath" which is a Kunlun technique of not letting the breath pause, even for a second. You are paying close attention to when the gap should occur and just before the gap occurs, you kick in the next breath (in or out). Aside from the pauses, you don't control the rest of the breathing. This led to a sort of 'rounded mental representation of the breathing cycle'. You imagine you are turning a wheel in your mind (in front of your face or brow) with no pauses as you follow the breathing cycle, only intervening to prevent pauses.. What I learned from that practice was that, not only does the breathing slow down in that practice, but it forced me to pay particular attention to the gaps, helping form a mental represenation of the complete breathing cycle. However, that is just for practising. During anapanasati, you don't control any aspect of the breathing at all. TI

Hi E Ok. I will try to keep this concise. You have to develop your third eye for remote viewing. You can use astral sight for remote viewing. When I first learnt how to astral travel, I was practising 'imagining' that I was viewing a location far away. As I did (it was dark outside, and at 11:30 pm) I noticed that the light in the building that I was visualizing turned on. The following day I confirmed that in fact, someone in the house had gotten up and turned on the light. So, start by visualizing, and put in many hours practising. Eventually it will turn into the real thing. You can also use the heart for remote viewing. The steps are these: 1)Go to place in nature that you really love to be in. A nature scene, a park by a river etc.. 2)Sit in a meditative posture. Take a good look at the scene ahead of you. 3)Close your eyes 4)Imagine that you use the love from your heart to see the scene. Just love it. Let the love bubble over, imagining that you are taking in the whole scene with your heart, but from the periscope of the third eye at the brow. Watch what happens. A small hole at the forehead will open up and you will be able to see over great distances, in high definition. These techniques worked for me. If they don't work for you, maybe my third eye is more open? Or maybe you just have to practice as much as I have.. TI

Hi Drew Nimitta isn't about how much energy is stored up or purified. It's not a cultivation thing where you reach a certain threshold and then the nimitta appears. It has nothing to do with storing prana/chi/energy. It's all about bringing the mind to stillness. The nimitta is actually a representation of the mind, one which you can 'see' when you drop the veils, the hinderences. The nimitta is a reflection of your own mind. Like looking into a mirror at yourself. The mind can't make sense of it so most of the time it appears as a very bright light, or a blotch of color, or architectural shape. If the nimitta moves around allot, that means your mind is not stable. If the nimitta appears and then disappears quickly, perhaps you got too excited and that stirred up the mind. In order to see and maintain a glorious nimitta, your mind has to be dead calm with no disturbances. In a sense, too much energy cultivation (winds in Buddhism) is not what you strive for, because the stronger the winds, the harder it is to settle them. As a matter of fact, I have read in several Buddhist meditation manuals that you may do some controlled breathing exercises at the start of the meditations, but you do not control the breath in any way during anapanasati, because it only stirs up the winds (mind-thoughts). Some Buddhist practice manuals recommend not doing any forceful breathing practices before meditation for this reason. I think this is counterintuitive for a 'cultivation' mindset, but the formula for anapanasati is 'directing focus, sustaining focus, experiencing the joy and happiness when you do succeed in sustaining focus, realizing the nimitta, building the nimitta (polishing the nimitta through ethical behaviour and techinique) and then entering jhana. Here is my typical sequence for anapanasati practice. 1) Sit in meditative posture 2) Follow the breath, sense the sensations at the nostrils (very coarse) until the coarse mind starts to settle down a bit (4-5 minutes). 3) Focus on the in-flow and out-flow of the breath, become stable in that. 4) Start focusing to include the gap between the breaths. Gradually build to follow one complete breath cycle. 5) By focusing on including the gaps, the mind forms a knowing of the movement of the breath, it is sort of like a dull white light going up and down. Up, and down. Keep focusing on that. 6) As you continue focusing on the up and down, after a while, the breathing slows right down. So, I adjust the up-and-down motion which is perceived by the inner-eye, to be very minute in motion. 7) In the background, behind where the up-and-down breath motion was occuring, the nimitta appears. Sometimes it is like looking at the sun. It is so bright. Sometimes, it appears and then disappears right away (mind is too excited). I remain watching the breath motion and try to ignore the nimitta. 8) When the nimitta is stable, can be clearly seen, sustained and is not going away, I switch to the nimitta. (At this point it is actually called the counterpart sign). 9) Then the nimitta moves around a bit and starts to come closer and closer (or perhaps the "I" moves closer to it?) Then, it engulfs you. !! Anyway, thank you for the link to the Sayalay anapanasati video. It was wonderful to hear someone else talk about the nimittas. One bone of contention that I have, though, is that she said that the nimitta will not appear unless you are focusing on the area by the nostrils. This is not entirely true. The counterpart sign does appear when you focus anywhere around the nose, because, when you are focusing on the mental representation of the breath, the motion appears to be up and down the whole nose (but at that point it is hard to gauge exactly where the nose is because you are focusing mentally internally). Also, if you fix your attention just below the navel (instead of at the nostrils, the learning sign (white light just below the navel) is very easy to see internally. Also, Ajahn Brahm says that you don't specifically locate the breath anywhere in the body. Again, there are variances in techniques. But I did enjoy her videos (and her serenity too). Thanks. TI

Well I checked out Ajahn Brahms' "Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond" and he does say this about using a mantra with breathing: So, it can be used in the early stage, implication being that it is eventually dropped. There are no instructions to use a mantra in his instructions during anapanasati. In fact, he emphasizes that less is best: I wouldn't worry too much about the sadness. Here are some of the effects that might arise along the way, according to Alan Wallace: TI

Ha ha. That is funny. I thought you were doing that.. "emotional power" Ok, then, we agree, now that we have the terminology right.. I must comment, though, it has been said many times that you can use the heart to transmute negative emotions. Also, the practice of tonglen is using the heart to do such a transmutation. That is too bad that you don't want to disclose at least which practices you did for three years in retreat. A three year retreat is a great opportunity and I hope you were successful in your practices.. I am the opposite. My practices and experiences are an open book. I don't believe in secrecy. I keep thinking, in fifty years, after I am dead and gone and returned, perhaps I will come accross my writings and learn something from them that nobody else was willing to tell. TI

Yes, I see. "breath w mantra (he recommends bud dha on in/out breaths but i use so ham". Thanks. I will check it out. The fact that your mind 'wanted to go berserk' is a good sign. It sounds like it is the first time you have actually jumped on to the back of the bucking bronco (the mind) and the bucking bronco is rebelling. I think you are making progress. Being in the 'now' is much harder than focusing on an object, but it is also more potent. It is like focusing on 'awareness of awareness'. It is at a higher frequency and as such, can cause allot of tension in minds that are not used to it. This is why Alan Wallace recommends that 'relaxation' is one of the key components to practice (along with stability and vividness). "Relaxed awareness". Once you manage to sustain your attention on one object, even for a relatively short duration of time, you will derive such pleasure from it that you will be surprised. But, yes, I agree. Focusing on the 'now' is like cutting through the maya cake with a very sharp knife. Good luck. TI

Hi D Where exactly does Ajahn Brahm say that one should combine a mantra with watching the breath as the anapanasati practice? Even Ajahn Chah, who was Ajahn Brahm's teacher does not suggest using a mantra during anapansati. http://www.watpahnanachat.org/books/Aj%20Chah%20On%20Meditation.pdf When he does suggest using a mantra, you might combine it with watching the breath, but that is your own decision, but that is no longer anapasati. It is anapanasati with mantra. Neither Ajahn Brahm nor Ajahn Chah instruct to use a mantra during anapanasati. Do they? What Buddha said is that one notices that the breath is long, one notices that the breath is short..etc That is not to say that combining the two is not a valid practice as I have a Kundalini guru whose instructions were to silently sound "AUM" on the in-breath and count on the out-breath. But that practice is not what the Ajahn's teach. Do they? Or perhaps it was not Ajahn Brahm that said "buddho" does not work well for westerners, but Bill Bodri? TI

Hi JBH I'm having a hard time understanding what you are saying. My conventional interpretation of the term "emotion" is this: "mental states that cause suffering and distress" such as anger, jealousy, lust, pride, fear etc.. They are hinderances.. In the Buddhist writings that I"ve read, there is mention of the practice of recalling or generating some emotional subject in order to see through it and dissolve. I've also heard of practices of transmuting emotions with the heart. But I have never read about any practice that uses emotions as the main component. Are you saying that your practice is to generate 'overwhelming emotion', thereby activating the visions of the heart? Who is your lama and what is the body of teachings that he/she is teaching? Are there any books on it? I really would like to learn more about that, and the background. What types of meditations did you do on your 3 year retreat? TI

Feeling is good. But getting the emotions involved is just stirring up winds. You don't need to develop the 'feeling of being'. It is buried underneath all the veils. One only has to learn to relax and drop the veils for the true presence of being to shine through. Love can sometimes do this very easily. The funny thing about layers of consciousness is that the deeper (or finer) you go, everything becomes visual. But it is not sight. It is it's own kind of knowing. There is not one method for realization that is better than the other. There is a method that is better for each individual person. The main thing is to understand this: The true you lives in the little point, the indestructible drop in the heart. That little drop manifests your being, your body, mind, and speech through the five lights, the five elements. You are creating yourself, and have been all along. The heart is sacred. It has unbelievable powers. It uses the five senses to manifest your world. You can use any of the five senses to collapse the structure. There are many methods. Inevitably it comes down to living from the heart, realizing that it's creation is a dream, and realizing that it has that power to create, over and over and over again. The only problem is that mind thinks it is the center and does things to maintain that focus. Don't believe the mind for a second. Hold firm in your heart, the magic, the sacredness, the power and the love that is the source of your being. Don't forget it for an instant. TI

Hi NTF Gazing is not shamatha. Gazing is an energetic event, whereby you fix your sense of sight in one location and maintain that focus. It is an excellent practice for gaining stabilization, training the mind, activating the third eye and kundalini. It is not a shamatha practice. It can, however, be a precursor to shamatha practice. In shamatha practice, if I put my tongue on the roof of my mouth, the nimittas don't appear. If I attempt to have any goal at all, other than just watching the mental representation of the breath, it does not happen. It is only when I let everything else go (except watching the breathing) that all of a sudden the bright white light will break through. The breath is the only thing that continues on it's own, without volition. That, and the beating heart. The main point according to Alan Wallace is that you can't get to shamatha by focusing on an external form, an external object, something through the five senses. You have to eventually be able to focus on the mental representation of that object. Even in the more advanced Dzogchen practices such as taking the mind as the object, the five senses drop off on their own. If you support attention through one of the five senses, you prevent that sense from falling away. Here is a good set of instructions for gazing: The Stages of A-Khrid Meditation Dzogchen Practice of the Bon Tradition by Bru-sgom rGyal-ba g.yung-drung (1242 -- 90) Shamatha practice is "being so calm and quiet, so detached, not grasping, not interested in anything that the mind calms right down. The best indicator is that the breath slows. As you continue, the breath eventually stops. There is a direct connection between mind and breath. That is one advantage of using the breath as the object of attention. It is a barometer of calmness. I had to laugh when I read someone's post that said that they were practising shamatha and reverse breathing in the same sitting. Reverse breathing requires thought, intention, will power and the mind has to direct the whole procedure. How can you calm the mind when you are stirring it up like that? TI

Hi Mandrake, Have you listened to the Dzogchen retreat podcasts? All 30 of them? Where exactly does Alan Wallace say 1 to 2 years? I have quoted 2 books previously in this thread. I didn't know there was a difference between 'classic shamatha' and a 'mental taste of it'. Perhaps, since you've lived in a monastery which specialized in shamatha, you could tell us something about your experience of attaining shamatha. What are the experiences leading up to it? What is it like for you? Have you experienced the vividness, the clarity and luminescence? Did your coarse consciousness collapse into the substrate consciousness, and then the substrate? I'm very interested in hearing about it. What was your experience? TI

Perhaps the reason to combine the two is because pure Dzogchen, the ultimate state, the Great Perfection is the final result, and Mahamudra (although the end result is the same) contains the generation and completion stages. In pure Dzogchen, you bypass the stages, leap-over, so, in a way, you are losing out in becoming familiar with the events and states that occur on the way to the Great Perfection. I'm not talking about the Dzogchen preliminary practices, but the pure Dzogchen: gaining the view, maintaining the view and never waivering from the view. In Mahamudra, becoming aware of the stages and states (in the generation and completion stages) that you will pass through is a benefit, because you will go through the same states/stages when you die. It will be more familiar to you, more easily recognizable and you will know how to work with them. So why not combine the too? Although it does seem a little redundant because they both lead to the same place. TI

Hi M, I achieved shamatha several times, but not by meditating 4 hours a day. However, I have been meditating in one form or another for over 41 years, so that's not saying much. I do not know of anyone else personally whom has achieved shamatha, but I'm sure there are many. The concept that a beginner, someone who is just starting out will achieve shamatha in 6 months by spending 4 hours a day meditating is mentioned by Alan Wallace in one of his 30 Dzogchen podcasts. Offhand, I do not recall which one. However, he is tailoring his talks to his specific audience. In the book "Stilling the Mind", he says this: And then again, in "The Attention Revolution" Alan Wallace says this: As you can see, the achievement of shamatha is more dependant on the practitioner's qualities, character and skill level than the other factors such as 'length of time practising'. There are no guarantees. You have to try it for yourself. TI

According to Alan Wallace, the average person, with a toned down environment (no TV or activities which are too simulating), with diligent practice (3 to 4 hours a day) and by maintaining mindfulness between sessions, can achieve samatha in about 6 months. He also mentions the 'degree of ripeness' concept, where some people will achieve it sooner with not much effort, and others may take years to achieve, if ever.. Shamatha is a great help for visualization. The other thing that you can do is practice visualizations. Practice every chance you get. Imagine a tic-tac-toe board in your head. Play the game. Keep the visualization going. It is easier to visualize things in motion than static visualizations, because unbridled awareness jumps to moving objects first; imagine a colored disk moving up with the in-breath and moving down with the out-breath. It is much easier to maintain that than to imagine/visualize a colored disk that is not moving. Buddhism has many visualization meditation practices, as like meditation/visualization with the kasinas (colored circles), or guru yoga (visualizing a guru in front of you). Even tonglen, in which you visualize breathing in all the dark and suffering from humanity into your heart and then transmute it into love and sending it back out from your heart to all sentient beings is a form of visualization. Practice. Imagine, visualize, practice. Hone your concentration. Learn to relax the mind and focus on the task at hand. The more relaxed you are, the easier the visualizing becomes. But when the mind is producing many distracting thoughts which whisk away your attention, you will come to realize that taming the mind is a noble and rewarding endeavor. I've also read about taking a picture of a guru, gazing at it and 'memorizing' every detail and then closing the eyes and recalling the image as a bonified practice. You do that regularily for weeks until you can clearly see the whole picture in your mind's eye. Learn about the different components of attention, and the fact that you can control them, make them more intense or diminish them. For example, "interest" is something that you can control yourself. Most people let it move without volitional control; it flits about based on desires and motivations. You can learn how to increase your interest; it is something you can control. There is nothing more boring than watching the breath. The mind hates it. But if you augment your interest in it, by watching it intently, watching how long one in-breath is compared to the out-breath, watching the point where the in-breath switches to the out-breath, watching to see if you can see any light in the breath, etc etc.. you can trick your mind into becoming more interested. Gradually, you come to realize that "interest" is controllable and trainable. So is attention, will and vividness. The three components of shamatha that you work on are relaxation, stability and vividness. When the vividness comes, it is very neat. You need the relaxation part because the tension that is created during heavy concentration is detrimental. Relaxed and effortless is the goal. The stability part means that you can maintain relaxed focus on the object continually, without distraction, as a constant flow. Another method of developing visualization is through dream yoga, or becoming conscious in your dreams. That is another subject.. And, if you'd like, try this. Imagine an orange. Notice where it appears in the space of the mind. Keep the attention on the orange until it dissolves and then maintain your focus on the place where the orange was. Now, visualize an apple. Notice the location. Once you see where exactly the camera exists in the space in your mind, go up higher from that location. Move your attention higher up, above where the orange or apple appeared. Now imagine an orange again. If you do this right, you will see that the region above where the dull, lackluster orange appears, is much brighter, clearer and crisper. It is like there is a high definition TV which is sitting 'above' the low resolution tv that you normally use. It is in the space of the mind which is above or higher.. In other words, there is another cave in the space of the mind, which you will eventually find when you practice resting the mind, shamatha. In it, the visualizations are stupendous. TI

Hi NTF, Do you want to develop crystal clear visions? Visions that are as clear or even clearer and brighter than normal reality? Your mind does this naturally, it's just that you have many veils that are hiding the vividness, the clarity. By veils, I mean thoughts, emotions, sensations.. In Buddhism they refer to them as the five hinderances. When you drop the veils, every thought, every imagination, every vision is crystal clear, bright and vivid. So how do you drop the veils? You drop them through Shamatha, the practice of calming and stabilizing the mind while augmenting your awareness/interest/knowing. A good book on Shamatha training/practice is "The Attention Revolution" by Alan Wallace. TI

Hi D, Thinking the mantra on the in-breath and out-breath is a form of mantra repetition. It is good for beginners. After a few years of doing that, you will realize that to go further, you have to quit stirring up the mind with mantra and see what happens.. In a way I shudder to think that you are reading and following Bill Bodhri's website. Although he addresses very very many topics and has gathered teachings and knowledge from very many sources, there is no way that he could have practical experience in all of them. He is like the KMart of the spiritual world. That is ok if you are a beginner, or even, maybe not. You could waste allot of time and money.. His website seems to be a commercial enterprise designed to sell books and DVD's. I find it distasteful and too much "Jack of all trades, Master of none".. if you know what I mean. (this is my opinion and I'm sure other people here have an equal and opposite opinion.. I do not wish to spar on this one.. ) I have to ask you, what are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to become enlightened? Are you a cultivator and want to have lots of chi? What are your spiritual aspirations? Are you window shopping for something? What exactly? Here is part of "The Attention Revolution", a book which I recommend that you buy and read.

Hi ASTNS, Thanks for explaining that. TI

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone has seen the movie called "My Reincarnation" ? http://myreincarnationfilm.com/film/chogyal-namkhai-norbu/ Comments? Thanks. TI