de_paradise

This method works, I've used similar. Its straight out of Buddhism to apply the opposite feeling to neutralize a kind of unconscious ego habit. I think this type of method is useful in a society where we are all raised to chase importance, make a mark, be one up, be someone above one's peers. So, walking down the street making judgements and criticisms of others, because it validates the way we are, and how they are not. This is a very pernicious habit and can be neutralized when you catch yourself doing this. Its pretty subtle sometimes, glances, assumptions underneath gestures. When you apply the antidote wisely, you can feel a shift in your energy, like going WITH the river and not against it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aVWWIKsrBA Any theories on how it works? Anyone try this? I landed on this youtube page and it didnt let me navigate away, as if there was some kind of message that needed to be seen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aVWWIKsrBA

Thanks Manitou and Cat. <3

The Chinese have so many gods and deities and buddhas, give them a break. Who do we have? Jesus and Mary? Maybe a cherub. Everyone else is chopped liver I guess. What a state of affairs. Make your own, or if you want have it painted as an oil painting. I'm pretty sure the immortal will appreciate it, even though he has no ego.

I use sense data to establish the usefulness of a meditation, and by sense data I mean the feelings in my mind, the energies, the qi. I am not sure how apparent these things are to other people, it seems to vary from person to person, and on their overall progress. Generally I would test, having the expectations to test, not having that it would test and pass. So the mind-created "expectations" effects are not all that big of a problem as you might think. The things I test are pretty simple. Such as this example: I lately stumbled on the "feeling of gratefulness" and feeling of humbleness before the universe, like a paper boat in a storm.So during meditation or yoga, I would bring up these feelings by suggesting to myself scenarios. At the same time I can measure whats happening kinesthetically with my qi and mind-feelings. Longer term its hard to know the validity of a method unless one has some data, and because we are never in a vacuum, expecially over the years of practicing this and that and the other, I would argue it is near impossible to attribute. I dont know about damen and pangmen, its probably having to do with the addition of unorthodox methods (like sorcery and such) for pangmen, thus frowned on by purists, who sit in their nice clean uniforms on their uncorruptable meditation mats.

IMO, a basic thing that people can do to open their kundalini is to understand a basic principle: Stimulate your wind energy, then go deep as you can into meditation. This creates a higher-than average force, and then gets yourself out of the way of yourself so it can do what it wants to unblock and unlock. For example: 5 minutes Pranayama breathing like dragon fire breath, then 20 minutes stillness meditation. Or: 30 minutes visualizing orbits, then 30 minutes stillness. 1 hour yoga, 30 minutes sitting or laying. 30 minutes qigong, 30 minutes sitting and forgetting. 1 hour dancing, 1 hour stillness. Many people think that if they just do the sizzle, they dont have to bother with the boring old bacon, the stillness. I remember Bodri saying that most instructions on sexual practices leave out the key: you have to go into stillness after you get all stimulated on sex energies(you know, like going deeper and letting your conscious mind slide, and your brea-thing rythym regularize) Most people aparently only do the sex-stimulation bit, but forget the actual meditation, where the energies are allowed to do what they most want to do. If you jump up and do things of normal life the higher-than-average wind force gets blocked off. If you are able to actually sit and do a very good stillness type of meditation for a long period of time, you can also deal with alot of the painful stuff (that so many people are oh so fearful of), that might crop up. You sit through it, a safety valve created by your own self. Is this a magic pill that opens you up immeditately? No, but its a pretty common flaw in how people meditate, and it may take days weeks, months to get the intial energies stronger and blockages cleared out. To the drama queens on this thread, you know people actually will search this thread because there are always people looking to open their kundalini, and they want real techniques.

I am not sure if you are a spritual cultivator seeking to purify your conciousness to attain the Tao, but if you are, then this anger can be used to further your progress. Its almost a mathematical formula, where the negative emotions, neutralized, bring a sort of spiritual progress that cannot be had if your life were all nice and good. So you are lucky you can have this anger, but you also have to have the diligence and resolve to get out of the anger as quickly as you can right when you got it. Its like going from -2 to +2 is getting you 4 points. Sounds corny but many teachers say how the negative emotions or happenings is one of the best ways to go forward in spirituality. But the responsibility to get out of that state when you are deep in that state, and thereby reap the benefits, is only on you. Anger is in the mind, its ego based. Its your expectations not being fulfilled, your. Maybe society would think you are in the right, but society are not spiritual cultivators. Your only interest is to nullify your ego in this situation and go from -2 to +2 as fast as you can. No right no wrong, just utilize as grist for your spiritual progress. Since anger is mind based, it is mind- nullified, and because your habits and programming run deep, you have to throw everything and kitchen sink at it. So anything you might have picked up in this thread, in books about anger management or psychology, in Buddhism because they do alot of behavior modification. You know, like taking deep breaths, counting to 10, meditating, forgiveness, mentally sending love to the one you hate, and so on. Its not easy, but its worth it.

We are all doing multiple practises whether conscious or unconcious. Its like a trick question that wants to trap you in some half-baked assumptions as a frame of enquiry.

Yeah I remember this facinating thread, a soap opera within a thread. I miss Santi's postings though. Funny how time passes.

I'm a big fan of dreams, especially the particularly vivid or strange. As Sloppy says, most is jibberish that people read to much into. I think that this dream tells you of a previous connection with the Dharma, and it is auspicious, and that you can continue reading sutras to see if anything affects you in the same way. Maybe the head off the Buddha is an admonition to stay out of your head, not use your intellect so much. I had a strange dream last night because I was trying to lock my mind onto a certain deity at night as I drifted to sleep ( always meditate before sleeping) , but after I drifted on to dreamland. I dreamt that there was this Chinese dude next to me and he was poking a finger into my plexus, and I was complaining, dont poke so hard and I woke myself up from it due to the pain or my whining.

(inspired by Dwai's post and my recent bout) Sometimes when a big problem or deep complex or painful uncontrollable thoughts comes, and there seems to be no way out of one's own body which is creating all the chemicals and neural reactions. Even as a cultivator and meditator there seems little to counteract. A technique is thus follows: Create in your imagination a projection of another self nearby, in front of you, and notice he is not feeling all the body emotions that you are feeling, but is quite calmly there. In fact he is feeling no trouble at all. And just keep your focus on that projection self, noticing his face, his posture, and how he feels. This is a kind of contemplation, and you will notice that as long as you keep this meditation up, in some place you will feel better, in some higher mind place there is a detached serenity. If you want, you can slowly bring that projection self back into your body. So there it is, if the pain wont leave your body, you allow your mind to leave. Hint: Try this meditation out when you are not feeling any emotional pain, when everything is okey dokey, when it doesnt matter. And then it can be in your tool chest when it does matter.

Very honest of you hagar. I would love to believe that any of us here have made such progress that they are on par with the fabled Zen masters. These potential emotional landmines are all around us, and they may seem few and far between, but that may not be because of our cultivation level and equanimity, but we just have not faced them yet. The story of the acid in the veins is similar what happened to me yesterday: Morning saw me doing an amazing yoga in the park, where I relaxed into the postures very well, felt bliss pouring around me as I dedicated the yoga to the awakening of others and connection with Cundi Buddha. Then later in the afternoon I bought a guitar, which is nice, but encountered a whole realm of shipping problems and delays, and I was shot straight back into "me me me" a disgruntled customer. Nothing even as serious as a potential health problem of a loved one, but just an impatient consumer. Pretty humiliating to be so wrapped up in this minor thing to get my bliss feeling replaced to that of tense acid-like pain. But I have worked in shipping in the past, so I must have developed a whole complex of negative physiological responses to delayed parcels and customers threatening to refund, not to mention I am just frugal to the point of miserliness and spending big money causes me some kind of pain too. Nevertheless...I think Hagar, the idea of vizualations in my meditation...as well as the one suggested of joining with air element....this is not just escapism, this is actually bridging or linking with purer levels of mind. This is utilizing negative events to further one's cultivation. Its a practical springboard. So one does get some immediate relief from pain, hopefully.

This should be a movie plot. There are so many grumpy people out there or those unwittingly getting grumper by the minute because they get attracted to that path, fallen into habit, and then it doesnt release them. I think of "catcher in the rye" where its so cool to be the outsider, but then they dont show where the kid grows up and all the joy gets cut out.

Hi Steve, yes you can try it, even if you dont (thankfully) experience that kind of pain or depression that seems to pervade so thoroughly, as if on a cellular level. I get your point about the use of "higher", and its pretty silly to be so slack about my languaging given our Christian society and their use of "heaven" outside of us, and all the history of criticism of spirituality existing outside of us. What I meant is "more refined states", which you may feel quite tangeably as a cultivator. This has to do with stronger flowing qi, more open chakras, or a knowlege of how to precision put one's conscious on the right spot that allows the kind of bridging to take place. A simple example: A person feeling hate is in a lower state, a person feeling love in a higher state. A person imagining or projecting a self which is in a higher state such as love, oneness, charitableness, or relaxation opens the door to converting one's flesh and blood body and mind to the state.

Thanks Otis. It sounds like your friend has understood the principle of this kind of mental projection. The key that makes this powerful, as a kind of manifesting tool, as well as superb mood changer, is using the imagination as a link to the higher mind, because there is a kind of shared space in the imagination in what one mentally projects and the higher mind, or a level closer to the Tao. So its kind of a bridging manouevre where one can receive the benefits of the higher vibratory energy. Of course when theres a conscious and sustained attempt to really imagine oneself (with all the senses and also thoughts) in the higher state or as a higher level being, there is always an answer. This meditation is so easy, its all stacked in our favor.

Not all roads lead to Rome. Some lead to mountain villages and stop, or to other continents entirely. The point is that there are different paths leading to different levels/worlds/dimensions/densities with some or lots of overlap on the paths, but not enough to say its all the same thing. Maybe the real answer is a non-starter because our human congnitive facilities as is are not equipped to handle it, except in a very reductionist way. (jus' my opinion)

Thanks for that, I worked nearby these temples in Danshui and Sanxia, at Chinese New Years had a stand, not knowing the slightest thing about them or Zushigong, except they were really popular places to bai during the New Year.

Nothing significant, fairly common. It may seem like unlucky, but really is lucky.

Dont let a good heartbreak go to waste my friend. Pains and illnesses and tragedies can all be used to springboard cultivation progress, and of the three, I think I'd prefer heartbreak due to its bittersweetness. Allow yourself to fall into that heartwrenchingness, and try to feel around it, around your heart, breath through it, and meditate through it. As a possible strategy, try to find the place where you are feeling all the love for that person and none of the heartbreak.

Not sure. My qi was particularly strong and kaboom potent last night during meditation, and this morning I wake up feeling dazed as if I havent slept much.

So what kind of spiritual gifts would you like, just curious.

What makes me laugh is I go to a bakery nearby where the owner is always so gruff and grouchy looking, and I buy a cookie, but in French it has a similar pronunciation to how it is said on Sesamie Street.

You often hear Rinpoches or monks say "nothing special" when describing their actions or deeds. I was watching this video explaining the diamond sutra, as I have watched before, and heard of the main points many times before in books, as Im sure most of you have--about the simplicity of the buddha in daily life, just doing as he does, and that being a live example of enlightened behavior. This "nothing special", if you apply it to your thoughts or immediate actions-- which are constantly calculating, trying to gain advantage, to be right, to show others that you are right, to get that vanilla instead of caramel. To sit in the back and not the front. Nothing special about any of this, yet it fills our minds with endless calculations. You can remind yourself in the act, because it is this act of calculating which feeds the ego, the so-called "calculating mind" So you are walking down the street, checking out the women, on the way to whatever, everyone is interacting by glances and looks, and the minds are feeding off that, hundreds of mini calculations, is he rich, is she single, whats that weird body shape, etc. Job this, friend that, talk here, pose there. Here I am walking down the street, looking at stuff, nothing special. The great mayhem of thoughts is put in the periphery by "nothing special" A guy, walking down the street, nothing special. I am relaxed. A weight off the shoulders. Its even better in meditation. Easier. A guy, sitting there on his bed, meditating. Any thoughts that pop up, get lasered down by "nothing special" Oh my plans and schemes to make my life better. Nothing special about those plans, or that worry. Look, this technique in itself is nothing special or new, I just happened to be listening to a talk on the Diamond Sutra on subjects I'd heard many times over, except this time I decided to apply it, and something clicked, I felt my qi circulation shift and my perception change, just slightly. But enough so that I thought someone else could perhaps benefit if I posted this.

Interesting Otis, and I agree with you. On the thinnest of pretexts even, we all have mass murderer in ourselves. What is equally interesting is how people react to this taboo subject. You want to see them wriggle and squirm, try insinuating that they could be a mass murderer, given the right circumstances. I remember back in Uni days for German Lit we read a book called "Berlin Alexanderplatz" by Alfred Doblin which is a deeply psychological novel showing the inner monologs of a typical guy who was to become a Nazi. I remember discussing the book, which I found exceptionally persuasive. But besides me, every student found the character doubtful, that this had nothing to do with them, and the protagnist kind of a bully lunatic, not like them at all. Inwardly I was very shocked at how the class reacted. Its like they have this extreme egoic revulsion to the idea, and man, it wont even let them enertain the idea. (btw, if you havent seen the film by Fassbinder, check it out Another class, this time discussing the MaiLai massacre in Vietnam war, similar to that you see in the film "Apocolypse Now" Again, none of the class could understand that it could have been them, or how the soldiers could have done that. I even said to the class that I am sure every one of them had they been there, would have participated (killing innocent unarmed men, women and children till they were all dead) because I had already experienced army training, and I knew its power. But Ive since revised my opinion that they could have been the killer with a much much thinner pretext. But my comment did not fly well with the class, and its as if by saying it out loud you somehow implicate yourself, but denying it out loud you get to be innocent.