de_paradise

I dont have a set time but some things only start to get good after 30 mins, and get better after an hour. It seems such a shame to quit just when things are flowing so optimally, so stay for an hour or 2. This type of meditations work best when there are no duties, work or social things hanging over ones head, so need to restructure life to be very uncluttered. I think with 5-6 hours/day, things tend to happen much faster, and there is an overall efficiency effect of putting in those kind of hours. Its just like practising sport or art, you need sustained lengths to actually improve.

Not mad at anyone, thought I'd throw in my 2 cents about the idea since I love fiction and also history. But if its worthless or incomprehensible to you then so be it, dude.

As long as were on the subject of movie scripts, what I would like to see is siddhis done right, without always the requisite negativity that hollywood puts on powers. Say some spiritual commune hidden in the mountains all through lots of effort start to have siddhis, and because they are compassionate, go to the world and start to do good things. No CIA, no Xfiles or turning to the dark side, no murders, but perhaps a love story.

Sorry to be the critical one here. But, alongside obviously pissing off the Christian market, you have a thematic problem. Suppose in the film Independence Day, the Aliens won, slaughtered a large portion of the population of humans in a cruel and vicious way, but eventually we fell in line. And the peace that ensued from our foreign overlords, spirituality was allowed a certain amount of freedom to flourish, and the Aliens introduced some style of religion that was more about tolerance. Everyone benefits and happy. So contrary to the popular "fight over foreign tyranny" theme you want flip it to, "the benefits if we became subjects to foreign despots" Is this what you want to say? Then theres the allegorical angle, that everyone would see the mongols as the modern day Chinese who are taking over business around the world and gaining all sorts of influence. If you try to paint this in a good light, you are again suggesting that Chinese are nothing but benevolent spreaders of harmony and good food. But in reality they are mercantilist and centrally controlled, and many westerners have big problem with their spread of influence.

Indeed, the classic is "Religion and the rise of Capitalism" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._H._Tawney I got to think that mid age Europe not fertile ground for Buddhism, except at very base levels, superstions and burning incense. Where true spirituality could expand in Europe, such as the Cathars and Gnostics were squelched by hegemonic power brokers, the Catholic Church. What if any of those had been allowed to expand, and alchemy not hidden to the masses?

At first blush, I thought it would be sticky because you would have the choice of painting the Buddhist influence in a positive light to the detriment of Christianity, or a negative light as foreign despots stifle creativity capitalism and progress. What a mire. But then I think if you do something that is allegorical to the coming greater influence of China, this would be kind of easier to thresh out, and the overally message would be clearer.

Good point sloppy. There ought to be some middle ground where both are satisfied. Several years back, I was all like, wow, if they only showed their powers more often, more people could get hooked onto spiritual systems. Now Im more of the view that this type of baiting often leads to attracting people for the wrong reason, so its better they have some kind of internal motivation and less external proof, and that way the power seekers will sort themselves out of the running. Nevertheless, I still think this kind of demanding customer attitude would persist. Perhaps the prospective student would value it more, but would still want their order filled within a few days or be posting negative things on the Tao Bums that xyz teacher is questionable.

I agree with 5ET's points that people today look at these energy sytems and enlightenment paths as if they were shopping in the mall at the Gap, and the master as a "sales associate", and themselves as the all important customer. It is the typical relationship pattern that people recognize and fall into, so if the teacher advertises with a website, the rest of the assumptions follow, that the teacher wants to sell a product and ought to be slavishly devoted to the buyer's wants. I dont see this much as a generational thing, as a just following programmed behavior, the way people learn to interact. In Taiwan, teachers are held in much higher esteem, and also qigong or some sort of spiritual guru have instant respect, and not Gap "sales associates" For spiritual systems, I think if a 20 year old happens to discover something like Maoshan spirit fighting, or Yamus stuff, which are so amazing and incredible beyond words, a discovery of a lifetime or lifetimes. Well if that 20 year old sees this with eyes of consumer-like desire, perhaps its as if he never had the karma to see it at all. Because if he undervalues it then he will end up passing it by or quitting not long after.

Sure man, would be cool.

Well the method I use is something like the Tibetan kind. What you do is as you are sitting, try to generate feeling of love by picturing someone you love, then as you get that feeling state in your body, try to send the love in other directions, such as to a deity, to the forest, to the entire universe. Try and imagine the enire universe while you are sitting there just loving and appreciting it. You can you imagine yourself as the universe watching a guy sitting on earth who is loving the universe. The practise is strong and effective when you practise and lock onto the strong feeling states,and as the heart chakra opens, the feeling becomes more energetic, less biochemical emotion feeling, so the love feels more like a blissfull cloudiness. But in the begining you can derive the same type love emotions of life, and expand it, and that will lead to greater things. Even while I do stillness types of meditations, I add this practise onto it. When you walk down the street imagine the people you see are enlightened beings shining underneath their skin. This sets the tone by which you interact with people, and the inner conversations you have yourself.

Theres a few aspects why diet should be really important to cutivators. One is the detox aspect, you should make detox a part of your life, every year, or some kind of ongoing tidbits. The reason is because its such an easy way to make spiritual progress, just by taking the trash out of your system. Its far easier to detox the toxins and junk out of your body than to wait and rely on just the meditations and building of purity through energy practise and meditations. Ultimately the purfication of the body is the same goal. You can look at the raw food people on youtube, the faces, see the energy. Secondly is when you are fasting or controlling your diet you can break from the desire of wanting comfort food. The habit of sitting down, eating for comfort, then getting in that dopey digestive state like after a big plate of pasta--if you can break free of that, you are making spiritual progress, leaving the ego trap. This is part of the Skandhas of the desire realm, and eating is a huge obstacle. I dont mean to quit eating, but to shake up the habitualness of deriving pleasure from the sitdown, filling your tummy, especially meat and carbs, then as the digestion takes place, you get number. Its hard to explain to a person why this can help if they are not aquainted with the buddhist theories, and its really hard to convince someone that denying simple pleasure is good at times. Third is that fasting can lead to "spontaneous" visions, bursts of progress.

To that end, I have been on a fruitarian diet the last 8 days, and it has increased my energy sensitivity quite a bit. Have had some cool meditatations the last few times where body energizes, kind of feels like it disappears, just some kind of cloudy blissy stuff, but no body. I think this fruit only diet is a great way to go. Theres a guy on youtube "life regenerator" Dan, who is into spirituality and this raw diet. Really inspiring, and check out the vids.

Yeah all the time, not exactly the same. If I go to a certain level in meditation, I will start getting the shocks, sometimes its like getting defibrilated. But diet, time of the year, planets, meditations, etc, all affect it. The body will adjust to the higher current. Sure its all uncomfy, but cultivation isnt fun and games, and I only try to up the current and get more and more adjusted as the channels get used to the higher energy, then try to get to a still higher level. Its always on the threshold of being uncomfortable. I like to walk around in parks and stuff every day, naturally with pinky finger extended and down, apparently its grounding the energy into the earth. It doesnt help with feeling less like an electric transmittor station, but perhaps it helps on some level.

yeah, lived many years in Taipei and other cities. The info Gerard gave is spot on mostly. For Visa Ive always taken the approach of worry about that later, because its simpler to fly in and stay one month on a free landing pass, then when you use that up, go to HK or Manila (on cebu pacific $100 round trip) or BKK and get that 2 month extendable type, cost $60 or close. In fact I will be doing this in about 2 weeks, hit a massage or yoga course thingy in Thailand, and then come back. If you wanted to live in a more Chill place, you can think about Hualien, which is more coastal beauty type of city, lower prices (I pay $200 for a studio) for food etc. There is a Buddhist Tzu Ji University that do language courses, and you also can volenteer and go with the organization, http://eng.tcu.edu.tw/detail.php?recordID=3. its not expensive and of high repute. In Taipei for language courses, you can more easily get into a course at Shi-Da, not the Tai-da (NTU), which is a more formal semester year. Anyway, most foreigners get sucked into Taipei for the women and the excitement and the English teaching jobs and more expats to hang with. I guess the Bagua is worth it. But I dont really spend much time in Taipei anymore because of the pollution, and by May I will flee altogether from the heat. Anyway, Hualien is beautiful and fresh air, lots of bike paths and walks, zen monks all around. Heres the link to the language school: http://www.language.tcu.edu.tw/detail.php?recordID=3 and some pics: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1149&bih=565&q=hualien+taiwan&gbv=2&aq=1&aqi=g6g-m1&aql=&oq=hualienMy link

The number thing is simply getting a glimpse of a deeper level of consciousness, a look into the computer program as its running, if you will. Your bio-computer mind is relational, so when you look at something, theres all these relations and permutations taking place deep within, although you dont get that with your conscious mind or even what is called the unconscious mind. False awakening, lucid dreaming. The figures were likely manifestations of your dream mind, not people watching you look at numbers. Feeling of paralysis, usual stuff when you enter these deeper states. If you do lots of stillness meditations before you go to sleep, perhaps you can get to similar states again.

I watched the vids on google, Kabbalah revealed, an overview course. Great! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1032618372088794051# I dont think its important so much that you agree with Laitman's every word on Buddhism, its whether you can further your understanding of spirituality with this non-Eastern mystery school.

Could you give a summary of the practise of the "excercise the third eye"?

This Zhang sounds like a lucky opportunity I wouldnt pass up if I lived nearby in TX. A flesh and blood high level teacher does wonders to inspire. Many, if not all people have trouble getting the ball rolling when it comes to meditation. Often its better to start with a dynamic sort of meditation which involves the body, such as a taichi or Hatha or whatever is offered around your area yoga. There is also an Osho kundalini dynamic meditation mp3, where you just sit on the floor and rock with the music for 30 minutes or so. He created it because he knew modern people just couldnt sit down and meditate for very long. There is also Kunlun neigong, which is very easy compared to the focus type of meditation. Another way to fake-it-before you make it, is using a deep trance hypnosis mp3, like "Ultradepth Relaxation". Ive used all these methods to good results.

Good questions and good answers. Thanks.

Happy New Year. The question is why dont the Buddhas, who are immensely higher than whatever attained forum member here, dont just wag their little fingers at our foreheads and enlighten us all, and we could stop this neverending nonsense about wars, oil crises, prisons, etc.Its not selfishness on the part of these higher beings, for they have no ego. The answer so they say, is must allow a person to work for their own enlightenment. This seems all too pat, all to convenient of an answer you'd expect from a religion. Ive pleaded with an array of higher beings to bestow a quickie enlightenment, and using special techniques where I have maximum chance of getting heard, and it hasnt worked. I didnt think of snivelling and trying to shame them though, just a simple, how about me? If you know that higher levels are possible, and some knowlege of how its acheived, then you are already in the millionaire's club. Out of all my friends and family, including K awakened individuals, not one will actually give two shakes of piss to acheive a higher spiritual level, much less meditate, do energy work, improve their behavior, diet, or to check their ego and self-cherishing mind. An interesting practise is metta, that loving-kindness practise, which is basically putting yourself into a synthesized loving emotional state. The synthesized state while in meditations, it turns out is as good as the real thing, and waters the right karmic seeds, sets the right direction.

In late 2008 when things were looking grim, the problem was solved by massive borrowing and spending by governments around the world, but we see now that this was a temporary bandage and in the USA and Europe, not enough to patch over the problems-setting the stage for a deeper crisis. At the moment stock markets are on their knees due to lowering expectations, and a negative shock now can set off a chain reaction to really crater the markets. I am certainly not an alarmist, but pretty prudent and conservative, and when risk rises I dont ignore it. Its like that threatcon system in America, well the color just changed to orange. If you were thinking about getting that cabin in the mountains ready and stocked up, time to do so before the hammer falls. If you were thinking about making major purchases, Id advise against it, and instead buy certified gold bullion bars from a major gold exchange, or the ETF. Its the USA where it will be kind of dangerous due to the social inequality and guns, I dont think here in Europe it will get too messy. A recession is a recession, you get through it. Personally my living standard is poverty line level so it wont make much difference to me as long as food supply is kept up.

Interesting observations Effi. Ultimately they are merely words that describle what you ascribe to them. I see, partly as you seem to define it, that will is more desire based, intention is more the follow through. The difference of will and intention (as I see it) is in the immediacy, which is to say, intention is closer to the now, the moment between past and future, and therefore a kind of pranic lightening rod, because energy flows most in the now. If you have the intention to swim, and are swimming at that moment, while holding the intention in your mind, then you can tap into this energy. (sometimes called "the zone" to athletes) Will is desire and is closer to the ego than intention--which is more the mechanism of thoughts to action. The more real and immeditate one can translate the intention, the better effect it will have. For example one of my main meditations is sending myself a cascading flow of qi over my body, and there are several ways to visualize or imagine this. But the optimum way to proceed is to make sure the intention is translating at real time, as "now" as possible.

Wow, thats wonderful news. As far as paying for some teaching, well I paid money for books or teachers and feel very lucky and grateful for this simple method. You will shut yourself off from many opportunities if you harbour the belief that it "ought to" be free.

Grade school grammar rules went out in the 1960's you know. And if you read Hemmingway, you'll see he often started sentences with conjuctions. To keep a kind of natural and easy conversational flow of reading. But as with anything, you have to have already mastered the rules to know how to bend them.

Indeed ChiChi, one can appreciate questions getting answered and discussed. I find one can learn alot this way.