de_paradise

Pain body is as much a metaphor (hats off to Tolle for creating such a well named metaphor) as much as demon, karma, the evil inclination, ego, "Egypt" are also metaphors. Of course the metaphors you choose tend to shape your reality, because they shape the parameters of cognition. Pain body which leads to melencholy music that leads to further depression is clearly adding to the problem, however someone on the spiritual path or some path of self-improvement may use these moments to understand and turn sad music into catharsis not depression. Nobody said that digging deep will not help spiritual progress. But one must have the sense to navigate negative emotions and not get lost in all the associations and feelings that come. You may be heart-broken that you have not made much progress on the spiritual path, and that technique is known (Rabbi Nachman of Breslov) as "lathe-nizhbor" using broken heartedness to springboard (there is a higher energetic component hard to explain) to a deeper resolve to oneness with God. In Liao Fan's Four Lessons he also mentions using shame, the deep feeling of shame, followed by deep resolve to purify one's actions to attain Buddhahood. Of course, using these negative emotions one must be careful not to go into depression. So I hope I have entirely reframed your question of beliefs creating reality, to someone who is drawn towards spiritual progress and is advancing, no matter what system of metaphors one uses and how much of our commentary is just noise.

The non-discriminatory mind is the enlightened mind, that is the mind which does not see one moment or state or outcome better than the other. Whereas the discriminatory mind makes comparisons, it thinks that if I go do some action I will be better off. That is why people try, because they think they will be better off. People fear because they start to predict they will be worse off. So the discriminatory mind is the root. "What are you trying to do? Where do you think you're going? There's nowhere to go, there's no spiritual ladder, there's no "over there". It's all happening right now, in this moment. This is your enlightened life and it doesn't get any better than this. You're totally fucked... welcome to freedom. And the best part is, it's the DOING that makes you oblivious to it. Paradoxically, it requires you to do nothing to get it." To reach the enlightened mind is not obvious from the point of view of the discriminatory mind, or its biproduct, the rationally thinking mind because it will find many arguements why discrimination is necessary. And yet to float up above the regular mind (as if carrying helium many helium balloons) is the only way to see why the cause of all our suffering is this discriminatory mind and to understand that a new equalibrium is possible.

A person can go through hundreds of blissful experiences on the way, so it may be a marker, but of nothing special. Many blissful experiences are due to "friction", which is when your filthy body gets exposed to some higher cleansing energy, you feel that reaction in the form of bliss. But it really only signifies how defiled you really are. Of course the psychological component of cleansing process is the "revelation of evil" where you get to notice how its actually your egoism is actually the source of your pain., depression, anger, etc But because you are on the path, and understand that pain is meant for your benefit, to push you to a higher level, you can be more dissociated from those feelings, and the memory of the bliss and how the bliss was derived (letting go) beckons you forward. Kind of like the creator playing some carrot and stick game on us to help us make progress.

Its a good question Nicolai, and I think we can form responses on our own which is 2015, and not that of for example monastics of hundreds of years ago to his students, or an evangelizing 5th century prophet who wants to make a display of supernatural powers to attract people to some form of spiritual path. But here we are a part of an extremely egotistical, aggressively skeptic, materialist-oriented, mass of billions of humans connected by internet. I have witnessed siddhis, mainly from unrealized people who have somehow come into the power, and have far yet to go on the path. I believe that there is a an intelligence guiding us, therefore the siddhis are meant for those people so that they can eventually be utiliized to make progress. My own power of sensing qi and stuff has given me tremendous insight on the connection between thoughts of the mind and the hgher levels, as well as the effect of particular forms of medtiation. Without this particular siddhi, I would probably be too distracted by material life or too thick-headed to come to much wisdom. Without a person being so fervently on the path, the siddhis seem to serve for naught, and one questions the (God's) wisdom as to why or how they received the siddhi. Many people have siddhis and live regular lives and just expire at the end. It is just so crucial to have come into some directions of a path that can cut through the confusion of modern consensus lifestyle, and their spiritual path can become stronger. Even we, a motley collection of practitioners can ask every morning how to use whatever powers of mind and body to make greater insight.

Perhaps we can imagine the ego as an operating system that determines our behavior, but as we progress spiritually we can understand a higher operating system, and as we cleave to the higher system, the ego system becomes a fainter, perhaps optional operating system. So you could keep your computer running the ego operating system in order to run some applications such as "self-protection against nasty people." The Kabbalists say that the highest is to enlist the ego in order to fulfil the higher operating system, and this is called a corrected version of the ego, or malchut.

Has anyone any experience or ideas on how to perform some kind of study of qigong effect on disease or just the effect itself using some kind of measuring equipment. What people to contact or what kinds of costs might be involved in a project, given that the the qigong master or practitioner is available and does not charge.

I would say a constant will or heart to attain enlightenment, and then very likely some kind of prayer or request to be guided to what one needs.

Just going back to the original query. In my fairly limited experience, I find that these spiritual states, or non-egoic versus egoic state are not zero sum, or binary, but more like %. Because the states tend to be sticky, meaning that they last and continue through perturbations, one has some leeway to play with and can decide to go towards a more associated into ego state or remain in a more peaceful state. So in the peaceful state one understands all that the ego self understands but more like an echo version, and that is couched in a blissfulness. But one has the power to turn up the volume of the ego self depending upon what equalibrium is suited for the occasion.

If you have a better reason than "it would be cool" which is really satisfy my egoic craving, then the universe or higher beings etc can help in the process of your developing that siddhi. And if you keep that reason in your heart and pray, then that will hasten things. Another tactic is the direct route: practice the "phantom sense" of vision often and regularly. What you practice is what you get. There is probably a holy grail type of qigong out there for developing this, but I don't know it, sorry. Years ago on this site, a guy who learned from some secretive Taoist sect seemed to really be so far beyond seeing auras, and I'm sure he's the guy to ask. One often hears that developing and practicing healing qigong brings along the ability to sense auras. In my case, I can feel them like sticking my finger into a pool of warm water. But I cannot really see them, yet other healers develop this ability by doing healings.

Milarepa often remarks how his tummo meditation, where the mind is allowed to settle inside bliss is so much more powerful than just sitting and clearing the mind-- the type of meditation that most monks did. This is just taking pot shots at shamatha type meditators using metaphor figurative language meant to piss off the monks.

The areas around the organs: chest stomach are the areas where energetically we get our feelings that are the maps of our emotions. In particular blockages develop due to selfish emotions based on the belief of a seperate self, blocking and tightening since childhood. (greed, fear, shame, etc) A large problem area for cultivators then, is those blockages and how to unblock them. Unbiased attention around the blockage area is good enough to do some house-cleaning. Good-willed attention charges the qi (regular qi) to do a bit more. And "lataif" (I just learned that word, but I know exactly what you are talking about) is a natural progression, as it of a higher understanding, and contains enlightened energy, broader, blissful, more powerful. While I do not particularly buy into the Taoist specific organ model, in the same way I don't fully buy into the yogic chakra model with the colors and things, the maps are correct enough so that they can work. I think this inner smile can work for advanced practitioners because it can get at the specific emotional blockages that get ignored even while practicing and cultivating for many years, and which are so deeply rooted in ourselves, so deep. And these negative feelings of ego seperate self really come to the forefront after one has advanced down the path and has transformed their consciousness to higher levels, they become so blatant, so awful, so not belonging, that one is forced to deal with them. I guess in genergal the advanced practitioner doesn't need to go back to some mechanistic style meditation because it becomes pretty apparent what to do anyway.

The mentality of the winner is to see losses as merely temporary setbacks or learning experiences. He has not let go of the desire to win; he has the desire amplified, and has trained his mind to create the most efficient mindset for winning (seeing losses as some kind of positive experience, or just ignoring them) But he is emotionally associated in the loss nevertheless, he merely uses mental gymnastics. This mentality could describe pretty much everyone on the planet in some way, because we have all won in some form or another, even if its merely:"feeding ourselves" or "walking." The mindset is pernicious when a person sees every piece of the entire experience as something to be won or loss at, which I will call samsara, because no sooner you have won something, there is another thing to win at, or another situation which would be even better, which just casts a pall over your recent victory. Take for example, a fight to get onto the subway train, then a contest to get a seat, a contest to get a good seat. Have you won when you've gotten a good seat, is there something even better, more pleasant, like a taxi or helicopter? Good thing "spiritual bypass" was mentioned because if you don't have the personal realization that desires or comparisons are undermining happiness, and you pick up a book on spirituality you might use it to rationalize failures. All the while still associated into the past failures, just using the mantra "non-attachment" as a cover-up. You can't fake your way out of the box, just by attaching new labels to the same emotional-congnitive processes, it only gets more tangled and harder to detect later when the time arrives you do make the realization.

Its detachment from outcome. More succinctly, the problem starts from the projected value you put on acceptance because it creates the polar opposite: less value of non acceptance. You create the trap yourself by the thoughts and emotions that you will be better off with the getting accepted, which immediately creates the position of not better off of the present moment . So really, you just mindfu**ed yourself, and put a veil of dissatisfaction over the "now" because you've created the box where well-being is contingent on gettting accepted by that person. Not to mention the emotional failure state of getting rejected. The answer is not "not caring", its more like stopping your emotional-cognitive narrative from setting value on comparative outcomes. You have to watch your mind and body feelings as you create the emotional representation when you ponder about getting accepted.

NLP is profound knowledge used often for petty things, like getting votes or getting laid. Still, going deeper into NLP is going deeper into your own consciousness and I would suggest that it could be a spiritual path all on its own. If you think of Buddha's quick method of realization: "drop all desires.," it may also dawn on you that associations are a key to the mind's formation of desires. To plumb, or notice your own mind while in the process of cognition and as it unconciously creates associated emotions-- is in fact a straightforward method for solving the mess that keeps us from living in a state of continuous well-being. NLP teachers do not talk about desires being the problem, on the contrary. But if you pursue goal-seeking behavior to its most abstract and final outcome, which is well-being, you might just realize that you can take a short-cut to well-being by just making that your goal. One gets that by stopping chasing goals. One gets to that by dropping desires. And one can get to that by noticing your cognitive and emotional processes as they are happening, and neutralizing their below consciousness tugging. Well I hope that makes any sense.

There is alot in there that will help your path. Its about understanding your mind's software. Understanding=ability to detach from=realization. I think its a no-brainer. Sorry for the pun.

If you want to learn a kind of higher energy practice, imagine the very moment when your luck has suddenly changed for the better. Isolate that moment in your mind/emotions, and try to go into that and refine that feeling of consciousness. I agree with the interpretation that bad luck events are pushing us off the bad directions that we've taken, but are kind of stuck to. For example, I had a pretty unfortunate event happen a few days ago, but it was so clear beyond obvious that I needed it to reset my path. Though I wish it were all smooth cupcakes and happy clouds all the way to rainbow body.

One thing you may also consider is that nadis are not tubes but more like ropes, and the qi doesnt flow through as if through a tube, the entire channel moves along like a rope being pulled continuously, bouncing around. (at least that's the way I feel it) And the channel itself is microfiber qi like corn hairs either twisted together similar to dna strings or telephone cord spirals, and spiraled yet again, yet all made of subparticles, I guess we could call that "qi" but my guess its suparticles are as complexly subdivided, similar to the cells that make up our body. The idea that needling points are areas of higher (surface) concentration makes sense (thats to say when the channel surfaces closer to the skin), because there is qi all over, not just in specific channels, and obviously a more complex system than that little diagram. And yet there are channels or areas of concentrated flows, which is these rope-like things that I mentioned.

It looks to me as a lame, beginners-style work-out when compared to other yogas. I know a few Tibetan and Indian yogas from lineage sources, and it seems the 5 Tibetans are sort of like the beginner version when you haven't developed the core muscles and flexibility yet. Sort of like what a physiotherapist would give as an excercise routine to a couch potato, not an athlete. The exception is the spinning posture, which is a bit different. Of course, I know of many simple practices that are yet very powerful, so I don't judge based on complexity or difficulty. Whats your view?

I don't know about the 6th rite or how its related. But that one at least sounds like its something Tibetans would do, a piece of Tummo.

I create hypnosis scripts based on LoA principles. I am working on one right now for "6 pack abs" It creates upfront motivation via creative visualization. (Don't eat the cookie because it wont taste as good as flat abs will feel) If you understand how the subconscious mind (subconscious isj ust a label for some unseen parts of our bio-computer) works, you will know its relational, and uses pictures. (Yes! Shut off the sh**t that seeks to take energy away from our positive goals) If you see the words "6 pack abs", I have just created hundreds of pictures of abs deep down in your bio-memory., and you don't know it. What emotions are attached to these pictures creates our behavior. It may be shame. And if its shame, maybe you have a knock-on behavior of putting something in your eating hole to get the rush of good feelings we naturally get from eating. Vicious cycle that's pretty common. All my work in LoA and hypnosis has helped me work out of the big morass of negative feelings and unconscious motivations and thoughts, to get to something quite a bit more aware. Working with seemingly low end topics such as manifesting money has helped me understand a lot too. Michael Beckwith from the Secret fame is the LoA guru I like the best because he is always relating back to spirituality and the path to individual enlightenment. The Seth stuff is good too, at least the way Dr. Hsu Tien Shen eplains it.

I'd agree with the 2 types of karma. Here's my delineation: 1.doctrine or moral system karma. This is what people tell each other to keep them good, a philosophy that gives order to the universe. Think Hindus. 2. the opposite of clarity, or the enlightened mind. All the ego machinations and whatever thats clouding us from being in the state of clarity. If you have clarity then its just assumed you successfully worked through your type 1 karma. But thats just an assumption, because type 1 karma may be BS. Whats really important is the reaching for clarity, the enlightened mind, because we know that that is not BS.

The Michael model seems based on the Clare Graves/ Spiral Dynamics model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Dynamics Some people stay angry due to trauma, unresolved, and locked in their body/mind.

I am pretty sure Chinese Medicine practitioners experimented with herbs and acupuncture etc. on HIV patients according to their knowledge about similar problems. Perhaps you give them too much credit in their abilities to discern energy, much less energetic structures, and especially that of microscopic viruses.

This is normal. The left hand side of the body is known as the "qi side", while the right is called the "blood side" In general people feel qi flows better on the left than the right, especially at the beginning. It doesnt mean that qi is not flowing on the right, its that you cannot feel it as well on that side. There is much more happening than your gross (body's) nerve endings can feel, all you ever receive is a partial picture of the subtle body or kundalini movements, therefore easy to misinterpret or mislabel a feeling. These processes are shockingly complex, and if you were to truly perceive what is happening in and around your physical body, you might think the weirdest alien/human pod person growth type of scene in a movie to be pretty tame in comparison. All you might ever feel is some warm fuzzies though. You want some warm fuzzies on your right side of your body. There's more going on though.

Nobody can answer for you your question. Even though I've been celibate for around 8 years, and gone through lots of alchemical progress, I cannot say what my attainment would be if I had had relationships and regular sex this whole time. I have tried to have relationships, but the women I found were hostile to the spiritual path, and did not really believe in it. Different value structure. There are more path conducive approaches to relationship, like a kind of tantric couple. But the women I met were into fulfilling social norms, not really spiritual refinement. Who doesnt pay lip service to spirituality? Who doesnt want to learn a bit of qigong or yoga for health? Its a balancing act to be a serious cultivator while out in society, working, and interacting with people. You get distracted, and that is perhaps the most important point. At the start I did not make any 10 year plan, I just was influenced by some masters who were pro-celibacy, and since my kundalini became active, it seemed I just had to keep the snowball rolling. In the context of all the physical and mental detox I was going through, I think celibacy made sense. Kundalini often turns people into some kind of social outcasts for a number of years, so no sex is just part of it. So celibacy can make sense within the wider context of what you are doing, or it may not be of much value given your context (as other posters have explained).