de_paradise

Counting all the "I's" and "me's" in your phrasing, you sound so self-absorbed. Why bother? Secondly, you seem to understand enlightenment as a subset of our normal mundane existence, good for health and trippy experiences, not an entirely different existence which has a still higher reality than what we consider reality. I could be wrong, but thats the impression you give.

I sure do know how it feels to be surprised by a nocturnal emission, after being so careful, it sucks man. It does get easier, and even though your little rant seems over the top, you are building an emotional aversion to nocturnal emission which can eventually pervade your dreamscape, and that will help stop your dream character from going all the way. However. Something in your writing shows that the jing issue is a metaphor for some greater pessimism. Emotional instability comes with the territory of alchemy, and you know if you are up to it or not. Sexual frustration, mood swings, masochism come with the territory of sexual abstinence. Ive been there, and it will happen again, unfortunately. The only thing I can suggest is to monitor your self-talk, because idle negative thoughts snowball, but they can be cut off before they get too big. Example: "Fuck life sucks...no wait...lifes ok."

I've been veg for years, and worked out in the gym alot, though much less this year. Stallone and Arny are veg, so I hear. Whey protein powder shakes really help build and maintain muscles.

I remember inventing something similar to the secret smile a few years back, and I called it "state cycling". Instead of the progressive relaxation self-induction like in the secret smile, I just got on the exercise bike in the gym and pedalled. The one pointed focus is simlarly hypnotic. Then I put myself through different emotional states, which were: amused, loving, protecting, hurt, orgasmic, and fighting-enraged. The negative emotional states helps by providing contrast, and after the workout in the streets, felt much calmer when met with some frustrating event. And the fun bit while doing the states was to see if I could emotionally influence the states of the people who were around doing their cardio workout, because we could all see each other's faces. Totally non-Taoist way of getting one's kicks.

In my own little cosmology, I have dumbed down the Tao into a basic visualization. Imagine a sea of foam, which is the primary consciousness, the pre-heaven qi, and each little bubble's directive is one of creation, and its these little bubbles that have formed what we know as the world and everything in it, and it just keeps on creating. Trial and error, but it keeps creating, selflessly. When you are doing something creative, like writing, painting, living creatively, you are bringing your activity, your mind in line with the activity of sea of bubbles, or put another way, you are aligning yourself with the Tao, or the divine matera prima. This is why it is apparant that artists live closer to the Tao. On the other hand, through alignment with other aspects of the Tao, through meditation, through connecting with energies, unwinding of the ego-self, etc., a person naturally can become more creative, the very nature of the Tao. Well, I think Im just saying the same thing as you guys, except in a nice sea of bubbles, a bubble bath

There's no point in asking why siddhas work, becuase even people who have siddhas cannot give the kind of explaination suitable for scientific minds, in that minute cause and effect kind of explaination. Sheild with qi? I don't think so, but one explanation is as bad as another, so why not. The exterior (ordinary reality) react to thoughts and intention, that is the basis to powers. But what makes that reaction possible is very mysterious indeed, and simply not within our understanding and vocab, just as atoms and photons were beyond the understanding of people last century. Its pretty f-ing complicated, but the good news is we dont need to know why to manifest the siddha, we don't need to know what enlightenment is in order to sit down and meditate towards it. Why is it that this external world can react to thoughts and intentions? The answer is simple. In the "higher" densities, or spiritual levels where buddhas and ascended beings exist, thoughts and intentions are made manifest. Call that the physics of higher spirtual reality. As a person proceeds down the enlightenment trail, the physics of higher spiritual reality as well as this ordinary reality can start to blend. Also specific meditations or gongs, or atunement by a higher being can help acheive this blend of physics of higher reality and our ordinary reality, thus producing a siddha. Since most people in the West are totally clueless to this, the main way of acheiving a special power is to simply be born with it or run into it by accident. The old, do siddha's exist question comes up again and again. If you look at enough posts, you can notice people mention their siddhas sometimes. But the guy who presumes the authority of judge and demands, is not likely to be met with much generosity. If someone is struggling with, are siddhas possible, is enlightenment (the maha-siddha) possible, why, why why, then they will be stuck at the gate. Meanwhile there are people out there gaining siddhas left and right, , leaving the "is it possible" questions for the fools stuck at the gate.

For people not into overt spiritual stuff, exercise and Tolle are great suggestions. NLP is too. Even Tony Robbins. NLP is covertly spiritual practise because it goes by the assumptions that the ego, or personality, is plastic, and gives a whole crapload of techniques that help shift a person's ego-self, and that shifting creates a space where spiritual "truth" arises, not unlike the goal of orthodox Buddhism.

Counting breaths is good. White skeleton visualization meditation is a powerful one. Mantra is more powerful than people think, it is still one of my main meditations. Its more useful on a qi level to do mantra than, for example a one pointed focus type stillness half-assededly, and mantra is just easier to do when the mind doesnt settle well (and thats all too often) You can find many on the internet, for some reason the ones I choose are always in Tibetan or Sanskrit. Perhaps choose a Tibetan deity mantra that embodies the qualities that you are striving for... Stillness, in my understanding, is any meditation that seeks to attain one pointed focus, and where thoughts cease arising, thats the goal anyway. Emptiness is the actual imagining that the body is empty, it creates a kind of voidy-ness that has a pretty powerful result in terms of stimulating the qi body. In "truth", or in the physics of spiritual reality, we are "empty" or at least void of what can be perceived of by the senses, so...when you align your mind to the "truth" of this spiritual reality, the universe kind of complies to put you on that higher level. I have a feeling that going deeper into stillness will be of great benefit for you, so this requires a less yang, or active type of focus. Perhaps if you can attain a step down into stillness, the qi will be able to work through the blockage that you mentioned. Another stillness which I used to love doing is called "meditation of death", where you just imagine yourself as dead, really relaxed. Hint: its easier to do this one successfully after doing an easier one like mantra or breaths.

Procreation and kids are natural, they can help you discover patience, virtue, etc. On the other hand, there are obvious reasons why monks eschew this lifestyle, and why monks stand a greater chance at becoming enlightened-- family life is time constraining, emotionally compelling, ego generating. You have to be a superman to be able to do it all. Hats off to those who can find the time to do quality meditations as well as have a family.

OOPs, Sorry for the non-sequitur. I assure you that at the time in my head there seemed to be a relation to what you mentioned in another post. No harm intended guv'ner. Im reminded of this song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EE59Ex5Px4

Heh, I didnt mean you Scott. Its pretty much the model for most posts I've written here.

Neat-O, O. >emotionally based reasoning goes here< >ego reinforcing narration of life goes here< >self-aggrandizing hint of great progress goes here, another one by proxy< >more emotional based reasoning, conclusion< Thanks,

You go into a medium hypnotic trance is good. Now its slowing your brain waves down to alpha. I spent alot of time in trance 2 years ago, can feel a comfy feeling, feel it espcially in your dantien area. If you are interested in going into hypnosis, try reading, "Tranformations" by Richard Bandler. It took me many weeks to get through that book, because reading this you tend to lose yourself in trance, because the author set it up that way, because your unconcious mind learns faster. You just sort of nod off, pupils may dilate, and a few hours later you realize you have been somewhere thinkng about something really creative, not quite sure how the time passed though. Try to maintain a trance during the day, in a coffee shop for example. Use the Bettty Erickson induction or the same one you used before. Can you remember falling into hypnosis using that induction? You can do it again just sitting there. Think of trance as a precursor to Samadhi, a state where qi loosens up. I havent seen any discussion where light or medium trances are used as a cultivation method, but Im sure it is. Look at the Tibetans, they are all about trance. Western hypnosis is almost all about goals, and suggestion, but there doesnt have to be any. The hypnotic state is such a nice place to be--especially if you are your own controller. You just feel pleasant, and theres many interesting things to learn about state control.

Emptiness is a method, because when the mind is still, alchemical processes can happen (faster) Although the mind at the beginning is not nearly "empty", just the effort alone to get closer to the Tao is enough for qi and Kundalini energies to function to help you towards the Tao, and slowly the physical body will evolve, consciousness will evolve. Whether the ulitmate goal enlightenment, has some kind of pat rational explaination from your point of view, should not be so important as the possibility of attainment. They are just terms. Egyptians used glyphs and pictures to show the same process, pictures explain more and dont invite debate. Theres plenty of scholarly Buddhism out in the bookshelves and youtube if that floats your boat. But its like debating about a pie versus making a pie.

Hooray!

If I remember correctly, in Bill Bodri's book about mastering the 5 elements, the meditation for walking through walls was to master the earth element. That meant staring at a wall for long periods, perhaps thinking of how it lacks substance. Another one was to imagine ones body as something like atoms, where its mostly space between particles. Well in fact we are mostly empty space. You cant just get to this level siddha without going through alot of cleansing first. After that, perhaps dematerializing would not be such a stretch. Theres probably a qigong style energy meditation for this siddha, but I havent encountered it. Indian yogis seem to be more famous for this ability than the Taoists.

Silicon, my main point was to challenge their definition of Kundalini, while throwing in some extra tidbits. Um, I didnt accuse Master Nan of slander, go back and read that bit again ok. In essence I was praising Nan and Bodri for criticizing (slamming. my slang usage maybe threw you off?) those people who think they have attained something when they havent. So anyway, just wanted to clear that bit up.

I've read over Nan and Bodri's stuff many times over before I started all this cultivation, and did regard it as gospel, but the rigid structure hasnt really corresponded to what really happened. I remember reading an article by Dr. Morris saying that Kundalini doesnt really stop until a person has acheived enlightenment, and sometimes a bit after that. So clearly we have simply an issue of competing semantics, where Nan wants to list Kundalini "attainment" as opening the zhong mai which corresponds to either a warm full body bliss rush or hot one. I have not encountered anyone using Kundalini word in the same way as Nan and Bodri, so of course using their own definition everyone else will look wrong. They do do a service in slamming most people's wishful thinking about their own spiritual progress, which is often exagerrated. As far as real qi and "fan qi", I think this is just an oversimplification that leads to a bit of confusion. Mantak Chia lists qi as evolving and changing, the terms jing qi shen are 3 generalized terms used to describe many many more sub-varities. "Fan" qi is real and "real qi" is real too, and after when this so-called real qi has already transmuted to a higher level, its still real. Hence, Santiago says there is only "higher." It may be when a person starts to experience the bliss rises, one knows one has attained Nans "real" qi, but what if you experience all-over bliss at any other time, say before the zhong mai? Is that qi?. Confusing. By the way, I typically experience qi as cool, except those certain times when there is a bliss rise, and there is that full body warmth, but that is just a temporary state. What I am saying is that so-called yin qi and yang qi are not necessarily characterized by warm or cold as Nan says. I may have interpreted Bodri and Nan wrong, however, since they sometimes dont stick to their own narrow definitions and I get a bit confused. Nevertheless the Measuring Meditations book is still awesome and gives such a good map, the best one available, even though one has to become one's own cartographer in the end.

Way of the Celestial Masters is a Chinese Daoist movement that was founded by Zhang Daoling in 142 CE. At its height, the movement controlled a theocratic state in Sichuan. Theres a wikipedia entry for it. Somehow I dont think a real celestial master would be hawking fu on this forum...

A person can be circling around the path of enlightenment, be doing things like yoga, tai chi, meditation, reading lots of spiritual titled books--and still lack the conviction that all this dreamy stuff of enlightenment and refining ones immortal consciousness is possible. I was in this situation for many years, and I look around and see many others in this place. With conviction, an urgency, an amping up of intent arises, and in my case, this is where all many energetic phenomena started to become commonplace. You could call this a very low level stage of the path, where "doink", you gotta be kidden' me! All this spiritual crap is real, and I've just been clowing around in some delusional body suit, why didnt someone tell me before? Oh the information has been here all the time, Ive even been reading it over and over but I just didnt see it like I do now. How do things like perceiving ultimate reality, tranforming oneself into pure energy, refining one's consciousness--how do these things become simple hobbies, interests, or minor sections of a bookstore? You know because if you do get it, if you have conviction, know the enourmousness of the importance that dwarves any other thing you can be doing by a million jillion.....and yet some people half-half get it...but not enough to want to sever the ties that bind them to our little earth existence here...getting laid, making a career, amassing material goods...not enough to spend a few hours per day doing the best possible meditations they can find.

The gaining of strong conviction is a stage on the path of alchemical tranformation. Thats my main point. Its not just any conviction, its the conviction of what is chiseled into the walls in ancient temples of Egypt, its the conviction of the reality of the secret of the golden flower, its the truth of Kundalini, etc, etc. And when you can hold this strong conviction, in my little experience, strange and odd things can happen in a way that they might not if you were only somewhat convinced. I appreciate the replies nevertheless.

You will need to do some more observation of yourself over a few weeks to see what happens, its a bit premature to make a judgement. Could be a bit of stuck qi, could be awakened kundalini stirrings. If you are indeed simply sensitive, like me, consider that discomfort isnt the enemy, its indicative of things happening which are furthering your spiritual development--thats what you want. Another thing is to learn to relax into energy, and that only makes the energy higher, and you have to learn to relax into that...and so on, (years go by) until it finally refines and becomes less annoying. You cannot control Kundalini energy, oh dear, quite the contrary. If that is what you have awakened, you are in for the time of your life, hahaha. So yeah, as you have noticed, you dont actually control qi as much as people would like to believe. Thats for the better (your spiritual betterment), and you may have to adapt your regular life accordingly.

Noidea, you seem to have a good grasp of the various qigongs. Let me further distinguish as my teacher told me. There is dan-tien qi varieties of qigong healing, and non-dantien qi kind. With the dantien qi kind, I would totally agree with the people out there about needing vast amounts of training/experience, and for this healer to be very effective, the healer generally needs to be of a high level of spiritual cultivation. Hes gotta have juice. The energy is generally is directed to specific places by the healer. The other kind is the channelling kind, like Reiki, but there are other kinds out there, which allows the healer to pour this energy into the patient through the energy gates, and the intelligence of the immune system/energy system of the patient takes care of where the qi goes. So not much training is required, just the attunement or ability. The attunement or lineage transfer is a kind of nadi-level awakening or manipulation of one's body. In the ancient times, many many people had such an ability. In general, the higher up the spiritual path you get, the stronger the qi. The more heart energy or loving kindness, the stronger the qi. In my opinion healing is a great way to get closer to the Tao, aligning oneself with God, or whatever you want to call it, and that is why spiritual pathers tend to gravitate to this business.

Thanks for pointing this guy out. Sometimes theres this weird syncronicity in this forum, things are posted the very day I am thinking about them . Ive never written a song in my life, but this week I was writing one, and I kind of got some direction with the "crazy" song, a cool song that disguises the serious message of an enlightenment experience. Some fairly unsubtle messages in this one, "transformer" between the throwaway lines. What do you bet he means our kind of transformation, not just the robot toys kind?