Seeker of Wisdom

This small universe thing is recognised in many traditions: http://www.meditationexpert.com/zen-buddhism-tao/z_initiating_the_river_chariot_rotation.html. But, this guy does seem a bit too cautious. While there is some risk (and it's unnecessary anyway, as it happens naturally with samadhi) in trying to stimulate this chi circuit, I really think that saying this practice can only safely be done at all after years of other stuff is OTT. Plenty of people have done stuff like that in moderation with no ill effects - it's the people with unbalanced sets of techniques doing long sessions who get in trouble. In http://flowingzen.com/2203/why-sitting-meditation-isnt-for-you/, he says some crazy things about sitting meditation. He says that it's too advanced for beginning cultivators, so they should focus on chi exercises first. Absurd. It's never too early to start training the mind, just because there are no instant impressive results doesn't mean it's too advanced. The measure of meditation working correctly is improvement over time, not being able to enter advanced jhanic states - that's the result of mastery. And just as meditation is made a bit smoother by chi work, chi work is rendered only an auxiliary by meditation, as I've already explained. Saying you need to clear blockages before meditating is like saying you need to shower before bathing. He says a teacher is indispensable - they can save time, but it's still your mind, your practice, and you can understand the practice from careful study, reflection, and consulting more experienced cultivators. Otherwise, what is he saying - a lineage just going back endlessly, where nobody ever figured anything out for themselves? For some paths and techniques a teacher is necessary, for others it's optional. He says you need a healthy body first. I agree that a seriously ill person should take it slow, and the body should be kept in good condition. But I think ordinary health is enough. He cites Bodhidharma teaching monks exercises - those monks really mortified their bodies, the average person can start meditation today.

Thanks.

Could I have my name changed to 'Seeker of Tao', please?

A really great book on shamatha is The Attention Revolution by Alan Wallace. But in a nutshell, it's important that our concentration comes from deep relaxation, so we aren't straining and tiring ourselves. And if the mind ever seems clear, focus a bit more and subtler excitation and laxity becomes visible. Oh, and anapana sati is said to have an extra chi purifying effect - because of the relation to the air element - while being a very good shamatha practice, without actually trying to do anything with chi. Yeah, cat, I've noticed the search function is a bit iffy.

A relevant post: http://thetaobums.com/topic/30612-requesting-help-in-regards-to-meditation-and-third-eye-opening-specifically/#entry456447. It's very hard to actually open any of the chakras. Generally when people think a chakra is open, all that's happened is the surrounding channels have opened a bit. I mean, see how dramatic a true heart chakra opening is for an example: http://www.meditationexpert.com/comparative-religion/c_Song_of_Songs.html. When a chakra opens, there will be an obvious pumping of chi and it will be very undeniable. Let's consider why these things are closed in the first place, why our kundalini is sleeping. It's because our minds are cloudy. Fetters in the mind creates chi blocks because of the way consciousness and chi mirror each other, as I explain here: http://thetaobums.com/topic/30405-i-think-i-am-narrowing-down-what-i-need-to-know/?view=findpost&p=451886. So, from this we can understand that any efficient approach to chi stuff will actually put the emphasis on - I'm blending Buddhist, Taoist and Hindu terminology a lot here because it is of course nonsectarian - sila (yama-niyama and karma/bhakti yogas), samadhi (raja yoga) and prajna (jnana yoga) more than chi cultivation (hatha yoga). Getting rid of the causes of the blocks, otherwise they must come back. Not that hatha yoga is bad, it's great, but not complete in isolation. And it's absolutely possible to follow the Zen path of only bothering with sila, samadhi and prajna, yet end up with perfect chi, kundalini, third eye etc etc. The purely Zen way is slower then a mixed approach, but you get the all-important mind and behaviour work done to enlightenment without distracting yourself with flashy phenomena. Chi really can't liberate you, after all. Not even kundalini can. We have to sort out our delusions and fetters for liberation. Personally, I take a mainly Zen approach with some Taoism and Yoga mixed in, so I'm doing some work directly on my chi to speed things up, but keeping it in context of the path as a whole. So... that's my view on this matter.

Well, in order to really get somewhere with shamatha the object of your meditation must be static if you are deliberately creating it, which rules out anything like MCO, mantras or so on. These things are useful, I'm not discounting them from practice entirely, but they're not good for shamatha. It must either be a deliberately created still thing (e.g visualised dot), a still thing which already exists (e.g awareness), or a moving thing which already exists (e.g the breath). Otherwise the stability you can cultivate is limited. Also, it must either be an object of mental awareness like a visualised dot or awareness itself; or the breath, which is an object of sensory awareness with which a nimitta can form for you to then switch focus to. Otherwise the vividness you can cultivate is limited. So, if what you already do clearly matches these criteria, go ahead. Otherwise, use the classic accepted techniques, like those presented in the book, on top of your current practice. Hope this helps.

I'm reading 'Three Men in a Boat' by Jerome K. Jerome. Funny and poetic and very, very British.

Belief < knowledge < perception < transcendent wisdom.

You may be right, but still... conceptual. If reality is dreamlike, what is there to control? If we (as parts of dreamlike reality) are also dreamlike, who is there to do controlling? Rhetorical questions. Answer with no reply.

So what is there to be controlled, and who will control it?

Hi, jtp.

Get The Attention Revolution by Alan Wallace and start shamatha. If you practice shamatha for settling the mind in samadhi with relaxation, stability and vividness, you will get past this stage by allowing the chi to do what it must. Switch your primary focus to the mind. That's how you will open your third eye - otherwise, you're trying to hold a chi structure open while mental hindrances are holding you back. This light may be the early stage of a nimitta forming. Practice shamatha and you'll get further, to unimaginable levels... This is a key part of every cultivation tradition, so don't be put off by the Buddhist terminology. Even esoteric Christianity has shamatha, because it's so important to train the mind to be focused, still and alert - so that not only high levels of chi can build, but deep non-conceptual insight and the meta-cognition to really develop new virtuous qualities in place of old habits.

Here's an esoteric analysis of The Song of Songs: http://www.meditationexpert.com/comparative-religion/c_Song_of_Songs.html

So much Dharma available, and so many pointless scholarly debates about it... Who cares about the history or minor philosophical points of Tsongkhapa and Gelugpa, if the practice of Gelugpa leads experientially to Buddhahood - which it does, as it follows the same principles of sila/samadhi/prajna found in all Buddhism? If a tradition says something wrong but the practice of it leads to right realisation anyway, well, that's still a good tradition. And Gelugpa doesn't even say anything overtly wrong, even if you disagree with the really fine philosophical details.

Last night I was lying in bed, chanting while visualising a bright white dot in my heart chakra. I felt gathering force throughout the body, followed by a powerful fizzing at the root chakra which spurted up as far as the heart chakra in pulses. There were several pulses in a few minutes, then this ended after a sharp pain in the dan tien. This wasn't powerful enough to be kundalini or something, but it was definitely... interesting. This mantra is starting to get serious.

WTF? Sitting meditation still leads to the same result as it always has, because people still have the same structure of 5 skhandas and 8 consciousnesses with obscurations all based on craving, delusion and ill-will. It's just a bit harder now to have a good foundation of relaxation and be able to sit still without constant entertainment. So people need to detach a little more at the beginning and heal their stress. People still do achieve high levels of shamatha and have realisations like no-self. Sitting meditation absolutely doesn't lead nowhere - although, of course, conducting body, speech and mind properly in daily life is also indispensable to really get up the ladder, as it always has been. New radical methods could help, probably, but I disagree that they are necessary. The same basic formula of virtue, samadhi and prajna which can be found in valid cultivation traditions like Buddhism, Taoism and Vedanta still works... the trouble is that many people are misguided by New Age fluff, more ADD and more lazy, so it's a bit harder. But the BIG PLUS of this age is that people worldwide have access to good Dharma teachings, and religion is slowly dying, and we don't need to worry about physical needs as much. So people in the West with the discernment to identify a valid path, and the will to walk it, will be able to do so and progress far, whereas in the past they would have only known about useless dogma which leads, at best, to being a bit nicer.

A fitting sentence can be a stake that tethers a donkey for 10000 eons.

This is part of the reason meditation is ideally done sitting in a cross-legged position. It helps open the very hard to open channels in the legs. Master Nan said that he shut himself in a room at a monastery and sat for hours and hours every day. One day there was intense 'good pain', then a pop, and a wonderful cool blissful sensation as leg channels opened. Then he just carried on sitting, he didn't want to get up. Someone had to break down the door to check he was OK. Meditation by itself is actually enough in theory to open all channels, because you're letting go of the root causes of your blockages. Practices specifically for chi are a great catalyst and auxiliary, but I've noticed that I feel blocks weakening more during anapana sati than when I'm actually doing anything with my chi. Besides, chi is just a form and sensation thing, not related really to dropping all fetters, and developing insight beyond all phenomena to Tao. It seems to me that stretching, pranayama and so on helps empower chi flow to bust through blocks, while meditation directly dissolves the blocks at their sources in the mind.

Sitting meditation will speed up your progress immeasurably. If it's not something you're interested in, then I won't argue, but at least tell yourself it's a powerful catalyst and do it anyway. I highly recommend getting The Attention Revolution by Alan Wallace.

Milarepa said that because it was appropriate for Gampopa at that time. In general, stuff that deals with chi is only an auxiliary, because it's playing with form and sensation, only in the substage of warming in the stage of intensified effort. At most chi practices on their own can only lead to the 3rd jhana, going further requires dropping the subtle hindrance of bliss for greater equanimity. Do you even have a teacher? You really should have one if you're following a tantric path... it's so easy to mislead yourself by missing all the subtleties and ignoring fundamental practices and principles. And if you do have a teacher, lol they don't know what they're doing either judging by your, well, nonsense. I hope one day you get out of this cage you've built for yourself.

In every Buddhist tradition, shamatha is an integral foundation. Vajrayana, Dzogchen, all of them. It's indispensable. The 8fold path goes all the way, just each aspect has deeper, less conceptual interpretation further along the path. A tantric path without virtue, shamatha and prajna is missing the point somewhat. Ngondro and shamatha and vipassana practices are there for a reason. Nobody gets even as far as stream-entry without shamatha. Those of us who haven't achieved even that shouldn't be arrogant, looking down on Theravada and other Mahayana traditions, as though our wisdom is greater because we have a different intellectual opinion. How many of us are actually on the Bodhisattva bhumis, to be able to look down and complain that Theravada only leads to Arhatship, or some Mahayana school has a slightly wrong view on an extremely subtle concept which we only comprehend intellectually at best? It's like a preschooler criticising string theory. Ridiculous. Alan Wallace consistently emphasises the need for shamatha as a foundation for explicitly Dzogchen practice. Shamatha is a Buddhist thing, not any less valuable because it came before. Shakyamuni mastered it before then doing vipassana. It's necessary to make the mind serviceable so realisation can blossom. You're mining quotes to try to support your arrogant looking down on everyone else; ignoring significant parts of the Buddha's teaching like his enthusiastic recommendation of anapana sati, shamatha and vipassana together leading to attainment in the parable of the misbehaved prince; and most of Alan Wallace's career. How is meditation conceptual? It's not exactly conceptual to watch the breath, or thoughts, or use a koan, with no judgement or rumination or analysis or attempt to understand conceptually whatsoever.

Michael Jackson, secretly an Immortal?

Great, thanks! Anapana's going well, not yet got a nimitta, but I will when I just get a bit more stability and vividness. I am definitely well grounded in the relaxation aspect, people who don't know I cultivate at all ask stuff like 'why are you always smiling?', lol. I can handle not being stimulated for longer than most people. My meta-cognition is much better, I catch my thoughts before they snowball in nonsense negative rumination quicker than before, that's obviously great on the virtue/mental health side of things. People have asked if I have an eidetic memory. I don't, I just remember stuff better because my mind isn't as clogged with a hailstorm of other stuff. While meditating lately, it seems I've been getting close to the 'body asleep, mind ultra-awake' Alan Wallace mentioned, because I've moved, and for a brief instant there had been resistance like sleep paralysis then I jerked suddenly - but it wasn't a trance, my mind was a little bit more awake than awake. Maybe if I can get a bit deeper and not need to move, I'll get to purely mental awareness and therefore nimitta.

Firstly, if someone has no success at all with vipassana it's not the technique that's wrong because the theory is sound and many people have had some success, it's people nowadays not bothering to get a foundation in shamatha and virtue. Secondly, these 'psychotic episodes' are to be expected from people overdoing it. The analogy of the elephant and the cat. They actually prove that moderate practice does dig up crud from the subconscious that can then be dealt with. Thirdly, scholars have a consensus that the Buddha did exist, and who cares if the teachings are word-for-word what he said if the same information is there. Actually, who said it is entirely irrelevant too. What matters is the truth the teaching points to, which you can easily begin to verify for yourself. Sure, it's subjective, but so is your own awareness and nobody doubts that. This is one hypothesis that only internal experiments can test.