Seeker of Wisdom

Um, I never said anything about believing a hover board into existence. All my arguments have been against the idea of subliminals making you capable of building one. I guess I didn't explain clearly, sorry. If you re-read my 2nd post on this thread, you'll see how it's all about learning to make hover boards, not manifesting them from thin air. Either I was unclear, you didn't read properly, or you strawmanned me. "intellectual goals like discovering a way to create a hover board. I don't think you've realised just what would be involved in figuring out hover boards" "in the process of designing this engine" I never said anything insulting to you either, so I have no idea where the and hominem accusation came from. If I've said anything harsh to you, I didn't mean to. Maybe you're just interpreting any disagreement with your position as a personal attack. That last post wasn't even to you, it was to skydog. Anyway, good luck.

I love your 'deleting weakness'. That's a really great attitude for someone to have. LOL I have plenty to delete myself.

IQ and being able to progress in cultivation aren't directly connected, and smart people have a hard time letting go of concepts. However, smart people can more easily notice some pitfalls on the Way. They can discern practices that lead to dead tree Zen from those that lead to jhana, for example, by considering the effects of particular approaches on the mind. I would also expect all cognitive functions of a successful cultivator to improve over time. Meditation is already known to benefit memory and meta-cognition. Anyone who has truly achieved shamatha could become a leading figure in most any field they wanted. Even on the level of just knowing stuff, it has been said that bodhisattvas should be masters of everything from literature to psychology to history, not just cultivation. And 'if there is anything he does not know, a Confucian is ashamed'. The Buddha didn't cling to his knowledge, but apparently he was actually pretty good at mathematics.

I don't lack creativity or imagination - I do origami and like writing fiction, I'm always imagining stuff. I just also use logic! If we only accept logical thought, we stagnate. If we only accept imagination, we don't live grounded in reality. There ARE limitations. We all have great untapped potential, but if you believe that you are omnipotent, teleport here to see me. If you can't... that's a limitation you have! I've presented reasonable arguments against an unrealistic appraisal of the power of subliminals. The response has been hysterical ad hominems, and accusations of being an unimaginative creature limited to logic alone. It's one thing to bash on creative thinking, and another to point out when it strays beyond reality into Narnia. Would it be bashing creativity to tell someone that it isn't possible to travel to the moon by drawing a circle in bat blood on the ground during the full moon, pissing on your shoes, and throwing them onto a bonfire in the middle of the circle while singing Iron Maiden's 'The Number of the Beast' in Swahili? TI and I have a problem with AYP because it's a mistaken practice which at best leads to a limited level of progress (neither of us like limitations!), and has caused serious problems for many people. I don't have an issue with mantras, in fact I have chanted the Zhunti mantra for some time. But that is a real mantra, not an AYP concoction, and I don't use it with mindless dull repetition lacking any concentration to enter a dull trance-like state as in AYP. I won't debate the hover board thing any more because I see no point. If you wish to discuss the issues TI and I have with AYP, or are curious, see http://thetaobums.com/topic/25632-a-review-of-ayp-from-an-ex-practitioner/. The first post is quite long, but it covers all the important points.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem Best of luck.

Focus on sorting out your mind, and your chi will follow.

You dedicate yourself to self-improvement, and cultivation, and develop bodhichitta.

The subconscious is powerful, but the fact remains that you won't just pull advanced knowledge of physics on a way above PhD level out of your mind unless that information is already in your mind somewhere, or perhaps through disciplined meditation you transform your mental functioning to the extent where you are above humanity. You still have to be realistic and accept that for many things conscious effort is absolutely required, and that certainly applies to really advanced intellectual goals like discovering a way to create a hover board. I don't think you've realised just what would be involved in figuring out hover boards, if they are even possible. What you're trying to do is learn how to make something of the right size and shape to stand on, that hovers with enough precision to travel standing on without needing to hold anything, but with decent pace and agility. The control mechanism alone would be a Nobel Prize feat of engineering. As for the way thrust is achieved - without rockets, which would be unfeasible - that could either be through using dark energy to cancel out gravity; an Alcubierre Drive to warp the fabric of space; or something like monopoles to achieve magnetic lift, without needing metal rails on the ground under you. All these ideas are highly theoretical. Merely in the process of designing this engine you would either: (dark energy) prove dark energy, and therefore be the most famous astrophysicist ever; (Alcubierre Drive) accidentally crack superluminal travel, allowing us to colonise the galaxy, and in the process figure out how to produce exotic matter easily, and go a long way towards time travel and wormhole generation; or (monopoles) prove string theory, and hence possibly unite quantum and Newtonian physics (which Hawking has dedicated his life to pretty much). If you think subliminals will allow you to utterly revolutionise physics and advance humanity centuries ahead without even learning it to postgraduate level, then you think that subliminals alone will make you not just the next Newton or Einstein, but the most intelligent person ever to live by orders of magnitude. Let's say truly believing it will happen can raise your intelligence to the required levels, and give you the required insights into physics despite you not studying physics and not developing your mind properly through meditation. Subliminals wouldn't produce the required belief anyway, because all your experience when you aren't watching the subliminal tells you that you aren't hyper intelligent or a physics savant. Subliminals can't make you believe something that you know to be wrong. They can make you want to buy a product, but they can't make you believe the product is hovering in front of you unless there's something wrong with you, because you can see it isn't there. So if you want to attempt to brainwash yourself, if you want to try to force yourself believe something contrary to logic and experience, if you enjoy cognitive dissonance and deluding yourself, go for it!

How many people who believed they could fly didn't end up making a splat on the ground when they fell? If someone is hypnotised or crazy and thinks they're a chicken, they may cluck but they don't grow feathers and lay an egg. If you want to make a hover board, learn physics. If you want to unlock the vast untapped capacity of your mind, do actual disciplined shamatha meditation practice as outlined in 'The Attention Revolution' by Alan Wallace. It's confusing that you can't be bothered to do meditation (unless you've started since we last spoke, in which case well done), which utterly transforms your mind into a blissful lightning-fast glorious expanse, but you can be bothered to make a subliminal video which produces nothing but a little cognitive dissonance.

My guess: being faced with the crud deep in your mind that people normally don't want to see as it burns off, which then also causes really old dirty grim chi to unclog. Psychological and physiological factors interrelated. I think Master Nan once said he really hated this mantra when he started... so he knew it was working, really cutting new positive grooves in his mind and body, and he persevered... until enough crud was cleared that he loved it.

That sounds good - shit in your mind getting purified by the mantra. When we chant this mantra, on one level we're generating focused desire for the qualities of Zhunti to flower in ourselves as we become Buddhas, on another we're generating reverence for the Buddhas, and therefore humility. That has to have some effect, even without the chi effects of mantras, and perhaps more esoteric effects I'm not even aware of.

When I saw this thread I was going to post that link, lol. yogani's system has good points for sure. But it has serious issues with it that you don't notice unless you really, really discern... or end up with something like kundalini syndrome. Please, read the whole linked post (http://thetaobums.com/topic/25632-a-review-of-ayp-from-an-ex-practitioner/?p=378290) fully and think about it deeply. Don't just dismiss what I and TI are saying as sour grapes, sectarianism, etc. Give it a fair hearing. I have no personal grudge against yogani, and benefitted from AYP for about two years. Towards the end of that time, however, glaring issues became clear and I consider it important to inform people of my opinion on this matter. If you only take a few points, take these: *'Inner silence' produced by DM is just another construct in the mind. The DM procedure reduces coarse thoughts, but doesn't refine awareness to sustained jhana/samadhi or deep insight. That takes active focus to train out excitation and dullness. *Spinal breathing is not a solution to kundalini syndrome - instead of trying to force it back down against the current, take it down the front channel to tan tien. *Cultivation isn't something just in sitting practice and asanas, it must be constant. We should introspect to figure out our flaws, and really try to develop their opposites. We have to limit multitasking and increase our mindfulness in all things, if we want to really progress in meditation. Don't just be loving, wise and mindful for a set period of the day - although sitting practice is still very important! Here are some books, articles, etc I would recommend over yogani's writings. Even if you disagree with me about AYP, look at these 'cos they're good: *Bill Bodri's stuff. Especially the articles on his site about the jhanas, not obsessing over chi, and jing retention. *Master Nan-huai Chin's 'Working Towards Enlightenment' and 'To Realise Enlightenment' - free on scribd. *'The Attention Revolution' by Alan Wallace - EXTREMELY IMPORTANT INFORMATION! *'A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life' - PDF available online, very inspiring and clear. *'The Sutra of Hui-neng' by Thomas Clearly - get a working understanding of Buddhist ideas first. Once you understand stuff like trikaya, sunyata, anatta, etc this book is excellent. *http://swamij.com/index-yoga-meditation-yoga-sutras.htm See how Patanjali's samyama and the last 3 limbs are actually the opposite of what yogani teaches.

That letter reads like good skilful means to me, telling people to be grounded about cultivation. Assuming it was possible for Master Nan to greatly prolong his life (even eternally), why would he have? I don't think it would really be good for the world to have a master out there, reaching 90, 110, 130, 150 years old with the body of a young man. Imagine how obsessed with longevity everyone would get - yes, everyone would get into cultivation teachings and practice. But, with a materialistic motivation and a very strong clinging to the physical body. It would only make things worse! People would end up more like asuras than Buddhas.

I agree, for the most part. However! I don't think there are any Christians on here, so why bother arguing about their god with people who don't believe in him anyway... go to a church and say this if it matters so much to you. Also, your beliefs about the evils of beliefs seem like a bit of a mind trap. Believing that beliefs cannot access the Present is still a belief in itself, which sets up an AVERSION to concepts. Do you see the problem here? False thoughts don't need to be emptied - they ARE empty. So lighten up your clinging to non-belief, and just cultivate without clinging to belief or non-belief until gnosis dawns, without you having to try to force it by playing with the 6th consciousness. You are trying to create gnosis in your mind by suppressing concepts... what you've created is just another matrix in the bounds of the conceptual mind! A rock has no beliefs, so is it enlightened? Activate the mind without dwelling anywhere.

Metta bhavana.

http://thetaobums.com/topic/28430-a-handy-app-for-jing-retainers/ What pitisukha is saying - very important. Also, try horse stance.

You don't need to do anything with your chi. The old masters focused almost exclusively on their minds and behaviour, and wrote down the stuff they noticed happening to their chi. Later generations read about things like MCO, inverted cause and effect, and now everybody thinks enlightenment is all about chi - a form phenomenon, so hardly directly related to Tao - and puts so much emphasis on chi practices, when chi practices should just be an auxiliary to speed up the natural transformation that results from shamatha, virtue and wisdom. Get 'The Attention Revolution' by Alan Wallace if you really want to go far! With this book you'll know how and why to practice the shamatha aspect of cultivation. Virtue speaks for itself, and as you advance in shamatha you'll naturally be drawn to wisdom so don't worry too much about that now.

My understanding is that mantras are just chanted in Buddhism, apart from in some tantric techniques, because mantras aren't that effective for shamatha or vipassana. So mantra meditation wouldn't be in the sutras. You can only focus the mind in shamatha so sharply on a deliberately generated thought which lasts briefly, ends, and has to be recreated. I don't see how a mantra could be used as vipassana to probe into the nature of experience in the way koan contemplation, self-inquiry or Mahasi Sayadaw's method does. I think mantra meditation is done as tantric practice intended to work on chi and hone particular qualities, but not as an especially major practice. In the generation stage, the emphasis is on deity yoga. In the completion stage, after chi-related practices, mahamudra and mindfulness to realise emptiness are needed to actually break through to realisation. My knowledge of tantra is limited though, so I may be wrong. It can also be just a mistaken modern concoction, as in TM or AYP which oversimplifies cultivation as just quieting coarse thought.

I'm mainly Buddhist, but I include some ideas from Taoism and elsewhere, and I do some Taoist and Hindu (yogic) practices. Jesus, Confucius, Mohammed, etc, had some great things to say - e.g. "blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled" has a lot of meaning that can be practically applied to cultivation, if you think about it. But I'm not someone who says that 'all paths lead up the mountain', because that just doesn't make sense. Any path based on great virtue, proper shamatha and prajna wisdom leads to the summit. Paths lacking in one or more of these areas can lead partway up, nowhere or backwards.

Ignorance -> negative behaviour -> negative impressions in substrate consciousness -> born in a realm around people who reinforce the negative behaviour and with a physiology that supports it -> more ignorance and negative behaviour unless you try to improve yourself. This is a 'chicken or egg' situation.

String theory is the theory that subatomic particles are actually tiny one-dimensional strings, and also there's stuff about extra dimensions (dimension as in depth, length, width, etc) existing on scales that tiny.

I doubt there's much Buddhist writing about this. Even the Wikipedia article on Buddhist cosmology and articles on Buddhist sites just refer to the planes making up this universe. I wouldn't have realised this was an idea in Buddhism if I hadn't read Master Nan's interpretation of that bit of the Lotus Sutra (in Working Towards Enlightenment), which made me realise that 'world-system' is a synonym for universe, as the planes making up the universe are called worlds. I think the clearest reference to there being other universes is in the Lotus Sutra, where the Buddha asks other Buddhas to come from their world-systems to saha. Maybe Pure Land stuff goes into it more.

I think there probably are other universes. It would: *Explain 'dark flow' - basically something is causing a massive set of galaxies to move in the same direction and our best explanation is probably inter-universal forces. *Provide a good explanation of how the universe came to be that fits logic and science better than the Big Bang alone - reality having no beginning, each universe beginning in a Big Bang. *Match with the recent finding that background radiation isn't evenly distributed - inter-universal forces again. Interestingly, Buddhism states that there are multiple universes, or 'world-systems'. Our one is called 'saha', meaning 'endurance'; and in the Lotus Sutra, a Buddha from another universe and some of his followers visit Shakyamuni Buddha and his followers, here in saha. One of them wanted to go back instantly, because his universe was much nicer. If there are an infinite number of universes, that still may not mean that there are unlimited possibilities. Maybe a universe can only exist if the laws of physics are within certain parameters. Perhaps the Harry Potter universe wouldn't be stable enough to exist. There may be an infinite number of universes with laws of physics identical to our own. But we just don't know. There could be universes where dancing Gangnam Style opens wormholes which everyone teleports by, and instead of atoms there are really tiny pieces of cheesecake shaped like my face.

"Except for the part where a person "stops existing as an individual". I have experienced such a state of being, where my perception was no longer of an individual." But that was a temporary experience. Experiences like this are dependent on causes, like everything else. I can't think of any way such a cessation of individuality could be eternally sustained - consciousness simply can't really function independent of the other skhandas forever, and the other skhandas are individual. Therefore maybe you could lose individuality for even a billion eons lol, but that's no time at all really. "The point is, one day "I" am going to forget any of this has happened and it's going to happen again. That "I" am doomed to repeat these struggles again ad infinitum, that I will have to relearn every lesson ever taught. It happened at least once, I was born and forgot what I needed to know or not know..." You forget personal memories and experience, but traits are carried over in the substrate consciousness. Enlightenment is the way out of this mess. Once you get to a certain stage you will have control over your own rebirth, and remember all past lives. Though when you do get there, you'll hopefully be more concerned with continuing to full-on Buddhahood to benefit all beings than living in a heavenly realm on holiday for eons and eons.

I don't know about combining with vipasanna, but I combine with horse stance and it's pretty awesome.