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Greetings. I'm curious to hear old-timer daobums take on Bill Bodri and his new view on things. If you're familiar with the late master Nan Huai Chin, then you've probably heard of Bodri, who was one of his students. In his earlier works, Bodri focused on the "consciousness-only" approach, emphasizing emptiness meditation and anapana as the keys to success. But in his latest books, Bodri claims that much of what he previously espoused was actually wrong, and that the true key to enlightenment is access to the illusory body, or deva body. He believes that achieving this attainment makes you enlightened and known as a Buddhist Srotapanna Arhat, Hindu jnani, Taoist Immortal, Homo Deus, or 'twice born'. According to Bodri, this attainment is the first rung of the true spiritual ladder that is kept hidden from most people, as they would be dejected about their spiritual efforts and stop cultivating altogether. Bodri also claims that nearly 100% of spiritual practitioners, even monks and nuns, don't know how to cultivate correctly. He argues that one of the main purposes of spiritual practice is to purify and strengthen your subtle body composed of Qi, so that you can achieve the independent deva body attainment while still alive, or lay the foundation for the Sakadagamin stage and then Causal body Anagamin achievement after death. So, what do you all think about Bodri's new perspective? Do you agree or disagree with his ideas? Here are some excerpts from his new book that may be interesting for this discussion: This kind of approach seems very different than the more streamlined Daoist lineages such as those taught by Longmenpai and other famous daoist schools where there's a clear line of development -- and, in a way, is much more "new age" in that Bodri basically says to "steal"/"borrow" techniques from all different kinds of lineages and combine them all in the hope of having the most success, and to do this consistently along with everything else. In any case, I would be curious to hear people's thoughts...

Itˋs been a while since I read Bill Bodriˋs "Little Book of Hercules", and I remember I quite enjoyed it, even if at times his writing feels quite redundant and at other times not quite clear enough. I have been compelled by my intuition to revisit the Herculean myth recently, and I thought I might give this forum a try for that. I find the notion, as presented in Bodriˋs book, quite appealing, that the twelve labors of Hercules are in fact stages of cultivation. Does anyone of you readers and contributors here have any information that would substantiate this interpretation of the Hercules myth? Better yet: Does anyone have practical experience with a cultivation along the lines of the labors of Hercules? I am asking, as I have been repeatedly compelled to turn to / return to this topic, and I would greatly appreciate practical input from a cultivator in that tradition and / or some words of clarification or encouragement from someone who has worked along this path. If anyone feels compelled, please do drop me a personal message or respond to this thread. Thank you.

Hey guys, I have recently picked up "The Little Book of Meditation" by William Bodri. I found out about this book from the energy cultivators handbook thread. And honestly, a lot of the ideas resonate with me at this stage. Anyone read his material? It's repetitive so I have to skim slme of it, but I'm liking what I'm reading. He goes over different aspects of life like gaining merit/karma, dieting, and sexuallity. If you have any input on his thoughts please elaborate. He starts off with talking about meditation and all of its benefits. He says that you can open up chi channels with meditation and so fourth. Then he dives into a subject I am spending a lot of time trying to implement into my life and that is the subject of chanting. He says it's good to chant all day when you aren't busy (which is literally all day for me being a lifeguard this summer). He gives numerous chants from different religions. The are also numerous websites discussing chanting and the different benefits they can bring depending on the chant. So I took to chanting and for the last few days I chant out loud when I'm alone and in my head when in the presence of others. It kind of makes sense because in the very least, it forces me to breath deeply in and out. I've been chanting on the out-breath and taking deep in-breaths afterwards, all through my abdomen. I've also been chanting in my daily meditation. The chant I have been using is "Om Mani Padme Hum" prounounced "Aum Ma nee Pie me Hoom". I've been liking the way it sounds and feels so far, but I've only chanted it maybe a few thousand times and compared with most monks that chant, that is supposedly next to nothing. Anyone have experience with chanting? What chants do you use? Anyone have opinions or input on this practice? Best Regards, Chi Boy