Practice full time

[daojones]

I was wondering if anyone knew of/could recommend a place, organization, institution that facilitates full time practice. I only recently started practising HT, but am not new to the spiritual path. I want to concentrate full time on developing myself.

[Protector]

OOH! A SELF-TORTURE THREAD! I like these

[voidisyinyang]

I was wondering if anyone knew of/could recommend a place, organization, institution that facilitates full time practice. I only recently started practising HT, but am not new to the spiritual path. I want to concentrate full time on developing myself.

 

http://qigongmaster.com -- it will cost you a few grand just to do the beginning training there. If you're good maybe you can do the seven week cave full lotus meditation taking no food, no water and no sleep.

[skydog]

I am also very interested in this question in january I am going to India. I want to learn how to organic farm, qi gong, yoga, meditation. Basically learn how to drastically change my mind and consciousness and learn how to teach it other people.

 

After India, I can go to thailand, cambodia, china etc.

 

I was going to work another 7 months doing door to door charity fundraising but didnt really want to and figured I could probably do what I want with not massive amounts of money.

 

Where can I learn without massive amounts of money?

and to answer OP's question somewhat you can go to monasterys, if your living in countries it will be easier to find a teacher or guru.

 

another temporary option would be to volunteer in another country, you only have to offer a few hours of "work" which is a lot more fulfilling than a capitalist type slave labour, and you get free/very cheap accomodation, sometimes free food but more importantly free time. When Ive been volunteering I have enormous amounts of free time and I use that to do different types of meditation. You can do workaways, helpx or just volunteer with children.

Edited December 27, 2011 by sinansencer

[Informer]

When I think of places to go to practice it is generally a relative location within, rather than some geological location on earth. I have heard of certain locations that have been claim to exude electromagnetic properties such as the Carnac Stones.

I have thought it would be cool just to go check out the charge first hand.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

http://qigongmaster.com -- it will cost you a few grand just to do the beginning training there. If you're good maybe you can do the seven week cave full lotus meditation taking no food, no water and no sleep.

 

Human hibernation. I guess bears probably know how to recirculate energy too..

[z00se]

http://qigongmaster.com -- it will cost you a few grand just to do the beginning training there. If you're good maybe you can do the seven week cave full lotus meditation taking no food, no water and no sleep.

 

 

hahaha - a few grand to put you in a cave and give you no food, no water and no sleep. I can provide this sort of environment for you no probs just drop me a message

[z00se]

I am also very interested in this question in january I am going to India. I want to learn how to organic farm, qi gong, yoga, meditation. Basically learn how to drastically change my mind and consciousness and learn how to teach it other people.

 

After India, I can go to thailand, cambodia, china etc.

 

I was going to work another 7 months doing door to door charity fundraising but didnt really want to and figured I could probably do what I want with not massive amounts of money.

 

Where can I learn without massive amounts of money?

and to answer OP's question somewhat you can go to monasterys, if your living in countries it will be easier to find a teacher or guru.

 

another temporary option would be to volunteer in another country, you only have to offer a few hours of "work" which is a lot more fulfilling than a capitalist type slave labour, and you get free/very cheap accomodation, sometimes free food but more importantly free time. When Ive been volunteering I have enormous amounts of free time and I use that to do different types of meditation. You can do workaways, helpx or just volunteer with children.

 

I went to china and taught english. My first year i only did 15 hours a week and got paid 5x their normal salary and got heaps of time to meditate. Got paid a bit too much and too many party opportunities to properly set down and meditate properly. Then i did another year and a half doing about 35 hours a week and spent 4+ hrs a day meditating and it really helped me in my understanding and skills etc. But before i even went to china i did 2 x 10 days out in the forest in the middle of nowhere where there was nobody around i just found a couple of places willy nilly and went camping no campsite etc. Had to dig a hole to shit and the whole kit n caboodle. Those were the most hardcore days meditating nearly all day but at the end of each 10 days it is really amazing and well worth the effort. I mean i had to fully scream out at the top of my lungs in fustration and desperation sometimes but they were certainly memorable times. Been 3-4 years since i been out bush again but got a missus and a kid now so it's a bit hard but this year comming up i wanna go out for 7 days.

 

If you want to learn to meditate then you can do vipassana meditation, 10 days, it's free with free shared cabin, free food etc. You just give them a donation at the end if you want. They're in just about every country so just look em up on the net. But you can't do energy work there they forbid it. You dont' need much money to go bush though just canned soups, some veges, fruit etc. Just lock your stash up at night or animals come and steal it and it's not fun waking up to animals taking off with your food!

[daojones]

qigongmaster.com looks pretty cool! Didn't see the cave starvation option though...that's well enough. I think I have already put my body through enough of that type of thing. Fulllotus - judging by your name, is this an indication that you have been through said torture?

 

Teaching English is a great idea. z00se - I totally agree with you on the slave labour thing. The problem living in the west is that you need to work full time just to have the material goods necessary to survive.

 

I didn't think of learning/practising while living on my own abroad, it's a good idea. I think this is perhaps a better option than checking into a monastery. Does anyone have experience with particular locals, locations, or teachers?

[voidisyinyang]

qigongmaster.com looks pretty cool! Didn't see the cave starvation option though...that's well enough. I think I have already put my body through enough of that type of thing. Fulllotus - judging by your name, is this an indication that you have been through said torture?

 

Teaching English is a great idea. z00se - I totally agree with you on the slave labour thing. The problem living in the west is that you need to work full time just to have the material goods necessary to survive.

 

I didn't think of learning/practising while living on my own abroad, it's a good idea. I think this is perhaps a better option than checking into a monastery. Does anyone have experience with particular locals, locations, or teachers?

 

Actually when I did my intensive training I did it for my masters degree credit! So I was working only one or two days a week with minimal interaction with people and then I could focus on studying meditation texts. I was able to afford a special diet from a nearby cooperative and vegetarian organic restaurant. I didn't need to exercise much so I was able to store up my energy. I was able to take regular classes from a real qigong master who does the shakti shen laser transmission -- Chunyi Lin. He did the seven week cave meditation of no food, no water and no sleep -- which is mentioned in the article on http://qigongmaster.com Chunyi Lin gives the name Master Zhang and also the same mountain. So I'm assuming he did his seven week cave meditation there. chunyi Lin said that the master would check up on them in their cave -- the master would use his third eye to check on them to make sure they weren't sleeping!!

 

Anyway it was later hinted to me strongly to get a different job and to not post online, etc. in order to continue my intensive qigong training. I also looked everywhere I could online for a monastery or other master in another country where I could do full time meditation. To be honest most monasteries are not geared toward serious meditation but rather geared towards rituals. A lot of buddhist monasteries now are "controlled" by the citizens who are not meditation experts so the focus is on their donation money going to the monks to do service work, job training, charity, and reciting religious texts, etc.

 

It's very difficult to find a real energy master these days. Then they usually only train one or two people to also be energy masters. So then, of course, you have to qualify to be a real student. haha.

 

The other thing is that if your energy does get very strong then it has to be controlled because the spiritual and the mundane do not mix well -- so people will freak out about your energy since they don't understand, etc. So actually it's the real master who can go back into society and be able to skillfully not freak people out, etc. haha.

 

Master Wang, Liping is another great example. I think Shaolin Monastery does sometimes take Westerners although I'm not sure. I now there's been some people posting here who live in China and have trained with Taoist monks, etc. But again to find a real energy master is rare, even in China. Chunyi Lin says he trained with Master Yao at Shaolin and Master Yao also lite paper on fire -- with his eyes -- and healed Chunyi Lin's wife of cancer and then demonstrated changing colors on the inside of bananas, etc. haha. But I have never seen any mention of Master Yao other than from Chunyi lin. So I think some of the real energy masters stay out of the public's eye.

 

Still if you get your energy strong enough then you can sit in full lotus for four hours non-stop at night and then you'll need less sleep. That's how Wang, Liping and also Chunyi Lin do their training while in society.

 

I did the week long bigu fast - just taking a half glass of water - that's how I ended my intensive training and then I took the Level 3 retreat from Chunyi Lin at the end of my bigu fast. I had really strong electromagnetic fields and say shen ghosts and then had an Emptiness or nirvikalpa spacetime vortex experience.

I also healed my mom of a serious leg condition and then I accidentally pulled this old lady's spirit out of the top of her head without touching her. She bawled non-stop for at least 15 minutes. Still she understand that I had good intentions -- I just made a mistake since I pulled the energy blockage out of the top center of her head. haha.

 

I looked into Nepal and it seems there's restrictions there -- it's mainly just "retreats" that are for beginner meditation sessions. The monasteries are not open to Westerners it seems unless you know the language, etc. Similarly you can't live in India -- unless you travel there and then return later and apply for a longer visa, etc. Then you have to renew visas every year. I looked into moving to Burma as a monk -- but they use slave labor for real and all the monks who protest are in jail. So then the monasteries have to cooperate with the military regime. Then the monastery I was going through did not practice real strong meditation and the monk I was living with was a perv! So that's another issue - I've read about Westerners going to Thailand and being chased by perv monks! Also in Thailand the employed join the monasteries and so there are gangs in the monasteries of fake monks -- harrassing the real monks.

[voidisyinyang]

http://www.kwanumzen.org/retreats-and-programs/type-of-retreats/

 

Three month meditation retreats offered here.... so it's full time for a "gong." Not sure if you have to be a monk beforehand and what that entails, etc.

 

But I got that from a Westerner who became a monk in Korea through that monastery so at least it's possible.

[Phosphor]

I am a student of the school of the Divine Science, and so can vouch for its authenticity. I have included a link at the bottom of this message. As fulllotis said, many schools today have become to caught up in the movement and ritual of it and have lost the meaning and importance of the spiritual progress. Magic as taught by the Grecian and Egyptian mystery schools focused on the students, and made sure they progressed so as to become like the Hierophant. This is a different mindset compared to most spiritual schools today where the students look at the Guru or master with googly eyes, not taking in anything that he or she is saying.

 

The other thing is that if your energy does get very strong then it has to be controlled because the spiritual and the mundane do not mix well -- so people will freak out about your energy since they don't understand, etc. So actually it's the real master who can go back into society and be able to skillfully not freak people out, etc. haha.

 

This is true for many practitioners today, but only because they are purely mystics whom have not learned to live in the world and how to handle the energy. The basic problem is that they have achieved a state of consciousness that cannot be translated down into the lower bodies. This problem is alleviated to a great degree once the kundalini (epinoia) rises past the energy center at the navel. This is a high achievement and marks the achievement of a true detachment in the world. I say true here in italics, because neophytes will often mimic the masters in the beginning of their training trying to act like they love nothing in this world and desire to escape from it all. This is not true dispassion. A master can live anywhere, and have no problem with it. It is all the same. Because he is a detached inside, and so does not need to escape outside. Most students today will benefit more if they practice at least a few hours of sitting meditation, and then practice proper living throughout the day. This will lead to fast progress. It is easy to think you are immaculate if you are out of modern society, but will quickly find out your true nature once you return to it. This is why Yogananda told his students that progress is not possible if you take one step forward in meditation, but one step backward during the day. The solution is not to meditate all day. It is better to meditate with a calm and energetic mind. If a neophyte meditated all day, he would just go into a stupor and take many more steps backwards. I will always remember the advice of my master: do not be a man of the world who practices magic, be a magician who lives in the world. This makes all the difference. Be a magician or mystic or yogi or buddhist or whatever firstly, and everything else is secondary. Still, this means treating every situation you come by with respect and mindfulness, not cold hearted "detachment".

 

Therefore, do not try to escape the world. Instead use it as a means of progress and education. What better tool is there. We are constantly confronted with challenges every day of our life. Challenges which will allow us to build virtue and overcome vice. Plato said that vice is simply imbalance, and that virtue is that which is left once all vices have gone. True spiritual practice is bringing about balance in not only the consciousness, but in the emotional and mental bodies as well. The science of magic leads to quick advancement because it not now facilitates the turning of the mind upwards towards the Good, but also teaches the student of the science how to bring divine energies downwards into the lower bodies. In the discussion between Porphyry and Iamblichus on whether the purely mystical approach is better or the Theurgic (magical) approach is better, Iamblichus asked the question: How can you fight the mind with mind? This is not to discredit those who do no energy work- it all leads to God, and there are different paths because there are very different people. However, this is why the Magician achieves the state of Gnosis usually simultaneously with the meditative state of Hypostasis. In Yogic terminology this is the state of Sahaja samadhi and savikalpa samadhi respectively. The first is the waking state of union with Divine, and the second is the meditative state. In other words, most mystics achieve the state of union when sitting in meditation but return to a lower state of consciousness when in the world. It is seen as a high state to achieve the waking state and always be in Union throughout daily activity. The magician, or Theurgist achieves it early on by virtue of the deep cleansing which is generated from many Invocations and energy accumulations, so that the energies of the higher bodies flow seamlessly through to the mind and emotional body thus making him or her not only divine in consciousness, but in mind and body as well.

 

The school I am a student of does not recommend full time practice, nor can accommodate you to do so, but does facilitate quick progress and guidance along the way.

 

 

http://thedivinescience.org/

[voidisyinyang]

Be a Japanese monk -- and be a bartender: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/29/143804448/the-real-buddha-bar-tended-by-tokyo-monks

[Protector]

Be a Japanese monk -- and be a bartender: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/29/143804448/the-real-buddha-bar-tended-by-tokyo-monks

 

Well, that is uhm...