idiot_stimpy Posted October 14, 2012 This is an interesting question in my mind, also how many practice to gain immortality? What is there to gain?? What can I have?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Protector Posted October 14, 2012 You can have a cookie... IF YOU EARN IT!!!!!!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GrandmasterP Posted October 14, 2012 42 people practice Taoism to gain supernatural powers. Mind you that's just a rough estimate 'til the 'real' figures come in. ;-) 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
healingtouch Posted October 15, 2012 If it's supernatural, how can one achieve it by following the Way (of Nature)? And if it's not supernatural, then it must mean it's only natural ... 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
idiot_stimpy Posted October 15, 2012 I want it all now.... Cookies, choc chips and all. On a more serious note. When an interesting things start manifesting, is there going to be much left of you anyway? But then again, we seem to have psychics in the world with skills.... Are these skills a continuation of development in past lives I wonder. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
idiot_stimpy Posted October 15, 2012 If it's supernatural, how can one achieve it by following the Way (of Nature)? And if it's not supernatural, then it must mean it's only natural ... I'm wondering if there are those that go against nature and obtain these things. Is a mystical state of consciousness a normal state of consciousness? But then what is normal? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eye_of_the_storm Posted October 15, 2012 Everyone is practicing to gain something - even if that something is nothing. haha People like to play the fool 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lucky7Strikes Posted October 15, 2012 (edited) If not from deep existential suffering, spirituality can be initially studied because of personal greed. Some people are drawn to spiritual practice because it adds to their identity, or it promises fantastical states like immortality, powers, altered states, etc. You are basically seeking to either enhance yourself or to make up for a deficiency, and at worst to feel superior to others you feel you should be superior to but are not. It's all an ugly sentiment and quite a pathetic attempt of the ego to protect itself from its own insignificance. It's understandable because people place all their value and the little love they have in their identities...attached to thoughts, memories, the body, and innumerable silly things as "mine." But I believe just beginning to study spirituality, of something beyond physical limitations, is worth whatever negative intentions one might have had in the beginning. Because when you start to really practice and study ancient teachings and energy work, they will all tell you that the only problem here is you, your personality, and all your stupid ideas about yourself. There's going to be a struggle for someone whose initial intentions were centered around achievements of the ego, because progress with energy work will be difficult when you are holding onto a false entity within the mind. If the practice is genuine, it will melt you down and loosen your sense of selfhood, at which point attaining supernatural abilities or immortality begin to matter less and less. They might still be there as unconscious motivations, but practice will reveal clearly in depths of mediation that your inner being is becoming something beyond your current identity. It will begin to feel like you are dissolving into existence, and moreover what draws you deeper won't bliss or powers (even the most intense orgasmic bliss states won't matter much), but an inherent tendency of life energies within you trying to evolve and break beyond the physical. It becomes a natural and effortless purpose of life. Edited October 15, 2012 by Lucky7Strikes 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cheshire Cat Posted October 15, 2012 Buddhists practice to stop suffering (dukkha). Taoists practice for a long happy life and for spiritual immortality. But there is point when one becomes a wayfarer. From that point on. he practices for the same reasons that keep universe in motion. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shanlung Posted October 15, 2012 I think a lot yearned for that. As for how many gained supernatural powers? I think a lot less than people who truly know how to fa jing And for some strange reasons, those with those kind of powers is more likely to walk on rain swept crooked lanes of small town in Taiwan frightening innocent idiots out of their wits and not on Internet twittering about their powers. Taoistic Idiot 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apech Posted October 15, 2012 This is an interesting question in my mind, also how many practice to gain immortality? What is there to gain?? What can I have?? I used my powers to make you start this topic. Aha ... see ... aha ... !!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
idiot_stimpy Posted October 15, 2012 If that is the case, I am not in control and never will be 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apech Posted October 15, 2012 If that is the case, I am not in control and never will be Ah lucky you! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Birch Posted October 15, 2012 Me for one. But from the (nicely put LuckyS) deep existential suffering startpoint. Actually, as it turns out, it's more to do with healing from some not-inconsequential amount of abuse by family and resulting flawed perceptions, ideas about self and world. No super powers here. Although I could go on about really strange subjective states. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thelerner Posted October 15, 2012 Imo 'powers' are best left to comic books. Until you seem people in robes flying around and having 200th birthdays its may be best to leave the idea of super powers by the way side. Instead spend a few years building a solid discipline, consistent every day. Build up concentration and a clear mind, find a system you connect with, where you hopefully have access to a live experienced teacher roll up your sleeves and do it. After you have a solid platform by all means look for the great teachers and masters, there are some out there, but don't expect them to waste time on a starry eyed nube. The masters got that way through decades of practice and probably have little patience for those who haven't put in the time and are looking for short cut secret formulas. Paths like Mo Pai seem to have pre requisites of 4 hours plus practice a day at the beginning, then get harder. But I believe deep wisdom, certain siddhis and enlightenment are possible in this life time. But paradoxically you move in there direction but don't grasp for them, cause when you do they move away. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marblehead Posted October 15, 2012 Have I mentioned that I do not believe in supernatural anything? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thunder_Gooch Posted October 15, 2012 (edited) This is an interesting question in my mind, also how many practice to gain immortality? What is there to gain?? What can I have?? The answer is very very very few people, probably less than one hundred people on this planet are seriously training in any legitimate school that will lead to immortality or "supernatural" powers. In all honesty there is nothing supernatural anywhere in this universe, only what we don't understand. I am sure I'll get flamed for this comment, but it's the truth. Oh sure we've got lots of newage $@%^tards practicing reiki and wicca dancing with crystal wands round campfires naked under the moonlight while reciting an incantation in latin. Those people will die at the same level of progress they started with though. Sure we have tens of thousands of people attending vipassana meditation retreats, they too will die at the same level of progress they started at. Really for almost all spiritual seekers, their practice is a complete waste of time and effort and serves only as a form of entertainment. It doesn't actually lead to any meaningful accomplishment. The best outcome, most seekers can hope for is a state of being totally pacified, and at peace with death, loss, pain, and suffering. That is the best possible outcome from any traditional mainstream spiritual practice that anyone can realistically hope for. Just another crutch or opiate to get by. I often think about how I was much happier as a hardcore atheist, than I am right now. I had closure as an Atheist. I was going to try to be a good person, and just enjoy life, because when I died that was the end and I would never exist again. I was always interested in meditation though, I thought maybe that greater realizations and modes of consciousness were possible through meditation. Somewhere around 2002 I read a study about Buddhist monks and how their brainwaves shot out of sight on EEG during deep meditation, whereas you'd expect their eeg to resemble a that of a sleeping person. In 2005 the idea occurred to me to use a technology called brainwave entrainment to entrain my own brainwaves at that specific frequency seen in the monks, and after weeks of meditation I had an experience that effected people I knew in real life even separated by distances of hundreds of miles. It was after this experience that I realized it was either a mass hallucination or it had actually occurred as I perceived it to. What I realized during that experience was nothing short of a glimpse of the ultimate nature of reality. I realized that that my "observing" mind/self wasn't going to end at death, and that the thing observing would continue as it always had, just observing a new life with a new set of memories and ego. I realized that I want this madness to stop, either via eternal non existence, or eternal existence. So that's my interest in this whole "supernatural" bit. I don't want to fly around like superman, I don't want dragon ball Z powers. What I do want is to fuse my yang spirit (active thinking conscious mind) with my yin spirit (passive observing subconscious mind). Honestly the odds that I can accomplish this are not very good, but still I have to try. I can't just give up, I have to fight even in the face of almost certain defeat. Edited October 15, 2012 by More_Pie_Guy 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GrandmasterP Posted October 15, 2012 I want it all now.... Cookies, choc chips and all. On a more serious note. When an interesting things start manifesting, is there going to be much left of you anyway? But then again, we seem to have psychics in the world with skills.... Are these skills a continuation of development in past lives I wonder. I want it all now.... Cookies, choc chips and all. On a more serious note. When an interesting things start manifesting, is there going to be much left of you anyway? But then again, we seem to have psychics in the world with skills.... Are these skills a continuation of development in past lives I wonder. Everybody is psychic. But you already knew that Stimps. Maybe saw it coming. I a crystal ball perhaps? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GrandmasterP Posted October 15, 2012 (edited) [ Edited October 15, 2012 by GrandmasterP Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marblehead Posted October 15, 2012 I often think about how I was much happier as a hardcore atheist, than I am right now. Well, come on back and maybe if there are enough of us we can get Sean to create an Atheist's sub-forum. Hehehe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GrandmasterP Posted October 15, 2012 Crikey, that's a bit gloomy More Pie Guy, hope you're not right. My two cents on it... Everybody is an eternal spirit. We keep coming round and round the wheel til we get it about right. Once we do we can either get off the wheel and enjoy life in the Pure Land (or Heaven or Niorvana or Valhalla or wherever it is really good church mice get to go... the land of cheese). Wherever, soewhere really really good. OR We can opt to stick around and help other people struggling on this side as a Boddhisatva or Spirit Guide or Angel (put your own job titkle in there). Either way everybody (even Hitler) gets the chance to improve and move onwards and upwards over time. may take a long time, but who is in a hurry? HTH 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GrandmasterP Posted October 15, 2012 (edited) . Edited October 15, 2012 by GrandmasterP Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thunder_Gooch Posted October 15, 2012 (edited) Well, come on back and maybe if there are enough of us we can get Sean to create an Atheist's sub-forum. Hehehe. It would be easier to get Richard Dawkins to become a devout Baptist, than it would be for me to write off what I've seen and experienced first hand. I know what I am, and I know what God is. Not in some faith based belief sort of way, but as in a belief based on experience, observation and evidence sort of way. I am also fairly sure I know exactly what's going to happen after death based on the experience I had in 2005. Of course if any theist could grasp what I was talking about they would immediately become violently sick and have a really bad acid trip level experience. Of the few Christians I've spoken with, the only one that what I said clicked with went on to have an existential melt down. Edited October 15, 2012 by More_Pie_Guy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cheshire Cat Posted October 15, 2012 Now, what I have is a question: We experience it because it is real, or it is real because we experience it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thunder_Gooch Posted October 15, 2012 Now, what I have is a question: We experience it because it is real, or it is real because we experience it? Your question assumes we exist independent of experience. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
