Opening of the third eye and other byproducts along the way

[Spotless]

Very helpful thread, always something learned and many things in the back pocket.

 

I'm wondering what you think of Shamanic practices Spotless and how this fits into the Rabbit and Turtle ways?

 

For cultivation I like to think Stillness-Movement is a turtle path, awareness on LDT and move into stillness for spotatenous movement.

 

But I also use Shamanic work as a means for doing the "inner work" of going through my unconscious, retrieving parts of my soul, power animals that help understand patterns in my life.

 

But from your posts it seems like this is mostly trance work, which is a shortcut stuff to siddhis? Yet I also understand the value of my individual path and journeying being one of those "outside" things like a partner that make it unique.

 

Was just curious as to how it fits in with non-doing

You have read into my words well and this is a great question.

 

In many ways I also say here and there that nothing is off limits in its ability to help one on their path and that each path is an individual's path of discovering their own answers.

 

I have reserved regard for the Shamanic paths on the one hand because they are in vogue at this time and on the other hand because they are often "the Rabbits way" for many westerners. Yet I read every book by Castenda and was quite the outdoorsman when I was younger. I think some plant/drug use can be incredibly effective - and that some prescription of it to our extreme conservatives should be required:)

 

My bigger message is asking that people consider "simple practice" and "basics" as the advanced practices that they are. The very vivified high and refined practices are only possible with the basics - constant basics - a very very strong foundation in them.

It is a bit like a car reaching 100 miles an hour - the car and its four wheels is the platform - the stereo and leather interior have nothing to do with getting to 100mph and the difference between a car with 200hp and 250hp is no big deal. And in the event that you want to go say 200+ miles an hour - you first look at the basics such as needing high speed tires and tight springs and a low suspension - again - all the basics yet it's a racing level.

 

Too many think the big stuff is actually in the little stuff - an ayahuasca trip is small stuff - the big stuff is in the preparation for the ayahuasca trip. We think spinal breathing is the big stuff - yet we may well encounter devistating problems if done without the basics prior (the big stuff).

 

The Rabbits way is to be taken in several ways - in one case it is the way of one enticed to what is perceived as the "most proficient means" with a certain "insider" knowledge of the esoteric sort. Often this is simply a big detour - in nearly every case.

 

Unfortunately - I've just been informed I have to get up and go!

Edited October 5, 2015 by Spotless

[Fate]

I am unable to edit on my phone and wanted to clarify that the journeying technique I use is sonic driving with drumming and Michael Harner's books. I've had powerful enough experiences with just marijuana and hash oil, and all this has come naturally without any need to seek out plant use.

 

Thank you for the timely response. Foundation a good emphasis and the car metaphor is beautiful (having experienced trying to go 200 mph without any preparation)

[Empyrean]

I don't know that I would recommend distilled water - this will leach out elements that you probable do not wish to leach out. You practice seems fine for now - do you follow any teaching?

 

I actually thought the opposite about distilled water. Will keep this in mind.

 

I do not follow any specific teaching, but have tried to gather information from many different ones.

 

This weekend I realized that the faint light I can see with my eyes closed is really the tunnel/vortex. If I relax I am sucked into it. Sometimes the walls change color and texture.

 

This weekend I took MDMA with some friends. We sat by a fire between a cutover area and the forest for a few hours. 

During this time the vortex texture became very clear, revealing various patterns I've seen from different cultures. Sometimes it was a hallway and not a tunnel. 

 

I could also see my friend's auras! One of them had a really huge (compared to the others), even & multilayered one. I don't think he does any kind of spiritual work. I have very much respect for him and can sometimes become a little nervous in his presence, even though he probably is the kindest and calmest person I know.  

At one point he looked at me and said: "Wow dude, there is something in the way the light (from the fire) hits your face! It's only you... Between the eyebrows... It looks really... Ehh (searching for words)... awesome!". I know this might have been a coincidence but I still got happy when I heard it. 

 

All and all it was really interesting experience that motivates me to continue with my practice.

 

When I realized that the light was the vortex/tunnel, I felt very much like the rabbit I am / have been. Recently I have tried to grasp after results... "Is the light brighter today? When will it open?". I feel a bit foolish but it is a lesson learned right?

 

All the best,

E

Edited October 9, 2015 by Empyrean

[taoguy]

Spotless told me to ask the question here:

 

I was wondering what kind of meditation you advocate?

For a few years I've been doing breath meditation (buddhism) and I've tried kumbhaka breathing as well as now the microcosmic orbit. Which do you think is good to stick with and be consistent with??

[Spotless]

Spotless told me to ask the question here:

""Quote

I was wondering what kind of meditation you advocate?

 

For a few years I've been doing breath meditation (buddhism) and I've tried kumbhaka breathing as well as now the microcosmic orbit. Which do you think is good to stick with and be consistent with??""

End Quote.

 

 

This is a very broad question - I hope this is helpful:

 

Generally a meditation practice that is "non-doing", in which you reside out of trance and within your physical space.

My initial practice was Raja Yoga.

 

Basically learning to be with your body and cultivate a neutral space of viewing thoughts and things in and outside of you.

No interpretation - assessment or judgement.

Allowing the labeling mind and analysing functions to eventually cease.

 

I prefer the center of the head, it has always been my base in meditation.

 

Seeing thoughts as not "your thought" - gaining distance from identification with them - eventually a sort of floating murmur / noise or colors.

 

Being in the present - in the process so to speak - not in the "willing" of the process - not in the manipulation of the process.

Being in the body - breathing into the abdomen.

 

I have never practiced breathing into the base of the spine - I read too many cautions against it and I am glad I did - but that was information that came to me and it may not be the information that comes to you.

 

In all of this "advice" I am speaking from my experience and my body and the journey that has happened to me.

 

I advise against trance as did the Buddha but for many this is a way. I have never liked chanting yet for many this is a cherished practice. I was / am very intellectually inclined - this was particularly true when I began - I was much like many here - fully engaged in what is clearly trivia at this point but at the time I put a thick magnifying lense on a great deal, it felt like I was learning the "esoteric stuff".

 

The "esoteric stuff" will emerge on its own - and as it does organically you will own it - and not quote it from other sources.

 

 

A great deal of what you will read is mistranslated - an some is simply hogwash - but you can't really see it at the time. In the very great vast majority of cases - when great pinnacles were realized - rarely did I recognize what occurred / unfolded because of something I read - in fact the opposite is true: in many cases what I had read was an obstacle to understanding what had happened.

 

It is also important to understand that each teaching is from the standpoint of that teacher - much of the teaching will be constituted from the centers of gravity of the proclicvities of that teacher - teachings that will resonate and be most helpful to those of similar makeup.

 

From early on the teachings that went deep into me were the precepts that "wholeness" in ones work on oneself is paramount - all centers, all chakras. That Neutrality, non-judgement is key and perhaps the most difficult path. That the basics will unfold the you that is all and everything - the basics in practice.

 

There are a great many specialty practices and engineering "doings" that we can practice but for me a great many of them are like Western Medicine - they actually imbalance the whole and hyper treat areas in relative isolation.

 

In the long run I have come to see that for me meditation - lots of it and in relatively long sessions (2-6 hours generally) have brought great strides. Qi Gong has also been phenomenally powerful. In both cases "doing" is not done. I have never practiced the MCO yet it has opened and is miles beyond any explanation of it.

 

In meditation the posture for me has always been important - back "straight" head slightly tucked chin in, relaxed jaw, tounge to behind teeth. Full lotus or half lotus or sitting in a chair - comfort is far more important - in fact non-distraction from posture related problems such as blue legs is overwhelmingly more important than Full Lotus benefits - this is way over-rated.

 

I started my practice being able to put my legs behind my head - lotus was easy from day one - while I prefer sitting meditation - sitting in a chair is perhaps the best overall for Awakening and meditation. Since I was young I always preferred sitting cross legged - as a kid I sat cross legged on our dining room chairs while eating.

 

I started with the "don't move a muscle" stuff and was pretty extreme - now it has no value in my opinion with the exception that it is not a cavalier approach and I think a modicum of "serious effort" is better than a generally cavalier approach.

 

If you have in fact had enough sleep to be awake and you find yourself aching to stop a meditation from "sleepiness" try hard to break through this unconscious energy - you are not tired - you are being hit with unconscious energy - blocks in your space are starting to vibrate at frequencies that normally push you out of your body - breath through these.

 

In "good meditation" (for me) I am wide awake, fully available and at the end of a meditation - particularly a long one - I am often physically enlivened to the point of sitting on the edge of a chair (if I'm doing a chair meditation) with body super electrified, if sitting crossed legs they will be full of blood and not asleep and I am filled with intense calmness and stillness.

 

I no longer practice any alternate nostril breathing though this can be very good. Currently I breath into my Lower Dan Tein.

 

Our Western religious backgrounds inhabit our thinking and regard for our bodies - one needs to work on moving past these often deep seated and unskillful patterns. Do not regard meditation as moving beyond the physical (and the view that physical is base) - it is the opposite - you are learning to reside in the physical - the great vehicle that is the body.

 

You are a great spirit - the treasure of a human body is proof enough of what you are. Being with it in the body while you meditate will bring great fruits to bare. Do not beat it or subjugate it and do not look up or down upon another - including spirits.

 

You are not being pushed around, drowned - you are living and it is attachment that IS "suffering" - identification. Meditation melts the adhesion of beliefs and identity and gives you space from the gnashing thrashing "you" that does not exist. You and your body are not apart from anything - you do not transcend the physical - you transcend that which you have labeled and boxed and willed as you would have it. - this will all fall away.

 

The body does have its racial proclivities - it is also very much part animal - you wish to befriend it in meditation and see and understand what it needs and what is unskillful for it. If you progress in meditation "in your body" and not in trance - abilities will up unfold that cannot be expressed and that require "in body" practice (by practice I do not mean "doing" but rather the basics such as simple meditation).

 

You will Awaken with a great practice that will continue to enhance your continued unfolding.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Spotless

[Golden Dragon Shining]

could you give an example of racial proclivities? different techniques are more suitable to different races? different energy flows?  ancestral realms, ways, perceptions?  auras, frequencies? 

[Spotless]

Each race has a pretty specific tone that can be heard and we all come with deep race related memory.

We come with certain deep animal and pack animal instincts. A fair amount of our behavior that appears to be cultural is often instinctive and race related. Much of our cultural bent is caused by this as well.

 

But it is hard to point out and the topic is too charged to be discussed at length.

 

Diet can be extremely helpful in moving past these proclivities - particularly for some.

 

Our animal has prejudice - in facial attributes and on many levels. We have deep seated judgmental reactionary tendencies.

 

I would not read to much into this but generally we do not even take it into account.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Spotless

[Golden Dragon Shining]

Interesting. Yes I think many forget we are hm... of Nature and not beyond it. Would it be prejudice for a lion to select a lioness to procreate or be with? Is Tao? How can one deny Nature and be in harmony with it? I wonder if we can communicate with persons in our lineage say 30'000 years ago , a druid or the like, part of us in some way, we are them? A greater consciousness in the past? less forgetfulness? 

Edited October 16, 2015 by Sionnach

[Spotless]

It is possible to look into the memory of a stone - to look at a building and see it being built - to touch furniture and know it's history.

 

And we can read accounts of much of this with interest - histories of Lemura and Atlantis - but until these can be investigated on ones own they are questionable and can be very misleading. However - they can also exercise the mind in opening more fully to a wide vista - even the vistas of fantasy.

 

imagination and the ability to visualize is very valuable - at the same time understanding with clarity what "is" fantasy and what you have verified and what you have not is a juggling act that many fail at. Often someone else's story and accounting is taken to heart and we so take it for granted that we tout it as our own knowledge.

 

It is important not to dupe oneself into thinking one knows all sorts of things because we read them and the information came from a reliable source. "Reliable" is relative. We rewrite history as it happens - there is not one history book that tells it like it was accurately - and it immediately warps in its conveyance to your cognition simply because you read the words differently than they were laid down.

 

Histories and accounts can give at best a general feeling of what happened and eye witness accounts are usually pretty far from the mark. We also have vast "histories" in our makeup that do not exist in any know artifact - the entire story of Jesus is based on not one known existing substantiating artifact regarding his actual existence from the actual time of his supposed existence. I am not arguing whether he did or did not exist - but we do have many history books and artifacts from the time of his supposed existence and nothing is mentioned of him. We have nothing written about him for at least 34 years after the approximate time of his supposed death and the arguement is that we have nothing written about him for at least 34 years and possibly as long at 72 years.

 

We also know that much of the Biblical historical account is incorrect to the enth degree - such as the killing of the first born - this would be of such immense headline news that it is just not possible that the historians of that day would not recount it anywhere.

 

My point here is not to get into some discussion about Christianity / Jesus or the Bible - it is to say that we ingest in-whole things we have never verified often from others who have not verified. We can get stuck in questioning everything but we can also get stuck in assuming we understand and rarely question. A great many ardent Christians have no idea regarding the "foundations" of the story of Jesus. And you even have some touting his existence because Jesus was said to have been in India. The name Jesus was among the most common names of that time - a person named Jesus might have been found anywhere.

 

If you start with the basics of meditation and while all the world flows though you - you continue to meditate - that meditation will help to clarify and reclarify your mind amidst the termoil of flow and the coming and going of attatchment. Everything can be taken with a grain of salt. It does not even have to be "taken" - it can be simply viewed.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Spotless

[Everything]

Thanks for the video spotless. It helped me allot in my meditation.

[Golden Dragon Shining]

Psychometry, I believe it

Edited October 17, 2015 by Sionnach

[Tibetan_Ice]

It is possible to look into the memory of a stone - to look at a building and see it being built - to touch furniture and know it's history.

 

And we can read accounts of much of this with interest - histories of Lemura and Atlantis - but until these can be investigated on ones own they are questionable and can be very misleading. However - they can also exercise the mind in opening more fully to a wide vista - even the vistas of fantasy.

 

imagination and the ability to visualize is very valuable - at the same time understanding with clarity what "is" fantasy and what you have verified and what you have not is a juggling act that many fail at. Often someone else's story and accounting is taken to heart and we so take it for granted that we tout it as our own knowledge.

 

It is important not to dupe oneself into thinking one knows all sorts of things because we read them and the information came from a reliable source. "Reliable" is relative. We rewrite history as it happens - there is not one history book that tells it like it was accurately - and it immediately warps in its conveyance to your cognition simply because you read the words differently than they were laid down.

 

Histories and accounts can give at best a general feeling of what happened and eye witness accounts are usually pretty far from the mark. We also have vast "histories" in our makeup that do not exist in any know artifact - the entire story of Jesus is based on not one known existing substantiating artifact regarding his actual existence from the actual time of his supposed existence. I am not arguing whether he did or did not exist - but we do have many history books and artifacts from the time of his supposed existence and nothing is mentioned of him. We have nothing written about him for at least 34 years after the approximate time of his supposed death and the arguement is that we have nothing written about him for at least 34 years and possibly as long at 72 years.

 

We also know that much of the Biblical historical account is incorrect to the enth degree - such as the killing of the first born - this would be of such immense headline news that it is just not possible that the historians of that day would not recount it anywhere.

 

My point here is not to get into some discussion about Christianity / Jesus or the Bible - it is to say that we ingest in-whole things we have never verified often from others who have not verified. We can get stuck in questioning everything but we can also get stuck in assuming we understand and rarely question. A great many ardent Christians have no idea regarding the "foundations" of the story of Jesus. And you even have some touting his existence because Jesus was said to have been in India. The name Jesus was among the most common names of that time - a person named Jesus might have been found anywhere.

 

If you start with the basics of meditation and while all the world flows though you - you continue to meditate - that meditation will help to clarify and reclarify your mind amidst the termoil of flow and the coming and going of attatchment. Everything can be taken with a grain of salt. It does not even have to be "taken" - it can be simply viewed.

It is posts like these that really make me wonder about your claims of awakening, Spotless.

Can't you access the akashic records and find the truth about the life of JESUS? You don't even have to be enlightened to do that, do you?

Or why don't you just ask JESUS yourself instead of speculating and demonstrating your imprisonment by handed down mental constructs?

Do you think awakening is just an expansion of the etheric body without any form of wisdom or capacity to discover the truth?

On several occasions, not only did Bhudda know certain person's past but he also predicted their futures and times of enlightenment.

You claim to be enlightened, but you sure don't demonstrate it in your posts.

[idiot_stimpy]

Hi Spotless, do you think your celibacy had any part in revealing your psychic siddhis? 

 

Some say the siddhis will come to those who are celibate for 12 years.

[Spotless]

Hi Spotless, do you think your celibacy had any part in revealing your psychic siddhis?

 

Some say the siddhis will come to those who are celibate for 12 years.

I have only recently been celibate (since the shift - just a few years - I have a wife and 8 year old son). My third eye opened when I was 20. At that time I was practicing intensely and did use restraint but don't really remember practicing it in the sense of Celibacy so much as only having sex when I met some girl who was willing - (and not by myself). I guess in reflection I was pretty much celibate at the time. When I think of the practice at that time and talk about it - it did indeed include restraint - when I think of the mindset it included no outward restraint - I was open to a relationship but had none during that time - just some causal relations here and there, it was not celibacy in the strict sense of the word/practice.

 

I would say that a posture related practice (yoga or Qi Gong) is very helpful in dealing with celibacy and the accumulating energy.

For me testosterone was/is like a hurricane - all practice helped tremendously in calming those waters.

 

Celibacy can be useful for some and not so much for others - it is very practice dependent as well as body specific. It is probably best prescribed by a teacher or in the more obvious case on becoming a monk with a vow of celibacy. However I used restraint on my own terms and without prescription.

 

After the shift, sex was still attractive but also now clearly a distraction - it became out of place. This happened prior to the shift on many other levels: alcohol was dropped and coffee was reduced or stopped entirely. With alcohol it became a downer - just a small amount would disrupt my energy levels negatively. Coffee was similar - it kind of infected it with a fine spray of odd energy.

 

I still have coffee from time to time but it definitely effects joint pain in this body and I cannot have it too much in one week or my joints start to become very painful. I enjoy the taste and recently we purchased an electric water kettle with automated temperature settings. It is easy to make perfect coffee with the correct temperature so I had fun with that this past week until all of my non-existent joint pain came back in a roar and I had to stop - and within a day all of my joint pain stopped.

 

By the way - the new kettle with the temp settings is only $30 at Target - Oster brand - most temp setting kettles are $90+

Makes great tea - teas often require much lower temps for the best results (like 160 degree for white teas).

 

Back to celibacy - some people such as myself are radically effected by testosterone - some not so much.

In each case celibacy can be applied as a tool and also as a discipline.

For nearly my entire adult life i was engaged in sex on some level frequently.

If celibacy and psychic siddhis have anything in common - I was an exception.

 

I generally only practiced not having ejaculation for periods no longer than a few months. Often having only to do with discipline and not practice per se. However - a few months at the right time here and there can be very effective.

Edited October 19, 2015 by Spotless

[somatech]

Hi Spotless,

 

This is a question regarding the meditation practice you described a few posts above:

 

In a long meditation session I will do Adyashanti's 'allowing everything to be as it is' meditation which is pretty much the meditation you described. 

However, you also mentioned breathing into the Dan Tian. Do you do this during your meditation? I find if I have something as 'directive' as that during meditation, I won't fully let go into the moment as there is an element of 'doing'.

 

Or for you does it merely become mechanical and so doesn't interfere?

 

Thanks

[Spotless]

Hi Spotless,

 

This is a question regarding the meditation practice you described a few posts above:

 

In a long meditation session I will do Adyashanti's 'allowing everything to be as it is' meditation which is pretty much the meditation you described.

 

However, you also mentioned breathing into the Dan Tian. Do you do this during your meditation? I find if I have something as 'directive' as that during meditation, I won't fully let go into the moment as there is an element of 'doing'.

 

Or for you does it merely become mechanical and so doesn't interfere?

 

Thanks

It does indeed become mechanical - has become mechanical.

 

Not too big of a switch from years of breathing into the belly.

 

"Doing" as I reference it is more like specific engineering of internal energy to move from point A to point B and things like that.

I am not "against doing" but the busy-ness noise like quality of going about "doing" in order to move on what is again a linear path

Is more what I am referring to.

 

For instance alternate nostril breathing is a doing of sorts but has a general effect rather than specific engineering.

 

In a general sense - I have brought this whole subject up because it became obvious - particularly here - that we have a great many engineers (blind engineers) reading everything they can get their hands on and then going about interacate manuvers that frequently result in massive problems which they then have to work through. But on a more subtle level it is also because often so much extreme confidence is set into what they have read that the ingestion of the material becomes a block in and of itself.

 

In the beginning I read a great deal - but then clearly practice was what was required - it was the meat of it all.

It was not possible to continue reading and talking about it - I needed to know silence - I needed to "be" - and it was obvious to me and in my proclivities that I would have to give it my all and also lay aside the very active mind I had in doing so.

I was a full time student in philosophy at that time and during that time.

 

Later I saw teaching as an impediment - way to many teachers started early and were relatively clueless and secondly they did not continue to "no know" and be as a student. Most of the teachers that I know are stuck and were stuck years ago. Yet again I have done some teaching here and there and it has been very useful to do so. And teachers do not have to be perfect. Many of my teachers were very valuable but I did not view them as teachers so much as facilitators of my growth - both the group settings and having someone watching you have great value - the interaction and compression of the experience is invaluable - but you will find your own answers.

 

If your basic practice is simple and strong then you will handle the buffeting of any excursions in a much more pliable state.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Spotless

[Spotless]

One of the great reasons for meditation is that it breaks down the walls of that which retracts in seeing / feeling / realizing new subtle awareness.

 

It is well known that meditators will come to respond less to a loud bang - even in that they will not have a galvanic skin response to it.

This is not to say they / we become numb from meditation - quite the contrary.

 

It is to say that quiet viewing in stillness in meditation helps to bring us to a general state of awareness that is less apt to retract and also less apt to leap at something with a label.

 

We live in and foster a reaction chamber - our analysing mind - their is nothing wrong with the analysing mind - but we have allowed it to hold the reins and under the illusion that it is best equiped to determine our course. This is NOT the analysing minds proper job.

And it should be something we can engage and disengage - but it runs our life and we allow it to follow the various bananas that will solve "it's" problems.

 

We have abandoned the wisdom sense of the horse - our great vehicle - the miraculous human body. In communion with our great vehicle, intuition is our connection with Unity - Cosmic Consciousness.

 

Please be with yourself in this way - foster this communion in your life - hear the voice of given direction / inspiration. Set aside the scattering chatter of the carrot chaser - it is fine when needed - and it is needed only here and there.

 

In this I am not talking about some mediumship in which you allow voices in your head to run your life - that is just another form of what has been going on in many ways.

 

Meditation facilitates the union of your body and your higher nature - it is here that you are beyond the noise and experience a knowing that is true for you and all that is.

 

Set aside the noise for a time - not just within but without. Stop for some set time - say two weeks - all intake of news and weather reports, radio and TV. Stop the ticker tape - relieve yourself of this flood of "food" that places such an array of enticing bananas and carrots before your analysing mind - do not feed this mind for two weeks and let it know it is on leave - a relaxing holiday. Assure it that if needed it will be called upon but only briefly.

 

In this space - be good to yourself and your relation with your body - it is not there to be subjugated and it is not there to be ridden hard and put away wet and cold in some stall to be ridden hard again and again with no regard for it. If you wish to ride hard - ride with it - in it! (not on it with a whip) It is more capable that you ever dreamed - as One you will be astonished at the vistas you will be.

Edited October 19, 2015 by Spotless

[Spotless]

Today was another beautiful day here in the Bay Area and I awoke to an enormous change in energy. I had to stop the car several times and pullover the energy was incredible and thick ( not heavy )

 

During Qi Gong you could cut the energy around me with a knife - it was a orangish gold. Qi Gong was hard to do at the slow pace of the Master - I want to do it ten times slower.

 

When talking with my wife I had to close my eyes - she thought I was tired - I was not tired - this is a state that is bringing great understanding - love and heart. I feel warm often. While my body sleeps lots of very lucid activity.

 

Nice to be a householder - close family - anniversary tomorrow.

 

Hard to write but wanted to log this.

Edited October 21, 2015 by Spotless

[Bruce Qi]

Hi everyone ,

recently the area between my eyebrows has begun to twitch randomly, and in meditation it has begun to pull my eyes into a squinting position like something is about to burst open.

Is this just random twitches or the awakening of the third eye ?

[Spotless]

Hi everyone ,

recently the area between my eyebrows has begun to twitch randomly, and in meditation it has begun to pull my eyes into a squinting position like something is about to burst open.

Is this just random twitches or the awakening of the third eye ?

 

 

Why label the experience?

 

It is probably occurring with some flashes or flickering of light - try not to retract and think about what it is or what is happening.

 

Do not put any effort into it - effort is a retraction into the "doing" you are habituated to.

[Tibetan_Ice]

Why label the experience?It is probably occurring with some flashes or flickering of light - try not to retract and think about what it is or what is happening.Do not put any effort into it - effort is a retraction into the "doing" you are habituated to.

Said the person whom has had pressure between the brows for over 40 years...

 

http://thedaobums.com/topic/36844-dharmawheel-pressure-between-the-eyebrows-bad-advice/

[taoguy]

Hi Spotless, since you are able to see more, and I guess, are able to tell the effectiveness of many practices, I'd like some advice on some of these things...

 

1. Jhanas. According to the Pali Canon (not Mahayana texts), the Buddha repeatedly talks about moving from first jhana to the fourth jhana, and so on. When one reaches the fourth jhana, abilities like the third-eye, astral projection and so on are achieved. The jhanas are characterised by traits such as blissfulness, joy, equanimity, tranquility, etc. According to your practices, have you reached the first jhana and so on, and how did you achieve them through the breath meditation video that you showed? The several methods listed by the Buddha included breath observation, body observation/contemplation of death, morality, etc. But he has never talked about being empty, which is why I am confused.

 

2. Spring Forest Qigong. I started practice with this form of qigong, which is based on Chunyi Lin. For standing meditations, he advocates the Moving of Yin and Yang & Breathing In of Universe (Level 1 exercises). He also advocates consciously visualizing the movement of the Microcosmic Orbit (visualizing taking in of energy at the various points, along with a guided tape where he says "ohmm" and "myooo"). He also advocates reverse abdominal breathing. For level 2, it is mostly about healing practices. For level 3, he talks about opening the third eye through Sun and Moon meditations. I was wondering if you know about these practices, and comparing with your previous post about "not doing" - Do these exercises contradict what you say?

 

3. Emptiness practice. Lastly, I followed Nan Huai Jin's instruction for a while. He talked about anapanasati as focusing on the gap between the breaths, so that one eventually reaches breath cessation and "yang qi" rises. However, in the video you showed, it said that one reaches cosmic energy from the Bai Hui. Therefore, I am confused - Is it the awakening of yang qi or reception of cosmic energy from the universe?

 

Thank you for help, but I've been confused between these practices and I was hoping you could tie it into context since you are more experienced and have better insight...

Edited October 23, 2015 by taoguy

[Bruce Qi]

Thanks for that link tibetan ice , very informative.

So it isnt just a twitch driving me nuts then , thats good !

[Spotless]

To Taoguy:

 

In your reference to the jhanas, Spring Forest Qi Gong and emptiness practice - you are not so confused as you are putting on - nor was I so specific as you imply by your post. If you think the video was my perfect and precise practice it was not - it is simply the best video I have ever seen compiled - if we are referring to the same video.

 

Are you really here interested in my insight or is it some suspect thing you wish to play with?

I am not interested in punks like TI - the punk phase is fine - but take it elsewhere if that is what it is.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Spotless

[taoguy]

To Taoguy:

 

In your reference to the jhanas, Spring Forest Qi Gong and emptiness practice - you are not so confused as you are putting on - nor was I so specific as you imply by your post. If you think the video was my perfect and precise practice it was not - it is simply the best video I have ever seen compiled - if we are referring to the same video.

 

Are you really here interested in my insight or is it some suspect thing you wish to play with?

I am not interested in punks like TI - the punk phase is fine - but take it elsewhere if that is what it is.

 

I am genuinely confused and thought that you could help reconcile what are seemingly different paths (that makes it impossible for me to choose just one path since they all seem different in principle). Perhaps you read that I am not confused from the psychic signature of my post, but I am not trolling and do wish for your insight in it... 

 

Firstly, the jhanas (in the Buddha's sutta pitaka) are achieved by cultivation of a wholesome mental state and mindfulness of body, sensations, thoughts and mental states. Secondly, spring forest qigong is about having this goal in mind (like saving others) and then cultivating through form-based qigong to manipulate energy. Thirdly, NHJ talks about going into extreme stillness so that yang can increase. He talks about the gap between in-breaths and out-breaths elongating into cessation like kumbhaka breathing.

 

I just can't see how mindfulness ties into deliberate manipulation of energy, and into emptiness practice. One is about cultivating a joyous, ecstatic state, one is about moving energy around and the last one is about letting the energy do what it naturally wants. So I'm definitely in a dilemma about this.

 

Then I wanted to know what you advocate, so I read the thread and found the video (the one that starts with breath observation until it stops at the third-eye). Then there was another confusion... NHJ says yang qi rises, but then the video says it is descent of cosmic energy - So with all the facts going here and there, I'm quite confused on what to follow on for my practice. Just wished you could help since you should have a bigger picture of the whole process...