Buddhism and spiritual protection

[Sudhamma]

The Metta Sutta was preached by the Buddha to provide spiritual protection by expanding the virtue of loving-kindness to pacify disturbing spirits. However whoever is chanting the sutta for this purpose must be a proper cultivator. I do not know what you asked of Buddhist monks who could not satisfy your query.

[Vajra Fist]

Recently finished a book on modified Chod (Vajrayana wisdom tradition), called 'Feeding your Demons', which is about integrating the shadow part of ourselves personified as demons. Fascinating reading and a very powerful method.

[Fa Xin]

11 hours ago, Vajra Fist said:

Recently finished a book on modified Chod (Vajrayana wisdom tradition), called 'Feeding your Demons', which is about integrating the shadow part of ourselves personified as demons. Fascinating reading and a very powerful method.

Wondering who the author is? I ran a search on google but didn’t find it

[C T]

4 hours ago, Fa Xin said:

Wondering who the author is? I ran a search on google but didn’t find it

 

If you're interested to learn more about this practice, do a search on 'Feast of a Variety' Abhidharma.ru 

[Fa Xin]

1 hour ago, C T said:

 

If you're interested to learn more about this practice, do a search on 'Feast of a Variety' Abhidharma.ru 

Thanks for the link. Really good stuff on that site 🙏

[Sudhamma]

The Metta Sutta was preached by the Buddha to provide spiritual protection by expanding the virtue of loving-kindness to pacify disturbing spirits. However whoever is chanting the sutta for this purpose must be a proper cultivator. There are instances in the suttas in which the Buddha exhibited his supernatural powers. I do not know what you asked of those Buddhist monks who could not satisfy your query. Perhaps by rephrasing your query you may obtain a satisfactory answer.

[Vajra Fist]

Apologies, the author is Tsultrim Allione

Edited November 29, 2017 by Vajra Fist

[Maddie]

I thought I'd come back to this topic after going back and forth on how much of an issue I think this is (a lot currently) and also after experimenting with various methods of protection. I'd say at this point I think I find the chanting of religious texts to be the most effective form of protection in my experience. I have experienced pretty good results from chanting Pali Paritta verses, but I even have experimented with the Catholic rosary and had some pretty good results from that as well. I have found that mantras seem to be effective for accomplishing other goals but a little less so for protection. If anyone else has any experiences or insights to share I'd be happy to hear about it. 

[Maddie]

I thought I would ad that this also raises the question between western vs eastern Buddhism I might say. 

[Try]

IMHO, if it is possible to learn Buddhism without learning that side early on, that is the best way to learn. This is one of the case where 'Sometimes ignorance is bliss' is good. Less distraction and less worry. You can concentrate learning Buddha's Dharma. Whether you are gifted about that later on, it's up to Karma. I grew up with a mixed system, based on Tao, Buddhism, and Confucius. Praying had never been so confusing.

 

From my experience, if you're asking for protection, aside from chanting texts or pleading. I found the best way is to begin it with sincerity, compassion, and in surrender-state-of-mind. Surrender-state-of-mind from my experience is quite well defined by Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now ch10. Also, do plenty of good deeds, not for the sake of protection and any selfish purposes, but a pure compassion to other beings, lack of ego and self consciousness. Sometimes, help will come before you plead for protection. It's hard to do those if you're panicking, surrender-state-of-mind is the keyword.

 

Of course, if it's too hard to handle by yourself, ask for help. Ift's impossible to seek help from same belief and you can only seek other religion's help, I don't see anything wrong from doing it. Many ways to Rome, it's just Karma. Maybe you need to learn some stuffs from others as well. Buddha is 'Awakened Ones'. Others from different religion can become a Buddha as well.

[gnome]

On 13/04/2017 at 1:38 AM, futuredaze said:

While it seems that a lot of shamanic traditions, and then even some religions like Taoism and Christianity, utilize this idea of "spiritual protection," Buddhism does not really talk much about it.

 

I am thinking of the time the Buddha mentioned that he just teaches "a handful of leaves" compared to the whole tree of leaves, the whole of his knowledge.  The Buddha only taught the most practical, most relevant "leaves" to his students.

 

For me, just observing any negative sensation in meditation ultimately dispels it.  I'm not sure how this works, to be honest.  I think that since we normally cling to, or run from, phenomena, experience, etc., that the stillness in meditation is something of a remedy for maladies (physical and spiritual alike).

 

This makes sense because the mind, awareness and spirit are often equated with light which dispels darkness. But how does this really work indeed? I guess one answer is that we can't emulate spiritual light if we are in a state of negativity - stress, frustration, hate, etc - and that in the opposite condition - in a state of peace, we can 'shine' unconsciously and effortlessly, and every negative entity, living or ghostly, just can't face us. It's like when we greet bad humours from others with unshaking confidence and peace and people just hide their faces and withdraw in shame (recognizing their negative state in contrast to ours) - it really feels like the triumph of light over darkness. But of course this is a severe contrast, like sun over dark, and it's painful for the person in need.  So the moon then is a metaphor for a weaker light and for a mote feminine, maternal, cimpassionate approach, one that will heal perhaps better than the other. After all the moon is also darkness, and is closer to it than the sun is.

[Fa Xin]

21 hours ago, Try said:

IMHO, if it is possible to learn Buddhism without learning that side early on, that is the best way to learn. This is one of the case where 'Sometimes ignorance is bliss' is good. Less distraction and less worry. You can concentrate learning Buddha's Dharma. Whether you are gifted about that later on, it's up to Karma. I grew up with a mixed system, based on Tao, Buddhism, and Confucius. Praying had never been so confusing.

 

From my experience, if you're asking for protection, aside from chanting texts or pleading. I found the best way is to begin it with sincerity, compassion, and in surrender-state-of-mind. Surrender-state-of-mind from my experience is quite well defined by Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now ch10. Also, do plenty of good deeds, not for the sake of protection and any selfish purposes, but a pure compassion to other beings, lack of ego and self consciousness. Sometimes, help will come before you plead for protection. It's hard to do those if you're panicking, surrender-state-of-mind is the keyword.

 

Of course, if it's too hard to handle by yourself, ask for help. Ift's impossible to seek help from same belief and you can only seek other religion's help, I don't see anything wrong from doing it. Many ways to Rome, it's just Karma. Maybe you need to learn some stuffs from others as well. Buddha is 'Awakened Ones'. Others from different religion can become a Buddha as well.

This tends to be my own personal outlook as of lately... that is, What is there to protect?

[gnome]

42 minutes ago, Fa Xin said:

This tends to be my own personal outlook as of lately... that is, What is there to protect?

 

Yeah, even though Mantra means Mental Protection, perhaps the correct term is Enpowerment. I used to be obssessed too at some point with external evil, but as time went by, and thanks to some reading/qigong/mediation I realize that it's we who create it by ourselves, either by fistering our weaknesses, or by atracting evil due to our mental/emotional vibrations, so yeah, in the end it's not much about protection but enpowerment. If you're in a valley, no ritual will save you from a flood - you have to climb up the mountain and rise to the next level to be safe.

[Fa Xin]

10 hours ago, gnome said:

 

Yeah, even though Mantra means Mental Protection, perhaps the correct term is Enpowerment. I used to be obssessed too at some point with external evil, but as time went by, and thanks to some reading/qigong/mediation I realize that it's we who create it by ourselves, either by fistering our weaknesses, or by atracting evil due to our mental/emotional vibrations, so yeah, in the end it's not much about protection but enpowerment. If you're in a valley, no ritual will save you from a flood - you have to climb up the mountain and rise to the next level to be safe.

Mantras were a big part of my training for a few years... I definitely found them useful in dealing with various issues and emotional pain I was experiencing. 

 

I agree with how you said - we create it by ourselves. Absolutely! If you feel mantras will defend you against evil - that will be the case. We create our own reality, whether we realize it or not. 

 

 

[Try]

On 4/6/2018 at 9:11 PM, Fa Xin said:

This tends to be my own personal outlook as of lately... that is, What is there to protect?

Your question and the discussion afterwards reminded me of this from Bible.

Something we create by ourselves. Faith. You can have faith on yourself or you can have faith on others. 

Quote

"You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."

 

I don't know whether that quote is meant to be taken literally or not but no matter what you believe in, if you have enough faith, you can defend yourself against evil.

I'm currently studying about intention and visualization. My mentor says you can use visualization/images if your intention is weak but it has limits which is yourself, the creator of the image, and sometimes it isn't compatible with the situation. Intention is better as your energy can work at utmost efficiency and has no imagery limitation but it's all depends on how strong is your intention. In this context, IMO, intention is quite similar to faith. When we are not strong enough, we use stuffs like mantra, seals, rosary, etc to make up our lack of faith because we have faith that mantra is stronger than us (or can help us). This is just my conclusion so far after reading the discussion. Please correct me if I'm mistaken.

Edited April 7, 2018 by Try

[Fa Xin]

17 minutes ago, Try said:

Your question and the discussion afterwards reminded me of this from Bible.

Something we create by ourselves. Faith. You can have faith on yourself or you can have faith on others. 

 

I don't know whether that quote is meant to be taken literally or not but no matter what you believe in, if you have enough faith, you can defend yourself against evil.

I'm currently studying about intention/visualization. My mentor says you can use visualization/images if your intention is weak but it has limits which is yourself, the creator of the image, and sometimes it isn't compatible with the situation. Intention is better as your energy can work at utmost efficiency and has no imagery limitation but it's all depends on how strong is your intention. In this context, IMO, intention is quite similar to faith. When we are not strong enough, we use stuffs like mantra, seals, rosary, etc to make up our lack of faith because we have faith that mantra is stronger than us (or can help us). This is just my conclusion so far after reading the discussion. Please correct me if I'm mistaken.

I think you did a great job explaining it

[gnome]

I mentioned Mantra because of the context, but I prefer silent meditation. I'm not trained enough and chanting distracts me. I prefer no sound, no mind

 

Try is right, in Kabbala, Faith and Will are the same, basically the I Am consciousness, be it particular or more general, the essence of the soul.

[Mandrake]

dmattwads,

 

 

Vajrayana is replete with methods and practices to deal with issues like you mention. PM me if you want some more detailed info.

 

 

Mandrake

[Miroku]

My 5cents here are quite easy. Taking refuge is the best protection.

There is a tibetan story of an old monk living in a cave. Once a robber came to the cave at night wanting to steal from the monk, but the monk caught him and gave him a good beating with his sandal and with each strike he repeated "I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in the Sangha" and kicked the robber out afterwards. The robber ran down the hill and hid underneath a bridge. At that moment under the brige there was a group of powerful deamons that wanted to harm the deamon, but they heard the robber think about what the monk said and repeating "I take refuge .... etc." . Hearing that they ran away. (Sorry I butchered the story)

Also compassion is a great form of protection. And mantras are amazing, they main purpouse is to protect the mind, from the mind itself and also from outer harm. I remember that everytime I had sleep paralysis repeating mani mantra or vajra guru mantra always helped. The entity always went away quite fast and I calmed down. 

I sincerely believe there is no need to look for protection anywhere outside of buddhism really. I understand you feel frustrated because other westerners do not believe much on these attacks. It is quite understandible. Let's be honest it isnt something that happens to everyone. Anyway sometimes it is the best to relax and think whether really it was a demons attacking or just your own mind dominating you and playing tricks.

So in summary: Refuge, compassion, mani mantra ... the best things to do in any sort of danger. Read sutras if you want more. There are many interesting ones. FPMT teacher recommend the Diamond Cutter Sutra for cancer for example. So there are many things to do.

Best wishes

[Maddie]

After doing a rather extensive study of this topic I think I'd have to say I've been most impressed personally with Paritta chanting. 

[Maddie]

I thought I would bump this topic as well and ask if anybody had any recommendations for dealing with curses and black magic especially against one's finances?

[Eduardo]

2 hours ago, dmattwads said:

I thought I would bump this topic as well and ask if anybody had any recommendations for dealing with curses and black magic especially against one's finances?

 

Try the OM RUDRAYA NAMAH mantra, as it helps to deal with day-to-day difficulties and with financial problems, black magic, and hostile entities.
It brings an earthy and objective energy, as well as eliminating fears and hesitations.

[Klinsly]

On 3/9/2017 at 11:34 AM, Vajra Fist said:

The difficulty with possessing spirits arises because they are often thought forms rather than energy vampires. Once attached, they fundamentally change your thinking, clouding your judgement and possibly leading you away from practice. To take refuge in Amitabha in those circumstances is not being uncompassionate.

Hey this is so old now, but what you said is fascinating in light of what I've studied ! I share a lot of Daskalos recently simply because he seems to be the highest most legit the west has had in centuries.  But! He as a Christian mystic of Buddha level, wrote an akashic book on Jesus. And I remember a specific teaching  of Jesus I'll link a screenshot that says this exactly for anyone that is interested. This is his actual teaching if you are willing to believe.  He says it's human made demons created by evil thoughts and actions than can posses people not the natural ones.

[stirling]

On 10/4/2021 at 7:39 AM, dmattwads said:

I thought I would bump this topic as well and ask if anybody had any recommendations for dealing with curses and black magic especially against one's finances?

 

Sincerely accept what is happening in this moment as reality, and let go of any mental dialogue or machinations you have been torturing yourself with about how to manipulate circumstances to benefit yourself. Surrender your idea of control entirely. 

 

Admit you don't know how to proceed further, and SINCERELY, from the depth of your suffering,  ask for help . IMHO this works best when you do not direct your request for help to any particular entity... more in the spirit of admitting that you are truly lost and out of ideas about how to proceed and legitimately need help. 

 

Allow your mind to go quiet without the exception of an answer. Keep a meditation schedule if you don't already - this is the space where insight occurs. It may take a little bit, but I have always had insight arise with a direction forward when I create this environment. Be advised... the insight is often something we are already aware of, but loathe to do. A friend of mine had a real estate situation, and one thing he wouldn't do was admit he was bankrupt. His instruction was to declare it.

[Creation]

On 10/4/2021 at 9:39 AM, dmattwads said:

I thought I would bump this topic as well and ask if anybody had any recommendations for dealing with curses and black magic especially against one's finances?

Not sure if you're still interested, but this mantra has cleared some seriously dark energy from my system.  I really can't say enough good things about it.  It's a bit long to say the least, and be advised there are a few errors in the text in the video. 

 

Edited January 7, 2022 by Creation