Skeleton Meditations

[RiverSnake]

Skeletal based practices are a common method in several traditions and for good reason. I've been exploring this area for a bit now and am sharing some of the benefits below. 

 

Skeletal cultivation helps stabilize awareness so your less likely to be "touched" by divine madness.

 

Martial Artists will find that it relaxes the muscles and promotes alignment. Increased vitality is the most immediate benefit, so if your an "older" individual whom lacks the juice of a young whipper snapper....this practice is quite helpful and worth the investment. 

 

The only downside to this kind of practice is that it is a bit "slow moving". Other practices give much more immediate benefits while skeletal work is like a slow turning ship....but after many years of training the dividends began to multiply exponentially. 

 

William Bodri is one of the primary Buddhist sources i've found and Taoist meditations are also scattered about on the net. Best of luck to my fellow cultivators. 

[MIchael80]

Could you share some more ?

[RiverSnake]

3 hours ago, MIchael80 said:

Could you share some more ?

What would you like to know? 

[rideforever]

Bodri ... seems like another modern charlatan, in the synopsis of his book on Amazon he says :
"There are many possible different final objectives for spiritual practitioners"

This is not correct, there is only one path of development for a human soul.

Seems that he does a White Skeleton Meditation ... which is a strange label for it ... because it is not meditation and it is not about the skeleton, he has some mindfulness of different body parts in the instructions : pus, faeces, hair, nails etc...

This is not meditation.

True meditation on the bones ... not the skeleton ... is to embody the bones, which means you feels them as your self.  Therefore it is subjective "I am inside".  Rather than mindfulness ... "I notice that object".

Mindfulness as it has degenerated of late is not meditation as it is objective (of objects) ... it is about noticing things, rather than being inside the bones.

Being inside the bones is a very good practice.

Edited March 29, 2020 by rideforever

[senseless virtue]

Everybody, please take notice that rideforever isn't knowledgeable and you should ignore him completely for your own benefit. Taking heed of his instructions is almost certain to lead into problems.

 

@rideforever This time you have really set the limbo bar for new record low.

 

The man you speak poorly of studied under a famous meditation teacher. He has personal experience versus your armchair philosophy. What are your qualifications to criticize the other person? None.

Edited December 30, 2023 by senseless virtue

[rideforever]

It's very simple, so I will explain it for you.

 

Mindfulness is when you connect to objects, for instance in the list of White Skeleton "Meditation" skin hair nails etc...

This is a practice using where your attention rests on objects.

This is not meditation.

 

Meditation is when the subject (you) rests inside the subject.

If you embody your bones, for instance the bones of the tips of your toes of fingers, you will find that it is possible to be inside the bones as they are part of your external subjective structure.

The subject rests inside the subject.

This is a significant practice.

 

Resting your attention on any object be it those listed in the WSM or on a lamp post is not a significant practice.

Birds for instance spend their entire day being mindful of many things, and it's not a spiritual practice.

 

Now Virtue, you can kiss the ass of as many authorities as you wish to, kneel down ... but that is different to knowing anything.  You should wake to the fact that the a spiritual seeker can not cling to the apron of some authority and hope they will do it for you.  Similarly other of your friends talk endlessly about lineages and mattress FaJin.  You guys need to wake up, that is not cultivation ... that is asking somebody to do your work for you.

You are lucky that I trip up your small mindedness, nobody else will bother with you.

 

About Bodri, I never heard of him ... but what he has said in that book, and this practice is not good ... perhaps he has other things, perhaps not.

 

It seems to be inspired by a misunderstanding of the yogic tradition of watching bodies burn on a pyre.  But that is not mindfulness.

If you go to a pyre and rest your attention on different objects, like the Ganga, or the wood, or the flames, or the skirt of the girl over there ... you are doing exactly the wrong thing.

To see death is supposed to wake you the fuck up. 

It's not a time to avoid what's going on.

 

If you want to do an actual meditation on the skeleton, then it has to be subjective and involve ... the skeleton ... meaning the bones !  These are available and are very good.

 

Edited March 29, 2020 by rideforever

[Vajra Fist]

I've been curious about Bodri's white skeleton meditation for a while. Does anyone have a link for a guided version of it?

[gatito]

15 minutes ago, rideforever said:

Meditation is when the subject (you) rests inside the subject.

 

 

Interesting and insightful opinion.

 

Food for thought.

 

Thanks @rideforever

 

Edited March 29, 2020 by gatito

[rideforever]

Yes ... you have to consider animals. 

If you watch squirrels in the garden, see how mindful they are, their heads constantly moving mindful of this mindful of that ... they have 100% mindfulness of the external world ... 

But this is not a practice that leads to self-realisation, squirrels are not self realised.

 

Self-realisation is when the subject develops a new relationship with the subject ... it enters itself and a new form of intelligence is born, an intelligence that knows itself.

 

The subject has to BE inside the subject.   Not look at it but Be in it, and certainly not look at any objects.

 

The bones are interesting because they are external subjectivity, they have an organic subjective ... it is quite an easy practice and accessible, it's a very good bridge.

It also has very strong energetic and health benefits, and esoteric powers are associated with the bones, all round an interesting practice.

 

But self-realisation and  the true subject of course comes from the centres of consciousness, of the heart and of the dantien etc.., which are the true internal of the soul.

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by rideforever

[gatito]

9 minutes ago, rideforever said:

But this is not a practice that leads to self-realisation, squirrels are not self realised.

 

Having never had a meaningful conversation with a squirrel, I'm entirely unqualified to opine on that myself.

 

[C T]

Squirrels? Birds? Associating these critters' natural reflexes with mindfulness? 

Thanks for the humour but not too funny actually. 

Too bad you're not American, or you could run for president, you know. 

[GSmaster]

I have thought to open the thread and here it is.

 

Now I need to do nothing. 

[rideforever]

15 minutes ago, C T said:

president

 

No need, he's there already and will be for another term.

[MIchael80]

3 hours ago, RiverSnake said:

What would you like to know? 

Hi!

Well maybe a short overview over different forms of this Meditation. 

What are the most powerful forms.

Maybe some links etc.

Thanks in advance! :-)

Michael 

[RiverSnake]

1 hour ago, Vajra Fist said:

I've been curious about Bodri's white skeleton meditation for a while. Does anyone have a link for a guided version of it?

 

 

If you google his name and white skeleton you'll find a free pdf. 

[senseless virtue]

@rideforever I wish you would just take a good look on yourself and where you are going with your rants.

Edited December 30, 2023 by senseless virtue

[senseless virtue]

On 3/29/2020 at 7:45 PM, rideforever said:

You are lucky that I trip up your small mindedness, nobody else will bother with you.

 

It takes a little humility to look at yourself instead of blaming others.

 

Nobody else would bother with me? How kind and compassionate of you to bother me then!

Edited December 30, 2023 by senseless virtue

[ilumairen]

1 hour ago, rideforever said:

 

No need, he's there already and will be for another term.

 

It's actually starting to look like he may not be.

[gatito]

1 hour ago, GSmaster said:

I have thought to open the thread and here it is.

 

Now I need to do nothing. 

 

 

That's certainly a win-win situation for this entire forum.

 

Well not done!

 

[RiverSnake]

43 minutes ago, MIchael80 said:

Hi!

Well maybe a short overview over different forms of this Meditation. 

What are the most powerful forms.

Maybe some links etc.

Thanks in advance! :-)

Michael 

 

Lot of different ways to approach any cultivation style. I mentioned above how to find the Bodri pdf. Today i was thinking of how i could use Da Mo's Cave meditation (Path Notes by Glenn Morris) to create a doorway into the bones or using the Uruz rune to cleanse the system could be fun. All potential options if you like to play...for more traditional methods Bodri and Taoist Bone Breathing are options. The methods i use nowadays are my own and not shareable. 

 

Mantak Chia did some early books on Bone Breathing....which i have not read.....and nowadays am loathe to trust anything by him.   

 

The most powerful forms? Don't know...that's probably the least important part when it comes to getting results with cultivation. Sincerity and the intensity of one's training is a much greater determining factor on gains made. Were often our greatest enemy. Give the greatest cultivation methods in the world to an insincere student....they'll treat it like trash....give average methods to a completely sincere person...they'll become a Buddha. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GSmaster]

13 minutes ago, gatito said:

That's certainly a win-win situation for this entire forum.

 

Cant fucking believe you referenced yourself to western tradition and read tarot books, and you dont know of thought materialization.

[gatito]

24 minutes ago, ilumairen said:

 

It's actually starting to look like he may not be.

 

 

Fingers crossed!

[gatito]

Just now, GSmaster said:

 

Cant fucking believe you referenced yourself to western tradition and read tarot books, and you dont know of thought materialization.

 

 

Perhaps it was a different Western Tradition from yours and I didn't need to read tarot books because I received direct instruction from an adept of that tradition?

 

[GSmaster]

Just now, gatito said:

Perhaps it was a different Western Tradition from yours and I didn't need to read tarot books because I received direct instruction from an adept of that tradition?

 

 

Which adept?

You clearly sucking in "western tradition" and dont have an official initiation.

[gatito]

3 minutes ago, GSmaster said:

 

Which adept?

You clearly sucking in "western tradition" and dont have an official initiation

 

 

Clearly.