What are all energetic techniques cultivating?

[Lidolon]

After reading a number of books on Buddhist meditation, I’ve convinced myself of a simple (and probably wrong) analogy between shamatha meditation and a memory leaking computer program: as a simple concentration task absorbs more and more computational power, all other mind routines shut down, till, progressing along the jhanas, even the operating system itself crashes and only the BIOS remains. As the Buddha pointed out, this is most useful, in that it is possible to witness the reboot of the system, which makes experientially clear how much the five khandhas depend on the software and not the hardware.

 

Given the brain neuroplasticity (here I’m going from bad analogy to pure speculation), the repeated reboot of the brain, which should reasonably follow an hardwired pattern, would strengthen the pathway of this standard reactivation of the various mind routines. Since I think chakras are just bodily projections of brain sectors, this pathway could very well be what the yogic tradition call shushumna; in this case, concentration meditation would obtain the same result of a kundalini awakening through the opposite mean (that is, the chakras are not opened, but silenced, and the path between them strengthened as they are turned on again and not by artificially overstimulating it). The critical point here is that the reboot is automatic, so the practitioner has no choice on which neural path is reinforced, it is determined by the structure of the brain itself.

 

So, to end these ramblings, this toy-model poses one serious question. Taking the neural pathway of mind reboot as the standard (since it emerges automatically from the practice of the jhanas), are the plethora of energetic techniques in existence (Kundalini, Kriya, Vajrayana, Neidan, etc.) really able to stimulate it with enough precision? For sure they act as an active stimulation of certain neural paths, but how can one be certain they are really stimulating the correct ones? 

Even more radically, is it true that all these techniques aim at replicating, from the other side and hopefully in a quicker fashion, the physical (neural) transformation caused by samadhi, or each of them are reinforcing different brain processes, and which are the differences?

 

I hope someone will humor me, even for saying I got everything wrong, since I’m quite at a loss to find a conceptual way to understand all cultivation phenomena, as they all seem fundamentally similar behind their superficial differences.

[Cobie]

1 minute ago, Lidolon said:

… neuroplasticity …

I love that concept!

[Desmonddf]

On 27/06/2022 at 5:01 AM, Lidolon said:

After reading a number of books on Buddhist meditation, I’ve convinced myself of a simple (and probably wrong) analogy between shamatha meditation and a memory leaking computer program: as a simple concentration task absorbs more and more computational power, all other mind routines shut down, till, progressing along the jhanas, even the operating system itself crashes and only the BIOS remains. As the Buddha pointed out, this is most useful, in that it is possible to witness the reboot of the system, which makes experientially clear how much the five khandhas depend on the software and not the hardware.

 

Given the brain neuroplasticity (here I’m going from bad analogy to pure speculation), the repeated reboot of the brain, which should reasonably follow an hardwired pattern, would strengthen the pathway of this standard reactivation of the various mind routines. Since I think chakras are just bodily projections of brain sectors, this pathway could very well be what the yogic tradition call shushumna; in this case, concentration meditation would obtain the same result of a kundalini awakening through the opposite mean (that is, the chakras are not opened, but silenced, and the path between them strengthened as they are turned on again and not by artificially overstimulating it). The critical point here is that the reboot is automatic, so the practitioner has no choice on which neural path is reinforced, it is determined by the structure of the brain itself.

 

So, to end these ramblings, this toy-model poses one serious question. Taking the neural pathway of mind reboot as the standard (since it emerges automatically from the practice of the jhanas), are the plethora of energetic techniques in existence (Kundalini, Kriya, Vajrayana, Neidan, etc.) really able to stimulate it with enough precision? For sure they act as an active stimulation of certain neural paths, but how can one be certain they are really stimulating the correct ones? 

Even more radically, is it true that all these techniques aim at replicating, from the other side and hopefully in a quicker fashion, the physical (neural) transformation caused by samadhi, or each of them are reinforcing different brain processes, and which are the differences?

 

I hope someone will humor me, even for saying I got everything wrong, since I’m quite at a loss to find a conceptual way to understand all cultivation phenomena, as they all seem fundamentally similar behind their superficial differences.

 

You're comparing multiple systems with a modern physicallist worldview. They will both look like the same thing, and also mean completely different things, simply because they do not talk about the same stuff at all.

For instance, let's compare Ancient Chinese Anatomy and Modern Anatomy.

 

In Ancient Chinese Anatomy, the Lungs where drawn as these "leafy" pieces of meat inside your ribcage. Quite different from modern lung anatomy., which clearly state that the lungs are those two big red meat bags on the sides of your heart.

 

Ancient Chinese Anatomy

 

 

Modern Anatomy.

 

Now, where the ancient chinese stupid enough not to know how to differentiate "true lungs" between people's meats?

 

Most probably not. Because in reality, there is no clear distinction. It is fabricated through international agreements and modern academic discussion.

 

I won't post it here since it would be too graphic, but a real intact human body doesn't have those beautiful, "clean and shaved" red sacks of meat inside it. There is conjunctive tissue. There is connective tissue. There are the pleural sacks, there is a lot of stuff that modern anatomy simply says "oh, that's not the lung, it's an acessory tissue which is right next to the lung".

 

Ancient chinese doctors couldn't give a damn about the details modern anatomists have. Lung, pleural sack, a lot of nearby connective tissue.... all of that was simply categorized as "lung".

 

That kind of detail makes a LOT of difference, because the whole concept of what an entire organ is, is different from one system of medicine to the other. And that means the whole physiology, medicinal thinking and diagnosys is different as well.

[Vajra Fist]

On 27/06/2022 at 9:01 AM, Lidolon said:

After reading a number of books on Buddhist meditation, I’ve convinced myself of a simple (and probably wrong) analogy between shamatha meditation and a memory leaking computer program: as a simple concentration task absorbs more and more computational power, all other mind routines shut down, till, progressing along the jhanas, even the operating system itself crashes and only the BIOS remains. As the Buddha pointed out, this is most useful, in that it is possible to witness the reboot of the system, which makes experientially clear how much the five khandhas depend on the software and not the hardware

 

 

Interesting analogy. According to many teachers, stream entry normally accompanies a sort of 'system crash', where the brain sort of reboots.

 

Regarding the question of how energy works in relation to awakening - I honestly have no idea. 

 

I remember speaking to a long-time taiji teacher and advanced meditator who said that the practice of releasing physical tension in the body has a corresponding mental effect of reducing the hindrances, allowing absorption to be more readily attained. 

 

Interestingly, some teachers will say that the end goal of processes like neidan is not the same state as that reached through a lifetime of meditation. So it may not be entirely appropriate to compare one model to another.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Vajra Fist