Help on the spiritual path

[Siker]

Hello everyone!
I'm Jewish. I'm new here in the forum I wanted to consult about spiritual work. In my tradition, studying the Holy Scriptures is a very significant part of the spiritual work. I have studied for several years in the Holy Scriptures and in various Jewish streams, and in recent years I have been studying Aristotelian philosophy - the writings of Ibn Sina, and this so that I can delve deeper and learn from the teachings of Maimonides.

So far so good. The problem is that since my childhood, I have a strong attraction to mysticism. I feel like this world is calling me, no matter how much I try to put it aside I am drawn there again and again. Because this need floats with great intensity, I sometimes look for shortcuts (like the gateway experience), read about them, understand that this is not a significant spiritual path that will develop me as a human being and in the end do nothing.

 

I do practice a little qi gong in an amateur way, I want to work on monkey squatting for half an hour to an hour a day to activate my Dan Tien.
Recently I also started writing a dream journal.

 

I'm just restless all the time. I have a burning need to open my chakras, especially the third eye, and I feel lost. Sometimes I feel tingling in the third eye area, but I don't do any work and I don't know what to do about the tingling, they are not too strong but appear from time to time. I have felt for years that I belong to these worlds and in practice I have no part in them and this gap hurts me. Seeing auras, telepathy, lucid dreaming, astral travel, energy work and other spiritual experiences are things that I feel knock on my door every once in a while, calling me to work.

Although I am relatively young (27), I am married with two daughters. I am a student and work at the same time, and so is my wife, so our routine is very busy and I don't have much time for long practices. Every practice costs me a huge sacrifice.

 

On a deep level, I feel that I am moving in a good direction and becoming a better person who is more connected to the environment and the world. At the same time, on a personal level, I feel a huge lack and a tremendous attraction to engage in the occult. I feel like I don't have a teacher who can guide me and teach me what I should do about my chakras for example. I don't even know how good or problematic my system is and I'm afraid to go to any medium because I think the market is flooded with imposters. Do you have any advice for me?

Thank you very much!

[Maddie]

18 minutes ago, Siker said:

Hello everyone!
I'm Jewish. I'm new here in the forum I wanted to consult about spiritual work. In my tradition, studying the Holy Scriptures is a very significant part of the spiritual work. I have studied for several years in the Holy Scriptures and in various Jewish streams, and in recent years I have been studying Aristotelian philosophy - the writings of Ibn Sina, and this so that I can delve deeper and learn from the teachings of Maimonides.

So far so good. The problem is that since my childhood, I have a strong attraction to mysticism. I feel like this world is calling me, no matter how much I try to put it aside I am drawn there again and again. Because this need floats with great intensity, I sometimes look for shortcuts (like the gateway experience), read about them, understand that this is not a significant spiritual path that will develop me as a human being and in the end do nothing.

 

I do practice a little qi gong in an amateur way, I want to work on monkey squatting for half an hour to an hour a day to activate my Dan Tien.
Recently I also started writing a dream journal.

 

I'm just restless all the time. I have a burning need to open my chakras, especially the third eye, and I feel lost. Sometimes I feel tingling in the third eye area, but I don't do any work and I don't know what to do about the tingling, they are not too strong but appear from time to time. I have felt for years that I belong to these worlds and in practice I have no part in them and this gap hurts me. Seeing auras, telepathy, lucid dreaming, astral travel, energy work and other spiritual experiences are things that I feel knock on my door every once in a while, calling me to work.

Although I am relatively young (27), I am married with two daughters. I am a student and work at the same time, and so is my wife, so our routine is very busy and I don't have much time for long practices. Every practice costs me a huge sacrifice.

 

On a deep level, I feel that I am moving in a good direction and becoming a better person who is more connected to the environment and the world. At the same time, on a personal level, I feel a huge lack and a tremendous attraction to engage in the occult. I feel like I don't have a teacher who can guide me and teach me what I should do about my chakras for example. I don't even know how good or problematic my system is and I'm afraid to go to any medium because I think the market is flooded with imposters. Do you have any advice for me?

Thank you very much!

 

Hopefully this doesn't sound clique but since your Jewish and you're drawn to mysticism what about studying kabbalah?

[Siker]

To be honest, I studied Kabbalah for several years, and only after meeting a real, very wise teacher, I realized that the Kabbalah tradition is really very hidden and it is almost impossible to learn it for real. There are Kabbalists who claimed that the wisdom of Kabbalah is the same as the wisdom of philosophy, but adds more subtle resolutions and in a way I think this is perhaps the only gate left to study Kabbalah, I mean studying philosophy of antiquity. In fact, this is also the reason I am currently studying Aristotelian philosophy.

[Siker]

There are Kabbalists who deal with Kabbalah, holy names, meditations called 'yichudim', angels, etc. but within the scope of magic and sorcery. According to what I have learned, a person is supposed to develop an intimate relationship with God, the most intimate of all. A person stands in prayer as lacking, as seeking completion from his creator, not as a manipulator who acts by force. Using the secrets of creation in such a way impairs intimacy, it desecrates the holy of holies of religious work.

[Cobie]

33 minutes ago, Siker said:

… Although I am relatively young (27), I am married with two daughters. I am a student and work at the same time, and so is my wife, so our routine is very busy and I don't have much time for long practices. Every practice costs me a huge sacrifice.

 

… I feel a huge lack and a tremendous attraction to engage in the occult. I feel like I don't have a teacher who can guide me and teach me what I should do about my chakras for example …

I hope @Daniel will be able to help. 
 

 

 

 

[snowymountains]

24 minutes ago, Siker said:

Seeing auras, telepathy, lucid dreaming, astral travel, energy work and other spiritual experiences are things that I feel knock on my door every once in a while, calling me to work.

 

That's a lot of stuff, typically seen over years, some you'll like and keep, some you'll conclude are not worth you time but you can't do all at once.

 

 

25 minutes ago, Siker said:

Although I am relatively young (27), I am married with two daughters. I am a student and work at the same time, and so is my wife, so our routine is very busy and I don't have much time for long practices. Every practice costs me a huge sacrifice.

 

Your family and your studies are the most important thing, so you need to pick one thing, can't do everything in life at the same timem

 

Why not start small, see if you can sustain an 20 min daily practice?

Tbh in your shoes I'd look for stuff that are easy to integrate, eg with two daughters will you have time to maintain a dream journal each morning instead of making breakfast and taking them to school?

 

Lucid dreaming lowers your quality of sleep, just wear a fitbit and measure your "deep sleep" time, when you're lucid, it will be lower and we don't need only REM sleep to wake up refreshed...

Lucid dreaming may make you feel tired, especially given your busy schedule.

Same applies to journeying in your sleep time.

 

So why not do each day 20 mins of meditation on breath or 20 mins of insight meditation or 20 mins walking meditation ?

 

As you need a community to practice with anyhow, I'd say knock some doors close to where you live.

Try a Zen dojo, meditation centres, Qigong classes and whoever teacher you like more, start with that.

There's no reason to try all at once, take your time.

[Siker]

I need to think about it. Sounds very reasonable. Maybe I'll try to focus on squatting monkey alone and after a long time I'll try to see where I progress from there.

I need to think about how I work on these impulsive urges to spirituality of the kind I described...

 

[snowymountains]

19 minutes ago, Siker said:

I need to think about it. Sounds very reasonable. Maybe I'll try to focus on squatting monkey alone and after a long time I'll try to see where I progress from there.

I need to think about how I work on these impulsive urges to spirituality of the kind I described...

 

 

Find some teacher & group close to you, you can practice at home too but have someone to talk to/someone to give you advice on how to progress.

 

Insight meditation btw helps us understand our urges

Edited February 6 by snowymountains

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

-

Edited February 7 by -ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-

[Apotheose]

,,

Edited April 8 by Apotheose

[Gerard]

12 hours ago, Siker said:

for half an hour to an hour a day to activate my Dan Tien.

 

Wrong practice.

 

12 hours ago, Siker said:

I have a burning need to open my chakras, especially the third eye, and I feel lost. Sometimes I feel tingling in the third eye area, but I don't do any work and I don't know what to do about the tingling, they are not too strong but appear from time to time. I have felt for years that I belong to these worlds and in practice I have no part in them and this gap hurts me. Seeing auras, telepathy, lucid dreaming, astral travel, energy work and other spiritual experiences are things that I feel knock on my door every once in a while, calling me to work.

 

 

More incorrect practices.

 

It shows a general state of being very ungrounded.

 

 

12 hours ago, Siker said:

 

 

 

Although I am relatively young (27), I am married with two daughters. I am a student and work at the same time, and so is my wife, so our routine is very busy and I don't have much time for long practices. Every practice costs me a huge sacrifice.

Do you have any advice for me?

Thank you very much!

-Student

-Work. Most likely intellectual/academic.

 

This explains why you need a lot of grounding work. 
 

You aren't alone though.

 

Spiritualism is rife with this kind of people who talk about nonsense rather than verifiable facts. Many end up "cuckoo" due to carrying on with wrong practices for far too long. 
 

MY ADVICE:

 

1. Read this information carefully:

 

http://www.internalintent.com/
 

2. Find a real life teacher, someone with a strong martial arts background. Chinese Kung Fu arts are very helpful.

 

Ask for help here:

 

https://rumsoakedfist.org/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=c463074708f393f03dedbebedba24829

 

Learn proper meditation from a real life teacher; eg. Buddhist Vipassana is very helpful. You can start here in the mean time:

 

https://www.skillshare.com/en/blog/guide-to-vipassana-meditation/
 

Keep meditation easy and simple so no chakras, no dantiens, no astral projection gibberish and all that jazz. 
 

Learning to meditate correctly is a very slow and long learning process.

 

Quietening the busy thinking mind (ego-mind) should be your main goal.

 

Always finish and start seated meditation with a period of walking meditation with bare feet to ground yourself nicely. 

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

[snowymountains]

52 minutes ago, Gerard said:

Keep meditation easy and simple so no chakras, no dantiens, no astral projection gibberish and all that jazz. 

 

Learning to meditate correctly is a very slow and long learning process.

 

Quietening the busy thinking mind (ego-mind) should be your main goal.

 

Always finish and start seated meditation with a period of walking meditation with bare feet to ground yourself nicely. 

 

Amen 🙌 ( though focus on dantien as in Zen vs focus nostrils as in Theravada imo is a minor point, both are fine ).

 

But really,  the important thing is establishment of a daily practice and the most effective meditations are the simplest ones.

 

I would add attend a standard western mindfulness 8-week course, it's the best entry point and guaranteed to be BS-free.

[Siker]

You are probably right. I returned from war only a week and a half ago. I was drafted into the reserves on 7/10 (yes, I'm Israeli, please don't judge, I don't know what they say in the world media, but there were horrors there that hadn't been seen in the world for a long time, I was there.) It makes perfect sense that I'm not grounded. Maybe I really need to take a step back, take a break for things to sink in and then start slowly. However, I would like to know why it is not recommended to practice the squatting monkey. I understood that it was considered a fundamental exercise. And I think that standing meditations can suit me

[old3bob]

I'd say our duties as a family person is more important than all the phenomenal occult like stuff you've mentioned and which can easily go awry...

[snowymountains]

1 hour ago, Siker said:

You are probably right. I returned from war only a week and a half ago. I was drafted into the reserves on 7/10 (yes, I'm Israeli, please don't judge, I don't know what they say in the world media, but there were horrors there that hadn't been seen in the world for a long time, I was there.) It makes perfect sense that I'm not grounded. Maybe I really need to take a step back, take a break for things to sink in and then start slowly. However, I would like to know why it is not recommended to practice the squatting monkey. I understood that it was considered a fundamental exercise. And I think that standing meditations can suit me

 

Thanks for sharing this and it's completely understandable, to say the least, to feel ungrounded after returning from a warzone.

 

 

Be aware that meditation increases dopamine which is why it's not recommended in some of the people that develop PTSD, which is common in veterans.

 

 

As you don't feel grounded because of being in the war, the best way to heal that is to do psychotherapy for that experience.

Sort of grab the bull by the horns approach, instead of trying to tackle it sideways.

 

Btw if you choose a therapist who does dreamwork, you can do dreamwork with them, imo this is the only effective form of dreamwork anyhow.

 

Imo go ahead grab the bull by the horns and do therapy, it will work infinitely better, especially for the reason that makes you feel ungrounded.

 

 

Edited February 7 by snowymountains

[silent thunder]

Much empathy Siker. 

 

In processing deep intensity I have found great benefit in simplicity.

No need to strive after anything, nor achieve, shift or adjust. 

Sometimes what's most beneficial is to release into presence and allow space for settling.

 

When action is required and appropriate you already know your being will respond.

perhaps allow space for a time, just to be...

 

Allow yourself to be where you are, as you are... you are enough.

The natural state is your essence. 

 

Natural state is our source and no one is ever removed from it, though it may seem occluded from perception by conditions of mind and life.

 

 

 

muddiest water

left undisturbed by process

rests in clarity

 

Much respect and love mate. 

 may you know peace

 you've seen the rest of it

                /|\

[Siker]

Thank you very much everyone,
I appreciate your wise advice from the bottom of my heart.

[Gerard]

I said nothing about the Squat Monkey or any other squats. In fact, you should do them daily.

 

The voodoo stuff is what you need to be very aware and careful with. 

[Maddie]

12 hours ago, snowymountains said:

Be aware that meditation increases dopamine which is why it's not recommended in some of the people that develop PTSD, which is common in veterans.

 

This is why I stopped meditating. I wish I had known about relaxation induced anxiety at the beginning.

[Nungali]

Do some gardening , try to relax, spend time with your kids .

 

if this 'occult urge'  remains after that , investigate it then .   It may not be part of your 'True Will'  ... considering what you been through .

 

Give things time to settle out , if it is part of your  real path , it will resurface in more stable times .

[Apotheose]

Thanks for sharing that, Siker. And, again, I wish you a very successful path.

I agree with Nungali. Since you’ve just returned home from such a harsh activity like fighting for your country, it may be a better idea to let Time settle things down for now.

 

And, as SnowyMountains mentioned, therapy would be highly recommended and a great start.

 

In the future, if this desire sustains and you decide to begin the spiritual path, it would be great to have a “reference-person” to freely talk about the occult… a friend or a relative who is experienced in it. Mysticism — per se — is very safe, but you should always have someone around who you trust and that can clarify your doubts. Walking the spiritual path completely alone would not be a good idea. 

[snowymountains]

10 hours ago, Maddie said:

 

This is why I stopped meditating. I wish I had known about relaxation induced anxiety at the beginning.

 

There are risks even in the simplest ones and imo the bad thing is that these are not stated anywhere, at least not stated nowhere near the levels where potential benefits are stated, this is wrong.

 

Nevermind those meditations which are effectively regressions or those which cause physiological reactions.

Eg it usually takes a 1-2 months for a qualified therapist to evaluate if it's safe to do regressions.

Isn't it irresponsible to do them without this sort of safety guard...

 

Imo there needs to be transparency on the -'s too, not just the +'s

 

 

 

 

[Master Logray]

Check on these first.  Taichi is not exactly what you want to do.  But it is a safe first step and very good foundation for Qigong and other endeavours. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/@TaliaKav

https://www.taliakav.com/english

https://www.taichi.co.il/cheng-ming-system/tai-chi/

 

 

[Maddie]

3 hours ago, snowymountains said:

There are risks even in the simplest ones and imo the bad thing is that these are not stated anywhere, at least not stated nowhere near the levels where potential benefits are stated, this is wrong.

 

Exactly! You don't ever hear about this anywhere. And then if something does come up the most common thing you're told is oh that's part of the process just push through it. Unfortunately I had to learn about this the hard way.

[snowymountains]

1 hour ago, Maddie said:

 

Exactly! You don't ever hear about this anywhere. And then if something does come up the most common thing you're told is oh that's part of the process just push through it. Unfortunately I had to learn about this the hard way.

 

One of the reasons this is a common thing that's told is that most meditation teachers are entirely unqualified and this includes Gurus both self-proclaimed and "appointed" ones by some tradition.

 

I hope this changes in the future and teachers have eg at a minimum finished a 3-year university course in mindfulness, after that they can teach whatevs but let's first make sure they dont recommend exercises which raise dopamine to people who shouldn't have their dopamine raised..