Wanting to get rid of Heart Demons

[Ascetic]

If my primary focus of cultivation was removing Heart Demons how would I go about things?

 

Things like trauma, dirtied psychic connections, and so on. I hold up day to day, but I want to be ascetic towards asceticism and there is no reason to torture myself.

[Daniel]

1 hour ago, Emaciated Ascetic said:

If my primary focus of cultivation was removing Heart Demons how would I go about things?

 

Study the DDJ and don't forget to breathe. Anytime you are in doubt, follow the breath with the mind's eye.  And, try to have faith, everything is as it should be.

 

There is an excellent individual who used to participate here whom might be able to help you with the DDJ study.   Or at least give you a head start.  Their threads are really excellent.  Very ascetic in regard to the translation choices and the interpretation of the text. Pure.  No mess.  If you're interested, I'll look up some thread recommendations, maybe.

 

Blessings and good wishes to you.  Welcome to the forum.

 

Edited July 18 by Daniel

[Ascetic]

18 minutes ago, Daniel said:

 

Study the DDJ and don't forget to breathe. Anytime you are in doubt, follow the breath with the mind's eye.  And, try to have faith, everything is as it should be.

 

There is an excellent individual who used to participate here whom might be able to help you with the DDJ study.   Or at least give you a head start.  Their threads are really excellent.  Very ascetic in regard to the translation choices and the interpretation of the text. Pure.  No mess.  If you're interested, I'll look up some thread recommendations, maybe.

 

Blessings and good wishes to you.  Welcome to the forum.

 

Thank you

 

I'm assuming dawei's posts? They appear to have a long history of posts with translations. I'll study those first + the dao de Jing in general.

[Daniel]

24 minutes ago, Emaciated Ascetic said:

I'm assuming dawei's posts?

 

No, I was thinking of someone else.     

 

That said, maybe *I* should go read Dawei's posts?  Thanks for the tip, friend.  ~giggles~

[Cobie]

4 hours ago, Emaciated Ascetic said:

… I hold up day to day …

Treasure that and guard it carefully. Some cultivation practices make things a lot worse, so beware.

 

Wholesome virtuous behavior progressively leads to the foremost.~ Buddha AN 10.1” [in Ajay0 signature]

cf.

道德經 dao4 de2 jing1 - The Way of Virtue. 
 

 

Edited July 18 by Cobie

[johndoe2012]

You could try Metta meditation, wishing others well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 24 by johndoe2012

[thelerner]

Self image runs deep.  Created by our families, our culture, ourselves.  At 59, I'm still working on my demons.  

 

A Buddha might say- 'Show me these demons!' and when you couldn't, you'd realize in a flash, they weren't real.  But we don't live in a Zen parable.  So it'll take work, small successes, some failures, ultimately with perseverance you'll succeed.  

 

As johndoe2012 posted Metta meditation are a traditional way to give up anger and loathing.  I like Ajahn Brahms (humorous and insightful) writings on them.  Worth googling.  He suggests starting the meditations focusing goodwill on friends and things you like.  Waiting til that's solid before working on enemies and problems.    

 

Keeping a gratitude journal is helpful.  I've found making adding a Giving section to it makes it better.  Not just celebrating what you're grateful for at the end of day but also a few lines on what you've given, anyone you've helped, made smile or gave an encouraging word too.  

 

 

[johndoe2012]

26 minutes ago, thelerner said:

Keeping a gratitude journal is helpful.  I've found making adding a Giving section to it makes it better.  Not just celebrating what you're grateful for at the end of day but also a few lines on what you've given, anyone you've helped, made smile or gave an encouraging word too.  

 

 

 

That's a good idea thelerner 😊

 

By the way, I am still working on trauma that I experienced as a 4 year old when my parents left me. This deep scar has made relationships difficult but at the same time opened my heart a lot and gave me big lessons on love. 

 

I've used Metta, flying phoenix meditation and energy healing tools to clear that trauma continuesly. 

[Ascetic]

That sorry to hear.

I myself just had a weird spiritual awakening that I'm still recovering from, like 2 years ago even. Been a long process of psychic beacons and really pushing myself to learn etiquette, appearing insane from an outside perspective but very useful.

Overtime it feels like the influx has died down. I didn't expect to hear or have my mind filled with so much nonsensical spiritual connections, psychic streams, and even divine hymns of Gods like Allah. Things I had no relation to or connection, just bursting out of nowhere. It is comfortable and amazing in some sense, but I actually prefer the feeling of purity and isolation.
 

At some point, still somewhat is, things became uncomfortable with feelings of being watched, ideas of possession, and so on. But I still feel like a lot of it was just inner conflicts of sorts that caused me to perceive or my mind to dip into unpleasant pictures.

 

Meditation does help, so I will be trying those guided meditations. A gratitude journal may be nice, I might pick up on that.

Things are getting better, just wish there was a larger cake to eat from, feel like I should be rewarded in "full recovery" in a way that makes the struggle/unpleasant experiences compensated for.

[johndoe2012]

I see. 

 

You probably had a crown opening. I had the same thing happen to me. 

 

Suddenly I had knowledge of all my past lives, intuition was heightened and I could sense all of my stuff more intensely. 

 

It took a long time to calm down my system, 10 years at least. 

 

I found out a deep anxiety in my system seemed like an energy imbalance but was just deep tension in the body. Flying phoenix calmed that down. 

 

But I had to go through heavy purification to avoid insanity 😊

[Ascetic]

It could be that, thankful that it didn't take me that long. I might try a practice that has been passed down to me called 'Burning Soul Timber' to help ail what's left behind.

Edited July 25 by Emaciated Ascetic

[johndoe2012]

There are also yoga exercises for chest and heart. 

 

Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga, trauma release exercises, yi gong, om japa (chanting om into each chakra) etc etc. 

 

If something really is bothering you, you can also PM me.