Bindi

The dantians are in the body though, there are no beyond body dantians. Shen is transformed into wuji in the upper dantian within the body. So unless you just jump straight to wuji, the local body dantians are a necessary process.

Butt-hurt is a term that pretty well belongs in the gutter in the first place. Dickhead is such a good description of certain people I'd have to make an exception for that one edit: my earlier post was referring to the possible origins of the term, not the term as it has come to be understood by those who use it. If someone has never heard the term butt-hurt, then their mind will make whatever association it does, and their response will be to their initial association.

I did a simple google search, apparently Taomeow isn't the first person to have noticed a rather stronger possible association to the term butt-hurt than you have presented:

And gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond...

How might you know if the pill or medicine had been generated?

I've never really asked why or thought about it too much. I was just following a very clear instruction in a dream to do this certain sort of breathing in through the crown and exhaling down into my belly, and when I started doing that I found that the energy charging action that I had been doing suddenly seemed to disrupt the healing qi, and just the breathing seemed to keep it flowing, so I stopped doing the charging action and just continued with the breathing until a couple of months later I dreamt I was to stop that and just go back to normal breathing. But I'm not really sure about the mechanics of it except to say that it works, and it never gets exhausted. This is pretty much what I did from the start, I just receive quite a lot of detailed information now about what is going on in specific channels. Mostly I don't even feel it, but very occasionally some new gift comes along that demonstrates to me that something is progressing.

Well, in one sense I just knew it was time to focus on the heart, but the real world conspired in showing me how to raise the energies from the navel area to the heart area around the same time, and it was a very specific action, it didn't rise by itself. It was at this time that I also started being able to run healing qi out through my hands, so heart work for me also entailed clearing the arm channels for at least a year, and then some channel from the crown to the heart to allow healing qi to always be available freely. But heart work also meant clearing ida and pingala between the heart and the head, and entering the central channel, and various other details, mainly setting things ready for later. This description of the heart knot might make my position a bit clearer as well:

Imagining energy coming in through the crown and going down into the earth and then up again is not actually bringing energy into the central channel though. Focusing on the sub-navel area happens to be the right place to start for me, when it is time to bring those energies up to the heart, then that is a good time to focus on the heart. It sounds to me like you wouldn't even suggest to focus on the sub-navel area in the beginning. But then that's what makes your system your system, even within a single discipline there is dispute about these sort of things, like in neidan whether you should start in the upper versus the lower dantian, and these difference of opinion will presumably never be resolved.

Interesting, the lower dantian could be categorised as being in the sub navel area, and to me it is the perfect place to start focusing to remain grounded in the body, it was the only place I focused on for a very long time. The fact that you specifically wouldn't recommend focusing there only emphasises our difference in approach. Would you ever recommend bringing energy into the central channel? I'm a big believer in the idea that where we focus our practice develops our subtle energy bodies in specific ways. What are the four different lineages?

But it doesn't fill me with great faith about the benefits of raising kundalini either. A lot of these swami's and guru's display these double standards, like Muktananda passing off sex with him as kundalini raising, and Sai Baba with his penis massaging fetish - I don't have a lot of time for kundalini preachers who can't even practice what they preach. To be able to overlook negative actions requires a degree of blind trust that I neither have nor aspire to.

Is Swami Satyananda Saraswati a true teacher though, that I should take his word on anything? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/11273299/Yoga-guru-was-violent-sexual-abuser-Australia-royal-commission-told.html

So have you ever experienced any sort of kundalini rising, much like you can still experience sensation in your body from physical causes even after duality is dropped?

Well I guess the Vajrayana Buddhists must have some good methods, as far as my own practices go my methods are very personalised, though I began with a commitment to psycho-therapeutic health, and my practice has grown organically from there. Certain yoga postures, certain breathing exercises, working with healing qi to shift energy, some other stuff, all in its right time and place. I gather amongst Westerners especially kundalini is often seen to be the cleaner itself, but I think this is a very unfortunate trend - confusing the queen with the chamber maid IMO - so much of value can develop that wouldn't have a chance otherwise if energies are delicately and intelligently cultivated instead of going at things randomly at a million miles an hour. In opening the heart chakra, I think of the granthi's, it's easy to say 'I've opened such and such a chakra', but to dissolve the granthis, and transmute the energies, certain steps have to be taken that will take longer than a year or two or even ten. Theories like non-duality and immediate awakening are not compatible IMO with this deeper sort of energy work.

@Jeff, so it's not a system that I follow, but this description of the Vajrayana system is pretty well how I perceive the subtle energy channels. Which channel was associated with the penis I wasn't clear on before as I have only pursued this information previously to a limited extent. Also of interest, in the last paragraph "meditating on the crown chakra is important for consciousness projection, either to another world or into anoher body" sounds like something you focus on, but this is not the only meditation which is important, and they don't mention what meditation on ajna chakra is important for. The Vajrayana system states that the central channel (avadhūtī) begins at the point of the third eye like the of Lord Shiva, curves up to the crown of the head, and then goes straight down to the lower body. There are two side channels, the rasanā and lalanā, which start at their respective nostrils and then travel down to the lower body. The apāna vāyu (down-moving wind, where "wind" means the invisible power to move) governs the lower terminations of the three channels. The lower end of the central channel ends at the rectum. The lower end of the lalanā ends in the urinary tract. The lower end of the rasanā channel emits semen. ...completion stage practices, where an attempt is made to bring the subtle airs or winds of the body into the central channel, to realize the clear light of bliss and emptiness, and to attain buddhahood (Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Clear Light of Bliss: A Tantric Meditation Manual). ...The side channels run parallel to the center channel, except at locations such as the navel, heart, throat, and crown (i.e., the chakras) where the two side channels twist around the central channel. At the navel, throat, and crown, there is a twofold knot caused by each side channel twisting once around the central channel. At the heart wheel there is a sixfold knot, where each side channel twists around three times. An important part of completion stage practice involves loosening and undoing these knots. ...focusing on the subnavel area is important for the practice of tummo, or inner-fire. Meditating on the heart chakra is important for realizing clear light. Meditating on the throat chakra is important for lucid dreaming and the practices of dream yoga. And meditating on the crown chakra is important for consciousness projection, either to another world or into another body. Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal

No I don't follow the Dzogchen path either, I merely agree with the Tibetan Buddhist understanding of the central and 2 side channels. Kundalini released into a fully prepared system might well "burn away the dross of ignorance and ego-clinging", but this would be my sticking point, that the system has to be prepared first, otherwise the energy would likely give an empty result at best and at worst could lead to kundalini problems.

In his quoted link they say "yoga describes Tummo as the aggressive fire which ignites from below navel, pierces the chakras one by one and reaches the sky of the crown chakra." I follow the school of thought where the Tibetan Buddhists envision the central channel ending in the forehead, not the crown, which doesn't tally with this description of tummo really, but someone with more knowledge of Tibetan practices might be able to explain why there seems to be a discrepancy here.

I have never really looked into the concept of tummo so I have nothing to say about it ATM, I have tried to research the Tibetan understanding of the central channel though, in which ajna is at the end of the central energy channel, which runs up the body to the top of the head, and then over and down, terminating at the forehead. The two side channels which in the Hindu tradition are referred to as Ida and Pingala then continue inward towards the two nostrils according to their tradition and end there. It is possible that their concept of the central channel starts at the tip of the penis, my information on this is limited, but if so this would suggest they're not using kundalini energy which typically is viewed as beginning closer to the lower spine.

I find they have a good understanding of kundalini and nadi's in general, especially the central nadi, though I agree with the Tibetan Buddhist concept that Kundalini needs to exit through the forehead and not the crown. This to me is a fundamental difference between kundalini paths and neidan +Tibetan Buddhism.

@dwai

@ Dwai

I have a concept of how kundalini fits into the big picture if you want to go there in this thread, though I can't speak to your actual request. I agree with certain aspects of your story, like your perspective on the cold channel, and the idea of a diagram of the subtle energy body. I found the kundalini care website to have interesting information, lots of diagrams there too http://kundalinicare.com/kinds-of-kundalini-risings-2/

The Full article is here He doesn't think it's only relevant to Buddhism, I gather it's just where he noticed it first. Reading some Buddhist material I can see how easily it could be used to justify spiritual bypassing, and to justify it righteously so that the bypassing even becomes evidence of achievement. I've read some Buddhist psychology and I don't see it there though.

It is also true that it was a Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist - John Welwood - who introduced the term spiritual bypassing in the 1980's to describe the tendency he witnessed in the Western Buddhist movement to unconciously utilise this tactic...

I would be interested in a bit more detail regarding the use of yin and yang and the inverse use from your understanding of the texts.

For years my LDT felt 'unpleasant', my understanding is that I had unresolved emotional issues there, but staying with the 'noticing' and working through the issues it finally cleared, and what had been developed in my LDT was then ready to rise to my MDT. I personally can't imagine doing a top-down process, it makes no sense to me, but each to their own of course.