Vajra Fist

I really like the sound of this. I bought the DVD and book on Amazon for pretty cheap and I'm looking forward to digging into it.

^ agree with this. I think the the banhammer should only be wielded on those who are repeatedly abusive. Personally I have a soft spot for someone who comes onto a thread calling for him to be banned and thanks everyone, regardless of whether he/she is a bit kooky. With regards to the previous moderation crew, I liked and respected Kar3n a lot. I had no idea about her political views though, as I never really frequented the off topic areas. As a dyed in the wool socialist, I have no sympathy for far right views. But I think politics shouldn't really have a place here at all.

It was a private consultation, and the readings were specific to me. In other words, your mileage may vary. Present moment is kind of unique, in that you basically lay down your entire concept of self and your awareness of your environment and meditate on space/the void. I've practiced it on and off and each time arrived at very deep samadhi. Its pleasant but somewhat disconcerting, as you're effectively switching off your higher brain function and temporarily forgetting your entire concept of self.

I've been practicing this dharani before bed for a few months now and it has replaced my Vajrasattva evening practice. Anyone else practice it regularly?

I bought a few of the blessing of the energy centres and while I found them powerful at first their effect tapered off. A reading by Eric Isen confirmed this. One that had a really good reading, and I had a great experience with is the 'generous present moment' meditation. Very beautiful practice.

Had an experience close to this in my late teens. Had just started meditating and somehow I got really really deep. Had a dream one night that I'd found the holy grail and had drunk from it. I woke up and for the next two days was in a semi enlightened state. The dimensional world seemed like a veneer, like it was painted over a greater reality. I could sense the molecules that made up objects, and my mind was utterly quiescent like the morning after fresh snowfall. Later when this state had receeded, I read a bit more. I'm pretty sure that when I was sensing particles of matter, I was sensing the Buddha fields. And the state of mind was of falling snow. It's been 20 years and I'm still nowhere near my attainment in that week, reached after just a handful of times meditating.

No offence implied. I know there are good people here like yourself who practice this style. I don't know a great deal about the system and it's possible my teacher at the time may have misinterpreted some of those spontaneous movements. I will edit my post accordingly.

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The movements in fragrant gong have always appeared as pretty shamanic, compared to zhineng which is clearly grounded in TCM. Would recommend other TCM based systems. Wild goose is excellent. Spring Forest is good too.

There's an excellent tutorial on udemy for lift qi up pour qi down. One of the teachers Jeremy Colledge was here on DB at one stage. He's fairly near me geographically and seems like a thoroughly nice chap. I practiced Zhineng for a while but not in any depth. Seems like a great system.

Apologies if you've addressed this, but what happens to you after death in this system? Do you become a hu fa shen for someone else, in order to accrue good karma and continue ascending? I've been thinking of these issues for around two years since first learning of this system, and I wonder if such a fate is even desirable?

I get my exercise from a 15 minute Ashtanga yoga routine on a David Swensen DVD (yoga short forms). Great bodyweight exercise, aerobic, stretches all major muscle groups and it's meditative to boot. Most bang for your buck and perfect for the time poor like me.

Where did you hear that? The amitabha mantra for instance leads to rebirth in a pure land at death, as do many other sutra methods.

For some mantras in the vajrayana tradition you need transmission. But generally anything from the sutras is fine to practice without transmission.

Has anyone had much experience with this chap? I've started reading his book 'Becoming Supernatural' and it's pretty fascinating. At first I kind of wrote it off as kind of kooky self help, but there's a heck of a lot of juice in his meditations, which lends a bit of authenticity to what he says. His Facebook group is utterly full of people who've had kundalini awakening in a very stable and positive way. Would be curious to know if anyone has given his system a go.