ljazztrumpet

I think we're all products of our conditioning and there is no real free will. We are all absolutely doing the best we can with what we know. Every day..every second..it feels like I'm choosing..When I sit and meditate about it, I see I'm not really choosing. A real mystcial-type person sat me down once and explained how, once we lose all fear, we actually do have free will and can really choose. I understood it at the time but it was so 'above my head' I forgot!

I like using the term mechanical because it has a lot less connotations than the word 'spiritual'. In the sense I mean I am talking about developing qualities of love/kindness/compassion from a purely 'mechanical standoint'. Like if we want life to function in a better way, we improve the mechanics of life - just like improving the mechanics of a car to make it run better. Take someone who defines themselves as an ethical humanist. They may have no interest in spirituality, but know that developing qualities of love/kindness/compassion just cause life to function better mechanically - less suffering, and more happiness!

I've had some mystical type experiences after a lot of meditation where I saw absolutely everything is as it should be. 99.9% of the time I feel like many things need to be changed/healed and are not as they should be. But these mystical experiences were important to me because it confirmed to me that there is something higher/wiser than my thinking mind that, perhaps, one day I will be able to understand. Also, I believe that, even if seeing everything is always as it should be was my default nature, I wouldn't stop trying to change and heal things I wanted to. I wouldn't stop trying to alleviate suffering, because these actions to change things would be just another part of everything being as it should be. And I probably would be more effective in my actions to change things, because they wouldn't be motivated by any feelings of anger or fear.

I agree - this can even be applied to food, water, and air. Look at that cat Prahlad Jani who was in the news a few years back when they did all those tests on him. I guess he would be considered the 'ultimate breatharian' - He hasn't eaten or drunk anything for over 70 years now. I've read some breatharian-type teachings that say, when you no longer need air you have overcome death and can go back and forth between the physical/non-physical. If anyone has already done this, I'm not aware of it - they certainly aren't going public about it!

Hello there everyone. New user here. I live in Queens, NY and have studied various forms of spiritual healing, meditation, and nondual type teachings for a number of years. My main interest is healing, both physically and emotionally, through the power of love. I currently am practicing Pangu Qigong and John Sherman's 'Self-Directed Attention' exercise (justonelook.org). I also like to practice the very basic posture of zhuan zhang at times. After studying many different types of spiritual healing practices and different advaitic philosophies and meditation teachings, I have come to realize that the only practices that make any difference to me are the ones that open my heart and increase my ability to feel love. I'm no longer interested in any type of 'Awakening'/'Enlightenment', etc. Just into making my practical life better and for those I come into contact with. I really resonate with the Pangu practice because the challenge is to try and stay in a loving type of mentality all the time. John Sherman's SDA exercise helps me with this because it is about developing focused concentration on what you want to give your attention to. Ok, well I guess that's it for now. Wishing everyone all the best! Lex www.LexSamu.com

Thanks ny:-) Those are great translations you have as well..thanks for sharing them. Yeah, silencing the inner dialogue makes a lot of sense to stay in the password. For me, strengthening my focused attention through John Sherman's SDA exercise has been really big for me in being able to stay in the password more. Before that, any number of events which happened in my life that troubled me could cause me to forget to stay in the password. Now, every few days it seems to get easier and easier to stay in the password, even if I face other events that trouble me. I've heard really good things about Master Ou as far as what a kind fellow he is.. I agree with what you're saying about it being a learning experience. To me, anytime I can get to hang out with someone that is really exceptionally loving/kind/compassionate is a real treat and inspiration for me - as well as a learning experience. I feel some type of positive energy transfer takes place - maybe it just makes me realize what is possible as far as a way to behave with people and look at life.

Even parents with much more wisdom and very good hearts are still not going to be at the 'height of wisdom', just because they decided to bring a life into a world where so much suffering exists. It's much to your wife's credit that she was able to overcome these more extreme challenges. I mention it because I have a very good friend who had a similar childhood and was able to overcome it in similar ways to your wife. But it is certainly unusual in my experience for most people to be able to do this. BTW, some of the very nicest, kindest, and wisest parents I have met are the ones that have chosen to adopt. They want to take care of children who have already been born into a suffering world to make their lives better.

Stosh, that's crazy talk - Where are you coming up with these ridiculous ideas?

I'm new here and I don't mean any offense, I mean I'm here as well, but isn't this forum exclusively populated by male spiritual/metaphysical geek types? The only way Jessica would find out about the debate on myths from smyths is if Roger was to let her know. It's not like Jessica's girlfriends are going to 'tweet' her and be like, 'OMG, do you know what people are saying about you on The Tao Bums?' Also, anyone who thinks self-love can take the form of attacking other people are not doing to be interested in a group like this - whether man or woman!

Thanks for sharing your insights ec:-) I'm also new here as well! I found this site by accident about a month ago..I started reading these posts from this one poster who I resonated with and then saw cats talking about Pangu and other things I dig..So I joined! Yes, I have heard of shengzhen qigong. I never studied it, just read about it and it sounds really good. Personally, I don't think it matters what qigong, or whatever practice, a person does. I think it is the intention to open one's heart to love (I agree - takes courage!) that heals and what makes life better for people. The very few effective spiritual healers I am aware of have always stressed this as the main key for healing and happiness. I particularly like Pangu because I resonate with practices that speak of developing the qualities of love/compassion/kindness/etc. as being the key for healing and happiness, combined with a lot of testimonials of physical and emotional healing. So Pangu really resonated with me - I see it as an evolution of other healing modalities I've studied. When I started to combine the idea of staying in that 'love mindset' with John Sherman's SDA practice, I really have started noticing the effects of this more than ever before. I always felt the key for me was to stay in a 'love mindset/consciousness' as much as possible throughout each day - but all different events of life would throw me off and I would forget. Now, from strengthening my attention, it is getting easier to stay in that mindset more and more.. and it's only been a few weeks since I had the realization to combine the two ideas of focused attention and love consciousness. Now John Sherman is saying that the fear of life can totally fall away and, no matter what happens to us, there will be no suffering attached to it - Not that we won't feel pain, grief, etc.. but no suffering to go along with that. It is quite a claim, but I know he is sincere about it and lives 'in' that experience. That seems like an incredible amount of freedom to me - to live in that experience without any fear.

Sure thing Roger:-) I'm sure you'll dig justonelook and LCOPD.. If you get into the 'Self-Directed Attention' exercise, you might find this clip very informative where John explains the difference between mindfulness meditation and the SDA exercise:

Sir, how dare you.. If I saw you in person right now I would slap you with my dueling glove and challenge you. (I always carry a white dueling glove with me in case incidents like this happen). We could get some of those old-timey pistols like people bring in on those internet 'Pawn Stars' shows. I was so compelled by 'Rick and Morty' when I found it a few weeks ago I just had to find out about who came up with it..I had a feeling there was something 'deeper' going on behind the scenes..and I was right! https://www.inverse.com/article/32472-rick-and-morty-dan-harmon http://mashable.com/2017/08/10/rick-and-morty-pickle-rick-freudian-recap/#ekpv8cTcUiq9

Sincere prayer:

I can't believe no one is stopping me from posting these things. You guys are CRAZY!! And, now, a word from Photography Raptor and Tinkles.

My own personal experiences have convinced me that there are no sovereign being(s) that rule us. I probably used to 'look down' on people with certain religious beliefs at some point in my life. I study spiritual healing and I try to go wherever I hear about 'miraculous' type physical healings take place. That has brought me into some fundamentalistic born-again christian type situations. And I've had wonderful experiences in these places. Falling out in the spirit..spontaneous glossolalia for month (with Tommy Welchel - the last 'voice' of the Asuza St revival which is the only record of multiple eyewitness testimonies of full limbs being spontaneously regenerated) and other types of similar experiences. The best thing for me was meeting some of these people who had so much love and compassion in their hearts. The christians that the healings took place around all shared these similar characteristics. I believe it was because they believed that they were supposed to do what their savior (the Big JC) did..so they tried to copy him..different than those who just prayed to him as a 'savior' to come and help them. These people where the healings and mystical things happened were in a different type of state. They were out of the head and in the heart, to be poetic. Very surrendered. If I could take the 'purple pill' and go back into The Matrix, believing in an external God and Jesus, etc. (although I do believe in the soul of JC because of mystical experiences) I would take it if I knew I could be as loving and kind as some of the people I got to spend time with at those healing services. Anyway, I'm sure what I intellectually think I know as truth now will shift in the next few years..or months..weeks even..days really..oh man..there goes one now

For whatever reason, in my life I have attracted people with some very powerful mystical gifts. I have gotten to interact with what I would call very evolved souls that have been on the earth plane as what most of us might call 'spiritual masters'. One of the things I have learned from these beings is that one of the very most important things to them is that we become our own masters. That we absolutely know that we can do everything that they can do - and to never put them on any type of pedestal. They want us to have our own complete self-reliance. The most prolific and one of the most powerful healers I'm aware of recommended a series of books for people to read called 'The Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East' by Baird Spalding. I think you can read them all for free online in PDF. They are works of didactic fiction and the whole theme behind them is that a group of American scientists go to the Himalayas and meet these 'spiritual masters' who can do all sorts of healing and have all the 'siddhi' powers we all equate with metaphysical teachings. Throughout these books, the whole emphasis is that they are telling the scientists that they are just people like they are and that they can do all the things the 'spiritual masters' are doing. Even those these other more evolved people/spirits/beings don't want to see us suffer, they seem to know that we have to go at our own pace...however many lifetimes that may take. From one of these evolved beings I got to study with (who I really respect because he was able to heal tens of thousands of people while incarnated here on the earth) said that our souls make the quickest progress here on the earth plane..that it takes a lot longer when we are 'off-plane'. I had a couple of what some might call NDE's recently - I am pretty convinced that it was shown to me what would happen if I was to cross over right now at this point in my life. I remember I went to a 'town' (both times it was the same place..this happened a few months apart)..it was a run down place and all the people there were at the same level of consciousness I was..And I remember thinking like, 'Oh man, I'm gonna have to go back to the earth plane again to keep going/raise my consciousness.' It's not like there was someone controlling me and saying I had to go back.. But I knew I would choose to do it because I wanted to make more progress and be in a better place on the other side!

Thanks for sharing this Orion. A lot of great stuff here. I haven't experimented so much with psychedelics to open spiritual consciousness for many of the reasons you mentioned. It's what I have observed a lot of the time with people who have experimented with them for 'too long' - that haven't transcended them.

Here's that thread - it was in 'General Discussion'

Hey cool deal man! I learned it from a friend about a year and a half ago. I only started practicing it regularly close to two months ago as I've had other revelations about the power of love to heal and realized the Pangu vehicle really resonates with me. I mentioned that Bruno Groening healing group I was in and I feel that the Pangu is kind of an evolution of that teaching. I will probably take the moving form when Master Ou comes back to NYC next year just to experience his energy. As I think I mentioned in one of my posts above, doing John Sherman's Self-Directed Attention exercise is really now helping me focus on staying in the password much more as I go throughout my day - oh wait..ok, I talk about it on the other thread, 'What Does Everyone Practice?' in the General Discussion forum..or is it in The Rabbit Hole? I'm still getting used to the 'nooks and crannies' around here;-) I posted a link to the healing story of a lady in FLA who really helped me with the Pangu in that thread.. She was able to heal herself of some major, major stuff.. in just a couple of sessions of moving form...because she already understood that it's all about the love and maintaining that consciousness throughout the day.. That's what really heals us.. The movements and visualizations are a nice 'vehicle' for a lot of us..but, really, it's staying in that love consciousness imo. I also took the non-moving form and healing skill by correspondence course. I have one very good friend who has a lot of mystical gifts and she can usually feel when I'm doing the healing skill on her.. Like she'll call me up and ask, 'Were you doing the healing skill on me at such and such a time?' Pretty neat

Yeah Roger, this is just what John Sherman and other, both physical and non-physical teachers that I really resonate with, talk about as well. It makes a lot of sense to me. One thing that really fascinates me about John Sherman is his talk of how much he loves life. In my experience, except people who are afraid of death, most people I come across usually don't have such a passionate love for life. And I do think that's because of fear. In asking John about it, he pretty much is saying what you are.. When we lose the fear of life, then everything we do can be done naturally and joyfully..not out of fear..and that would make the actions we decide to take even more effective I would think. So I think the less fear we have, the more we are able to do what you are espousing here.. In my life experiences it seems that the most effective way to dispel fear is through cultivating love, so that's why I emphasize it so much in my own life. One thing John (and his wife) helped me realize is that I was doing certain 'spiritual-type' practices too much out of fear..and it was making them less effective. When I had this realization it definitely made the practices I was doing much more effective and I am doing them now more out of a sense of joy and relaxation - at least relative to the way I was doing them! I hope you can come onto a conference call he has on Wed + Saturdays sometime (https://www.justonelook.org/events/talk-with-john.html) as I think you'd probably really dig it. Everything there is non-profit....I mean they accept donations...but the energy is very pure there because there are no ulterior motives to make $$ going on. Hey, have you ever read 'Love Can Open Prison Doors'? https://www.twolisteners.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/LoveCanOpenPrisonDoors.pdf It was written in the 1920's and is in a christian belief paradigm..but I just take all that as a metaphor - Really it is about the power of true love to create enormous shifts... If you dig it, I have the longer version called 'Release'' that I can email you:-)

Great point ST. I haven't known anyone who has done any type of psychedelics, or other drugs, that has had any permanent shifts in consciousness. They always seem to go back to their 'baseline' consciousness. I think if I was in some type of indigenous tribe where certain drugs were used as part of a person's development in raising their consciousness, it would be a different story. Around my area, in spiritual healing circles, Ayahuasca is big right now. I haven't done it yet and haven't sought it out either, since the people I know who have used it said they didn't derive any permanent shifts from it. Just some cool experiences at the time. I was in a spiritual healing group for several years in NYC.. There were a lot of medical doctors in it because they would verify healings whenever possible. I read a good amount of healing reports where people would come to a meeting addicted to strong drugs (I mean like heroin and the like) and, sometimes, after absorbing the energy in the meeting, they would leave and be cured of the addiction. I'm talking about they would wake up the next morning and forget to 'shoot up' or whatever! If you are addicted to strong drugs, that very idea is usually considered ridiculous, as it's always the first thing on your mind. This is why I usually recommend that people who self-medicate, and don't have dependents, to do their spiritual practice and let the desire for the drug their addicted to fall away on it's own. I think that any practice that resonates with a person and is focused on opening the heart to an all-encompassing love can do this. Also, some people who feel depressed or somesuch similar state, may need some type of drugs to motivate them into spiritual practice. Just to stay in a good, positive frame of mind. One mistake I have seen people make that have some type of addiction to a drug is that they start up a new spiritual practice and think they need to quit the drug they're addicted to 'cold turkey'.. But, many times, what happens is, then, the person loses the motivation to do the practice! Obviously it's far better to not crave a substance that you were formally addicted to rather than to use your willpower to fight against the urge to not do something you really want to do. I've seen this happen a number of times with people over the years in healing circles - where a person just loses the desire for an addictive substance that was harming them. But I've also known a few people, and read about a good many, who have crossed over from self-medicating. It's usually a great way to go because you just fall asleep. But that's why I feel anyone with dependents in their lives (like kids/pets/etc.) to seek out AA/NA programs as well. Obviously, in these cases, a person would want to try to do everything in their power to stop using the addictive substance that could kill them.

Hey Roger, thanks man.. A little while back I realized that the people I most admire are the ones that are completely honest with their shortcomings - perhaps shortcomings isn’t the right term - Maybe it’s being completely honest about things that cause ourselves, and others, to suffer. I had a chance to study with, through a friend with very strong mystical gifts, the most prolific spiritual healer in recorded history, at least that I know of. He healed tens of thousands of people in Germany right after WWII.. For several years, I facilitated a group in NYC based on his teachings. I consider him to be the biggest spiritual master that’s incarnated. Point is, even he had things he still had to learn..even he had shortcomings. He really helped to realize we are all on an equal playing field here..and there are no ‘spiritual masters’ out there..there are no ‘gurus’.. I believe what it comes down to is just people sharing their own unique gifts with each other and learning. It’s very funny to me when I see all these people out there that are put up as so-called ‘enlightened/awakened teachers’.. Great insights..I feel similarly about a lot of the things you’re saying. I believe we can engage in practices, like you say, where we can ‘abandon the thoughts and emotions that arise out of pride/ego’. I think any practice that gets us to open our hearts and spread love out as much as possible can do this. With all this stuff you are saying about the fear, you may dig John Sherman (justonelook.org). He talks about all suffering coming from the ‘fear of life’ and, when that goes, no matter what happens, there will be no suffering attached to anything that occurs. It doesn’t mean we won’t experience pain, grief, etc.. but there will be no mental/emotional suffering attached to it. What's left when all the fear is gone? I would like to think it's the qualities many of us use when we use terms like love, compassion, and kindness. My own current experiences are that, as I focus on 'projecting' love outward/all around..fear starts to diminish and I feel better, as well as being able to interact in better ways that bring me more happiness and seem to make others feel better as well. BTW - that healer cat I mentioned up above is Bruno Groening..there’s some fun stuff with him up on youtube.. I don’t know if I’m in any of the clips..but I’m easy to spot because I’ll be the guy with the aloha shirt.. been collecting them for a number of years..I even wear them in the middle of winter in NYC;-)

Yeah Roger, great insights. I definitely agree. I liken things like pride, or acquiring any type of power that 'rules' through fear, to be very similar to a drug high. There's usually a short term benefit to it - of course, or else why would people do it? It's a 'high'. Eventually, it leads to a big downfall though if you stay in that mindset. Just like getting addicted to drugs. It's just that, typically, it is so much easier to go the route of pride/big ego/drug highs, etc. I can't really figure out why the avenue of humility and all-encompassing love seems to be so much more 'hidden' in this life. Like, usually, most of us have to go through a lot of various types of suffering (and, imo, lifetimes) to get to the place where we see that cultivating the qualities of love/compassion/kindness/humility/service/etc. is where the true joy and real power is. Personally, I feel like I'm right in the middle of transitioning from one to the other..And I seem to attract a lot of people into my life who are doing the same.. Maybe that's why I was 'led' to this board!

Nowadays, it seems some TV shows are actually designed to stop/short-circuit the human's logical thinking mind. I'm new to this group and I hope I don't get into trouble for posting this, since it shouldn't be seen by anyone..anywhere..at any time.

Yeah man. Currently, what I think happened is that, before I incarnated, I was a 'puffed-up'/arrogant soul. So I set up the challenge for myself to learn that love was the most powerful force no matter what the situation. Either I learn this, or suffer terribly. Oh what a fool was I!;-) Several months ago, one of the most loving beings I think that has ever been on the earth told me (through a very gifted animal communicator) that I need to learn to be grateful for everything that happens and see it as a lesson for my growth. That she would come back into my life as I healed myself through these types of realizations. And, just recently, I found this confirmed to me by a lady who I feel has the greatest understanding of the type of qigong I am studying. Her story is quite remarkable: http://www.pangu.org/testimonials/practicing/my-healing-journey-susan-winters/ I believe she was able to heal herself so quickly because she understood very strongly about the power of love. I've been, and continue to be, very fortunate to work with some really wonderful people and musicians in my career. I learn a lot about love just from hanging out and working with some of these wonderful people. Here is the former principle trumpet player of the Metropolitan Opera in NYC waxing eloquently on the value of compassion and generosity: And please remember folks, if nothing else, "The Lordy doesn't only love the poooooooor....Yeeee-haaaa!!"