skyblue

Are the threads still there? I'd love to give them a read.

Crazy set of coincidences. 

1. Xianxia stuff

2. Desire to escape from my then plight (qi stagnation in head, resulting in constant exploding pains in the whole of head region including the face, college entrance exams were in my face and I hadn't prepared one bit because of my webnovel addiction, and so on. It seemed hell back then. Almost wanted to try getting hit by a train do that I could be at peace in another world)

3. A sudden awakening

4. Creation, a Dao bums member

5. Damo Mitchell, Sadhguru

Moving manipuraka has genuine disastrous consequences. However, the manipuraka chakra is not the LDT. The Taoist term for this chakra is the Wheel of Upright Path.

28 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

 

There's many things taoists believe about the true self, a lot of theory too (which may differ from school to school), and a lot of special terms.  But ultimately there's an agreement that it is experiential, and the experience is of a kind of interplay between the changing and the unchanged, the created and the uncreated, opening-closing, movement-stillness, wuji-taiji, Xiantian and Houtian, form/substance and no form/no substance, being/nonbeing, manifesting/the unmanifest, individual/universal, and so on.  Also, it is an interplay of the  energies of the world -- an all-encompassing power equal to the power of creation, of nature, of tao itself.  Definitely worth the supreme effort of cultivating, in other words.  But even those who cultivate for millions of years (like the Jade Emperor) might "only" take the status of their self as far as that of the supreme deity in charge of the universe -- there's always room for growth. 

What exactly is meant by "status of their self"?

On 02/03/2021 at 11:20 AM, C T said:

 

Accurate account. 

 

This sort of thing is rife in varying degrees throughout Southeast Asia, from small Hindu temples, comprising no more than 20 or 30 devotees, to massive 'corporate' structures with thousands of patrons & devotees. Some Tibetan charlatan 'gurus' indulge in similar disgusting practices as well, albeit with more sophisticated set-ups. 

And how are we supposed to know them or guard against them?

4 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

 

What´s helpful?  Oftentimes people who intend to be helpful aren´t.  For instance, I occasionally see people on the board trying to be "helpful" to other Bums by detailing personality deficits.  This is rarely helpful.  In general, I think your Sifu´s guideline is a good one but I wouldn´t take it as an absolute rule.  Occasionally people are unable to ask for help but can nevertheless benefit.

 

My sense is that true helpfulness emerges from emptiness.  That´s not a word I use very often because I´m not very versed in the philosophical traditions where it appears, but I´ll try to explain what I mean.  If I "want" to be helpful my actions usually won´t be, at least not in the purest sense.  The very act of wanting is an impediment to helpfulness, a contaminant that distorts.  Truly helpful action emerges spontaneously out of selflessness.  It´s natural and unadorned and no brownie points are sought or given.  When I am fully myself, in the wisest sense of the phrase, I´m available to be of help.  I´m no Sifu but if I had to make a guideline about helping I´d say don´t help when you´re emotionally entangled. (Though that might be setting the bar impossibly high.)

Well said.

The same thing happened with me.

It would be for the best if you can get an expert to look at this.

Other than that, one thing you can do is absolutely abandon any sort of meditation/ stillness/ energy work and live a full materialistic life for some time so that you don't build too much of karma with the head region. Cuz once the mind gets fully anchored in the head because of the energy movement inside it, it's difficult to let go and simply allow the energy to do their thing. You often want to control it or force it to dampen, which ends up not working the way you want and will bring you lots of frustration.

Other than that, there isn't a fast working method that you can perform by yourself.

Btw can you describe what you're experiencing? Is it headaches with ringing sound?

I read the whole thing yesterday, and it was as fun read. The world building and setting the scene is done well in earlier parts of the book. However, I feel like @dwai failed to extract and exploit this potential well.

The mahasiddha army seemed way too overpowered and the legendary asuras and danavas with their powerful black magic and millennia-ahead tech were suddenly as easy to convince as an innocent villager. There had to be something about Asuras and Danavas which stopped the sages and saints of the earlier yugas from converting them and preventing the countless Devasura Wars. Moreover, I don't think that even the most elite of kshatriyas could outdo the mighty Asuras with the kind of ease these half-year trainees could.

Ranting here cuz I don't have an account on Goodreads.

Here's what I observed. The Yin and Yang aspect of the human mind that drive almost all of the human activity on the planet are the instinctual self-preservation and the desire to expand infinitely respectively. Each one of them expresses themselves in multitudinous ways, including but not limited to : getting attached to ego/the concept of comfort zones/feelings of possessiveness, jealousy, etc. (Yin) and the need to keep getting more, be it land/money/power (Yang).

Lust, imo is a somewhere in the middle. A huge part of instinctual self preservation is associated with the feeling of craving sex, and for most mortals (can't find a better term, so I use mortals and cultivators to seperate them), the whole feeling from desire to the process itself and then to the release is one of the only ways they can act upon their desire to expand. The experience of two bodies almost melting into one kinda partly fulfills the subtle desire of experiencing all things as one.

10 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

Lust is part of our makeup and I wouldn´t be in a hurry to wipe it out.  It´s like hunger.  Millions of people have issues with food -- I know I do -- but the answer isn´t to eliminate hunger.  Millions of people also have problems with sex -- I take the fifth -- but the answer isn´t to eliminate lust.

Agreed. That'd be a disaster. 

Lust is a natural effect of the aforementioned aspects of the mind and in itself is a cause for something very, very necessary for existence of the world. 

2 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

 

As it relates to personal survival the difference between food and sex is that eating is unavoidable for survival, while sex is not necessary to survive personally.

That's what you think as an individual human being. On an existential stage, evolution does not think so. Sex is not necessary for survival, but in the long run, lust is something more important than the feeling of hunger imo.

The natural physiological (and psychological) desire to extend the species and its ability to hide behind the thoughts and inducing a huge inertia. This is my experience as a late adolescent with all sorts of hormones acting up.

Indra is the lord of sense organs (Indriyas) and his net is the web of sense pleasures which keep a sentient being bound for innumerable lifetimes. In Hinduism, they say merits can give laymen a chance to experience the presence of saints and sages. People who walked the path of self cultivation generally had lots of merits from their past lives.

Other than that, the yogis were told to not to bother about merits after they had started the path. They performed yajnas for the betterment of the world without considering the merits because most of them were great devotees of either self established, or real god/goddesses/devas. Thus, they didn't require the wholesome states from merits.

I've heard a saying that goes, "Merits are like handcuffs made of gold. They certainly make you feel good but i their essence is no different from the iron handcuffs called sins."

I've seen a lot of realized masters emphasize the way of chanting Mantras. In this except, Nan Huai-Jin says

Quote

without chanting the Buddha’s name, there will be no way to improve. This means that he used the Chan samadhi method to cultivate but after a certain level, you need to eliminate the Eighth Consciousness’ subtle hindrances. Without sincerely chanting the Buddha’s name, there is no power from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to help you, and it will be impossible.

Who am I?

Where is my mind?

How to fly?

The Mandukya Upanishad (points to the Self directly), TTC (points to many truths, esoteric secrets and nature of reality well) and Zhuang Zi (points to truths indirectly, allowing my own inference to develop in the line of Zhuang Zi's thought), and all of the Buddhist sutras (it's really fun to get immersed in the beauty of Lord Buddha's way of explaining things)

9 hours ago, manitou said:

 

 

Could you give an example of your mind forgetting the usual way of doing things?  I ask because on one hand it sounds like you're likely to become an advanced meditator - having control of the monkey mind.  But it's a little disturbing that your mind forgets the usual way of doing things.  What kind of things?    Do you have trouble with the here and now?

 

As I said, I almost quit spirituality once because of distractions so I'm far for being able to control the monkey. 

That being said, I almost completely forgot about what I was supposed to do when I woke up. I'd usually splash some water over my face, and then consider whether it's time to review the uni's lectures, or maybe listen to some music, etc. When I woke up yesterday, the mind was suddenly blank, not knowing what to do or how to respond to my mother who woke me up. The perpetual karma kept me going and it quickly struck me that I was back in the state that I constantly experienced back when I was meditating and doing self enquiry like crazy.

Is it disturbing? When it happens, yes.

Does this disturbance keep troubling me? No.

Anyone would be disturbed if they feel as if the old "them" has suddenly died and there is something new replacing them that has inherited their memories. But in a while, I got used to it and came to terms with it. I can still feel the vibrations starting within my head when I intend to think things forcefully and I intuitively know that I will be able to recall things quite well, but I don't really try. This dementia-kinda spell seems like a pause between the heavily materialistic life I'd been living until now and the spiritually active life I'll start with once again. So I guess it's probably fine... probably.

A kind of short term memory loss happened to me today, and I'm barely 21. I didn't really forget things, just that the mind is in a perpetual blank state (it's not in daze, it starts working just fine the moment I will it to) and forgets the usual way of doing things. Something feels very incongruent with reality here.

Everything was fine until today in the morning when a friend reminded me about the pure consciousness state and asked if I still have access to it(it's been a few months since I stopped doing meditation/energy work thanks to distractions). I sort of tried entering and I was in. I played around with it for a while, and all was fine and good before I felt slightly sleepy in the afternoon. So I went to bed and woke up in two hours feeling all blank.

Now, it's been a few hours. I'm not sure if I should work to revert back to the old ways or to stay with this. Any advice?

From my limited observation, there are vibrations and reverberations in the akasha, owing to several factors. These factors can be genetic, can originate from the prarabdha karma or might come from the collective consciousness. So, in the beginning, the differentiating mind labels the reverberations into the various emotions, while adding a layer of thoughts to them, given the then situation. Then when this has happened enough times, or this happens only occasionally but the vibration carries too much energy, this leads to the false belief in the association of thought with the energy. This slowly changes to the belief that the thought itself is the source of the reverberation, thus resulting in stress, tension, hatred, envy, jealousy, etc.

This is an extremely simplified explanation of the working of thought and emotion.

shoddy

A little mouse on lose clothing(top right), standing stop a screaming shark (the shark's face towards right), is pointing at a gigantic mouse in the top left corner

Is squaring the feet, getting them parallel necessary in the various qigong and yoga Practices? I feel that my hips are more outwardly, so I have to do a slight internal rotation to get my feet completely parallel to each other. This is not the most comfortable posture, and makes my body more destabilised than normal. Should I keep doing this or is it ok to keep them slightly branching away from each other?

Who are you? You are Shiva, you are not.

Awareness is not you. While experiencing certain mystical experiences, it feels like you are awareness, but it is not ultimate. This feeling keeps fluctuating after a certain period of time.

Desire is not you. The more you keep fulfilling your desires, the more it keeps you bound into the inverted views, which people consider normal.

Contentment is what eliminates suffering. This doesn't mean that you go in a forest and live on timber and roots to make yourself look content. It means that whatever you do with your body and mind in this world, it is simply for the fun of it. You are not bound by the end results. They will not, in any way fulfill your desires.

If desires persist, the external decides your thoughts, emotions. You have become a slave to everything.

If desired are eliminated, there is no one to experience suffering.

https://youtu.be/mEIgRg5PrdM

Here's something I have started observing recently.

Feminine is a quality, the receptive quality. An amazing one!

The heart that comes with this quality is the most suitable for all sorts of spirituality and spiritual practices.

However, this quality is like a double edged sword. It seems to strengthen the karmic bonds quite a bit unless you take the quality to the extreme and become feminine to the whole world.

This is not about talking genders, since gender talk becomes pure bullshit after enlightenment. If you are still so attached to the bodily form you have, how in the heavens are you liberated? Masculine and feminine are qualities; a man can have more of feminine quality (in some, it needs work. In some, it's natural) and a woman can have more of a masculine quality, which is usually the case nowadays. Trying to go against their nature has become so common in the society today that it's become natural.

No matter what gender, if you wish to be quicker in the spiritual path, you need to have an equal mixture of both.

Speaking of the Buddhas, we'll first have to see and understand that in those days when the sanghas were first being established after Shakyamuni left his body, it was much much easier for a man to renounce home and traverse the spiritual path of buddhahood than it was for a woman.

Why was it so? 

Firstly, this was again, because of the feminine quality which was widely prevalent among the women of those times. They were a lot more attached to their family/worldly bindings than their male counterparts. Secondly, a woman carried almost the whole of the reputation of her household on her shoulders, hence making this bonding all the more difficult to remove. Lastly, it was because of the presence of physical dangers all around, in the form of lack of food, wild animals, bandits, and so on. To a female, the only result other than deep spirituality was either death or disownment from her family.

Now, this was likely the reason the early Buddhists were more inclined towards the male participation in the spirituality. This tradition slowly started mingling with the societal norms of the times, developing into what it is like today.

As for all Buddhas being men, it's complete nonsense. Buddhas have no physical body they are bound to, so no genders. However, to say this would create a huge chaos in people's ignorant minds. Hence, they chose males. There have been many, many Buddhas. There still are, both males and females.

What about the Hindu gods? Are the benefits from chanting their names recorded in some spiritual text?