Nuralshamal

Hey @ChiDragon, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts! However, I would also note that even though you did your best to share your experience in your post, I still feel like you came off as judgemental, belittling others, and then having a little "teaching moment" telling everyone how it's done, even including specific angles. I of course see and appreciate your intention of helping others out with your tips and tricks! I know you're simply trying to help. I also appreciate your effort in following my intention set out for this thread. I want to avoid that people simply say ZZ is the bomb, and if someone didn't become a God by doing it, they're doing it wrong. This approach is what I generally found while scouring the internet, and I find it religious and dogmatic in nature, which I feel is in complete contrast to what Daoism is. From my perspective Daoism is much more scientific, meaning it's based on observation, always observing, and yes, drawing conclusions, but always being open to change them if new observations come along. The whole point of this thread is to gather observations. It's not to either "defend" ZZ as great, or "attack" ZZ as bad. It's neutral in its intention, it's simply to gather knowledge, experiences and observations. And facts are, nothing in this world is 100% good, 100% of the time, for 100% of the people trying it. No matter how good qigong, yoga, meditation, herbs or ZZ can be, it's not going to be that for everyone all the time. Some people are going to get hurt, get a bad result, it's normal, it's natural. Similarly, some are going to get no results. Some are going to get good results, some even great. The whole spectrum is there. The idea that the world is black and white, some things are pure evil, some are purely good, e.g. ZZ is either God, or ZZ is the devil, that is simply not true. I welcome your own personal experiences, and I welcome you on this thread, but please stick to the format; leave people alone, and focus on yourself instead: what is your own personal experience? That is actually what is always advocated in Daoism: always come back to yourself, focus on yourself and your own cultivation, don't drain your energy by focusing so much on what other people are doing.

Hey @Maddie, Thanks for sharing! Every personal, lived experience is valuable

Hej @Kojiro, Thanks for sharing! I agree with you about standing! I too suffered endlessly until very recently. When I read online (I researched and read several hours a day for several days), it seemed about 70-80% of what I found was people getting nothing from it or actively hurting themselves. The people who reported benefits were very, very few, and mostly it was anecdotes about other people, and not their own personal experience (which makes it even less credible). Many of the people personally reporting positive benefits, mostly just said they did it because they were forced by their sifus, who also dogmatically claimed it was the end all and be all of everything. There were many I saw who had been standing daily for 6 months, some for several years, and many of them simply said it helps them feel more grounded or relaxed, but it's not that great, and 15 minutes of correct standing gives the same benefits as several hours. That's why I am so happy you shared your experience, I really feel like it would help "the world" to get a place with only personal, credible experiences, and get the complete, unfiltered truth. So thanks again

Dear Dao Bums, I would love to hear your story and experience of serious, long term, daily standing practice The pros, the cons, was it worth while, what did standing do to you / for you? Physically, energetically and spiritually. In order to kick of this exchange of personal, lived experience, I will also share my own experiences. However, please refrain from sharing theories, opinions, views of different schools, your viewpoints, these are all interesting of course, but I would like to keep this thread completely clean of that, and instead solely focus on lived, personal experiences. The end goal is to collect actual "data" on standing from real people, and see which patterns emerge over time, with more and more people sharing their stories. My Own Experiences So Far, 4 parts 1) 2017, First Encounter With Standing I first heard about the idea of long, static, standing meditation in 2017 from Lam Kam Chuen's book "Way of Energy". One evening during my deployment to Africa with the UN, I couldn't fall asleep. I thought to myself "okay, let me try this standing thing". I stood up and did my best, and managed to stand for what felt "like a really long time", realistically it was probably between 10 and 40 minutes. My experience was that each time it felt like "it's impossible to stand any longer, my shoulders are burning too much, my legs are too tense" or whichever physical thing was annoying me, I used my willpower to keep standing anyway. Each time I managed to "hold on", it was as if a kind of breakthrough happened, and the physical tension was relieved by a surge of energy. This happened maybe 5-10 times, and each time I felt energy surging in my body. When I finally finished and laid down to sleep in my tent (yes, it was a primitive army camp), I had the best and deepest sleep since maybe my teenage years. When I woke up in the morning and felt so incredibly refreshed, I made a mental note to myself "I must remember this standing meditation, there is really something here, some day I will explore it further". 2) 2018, standing as a supplement to lovemaking In 2018 as part of a daoist lovemaking and sex qigong retreat in Asia, there were some general qigong exercises taught to supplement the sexual exercises. There were 2-3 moving exercises which took about 5-10 minutes, and the other part was 4 standing, static exercises, each held for 5 minutes, totaling 20 minutes. When I tried these 20 minutes of standing, the instruction was not to blink at all during the whole time if possible, but if the eyes started watering, you could blink. To be honest I didn't experience anything at all, other than it felt kind of weird to just stand still and stare. Every 5 minutes you switched position, which was a huge relief on the shoulders. At this point I made a mental note to myself not to explore standing any further, as I didn't feel like it did anything for me. 3) 2022, 1 hour squatting monkey standing challenge I heard that the fastest way to build the lower dan tien and open the microcosmic orbit was through 1 hour standing squatting monkey. I decided to give it a go. It took me about 1 month to work up to standing for 60 minutes. What I experienced progressively during that 1 month while practicing was that I would get warm, start sweating, I would feel qi surging through my body, I would feel warmth in my lower dan tien, I would feel vibration in my microcosmic orbit, and towards the end I started seeing a light between my eyebrows. So I felt a lot of stuff going on energetically and spiritually. However, the posture didn't feel healthy to me at all. It felt like I was training my body to be slouched over because of the way you're standing, and the shoulders are slightly forward too. Instead of putting my physical body into alignment, I felt like I was training it to be out of alignment. In the end my conclusion was that I would revisit the practice in the future if I ever became desperate to work on my third eye, but for now I would discontinue the practice, simply because it didn't feel good for my physical body. I felt other practices I knew were faster, easier and just felt better physically. 4) 2023, 100 days standing like a pillar challenge This is the most recent, and is in progress. This is also what prompted me to start this thread, simply because I would love to hear your experiences. I'm about 31 days in as of today, and have had some quite interesting experiences. The first 25 days were progressively getting more and more hellish. It felt like my body simply was not designed to stand. No matter what I did, I just couldn't get my body into proper alignment, and especially my shoulders were killing me, no matter what I did. I searched online (including on this forum), and read everything I could about standing. I actually felt like there was not too much quality information out there; most was people either bashing it as a waste of time or downright dangerous, or people praising it like the holy grail. That's also why I wanted to make this post, I want personal, lived experiences, not people ideologizing. I want us all to share our own experiences to over time build potentially build empirical evidence. The only reason I didn't quit, in spite of me feeling like I was going through meaningless suffering daily, was that I found a facebook group called "1000 hours of standing". I joined the group and started reading. Someone had made the general rule "10 hours of standing will give results, 100 will give good results, 1000 will give best results". However, I would say I found the majority in that group saying that long standing is meaningless and just creates more tension in the body, or even worse, injuries. At that point I had accumulated almost 9 hours of total standing time, and I wanted to quit. That 10 hour rule motivated me to try a bit more. Lo and behold, a day or two after reading that post, something happened during my standing. Suddenly I felt my left hip "pop open" is the best way to describe it. It was as if there had been some kind of tension in there, preventing my hips from "hanging", and thereby preventing my lower and upper body from being connected and aligned. That same day, just towards the end of my standing (about 40 minutes), my right hip popped open. I was shocked! It was as if my body had been multiple different compartments of tensions, and with this hip opening (thanks only to time and gravity, it was completely outside of my own volition to do), it felt like my entire body became one, connected, physical whole. The last 4-5 days or so have been shocking to say the least. The hips both now "fall" open by themselves after about 5-10 minutes of standing, my whole body falls into alignment, and I can just stand and stand completely effortlessly. Everything has fallen into place. I stood 60 minutes yesterday, completely effortlessly! I am shocked. So I have something physical to show for it, at least for my self. Before I started, I just couldn't stand no matter what I did, it was literal self-torture. However, now my physical body feels more and more like one integrated and well-aligned unit, making it possible for me to effortlessly stand. I am yet to see what will happen from here energetically and spiritually, but I can see now how standing lends itself to meditation. The body clicks into position, and I can completely focus on simply meditating. I also feel very grounded after standing. But there are still about 70 days to go, so I will just have to wait and see what will happen (if anything). However, I would love to hear your experiences from long term, daily standing The good, the bad, the ugly, everything, just your personal lived experience. If standing cured your cancer, I want to know about it. If standing killed your grandma, I want to know about it. Look forward to hear from you! All the best

Sure, let's do it I don't know too much about the Devi Mahatmyam to be honest, mostly what I learnt from Devipuram. What I grew up with was more of the Ramayana. But I do see some commonalities in all mythological stories from around the world relating the same basic truths about the ego's journey back to the soul, and the soul's journey back to Almighty God. Regarding the Devi Mahatmyam, my interpretation would be that it's a joint story relaying multiple truths at the same time: 1) actual explanation of things in the material world and material universe cloaked in mythological language, 2) inner explanation for stages your soul goes through on the path to liberation, 3) actual historical facts and accounts weaved in here and there. We can explore more together if you want to

Hey, @Bhathen, let me try to answer your very interesting questions I'll do it in 3 parts: 1) Intro 2) Female Gods Predominant 3) What do these Gods represent? 1) Intro about time periods I personally don't know for sure, but I remember reading somewhere (or maybe it was a documentary I saw) that they've found yantras inscribed on rocks and stones all the way back to 10.000 years before Christ. Furthermore, if I remember correctly, it seems there was a worldwide trend of the cult of the "Divine Feminine" for many years in world history, in both Europe, Africa and Asia I believe they've found different cult objects etc., also in India of course. I do have a hypothesis of my own using the Cosmology of the Danish mystic Martinus as to why the Divine feminine was predominant in ancient times, whereas later there was a sudden worldwide shift more towards the masculine and patriarchal ways. 2) Female Gods Predominant According to Martinus, the microcosmos and macrocosmos idea is central to understanding reality, which he describes as "life within life within life". In his perspective the Earth itself is a living being undergoing its own spiritual evolution, similarly to us, albeit it at a macrocosmic level (from our perspective). Evolution happens via karma and reincarnation from minerals, to plants, to animals, to true human beings and beyond into the spiritual worlds. He says that we all carry both poles, the masculine and the feminine. As minerals and plants, we're double poled and therefore much more "at one" with the Divine. As animals one pole stagnates, and the other dominates completely. According to him, spiritual evolution as a human being is simply growing these two poles back into balance. That's what will take us from animal to human being. A man grows his feminine pole to match his masculine; when this happens he gets cosmic consciousness and is ready to move on to other worlds. Similarly with women, just the reverse. We're all living cells in the body of the Earth. I believe the reason Female Gods were dominant across the world in ancient times was because the Earth itself is a female. That's why the Earth was called "Gaia", "Mother Earth" and other feminine names when worshipped in many ancient cults. As cells in the Earth, we represent and follow the lines of feeling and thinking produced by the Earth. With the Earth being predominantly feminine in ancient times, feminine ways of seeing the universe and life predominated. That is, Feminine Gods. Some thousand years ago, the Earth entered from being mostly "one-poled" and feminine, into the phase of having to upgrade her masculine pole, in order to reach cosmic consciousness herself (which according to Martinus will happen in about 2000-3000 years in our time, however, it only feels as about 15 minutes for the Earth). When her maculine pole got activated, at first it's quite crude; it's about war, domination, power etc. That's when all the masculine values and perspective started to dominate more on a global scale, and we got the patriarchal religions (e.g. Judaism, Christianity, Islam etc) (not to say these religions are crude, it's just highlighting the masculine aspect. I personally grew up very much revering all 3 religions, and still do to this day. It's simply to give an example of patriarchy focusing more on hierarchy, power etc). The "left path" or feminine path is more powerful and gives magical powers and material results much quicker, because feminine logic is simply more available in the atmosphere of this planet, due to having dominated for many Eons of time. The "right path" or masculine path is newer, is more strict, more about discipline and morals, and doesn't easily produce spiritual powers and material results. It gives more "an inner" result, e.g. patience, forgiveness etc, the virtues preached by the more patriarchal religions. Further, the patriarchal religions all in some way contribued to removing the "old ways" of magical powers from the world as best they could, e.g. through witch burning, the inquisition etc. All the above is simply my own personal hypothesis and analysis. 3) What do these Gods represent? Okay, so what do all the Gods and Goddesses in the Sri Yantra represent? Here are some of my own perspectives so far. I would say you can view these Gods in several different ways. How I personally see it: 1) A material, scientific explanation of the universe, 2) A both spiritual and scientific map of your body, the universe and God (the microcosmos and macrocosmos idea), 3) Different energies available to be used for different purposes Let's start with the first one: 1) A material, scientific explanation of the universe. In this perspective, the pyramid is grouped into 5 "Gods": Ganesha in the lower right corner, Surya in the lower left corner, Vishnu in the upper left corner, Shiva in the upper right corner, and Shakti at the top of the pyramid. In ancient times they cloaked science in religious terms to help lay people understand. Materially Ganesha is simply the physical Earth. Surya is the Sun. Vishnu is the universe itself, Shiva is God or awareness inside each being, Shakti is the interplay in between all these factors. In this perspective, each avarana is simply a scientific mapping of life: 1st level: physical everyday life, you go about your business, and you compulsively react to sense-impressions in 8 ways (anger, delusion, envy, lust, jealousy, greed, pride etc). You're like an animal impulsively being thrown around by life with no control. However, you can rise above this by self-development, by developing patience, kindness, forgiveness etc. 2nd level: the dream world. This was much more a factor in ancient times than today. You see both in the Old and New Testament, as well as the Qur'an, people often had very vivid and lively dreams. Tribal people to this day still do. So this level simply scientifically describes what goes on when you're dreaming; there are 16 factors present in a dream: 5 senses, sense of a body, of a self, of form, of name etc. They simply scientifically "mapped" what a person experiences while dreaming. 3rd level: deep sleep. This is when we black out and have no concept of time. We sometimes feel like we close our eyes, and 1 minute later it's morning, even though we've sleept 8 hours. Where did time go? You don't feel the passing of time in deep sleep. However, these great ancient yogis still mapped exactly what 8 factors are present during deep sleep in order to explain this aspect of reality. 4th level: there are more planets than just Earth in this galaxy. Some are on lower evolutionary stages than Earth, some are on a higher stage. Somehow the ancient yogis mapped which planets in our galaxy have life and described it. There are 14 worlds, Earth is no. 8. There are 7 planets below us, and 6 planets above us. Earth is in "the middle" in its evolution, but also physically if you look at the galaxy. We're in the middle between the galaxy center and the most outer periphery. The lower planets are further out from the middle than Earth, whereas the higher planets are closer to the center of the galaxy. Interestingly enough, this is exactly what Danish Martinus also says. 5th level: there are 5 action senses employed in daily living, and 5 knowledge senses. 6th level: there are 5 elements in this material universe, and these have 5 attributes. 7th level: everything at the base level is composed of energy and vibration, there are 8 basic forms of vibration as the foundational building blocks for this universe. 8th level: underlying creation are immaterial principles governing creation. 9th level: immanent yet transcendent, penetrating everything and everyone, yet above and beyond everything and everyone, here lies the great mystery responsible for creating, upholding and destroying creation. We could call it God, the Goddesss, the Divine, they called it Sat-Chit-Ananda. It's eternally mysterious, yet what you can say about it is that it contains truth, consciousness and bliss. 2) A both spiritual and scientific map of your body, the universe and God (the microcosmos and macrocosmos idea) If we go this explanation, we take the scientific and material explanation from above, yet now we apply the microcosmic and macrocosmic idea to it. Creation repeats the same principles at each level. This means that the Meru describes your physical body, your energetic body, nature and the universe, every level thinkable. Making it "spiritual" simply means you can awaken each of these divine powers of the universe within yourself as well. You can awaken the energies in your physical body, energetic body, mind and soul. You can become a "junior God" or miniature God. You can open your third eye, astral travel, control the weather, heal diseases, predict the future, command spirits, go beyond life and death and much more. In this case each "God" or "Goddess" represents the powers of the universe, and the Meru allows you to awaken those same powers in yourself. Instead of simply being a material, scientific explanation or theory, you can now spiritually experience each of these principles actively and practically. 3) Different energies available to be used for different purposes In a very pragmatic and practical perspective, the Meru is simply a tool for improving practical, day-to-day living. Using it you can channel the powers of the universe for whatever need you currently have. It's pretty similar to the above idea, however now it's seen from a non-religious lense, a simple, practical tool. You can "order" more money from the universe, health, success, love, the weather needed for your specific purpose and much more. It's a magical tool for "managing" and improving your life however you wish to. Conclusion These are some of the ways I personally view it so far. Feel free to comment or question more, if there are any specifics you'd like to dive into deeper, or maybe start to dive in to some of the individual Goddesses and what they can do

Dear Dao Bums, Let me share some of my experiences with the highest level of Sri Vidya: the Navavarana Puja done on the Sri Meru (3D pyramid version of the well-known 2D version Sri Yantra also known as Sri Chakra). I'll share in 3 points: 1) Intro to Sri Vidya and Sri Meru 2) My own path to Sri Vidya and experiences from each level 3) My experiences with the Sri Meru Navavarana Puja 1) Intro to Sri Vidya and Sri Meru Sri Vidya translates literally as "auspicious knowledge" and is related to Goddess Worship. Sri Vidya has been kept secret for millenia because of its unique methods allowing the accomplishment of both yoga (spiritual liberation) and bhoga (material enjoyment and success). Sri Vidya has several origin stories: 1) It was given by Shiva to his most beloved consort Shakti as the ultimate means of acquiring everything both spiritually and materially, 2) It was given to saint Agastya as a boon by Vishnu's Hayagriva form, because Agastya asked for a way common people could easily and quickly reach ultimate liberation without renunciation and multiple-life spiritual practice, 3) It was given directly from the joint incarnation of the Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva) Dakshinamurti to a student, who then passed it on to Parashurama (Vishnu's 6th incarnation out of 10 incarnations). Adi Shankaracharya a very famous preacher of advaita vedanta & an unparalleled yogi personally installed Sri Yantra in temples all across India. Sri Vidya gives unique methods of reaching both bhukti (material enjoyment and success) and mukti (spiritual liberation) in this current incarnation. What is then the Sri Yantra / Sri Chakra? It's a 2D version that is called "Yantra Raja" or the "King of all Yantras". The 3D version is called Maha Meru and is in a pyramidal shape. The story is that this yantra holds all other yantras in it, it contains all Gods, all Goddesses, all Gurus, all spiritual powers (siddhi) as well as all the necessary means for complete fullfillment of purushartha (dharma, artha, kama and moksha, the 4 goals of human life). 2) My own path to Sri Vidya and experiences from each level I was exposed to Hinduism from early childhood, and it was always a big part of my life in early childhood as well as my teenage years. This was due to family. In my twenties I followed along the footsteps of my family and got mantra diksha (mantra initiation) and performed a "maha-purascharan" which in my case took 4 years of daily mala japa (mantra chanting with a rosary) to complete. At the completion of each purascharana, like clockwork, that very night I got a dream of the form of Almighty God I was worshipping. I would get life guidance. After performing 6 purascharans and getting these dreams I was quite content spiritually. At that moment I came into contact with SKY (Simplified Kundalini Yoga) which is a direct energy and transmission based meditation system. SKY blew my socks off; on top of deep meditation, I felt it gave "tangible benefits". By meditating on the chakras I got much better health, sleep, energy levels, mood and even better meditation than before, whereas with mantra japa I got a dream once or twice per year, but other than that it was adrishta-phala (unseen fruit) for me. No visible, tangible result. The tangible benefits of SKY reeled me in, because it seemed to give much more much easier and with lesser effort, so over time I slowly tapered down my japa until I completely stopped. After several years, my hindu family member sent me an invitation to an online Sri Vidya workshop with mantra diksha. It had no impact on me whatsoever - inside myself I thought "I've already tried mainstream religious hinduism with my years and years of mantra japa. It's a great way, but it seemed that SKY was simply superior in all ways. However, for some reason I read a bit on the webpage over a few days, just to give my family member and Sri Vidya the benefit of the doubt. At that point I saw a photo of Bala Tripura Sundari (the teenage form of the Goddess) and something deep in my soul stirred. I couldn't say what it was, but I felt something very deep and profound stirring. I felt a kind of attraction unlike anything I've ever felt before. After a few days of this deep feeling I decided to give it a go. Since then I've completed the rituals and mantras of each level of the Sri Vidya given by Parashurama and freely shared with the public by Guru Amritananda Natha. It's taken me several years of blood, sweat and tears to complete, it's been quite tough and demanding to be honest, but worth it. Level 1: Removal of Obstacles, Starting the Worship of the Goddess, Protection Ganapati the elephant God removes obstacles from your spiritual and material path and grants stability Bala Tripura Sundari is the teenage version of the Goddess, so you start your approach towards the Goddess Chamunda (Durga) gives you material and spiritual protection Level 2: Attraction, Joy, Love & Acceptance By worshipping Raja Shyamala Devi, the feminine side of the Goddess, you become enormeously attractive. In a group of the opposite sex, at least one from that group will be attracted to you after you've worshipped Raja Shyamala. It gives you profound pleasure in meditation. Further, it attracts more goodness towards you, materially and spiritually. In the end, this attraction and pleasure is said to actually be the Goddess' way of attracting you further towards her! Level 3: Healing, Protection, Destroying Bad Here you worship Varahi Devi, the masculine side of the Goddess. You heal your physical body, destroy black magic, protect yourself from enemies and spirits. You destroy and push away badness and bad energy from your spiritual and material life. Level 4: Here you finally worship Tripura Sundari in the Sri Meru with Navavarana Puja with her panchadashi mantra. Level 5: You get a higher mantra for Maha Tripura Sundari called Maha Shodashi, it's simply an add-on to the Navavarana Puja, and a big level up spiritually when you meditate with it (japa) I've detailed some of my personal experiences with each level in this thread here: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/53122-sri-vidya-yantra-mantra-tantra-mudra-guru-karunamaya/ 3) My experiences with the Sri Meru Navavarana Puja I've recently started my first mandala (41 days) of Navarana Puja. I'm blown away! There are 9 layers or levels in the Meru, each called an avarana. The first 3 levels are one group and represents you as a seperate individual Level 1 represents the waking state and the feet. By worshipping it you're no longer helplessly thrown around by 8 negative feeling as a spontaneous and uncontrollable reaction to what you see and experience in the world, namely anger, lust, delusion, jealousy, greed, envy and possesiveness. Furthermore, it gives the 8 siddhis. Level 2 represents the dreaming state and the thighs. By worshipping it you eventually gain control of your dreams and get guidance in your dreams. You get aligned to cosmic cycles, namely the cycle of the moon. It is also said to satisfy all desires when worshipped. Level 3 represents the deep sleep state and muladhara chakra. It is said to end all agitation. The next 3 levels are one group and represents the powers working in the universe Level 4 represents the 14 worlds (chaturdashi loka), where we live in the 8th world (Bhu Loka or the Earth), as well as the swadisthana chakra. It is said to bless you with all auspiciousness. Level 5 represents the 5 karmendriyas (action organs) and the 5 gyanendriyas (knowledge organs) and the manipura chakra. It is said to bless you with all wealth. Level 6 represents the 5 elements and their 5 attributes and anahata chakra. It gives all protection. The final 3 levels represent Almighty God and his powers Level 7 represents the 8 most basic constituents of energy, the first outpouring from transcendent reality into primal, material existence, as well as the vishuddi chakra. It gives all healing. Further, it gives astral powers (seeing the past and the future, seeing every on planet Earth through your third eye, and later it gives the power of astral travel, i.e. leaving your physical body behind and travelling freely in the universe with your astral body. Read more here https://forum.amritananda.org/d/349-spiritual-reality-meditation-journey-within-by-guruji) Level 8 represents iccha (will), gyana (knowledge) and kriya (action) shakti, as well as agnya chakra. It gives all siddhis. Level 9 represents complete, pure bliss, God, sat-chit-ananda and the sahasrara chakra. It gives God realisation. When you add the Maha-Shodashi section on top of the regular puja, also on the same level of the Meru, it also opens dwadasangham chakra (above your head), allowing you to reach Thuriya-Teetha or the state even more beyond. My Personal And Tangible Experience The Navavarana puja takes between 1.5 and 2 hours to complete, so it's really, really long compared to the earlier pujas, where the longest (Varahi puja & Varahi tarpanam) took me about 50 minutes. The very first day I tried it, I got kind of tired because there are so many preparatory steps, new and unknown mantras as well as parts of the vedas and much more. However, the higher I reached on the pyramid, the higher I found a feeling of bliss and pleasure increasing at the corresponding chakra. When I reached the throat chakra, it was so intense that I could only describe it as a mix of deep meditation, ultimate sex, explosive orgasm and feeling drunk. When I reached the agnya, sahasrara and dwadasangham chakra, I was so slow in moving the spoon to give the Meru milk, because I was so incredibly blissed out. It isn't like that every day, but the more days of the 41 day mandala I complete, the stronger and more intense it grows, and stabilises more and more from day to day. I'm so incredibly surprised! I really feel "it was worth it" to go through years and years of blood, sweat, tears, rituals, mantra japa, purascharana and much more to get here. So far my feeling is that they weren't just marketing when they said the Meru is the ultimate.. I feel they were right! All the best! Sri Matre Namaha (salutations to the Goddess)

Thanks for all your answers! Clarification About Testimonials Anyone that's not a "newly initiated" (e.g. up to 1 year or so). I think it would really help shed light on XYP if someone who went "deep" on this path, e.g. for 5-10 years could share their long term development. I remember you have "ranks" and that you graduate in these ranks by passing a test, so I imagine there must be a sense of community on each level, and thereby people sharing and exchanging knowledge and experience at each level. It could be super cool to hear from someone having cultivated with XYP for 5-20 years and hear about their progress, development and experiences along the way. I look forward to hearing from you! All the best

This is something that should be taught by a trusted & authentic teacher. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, many people can go wrong when opening up their energetic perception. What I've generally seen in spiritual circles regarding spiritual perception can be put into 3 categories: 1) They never open up their perception, all is simply mental delusion & fantasy 2) They start to open up their perception, but they don't get the needed guidance from their master, and so their perception is mixed, some is true, some is fantasy 3) They open up their perception through their teacher's guidance, their perception gets correction from their teacher, and their perception becomes clearer & clearer the longer they cultivate. We have 5 physical senses (smelling, seeing, tasting, touching & hearing) and a 6th sense which interprets the inputs from our 5 sense (we could call it mind/knowing/understanding). Spiritually, you could similarly say that we have the exact same 6 senses: smelling, seeing, tasting, touching, hearing & knowing. How to "detect" ghosts could be using either of the 6 spiritual senses. E.g. you can feel their energy, which depending on the particular spirit could feel cold or warm. You can see them, which could be the different colors of their energy as well as their size & shape. Otherwise your 6th spiritual sense could simply "know" that something or someone is present. Just like when you're walking down the street and suddenly feel uneasy for no reason. Then you look over your shoulder and see that someone was staring at you, who then look away when you see them. You just felt something, you don't know why, but it prompted you to turn around. Similarly, this sense also exists spiritually, you just "know" something's going on. I personally always try to avoid communcating with ghosts, simply because they can so easily deceive you. How will you know if they're good or bad? They can shapeshift and pose as anything. They can say they're an angel sent from God to you, because you're the choosen one, you're so special, and they have a Divine mission for you. But in reality they're just tricksters playing you for being gullible, and will then tell you to do progressively weirder & weirder things. The more you listen, the more you let them in, the more they can affect you. You can see a perfect example of the above in Black Mirror on Netflix, latest season, the episode called "Demon 79". Of course it's a fictional show, but the principles behind spirit possesion are pretty well shown. The above is also why Danish mystic & intuitive Martinus advised people not to communicate with spirits. He lived from 1891-1980, and he had many cases of possesed people coming to him for help. Everyone of them had somehow tinkered with the spirits and got tricked. He then helped them get out of it. Similarly, you need the guidance & protection of an authentic spiritual lineage before you communicate with spirits, otherwise it's generally too risky.

I still haven't managed to find neither Dried Dendrobium nor Dried American Ginseng yet. However I've discovered some treasures hiding in plain sight, that you can get in every supermarket here, which are really good for the current cold seasons. Star Anise, boil them for 20-30 minutes and make a pleasant smelling & tasting tea - warms yang, expels cold, regulates qi Cardamom - boil them for 15-25 minutes and get a nice tea - transforms pleghm, dries dampness, strengthens spleen, tonifies qi Chamomile tea - we probably all know this tea, it calms shens, expels wind, clears heat, strengthens liver & moves qi Cinnamon sticks - boil and you have a fragrant tea, expels cold, warms yang, strengthens spleen & kidney, circulates qi & blood Cloves - boil and you have a nice cup of tea - expels cold & warms yang Dried tangerine Peel - dries dampness and pleghm in the middle burner, counteracts stagnation caused by too many tonifying herbs Do any of you have any suggestions for herbs that are easily available which builds kidney jing, qi & yin?

I just watched a youtube lecture from Sri Ravi Shankar (a famous indian Guru), who describes this hierarchy of beings depicted below 1 unit of energy: stone 2: water 3: fire 4: wind 5: space 6: trees 7: animals 8: normal human being 9: genius human being, extraordinary, affecting the whole world through great works 10: ancestors in spirit form 11: kinnara (political spirit, working socially & politically in the world) 12: gandharva (music spirit, brings joy to the people, but individual musician will be miserable) 13: yaksha & yakshini (wealth spirit, brings immense wealth, but the wealthy person will suffer problems with their progeny) 14: devata (devis & devas, gods & goddesses, bring happines, peace & compassion) 16: siddhas (perfected & enlightened human beings) So, from his perspective a yaksha & yakshini are just one unit below the benevolent devas. Further, people blessed by kinnaras, gandharvas & yakshas can mitigate the problem/downside caused by this being through having a guru and following a spiritual path. According to him then, it shouldn't be that dangerous to do yakshini sadhana as long as you're also on a normal spiritual path for ultimate salvation.

Thanks for your very interesting viewpoint! I'll keep that in mind

Hey @saxgentleman67, I am indeed sharing my true, unbiased & objective experience of SFQ. Further, I don't necessarily agree with the premise that "basic & simple forms" are inferior, cited by Cherrydao and supported by you. It's not being complex, hard, advanced & difficult to learn that gives a form its power at all, it's more dependent on the lineage qi and especially the practitioner himself. You can reach the ultimate goal of qigong through very simply means, as long as it's authentic, has lineage qi, and you sincerely and correctly put in the work daily. Which system that suits an individual is also a very important manner, as is the dynamic between you and the teacher. Something I've also seen you cite the importance of elsewhere. I agree with you. So find what works best for you Lastly, I'm in no way affiliated with Chunyi or SFQ, I live in Europe and do my own thing, which is also extremely clear if you read some of my posts.

Dear Dao Bums, My post will be in 5 parts: 1) Intro to General Framework of Hindu Sadhana 2) Hierarchy of Beings 3) My Own Lifelong Orientation Towards Sadhana Being Challenged 4) Yakshini Experiences 5) Questions for You 1) Intro to General Framework of Hindu Sadhana In tantric Hindu sadhana, you connect with higher beings outside yourself in order to develop yourself step by step, until you also become a higher being. This is done using the 5 elements: Mantra Japa (space/energy element, throat chakra), Puja / Prayer Ritual (all 5 elements, focus on air element, heart chakra) Fire Ritual / Havan (fire element, navel chakra) Tarpanam & Marjanam / Water & Butter Ritual (water element, genital chakra) Bhojanam / Feeding people (Earth element). In each tantra, different combinations of the 5 elements and specific ways of using them are prescribed in order to connect with a higher being. 2) Hierarchy of Beings There is a hierarchy of beings from low to high. The higher the being, the more difficult it is to connect with it. The lower the being, the easier it is to connect with. However, higher beings are more spiritually evolved and therefore more benign in nature. Lower beings are less spiritually evolved. They can still be extremely powerful, but their nature is more malevolent. The hierarchy is something like (more or less): Deva / Devi (Devata) - literally light being, normally called Gods & Godesses Gandharva - bird-person, associated with music Apsara - celestial beauty, associated with sensuality, sexuality, attraction & beauty, sometimes dance Naga - snake people, often teach yogis meditation & spirituality Yakshini - female nature spirits, often protecting the treaures of the Earth Atma/Soul of Deceased Human Beings (people like you and I who are passed away) Bhuta - restless souls of deceased human beings Preta - hungry ghosts, souls of deceased people even more disturbed than bhutas Pisach - flesh eating demons, evil 3) My Own Lifelong Orientation Towards Sadhana Being Challenged My entire life I approached spiritual practice as a means of religious/spiritual liberation/salvation, in this life and the next. This would be called Fana Fi Allah in sufism, Moksha in Hinduism, Nirvana in Buddhism, Salvation in Christianity, Ren-Tien-He-Yi in Daoism etc. Of course each might differ slightly in how they define their "ideal end state", but my goal was always to reach the "ideal end state" proposed by religion/spirituality. However, as you know, this takes a long time, it can even take several life times! In the past couple of years I've been confronted by the fact that many people never care about this ultimate goal, they just quickly want either spiritual powers or material success, and use spiritual/tantric means to acquire that. And they actually succeed! This made me realize the intelligence of Hinduisms 4 goals of life: dharma, artha, kama, moksha. It's much easier to pursue the ultimate goal when your material life & wealth is settled, as is your needs for love and pleasure. It's like you're building on top of a stable foundation. So this idea made me more open to consider adding this as temporary "side projects" on my spiritual journey, of course never stopping the daily effort towards the ultimate goal. 4) Yakshini Experiences Lately one of my family members got yakshini mantra diksha for acquiring wealth. They even said on the course "this is nothing about spiritual advancement, this is only focusing on acquiring material wealth as soon as possible through tantric means". A remark I would have considered blasphemous just a few months back! As part of the program my family member got yakshini diksha, and related to me that the yakshini energy is extremely different and noticeably distinct from devata energy. This person has performed decades & decades of serious hindu sadhana for reaching the ultimate goal, so they have a lot of experience. Quite literally my family member said "it feels very active, very dynamic, very powerful & emotional, but also quite volatile. It feels closer to a human being. It's full of love, lust, energy, vitality & passion, but it also has anger & jealousy in it". Compared to what he describes as devata energy "settled, balanced, peaceful, benign, loving, accepting, Divine". Hearing this experience made me wonder and become curious about the validity & power of sadhana on beings lower than Devata in order to obtain quicker results in particular matters. Then I read the Uddamareshvara Tantra about the sadhana & siddhi of 36 yakshinis. The required sadhanas are extremely easy compared to the serious hindu sadhana I've completed daily for 10.5 years now (mantra japa, mantra chanting with a rosary, as well as innumerable rituals for all 5 elements). Yakshini Sulochana & Kapalini can give the siddhi of astral travel & lucid dreaming with as little as 30.000 & 20.000 (respectively) mantra chants, ending with a fire ritual (havan). This really allured me, because that is an extremely small & easy thing to accomplish compared to what I've completed over the last decade. But something inside me is still holding back, because of the "fear" of worshipping something less than "the highest" and the fear of "going down the wrong track" on my spiritual journey. Hence some questions for you! 5) Questions for You What have you heard about yakshini sadhana? What have you experienced from yakshini sadhana? All the best!