freeform

Hey @Efewq - if you could maybe write a more detailed post about your situation (in the general forum would be best, as you’re more likely to get input from others) If you can give me a bit of background - like what sort of meditation specifically you were practicing, more about your symptoms. Some background about you (like your age, what you do, your health and so on). If you could do that, then I’ll try and help out if I can

Well this is true - simply because everyone’s ‘self’ tries to become significant. That’s just what it does. It does that on the micro level as well as the macro. On the micro level it creates a moment by moment distortion of ‘me-not me’. This is the start of feeling special... You're not special for having an ego that wants to feel special 😄 It is true that sometimes intuition manages to reach beyond the self to something deeper and less personal. But this is exceptionally rare - much rarer than people like to think. And then, even if it does reach a certain objective truth, it has to drag it through the layers of distortion and identification for it to be conscious for you. So however you look at it, whether your intuition is sampling actual truth, or simply dipping into your unconscious desires and attachments - it’s always distorted in some way. That’s why the advice is to not treat your thoughts and feelings as particularly important. however you try to avoid it, you’ll always explore down a path filled with some level of delusion and distortion. Thats why all the spiritual practices urge practitioners not to follow their thoughts or any manifestations and movements of mind - but to focus on their practices instead.

What I believe @Cleansox is alluding to - is that your subconscious self is perhaps trying to make your ‘self’ seem important. This is generally what the self tries to do.

Oh no - not insinuating something like that. Just that ‘intuition’ - more often than not is just a projection of your subconscious. Meaning that it’s likely your subconscious drives, preferences and acquired identifications guiding you. Generally it’s best not to take this sort of guidance too seriously. Or use it as an insight into yourself rather than an insight into ‘truth’ or ‘reality’.

Guided there by whom or what?

And just as @Earl Grey says, I also think that’s a very problematic way to look at things. There are many beneficial things that we do which don’t feel good - and lots of terrible things that do make us feel good. I’ve come to learn that how I feel is not particularly important.

The genuine ones 😄 It’s hard question to answer - depends on the tradition and often the teacher who is teaching the tradition.

Oh in my travels I’ve come across many a chillum wielding ‘sadhu’ also ecstatically singing the praises of ganja And lets just say I still stand by my statement.

Any assistance is a two way street. Not everyone is ready to be helped. There are many causes behind chronic issues. Things are rarely very simple. One of the big impediments is that there are some big payoffs to being unwell... not needing to take responsibility, not having to work hard or strive, gaining attention and empathy from people, feeling special and unusual, letting yourself off the hook for things, not having to face up to your own delusions or wrong thinking and acting, supporting your preferences and addictions etc etc. I reached out with specific advice - he said he’s doing everything already. I highly doubt it. I’ve met very few people who’re able to consistently do everything I suggested over a long period. I imagine he’s actually doing very little of what I suggested. Our memories tend to work in a funny way... Ask someone ‘do you eat healthy food?’ and their mind jumps to specific memories of having eaten healthy food. So the answer is a yes. Ask them to keep an accurate food diary for a month and the truth is that once in a while they’ll have a healthy meal - but the majority of the time their diet is anything but healthy. Its the same with sleep, exercise, keeping mental and emotional stimulation down etc. One’s memory of attempting to start a workout routine for a week often generalises into ‘of course I exercise’. Simple things are hard to implement and hard to make them a consistent, regular habit - a part of who you are. But often that is exactly what would help most. Trying to help someone who isn’t prepared to face the truth of their situation is almost impossible. Especially online. Even doing specific treatments - while they may help to change the direction of development down a better path - the responsibility of keeping on the new, healthy path is in the patient’s hands.

I've seen a few people mention cannabis being used to aid cultivation. While I think moderate cannabis use (eaten, not smoked) is fine for most people. For cultivators, it's a recipe for disaster. Especially if used as an aid in cultivation. Essentially, getting high is like accelerating the jing to qi to shen conversion. But it's very much different to cultivation. Cultivation builds jing until it 'overflows' and supports the generation of qi... which then 'overflows' - and that overflow supports the development of shen... (Which then supports cultivation of the spirit - or the intellect/awareness - depending on your practices) With weed, you effectively squeeze what little you have up to the shen level - which is then used up in changing your consciousness for some time. As you get high, your body becomes starved of 'fuel' so, in its confusion, it creates 'the munchies' to try and get some replenishment. But of course, food is not that quick and efficient - and it can never keep up. Over time chronic users often report losing motivation (as a result of effectively destroying the Zhi of the kidneys) they also report losing direction in life (a combination of the impact on the eroding of your connection to Ming (your lifepath) and the suppression of the Hun and it's decisive, active quality.) And of course, by strongly impacting the kidneys and liver, the rest of the system is thrown out of balance - so people will often have other weird symptoms. Add in the late nights, excessive media, and junk food consumption that tend to affect chronic users - and you've got a great recipe for a wasted life. Of course, it's fine to destabilise your system once in a while - no long term damage done. But if you come to rely on weed to get you through life, the result is quite a sad deterioration of the light of your spirit. For genuine cultivators, it's best to stay away from weed altogether. And certainly don't confuse the increased awareness of qi while high as something beneficial for cultivation. Just as taking a bunch of steroids is not gonna end well for your sporting career.

I've been doing it for years and for me qigong is like the least relaxing thing I've ever tried! If it's super relaxing - then you're doing something wrong I've heard that opioids are way more relaxing than cannabis - I mean if relaxation is the ultimate goal.

I've seen some fights with at least one of the fighters having decent internal skill. And yes - it just looks like fighting - not like drills or demonstrations. I quite like Anthony Ho's demonstrations of internal skill under slightly more pressure than a willing demo subject: One of my teachers is very much into IMA - to him, it's about putting one's equanimity to the test under pressure.

Sorry it’s an irrelevant description to be honest. My point was that - even if you’re very sensitive to the actual movements of Qi in your body - the feeling of X might feel pleasurable and the feeling of Y might feel bad. So you go after X. But if you have no causal insight into the correct process of development you would miss that Y is also useful at certain stages and might stop it thinking it’s a problem.

I’m not familiar with this practice - but certainly sounds like a much healthier approach to sexual exploration. The whole retention thing is very much one of those ‘it depends’ things. I think it’s generally a terrible idea for young men in their teens and twenties. Even if they’re practicing internal arts. (Unless of course it’s one of those very rare full-time practitioners under a legitimate teacher’s supervision). It can be very useful (and in fact necessary) at certain times for serious practitioners. Chia’s practices, whether with retention or without are either dangerous or simply useless. Certain practices are harmless - like the ‘inner smile’. But it’s not cultivation... Its like imagining yourself walking on a beautiful sandy beach. Nice and relaxing. In fact the inner smile, comes from a misunderstanding of a classic text (forget which, unfortunately) which I think described the result of the correct application of the principle of Song. Much of chia’s stuff is this sort of thing. Classical text says ‘[if you practice correctly] you’ll feel a warm fluid like sensation rising up your spine’. So Chia ‘reverse engineers’ it by just imagining this sensation instead. I think it’s quite clear why this is wrong - but the analogy I use is this: It’s like ‘reverse engineering’ the process of making money by imagining millions of dollars when you check your bank balance.

Yes precisely - that’s why I always urge people against ‘self-initiated’ practice without a teacher or at least a concrete, traditional process. Even this can be problematic - because one’s inner awareness (even if accurate) isn’t able to understand the full causal chain of a process... For example a tendency for an ever expanding openness internally is recognised by most practitioners is highly beneficial. However at a certain point a tight compaction and very uncomfortable squeezing is also a necessary stage of the process. But often it feels very negative, and if you’re not aware of what’s going on, you might halt the process and cut short your progress.