de_paradise

It doesnt matter what you decide, if you stay on the spiritual path things will open up for you. You will face walls, resistance, then overcoming and reach new levels of understanding: whether its from you coworkers, your own angst in bumming around, or whether everything goes right but you spend a month in mexico sitting on the toilet crapping your intestines to a new level of clean. There is no rule to rely on for which you can make the decision, except to stay on the path, have faith and utilize whatever comes at you.

Or, our human bodies can translate this source energy into a feeling, which is love. How do you experience source energy you little human speck? Love. But in alchemy there are many blissful types of states due to strong energy rising, and the feeling can be similar to being in love feelings. Also there is the heart center generated type of feeling and the area that can feel like love but in a more energetic/cloudy/ethereal way. You can activate this heart chakra area by practice, releasing the "knots" that bind the heart, and I think a lot of people refer to this heart energy as love energy due to the nice lovey dovey feelings.

I dont do much sitting meditation; Buddha did most of his meditation laying down. Avoids the pain of my lower back (messed up due to years of sports abuse and poor posture and the discomfort of qi sensitivity. If you tend to fall asleep, then sitting is better. If you can stay awake and reclined then laying down is more relaxing and hence deeper meditations. If I do sit, then I have a pillow supporting my lower back and a wall supporting the pillow. Meditation is about your mind not your posture. If you saw me meditate you would think I was sleeping, completely immobile with slow breath, laying on a comfy bed or sofa. Moving around messes up the meditation, maybe its more dynamic but a relatively shallow meditation is less beneficial because after you move, your qi body has to readjust and the qi cycling then takes time re-accelerate. What this means is less gets cleared and cleaned and opened on a subtle body level if you are moving. You are better off in a position where you do not move an inch for at least 30 min. You are better off very relaxed but not sleeping.

Friend, great info. Do you do a Masters Thesis on this stuff? Ya Mu, why is it that Reiki people are getting the sick qi kickback? Is it as Friend says, that there is some kind of blending of one's own qi to the channeled qi due to the lineage getting worse, and also that they perhaps don't practice enough to keep the right channels open?

Hard to say. It was just some energy episode. You will know if that sort of stuff continues, it would be better to characterize it as kundalini. Ultimately qi is a broader name for energies and Kundalini uses qi to do its evolutionary work. So they are not seperate, its just kundalini has its own relentless and bitchy character.

There's this topic on the General forum asking about higher level energy practices. Attempting to maintain the meditative or connected state throughout the entire day is higher practice. How to do it depends on your personal trials and what works for you, what little thoughts or mental set-ups or activity allows you a prolonged experience of a connected state. I think breath watching, mindfulness, engaging ego-freeing emotions like gratefulness, compassion, etc, also turning in my mind some contemplations like how all behavior is conditioned and there is no seperate self.I have found that a long session of yoga in the morning helps balance and slow down the day. Energetic states are kind of sticky, thankfully. What i mean is that you can get into a higher level energetic state and it will tend to maintain itself even though you are distracted here and there, so you dont have to "try" all the time or be completely mindful of maintaining the state.

Think of it as getting $200 of bad karma written off your books. You are right that they had the tell-tale signs of con artists, but its nice that you were naive enough to not see that. Its worse if you had caught something suspicious in their behavior and told them to piss off, because that would show just how paranoid or world-weary a person you are. When it gets into your subconscious and you are telling people to piss off in your dreams so they don't steal your mind-made money, you get to realize how rediculous it is, and how hard to uproot that deep greed. A similar card swipe machine con happened to me this year, it was so smooth I had to laugh. I see that as progress.

In case you missed it: Also compassion and wisdom will help qi development by creating the causes and conditions for subtle energies to refine.

Its a fact that most of the conversations we have in society are encouraging the exact opposite of the behavior that will help us in cultivation. In Buddhist terms, we are always talking about increasing our afflictions and attachments to money and greed (talking about jobs, economy, investments, how to bend the rules, to maximize our situations, and make us always more money, assumption that more greed is always better), lust (getting pretty women in bed, lovers, seduction, porn, whores, viagra, ecstasy), food ( better, tasty food), pursuit of pleasures, ambition, and pursuit of prestige in the eyes of society, pride in accomplishment, degrees, acclaim, pride in material goods like cars,houses, also travel. The basic assumptions of conversations, how people will engage you are so riddled with these afflictions, and in this topsy-turvy world assume that less is worse, more affliction is better. Once in a while, very rarely, I meet someone who is on the path of deconstruction of the ego, and its such a refreshingly nice conversation. How they got over their need for peer esteem or self-pride, how they chose to live simply, how they work to benefit others, etc.

What I listed were some textbook Buddhist afflictions, and getting less attached is a kind of path that not everyone here follows or applies equally. This is just a pretty basic and accessible part of a spiritual path.(I agree that some are just following dogma or insincerely being "holier than thou") Even less talked about is energy practices, siddhi, recent transformations, or comparative path notes. My point was really about how the values are assumed in many of the conversations I get into, like the meta-frame of "pleasure seeking". One pleasure seeker talking to another about chasing pleasures is the frame of the conversation, and there is no way out except breaking rapport. Its just nice to meet someone on the street and recognizing that they are devoting their lives somehow to the spiritual path.

Nickyro, what is your normal procedure for sexual practice? A certain amount of time doing the in and out with your consort, non-ejaculation, then a certain amount to time in stilling your mind?

Thanks for posting your personal observations nickyro, it's quite interesting to see what other people are doing. I think another person who is in a different stage of development may or may not find meat to be important, or to attain the same type of bliss by sexual practice, but given that meat is well-known to heighten sexual energy, it follows that it can heighten the bliss of a cultivator. And so that is a valuable observation for people who can use co-arising of bliss and mental stability to help them cultivate. To me, meat and sex have been off the table for so many years, but a lighter, more energetic bliss can come with heart activation.

I'd call it a state of consciousness beyond the 5 senses, no need to intellectualize. Its great that you still have the residue of the experience, and I'd be curious if that lasted past a few weeks. My experiences in this tend to be deep out of normal consciousness, and I can feel my energy body, use my mind as to create the impression of flying or travelling, or sliding down an oily slide.

This is kind of interesting research. http://www.tcminter.net/Artikel/Qigongresearch.html Question for Ya Mu: Have you noticed what kinds/classifications of people tend to be more readily able to feel the emitted qi that you emit, and which ones generally feel nothing at all.

What people call logic, reason, realistic is very often a type of clinging to pre-programmed beliefs. If you have had some "supernatural" experiences, it become apparent just how much of a fraud words like logic and science really are, and how human population are walking around completely bamboozled and steeped in their own B.S., so much so that they build neat little cages around the beliefs and call it reality.

Its just a little morning routine to get the blood flowing, the order doesnt matter as long as you are not over-straining yourself. I would add a 9 bottled breath in there to balance the mind, the left right and central channels, and clear the nasal passages; Also some sun salutations to get the sacral-cranial waves going for a sense of well being. Horse stance does not seem like the same warm-up type of thing as the others.

Dagon, you may have to fill in a few of the pronoun reference problems and other ambiguities for us to understand what you are saying

Im no certified expert, but I do spend alot of time watching my dreamscapes while semi-awake. I think the murder plot line was borrowed from some t.v. show that you watched, but the wily, kind of sociopath is an aspect of yourself. If it were my dream, I would be concerned about the type of wrangling and slipperyness to get away with the behavior. In society, we can get away with things, we can be bad or selfish and get away with it, but in "reality" we dont get away with it. The cultivation path takes you from insincerity to sincerity, and this entire dreamscape is a kind of negative karma resolving itself with the mother's voice and the rebirth. But there is some pretty strong karma exhibited in this dream, so it will likely need more resolution in the future. Maybe there is some aspect of your life you are requiring a resolve to more sincerity, less self-serving dealings.

We all more or less have the same problem, regarding the river and social values etc. Sometimes I understand I am making huge progress, feel some kind of bliss in my body, and wonderful mental stability, only to find myself in the same type of life-driven-by-greed and pursuit of personal pleasures the next week. The path opens up organically or naturally, incrementally adding practices here and there, absorbing cultivation teachings into your life to replace socially programmed teaching. Or something sudden may happen to push you towards cultivation lifestyle, a greater resolution and confidence in the path of enlightenment, its reality, that you can actually attain enlightenment in your lifetime. Alot of us are churning around things in our minds, these mental burdens that can be just dropped. And thats what Buddhist teachings are so good for--dropping your self-made problems. Non-martial energy practices like some neigong or yogas are not difficult to learn (dvd's, seminars, etc), and the main impediment is the dedication to regular practice, not an on-hand teacher. You learn the techniques, wash rinse and repeat. In summary, a greater push towards spirituality is made by adding meditation and energy practices and "life practices", a long-haul type, sometimes really slow transition ( the responsibility is all on you) The universe, or whatever it is,sometimes will respond to your earnest and sincere intents by swinging teachers and energy-rific people and ideas your way.

Its all programming, 0% natural you. Keep smiling.

Good points. My comments were geared towards people who are doing a mechanical, or head-based type of practice, and perhaps really to add in some heart-based intent. I am not sure to what extent we are in charge of this uncovering either, what goes through our heads or our path direction. The extent to which higher energies respond to our thoughts depends on how far along one is, but anyone can with intent think "healing" and it will stir something. I was thinking as an example about "Adam the dreamhealer" boy who awakened his extraordinary healing siddhi by really really wanting to heal his mother. Any "regular" person who contemplates the interconnectivity of all things, as one whole, will find themselves in something akin to a hypnotic trance, which is actually an energy experience. The words "healing" or Boddhisattva vow, or "Jesus" are merely symbols, abstractions; what is important is what happens in a persons consciousness and physical (including energy) body as triggered by the words. But the words can point the way, and can be intentionally contemplated to acheive progress.

Cat, I know I made a pretty bold statement, and thanks for calling me on this. I think the term "high intention" is very attractive to use, because it already assumes a kind of success in bridging to higher energies. Conventionally speaking, "high intention" could be confused with adhering to "proscribed morality" from a religious text, or even just a "positive intention." My friend even would probably argue that all intentions are equal since they are ego based. But if we say "high intention" that bridges to higher energy, most people can at least notice some kind of shift in their mood as proof of success, and if they are meditators they might be able to acheive some kind of indication of progress. I suppose it would vary from person to person, if they experience some dramatic shift or not. For example, intent of generosity and charity, if you maintain the intent in your heart-body (not in just the head) is a high intention. If someone tinkers around with maintaining this intent for some period of time, they will be able to with varying degrees of success bridge to the higher energies (perhaps its that source energy has the attribute of generosity/charity and is merely responding to you by flowing into your being) Another example is the Boddhisattva vow. Most people think of it as some kind of story where instead of flying up to blissland, you hang around and help beings. But if you contemplate it and reduce it to the barest intent, intent to all others to acheive spiritual illumination, as a singular directing of your heart-body-mind then you can add it to any meditation or activity and it will supercharge the result. Perhaps this is the highest or most powerful of intents and the reason why the Mahayana people make sure that its stuck in everywhere in their recitations. Yet the real power comes from isolating and maintaining that positive intent for a duration. What are you doing here? Hoping with your heart that all the others get nirvana cake? Or putting your heart mind on the same frequency as one that assumes one-ness of all beings and spiritual uplifting of the totality? (the second choice) I guess its pretty rare to hear of intent based meditation, or specific, really slimmed down intents added to meditations, but I've been at it for a while so thats why I highlighted turtleshell's comment. There's a small number of high intents, including the 3 mentioned already, and other things which are less explicitly an intent, like "trust" or "love" but could feel similar in the body, engaging the heart and somehow bridging energy that the body translates to increased qi circulation and often blissful feelings.

Interesting what Turtle Shell said about holding a high intention. This is what one can do for any meditation or energy practice, and also what can be instilled in one's life's activities. That mindset resembles the stage of intensified practice, when one has insight on the path and just continues to mine that vein, as it becomes clear that high intentions are synonymous with knowing the Tao. For feeling stuff, its always been there, but clearly the cruder gives way to more subtle eventually, so feeling less is perhaps better. The real strong alchemy takes place from K2, which I don't do very often, but just doing K1 is not the miracle practice of short-short path. Its simply another practice thats fairly undemanding, which nevertheless should be done 45 mins or more to really get the energies flowing.

Having goals, and finding techniques are great. This forum is full of people getting new ideas for techniques for the quick path, and maybe a few siddhis on the way to keep us motivated in the meantime. Eventually, one realizes that to get further one needs to develop deeper stillness, stable mind, open heart, etc. Sometimes the universe, perceiving our karma, throws us a result and lets us fill in the blanks to the steps that got us there. So if you can heal, perhaps you have to backfill yourself to become a healer in mind and heart. Who doesnt want an open third eye? Lots of cool stuff to see. It's almost akin to saying I want enlightenment, and beyond that, a shen body, all by doing some simple practise. Motivation is motivation, its all good: But heaven and earth will move if your motivation is to open your heart, or connect with the oneness. The feeling of desire to connect in the ego-free, limitless surrender, compassion state--that's the immediate goal that will make fast progress, because in itself is a powerful technique (direct reaching, dzogchen, guru yoga, etc) The goal is the technique, and in comparison other goals are "grasping", lacking power. To live the goal state, to feel it and breath it each moment, making it as real as possible, because inside somewhere is that knowlege. Its covered with layers and layers of crap, ego and grasping, illusion of our world, programming and complexes.

To address your questions: it is safe to proceed with practice. Practice is like adding fuel to a steam engine, so it goes faster. You want the process to go faster? Many people have irrational fear of change, so they freak out and blog at any sign of kriya or detox symptoms, or anything that doesnt help them with their modern life already chosen. People will make up all kinds of things to avoid serious practice. There are many practices out there. I am not fond of MCO. But others like it. A good pranayama-based yoga system that works on all parts of the body, joints, tendons will help release emotional issues faster than MCO, which Bodri and Nan often call "simply spinning energy with your mind." I have found that the deep emotional issues often have to get resolved by yourself, not by kundalini, although what kundalini does is sometimes make it so unbearable that you have to resolve it, change your ways and thought patterns. It may be difficult to reach the higher spiritual levels working a full time job. Take a look at all the free "faster eft" videos on youtube if you want to become expert at locating and releasing your emotional problems. Kundalini takes her own sweet time. Remember that the worst problems or issues you have now will be the ones that help you the most when you finally resolve them. KAP is legit, but as far as I know, their practices are geared towards awakening kundalini. But maybe you would like some guidance, and they offer that. I think you would want to find some practices to stabilize your mind, because, working a full time job and leading a regular life, you likely have not allowed your mind to catch up with your body's and energy body's progress. For example, mindfulness and being in the moment of daily life. Also "dzogchen", which is a fancy way of saying " keeping your eye one the prize," enlightened state of the Buddhas, not the baloney of samsara. Progress, in many respects, is your own responsibility. Just because you have awakened kundalini, or do some practice ad inifitum, you still have to navigate your own consciousness, and find the peace, truth, stillness, bliss.