Seeker of Wisdom

Pretty intense 5 mins just now... My whole body was buzzing with chi, so much in my hands it felt like I had hands made of chi which were rotating slightly - occupying the same space as my physical hands. Super heat in my legs, some in my dan tien and spine, and a gently pulsating root chakra. My mind is also more quiet, clear and alert. After only 5 mins.

It's the idea of selfhood that is lost, not individual consciousness. Look up 'the 5 skhandas' and 'anatta'. The idea is that we are a bundle of these 5 constantly rising and falling processes, but we falsely believe that there is some sort of 'I' owning them. Note that as these are processes, consciousness is constantly arising and ceasing, so you aren't quite eternal but there is an eternal continuity. Avoid the extremes of eternalism and nihilism. At no point does a person just dissolve into thusness and stop existing as an individual. Rather they see themselves and everything else as they truly are - processes with no existence independent from the web of cause and effect (look up 'codependent origination' and 'sunyata'), playing out within thusness.

Yeah, I think if I want a pineapple cut into slices, I won't be pouring hot wax on my eyes first.

No, that's just damn good spatial memory. It would be possible for anyone to practice memorising the locations of things relative to them, building a mental map, and using that to do what this guy can do. Blind people can walk around inside their house without a cane by the same principle.

I really strongly suggest getting 'The Attention Revolution' by Alan Wallace. It very clearly explains three popular meditation methods, the stages of meditation, how meditation works and why to do it. It's really very clear, it goes in stage order so a beginner can start with a simple variation of 'mindfulness of breathing' to build a foundation of relaxation, and in time progress through subtler practices and more advanced ideas. Mindfulness of breathing is very popular for a reason - it's easy for beginners to do it focusing on the whole experience of breathing to get started, as you advance you can adjust to focusing on smaller things like the sensation of breath at the nostrils to get further. So it can be adapted for the stage you're at very easily. Also because the breath is a neutral and very simple stimulus, it's possible to reach the highest levels of awareness. And yet more, watching the ebb and flow of breath leads to realisation of impermanence. The other techniques covered are also very effective cultivation indeed. Also the book covers some stuff on dream yoga and the 4 immeasurables. So get this book... the chapters on mindfulness of breathing alone are priceless. Feel free to message me with any questions.

Running and... MIGHTY HORSE STANCE!

The Buddhist approach is generally to focus on the mind as that's the key thing, and allow the body to sort itself out. We have blocks in our chi and so on due to mental hindrances. Change the mind, and the body changes to remain a suitable vehicle. Thus, Zen masters have experienced advanced chi developments, such as speaking in poetry in time with the pumping of the root chakra when it first opens. They just don't see the chi stuff as important in itself. So it is possible that those monks you met had reasonable chi, but had never felt it because their chi never had to bust through blocks (no friction - chi flows smoothly - no noticeable sensation), as the blocks were mentally dissipated. It is also possible that due to terrible physical health their chi was never able to build up, despite blocks being dissolved. This seems most likely to me. It's also perhaps possible that they actually lied about feeling chi as expedient means to not get people attached to chi! Of course, there are more Tantric Buddhist approaches such as Vajrayana, where the body is dealt with along with the mind, as in Taoism. Also jing retention is necessary for chi to build up, although it may not be recognised as such. The risk, IMHO, with actively working on the body, is getting sidetracked with flashy sensations and phenomena. There are too many people thinking that the key variable in enlightenment is open channels - really chi is only important in cultivation because it is associated with the mind, and for good health. I think that the mind-only approach is perfectly valid. However, I prefer doing a little chi practices to supplement because it's faster burning the candle from both ends; and all people need to get physical exercise for health - especially monks and people who don't do anything with their chi.

I use meditation more as mental training, to develop clarity and focus which can then be used to foster insight. This also clears up chi naturally, because the mental hindrances which are causing the blocks in the first place are being eroded. If you're interested, a tremendously useful book is 'The Attention Revolution' by Alan Wallace. It really tells you what to do, why and how.

Get 'The Attention Revolution', by Alan Wallace! Shamatha mental training is so important, because it gives you a very clear focused mind. This is conducive to real wisdom, chi developing effortlessly (because your mind isn't hindering the flow), and developing virtue. This book is probably the clearest outline of the theory and actual practice out there.

I would expect a civilisation advanced enough to send out contact satellites across interstellar distances, to make their satellites advanced enough for everyone on any planet they reach to know about it for sure fairly quickly.

Christianity is already on it's last legs over here. The trouble is, it's being replaced with aggressive evangelical atheism.

It's easier to talk about changing the world than to get stuck in changing your own flaws.

It sounds like when you got into this stuff you were pulled in by the bullshit New Age idea that we are all omnipotent omniscient beings creating our reality, tried to materialise a mansion, found you couldn't; and now you're stuck between normal life, a being god-like fantasy you know is nonsense magical thinking but can't quite dismiss, and actual cultivation that you sense leads to something meaningful but requires a commitment you're afraid of. So, find meaning in improving yourself, because that's what real cultivation - not New Age/the Secret 'you are already a perfect omnipotent being of light beyond time and space' bullshit - is all about. What you do in this life in the physical world is meaningful, if you make it in line with cultivation rather than just samsaric running on the hedonic treadmill. Help people. Teach by example. Use difficulties in mundane life as your greatest gurus. You could be anything from a waiter to a soldier, and do it with purpose and wisdom. A waiter can cultivate equanimity and compassion to his customers, a soldier could be a soldier with righteous motives and cultivate courage and understanding of impermanence.

Sure. Times like that aren't doable for me yet, but I look forward to reaping the benefits of more hardcore horse stancing. What is doing horse stance that long like? That must be fairly intense lol.

Point taken. To clarify, I am defining soul as any fundamental core essence to a person. A soul would be a case of 'I am this thing, and it is central to me'. Really I prefer to say self (little 's'!) or 'I' instead of soul, to avoid this very confusion, but since the original question referred to souls I used that term.

That may well be true. Still not a soul though.

Fortunately, we can cultivate and get the experience.

There is no soul. Have you heard of anatta - 'no-self'? People are a fluid combination of 5 processes (the skhandas), none of which are complete on their own: form, sensation, conception, volition, and consciousness. There is no one substantial thing, like a soul, which is 'I'. If you analyse yourself, you will just find the flux of these processes, with no soul owning them. When we die, instead of us being an eternal soul which takes up a new body, it's more like the latter 4 skhandas continue whirling and integrate with a new form skhanda. Instead of pouring water from one glass to another, it's like a river flowing from one town into the next. People who think they're feeling their soul are actually focusing on consciousness or a sublime mental state, and misinterpreting the experience. Am I making sense? Anatta is tricky to wrap your head around, but really it's quite simple. Even if there were a soul... like the mind and consciousness, it wouldn't have any sort of form. No shape, size, colour or appearance. Imagine saying 'sadness is 9 inches long' - it's nonsensical.

I don't see elements as 'things' with spatial location like that, but groups we can classify things into. I personally would think of the elements in the hands as more like this: Air - chi and oxygen. Ether - shen and nervous signals. Water - jing and blood. Earth - flesh, bone, etc. Fire - respiration and (if in the hands) kundalini.

I just did 4 minutes, and have a cold sensation in the soles of my feet, warmth in my spine and a buzz at my temples. This really builds up lots of chi.

It's cool though that your school has a bunch of meditators discussing this stuff. Definitely a swing in the right direction for the West.

Similar stuff happened all the time to me back when I used to attempt astral projection. Honestly, there's not much to be said about it. Just that chi seems to flow with more intensity in preparation to project a chi body out of the physical body. One important thing I've learned over the 2/3 years I've been cultivating: the flashy stuff many people are attracted to is NOTHING compared to the dull-sounding stuff few are attracted to. NOTHING! Practically irrelevant. Does shamatha - learning to focus the mind on one point - sound dull compared to OBE's and crazy chi sensations? I can imagine telling someone I spend at least an hour every day observing the breath sensations at my nostrils and them wondering how I can do something that sounds so boring... well, it's absolutely wonderful, profound, transformative. But not in a flashy way, not separate from 'mundane' reality. Nothing is really mundane. Thusness is just as present in a lump of dirt here as in the radiance of more 'spiritual' realms where devas live. Cultivation is all about removing the fetters to seeing thusness, not weird phenomena. They will happen if you cultivate right, but are not the goal in themselves.

It's not hoarding energy to store it properly. It's not like you're stealing the energy from other people. It's your energy, and having it in the right place is simply a matter of health... no different in principle from taking measures to fix your physical body if it doesn't have the right distribution of blood! As you say, the two polar options here are: *Store the energy below. *Full-on open stuff up. Whatever you do, OBE's are a greater possibility with active K. Don't worry about it, they are still unlikely and nothing to be afraid of anyway. Look at it this way - you aren't actually 'in' your body. Remember anatta and the skhandas. It's more like all the skhandas interact and give the illusion of mind and consciousness being things with spatial dimension in the body, than there actually being a 'you' 'inside' your body. So what is there to be afraid of leaving? As another person with a largely Buddhist outlook, I advise taking the middle way. You do need to guide some of this energy down to the dan tien - the Taoists on here can give better advice than me in that regard. But you also need to allow the energy to do what it must, and remove blocks. To that end, I advise shamatha, metta bhavana (itself v. good for insomnia), and taking time each day to lie down and completely surrender to the energy so it can do its stuff. When you are able to sleep when you need to again, don't worry if you find you actually need less sleep, because that's good and natural. Don't confuse insomnia with wakefulness when you get there. Also, try jogging.

No, despite all the bullshit pseudoscience, outright nonsense and fear-mongering on the internet. I will not debate this. I know from experience that debates on such matters lead nowhere. Suffice to say, if you have a good capacity for logical critical thinking combined with a GCSE understanding of science; it is easy to debunk stuff like this fluoride thing, crop circles, the alkaline diet, (proof I'm not a closed-minded pseudoskeptic!) materialism, and much more.