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Found 260 results

  1. Hello Fellow Lovers of the Tao

    Hello. I am really interested in taoist thought, practice, and ways of living. I consider myself a student and seeker of truth, which means while I understand philosophies and their place I realize the most important part of anything is how it affects me...in short I like practicality and to prove and experience things for myself. I've read and researched many "spiritual" philosophies and practices and would like to be able to eventually experience them all for what they can offer. I am most interested in chi right now, and to understand if what I have been feeling is the same thing as some of you...please reply if you think you can help me. Lately I have been noticing vibrating tingling like sensations mostly in my fingertips and through my hands, sometimes in other parts of my body. Incidentally as a result of focusing on these vibrations inwardly in a way they increase...now I have noticed to that wrinkles and lines have begun to form and appear on my hands that were not there before. I am worried that I am doing something harmful to myself, which sucks, because I wanted to understand chi and its healing benefits. Am I actually feeling chi? Or just nerves? Is there a difference? It's almost as if I think I am accelerating the aging of my body, and I thought meditation and feeling chi would lead me to reduce the aging of it...? Have I stumbled on the "dark side" of the force? I have never had a meditation teacher, and I have only read books on these subjects, which is why I am posting this here now. I wish there was someone in Ohio, which is where I live, who is actually able to personally help me. Please respond if any of the things I have said interest you, or if you think you may be able to help me understand some of these things. Thank you.
  2. The Tao of posting a new topic.

    Hello. I am a hermit that spends most of his time meditating. I have big dreams that include, living in a cave, having no money, and hopefully not having any big dreams. I have recently become interested in Taoist sexual practice, and the microcosmic orbit meditation. Having heard of the dangers of the microcosmic orbit, I seek a skilled practitioner of this meditation that would be readily available for contact in case I go insane. If there are no microcosmic orbit masters here, then surely me going insane is with the Tao, and I will prepare for my journey to the mental hospital. Haha. Jokes. But anyways. The end.
  3. I am posting this in hopes that it might be useful to someone who is actively trying to reach awakening … it is essentially a road map describing my own journey down the last section of the path to enlightenment… From the very beginning, my meditation was focused on one thing only… silencing the voice of my mind (delusion)… then destroying that voice completely… all of my meditation practice was insight meditation, and because I made steady progress from beginning to end, I never tried anything else… my insight meditation consisted of fixing my awareness on my nose, and passively observing my breath as it went in and out of my nose…while repeating “Buddho – Buddho – Buddho”… then when I became proficient in Samadhi (concentration), I started doing investigation of my mind… I first spent a few weeks at a Theravada Forest Monastery in the north of Thailand… I did this several times, but just when I started to get results, it would be time to leave… so I decided that the next time I would stay for as long as I got results… and I ended up staying for a full year, during which time I got rid of my anger and greed and reached equanimity… then I did solitary meditation at a house in the mountains (here in Thailand) for a year… then spent another year at the monastery primarily doing “body investigation”… then again I returned to a house in the mountains to do solitary meditation … after doing “body meditation” at the monastery I had reached a high level of attainment, but was unsure of what to do next…so I decided that I would attempt to reach awakening, or to at least scout out the territory… but I realized that I didn’t really have a clue where to start… so I decided that since the process of meditation and awakening takes place in the mind, knowledge of how the mind works would be extremely useful… so I surfed the internet looking for research and other information to update my knowledge about how the mind worked… after I digested it all, I wrote a short summary of it for my own use (conscious & subconscious mind… see below) which also includes my own observations and insights… with this information I could see how to proceed, and why… so I then wrote a step by step “road map for awakening” for myself that took me to awakening… see below)… then after my awakening, I wrote a description of what I experienced when I awakened… (awakening … see below)… later I wrote an epilogue describing how I felt 6 months after awakening… see below… Dawg CONSCIOUS MIND & SUBCONCIOUS MIND (Summary of my research and insights) The left hemisphere of your brain was generated from your father’s DNA, and contains your conscious mind, which is the male mind (Yang), and seventh chakra… the right hemisphere of your brain was generated from your mothers DNA, and contains your subconscious mind, which is the female mind (Yin), and sixth chakra (third eye)… the conscious mind is “father sky”, the subconscious mind is “mother earth”… …………………………………. THE CONSCIOUS MIND THE CONSCIOUS MIND IS A SERIAL PROCESSOR (with only one image or thought at a time, in a lineal sequence). The conscious mind can process 40 bits (nerve impulses) per second… the conscious mind understands “words” and “logic”, it is very “rational”… THE CONSCIOUS MIND IS THE MIND OF OUR PHYSICAL BODY AND ITS SENSES… “Consciousness” is usually defined as being aware of the physical senses… if a person cannot see, hear, smell, taste, or touch, they are said to be “unconscious”… NOTE... The “conscious mind” is used to survive in the physical world (world of the body’s senses)… The conscious mind is concerned with our personality and the survival of our body… when a person reincarnates, their past personality and conscious mind becomes a part of their subconscious mind, and a new conscious mind and personality is created… When a baby is born, it is taught (conditioned) how to survive in the physical world (physical survival), and how to survive within the context of the culture that it is born into (personality)… The conscious mind is just a temporary superficial interface that allows our spirit to reincarnate in a physical body, and experience the physical world… while our subconscious mind is the eternal spirit that we are, that is connected to, and is a part of the spirit universe …………………………………. THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND IS A PARALLEL PROCESSOR (with many images and thoughts arranged in many different complex patterns and structures simultaneously). The subconscious mind can process 40,000,000 bits (nerve impulses) per second, so it is 1,000,000 times more powerful, complex, bigger, or faster than the conscious mind… and can think hundreds or thousands of different thoughts simultaneously… the subconscious mind understands “visual images”, “emotions” and “feelings”; and is totally “irrational”… the subconscious mind controls our body… it keeps our heart beating, our lungs breathing, our stomach digesting our food, etc… it repairs and replaces the cells of our body… it creates our health or sickness… this is why the Buddha said that “every man is the author of his own sickness or health”… the subconscious mind is extremely powerful, but we seldom use more than a tiny fraction of its power, because we are unaware of it… If you see someone that you know; your subconscious mind “recognizes them” (visual image), and your conscious mind “remembers their name” (word)… this is how they work together… The conscious mind cannot cope with the simultaneous "multiple images and thoughts” in the subconscious mind, which is the reason why the subconscious mind is subconscious to the conscious mind. The conscious mind is simply unable to process and "be conscious" of the complexity of the "subconscious mind”… NOTE... If a “normal” mundane person were to unwittingly make their subconscious mind conscious, they would “think” (a logical lineal sequence of thoughts in their conscious mind) that they must be going “crazy”; because of the flood of conditioned multiple interacting reflex thoughts that would flood through their mind. Clinical insanity is when the subconscious mind of a mundane person becomes conscious, when he has tapped directly into his “spirit”, and neither the mundane person, nor the mundane world around him, understands what is happening… but this is also why some cultures consider “crazy people” to be “holy”, and why some “holy men” appear to be crazy… likewise a meditator who unwittingly makes his subconscious mind conscious, might “think” that meditating has made him crazy, and so be afraid to meditate any more… but if you recognize it as simply the natural state of the subconscious mind and are not afraid, it is no problem… it is fear of it that is the problem… if you ever fall into fear, simply start repeating “Buddho… Buddho… Buddho…” again and again until you feel safe… it will anchor you to something good, and protect you from fear… NOTE… When our subconscious mind becomes conscious, we have the potential to instantly and spontaneously “know” (with certainty) even the deepest and most complex universal knowledge and truths… NOTE… The subconscious mind simply collects information. It takes in every bit of input whether it is positive or negative. It does not make judgments about the information that it collects since that is the responsibility of the conscious mind. Every sight, sound, taste, smell, or anything we've experienced since the day that we were born (and what is carried over from past lives...karma) is stored in our subconscious mind for future retrieval…. Our subconscious mind is similar to a six-year-old child. It is innocent, naive, and wants to help us in any way it can, but has no idea how to help us. The subconscious mind wants to do the “right thing”, but it can only respond with what it has been conditioned to believe is the right thing (“mundane reality”, usually “ignorance”), so that it does not always make the best of choices… NOTE... The subconscious mind is “telepathic” and can hear the thoughts of other people, and communicate with the subconscious minds of other people, without our conscious mind being aware of it… this is what is called “intuition”… NOTE... Psychologists or behavioral change experts speak about writing goals or affirmations. Affirmations are positive, goal-directed phrases that are worded as if we have already achieved these goals… experts suggest we review our goals or repeat affirmations just before bed or just as we wake up… The reason is at these times our brainwaves are naturally in the correct state (the alpha frequency) for communicating with our subconscious mind. In alpha, the conscious mind is in abeyance, and we can speak directly to the subconscious mind… let's say you wrote the affirmation, "I love to exercise and have a compulsion to leap out of bed and exercise for 30 minutes every morning"… If you were in the alpha state, this message would go directly into the subconscious mind, unchallenged. But if you forgot to repeat affirmations just before bedtime, and repeated them while in the beta frequency (normal awake conscious mind) instead? Do you really think you could say this phrase without, at least, rolling your eyes? And most likely, that little voice in your conscious mind would be saying, "yeah, right"… …………………………………. Our subconscious mind is running our life! We have two separate minds that create our conscious mind’s controlling voice. There is the conscious mind that can think freely and create new ideas “outside of the box of our conditioning”. Then there is the subconscious mind, which is basically a super computer loaded with a database of programmed behaviors, that we carried with us from a past life (karma), or that we acquired before we reached the age of six or seven (when we were most gullible and impressionable) and were taught (programmed to believe) what the adults called “reality” (how to think and act)... The subconscious mind cannot move outside of its fixed programs… It automatically (reflex) reacts to situations with its previously “conditioned” behavior responses; it works without the knowledge or control of the conscious mind. We are usually not even aware that most of our actions are subconscious conditioned reflex responses. Studies from as far back as the 1970’s, show that our subconscious mind begins to prepare for action just over a third of a second before we consciously decide to act. In other words, even when we ‘think’ that we are consciously deciding to act, it is our subconscious mind that is actually making the decision for us...the subconscious mind is controlling us 95% of the time! Neuroscientists have shown that the conscious mind of a normal person provides 5% or less of their cognitive (conscious) activity during the day, and 5% they say is for the more aware people, many people operate at just 1% consciousness. It is the subconscious mind which shapes how we live our life… Note that the reason that an enlightened person is said to be “awake”, is because they are no longer in the “hypnotic trance” of conditioned behavior and sleepwalking through their life… they have awakened. Most of our decisions, actions, emotions and behavior depend on the 95% of brain activity that is usually beyond our conscious awareness, which means that at least 95% of our life is conditioned behavior that comes from our subconscious mind. Our life reflects our subconscious conditioning, because the job of the subconscious mind is to create a “reality” out of our subconscious conditioning. If our subconscious conditioning is negative (caused by negative experiences), our subconscious mind will recreate those negative experiences in our life, again and again. The voice of our thoughts, is not our voice… it is the voice of all the people who have conditioned us… our thoughts are all the “value judgments” and “control trips” that our family and our culture have programmed us with, to control our behavior… our awareness is clean and pure… the defilements in our mind are these conditioned “value judgment” and “control trip” thoughts that other people have filled our mind with. Whatever thoughts that our mind keeps returning to, are unresolved issues… If we have unresolved issues, it is usually because we have been conditioned with contradictory behavior… that is to say that we have been conditioned to do something (because it’s “good”), and also conditioned to not do the same thing (because it’s “bad”)… unresolved issues are usually a result of this situation… this situation produces conflict in our mind, so that we like to do something, but we feel guilty about it, and consider ourselves a bad person because we do it… it is a conflict of two conditioned value judgments… to resolve the issue we must make a choice of one or the other… either we don’t do “it”, or we do “it” and let go of our guilt about doing “”it” (assuming that we are not hurting anyone, including ourselves). “Guilt” is nothing but a control trip that someone has put in our mind to control us… we should not be deceived into thinking that it is a “natural response” to the “badness” of our actions. If we have negative conditioning (caused by negative experiences) in our subconscious mind, 95% of the time we will recreate those negative experiences in our life. Most of the conditioning in our subconscious mind is control trips based on negativity and fear that were put there to control and shape our behavior… we have been conditioned by our parents and other family members, school teachers, religious teachers, friends, enemies, books, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, movies, the internet, the government, etc… For example : if we are repeatedly told that we are “bad”, we are “stupid”, we are “worthless”, we are “incompetent”, we are a “failure”, or we fear what other people are thinking about us, or fear that we will not be accepted loved and respected as we are, fear that we are inferior to other people in some way, etc… these thoughts will keep popping into our mind, and this will cause us to have low self esteem, and a negative opinion of ourselves, and to believe that we are worthless. We then hate ourselves so are unable to accept and love ourselves as we are, and as a result we are unable to love others... Our subconscious mind is conditioned by a form of hypnosis that we call “education”… we are conditioned (hypnotized) when we voluntarily agree to believe what “respected authority” (parents & family, school teachers, religious teachers, government, media, friends, etc.) “suggest” to us… they suggest to us what things are good or bad, true or false… how we should behave, how we should think, what is “normal”… what is “reality”… so that the 95% of the time that we are controlled by our subconscious mind, we are in a hypnotic trance… simply reacting to stimulus with conditioned reflex behavior… our conscious mind’s “ego” thinks that it is making all of our decisions, that it is in control of our fate, but in reality it is just a puppet of the subconscious mind… We are taught to be greedy, and to want as much money as we can get… we are taught to chase pleasure and sex… we are taught to get angry when certain things happen to us… we are taught that what we believe is right… and anyone who disagrees with us is wrong… and so on. And as time passes we forget that we have learned these behaviors from other people, because they become automatic responses, so that we think that they are our natural and spontaneous reactions… and so that we become locked into a mundane hypnotic trance state that we consider to be “REALITY”… we are like “zombies”… THIS CONDITIONED MUNDANE REALITY IS THE IGNORANCE AND DELUSION THAT IS CALLED “AVIJJA”… this MUNDANE REALITY is the “DELUSION” that we must see through to liberate our mind… then it is as if we “awaken” from a long sleep, and see the true nature of our existence. But be warned that Avijja (mundane reality) has one last trick… it will try to convince you that you will “go crazy” if you let go of mundane reality… don’t believe it, you will “go sane”, and you will be free… forever and ever… MY ROAD MAP FOR AWAKENING (My strategy for attaining awakening) …………………………………. MY ANALYSIS (1) ………………MEDITATION……………… Meditation… The whole object of meditation from start to finish, is gaining control of, and silencing the voice of the mind… so that we can investigate the mind and purify it… then permanently destroy the voice of the mind by destroying “Avijja”, the delusion that is the source of that voice… when we have destroyed “Avijja”, all delusion falls away and we become awakened… and we clearly see the truth of our existence… (it does not matter what method we use to purify the mind, and destroy Avijja, that is of no importance… all that is important is that the method works)… Breathing during meditation… When meditating and observing our breath, we should not control our breath with our conscious mind, but instead let our subconscious mind do our (automatic) breathing for us, then we should be aware that by observing our (automatic) breath that we are observing our subconscious mind, and get in sync with it, and then simply let go, and let it “lead the way”… this helps to set up “investigation”, or set up “communication”, and/or “interaction” with the subconscious mind… Meditation in solitude…To reach awakening, it is very helpful (maybe necessary) to have days or weeks of uninterrupted and undisturbed meditation in solitude… away from the sights, sounds, and constant interruptions of the mundane world, away from all other people… to develop and sustain the necessary intensity of “concentration” and “determination”… the sights, sounds, smells, and feel of desolate unspoiled nature is the most ideal environment for meditating in solitude… (2) ……………NECESSARY SKILLS…………… It It is necessary to have concentration… The action or power of focusing one's attention or mental effort… dealing with one particular thing above all others… It is necessary to be deft… moving or acting in a quick, smooth, and skillful way; clever, showing good sense and skill in ... It is necessary to be cool… in a composed and unconcerned manner… It is necessary to be efficient… expending the least effort for maximum result… It is necessary to have determination… unshakable “intent”… (3) ………………STRATEGY……………… TO DESTROY “AVIJJA” (delusion) WE MUST UNDERSTAND : 1)… “WHERE IT IS” 2)… “WHAT IT IS” 3)… “WHAT IS ITS WEAKNESS” 4)… “HOW IT CAN BE DESTROYED” RESULTS OF MY ANALYSIS 1)… “where it is”… the first major insight on my path to “awakening”, was when I suddenly realized that my subconscious mind was my “Citta”… and since I knew that Avijja (delusion) and the Kelisas (defilements) were in my Citta, that meant they were in my subconscious mind… 2)… “what it is”… the second major insight was that a single conditioned reflex response in our subconscious mind is a “Kelisa”… and that the self reinforcing structure of interconnected conditioned reflex responses in our subconscious mind that we call “mundane reality”, is “Avijja”… 3)… “what is its weakness”… so how do we “fight” Avijja” (DELUSION) and destroy it… we can’t punch, kick, bite, stab, or shoot Avijja, nor beat it to death with a big stick… Avijja is not physical, nor is it even “alive”… so how do we fight something that is not physical or even alive… Avijja (delusion) has no awareness of its own, it is just a system of programmed reflex reactions stored in the subconscious mind that we call “mundane reality”… when we realize this, we have understood how the magician (Avijja) does its trick, (how we are deluded) so we are no longer fooled by it… we have discovered both the strength and the weakness of Avijja… and because we now understand its trick, we have already greatly diminished its strength (its ability to control and deceive us)… 4)… “how it can be destroyed”… It is not possible to “delete” anything from the subconscious mind, it remembers and records everything permanently… But we created Avijja (“mundane reality”) in our subconscious mind by accepting and believing mundane information and ideas, that we were taught were “true” (real, reality)... We were taught how we should respond to every possible situation, what we should like and dislike, etc… so that, 95% of our cognitive thoughts and actions are really just “programmed reflex reactions” dictated by our subconscious mind… this is “Avijja”, the “mundane reality” or “delusion” that we want to destroy… But consider that if we created Avijja (“mundane reality”) in our subconscious mind by accepting and believing mundane information and ideas, that we were taught were “true” (real, reality)... it is possible to reprogram our subconscious mind with a stronger new “awakened reality” based on the “truth of our existence”, that supersedes mundane reality, replacing it as the new default reality… This I now realize, is why the monk who taught me, had me do body investigation… body investigation is just a way to reprogram the subconscious mind to see the truth of our body… the truth of our existence… So it is possible for me to use whatever knowledge and skills that I have, and my understanding of the conscious and subconscious mind to reprogram a new awakened default reality… so starting now, the “middle path” of the Buddha IS my new default reality… I will do this by using “concentration”, “deftness”, “coolness”, “efficiency”, and “determination”… by continuously reaffirming to my subconscious mind that “reality” is the “truth of the middle path”… and by “intently” believing ( having my mind and will focused on this one specific purpose) and acting as if it already was the new default reality” (this is important), and I will even “intently” thank my subconscious mind for making it so (this is important too, remember that our subconscious mind is not only aware, but it has more awareness than our conscious mind)… and by continuously reinforcing the truth of the middle path as the existing new awakened default reality, while continuously reinforcing the idea that mundane reality was just childish ignorance… I can make the new “awakened reality” stronger and stronger, as I make the “mundane reality of delusion” weaker and weaker… then when the new “awakened reality” becomes stronger than the “childish ignorance” of mundane reality (Avijja)”, delusion will break up and be permanently destroyed… that will be the moment of “awakening”… AWAKENING (Written days after I awakened) I had been doing intense solitary meditation for many weeks trying many different strategies to get into and reprogram my subconscious mind, and/or trying to establish better communication with my subconscious mind, without any noticeable results… then one day without warning, and when I least expected it, I awakened… One minute I was listening to a bird chirping, and the wind rustling the leaves on the trees, the next minute I was inside my subconscious mind and could visually see Avijja (mundane reality) like it was a huge dam breaking up, making deep rumbling loud sounds, and also “zinging” high pitched sounds, that seemed oddly musical… It was like a musical earthquake… This was accompanied by blinding flashes of light, like flash bulbs on a camera going off in my face… And then the sea of information and thoughts (my subconscious mind) that had been held back by the dam (of mundane reality) swept out over me, carrying me away... I could hear the devas (heavenly beings, my spirit guides) excitedly cheering me on, laughing and clapping like fans at a football match… So I felt very reassured that I was “safe”, and that whatever was happening was a very positive development, so I had no fear… Instead of trying to get out of this sea of thoughts which was my subconscious mind (remember I had just spent weeks trying to get into my subconscious mind), I kept pushing deeper and deeper into it… I was like a scuba diver systematically descending into the depths of the ocean... I would go deeper into this sea of thoughts (exploring), and then pause for a while observing what was going on and acclimate myself to the intensity, then go deeper exploring again and pausing to observe and acclimate myself again so that my awareness always remained clear and lucid… I did this for about a day and a half, until I reached “the bottom”... I then spent more than a week, day and night, submersed in this sea of thoughts, feelings, and images exploring and observing, and all the while I was in a state of extreme bliss... I laughed a lot, not because anything was humorous (although many things were), but because a zillion volts of pure joy was shooting up my spine (kundalini ?)… Both my conscious mind and my subconscious mind were conscious to me, and I was in both the physical world and the spirit world at the same time. My third eye was wide open… My two minds (two lobes of my brain) talked to one another as if they were two different people, while I was both of them. At one point I could see multiple copies of myself everywhere doing different things, and each of them could see all the other copies, and I could see all the other copies they were seeing, etc… it was like being in a hall of mirrors… My subconscious mind seemed to have no limitations... It could fragment into a multitude of many minds, all thinking different things, and I could keep up with all of them… the subconscious mind “thinks” with moving images (eyeball movies) like the dreams we have when asleep, or drug hallucinations, both of which occur in the subconscious mind… and with words, feelings, and emotions… It is impossible to describe with words, the many different things that I saw and experienced… There are no words to describe it, and even if there were, no one would understand the words, unless they had personally experienced what the words described… It seemed that the whole universe was available, but most of it didn’t interest me any more… I saw the “Akashic Record”, but things like “’past lives” seemed totally irrelevant and uninteresting, and the only thing that interested me was what my subconscious mind was doing NOW in this moment, in this life… I don’t remember sleeping, but one or both of my minds could have gone in and out of one pointedness (total concentration) without me having any awareness of time passing, without me even noticing… or I could have been “asleep” & “awake” at the same time (asleep in the physical world and awake in the spirit world, or asleep in the spirit world and awake in the physical world), a state that I have experienced many times before... My only awareness that time was passing, was that the sun kept coming up and going down, I was always in the “now” (and still am)… I fasted most of the time, not because I decided to fast, but because I never got hungry and my body didn’t seem to mind, but I drank a lot of water... The devas stayed with me the whole time, which made me feel very safe and protected… It took me two full days to come completely out of my subconscious mind, and totally back into my conscious mind again exploring and observing, pausing and acclimating as I did so… The weirdest and most unexpected part of it all, is that with the destruction of delusion, my subconscious mind which now contained my new “awakened reality”, fused with my conscious mind, and now it is a “soul mate” (??? union of yin and yang ???)…whereas before I never thought much about my subconscious mind, I now love my subconscious mind, and I can feel its love for me… in any case it is my spiritual partner and best friend, who will help me in any way that it can… at first my conscious mind felt that it was really very very very strange having this “other person” (other conscious mind) in my body with it (“what now ? who the hell is this ?”)… until it realized that it was the same subconscious mind... (“is that you Dawg ? I didn’t recognize you”)… “Dawg” is the name of my subconscious mind… my subconscious mind adopted the name “Dawg” several years ago, so that it would “know” for sure when I was talking directly to it… I can say “hey Dawg ! listen up, I want to talk to you”… and Dawg listens… Dawg dictates to me what to write, then edits it after I type it… my conscious mind is just the typist)… my new awakened subconscious mind now makes me feel “whole” and “complete”, so that I love everybody now… (even if I don’t even like them !!!)… “you must love yourself, before you can love anyone else”, comes to mind… although my communication with my subconscious mind (Dawg) is now very much improved, it can still be difficult sometimes because the subconscious mind is so unlike the conscious mind… I have to use the right key words, mental images, and keep it simple… for all of its power and complexity; my subconscious mind (Dawg) is like a small child in some ways... or like a very gentle and brilliant simple minded giant with magic powers who knows absolutely everything… and because Dawg is now enlightened, whatever Dwag tells me is totally trustworthy… the absurdity of it all, still makes me laugh with joy whenever I think about it… Every meditation method that I tried in the weeks before I awakened produced results, not only did I awaken, but I raised the Kundalini and opened my third eye, and also unified the yin and the yang… a grand slam… it was awesome… the smile on my face is still five miles wide… EPILOGUE (Written months later) I can say without any doubt that “I am awake”… because if you are awake there is absolutely no way you could not know that you are awake… even if you were dead, you would still know that you were awake… it is impossible not to “KNOW”… if you wonder “IF” you are awake, you are not awake’’… The extreme out pouring of bliss and love has subsided… I feel so different since I have awakened, but in the best possible way… and so many unnecessary things have dropped away that I feel as if my life before awakening is a “past life”… “I feel as if I have been reborn”… The change is permanent… and it seems that there is no longer any “need” to meditate, because my mind is totally empty, and because there is nothing in it to investigate or meditate about… but I can still call up a thought, observe it, and instantly gain insights, then let it go… although my mind is usually totally “empty”, I see and hear everything, it is just that my mind does not respond to anything…nothing arises in my mind unless I make an effort to cause it to arise, and it disappears as soon as I cease making the effort … I’m never bored, or aware of the time passing, it is always “now”… the normal state of my mind is for it to be filled with silence, which I now realize is “the sound of one hand clapping”… My awareness lives in the present moment, the NOW !... my personality and my body are not “me”, they are just masks that I can put on and take off (as and when necessary)… the only thing remaining that I could call “me”, is pure awareness that is simply aware of being aware… and even that is just a part of a larger universal awareness… but I have never in my life felt so totally “normal”… this is obviously the way physical human existence is supposed to be… When I was a small child I saw the world as a very “magical place” where everything that I saw or heard was “real” and “existed”… George Washington, Mickey Mouse, Dinosaurs, Spiderman, Grandpa and Grandma, Uncle Sam, Santa Claus, angels and devils, bed time stories, movies, etc, etc… were all equally real… when I learned what the adults called (mundane) “reality”, bit by bit the world lost all of its “magic”… but now that I am “awakened” I find myself once again living in a “magical” world where the “magic” is not only real, it is reality… It is the subconscious mind that experiences awakening (a new reality), not the conscious mind… upon awakening, the conscious mind becomes empty with no mundane thoughts to distract it, so it lives in the NOW (present moment), the only place in the physical world that is real… which is the world of the body’s senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch)… NOTE… As a child you believed that santa claus was a reality who brought you Christmas presents… then one day you realized he was not real (you awakened) and realized that your presents were put there by your parents… so you no longer believed in the reality of santa claus … but you still remembered who he was… you can’t just delete him from your memory… the memory remains, but you no longer believe he is a realityl… in the same way you can destroy avijja as a reality, but the memory of it remains… when you destroy the reality of Avijja (delusion), you no longer create any new karma… but your past karma is the memory of avijja, so it remains active until you die (even if you are enlightened)… then it drops away because you go to the highest heavenly realm, and no longer reincarnate… NOTE… You have spirit guides that want to help and protect you, but they can’t help or protect you unless you ask them to help you and protect you, because they would be interfering… talk to them as friends and allies, and ask them to help you, and tell them “how” if you can (they can lead things to you, and you to things, without you even realizing that they are involved)… and don’t forget to thank them… NOTE… Anyone dear to you who has died (parents, siblings, children, grandparents, spouses, friends) can hear you if you talk to them, most of them can come to you in an instant… call them to come… tell them that you love them and miss them, and pour out your heart to them… they are not “dead” (it is impossible to die, even if you wanted to), they are just someplace else… NOTE… Learn to talk to your subconscious mind, ask it to help you… remember that it is more conscious than your conscious mind… and if you let it, it will love you unconditionally, just the way you are… tell it your dreams and aspirations… it can help you in ways that you cannot even imagine… it has complete control of your body…24 hours a day, it keeps your heart beating, your lungs breathing, etc, etc… your subconscious mind is always aware, it never sleeps, it is always taking care of you, every second of your life… and it is always listening to the thoughts in your conscious mind, and those thoughts create your health or disease…
  4. Hello! Does anybody have a reliable reference for hand signs used in Taoist meditation? I have learnt some Buddhist ones but have heard that the Taoist ones are quite different in meaning/purpose....
  5. Wim Hof's Meditation

    So, I saw that there's a lot of good stuff on this forum, and, after downloading some ebooks, I thought it would be good to retribute back somehow. So, here is my first "donation" to TTB library of awesomeness: http://www.highexistence.com/the-wim-hof-method-revealed-how-to-consciously-control-your-immune-system/ It's the meditation technique that Wim Hof practice and teach in his workshops. As I mentioned some time ago, it's a mix of pranayama and tummo, but in a different manner (somewhat simpler imo). The main focus of this method is to stimulate and strenghten the immunologic system. I am applying this meditation for two months (I'm still a beginner), and I feel some good improvements, not to mention a slow, but ever-growing resistance to colder temperatures. He also has a book on this subject, called "Becoming the Iceman." I'd like to tell more about it, but I haven't readied it, so I think I'll just leave the torrent link where I found the ebook Link Removed here. Hope it serves to anybody. Namaste,
  6. The Natural Bliss of Being

    When I was last posting here, many of you were asking me when my book would be available to purchase. I have been busy with that project and it is now available at Amazon and on Kindle. I made an effort to present many of the pith instructions that I have received from mainly Dzogchen masters, Mahamudra masters and Zen masters, so that anyone could experience the "shift" into Enlightened Mind easily and in a relatively short time. The material is presented in generic language without the need to know anything about Buddhism nor the Tibetan teachings. To learn more about the book please visit my website: www.wayoflight.net Please share your feedback or comments! Jackson
  7. Dear Ones, let me cross link the post I made regarding my own experience in Sun Gazing. http://thetaobums.com/topic/337-sungazing-quickstart-guide/?p=437343 This topic is highly important for humanity these days, since it boosts consciousness and personal development by lightyears! Feel free to comment on the original post (or here) - since I do not want to double post this here, just make the information more wider available to anyone who is interested. Namaste.
  8. Well, time to start my 1st thread. It feels so exciting! Recently, I've been dedicating myself to experiment various types of meditation. I started with this one from , which focused on being able to direct attention to the present moment. After starting to practice Aikido, I got in touch with Hara meditation by doing the Misogi rites of purification before the training. By doing that, I started to realize how meditation can be used to conduct energy with awareness. Once learning this, I started to search about it, and stumbled a lot on Qi Gong, Tai Chi, as well as other forms of meditation that worked to unblock energy fluxes throughout the body, broading the energy-conduction topic. So, for not being too widespread, I've been using the Misogi Hara meditation before the Aikido training, and in every day, I've been applying this Wim Hof Meditation -- a cross-pratice between Tummo and Pranayama -- mainly to improve my health condition (the resistance to cold temperature, as stated in the article, is a small plus IMO). However, I browsed through some articles here and saw people talking about practices of Qi Gong or Tai Chi to attain the same results. I'd like to ask: should I keep applying this meditation AND start Qi Gong or Tai Chi? What are your thoughts on these kind of meditations? Thanks a lot!
  9. Yo! So I fancied experimenting. I usually meditate in full lotus these days with my eyes shut in addition to my regular kung fu practice. However, after learning the techniques of Zazen, I couldn't help but resist trying out this new form. The practice is fairly similar to what I usually do...counting breaths to calm the mind but I usually then trail off onto what i need to focus on for that particular session. In Zazen, the counting is the sole focus and there is one major difference - the eyes are half open (as advised by many practitioners/teachers) and focussed at the floor roughly three feet in front. I found this extremely hard! All of a sudden, there are so many more distractions present that I am needing to avoid such as my eyelids flickering and going cross eyed. I guess this is the same as my kung fu forms, but at least in martial arts I'm moving so the temptation for the mind to wander is less. What are your experiences with half-open eyes? What are your opinions on Zazen? I would like to know more, and if you recommend half-open eyes as a good form of training concentration, mindfulness, and all round meditation
  10. Heart advice from Master Thinley Norbu. Thus it is said. In order to sustain the wisdom mind of the Great Perfection, if one wonders how body, speech and mind are directed to engage in this practice, it is as follows. For beginners, in order to purify the flow of karmic energies so that they enter the space of the central energy channel, the body must be straight. If the body is straight, the channels are straight. If the channels are straight, the vital energies can flow. If the vital energies can flow, awareness becomes clear. Whenever awareness becomes clear, the pure essential nature of mind becomes apparent, free from clearing away or keeping. In order for that to occur, in the seven-point vajra posture, the legs are crossed, the hands are in the gesture of evenness, the stomach is pulled back toward the spine, the chin is slightly lowered, the shoulders are open like a condor's wings, the tongue is touching the palate, and the eyes are looking out over the tip of the nose like a tiger, directly into space. Various methods increase and enhance samadhi, including the vajra recitation with the movement of breath by inhaling with the syllable OM, letting the breath remain with the syllable AH, and exhaling with the syllable HUNG. This practice is helpful to rely on in order to increase stability in samadhi. According to the wisdom mind of the extraordinary Great Perfection, however, should one be a great practitioner of sustaining self-nature as the sole essence of awareness, then all phenomena are synthesized as wisdom appearances, sound, and awareness. Only knowing that the self-nature of one's own mind is the Three Kayas and never waver from dharmadhatu, there is nothing other than the natural abiding of body, speech and mind, so it is absolutely unnecessary to apply effort to fixating on acceptance and rejection. The precious Vajra Master Guru Rinpoche said to his consort, Khandro Yeshe Tsogyal, in the Essence of Butter Pith Instructions: Devoted consort, listen to me. Even though there are many profound pith instructions for the body, just leave the body comfortably at ease. Everything is contained in that. Even though there are many pith instructions for controlling the vital energies, such as mantra recitations and others, be like a mute, free from speaking. Everything is contained in that. Even though there are many pith instructions for the mind such as holding, loosening, creating, gathering, drawing in, and others, in the ease of one's own uncontrived nature that settles naturally, everything is contained in that. From Omniscient Longchenpa, "With relaxed body and mind, in the mind's bed of tranquility, Like a person with a mind free from engagement who has nothing to do, Without being rigid or careless, Leave the body and mind comfortable. However one stays, stay in one's pure nature. However one abides, abide in one's pure nature. However one goes, go in one's pure nature. In the space of enlightenment, there is naturally no going or coming. Not going and not coming is the wisdom Body of all the Victorious Ones. Whatever one says, say in one's pure nature. Whatever one speaks, speak in one's pure nature. In enlightened mind, there is naturally no saying and speaking. Free from saying and speaking is the wisdom Speech of all the Victorious Ones of the three times. Whatever one thinks, think in one's pure nature. Whatever one considers, consider in one's pure nature. From the beginning, there is no thinker and no considerer. Free from thinking and considering is the wisdom Heart of all the Victorious Ones of the three times. From nonsubstantiality, everything that manifests is Nirmanakaya. Pure appearance of self-sustaining inconceivability is Sambhogakaya. The state of no original substance is stainless Dharmakaya. The Three Kaya's result is simultaneously accomplished in the inconceivable state." Thus as he says, this must be realized. As Saraha said, "Since sole mind is the seed of everything, whoever aspires to transcend samsara and enlightenment is granted the fruit of their wishes. I prostrate to mind, like a wish-fulfilling jewel." Just recognize again and again one's own unconditioned stainless wisdom mind. Buddhas are buddhas due to their faultless, one-pointed, unending recognition of this. By realizing and applying this, there is no Dharma to accept or throw away. All phenomena pervade in the sole oneness of dharmata. There is nothing to discriminate, like on an island full of gold. Once again, the great saint Saraha beseeched, "If there is recognition, everything is included there; no one has known anything other than that." As it is said in The Great Perfection Tantra Containing the Absolute Meaning: Since the mind experiences the three times, The lives of the past, present and future will occur. Since the mind changes and transfers, That is why the body is born and dies. Since illness, happiness, suffering, and so on Are one's mind, this ripens as samsara. May all beings experience the unending causes of equanimity, peace and joy.
  11. So I've been meditating for a while now but for the last half a year I stepped it up and started meditating at least 3 hrs a day. I just do a simple meditation where I would just focus on my dantian. Around 4 months ago I developed heat there whenever I focus on it. In the beginning it was just warmth and then later on it got really hot. It only gets really hot when my mind is completely focused for like at least 10 minutes on my dantian. That only happened a handful of times because for me its really hard to stay focus on one thought for a long time. Anyways last month it stopped getting really hot whenever i focus on it for a long time and I started feeling pain near my testicles.It hurts a little bit but its not super painful or anything but I feel like energy is flowing to my testicles instead of staying in my dantian. Just wondering if anyone know or experience anything like this and any advice on how to get the heat back to my dantian would be great thanks.
  12. Likewise Taoist Minds

    Hello Taobums, I feel honoured to have joined such an interesting community of likeminded individuals. I''ve been reading different topics for some time now and I thought it was about time I joined and shared in the discussions with some of my Taoist experiences...
  13. This, being the forum that it is, is surely filled with those who question the very nature of reality. As we understand it, there is one accepted academic method for determining the reality around us, and multiple accepted spiritual methods for determining reality. I think, one of the most widely accepted, yet most fallible method for determining the nature of reality is the induction of the spiritual, or mystical, experience. The reason I find this to be difficult as a methodology for determining truth is that so many religions and sects (and the members of) use their own personal mystical experience as a determinant of truth. This, of course, is of the most fallacious nature. When Christians see Christ during and NDE, Buddhists see The Buddha, Atheists often have alien abduction experiences and/or a meeting with deceased loved ones while the Hindu believer will witness the eternal dance of Kali and Shiva. From my own personal experiences working with astral projection, I have found that the "astral" world is quite different, which raises many questions. The fact that my drapes are green in the astral world but white in the physical world is odd. The fact that my office wall at work is composed mainly of overlapping posters in the astral, but in the physical is just a wall - is compelling. There is more evidence than not that the astral world (especially during highly mystical states) consists mainly of one's personal core beliefs leads me to believe that the untrained person may easily mistake a mystical experience (or projection of one's core beliefs into the oh, so malleable astral ether) as a concrete testimony of the truth of their personal beliefs and faith. This is bothersome to say the least as I have many friends and family who are convinced beyond reason that their religion or belief is the only truth out there. Now, science has given us a form to follow for determining the most likely scenario. This is called "the scientific method". Granted, there may yet be a more logical system for determining the causes and relationships between phenomena that we, as a young and ambitious organism, have not yet adopted. However, as it is, we do have a fairly reliable method passed down from the great giants of science. How is it that so many see our physical world as troubled and riddled with half-truths, yet expect the astral / spiritual worlds to be nothing but truth and transparency? I would like to ,make a proposition. That those who are truly interested in understanding the nature of reality, take a scientific approach to the spiritual world. And I don't mean comparing spiritual phenomena with scientific theory - such as many mystics do with string theory. I think that's a false identity and gives us zero results. I, for one, take Franz Bardon's proposal seriously. Robert Bruce also mentions such an idea. The concept is to place a few cards from a well suffled deck of playing cards around the house, turned upward on the top of shelves and facing outward in windows you don't usually see from outside. Personally, I have already done this. However, I have yet to test it. The theory here is not to expect perfect results during an astral projection. The idea is to become more and more effective and maintaining a close relationship to the "real-time-zone" while out of body. Once one can effectively perform the correct retrieval of the values of each playing card while out of body - then, and only then, is one capable of testing the water. By that, I mean, once one can consciously adhere to the reality of they physical instead of flying off in some "la la astral land", then legitimate practices can begin. I don't know about you guys, but I find it extremely difficult to maintain a real-time presence once out of body. I will quickly find myself in a strange astral ream once I get too far from my body. And by too far, I mean, literally leaving the room my body is in. All too often my astral experiences turn whacky and cartoony and deliver zero evidences of a reality beyond the physical. So, the question: What is going on? The purpose: to know, to grow, to ascend. The way: practice practice practice, and take nothing for granted until you can verify and validate. ... am I missing something?
  14. New Member

    Hey, I have been interested in spiritual growth for a while but am just beginning to get serious. I have Franz Bardon and I think it is a good start but I am not sure how much I relate to the specifics of his dogma. So I have been going on my own with particular interest in spirit guides and such. I believe i contacted them (3 of them) once but it was brief and our communication was brief and uninformative. I am looking for guidance on meditation practise because I am severely undertaught on the subject. All in all i have been really impressed with what i have seen/experienced in my short personal attempts and want to dive deeper in. I need some guidance to point me in the right direction. My beliefs about spirits and God are not classified in any category that i know (and I'm in philosophy ) so it is my own belief and it is shaping well through my early attempts. Please message or reply if you can help me out! Thanks!
  15. Hello to all! I have been meditating for about 40 yrs. My third eye opened many years ago and I can offer comments on all of the tag lines that I have included in this topic. Currently I have taken up Qi Gong I am not well versed within this discipline though I can feel and follow fine movement within me and without. When I was 15yrs old my lower dan tien became very active one day and an intense warmth moved throughout my body - I was literally steaming (on a ski slope) with this hot ball inside me just below the navel and in a bit. This happened again when I was about 36 yrs old during a difficult breakup with my girlfriend. Recently I was creating Qi Gong exercises for myself before I knew they existed as Qi Gong - what a wonderful teaching it is! I appreciate practical discussion ( since the original post I have studied with a Qi Gong and Kung Fu Grand Master 4-6 days a week in addition to personal practice)
  16. Scrying

    One popular method of meditation and divination, is what is known as Scrying. It is usually performed with a mirror, or a bowl of water. Here are some sites talking about the method of Scrying Let's Try It: Scrying Water Scrying- http://www.wyrdology.com/scrying/water.html Mirror Scrying- http://www.crystalinks.com/mirrorscrying.html But for practical purposes, this is my favorite method of mirror meditation- online meditation techniques Mirror-chanting
  17. I'm a big music fanatic and work in the music business. I cherish world music and have been listening to it since the mid 80's. I'd like to start a music thread - find out what others listen to to relax or meditate. I use Spotify to listen to music nowadays - I pay the $10 so that I can take my playlists with me on my phone and iPad. It's free if you just want it on your PC. Here's a link to an album on Spotify that is fantastic: Joseph Tawadros – The Prophet (Music Inspired By the Poetry of Kahlil Gibran)
  18. Inner Worlds Movie

    Hi, This is a pretty good movie. Get the popcorn! http://www.innerworldsmovie.com TI
  19. I have been working in my meditation for the last few weeks on not contriving the breath at all. It has been very fruitful, and amazing to me how resting the attention on the breath causes, automatically, the diaphram or belly muscles to contrive in subtle ways. I received this insight from the B Alan Wallace retreat called introduction to dzogchen that i was listening to just recently. In it he says that monks would typically have to go on retreat to figure out how to rest their mind on the breath without contriving it. So i decided to try to be aware of my breath but from the point of view of non-action, and i can corroborate that it is very hard not to try subconsciously to regulate the breath! Especially if you have done a lot of bellows breathing, or reverse breathing, but i suspect, even if you have just done basic mediation on the breath. I have had a modicum of success, nothing to speak of yet, but i have noticed that when i really let my breath go, it gets shallow and more subtle, but that it brings on a state of stillness and relaxation that is very deep. I just don't want to move at all.. like even a tiny muscle twitch would stand out.. my shoulders relax and my arms feel like lead weights, and my eyelids just freeze where they are. Its very interesting.. i just sit there in a state of nondoing, aware. I have found it at times very easy to remain in a state of non-thought (which, from a dzogchen point of view, seems to be just another distraction, but anyway...) and at times i have found that letting go of the control of my breath has caused thoughts to flow very freely... i can't quite say what makes this difference, as such things are complicated in their cause and effect.. could be planets, could be what i ate for breakfast, could be anything... So i am wondering has anyone else tried this? if not you should lol.. it is said to take weeks in retreat to really deprogram the mind from contriving the breath, but wow is it an amazing feeling just to sit in even a *partially* unmanipulated state. I can't claim to be completely uncontrived, but i am going to keep working on this sincerely, as the early fruits have been very sweet, and i am inspired by the idea of uncontrived meditation. Anyway, if you have tried this, do you have anything to share about it? I am curious of others experiences with this sort of "technique"
  20. Being a rock

    There was a time, some years ago, when I had a need to have a conversation with a certain person. As a private conversation, it had to be undertaken in a place that was not where he lived, where he worked, or where he went when he was not working; it had to occur on the way that he would travel between these places. The reason for the conversation, the details of it, and the consequences to the person beyond it are of no consequence to this story, it is a story of an experience. Along a path that the person was known to take, beside the trail with it's rocks and bushes, overlooking a small forested area, I found a place to wait. I did not know when the person would come this way, only that he would, in time. I settled in beside a bush, and focused my mind upon stillness. In order to remain undisturbed, I set my mind to be like that of a rock: unmoving, undisturbable, unremarkable. As time went on, people walked by. Some looked in my general direction, but I noticed that they did not see ME, or the "I" that is me ... they only saw a rock sitting beside a bush. All of myself, my clothing, my body, my kit, my tools .. only percieved as a rock beside a bush. No great wonder to myself, for after the first few hours of sitting, the desire to move had all but gone, the presence of musculature and mode of motion had all but fled from the conciousness. The illusion of time had been so contracted, that a moment and an hour were nearly imperceptible. The sun traveled( oh, illusion!) in it's arc, and as twilight began to set in, a spider dropped from the bush to the top of the rock that was I. To the spider, I was a permenant feature, or at least unlikely to move, and so she began to go about her business, spinning a web. The concerns of the spider, where her thoughts were, were so simple; squeeze here, relax there, follow the pattern so ancient and ancestral to her nature. In the pattern and the following of it laid the key to continued survival; the web spun, the insects caught, the meal consumed ... one day, she would mate and lay her eggs, but not now. Observing the spider, I could have easily reached out and flicked her away. Squashing her fragile body between my fingers would have been no heroic feat - but I was a rock, imobile of my own nature, and so she finished her work. For a time we were as one, the spider and I. Both waiting, both waiting. A life, a destiny, a meeting; chance, but not by chance. Life taken and life preserved, life continuing. When I arose to complete my purpose, the tearing of the web seemed the greatest violence.
  21. Here Owen Cook gives a video blog talk about meditation, focusing on the practical aspects
  22. At another thread I started discussing Buddhist beliefs some information came to my attention that leads me to believe that meditation, as taught by Yogani in Deep Meditation, will, like Transcendental Meditation, result in a click out that a Buddhist author has given the term laxity to. Basically you sink into your mind, the meditation, rather than whatever the other, proper way is. Something about dissolving awareness VS focused awareness. The point here is I want to find proper teaching on meditation, but I am limited to certain authors at my library. I will list them here and I am asking simply which of these teach meditation properly with the goal of focused awareness. I am also asking for any free videos out there by any reputable teachers you may know of. Your help is, as always, appreciated! These are pretty much the only books/authors I can access at this time: John Kabat-Zinn Joe Dispenza, "Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself" Rodney Yee, "Meditation for Beginners" Susan Smalley, "Fully Present" Will Johnson, "Breathing Through The Whole Body" Jack Kornfield Patricia Monaghan, "Meditation, The Complete Guide" Lara Owen, "Growing Your Inner Light" Chogyam Trungpa Ian Gawler, "Meditation, An In-Depth Guide" Shunry U Suzuki, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" Joan Budilovsky, "Complete Idiot's Guide to Meditation" Jonathon Ellerby, "Return To The Sacred" Tulku Tarthang James Austin, "Selfless Insight" Ronald Siegel, "The Mindfulness Solution" Sant Rajinder-Singh Michael Bernard Beckwith, "Spiritual Liberation" Steven Clevenger, "Going Within" Maritza, "Meditation for Beginners" Stephan Bodian, "Meditation for Dummies" Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, "Spiritual Disciplines Handbook" Eva Wang Cheri Huber, "The Secret Is There Are No Secrets" Richard Chilson, "Meditation" John Daido Loori, "The Art of Just Sitting" Wayne Dyer, "Getting In The Gap" Stephanie Jean Clement, "Mediatation for Beginners" Michal Levin, "Meditation" Shinzin Young, "The Beginner's Guide To Meditation" Pema Chodron Alan Watts, "Still The Mind" Lawrence LaShane, "How To Meditate" Swami Janakananda Saraswati, "Yoga" John Novak, "How To Meditate" Ernest Wood, "Concentration" There are a few others and a book by Thich Nhat Hanh which I assume will be very good, so I will get that for now and wait for opinions on the others. The library I can access, it's catalouge, is here: http://catalog.fvrl.org/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/?ps=Mgj0mm40Cp/FV-DIST/327530007/60/1182/X I left out the fluffy, puffy, non in-depth (as far as I could tell) stuff. But I may have missed something important. Please let me be clear! What I can get from the library is all I can get, unless you wish to mail me a book, and if so (with my deepest thanks) you can PM me for my mailing address. So if these are all garbage, well I guess I'll just have to depend on YouTube :/ Hey thanks for reading, please post your feedback on these authors/books in regards to whether or not you believe, in your direct experience or closely indirect experience, they are teaching meditation properly. Namaste! - DreamBliss
  23. This is a very hard thing to put into words clearly. Briefly I will start by giving you some background. Some months ago I had an experience, in my mind, after an experience I had, a feeling, after reading a book, that, essentially, messed me up. I won't go into details. Basically I thought I was in love with someone and it turned out to (most likely) not be what I thought. More study and some time since I ended this has provided a few possibilities: 1. The magician's perspective - I was dealing with power which had manifested in this form. 2. The Yogic/Buddha/Tao perspective - I was dealing with Kundalini energy manifested in female form. 3. The alternate Buddha perspective - I was dealing with a Tulpa I had created. 4. My original perspective - I was really in love and energetically connected to an alien being on another world. This thread is not to talk about that, only to give you background. You know the saying, "Once burned twice shy." Before this experience I was exploring the inner landscapes of my chakras with a spirit animal named Ayhunna, who came to me during a dream re-entry session to shamanic drumming. He left as suddendly as he came, aging before my eyes and disintigrating for lack of a better word. Now he's back. This brings me to what I need help with. Before with Ayhunna I would meditate on my chakras, enter its landscape, and then Ayhunna would lead me to something I had to deal with there. Usually this was done playing his favorite game, "Chase the fox." I have since ceased to meditate on my chakras. Now I do ZaZen when I get up and try to do Deep Meditation using the mantas, "Release, Flow" or "(my real name) a Center of Consiousness." With this last mantra I was trying to see myself as a center of consiousness per the first lesson in Raja yoga. Recently with Ayhunna's return he usually sort of tells me during ZaZen through a sort of glimpse of him in my mind's eye or a sense of his presence that he wants me to follow him. Generally he comes during my last meditation of the evening. But I am having an issue here. I need to figure out how to seperate that which my mind is manufacturing to distract me from meditating and that which is truly Ayhunna wanting me to follow him. I feel it is an honor to have his guidance and help once again, and I want to honor this by following his guidance. But I also need to make sure I'm not getting disracted by thoughts. You could argue that it's all thoughts. But for now let's try to keep it simple. There are thoughts generated by my mind, and there are thoughts my mind either locks onto or is given, like a message. I want to seperate what is message and what is just mind drivel. Understand? So how do I do this? How do I make sure that I am not getting lost in thoughts durring meditation? How to I tell when Ayhunna is genuinely calling to me? How can I distinguish a mental distraction from a summons? I need to be sure so if it is a mind distraction, I can simply ignore it and focus on my mantra. But if it is Ayhunna, then I must follow him. My inner landscape/inner world/chakra landscape - whatever the heck it is - is seriously f-d up right now. Hope nobody gets mad at the swear word. But it is very apt. With the loss of Ayhunna and the confusion around this, this relationship and its recent and raw end, as well as the fact that I was, not even a year ago, a simple church-going Christian with a few questions so this is all brand new to me, well I'm a mess. Ayhunna is trying to help. I had one other indivdual who was trying to help me, but we have unfortunately sort of come up at odds to each other. My problem is I never really understood a lot of what he said. I tried and for the most part I followed his instructions. But so many things he instructed me to do just didn't feel right, or I didn't want to do them or something. But he did direct me here, so perhaps someone can help me out. One last thing... As I read, "Magical Knowledge I" by Josephine McCarthy I am seeing much that could coorelate to my experiences. Later in the book she discusses meditation and inner worlds. I think I might have to drop my Raja yoga studies for now and adopt some sort of Inner Stillness Meditation based on her training as my last meditation of the day, and the time at which I work with Ayhunna. So this is what I tenatively plan to do. However I wouldn't mind getting some other viewpoints and advice here. I mean what is the best way to go inside and work with your spirit animal? Maybe the answer is to somehow have a session devoted simply to Ayhunna and inner working, seperate from meditation. That may even be the answer to my problem. Simple enough, just train him, as much as that seems like the wrong way to think about it or say it, that meditation time is seperate from our time and ignore any glimpses or senses of him I recieve. If there is a practicing shaman somewhere in here I would dearly love to hear from you. Above anyone else you would be able to shed light on a lot of this stuff. So please post if you can help me! OK, off to meditate then sleep. Thanks everyone, and Namaste! - DreamBliss
  24. Self realization is the realization of the Self, or Atman. The Self can be related to the experience of impersonal being, or the sense that you are pure consciousness, or that you are silence itself or awareness itself. Self realization could also be said to be the freedom from the sense of being a personal “me.” You transcend your ego identity and realize that you always were and always will be consciousness itself. Stress is created out of this sense of being a personal “me.” This personal me arises out of identifying with your thoughts. You believe you are the thinker of your thoughts. The thought arises “I don’t like potato chips” and you are the “I” in that sentence. And so every desire, fear, worry and thought that arises, you are the subject that is in fear, that desires, that worries. So it is a feeling of being bound, of being trapped in a separate sense of “I” that is in opposition to the rest of the world. It is the source of all conflict. But once you start turning your attention back upon this “me” that claims to be and have all of these thoughts, you find there is no “me” there. And this happens through meditation. Beyond the thought that “I am this,” there is no sense of personal “me” here. There is only impersonal being. And this being is aware, it is awareness itself. It exists beyond all thoughts. In fact, all thoughts arise out of it. So through this inquiry or other meditation techniques you begin to rest your attention on what is prior to this sense of being a personal me. And after a while there will be a shift, that attachment to being a separate “me” gets broken and you realize the Self, you realize you are consciousness. The feeling of this is very freeing, very peaceful and blissful. It can be a feeling of being silence or being love. But although you realize that consciousness is all that there is, there is still a very subtle sense of separation that is still there. It is not a concrete separation, but it is still there. The experience of Oneness is when you go even beyond The Self, and you feel you are everything. So self realization is you are consciousness and in oneness you are everything. Understanding this from the mind may seem like a small distinction, but it is quite a big difference. In self realization, as you remain identified with The Self, it is an inward experience, not an outward experience and there is that separation between inward and outward. You often here self realized teachers saying there is no world, it is all illusion. But in oneness, there is no separation between inward and outward. There is no denying the world. You are everything. You are fully free from being anything. There is a great release in this, an intense feeling of unconditional love. You feel yourself moving through everyone and everything. Everything is alive and radiating love just as you are alive and radiating love and there is no separation in that. You are the universe. You are the world. You are love itself. To experience either Self Realization or Oneness, spiritual practice especially meditation is needed, a healthy diet and lifestyle is also quite important and other spiritual disciplines beyond that will probably be practiced. But the most important part of attaining self realization or oneness is to receive the shaktipat from an Enlightened Master. When you receive shaktipat, the process of self realization and oneness begin to happen automatically deep within you. You begin to experience a spiritual energy within you, vibrating and moving through your body, awakening you to deep states of meditation and unconditional peace. Kip Mazuy is the Creator of Bliss Music Shaktipat Meditation Music Proven Repeatedly to Awaken You into Deep Meditation & Oneness To Hear Free Samples Visit the Spiritual Awakening Website For More Free Teachings on Meditation & Self Realization Please Visit the Spiritual Enlightenment Website
  25. Here is a page with video teachings by Michael Tse covering a wide range of topics including Wing Chun, Tai Chi, Qigong, Meditation, and Taoism Tse Qigong Centre videos- http://www.qimagazine.com/video.html