Search the Community

I'm reading "Mindfulness in Plain English" for the first time and found and interesting quote I thought I might share for discussion. "The purpose of mediation is to develop awareness. Learning to read minds is not the point. Levitation is not the goal. The goal is liberation. There is a link between psychic phenomena and mediation, but the relationship is somewhat complex. During early stages of the meditator's career, such phenomena may or may not arise. Some people may experience some intuitive understanding or memories from past lives; others do not. In any case, these are not regarded as well-developed and reliable psychic abilities. Nor should they be given undue importance. Such phenomena are in fact fairly dangerous to new meditators in that they are quite seductive. They can be an ego trap which can lure you right off the track. Your best approach is not to place any emphasis on these phenomena. If they come up, that's fine. If they don't, that's fine too. There is a point in the meditator's career where he may practice special exercises to develop psychic powers. But this occurs way down the line. After he has gained a very deep stage of Jhana, the meditator will be far enough advanced to work with such powers without the danger of their running out of control or taking over his life. He will then develop them strictly for the purpose of serivce to others. This state of affairs occurs in most cases only after decades of practice. Don't worry about it. Just concentrate on developing more and more awareness." So what exactly are these "special exercises"? This is from the Vipassana tradition. I had no idea on an advanced level they practice to gain abilities and healing. Anyone familar with this? Also in general it makes me realize I need to just concentate on the basics for very long time before worrying about moving energy, etc. Bow.