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Dear Dao Bums, Where do you get your herbs in the European Union? In my country I get K'an Herbs and their other department Mycoherb from a local TCM company. Sometimes I also get already formulated herbs from Pine Mountain, Seven Forests & White Tiger from a Dutch TCM company that I know through local TCM connections. However, when I want to buy raw, single herbs, I need to get them from German or British Amazon, or sometimes I'm lucky and find them in specialised teastores or bazaar-like shops in the big cities where I live. However, lately I'm looking for american ginseng & dendrobium, and no matter where I search, I can only find them being shipped from outside of EU (e.g. USA or China). The problem with getting them from the US or China is that the delivery will be more than 1 month, and when you finally receive it, you have to pay extra tolls because it's from outside the EU. So I'm desperately searching for a place in the EU, because then delivery is usually within 7 days, and trade within EU is toll-free. Do you have any good places within the EU to get raw single herbs?

Hello. I wanted to get some opinions from the fine folks around here on this phenomenon and how it is viewed from different traditions. This is something I've experienced for several years now especially when I'm living a bit more in a harmonious way, mentally and physically it will certainly manifest more often. I'm aware it is a universal phenomena between both Eastern and Western traditions. I assume in the Daoist arts it's focused more on the Lower Dantian, while in some Western systems it's about filling up the Solar plexus with energy which also covers that same general area and function of being a storage space for massive amounts of energy. But I'd like some more professional or just interesting opinions on what this is and what it is actually doing. It is a bit esoteric I suppose, but a very real physical sensation.

Good morning, I'm Mike from USA and happy to be here. I'd like to learn more about qi gong and bigu.

This is my first topic, so if I've made a mistake on where to put this, my apologies. I meditate to relieve stress and to try to clear my head, because I have difficulty with an inner dialogue. My thoughts are so constant and noisy, I am incapable of singling them out. Meditation has helped me greatly with this. However, lately, when I go out in the morning to meditate, I've had more and more difficulty in "coming out of it." Even loud noises don't seem to snap me back to reality. When I do finally lose my focus, (or lack-there-of?) I find myself really disoriented and confused. It takes me a moment to remember where I am, and it's hard to shake off the haziness. Even more, I'm surprised to find I've lost more and more time. This morning, I lost an extra hour to it. While the moment is very nice, and I feel very relaxed afterwards, I do have daily work to do, if even not on a strict schedule. I find both the disorientation and loss of time a bit troublesome. I wonder if maybe I am doing something wrong in the process itself, or if I am simply at fault for being unable to balance these things.

Hello again everyone! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day today. I wanted to ask around today to see if anyone had any favorite places, music/sounds, smells, techniques, etc. for meditating. More specifically I'd like recommendations for meditation that will help me build up humility, ridding myself of the illusion of control, and generally being still and thinking on the sections of the Tao Te Ching (as I've been going back over the audiobook to take notes). I'm sorry if this isn't the proper place to ask this question but I'm still finding my way around the forum and haven't interacted with many forums before this one. Have a great day everyone <3

I heard this from someone but I don't know anything else about this. Sometimes I lack energy or am sick and want or need something to lean on to meditate. If it's true, does it have to do with how the energy/qi interacts with the thing/wall we're leaning on and is this an issue only in deep or advanced meditation, or simply at any stage? Also, any sources on this if possible? I appreciate any help on this. 🙏

Hi all, My name is Jon. I am currently a participating member of society. I work a job, pay my bills, eat nice food, and enjoy a plethora of other modern delights and conveniences. However, I am not satisfied with this. I want to be free to pursue meditation. I want a simple roof over my head with clean running water and one, nutritious meal a day. It has been a challenge figuring out the practicalities of this but I am determined to make it happen one way or another. I come to this community to find fellow seekers that desire the freedom to practice their Daoist arts all day, every day. -Jon

An article by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev on being stoned and alert at the same time, without using any chemicals or drugs or other intoxicants. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/you-can-be-stoned-and-alert-at-the-same-time/

I've been involved with mediation for many years. Initially I was involved with Buddhist meditation but then I got involved with Taoist meditation through the teachings of Bruce Frantzis. Bruce often mentioned Dzogchen with high regard, so when Lama Lena (a highly esteemed Dzogchen teacher) came to teach for several years in a row very near to my home, I went along. I also came across Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (a Bon Dzogchen teacher) mainly through his online content, although I did travel to see him once. I have some curiosity concerning two apparently different categories of meditation practice. With Inner Dissolving (Taoist meditation from Bruce Frantzis), and Dzogchen both from Lama Lena and Tenzin Rinpoche, there is a notion of "progression" in the sense that we have obscurations/blockages/"pagchas"(like neuroses in Tibetan), and that through practice over time we can resolve these to move closer towards "enlightenment"/clarity/healing etc... In all these traditions, there is the possibility of using an agenda to work with specific issues in our lives, with a view to dissolving/resolving them at some root energetic level. This makes sense to me, and gives some kind of sense of structure/progression to my practice. I am aware that there are certain paradoxes that come from the idea/reality that we are "already there" (non-duality teachings etc.), and yet there is a firm understanding from the teachers I follow that we do actually need to meditate to attain(?) the fruits of meditation. Like the last lesson of Marpa to Milrepa - to show the callouses on his arse to emphasize the need for practice! In other traditions I've come across, such as the teachings of the FWBO (whatever they are now know as), Zen, Mindfulness etc. there seems to be a conspicuously different attitude towards "progress". You do the practice, whether it's mindfulness of breathing or body scanning or even working with emotions by "simply being" with them - but there is no sense in the practices I have come across of working with specific issues/blockages and resolving them at a root or energetic(?) level. It's more like "here we are again looking at our minds and sensations...." with no particular sense of direction or need to attain/achieve anything. I know that the need to achieve anything is seen as a hindrance in both categories of practice, but this is in some ways something of a contradiction. While of course grasping will not lead to freedom, nonetheless there is an implicit intention to get somewhere/something, in the very decision to become involved in meditation in the first place. So these are some of the observations and thoughts I'm having around my practice at the moment. Partly wondering which practices to emphasize to help me navigate a chronic illness, and also wondering about the notion of progress and achievement in relation to meditation. Very curious to hear your thoughts on all this.

Dear Dao Bums, In the spirit of sharing, what are your personal greatest hits? My personal top 3 is: 1) Simplified Kundalini Yoga (Vethathiri Maharishi), 2) Talisman qigong (Zhongxian Wu), 3) Sri Vidya (Amritananda / Devipuram). A little bit about each: 1) Simplified Kundalini Yoga (Vethathiri Maharishi) In this system your chakras are opened and empowered by a master one by one, allowing you to tangibly feel the pulsating vibration of energy in each chakra. It takes all the guesswork away, you don't need to rely on outer feedback anymore, you can yourself feel how strong your chakras are. Meditating on each chakra provides specific benefits. It's a complete system for increasing and transmuting sexual energy (kaya kalpa), building health through physical exercises (asanas, pranayama, massage and acupressure), building energy through meditation allowing you to achieve peace of mind and enlightenment, introspection for improving your moral character and getting rid of negative karmic imprints (vasanas/samskaras) and finally philosophical explanations for God, the universe, evolution, astrology etc. Beside the chakra meditations (7 inside the body, 2 outside, 9 in total), there are numerous other meditations which give unique benefits: Panchendriya (5 senses): this strengthens your 5 senses even until old age, and further gives your mind control of the senses. Panchabhuta Navagraha (5 elements and 9 planets): harmonize with universal forces and energies, cultivate energy, improve your destiny. Nityananda (meditating on the energy pervading all over the body): gives ecstatic pleasure and strengthens energy all over your body. Divine State Meditation: helps you to again and again understand and feel the oneness between you, the universe and all living beings. Lamp Gazing: improving eyesight, purifying and energizing your soul, mind, brain and energy, and over time can give supernatural skills. Mirror gazing: one of the most powerful meditations, increasing energy in your body manifold very quickly. Over time can also give supernatural skills. Above is a general description of the system, let me share my personal journey and breakthroughs along the way. 1st breakthrough: when I got the first initiation, I felt a little something between my eyebrows, but not very noticeable. However, when I meditated that night, my God, it was insane. The vibration was so strong and powerful, my mind became completely still, and I just sat in complete peace. 2nd breakthrough: when I got the third initation, sahasrara chakra, I was blown away. When I meditated on the vibration in the crown chakra, I felt the same orgasmic pleasure as just before ejaculating. However, instead of being in the prostate area, and ending after a few seconds, the orgasmic ecstasy just stays in your crown chakra and brain during the whole meditation. At this point... I increased my meditation time a lot 3rd breakthrough: when I got my dwadasangham chakra (12 fingers above the head) opened, after about 1-2 weeks of meditation, one day I felt it REALLY open. Immediately, I was flooded with information. Questions and doubts about life, the universe, things that had happened to me, answers just flooded my consciousness. And whenever I thought of a question, the answer immediately came. I felt at one with God. This also made me meditate much longer, because it was just so interesting. After some weeks, I had no more questions, so I just sat in complete peace and oneness. Nowadays, whenever something is going on in my life, I sit and meditate, and I will understand what's going on and why. 4th breakthrough: lamp gazing. I got SO much more energy after starting lamp gazing. It probably increased my energy levels 5 times or so. 5th breakthrough: when all chakras were opened, I realized just how weak my navel chakra had been. I got so much more energy and much better digestion when I could finally meditate on my navel chakra. 6th breakthrough: mirror gazing. This exercise is insane. My energy must have increased by 10 fold or more when I started doing it. To this day, I can't understand why it is SO powerful, but it increases my energy so much. I rarely ever fall sick, and I am always full of energy now. 7th breakthrough: becoming a master and initiating others. You simply do mirror gazing and meditation on the morning you give initiations to boost your own energy. Just before giving initiation, you say a prayer to God and Vethathiri. Every single time, energy just floods into your system, empowering either your hands or eyes, depending on which initiation you're about to give. It's truly magnificent. I can only imagine how powerful Vethathiri had been while still alive in the body, seeing that such strong energy still comes, simply because of his sankalpa to help as many as possible through SKY. 2) Talisman qigong (Zhongxian Wu) I was doing a 3 day workshop on his cosmic orbit qigong, which I really enjoyed. Due to a ticket sale, I would stay 3 more days after the workshop before flying home. Because Master Wu also stayed some days after the workshop, he decided to offer a one day workshop on "calligraphy healing qigong" for just 25 euros. I was so sceptical and there was no way I believed "painting" could be used as a way of healing. However, I was there for 3 days with nothing to day, and 25 euros was nothing, so I decided to try out the workshop. I came there just to pass time, expecting nothing. However, when we did the mantras, mudras and visualisation, I really felt energy come into my body. Then he asked us to practice healing on each other, and I just didn't believe it to be possible. To my great surprise, it worked! The lady I worked on could really feel my energy and that of the talisman inside her body. I was so surprised. I thought it was probably because I had already been meditating daily for 4 years. But there was no way that this elderly lady with no spiritual background could perform healing on me, she had no training, nor any energy to give. Even when she used the talisman to heal me, I really felt the energy from the talisman coming into my body! I was so surprised. It was not that powerful, but it still worked. I was blown away. Master Wu told us to go back home and practice daily for 49 days, then we would have access to this talisman's healing energy. We could use it on ourselves and others, or even to paint a talisman on paper to use for improving fengshui in the home. I went back home to practice, still not really believing it could be possible. I saw everything through the lens of hinduism: healing I considered a kind of siddhi, and acquiring siddhi is extremely difficult. At that point, I had done years and years of daily mala japa (chanting with prayer beads) of a mantra, completing many purascharans, and it had been quite difficult. And that was just to purify myself, come closer to God and prepare myself for higher sadhana (spiritual practice), including other sadhanas that could produce siddhis or supernatural powers. When I got back home and started practicing, I would do the talisman healing on myself, and I felt that it worked. About 10 days into my 49 day practice, my parents heard about my 49 day project. From that day, they asked me to call them every day when I was practicing, and they asked me to help heal different issues. Also as remote healing (something I didn't even believe in at the time). No matter what I did, it just worked! It worked every single time. They would call me after the healing and tell me everything they had experienced during the remote healing. About 21 days into my 49 days, random friends of my parents would call me and ask for healing. So during my 49 days, I hadn't even finished the 49 days, still the talisman energy was helping me to heal myself, siblings, parents, friends of my parents, and also a few strangers. This experience completely exploded my worldview at the time, and that's why I decided to keep training with Master Wu. I've since then learnt the talismans for all 5 elements (White Tiger, Green Dragon, Red Bird, Mystical Warrior and Mother of the Big Dipper). Mystical Warrior is northern water energy, Mother of the Big Dipper is central, earth energy. I actually spent all my money, and even lend from my grandmother, to travel and learn these talismans (at the time I was still studying, so I had low funds). I spend as little as possible on food and hotel when I was there, so I could pay everything back to her when I got back I still use it for myself, and sometimes if others ask for healings. I also use it to bless what I eat and drink sometimes. 3) Sri Vidya (Amritananda / Devipuram) This is a formerly secret system of Hindu Goddess Worship, which Amritananda has decided to share openly with the world. All Goddess worship can provide great supernatural powers, and the energies also have a great effect on our wordly life, e.g. increasing money and succes, healing etc. I never really cared for hindu ritual worship, I felt it to just be an empty show, and a way of extracting money from the poor. Priests and astrologers convincing poor people they had bad karma and needed to pay huge sums of money for them to do rituals on their behalf. However, when I saw a picture of Bala Tripura Sundari, I felt strangely attracted towards it. These weird feelings prompted me to try and do the beginners module. In the end, if it didn't work, I could just stop after the first module. I got diksha (initiation) for the mantras for the root, sexual and navel chakras. Furthermore, I learnt several rituals for each chakra: tarpana (water ritual), puja (prayer ceremony) and homa/havan (fire ritual). I did it just to try it out. First I did a 41 days tarpana for the root chakra God Ganesha/Ganapati (elephant God). I actually felt energy coming into my root chakra and circulating in the 4 nadis of the root chakra. This suprised me a lot! Further, when I was about 38 days in, I got a call from someone, offering me a side hustle to earn more money. On the 44th day (I continued the ritual a few days extra, because there were a few days my wife didn't do it with me, so for her to also reach 41 days, we extendend it 3 days), I got another call, yet again with another side hustle opportunity. I was really surprised! Firstly, I actually felt the mantra opening and circulating energy in my root chakra and nadis. Secondly, I felt the ritual actually had an effect on my worldly life! This I felt to be the magic from movies, books, series etc, where a wizard does certain rituals to change his life and acquire powers. Therefore I continued with Sri Vidya, and it just keeps giving. I have been given mantras and rituals for the root, sexual, navel, heart and 3rd eye chakra, and I am in the process of completing them all (tarpanas I have completed for all, pujas I have 2 to go, havan I am currently in the process of finishing for all). After this, I will get the final and ultimate mantra for the crown chakra, as well as the ultimate ritual performed directly on the Sri Meru / Sri Yantra / Sri Chakra. This is supposed to be the ultimate, making it possible to acquire all worldly pleasures, all spiritual powers as well as complete enlightenment. Conclusion: My personal greatest hits are: 1) Simplified Kundalini Yoga (Vethathiri Maharishi), this taught me deep meditation. 2) Talisman qigong (Zhongxian Wu), this taught me healing. 3) Sri Vidya (Amritananda / Devipuram), this taught me rituals and mantras to assist my worldly and spiritual life. Question: What are your personal greatest hits on the spiritual path? You can include a small summary of the system, as well as your personal journey and breakthroughs God bless you!

Dear Dao Bums, I would like to ask about your experiences and/or opinions on this topic: "karma visible in our energy field". Let me share some of my stories: 1) Master Zhongxian Wu A fellow student of Master Wu shared something with me: when you visualise your liver as green, that day when you see your whole liver as completely green, that organ is fully healed. As long as there are spots of other colors or dark spots, there remain some potential problem in that organ. Similarly for heart and small intestine as red, lung and large intestine as white/grey/transparent, kidney and bladder as blue/black/purple, spleen stomach and pancreas as yellow, and liver and gallbladder as green. The black spots / spots of other colors are karmas (from ancestors, from yourself or from the universe) remaining in your body, potentially causing you to fall sick later. 2) Chunyi Lin As long as there is a channel that is not open, it means there is a wrong energy blocking it. 3) Danish Mystic Martinus Martinus states that all of our karmas are visible in our energy field or aura. So someone could be walking around with a car accident in the aura, and for the psychic this would be clearly visible. 4) Damo Mitchell In one of Damo Mitchells books (I think it's his big one "a comprehensive guide to daoist neigong"), he talks about supernatural powers. One of the powers is the ability to view the whole qi field around a person. This makes the practitioner capable of predicting a person's future, as it's all visible in the different layers of the energy field. 5) Native American in Peru A coworker of mine spent 1 year in South America in Peru, trying to learn Spanish. When she was visiting a mountain deep in a jungle, as she was descending, a native american approached her. He warned her, that he could see in her aura that some bads things were just about to happen to her, and that it would be quite difficult emotionally, but that after 1 year, things would improve. When she got back to her hotel, her boyfriend called her and broke up with her. The next day she got a call that one of her parents had fallen sick, and that an animal on her childhood farm she loved had died. Everything the man told her came true in the next year, and when she pulled through, suddenly everything improved drastically. 6) My own experience After having a very mentally disturbing nadi reading last week, I went to meditate. I am initiated into Sri Vidya, and sat down to say my daily mantras for each chakra (japa). As I was going through each chakra, I saw some different dark spots and shapes inside each chakra. I intuitively understood what they meant, and understood that it was karmas from past lifetimes. They could be exhausted by experiencing them, and some of them could also be resolved through the mantras and rituals of Sri Vidya. I was happy that there was only one chakra that had a lot of bad karma stored in it, the others were much easier to deal with. However, it's going to take 1-3 years of intense rituals and mantras to clean up the worst and most intense stuff. Conclusion In the end, karma is simply energy. We have sent out energy through our thoughts, words and deeds, and this energy is bound to return to us. However, we can to a certain extent mitigate these energies, by building up opposing energies of sufficient strength. One way to do this is through qigong (posture, breathing, mantra, mudra and visualisation). Another way is through action (being good, serving others, giving to charity, forgiving, helping others etc). It's also possible through deep meditation on each chakra coupled with introspection and improvement of character (as done in SKY). Sri Vidya also gives very simple yet powerful ways of building energy through mantras, mudras and rituals. Depending on how strong your negative karma is, you need to put more energy into trying to cancelling it out. But it all comes to down being able to somehow get access to see and understand what the karmas are before they actually hit you, so you have time to build up the energy to try to neutralize them. Of course, in the end, karma is simply an educational tool of God, so another way is to simply learn our lesson then the karmas get wiped clean (according to Danish Martinus). Question What are your viewpoints, experiences or stories about the idea that karma is tangibly present and visible in our energy fields? God bless you!

Assalaamu aleikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu (May the Peace, Blessings and Mercy of Almighty God be upon you) In this post I will go over and compare the muslim ritual prayer with yoga, qigong and meditation. I will explain some of the "hidden gems" I myself have discovered with this practice. The prayer has two parts: 1) Ritual Purification (wudhu) 2) The actual prayer itself. 1) Ritual Purification (wudhu) You wash your hands, mouth, nose, face, arms, head, ears and feet. You say mantras when starting, and you say a prayer when finishing. This hold some similarities to practices in yoga and qigong as well. Yoga: 1) washing your nose is similar to the neti of the shatkarmas (six cleansing actions) 2) how you say mantras on different parts of your body is similar to kavach and nyasas (where you install protective energies in your field) 3) the idea of purification before practice is completely the same for hindu rituals and meditation Qigong: 1) Using your body while employing mantras is also done in qigong, 2) Purification is also very important in qigong, 3) Massaging your ears is a mainstay of daoist longevity practices, this is also done daily for the muslim prayer 2) The Prayer Itself (as-salah / namaz) The prayer is completely similar to yoga and qigong in the sense that you employ your body, breath (mantras) and mind together. During the prayer you switch between different positions: 1) Standing (takbir & qiyam) 2) Bent over (ruku) 3) Prostrating (sujood) 4) Kneeling (jalsah) There is stretching as well as strengthening going on when going between the movements (just like yoga & qigong exercises). There are mantras uttered at different points during the prayer (just like yoga & qigong exercises). That's how the physical body as well as the breath is employed (the postures and mantras mentioned above). However, what do to with the mind? In yoga you visualise the deities (images, idols or yantras) and/or masters during your meditation to connect with their energy. In qigong you visualise stars, planets, things from nature, animals, masters, colors, the organs, talismans etc to connect with their energy. Here are my own personal top 4 visualisations for the muslim prayer: 1) Visualise you're in Mekka and praying before the Ka'aba All muslims across planet Earth pray facing the Ka'aba each day. It's already a special energy point of planet earth's meridians. Just like human beings have meridians with energy points along them, so too does the planet have special energy lines with special points along them. The well of Zamzam is only 20m east of the Ka'aba, springing from an underground source. The whole area is an energy point, that's why they placed the Ka'aba there. When all muslims pray towards this point, this point stores their energy. It's already a high energy point to begin with. When everyone prays towards it, the shared energy container is redistributed among the faithful. So, by visualising the Ka'aba, you're connecting to a bigger, powerful storage point of energy, which will over time increase your own energy. The word "Ka'aba" is actually in the feminine form in arabic. Feminine simply means receptive, it receives energy from the universe, from the ground, as well as the faithful. I chose the above picture of the Ka'aba because there are two veiled women there as well. The veil over the women and the Ka'aba symbolizes the special protection the feminine enjoys, provided by the masculine (masculine meaning active). When we're well protected, we feel safe, we feel peaceful, and we feel intimate with whoever we're with. It's the same feeling you get in a tent in the desert, or a yurt in the grasslands. You feel intimate with whoever you're with. This energy of peace, protection and intimacy will come over you again and again, until your own soul produces the same type of energy. Then you will feel peaceful, protected and intimately connected to the Divine all throughout your daily life. 2) Visualise you're in Medina and praying close to the Masjid an-Nabawi This masjid was built by the Prophet himself, it was the site of A'isha's house, and now it holds the tomb of the Prophet himself. By visualising this green dome, you will be able to connect directly to the energy of the Prophet. You will be blessed with his tender love, compassion and humanity. Your heart will be softened and opened. You'll feel tender love for all of creation. 3) visualise you're standing before the throne of Almighty God, ranked by thousands of powerful angels Imagine God is watching you. Then perform your prayers. 4) Imagine it's your last prayer, the angel of death is behind you, it's your last opportunity to get right with God before your judgement Conclusion: As you can see, the muslim ritual prayer has many things in common with yoga, qigong and meditation. It uses the body, breath and mind to cultivate energy and connect with the Divine.

Hi all I used to roam these streets many years ago in a previous iteration of Toabums. Great to see it is still kicking along and there are some advanced practitioners here. I started practicing daily meditation at 14 and am 44 now. Explored many of the worlds traditions and practices and have ended up in gently following the breath and organically collecting awareness and resting in the lower dan tien. From there, energy, warmth, bliss and a sense of the Tao. Had many experinces over the years. I probably identify as Buddhist; however, I would be a perenialist - all authentic traditions touching something of the universal. In any case, my question relates to any advice on texts / authors who's meditation practice / descriptitons seem similar to how I described mine? I would be interested in delving deeper into the Taoist traditations that seem to resonate with my own personal experience. All the best Adam.

Almighty God has given us several tools to bring us into union with the Divine Energy: 1) Body methods (including asanas, bandhas, mudras), 2) Breathing methods (including pranayama & mantras), and 3) Mind methods (including dharana, dhyana, samadhi). All traditions, all religions and all spiritual practices use a mix of the 3 above categories. Under the body method we have mudras. Different hand gestures or "seals" which command the pranshakti (life force energy or qi) to circulate in a particular manner. Simply by putting your body in a specific position (standing, sitting or lying) and employing a particular mudra, you can command your pranshakti (or qi) to circulate in particular manner. I have been experimenting with all kinds of cultivation methods (body, breath and mind methods - from hindu, sufi, daoist, buddhist, christian, muslim and many more traditions), and I can personally vouch for the power of mudras. Christians pray using a mudra (hands clasped, fingers interlocked). Muslims and sufis pray using a mudra (open hands towards the sky). Hindus and Buddhists pray using a mudra (their palms joined together). I recently stumbled upon this wonderful online list of 50 different hindu mudras! https://www.fitsri.com/yoga-mudras You can check it out. If you want to experiment with mudras to: 1) gain peace of mind (shunya mudra), 2) circulate your pran (prana mudra), 3) attract more wealth (Kubera mudra), 4) become fearless (abhaya mudra), 5) heal your entire head from headache, congestion, eye strain or any other problem (mahasirs mudra), 6) or any other issue, you should give these mudras a go Just sit for 5-15 minutes every day for a week, and you can see for yourself what works for you. Trust nobody experiment and see for yourself God bless you!

I'm not a native speaker, so there are a bunch of mistakes, sorry about that:) I just want to share my experience, and receive feedback, I would be really happy to discuss it with people with opposite view! B efore we move forward, I want to let you know that I consider these practices in terms of real life, this topic is not about spiritual growth. Probably you will want to say, things like, hey, mfka, what are you doing here, all this stuff is not about chick attractiveness or money making practices, this is only about spiritual growth. But how about these dudes who were locked on lower chakras and became invisible and living life in real darkness and struggling with depression, because they are lonely, they are unable to find a life partner, even their friend disrespect them with no reason, even if they have money, a great car, an apartment in the center of the city, looks good. But this is not the way it works, it means nothing if you are blocked. I remember when I was in kindergarten I was really attractive, girls liked me, they were ready to hang out with me, but they all this stuff disappeared, i became invisible, like nobody see me, or they see that i looks good, but when they come closer, they sense my vibe and they to stay away. So a huge part of my life i lived in the darkness, i was blocked, i tied to earn money, to be successful, all this stuff mean nothing if you are blocked. These practices could help me to unlock myself, it help me to come back to that state when i was a kid, to become myself! How it works. In terms of Taoism we have three reservoirs called as Dantian, with Buddhism projections called as Chakras. Main one is considered as Lower Dantian this is root reservoir, also considered as tree root. Lower Dantian has raw sexual energy this energy gives you physical strength, health, sexuality, creativity, artistry and charisma. The more you have in this reservoir energy, then you will be more attractive. On a subtle level - sex is an exchange of energies. That's why we have this huge desire to give this energy, and female have this desire to absorb this energy. Guys who have little of this energy become simply invisible to girls in terms of sex, since at the energy level they cannot give them anything. They can be elevated for spiritual or intellectual communication if their higher Dantian opened, but in terms of sexual attraction they will be completely faded and empty. Conversely, a huge amount of vital energy in the brain works literally like a magnet that makes a person sexually attractive. Male attractiveness and masculinity comes from an excess of this energy. You can act as an alfa male, you can practice it. But after she get closer they will sense your energy and recognize that you are fake. First, the most important thing that you have to remember is that there are too many practitioners who died from cancer such as Gopi Krishna and the others, you probably can google it. In my opinion, our body is unable to stand this amount of energy, nervous system all the time under pressure and unable to recover, then afterward, consistent stress obviously bring us to huge health problems. My recommendation, if you are a real practitioner you have to improve your overall body system by taking cold shower, standing on nails, standing tall, doing sport exercises such as running etc. Of course if you wold like to go really deep with these practices like meditate for a couple hours, because your chakras have to be free of blockages, unlived emotions, fears, you have to purify you energy system and prepare your nervous and immune system before you go deep! For me this idea when practitioner brought himself to exhaustion. Second, the most important thing that you have to understand is that we are different, and one combination which works for me perfectly, but it doesn't mean that it will work for you. So you have to be ready to try all this stuff and issue your personal conclusion and select your personal combination. I will try to be concise, so there are some combinations that i tried. My main purposes were female attractiveness and to take higher place in hierarchy. Unfortunately, my experience showed that you unable to be both, because if you are so really attract other girls, regular male, even your friend will hate you. In this case, female want to hang out with you, to be your friend, act politely, pick you up somewhere, or even will offer you to spend a night together. In other hand if you will be powerful, aggressive you will be respected and take higher place in hierarchy, new male friend, no one want to joke with you, but female will be afraid of you, like you are a danger for them accept some of them. Preparation part will be exactly about this, there will be no attractiveness, you have to be ready, because purification can broke you, to become stronger and better. Of course, you can get first results like attractiveness without preparation part, but after that when you understand how it works and you decide to go deeper, you have to come back to the preparation part! Remember, your main purpose not to be energized at maximum level, your purpose to be energized, comfortable, not over-loaded like somewhere in between. Of course, a woman 30 y.o. + will be able accept you if you are over-energized, because they understand their sexuality and have much bigger capacity. In the other hand young girls, they will be afraid of over-energized, because those feelings will overload them too. So comeback to the beginning of the sentence and remember that, purpose to be balanced, then you will attract both! How to understand that your are on the right path? Female will try to send you a message, communicate with you, touch you, spend time with you, they will laughing on really not funny jokes and accept anything you do. If you are not dizzy or overloaded of course. All these stuff looks like they feel remotely, i mean your vibe and energy. Like there is a space from where we receive information remotely, without even see the person. But this stage is take time, and it's faster with the preparation phase. Here some practices: Do not expect fast results for some of us this process can take minimum a couple month of consistent practices, before you feel first result or even feel subtle energy. So get ready for a long way! In this sphere consistence is your friend! Minimum time for the practice is 1 month. Meditation on Lower Dantean two times a day morning-evening ~15 min each + wrestling bridge. Lower Dantian locating 4 fingers below your navel, in center of your body. Projecting Svadhistana chakra or sexual center, the most powerful energy in our body. Sit down, calm down, put your mind from your head to your navel, and try to feel a physical sensations of vibration point or heat on the surface of your body or inside. There is have to be no thoughts in your mind, if there any thoughts appears, try slowly switch back to no thoughts. - This practices you can get huge results. While you meditate on Lower Dantean, you also directing your energy through your chakras, Thaosists consider Lower Dantian as a tree root, if your tree root is week, higher parts of the tree will be weak too and almost impossible to deal with. So it's basics. - Also this great chakra to practice meditation on a chakra, because if done something wrong you will not experience huge issues with your mind or health. Compare to meditation on your head, where you have to be well prepared with knowledges or even better to have a master who you really trust. - You don't have to buy anything, you just need to have calm and cozy place for meditation. - This practice will attract hight sexual and low sexual female. - The best one after you done the preparation phase, because your Kundalini flow opened, and there is much more energy to go up, but stay balanced, not over-loaded! - Also Great idea to add chakra breathing exercises, which is really useful but basically no thoughts will be enough. Chi Machine two times a day morning-evening + wrestling bridge. - I would consider this practice as the easiest one to see first results, because it's activate your entire body and each chakra, here is unnecessary to know specific practices. You can lay down relax each your part and set a timer that you comfortable; - These movement as a fish starts from your foots activate your Kundalini and move it straight up to your head and feeding each of your chakra. Female really attracted if you are activate on each stage, especially hight sexual female; - Also this movement as a fish release your stress and turn your nervous system to Parasympathetic Nervous System; - While you are doing the Chi Machine, try to keep your mind free of thoughts, to get bigger results. I would say try to meditate on it if you do not feel over-loaded after this; - This is the easiest way to see your first results with female, you don't have to know how to work with each chakra to activate it; - If a seller is going to tell you that you have to buy an expensive one because you will get a better result, it's not try. I have Chinese one which i bough by a reseller for 150$ and it still work for me for almost 3 years. But of course more expensive ones will be more solid and probably without annoying sounds. So it's up to you; - You will be hated by blocked people. If you have such friend you will lost them, they will consider you as an enemy; - Chi Machine also as good as Meditation practice above! The best one which i tried was: meditation on lower DNTN + chi machine +wrestling bridge+ i didn’t mentioned it, but i fap on prn whenever I want to; Also in addition was doing chi machine twice a day, before important event, so i did: chi mach + bridge then hot bath and again chi mach + bridge + back stretching. Also better fap a day before a couple times, and this day don’t do that, because can became overloaded (this is personally how i done it). TRY TO DO NOT DO THESE PRACTICES BEFOR YOU GO TO SLEEP, BECAUSE YOU CAN GET INSOMNIA. Energetic practices focused on living to the fullest. Back then i remember while i meditate on lower DNTN, and the go to hang out somewhere, when income back from a party i felt exhausted, like my chackras opened and everyone sucking energy from me, even we do not have physical contact. This problem I could resolve with the preparation part. If you fap on no porn you can attract both, hight sexual energy and low sexual energy. Also you will have much better results on business, because other male will respect you similar as you would be on semen retention, so this one somewhere in between. If you fap whenever you want to, and practicing your combination you will attract so much those who have high sexual energy. But male will hate you, if you have a business, where you have to deal with male and conflict area, it will be really complicate for you. And the last one semen retention, you will be respected by any male in the room, also by any woman in the room, but to have sex, they will be afraid of you, i mean female)) I don't want to add any comments to these combinations. Because it's too personal, some of them will work for you better and i would recommend to try each one and take a conclusion and select the best one for yourself! One interesting thing that I could observe was that there is three types of female. Number one a female who has low level of sexual energy: - Attracted to male who has raw sexual energy. Here the best way was semen retention, personally for me was really bad idea to combine this with other practices including Chi Machine, Meditation etc. Which directing this raw enegy to your head; - My opinion for me it's better do stay on semen retention and do not combine it with any practices; - This female seems to me with LOW leavel of lust. That's why thay are seeking something like this, like with hight level of it. - Coudn't deal enough do give more detailed information; Number two a famale who is blocked: Normally this type of female going through really hard times. Their body to prevent death of a person by losing energy reserve or etc is blocking most of their chakras to make this person invisible for enemies; - This type is hate number one and three; - Also this one is being hated by number one and three; - Blocked are hanging out only with also blocked; - Female unable to experience any orgasm, probably except clitoral; Number three a female with hight sexual energy: - Normally prefer to be with male who has low level of raw sexual energy, but this energy has to be transformed into higher centers energy also called Jing; - Most of the time they can find it with drug addicts, alcoholics, but this guy has to be unlocked on higher levels, to make this transformation possible. Otherwise it doesn't work properly; - If they can find a male with hight level of jing and low level of raw sexual energy which is has to be transformed, they can experience squirt orgasm; - Normally act with such male like a slave and ready to do anything this male want them to do, sexually or etc; - These hate over-loaded male, and hate a male on semen retention. I spent a lot of time for training, earning money, traing to be interesting. All this stuff is cool and make you like easier and much brighter, but in terms of your attractiveness it means nothing. Of course some female do not even consider you because of that, that why it make it much harder to deal with. But if they can sense transformed CHI which named Jing all that stuff immediately became unnecessary. Preparation Phase Y ou may think that if i have some practices which will work with no preparation phase so this is unnecessary even to do it, because it's hard and take really a lot of your time. But here is the this, while i was practicing all this things, i was wondering, if i have chi machine, and i have huge results with it, just do it 2 rimes a day for 5 min each, what am i going to do if it's broken or i unable to take it with me if i travel. Back then i started trying other practices, combine them all and i couldn't find anything better then what i have. I spent really tons of hours for new researches. I red a lots of topics, books, watch videos, but only with chi machine i had huge results only. And the conclusion came into my mind from the side that i newer expected. But after the preparation phase i figured out, that if i'm doing easy practices and anyway became over-loaded. I was really disappointed, because i put this much effort and got nothing. After, I even tried my old combinations and i got over-loaded, now it looks like i lost, i couldn't understand why it doesn't work for me. And the it hit me, YES, i could find what i was looking for. Here is the thing, while i was doing could river and semen retention first of all i could purify my chakras, also clean my emotional and muscle tension, also i trained my body to stay calm under the stress. And the main reason, my Kundalini channel was opened because of the preparation. While i sleep at night sometimes when i between to wake up and sleep i experienced so powerful light going through my spine, it shine, and feels like airbus starting to fly, also i heard specific sound like flying airbus. This light start in lower part of your back next to your coccyx. Just now i understand why my previous combinations and practices didn't work for me and all the time I experience anxiety and feel really dizzy. Because my Kundalini channel was opened and flow was much stronger, so these combinations that i used before opened bigger flow which is over-load me, and as i mentioned before, you have to be balanced, not over-loaded! If you are overloaded, people will be afraid of you, even you will experience anxiety which is really not attractive. Also, i could my chakras and opened my Manipura chakra, which i felt last time when i was in kind garden while concurring with my friend, like wrestling, a still remember this filling from my solar plexus, at that point even i was a kid, i was wondering what is going on, at that point i thought that it's place of my fear. Since now i spent years exploring this sphere, and here what i could found out: That bad feeling in solar plexus was working right Manipura chakra. This chakra created for competition, exploring new, trying new, resistance of pain, taking whatever you want to take. I don't know what happened, but in my adult life this chakra was closed, so i couldn't compete, couldn't be under presume, so I was more likely as a female, everybody felt this and enjoy this weakness, even friends. But i felt that i have to be different, I was different before in my childhood. So every time i experienced this it was awful, back than i thought that it's impossible to change, it forced me to stay invisible, not to deal with anyone. Probably that why i have social phobia. I tried to change it so many times, i was training boxing, reading books, exploring topics, all that stuff didn't work for me, like there was something that i couldn't understand. Something that works not the way you think. Obviously boxing changed my personality a lot, but any ways i staid also as a victim. Probably the real reasone of my slow growing was porn and fap addiction, that i didn't have, I didn't have my bolls. You may wonder, probably this phase has some secrets you have to have a guru. No, it's not true. Everything really easier that you though. The best ways in terms of me to make your Kundalini channel opened just a little bit and at the same time prepare your body and nervous system to live with the most powerful energy. I have 3 practices, i wouldn't recommend to combine them with other practices accept meditation, but just in case you feel comfortable and not over-loaded. Cold Shower/River, i prefer the second one. Sidhu Nails Tree position Each will be really hard to do if you are not on a semen retention and you have to have fuel for the purification of your chakras. So you have to be on semen retention, i'm not support to retain for month or years, but it so good idea to retain if you are comfortable. In my case i have too much raw sexual energy and i could retain for 7 days and then i experienced anxiety and feeling that i'm in a trans. These days you have to stay away of thinking about sex or something. Don't try to watch some erotic and expect to spot watching it, then you will be out of control of it. You may wonder, why these thing work like this, i probably have an answer. We were created to survive, and millions years we were leaving next to predators and in environment full of danger. So that's why our evolution created such mechanism, you can evolve if you survive. If you survive your body give you an access to the evolution mechanism. Of course you can meditate for a couple hours a day and you also will open Kundalini channel, but it doesn't prepare your body to deal with powerful energy like this one. So be careful with it! I was doing could river for almost a year, 3-4 times a week, for 1-3 min sometimes 5, temp of water was from 2 to 13 degree Celsius, also you can do cold shower, but i prefer the first one. So for this one i spend most of my time. Also you you don't have an access to a river you can stay on Nails or Tree position , it's also great practices. With both of these you can concentrate on Lower DNTN to transform your raw sexual energy in jing. Be careful, even with the preparation phase, i didn't add any duration of these practices except my preferences, because you have to find out the best time for yourself, be patience, move step my step, because if you will overload your nervous system you can experience "dark night of the soul"! For some individuals it would be almost impossible to go through "dark night of the soul" without help of a doctor. And great doctor can help you, but try to not overload you! Because recovery after that can take years until you can come back to normal life. About "dark night of the soul" i would recommend to read books of Gopi Krishna, he is describe it the best. People with weak health or weak nervous system can even Die. Cold river, cold shower, sidhu plate, tree position, all this stuff purifying your energy system, turn on your immune system, this clearing process take a lot of energy, better to stay away of people, when you are practicing this things, this improves your body and your mind but with downgrade and then improve on better stage. It make you broken then better. So do not expect attractiveness, because of this broke then make you better. Thoughts on NOFAP I spend so much time practician NOFAP, I do not rule out that I did not understand it completely. But the idea of it really strange, why you decide that a person who do not have sex, more successful that those who have it. I think that you can be on semen retention until you feel comfortable, but better way it's FAP on NO PORN, because when you fap on porn, you change videos, your body see that you have sex with so many girl at once, per session your ancestors couldn't even see throughout entire life, then your body accumulate all your energy to catch this success and share your genome with the most beautiful girls in the word so you body just waste tons of energy. When you fap on NO porn, your bady concider it as have sex with low rank, to have sex with low rank persone can have only high rank, so your body shares just small part of you energy, then you became calm, have left bigger part of your energy for real female, and your aura showing that your are sexually successful because you have low rank partner, and energy left in your body, you can spend it for training or real woman. Also great think you will be able to have long sex session. much longer that it would be on semen retention. Probably no fap will work if you will be able to change your mindset, but basically it doesn't work for female attraction. The best way to use it i would consider the preparation phase only. It just my experience and opinion.

Been trying to find a a qigong technique or meditation technique for boosting brain performance but cant find anything.

Hi, I would like to start a practice thread or a cultivation thread is what you call it. Thanks!

Dear friends My post will be in 3 parts: 1) Introduction to the lineage of Vethathiri Maharishi and his different gurus 2) Interesting information about one of his gurus 3) Questions for you and invitation to further research on one of his guru's guru (paramguru) 1) Introduction to the lineage of Vethathiri Maharishi and his gurus Today, I researched a bit about Vethathiri Maharishi, and I found that he himself had 3 physical gurus and 1 astral guru: 1) A religious Guru called Balakrishnan Naicker (when Vethathiri was 14, he learnt hindu devotional worship using songs, mantras and puja as well as the importance of ahimsa and vegetarianism) 2) A Guru in indian herbal medicine called Vaidya Bhoopati S. Krishna Rao (in Vethathiri's 20s, he was employed in Chennai as the apprentice of this traditional doctor in herbal medicine and learnt Ayurveda, Siddhar Medicine and Unani Medicine as well as indian philosophy) 3) A Guru called Paranjyothi Mahan who opened Vethathiri's muladhara and sahasrara chakras and taught him astral travel (in his 30s) 4) When he was 42 the astral form of the Great Saint Ramalinga Vallalar came to Vethathiri and then stayed with him for a period of about 10 years, helping, assisting, teaching and blessing him. As you know, SKY completely changed my life, and I am very grateful for the teachings of Vethathiri. However, as you might have read in my other posts, the astral travel method has been removed from the official SKY system. To me, that's a great tragedy. I am personally very interested in learning it, hence I am continually researching on it. 2) Interesting information about one of his gurus Seeing that Paranjyothi Mahan was actually the guru who opened Vethathiri's chakras, and taught him astral travel, I thought I would research some more about him. There is an organisation he established, which continues to this day: Universal Peace Foundation. One of Paranjyothi Mahan's students is the current leader of the organisation, as Paranjyothi passed away in 1981. So, one possibility for me is to contact this organisation and see if they still teach astral travel. However, from what I can see, they teach something which is very, very similar to SKY (the master opens the students' chakras one by one). Well, what about the guru of Paranjyothi Mahan? This is where the new piece of interesting information comes in. His guru was called Haribullah Kamil Syed Ibrahim! This is a muslim name, or it could very well be a title. "Hari" refers to Vishnu in Sanskrit, however, in Qur'anic arabic, "hari" means dawn, morning or sunrise. "b" is short for "bi" or "bi'l" which means "of" or "of the" "ullah" is Allah. So Hari-bi'l-Allah means "Morning/dawn/sunrise of God" (as you know, sunrise is symbolic of the rays of the sun dispersing the darkness of night, and instead bringing light, warmth and life. As you know "guru" in sanskrit means "darkness/light", someone who takes you from darkness to light. So, the Arabic meaning of "Haribullah" could be a clever muslim/sufi way to say "Guru". This in itself is (to me) extremely interesting, that the paramguru of Vethathiri is possibly a muslim or sufi! Kamil or Kamel means "perfect" or "perfected". Syed or Sayed/Sayid means "noble" and usually refers to descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. Ibrahim is the muslim variant of Abraham, the first "hanif" or first rightly guided monotheist (in the 3 abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam). As you can see "Haribullah Kamil Syed Ibrahim" could very well be a title, refering to a guru or master safeguarding and passing on the true, perfected and noble teachings. In this case, the true teachings include kundalini and chakra awakening through touch, as well as astral travel and prayers for world peace. It being an honorific title could very well be the reason, that nothing really comes up when you search for it online. Maybe his given name was different. You also can't find any pictures of him. This leads me to the last and final point. 3) Questions for you and invitation to further research on one of his guru's guru (paramguru) 1) Do you know about or have experience with UPF (Universal Peace Foundation) and their teachings and practices? 2) Do you know about or can you through research find anything about this mysterious Haribullah Kamil Syed Ibrahim? 3) Do you know about or do you have experience with the astral travel methods of Vethathiri, Paranjyothi Mahan or Haribullah? May there be sufficient rain, crops and sustenance for all living beings. May the whole world enjoy prosperity, happiness, health, wisdom and peace. May Peace reign within us, may Peace reign around us and everywhere we go, may Peace reign in the whole word. Be blessed by the Divine!

Dear Dao Bums, I'll do this in 4 parts: Intro Practices and personal experiences Conclusion on practice Questions for you Intro Last night I finally managed 3 lucid dreams in a row!!! I am over the moon I've been wanting to lucid dream since I was a teenager. I've gone to several tibetan buddhist workshops with renowned dream yoga lamas, read more than 3 books, watched countless interviews and read countless accounts online. Furthermore, I've been practicing daoist sleeping qigong for more than 4 years (not daily, but in practice cycles). I never felt I got anything from it! It only disturbed my sleep! I had 2 lucid dreams as a teenager. I knew I was dreaming, I knew it was all a dream, yet I could neither control myself nor the dream. This was with buddhist dream yoga and "western scientific" lucid dream (setting an intention, getting up during the night to reset intention etc). In my twenties I managed 3 lucid dreams, when I started to seriously meditate and dream journal. It was simply a byproduct. Here I could not control the environment, but I knew I was dreaming, and I could control myself. For the past 2 weeks I remembered my almost life long desire to lucid dream, and decided to give it a go again Practices and personal experiences What I've been doing buddhist wise is the purification breathing before sleep, visualising a red flower in the throat chakra, chanting the syllables of each petal and also visualising them (Om Ah Nu Ta Ra). None of it gave me anything. Daoist sleeping qigong, I learnt from master Wu. There are 2 sleeping positions, flat on the back with a mudra on your navel, and on your side with one hand on the navel and the other holding a mudra on your ear. You then visualise certain things. No matter how much I tried it, it has only been about 5 or 6 times I felt better sleep from it. All the other times, it simply feels like a qigong. You can feel the qi and blood circulating in your body. There was only 2 times in a particular retreat, where he shared 2 new visualisations he never shared before, that on the first night with the first visualisation, something really happened, and the second night with the second visualisation, I got really deep and restful sleep immediately. However, after I got back home and continued the practice, it didn't have the same effect. Lastly, the past 2 weeks, I gave it a go again with tibetan buddhist practices.... And last night it paid off!! The game changer for me was a bön method from Dr Nida Chenagtsang (I got it from his book "tibetan art of dream analysis"). It's a 5 step visualisation before sleep. This was what allowed me to finally experience lucid dreaming! And it was awesome! I was aware I was dreaming, I could control myself and the environment. It was super dope Conclusion on practice I feel there are 3 things which led to me finally experience lucid dreaming: 1) pure and open channels and energy centers (after 9 years of daily meditation and 7 years of daily qigong, now adding 14 days of daily tibetan practice, finally opened my channels and centers sufficiently) 2) sufficiently strong energy (I could actually feel that in the 3rd dream, the environment was a bit less responsive to my desired changes, I think the reason is that it actually takes some energy to control the dream) 3) I finally accumulated sufficient good karma (never hurt yourself or others, physically or mentally, help alleviate the suffering of others when you can, love and forgive) The tibetan practices I did for the last 14 days were: 9 purification breaths, breath holding meditation from the first steps of karma mudra meditation (the non sexual ones) and the bön visualisation before sleeping. Questions for you Would you like to share your experiences? 1) How did you get to be able to lucid dream? 2) Which practices did you follow, and for how long? 3) What do you do, during lucid dreams? 4) What are your greatest "pro tips" for lucid dreaming? 5) Anything you would like to add on the subject of lucid dreaming? May you all be blessed!

Dear Dao Bums, Qigong and astral travel... Let me ask you some questions 1) Have you astral travelled? If yes, could you elaborate how you got to be able to do that, as well as share some experiences 2) Do you know any trustworthy stories (about friends, teachers etc) about astral travel? If so, please share 3) Do you know any qigong or meditation methods for astral travelling you could share? 4) Do you know any qigong or meditation teachers (trustworthy and authentic) who teach astral travel? Let me share some of my own answers to the above questions a) I'll start with SKY (simplified kundalini yoga). b ) After, I'll share about my sexual qigong and daoist lovemaking teacher. c) Then, I'll share from my indian-village-mountain-cave-yogi guru, who has a student who has shared stories about "sukshma sharir ki yatra" (subtle body travel or subtle body pilgrimage). d) Subsequently, I'll share the story of a white, atheist european boy, who accidentally got the power of astral travel through tibetan buddhist mandala visualisation meditation. e) finally, I'll share a short story from a qigong master from Australia SKY In SKY (Simplified Kundalini Yoga), Vethathiri Maharishi (the guru and founder) was taught astral travel by one of his own gurus. In the beginning of SKY, astral travel was taught as one of the meditations, freely available to everyone. Later, they changed it so only masters would learn it during the masters course. Latest... they completely stopped it. Therefore, alas, I have not been able to learn it yet.. However, I've heard face-to-face trustworthy accounts of high level teachers and masters in SKY, personally telling me about their experiences. The method used is meditating on the navel chakra. After that, I don't know what the next step is (yet.. I hope to learn someday, somehow). Other things they said: how they used to learn it. It would be on full moon morning. They would all have eaten a light dinner the night before, and meditated on the navel chakra before bed time. They would then meet at 4AM. They would all lie down with white sheets on top of them. Vethathiri would be seated, guiding it all. They would meditate on the navel chakra while lying down, and Vethathiri would use his yogic power to take them out of their body, one by one. Once all were out of the body, he would take them to the moon, all together. After returning to the meditation hall, he would stay there. He would then allow everyone to go and do what they want to try; e.g. visit their families, visit mountains or faraway lands, go on pilgrimages to temples etc. Lastly, he would put everyone back in their body. They could then practice this meditation on full moon mornings back home, whenever they wanted. They should just follow the same instructions; light dinner the night before with navel chakra meditation before bed etc. Sexual qigong and lovemaking teacher He told me that the end goal of all daoism and qigong is astral travel. "The One" spoken about in alchemy is actually our spiritual fetus, spiritual body, whatever you want to call it. "Return to the One", "Merge three into One", "From spirit to the One", "Merge with the Emptiness and attain the One" etc. He said the couple would do their qigong and meditation. They would then make sweet, sweet love. They would then leave their bodies. Once out of the body, they would use all the energy from the lovemaking to heal the physical bodies. They would then travel to another planet in our Galaxy, the one from where qigong originates. Here you can be taught higher teachings and achieve higher levels of mastery than using the qigong physically available on Planet Earth. Teachings which have slowly been lost over time, since given to the Planet Earth by "the Gods". Indian Village, another student of my guru He got the siddhi of sukshma sharir ki yatra through the following steps: 1) attain mantra siddhi of a kavach mantra (tantric protection mantra) 2) tratak on the sun and moon to build the energy sufficiently strong 3) meditating on the navel chakra with neck lock until prana and apana merge, after which they rush up through the sushumna, naturally break your neck lock, and go to the crown chakra 4) the prana will then pulse in your crown chakra. You meditate on this pulse of energy for 60 minutes with no other thoughts in your mind 5) then you will feel your sukshma sharir leave your physical body (don't become shocked, then you will have to restart the 60 minutes) 6) after the first succesfull leaving out the crown, you can do it very quickly (because the path has been opened) 7) then you can lie down on the back more comfortably and simply leave out the crown 8) then you will see your physical body sitting or lying there, and you will see spirits around you, trying to mess with you, trying to get you to freak out. Don't let them distract you from your goal, remember that you have put the kavach and trust in it 9) go to your destination, do what you need to do, come back (just by thinking about your body, you automatically return instantly, no matter where you are or the distance) He himself personally went to "Vaikunth", the planet or place where Lord Rama resides. He then did puja to Rama and Sita. Then he returned. After this first journey, he would venture out and journey, doing pilgrimages or simply visiting interesting places, every night during his sleeping time. White atheist boy At one point in my life, I stayed 6 months in a Hindu Ashram in Europe. The resident indian swami told me the following story about this swiss boy, who came to ask for advice. He was a white, swiss, atheist boy, who had never been interested in religion nor spirituality. In his 20s during his university education, a girlfriend of his convinced him to try to meditate, as a way to cope with stress. He agreed (I think he liked the girl ) He was taught a tibetan buddhist mandala visualisation. He would visualise the mandala in 4 steps: lower part of the mandala, middle part of the mandala, upper part of the mandala, the whole mandala together. If you lose the visualisation, you start over. He actually felt some stress relief from this method, so he continued it all throughout university, and also after starting work. After 7 years, one day while meditating, he heard a huge pop. He opened his eyes and saw the wall moving towards him. He was very surprised. As he tried to move, he noticed it was actually him, flying towards the wall. He turned around, and shockingly saw his body sitting in the chair. He was out of his body! He didn't know what to do, so he decided to go visit his dad back home in the countryside of Switzerland. He flew slowly all the way, following the roads and signs. He found his dad out in the garden, working. He tried to talk to him, but his dad didn't react. After some time, he flew all the way back, and went into his body again. He called his dad and asked "dad, did you work on the kale in the garden around 3 o'clock this afternoon?", "Why, yes son, I did". The swiss boy was shocked. The leaving of the body would then happen every single time he meditated. As an atheist, he was so confused by this experience, that he stopped his meditation, and went on google to try and find some hindu or buddhist centers in his city. He found the ashram I would later live in for 6 months, and asked the resident swami to explain what was happening to him, how it was possible, and what he should do. Qigong Master from Australia He was born into a chinese qigong family. At 4 he was forced to do long standing. As a teenager, his teacher took him astral travelling. He took him all the way down to the "realms of hell", and all the way up to the highest levels of "divine realms" they could go to. Conclusion I have heard many bogus and untrustworthy accounts of astral travel in my life. However, the ones above, I can all vouch for. They were told to me by trustworthy friends, in a natural and unforced manner. There were no reason or anything to gain for them, cooking up these stories. It was simply a natural part of the conversations I shared with them during my time with them. I consider them quite "juicy" and interesting I hope to also learn astral travel someday Now please, what do you have to say about my 4 initial questions: 1) Have you astral travelled? If yes, could you elaborate how you got to be able to do that, as well as share some experiences 2) Do you know any trustworthy stories (about friends, teachers etc) about astral travel? If so, please share 3) Do you know any qigong or meditation methods for astral travelling you could share? 4) Do you know any qigong or meditation teachers (trustworthy and authentic) who teach astral travel?

Dear Dao Bums, I have searched and read all of the stories about Master Yuanming Zhang on this forum. I read some stories/reports/controversies, which stated that he was actually one of the teachers of both Master Zhongxian Wu (Master Wu) and Spring Forest Qigong founder Master Chunyi Lin. Supposedly, they then took some of his teachings, went to the west and became big stars using his teachings. I personally know nothing about this, but it's a pretty juicy story. I hope to engage with you on the following three points (regarding Master Yuanming Zhang): 1) can you either prove or disprove the idea that both Master Wu and Chunyi Lin copied Yuanming Zhang? Or share some stories related to these reports. 2) do you have any personal experiences or stories about Yuanming Zhang ? 3) if any of you are interested in his teachings, he hosts a 2 hour zoom meeting this Sunday (17th of July 2022) on meditation. I look forward to hearing what you guys have to say Be blessed!

Hi, I'm doing Zhan Zhuang and am interested in meditation, spiritual practice in general. I have recently very much enjoyed books by Anthony de Mella, Lester Levenson, Rob Nelson, ... I'm also learning Mandarin and now I would love to start reading/learning with Chinese books that have a similar paradigm hoping that the added interest and motivation because of the topic will support the learning. Any recommendations would be greatly welcome! Thanks!

Dear Bums, my meditation sessions are getting longer and longer now. The focus is there, but my body aches after a while. What is your approach? Just staying with the pain, making it conscious, growing with the pain? Or is a more gentle approach appropriate? I thought about changing from cross legged sitting into another posting after every 40 minutes. (Maybe my knees or laying on the back?) Would love to hear your perspectives!

Hi everyone! I study with a Taoist Master who created an online video course covering the entire Nei-Gong System he inherited, including meditation, breath and energy practices. It's quite extensive and covers everything in a really easy to follow step-by-step manner from the beginning to the most advanced practices that would not normally be taught in public, and I have found it incredibly transformative for my own practice, so I wanted to share it with all of you in case anyone else could benefit from this kind of thing right now in the way I have. In addition to the daily practice videos, you will also have access to group practice sessions on Zoom five days a week, and the opportunity to ask a senior instructor questions about your meditation practice and spiritual path. Here is the link to try the course for free for a month! I hope this may benefit someone! Wishing you all a happy new year

Dear Dao Bums, Today I'll share my experience with "Guru Karunamaya" and his teachings of Sri Vidya (a branch of spiritual practice in Hinduism). I have tried many things under the sun, but I am extremely positively surprised by the power of his teachings. Intro to Sri Vidya: Your body, energy, chakras, aura, psyche etc, is a perfect replica of the universe. This is called the "microcosm" and "macrocosm" idea. How the energy flows in your chakras and nadis, or energy centers and energy channels, showcases how your mind works, as well as how your life is working (and will work in the future). If the energy is flowing freely in a particular chakra and its nadis, it means your life is flowing freely in that particular area. E.g. regarding work and money, sexuality and pleasure, power and fame, love and relationships, manifestation and communication, understanding and wisdom, spirituality and oneness with the universe, etc. By opening your chakras and nadis, you also open the corresponding areas of your life. You then progress through the "sri chakra" or "sri yantra". This yantra holds all yantras, all gods and goddesses, all chakras and nadis, and all areas of your life. The beginning practice: You start from the outside perimeter, and then work your way through it. You end up in the center, the "bindu", the point, the dot.. The divine The outside perimeter (bottom left corner, the outermost square line) corresponds to the elephant God "Ganesha" or "Ganapati". This energy corresponds to the root chakra (muladhara chakra), and general stability and trust in your life. This also includes basic needs like work, security, fincances etc. When you get the deeksha (initiation) into the "ganapati" (another name for Ganesha or the elephant God) you start opening this chakra. With the shaktipat (energy transmission) of the teacher, you get a boost to your own process. Then you recite 100.000 repetitions of the mantra. This makes the mantras energy "flower" - both in your chakras and nadis, your physical body, as well as your life. This will give you physical health, heal any problems related to the anus, spine, legs and feet, bring you emotional and mental stability as well as trust, energetically it will open your muladhara chakra and its nadis, in your life it will attract a job to you (if you're looking for one), otherwise it will make your work situation stable. The scope of continued practice: Further, you continue this journey of self-healing alongside realization of ever subtler levels of the Divine, inside and out (your body, energy, emotions, mind and soul, as well as your outside life). This is done by working your way through the Sri Yantra. There's a process for everything: opening chakras and nadis, getting a job, attracting more wealth, removing black magic and evil spirits, controlling the weather, overcoming racism, depression and other negative mental states, and it just goes on and on. The sri yantra contains everything. Also ALL the siddhis (supernatural powers, e.g. auric vision (called divya dristhi or divine sight), controlling the weather, healing of self and others, and so on and so forth). Ending blessing and prayer: May you all be blessed, and enjoy good health, long life, prosperity, happiness, wisdom and peace