Hunger Meditations

[tulku]

I once thought that the demons of Lust and Sex are the biggest obstacles on one's path to Enlightenment.

 

I was wrong.

 

My teacher had recently instructed me to go on a fast. To first start off with one meal a day and gradually go on forth to a 7 day fasts.

 

My question to you would be.

 

How does one overcome Hunger with meditation?

 

Because to me the demons of Hunger seem much more powerful than the demons of Lust and Sex.

[tulku]

[Small Fur]

[tulku]

Ask your mentor, since it was they who assigned it and you are under their tutelage. Fasting is a powerful prescription and needs wise guidance.

 

And since you ask, I suggest that you use the opportunity to examine the roots of hungering… do you think that thirst and hunger are different from lust and sex? These are simply different forms of desire; different movements and condensations of energy.

 

I suggest that as an elementary step, you begin exploring the properties of conservation at physiological and psychological level. Somatic training is very important because unrestrained aspects of will seek to overtake the body through its previous habituation. The other can begin with breath work since this is a refinement of nourishment or the essential substrate of chi circulation.

 

Best to you.

 

too bad my teacher is unavailable most of the time..

 

so this is why i am gathering opinions from the experts in here who have had successes in defeating hunger..

 

btw how would you explore properties of conservation at physiological and psychological level?

 

also how do you do breadth work to recharge your chi without eating?

Edited April 28, 2012 by tulku

[thelerner]

I think fasting is healthy, maybe not the complete panacea painted, but healthy. I used to do 5 to 7 day fasts. I followed Daniel Reids book The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity. He kept you feeling full by swallowing psyllium fiber, ie metamucil and volcanic ash. Psyllium expands in your stomach making you feel full, the ash he said is tiny and has a charge, that helps with detox. He'd also have you put in a squeeze of organic lemon, later in the fast you could use some maple syrup too.

 

The first few days were still hard, but for the last few there was a bit of a high feeling. You have to be careful of physical activity, even showers; take things slow, lots of water, he liked distilled for the fast. Sleep, rest.

 

It may seem 'cheating' to include psyllium seed, ash, maple syrup etc., in a fast, but if the goal is detox, I think it allows it to happen faster. Quite simply you defecate more due to the fiber and that's probably a good thing; clean out the crap.

 

Take it slow. I liked what Small Fur said.

 

 

I'll add, look into some of the Yoga systems out there. Sivananda has some hard core programs and a very delightful center on Paradise Island. It used to be the cheapest Caribbean vacation out there, meals, shelter and hard core (& easier) yoga and long meditation periods daily for a very reasonable price.

 

Some Yoga centers will help and give you guidance while you fast. See what's near you. There may be some wise experienced people closer then you think.

Edited April 28, 2012 by thelerner

[de_paradise]

I feel hunger in a way thats much reduced than in the years before. I think its due to relatively more open energy channels, plus I spent about a year as raw vegan with the odd fast days. So in my case it was just a result of practise and and diet, nothing special. My eye still on attempting bigu in a serious way, its just so inconvenient to reduce one's carbs to a level where you cannot do what you want to do in life. Its also a freaky big leap, no matter how much one plans and learns about it.

[4bsolute]

Hunger and thirst are two intense distractions for a spiritual practitioner. The yogis first want to conquer them so that they can meditate in peace. The problem is that when you are thirsty and hungry, you have a beverage and also eat some food. As soon as the food and beverage enter into the body, it affects the mind also. Your senses become alive and as a result, the mind becomes active in the mundane domain. This is the reason why the yogis denounce eating. In fact, there is a saying in yoga: “If you eat twice a day you are a worldly person with a drive to enjoy life. (The Sanskrit word for this person is bhogi). If you eat one time only, you are a yogi. If you eat three times a day, you are a sick person.”

 

Thirst and hunger are indeed a curse on the human race. In my previous lifetime as Swami Ramalingam (a saint from south India who ascended in 1874), I barely ate. True, I was skin and bone, but had a tremendous amount of energy. Not only that, my body became luminous and had no mass at all.

 

Excess weight is karmic and it is caused by addiction to food. When you like a particular food, you cannot control your eating. Your mouth waters. Look at the general behavior of people who go out to eat. You conduct a meditation on the menu before placing your order of food. You mentally evaluate the quality, quantity and price, going through great anxiety and indecision.

 

A yogi has no attraction to food at all. He eats because he wants to live and not the other way around. He has killed all the taste buds in his tongue so he is not tormented by choice.

 

In this message, I want to introduce two meditations to control thirst and hunger. The first one comes from Patanjali, the father of yoga. It appears in his classical textbook called Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Under the section regarding supernormal powers (vbhuti pata), Patanjali teaches a special type of integral meditation. The meditation is called “samyama,” and is located at the throat in order to control thirst and hunger.

 

First you should learn to perfectly integrate the mind (samyama) at the throat. This is done in 3 steps. The first step Patanjali refers to as concentration (dharama), which is fixing the mind at one spot and in this case, the throat cavity. The second step is called meditation (dhyana). Meditation is simply putting all your uninterrupted attention on the object, as in this case, the throat. The third step is called trance (samadhi). You must be totally obsessed with the object of meditation. You lose your self awareness. You are in a trance. When you combine all the three steps in one unit, it is called samyama.

 

After you integrate the 3 steps, Patanjali says that you have to introduce a “sutra,” an aphorism, to stop the hunger and thirst. A sutra, in simple language, is some sort of a mantra or a linguistic formula that affects various levels of consciousness: senses, mind, intellect and the soul. Precisely the sutras of Patanjali are a kind of language of the soul. No matter whether you know Sanskrit or not, the sounds in the sutra will make sense to your soul and other subtle perceptual levels. This Sutra is:

 

Kantakoope Ksut Pipaasaa Nivrttih

 

Kantakoope– throat

 

Ksut– hunger

 

Pipaasaa– thirst

 

Nivrttih– overcome

 

I could write a 200-page treatise, if not more, on how the sounds work in this case. It is not my intention to complicate the sutra. Simply keep repeating the sound (a CD of my recital is under preparation), following the three steps mentioned above for about 10 –15 minutes twice a day. It is important to pray to Patanjali to help you with this endeavor and ask for his blessings. Express your gratitude to him as well.

 

Patanjali's meditation helps to stop the origination of hunger and thirst in your throat. But hunger also originates in your belly as well. I want to give you the meditation for this belly hunger. This comes from Swami Ramalingam (my previous incarnation). Swami Ramalingam declared that hunger is a disease and he successfully eradicated from his system. The mantra for stopping belly hunger is as follows:

 

Om Ramalingaya Swaha (I invoke Ramlingam)

 

Arut perum Jothi, Arut perum Jothi

 

Tanipperum Karunai, Arut perum Jothi (Divine Intelligence is the Light. It comes to us as the Mercy of God.)

 

Make a silent prayer to Ramalingam to kill your hunger, visualizing a white light in your belly area.

 

Siva Baba will be teaching two events in September: “Karma, Money and Relationships” on Saturday, September 10, from 10am-5pm, and “Enlightenment and the Upcoming Golden Age” on Saturday, September 24 from 7-9 pm. The events will be held at Seaside Church of Religious Science, 1613 Lake Drive, Encinitas. See ad this issue for registration info or go to www.sivababa.org and click on “Events.”

 

Thank you kind master for this information. I will integrate it into my practice and be willing to experience it and grow from it.

[joeblast]

Get your lower dantien breathing efficient. Cultivate the potential there and it helps replace some of that electrochemical you're 'missing'

[4bsolute]

Get your lower dantien breathing efficient. Cultivate the potential there and it helps replace some of that electrochemical you're 'missing'

 

Also: Sun-Gazing (7-9months+) removes the belly hunger successfully - but not the appetite aka tongue or throat hunger (pain).

Edited June 12, 2013 by 4bsolute

[eye_of_the_storm]

Edited June 13, 2013 by White Wolf Running On Air

[Protector]

Thank you kind master for this information. I will integrate it into my practice and be willing to experience it and grow from it.

 

*in a spooky voice*

If you follow the path of tulku only destruction await yooooooou