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In the practice of "letting go" it is an engineering - and we will let go of tangible blocks that we don't like, some blocks we kind of like - blocks that are "morally wrong" - but we are not so ready to do what can be termed "intentional suffering".

 

Intentional suffering involves our most basic "comfort foods" that set the bed of our sleeping condition. All our causes and favorite inertia's and arguements and judgements. Much of the releasing we will happily do involves clearing victimhood - we were raped and need to release it, we had a loss and need to release it. We have an addiction and need to release it and overcome it.

 

Try releasing body pictures, esteem issues, self medication, extrapolating on future prospects, dire mind loops, love of white pasta and all beige foods, stimulants, alcohol, hatred of a group, hatred of a look, a regard of superiority of certain things or groups or beliefs. Most of the time we are establishing ourselves in these positions, building upon the scaffolding of illusion / trance.

 

 

The idea of "letting go" is noble and in the right direction - we have a clue and are seeking to utilize it.

 

We are a bit like the wheel - we recognize large chunks of road rock on the tire and areas that are chaffed and wearing thin. We address these - but we don't really want to look at transforming the wheel itself - we would rather purchase modifications or at least pacify our awareness of the predicament and attend a lecture and take in some class.

 

We act as nuts and bolts that hold the wheel together. Heated properly in constant practice the bolts and washers and struts melt together and become one. The heat is a cold heat.

 

It is not born out of a practice of beating oneself and torture - we are not helped by wearing a hair shirt.

 

It is somehow from the knowledge that our willfulness is not the way. The transformation occurs in recess from this willfulness.

And it is not so much a "letting go" nor a recoil - it is exhaustion generally with the tensions that we have held our selves in (karma).

 

Mechanical means are effective in bringing about transformation - they bring air and light into dusty confined abodes.

Meditation is a mechanical means.

Qi Gong is a mechanical means.

Yoga is a way of life incorporating the mechanical means of meditation and postures.

Buddhism is a way of life incorporating the mechanical means of meditation and neumerous other options.

(If taken as religious beliefs then none are effective and I am not referring to them in this context.)

 

By mechanical means I mean that the simple practice of these will bring about the transformation toward the constant unfolding of Divine Natural Essence - Presence. They will bridge the minds and the bodies to finer vibrations. They prepare the body for greater embodiment.

 

Right Thinking is misunderstood - it is not religious or moral.

For a clear hint as to what it means - look at your mind loops - choose increasingly not to participate in them - notice them, do not judge them - simply see them and begin relinquishing interest in them.

When you extrapolate into the future and find a rising tension or held tension in this extrapolation - you are positioning and trying on various stresses to see which best fits your existing positions - recognize this, don't judge it - see these patterns and begin to not participate in the ramping up and staging of them.

 

The more you do this the more easily it happens again and again. Constant mind looping is something you will find you can laugh at - not in a cynical way - but in a real way - and from this alone you may Awaken.

 

Resistance creates heat - suffering.

 

The movement to non-resistance creates super conductivity.

 

From lead to gold.

 

The cold heat of superconductivity will crystallize Divine Natural Essence in the embodiment of Presence. This is the immortal.

Edited by Spotless
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In the practice of "letting go" it is an engineering - and we will let go of tangible blocks that we don't like, some blocks we kind of like - blocks that are "morally wrong" - but we are not so ready to do what can be termed "intentional suffering".

 

Intentional suffering involves our most basic "comfort foods" that set the bed of our sleeping condition. All our causes and favorite inertia's and arguements and judgements. Much of the releasing we will happily do involves clearing victimhood - we were raped and need to release it, we had a loss and need to release it. We have an addiction and need to release it and overcome it.

 

Try releasing body pictures, esteem issues, self medication, extrapolating on future prospects, dire mind loops, love of white pasta and all beige foods, stimulants, alcohol, hatred of a group, hatred of a look, a regard of superiority of certain things or groups or beliefs. Most of the time we are establishing ourselves in these positions, building upon the scaffolding of illusion / trance.

 

 

The idea of "letting go" is noble and in the right direction - we have a clue and are seeking to utilize it.

 

We are a bit like the wheel - we recognize large chunks of road rock on the tire and areas that are chaffed and wearing thin. We address these - but we don't really want to look at transforming the wheel itself - we would rather purchase modifications or at least pacify our awareness of the predicament and attend a lecture and take in some class.

 

We act as nuts and bolts that hold the wheel together. Heated properly in constant practice the bolts and washers and struts melt together and become one. The heat is a cold heat.

 

It is not born out of a practice of beating oneself and torture - we are not helped by wearing a hair shirt.

 

It is somehow from the knowledge that our willfulness is not the way. The transformation occurs in recess from this willfulness.

And it is not so much a "letting go" nor a recoil - it is exhaustion generally with the tensions that we have held our selves in (karma).

 

Mechanical means are effective in bringing about transformation - they bring air and light into dusty confined abodes.

Meditation is a mechanical means.

Qi Gong is a mechanical means.

Yoga is a way of life incorporating the mechanical means of meditation and postures.

Buddhism is a way of life incorporating the mechanical means of meditation and neumerous other options.

(If taken as religious beliefs then none are effective and I am not referring to them in this context.)

 

By mechanical means I mean that the simple practice of these will bring about the transformation toward the constant unfolding of Divine Natural Essence - Presence. They will bridge the minds and the bodies to finer vibrations. They prepare the body for greater embodiment.

 

Right Thinking is misunderstood - it is not religious or moral.

For a clear hint as to what it means - look at your mind loops - choose increasingly not to participate in them - notice them, do not judge them - simply see them and begin relinquishing interest in them.

When you extrapolate into the future and find a rising tension or held tension in this extrapolation - you are positioning and trying on various stresses to see which best fits your existing positions - recognize this, don't judge it - see these patterns and begin to not participate in the ramping up and staging of them.

 

The more you do this the more easily it happens again and again. Constant mind looping is something you will find you can laugh at - not in a cynical way - but in a real way - and from this alone you may Awaken.

 

Resistance creates heat - suffering.

 

The movement to non-resistance creates super conductivity.

 

From lead to gold.

 

The cold heat of superconductivity will crystallize Divine Natural Essence in the embodiment of Presence. This is the immortal.

 

I find what's working for me now (it didn't earlier) is to turn the mind back into the witness. The witness observes without attaching. So the mind turned back onto the witness seems to have the effect of stilling the mind itself. It still flutters this instant or another...but overall rests in the witness. 

Here I find the "attachments" don't exist. If the mind reacts to something (attachment or aversion), returning to the witness brings it back to non-attachment (letting go). 

 

Albeit, sometimes it is harder than other times. But i'm realizing, that with time and constant practice (of resting the mind in the witness), it becomes easier to guide the mind back there...

 

You have articulated this much better than I can, so thanks :)

Edited by dwai
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The trick is to move from mind - mind is not needed very often.

 

The practice of looking at the witness or the wording in such a way is as you have alluded to - problematic - but I hear you - and words are small for pointing. The shift you allude to is not really one of "two others" looking at each other but more of turning to presence.

 

The pointer of not participating in certain mind activities will quickly reduce the looping reinforcement within the mind. It is disabling to position. The other activities mentioned open up embodiment. The transformations of the various bodies is very far beyond what we normally conceptualize - lightyears.

 

As the various bodies unfold the unfolding will not cease. You will "arrive" more times than you can count. The LDT will continue to unfold in order for the upper regions to unfold.

 

All this before and after Awakening.

 

After Awakening physical progress of the bodies is necessary for considerable expansion into enlightening - often this comes to a flatline of normalcy while intentional "suffering" is actually much easier and productive but no longer practiced.

 

At first it is necessary to establish Awakening to an extent after it has happened - it usually takes some time to acclimate.

Basic tools of meditation and prior experience with some semblance of stillness greatly facilitate this. Simple posture can be a phenomenal help. A breath, understanding just sitting.

Edited by Spotless
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Questions:

 

"Hi Spotless! thanks so much for your input in the spirit and peace energy topics!

 

I see you used to practice raja yoga, so assume rightly or wrongly you know a thing or two from experience about chakras...

 

if that's so, is it safe to assume that if one feels itching at solar plexus all day, followed by a spontaneous inner vision of a ram whilst sitting in natural meditation, followed by lots of movements plus the usual shivers etc, is it safe to assume the manipura chakra is being worked on, either by kundalini or in another way?

 

And if kundalini is active, is it a case of just letting her do her thing, and it doesn't matter that type of meditation one does? or should we go to a targeted form of meditation?

 

Hope you don't mind me asking all these questions, many thanks! "

End Quote

 

-----

 

Response:

 

In the overall general setting of these questions we can clarify some general guidelines:

 

I recommend you seek to Awaken from the start - and in this cultivation you also seek to refine the inner bodies.

 

What is mentioned above are first steps in this refinement process - these steps will be covered again and again and again and again.

 

We tend to look at the process as linear - for the sake of writing it down this illusion is fostered - but it IS an illusion.

 

As we refine and build the higher bodies (and the gross physical) openings will occur countless unending times.

 

We tend to think of the chakras as doors to open and then the energy will ascend to the next door which we will open and go on to the next opening. This is such a fragment of the actual that it is more of a block than a bridge to understanding.

 

Huge portions of all of your chakras are engaged in your life as automated as swallowing and your beating heart ❤. They are not automated in the sense of mechanical beating but they are sensory apparatus lightyears beyond words. They are there and they work and we utilize them at all times in some fashion or another.

 

Initially we may feel a fuzzy itching of the chakras or we may experience them more vibrantly as magnetic centers. Eventually you may come to feel them as organs - warm organic full and very real - more real than the gross physical. Your breath goes into these and out into the bodies.

 

The function of these and the capabilities both unfold and evolve - they are both ready made and seedlings in need of certain waters.

 

Energies move throughout and in the unfoldment of each is an effect upon the others. No one chakra opens fully without the others in corresponding accord - without accord you will have health problems whether mental or physical or spiritual. By accord I mean that these changes are all interdependent.

 

As we refine the bodies, new fuels/waters/ steam - move within them and to them - out and about refining all other areas. They add their patina and fragrance to the larger terms we give to energy such as Kundalini, Prana, Qi.

 

We constantly think in terms of engineering - but we are a song being played - we fight against this song and want to get from beginning to end - we live in this noisy scratchy illusion of effort and wilfulness and cannot hear the song of Divine Natural Essence pouring endlessly in everything.

 

We think if everything is Open and Clear and we reach the Top we will eventually attain realization and ultimate Enlightenment.

 

This is the engineered view - it is dead - it is wholly illusion.

 

In fact quite a few new teachings have opening and clearing as their key features - this is Monsanto thinking. The energies of the people on these teachings is odd looking - a bit clean and vibrant but missing many of the organic elements - as though they have bleached their way to a less messy state of affairs. Bleaching will only go so far and then you realize you have thrown much of the baby out with the bath water. Take a song - remove the "messy parts" and you have elevator music.

 

This is picking out the "bad parts" and making things perfect - choosing the nutrients based on our understanding and engineering the crop to be resistant to bugs we don't like because they are "bad" - Monsanto in a nutshell. The initial outcome can be completely addictive - it is the Rabbits way. It is a very dry path - always leaving you thirsty.

 

----

 

Regarding the more specific questions in the context of the larger picture:

 

Lots of movement and shivers are not generally "all the normal stuff" in meditation.

 

In today's world nearly everyone's cultivation is like our eating habits - fastfoods, microwave foods, hyper all organic perfect foods, sugary natural and un-natural foods, lopsided intake of one type or another - all hyper nutrient, total junkie, stimulant heavy or medication heavy and all of the above.

 

Cultivation does poorly in this soil.

 

In cultivation there are two main elements - striving to Awaken and refinement of the bodies to accompany that awakening.

 

The illusion and suffering ends with Awakening - "seeking" ends - the song can be heard - Presence abides in this song - we abide in Divine Naural Essence. In Awakening the bodies are partially transformed far and wide but only partially - a tremendous amount of blocking is removed.

 

The matrix of illusion held a mesh of complication and constraint within our systems - this has fallen away. All the hammers banging away willfully smashing square pegs into round holes fall away.

 

This is a monumentous event - and all the heavens sing at it's happening - but it is not the immediate and spontaneous unfoldment and fruition of the subtle bodies. It is the beginning of Enlightenment - something that has been beginning for timeless time.

 

Now is heard the song we are - it plays in everything.

---

 

When you feel an itch in one of your centers it is like noticing the road under your feet - what you are feeling is only the surface of the road - under it is the entire earth.

 

You will come to know your chakras much more as you not only feel them individually but as parts of a much larger whole and as parts in a string of pearls. They are centers of light - each streaming to each other, helping each other, informing and completing each other. They are one - and the song to be played has immense voice - tangible blood felt inhaled and exhaled - exalted - it will become far more than the gross physical and far more physical than the gross.

 

The gross physical will become the ethereal - the light bodies will become vastly more powerful and real.

 

- - -

 

Down where the rubber meets the road - la de da - we have cultivation.

 

It is in everything we do whether we are conscious of it or not - and we may have tied ourselves down to the point of being pretty constrained by our karmic tensions. So the tendency we are cultivating is "to pry ourselves free". This is precisely the glue that has us harnessed to karma.

 

Resistance creates heat - suffering.

 

The movement to non-resistance creates super conductivity.

 

From lead to gold.

 

The cold heat of superconductivity will crystallize Divine Natural Essence in the embodiment of Presence. This is the immortal.

 

We tend to want to hyper breath into specific areas to get our Kundalini going. We gravitate to trance to bring our vibrations up and open to "anything that can validate the spirit world" and stuff we have read that we so much want to manifest and feel and see.

 

We want to Get.

 

We already have.

 

Edited by Spotless
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...

 

Resistance creates heat - suffering.

 

The movement to non-resistance creates super conductivity.

 

From lead to gold.

 

The cold heat of superconductivity will crystallize Divine Natural Essence in the embodiment of Presence. This is the immortal.

 

When you say the immortal, do you mean the golden embryo?

 

Do you perceive 'the immortal' as a separate entity from yourself?

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This unfolding of Divine Natural Essence is good, why do you suppress it though to suit current socio-political ideologies?
 

For example you mentioned the different sounds peoples make, that one caused a negative reaction, though they are a favorite people, you ignore natural instinct/intelligence and accept social facades? Would it be in the best interests of a gazelle to ignore it's natural instincts that a lion is dangerous/predatory?

New-ageisms matching political agendas counter to natural instincts.

Edited by Sionnach

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Bindi

question:

 

"When you say the immortal, do you mean the golden embryo?"

 

Yes

 

Thanks for answering. And do you perceive 'the immortal' as a separate entity from yourself?

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I was speaking of the process.

It is of no value to go further than this.

Edited by Spotless
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It would have value in public affairs and policies, if people are working against natural laws/ causing disharmony/ discord it works against the general well-being of all people. The value would be in creating social harmony which would allow for more focus on spiritual/ general advancement rather than unnecessary social conflicts/ redundant programs. Shamanic class would have created earthly guidelines from their ESP.

76da8cbcf5ab479c5971fef164783588.jpg

Edited by Sionnach

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Sionnach - you may wish to reconsider your last few points posted here.
You have made assumptions and statements that are considerably mistaken and off topic.

Edited by Spotless

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I thought by now you would have come to terms with the fact that most people who read your posts (and even those who like/ "thank" you for your posts) don't actually understand them.

 

They'll take a bit of it and fly off into their own mind loops; you're one voice among many that are consumed for the sake of building and fleshing out each person's chosen story. The core relation that defines most of what you post is lacking* in those who read your posts.

 

Edit: *not (meaningfully) conscious

What a curious thing to say. 

 

Very curious.

 

So you know what others understand and don't...

powerful stuff indeed... and a big responsibility.

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No. There is an entire layer of "happening" (for want of a better word) that is entirely transformed by the particular experience. An entire scheme of activity will near vanish.

 

Most people are strongly within that layer and the unmodified relations/happenings of it. For that reason, I say that they do not know.

 

But, of course, I  know nothing.

 

ok... i think i can follow this... most folks are within the layer of happening...  i think all are there but maybe some just are not aware or preceive it ?

 

so would it be that most people are strongly within their own layer ?

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ok... i think i can follow this... most folks are within the layer of happening... i think all are there but maybe some just are not aware or preceive it ?

 

so would it be that most people are strongly within their own layer ?

I think it (understanding) happens in layers. Some of it is intuitive. Others are predicated on experience. Somethings we intuit at one stage we can corroborate experientially.

 

Over the years what i had intuited from spotless' words, some I had already experienced and some I did experience later. It is a constant process of unfolding (as I find spotless saying)...

 

Sometimes these words plant seeds unknown to the mind...and flower in the darkness of the subconscious.

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What Spotless says is straightforward, I disagree in what is and isn't practical/ of value haha.

How many times do the same things need to be repeated? New stories as we go along? Techniques should have been finished on the first page, now it may take people less than 1 year or decades to achieve what is described. So maybe during that time we can explore other areas? ha

I gave Shiva's 112 meditation techniques to find neutral, Osho's Book of Secrets explains in detail each technique. 

"Practical discussion" will mean different things to different people.

Edited by Sionnach

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This was first posted in another topic but I wanted to include it here:

First I read lots of books (16-20yrs old) - and I talked allot.

Then I put down the books and practice allot.

Along the way came many siddhis and they were quite amazing but i was not seeking siddhis and so again and again I had times when I meditated allot and kept gaining more siddhis but this was not a goal and it did not occupy me for long (more than a few years).

When my son was conceived( I was 52) I decided to speak with him before his birth and so I meditated again 3-6 hours a day for many months both before and after his birth. In the beginning it was to clarify my space and abilities - so that I could better speak (see) with the being about to become our child.

After he was born and a year or so later - I took to helping him settle into sleep. I would meditate 1-3 hours from 8pm to whenever and then get up at 3:30 am and meditate usually until he woke up.

At some point very quickly "I" began to fall away - night after night in big chunks.

Not long after that - within days - I was in a state very much like the one Ekhart Tolle speaks of - sitting on the park bench for two years.

I did not sit on a park bench per se but it was the same experience.

Soon there after I took up Qi Gong (while still on the bench so to speak) - with a great master who speaks no English. He did not need to speak and all I needed to do was practice. Very occasionally he would say "Ahhh good" in his attempt at English. Year after year 4-6 days a week with him - I did nothing but the various postures - no inner engineering. And year after year remaining parts (residual bits) of my old habituations and positions that still remained have fallen away. An still to this day only vary occasionally he says "Ahhhh good".

During this time the bodies developed much further - energy is refined and clarity replaces clarity endlessly.

Suffering ceased as the chunks fell away - in the very beginning. Everything that comes with this is amazing and it can continue to unfold far beyond any conception of it.

--

Willfulness is not the answer - it is the wall.

Controlling is not the answer - it is the wall.

When you are IN the basics and begin to leave effort - you are on your path and Presence will find you. Stillness will find you.

Because the "you' that is not you is finally letting down its guard in exhaustion and Presence is lighting its way within.

I allowed myself to indulge in the "me" that died when I awoke a great deal in my life prior to Awakening - so it has taken me about 5 years to move forward from the bench. Most of "me" fell away in the gigantic chunks upon Awakening but many deep groves sat there easily energized even if i was no longer identified with them. What might have lingered for days took minutes but still the grooves were still there.

​For years also I had no words for what was happening - day after day - week after week - the energies never stopped increasing and the words could never keep up. I was a bit like a surfer stuck in the wash for years - though throughout the entire time no suffering and increasingly increasing stillness and power and calm. An entire life change and an entire bodies change(ing). Suffering does not exist in "no position".

Words have come to me now though the internal changes often have no words. Some consider Enlightenment to be the basis of the end of Suffering - in this definition I am Enlightened and am Enlightening. Some consider Enlightenment to be when a being has attained what is utterly without words - yet words have been put to it.

Those who have Awakened do not seem to be so interested in the definitions anymore - but those who have not Awakened seem to be ready to read the riot act to anyone who cares to listen.

Awakening requires only one main shift - a shift from ones positions to no-position. The complete addiction to position is the reason it is so very difficult to hear the simple messages that have been stated for eons. It appears that when enough types of glue have been tried and failed (Karmic frequencies of resistance and insistence) then the seeker becomes strong enough and intelligent enough to seek and look into the matrix of his own prison and in exhaustion begins to let if drop - not by intention - not in letting go - it becomes something one no longer partakes in.

This is the death of the seeker.

Edited by Spotless
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Speaking to your son previous to birth, this is reincarnation? Do like spirits attract like spirits? People reincarnate into family lines? until some-kind of enlightenment?

People see more of a likeness between myself and my great, great grandfather than my parents.

Edited by Sionnach

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Dear Spotless,

 

Thank you for your help the last time regarding the difference between emptiness meditation and visualization exercises. I wish to know more about the internal breath and your method at arriving at this to achieve purification.

 

Thankyou.

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Dear Spotless,

 

Thank you for your help the last time regarding the difference between emptiness meditation and visualization exercises. I wish to know more about the internal breath and your method at arriving at this to achieve purification.

 

Thankyou.

I have never used breath to "achieve purification".

I have always been quite the beginner:

 

Early on I studied lots of books and came to the conclusion that what I was reading out of the East was so solid and of such clarity that I had to put the books aside and give it due diligence (meaning that I had to really apply myself to meditation and stillness and get to the point that I had some basis for deciphering if this was real or as unreal as my inherited Christian teaching - which whether it is or is not is not the point - for me it was not my path).

 

I learned the basics of Hatha and then Raja Yoga and practiced them very intently for several years - in the end they proffered up considerable headway and I never looked back so to speak.

 

The breathing I did was always quite simple with the acception that I also did on occasion alternate nostril breathing.

 

Recently in Qi Gong over the past 5 years I have been breathing into my Lower Dan Tien - and this included with practice has lead to phenomenal changes and transformations and unfolding.

 

The only other special breathing I ever did was when I did some Holotropic Breathing in a workshop based on Stanislus Grof's work and at the initial private sessions. I utilized this occasionally after that in meditation for a minute of two at a time for certain energetic blocks and sometimes to move past an unconscious field of energy.

 

I have had quite a number of large Kundalini experiences but only one was caused by breathing and it was during one of the Holotropic Breathing sessions - it was a 6 week class once a week - every other week half the class did the breathing and the other half helped the partner they were paired up with.

 

During that class I had a classic Kundalini experience - though I did not know it was classic at the time.

Suddenly I was compelled to do a Yoga posture I had not done in 20 + years:

It is the large arch with the hands behind ones shoulders holding the body up off the ground in an arch and the legs also holding the lower half off the ground in an arch. I had a very clear vision of many things during that event.

 

Nearly all of my practice has been Old School classical - lots of cushion time - simple practice - things unfold.

 

Most of the time I am Present in the center of a large magnetic center that is the length of my body and breathing is very conscious when in this though no effort is made to breath in any particular manner but it is automatically from the base of the column which originates in the LTD

 

Regarding the idea of purification - The Qi Gong style that I practice which is a very yang style - Fohan Quan - is very effective in dissolving energy structures that are unnatural and blocking - whether for heath and vitality or internal unfolding.

 

One does not need to do anything but practice it and it will work its wonders. My two most significant practices have been Raja Yoga - and the continued Yoga of Life - and Qi Gong (Yoga). I think once you "get" yoga - all practice from then on is Yoga. (however I am not dedicated to this line of thinking).

 

I do not consider myself as belonging to any teaching or tradition - though i am very happy with the relationship I have with my Qi Gong master and the lineage he is teaching me. None of it utilizes specific breath work other than breathing into the lower dan tien which i do anyway at this point - and we do the usual holding for a long breath and exhale for a long exhale (almost forgot to mention that :) ).

 

All of the breathing in the Qi Gong is in and out through the nose and held for long inhales and long exhales. Tongue to front top of mouth as though you said the word Bite - jaw relaxed very slightly.

In Yoga the breathing was less complicated but it has also been over 40 years ago. I do remember that I never did breathing into the spine. Everything I was taught suggested that this was a dangerous thing to do - so I did not do it.

 

In Raja Yoga I did not utilize a teacher - I had learned the basics of meditation and postures in Hatha and simply practiced them in Raja around 6 hours a day. For most of the practice (several years) nothing unusual happened though I did feel wonderful. Then when I was ready to quit the lid pretty much blew off.

Edited by Spotless
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I have always been very reticent to teach - i have always fostered beginners mind and have always seen teachers that are beginners teaching way beyond their understanding. Most people that "really go for it" are completely stuck by the 3rd or 4th year - right about the time they begin to teach.

 

Most are lost when they get into healing, channeling and other mainly trance heavy practices such as astral travel etc.

 

Some begin to study the texts closely and are lost in level this and level that - completely clueless banter that means nothing to anyone that has achieved any of the dozen or so levels that are well beyond words. One then has to go backwards and ask - "what do you mean" to someone who has no idea what they mean.

 

This is the illusion becoming the Seeker - it writes books and does lectures and wants to eventually wake up - so it says.

----

 

Very few make it past this - at this point they don't like the looks of the road ahead - it is not perfect and does not have all the pretty lotus flowers and hallmarks of Enlightenment that (they would not recognize if they were hit over the head with them) they are already above.

 

The entire direction is one of No-effort. It is one of No-willfulness. It is one of Not-knowing. It is one of Falling-into-a-bottomless-pit and understanding that a bottomless pit has no bottom - one does not need to grab onto the sides for fear of falling and hitting a bottom. You are in the embrace of Presence - Divine Natural Essence - you always have been.

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I think I got lucky with teachers - my first teacher said not to believe anything he said and to test it for ourselves.

 

That if any of us thought what he was saying was bullshit - to move on and find another teacher.

 

That if we learned the basics and practiced them everyday - all else would unfold for us on our own and we would not need a teacher - that all the answers were within us and all of the practices that we needed would unfold.

 

I was barely with that teacher for any length of time but this set me on a road as solid and any I could hope for.

--

 

Most of my practice then was on my own with some help in Hatha for a few weeks at UC Berkeley - just simple basic stuff though i could manage just about any pose so i did some fairly advanced stuff  - but head stands and back arch stuff is not particularly difficult. I was never interested in the super tough stuff - it was not necessary for anything important.

---

 

At a certain point I met a teacher that could teach me all about the clairvoyance I had and other siddhis - I spent quite a few years playing with all sorts of things.

 

---

 

Then at the time my son was concieved I got back into meditation for no other reason than to clarify myself so that I could speak with the being about to be born. I already knew what to do and I meditated 3-6 hours a day for 6 months and then again after a small break about 3-8 hours a day for well near two years. And low and behold - "i" started to fall away.

 

---

 

It has been around 5 years since the Awakening - I have never done really intensive engineering or intense local breathing or intense tense things in practice. I have never cared about what level I was at or going to or if I was certified or had completed a system or could prove my abilities. I was certainly careful to examine what I was seeing in what was happening - and I was on such constant vigil not to lose myself to fascination that I not infrequently swept over some important milestones as though I just changed underwear.

 

I am a householder with a young son of 9. This keeps me seeing what is still lingering in me - the grooves that are still in my body that still act as troughs for heightened energetic times - even though they do not have identification holding me in them - they are still there for seconds or a minute.

 

Family dynamics changed completely at Awakening and my life changed - but it is also a testimony to the fact that wherever one finds oneself in Awakening - it is at the right time and the whole of the universe is with the Presence.

 

--

 

There is no magic formula or way to breath or special practice - some of you will not "get" a clue to this seeker thing.

I could sit in lotus and say "life is like a waterfall" and you may slap me on the face and say "I did not climb the mountain to hear you say "life is like a fucking waterfall!" to which I would say "life is not like a waterfall".

 

--

 

Pointers will only work if one has ears to hear and eyes to see - breathing does not get you past your blinders - "perfect practice" does not either. But there are allot of nice old sages who have pretty well spelled it out a few thousand times.

Patience and practice - simple practice - no forcing or prying - just the opposite.

 

--

 

If you find your path - let the days become years and the years become decades - they will come and go as one day.

Edited by Spotless
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There are times in which reading is helpful and when putting the books down is helpful.

Cultivation is all over the board - it is not like a recipe for a cupcake.

 

One of the problems that all of the real teachings is facing is that the audience is in trance. A sleep walking trance and the communication is trying to get through this, in this and somehow jiggle the various energetic structures that hold the audience in this trance sleep state.

 

It is also unfortunate that we have put the cart before the horse: we should move immediately to the subject of Awakening.

In many cases Awakening is the definition of Enlightenment - after this is ever Enlightening - or in some schools Full Enlightenment has other key milestones.

 

But once teachers begin the other key milestone parts - the sleeping tranced masses are entirely enthralled with the most Perfect Perfections that can be Perfectly Achieved be Perfected Masters within the Most Perfected traditions by Perfect people who will spell it out in a Perfected cupcake recipe.

 

There are tons of examples of seekers seeking Enlightenment / Awakening and finding it. In fact it is nearly the norm - many great sages and teachers speak of it in their own experiences. But many many have found it without seeking it. Yet not one who was seeking it found what they were looking for - 1. the seeker dies upon Awakening. 2. The Presence that is now the "seekers" center

and free of the veil of trance and noise and confusion is still in some residual - and in an Amazing but very very different awareness than anything the seeker was expecting or conditioned for.

 

Getting to Awakening is many times easier if the seeker is not too far merged in the books and methods and lectures and quotes of the Perfect Perfection of Perfected Perfect People. The brass tax (the good stuff) is in some pretty simple stuff - but this does not sell well and it should. Trance sleep makes bright colors and loud noises necessary to sell things - unfortunately this is not the way to Awaken.

 

In addition to "bright colors and loud noises" traditions use paradox and mind twisters to force some modicum of concentration on the sleepers in order to wrangle them from Trance Mind and perk up some Presence to the subject matter at hand. And while siddhis ("special abilities") are not to be sought after - these "bright" colors are attention grabbers and everyone whispers if not shouts about them. They are so misunderstood and pitifully bandied about by the sleepers and sleeping seekers and general Masters and priests that Awakening has completely taken a back seat.

 

Awakening is not sooooo difficult - but it is - and many "successful seeker's" have simply given up on their trance sleep noise blindness and laid on a rock and required a God to either bring them to Enlightenment / Awakening or they will die from exposure waiting because they will no longer wallow in the obscurance of Divine Natural Essence. And in many accounts a "God" or simply that level of offering oneself to Awakening is what it took - and they Awakened.

 

In other cases - particularly in Zen - the general reference is to something that snapped them out of the trance sleep and they Awoke.

 

It is nearly impossible to read read read about this stuff and for the reading not to become a hindrance in itself. It always sets the stage for Perfect Perfection thinking and removes the simple strength in simple means. Water is stronger than rock - but all we want is diamonds.

 

In most cases Awakening is achieved through exhaustion - we learn the basics and read read read read read read read read read and then we engineer this and that and completely loose ourselves in any siddhis that do finally arrive and then tire of them or die in allegiance to them but if we are truly seekers than at some point we lie on that "imaginary rock" and drop all our well read noise in the dirt and just fall into stillness and Awaken.

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Hi Spotless,

 

I just came back from a Vipassana meditation center (Goenka's traditon).

In case you don't know, the technique that they teach is one of being aware of the sensations on/in the body. To achieve higher levels of concentration they start their courses with anapana (breath awareness) meditation. The techniques are very simple.

 

During the time there, I asked the teacher a question (paraphrasing and expanding on the details of my practice -- perhaps you have some comments):

 

 

My current technique of meditation has been to concentrate on the breath, sometimes guiding it gently, with the goal to become just aware of it as an observer. Usually, soon after there would be a sensation on the surface of the forehead around the third eye, and lately there would be a sensation at the solar plexus or spread around the chest. The awareness is then placed on both those areas and the breath. With time the awareness would deepen and encompass other parts of the body. What are your thoughts on practising in such manner?

 

----

 

In Vipassana meditation no point (of the body) should be given more importance that others. The third eye and the solar plexus are powerful points. It is dangerous to focus on them -- that might bring up too much sankaras (I understand those as past traumas, conditioning, cravings and aversions), too much to deal with; we want to bring up only as much sankaras that we can deal with. It might stop you from practising.

 

What are your thoughts on the teachers answer (the question is open ended on purpose, perhaps you will address what dantiens are, give warnings, ask questions)?

 

Thank you.

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Hi Spotless,

 

I just came back from a Vipassana meditation center (Goenka's traditon).

In case you don't know, the technique that they teach is one of being aware of the sensations on/in the body. To achieve higher levels of concentration they start their courses with anapana (breath awareness) meditation. The techniques are very simple.

 

During the time there, I asked the teacher a question (paraphrasing and expanding on the details of my practice -- perhaps you have some comments):

 

My current technique of meditation has been to concentrate on the breath, sometimes guiding it gently, with the goal to become just aware of it as an observer. Usually, soon after there would be a sensation on the surface of the forehead around the third eye, and lately there would be a sensation at the solar plexus or spread around the chest. The awareness is then placed on both those areas and the breath. With time the awareness would deepen and encompass other parts of the body. What are your thoughts on practising in such manner?

 

----

Answer from teacher:

 

"In Vipassana meditation no point (of the body) should be given more importance that others. The third eye and the solar plexus are powerful points. It is dangerous to focus on them -- that might bring up too much sankaras (I understand those as past traumas, conditioning, cravings and aversions), too much to deal with; we want to bring up only as much sankaras that we can deal with. It might stop you from practicing"

 

What are your thoughts on the teachers answer (the question is open ended on purpose, perhaps you will address what dantiens are, give warnings, ask questions)?

 

Thank you

 

End Quote

 

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I remember a simple particular exercise in Qi Gong that I had an energetic problem with - it made me short of breath and hot and yet the practice was simple. I asked the Master what the form was for and his iPhone translator said Sciatica. I had Sciatica at the time.

 

We should generally not personalize our practice - it invariably leads to imbalance. In the case above if I had done what practices I liked I definitely would have dropped this one - it was stupidly simple and bothered me - so why not just drop it?

 

A tree does not just grow big branches and a thick rich vibrant core - it needs roots and strong supporting layers and protective skin and bark.

 

You are IN your karmic frequencies - your self limiting tuning fork - you can only play in a few frequencies IN this limiting self confinement. Cultivation does not focus on desires - that is engineering - willfulness and grasping. It is not possible to engineer without the influence of that which you are contained by - meaning the containment of your karmic frequencies.

 

Cultivation is a generalized approach to ungluing yourself from your held constraints - grasping. A generalized approach has great wisdom - it is the methodless method. Meditation "knows" like water where it is to go and it works its wonders perfectly. It's only constraint is the patience and willfulness of the cultivator - its water grows the patience and stills the willfulness.

 

Willfulness constricts and directs in accordance with the karmic frequencies - in other words the directing will always be in accordance with the "identified" persons concepts and desires and beliefs and constraints and positions/one sided ness.

 

Willfulness has a plan of action and it is always like a Monsanto solution - too rich in one area and nothing in another - it's not wholistic, not organic.

 

Let the water do its wonders and wonder at the marvels that will unfold - expect nothing - Divine Natural Essence is way beyond anything one could expect - back off from controlling - a balanced practice will erode your fear, your positions, your grasping and willfulness and Presence will arise with deafening stillness In awarenes.

 

As you flower do not fall in love with your fragrance or your colors - if you find non-attachment - time ends - space ends - impermanence ends.

 

In the type of meditation you have described the attention rests primarily in the center of the head. With breathing into the abdomen - in good posture and regular practice all else will arise. Many subtle changes are taking place - they will come into your awareness like a very slight change in humidity or more oxygen in the air - nearly imperceptible. Some changes will be very obvious - changes in your behavior that have simply begun with no effort.

 

Gradually the various centers and conduits will appear - various channels - these will expand and eventually merge. In the third eye area a tunnel will appear with moving sides - simply be with this and enjoy as it unfolds. Many abilities will arise without you necessarily being aware of it at the time. These changes often seep into your aware makeup.

Edited by Spotless
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