Transcript 7 Roads to Meditation - Vision: To inspire and bring

7 Roads to Meditation
Bill Bodri
www.meditationexpert.com
[email protected]
718-539-2811
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Why Meditate?
• Reasons
– Health
– Longevity
– Spiritual Progress
– Calm Your Mind - Defuse Stress - Learn to Relax
– Cultivate Virtue and Purity
– Facilitates Changing Your Behavior
• How
– Cross legs in a quiet place (tune the body)
– Cover knees with towel and avoid drafts
– Relaxed but straight, head up
• When
– The best time is whenever you can (like exercise -- “there is no best one …
the one you bother to do is best”)
– 20, 40, 60 minutes once or twice a day
– Quiet time (morning/night), before eating or >1.5 hours later
The Purpose of Meditation
• Buddhism: emptiness, enlightenment
• Judaism: ayin (nothingness) - the annihilation of thought
• Christianity: selflessness/nonego (give up your personal thoughts
to be one with the Father)
• Islam: seeing God’s face
• Confucianism: rest in the highest virtue
• Zen: original nature
• Yoga: sense withdrawal and then pacification of thought, samadhi
• Taoism: Tao
• Final goal: emptiness, enlightenment, self-realization, Buddhahood,
become an Immortal, ...
BASIC METHOD(s)
Sit, cross your legs, relax your body, forget
your body, watch your thoughts in a detached
mode, they die down => mental quiet ==> find
the watcher/ultimate source of the quiet
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“Adding methods” - Tibetan ceremonies
“Subtraction methods” - letting go, neti neti
One-pointed Concentration - visualizations
Mantra - Tire/busy the mind
Breathing - breathing and thoughts are linked
Pacification methods - relaxing, tantra
Etc. (they all rely on the principles of cessation and
contemplation, or samadhi and prajna wisdom)
Shakyamuni Buddha said:
Do not believe something solely on the strength of traditions,
even if those customs or traditions have been held in honor
and in many places for many generations. Don't believe
anything simply because many people say it is so either.
Furthermore, do not believe something just because it was
maintained by ancient sagas. Do not believe that which you
have imagined yourself either, thinking a god has inspired you.
Believe nothing which depends only on the authority of your
teachers or of priests. Rather, test everything and after
investigation, believe that which you yourself have tested and
found reasonable and true, and which is good for you and
others. Prove things through your personal experience.
Topics
The 5 Stages of the Spiritual Path
• Meditation 1 – Seeing the light
Tao School Basics: jing-chi-shen transformations
• Meditation 2 – Skeleton meditation
The Time Sequences of the Spiritual Path and Physical Transformations
• Cultivation Method 3 – 9-bottled wind
Esoteric school and Wu Liu methods: all based on breathing
• Meditation 4 -- Mantra
• Meditation 5 – Meditations for Cancer and High Blood Pressure
Mozart effect, Healing, Chi and Consciousness are linked ...
• Meditation 6 – Cessation-contemplation practice in Confucianism,
Vipassana, Now!, Sandhinirmocana jing
Various stages of samadhi
• Meditation 7 - Dream Yoga
• Meditation 8 – Sexual cultivation
Big cheats: positive thinking, visualization, naturalistic being in the moment
The 5 Stages of the Spiritual Path
• 1) The Stage of Wisdom and Merit Accumulation (Study and Virtue)
• 2) The Stage of Preparatory Practice, Progressive Practice, Evolutionary
Yoga, Intensified Preparatory Practices, Earnest Endeavor
–
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Warming
Peak
Forbearance
Highest Worldly Dharma
Introduction - transition - attainment - perfection
• 3) The Stage of Seeing the Tao, Direct Vision, Clear Light, 10,000 miles of
Empty Sky, Selflessness, Realizing Your Original Nature, Illuminate Your
Bright Virtue, See God’s face, ...
• 4) The Stage of True Cultivation Practice (realize the emptiness of the self,
now realize the emptiness of phenomena, dissolve away or “purify” habitual
energy streams)
• 5) The Stage of Complete Enlightenment, No More Learning,
Buddhahood
Meditation - Seeing the Light
• Tibetan monks usually must wait 20 years before being introduced to this
practice
• Mahakasyapa on “Chicken Foot” Mountain practices it inside a cave
• Seeing the Light - We’re not talking about a physical light you see with
your eyes. Don’t try to visualize anything, you just realize the light that’s
everywhere which is the light of awareness (the mind).
• Mother light versus child light -- awareness “clear light”
• Close your eyes and let your mind and body merge with whatever light
there is (“I am the light, the light is me,” “God is light”). Merge with the
light (it has no color or form) and then forget your body and self.
• Forget the knower, knowing, and object - Merge with the light you realize light has no boundaries and extends everywhere
• Alternative: Vairocana Great Sun Buddha “Ohm Ah Bee Lah Hung! Cht!”
Practice from visualizing that you are a bright sun, and then you become
light everywhere
Tao School Basics
Jing – generative force, semen, seminal energy, ching, ojas,
hormones, bindus, bodhicitta, water element, body
Chi – life force, qi, prana, ether, biocosmic energy, wind
element, mind, soul
Shen – spirit, tejas, no-thought, light (emptiness)
----------------------------------------------------
The Process Behind All True Spiritual Cultivation
Transform your jing into chi
Transform your chi into shen
Transform your shen into emptiness
Return emptiness to the Tao
Two Sets of Basic Principles
• When your jing becomes full
you won’t think of sex
• When your chi becomes full
you won’t think of eating
• When your shen is full you
won’t feel like sleeping
• If you don’t accumulate your
jing, you will never experience
the state of physical bliss
• If you don’t accumulate your
chi, you will never experience
the stage of internal light
• If you don’t accumulate your
shen, you will never experience
the state of no-thought
White Skeleton Meditation
•
•
•
•
Start with your left big toe
Give away your flesh joyfully to the ghosts and spirits
Visualize that you are just a shiny, dazzling white (silver) skeleton
Visualize that your bones becoming dust and then emptiness -- then
forget your body & abandon all ideas of a having body or form
(mentally let go of everything)
• Sexual desire grows strong with this practice … you’ll become
extremely flexible ... You’ll become able to see other people’s bones
and inside their body … superpowers will arise ... You’ll be able to
initially enter samadhi
• Sickness focus - Manjushri 7th-8th lower vertebrae method
• Chiropractors and bodyworkers should use this
The Time Sequences of the
Spiritual Path
“Building” or “Laying
the Foundation”
Initial stage of Jing 
Chi
10 Months
“Pregnancy” (embryo)
Finalize Jing  Chi
Prelim. Chi  Shen
3 Years
“Suckling” or “Nursing Final. Chi  Shen
the Baby”
Init. Shen  Emptiness
100 Days
 3 Months
 Thailand
 Yoga practice
 Tibetan Retreats
 Yin/Yang shen
9 Years
“Facing the Wall”
Shen  Emptiness
Init. Emptiness  Tao
Breaking Emptiness
and Returning to the
Tao
Achieve a State of
Neither Existence or
Non-Existence
 Zen Master Bodhidharma
Indeterminate
Advanced Physical
Transformations
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After 1 year - chi
After 2 years - blood
After 3 years - mai (energy meridians, vessels)
After 4 years - flesh
After 5 years - bone marrow (white)
After 6 years - sinews and tendons
After 7 years - bones
After 8 years - hair (leave behind)
After 9 years - entire body form/shape
“9-Bottled Wind” Practice
3 X 3 … 3 sets of 3 repetitions (left, right, center)
Draw in as much air as possible,
as slowly as possible,
into your lungs as deep as possible,
hold for as long as possible using as few muscles
as possible
exhale as quickly as possible.
Cultivating the 5 Elements
Earth
Water
Wind/Air/Wood
Fire
Space/Metal
Bones, Teeth, Nails, Muscles
Blood, Hormones, Lymph
Breath
Bodily Warmth, Kundalini
Interstitial Places, Joints
The Most Common Sequence of the Path
Wind (Water) -> Fire -> Earth -> Space
Air + Oil (hormones/mai)
Easiest, Chi/Consciousness
Kundalini
Skeleton
Entire Body
Cultivating the 5 Elements
Earth
Water
Wind/Air/Wood
Fire
Space/Metal
Bones, Teeth, Nails, Muscles
Blood, Hormones, Lymph
Breath
Bodily Warmth, Kundalini
Interstitial Places, Joints
The Most Common Sequence of the Path
Wind (Water) -> Fire -> Earth -> Space
Air + Oil (hormones/mai)
Easiest, Chi/Consciousness
Kundalini
Skeleton
Entire Body
Detoxifying Your Body for the Spiritual Path
• Nattokinase (Allergy Research) - opens up arteries and dissolves blood clots
• GSH250 (Douglas labs) or Recancostat (Tyler Labs) - detoxify toxic chemicals
(liver) with glutathione, NAC, alpha lipoic acid
• Natures Pure Body (Pure Body Institute) - whole body detoxification
• Liver Flush and Kidney Flush (Richard Schulze American Botanical Pharmacy)
www.800herbdoc.com
• “Supernutrition” Multi Blend - best multivitamin/mineral in USA
• Chiropractic adjustments
• Breathing practices - 9 Bottled wind
• Eliminate food allergies - Immuno Labs test (see ebook coupon)
• Immune26 immune booster - If age> 50, 800-557-8477 (Bodri #512372)
• HOLOSYNC meditation tapes (see products section of my website)
• Order my Detox Your Body ebook at www.meditationexpert.com
Various Mantra You Can Use
for Cultivation
Amitofo:
Namo Amitofo
Zhunti:
Namo Sadoh Nah
Samyak Sampoh Doh
Jeezuh Nah, Dazah Toh
Ohm, Zurleee, Julee, Zhunti, Soha
Lotus, Mahagala, ...
Avalokitesvara:
Ohm Man Bei Me Hon!
Vairocana:
Ohm Ah Bee Lah Hung Chit
Proven Effects of Meditation
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Lowers blood pressure
Increases serum DHEA
Reduces serum cortisol
Reduces pulse rate
Increases serum total protein
Quiets the mind - reduces stress
Chinese Medicine: “the 100 diseases start
with wind”
Ainslie Meares and Cancer
• Treated 73 patients with advanced cancer who attended at
least 20 sessions of intensive meditation
• Found that meditation reduces anxiety, depression and pain
• Tumor growth inhibited in 10% of cases
• Tumor regression in 10% of cases - 3 attributes
– their meditation was profound and prolonged
– little or no conscious activity during meditation
– they carried the meditation into their daily lives
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Survival longer than expected
Quality of life improved in 50% of cases
Meditation facilitated death with dignity in 90% of cases
Meares encouraged “effortless stilling of the mind” and
discouraged mantra, active visualization, breathing
methods
Meditation for Healing
CANCER
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Visualize giving away your dirty flesh/meat to all
beings at and then you become a skeleton which
then transforms into emptiness
Visualize your body burns away or is burned by
light and you become light only (high wisdom
people go directly to emptiness/light)
Vairocana + Sun + light method … just get to
emptiness or light (not in the shape of the body)
Exhale visualizing the dirty things/illness leaving
your body
Meares in Australia (10%) - emptiness method best
The Power of Emptiness can destroy all the bad
things and set up the new things; Emptiness method
is Great vehicle and visualization/other methods
small vehicle
Diet, Supplements, Detox
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
•
•
•
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Use the skeleton method, visualize you become a
skeleton, then you imagine taking your skull, turning it
upside down and putting it on your waist
Visualize skeleton method but focus on your big toes
Visualize a small fire flame or small sun in the center
of the bottom of your feet
In this case, visualize the emptiness going down (most
people visualize emptiness proceeding upwards)
•
Breathing begins after you are born, so breathing
methods concentrate on post natal phenomena;
skeleton method -> no breathing anymore; One not
better than another, just use all the methods combined;
ordinary people differ from advanced practitioners
•
Supplements, destress, meditation, diet
Meditation for Healing
PAIN
•
•
Arthritis - water and wind elements; fasting, medicines and breathing (takes time)
Chant a mantra or be mindful of Buddha to such a degree of one-pointedness that you forget about the
existence of your body (higher method), but you also need to do fasting
HEADACHE
•
•
You need to know the source of the problem because there are many causes
General method - visualize your head is not there... non-existent (ex. Generals in war forget the pain);
for this to work you need great mind power (highest method the thought is not there)
GRIEF and WORRY
•
•
Empty your thoughts to get mental relief by entering a state of no-thought, or you try to breathe out or
do exercise or sing to put your attention elsewhere
Methods to shift attention are not the ultimate solution (doctors will always have business)
STRESS
•
Zen - just know it is there, that’s the highest method
The “Mozart Effect”
• 1996 Study College Entrance Exam - if students sing or play an instrument
they score 51 points higher on Verbal and 39 points higher in Math
• Univ. of CA study - listen to Mozart for 10 minutes before have higher SAT
score
• Shell, IBM, Dupont, universities use music to cut learning time in half
• Univ. of WA study - listening to light classical music for 90 minutes,
students catch 21% more copywriting errors
• Baltimore hospital study - heart patients get as much benefit from 30
minutes of classical music and 10 mg of Valium
• CA State University study - migraine sufferers were trained to use imagery,
music and relaxation techniques to reduce the frequency, intensity and
duration of their headaches
Chi and Consciousness are Linked
•
Chi and consciousness are linked
– Zen Master Nan Huai-Chin
•
Consciousnesses are said to “ride” on winds [various types of chi, or prana] in the same
manner that a horseman rides his mount; by travelling on the winds, consciousnesses are
able to leave their bases in the sense-powers (located in the eye, ear, and so forth) to
contact their objects. Because minds are inoperative without winds to provide a medium
for their movement, and because winds lack specific direction without minds, minds are
likened to cripples with sights and winds to blind men with legs; the lame climb on the
backs of the blind and together they can move about. Because the winds are the medium
for the operation of minds, fluctuation in the winds necessarily affects consciousness,
and thus it is crucial for tantric yogis who wish to yoke consciousness to gain control
over the movement of winds. Tantric yogics engage in a variety of practices to bring
about a concentration of the winds, for concentration of the winds leads to concentration
of consciousness.
– Highest Yoga Tantra, Daniel Cozort
Chi and Consciousness are Linked
•
•
Mind and prana are mixed like milk and water. Both of them are equal in their activities. Where
there is pranic movement or activity there is mind (consciousness). Where there is consciousness
there is prana.
When prana moves, chitta (the mental force) moves. When prana is without movement, chitta is
without movement. By this (steadiness of prana) the yogis attains steadiness and should thus restrain
the vayu (air).
–
•
The mind—the king—surrounded by a retinue of mindfulness, meditative stabilization, and so forth
is considered as being mounted on the horse of vitality (prana). When the horse of vitality [wind] is
held, the mind—the king—as well as the retinue will definitely be held. For another [text] says,
‘Vitality [wind] is to be stopped. When it is stopped, one’s mind as well as mindfulness, intellect,
mental engagement, and so forth will definitely be held.’
–
•
Hatha Yoga Pradipika: Light on Hatha Yoga, Swami Muktibodhananda Saraswati
The Yoga of Tibet, Tsong-Ka-Pa, trans. Jeffrey Hopkins
He who has power over his mind can also control prana. [For] the two causes that activate the mind
are prana [respiration] and the sources of karma [vasanas, latent tendencies.]
–
The Yoga of Light, Hans-Ulich Rieker
Cessation-Contemplation Practice
• Shamatha-vipashyana, Chih-guan, Confucian cultivation, Vipassana,
Tiendai, Greater and Lesser Contemplation, Sandhinirmocana Sutra,
Christian contemplation, Benjamin Franklin, Liao Fan, self-awareness,
Kabbalah, Gurdjieff self-remembering
• Step 1: Sit, relax your body and respiration, tune your physical nature,
physiological adjustments. Start to watch your thoughts as if you were
a 3rd person observer.
• Step 2: You reach a stage where you can start to clearly see each
thought that appears in the mind, and can distinguish the beginning
and ending of thoughts. You start to notice a gap of clear immediate
presence of mind.
• Step 3: You realize that thoughts don’t stay -- “observing birth and
death” -- and that the never ending stream of arising is the “realm of
birth and death.”If you remain attached to this realm you can never
achieve liberation. Observe this stream and you will gradually learn how
to detach from it. In contemplating the mean between stillness and
activity, you will arrive at the source. Through inner watching … your
stream of consciousness becomes interrupted. Your clarity increases and
peace and calm increase. This is CONTEMPLATION.
• Step 4: You’ll start to notice a momentary gap of silence between
thoughts - the practice of silent watching will interrupt the stream of
mentation like a “fragrant elephant.” This mental silence will open up
into a clear, lucid, open awareness. This is CESSATION.
• Step 5: Carry over this state of watching into all your activities.
Thoughts will die down, radiant awareness will expand, and you’ll
naturally enter into samadhi. KEEP SHINING AWARENESS ON
CESSATION TO ARRIVE AT DHYANA-SAMADHI.
• NOW! If your vital energy doesn’t move, Zen practice is “dead tree
Zen” - you must know the joyful side of existence
The Three Realms and Samadhi
Formless Realm
Samadhi of neither thought nor
no-thought
Samadhi of nothingness
Samadhi of infinite consciousness
Samadhi of infinite space
Form Realm
Form Realm
Heavenly Beings
4th Dhyana - asmita
3rd Dhyana - ananda
2nd Dhyana - vicara
1st Dhyana - vitarka
Ching-an
Desire Realm
Devas (Heavens)
Asuras
Humans
Animals
Hungry Ghosts – Pretas
Hell beings
Mundane Realms of
Consciousness
Formless Realm Heavenly Beings
Dream Yoga
• People in ancient times used the dream state to cure themselves
• There are 5 Types of dreams in cultivation: (1) sickness, (2) see the future, (3)
past life, (4) deep thinking related, (5) interaction with spiritual beings
• “Du-yin” shadow side of clear consciousness can reach outside the bounds of
space and time -- small psychic abilities -- don’t rely on it for BIG things
• Buddha said people who are enlightened “don’t dream” and Chuang Tzu
mentioned two types of such people: the dullard and sage
• Various cultivation methods focus on dream existence or dream emptiness
• Lucid dreaming - bring your chi to your throat (or into your head - flying in
dreams is when your chi is rising - Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal
Medicine)
• Bring clear awareness into your dream -- recognize that things do not exist in
the way they appear to be --> detachment --> emptiness
• Recognize the dreamlike nature of reality -- all phenomena are a dream or
illusion -- dream state and awakeness are indistinguishable --> relax the mind
• The Diamond Sutra is talking about how the world is like a dream
Sexual Cultivation
• Not a public teaching -- Shakayamuni never taught it -- Nagarjuna and Tsong
Khapa never taught it -- Esoteric school outlawed in China
• Tao school “left door” practices and Tibetan Tantra are the only 2 schools
• The objective is to reach the 1st dhyana (samadhi) -- a stage of Co-emergent
emptiness and bliss
• Principles: Brahmacharya, celibacy, chastity … no ejaculation … joyful play
without desire (emptiness) … not sexual yoga (good for healing) or trying to
spiritualize lust … reach a state where the mind is empty, the body is relaxed so
you can forget the body, you need chi communication
• Men’s barrier is sexual desire, women’s barrier is emotions
• Qualifications: You need merit (king/samadhi or queen/high born) and
cultivation attainment (breathing methods and skeleton method and cessationcontemplation and some dhyana) ... Story of the 6th Dalai Lama
• You don’t try to swap or steal energy from your partner or circulate it -- all those
books and teachers are wrong -- if you want sex then have sex but don’t cheat
yourself/others and try to spiritualize lust - avoid drafts and cold drinks
Taoism says
“Slow foreplay is important every time a man lies
with a woman so that the two spirits will be in
harmony. Only after the spirits are perfectly moved
for a long time should the couple unite. The man
should enter the woman when the penis is soft and
pull it back when it becomes firm and strong. He
should penetrate only without ejaculating. He who
can have intercourse many times in a single day
without letting his essence leak will increase his
lifespan and heal himself of all disease.”
Big Cheats
• Visualizations, Affirmations, Positive thinking, Writing
messages given to heaven, Mantra for things
• My teacher: “If I cannot get them, why cheat people?”
• This is all focusing on Wandering Thoughts
• Success stories are the 1% coincidentals (consistent with
karma/astrological periods)
• To be famous today, write a book difficult to understand
(wow you’re intelligent) or really strange, irregular,
imaginary, mystical
Time + Patience + Method + Disciplined Practice =
Result (Gong-fu) can change your fortune
Matching the Various Stages of the Spiritual
Experience among Cultivation Traditions
5 STAGES
TAOISM
SKANDHAS
Stage of Study
and Merit
Accumulation
Jing -> Chi
Form Skandha
Sensation Skandha
Stage of
Intensified
Preparatory
Practices
Jing -> Chi
Chi ->
Shen
Form Skandha
Sensation Skandha
Consciousness
DHYANA
Psychic
“Flow”
Du-yin
Shadow side
of the 6th
Consciousness
First Six
Ching An
consciousness 1st Dhyana
es
2nd Dhyana
3rd Dhyana
4th Dhyana
TANTRA
Body Isolation
Verbal isolation
Mental Isolation
Illusory Body
Stage of Seeing Shen ->
the Tao
Emptiness
(Hinayana
Enlighten.)
Conception
Skandha
Empty the 6th Seeing the Tao
Consciousness
See the Clear
Light
Stage of True
Cultivation
Practice
Volition Skandha
Consciousness
Skandha
Cultivate the
Cultivating the
7th
Tao
Consciousness
Learner’s Union
Consciousness
Skandha
Transform the
8th Alaya
Consciousness
into the
Tathagata
Storehouse
No More
Learning
Stage of
Perfect
Enlightenment
Return
Emptiness
to the Tao
YOGA
Yama
Niyama
Asana
Pranayama
Pratyahar
Dharani
Dhyana
Samadhi
Vitarka,
vicara, ananda
and asmita
samadhi
www.MeditationExpert.com
BOOKS
Tao and Longevity - Nan Huai-Chin
Twenty-Five Doors to Meditation - William Bodri
Socrates and the Path to Enlightenment - William Bodri
WEBSITE
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Realization; Articles and Products Page
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* The Various Stages of the Spiritual Experience Course and Personal Training
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Source: Bill Bodri 718-539-2811