Energy Work

[Tad]

Hello Jhanananda and others,

Recently I've encountered quite a few articles/opinions online stressing the importance of including some sort of energy work in practice. See the example below.

William Bodri:
"Buddhism today rarely produces enlightened sages as it did in the past because its training curriculum is now inadequate in inner energy work, breathing practices, as well as mindfulness work, visualization efforts, immeasurable meditations, mantrayana, stretching exercises, self-rectification and Buddha vows."

What are your thoughts?

[Cal]

You just die, Tad. Mimic death and observe. Bring your awareness to sensation - but do not grasp… a vibration at the tips of your fingers and toes. A ringing in the ears… a pressure at 7 chakra points. Observe your thoughts as they arise and watch them fall until they are silent… find contentment to reside and feel the sensations expand and pulse - a wave of energy from the groin to the crown. Feel, observe, and reside as this inner energy builds and moves through you…

Tad, it is not actions. Actions will only guide you in your daily life… but a religious experience is just that - an experience. You give into to death and it takes you… we don’t have control, we don’t visualize, we don’t monitor the breath… we just let go…

Once we return again and again to these states of meditative absorption - they permeate and stick with us through our waking moments. Perhaps then you may choose to move your inner energy or visualize. Mindfulness work… as you still your thoughts during the day or observe them as they occur is a process of the destruction of I. To me, the rest of his points are meaningless.

[Tad]

Hi Cal,

thanks for an interesting post and good to see you on the forum. This reminded me of what Jhananda has written somewhere on GWV about living as if we were ready to die. I think you describe really well the attitude toward right meditation. But is there anything you like to incorporate into your daily routine that supports your meditation? For example, many people report that when they do yoga or some sort of regular physical exercise, their quality of meditation improves.

[Cal]

I believe my perspective is slightly different in this regard. Of course we incorporate activities into our daily life that supports a contemplative life. Yoga and exercise will also help with physical ailments that may be a distraction during meditation. But… ultimately it is the experience that we take with us from meditation that shapes our daily routines - we simply return and reside.

[Jhanananda]

You just die, Tad. Mimic death and observe. Bring your awareness to sensation - but do not grasp… a vibration at the tips of your fingers and toes. A ringing in the ears… a pressure at 7 chakra points. Observe your thoughts as they arise and watch them fall until they are silent… find contentment to reside and feel the sensations expand and pulse - a wave of energy from the groin to the crown. Feel, observe, and reside as this inner energy builds and moves through you…

Tad, it is not actions. Actions will only guide you in your daily life… but a religious experience is just that - an experience. You give into to death and it takes you… we don’t have control, we don’t visualize, we don’t monitor the breath… we just let go…

Once we return again and again to these states of meditative absorption - they permeate and stick with us through our waking moments. Perhaps then you may choose to move your inner energy or visualize. Mindfulness work… as you still your thoughts during the day or observe them as they occur is a process of the destruction of I. To me, the rest of his points are meaningless.

Tad, this is very good advice, and a practice methodology that I have engaged in for 50 years.

Cal, I engaged in healing practice in the second year of my contemplative life.  I found it an aid to depth and furthering of my practice.  While I felt "energy" moving in my body while doing this healing work; nonetheless, I observed no radical healing effects, such as the lame walking, the blind seeing, and the dead rising, and I tried all of that. However, I had quite a few people report that they did feel something to feeling better, but no radical healing.

As for the methods you suggested, I am with Tad. I find most of the methods recommended by other teachers and groups are much too cognitive, meanwhile they rarely document the levels of depth in meditation commonly reported here.

[Cal]

You just die, Tad. Mimic death and observe. Bring your awareness to sensation - but do not grasp… a vibration at the tips of your fingers and toes. A ringing in the ears… a pressure at 7 chakra points. Observe your thoughts as they arise and watch them fall until they are silent… find contentment to reside and feel the sensations expand and pulse - a wave of energy from the groin to the crown. Feel, observe, and reside as this inner energy builds and moves through you…

Tad, it is not actions. Actions will only guide you in your daily life… but a religious experience is just that - an experience. You give into to death and it takes you… we don’t have control, we don’t visualize, we don’t monitor the breath… we just let go…

Once we return again and again to these states of meditative absorption - they permeate and stick with us through our waking moments. Perhaps then you may choose to move your inner energy or visualize. Mindfulness work… as you still your thoughts during the day or observe them as they occur is a process of the destruction of I. To me, the rest of his points are meaningless.

Tad, this is very good advice, and a practice methodology that I have engaged in for 50 years.

Cal, I engaged in healing practice in the second year of my contemplative life.  I found it an aid to depth and furthering of my practice.  While I felt "energy" moving in my body while doing this healing work; nonetheless, I observed no radical healing effects, such as the lame walking, the blind seeing, and the dead rising, and I tried all of that. However, I had quite a few people report that they did feel something to feeling better, but no radical healing.

As for the methods you suggested, I am with Tad. I find most of the methods recommended by other teachers and groups are much too cognitive, meanwhile they rarely document the levels of depth in meditation commonly reported here.

I find comfort in both your words and your presence. I also have explored healing, but found the same results as you have. I am able to comfort them - where an ailment of anxiety or loss is prevalent. Yet issues of a physical nature were quite different. I could feel their discomfort but I believe that it was their own intentions and perspective shift that provided a result in relief. They have also conveyed that they felt “something” different, but that was all.

Again Jeff… I want to express my gratitude sincerely in the gift you have provided for all of us here. It is times like these where I must once again take up arms against myself - that I truly find comfort. There is nothing as pure in this life as this space to delve inward. To feel the intent behind the words here is a beacon of light.

[Jhanananda]

I find comfort in both your words and your presence. I also have explored healing, but found the same results as you have. I am able to comfort them - where an ailment of anxiety or loss is prevalent. Yet issues of a physical nature were quite different. I could feel their discomfort but I believe that it was their own intentions and perspective shift that provided a result in relief. They have also conveyed that they felt “something” different, but that was all.

Again Jeff… I want to express my gratitude sincerely in the gift you have provided for all of us here. It is times like these where I must once again take up arms against myself - that I truly find comfort. There is nothing as pure in this life as this space to delve inward. To feel the intent behind the words here is a beacon of light.

Thank you, Cal, for expressing your kind thoughts of support.  I am only too glad to help others find the bliss, joy and ecstasy that I have found in deep meditation, and if we are going to have an ecstatic meditation movement then we are going to need people who have found depth in meditation, like you, to be living examples of the truth of this genuine eightfold path.

[Tad]

Cal,

I also think you are very advanced in your meditative practice. I am not there yet. I still have to many tension blocks that I am working on melting. It is a very slow process and working a full time demanding job does not help...

I also want to second your gratitude toward Jhanananda. He is real life example of our times that has helped me navigate spirituality and hard times.

[KriyaYogi]

I have personally done alot of complimentary training to pure meditation.  Some lineages I've studied with suggest to first do energy work like pranayama and then sit silently after and absorb the energy and let it pull you into meditation.  It's a big topic.  When you say energy work are you referring to something like Pranayama/Breath Awareness or are you referring to something like Reiki/laying on of hands or mantra training?

    I will tell you that when I first became a targeted individual in 2018 it radically shifted the path I had to take to function, I shifted away alot from pure meditation towards protective energy work in order to continue to function and keep my employment.

-David

[Tad]

I think good examples of energy work would be things like Taichi, breathing exercises as well as lifestyle supporting protection and building of energy. From what Ive read Taoists tend to have a lot of knowledge about internal energy

[Jhanananda]

Thank you, Tad for expressing your kind thoughts and support for this work. For me, mantras, and pranayama were way to cognitive to actually gain anything from those practices. We should all note those who promote such practices do not demonstrate they still their mind, or know anything about depth in meditation. Those with a still mind cannot be "targeted" because there is nothing in a still mind to grab ahold of.

[KriyaYogi]

>>>
I think good examples of energy work would be things like Taichi, breathing exercises as well as lifestyle supporting protection and building of energy. From what Ive read Taoists tend to have a lot of knowledge about internal energy
>>>
  I do lots of this kind of stuff...  I do pranayama (Kundalini Yogi).  Really the Kundalini Yoga is the main one for building internal energy for me.  Ormus also builds alot of internal energy for me.  For protection I do Kali mantras.

  When I had a huge Kundalini surge a few weeks ago I think it was actually triggered by Kali mantras.  Kali has given me a Siddhi such that I can feel objects I am thinking of in my hand (Prapti Siddhi).  So I can imagine having a pen or a coin in my hand and then I feel it, the weight of it and the texture of it in my hand.  It's not visible on camera but I can feel them.  I was thinking about superheros and feeling Thor's hammer in my hand, every time I felt the hammer my Kundalini would surge like crazy.  It went on for three hours until I went to my room to lay in the dark to settle the energy.

I also want to say to you Tad that what happened to me came about because I stuck myself out there, trying to protect a very powerful healer who had been jailed, so just keep your head low and it shouldn't happen to you, that's maybe the best advice I can give about protection. 

-David