Is enlightenment elitist?

The concept of the chakras, or energy wheels within the body, is common to both Chinese and Indo-Tibetan subtle body theoretical frameworks. The Chinese describe the energy as moving in circular patterns in the body. The Indo-Tibetan systems describe a central channel with a solar and lunar set of parallel meridians, which must be united to fully open the central channel. When these energies are integrated, there is said to be realization. Similarly, the kundalini theory describes the energy as traveling from the base of the spine to the top of the head.

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The nihuan point, which corresponds with the pineal gland, represents the third, or wisdom eye. The human body is actually a universe which can be described in alchemical terms as "as above, so below" which sees the human body as both the microcosm of the multiverse and the fundamental source of the design of the cosmos.

According to Taoist alchemical theory, the pineal gland of the enlightened adept becomes equivalent to the North Star because everything between heaven and earth has become one being. The mind and body of the adept is identical to the mind and body of the universe simultaneously. This idea that the inner dimensions are actually more real than our conventional third-dimensional reality is based upon the ability of advanced practitioners who travel between inner worlds. The other basic idea is that the reproductive energy of the lower body can be taken to the head to activate the brain and increase the luminosity of the mind. 

Chinese alchemy is based on the idea that aging can be dramatically reduced if the original pre-birth energy of the body is restarted by natural breathing practices. The basis of Taoism is that embryonic breathing results in a kundalini activation, the Golden Flower, or the union of the individual with heaven and earth, the higher and lower dimensions of reality being unified into a single whole. This single whole is the Tao or universal void. 

The goal of meditation is for the individual to open the third eye by systematically cultivating the mind and body, using variations of heat yoga. All of these alchemical systems describe the human body as a crucible, which can be heated by specific practices, both internal and external, which greatly increase the overall luminosity of the mind/body continuum.

Is enlightenment elitist? To get good at something one must study and practice. There is more access to information about the various practices used to achieve enlightenment through the globalization of our information systems. The nirvana meme has gone into the advertising industry, as well as commercial sports, which use Zen concepts like the Zone or Peak Performance to enhance an athlete's psychological condition. The end result is that a spiritual, non-religious dimension is recognized in Western science as normal. What do you think?

 

 

Lucid Dreaming: Part 1

The art of dreaming represents a fundamental difference between the modern scientific understanding of dreams and the hunter-gatherer archaic description of reality. In the latter it is believed that dreams can be consciously controlled and used to enhance the well-being of the practitioner and the tribe. Dreams are an important source of information, which is independent of the sequential time framework of consensus reality. The shamanic belief is that dreams are actually the source of waking consciousness, and that one dream can completely alter the entire life of an individual. Even in the Western experience, many creative and scientific discoveries have originated from the world of dreams.

Reality can be divided into waking, dreaming and sleeping states. The concept of meditation is that these three levels can be permanently unified by the breathing pattern at the deepest level of sleep, which is when the physical body is the most rejuvenated by the pre-birth energy system.

Buddhism has a very strong component of dream work, as in the following description of dream yoga:

The Middle Way view provides the philosophical framework of the contemplative practice of dream yoga. In a nonlucid dream—in which there is no recognition that one is dreaming—all objective phenomena seem to exist by and of themselves. They, like one’s own personal self in a dream, seem to be real. But upon awakening, one recognizes that neither one’s own mind nor any person or situation encountered in the dream had any such independent existence. This is equally true during the waking state, and in the daytime practice of dream yoga one maintains this awareness as constantly as possible. Everything experienced throughout the day—contrary to appearances—arises in relation to one’s perceptions and conceptions. Every person encountered is perceived in relation to one’s own sensory and conceptual faculties. Never does one encounter the radically and absolutely “other,” for apprehension of the other is always dependent upon one’s own subjective perspective. Thus, upon fathoming the emptiness of inherent existence of all waking phenomena, one maintains throughout the day a sense of the dreamlike quality of all events, recognizing the profoundly intersubjective nature of all relationships with other beings and the environment.
- B. Alan Wallace, Contemplative Science

In shamanic cultures, it is believed that dreaming presents an opportunity to avoid misfortune in waking life, if fears and obstacles are successfully confronted and transcended in the dreamworld. Even though many scientists solve significant theoretical problems using dream information, our culture has only just begun to understand and investigate the potential of dream practices, including lucid dreaming, to enhance creative problem solving. Artists and poets and writers are clearly dependent upon dream information from the unconscious, yet very few scientists are using hypnosis or self-suggestion to achieve greater clarity in dreams.

The Eight Yoga of Naropa: Sexual Yoga with a Consort

There is a saying in the mahamudra system of meditation, based on the Six Yogas of Naropa, which goes, "There can be no mahamudra or nirvana without karmamudra or sexual yoga.” According to Himalayan meditation theory, sexual yoga is the central completion stage practice that results in nirvana, or the union of the Three Bodies. Both the Chinese and Tibetan civilizations have been heavily influenced by individuals who achieved whole-brain activation through the use of sexual yoga practices. These individuals include the Yellow Emperor, Lao Tzu, and Padmasambhava. Padmasambhava studied with Sri Simha on Wu Tai Shan in China, as well as with Indian masters.

According to the great historian of religion, Mircea Eliade, tantric theory was originally described in India as the “Chinese method.” Thomas Cleary felt that the descriptions of Padmasambhava practicing sexual yoga for longevity in caves throughout scholars have ignored the emphasis on sexual yoga as the completion stage of meditation in Himalayan yoga lineages. Jung pointed out that the majority of Asian and hermetic art points to the union of opposites, resulting in non-duality. He called this "the actualization of the self after the conscious and unconscious minds have united." However, he had no idea that the goal of sexual yoga is to activate the kundalini through the union of gross, subtle, and void levels of consciousness. This is the basis of both Western alchemy and Eastern medical science. Chinese Internal Alchemy is based on the idea that the lifespan of an individual can be greatly extended through the successful practice of sexual yoga.

As Joseph Campbell tells us:
In the Buddhists lamaseries of Tibet...the holy images and banners show the various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas joined with their Shaktis in embrace, in the yogic posture known as Yab-Yum, "Father-Mother." And the great prayer of the old prayer wheels of Tibet, OM mani padme HUM, "the jewel (mani) in the lotus (padme)," signifies, on one level: the immanence of nirvana (the jewel) in (samsara the lotus); another: the arrival of the mind (the jewel) in nirvana (the lotus); but also, as in the icon of the male and female joined: the lingam in the yoni. “Buddhatvam yosidyonisamsritam,” states a late Buddhist aphorism: "Buddhahood abides in the female organ."
Joseph Campbell, Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God

The Fifth Yoga of Naropa: Yoga of Death

The bardo is the after-death state. The idea of bardo yoga is that success in this yoga permits the practitioner to determine their after-death destiny, including the option of being reborn in a particular environment in a human form. Tibetan yoga emphasizes practices that allow the practitioner to prepare himself for the often-terrifying experiences of death. It is believed that if the yogi misses his opportunity for union with the clear light because of fear, he will then experience a nightmare, which will project him into an uncontrolled, possibly negative rebirth unless he can successfully navigate the apparitions, realizing that they are merely mental projections.

The goal of all non-theistic meditation traditions is for the individual to consciously dissolve the indestructible or immortal drop into emptiness, which is also the Spiritual Embryo of Chinese medicine or being returned to the void. The Six Yogas of Naropa represent a number of techniques that can be used to achieve the integration of the three bodies consciously during the death experience. As the physical body drops away, there is a gap of perception, which if consciously observed, results in the union of the sambhogakaya and dharmakaya bodies. One of the major reasons for the practice of dream yoga is that the state of awareness of lucid dreaming, in which the consciousness realizes it is dreaming while dreaming, is considered an important prerequisite for an individual to consciously observe the process of dying without fear and distorted perception.

Half of the Six Yogas are for practitioners who are living, while the other half are for practitioners during the process of death. As the Dalai Lama says, Tibetans believe that at the time of death the only thing one has to rely on is the depth of one’s meditation and spiritual practice.

Inner Illumination

The basic idea here is that a normal human being is like a 60 watt light bulb. For an enlightened human being, the frequency of the energy of the body has been greatly increased, so it's as if the person has been turned into a 300 watt light bulb. There is a tremendous amount of energy stored within the pre-birth energy body system. The starting point of the body in particular contains a vast reservoir of stored energy that can be released by correct practice, including breathing exercises, specific meditation movements, special diet, acupuncture, and herbs. The concept is based on recreating the breathing pattern that you had when you were inside your mother, with the goal of recreating conception within yourself, which is the union of yin and yang. That results in inner illumination, where you are using the starting point of the body to fully activate the brain and to open the third eye, or mind's eye, and in turn unites the individual mind with the mind of the universe - that's the realization of the Tao, or shen-ming, which is inner illumination.