Wednesday, June 9, 2010

What offerings should a Tibetan Sorceror make? How do you combine tsa lung and Taoist energy practice? Soft focus = union of shamatha and vipassana? Astral projection = phowa? Communicate w/ Nagas etc? Post more on Take Back Your Mind!

A Bunch of questions here.

1)What offerings should a Tibetan Sorcerer Make?

One should make an outer offering to the senses every morning. This is to all beings, and most Tibetan Buddhists make them with 7 ofering bowls and a Lamp. Most Tibetan Ngakpas I know also do some type of Sang or smoke offering outside in the morning to appease the lokapalas, the spirits of place. These are primarily of the lineages of the La, Tsen, and Lhu (Devas, Ghandarvas, and Nagas), which represent generally spirits of sky and heavens, spirits of the surface of the earth (including Yul-Lha and Men-mo which is a very important dichotomy in Tibetan Shamanic work), and the spirits of the seas and underworld. If you are serious Ngakpa you probably also make offerings to the Dharmapalas in the evenings (spirits that are bound to protect Tantrikas and the Dharma).

In addition to these, you may want to make special offerings to specific groups of spirits to request their aid or to make reparations for some harm. NagaSangs are very common for this purpose and there are lots of offerings connected with the practince of making LhuBums and Lhukhangs (naga Vases and Naga Houses), which are intended to generate wealth. These special offerings need to be handled very carefully however. You need not only a firm knowledge of what the class of being likes and dislikes, but also of the Tibetan Lunar Calander where there are special days listed for dealing or avoiding certain classes of spirits.

2)How do I combine Tsa Lung and Taoist Energy practice?

It's really quite easy as they both work on different things using different channels. Tantric energy practice (Tsa-Lung-Tigle, or Prana-Nadi-Bindu in Sanskrit) is focused on gathering all the winds into the central channel and two side channels, creating a massing heat, which melts the seed of bliss in the brow. That seed flows down over the four major chakras and forms the basis for other practices. The point is largely to create very dramatic and overpowering states of realization that can be exploited to attain enlightenment through other practices that use this as a basis, such as Sex Yogas and such.

Taoist energy practices are largely focused on moving energy into and around the DanTien (which is where your inner fire begins in the Tantric practices) but than circulating it around outer channels. Primarily these are the Functioning and Governor channels which run up and down the front and back of the body and constitute what is called the microcosmic energy orbit. The Belt channels which run around the outside of the body are also a major concern, as well as the channels that run through the limbs and which gather chi from the earth and sky. The purpose of the Taoist energy practices are much more about promoting health, longevity, healing and such than they are about producing massivly overpowering states of emptiness/bliss.

I have moved in my practice to doing Tibetan Style Tsa Lung a few times a year when on vacation in places with extremely clean air, usually VT. Otherwise I have moved the primary foucus of much of my energy work towards the Taoist spectrum. I am very excited to be going to meet Chen Xiao Wang this summer and learning some real Tai Chi to make the more internal Qi Gung excercises a bit more physical for me.

3)Soft Focus+Union of Shamatha and Vipassana?

No. I am not talking about anything that deep. The soft focus is simply a relaxed type of disconnected attention in which you can project your will upon the universe to effect probability, or upon other people to effect their minds. If you have progressed in meditation and are able to be in a state of both calm (Shamatha) and yet integrated movement (Vipassana) than you will definitely find it easy to use the soft focus techniques more than an ordinary person, but it is not necessary.
4)Astral Projection=Phowa?

Not exactly. Phowa is specifically about gathering up your aggregates into a single bindu (tib: Tigle or seed) and ejecting it into a pre-determined pure land at the time of death. It is your get out of crappy rebirth card for when you have not mastered your Tantric practices enough to develop gyu-lu (Illusory Body) in the bardo or your Dzogchen practice well enough to dissolve your physical body into the ja-lu (rainbow body) leaving only hair and fingernails behind. Most Phowa practices steer you to Amitabhas pure land of Dewachen where you will be reborn as a Monk and can attain enlightenment with ease. I however am aiming at Padmasambhavas pure land of Zangdopalri where I will hopefully attain enlightenment through the Tantric practices of Sex and Killing.

Astral Projection as we know it in the west would be spread out over several different Tibetan practices such as Dream Yoga and parts of the Six Yogas of Naropa.
5)Post more on "Take Back Your Mind"!
I will when I am ready to make the transition to that being my primary blog. I am working on a project that presents a lot of magic and psychic tech without using those terms. Thus making it more accessible to more people who do not get turned on my occult claptrap.
There are a few things I need to do first however.
Great Questions BTW!

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