7 Roads to Meditation

Bill Bodri
www.meditationexpert.com
718-539-2811
Go to www.MeditationExpert.com for free
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Why Meditate?
Reasons
Health and Longevity
Spiritual Progress
Calm Your Mind - Defuse Stress - Learn to Relax
Cultivate Virtue and Purity
Facilitates Changing Your Behavior
How
Cross your legs in a quiet place (tune the body)
Cover your knees with towel and avoid drafts
Relaxed but straight, head up
When
The best time is whenever you can (like exercise, there is no one best exercise
the one you bother to do is how you start, so go from there)
20, 40, 60 minutes once or twice a day
Quiet time (morning/night), before eating or more than 1 hours later

The Purpose of Meditation Every Religion says the Same

Buddhism: realize emptiness, attain enlightenment
Judaism: ayin (nothingness) - the annihilation of thought
Christianity: become selfless, give up the ego (give up your personal
thoughts, i.e. emptiness, to become one with the Father)
Islam: to see Gods face (hey, thats your original nature)
Confucianism: to rest in the highest virtue
Zen: to realize ones original nature
Yoga: sense withdrawal and then pacification of thought, samadhi
Taoism: to see the Tao, realize the Tao, attain the Tao
Final goal: emptiness, enlightenment, self-realization, Buddhahood

The Basic Method

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

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, along with mindfulness of let it go!)

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, Prayoga, ...
Warming
Peak
Forbearance
Highest Worldly Dharma
Yogas 4 stages: 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 Gods face,
See the Tao ...
(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
Seeing the Light - Were not talking about a physical light you see with
your eyes. Dont try to visualize anything, you just realize the light
thats 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 and
then forget your body and self.
Forget the knower, knowing, and object - Merge with the light you
realize -- light has no boundaries (is bodyless) and extends everywhere

Vairocana Tathagata

Ahh Bee Lah Hung! Cht!

Practice from visualizing you are a bright sun, next become invisible
sunlight thats everywhere, and then clear bodyless awareness

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 wont think of sex

When your chi becomes full

you wont think of eating

If you dont accumulate your

jing, you will never experience
the state of physical bliss

If you dont accumulate your

chi, you will never experience
the stage of internal light

If you dont accumulate your

shen, you will never experience
the state of no-thought

When your shen is full you

wont feel like sleeping

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 youll become extremely
flexible ... Youll become able to see other peoples bones and inside their
body superpowers will arise ... Youll 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
100 Days

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

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 Stages of Physical

Transformations - Time Requirements

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 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 Bones, Teeth, Nails, Muscles
Water
Blood, Hormones, Lymph
Wind/Air/Wood Breath
Fire Bodily Warmth, Kundalini
Space/Metal
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

The 5 Elements
FIRE: Kundalini (bodily warmth)

WIND: Breath, chi

(prana, life energy)

WATER: Blood,
water, hormones,
jing, lymph, ...

EARTH: Bones,
teeth, nails,
sinews, muscles

SPACE: Interstitial
spaces, joint gaps,
hollow spaces

The 3 Doshas: VATA=Air + Space, PITTA=Fire + Water, KAPHA=Water + Earth

Cultivating the 5 Elements

Earth Imagine you are atoms
Water
Link with water, become water
Wind/Air/Wood Breathing practices - chi
Fire Imagine you are fire
Space/Metal
Become like space (bodyless)
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 - open up arteries and dissolve blood clots
GSH250 (Douglas labs) or Recancostat (Tyler Labs) - detoxify toxic
chemicals (liver) having glutathione, NAC, alpha lipoic acid
Natures Pure Body (Pure Body Institute) - whole body detoxification
Liver Flush and Kidney Flush (Richard Schulze American Botanical
Pharmacy)
Glutamine powder
Chiropractic adjustments
Supernutrition Brand Multivitamin
Breathing practices - 9 Bottled wind

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Various
Various Mantra
Mantra You
You Can
Can Use
Use
for
for Cultivation
Cultivation
Amitofo: Avalokitesvara:
Namo Amitofo

Zhunti:

Ohm Man Bei Me Hon!

Vairocana:

Namo Sadoh Nah

Ohm Ah Bee Lah Hung Chit

Samyak Sampoh Doh

Jeezuh Nah, Dazah Toh
Ohm, Zurleee, Julee, Zhunti, Soha

Lotus, Mahagala, ...

Reciting the rosary

is exactly the same
as mantra (japa)
repetition practice

Proven Effects of Meditation

Lowers blood pressure

Increases serum DHEA (master hormone)
Reduces serum cortisol (stress)
Reduces pulse rate
Increases serum total protein
Quiets the mind - reduces stress
Chinese Medicine: the 100 diseases start with
wind (chi)

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

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

Meditations
Meditations for
for Healing
Healing
CANCER

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

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

Meditations 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, thats 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).
Hatha Yoga Pradipika: Light on Hatha Yoga, Swami Muktibodhananda Saraswati

The mindthe kingsurrounded 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 mindthe kingas well as the retinue will definitely be held. For another [text] says,
Vitality [wind] is to be stopped. When it is stopped, ones mind as well as mindfulness, intellect,
mental engagement, and so forth will definitely be held.
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.

Confucius

Socrates

Chih-i

Benjamin
Franklin

Step 3: You realize that thoughts dont 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: Youll 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 youll naturally enter into samadhi.
KEEP SHINING AWARENESS ON CESSATION TO ARRIVE AT DHYANASAMADHI.
NOW! If your vital energy doesnt move, Zen practice is dead tree Zen - you
must know the joyful side of existence

The Three Realms and Samadhi

Formless Realm

Formless Realm Heavenly Beings

Form Realm

Form Realm
Heavenly Beings

Desire Realm

Devas (Heavens)
Asuras
Humans
Animals
Hungry Ghosts Pretas
Hell beings

Samadhi of neither thought nor

no-thought
Samadhi of nothingness
Samadhi of infinite consciousness
Samadhi of infinite space
4th Dhyana - asmita
3rd Dhyana - ananda
2nd Dhyana - vicara
1st Dhyana - vitarka

Mundane Realms of
Consciousness

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 -- dont rely on it for BIG things
Buddha said people who are enlightened dont 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 Emperors 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; Tibet had 3 roads, Tao school making the sword
The objective is to reach the 1st dhyana (samadhi) -- a stage of
Co-emergent emptiness and bliss
Qualifications: You need merit (king/samadhi or queen/high born)
and cultivation attainment (breathing methods and skeleton method
and cessation-contemplation and some dhyana) ... Story of the 6th
Dalai Lama

 You dont 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 dont cheat yourself/others and try to spiritualize lust - avoid drafts
and cold drinks
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
Mens barrier is sexual desire, womens barrier is emotions
Sky Dancer - Yeshe Tsogyel, women kill the dragon; see How to
Measure and Deepen Your Spiritual Realization at
www.meditationexpert.com
Authors: Jolan Chang, Doug Wile

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.

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
th
7
Tao
Consciousness

Learners 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

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 youre
intelligent) or really strange, irregular, imaginary, mystical
Time + Patience + Method + Disciplined Practice = Result (Gongfu) can change your fortune

Formula:

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