7 ROADS TO

MEDITATION
WHY MEDITATE?
Reasons
Health
Longevity
Spiritual Progress
Calm Your Mind - Defuse Stress - Learn to Relax
Cultivate Virtue and Purity
Facilitates Changing Your Behavior
MEDITATION
How
Cross legs
in a quiet
place (tune
the body)
Cover
knees with
towel and
avoid drafts
Relaxed but
straight,
head up

MEDITATION
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 Gods 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
BASIC METHOD(S)
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
Don't believe anything simply because many people say it is so
either.
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.. Prove things through your personal experience.
MEDITATION VARIATIONS

Meditation 1 Seeing the light
Meditation 2 Skeleton meditation
Cultivation Method 3 9-bottled wind
Meditation 4 -- Mantra
Meditation 5 Meditations for Cancer and High Blood Pressure
Meditation 6 Cessation-contemplation practice 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
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 Gods 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 - 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 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

MEDITATION - SEEING THE LIGHT
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

When your shen is full
you wont feel like
sleeping
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
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


ADVANCED PHYSICAL
TRANSFORMATIONS
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.


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) Kundalini Skeleton Entire Body
Easiest, Chi/Consciousness
CULTIVATING THE 5 ELEMENTS
VARIOUS MANTRA YOU CAN USE FOR
CULTIVATION
Amitofo: Avalokitesvara:

Namo Amitofo Ohm Man Bei Me Hon!


Zhunti: Vairocana:
Namo Sadoh Nah Ohm Ah Bee Lah Hung Chit
Samyak Sampoh Doh
Jeezuh Nah, Dazah Toh
Ohm, Zurleee, Julee, Zhunti, Soha

Lotus, Mahagala, ...

PROVEN EFFECTS OF MEDITATION
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
MEDITATION FOR 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
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, 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
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

CHI AND CONSCIOUSNESS ARE LINKED
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 mind
the 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.

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 DHYANA-SAMADHI.
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
Samadhi of neither thought nor
no-thought
Samadhi of nothingness
Samadhi of infinite consciousness
Samadhi of infinite space

Form Realm
Form Realm
Heavenly Beings
4
th
Dhyana - asmita
3
rd
Dhyana - ananda
2
nd
Dhyana - vicara
1
st
Dhyana - vitarka
Ching-an
Desire Realm
Devas (Heavens)
Asuras
Humans
Animals
Hungry Ghosts Pretas
Hell beings
Mundane Realms of
Consciousness


Thank you