Daniel Boutemy:
... there are teachers that I do not consider realized that have a strong ability to transmit ... We all share in this reality; we all are this reality and hence we all create everything together. Or it creates us, delusion and all.
OK, so I understand you to be saying that the ability to transmit/give shaktipat is not coupled to realization of the nature of what is transmitted.
I'm curious: you are hinting at specific examples... even if you don't want to mention them by name, what are the reasons for your verdict about their realization?
As to Nibbana compass, I am not sure if we are talking about the same thing. By the time I met Taugpulu Sayadaw in 1983, I had already been sitting for nine years and had abundant experience of both knowledge of arising and passing away, and of the dukkha ñanas. But no “nibbana compass” was evident. What I mean is that Taungpulu’s being was completely resolved. There was just not friction in him at all. He radiated the peace of extinction. When exposed to this “vibration” repeatedly, it influences you. It places within you an intuition about your inner direction. It’s like you can follow the fragrance of the deathless to its source. You could call it an awakening of the inner guru.
Ok, then I mistook your very apt and suggestive phrase "nibbana compass" for that threshold experience which will irrevocably launch a person on the "spiritual quest", and that's something which happens on their first A&P.
But yeah, I get what you mean: that transition from "seeking, not knowing what" to "seeking, knowing what". True, the two events are quite distinct, and there can be a long period of time between the two.
For example there was a very strong bio-electrical component to the experience that I found distracting and irritating. He equated this with kundalini, which I thought was really the most absolutely shallow aspect of that reality.
Interesting - That "bio-electrical" component is something I gather under the larger umbrella term of "energy" (not the physics-101 kind of energy, of course, but the new-age usage), along with kundalini stuff and the psychic powers and so on. So transmission as you experienced it is related to but not included in the "energy" type of experience?
Now you ask me is shaktipat a special case of psychic powers? Well, all of this is just hypothesizing and opinion anyway, so why stop now. I am going to say no. Just because it is natural to who we are and how we function. It is in the very nature of reality to share. Nothing special need be done to make this happen. Even now for example, I am reflecting on your picture, and I am reading your words. I am “feeling” your energy to some extent, as you are mine by reading my words. Even the silly photo I chose as my avatar says something about me, and my humor (I am a nurse, and a gay man). We are in each other at this moment, sharing something. Now if you are making people’s skin taste sweet, that is a different story.
All right, but I think you'll agree that there is a huge difference between sharing a picture or words, and sharing some energy phenomenon or kundalini experience, and again, sharing some highly realized, maybe nondual perspective, isn't there?
So in one sense I agree with you that the transmission effect is part of the human capacity to share experience. I still think it's useful/skilful to make more distinctions here, though.
This entire thread has been very clarifying for me around this phenomenon. It is odd that in a certain sense, this is just hypothesizing and so a kind of big circle jerk, but in another sense, by sharing our reflections and experiences we can feel our way to a common experience of reality. I love this business of thinking together!
Me too! That's why I started this thread. Thanks for sharing your opinions and hypotheses and experiences! In a very down-to-earth sense, this kind of transmission will hopefully lead to more clarity and less ignorance (in the spiritual sense) all around.
Cheers,
Florian