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direct transmission
3/26/10 1:00 AM
Hi again,

Been doing a lot of reading of Daniel's book and this forum the last few days, and I'm starting to wonder about the risk/reward ratio. ie. the amount of work required in achieving stream entry and the payoff it gives you. I'm getting a fair idea of the risk (work), but the reward part is impossible for me to calculate because I'm totally new to meditating. So the calculations are pure guesswork...

So I began thinking - is there an easier way? ok you can stop laughing now... emoticon I'm actually pretty bowled over by the commitment some people in here display. Nevertheless...

I've read about the idea of a master being able to directly transmit his energy to a novice and help lift him up over significant barriers. I'm thinking of the concept of sitting in darshan, or to use the drug term 'contact high'. I know people talk about a contact high as being due to inhaling others smoke, but I simply don't believe that for a second. I've had enough experiences of feeling other peoples' energy nice/nasty to know it happens. I'm also reminded of some of the best healers of recent history, like Mesmer who through a touch to the 3rd chakra and a penetrating gaze could create massive physical, emotional and spiritual healings. Also thinking of a guy in the states called Eric Pearl who can wave his hands over people and transfer healing energy to them, which they can then use on others. Reiki masters apparently also have a ceremony whereupon a student is 'given'? energy to help open up his healing capacities.

So what does everyone think? I'm all for easy answers and I'm fairly confident they exist is all walks of life, having found a few on the way already. Can a really good teacher/healer transmit enough energy to give lasting changes to a recipient?

CCC
RE: direct transmission
3/26/10 4:02 AM as a reply to C C C.
Well not every meditation tradition is as hardcore as pure insight. You could check out www.aypsite.org, that's a more gradual path. But in my experience, and by the descriptions there, no less powerful. Using those techniques, every result will come gradually after weeks or months of daily practice. This is unlike insight meditation where you have clear and distinct moments where there is plenty of progress in a relatively short time (typically on retreats). If you can't afford to do retreats, then maybe that's a better technique.

However, since you are trying to get rid of your depression, and since this did happen to me after stream-entry, who knows? Maybe pure insight is better. Depression was certainly good enough motivation to go on retreat, as I was basically willing to give everything up, my job, my studies, my friends, and sometimes even my life.
RE: direct transmission
3/27/10 12:05 AM as a reply to C C C.
I am going to scrupulously avoid the question of mechanism and just state that hanging out with people who know what you wish to know and can do what you wish to do is a very good idea and helps a lot.
RE: direct transmission
3/28/10 6:24 PM as a reply to Bruno Loff.
Thanks both for replies. emoticon
RE: direct transmission
3/28/10 7:22 PM as a reply to C C C.
My own experience - 20 years with a really great teacher - is that one really must do the work for oneself. The very powerful teachers can put you in a good place to do whatever you need to do, and show you how to do it - even give you a taste of the result - but it's still your work. I've also heard stories that imply otherwise, but have never experienced it personally.
RE: direct transmission
3/30/10 4:06 PM as a reply to C C C.
I'm all for easy answers and I'm fairly confident they exist is all walks of life, having found a few on the way already


I agree. I want to know the easiest way. I have no interest in hard work just for the sake of hard work.

If something easy and effective technique comes along, I think it will sweep the world, and we will all know about it pretty quick. That hasn't happened so far, but I plan to keep looking.

Can a really good teacher/healer transmit enough energy to give lasting changes to a recipient?


I have had some pretty amazing experiences in the company of certain spiritual teachers, both in the USA and India. I started out skeptical, but now I am as sure as I am of anything that there was a direct transmission of some kind. I don't know if it created any lasting change. If a lasting change happened, it was subtle enough that I am not even sure it happened. I still suffer from anxiety, I still get angry, I still behave selfishly at times.

Is the term "lasting change" even meaningful? I guess in a way it could be. If you cut off your arm that is a lasting change. But are there lasing changes in our mental makeup, or is everything constantly changing, with no change lasting?
RE: direct transmission
3/30/10 4:21 PM as a reply to C C C.
Can a really good teacher/healer transmit enough energy to give lasting changes to a recipient?


Its a very good question because it has me thinking and coming back again and again.

I know I have changed for the better over the years. I have done lots of different things to try to create a positive change, such as Buddhist meditation, 12 step work, positive thinking, breath work, Diamond approach, spending time with spiritual teachers, facing my fears, Naikan, and other things. I don't know which of these worked and which didn't. I just know I changed. They probably all contributed to some degree.

If you have the opportunity to spend time with a powerful teacher, do so.

One other thing. The teachers who transmit the most powerful energy, and the teachers who are best at teaching with language, are not necessarily the same.