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... 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

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.

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.

Thanks both for replies.

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.

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.



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?

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.

There's a quote from the dhammapada that goes something like: "a fool who associates with the wise if even for a lifetime will no more perceive the dharma than a spoon perceives the taste of soup!"

Another related saying that I recently ran accross is from Zen Master Dogen. He says that if you cannot find an authentic teacher, it's better not to study the dharma at all. Students, he writes, are like wood, and teachers are like wood carvers. In the hands of a master, even bad wood can become something beautiful, because that master carver will see its beauty, and conversely a bad teacher can ruin even a great student.

There is more than enough "authentic" information in MCTB and on the dharmaoverground to awaken at all levels without ever having to talk to a single teacher in "meat space." Dogen did not have ready access to the internet. You can even go on youtube and watch and listen to the authentic masters talk "in person."

"worldly fools search for exotic masters, not
realizing that their own mind is the master." -Bodhidharma

On the other hand, if you can find in person time with someone or multiple persons, then you should probably take advantage of that, but it is not necessary.

I haven't thought about this since I last posted, but I can now say that direct transmission definitely does occur, because I do it to other people! I can induce trance within minutes, so long as the other person is not too closed off. And I can do it non-verbally. And it does cause healing on a very deep level, usually instantaneously.

Direct transmission goes by different names: emotional contagion, contact high, darshan.

I'd be very interested to meet someone who can take me to a deeper level than I can get to myself.

My main teachers for this have been (the late) Franz Mesmer, a guy called Eric Pearl and Milton Erickson.

I don't know much about them, but thought maybe it would be worth it to point out, but in the city I live there is an organization called Sahaj Marg, which means "natural path" and is a system of Raja Yoga.

I haven't checked it out, but if they are on your city, you should take a look if you are interested