Siddhis outside retreat

Jamess, modified 6 Years ago at 12/7/17 5:52 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 12/7/17 5:52 PM

Siddhis outside retreat

Posts: 17 Join Date: 9/1/17 Recent Posts
As i read on the Fire kasina book, some very cool siddhis are possible just in a very appropriate environment of intense concentration practice tru the entire day. Can you develop siddhis for the use of your daily life? ..s
Dom Stone, modified 6 Years ago at 12/8/17 9:25 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 12/8/17 9:25 AM

RE: Siddhis outside retreat

Posts: 118 Join Date: 3/21/17 Recent Posts
Siddhis are unlikely to be carried forward into daily life any more than they would if you haven't gone on a retreat. Also, the difficulty in assessing the reliability of powers (How can you tell things are as you see them to be) makes them a pretty slippery subject to work with, with the potential to invite unrequited cravings and possibly psychosis into your life. You would get more positive feedback from developing good morality and the Brahma Viharas for maintaining good concentration off the cushion. This will increase the chance of experiencing Siddhis if combined with a solid regular samatha practice. As I haven't had a stellar history of high concentration, I'm not speaking with first hand knowledge, just from my knowledge and experience of the Dhamma.

Be cautious, and take a break if you experience any negative effects especially if you don't have a teacher to guide you.
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Antony Freb, modified 6 Years ago at 12/9/17 1:22 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 12/9/17 1:22 PM

RE: Siddhis outside retreat

Posts: 2 Join Date: 10/17/17 Recent Posts
You can. But take it a long time, so patience is needed. Very good books about are free on net. See Shiva samhita, Gheranda samhita, Sat chakra nirupana  - translantion by Arthur Avalon. Or good book is The secret of the golden flower, translantion by Richard Willhelm.
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 6 Years ago at 12/11/17 5:10 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 12/11/17 5:10 AM

RE: Siddhis outside retreat

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Siddhis in daily life... A complex topic.

For most, they will be very hit or miss, hard to access, unpredictable, if they happen at all.

For a rare few, they have them on tap at baseline and were just born that way. I know a very small number of these types.

Then there are those in the middle, for whom greater concentration, more practice in general, and more practice and inclinication ot the siddhis specifically makes them more likely, but they are still likely to be unpredictable and hit-or-miss.

Still, it sort of depends on where you want to draw the line between siddhi and non-siddhi. From a certain point of view, the fact of thought, movement, memory, dreaming, feeling, and so many things are pretty magickal. Some will appreciate this more than others.

Regarding the more impressive, unusual, seemingly magical siddhis, generally the more removed from ordinary experience, the harder they are to cultivate. Still, more emphasis, interest, study, and practice can make things that seem far away suddenly accessible, though for most people in daily life this will be in sporadic flashes rather than sustained ability.

Then there is the fact that the majority of people who chance into the siddhis don't want to live there, don't want to live in a magical world, don't want to deal with the implications of that, the strange things you find in that world, the additional considerations that come into play, the additional entities you have to deal with, the additional paradigms you have to bring to bear to make sense of it all, the additional moral hassle of having to worry that some subtle intention will produce some unskillful magical effect.

Most people get out of magic not because it doesn't work but because it does. The magical world is a seriously acquired taste and not to most people's liking once one realizes what is involves.

Most of us likely didn't come up learning how to deal with that world, so the learning curve can be steep. Theories and advice as to how to handle even basic things, such as how to handle some entity that shows up, how best to use energy, and what the implications of thought and emotion are for magic, opinions about what to do and how to properly think about these topics vary widely between dogmatists.

Then there is the problem of things we don't want to be real getting real, having real-world effects, impacting our lives, showing up when we don't want them to, and then we can start manifesting effects at the mere subtle whim and due to forces and parts of ourselves and subconscious that we really wish weren't there or could somehow be unplugged from the controls, but that is not always so easy.

Anyway, and despite all this, there are those of us who feel called for whatever strange reasons to go farther into the realms of the powers. If this is your karma, do it sanely, safely, and be careful. Keep experienced people in the loop. Cultivate friends who are also on the path of the powers if at all possible.

As my friend Lisa recently said to me, "Don't summon anything you can't banish." The general principle applies to all of the realms of the powers. Just as a car's most important system is the brakes, just so with the powers.

My thoughts this early morning.

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