Myths about Meditation
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This. Causally comes from a coffee talk with non-Buddhist friends about meditation that will lead channel to be opened, vulnerable to spiritual attacks"; disturbed by spirits or being possessed.
Is this a myth ? -
Definitely a myth. Unless one practices deviant meditation, or focus in between the eyebrow, etc. Which are not Buddhist practices, and Thusness did mention that these practices could possibly open the channel to the spirit realm and interferences.Originally posted by Isis:This. Causally comes from a coffee talk with non-Buddhist friends about meditation that will lead channel to be opened, vulnerable to spiritual attacks"; disturbed by spirits or being possessed.
Is this a myth ?
On contrary, proper BUDDHIST meditation especially for experienced practitioners WILL close the channels to spirit attacks or possessions.
Thusness said before, when Presence is experienced correctly, such channels to the spirit realms and possessions and interferences is being closed, and as Longchen said, "maintaining a nondual awareness should overcome the interference" (to all spirit attacks, possessions, etc).
My taiwanese teacher spoke of his experiences of encountering a past life creditor coming to take his life during his meditation but couldn't affect him because of his meditative state.
Oh and... remember Shariputra being hit by a powerful spirit, but shariputra wasn't affected because he was in a state of samadhi (diamond samadhi or something) and could not be harmed. The spirit immediately fell into avici hell. -
Ok.. now i have something to rebuke them ha ha..
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BTW your non-buddhist friend, what religion is he/she from?Originally posted by Isis:Ok.. now i have something to rebuke them ha ha.. -
Err...could the so call past life creditor really take anyone's life like that? What would be the mechanism and wouldn't it be instant bad karma for such an entity?
It's also interesting that I only hear and read of such a concept within the general Mahayana groups, e.g. Pureland but not that in the Theravada teachings. Although, I did listen to a talk on a freely distributed CD recorded by Venerable Aggacitta, a Malaysian Theravada Buddhist monk, he spoke on five methods of self-defence against attack by malevolent or unwelcome spirits. -
Originally posted by atman:
Powerful spirits can. Just like the case of Sariputra being attacked by a powerful malevolent spirit. The spirit had the power to kill just about anyone else, but he was foolish enough to attack an Arhat (and failed) and had to suffer very very bad karma for that one.
Err...could the so call past life creditor really take anyone's life like that? What would be the mechanism and wouldn't it be instant bad karma for such an entity?
And yes, there will of course be bad karma resulting.It's also interesting that I only hear and read of such a concept within the general Mahayana groups, e.g. Pureland but not that in the Theravada teachings.
The case I mentioned about Sariputra is from the Pali texts as well. In Theravada, there are malevolent spirits who do harm people.Although, I did listen to a talk on a freely distributed CD recorded by Venerable Aggacitta, a Malaysian Therevada Buddhist monk, he spole on five methods of self-defence against attack by malevolent or unwelcome spirits.
Hmm.. haven't heard on that.. -
Why are u asking me this ?Originally posted by An Eternal Now:BTW your non-buddhist friend, what religion is he/she from?
Probably non-informative Buddhist. -
Just wondering...Originally posted by Isis:Why are u asking me this ?
Probably non-informative Buddhist.
Yes such notions are strangely quite widespread, and very misinformed. -
By concepts I mean Karmic creditors.
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They are real. That is, there are ghosts who bears grudges with you or wants to seek revenge. I don't think it is just in pure land tradition that it is mentioned, as this phenomena can occur to anyone and there are such encounters everywhere.Originally posted by atman:By concepts I mean Karmic creditors. -
I've seen the video of a talk given by Master Chin Kung, he narrated a story that happened in Singapore where karmic creditors of an ex-administrator of the SBF was involved. It was pretty interesting and got me thinking about this concept of karmic creditors.Originally posted by An Eternal Now:They are real. That is, there are ghosts who bears grudges with you or wants to seek revenge. I don't think it is just in pure land tradition that it is mentioned, as this phenomena can occur to anyone and there are such encounters everywhere.
If my understanding is not wrong, anyone who passed on would have been reborn into one of the 6 realms. Most beings in the other realms should technically have no links with us humans, unless they have very high spiritual cultivation that enable them to recall their lives in the human world.
Anyway, humans who died and have been 'reborn' into the Ghost realm, should also technically have no memories of what happened to them in the human world. So I have always wondered about this, so let's say if the hungry ghosts remembers their past life in the human world, do they hang around this world of ours, searching for all of their past life karmic debtors or just one or two specific ones? -
Not all hungry ghosts search for debtors. In fact there are many types of ghosts and I think hungry ghosts would suffer too much to bother trying to find others.Originally posted by atman:I've seen the video of a talk given by Master Chin Kung, he narrated a story that happened in Singapore where karmic creditors of an ex-administrator of the SBF was involved. It was pretty interesting and got me thinking about this concept of karmic creditors.
If my understanding is not wrong, anyone who passed on would have been reborn into one of the 6 realms. Most beings in the other realms should technically have no links with us humans, unless they have very high spiritual cultivation that enable them to recall their lives in the human world.
Anyway, humans who died and have been 'reborn' into the Ghost realm, should also technically have no memories of what happened to them in the human world. So I have always wondered about this, so let's say if the hungry ghosts remembers their past life in the human world, do they hang around this world of ours, searching for all of their past life karmic debtors or just one or two specific ones? -
Originally posted by atman:
hmm, i think on the contrary, there's a memory of the previous human life when human are reborn into ghost realm.
Anyway, humans who died and have been 'reborn' into the Ghost realm, should also technically have no memories of what happened to them in the human world.
for what i know for example if a human die as a kid, the appearance of the ghost will stick as a kid.
and if one met a sudden car accident and reborn into ghost realm, the person with the scar would not know that he had died and will roam as the SAME person.
you just imagine they are very deluded like walking zombies.
it'll take quite a while, for them to notice that they have died, but they will still go back to their attachment.
but this could be for fresh ghosts, as ghosts have a little bit of "natural" spiritual powers of remembering few of their past lifes and seeing future.So I have always wondered about this, so let's say if the hungry ghosts remembers their past life in the human world, do they hang around this world of ours, searching for all of their past life karmic debtors or just one or two specific ones?
as mentioned above, i think it'll be the specific one when he/she was alive. but after that when even the deptors pass away, they'll roam around searching for past life karmic debtors.
imo,
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