I always love watching this video because his talk is very funny.

Someone asked me a funny question the other day, “What do Buddhas eat?”

Now this is a funny question because Buddhas are people just like you and me who have simply awakened, and as a result the question is basically, “What do enlightened people eat?”

The answer is: “Anything they want.”

Let’s go into this a little more deeply because I’m sure you were expecting the answer to involve veganism or vegetarianism. If you are a person devoted to spiritual cultivation, what you consume depends upon your needs and the circumstances and purposes. That’s the first thing to consider. Compassion is also a major factor in choosing what to eat, but if you’re adrift on the high seas and only fish are available to keep you alive, you must choose whether you willing to die in place of the fish. It all comes down to your wisdom and your circumstances.

In the first years of Buddhism, it’s surprising to know that the Buddhist monks weren’t perfectly vegetarian but ate whatever food was offered to them unless it was meat from an animal that was specifically killed for them. If that was the case, or if they were asked to select the animal to be slaughtered, they were forbidden to eat it. In Tibet today, many Tibetan monks are also not strictly vegetarian either but eat whatever is offered. In China, however, with a history of plentiful vegetarian food because of the monastic system, the rule of vegetarianism was enforced for all monks.

But consider this: the famous meditation adept Milarepa only attained his enlightenment after ending a near starvation diet by drinking some beer and eating some meat supplied by his friends. As he found out, if you don’t eat the right food to keep up your strength, it is hard to succeed at spiritual cultivation. Even Buddha was not able to succeed in attaining enlightenment until his health, damaged by severe asceticism, was restored to normal after eating some rice gruel or porridge. I also know of a great Zen master who ate only one small vegetarian meal a day at noon and also found that it did not supply him with enough energy for his cultivation efforts, and so he started eating meat again, although in limited portions, to restore his health and cultivation efforts. It comes down to what you need in conjunction with what you think is right and proper.

And this is one of the main factors to consider – that less meat is certainly better than more, but none may not be enough, especially if you are subsisting on the wrong type of carbohydrates in a vegetarian diet. Many monks in China eat too much tofu and soybeans and as a result, pancreatic cancer and diabetes is quite prevalent due to their diets. In America many vegetarians eat far too much sugar and wheat and destroy their health in the process, too. Meat protein may be warranted, but with today’s hormone laden food, even this decision is questionable.

Then again, it’s a rule in Buddhism that if you are sick and need to eat meat to recover, it is considered a breach of discipline to refuse that medicine though you may want to keep the purity of vegetarianism in play. Once again, it comes down to what’s necessary to help one stay healthy and thus able to succeed in their cultivation. In Orthodox Judaism, a similar rule holds that if you refuse non-kosher food that’s part of the medical prescription for getting well, it is also a breach of discipline to refuse it.

So what do you eat to stay healthy and succeed in spiritual cultivation? What is the best diet for you and for people in general? No one can say with authority, although many would like to– it’s dependent upon you and your genes, your efforts, your circumstances and how you feel with the diet you choose. Many people say they feel cleaner on a vegetarian diet, and that meat weighs them down and clouds their mind, and that they are healthier as vegetarians or vegans than as meat eaters. For such sensitive people, they’ve already determined what’s best for themselves.

Then again, one thing I can mention is that many naturopaths and nutritionists have told me that when strict vegetarians get sick, in many cases it’s almost impossible to cure them if they don’t start eating some animal protein again. The famous Edgar Cayce recommended fish, then poultry, then lamb and beef in this ascending order if one were to eat meat as a source of protein. Pork is universally recognized as one of the worst meats across all traditions. And as to what vegetables are good for people, you have to first rule out if you are allergic or have a sub-clinical sensitivity to it. Just because it’s a vegetable doesn’t mean it’s good for you!

Many people are sensitive to foods but don’t know it because their vitality is strong, but as they get older and their immune system declines those foods start producing symptoms that were previously masked by robustness. So what may seem like a vegetarian “safe food” may actually be doing harm to your body. If someone gets cancer, one of the first things to do is find those food offenders through a blood test and then strictly rule them out of the diet, vegetarian or not. With today’s GMO foods, this rule is more important than ever as many people are allergic to GMO crops.

The question as to whether you should eat meat or not is really up to you from considering your circumstances and the effect that it brings. It’s a matter of balance, necessity and compassion. So what do enlightened beings eat? Whatever they choose to eat because of their vows and circumstances.

A quote from Understanding this Chinese Generation:

“Here is a serious issue to contemplate on. Most of the work you do are concerned with economic developments. This is a phenomenon common to both the East and West – everything is about the economy. I find it especially amusing that China is now putting all her energy on the economy. This is not the road to true prosperity. Historically China always subscribed to the doctrine that believes in having better culture and governance to resolve economic issues, to make even distribution of wealth and to maintain social stability. In the West, since the 16th century, the approach has been one attempting to resolve political and cultural issues by economic means alone, as expounded by the doctrines of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Keynes and their followers. These are two different approaches and one does not necessarily conflict with each other.

Ever since China subscribed to the Western doctrines, in particular the ideas of Keynes, the whole country is moving down the road of chasing money. Consumption is encouraged because it creates demand and employment. Therefore there is a good market for the management disciplines you teach. I always joked that the best way to accelerate consumption is to have wars everyday. War is the biggest of all consumptions.

What we lack today is a new school of thought that can assimilate both the Eastern and Western approaches in order to lead the world into a new era. If we continue the way it is there will be dire consequences.”

I always recommend the Tibetan 9-bottled wind practice for cultivators. It involves holding your breath for as long as possible and is an assist to cultivation in the early stages of the path.

Well the world record holder’s method for holding their breath — shown here doing so for nearly 17 minutes under water in front of Oprah — explains his method of khumbhaka to Oprah and the audience.

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/10/30/how-to-hold-your-breath/

Pay attention to the fact that at the end when he cannot hold any longer, he says he practices a type of emptiness meditation.

That’s the key — letting go of both mind and body. He looks extremely healthy and well balanced, just like a martial artist, because he has somewhat opened up his channels. Practicing emptiness meditation would in all likelihood change his appearance to an even lighter complexion over time.

Here are his steps though you can read more on the blog post.

The Steps:

1:30 deep breathing
1:15 purging (if you feel like you’re going to pass out, do it less intensely)

Hold breath for target 1:30, no more
After 1:30:
Take 3 semi-purge breaths

1:30 deep breathing
1:30 purging

Hold breath for target 2:30, no more
After 2:30
Take 3 semi-purge breaths

2:00 deep breathing
1:45 purging

Hold breath for as long as possible
After exhalation:
Take 3-10 hard semi-purge breaths until your recover

I often tell people they can approach cultivation through Confucianism, which depends on the practice of vipassana, or watching the mind. This is similar to the Socratic idea of know thyself through awareness, too. Telling people to cultivate awareness is often better than telling them to cultivate meditation because in meditation they always get caught in body feelings an thoughts and never catch the real meaning of the Tao as taught by Vedanta or Buddhism.

Our awareness is always caught by the feelings of the body, and emotions. That means it’s caught by what isn’t really you, it’s caught by an illusion because an illusion is something that always changes that we think is solid and real, like a mirage.

Neither the sensations nor emotions are things you can hold on to. The body isn’t you either, and is always changing. When science investigates it, it finds smaller and smaller details such as DNA replication, cells dividing, etc. showing that it’s always changing and never staying still. This cause leads to that result — it’s all held together through massive interdependence. It’s an illusion to think it’s a fixed form, and an illusion to think it’s the real you. It’s just a function that comes along.

In one sense we can say you are spirit, or shen, or awareness, which is a function of the original nature. The original nature, which we call “void” or “empty” to denote it is not something phenomenal, is why in Taoist cultivation we say shen transforms or returns to emptiness, which is its substrate or essence or source. Christians call it God instead. Awareness is just a function of this essence, so we are ultimately this essence and cultivation is to find this essence, not be captured by what awareness notices.

Yet when awareness is captured, we think we are something we are not. If you know all is illusion and don’t hold on to it, then you can relax and not be so tight. You enjoy good feelings because you think they’re true but they are all illusions that don’t stay. The same for bad feelings — they’re illusions. Whatever comes to you in the world because of past karma, you just react to it and respond as you should, and a new illusion will arise that isn’t the original nature, just something captured/seen by awareness.

How do you change your fortune? Your karma comes because of past thoughts and behavior that result in what’s produced. If you watch your thoughts to keep your bad habits from coming out, you can change your fortune. It’s as simple as that. That’s vipassana. If you let go of attachments, in time your chi will change and awareness will return to the source, and recognizing the source you can become liberated.

This is the Confucian method of cultivation. You cultivate “awareness” to change your behavior for the better, which perfects you as a human being. It changes your fortune for the future. By letting awareness function without clinging, you also cultivate the Tao.

What could be simpler?

Teenagers are always into some new fad. The new one seems to be i-dosing:

http://lifehacker.com/398342/i-dose-sends-binaural-beats-to-your-brain

The I Dose website (http://www.i-dose.us/) offers several downloadable binaural beat music designed to alter your thoughts/mood. Some progams, like Holosync, use the technology to train people in meditation. In this case, however, the target is different.

I-Dose has offerings such as:

Quit Smoking
Energy Increase
Weight Loss
Aspirin
Intelligence Increase
PMS relief
Lucid Dreams
and so on…

Sorry folks. I’ve investigated all sorts of programs and modalities for most all the categories of recordings offering. Everything from self-hypnosis to astral projection audios to subliminal suggestions and more… probably about a dozen or so modalities including physical, electronical, vibrational and chemical means such as laser lights, electronic stimulators, radionic machines, homeopathics, herbs, etc.

Nothing works except cultivation. If you want to tune out the world, by all means spend your $9.99 for a download but I’d devote myself to meditation instead and solve a whole host of problems, including really balancing myself. None of this stuff will help you increase your intellgience, make a migraine headache go away, astral project, lose weight, turn off depression, … Great marketing names for the website, but that’s it.

These recordings just aiaren’t going to do it. You want to enter an altered state? You have to cultivate samadhi through meditation. You’ll encounter plenty of spiritual gong-fu and “altered states” of non-ordinary consciousness. Mantra recitation, or japa practice, is the single best way to do it if you want to use sound, and it usually takes months of effort to change your chi and consciousness that way.

But teenagers will be teenagers, and often want to rebel or do anything that is anti-establishment or status quo. Folks, just turn to meditation and truly get something out of it. Sages from countless religions have told you to recite mantras for the very things you want, and yet people always turn to this sort of nonsense, as well as crystals, magnets, channeling, shamans, seances, etc. They’re just useless fads. But it’s your dollar. Go enjoy.

LifeHacker suggest that if you’re looking for binaural beats or white noise, check out SBaGen or SimplyNoise.

I always tell people to THINK. They want to succeed in meditation and spirituality, but the field has so many nebulous claims that you need logic to think things through. Thus I tell them to sharpen their wits on real world topics. That’s the reason I bring up real world politics all the time. THINK here, don’t put “love the whole way round” on issues and blind yourself to what’s going on.

If you fail at making the right conclusions on real world issues, then to me I give you little chance to really be able to differentiate so many claims in the spiritual field. You will just be captured by prejudices of your race, religion, country and so on.

So here’s something to think about — draw your own conclusions:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/rust-discovered-bank-russia-issued-999-gold-coins

IF THE STORY IS TRUE, then the Russians are diluting their gold, plain and simple. They either want to make more money, or there is not enough gold to be put in the coins, or corruption is going on somewhere and higher ups didn’t know. There are a lot of possibilities, so drop the conformity view they teach kids in school today, QUESTION and THINK …

Could 100% pure gold rust? No! So the reason is due to something else. And if the Russians are doing this, are others?

There has been much writing over the last several years about central bank gold stocks dwindling, and this calls that to mind.

I’ve read many pundits and the conclusion is there’s a 50:50 chance we’ll have a double dip recession. I think it’s more like 60:40 because real jobs cannot come back. Furthermore, the housing stimulus is over.

The BP oil well will probably keep spilling for another few months simply because it happened before, and it took 8 months to fix the problem … in shallower water with the same techniques they’re trying today.

Don’t believe me? Watch this video …

The Times has just presented an article on the declining age of puberty:

Puberty Article

In the 1800’s puberty for girls and boys was around 15 and 17 years of age, respectively.

In the 1960’s, the ages were determined to be around 12 for girls and 14 for boys. These are the ages that girls first start getting their period, and the age when the voices of boys start to break and they experience a growth spurt.

The new findings are that girls are starting puberty, including breast development, at age 9 (9 years and 10 months on average, which is a full one year ealier than the last time the study was done about 15 years ago). Many boys drop out of choir in England because their voices are now breaking at around ages 11-12!

Some people say this is because of hormone-like substances in the food chain (I agree), and others simply because of a better diet.

It’s interesting to note that over 2,000 years Shakyamuni Buddha foretold, through samadhi insight, that the age of puberty for women would eventually drop to around 5 years of age for this world. He also said that in the far future the world would become so toxic and polluted that almost any item could be used to kill/harm another person, and the Gulf Oil spill illustrates how we are slowly heading in that direction. Amazing predictions from 2,000+ years ago, especially when you consider the environmental circumstances of that era.

Two years ago I made a series of audio CDs on a variety of meditation topics, which I made available through Kunaki.com. It’s a cool service — you make a recording, upload your mp3, select a cover, and then they produce it for you, mail it out and so forth. If you’re an expert on some topic and you want to try it, go ahead, as it takes the burdens away of burning CDs, customer fulfillment and so forth.

I produced several courses on CD this way, but Kunaki deletes the recordings if no one buys any in 180 days, which is a half year’s time. Over time several courses were deleted this way (sexual cultivation, feng shui, etc.) and people write me now and then asking if I sell them, but they missed their chance. They’re gone forever because Kunaki deleted them since no one purchased any.

Anyway, four days ago Kunaki sent me a message that in 11 days they’ll delete my last two recordings:

How to Meditate 7 Different Ways

and

The 5 Stages of the Spiritual Path.

Once these recordings are gone they’re gone forever, so this might be your chance to get these babies before they disappear. How to Meditate 7 Different Ways is exactly that — instructions on how to meditate 7 (actually more) ways.

The 5 Stages of the Spiritual Path is all about the 5 big stages of the cultivation path. Without this knowledge, you’ll be lost regardless of whatever school you follow because you won’t know where you stand in the grand scheme of things.

So, rather than let them expire I figured I might as well give a curtain call. Just pop these CDs into your computer and play them! It’s on the most common questions I receive about these topics and what you need to know. If you want to learn how to meditate, these are killer.

J. Pierquet just wrote me that he created a free download site of sutra translations, and wanted to inform people about it. Nice site:

Lapis Lazuli Texts.com

It contains the following translations already:

1. Dharmacakra Pravartana Sutra
2. Anapana Sutra (Ekottara Agama)
3. Diamond Sutra
4. Shorter Heart Sutra
5. Longer Heart Sutra
6. Amitabha Sutra
7. Cundi Dharani Sutra (Zhunti Dharani Sutra)
8. Classic of Purity and Stillness

Buddhist Sutra Translations

This is just an interesting bit of science. What did the Big Bang sound like? Well, scientists have created a little bang, and here is a sound recording of the sound:

http://www.newscientist.com/articlevideo/dn18998/89322524001-what-does-the-hottest-matter-ever-made-sound-like.html

I first learned about the possibility of using nuclear bombs for underwater construction when I listened to one of the interviews of Edward Teller on Peoples Archive. He was talking about building harbors in Alaska using nuclear charges.

Well, it occurred to me that this is probably going to be the only way to close off the BP oil leak which is coming out of the ground with such pressure that nothing seems to thwart it. There’s even a second leak bigger than the first, or so this article says. Thus, this story doesn’t surprise me.

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0529/energy-expert-nuke-oil-leak/

In this video story, an Indian hermit is shown whom sources (and the local hospital) say has survived for countless years without food or drink. He doesn’t pass stool or urine either.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/weirdnewsvideo/7764884/Indian-hermit-stuns-doctors-by-surviving-without-food.html

This is the stage of inedia. The school of Chinese Taoism describes it– you survive on only chi alone. Naturally, the Indian yoga school has it. It’s mentioned in Christianity as well for quite a few saints, including women saints. Basically it is a stage you reach in chi cultivation. It is not samadhi, not dhyana, not enlightenment or the Tao, yet a stage you can reach when you cultivate your chi to fullness.

Scientists always claim such things are impossible but they are documented in countless spiritual traditions, we have plenty of historical examples including this yogi here, and it goes to show that the cultivation path is non-denominational in terms of the gong-fu stages you can reach. My new book coming out on HERCULES will go into such things in detail.

The big thing is this: I don’t care what religion or spiritual school you’re in. If you cultivate you attain gong-fu, if you don’t meditate you don’t achieve gong-fu. This is a non-denominational stage of gong-fu from cultivating your chi (qi). Some people attain this and others don’t — it depends on your karma. In terms of principles, when jing is cultivated to fullness you don’t think of sex, when chi is cultivated to fullness you don’t think of eating (and you see light within your body), and when shen is cultivated to fullness you don’t sleep. This yogi’s cultivation is far past the stage of this saying, but I just wanted you to see that you cannot dismiss the results and teachings of other schools just because no one in
your tradition achieved these things. They do exist. There’s nothing mysterious or abnormal about them. It’s because you are HEALTHY due to your chi channels opening that you can attain this. Spiritual Gong-fu falls out of standard cultivation practices when you work hard at meditation.

Stay turned for the release of “The Little Book of Hercules” that will go through all the non-denominational stages of the spiritual path like this – linking Greek, Egyptian, Taoist, Indian, Buddhist, Christian and Tibetan traditions — starting from the arising of kundalini to opening of the central channel on through countless other spiritual phenomena.