Dharma is Free, But It Will Cost You

I always laugh when people tell me that spiritual teachings should be free. They are the most important thing in the universe, so of course “they should be free” … but who will support the teacher to do that? No one wants to volunteer on that side of the equation, which shows how much people really value them.

When I hear people say they should be free, I know the secret psychology hidden in their mind. Try asking them the following question and you’ll fathom it: “If they are so valuable to mankind and worth so much to others or you, what are YOU doing to support their existence other than to say they should be free?” When you get the answer, in most cases you’ll laugh because you’ll have figured out what’s going on.

“I want, I want, I want.” Okay, so what are you going to do to make it POSSIBLE? What are YOU doing to make it possible for others? Once I mentioned the work of the TUE QUANG WISDOM LIGHT FOUNDATION http://www.daitangvietnam.com/index_en.htm for translating sutras. Did you contribute? Did you even contribute $25 to kiva.org and fund some struggling entrepreneur making $1 a day to help them have a better life? Do you know what life is like on $1 per day? What have YOU done to make it possible for someone to have a better life? If you just take your present state of fortune for granted, your merit will run out. It always runs down unless you replenish it.

Now let’s stay on the main topic and consider NEEDS versus WANTS in life to get a handle on some clear thinking, for we all “want” spiritual teachings but what we “need” to survive is food, clothing, medicine and so forth. [Yes, yes -- we "need" spiritual teachings too but I'm making a point.]

I NEED food to survive, but I can’t find any restaurant or supermarket that will give it to me for free simply because I need it. I NEED medicine when I’m sick, but it’s rare that people can find a free doctor or get the medicine or operation they need for free either. Maybe it’s possible in this country but certainly not in most of the world. Think about it. So what I need I must pay for.

People seem perfectly agreeable to the fact that must pay for what they need, and seem to understand what they want has costs, but their heads go loopy when they say some things should be free and what they WANT should be free. Well, PBS (public broadcasting) is free only if you support it. What are you doing to support it? Are you saying it doesn’t have costs, or are you saying the costs should be borne by someone else? If so, who? Did you pass the buck? So you want to enjoy it but not pay for it … Maybe the system is set up today so you can get away with that, but in a future life the system you experience will be different, and so will these results you take for granted. If you don’t support now, you won’t have the equivalent in the future, and the future WILL come.

If you say there’s no cost to hearing the dharma, you are greatly greatly mistaken. If you think there is no cost to cultivation accomplishment, and it’s as easy as presto-1-2-3 “attraction magic the universe will provide”, you’re mistaken again. Enlightenment wins you freedom from the Triple Realm, from birth and death within an endless round of ceaseless incarnations up and down, through weal and woe, pain and suffering. You might not be suffering, but look at 80% of the people in the world and you’ll see poverty. There’s a cost to escaping, and you don’t want to pay anything to hear how to become free. Fine by me.

People also think a merit this great that you escape should represent an easy task. Let me tell you something frankly — IT ISN’T. Monks give up their lives, homes, family and friends to cultivate, and few achieve it. Don’t think it’s so easy like the TV movies make things out to be. Don’t be so ignorant. The road is open to everyone, it’s perfectly free that way, but only great ones can achieve it. What are you doing to assist them to help make that happen so that they can help you, or others? If you practice charity you won’t cling to wealth, and thus can maintain morality and ethics.

Think about this … what is therefore actually going on inside someone’s head when they make demands that you should give them things for free? What’s their merit? Do they deserve it? What have they done to deserve teachings ? In Tibet you have to serve a master for twenty or so years to prove yourself before you’ll get the good stuff. You think dharma should be freely given to you? Why are you so qualified? In almost every genuine spiritual school or tradition I know, you have to ask and even sometimes beg the master for teachings. What makes you think the dharma comes so easily that it’s tossed about like candy? Go ahead and look for it in the world or the internet, in churches and synagogues and temples and see if you can find it. You’ll spend a tremendous amount of time and money and resouces and in all likelihood come up empty handed. You have to think deeply about this. And yet you want people to give it to you for free.

People will spend outrageous sums for business ventures, money making schemes, for vacations, cars, X-boxes, computer games, music tickets, clothes, for eating out at restaurants and electronic toys and so forth but if dharma is so important to them, why aren’t they willing to support THAT but are willing to buy these other things? Most people support religion that does nothing, except social work and ceremonies, but don’t want to support the dharma. That’s why they are where they are, plain and simple, without any dharma at all. No wisdom either. Some religions, as a condition of membership, even require tithing or that you spend a year as a missionary to get more converts. That’s their cost, but do you think that gets you enlightenment brownie points? Ridiculous. So think, what is free? Think carefully.

The dharma actually is free. You don’t need any teachings to know the Self. Just know it. But if you desie, you can go to any library and you can get all sorts of teachings for free. Meditation is free, easy to learn in three minutes, and easy to practice. But to have a teacher skillful enough to get you a far distance down that road is more rare than a wish fulfilling gem. What have you done to make the existence of those gems possible in the world, so that the dharma thrives, is protected, transmitted and maintained, and so that others might succeed and thereby teach you as a karmic reward? Nothing, I bet. You just want everything for free. I laugh when I hear this. I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on learning the dharma and in trying to offer as much wherever possible, and still it is not enough. Not even close that I can consider having gained even a drop of merit enough to deserve the dharma. And you want it for free? My teacher would laugh. He wants to offer it for free (even though that often has the drawback that people don’t respect it), but that costs money. Where does the money come from if you want everything from free? OH, from somewhere else….where? from whom?

I remember the story of the textile manufacturer in India who supported Gandhi and laughed when people spoke of Gandhi’s poverty. “It costs me a lot of money,” he said, “to keep Gandhi in poverty.” Who do you think paid for Gandhi’s housing, food, trips and entourage? People just don’t think nowadays. Do you know why we are heading for a big recession? Because the government and bankers did not want regulation but more profits, and did not THINK ahead to see that regulation would protect the whole system from excesses — they just wanted to make money by selling more and more loans they didn’t want to keep themselves, and so the quality of loans progessively declines and now look at the mess. I mentioned this years ago to people. Think, think, think. Don’t demand. Think.

You can go to almost any church, temple or mosque without ever making a donation and hear some sort of dharma, though not the type that will liberate. People support those institutions for offering watered down milk, and yet they want the REAL dharma for free. Strange paradox that they think THOSE institutions should be supported, but not the dharma. Dharma does not mean religious teachings. It means any teachings within or outside of a religious framewok that lead to enlightenment or cultivation progress, other than dogmas and “religious teachings.” So Christianity has some dharma teachings within it, so does Islam, Hinduism, Taoism, yoga, Buddhism and so forth. They all have a tiny, minor sprinkling of it within their relgiious notions. Most such teachings if you can ever find them only lead you to samadhi. The Great ones lead to enlightenment. What are you doing to find them, support them or maintain them? Oh that’s right, you want them for free.

The true enlightenment dharma teachings are the important ones, because it’s easy to cultivate mundane samadhi. It takes a Buddha or fully enlightened one to come along and transmit full enlightenment awakening teachings. Since Shakyamuni’s time, perhaps only a half dozen individuals have been able to achieve the full measure of enlightenment and then teach the Path. It doesn’t matter what religion or school or sect or nation or race they teach in/from/to, because what’s important is that they transmit the dharma, without which you are only privy to regular religious teachings that only win you minor merit and better rebirths for a short while. Then your good karma runs out. Do you really think in your infinite series of past lives you’ve used up all your hell karma that’s due, animal kama that’s due, suffering that’s due, ghostly karma that’s due, illness karma that’s due, ignorance karma that’s due? Think again and worry, worry enough to do something because even Shakyamuni demonstarted that as a Buddha, bad karma must still be paid. He just doesn’t attach to it and is indifferent. Can you be so noble and advanced?

I’m tired of the lazy thinking so I have to speak. What are YOU doing to support the dharma other than to buy a few books on amazon.com for yourself? That’s benefiting you, not others. An author makes about $1-2 ona bok he sells that way, and you think he’s getting rich or his activities are being supported that way. Ridiculous. How do you expect the good stuff to come to you if you’re not making an effort to offer it to others or make it available to them.

Now if you go to amazon.com or a local bookstore and buy a book on dharma then you can get it that way for relatively free, too. Some may say that the Gideon Bibles you find in hotels are totally “free”, but who pays for those Bibles? Someone obviously does. The printing company charges a religious press just as much for paper and printing as it does an academic press or commercial venture. There are costs to be paid. The printing company may or may not admire the religious publisher’s motives but it has to cover its own costs to survive. It has to make money to survive or it cannot perform its business function and print anything at all. So who is ultimately paying for that “free” Bible? Is it really free? Not to someone…

Someone is supporting that publishing firm with a donation, or it is itself making money and donating it all back to the people. Wow, if the world was like that in all dimensions of what we want and need, it would be a better place, but for the world to become like that it must start with you, so what are YOU doing along those lines? What are you doing to start things along those lines? Don’t ask what you can get for free, ask what are you doing to make things FREE, easy or available to others? If nothing, then what can you complain about? It’s your karma.

Are you supporting medical charities (ex. Doctors Without Borders), or poverty initiatives (kiva.org), or clean water (haitiwater.org)? Look around you — you’re okay now (you have a computer to be able to read this) but you are a minority in the world. Do you really think you will have enough merit in the future to have access to medicine, prosperity and so forth when you need it, or are you burning up your good fortune as a consumer rather than producer? Don’t be so complacent. Plenty of sages of countless religions warn you not to be so complacent. A human life is rare, to be born with all your limbs and sense  faculties intact is rare, to be born into a rich country is rare, and to be born into a place that has the dharma is the rarest of all. Look around you and you’ll see that practically NO ONE in your country has the dharma….and you think next life it will be easier for you? Not if you don’t support it. Look at the clean air and water going away. What’s polluted cannot be reversed, you can only stem the tide of the new pollution. 

HaitiWater.org is one of my favorite charities that I urge you to contribute to… if you want to purify the water element of your body in this life, or set it up for next life, how much easier it will be by a millionfold billionfold if you made charitable offerings in that direction of offering clean water to thousands of people made possible by only a few bucks. Think of the gigantic karmic return. If through HaitiWater.org you donate money for one chlorinator for a city or town (Costs about $350, which is the same cost as one leg for an amputee or one cleft palate operation), you will be providing from 3,000-10,000 people clean water times 365 days per year times about 20 years, because that’s how long the chlorinators last. Do the math! I cannot find a better Reward to cost ratio for any of the charities I support. This is the biggest bang for the buck I can find that is true micro public health that changes the world. You ARE saving the world, making it a better place for only $350-500. But any amount of contribution will do, as it all earns you merit in that direction; it’s the thought that counts when your means are limited, so even $25 will help. Just get off your tuckus and accumulate some merit. You already know that the foundational stage of all religious paths is accumulating merit, and this one gives you the greatest bang for the buck I can yet find, which also helps in cultivation as well.

The kids stop getting sick, people can drink clean water, lives change permanently and YOU did it. Contribute to something like that (HaitiWater.org) and then you can say clean water should be free and bank on being able to enjoy it in the future as the world gets more and more polluted and you return time and again, because you WILL return. Water should be free, but who’s going to support that? It has to be you if you want clean water in the future. If you ever want to become a Buddha who has the power to give water to people dying of thirst, this is how you develop that meritorious ability. It’s by donating to an effort like this, and then donating the merit toward enlightenment. You don’t just get superpowers upon enlightenment. If you cultivated merit in a certain direction, you can draw upon it. If you cultivated merit like this, then it’s yours to give when you want it. That’s how it works. If you have no merit accumulated in a certain direction, you cannot enjoy it for all you try, no matter how close to your grasp it seems.

Are you a force for good in the world, or just a consumer? After you consume the extent of your good fortune, without creating any new good karma in return, down you come again. Up and down you bob through life after life, incarnation after incarnation. Now you have it pretty good, but if you don’t replenish your stores of merit, it is inevitable that the good fortune will die out and down you will come again. Look at the stock market — what goes up, in time, goes down with unbelieveable swiftness that’s unpredicted. So is your fortune due to dwindling stocks of merit. So you better do something in life to become a force for good, for change rather than just a consumer. Small things count! Knowing the state of the world, what are you actually doing along those lines other than just comment on the bad you see and then buying another X-box game or seeing another movie? If you write a check for $25, at least then you can say you did something or have a right to complain. If you expect someone else to do it, then support them. If not, you get what you deserve because you did not act.

I am literally greedy to accumulate merit, so I always contribute to HaitiWater.org (you should too) as a way to ensure that each time around it becomes easier and easier to purify the water element in my own body. [You should always be looking for things like this, and this one's a gem]. Your merit is never enough, never think that. But how simple it is with just a check to make merit and get jobs like this done. Or you can donate to Heifer International to give a cow or ducks or other animals to a family or community that will keep providing for generation after generation if you so choose to make life easier for others through that avenue.

Once a blind Buddhist monk called out asking if someone around him wanted to accumulate merit by threading a needle for him so he could repair his garment. Buddha answered and said he would do it. The blind man was shocked, thinking the Buddha didn’t need the merit. Shakyamuni explained that all Buddhas need to make merit, and the merit you make is never enough. In fact, I would venture to say there are only three things that matter in this universe, and thus for your life: (1) cultivation (2) accumulating/making merit (3) perfecting your conduct/behavior/skills.

If you say that others should be giving something to you for free, you’re saying someone should be voluntarily spending money on you. Who are you that I or anyone else should be spending money on you for your benefit? What have you done for us that any of us owe you? Tell me, how often do YOU give to others for free to help them, rather than to entertain them or win them as some sort of investment looking for a future return? Who are you that I should slave away to do something for you for free, out of my own time, resouces, energies, finances? Yes, who are you? 

Please consider the true costs of the dharma. In ancient China and India, monks would give up money, marriage and family to learn and pursue the dharma. You can’t say there was no cost to the dharma if they had to give up a normal life to learn it. And they had to adopt rules and regulations and disciplines they might not like to be qualified to enjoy those “free” things.

That there is a cost to pursuing the dharma is a definite fact. And we’re also forgetting that the monastery had to be supported somehow, perhaps by sponsors or by the labor of the monks. That’s not the point. The point is that nothing is free…. tell me where the free is? About the only free things I can easily find on the dharma are various sutra translations that publishers have put up on the web from Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam and so forth. But who paid for those translations to make them available? Did you play any part in that? I already told you how to help. How will you pay those people back if you use what they offer? 

In fact, the actual cost for dharma in terms of all you gave up in ancient times was TREMENDOUS. So I laugh when people say dharma should be free. Such people are ignoramuses. My teacher spent hundreds of thousands of dollars going here, going there, learning this, learning that, sponsoring this, sponsoring that. The cost you must pay is tremendous. That is what it is worth. In fact, you cannot buy the dharma, for you have to deserve it by merit. Yes, you cannot BUY the dharma.

If you want something that will give you liberation, and take you out of the realm of reincarnation that you’ve been stuck in for endless time, that will give you control over birth and death, or win you samadhi states and rebirth states far better than anything the richest man in the world can ever possibly enjoy, and if you want that but you’re not willing to give up anything for it or sponsor teachings, you’re just an ignoramus. Yes, the word is “ignoramus.” You certainly don’t know how the universe works. It all works on cause and effect, and in cause and effect, nothing is free. You ONLY get what you deserve, so what did you do to deserve it? There is a causal cost to everything even if you don’t see it. It’s just your own good fortune this life of plenty that’s blinding you from the realization of these facts. Go travel through Africa or South America and third world countries and experience the poverty that has been there for thousands of years, and then you’ll wake up a bit and see …

The real question then is, what are you willing to pay to achieve the dharma?

The Second Zen Patriach Huiko spent years studying Buddhism as a monk, and then cut off his arm for the dharma. The Sixth Patriarch had to run for his life after getting the dharma, and was pursued for many years. And you want an ebook for free….

Marpa would gather gold to make offerings for the esoteric teachings, even though some of his teachers threw it away (showing they were indifferent ot wealth), still everything that needed to be done had to be done. It is the right way. His travels cost money — the food, lodging, transportation, the offerings he made for teachings — there were costs to learn the dharma and bring it from one area to another. Many would risk life and limb to do so …. so who said the dharma is free? It certainly cost some people a lot. People don’t know the history of people in all sorts of religions who struggled for the dharma and what they bore to achieve it. If you want it easy, you have to contribute.

Can you say these ancient people are the stupid ones, or that you are a lucky one? Or should we say you are just being presumptuous to ask that “spiritual teachings should be free”? Where are your efforts in that direction? One time my own teacher arose out of his meditation and told the two of us students present that he had just been taught a new mantra from Di Tsang Wang that the Hell Buddha had discovered could quickly help transform your body. He didn’t teach us the mantra but laughed at the thought, saying “What makes you guys think you have the merit for such teachings?” If I had given him a million or ten million or billion dollars right then and there, he would still not teach you or me or anyone what we don’t merit. You CANNOT buy the dharma … and you think it should be free. I just laugh. I’m sure you didn’t know this, but it is the way it is — the dharma must be supported, but it cannot be bought. You need a lot of merit to even come in cointact with it. Otherwise, all you come in contact with is crap.

Ha! – who said the dharma is free? Who said you deserve it? Look at the world — 99.999999999% is in ignorance of the dharma. You have to earn it to receive it. You have to support it in order for it to come back to you. In the sutras Buddha explains that even rebuilding a stupa or republishing old sutras or translating them to make the enlighenment teachings alive and available again brings uncountable rewards and blessings, the type that will bring you the dharma your next life … you think your next life will be as easy as this one, and that you’ll get the dharma again? How so if it is dying out and you make no efforts to preserve it? Think again. You’re stuck in this world for many more lives, and it’s only going to get worse. You think it’s going to get better? Why? What are YOU and your friends doing to make that happen. Did you pass the buck again just assuming it would be that way? If you don’t plant the seeds of merit, you cannot, absolutely cannot enjoy the fruits.

You have to merit the dharma to receive it and you do so by practicing it, by maintaining it, by respecting it and by supporting it. Even by reciting sutras or mantras for ghosts and spirits, the dharma will come back to you for the effort you made on their behalf that they cannot repay. The level of teachings you get is the level you deserve. If you want more, you have to earn it. Is this not a cost?

“So what are you willing to do for the dharma’s sake?” That’s the question you must consider.

But this brings up another question. Recently I received a comment from someone saying they would pay me a million dollars to experience samadhi. Well, countless dharma methods are available. They’re free. What’s your problem? Silly person, just practice.

The first samadhi is so ordinary you wouldn’t think it anything special. Did you ever wake up one day after a night’s wonderful restful sleep, and felt so peaceful and calm and refreshed that you forgot your body for a moment? The first dhyana is just like that. What did you expect, bells and whistles or images of the universe with stars and rockets or psychedelic images? It’s just so peaceful, calm and ordinary. Did you think it was like a drug trip or being drunk? Did you think you’d be blissed out so you couldn’t function? That’s only an effect from the transformation of the chi channels and your body’s hormones (the water element previously mentioned). That’s not dhyana. The angels are happy because they are in that calm state and forget their body all the time from moment to moment. But thta’s just samadhi, it’s not the Tao. It’s not enlightenment. The higher you go in samadhi-dhayna, the more equanimous your mind becomes. It’s all just ordinary, empty and ordinary. You bump into samadhi every day without knowing it because then you cover it over with clinging and attachments, fascinations and transfixations and distractions. The first time I experienced “ordinary mind” my teacher made me bow to the first Zen master Bodhidharma, saying, “You can search the universe for countless eons for all sorts of special states and you’ll never find anything other than this.”

Dhyana-samadhi is totally within reach. You just have to cultivate it. But are you cultivating? Do you know the dharma, the principles of practice? (Hey, where are you going to find it if you don’t support it?) And are using a correct proven meditation technique? And are you practicing it correctly? And are you doing it consistently (daily effort) and with intensity (more than just twenty minutes a day)? Can you even find these rudimentary teachings and principle sin Church, in the synagogue or in a mosque or temple? Ha, people are so lost!

Why pay for something within reach? You have to experience it to yourself by letting go of what’s ailing you, as no one can give it to you. No being can save you. The Buddha cannot save you. If he could have he would have, but he cannot. None of the enlightened beings can or they would have already done so. You have to liberate yourself by your own cultivation efforts. Rituals, ceremonies and study won’t do it either.

The idea that someone can save you or liberate you comes from someone’s created false theology. Your karma is yours, not someone else’s karma, so it’s up to you to practice to change it. No one can take on the sins of another — check all the sages across the Eastern schools and you’ll never find this to be said. Ridiculous. You must liberate yourself because it’s your mind that is clinging to ignorance, and you’re the one who must learn how to let go to experience the pure bright original nature that runs through everything. In fact, to liberate yourself you need two things — practice and merit. We’ve already spoken about the need for merit. Now you need to study the principles of cultivation and practice. Hey guess what, you can find hundreds of pages of material on our site for free. No cost to you at all — the real dharma.

If you put in the time and energy you’ll get gong-fu. If you don’t then you won’t. To learn ice skating you need to practice, and to get gong-fu it’s the same thing. Don’t expect it to be anything different, free or not.

That’s it. You need merit and practice to succeed. What are the principles of practice? Emptiness all the way. Mindfulness of emptiness to the end. Just let go, with attachment or clinging to states/thoughts/consciousness that arise(s). Additionally, all meditation methods are built on the principles of cessation-watching, so employ them in practice.

If you need more teachings, you’ll find them on our site or in our books. Yes, we’re a publisher that tries to recover our costs. We never seem to be able to do that, but that’s our problem. Stop complaining that ebooks aren’t free. Their production entails most all the same costs as regular books except the dollar or two for printing. Other than that, why would the costs be any different to make them available? Think it through. If you want to succeed in cultivation you have to think.

And contribute to Haitwater.org for a start … I’ve found the biggest Merit Bang for the Buck I possibly can in telling you about it. And it is the new way, by funding micro projects, to change the world.

The prostate bothers many men. Some tell me they buy a “Prostate Cradle” and use the following protocol, which is the best supplement for the prostate I’ve ever found:

Beachwood Canyon Life Assure   (3 to 4 twice a day and even as high as 6 twice a day) + Jarrow QAbsorb100 (Minimum 2  twice a day till the condition is getting noticeably better)

The very best kidney detox/drainage formula I ever found, perhaps the best in the world, is Pekana’s Renelix.

Weak Adrenal glands? Vital Adapt and/or PowerAdapt from Natura Health Products.

Want a baby? Male reporductive support — Proceptin.

Here are some products I want you to know about…

For Sea Salt, a store that impresses me is Saltworks.us .. check out their Himalyan salt, which has a higher mineral content and greater purity than French sea salt. You can even use sea salt in home space clearing protocols. Drop it in some water. Recite some mantras over it, and fling around the corners of the house for purification purposes. Salt has always been used this way because it is a type of “yin fire” and baddies are “yin”.

http://www.saltworks.us/salt_info/si_gourmet_reference.asp

Want to kill Candida or fungus?
Candisol + Oregacillin

Kidney/Gall stones?
Planetary Formulas Stone Free and Raintree Nutrition Chancpieda tincture

Parasites?
Beachwood Canyon PC 1-2-3

CoQ10?
Try Jarrow brand QAbsorb100

Clean the gunk out of your arteries?
Phoschol + vitamin D (Carlson D2000) + vitamin K-1 (Biotech Pharmachol K-1) + vitamin E (Unique E)

Now that a preventable crisis has the gripping attention of the world’s leaders, what other catastrophic crisis on the horizon is also something that we can identify NOW and act to alter if we become statesmen rather than politicians?

First, AGRICULTURE — our seeds are controlled by one or two companies that have installed terminator genes, don’t allow farmers to reuse the seeds in subsequent years, and we have a mono-culture crop for most food items … this is a recipe waiting for disaster. One world drought or insect boom or climate change or new disease and the mono-crop is all gone. We must encourage small agriculture once again for security’s sake, as a national strategic concern (just as Saudi Arabia once grew wheat for security concerns as well). The government should encourage public seed swap / seed sharing internet groups as a backup to the often failing government and corporate efforts. There should be NO LAWS preventing farmers from using saved seed — this profit maximizing law threatens your life because it threatens your food supply. The government makes laws and says “No” to many things, and this is one of them because of the risks that the corporations will all so deny … just as they did for the current banking crisis. That’s how profit maximization works. It doesn’t care about social, environmental or other costs like this.

The stakes are way too high here foks to let our food supply policies be determined by corporations rather than public officials thinking things through for the public good (instead of saying let’s just let the profit-seeking corporations do it … witness this month’s stock results). Frankly “terminator genes/seeds” should be outlawed, plain and simple, because of the catastrophic risk. So the firms make less money, big deal. I would not let their actions threaten the food supply of my country, would you?

For the rest of the article on Future Catastrophic Risks, click on the link.

For those who want to open up the crown chakra, and who have passed through the previous nine circulations or unbindings which are referred to by different names in Taoism, Tibetan Buddhism, yoga and so forth, remember:

Out through the buddharandra chakra at the back of the head (not the brahmarandra which is about four fingers forward) you push the lobster-scorpion bones and dirty chi
In through the Hai-di, you pull it all back in
Like pulling up a rug or the inner lining of a bottle from the center, you now pull it all up to the frontal star that seems so high in the sky
Pull it on through and to the next level by going through that circular shining you see
And then you have finally inverted it all one unwinding, and pop out on the roof!

You’ll see a thousand briliant stars on a darkened dome shaped sky
Kuan Yin will laugh and greet you at the top, don’t you recognize those stars are the tips of the chakra petals?
Now wait just awhile and rest without making any effort anymore, and then the old chi body will rise into the sky and disappear as its tossed away.
Your body may ache with pain and soreness, but emptiness is your companion, so it all proceeds without need for worries or concern. You should only worry that you don’t work hard to complete the Path.

This is a very very very rare high stage teaching you won’t find written anywhere — neither in Esoteric Buddhism or the tantric schools, Hinduism, yoga, Sufism, Taoism, kabbalah, alchemy or in any form school at all because it is so high and rare, yet it explains how it is all done. When Milarepa reached the first part of this stage, the tips of the 1,000-petalled crown chakra he saw were all yin, so the books say he  generated a thousand penises to f*ck the “thousand quivering vaginas” that appeared in space to combine the yin and yang into one. That was the tantric code for this stage that you cannot understand until you reach it yourself, except I just told you.   At the point I’ve just described, however, which is after the initial breakthrough from the chi bodies of all the five skandhas, this is not necessary anymore. This is now cultivating  much deeper into the “emptiness of phenomena” whereas previous was the initial stage of “emptiness of self.” You cannot get all the gong-fu in one moment. As Samantabadhra Buddha said, at these stages it  happens step by step.

Of course, I’m not describing the unwinding process of the chakras PRIOR to the final push outside the back of the head through the buddharandra aperature. It’s almost impossible to describe the unwinding process other than to say it’s like twisting a sock inside out and tracing it/pulling it and everything it’s attached to  in and out of a tube until the next chakra is found and the process completed from the inside or outside as necessary, turning this way and that etc. etc. A topologist would have a field day describing all the twists and turns you have to do to pull the old chi body completely off the one underneath. The chi layers cover one another so that the chakras and real chi channel system is deformed in shape, just as dipping a metal wire of a certain shape in wax, over and over again, will eventually hide the true shape of the wire. So when I read people offering courses or books on “how to open up the chakras” I just laugh because they never even get to the first unwinding of the process. They’re just making money. They might be well meaning, but they are fooling themselves as to the results of what they are teaching.

You can cultivate all the dhyana without ever doing this, which is what most yogis, saints, sadhus,… in most religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Taoism, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Zoroasterianism, etc.) do – only by opening up the heart chakra do you enable  its completion. I’ve already given you EVERYTHING you need to know to accomplish this EASILY without the need to undertake  the expensive and confusing road of Tibetan Buddhism that tends to muck everybody up who travels it. You would have to study under a lama guru for years, serving him and making tons of offerings, and still you could not and would not receive this enlightenment teaching. It is all scientific, clear and non-mystical and free. But will you do it?

“Free” does not mean there is no cost to progress or for dharma, as people give up life and limb for it, giving up family, home, sex, power, money, comfort all for just this. What have you given  that you deserve such teachings or progress? What efforts have you expended?  What offerings have you made? What work have you done? Where is your sincere practice schedule … uh oh, time to watch TV? If you haven’t yet achieved anything in this life, you have to look inside and blame only yourself. And yet it can be achieved. The fruit is sitting there right on the table in front of you — will you reach out and eat it? Compared to countless others, I’ve made it so simple for you by explaining everything.

It’s impossible to give clear directions to the unbinding process in detail. The FINAL END of that process is to dump the junk out the back of the head. That’s all the instructions I can give not because it’s secret, but because you can’t describe it with clear directions. Every time you complete several of these your old chi body is cast away, and after many you break through a skandha. At least that’s the TANTRIC way — if you use prajna wisdom you just jump over all this. This is cultivating the sambhogakaya, the Reward Body, the Enjoyment Body, the rupakaya. Of course it cannot even start to be worked on until you open up the heart chakra such as by using the Vairocana-Zhunti Tantra I’ve given you. It all starts at that process. And that process cannot be accomplished until you first accumulate merit for the path, and undergo preparatory practices to partially clean your chi channels … for you can’t do it in one go.

Gosh, too many secrets revealed. You should give this to your fine Tibetan monk friends to help them.

A yogi who has spent innumerable lives cultivating knows the worth of what I’ve just written, even though you may not even fathom it, and would gladly pay millions, billions, trillions or more for this teaching but I’m giving it to you all laid out without any sweat or work or anything on your part. If you teach this to others your merit will be unsurpassed, and you are sure to get the teaching when you need it. The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas all use the chakra at the back of the head to complete the yogic part of transformation - so should you. When someone achieves this, it can change the fate of a country, race, nation, world, system or Buddhaland, and so there is usually an immediate response just as there is when a great man is born into a people or nation.  It is so rare, so rare, so rare.

If I’m right, the Wu Cho dialogue with Manjushri –  ”In front 3 3, in back 3 3″ (”in front three by three, in back three by three”) of Zen might be translated as “Previous to breaking through the consciousness skandha, there are three unwindings/unbindings of the complete chakra system for each of the conception, volition and consciousness skandhas. Afterwards to open up the crown chakra …” So it might mean “Previous to, there are 3 x 3… Coming later, there are still 3 x 3…” Actually, I don’t know how many times you unwind the chakras because you honestly end up losing count — it’s so tiring and so many things happen at each stage and you just have to keep going without keeping track of numbers. I’m guessing it’s nine but I don’t know for sure because I didn’t count; there are so many stages of gong-fu that occupy your mind more than counting. Who cares as to the number anyway? We’re just discussing a point. Don’t be pedantic. How should you even know you should count or that the process is going to repeat itself? I didn’t until several went by.  I’m just like a kindly old grandmother who tells you everything, so you should have an easier time of it than me because I have to figure everything out myself.

“Nine” in some schools is also sometimes used just to denote a large number. In any case, this unwinding process is the REAL meaning of the Tao school circulations or revolutions, not the spinning of chi that many times. Imaging that your chi spins/circulates a number of times gets you nowhere near this real stage of accomplishment. As I mentioned, you can cultivate all four dhyana and four formless samadhi absorptions without ever accomplishing this. Only Buddhism teaches you how to get this far - No other school for this world has this completion stage. You typically only “open” chakras at a trivial level, and they look open (but are really covered with wax, so-to-speak without you knowing it) but aren’t at this stage, on so many other paths. That’s why  you get only deceptive semblance dharma and a master can beat you in a spiritual battle. It may look like what people say the first or second or third etc. dhyana is, but it isn’t really the first, or second or third etc. dhyana….Gosh, I’m telling you so much, revealing so much no one ever explains.

Also remember that Wu Cho is shown a crystal bowl in the story of 3 x 3 … and the Diamond Grotto (the crown chakra at this stage), so it matches on this meaning as well. Of course, this is still speculation because I cannot read ancient Chinese, so the meaning three three might refer to something simpler, yet you now have this glorious teaching. Protect it. You can look up the story by googling “Manjusri + three + wu cho” for THE KOAN, by Steven Heine book result.

To me the “3 gates” of Zen may also be taken to refer to the task of the “front 3 3″ just mentioned – the task of breaking through the conception skandha (initial enlightenment), volition skandha (seeing the source of life and creation/destruction), and consciousness skandha (the merging of two empty purities into one another after the state of “no inside nor outside”). You definitely will pass through this before the opening of the crown chakra.

At least that’s my opinion. I’ll have to ask Master Nan Huai-chin. He’s the only one left who knows. No one ever talks about this stuff. Why are you so lucky for someone to tell you everything so clearly?

The talk I usually give around the world on the “changing of the guard” in US supremacy is too big to be posted, but here’s the relevant words that address the moment:

* No country stays at the #1 Superpower position forever. Previous to the US it was England, and previous to England (in the Western World) we saw the French, Spanish, Netherlands, Portugal, Venice, etc. That’s just the western world we’re talking about.

* The world supremacy cycle usually lasts about 150 years. A country is usually recognized as “the tops” for about 100 of those years, the first years ignored as the young upstart slowly establishes itself. Witness China the next leader. Within these cycles are large term Kondratieff cycles that on average last around 54 years (the 60 years Indian and Chinese cycle, Jewish 50 year Jubille, Mayan 54 year calendar, 3 generations, etc.). We are in the Autumn entering Winter phase of the current Kondratieff cycle that was longer than usual because of the inflationary policies of the FED started by Greenspan, which temporarily delayed the crash side … but in so doing amplified the underlying forces of too much debt of the wrong type. Austrian economics explains the boom/bust characteristics quite nicely. It is ALWAYS too much debt that looked safe that takes the leader down, along with a lack of regulation, excessiveness (greed), and mind-set that ignored the dictum “the best bank is to store money among the people (not corporations, banks or the government).” The country as it plummets usually turns socialistic in tone. Conservatism returns, protectionism, and debt destruction. A negative social mood breeds an enviroment too ready for war that increases the destruction. War is not the solution, and cannot start a consumptive uptrend.

* The LONG TERM bottom of the current cycle is probably 2014-2015 if we use long term cycle analysis (see timingsolution.com). Between now and then, lots of ups (2009 and 2010) and also downs. It is a period of deflation – destruction of debt and value of property. Cash is king. The value of safe cash increases over everything else.

* The only way out is not inflation, but the Schumpter destruction-creation cycle. New waves of innovation and MASSIVE efficient changes in infrastructure, transportation, energy, banking, etc. can power the uptrends, such as the following past waves in the US:
Cotton/textile: 1787-1842 (Canals, roads, bridges, agriculture, commerce)
Railroad/industrial: 1842-1896 (railroads)
Mass Production: 1896-1949 (Electronics, communications, chemicals)
Information: 1949-2004 (Electronics, consumerism, aerospace, internet)
The government MUST work on promoting this type of massive structural change, like a giant NASA project though in multiple directions. Hidden away projects must be released that can provide breathroughs in energy, transportation, cost recduction, materials, etc. It is the ONLY thing that works.

* As examples, here are sample previous western K-waves in the west that powered the uptrend until debt took each one down or a new trend eclipsed the old trend and became the new powering force (see Michael Alexander):
British rum/tobacco/slave trade
Spanish silver/Sugar
Portuguese gold
Portuguese pepper trade
English textiles boom
English wool
Dutch Asian shipping

* In China, some sample K-waves were (see Modelski and Thompson):
Printing paper/woodblock printing: 930-990 (informational)
National market/new rice/iron casting/paper currency: 990-1060 (networks)
Public finance/tribute system: 1060-1120 (new political framework)
Maritime Trade/compass: 1120-1190 (new global trade)

* The only thing that brings us out of these is a NEW economic force of new possibilities to make money because of a new revolutionary introduction into the economy of something, as illustrated, not a war. The destruction of the old capital base dries up the availability of capital, but new capital will come out of the woodwork if something new is found that displaces the old capital base that was previously the predominant power that demanded protection. After all, it’s already destroyed at the bottom, so there is no use to protect the old base anymore and prevent the new paradigm from manifesting. Such as — a cheaper source of energy, cheaper transportation, more efficient manufacturing system, invention of new revolutionay materials, new informational system, etc. as you can glean from the above examples. For instance, the US governemment (see Greene) has locked away in off book projects many technologies it does not want released that might start the whole thing anew by launching a boom that can absorb the losses even now. Capital will come from everywhere, even after a more devastating final destructive bottom is reached, to risk on these new things. This is the ONLY thing that can help .. not inflation.

* You will definitely see higher taxes. Kuan Tzu would predict that you may even see several countries combining their financial or monetary systems (ex. US and Canada) to get over this.

* History shows you may also see the taxing of non-profits, Foundations and university endowments. Whenever they grow too large, as is the case, and exert too much influence or control, this has happened in the past (France, India, China). Regardless of the religion, it happens. The large non-profit Foundations (Ford, Rockefeller, …) are prime targets.

* You may even see the splitting up of countries because of Federal government decisions to make unwise forays elsewhere that cause national repercussions, or due to the institution of national policies against populist wishes, and then a clamp down on the possible protests by citizens or more intrusions on citizens. Resenting this, and for a variety of other reasons too numerous to mention, countries sometimes split along economic, cultural, language, religious, or mind-set lines.

* The most irresponsible, arrogant, imbecile, stupid, imprudent “screw you rest of the world I’m doing what I want” threatening thing anyone can do right now is invade a country like Iran which is seen as a “maybe possible threat after five years or so.” It’s the worst possible thing that can happen at such a vulnerable juncture, especially when time is on the side of waiting. Remember, there is no immediate threat, and the future threat is only a theoretical possibility. If this can be avoided and people hold on their heads, we have a good chance.

Solution:
Pay attention to the cycles for your investments, but remember cash is king
Encourage the government to release its off book projects that might power a new uptrend, or stop suppressing changes that obliviate billions/trillions in previous infrastructure (ex. solar power, electric car, …)
Be careful of placing people in power whose mindset is asura-like

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I just found a quick way to find our out of print books at reasonable prices.

Got to www.Bookfinder.com and put in the title or the author.

Simple as that.

This is exciting … I always try to report on supplements and techniques that might help people regain the use of declining senses – sight, hearing, taste, etc.

Naturally you know zinc supplementation can restore the taste capabilities in people who’ve lost it. It’s a winner.

You’re probably sick of hearing about bilberry, gingko, lutein, and zeaxanthan for macular degeneration, or vitamin A plus NAC eyedrops (Life Extension supplements) plus Chinese Ba wei wan for cataracts…

What’s really exciting is to hear Dr. Jonathan Wright report that bio-identical aldosterone therapy often brings back hearing in people who have lost it. See the October 2008 (vol 15, issue #8) for details.

Bio-identical aldosterone for hearing loss!

Many people ask me about market cycles and so forth.

Either it has bottomed now, or a late October low (October 20 week).

Whichever it is, a rally into December, then the window dressing fall as funds change their portfolio before year end, and then rally to mid January, and then fall into late March/early April 2009.

Somewhere in 2009 we have a bottom (perhaps that is it), and then a rocket rally up to 2010 and then fall for years thereafter until the real mess works its way through the system … probably ending 2014-2015 by cycles work.

Here’s the best charts I can find: