How does one develop psychic powers such as reading the minds of others, and leaving ones body? Are such powers common among meditators? Or do you have to be a monk for years before you can get them? Why would one want to deliberately develop fancy psychic powers? To impress others, to obtain some ...

How does one develop psychic powers such as reading the minds of others, and leaving ones body?
Are such powers common among meditators? Or do you have to be a monk for years before you can get them?

With metta,

Maarten

I have no idea, but that's a beautiful thing nevertheless :) Yes it is a beautiful idea. Maybe it would be wholesome to believe they can feel it, even if this may not be true? It would motivate the practise because you would be doing something more that just cultivating a mindstate, you would feel ...

Afterwards I got the idea that some of them knew I was sending them metta by their reactions. Could this be possible? Perhaps they were picking up that you were feeling metta. Yes, this at least must have been the case. After the talk there was this old Lady just standing there smiling at me, almos...

I have just returned from a visit at Muttodaya in Germany. I have been practicing by myself for about 5 years before this, so it's my first time meeting other buddhists and meditating with them. My main practise is metta and I was sending metta to the people in the hall which was very strong at some...

The Thinker wrote:Hi Maarten, Good talk^ thanks

Yes, it's a great talk and he's a skilled teacher. Just to bad there aren't to many talks of his online.
There are more talks at the site of his monastery if you are interested: http://birken.ca/audio_monastics" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I find it very hard not to control the breath at all. I think you learn to control it less and less as you improve your skill. If you are controlling the breath a lot, maybe you are forcefully connecting the in and out breaths so that in your case there is no discernible pause between the in and out...

Thanks for the support! I'll give all the sugestions a try. I have a feeling I won't be getting into Jhana anytime soon anyway. :) One difference between my previous experience of the breath disappearing more gently is that there were no concerns about it, while the sudden disapearance seems to prov...

Maybe it's uselful if I post the actual simile given: "The simile is: someone is leading you along in the dark. Towards a mountain, and you think the guy knows what he's talking about, but you're stumbling along in the dark, you can't see the mountain. Suddenly there is a lightning flash that reveal...

I've been meditating mostly following Ajahn Brahms instructions. When I was just starting out I had an accidental experience of Jhana. This happened basically exactly like Ajahn Brahm discribes. In the stage before Jhana the breath became very subtle, the in and out breaths vanished and there was ju...

Hello Everyone, I like to listen to dhamma talks a lot and i've heard both Bhante Sujato and Ajahn Sona refer to the experience of stream entry as something that happens similar to a flash of lightning in the dark in which for a moment you glimpse the truth. Is this comparison ever made in the sutta...

In my view getting I'll is the result of bad kamma, and being fortunate enough to have medicine available is good kamma. Refraining from taking the medicine could be good / bad kamma depending on the results.

socoguy78 wrote: Who is the translator? Are they reliable? What publication did this come from?
Much Maha Metta,
Zach

Hi Zach,

If I am not mistaken this formula is found in many places, one such place is:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html

If you practise metta meditation, watch the feeling you generate for all the beings out there. Then compare this feeling to what you call love of life and you have your answer.

The Buddha communicated the qualities of Jhana to us like this: “There is the case where an individual, withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful qualities, enters & remains in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. Again, t...