The spheres of the mind, part 2

Here we are back with the journey into the secrets of the mind and the Yogis who managed to unlock it.

Milarepa, who was one of the great ones, was a sage and Yogi that have reached levels of mind power, siddhis, spirituality, and enlightenment that are nonparallel in any linage or spiritual path. THE MAGIC LIFE OF MILAREPA portrays the legendary exploits of Tibetan Buddhism's most renowned saint. Full of intrigue, disaster, and amazing feats, it is the heroic story of a man who transforms from an avenging black magician into a supremely powerful yogi, pointing the way to self-knowledge and liberation.

We left Milarepa in my last post after he departed from Marpa's home and he was heading for the isolation of the Himalaya mountains in his quest for solitude and practice. Before he left, Guru Marpa gave him a final blessing and a scroll, Marpa said to Milarepa not to open the scroll, he said the at some point he foresees a great danger for Milarepa and then that will be the time for Milarepa to open the scroll. He must not look at it before.

Milarepa found a cave in a very isolated area and started his long retreat focusing on some of the most esoteric teachings in Tibetan Yoga, from the 6 Yogas of Naropa, as he was taught by his guru Marpa. Among them the Yoga of inner heat, called Tumo.

After a few years of meditation in the mountain cave, Milarepa ran out of food completely. He had no choice but to eat nettles and nettle soup. This was a very difficult time for Milarepa, and he used to pray as follows: " OH MARPA! BLESS ME SO I MAY STAY IN THIS SOLITUDE. THOUGH I FEEL LONELY, LET ME KEEP MY SEAT UNTIL I KNOW MY OWN TRUE MIND."

In this way he continued although his body was getting worst, he became like a skeleton covered in green skin. When hunters came by his cave one day and saw a green skeleton coming out of it, they ran away in fear thinking this was a demon. In difficult hours of meditation, Milarepa would take the scroll his guru gave him and would place it on his head (without opening it) to gain support and encouragement.

Eventually Milarepa got to such a weakened state that he could not meditate anymore and he felt that he could not practice at all and was totally exhausted and depleted. At that time he realized he had reached a dangerous moment and had to have help or he would perish. So Milarepa opened the seal of Marpa's scroll and read it's content.

In the scroll, Marpa described exactly the state Milarepa was in and told Milarepa to do some exercises and use some herbs that would revive him and help him. Practicing according to the instructions immediately Milarepa felt strong, lucid, a state of pure awareness engulfed him and he found that all his practice suddenly became strong and powerful.

Milarepa found he could change the shape of his body at will and surprisingly he noticed he could levitate and fly through the air.

This way, Milarepa meditated in various caves in the Himalayas, he would simply fly from one cave to another and continue his practice and development of his mind and spirit. He manifested various powers of the mind and a very high state of consciousness.

After many years of meditation, Milarepa reached according the some Yogis the highest states of enlightenment any Yogi can aspire for. He has also reached the famous Maha Videya Siddhi, or the power of mental projection. He was saying to his disciples that when he reached that power, he could project his mind to any point in the universe in a fraction of a second and could penetrate with his mind the very fabric of the universe. This power is so amazing that it is impossible to describe it sufficiently with words.

In his later years Milarepa was, according to legends, poisoned by a jealous lama, and when he was near death, Milarepa gave advanced teachings to his disciples and many others who came to listen. For many days Milarepa held discourses on the law of KARMA and the nature of reality. In that time, all kinds of phenomena appeared. All the people attending noticed they could hear exquisite and delicate music playing seemingly from no where, they could smell wonderful odors in the air and rainbows kept appearing in the clear blue sky.

Milarepa concluded his teachings by entering a deep state of Samadhi, surrounded by his disciples and passed away at the age of 84.

This is the life story of one of the greatest Yogis that have ever lived. a man that succeeded in realizing the highest levels of mind and spirituality.

Next on the Third eye, we will look into the story of another amazing Yogi and a master of mental control and mental power, the famous Babaji.

Stay tuned. And please check out my other blogs: Yoga movie reviews and Agama yoga blog.

May you all realize the highest state of Samadhi and develop your mind fully.

The spheres of the mind

When studying the dimensions that the mind can take us to, we find that there are no limits with regards to how far we can go. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the great sage Patanjali mentions the great powers the mind can reach. For example Patanjali mentions the power of great pervasion, known in Sanskrit under the name: Maha Videya Sidhhi. Very few yogis have managed to reach that level of mind control and development in the history of mankind.

One of those few who managed to reach this amazing power was the the most famous yogi of Tibet. The great Milarepa. Milarepa had an amazing life story, starting his life as a black magician and murderer, he was told by his mother to revenge his father's killing, so he studied the black arts from a black magician in Tibet and by preforming an act of conjuring a vision of giant scorpions in front of the horses he tied to the center poles of a house (that all 35 family member who were responsible for his father's death were participating in a celebration at the time) the horses were afraid and while running from the horrible vision, pulled down the house and killed everyone inside by collapsing it.

After that event, Milarepa realized that he has done a horrible deed, and that he created an enormous negative karma that he will have to suffer for much. He decided to eliminate that karma and to leave his home and find salvation.

In his search he was directed to Guru Marpa. Marpa was having a dream, in which he was told that in the next day his most powerful disciple will be walking up the road. Marpa spent the morning waiting by the side of the road. When he saw the young Milarepa coming.

Marpa could immediately see that Milarepa was carrying a huge load of negative Karma so after accepting Milarepa as his disciple he decided to help Milarepa eliminate this big burden by tormenting him.

He gave Milarepa impossible tasks (like building houses on top of high mountains and destroying them at a whim), many times he appeared drunk to Milarepa, just to test Milarepa's faith. And denied Milarepa's requests for initiations many times for no apparent reason.

Milarepa was very unhappy, but kept on with his efforts to liberate himself. He tried asking Marpa's wife for help many times, but Marpa kept on with the bad treatment. Milarepa even tried to steal initiations by faking a letter from Marpa (with the help of Marpa's wife) and this way ask for initiations from a near by other Yogi. But he wouldn't get any results with his newly acquired initiations... since in Yoga no results come from practice without the blessing and consent of the GURU.

Eventually after a long period of suffering, Marpa mellowed and gave Milarepa the most powerful initiations and teachings. Then Milarepa, instinctively knowing he still needed to eliminate more negative karma of his murderous past, he left for an isolated area of the Himalayas near the Everest mountain, found a cave and strated an intense retreat.

This retreat went on for many years (more then 18 years, some yogis say the retreat went on for 30 years) in that retreat some amazing things happened.

This is part 1. Stay tuned for more about Milarepa and mind powers. (check out Agama Yoga school for more about Tibetan yoga and mental disciplines)

The third eye, yoga and spirituality

When speaking about the third eye, most people think of some new age concepts of various kind.

In the Yoga tradition of India and Tibet the third eye is actually a reference to one of the chakras in the human being. The chakras are centers of force, where the human being can accumulate and transmit energy from and to the universe. (for further details about the chakras look at: Agama Yoga school)

Ajna, (Sanskrit for 'command') is the Chakra which is situated in the middle of the forehead of the human being. It is a center of force which corresponds to the mental levels of man and which serves as the command center. By practicing on developing Ajna Chakra the human being can grow spiritually and develop in amazing ways.

Actually, Ajna chakra is much more than that. it is a door way to another universe, so to speak. When the human being starts practicing the esoteric yoga techniques and disciplines for the development of Ajna Chakra, he or she will dive into the realm of pure mental dimensions that the average person does not even suspect possible.

It starts with the increase of intelligence and an increase in the ability of perception of the mind. And the more you practice the more it increases. The practice is usually focused on concentration techniques. The yogis teach us that the mind by it's nature is very turbulent and dynamic, and that makes for the problem. Because it negates the ability to focus it and thus gain the results above mentioned. Therefore all mind culture starts from simple techniques of concentration of the mind.

That's it for now, for more info. please check out the Agama Yoga courses in Thailand and around the world. Soon more will be posted and we'll dive deeper into the fascinating world of Ajna Chakra.