Supervised by Ms.M
Affiliation: KARASU CHANNEL
Traditions studied: 12+ (Western astrology, Four Pillars of Destiny, Nine Star Ki, tarot, runes, palmistry & physiognomy, name numerology, numerology, feng shui, Vedic astrology / Zi Wei, Onmyodo, spiritual reading, and more)
Personal readings: by request via Contact,
currently booked years out
Read about Meditation Finder
About this reading: Meditation is a traditional practice for calming and focusing the mind, rooted deep in Buddhist and yogic tradition. In recent years it has also become a subject of neuroscience and psychology research, with its effects on stress and attention being studied, but results vary from person to person, and nothing here promises or guarantees a benefit. It is not a substitute for medical care, so if you have ongoing physical or mental health concerns, please talk to a doctor or another professional.
Meditation keeps being practiced worldwide, even with its effects varying person to person, arguably because the value lies less in any specific benefit and more in deliberately carving out time to simply sit and do nothing amid a busy life. As we see it here, meditation works less as training for some special ability and more as a small pause button for noticing your own state in the middle of a busy day.
Alongside six techniques drawn from research and traditional practice, this page also offers this site's own spiritual-only options (psychic intuition, clairvoyance and manifestation), which by design have no scientific basis. Those are offered purely as entertainment.
Lore column: Why Is a Buddha Seen During Zazen Called a "Demon Realm"?
A short read on the legends and strange tales around this reading, with this site's own view.
Zen practice has a word, makyo, often rendered "realm of demons." After long hours of sitting, a practitioner may see a Buddha on a golden lotus, hear voices from the heavens, or feel the body float. The "demon" here is said to be whatever obstructs practice. Zen teachers have warned students not to cling to such visions as signs of enlightenment, but to ignore them and keep sitting.
The Edo-period Zen monk Hakuin wrote that in his youth he pushed his training so hard that he fell ill in body and mind, a condition later called "Zen sickness." According to his late work Yasen Kanna, he recovered only after visiting Hakuyushi, a recluse living in the mountains of Shirakawa in Kyoto, who taught him an inner-contemplation method. Hakuyushi is thought to have been a real person, yet his life is told in the tones of a mountain sage.
In medieval times, the idea also spread that a monk grown proud of his own enlightenment would fall after death into the "way of the tengu." Sitting in stillness was seen as something that, one wrong step, could draw a person closer to demons.
In this site's view, the tales of makyo and the tengu's way grew from awe at the very act of looking into the depths of the mind. This is speculation, but practitioners must have known that the darkness inside them ran deeper than expected, and that it could show sweet illusions. The warning "do not trust what you see" may have come from the very people who felt most keenly that meditation truly has the power to move the mind.
Meditation Finder
Meditation is often filed under "spiritual hobby," but a growing body of neuroscience research has started to back up some of its effects. This tool suggests a technique that might suit you right now, drawing on both its traditional background and what science currently understands about it. This doesn't use your birth date.
Right now, what would you most like to work on?
This site's own spiritual meditations (entertainment only)
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