The Sixth Sense
Shoshin
No one in particularNowhere Special Veteran
Well I went for a swim this morning before getting ready for work, and as I was floating on my back, the mind started to recall the thread I posted the other day on the close shave a surfer had with a great white shark, it was captured by drone...Anyhow as I was wading out of the water a Manta ray swam across my path, it was between me and the shore...I must admit I was a bit surprised (I nearly stepped on it)....
What was weird was, how the shark thing popped into the mind whilst floating on my back, prior to the Manta ray's encounter...It was as if the mind was preparing me for some sort of up close sea creature encounter...
Every now and again I have these sort of six sense premonitions....
The Mind is the root from which all things grow!
Well I'm just off to work ....
Comments
Hi @Shoshin - interesting.....
Not sure if it's similar but I occasionally have an experience when I am dreaming of, for example, someone holding a hammer which they lift and slam down with a bang. At the same time a door might close somewhere else in my house.
How does my mind know the door is going to close?
Sounds like you were in an altered state of consciousness while floating, OP. Dzogchen master Namkhai Norbu used his love of swimming to overcome his cancer by natural means. He used swimming as a healing meditation, and it worked. His cancer went into remission, and AFAIK, he's been fine since.
We can access all manner of helpful powers through meditation. It's the door to the right side of the brain, the intuitive faculties.
Cool. Not getting attached is key. It is a confirmation of sustained practice.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_mind
Don't think of a Buddha! Too late Metta Ray. Buddha in a shark.
Oh Mantra Ray ... ?
OM MANI PEME hmmm ... 
I had read somewhere @Bunks that when we experience this it happens after the fact ...It happens a split second after...It's like a delayed reaction of the senses...
Well yet another strange experience (similar I guess) ...Yesterday evening whilst mediating I experienced what felt like a spider's fangs penetrating the skin of my leg, it was a sharp needle like feeling...After meditation I looked at my leg and there was no puncture marks and the stinging pain had gone...
Next to where I was meditating I had left a bag with some books in that I'm taking to the op shop (I'm moving on Friday) anyhow this morning it was quite dark when I meditated, so I couldn't see into the bag... However this afternoon the sun was shinning bright and coming in through the front door close to where the bag was ... I got another pleasant surprise ..A large sheetweb spider had made a web inside the bag and was sitting in wait for prey...
Which I captured and put outside
If I had just put my hand into the bag to check the books, I could have got a nasty bite...
If I saw that in my tote bag, I know I would've screamed, ran and fainted!
Indeed. I feel this is a natural and confirming process. On the whole traditionally, such faculties remain private, rather than expressions of progress or subtle ego. The reason is very simple. Such experiences are superficially attractive to our early selves, compared to the real practice benefits ...
We have to mind our mined mind field ...
http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/10870/siddhis-and-buddhism
There are different approaches to experiential anomalies. The great teachers like the Buddha have always underplayed or dismissed them. They come and go, some stabilise.
In the Chen yen cult I belonged to for a while, siddhis were sought because their unfolding meant having to develop the corresponding wisdom component. Yep some Buddhists is weird, back to front and inside out ... I still can't fly
(missed the yogic flying class) don't practice tumo etc ...
I feel it is useful to acknowledge and document to a cautious degree ... especially where they may be useful. Some of you may be aware of the well documented, researched and genuine 'ice man' ...
http://highexistence.com/the-wim-hof-method-revealed-how-to-consciously-control-your-immune-system/
I rather suspect none of the monks can fly, it's only some of them are very good at imagining that they are flying
Or perhaps that is just the sceptical scientist in me talking.
Ok so the flying Buddhist monk is suspect...But what about the "Flying Catholic Nun"
What/where was that Chen yen group? Actually, that sounds like an interesting approach; fostering responsibility re: siddhis. Stuart Lachs, who was a Zen monk for many years, studying in Taiwan and Japan, has written about the history of Zen, that in Zen's evolution, the wisdom component was abandoned in favor of the "sudden enlightenment" path. He said the two used to go together, as it was considered essential to develop wisdom along with enlightenment. He feels that it's the abandonment of the wisdom path that is in part responsible for the scandals that have rocked Zen.
I'm intrigued by a "school" or cult (?) that emphasizes the cultivation of wisdom and managing siddhis responsibly.
^^. The Chen Yen or Shingon cult still exists somewhere, possibly in Oxford or Cambridge. I practiced in London where they had a temple. Initially in martial arts and yoga.
This sounds like Terry Dukes chanting who started the group. They still have a website somewhere ...
The main British Shingon Buddhist Association manual I used was a DIY Buddhist mish mash of esoteric teachings, had many useful teachings. I adopted the five element meditation. This is typical of cults. Combining useful and useless ...
http://viewonbuddhism.org/controversy-controversial-teacher-group-center-questionable.html
Shingon? Are those the Namyo-ho-renge-kyo chanters?
^^. No.
The group you are describing is Nichiren based.
The Shingon/Chen Yen group had their own main mantra, which was 'Namu Daishi Kongo Raiden Hum' from what I remember but there were many others employed. Here is something from Terry Dukes if you are interested:
https://shingondharmazazen.wordpress.com/2007/11/16/the-chen-yen-meditation-tradition/
They group may have largely disappeared, however I have a feeling they are still about ...
This may be one of their sites
http://www.shingon.org/teachings/ShingonMikkyo/Shingon.html
Terry Dukes died in 2007
Actually that should be 2003 not 2007
The website also seems to have gone under ...
... and now back to the sixth sense ...