Feeling healing energy

[sage]

Hi,

I am little confused about something and wanted to get your opinion on. I have been regularly practicing Vipassana last 6 years now. I seem to be noticing healing power in my hands. And it feels like unintentionally I am healing people around me. I am very strict with my meditation practice and sit daily and do not practice any other modalities. I do seem to have this ability as an inborn ability, though...I've reached to some of my memories of this strange healing power and it seems I shut them down along the way. So this is not something I am desiring to have or use it on others to heal or such. It feels like I do have it naturally/innately in me and I don't know what to do with it.

Shall i just ignore it and keep going?

This is a different story, but after my first 10 day course, I started to hear what people are thinking. I got kind of freaked out and shut it down. In my second course, I decided to speak with the AT before the course starts because I was little worried that something can happen to me that I can't fully understand. I told the AT about what happened after my first course and I am not sure If I want to have an ability like that I said. He looked at me and made that hand gesture to let me get out the meditation hall while telling me 'you'll know, you'll know at the end of the class...now leave.' which I found very discouraging, but haven't given up on my practice.

I just seem to shut down whatever it comes and started to wonder now if it is the way to handle these kinds of may be innate, supernatural abilities.

Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks,

[redalert]

Hi,

I am little confused about something and wanted to get your opinion on. I have been regularly practicing Vipassana last 6 years now. I seem to be noticing healing power in my hands. And it feels like unintentionally I am healing people around me. I am very strict with my meditation practice and sit daily and do not practice any other modalities. I do seem to have this ability as an inborn ability, though...I've reached to some of my memories of this strange healing power and it seems I shut them down along the way. So this is not something I am desiring to have or use it on others to heal or such. It feels like I do have it naturally/innately in me and I don't know what to do with it.

Shall i just ignore it and keep going?

I believe this healing practice is Reiki. The practice of vipassana is to simply observe this energy, to see this energy as impermanent, not mine. So we don't want to ignore it, we want to observe it. I've met a few people who practice using this energy to heal others, it is important to understand this is not the practice of vipassana. The two are very seperate in practice.  I believe as long as you see the difference between the two and practice each seperately it is compatable.

This is a different story, but after my first 10 day course, I started to hear what people are thinking. I got kind of freaked out and shut it down. In my second course, I decided to speak with the AT before the course starts because I was little worried that something can happen to me that I can't fully understand. I told the AT about what happened after my first course and I am not sure If I want to have an ability like that I said. He looked at me and made that hand gesture to let me get out the meditation hall while telling me 'you'll know, you'll know at the end of the class...now leave.' which I found very discouraging, but haven't given up on my practice.

I just seem to shut down whatever it comes and started to wonder now if it is the way to handle these kinds of may be innate, supernatural abilities.

Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks,

If you can read others minds how will that help to liberate you. You may have this ability but don't get sidetracked with it.  Seperate the vipassana pratice from this (focus inwardly not outwardly). I imagine this is why the AT did not get into this with you as it does not have anything to do with vipassana practice. You are there to learn and practice a technique to purify ones own mind. Not to say you cannot develope this ability outside of practice, just seperate the two. See the practice in its purity and see these supernatural abilities as not the final goal. All the time we spend observing mind, it would be unnatural for us not to learn how to read mind.

[sage]

Thanks, redalert. It makes much more sense to observe it rather than ignoring it. As i said, i am not practicing anything else and not really familiar what reiki is and how it works. And i dont look for these kinds of healing practices or such. When i sat my first course, it was my very first spiritual thing other than few yoga classes i had prior to that. And i wasn't thinking or desiring oh how great would be if i can read other people's minds...i personally think it is useless thing to have for a layman   and it can be really confusing. it just happen to me without me looking for it. I guess it is where my confusion comes...why it is happenining to me and do i need to do anything about it i start wondering.
Yes, it is not the final destination..it seems one crossess them while on the path.

[redalert]

I believe these supernatural powers become aparent with very sharp concentration, I also believe there are other realms we can communicate with. But again this is not the ultimate truth.

We need to take this sharp concentrated mind and focus it inwardly on the object, observing form changing to formlessness. This is the path to the ultimate truth.

I don't think these supernatural abilities are useless, I just wanted to be clear that they are not the ultimate truth and for one to not get caught up with this stuff and have it distract one from the practice.

[Mpgkona]

You say you seem to be healing people around you. Can you expand on this? What sorts of things have you been able to heal, and have you healed family members, friends, strangers etc.

Thanks for your post.

[Masauwu]

Hi Sage,

According to the dhamma teaching, as you train in meditation you gain access to higher strata of mind and sometimes as a consequence you get what some might call unusual powers (documented in the suttas). Whether those powers can be shown to manifest as subjective or objective, it's been a delicate subject. Usually they are acknowledged as a sign of progress but seen as just side effects of the main goal and not worthy of lending them too much interest at the expense of energy invested in training for investigation of reality and ultimately liberation.

Just an opinion.

[Mpgkona]

Very true. Kind of like the story where the Buddha found a man who spent much time teaching himself to levitate across a river. The Buddha told this man, essentially, that it was a waste of effort since there was a good ferry crossing just up the way.

I wouldnt pay too much importance to this, lest you begin to attach yourself to these "powers."