OEITH #214 A Contemporary Form of Chöd

How an ancient Tibetan meditation practice helped me through the night in a dark and haunted place, considering: the non-material existence of ghosts; the potential benefits of paranormal encounters; chöd: a meditation practice for dealing with paranormal experiences; Brighton Town Hall: its history and its ghosts; underground water and electromagnetic fields; the Old Police Cells Museum and a plan for spending the night there; paranormal investigation as a contemporary form of chöd; the aims and rationale of chöd; Machig Labdrön on demons, their nature, and how to deal with them; a paranormal investigation at the museum; the layout of the museum; the story of Henry Solomon; a strange experience of an out-of-place smell; possible interactions between imagination and place; the vigil begins; wrestling with the imagination; footsteps and strange sounds; recurrence of the sounds; what chöd revealed about the nature of fear; conflict between the meditator and the paranormal investigator; a big shock; compassion for a ghost; Kunkhyen Pema Karpo on gods and demons; seeing-through the paranormal as a source of supernormal powers; material explanations; the end of the vigil; reflections on the experience.

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Daniel P. Brown (2006). Pointing Out the Great Way: The Stages of Meditation in the Mahamudra Tradition. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications.

Kate Elms (2011). Henry Solomon (1794-1844), https://tinyurl.com/bdf3urre (brightonmuseums.org.uk). Accessed April 2022.

Machig Labdrön (2013). Machik's Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chöd, translated by Sarah Harding. Boulder, CO: Shambhala.

Old Police Cells Museum (2021). https://www.oldpolicecellsmuseum.com(accessed April 2022).