Devas communicate to meditators through meditative visions and dreams, this one helped me with a back ache problem

 

I've never seen what my Deva friends look like, but from time to time I will get very brief terse message that sound like a voice in my head, or a thought in my head that I know didn't come from me. 

But most of the time, the communication comes in my dreams, in a form of a riddle (similar to MN 23) or a vague hint. Over the years I've had too many to keep count of, and I didn't write any of them down.  Some I figure out quickly, some take weeks and months, and others I never reach a solution, or write off as possibly a random dream. 

Much like the Vammika sutta (MN 23), my deva friends probably are spiritual companions from previous lives and avid meditators. In the beginning when I thought, "I wish you guys would just be explicit and clear in your messages instead of giving me vague hints and riddles to solve." But after awhile I realized what they're doing is brilliant, and really the best way to teach. It also gives them plausible deniability in case their advice goes bad, because I had to be the one to figure it out with some uncertainty, and make the conscious choice whether to follow through taking the advice. 

The lesson applies to teaching humans too. The best way is to give them tools to think critically and give them hints on how to solve the problem on their own. Even if you hand them a solution in great detail on a silver platter, most of them won't pay attention to the details carefully and then soon forget. But if help them to think on their own, then they develop a habit of self reliance and an attitude of Dhamma-vicaya intelligent wise investigation into what is Dharma and not Dharma, what is kusala and not kusala, etc. 

Back to my back ache problem 

A few months ago I had this vision in a dream. Two Buddhist nuns were doing some kind of qigong, making circular motions in front of their torso, similar to qigong exercises that massage the qi around your chest or whole upper torso. I do still have some blockage and lack of optimal qi flow there, so during my regular taiji and qigong sessions I incorporated more of that motion. But it was a qigong drill I already knew how to do and have done, so I was mystified why that vision was given. I did notice the two nuns where doing it more near the anatomical heart area, not centered on the entire torso, so I made a note to mimic that difference. 

After after a few months, I could not discern any difference to my health or qi flow from adding that, so did not continue. 

The past few days in my sitting meditation, I noticed some blockage in my lower back and left side of my back was starting to clear up, because I was getting some electrical current qi flow there, increasing circulation to my left arm, and also loosening some tightness in my right hip and leg. 

And then I figured out what the two nuns were telling me. In my vision, they weren't sitting. But for me, sitting in full lotus position with that lower left back tightness (I don't get that tightness standing), making circular qigong motions in front of my heart has the effect of loosening and moving the whole left side of my back. 

So doing this exercise was not to circulate qi in the front side of the torso, for me this is to loosen the backside of my left. 

Doing this exercise in full lotus will accelerate the fixing of the blockage.

Once again, thanks to my anonymous Deva friends.

I'm quite certain EBT warriors from the past living in other planes also give me inspiration on tracking down crimes against the EBT from time to time, because I know on my own there are things I wouldn't spend so much time tracking down or even getting the notion to investigate in the first place without some kind of external push. 

I also have a standing offer to Abhidhamma and Vism. Devas, you're welcome to visit me in my dreams and meditation to dispute or challenge any of my findings. No takers so far.