The catalyst for this series occurred on June 1, 2017, when an old nemesis came back to haunt me. Earlier in 2010 I was on a catheter for three months due to ramifications of surgery on my spine. Thankfully, there was no such recurrence for the past seven years—that is up until that awful day in June when I suddenly found myself unable to urinate. Unfortunately, I knew what was next in store for me. A visit to the ER and having a nurse insert the dreaded foley-catheter through the tip of the penis, then proceeding along the extended trek up the urethra, until the catheter reaches the bladder and attaches itself inside—with a balloon inflating to keep it in place. For a man this is a true hell-like experience. A woman experiences agony, too, but only briefly as her urinary track is much shorter than the male—who has to endure nearly a 12-inch excruciating crawl through the urethra before finally culminating at the bladder. To make matters even more unbearable on this particular occasion, being transported for an x-ray to hopefully determine the cause of this recent bout after the catheter was inserted turned-out to be an even more torturous situation. There was a blanket laid over my lap which the transport-person suddenly grabbed-hold of and proceeded to yank it-up, somehow oblivious to the prior emphatic-caution that I was attached to a catheter. Holy Hell! The tube of the catheter was nearly ripped from my body, only somehow remaining in place due to the balloon that kept it attached to the bladder. I bled profusely inside over the next few days as I watched clots of blood issuing forth from the foley-tube into the adjoining urine sack. Of course, I reported this incident to the urologist who just shrugged it off —stipulating that the balloon had kept it all “in place”. Afterwards, I had to endure the tortures of the foley being inside me for the next week. When it was removed, I still was unable to urinate and so had to endure that agonizing procedure all-over again. They were never able to determine the initial cause of my acute urinary-retention. I surmised on my own that it most likely occurred during the rigorous exercises endured while practicing Primordial Qigong. I am no longer a young man in his 30’s and 40’s—I will turn 60 later this month, on August 21st—which, incidentally is the date for the great total solar eclipse…more on this in a blog which will follow at that junction. I was pushing myself beyond the allotted allowance for a man of my age—and I most certainly paid the piper! There is a need to undertake these exercises in a more restrained-fashion. A severe pain had developed on my right side which produced a numbing effect which led to the inability to pee.
I was determined not to have to undergo the tortures of the damned for a third-straight time, and so after the catheter was removed for that second time I tried every trick in the book which was recommended to get the bladder trickling again. Nothing worked. In a most fascinating fashion, this is where the nagas come into the equation. A few years back I had purchased a marvelous statue of Nagakanya:
She was placed in a prominent position in my home but had recently been moved to a different location to make way for a stand with a small lamp which was strategically centered to provide light on a painting which was newly purchased.
Anticipating having to revisit that awful foley for a third time, I happened by chance to pass by Nagakanya; something somehow shifted in my consciousness and I found myself gently touching her crown and fervently invoking her spirit for intercession. Miraculously, my bladder soon began to trickle again as I was empowered to urinate normally once more. Needless to say, I transferred Nagakanya back to that prominent position and moved the painting to the living room. This whole occurrence will strike most people as being strange, but for a Lankavatarian, it is no oddity. Nagakanyas figure most prominently in the Lankavatara Sutra—making their appearance as they do right at the beginning of the text:
Indeed, the Blessed One, surrounded and accompanied by an innumerable host of Nagakanyas including Sakra and Brahma, came out of the palace of the King of Sea-Serpents.
Within the mystic-lore of the Nagas, they oftentimes appear as great healers over certain maladies. They also can manifest as spiritual guardians and are always associated with some type of watery, chthonian dominions. Yea, when you pause and consider it, what better intermediary to invoke in my situation than those miraculous-mystical beings who can even enter (they can change size and shape at will) within the uterin fluid of the male’s urinary tract and thusly making those waters to flow unhindered. Perhaps even more intriguing is how the nagas have been accompanying me throughout this summer-season; this has been one of the “wettest summers” on record in my neck of the woods—somehow a sign that their presence has been very near. Once you start bringing the nagas before your mind’s eye, they will begin to appear in some mystic-manifestation, accompanied with some astounding synchronicities. I don’t state this lightly. In fact, one needs to be quite mindful when doing so, because they WILL manifest in oftentimes powerful ways. In fact, apart from Nagakanya, what has been keeping company with me this summer is a form of Naga-Buddha, a most Maha-Naga indeed! This encounter has afforded me a study-course in Naga-Gnosis. The blogs to follow will reveal how my spirit has been illumined by this Great Naga Spirit.
