christian.lanford

Which book

Overdue introduction. I am at the moment mostly interested in self healing. My health deteriorated in the last year which coincided with me practicing buddhist meditation rather eagerly. I don't know if it is the dark night of the soul or just a coincident. I am now practicing Zhineng Qi Gong and seeing some benefits. I am happy to have found this forum.

Now I realize that everyone uses a nick name here.

Maybe someone here can put this in perspective. I was doing an exercise daily for a time: keep looking at a small object in front without blinking or otherwise losing concentration. Up to 1.5 hour, but usually about 40min. My experiences: 1. The object would sometimes appear brighter in color than normal (as in glow). 2. I would sometimes see blue concentric rainbow like (but just one color) phenomena. The circles would sort of appear quite largish and would contract on the object I was observing, as if the circle was flying towards it. 3. For a few minutes after the practice I would sort of see double. That was especially prominent when reading. The letters would all have their copy shifted a bit to the bottom. 4. Tears were flowing out of my eyes, and eyes were sore, making it hard not to blink. That would come and go in waves. That was decreasing the more days I practiced. 5. The tears flowing from my eyes was sometimes preceded by a feeling of something like a small physical object making its way through my body from down my body to the head. It was moving slowly, the whole thing taking about a minute. I would feel it strongest around the middle dantien then throat and then behind the nose, after which tears would flow. The sensation was a pressure, as if a hard object was pushing against the internals of my body, not quite fitting whatever channel it was traveling through. Like swallowing something too large. The last one was the most unexpected and I would be interested in your comments about it. The exercise goal was to train the mind power in order to improve directing qi. Practitioner was supposed to do it until the object disappears. The meditator is still concentrating on the object, but can't see it anymore (next level is observing moving objects). I was assuming that it corresponds to one of the buddhist samadhi levels. I since discontinued the practice because I hit a platoe and I noticed my vision at night getting worse. Any reflective lights would appear very blurry to me, not fun when driving at night. Maybe I'll get back to it after I figure out what was going on.

Thanks. I'll check it out.

Never heard the term Zhine before, but the descriptions sound like Jhanas. http://integrateddaniel.info/book/

Eyes flittering, I remember that too. I was thinking it falls into the same category as blinking. I was concentrating on an edible object os I could reclaim the qi (no idea if that works but was part of the practice instructions). Not sure what you mean by hypnogogic visions.

Can you recommend a teacher in NYC? I am practicing Zhineng Qigong right now, but don't mind changing the system if there is a great teacher available. Or do people rather go to retreats outside around NY?