somatech

I know of one awakened person who doesn't 'black out' during sleep. He can even hear his body snoring and enjoys it. His path was one of mostly meditation.

Hi Spotless, This is a question regarding the meditation practice you described a few posts above: In a long meditation session I will do Adyashanti's 'allowing everything to be as it is' meditation which is pretty much the meditation you described. However, you also mentioned breathing into the Dan Tian. Do you do this during your meditation? I find if I have something as 'directive' as that during meditation, I won't fully let go into the moment as there is an element of 'doing'. Or for you does it merely become mechanical and so doesn't interfere? Thanks

I did Michael Lomax's distance Stillness Movement course in January. Out of all the qigong and energetic techniques I have done over the years (learnt in person with teachers), the Stillness Movement course was honestly mind blowing. It was technically life changing for me, the energy is something else and I shifted a lot just through the course itself. I wasn't expecting that much from a distance course but I was very surprised. Love the lineage as well. Agreed, its a pity these aren't more regular throughout the year. Also I highly recommend Stillness Movement in general (learnt from the book).

I find it relatable. During, and briefly after a few awakening times, eating food felt really novel, interesting and fun. I couldn't tell if I was hungry or not. There was no desire for it on the level of my feeling of self. Probably as you said, the psychological aspect of 'wanting' food wasn't there. However when I am not in that state or space, my relationship to food is more addictive.

haha thats great!

As spiritual, new age, Eastern becomes more integrated into the West, we will see more and more misunderstanding, manipulation, abuse of these concepts as well as positive use etc. We will need more common sense, and as always, look to see what the energy is behind any claim or argument to see the real reason why someone is using an argument or concept etc.

But its ok to remove junk food and toxic addictive drugs from our diet if we want to? Some people are overly sensitive and strongly affected by certain toxic people. For some people, one such toxic person could exhaust all their energy and pull them out of balance, in the same way addictive drugs do. We can create boundaries if doing so is necessary for getting better and healing. Sometimes you are not superman, and boundaries can be ok and helpful and benefit everyone in the long run as you get better. Buddhism wants peace for everyone, including you. If your systems can't handle a particular circumstance, and you need to rebalance and change those circumstances thats ok. The middle way..

I definitely agree to a balance of moving and sitting practices. My conclusion over time is that most of current Taijiquan, Qigong, and Zhan Zhuang practices including many well known systems today work more specifically with energy, astral and some other bodies, rather than at the highest aspects of self or specifically at the level of consciousness. Although working on lower levels may affect higher levels, many of these techniques are not a direct path to the higher levels in the same way that a direct path is. But they can still have incredible value in one's journey. As far as I know there are teachers of Taoist lineage who teach both today. People have been known to realise their highest self during any practice or in life generally so I would say there is no rule here. But some practices seem to focus specifically on that realisation/awakening of those higher levels and those practices are usually easier to find in other traditions. Sometimes someone will need to work on both directions at different times and balance is probably the key. I see all the time the imbalances of top heavy spiritual people and bottom heavy spiritual people, including in myself. Also I can't agree that standing meditation is better than sitting, I think it would depend on the person and what they want to achieve. Its not for me. There must also be a reason why sages of all traditions over time spent a lot of time 'sitting' doing a practice.

I am the same, usually less chi in the morning, a lot in afternoon or evening. Very late however not so good. Its also the same for my meditation. But everyday is always slightly different too. Some morning qigong sessions have been powerful and afternoon nothing. Agree with posters, if you feel do qigong in the morning, continue doing it then, regardless of what chi you feel. However if you feel really uninspired and feeling nothing, perhaps you are doing it because you think you should be doing it, rather than what your body/energy system wants to do. Sometimes the right practice at the right time is best (and not just sometimes).

I think the question depends entirely on you, your state of consciousness, what you have already activated, what processes have already been set in motion, where your energy is at, what have been your spiritual practices, what is your particular path, whats important to you, your intentions for this life time prior to being born, any set events you organised prior to coming here, what your guides or celestial teachers intend for you (based on any prior agreement with them), and any kind of 'grace' that may be bestowed upon you as you continue living etc etc. I personally think at some point you need to transcend any addiction and attachment to practice. That doesn't mean you stop doing them, but it means that you listen to your inner truth (essentially the Tao at the deepest point) and what it says to do, and not your mind/ego. Often that kind of attachment and addiction becomes a barrier to your spiritual progression and you need to drop it to keep progressing. That means dropping the attachment to the practicing, not necessarily the practices themselves which your truth may direct you to keep doing or learn new ones. You can only go so far holding on really tight.

I tend to think as order leaning towards Yang. But then I look at Vedic Goddess's that are considered to be the organising power of the universe - Saraswati is often said to be that functioning intelligence that makes the infinite number of relationships between two things spontaneously and perfectly co-exist with every other relationship, at every time/space point in reality. Thats sounds pretty orderly to me. I can only agree that Yin and Yang are only themselves and don't equate to anything else, including fitting into human intellectual frameworks. I also wonder why we bother making claims about this stuff, as fun as it is.

Lol. Yes. I was working with the premise of the argument and attempting to turn it back on itself for some ironic humour. Don't know if it really worked.

Yeah I agree with Bearded Dragon's post and the suggestion of really feeling deeply within her while she drums. She has the technical ability, so thats not an obstruction. She may need to pull in her own essence and truth into the drumming and be willing to go on that journey to find out what that is. Most likely it won't happen over night, but who knows. The best musicians are tapped into a deeper truth and they become a vehicle for that truth. You have to be willing to become a vessel and let go into that. As bearded dragon said that lies beyond her thinking mind. The other suggestion would be to focus on her Dan Tien while she drums for like 30 mins and see what happens - And to maintain that focus and awareness there (but not forcing), regardless how cool and interesting the drumming gets.

I think this thread is suspiciously a Yang thread

Good quality is hard to find. Usually, unless you have spent lots of money and made sure you actually get pure from a good source, its not 'pure' anything regardless of what they say. As a general rule, anything from India is not pure at the moment, and lot of their good brands have gone down in quality over last few years. In the past I have flown to Hong Kong to get some pure sandalwood incense from special shops and even then there are grades you need to wade through, but it seems the daoist/buddhist and also Japanese traditions are best at sourcing high grade stuff. If you can't be bothered finding really good sources, some of the Japanese big brands will have good quality stuff at their really expensive end of the range. Shoyeido has some great expensive stuff including their pure sandalwood and aloeswood (also known as agar agar wood?). http://www.shoyeido.com Sometimes if you are lucky your local buddhist temple shop will stock some good sandalwood or aloeswood, but you need to ask for their best/purest/most expensive stuff but even then they may only have average mixed stuff. Sandalwood used to be just Indian sandalwood but real Indian sandalwood is almost impossible to buy because they have almost run out of it in India (endangered species) and they have failed to cultivate properly in India but it is now grown in other countries (but will be slightly different as its grown in different soil/country etc). Australian sandalwood is native to Australia and slightly different in aroma, most people can't tell the difference, even connoisseurs. I prefer it to be honest, its less dark smell. Its slightly cheaper. There is also Indian sandalwood grown there too. Incense is good/powerful for so many things, but the quality of incense is really important. Usually clearing negative energy of all kinds from rooms/houses/spaces and your bodies/energy bodies as well. Also good for setting the tone and setting your intention for a time/space. My favourites remain Aloewood/Sandalwood but I will also use some Frankincense/Sage when the time is right. I also love the elaborate Japanese blends. I have also recently gotten in burning oils a lot as well, and thats another arena thats equally worth attention. Anything good quality just blisses me out! Amazing

What are you practicing is a good question, you may resonate with some teachings/methods more than others, and feel more qi with some practices more than others. Thats not uncommon. Having a teacher can be very helpful, especially the right teacher for you. You may also want a teacher to help speed things up and get some stuff moving (if they can do that). I felt qi in a few months, but I had been meditating long before I started qi gong and was already a sensitive person. But keep practicing, and keep exploring until you find some techniques that make you feel 'good'. Then you know you are hitting upon something that works well with you. Sensitivity is not dependent on how much chi you have. You can have barely any qi and be sensitive to a lot more than people with lots of energy and there are an infinite number of things/layers to be sensitive too. Its more a state of your sensory systems on all your levels. (Edit, as Steve said really well) a good way to refine your sensitivity is to feel and listen intently to what you actually feel, and not what you think you are supposed to feel or how others have described something. Also practice feeling the outer limits of what you can feel, the most refined subtle edge of what you are feeling. If you practice this regularly your sensitivity will grow because you are now paying attention, and you are now opening your awareness to what your bodies are probably already feeling. Also as you seek to feel more subtle things, your bodies will attempt to meet that demand you are now asking of it. Its almost like a muscle. Try to get grounded at the same time if seeking sensitivity. Sensitivity without grounding is not fun. Regarding force, you don't want to be unfocused when doing qigong (ie barely even doing the practice properly) but as mentioned above, you want to be completely relaxed and almost effortless so the qi can move and your mind doesn't block it. Regarding meditation, falling asleep or sleepy with meditation is fine/good. Just means you have fatigue in your system and its coming out. I prescribe to the area of meditation that has nothing to do with force/concentration etc but that is another topic altogether.

I have had liver stagnation and liver attacking spleen symptoms for a very long time. Herbs, acupuncture and qigong/meditation for years didn't solve the problem. They helped alleviate some of the discomfort. Ive seen some of the best healers and alt doctors including in TCM and Ayurveda. I reluctantly realised that my emotional and physical life was the issue - I was emotionally stressed from a particular cause and had been living in a sense of stuckness for a very long time. I guess that was the initiating reason why the liver went out of balance. I had to get out of that situation to really transform myself. As a result things have started changing. The most powerful energy work that I have done has been rebirthing or cathartic breath work - its really cleared a lot of emotional stuckness in the body that nothing else would. Its painful to do too - ie. uncomfortable. However even that alone wasn't enough. I really had to review my life, what I was doing, most particularly what I was ignoring and see all the pain/emotional stuff I was afraid of processing and stepping into that. Ive needed to change my location and face the depth of fear that was around a certain thing and its finally helping. I really tried to avoid all of this by doing the more obvious techniques of herbs/acupuncture/TCM/qigong/meditation but in my case, they couldn't get to the root of the problem. I also suspect that my physical body will take some time to heal from the long term effects of being out of balance but that shouldn't be too much of issue as long as I continue to address the deeper core stuff.