taoguy

I always thought 'five tones' meant not literally listening to music, but turning hearing inwards and away from the 5 tones.

I don't know. Don't create more unnecessary karma? Or cultivate over a million chants yourself?

Thank you for sharing, this music was very "moving", makes something start moving within me. The Pentatonic scale was originally developed by the ancient Chinese with respect to Yin and Yang - Yin being perfect 4ths and Yang being perfect 5ths. Curiously everything else in the chinese system seems to go in fives, like the pentatonic scale with 5 notes, like 5-elements or 5-organ-systems. Being from an Eastern orchestra in the past, I was ear-trained in Cello and could tell that there were discrepancies in high pitches between Western equal-temperament notes (which are like averages) and the sharp-precise tones of Eastern music. As Eastern music increases in pitch, the deviations become wider and wider, whereas Western music tends to try to 'constrict', 'average' and "mathematize". As such Eastern high pitches then to be deviated by several frequencies when compared to Western pitches. For example, a C note in a low octave will be the same as the C note in a much higher octave for Western music; a C note in a low octave will be slightly lower compared to the higher-octave C in Asian music. Kind of similar to how modern scientific thinking is all about "categorizing", "averaging" and calculating, whereas Eastern philosophy is about moving along with nature and harmony.

Nan Huai Chin teaches using a "Wooden-Fish" (that wooden-thing monks hit with sticks in Chan monasteries). "Namo sadoh nan samiao sampuduo jizinan dazheduo om zheli zhuli zhunti soha." --- the bolded parts is where the drum hits. Try it haha, it makes recitation much easier. The Ji-Shou-Gui-Yi part is just the supplication part of the dharani - a tribute/invocation. The actual dharani starts from "Namo".

You got me... I forget sometimes. I usually start my practice with bodhi-citta, so more of a pre-dedication. So I chant mantras/supplications for the sake of my parents, or friends, or relatives, or Dharma-friends. I need to remind myself to do post-dedications more often!! And also remember to scatter my mudras over my crown, I always forget to do this.

Hmm it does seem like your method is very similar in principle, if not identical - just that you stop after 15 minutes for a pause and my practice stops after a single exhalation. This method I use comes from understanding of the same lectures by the Chan master who propagated this Zhunti mantra, Nan Huai Chin (Disclaimer: I do not mean that this is exactly what he said about all mantra practices, but my own understanding! Heaven forbid that I ever put my limited words into his mouth...) What I find is that the gap after the chant becomes longer and longer over the practice session until it is able to hold itself for a prolonged period of time. If mind becomes agitated or starts moving, it restarts the inhalation and interrupts the cessation time. In one of NHJ's lectures, he taught that true Cessation (or Shamatha) only comes when the external-breath itself seems to stop, also known as 止息 (Zhi-Hsi in Tientai Sect). At this time it switches into inner-breath (内息 Nei-Hsi), producing the natural physiological function of the primordial tum-mo/kundalini (拙火 Zhuo-Huo). He said that this normally happens in the gap after the exhalation. The reason of why an inhalation continues to come after, according to my understanding of his lecture, it is that the mind has moved with thoughts (whether coarse or subtle). When mind moves, breath moves, therefore inhalation (birth) comes again, leading to a exhalation (death). One full cycle of breath is also called one Contemplation (念 Nien). My understanding of it is that mantras release "stale-winds" through the use of the mouth from the Five Organs (of course, not only having a physiological effect). When inhaling, the mouth is shut closed and inhaled through nostrils. This is similar to the Taoist's Six Healing Sounds which he teaches. Also Om-Ah-Hung, Namo Amitofo and Medicine Buddha dharani which he also teaches. I believe it leads to the calming down of the bodily agitations and hence leading to a more conducive cessation of mind-stream. I absolutely agree with you about resting in that space as long as possible. And also to resume chanting when mind starts to move again (because of inhalation due to thought-movement, there must be exhalation). Very very similar.

According to the Chan master who first propagated this Zhunti method to Asia, he mentioned this in answer: Translation: Based on this, I assume that this overhead light is a seal of empowerment given by Zhunti Mother-Buddha herself, so that the chant becomes even more effective due to the special connection to the lineage. I am not sure however, whether if we receive this sign, that we should cut it down to 'om zheli zhuli zhunti soha' to accomplish more repetitions. I read somewhere that it has to be 1,000,000 recitations. But I'll stick to the long-form. Other points worth of note from the same lecture from the Chan master: Don't teach other people how to chant until we have accomplished and cultivated it properly. Should do Preta ghost food offering every night. If ending prematurely the sadhana, imagine the Sanskrit "LAH" word on the tongue. Some people get nightmares, because the mind becomes more clear and the dirtiness can be seen clearer. Body, speech and mind (yi) must all be clear/bright. When they are not clear, one method is to hold the breath (not nine-bottled wind!). People will be revitalised after holding breath, then expel the air quickly and forcefully. Discomfort in body? Don't care about unevenness of chi or discomfort, just push all of it through the crown and merge into emptiness. The dharani should be done together with Samantabhadra's Vows. For the visualization, just use an impression initially. When the state/alambana/realm is reached, there is no need to visualize and the real Bodhisattva will appear and merge with you. 'Om mani padme hum' part of sadhana uses Lotus/Padma Mudra. Scatter all Mudras over the crown. Don't let anyone else see the sadhana if they are likely to disparage the sadhana. It causes bad karma for both you and everyone else. If they do not disparage it is fine, but you can also cover the mudra. Zhunti mantra deals with Body karma, Speech karma and Mind karma by "giving body, speech and mind things to do". No restrictions. Other mantras require things like 5 forbidden pungent vegetables like Shurangama. Also, Zhunti can be done anywhere, continuously reciting when doing daily things. Bare minimum count is 100,000. According to him, it used to be 20,000 but nowadays karma is getting heavier and heavier. Hope it helps people! Please take it with a pinch of salt, it is based off a mediocre/non-expert translation of the master's words...

My understanding is that deity sadhana and the mantra are done both at the same time. The visualisation ties up the eye-consciousness and the mantra ties up the ear-consciousness, a yoga of light and sound inversion (In Shurangama Sutra, Guan-shih-yin Bodhisattva entered by sound and Guan-zr-zai Bodhisattva entered by light. Also worthy of note is that Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva entered by Buddha-mindfulness...). The 'space of silence' is usually straight after we finish the exhalation, where we wait until the mind stirs itself (seeds ripening from the Alaya consciousness) and causes an inhalation to happen. AKA - the anapana method where we exhale dirty chi through the mouth using different sounds, while concentrating the hearing on the sound of the dharani and the seeing on the deity visualisation. Then after breathing out bad chi using the chant, thoughts are no longer there and there is spaciousness. The only time we take another breath is when the mind itself stirs and the body wants to take in another breath by itself. IMHO, this space between exhalation and inhalation is already the "space of silence" and the quiet "Aaah" is actually the chant itself. Haha pls correct me if i'm wrong, it's just the way I've been practising so far.

I noticed this as well, it seems to accelerate the fruition of negative (or positive) karma which would otherwise take much longer to surface. As I recall, a Chan master said this sort of dharani works at the level of the Alaya consciousness, so it would make sense. It is very important to turn the hearing around and listen to the Dharani as you chant, and absorb into the sound, matching together with the exhalation. There were several times where I felt like my entire head was lit up by an internal source, as if there was some kind of sun shining down on me even though i had eyes closed.

A very interesting experience that I had (of course, just basic) was that suddenly I couldn't feel my arms while doing today's practice. For example, when doing that taiji movement of pressing down 3 times, my hand sensation just disappeared. It was like I knew it was there, but I couldn't feel it at all. It felt... so light. As if I could leave my hands sticking out at that angle without any muscular tension at all. Then my body became like that as well. I've never had this happen in my practice before. It felt so weird, as if I knew my arms were there, but yet there weren't there. But I need to work on some forms from levels 1-3 to get a better foundation. I do have some glimpses of colors, but I feel like they are produced from visualization, because they vanish easily. So it's possibly just a passing hallucination/reaction rather than being in that actual state of samadhi. Yeah, definitely keep going, FPQG seems to always pull a strange new phenomenon out of nowhere that makes you scratch your head.

I read something interesting, and wondered if this blue state has anything in common with the sage Nisargadatta: Just worthy of note, Nisargadatta relinquished the notion of "I Am" in the last few years of his life: But digression aside, I was wondering if the blue color perceived in FPQG is related to this dark-blue - perhaps a precursor? Just curious! ---- BTW, just to share again a list that Sifu Terry shared for reading: For Secret of the Golden Flower, I read this version, which seemed to be a good complement to the Cleary translation. Tibetan Yoga & Secret Doctrines still seem quite difficult for me, though I do recognize some of the practices.

As far as I'm aware of, the Buddhist definition of emptiness is not the same as the Taoist's definition, so let's keep it at the Buddhist's definition in this topic. Sunyata seems to have multiple meanings and is pretty strange to me. For example: Some claim it is emptiness of self - which means the principle of anatta, where there is no present entity in either form, sensation, perception, karmic-formations or volition/consciousness. Other masters claim it is in fact interdependence, such as Thich Nhat Hanh and the 17th Karmapa, where we are one interconnected web, so the 'sense of self' should be devoted to this huge web of a bigger Self. Yet others claim that emptiness is the voidness of karmic hindrances. Emptiness also seems to be a realm where false-thoughts/delusions no longer arise, such as in the higher Bodhisattva Bhumi stages where dreams no longer arise, for example. Yet another one is the Jackson's Dzogchen view where no entity has ever risen nor passed away in rigpa and is ever-present. Yet another master claims that emptiness is One Taste, where the entire stream of consciousness whether thoughts rise or do not rise is taken as the object of meditation itself. How exactly are these views reconciled? I do understand how they link in theory, but experientially... what exactly is the emptiness meant in the Prajnaparamita Sutras?

https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Longevity-Transformation-Huai-Chin-Nan/dp/087728542X

Thank you for this, especially on elucidating how psychic knowledge is another illusory layer that does not necessarily mean enlightenment, because this has been bugging me for quite a while. It's very strange, but I realize that it could be simple activity of the brain's neurons as apart to the actual spirit. But it is certainly confusing when I see things like the inside of another person's house in a different time-space in deep-dreams, and all of these things. I've learnt to relinquish them and just treat them as having accidentally touched these dimensions. I do not really crave psychic knowledge as much as I do liberation. When I was really young, I had thoughts of living an extremely simple life away from society as a cave-man, because I felt like the world was just an overly-sophisticated maze of man's craving, including economic-systems, mathematics, social sciences, so on and on, it was really overwhelming for me and it took me a while to assimilate into society. I still remain detached to society and understand fully how impermanent this life is, and how we inch closer to death at every point. I still remain lost however, so I really wish to seek that "truthful understanding" you mention.

I'm thinking of booking an Eric Isen reading as well, to see if my mantra practice complements Flying Phoenix haha. Thanks for the reminder, I had it in mind the other week but it completely slipped my mind. Maybe he'll have some kind of remedy for recovering from my long-hours of work too. I find this increasingly true. I recently had a few nightmares where I was half-lucid and was chanting mantras throughout my entire sleep hahaha. FPQG + zuo-wang meditation seems to have enhanced that ability to be lucid.

Thank you Sifu Terry. I can absolutely see this, I just did quiet sitting right after some short FPQG practice yesterday again and the energizing effect seems to be on a different level. Today I woke up after just 5 hours of sleep feeling extremely refreshed but I am unsure whether to attribute it to this practice, so I will just continue doing this to see what happens. I was literally unable to go back to sleep after waking up, this has never really happened before because I normally have massive sleep debt from working long hours. Also, my energy levels seem to be high even late in the afternoon as I type this. Yesterday when meditating, I was able to slip into a state of non-duality where there was no content or perceiver. It was intermittent, slipping in and out of the state and I hope I can stabilize that soon. It's a little astonishing how the FPQG enables this so easily, and all I did was basic zuo-wang meditation. Also hopefully I can extend my timings for the forms by going deeper into stillness.

I was contemplating this post the other day and started to add in sitting meditation (staying in pure awareness with detachment to objects) for about an hour just after a session of FPQG (ie. long-form plus other statics). The results were very interesting - My heart seemed to glow with a lot of joy and blissfulness and it continued through the day. So I'm definitely not cutting out quiet-sitting practice for sure. One thing I realized was that the clinging habits or tendencies became weaker after the entire session (FPQG + quiet-sitting). FPQG helped to establish that very serene-mind which made quiet-sitting much easier. Since both of them were not 'cognitive' in nature (ie. requiring some kind of conceptualizing) I thought they worked pretty well together as well. I wanted to clarify though - I think Sifu terry mentioned that the quiet sitting in FPQG was the warmup meditations in vol 2 - Is this much different from sitting in emptiness meditation?

Thank you for the correction Sifu Terry. I'll continue working on the forms and not presume things based off other systems.

Removed.

Oh, no - I meant doing it the way you did - one round per one breath sequence - three times. I have not done multiple rounds with one breath sequence yet, but was wondering if it was possible.

I'm curious, doesn't FP produce a blue colour and not a deep-blue like violet? Correct me if I'm mistaken...

Yes I meant repeating the long volume 4 meditation multiple times (I apologize for not being clearer). When I did the long-form about 3 times today (opening and closing appropriately each time), I could feel a huge difference in energy levels and how the energy seems to 'fill' or perfuse the entire brain and spread throughout the body. I was wondering whether it was mandatory to do the closing breath and then reopen the form before I repeated the form because the breathing sequence takes cognitive effort for me and I find that it makes me 'snap out' of the stillness that I was in to restart the form. One reason why I enjoy the Monk Serves Wine sitting meditations because I don't have to restart them continuously and can repeat for an indefinite amount of times.

Just a short question... For the volume 4 meditations, is it mandatory to end and then start off with the breathing sequence every one time? Or can you just do one breathing sequence and continue accordingly?

Thank you for explaining the systems Sifu. I think it does mean "collection" in dharma-kaya. I think I also agree that it might not be a 'physical' body, perhaps similar to an astral body. For manomayakaya in the Pali literature of the Suttas (Samannaphala Sutta) here is what was written: I believe this is the body that Bodhisattvas and Buddhas appear to us in (maybe nirmanakaya?), perhaps also synonymous with the Tibetan rainbow bodies or vajra-body (diamond-body). I think it is called the Merkabah in Jewish mysticism. The "immortal fetus or seed" reference comes from the book Taoist Yoga translated by Charles Luk (page 130). But I see the point, because Nan Huai Jin, the Chan master, always said that focusing on awakening to Tao or the dharmakaya is much more important than acquiring a 'body' because they come from emptiness anyway.

I was just a little curious, seeing that Sifu Terry has knowledge in the yogic arts. Does FP somehow help in building the "Yang Shen", the immortal fetus or in Buddhism, the mind-generated body (mano-kaya)? Or would that be more of TTP?