taoguy

Thank you for that. I was wondering about Kundalini. Has it caused any rising of kundalini from your practice? I mean it entering the central channel and causing crazy feelings of opening of the root chakras and so on.

I was wondering if this form can lead to any kind of deep spiritual realization. All I've seen so far are benefits on health and qi. Would be great to know how it links to jhana, samadhi, kundalini, etc.

I'm super interested in getting classes but I stay outside of the places that he comes to teach classes Sadly. Is it possible to get that transmission through practice/correspondence? I'm currently trying out Flying Phoenix form after having tried SFQ for a few months (really good at opening up the heart to joyfulness). I thought I could find something that was 'faster'. Do you think it would be worth it if I were to try learning PGSG without a teacher?

How would you compare this to SFQ levels 1-3?

Dear Sifu, I am very interested in Flying Phoenix. I am a doctor who is going to work in hospitals so I will be exposed to sick chi often. I was wondering if Flying Phoenix will be good for me? Thank you. Also, to add on to the question... what is the relationship of Kundalini to Flying Phoenix? Does kundalini rise from practice of flying phoenix? That's because from what I understand, kundalini has to rise and open up all the channels of the body including the du and ren, the 8 vessels and the central sushumna + chakras before we can hit the genuine 2nd jhana fully. This is using the standard of Chan buddhism explained by a Zen master. 3rd jhana onwards is when body vanishes and mental stuff is dealt with purely. Yup so wondering about the interaction of kundalini and how she graces the form Also would be interested in what you think of this chart:

Sorry for awakening a very old thread, but I was wondering what the current consensus is on this?

I find the important part to be the internal hearing when chanting. If I use the awareness to direct the function towards internal hearing when either chanting mantra aloud or internally, it seems to produce a far greater effect.

Dear all, I am doing some English translations of the Yogacarabhumi-sastra commentary by Nan Huai Jin over on http://seriousbuddhism.wordpress.com and thought some of you might like it. My translations are not completely accurate as I am amateur (please forgive me) and the pace of the translations might be slow, but I thought you might like it, since there is a huge lack of english translations for the entire Yogacara sastra which is said to be taught by Maitreya Bodhisattva (the coming Buddha) himself, written down by Asanga Bodhisattva. If you also know mandarin and technical Buddhist words, I would love it if you could have a proof-read as well. Thank you. With metta. PS. A side note, I opened a channel over at Youtube for NHJ's video translations.

The first chapter of the commentary is finished, and the second chapter is under works, almost completed.

Let's sum up authentic meditation as one thing: Skillful mindfulness. We are always in unskillful mindfulness, which gives rise to craving and suffering. To understand this vicious cycle, look at Dependent Origination. If you don't understand dependent origination, you cannot meditate properly because it is so incredibly difficult to gain the same insight as the Buddha did. Actually, skillful mindfulness is also nearly 'effortless' and unskillfulness takes more energy. However, due to craving, we continuously reach out in desire, creating suffering. What is right meditation? The very best kind of meditation is natural awareness that is unattached to any object. But this kind of meditation is too difficult for beginners because they have too much karmic energy (sankhara/karmic formations) that arise and obscure the mindspace, dragging the attention along with it. Otherwise, one uses ONE object (that is impermanent like the breath or body) and then uses it to realize the 'gaps' or when these things disappear. When you find where it disappears, then that is what we call the intermediate period or 'bardo'. This is the same as what we call the GAP between the thoughts, or the gap between death and life. Note: They are different degrees of the gap, so we cannot say they are equal. What we are seeking however, is not emptiness in a void sense. Rather, the emptiness meaning a universal, unlimited potential that has no substance whatsoever, enabling form/appearances/phenomena to arise within. Modernly put, we can trace it to quantum physics. So if you use ONE object, this is what we call shamatha, calming, steadiness, quietitude, going into 'extreme yin' etc. The more you move towards yin, the more 'polarized' you are, and the more sensitive you will be to movement. Therefore you start to pick up movements of ordinary body chi (body-wind), all kinds of sensations over the body like itches, swelling, enlargement, shrinking, heat, cold, numbness, etc. As soon as all of these fade away, just like ripples in the pond, or your own thoughts... What actually happens is that BOTH the mind and body go into a temporary 'extreme yin' state where there is ZERO movement. This means the breath stops, the thought-stream stops, etc. During this spontaneous resting, the I-Ching says that rest gives rise to rejuvenation/resurrection. Here, the yuan-chi or original primordial energy explodes upwards from the perineum at the base of the spine, travelling around the Microcosmic Orbit. At this point, most people break out of the state due to fear... the thought-stream starts flowing again, the body becomes agitated, etc. Then because of this, the energy movements stop. Then the process repeats, where you keep going into the stillness (extreme yin) so that the seed of yang can spring forth spontaneously. When the yuan-chi opens up the front and back channels completely (and this takes at least a few months depending on your health), as well as the 8 extraordinary channels and all the other small nadis... it then collects the 'essence' inside your navel chakra (lower dan tian). Actually, when these channels open, you are dealing with what we call the body's karmic energy. So karmic energy is what impedes people from reaching pure, non-dual awareness (both mental karmic energy and body karmic energy). It can't be helped that your body is like that, because you were born from your parents, you inherited some karma from your past lives as well. So the body by itself is already impure in a way. So it's almost like your monkey-mind - you have a monkey-body as well that jumps here and there. Note: Body and mind are actually one and the same, because all five senses of the body eventually meet in the 6th sense (mental consciousness). So only after the yuan-chi completely rises through the central channel, up the 3 cauldrons to the crown chakra, we can finally say... Oh my god, finally... We can practice the Buddha's dharma!!! (Before this, we were qualifying to practice the dharma.) Now that you have your channels opened... your body's karmic energy is settled. In Mahayana, we call this the Form skandha, so this is finally done with and purified! Four more skandhas to go. Here is where we start to go into Jhana... which deals with WHOLESOME feelings like bliss, joy, etc. So obviously this has to do with feelings - this is the Feelings skandha/aggregate. In later Jhanas, we finally finish everything to do with the damn body and our body feels amazingly light, almost like the form devas. The elements have completely changed inside, it's no longer the same body. So here, we move on to the mental karmic energies that cause all of these things to rise again and again. So here... it is finally the skandhas of conception and consciousness. Tricky bastards. So these, you refer to the Surangama Sutra and deal with all these crazy side-paths one by one. TADA. You are finally at fourth jhana. At fourth, you finally turn to authentic 'vipassana'. This is why the last 4 steps of the anapanasati sutta are these watching things, not at the start. Why do you think anyone can jump straight to the end and get a shortcut???? Then we will have many fully enlightened buddhas right now that can communicate with the triple-world and transcend it! Where can you find such a wonderful human nowadays? From here, we are following the sutras, not bullshitting ourselves. If you read the sutras, all of these steps align completely. This is the authentic dharma, not spun by some trickster who bends the dharma to fit with his own practice, especially if they discard the original definitions of jhana by the Buddha. Then from here on, it's just wisdom, wisdom, wisdom. Higher and higher wisdom... You move up the Bodhisattva bhumi stages... all the way... until you reach Buddhahood in a future life. Summing it back up... the first step is skillful mindfulness that does not require effort. The Buddha said he experienced jhana when he was a little kid, he was relaxing under a rose-apple tree. Relaxing! That's the feeling you get when you're enjoying something and just chilling. Not sleepy-drowsy, but the kind where you're soaking in immersion, 'absorbed' effortlessly without strain. But you also have to note that the Buddha was accomplished in his practices in many lives before... so he built enough virtue to be born in a nearly perfect body that had the marks of a great man. So... as a child he already could enter jhana -this is the reason! The sutras also say he was an unawakened Bodhisattva. Note: If 'unawakened' meant bodhisattva, why use it twice in meaning? Obviously unawakened is used there to imply that he IS a bodhisattva... and that he just has not fully awakened yet.

Lol there is so much information out there and frankly you'll be overwhelmed. 'Listen to me, he is wrong!' All of these voices... What you should do is start understanding Buddhist principles straight from the SUTRAS. Pick up the Long Discourses of the Buddha, Middle Discourses, Shorter Discourses, etc (hinayana suttas) + Mahayana sutras like Surangama, Diamond, Heart, Lankavatara, Avamtasaka, etc. When you are clear on principles, you will not be easily misguided.

Just chant some of these mantras: - Cundi mantra (7 times) - 'Omerlah' (7x) - 'Om tsern' (7x) - Namo Ambitabha - Nine word dharani (from Forshang sect) - Namo benshi da zi zai wang fo They work. But as long as you get into a jhana/dhyana state, the entities can't even get near you... Because you're like boiling hot water and they're ice.

Lol it seems easy but it isn't. I read a bunch of his articles and this is what he says. You do it that way so that the mind can quieten down. If you force yourself to take fast breaths or recite it too fast, we start losing chi. So there are 3 ways... 1. Recite loud and "deep, low voice" until breath finishes. Stop. Wait for the natural inhalation without forcing it. Then use the new breath to recite again. 2. Recite in your mind mentally. 3. Recite without moving your jaw or teeth. Only the tongue moves inside while intonating namo amitofo. He says that's the reason why so many monks who practice pure land can end up looking starved or weak, because they lose chi while reciting. The key to mantra practice is doing it until it becomes second-nature.

Dear Spotless, Thank you for your help the last time regarding the difference between emptiness meditation and visualization exercises. I wish to know more about the internal breath and your method at arriving at this to achieve purification. Thankyou.

I hope you will see this Dawg, but could you expound on Dependent Origination, which was one of the earliest sermons given by the Buddha? According to Bhante Vimalaramsi, Dependent Origination can be directly observed, where individual thoughts arise and pass away very quickly. So how does one observe it, and how can we use it to purify our subconscious minds? Secondly, you claimed in a reply that jhanas are not recommended and are simply forms of higher concentration. However, the Buddha said the ending of cessation is the Noble Eightfold Path, and it can only be a Eightfold Path if there is jhana in it - otherwise, it is a Sevenfold Path. Other teachers like Ajahn Brahm or Ajahn Chah also teach jhanas. In the Dhammapada, it says: "Insight and jhana are yoked together." Would love to understand why you do not recommend jhanas when the Buddha praises jhanas for an entire section in the Pali Canon, and shows how people gain liberation directly after fourth jhana, along with arising of the five siddhis. Thirdly, you did not give a method for how to quell away the habitual tendencies of the subconscious mind, simply a method for concentration on the breath with 'bud-dho', then on to the body contemplation of its various parts. Would like to know more. Fourth, Nan-Huai Chin, an enlightened Chan master, says that subconscious and conscious mind lie within the domain of the 6th consciousness. There is the 7th consciousness, which is the Egoic sense, as well as the 8th consciousness of the Alaya-vijnana (collective consciousness), from which karma seeds arise from. You've described theravadan enlightenment until the 6th, so I was wondering if you knew of the methods involving the 7th and 8th as well, as well as development of the Buddha's body (nirmanakaya), which is that of Mahayana enlightenment. Hoping that you can see this and reply when you're back. Thank you for the thread!

Om cale culi cundi svaha invokes the Five Buddhas with Vairocana in the middle. Om mani padme hum is the vibration of the six realms. Not too sure, but the effects I experienced from either of them are quite different. Cundi mantra gives off a more subdued, gradual buildup of the energy in the heart, while the 6-syllables give a more blazing feeling in my experience (both in Anjali mudra or Lotus mudra). I wouldn't simplify them like that, though I'd agree they seem to work on the heart more.

I've been chanting this mantra and I must say it is very efficacious in bringing out joy. My heart, and especially the back of my head often has blissfulness to the point of orgasm. And this is just by maintaining the cundi mantra throughout the entire day, so I might have reached 100k a long time ago, I have no idea. Only now I'm starting to count my repetitions, but I've done this over a year already.

I currently do Anapanasati and white skeleton visualization as taught by Nan Huai Jin. I used to do Anapanasati using Ajahn Brahm's instructions, but found NHJ's interpretation much easier to understand in terms of the not-self principle. Just wondering how you guys practice? Any results? Have you reached dhyana or samadhi?

Hi, I want to ask about the breathing in Flying Phoenix. Nan Huai-Jin taught that all qi-gong should be done with reverse-breathing into the lower dantian (abdomen inwards when breathing in), if not it causes weakness of the intestines and imbalances, leading to a big belly. May I know why we learn the opposite? (ie. breathing in expanding the abdomen.)

I was looking at this page: http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3314&whichpage=9 And I searched around TaoBums, but there was never a definitive answer on Kunlun, just a lot of speculation and mixed answers. Tibetan_Ice in that site above quotes the following from Max: This reminds me of what an attained Christian/Buddhist mystic says (source): Then from the same site, a self-acclaimed Arahant says: I assume the above is the "central channel" when the outside gel-coat of energy or the external alchemical elixir is done and enters the low dantian. Then, I looked at Lin Chunyi's Spring Forest Qigong (and practised it for a few months too), and also realised that this did not take a "bottom-up" approach the way most kriya yoga did. (source) From practicing it, he puts a lot of emphasis on microcosmic orbit and moving-of-yin-and-yang to balance the upper and lower torso energies. Also, a lot on the heart, like lovingkindness types of meditation and his new 5-element level 1 training focusing on the 5 emotions to balance the 5 elements. On the other hand, Nan Huai Jin (chan+tantric enlightened master) says that when we go through the 4 stages of "life-sustaining breath" (长养气): Wind (风), Panting (喘), Qi (气) and Xi (息), we then enter the stage of Sambhogakaya-Qi (报身气) which is what the fetus uses to nourish life. Then later on we have Original Qi (根本气). But the main thing is that he says that Yang-Qi rises from both the Du-Mai and Ren-Mai channels to open up the microcosmic orbit (Source: Tao and Longevity). He says playing around with breath-work itself does not get you to the real opening because the breath itself has to go into extreme Yin for great Yang to come forth. So he advocates the bottom-up approach here. * So far, I feel like kunlun seems to belong to the upper group, in that it is a little vipassana-ish/zen-ish in the way that it simply allows things to happen as they are. Just a little unsettled by some bad reviews and that its lineage comes from Maoshan, which apparently has a bad rep for black magic in its history. But I've read things that say good and bad things about kunlun, so I'm pretty confused. Has anyone tried it, and have you had any good results? Has it led you towards more insight? I'm particularly interested in the Chan Buddhism way of gaining enlightenment. So do you think this would fit?

Do you happen to know the chinese characters for Tai Xi? I'd like to read up on it.

Ah... so the xi does come after perfecting the breath right? Which means qi--> xi?

Not sure where you read that. NHJ teaches 呼hu (movement) and 息xi (rest). He says the cycle is chu-jin-xi (出进息), meaning out-in-rest. He then teaches that when we stop exhaling, we reside in xi (rest), with solely internal breath. Where did I understand wrong? Are you saying that the xi he mentions is not found after the in breath? Because that doesn't make sense at all to me? He says the bardo period between two breaths is the very space. From what you're saying, you seem to be talking about the state of 气 qi and not 息xi that NHJ teaches. In qi, it is as you say... in and out breath are imperceptible and the entire body's pores feeling like it is breathing. Is that what you refer to? Then it's probably not xi but qi. So... one breath is still inferior to xi then? I remember ajahn brahm also taught that the breath becomes "silky" or joyful in this way, which leads to the visual nimitta appearing.

Thanks for the input. I agree that intent might lead to different outcomes. Just wondering.. if kunlun works, then why try the egyptian class then (since they are different)? Curious...What fruits have you seen from extended kunlun practice so far? Does it have anything to do with wisdom/insight? Anapanasati is not contradictory to breath stopping though. Nan Huai Jin teaches that "ana" does not mean exhaling, but expanding, while "pana" is contracting. So when the external breath stops, it becomes the lower dan-tian that is controlling the energy that is expanding and contracting. I've also experienced this before, and the yang-qi rises and makes the body as soft as a baby. Also called "Fetal breathing". So just wondering if this practice is compatible with kunlun...

Oh yes I used to do the Middle Pillar ritual as well, it brought intense feelings. But then again it isn't anywhere as close as what I've experienced through deep meditation (even breath meditation) or simple dharani recitation (cundi/avalokitesvara). Yeah, that's the confusion I have. So is what Jenny-Lamb teaches the same as what Max teaches? From his latest book, he teaches: - Refined KUNLUN method posture with yin/yang hand (the ball posture) - Laughing/Smiling - Gold Flower Method of Maoshan - Three Ones Meditation of Maoshan - Taoist Traveling Hands of Maoshan(Dream Yoga) - Maoshan Five Elements (five different postures) It looks to me like they are all mainly maoshan practices. Can you explain to me the relationship between the hormones and Kundalini, if you don't mind? (I'm a little new to this perspective) Isn't jing related to hormones? I thought kundalini (yang chi/sambhogakaya chi) was more of the fire element in the body, while hormones are the 'water element'. So it's fusion at the "Mother Light" (in the heart), right? Basically bringing upper "Child Light" (in the head) down? When I do anapanasati (breath mediation), I get to the point where the breath stops and then there's tons of heat and energy rising throughout my body. Would that be a fire or water practice? According to Nan Huai Jin, this is when yang chi rises when we get into extreme Yin. It's strange because the way Max describes it is that fire is intentionally trying to start up the heat/kundalini, like in Tummo practice/Wim-hof, and water is more of a spontaneous, flow-with-the-moment, vipasssana kind of thing. And breath meditation, translated from Pali is anapanasati, sati meaning 'mindfulness' or simply what people commentarily call vipassana, since it also involves all four mindfulness cornerstones (body, sensations, thoughts, mental qualities). Yeah, I'd like to know that too. Are there any problems that people face by mixing this 'yi gong' and red phoenix? Haha and that also reminds me of SpringForestqigong, because chunyi lin is more focused on healing physical ailments from what he presents, but behind he still teaches higher levels for self-enlightenment. --- Also, if anyone knows or has experience, does anyone know if it's possible to mix breath meditation (anapanasati) with kunlun? Assuming that they are done a few hours apart of course.