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If it were real friendship they would not charge for it... All they have done is jump on the bandwagon, and there is no doubt that GM Doo Wai had a part in setting that precedent. But as I said before, that would not be acceptable for a Chinese student, so he probably would not bother trying it on with them. But there is another way to look at this. If one were to invest such a sizeable sum in order to learn a very powerful system from a master such as GM Doo Wai, and that system were authentic, then in all probability that practice would be capable of producing the right conditions to be able to attract a great deal more wealth than just that. As to whether even if one were able to pay out such a sum in return for such information and training would assure actually obtaining the right to access that knowledge is another question. One could very well find it impossible to actually pursue the practice because of a lack of de or other such shortfall. There would also be no way to force him to divulge that information even if one did pay through the nose for it. I would far rather attempt to prove my worth to the master not in terms of my ability to pay such exaggerated amounts, but in my value as a student capable of honouring and upholding the tradition and practice of his family arts. Not that at my age that would even be possible :). Nor should you be. Well, if you are following the latest events in the FPCK thread drama, on the video uploaded by Terry Dunn, that is precisely what he is trying to force GM Doo Wai to do. I feel that GM Doo Wai has a surprise in store for all of them that will put them all in their places, and if I am correct, their level of attainment would then be possible to compare with that of someone with a real level of attainment, and their material worth would have to be adjusted to suit the situation. With such a vast system as Bak Fu Pai, in all honesty it is probably too much to expect for any one student who in all probability only began to learn the art at some point in their 20's to ever have learned all the forms from even a single branch of the system. It is really mind boggling to me that GM Doo Wai is able to remember all these forms from all these systems with their accompanying breath control sequences, mudras and mantras. That for me is evidence of attainment of an extremely high level of cultivation, and to expect something similar from any of his instructors is frankly ridiculous. In order to know the level of an instructor one needs to also have a level of attainment. These instructors are well aware that most students will have zero level of attainment, and so they can play with that. Many who call themselves martial arts instructors are in fact only a couple of steps ahead of their own students, and dependent on another instructor to continue to teach them so that they have something new to teach their students. I am in no way referring to any of GM Doo Wai's instructors when I say that, but in their particular case, how would one know what level they had attained without having already attained a similar level? The answer is that one cannot. So one is left with the dilemma of being forced to trust that the instructor in question really has the level of skill he or she pretends to have attained to. That boils down to a question of integrity. This is why the old ways involved the gradual development of a relationship between Sifu and student during which both of them came to know one another in a father/son relationship. Yet despite that it was sometimes the case that they would find out too late that they had created a monster, then that lineage would eventually become completely corrupt. That is a risk any master must face. But I believe that this is even more the case with such powerful and deadly skills as those imparted by Bak Fu Pai, Bak Mei etc. Not only that, but in the case of the higher cultivation within the system there is also the risk of allowing the system to get into the hands of a student who at some point would pervert or destroy the practice, by watering down the practice or by holding back vital information. Secrecy is one way of trying to preserve the tradition in its original form. The other point was also mentioned by Terry Dunn. At one point on the FPCK thread, he stated that these arts are not for everyone. I believe that statement to be true. In order to be able to practice these arts there seem to me to be certain requirements, and some of them in all probability relate to karma and de (virtue). If a practitioner feels they are achieving nothing they will very quickly give it up as a lost cause. The same is true of many Qigong practices. If you lack the self discipline you are unlikely to stay the course. This may make more sense to you once you have read my take on this further down the page... As for the price tags on some of the videos or training; I cannot believe anyone would pay $300 or even $30,000 for a series of meditations. But hey, if you create something you have the right to charge whatever you want for it. There are far more popular systems of Qigong and Internal Arts available, some of which (like Tai Chi) have been analyzed and studied by Harvard Medical School with a long standing record of verifiable evidence to support certain health and fitness claims. You know that I have a great deal of respect for you, but I disagree with what you are saying here. It is not necessarily a question of seeking out an art which is rare and unique, so much as the fact that such arts are inherently rare and unique. Do you know what the greatest difficulty is that a master can encounter? Finding someone with equal or greater skill. You will no doubt have heard that often all it will take is a single touch for one master to acknowledge the superiority of another? It really is so. And the fact that so many masters deliberately hold back information from their students pretty much ensures that none of them will actually ever surpass them or become a 'worthy opponent'. So when a master gets to that point the tendency is to stagnate because they cannot continue to grow and evolve within their art. Either that or they will look for another art to learn. There is something people rarely take into account. Have you ever asked yourself why it is necessary to be healthy from a cultivation perspective? The fact is that in order to practice high level cultivation one needs to be healthy. That is the start. One also needs to be spiritually awakened in order to actually understand Neidan or the alchemical process. This is only the first step on the Path toward attainment of the Dao. If you ask a high level practitioner about hands on healing of other people you might be surprised by the way they respond. Contrary to all the crap taught by Reiki practitioners and the like, one does not automatically become exempt from the karmic implications of interfering with someone's life lessons. Illness occurs when we choose to live in conditions which are contrary or out of harmony with the Dao. We create imbalance and disharmony in our lives, then we expect someone else to reestablish that harmony and balance. These New Age notions about going out and healing everyone who is suffering do not take into consideration the actual meaning of compassionate action. This is why a sage or other awakened being often appears almost devoid of compassion as we see it. Sometimes compassionate action means leaving someone to suffer or even take their life as an instrument of karma. But what we are unable to understand is the complex interaction of karmic bonds which are interwoven between people. Then there is the issue of the psychic vampirism which all too often arises as either the patient or the healer begin to diminish their energy reserves. These relationships are extremely complicated and difficult to deal with, and they make advancement toward any degree of attainment in these august arts even more difficult. So what I am trying to say is that these arts are not really about healing, they are about providing the means to maintain one's correct relationship with Dharma and the Dao in order to be able to move toward the higher levels of cultivation. It is my belief that GM Doo Wai simply could not find students with sufficient 'De' to merit being taught anything beyond the systems he has taught them and allowed them to continue to teach for their own profit. But that has very little to do with what these arts were truly designed for. There was a time when the Dharma needed an organ of protection, and originally it was the Shaolin under the auspices of Bodhidharma who served in that role. After this, as the cultivation began to absorb more of the Daoist methods, the responsibility was undertaken by the Daoist priesthood and protected by arts such as Bak Fu Pai. But these martial arts have been taken out of both the context of war and protection of these teaching in our present day, and have been transformed into a cult for the adulation of the western world. This has taken place through the media of films and television. The meaning has been lost, and very few people these days are able to perceive the interconnection between the internal arts, martial arts and spiritual cultivation. In other words, masters like GM Doo Wai see these arts in an entirely different and far more inclusive and cohesive way. But one must also take into account public demand. You cannot sell what people do not want to acquire, and you cannot teach anything which your students have no desire to learn. It is much the same situation as the western approach to TCM. The tendency is to pick one very particular branch of a huge and comprehensive system of health care and use that to represent the whole. This is what happened with acupuncture. Very many of those who went to China in the 70's in order to learn TCM returned to their respective countries and began clinics in which only acupuncture was available for treatments. Very few of them learned Chinese Fitotherapy (herbal medicine) or Qigong therapy or Tuina or an endless array of different forms of treatment which are available under the umbrella of TCM. Thus even today when one mentions TCM, the first idea that comes into someone's mind is the example of acupuncture or maybe acupressure. Do you see where I am going with this? So when we return to the subject of martial arts, who comes into our mind when anyone mentions Gongfu? Bruce Lee right? And what was Bruce Lee's attitude toward tradition? He often publicly denied that Qi existed. He totally turned his back on his former training in Wing Tsun Gongfu and on his former master in the art. That was the beginning of a trend which has culminated in the gradual erosion of the true value of these arts and the understanding of their interrelationship with all other aspects of cultivation. So now imagine GM Doo Wai's class. Back then I have no doubt whatsoever that it would have been full of gungho Bruce Lee wannabees. So he had to adjust his teaching to that level. Perhaps there was the odd individual who showed more promise, but as we have seen even those who he actually appointed as instructors have very little idea about what we are presently discussing. Actually practising these meditations is the only way in my opinion that one is going to find out what kind of energies this is really about, and sadly it appears that none of these instructors seem to have moved beyond the level of obvious jing. But we should not judge the master by his students, especially not in this case. I suspect that GM Doo Wai will find a way of transmitting his legacy to someone deserving of that privilege, and I can only hope that that person will honour and uphold those values and begin to disseminate the true teachings as they were intended to be given to the world. Otherwise these arts will die with him as has been the case with so many other arts.

I am coming to the conclusion that this is not a question of being a shortcoming in the system itself, but only the particular branch of the Flying Phoenix system which Terry Dunn teaches and represents. However, now that I have had the opportunity to begin to investigate and practice other branches of the Flying Phoenix I can attest that there is absolutely no reason why it should take someone in the region of 2 years practice to reach the Volume 7 level without actually having attained very much in terms of cultivation, and if limiting oneself to Terry Dunn's teachings, with no real hope of ever moving far beyond that level. Nonetheless, as silum stated back in 2012, whilst this branch of Flying Phoenix may not be particularly high level cultivation within the entirety of the Bak Fu Pai system, which is vast, there can be no argument against the fact that it does provide a pretty sound introduction to the more advanced systems of meditation. Had I begun the Golden Lotus without first moving through the various stages of development provided by Volumes 1 through 7 as presented by Terry Dunn, I would probably had a far more difficult time of it trying to learn and self correct the high level material found in the albeit poorly produced video material of GM Doo Wai himself performing these. Now to your comment regarding the quality of Terry Dunn's videos as opposed to those of GM Doo Wai. While there is no denying the obvious huge disparity between the actual video and production quality of GM Doo Wai's and Terry Dunn's videos, to the skilled eye there is something I feel that perhaps you did not pick up on. To my eye Terry Dunn's performance of the Flying Phoenix forms (meditations in BFP parlance), it seems very obvious that Terry has injected the flavour of the other IMAs he teaches and practises into his movements. In fact it appears to me that he performs the FPCK meditations as though he were actually practising Taijiquan. On the other hand, when you really watch GM Doo Wai's movements closely, and I mean minutely closely - the kind of absolute precision necessary to actually learn the forms from these videos - there is a subtle nuance which is not present in any of the demonstrations I have seen of Terry Dunn, either on Youtube or on any of his DVD productions. Perhaps a better way to describe what I mean is that I perceive that it is him mainly focusing on the correctness of the outward movement rather than actually being moved by the Flying Phoenix energy, which as in the case of truly high level IMA practitioners often results in the performance of the forms appearing sloppy or even choppy. This is because the more one advances in an internal art such as Taijiquan, the more internalised the movements become, until hardly any of the roundness or other prettiness remains. Perhaps this also explains why despite his exhortations to his students to practice 'at the pace of a moving sand dune', I have seen nothing close to this in any of his demonstrations, and indeed one can see that far from being in a state of bliss his eyes are in fact tightly clenched, and he seems to find it necessary also to edit some of his demonstrations of the Volume 4 long form in order to make it appear that he is capable of performing it slowly with his eyes closed whilst maintaining his balance. If you do not believe me, just check out the demo on Youtube in which he is dressed in jeans and performing the long form by the sea. At the point at which he moves into the 'crane standing on one leg' movement and changes to the cat stance you will see a very poorly edited section in which another version has obviously been spliced into the video to make it appear that there is a smooth transition between these movements. But in order to see this you will have to slow the video down and cut that section out and really look at it...but it is there, I assure you. OK, I am sorry, but I really take issue with this. One of the things I have seen on the FPCK thread which I truly take offence to is Terry Dunn's continual imposition of ideas like this and his opinions regarding western occultism, hermeticism and what amounts to Crowley adulation - none of which have any place in a thread concerning these arts. This clearly shows his level of attainment, or lack thereof, as he has clearly fallen into the trap of occult fascination with Aleistair Crowley and all the New Age nonsense which was one of his main objectives for his legacy to the world. Clairvoyants receive their information from the lower astral realm, which is very very low in the scheme of things, and certainly nothing to do with the level of attainment one should be aspiring toward in these cultivation arts. I would certainly not entrust my choice of direction in cultivation methods to someone who is basically channeling entities. Like it or not that is what it boils down to... In my opinion it is such tendencies as this and the fixation upon the martial aspect of these arts which limited what GM Doo Wai was able to impart to the instructors he actually taught. That is the most probable reason for none of these instructors having access to any complete branch of the system. A very poor choice... Yes, there is a way. Reach attainment and you will become your own master. That is what this system is really about. Even Terry Dunn intimates this, although he cannot demonstrate it. There is a cultural inference we also need to take stock of. To the Chinese money is nothing more than another type of Qi, so they expect one to have it in abundance, and we interpret that as overt materialism on their part - which for us it is! But I have no doubt that GM Doo Wai like many Chinese is a very astute business man. He knows when he dangles a carrot in front of the right nose that the person will do anything to get to it. But he is not the one responsible for this. What has made this possible is the fact that there has always been so much secrecy in these arts. I have little doubt that it also has to do with us being Gwai Lohs, as you simply would not find a Chinese who would accept being treated like that. It is also a matter of greed for greed. These people are greedy for knowledge, and the masters are greedy for wealth and power. There is a certain synergy in this. But Terry Dunn recently let some truth out. He said that when a master comes across a student of the right calibre, money will not be involved and teachings will be given free of charge, and I have found his to be so.

A slight correction. It was not GM Doo Wai who appointed Christer Wretfors as anything. WBBM as far as I am aware is the sole provenance of Sifu Garry Hearfield, and it was he who in fact appointed Christer to represent his organisation in the EU - that is not what I asked about, and is of no interest to me whatsoever. Please get your facts right.

This will be my last contribution to this thread, I have no intention of opening myself up to further ridicule or attacks on my persona and will not allow the type of character assassination that other members such as Silum (go back to the 2012 posts to see evidence of this) have suffered as a result of having challenged anything Terry Dunn has said or taught here. My only reason for posting now is to make absolutely sure that someone here points out the degree of despotism which is now manifesting even within the forum admin. There is no place for this to take place on a public forum, nor do I see any reason why Terry Dunn - who did not even start this thread in the first place - should be given the right and authority to edit out and remove anyone else's contributions, whether he agrees with the content or not. I have never ever witnessed this sort of abuse take place on any other public forum, and quite frankly the moderators should be bloody well ashamed of themselves for showing such obvious bias. This behaviour is undemocratic to say the least. I cannot believe the venom in Terry Dunn's reaction to my last post, is this the mark of a supposedly enlightened teacher? Well, I'll leave that up to you to decide. Catch this post before it is removed, just like Ausar's video... Good luck to all of you.

Oh, awfully sorry. I thought that this system came down from our Grand Master, and it appears to me that if he has indeed chosen to make a different part of the system available through Ausar - and given the fact that I was not the one who raised the question of Ausar - that this would be of prime importance to all practitioners. I must have been mistaken....perhaps I should remove my post, since one member finds it so terribly offensive? Or maybe we should leave it up to our ever vigilant moderators - who knows, maybe they'll ban me too?

It is intensely baffling to me that you choose to be so closed minded and further more have the temerity - and not for the first time - to insult me personally on this thread. Read my post again. I am merely trying to provide perspective to what has been up to now a decidedly one sided argument in order to establish the truth. I am not concerned with whether or not you or anyone else here feels threatened by this, nor whether you feel that this photograph seems like that of GM Doo Wai or not. That fact is that on the website it is presented as such. That being the case, there seems to be an onus to either prove or disprove whether or not it is in fact a photograph of Ausar with GM Doo Wai, and the onus does not rest on my shoulders, as to my eyes it appears to be very much the likeness of the Grand Master. You are the doubting Thomas here... One needs to ask whether it would make sense for anyone to post a photograph online claiming that it showed themselves with someone as important as the Grand Master if it were not in fact a genuine photograph? But if indeed it is genuine, does this not then appeal to some part of your intelligence to question whether there is any truth to the rest of the content of Ausar's website? I would hope that at least some members would have the intelligence to come to this conclusion for themselves. I have witnessed far too much backstabbing going on in this thread since the earlier days, and it is time someone here had the balls to redress that. I sincerely doubt that Ausnar needs any defending, but I took it upon myself to defend him because people deserve the benefit of the doubt, and no-one here other than me seems prepared to even investigate whether there is any truth to the information appearing in Ausar's website. It has simply been totally discredited. Have you ever thought that you might be throwing the baby out with the bath water? So, by all means call me out...you are the arrogant one! So, for the rest of you... let's have a little honesty here, whose likeness appears on this photograph, and when was it taken? Is it GM Doo Wai or not? If it is GM Doo Wai as he appears in this photograph, when was this photograph taken, and is he in fact in this state now, or is he bed ridden as Sifu Dunn claims? I can attest to the fact that if this is Ausar, then the photograph must have been taken recently, as he has hardly changed since then, in addition to the fact that he was wearing the same clothing when he appeared in person in the Darshan given this afternoon. Hmmm.....

Did nobody tell you that sarcasm is the lowest form of whit?

Thank you. That is good to know, except that technically Sweden is not actually part of the EU, and is pretty far removed from the main countries which do constitute Europe. Most masters have established firm connections and trained instructors in the UK, France, Germany and other important cultural centres within Europe itself (even though since Brexit the UK is no longer part of the EU either). That makes a great deal of sense if one wants one's tradition to expand and extend worldwide. This is what I am complaining about. Also, like his sifu Garry Hearfield, Christer is not trained in the better part of the Doo family traditional arts, only a very small part of Bak Fu Pai and the Tibetan Burning Palm represented by Sifu Hearfield. In fact none of the instructors appointed by GM Doo Wai to carry on the lineage appear to have received training in all the systems GM Doo Wai preserves, of even any single complete system within Bak Fu Pai. I find that worrying, because many of his arts will die with him, and the range of arts represented by Sifu Dunn and Sifu Hearfield are only the tip of the iceberg - almost a taster of what his family arts are really about...if you have practised any of the meditations such as Golden Lotus Flying Phoenix, the 690AD Doo Family Healing meditations, the San Gong meditations or any of many many others offered by GM Doo Wai on video, or even the Ginggong on Sifu Dan La Rochelle's instruction tapes, you will realize that there are far more powerful systems than either Flying Phoenix or the Tibetan Burning palm, and no-one seems to be actually teaching them in person. That is a real shame. Yet in a way I can understand, because of all the flak that GM Doo Wai has taken over the years, as well as the controversies which have ensued with his ex students such as Sifu Jim Lacey.

Probably never, as long as the mystique surrounding this tradition remains, and the few instructors actually capable of teaching the system decide to come out into the open and provide and honest service to the MA community. I doubt that is going to happen any time soon. For the time being I have no other option than to learn and practice what is available to me - the Flying Phoenix Celestial Healing Qigong, as taught by SIfu Dunn - whatever its shortcomings. I think the reason people still practice these meditations rather than more powerful and simpler forms is quite simply a question of lack of access/availability. Sifu Dunn refuses to teach anything other than the FPCK meditations outside of his own classes and Skype one to one sessions, and not even the entire FPCK system is available on his DVDs. He presently has a monopoly on the system because for better or for worse GM Doo Wai appointed Sifu Garry Hearfield as his representative for Europe. All well and good until you take into consideration the distance between Australia - where Sifu Garry is based - and Europe!!!!! Obviously GM Doo Wai's knowledge of geographical locations fell somewhat short, and no-one thought to inform him of this rather sad mistake...leaving absolutely zero resources for anyone in Europe with the desire to learn and carry on this tradition. Sifu Dunn has also made it quite clear that he is not interested in translating or providing foreign language subtitles for his videos - a grave oversight, I feel. So those of us who are neither anywhere near the USA or Australasia have very little choice if we want to follow the Bak Fu Pai tradition or learn any of the other GM Doo Wai traditional arts. Hence my post. Nevertheless I will say that having reached the Volume 7 sitting meditations I do regard this as a powerful Qigong method, and whether or not it is capable of leading to full awakening as Sifu Dunn claims, I can attest to having achieved a very deep meditative state during my practice, and I daily experience practising at the pace 'of a shifting sand dune'. Something that I would not have thought possible prior to my discovery of this art. I should perhaps clarify that I came to this method for its healing properties, as I was in a pretty bad way. It has certainly helped with my health to a certain extent, but I do feel that the meditations take far too long to complete the required number of repetitions. A single moving meditation can easily take me upwards of 40 minutes to complete 7 repetitions, by which time I really need to make a great effort to do another meditation such as the Volume 4 long form. There are simply not enough hours in the day to fit this in on top of one's daily responsibilities. So if someone were to offer me a more powerful and effective healing system within the Bak Fu Pai tradition I would certainly be interested. But I agree that the videos on offer at any of the sites discussed cannot be worth that kind of money, and I find it difficult to believe that it was GM Doo Wai himself who decided on those prices. But maybe I am mistaken...

OK, I think it's time to provide an update. Since posting my question I decided to try it out for myself for a while. But with a little twist coming from my ongoing practice of the Flying Phoenix Celestial Healing Qigong meditations. I have become accustomed to practicing all but one of these meditations with my eyes closed, so once I got a feel for practicing the Kuji-In mudras within the Bagua walking the circle exercises, I decided to experiment with doing them with the eyes closed. In fact I only bumped into objects a couple of times, and according to my wife who was watching during my first faltering steps of practicing in this way, I was successfully manoeuvering around most of the obstacles around the periphery of my circle. Perhaps I should also mention that one of my objectives inherited from the FPCK practice was also to practice as slowly as possible. The FPCK meditations are meant to be practiced at what Sifu Dunn describes as 'the speed of a shifting sand dune'. In fact I probably practice more slowly than most, and so endeavoured to practice the combination of Kuji-In and Bagua circle walking in a similar way. One of the primary reactions one has to contend with is the natural instinctual fear of losing one's balance or colliding with something which might result in injury. One also needs a highly developed situational awareness, in order not to overstep the limits of the circle and wind up bumping into objects just outside the periphery of the circle which one was not expecting to be there. However, thanks to my practice of the Volume 4 capstone long form from FPCK which is a moving form requiring one to balance on one leg during one point in the form with the eyes remaining closed, I was able to quite quickly overcome my initial fear and settle into the meditative practice. Perhaps it might be worthwhile also pointing out that often I would find myself closing my eyes during my Taijiquan practice years ago, and often even during pushing hands exercises with a partner, simply because I found myself much more able to 'ting' my partner and thus develop my sensitivity. I feel that performing various types of Qigong with the eyes closed can be a very powerful way to train. I also found myself adding the Daoist/Buddhist prayer mudra in between each Kuji-In mudra, and found that this helped flow better from one mudra to another, particularly as I was deliberately holding each mudra until it felt as though it had been activated, whilst maintaining my circle walking as slowly as I could manage. Invariably this meant completing at least one circle per mudra... This ended up being a good work out as well as a profound meditation, due to the fact that the muscles tend to be under greater strain the slower one goes. But with momentary loss of balance which can occur as one tries to correct one's circular trajectory, there is the risk of twisting the knee in its socket which can really be painful. I also tried practicing figure of eights and even a Bagua, but due to my aphantasia I found it really impossible to know where I was in the pattern, as I am incapable of any mental imagining - mentally blind in other words. All in all I would say that the Kuji-In practice seems to combine well with Bagua Circle walking, and even better with the eyes closed. But I would not advocate trying that unless you have also practiced FPCK up to that level or something similar such as Bok Fu Pai, otherwise you are unlikely to actually be able to experience this exercise as a meditation.

Thank you Aetherius, very interesting, although I only recognized one of the Kuji-In as the other mudras were all combinations of separate left and right, rather than combined as in Kuji-In ,. But it just goes to show that my question was not that silly I agree, but then again, it is known that the Ninja originated in China, so it is possible that the Chinese version incorporated some of the Chinese IMA Neijia styles.

Thank you Aetherous. So, how did the Kuji-In practice become such an important practice for the Ninja clans, or is this only a recent development? I assume that this took place before the formation of the Japanese Ninja clans? Perhaps they had something to do with the addition of the Buddhist mudras? And what is it that makes the Kuji-In so powerful? Is it the mudras themselves, or the combination between the mudras and the 9 syllable prayer of which one syllable was assigned to each mudra? How did this develop into the Kuji-Giri magical system, or was it the other way around?

Thank you Donald, I have learned a great deal from this, although my interest is more toward the Kuji-In practice than the Kuji-Giri. Do you happen to know where I can find photographs or detailed drawings of the Daoist version of the two-handed mudras of the Kuji-In? I would like to be able to compare those I learned, as well as find a good resource for the study of the function of mudra in Neigong practices etc. I don't remember where I read this, but I do remember one description of the Kuji-In practice as being equivalent to practicing cultivation using only the hands, but having just as powerful effect as one would experience from a Yoga asana or Qigong practice. Combined with deep meditation it can certainly help one enter a Samadhic consciousness, especially if combined with Dharanis. Very interesting to also learn that Dharanis are referred to as spells in the texts you quoted. That seems quite different from the Mahayana Buddhist description and use, although I can attest to their power. Rather than being a Kuji-In spell, in fact the Kuji-In actually use these as mantras In Japanese, the version I learned is: Rin Kyo (incorrect transliteration) Toh Sha Kai (this is obviously incorrectly transliterated) Jin Retsu Zai Zen Which is obviously very similar to the version you quoted above, although I was not taught to use them as a complete sentence as you quoted it: Rin - lín Pyó - bīng Tô - dǒu Sha - zhě Cai - zhèn Chin - jiē Retsu - liè Zai - qián Zen - háng However the real difference is the translation, "Come down, soldiers and fighters, and line up before me!" I wonder why there is no mention in the texts you quoted of the fact that each of these individual syllables/ideograms are actually expressed in the Kuji-In mudras themselves? There is also no discussion of the actual effect of each mudra, which is very much a part of the actual practice during the meditation focused on each of the Kuji-In ideograms. It would also be interesting to be able to compare these with the Sanskrit or Pali versions, in order to hear how they would have sounded originally. Often the Japanese, Chinese or Tibetan versions of Sanskrit mantras and dharanis tend to depart considerably from the original pronunciation, and I feel that this is important. However what makes this both problematic and confusing is that in many cases only the Chinese versions remain, and have in fact been re-translated into Sanskrit. I am a firm believer in the power of the vibration of sound, and I confess that I am not at all convinced that the effect of using mantras with the Chinese or Japanese transliteration would be comparable to the effectiveness of the original Sanskrit or Pali from the Mahayana or Vajrayana Buddhist Sutras. In fact I had hoped to find some mantras which were purely Daoist in origin, in order to see for myself how powerful they were. I am sure such mantras must exist, but I have only managed to access those which are transliterated from Sanskrit. The same goes for the mudras.

Hi Gnome, thank you for your reply. I did check the Wikipedia when I first started to develop an interest on the subject, but I wanted something more in-depth that I can really get my teeth into. But what you say is interesting. I still wonder whether there is a Daoist equivalent to this practice. I have been practicing a Japanese version of this for some time, and do find it a powerful practice, but I do not fully trust the source, and am also aware that there are quite a few variations of the Mudras used, and even a relatively slight change can make quite a difference. This may turn out to be a blind alley, if it is true that the origin is from the Vajrayana Buddhist schools in India. I hope some other members will chime in. It may also be interesting to start another thread comparing the Indian Mudra systems with their Daoist equivalent, although I have only really found in-depth information within the topic of Daoist magic in books I have read on the subject, which is probably in some way related to the Kuji-Giri practices, which is not where my interest lies in principle. Mudra are used in one form or another throughout the martial arts and cultivation practices of many schools, and their proper use has probably been forgotten for the most part.

Thank you for sharing this Sudhamma. If you don't mind, I prefer to pm you about this. David

Sorry, it makes it easy for me to keep track due to my mental blindness, so forgive me if I continue in this way. That makes sense, but is probably not applicable to a more serious condition like mine (I'm not talking about the aphantasia) Yes, I agree with that, although for me there is also an 'electromagnetic' aspect to the FPCK energy, in terms of the attraction/repulsion feeling of an energetic polarity which is apparent in many of the movements within the meditations. I feel it is particularly apparent when the Laugong points are brought together, as in holding the ball, then when the back of the hand (reverse side of the Laugong) is placed behind palm (the positive side of the Laugong) of the other hand. A good example of this is the 3rd MSW meditation from Volume 7. This is all too common, particularly with the shift in recent years toward online teaching. The fact is that unless you happen to live in fairly close proximity to these people, you have no way to know who the flesh and blood person is behind the image they present to the world. And from my experience, one is just as easily fooled even in person. It takes a Buddha to know one, they say, until then we are forced to trust the integrity of whoever offers themselves as teachers to the world, and not everyone is worthy of that trust. My comments were not concerned with withholding secrets or not, as I said in my previous reply to Sudhamma's post, I feel that there is too much secrecy in the IMA schools. I understand the historical motivation for such secrecy, but to be honest today, I don't feel that can be said to apply to any great extent. What I mean is that at one time, keeping what gave your style the edge against other practitioners from rival schools was a matter of life and death, and obviously I respect that. But this is hardly the case today. Perhaps in some extreme cases, but again for different reasons, such as gung-ho students challenging or insulting another school or its master, which therefore has the potential to directly affect that master's capacity to earn a living, unless his school prevails . Yes, that was my point precisely. The problem is compounded on a forum like this, as one never knows the level of experience of anyone who may choose to participate. Just as there are doubtless many seasoned and knowledgeable members who are also actually practicing, there are also no doubt a considerable number of members with very little knowledge of the IA world, who may have come from other very different disciplines or simple curiosity. The latter will have a very different understanding of the experiences many more advanced practitioners may have posted. Some may simply not believe any of it, and others may mistakenly assume that these experiences are the purpose of practicing this art. This is often seen on this type of forum, but rarely corrected. Like it or not, it is obvious to me that there are several people here under that misapprehension, and it does need correcting, rather than perpetuating. There is no doubt in my mind that it is incumbent upon those who are more advanced and experienced to see to it that this issue is addressed. I actually do have qualms about this, and I only decided to do so in direct response to your questions, and would prefer to have done so by pm, as I have done with a couple of other members. There is no doubt that there is a strong temptation to share one's cultivation experiences, but the fact is that these should really be shared with the master of the art, then he can decide whether or not that particular experience is relevant or conducive to the improvement of cultivation practice for the group as a whole - just as is the case for Earl Grey's recent post which he believed I was attacking. However Sifu Dunn has not been very responsive to my emails in the past, and has only responded here within this thread, so I see no other option in my own case. In fact there is no reason why I would be so dependent upon this thread if it had been easier to maintain a dialogue with Sifu Dunn. I regard both myself and my Sifu at that time to be both to blame for what happened to me. My Sifu was wrong to allow me to begin the practice knowing that I was about to leave for a 6 month tour abroad during which I would only be in contact by snail mail or possibly telephone, (although not likely, given the difference between time zones). For my part, I was also too impetuous, which, coupled with the fact that I had developed a powerful willpower and did not understand the dangers of using the mind to force the Qi rather than allow the Yi to lead it. We only exchanged letters twice during those six months, so I was very much left to my own devices. But his way of explaining the exercise was also far too complicated, involving different specific experiences for each gate along the MCO, and the necessity to continually return to the previous gate before continuing to the next. So I feel that the fact that he would not describe what I was to expect in any way really was not a good tactic. Also bear in mind the fact that he had no idea that I could not mentally visualize anything he might describe, so it probably would not have been as important a consideration as for anyone not mentally blind like me. Nevertheless he was quite adamant and I was far too much in a rush to achieve this MCO, and we both paid the price. I was challenged to produce a video, which I was not in a position to be able to do, and on principle it does not seem to me to be the right reason to do so anyway. But I will try and find the relevant link, it was one of my first posts to this thread under my new name. It was not before my writing on the subject that people started to also post on the subject, so perhaps my post had the desired effect anyway, which was to inspire others, just as watching one of Sifu Garry Hearfield's Youtube videos had shown me what 'moving at the pace of a moving sand dune' actually meant, and inspired me to also get to that point in my practice. Sadly that particular video seems to have been removed since. I'm sure that there will be exceptions, I have encountered quite a few beginners with a natural ability in the internal arts who seem to find everything easy. It is the same in all walks of life. But in this particular case, I feel that one needs a yardstick of sorts by which to measure that degree of slowness, as this was not found on any of the DVDs or videos submitted to Youtube of FPCK, or at least not when I began to practice these meditations. Sifu Garry's meditation does not count, as he was not demonstrating or teaching FPCK, and I believe the video clip I was referring to earlier was from a seated meditation from Sunn Yee Gung, although I am no longer sure from memory.

Hello again Sudhamma, and thank you for your supportive reply. Thank you for your advice, but I am pretty heavily invested in this practice, particularly because in all the years I have been learning and practicing different styles of Gongfu, Qigong/Neigong cultivation etc., this is the only one which produces such profound effects, and my recent post regarding my aphantasia is not why I undertook this training. I have far more serious health issues which needed healing, and although I knew that I was mentally blind, I had not at that point discovered that the condition had been named and identified, or that scientific studies into this condition were underway (I only discovered this information very recently). I am also not the type of practitioner who flits from one style to another, or easily gives up when I encounter difficulties, but I certainly agree with you that one cannot hope to learn either online or through studying a series of DVD as one could in person with a good teacher. But I am sure that you are also aware of the large proportion of so-called masters out there who either deliberately withhold information from students or water down the teachings or stretch them out unnecessarily over a large space of time for whatever reason. This is very much a part of Chinese IMA and general MA culture, and I have seen how much this can and has been abused in my own experience. In fact, I turned my back on one very famous master I had been training with as an indoor student when he told several of us how he had deliberately been giving non-genuine instruction to some of the latest batch of students, as he thought they did not deserve to learn the real thing. I was disgusted, and also began to wonder how much of the 'real thing' he was actually teaching us, or how much he was actually holding back. As it turns out he was actually doing the very same thing to us, and I know this to be a fact because I also spent several years learning from his 'thumb student' turned rogue who taught me what he had been taught originally by this master. I did a considerable amount of research on FPCK before visiting this forum, reading as much material as I was able to find and watching all the videos available at the time, and this convinced me both of the quality of the system itself and its master, GM Doo Wai. This is what brought me to this thread. I do actually practice Swuai Shou as part of the Bamboo Mountain Qigong form, and was also taught by another Qigong master years ago that anyone past 50 years of age should practice it. I also agree with your recommendation for Zhan Zhuang, and in fact still practice this (and several of the movements in FPCK are also derived from ZZ, as recently verified in a post from Sifu Dunn). But despite quite a few years of assiduous training in both Yiquan/Dachengquan and Zhan Zhuang, I can say that it was not until I started to learn and practice FPCK that I was able to truly benefit from those arts in terms of deep relaxation, due to the constant severe pain caused by my spinal condition. This is another reason for my heavy investment in this system - it has produced results, and this is precisely what GM Doo Wai promised. However, I disagree with your recommendation to practice Zhan Zhuang with the MCO. I now believe that unless it happens by itself that practice is dangerous and unnecessary, but there are plenty of other threads discussing the matter on TTB to which I have contributed over several years, so this is not the place for such a debate.

What makes you think my comments were directed at you? We were discussing the subject of it being thought of as a taboo. I merely explained why in many cultivation schools this is so, and added some of my own experiences. You obviously have not taken my statement in context. It has a very specific context, which was that I see no reason why one member's account of their training experience should be ignored whilst another's is applauded. I call that hypocrisy regardless of your opinion, and that is the whole question - you hit the nail right on the head. Why should I not also have the right to feel part of this community? What right do you have to make anyone feel alienated? I wonder, have you even bothered to read my previous two posts in order to understand what I am going through? No, I suppose not. To each their own, yes, you said it...

So then, we will just have to be patient. I do remember a comment Sifu made a while back intimating that once we become awakened (in the sense of enlightened) we will need no-one to explain anything - or words to that effect. Obviously that is the only way to reach total understanding, avoiding all the pitfalls of incomplete conceptual ideas and misinformation/disinformation, and misunderstanding, which all too often plague us. But to me that is a nebulous concept, almost like putting the carrot in front of our noses, but there is no information about at which stage in the practice of this art such awakening or realization is expected to occur. I presume that one would need to somehow learn the entire system, not only what has been released in DVD format. In other words one would need to be in the financial situation to be able to afford one on one classes with Sifu Dunn and enter what he terms 'a formal apprenticeship'. Well, despite the FP energy having been described as being cool, I continue to experience it radiating out of my Laugong points as warm energy against my face, and also entering my body - it feels like the radiant heat of the sun. Whenever I bring my middle fingers together in any of the meditations, I can feel a magnetic attraction - that is not quite what it is, but that is the best way I can describe it. In any case, I can feel a substantial amount of resistance when I try to separate my fingers, something I also experience strongly in the final MSW meditation from Volume 2, and any similar movements in other meditations. From the prayer mudra, when I open my hands, this is when I feel the radiance I was describing most, then for example in the 3rd MSW from Volume 7, but also in many other meditations, I can feel the Qi as though I were gathering it from all around me, then drawing it into the LDT. When opening the hands from the prayer mudra outward in several of the meditations at the level of the middle Dantien I also experience a powerful sensation, and also feel my thumbs and first three fingers being drawn together. I experience a considerable amount of movement in the Dantien itself, but this started to happen before I began the FPCK, so I don't know whether it is related. Again in the Volume 7 MSW meditations, as the back of the hand is drawn toward the brow I feel the Qi very strongly in the area of the Upper Dantien and my physical eyes, and at this point I also enter much more deeply in the samahdic state, sometimes to the point that I find I have stopped moving altogether without realizing it. Another movement which seems to create a strong energetic manifestation is again in the 2nd Volume 7 MSW meditation, when the hands move into a position with palms upward, elbows drawn in - the energy radiates from my hands from my neck upward, again affecting the Upper Dantien, but also the entire head, right to the Baihui point. I think perhaps the heat is what my body needs, as there is a great deal of cold and damp in my bones. Aside from the sensations I described, there are many more subtle manifestations of energy moving through all the meridians. There is also a considerable buildup of saliva much of the time, which is why I previously asked Sifu about that, because in other types of cultivation one is supposed not to swallow one's saliva before completing the exercise, so that the now refined Qi is then returned to the LDT. But that is not the case in this form of cultivation, according to Sifu's reply. The problem is remembering these experiences without being able to write them down, because as I explained, I have to rely on my ability to translate the experience to my inner dialogue, and that stops once I enter the samadhic state - so it's a vicious cycle for me. I have probably forgotten much of what I experienced by the time I come back to normal consciousness after completing each meditation. At one point I was keeping a daily journal, but I am no longer keeping it up to date, there just isn't sufficient time. An example is that I have only described my experiences with the seated meditations, because I am focusing on practicing these whilst learning the Volume 7 meditations, so I cannot remember the sensations I experience during the standing meditations as I write. All I do remember is the samadhic state, which is common to both standing and seated meditations. I tried that back in the day, when I was a member of the Rosicrucian Fellowship. We used to have to work a great deal with Tattvic forms and colours, but aside from working with flashing colours, once we began working with exercises relying purely upon visualization techniques I was completely lost. But I did get to the stage of being able to look at two images of a Tattva geometrical form, then pick up the image created by the flashing colours and transfer it onto the second image (as a complementary colour) and hold it over the second image for a short time. But I found the exercise extremely exhausting. During my previous occult training I was also forced to often stay up all night and perform similar exercises, presumably to help me gain psychic abilities, I'm not sure. It was many years ago. That is wonderful, but sadly pretty meaningless to me, I'm afraid. All this has helped me remember a period during my training a while back when I started to experience seeing everything bathed in a golden light, but it was like seeing everything like the reverse image of a camera. It felt as though rather than perceiving something outside of myself everything was a projection of myself, and I perceived that in this golden light. That lasted quite some time, several months at least, and I remember also that prior to that I spent more than a year with the horrible sensation of having a piece of sticky paper right over my third eye. I don't know how else to describe it, except that it was an extraordinarily uncomfortable sensation which just would not go away. I also experienced a painful pressure in the same area for about the same amount of time. I think that is probably when I began to perceive the violet/blue eye in front of my forehead when my eyes were shut. But I could never actually perceive anything through it. I think one reason for that taboo is the fact that it can cause envy or lead to those unable to have similar experiences being disheartened, which could cause them to give up. The main point however is that it is very rare for any two students to have the same or even similar experiences in the practice of Qigong cultivation. It is not considered good for students to have any expectations of what they are likely to experience in their training, as the mind is quite capable of providing such experiences, but these are not real. This can be very damaging to one's development, which is why the sharing of Qigong experiences is discouraged in many schools. I agree with this. For example when I was first taught the MCO around 1988, my Sifu asked me what I was experiencing. He was looking for a very specific sign to show that one of my gates had opened, or was about to open, but he would not tell me any more than that. I remember that my mind came up with all manner of sensations which I duly reported, but none of them were what he was looking for. This in fact led me into very dangerous territory, as I became so desperate to achieve what my Sifu expected of me that I forced my own cerebro-spinal fluid around the MCO, and wound up in hospital with a condition called 'meningism' - all the symptoms of acute viral meningitis, but without any infection present. I was then given several courses of lumbar punctures to remove the pressure and have never been the same since energetically, and I still have the scars today. You might say that the intention is to inspire practitioners to work harder, but it does not necessarily have that effect. It was after all in this spirit that I shared information here regarding the time it took me to complete each of the meditations, but I think there is sufficient proof that it was not taken in the way I intended at all. I think it's rather a shame, as well as hypocritical that many others on this thread openly and frequently boast of their achievements and are applauded for doing so. Many of them should know better, and should perhaps be setting a better example to those less knowledgeable. Well, I have no such yardstick with which to compare the visual aspect of my dreams, but on the very rare occasions when I do remember them, I would certainly not describe them as vivid. But hey! - cloudy and unclear is better than nothing... All I can do is remember the most striking events in the form of descriptive dialogue. I may remember that I have had a dream, but actually remembering the dream is very rare, and the memory would only be in descriptive form, like reading LOTR. OK, I'll look out for the notification. Thank you.

First of all, a sincere thank you for taking the time to reply so fully and openly. Regarding the reason I felt my contributions to have been resented - I simply spoke my truth when I recounted my experiences last year when I had been training in FPCK for a while. I wrote about the time it was taking me to complete each section of each meditation, and I knew that no-one believed me, and had the distinct impression that my answer was viewed as being in search of praise or perhaps looking to boost my ego. In fact it was a real issue for me, as it still is, due to the fact that at such a slow pace I would literally need all day to complete all the meditations, and at that point if memory serves me, I was only practicing Volumes 1 and 2, possibly 3 as well, so you can imagine what it is like now that I have included Volume 4 and 7...Sifu Dunn did eventually provide me with a full reply, but by that time I had lost track of the original content when I originally posed my questions and was in turn then unable to reply. That is to be expected, but my point is that this was an issue which was actually interfering with my training, or my ability to do so in a confident manner. I don't need hand-holding, and have many years of various types of Qigong cultivation under my belt. But when I ask for help is because I really need it. I am far from being a new member. In fact I was a well known and regular contributor under a different name since several years ago - albeit not specifically on this particular thread, but due to a glitch in the system I lost my identity and was forced to adopt this one fairly recently, and was also unable to change my name to the original one - it wasn't for want of trying. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the name I used, and so am unable to access my previous posts to various sub forums. Precisely...and I see no reason why I should not have been included with those contributors, but as you can see I was not. Yes, I have also been in that situation with regard to replying to responses from Sifu Dunn, but this is compounded for me by the amount of time it takes me to compose a reply like this one, which is part of what I intended explaining in my long post. It really does take me several hours, this is no exaggeration, and sometimes I simply cannot face it, particularly when I asked a great many questions, and after a lengthy time receive a reply. It is just too difficult for me to remember everything pertinent to the original post I wrote after a significant amount of time has passed. I take your point, but in this particular instance I believe my case is an exception, and my posts can demonstrate this to be a fact because I offered information on the thread which was ignored, while the posts immediately following mine on the same subject were all answered with much gratitude, as though I had written absolutely nothing... Thank you for your offer. I will try and sift through the posts and provide you with the links, particularly since I still find myself affected by the same issues I was posting about. Sifu Dunn did respond to me, by the way, but he was the only one to do so, aside from a single pm I received from another member. Failing that, I could simply post the page containing my contributions to this thread since the date I joined it, and you can then see my posts in context and see how the majority were totally ignored. Thank you, that is the sort of feedback I need. It would be interesting if other practitioners were to pick up on this point and also provide some feedback as to whether they too were experiencing this, and how they managed to deal with this? If I were to try listening to music during meditation, I suspect it would lead to sensory overload, quite aside from the experience you describe. In any case, I don't subscribe to the idea of introducing anything from the illusory world we are supposedly freeing our consciousness from - it seems to me to be defeating the entire object of practicing anything other than a watered down New Age approach to meditation. Primarily, Professor Zeman from the University of Exeter Medical School, the man who actually named the condition Aphantasia, following a study on the topic decided to ask the public to fill out questionnaires dealing with the ability to visualize, and was very surprised to receive communications from around 10,000 people who suspected that they were experiencing Aphantasia. This was in the UK alone in a single year. These questionnaires investigate to what extent a person is able to use the sensory faculties attributable to mental imagination, and how this manifests, which senses are affected and to what extent. For many of us it has come as something as a shock, and several were clearly left in shock when they realized that when a non-aphantasic person had been describing their ability to visualize or imagine something - that they were not simply describing some sort of conceptual idea, as it was for us, but rather actually being able to mentally 'see' what they were describing - in many cases just as clearly as they were able to see with their physical eyes. This is really not possible for me to understand, any more than you could expect to be able to explain your sight to a non-sighted person. As I said, an aphantasic person is mentally blind, and incapable of imagining or remembering touch, taste, smell and often sound as well. Here is a link to an article which expresses this quite well: https://www.facebook.com/notes/blake-ross/aphantasia-how-it-feels-to-be-blind-in-your-mind/10156834777480504/ And a Youtube video in which you can clearly see the state of confusion and shock of the person who uploaded the video: So how did these neurologists go about proving that there was actually some physical neurological difference between an aphantasic and a non-aphantasic subject? We already know that using MRI scanning in the process of a subject whilst they are in the process of using the visual imagination, the corresponding areas in the brain light up where such activity is taking place. However what they found to their surprise when examining aphantasic subjects was that none of these areas reacted at all, these parts of their brain simply remained inert, showing conclusively that their brains were neurologically wired differently and did not react to the same stimuli. Indeed the corresponding area was also physically smaller than its counterpart in a non-aphantasic subject. The investigation of this phenomenon is still in its infancy, but scientists are presently considering direct stimulation of these sensory centres in the brain as a possible way to bring the faculty of visual imagination to aphantasic subjects. I am in communication with Professor Zeman in order to try and obtain more information and offer any further insights in order to help in these investigations. It has been established that worldwide, this condition affects 2 - 3% of the human race, but probably the figure is higher, as so many people affected would be unaware of these studies and the fact that the condition had actually been identified - that is if they actually know that their mental process is any different than anyone else's. You will understand more when you read the above article and others. Of these, the majority were born that way, but the first such case was in fact the discovery that a patient had lost their mental sight following heart surgery. In my own case, I probably lost my mental sight at the age of about 9, and according to my late mother, prior to that had a remarkable photographic memory, no vestige of which now remains. This is where things become confusing to me, because I do not know whether the visual phenomenon described is a result of an augmentation of the 'normal' ability to visualize, or the opening of what the Daoists call 'The Celestial Eye' (the Third eye?), perhaps Sifu Dunn wouldn't mind clarifying this point please? I suppose once I do reach that stage, it will be even more obvious than it would be for a non-aphantasic practitioner, but perhaps it cannot manifest in this way in my case. I have been training quite intensively, when you take into account that I began my training something over a year ago, but I am now learning the 4th meditation from Volume 7, having completed Volumes 1 through 4. But I have experienced none of the visual manifestations described by you and others whatsoever. What I do experience are very profound samahdic states and Qi manifestations, probably because I am only capable of immersing myself into those experiences in the absence of the ability to experience any visual manifestations. Regarding dreaming no, in fact many Aphantasic subjects have quite normal dreams, subject to the variations in clarity which affect people in general. However the ability to maintain any visual memory of the dream once awake is often nil. I certainly have been dreaming more since I have been practicing FPCK, but the only visual imagery I have ever had aside from the use of psychedelics is the shape of an eye appearing at times in front of my brow, and I perceive this in a violet or blue colour. But it has happened very rarely and does not last long. That will depend on the effect of these posts. Unless other members make it known that they are interested in my future contributions, it really would not be worth the hours of effort each post necessitates, so don't count on my continuing contribution.

Thank you for your support Moment. No problem regarding any questions - ask away! By the way, my comments did not refer to something imaginary regarding peoples' attitude toward me here. I was literally completely ignored, despite having made a considerable effort to contribute. Even the most supercilious or superficial comments from other members were acknowledged and answered with gusto. In fact, I only received a single pm, nothing more whatsoever. Let's see whether anyone aside from you responds to my last post and whether it actually changes anything. David

Sifu Dunn and everyone here. Please bear with me, as I feel the need to explain something which will possibly allow you to understand why I find it necessary to write as I do. I understand that this form of expression may have been a cause of annoyance or that many of you may have misinterpreted this for something else, and I certainly feel this very often, as though people here actually resent my contributions. There is a great deal more I would like to have contributed here, and I feel I have a lot to share, but am very reticent to do so, because I have the impression that I am barely tolerated and considered a nuisance to be ignored in the hope that I will go away and disappear. I have discovered that I suffer from a condition recently named 'Aphantasia' (the condition was already known and to some extent recognized in the 1880s, but has only recently been given a name and become the object of rigourous , although as yet rather limited scientific investigation). This condition basically means that the 2% of the human race who suffer from this have their brains wired in such a way as to totally preclude the ability to in any way use the faculty of visualization or imagination. This not only affects the sense of inner sight, but also touch, taste, smell, and in some cases even that of sound. What this means for me is that my only means of remembering anything, whether it may be something I have perceived or otherwise experienced is by means of my inner dialogue, because once I close my eyes, for me this world ceases to exist. There is nothing more than darkness and my inner dialogue (and physical and energetic sense perceptions) - the voice of my consciousness, if you will. So if I want to be able to remember anything, I have to go through a process of meticulously and precisely describing my experiences and perceptions to myself as one would need to to a non-sighted person, otherwise, I have no means of remembering anything. The moment after seeing something or hearing, touching, smelling or tasting it, nothing remains of that experience beyond what I have committed to memory via my internal dialogue. This reflects upon my way of expressing myself both verbally and in written form, and I apologize for this, although I cannot expect anyone with a functioning inner eye or the power to imagine to understand. It also means that when I write, it takes me hours of reading and re-reading in order to ensure that I have committed everything necessary both to paper and to memory. It can be an exhausting process. It also means that I require a considerably more extensive amount of descriptive language input in order to grasp an idea or concept which for anyone non-aphantasic would be supplemented by their imagination, thus bridging the intellectual gap. It also means that my mind is considerably more active in this continuous process of interpretation of the world via my inner dialogue. Let me give you an example: I am sure that for most of you, you take it for granted that when someone talks about 'counting sheep' in order to get to sleep, you will know what that means, and be able to experience it at will. Someone with aphantasia is only able to conceptualize what that means, but I cannot possibly actually understand what it means or experience this. As they say, if you want to know what ice-cream tastes like, then you need to actually taste ice-cream - there is no substitute. Well, we aphantasics cannot taste that ice-cream, figuratively speaking, because we simply lack the neurological wiring to enable us to do so. Another example would be if you were to ask me to form a mental picture of a scene such as a sunset setting over the ocean. My inner dialogue can piece together descriptions of what that might be like, but I have no ability whatsoever to perceive any sort of mental image of that scene, so any form of meditative contemplation requiring holding a mental image is impossible for me. The only way for me to remember a number with more than three figures is to hear it with my internal dialogue. If I do not remember the name of the street where I parked my car, I have no inner map to guide me, and spend much of my life getting lost and losing objects. I am not asking for sympathy, as much in the same way as other senses will be augmented in a person who has lost any of their senses, our brains find alternative pathways to achieve the tasks we need to perform, and so in some ways this condition could be considered a gift, and in fact a considerable amount of aphantasics are considered highly gifted - nature's compensation perhaps... For example there is nothing but my inner dialogue to interfere during meditation, so I am able to enter into very profound states of consciousness relatively quickly and easily. Conversely, the breath sequencing system used in FPCK is very difficult for me, because the bliss experience interferes with my inner dialogue, and I have no way to remember which breath I am on and often have to start over. It also means that in order to remember the meditation forms, they must be committed to muscle memory, but if I leave sufficient time between practice sessions to forget any part of the form, then I will have to relearn it, thus I have probably forgotten more IMA and Gongfu forms than most people have learned in a lifetime, and they are gone forever, because there is no means to recall them from memory. Perhaps you can imagine how frustrating a life like this can be, and how this can lead to severe depression? I hope this goes some way to explaining the tone, linguistic content and length of my written contributions here and elsewhere, as well as explaining why I find it necessary to ask so many questions and enter into so much detail. Thank you all for hearing me out. David

Thank you Sifu, yes this will be helpful in my practice. I do appreciate more and more how subtly the Volume 4 meditation subsumes the content of the previous meditations, as well as those on Volume 7. I apologize for my late reply. I will explain this and more in a subsequent post which I will direct toward every forum member.

Do the Volume 7 meditations have any static standing form equivalents to be used in combination with this set, or is it supposed to be combined with the Volume 4 Long form? I am talking about more advanced versions of Monk Gazing at the Moon and Monk Holding the Peach and Monk Holding the Pearl static forms. I can see the various elements of all the previous meditations contained in each of the Volume 7 meditations, but it seems that aside from the Volume 4 Long form, there is no equivalent standing meditation form at the same level as Volume 7's seated meditations. Is this because Volume 6 was withdrawn?

I would like to open a discussion on the topic of 'Which other Qigong or Neigong systems employ a breath sequencing method similar to GM Doo Wai's Flying Phoenix system, and how does this actually work?'. Having actually practiced this system now for the past year or so, I see similarities with certain types of pranayama exercises. From my personal experience, I find that once one has started integrating these breath control sequences, there seems to be an effect on other practices. Despite being, for the most part, a healing art, one effect seems to be the ability to spontaneously enter samadhic meditative states. What I would like to know is why certain systems warn against the use of such breath sequencing or breath control, and precisely what is taking place energetically, physiologically and on more subtle levels? Sifu Dunn claims that it is possible to achieve awakening simply by practicing the Flying Phoenix system. I wonder if this is an accurate statement, and to what extent - if possible to actually awaken in this way - the specific breath sequencing might contribute to this state?