senseless virtue

Ok. I hope that you do keep your samaya vows intact if you have received any Vajrayana teachings like you seem to have. You mentioned about Dakinis and a portion of practice instructions that might require keeping it as secret from the non-initiated. You might want to edit your earlier post for this reason. For those wondering what is samaya and how it relates to Gurus: it's pretty strict lifetime commitment and means to not wound the love and power which Guru bestows with the tantric initiation. Abusing the vows leads to hell rebirth unless the breaches are purified. Also, abandoning one's Guru leads to the karma that one will never again meet the teachings of Buddha in any future lifetime. Sounds pretty serious, but taking empowerments and accepting Gurus is a personal choice and everybody usually is well informed about what responsibilities it carries to both for the teacher and the student.

Ok, I don't have a clear view of what you are looking for in shielding so I'm stopping here. It might be interesting for you to learn that Shuigong also has protective visualizations in its dream practice. These aren't humanoid figures though. Bodhicitta. Either you use the extra energy in pursuits of altruistic love and higher causes or it escapes through habitual vices. That's how I see it, but you might want something else per your teacher's recommendation that you quote.

Sorry, but this doesn't sound true and you might be misinformed. There are plenty of shielding practices starting from basic ethical discipline to various mantras and dharanis in Paramitayana and then deity sadhanas in Vajrayana. Even reading certain Mayahana Sutras can make for reasonable shielding. Understandable. Be mindful though that many esoteric mantras are also used in all Mayahana and plenty of these don't require going to the tantric deep end. Yet, discussing these mantras even with your Ch'an or Zen teacher can be very helpful because following a valid teacher is the way to go.

That is a technically correct answer and a very thoughtful one.

In some cases yes. Stillness-Movement Neigong, Tao Tan Pai, Flying Phoenix Qigong, and Shuigong have good pedigrees and excellent meditative results even in the modern era. All of them feature either energy transmission or traditional initiation at some point of the training as far as I understand. Michael Lomax, Sifu Terry Dunn, and Sifu John Dolic also teach online and do Q&A in case you are interested in more interaction. Why are you looking for qigong if you have found Buddhism?

My article might be useful even if not directly answering your question:

Spiritual discipline prevents loss and harm. This is its singular purpose. Without this foundation all "practice" is wishful hobbyist theory and all likely risks become realized in one form or another. That's why you don't see Michael Winn or Mantak Chia students becoming flying mahasiddhas even if they gathered all the energy and even if they practiced all the forms correctly. Freedom from error is the highest guarantee for success as far as internal training goes.

Come on! You let out a secret worth of bazillion bucks like it was nothing!

Blah.

I think it's highly ignorant to separate these two. Building qi always takes correct discipline, and to really master discipline you need to be able to discern well between what is harmful and what is helpful.

In fact the entire pursuit of spirituality is one extensive learning for to be able to spontaneously separate good and bad.

"Less more harm" sounds pretty neutral. And somehow strangely pretty. I love Engrish.

One can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Best of luck to you.

This should be pretty obvious considering we talk about martial arts. Martial energy is meant for killing human beings. Many of the advanced Bok Fu Pai meditations and their breath sequences activate that capacity. I think you should go ask Sifu Terry Dunn or search the Flying Phoenix discussion thread if you still find my explanation hard to grasp. Sifu Terry has made numerous references to the fighting capacity of the GMDW meditative arts.

This is how GM Doo Wai learned the breath sequencing as it had been traditional for many generations. GMDW eventually became so skillful that he crafted correct breath sequencing formulas to any new martial styles that he didn't inherit from his father. From Sifu Terry Dunn's writings we can see that Eight Sections of Energy Combined (Bot Dim Gum in Cantonese) is one of these. As a closure, I want to remind everybody that Sifu Terry has brought up several times that it's dangerous to create breathing formulas on your own because it might access unhealthy energies. He also shared a personal account about Flying Phoenix advanced level that doing the movements wrong even by accident can also induce a real energy injury. Please take care and don't waste your time on yogic skills that go beyond your level.