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On Shaolin Temple's Official webstie (Shaolin.org.cn) this article is featured: "Yi Jin Jing and Xi Sui Jing Yi Jin Jing (Muscle/Tendon Changing Classic) and Xi Sui Jing (Tendon Transformation and Marrow-Purification Classic) the legendary Bodhidharma's timeless classics have been considered as Treasure Arts of Songshan Shaolin Temple. 1. Begin the regeneration of the Body [Chin.: Yìjīnjīng 易筋经] Bodhidharma's Yi Jin Jing [Muscle/Tendon Changing Classic] is a relatively intense form of exercise that aims at strengthening the muscles and tendons, so promoting strength and flexibility, speed and stamina, balance and coordination of the body. These exercises are notable for being a key element of the physical conditioning used in Shaolin training. The Yi Jin Jing taught the Shaolin Monks how to build their internal energy [Qi] to an abundant level and use it to improve health and change their physical bodies from weak to strong. After the Monks practiced the Yi Jin Jing exercises, they found that not only did they improve their health, but also they also greatly increased their strength. When this training was integrated into the martial arts forms, it increased their martial techniques. This change marked one more step in the growth of the Shaolin Martial Arts. Yi Jin Jing it is a mixture of Yoga and Kalaripayattu, an ancient Indian Martial Art from Kalari. Kalaripayattu philosophy is Dharma - Yuddha [War of Truth]. A Dharma - Yuddha begins only if the fighter touches his Masters right hand with his right hand and his opponent chest and hand. This move means that the fight can begin only through the mind and if only heart approved it. Maybe it is not a coincidence that one of the First Shaolin Martial arts named Xin Yi Quan [Heart through mind boxing]. The basis of these works, the physical drills, were called 18 Luohan Arts [Chin.: shíbā luóhàn shù十八罗汉术] and were incorporated into the Shaolin Qi Gong and martial arts [what became known as Shaolin Wu Gong] training of the times. Number of these physical drills tends to change, 18 should be the correct one [according to the 18 Luohans], but can vary from 10 to 24, to 30. 2. Begin the regeneration of the jing [Chin.: xǐsuǐjīng洗髓经] Bodhidharma's Xi Sui Jing [Tendon-Transformation and Marrow-Purification] is one of the most revered internal Wugong exercises of the Shaolin Monastery. Practicing Bodhidharma's Xi Sui Jing cleanses and purifies not only the body but also the mind through the regulation and enhancement of the body's internal energy [Qi], blood, fluids, and nutrients. The Xi Sui Jing taught the Shaolin Monks how to use their own Qi to clean their bone marrow and strengthen their immune system, as well as how to nourish and energize the brain, helping them to attain Buddhahood. Because the Xi Sui Jing was hard to understand and practice, the training methods were passed down secretly to only a very few disciples in each generation of Shaolin Monks. Xi Sui Jing meaning can be inferred from Buddha's word. "All life is endowed with the essence of Buddha. Bodily desires and emotions induce the folly of ignorance and attachment, the deception by the "three fires"(greed, anger and illusion), and other polluting ideas, thus precipitating the distinction between the suffering minds of ordinary people and those who have attained Buddhahood. To achieve the state of Buddhahood all righteous men and women must dispatch all illusions and attachments and the entire body must be thoroughly cleansed of obstructions and contaminates." The practice of this technique not only makes it possible to reinforce the muscles, the ligaments and the bones, but it also makes it possible to purify the marrow, from where the origin of its name. It exerts a real influence on the prevention and the improvement of chronic diseases such as the depression, gastritis acute or chronic, disease of the respiratory system or cardiovascular, weakness of the kidneys, pathology of the vertebrae, arthritis, impotence, etc. It is advised to practice it after having assimilated the "Yi Jin jing". By Shaolin Master Shi Yan Zhuo Head Master of the Greek Shaolin Temple Cultural Center" - Although I'm skeptic about the kalaripayatu connection, as it seems far fetched, the quote of Buddha did rung a bell to me, since whereas I can practice Yi Jin Jing without working much or anything in removing the "three fires", as the quote says, since YJJ is more physical than spiritual, Xi Sui Jing had a profound effect on me and I had to drop it. Either I wasn't ready energetically or the "three fires" really became like fire (since I couldn't overcome them at the time). That said, I wouldn't recommend Xi Sui Jing to a beginner obviously. Rather leave it for when if you ever reach like a spiritual strength pinnacle when you can remove all spiritual and phsyical obstacles or something, and sitck just to YJJ. After all, if Xi Sui Jing is really more of an advanced spiritual practice, related, as the article said, to Buddhahood, it is the same as saying that it's only for those that are fit on the path to Enlightenment and even Moksha, liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. If this is true, it is definitly not for the common person still dealing with its spiritual and phsysical weaknessess and with lots of material attachments. Sometimes we dive into something thinking it's no big deal, and that we know it all, and in turn it ends up owning you. That is why there are monks, and laymen, and I know that now.

We're going in circles here, let me repeat myself: - Genesis is a myth; - Science can't explain everything. That's all.

No one said it wasn't a myth. Of course it is, even a layman can see it's a metaphor. Science is based on theories though,.no one ever saw the world back 5000 years ago. It all hangs on a thread.

Yeah :-) technically only Abraham was the first 'hebrew'. Adam and Eve were the parents of all Mankind.

I agree that Daoism in the pursuit of pleasure draws closer to Epicurianism than it does to Hedonism. Even in Plato's books is repeatedly implied the pleasure drawn from a virtuous, spiritual oriented life (there pleasing the gods meant being in harmony with the Kosmos, not blind worship or fanaticism). Hedonism is just the pursuit of pleasure in material things, i.e., indulgence. This was all abhorred by Plato and his followers. In a way, he defined true Gnosis as we know it now, even before the gnostics and the term appeared. Gnothi Seauton, Know Thyself, the body (soma) is the grave (sema) of the spirit of which we partake with Zeus, for if He is the Artisan (Demiourgos) of the world, we are the artisans of our own life.

I don't know, at first sight it looks like a mess of different arts. Ninjutsu doesn't have katas AFAIC, and the soft arts seem also to be anti-katas, opposed to Karate. But then again Ninjutsu is a modern creation of glueing several ryuha together. It might had existed in the past like that, but no one knows for sure. Kuji-In, OTOH, is an ancient practice rooted on japanese buddhism. Maybe there's more to Matsuo than it seems, i would have to try it to find out. Meanwhile, a little scepticism is good thing. There are many cults out there.

Good metaphor. Yes to meditate is to root like tree where thoughts pass like the wind, and spiritual cultivation also has to be firmly rooted and progress inwards and outwards like a tree, slow, firm and strong. The fluidity in daoism I guess it relates to abandon previous stages in preference of higher ones. A tree only appears to be static, but it's always growing.

Exactly my point. Gematria is used in those sepecific systems to help organize ideas by encoding them in texts or inscriptions, as was the case with greek gematria. Shamanic intuitions relate the worldly phenomena to the spiritual reality or noumena. Seeing signs wherever you look is just the associative animal tendency in us, has no spiritual goal or spiritual orientation. The kingdom of heaven can only be found inside, as a guru once said...

Did you know that spiders in mythology represent creators and architects? Because they weave a chain of causes and effects like a spider and alsi because the web represents the matrix of world, in which causal center they reside. Or just It if you're monotheist. Nothing to do with shells. They create nothing.

Currently, this are the ones I have:

That looks more like bagua than anything else. Unless kung fu and tai jutsu have more in common than meets the eye...

But I find it useful and relaxing to do some qigong before mudras, to keep the qi flowing and awake, so you could do bagua circle then mudras for example.

I'm all for shamanic intuitions, but sinchronicity is revealed IMO through interaction of people, not through numbers or mathematical calculations. Gematria, the jewish one ('cause there's a greek one) is only meant to be applied to deciphering the Torah, like the greek one was only used in religious concepts, not else. Those jews who use gematria in/for material life are no better than conspiracy theorists. I was going to say that this should belong to The Rabbit Hole, since you mentioned it, but even Alice's hole is a spiritual, live one, full of symbols and ideas, whereas you're dwelling in a dead one of calculations.

There are different qi gong approaches, but one does not substitute the other. The hard qigong of hung gar is great, but afterwards I have to chill out with ba duan jin. Each have their specific purpose. But yeah, some are more internal than others. I guess that in feudal china there wasn't enough time to cultivate qi like in taiji and soft qigong, and there was also the preocupation with being phydically strong for battle, thus the shaolin focus on wai gongs and hard qigongs. But YJJ is also special to me. It's a bit like yoga. When I don:t have the time to do a full forms workout, YJJ and/or yoga keeps the body fit externally snd internally. Even if bdj and yjj are more waigongs there is still a fraction of neigong to them.

Perhaps in the practice of mudras like Kuji In it's preferable to stand still because it starts a specific closed energetic circuit in the body that wouls be otherwise diminished if the energy had to go elsewhere like the legs for instance. It's my opinion but it seems logical that it should be done still, to have optimum results.

May I add something? That leads nowhere, but it's your choice. And you need to rest your head. This is not healthy.

I mentioned Mantra because of the context, but I prefer silent meditation. I'm not trained enough and chanting distracts me. I prefer no sound, no mind Try is right, in Kabbala, Faith and Will are the same, basically the I Am consciousness, be it particular or more general, the essence of the soul.

Yeah, even though Mantra means Mental Protection, perhaps the correct term is Enpowerment. I used to be obssessed too at some point with external evil, but as time went by, and thanks to some reading/qigong/mediation I realize that it's we who create it by ourselves, either by fistering our weaknesses, or by atracting evil due to our mental/emotional vibrations, so yeah, in the end it's not much about protection but enpowerment. If you're in a valley, no ritual will save you from a flood - you have to climb up the mountain and rise to the next level to be safe.

This makes sense because the mind, awareness and spirit are often equated with light which dispels darkness. But how does this really work indeed? I guess one answer is that we can't emulate spiritual light if we are in a state of negativity - stress, frustration, hate, etc - and that in the opposite condition - in a state of peace, we can 'shine' unconsciously and effortlessly, and every negative entity, living or ghostly, just can't face us. It's like when we greet bad humours from others with unshaking confidence and peace and people just hide their faces and withdraw in shame (recognizing their negative state in contrast to ours) - it really feels like the triumph of light over darkness. But of course this is a severe contrast, like sun over dark, and it's painful for the person in need. So the moon then is a metaphor for a weaker light and for a mote feminine, maternal, cimpassionate approach, one that will heal perhaps better than the other. After all the moon is also darkness, and is closer to it than the sun is.

No, I meant vehicle of awareness. But heaven or hell are also states of counsciousness, so...

It's a rather extreme view on the body, but everyone has their way of dealing with it. For me it should suffice to know that the body dies and that we cannot cling to it forever, and have to eventually find a permanent abode in contrast to the temporary one that the body is.

I recall reading an excerpt of a chinese classic on the wu xing that at the time helped to understand the elements in the kabbalistic tree of life. i can't recall the author's name or the classic, but I hope someone recognizes it. It goes something like this: Thought should be deep like water (rather than superficial) (keter, chochma or chesed); Undertstanding should be clear as fire (rather than obscuring as darkness). (Binah or gevurah); Character (pointing to one's behaviour>goals>desires, selfish or altruistic>lower ego, the emotional triad of chesed-gevura-tiferet or just tiferet) should be straight like a straight tree (wood) (rather than crooked, like a crooked tree); The analogy to Metal I don't recall what it was, but in Pythagora's system speech was equated with swords (words that hurt). (the lower sefirotic triad); Lastly, the body (earth), like a dress, is to be worn and cast aside (this one blew me off, as it implies reincarnation and the ephemerality of material existence). (Malchut) Hope someone can recognize this and tell who wrote it.

Why should it be a blind alley? Every religion or philosophy has something in common. The four heavenly kings of Vajrayana and other devas have an analog in chinese mythology, since either cultures, or any for that matter, always had those concepts, in one way or another. But you would have to be wise of both vajrayana and daoism to recognize the common points, and that is in itself burdening. If there was a daoist practice of kuji, it's lost, or we would had knowed it by now. Either way, like I said, chinese gods and indian devas are the same ones, we all aspire the same, only language and cultural expression is different. But do keep digging, I would love to know more details as well

I'm not an expert, but check the wikipedia page on Kuji-in, it provides some clues, although much is still obscure. Nonetheless, it seems clear that it's of Buddhist origin (Vajrayana), which originated in India and spread to China and Japan, mixing with Daoism and else.

Hi everyone, I'm a 43 yo martial artist thriving to consolidate spirituality into and with... Well, with everything, not just MA's, since the themes of 'struggle', 'preparation', seem to pervade more aspects of life than just the physical - thus the 'struggle against oneself or lower self'. Casually or not, I came to know of this site by stumbling into the 'exorcism' thread in this forum, which may seem unrelated with my goals and self, or maybe not, since the time I spent studying Kabbalah and Neoplatonism helped me understand some symbols better. It seems that in ritual magic, and ritual exorcism, there is not a clear understanding of the nature and purpose of symbols, and a materialistic, depth-absent approach on them. Salt, e.g.: You can throw salt on a ritual and the only thing that it'll kill or block is bacteria. So if the ritual is not meant to banish bacteria, then why salt? Because it's just a symbol. Nothing physical can thrive on salt, and the spiritual intent on a ritual is to analogously block spiritual negativity, but obviously it's your mind and intent that creates that effect, not the salt. Incense: Incense means the 'smoke' resultant from the spiritual efforts made on our quest to better ourselves, from our internal will or fire. Thus no spiritual entity will enjoy the scent and perfume of the physical incense, but of the immaterial one, of which the physical is just a symbol. I'll pause here for now due to the length, but anyone can jump into. Blessings!