-_sometimes

You've mentioned elsewhere too the act of being kind even if you don't want to. Is there something to being kind even if you don't want to? Your emphasis is not in vain I am certain

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Falun_Gong

Greetings all! After discovering Beth Upton through @Vajra Fist recommending her some time back, I'm interested in going on one of her retreats next year. I wonder if any of you have been on her silent retreats before, and if you have anything to share regarding your experiences? The retreats last from 10 to 40 days, and take place all around the world throughout the year. Beth Upton is a former nun who studied under Pa Auk, and that's mostly what I know. The retreats are very long by usual standards, priced well and tbh I like Beth's vibe :)) I hope to go there to practice my own thing - afaik it isn't necessary to follow a specific practice, given that it's a silent retreat, but do correct me if I'm wrong.

Pa-Auk teaches based on the Theravada tradition, so meditation-oriented, and idk I feel more inclined to the neigong approach of preparing the body before moving on to meditation. It makes a lot of sense to me. The accounts of meditation experiences not necessarily persisting if the groundwork hasn't been laid, and I recently read the account of an individual who practiced Vipassana (goenka style iirc) 6 hours a day for 6 years only to realize he'd cultivated a sort of bubble about himself that hadn't actually transformed his nature, but rather just covered it with something else. Damo has mentioned that his general experience with practitioners who solely practiced meditation seemed somewhat lacking in vigor and a bit serious, as opposed to those who also included the energetic arts in their practice. Beth's energy seems positively lovely, but I'm not sure if what she teaches is for me. Frankly I was planning on just practicing anchoring the breath the entire time Although having written this, perhaps it might be worth trialing it whilst I'm there, because I'm only operating on hearsay after all. What better way to find out than to try it out right perhaps it would be worth contacting Beth beforehand and practice what she teaches leading up to the retreat.

Would you be open to sharing your view? It's always good to hear different perspectives on the matter

What do you mean by this? Isn't neigong the precursor to neidan? From my very limited understanding, neigong sets the foundation by building a neigong body that is capable of handling neidan. Neigong is involved on the jing and qi level, while neidan is on the shen/spirit level - given the oft-mentioned jing->qi->shen, you kind of need that base of jing->qi to ensure permanent transformation. How does your school approach this?

Oh and the expectation as I understood it was to have arrived at abdominal breathing before even beginning to locate the LDT. Arriving at abdominal breathing naturally, without contrivance. By passing through the quiet to cotton-soft stages.. which to me, is an incredible accomplishment by itself.

I'm not currently subscribed, but I do remember, given 52 lessons for each 'year', locating the LDT began quite early on, around lesson 12 maybe? As long as it takes Often he gives estimates for reaching some skill at a given exercise, and the times he gave were more of a range than a specific timeframe, ranging from a few days if you're lucky to months - just the preparatory wuji, stretching, meditation and daoyin (which all unlock in ~5 weeks) could take many months by his admission. Imo (for me at least) much longer, to be able to sink the qi, which you probably want prior to building the LDT.

One of the first things he teaches is certainly what I would call meditation. To sit down, meditate on the breath until the mind is somewhat calm, then to let go of choosing what to attend to and allow the awareness to rest someplace in the body, until that point sinks to the ldt area

Isn't that the same thing Damo also teaches?

Absolute newbie here. I followed his neigong program for a short while, although I didn't persist for various reasons, but I found his videos excellent, with a strong focus in the beginning on grounding and opening up the body. Very in-depth explanation of the wuji position, with clear reasons given for the exercises he teaches. From what I gathered the first part of the course is focused on developing the conditions to sink the qi, which to me is extremely important. I was very impressed tbh

Some people just like to have fun I'm not one on of them, but it certainly seems people can enjoy experimenting with this kind of thing. I remember hearing an account of Daniel Ingram, or it could have been someone else with him, on a retreat he did - candle kasina for 7 or 10 days straight, and by his account it was quite a fun experience, where everyone just got together to focus on the candle flame nimitta, recounting experiences and just exploring. That said, I agree with your post and feel similarly

@cloud444 if it's worth anything, through the posts I've read of freeform, he has had much experience with people suffering from effects of energetic phenomena, due to the amount of time he's spent in energetic circles, practising and studying from many different schools. If nothing has worked for you in the past few years since you first posted, then why not give his advice a try? What is there to lose? It's been more than 2 years since you first posted about the difficulties you're facing. Imagine if you'd tried following the kind of life set out by freeform for those 2 years? Many on this forum can vouch for his advice, especially when it comes to grounding, myself included Also, Eric Isen has often been recommended as a clairvoyant able to diagnose energetic conditions. Perhaps he can help point you in the right direction. Although I haven't spoken with him myself, some like @Earl Grey - an experienced practitioner, have vouched for him, and many others on this site have had positive experiences with Eric. You can contact him through https://ayurvedicintuitive.com/

Isn't the whole point of zhan zhuang and similar standing practices to prepare the body for more subtle training? The posture is used to transform the body, to make it appropriate and ready for the training of the particular system, no? Depending on the system, slightly different versions of wuji are used, to sculpt a body most appropriate to that particular system. Are you saying the purpose of wuji is to build strong legs?

There are indeed a ton of suggestions I will give them a try! Thank you!

How so?

Now I note that I studied for 1h 30 min this morning, and the dry eyes began to occur around the 1 hour mark. I feel it's unreasonable to consider my eyes worn out after such a short period. Also I can take a 2 hour break in the evening to prepare and have my evening meal, and when I come back to study, the dry eyes are even worse. I feel the hypothesis that wearing myself out is the cause isn't really it, for the above reasons.

Could I get access?

As beginners, can we practice any of the meditations on Volume 1 by themselves? Ideally do all 5 in sequential order, but if limited on time, and there is only 20 minutes, is it okay to do just one or two? I imagine it's best not to mix and match to start with, so only in sequential order if starting from MGM. If not, say we were to practice Bending the Bows, just to do that one and not progress to MHPearl after, would that be appropriate?

I just received the first volume today and excited to start! I do have a question before I begin though - can the meditations in Volume 1 be done at any time throughout the day? What about close to sleeping, 1 hour to half an hour before, would this effect one's sleep negatively in any way?

I'm sorry I got lazy and didn't want to scroll further up, it was convenient and I didn't know it would quote you quoting him TwT

So for you, Islam is more of a personal philosophy or approach to life than you ascribing yourself as a follower of a religion? That's a very interesting approach that I can't quite understand! I'm pretty sure the shafii do not adopt this viewpoint at all. They have the Qur'an, hadith, 4 khalifa, along with the pillars and all that. To quote an explanation of the sect with regards to Sharia law: Which is fine of course, I just wonder if that's not 'you', if there are any sects that similar opinions to you, as that would be a fascinating side of Islam to study. @Pak_Satrio

Isn't what they want the actual thing though? This is something I've had difficulty wrapping my head around. It was considered a terrible thing to 'innovate' aka change in any way or add to what was already in the Qur'an and mentioned by the Prophet. But then again I've only studied Islam from the perspective of Wahhabism. They call it (innovation) bid'ah, and oh do they love to throw that word around 😅 Why do you believe that? In my experience there is no space at all for personal belief in Islam I'm aware. But aren't there also plenty of explanations for why this doesn't then mean that syncretism is the answer? I'm interested to know your viewpoint, and not looking to argue by asking these questions, just so you know

@Gerard You're implying having strong legs is grounding, and that this grounding improves cognitive function? How did you come to this conclusion?

How do your views differ from the salafis/wahhabis? By this I mean do you ascribe to the view of sharia law as set down in the Sahih Hadith and Qur'an, along with acting according to what is set in those?