Nuralshamal

Thanks everyone, for sharing your experiences UPDATE: I've completed the 100 days of standing. In the MaoShan 100 days of standing, completing the 100 days gives you access to 4 spiritual goodies: 1) Mantra to open qi field of TienZun (One of the 3 purities or San Qing, the Daoist "Divine Trinity"). 2) Mantra to bless, heal and remove obstacles from all your living and deceased relatives. 3) Secret way of using standing spiritually to bless, heal and remove obstacles and debts from all your friends, family and acquantainces. 4) Secret talisman that can aid in removing qi blockages and bad energy. In other ways, completing the 100 days IS WORTH IT! If you join MaoShan and do the 100 days of standing, here are my tips: 1) trust with complete faith in the process 2) read, watch and understand as much as you can about correct alignments 3) get your own form as perfect as possible 4) once you know and have checked your form, allow your body and the universal qi to guide your posture 5) at this stage, set up your posture, then let go completely and enter into the meditation, allowing your body to take care of itself 6) prepare yourself for some days of incredible torture, mixed with days of incredible physical, qi and spiritual breakthroughs After the 100 days you can expect your physical body to have realigned itself and its tissues to a much better setting. Depending on your experience and background in qi and meditation, expect to "level up" in your qi and spiritual abilities.

Dear Dao Bums UPDATE: I've joined MaoShan and cultivated daily for almost 6 months now, slowly but steadily working my way through Jason Read's Jasper Lake Maoshan curriculum. It is legit! The only thing I would say if you're going to join, is to pay attention to the following points: 1) make sure you do physical exercise daily, ideally things like physical yoga, taichi or a moving qigong form to circulate your qi and maintain and strengthen your physical body. I understand why Jason has not included much of this on the online part, seeing that the physical aspect of qigong is very widely available on the market today, whereas the secret, magical and more esoteric aspect he so freely shares is not. So just make sure you tick this off and commit to a daily physical regimen. 2) don't cheat yourself, actually do the exercises in 49 day practice cycles, take your time, feel it, get into it, document it. Go at it with respect, dedication, commitment and as a true, authentic and commited quest for your own personal, spiritual journey. If you pay attention to these 2 points, you are set I am personally extremely happy and thankful for having found MaoShan - the way Jason teaches and explains complicated chinese metaphysics are simply unparalleled. It's so clear and crisp, I've never seen it explained in a way so easy to understand before. Further, the things he shares are pretty much impossible to find anywhere else. Lastly, the man is simply incredible - he works a normal full day job besides maintaining the school, and he still finds time to make new lessons for the students, translate chinese works, write and publish books as well as regularly posting never-seen-before bits on magic on his twitter and facebook. And joining MaoShan is a flat rate fee of 108gbp FOR LIFE! For all lessons. He is truly a giving and sharing person, God bless him Thank you Jason!

Dear Dao Bums, Question for you guys Do you have any interesting experiences with Jason Read and his Jasper Lake Maoshan Daoist Magic? I have seen a few posts here on Daobums about his books on daoist magic, but none about the actual daoist magic training with him. My own few observations A fellow qigong brother here on the forum that I'm corresponding with notified me about Jasper Lake Maoshan daoist magic training. I checked out his webpages and read all that I could, and am now reading through his book "Practical Daoist Magic". Webpages: I found the webpages extremely interesting, and I definitely felt what he's sharing to be real, authentic and substantial. I tried meditating on a talisman he's posted to connect with the energy of "the fire star" or Mars, and within 5 minutes I felt heat pouring into my body and getting heated up. I was extremely suprised how fast and powerfully it worked. I took this as a sign that what's he's sharing is truly legit! Book so far: The book is the same story in the sense that it feels very legit and authentic. All the history and mythology he's sharing is perfectly in line with what I've been taught by Master Zhongxian Wu (who I've learnt from for more than 6 years), as is his explanation for yin/yang, 5 elements, 8 trigrams (bagua) stems, branches etc. of course with some slight variations in their personal interpretations. His beginning practices "to cultivate magical power" is also similar to what I've learnt from Master Wu, namely building the lower dan tien, purifying & strengthening the 5 organ system, "retriving" or calling back the spirits of your organs as well as daily mantras for purification (mind, mouth, body, surroundings, pacifying spirits, calling upon the golden light etc). The idea of jing/qi/shen as well as mantra, mudra, visualisation and posture is also similar. All in all I feel it to be very real. What I especially enjoy is that as a westerner he explains things very clearly so that it's easy to understand from a western viewpoint. He also divulges the "secrets" of how things really work and explain the whole process as well as the end result. This is something my chinese teachers never do, they simply encourage you to practice, shoot down your questions, and never explain linearly and in a straight-forward way what things are, how they work, what the process is like, what the result will be or how to measure your progress along the way. The only thing that really made me stop and wonder, was that at some point in the book he says that 30 minutes before and after practice you shouldn't eat or drink (pretty standard advice), however then immediately after he says drinking "only cool water" is allowed. This is a huge shocker! Everyone knows that Chinese never suggest cold water, it should be either hot or lukewarm. This was a big suprise for me, and made me wonder and question how everything could be feel so real and authentic, yet this one basic thing was completely "off" for how Chinese qigong/TCM/cultivation usually rolls. Actually it was such a great shock that it made me question the authenticity of everything. Even though the fire star talisman worked (which I felt to build his credibility), and the explanations feel legit too (which also builds credibility) the advice to drink cool water was so off that it made me wonder and question everything about his whole story of training in China & Malaysia etc. This is what made me write a post here on the forum, I wanted to speak to my dao brothers and sisters and hear your experiences (if any) with Jason Read and his Jasper Lake Maoshan Daoist Magic training. I look forward to hear from you!

Update: In my first week of practice after the retreat, out of 7 nights, I've managed to have 3 nights of lucid dreams. Overview 1. Night After The Retreat - lucid dreams one after the other (about 3-4 in a row during morning time) 2. Night After The Retreat - no lucid dreams 3. Night After The Retreat - lucid dreams one after the other (about 2-3 in a row during morning time) 4. Night After The Retreat - no lucid dreams 5. Night After The Retreat - lucid dreams one after the other (about 3-4 in a row during morning time) 6. Night After The Retreat - no lucid dreams 7. Night After The Retreat - no lucid dreams So 3 out of 7 nights something happened since the retreat, pretty good actually. Still not as good as a couple of years ago with the bön method where it was every single night like clockwork for a whole week, but let's see how it goes. My first preliminary observations and conclusions 1) all my lucid dreams from tibetan dream yoga have only occured in the morning hours, e-g. 5-8 in the morning. I usually wake up once or twice in a night to turn over (I sleep on my side). The last time I wake up to turn before actually having to get up, after that turn is usually when I get the lucid dreams. So either it's because I have actually rested quite a lot already, and the built up energy is what allows the lucid dream to happen. Or it's because of the environmental energy shifting from yin (night) to yang (day) with the sun rising, which boosts the lucidity. Or probably it's both. 2) In all lucid dreams in my life, I've never been able to change the environment. I am simply lucid in a set of surroundings, people and objects already present, and then I can move myself around and choose how to react to what's going on, but I can't change it. Only once did I have "power" over the environment back when I did the bön method. This is something I always pondered, how come I am lucid, but cannot control the dream? Because when reading about lucid dreams, control of the dream environment was one of the things most people spoke about. However, now I think it's to do with how strong one's dream body is. In my case, my dream body was the weakest of my bodies, so it's going to take some time with continous medicine buddha as well as dream yoga practice to build it stronger. Maybe I will get a further boost to my strength when I learn and start practicing tummo. 3) My sleep quality was worse, and I would wake up not fully rested when I did dream yoga earlier. This was also the case the first 3-4 days, however, now I feel it normalizing more and more from day to day. My sleep quality is returning to normal, I also fall asleep more naturally (whereas before it took me longer because I focused too hard on the visualisation while falling asleep) and lastly my level of feeling rested and recharged when I rise is also very close to normal now. This is a huge thing for me, and I feel it to be related to my dream body strength growing, as well as of course finding the balance between visualisation effort and letting go while falling asleep. "99% sleep, 1% awareness" is what Tulku Lobsang kept repeating during the retreat. I was probably more like "100% awareness, 0% sleep"! Now I'm more relaxed, that helps a lot with falling asleep. Where To Go From Here Tulku Lobsang gives several progressions for dream yoga: Level 1) Stabilise your ability to have lucid dreams (have lucid dreams every night) Level 2) Start traveling around your environment in your lucid dreams every night Level 3) Start changing yourself in the environment (shift your own form) every night Level 4) Start changing the environment (multiply objects) every night Level 5) Start doing spiritual practice in your lucid dreams every night (this creates a "special dream body") Level 6) Create a "special dream body" (now you no longer travel within your own mind during dream yoga with your ordinary dream body, now you actually travel in the real, objective universe with a "special" dream body - more similar to what's normally called astral projection) - however, how to practice at this level he didn't elaborate on So I'm clearly still at the most basic level, level 1. It's probably going to take quite a while to complete each of these levels, so I'm arming myself with patience. Just stabilising lucid dreams every night would be a huge achievement seen from my current perspective. I'm going to keep on keeping on, and we'll see if learning and practicing daily tummo from next month or so will boost my dream yoga. Lastly, an underrated day practice that supports dream yoga is a kind of mindful attitude with everything that happens during the day, by saying to yourself "this is a dream, I'm dreaming". I've heard this from several lamas. I've not really taken it seriously, but I've tried to do it a few days. I feel like it actually let's you work out your dream body in your daily life. So it's like a "cheat code" to level up your dream body much faster. Now your dream body builds itself stronger BOTH during your daily life AND during your dream life. Each time you say "it's a dream, I'm dreaming" your start experiencing from your dream body, thereby feeding it experiences, working it out, and slowly building it bigger and stronger.

Dear Dao Bums, Here's my experience with Tulku Lobsang (known for doing Tummo in -5 degrees celsius on "Story of God With Morgan Freeman" on NGC). I'll share in 4 parts: 1) Intro and Background 2) Medicine Buddha 3) Dream Yoga 4) Wrap Up - To Be Continued 1) Intro and Background I heard about Tummo when I was a child from my dad. He learnt about yoga on a hippie island camp full of naked women burning bras when he was a child, forced to go with my hippie grandmother in the 60s. He had a life changing experience as a child with yoga and mantras, while on this naked women camp. So in his late teens when small yoga and meditation workshops started in the West, he started attending. Buddhism was super famous in my country on the spiritual scene, as it still is in much of Europe with the New Age crowd I would say. While I grew up, my dad told me of naked monks in the snow-clad Himalayas drying wet sheets with their body temperature through magical yoga practices. So now the family saga continues; as an adult, I've also pursued further what my dad exposed me to as a child. This time, I saw Tulku Lobsang with Morgan Freeman. Being able to be comfortable in a t-shirt in -5 degrees on television I took as a "good enough" show of Tummo skill, that maybe I could finally pursue this magical practice myself. However, I still had some doubts. So, when I saw he was coming to my country, I decided to go check him out. If he "checked out" I would be willing to give it a go and fork over my hard earned cash to flight, hotel and the Tummo workshop (when the time comes). With the intro out of the way, let me share how it went! The first day he taught Medicine Buddha. The following 2 days it was one long workshop on Dream Yoga. 2) Medicine Buddha He gave us the mantra and we all chanted together for maybe 5-15 minutes. Then he instructed us step-by-step in the visualisation. After having stabilised the visualisation, we resumed chanting together (we were maybe 20-30 people). During his transmission, I felt a special kind of energy coming into my head center. I felt like it made it easier for me to visualise. I also felt the energy from each of the lights we visualised in all of my body, and felt pleasantly relaxed. Since this day, I've been doing a minimum of 108 reps of the mantra and then the visualisation meditation procedure he explained. Already on the second day of the practice, it's like the energy had increased in power. Now it's growing day by day with my daily practice. So far so good! He's definitely legit. 3) Dream Yoga My dad took me to a dream yoga weekend workshop when I was about 18-19 years old with a Rinpoche visiting my country. I thought the whole idea of lucid dreams and using them for spiritual practice was extremely fascinating, and even at that young age I practiced quite consistently for about 3 months (while also reading his book). However, I had no results whatsoever. Then again when I was in my mid 20s, I picked up the book again and decided to give it a go. I practiced again for about 2 months, but zero results. In my late 20s, I again read yet another book by a tibetan teacher on dream yoga. I tried it again. No results after 1 month. All of the above practices were the usual "visualise a red drop in your throat chakra, surrounded by a white lotus flower with 4 leaves". In this book there was also a tibetan letter on each leaf, and you said them one by one as a kind of mantra for a while, then proceeded to only visualise until falling asleep. However, at the end of this particular book was also a shamanistic bön practice for lucid dreaming. After 1 month of failing with the vajrayana buddhist practice, I tried the shamanic practice. After about 7-14 days, it happened! I was super excited. Then it would happen every single day like clockwork for about a week. However, with each day I felt like I got more and more tired. Like I used up energy while sleeping, instead of regaining it. I remembered a warning from a daoist qigong teacher who had (as usually) dissed buddhist practices, especially their dream practices. He said "night is for sleeping and resting, that's what nature intended". So I thought maybe my bön lucid dreaming practice was sapping my energy and discontinued it. Lo and behold, now I'm in my early 30s, and I was faced with yet another tibetan vajrayana buddhist practice of visualising a red drop in my throat. "Here we go again!" I found myself thinking, however I still had an open mind during the workshop. During the workshop I felt Tulku Lobsang transmitted different states as well as different energies. I also found him to be extremely grounded in Being, never losing connection to himself, even if some of the people were weird or asked weird questions etc. He remained in Being, very relaxed, very present and extremely grounded and Embodied. I was quite impressed! However, no succes with lucid dreaming, neither during the nights between the workshop days, nor during the workshops when we actually slept for 10-30 minutes under his guidance and blessing. I really felt he transmitted a lot of energy during these sleeping sessions on the workshop, but still no lucid dreams. However, now after the workshop, I have actually had 3-4 lucid dreams so far using the typical tibetan buddhist vajrayana practice with the red drop! Something that's never worked for me, even though I've tried it on/off since I was 19. So that also tells me that his transmission is legit! 4) Wrap Up - To Be Continued So to wrap up, Tulku Lobsang is legit! He's extremely grounded in Being, in Presence and in his body, and he really does transmit states and energies. There's no more doubt in my mind - I will glady fork over my time and cash to learn Tummo from him when the time comes

Dear Dao Bums, Let me share an update with some insights gained from daily practice in 3 points: 1) Medicine Buddha, 2) Dream Yoga, 3) Take Homes So Far 1) Medicine Buddha Practicing the mantra cultivates your speech, and practicing the meditation cultivates your mind. Further, you don't only cultivate yourself, you actively connect with a lineage mandala field, where the medicine buddha is one particular part of the mandala related to healing. A specific dimension if you will. Once you connect to this dimension, the energies from that dimension flow into you during practice, and over time builds your own energies stronger. Like your house being plugged into the larger, local electrical grid and powerplant, allowing you to use your share of the energy. I felt the white light in my head center and in my entire body easily in the first few days. I take that to mean my mind energy is balanced and purified. Likewise, I felt the blue energy entering my heart center also spreading to almost my entire body, just a few places here and there are not reached yet. That means my body is almost completely healed and purified, however just a little more to go. However, the red light entering my throat could only fill up the left half of my body, and had a really hard time entering the right side of my body. After a few days, I start to feel the message is that my speech is not purified. After some more practice, I reflect "why is my speech not purified? I am very mindfuld of speaking truth, avoiding lies, speaking positive words to others, and I have practiced mantras since childhood". Then I understood that speech is a kind of "mantra energy", and that it's not my current actions, but karma from previous lives that determine how much practice we need to purify our body, mind and speech. And apparently my mind and body karma is okay, but there is some bad speech karma. I then suddenly remembered a vedic astrology reading I had about 2-3 years ago, where they specifically said my worst past life karma was using the science of mantras in an a-dharmic way! Suddenly it made sense; my current experience with medicine buddha's 3 lights of pure body, mind and speech, and this experience of the red light not being able to fill my whole body could actually fit quite well with past life karma! Pretty interesting! Of course continued practice will help alleviate that karma, as well as of course continuing to stay mindful of speech in daily life, and maybe find a way to use mantras to help alleviate the suffering of others, to generate a new, positive karma, that over time can help balance or even cancel out this old negative karma. 2) Dream Yoga During dream yoga practice, you visualise a red drop of essence in your throat chakra. And as you read above, I never had succes with this practice until now. It now makes sense that the negative karmic burden of a-dharmic use of mantras in previous life times was just too heavy, and much more practice and purification was needed until I could use this method. It also makes sense that our speech body could in some way also be called a "mantra body", generated by millions and millions of mantras we've said in this or previous lives. However, in my case, I've hurt others in previous lives with this energy, so of course the karma is that my speech body is not fully functional due to this burden. Hence only after purifying it and cultivating it will I be able to grow in my dream yoga practice. Lastly, I also got progressively more tired when I succeded with dream yoga practice a couple of years ago with the bön method! Because I'm running a marathon with just one leg! I'm doing physical work with a handicapped body, weighed down by negative karma from previous lives. Only by repaying that debt and then rebuilding a normal dream body (speech/mantra) can I then continue to grow by actually building it stronger and stronger by continued practice. Further, my dream yoga is much better if I do the medicine buddha practice just before lying down to sleep and do the dream practice. Makes sense, as I strengthen, purify and recharge my body, mind and speech. 3) Take Homes So Far - The force of karma is real! - Only the combination of spiritual practice and mindful daily, virtuous living can alleviate/purify this over time - The dream body seems very related to our speech/mantra body - If you don't practice medicine buddha, maybe you will have a harder time with dream yoga, as medicine buddha replenishes and purifies your body, mind and speech. If you don't have a source of replenishing and nourishing, dream yoga could just make you more tired. All the best!

@Chang dao ling I've not practiced astakshari mantra. I've a tiny bit of experience with dwadakshari mantra. I felt it brought peace. But maybe that was also because I prayed to God that it would bring peace to the souls of my ancestors. I found it very powerful.

Dear Dao Bums, Let me share some of my experiences with the highest level of Sri Vidya: the Navavarana Puja done on the Sri Meru (3D pyramid version of the well-known 2D version Sri Yantra also known as Sri Chakra). I'll share in 3 points: 1) Intro to Sri Vidya and Sri Meru 2) My own path to Sri Vidya and experiences from each level 3) My experiences with the Sri Meru Navavarana Puja 1) Intro to Sri Vidya and Sri Meru Sri Vidya translates literally as "auspicious knowledge" and is related to Goddess Worship. Sri Vidya has been kept secret for millenia because of its unique methods allowing the accomplishment of both yoga (spiritual liberation) and bhoga (material enjoyment and success). Sri Vidya has several origin stories: 1) It was given by Shiva to his most beloved consort Shakti as the ultimate means of acquiring everything both spiritually and materially, 2) It was given to saint Agastya as a boon by Vishnu's Hayagriva form, because Agastya asked for a way common people could easily and quickly reach ultimate liberation without renunciation and multiple-life spiritual practice, 3) It was given directly from the joint incarnation of the Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva) Dakshinamurti to a student, who then passed it on to Parashurama (Vishnu's 6th incarnation out of 10 incarnations). Adi Shankaracharya a very famous preacher of advaita vedanta & an unparalleled yogi personally installed Sri Yantra in temples all across India. Sri Vidya gives unique methods of reaching both bhukti (material enjoyment and success) and mukti (spiritual liberation) in this current incarnation. What is then the Sri Yantra / Sri Chakra? It's a 2D version that is called "Yantra Raja" or the "King of all Yantras". The 3D version is called Maha Meru and is in a pyramidal shape. The story is that this yantra holds all other yantras in it, it contains all Gods, all Goddesses, all Gurus, all spiritual powers (siddhi) as well as all the necessary means for complete fullfillment of purushartha (dharma, artha, kama and moksha, the 4 goals of human life). 2) My own path to Sri Vidya and experiences from each level I was exposed to Hinduism from early childhood, and it was always a big part of my life in early childhood as well as my teenage years. This was due to family. In my twenties I followed along the footsteps of my family and got mantra diksha (mantra initiation) and performed a "maha-purascharan" which in my case took 4 years of daily mala japa (mantra chanting with a rosary) to complete. At the completion of each purascharana, like clockwork, that very night I got a dream of the form of Almighty God I was worshipping. I would get life guidance. After performing 6 purascharans and getting these dreams I was quite content spiritually. At that moment I came into contact with SKY (Simplified Kundalini Yoga) which is a direct energy and transmission based meditation system. SKY blew my socks off; on top of deep meditation, I felt it gave "tangible benefits". By meditating on the chakras I got much better health, sleep, energy levels, mood and even better meditation than before, whereas with mantra japa I got a dream once or twice per year, but other than that it was adrishta-phala (unseen fruit) for me. No visible, tangible result. The tangible benefits of SKY reeled me in, because it seemed to give much more much easier and with lesser effort, so over time I slowly tapered down my japa until I completely stopped. After several years, my hindu family member sent me an invitation to an online Sri Vidya workshop with mantra diksha. It had no impact on me whatsoever - inside myself I thought "I've already tried mainstream religious hinduism with my years and years of mantra japa. It's a great way, but it seemed that SKY was simply superior in all ways. However, for some reason I read a bit on the webpage over a few days, just to give my family member and Sri Vidya the benefit of the doubt. At that point I saw a photo of Bala Tripura Sundari (the teenage form of the Goddess) and something deep in my soul stirred. I couldn't say what it was, but I felt something very deep and profound stirring. I felt a kind of attraction unlike anything I've ever felt before. After a few days of this deep feeling I decided to give it a go. Since then I've completed the rituals and mantras of each level of the Sri Vidya given by Parashurama and freely shared with the public by Guru Amritananda Natha. It's taken me several years of blood, sweat and tears to complete, it's been quite tough and demanding to be honest, but worth it. Level 1: Removal of Obstacles, Starting the Worship of the Goddess, Protection Ganapati the elephant God removes obstacles from your spiritual and material path and grants stability Bala Tripura Sundari is the teenage version of the Goddess, so you start your approach towards the Goddess Chamunda (Durga) gives you material and spiritual protection Level 2: Attraction, Joy, Love & Acceptance By worshipping Raja Shyamala Devi, the feminine side of the Goddess, you become enormeously attractive. In a group of the opposite sex, at least one from that group will be attracted to you after you've worshipped Raja Shyamala. It gives you profound pleasure in meditation. Further, it attracts more goodness towards you, materially and spiritually. In the end, this attraction and pleasure is said to actually be the Goddess' way of attracting you further towards her! Level 3: Healing, Protection, Destroying Bad Here you worship Varahi Devi, the masculine side of the Goddess. You heal your physical body, destroy black magic, protect yourself from enemies and spirits. You destroy and push away badness and bad energy from your spiritual and material life. Level 4: Here you finally worship Tripura Sundari in the Sri Meru with Navavarana Puja with her panchadashi mantra. Level 5: You get a higher mantra for Maha Tripura Sundari called Maha Shodashi, it's simply an add-on to the Navavarana Puja, and a big level up spiritually when you meditate with it (japa) I've detailed some of my personal experiences with each level in this thread here: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/53122-sri-vidya-yantra-mantra-tantra-mudra-guru-karunamaya/ 3) My experiences with the Sri Meru Navavarana Puja I've recently started my first mandala (41 days) of Navarana Puja. I'm blown away! There are 9 layers or levels in the Meru, each called an avarana. The first 3 levels are one group and represents you as a seperate individual Level 1 represents the waking state and the feet. By worshipping it you're no longer helplessly thrown around by 8 negative feeling as a spontaneous and uncontrollable reaction to what you see and experience in the world, namely anger, lust, delusion, jealousy, greed, envy and possesiveness. Furthermore, it gives the 8 siddhis. Level 2 represents the dreaming state and the thighs. By worshipping it you eventually gain control of your dreams and get guidance in your dreams. You get aligned to cosmic cycles, namely the cycle of the moon. It is also said to satisfy all desires when worshipped. Level 3 represents the deep sleep state and muladhara chakra. It is said to end all agitation. The next 3 levels are one group and represents the powers working in the universe Level 4 represents the 14 worlds (chaturdashi loka), where we live in the 8th world (Bhu Loka or the Earth), as well as the swadisthana chakra. It is said to bless you with all auspiciousness. Level 5 represents the 5 karmendriyas (action organs) and the 5 gyanendriyas (knowledge organs) and the manipura chakra. It is said to bless you with all wealth. Level 6 represents the 5 elements and their 5 attributes and anahata chakra. It gives all protection. The final 3 levels represent Almighty God and his powers Level 7 represents the 8 most basic constituents of energy, the first outpouring from transcendent reality into primal, material existence, as well as the vishuddi chakra. It gives all healing. Further, it gives astral powers (seeing the past and the future, seeing every on planet Earth through your third eye, and later it gives the power of astral travel, i.e. leaving your physical body behind and travelling freely in the universe with your astral body. Read more here https://forum.amritananda.org/d/349-spiritual-reality-meditation-journey-within-by-guruji) Level 8 represents iccha (will), gyana (knowledge) and kriya (action) shakti, as well as agnya chakra. It gives all siddhis. Level 9 represents complete, pure bliss, God, sat-chit-ananda and the sahasrara chakra. It gives God realisation. When you add the Maha-Shodashi section on top of the regular puja, also on the same level of the Meru, it also opens dwadasangham chakra (above your head), allowing you to reach Thuriya-Teetha or the state even more beyond. My Personal And Tangible Experience The Navavarana puja takes between 1.5 and 2 hours to complete, so it's really, really long compared to the earlier pujas, where the longest (Varahi puja & Varahi tarpanam) took me about 50 minutes. The very first day I tried it, I got kind of tired because there are so many preparatory steps, new and unknown mantras as well as parts of the vedas and much more. However, the higher I reached on the pyramid, the higher I found a feeling of bliss and pleasure increasing at the corresponding chakra. When I reached the throat chakra, it was so intense that I could only describe it as a mix of deep meditation, ultimate sex, explosive orgasm and feeling drunk. When I reached the agnya, sahasrara and dwadasangham chakra, I was so slow in moving the spoon to give the Meru milk, because I was so incredibly blissed out. It isn't like that every day, but the more days of the 41 day mandala I complete, the stronger and more intense it grows, and stabilises more and more from day to day. I'm so incredibly surprised! I really feel "it was worth it" to go through years and years of blood, sweat, tears, rituals, mantra japa, purascharana and much more to get here. So far my feeling is that they weren't just marketing when they said the Meru is the ultimate.. I feel they were right! All the best! Sri Matre Namaha (salutations to the Goddess)

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences Recap on my own standing process It's been over a week since I started this thread. As mentioned I'm doing 100 days of standing. First 30 days were hell, then there was a physical shift - my hips relaxed, my whole body aligned, and I could stand effortlessly and painfree for 60 minutes with no issues. When this shift happened, my body "faded into the background"" of my awareness, so now I could focus on just meditating. I was meditating all along, but the physical pain had a disturbing effect. The meditation in the standing I'm doing is a visualisation: 7 color pillar (like a rainbow). You visualise holding onto a rainbow colored pillar made of light, which extends down into the Earth and up into Heaven (the universe). Update on my own 100 days of standing Suddenly one day, I really felt as if the pillar was there. Then after a while, there was a feeling of energy exchange between my personal qi field and the qi field of the pillar. I felt energy circulate between my arms and heart and the pillar, as well as up and down my legs to the heart and back to the pillar. This continued for some days. Suddenly one day, instead of this general feeling of energy circulation in my body, it became very detailed. I suddenly felt the energy going into one particular meridian at a time, slowly going in and out of it (between the meridian and the pillar), cleaning it, until it reached the organ of the merdian. Then it would work on the organ. And finally, when the meridian and organs was cleaned, healed and balanced, it would go to the next meridian. This was extremely interesting, as I clearly felt/saw each merdian and organ cleaned, as well as what had been blocking it. I was quite surprised that the vast majority of the blockages were simply formed due to impaired circulation. Then slowly over time, more and more "junk" would simply accumulate in that meridian. Health Realisations Brought About by Standing I had a period of about 3 years where I was highly inactive, because I got 2 herniated discs in my lower spine, I couldn't move as I used to. This period was actually what got me into qigong, in hope of healing myself. But in those 3 years, the stagnation started, and in spite of me getting into daily qigong towards the end of those 3 years, still to this day, a lot of that stagnation was still there (albeit of course much better compared to if I had done no qigong I would imagine). That was the physical layer of the body, it had become blocked due to physical causes, e.g. insufficient circulation. The qi layer of the body was packed full of "foreign qi", simply meaning when you hang out with people, you talk etc, you exchange energies. For some reason, this can also get stuck in your system. This was actually the most problematic, it took several days for it to clear out: I even saw some events from my teenage years where the energy was still stuck. Lastly came the spiritual layer, which was the quickest to clear, but it was quite interesting to see the things that "hurt your spirit", or at least what had hurt my spirit. It's mostly people who feel strong negative emotions towards you for some reason, somewhat similar to the "evil eye", but just done spiritually. There were also some lifestyle and herb choice realisations, because I saw/felt the individual problems of each organ and meridian one by one. Some had cold, some had dampness, some had heat, some were deficient, some were stagnated etc. Now it's like this process is complete, so now each day when I stand and finally "connect" to the 7 color pillar, the cleaning of everything happens in a few minutes, all at once. It's not detailed like before. Now it feels like I'm simply meditating - just resting in a state of peace and stillness. I'm very, very positively surprised by the power of standing so far, I never imagined any of this was even possible! Conclusion on this post It all just happens by itself with no volition or intention of my own. Firstly the "settling into" the proper physical position could only happen with time, I couldn't do it by myself. It was just suddenly one day my hips relaxed and let go, then they "fell" into position by themselves. Similarly with this whole healing process: I'm just meditating on holding a pillar of light, then suddenly the energy circulation starts happening by itself. And now, after almost a week of this healing process, now it just feels like meditation - abiding in peaceful stillness. Very interesting indeed!

Hey @Maddie Let me answer in 2 parts: 1) Alchemy 2) Desire 1) Alchemy It's a big subject with a large variety of opinions. I've gotten into a lot of trouble and attacks when I've shared my opinions here on this forum before. But this is my thread now and you asked a question, so let me try to give some simple answers. 1. What is the purpose of alchemy? The end goal is Ren-Tien-He-Yi - man becomes one with the universe. Nowadays we would say "person becomes one with the universe" 2. What does it do? It's a stepwise, progressive approach of firstly bringing harmony on the physical level (health of the body), then the energetic and emotional level, and lastly the mental level. When these three are cultivated into a harmonious states, this reveals the spiritual state of affairs, a conscious, felt and experiential oneness with the universe while we go about our daily business. 3. How does one go about it? The genius of true, authentic daoist lineage practice is that all steps are fully contained in every single step. That means just one correct and authentic form can take you all the way, given that you keep at it 4. Why would one want to do this in the first place? What is the goal of life? We each need to feel/find that for ourselves, what we feel to be the right way to spend this precious time on Planet Earth. Some feel driven by music, some by money, popularity, or maybe having a family. We're all different. Daoism said (in a simplified manner) "do all that you want, just have the daily "side-project" of attaining cosmic oneness all the way". Desire I agree with you! I have had to regulate my sexual qigong quite a lot, because too much sexual desire can simply take over one's life too much. Honestly, that's what I've felt happened to many of the sexual qigong teachers. For me, I see it as a way to stay strong and healthy until death. It's simply a supplement to my health regimen. I think the former gentleman who commended my elderly teacher talked about practical sexual function in old age, more than the desire itself. The desire is in the mind, whereas sexual function is of the body. E.g. the physical capacity to eat and digest food in old age is commendable, whereas mentally craving food (more than you need for health) is something in the mind. So I would suggest a differentiation between increasing or lessening desire, and then having or not having a particular physical function. Of course mind and body is related that's why we're here on this forum, but simply for added clarity in this particular matter All the best!

Haha, yes, true, he was maybe even more horny than me, even though he was 70-80 years old. We sat on a bench waiting to be picked up after a teaching session. It was outside, in a park/playground area. I talked and asked him about qigong and meditation, how to cultivate energy to achieve inner peace and connection with the universe. He was closely studying and then commenting on how juicy and sexy the ass of one of the hispanic moms in the park was :'D and what he would do to her. So, all the lovemaking and sexual qigong does work for maintaining sexual function into old age About a year later, when he blew his hip out and had to be in a wheelchair for about a month, he had to stick to just the women riding him :'D But he came back strong after! Haha

@dwai super cool, thanks for sharing

Hey @dwai, Thanks for sharing! Standing & Moving I think it's a super interesting information about moving meditation combined with standing. I do remember thinking about how these two should balance each other out. My sexual qigong and lovemaking teacher actually had some hip and shoulder problems (he was also very elderly), and I just remember I felt that it was due to too much and too long standing, without dynamic exercises. I saw him standing one day, and it just seemed his body got more "locked up" physically, even though he was connecting to universal qi. I feel it too myself, that if I don't maintain normal dynamic exercise after long standing, I could see how my body would also slowly become more stiff in the hips and knees. Qi Circle I got curious about the qi circle! Sounds very interesting. Which lineage and which sifu practice the standing qi circle method you mentioned? I do believe that cultivators can do great things together if they combine their energy, however these synergistic methods are not that often taught or used openly from what I've seen so far. For partnered methods I've seen back-to-back meditation as well as of course sexual methods between a man and a woman, and I'm blown away at how the qi synergistically affects each other so powerfully. The other method I've tried is group talisman healing, where 5 healers surround the patient, each standing in a direction: North, East, South, West & Center, and then they each channel and transmit the healing talisman and energy of their particular direction to the patient. This of course means that each healer needs to have sucessfully completed a 49 day cycle with that talisman in order to have its healing power. Look forward to hear from you again, all the best!

I feel you @Kojiro! It's super interesting to hear from different people how their body responded to ZZ. For me it was the shoulders, it was 1 month of hell, and suddenly my hip "let go", and everything fell into place. I had my wife try it the other day, because I told her how it was now starting to help my body, and for her it was the calves, knees and hips really paining. I asked her "what about your shoulders?" "oh, nothing, it's fine". I was shocked, because I had just been through 30 days of hell :'D So we're all different and unique

Hey @Creation, My current 100 day cycle of standing is in the "pillar" or "post" position, zhang zhuang, where the arms are held out in front of the chest.

Hey @Sahaja, Thanks for sharing Very interesting insights about the joints, tissues, muscles as well as acupoints! Also very interesting point about the mind/awareness being inside the body, and the connection with karma All the best!

Hey @ChiDragon, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts! However, I would also note that even though you did your best to share your experience in your post, I still feel like you came off as judgemental, belittling others, and then having a little "teaching moment" telling everyone how it's done, even including specific angles. I of course see and appreciate your intention of helping others out with your tips and tricks! I know you're simply trying to help. I also appreciate your effort in following my intention set out for this thread. I want to avoid that people simply say ZZ is the bomb, and if someone didn't become a God by doing it, they're doing it wrong. This approach is what I generally found while scouring the internet, and I find it religious and dogmatic in nature, which I feel is in complete contrast to what Daoism is. From my perspective Daoism is much more scientific, meaning it's based on observation, always observing, and yes, drawing conclusions, but always being open to change them if new observations come along. The whole point of this thread is to gather observations. It's not to either "defend" ZZ as great, or "attack" ZZ as bad. It's neutral in its intention, it's simply to gather knowledge, experiences and observations. And facts are, nothing in this world is 100% good, 100% of the time, for 100% of the people trying it. No matter how good qigong, yoga, meditation, herbs or ZZ can be, it's not going to be that for everyone all the time. Some people are going to get hurt, get a bad result, it's normal, it's natural. Similarly, some are going to get no results. Some are going to get good results, some even great. The whole spectrum is there. The idea that the world is black and white, some things are pure evil, some are purely good, e.g. ZZ is either God, or ZZ is the devil, that is simply not true. I welcome your own personal experiences, and I welcome you on this thread, but please stick to the format; leave people alone, and focus on yourself instead: what is your own personal experience? That is actually what is always advocated in Daoism: always come back to yourself, focus on yourself and your own cultivation, don't drain your energy by focusing so much on what other people are doing.

Hey @Maddie, Thanks for sharing! Every personal, lived experience is valuable

Hej @Kojiro, Thanks for sharing! I agree with you about standing! I too suffered endlessly until very recently. When I read online (I researched and read several hours a day for several days), it seemed about 70-80% of what I found was people getting nothing from it or actively hurting themselves. The people who reported benefits were very, very few, and mostly it was anecdotes about other people, and not their own personal experience (which makes it even less credible). Many of the people personally reporting positive benefits, mostly just said they did it because they were forced by their sifus, who also dogmatically claimed it was the end all and be all of everything. There were many I saw who had been standing daily for 6 months, some for several years, and many of them simply said it helps them feel more grounded or relaxed, but it's not that great, and 15 minutes of correct standing gives the same benefits as several hours. That's why I am so happy you shared your experience, I really feel like it would help "the world" to get a place with only personal, credible experiences, and get the complete, unfiltered truth. So thanks again

Sure, let's do it I don't know too much about the Devi Mahatmyam to be honest, mostly what I learnt from Devipuram. What I grew up with was more of the Ramayana. But I do see some commonalities in all mythological stories from around the world relating the same basic truths about the ego's journey back to the soul, and the soul's journey back to Almighty God. Regarding the Devi Mahatmyam, my interpretation would be that it's a joint story relaying multiple truths at the same time: 1) actual explanation of things in the material world and material universe cloaked in mythological language, 2) inner explanation for stages your soul goes through on the path to liberation, 3) actual historical facts and accounts weaved in here and there. We can explore more together if you want to

Hey, @Bhathen, let me try to answer your very interesting questions I'll do it in 3 parts: 1) Intro 2) Female Gods Predominant 3) What do these Gods represent? 1) Intro about time periods I personally don't know for sure, but I remember reading somewhere (or maybe it was a documentary I saw) that they've found yantras inscribed on rocks and stones all the way back to 10.000 years before Christ. Furthermore, if I remember correctly, it seems there was a worldwide trend of the cult of the "Divine Feminine" for many years in world history, in both Europe, Africa and Asia I believe they've found different cult objects etc., also in India of course. I do have a hypothesis of my own using the Cosmology of the Danish mystic Martinus as to why the Divine feminine was predominant in ancient times, whereas later there was a sudden worldwide shift more towards the masculine and patriarchal ways. 2) Female Gods Predominant According to Martinus, the microcosmos and macrocosmos idea is central to understanding reality, which he describes as "life within life within life". In his perspective the Earth itself is a living being undergoing its own spiritual evolution, similarly to us, albeit it at a macrocosmic level (from our perspective). Evolution happens via karma and reincarnation from minerals, to plants, to animals, to true human beings and beyond into the spiritual worlds. He says that we all carry both poles, the masculine and the feminine. As minerals and plants, we're double poled and therefore much more "at one" with the Divine. As animals one pole stagnates, and the other dominates completely. According to him, spiritual evolution as a human being is simply growing these two poles back into balance. That's what will take us from animal to human being. A man grows his feminine pole to match his masculine; when this happens he gets cosmic consciousness and is ready to move on to other worlds. Similarly with women, just the reverse. We're all living cells in the body of the Earth. I believe the reason Female Gods were dominant across the world in ancient times was because the Earth itself is a female. That's why the Earth was called "Gaia", "Mother Earth" and other feminine names when worshipped in many ancient cults. As cells in the Earth, we represent and follow the lines of feeling and thinking produced by the Earth. With the Earth being predominantly feminine in ancient times, feminine ways of seeing the universe and life predominated. That is, Feminine Gods. Some thousand years ago, the Earth entered from being mostly "one-poled" and feminine, into the phase of having to upgrade her masculine pole, in order to reach cosmic consciousness herself (which according to Martinus will happen in about 2000-3000 years in our time, however, it only feels as about 15 minutes for the Earth). When her maculine pole got activated, at first it's quite crude; it's about war, domination, power etc. That's when all the masculine values and perspective started to dominate more on a global scale, and we got the patriarchal religions (e.g. Judaism, Christianity, Islam etc) (not to say these religions are crude, it's just highlighting the masculine aspect. I personally grew up very much revering all 3 religions, and still do to this day. It's simply to give an example of patriarchy focusing more on hierarchy, power etc). The "left path" or feminine path is more powerful and gives magical powers and material results much quicker, because feminine logic is simply more available in the atmosphere of this planet, due to having dominated for many Eons of time. The "right path" or masculine path is newer, is more strict, more about discipline and morals, and doesn't easily produce spiritual powers and material results. It gives more "an inner" result, e.g. patience, forgiveness etc, the virtues preached by the more patriarchal religions. Further, the patriarchal religions all in some way contribued to removing the "old ways" of magical powers from the world as best they could, e.g. through witch burning, the inquisition etc. All the above is simply my own personal hypothesis and analysis. 3) What do these Gods represent? Okay, so what do all the Gods and Goddesses in the Sri Yantra represent? Here are some of my own perspectives so far. I would say you can view these Gods in several different ways. How I personally see it: 1) A material, scientific explanation of the universe, 2) A both spiritual and scientific map of your body, the universe and God (the microcosmos and macrocosmos idea), 3) Different energies available to be used for different purposes Let's start with the first one: 1) A material, scientific explanation of the universe. In this perspective, the pyramid is grouped into 5 "Gods": Ganesha in the lower right corner, Surya in the lower left corner, Vishnu in the upper left corner, Shiva in the upper right corner, and Shakti at the top of the pyramid. In ancient times they cloaked science in religious terms to help lay people understand. Materially Ganesha is simply the physical Earth. Surya is the Sun. Vishnu is the universe itself, Shiva is God or awareness inside each being, Shakti is the interplay in between all these factors. In this perspective, each avarana is simply a scientific mapping of life: 1st level: physical everyday life, you go about your business, and you compulsively react to sense-impressions in 8 ways (anger, delusion, envy, lust, jealousy, greed, pride etc). You're like an animal impulsively being thrown around by life with no control. However, you can rise above this by self-development, by developing patience, kindness, forgiveness etc. 2nd level: the dream world. This was much more a factor in ancient times than today. You see both in the Old and New Testament, as well as the Qur'an, people often had very vivid and lively dreams. Tribal people to this day still do. So this level simply scientifically describes what goes on when you're dreaming; there are 16 factors present in a dream: 5 senses, sense of a body, of a self, of form, of name etc. They simply scientifically "mapped" what a person experiences while dreaming. 3rd level: deep sleep. This is when we black out and have no concept of time. We sometimes feel like we close our eyes, and 1 minute later it's morning, even though we've sleept 8 hours. Where did time go? You don't feel the passing of time in deep sleep. However, these great ancient yogis still mapped exactly what 8 factors are present during deep sleep in order to explain this aspect of reality. 4th level: there are more planets than just Earth in this galaxy. Some are on lower evolutionary stages than Earth, some are on a higher stage. Somehow the ancient yogis mapped which planets in our galaxy have life and described it. There are 14 worlds, Earth is no. 8. There are 7 planets below us, and 6 planets above us. Earth is in "the middle" in its evolution, but also physically if you look at the galaxy. We're in the middle between the galaxy center and the most outer periphery. The lower planets are further out from the middle than Earth, whereas the higher planets are closer to the center of the galaxy. Interestingly enough, this is exactly what Danish Martinus also says. 5th level: there are 5 action senses employed in daily living, and 5 knowledge senses. 6th level: there are 5 elements in this material universe, and these have 5 attributes. 7th level: everything at the base level is composed of energy and vibration, there are 8 basic forms of vibration as the foundational building blocks for this universe. 8th level: underlying creation are immaterial principles governing creation. 9th level: immanent yet transcendent, penetrating everything and everyone, yet above and beyond everything and everyone, here lies the great mystery responsible for creating, upholding and destroying creation. We could call it God, the Goddesss, the Divine, they called it Sat-Chit-Ananda. It's eternally mysterious, yet what you can say about it is that it contains truth, consciousness and bliss. 2) A both spiritual and scientific map of your body, the universe and God (the microcosmos and macrocosmos idea) If we go this explanation, we take the scientific and material explanation from above, yet now we apply the microcosmic and macrocosmic idea to it. Creation repeats the same principles at each level. This means that the Meru describes your physical body, your energetic body, nature and the universe, every level thinkable. Making it "spiritual" simply means you can awaken each of these divine powers of the universe within yourself as well. You can awaken the energies in your physical body, energetic body, mind and soul. You can become a "junior God" or miniature God. You can open your third eye, astral travel, control the weather, heal diseases, predict the future, command spirits, go beyond life and death and much more. In this case each "God" or "Goddess" represents the powers of the universe, and the Meru allows you to awaken those same powers in yourself. Instead of simply being a material, scientific explanation or theory, you can now spiritually experience each of these principles actively and practically. 3) Different energies available to be used for different purposes In a very pragmatic and practical perspective, the Meru is simply a tool for improving practical, day-to-day living. Using it you can channel the powers of the universe for whatever need you currently have. It's pretty similar to the above idea, however now it's seen from a non-religious lense, a simple, practical tool. You can "order" more money from the universe, health, success, love, the weather needed for your specific purpose and much more. It's a magical tool for "managing" and improving your life however you wish to. Conclusion These are some of the ways I personally view it so far. Feel free to comment or question more, if there are any specifics you'd like to dive into deeper, or maybe start to dive in to some of the individual Goddesses and what they can do

Thanks for all your answers! Clarification About Testimonials Anyone that's not a "newly initiated" (e.g. up to 1 year or so). I think it would really help shed light on XYP if someone who went "deep" on this path, e.g. for 5-10 years could share their long term development. I remember you have "ranks" and that you graduate in these ranks by passing a test, so I imagine there must be a sense of community on each level, and thereby people sharing and exchanging knowledge and experience at each level. It could be super cool to hear from someone having cultivated with XYP for 5-20 years and hear about their progress, development and experiences along the way. I look forward to hearing from you! All the best

Dear Dao Bums, Where do you get your herbs in the European Union? In my country I get K'an Herbs and their other department Mycoherb from a local TCM company. Sometimes I also get already formulated herbs from Pine Mountain, Seven Forests & White Tiger from a Dutch TCM company that I know through local TCM connections. However, when I want to buy raw, single herbs, I need to get them from German or British Amazon, or sometimes I'm lucky and find them in specialised teastores or bazaar-like shops in the big cities where I live. However, lately I'm looking for american ginseng & dendrobium, and no matter where I search, I can only find them being shipped from outside of EU (e.g. USA or China). The problem with getting them from the US or China is that the delivery will be more than 1 month, and when you finally receive it, you have to pay extra tolls because it's from outside the EU. So I'm desperately searching for a place in the EU, because then delivery is usually within 7 days, and trade within EU is toll-free. Do you have any good places within the EU to get raw single herbs?

Dear Dao Bums, I would like to ask you: 1) What has been the most physically strengthening and stretching qigong form you've experienced? 2) Which qigong forms would you recommend solely based on the physical strengthening and stretching aspect? 3) Which qigong forms would you recommend especially for physically strengthening and stretching the whole hip & groin area, as well the low back and kidneys? I look forward to hear from you guys! All the best

Dear Dao Bums, This is the post I always searched for; a no nonsense, personal description of my experiences with the Spring Forest Qigong system of Chunyi Lin. 1) First I'll give an intro as to my thoughts on Spring Forest Qigong and how it works in general. 2) Then I'll go through level 1, 2 and 3 of the system (there are 5 levels in total). 3) Thereafter I'll give a short summary of what I've covered. 4) Finally I'll conclude my post. Intro: There is an enormeous amount of qi transmission from Chunyi Lin in Spring Forest Qigong. Even though you simply follow the instructional videos online, or go to train with an assistant teacher, they're all connected to Chunyi Lin's qi. This is because a hallmark of Spring Forest Qigong is "connecting to the master's qi". Therefore, your personal individual energy system gets plugged in to the larger container of Spring Forest Qigong. Just like you pay taxes in the country you live in, and then in return you get access to education, school, health care, protection from police force and army, roads and traffic regulation etc. In Spring Forest Qigong, the "taxes" are simply practicing the system every day. In return, you get access to the qi of all Spring Forest Qigong Practitioners, Chunyi Lin, and the masters of Chunyi Lin which he's connected to (alive in China that he trained with, or simply master in spiritual form he is connected to). Therefore you can achieve good results very fast, as you plug in your energy system to a larger, shared container. Level 1 Here you learn basic standing exercises, which open your body and meridians, circulate and build your qi, as well as building your lower dan tien (the foundation for your physical strength and health, your physical vitality.) These exercises might seem basic, however, they contain everything you need to build up your vitality (jing, physical body) and energy (qi, energetic body). Level 2 Here you start to focus more on how to apply the qi you've built towards healing others; it can be people or animals. It can be through qi-massage or through qi transmission through your hands. You learn qigong exercises to increase your healing power through your hands. You also learn some qigong exercises to start to build your spiritual energy, your shen, your consciousness. This is because building this up will increase your healing power, as well as your ability to easier understand what's wrong with the patient and how to heal it. Level 3 Here you start to go more into the spiritual side of qigong. This is done through longer and deeper meditations, fasting, as well as some explanations about how the universe works. You also learn about the third eye and auras. Summary: In level one everything is covered for you to attain a strong, healthy body, good energy and a peaceful, relaxed mind. It has everything you need as an individual to take care of yourself and your health. You develop the lower dan tien. In level two you learn to share this with others through healing. You develop the lower and middle dan tien. In level three you go deeper, going into the spiritual side of qigong. This makes you stronger and more spiritual, as well as increase your healing power. Through meditation you start to develop your upper dan tien and third eye. Conclusion: This was a very short explanation of the system in general. I will provide information about level 4 as soon as I take it. Be blessed