Nuralshamal

Dear Dao Bums, An update on the manipura chakra It has 10 channels, here are their corresponding TCM/qigong meridians: pam पं - the left, lower part of the liver channel, from manipura, down the leg, the knee and into the big toe (left side of the big toe= pham फं - the left, lower part of the stomach channel, from manipura down the front of the leg to the middle toe daam डं - the right, lower part of the stomach channel, from manipura and down the front of the right leg to the middle toe dhaam ढं - the right, lower part of the liver channel, from manipura down the right lag naam णं - the right, upper part of the liver channel, from manipura, through the liver, the heart, the neck, through the brain to the eye tam तं - the right, upper part of the stomach channel, from manipura, through the stomach and ribcage, into the right jaw tham थं - the right, gall bladder channel, up through the gallbladder, side of ribcage, scapula, onto the head dam दं - the left, gall bladder channel dham धं - the left, upper part of the left stomach channel nam नं - the left, upper part of the left liver channel I am very pleasantly surprised by the power of chanting the mantra, while visualising the letter on a yellow petal in the corresponding location. I have suffered from life long sleep problems. Up until 19 years of age, I couldn't fall asleep (in TCM this is usually something with the Heart). After 19 years of age and up until today, I could easily fall asleep, however, I wouldn't "stay asleep" through the night. I would wake several times, turn over, them continue sleeping. This is usually related to the Liver in TCM. I've tried everything under the sun for sound sleep: TCM, qigong, sleeping qigong, maintaining same waking and sleeping times rigidly, avoiding electronics and light before bed, having a warm shower before bed, drinking hot milk with honey, herbs, meditation, amino acids (tryptophane), supplements (melatonin, magnesium) you name it. Everything I've ever read about to improve sleep, I've tried it. The best was herbs (zizyphus sleep from K'an herbs which target the yin and blood of the Heart and Liver), and the amino acid Tryptophane (which is a precursor to the sleep hormone melatonine). However... Last night I had the best and most refreshing sleep!! Yesterday, when I meditated on the manipura chakra petals, I was shocked to find that naam and nam (the right and left upper parts of the liver channels) were completely closed and blocked in the part that went through the heart. These blocked channels are what have been messing my sleep up! And no amount of qigong, sleeping qigong, herbs or meditation had allowed me to open these channels so far (I'm talking about more than 14 years of TCM herbal treatments, 9 years of daily practice of meditation, 7 years of daily practice of qigong, 4 years of sleeping qigong and 3 years of tryptophane treatments). However, one sitting of deep meditation on these two petals busted open these two channels, alleviating me of life-long sleep problems. I am prostrating before the Almighty, as well as the rishis who have maintained this knowledge of the chakras up until our day, for having granted me the cure to a life long sleep problem, which has haunted and disturbed my life beyond belief, and given me tremendous suffering. It's my own karma from past lives, my own doing, however, finally the bad karma was paid off, and the Almighty put me into contact with the Rishis' knowledge, thank you dear Lord May you all be blessed! May there be sufficient grains, food and water for the satisfaction of all living beings. May the whole world enjoy prosperity, happiness and peace.

Dear Dao Bums, Small update: A small update on the Sri Vidya front I've now been practicing daily for about 6 months. I've done the mantras, used some of the small rituals and pujas, and lastly a 41 day ritual to empower my mantra as well as attract stability and trust. I must say... It works! After finishing the 41 day ritual, I immediately started getting several money making opportunities in a way I've never experienced before. People just started contacting me with small money making "gigs", and my normal job stabilized. Additionnally, having completed so many repetitions of the different mantras, I must say, they work! Mantras and opening chakras In the beginning it would take about 50 minutes of mantra repetition of the Ganapati Mantra, then I would feel comfortable warmth in the tailbone / muladhara chakra area, and then with continued repetitions, I felt this warmth circulate up and down my legs as well as my spine in 4 distinct channels (2 down the legs, 2 along the spine). After 6 months of daily japa (mantra repetition), this chakra opening and nadi circulation happens in 1-2 minutes. The time has simply reduced slowly from 50 minutes, to 45, to 40 etc with continued repetitions, and now it happens very quickly. The Bala Tripura Sundari Mantra for the Swadistana chakra has gone through a similar development; it now opens the chakra in the front (genital area), in the middle of the body as well as on the back of the sacral bone, and I feel the energy circulate in 6 channels, some down my leg and some up and down my torso. The next mantra is the Raja Shyamala Mantra for the Heart chakra. It has great and very powerful energy, and it goes straight into the heart. I've not practiced it long enough for the chakra and nadi opening, but I can feel its power and energy. Guru Karunamaya has also given a particular way of opening all chakras and nadis using mantras. I've only seen it demonstrated, but I can't wait to try it out! I could feel energy in each nadi when the Guru recited the mantras and demonstrated how to do it. Imagine having mastered all the mantras for all the chakras and nadis! Then you simply meditate for 10-20 minutes, repeat the mantras for all chakras and nadis, and you will open and circulate all your chakras and channels every single day. Only one Supreme Being, yet many Gods? I like the intellectual explanation for the meanings of the "Gods and Godesses". Being raised strictly monotheistic, I never understood the Hindu pantheon. My current understanding, after studying Sri Vidya, is that each God/Goddess is simply a particular kind of energy. Just like you're only one person, yet you use different parts of your body for different tasks. Your hands can work, your feet can walk, your eyes can see, yet they're all part of one, indivisble whole: you. Similarly, there is only one Supreme Being. All the Gods are simply different types of energies of this one Supreme Being. I look forward to continuing my Sri Vidya journey

Dear friends, Here's a "grand unification" of a multitude of esoteric subjects. I'll deal with this grand unification under four headers: 1) Karma, reincarnation, auras and energy 2) Magic 3) Spirits 4) Conclusion 1) Karma, reincarnation, auras and energy Inside and outside the human body is an aura. We ARE our aura, it's not simply a product of your physical body. It is actually the body we're inhabiting temporarily, the aura is what's permanent. This aura has many layers to it. Each layer has different information and functions in it. When we interact with other living beings, we send out energy. This originates in our aura, is shot out from our aura, and enters the other being's aura. Everything we've ever thought, felt, said or did imprints our aura. We carry it around with us. It's like a grand archive of everything that's ever happened to us, in this and also in past lives. Every good thing we've thought, felt, said or done leaves a positive imprint. Every bad thing we've thought, felt, said or done leaves a negative imprint. The moment we use our free will to manifest thoughts, feelings, words or deeds, this produces the energy imprint. This imprint is just like a letter. We're the sender of that letter. However, what we don't realize is, we're also the future receiver of that very same letter. What we send out, we will receive again. For better or for worse. Karma is not somewhere up in Heaven or the sky, we carry it around with us. It's in our energy field. That means we can actually be walking around with a car accident hanging over us. We can also be walking around with a million dollars. Due to the workings of the law of attraction and repulsion, coupled with karma, we will receive our self-created destiny when conditions are ripe for its manifestation. Our energy field is like a magnet: it attracts to us what we want, need and desire, HOWEVER, this is also coupled with our karma. Similarly, we repulse everything we're fed up with, dislike and want to get rid of, HOWEVER, this is also coupled with our karma. The laws of attraction and repulsion function jointly with karma. The good news are, we are the makers of our own destiny. What you've previously sent out, you're bound to receive. However, if you've sent out something bad, say a 1000 thefts, you're bound to receive a 1000 thefts. It's there in your aura with you, everywhere you go, attracting theft towards you like a magnet. However, the moment you no longer have it in you to steal from someone else, this karma is erased. This is "the forgiveness of sins". This is because the logical meaning of the law of karma is to function like an educational tool, continually feedbacking us about our way of life. When we learn our lesson, there is no logical nor loving meaning in us receiving galore bad karma in that particular domaine anymore. We're ready to learn new lessons. We carry this energy field with us from life to life. We ARE that energy field (or aura). 2) Magic Magic functions completely like explained above. The only things that's different is that you don't do physical deeds to achieve your end, but restrict yourself to thoughts, feelings and words. For example, if you want to magically attract money, you don't go to work for it (that would be the normal physical action). Instead you generate the thoughts, feelings and words (you can also use mantras) to generate a similar energy. This can then enter your personal aura, the aura of an item (ring, necklace etc), or a particular place (your office, shop, bureau etc). This energy then enters the aura and works magnetically to attract and repulse. Somewhat similarly to if you had done normal work. The only difference is that there's only a thought, feeling and word imprint, instead of both the thought, feeling, word AND deed imprint (going to work in this example). That's how all magic works. Thoughts, feelings, words and deeds, and in accord with the law of attraction, repulsion and karma. Completely like normal, everyday actions. The same principles, just invisible. But they both (magic and normal actions) enter the aura and work in the same manner. (of course when doing the magic you can also do physical actions, like lifting something, drinking something, waving your hands, mudras etc. This is also a physical action. When I talked about "go to work" as an action, I simply meant as the normal recourse for someone wishing to earn money) The last thing that's different with magic compared to our normal everyday actions, is the use of spirits. Spirits are simply dis-incarnated souls, or people (actually more precisely their auras, or their true soul, their immortal energy field) without a physical body, i.e. between lives. 3) Spirits If you want to accomplish a certain task, say, lift a 100kg, you can do it with your own physical body, with a machine, or by employing workers. It's similar in using magic, you can do it yourself (then the power of the magic depends on the power of your own energy), or if you can somehow get someone else to help you, that's another possibility. Here the exact same rules apply as everyday life. If you're very strong and muscular by yourself, you can lift the 100kgs yourself. In using magic, that would simply mean you use your own energy for divising the magic (using thoughts, feelings and words). If you're not strong and muscular, you need help. If you have the money, you can buy a machine to do it for you. Money in our magic example, is giving spirits who have the capacity for performing the task (similar to the machine), what they like. That could be money, gold, incense, food or very, very particular and strange things (they of course have no use for physical things, they like the energy they can get from it). If you want to employ workers, the same goes as in everyday life. Say you want to get a job done, you need someone willing to do it. You can't just go and demand your nextdoor neighbour to build your kitchen. He has his own life. However, if you're the president of a country, of a company or of a politically influential organisation, more people would be willing to work for you. This is because they would be able to acheive some of their own ends, e.g. prestige, money, power, fame or whatever. It's the same with spirits. If you're at a very high spiritual level, more and stronger spirits naturally want to help you achieve your noble aims. 4) Conclusion What has meditation, qigong, yoga, breathing exercises, performing noble deeds, forgiving those who wrong us, being compassionate and loving towards all living beings have to do with this post? Well, it's all related. Meditation makes your mind peaceful and clear, making it easier for you to stop wrong actions, and plan towards good actions. This helps you stop and get rid of negative imprints/karmas, and instead build only positive imprints/karmas. You mindfully apply the science of destiny. Furthermore, having a peaceful mind gives you more mind-power, thereby increasing your energy. Yoga and qigong produce good imprints of physical health, strong energy and a peaceful mind. Performing noble deeds produce good imprints and attracts more goodness towards you. Forgiving others is actually the most logical thing to do. Why? Because it's your own karma returning to you. If you accept and forgive, you exhaust that negative karma and instead send out a karma of love (through forgiveness). If you keep doing bad to the ones who do bad to you, you simply continue that negative karma. Being loving and compassionate towards all living beings, produce the imprint of making all living beings loving and compassionate to you. Magic and spirits work according to the exact same rules as everyday life, it's just invisible. Just like our normal karmas are invisible. However, they're all right there in our aura, following us everywhere we go. Therefore the most logical way of life is: 1) Do everything you want that makes you happy, healthy and fulfilled.. AS LONG AS 2) You never produce actions which hurt yourself or others, physically or mentally, now or in the future

Dear friends, Here are my experiences so far (only a few months) with master Jiang Yu Shan (Hisham al-Haroun). 1) He has really good information for free on youtube. 2) He has partnered up with VahvaFitness and gives incredible information if you pay for his programs. They're all video programs, talks and follow along practices. 3) Some highlights about the info he covers I really enjoyed: a) semen retention and transforming semen b ) how to look after your penis and testicles during prolonged semen retention and celibacy c) how to create the lower dan tien d) how to tie your legs & feet plus arms & hands together with your dan tien 4) My own personal experiences doing his exercises so far: a) every single qigong book I've ever read always talks about breathing with the abdomen, and how correct breathing is the foundation for EVERYTHING in qigong. This is something I've read and practiced for practically decades, and I felt like I had it down. However... How Jiang Yu Shan teaches correct breathing is COMPLETELY different from anything I've ever seen or experienced in all my years of meditation, breathing exercises and qigong. Using his method for activating the diaphragm, I was completely flabbergasted to discover I use only about 10% of the front part of my diaphragm when breathing.. EVEN when deeply focused on abdominal breathing. After using his method of breathing, I can now feel even by lower back expanding when doing his diaphragmatic breathing. Even after having practiced several weeks, if I don't do the exercises diligently everyday, my diaphragm immediately goes back to its old ways. This is something that has completely revolutionized my qigong. It's literally the first and most basic thing for acquiring energy: breathing. It's there in every single book. However, here you learn an extremely easy and simple method to physically activate and strengthen your entire diaphragm. I am still continously working on the breathing. b ) his method of standing meditation for firstly creating the lower dan tien, and then opening the microcosmic orbit is brilliant. It's easy, it's simple, and IT WORKS! I've tried everything for many, many years, and I do feel like my channels are open and I can circulate qi throughout the microcosmic orbit using postures, breathing, mantras, mudras and visualisations. However, the dan tien forming and microcosmic opening standing meditation of Jiang Yu Shan is fundamentally different. It's PHYSICAL. You can feel it happening and taking place in your PHYSICAL body. The other methods I've used, I can feel the vibrating, pulsating electricity and heat circulating. However, with his method I start feeling my physical spine, my tailbone, midback, neck, everything is PHYSICALLY opening alongside the energy. This I feel to be extremely, extremely powerful. 5) To round of this post: So far I've only practiced his systems for a teeny tiny bit, a few months. This was simply an experiment to try something completely new. However, I'm very positively surprised, and would definitively recommend it. His knowledge of the physical aspects, the fighting aspects, the qi and breathing aspects, the herbs, semen retention, tea, using external tools for healing and qigong (e.g. bricks, chop sticks, beaters etc) are phenomenal. If you want to experience your physical body change in ways there can be NO DOUBT about, I recommend checking him out!

Dear Dao Bums, I would like to share some insights about different systems of healing and my own experiences using these. I will go over four systems of healing I've learnt and practiced: 1) Spring Forest Qigong (Chunyi Lin) 2) Talismanic healing (Zhongxian Wu) 3) Islamic healing / sufi healing, 4) "Energy and Chakra healing" (International Academy of Consciousness, IAC) 1) Spring Forest Qigong (Chunyi Lin) I really like the systematic, yet simple method of healing in Spring Forest Qigong. The system is something like this: 1) Preparation 1.1) Prepare the patient 1.2) Prepare yourself 1.3) Detect blockages 2) Healing 2.1) You strengthen the dan tien (open hand) 2.2) You open and circulate the small universe 2.3) You strengthen the dan tien 2.4) You open the blockages (using sword finger mudra) 2.5) You remove the excess/old energy (using an open hand) 2.6) You give healing energy to the places you've unblocked and removed old energy from (using your palm) 3) Closing 3.1) You strengthen the dan tien 3.2) You open and circulate the small universe 3.3) You strengthen the dan tien Mudras are used during the healing for different purposes. This is because mudras generate a certain energy field. This specific energy field is better for different things. Furthermore, you also empower or energize food and water for healing. This could be for yourself or for the patient. I've learnt just one talisman from Chunyi Lin. This talisman is drawn using a specific mudra. Again, it's because the talisman and mudra generate a certain energy. Lastly, Chunyi Lin is very big on massage, cupping and tapping. These are all physical techniques, everyone can use and understand them immediately. 2) Zhongxian Wu The healing I've learnt from Zhongxian Wu is very focused on using your body, breath and visualisation. This is done through posture, breath and visualisation. Posture is your own physical body, as well as the hand mudra you use. Breath is using specific breathing methods, especially mantras are the most important. Visualisation you use your mind to visualise the talismans which connect you to the qi field you need for your healing. The healing I've learnt from him so far is mostly focused on the specific place that's hurt. You use the talismans (one for each of the five elements) with their mantra and mudra to energize the 3 dan tien and/or the 5 organ systems, or the specific place on the body that's in need of healing. Furthermore you give mantras to the patients or exercises accompanied by mantras that they can use every day. Healing water is also used. 3) Islamic / sufi healing Each surah/verse of the Qu'ran has a specific energy. White, blue, black, yellow, golden, green etc. These different colors of energy are good for specific purposes. Some can remove black magic and evil spirits, make a protective circle around yourself and/or your family or your home. Some can energize objects. Some can make people respect you more. Some can give you more charisma, some can improve your aura etc. Some can heal physical diseases, some can help with psychological and emotional issues, and some can help improve relationships etc. You can heal the body, energy, mind or "life". Life understood as money, career, relationships, attract good luck, have more charisma etc. You usually have a system as you do the healing, e.g: 1) Salawaat (this is a way of connecting to either the Prophet Muhammad and/or Sufi Masters) 2) Qur'an (with the help of the prophet or saints you use the particular energy from the Qur'an you need) 3) Du'a (you use a prayer for the healing, or you make your personal prayer) 4) Salawaat (you close with salawaat again) You can then blow on the persons, blow on your hands and touch the persons, blow on water and make them drink it or sprinkle it around the house, energize objects, or blow on your finger and make a circle around yourself or your house. 4) IAC energy and chakra healing There are 3 fundamental energy techniques taught in the IAC, all with the goal of eventually allowing one to have an out of body experience. The techniques are: 1) Absorbing energy 2) Exteriorising energy 3) Circulating energy (called the VELO) For healing, you would firstly absorb a lot of good energy (e.g. from nature, trees, a river etc). Then you would exteriorize energy into the patient (usually using your hands). Geo-energy (from the ground, rocks and stones) they use for the root chakra. Water energy they use for the second chakra. Energy from plants and trees are good for relaxing the mind, as well as the heart chakra. Air energy and fire energy can also be used. The best self healing would be to head to a place that has the energy one needs (e.g. ocean, forest, river, mountains) and absorb as much energy as possible. Then you would VELO for a prolonged time, to circulate the energy as well as clear blockages. EDIT: I wanted to share some of my personal experiences with each system. 1) Chunyi Lin I strongly feel that a very particular qi comes to help when using SFQ to heal. It could be Chunyi Lin's qi, or a "commonly shared" spiritual container of healing energy shared by all SFQ practitioners. Especially I feel my middle dan tien extremely empowered when doing SFQ healing. I've also experienced a strong increase in my energetic perception when doing SFQ healing (especially during the healing). Lastly, the patients I've healed have felt heat, tingling, emotional release, insights about their problem and its cause and especially the taking out of the old/excess energy they feel very strongly. 2) Zhongxian Wu The talisman healing is very strong. I personally feel very, very powerful qi in my system when using the posture, mantra, mudra and talisman. When using it for healing, the patients have felt heat, tingling, electricity, insights about their problem, visions, vibrations and many other positive things. Something very interesting is the use of different healing tools. He is a strong advocate for having your own personal acupuncture needle you use for everything, own personal calligraphy brush, mirror, lamp/light, sword etc. The idea is that by using it everday both for your own cultivation and for healing, the objects themselves slowly get energized more and more. This makes them more powerful over time. Furthermore! You can also send energy using your feet instead of your hands. Feet are more powerful than hands, therefore their healing energy is stronger. 3) Islamic / sufi healing For some reason, I feel this healing is exceptionally strong when it comes to emotions and state of mind. When I've used it on myself or my house, or made others drink blessed water, I've noticed exceptional increase in joy, peace, hope for the future, calm trust in God's plan and the patient gets extremely enthusiastic and energetic. Furthermore, when doing a lot of salawaat, qur'an, du'a and salawaat, people become more friendly, respectful and attracted to you during your everyday life. For depression or other emotional states, this is the strongest I've seen. Especially salawaat. 4) IAC For me personally, going out into nature every single day for 15-60 minutes to absorb and VELO energies was extremely powerful. Once when I was starting to catch a cold, just after I had returned from a seminar (where I learnt the VELO), I did the VELO for 15 minutes straight. It cured my cold! For healing I've done it very little. However, what I experienced was that people could feel the energy going into their body. Furthermore, depending on whether it was geo-energy, phyto-energy or water energy, they could sense how the different energies were different. I.e. phyto-energy felt more peaceful and alive, geo-energy felt more solid, water energy felt more fluid. Conclusion I've seen all these kinds of healing work to a very large extent. However, I haven't experienced miracle-healings. By miracle healings, I mean like Jesus healed people, or some of the stories you hear from Chunyi Lin or Zhongxian Wu, about how people recovered from tumors, cancer etc. In my experience, it simply improves and energizes people, as well as accelerate their healing process. If someone would take 7 days to recover from a very bad flu, with healing it would take just 1-2 days instead. So, because of this, even though people feel energy etc. during the healing, they're not "blown away". Because they usually expect "Jesus-like-healing", with someone laying hands on them, and then everything is immediately healed in one go. However, they can usually tell that the healing has a positive effect and improves their energy. Commonalities All use the body, the breath (including mantras) as well as the mind (visualisation) to heal. Furthermore they use prayer and also healing water. Almost all use mantras and mudras. Even in islamic healing you make the prayers with your hand open (this is also a mudra). Warning What I've noticed in many of the healing workshops I've gone to is that healing is more trouble than healing. This is not to scare people, but simply to make people conscious of it. People simply send their own personal energy into each other, and thereby just mix energies. If the other person has great and pure energy, this is awesome. But mostly, people have their own issues,which also get transmitted with the healing. So, when people at a workshop simply mix their energies with each other, the result is not necessarily good. It's just a mess. Furthermore, with people putting 100% faith in the healer to miraculously cure their issues (which they themselves have caused with bad diet, lifestyle etc), they don't take responsibility for their own life. Therefore the issues (even if truly healed) will simply come back after a number of weeks, months or years (depending on the healing power they got). In my mind the best is always to educate people to take better care of themselves. Diet, lifestyle, good habits, daily qigong and meditation etc. Then, if they of their own free will continue these things, then healing becomes much more valuable. Because then it simply boosts and empowers these people in their own personal healing journey. But I'm still making up my mind about healing. For the past 3 years I've been very sceptical about it (like you can see above). However, recently I'm giving it a go again, to see how it goes. And with the patients being very happy with it, I'm rethinking my attitude. Is it good, is it bad, is it more trouble than healing, or is it to be viewed simply as a boost? I'm experimenting back and forth, and then based on my experiences and observations I'm changing my position Be blessed!

Hi Pak_Satrio, thanks for your question I've learnt sufism from 3 sources: 1) Faisal Muqaddam & Hameed Ali (he has written an incredible amount of extremely detailed books under the pen name is A.H. Almaas). I learnt one-on-one over a period of 7 years from their most senior teacher representative in my home country coupled with reading the books. The main process is direct transmission of "essence" from the teacher to the student, alongside "inquiry" (a mindful investigation of the present moment without any agenda). 2) I've corresponded online over a period of 7 months with a jordanian sufi who trained me in different things. I learnt different salawaat (connecting with the prophet and sufi saints), different surahs (verses of the Qur'an) and different du'a (prayers). Each thing I learnt had a specific purpose, e.g. purification, increasing spiritual power, protection etc. 3) I've most recently been attending a suborder of the Naqshbandi (called Saifa) weekly dhikr meetings as well as going for special one-on-one session with the resident shaykh/ustadh. The proces is direct transmission through touch, prayers and the eyes in order to transmit "noor" (light or energy) from the lataif (energy centers) of the shaykh and the lineage in order to activate your own lataif. The way you can read more about each: 1) Faisal Muqaddam and Hameed Ali (A.H. Almaas) have many videos on youtube nowadays, and A.H. Almaas has written a tremendous amount of books. 2) You can read online on a website called https://www.brotherrahman.net/ or https://roohanionlinespiritualhelp.co.uk/. I cannot vouch 100% for the people being real or not, but I've noticed a lot of the information they provide is similar to what I learnt some years ago in this area. 3) You can search for sufi orders in your local area. Otherwise a part of Naqshbandi which is very active online is https://www.nurmuhammad.com/ and their youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/naqshbandimuhibeen. I will PM you a longer list of some of the specific saifa books my local ustadh recommended me. The easist way to find a local sufi gathering (in case they're not active online) is if you have friends in the Turkish, Kurdish, Pakistani, Afghani, Chechen or Dagestani muslim community. Sufism is more widespread and accepted among these nationalities, so they can usually point you to a place. Let me know how it goes, and of course if you have any further questions

@Suzanne Thanks for your post Yes, I completely agree. This mentality of profits, marketing and pushing "miracle-healings" is something that is definitively growing. On the one hand, it's good in the sense that by being and looking professional and marketing in an effective manner, more people will come into contact with a qigong and healing system that works very well. More people can actually improve their life. On the other hand, to me it seems that over time this increased focus on the business aspect is taking away some of the original focus on qigong and the loving and spiritual aspect. So I completely agree with you that this aspect is there and has both a negative and a positive side. What I've personally found in my own learning journey with different teachers and different systems is that this is quite common. In the beginning one looks for the "right stuff" to help achieve one's goals (e.g. physical, emotional, mental, spiritual growth and healing). But one also looks for the "personal ideal" being embodied by the teacher. If one idealizes honesty, integrity, being charismatic, forgiving, strong, whatever psychological ideal one personally holds, one seeks this from the outside. This can be quite frustrating. Because as you yourself develop more and more, and embody your own ideal in your everyday life, it makes you realize that every teacher you meet is simply a human being with flaws. Yes, they have studied and mastered something that you have not (e.g. qigong, meditation, healing etc). That is a subject they have mastered. But on the personal level, maybe they're no more psychologically developed than your average person, or they might not embody your ideal. This has happened to me with every teacher I've gone to. In the beginning, they seemed almost like "Gods" to me. Then after a few years, the magic slowly starts to disappear. They're simply normal people, but with a particular skill set. Just like a mechanic or a pilot. Instead, it's just with healing, meditation etc. The only teachers I've seen who have been psychologically well-developed, personally integrated and just overall nice-to-be-around in general have been the sufis. Most other systems, there is always a drawback. It can be profit, it can be morals, it can be lack of psychological maturity and integration, it can be a super-ego punishment/reward system with the members grouping themselves into camps, there will always be something there which doesn't sit well with you. For me personally, I am now trying to seperate things when I go to a teacher. Instead of expecting them to be all that I idealize, and then be disappointed, I just go for the particular thing I know they're good at. I go for learning healing, meditation, getting transmission of energy, qigong, astrology or whatever they're good at. I don't go to find my own personal ideal anymore. Instead, I myself try to embody my own ideal more and more, and find what I'm looking for inside myself, realizing that you can only find so much on the outside. That has been my own personal experience, with SFQ and in general with teachers and systems God bless you!

Hi Learner, Yes, of course. SFQ In SFQ it's simply through posture, breathing, mantra, mudra and visualisation. Each organ has different emotions, liver is a spectrum of angry<>compassion/happiness, lung is a spectrum of sadness/depression<>contentment, heart is hate<>joy, kidneys fear <> gratitude/thankfulness, spleen is being worried and thinking too much and peace and groundedness. It's best to work on all of them. However, if there is leftover sadness from a breakup, you would work on the lungs to release it and re-balance the lungs. Magic usually brings fear, because it's something weighing you down that's invisible and hard to get rid of. So strengthen the kidneys to transform the fear, and then take proper precautions to remove the magic and protect yourself. Thinking too much and being too much in the mind can stress the spleen, causing continued over thinking. Strengthen the spleen, get rid of the thinking and become more grounded in your body. Use the appropriate postures for each organ, appropriate mudra, appropriate mantra and appropriate visualisation of color. Sufism If you have a strong relationship with God, reciting sufi prayers, dhikr, du'a, salawaat and Qur'an can make you burst into tears out of devotion and surrender to the Almighty. It happens automatically, especially when you focus on the meaning of the words. For depression the best salawaat I've seen is one that's used in Turkey alot "salawaat tibbul qulubi" (cure of the heart). This is the translitteration "Allahumma salli 'ala sayyidina Muhammadin tibbil-qulubi wa dawa'iha wa 'afiyaa-til 'abdaani wa shifaa'iha wa nuril-absaari wa dhiyaa'iha wa 'ala 'alihi wa sahbihi was-sallim" "Oh God, please send blessings on our noble teacher Muhammad, the medicine of hearts and their cure, the health of bodies and their healing, the light of eyes and their enlightenment, and bless his family and companions and send them peace" If you speak more specifically about the exact emotions, I can also suggest specific names of God that can help. Here are some examples: "Ya Muqalib" helps with opening the heart. "Ya Ghafur" helps with forgiveness. This can make the most hardened criminal and murderer cry after a very short while of recition. It goes straight into the strongest traumatic wounds in our soul and starts the healing. "Ya Ghaffar" is for our small everyday issues where we can't forgive others. "Ya Nafi" this is one of the very best to start to actually feel your body. Where in your body can you feel your anger, your sorrow, your sadness, your joy etc. There are many more of course, I can give more info if you give me more precise info Simply repeating "bismillahir rahmanir rahim" 786 times daily for a week can work miracles. Rahman is fatherly love, strong and enduring. It heals all psychological issues with men. Rahim is motherly love, tender, compassionate and tailored to each unique person. It can heal all psychological issues with women. Allah is a very interesting word in itself. It comes from the root "waliha" which means to love passionately. This means you can lose yourself in love by repeating this name, as well as describing the love God has for us. "Al" is the article in arabic, you put it before other words. For example "al Qur'an" meaning "THE Qur'an". By just saying "al" without anything else, it denotes ALL in manifest existence. "La'" means no or nothing in arabic. This means the unmanifest eternal ground of being, the non-being, what was there before creation. "Hu" is a blowing sound, like a wind. It's the life God breathed into us during creation. It's the continuous working of God as energy in the universe. In arabic the words are written without vowels, allowing the reader himself to read a single word in different ways. "Allah" is no exception. It can be read as "Al-Lah" meaning "the God", the one and only creator. However, it can also be read as "al-'ilah" which means a single, divine being among many. How does this tie in with strict monotheism? Al-'ilah is you and me, the individual souls. We're part of Almighty God, God is part of us. It's his divine breath (the "-hu" in Allahu) which maintains our life. This means God is present in all of creation and in all living beings. This renders all of creation sacred. Therefore repeating the name "Ya Allah" can open you up to passionate love (waliha), with awareness of God's love for you (waliha), realizing the divine in all of manifest existence (al), realizing the ground of being (la), realizing the movement of divine energy in your body and the universe (hu), as well as seeing God in all living beings (al-lah and al-'ilah). God bless you

Thanks for your comment and question! I hadn't even seen your answer Yes, one should be very thoughtful about mixing systems. Most people mix and match, practice sporadically, and don't follow the guidance of their teachers. This creates problems. However, if you follow the guidance of your teachers exactly, and have achieved a certain level of development, and you practice the systems in different sessions during a day, it CAN work. However, pay attention Why do I practice different things? The reason is that SKY (by Vethathiri Maharishi) is the best OVERALL system I've done. From my perspective it's the best and most complete, including the physical, breathing, mind, life force, our place in the universe, conversion of sexual energy, meditation, the correct moral philosophy (never hurt yourself or others, physically or mentally, help alleviate the suffering of others when you can). It's the best OVERALL. However, as a system it is specialised in a certain area. For me personally, what SKY has given me is the best overall system to living a good, healthy, harmonious, peaceful, happy and contented life it's specialty (from my perspective) is meditation, conversion of sexual energy, acquiring mental peace through introspection, as well as solving relationship problems. However, qigong for me has been the best when it comes to healing yourself and others' physical body. In SKY you can pass energy to others as well, you can meditate on different chakras to heal different issues, however, it's not specialized in that area. Qigong is specialized in physical healing: through diet, herbs, sleep, sexual conduct and of course the qigong exercises themselves, you can heal each individual organ very fast. You can also help others achieve the same. What I've looked for from spirituality is the following: 1) Become one with God (found this through SKY) 2) Learn deep meditation (found this through SKY) 3) Achieve peace of mind and contentment (found this through SKY) 4) Live harmoniously with myself and others (found this through SKY) 5) Achieve physical healing for myself and others (found this through qigong) 6) Maximise lovemaking for health, love and spirituality (found this through qigong) 7) Convert surplus sexual energy to spiritual energy (found this through SKY) So, as you can see, depending on my goals and wants, SKY has given me almost everything. However, according to my goals, qigong have helped me with physical healing. That's why I do qigong Everything logical starts with a goal, then a plan to reach it, and then correcting and adjusting along the way until the goal is reached. Then one enjoys and learns from the experience, share it with others, and then the process starts over again. Endless enlightenment I reached most of my goals through SKY, now I share it with others (I've become a SKY master and can help open the chakras of others now, as well as teach the exercises). I reached two of my goals through qigong, now I am able to heal myself and others, or at least help others in their healing journey (through qigong healing, acupressure, massage, sexuality, and of course tips for lifestyle, sleep, herbs, diet etc).

Dear Dao Bums, I will share my experience with Master Zhongxian Wu (known as Master Wu). I will share my experiences in the following points: 1) Overview of what of his qigong I've done 2) General overview of my impression of his systems 3) Big positive suprises with his system 4) Small negative aspects I've noticed over the years 5) Summary 6) Conclusion Overview of his qigong I've done I've practiced many of his forms and meditations, namely: a) fire dragon meridian qigong, b ) shamanic cosmic orbit qigong, c) talisman qigong and healing, d) TuGuNaXing ("blow out the old, take in the new" which is his preferred alchemical meditation), e) Stretching exercises for acheiving the lotus position f) and many more General overview of his systems He teaches different systems, namely: a) Emei Qigong b ) Dai Xin Yi c) Tai Ji d) Wudang Dragon Gate The Emei is more "spiritual" in nature in my opinion, as in this school you connect to the lineage through mantras, mudras and talismans, and thereby gain access to universal energy as well as the energy of the lineage. It is then through this connection you further your own energy, by plugging in to a larger container. My impression is that the Wudang Dragon Gate is a more "mainstream" qigong, meaning that it focuses more on stretching and strengthening the physical body, with a heavy focus on the lower dan tien and increasing health and vitality. Big positive surprises with his systems I was very surprised that no matter what he does, it works! Calligraphy, music, mantras, qigong, meditation, drinking tea, no matter what he teaches, there is a large amount of qi transmission taking place. There really is a possibility of cultivating your jing, qi and shen, your body, energy and spirit, through things such as calligraphy, drinking tea, playing music. This was a big positive surprise. The same goes for his healing methods; all these methods can be used for healing as well. And it works! Even though you don't have powerful qi yourself, by connecting to the lineage through mantras, mudras and talismans, you can get extra qi. Small negative aspects I've noticed over the years The first thing is that he doesn't always answer people's questions. This can be very frustrating. It's a two way street: you need to prove yourself to him, only then will he consider your questions. The second thing I've noticed which is very strange, is that people meeting him for the first time tend not to like him. His long time students worship him, because they know he is for real. He has qi, he has knowledge, and if you keep at it, he can really "deliver the goods". However, for some reason, people who don't know him tend to dislike him, e.g. when going to their first course or workshop with him. This is in stark contrast to other spiritual teachers I've met. Here everyone who meets them simply likes them for no reason. Summary He is a legit master, he teaches the real thing, and whatever he teaches works. He has the knowledge, experience, qi, skills, lineage and transmission to take you all the way from the body, to the energy, to the spirit, and to connect with the universe. The negative aspects are that he is quite expensive, can disregard people's questions, people tend not to like him in the beginning, and he surprises everyone with the amounts of meat and alcohol he ingests. Conclusion If you're looking to experience qi directly, his qi transmission is legit. If you're more into the spiritual side of things, go with Emei and learn the mantras, mudras and talismans. If you're more into the physical and vitalizing aspects of qigong, go for his Wudang Dragon Gate Qigong.

@moreira Filho thanks for your posts https://chinesewisdomtraditions.com/events/ If you go to his schedule on his webpage, which is called chinesewisdomtraditions.com (I linked it above). Then you can currently learn the Emei talisman qigong online (due to Corona). He's currently doing "The Tiger Talisman Qigong" quite a lot, but also the "Mother of the Big Dipper Talisman Qigong". The Tiger Talisman corresponds to "metal" qi. This includes the lungs, large intestine, skin, qi, navel, bones, joints, thighs and breathing. It's also connected to your immune system (killing bad qi, that's why it's called metal, it's sharp, purifying, cutting and killing bad things). The "Mother of the Big Dipper Talisman" corresponds to the qi of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. It corresponds to universal qi. Those were just some very short and simplified explanations. You'll learn more in the class All the best!

Women and cultivation, some tips from my sexual qigong teacher and Zhongxian Wu (Master Wu): Men protect their jing by regulating their ejaculation and loss of sperm. Women protect their jing by regulating their loss of blood during menstruation. How? This is done through particular sexual qigong exercises throughout the period between menstruation. Using massage, breath holding and muscle exercises (including jade egg exercises and lifting a weight) you strengthen the breasts and vagina. This will strengthen the vagina and uterus, which are connected to the Kidneys. If a woman is very healthy, her menstruation won't affect her that much. Neither physically, emotionally, energetically or mentally. It will be of short duration, a small amount of blood loss, and it won't impact herself or her surroundings negatively (no mood swings, back aches, head aches etc). If she is of average health, she will experience some negative affects during her menstruation. If she is of bad health, the time of menstruation will be a living hell for herself and her surroundings (anger, crying, shouting, mood swings, low energy, back and knee ache, head ache etc). This can all be improved by sexual qigong outside the time of the bleeding itself. During the bleeding fase, she should discontinue the sexual qigong. Instead she should meditate on and hold her breath in her middle dan tien. The middle dan tien is related to qi, the lower dan tien is related to jing (which is also blood, especially for women). Qi controls blood, whereas blood nourishes qi. By strengthening her middle dan tien, the blood flow will be controlled better because of the strengthening of qi. It will be more smooth, she'll lose less energy, and the negative symptoms (headache, mood swings, back ache, low energy etc) will be improved.

@EFreethought thanks for your question I don't know your background, but if you've been doing qigong for a couple of years, I would suggest to start with the course you feel "attracted" to, or the course that you "feel" something for. If just starting out or quite new to qigong, I definitively recommend starting with "health and fighting qigong" and then go from there. But if you've been doing qigong and meditation for many years, I think it would be fine to start with the grand circle. I really like the "buddhist qigong" in the "health and fighting qigong". It's peaceful, it mobilizes and stretches you out, and there are some great and meaningful mantras which remind you of the truth of life as do the form. So, it depends on the person and what you're into, what you resonate with. Be blessed!

Let me add some more about what is covered in Level 4 and what I think about it so far (I've been practicing daily for two weeks after the course now). What you realize in level 4 is that even though you don't get the deeper theory, actually you get everything you need in level 1, 2 and 3. What you learn in level 4 is that actually the basic standing postures from level 1, as well as small tiny tips like "feel your hands", or "invite your master from the end of the universe to come and help you with your practice"... Some of these small, tiny tips hold tremendous, treasured qigong secrets. When you practice visualisation, you're training your yi stronger and stronger. Your yi can actually go out from your body and travel anywhere in the world. When you send it to get your Master, to get the Sun, the Moon or the Rainbow, your yi is actually exiting from your body and going through the universe. This makes it stronger. This allows your yi to penetrate deeper inside your own body for healing purposes, but especially when using your yi during healing of others. Furthermore, paying attention to "feeling the exercise", feeling the tingling, the heat, the buzzing, the vibrations etc, this will eventually connect you directly to be able to feel the qi. Once you become conscious of your qi, you can do anything with it. Use it for healing, better massages, when making calligraphy, deeper meditation, self-healing, the list goes on. Furthermore, the whole standing set of level 1 and 2 (all of the active exercises) are all that you need for your three dan tiens, opening all channels and strengthening all your 5 organ system's qi. Furthermore, it can take you all the way to becoming one with the universe. You can really experience the beginning of the universe, the forming of yin and yang, the moving of yin and yang, and finally how the ten thousand things got generated from the original qi. You can see yourself in the prenatal state, how you formed as a fetus, how the dan tiens and channels developed. If you just continue with your training, it will go deeper and deeper. The very first meditation you learn in level one, namely the small universe, this is actually the most important. This is the exercise that will heal all physical problems and give you longevity as well as happiness, energy and peace of mind. The basic detection exercises used for healing in level 2.. if you just keep working at it, this will naturally (when your yi also gets stronger) allow you to do long distance healing. The combination of "feeling" with your hands and body, with your yi traveling, this can allow it to travel any length of distance in the whole universe. Later, it can allow you to send your yi back and forward in time, e.g. to read the past lives of the patients, as well as your own past lives. What is new in level 4 is that you get the theory more explicitly explained. This allows you to appreciate that you actually got all the "secrets" from level 1. Furthermore, you expand your capacity for self-development, spirituality and of course healing. This is by including BOTH the 1) physical level, 2) the emotional level and 3) the spiritual level. This is what's new. You expand and go deeper, you go to detect and heal blockages on ALL levels. Then he gives concrete techniques for healing ADHD, past lives, energizing objects, attracting more money qi, detecting and removing curses and black magic, and many other concrete techniques. With you having developed your qi, feeling and yi from level 1, 2 and 3 already, you have opened up the possiblity for using these much more advanced techniques. All in all, SFQ is great it's easy, it's simple, and if you keep at it, it really, really works! Be blessed!

Dear Dao Bums, I've come across Master Liu He. I think she seems very good. Does anyone have any personal experiences, stories or the like to share? About Liu He and her qigong. Be blessed

I just realized I forgot to share the healing I've learnt from my sexual qigong teacher! I'll share in two parts: 1) general introduction, 2) personal experiences 1) General introduction There are several levels of healing: physical, energetic and spiritual. The physical is done through massage. This can be an actual massage (which focuses on certain key meridians on the arms, legs and back, and a special deep massage of the abdomen (and the buttocks too)). However, there is of course also sensual/sexual touching. By touching specific acupoints and meridians, you can help along healing, as well as of course arousal and orgasm. The licking, kissing and penetration is also very healing when done with "feeling". When you do anything with feeling, it means you're mindfully aware (almost meditating) on the sensations experienced when touching, licking, kissing and penetrating. This infuses your touch with qi. At higher levels, it also infuses your touch with "spirit". Energetic healing can be done through the eyes, breathing and of course touch (kissing, licking, penetrating, massaging, fingering etc). Spiritual healing is done through the mind. By combining the physical, energetic and mind together, the healing becomes much more powerful (especially if you have the intention to heal). Certain types of foreplay, positions and orgasms can help heal different things too. There are reflexological zones on the penis as well as in the vagina. Furthermore, there are different points inside different places in the vagina (different from the western model of clitoris, G spot, uterus etc). There are many more different points. Using these mindfully and purposefully during the act is also very healing. I think sexual qigong is probably the most enjoyable and fun type of qigong, cultivation and healing one can do 2) My personal experiences: I've managed to self-heal many things using sexual qigong. Tiredness, fatigue, bad moods, about to catch a cold, low energy levels and stress. What I've noticed (which I found quite surprising) is that when you start to experience "feeling" during your lovemaking, it can be more powerful than you think. I have been very surprised during sexual encounters with girls who were not at all sexual, and who complained about their lack of sexual desire, ability to "let go", ability to experience orgasm etc. first experience One girl had been in a more than 10 year relationship (her ex), without EVER getting orgasms. Only by herself with a vibrator could she reach climax. Using mindful touching and licking, in our 3rd encounter she started orgasming. She was blown away it was even possible, because now it had been about 16 years of only being able to orgasm with a vibrator. She had conditioned herself psychologically that she could only let go in that particular situation: alone at home with her vibrator. After that, she could orgasm in 5-10 minutes of foreplay, touching and licking. I don't know if she noticed it, but I noticed that after that "break-through" her personality started changing. She become more friendly and relaxed, more patient and loving with her family members as well as at work. Over about 2-3 months, she was a completely different person! That's when I realized the importance of a normal, healthy, sexual life. Due to her culture and family being very repressive, she had simply never developed a normal psychology around sex. No wonder Freud, Jung and Reich talked so much about the importance of sexuality! second experience Another experience is with a girl who didn't lose her virginity until the late 20s, once again due to repressive family, culture and religion. She knew about orgasms and had experienced a few with her first boyfriend and a rebound. However, after a few months, she remarked "I thought I knew about orgasms... But now I realize I didn't! There are so many different types and variations, and they can last much longer!". This was also simply by being together for a few months, and using the power of feeling. third experience At this point, I felt good about the techniques I had learnt and practiced, but still felt like it was mostly down to the "psychology" of the girl. If she is repressed or not, if she has regular orgasms on her own or not, and of course if she's able to let go. However, I had one encounter with a younger girl (early twenties) who was a strict Christian. She had had a boyfriend and also spend the night with a couple of other people from her town, but nothing out of the ordinary. She said that foreplay was very important to her, as well as being in a long term relationship with someone who was also a Christian. This was in order to let go, feel safe, and relax enough to get off. She orgasmed in about 2 minutes on our first encounter, with me only using mindful touching. We we're both in shock! She "died" for about 2-5 minutes where I just held her lovingly. After, I myself was wondering what happened. Why was it so fast, easy and powerful? I don't know if she was naturally orgasmic and had just given me "the talk" to make me put forward more effort, if she was really into me, if she really needed it, if my feeling had gone to a higher level, or maybe a combination. But she was very happy and harmonious after, compared to before where she was a tiny bit manipulating. Fourth experience I was with a very sensual and sexual women a few years older than me. She was tanned, had a few tatoos and big fake boobs. I don't know why, but I expected her to be very hard to satisfy. I thought that with all the things she had done to make herself more attractive, she probably had some psychological issues or something (please forgive me, I know that was a very prejudiced position!). However, she orgasmed 3 times in about 20 minutes on our first encounter! After, she couldn't stop talking to me happily for several hours, offering to cook me food etc. Maybe I was a bad judge of character at that point, but she actually seemed like a very stand-up, normal, loving, feminine woman! I thought with all the tatoos etc. she would be hardcore, a bit bitchy, continue to play hard-to-get etc. However, she completely let her guard down and we just enjoyed our time together. Conclusion I feel like I have only learnt very few basics of lovemaking so far, but I just wanted to share a few stories about how lovemaking can be healing on all levels: physical, energetic, emotional, psychological and even spiritual. I know I'm very happy for what I've learnt, even though I didn't enjoy the proces of going through the initial training. I'm learning and practicing on my own now, but looking for a new teacher I'm more on wave-length with (compared to the old one). There's nothing more beautiful than holding a woman that's completely sexually satisfied in your arms. The shine and light coming from their eyes, the warmth and satisfaction from their bodies, and the love, tenderness and surrender from their hearts. Be blessed!

@Learner thanks for your question! Yes, here are some very concrete benefits I've experienced under 4 headers, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. 1) Physically: The standing "active exercises" have been extremely beneficial for me. I found them very physical in nature compared to other qigong sets I've tried. They mobilize and move all joints, as well as stretch you out. Especially "harmony of the universe" is exceptional for my body. It stretches all the right places, it just feels so good. I've suffered some spinal injuries as well as shoulder injuries in my life. This has led to upper back stifness and general stifness and discomfort in the hips and lower back. The standing exercises coupled with his "closing" or "harvesting the qi" exercises have really helped me a lot. All the self cupping, self massage, and especially hitting the tailbone, sacrum, just next to the tailbone and sacrum, as well as the hips on the side... It works magic for my physical issues. 2) Emotionally: Due to my many years of deep meditation (I was a meditator for many years before I started qigong) it's quite rare I'm emotionally disturbed. However, especially when I work on my Liver, I notice I feel much more relaxed emotionally after. I realize I was both physically and emotionally a tiny bit tense. This tension releases after practice. 3) Mentally: Many, many, many things I've struggled with mentally have fallen into place with the explanations of Chunyi Lin. After going deep in meditation for many years, I had experiences with auras, ghosts, dead people in transition, curses and black magic, and many other things. In my prayers and meditation I got a lot of help and guidance with these things, but most of my teachers didn't help me out when I sought support and guidance with my experiences. They said "just ignore it", "don't pay attention to it", "keep practicing" etc. Chunyi Lin openly discusses and explains how these things work. This has brought me peace of mind, as the explanations have allowed things to "fall into place" mentally in my world view by allowing me to understand these things. 4) Spiritually: I truly feel that SFQ helps a lot with my third eye. Exceptionally much. It's the best for the third eye I've experienced, alongside my "Simplified Kundalini Yoga" meditations.

@Learner The course is called "the grand circle". Here there is a section called "microcosmic orbit". In one of the first videos in the "microcosmic orbit" he talks about diaphragmatic breathing. Later he shows the "squatting monkey" standing meditation. By doing this for prolonged periods (up to one hour) using the special breathing method, you will over time 1) create and strengthen the lower dantien, 2) when the qi is strong enough, it will go to the "first gate" (the tailbone), 3) when even stronger, it will go the second gate "midback", 4) finally the third gate and base of the skull, 5) the third eye, 6) back down to the dan tien. When this is accomplished, you should continue to do the practice twice a day at certain times of the day for just 10 minutes to maintain. Keeping the lower dan tien strong and the microcosmic orbit open is a key secret for health and longevity, as well as the foundation for many other higher practices. Let me know how it goes Be blessed!

Dear friends, An update! I just finished the level 4 retreat. Here are some initial thoughts (I'll include more as I practice more of the things we've learnt). What I especially like with Chunyi Lin is his mindset. Many other teachers of qigong follow the chinese cultural way: don't ask questions, submit to your teacher completely, don't think for yourself, simply do what you're told, be patient etc. Chunyi Lin's mindset is actually very academic, western, individual and intellectual in his approach. He was a college professor after all He considers qigong as "research". He has learned methods, theory, practice and techniques from his masters and of course studies of texts. However, he takes these as hypotheses to be tested out. Therefore he stays open minded and investigates for himself, always willing to change his positions on something if the evidence and research says something else (a very academic and intellectual approach from my point of view, which I like). Apart from that, he's humble, says he is also learning each day, and finally he talks openly about things other teachers consider "secret", "private", "inner door", "not to be discussed" etc. This allows for open, frank and equal dialogue. Therefore many things I've personally struggled with over the past couple of years, which my "more chinese minded" teachers ignored (auras, energies, spirits, transition of dead people, contacting dead people, objects carrying curses or negative energy etc) he discussed and explained openly. Furthermore he's open to "challenges". Someone asked him about a person they knew who had some troubles with their child. He simply said "let me check". After 5-10 seconds he said "there's a blockage here and here". So, he accepted the challenge and showcased his third eye reading skills immediately. Furtheremore, he explains very advanced things very simply, almost always using the physical body as an example. This means there's no imagination going on; if you see a person who dies with open eyes, this is what it means. If you see a person who dies with an open mouth, this is what it means. If you feel tightness in this part of the body suddenly one day, this is what it means. You can always come back to your physical body and "read its signs" which are physical facts. These can be felt and verified by everyone without a doubt. This takes all the imagination, fantasy and doubt away. Easy, simple, physical, no doubt nor fantasy nor imagination, just easy, practical tips you can use to improve your everyday life Be blessed!

@hierundjetzt Thanks for your post 1) Why don't other systems share energy? Many qigong systems work in exactly the same way. It just not always apparent, or it's not explained or it's not emphasised. However, from the very first day in SFQ the importance of "connecting to the Master's energy" is explained. This immediately and consciously hooks every individual up to a commonly shared energy "bank" 2) Time spent on daily practice in the different levels I suggest you do qigong everyday. However, if you've only got 5 minutes, then do 5 minutes. The most important is simply to continue and don't stop You miss a day, okay, do it again the next. If you've only got 5 minutes, just do 5 minutes of connecting to the master, connecting to the universe (i am in the universe, the universe is in my body, I and the universe merge together), and bouncing. Or you could do 10 minutes of your most favorite exercise, moving of yin and yang, 7 steps to new life etc. 3) My personal practice time I usually pick and do a certain set of standing and seated exercises and stick with them for 49 day cycles. Then I choose other ones for a new cycle, or do the same again. I meditate about 20-75 minutes a day (usually in either the morning or evening). Qigong I do about 10-45 minutes a day. I'm very flexible with my self Be blessed!

Dear Dao Bums, Let me share my experience with middle eastern alchemy in 3 points: 1) Origin 2) Characteristics and methods 3) End result and development 1) Origin: This method is the same as was used by the ancient Greeks, the different mystery schools, as well as the pre-islamic Middle East. It's probably the same as was used by Alexander the Great, taught by the Greek philosophers, and some of it traces back to ancient faraonic Egypt as well. The ancient greeks knew many things about spirits, the solar system, bacteria, mathematics and much more. "because there are bred certain minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and cause serious diseases" an ancient greek quote about bacteria. How could they know? The microscope wasn't invented until the past couple of centuries, so there's no way they could perceive something so small by the naked eye. Instead, they used "yogic vision", "the third eye", or "daemons" (guiding spirits). Furthermore, they also used dialogue as mindful inquiry into the experiences of the present moment. 2) Characteristics and methods: They employ the same basic methods as most spiritual schools, namely using: 1) the body 2) the breath 3) mantras / sound 4) the mind 5) transmission from the teacher However, they also use "presence", the felt experience of being present with one's body, thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations. Presence is embodied mindfulness. When presence is felt acting in the body, it feels like a solid substance. It can be of varying colors, densities, temperatures and materials. You could feel grey solidity, gold as a gentle presence, green as tenderness etc. When presence is felt acting in the heart, it feels like liquid. It can be like sweet wine, liquid gold, white milk etc. When presence is felt acting in the head, it feels like light. It can be spaciousness, blue, green, golden etc. At an even higher level which includes yet goes beyond our physical body, there are of course the presence of the Divine which is all-encompassing. It can be felt as the all-encompassing energy, or it can be felt like the all-encompassing "holding" (ground of being, the unmanifest potential). The combination of these two states are "the absolute". Lastly, presence can take particular shapes. Each shape or vehicle provides certain functions. These are very similar to what we see in the outer world: churches, domes, mosques, chandeliers, stupas, pearls, jewels, diamonds, crystals etc. These bestow certain functions on the consciousness; either the body, heart, head or "life" level. Life level understood as the ability to make money, heal disease, make things happen etc. 3) End result and development By simple practicing being present each day, letting go and allowing, surrendering, you can come into contact with yourself. Your bodily sensations, your heart emotions, your head thoughts, or higher levels and vehicles. Simply allowing sensations, emotions etc, allow them to transform over time. You grow and mature, both inwardly and outwardly. The six basic "energies" or "essences" (called lataif in sufism) are: 1) Red 2) Green 3) Yellow 4) White 5) Black 6) Blue All souls have all essences, however, we're born with a particular configuration. This is due to: 1) Past lives, our karmas and tendencies from these lives, resulting in the attraction of 2) A certain bodily, emotional and mental constitution (race, ethnicity, culture, religion) You can see that even siblings born to the same parents, in the same country, same religion, race, everything, from the very get-go, they seem to have different and unique personalites. Some might be more quiet, some may be more energetic, some are always naughty etc. This is not due to nurture, it's due to their unique souls manifesting themselves right from the get-go. However, when we grow up, certain manifestations are approved, allowed and encouraged by our parents, family, society, culture and religion, whereas others are not. For example, in certain cultures, aggression and a high level of emotionality is actually valued and encouraged. In other cultures, it's the exact opposite. Therefore, through conditioning, we slowly allow certain sides of our souls to grow and mature, where others are shut down or not used. All human beings naturally have aggression, lust, joy, compassion etc, however, due to culture we only emphasise certain of these, whereas we shut down the others. Therefore, whichever way our soul is currently maturing might actually be very limited: it's only certain sides of us we're allowing to express, and therefore naturally grow and mature. What is the benefit of allowing and maturing the sides of ourselves we've psychologically split off? E.g. anger, lust, jealousy etc. Everything in this world is continously developing. The Earth started as a burning rock flying around in space, now we have a nice, green and blue, lush and fertile Earth that allows great conditions for life. Similarly, the following emotions/energies/essences also go through development, if you allow them to "unfold" within your consciousness without acting them out: Lust (a mix of yellow and red, joy and excitement, produces an orange energy in the system which can feel like fire, juice, wine etc) will (if allowed) over time turn into "satisfaction" (felt like a juicy, plump, fleshy apricoty substance). When a person is very lustful and can't control themselves, they are more likely to commit sinful actions (understood as hurting themselves or others). However, when a person is feeling sensually satisfied inside, they are more likely to steer clear of sinful actions. This development is similar with other energies/emotions/essences: 1) Red starts as a warm, burning anger or rage, over time it evolves into a feeling of aliveness, excitement, vitality and strength. 2) Green can be someone who's overly sensitive and cries over every little thing, yet it can evolve into tenderness, compassion and healing. 3) Yellow can be someone that's too naughty, provocative and always teasing, yet it can evolve into joy, celebration and happiness. 4) White can be someone who's always afraid, anxious and feels weak, yet it can evolve into solidity, stability and strong sense of support. 5) Black starts as hate, dominance and wanting to destroy, yet can evolve into a sense of great peace, power, intimacy and protection. 6) Blue can be vulnerability and someone who easily cries, yet evolves into intuition, relaxed contentment and deep humanity Employing this mix of methods for the body, breath, mind, mindful inquiry, transmission from the teacher and psychological acceptance and understanding, a human being can develop. They will achieve higher and higher levels of healing, joy, expansiveness, morality, virtue and spirituality. They will hurt themselves and others less and less as they evolve, and they will be more of a blessing for all living beings. These methods integrate psychology and spirituality. The psychological theory of Freud regarding the id (libido and animal soul), ego (personality) and superego (internalized conditioning by parents, culture, religion and society) fits very well with the spiritual idea of the belly, heart and head center. Furthermore, the psychological theory of Jung regarding "the shadow" (all the parts of our self we've split off due to conditioning) as well as the anima/animus complex (the either masculine or feminine parts we've split off due to conditioning) fits very well with our conscious and unconscious mind. It's only through purifying our unconscious minds we can get rid of unwanted patterns in both thoughts and deeds. If you'd like to study this further, you can search for: 1) A.H. Almaas or Hameed Ali 2) Karen Johnson 3) Faisal Muqaddam 4) The Diamond Approach 5) The Diamond Logos I've personally benefitted immensely from integrating the personal and impersonal, the conscious and the unconscious, the body with the heart and the head, the feminine and the masculine, as well as the psychological and the spiritual. It's an eternal ongoing journey, a continuous adventure of great discoveries, blessings and healing, as well as self-acceptance. Be blessed

If you would like to experiment with the spirits of your 5 organ systems and their power, or simply your senses and their power in cultivation, this is what I would recommend: Start by using just one sense. Sit down in a comfortable posture and listen to your breathing. Breathing is one of our main sources of qi. By listening to your breath for just 5-10 minutes, your breath will be infused with healing qi. This will strengthen your kidney qi. Similarly, you can sit for 5-10 minutes and focus on "smelling" your breath. This will strengthen your lung qi. In the end, you can put all senses together in "one big bundle" and simultaneously see, smell, listen, taste and "feel/be/pay attention to" your breathing. This will safeguard (during the meditation, because your senses are turned inward) as well as strengthen the qi in all your organ systems.

Thanks for sharing @Cleansox

Most definitively Thanks for sharing!

@Nungali Thanks for your question Some also say that it's the same methods used by the gnostics and "sophists". Others also say that there are influences from Zoroastrianism.