Jenn

Apologies, I didn't mean to imply you don't have any experience, I assumed since you were asking here instead of within the community that you were new to the system. That is a tricky situation, I think it can be hard to enter a lineage self-taught unless you start back from the beginning with a teacher. But if it is meant to be, you'll find a way

The practices you are interested in won't work for someone who hasn't done the preliminary work, they require a strong foundation. At best they will be ineffective, and some will be harmful. It is unlikely that any teacher will give you advanced practices when they don't know you and you haven't completed any of the foundational work within the lineage (from the link you were given). Likely the only path will be to practice honestly from the beginning within the lineage and work your way up over time until you are accepted as an advanced or "inner door" student. It's probably not the answer you were hoping for, but I honestly think that will give you the best chance of learning them. Unless you have spent years already training with a teacher respected by Wang Liping already who can vouch for you, there probably isn't a way to fast-track (nor should there be, if I am being honest).

No, sorry! I suspect you won't be able to contact him directly - it's very possible he doesn't work with the public or accept new students anymore. Likely just senior students and maybe retreats now that there are seniors to teach new students. That's just my assumption though.

Winterpeg chiming in - can confirm. We are actually quite sunny in winter, but the sun is no match for 2 inches of parka sadly .

You could contact one of his senior students who are publicly teaching like Nathan Brine?

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I probably have a weird answer, but to me the way to transcend transcendence is to stop fixating on the supposed end goals of spirituality / spiritual practices and instead just follow our own paths filled with the curiosity to seek and find the answer ourselves, without any fixed expectation of what is at the end, or whether there even is an "end". Otherwise how would you ever know what you find is authentic versus the mind giving us what we expect to find? Could chasing transcendence (or enlightenment, release from the cycle of rebirth, etc) ultimately become another trap / side path if one clings too dearly to that goal?

At the very least we are our contrived mind, all our identities, and presumably somewhere in there, ourselves. This is an interesting question I've been thinking a lot about lately for a few reasons. One, my family are all narcissists (one clinically diagnosed) - I find it fascinating to experience them now that I am no longer emotionally tangled up in the drama, their behavior is like they are three different people. I think of them as Jekyll, Hyde, and Billy. Glimpses of who they likely truly are shine through sometimes, then out comes the nasty, lying, base instinct, gets-mine-at-all-costs Hyde, but interestingly there is a third, helpless persona / identity that reminds me of helpless children. I can see now why that is such a difficult personality to come to terms with for those who have a narc in their life. Billy brings out your protective / parental instincts and you feel compelled to help them, Jekyll makes them seem kind and human, but then Hyde makes them seem like monsters - yet they are all in one "person" and you end up wrestling with wanting to hate a monster, comfort a child, and care for kindness all in one blurred together go. I think something less extreme happens in all of us, our nature, our contrived mind, our inner child, I don't know, all these identities popping in and out depending on how in control we are in the moment. Like we all have a multiple personality disorder but usually it's not extreme enough to notice since everyone else does the same thing. I also think stress and uncertain times causes people to be less able to maintain their external persona, so we are starting to see more and more of what is going on under the hood. I've certainly noticed a lot more people with unpredictable moods/personalities lately especially in places like work where a certain level of persona is expected.

Might be an interesting time to explore why you need plans and goals. I often feel like aspects of my experiences are like a string on an instrument. Left alone it is still and neutral. If you pull it to one side it vibrates, equally on both sides from where it was still. If your focus or identity is on the future, then it likely is also vibrating in the past and your only briefly experiencing the now as the "string" "passes" side to side. The harder you pull on the future, the louder the past also becomes and harder it is to return to the present. A lot of the negative feelings and hardships in life can be (at least temporarily) forgotten/overcome by hope and a dream for the future. Bigger things to run from, bigger dreams to run to. Losing that, you can start experience all the suffering you've been ignoring without the lifeline you had that will see you through it. Plus side, I found it force me to deal with some of the areas of my life that had been hidden by drive, ceaseless action and aspirations. Although I was pretty grumpy about it at the time (not being able to see a future for myself / a goal to build my life around was like losing who I was), I am coming around to letting what's next be a big unknown. Perhaps it will be a blessing to let go of the future and be surprised by what you find instead? Not to say you will never have goals again, but if you are attaching to them, maybe a forced break from being able to experience that "high" will help you break the attachment and have healthier experiences going forward?

Thanks for the detailed explanation @-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-! Much appreciated

Originally on this post (below), but found a second reference searching for the term to see if I could find more context:

I was poking through some of this thread and was wondering if Sifu Terry or a FP student could explain what having spiritual source progenitor means? Thx in advance!

If one has never had cheese, one cannot possibly explain the taste of pizza to another. Simultaneously, even a pizza connoisseur cannot adequately explain the flavor to someone who has likewise never tasted cheese before. I feel like it would be more fun to just have a slice. It would definitely be tastier 🥰.

Changes and amends have been made, let's cut our blue-haired friend some slack.

A cat started it!

It's definitely not new - as long as I've been alive (at least in Canada). The real question is why do you over the pond'ers call bangs a "fringe"? 😋

Woof

It's funny, I am dog sitting right now, and I have met the dog many times over the years and she is a real sweetheart, but I noticed this time she had a lot more odd tendencies we would describe as toxic if in a person. Those tendencies unfortunately match her owners. I've been pondering the impact people have on dogs lately.

Are you on windows 10 or 11? The default photo app can do it: open the photo on your computer, then at the top, there are three dots ( ... ) there is an option to resize. Drop the percentage a bit or changing the quality from high to medium should do the trick. It will show you the new size at the bottom before you choose OK, so you can play until it is under the limit 😊. If your on apple, no idea, I'm allergic to digital fruit.

Your post made me think about this comment, does your mark look like the one in the video?

I think of it more like the shadow arises from our True Self because we suppress aspects of ourselves that for one reason or another (often simply just conditioning) we bury away and repress. And from that suppression, its opposite is created, the acquired mind and that is where we live most of our lives, safely away from all we are suppressing. Yet still completely at the mercy of our shadow self by way of automatic responses. One became two. Integrating the shadow self back doesn't hold opposites in one place or destroy the shadow; it removes the force that created those opposites in the first place. We were never meant to be a shadow and a truth, we were meant to be whole ourselves. Two becomes one, and that one is the True Self.

I wonder if it would be for similar reasons as not building the LDT near bodies of water? Maybe the pull of yin in the water from the rain overpowering the pull of the yin in the LDT so the qi is pulled outwards?

That has been my experience as well, unless you deal with the root of the problem, using willpower to overcome emotions is like a house of cards, great when there is no wind, but crumbles when the storm brews and you need it most. Like building up confidence after a difficult childhood by improving yourself, taking healthy risks, self-compassion, etc. It's good and healthy, you can rise out of your childhood and be strong and confident going forward, as long as life doesn't throw you more than you can bear and you find yourself right back to being insecure. Almost like you never stopped being insecure, you just found a way to not be affected it while times are good enough that you could persist. Digging through the tangled mess of emotions, desires, and social programming, at some point, you start finding roots, once you deal with one, poof, you are free from its influence. Instantly(Ignoring all the months / years it took you to get to that point hehe)

I have been doing a lot of shadow work, including an intense session last night. This morning I woke up early thinking about things that came out of last night and read this. The part about not just seeing / accepting but also integrating into who you are, a lightbulb clicked on, and I've been thinking about it all morning. This was so helpful and perfect timing - thanks for sharing!!