freeform

Just to be clear - you’re saying that you’re teaching methods - not a traditional ‘system’ - and this isn’t something your teachers have asked you to pass on?

As someone that grew up with pretty unsafe play areas, I can concur with the video above

There are a few different approaches. The quickest/easiest is with a combination of using correct standing practice and a teacher's assistance (they emit Qi into your LDT, which then works to attract more Qi to it). It also normally takes a teacher's assistance to help you get the right posture for standing. The other, more 'DIYable' approach is by sinking your mind, your breath and your Qi to the correct area. 'Sinking' is different to just moving your attention there (which tends to send the 'deeper' Qi up to your head even if your awareness is low). This approach takes longer and is more nuanced, but even the poeple doing the standing practice will eventually have to achieve this anyway - it's just slower to get the initial results. I've seen some good videos by Damo Mitchell that would help to achieve it (it'll take a while, just be patient and work on it a little every day). These practices and videos will help you get started the right way. I've not come across anything as authentic being taught in public. But I'm sure there are others - I just don't know them. (Avoid Mantak Chia, anything by the Healing Tao organisation or any system with a heavy emphasis on visualisation - but that's just my opinion)

Probably directing it too much. It takes a couple of years to build up enough Qi in the LDT for the mco practice to work. At that stage it ‘overflows’ almost by itself into the Du channel, just the slightest hint will be enough.

Yeah - yang Qi has an affinity with the nervous system and can directly influence it. In your case it’s not ‘pure’ yang Qi - it’s the yang aspect of your wei Qi that tends to hang out in the outer periphery of your body. The cambo will have activated your Wei Qi which acts like a protective layer… so it sees the poison in the cambo as a pathogen, and is on high alert. The reason people used it for hunting is because it stimulates the Wei Qi which makes you more energetically in touch with your environment. Yin Qi is less obvious - it forms like pulses and fields like magnets. It’s not easy to feel at first. When your physical tissues start to interact with it, it will feel like pressure, expansion, contraction and so on. To begin generating Yin Qi you’ll need to find and activate the lower Dantien…

Pre-heaven is translated in all sorts of ways - primordial, prenatal etc. Its the Qi that exists beyond this physical incarnation. It was there before you were born. Its the process by which your spirit differentiates from Dao… Post heaven Qi is what animates your body mind here in this physical form along with all the life processes - though there’s a pre-heaven ‘spark’ behind it. When you die your post-heaven Qi ceases, but your pre-heaven Qi is still there and will guide ‘you’ through the process of transmigration.

Yeah completely agree. Though it’s not just the western world… some kundalini based yogic traditions will have many different levels of kundalini awakening - some of these levels are in fact just yang Qi mobilising… And the gap between the first level of ‘kundalini awakening’ and the level where actual shakti is involved could be decades of training apart… So it becomes confusing. With these kinds of traditions it’s worth being very careful and doing your due diligence on any school or tradition you’re looking into following. Also - don’t DIY it.

Yeah I think it makes things confusing when distinctions are blurred. Most of the kundalini syndromes people suffer are just out of control yang Qi. And your spine and back are where yang Qi expresses itself most… and can create strong sensations as it moves through the nerves so people draw parallels. It can feel sort of exciting and exhilarating to have yang Qi coursing through you - like you’ve just come off a rollercoaster ride… but it quickly depletes the yin in your body and you start suffering with ‘empty heat’ symptoms… if it goes on for long, it can enter the head and create psychological issues… With his combination, it’s pretty easy to take what you read about kundalini, add in a bit of fantasy and imagination (due to too much Qi in the head) - and believe that you’ve opened your kundalini and you’re now an ascended master and so on.

There’s a whole spectrum… in reality Jing Qi and shen are all Qi at various ‘densities’. there is also ‘pre-heaven’ and ‘post-heaven’ Qi. there’s yin and yang Qi - and various mixtures of that… for instance kan and li are water and fire qualities (but not pure yin/yang). There are also various types of Qi that arise from various transformations of the functioning of ones system. (Zhong Qi, Zhen Qi, Ying Qi, Wei Qi - and many others) So there’s a lot. The shakti Qi is a pre-heaven yang Qi at the spectrum closer to Shen. That’s as best as I can explain it (from my understanding).

It’s kind of involved to be honest. Saying that - I have talked about it before - I’m just really bad at searching on here. I think I’ve talked about it in relation to the Jhanna in Buddhism - so maybe if you search for that term and for posts by me, you’ll find a big thread where we discuss and argue about this stuff in depth. But yes, this is from a Longmen tradition which uses meditative techniques quite a bit. I believe historically there was cross-pollination between Hindu, Buddhist and ancient Daoist practices (along with a bit of Confucianism). The meditative concentration gives access to the various ‘ingredients’ to be used in alchemy. Sorry I can’t go more in-depth - it’s a pretty huge subject as you can imagine - and for me 90% of it is theory rather than experience.

The kundalini makes an appearance in some of the Daoist alchemical lines, but not all. Shakti is considered a very refined form of Yang Qi, on the ‘divine’ spectrum. There is a term for it, but I don’t remember - it’s not a major part of my tradition. It doesn’t reside in your LDT - it resides in your sacrum. It’s one of several ‘pockets’ of this divine sort of Qi… Its considered to be quite high level, and inaccessible until quite far down your path. What many consider kundalini activation, from this traditional perspective it would just be basic yang Qi mobilisation through the spine. The kundalini is something quite different.

The joke was at the expense of your friend. If you watch stand up comedy, a good comedian can joke about the darkest things - the biggest traumas and misfortunes or the worst human behaviour and impulses that we’re too scared to face… but they can construct a joke in such a way that it’s never at the expense of the victim - the laughter becomes a transcendent form of relief. Darknesses is dispelled. Laughter is important and powerful if it’s not pointed and does not victimise someone. Fair enough. It’s hard to tell online. But he did like my Instagram meme.

I remember when I was young, a fried crashed into a younger kid while skateboarding. The kid fell and started crying - so my friend started crying even louder - like he got hurt too. The kid stopped in his tracks and as my friend’s cries got more and more ridiculous the kid started cracking up. I still remember that to this day. I was so impressed by my friend’s skillful handling of that situation. I believe if he showed a lot of concern, that would have solidified the pain and (very mild) trauma even more. Laughing it off was far healthier for the kid.

Genuine cultivators shouldn’t cause suffering. If laughing at suffering causes more suffering then that would be unskilled. If laughing about suffering causes a bit of lightness and levity then that’s probably the most skilled action you could take.

Have a look again at what I wrote. I’m not even mocking the notion of him being a Buddha. I’m not disagreeing with his perception of reality. I’m just extending the implications of that reality until it’s funny(ish). The end result is (hopefully) that a laugh is generated not at the expense of him as a person, or even at the expense of his perception of himself, but of the implication of his views taken to extreme. It would be akin to telling your Obama friend that he’s not allowed to meet my grandma because his sheer charisma would charm her into an early grave. And it’s not like I planned it all cleverly like that - I just want to generate a laugh in him - coz it’s the best outcome for him.

I’m not mocking the guy. I’m mocking the implication behind what he says. The humour is at the expense of the views offered, not the person himself. I don’t believe this sillyness is offending him - maybe he’s even laughing along (which is the main point).

done:

Dude, I’m like one of the most woo woo ones in this place. Aah ok. I guess we need to work on those Pali translations… “Ceasing to do evil, Cultivating the good, Purifying the heart: This is the teaching of the Buddhas.” Well we got that wrong… “Fuck all of you, burn in hell you evil fuckers: this is the real teaching of the Buddhas” I’m totally making this an Instagram meme!

Finally! Here's a site tracking all the wildfires across the world: https://gwis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ let's see what you can do

No - there’s no outward sign (that I know of) for someone who attains realisation. But there are many weird and wonderful things that do happen down the line. It’s reasonably well known stuff within certain Longmen lines. Ha! I imagine he has better things to be getting on with than hanging out here

This is another reason I get more and more the ingenuity of the lineage systems of genuine traditions. This lineage stuff I used to only tolerate - I thought it was dogmatic, stuffy mode of control - until I happened on a real, living tradition. Who is qualified? One who has true insight. How do you know they have true insight? They've literally passed a test to show beyond any reasonable doubt that they have it. In a neo-tradition you can simply claim that you're awakened, wear the right gear, read the right books, talk the right talk, name yourself an interesting name - and hey presto, you have enough to call yourself a guru.

Oh just a final thing. There are some 'earthly' siddhi that sort of achieve the same thing as some of the 'heavenly' ones. For instance there's a way to look into the 'karmic' body of someone and be able to tell them all sorts of things about their life. This can be both a byproduct of spiritual insight and a byproduct of opening a certain type of subtle vision... The difference is that when it's a heavenly siddhi, it comes effortlessly - like remembering the name of your best friend VS the earthly type that takes effort, energy and concentration.

It depends what one means by enlightenment really. In some traditions enlightenment is exceptionally rare, in other traditions it's relatively common. In my tradition, what's considered enlightenment is exceptionally rare. The understanding around siddhi is that there are essentially two types: 'earthly' siddhi and 'heavenly' siddhi. (actually there are three types, but don't want to over-complicate things - in reality, the third type can be divided and included within the earthly and heavenly types) The earthly type can be developed specifically - as in you can actively work on developing these. This is along the lines of what @Piyadasi is talking about in reference to Milarepa's magic. In my tradition, the only earthly siddhi that are permitted to be worked on and enhanced are ones for the purposes of healing (so qi emission, diagnostic abilities etc). Even then it's up to your teacher to work out if this is the correct path for you - and up to you whether it's something you want to do. Some earthly siddhi come about as byproducts of 'preparatory' training that's used to build the foundation for spiritual work. Using them tends to diminish one's reserves and slows down progress - and can, of course send one spiraling off the path. These siddhi are specifically discouraged. For instance there's a quality that emanates from ones energy field at specific stages of developing the central channel where you can strongly influence people near to you. This is why in my tradition, this specific process is only done in seclusion. There are other traditions that take the earthly siddhis a lot further. But in spiritual traditions, this sort of thing creates karma... and we want to avoid that if we can. The heavenly siddhi come about simply as a byproduct of developing your Spirit. The idea is that beyond a certain point it's not possible to develop your Spirit without siddhi appearing as a byproduct. You cannot train to develop these siddhi specifically like you can with the earthly siddhi. They only ever come about 'by the grace of god'... or in more mundane terms as byproduct of actualising your true Spirit. These things are not venerated, or given much importance. They're rarely discussed within the school... Kind of how you rarely discuss the ability to do mental arithmetic, or the ability to discern colours. They are, however tested for at certain stages - because it's a pretty handy way to make sure you really did get that breakthrough, and it wasn't just a subjective experience. The people making a big deal of this are generally the power seekers and people who are heavily invested in their high view of their own spiritual progress, that this becomes a challenge to their status. Oh and I've seen my teacher say something along the lines of 'there's no such thing as siddhis' many times to people that inquire about this sort of thing.

I thought everything is consciousness?! Just highlighting the differences in tradition. You call it insignificant, in my tradition ‘realisation’, though significant, only marks the first step into spirituality. We’re shooting for realisation - then step by step ‘actualisation’. Realise there’s a magnificent mountain -> climb the mountain. People tend to denigrate that which is beyond their capability.

The saliva stuff is only important once the true waterwheel is active. If the saliva produced tastes like honey (viscous and very sweet) - then the swallowing practices make sense… if this isn’t the case, then there’s more work to do at an earlier stage. This stuff is preparatory to the more ‘spiritual’ alchemy practices. visualisation, in my experience, plays no major part in genuine alchemy traditions. If there’s a lot of visualisation being taught, then it’s best to avoid the school (in my opinion)