Cameron's 3 month Kunlun and Red Phoenix report.
I am grateful to Sean for my temporary suspension. As I had planned on taking a year off from posting anyway it gave me some much needed time to reflect on everything that I have experienced in the last 3 months since learning Kunlun and Red Phoenix.
I feel pretty silly that such profound practices taught by such a great teacher would in anyway get overshadowed or presented in a negative way from any bickering that seems to be an inherent trademark in online discussions.
Fundamentally, there is no problem. It's all part of the great transmission of Tao(Dharma)from east to west. As one of the first dharma teachers I met, John Daido Loori, wrote in his book Eight Gates of Zen, in the future it won't be wars or technological advances or any of that future generations will look back on as the greatest event of the last century. It will be the quiet, selfless work of Dharma teachers from the east transmitting the dharma to us here in the west. It has happened so slowly and naturally and the subtle influence of dharma continues to pour in. My feeling is that in a few decades or a hundred years the influence of these authentic teachings being taught in the west will show more and more.
Perhaps we are all like pioneers here on Taobums. I know I wasn't born into a family that had any interest in these practices. Praying to a God outside of yourself somewhere up in the clouds that takes care of you when you die was the train of thought.
However, the Dharma crept into my life, as I am sure it crept into everyone who posts here's life, and even a small taste of it and you can never ignore it forever. As one of the Zen monks said in a weekend retreat I did in upstate NY many years ago, you may stray off into all sorts of things but eventually you return. This "returning" to me is the main point of spiritual practice. Whatever practice you decide to do eventually boils down to a returning to your true self. Like the sun getting covered by clouds we need spiritual cultivation to return, again and again and again, from confusion amd ignorance to our true state of clear wisdom and knowing.
That there is a sense of not having this clear wisdom and knowing I think can be a blessing in disguise for seekers of the way. I have found in my 32 years those who are full of knowledge have little use for Dharma. In my experience, the selfless reality of the universe is more an emptying of knowledge and direct experience of truth that an accumulation of more information.
Sifu Max calls Kunlun and Red Phoenix the "quick quick" path to awakening. For me, practicing over the last 3 months, this appears to be the truth. I would even go so far as call these practices severely fast.
A major difference I noticed in Max's approach to just about every other teacher I have met is he really doesn't want to waste any time. It's mind boggling for me to think all these experiences I have been having with the practices have taken place over a mere three month period. Even more amazing is I honestly feel that I haven't even remotely scratched the surface yet.
Finding a simple practice that is both fun and and can take you all the way to awakening is hard. My first attempt at awakening with Zen and the simple practice of Zazen bore some fruit and was enjoyable but I noticed I would get bored easily and the overall, strong religious emphasis, wearing robes, chanting sutras, doing everything in a very meticulous way wasn't for me. I enjoyed my time in Zen but the overall structure and control I found a bit stuffy. I was excitied when I found Adyashanti because here was a teacher teaching a very simple path to awakening that relied on nothing. You just sit and allow everything to be as it is.
I was fully committed to doing a week long retreat with Adyashanti just 5 months ago with Taobums webmaster Sean. For personal and financial reasons, along with Sean being very busy, I cancelled the retreat and then I found myself developing a close realationship with an equally interesting and awakened teacher named Jeannie Zandi. I did something like six satsangs with Jeannie over like a two month period. I pretty much considered her my teacher just 4 months ago and was even considering doing a week long retreat with her next year.
Then, suddenly, out of the blue, my friend Maxim from NYC mentioned to me on the phone there was an amazing teacher named Sifu Max who has achieved some very high level that was going to start teaching. When I first had my conversation with him it was the week of Max's first LA workshop. I had no idea who Max was, had no interest in studying with another teacher, and told Maxim thanks but I wasn't interested.
A couple of weeks passed and then I spontaneously found myself looking on Max's website and saw there was going to be another workshop in a month. The advertising was pretty impressive. It sounded like it was too amazing to pass up. I made the Lama Dorje thread on Taobums, Mantra 68(Chris) joined the fun and the rest is history.
My immediete reaction coming back from the first workshop was extreme. I basically didn't sleep for a month after the workshop. I found the transmission along with practicing Kunlun and Red Phoenix basically was opening up my core channel very powerfully. Grounding was a major issue for that first month. There were times I was having a hard time getting grounded and frankly I got scared a few times. I had never been plugged in to that much energy and my lower tan tien was not very open.
When I saw Max a couple of months later things were still wild but calming down a bit. Part of the difficulty of the first couple months was the transmission I got was so powerful it made it hard for me to just sit and practice. It really felt like the transmsission itself was enough. I did take a week or two off but then got back to practicing Kunlun. I stopped practicing Red Phoenix entirely because I would get very spacey. My feeling is the lower tan tien needs to be very open and the most important thing of all is you need to relax.
Max told me this at the first workshop. Incedently this is the same message my Aikido teachers have been telling me over and over and over since I started that art. Relaxation is not important, it is absolutely essential. There is really a danger in being juiced up before you have learned to let go and relax. For me, I think the first month or so after the first workshop was like taking a break and just seeing how incredibly unrelaxed I was despite years of qigong.
After weathering some pretty strong storms in both my personal and spiritual life over the last 3 months, I have gradually learned to find my center again. What I was taught in aikido about finding your center(or tan tien) is so important. I literally moved a minute down the street from my Aikido dojo so I would have no excuse not to train this year. I am also fortunate to have one of the best Japanese Aikido teachers in the world to study with and centering and grounding is strongly emphasized.
I am happy to report after 3 months I am starting to have less intense experiences with Kunlun. I enjoy sitting for an hour and bouncing and my arms doing this and that. My arms tend to move around for a few minutes and then I generally just drop them down to the sides of my chair and try to focus on brining energy down.
Max says Kunlun is the downward flow and I have been connnecting more with this aspect of the practice. Gradually finding my center, opening the front channel(a huge block that I have had for years along my front channel feels like it's gradually opening up a little more with every sesshin)
There is as strong sense of magnetic energy that is hard to describe. Probably that is something you would explore more if you study more with Max(being stuck to fences, thrown without physical touch and other fun things).
The bliss has been gradually developing. I don't look for it and I don't think about it but I do find a blissful sensation start to arise between my hands sometimes while I practice Level 1. My overall intuition is that I have so much crap in my system. So much junk that obscures my blissful Buddha Nature that alot of what the practice is about for me now is clearing out junk.
I think I tried to ask Max a question about this at the last Phoenix workshop and he quickly remarked back to me "Kunlun will burn that off". I'll take his word and not worry about it.
I really have no expectations or goals with it except to practice every day. I have made a committment to practice Level 1 every day in 2008. Sometimes I do an hour, sometimes if the energy is overwhelming I do less, but I practice every day. My goal is to stick with Level 1 in '08 and then learn/practice Level 2 in '09, then Level 3 in 2010.
Red Phoenix is practiced occasionally. I will probably add it in more as my Kunlun practice gets stronger and I feel more integrated. Right now RP is too powerful to practice every day. Maybe once a week and then take a look at it again in a month.
I think doing some physical practice along with this is very important. For me, I have committed to doing Aikido alteast 3 days a week in '08. But whatever you enjoy doing, do some physical, grounding excercise, It is important to help ground the energy.
I don't think I have any hope of being a vegeterian at this point. I eat steak almost every day as I both enjoy it and helps me ground.
Hope this was helpful to those practicing or not yet sure about Kunlun. If your not sure about it don't rush into it. When they say these are some of the most powerful practices ever taught on Earth they aren't joking.
Cameron
