Sahaj Nath

wow, this was a bit disappointing. OF COURSE i understand the reiki energies are ancient. ALL energies are ancient! reiki is a generic term that mikao usui adopted as a means of commodifying his technique. it's different from regular ki = you have to get if from me. = $$$ that's not to say he was a bad person, but that's what he did, at least according to the research of frank arjava petter, who wrote a book about his research, and others who wrote articles. i'm a fan of bullet points, so here we go: 1.) the nature of the energy called reiki is IN NO WAY in dispute here, except in that you'll never be able to prove that it's different from ki, as in more intelligent or more healing or something like that. 2.) i know nothing about the people with whom you've shared reiki. their titles don't necessarily qualify them as able to distinguish the subtlest nuances of energy, i.e., i don't know that they could distinguish the energy of a reiki master from the energy of a kahuna, or a pranic healer, or any other energy worker. for anyone to say "this is the same energy as" might actually suggest that they can't feel any difference in quality even when there IS a difference. 3.) not all reiki masters are created equal. you can study with any two random (so-called) masters and have radically different experiences. the guy who initiated me over 10 years ago was stronger than any reiki master i have met since him. 4.) a lot of what reiki folks DON'T DO is cultivate and refine the energy once they're open to it. most of them assume that they don't have to do any work, that they can just call on the symbols and they will transmit the same perfect healing energy as any other reiki master. bullshit. if your vessel is dirty, the energy will be tainted, even reiki energy. the VAST MAJORITY of reiki masters out there are ineffective with their treatments. they get discouraged, never teach, never do healing work, and never evolve. i don't know what you mean by this statement. you say "and at the same" as if you wouldn't expect folks with extraordinary ability to work effortlessly. when you're in the work of healing, more is not always better. frequency trumps quantity. but i'm not suggesting that glenn was a bad master, and you said yourself he was more interested in having fun. so your point kind of misses me. this is a cop out response. my point isn't about attachment to the vessel, it's about purifying and refining the vessel so that it's fit to share healing energy. even if one doesn't care about longevity, being an alcoholic and succumbing to road rage every day isn't going to render them very helpful to others. and way too many "reiki masters" fit that distinction. stories of disembodied masters has NOTHING to do with what i'm addressing. i don't know this wan su jin that you're referring to, though i know a master with the same name who is in perfect health and who is dedicated to healing and training masters of healing. i do know that martial qigong can be very taxing on the body. i also know that unhealthy paradigms like "i am the healer. i will heal you," has led many great masters to an early grave. were they real masters? of course. that was never the argument i was making. but over the years they depleted their life force. and most reiki masters don't even do the work of building their life force! they are told that it will never drain them, but they never actually cultivate right mind.

true, but he didn't have that false belief. he rediscovered one of the keys to awakening his potential, but failed at cultivating it properly. that's what i think. OR that the force used by the shamans to charm the weather is the same force that's now used for healing.

it helps a lot of people. it's like pure kundalini. it also hurts a lot of people. just like pure kundalini. resistance makes it dangerous. that's really what we're doing in our practice, isn't it? working eliminate the resistance in our being so we can take on more and more raw energy without damage. to dance with the 'Fire Dragon' at the highest levels. there's a clip on youtube of a guy working on his bike when lightning strikes right across the lot from him. it was strong enough to send surges into his bike, and just a tiny amount into him. listen to how he describes how he feels. sound familiar? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtbAvfKgyHU i've embedded videos before, but i don't remember how. someone clue me in?

not every sage talks of morality in a conventional sense. many go another way. they just don't get the spotlight as much unless they can be caricatured as truly diabolical. still, i think your perspective is very important. i'm not sure it's accurate, but i think the world benefits from our choosing to believe it is. in this dream world where people suffer from starvation and disease, we can serve those people on two fronts: a.) we can work to get them food and medicine. b.) we can end the dream by waking up. (word to ken)

had to stir up some shit, aye yoda? i totally miss having jane around here. i think i'm gonna drop her a line. it turned out that she actually knew my old ninjitsu/reiki teacher i was talking about. she recognized the story all too easily between that thread and the SF kunlun thread. i was totally shocked. jokingly, she said that his jedi powers were no match for her dark side of the force! LOL!

that was beautiful.

ooh, i SO know what you mean. i think it's a good idea for everyone to take a news fast for a while and see the impact it has on their internal landscape. useless, disempowering, damaging information, for the most part. and recognizing this doesn't at all mean that we close our hearts to the world. i don't know if you ever saw the movie 'Dogma,' but at the very end of the movie, during the credits, there's a song by alanis morrisette called 'Still.' it's one of the greatest songs she's ever written. it's a three-part song, and you should really find a copy of it on-line, but here's the first part: I am the harm which you inflict I am your brilliance and frustration I'm the nuclear bombs if they're to hit I'm your immaturaty and your indignance I am your misfits and your praised I am your doubt and your conviction I am your charity and your rape I am your grasping and expectation I see you averting your glances I see you cheering on the war I see you ignoring your children And I love you still And I love you still ...so in a crazy way, maybe all the hurt in the world can be seen as evidence of god's unconditional embrace. brilliant. absolutely brilliant. this song struck a really strong chord with me. Jesus wept. i'm no christian, but this is the shortest verse in the bible, and it's a true gem. even Jesus wept for the suffering of others. to be christ-like, to be buddha-like, is to be with joy AND with pain. but not with suffering. not with resistance (which i believe to be the root of suffering). our spiritual practices plunge us into ever-present awareness on a regular basis, and in that state we can feel tremendous joy at the absolute perfection of all things and the silliness of all the minutia. there is no separation between anything. this creates a deep well of stillness and peace that never leaves. this is part of what we cultivate in consistent meditation. but this is not at all an escape from the pain of the relative world that we all experience. part of the process of thinning the veils that separate us from realization of the ever-present is dissolving our defenses, being vulnerable and open. dissolving our denials and avoidances. and what we find is that we are actually open to MORE pain than before, but with the cultivation of ever-present alongside it, our ability to handle the pain grows even faster than our sensitivity to it. we become richer and more alive, in ALL dimensions. so we can feel the hurt in the world more exquisitely than ever before, yet at the same time it burdens us less than ever before, too. so i think it's totally within character to see and feel the pain of the world and cry so hard... AND, to see and feel the perfection and laugh in the joy of realizing that there really are no 'others' to save. there is no one to save... and i commit my life to saving them... i laugh myself to tears. ...and i cry myself to sleep. and i'll do it all again. and that's all part of the richness and fullness of this absurdity that is life. that's kinda how i see it, anyway.

hmm... you might be onto something with this association. kunlun shan is the name of a mountain range in china in xinjiang province. it divides china and tibet. in china kunlun means "dwelling place of the immortals." i can see an argument for the mystics in that region who have Ku Rlung (especially those who were known to cultivate in a thunder storm) being seen as true immortals. perhaps that's the etymological origin of the word. i may research this a little bit.

whatup! NorCal over here! unless you're new to it you should already know that YOU ARE doing qigong when you're catching waves, unless you're just out there trying to pull tricks and be cute. hell, i may have to hold a surfing qigong workshop this summer!

greetings emily, i expect that there will be a hundred kunluners who disagree with me, but i say your surest bet is spring forest qigong. i've been playing with chunyi lin's system for about 8 months now, and i remain very impressed with his simplicity, sincerity, and vast wealth of foundational knowledge. his exercises are extremely simple but very energizing. personally, i don't see much of a problem with practicing both, but max and mantra have advised not to practice kunlun with any other practice that deals with kundalini or the microcosmic orbit. i think you'll find that just about EVERY energy practice out there involves kundalini or the MCO. so in that sense i think spring forest qigong can give you and excellent root for a ton of other practices you may want to explore in the future. it really depends on what you want. for me max's kunlun nei gung and other methods weren't supported enough with solid information, and there seemed to be a ton of contradictions and dubious claims, and though that stuff doesn't really bother me anymore, his methods are not my preferred mode of practice. if you want a solid system of practice that you can easily build on and that links up readily with lots of other systems, AND you don't have the money for regular training, here's what i suggest: 1.) purchase spring forest qigong level one if you haven't already. get the whole thing, not just the exercise video. sometimes he can talk a little too simplistic, but he offers excellent knowledge that you can refer back to for years. he's really big on the microcosmic orbit. it's key to how he gets the results a lot of other teachers out there aren't getting. 2.) purchase ken cohen's essential qigong training course. it's got pretty much everything else that you might not find in chunyi lin's system. very comprehensive. 3.) make it your goal to get more money so you can train with a competent teacher who has real skill. you're talking about your life here. don't let money keep you from something that can totally transform your life, as it seems it already has. i would eat rice and grass for a month if it meant i could gain food for the soul that will stay with me throughout (and perhaps beyond) my life! my opinion is that the qigong path is WAY MORE COMPREHENSIVE than max's kunlun path. it allows you to easily cross-reference with lots of other teachers and information on healing, spirituality, and the human physiology. thorough. consistent. down-to-earth. more credible and widely recognized. that's not to say kunlun can't do amazing things, just that i think spring forest and other systems of qigong are more proven to do amazing things. more proven to be safe. and more thorough in their teachings. hope this helps. take it with a grain of salt.

welcome! i'll be looking for your posts.

welcome! never heard of jade body practice. maybe you can tell a little more about that some time. does your longmen qigong form start with a movement called 'young dragon goes to the ocean?'

i won't take your word for it. i don't have to. i actually felt you today! there are a million false masters out there who cannot do what you did today. that you could transmit like that without even knowing my real name or what i look like or exactly what city i'm in, says a lot about your raw talent. plus you had my spine jumping a little bit today, which says to me that you're stronger than i am, as just touching your energy was provoking my body to jump to a higher state. i don't buy that anyone is stronger than me until they can demonstrate it. you did that. not that you need this, but you can consider this my official endorsement. thought i'd share this part publicly in case anyone's thinking about checking you out.

okay, time to take this conversation off the grid.

it's a guided visualization practice. it's in the 'Path Notes' book.

kind of abstract, but what does that actually mean? in qigong healing some conditions are responsive to willful direction of energy for the purpose of healing or eliminating pain or what have you. many conditions, however, don't shift at all when you try to change them. in those cases the most powerful technique tends to be the abandonment of technique. bathing in the ocean of lifeforce, and willing only that the universe have its way (as if it could ever be otherwise). in those cases your degree of genuine emptiness will be the measure of effectiveness. one of my most profound cases involved a man with a brain tumor. for all of my technical knowledge about processes, if someone were to ask me what exactly i did with him, all i could say is that i loved him. When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. --Some Old Dude

get over it already. i was very clear about what i was addressing with you, and then i dropped the matter. you're still stuck on it. with wayfarer i was talking about something completely different, and the political stuff was just tangential. and i never implied you needed therapy. i implied that you needed to do more homework so as not to make gross generalizations whilst talking about the 'arrogance of pseudo understanding.' and i wasn't the only one to point that out. you didn't appreciate my comments. i get it. and i haven't commented on your threads after that. leave it be, man.

with all do respect, this was mostly non-responsive. i get that he liked playing with stuff. i do too. and yes, the high level stuff tends to all be very similar. that's actually another reason not to waste time with all the other stuff, unless you just want to do it for fun. what i'm saying is, contrary to your dismissal of his 'Path Notes' book, i think it contained more than enough if your soul concern is awakening the kundalini. most people here are already immersed in a number of different systems. i, for instance, wouldn't be interested in most of that long list of 'stuff' you put together into a system. most people have the problem of doing too much and accomplishing very little. and you didn't answer my question: how do define "fully awakened kundalini?" i definitely have strong kundalini arousal, and i'm very capable of arousing the kundalini in my students just by an act of will. but i don't know what "fully awakened kundalini" means or how that differs in your opinion from an aroused kundalini. **what's the metric or 'bright line' that distinguishes mere arousal from full awakening?**

i read path notes about a year ago. it seemed pretty straight-forward and with more than enough suggestions to me. i don't doubt that this newly modified system of yours is effective, but it seems like a whole lot of extra and unnecessary stuff. i'm wondering what your definition of "full kundalini awakening" is, as you stated in a previous post.

fair enough. what you explained makes perfect sense. i didn't get that in what you had initially written. that didn't come across to me as ownership, but your latter explanation clarifies it quite well. this statement continues to allude me though. but you don't have to explain it if you don't want to.

i'm giving the wrong impression if i seem to be implying that i have a method, that is, if by 'method' you mean 'system.' my spiritual sensibility is similar to Max's, in that i am beholden to no particular system. that's a HUGE part of what first attracted me to him. eclecticism rocks! as far as how it feels... i'm sure you know as well as anyone that the energy is not at all static. right now i'm going through another one of those phases where i can't sleep more than 2 or 3 hours and my spine feels like there's thorns in it. often this would be coupled with periodic bursts of high anxiety, but not this time. this time the predominating feeling is a steady desire for a partner. i don't feel lonely at all, but i seem to crave that affection the way that someone might crave chocolate. my body's constantly buzzing and tingling, and that never goes away, although the intensity is always in flux. there was one time about 3 years ago when my body didn't buzz or tingle for the better part of a day, and it was the eeriest feeling in the world. i felt so hollow and dead. there are times when i feel weak and times when i feel as if i could influence the tides. there are times when my eyes get in the way and i can see more clearly with my eyes closed. there are moments of perfection when i experience being everything around me, all at once. everything is separate and unique, and united and seamless, at the same time. sometimes i just want to be left the fuck alone and scream. sometimes i get vertigo. i'm sure i'm leaving out a ton of stuff. i just allow it to bathe me as i continue to work to rid my body and psyche of as much resistance as i can manage. oh nonsense, darling. the only way that it will take that long is if you believe it will. sometimes it takes aeons for us to finally learn that it doesn't take aeons. no, none of those types of distinctions really make too much sense. trappings by which we mistake the map for the territory. to definitively state what 'is' implies what 'is not,' and in the realms of the subtle contradictions are bound to unfold. better to just laugh at it all. if we're daring enough we can learn to rewrite the books with each chuckle. perhaps mantra was right and i missed my chance at sharing a beautiful experience with some beautiful people. it took a while, but Max's transmission.... let's say.... changed some things. his path is not for me, but today i can say that i'm glad to have at least met him. i really like my path, though. it's pretty fucking cool to be hundun on most days. ADDENDUM: kundalini talk tends to lead folks to want to ask about siddhis. suffice to say that i'm a healer. i've chosen that as my calling, and that's more than enough for me. the rest, for the most part, is a waste of time to talk about.

the i understand it, yin and yang are aspects rather than types of qi. so in that sense every type of qi would have both characteristics. but whatevs. i'll wind up splitting too many hairs and getting WAY too theoretical if i'm not careful. in the end, it doesn't really matter.

if i might make a suggestion, and it strikes at the heart of that to which i was alluding. and if i'm wrong then ignore it: you cannot truly transcend unless you first embrace. you cannot have healing unless you first have ownership. these are phrases i throw at my students all the time. it sounds as if you're seeking to disassociate from your feelings, and you write as if you've already done that to an extent, as your "recurring feelings of resentment" sound very distant from who you believe yourself to be. it's just some thing. a tool that won't seem to behave or something. the problem is that disassociation of that sort will never make it go away; in fact, it typically makes healing all the more difficult because of an unwillingness to fully embrace those feelings as a part of you. how often do you sit with yourself, without judgment, and allow the good, the bad, and the ugly within you to just be? this is why so often i say "the saints weren't even saints." they were all just as (un)broken as we are. what i say is feel the resentment, and also feel the shame for "not being better than that," and anything else that might arise. really know yourself, and don't make yourself wrong for feeling. just own it, and you'll naturally cultivate greater compassion for your own flawed humanity as well as the flawed humanity in others. you will be much more skillful in your relationships with others when you can fully embrace your shadow material. transcendence will happen in its own time if you're able to embrace the whole of you. beautiful AND grotesque. just like the Tao.

that had to be one of the funniest tao bum lines ever!

6 or 7 months ago i suggested that it was yin qi being activated, and that didn't go over so well. something to the effect of "it's not qi; it's more like divine will." i didn't at all get why the energy of the kunlun nei gung practice was being distinguished as 'non-qi.' it was one of the discrepancies which prevented me from trusting them as a group. i still don't get why they seek to make what seems to be a dubious distinction at best. not that it ultimately matters. i'm not holding a grudge with any of the kunlun crew.