Sahaj Nath

welcome, brother!

at the point where i had a library's worth of knowledge and very little execution. at the point where i was so miserable on a daily basis that alcohol became medicine. my life at the time wasn't even a sliver of what i was capable. but it was such a familiar cycle, it just felt like home. like many of the most ardent seekers on this forum, the story of my life is largely dark and painful. but i won't bore anyone with the details. the point that changed everything was a late night after work. i was all angsty & shit, drinking bourbon and feeling like i was in a prison and couldn't escape from it. i realized that if i chose to believe that, then that was all that my life would ever be. then i said to myself, "shit! my life is happening RIGHT NOW! THIS IS IT! look at how much time i've already wasted, and i don't know how much time i've got left! well FUCK THAT!" i told myself that the next day was going to be different. and i meant it. and so it was. no drugs. no system. no professional diet plan. no gym membership. and no support (until it was obvious that i was serious and it was working). just different and better choices, and consciously & actively changing the recordings that repeated themselves in my head. and i lost 80 lbs in the first 4 months alone. the weight was important, but it was my psyche that was the real adventure. THAT was the key! it wasn't about stepping on the scale every day; it was about cultivating beauty, gratitude, WILL, and the momentum to shape my world according to my vision. every single day. and it got easier and better. every single day.

damn, jane... you fuckin' rock! maybe that's a fire-water method you're practicing! *proceeds to perform thousands of chi push-ups*

actually, that course is sitting on the floor next to me! i loaned it to a student who just brought it back. i really like ken cohen. the course is very thorough, i think. it bored me when i first got it, to be honest. but it grew on me. i never followed his method (i never really follow anyone's method). but i learned a lot from the course, and it helped me to easily memorize tons of foundational information. i don't know your experience level, but he and chunyi lin have the best courses for bringing someone from a complete novice to a competent practitioner WITHOUT AN IN-PERSON TEACHER.

there is still quite a bit of judgment in that question, when you look at it. how about: "how might i be able to serve this person," without any assumption about where they are or where they might need to go. btw: a year and a half ago i was one of those people. i'm still a big guy, but i'm 120 lbs lighter and that feels pretty good. kinda makes me wonder how i ever attracted students in the past! hey mat, nice quote!

i went bungie jumping for my birthday about 8 years ago. it was precisely the absence of control over the outcome that made it such a powerful experience. scare the hell out of me at first, but all i could do was surrender to it once i jumped. ted, i hope you'll stick around. i look forward to learning more about you. my practice is extremely different every single day. hundun = chaos i may write it out, but not right now. my seated meditations are the closest things to constants in my practice. i like this thread.

stevejon, that was a great reply. thank you. i guess i probably would consider a dabbler, but then so are we all, for the most part. i mean, that's kind of what's so fun about this forum. lots of dabbling, debating, experimenting and whatnot. i think healthy eclecticism is one of our greatest strengths here in the west. your personal testimonial is more impressive to me than the website, that's for sure. you should take over as the webmaster. i do have a question, though: did you learn RT in-person, or was that via correspondence like kundalini reiki? i was a member of a kundalini support group some years ago, the one that was started by el collie. i think it was there that i first learned about tummo reiki as a solution to some of the negative side-effects of premature awakening. if i don't remember if folks of the site tried it or if the testimonials came solely from people who joined the forum after the fact. before i met the teacher that helped to balance me out, i had considered trying it, but was skeptical of it being like every other "Reiki PLUS" system out there. what can you share with us about the curriculum? and, finally: can you explain the "tummo" part?

perhaps i can answer this. i do healing work anywhere from 4 to 7 days a week, in addition to teaching. yes, it's possible to pick up the toxic energy of another person (especially if you think of it as "toxic"). and yes, sometimes its just an empathic reaction, or an echo in yourself of what that person is experiencing. yes there are practices to protect yourself and to purify yourself afterwards (as well as beforehand). and it is ABSOLUTELY POSSIBLE to drain your own qi when healing others! this is what most people do, in fact. it's not necessary, but i think it's so common because of the unrefined mindset of most healing practitioners. it's all pretty much a matter of right thinking and the subjugation of the ego. thinking of energy as "toxic" can guarantee that it IS. thinking of energy as merely blocked or stagnant is different; you can free and release this energy, and your body simply relates to it as freed energy. picking up another person's illness primarily happens when the healer has an ego attachment to a certain kind of result. they can unknowingly invest themselves in another person's illness just by needing that person to "feel something" in order to validate themselves. most healers have this problem, and most of them aren't consistently successful in their work. attachment to result = resistance to natural flow = increased probability of side-effects and personal drainage a lot of qigong masters fall sick and frail at early ages because they have slowly drained themselves into their patients over the years. this is very common and completely unnecessary. its a way of relating to the world and the energy. some say it's a matter of energy coming 'through you' versus 'from you.' but even this distinction fails to shed enough light on the matter if you're not paying attention. neither process is necessary. however we relate is the avenue through which it will function. period. what's safest and most effective depends on the work you've done to clear your own debris. i treat most healing sessions like prayer, so it's like i'm inviting the healing presence to pour upon all of us. it doesn't have to come through me at all. i can sit in another room (or city, if i'm in the right mind frame) and have a more powerful session than if i'm touching the person. ultimately it's we who create the rules and limitations. i may have missed something, but i have to go right now.

hmm. if this story is true, i guess i'm having trouble understanding why you would still be looking for a "better" system to practice. seems to me like you're where you should be. the grass always looks greener elsewhere. i agree with drew. i think chunyi lin is one of the highest level masters in the states. pretty sure he's the highest level master to ever teach publicly here. and his goal is modest and sincere, which i absolutely love about him. more healers. less suffering. i didn't know you were already practicing SFQ when you first posted this thread. but because you said you weren't interested in curing disease, i took that to mean you weren't interested in learning the healing aspects of qigong so long as you could maintain your health. chunyi lin's mission is to teach as many people as he can reach to heal themselves and to become healers. so if that's not what you're into, then i'd still say go with ken cohen. but given how you came upon SFQ, how could you doubt that you're already on the right path? just give yourself to it. even if you establish a set amount of time, like 1 year, just commit to it for that year, without any reservation. the quality you bring to your practice is more important than what you practice. and since he hasn't responded to your comment yet, cameron DID have "uncanny" things happen to him on his path, moreso than anyone else in this forum, i think. uncanny is a strange choice of words, so i'm guessing, based on context, that you're talking about strange awakenings and negative side-effects. he had both. read through the kunlun threads and his personal journal. where you are is more beautiful than you seem to appreciate right now. just consider that.

kundalini reiki and tummo reiki hit the internet at around the same time. i think they might have been competitors for the same process of attunement. so 'tummo' might just be their term for kundalini. yet another reason i'd consider the system bogus. but they also have a yoga curriculum, so it might be the lessons rather than the process that the title refers to. i don't know. it's a bit vague. i saw that stevejon made a couple of posts over at AYP. i also remember similar posts (i don't know if it was steve) a few years ago on a number of kundalini support sites. seems like a marketing tactic to me. not that this forum is a stranger to that kind of thing, but you've gotta offer more information and experience than that if the tao bums are gonna bite. and steve, what's up with erasing your initial posts? luckily, i saved a copy: i'm interested. you also claimed that you made more spiritual progress in one year of RT than in your 30+ years prior. given how far you advanced in Chia and Winn's system, that's a pretty big claim. so again, some details would be great. what isn't encouraging is that it seems like the same one or two people are all over the internet pushing RT as the way to go. it's been around for years; if it's really so profound and effective, i'd expect to see a lot more supporters out there, not to mention a better, more informative, thriving website. if steve's year was really so profound (and i'm going to assume for the moment that it was), then perhaps it was those 30+ years prior which had brought him to that threshold, and RT just closed the remaining gap.

this is a topic thoroughly and consistently explored at the AYP website. they have a forum specifically for kundalini: http://www.aypsite.org/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=22 i think more than a few of us have experienced kundalini, but it's not a really big topic around here. if by 'kundalini matter' you mean that you're having trouble, i'd say go to AYP. i could offer some perspective, but i'm pretty sure i couldn't say anything that hasn't already been covered better over there. a much larger number of AYP practitioners have gone through/is going throungh kundalini, i think. (either that, or they just talk about it too much out of attachment to experiences.)

nice, sean! and welcome to the forum, aspirin!

*bows* ... *bows again* i trust your sincerity, Sifu. your example in this forum has already helped me to relax into my own being a little more. i have a student who will be attending college in NY in the fall. i hope he will be close enough that he will be able to study with you.

https://www.centerpointe.com/

well, the first objective of any qigong system is going to be to build and maintain health. if you're not interested in healing you don't want chunyi lin, and your choice comes down to ken cohen and mantak chia. i think (by your own words, even) that cohen's a pretty easy favorite there.

i always seem to ask this, but then no one seems to volunteer it: what are YOUR goals? also, what do you mean by authenticity? it could be taken to mean almost the same thing as effectiveness.

if you'd like, i can contact him and see what can be worked out. i know he does weekend retreats from time to time.

yes! part of the bonus package i got from mwight! yours sounds pretty cool; if you're up for it, i'd love to trade with you. the first track is rain and bell tones as you rapidly descend through alpha spectrum to theta in 30 min. the second track is pure rain and it's immersion in the theta state for 30 min. i use them occasionally for seated meditation, and i use them often with certain people when i do healing work.

money can always be earned, my friend. that's your task. to earn money, to save money, and to bring your goals to life by being resourceful. i've been poor all my life, and i'm no stranger to homelessness. i know what it's like to be broke. but i also know what's possible when one is determined. i have no idea where the money is going to come from to get me to new york to meet up with Lin Sifu. but it's not an option for me to miss it. my task is to make it happen. and it will. period.

i really should have joined the betting pool. lol!

"Qi Gong cultivation is fine, but the foundation of what their system is preaching does not lead one to pure enlightenment. Their principles do not result in wholesome outcomes ultimately." --Lin Sifu if their qigong practice is rooted in their principles, then you're better off seeking elsewhere. don't be afraid to spend money on worthwhile training. i still say one of the best things you can do for yourself is make plans to visit gainsville. it's not that far from you. it's a very attainable goal. it'll just take a little time and work to make it happen. anthony's very good and very real.

unless this is just over my head, i don't think this has anything to do with SFQ.

it was sex with ME, and i think i'm a pretty good-looking guy when i wanna be.

i'd really appreciated it if we could all stop fighting. i really feel exhausted from the whole thing. i think mantra's attack on me was completely uncalled for. i meant it when i apologized for my anger and tone in the SF kunlun workshop thread. i try to be honest and genuine. i try to live my life with integrity, even when others around me don't understand. it's insulting and a little hurtful to have my character attacked when all i'm doing is trying to participate in this community in a meaningful way. i attacked the character of someone that many of you care a great deal about. i understand that. i don't expect be forgiven by all of you just because i apologized after the damage had been done. but i wasn't wrong to level the criticism. i was wrong for using an emotionally toxic tone. it was disrespectful and unnecessary, and i acknowledged that. and even though it was just a couple of weeks ago, i think i've grown since then. i could have taken things a whole lot further, but i didn't think it would serve any good purpose. i said what i had to say about the matter, and now people have to make their own decision. and if someone else decides in the future to step forward and go against the consensus the way i did, it will be the same thing. my criticism hasn't changed really, but my feelings about max as a person HAS changed. i was hoping to build a bridge with that statement, and instead i was accused of trying to hijack the system or something. i'm here to learn like everybody else. and i'm here to share my knowledge and perspective, like everybody else. am i really so dangerous? is the image or your group really so fragile? image is a barrier to enlightenment. i may not know much, but i know that. mantra, i think you're wrong about me. but i'm tired. i haven't been policing and attacking your posts, even when they make me wince. how about you give me a break this time. i like this community, and i don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon.

i think robert peng was using his ability as a gimmick to sell his program. his program was very basic qigong and very common meditation practices. but the draw was the possibility that he might share some special information that help you to achieve his level of development. i had never heard of him before mwight was selling it here, but i'm always willing to pay for new programs if the price is right. even if i only gain one or two tips, it's worth it for me. but i don't think i gained anything from peng's work. i DID gain a lot from chunyi lin's work, however. i think it was more valuable for me than for other people because i'm a teacher. his vision: "a healer in every household, and a world without pain." not secrets to power or anything like that. just a really simple understanding of what we are capable and how we might develop it. i think chunyi lin is very genuine. i got more out of his qigong than robert peng's, though i don't really practice either (i learn dozens and dozens; i couldn't possibly practice all of them). his talks about qi and qigong and healing are a lot simpler than my own approach to teaching, so it helped me to strip away more unnecessary theory and information. and he elucidates i couple of points that were brilliant and gave me a better understanding of things i thought i already knew. the two 30-minute music tracks are great; i use them almost every day. peng didn't offer any knowledge lectures or anything to really give the beginning student a foundation, whereas chunyi lin's system is designed to take you from a complete beginner to a healer. robert peng's site has been down for a few months now. there's really no comparison. they have completely different goals. chunyi lin's system is a simplified, traditional type of basic daily practice. and he gives you what you need to begin developing as a healer. the kunlun nei gung practice is geared toward ecstatic bliss. tapping into the blissful state can be used in healing, but it's not a system to teach healing. so it depends on what you're looking for. i think chunyi lin has sincerity and integrity, and i value those things a great deal. drew has written about chunyi's skill, but chunyi doesn't use that stuff to sell his system as "the most powerful system ever" or anything like that. he wants there to be more healers in the world. his spiritual path is largely a personal one. he's not offering keys to enlightenment, just the possibility of a better, healthier life. i admire that about him. so what are you looking for? and what is your background?