doc benway

In my view, there is no need to believe. In fact, it is preferable not to believe. Belief is grasping, holding on to concepts. This is contrary to Buddha's teachings. He did not want people to simply believe the truths of others but to discover the truth for themselves. Much better to simply practice and make room for knowledge to displace belief.

The beautiful thing is that there are great resources online where real teachers can introduce the knowledge. Always best to get it in the flesh but the cyber-space is a decent medium whether live or prerecorded. Try Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's website or do an Alan Wallace retreat in the privacy of your own home. Lot's of ways to get a foot on the (non)path...

I can pretty much guarantee that if you like the Longchenpa you will like the Nang Jang by Dudjom Lingpa - absolutely amazing. I've seen pdf's of it available online (scribd) but I can't say for sure if it's public domain so I won't link to it. Although, I would recommend you just buy a copy either way - it is also priceless and a resource to treasure.

Another amazing book is:

It certainly does something.

What is the difference?

search it on youtube but if you find anything don't believe your eyes!

One possibility is that the hiking (or something else) has caused tightness in the hip joint and surrounding soft tissues. Knee pain doing full lotus is nearly always related to hip tightness. This is because proper lotus should cause little or no tension on the knee - tension in the knee, by definition, means the hip is tight. Look to the spine, hips, and pelvis. Stretch... My favorite resource is Becoming the Lotus edit to add - if you can't do lotus, don't. Full lotus is not in any way a pre-requisite to energetic or spiritual development. That is a fallacy.

Kung Fu Hustle is one of my favorite films - amazing! I like lots of films, I'll list a few - Enter the Void Himalaya The Holy Mountain El Topo The Passion of Joan of Arc Everything by Danny Boyle Kikujiro Sword of Doom Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.... and Spring Across the Universe .... and lots, lots more!

All is perfection Assimilated within Pristine Awareness

That is exactly what he's saying (I think - sorry if I'm being presumptuous). No one says it better (IMO) than the Dzogchen masters. At first meditation seems serene and quiet, this is a lessening of attention to the external stimuli, bodily sensations... - this is the coarsest level of input Next, it becomes obvious how ridiculously busy the thoughts are, absolutely uncanny! - this is a bit more subtle at first but soon becomes very obvious and can be overwhelming Next, as the thoughts space out and awareness clings less and stabilizes, a subtler, more insidious type of mental formation becomes obvious - transient images that are less than the verbal chatter, not quite fully formed thoughts, just fragments and flashes. Next, as these begin to lessen, even more subtle, fleeting feelings, emotions, and urges bubble up to the surface... And layer after layer, we peel back the onion... by continuing to quiet and let go. The Dzogchen masters talk about the 3 keys - 1. Recognition, referred to as "carefree detachment at the subject/object junction" - this involves awareness of the arising of all thoughts, ideas, images,... and simply observing without preference or bias, without discrimination or separation, without clinging or riding the thought train, without distinction between subject and object 2. Actualization of potency, described as "self sprung awareness" which is the attending to mental formation as it arises within the "indeterminate space of pristine awareness" in order to allow it to reach its full potential, rather than suppression or ignorance which guarantees it will remain and recycle. Often referred to as a "bird's traceless trajectory" and having the quality that nothing can remain or stain this space of awareness, nothing leaves a trace once it has blossomed and assimilated 3. Automatic dissolution, which occurs within the "all-inclusive spaciousness" that allows all things to reach their full potential and then vanish through assimilation into that space. This is likened to waves in a "unitary billowing ocean." The quotes are from Natural Perfection - Longchenpa's Radical Dzogchen by Keith Dowman. One of many great books on the subject.

Do you also work with sound inside your head? There are interesting practices of listening with one ear, then the other. Of moving that awareness from one ear to the other through the center of the brain. Or trying to distinguish what each ear is hearing simultaneously and discriminatively. And so forth... Lots of interesting practices with sound. I admit that I haven't spent much time with sound practices. So much to do, so little time!

Actually, I'm mixing practices and comments, sorry - I was more referring to refining the MCO as it passes up the du mai. The "pluck up the back" was also challenging for me though and I really "got it" after practicing 'hug the tree' for a while. As was mentioned earlier though, this is a never ending exploration and refinement (like the MCO) - not a goal to finish and move on from. Your teacher is right, fa jin comes when the wave reaches that critical point of being immediate, as long as it is combined with proper stance, posture, breathing, and timing.

par for happenstance dissolving into wu wei, I am whole in one...

Nothing makes one a Buddha, no one can bestow Buddhahood. Buddha is always already there in everyone, we're just asleep. Samsara and Nirvana both, are but dreams of Buddha. Buddha can be found in the space between your last thought and your next thought. And in the thought itself. You just need to be quiet and listen and watch.

I found the thoracic spine the most challenging also. It will get better - one thing that helped me a lot was practicing the MCO. It took a few years... Nice post.

I'd like to see a photo of your bench if you are willing...

Are you interested in telling us more about the experience in working with uterine/ovarian energy and root energy? Some of my practices involve the navel and relate to pre-natal qi and I suspect this is very strongly related to uterine/ovarian energy. Male root energy seems to be related to the generative force of jing. Female generative force seems like it would be more directly related to uterine/ovarian energies. What is your experience of that?

No - actually I'm referencing multiple posts you made in a previous thread on standing. Comments such as: "Keep the legs strong to maintain body balance is what Zuan Zhuang will do for you." "It is mainly building up good muscle tone for the leg muscles." "I just want to emphasize that ZZ is only a simple method to strengthen the legs muscles. Thus there is really nothing else more than that." "Zhan Zhuang is mainly a prerequisite for those who have weak physical condition to build up their body strength." "Zhan Zhuang is to make a structured and holistic body for a person. Period." "Zhan Zhuang is standing on a pole. Later, people stop standing on the poles for this practice because it is very dangerous from falling off the poles and get hurt." "How do people ended up calling it as "standing meditation" that I don't know." "The word "meditation" basically implies to be sitting down in a quiet place to go into a deep concentration of some kind." "If somebody says "standing on a pole", then the practice will be standing on a pole without meditating. However, if somebody says "standing meditation", then the practice will be standing and meditate. BTW To me it would be difficult to meditate while standing or walking." "If you practice the stance everyday, then increase decrease the bending angle from 180 degrees progressively inweeks or months. Until you can bend your legs to 45 degrees even with the knees passed the toes and able to stand for a long time without having the legs shaken and no pain, then you are considered to be accomplished the course of Zuan Zhuang." "For martial artists, they would like to practice ZZ until they can stand with the bending angle of 90 degree as the shaolin monks." "THE PURPOSE FOR ZHAN ZHUANG IS TO GET RID OF THE SORENESS IN THE MUSCLES. SO EVEN WHEN YOU HAVE THE KNEES PASS THE TOES, THEY WILL NOT HURT." "Until you can bend your legs to 45 degrees and EVEN with the knees passed the toes and able to stand for a long time without having the legs shaken and no pain. Then you are considered to be accomplished the course of Zuan Zhuang. When you were told not to have the knees pass the toes, that is only at the beginning of the practice. However, It may not be able to not to pass the knees beyond the toes during a combat situation. Use your common sense. The reason for the practice was to allow the knees to be able to pass the toes without pain. So, the legs are more flexible to handle any adverse situation." "The reason I agreed to do ZZ by standing in front of the TV is to take advantage of the time to do something meaningful. It is better than sitting down on a sofa and become a couch potato."

I didn't get into to pushing hands discussion because the OP is a wing chun practitioner but I agree with this 100%. I'll never forget pushing with an advanced player who taught me what it means to be like water, like wind, like a mountain, and so on, through tui shou. I remember have an epiphany while pushing with him and getting this huge smile on my face as we were pushing that I couldn't shake off. I also want to mention that the experience of song can't really be limited to the spine or any other body part. Song is a package deal. It is an expression of the linking together of the limbs through the joints, connecting finger tip to the ground and bai hui to the hui yin and everything in between. When one point is disturbed, the whole system adjusts. If all points are not equally connected, aware, and alive, there is a deficit in song.

I teach students to start with a simple, basic standing practice and stick with the one posture for a very long time. Usually 6 months to a year. Most are able to build up to standing for 30 - 60 minutes. That is when real learning occurs. Over time, different postures will begin to manifest naturally. I don't introduce multiple postures early on, too confusing for the beginner. Internal training is all about depth, not breadth.

As you know, I'm very empiric and I don't want to presume to know anything about cultivation from a female perspective, other than to the extent that I acknowledge and cultivate the "feminine" aspects of myself. I also can't claim much knowledge from a theoretical point of view - my teacher always dissuaded us from 'wasting time' on theory as he felt that none of us put enough time into practice in the first place! I had a chance to participate in a workshop on female Daoist cultivation with Livia Kohn many years ago and I recall her offering a few warnings to the participants regarding energy practices during menses - she advised the women to focus more on the middle dan tian and heart center during the period of flow to avoid causing excessive bleeding, and then to resume normal practices in between. So I always share that advice with female students. I've also talked to my teacher and other experienced meditators about the topic on occasion. And I've gotten some feedback from female students I work with. With that disclaimer and background, I'll offer my perspective. I think that the hui yin, and all other points of focus used in Daoist methods, are gender independent. I do think that the correspondence of the anatomic and physiologic framework of the body with the energetic system creates differences of experience and outcomes in different folks, whether that difference be gender; or more individual differences, such as health, physical structure, emotional and psychological composition, spiritual aptitude and so on. So I believe that the way to present the material to students is basically the same, regardless of gender. Although there will be differences of aptitude and progress related to gender and all the other variances mentioned above. Once the student breaks through and is sensing and manipulating the qi awareness, then it's really up to them to listen to and learn from their own body/mind, with the teacher giving guidance to optimize the opportunity for progress. I'd love to learn from any experienced female Dao practitioners out there who are knowledgable (especially from direct experience), not to mention any transgender folks or others who have an interest.

That's what it seems like to people who only read about it. And to ChiDragon - If you decide to practice for a while and get to the point where you are standing daily for 20 minutes or more, cool things may open up for you to explore. You need to show the practices a great deal of respect for them to teach you. Especially if you are not working with a teacher.

When I first started practicing Daoist meditation, we worked with the lower dan tian first, then the ling tai, then the hui yin next. It wasn't until I was taught to focus on the hui yin that I really had an intense and focused experience of qi awareness. Then it gradually became more powerfully manifest as I worked through other points. I continue to find that the hui yin offers the most intense focus of qi awareness for beginning students of meditation. It makes sense given its relationship to the anatomical source of jing.

Quoted for emphasis! My perspective is more one of heightened sensitivity and awareness. I'm not a believer in adding or gaining or storing energy - for me the experience has been more one of uncovering the energy that is always already there and learning how to work with it ---> just concepts. Either way the end result is the same - concentration and reinforcement of whatever is already built into the system, good and bad. I have seen this happen first hand to some very high level adepts who had expert instruction. This is why most systems progress very slowly and with frequent correction from the shifu, and include a long period of stabilizing and purification type exercises. Most good teachers are also selective about who and what they teach. And even with all of that, people get into trouble sometimes. Depending on where you're located, there are folks here that might be able to help locate a good teacher.