Spotless

A bit of whiplash from the first few posts but with my head shaking “no” my post is saying “yes” Though I would Not say “just focus on what your body/hands are doing” - however it may be his way of saying “don’t leave your body”. Original Post - Dame Du Lac Does anyone know much about "working meditation"? I'm specifically referring to periods of intense focus or altered states while performing daily tasks. I understand that this is common in Japan, for example while chopping wood or preparing food, and I was wondering if anyone has experience or tips with the practice. - end quote - Though I would not say “just focus on what your body/hands are doing” There is no focusing or holding of the Awareness on anything. And it is more easily done if breathing into the Lower Dan Tien and having ones awareness there. Most hold a tension forward of the center of head and some outside the head - Awareness in embodiment is becoming more familiar and in this type of meditation space it is required for safety - the other locations move too easily into trance and you could cut yourself or walk off a cliff or into a wall. Going into this type of meditation is usually something done by relatively “seasoned” meditators and often something they begin to experience without trying to. If you feel you are experiencing this with considerable ease and little experience then you are far more probable to be in trance and floating off during repetition tasks. You are probably fairly easy to trance out and may experience what you experience while playing some music and during group conversations with lots of talking. Many people completely and incorrectly believe certain trance states are “meditation”. Though it is possible to be in meditation while the rest of “you” is in trance, the nature of Being in Self is definitely not “in trance”. (Sometimes for pain or protection a sphere of trance may be required in order for those pain or fear sensations to vanish and in the eye of the storm is Being with Self in no effort - Awareness - Divine Essence - this is a fairly rare but not uncommon occurrence.) gotta go - will add to later

Over the past few years another transformation has taken place and it has affected this incredible space in the best of ways and yet in new divisive ways. ”new” students of practice from years ago are now far more advanced and with this “certainties” emerge - many well found and some well found given the student or teachers level of view. It takes time for one to understand that “ they know nothing” and become practiced in not holding to beliefs (rigidized understandings) as these are continuously expanded if good practice continues. Maintaining Beginners mind while owning ones understandings is a fragile line - a great deal of heart and gut must be cultivated. Only a few years ago saying one had Awoken brought every level of sneer and competition - now we certainly have at least 6 regularly contributing. Whole potions of heretofore extra sensory siddhi abilities are now not just related to by one or two with experiential authority - many are expanding these themselves - and however naive or expansive they are in what they are coming to know - they are definitely speaking from experience vs mass amounts of quoting from teachers often ten centuries or more ago as was often the case in the past. (Nothing wrong with ancient teachers) We also have some underlying trends that are a bit cultish - members teaching and grouping and advising as they sprout roots in their practice. This may be the most difficult to enunciate without stirring up considerable backwash and it is to be expected and is not necessarily a problem but more of a frat group thing which can add a sort of overall tint to what those members contribute. All in all the site is better and better in most aspects particularly given the extreme climates politically and the enormity of what is on the line. All the very best to everyone

The foundational work of higher Qi Gong is only the beginning Even in the beginning energy is mounting but also breaking up held patterns. Higher Qi Gong is not a practice of “adding to” it is a practice of subtle bodies and growth in solid rooting, core unifying transformations and the opening of vast subtle bodies. Awareness (consciousness) and Lifeforce are everywhere but can be said to have home in LDT or MDT or UDT - but it is all moving and changing with no pushing or compression under willfulness - it is not directed other than by forms and lines of compression in those forms, in the breath and the way of the breath. The breath as tides has four elements - high tide - slack tide - low tide - slack tide. Slack is Xing - in tides it is when it seems nothing is happening This is not the case in Martial as high, Low and slack tides are manipulated and both are a doing. Most subtle bodies do not grow in forced and manipulated practice. Few practices also utilize proper subtle head movements and arm postures so very little of the head opens - very little. Much of the heart - MDT - is bypassed without the four elements of breath. The intention of breaking up held patterns is important - it require no effort - but one can bring to mind that which one wants to work on just before practice and it will rigidify that pattern and the practice will break it down. This will happen many times. It is much like in meditation and finding ones stillness and then losing it afterward and then meditating and experiencing stillness again. Higher Qi Gong is not a doing as True Yoga is not a doing. The practice consistently creates the rooting and trunk and canopy - it is ever changing and ever refining and ever more subtle and extending far above and below the gross physical and gross subtle bodies. The compressions of willfulness, DNA, desires, lust,, ebb in the process. It becomes a delicate expansion in no time and space wherein the crudeness must fall away , the personalities of subtle ruin must fall away - and in this - exquisite energies find their place and the petals form unseen in a golden light. The strong effortless embodiment may well bring with it many Siddhis, the strong rooting will allow for the heart and head winds to be more easily withstood and not distract. ( hope this was less than 1000 words)😎

These are all very clearly Awakening experiences - these windows appear more often than we realize - but of course people don’t have time for them - the inertia’s pull them past the view. Living in nature has many rewards - it is a far simpler life - generally far more food is taken in through the eyes and touch of hand and foot - feeling humidity and sunlight and hearing all the life. These glimpses are treasures

Hi Heartbreak Be easy on your self Do not despair Try not to set yourself against futures and pasts - the sun rains down its love - the tree awaits your hello - people live in a hum of frequencies walling themselves off a billion opportunities to hear. Not one day goes by that you are not surrounded with help - and with good intention everything you truly ask of is given. Toss away the square peg of willfulness - no matter how long you pound it - it will not slide into the round hole. if you spend a lifetime at it you will have a bitter face. The Great Beings of Light shine in the darkest places - their radiance is the essence of our being. We humans are not lowly creatures - this puddle of muscle and skin saturates an unblemished light that is of the highest high. Like release from a Chinese finger puzzle - just stop the positioning and willfulness - and you will be in the kings chair as you have been all along.

Building the Qi Gong body - “Mastery” of Qi 😎 This approach to Qi Gong as a sort of push ups exercise is unfortunate. It is common in the martial arts and is low Qi Gong - barely scratching the surface even at its most WOW levels. Qi Gong is much like Yoga - as stated in my first or second post here - Real Yoga To think it has an end point is to think of it like Western Yoga Calisthenics - not yoga and not Qi Gong - but it will make you feel great. High Qi Gong is a way of life - it consists of sitting and standing meditation and the movements and postures - these are all adjuncts to inner work and transformation. To this the idea of “mastery of Qi” as and endpoint - this would put a wall to the inner door. - such ego does not go far in this practice. Qi Gong and Yoga are not a-z practices - they are ongoing life long - and go far into Awakening and beyond. it is interesting to note that everyone has said their teacher does not distinguish the general term - yet Qi Gong was laid out by some as a very finite study however intricate it was basically limited to mechanical devise - this is a Qi Gong that is like Western Yoga - feel good nice stuff but lacking any understanding of the much larger teaching upon which it sits. The subsequent posts have confirmed again and again low form “Qi Gong” and a very materialistic limited view and this necessarily effects the perception of the practice as a “move though” element in a list of fragmentary teachings. It is certainly possible to accomplish extraordinary energetics - but in this vein they will only serve to further isolate you from inner work while seducing you that the opposite is true.

Too Freeform “What I said is that there is an end point to Qi Gong - once you’ve mastered Qi in your body, you’ve mastered it.” This is an absurd statement - One way of looking at this is if you come to the conclusion that you did then your understanding and accomplishment in Taiji has to be quite limited and your understanding of Qi Gong almost none at all. Generally the case for most in either. That is not to say you have not achieved a great deal but in spiritual practice it is often not what you have “achieved” but rather what you have unobstructed. It appears you have no idea regarding what Spiritual Qi Kung is and not a whiff of how complete it is - your points so far are entirely from a low practice perspective and obviously no experiential depth. The great news is that there is a great deal you have yet to grow into in these incredible practices.

Discussion about sex and male/ female differences is among the most difficult subject to talk about without getting out of hand a banning taking place - so far this has been a decent discussion.

This is so naive and shallow it is hard to consider a disagreement - consider if I were to say the complete opposite ( which I am not). How might you respond to someone saying: Qi Kung is almost infinitely deep in terms of practice - you can practice for 60+ years and still have depth to explore. Taiji generally has an end point in terms of depth of exploration. At a certain stage you will have ‘accomplished’ Taiji and then it’s just a matter of upkeep When you know next to nothing of Qi Kung except perhaps some martial play with it - you might want to consider your vast generalization and near utter dismissal of it. Measure head frequently - carry salt

The idea of it being “sexual baggage” that we can simply lay down is to a great extent misleading - it is not in bags outside of ourselves but inside and often in deep ravines of energetic contortion. One way to “lay down” the baggage is to at least hold oneself to the beauty of it rather than the subjugation of it. The tendency of those going into porn is gradually rougher and more subjugating and even into bestiality and S&M. Looking inward the triggers and the inner dialog or loss of relative consciousness can be seen if one looks - and it takes a bit of effort to wean away from hard core and extremes. Once you hang targets on women (or men) as objects of your desire it is difficult not to judge them by your proclivities. This puts judgement into ever increasing venues - and its tricky because much of it is intermixed with real DNA animal aspects such as pecking order and racial territorialism.

Name one religion in which the extent to which sexual repression is taught does not result in an exponential increase in the guilt and kinky ness of ones sexuality. In my trips abroad in the Mideast the men are like children regarding women - and unfortunately have tantrums on them regularly. I have noted in my trips to the Bible Belt areas in the USA the large percentage of Adult Superstore billboards - in Wisconsin they were over 50% of the billboards. Healthy casual sex is a response to normal attractions and the whole “life force” loss is incredibly overblown so as to be comical. And all the repression only serves to put targets on women as a craven object of kinked up repression. Everyone that I have ever know that was brought up with a healthy attitude towards sex and plenty of it have been the least to worry about it and the most accommodating in the most natural expression of physical intimacy. And in like mind - if it comes to you in inner practice that you are driven to practice some levels of abstaining it has been my experience that it is not difficult if the inner practice clearly calls for it. If it is dogma related then it is apparently very difficult and often stated as such in the bravado of those mastering repression - how far that helped them or created more problems can be seen in their dialogs.

Simply untrue - completely naive It is surprising how little is known here regarding Qi Kung - next to nothing.

I have been in this for 8 years - to see it in such exquisite words is wonderful. 🙏

The need to refine can bring a giddy ness to many but the crude shackles must give way. Yet in the silence for a time one may need guidance and it can be found for some in devotion. It need not be in devotion too someone or some being - but simply holding the archetype of high vibration within. Look to the sun or a rose or the dazzle of morning dew rising in steam. Feel these in you and throughout you. A beggar off the street may feel unable to enter a fine establishment and not know civility. The shower of wonder in the vision of great beauty and presence will clean and rise up the most murky of beggars. Hold the highest in your heart in no effort and the highest your heart will become.

As completely mad as gendao appears to be and as upsetting to threads - it can be a difficult thing to see in slow motion the re-formation of the inquisition in slow motion all over the last vestiges of Christianity. For those not familiar with just how under the table and incredibly manipulative the “god” driven evangelical right is - it does indeed seem like conspiracy - but where it has a hold it is as vile as the cult of the Nazi in the cloak of sheeps clothing. gendao - if you are reading this - take in some air and understand that the yelling is taking a far greater toll on you than anyone here. I understand your angst - and you are on to what is happening from the very few things that I have seen you refer to. But - it is twisting your guts and it has become a fixation. It may be a fixation brought up in your DNA - perhaps going back to the Inquisition. Your disgust with these dying religions is well found on many levels - but try to see that you have dug yourself into a brick of reactionary spasm. It is unhealthy and highly bundled regardless of how many times you type LOL. I do not know you and perhaps you are on my ignore list with some 40 others, but I have nothing against you - I have however not enjoyed insistent members who constantly derail posts no matter how insightful, correct or certain and pushing their facts. I wish you the very best - please take a breather and look within. (most on my ignore list were banned)

The New Yorker Podcast RADIO HOUR

This is quite confusing as written when combined with the last paragraph: “Some nihilists in particular think that Buddhism is only a philosophy and not a religion” “Substanceless wisdom is unobstructed and pervades everywhere in samsara and nirvana without intention as self-accomplished compassion, so it can manifest within substance, but it never remains there. Its essence is always nonsubstance, which is the quality of Buddha” Generally “Religion” would not be considered Substanceless wisdom - though Practice and it’s fruits would be. Few who Practice consider it a Relgion though many who adher to a religion consider it a practice but adherence to beliefs would clearly be grasping. Practice - The Way certainly more resembles a Philosophy ( the pursuit of truths and actually trying not to “believe” but know, see, deduce, experience) to a very considerable extent. Though philosophy as a word is very much misunderstood. And religion as a word is very much understated in its value of stuck ness. However - through the muck it brings up some nice points!

Qi Kung ( in China it is more closely pronounced “chi kung” ) This has most movements with stillness incorporated - it is much less apt to lead one off into trance states. The four aspects of breath like the tides are experienced at great depth. What can unfold is beyond description. In daily or frequent practice identifications and karmic tensions are moved through while a calm strength grows and pervades. One becomes increasingly rooted as a great tree or mountain though as with true Yoga - the diet must be accounted for as the energy rises considerably and one expands exponentially. In all of this it is common to become delightfully lost in the possession of new energies and the magical release of tension and forget the Way and become the hotshot. So much lies beyond this but few make it past - in any event the practice is simple yet incredibly powerful, requires very little space and very little time to “work up to it” physically. Health benefits are immediate and obvious.

I sat in full lotus or half lotus on a cushioned upholstered chair and may have also meditated in a full upright sitting position with my feet on the floor. ”just meditation” brought Awakening on that chair. Meditation with awareness in the center of the head - an embodied non-trance meditation.

(Parent and cultivator speaking) This is a perfect time to begin meditation again - and you actually have plenty of time: When you put your child down you generally need to stay by their side for a time - this is a great time to meditate for a bit. As they grow older you will generally need to read to them and then as they drift off you will need to stay around for at least 20 minutes or more in case they open up an eye and find you gone and then they will cry and you have to start all over again. So as they drift off - meditate You may only meditate for 20 minutes but you will find that if you meditate for an hour or more you will need less sleep and be far more able to handle stress of any kind. However 20 minutes will also help along these lines in the same way! This will go a long way to a wonderful lightness of Being with your child and in life in general.

We use LDT breathing in all of our Qi Kung. I breath into it nearly all the time. Throughout the night. All day. It was interesting to see the pose you posted - will try that - a form that causes reverse breathing. This type tends to accentuate the golf ball relatively clearly and viserally. It will often bring heating but can bring other options up. How does the pose you posted work for you? What do you feel from it? Do you feel the LDT clearly as a ball or sometimes as a mass and sometimes as a ball?

It depends on what you consider meditation or yoga to be. Yoga in India is primarily meditation with the Asana's to help move the energies throughout the nadis and subtle bodies. When the Yoga Sutras were written by Pantanjali it was only meditation and no asanas. Qi Gong is meditation in sitting and standing pose as well as the various postures. There is no question that Qi Gong is a full path very much like Yoga. And like Yoga its Westernized versions tend to be for health, vitality and gross physical workout - and the students generally have little grasp of what mountain of gold upon which the play. Most "Yoga" in the West is not in any way shape or form true Yoga - it is calisthenics, stretching and some brief meditative practice "to cope with stress". This is also true for Qi Gong though many do not include meditation and in some cases the meditation is basterdized as a stamina exercise for energetic purposes. Some forms of Qi Kung are martial and are known as hard forms in some cases - one may find in them such things as pulling weights with ones balls etc. Not knocking it - but not a spiritual path and not trying to be. Qi Kung (Gong) is a full path - it consistently breaks rigidized patterns apart in ones space and propogates natural energy patterns. Its meditation forms are arguably the most effective - and certainly on par and inclusive of Full Lotus, Sitting in a Chair, Standing and Walking. All True practices do lead to the same "thing"- though that is a very broad way to ask the question and answer it.

Thank you all for your input - GREAT help! Please keep it coming!

Breathing into the lower dan tien LDT and filling it with energy is not dangerous. However - packing it - as some martial arts practice is dangerous. So far the arguments and fears regarding breathing into the LDT come from the Marital side and they should be concerned as per those things sighted in my original post - manipulation of energy - energy packing - intense energy holding - this is all generally ego driven, dangerous and in actuality very low level practice however it may seem to those in its grip. It is certainly cool in the Martial circles but to those true heavyweights - they went way past this stuff in their youth and do not consider it as a particularly high high point of attainment - its more mechanical than an accomplishment of any inner refinement. It is true - there is more of a concern about reverse breathing - but again it depends on the method and objective and the sanity of those practicing reverse breathing. If it is from a practice on the Martial side - then caution is a good idea - caution that you understand what packing and holding and constricting and forcing energy can do to you - that it is real and can seriously screw you up. But if you are simply doing reverse breathing and have taken the time to understand the general basics then it is quite safe as long as this does not become some long fixation or a normal way of breathing for you (in other words - you have taken the time to understand the general basics - and by general basics I mean pretty much everything that is at the basis of good practice.