ChiForce

Sigh, the Führer didn't make the list...totally disappointed. Ironically, China is also the second world power. How odd for being the top 4 worst dictator. Which countries raged most wars in the name of democracy for the last 100 years? Hmm...I wonder too....

I have been practicing the skeleton meditation for few months. My question is that after you have completely visualized yourself to become nothing but a white glowing skeleton, where would one focus their point of focus to within the microcosmic orbit? I have tried to refocus to my dan tien while becoming aware of myself as an entire skeleton, from head to toes. Yes, the first night I tried the skeleton meditation I was able to generate enough chi to circulate....the chi was hot, very unusual for me. I only felt the hot chi when I experienced the kundalini energy rising in my late teens. The next night my chi wasn't hot. Now, it is just warm and accompanying with a tingling sensation all over my body and bones, and seeing light with my third eye.

I am reading Master Nan's Working Towards Enlightenment...." and page 71. To him, enlightenment is about exhausting the 5 skandhas, form, sensation, conception, synthesis, and consciousness. They may not be in any order but all 5 of them have to be exhausted (questioned, dealt with, and examined and reexamined) to see the truth. Obviously, these concepts won't matter to anyone if one can not relate these concepts to one's life situation. For an example, you can't say you have exhausted and overcome the skandha of forms if you are still seeing and judging people based on the color of their skins. Or, in my other discussions over in another message board, someone is making an assumption that "blacks or "people of colors" do not practice Buddhism because their life situations weren't privileged enough to do so. That is, they don't have the money to go on retreats and to contemplate the meaning of their existence. It was a funny discussion no less. Hehehehe.... I was shaking my head in disbelief...some individuals are practicing Buddhism while clinging onto the skandha of forms. Idiots.....

Not that if I have a definition but the first step, at least, is to acknowledge the cyclical and repetitive nature of your current life. As soon as you are aware that you shouldn't go live your life as business as usual, that's a first step to enlightenment. Sadly, if you live long, you would probably resist change. If your life is too short, such as soldiers fighting in wars, changes can happen too drastically and no time to meditate. Obviously, the spiritual definition is the Tao or Nirvana, silly. We all know that, right.....???

To me, it does not matter. Time, in this case, is irrelevant. I have achieved certain degree of cultivation at a very young age and I know people who didn't experience them and died in their old age. Very likely that they would reborn again and going through the cycle of rebirth and death. You live longer may mean that you may experience enlightenment much later in life. Also, knowing that death is at your door in any moment may actually help you to become enlightened faster. It helps you to let go easier. Then, again, knowing that you may die in any given moment may prompt you to do something rash or very egoistic or suicidal or harmful to others (ie mass shooting in public places).

I really want to pickup both of his major writings..."To Realize Enlightenment: Practice of the Cultivation Path" and the other "Working Towards Enlightenment: The Cultivation of Practice." Does it matter which one to read first? They are kind of expensive even in used condition and I want to start with one first.

I wonder if any of you received interesting dreams or visions after reading the works by Master Nan??? I just ordered his Diamond Sutra because this morning, I had a dream. I dream that an Indian woman handed me a copy of the Diamond Sutra while I was desperately searching for the right clothes to wear. What is even strange was that in this dream I felt a sense of deja vu. A deja vu within a dream. I felt that someone has given me copy of the Diamond Sutra to read before. Once I realized I have a copy of the Diamond Sutra, I stopped searching for the right clothes to wear and to move on. Then, this Indian woman said "let's go." Now, she looked very familiar but yet I don't know her. Oh well, my copy should be here on Tuesday from Amazon.

The only difference is that how and where to move this chi or kundalini energy. Our hipster culture is very often associating Yoga with body stretching or Chi Kung with breathing exercise with or without slow movements.

In your Yoga practice, do you experience the kundalini energy rising? Same as in Chi Kung, can you gather and guide the chi to circulate in your body? If neither, neither practice would matter.

Well, about the whole of karmic cycle of the soul? What is the karmic of cycle of the soul of a fetus which was conceived against the will of the mother???

I agree. Why am I getting the feeling that the OP is looking for ways to have a better sex life....

I think he was making a reference about the order in which the visualization starts, up to down or down to up. He said that the feet are the hardest energy region to open up for the chi. Also, once the chi is open up on the feet, it is easier to maintain samadhi. Yeah, I work my way from the toes to the head.

I also want to add that in Bodri's blog, he mentioned that there is a focus point in this white skeleton meditation but he didn't say which one. I haven't read that much into Master Nan works to understand his method fully. I re-read Bodri Ebook last night. He briefly mentioned that some practitioners would use the center channel to help the chi to circulate, while using the white skeleton meditation technique. For some odd reason, I find it "necessary" to have a focus point because I need a point of origin or beginning point of a perspective of where and how I visualize myself as a skeleton. Even the act of visualizing using your yi consciousness, is started with your third eye. I am not imagining myself having some out of body experience and looking at myself as a skeleton from a "third person perspective." I am seeing myself as a skeleton from a first person perspective, and from the perspective of any chosen focus point (such as any chakras throughout the microcosmic orbit). I have tried my Dan Tien, Ming Ming, third eye, and recently my heart chakras. Well....I will let you know if I have made any significant progress.

One point is missing here. How to use the Chi energy..... I think Master Chia once said that practicing Tai Chi without gathering and circulating the Chi energy is like doing regular exercise. I think only in the beginning the monk only mentioned about the yi consciousness but the rest of the clip seems to focus on the metaphor of tai chi and water.

I think Master Chia believes that Indian Yoga would only encourage the gathering of the chi or kundalini energy at the upper chakras. He personally claimed that he needed to heal many of the yogis because they have too much chi in their heads. Only the MCO can freely equalize all the chi throughout the body. That means no chi blockage. I think that makes sense.

What do you think about Master Chia's meditation posture, sitting with legs fully extended to the ground or floor? Versus crossing your legs? Master Nan, from the reading I read, seems to suggest that if you can't meditate with your legs crossed, you can't achieve any degree of samadhi. I tried both. I live on second floor. So, I am not physically grounded. I meditate mostly in my room. Rarely outside. I personally prefer to meditate with legs crossed sitting on a cushion. Also, my apartment isn't well heated and the floor is usually cold. I am not a big fan of meditating with feet touching on a cold floor. According to his instructions, Master Chia believes that once you get the microcosmic orbit, it would naturally occur. It would move in its natural state or path. I also think that during sleep, one's chi is also moving in the microcosmic orbit. In my sleep, I would get sudden hot flashes several times a night, with strong chrakas vibrations. At times, I would wake up and seeing the chi rotating in my third eye in the form of white/bluish light.

Well, I had my kundalini experience when I was 18 without prior knowledge of Taoism. Accordingly, my experience as well as the movement of my chi corresponded to the microcosmic orbit. The question is how useful are these various methods to circulate and control the movement of the chi. Maybe chi itself would move where it needs to go regardless which methods you are using??? Few years ago (only few years ago I began to really study what happened to me when I was 18), I began to read the Awaken Healing Energy Tao by Master Chia. My first night session I was able to complete the microcosmic orbit with some hot Chi. The night after, as usual, my chi became warm. Don't be alarmed that I could complete the microcosmic on my first session. I am not a novice and my chakras have been opened some 20 years ago. It was not like I just picked up his book. Followed his instructions and completed the microcosmic orbit. For about a year, I was practicing his techniques. This is what I find some of the Taoist practices to be lacking. Too much emphasis on the body and your health, not so much on your psyche and enlightenment. For a while, I felt that I was focusing and meditating too much on my body. I am not sick. I am still young. I regularly do endurance exercise. I don't smoke. I don't indulge myself in food. Now, I am turning my attention to William Bodri and master Nan Haui Chin. I did find master Chia's practice useful to setup a good foundation for further cultivation process.

Yeah, it is called yi consciousness. Yeah, I was loosely using the term visualizing. I meant using the yi consciousness to direct the movement and flow of the chi energy.

I bought Bodri's $10 Ebook on White Skeleton Meditation. It is a short read and pretty simple. Yeah, I am still trying to visualize how the chi energy moves while meditating on my skeleton. It does clear my mind and help me to get to a state of samadhi and I would say my chi would begin to flow and move. One thing I am still having some problems is to remain focused on my skeleton and to make it glowing white. There is a brief moment I was actually seeing partially my skeleton. I will continue to work on it.

Thanks. I will look into them...

I am not sure you understand. Learning to speak English was a luxury. You don't need to speak English to get ahead in Hong Kong. It would certainly help back in the 80s. This is the same reason I have no love for English. Yes, I speak and write in English that's because that's the only language I am fluent in. Ironically, my English didn't improve until I was reading on the English translation of German literally works. Nietzsche and Goethe. And Carl Jung was very important in my intellectual development during my intense self reflection. Also, the popular culture Taoism is basically......popular culture. Is hard for anyone who is serious about spiritual Enlightenment to take it seriously. Of course, once I was in America, I was no longer exposed to these popular culture Taoism. I was basically on my own, in a to live or die situation. While every college kid was living a college life during their late teens. I was trying to sort out my childhood experiences because bad dreams and memories were erupting. Individuals with a stable upbringing do not try to psychoanalyze themselves. They don't hid in the college library and surrounding oneself with books on philosophy and psychoanalysis. I am not lying but it was Carl Jung who brought me back in touch with Chinese philosophy. Here, once again, Carl Jung wasn't even part of the college required reading. Yet, as if it was my destiny, I have discovered him. I also would like to comment that after my kundalini experience, I encountered a blue eyed monk in my second college's registration office. He has a pair of blue eyes without pupils. He was dressed in modern clothing. He wasn't blind but he could see. I didn't know why or how he got there. I wrote about my kundalini experience in my religion class. Ironically, the professor didn't know anything about it. This was during the late 90s. Maybe the phenomena of kundalini experience wasn't well known. Oh, the monk...yeah, he said I should learn knowledge for myself and said to me with a smile. Of course, I felt embarrassed when he said that because I knew what he meant. Again, he was very important and he was one of the guides on my path. I have another guide but he is a spirit. Of course, I knew nothing what was happening to me and so I didn't try to talk to the monk afterward. I saw him few times in the cafeteria. Something that I am really regretted. I hope our paths would meet one day. Now, at least, I know what questions to ask him.

Sadly, I am a wild child. An orphan in his own time. Like Siegfried in Wagner's Ring. There were little discussions about Taoism at all. This was Hong Kong during the 80s. The Hong Kongers, being the subjects of her royal highness of the Queen Elizabeth, learning and speaking English was the thing...the status symbol. Western ideas and ideals were often promoted but without some clear understanding of their impacts. Taoism is always experienced in movies, TV shows, and films. Beyond that, nothing was passed down to me from this world. I had to receive my teaching in America, in my dreams, from the distance forgotten Chinese ancestral past. Very pure and romantic. Straight transmission from the mind to mind.

It does matter if the experience is drug induced or not. If it is drug induced, it is an one big ego trip. If it is not, you should receive a spirit guide along the path. You would receive spiritual guidance in one form or the others. You have a spiritual issue, and you should receive spiritual guidance from other beings. I have one being appeared before me (in my vision/dream/semi awakened consciousness) during my second life challenge trial. His appearance was so significant that he literally defines who I am now after my kundalini experience. I can describe how he looks, his hair color, his eyes, and even the texture of his hand. The life I had before my kundalini experience has been dead.

Hahahaha.....this isn't referring to you but I think some people are still living under a rock. Hmm...Japanese.... I am no running dogs. I have no Japanese fetish. I am not into anime or anime sex. Seriously, when mainland Chinese boycotted Japanese products like cars, the whole Japanese industry and economy came to a halt. And the latest conflicts over some offshore islands??? If any Chinese are having some sorts of Japanese-Chinese complex, you better work on the Skandha of forms. Otherwise, the Tao would actually run away from you. And you better work on your grounding too.

Let's get serious here. How did you experience the Kundalini energy rising? Was it drug induced? I can't not see how you can whine about your life for not having a job, not having money, not having a girlfriend, and not having any creativity left when you claim you did experience the kundalini energy. For most people, the experience is very sublime and metaphysical. It is basically a sign post telling you that your life has a path, a spiritual higher path. For all the suffering and pain you have gone through, you are on the right path. For some silly reason, you aren't seeing this meaning. Instead, you are whining about why life wasn't the way it used to be.