Eric Yudeloves teachings

[markern]

This thread is for discussing Eric Yudeloves teachings and only that. Only the practices. Any discussion about him as a person should be done in the other thread about him:

 

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/13867-master-eric-yudelove/

 

I have read both your books Mr Yudelove and enjoyed them both. One thing I took with me from them is to visualize the kidneys as black instead of blue during healing sounds. That finally made the kidney part of the practice start to work. The kidneys seemed to enjoy being black. But sometimes the energies and colours change as I do a sound and they become more bluish and white. When that happens I tend to just let them be that way for as long as they want to by themselves. It feels wrong to make them black at that point. After some time they often want to go back to black. Can you say anything more about the black vs blue colours? They seem to relate to different aspects of the kidneys psychology in my limited experience.

 

I also did a very short atempt at doing fusion after your instructions. It was a real WOW experience. Soooooooo balancing and cleansing and uplifting. It also made me instantly cool whereas normally I am too hot. I did not continue because I felt I should prepare properly through other practices first. What are the differences between your teaching of fusion in the books and that of Chia?

 

WHat about stilness meditation? One of the things about chias teaching I am sceptical about is that his practices tend to involve doing and moving things arround all the time and almost never letting things happen by itself and being digested by sitting in stillness (I have taken a retreat with him and he did not emphasize this at all. I don`t think anyone left with any understanding that this might be a good idea).

Edited March 14, 2010 by markern

[Fire Dragon]

Hello

 

Today I started a new group practisisng together from "100 days...". Well it is only two new men practising from that book, but we are also four people practisisn from "taoist yoga and...".

 

I have also changed to do use the color black with the kidneys and it feel better. Well it is easier for me to find the right black than the right blue for me.

 

I also think that one problem with both Mantak Chias and Yudeloves and perhaps also Winns practises is that theire is to much things to do that easily makes things driven by force instead of making things go by them selves.

 

Isn't this a part of the difference between a yin aproach to practise and a yang aproach.

 

I like that Yudelove and Winn, I've heard have added moving chigong to the practises. Like the eight peaces of the brocade. Where you do the movements and let the energy go by itself, not doing it by concentration of the Yi mind. That kind of simplicity is good for the beginner and also for the more advanced practioner I guess.

 

I practise often on my 2 hour bus ride to work. And more and more often I do more and more breathing into the dan-tien or more rightly in and out to the dan-tien visualising a the tan-tien as a face also breathing. I like to do this kind of easy practises for a long time and before I do other practises like the testicle breathing, mco, and the pearl in fusion and others.

 

I have also been doing some practises from the white tigress system according to Hsi Lai and in one of it's sitting eight peaces of the brocades theire were alot emphasize on sitting and breathing and sitting and stilling the mind. This practises I found to be a good complement to the practises I do from Yudeloves books.

 

I should also say that everytime I go back to the practises from "taist yoga and..." I always am wery surprised that they are so greate. I realy love doing them.

 

 

Fire Dragon

[sifusufi]

Page 92 of Sexual Yoga has a nice graph and Eric's one specific thing in step 3 (see forward) (thanks for answering that one Eric)!

 

My thing was to use Black for the main organ and Blue for the adrenals as I am caffeine/adrenaline dependent.

(Could be why I have bilateral hip arthritis/bone spurring)? I have also been Diagnosed with Hashimotos.

ANYWAY...

 

Page 13 Closing the two front gates.

Just couldn't seem to get the first gate to close.

Maybe I was and just didn't realise it due to not being able to feel it.

 

Well enough for today.

Again thank you to all for your healing wisdom

[Eric23]

WHat about stilness meditation? One of the things about chias teaching I am sceptical about is that his practices tend to involve doing and moving things arround all the time and almost never letting things happen by itself and being digested by sitting in stillness (I have taken a retreat with him and he did not emphasize this at all. I don`t think anyone left with any understanding that this might be a good idea).

 

This is what ultimately lead me to move in a different direction myself. It seemed like I was chasing a physical feeling or sensation. After hanging around TTBs and reading experiences from far more accomplished seekers than myself, stillness was the missing ingredient in my practice. I'm learning that the sensations will come through a still body and mind. I'm also finding that having an understanding of the practices are useful. For instance, quite often I notice myself holding some muscle tension and my inner voice/guru tells me to smile. A few moments later the inner smile has released the tension.

[Mal]

Mr. Yudelove,

 

There is one question that I would like you to address before you leave these parts (if you haven't already). It was the question I had when I first came across your books.

 

There seems to be a lot of overlap in your two "14 week" books, and yet there are differences in order, content and presentation. Would you please elaborate on if one is advisable to do first, and how that depends on the student's prior experience, and how it would benefit someone to go through the other having already gone through one?

 

Thanks,

Tyler

 

I just wanted to add Tyler's question into the mix.

[Fire Dragon]

[Fire Dragon]

Some additional notes:

 

The second book is more like nei-gong where you need to fokus more directly on the

energy. There is also alot iron shirt stances in the second book.

 

In the first book many of the exercises are to move your body and let the qi follows. For some that is easier. For others it is actually easier to just concentrate on the energy directly and work with that.

 

This distinction is not absolute but there is a clear tendency towards much more nei gong in the second book.

 

 

Fire Dragon

[Fire Dragon]

Hello, today I am starting the practise of fusion the five elements into the front pakua and draw in and mix and ballance four of them.

 

Starting to feel how to draw in more of one or the other element to ballance the energy that is spiraling around. Not grasping it but rather starting to feel something different happens when I take from the different elements. Quit all rigth after just two days trials.

 

 

Fire Dragon

[thelerner]

An interesting part in '100 days' was the time spent staring at the tip of your nose. I've seen it mentioned in one or two other places (Glenn Morris discussed cross eyed portraits as representing enlightenment). But at one point when it was discussed here a Chinese practitioner said it was a wrong, a misreading of the Classics.

 

I'd be interested to know the definitive truth on cross eyed nose gazing. A real practice or Western misunderstanding or maybe both .

 

 

Thanks

 

Michael

[Sloppy Zhang]

An interesting part in '100 days' was the time spent staring at the tip of your nose. I've seen it mentioned in one or two other places (Glenn Morris discussed cross eyed portraits as representing enlightenment). But at one point when it was discussed here a Chinese practitioner said it was a wrong, a misreading of the Classics.

 

I'd be interested to know the definitive truth on cross eyed nose gazing. A real practice or Western misunderstanding or maybe both .

 

 

Thanks

 

Michael

 

I in no way intend to speak on behalf of Master Yudelove or his teachings, but it has always been my understanding that "looking at the nose" was a way of signifying that your eyes are not closed (so as not to wander off into dreamland), but also not too open (so as not to be distracted by the outside world). Your gaze extends about as far out as your nose. It's not that you are looking directly at your nose (to be cross eyed), it's more like your nose is most of what you wind up seeing when your eyes are like that.

 

Then again, I could have a mistaken understanding.

 

Hope that helped

[VCraigP]

I in no way intend to speak on behalf of Master Yudelove or his teachings, but it has always been my understanding that "looking at the nose" was a way of signifying that your eyes are not closed (so as not to wander off into dreamland), but also not too open (so as not to be distracted by the outside world). Your gaze extends about as far out as your nose. It's not that you are looking directly at your nose (to be cross eyed), it's more like your nose is most of what you wind up seeing when your eyes are like that.

 

Then again, I could have a mistaken understanding.

 

Hope that helped

 

I concur.

 

that is precisely the understanding as I have it from my teacher, who is unlikely to have misunderstood the chinese, being a native speaker.

 

Craig

[thelerner]

I in no way intend to speak on behalf of Master Yudelove or his teachings, but it has always been my understanding that "looking at the nose" was a way of signifying that your eyes are not closed (so as not to wander off into dreamland), but also not too open (so as not to be distracted by the outside world). Your gaze extends about as far out as your nose. It's not that you are looking directly at your nose (to be cross eyed), it's more like your nose is most of what you wind up seeing when your eyes are like that.

 

Then again, I could have a mistaken understanding.

 

Hope that helped

 

It does. More like the 'half eye' style I've seen in some Japanese meditation traditions, though with them the relaxed stare was a few feet ahead and down.

 

Thanks

[Fire Dragon]

Hello

 

I have heard that it is a missunderstunding also and that it is just to direct the eyes in a particular direction. Actually in my white tigress practise, that I not practise for the moment, there it was such a description but the focus was on the original cavity behind the eyes.

 

I do not like that part of Yudeloves practise, to stare at points and the nose. Probably beacase I have glases with different streanght on both eyes and that this kind of staring at the nose, makes me feel diccy. If I want to still my mind I rather like to focus on the tan-tien.

 

Actually in Yudeloves practise you also stare at the bump of the nose which is half way down the nose, at the point where the bone in the nose stops. And you focus on the third eye with closed eyes also.

 

Perhaps the practise works differently and is a ok practise for stilling the mind. If it have worked for Yudelove it might work for others as well, a missinterpration or not.

 

 

I think it is desctibed in the book "taoist yoga" (not by Yudelove) and perhaps it is in that book that it is explained as a missinterpration. I do not remember from where I have heard it but that migth be a sorce.

 

Unfortunately it seems like we have lost Mr Yudelove from this board otherwise this might have been an interesting topic to discuss with him!

 

 

I do not like it anyway and doesn't use it more than together with my yoga group from time to time, when we follow Yudelove, but I tell the others that I not like that part of the practise; so I find no personal reason to contact him on this particular question on the given email adrass. I save that for more personal important stuff to later.

 

 

Fire Dragon

[Eric Yudelove]

An interesting part in '100 days' was the time spent staring at the tip of your nose. I've seen it mentioned in one or two other places (Glenn Morris discussed cross eyed portraits as representing enlightenment). But at one point when it was discussed here a Chinese practitioner said it was a wrong, a misreading of the Classics.

 

I'd be interested to know the definitive truth on cross eyed nose gazing. A real practice or Western misunderstanding or maybe both .

 

 

Thanks

 

Michael

 

Dear Michael & Others of Interest:

The teachings are quite clear. Staring at the tip of the nose is a starting point for many schools of both Taoist and Buddhist Meditation. See for instance Page 1 of Charles Luk's "Taoist Yoga" and page 35 of Wilhelm's "The Secret of the Golden Flower". These are 2 of the classic and earliest translations of authentic Taoist texts into English.

Mantak Chia eventually gets to this technique in the very advanced alchemical formula "Sealing of the Five Senses". Personally I never understood why he waited that long. It is the major difference between the way he & I introduce Taoist meditation.

 

ESY

[thelerner]

Thank you Eric.

[Eric Yudelove]

Hello

 

I have heard that it is a missunderstunding also and that it is just to direct the eyes in a particular direction. Actually in my white tigress practise, that I not practise for the moment, there it was such a description but the focus was on the original cavity behind the eyes.

 

I do not like that part of Yudeloves practise, to stare at points and the nose. Probably beacase I have glases with different streanght on both eyes and that this kind of staring at the nose, makes me feel diccy. If I want to still my mind I rather like to focus on the tan-tien.

 

Actually in Yudeloves practise you also stare at the bump of the nose which is half way down the nose, at the point where the bone in the nose stops. And you focus on the third eye with closed eyes also.

 

Perhaps the practise works differently and is a ok practise for stilling the mind. If it have worked for Yudelove it might work for others as well, a missinterpration or not.

 

 

I think it is desctibed in the book "taoist yoga" (not by Yudelove) and perhaps it is in that book that it is explained as a missinterpration. I do not remember from where I have heard it but that migth be a sorce.

 

Unfortunately it seems like we have lost Mr Yudelove from this board otherwise this might have been an interesting topic to discuss with him!

 

 

I do not like it anyway and doesn't use it more than together with my yoga group from time to time, when we follow Yudelove, but I tell the others that I not like that part of the practise; so I find no personal reason to contact him on this particular question on the given email adrass. I save that for more personal important stuff to later.

 

 

Fire Dragon

 

Dear Fire Dragon:

As I previously wrote, it is NOT a misinterpretation or mistranslation. It is a very, very important part of the practice.

The discomfort you experience has to do with the imbalance of muscles in the left and right side of your face and eyes. One purpose of the exercise is to work out this imbalance.

I cannot begin to tell you how important I believe this step to be. It is the launching point for all of Taoist internal alchemy.

Ignoring it because it makes you feel dicey will probably add wasted years to your practice. There is no more important stuff later. It's sort of like trying to read a textbook when you never learned how to read in the 1st place.

 

ESY

[宁]

Dear Fire Dragon:

As I previously wrote, it is NOT a misinterpretation or mistranslation. It is a very, very important part of the practice.

The discomfort you experience has to do with the imbalance of muscles in the left and right side of your face and eyes. One purpose of the exercise is to work out this imbalance.

I cannot begin to tell you how important I believe this step to be. It is the launching point for all of Taoist internal alchemy.

Ignoring it because it makes you feel dicey will probably add wasted years to your practice. There is no more important stuff later. It's sort of like trying to read a textbook when you never learned how to read in the 1st place.

 

ESY

 

Hello, can you please expand a bit on your explanation? Thanks.

[Eric Yudelove]

Hello, can you please expand a bit on your explanation? Thanks.

 

I will soon.

 

Meanwhile, Today I was getting the Taoist Rock Garden in shape for Spring, which starts tomorrow.It winds around for about 2/3 the length of a football field. Once you cross the bridge, the laws of nature and physics, as are commonly understood, no longer apply.

 

MESY

[markern]

Lov your garden Eric! Exactly why is the nose gazing technique so important?

[Fire Dragon]

Dear Fire Dragon:

As I previously wrote, it is NOT a misinterpretation or mistranslation. It is a very, very important part of the practice.

The discomfort you experience has to do with the imbalance of muscles in the left and right side of your face and eyes. One purpose of the exercise is to work out this imbalance.

I cannot begin to tell you how important I believe this step to be. It is the launching point for all of Taoist internal alchemy.

Ignoring it because it makes you feel dicey will probably add wasted years to your practice. There is no more important stuff later. It's sort of like trying to read a textbook when you never learned how to read in the 1st place.

 

ESY

 

Hello Steven Yudelove

 

Thanks for your comments. Didn't know that it was so important. But it fits wery good for me to try this practise out againg, beacase I am starting a new group practising from your book "100 days...". So this time I will do it more sincerely. One of my problems is that I wear glasses and that the streangth (don't know if you say so in English, but I mean the power of the glass) in my glasses for the left eye is much stronger than for the right.

 

Another problem perhaps the more important one is that I see wery badly with my left eye even with glasses. The reason for this is that I got glasses to late when I was a kid and the left eye never did develope as it should. So the right eye is totaly dominant and what is seen whith the left eye is almost totaly uncounsious. So when doing this nose gasing practise this problem makes things a bit funny. The brain goes between seing with the left and the right eye, mostly with the right but for short times with the left, and the things I see with the left eye is as they where smaller beacase I see less good with that eye. So the nose is shifting betwean being a big nose and a small nose and it is realy quite anoing.

 

I've remember that I read in that chapter about the same things that you write to me here, but beacase of my personal problem with the eyes I come to the conclusion that this particular practise not suits me wery well. Perhaps I was wrong, still not completely shore.

 

It would be interesting to know if you still see it as good for me to practise this after my explanation of my eye weakness on the left eye. It would also be of big interest to know why you see this practise as a wery important part of a persons development in the Universal tao practises or Tao Magick as I believe you call your or have had called your practise.

 

Is it for instance possible to exchange the eye gasing practise with other practises that also stills the mind? I guess not, beacase you emphasis the importance of this.

 

Look forward to hear your comments of this particular practise and I will also start to experiment with it a bit further.

 

Your garden seems to be a wery relaxing and harmonious place, I liked the frog! A bit scarry with the strange physical laws though

 

With regards

Fire Dragon

[Eric Yudelove]

Lov your garden Eric! Exactly why is the nose gazing technique so important?

 

First of all as a reference point of how to start the practice, it makes it easy to begin.

It is an excellent method for reestablishing the balance in your eye and facial muscles, which in time leads to a better left brain-right brain balance. Overlooking the necessity of reestablishing this balance could continue to be a constant source of distraction to your meditation, although you would probably be unaware of the source of this distraction. With a little practice, the technique should feel quite comfortable.

Once staring at the tip of the nose becomes the starting point of your meditation, you will virtually instantly go into a meditative state when you do it. It has a real quality of closing out the external world and bring you inside. It also is a great tool for quieting internal dialog.

Even when I am dealing with the external world, simply putting my awareness on the tip of my nose results in an instant shift of consciousness that can literally be felt throughout my body, as well as having a general calming and focusing effect.

There is not that much in the available literature that directly tells you why to do it, it mostly just tells you to start there. It is the starting off point for learning what is variously referred to as The Backward Flowing Method in "The Secret of the Golden Flower", Silent Sitting in "Tien Tao Chi Kung Internal Work", I call it Sitting and Stilling the Mind in "100 Days".

In "Tien Tao Chi Kung-Introduction to Chi Kung" from the Chinese National Chi Kung Institute it states that staring at the tip of the nose is a start off spot "to awaken the heat sensation of chi energy" and will lead to an increased ability to concentrate "on the lower abdomen area, cultivating the positive fire."

Charles Luk in "Taoist Yoga" states, "Before sitting in meditation, it is important to put an end to all rising thoughts and to loosen garments and belt to relax the body and avoid interferring with the free circulation of blood. After sitting the body should be (senseless) like a log and the heart (mind) unstirred like cold ashes. The eyes should look down and fix on the tip of the nose; they should not be shut completely to avoid dullness and confusion; neither should they be wide open to prevent spirit from wandering outside. They should be fixed on the tip of the nose with one's attention concentrated on the spot between them; and in time the light of vitality (chi) will manifest. This is the best way to get rid of all thoughts at the start when preparing the elixer of immortality."

"The Secret of the Golden Flower" states:

"The two founders of Buddhism and Taoism have taught that one should look at the tip of one's nose. But they did not mean that one should fasten one's thoughts to the tip of the nose. Neither did they mean that, while the eyes were looking at the tip of the nose, the thoughts should be concentrated on the yellow middle. Wherever the eye looks, the heart is directed also. How can it be directed at the same time upward (yellow middle) and downward (tip of the nose), or alternatively, so that it is now up, now down? All that means confusing the finger which points to the moon with the moon itself.

What then is really meant by this? The expression 'tip of the nose' is very cleverly chosen. The nose must serve the eyes as a guide-line. If one is not guided by the nose, either one opens wide the eyes and looks into the distance, so that the nose is not seen, or the lids shut too much, so that the eyes close, and again the nose is not seen. But when the eyes are open too wide, one makes the mistake of directing them outward, thereby one is easily distracted. If they are closed too much, one makes the mistake of letting them turn inward, whereby one easily sinks into a dreamy reverie. Only when the eyelids are lowered properly halfway is the tip of the nose seen in just the right way. Therefore it is taken as a guide-line. The main thing is to lower the eyelids in the right way, and then allow the light to stream in of itself; without effort, wanting the light to stream in concentratedly. Looking at the tip of the nose serves only as the beginning of the inner concentration, so that the eyes are brought into the right direction for looking , and then are held to the guide-line: after that, one can let it be. That is the way that a mason hangs up a plumb-line. As soon as he has hung it up, he guides his work by it without continually bothering himself to look at the plumb-line."

"One looks with both eyes at the tip of the nose, sits upright and in a comfortable position, and holds the heart to the center in the midst of conditions. In Taoism it is called the yellow middle, in Buddhism the center of the midst of conditions. The two are the same. It does not necessarily mean the middle of the head. It is only a matter of fixing one's thinking on the point which lies exactly between the two eyes. Then all is well. The light streams in of it's own accord. It is not necessary to direct the attention to the central castle. In these few words the most important thing is contained."

I describe these methods in detail in the first few weeks of "100 Days". I add as a starting point staring at a spot before the eyes before drawing the concentration to the tip of the nose, this is for the purpose of helping beginners, I don't think it is esential, but it really does work well.

However a much more elaborate procedure is found in Tien Tao Chi Kung Internal Work. Here one 1st) Stares at a point 6 feet directly in front of you, 2) Shifts and stops the eyes at a point on a 45 degree angle down and in front of you at a distance of 3 feet, 3) Shifting and fixing the eyes at a point directly between your feet and 4) Concentrating the eyes on the tip of the nose.

Aside from it's initial discomfort, the main drawback to staring at the tip of one's nose, is that it is probably something you would not want to be seen doing in public. As Charles Luk puts it, "you will look like a stupid man."

Well you might look stupid, but you will be performing one of the most intelligent tasks on the planet.

During my years studying with Master Chia, I often wondered why he never taught this method. Finally about 3 years after he named me a master(he gave me a Certificate by the way lol), he finally taught this method as part of his ultimate level of teaching internal alchemy, the Sealing of the 5 Senses. I really got to wondering why he had taken more than 22 years of teaching in the USA to get to the point that he considered "the end" while the great Taoist literature considered it to be the beginning? It was the way it was taught to him, but it was the point at which I took to the road and the mountains and he went home to Thailand.

I hope I have sufficiently clarified this issue for you.

 

MESY

Edited March 20, 2010 by Eric Yudelove

[Eric Yudelove]

[quote name='Fire Dragon' date='20 March 2010 - 12:31

.

Edited March 20, 2010 by Eric Yudelove

[rain]

that was one dry garden. where's the water. coming soon?

 

my, that was MANY words for a nosetip

 

hopefully one may sit together for some nosetipcontemplation soon?

[Eric Yudelove]

[quote name='rain' date='20 March 2010 - 04:32 PM'

Edited March 20, 2010 by Eric Yudelove

[rain]

Dear Rain:

Rocks don't need water.

 

MESY

 

P.S. I turned on the waterfall today.

Waterfalls need water.

 

nonsense. rocks love water.-

 

LoVe water.

 

I love biting but I don't need to.

 

Why is this reminding me of my initial not written post

or maybe I did write it.

 

some things are the dream

most things are not

 

dont like your garden

but you've got nice trees.