What's In Your Lineage?

[Yoda]

I think there's very few one lineage folks around anymore.

 

I've been doing primordial chikung a bit these days and it's a practice that has a strong sense of lineage and has got me contemplating the subject. I've never been able to sustain this as a regular practice, but I definitely get the sense that taichi loving spirits are practicing it with me.

 

My primary lineages would be Yogani (who's lineage is Yogananda et al but he got iam from somewhere else) Esther Hicks (???) and Teacher Chiang (Kagyu Buddhism).

 

Both Winn and Yogani have said some creative things about lineage. Winn says that you can hack into any lineage energy you want to and Yogani said that lineage empowerment is all around us in every nook and cranny of the universe and that you'll naturally call upon and receive it as needed. I like that way of thinking.

 

-Yoda

[thelerner]

I've been doing Winns version of HT practices for a while. Still listening to Minke DeVos's HT guided meditations. So the roots there old eastern shamanic roots.

 

I'm doing more sound work based on Rabbi Coopers 'Ecstatic Kaballah'. Which is based on Abulafiah's work from 15th or 16th century. Vowels as sacred sounds that correspond to places (chakras?) in the body. This echoes the work from several old traditions I find. Chanting some short prayers(great in the shower).

 

I do some emptiness meditation. Count my breaths for a while, then let go of the counting. Indian Vispassana? or Zenish?

 

Michael

 

Almost forgot, I've been into Rawn Clarks Archaeous series.

[duncan]

Word up Yoda,

 

Just thought I'd reply to your general thoughts on lineage. For me your thoughts bring to mind the interesting desire we all have to say 'I am' this or that. I know I expereince this desire. Yoga postures and pranayama does a lot for me, so part of me would love to hold fast to that system and say 'this is it!' but then I get so much out of Shiatsu and other more Taoist stuff...and then there's Buddhism

 

Perhaps you were thinking around the auspicious-ness of lineages and tapping into that... on that note, I also like the sentiments that you expressed at the end of your post.

 

There is the perspective that says Buddhism, as a way of life passed on person-to-person, is basically an unbroken line of friends dating back to the Buddha. Friendship? Now that's auspicious

 

Duncan

[Yoda]

M- I used to own a volume or two of Hassidic Rabbi stories edited by Buber, I believe.

 

D- lineage of friendship is a very nice concept.

[Wayfarer64]

Dacayed Neutrinos to Star-dust to primordial soup to mud-fish to lemur to human-prototype to Humanoid/ Homo-erectus to Tao Bum! TAa DAH! Evolution works its magic...

[hagar]

I think there's very few one lineage folks around anymore.

 

I've been doing primordial chikung a bit these days and it's a practice that has a strong sense of lineage and has got me contemplating the subject. I've never been able to sustain this as a regular practice, but I definitely get the sense that taichi loving spirits are practicing it with me.

 

My primary lineages would be Yogani (who's lineage is Yogananda et al but he got iam from somewhere else) Esther Hicks (???) and Teacher Chiang (Kagyu Buddhism).

 

Both Winn and Yogani have said some creative things about lineage. Winn says that you can hack into any lineage energy you want to and Yogani said that lineage empowerment is all around us in every nook and cranny of the universe and that you'll naturally call upon and receive it as needed. I like that way of thinking.

 

-Yoda

 

Yoda

 

I have been contemplating this over the years, mostly because my own system has emphasis on transmission. From what I see, the "pin code" of a practice, i.e the information contained in the energy transmitted cannot be "hacked into". It is very much based on Dai Gong, or heart to heart transmission.

This I know, because I have tried to instruct friends in my practices, and also attended classes with instructors that has not gotten the "teaching transmission" and there is no essential transmission there compared from the information like what I get from the master or his students.

 

But from another viewpoint, any accumulated information gains a form of "lineage" over time. Like if you watch a football game one afternoon, and go out in the garden and play like a true pro.

[Trunk]

I think this is very pertinent to modern times, cause either the importance of lineage is forgotten altogether, or people are involved in many of them (which is pretty much just a fact nowadays). Also, any of the deeper gifts from a lineage are transmitted by sustained soak.

 

Whatayoudo? I've studied with a number of live teachers from different (often related) lineages and - though I still feel a connection to one especially - I'm not actively studying with any of them now. It's like starting over, and I'm tired of it. If you are able to hook into direct study with the lineage behind a teacher, and you feel like it's home, lucky you. And it's not just who you go see, but where ever you put your attention.. books you read & so on. It's a mind-stream thing, and hopping from one stream to another several times a week doesn't allow as deep of a soak.

 

I feel like I've hooked onto a happy solution (for me) with Kuan Yin. She's acknowledged in (actually usually strongly present in) all of the asian religions, and is doing all the things to my energetics that previous research & experiments were pointing toward. And she's free of the complications of learning from a person.

 

If I had to say an on-the-earth formal lineage: Kagyu. I feel resonance there, and part of that is what attracted me to at least one previous group I was in.

 

.. the information contained in the energy transmitted cannot be "hacked into". It is very much based on Dai Gong, or heart to heart transmission.

Agreed. Whatever chakra/s & other is affected, "hacked" is contrary to the spirit of the interaction. At least from the side of the aspirant. More like the lineage hacks you.

[Yoda]

Trunk,

 

I'd disagree that it's like starting over. It's like moving away from your family that you grew up with, but rarely see or talk to anymore... their empowerment and lineage will be with you in your every thought. Even if there are aspects of the lineage that you don't care for anymore, that's just part of the learning process.

 

I think with the modern ethos, internet, etc that this is the time of stirring the cauldron and a real honor to be the first generation of this experiment.

 

Maybe 'hacked' is a poor choice of words... I think that if one really feels an affection, admiration, curiousity, etc about a lineage one is ineluctably drawn to it on an energy level and can participate in it just by looking at a photograph, etc.

 

-Yoda

[hagar]

In these topics, I find the metaphor of computers and IT to be very useful.

 

In reply to the idea that a lineage energy is always there, I feel that you are right and wrong at the same time.

I do feel, like Yoda, that once the transmission has happened, the "pin code" is there, and you can get access to the information latent in it. Without the pincode, no download. BUT, we must keep in mind, that these lineage energies shift, transform and change character as bothe their teachers, and the cosmic energy as such change, is always in a state of flux, and thus there is always an "upgrade" happening. So like if you don't get the latest version of the Windows platform, new and vital functions are not available. Transmission is also dependent on constant realignment and change. All practice that is based on form (meditation, movement, vizualisation etc) is not set, and will decay over time. To keep it fresh, and to be "tuned in" we need to constantly have contact with a teacher in some way, so that we can keep track of the changes in the lineage energy.

 

I remember coming to a retreat on such a "fixed" system as the 5 animals for the 3rd time, only to find that both the energy, and the transmission was totally different. And there was vital and subtle changes in how the forms was taught. Also, we don't get the lineage transmission in a vacuum. The context, the group energy or the one-to-one relation that the transmission has will also affect the result. In one "meditation" retreat we were left doing almost only talking and standing. In another, we sat for 8 hrs for 10 days. It's never the same. Also, your own internal state will definately affect how the transmission will "settle" within you. If you are well adjusted, aligned and open, you may feel like there is no need to listen or look at the teacher. You are already in the center, and the scope of information you get access to is much vaster than if you are tired, closed, and not tuned in. Then, usually, I tend to sit and nod, doze off, and fall asleep, since the energy is forcing my monkey mind and my unsettled body to receive healing and realignment. In both cases, I almost never remember what the teacher is talking about.

 

Bottom line: There is really no real difference btw lineage and present transmission. But you need renewed contact to prevent decay.

 

 

h