Qi-Gong can definitely be an Ego enhancer

[snbeings]

I Love Qi-Gong and Tai Chi. I've had health problems all my life and these techniques I've learned over the years have increased my energy levels tremendously and improved my health by leaps and bounds.

 

However, I am also on the path towards Enlightenment, practicing deep meditation, studying Advaita, Dzogchen, Mysticism, and all sorts of things. Well I find the Qi Gong exercises can be Ego uplifters and enhancers. One can get all puffed up from the benefits and go deeper and further away from realizing Enlightenment buy chasing all these Dragon, Light, Rainbow bodies and next higher level of initiation.

 

I think tempering this all with meditation, detachment, and insight into the nature of the ego as illusion is all extremely vital along the way.

 

My 2 cents

[Birch]

If you're going to pick a delusion, which would you prefer, the sickly one or the somewhat puffed-up healthy-happy one?

Jeez, even if all are delusion. No merit either way.

Unless...?

[thetaoiseasy]

anything can be an ego enhancer...or deflater. the essence of qigong practiced at the highest level is real life. every minute you are alive is qigong. this is not mere talk. if you separate life from your qigong and meditation practices, you are only going through a ritual like any other sport.

Edited July 1, 2012 by thetaoiseasy

[chi 2012]

If Qigong gives people confidence - then that is always a good thing. I think before enlightenment there are usually many levels people need to go through first. First, they need to master their world and feel good about themselves...Supposedly only one in 10 million reach enlightenment. I read an interview with Tony Robbins - and he was questioning the idea of destroying the ego - and was saying "how many people have actually done that?" I mostly agree with him.

[snbeings]

I read an interview with Tony Robbins - and he was questioning the idea of destroying the ego - and was saying "how many people have actually done that?" I mostly agree with him.

I don't necessarily agree that enlightenment entails complete destruction of the ego. After all, it is the ego that can realize that enlightenment is happening. I believe its more so purging the ego of its vices, adding virtues, and putting it in its rightful place. Simply seeing it as a tool of discernment, but not as our supreme identity

[C T]

[konchog uma]

I don't necessarily agree that enlightenment entails complete destruction of the ego. After all, it is the ego that can realize that enlightenment is happening. I believe its more so purging the ego of its vices, adding virtues, and putting it in its rightful place. Simply seeing it as a tool of discernment, but not as our supreme identity

 

i agree. The word ego didn't exist to the daoist and buddhist masters, or the advaita gurus; freud coined it.

 

I asked a tibetan dharma teacher, who visited my city to give a dharma talk, what word the buddha used which was later translated so widely to "ego". I forget the sanskrit/pali but he said it translated to "conditioned self" or "habitual self"

 

so freuds liason between the id and superego, and the "habitual" or "conditioned" self are two wildly different things. Being in a spontaneous state free of habits and conditions, and destroying self reference, is apples and orange sherbet.

 

don't try to destroy your ego, you'll get hit by a bus.

Edited July 1, 2012 by anamatva

[Harmonious Emptiness]

I wonder which Chinese word was used in place of the Pali word. I know that one word is depicted basically as a nose, pointing to one's nose as pointing to "the self" but I don't know how often this word is used in Chinese Sutras.

[doc benway]

I Love Qi-Gong and Tai Chi. I've had health problems all my life and these techniques I've learned over the years have increased my energy levels tremendously and improved my health by leaps and bounds.

 

However, I am also on the path towards Enlightenment, practicing deep meditation, studying Advaita, Dzogchen, Mysticism, and all sorts of things. Well I find the Qi Gong exercises can be Ego uplifters and enhancers. One can get all puffed up from the benefits and go deeper and further away from realizing Enlightenment buy chasing all these Dragon, Light, Rainbow bodies and next higher level of initiation.

 

I think tempering this all with meditation, detachment, and insight into the nature of the ego as illusion is all extremely vital along the way.

 

My 2 cents

I think that your insights are spot on and a reflection of your level of commitment to your path.

 

Qigong and Taijiquan have lots of benefits - improved physical health and well being, a mechanism for becoming more aware of the interaction between physical manifestation and awareness. A method for investigating characteristics of time and space. And it's certainly helpful to have a healthy mind, body, and spirit if you dare to seek after Enlightenment.

 

And as you start to look deeply at and into yourself and your relationship to your environment, acknowledging the limitations and potential distractions created by your practices (be they Qigong, Taijiquan, meditation, Advaita, Dzogchen, and all of the rest) is a normal and important part of the process IME. How you reconcile all of that will determine how to move forward from that point. And this is something that each of us has to work through for ourselves. This is an area where teachers can offer little guidance. And it ain't easy.

 

Like you, just my $.02.

 

Good luck!

[Brian]

In response to the thread topic -- you're doing it wrong!

 

You bring it home in the last sentence, though. For me, it is increasingly humbling (now that I'm doing something that resonates...)

[Jetsun]

I think any practice where you feel like "you" are the one doing it can enhance your ego, which is why I don't put any stock in forced or contrived methods. I have done all sorts of practises over the years but as soon as my I or ego claims to be the one doing the practice then it stops being beneficial as I am just enhancing my illusory sense of control rather than letting go of it; which is why a lot of Qigong methods only improve your health and don't do much for you spiritually because many of them are forced and contrived. Only a few simple methods I have found seem to be immune to being hijacked by your ego such as resting your mind in emptiness, but even that is hard to maintain for any length of time.