INTRO: Hello, thank you...

[Ron Dang]

Hello. I wish to thank those who created and maintain these forums for providing an environment in which to discuss such esoteric things.

 

 

I found myself here, seeking to add to the discussion regarding yin chi. I have nothing relevant to offer other than my personal experience as a student of a certain martial / spiritual tradition from Japan. I will refrain from mentioning its name, given such perhaps might serve no useful purpose.

 

 

I came to learn these things by way of a diligent pursuit of a martial art as a complete beginner. After some years of study / practice I began to feel odd things in my body when certain advanced students would pair with me to train in the martial aspect of the art. At that point, my heart and character were assessed by my sensei, and it was determined that I was worthy of learning the hidden, esoteric aspects of the tradition. I was informed that rank means nothing as regards who gets taught these things; Heart and personal character alone determine worthiness to learn and practice the hidden aspects of this art. Therefore I understood that although our dojo had a good number of senior students with advanced levels of rank ( black, brown, red belts ), only a small fraction of them were taught the esoteric truths of the art. Intentional lies were disseminated, and I learned to recognize them the further I progressed. Such serve to offset the practical truth of the secrets, such that those who might reverse-engineer or guess at what was to them not provided would be unable to correctly utilize this force. * the ki flows where the mind or attention goes * is one such entrapment and snare which confounds the ignorant and disables the ready use of the secret by those not privy to such knowledge which comes by direct dissemination from teacher-to-student and involves the sensei’s bathing or fire-hosing the student with real ki in order to quicken one’s receptivity and awareness of the energy.

 

 

I caution the would-be solitary practitioner and adherent to these inner craft and traditions against such folly: Acceptance and tutelage by a real master of these arts is the definitive prerequisite for success, and the saving grace which averts such astral disasters as the many who have gone permanently insane, having left the ki too long around the head, cooking the brain. Many have likewise shortened their lives or caused their own deaths by cooking various internal organs in their avaricious grasp to gain the gems which result from these practices without proper tutelage.

 

 

I was not one of the advanced level students ever; yet only a bumbling idiot of low rank and elementary martial ability who one fine day began to feel in my body a certain effect of being struck with various techniques laden with real ki. By sheer luck, and owing to my personal character and the nature of my heart, I was introduced to a new reality, some brave new world of which nothing in the sciences and arts in the Western world had prepared me to accept or recognize. Eventually I would begin to find a hidden parallel in the Western alchemical tradition to what I was being taught of the esoteric, internal alchemy of the East.

 

 

These things prove dangerous in the wrong hands, and even in the right hands, trouble can arise. There are the precautions and repetitiously ingrained, insistent reminders of various safety measures, such as *always commencing and ending with the dan tien breathing, drawing the ki back into the body, back into the hara, and storing it there properly, spinning it correctly.*

 

 

I’m on a roll here, perhaps expressing too much already, so I will leave my comment regarding the yin chi in here as well, and hopefully it will be of some use in order to clarify a few points where I perceive ignorance of the initial steps preceding the microcosmic orbit.

 

 

The dan tien must be filled with a substance, and the clues as to what this might be abound in the alchemical lore of the west. Indeed, it is the PRIMA MATER which is inserted therein. And by the most elemental of methods to generate heat, as in the cosmos above, I assert that truly one creates the incorruptible fire from ordinary ice. When the ice catches fire within the dan tien, then the whole of the process can begin.

 

 

It is not the ordinary yang which is utilized in the microcosmic orbit. As it is stated rather eloquently in the alchemical lore of the west, one must extract the perfect sulphur from mercury. Or one must discover within the moon the sun itself. It is the birth of this sun, born of the moon, which is the first true step. It is the extraordinary yang, incorruptible and born of a mother, sprung from yin. Its birth is heralded by the dan tien glowing like the sun in the cosmos above, radiating heat, on fire, self-sustaining and physically unavoidably recognizable by oneself and by others. My first experience of this scared me, given 24 hours after the fact, even after I had slept, and awakened, my dan tien still was ablaze, radiating heat, as if I had swallowed the sun in the sky, and it had settled in my hara. According to the maxim of alchemy in the west: As above, so below. Just as the sun in the cosmos was born, so inside, a sun is born to bring to life all that follows.

 

 

Again, I caution those who surmise the practice from a reading of Damakos, though he is perhaps arguably the most accessible and perhaps knowledgable of modern authors on the matter, in the tradition of Mo-Pai, and following the footsteps of John Chang and Dynamo Jack.

 

 

I would not labor at becoming an electrician by fooling around with 440volt electrical systems until I got a decent understanding of the nature and ways of electricity. Such folly might certainly bring about my own permanent harm or death. So it is with the internal arts. Seek personal instruction, those of you with worthy hearts.

 

 

And to those whose hearts preclude the teaching of such, why waste your time pursuing powers you have not the evolution and maturity to handle without causing your own personal damage and quickening your own destruction? Your own undeserving nature, and selfish greed preclude your acquisition of the gems and gains you seek, foolish people who be like you. Magic such as contained in the practice of these esoteric arts can cripple and even kill those not evolved and refined internally to be able to properly absorb such levels of excitation. Practice personal sacrifice, become useful to others, and give of yourselves. A heart of devotion to benefit others, a selfless heart is the fundamental prerequisite for the natural acquisition of the spiritual abilities / psychic powers a la patanjali. Their unnatural acquisition is a folly of horrific harm and a deathtrap. One must first be worthy of the receipt of such knowledge, and be guided in its practice by a qualified teacher, personally.

 

 

Better to tarry at fixing your heart, cleaning and improving the structure of your intentions and reception of life energies, cleaning the aperture of your interfaces with natural energies. There is more benefit in pursuing these to the unworthy than in seeking to uncover and practice such arcane secrets as these are to the undeserving, determined by their intentions, and heart, character of their being. Let only the pure and helpful find their way here.

 

 

I have perhaps said too much. So be it. May some find a better way, something useful herein.

 

 

 

F.

[Chang]

Hello and welcome to the Tao Bums. That was quite something of an introductory post and I can well see you generating a lot of interest on the forum.

 

Before diving in however please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of the Lobby and take a look at the forum rules and terms http://thetaobums.com/topic/19575-forum-terms-rules/ This covers all that you need be aware of regarding the running of the forum.

 

Best wishes,

 

Chang.