Opening the Dragon Gate: The Making of a Modern Taoist Wizard

[soaring crane]

True sages don't advertise themselves, at all, ever. It would go against everything they've ever learned.

How can we know?

[silent thunder]

Some things that I participated in are still hard for me to believe... and I was there.

Specifically some related to my teacher. Such is the Way when dealing with events outside our paradigm.

The Way is so much bigger than we can even imagine.

 

Minds are tiny, fickle and so stone like sometimes...

other times they are broad like galaxies...

 

funny thing life... I strive to smile and laugh and heal.

[JinlianPai]

After seeing John Chang set that newspaper on fire I lost the luxury of saying what is possible and what is impossible.

 

He may charge alot.

 

but at least hes teaching.............

[Taoist Texts]

How can we know?

Its very simple: if they advertise then they need something, if they need anything then they are just like everybody else, if they are just like everybody else then they are not sages.

[lifeforce]

You are quite right Taoist Texts. I've met several people throughout my life who I would term 'sagely'. Every single one of them was humble, and shunned the limelight and exposure. They offered, and shared, much, but asked for nothing in return.

[silent thunder]

Yet everyone's definition of sage and sagely is not the same.

Subjectivity is such a bugger in these matters, semantics, personal experience, personal definitions.

It's in almost every thread where two opinions don't meet.

 

Fortunately, no one is forced to get the book, read it, believe any of it, nor contact anyone in relation to it.

 

That aside, it's a phenomenal book in my experience.

 

edit: pun intended

Edited September 24, 2014 by silent thunder

[Daeluin]

From what I recall from the book, from Shen Laoshi's blog, from posts regarding WL on this forum, etc, Wang Liping does not appear as someone with any interest in money.

 

Rather, in the book he is described as continuing to live under very minimal circumstances, supporting his family and community, and traveling abroad for various seminars as necessary. He eats very simple foods and does not appear overly ambitious. In our forum there is a discussion of him calling out someone attempting to charge large sums of money for a retreat he never even agreed to attend.

 

Wang Liping appears to have a destiny to publicize the Taoist arts, and thus has stepped into the public light, in order to expand common knowledge and experiences of true taoist work, in the midst of a world where it is so easy to stumble upon teachings that do not reach the root. Certainly this book and the abounding tales of his spiritual efficacy have put him on a pedestal. Does he maintain this pedestal, or simply allow it, without corrections, while maintaining true to his core practices and teachings, and while continuing to live a simple life?

 

It is so easy for rumor to take on a life of its own and to threaten the freedom of the Sage, hence Zhuangzi's advice to stay hidden and work invisibly. If Wang Liping is able to stand in this position and do this work, then lucky us. I trust he knows the perils of pedestals.

[lifeforce]

The nail that sticks out, always gets hit.

Edited September 24, 2014 by lifeforce

[Daeluin]

Indeed. Let's hope this one gets hammered into the root without being bent along the way.

[Taomeow]

Hypothetical.

 

Your friend complains of hemorroids. You have pity on him and heal him, because you can -- instantly. The friend, thrilled, tells his wife. The latter relates the story to her aunt who also suffers from hemorroids. The aunt comes running to you and asks to be healed. You oblige. She then tells all her neighbors. Ten of them show up at your door the next day. You heal them. China is a big country, and a country where word-of-mouth still travels faster than the speed of the internet. In a month, you wake up every day to a thousand or two hemorroid sufferers lined up at your door. You are a taoist, you have your routine, yet you can no longer follow it, because your fame is now that of a miracle worker who heals hemorroids. What are you going to do in this situation?

 

I've just put you in the real sage's shoes -- this wasn't hypothetical at all, it was a real story. Curious what your actions would be under the circumstances. Please share your scenario of how you would handle your sagehood if you were the one.

[silent thunder]

I know how my teacher handled it.

With tact and integrity and by being a moving target.

Not being in one place for more than a few months or weeks offers some time to do the routine before going 'back into circulation'.

[Apech]

Piles on the pressure for a Sage alright.

[Daeluin]

Wandering has always felt more natural to me than pouring my energy into temporal structures I am then bound to.

 

In wandering, I present and surrender myself before change, and those who cross my path do so not because they have my address or expectations. There is greater synchronicity involved.

 

Rumors only really value an idea of something. When we wander, it is more difficult for that idea to catch up to us and hold us down, and it is also easier to be constantly changing so fully that we are never quite approaching things the same way twice.

 

If one does settle down, one would be wise to tread carefully when deciding to acknowledge that one had anything to do with healing, unless one wishes to accept the responsibility for being tied to that path. They say to do the weeding when the weeds are small after all. Oh how quickly a reputation for healing hemorrhoids may spread, and then all you can do is heal hemorrhoids! What happens when the hemorrhoids come back - oh, now we go visit the sage. Much more difficult to say no after external value has become established, and much more difficult to get people to accept responsibility for their own healing when they believe it is easier to seek out another.

 

Tao is ever the path existing between the lines, invisible, and those who seek out X to heal Y are following the path of lines. Better the healer just disappear and the seeker learn to read between the lines.

 

Wang Liping is standing way out there like a beacon of light, but his light points right back at the Taoist Cannon. He helps others learn to find the Tao, and shows others how powerful the Tao can be. But I don't see him contriving new doctrines or spreading any confusion that isn't the result of people's stagnant beliefs being shaken up a bit. I wonder how how he finds balance between personal life and idolization. Opening the Dragon Gate suggests he wandered to some sacred mountains to replenish the spent energy after the first massive seminar. Perhaps he continues to find balance in powerful ways. Best of luck to him.

[soaring crane]

Piles on the pressure for a Sage alright.

Ouch!

[silent thunder]

There is always the option to say 'no' as well.

It would not be compassionate of me to interfere in your Path and deprive you of your opportunity for growth.

[Apech]

There is always the option to say 'no' as well.

It would not be compassionate of me to interfere in your Path and deprive you of your opportunity for growth.

 

Haemorrhoids? Just say no.

[Taomeow]

 

Wang Liping is standing way out there like a beacon of light, but his light points right back at the Taoist Cannon.

 

Not to nitpick on spelling or anything, but this reminded me of another amazing weapon, from a contemporary Russian novel -- Buddha's clay machine gun. It was rumored to be the most horrible weapon of destruction ever, but people only half believed it existed. Well, at the end of the novel, it was produced, and used on the enemy. The way it worked, turns outs, was by shooting out blasts of Nothingness...

 

[Cookie Monster]

.

Edited May 5, 2021 by Ocean Form

[KenBrace]

If what is written is true, then Wang Liping is beyond John Chang's level. I will need more evidence before I believe that.

[voidisyinyang]

Not to get off topic but since someone mentioned "turning the light around" as more effective than just pillow sitting - referring to Wang Liping, yesterday I read about a new academic study comparing vipassana to tantra and it was discovered that tantra activated the sympathetic nervous system while vipassana activated the relaxation parasympathetic nervous system. The small universe practice that Wang Liping emphasizes is a tantra visualization practice and so would be more like "turning the light around" than just pillow sitting.

 

Anyway as for learning to sit in full lotus and having the help of a qigong master transmitting energy - I think this is really true in my experience - that the energy of the master purifies the practice as Yan Xin says "Te" or virtue is the real key to success.

 

Having read "Opening the Dragon Gate" it very much reminded me of the experiences I've learned that SFQ qigong master has had and which I have no reason to disbelieve from my own experiences with the qigong master - these include levitation, etc.

 

Anyway so saying that Wang Liping would be way beyond John Chang - for me I think this is true even though I have not met him but anyway the thing is that it is also paradoxical since to be a higher level actually requires a deeper level of Emptiness instead of embracing power.

 

As for the high cost issue, I think it's fair to see Taoist qigong masters as part of the "commodity fetish" dynamic based on sublimated life force energy - as sort of like the Protestant work ethic but on a more extreme level. So in that sense Taoist qigong is actually the cutting edge of capitalism for what it's worth.

 

I realize this is also oxymoronic since the Tai Chi philosophy goes against a materialist reality like capitalism - but then alchemy training based on visualization is different I think than the older more matrilineal shamanic traditions that were the origin of Taoism.

 

So anyway the context of this type of training is full of paradoxes and difficulties in different cultural contexts.

[lifeforce]

If you were just stating your opinion you would have left it at one post.

Not really, because I was replying to bamboo's comments. I think I'm allowed more than one post to state my opinion. Sheesh !

[Gerard]

Once this book became popular, suddenly Wang Liping appeared teaching seminars for extortionate sums of money. Something that goes totally against the Dao.

 

Wang Liping is one of China's national treasures (there are other people like him not just in this specific field, Taoism) and as such his charges are run by the Chinese Government. For example:

 

China pre-president Jiang Zemin had recommended Master Wang Liping to Russian pre-president Boris Yeltsin for disease treatment

 

That was back in the late 90s.

 

What fantastical experiences are yo referring to?

 

In the Magus of Java, John Chang stated there are 10 people living in the Chinese mountains that are a lot more advanced than himself. And JC is not a fraud, believe me.

Edited September 26, 2014 by Gerard

[bamboo]

I know the events and episodes in ODG seem somewhat fantastical and make believe but I wouldn't be too quick to write them off. Basically for most of us our practice has a ceiling - we actually have a cap on where we can get to with our practices based on our individual endowments of Jing, Qi and Shen. To move beyond your limitations that is where external elixirs come into play - Master Wang took elixirs on several occasions, one or two of which are documented in the book.

Edited September 26, 2014 by bamboo

[Gerard]

I know the events and episodes in ODG seem somewhat fantastical and make believe but I wouldn't be too quick to write them off. Basically for most of us our practice has a ceiling.

 

Try this. After practising intensively in the urban or semi-urban environment (pick one IMA style and or Vipassana) and train diligently for 10 years. After than relocate yourself to the wilderness (preferably a mountain that lies on a power spot) and live and practice there for 15 years. I don't believe elixirs are mandatory to attain a really high level. Look into Buddhist practice as a solid alternative to waidan, which is extremely risky. Many Taoists in the past died because of experimenting with cinnabar, mercury and arsenic (it's insane). In the end, it's all in the mind; to overcome the fetters an enourmous effort and dedication (including good karma) are necessary.

 

Then, come back and write your experience in here.

 

Note: you might not come back at all, or if you do, would you really care telling about it to the rest?

Edited September 26, 2014 by Gerard

[lifeforce]

I have no doubt that there are high level masters who live in secluded grottoes deep in the Chinese wilderness. I also believe they would only reveal themselves to the right people.