Wang Liping & The Secret Of the Golden Flower

[Wells]

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Edited February 11, 2015 by ZOOM

[SecretGrotto]

Who is brave enough to paragraph the above?

[dawei]

read here:

http://laoziacademy.us/wangtj.pdf

[Brian]

Who is brave enough to paragraph the above?

 

 

I inserted additional <CR><LF> to help (slightly) with readability -- FWIW...

 

taken from wang ting-jun's article on 'the secret of the golden flower':

 

In 1899, Mr Richard Wilhelm from Germany came to China, studied the Tao (道 the Way) for 21 years. He got this book and learned Inner Alchemy of The Complete Reality Taoism. After returning to homeland, he translated this book into the western language, and named it as <The Secret of Golden flower>. He taught his disciples to practice the methods he learned in China, some won initial success, which mean they saw the Mandala. In 2007, The Dragon Gate (龙门派 Longmen) successor of The Complete Reality Taoism, Wang Liping, taught eight students the Inner Alchemy. Several days later, six of them saw the Mandala. This article recorded this training.

 

<The Secret of Golden flower> is the classics of Inner Alchemy of Taoism. It is included in <The Collected Essentials of Taoist Canon> and <The Continued Taoist Canon>, but there is small difference between the two editions, they all contain 13 chapters, and each topic is also the same, the writing in the first chapter differs a little, but the general idea is the two editions do not have much difference, therefore the difference of this kind of edition will not influence your practice.

 

<The Secret of Golden flower> is the classics of practice and cultivation, it elaborates the Inner Alchemy and its idea and technology directly, but does not elaborate the profound theory emphatically. Because this book’s full name in <The Taoist Canon> (道藏) is <Lu Zu Xiantian Yiqi Taiyi Jinhua Zongzhi> (吕祖先天一气太乙金华宗旨), people consider Lu Dongbin as the author. But it is not possible, if you inspect this book carefully. Because the opening of each chapter starts with “Ancestor Lu (吕祖) said that” or “God Lu (吕帝) said ”, Lu Dongbin (吕洞宾) was impossible to call himself as “Ancestor Lu” or “God Lu”；In the first chapter of <The Secret of Golden flower>, it has such a few words “Since the establishment of the Tao (道 the Way) by Taishang, Donghua passed it to Yan, The Complete Reality Taoism (Quanzhendao) eventually spread all over China when it is divided into two main traditions, Northern and Southern.” This tells the inheritance of Taoism and the history of <The Secret of Golden flower>. ”Taishang” is Lao-tzi (老子), “Donghua” (东华) or Donghuadijun (东华帝君) is Han Dynasty’s Wang Xuanpu (王玄浦), who passed this method to Tang Dynasty’s Lu Dongbin (Lu Yan). Taoism was divided into the north-south two parts during Song Dynasty. The northern ancestor’s main representative is The Complete Reality of Taoism (Quanzhenpai) established by Wang Chongyang (王重阳). The Complete Reality of Taoism (Quanzhenpai) was formed in Southern Song Dynasty which is 300 years late compared with Tang Dynasty that Lu Dongbin lived. The book mentioned North-South two parts and The Complete Reality of Taoism (Quanzhenpai), could Lu Dongbin possibly write down matters in the book after death more than 300 years later? Therefore it is impossible for Ancestor Lu to have written this book. But in the book each chapter also starts by “Ancestor Lu said that” or ”God Lu said” outset, the reasonable explanation should be, the principle and method that <The Secret of Golden flower> narrated indeed should be the Ancestor Lu taught and passed on, but the after formation of text should be written by some master of Southern Song Dynasty which is 300 years later than Lu Dongbin’s time, very possible he was Wang Chongyang (王重阳), the founder of The Complete Reality of Taoism (Quanzhenpai). <The Secret of Golden flower> is the secret cultivation Classics of The Complete Reality of Taoism. Until modern times，Mr. Richard Wilhelm (理查德. 威廉姆 也称卫礼贤) from Germany passed it to Europe. In 1899, he arrived at China as a Christianity missionary. His original intention was to teach Chinese The Christianity, let Chinese to believe in God. He stayed in Qingdao, a place close to Mt.Laoshan. Mt.Laoshanis an old and famous ancestral home of The Complete Reality of Taoism. He was predestined to find the authentic Complete Reality of Taoism. Being a scholar with belief, rigid and realistic, Wilhelm immediately subdued by the mystical profound theory and cultivation. He lived inChinafor 21 years and he learned The Complete Reality Taoism’s orthodox cultivation methods in Mt.Laoshan. After returning to homeland, he translated The Complete Reality Taoism’s important classics(Taiyi Jinhua Zongzhi or The Doctrine of Taiyi and Jinhua) into German language, named it as “The Secret of Golden Flower”. This is the first time for this important Taoism classics being turned into foreign language, it had aroused the interest of Western world. Afterward, this book was translated into English, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean and so on. Here is an interesting phenomenon: being very near to China, while had learned a lot of Chinese culture and tradition, Japan and Korea did not obtain these classics, cannot learn the method of this set of cultivating from the Taoism, but detoured via Germany to obtain this book.

 

More importantly, Wilhelm trained his European disciples with the Xing training (性功 Xing Gong) he learned from The Complete Reality of Taoism, finally some people saw the marvelous flashing design, he said that the chart of this bewilderment was the Mandala. Actually the word of Mandala, European first knew from Indian Buddhism classics. Mandala is one kind of plant, which can make person have phantasm, afterward some Buddhist classics, like “Da Ri Jing” (大日经), “Jin Gang Ding Jing” (金刚顶经) and so on borrowed this word for a special phenomenon of seeing a bright marvelous design in front of eyes in the training process. Training to this step makes the practitioner’s state of mind and personality very different from others, it seems like a probable influence by that plant, Mandala, thus the light chart is called Mandala. Afterward some people draw the Mandala they saw during their training, this is called the printed Mandala. In general the Mandala that ordinary people see is only the printed Mandala. Only to a certain extent, practitioner can see his own Mandala, this is the real Mandala, which can reflect the information of the universe and life and their influence.

 

Below are the Mandalas that Wilhelm’s disciples saw.

 

After one hundred years, in September, 2007, in a village in the Northern China, the 18th generation of successor of Dragon Gate (Longmen) school of The Complete Reality of Taoism Mr. Wang Liping gave 8 Europeans an intensive training according to the principle and methods of <The Secret of Golden flower> for eight days. Some saw the Mandala from the sixth day, when to the end of the training, six saw the Mandala.

 

At that time the students asked Wang Liping curiously, why they see these things? What are they? These questions are connected with the theory and methods of Xing and Ming of The Complete Reality of Taoism. The Mandala is only a meaningful phenomenon that appears during this kind of training, but the theory and methods of Xing and Ming of The Complete Reality of Taoism are completely recorded in <The Secret of Golden flower>. All Taoism Inner Alchemy classics and the classics of traditional medicine of China use Xing and Ming as basic concepts in their theory and practice. If you do not know these concepts, you can never understand their classics. Xing and Ming formed a world, the world of life. Xing and Ming are very important concepts which are the fundamental concept in Taoism. As the Xing and Ming are the essential concepts, the idea system of Taoism was set by thinking, discussing and explaining these concepts. But till now, there are many explanation and understanding about them. To what extent or level you understand these concepts will decide how far or how high you could reach in cultivation.

 

“Ming” refers to the variable part of life, which will change or can be changed; but “Xing” refers to the invariable part of life which will not change or cannot be changed. Human’s body has the birth and growth, senility, death, may fall ill or suffer some disease and recover, therefore the body is variable, it changes or can be changed during one’s life; Human’s emotion and feeling is also variable, it will change according to the change of place, the change of mind; mind changes as surroundings and thing change, one may feel happy or get angry. One can change his mind and improve his nature to be perfect by cultivation and practice; Desire will change also, there are many religious disciplines to limit or restrict desire in Buddhism and Taoism. These disciplines will become useless if desire cannot be changed; One’s idea and thought change too, as one learns more from another. As mentioned above, body, feelings, mind, desires, ideas and thoughts change and can be changed, so they are all included in the Ming. Ming training (Ming Gong) is the practice to improve them so as to be a healthy, kind, quiet, peaceful, and wise person. But this kind of practice cannot change the Xing, no matter how high one reaches. So Ming Gong cannot take the place of Xing training (Xing Gong). The key aim of both Buddhism and Taoism is to practice Xing, because Xing can change one‘s birth and death.

 

What is Xing? It will not change during one’s life, it has no birth and death, is not variable and has no motion. Does it really exist? The Buddhist and Taoism definitely believe that the “XING” do exist! And it might be tested. They both believe that the ultimate goal of training and cultivation is for the training of “XING”. Buddhism call it Nature of Buddha, ”which has no birth and death, without increase and decrease, even without moving all the time”. Taoism call it Yuanshen or Real Nature, Real self (真性 Zhenxing) ”which stands alone without change, quieted and serene, although moving circularly but never stopping”. The names of it might be called differently between Buddhism and Taoism, but they were saying the same thing. Regarding this “XING”, both Buddhist and Taoist think it is invisible and unspeakable, but it can be experienced and recognized only by practice through the biological phenomena.

 

In the first chapter of <The Secret of Golden flower>, it is said: “I pass on this training, it goes straight forward to the training of XING, shall not fall into any other way, so it’s wonderful and subtle”. Above all, the training of <The Secret of Golden flower> is focused on “Xing training”. It was said in this book: ”Tao or Way has neither name nor shape, it is only the Nature or Yuanshen.” So the Nature and Yuanshen are the same thing. Yuanshen and Shishen (识神) are just a pair. The thinking, ideas and desires are included in Shishen. As for ‘Yuanshen or Nature’ and its function, it is explained in the second chapter of the book: ”When one is born, Yuanshen stays in Fangcun (方寸), Shishen lives in heart. The heart’s form is like a big peach, with lung covering it, liver assisting it, large and small intestine bearing it. If one does not eat for a day, it will be uneasy, even frightened to be upset, angry to be stifled, sad by seeing dead, dizzied by beauty and charming. It seems one’s head is moved by this kind of things, but in fact Yuanshen cannot be moved by these. Can Fangcun move? How can Yuanshen who stays in Fangcun move? If it moves, it is both bad and wonderful, it is bad when one dies since it would go away; it is wonderful when one’s light crystallizes into a Natural Body, and it is starting to move. This is the secret kept for thousand years.” This paragraph’s meaning is: one have two Shen (神), one is Yuanshen, the other is Shishen. Shishen is also called mind which controls one’s desires and thoughts. Why one’s desires and ideas change always？It is because Shishen moves all the time. Yuanshen or Nature which stays in Fangcun does not move at all, no matter how one’s desires and ideas are changing – they cannot influence it, it would go to start a new life only when one dies. So the practice of Shishen may change one’s desires and ideas, it is only the cultivation of Yuanshen which can change one’s birth and death, since Yuanshen knows the truth and law of birth and death, so it is able to stop reincarnation, then transcend into the universe. As its ultimate aim is just to know the truth and law of birth and death, The Complete Reality of Taoism pays more attention to the cultivation of Yuanshen (Xing training).

 

What is the principle to cultivate Yuanshen? Although the Yuanshen is motionless, it has the light, its light is dispersing between the universe and human body’s limbs and bones. It will become a Natural Body if you carry on cultivating this light by turning it back, collecting and congealing. It will move when its light becomes a Natural Body. This is the principle to practice Yuanshen given by <The Secret of Golden flower> (The Doctrine of Taiyi and Jinhua). From the title of this book one can find this principle too, in the first chapter it is said: ”Taiyi (太乙) is one’s most important thing, Jinhua (金华) is its light.” Taiyi is one’s Nature or Yuanshen, Jinhua is the light of Nature or Yuanshen. The relation of Yuanshen and its light is like the relation between the electric charge and its surrounding electric field, if the light of Yuanshen is trained, the Yuanshen will be influenced also. The training method is to let the radiation light return, collect and stay in front of one’s Fangcun. This method is called “Turning the light back” (回光) . Usually people’s light only radiates, but the practitioner wants to cause the radiated light to return. <The Secret of Golden flower> said: ”The method of training the light is to use Reversal way.” How to do it? <The Secret of Golden flower> unlocks a special technique of The Complete Reality of Taoism: use eyes to do it. <The Secret of Golden flower> explains the theory basis of this unique technology: ”The essence of one’s body all comes to eyes, this is the key point for practice.” <The Yellow Emperor’s Classics of Internal Meridian> (黄帝内经) knew this secret early: ”The essence of one’s body all goes to the upper empty holes.” <The Secret of Golden flower> further indicates that the eyes are the most important empty holes: ”The eyes are the gate or door, by which Shen light (神光) leaks or runs away. This is the easiest and smoothest way for one to lose his Yuanshen.” As eyes are the main door to lose Shen light, <The Secret of Golden flower> selected eyes to turn the light back. As for the detail technique, <The Secret of Golden flower> said: ”When put all of one’s desires and ideas aside, one may use Buddhism word ‘yi’ (∴) to practice, one should put the middle dot into the middle point between eyebrow, the left dot into left eye, the right dot into right eye. In this way the Shen light of two eyes will meet at the middle point of eyebrow. The middle point of eyebrow is Tianmu (天目 the third eye), which is the gate for these three light to meet and come in and go out.” It said: ”If one could practice ‘Turning the light back’ longer, the light will congeal, namely will become a Natural Body”. So if one can cause the light of that radiated to return, gathers and congeals it into a Natural Body, then that motionless Yuanshen probably will start to move, this is the goal of ‘Turning the light back’.

 

<The Secret of Golden flower> puts forward ‘Turning the light back’ as the basic principle of Xing Gong, and gave the technique of using eyes to train one’s light. The book considers not only that Taoism realized the importance of ‘Turning the light back’, but also other things. In chapter three, “Turning the light back and keeping it in the center” it said: ”It was transmitted from one great master or sage to the next, Reversal looking is the key point (Reversal looking is same as the Turning the light back). Confucians called it ‘Knowing to stop’, Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism called it ‘Vision of the heart’, the Lao-Tzi called it` Inner vision’, they all grasped the key point.” This paragraph’s meaning is: the principle of ‘Knowing to stop’ by Confucianism, the ‘Vision of the heart’ by Buddhism, the ‘Inner vision’ by Lao-tze, are describing the same thing, ’Turning the light back’. Although the principle is the same, the methods and techniques are actually not the same. <The Secret of Golden flower> proposed the method of using eyes to practice. It also said the ‘Stop and look’ method and ‘Tuning the breathing’ method by Buddhism are all the methods to practice ‘Turning the light back’. The light here is not only the light seen by eyes, also the other light, so the light is called Xing light (性光 Xing Guang). <The Secret of Golden flower> emphasizs: ”Even a blind person can do this practice.” Because the light one is going to practice is the light of Xing, light of eyes is only part of it. When talking about ‘Stop and look’ method by Buddhism, <The Secret of Golden flower> said: ”first is to stop looking outside, then look inside. If only stop without looking inside, it is called stopping without looking; if only looking without turning it back, it is called looking without taking it back.” So ‘Stop and look’ is also a method to practice ‘Turning the light back’, but this light is the light of thinking. As for ’Tuning the breathing’ by Buddhism, <The Secret of Golden flower> considers it is same to train light by ears and by eyes, it said: ”When to train light by eyes, look inside but not outside; when to train light by ears, listen inside not outside.” <The Secret of Golden flower> indicates that the methods mentioned above by Buddhism and Taoism are the methods of ‘Turning the light back’, their purpose is to collect the radiation light then turn it back, not only the light seen by eyes is Xing light, it also includes other light. If one understands this principle, he could master the outline of Xing gong, the book said: ”Understanding of this, one can live longer, and transcend into the universe, is mastered by Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.”

 

What is the Mandala seen by practitioner? Does it have any relations with Yuanshen, Jinhua, and ‘Turning the light back’, which are the important concept mentioned in the book? In fact, the Mandala is the light of one’s Xing or Yuanshen. One has found his Xing light if he sees the Mandala. <The Secret of Golden flower> considers that seeing Mandala means one just began to know how to turn the radiation light back and this is a very important and meaningful phenomenon in cultivation process, it indicates one has understood the principle and grasped the key point of practice. If one continues to practice in this right way, one may reach to higher steps as “the light begins to bloom”, ”the light is just in blooming”, and “the light congealed”. When you reached the step of “congealed”, your Yuanshen will begin to move and becomes active. When Yuanshen moves, one may find the truth of life. As a researcher, I tracked the entire processes of training these 8 foreigners by Mr. Wang Liping. The following is the record of ideas, designs, and procedure of the training as well as the various phenomena occurred during the training.

 

When the training started, what Mr. Wang Liping first paid attention was to transfer the student body’s vitality vigor, he said that Taoism cultivation takes the Xing Gong achievement as the ultimate goal but must take the Ming Gong as the foundation, if one does not have the Ming Gong foundational merit he could not reach high level in cultivation. Therefore initial several days he took the Ming training as the primary coverage, observed and controlled the changes of students’ bodies emphatically, after several times exercise, all students had the phenomenon of Qi (气) movement through meridians, although each student’s Qi movement is different from others, identically they had a common rule: Qi at first started from legs, the three meridians of foot started to generate, at this time the movement of Qi is in the leg, along with practice, the movement of Qi climbed to the abdomen gradually, at this time Wang Liping guided the students to make a little change of gesture, afterward obviously the Qi reached three yin meridians of hand by going up from the foot, then the movement of Qi was in the meridians of the upper body and arms, later to the yang meridians from yin meridians of hands, finally from the hand yang meridians rose to the head, then finally returned to the three yin meridians of foot. On each transfer point of meridian, Wang Liping would guide them to make a little change in gesture, in order to lead Qi to change route, which is very important. So how to grasp or seize the right time or opportunity is the key. When the Qi has not arrived at the switch point of transfer one cannot do something to lead Qi, only when the Qi reached the transfer point of meridian, at this time to doing something is effective. Wang Liping said,”some people do not know this, as they do not understand the principle of Qi movement of body, they could not grasp the transfer point to go forward, so their Qi always repeatedly move in the same meridians, the whole meridians of body could not be connected well to form a circle, thus they could not go further, always stay at the same stage in cultivation. So the ability of grasping the transfer point to do something or just waiting without action is the key in practice: when to do something or when to do nothing during practice? These depend on your understanding of the mechanism of body. If you have learned some knowledge of Chinese medicine, to master it will become easier for you, because Taoism’s’ theory is consistent with Chinese medicine theory, the two stems come from the same root.

 

After Qi passed the whole body’s meridian, it went to internal organs, the internal organs movement of Qi started in form of tremor. For some students, the tremor transferred from one organ to another until all five organs passed in circle. Some student said, ”I felt in clearly the internal organs will not be the tremor, but will be one kind of liquid in flowing.” Regardless of internal organs tremor or liquid flowing, the transmission had a definite direction and order, which matched the generating order of five internal organs of Chinese medicine. Wang Liping told students, at this moment do not use any attention to guide the movement, and do not forget to feel the movement, when it circulated to the last organ, use your attention to lead it down to your lower Dantian (丹田).As soon as your attention reaches lower Dantian (下丹田), your Qi follows and gathers there, then your lower Dantian will be full of Real Qi (真气Zhenqi) . Then, all students felt their lower Dantian starting to move, becaming warm and hot.

 

Later, the training was turned to Xing Gong. Wang Liping told students to lead their attention to Upper Dantian (上丹田) from lower Dantian. At this moment the formula Wang Liping told students is, neither attention nor will is needed, in fact, do not think, do not imagine, eyes still closed, just look at Xuanguan (玄关) in front of eyes, with the whole body relaxed and attention focused on looking. By several times practice, some saw a small bright light, Wang Liping guided, “pay attention to this small light, to stabilize it. This small bright light is the light of Yuanshen, present’s phenomenon is the appearance of Xing Light (Xing Guang)”. <The Secret of Golden flower>said, this light of Yuanshen radiates naturally but is not easy to gather; it is active, but is not easy to congeal, since this light presented now, our present’s duty is to practice, train this small light stable and bright, collect this scattered in disorder Xing light, let it congeal, this method is called “Turning the light back” in <The Secret of Golden flower>, if you turn the light back for a long time, this light will congeal”. By several times training, the small light or luminous spot became stable and bright; Wang Liping guided the students to move this luminous spot by will, this moving of the light was different from the original moving which was scattered freely in disorder. He told the students to move the luminous spot to a special position, Xuanguan, put that stable Xing Light (light of Yuanshen) in the place of Xuanguan and look at it. Practiced for several times, some students saw the marvelous Mandala, around only 8 days intensive training, 6 students saw the Mandala, certainly these 8 individuals had certain foundation, they are healthy, and they all like Chinese traditional culture, thought, have some knowledge of Taoism. Seeing Mandala means the radiated and scattered Shen light has been taken back and gathered in front of Tianmu, this is an important step in Xing training of The Complete Reality of Taoism.

 

In <The Secret of Golden flower>, there are described several steps in Xing light (Shen light or light of Yuanshen) training, first is “The light begins to bloom”. Seeing Mandala belongs to this step; to practice deeply ”The light is just in blooming”, at this step, body relaxed totally, mind opened completely, everywhere is bright; finally is “The light congealed completely”. If you reach the step of “Congealed”, the Xing light will be congealed into a Natural Body, and then your Yuanshen which stayed in Fangcun without motion will begin to move and becomes active. When Yuanshen moves, one may find the truth of life, so only up to this step you could know how to jump out of the three realms, transcend into the universe. Therefore obviously seeing Mandala is the symbol of knowing how to train Xing light, which The Complete Reality of Taoism emphasizes.

 

I asked Mr. Wang Liping afterwards, the Taoism cultivation in the ordinary people mind is one kind of mystical thing, many people tried, but few succeeded, why this intensive training can have such good effect? Wang Liping said that this is certainly decided by many factors, but I thought a very essential factor that influence the result of training is, the master must seize the opportunity to do something or do nothing, knowing when only to follow the Qi, when to lead the Qi when it comes to the transfer point; when to let the Shen light show itself, what you need to do is just look at it, when must to do something to put the Shen light in the place of Xuanguan, in brief, to do something sometimes or to do nothing sometimes, it depends on master’s understanding of training principle, and the ability to master the training technique and his real experience, also the ability to grasp student’s physiology and psychological characteristic is also important. As <The Secret of Golden flower> said: “There are many formulas in Daoism cultivation, it is not simply just to follow it, achievement only rely on your knowing at what time to do something and what time to do nothing.”

 

In recent years in the world, more and more people are interested and pay attention to the theory and practice methods of Chinese Taoism, some from medicine, some from cultivation, some from philosophy, some from theology, regardless of what angle you seek to research Taoism theory, so long as you really want to understand it, you must enter the world that the Taoism described, the world of Xing and Ming, just like Lao-Tzi said “looking the body by the body, looking the family by the family, looking the township by the township, looking the country by the country, looking the world by the world, this why do I know the world ?” The meaning of this sentence is that if you hope to understand this world you should observe it with this world’s knowledge, to be specific; you cannot study the world of Ming and Xing with the mechanical world outlook. The outlook of Xing and Ming is a new world outlook, is completely different from the mechanical world outlook, which the modern science already has been used to, and by it to research the material and energy world. An important condition is to understand the Taoism theory could not only depend on the speculation, but must have the actual study and practice, explained clearly but unable to do certainly is not really understand or clear.

 

We hope that Chinese ancient unique Taoism culture will open a new world for modern people’s ideas and life, similarly humanity also needs a new cognitive style.

[Bearded Dragon]

The only things certain are death, taxes, and misinterpretation of the Secret of the Golden Flower.

[Source]

ZOOM your posts, along with Innersoundqigong are one of the most interesting to me. But you keep deleting yours?

[dawei]

ZOOM your posts, along with Innersoundqigong are one of the most interesting to me. But you keep deleting yours?

 

We are aware of a few members doing this. It is disruptive for thread flow... and more so if the topic start.

[Daeluin]

What ZOOM posted is in post #4, with occasional line breaks added in between the long paragraphs.

[Source]

What ZOOM posted is in post #4, with occasional line breaks added in between the long paragraphs.

 

 

I know, wanted to let them know that I follow their discussion and find it interesting.

[Prince...]

I had a YouTube video where I mentioned this-- I deleted my old channel and I haven't decided if I will upload the same old video or film an entirely new one-- anyway-- long story short. I was taught the Secret of the Golden Flower by one of Master Wang's students here in the US. 

 

After he taught us (there were 2 other people from TTB present), he gave us a 2 hour lecture on how dangerous it is and why we should stick to the basic practices we'd been learning all weekend. 

 

So I forgot it by the time I drove back home to Tennessee. 

 

My current Sifu may know a similar practice from his Taoist lineage...but he says that if I stay with him long enough, by the time I've developed enough to learn some of his "higher practices," I'll probably not be interested--or have figured them out on my own. 

 

Those are his words, not mine. 

 

Oh well...it's fun to reminisce.