Advice on where to begin on the physical/meditation path?

[BearlyTao]

And where to look/learn?

 

Correct if wrong;

It's best to start with the physical cultivation (qi gong, tai chi, yoga) before begining meditation/chackra/tan tien.

 

I'm really confused where to start and how to progress. It sounds like some lessons should be supervised by a teacher, how far can I safely go without one? Could I learn in time to teach?

 

 

I recently picked up a book by the Barefoot Doctor and I'm curious others' thoughts on his work.

[Daeluin]

by getting to know where you are and how you change

accept where you are and where you have been

trace it all back to your origin and settle into resonance

with your personal choice driven realationship within balance

where lies balance? where does imbalance end?

return, accept, surrender

listen to the flow

discern where the heart leads without judgment

discern how the ego attempts to attach and direct

what is the point of conflict, if not to transform what does not serve?

what is the point of unease, if not to guide towards integrity?

what is the point of flow, if not to nourish one's natural way?

listen to the heart and purify the heart within the whole

when clarity comes to what seemed obscure

clouds part and hidden subtleties emerge

follow clarity to deepest surrender

clearest heart where subtlety becomes divine

and taste the original source

 

 

Explore. Experiment. Feel. Accept. Surrender. Trust. Return.

We were born with what energy was needed to accomplish our destiny.

But these days humanity is uncertain where balance lies.

Eager to overcome the demands of our physical needs,

We have come to dominate, control, assume, take advantage.

Eager to rise above the rest, we place ourselves above, before, beyond other life.

Eager to cultivate a little space of our own,

We push other life forms far away, convinced of our superiority.

'Tis only natural.

 

And so we come to reject the family to which we were born.

An entire planet of harmony - clearly it is up for grabs.

And so we take, and build, and craft anew models ego grand.

Only to find we've drifted...... all is all, all is everyones', yet why do we exploit it so?

Drifted, calculated, manipulated what was offered freely into what only humans own.

 

But you know. Don't you? The primal truth of harmony? The true way of balance?

It cannot be destroyed. It exists within us all. The return to resting upon trust.

Falsehoods may crumble away leaving one naked and afraid.

What greater truth than standing full and humble in the face of tao.

One's center is shared by all and cannot be assailed by those who trust to their way.

 

First get to know yourself, and explore your past. Discern patterns that like to repeat and learn to be cautious of feeling that you know anything. Come to understand that your perspective is one of many, and that by surrendering your perspective to settle among all perspectives, you may adapt and ease into harmony with any situation you find yourself, so long as you are not attached to your own agenda. Come to feel truth as truth. One's intuition may be honed and trusted until one knows how to feel their environment as what is right for them, and knows how to listen to the balance within their environment to discover the direction towards deeper balance and equanimity. And so one may come to skill in harmonious relation with the outside world, even as one comes to discern patterns reflected from the outside world as messages towards uncovering imbalance within one's inner world.

 

One's inner world may be cultivated by methods and prescriptions, but the lesson remains one of balance. Should one follow ego to a teacher one may find exactly what the ego sought. Following the heart one learns to listen and accept calls for change, and ends up discovering a teacher who resonates from the subtle heart of hearts.

 

Energy is merely friction within polarity, where parts of the whole come to rest upon one another, rubbing, tickling, pushing, pulling, integrating, harmonizing, dancing, exchanging, creating an inner world of gears, cogs, wheels, a whole system of moving parts manifested so one may unfold into animated life within one's specific environment. Energy flows and transforms between systems following nature's pattern. One may manipulate this flow by means of focusing of intention, and energy will follow where intent has been set. Thereby one's intent may lead energy towards one's own agenda, OR merely set the intend and focus inward so as to trust the energy to lead itself greater harmony.

 

A master is one who cultivates their inner heart and offers it to the source of life.

This can only be done on one's own, and yet one may need a guiding hand.

One's teacher may guide and point at the way, but one must walk their own path to realize it.

Follow the heart. Do the work with trust and compassion. Dissolve the ego. Learn to listen to the call of your own tao.

Follow the flow of the tao through time as its path unravels the imbalance within your soul, and be free.

[joeblast]

And where to look/learn?

 

Correct if wrong;

It's best to start with the physical cultivation (qi gong, tai chi, yoga) before begining meditation/chackra/tan tien.

 

I'm really confused where to start and how to progress. It sounds like some lessons should be supervised by a teacher, how far can I safely go without one? Could I learn in time to teach?

 

 

I recently picked up a book by the Barefoot Doctor and I'm curious others' thoughts on his work.

get exercise - that covers the yang side. whether its working out or taiji, not quite so important, so long as the body's structural needs are attended to. I do particular spinal qigongs because I had Jackass quality injuries growing up (if only we had go pros back in the day...too many people would say how are you alive )

 

and learn to breathe. meditation begins with that most coarse signal in the body - tune it like you would tune a race engine and experience true real stillness....that is the prerequisite to do stronger stuff. make sure the ground plug is inserted before starting the engine, as it were.

[SecretGrotto]

At least for me, the key teaching was this:

 

Gather the fuel

1) Treasure generative force and vitality by stilling the heart-mind.

2) Regularly sublimate generative force into vitality/yin chi.

 

Meditating and doing all sorts of practices is like pushing a car uphill, when you can just get fuel and let the car do the work. I've struggled for years until the right teaching over-exclaimed the importance and methods of treasuring and sublimating the fuel. I highly recommend the book 'Taoist Yoga', where I found these teachings.

 

To reiterate, simply gather the fuel and let the process unfold naturally. You'll be surprised at how fast things start happening then. Otherwise, if you do intense practices but constantly leak the fuel you won't get that far.

 

Details

1) Pay attention to your scrotum, if it stirs or contracts in response to you seeing or sensing something attractive, then you can take that as a sign that generative force has condensed into generative fluid. You want to prevent this, because this is leaking the fuel precursor.

 

Your senses are the five thieves that steals your vitality to allow you to indulge in sense experiences and stir the heart-mind. Remain ever aloof, nonchalant and cold and dead as thousand year ash in the face of any temptation. At least that is the ideal that prevents the heart-mind from stirring and leaking the fuel.

 

Generative force is rationed out to the body, and it will seek an outlet, of which the path of least resistance is the mortal gate to the penis which will then stand erect, even in the absence of provocative thoughts.

 

Now this is key:

a) Sit cross-legged in meditation posture,

focus on the lower dan tien,

c) imagine a ray of light from your 3rd eye firing up the lower dan tien, you can put your hands as a mirror in front of lower dan tien to reflect and amplify the 3rd eye ray to fire the lower dan tien,

d) put your left middle finger in the centre of your right palm and vica versa with your right middle finger,

e) now tune the breath smooth and regulated as if the breath is blowing on a spark in kindling that you wish to ignite, tune the breath according to how much heat response you feel in LDT,

f) keep meditating in this fashion, and you will see that the penis shrinks away in a matter of minutes.

 

The above is key, because if you allow the morning wood to remain, the generative force is being spent partially by keeping the erection and you want to sublimate the generative force into vitality as much and efficiently as possible utilizing all generative force which appears. Also, if you allow the erection to remain, it will promote the stirring of desire.

 

2) The generative force is sublimated also as above. Yan Xin calls the highest of all technologies, the feedback loop that one creates by feeding the 3rd eye ray externally into LDT, which balances the yin and yang energies in the body. External energy can be fed into the feedback loop by imagining all the light of the sun, moon and stars concentrating as a light into the top of your head, then going directly to the 3rd eye to feed its ray.

 

The breath, you will feel, affects the burning of the stove or LDT, and you can tune it dynamically to maximize heat in the LDT. It all comes quite naturally.

 

I find that 3 half-hour sublimation sessions spread out per day produces a good result. The key is regular sublimation. You're pressing grapes to make juice, and your body releases new grapes gradually, which you get to press shortly afterward making the fuel of vitality.

 

 

Neigong and qigong has for me been somewhat pointless until I learned to properly gather the fuel. Only in further stages will movement practices allow the body to align and purge blockages that will allow you to better start the Channel Small Heavenly Orbit, which is the workhorse of intermediate internal alchemy, since it helps to refine the energies and promote the sublimation of vitality into consciousness-level energy (shen).

[forestofclarity]

The most helpful things I have come across are living a moral code and learning how to pay attention. These things will help no matter what comes next. However, many people who skip these steps seem to struggle a lot longer.

[BearlyTao]

I 'think' I'm starting to 'see'. (Terms seem different, less definitive once you seek Tao)

 

I came in with notions of 'right and wrong' ways to the Tao. In some ways I'm already there I just need to learn to be the tao. Not concern myself with 'errors' simply maintain a mindful caution in my actions.

 

I expected a set course or path that would lead to results. I'm starting to see it is more wandering with random interventions.

[SecretGrotto]

I expected a set course or path that would lead to results. I'm starting to see it is more wandering with random interventions.

 

There is most definitely a set course that will lead to predetermined results. Read 'Taoist Yoga', there's a free PDF online.

 

This may be somewhat inaccurate, and I would love a clarification from somebody who knows, but it goes like this:

 

1) Sublimate generative force into vitality/yin qi EVENTUALLY you see white light in 3rd eye, which is the sign vitality is 'saturating'

2) Keep sublimating generative force EVENTUALLY Channel Small Heavenly Orbit is definitely felt to start

3) Keep sublimating generative force AND spinning SHO EVENTUALLY Extremity Small Heavenly Orbit is felt in arms and legs

4) Keep sublimating generative force AND circulating Extremity SHO EVENTUALLY white light matures to be golden light in 3rd eye

5) Keep sublimating generative force AND circulating Extremity SHO EVENTUALLY Large Heavenly Orbit starts

6) Keep sublimating generative force UNTIL mortal gate closes and penis shrinks to that of a baby

7) ...

Advanced stages follow, BUT they have definite roadsigns letting you know when to start a different practice, all leading to creating the immortal foetus and maturing it.

 

This is Taoist Internal Alchemy - Bottom's up, working from the coarsest energy upward. A simultaneous Top-Down approach can be used with attunements, Fu Fa Shen, Stillness-Movement lineage connection/attunement, and the cultivation of Virtue for best effect.

 

Since all the classic texts (I've ever read) explaining bona fide Internal Alchemy leading to a foetus and Yang Shen body use a Bottom-Up approach, I'm doubtful that a Top-Down approach alone can provide the same effect since the interface with the physicality is neglected compared to the Bottom-Up approach. Anyone please correct me here, and point me to a teacher who primarily use lineage attunement BUT also teach their students the intricacies of sublimation, starting the SHO, forming the internal and external medicine and the creation and maturing the foetus.

[SecretGrotto]

There are unfortunately those type of discriminating students that, after trying a practice for less than 100 days and not seeing the type of result claimed, tend to abandon the practice and the teacher BECAUSE the practice was to be performed with blind faith and the mechanisms behind the practice was not explained properly.

 

Modern students are bombarded with a vast array of teachings, not knowing if they are coming or going, and if something is not understood and practice results are lacking, they'll just move on to the next best thing.

 

That is why it is important to UNDERSTAND the principles and mechanisms of each practice and how it harnesses the processes of the energetic physiology of the body and spirit, BECAUSE if a student understand the mechanism they'll know when to expect results, why results are lacking, and how to remedy the situation.

 

Blind faith is everything that is wrong with religion today. Religion, arguably, will be deemed an abomination by the original teachers, because their teachings were misinterpreted and cast in stone with religion demanding that people be sheep and not ask questions.

 

Some of the greatest yogis had plenty of teachers and they succeeded, because they kept asking questions, kept learning until they understood the mechanisms or found a teacher who could explain it. Examples are Sri Yukteshwar, Chunyi Lin, Pranabananda and Yogananda.

 

Sure, there will be those other types of students who are willing to put in the 100 days or 300 days, and benefit greatly from the practice. However, if improper or deficient instruction makes them get stuck at a certain level, they'll be much less likely to switch practices and remain stuck, so to speak.

[SecretGrotto]

Here is a most excellent map of the stages and signs of internal alchemy:

 

http://www.taoiststudy.com/content/practical-process-taoist-internal-alchemy-practice

[BearlyTao]

6) Keep sublimating generative force UNTIL mortal gate closes and penis shrinks to that of a baby

 

My fiancee said no.

[lifeforce]

Your senses are the five thieves that steals your vitality to allow you to indulge in sense experiences and stir the heart-mind. Remain ever aloof, nonchalant and cold and dead as thousand year ash in the face of any temptation.

 

This is not good advice for those of us living in the world.

For hermits and recluses, maybe.

I like to fully engage all of my senses, as much as possible, at the joy of being alive.

However, I do respect your opinion and point of view.

If I may offer an alternative to the OP:

 

Get out in nature as much as possible preferably on long walks.

Breathe in deep, clean fresh air.

Take in all the sights around you.

Listen to the bird song, the sounds of animals and other creatures.

Smell the earth, flowers, plants.

Touch the trees, the grass, the water from the stream.

Smile at the wonder of life and give gratitude to the whole of Creation.

[lifeforce]

Taiji, qigong, or yoga would also be a good place to start.

Do you have any background in any movement arts such as martial arts, dancing, sports ?

If so, it might be a little easier for you to learn a simple, but very effective, form of moving qigong from a video/online.

[BearlyTao]

Yoga seems the most viable for me at the moment. I have a beginers manual, designed to start simple and gradually increase intensity.

 

I dabbled in Tai Chi years ago, sadly lost my instructional dvd. I've shopped a little since then but I'm not sure which to get be it a simple or 108 form, also considered Tai Chi Quan.

 

Qi Gong I have barely any experience with. I've heard that Tai Chi has better results, Qi Gong manifests faster, any validity to this?

[lifeforce]

Qi Gong I have barely any experience with. I've heard that Tai Chi has better results, Qi Gong manifests faster, any validity to this?

Depends on what results you're looking for. Taiji is taijiquan by the way. It is a martial art. It will take years of daily practice just to scratch the surface. Decades to become proficient, and a lifetime to master. Don't ever try learning it from a book or DVD.

Some forms of qigong can be learned this way, but it's better to either have a teacher, or have someone check your posture now and again.

[BearlyTao]

Taiji is taijiquan by the way. It is a martial art.

I use quan as a label for the versions that teach the combat application of the motions. In my area Tai Chi is taught more for health and wellness with no reference to the martial arts aspect.