"All methods end in stillness"-Advice on the Path

[Fate]

After finally coming back around to Taoism, the teachings and thought of which I internalized along time ago (mostly unconscious, I'm not trying to say I fully grasped them back then), I'm interested in cultivation techniques.

 

Now this isn't one of those "where do I get started" threads. I believe I had already started before I came to this forum, so this is more of a "have I really started and what do I need to look out for and refine my practice?"

 

I began using Osho's book the Secret of Secrets, which discusses the methods of the SotG and Osho's concepts.

The line in the title best captures the technique, and I want to see if the translation is doing it justice or how it compares to other methods of Nei Gong/Dan. It has an emphasis on simplicity, and that the mind simply wants to make things more complicated but sitting silently doing nothing is really all that is required in the end. To this effect I had no idea about the concepts of Nei Gong, Jing->Qi->Shen alchemy, LDT, MCO or any of that. The 'backwards flowing method' is the closest it comes to describing the internal alchemy.

 

I begin by sitting on a yoga block in a comfortable cross legged posture with spine erect, closing the eyes half way and focusing on the tip of the nose. I do this after 20 minutes of visuzalizing golden light coming through on the in breath, and yin qi coming up from feet to head on the out breath.

 

 

First I press the thumb against each of the fingers to open up the meridians, I do this on the exhale for about 5 minutes.

Then I simply fold my hands in a buddhist mudra of balance(right hand laying on left thumbs connecting) and watch my breathing. Not focusing on breathing in and out slowly, but simply being aware of it and watch as it calms naturally and slows. Then move into stillness and no thought for as long as I can maintain (usually 30+ minutes these days, not continous but I mean thats how long this practice goes).

 

Now I want to do this method for 3 months if its remotely close to Taoist cultivation that this forum is familiar with before I begin to add on and look for a Nei Gong teacher around or order a book to being working that way.

 

Thoughts? Advice? Questions?

 

[Uroboros]

After finally coming back around to Taoism, the teachings and thought of which I internalized along time ago (mostly unconscious, I'm not trying to say I fully grasped them back then), I'm interested in cultivation techniques.

 

Now this isn't one of those "where do I get started" threads. I believe I had already started before I came to this forum, so this is more of a "have I really started and what do I need to look out for and refine my practice?"

 

I began using Osho's book the Secret of Secrets, which discusses the methods of the SotG and Osho's concepts.

 

The line in the title best captures the technique, and I want to see if the translation is doing it justice or how it compares to other methods of Nei Gong/Dan. It has an emphasis on simplicity, and that the mind simply wants to make things more complicated but sitting silently doing nothing is really all that is required in the end. To this effect I had no idea about the concepts of Nei Gong, Jing->Qi->Shen alchemy, LDT, MCO or any of that. The 'backwards flowing method' is the closest it comes to describing the internal alchemy.

 

I begin by sitting on a yoga block in a comfortable cross legged posture with spine erect, closing the eyes half way and focusing on the tip of the nose. I do this after 20 minutes of visuzalizing golden light coming through on the in breath, and yin qi coming up from feet to head on the out breath.

 

 

First I press the thumb against each of the fingers to open up the meridians, I do this on the exhale for about 5 minutes.

Then I simply fold my hands in a buddhist mudra of balance(right hand laying on left thumbs connecting) and watch my breathing. Not focusing on breathing in and out slowly, but simply being aware of it and watch as it calms naturally and slows. Then move into stillness and no thought for as long as I can maintain (usually 30+ minutes these days, not continous but I mean thats how long this practice goes).

 

Now I want to do this method for 3 months if its remotely close to Taoist cultivation that this forum is familiar with before I begin to add on and look for a Nei Gong teacher around or order a book to being working that way.

 

Thoughts? Advice? Questions?

 

Some Taoist texts refer to Emptiness and a state of drowsiness, along with forgetfulness. I was taught to utilize this emptiness.

 

Adding in breath cultivation, penetrating it into the body, is a key, too.

 

Ah, one more key- the way of the Tao is returning.....To return, we must start. Sunrise-sunset. Follow nature. Nature begins and returns.

 

That is about as much as I experientially know.

 

I hope it helps.

[Fate]

The SotG does advise the 3 Buddhist meditations on emptiness if one is having difficulty with the method. Since you pay no attention to the outside world that is "delusion" energy starts naturally coming back to you. Then you realize that you yourself are emptiness, and you find the center that is nowhere and everywhere-no more need be said about this.

 

I'll look more into breath cultivation as well, thank you.

[Uroboros]

The SotG does advise the 3 Buddhist meditations on emptiness if one is having difficulty with the method. Since you pay no attention to the outside world that is "delusion" energy starts naturally coming back to you. Then you realize that you yourself are emptiness, and you find the center that is nowhere and everywhere-no more need be said about this.

 

I'll look more into breath cultivation as well, thank you.

 

As to breath cultivation, utilize various methods of breathing- fire breathing, cleansing breath, various pranayama methods, etc. They all cultivate the breath. Yes, also play with your breath. Feel its state and condition. Is it deep and easy? Does it get stuck somewhere consistently?

[Spotless]

Try not to trade out one duality for the other:

 

The "delusional world" does not need to be seen as the bricks and mortar / the physical world including your body - it is far more the noise. The noise frequency - we become the noise.

 

All of practice is to help you somehow come to the moment when you see know feel and understand no separation.

 

Everything that brings you to feel alone and on your own - an outcast so to speak - is from the noise of fear and non-sense cultivated in the sleeping world.

 

The doing is in the undoing and no doing is required in the doing of it. As the mind approaches an actual no thought state - not one held at bay - the flow of energies within your awareness will increase many fold.

 

It is not necessary to read volumes on this - cultivation is for the most part over engineered because the noise has pevaded the teachings - people like it difficult - often if it requires whipping the body so much the more likely we are to jump on that teaching.

 

Practice without mind - it is over rated since it is the one that controls the rating system. (I am not advocating stupidity - and learning how to actually think is way beyond the range of most people's cognition - we react - we do not think - we do not see both sides of polarity)

 

Mechanical practice in such things as Yoga postures and Qi Gong and fasting is incredibly powerful - mantras and other tools for stopping mind are also powerful. I say mechanical because if you approach your practice with the intent of gentle stillness and full awareness within your head - and then participate in the postures and breathing (mechanical) - Hugh results take place quickly.

This is the turtles path.

 

If you approach your meditation with the same intent and practice mantras or other Simple tools for help in allowing the mind habit to fade - this also will bring great results.

 

Practices that have you Doing all sorts of internal work are for the most part noise that has invaded the teaching - many of them are useful in some ways and you can spend decades mastering them, defending them and becoming an advocate for them.

 

The simple mechanical practices constantly break up patterns that are constantly developing as a cause of mind/noise. These practices then constantly allow for a strengthening of natural patterns of vitality and the creation of higher fuels that will pervade the vehicle and allow for abilities that are unfathomable - and far greater than anything you will manipulate to in the rabbits engineering regimes.

 

The rabbits way - and there are many - is very effective and quick in terms of specific results - but this is the Western Way of Western Medicine in so many ways:

An inorganic approach that treats / works on a specific and not the whole. A presumption that we know what we are doing (until of course we become acutely aware we didn't - as when we might end up in acute care with a case of kundalini disasters from manipulating energy very specifically and with a lopsided overly specific intensity).

 

The turtle paths require very little - but they do require regular practice preferably every day and possibly several times a day. The rabbits paths also require practice and they also will require recuperation time.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Spotless

[Fate]

Right now I'm looking between Stillness-Movement Nei Gong and Damo Mitchell's Nei Gong as starting points. S-M seems from what I've read so far around the forum to be based more on natural movement and following one's own intuition.

 

http://www.lotusneigong.org/nei-gong-modules/

Mitchell's outline seems a bit more structured and focused on discipline, breath control, etc. This seems more representative of the "hare's" path but then again S-M seems to be greatly revolving around a Qi transmission to get started which is decidedly "Hare" like...

[Brian]

It is not uncommon for people to mistake an energetic transmission from Ya Mu as being the core of the Stillness-Movement system. In truth, the core is the system itself -- the transmission is an accelerant, an opportunity to briefly experience some of what lies ahead, a corrective and healing measure and more.

 

Try the system for three months, practicing every day, and then evaluate it.

[Fate]

This article helped me process the insights given in this thread with more depth.

 

http://qigonginstitute.org/html/papers/Qigong%20as%20a%20Portal%20to%20Presence.pdf

 

It describes how any system of cultivation which is hierarchical, such as the "stages" of transmuting Jing to Qi to Shen etc. become obstacles.

 

Thank you again Spotless and Uroboros. I will approach the mechanics much with more awareness and stillness now.

[seekingbuddha]

This article helped me process the insights given in this thread with more depth.

 

http://qigonginstitute.org/html/papers/Qigong%20as%20a%20Portal%20to%20Presence.pdf

 

It describes how any system of cultivation which is hierarchical, such as the "stages" of transmuting Jing to Qi to Shen etc. become obstacles.

 

Thank you again Spotless and Uroboros. I will approach the mechanics much with more awareness and stillness now.

Good article, full of gems/wisdom/truth, but as always has been interspersed with misunderstandings commonly seen among western psychologists/Ph.Ds who study eastern teachings. I see this as recurrent pattern, in many of the articles of western teachers who are not yet liberated, but have the scholarly/bookish understanding of the concepts taught by the highest teachers that humanity produced over our entire history. Are we supposed to believe the words of a Ph.D over the words of Jesus/Vedas/Buddha/Enlightened-Taoists ??

 

As always, read everything on the internet, but use your innate wisdom to decide if the words are in perfect hormone with the teachings of the highest teachers of humanity. I am not saying that these people are completely wrong. It is just that it is easy to slip in a misguiding words into an article (unintentionally), when most of the article stays true to the high teachings. Certain words/presentations could be easily misunderstood by a novice practitioner.

 

I am writing this with a bit of passion now, because I returned just now from a conversation with a highly intelligent (i mean much superior IQ than mine) friend of mine, who lives a happy life and is well accomplished in society. And he was trying to teach me a principle that is very similar to what is presented in this article cited above. I refuted him clearly, with the words that an ordinary human who is under suffering/delusion/unsatisfactory world condition needs to go through certain steps in order to evolve to a certain stage, where he can practice what is being outlined in this above article. He had no reply to that. One does not understand level 10, when one is still trying to understand what is at level 1. It would be a mistake to assume that we have to practice level 10, right off the bat.

Edited August 1, 2015 by seekingbuddha

[gendao]

QI is IQ reversed...

It is a process of deintellectualizing, and embodying experience instead.

Centered in the lower dantain, rather than the brain.

 

Although "stillness" is perhaps not the best term, as it still implies a localized position in spacetime.

Whereas the desired state may be one without those dimensions at all, resulting in nondimensional "omnipresence."