Spring Forest Qigong - A Question on how it works

[Shadow_self]

Ive spent quite some time on this website looking and lurking before I joined and generally the advice to study with Damo Mitchell seems to be the echoing majority

 

One thing I also noticed however, is that Chunyi Lin's name has come up very often....So I did a good bit of digging about him, his methods and peoples testimony

 

One thing I dont understand....everyone claims the effects are immediate and healing is profound.....yet he uses things like visualisations and whanot that contradict what a lot of people say about traditional work...Yet here there are reports of this man healing everything from minor ailments to cancer....and not a few..a lot

 

Can someone reconcile this for me?? I dont understand how something can be claimed to be this strong, yet contradict classical principles...

 

Please note im genuinely asking, im not trying to say this doesnt work, or that doesnt...Just that im confused and would like some more experienced individuals to clarify

 

For healing and health is this the option one should pursue?

 

(PS enjoying the site, great reading on here!)

[Michael Sternbach]

Why, what's wrong with using visualisation? Many traditional systems employ it, including Daoist ones.

 

Not that this would matter alot; if something works, it works.

[Shadow_self]

27 minutes ago, Michael Sternbach said:

Why, what's wrong with using visualisation? Many traditional systems employ it, including Daoist ones.

 

Not that this would matter alot; if something works, it works.

 

A lot of traditional teachers specifically tell you these are not to be used...they engage the mind too much...I dont know if that applies to healing or medical qigong...I actually have no idea..thats why i asked

[Maddie]

38 minutes ago, Shadow_self said:

 

A lot of traditional teachers specifically tell you these are not to be used...they engage the mind too much...I dont know if that applies to healing or medical qigong...I actually have no idea..thats why i asked

 

I think it depends on the goal. If one is wanting to quiet the mind then yes visualizations are too busy, but if one has other specific goals then visualization can be very effective, having spent a great deal of time with both methods.

[Sebastian]

This is indeed a complex question.... And I’m no expert, but since I have some experience with this system, I would say it is maybe like an approximation of the Taoist system of alchemy. I don’t mean this in a negative way, because the goals are different. Mostly health as you stated. So if you start from that perspective, you first see what lower hanging fruits people need most in terms of health. Then to continue along this perspective, if most of your users are moderately sick or incapable of going through the strenuous traditional training, you are going to adapt or evolve the teaching. You’re not going to “weed them out” because you are elitist, you’re going to try to help the most amount of people, even a little bit each, because that’s where you feel you can do the most good. I believe this was Master Lin’s mindset when he started the company.

 

And to answer your question of “how do the healings work” more specifically.... on top of the movements, the Master of that system always speaks of the power of “light and an open heart”. This comes from a certain understanding of healing as it relates to spirituality, one that isn’t too common, but that Master Lin and his Master have honed to remove blockages. 

 

Personally, at one point I realized I wanted to study something more traditional, where health isn’t the end goal but more of a side-effect of correct practice. I wanted to focus less on the form and on the formless more. But for healing through form, I think SFQ is really wonderful in terms of effectiveness.

 

To live with the formless, I mean just basically live a balanced life in harmony with my conscience. This includes mind/body integration. This is more about living with Tao. So at different stages, we all have different goals I think.
 

And at that point, I also mostly dropped the use of visualization. I think this is good turning point actually. Do we need to project our spiritual energy outwards to see what’s behind the projection or can we just look at whats doing the projection ? Post heaven is great for healing, but my interest is in in pre-heaven now if that makes any sense.
 

As dmattwads said, look at your goals and go from there. Good luck

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Sebastian

[Michael Sternbach]

1 hour ago, Shadow_self said:

 

A lot of traditional teachers specifically tell you these are not to be used...they engage the mind too much...I dont know if that applies to healing or medical qigong...I actually have no idea..thats why i asked

 

Well, even in a traditional "no mind" approach like Zen training, you may be told to think of your thoughts as clouds passing by - that's visualisation for you! However, it is true the latter is emphasized and used more extensively in certain systems than in others. Medical qigong is employing it alot, at any rate, but so do neigong and neidan exercises in general, including MCO (Microcosmic Orbit), creation of the spiritual embryo, and many others.

 

That being said, there is a plethora of different methods and individual variations thereof out there, so your mileage may differ.

[damdao]

What Sebastian has said covers well enough the OP' question. I should add that "traditional teachers" is not a good description.

Traditional teachers in buddhist traditions teach a lot of visualization... unless they are dzogchen, in which case maybe they teach none. 

Daoism teach it in a lot of schools (specially zhengyi ones) but it is not encouraged in neidan, although some times it is allowed to use intention or feeling. 

[Michael Sternbach]

2 hours ago, damdao said:

What Sebastian has said covers well enough the OP' question. I should add that "traditional teachers" is not a good description.

Traditional teachers in buddhist traditions teach a lot of visualization... unless they are dzogchen, in which case maybe they teach none. 

Daoism teach it in a lot of schools (specially zhengyi ones) but it is not encouraged in neidan, although some times it is allowed to use intention or feeling. 

 

Okay, but even with neidan exercises such as MCO you may be told to focus your mind on a certain part of your internal energy system - in a non-forced, relaxed manner. Now is this visualisation or not? Good visualisation is always relaxed anyway, never forced...

 

Only then beneficial physiological changes appear can it be said that qi is really circulating smoothly. Without such changes there is just imaginary circulation. To be sure, imaginary circulation is helpful to the circulation of qi . but a proper degree of the imagination is important. It would be difficult to attain success with an excessive or insufficient degree of imagination.

 

https://www.qigonginstitute.org/abstract/152/exploration-of-the-traditional-neidan-method