Age started?

[Pranaman]

When did you start cultivating that which you are cultivating?

 

Do you know of any masters that started later than their years as children?

 

i'm 18 and just started. I will continue for the rest of my life, but just wondering about this...

[Spectrum]

18 is a good age to start. plenty of time to build a foundation that will last a lifetime. less distractions by being out of school, and motivation to observe and learn from success and failure.

 

I started about the same age. Good times.

 

Dave

[mantis]

about 16, i'm 18 now

[Taiji Bum]

I was 22-23 when I started but I didn't get serious until I was 26.

[Aetherous]

Started at 17, and that was my most serious point. Wore myself out. Now I just keep on truckin.

[Vajrasattva]

16

[joeblast]

I first heard of qigong when I was 27, 28...probably 29-30 I started to get serious.

[Prince...]

I first heard of qigong when I was 27, 28...probably 29-30 I started to get serious.

 

LoL...I dont feel so bad now, I just heard of Qigong last year. I am 28 and still trynna get started.

[Mal]

Started trying to teach myself around 18.

 

Found a good teacher and started getting benefits around 30.

 

Pretty sure all the adventures in the in-between years prepared me to "find" that teacher. So never feel like your time is wasted or try to rush too much.

[doc benway]

Started in early 20's - now I'm in my fourth cycle!

Year of the Rat baby...

[松永道]

Started in early 20's - now I'm in my fourth cycle!

Year of the Rat baby...

 

I started at 24 and indeed complained about being a Johnny-come-lately. Then one day, I mentioned that to a 60 year old woman in my Bagua class and she laughed. "24! I started when I was in my 50s! You've got plenty of time..." Yea. I do.

 

Martial arts aside, most traditional cultures don't teach cultivation too young. They wait until you've grown up a bit, have a career, a family... I think there's a real reason to it. So many people who start young, start for the wrong reasons. They don't want and/or can't compete in the world, so they turn to spiritual things. A lot pf people see non-attachment as an end goal but there are two ways to get there: detachment or transcendence. I think that's a potential danger of starting too young, how can you transcend something you've never experienced? How can a 15 year old monk transcend sexual desire? How can you transcend material prosperity when you've never had it? This is why so many monks practice for years and achieve nothing! Talk about going against the natural current.

 

In China and India (I don't know about other cultures) the vast majority of sages came from wealthy families. Buddha was a prince. He had everything. Wealth, women, power, he lacked nothing. Nothing except real spiritual fulfillment. He had all those things and so knew fulfillment wasn't found in any of them.

 

I'm not saying the only way to transcend something is to have it in ridiculous abundance, you don't have to sleep with thousands of women, make a million bucks, or become governor. But you have to manifest these things, stability, prosperity, worthiness, confidence, in some way before moving on. Otherwise, it's just quiting, detaching from life before it starts.

 

Hmmm.

 

Quite a rant, wonder where that came from..

[sheng zhen]

Started regular meditation at 15. Took a few years to realize I would dedicate my life to spiritual work.

 

I dont really think age matters that much. Some people can spend decades cultivating without going anywhere. What matters more is to find a good teacher and a teaching that resonnates deep within you.

[rain]

18

Edited July 16, 2008 by rain

[findley]

wow, I everybody was so young! I began internalizing the philosophy of the tao te ching at around 16-17... by 18 was working on qigong and tantra and stuff.

I believe I even managed to open my heart chakra.

 

...and then a few months after that I sold my soul and joined the army.

 

I unintentionally picked up the practice a few months ago with masturbation. Now I am reminded that it is the only thing important in life!

 

"is it not that the sage is without thought of self [ego living?] that his private ends are accomplished?"

 

I am 22 now

[Sahaj Nath]

 

Do you know of any masters that started later than their years as children?

 

i'm 18 and just started. I will continue for the rest of my life, but just wondering about this...

 

 

relax.

 

 

some people study for 50 years and never get it. for others, it just clicks.

 

 

just as an example, look at this kid.

 

 

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some can spend decades, and they will never flow like water. they'll spend a lifetime seeking it, and never relax into their being enough for them to really get it. this kid probably couldn't even tell you what he 'gets' about the form, but it's there.

 

by the time he's your age, he could potentially lose some of that natural flow. he could potentially lose himself in dogma.

 

 

try as we might to make perfect sense of it all, it's really not a linear thing. our paths will unfold as they do, and we will be as we are.

Edited July 16, 2008 by Hundun

[Sunya]

still haven't really started