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Think of walking an unknown path, navigating in the dark. The odds of getting stuck and getting nowhere are at or infinitely close to 100%. Or walking the path that dozens/hundreds of other people walk, where, as you walk, you can find those ahead/behind you, refer to the qualified guidance and peer experience, where the trail itself is visible. Once you reach the end of the explored path, exploring further requires a very serious skill set, and it is much harder work. It is not something a normal person can do. Telling random people online that they can do that themselves is no different from recommending to commit suicide. If things were that easy and banal, cultivators with siddhis would be as common as grass. Emptying your mind or procrastination is not a legitimate training method.

I mean THIS one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuowang Done properly, you could have your hands wherever you like and still experience 100% presence and stillness. Such practice is complete being-ness, and is not different from enlightenment or the Dao itself, which is the point of the practice. With some pointing from a realized teacher, it is possible to completely realize the non-dual nature of reality in such practices. - I remain curious about your direct answer to my questions. I hope you will consider answering them.

Distinctions like this don't exist where there is realization. Do things change after realization? Of course, but ONLY in the aspect that they deepen insight - not that the practice changes the realization, it only deepens it. Nonsense. I have seen tummo taught by Tibetan masters that walked from Tibet to India in the 50's. Tummo is still being taught. Either way, it is not a central teaching. No amount of energy teachings will result in realization. There ARE teachings that are suggested after realization, but they don't change the initial insight, they only deepen it.

Best wishes for this New Year! As I finally received my treatment and start to feel that my sleep quality is improving, I feel like it’s time to slowly resume practice. While going back to the first DVD, some questions popped into my mind: 1) Should I keep a gentle focus on the lower abdomen while doing opening 3 breaths and during breath formulas? 2) Regarding formula part in itself, after inhaling my 100% and exhaling X%, do I need on the next inhale to breathe in same X% and exhale 100% at same speed? Said another way, should I keep "counting my potatoes" ? Or do I just breathe in and out calmly without counting? Thanks for the refresher!

Mixing practice is bad, under the context of many people are without physical/good teachers, depend on free online material, forums and lack of reading and exposure. Yet if there is a community of cultivators, even different lineages, beliefs, and with some medical support, then trying out other practices when one has some experience is quite natural. So it was how many cultivators received their training from a number of teachers.

And it is entirely possible to have the same realization with energy work, why so one-sided?. And it is possible to do a lot of work and not having a realization about reality, but having other experiences that a tradition values and call spiritual. It is even possible that, lets say a theravada buddhist, doesn't call it energywork but still practice it, because nomenclature differs between traditions and there is more to it than breathing methods and pushing energy into the head. Just imagine the possibilities😁 I feel that you are playing with words. If you do not think that practice causes realization, why did you spend so much time practicing? Why do you mention that people with a few months of practice might get short spiritual experiences, instead of saying "I watched football with the gang last saturday, and darn if we all didn't have a glimpse of reality"?

Yesterday it was extremely slow, it's fine now.

The tradition I study gets a bad reputation because people try to mix it with other techniques, get hurt, and then blame our lineage. It’s like baking a cake, swapping the sugar for salt, and then telling everyone that cake tastes terrible. It’s taken very seriously in my lineage. My teacher once tried mixing in another practice, and when his teacher found out, he made him start over from scratch. He lost years of progress just to undo the damage. Also, this isn't about money. I’ve never been charged a dime, and neither was my teacher. I really wouldn't recommend mixing methods unless you’re okay with creating problems that no one on earth knows how to fix.

One or 2 disconnections.

Yes that's a whole can of worms so to speak haha The energetic bodies in Vajrayana are (generally) not the same as the yang immortal body of neidan, the rainbow body would be the closest comparison as its cultivated via reverting the consciousness back to origin but that's a very specific thing that uses an entirely different cultivation method and usually means that the physical form disappears and that life on earth has concluded I know that several neidan lineages deal with other energetic bodies prior to the ultimate yang immortal body but I won't talk too much about that as I haven't received direct transmission on the topic In Vajrayana I think depending on the lineage you are often instructed to assume the form of the deity 24/7 and so the merging of consciousness happens on varying levels throughout your life as perceptions are purified, there are stories of people able to physically become the deity after sustained practice of this Ultimately we only have one human experience of course and so someone that has achieved each energetic body according to the tradition could tell whether they're the same or not, I would personally say that they're different as the cultivation methods and reported effects are different To put on my universalism cap for a moment, religious daoism which is incorporated in varying degrees in neidan lineages deals strongly with deity yoga similarly to vajrayana, in religious daoism deity yoga is said to be a way to access ling qi or "brahma qi" as one aims to assume the authority and energy of heaven I'd say the siddhis from yidam practice are likely similar to the religious daoism line of development even if done for different purposes South east asian esoteric buddhism is super interesting, i've found some really cool stuff from Vietnam that incorporates neidan and tantric buddhism from the shingon line into one lineage Almost impossible to find good info from there without taking a trip and knowing the right people though haha Nan huai-chin has some interesting writings about the similarities between neidan and vajrayana as he says that he's studied both (mostly untranslated in chinese however) His view from what i've seen is also that they are two separate processes that can ultimately compliment each other

From Liu I-Ming, Awakening to the Tao (good book on internal alchemy). The body beyond the body is a pointer to your true nature Consciousness / Awareness / Beingness / Dao. Nothing can change the fact this is what you are right now. If you do energy work you will still be Consciousness. What is observing the change in your body? The changeless.

That is, of course, not true. A more precise statement would be that no amount of post heaven energetic work, in it self, will result in realization. But used as a bridge towards pre heaven energetics, it is as good as any other bridge. But since you have stated that you weren't taught about red and white bindu, this is outside of your experience. Which is fine, much of that you write about is outside of my experience, and some of it I have doubts about.

Well, it did all start with a dude who agreed to kill his child for the voice in his head... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯