Vajra Fist

Here's a quote from Hakuin. I knew I remembered it from somewhere

This is an interesting read. Corey spent several years at Sogen-ji. https://zenembodiment.com/2018/06/08/breathing-from-the-belly-tanden-a-great-rolling-ball/ I suspect that hara/tanden has an important role in the flash of insight that comes from koan practice. For instance, instructions often suggest holding the koan in the hara.

Really interesting! Perhaps it's more a Rinzai thing? My teacher comes from the Daitoku-ji line in the West, but I've seen it emphasised even more elsewhere, particularly in Sogen-ji under Harada Roshi and Meido Moore's Korinji. Jeff Shore (Tofukuji) also has a lot of focus on hara breathing. I don't Soto as well, but I know Dosho Port (Katagiri Roshi alum) emphasised hara breathing rather than shikantaza.

As far as I know, zen doesn't teach hand positions or the specific standing exercises that daoists use to construct a dantien. Yet the hara development is tangible, and comes through years and years of abdominal breathing. The hara has many of the properties associated with dantien, I.e. a magnetic quality on the mind, a reservoir of ki etc.

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I'm joking of course. It's a famous line from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - which ironically was the thing that turned wudang into a tourist trap. I'm curious about your thoughts on lineage. To me, that's less important than whether someone has skill. For instance, the form itself may be really old, but performed in a completely external, empty way. Something relatively new, like the CMC or HSS form, may conversely be practiced to a very high level. The difference is not in the external choreography, but whether the practitioner can use the form to express jin.

I've deleted my comments about Damo. I realised I was still pretty upset about a disagreement I had with him years ago and that may have coloured a lot of what I wrote about him. Damo is obviously a human being too, and I bet it can't be too nice as a public figure reading anonymous people writing horrible things about you online. I think this has been fairly cathartic for me though, to get it off my chest after keeping it quiet for so long. So perhaps time to move on, forgive and forget. Apologies for airing dirty laundry, fellow bums

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I should probably add for balance that Damo is a fantastic teacher. He's able to explain difficult concepts in a practical way, and his syllabus is very well organised. His taiji and bagua are also to a very high level and very well taught. His students report profound and significant changes as a result of their study of neigong, and I have no reason to doubt their accounts. My concern really is where it all leads, and I can only infer that based on my personal interactions with Damo online. It's also possible he just wasn't having a great day and he didn't handle it as well as he would have done normally. Nevertheless I was very affected by the whole incident.

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There's still some good stuff around the shaolin area. Wugulan style under Wu Nanfang and Shi Dejian. Shaolin xinyiba under Hu Zhengsheng. Both styles are internal and trace back to the temple before the revolution.

I think the best things that happened in my life were down to chance or accident. Finding a career, moving abroad, meeting my wife, even IVF for our son. But I don't think I ever had a passive attitude toward these things. I worked hard to get a job, I was looking for a long-term partner. So while success or failure depend on fate, divine provenance or luck - however you want to see it. You still have to care about it, and strive forward in pursuit of your goals.

Qigong is largely a means of health maintenance. In many ways, going to the gym is probably better for that if you have time. It is possible to practice alchemy, but it's very labour intensive getting to that point. And people at the furthest point along the path tend to talk about jhana as the ultimate achievement. Honestly I feel like meditation is the best use of my time, if I only have two hours free every day. Edit - I am quite keen though on exploring the relationship between qigong and the clarity and stability of the mind during meditation. Lots of Buddhist teachers are incorporating qigong into their teachings now because of its supportive effect in this regard. In addition, sitting for long periods can sometimes make the body (and the mind) somewhat sluggish. Qigong seems to counteract that.

I'm not sure tbh. Better to ask a teacher. John Dolic says no meditation at all. Others like Lisa O'Shea and a guy in Germany I emailed said meditation is fine, so long as it doesn't involve visualisation. Instructions are quite vague.