Forestgreen

So is mine. Shaolin. Supported by the abhidhamma, texts from tibetan buddhism, and so on. Maybe I should say that I am not referring to doing some contrieved breathing method or a bunch of slow movements here, those are just initial stepping stones in my practice. Much has been removed in modern, post-reform buddhism. It can still be seen in for example texts used by the Nyingma tradition, although Asa in the infamous podd with Damo showed that much of this isn't actually taught (to westerners at least). I am aware that zen do not focus on this, neither does the burmese lineages that has samma sati as their base ( I disagree about their definition of correct mindfulness, because I use mindfulness myself, but again, I can only say that I practice differently and that I have textual support for my practice). That is just play with words. Hopefully you are aware of that. If I said "I am already strong, I just have to go to the gym four times a week for five years", that would be from the perspective of a potential future "me", but not an actual description of my capabilities today. Dependant origination, proper practice sets the conditions. "cause" something to happen.

James McNeill claims that Little Nine Heaven is really ancient. If I recall right, 17 movements, not strung together in a form. This is supposedly the mark of the oldest traditions (cannot remember who stated that).

I would say that although I used the word transforming, that is a poor choice of words. I use post heaven as stepping stones to access pre heaven. One there, I can interpret situations differently and act differently. I would also translate De to something else than the concept of the five virtues in this context. DaoDe, not another group of wuxing correllates that chinese culture is so fond of.

My experience is that the public teachers are part of the problem. How many times do you see a public teacher that have an income based on his school that doesn't teach Xing Yi, Taiji, Bagwa, two kinds of meditative practices, and a couple of qigong traditions? Teachers set an example, students imitate that.

Might work on emotions, but not really on the transformation from ego to non-ego, in the presence of ego-strengthening methods.

They should be skilfully manipulated, so the practitioner can awaken to reality (wuzhen). The goal of one line of neidan.

If they find the teaching valuable, they should do more of that instead of trying to add another routine.

Sal Canzonieris book The hidden history of the chinese internal martial arts traces taiji to other, older martial arts. There are interesting forms from Wudang, but the Wuji form doesn't really look like taiji, the 12 qi disruption form Erle Montaigue taught did have aspects of the other internal arts, and in the end who knows. Btw, I have a picture of a Chen master standing in a posture that is alchemical, not martial. I use a version of it myself.

Damo says that he found other teachers in other places in southeast asia, and that he keeps contact with those. My teachers teacher left China, and felt that he could teach more freely because of that. I always interpreted the Asa vajrayana podcast and the whiskey and cigar antics as a part of a scheme to repulse students that wanted the cult-like aspects of training. A focus on the mechanics of neigong would be in line with that.

Took me 28 years (of 30 years of practice) just to understand the process ( so it is not finished), and I never joined the siddhi hunter club nor the instructor club during those years. I also do a lot of emotional work. I wish I could say that if people just practiced a correct method, it would not be s problem. But that would be a lie. The energetic path have inherent problems. Other paths have other problems, often based on dissociating from the ego instead of developing non-ego.

I added in the quote. Yes, and it should set the practitioner for a very healthy way of transcending that later on. For those that aim in that direction, and walk far enough.

Sounds like every school of qigong, meditation or martial arts I have ever trained in.

This book is an excellent example of why it is so difficult to talk about practices and results surrounding neidan, internal elixir. It challanges the view one might have about ( sorry Taoist Texts, I'm going to use the term neidan here) neidan. Firstly, if you are one of those that feel that Damo Mitchell uses too many words, JAJ uses more. For me, the amount of words is not the challenge. It is the meaning of those words. If I would show an example of what neidan practices are not, I would use this book. And, since I am older, I would add "in the tradition I practice, for the specific result I am aiming for". Important words. This is not how I practice, this is not how I interpret that the texts I use as a support should be interpreted. Are the practices valid, useful, and likely to lead to a result? Well, the persons practicing them think so. I think that the results I get from my practice are valid and useful. Most likely, we get different results. But we call it neidan, internal elixir.

Every traditional system.

Activating the rainbow bridge (it's in the neijingtu, for reference) is a basic level accomplishment. Activating the heche is an intermediate level accomplishment. Unless one continue with speed-reciting the names of the eight trigrams until qi moves in the du + ren channels at the speed of light ( the funniest scamgong I have seen in the 30+ years I have practiced), one moves on with more important aspects of practice. Maybe in your system these things are more central? But I do agree that, as a consumer, I have the right to have potential teachers tested for accomplishments. Even brit expats. (Flickers through books...) So, I think they should be tested for the abilities to levitate or fly, to shrink to an extremely small size, and expand to an extremely large size. Objective and verafiable claims. The established way to do that is with doctors and scientists present. Maybe one of those doctors should be a psychiatrist? And the big dudes in white coats, maybe they aren't scientists at all...

We are all dying to hear that answer. Distance scrying?

The method that creates The strongest post heaven manifestations is also the most risky. What has that to do with awakening to reality?

Just for the sake of argument, I would say that neidan carries a low risk, but all the forceful neigong people do in the preparational stage: Compressions, trying to create large amounts of post heaven energies, forcing this into systems not created for it; that comes with risk of injury.

Freeform spent a decade here informing us that an adept neigong practitioner would/should develop a babyfat Nezha body. Both Damo and Adam seems to believe that the way their bodies look is a direct result of their practices.

A training method.

This is still post heaven though.