freeform

The best way I’ve seen deep traumas cleared is through what is known as Zi Fa Gong... but you need to find a teacher for that. And not all teachers are great, unfortunately. Another thing I’ve learned in my own experience is finding the edge of an emotion... Normally when you feel an emotion, it’s actually the ‘top of the wave’ that you feel... the emotion started way earlier in a very subtle way. You must become very curious of the experiential nature of an emotion - how it feels and what leads up to it. Then keep finding the onset before the full blooming of it. It’s tricky to explain. Keep finding the edge - ‘oh I’m about to get angry’... and look for an even more subtle edge... ‘oh I feel a slight increase in blood flow’... and even subtler still... ‘oh my breathing had a slight pause on the inhale’... and subtler. If you make it a habit to find the source of your emotions, it becomes much more manageable... it won’t clear the underlying source of the trauma, but it can create a lot more freedom.

I very much agree with the first part of your statement. But experience (my own and those of my teachers) has taught me that the second part (ethical conduct being tied to energetic development) is definitely not the case! I think it’s important to be aware of this. Skill with Qi - even high-level skill that appears to be miraculous - is very ‘mechanistic’. This means that anyone - even a sociopath can build a lot of power through internal practice. When it comes to spiritual practice (which is different from energy cultivation - Xing - Ming) appears to be different. There appears to be a certain cause and effect relationship between spiritual progress and ethical conduct. But according to some, even this can be side-stepped with certain practices...

I think it’s important to differentiate this from ‘political’ or ‘sociological’ issues. The problem certainly exists in those settings. However, from a spiritual practice context, the source of the problem isn’t (just) outside oneself. Meaning that the source of these malevolent forces is inherently within each of us - not just out there in society. And this is no different whether you’re a male or a female. The seeds of these ‘evils’ lie in our base drives. They’re generally dormant, or remain as low level seedlings - as that slight envy of your work colleague, or as that burst of anger when you don’t get your way, or as that tendency to numb yourself with pleasure... But water these seeds - whether with power from internal practice or with power afforded to us through life in society, and these seeds can grow into big evil trees (this metaphor is getting a bit ridiculous, I know!) - and this happens without us noticing it. The reason I know a bit about Qigong deviations is because one of my teachers used to treat them - often particularly serious cases. And although there were many men that had issues - it was certainly not exclusive to men! Yes sexual exploitation was rare among the women brought in for treatment, but there was a hell of a lot of cruelty, control, manipulation, financial slavery (even straight-up slavery) etc. And very much amongst women too. The seed for these issues is within all of us. And they’re particularly dangerous in those of us that think we’re completely free from them.

Too much Qi in the head often results first in the appearance of increased intelligence. Suddenly one's vocabulary grows, you start to obsessively consume books and knowledge... Memory, problem solving and creativity increase. When you talk to them (at this earlyish stage) they come across as extremely erudite and knowledgeable (with a manic sort of edge). Over time this grows into delusions of grandeur, sometimes paranoia and delusions of persecution, a sense of omnipotence and other 'egoic' and 'manic' tendencies. Tainting of the heart is an altogether sadder affair. The 'heat' of repressed sexual feelings starts to affect both the heart and the small intestine - particularly if you're doing practices that aim to 'bring qi up' or have 'orgasms up the spine' or 'raise the sexual energy up to the heart' - or sometimes even just praying to something 'up above' you while forcibly celibate. The heart and small intestine act as a Yin-Yang balance... The heart creates feelings of excitement or 'joy' (not the tranquil joy that you might feel looking at your loved ones - but the excited "omg I just won a car!!!!" type of joy)... Bring hot, sexually flavoured qi up to the heart regularly and you'll start to get addicted to the emotional rush. The small intestine is the cognitive counterpart of this system. It's more in charge of the 'direction' or 'source' of this joy... Over time the heat affects the small intestine part of the system and the source of joy becomes tainted by base drives... Depending on your acquired nature this manifests in different ways - often there's a theme of control and power - so getting joy out of the control of another being. Sometimes it's just pure cruelty - a joy in the suffering of others. Sometimes it's sexual - having some sexual power or control over another. Sometimes it's a focus on power through wealth... Couple an addiction to this excitement with a 'perversion' of the source/direction of excitement - and there you have a monster... This is certainly not exclusive to qigong deviation - it can happen as a result of all sorts of stuff - but qigong deviation is certainly one way! And I want to add that I don't think Drew is suffering from an extreme case of tainting of the heart. But if he focused less on his third eye and more on his heart, it could certainly go that way. Can you see some of these themes in disgraced 'gurus'? Priests? Public figures afforded with power in an 'external' sort of way?

I remember a recent thread where I warned of the dangers of celibacy combined with flawed internal practice... Lots of people chimed in, saying it’s not so bad, not that dangerous. What Drew is demonstrating is classic signs of at least two deviations. Caused by flawed practice and celibacy. The results are the ‘tainting of the innocence of the heart’ combined with delusions of the mind. It is not logical. You can’t ‘prove’ anything now. Arguing with Drew will not generate insight for him. When this sort of deviation is chronic (and I’ve seen the same stuff from Drew over the 15-20 years that I’ve been coming to the forum) then it’s pretty much set for life. An ‘intervention’ in an online forum will simply entrench his delusions and flare up one’s emotions. It’s pointless. It would take an extreme life event to snap one out of such a deeply ingrained state... And after that it’s decades of hard work to reverse the damage inside (and possibly lifetimes to reverse the damage caused to others). So maybe it would be worth keeping this thread on ‘speed-dial’ when talking about the pitfalls of incorrect practice... Mess around with these practices - and you too can be like Drew

I completely agree. Unfortunately, his 'instructions' will be available to the public whether we denounce him on this thread or not. But honestly, most of his advised practices that I've read (not many, to be fair) will not amount to anything much - whether dangerous or effective... sit in full lotus, imagine stuff, stand in deep horse stance before bed - maybe just bad knees and a headache

This is the issue here. When your heart and mind are first tainted and then habitually engrained with one's base drives over the years, the mind will do all manner of mental gymnastics to avoid the issue... There is a certain energetic ignorance that takes place - like a kind of invisibility cloak... and when you have extra 'juice' to power this ignorance, it becomes incredibly effective. Drew isn't technically defending himself against his wrongdoings, because his ignorance has completely masked these things from him. He's defending himself against disagreement - that's all. The reality is that Drew will not face up to his wrongdoings... certainly not in the way we're trying to have him face up to it... He simply can't. I hope the best for you Drew - in that I hope you gain enough insight to see your own distortions. I don't think it's good to vilify him in this way. There is more than a slim likelihood that his 'o at a d' was all in his head anyway (the 'heat of base desires' can taint the mind as much as the heart). Of course, even if it was imagined, it's ethically and morally reprehensible - but that's up to him to learn from now. Maybe in time, these things will unravel for him of their own accord - whether in this lifetime or another - but it's no use trying to judge him like this on a forum. The lesson here is to look at ourselves. If Drew - an obviously smart, 'spiritual' person can muddle himself up with so much deep-seated ignorance, then it's likely that we ourselves do this too... maybe in smaller, less obvious ways... maybe it's nothing even remotely close... but we all have subtle ways that we manipulate ourselves and others to serve our base drives - and if we're on a spiritual quest, then it's imperative to become aware of this - because at some point it just becomes too late, and we end up like Drew, completely blind to our deeper selves...

I'm not sure I know what 'patriarchally designated dynamics means' - and I wouldn't like to guess. But yes you're right - it's a case of being vigilant about your own distortions (in whatever way they manifest) - gaining more power with internal practice - it's a big issue and I don't think it's talked about enough these days - it has been a big issue for centuries and it's been dealt with in many ways - from 'spiritual seclusion' to monasticism to mass morality and law to alchemical techniques for purifying ones nature... I think it's commonly assumed that if we're engaging in some spiritual pursuit that we somehow become immune to our own issues, biases, desires and aversions - but in fact, the opposite is the case - with an increase in light comes an increase in shadow. What might have been an unnoticed smudge on a dim light, shows up very differently when the light is bright. I don't think there's anything wrong with basic distinctions - even centuries-old ones. Odd assumptions and conclusions are an aspect of human nature whether they use ancient ideology or modern science as their inspiration. Human stupidity knows no bounds Amazingly neither does human compassion. We're a complicated lot, us!

It's a really important point - no one wants to hear about it sadly - but in the internal arts, what's known as the base desires is the primary pitfall - for both men and women (although there are differences). The base desires are not just sexual. They are to do with the basic human drives - to survive, gain status and to reproduce... These are fundamental - but they manifest in many different ways... but you can usually tell what's going on - if it has to do with pleasure, desire, power, status or sex - it's often an out of control base drive... Almost all of the more advanced internal arts teachers I've trained with made a big point of warning us about this pitfall. It's commonly believed that men tend to arrive at this pitfall earlier than women - but both do at some point. The basic idea is that internal work will increase your energy production - and with this increase, all inner distortions will also be increased... I think of it like a lightbulb inside us - when the light is really dim, the distortions and dirt covering the glass of the bulb are only projected as soft, hazy distortions. But once you turn up the dimmer switch, the intensity of light shines brightly out of you - but although the light gets brighter - the distortions and dirt on the glass of the bulb gain a stronger, sharper, more distinct shadow... According to my teachers, men's base desires tend to be stimulated rather quickly - increase in 'internal efficiency' increases sex drive, creates more internal power, makes you feel stronger and more capable. So men tend to turn to sexual self-gratification in various forms... they often begin aggrandising themselves, making themselves look and feel important (becoming 'grandmasters' or gurus) - sometimes this looks sort of comical from the outside - like seeing someone drunk or high on cocaine... there are many famous gregarious 'grandmasters' like this... Apparently, for women, this issue manifests differently... It normally starts a little later in the process than with men. What female students are usually told to do is to watch out for ways that they create power-dynamics and 'status' through subtle manipulation - like controlling people, situations and relationships - creating cliques and group hierarchies, controlling people with 'advice', emotional manipulation and so on. There is a certain dependence on 'emotions' and creating drama to feed this dependence. These are just the basic distinctions - they're certainly not exclusive to each sex. The point is that we all have these distortions within us. This is nothing to do with 'low frequency' people... this is normal and everyone has an aspect of this - it is exceptionally rare to not have issues around one's base drives. Internal arts will bring these distortions to the surface!! Often you won't notice this happening!! This will happen to everyone!! Usually, the self will somehow distort your views and actions in such a way as to make them seem completely acceptable. So even if in the past you would think of these actions as completely abhorrent, your mind will distort them in such a way as to make them acceptable to you at that time. This is why it's important to have teachers and peers on the path - their job is to point out these issues (that we're blind to) - and suggest ways to overcome them. Each tradition deals with these things in different ways, but in modern times we see these things as naive moral dogma. But we're also blind to the basic 'religion' that we're all part of - which is Humanism... Humanism has a very new approach to morals - if something feels bad to me (as a human) then it must be bad - if something feels good to me then it must be good... This Humanist morality makes these problems particularly difficult to navigate - because our feelings are very limited and very subjective...

If you have doubts, then it's probably not Qi. Focused attention will make you feel all kinds of sensations - but that's normally just your nerves being stimulated - it's not Qi. It's rare to feel Qi directly - and trying to feel it directly is not recommended and unnecessary (in the beginning). When we feel Qi, it's usually your body's reaction to Qi that you feel... It's not subtle, it's strong and obvious when it's real. As you can see from the video above, these reactions are often in the form of muscle spasms or trembling - sometimes it feels like an electric shock, or like a strong pressure or intense heat - but it's not subtle, it's as obvious as someone squeezing your arm, or zapping you with an electric cattle-prod. But it's also very rare to find someone that has developed their Qi Gong to the stage of being able to demonstrate these things (as well as having the willingness to demonstrate it to someone they don't know). It's pointless to get into these arts just to find out if Qi is real - it's like getting into theoretical physics to find out if Dark Matter is real... it's a lot of hard work, for not much of a payoff

To get anywhere you'll need to find a teacher that you like, that has virtue, skill and attainment and that has students who also have skill, virtue and attainment - then you must follow that teacher's guidance. Mixing systems will not get you anywhere beyond some initial experiences. The reality is that that's actually what most people are looking for (whether they realise it or not), or at least that's the limit of their dedication to this stuff - so I think it's ok to try stuff out in those circumstances. But if you want to pursue the internal arts to a more meaningful internal transformation, you'll need a teacher that's done that themselves, and are willing to help you do that too.

At higher levels of internal training, mistakes are very easy to make - there are many things to get just right - and if they're not just right, they can result in all kinds of issues. It's like setting up a fusion reactor in your belly, if something is even slightly wrong, then results can be catastrophic. That's why most teachers will not reveal any effective methods... They'll, for example, tell you to visualise stuff, when in reality they've never visualised themselves to get to their level. Simply because people are hungry for methods, but don't have the patience, stamina or capacity to do the work required. So they get given something benign to keep them busy and out of harm's way. Having wrong methods can either mean there is no effect at all, or the effect is dangerous. Having the right methods but misunderstanding them or not following them correctly has the same effects. Having the right methods, understanding them and following them correctly can still cause issues if you make even a small mistake. That's why it's important to follow methods that have been fine-tuned over hundreds and thousands of lifetimes as well as having a teacher that has achieved the necessary skills and attainments that they are happy to pass on, and help you achieve yourself. This is very rare.

The breathing practice is done sitting. It's similar to mindfulness or anapanasati - but with a very Daoist approach. It will, after some time, naturally make its way into your standing practice (as well as normal day to day life). The breath is an excellent starting point. Or at least was for me. Others prefer to approach it in a more physical way during standing or moving - all of these are necessary for full development of Sung though. Reaching the stage of At Ease certainly gives a very visceral access to the quality of Sung. Some people can get to At Ease just doing the breathing practice, others need Qi Gong/Neigong... Sung doesn't really have an endpoint as far as I can see - there is always more sung.

Really? I suspect you know better than me... because I’m no chinese history buff. But I remember looking into Lao Tzu - and it was certainly not clear that he even existed as an actual person... certainly not on the back of an ox Then there’s the Yellow emperor... Quite right. That’s exactly my approach. The cultural or historical aspect is not of much interest to me. But it’s important what ‘works’ means. Rocky Lionmouth says a lineage isn’t necessarily its outer form... Which I agree with. In my experience lineage is more a sort of line or process of specific transformations one goes through. The particular tools used to create these transformations will change and adapt depending on teacher/student/circumstances etc... but the results and ‘achievements’ or ‘signs’ along the process are the same (or should be).

I'm sorry but I don't know. I've long stopped searching for historical or scholarly understanding of the arts. Much of Chinese history is a mixture of legend and fact. There is so much confusion and misinformation that getting anything like an objective truth is impossible... Is Taiji really an ancient art? Or was it developed in the 1800's... Was Lao Tzu using internal alchemy or was he practising a form of meditative training? Was there really a Buddhist dude called Bodhidharma that went to Shaolin and taught YJJ to the monks? I'm not sure...