freeform

Life is suffering. Thats what the Buddhists (the ones that manage to survive Ride’s death cells! 🤣) tell us. It’s not only suffering. But suffering is guaranteed. Whether it’s the Royals or the pimps or the banksters - or droughts, hurricanes or lions or meningitis... One way or another we will experience suffering. Even in the formless realms there is suffering... There are two things you can do... 1) do something that alleviates a little bit of suffering for someone else. Or 2) do something that liberates you from suffering altogether (‘enlightenment’)... Preferably go for 1) and 2) both - because you’ll probably not manage enlightenment, but you can alleviate a lot of suffering while trying... But idle complaining is (in my opinion) the least productive and most destructive thing to do.

Is it really that bad? Not so long ago 90% of us would be dead by the age of 40... whether as a result of enslavement, brutality, famine or illness. I wake up and I don’t have to worry about being raped or killed... I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to eat and be in relative warmth and comfort... As Thelerner says - it’s mostly a case of us having more time and luxury to complain. We’ve become soft and preoccupied with trivialities and ourselves and so things look bad to us. In reality they’re not that bad Are thing perfect? - of course not and they never will be...but they’re pretty good in comparison to most of our history.

Its not that the exercise is first... it’s that the exercise develops an experiential, embodied understanding of the art... A seed is not much to look at - but plant it, water it, fertilise it, weed around it and you might get something worthwhile... the ‘exercise’ is that cultivation... Bear in mind that not all teachers of Dao are equally effective though. Also be mindful that in reacting against dogma you may allow the pendulum to swing to the other extreme and you blind yourself in another new way.

Feels a little trite to post advice... But we noticed a big change with my grandma’s memory when she began supplementing with lions mane mushroom extract.

I’m really not sure to be honest. I don’t practice alchemy at the moment and I haven’t gone through Damo’s book on it very thoroughly... Off the top of my head, an important thing to consider is context... sometimes my teachers will represent qualities required in the body with trigrams... but the qualities will change depending on the level we are practicing at. Does that make sense?

I kind of hoped this would be forgotten about 😊 The way I apply the Yi Jing is to do with my training... the trigrams will have specific internal qualities - the changing lines will represent specific transformations... But to explain all this in a way that would make sense would be simply too much for me at the moment... just the word count would approach the length a book... and I suspect it wouldn’t be of much use to most. So I think I’ll just focus on what is most useful to the most number of people here - the mechanics of Sung, Ting and the internal body... as well as the pitfalls and errors along the way

Standard Qi Gong won’t shift this deep trauma. Shifting this trauma should never be the aim of your practice - that will just entrench it further. There are two things that will help: 1) Zi Fa Gong 2) Sitting practice... (specifically alchemical sitting practice - but you need to build up to it) - start with being able to sit quietly in perfect posture. You'll need a teacher to get either of these going...

I’m really not an expert on Occultism. The people I’ve met also go through a long period of building the foundations... just slightly differently. Hermetics is the same. There is also sorcery which requires less of a foundation - you’re basically giving away parts of yourSelf to spirits in exchange for magical effects. Foolish trade if you ask me. Also 3 years is really not that long. It takes at least 3 years to get a foundation in anything... drawing, architecture, dance, comedy - you really can’t expect to get good at anything without doing some work...Those 3 years will go whether you use them to practice or not

I didn’t meet Jiang Feng. I did meet a couple of students of his teacher Xuan Kong - and they could demonstrate some of the same skills. They’re not so open and public about it though. I’ve also met other cultivators from different lines who have developed their Yi Jin Jing skills to the same level. It’s not uncommon in some circles.

Without coming across as overly dramatic - I’ll need to consider if it’s a good idea to share it in public or not... Sure - I understand - and it made sense. It’s just not quite what I meant.

I think it’s a good set. It’s not ‘wimpy’. What you get out of it depends heavily on the internal principles while doing the set as well as your level of inner ‘connection’... (btw - the principles you mentioned isn’t what I’m talking about!) Would it actually cause much of an effect to the 8 extraordinary meridians? Maybe a little bit - but not to a great extent... but that doesn’t mean it’s not very useful. In fact Qigong simply can’t affect the congenital channels very deeply... but it can help to prepare for the deeper stuff...

Yup Yeah. Not just me but classical traditions that have had thousands of years of experience in this sort of stuff I understand. There are cause and effect chains in everything you do. I get that when you first get into energetic arts things can be exciting and seem kind of magical... but the reality is that there’s quite mechanistic principles behind most phenomena... It’s not that magical once you understand how it works. Just like long distance runners dropping dead in the middle of a race - it’s possible to do yourself great harm if you don’t understand and follow the principles... There are many pitfalls even if you are really skilful and know what you’re doing - for example the famous Jiang Feng recently dropped dead in the middle of a healing treatment because of an error... So if you’re doing things without even knowing what it is you’re doing, you’re much more likely to cause yourself harm. There’s nothing wrong with causing yourself harm of course - many fun things are harmful - but it’s worth at least knowing what you’re doing and how it’ll affect you. And don’t worry - you’re not likely to drop dead from the stuff that you’re doing... Jiang Feng developed great skill in transmitting very dense, concentrated Qi - so when things go wrong they really go badly wrong... like the difference between crashing while riding a super bike vs a tricycle

Probably not. It doesn’t matter either way though. Wether imaginary or real - you’re depleting your kidneys... which eventually closes the door on any further internal cultivation.

You'll need to ask him

I’m not talking just about this set specifically... But looks can be very deceptive... the simplest looking movement can be extremely difficult, uncomfortable and powerful when done using the correct principles. I find that the simplest looking ones are actually often the most powerful. It’s just that the inner mechanics are not usually taught openly...

No I haven’t No. I don’t know what this is referring to. Yup you’re right - touching these channels in any significant way requires a substantial foundation. Otherwise its like blowing air through your mouth, and expecting that to move a big river - you might make a small ripple on the surface, but not much more. But touching it deeply (like establishing a deep current under the surface of the water) requires specific principles... I wanted to see if we were on the same page on that, but it doesn’t seem like it - which is fine

Sure - that’s the understanding from a medical perspective. From an alchemical perspective there is a lot more to these congenital channels. Not internal enough to touch the congenital channels to any great extent... Slower is definitely part of the equation... but there are other important principles too...

Can you give some details of the internal principles for this form?

So how do Qigong movements affect the 8 extraordinary channels? I’m asking because I personally can’t affect (to any great extent) the congenital channels with ‘ordinary’ Qigong... There is primordial or congenital Qigong which can begin to work with the channels, but that depends on your foundation and whether you have certain alchemical conditions in place... So I was wondering if the ‘advanced stuff’ you we’re talking about is something like that... from the video you posted - not even close

I was just curious what advanced Qigong looks like from your perspective. I’m not really looking for a starting point. Do post if you ever see it though Or even describe the difference for us.

How doe the advanced stuff look like?

This is spot on advice. What Steve mentioned is also important. What you’re ‘doing’ in these arts is setting up conditions or qualities in yourself... These conditions then give rise to the ‘fruit’ of the practice. Each lineage will have its own roadmap of inner conditions... each teacher will have their own methods of generating these conditions. All these practices are tools to generate qualities/conditions. Only a teacher that has achieved these conditions and received the fruit will be able to see if you have the qualities fully created or not. So of course Damo has a mixture of practices. My very traditional teachers do too... as well as other ‘skilful means’ to help you embody the correct qualities. A Buddhist line I’ve trained in achieved the transformation of the ‘inner body’ that I described through a completely different means - they used a combination alchemical pills and full mental absorption into the tissues for 12hrs a day - instead of qigong. From the top of a mountain you can see new approaches to the top. From the bottom you best stay on the path you’re being shown or you’ll die. You can’t really innovate or make anything more efficient as a student because you don’t know what’s ahead of you or even what you’re aiming for... In my experience high level teachers tend to turn away prospective students that are oriented this way. For them it just spells trouble. So just relax. Take one thing at a time. Humour, irreverence and humility are major qualities to embody for Daoist practice. Training will be difficult and uncomfortable. Uncomfortable often means psychologically uncomfortable too. Your ideas about yourself will be challenged. At that stage you can choose ‘no I’m right, I know what I’m doing’ or remember humility, humour and irreverence for yourself... Meaning you either step off the path or you make an internal change and clear the hurdle and proceed on the path.

Well I’d call this ‘building the foundation’... it’s actually not that basic even - it’s just fundamental for everything else later on. In terms of basics that Spotless seems to be referring is a bit different... In my lineage (and in many classical Daoist lines) the two fundamental principles that form the basis of almost all practice from beginning to advanced is Ting (a quality of absorption/internal awareness) and Sung (a type of ‘active release’)...

Just to clarify - I don’t suggest to practice what Rasmus is demonstrating here - not before you have a decent foundation. It’s just an interesting perspective on ‘strength’.

Intuflow - beginner https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFB458458F14ED867 Intuflow - intermediate https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2F820643A63A9D0D This is great for releasing Also interesting: