Archive for the ‘Spirituality’ Tag
Kaunoa, Thursday at 12:30 Pm
Return to oneness, the most incredible journey you can take
Thank you all for making Nei Gong Class a success! The Tuesday class is no longer ongoing! We will keep Thursdays and Mondays open, so come join the journey!
Kaunoa has been great by allowing this advanced qigong and meditation practice to be born for our students. This new class comes about so that more people can find the path to inner harmony and folks can now practice more often.
Sitting and forgetting meditation, and an adaptation of Dao yin, is an addictive practice! Finding true patience, and connecting with internal energy can lead you close to the Absolute, unity with the One. Why only do that once a week!
Nei Gong classes are two times a week, Lahaina on Mondays at 11:30 and at Kaunoa on Thursdays at 12:30. The response from students is heartwarming, compared with personal practice at home, the group classes are more meaningful and more effective.
Come and enjoy this Qigong/meditation class and explore the final frontier!
Practice, Practice, Practice…..
Cory Williams ©2018
Take your body where your spirit wants to go!
Come and join us at the edge of the forest, upon a sacred mountain, for an amazing week of meditation, qigong, Taijiquan, and Kung Fu.
Taiji on Maui is offering a rare opportunity to immerse yourself in the Taiji way of life with someone that loves you. Join us and reconnect to your true self, learn and practice Taoist methods to better yourself and your life. Relax at a deep level, rejuvenate your spirit. Take time for reflection, gain clarity on your life path, find meaning beyond material concerns, connect with nature, heal, contemplate, grow.
We will be at Giggle Hill (map) in Haiku from 7:30 AM until 5:30 PM for eight days, this is a beautiful park with lots of trees and wonderful grass. We take a relaxed pace with frequent breaks and enjoy ourselves. There is ample shade, tables and water available and there are great restaurants 5 minutes away in Haiku or Makawao.
Come for any or all of the camp. Anyone and everyone is welcome!
From Saturday March 29 through Saturday April 5, we will be going through my current curriculum. Many of you know some or all of these forms and especially if you do not (you need to start somewhere and beginners are welcome here!), we invite you to join us for eight days of practice and training. We know this is late notice, but change has a way of “changing” things… who knew. For whatever reason, at this time, Taiji on Maui decided to open up the inner workings of this lifestyle for all.
Born out of the many workshops and camps I have attended, sponsored, loved, and always yearn for still; I have created a lifestyle that is like a perpetual Taiji camp. The lesson I have learned here is, there is nothing like total immersion and focused practice for maximum results. Additionally, for eight days every year, I dedicate myself to practicing in this totally immersed way. The difference now is, instead of attending a camp, or doing my usual sequestered practice, I am inviting anyone that wishes to learn to join me.
And so, if you have a few days between these dates, and want to know what it’s like to live like a like Taoist monk…
Come and join us for:
Sixty four hours of practice and training,
Eight days,
Eight hours each day
Eight different standing qigong forms
Six different Taiji & Kung Fu forms
Two meditations each day
One awesome week
Zero requirement to pay.
Taiji & Kung Fu forms:
Qigong Forms:
Sitting Qigong:
- From Dong Zeng Chen and Tung Hu Ling
- Sheng Zhen “Kwan Yin”
- Wudang San Feng
Schedule:
All sessions will be at Giggle Hill (Fourth Marine Div. Park) in Haiku on Maui. I know it rains sometimes, but that will not stop me. There are shelters and there is always practice to do. The following schedule is a rough outline of the curriculum, for example, all the qigong forms will be rotated as appropriate. There is aways randomness in Tao! Where there is a specific focus to a session, I have listed such below but there will be a continuos opportunity to explore anything we wish to at any time … So it is all very Taoist.
Meditations are the first and last thing each day; the time may vary or include other activities. Practice and training sessions start at 8:30 AM and 1:30 PM with a two hour break. Each session starts with related qigong, then we progress to Taiji and Kung Fu. There will be exploration and explanation of applications and plenty of time for “push hands” practice. Saturday night, April 5th we are having a pot luck dinner at the park. We hope to see you there!
The times for all sessions are:
- 7:30 to 8:30 Meditation
- 8:30 to 11:30 Practice and Training
- 11:30 to 1:30 Break for lunch
- 1:30 to 4:30 Practice and Training
- 4:30 to 5:30 Meditation
Starting March 29
- Saturday: Wudang Long Form Taiji \\\ Wudang Tai Yi Kung Fu
- Sunday: Hao Style \\\ Dong (Yang) Style Long Form
- Monday: Yang Style Sword \\\ Dong Family (fast) Set
- Tuesday: Dong Long Form \\\ Dong Family Set
- Wednesday: Wudang Long Form \\\ Wudang Tai Yi
- Thursday: Sword \\\ Hao Style
- Friday: Qigong only \\\ Dong Long Form
- Saturday: All forms \\\ All forms \\\ Ending Dinner
Copyright Cory Williams 2014
The Lotus Flower is a symbol of compassion opening in the heart like the bloom of the flower from the swamp in which it grows
The desireless one sees the essence; (the soul)
While the desiring one sees only its manifestation. (the superficial)
Desirelessness is a matter of respectfulness.
Contemplate these statements, ponder them, meditate on them, and if you could have only one desire, make this be your goal:
Overcome your desires and show love to others.
What gift would you offer God? What does the creator of all things need with desires? Tao creates endlessly, it gives away everything it creates and wants for nothing. Is this not love? Wants, desires, expectations, wishful thinking, willfulness, these are all contrivances of ego. True love comes from a place of no desire.
Have you ever heard the expression he or she is “in love with love”? Ah yes, here is a nugget of truth for me. True love is not desire for a person or thing; it is given in the spirit of the thing itself. Wanting nothing for self, only the best for others is love. When two people are “in love with love” there is no desire per se’, there is a spirit of letting nature take its course. When you feel “in love” the love is in you! If that involves another person or thing, then it is desireless towards that thing. When two spirits find each other, that love is beyond desire, that is a Taoist’s view of divine love.
Only when you feel no desire for something, can you truly love it. When the love for all things fills you, it is like a flower blooming inside your heart. As your energy rises up from the earth it opens your heart, it expands outward, filling the whole universe. Your compassion for all things will grow, your love will know no limits; you’ll prosper in all your ways.
The desireless one can discern the true, (soul) essence of things, not limited to only seeing and desiring that which essence has made manifest (superficially) in the material world.
You will learn the true meaning of love, you will gain respect for all things, you will move forward into an understanding of how everything is connected. This is love and fulfillment, this is infinite compassion, this is true understanding…
This is Tao
Copyright Cory Williams 2012
The Dragon dwells in Heaven, roaming amongst the stars… drifting in and out of the clouds. Aloof from the world, he is always observant of it. Enigmatic and free, the Dragon soars effortlessly, adrift in time upon an endless sea of tranquility. He is clarity and calm, peace and emptiness. Like a mysterious cloud, the dragon caresses the Earth, always sensitive to the subtleties of the relationship between Heaven and Earth. In heaven, he is yin as yin is within yang… and yet there is a yang spirit hidden within….
Gliding over the Earth, melding into the forests and mountain tops, the Dragon gathers Earth qi within, mixing Heaven and Earth, building and focusing his Heaven qi to interact with the Earth.
In an instant, the Tiger emerges, like a thunderbolt from Heaven. Heaven and Earth qi combine and the Tiger is born from the union. The Dragon’s energy transforms. The Tiger pounces, Heaven and Earth are manifest. Entering the Earthly realm, the Tiger strikes and fulfills the needs of everything he encounters. He is action and strength, motion and power. Like a wildfire, the Tiger creates magic on Earth. On Earth, he is yang as yang is within yin, and yet, there is a yin spirit hidden within….
Sleeping by the lake, the gentle Tiger rests his yang…
Peacefully nurtured by the guidance of the Earth qi…
The Tiger’s spirit floats across the lake, rising in the fog…
His yin qi carried aloft bringing with it the resting yang energy, transforming, recombining, and emerging once again as the Dragon.
This is Taiji
Copyright: Cory Williams 2011
Would you go?
What if you searched your whole life for something; what if you invested everyday and night, thousands of days, tens of thousands of hours, year after year in a quest towards a goal and when you finally did everything you were told and after years of waiting, and then, you found out, there was nothing?
What if someone suggested to you to dedicate your whole life, practice diligently and someday you would find nothing, and you knew that going into the journey; would you be interested in going then; doing all the practices, training endlessly and even though it was a blissful journey, only to find out that there was no end goal, would you still go?
What if you could grasp the concept that everything and nothing are made from the same thing…would you go then?
Tao unravels all the mysteries to truth, peace, contentedness and salvation and yet, in essence, there is nothing there. Everything is possible from nothing; nothing and everything define each other. The journey is all there is, the path to non-doing starts at doing.
Practice long and diligently, then you will find your qi….
Continued practice and dedication will guide you to your spirit…
Practice, practice and practice some more and eventually you will find nothing.
Jing, Qi, Shen is the Way to return to the source…Tao
The spirit dissolves into Tao, just as your practice dissolved your body into qi and then continued practice dissolved your qi into spirit…
A place where all things merge into nothing is waiting for you. After years of practice you will find the truth; eventually bringing you back to the source of all things.
Copyright 2011 Cory Williams
Connecting the planets
Completing the Small Circle
In the previous lesson, I outlined the basic idea of the Small Circle or Microcosmic Orbit meditation. Learning to connect your internal solar system will give you much insight into your internal energy. The last lesson leads you through a series of points in your energy system. The point was to bring qi down from the minds eye to the perineum at the bottom of the torso. This involves bringing your awareness to each point along the way for a sufficient length of time that you can feel it at each point before moving to the next one, Basically you were learning the “Yin path“, the downward, relaxing, nurturing and frankly the easy path of energy flow.
If you have become adept at this skill, you are ready to learn the other half of the process, bringing energy up the “Yang path”. I hope that you noticed how the energy “wants” to flow down the yin path almost as if gravity were pulling it there and in a way, it is. Just to be real about it, there is a mechanical reason for this. By sequentially relaxing downward, your body is allowing blood and lymph as well as the flesh to sag and drain downward towards the earth. Keeping your back straight while this is happening aids the flow by assuring that all the necessary passageways remain open to that flow; slouching or having any misalignment or muscle tension will interfere with this process.
The yin path starts at the tip of the tongue and descends through the tongue, past the thyroid, thymus, heart, solar plexus, dantian, sperm (ovarian) palace, and ends at the perineum. Purists might know that the “Ren” channel ends, and the “Tu” channel starts at the ovarian palace, but the Tu channel “emerges” at the perineum and that is why I start there. These eight places are one-half of the microcosmic orbit, the other seven points are the topic of this article, the “Yang Path“.
In my method, the “Yang Path” starts just under the skin at the perineum but it is at the coccyx or tailbone where it moves up to the “Ming Men”, gate of life located just below where the thoracic spine joins with the lumbar spine. It then goes up along the tendons covering the spine, past the kidneys and adrenal glands. From there the path goes between the shoulders at the “Shen Dao”, the path to the spirit, opposite the heart center on the spine i.e.. the third thoracic vertebra near to the thoracic/cervical junction. The next place of wonderment is called “Da Zhui”, the great hammer. Da Zhui is about the C-7, the thoracic/cervical junction, on the spine opposite the throat. From this point, the qi moves upward, goes past the “Jade Pillow” at the top of the spine joining the skull and moves over the skull, up to the Crown Point, and then terminates at the palate just under the minds eye.
When you have completed the yin path and are completely relaxed and all the energy has drained into your hips and pelvis it will coalesce near the premium. You are now ready to bring qi up the spine and recycle the energy via the “Yang path”.
This is a new skill and it can be confusing depending on how you interpret what you are doing in the moment. Just to clarify that statement, some teachers will tell you to “pull the qi to the tail bone using your anus and collect it there“. I would say this too, but invariably pulling and pushing qi up the back channel is not the most effective way to do it, in my opinion. It does work, and you can get started doing it this way and yet if there was an easier way, you might want to try it.
Just tuning the breath and “listening” you may be able to sense the energy moving thought the small circle, that would be very nice indeed. Just sitting quietly and observing the energy flow is fantastic. I would say that is a high achievement. “Moving” qi through the circulation is controlling it. Both are valid and have different applications, for example I like to move qi through the body with my mind so that I can learn how to feel it moving when I’m not moving it!
Before any practice I recommend Tuning the Breath
I recommend that you start to access the back channel (yang path) by first starting at the Crown Point. Just lift up on the Crown Point and feel the head lifting off the shoulders and the spine lengthening and this will pull the tailbone into a vertical alignment, which also opens the pathway at the rear of the anus towards the back. Ah, see now the whole channel is open and now you can pull the energy to the anus and it will be sucked up the spine all the way to the top! In the beginning, you may still need to coax it up by using your breath and muscle contractions, but as you get better at it, you can reduce the effort and concentration that you apply and spend more time enjoying the results. Each time the qi is at the bottom (Hui yin), open the crown, and allow the qi free access to the top.
From the bottom of the torso, pull up the PC Muscle (this muscle runs from the pubic bone to the tailbone) and you will feel a rush of energy there; this is a simple way of developing perineum power. This is when you want to gently pull up around the anus and feel the energy go around the anal sphincter muscle to the rear of the anus. The energy is now at the tip of the tailbone. Learn to feel your internal musculature here and you can very gently contract the muscles there and actually create a wave of qi that will move up the sacrum to the lumbar spine and it will collect at the top of the lumbar region at a place known as the “Gate of Life”.
Bring qi up the Du Meridian
It may take a few tries to do this but keep at it and soon you will feel qi gathering at the Ming Men. You may need to rock your hips slightly to open the lower gate, this will help avoid stuck energy there. Some say it is like “sipping through a straw” each time you take a breath the energy descends some being pulled back up on the next breath. By using a combination of first pulling the spine up from the top, and then going through a series of muscular contractions and breaths you can apply mental energy to move the qi up, up, and up…
Over time, you will feel the energy moving up through the kidneys, and the Shen Dao, Da Zhui, through the jade pillow and up to the crown. When you get used to bringing the energy to the Ming Men you will find it has enough inertia to just rather shoot up through the other points. The yang path may flow fast as the qi rushes up to the top or, hopefully in a more controlled way. This can be a beautiful and rewarding release of energy that can thrill you when you feel it. Remain calm, and enjoy this energy release as you might enjoy a sexual energy release as it its related to that same feeling. This is also do to the Chong Mai or thrusting vessel (that is another story) that runs deeper directly through the center of your spine. Once you get used to these types of experiences you may never be the same again, you are gaining control over your energy.
I would not try to analyze this or focus on each individual point on the back channel at this point in your training. These skills can take awhile to acquire, and unless you have been doing this for some length of time, it may be meaningless for you to get too esoteric about it. It is not how much you know, or think you know about “meridians” and all that, what really matters is that you practice often and you keep it simple.
Many of these spine points can be blocked by accumulated postural stress and may require qigong movements to open them, particularly prone to being blocked are the Shen Dao and Da Zhui. Come to class, or find a good teacher in your area for help with these two places. You do not want a blockage in “the path to the spirit”!
Even though you can now complete the circle, you are still just at the beginning of a new journey. Do not be in a rush, just work on these new skills for a while and get good at “circulating the microcosmic orbit”. You will find that as you get to know this skill you will be able to use this all the time, like when you are doing sitting or standing meditation or while doing moving soft qigong, or Taiji or even use this skill during sex. This is a start of a new level of qigong training, truly “going internal”. While all forms of qigong training effect you internally, learning the small circle is the beginning of what we call “nei gong”. You are now moving into a higher level of meditation, where meditation and qigong come together and move your mind and body into the realm of pure energy, yet another step on the path of “Spiritual Alchemy”.
Previous Lesson Next Lesson
"Love"
Sensitivity, Understanding, Forgiveness, Compassion, Detachment, Liberation, Nurturance, Heaven
These are some thoughts about love from my Taoist perspective; that compassionate detachment is the highest virtue and discontentment the greatest misfortune and understanding that even “joy” is not always a good thing and that often “sadness” is. Finding a balance with our emotions keeps the qi balanced within our internal organs; indeed unchecked emotions lead to “stuck qi”, the root of most sicknesses.
Some say love is an emotion; I think not. Emotions, largely, are calls to action, fear, anger, worry, sadness, loneliness, frustration, guilt; all these things are actually telling us what we need. To my mind, “love” is what I would call a “state of being,” the catalyst that facilitates our understanding of our emotions. My previous post about the nature of evil tries to explain how unchecked negative emotions tend to escalate, culminating into a state of being I call “evil”. I did not get this from any book or anything, these are just my personal opinions based on my observations.
Love then, would be the opposite of evil, in that when we respond to emotions in a positive way we move in that direction. This love is not that “romantic love” that is often controlling, manipulative, and selfish and even at times leads to evil; think of the love/hate relationships many people suffer through. No, true love is something far greater than that. True love is something many people will never know, oh, they think they know about love, but seldom follow a truly loving path. It can be a very sad thing when one mistakes a greedy, needy, clingy, self-serving definition of “love” for the truth about what is means to really love.
If you reread the post about the nature of evil, you will see I outlined several emotional steps that progressively twist normal emotional signals out of harmony with the truth. Each time we move along the chain of emotions and fail to choose the correct action we unwittingly take a turn each time towards the dark side. Collectively choosing the “negative” options for each subsequent emotion leads us farther and farther away from ’love” and closer and closer to evil. I attempt to illustrate this with a sliding scale moving from Evil on the left to Love on the right.
Remember the steps leading to evil?
Fear… Anger… Resentment… Hate… Prejudice… Domination… Destruction…and Hell. Today I will give you my corollary to that progressively sick, evolution of animal’s way of dealing with our emotions. The answers are simple really; each negative emotion has an “antidote” so to speak that will (if followed) take one away from the darkness and into the light. Consider the following comparison of each negative emotion and its opposite, one choice leads to Heaven the other leads to Hell.
Fear……………………..…Sensitivity
Anger………………………Understanding
Resentment….……………Forgiveness
Hate………………………..Compassion
Prejudice ………………….Detachment
Domination……………..….Liberty
Destruction…………….…..Nurturance
Hell………………………….Heaven
I know all this is a very common sense thing and yet is seems nothing is so rare these days as “common sense.” Before you let an emotion take you on a ride towards the dark side apply these simple solutions:
Next time you feel fearful, be sensitive to the situation and keep your awareness. If you feel anger rising up, understand that maybe your rules are too strict or maybe you need to explain them better to others or just get out! Instead of resenting others, forgive them immediately, on the spot; resentment is a major pivot point towards evil. Before you find yourself resenting, judging, and hating someone, just find your compassion for whatever may be driving your harsh judgment that leads to hate. If you feel hate it may develop into prejudice about a person or a situation. The answer to these hateful feelings is to just detach from it, no matter how loathsome you may think something is, you can at least be glad that it is not you or about you! When judging and hating others, people often start controlling and manipulating in an attempt to dominate them, maybe because they feel out of control themselves. Liberate them instead! Just let it go or get yourself out… Give them all the freedom you would hope for yourself. True love never gives ultimatums or forces people to comply with rules; this applies to government as well. Instead of acting out of frustration at your failed attempts to control and coerce, (and thereby destroying your relationships or your communities) instead be nurturing of the other’s right to be free. All these responses are loving ways to relate that could save your family, nation and our world, if only people would choose them.
Even if only for yourself, follow these principles. According to Chinese medical theory, uncontrolled emotions cause energy to stagnate and damage the organs, for example:
Fear can damage the kidneys and bladder
Anger can disrupt the liver and gall bladder
Passion can upset the heart and small intestines
Worry can damage your stomach and spleen
Grief may lead to fluid in the lungs and obstructions in the large intestine.
Balanced emotions actually benefit each of the organs; healthy emotions cure each other. Later I will explain how healthy anger can cure fear, and how a little passion can help you get over anger; that worry can save you from excess joy and passion, and some grief is a good way to let go of your worries. Coming full circle, some healthy fear can pull you out of grief.
And what makes this all work? What magic element, process, elixir, or “emotion” turns the “wheel of emotions”? You guessed it I am sure. By living in a “State of Love” remaining, Sensitive, Understanding, Forgiving, Compassionate, Detached, Liberating, and Nurturing in all your dealings you can stay forever in Heaven, forever contented and forever loving.
See also: The Nature of Evil
“The sage sees the universe without going out the door”
Small Heavenly Circle (Microcosmic Orbit) Meditation Part #1
Attaining Tao is to merge with the wonders of heaven. In the very first verse of the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu says, “The Tao that can be named is not the real Tao”. What he is saying is the greatest of all things is beyond words, and once we attempt to name it we have defined the indefinable, which obviously is not going to work. So then, how do we merge with the undifferentiated source of all things? Simple, start by just letting go of your desire to be or do anything and focus your energy into heaven.
If you have read the six prior lessons on Taoist meditation basics and practices and if you have actually tried some of these techniques then it is time to expand your horizons. Be sure to read Tuning the Breath as well.
I hope by now you have had some success with staying “in the moment” and have learned to use some of these tools to dissolve your mind into your body. Learning to control your thoughts is the basic methodology to allow your energy to find a higher calling. In this article, I will give you a little piece of treasure, another tool for your meditation that will help you reach a higher state of consciousness.
Much has been written about the “Small Heavenly Circle” also known as the “Microcosmic Orbit” meditation; a simple Google search will give you over 5,000 results. I will not attempt to re-invent the wheel here, (pun intended) but instead I will give you my method. This method of meditation takes the practitioner on an inward journey along the superhighway of energy that predominates within the human body. My method is a straightforward and simple way to start exploring the universe within.
On the inward journey, the first things we learned were to dissolve our thoughts and get in touch with our energy, something you are getting skilled at if you have been doing the lessons so far. Now I am going to explain how to circulate that energy within your body.
We start with a basic energy circuit that runs up and down the torso in a circular path just under the surface of the skin; this path is called the “Small Circle.” The vessels and meridians in your body that carry the qi are usually along high conductivity tissue such as tendons and sometimes muscles. The centerline of both the front and back of our torso is mostly tendons, and this is a good conductor for the qi to flow within. Learning to follow this path is a major step to moving even deeper into your body, and will give you more insight into the universe within you. My method starts with identifying the two major pathways of energy (that connect into a circle) by defining 15 points along the way. Like planets in a galaxy, we will travel to each one, picking up provisions along the way. As we get to know each “planet” we will gain an understanding of our inner workings, this is the “Sage seeing the universe with out going out the door”
The two main paths have many names and energy can be moved in a variety of ways. In this beginning technique, we are going to follow the natural flow of energy down the front and up the back. For now, just think of them as Yin and Yang. The “Yang path” starts at the perineum and then the base of the spine, continues up and over the crown of the head, and ends at the pallet. The “Yin path” starts at the tip of the tongue and flows down the front of your body and ends at the perineum at the bottom of your torso. Technically the “Ren” channel ends at the ovarian palace but since the connecting “Tu” channel emerges at the perineum I start there. Again, there are many resources available online for your perusal. Here I want to give you my method of navigating this “orbit.”
First, let me name, locate, and describe each “planet” along the orbit. Since we have to start somewhere, I start from that place where you “see things” when you close your eyes, a place between the eyebrows that is sometimes called “the minds eye.”
There are many more than these 16 points (that are really bigger than “points” that is why I think of them as “planets“) but I like to keep things simple. Picking these 16 allows us to be clear about each one and later we will apply a breathing technique to help propel your “spaceship” to each “planet”. As your awareness grows you will feel and communicate with many more places than I have put on this list. For example, between numbers 8, 9 &10 there are 2 others, the anus for instance, which is actually 6 in itself, front, back, each side, the center and the outer muscle!
My list of 16 celestial destinations within:
Classic texts would have you start at the Dan Tian and “contemplate your navel” for “as long as it takes to feel the qi there“. I will not refute this method but there are alternatives. While this skill is admirable, I think we get the point; moving on from there, I believe spending a few minutes at each point is a better way to learn this orbit. Of course take as long as you want to explore each world, again the “classics” say to spend as long as a couple of months on each point until you can send your awareness and feel your qi there.
Once you have “opened the channel”, you will notice the qi moves rather quickly around the orbit. I usually do not need to linger long at each place at this point in my training and because I am not writing a book here, think of this as a quick tour through the planets,
The Mind’s Eye (behind your forehead)
The Heavenly Pool (where the tongue touches the pallet)
The Throat, (thyroid gland)
Thymus gland
The Heart
The Solar Plexus
The Dan Tian (just one inch below the navel)
The Sperm (Ovarian) Palace (a hands width below the navel)
The Hui Yin (the perineum)
The Tip of the Tail Bone
The Gate of Life (on the spine opposite the Dan Tien)
The Kidneys and Adrenals (on the spine opposite the Solar Plexus)
The Shen Dao, Between the Shoulders (opposite the Heart)
The Da Zhui, at the C-7
The Jade Pillow (at the base of the skull)
The Bai Hui or Crown Point (at the top of the head)
My planetary journey starts where I already am…
Sit and tune the breath,
Bring your awareness to,
1. The Minds Eye (behind your forehead); Starting where your mind is already is a good place to start. When you close your eyes, you will “see” or rather “observe” energy actively moving about. Then just let the awareness sink down trough the Yin Path….
2. The Heavenly Pool (where the tongue touches the pallet); When I put my awareness here I feel saliva welling up from the bottom of my mouth and pooling around the base of my tongue encouraging me to swallow.
3. The Throat; This spot sends the flow downward along the yin channel. Here lies the thyroid gland a tiny little gland that controls the rates of regeneration for your entire body.
4. The Thymus gland is a very sensitive gland that is an emotional regulator, sensing the heart and breathing rates, etc.
5. The Heart; When my mind travels here I feel my heart moving a little bit, not so much an increase in speed, but sort of a warm gentle thumping.
6. The Solar Plexus; This is a major nerve gathering center in your chest, at this location I feel a lump that seems to radiate out in all directions.
7. The (Lower) Dan Tian (one inch below the navel); This is the home planet for your Qi. When qi gets stuck in your head (Upper Dan tian) it can cause rampant thinking, when the qi is at your Thymus or Solar Plexus, (in the middle Dan tian), you might feel emotional, but when the qi is here it will feel at home. After my first few years of practice, I began to feel a rotational sensation here.
8. The Sperm (Ovarian) Palace (a hands width below the navel); This space is connected to all of your glandular systems and placing my mind here, brings me a sense of being connected internally.
9. The Hui Yin (the perineum); When here, I feel a pulsing feeling as though there is a warm current flowing through my perineum moving towards the back of my body. This is the bottom of the torso and it is full of muscles that support the pelvic floor. The Hui Yin is sort of the launching pad for the next part of the orbit, the Yang path.
To keep things simple just do this for now…
First Tune your Breath and then just work on putting your awareness on each spot until you notice it; just like when you were using your hands; remember, “listening” for the tingling sensation there? If not re-read the other lessons. The point is, if you can send the energy to your hands it is a logical step to move to these orbit spots here. Just do this a little bit and see if you can feel the flow of energy coming down from your head to your perineum.
In the next lesson, I will lead you through the rest of the orbit.
Soon you will see that Taoist meditation and internal qigong are similar. You are now starting to learn the fine art of “Nei Gong” or “internal qigong”
Previous Lesson Next Lesson
Tranquility
Tao gives and gives and yet it is never exhausted, it wants for nothing as it is always giving. All things return to the source; the more they give the more they receive.
I drink from the mother’s breast, connected with the one source. The mother’s milk nourishes me and I shall want not for things of this world. I am not my mind, or my body or my emotions…. I am spirit.
I am the eye of the hurricane, a still point within the vortex of the matrix. The world blows by as everyone scurries about, but I alone am unmoved by mundane things. I want nothing from anyone but to be left in peace.
Sometimes I’m ahead and then sometimes I’m behind, and yet it matters not. My life is not for others, I am the flame, I cannot be burnt. I have died the little death…. The past is irrelevant, the future does not exist… my spirit lives now and that is all that matters.
Zhong Xue Chao, (Bing), is a Taoist monk and grew up training on Wudang Mountain. He is the purveyor of wudangdao.com, and he exemplifies the essence of Tao
Devotion to training is its own reward. Making love to the energy that sustains you nurtures your soul. Embracing the feeling that moves us is simple. Why would anyone not keep training; I am not sure I could relate to that?
Master Dong was just here, and I spent 18 hours with him over a weekend, that week I also had 11 classes and spent an additional few hours training on my own….the result of over 30 hours of Taiji and Qigong training in one week? I want more!
I just added two new weekly classes (soon to be announced) and I am doing a series of Qigong seminars with Kaiser October 14th, 21st and 28th. I also have renewed energy for my personal training showing up one hour early to all my regular classes to train on some new and some old forms. Therefore, I will be stepping up my training to about thirty hours every week. My point is this, the more you feel your Qi the more it will provide for you that which you know in your heart is the best thing for you.
Once you learn the secret of the energy, that being the fact that YOU are made of energy, know that, cultivate that, and fully embrace that concept, your life will completely change. What you thought “life” was will be redefined. Life is Energy! It lives in you, you control this energy, and it will heal you from within if you let it.
Have you ever noticed how much energy you have when you feel inspired, like if you fall in love…? You can clean house, go to work, and never get tired? Energy comes to you from a mysterious place, we have all have had these feelings…..Would you be “depressed” if you won the lottery? Would you be “bored” if you had a million dollars in your pocket?
The winning lottery ticket is as simple as devotion to Qigong training.
Orion Nebula, the energy of the universe
“The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.”
In this third article on this subject I suggest you re-read the other three to provide a segue into this one and so, if you have been following along with all the meditation lessons, this would be the sixth one so far.
Now if you will just close your eyes… right now just for a few seconds…
Tell me, what did you see? Try again and do it for a little longer.
Since you cannot tell me, let me guess, you see little flickers of light, sort of like when the TV is between stations, or swirling fluid like colors as in a gaseous star cloud in space. Am I right? Well, what you are really seeing is your energy, the energy of the universe that has been embedded in you. If I were a religious man, I would say, “That’s God talking to you”.
Now try this experiment again, this time keep your eyes closed longer, say, for a minute. Now what did you see? I hope that you saw more of the same, but most likely, some image made itself manifest there in your mind’s eye, or you were caught up in a daydream. That was your mind talking to you.
In our practice up until now, we have been talking a lot about dissolving your mind into your body, so you can dissolve your body into energy and thus send the energy deeper into your center where it can strengthen your spirit. The methods I showed you in the last lesson were about moving in that direction, remember we started with the hands and I said you could also use an image of yourself, something called the “energy body” this is a tool to help you learn to stay in the “now moment”.
When you are using the mind in this way, learning to stay in the now, there is a short length of time spent moving your energy inward. Somewhere between a few seconds and ten minutes, you are switching modes of energy application. Inevitably, thoughts will arise, this is expected and is very normal, but if you have read the prior lessons, you know that these are illusions. Just take a step back, mentally, and see that for what it is and go back to the most important thing there is …little flickers of light, sort of like when the TV is between stations, or swirling fluid like colors as in a gaseous star cloud in space…. Your energy.
Your goal, if you need one, is to just sit quietly and stay with your energy. Go back to the hands and the body if you need too, or look through the illusions as though they are like a digital image that you can zoom in on until they are pixilated and so dissolved back into the energy from which they came from.
Step back from “images” of any kind, as soon as your mind forms an “Image” you are being taken away from your energy. In time, and with discernment, you will see the truth about what your mind is trying to do to you, but you will conquer it and take control of your life. You may see some upsetting things about yourself, listen, learn, but don’t get caught up in them. Just go back to the energy as if you found yourself watching an old movie that you decide not to watch and just change the channel back to your new favorite one…energy.
There is nothing that can compare to the blissful feeling of staying free from those thoughts and images. The energy itself is a compelling show to follow; there is no greater image or thought in the entire universe as unadulterated energy. By allowing your mind to escape from all the illusions that have been fooling you for so long, you will find the truth, the truth that You are Energy.
In time, the truth will set you free.
Previous Lesson Next Lesson
We cannot "save the planet"
Did you know?
The earth has survived volcanoes, ice ages, earthquakes, floods, erosion, plate tectonics, collisions with asteroids, gamma ray bursts, and who knows whatever for billions of years; always surviving, evolving and adapting.
Did you also know that in China in 1931 between one and 2.5 million people died in a flood?
Or that also in China in 1887 between 900,000 and 2 million people died in a flood.
In addition, in 1556, an earthquake killed 830,000 in China.
And another earth quake in China in 1976 left 242,419 people dead? And in 1920, 243,117?
How about the earthquake-generated tsunami in Indonesia, 230,000 lives lost.
And the death toll in Haiti is estimated at 230,000?
The eruption of the Volcano in Iceland puts more CO2 into the air in one day than the entire population of Europe did in the last 100 years. And did you know that CO2 is a scant 0.033% of the atmosphere; and it is the only source of life for all the green plants on the Earth?
Did you also know 250 million people each year get malaria resulting in between one to 2.7 million deaths? In addition, did you know that environmentalists, through the EPA banned DDT, and yet DDT was heralded as having saved over 500 million lives in the two decades before it was banned?
The bottom line is: we cannot “save the planet” and conversely we cannot destroy the planet. Are we so arrogant that we think we can destroy the planet when we are only a minuscule drop in an ocean of planetary history? Everything here is from here….whatever we dig up, or burn or eat or whatever, came from here and it is going to stay here. The planet will adapt and evolve. We may not adapt however, and so life goes on. The planet will be fine.
Yin/Yang, Taoist thought understands these things, sure, we all want a clean environment, and we also don’t want millions to die from malaria or perish in cheaply made lightweight vehicles. Nature always works things out. If we are not meant to survive then, we will not. Perhaps we need war and disease to teach us what to do, or what not to do. These things are all part of nature, even our strange lifestyle is part of nature, as are we. There are those people that will not eat meat and consider it wrong for people to eat meat, do they protest the tiger, fighting extinction, and begrudge him his last meal?
Heaven and Earth are eternal, our physical selves, not so much. The Human experience for an individual is all we have here and now. Do not fret or worry about mother Earth, she will survive. Our only challenge is to deal with each moment correctly, enjoy what we have and let nature take its course.
If we are going to live full and joyous lives, we need to live in harmony with the way things are, adapt and overcome. To change with change is the way of nature; to be discontent is the greatest misfortune.
Happy Earth Day
First, gain an understanding of your energy system.
Align the body correctly to facilitate energy flow.
Relax the muscles to encourage energy flow.
Learn to dissolve your mind and body together.
Develop an emotional connection to the energy within.
Become intimate with your energy.
Practice until you know what is right in your heart.
Let go of your silly ego needs.
Gain freedom from your thoughts,
Become as open as Heaven,
Be as firm as the Earth,
Shine brightly like a star,
Be as flexible as water,
Gain inspiration from all things,
Know the truth that will set you free.
There are many paths to freedom yet only those who learn the truth will be truly free. The real you is often hidden behind layers of physical and egocentric defenses. Physical obstructions, thinking, and emotions, all inhibit your true self from shining through.
Spiritual qigong? Medical qigong? Martial qigong? Meditation? Internal, external, standing, sitting, moving, stillness, Taiji, whatever…. It makes very little difference; they are essentially the same thing. Don’t get confused by esoteric teachings. Do not be distracted from the truth by thinking too much about it.
Do not make your journey complicated; just follow the simple methods outlined in your training. Adding too much just takes you farther away from the truth. Practice “Wu Wei“; practice with diligence, yet keep it simple and you will gain profound awareness.
The truth is simple:
Love your energy as though it was the most valuable substance in the universe….in time you will discover the creator of all things.
Go to Qigong on Maui web site
Galaxy M-81
The sage sees the universe without looking out his window
The sage understands the workings of the universe without going out the door.
He does this by knowing that universe that lives within him, and that he is a microcosm made from Heaven and Earth, created by celestial design.
Little did you realize that all the wonders of the “modern science” of astrophysics reside within you…Like a pulsar within a nebula, our spiritual star powers layers of energy that radiate out into our personal world and merge into the universe around us!
Our star of spiritual energy, contained within our nebulous body floats in a galaxy of others within our communities. The collections of community galaxies live within a universe we call “life on earth”
Cultivate your energy. Refresh your star center with the flux of the universe that flows to you. Shine brightly, replenish your body and let the light of heaven shine out through you.
The Crab Nebula
Making quantum leaps of energy in the human system.
* NOTE
This page evolved from a foot note to Taoist Meditation Practices part 2; as I was reviewing the post I discovered more work was needed. Republished as a worksheet, and subject to revision as I refine my theory, this document is archived in it’s own category for reference and it will be changed as it evolves. I want to explore and elaborate on human energy quanta for purely esoteric reasons; please do not judge or denounce this work as it is an ongoing theory, comments however would be useful and appreciated.
Energy quanta multiply synergistically as they combine, in an algorithmic accumulation of energy. The following is a very simplistic attempt to explain numerically the potential for increased functioning at the different levels of energy.
Physical + Mental + Emotional + Spiritual
For example, imagine our physical energy as a factor of one energy unit or Eu and our mental energy as a factor of two and our emotional energy as a factor of three and our spiritual energy as a factor of four.
Simple addition yields a combined Eu of 10 yet when multiplied and rarefied to the spiritual level, the total is 24 times.
Reference these following equations, the numbers indicate Eus in each quantum layer of energy.
1+2+3+4=10 Simple addition
1x2x3x4=24 Synergistic algorithmic accumulation of quanta
After correcting for the necessary Eu needs in each layer and then dividing the remainder by the base Eu in each layer we have an expression of the improvement factor available in each realm.
24-(2+3+4)=15/1=15 Energy potential expressed Physically
24-(1+3+4)=16/2=8 Energy potential expressed Mentally
24-(1+2+4)=17/3=5.6 Energy potential expressed Emotionally
24-(1+2+3)=18/4=4.5 Energy potential expressed Spiritually
Lets say our spirit is normally a base 4 Energy units…we could multiply that up to 24-(Eu required for P+M+E)=18, now these 18 Eus of rarefied energy are available to heal any area that requires them. Used solely to enhance our spirits we would have 4.5 times our base Eu needs available. In reality these “extra” Eus would be divided up into each realm and so the mathematics would be long and (boring) and complex.
I am theorizing that while the energy is multiplied as it is accumulated (algorithmic projection) it is redistributed linearly (liner projection) due to the opening of the layers and the semi permeable nature of the boundaries that make up each energy shell layer.
Please understand I am only making these numbers up to explain the power of multiplied energy quanta in the human system, but it makes sense actually, these may be viable numbers. It is possible that an evolved person has the potential to be 15 times less likely to get sick, 8 times more in control of their thoughts, 5.6 times less likely to suffer negative emotions, and 4.5 times more spiritually aware then before they transformed their energy.
When one can still their bodies, minds, emotions thus combining Eus inwardly and not wasting them in each realm we multiply their potential. Once they are combined into the spirit, then they are redirected and redistributed externally as necessary; effortlessly, as directed by our now aligned and aware and energized spirit.
The Cat's Eye Nebula
First no form. Then form. Then no form…….
In the first three articles on basics and the first article on practice, I laid out the foundation for our actual cultivation procedures. Please read these previous articles until the concept of “dissolving the mind into the body” makes sense to you. Keeping in mind, we are on an inward journey when we do Taoist meditation.
We pass from an external-centric universe to an internal one. Along the way, we go through different layers of ourselves. From a completely external world, through the body and mind, revealing our emotions and ultimately our spiritual center. From that perspective, we continue back through the layers and return to the external.
Always remember we are working with energy and when we do so we need to adhere to basic energetic principles. Also, know as we move inward we encounter different energies at each layer each combining and adding to the previous energies. I am talking about quantum physics here. As we move inward and the energy level increases, it requires more training to control it.
The first step in the actual process of the “Transformational Tao of spiritual alchemy” is a basic understanding of what we are going to do… so up until now we have been looking at a kind of map of our journey. On the path, so far you could say we have “opened the door” now it is time to step through it.
First, we need to align and relax our physical bodies. Next, we train an awareness of our energy allowing it to permeate the entire body. We start externally and as we become more aware, we move internally, melting away the boundaries between the layers as we progress.
When this is completed, we achieve a freedom from our bodies. By utilizing our minds to become aware of the energy within us, we meld the two together essentially dissolving the mind into the body. After we acquire this skill, we are able to get freedom from our thoughts as well.
Before starting, I suggest you Tune your Breath
Stand or sit in proper wuji, focus initially on your alignments.
After you are aligned and relaxed, close you eyes and let your arms hang down at your sides. Bring your awareness to your hands. Just notice that you actually have hands….become aware of each finger or pairs of fingers one at a time. Just do this for a couple of minutes. Let them fill with blood and energy and feel them tingle.
In your mind’s eye, have an image of yourself standing or sitting there. An image of you aligned to perfection, symmetrical and relaxed.
The only imagery we use in the Taoist method is that of reality.
Your “energy you” is a projection of your energy, that is what we see here. Now out of the corner of your mind’s eye notice your hands. As though you can actually see them, and as you do feel the tingling sensation therein.
This tingling sensation of energy is a manifestation of the only thing of any real importance that you have. Work on getting in touch with the pureness of your energy. Repeat this process until you can restrict your thoughts and body movements to the method outlined above.
This is the first step to dissolving your mind and body together, a skill known as sublimation. Just work on this for now… do not think of “stuff”, do not allow imagery to invade your mind’s eye.
Eventually we will even dissolve away the image of yourself as separate from the energy that creates you…anything but pure energy is just an illusion….
Previous Lesson Next Lesson
Harmony is Peace
The light of wisdom and the warmth of compassion…
The discipline of observing forms and the letting go of attachment to them…
The movements of the body with the calmness in the mind and the stillness of the body with the flow within it…
Always following our path but never restricted by it.
The more we let go of, the more we gain, the more we hold on to; the less we understand.
The art of peace, the way of the warrior…cutting away delusions so we can find the truth within…
We are all individuals living in the same universe….separate yet together. As diverse as everything in Heaven and Earth yet we are all formed from the same few elements…
We are all children of Heaven and Earth, we are all brothers and sisters…Live in Harmony with all of creation.
That is Taiji.
Riding up a mountain path by Zhao Yichao & Zhang Mingtang
Wayfarer…. That is the definition of a Taoist.
Returning is the Way
Ever following the Way, staying in balance between Heaven and Earth we acquire virtues along our journey. Treasures line the Way, like pearls of wisdom, little golden nuggets of energy, freedom from our thoughts, and blessings from nature. In time, we shine like the sun itself and become as fresh as a mountain breeze. All these things are a gift from Tao, free for the gathering along the Way.
Once you find that there is a “Great Way” you can never stop following it, for if you do, you never found it in the first place. Since the Yin and Yang of egg and sperm came together in the void we call the womb, the yin/yang of You has been on a path we call life. There is no stopping along the path we call “life.” The universe is in a constant state of flux; we realize this or we suffer.
From Lao Tzu,
When superior people hear of the Way,
They follow it with great vigor and enthusiasm.
When middling people hear of the Way,
They follow it sometimes and sometimes they do not.
When inferior people hear of the Way,
They laugh and scorn it,
And I wouldn’t want it any other way.
In our inner lives, we are all alone on the path of life, yet at the same time, we are never apart from the Way itself. All things are on this path, sometimes we are ahead, sometimes we are behind, but we all flow inexorably into time. There are side paths, places to linger, other people along the Way, but everything has the Way in common. We are never alone yet we are always alone, just as the Tao is everything and at the same time nothing. The path of life as “Tao” is always returning to the source.
After I learned the first few Qigong and Taiji movements, my first teacher quit giving classes. I had found the great Way and I knew it. I just followed the path. There are footprints along the Way; other Wayfarers abound, right around the next corner, or right behind you if you just look around. To excel at life we must be dedicated to it. I do what I do because that is the path I am on at the moment…
The Way is natural law, follow your heart and you will be fine. After you hear of the Way, it is up to each individual to follow what they know in their hearts to be true.
We are all Wayfarers on a path returning to the peace from which we come.
Find your Way to the top
First, combine lead and mercury
Second, form the gold pill
Third, refine the gold into the elixir….
In the first three articles, Taoist Meditation Basics, I laid out the foundation for a skill known as “Spiritual Alchemy”. It is a profound and yet simple path and in a way even fun. Don’t let the next few paragraphs throw you off, I’m just writing them for “full disclosure” on the topic.
The Taoist alchemical texts such as “The Book of Balance and Harmony” uses metaphorical language that seems at times to contradict itself. I will try to simplify the jargon from the arcane and purposely cryptic text.
For example, try to comprehend the following typical (paraphrased) instructions:
Combine lead and mercury into the crucible. Then fire them in the furnace to form the gold pill. Refine and rarify the gold pill and the elixir will form. Then you may enter the mysterious pass.
Let’s look at the symbolic language. Lead, represents essence, sort of like your physical energy, body and common sense. Mercury (quicksilver) represents mental/emotional energy, thinking etc. The crucible, is the body‘s energy channels and dantien at your center. The furnace, represents the mind, used to cook lead and mercury with the fire of discipline, concentration and insight.
The gold pill, is an understanding of energy, a nugget of primordial energy released, an awakening within, a “spiritual embryo” if you will. Refine and rarify refer to practicing cultivation arts like qigong and meditation.
The elixir is a reborn energy system, a full understanding of the principles and practice, being one with primordial energy. The mysterious pass is (a mystery) between Heaven and Earth, the gate into Tao … immortality in Taoist code.
This meditation practice is designed to bring about enlightenment. For Taoists that term is more like “let go of your burden” (mental excess) if you “lighten your load” you are “enlightened.” Also let’s redefine “immortality” to mean “longevity” not necessarily “for all time.” Because you cannot create or destroy energy, the fully realized Taoists, quantum physicists that they are, know that true immortality does indeed exist in some form; to be content with that knowledge is a sagely thing.
To start the practice of spiritual alchemy, remember what the famous sage told the king.
“My mind is merged with my body; my body is merged with my energy, my energy is merged with my spirit, and my spirit is merged with Tao.”
The first step is to merge your mind with your body.
1. Open up your energy channels with some qigong
2. Focus your mental energy into your body
3. Use your mind to dissolve all thoughts and emotions
The second step is to merge your body with your energy.
4. Embrace the pure unadulterated dissolved energy
5. Become one with this energy, refining out imperfections
6. Learn the truth about your true make up
The third step is to merge your energy with your spirit.
7. Repeat the process until you meditate unceasingly
8. Know that you are reborn continually in Tao
9. Live confidently, contentedly, with no fears, forever.
Then your spirit will merge with Tao.
First, combine lead and mercury
Second form the gold pill
Third refine the gold into the elixir….
In the following articles, I will explain how we do these steps and I will give you some tools for performing the work of “Combining Lead and Mercury,“ yielding a “Spiritual Embryo” that you will cherish and nurture until it gives birth to a new you!
Until then learn the essential skill of Tuning your Breath
Previous Lesson Next Lesson
Most people attempting to learn meditation have had years of conditioning that have programmed them to fail at that attempt.
Ponder this definition: Meditate, noun, 2.) Continued or extended thought; reflection; contemplation.
Now this is not a failing of the language; because the word’s origin means: literally “to think.” Perhaps the Taoist method is not “meditation”. By this I mean that, conscious thought is contrary to the prime objective of Taoist meditation, or rather just a basic starting point. As to “thinking” the general premise is; To ponder a concept of a “thing” in order to make a rational decision towards a situation etc. I am paraphrasing here because there are over twenty definitions of the word “think”.
Therefore, for our purposes we need to redefine meditation, in the Taoist perspective; meaning more or less the opposite of the classical definition. For even if we are contemplating energy it is preferred that there is no conscious “contemplating” going on and that for our purpose “energy“ is both “thing” and “non-thing.“
Seems to me that we do too much thinking already. Isn’t “thinking” one of the greatest sources of suffering in the human condition today? Wouldn’t you love to be able to “not think” for just a moment? Wouldn’t it be nice if that endless loop of thoughts would just “go away”?
To begin our practice we must form a new paradigm; most likely, almost everything you thought you understood about “meditating” is, in a word, wrong. First, we need to learn a little about “Qigong” or energy cultivation as the Taoists of old called the practice. This art needs to be learned from a qualified teacher and that is beyond the scope of this article. I assume, if you are reading this, that you have a basic understanding of qigong.
These practices could be:
Moving or still
Internal (nei gong) or external (wei gong)
Sitting or standing
Physical or mental/emotional
Whatever the case may be, they are all manifestations of Yin/Yang.
The first step in learning the Taoist meditation methods that I have learned, is to open the body’s channels through some basic qigong movements. It is possible to begin without first warming up this way but I would recommend doing so. Meditation practice can be standing or sitting but either way the basics are the same.
By opening up the energy pathways and dissolving our mind and body into one, the energy will spontaneously transmute into spirit. After melting away the layers of body, mind and emotion, there is really only one place left for the energy to go into, the spirit. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Keep in mind what Taoists call the “spirit” may be different that what you are thinking.
An ancient king once asked a famous Taoist sage, “What is your secret to longevity?”
The Sage replied, “My mind is merged with my body; my body is merged with my energy, my energy is merged with my spirit, and my spirit is merged with Tao.”
These concepts in Taoist Meditation Basics Parts 1-3 lay the foundation for the practice of “Spiritual Alchemy.” In the next 3 articles, on “Taoist Meditation Practices”, I will describe the actual process that is involved in performing the once closely guarded secret of “Spiritual Alchemy.”
Previous Lesson Next Lesson
Taiji on Maui 