EmptyHand said:
Hyperspace Fool,
Could you go into some depth about the energetic, meditative, spiritual, and philosophical side of your training? I started doing Taiji, Qigong, and a bit of Bagua circle walking about two years ago and feel there is something terribly deep and profound but I have not yet touched the depth. I have no interest in combat (other than games like push hands, etc) and am only interested in the internal arts as vehicles of knowledge and revelation. But sometimes I think it is all just a fantasy and I'm deceiving myself.
Could you say a bit about how you currently structure 40 years of training into your current, coherent discipline? Could you say how the internal arts connect with lucid dreaming and astral projection? Could you write a book for me?
I've been reading some very interesting books on the subject about which I'd love to hear your opinions if you have any. Damo Mitchell warns against using any psychedelics while training Nei Gong in "Daoist Nei Gong: The Philosophical Art of Change." Meredith gives the most profound explanation of Taiji that I've come across in "Juice: Radical Taiji Energetics."
Thanks for all your insights!
eH
Heheheeh.
I suppose I could write a book about this... though it would be a bit before I could make time for it. I will add it to the "to-do list."
To be quick about this, I will say that energy work is a type of
cultivation. It is not a formula that you can just follow directions and achieve immediate results. It is much more like planting seeds that bear fruit years later.
I don't think there are many shortcuts, but entheogens could very well act as such if done correctly. (never read either book you mentioned, but I respect that many practitioners frown on drug use and approach the arts from a "natural high" perspective) My teachers not only didn't forbid it, but encouraged me in my psychonaut activities... though I know other students who were steered away from the very same substances, so I think it is a person by person thing. I have found that some people are cut out for this stuff and others are not... it has a lot to do with your energetic roots and your temperament.
A lot of people don't want to hear this, because it makes psychonaut work seem like an elitist club, but I think that there are a large number of people who have no business taking these substances with any regularity... and there are some people who should never do them... at least not without first beefing up their mind-body-soul quite a bit.
I think there are enough books dealing with the basic practices and philosophy that you should be able to find good info, and even if there are no true masters in your area, you can at least learn some forms to practice. I learned a ton of stuff, but I know some people who only ever learned one or two forms and still became quite advanced. Even only doing things like Pa Tuan Shin (8 pieces of the brocade or Silkweaver's Exercise).
The fact is that chi kung and nei kung are not complicated and don't look like much from the outside... but they are the lead for the pencil. It often takes people 5 years of real practice before they learn to see or feel chi. Until then, you are basically faking it till you make it so to speak. However, once you can sense chi in some form, you can really begin working with it.
At this stage, you go from just repeating rote forms (which are generally just simple breathing exercises coupled with specific but relatively easy movements) to actual ALCHEMY. You begin to learn to differentiate various kinds of energy, and combine them in various "cauldrons" (i.e. energy centers) and then use them to various effects. You learn to convert and purify lower forms of energy into subtler forms and use these things to feed your nervous system. This, in turn, allows you even greater perception and awareness and the ability to do more.
Real chi kung then becomes a process of rewiring your central nervous system. It is as if you start with wiring that can only handle a few watts at a low voltage... and then you keep upgrading your meridians and cleaning out the blockages until you can handle thousands. Generally, the inability to channel the energy keeps people from engaging in activities they are not ready for, but it is possible to overload your system in various ways... which can be dangerous and lead to very negative things like losing your mind and physical injury. Sometimes an accident that strikes a specific location can release a lot of stored ancestral chi (jing chi) and this can cause problems. It is basically what people call premature kundalini release (to borrow a phrase from yoga).
(a heavy blow to the sacrum, wrenching the spine, a blow to the head etc.)
If someone full of blockages and with poor meridians and inactive energy centers gets a dose of high energy it can shut off organs or even kill people... i.e. the touch of death. This is why most masters would never do something extremely energetic like move you via telekinesis when you are not advanced enough to handle the energy. Skeptics often say, "Well, throw me like that then so I know it is not fake..." But the masters will always decline this, not because they are charlatans, but because they could kill these people if they did.
Once you get your system rewired... the real fun begins.
Anyway, I don't have time to go into much more detail now. Besides, these early stages of energy work take years to complete... so there is generally no hurry.
All I can say is that seeing energy, discharging it in physical ways, learning to leave your body, WILDing, and even more fantastic things are part of the teaching, though you will be hard pressed to find teachers who even know this... let alone be willing to teach you.
Thankfully, most of these things can be learned from other sources. There are plenty of great books on dreamwork... including Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming and Astral Projection. If your Kung Fu school doesn't teach sexual yoga (absolutely essential) then find a Tantra teacher... they tend to be abundant these days.
I wish you the best of luck my friend. Sorry if I missed some questions. I may re-read your post and add something later... after a nice cacao drink and a smoke.
Peace and Blessings
HF
