Nice discussion.
Nobody said that (but it's true lol). I can tell people's personality at first sight. It's all on their faces. It may be difficult to find the right words and verbalize these impressions, but I instantly know how to relate. Not but that it should change my behaviour towards my partner in any sensible way, no.I do not believe that the worth of a book or a human can be judged by their overt appearance .
And this has nothing to with Chia. I don't know him personally. The only negative I feel about him is defensiveness, maybe resentfullness. I'm sorry if my opinion came across harsh. Instead of stroppy I meant unrestful (damn dictionary), and I insist to that lol.
Ok let's leave the man alone now. I think we both agree that both kundalini and taoist yoga have the same subject, the energy body. But these systems have striking differences in their goals and methods, which may in the long run destruct their credibility. At the very least, the basic concept of kundalini yoga with the 7 main chakras seems to be incopatible with the 3 dan-tien of the taoist alchemy.
So we want to bring these systems under a common understanding and build an integrated practice. Only after we have a common framework, can we under the control of clairvoyant feedback, design better energy practices. Without this preliminary understanding, clairvoyance at best is just a snapshot of colorful blobs.
Kundalini and kriya yoga gives little attention to the purification process (it is left for hatha and pranayama yoga) and ventures directly to the deepest level of the energy body, the shusumna. In chineese systems, much more emphasis is given to ensure the free flow of energy within the meridian system right from the beginning.
It wasn't my intention to present an all encompassing theory on the energy body or provide new energy exercises. Even if i were qualified I couldn't take that responsibility. I just wanted to make notes on a couple of processes I've found to be probable and unknown. It's unlikely, for example, that the scull bones, if involved at all, have a significant role in the external aspect of kundalini.
I rarely do any hard core energy exercises anymore but I plan to venture into kriya yoga albeit with an important difference. I plan to practice in the pre OBE and OBE state.
Currently my main practice is zhan zhuan qi gong. It's a very slow and passive method, rather tedious at the beginning. It's designed to provide a safe way to grow both energetically and in endurance, without consciously interfering with the process. It doesn't rely on imagination to evoke energy currents yet produces strong energy sensations if blockages are present. I started it after 6 years of Iyengar yoga to support my sungazing practice and to establish a strong root. Now it has outgrown its initial premises and became the backbone of my practice. One needs to do some meridian streching before standing and basically thats all (I still use yoga for that along with ba duan jin.) It's a powerful and simple practice.
ZZ is like doing cardio exercise and meditation at the same time. The standing position also favors vertical integration which is my most important goal with qi gong. My energy body appears to be free from constraints and my current goal in qi gong is to fully establish this vertical flow and build the antakarana. I still practice energy accumulation and gentle bone marrow washing though. But I do it on my own way, based on the theories I presented. There is nothing more practical than a good theory I can assure you. Basically I revise the fundamental centers again and again while I am letting ny practice to correct itself in an iterative way. My health is not perfect (I have allergy to ragweed and probably hemorrhoid) but I wasn't sick in over 10 years, not even with cold.
Basically I do the same for trance meditation, but I give more attention to tensions and newly formed blockades. I expand and repack the energy body segmentially then the whole of it at once. I also reconnect to the axial flow between the center of Earth and the Universe and that's all. At mornings I turn onto my stomach and proceed with a simple projection technique, which usually begins with imagining cleaning surfaces (lol) then forcing silence and absorbing my attention in inner sensations, such as vibrations, noises and lights.
My greatest problem with Bruce's and especially with Chia's methods that they try to imprint all kind of energy routes we don't yet fully understand. Even if the hardwiring of the energy body presented in their work is correct such undertaking is premature or completely unnecesseary. I mean I don't want to regulate the perspiration glands in my armpits. We have evolved out of the cellular, etc. level and integrated those sub-selves into human consciousness.
So I developed my own way to do energy practices within the safe framework of zhan zhuang. Instead of following esoteric energy routes I focus my attention on the elements of a functional unit I want to regulate or just conscious of.
For example, the first thing I feel when I begin to stand is warmness in my hands and the soles of my feet, as well as a pressure on my forehead and vacuum in my lower dantien. Then may come the pulsation of the sacrum and pressure on the ears. So I know these parts of the energy body are connected. This way I identified remote structures in the body that form functional units. So taking energy accumulation as the simplest example, I would concentrate on the sensations of the soles of the feet, palms of the hands and the lower dantien at once. I dont care how the channels are supposed to wind around in the legs and arms. I just focus on my intention to accumulate some extra energy. I focus on the soles of the feet while breathing in, condensing the chi into the lower dantien while breathing out. Then I just let them doing their thing. It's very basic stuff and beyond this, and grounding or connecting to the vertical flow, I really don't do anything.
Nice discussion Aunt, I will catch up with you and answer your questions tomorrow or the day after.
Bookmarks