Ling Bao Bi Fa is divided into three volumes, it was collected and published in the Supreme Pureness section (Tai Qing Bu) of the "Authentic Daoist Canon" (Zheng Tong Daocang). In the prologue of Ling Bao Bi Fa, Ancestor Zhongli quan stated that he had studied classics and consulted with many friends to learn about the great Dao, later he had found 30 volumes of "Ling Bao Jing" in Mount Zhongnan. In it "the first section called the Golden Words, written by the Jade Pure One; the middle section called the Jade Book, written by the Supreme Pure One ; the last section called True Origin, written by the Grand Pure One. Together made of several thousands words." Ancestor Zhongli ponders deeply on the materials and ultimately discovered the true meaning within: "To transcend the mundane and achieve Sainthood, which can be summarized in three levels of methods." He named it "Ling Bao Bi Fa" and transmitted it to Ancestor Lu Dongbin.
"The Daoist Teachings of Zhong and Lu" had mentioned that "Ling Bao Bi Fa" is divided into 10 volumes on 12 topics. Each topic has Six Yi, six ways of explaining the topic, they are : Golden Words (Gin Gao), Jade Book (Yu Shu), True Origin (Jhen Yuan), Analogy (Bi Yu), True Code (Jhen Jyue) and Essence of Dao (Dao Yao).
The content of Ling Bao Bi Fa can be divided into three volumes of ten gateways (or three levels of ten methods):
The first Volumes is called "Minor Methods for Good Health and Well Being", the four methods are Pairing the Yin and Yang number one, Collection and Dispersion of Water and Fire number two, The mating of Dragon and Tiger number three and Cooking the Cinnabar Medicine number four. This is the foundation method of building the neidan, following the methods can leads to good health and well being.
The second volume is called "Intermediate Methods for Longevity" which contains three methods, The Golden Crystal Flying Up from the Side number four, the Jade Liquid Restorative Cinnabar number five, the Golden Liquid Restorative Cinnabar number seven. These are the method to complete the neidan cultivation. The method can leads to longevity.
The third volume is called "Great Methods for Transcending from the mortal Realm" which contains three methods, Facing the origin to refine the qi number eight, Internal Viewing and Swapping number nine and transcension and Subdivision number ten. These methods can lead to transcendency.
In each method, it is explained from six different angles called the Six Yi, they are different ways to interpret and explain the method. Golden Words, Jade Book and True Origin were written by the Three Pure Ones who use the great Dao, the Heaven and Earth to explain the method. Analogy use the the ten thousands things as analogies to explain the qi and shen of the human body. True code and the essence of Dao summaries the methods and important points to watch out for during the practice.
From the practice point of views, the three volumes of Ling Bao Bi Fa is explaining the 45 segments of actual practice in the Three Immortal Methods. By following the TTIM, one should be able to archived the corresponding goals stated in Ling Bao Bi Fa. It is called "Bi Fa" because it is a complete and systematic methods of the Great Dao.
Dandao is also called neidan, it came from Waidan (external cinnabar), by referring to the methods of creating the external cinnabar, one can then easily comprehend the neidan system. The main process in waidan is the following: choose a auspicious location, setting up the stove and the cauldron, put the medicine and water into the cauldron, start the fire in the stove, boil the water and cook the medicine. The medicine will then move in the water, when the water have been completely evaporated, the medicine condensed and form the cinnabar.
Neidan method is very similar the waidan methods. It uses yin and yang to create the dan (cinnabar). The difference is that in neidan, one need to condensed and create the dan three times. The first time the dan is created, it can be used to refine into dan medicine ; the dan medicine can then be used to create a refined dan ; keeping cooking the refined dan more and one can create the golden dan. The three levels of cultivation in Ling Bao Bi Fa, "Human Immortal Methods", "Terrestrial Immortal Methods" and "Celestial Immortal Method", are precisely the methods to create and refine the dan three times.
The "Human Immortal Methods" use the body as the cauldron, the qi as the medicine, the heart as the fire, the kidney as the water, nine restorations and seven reversals, Kan and Li combine and the Golden Elixir Restorative Cinnabar created.
The "Terrestrial Immortal Methods" use the shen as the cauldron, the qi as the medicine, the sun as the fire, the moon as the water, seeking treasure in the deep ocean, walking in the sky to see the moon, Yin and Yang perfectly matched.
The "Celestial Immortal Methods" use the shen as the cauldron, the true-self as the medicine, the wisdom as the fire, the stillness as the water, the nine palaces indestructible, the heaven and earth circulate forever and the heaven and man become one.
Practicing neidan is a way to refine yin and yang for creation, the process for rebirth.
Ling Bao Bi Fa is a systematic method to build the bridge between the mortals and the immortals. It is the pinnacle and the greatest of all methods in neidan. It is a ladder to the understanding of the Dao as told by Laozi 3000 years ago.
Finally Ling Bao Bi Fa showed us the Youwei method of using the shen to refine the qi, the Wuwei method of us the the qi to refine the shen and the Wubuwei method of combining the shen ling. All this theory must be put into practice, using real and tangible results to verify the content of Ling Bao Bi Fa. To study Ling Bao Bi Fa require very a meticulous and flexible mind.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Brief Introduction to the "Daoist Teachings of Zhong and Lu"
The "Daoist Teachings of Zhong and Lu" (DTZL) recorded the daoist transmissions from Zhongli Quan to Lu Dongbin in a questions and answers format. The earliest historical record of this text can be found in the Northern Song Dynasty, in "Xuan He Shu Pu" volume 19 stated that Lu Dongbin was a disciple of Zhongli Quan and "there exits books of their dialogue and poems etc", the "dialogue" should be referring to this classic. The "Dao Shu" In the Song dynasty has collected this classic and called it "Collection of Daoist Transmissions". The 14th to 16th chapters of the "10 books on Cultivation" in the Doaist Canon, "Collection of Ancient and Modern Books" (Gu Jin Tu Shu Ji Cheng) and "Essentials of Daoist Canon" had also a copy of this classic.
"Daoist Teachings of Zhong and Lu" consists of the questions and answers between the two ancestors on the 18 specialized topics in cultivation ( "On true Immortals", "On Great Dao", "On Heaven and Earth", "On the Sun and the Moon", On Four Seasons", "On Five Elements", "On Water and Fire", "On Dragon and Tiger", "On Cinnabar and Medicine", "On lead and mercury", "On Extraction and Deposition", "On River Car", "On Restorative Cinnabar", "On refining the form", "On returning to the origin", "On internal viewing", "On Demonic Obstacles", "On verifications"). The book fleshed out the concepts clearly, revealed the different layers in each topic and it is full of wonderful discussions. This book had revealed to the world previously closely guarded daoist secrets. It is not an exaggeration to call this book the most important classic of the five ancestors and the seven sages and all the saints that followed them. DTZL is a more comprehensive discussion of the dandao of Zhong and Lu than any other publicly available classics.
To get to know the Zhong and Lu dandao better, the 18 topics of DTZL can be divided into 6 sections.
1. The Purpose. The goal of Zhong and Lu dandao is to become an immortal through cultivations. So what is an immortal? How to cultivate it? The answer is in "On true Immortals".
2. The Theory. Dandao is the fruit of the fusion between the great dao and the daoist culture. So how can we understand dandao from the point of view of the great Dao? The answer is in "On Great Dao".
3. The Theory from Yijing. Dandao culture was built on the backdrop of the idea "Heaven and Man become one". The "Heaven" in this idea consist of at least two levels of meaning. The "pre-heaven" (xiantian) stage of the universe and human, these had all been incorporated in the theory of "Zhou Yi". Secondly, how can we get to know the laws of the Yijing from observations of the circulation between of the heaven and earth, the movement of the Sun and the moon and the transitions between the 4 seasons and use these observations to help us understand the practical aspects of dandao. The different stages of the process in "Heaven and Man become one" are method of earth, method of heaven and method of Dao and they are explained in "On Heaven and Earth", "On the Sun and Moon" and "On the four seasons".
4. The theory of alchemy. The main idea in dandao is the theory of creation and rebirth, i.e. the creation of embryo from yin and yang, the embryo is nurtured until rebirth is possible. "Dao give birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, Three gives birth to the ten thousands things". Creation is not possible without Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang is from "One", then where does "One" comes from? See "On the five elements". And how does "One" gives birth to Yin and Yang? See "On Water and Fire". How does Yin and Yang give births to the yang within yin and the yin within yang ? See "On Dragon and Tiger". How does Yin and Yang give birth to "Three", the embryo? And how do we nurture the Embryo ? See "On Cinnabar and Medicine". And how about the yin and yang in the embryo? See "On Lead and Mercury".
5. The theory on the cultivation method. Cultivation methods follow the laws of the nature, the theory in Yijing and the circulation between heaven and earth. How does one get the yin and yang, and how do we use the yin and yang? See "On extraction and deposition". How do we make the ying and yang follows the rise and fall (circulation) between the heaven and earth ? See "On River Car". How does one refine the quality and increase the volume of Yin and Yang? See "On restorative cinnabar". How does one cleanse the body with Yin and Yang? See "On Refining the form". How does one achieve transcension? See "On returning to the Origin". How does one see the process? See "On internal viewing". How does one overcome psychological obstacles? See "On demonic obstacles. The 10 methods and 45 segments of Ling Bao Bi Fa are precisely the practical methods to complement these theory.
6. On verifications. Since one has the methods, so we should also have verifications of the methods. To know the verifications in each stage, see "On Verifications". How does one assess the result and the achieved level of the immortality? See "On true immortals". How does one understand the great dao through cultivation ? See "On the Great Dao".
Looking at the content of DTZL, we can see that Ancestors Zhongli and Lu were standing and teaching us at a level unimaginable to mortals, they taught us true neidan and true methods, they told us that there are 5 levels of immortals: ghost immortal, human immortal, terrestrial immortal, shen immortal, celestial immortals. There are three levels of cultivation, minor cultivation, medium cultivation and great cultivation. Minor cultivation can grant one human immortal status, to live well and healthy on earth ; medium cultivation method can grant one terrestrial immortal status, to enjoy longevity; great cultivation method can grant one the shen immortal, celestial immortal status, to transcend from the material world. The method of neidan came from the great Dao, it states that the human body is a universe in itself, that's why one needs to imitate the circulation of the heaven and earth, the conversion of the 5 elements, the interactions of the sun and the moon in the body. To extract the Xiantian yang from the kidney water as the ingredients of dan, to mate the true yin and true yang, to mix and merge them, to circulate in the 3 fields, using yang to cook the yin and use the yin to refine the yang. By conversion of essence to qi, qi to shen, shen to the void and refine the void to Dao, then the golden dan can be formed and the yang shen can transcend. Jump out of the gate of heaven into the world of the three pure ones. The classic had detailed the 12 levels of internal refinement methods, they are Pairing the Ying and Yang number one, Collection and Dispersion of Water and Fire number two, The Mating of Dragon and Tiger number three, Burning and cooking the cinnabar medicine number four, The golden sphere flying up form the side number five, The jade liquid restorative cinnabar number six, the jade liquid refinement of the form number seven, the golden liquid restorative cinnabar number eight, the golden liquid refinement of the form number nine, returning to the origin to refine the qi number ten, internal viewing number eleven, transcension and subdivide number twelve. Combining sixth and seventh into one method, and the eighth and ninth into one method, reducing the twelve methods into ten, this is Ling Bao Bi Fa.
DTZL has established the venerable position of Zhong and Lu dandao: it inherited from the three pure ones and bequeath this treasure to the mortals in next one thousand year. It is the pinnacle achievement of the ancient daoist tradition; it wakes up the internal shen and ling of man and connect them to the external space and time. It is a comprehensive system of dandao cultivation, it revealed to the world the extraordinary wisdom of the daoist tradition and give people a glimpse of it's effective health and wellness method.
Therefore when we read DTZL, we need to ourselves in between the heaven and earth, time and space, to view and think about them from mutiple angles, the corporeal and concrete, the corporeal and formless and the incorporeal and formless. To see how can "heaven" and "man" become one? How does the "heaven" and "man" correspond to each other? What is being merged from "heaven" and "man" ? etc ..etc...
"Daoist Teachings of Zhong and Lu" consists of the questions and answers between the two ancestors on the 18 specialized topics in cultivation ( "On true Immortals", "On Great Dao", "On Heaven and Earth", "On the Sun and the Moon", On Four Seasons", "On Five Elements", "On Water and Fire", "On Dragon and Tiger", "On Cinnabar and Medicine", "On lead and mercury", "On Extraction and Deposition", "On River Car", "On Restorative Cinnabar", "On refining the form", "On returning to the origin", "On internal viewing", "On Demonic Obstacles", "On verifications"). The book fleshed out the concepts clearly, revealed the different layers in each topic and it is full of wonderful discussions. This book had revealed to the world previously closely guarded daoist secrets. It is not an exaggeration to call this book the most important classic of the five ancestors and the seven sages and all the saints that followed them. DTZL is a more comprehensive discussion of the dandao of Zhong and Lu than any other publicly available classics.
To get to know the Zhong and Lu dandao better, the 18 topics of DTZL can be divided into 6 sections.
1. The Purpose. The goal of Zhong and Lu dandao is to become an immortal through cultivations. So what is an immortal? How to cultivate it? The answer is in "On true Immortals".
2. The Theory. Dandao is the fruit of the fusion between the great dao and the daoist culture. So how can we understand dandao from the point of view of the great Dao? The answer is in "On Great Dao".
3. The Theory from Yijing. Dandao culture was built on the backdrop of the idea "Heaven and Man become one". The "Heaven" in this idea consist of at least two levels of meaning. The "pre-heaven" (xiantian) stage of the universe and human, these had all been incorporated in the theory of "Zhou Yi". Secondly, how can we get to know the laws of the Yijing from observations of the circulation between of the heaven and earth, the movement of the Sun and the moon and the transitions between the 4 seasons and use these observations to help us understand the practical aspects of dandao. The different stages of the process in "Heaven and Man become one" are method of earth, method of heaven and method of Dao and they are explained in "On Heaven and Earth", "On the Sun and Moon" and "On the four seasons".
4. The theory of alchemy. The main idea in dandao is the theory of creation and rebirth, i.e. the creation of embryo from yin and yang, the embryo is nurtured until rebirth is possible. "Dao give birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, Three gives birth to the ten thousands things". Creation is not possible without Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang is from "One", then where does "One" comes from? See "On the five elements". And how does "One" gives birth to Yin and Yang? See "On Water and Fire". How does Yin and Yang give births to the yang within yin and the yin within yang ? See "On Dragon and Tiger". How does Yin and Yang give birth to "Three", the embryo? And how do we nurture the Embryo ? See "On Cinnabar and Medicine". And how about the yin and yang in the embryo? See "On Lead and Mercury".
5. The theory on the cultivation method. Cultivation methods follow the laws of the nature, the theory in Yijing and the circulation between heaven and earth. How does one get the yin and yang, and how do we use the yin and yang? See "On extraction and deposition". How do we make the ying and yang follows the rise and fall (circulation) between the heaven and earth ? See "On River Car". How does one refine the quality and increase the volume of Yin and Yang? See "On restorative cinnabar". How does one cleanse the body with Yin and Yang? See "On Refining the form". How does one achieve transcension? See "On returning to the Origin". How does one see the process? See "On internal viewing". How does one overcome psychological obstacles? See "On demonic obstacles. The 10 methods and 45 segments of Ling Bao Bi Fa are precisely the practical methods to complement these theory.
6. On verifications. Since one has the methods, so we should also have verifications of the methods. To know the verifications in each stage, see "On Verifications". How does one assess the result and the achieved level of the immortality? See "On true immortals". How does one understand the great dao through cultivation ? See "On the Great Dao".
Looking at the content of DTZL, we can see that Ancestors Zhongli and Lu were standing and teaching us at a level unimaginable to mortals, they taught us true neidan and true methods, they told us that there are 5 levels of immortals: ghost immortal, human immortal, terrestrial immortal, shen immortal, celestial immortals. There are three levels of cultivation, minor cultivation, medium cultivation and great cultivation. Minor cultivation can grant one human immortal status, to live well and healthy on earth ; medium cultivation method can grant one terrestrial immortal status, to enjoy longevity; great cultivation method can grant one the shen immortal, celestial immortal status, to transcend from the material world. The method of neidan came from the great Dao, it states that the human body is a universe in itself, that's why one needs to imitate the circulation of the heaven and earth, the conversion of the 5 elements, the interactions of the sun and the moon in the body. To extract the Xiantian yang from the kidney water as the ingredients of dan, to mate the true yin and true yang, to mix and merge them, to circulate in the 3 fields, using yang to cook the yin and use the yin to refine the yang. By conversion of essence to qi, qi to shen, shen to the void and refine the void to Dao, then the golden dan can be formed and the yang shen can transcend. Jump out of the gate of heaven into the world of the three pure ones. The classic had detailed the 12 levels of internal refinement methods, they are Pairing the Ying and Yang number one, Collection and Dispersion of Water and Fire number two, The Mating of Dragon and Tiger number three, Burning and cooking the cinnabar medicine number four, The golden sphere flying up form the side number five, The jade liquid restorative cinnabar number six, the jade liquid refinement of the form number seven, the golden liquid restorative cinnabar number eight, the golden liquid refinement of the form number nine, returning to the origin to refine the qi number ten, internal viewing number eleven, transcension and subdivide number twelve. Combining sixth and seventh into one method, and the eighth and ninth into one method, reducing the twelve methods into ten, this is Ling Bao Bi Fa.
DTZL has established the venerable position of Zhong and Lu dandao: it inherited from the three pure ones and bequeath this treasure to the mortals in next one thousand year. It is the pinnacle achievement of the ancient daoist tradition; it wakes up the internal shen and ling of man and connect them to the external space and time. It is a comprehensive system of dandao cultivation, it revealed to the world the extraordinary wisdom of the daoist tradition and give people a glimpse of it's effective health and wellness method.
Therefore when we read DTZL, we need to ourselves in between the heaven and earth, time and space, to view and think about them from mutiple angles, the corporeal and concrete, the corporeal and formless and the incorporeal and formless. To see how can "heaven" and "man" become one? How does the "heaven" and "man" correspond to each other? What is being merged from "heaven" and "man" ? etc ..etc...
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
2002 - A retreat with friends
An old friend from Beijing wanted to attain the Channel SHO, she had practiced for many years and has a good foundation. Since I also wanted to try my new teaching methods and daigong techniques so I had agreed.
The four of us went up to Xing Long Shan for a retreat, my plan was to stay for 10 days but she succeeded on the 9th. She was my first successful student since Taoyuan. What was difference from before was that the Channel SHO was attained due entirely to my own power. The entire process worked out perfectly according to my plan, it showed that my ideas and techniques had improved greatly.
There is always a flip side to everything, I can help other to open up the SHO but the questions are:
(1) From the technical point of view, what kind of persons will succeed and who won't? What's condition of their health? How long do they need to have practiced? Will any illness be severely detrimental to the process?
(2) From the morality point of view, who should I help and who shouldn't be helped? Unfortunately there are people in this world who are unethical. You helped them with their practice but not only are they not grateful to you, they slander you behind your back. Helping them is the same as harming yourself. That's why the daoist classics always remind us to never teach the unscrupulous.
(3) From the actual result point of view, once they attain it during the seminar, can they keep it afterward? What can be done to help preserving the result?
Since I had always been only concentrated on the first question and ignored the other two, it had brought me a lot of troubles afterward. I did gain a lot of valuable experience though but I paid the price to grow up and to mature into a better practitioner and teacher.
The four of us went up to Xing Long Shan for a retreat, my plan was to stay for 10 days but she succeeded on the 9th. She was my first successful student since Taoyuan. What was difference from before was that the Channel SHO was attained due entirely to my own power. The entire process worked out perfectly according to my plan, it showed that my ideas and techniques had improved greatly.
There is always a flip side to everything, I can help other to open up the SHO but the questions are:
(1) From the technical point of view, what kind of persons will succeed and who won't? What's condition of their health? How long do they need to have practiced? Will any illness be severely detrimental to the process?
(2) From the morality point of view, who should I help and who shouldn't be helped? Unfortunately there are people in this world who are unethical. You helped them with their practice but not only are they not grateful to you, they slander you behind your back. Helping them is the same as harming yourself. That's why the daoist classics always remind us to never teach the unscrupulous.
(3) From the actual result point of view, once they attain it during the seminar, can they keep it afterward? What can be done to help preserving the result?
Since I had always been only concentrated on the first question and ignored the other two, it had brought me a lot of troubles afterward. I did gain a lot of valuable experience though but I paid the price to grow up and to mature into a better practitioner and teacher.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
2002 - Annotations of the Three Classics
The first time I read Ling Bao Bi Fa was in 1987, then I read the Taoist Teachings of Chong and Lu, these two books complement each other. When I wrote Walk on the Great Path, I had read the relevant classics I had found. Beginning in 1995 when I was concentrating on researching Channel SHO, I started a detailed study of these two classics. In my specialized seminars, I also tried to use the two classics to explain the methods and the applications. After I had completed "Channel SHO study from 100 persons", I began to study these two books exclusively and I attempted at my own annotation of them.
It was a most awe-inspiring endeavor, when you really tried to understand the explanations of Ancestor Lu with your heart, you will find that each word has great meaning, each sentence is brilliant. To interpret the books from the point of view of the great Dao, they were written as tools to help you tackle "Dao De Jing". From the point of view of Yijing, the two books are demonstrating the world as described by Yijing. From the point of view of the theory of qi, they are talking about the Xiantian qi. Combining them with "Huang Di Nei Jing", they underpinned the traditional Chinese medicine theory. From the point of view of the theoretical aspects of practical methods, the two classic bridge the mortals to heaven, as long as there is an authentic teacher to lead you...
The two classics were full of wonders, I always exclaimed in admiration whenever I read the particularly brilliant sections. The wisdom of the great ancestors far exceeds the capability of our imaginations, it showed you the amazing level of achievement of our civilization. Tears fill my eyes whenever I am reminded of the compassion of the great ancestors, they have left us with great treasures, always hopping that we will be led to transform our lives into higher level.
I sent my annotations to Master Wang, he was very pleased with it. He told me more about Ling Bao Bi Fa on the phone and suggested that I also annotate "Tai Yi Jin Hua Zong Zhi" (*). I updated my manuscripts with Master Wang's suggestions. Later I annotated Tai Yi Jin Hua Zong Zhi and I sent the complete manuscript of the three annotations to Master Wang. After he was satisfied with it, the book was ready for publication. (**)
Translator's notes:
(*) An important longmen pai classic, translated in the west as "The Secret of the Golden Flowers"
(**) The book was published in Aug. 2008. (Only available in Chinese)
It was a most awe-inspiring endeavor, when you really tried to understand the explanations of Ancestor Lu with your heart, you will find that each word has great meaning, each sentence is brilliant. To interpret the books from the point of view of the great Dao, they were written as tools to help you tackle "Dao De Jing". From the point of view of Yijing, the two books are demonstrating the world as described by Yijing. From the point of view of the theory of qi, they are talking about the Xiantian qi. Combining them with "Huang Di Nei Jing", they underpinned the traditional Chinese medicine theory. From the point of view of the theoretical aspects of practical methods, the two classic bridge the mortals to heaven, as long as there is an authentic teacher to lead you...
The two classics were full of wonders, I always exclaimed in admiration whenever I read the particularly brilliant sections. The wisdom of the great ancestors far exceeds the capability of our imaginations, it showed you the amazing level of achievement of our civilization. Tears fill my eyes whenever I am reminded of the compassion of the great ancestors, they have left us with great treasures, always hopping that we will be led to transform our lives into higher level.
I sent my annotations to Master Wang, he was very pleased with it. He told me more about Ling Bao Bi Fa on the phone and suggested that I also annotate "Tai Yi Jin Hua Zong Zhi" (*). I updated my manuscripts with Master Wang's suggestions. Later I annotated Tai Yi Jin Hua Zong Zhi and I sent the complete manuscript of the three annotations to Master Wang. After he was satisfied with it, the book was ready for publication. (**)
Translator's notes:
(*) An important longmen pai classic, translated in the west as "The Secret of the Golden Flowers"
(**) The book was published in Aug. 2008. (Only available in Chinese)
Saturday, September 13, 2008
2001 - The Door within Door
"Refining the body to accumulate qi" (RBAQ) is the foundational method of Ancestors Chong and Lu's dandao, "Yin Xian Fa" is the core component of RBAQ. So editing the portions of my book on Yin Xian Fa is an important task.
When I wrote "Walk on the Great Path", I collected as much information on Yin Xian Fa as taught by Master Wang as possible. Then I removed the overlapped materials, converted them into words that is as easy to understand as possible but without distorting what Master Wang actually said so that the reader would not be misled. It was mainly a job of reorganization existing materials, I didn't put any of my though into it. That was the first edition.
When I rewrote "Walk on the Great Path", I followed the principle of "each level has its methods and each method has several stages". Yin Xian Fa has 12 methods, each method has its goal. In order to reach the goal, I concentrated on each step that is needed to be followed and for each step, I detailed the exact ways that it needed to be done. For example, the first method is "Collect your mind to sit quietly", the objective is clearly stated in the name but how to sit ? how to sit quietly ? and how to collect yout mind? So I divided "Collect your mind to sit quietly" into three segments :
(1) Sit crossed leg. (2) Sit Quietly. (3) Collect your mind to sit quietly.
When I wrote "Walk on the Great Path", I collected as much information on Yin Xian Fa as taught by Master Wang as possible. Then I removed the overlapped materials, converted them into words that is as easy to understand as possible but without distorting what Master Wang actually said so that the reader would not be misled. It was mainly a job of reorganization existing materials, I didn't put any of my though into it. That was the first edition.
When I rewrote "Walk on the Great Path", I followed the principle of "each level has its methods and each method has several stages". Yin Xian Fa has 12 methods, each method has its goal. In order to reach the goal, I concentrated on each step that is needed to be followed and for each step, I detailed the exact ways that it needed to be done. For example, the first method is "Collect your mind to sit quietly", the objective is clearly stated in the name but how to sit ? how to sit quietly ? and how to collect yout mind? So I divided "Collect your mind to sit quietly" into three segments :
(1) Sit crossed leg. (2) Sit Quietly. (3) Collect your mind to sit quietly.
2001 - Editing "Walk on the Great Path"
I sent my "Channel SHO study from 100 persons" to Master Wang, he asked me to reorganize and refine the portions on the practice methods, this is the same as preparing a new edition of "Walk on the Great Path".
When I wrote "Walk on the Great Path", I only had a superficial understanding of dandao and only I only concentrated on the beginner materials. After 14 years of practice, 10 years of teaching experience and 4 years of research on Channel SHO, I had reached a new level of understanding. When I was preparing the new edition of "Walk on the Great Path", I should add my own thought into it:
(1) "Walk on the Great Path" concentrates on the foundational portion of Ancestor Chong and Lu's dandao, i.e. the level of "Refining the body to accumulate qi". I must present the materials from the point of view of practicing Ling Bao Bi Fa by demanding the same level rigor as required in TTIM, so that more students can be successful and "enter the door".
(2) Due to the great compassion of Master Wang, he has revealed to the world the complete foundational practice of Longmen Pai. The remaining question is whether the world know its value? How much can they understand and how much can they accomplish?
(3) The Nu Dan Gong revealed by Master Wang is a highly structured and integrated system, each level has its methods and each method has several stages. The Three Immortals Method is also integrated and "each level has its methods and each method has several stages", hence this is the principle I used when preparing for the new edition of "Walk on the Great Path".
When I wrote "Walk on the Great Path", I only had a superficial understanding of dandao and only I only concentrated on the beginner materials. After 14 years of practice, 10 years of teaching experience and 4 years of research on Channel SHO, I had reached a new level of understanding. When I was preparing the new edition of "Walk on the Great Path", I should add my own thought into it:
(1) "Walk on the Great Path" concentrates on the foundational portion of Ancestor Chong and Lu's dandao, i.e. the level of "Refining the body to accumulate qi". I must present the materials from the point of view of practicing Ling Bao Bi Fa by demanding the same level rigor as required in TTIM, so that more students can be successful and "enter the door".
(2) Due to the great compassion of Master Wang, he has revealed to the world the complete foundational practice of Longmen Pai. The remaining question is whether the world know its value? How much can they understand and how much can they accomplish?
(3) The Nu Dan Gong revealed by Master Wang is a highly structured and integrated system, each level has its methods and each method has several stages. The Three Immortals Method is also integrated and "each level has its methods and each method has several stages", hence this is the principle I used when preparing for the new edition of "Walk on the Great Path".
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
2000 - Detailed Research
Since I requested that all participants to write a practice diary that need to be turned in to me and also that they send me any progress they made at home, I had collected a huge amount of first hand experience and all the phenomenona associated with Ling Bao Tong. These are very precious materials, when combined with our methods and the classic texts, a coherent picture connecting the theory, methods and verifications had emerged. I had done a meticulous study of these materials and produced a series of reports on each specialized topic :
(1) "Summary of the Specialized Study Group" : An overview of the four Channel SHO study group.
(2) "The moment of attainment" : all the phenomenona that happened at the moment of attaining Channel SHO from every student that had achieved it. All physiological transformations that happened the days before and after attaining of Channel SHO together with each person's unique body and mental condition and their practice habits. This is very helpful for me to improve on the methods.
(3) "Special report on individual" : specialized report on a few unique individuals.
(a) "Nu Dan Gong 1" : The complete record of the woman who successfully finishing the entire Nu Dan Gong (Female Practice).
(b) "Nu Dan Gong 2" : Report on attaining "Cut the Red Dragon".
(c) Achieving Channel SHO for 80-year-old.
(d) Achieving Channel SHO for 78-year-old.
(e) Practice record on The Three Immortal Method.
I compiled everything into one volume "Channel SHO study from 100 persons". There are of course materials that I didn't include in the volume, they are mainly techniques that I had developed and my experience as the teacher.
To me this is a record of my endeavor in the area, the process is still continuing but it has been a major step from theory into practice, from the ethereal into the tangible.
(1) "Summary of the Specialized Study Group" : An overview of the four Channel SHO study group.
(2) "The moment of attainment" : all the phenomenona that happened at the moment of attaining Channel SHO from every student that had achieved it. All physiological transformations that happened the days before and after attaining of Channel SHO together with each person's unique body and mental condition and their practice habits. This is very helpful for me to improve on the methods.
(3) "Special report on individual" : specialized report on a few unique individuals.
(a) "Nu Dan Gong 1" : The complete record of the woman who successfully finishing the entire Nu Dan Gong (Female Practice).
(b) "Nu Dan Gong 2" : Report on attaining "Cut the Red Dragon".
(c) Achieving Channel SHO for 80-year-old.
(d) Achieving Channel SHO for 78-year-old.
(e) Practice record on The Three Immortal Method.
I compiled everything into one volume "Channel SHO study from 100 persons". There are of course materials that I didn't include in the volume, they are mainly techniques that I had developed and my experience as the teacher.
To me this is a record of my endeavor in the area, the process is still continuing but it has been a major step from theory into practice, from the ethereal into the tangible.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
1999 - 100-person experiment
In 1996, I taught 10 persons, none was successful. In 1997, one got it. From March 1998 to April 1999, I taught 80 persons and 40 were successful. This completed my 100-person experiment. It was an unique study, very difficult during the process but the result was satisfactory.
An unique study: by accumulating empirical experience in order to improve and perfect the methodology of Channel SHO, I was able to continuously improve my understandings and continuously combining the theory from the classics and the practical methodology. If one persists in this scientific way of studying the ancient Chines art, one can certainly benefit greatly.
A difficult process: I undertook this non-mainstream journey on my own. In order to study this thousand years old puzzle carefully and scientifically, I had to give up a lot of leisure and luxury of the material world and more than once, when I was stuck in a particular difficult situations, I had thought of giving up. Luckily, with a clear head and a well defined goal, I was able to persist and ultimately my effort was paid off.
A satisfactory result: 100-person experiment, a success rate of 50% how could I not be satisfied? Well, 100% will certainly be better and this had become my target.
A rewarding experience: dandao had always been shrouded in mystery, to tackle this problem is a satisfactory intellectual problem. More importantly, dandao is the pinnacle achievement of ancient Chinese civilization, the Chinese tradition places much emphasis on the intuitive and the emotional which made it hard to understand because of it's intangibility. However, within the intangible, there underlined a rational and logical structure. To empirically study on this rational portion will help us understand and learn dandao more efficiently.
An unique study: by accumulating empirical experience in order to improve and perfect the methodology of Channel SHO, I was able to continuously improve my understandings and continuously combining the theory from the classics and the practical methodology. If one persists in this scientific way of studying the ancient Chines art, one can certainly benefit greatly.
A difficult process: I undertook this non-mainstream journey on my own. In order to study this thousand years old puzzle carefully and scientifically, I had to give up a lot of leisure and luxury of the material world and more than once, when I was stuck in a particular difficult situations, I had thought of giving up. Luckily, with a clear head and a well defined goal, I was able to persist and ultimately my effort was paid off.
A satisfactory result: 100-person experiment, a success rate of 50% how could I not be satisfied? Well, 100% will certainly be better and this had become my target.
A rewarding experience: dandao had always been shrouded in mystery, to tackle this problem is a satisfactory intellectual problem. More importantly, dandao is the pinnacle achievement of ancient Chinese civilization, the Chinese tradition places much emphasis on the intuitive and the emotional which made it hard to understand because of it's intangibility. However, within the intangible, there underlined a rational and logical structure. To empirically study on this rational portion will help us understand and learn dandao more efficiently.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
1999 - I attained Channel SHO
The most controversial part of my Channel SHO study group was that : I hadn't attained it myself at that time. i.e. I helped 41 persons attained the level of Channel SHO without myself being at the level first. This is unbelievable, but it is a fact.
After I had sent everyone off the mountain at Taoyuan, I stayed there for 20 more days. A few friends from Taoyuan kept me company and to help me recover. We were already proficient in opening the SHO in terms of techniques required. As long as one follows step by step with my method, channel SHO can be achieved. But in reality, the program's success were very much due to my friends from Taoyuan. Daigong is very tiring, it meant I was very tired, but since the first specialized class, the students who attained Channel SHO always came back to help the new students, this had become an unofficial tradition. The friends from Taoyuan were among the first batch of students who attained Channel SHO. After three or four seminars, their kung fu were already very good and they were also very experienced in the methods. The more important though was that everyone had became part of a team, whose goal was to help each other in achieving higher and higher level. Everyone in this team had only one goal in mind, and this was to improve in any way possible the techniques that we were using. Unsurprisingly, with their help, I attained Channel SHO. I even attained it while sitting in full lotus, only one person out of the 41 students did the same thing.
Nevertheless my kung fu wasn't that high at that time. I helped them opening up the SHO which had used up a lot of my strength but they helped me attained that level in return. After I left Taoyuan, my SHO moved very weakly, my strength was up and down, I wasn't able to maintain at a good and stable level.
After some time, I realized that the four specialized classes had completely exhausted me and left my body in a terrible condition. I didn't have any serious illness but I was weak for a long time. Only after an extended period of training, rest and Chinese medical treatment was I able to recover slowly.
After I had sent everyone off the mountain at Taoyuan, I stayed there for 20 more days. A few friends from Taoyuan kept me company and to help me recover. We were already proficient in opening the SHO in terms of techniques required. As long as one follows step by step with my method, channel SHO can be achieved. But in reality, the program's success were very much due to my friends from Taoyuan. Daigong is very tiring, it meant I was very tired, but since the first specialized class, the students who attained Channel SHO always came back to help the new students, this had become an unofficial tradition. The friends from Taoyuan were among the first batch of students who attained Channel SHO. After three or four seminars, their kung fu were already very good and they were also very experienced in the methods. The more important though was that everyone had became part of a team, whose goal was to help each other in achieving higher and higher level. Everyone in this team had only one goal in mind, and this was to improve in any way possible the techniques that we were using. Unsurprisingly, with their help, I attained Channel SHO. I even attained it while sitting in full lotus, only one person out of the 41 students did the same thing.
Nevertheless my kung fu wasn't that high at that time. I helped them opening up the SHO which had used up a lot of my strength but they helped me attained that level in return. After I left Taoyuan, my SHO moved very weakly, my strength was up and down, I wasn't able to maintain at a good and stable level.
After some time, I realized that the four specialized classes had completely exhausted me and left my body in a terrible condition. I didn't have any serious illness but I was weak for a long time. Only after an extended period of training, rest and Chinese medical treatment was I able to recover slowly.
Monday, August 4, 2008
1999 - Third Time at Shangri-La
The 4th and final Channel SHO study group was held from 10th April 1999 to 29th April 1999 at the Daoist 35th Cave Heaven, Shangri-La again.
Summary
27 students attended the seminar. 2 had already attained it, 25 hadn't. They were from many different parts of China. The oldest was 70 and the youngest was 24. Average age was 42. In the end 14 students achieved SHO, a success rate of 56%.
The logistics and experiences of students who were successful were very similar to previous three seminars. I would only like to point out a few observations.
(1) Taiji Chuan are helpful to Channel SHO. Mr. Lin from Xi'an has practiced Ling Bao Tong for more than 10 years already, he had also practiced Taiji Chuan for many years. He attained SHO on the 6th day and after that his organs qi would move automatically along different meridians. On the 10th day, he has opened up the horizontal channels. When the class finish, he was at the level of the "Golden Liquid Restorative Elixir".
(2) Ms. Yao from Shenzhen had various very serious illnesses but with the help of Shen Laoshi and her own hard work, she was able to attain SHO and improved her health greatly.
Summary
27 students attended the seminar. 2 had already attained it, 25 hadn't. They were from many different parts of China. The oldest was 70 and the youngest was 24. Average age was 42. In the end 14 students achieved SHO, a success rate of 56%.
The logistics and experiences of students who were successful were very similar to previous three seminars. I would only like to point out a few observations.
(1) Taiji Chuan are helpful to Channel SHO. Mr. Lin from Xi'an has practiced Ling Bao Tong for more than 10 years already, he had also practiced Taiji Chuan for many years. He attained SHO on the 6th day and after that his organs qi would move automatically along different meridians. On the 10th day, he has opened up the horizontal channels. When the class finish, he was at the level of the "Golden Liquid Restorative Elixir".
(2) Ms. Yao from Shenzhen had various very serious illnesses but with the help of Shen Laoshi and her own hard work, she was able to attain SHO and improved her health greatly.
1998 - Second time at Shangri-La
From Oct. 22 1998 - Nov. 11 1998, the Hunan Province Taoyuan County Qigong Science Research council and the Taoyuan Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu Study Group invited Shen Laoshi to organize the Third Channel Small Heavenly Orbit Study Seminar. The location was at the Daoist 35th Cave Heaven - the Taoyuan Temple in Shangri-La.
Basic Informations
(1) Composition.
There were 38 students, 13 had already attained Channel SHO, 25 hadn't yet. Students came from Beijing, Shenyang, Xian and Taoyuan. The oldest was 80 and the youngest was 15. Average age was 43.
(2) Seminar structure.
The structure was the same as the first study group. It was a closed-door enhanced and specialized study group. The lectures, daigong and all practice were organized around the sole purpose of attaining the Channel SHO. Students practice Ping Peng Gong in the morning and the evening. Sitting practice in late morning and mid-afternoon, Stars Formation and Sleeping practice at night. 10 hours of actual practice time per day.
(3) Teaching Methods.
Shen Laoshi was responsible for all lectures and daigong. Students were required to keep a detailed practice diary to be turned in at the end of the seminar.
(4) Weather.
The weather was great, ideal for cultivation study.
(5) Results.
After 15 days of high impact and tough practice. 10 persons attained Channel SHO, a success rate of 40%.
Analysis
Looking at the result. The students could be classified into three types. Those who didn't attain the Channel SHO. Those who attained the Channel SHO in this seminar. Those who attained it before this seminar.
Type 1. Those who didn't attain the Channel SHO. They could further be classified into three groups.
Group 1: 3 Students who didn't practice at home regularly. They almost had no foundation, therefore they weren't psychologically and physiologically prepared for the high impact practice and the strong qi field. Pain and tiredness were common among these students.
Group 2: 7 students who did practice at home and who had some good foundation in sitting still but who were either old or had health issues, or who misunderstood the methods or who weren't prepared mentally. They were still some distance away from being able to attain the SHO.
Group3: 5 students who practiced at home regularly, who had some good foundation already. They should be ready to take the crucial next step. Unfortunately they had psychological obstacles that prevented them from leaping into the new level.
Type 2. Those who attained the Channel in this seminar.
(1) 10 out of 25 students(40%) attained Channel SHO which was a fantastic proportion. This showed again that group practice is a reliable way to open up the SHO.
(2) 80 years old student Mr. Yang from Xian attained SHO in the 2nd day of the seminar. This broke the previous age record of 78 years old from the first seminar. This showed that elderly can also attain the SHO as long as the method is right.
(3) Two sisters who learnt Ling Bao Tong from Master Wang in 1993 and 1998 were among the students in this seminar. Since their uncle attained SHO in the first seminar, they were convinced to attend this class. They both had kids that were under 1 year old and they need to breastfeed their children during the seminar. Because of the inconvenience, they reluctantly sent their kids home early. In the 7th and the 9th day, they both successfully attained the Channel SHO. I thought alot about this and I believe that it is very likely that a woman who is in lactation phase can attain SHO much easier than others. Because in traditional Chinese medical theory, women who haven't reach menopause have their xiantian yuen qi circulate to the lower half of their body and it will be lost as it will be converted into menstrual blood. For women during lactation, the xiantian yuen rises from their center and convert into milk. This is very similar to the process in the first four levels described in the "Nu Dan Gong", i.e. the level of "Slaughter the Red Dragon" in which the menstrual blood is converted into qi which then rises and entered the Ru Xi point and the breasts, which then initiate the River Car and circulate in the SHO. During lactation phase, the period stopped and the yuen qi rises automatically to the breasts, this is similar to the process described in Nu Dan Gong. So if a woman work on Channel SHO during this time, haveing it opened quickly is not unreasonable.
(4) I found that by working on the "Opening the Channel with External Five Elements" before going into Channel SHO practice can facilitate the process. Once SHO was attained, "Opening the Channel with Internal Five Elements" would also move automatically, very interesting.
Type 3. Forteen students attained Channel SHO in the first seminar, 13 of them attended this seminar. 6 months after their success, they had been improving everyday and they had new discoveries everyday.
(1) People and Trees.
After Channel SHO was attained, there was a deeper connection between the practitioners and the trees during Ping Heng Gong whether it's an mutual exchange of qi or emotions. One could even see the fluctuating qi field of the trees, for example: the qi of the tree rushes up and down in the tree's vertical qi channel; the unevenness of the external qi fields of different species of trees etc.There were two students in the class who could see these phenomenons.
(2) Star Formation Practice.
After Channel SHO is attained, the resonance between the star clusters and the practitioners during Star Formation Practice was greatly enhanced.
(3) Bagua Yi Sphere.
After SHO is attained, the specific qi channels according to the Bagua Yi Ball will be opened. When the qi sphere is formed, it can vary in sizes: it cave be as small as an organ or a point in the meridian, or it could be as big as the entire body. The qi sphere can transform in colour or quality according to rule of the conversion or anti-conversion of the five elements. The sphere can be moved in the meridian and be used to practice TTIM or Nu Dan Gong. It can be shot off into distance or retrieved at will.
(4) The Divine Seven Stars Steps and the Divine Bagua Steps.
When one works on the Seven stars steps and the bagua steps after SHO is attained, the corresponding movement in the energy field can be felt clearly during meditation.
(5) Pulling the "Line of Attribute" and looking at Tian Mu.
After SHO, when one "pull" the neigong line of attribute, one can usually see bright light or see things that happen inside and outside the body.
(6) Practice Yin Xian Fa, TTIM, Nu Dan Gong.
Channel SHO is the fifth method of "Ling Bao Bi Fa". Since the students reached this stage quickly with the help of the teacher's daigong, the foundation would not be strong enough. They must go back and practice Yin Xian Fa, TTIM and Nu Dan Gong in order to accumulate enough internal strength.
When one worked on Yin Xian Fa after attaing SHO, one could go into deep trance quickly. The five elements moved and converted automatically in both directions. One could also easily experience the accompanying sounds, colours and sensations.
During "matching the yin and yang" level of TTIM, one could breath easily through the skin, there are clear communications between different parts of the human body and the universe ; during the level of "dispersion and collection of water and fire", not only can one collect the three yin qi down to the lower tian, but also the qi from Yong Quan ; during the "mating of the dragon and tiger", one can see it happening right inside their own body etc etc all the phenomenons as described in Ling Bao Bi Fa were verified perfectly.
Deficiencies
The success rate was 40%, it showed that there are still problems waiting to be solved. I believe they are as follow:
(1) Wrong expectation.
Some students thought that just by attending the seminars, they would be able to achieve SHO without putting into effort.
(2) Lack of Confidence.
After a few failed attempts, some students exclaimed that "This is hopeless, I will never get it!". If one lose the drive to practice, how can they ever expect to succeed ?
(3) Lack of proper understanding of the methods and theory. Some students didn't understand the essence of the method and theory behind Ling Bao Bi Fa, worse, they didn't even ask.
(4) Imperfect teaching materials and arrangement. The seminar concentrated on TTIM and not enough Yin Xian Fa, which is an important step to TTIM. Also advanced students (those with SHO) and less-advanced ones practiced together, this undoubtedly has some negative influence since their needs are different. This problem has to be solved by careful planning of the syllabus and the schedule.
Basic Informations
(1) Composition.
There were 38 students, 13 had already attained Channel SHO, 25 hadn't yet. Students came from Beijing, Shenyang, Xian and Taoyuan. The oldest was 80 and the youngest was 15. Average age was 43.
(2) Seminar structure.
The structure was the same as the first study group. It was a closed-door enhanced and specialized study group. The lectures, daigong and all practice were organized around the sole purpose of attaining the Channel SHO. Students practice Ping Peng Gong in the morning and the evening. Sitting practice in late morning and mid-afternoon, Stars Formation and Sleeping practice at night. 10 hours of actual practice time per day.
(3) Teaching Methods.
Shen Laoshi was responsible for all lectures and daigong. Students were required to keep a detailed practice diary to be turned in at the end of the seminar.
(4) Weather.
The weather was great, ideal for cultivation study.
(5) Results.
After 15 days of high impact and tough practice. 10 persons attained Channel SHO, a success rate of 40%.
Analysis
Looking at the result. The students could be classified into three types. Those who didn't attain the Channel SHO. Those who attained the Channel SHO in this seminar. Those who attained it before this seminar.
Type 1. Those who didn't attain the Channel SHO. They could further be classified into three groups.
Group 1: 3 Students who didn't practice at home regularly. They almost had no foundation, therefore they weren't psychologically and physiologically prepared for the high impact practice and the strong qi field. Pain and tiredness were common among these students.
Group 2: 7 students who did practice at home and who had some good foundation in sitting still but who were either old or had health issues, or who misunderstood the methods or who weren't prepared mentally. They were still some distance away from being able to attain the SHO.
Group3: 5 students who practiced at home regularly, who had some good foundation already. They should be ready to take the crucial next step. Unfortunately they had psychological obstacles that prevented them from leaping into the new level.
Type 2. Those who attained the Channel in this seminar.
(1) 10 out of 25 students(40%) attained Channel SHO which was a fantastic proportion. This showed again that group practice is a reliable way to open up the SHO.
(2) 80 years old student Mr. Yang from Xian attained SHO in the 2nd day of the seminar. This broke the previous age record of 78 years old from the first seminar. This showed that elderly can also attain the SHO as long as the method is right.
(3) Two sisters who learnt Ling Bao Tong from Master Wang in 1993 and 1998 were among the students in this seminar. Since their uncle attained SHO in the first seminar, they were convinced to attend this class. They both had kids that were under 1 year old and they need to breastfeed their children during the seminar. Because of the inconvenience, they reluctantly sent their kids home early. In the 7th and the 9th day, they both successfully attained the Channel SHO. I thought alot about this and I believe that it is very likely that a woman who is in lactation phase can attain SHO much easier than others. Because in traditional Chinese medical theory, women who haven't reach menopause have their xiantian yuen qi circulate to the lower half of their body and it will be lost as it will be converted into menstrual blood. For women during lactation, the xiantian yuen rises from their center and convert into milk. This is very similar to the process in the first four levels described in the "Nu Dan Gong", i.e. the level of "Slaughter the Red Dragon" in which the menstrual blood is converted into qi which then rises and entered the Ru Xi point and the breasts, which then initiate the River Car and circulate in the SHO. During lactation phase, the period stopped and the yuen qi rises automatically to the breasts, this is similar to the process described in Nu Dan Gong. So if a woman work on Channel SHO during this time, haveing it opened quickly is not unreasonable.
(4) I found that by working on the "Opening the Channel with External Five Elements" before going into Channel SHO practice can facilitate the process. Once SHO was attained, "Opening the Channel with Internal Five Elements" would also move automatically, very interesting.
Type 3. Forteen students attained Channel SHO in the first seminar, 13 of them attended this seminar. 6 months after their success, they had been improving everyday and they had new discoveries everyday.
(1) People and Trees.
After Channel SHO was attained, there was a deeper connection between the practitioners and the trees during Ping Heng Gong whether it's an mutual exchange of qi or emotions. One could even see the fluctuating qi field of the trees, for example: the qi of the tree rushes up and down in the tree's vertical qi channel; the unevenness of the external qi fields of different species of trees etc.There were two students in the class who could see these phenomenons.
(2) Star Formation Practice.
After Channel SHO is attained, the resonance between the star clusters and the practitioners during Star Formation Practice was greatly enhanced.
(3) Bagua Yi Sphere.
After SHO is attained, the specific qi channels according to the Bagua Yi Ball will be opened. When the qi sphere is formed, it can vary in sizes: it cave be as small as an organ or a point in the meridian, or it could be as big as the entire body. The qi sphere can transform in colour or quality according to rule of the conversion or anti-conversion of the five elements. The sphere can be moved in the meridian and be used to practice TTIM or Nu Dan Gong. It can be shot off into distance or retrieved at will.
(4) The Divine Seven Stars Steps and the Divine Bagua Steps.
When one works on the Seven stars steps and the bagua steps after SHO is attained, the corresponding movement in the energy field can be felt clearly during meditation.
(5) Pulling the "Line of Attribute" and looking at Tian Mu.
After SHO, when one "pull" the neigong line of attribute, one can usually see bright light or see things that happen inside and outside the body.
(6) Practice Yin Xian Fa, TTIM, Nu Dan Gong.
Channel SHO is the fifth method of "Ling Bao Bi Fa". Since the students reached this stage quickly with the help of the teacher's daigong, the foundation would not be strong enough. They must go back and practice Yin Xian Fa, TTIM and Nu Dan Gong in order to accumulate enough internal strength.
When one worked on Yin Xian Fa after attaing SHO, one could go into deep trance quickly. The five elements moved and converted automatically in both directions. One could also easily experience the accompanying sounds, colours and sensations.
During "matching the yin and yang" level of TTIM, one could breath easily through the skin, there are clear communications between different parts of the human body and the universe ; during the level of "dispersion and collection of water and fire", not only can one collect the three yin qi down to the lower tian, but also the qi from Yong Quan ; during the "mating of the dragon and tiger", one can see it happening right inside their own body etc etc all the phenomenons as described in Ling Bao Bi Fa were verified perfectly.
Deficiencies
The success rate was 40%, it showed that there are still problems waiting to be solved. I believe they are as follow:
(1) Wrong expectation.
Some students thought that just by attending the seminars, they would be able to achieve SHO without putting into effort.
(2) Lack of Confidence.
After a few failed attempts, some students exclaimed that "This is hopeless, I will never get it!". If one lose the drive to practice, how can they ever expect to succeed ?
(3) Lack of proper understanding of the methods and theory. Some students didn't understand the essence of the method and theory behind Ling Bao Bi Fa, worse, they didn't even ask.
(4) Imperfect teaching materials and arrangement. The seminar concentrated on TTIM and not enough Yin Xian Fa, which is an important step to TTIM. Also advanced students (those with SHO) and less-advanced ones practiced together, this undoubtedly has some negative influence since their needs are different. This problem has to be solved by careful planning of the syllabus and the schedule.
Friday, June 20, 2008
1998 - Report at Shenyang
September 9th, 1998. I rode the train to Xian. When I met up with a friend, he told me, "In the afternoon, Master Wang is going to give a talk in the discussion forum held by the Liaoning Province I Ching Study Committee."
When I got this news, I immediately called my friends at Dalian and Shenyang. After they confirmed the news, I bought a plane ticket and flew to Shenyang with my friend. I was happy to see Master Wang again. He was originally planning to go home the same day but since we came over, he stayed for 3 more days. I reported to him on my Channel SHO study group and he gave me some valuable advices.
I obtained a recording of Master Wang's talk in the forum, it was clear that Master Wang has a deep understanding of I Ching, from theory to practice. The only thing I regretted was that I didn't have the chance to learn it from him systematically.
As I am reaching higher and higher level in my own practice, the number of problems I face also increase. On one hand, I tried to find the answer from the classics, on the other hand, I also got help from Master Wang. I was very lucky to have such a great teacher, whenever I am stuck, he would always answer my questions in detail. Even though my kung fu was still limited but under the guidance of such a great teacher, I was able to progress smoothly.
When I got this news, I immediately called my friends at Dalian and Shenyang. After they confirmed the news, I bought a plane ticket and flew to Shenyang with my friend. I was happy to see Master Wang again. He was originally planning to go home the same day but since we came over, he stayed for 3 more days. I reported to him on my Channel SHO study group and he gave me some valuable advices.
I obtained a recording of Master Wang's talk in the forum, it was clear that Master Wang has a deep understanding of I Ching, from theory to practice. The only thing I regretted was that I didn't have the chance to learn it from him systematically.
As I am reaching higher and higher level in my own practice, the number of problems I face also increase. On one hand, I tried to find the answer from the classics, on the other hand, I also got help from Master Wang. I was very lucky to have such a great teacher, whenever I am stuck, he would always answer my questions in detail. Even though my kung fu was still limited but under the guidance of such a great teacher, I was able to progress smoothly.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
1998 - Retreat at Lanzhou University
The 2nd Channel SHO study group was held in Lanzhou University on 10th August, 1998 to 3rd, September 1998 Here are the details.
(A) Basic information.
A total of 12 students. One of them arrived half-way through the seminar. Two students could only participate for parts of it due to work reason. One student left during the crucial stage towards the end due to family emergency. Eight students were present for the entire seminar. Among these 8 students, 4 attended the first seminar in Taoyuan. The result was that the 4 students from Taoyuan had improved a lot. 2 new students attained Channel SHO, 2 were almost there.
(B) Analysis
(1) Kung Fu = Methods + Time.
The foundation for opening up the Channel SHO is the requirement that the houtian qi to be abundant so that xiantian qi can be created to sufficient level. This is not imagination, this is to be done step by step, it requires dedication, great endurance to pain and patience. This is real kung fu. Kung fu= Methods + Time. Beside proper understanding and utilization of the methods, one must also put in certain amount of time to practice hard to ensure the emergence of real kung fu. By accumulating kung fu and experience the quality of the training will improve. During this seminar, 4 students could not participate for the entire time, even though they were young, energetic and were taught good methods, none of them achieved the goal set.
(2) Illness can impede progress.
Two students who attended the entire class and who didn't open up the SHO, one of them had coronary heart disease and the other had issue with the bladder. Heart disease patient is not suitable for tiring and physical demanding exercises. Even though only sitting crossed-leg was required, but the strength of the daigong was very strong, not even normal people can endure it, not to mention heart disease patient. The student with bladder problem needed to use the rest room after an hour of sitting every time, how could she accumulate kung fu. Even though they both improved their health greatly after this seminar and there was some signs that the channel SHO was very close, they ultimately failed to do so. It was evidenced that illness and the ability to attain Channel SHO were related in a complex way, it needed further careful research.
(3) Opening up Channel SHO require real kung fu.
The two students who opened up the Channel SHO had the following features: one of them practiced extremely hard, he could sit in full lotus for 2 hours, he had done really well to accumulate internal qi, as long as the method was right, it's impossible for him to miss it. Another was a youngster who had super endurance, he could sit in full lotus perfectly still for 2 hours. When the body stayed still, the shen is focused and qi will be created, after an extended period of time, opening up the SHO is the natural conclusion.
(4) Houtian to xiantian, wonderous experiences.
Four students attained their SHO from the first seminar. They took this opportunity to sit in the strong qi field to improve their cultivation dramatically.
Mr. Zhou, he could only sit crossed-leg in the first seminar, this time he could sit in half-lotus for 2 hours and full-lotus for 1 hour. He could see closed eyes things that happened inside and outside his body.
Ms. Huang, she barely attained the Channel SHO the first time, she came here to continue her treatment of her illness. Started from the first day, the internal qi, like a riptide, flooded all her organs, meridians and bones. It slammed every source of her illness in the body. From then on, she felt numbness and pain, she wanted to vomit, cry and sneeze. The feelings were only alleviated towards the end of the seminar. She wrote in her practice diary that : "It felt like there was a pair of wondrous hands which held me tight and then squeezed every part of my organs, they squeezed out every last drop of disease qi. I felt like every part of my body, the organs, meridians, bones, bone marrows and muscles etc were given a new life. Even though I am not cured completely yet but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I can see the dawn of a life without anymore pain."
Mr Li, he attained the SHO barely the first time. Due to a busy schedule, he couldn't practice often and so he felt little improvement. After this study group, his Channel SHO circulate smoothly without any blockage. The qi can be felt clearly through the channels and meridians. The five elements can be created and converted easily, the organs and the seven openings were linked clearly. Three new single hand signs appeared when he practice Ping Heng Gong. During star formation practice, his two kidneys would heat up quickly and then they would vibrate strongly, the internal qi moves in the kidney and bladder meridians. When he practiced the Bagua Ball, the nine palaces on his head will move.
Ms Yip, the first student to attain Channel SHO in the first seminar. From then on, Shen Laoshi taught her "Nu Dan Gong" (female practice). After the first seminar, she practiced very hard and improved alot. She kept a detailed practice diary as requested by Shen Laoshi. After 5 months of hard practice, her level of achievement had already improved dramatically when she joined the 2nd seminar.
(C) Deficiency
1. The practice ground was in a university and hence there were too many people walking around and the surrounding was quite noisy.
2. A Channel SHO study group is an enhanced study group. The goal was set clearly. The seminar had very high standard required of the participants. One must put in all the endurance and body strength one has to concentrate completely on the practice. Unfortunately, some students could only participate parts of the seminar due to work and family issues. Some students came here to learn the practice but they couldn't focus on it only, they went to the temples nearby to ask for empowerment, they called it Buddhist/Taoist double cultivation. All this are impediments to attaining the Channel SHO.
(A) Basic information.
A total of 12 students. One of them arrived half-way through the seminar. Two students could only participate for parts of it due to work reason. One student left during the crucial stage towards the end due to family emergency. Eight students were present for the entire seminar. Among these 8 students, 4 attended the first seminar in Taoyuan. The result was that the 4 students from Taoyuan had improved a lot. 2 new students attained Channel SHO, 2 were almost there.
(B) Analysis
(1) Kung Fu = Methods + Time.
The foundation for opening up the Channel SHO is the requirement that the houtian qi to be abundant so that xiantian qi can be created to sufficient level. This is not imagination, this is to be done step by step, it requires dedication, great endurance to pain and patience. This is real kung fu. Kung fu= Methods + Time. Beside proper understanding and utilization of the methods, one must also put in certain amount of time to practice hard to ensure the emergence of real kung fu. By accumulating kung fu and experience the quality of the training will improve. During this seminar, 4 students could not participate for the entire time, even though they were young, energetic and were taught good methods, none of them achieved the goal set.
(2) Illness can impede progress.
Two students who attended the entire class and who didn't open up the SHO, one of them had coronary heart disease and the other had issue with the bladder. Heart disease patient is not suitable for tiring and physical demanding exercises. Even though only sitting crossed-leg was required, but the strength of the daigong was very strong, not even normal people can endure it, not to mention heart disease patient. The student with bladder problem needed to use the rest room after an hour of sitting every time, how could she accumulate kung fu. Even though they both improved their health greatly after this seminar and there was some signs that the channel SHO was very close, they ultimately failed to do so. It was evidenced that illness and the ability to attain Channel SHO were related in a complex way, it needed further careful research.
(3) Opening up Channel SHO require real kung fu.
The two students who opened up the Channel SHO had the following features: one of them practiced extremely hard, he could sit in full lotus for 2 hours, he had done really well to accumulate internal qi, as long as the method was right, it's impossible for him to miss it. Another was a youngster who had super endurance, he could sit in full lotus perfectly still for 2 hours. When the body stayed still, the shen is focused and qi will be created, after an extended period of time, opening up the SHO is the natural conclusion.
(4) Houtian to xiantian, wonderous experiences.
Four students attained their SHO from the first seminar. They took this opportunity to sit in the strong qi field to improve their cultivation dramatically.
Mr. Zhou, he could only sit crossed-leg in the first seminar, this time he could sit in half-lotus for 2 hours and full-lotus for 1 hour. He could see closed eyes things that happened inside and outside his body.
Ms. Huang, she barely attained the Channel SHO the first time, she came here to continue her treatment of her illness. Started from the first day, the internal qi, like a riptide, flooded all her organs, meridians and bones. It slammed every source of her illness in the body. From then on, she felt numbness and pain, she wanted to vomit, cry and sneeze. The feelings were only alleviated towards the end of the seminar. She wrote in her practice diary that : "It felt like there was a pair of wondrous hands which held me tight and then squeezed every part of my organs, they squeezed out every last drop of disease qi. I felt like every part of my body, the organs, meridians, bones, bone marrows and muscles etc were given a new life. Even though I am not cured completely yet but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I can see the dawn of a life without anymore pain."
Mr Li, he attained the SHO barely the first time. Due to a busy schedule, he couldn't practice often and so he felt little improvement. After this study group, his Channel SHO circulate smoothly without any blockage. The qi can be felt clearly through the channels and meridians. The five elements can be created and converted easily, the organs and the seven openings were linked clearly. Three new single hand signs appeared when he practice Ping Heng Gong. During star formation practice, his two kidneys would heat up quickly and then they would vibrate strongly, the internal qi moves in the kidney and bladder meridians. When he practiced the Bagua Ball, the nine palaces on his head will move.
Ms Yip, the first student to attain Channel SHO in the first seminar. From then on, Shen Laoshi taught her "Nu Dan Gong" (female practice). After the first seminar, she practiced very hard and improved alot. She kept a detailed practice diary as requested by Shen Laoshi. After 5 months of hard practice, her level of achievement had already improved dramatically when she joined the 2nd seminar.
(C) Deficiency
1. The practice ground was in a university and hence there were too many people walking around and the surrounding was quite noisy.
2. A Channel SHO study group is an enhanced study group. The goal was set clearly. The seminar had very high standard required of the participants. One must put in all the endurance and body strength one has to concentrate completely on the practice. Unfortunately, some students could only participate parts of the seminar due to work and family issues. Some students came here to learn the practice but they couldn't focus on it only, they went to the temples nearby to ask for empowerment, they called it Buddhist/Taoist double cultivation. All this are impediments to attaining the Channel SHO.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
1998 - Report from Shangri-La
16th March - 30th March 1998, the flowers blossomed in the southern part of China. At Shangri-la, the 35th daoist cave heaven, the first Channel SHO study group was hosted by Shen laoshi(*). The practice ground was in an abandoned factory room located near a quiet town on the mountain.
(A) Basic Information
(1) Composition of the students
There were 26 students in total, 19 males and 7 females, from all over the Taoyuan county. There was an retired government official. There were "face down to the yellow ground and back to the sky" life-long farmers. There were middle and high school teachers. There were corporation management-level employees. There were middle school students. The oldest was 78 and the youngest was 14, average age was 52. 11 persons over 60, 11 persons between 40-59 and only 4 persons were below 40. The highest education level was university graduates, the lowest was primary school grads. 14 of them had below middle school level education. 3 above tertiary education level. 5 persons had good health. The rest were all inflicted with different degree of illness, 6 were seriously ill. All of them had learned Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu before, the longest had been 10 years, the shortest was 1 year long.
(2) Teaching goal
The goal for this specialized study group was clear, to open up the Channel SHO and refined the body from houtian stage to xiantian stage. Therefore all the lectures, daigong and complementary exercises were all constructed around that goal in mind.
(2) Duties of the student
Around sunset and sunrise, work on Ping Peng Gong for 3 hours outdoor. The main purpose was to emit internal qi out and absorbed external qi inside the body in order to increase the strength of the internal qi's movement.
Two hours of meditation both in the morning and in the afternoon, we concentrated on Zhineng Fa, Yin Xian Fa and the Human Immortal Methods of the Three Immortals Method.
Star Formation practice for 1-2 hours at night, in order to borrow the cosmic power to stimulate latent abilities.
Long distance daigong from Shen laoshi during sleeping practice. The total length of actual practice is 10 hours per day.
(3) Structure of the classes
All the lectures, daigong, group practice was carried out by Shen laoshi. The students were required to keep a diary of their practice to record everything related to the practice. When the seminar was finished, they were required to turn a copy of their diary to Shen laoshi. The dairy must be a detailed recording of all the phenomenons, feelings that happened during the seminar, they should be written in an objective and factual way.
(4) Weather
The 2nd half of March was humid and warm but there was one unexpected cold front which rendered the seminar to be held in a cold environment. It rained 8 days out of the 15, temperature range was 1 - 4 degrees Celsius. Because of the rain, the students did not have much chance to do Ping Peng Gong. This decreased the chance to strengthen their body. Since the cold front was unexpected, many students did not bring enough warm clothing. Some of their internal strength was used to resist the cold, this had a negative impact on opening up the Channel SHO.
(5) Result
After 15 days of intensive training and Shen Laoshi's daigong. 14 students achieved Channel SHO. The abilities that were development was exactly as described in Neijintu.
(B) Some Important Observations
(1) Beside Master Wang, there was no one else who publicly taught Channel SHO. In this seminar, 14 out of 26 students succeeded, 53.8 % success rate. This proved that Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu had many advantages for Channel SHO.
(2) Even elderly people can attain SHO
Age was an important factor in determining the success rate of Channel SHO. Elderly people tends to lose Xiantian yuen qi, they don't have as much yuen qi as younger people. But it is not hopeless. The oldest person was 78 and the youngest was 14, they both attained Channel SHO. It proved that as long as the method is right and the student works hard, people of all ages can attain Channel SHO.
(3) People with bad health can also attain Channel SHO
The wellness of the body also affect the success rate but it's not determining factor. Everyone has Xiantian qi, as long as one practice to stimulate it, the Ren and Du channels can be reconnected again and open up the Channel SHO. The classic case were Mr. Huang, who had four invasive operation done; Mr. Li, who had part of the stomach and gall bladder removed, whose 4th thoracic was broken; Miss Wang, who had stomach illness and serious joint pain; Miss Huang, bad health since childhood who was pretty much "raised with medicine", when she was 20 years, both of her hands were seriously burnt in an industrial accident. She has one kid after marriage and because contraceptive didn't not work on her, she had 10 abortions. She was tired both in body and the mind; Mr. Zhou, who had cognitive disorders; Miss Wan, B-type liver disease. All these people, after some hard work, they all attained the Channel SHO.
(4) After attaining Channel SHO, health can be improved dramatically
When people who had serious illness attained SHO, their health generally improved immediately, the speed of their recovery was amazing. For example, after SHO, Mr. Li found that all his body Pain disappeared ; Miss Wang's stomach illness was healed and her joints pain was also alleviated ; Miss Wang's meridian and bone still hurt, but the pain was not as severe; Miss Wan's liver pain also disappeared.
(5) Opening Channel SHO is un affected by period
Generally speaking, a woman's period cycle affect her psychology and physiology greatly. Miss Wang attained SHO while she was in her ovary cycle and Miss Li attained her while she was in her period cycle.
(6) Occupations and Education level does not affect the Channel SHO
People of all education level and of all kind of jobs can open up their Channel SHO.
(7) To attain Channel SHO, women are easier than men, youngsters are are easier than the elderly.
7 students were female, 6 of them were successful. The last one only joined the group in the last 5 days. 19 students were men, only 8 succeeded. The average age of those who were successful was 47, lower than the average group age by 5 years.
(8) The process were the same for everyone who was successful.
When the houtian qi was full in the body, the xiantian qi began to be created, the yuen qi initiate from the lower tien, pass through Hui Yin then Wei Lu, Jia Ji and up to Yu Zhen. Then it came down from Tian Men, Tian Mu. The qi then went down to lower tien along the Ren channel. The cycle continues automatically.
(9) After Channel SHO, internal qi move automatically.
After the Channel SHO, the internal qi will be guided by Xiantian qi and automatically move around the organs, meridians and channels. Being initially restricted by the wellness of the practitioner, the automatic movement of internal qi began in part of the body where there was illness only, after the illness is cured. The internal qi can move in other parts. When the body is healed completely, the internal qi will automatically move around in all the organs, meridians and channels.
(10) Attaining Channel SHO also develop other latent abilities.
After the SHO was opened, the successful students develop different levels and kinds of abilities. Miss Wang saw a tree when she closed her eyes and meditate. Later she found the exact tree in the Taiyuan park, she had never been there before; Mr. He developed see-through power and ; Miss Ye could see her own bones, meridians and points; Mr. Zhou could see his own bones too; Miss Liu developed automatic daoyin and Nu Dan movements.
(11) The emotions fluctuate greatly during the seminar.
In the early part of the seminar, the students had different goals and many questions. They were all reassured after Shen laoshi's clear explanations and powerful daigong. Half-way through the seminar, because of the cold weather and the difficult 2 hours session of meditation, the students were generally depressed and bored. On the 8th and 9th day, following the first and second success, all other students were inspired and they all worked hard so that they could be the next one. Towards the end, when the 78 years old student and the one who had his gall bladder and part of the stomach removed also attained Channel SHO, everyone was excited since they should be the ones who had the most difficulty to open it.
(12) Opening the Channel SHO require dedication and hard work.
Every student agreed that, opening the Channel SHO required confidence, endurance, sweats, pain and patience. Everyone is equal in front of it, it doesn't depend on external factors. There is only one way to do it, students must have strong faith and confidence, careful study the theory and follow the instructor's direction precisely.
(C) Deficiency
Since it was Shen laoshi's first Channel SHO class, there were places that can be improved :
(1) Weather
The weather was terrible which affect to certain degree the success rate. The location should be chosen carefully.
(2) Lack of movement exercises.
Due to the bad weather, the student did not have enough outdoor practice.
(3) Not enough mental preparation.
The students had different goal in this class, some of them just wanted to improve their health, some of them just wanted to learn the gongs and some were only curious. Therefore some student didn't work hard and just did their own things, when they finally understood what was offered to them the seminar was almost finished, they all regretted it a lot.
(4) Not enough understanding.
Some students like to learn many different gongs from different schools, hence they lack practice in Ling Bao Tong or they misunderstood the theory and practice. Therefore they won't have good result. Some students didn't follow the Shen laoshi's instructions carefully and hence they couldn't possibly succeed.
(*) laoshi : means teacher in Chinese
(A) Basic Information
(1) Composition of the students
There were 26 students in total, 19 males and 7 females, from all over the Taoyuan county. There was an retired government official. There were "face down to the yellow ground and back to the sky" life-long farmers. There were middle and high school teachers. There were corporation management-level employees. There were middle school students. The oldest was 78 and the youngest was 14, average age was 52. 11 persons over 60, 11 persons between 40-59 and only 4 persons were below 40. The highest education level was university graduates, the lowest was primary school grads. 14 of them had below middle school level education. 3 above tertiary education level. 5 persons had good health. The rest were all inflicted with different degree of illness, 6 were seriously ill. All of them had learned Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu before, the longest had been 10 years, the shortest was 1 year long.
(2) Teaching goal
The goal for this specialized study group was clear, to open up the Channel SHO and refined the body from houtian stage to xiantian stage. Therefore all the lectures, daigong and complementary exercises were all constructed around that goal in mind.
(2) Duties of the student
Around sunset and sunrise, work on Ping Peng Gong for 3 hours outdoor. The main purpose was to emit internal qi out and absorbed external qi inside the body in order to increase the strength of the internal qi's movement.
Two hours of meditation both in the morning and in the afternoon, we concentrated on Zhineng Fa, Yin Xian Fa and the Human Immortal Methods of the Three Immortals Method.
Star Formation practice for 1-2 hours at night, in order to borrow the cosmic power to stimulate latent abilities.
Long distance daigong from Shen laoshi during sleeping practice. The total length of actual practice is 10 hours per day.
(3) Structure of the classes
All the lectures, daigong, group practice was carried out by Shen laoshi. The students were required to keep a diary of their practice to record everything related to the practice. When the seminar was finished, they were required to turn a copy of their diary to Shen laoshi. The dairy must be a detailed recording of all the phenomenons, feelings that happened during the seminar, they should be written in an objective and factual way.
(4) Weather
The 2nd half of March was humid and warm but there was one unexpected cold front which rendered the seminar to be held in a cold environment. It rained 8 days out of the 15, temperature range was 1 - 4 degrees Celsius. Because of the rain, the students did not have much chance to do Ping Peng Gong. This decreased the chance to strengthen their body. Since the cold front was unexpected, many students did not bring enough warm clothing. Some of their internal strength was used to resist the cold, this had a negative impact on opening up the Channel SHO.
(5) Result
After 15 days of intensive training and Shen Laoshi's daigong. 14 students achieved Channel SHO. The abilities that were development was exactly as described in Neijintu.
(B) Some Important Observations
(1) Beside Master Wang, there was no one else who publicly taught Channel SHO. In this seminar, 14 out of 26 students succeeded, 53.8 % success rate. This proved that Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu had many advantages for Channel SHO.
(2) Even elderly people can attain SHO
Age was an important factor in determining the success rate of Channel SHO. Elderly people tends to lose Xiantian yuen qi, they don't have as much yuen qi as younger people. But it is not hopeless. The oldest person was 78 and the youngest was 14, they both attained Channel SHO. It proved that as long as the method is right and the student works hard, people of all ages can attain Channel SHO.
(3) People with bad health can also attain Channel SHO
The wellness of the body also affect the success rate but it's not determining factor. Everyone has Xiantian qi, as long as one practice to stimulate it, the Ren and Du channels can be reconnected again and open up the Channel SHO. The classic case were Mr. Huang, who had four invasive operation done; Mr. Li, who had part of the stomach and gall bladder removed, whose 4th thoracic was broken; Miss Wang, who had stomach illness and serious joint pain; Miss Huang, bad health since childhood who was pretty much "raised with medicine", when she was 20 years, both of her hands were seriously burnt in an industrial accident. She has one kid after marriage and because contraceptive didn't not work on her, she had 10 abortions. She was tired both in body and the mind; Mr. Zhou, who had cognitive disorders; Miss Wan, B-type liver disease. All these people, after some hard work, they all attained the Channel SHO.
(4) After attaining Channel SHO, health can be improved dramatically
When people who had serious illness attained SHO, their health generally improved immediately, the speed of their recovery was amazing. For example, after SHO, Mr. Li found that all his body Pain disappeared ; Miss Wang's stomach illness was healed and her joints pain was also alleviated ; Miss Wang's meridian and bone still hurt, but the pain was not as severe; Miss Wan's liver pain also disappeared.
(5) Opening Channel SHO is un affected by period
Generally speaking, a woman's period cycle affect her psychology and physiology greatly. Miss Wang attained SHO while she was in her ovary cycle and Miss Li attained her while she was in her period cycle.
(6) Occupations and Education level does not affect the Channel SHO
People of all education level and of all kind of jobs can open up their Channel SHO.
(7) To attain Channel SHO, women are easier than men, youngsters are are easier than the elderly.
7 students were female, 6 of them were successful. The last one only joined the group in the last 5 days. 19 students were men, only 8 succeeded. The average age of those who were successful was 47, lower than the average group age by 5 years.
(8) The process were the same for everyone who was successful.
When the houtian qi was full in the body, the xiantian qi began to be created, the yuen qi initiate from the lower tien, pass through Hui Yin then Wei Lu, Jia Ji and up to Yu Zhen. Then it came down from Tian Men, Tian Mu. The qi then went down to lower tien along the Ren channel. The cycle continues automatically.
(9) After Channel SHO, internal qi move automatically.
After the Channel SHO, the internal qi will be guided by Xiantian qi and automatically move around the organs, meridians and channels. Being initially restricted by the wellness of the practitioner, the automatic movement of internal qi began in part of the body where there was illness only, after the illness is cured. The internal qi can move in other parts. When the body is healed completely, the internal qi will automatically move around in all the organs, meridians and channels.
(10) Attaining Channel SHO also develop other latent abilities.
After the SHO was opened, the successful students develop different levels and kinds of abilities. Miss Wang saw a tree when she closed her eyes and meditate. Later she found the exact tree in the Taiyuan park, she had never been there before; Mr. He developed see-through power and ; Miss Ye could see her own bones, meridians and points; Mr. Zhou could see his own bones too; Miss Liu developed automatic daoyin and Nu Dan movements.
(11) The emotions fluctuate greatly during the seminar.
In the early part of the seminar, the students had different goals and many questions. They were all reassured after Shen laoshi's clear explanations and powerful daigong. Half-way through the seminar, because of the cold weather and the difficult 2 hours session of meditation, the students were generally depressed and bored. On the 8th and 9th day, following the first and second success, all other students were inspired and they all worked hard so that they could be the next one. Towards the end, when the 78 years old student and the one who had his gall bladder and part of the stomach removed also attained Channel SHO, everyone was excited since they should be the ones who had the most difficulty to open it.
(12) Opening the Channel SHO require dedication and hard work.
Every student agreed that, opening the Channel SHO required confidence, endurance, sweats, pain and patience. Everyone is equal in front of it, it doesn't depend on external factors. There is only one way to do it, students must have strong faith and confidence, careful study the theory and follow the instructor's direction precisely.
(C) Deficiency
Since it was Shen laoshi's first Channel SHO class, there were places that can be improved :
(1) Weather
The weather was terrible which affect to certain degree the success rate. The location should be chosen carefully.
(2) Lack of movement exercises.
Due to the bad weather, the student did not have enough outdoor practice.
(3) Not enough mental preparation.
The students had different goal in this class, some of them just wanted to improve their health, some of them just wanted to learn the gongs and some were only curious. Therefore some student didn't work hard and just did their own things, when they finally understood what was offered to them the seminar was almost finished, they all regretted it a lot.
(4) Not enough understanding.
Some students like to learn many different gongs from different schools, hence they lack practice in Ling Bao Tong or they misunderstood the theory and practice. Therefore they won't have good result. Some students didn't follow the Shen laoshi's instructions carefully and hence they couldn't possibly succeed.
(*) laoshi : means teacher in Chinese
1998 - Retreat at Shangri-La
16th March - 30th March 1998, in the Daoist 35th cave heaven, Shangri-La, I taught the first Channel Small Heavenly Orbit study group. There were 26 students in total and in the end 14 of then attained Channel SHO, they all developed the accompanying abilities such as internal viewing, remote viewing, automatic meridian movements and self-guided movement of internal qi. Like them, I was very excited and emotional. After all, this is a key step in authentic daoist cultivation.
Before the class someone asked me, "can we really open up the SHO ?" I said, "sure." "For half of us ? " "I bet at least 10." I said. In reality, I believed I could definitely help someone to do it. But I wasn't so sure about the exact number. In the end, I was very encouraged by the result even thought it had been difficult work. The most important thing was that I gained a lot of confidence, the confidence to help other to open up the SHO.
Before the class someone asked me, "can we really open up the SHO ?" I said, "sure." "For half of us ? " "I bet at least 10." I said. In reality, I believed I could definitely help someone to do it. But I wasn't so sure about the exact number. In the end, I was very encouraged by the result even thought it had been difficult work. The most important thing was that I gained a lot of confidence, the confidence to help other to open up the SHO.
1997 - The curtain was raised
Late 1997, a friend from Taoyuan in Hunan Province came to find me. The Hunan Taoyuan Qigong Science Research Council and the Taoyuan Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu Study Group has asked him to hire me to teach a seminar. I told them I wanted to teach a Channel SHO class. They were overjoyed to hear it and so we reached an agreement quickly.
My intention was that I would teach with the goal of helping the students to attain the Channel SHO if possible, so that I could accumulate experience from these teachings which in turn would increase my understanding of the methodology.
Another point worth mentioning is that Master Wang had warned me before : Without 10 years of kung fu, don't come out and teach. From 1987 - 1997, it had been 10 years. It was time for me to come out and teach on my own.
My intention was that I would teach with the goal of helping the students to attain the Channel SHO if possible, so that I could accumulate experience from these teachings which in turn would increase my understanding of the methodology.
Another point worth mentioning is that Master Wang had warned me before : Without 10 years of kung fu, don't come out and teach. From 1987 - 1997, it had been 10 years. It was time for me to come out and teach on my own.
1997 - The First Joyous Moment
In the first half of 1997, I taught 10 persons in a month again. Unfortunately none of them them attained the Channel SHO. Two months later, one of the student told me that whenever she sat cross-legged, her lower abdomen would vibrate. My heart skipped a beat when I heard that, that was a good sign. I asked her to continue practicing and to tell me if there any new signs. We communicated twice in the next month. When I thought that she was ready, I tried to daigong with her to help her opening it up and it was a success. Afterward she insisted in communicating with me about her progress, as long as she did it well, the SHO will move automatically. Her heath was clearly improved. The SHO would even start automatically at work sometimes.
She was the first student of mine who attained the SHO. Here are some conclusions I had from this incident.
(1) My method was essentially correct but there were a lot of room for improvement.
(2) My daigong strength was still weak. So a lot of it was depended on the effort of the student.
(3) The student must worked hard and had great endurance and patience.
This was my first success, I gained much confidence from it. From that time on, I had to accumulate more experience.
She was the first student of mine who attained the SHO. Here are some conclusions I had from this incident.
(1) My method was essentially correct but there were a lot of room for improvement.
(2) My daigong strength was still weak. So a lot of it was depended on the effort of the student.
(3) The student must worked hard and had great endurance and patience.
This was my first success, I gained much confidence from it. From that time on, I had to accumulate more experience.
1996 - Putting theory into Practice
In 1996, I became the vice principal of the technical training school of my company. Other teachers in the school knew that I practice Dandao, they were also interested in learning. Hence I began to instruct them and I set my goal to help them open up the Channel SHO within a certain time.
Because of lacking experience and other factors, I taught 10 persons for a month, but none of them had their SHO opened.
The result was disappointing but not unexpected. I was still at the experimental stage so I wasn't too depressed about it. Even though my goal of opening up the Channel SHO failed, but their health had improved to different degrees and so they were pleased by the result.
Because of lacking experience and other factors, I taught 10 persons for a month, but none of them had their SHO opened.
The result was disappointing but not unexpected. I was still at the experimental stage so I wasn't too depressed about it. Even though my goal of opening up the Channel SHO failed, but their health had improved to different degrees and so they were pleased by the result.
1996 - Studying the Classic texts
Even though I knew about the Channel SHO before and I had seen Master Wang helping other to attain that level. But I was even more interested in it since I came home from Shanghai in 1995. I told myself I must understand it completely.
I began to study Longmen Pai classics "Ling Bao Bi Fa" (Spiritual Jewels Exercises) and "The Daoist teaching of Chong and Lu". "Chong and Lu" was an annotation of "Ling Bao Bi Fa" and "Ling Bao Bi Fa" was written to explain the Three Immortal Methods (TTIM). TTIM consists of Three Stages, 10 methods and 45 segments of actual practice intructions. Three Immortal Methods is the actual methods buried in "Ling Bao Bi Fa". Master Wang at that time had only revealed the three segments of the first method "Matching the Yin Yang". The three segments are "Exchange Yin and Yang", "Matching Yin and Yang" and "Restore Yin and Yang". I analyzed the structure, the limit and boundary described by the three segments. I strived to unravel the logical connection linking the three segments in order to extract the theory, method and result. I got a first glimpse of the basic model of the cultivation passed down from the great ancestors Chong and Lu.
Secondly, I also began to investigate the "Nu Dan gong" (female practice). Master Wang revealed the actual methodology of Nu Dan Gong in 1988. I included it in "Walk on the Great Path". The Nu Dan Gong was passed down from Ancestor Sun Bu Er. Sun was a student of Ancestor Wang Chongyang who was a direct lienage holder passed down by Ancestor Lu. It is believed that Ancestor Lu had taught many women in different times in history. So it's not hard to believe that Ancestor Lu created the Nu Dan Gong from the premises of the Three Immortal Methods, obviously this is just my own speculation, it was never recorded in any daoist literature.Ancestor Sun passed down the Nu Dan Gong and it was refined and improved over time by other Masters.
Since man and woman have different physiology and so the actual cultivation methods are also different. I got many inspirations by analyzing the differences between the male and the female practices and also from the parts where they overlap.
I began to study Longmen Pai classics "Ling Bao Bi Fa" (Spiritual Jewels Exercises) and "The Daoist teaching of Chong and Lu". "Chong and Lu" was an annotation of "Ling Bao Bi Fa" and "Ling Bao Bi Fa" was written to explain the Three Immortal Methods (TTIM). TTIM consists of Three Stages, 10 methods and 45 segments of actual practice intructions. Three Immortal Methods is the actual methods buried in "Ling Bao Bi Fa". Master Wang at that time had only revealed the three segments of the first method "Matching the Yin Yang". The three segments are "Exchange Yin and Yang", "Matching Yin and Yang" and "Restore Yin and Yang". I analyzed the structure, the limit and boundary described by the three segments. I strived to unravel the logical connection linking the three segments in order to extract the theory, method and result. I got a first glimpse of the basic model of the cultivation passed down from the great ancestors Chong and Lu.
Secondly, I also began to investigate the "Nu Dan gong" (female practice). Master Wang revealed the actual methodology of Nu Dan Gong in 1988. I included it in "Walk on the Great Path". The Nu Dan Gong was passed down from Ancestor Sun Bu Er. Sun was a student of Ancestor Wang Chongyang who was a direct lienage holder passed down by Ancestor Lu. It is believed that Ancestor Lu had taught many women in different times in history. So it's not hard to believe that Ancestor Lu created the Nu Dan Gong from the premises of the Three Immortal Methods, obviously this is just my own speculation, it was never recorded in any daoist literature.Ancestor Sun passed down the Nu Dan Gong and it was refined and improved over time by other Masters.
Since man and woman have different physiology and so the actual cultivation methods are also different. I got many inspirations by analyzing the differences between the male and the female practices and also from the parts where they overlap.
1995 - Channel Small Heavenly Orbit
"Small Heavenly Orbit (SHO)" (or microcosmic orbit) is a term that can be seen often in qigong literatures. Many different schools all aim to "open" it. You can even heard of "speed courses" which claim to open up the SHO in a few days. But if we look at all these so called SHO methods, one can see that they are actually talking about Intention SHO or meridian SHO. Intention SHO means that the practitioner uses variants of visualization or intention method to "open" SHO, this is nothing more than fantasy. It will cause more harm than good. Meridian SHO means using will power to concentrate on points of the Ren and Du channel and then using intention to guide the Houtian (*) Qi to move in the channel. Since usually the movement got mixed up in other channels in the front and in the back, it created the illusion that there is actual movement in the SHO. Again this causes more harm than good.
The term SHO originated from ancient neigong art, it has a very specific meaning in daoist cultivation. The old daoist ancestors discover through their power that the Ren and Du channel of a fetus inside the mother's womb are connected together. When the baby is born and the umbilical cord is severed, the two channels also get disconnected. Daoist practitioners believe that if one want to get from Houtian to Xiantian (**), to reverse the aging process, Ren and Du must be reconnected again and the internal qi must be reversed back into the fetus stage. The authentic SHO is the method to reconnect the Ren and Du channel. What it means it that when the Xiantian qi is full, the Xiantian yuen qi initiate from the lower tien, then through the Hui Yin point going up inside the spine, knocking down the three gates of Wei Lu, Jia Ji and Yu Zhen, and opening up Tian Men, Tian Mu and the three fields. The Ren and Du channels reconnect and the process is automatic. Once this stage is reached, the internal qi reverse back into fetus stage and a series of natural Xiantian abilities will also appear, Internal viewing, remote viewing and the automatic movement of the internal qi. Since the authentic daoist SHO means that Xiantian qi reconnect the Ren and Du channel, and these two channels are part of the body's Eight Wondrous Channels, therefore this is also known as Channel Small Heavenly Orbit. In the Three Immortal Methods, this is the fifth stage, the "The Golden Sphere Flying up from the side".
(*)Houtian : it roughly means "after birth". It represents things that belong to this material world, it also means polluted.
(**) Xiantian : it roughly translate to "before birth". It represents things that are natural and pure.
The term SHO originated from ancient neigong art, it has a very specific meaning in daoist cultivation. The old daoist ancestors discover through their power that the Ren and Du channel of a fetus inside the mother's womb are connected together. When the baby is born and the umbilical cord is severed, the two channels also get disconnected. Daoist practitioners believe that if one want to get from Houtian to Xiantian (**), to reverse the aging process, Ren and Du must be reconnected again and the internal qi must be reversed back into the fetus stage. The authentic SHO is the method to reconnect the Ren and Du channel. What it means it that when the Xiantian qi is full, the Xiantian yuen qi initiate from the lower tien, then through the Hui Yin point going up inside the spine, knocking down the three gates of Wei Lu, Jia Ji and Yu Zhen, and opening up Tian Men, Tian Mu and the three fields. The Ren and Du channels reconnect and the process is automatic. Once this stage is reached, the internal qi reverse back into fetus stage and a series of natural Xiantian abilities will also appear, Internal viewing, remote viewing and the automatic movement of the internal qi. Since the authentic daoist SHO means that Xiantian qi reconnect the Ren and Du channel, and these two channels are part of the body's Eight Wondrous Channels, therefore this is also known as Channel Small Heavenly Orbit. In the Three Immortal Methods, this is the fifth stage, the "The Golden Sphere Flying up from the side".
(*)Houtian : it roughly means "after birth". It represents things that belong to this material world, it also means polluted.
(**) Xiantian : it roughly translate to "before birth". It represents things that are natural and pure.
Monday, June 2, 2008
1995 - New level of daigong
In June 1995, Master Wang called me and asked, "When will you be free this year ? "
"In August." I said.
"Then come to Shanghai in August to learn 100% success rate of opening up the "Channel Small Heavenly Orbit"." Master Wang said.
"What ? 100% ?" I was very surprised.
"Yes, you will know it when you get here." Master Wang said calmly. I couldn't wait for it to happen of course.
Within half a month in August, it really happened, 100% of the attendees have their Channel Small Heavenly Orbit opened up. It was unbelievable. I was the lecturer and I also did the daoyin, but clearly the one who moved the 5 elements and exerted pressure on the channel orbits was Master Wang. And only Master Wang can do that.
This incident affected me very much. Normally speaking, neigong is practiced alone. But when Master Wang daigong with a group of people, he can greatly increase the efficiency and result. Everyone who had ever attended Master Wang's class can confirm this point. But to what level can this method be pushed? I guess no one really knows. Within half a month, everyone had opened up their channel small heavenly orbit, this was a fact. I saw it, I experienced it. As a practitioner, I wanted to open up my own channel quickly. As a teacher, I wanted to help other achieve this quickly too. After this incident, I had a thought: Let see what happen if I teach 100 persons to open up their channels?
"In August." I said.
"Then come to Shanghai in August to learn 100% success rate of opening up the "Channel Small Heavenly Orbit"." Master Wang said.
"What ? 100% ?" I was very surprised.
"Yes, you will know it when you get here." Master Wang said calmly. I couldn't wait for it to happen of course.
Within half a month in August, it really happened, 100% of the attendees have their Channel Small Heavenly Orbit opened up. It was unbelievable. I was the lecturer and I also did the daoyin, but clearly the one who moved the 5 elements and exerted pressure on the channel orbits was Master Wang. And only Master Wang can do that.
This incident affected me very much. Normally speaking, neigong is practiced alone. But when Master Wang daigong with a group of people, he can greatly increase the efficiency and result. Everyone who had ever attended Master Wang's class can confirm this point. But to what level can this method be pushed? I guess no one really knows. Within half a month, everyone had opened up their channel small heavenly orbit, this was a fact. I saw it, I experienced it. As a practitioner, I wanted to open up my own channel quickly. As a teacher, I wanted to help other achieve this quickly too. After this incident, I had a thought: Let see what happen if I teach 100 persons to open up their channels?
1994 - Power of Daigong
In Aug, Oct 1994 and Nov 1995, I attended Master Wang's seminar in Dalian, Beijing and Jinhua of Zhejiang province as a teaching assistant. Every seminar brought me new idea and new knowledge, I always looked forward to the new content revealed by Master Wang. In each session when I daigong, I always have the desire to lead everyone to a higher level or achievement. This is because of one reason: How should a modern person cultivate? The modern society is different from the old society. The way a moderner practice neigong should be different from the previous generations.
Master Wang is an authority on this because he had been working hard on this problem. For example : ancient neigong was usually practiced alone but Master Wang was the first to organize group meditation practice. This led the qigong world phenomenon of "group daigong". Another example: before 1985, people only knew about using qigong to heal oneself. After Master Wang publicly taught Ping Heng Gong, they realized that one can use external qi to heal themselves. There are many more similar examples.
Master Wang had told me this :
"The ancients need 12 years to complete the Three Immortal methods. Moderner only need 6 years. For exceptional individual, 3 years is also possible." At that time, I didn't understand how this could be done. But later on, I saw two demonstrations which gave me hope.
(1) 1991 in Shenyang , Master Wang revealed the "Female Practice": the volunteer had never studied "Female Practice" before. She sat crossed legs and closed her eyes. Master Wang didn't talk and didn't touch her but he daigong quietly to regulate her internal qi. Not long after, both of her hands moved on their own, quickly from initially random looking movements to regular patterns. The 500 persons there all knew that she was do the fourth level of the "Female Practice". If Master Wang daigong for her a few more times and she also worked hard on her own, can you imagine how quickly she can improve? Master Wang told me he demonstrated this 4 times, I saw 2 of those.
(2) In 1994 at the Beijing Stadium: the volunteer lied on the stage. Master Wang again daigong without saying anything nor touching him. When his internal qi was full, the volunteer suddenly sat up on the stage. Master Wang continued to exert pressure and the volunteer got into a full lotus position within an impossibly short time. There were 400 attendees who witnessed this including people from France, Germany, Japan and Taiwan. After a short while, the volunteer started to shake spontaneously and both of his hands began pressing the relevant points in different channels. The movement was clumsy in the beginning but quickly it had become very smooth. According to "Spiritual Jewel Exercises", it needs 6 years to reach this level. But Master Wang was able to help him achieve it within an hour. This was simply mind blowing. Can you imagine what will happen if Master Wang can help him a few more times ?
Master Wang is an authority on this because he had been working hard on this problem. For example : ancient neigong was usually practiced alone but Master Wang was the first to organize group meditation practice. This led the qigong world phenomenon of "group daigong". Another example: before 1985, people only knew about using qigong to heal oneself. After Master Wang publicly taught Ping Heng Gong, they realized that one can use external qi to heal themselves. There are many more similar examples.
Master Wang had told me this :
"The ancients need 12 years to complete the Three Immortal methods. Moderner only need 6 years. For exceptional individual, 3 years is also possible." At that time, I didn't understand how this could be done. But later on, I saw two demonstrations which gave me hope.
(1) 1991 in Shenyang , Master Wang revealed the "Female Practice": the volunteer had never studied "Female Practice" before. She sat crossed legs and closed her eyes. Master Wang didn't talk and didn't touch her but he daigong quietly to regulate her internal qi. Not long after, both of her hands moved on their own, quickly from initially random looking movements to regular patterns. The 500 persons there all knew that she was do the fourth level of the "Female Practice". If Master Wang daigong for her a few more times and she also worked hard on her own, can you imagine how quickly she can improve? Master Wang told me he demonstrated this 4 times, I saw 2 of those.
(2) In 1994 at the Beijing Stadium: the volunteer lied on the stage. Master Wang again daigong without saying anything nor touching him. When his internal qi was full, the volunteer suddenly sat up on the stage. Master Wang continued to exert pressure and the volunteer got into a full lotus position within an impossibly short time. There were 400 attendees who witnessed this including people from France, Germany, Japan and Taiwan. After a short while, the volunteer started to shake spontaneously and both of his hands began pressing the relevant points in different channels. The movement was clumsy in the beginning but quickly it had become very smooth. According to "Spiritual Jewel Exercises", it needs 6 years to reach this level. But Master Wang was able to help him achieve it within an hour. This was simply mind blowing. Can you imagine what will happen if Master Wang can help him a few more times ?
Sunday, June 1, 2008
1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path" (4)
In Sept 1993, Master Wang attended the National Olympic Game. I saw him in the Wu Zhou Hotel. I noticed that he was wearing the identity card of the lieutenant governor and so I asked him why, he said "They are afraid that I will escape and so want to tied me here with this." I said "What's your mission?" Master Wang answered "To ensure that Liaoning Province win the most gold medals. Before the event, they were worried that Liaoning wouldn't come top. Now that their gold medals are way more than the second place, they are worried about there won't be enough bonuses for the athletes." I asked for his opinion on the book. He said that he had read it, there wasn't much to change in the content. But he wanted to tell us about the influence of "I Ching" on Chinese civilization:
In Chinese history, the times of Fu Xi, Shen Nong and Huang Di were the beginning of the ancient cultures; emperors Yao, Shun and Yu were the origin of the people cultures ; Dynasties Xia, Shang and Zhou was the birth of the Chinese civilization proper ; the Spring and Autumn and the Warring states periods when the hundred schools of thought sprung up established the base of the traditional Chinese culture. The core body of all these is I Ching.
Master Wang gave me the final touch I need to complete the book and also deepen my understanding of the Chinese culture. After I got home, I worked on the final edition of the book. On my birthday in Oct, I officially finished writing, I was thirty years old.
I didn't anticipate that publishing a book was so difficult. When I was still writing the book, I contacted the publisher of the "UFO" magazine about publishing my book. I sent them some sample chapters and they agreed to publish it with the Gansu Science and Technology Publisher. I wanted to publish my book in Beijing and so I declined their offer. I was then unexpectedly turned down by dozen of publishers, the reasons were that: (1) I didn't have money. (2) The editor didn't understand the book. After a year of major effort, I had finally found a publisher, the China World Language Publisher but there was one condition : I must pay 15000 yuens. I manage to raise the money from everyone I knew before the Chinese New Years holiday. During the festival, my wife only had 120 yuens. Whenever I thought about this later on, I always felt ashamed.
In May 1995, "Walk on the Great Path" was finally published. From 1985 - 1993, from the time I began to learn qigong to the completion of the book, or from 1987 - 1995, from the time I started learning from Master Wang to the publication of the book. They had been both 8 years long. It seemed the number 8 was my lucky number. In business world, 8 means good luck with wealth. However, other qigong books authors can make a fortune but I couldn't even get back the 15000 publishing fee. I told myself : As long as I can popularize traditional daoist cultures, I should be happy. So I have never regretted.
In Chinese history, the times of Fu Xi, Shen Nong and Huang Di were the beginning of the ancient cultures; emperors Yao, Shun and Yu were the origin of the people cultures ; Dynasties Xia, Shang and Zhou was the birth of the Chinese civilization proper ; the Spring and Autumn and the Warring states periods when the hundred schools of thought sprung up established the base of the traditional Chinese culture. The core body of all these is I Ching.
Master Wang gave me the final touch I need to complete the book and also deepen my understanding of the Chinese culture. After I got home, I worked on the final edition of the book. On my birthday in Oct, I officially finished writing, I was thirty years old.
I didn't anticipate that publishing a book was so difficult. When I was still writing the book, I contacted the publisher of the "UFO" magazine about publishing my book. I sent them some sample chapters and they agreed to publish it with the Gansu Science and Technology Publisher. I wanted to publish my book in Beijing and so I declined their offer. I was then unexpectedly turned down by dozen of publishers, the reasons were that: (1) I didn't have money. (2) The editor didn't understand the book. After a year of major effort, I had finally found a publisher, the China World Language Publisher but there was one condition : I must pay 15000 yuens. I manage to raise the money from everyone I knew before the Chinese New Years holiday. During the festival, my wife only had 120 yuens. Whenever I thought about this later on, I always felt ashamed.
In May 1995, "Walk on the Great Path" was finally published. From 1985 - 1993, from the time I began to learn qigong to the completion of the book, or from 1987 - 1995, from the time I started learning from Master Wang to the publication of the book. They had been both 8 years long. It seemed the number 8 was my lucky number. In business world, 8 means good luck with wealth. However, other qigong books authors can make a fortune but I couldn't even get back the 15000 publishing fee. I told myself : As long as I can popularize traditional daoist cultures, I should be happy. So I have never regretted.
1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path" (3)
In my opinion, I wouldn't be able to write a book on my own. I hoped that there could be a few persons who could write it together. An old student of Master Wang took a look at the table of content of "Walk on the Great Path" and said, "You will be lucky to finish all this in your lifetime." Another friend took the table of content away one evening and in the next morning, not even 6 a.m yet, came and knocked on my door. He said after reading the table on content, he was too excited to sleep the night before and he just wanted to come over and tell me that "Write it quickly." I was very touched by his enthusiasm.
It became obvious that no one was going to help me write it and so even though I was very unwilling, I began writing. In Oct 1992, my daughter was born. A month later, I sent my wife and my daughter to my mother's place. I asked for 3 months of vacation to concentrate on the book.
I didn't know how other people write a book. I locked myself at home for three months. Sometimes I would write it sitting down, other times I was writing standing up and sometimes I wrote it when I was crouching. The only thing that didn't stop was my hand writing furiously.
The three months as an "author" brought me two irreplaceable damages :
(1) Taking a long vacation time during the grace period of my job meant that I was downgraded two levels in the pay scale permanently.
(2) The new boss in my division wanted me to go back to work, I didn't comply and so he said a lot of bad things about me behind my back to the higher up management. It damaged my relationship with others in the company.
The proverb said that "Loss in one area will be complemented by gain in other", therefore i didn't think much of it.
Three months was quite long, towards the end, I was really unable to write anymore. So I stopped and went to work again. In the next three months, I used my spare time to complete the rest the book. I printed the manuscripts and asked my friend to bring it to Master Wang.
It became obvious that no one was going to help me write it and so even though I was very unwilling, I began writing. In Oct 1992, my daughter was born. A month later, I sent my wife and my daughter to my mother's place. I asked for 3 months of vacation to concentrate on the book.
I didn't know how other people write a book. I locked myself at home for three months. Sometimes I would write it sitting down, other times I was writing standing up and sometimes I wrote it when I was crouching. The only thing that didn't stop was my hand writing furiously.
The three months as an "author" brought me two irreplaceable damages :
(1) Taking a long vacation time during the grace period of my job meant that I was downgraded two levels in the pay scale permanently.
(2) The new boss in my division wanted me to go back to work, I didn't comply and so he said a lot of bad things about me behind my back to the higher up management. It damaged my relationship with others in the company.
The proverb said that "Loss in one area will be complemented by gain in other", therefore i didn't think much of it.
Three months was quite long, towards the end, I was really unable to write anymore. So I stopped and went to work again. In the next three months, I used my spare time to complete the rest the book. I printed the manuscripts and asked my friend to bring it to Master Wang.
1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path" (2)
When I met up with Master Wang in 1990, I gave him the outline of the book. After he read it, he said, "Daoist explore things that are unsee-able and intangible to ordinary people and that's why it's impossible to communicate daoist ideas with ordinary people. This is also the reason that most people can't accept daoist ideas. To encourage more people to accept daoist practice, we need to concentrate on things that can be seen but intangible, or the tangible things that can't be seen. For example : qigong can cure some diseases just by adjusting breathings and postures, this is result that can be seen but people don't know why, therefore they will be curious and want to discuss it with you. Another example : you use your remote seeing ability to see the illness in someone's body, you tell him about it, he then go to the hospital and was confirmed about the illness. This is his own illness, they can feel it or see it and you can sense it too, he will then want to know why. And just like that, there will be more people who want to know more. There are many more examples in other areas, you should explore them."
After being inspired by Master Wang, I gave up on the materials on the unsee-able and the intangible and reorganized the table of content. At that time I didn't have a name for my book. Not long afterward, I heard that Mr. Chen and Mr. Zheng were writing "Opening the Dragon Gate". So I decided to name my book "Walk on the great path" and planned to publish it after "Opening the dragon gate" as a sequel.
After being inspired by Master Wang, I gave up on the materials on the unsee-able and the intangible and reorganized the table of content. At that time I didn't have a name for my book. Not long afterward, I heard that Mr. Chen and Mr. Zheng were writing "Opening the Dragon Gate". So I decided to name my book "Walk on the great path" and planned to publish it after "Opening the dragon gate" as a sequel.
1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path" (1)
New Year Day 1993, I called Master Wang to wish him a good holiday. He said, "If you are not able to complete the book, then don't write it." I thought it's time for me to start.
The reason I kept delaying the book was that I didn't have much confidence to do it. In my second year in high school in 1980, I didn't write too many essays. I also failed the Chinese and English Language exams in 1983. I told myself at then that, "The worst subjects in my life are going to be writing." When I went to college, I took a writing class and I began writing diary and letters, only because of this that my writing skill had improved slightly. But with that level of writing skill, I wasn't too sure I could write an entire book on my own.
I had attended seven seminars by Master Wang between 1987 - 1992, my friend Liu Yapi attended one, so i have eight complete sound recordings of Master Wang's lectures. At the same time, I collected all available information on Master Wang since 1985. I was probably the one person in the world who had collected the most information on the practice. After each seminar, I tried to convert the recording into word as soon as possible. In the beginning, I needed 7 -8 hours to complete it. Once I got the hang of it, it only took me 3 - 4 hours later. During that period, my only hobbies were reading and organizing materials on Ling Bao Tong. I organized them into different topics and collect all the relevant materials in each group with repeated content removed. The end product was the material for the different gongs Master Wang had taught, I asked Liu Yapi to type them into computer.
The reason I kept delaying the book was that I didn't have much confidence to do it. In my second year in high school in 1980, I didn't write too many essays. I also failed the Chinese and English Language exams in 1983. I told myself at then that, "The worst subjects in my life are going to be writing." When I went to college, I took a writing class and I began writing diary and letters, only because of this that my writing skill had improved slightly. But with that level of writing skill, I wasn't too sure I could write an entire book on my own.
I had attended seven seminars by Master Wang between 1987 - 1992, my friend Liu Yapi attended one, so i have eight complete sound recordings of Master Wang's lectures. At the same time, I collected all available information on Master Wang since 1985. I was probably the one person in the world who had collected the most information on the practice. After each seminar, I tried to convert the recording into word as soon as possible. In the beginning, I needed 7 -8 hours to complete it. Once I got the hang of it, it only took me 3 - 4 hours later. During that period, my only hobbies were reading and organizing materials on Ling Bao Tong. I organized them into different topics and collect all the relevant materials in each group with repeated content removed. The end product was the material for the different gongs Master Wang had taught, I asked Liu Yapi to type them into computer.
1992 - Formation practice
After the seminar had ended, I stayed at Master Wang's home for a night together with 2 friends from Beijing, 1 from Canada and a well-known Buddhist monk. The monk mentioned that the night before, he slept on Master Wang's bed but he could only slept till mid-night and then after that, he just couldn't fall asleep again, he needed to lay on the floor to sleep again. I was curious about this and he told me to ask Master Wang. Master Wang said, "There are magnets embedded in my bed to form a special formation. Normal person can not endure it. There were a group of Japanese who made some sample magnetic beds for my inspection. When they arrived in my house, the beds' magnetic pattern were changed, They didn't understand why and were quite embarrassed. Their design weren't as good as ours. Too clumsy." When I asked Master Wang the reasons, he said,"The magnetic field of the formation ran in the same direction, why don't you do some research on magnetism and then we can talk more." From that point on, magnetic formation had become one of my research topics.
1992 - Revision of the Daoyin words again
In Aug 1992, I attended Master Wang's seminar at the Shenyang Aviation Academy as a teaching assistant again. Before the seminar, I told Master Wang, "I want to revise the daoyin words again." Master Wang asked, "How do you want to change it? " I said, "When practicing the channel between the middle and lower tien, can we extend it to Tian Tu point?" He said, "Yes, it can even extend to Cheng Jiang point." My logic was that: during daoyin, it's better to concentrate on the Ren Channel. Considering that the 12-story tower (throat) has a broken point, I only wanted to reach Tian Tu. Master Wang not only confirmed my thinking, he even went one step further than me. This proved that my reasoning was correct, including my first revision of the daoyin words. This gave me much more self-confidence.
Since I already had one experience of daoyin, I could solve problems that came up in class more smoothly, I also clearly felt that I had improved a lot. But Master Wang had told me more than one time that the way I speak was too gentle, it lacked authority.
Since I already had one experience of daoyin, I could solve problems that came up in class more smoothly, I also clearly felt that I had improved a lot. But Master Wang had told me more than one time that the way I speak was too gentle, it lacked authority.
1992 - Laozi study
In May 1992, as recommended by Master Wang, the Shaanxi Province government invited all the first rated scholars and professors around the country to the first annual "Forum on Laozi's teaching". It was a very educational experience for me to attend this high quality meeting.
(1) I knew that these scholars and professors had their own models and methods when they studied Laozi. They were the academic type, they study Laozi from the written words and they all had their own interpretations of the "Dao of Laozi".
(2) I got to know Master Wang's ways of thinking, method and quality of his interpretation of Laozi. He is an enlightened individual in Dao, from his paper "First look at the World view and the Dao of Laozi", one could clearly see that an enlightened individual had his own unique way to experience and understanding of Laozi, it was coined "Neo Daoism School" by one scholar.
(3) From the different interpreatations of Laozi between Master Wang and the scholars, I truly understood the difference between a practitioner and an academic. These scholars studied the written words of Dao, it was a theoretical discussion, it lacked any kind of practical values. Whereas Master Wang study the paths to Dao, it is based on empirical experiences, it had much deeper meaning and value.
(1) I knew that these scholars and professors had their own models and methods when they studied Laozi. They were the academic type, they study Laozi from the written words and they all had their own interpretations of the "Dao of Laozi".
(2) I got to know Master Wang's ways of thinking, method and quality of his interpretation of Laozi. He is an enlightened individual in Dao, from his paper "First look at the World view and the Dao of Laozi", one could clearly see that an enlightened individual had his own unique way to experience and understanding of Laozi, it was coined "Neo Daoism School" by one scholar.
(3) From the different interpreatations of Laozi between Master Wang and the scholars, I truly understood the difference between a practitioner and an academic. These scholars studied the written words of Dao, it was a theoretical discussion, it lacked any kind of practical values. Whereas Master Wang study the paths to Dao, it is based on empirical experiences, it had much deeper meaning and value.
1991 - Helping my master to transmit Dao (2)
In this seminar, Master Wang again revealed more new materials. For examples: practice with the five dippers star formation, human to heaven practice etc. Since I was the only assistant that time, it was very tiring and therefore Master Wang changed the schedule so that the afternoon classes became demonstrations and shows, it included the practice with the stars, human to human practice, group hypnosis, Female Practice and Ping Heng gong. It was all very exciting but for me, daigong used up qi and shen, I constantly felt that I was tired and did not have enough sleep. At one time, I overslept a class, a few students banged on the windows and it couldn't wake me up, they opened my windows then and threw some small stones at me to wake me up. During daoyin, because I was so tired, I kept using the wrong words in daoyin, sometimes i forgot what I was going to say half way through a sentence. I must had snored a dozen times during the hour and a half daigong. Master Wang said that some times ago, an assistant fell asleep leaning on a pillar while he was doing daigong. Before the seminar came to an end, Master Wang advised me that, "Once you get home, you must sleep more in order to recover some shen." The half a year that followed, I had almost no feeling of qi in my body, in the end of the year, I had finally recovered and I found that my internal strength was much stronger than before.
Daigong and practice are two different things, the first was to emit outward and the second was to collect inward. There were some interesting connections between the two.
Daigong and practice are two different things, the first was to emit outward and the second was to collect inward. There were some interesting connections between the two.
1991 - Helping my Master to transmit Dao (1)
In 1991, I attended Master Wang's "Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu" study seminar and core development group as the teaching assistant. Master Wang was the main speaker, I was responsible for daoyin daigong. Before the class began, there was a small interlude. I needed to stop in Beijing for a transfer. I asked a classmate to book my ticket in advance. When I arrived in Beijing, my classmate told me that Master Wang was in Beijing too. I quickly contacted Master Wang by phone, he told me he would take the train in the afternoon next day to Shenyang, I realized that it was the same train as me. We agreed to meet up on the train. I got in the train early and waited for Master Wang. After half an hour, Master Wang showed up with another friend. I went up to help them with the baggages. We chit chatted a little and the topic quickly changed to the upcoming seminar. I asked "Master Wang, when I daoyin, can I change some of the words used? " He said, "Yes sure. You must remember that when you daoyin, you are the commander of the entire group, the student will listen to you, we will also listen to you. In this way, the group can become one. Daoyin words are to elicit people to practice and the purpose and content of each practice are different, therefore the words are also different. In reality, the words should even change according to the change in the environment and the quality of the qi."
After this conversation, it basically re-enforced my principle of daoyin daigong. In this seminar, I used different daoyin words from before, I basically integrated the breathing principles of the Three Immortal Methods into Yin Xian Fa, furthermore I also changed the breathing techniques into a specialized topic to practice, the purpose was to learn and practice different breathing techniques in order to experience the differences and the results so that it would help to increase the functionality of breathing, eliciting the students from Yin Xian Fa to the Three Immortals Methods. Some senior students couldn't accept and they voiced some opinions. I asked Master Wang for some explanations. He said in class, "Xiao Shen is researching on the unified field of the human body. Listen carefully to his daoyin and then you will understand." From that point on, no such incident had occurred again and I was gradually accepted by the students.
After this conversation, it basically re-enforced my principle of daoyin daigong. In this seminar, I used different daoyin words from before, I basically integrated the breathing principles of the Three Immortal Methods into Yin Xian Fa, furthermore I also changed the breathing techniques into a specialized topic to practice, the purpose was to learn and practice different breathing techniques in order to experience the differences and the results so that it would help to increase the functionality of breathing, eliciting the students from Yin Xian Fa to the Three Immortals Methods. Some senior students couldn't accept and they voiced some opinions. I asked Master Wang for some explanations. He said in class, "Xiao Shen is researching on the unified field of the human body. Listen carefully to his daoyin and then you will understand." From that point on, no such incident had occurred again and I was gradually accepted by the students.
1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (8)
In June 1990, Master Wang taught at the Shenyang Northeastern Technical College. I was too tied up to attend, hence I asked my friend to bring my questions to Master Wang. My friend brought back notes and sound recordings and also Master Wang's answers.
In Oct 1990, Master Wang taught at the Shenyang Stadium, I attended this time. There were two notable things that happened.
(1) I didn't need to use my hand to get into the full lotus position. I had only seen two persons who could do this before. Unfortunately it only lasted for about half a year, after I started teaching in 1991, I was no longer able to do it.
(2) The vice secretary of Liaoning Province Qigong Science Research Council contacted me, he wanted to employ me as Master Wang's Teaching assistant. I told him if Master Wang agree then I would do it. Master Wang told Secretary Guo that, "You need to think carefully about this, with Xiao Shen's fee, you can employ three assistants in Shenyang." Secretary Guo insisted, "I will employ Xiao Shen."
As Master Wang assistant, there was a lot of pressure, but it was also a rare chance, I had more opportunity to learn from Master Wang. I prepared carefully for this job.
In Nov 1990, Master Wang lectured on "Practical Yijing" in the "Yijing Study Group" hold by the Liaoning Qigong Council. I got the entire recording of Master Wang's lecture and convert them to written documents. From these material, I got a glimpse of Master Wang's basic thinking on the Yijing.
In Oct 1990, Master Wang taught at the Shenyang Stadium, I attended this time. There were two notable things that happened.
(1) I didn't need to use my hand to get into the full lotus position. I had only seen two persons who could do this before. Unfortunately it only lasted for about half a year, after I started teaching in 1991, I was no longer able to do it.
(2) The vice secretary of Liaoning Province Qigong Science Research Council contacted me, he wanted to employ me as Master Wang's Teaching assistant. I told him if Master Wang agree then I would do it. Master Wang told Secretary Guo that, "You need to think carefully about this, with Xiao Shen's fee, you can employ three assistants in Shenyang." Secretary Guo insisted, "I will employ Xiao Shen."
As Master Wang assistant, there was a lot of pressure, but it was also a rare chance, I had more opportunity to learn from Master Wang. I prepared carefully for this job.
In Nov 1990, Master Wang lectured on "Practical Yijing" in the "Yijing Study Group" hold by the Liaoning Qigong Council. I got the entire recording of Master Wang's lecture and convert them to written documents. From these material, I got a glimpse of Master Wang's basic thinking on the Yijing.
1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (7)
In our long discussions, Master Wang told me stories of the Eight Immortals. He said, "When the eight immortals were in the learning stage, there were Master - Disciples relationships. When they achieved immortal status, they call each other friends. Do you understand?" He also said, "When there are other people around us, don't think much of my attitude to you, our relationship will continue for a much longer time to come. Some people will only get to see me once in their life, I must treat them passionately, especially old people and children, then it's women and you guys are last." Master Wang has very good social skills, everyone who has ever met him has very good opinion of him, his great charisma is unforgettable.
Talking about friends, there was another incident. In 1992, there was a "Lao Tze Teaching Study Group" in Xian, a university professor asked for Master Wang's autograph. I know Master Wang doesn't like his photos to be taken with other people and he is even more unwilling to sign his autograph. But since that was an university professor, he had agreed. I took that opportunity to also ask for Master Wang's signature. He looked at me and smiled. He wrote this on his paper:
"My daoist friend Shen Zhigang, please enlighten me. Wang Liping."
I was very emotional when I saw that, I told him, "How can you write that? I can't possibly accept this." He just answered, "It's fine just like this."
When I was in middle school, college and when I started working, there had always been a teacher who helped me along. They help me solved difficult problems in those times. In the journey of my life, Master Wang has taught me, protected me and helped me. I came to understand deeper the meaning of the word "teacher", he is the teacher of my life.
Talking about friends, there was another incident. In 1992, there was a "Lao Tze Teaching Study Group" in Xian, a university professor asked for Master Wang's autograph. I know Master Wang doesn't like his photos to be taken with other people and he is even more unwilling to sign his autograph. But since that was an university professor, he had agreed. I took that opportunity to also ask for Master Wang's signature. He looked at me and smiled. He wrote this on his paper:
"My daoist friend Shen Zhigang, please enlighten me. Wang Liping."
I was very emotional when I saw that, I told him, "How can you write that? I can't possibly accept this." He just answered, "It's fine just like this."
When I was in middle school, college and when I started working, there had always been a teacher who helped me along. They help me solved difficult problems in those times. In the journey of my life, Master Wang has taught me, protected me and helped me. I came to understand deeper the meaning of the word "teacher", he is the teacher of my life.
1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (6)
In 1988, I used my spare time after work to organize and convert the sound recording of Master Wang's lectures to written words. Not long after that, I also converted the lectures from Shenyang Railway School. I told Master Wang about this. He said, "You can organize this materials and then publish it with your name. These materials are not important to me but it will help you immensely. These materials were left behind by the ancestors, I don't want to use my name. But the government doesn't agree, they only let me publish with my name." I said, "These are all your materials, it's not right to publish with my name only, If i am going to publish it I must add my own content."
Therefore, while I was organizing Master Wang teaching material, I was also thinking about "my own content".
Therefore, while I was organizing Master Wang teaching material, I was also thinking about "my own content".
1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (5)
Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu is a set of closely integrated, clearly defined and content rich techniques. Master Wang always has new materials to lecture on in every seminar and you could not get them from other places. Everyone enjoys Master Wang's lecture, they are like beautiful music, soothing to the mind. When I asked Master Wang what is the proportion of materials that he had revealed compared to the undisclosed materials. He said, "The demonstrations is about 2/5. The lectures is about 1/10." At that moment, these were only numbers, I couldn't even imagine the things that I don't know. In the 10 years that followed, after many lectures and my own study and investigation, I came to fully appreciate that the wisdom, knowledge, ability and magic of Master Wang is not comprehensible by ordinary people. Here is an example to illustrate this point.
In one of the conversations we had, Master Wang said, "A rocket need an optimal escape velocity, angle to leave the earth's gravitational fields; to escape from the gravity of the sun and the solar system, the rocket also needs specific a velocity and angle. In daoist practice, when yang shen leaves the body, it also needs specific velocity and angle. Similarly when the yang shen enter and exit earth and the solar system, it also needs a specific level of strength, angle and direction. But there are very few persons in the world who knew the required strength, velocity and direction of the 28 stars cluster." I just felt that was way beyond me at that moment, almost incomprehensible. In these few years, from my own practice, I really can feel my connection to the moon, the sun and the five dipper clusters which include the Big Dipper and their internal connections to the human body. For example the big dipper is affiliated with Water of the space five elements, in human body, the kidney and the bladder are affiliated with water. When one practices with the big dipper, the five element qi resonate, the internal qi move in the Kidney and Bladder Channels. I also got hold of a book called "Da Qian Tu Shuo". It introduces the connections between the the stars and the daoist practice, including the Zi Wei Stars system, the Five Dippers, the 28 stars clusters, the Northern Stars and the Southern Stars system. We only practiced with a small portion of these systems, this made us even more in awe of the Master Wang's knowledge and we really admire all the daoist masters including Master Wang, they are too amazing.
In one of the conversations we had, Master Wang said, "A rocket need an optimal escape velocity, angle to leave the earth's gravitational fields; to escape from the gravity of the sun and the solar system, the rocket also needs specific a velocity and angle. In daoist practice, when yang shen leaves the body, it also needs specific velocity and angle. Similarly when the yang shen enter and exit earth and the solar system, it also needs a specific level of strength, angle and direction. But there are very few persons in the world who knew the required strength, velocity and direction of the 28 stars cluster." I just felt that was way beyond me at that moment, almost incomprehensible. In these few years, from my own practice, I really can feel my connection to the moon, the sun and the five dipper clusters which include the Big Dipper and their internal connections to the human body. For example the big dipper is affiliated with Water of the space five elements, in human body, the kidney and the bladder are affiliated with water. When one practices with the big dipper, the five element qi resonate, the internal qi move in the Kidney and Bladder Channels. I also got hold of a book called "Da Qian Tu Shuo". It introduces the connections between the the stars and the daoist practice, including the Zi Wei Stars system, the Five Dippers, the 28 stars clusters, the Northern Stars and the Southern Stars system. We only practiced with a small portion of these systems, this made us even more in awe of the Master Wang's knowledge and we really admire all the daoist masters including Master Wang, they are too amazing.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (4)
I asked Master Wang : whether the Three Immortals Methods really need 12 years to complete.
Master Wang : "If we are only talking about the methods themselves. If the teacher can do good daigong, then 6 years is also possible. If the student has good foundation and the teacher daigong well, then 3 years is not impossible."
I asked: "Can anyone open up the channel small heavenly orbit? (*) "
Master Wang : "If the instruction was followed properly, anyone can do that."
This conversation had inspired me to think and explore ways to complete the Three Immortals Method quickly and properly.
(*) This is not the small heavenly orbit (or microcosmic orbit) that most people talk about. This is a major level of achievement in Longmen Pai. More on that later.
Master Wang : "If we are only talking about the methods themselves. If the teacher can do good daigong, then 6 years is also possible. If the student has good foundation and the teacher daigong well, then 3 years is not impossible."
I asked: "Can anyone open up the channel small heavenly orbit? (*) "
Master Wang : "If the instruction was followed properly, anyone can do that."
This conversation had inspired me to think and explore ways to complete the Three Immortals Method quickly and properly.
(*) This is not the small heavenly orbit (or microcosmic orbit) that most people talk about. This is a major level of achievement in Longmen Pai. More on that later.
1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (3)
During our discussions, I told Master Wang that I taught two small classes in my company. Master Wang said it's better to register with the local Qigong Council if I want to teach. I asked him, "What do I need to register?" "I will write you a recommendation letter, once they know you are my people, they will accept your application. I also know the chairman of the qigong council in your province, there won't be any problem." Afterward, Master Wang wrote me two certificates, one to use inside China, the other for oversea use. The letters said "Chinese Qigong Science Research Council Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu Advanced Instructor", he also made me an official stamp, public and private seals. As far as I know, this is the only instructor certificate that Master Wang had ever issued. However, I never used them fully. One reason was that how can i call myself "advanced" in front of Master Wang? The other reason was that I seldom taught classes, I only did them to make some travel expenses for attending Master Wang's classes. But the most important reason was that Master Wang had warned me: "Without 10 years of practice, don't teach properly, otherwise it won't be good to yourself." Therefore, I only came out to teach in 1998.
1990 - Dicussion of Dao at the Police University (2)
The modern qigong craze in China began in the early 80s, people were curious about qigong, they found it refreshing and magical and hence the passion about qigong was high. Many different pai sprung up and there was a positive environment for qigong growth. For an enlightened master like Master Wang who hide in plain sight, he didn't have intention to teach publicly, instead he used this opportunity to inspect the methods of different schools. There were two reasons that made him change his mind on teaching:
(1) At that time, there were some people who taught under the banner of Longmen Pai but in reality there were fake. In order to maintain the reputation of Longmen Pai, the only way was to teach authentic Longmen Pai neigong.
(2) A party leader was healed by Master Wang in Beijing. He recommended Master Wang to the Chinese Qigong Science Research Council afterward. The research council asked Master Wang to teach a few classes. Master Wang agreed after he had obtained permission from the old masters. In 1985, Master Wang taught the authentic Quanzhen Longmen Pai neigong, "Ling bao tong zhineng neigong shu" (The Art of Spiritual Jewels and Intelligence), for the first time publicly. Through Master Wang's lectures, demonstrations, healing and daigongs etc, the common people got their first taste of what authentic Longmen Pai Neigong is like. Every organizers and students have very high regard of Master Wang. Not long afterward, the Qigong Research Council established a specialized qigong research subdivision for Ling Bao Tong. At that time, under the direction of the Chinese Qigong Science Research council, only Ling Bao Tong and the authentic Buddhist practice, Cangmi Gong, were permitted to have a Category 2 specialized study group established. All other methods were classified only as Category 3. Master Wang also became a major member of the Qigong and Special Ability Inspection Team. Out of the 22 so called "great qigong masters" at that time, Master Wang verified 17.
Of course I also knew about the methods, abilities and level of some of the so called "great" masters. If at university, I looked at and understood qigong from a superficial level, then from that time on, I was looking at it from a higher level, I can see it from a practitioner point of view to learn about qigong, including their levels, advantages and deficiencies.
(1) At that time, there were some people who taught under the banner of Longmen Pai but in reality there were fake. In order to maintain the reputation of Longmen Pai, the only way was to teach authentic Longmen Pai neigong.
(2) A party leader was healed by Master Wang in Beijing. He recommended Master Wang to the Chinese Qigong Science Research Council afterward. The research council asked Master Wang to teach a few classes. Master Wang agreed after he had obtained permission from the old masters. In 1985, Master Wang taught the authentic Quanzhen Longmen Pai neigong, "Ling bao tong zhineng neigong shu" (The Art of Spiritual Jewels and Intelligence), for the first time publicly. Through Master Wang's lectures, demonstrations, healing and daigongs etc, the common people got their first taste of what authentic Longmen Pai Neigong is like. Every organizers and students have very high regard of Master Wang. Not long afterward, the Qigong Research Council established a specialized qigong research subdivision for Ling Bao Tong. At that time, under the direction of the Chinese Qigong Science Research council, only Ling Bao Tong and the authentic Buddhist practice, Cangmi Gong, were permitted to have a Category 2 specialized study group established. All other methods were classified only as Category 3. Master Wang also became a major member of the Qigong and Special Ability Inspection Team. Out of the 22 so called "great qigong masters" at that time, Master Wang verified 17.
Of course I also knew about the methods, abilities and level of some of the so called "great" masters. If at university, I looked at and understood qigong from a superficial level, then from that time on, I was looking at it from a higher level, I can see it from a practitioner point of view to learn about qigong, including their levels, advantages and deficiencies.
1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (1)
In February 1990, I learned from a phone call that Master Wang was going to enroll in the Chinese Police University in Shenyang. After some major effort, I managed to get a business trip to the Northeast where I could meet up with Master Wang. I went to the campus immediately once I arrived in Shenyang but Master Wang had not arrived yet. After waiting around for another two days, Master Wang showed up for the university registration. Since the school year had not begun, no one knew Master Wang there. This gave me a great chance to talk to him individually. Over the half a month we were together. We talked about every topics I could think of and I greedily asked him all kind of questions. Master Wang not only answered my questions in depth, he also told me things that not many people in the world knew about. Due to reasons that I am not to elaborate further, I can't disclose most of the content we discussed but I will reveal some here in this blog.
Monday, May 19, 2008
1989 - Direct Transmission (3)
My understanding is that : the "Theory of the Three Worlds" and the "Formula of the Universe Creation" represent the highest level of teaching in Taoist practice, it is the essence obtained by successive generations of Taoist masters through neigong and their understanding of the Dao De Jing, it is the compass to guide our practice. It divide the Universe and our World into three levels and provide the appropriate thinking model for each, it is the objective understanding and the rewards obtained by the Taoists of the universe. It looked very simple but in reality it is rich in content and penetrating in its insights, it includes things that are hard to experience and comprehend by common people because it include ideas that can only be gotten by practitioners through advanced taoist neigong.
It was in one of our several conversations at that time when Master Wang said, "I am standing before you as an old Taoist from before the Qing Dynasty, you are standing on the foundation of modern science. We converse from these positions and from our conversations, we exchange and converge our ideas, and from the convergent we refine our understanding." I didn't quite understand what Master Wang mean at that time, but I constantly think about it. As time progressed and through countless practice, learning and rethinking, I began to appreciate its meaning: "An old Taoist from before the Qing Dynasty" represent the way ancient Chinese civilization look at the world , "the foundation of modern science" represent the abstraction of nature through modern science. Due to the differences in histories, thinking models, theory and the way they look for truth in the two cultures, the conversations between these two civilizations will inevitably create new wisdoms and shed new light on our understanding of the world.
It was in one of our several conversations at that time when Master Wang said, "I am standing before you as an old Taoist from before the Qing Dynasty, you are standing on the foundation of modern science. We converse from these positions and from our conversations, we exchange and converge our ideas, and from the convergent we refine our understanding." I didn't quite understand what Master Wang mean at that time, but I constantly think about it. As time progressed and through countless practice, learning and rethinking, I began to appreciate its meaning: "An old Taoist from before the Qing Dynasty" represent the way ancient Chinese civilization look at the world , "the foundation of modern science" represent the abstraction of nature through modern science. Due to the differences in histories, thinking models, theory and the way they look for truth in the two cultures, the conversations between these two civilizations will inevitably create new wisdoms and shed new light on our understanding of the world.
1989 - Direct Transmission (2)
When the Monkey King in "Journey to the West" was a taoist magic apprentice, he cleverly got the hint from his master and so sneaked out of bed at midnight to learn kung fu directly, it showed that he was smart and has great capacity to learn. I thought why shouldn't I do the same? Therefore after Master Wang finished his lecture and after we began our group meditation with the teaching assistants, I sneaked out of class to look for Master Wang. He led me to a quiet area and use a tree branch as pen and the ground as paper to outline and explaine to me the "Theory of the Three Worlds" and the "Formula of The Universe's Creation". Each of this session lasted an hour for a total of seven times. When he knew it was about time, Master Wang would say, "Go back inside quickly, the class is about to finish." I quickly went back inside and pretend to meditate for a while. When everyone began the closing sequence, I followed and "close" as well. When the seminar was about to end, Master Wang began to lecture the "Theory of the Three Worlds" and the "Formula of The Universe's Creation" to the class. To other students, these were brand new contents and they were very curious about it although they couldn't accept it just then. To me it was the conclusion and the summary of my "extra-curricular" activities in the past week. When the class ended, Master Wang came to me and said, "I lectured this for you." , I nodded my head and quietly put this into my heart.
After Master Wang's teaching, my mind was stimulated, my brain was always in a state of excitement and wonder. My mind was very active and I seemed to be able to see the world in a whole new level. I was unable to sleep several nights because I was thinking all night long, new ideas would just sprung up in my mind constantly. I remained in this state for four years, I only calmed down after I finished "Walk on the Great Path". (*)
(*) Sequel to "Opening the Dragon Gate", written by Mr. Shen and published in 1994. Not available in English.
After Master Wang's teaching, my mind was stimulated, my brain was always in a state of excitement and wonder. My mind was very active and I seemed to be able to see the world in a whole new level. I was unable to sleep several nights because I was thinking all night long, new ideas would just sprung up in my mind constantly. I remained in this state for four years, I only calmed down after I finished "Walk on the Great Path". (*)
(*) Sequel to "Opening the Dragon Gate", written by Mr. Shen and published in 1994. Not available in English.
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