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.

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)

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.

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".