Friday, June 4, 2010

Channel SHO (3) - The importance of De (virtues).

Channel SHO is the fifth method "Golden Crystal flying up from the side" in Ling Bao Bi Fa. In order to understand it completely, one need to study the classics and put the theory and practice together and to grasp its internal logical connections:

(1) I study the conclusion from each of the special SHO class and organize the experience of the students so that I can have a macroscopic understanding of the process.

(2) I collected the practice journals from everyone and summarized them into "the moment to open it" in order to understand the microscopic aspects.

(3) Extract the "Channel SHO of Elderlies (78 and 80 years old)", "Dandao and Taijiquan", "Female practice journals" in order to have a deeper understanding.

(4) With experience with SHO and under the guidance of Master Wang, I re-edited "Xing Da Dao".

(5) With these experience and Master Wang's encouragement, I began to annotate "The Daoist teachings of Zhong and Lu", "Ling Bao bi Fa" and "Tai Yi Jin Hua Zhong Zhi". With three revisions, it has finally been published.

Once I put Channel SHO into the context of Zhong and Lu Dandao in order to understand it and with my own recovery of strength and energy, opening up Channel SHO has become straightforward. Since I was only concentrated on the technical aspects of opening up the Channel SHO and ignored the important of the students' personalities and De (virtues), it had brought me a lot of trouble, it was a hard lesson taht I would not forget.

When one gets to higher level in one's cultivation, one can get a deeper appreciation of the importance of De (virtues) in cultivation. Cultivation doesn't just mean doing the practice, it also includes the cultivation of one's De. The two aspects complement each other and both must be worked on simultaneously. For examples:

During the Yin Xian Fa stage, one needs the "De of gong" i.e. confidence, perseverance, honesty and empty heart etc.

During Human Immortal Method stage, one needs the "De of Man" i.e. respect for teachers and parents, manner, knowledge and clear thinking.

During the Terrestrial Immortal Method stage, one needs the "De of Earth", i.e. kindness, softness, endurance, modesty and willingness to give.

During the Celestial Immortal Method stage, one needs the "De of Heaven", i.e. big hearted, depth, no desire and magnanimous.

If any aspect of the De cultivation has been deficient, it will be reflected in one's practice. The higher the gongfu also means the higher level requirement of De, the imbalance between the two can hinder the progress of one's cultivation. I have seen too many examples in my own teaching and these have happened in the students who had their SHO opened. This is all very real.

Channel SHO (2) - To achieve the goal.

Coincidentally when I wanted to try out my methods on Channel SHO, someone invited me to try it which resulted in the four "Channel SHO Class". Everything was carried out methodically: careful planning and collaborative efforts by everyone had resulted in 40 success out of 80. It had shown that my method was right even though the road was difficult. I was very pleased with results. I helped 40 persons achieved SHO without myself getting to that stage first, it seemed implausible and so controversies cannot be avoided. But it can be explained somehow by careful thoughts.

(1) The background.

The fact that Zhong and Lu dandao had been continuously transmitted for over a thousand years out of the mainstream meant that it must have many intrinsic advantages, for examples its rational, systematic and complete nature of its theory and practical methods. These are precisely th reasons it had become the pinnacle practice within Daoism. The Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu taught by Master Wang is a branch of ZHong and Lu Dandao, and it also most it has its own source of strength, once we can approach this source of strength, one can glimpse as the mysteries and wonders of Dandao and receive its benefits.

(2) The ladder to enter the door.

From 1985-1995, Master Wang had publicly taught the foundational methods of Zhong and Lu dandao, i.e. refine the body to accumulate qi. If we look the thousand years long history of dandao, has anyone ever taught such systematic methods to enter the door of dandao? No. How many people actually understand these? Very few. Without a deep understanding, how can one truly enter the door? Master Wang had taught the methods to enter door and also had also led some of the students inside the door already. I strived to combine "methods to enter the door" and "methods to help others" into "helping others to enter the door".

(3) Personal Effort.

Master Wang began teaching in 1985, I started learning in 1987. I tried my best to collect all the teaching materials ever existed which include 300 recording tapes, which had been transcribed into text forms. With Master Wang's consent, I careful wrote and publish "Xing Da Dao", this let me carefully re-study everything. In 1991, I became an assistant, this has broadened my horizon. I saw Master Wang helped others in SHO and also interviewed a person who had direct experience. After understanding some principles and the process, I asked myself, "Would I be able to do it? How about just try it?"

Having a clear direction together with hard works and perseverance, one will succeed eventually. In summary the authentic method, great teacher, good environment and collaborative efforts from everyone was the foundation, I was merely an organizer to help put all these ingredients into places.

Having seen all the wondrous effects of the SHO, my main feeling was: we have glimpsed at the tip of an iceberg that is the power of Zhong and Lu Dandao. But this is enough to propel us to march forward. Zhong and Lu dandao has great depth and mystery, it's an creation from the wisdoms of the "immortals", it is beyond the understanding of mere mortals.

The students who I helped to open their SHO had in turn helped me open my own, I felt very lucky. Wasn't this a logical conclusion?

Channel SHO (1) - The reasons.

After I started following Master Wang's teaching, I understood the clear differences between the so called "Small Heavenly Orbit / Microcosmic" on the market and the Small Heavenly Orbit in dandao. It had been my dream for a long time to open the channel SHO. When I became assistant, I have seen Master Wang helped many students who were ready to open up the SHO. This together with what I learned from the old gentleman had intensified my desire to learn how to open up it up, not really out of desire for myself but to help others. This is not to say that I am a noble and selfless person but out of practical reason. Being a teaching assistant meant that my own energy and cultivation cannot be maintained at a high and stable level. Without the opportunity to contiguously improve and accumulate my own energy, it's not possible to open up the Channel SHO. But I could teach others to do it, so when I daoyin, I tried to incorporate some of my own experiments. For examples, the way to tune the field, the duration of the practice the strength of daigong etc. Slowly I have began to understand a bit more. So even though my goal was clear, I only knew the outline of the method without knowing the all the nifty details. From Master Wang's own daigong and demonstrations, I also understood that the teacher's ability has tens or hundreds fold more influence on the students.

In August 1995, I learned directly from Master Wang in Shanghai the whole process of opening up the Channel SHO. This gave me a much clearer picture of the process. Roughly speaking there are 4 ingredients:

(1) An intensive 15 days of continuous training to ensure the students can steadily increases their energy level.
(2) Intensive five element practice to "dissolve" the internal organs. This is the core of increasing the energy level.
(3) Daoyin must be focused, flexible and strategic so that when the opportunity was seized when it arised.
(4) The student must be able to sit for two hours continuously, at least in half lotus, at minimum.

Once I understood the process, i told myself, "What If I teach 100 persons."

This simple thought had resulted my 8 years of endeavor.

In 1996 and 1997, I taught 20 students. One was successful. This had boosted my confidence in my own methods tremendously. Of course, there were many things to be improved on.

Teaching Experience (5) - Stepping down from the frontline

In 1994 and 1995, Master Wang taught several seminars nationwide. In these seminars, there are several other assistants from Shenyang and Dalian, in order to give them more time to be trained, I purposely remove myself from the "frontline" of teaching.

Even though I have been a teaching assistant for a while but I never forget that I am still a student too, I am still learning from Master Wang. With other assistants who shared my teaching responsibility, I have got some chance to learn, observe, think and cultivate for sessions in the seminars. The main difference from before was that even though I was still tired from the teaching, it wasn't as exhausting as before and I was able to recover more quickly. The strength and penetrative power of my daigong had increased, my ability to control and tune the practice field has also improved, overall I believed that my techniques had matured.

Teaching is an energy depleting process but it's also the way to accumulate knowledge and experience. A huge outflow of my energy also means a huge inflow later, this extreme way of cultivation also meant a special result. However, replenishing the lost energy has always been an easily ignored part of one's cultivation. Many new teachers would do fine in the beginning, but once a little bit too much energy has been lost, they would never recover. How to replenish the lost energy is a must know topic for anyone who teaches internal cultivation, without a solution to this problem, one should never come and teach, else it's just self destruction. Another key point, what is gongfu? One must at least have a little bit of that, gongfu is accumulated through time. Without that, one is playing fire with the body. I have seen to many of these examples and I believe there will be more. Master Wang said, "Without 10 years of gongfu, don't come out to teach." It's wise words, it's also words to protect me from harming myself.