Enter the Dragon Gate 行大道

Personal Guidance Part 8.

2011-06-25T01:20:00.003-07:00

5th
Morning: Woke up and the Macro orbit started on its own, so I straightened my legs and lay on my bed to let it run for about 40 minutes.
The night before, I dreamed a giant snake that had beautiful pattern on its body. I was a bit scared so I threw a rock at it, it chased after me so I ran away. It caught up with me though but at that moment, a beautiful tiger appeared and bit the snake at the 7th-inch position, the tiger seemed to be hesitating and so it stopped. I thought, did the snake also bite the tiger? The dream ended at that point.
Afterward, full lotus for about an hour, I used the spirit light to link up with the spirit light from Qi Zhen Dian, after a few minutes the temple’s light appeared and I collected it to my lower field. Not long after, true breath appeared. After more than 10 minutes, qi slowly flowed into the lower field. Qi moved strongly inside my lower field and it was very hot. I could also feel granular shaped qi in the lower field, probably because it wasn’t dissolved completely. Then I did five-element cycle three times and took qi back to the lower field. I still felt that the qi wasn’t completely dissolved but my legs hurt too much so I stopped.
Shen laoshi’s plan was that after coming down from the mountain, the focus would be shifted to the discussion of the three classics: Zhong Lu Zhuan Dao Ji, Ling Bao Bi Fa and Taiyi Jinhua Zong Zhi. I had read the three books before I arrived at Lanzhou, the words weren’t so hard to understand but the actual practice and their true meaning were of course hidden and I was really not so sure I understood them at all. I read it again after I got back to the city and this time, especially the verification parts, I felt that I really do understand them especially since some of verifications had happened in my own body.
After Shen laoshi had arrived, I asked him about dream, he said just go and read the third chapter of Ling Bao Bi Fa. The third chapter is the Mating of Dragon and Tiger and then I understood, isn’t snake a small dragon?
Today, we mainly discussed the first chapter of Ling Bao Bi Fa, the Matching of Yin and Yang.

6th
Morning: Half lotus for 90 minutes, pretty much the same as the day before, nothing new.
Today we discussed the second chapter, the collection and dispersion of water and fire.
Night time: Today was the Dragon Boat Festival, I ate too much in dinner, my belly was swelling. I sat down and try to dissolve the qi in my stomach, after some noises from my stomach, I felt more comfortable. I continued the practice and retrieved the spirit light from Qi Zhen Dian into my lower field. Two cycles of five elements and I felt plenty of qi. I did two times ancestral chamber and then two more times of five elements. After collecting the qi to the lower field, the qi raise up and it looked like a 4 inch long light band, I tried to force it back down to the lower field but wasn’t able to, so I just let it be. I felt the qi raise up from my back and flowed down in front, the strength and speed of the movments were unprecedented. I felt like it was moving at 2 or 3 times the speed of the Macro orbit. My whole body was very hot and sweating. After I finished up, I felt very comfortable.

7th
Morning: Half lotus, light shifted and spun in front of my eyes. After collecting it down to lower field, qi started moving between the middle and lower field.
Today, we discussed the third chapter, the mating of dragon and tiger.
Evening: Full lotus, light appeared immediately, collected it to lower field. One cycle of five elements and the macro orbit started running. After that, I did the five-element cycle again, when it reached my lungs, the macro orbit started again. Not long after that, there were big movement up my back and down my front, the movement was very fast. In between, several meridians and channels were also moving. But I felt that the speed and hotness weren’t as good as the day before. After 90 minutes, I changed into half lotus and then did five elements twice. I finished up then and the session was 140 minutes. Afterward, I felt that my skin was especially smooth.
Night time: full lotus, retrieved the light from Qi Zhen Dian to lower field. After two cycles of five elements, the macro orbit started running. Then after ancestral chamber practice, after retrieving the spirit light, true breath speared and lower field started breathing. It expanded and contracted regularly like a balloon and the expansion got bigger and bigger and I felt like I was about to float up. My whole body sweated and I thought suddenly, what if I exploded? So I decided to ask Shen laoshi before I continued. I slowly reduced the movement and finished up after another two times of five elements.
8th
After midnight: When I was sleeping, I felt that the macro orbit was spinning, so I woke up and meditated. Half lotus, took light back and then did 2 cycles of five elements. Ancestral chamber practice, took light back to lower field, two cycles of five elements, took qi back to lower field. My lower field felt empty and it seemed there were a lot of space in there, I thought where was my Dan? Then I finished up but the lower field started spinning again, I thought what was going on? Why does it happen again?
I asked Shen laoshi later and he said,”In college, the junior year ended and the vacation began, the senior year hasn’t started yet, and that’s the happiest time.” I thought about what it meant.
Morning: Cross-legged, linked up with the old divine tree, the light I got back was fairly weak, took it back to lower field. Two cycles of five elements and then Macro orbit started. Two more cycles of five elements and I finished up.
There was a new phenomenon, whenever I was meditating or resting, as soon as I moved my feet or stimulate the yong quan points, the macro orbit would start running. It was a headache, but a blissful one.
Today we discussed the forth chapter, the Cooking of Cinnabar medicine.
Nighttime: Full lotus, light appeared immediately, took it to lower field. Macro orbit started running. Two cycles of five elements, ancestral chamber practice, I felt that my ability to control the light got better, two cycles of five elements, macro orbit, latitudinal orbits, entire meridian system moved up and down. 80 minutes in total.
9th
Morning: Half lotus, true breath appeared. Saliva pouring out from under my tongue, I swallowed them to the lower field. Macro orbits, entire meridian system were running. I used my intention to contract some of the latitudinal orbits, they got smaller and smaller but their speed increased. Two cycles of five elements and then I finished up. 90 minutes in total.
Today, we discussed the fifth chapter, the golden crystal flying up from the side.
Nighttime: Full lotus. Light appeared immediately, took back to lower field, then five elements twice, then macro orbits and latitudinal orbits. After ancestral chamber and five elements, the macro orbits ran again. Then I tuned the latitudinal orbit and following my regulations of my breaths, the orbit got smaller and smaller while the speed increased. This time the upper, middle and lower field were connected in one line. The broken line is no longer broken! It was just like a meridian and starting running. Afterward, my legs hurt so I finished up. 70 minutes in total.
Night time: Crossed legged. Light appeared immediately, took it to lower field. Five elements and then macro orbit, latitudinal orbits and entire meridian system started moving. I decreased the size of the latitudinal orbit to make it run faster. The broken line then also started moving. I was worried that the qi might burst out from the Tian Men so I use the body universe and personal universe to regulate it. Qi moved up and down between the upper and lower field. Afterward, I saw the sky, clouds and mountain ranges just liked with my eyes open. Then, I saw a flood of light, it was transparent and golden color, liked a curtain. I was going to finish up but the Macro orbit and latitudinal orbits just wouldn’t stop. So I continued to sit. 200 minutes.
10th
Midnight: Half lotus. Light appeared, took it to lower field. Five elements and then macro orbit, the speed was much faster than before. Latitudinal orbit, broken line started moving. Used body and personal universe to regulate the movement. Qi moved to lower field. Then I saw the edge of the personal universe, I was sitting inside a big sphere, very bright, liked the scene when I opened my SHO but just without the stars.
Morning: Half lotus, light appeared, took it to lower field. Five elements, macro orbit, latitudinal orbit. Qi to lower field, then it wanted to go up. Lower field spinning, five elements again. Finished up.
In the afternoon, I left my place of rebirth, Lanzhou. I went home happily and a changed person.

Conclusion

A limited lifetime and an unlimited universe.
How can a human obtain a lifespan that is as long as the heaven and earth? The ancients observe the movements of the heaven and earth, they understood the transformation of yin and yang, the movements of the sun and the moon. And using these observations, they revealed the rule of the great Dao inside the human body. This is Dandao, ordinary people only used their normal eyes to see man, things and the universe, but they don’t know how to use the Heaven eyes to see the world behind the ordinary world.
Life is short, normal people don’t know how to escape the pain of living, like birth, old age, diseases and death. Living only in the material world, there is no escaping these pains. But if they looked back and read the wisdom of the old sages and started learning and practicing dandao, then there is a possibility to escape. The “On true immortals” chapter in Zhong Lu Zhuan Dao Ji is excellent, and one should study it carefully.
Through the personal guidance of Shen laoshi, I was able to experience firsthand the pre-heaven movements of qi (SHO, macro, latitudinal orbits) and also the shining brightness of the original spirit and ling xing. I have changed completely as a person, from inside to outside. I understood what is meant by “Dao is not far from human”. By studying the three classics and the verifications in them and the things that happened inside my body, I was able to understand the Zhong Lu Dandao is the complete method and perfect integration of theory, method and verification. It helped me reaching a new level of consciousness and a deeper appreciation of traditional Chinese culture. This ended my 15 years of study in China at a high note and I hope a full ending would be possible with my own further tireless effort.
June 10th 2011 at Lanzhou.

Personal Guidance Part 7.

2011-06-25T01:20:00.001-07:00

3rd
Early Morning: Stood in front of the old divine tree, spirit light appeared immediately. The circular light was white and sightly brown outside and black in the center. After pulling it a bit, the color changed to white outside with some rainbow color and the center was gold color. Retrieved it back to lower field and it began spinning immediately, the qi circulated in big and small circles and in different directions. Then I retrieved the light again and the Macocosmic orbit started running, the speed was too fast for me to count the number of cycles, it must had been about 200 times. During the cycles, when it was slowing down, I would strengthen my intention at the yong quan points and then it would speed up again. After the orbits, I closed my eyes to do Ping Heng Gong, suddenly the tree became a giant white column and there were some crossectional light loops. The qi moved from the bottom to the top just like the meridians in the human body. During Zhan Zhuang, the macrocosmic orbit ran again for another 200 times. New latitudinal orbits were also circulating. I looked at it carefully and recorded thir positions and number. I finished up after 2 cycles of five elements. The entire practice was about 2 hours long.
I asked about the tree light column, Shen laoshi said, “Trees also have channels where they transport the nutrients.“ he further added that “The number of loops and their position you saw are correct.”
Lifes and nature are so wonderful and mysterious!
Morning: I took a tour of the Qi Zhen Dian. I stood in front of the oil pine tree in front of the temple for a brief moment. Once I closed my eyes, the light appeared immediately, its color was just like the sun. Retrieved it down to lower field and it immediately began to spin, the Macrocosmic orbit also spun for a few dozens times. The qi of the oil pine tree was soft but full, the tree has a beautiful and respectable appearance. Afterward, I went inside the Qi Zhen Dian, after praying my respect and burned an incence, I sat down to meditate for a bit. The spirit light was liked the rising sun at dawn, when I retrieved it back, its color changed into sparkling gold, it was very strong and limitless, it poured directly into my lower field. I kept at this state while I slowly stood up, I continued to retrieve the spirit light and not long afterward the macrocosmic orbits started runnning for a few dozens times. The power of this authentic ancient temple was so great!
Afternoon and evening: Full lotus, light appeared immediately, I collected the golden color light in my lower field. Macrocosmic orbit started running and also the new latitudinal orbits. During ancestral chamber and five elements practice, the Macro orbit also started running for about 200 cycles. I sat in full lotus for almost 2 hours and my legs hurt a lot, but the meridians seemed to be auto correcting themselves and the pain reduced, although the pain was still too much for me and I took one leg down.
After tuning my body and looked up, spirit light appeared again, I collected down to my lower field and the true breath happened again. I got into a trance, semi-conscious and dream-like. Suddenly, my legs started shaking and I felt that there were three channels moving up and down and the pain in my legs disppeared and the Macro orbit started running again. I was in this state for a while longer and then I finished up. The entire practice was about 200 minutes.
4th
After migdnight: Full lotus, took light into the lower field. Qi started spinning in big and small circles inside the lower field. Tuned my breath, inhaled, held an exhaled. When I was holding my bretah, the lower field started breathing, a rope-like white qi band was leading the lower field to breath, then slowely, my ordinary mouth nose breathing stopped and skin breathing began. Macro orbit started spinning. When the lower field started spinning, the top part would exhale and the lower part would inhale, rising and lowering regularly. During Macro orbit, it raise from the back and fall at the front. It was very comfortable and I got into a dream-like trance state again. I was like that for an hour.
Early morning: Met with the old divine tree, light appeared immediately. The first time I condensed the light to a small point, it escaped. I tried it again and collected it to the lower field. The lower field started spinning and the Macro orbit also started running. I could see the dvine tree with my eyes closed as though my eyes were actually opened., the only difference is that it seemed to be cleaner and clearer with my eyes closed. During zhan zhuang, I could see mountain, lake, sky and bamboo forest etc.
Morning: Full lotus, light appeared, ignored daoyin. Collected light to lower field. Dantian started spinning. I continued to collect the spirit light which was light blue color. I used my intention to spin my lower field while holding my breath, I could feel the true breath. True breah stopped when I heard the daoyin for ancestral chamber practice. Collected spirit light down to lower filed again and the Macro orbit started to run. Probably because I did full lotus for too long the day before, my legs hurt a lot so I changed into half lotus. Not long afterward, Macro orbit started again until I finished the session.
After lunch, we packed up to go back into the city. Our car broke down though so we had to stop at a service pit to get it repaired. At the mechanic's, it was still possible to make out the location of the Qi Zhen Dian and the Oil pine. Shen laoshi said it is possible to retrieve the spirit light of the temple even from this great distance, so I decided to try it. The spirit light of the temple appeared in front me immediately and not long after, the oil pine's light also arrived. How did I tell the difference? I remembered the different colors of the spirit light from yesterday. So I sat in the mechanic’s place and faced Mount Xing long to meditate. Not long afterward, the spirit light of the temple and the tree appeared although the pine tree’s light was weaker than the temple’s light. Both light were somewhat weak at first but it got stronger and stronger gradually. After I collected all the light in my lower field, I was going to do five elements but the lower field started spinning on its own, so I let it do its thing. This lasted for about an hour and in between, true breath appeared and I could hear the surrounding sound, I felt like I was about to get into a trance. The qi slowly flowed into my lower field and the Macro orbit started running, I let it ran for almost 1000 times until our car was fixed.

Personal Guidance Part 6.

2011-06-25T01:19:00.001-07:00

1st June
Early Morning: After greeting the divine tree, I closed my eyes and regulated my breathing, the spirit light appeared immediately. I condensed it to the size of a green bean and put it into my lower field, the qi in the lower field began to vibrate. The amplitude was small in the beginning but then it got greater and greater and even moved back and forth inside my Dai mai, there was some small pain. Afterward qi in my right kidney started spinning and then my left kidney. Qi in the lower field circulated in big and then small circles. After letting it be for about 30 minutes I started zhan zhuang. The same phenomenon appeared. During five elements, the qi moved between my lower and middle fields. Then it started moving in the Dai channel and I again felt a slight pain.
Morning: Learnt the practice of “Using the external five elements to open the channels” , then full lotus, light appeared immediately after I closed my eyes. Macrocosmic orbits ran for about 30 times. Then qi moved between the middle and lower fields. Then qi moved in big and small circles in both directions in my lower field. Then qi was collected in my lower field and started spinning rapidly.
Afternoon: Practiced “External 5 elements to open the channels”, then full lotus. Light appeared immediately after I closed my eyes, after collected it in my lower field and worked on the five-element cycle, the qi moved between the lower and middle fields, I immediately finished the cycle to observe the qi movement between the two fields. Then Macrocosmic orbit started on its own, it felt like every meridians and channels were moving in my body, I could feel qi inside several meridians were moving at the same time, they had different colors, very bright and moved very fast. There were also white color qi surrounding them and I also saw qi moving in front of my eyes. The entire meridian system were moving rapidly and I was actually a bit worried. But I remembered Shen laoshi’s advice to carefully let them work on themselves, so I quieted down and started to observe and count the number of cycles. After about 70 times, the speed began to be reduced. I then put some intention at the yong quan points and qi immediately flowed up from there into my hui yin then Du and Ren channels into my lower field. After about 100 cycles, qi began to move between my lower and middle fields. Then the qi started moving in big and small circles inside my lower field. Then the qi was collected in my lower field and condensed into rice-sized ball ad started spinning rapidly.
Evening: Met with my favorite divine tree again. Light appeared immediately and I collected it into my lower field and then qi started spinning. When I retrieved the spirit light again, qi started moving between my middle and lower fields. After a while, I observed my lower field and the qi started the circular movments. During Zhan Zhuang, Macrocosmic orbit ran for more than 10 times together with several meridians. My 10 fingers were full of qi and they were very hot, I could feel qi moving in my meridian.

2nd
Early Morning: Met with my favorite divine tree again. Light appeared immediately and I collected it into my lower field. Then Macrocosmic orbit ran for 70 cycles, then several meridians also started moving, the Dai channel also moved. 3 cycles of five elements and stopped, approximately 90 minutes.
Morning: Full lotus on my bed, light appeared immediately. Put it in my lower field. Got into a trance for about 30 minutes, then 2 cycles of five elements. Macrocosmic orbits 16 times. During ancestral chamber practice the spirit light was like a yellow bean, golden color and a layer of rainbow on the surface. Retrieved spirit light into my lower field, it then vibrated very strongly which caused my body to almost leaned back. It happened twice. Then I used the spirit light for the five elements practice, when it got to the lungs, qi started pumping from the yong quan points, so I quickly finished the cycle to observe it. Macrocosmic orbit started running rapidly for about 200 times. Then starting from my toes, I felt vibrations, heat, light and electric shocks, I could even heard a noise that sounds like electricity moving between two metal objects. The phenomenon moved up my legs, thigh, waist. And starting from the waist, a bright qi loop appeared, same thing happened at my chest. I thought this must be the new latitudinal orbits mentioned by Shen laoshi earlier. So I tried my best to remember their positions and numbers. But after I finished the practice, I had forgotten almost all of them, it was just like a dream.
After lunch, I went to Mount Long Tou with Shen laoshi. I meditated on mount Long Tou and light appeared immediately, they looked exactly like pearls, they dropped one by one into my lower field. The lower field began to move on its own. The qi inside it then slowly spreaded out like mist. I felt there were several small objects spinning inside. Circular movements of qi then appeared in the lower field. Because it was too sunny, I quickly finished up. Meditating on mount Long Tou felt different from other places, the qi at this place was particular strong.
Afternoon: Back to the living quarter, after some tea, full lotus on my bed. Macrocosmic orbit ran for several dozen times together with all the meridians. Then ancestral chamber practice, I did it twice and collected the light in the lower field. Since I felt that the qi did not dissolve completely in my lower field, so I increased my intention to dissolve the qi in the lower field. When I hold my breath to dissolve the qi, a flood of white light bursted out of the lower field and spread to the surrounding. I could feel that my lower field was expanding and contracting and it was breathing rhythmically. At the same times new orbit lines appeared. I thought this was embryonic breathing and so I was very excited. So just like this, I inhaled, hold and then exhaled and during each hold breath, the lower field would started breathing automatically, it was very comfortable. It was like this for about 30 minutes. While this was happening, my legs really hurt and they started shaking, felt really hot, it felt like my legs were burning. During reverse breathing and drawing in the anus, it exacerbated the feeling. After some time, the vibration and burning sensation started to subside, my left leg did not hurt anymore but the right leg continued to hurt. The entire session was about 2 hours.
Afterward I went to Shen laoshi and told him excitedly that I had embryonic breathing and I described the phenomenon to him. The teacher said calmly, “This is not embryonic breathing. This is True Breath” and he told me a story. Some guy thought he had reached embryonic breathing, just liked me, and he went to ask Master Wang. The Master did not answered directly but during the class he said,”In order to have embryonic breathing, you must first have an embryo. To have an embryo you must first have Yinyang. To have Yinyang you must have Taiyi (ultimate unity), and to have Taiyi, you must first have internal and external medicine.”
Evening: Met with the divine tree again. Light appeared immediately. The circular spirit light had a very special coloration. It was tea color inside but the boundary was grey. After collecting it in the lower field, the lower field began to jump. Afte Ping heng gong zhan zhuang and five elements, macrocosmic orbits started to cycle, the qi movements inside my meridians were very thin. Then the new orbits surrounding the three fields appeared.

Personal Guidance Part 5.

2011-06-25T01:18:00.000-07:00

29th
Early morning: Practiced Ping Heng Gong in front of the divine tree, while the mist-like spirit light was pouring into my lower field, another stream of spirit light entered the side of my left eye. My lower field vibrated and spun rapidly, SHO spun automatically.
Morning: While gathering of external medicine, I found it much easier to condense but still I couldn’t condense all the spirit light. The light used to be pure white in colour but today it has a tint of green in it, very bright and transparent. Once the light got into the lower field, my SHO started on its own again. At first I was only able to feel the part of the SHO orbit below my neck but after I increased the strength in the lower field, the entire orbit could be felt easily.
Afternoon: When fusing the elixir, the retrieved spirit light immediately appeared in front of my eyes. I didn’t listen to the daoyin and immediately collected the light into my lower field. The light poured down into my lower field like a giant waterfall and I could see many drops of pearl-like spirit light. I thought the scene was absolutely breathtaking! This beautiful scene continued for almost an hour and then I followed the daoyin again to work on installing the spirit at the ancestral chamber practice. Pure white spirit light flowed into my bladder, then it changed to grey and enters my liver, then it changed to green and enters my heart. Then it changed into tea-like color and entered my stomach, afterward it changed into sand yellow color and entered my lungs, afterward it changed into white and entered my kidneys, afterward it changed into grey and entered my bladder and finally it was still grey and entered my lower field.
The ancients said that the five elements have their respective five colors, this is absolutely true. I was absolutely awestruck by their wisdom.
Evening: I went to see the tomb of Liu Yiming. No one ever took care of the tomb and the place had been abandoned for a long tim. I felt very sad seeing this since I read his annotation of the Wu Zhen Pian before and I had respect for him. There was a really thick pine tree besides the tomb so I practiced Ping Heng Gong in front of it. When I did closed-eye zhan zhuang, spirit light immediately appeared in front of me. The qi here was different from the old divine tree, they were like misty pearls. After collecting them into my lower field and worked on the five elements, I felt for the first time qi moved vertically and horizontally inside my body. Qi in the liver moved from left to right and then from right to left and qi in my lungs and bladder moved up and down. The qi of the old divine tree shook and spun when it moved inside my organs.

30th
Early morning: Practiced ping Heng Gong in front of the divine tree, I felt that the qi wasn’t that strong today, so I recited mijue while working on the five elements. The organs vibrated slightly, the strongest one was the stomach. During zhang zhuang, I “saw” the roads and the pine trees with my eyes closed, and also the mist-covered forest. Finally under the influence of the spirit light, I spontanesouly worked on the Bagua Yi Sphere.
Morning: During meditation, I was able to see the color change of the five elements and also the surrounding area. I was meditating on the second floor but I was able to see the peope and the floor of ground level.
Afternoon: During meditation, I had experienced a new phenomenon, my mind was very clear but I wasn’t able to hear anything from the surrounding. But after a while I was able to hear the daoyin again. I then saw within light-yellow spirit light, there was a rice-sized red sphere entering into my lower field. The lower field then immediately contracted and expanded slowly, like a massage, it was very comfortable.
Evening: Ping Heng Gong in front of the divine tree. During the bladder phase of the five elements, my SHO started automatically and I wasn’t sure what to do. So I observe my SHO while continued to work on the 5 elements. There were influences from the two affecting each other but they still managed to be run at the same time. Five elements is small restoration cinnabar while SHO is grand restoration cinnabar, I didn't know why they appeared at the same time.

31st
Early morning: I changed a tree this morning, it wasn’t as big and as old as the divine tree, the feeling was also slightly off. The tree appeared in front of my eyes while I was working on the Ping Heng Gong and also while I did zhan zhuang facing the opposite way. The movements of the qi inside my organs were not balanced, for example, the qi shook in my right lung while it spun in my left. It spun in my right kidney but moved in line-movement in my left.
Morning: During meditation, spirit light appeared as soon as I closed my eye, so I ignored the daoyin and retrieved the spirit light inside my body. I saw many imageries, mountains, sky, rocks and pine trees, they were very bright, just like seeing with eyes opened. During the ancestral chamber practice, the spirit light was transparent and my ability to control it was better, the condensed light got smaller. After it went down into my lower field, qi began to move between my lower field and middle field automatically.
After lunch, I took a tour of the temple where Liu Yiming cultivated, the Zizai Wo. After talking to the daoist in charge there, I entered the temple and closed my eyes to meditate, very quickly I saw yellow color spirit light. After condensing it and put it in my lower field, the feeling was quite good.
Afternoon: After the tour, I got into full lotus and gather external medicine, I wanted to continued the feeling I had in Zizai Wo. Immediately after I closed my eyes, the spirit light appeared. Condensed it and retrieved it for about 30 minutes. After the light went into my lower field, I started the five elements practice. When it got to my stomach, the SHO started automatically. So I quickly finished the cycle and to concentrate on the movement of the SHO. An idea flashed into mind at that moment, I heard the method of Macrocosmic orbit from Shen laoshi, so I immediately thought about my Yong Quan points, suddenly two streams of qi flowed up from my Yong Quan points, through my legs and into the Hui Yin point and then followed the SHO and into my lower field. A new pathway appeared: Yong Quan -> Hui Yin -> Du channel -> Ren channel. It flowed in this new path for about 20 times. While the qi was moving, it shined a bright light, it was beautiful. Finally, qi flowed in circles inside my lower field, from big to small, from one direction to the other. My lower field was burning, it was very very hot. Finally I quieted down and finished up the meditation.
Evening: Ping Heng Gong in front of the divine tree again. During the five elements cycle, qi flowed between my lower field and middle field automatically. I wanted it to stop this movement but wasn’t able to. I asked Shen laoshi afterward and he said let them move on their own.

Personal Guidance Part 4.

2011-06-25T01:17:00.002-07:00

After opening my Channel SHO, I realized all the books on Daoist cultivation, internal alchemy etc on the market are pretty much worthless, what they describe are so different from the actual thing. The contents of these books are mostly empty words or just speculations of the authors. Same thing on the common understanding of “Wu Wei” and “Wu Xin”(“no heart”). A common interpretation of Wu Xin is that even the heart (Xin) is gone and that’s Wu Xin. However Xin is the most fundamental element, without Xin means there is nothing. So what is Wu Xin? For example, a bottle that contains nothing, we called it an empty bottle and not that the bottle itself is gone. Follow this then the concept of Wu Xin is clear, Wu Xin meant there is no polluted conscious thoughts in the heart. The heart of shining quietly is Wu Xin, without a trace of stray thought is “quiet”, when you know immediately a though has arise is “to shine”. No stray thought is the body of wisdom, once the level of the heart of shining quietly is reached, our heart then become the heart of the universe. Lu Jiuyuan said,” The universe is our heart, our heart is the universe.” This is exactly what it means.
Buddhism and Daoism are not just about the heart, they have transcended the heart and the material world. People that have Western philosophy type of thinking all declare that Buddhism is all about the heart. If one can understand what is Wu Xin, then will he be able to understand what is the true meaning of Wu Wei and Wu Xin. They are more than the material world. The same thing can also be applied to Dandao, without actual cultivation experience, one can never understand the true extent and meaning of inner alchemy. There are only few true lineage of internal alchemy left in this world. I am extremely lucky to be able to learn the authentic internal alchemy of Master Wang Liping.

Personal Guidance Part 3.

2011-06-25T01:17:00.001-07:00

As instructed by Shen laoshi, I continued to practice everyday for a month. Then I came to Lanzhou again on 9th May 2011 to continue my study of authentic internal alchemy.

Shen laoshi furthered my study by systematically instructed me on the crucial steps of internal alchemy (Set up the stove and install the cauldron, internal medicine, external medicine, fusion of elixir and channel SHO).

20th:

Morning and evening, we practiced enhanced method of gathering internal medicine, no reaction in my organs.

21st:
Morning : Continued enhanced gathering of medicine, no reaction.
Evening: Continued enhanced gathering of medicine, organs began to vibrate and got stronger and stronger.
22nd
Morning: Continued enhanced gathering of internal medicine, organs continued to vibrate strongly and I almost lost control. With the guidance of the teacher I was able to take control again.
Evening: Same as in the morning, after tuning my body position, I was able to control myself nicely.

23rd
Morning: Use the first method of Ling Bao Bi Fa to practice the three-universe breathing and lower field, I could actually feel the stove and cauldron in “Set up the Stove and Install the cauldron”, very interesting and wondrous feelings.
Evening: Began to gather the external medicine, I could see the spirit light going down to my lower field.

24th
Morning: Practiced gathering of external medicine. I could see the spirit light but found it hard to condense them.
Afternoon: We packed out stuff and headed off to Mount Xing Long.
I had read the annontation of the Wu Zhen Pian by Liu Yiming and now I could come to the place where he cultivated, I had a deep respect for this place.
25th
Morning: Enhanced method to gather the internal medicine, I could see the colors and their changes inside my organs.
Afternoon: Continued enhanced gathering of internal medicine. Not only was I able to see the changes of the colors inside my organs, the outside bodily vibrations caused by the internal organs' vibration is calming down and getting into my internal body. The high frequency vibrations of my organs gave rise to a feeling that are interesting, calming and comforting, very special.
Evening: Practiced Ping Heng Gong, I worked on a thousand-year-old giant pine tree. I could smell the fresh pine scent which permeated my entire body. This was my first contact with this divine tree and already I had this wondering feeling. I was very excited.

26th
Early Morning: I practiced Ping Heng Gong in front of the divine tree. Again, I could smell the clean refreshing pine scent. When I was doing Zhan Zhuang with my back facing the tree, I could see different outlines of many temples with my eyes closed. Shen laoshi said that Liu Yiming had built over 70 temples on this mountain, no wondering I could “see” so many.
Morning: When I was working on the external medicine, I could see great deal of bright yet transparent spirit light that permeated my whole body. When I condensed the light in front of my eyes, I retrieved it down to my lower field, it felt like a stream of water flowing down from the upper field, though the middle field and into my lower field. My three fields were bright like a sunny day.
Afternoon: Same as the morning.
Evening: Met with the divine tree again. When I was doing the Zhan Zhuang, I could see spirit light of deep green color flowing down into my lower field for more than 30 minutes. Afterward I "saw" many temples again.

27th
Early Morning: Met with the divine tree again. The pine tree qi flowed through my ten fingers into my body and collected in my lower field. During Zhan Zhuang, I saw with my eyes closed a tree in front of me. Shen laoshi explained that this is “reflection to the origin”.
Morning: During external medicine, the spirit light in front of my eye was sparkling and was making popping sounds. I could feel its incredible strength and it made my head vibrate. When I retrieved the light back into my lower field, my lower field started spinning and vibrating rapidly at the same time.
Afternoon: During meditation, once I closed my eyes, a flood of bright golden color spirit light appeared in front of me. The light then changed into white color. When I retrieved the light, it felt like unlimited amount of it was filling into my lower field. My lower field wouldn’t stop vibrating. When I worked on Installing the spirit at the ancestral chamber practice, the strength of the spirit light was too great for me to condense.
Evening: Met with divine tree again. During Zhan Zhuang, I continued to see the ancient temples, the mountain, the streams and old tea-colored walls of houses.
Nighttime: Secret supplementary practices.

28th
Early morning: Zhan Zhuang in front of the divine tree. With eyes closed, I saw mist-like spirit light filling into my lower field for more than 30 minutes. Fresh pine scent and flower fragrance flowed into my nose.
At nine old clock in the morning, Shen laoshi said I am ready to try the Channel SHO. I burned some incense and prayed to the heaven. When everything was ready, I got into the full lots position. I regulated my breath, clamed my mind and strengthened my stove and cauldron. I felt that my lower field was burning and vibrating rapidly. After that, the Hui Yin point also began to vibrate then the qi flowed up my Du channel, the three gates on my back was broken though at once, my Heavenly eye point felt like it just exploded, my whole body was burning and inflating. There were many sparkling light on my body, liked firework. My tongue rolled backed and blocked my throat, I found it really hard to swallow,. Then suddenly after a “GU LU” sound, a hot stream flowed down my Ren channel into my lower field. After that, qi was like a spinning wheel inside my Ren and Du channel. When it was flowing slowly, it felt like an inch-wide white light. When it was flowing quickly, it felt like several light streams. The qi was flowing freely and there was absolutely no blockade. After letting it flowed like this for about 10 minutes, Shen laoshi asked me to stop. After getting off the lotus position, I felt relaxed and happy and I thanked my teacher.

There was an interesting anecdote to this.
I met with Shen laoshi before dawn, he said, “I dreamed at midnight that I went to visit a classmate in Qingdao, there was a long fish pond, more than 10 meters long and 1 to 1.5 meters wide, the depth was between 1.5 and 2 meters. Inside the pond, one can see many big fishes playing and chasing each other. There were many spectators around the pond and among them were friends and colleagues. Suddenly a fish jumped out of the pond, the owner picked it up and throw it back into the pond. When a fish jumped over the dragongate it became a dragon. I think this is a sign that you will open your SHO today.”
I opened my SHO around 9:20 in the morning, the teacher said I was the 108th person that he helped to open the SHO. 108, a very nice and auspicious number.
Afternoon: Sitting practice, I saw that the spirit light was clear and bright, my strength to condense qi had become stronger. SHO flowed again.
Evening: Ping Heng Gong in front of the divine tree, I saw the temples again and I smelt strong flower fragrance.

Personal Guidance Part 2.

2011-06-25T01:14:00.000-07:00

Mr. Cheng, male, from Busan , Korea. The followings are excerpt from his practice diaries.

I have always liked Duke Zhou (周公) since I was a child, therefore when I was in the fourth grade, I borrowed the Confucius classics, Four Books and Five Classics (四书五经), from an old gentleman in my neighborhood. The old gentleman was a Confucius scholar, I studied from him and due to his influence, I started to develop a deep passion for traditional Chinese culture. I did not follow my father’s expectation and entered a Buddhist University instead, then, I began cultivation.

The Buddha said, “all is created from the heart”, I thought then where do our hearts come from. This was the question I have been pondering on. After meditating on it for 9 months, the following was my conclusion:

心心本是空，莫问何处生。
夜月照天地，寒风摇竹林。

(Roughly: Hearts are originally empty, do not ask where they are from. The moon shines on the ground, the cold wind shakes the bamboo forest.)

Beginning in 1991, I was the Abbot of two thousand-year-old temple in Korea (Guangde temple and Duoshuai temple), even though I came to China to study, my positions were held for me until 2009. When I was an Abbot, I always had this empty feeling about my lack of real achievement as a cultivator, so in order to search for the great Dao, I decided to come to China. I didn’t find any high level teachers nor any suitable methods however, so I entered the Shandong Traditional Chinese Medicine University to study TCM. 5 years of undergraduate, 3 years of Master and another 3 years for doctorate. Then I entered another doctoral program at Shandong University to study Pre-Qin dynasty literature.

I wanted to write a thesis on “the link between Man and Heaven and Earth”, among the relevant literatures there are “Zhou YI Can Tong Qi”, “Ling Bao Bi Fa”, “Zhong Lu Zhuan Dao Ji” and “Wu Zhen Pian”, after reading them I realized that if I don’t know Dandao, I could not appreciate the Chinese Culture and Chinese Medicine at a profound level. Motivated by this, I began to search for people who has this transmission, I managed to meet the author of “Notebook on Internal Viewing and Observation” (内证观察笔记), he recommended “Opening the Dragongate” (Da Dao Xing) and “Walk on the Great Path” (Xing Da Dao). I was extremely excited after I finished both books, and with his introduction I was able to meet Mr. Shen Zhigang.

From April 9th to April 19th, I went to Lanzhou and studied with Shen laoshi for 10 days.

Shen laoshi taught me the core materials of internal alchemy, setting up the stove and installing the cauldron and the gathering of internal medicine. I had quite an experience only after a few days. I have studied Chan Buddhism for more than 20 years but I have never understand completely what the Buddha meant by “micro white brightness”, I can only interpret it superficially but I had never had actual experience of it. After coming to Lanzhou for three days, I have experienced “micro white brightness” and there is a series of transformations in my body too. I could feel the vibrations in my organs when I worked on the five elements. I was happy, excited and energized every day. I couldn’t even fall asleep for a few nights.
Learning dandao has filled the empty part of my heart. After the 10-day class, I left the following poem in my notebook:

炼三宝，贵在呼吸；
修内丹，全凭口传。
世面言丹法，皆是口头禅；
明师引入门，无非真实法。

寻大道之颂
——4月26日炼安神祖窍后而作

大道本无言，无名而无形。
若无借言说，不能显大道。
昔伏羲作易，后昆晓乾坤。
老子著经也，全彰道与德。
二圣明根源，兹以知还本。
人皆有性命，由此修大道。
魏老人撰书，凭易参同契。
丹道据天道，有钟吕传道。
灭邪小儒骇，传世为真宝。
谁知长生药，只在自身中。

Personal Guidance Part 1.

2011-06-25T01:13:00.001-07:00

I began assisting in Master Wang’s seminars and teaching on my own since 1991, so I have 20 years of Dandao teaching experience. In the past, I almost always teach to group of people but occasionally I did offer teaching to individual.

In 2002, I taught a friend from Beijing on Xing Long Mountain, originally plan was to teach for 10 days, he opened up his Channel SHO on the 9th day.

In 2004, I taught a friend in Lanzhou, he was hospitalized for 40 days due to an injury to the intervertebral disc in the lumbar. I taught him once a day and after a month, not only did he open up the Channel SHO, the lumbar injury was also healed up nicely.

In 2005, I taught a Chinese American lawyer, planned to teach for 10 days and he opened his SHO on the 7th.

In 2008, I taught a pair of sisters, planned to teach 10 days, the younger sister open her SHO on the 5th and the older one follow suit on the 7th day.

In 2010, I taught a Chinese American friend in Shenzhen, I planned to teach him how to gather internal medicine I 10 days, in the end when he worked on the 5 elements, his organs produce qi efficiently and vibrate easily. Till now, whenever he worked on his organs, he can produce qi efficiently and vibrate.

In 2011, a friend introduced a Korean scholar to me. After getting to know each other better, I felt that he has a deep affection and understanding of Chinese culture, he also has a great cultivational foundation, therefore I decided to teach him individually for 30 days, 20 days to open the SHO and 10 days to protect and strengthen the result and he must keep a practice diary. Every day, he would hand his diary to me to show me his experience from the practice. He has agreed to publish his diary to share with other dao friends. I thank him for his sincerity and generosity.

Shen Zhigang.

New blog

2011-04-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

I (the translator) have decided to open my own blog so that I can write more freely about my own experiences and opinions on various topics, mainly on Daoism, Dandao and Taijiquan (something I always wanted to learn). This will also keep this blog clean so that it can concentrate on blogs posts by Shen laoshi only.

New blog address: http://taijidandao.blogspot.com/

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

2010-06-04T18:34:00.001-07:00

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.

2010-06-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-06-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-04T16:36:00.000-07:00

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.

Teaching Experience (4) - Being the teaching assistant again.

2010-05-29T20:30:00.001-07:00

In 1992, I attended Master Wang's seminar as a teaching assistant for the second time. Same as the previous seminar, it was 20 days and over 1000 students had attended the two sessions. I was the only assistant. There were two daoyins per day, each lasted for about 90 minutes and sometimes for 120 minutes. I had became better with daoyin and daigong. But there were still some deficiencies in my teachings, it's not hard to demonstrate the movements, to introduce and explain the content of Master Wang's teachings. The key question though is "Why", why the practices are the way they are? If you don't understand something, it's best to ask. Ask "why" often so that I have to think about it and then answer it. The more questions one ask, the more knowledge one would accumulate.

The main impression I had in this seminar was amazement. Since I was the only teaching assistant, I was really tired. To relieve my work load and pressure, Master Wang had done a few demonstrations. It is actually better to call them special cultivation methods than demonstrations. For example, Master Wang had performed a mass hypnosis, once he started to tune the field, the student fell asleep one by one. Another example, human to human practice whereas two persons would practice with each other eyes closed. Once they entered the trance, they would start practicing a martial art-like form with each other. Another example was the Star formation practice, once we started, our organs would started to vibrate, it can be done alone or in a group. This had really opened my eye further, I was amazed by the wonders and depth of dandao. All these amazing things however, Master Wang only did them for "fun".

Teaching Experience (3) - The teacher learned from a student.

2010-05-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

The first time I daoyin as an assistant in a seminar, an old gentleman opened his SHO with the help of Master Wang, that left a deep impression on me. I went to ask this gentleman about his experience but he refused to tell me anything. However after a few days, he came to find me and said that had been observing me for a few days and he believed that I wasn't a bad person so he was willing to tell me everything. He said that since his hands shakes a lot, he couldn't write anything down so he had to let me know verbally. I was of course willing to listen to him and that was actually the first time I realized that his hands shacked involuntary.

This old gentleman was a headmaster of a school and he enjoys Zhouyi. Due to an accident, half of his body became paralyzed. The old man's son knew Master Wang and so he introduced his father to him and that's how he first attended a Master Wang's seminar. The old man was an intellectual and he analyzed Master Wang's teachings very carefully. But following the requirements of opening up the SHO, he practiced step by step on each obstacle. For example, he began by practicing the length of a sitting session, when he started sitting, he couldn't sit for too long. However, in order to recover from the injuries and improve his health he endured the all the pains that came from sitting and not long afterward, he was able to sit continuously for two hours and he did it two three times a day. Then he practice on the sitting postures, from natural cross legged to half lotus and then to full lotus. Then he worked on his line of essence, from "Heaven", "Eye" and "Opening" to construct the line of essence. When he pull on his line of essence, his wife would move a stick very lightly in front of him and he was able to feel the motion, this showed that his line of essence had opened. He worked very hard on the five elements. He also practice extracting bone marrow on his own, and then one day, whenever he extracted, something would come up. In conclusion, the old gentleman has completely mastered the techniques. The first day in that seminar, which was also the anniversary since he started learning from Master Wang, due to his strong foundation and the strong qi field in the seminar, he was able to open up the SHO.

This old gentleman has taught me a lesson. He had set a goal for me, a clear but distant goal, how to teach students to open their SHO. My teaching philosophy, everything I teach would be to follow the requirements of opening up the SHO. I would continuously collect and distill Master Wang's teaching and to reflect and ponder carefully any problems that might arise. With this clear goal in mind, the remaining thing to do was to work hard on it, and through hard work, this goal shall be attained one day.

Longmen Pai Forum

2010-03-21T15:28:00.000-07:00

There is a new forum started by students who have studied with Master Wang Liping and his authorized teachers. You are welcomed to join and discuss topics on Daoism, martial arts or other practices that promote health and wellness, although the emphasis is naturally centered around the teachings from Master Wang's lineage. The website is below.

http://www.longmenpai.com/forum/forum.php

Teaching Experience (2) - Principle of Daoist Breathing

2009-09-01T13:02:00.001-07:00

In "Ling Bao Bi Fa" cultivation practice, one needs to know its various breathing methods. There is an underlying principle of how to breath during the practice. I believe that by practicing the breathing methods involved separately will be beneficial to the overall practice and hence I suggested this to Master Wang. He said, "That's fine, just do what you think will work." So during the seminar, I used my own version of daoyin to guide the participants to practice breathing. In the beginning, some old students who notice that my daoyin words were different from Master Wang's and so they objected. Master Wang explained to them, "Xiao Shen has his own ideas on the practice, try follow along and maybe you can understand it eventually." And no objected anymore. Practicing breathing methods separately can help the participants to improve quickly and getting a higher quality practice session. Breathing is the foundation of foundation. The ancient says that, "Teach the methods but not the Fire." The fire here means the combinations of intention and breathings.

Later on, I assembled all the breathing methods that Master Wang has taught and wrote an article entitled, "Breathing methods During Meditation" and published it on a magazine. In 2001, I refined the instructions on the breathing methods again to help other to understand and do it better. In 2005, I merged all the breathing methods together and wrote another article called "Systematic Method of Breathing" and presented it in an international conference. The presentation was received very well. In 2007, being influenced by my new understanding of "Ling Bao Bi Fa" and Master Wang's instructions, I re-edited "Systematic Method of Breathing" and renamed it "Opening and Closing, Rising and Falling---Principle of breathing." I converted this into slides in help me present it to a wider audience.

In general, beginners usually neglect the importance of breathing, they thought it's very easy and so don't usually take it seriously. This can has adverse effects on their practice since beginning dandao utilize "youwei" methods and breathing is the most important aspect of it. Without a good foundation in breathing, it's hard to get to advanced level.

One needs to understand the different aspects of breathing practice, one should know and be able to follow the method correctly and understand the reasons and effect of each method. Without a teacher to explain and daoyin, it's really difficult to master the methods. In summary, breathing is an important topic in dandao that needs to be carefully addressed by every serious practitioner.

Teaching Experience (1) - Being the teaching assistant for the first time.

2009-08-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

It was by chance that I began cultivation, it was by chance that I met Master Wang and it was by chance that I became his assistant...

In 1991, I participated Master Wang's seminar as his teaching assistant for the first time, my main responsibilities were daoyin, daigong and answering students' queries.

Daoyin refers to the verbal instruction given by the teacher, the students follows the daoyin to do their practice. The one who gives daoyin is equivalent to a commander, his thought and ability directly influence the quality and levels of the practice.

Daigong means that the teacher use his own energy (qi) to calibrate and control the entire classroom, the teacher's gongfu and technique can directly affect the result of the practice.

Around that time, I had already followed Master Wang for 3 or 4 years, I had received the Master's daoyin and daigong multiple times, Therefore i just imitated Master Wang's way of daoyin and daigong. On the surface, this didn't appear to be that difficult but in reality to achieve a high quality of daoyin and daigong is extremely difficult.

During that first time, I was just imitating Master Wang's style in order to gain experience. My main problem though was my personalities : I was a rather modest and shy at that time, I was a bit intimidated by the prospect of suddenly became the instructor of several hundreds people. To be honest, my confident was a bit lacking at that time. Fortunately Master Wang was always encouraging, he said, "When you daoyin, you are the leader, we will listen to whatever you say." It was difficult at first but eventually I became more accustomed to the role.

The seminar in 1991 was divided into 2 sessions, 10 days each for a total of 20 days. There were 1000 participants in total. I was the only official teaching assistant. There were 2 daoyin per day, each lasted for about 90 minutes and sometimes it could go on for 120 minutes. My main feeling was tired, extremely tired. I was so tired once that I was still napping after the afternoon class began, the students had to wake me up by throwing small stones onto my body through the windows.

Why was I so tired? This is the difference between practice and teaching. To put it simply, practice is the mean to accumulate internal strength and qi, the teacher who daigong helps you to accumulate the qi, the process is very slow. Teaching and daigong on the other hand is to release the internal strength and qi to help others, especially in a large class, in order to really calibrate the entire qi field, the consumption of the internal strength is enormous. As an analogy, it is like you spent more than everything you have saved in your bank account over the years, not only did you lose everything, you also over-drafted. Another reason is that in a large class, when you are standing between several hundreds students, everyone of them was thinking about you and they all want your help and hence they are all draining on your strength, it's not possible to not give up some qi. The way daigong drains on the body cannot be recouped by simply eating some nice food, it needs sleep and it needs more practice. It's hard to accumulate some internal strength, not to say to recoup the loss. No one can really comprehend this type of experience unless they actually try to teach and diagong.

Before I became the teaching assistant, I could feel that I had some internal strength. Once, I was able to break up another person's kidney stones from 1 meter away using my neigong. In 1990, I was able to get into full lotus without hands (my internal qi was full and my joints were flexible). When I got back home after the 1991 seminar, I couldn't feel any qi at all in my body, it felt like my body was a hollow shell. All i wanted to do was sleep. I was like that for almost a year. After I recovered, I felt that my internal strength was much stronger than before, I believe this was because of the huge out flux and influx of qi associated with teaching neigong.

Brief introduction to Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu

2009-08-29T19:19:00.001-07:00

There are many different branches of Daoist neigong systems, the one being transmitted by Master Wang Liping of the Quanzhen Longmen Pai was one of the main branch passed down from the Five Northern Patriarchs which specializes in "Ling Bao Bi Fa", the Complete Method of the Spiritual Jewels. The full name of the system is known as "Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu", the meaning of the terms are:

"Ling Bao Tong", it means the system is based on the theory of Ling Bao Bi Fa.

"Zhineng", it refers to the Zhineng Fa, one of the nine daoist magic techniques within Longmen pai.

"Neigong", it means the internal cultivation process which begins from the whole body to several surfaces, then from several surfaces to several lines and finally from a line to a point; then beginning from a point to a line, to surfaces and to the whole body again. Utilizing internal qi to carve out corresponding channels between the human body and the universe. When neigong get to higher levels, it becomes "Shu", technique. (i.e. applications of qi)

"Shu", it means the arts and techniques that are based on the principles of Yijing. There are five main Daoist Arts: Ming Shu (the art of life), Bu Shu (the art of divination), Xiang Shu (the art of fortune telling), Yi Shu (the art of healing) and Shan Shu (the art of the mountain). Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu can be divided into Three practices and nine methods.

Three practices: Moving Practice, Sitting Practice and Supplementary Practice.

Moving Practice: The main moving practice is "Ping Heng Gong" which includes practices between human and trees, human and humans, humans and the universe. And practices for opening the meridians and vessels. Using different moving practices and zhan zhuang to refine the connections between human and the universe, these are methods to cultivate the abilities to take in external qi for internal use, and internal qi for external use such as healing.

Sitting practice: The main sitting practice are Yin Xian Fa (Methods to Elicit Immortal), The Three Immortals Method and Nu Dan Gong (Female Practice) for women.

Yin Xian Fa: the methods to repair leakage, build the foundation and return to the source. The prerequisite for the Three Immortal Methods and Female Practice.

Three Immortal Methods: the actual cultivation methods in Ling Bao Bi Fa, also known as the Grand Method of Golden Elixir, this the true method to cultivate the Dao.

Female Practice: this is the female version of the Ling Bao Bi Fa.

Supplementary Methods: this include Sleeping Practice, the method to exchange qi naturally, the method of stealing essence from the Sun and Moon etc.

Sleeping practice: practices that one can do while sleeping, which include healing methods, practice to control dreams and transmitting and spiritual signals.

Method to exchange qi naturally: walking practice for healing, transmitting qi etc.

Method of stealing essence from the Sun and Moon: the method to connect to the human body to the universe, through the principle of the Heaven and man become one i to recharge the yuan qi lost from the body, to cultivate the Sun and Moon of our own body.

Nine Methods: the nine Daoist magic techniques. These are the applications of the internal cultivation, also known as supernatural abilities.

Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu is based on the interactions and fusions between neigong, daoist arts and Yijing. It needs nine years facing the wall, ten years to complete and two years for bath to cultivate Ling Bao Bi Fa .... this is the ultimate method of the Daoist Golden Elixir. From a macroscopic point of view, it is a complete system that include the best elements from Daoism; from a microscopic point of view, the methods combine movement and stillness, xing and ming cultivations and the heaven and man become one; from the point of view of the practice itself, it involves the refinement of different levels of qi, moving spirits, converting essence and harmonizing the Hun and Po, it reveal the multi-facet and multi-level nature of life itself and it is the ultimate way to explore the mysteries of the human body and the universe.

In conclusion, Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu is a high quality heritage of the Chinese civilization. It can push the boundary of our knowledge of the world and it provide the possibilities for us to unlock the mystery of life itself.

Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu can be divided into 5 different stages:

Refine the body to accumulate qi (entering the door), conversion of essence to qi (foundation), conversion of qi to shen (condensation of the cinnabar (dan)), refinement of shen to void (completion of cinnabar) and refinement of void to Dao (application of the cinnabar).

Brief Introduction to the Secret of the Golden Flower

2009-04-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

The Daoist classic Tai Yi Jin Hua Zong Zhi (known as the "Secret of the Golden Flower" (SOGF) in the west) was initially based on the lyrics of "Xiao Yao Jue" (Ode to True Freedom) and "Quan Shi Ge" (Song of Persuasion) by Lu Dongbin, it began to be circulated in the late Song Dynasty. Later disciples who obtained the manuscript had edited the content over time and it was being transmitted in hand-copied manuscript format. During the Kang Xi period of the Qing Dynasty, it was disclosed and published for the first time by Jingming Pai and Longmen Pai separately. While it was passed down from generation to generation, new contents were added, these contents include fantastical materials obtained from divination and references from Confucius and Buddhist ideas to reflect the influences of these sects in the Chinese society. All these materials had no doubt put the SOGF under a veil of heavy mysticism.

The spiritual world of human being can be divided into three levels: Shi Shen (Conscious Spirit), Yuan Shen (Original Spirit) and Ling Xing (Soul Spirit). Ling Xing came from the Heaven and Earth, Yuan Shen came from your parent, Shi Shen came from the post-heaven world. The relationship between these three levels of spirits is that: Ling Xing is surrounded by Yuan Shen which in turn is surrounded by Shi Shen. Under normal circumstances, when one is awake, Shi Shen is active and Yuan Shen is dormant. When one is asleep, Shi Shen is dormant and Yuan Shen is active. Shi Shen and Yuan Shen does not communicate with each other directly. Ling Xing is the root of life, it's only active at the moment the human life is created or at the moment when the life is ended.

After Lu Dongbin had completed the cultivation as outlined in Ling Bao Bi Fa, he had understood the nature of Shi Shen, Yuan Shen and Ling Xing. Looking from such a high level plane of existence, Ancestor Lu described several specialized topics dealing with Ling Xing and its usages in Ling Bao Bi Fa, the result was SOGF. That is why SOGF is a part of Ling Bao Bi Fa, it described the portions of Ling Bao Bi Fa that dealt with "Tai Yi" (Ultimate Unity). So what is ultimate unity? What can it do? What can it accomplished?

What is "Ultimate Unity" ? Ultimate Unity is also known as the "Ultimate One", i.e. the "one" as in "Dao gave birth to one" in Daodejing. Before there was human being, there was the "one", after human being has disappeared, the "one" will still be aound. To human being, "one" is absolute, eternal and immutable. When a human life is created, "one" enters the body, it's called Ling Xing. Ordinary people do not know about it, whereas the immortal uses it, it's also called the Wondrous Gate, the Ancestral Chamber and the Heaven Heart, it has many names but they are actually all "one". When a human dies, "one" will leave the body.

What can "Ultimate unity" do? "Dao gave birth to one, one gave birth to two, two gave birth three and three gave birth to the ten thousand things". Human being is part of the ten thousand things, if human can understand "one", then "two", "three" and "ten thousand things" can all be easily understood. In Ling Bao Bi Fa, "Ultimate Unity" first appeared in the first segment "Tai Yi Han Zhen Qi" (The ultimate one containing the true qi) of the second method "Collection and Dispersion of Water and Fire". "Jin Hua" (Golden Flower) means the golden cinnabar, i.e. the third segment "The Golden Purple Cinnabar" in the eight method "Return to the Origin to Refine Qi". Therefore SOGF is the principles behind the methods from "Tai Yi Han Zhen Qi" to "The Golden Purple Cinnabar", the ultimate unity can also be added to the various methods between these two levels. In other words, one must at least attain the "Ultimate Unity" in the second method "Dispersion and Collection of Water and Fire", and then utilize it to connect the various levels and segments in Ling Bao Bi Fa in order to finally attain the Golden Cinnabar.

One can imagine that qi is energy, it can't be seen not touched. By using the conscious mind, how much can one condense the qi? "Tai Yi Han Zhen Qi" means that using the "Ultimate Unity" to condense qi, only by this method can one continuously condense qi to higher and higher level of density, from "gaseous" state to "liquid" state and finally to "solid" state of the cinnabar. These states correspond to the levels "Human Immortal Method", "Terrestrial Immortal Method" and "Celestial Immortal Method" in Ling Bao Bi Fa.

What can "ultimate unity" accomplish? To put it simply, the verifications in DanDao are all "seen" using the ultimate unity. Looking it from another way, the ancient Chinese Civilization is based on the objective reality from what is "seen" using the ultimate unity: for examples, the "Yellow Emperor Classic" is the classifications based on what has been "seen", the "Zhou Yi" (I Ching version in Zhou dynasty) is the generalization of what has been "seen". Daodejing is the refinement of the conclusion from what has been "seen". SOGF is the method to practice how to be able to "see".

SOGF originated from Ling Bao Bi Fa, the two classics complements each other and fuse into one, using first level of qi to utilize the Shi Shen, the second level of qi to utilize the Yuan Shen and the third level of qi to utilize the Ling Xing. Through cultivation of Shi Shen one can then stimulate and control Yuan Shen and Ling Xing, which can then leads to the complete understanding of the spiritual world. Obviously, SOGF cannot reveal everything about the "Tai Yi", but if one can understand a little piece of it, one should know to be satisfied.

2006 - Cross the ocean to see my teacher.

2009-01-07T05:23:00.001-08:00

I went to Beijing in July. A friend said, "Let's go to see Master Wang." A great idea, I had already planned to see Master Wang on this trip. The last time I saw him was in September 1998, it had been 8 years since I last saw him in person. Even though we talked on the phone regularly, that can't be compared to seeing him in person.

My friend suggested that we take the water route to get there so that we can enjoy the scenery along the way. We got on the boat at the nearby port to our destination. Master Wang was as compassionate and caring as before. In the following three days, I had many complex emotions since it had been 8 years since I last saw him in person. During that period of time, I have tried many things according to my own ideas. Some of those I did well and Master Wang was very supportive; some of those perhaps should have been done in a different way but Master Wang didn't explicitly mention it ; some people had slandered and caused great troubles to me and Master Wang and which he had dealt with for me. I sincerely apologized for the troubles I caused him and he was happy to accept it. He was also supportive of my idea of a Health and Wellness Center.

2005 - Meridian Taijiquan

2009-01-07T04:31:00.000-08:00

In 1991 when I was hired as the assistant instructor to Master Wang for the first time, he taught a practice of people with people, in one case, when the two persons got into trance, they started spontaneous movement with their eyes closed, it looked as though they were sparring with other. Each movement was as precise as if their eyes were opened. I thought at that time: maybe that's how Taijiquan was invented.

From my own experience of helping other to archive Channel SHO, those who has practiced Taiji before usually have a much easier time of attaining it and once spontaneous movements appear, the movements are elegant and nice to look at. I thought: perhaps Taijiquan is the external part of dandao. Henceforth, I paid particular attention to the progress of students who practiced taijiquan after they had attained Channel SHO, three of them had revealed partial answers to this puzzle.

The first person had practiced Taijiquan for more than 40 years, he was 80 years old. I taught him the methods and things to watch out for when trying to open up the Channel SHO. He had a very good foundation. He could sit in full-lotus for three hours or more. The first day we went up to Taoyuan, he sat on his own in the morning and his abdomen vibrated strongly. He used the method taught by me to open his own SHO. Absolutely amazing for an 80-year-old man. I was amazed by his achievements and this showed me that Taijiquan is definitely one of dandao's foundational practice.

The seond person has practiced a different lineage of Taijiquan for more than 10 years. After he had attained Channel SHO, his progress was rapid, he had 36 mudras spontaneously appeared. Master Wang had said before that there are 36 mudras associated with Ling Bao Bi Fa and he had publicly taught only 4 of them! We analyzed and concluded that these mudras appears when the qi move in and connecting the 12 regular meridians.

The third person has also practiced various forms of Taiji for 10 years or more. After she had attained Channel SHO, she can clearly felt that qi was moving in her various meridians. We used one year to investigate and conclude that in Yang's Style Taiji, when doing each external form, there is a corresponding internal movement in the channel. We took it one step further and inverted the problem: for each of the 12 regular meridians, we extracted all the forms that stimulate that meridian and reorganize and modify them. We took out the 12 restructured and modified forms that stimulate and most accurately correspond to the 12 regular channels and created the "Twelve Forms of Meridian Taijiquan". We recorded it and sent the video to Master Wang for appraisal. After Master Wang had seen it he said, "There are many people who are currently researching on this topic but none of them had a result that's comparable to yours. Also in these form, you are missing *****. You should publish this as your own work." Actually we already knew that ***** is missing but we didn't have any way to overcome it at that time. This is another example of the amazing depth of knowledge that Master Wang possess. If one does not completely understand the structure of the 12 meridians, one can not know that which parts of our taijiquan are correct and which parts are missing. A Great Teacher! A true Master!

2004 - Third revision of Yin Xian Fa

2009-01-07T02:29:00.001-08:00

After I had mastered the techniques for SHO, I had a deeper understanding of the part "Refining the body to accumulate qi" in Yin Xian Fa, it led me to examine that portion of the practice again. I reexamined the Yin Xian Fa technique for the third time and wrote three reports on it "Analysis of the Techniques in Yin Xian Fa", " Analysis on the verifications of Yin Xian Fa", "Analysis on the results of Yin Xian Fa". The objective of these reports is clear, to completely deconstruct every detail of Yin Xian Fa in order to define step by step the methods and the corresponding results. The goal might be difficult to archive, but from my experience, working through a difficult problem always bring unexpected results. The are two parts to this problems:

(1) When one has accumulated enough experience so that each method and the its result is clear, then one has developed a set of techniques. When we apply the same principles to dandao, what would happen? This is a question of technique refinement.
(2) Since "Yin Xian Fa" is so great, how can one popularize it? This is a question of mass transmissions.

2004 - An emergency call for help.

2009-01-07T01:51:00.000-08:00

In August, a group of us went up to Mt. Xing Long again. We did the Star Formation Practice one day. One person did this star practice for the first time and he didn't follow the rule exactly, he just stood up when the practice has not been properly ended, this is strictly prohibited. As an analogy, let say 4 persons are lifting a heavy object together and one of the person abruptly let go of his hand, what would happen to others?

Unsurprisingly, an older gentlemen told me that "It's broken, the balance is lost." He was working on the level "Refining the Form with Golden Liquid", we tried many different ways to "repair" to no avail. As the last resort, I called Master Wang for help. I told him what had happened and then he asked me, "How old?" "60" I said. Master Wang then said, "This is because of this and that, you should look up so and so book, there is so and so passage and that's the way to fix it." I was on the mountain and didn't bring that book, so I called a friend and luckily he has that particular book. I asked him to look up the particular passage and read to me. Once he was done, I immediately understood what's wrong. We tried it immediately and it worked!

Cultivation happens in your body, if you weren't careful problem will arise and you would need to face the condequences. Troubles don't usually occur under normal circumstances but there are always exceptional time. Therefore one must find an accomplished teacher otherwise when problem occurs, you won't be able to deal with it yourself. I was only an assistant instructor, I am more than capable to teach the foundational materials but to teach the more advanced stuff, it's a more difficult question to answer.

2003 - A breakthrough

2009-01-07T01:26:00.000-08:00

In August, I went on a retreat with a group of friends on Mount Xing Long. When I was practicing in front of a tree one day, I felt that my body was swaying. After some careful observation, I realized that my Channel Small Heavenly Orbit was circulating rapidly like a wheel and the feeling was great. It was spinning when I was sitting, it was even spinning when I was sleeping. This showed that I have completely recovered. I helped everyone present to open up their orbits, later on, a few other came up to mountain, they all have their orbits opened except one. When other students in Lanzhou got hold of this news, they all immediately came up, at that time I was very excited and happy, so I helped everyone with their SHO. Of course this has caused me problems later as mentioned in an earlier post.

From that time on, I had developed a complete program for SHO that is simple, convenient, safe and reliable. Those who have experienced it were amazed, those who hasn't can not believe it. One need to know that for all these, I had investigated and researched for eight whole years. A difficult but rewarding eight-year period.

Brief Introduction to Ling Bao Bi Fa

2008-11-23T20:08:00.001-08:00

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.

Brief Introduction to the "Daoist Teachings of Zhong and Lu"

2008-10-26T19:18:00.000-07:00

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...

2002 - A retreat with friends

2008-09-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

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.

2002 - Annotations of the Three Classics

2008-09-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

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)

2001 - The Door within Door

2008-09-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

"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"

2008-09-13T19:03:00.000-07:00

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".

2000 - Detailed Research

2008-08-26T18:51:00.001-07:00

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.

1999 - 100-person experiment

2008-08-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

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.

1999 - I attained Channel SHO

2008-08-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

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.

1999 - Third Time at Shangri-La

2008-08-04T10:27:00.001-07:00

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.

1998 - Second time at Shangri-La

2008-08-04T10:04:00.000-07:00

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.

1998 - Report at Shenyang

2008-06-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

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.

1998 - Retreat at Lanzhou University

2008-06-11T17:08:00.000-07:00

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.

1998 - Report from Shangri-La

2008-06-03T23:58:00.001-07:00

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

1998 - Retreat at Shangri-La

2008-06-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

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.

1997 - The curtain was raised

2008-06-03T03:40:00.000-07:00

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.

1997 - The First Joyous Moment

2008-06-03T03:28:00.000-07:00

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.

1996 - Putting theory into Practice

2008-06-03T02:58:00.000-07:00

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.

1996 - Studying the Classic texts

2008-06-03T02:43:00.000-07:00

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.

1995 - Channel Small Heavenly Orbit

2008-06-03T01:21:00.001-07:00

"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.

1995 - New level of daigong

2008-06-02T03:43:00.000-07:00

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?

1994 - Power of Daigong

2008-06-02T03:23:00.000-07:00

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 ?

1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path" (4)

2008-06-01T23:30:00.001-07:00

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.

1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path" (3)

2008-06-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

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.

1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path" (2)

2008-06-01T22:23:00.000-07:00

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.

1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path" (1)

2008-06-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

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.

1992 - Formation practice

2008-06-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-01T03:51:00.000-07:00

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.

1992 - Laozi study

2008-06-01T03:23:00.001-07:00

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.

1991 - Helping my master to transmit Dao (2)

2008-06-01T03:02:00.001-07:00

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.

1991 - Helping my Master to transmit Dao (1)

2008-06-01T02:35:00.000-07:00

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.

1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (8)

2008-06-01T01:46:00.000-07:00

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.

1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (7)

2008-06-01T01:24:00.001-07:00

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.

1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (6)

2008-06-01T00:59:00.001-07:00

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".

1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (5)

2008-06-01T00:45:00.000-07:00

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.

1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (4)

2008-05-31T23:08:00.000-07:00

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.

1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (3)

2008-05-31T22:56:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-05-31T22:36:00.000-07:00

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.

1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (1)

2008-05-31T21:42:00.000-07:00

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.

1989 - Direct Transmission (3)

2008-05-19T17:04:00.001-07:00

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.

1989 - Direct Transmission (2)

2008-05-19T16:09:00.000-07:00

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.

1989 - Direct Transmission (1)

2008-05-13T17:18:00.000-07:00

May 1989, Master Wang organized a seminar in the Shenyang Railway Secondary School. I used the same trick again by asking the Liao Ning Qigong Science Association to send me an invitation letter. I took the letter to see my boss to ask for some times off. The chairman of the workers' union asked "Didn't you just go last year ? " I told him "It was an introductory class last year, this is the advanced class." The chairman agreed after some consideration. Can you imagine that a fresh college graduate who didn't have any connection, dared to ask for time off work twice within a year to learn qigong ?

When I got to Shenyang, I saw Master Wang was surrounded by a crowd of student chatting with him. When he saw me, he broke off from the crowd and walked directly to me to shake my hand and chit chatted briefly. I was very touched and surprised by this special treatment.

One day in class in Shenyang Secondary school, I wrote down a question on a piece of paper to ask Master Wang, "What is Yin gong? What is Yang gong?" The paper got passed along several students to Master Wang's hands and he answered the question immediately in class. After class, Master Wang came over to where I was spacing out and asked me "Did you ask that question ? " I said, "Yes sir" "Next time you don't need to ask me this way, just come and ask me directly." Master Wang said. "Yes sir, I will." I said.

1988 - Sealed my fate with Dao at Louguan (5)

2008-05-07T17:42:00.001-07:00

10 years later in Oct. 1998, I went to Louguan again to visit the old lady's grave and prayed for her. When i got back to Xian, I stayed in aunt Wu's home, she told me another facet of this incident.

The old lady who died 10 years ealier was called Ms. Qiao. She was from Beijian and had been attending Master Wang's class since the very first event in 1985. She was a good friend of aunt Wu. Aunt Qiao had cardiac problem and her pacemaker had already stopped working two years before the Louguan seminar.

Master Wang cared very much about aunt Qiao and he had told her before, "Why don't we collect some money together to pay for a new pacemaker." But aunt Qiao was very stubborn, she asked Master Wang, "What if i don't change it?" "You won't live more than three years if you don't get a new one." Master Wang said. But aunt Qiao still insisted on not getting one. Master Wang told her then, "If you don't get a new one, I will spent the next three Mid-Autumn festival with you." In the end, Master Wang spent the Mid-Autumn festivals of 86, 87 at aunt Qiao's home. In October 1988, aunt Qiao was in the hospital, when she heard that Master Wang would be teaching in Louguan, she insisted on going and no one could change her mind. When Master Wang saw her, he knew there would be problem and asked her to go back to the hospital immediately. But aunt Qiao insisted, "I am not going back there no matter what you say. If I die, i will die here." Afterward she registered as a taoist practitioner with the Loguan Temple. Before the mid-autmen festival in 1988, aunt Qiao passed away in Louguan, perhaps she chose louguan because she thought that was the best place to depart.

Aunt Wu was involved in helping us from the moment not long after aunt Qiao had collapsed to finally when we carried her to the morgue. She saw that when i carried aunt Qiao on my back, there were dirty substances flowing out of aunt Qiao's mouth and onto my neck. She heard about what other people said about me and she was quite worried even though she didn't know me at that time. She went to seek out Master Wang, "Master Wang, I beg you to do me a favor. There is a fresh college graduate who had helped alot in Ms. Qiao's incident. He is a good person, he shouldn't befallen into any diaster. Please can you protect him?"

Master Wang didn't say anything at that time, but from a serie of events that happened afterward, I can see that Master Wang had done a lot for me behind my back. He has helped me, influenced me and taught me to become who I am today.

1988 - Sealed my fate with Dao at Louguan (4)

2008-05-04T18:09:00.000-07:00

All these wonderful experiences at Louguan were great but what impacted me the most, and I can even say what changed the course of life, was another incident. At the time, the living condition at Louguan was less than desirable. There was only one public restroom for everyone, so I decided to Bi Gu (*). In the afternoon one day, after the lunch break I wanted to use the restroom, when I walked there I saw an old lady leaning against the wall. I thought she must be waiting to use the restroom but suddenly she collapsed. I quickly went to help her but she was already unconscious. I asked a few people to come and help me to move her to a nearby room. Many people then came to help us, some tried to revive her with first aid and some went to look for medicine etc. Not long afterward, Master Wang walked in and solemnly said "Get her to the hospital." Someone managed to get hold of a car and a few of us carried her inside. After we arrived at the hospital, I carried her on my back to the ER. The doctor on duty did some diagnosis and said, "She is already dead, we won't accept her here.". With no other choice, we carried her to another hospital. We didn't mention that she is already dead and asked for first aid, after some diagnosis the doctor said, "The patient is already dead." We asked what should we do and the doctor said "How can we do anything? Just send her to the morgue". We did what we were told.

I didn't think much about this incident at the time, I just felt that this was the right thing to do. After I got back to the seminar, i quickly immersed back into the practice again. However, some students had very strong reactions, someone said "Carried a dead person before marriage will get haunted by ghost all life!". The Taoist master at Louguan said after he heard this "This is a good child. The good child has great moral, no disaster will happen." He penned four words "Dao Fa Zhi Yeng" (Translator's note : roughly translate to The divine art of Dao) for me as a memento. The Shannxi Daoist Association buried the old lady as a daoist practitioner and they pray and perform rituals for her every year.

(*) Bi Gu : means literally to avoid grains. A daoist practice where the practitioner stopped eating for an extended period of time.

1988 - Sealed my fate with Dao at Louguan (3)

2008-04-29T17:50:00.001-07:00

In the seminar, we also practiced Shui Meng Gong (sleeping practice) at night when we went to bed, Master Wang would daigong from a long distance away in his own room. Since the seminar was held on a mountain and far away from the cities, the strength of Master Wang's qi was especially strong. During the practice, it was common to feel coldness, hotness, numbness, lightness and heaviness etc. Many of us would also experience spontaneous movements, the body parts would shake, twitch and do many other things. Some would even walked out of bed and started doing random acts, just like one would do during sleep walking, and after Master Wang had finished daigong, they just went back to bed and sleep. During the spontaneous movements, we would also make different noises, spitting, cursing, crying, shouting and singing. This was all quite normal since under Master Wang's strong qi field, the student's body would produce internal qi rapidly and this would result in various random movements of the body. One could imagine that if this happened in a city, what would people think we were doing? Not only could Master Wang daigong from a long distance away with powerful qi, he could control the details of everyone's practice too, this can hardly be comprehended by mere mortals, only one who has studied authentic neidan and achieved a high level could he begin to fully appreciate Master Wang's power.

There was another curious phenomenon associated with the Sleeping practice: some students "dreamed" the same dreams that involved Master Wang, this happened three times.

My own experience with the sleeping practice was as follow : at first, my stomach would heat up and then after a while, my body shook a few times and then I would enter into a state of nothingness ---- comfortable, confusing, floating and warm. When I gained my conscious again, I noticed that my sleeping posture had changed and my hands formed a special mudra that i had never seen before. Master Wang had said that spontaneous hand mudras that appear during any practice must be remembered carefully, they are your own achievements and are very important to your practice. Master Wang told me later that the hand mudra is called "Protect Essence Mudra". There are 12 hand Mudras accompany the sleeping practice. Master Wang taught 9 of them, the remaining 3 are : men's "Protect Essence Mudra", women's "Protect Blood Mudra" and the husband and wife mudra. These three must be obtained by the practitioner themselves. I was glad to obtain one of the three.

1988 - Sealed my fate with Dao at Louguan (2)

2008-04-24T19:21:00.001-07:00

The weather at Mount Zhongnan in September was gloomy and cloudy as usual, you could go without seeing the sun or the moon for a month or two easily. We hadn't seen the sun or the moon since the class began. The mid-Autumn festival happened right in the middle of the three weeks long seminar. A few days before the festival, Master Wang had mentioned twice:

"Only moon cakes but no moon light in the mid-autumn festival is no fun."

We had already heard rumors that Master Wang has the ability to control weather. From the way he said it, we thought that he must be planning something on the festival night. A lot of us had the same thought and therefore a group of us got together and planned a way to see Master Wang do his magic. In the evening on the festival day, everyone gathered in the great hall of the Louguan Temple, Master Wang was also there. We decided to stick close to Master Wang and not let me him get of our sight. When he was walking out of the great hall, we followed. He turn around and smiled,

"Why are you guys following me? Go back inside. Go."

We just stood there and smiled. When Master Wang walked off for about ten seconds, we quickly followed suit. When we got outside, a light breeze raised from the ground and suddenly it started raining. We looked around but couldn't even see the shadow of Master Wang. We looked at each other, "Where is he ?".

The sky was gray at the time and there was not a hint of the moon. I turned around and walked back inside. Some of our classmates were meditating, so i decided to do the same. I wasn't sure how long I sat until suddenly something climbed on my leg. I opened my eyes and was startled to find that it was a mouse. I chased it off me and then raised my head to look at the sky. One could see some moonlight behind the mist but not clearly yet. I slowly walked outside the great hall while keeping my eyes in the sky. The moon became brighter and brighter and one could see the veil of mist gradually dissipated. After another fifteen minutes or so, the clouds started to drift off too. The moon was extra bight and beautiful, one could even felt the warmth of the moonlight. At midnight, all the clouds had disappeared, there was only the big, bright and beautiful moon hanging in the clear sky.

That was the most memorable Mid-Autumn festival in my life.

The next day, Master Wang said in the class :

"The moon came out last night so no one is going to curse me now."

Out of the 20 days that we were in Louguan, the sky was only clear in the festival night. Was that a coincidence? After the seminar had ended, I met a daoist friend of mine in Xian who didn't attend the Louguan event. He told me that he had wagered with someone that one could see the moon during the mid-autumn festival since he knew that Master Wang would be teaching in Louguan at that time. He won the wager.

1988 - Sealed my fate with Dao at Louguan (1)

2008-04-23T18:46:00.001-07:00

In June 1988, Master Wang organized a seminar in Beijing. I wasn't able to go since I was busy with my thesis and the graduation defense. I did manage to photocopy the notes from my classmate who attended and other informations presented in the seminar.

On 15th, July 1988, I reported to my first job in a state-owned corporation in Lanzhou. My job officially started on the 20th August. Not so long after that, I received news that Master Wang would organize another class at Louguan. I just started my new job and I didn't have any personal connection with high level people. How was I going to attend? I asked my friends in Xian to help me, I asked them to use the name of the Shaanxi Daoist Association to send me an official invitation letter. I took the letter to see my division boss. He agreed happily to let me go, I even got all the benefits of being on an official company business trip. That's how i was able to attend the class.

Daoist transmission at Louguan has very special meaning. Since it is the mother of all Daoist temple in China, there were over 100 daoist monks who attended the event. Because of these reasons, Master Wang taught a lot more than he would otherwise do at other places; the students were especially excited by all the extra content in the classes. We even got to see some amazing power of Master Wang.

1987 - My fortunate destiny with Dao (2)

2008-04-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

My first "Spiritual Jewels Zhineng Neigong" class with Master Wang was an unforgettable event. When Master Wang daoyin (*) daigong (**) for the first time, everyone experienced the most extreme pain, it felt like someone used a screwdriver to burrow directly into your bone marrow, It was unbearable. When Master Wang had finished, he said, "It has only been 37 minutes, look at all your faces, you are not qualified to let me daigong yet.", no one could really understand what Master Wang meant at that time. I only felt that my foundation was too weak, I was a bit ashamed to have disappointed Master Wang. After a dozen years of practice, I have finally started to appreciate the meaning of Master Wang's word that day. When we want to learn advanced dan fa (***), we need to ask ourselves : Am I well prepared? Am I qualified?

Master Wang had told us a lot of things in the class that you can't find in any textbooks. His daigong was very interesting, sometimes it was very comfortable, sometimes it hurt like hell, when he hypnotized you can hear snoring from every corner of the room, during the daoyin, the internal qi would lap around inside the body. Master Wang did not allow any sound recording, some students sneaked in sound recorders, but in the end, whoever tried to record in the class all had their recorders broken mysteriously and no one was able to record anything. They took the broken sound recorders to Master Wang, he picked them up and had a look and then said, "It works fine." He passed it to the student who then tried using it, it worked. This had happened multiple times. Only the sound recorder which belonged to the university association, who had gotten the permission from Master Wang to record the event, was able to record the class completely.

The seminar seemed to be so short. Master Wang has asked us not to see him off. I asked a friend of mine to go to the train station together ahead of time to wait for Master Wang, not too long afterward, Master Wang arrived. We chatted for a few minutes and took a few photos together before Master Wang got on the train. We stood there quietly to see the train moving away slowly. It was the first time that I understood the complex feelings one has when seeing off a love one, the sadness and the yearning. Suddenly a thought came to my mind to describe Master Wang : a true blessed saint.

The seminar was successful overall, however there were also some regrets. During the eight-day class, Master Wang had performed two experiments : one of them was to use mind power to fire up a frog's neurons pathway, the other was to use mind power to change of coefficient of superconductivity of materials. The two experiment were successful. The only regret was that the chair of the lab was away in a meeting and didn't participate in those experiments, he rejected the findings of the lab. A golden opportunity to study human body science was squandered this way. Another regret was that we took a full reel of photos, including the pictures we took with Master Wang at the train station, unfortunately they were all overexposed. We had heard rumors that unless Master Wang had agreed, he wouldn't allow his photos to be taken, otherwise, he just had to think slightly and the film would be ruined. We thought that maybe the film was damaged before the seminar, but anyhow it was regretful to lose all the photos.

After the seminar, we collected and compared notes with each other to improve our understanding. After a period of careful study and practice, I began to appreciate the breath and depth of "Spiritual Jewels Zhineng Neigong", whether it was the theory or the actual implementation, the system is complete and strong in every aspect. By comparing what we learned in the seminar to the actual "Spiritual Jewels Zhineng Neigong" (SPZN), we had only learned one method and one art and they weren't even complete. To compare SPZN with other system, it was clear that it is several levels higher than anything else. Armed with this knowledge, i stopped doing all other practices and instead concentrated on SPZN only. Surprisingly, after only two months of practice, I reached an important step of the practice.

(*) daoyin : to lead and to induce. When a master is practicing with the students, the verbal instructions on the ways to breath and other internal/external maneuvers are called daoyin.

(**) daigong : to lead a class with qi. An accomplished master can create a qi (energy) field in the surrounding to let his/her students to sit in. The qi can help squeezing and opening up the channels and points of the students.

(***) fa : method. I will use this word a lot.

1987 - My fortunate destiny with Dao.

2008-04-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

Due to some of the success I had with the departmental sport club, the student union wanted me to work for them, I made a surprising choice, I joined the university's qigong club as the communication director. My responsibility was to contact and negotiate with outside qigong masters. This surprising choice has given me a surprising reward.

In 1985, before I took a leave of absence, I started practicing the HeXianZhuang qigong to improve my poor health condition. After a few days, I began to experience spontaneous movements. I was a bit scared and so stopped practicing it. After i had gone home, I took a correspondence course on Mr. Lu Gin Tang's "Ultimate Silence Qigong", after a few months of meditation, I noticed the following phenomenon : when I meditate, I felt that my body was very light, just liked floating in the air, my brain went blank, just liked entering into nothingness. I experienced this three times in a row, I didn't know what it meant and I was worried that there might be some problem and so I stopped practicing it as well.

After half a year of resting at home and meditation, my body had basically recovered. I became interested in qigong and after i had returned to the university, i practiced the beginner and advanced level of "Shaolin One Finger Zen" , i worked on it for almost a year. The student qigong club of the Xian Transportation University was a volunteer group of enthusiasts, we were officially affiliated with the Shaanxi County Qigong Association. Before my graduation, the association had organized over 20 qigong classes, over 10 huge open forums and public demonstrations, participants totaled over 4000. Our principle was that we would only invite master with authentic transmission or creator of new schools. The most fortunate event was that we were able to invite Master Wang Liping.

The first time I heard about Master Wang was in March 1987. At that time, I stumbled upon a report at a friend's place, it detailed stories of Master Wang where he stopped rain, summoned animals, demonstrated invisibility and used his third eye and others. After I read the report, I told myself that it would be great if I could meet Master Wang. In September of the same year, The China Qigong Science Research Committee was established in Xian. When we found out that Master Wang would be attending the meeting and that our qigong club's president and a graduate student would also be there, we used our advantage as the host together with the help of the Shaanxi Qigong Association to arrange our club president and the graduate student to stay in the same dorm as Master Wang. The plan worked and the two students got on really well with Master Wang. When they invited Master Wang to teach a class at Xian Transportation university, Master Wang gladly accepted. We immediately prepared for Master Wang class. After the meeting at Xian had concluded. Master Wang taught an eight days long class on "Spiritual Jewels Zhineng Neigong". However there was a small interlude: during the meeting, the Shaanxi Qigong association and the Shaanxi Daoist Association also invited Master Wang to teach a class but Master Wang had already agreed to teach at our university qigong club and so the County association felt that they had lost face. They came to negotiate with us since we are officially part of the county association. As a compromise, the class was officially organized by the county association, our university was designated as the contractor for the event. Due to the space limitation of the venue and the need to accommodate outside participants. It was decided to limit the number of student participants. As a result, no more than 30 Xian Transportation University students were admitted to Master Wang's class.

8 years in university

2008-04-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

Childhood should be a fun and joyful time. Unfortunately the color of my childhood was gray, the same color as the society at that time.

My father was convicted as a "counter-revolutionary" in 1957, it was not until 1979 that his name was cleared.

I was born in 1963 at the city of Yumen in the Gansu County, a small town built on the Gobi Desert. That was the year immediately after the 3 years of country-wide natural disasters. Due to lack of nutrients, it was no wonder that I was sick all the time. The oppressive political situation, the heavy burden of just maintaining life's bare essentials, contempt from other people and the lack of any proper extracurricular activity, all these could hardly be associated with a wonderful childhood. Anyhow, this was how i spent my childhood, compassionate, love to help the others, weak, cowardly, lack of self-esteem, patient and persevere.

Not until the year 1979, when I was 16 years old and in my first year of high school, when many previously convicted political exiles in my neighborhood had their names cleared and a lot of young people were busy with the just reestablished national high school exam, that i started to think for myself. I began contemplating for my future----I want to study at a university.

1980, second year in high school, I took the national high school exam, I failed for the first time.

1981, third year in high school, I failed again.

1982, i took one year out to study hard. Unfortunately a month before the exam, i fell from a 1.6 meters high gymnastic parallel bar, the back of my head hit the floor first. I had a concussion and i failed the national high school exam for the third time.

1983, I was finally admitted to the Xian Transportation University to study mechanical engineering.

Successive failures in the national exams and the concussion accident had left my body and mind completely exhausted. I didn't have energy to do much, i had headaches when I tried to read, I slept in my classes and I had recurrent nightmares. The doctor said my condition was due to a combination of neurosis and the concussion i had. In 1985, my second year at university, I was forced to take a leave of absence to rest at home. I have graduated from the university for more than a dozen years now, in all these years, the most common dreams I have were taking classes, taking exams, taking exams and taking classes.

After I got into the university , i set a goal for myself : when i graduate, I need to have another skill besides my major, I need to learn how to walk with both of my feet. After some thought, i decided to take on management, one reason was to develop my competence, another reason was to overcome the weakness in my personality, weak, cowardly and lack of self-esteem. I was a committee member of my class literature club, the class president, the secretary and vice-secretary of the departmental sport club and the vice-chair of the departmental student union. When i was in charge of the sport club, our departmental team achieve their best result of all time : we were the champion in the overall men team event in the campus Olympic for three successive years, and hence we got to keep the cup permanently ; the men volley ball team was the university champion, they even beat the university men volleyball team ; the women volleyball team was also champion for 1 year ; the women soccer team were champion for 2 years. I participated as an organizer, an athlete and a team coach in all the events above, from these great results and awards, I felt the greatest pride in my life and more importantly, i got rid of my lack of self-esteem, built up a lot of self confidence, this was extremely important to me during that period of my life.

In conclusion, though lacking some essential qualities for success, both innate and environmental, I had overcame them with my perseverance. Most people spent 4 years in university, i have used 8. But it was in the beginning of the 8th year at my university that the course of my life was changed completely.

Things I want to say

2008-04-17T16:46:00.000-07:00

I have been learning and practicing Dandao(*) now for more than 20 years. I have experienced and collected a lot of informations on different aspects of the practice. There were moments of joy, there were moments of sadness. I have decided to share these experiences with my readers and if the opportunity arises, perhaps we can walk on the great path together.

The essays will be divided into two types : one type will be in chronological order detailing my experience with Dandao over the last 20 years ; the other type will be topical essays ranging on different topics related to daoism, I will write on whatever come to my mind at the moment.

(A) 20 years of experience in studying Dao (the Way).
1. 1987 - My fortunate destiny with Dao.
2. 1988 - Sealed my fate with Dao at Louguan.
3. 1989 - Direct transmission.
4. 1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University.
5. 1991 - Helping my Master to transmit Dao.
6. 1992 - The Formation practice.
7. 1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path"
8. 1994 - Publication of "Walk on the Great Path".
9. 1995 - To become an indoor student.
10. 1996 - Immersion in the classics.
11. 1997 - The first joyous moment.
12. 1998 - Retreat at Shangri-La.
13. 1999 - Result from the 100-persons experiment.
14. 2000 - Detailed research.
15. 2001 - Revision of the book.
16. 2002 - Annotation of the 3 classic texts.
17. 2003 - Transcension of oneself.
18. 2004 - Study and Research
19. 2005 - Research in the body meridians.
20. 2006 - Crossed the ocean to meet my Master.
21. 2007 - Dawn of the new journey.

(B) Topical essays.
1. Teaching Experiences.
2. How to enter the door of taoism.
3. Building the foundation.
4. Female Practice.
5. Health and wellness.

(*) Translator's note : Dao, or the Way, is perhaps the most ineffable word in the world. One can find hundreds of interpretation of what Dao means. The daoist believe that Dao is kind of the ultimate truth, but yet is still more than that. The Daoist believe that the practice of internal alchemy, the Neidan (it's not qigong, it's much more than that) can lead one into the Dao. These practise are collectively called Dandao. The particular strand of Dandao that Mr. Shen practises is transmitted within the Longmen Pai.

Translator's Introduction.

2008-04-16T20:55:00.000-07:00

Thank you for visiting. In the coming months, I will start translating essays by Shen Laoshi who is a senior student of Master Wang Liping, the 18th generation transmitter of the Longmen Pai ( Dragon Gate Sect). Mr. Shen will share with you his experience in learning and teaching the Spiritual Jewels Exercises (SJE) , either as an assistant to Master Wang or on his own. Mr. Shen is the only one in the world certified by Master Wang as an "Advanced Instructor of Spiritual Jewels Exercises".

In the future, if there is no mention of "translator" in the title of the post, it means that it is a translation of an essay and hence the "I"s and "me"s will be refering to Mr. Shen.