Reviews

Hidden Immortal Lineage Taiji Push Hands Workshop by Master Zhongxian Wu

February 25, 2020 by Dan Ma Leave a Comment

Hidden Immortal Lineage Taiji Push Hands, Portland 2020 https://chinesewisdomtraditions.com/event/taiji-push-hands/

I decided to not take any pictures this time because there was a lot of information to cover for such a deceptively simple yet hard to mimic series of movements. Perhaps I will post a short video practicing to make up for the lack of visuals. This would be my third time going to a Portland workshop by Master Wu. It started and ended semi awkwardly as the first two, but this time it is becoming a little more charming. Master Wu was a little more lively this time around as the first two workshops where of a qigong / meditation flavor. I got to touch hands with a lot of people. Master Wu’s demonstrations was cool to see as he showed how he can react to physical forces and apply force on to others. I did touch hands with Master Wu, but did not have the opportunity to experience any energetic force.

I bought another one of his many books: Chinese Shamanic Cosmic Orbit Qigong. I was short on cash, but he was kind and gave me a discount. A while back I had purchased a book and video from him on Dai Family XinYi. I am glad I bought them as a set. The book goes into more detail and is easier to understand than the DVD, whilst the DVD is mostly helpful for visuals.

We also learned that Master Wu does not live in Portland any more. I think he said he moved to Switzerland. My partner thinks he said Sweden. We got a contact info with one of his students should we want to pursue this type of push hands. Should we practice this and want to get to another level.

The Big Dipper Ceremony Workshop by Master Zhongxian Wu

December 27, 2017 by Dan Ma Leave a Comment

In anticipation of Master Wu’s workshop we started doing a little more research into the Big Dipper and Taoist astrology. I found a number of online references and the one that I found most interesting is Master Chia’s Taoist Nine Star Astrology, which I found to be not extremely dense, but more dense than I wanted it to be. The theory as I can best understand it is that the Earth’s movement and energy patterns are based on the energy fields of nine points that comprise of:

The Vega Star (1 point)
The Big Dipper (8 points)
The North Star (1 point)

The North Star is the Earth’s boss star, which the boss changes about every 26 thousand years when the Earth’s axis changes (axial precession). Currently the Earth’s boss star is Polaris, which is considered a yang star. Our next North Star is Vega, which is a yin star. There is also Thuban, which was our last boss star and is considered a neutral star. In this article it also talks about a Nine Star Chi Theory, where it theorizes about nine distinct electromagnetic phases that occurs from a wobbling on the Earth’s axis (not to be confused with axial precession). These slight wobbles changes the relationship of the Earth’s North/South polarities to the nine points (Vega, Polaris, and the Big Dipper), which then affects the human electromagnetic field. Each star has an important and integral part of each of the nine electromagnetic phase, so during each transformation phase certain stars are accentuated. Transformation phases encompases:

5 Fire Years
5 Earth Years
5 Water Years
5 Wood Years
5 Metal Years

These transformation phase are represented within the nine year cycle, and each year is either a yang or a yin. The article also goes on to talk about a Nine House Astrology, which has something to do with how humans during their lives migrate through the yearly, monthly, daily, and hourly sequences of transformations. The Earth has ten branches, which are five yang energies elements and five yin physical elements. I think these have something to do with the I-Ching Pakua. Nine Directions and Five Elements:

Water (+)
Earth (-)
Wood (+)
Wood (-)
Earth (+ & -)
Metal (+)
Metal (-)
Earth (+)
Fire (-)

Using the Magic Square, these formations can be converted into Sacred Geometry:

4	9	2
3	5	7
8	1	6

This Magic Square has something to do with the movement of the spiraling Universe. The rest of the article goes into mathematical detail how the I-Ching Pakua uses the Magic Square to calculate the nine year cycle of your life. I also found interesting information about the Big Dipper in relation to the Swastika. Of course the Nazis appropriated the symbol for their own cause, but if you don’t know, he Swastika is an ancient religious symbol that dates as far back in Hinduism, which is the oldest known surviving religion in the world.

The Big Dipper Ceremony

Veronica and I first learned of the importance of the Big Dipper in relation to Taoism came from Mantak Chia’s Portland workshop in 2017 and his Awaken Healing Light Meditation where you connect with the Big Dipper and collect it’s red energy into your body. This year we went to Master Wu’s Big Dipper Ceremony on December 8, 2017 at the Motion Massage Studio in Portland, Oregon. This would be the second Master Zhongxian Wu workshop that we have been to. Just after stepping inside the venue, we were visually greeted with battery powered candles on the floor in a dimly lit yoga studio. The candles were arranged on the floor similar to the graphics of Master Wu’s Chinese Shamanic Cosmic Orbit Qigong book, which looks like two Big Dippers, one mirrored on top of each other. The ceremony consisted of:

Sitting mediation
Circle walking

In the sitting meditation we used a Big Dipper hand mudra as we repeated a chant from Master Wu, which I cannot remember and was not allowed to record. We also visualized the pattern on floor of two Big Dippers in our tan tien. The circle walking was very similar if not exactly the same to the baguazhang circle walking. Baguazhang is a form of internal martial arts that can be thought of as Tai Chi Chuan, and Hsing-i Chuan. We circle walked around each candle on the floor for as many revolutions as we liked. It was interesting feeling the energy charge of the room change during the ceremony. Veronica especially felt a difference when Master Wu participated in the circle walking. After the ceremony we enjoyed conversations with others in the workshop. We had an enjoyable conversation from someone who came all the way out from San Francisco to participate. For the cost of $50 bucks for the both of us, it was a well worth experience.

Mantak Chia PDX Workshop 2017 Review

June 29, 2017 by Dan Ma Leave a Comment

Veronica at the Mantak Chia workshop PDX 2017

The Mantak Chia PDX Workshop 2017 was a long awaited, three day Memorial weekend for us. Our great enthusiasm for the first day was met with utter disappointment and bewilderment as we could not find the class, other workshop attendees, or most importantly, Master Chia. We went home and moped around in confusion. Many hours later an instructor who teaches in Eugene, Oregon called us back. It turns out the coordinator of the event had changed the location and we some how did not get notified. After writing down the location for the next day, we went out to see a movie to help bring us back to neutral. After the movie Dan checked his messages and the coordinator left a very apologetic message. Apparently he got into a car wreck in Thailand and broke his leg. The next morning we arrived to the second day of the workshop. We were still enthusiastic, but we couldn’t help but feel a little jaded. We met the coordinator who had crutches. He apologized again and gave us a full six set of Chi Cards, which are cards that have a quick list of information to help with the Taoist exercises. The coordinator is also a senior instructor and gave Dan a special discount for private training lessons that will happen in July. Despite the rough start we were both grateful to have attended this workshop. Veronica thought it would be nice if we both shared our experiences in an informal conversational style. Dan: What was your favorite part of the workshop and why? Veronica: I liked the “wheels”, because it felt good…and the Crane-neck and the Turtle-neck exercises. Dan: Do you mean Turning the Water Wheel? Veronica: Yes. Turning the Water Wheel, Crane-neck, and Turtle-neck all helped undo the tightness in my spine. On the first day, when we were doing crane-neck, then turtle-neck, with spinal rocking in between sets, the chronic ache in my right shoulder was flaring up. This is a common problem spot for me, it’s where all my stress goes. I felt a little worried that it would get worse and I wouldn’t want to finish the workshop, but the next day the pain was totally gone. On the second day, Master Chia talked about how the qi will go to a problem spot like that and it will hurt, but it’s because that spot is being healed. Turning the Water Wheel is an exercise I want to do everyday. When I take the time to turn the wheels, I have a noticeable increase in energy for the rest of my day. After doing qigong for 8 hours a day on Saturday and Sunday, I had plenty of energy for the whole week. Dan: I really like the principle of Turning the Water Wheel in that you can harness your sexual arousal, multiply it, then energize other energy centers in your body, such as your heart or brain. Plus the rhythmical motion feels good on the spine. Veronica: Yea, in the workshop I didn’t really feel the sexual arousal part, but just the motion of the exercise felt really good for my spine and my shoulders. I still sensed some tingling of energy moving through my different “wheels”, too. When I practice this at home, I would describe it more like an energizing of my ovarian palace, not like full on arousal, and I can sense the energy moving through my body. What Mantak Chia said about how the kidneys store your life force is really interesting, too. Dan: I haven’t spent as much time on this exercise as you have. I have been exploring how to open up my Microcosmic Orbit, which you know was covered during our workshop. When I focus my energy at the sperm palace and the perineum, I can feel a tingling sensation. As I keep practicing I am starting to notice more sexual arousal coming from that area that is reminiscent of my pubescent years. Thinking on this makes me wonder if most of my sexual arousal of adolescent years have become more cerebral and less from my genitals. I haven’t really thought about where sexual arousal can come from–from your mind, your genitals, or from the devil! Veronica: Well, that’s the point that Mantak Chia is making. He talks about how we are sexually stimulated by media like advertisements that want to sell things to us, and how this method works. I never had a lot of instruction in my upbringing about what to do with my sexual energy, but I had creative outlets that I could transmit that energy to. Aside from that, my sexual energy was directed against me like the way Michel Foucault suggests in The History of Sexuality, meaning my sexuality is constantly being manipulated by images and propaganda. But, to get back to qigong, and where the energy comes from, I really appreciated how Mantak addressed the serious problems that can happen if one represses their sexuality. Did he mention if the sexual energy was related to the energy that we receive from Mother Earth? Dan: I don’t know if we receive sexual energy from the Earth…Mantak did say that we are born with 100% of Original force which is given to us from the Primordial force. 50% goes to the body and can’t be used, 25% goes to the kidneys for emergency use, and 25% goes to the sexual organs which can be transformed and multiplied for other uses. I know that we can root energy from the Earth, but I don’t know if that energy is different from sexual energy. I believe that there are at least two different energies, one that is yang and the other that is yin. Veronica: I don’t remember if it was discussed at the workshop, but I’m curious if yang energy comes from Earth through our feet or root chakras and yin is the “cosmic” energy that comes down through our crowns. Master Chia said that you can take your negative energy and let it flow into Earth, and that Earth composts that bad energy, turning it into good energy. The yellow energy from the Earth, he said, flows up through your feet and is associated with health, wealth, and longevity. This correlates with what I’ve been learning through In Sacred Balance, and their nature-based, feminine spirituality philosophy. Some of the guided meditations I’ve learned through In Sacred Balance begin by visualising the golden energy of Mother Earth flowing up through the soles of the feet. I find it very rooting and centering, which is also how Turning the Water Wheel feels. This earth energy is joined by the heavenly, or cosmic energy that makes our bodies a point between Earth and Sky. Mantak Chia called the heavenly energy “the father” and says that that energy gives us answers and blessings. He then briefly talks about different types of sexual relations that result in healing. This was toward the end of the last day. He described Soul Sex for emotional balance and harmony, Physical sex for healing, building energy, and mind energy and Spiritual sex to “delete your name from book of death & add it to book of life.” Dan: Yeah there was a lot of information to digest, which lead to more questions. Veronica: So, you’re embarking on your qigong certificate training with The Professor soon. How are you feeling about that? Dan: I am excited about it. It is another step closer to the idea of becoming certified for the Universal Healing Tao system. A good part of me likes the idea of supplementing our income with teaching. I also fancy the personal enrichment and accomplishment of certification. Another aspect that I have brought up in other articles, is that it feels like life is leading me down this path, but for what end I don’t know. I figure it is a good spiritual investment that is already beneficial in so many ways. [fruitful_tabs type=”accordion” width=”100%” fit=”false”] [fruitful_tab title=”Veronica’s workshop notes:”]

The Gate of Heaven emanates infrared radiant energy
52 pulses develop before the heart
1. The North Star pulse creates pulses on Earth
2. Bruce Lipton – scientist / Taoist
434 years for North Star light to reach Earth
North Star affects the pumps in the body
1. Moonflower
2. North Star
North Star Practice (Healing Light Meditation)
3 pole stars (5,000 year cycle)
1. Polaris (yang)
2. Vega (yin)
3. Thuban (neutral)
2012 tsunami tilt Earth axis 6 degrees
Gnostic Christian research based on North Star
“We’re getting a new boss and who cannot adapt with the new boss won’t make it”
The orbit in the body affected by the North Star
The pole have to change
North Star & Nitrogen for proteins = combative people! Closed hearts
Healing power of violet light
1. Ultra violet biosignals
2. Mercury burning creates violet light
The Crystal Room (bai hui)
Breathing into cranial & perineum diaphragm
1. Inhale, exhale, hold (30 seconds minimum, 60 seconds maximum), commence breathing in gentle, small breaths and feel the cranium breathing
2. When holding your breath, notice your diaphragm activate.
Taking in the cosmic force. It comes to us as a spinning wheel or orbit. Energy spinning creates more energy. “When I spin my orbit I also spin my electrons”. Electrons come from oxygen, food, and cosmic force.
Crane neck & turtle neck to open front and back microcosmic orbit
Your gut is your battery, charge your battery! Stimulants over work your kidneys and wear them out.
Your chi can thicken your aura and protect you from germs as well as change your household.
The mesentery connects the intestines to the abdominal wall, this is the dan tian! Mesentery controls absorption, digestion, and elimination
The Earth can take my waste/shit and turn to good energy. Yellow energy rises from the Earth, health, wealth, and longevity.
The father/heaven gives blessings/answers.
Sexual practice
1. Soul Sex for emotional balance and harmony
2. Physical sex for healing, building energy, and mind energy
3. Spiritual sex: delete your name from book of death & add it to book of life
Violet light has intelligence which is new born soul & spirit
The fire that does not burn
1. Heart fire
2. Loving / compassionate fire
3. Condense loving fire
Chi stuck in breasts, massage to release and avoid disease, return energy to body
Teenagers sexual energy book
Everyone born with diff. Original / primordial force
1. 25% stored in sexual organs
2. 25% stored in kidney (emergency energy)
3. 50% to become original force, for keeping you alive
Original force keeps soul in body, when you die, stored energy in kidneys shoots your soul back to the source. Sexual energy is available for life force.
One million dollar point (hu yin)
1. A point of life that sends energy of the sexual area to the brain. Just in front of the anus. Press and contract. The center of the brain is connected to the uterus or prostate. Contracting and releasing the sex organs increases the blood supply & hormone circulation in the brain.
2. Press on the hu yin and contract, breathe in, wave body up. Release point, release contraction and exhale, wave down, curving forward, round back, beginning with tail bone
3. Orgasmic Teenagers
Egg Exercise
When you push down on perineum you feel crown activate. You will become aware of your uterus/ovaries and feel yourself, gently, breathing into your uterus. You will feel your uterus and Crystal Room pulse.
Breast Massage: 1.5” around nipples
1. Rub hands warm & ask for chi. Rub inwards 50 circuits then outwards 50 circuits 3 times for a total of 300 circuits.
2. Pinch nipple & relax then spiral
3. Milk line (8 nodes) connects all glands
  1. Humans used to have 8 breasts!
Do the uterus contraction everyday to have healthy menstruation
Mysterious gate (skete) female prostate (g spot) source of female ejaculation (ambrosia)
Sexual organ detox massage
Orgasmic woman:
1. Orgasism:
  1. Clitorus
  2. Mysterious gate
  3. Uterus
2. Contract uterus + breast massage
3. Egg: you can use dental floss. Squeeze & pull. With fishing weight, move egg up & down squeezing. Training pubic floor power
  1. Jade can stock chi
Orgasmic man:
1. Stretch penis
2. Rub from base to gland 50 times everyday contract prostrate 50 times then rest.

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I like his life perspectives which are funny yet true
- Dragon tail fart thing
- Coca-cola burping
Tree: falling w/o falling
Spinal breathing
Inner Smile
Love vibration = love + sexual energy
Tai chi Spinning
- Inhale & contract perineum
- Exhale & relax
Northstar practice (Healing Light Meditation)
- Northstar is the key to our Earth (yang star)
- Vega is the new boss (yin star)
- Microcosmic Orbit is affected by the boss star
  - It affects our pulse and energy
- Thuban is the neutral star
- Ultraviolet bio signals ‘ride’ on the spirals of DNA
- Spleen captures yellow light
Microcosmic Orbit
- Infinity (the sign) warm/past small orbit
- Eternity (8 sign) cold/future large orbit
Mesentery organ directs absorption, digestion, and elimination
- Was explained that it acted as the brain for the digestive system
The Six Healing Sounds
- Lungs
- Kidneys
- Liver
- Heart
- Spleen
- Triple warmer
Taoist Supreme Inner Sexual Practice
- Soul sex
- Spiritual sex
Achemical light / Holy fire (Holy Spirit?) = Violet light + fire to transform sexual energy.
Condense the fire:
- Heart fire
- Kidney fire
- Tan tien fire
Massage breast / testicales
Love vibration brings these down:
- Soul sex
- Spirit sex
- Primordial force
We are born w/ 100% of Original force, which is provided by the Primordial force.
- 25% to the sexual organs which can be used. You can transform this energy and multiply it.
- 25% to the kidneys which is for emergency use.
- 50% to the original force in the body, but can’t be used.
Turning the Water Wheel practice
- Move the sexual arousal energy to the tan tien, to the heart, then to the head.
Million Dollar Point (Hui Yean) is yin energy which can’t be captured.
- Press, contract, and massage everyday
- Prostrate gland / Uterus orgasim
- Water captures chi, but saliva captures a lot more
- Always end with bringing the chi down to the tan tien. Heart and brain cannot store chi, but can radiate it out.
Uterus & Scrotum compression
- Breath into your uterus / prostate gland
  - The uterus and prostate gland connects to the center of the brain
- Crane breathing
  - Rocking on your sit bones will move the rest of the body
- Perineum breathing
  - Inhale, hold & push the energy down to the perineum, contract, relax
Breast / testicle massage
- Tessticle massage goes to my kidneys
- Breast massage goes to the milk lines
  - 9 flowers (Eastern)
  - Milk line (Western)
Multiorgasmic Women
- Clitorus (1st gate)
- Mysterious gate / g-spot (2nd gate)
  - Female prostate
  - Ejaculation (ambrosia)
- Uterus (3rd gate)
- Jade egg
  - Use dental floss
  - Can absorb the chi and gives it back
Multiorgasmic Man
- Stretch the penis
  - Oil up and rub the penis base to the head (50x)
  - Contract the prostate gland (50x)
  - Make sure the brain is activated
- Chi Kung for prostate
- The Recipes of Priceless Gold States
  - Men who are forty leak once every 16 days
  - Men who are 50 leak once every 21 days
  - Men who are 60 leak once every 0 days
- 8 shallow (screw technique) 1 deep
- Arousal & love, stop, relax, guide energy to kidneys

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Headspace App Review

May 25, 2017 by Dan Ma Leave a Comment

[fruitful_tabs type=”accordion” width=”100%” fit=”false”] [fruitful_tab title=”App Purchase Details”] Android Apple Category: Health & Fitness Content Rating: Everyone Free Offers in-app purchases

[/fruitful_tab] [/fruitful_tabs] A very good friend of mine told me she was having a great experience with Headspace, so a couple days later she was so kind as to send me a free month-long trial. I’ve been testing it out and I think it is perfect for those who have never done meditation and want to try it out privately without going to a class. Headspace would be useful for those who commute on a bus or desire to take work breaks at their desk. Headspace is a meditation application that can run on your computer and phone. In our busy modern life, anything that promotes meditation is a good thing. A lot of our energy and focus is being pulled out of us constantly with our fast-paced, media driven, attention-soliciting society. Meditation is more important than ever. Just think how much more peaceful the world would be if more people did meditation regularly. Paint a picture here: think of people letting go of frustration in the traffic lanes on their commutes, people gathering in the park for qigong, people pausing to think before speaking and acting, people who are emotionally accessible to their friends and families, in their bodies, and not distracted by the media onslaught.

Headspace is, in my and Veronica’s opinion, a great tool for the modern U.S. citizen who is in search of a tool for finding stillness and focus in the midst of what can easily become a hectic lifestyle.The 10 day free trial, which is open to everyone, makes available three levels of foundational guided meditation, which is very digestible and approachable for those who have never meditated before. The first 3 levels teaches us how to bring the mind to a place of rest and stillness for centering and balancing, and also to build inner awareness. The portable program of guided meditations has cute animations, email reminders to help motivate you, and some stats to track your progress. The app says meditation is good for treating decreasing anxiety & depression, blood pressure, heart rate, and stress. Headspace also says that regular practice of meditation improves attention, cholesterol levels, memory, and sleep. There are 5 sections in the series so far:

Sport
Health
Relationships
Performance
Headspace Pro

Each section has includes packs, sort of like sub-sections. . For instance, performance has these packs:

Creativity
Focus
Happiness
Balance

There is also a section of activities called “singles” which are designed to be helpful while you are doing specific actions. Here are a few:

Sleeping
Fear of flying
Walking
Commuting
Running

Another cool thing I like about Headspace is you can gift this app to someone special in your life that you think could benefit from meditation, but are unsure if they would like going to an expensive class, or are too busy to learn from a book or video. It is an easy noncommittal gesture that is different yet thoughtful. Currently you can gift a one month subscription for $12.99. I chose to gift this to someone close to me who is currently going through a really hard time, for instance, because I felt like he might like to try it out but might not purchase it for himself, but because it’s an app it doesn’t come with the pressure involved with taking a class. Andy Puddicombe is the founder of Headspace and is the voice who does the guided meditations. He started meditation at the young age of 11 when he went to his first meditation class with his mother. When he was in school he quit college to become a Buddhist monk to deal with his life issues, which was largely attributed to parental divorce and a car crash that took lives when he was growing up. Puddicombe is also the author of The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness, and a Clinical Meditation Consultant in the United Kingdom.

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Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer by Gregg Braden Book Review

May 6, 2017 by Dan Ma Leave a Comment

[fruitful_tabs type=”accordion” width=”100%” fit=”false”] [fruitful_tab title=”Book Info:”] Author: Gregg Braden Publisher: Hay House Language: English Pages: 184 ISBN-10: 1401951929 ISBN-13: 978-1401951924

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Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer: The Hidden Power of Beauty, Blessing, Wisdom, and Hurt

Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer is the second book I have enjoyed from Gregg Braden. This book was less scientifically dense than The Divine Matrix, but it does have a good assortment of references to ancient texts, such the Dead Sea Scrolls, to be intrigued about. Braden shares a lot other overlapping stories as examples for the spiritual theories he is explaining. The book isn’t very long with 184 pages. I found a good amount of material in this book to warrant a recommendation. If I had my way, I would retitle this book as “Secrets of Living a Happier Life”. The book has five chapters, each one revealing a secret on how to live happier. The first secret wasn’t a very big secret for me because I came to the book with previous knowledge of qigong and the Inner Smile Meditation. I like to call this “lost mode of prayer” the Feeling Prayer because of the parallels to the Inner Smile meditation. According to Braden’s studies, the ancients believed that we have direct access to the divine and the power of creation. There is a powerful unified field that we can access through the lost mode of prayer. This field is discussed in much finer detail in his book, The Divine Matrix. In brief, this field connects all things in the universe, which means that everything is connected and not separate. Every possibility is in the field–every possible joy and every possible sorrow. The field is also holographic, in the sense in which a cell in our body contains all the information necessary to create another you. Similarly in the field, any part of the field contains every possibility, which means that one small change in the field happens instantly to the whole system. The field is also a mirror reflecting our true beliefs–it simply mirrors the quality of our feelings as the experiences of our lives. Because the field connects everything together, our collective consciousness plays a vital role in the quality of our world. We create by our act of observation, and the quality of our beliefs determines what our consciousness creates. If we choose to view our world through a quality of separateness, anger, fear, and hate, then the field will reflect these qualities back to us as such in our families, workplace, in our bodies, and all the other aspects of our lives. The power of the lost mode of prayer is that we can choose to view our world through the qualities of unity, gratitude, love, and wisdom instead. The understanding of “lost mode of prayer” and The Divine Matrix has supercharged the Inner Smile meditation for me, because it allows me to really believe in what I am doing has a real effect inside of me and outside of me. Some of my experiences have been so powerful that it moves me to tears of joy. The second secret is about hurt, and the realization that hurt helps us to learn. Hurt teaches us a great many things about ourselves and the relationships that we have.The greater the hurt, the greater the benefits of forgiveness. To be able to feel love, we have to be open enough to be vulnerable to our pain. Hurt is a way for us to understand how deeply we can feel–it shows us how deeply we can love. When we learn from our hurt, it then turns into wisdom. True wisdom is not something you can learn in a book, it is something you learn through feeling and experience. It has been scientifically proven that stress and emotional duress causes sickness in our bodies. When we don’t deal with bad feelings we inadvertently hurt ourselves more than if we choose to deal with it completely at the moment. It seems so very obvious to me in my life experiences that these feelings don’t ever go away if you don’t choose to resolve them. Have you ever known someone long enough to see a pattern of unresolved hurt continue to resurface? It is very sad to see this because you want to help, but it is hard to help them if they don’t want to deal with it. Sometimes hurt is bad enough that it is buried deep, that the consciousness cannot remember the event, but the subconscious remembers. When something triggers this hurt, you will follow a defensive pattern to deal with it, rather than dealing with past hurt and the new hurt. This pattern is a groove in your life and the longer you play out these recurring patterns the groove gets deeper and deeper. In some extreme cases hurt can be so deep that another identity is created to help keep it buried. So far this secret has been teaching me to be more critical about myself and my feelings. What am I feeling? Why am I feeling this? What is triggering this pattern? This is a lot different than placing blame outside of you. Instead it helps you find something inside of you to heal. It keeps me on my toes, because I never know when I may get triggered into a pattern. The hardest part is trying to understand where it comes from, but each time I am tasked I am always rewarded to surrender my ego and let go and heal. The third secret is a blessing. It is a tool in which to acknowledge the hurt in our day to day lives as well as the sufferings of the past. Bless those who suffer, bless whatever causes the suffering, and bless those who witness the suffering. By our blessings we temporarily suspend our hurt to make it possible to replace it with another feeling–you assume your power to let go of life’s deepest hurts and unresolved feelings. After all, the best learning we do is from these challenges that life gives us so from this perspective it is a blessing. Perhaps you can tell already that the secret of the blessing is very helpful to consider when using the secret of hurt as a teacher. If you are able to bless a hurt, you may be able to see it as it really is and regroove it into a wisdom. The fourth secret is that beauty is always present in all things–the power to see beauty is a choice. The power of choosing to see beauty in our lives is the power to see beyond the hurt and pain that world is offering us and recognize the beauty that exists in all things. The power to see beauty gives us a greater appreciation in our lives and those around us. When you are able to see the beauty in hurt you can bless it and move forward with better grace in your life. I am really interested in bringing more beauty into my life. How do I find beauty in all things around me, especially when there is so much ugliness being splashed around? Is it too impractical to be happy all the time? Is it even possible? Perhaps this is the beauty in salat, which is the obligatory prayer, performed five times each day by Muslims. Maybe this method invites us to bring more beauty into our lives. I also did some research about impermanence, which comes from Buddhism. In my understanding, the Buddhist philosophy of impermanence expresses that all temporal things, whether material or mental, are in a continuous change of condition. Maybe by applying this concept into things that we do not see as beautiful, we can remind ourselves that it has the possibility to become beautiful. I rather like this idea as it gives us a daily exercise for our creative powers that we all have within us whether we realize it or not. I am trying to be more mindful about taking the time to appreciate the beauty around me, and when I do see something beautiful, I like to think that life has put it there just for me in that special little moment. The fifth secret is that you are not a victim of life’s circumstances, you are a powerful co-creator, and we all participate in creating the world we live in. I came into this book practicing the first secret, which has been a huge positive change in my life and my relationships. I am interested in how the other secrets will further shape me. I already feel that I have more tools to help promote more happiness in my life. This is the result of searching for more meaning in my life, one of the reasons why I started this blog. All of Braden’s publications so far have all been positive and empowering for me. Although I have known to varying degrees about the other secrets (hurt as a teacher, blessing as an emotional lubricant, beauty as a transformer of hurt), I never understood them in the context in which Braden covers it in this book. I am able to incorporate them with much more clarity and vigor. I am truly grateful for all the information that Gregg Braden has made available, and I am glad that I have had the opportunity to come across them. I am also appreciative that I am able to share some of that information with you, and I would encourage anyone to take a deeper look. Have you had any experiences using any of these techniques? Please comment and share. From my heart to yours.

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The Inner Smile by Mantak Chia Book Review

May 5, 2017 by Dan Ma Leave a Comment

[fruitful_tabs type=”accordion” width=”100%” fit=”false”] [fruitful_tab title=”Book Info”] Author: Mantak Chia Publisher: Destiny Books Language: English Pages: 80 ISBN-10: 1594771553 ISBN-13: 978-1594771552

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The Inner Smile: Increasing Chi through the Cultivation of Joy

I don’t think I came across Mantak Chia’s information by accident, because by coming across his material he has helped be back onto a path of happiness. During my formative years I was practicing a form of chi kung that my father taught me, but I never knew the name of it to follow up on it. After three years of daily practice I gave it up to pursue other interests. Now I am in my 40’s, and a couple years ago I ran into this form of chi kung by Mantak Chia and with great surprise there is a lot more to learn. I bought his book, Iron Shirt Chi Kung, it highly recommends learning the Inner Smile and the Microcosmic Orbit (Awaken Healing Energy Through The Tao), which is what I did. Master Chia is the world’s most famous Inner Alchemy Taoist and Chi Kung (Qigong) Master. The Inner Smile is a thin book. The instructions on how to do it is actually in his other books and even shared on YouTube. I still wanted to buy the book, because other information varies a bit and I also wanted to understand it better. The general gist of how this meditation works is that you draw loving energy into your eyes, then let it flow to important regions of your body, or different lines, and smile to them one at a time. There is a front line, a middle line, and a back line. The front line focuses on bringing loving energy to each of the major organs. The middle focuses on the digestive system, and the back line focuses on the central nervous system. I learned the Inner Smile from this book and now look forward to attending the Mantak Chia PDX Workshop 2017 . This will round out my research and assure that I am practicing this meditation to its fullest. At first I found it hard to do and was unenthusiastic about the practice, but I kept at it. Then one day, maybe about a month later, I was able to feel a pulsing in my third-eye, a feeling I have never felt or noticed before. This was exciting to me and I felt emboldened in my resolve to practice more earnestly. Another discovery that has helped my understanding and practice of the Inner Smile, was when I started following Gregg Braden and learned his Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer, or Feeling Prayer. The Feeling Prayer super-charged my experiences with the Inner Smile meditation. Whatever background, religion, or non-religion you come from, you can benefit from it. Mantak Chia grew up in a Christian household and says his practices does not negate any religion. The Inner Smile has personally been such an extremely powerful practice in my life, I have insisted that my partner Veronica practice this style of meditation as consistently as possible. I am also trying to teach this meditation to my mother. I think very highly of this practice and invite the world to try it, which is a reason why I started this site! Thank you for your support! From my heart to yours.

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