Before learning from Rob I was mostly involved in Buddhist practice. The method described above is an excellent way to calm the mind, I also personally used the scanning of body parts to relax each part of the body.
What has struck me the most with Neidan is the energetic cultivion and how over time it greatly helps with inner stillness.
Robs guidance has been amazing and his ability to simplify complex information has been so helpful and something I could not and likely would not do on my own.
Wonderful and useful post as always! I like the simplicity, as well as how you frame clarity as a by-product of stillness, which I agree. I started meditating everyday since two years ago, realizing that not one day is the same. Going through some stuff lately and finding that just by sitting consistently, regardless of what happens, is helpful to me.
I’ve been mediating for a few years and have studied theory consistently after the first few months and several experiences that convinced me to read more into proper Neidan theory. Eventually, I found Robbie have been enjoying classes for a couple of years now. But, when I started, I did not have any theory and really only a brief instruction similar to the one above. I took quite a few notes, but because I didn’t any proper theory or symbols from it, I just used whatever I had to make sense of what I realized and experienced.
Even before I started meditating, I was aware that I struggled with an overactive mind, which could probably be considered high function anxiety. The first thing I realized when I’d sit and observe my breath was the habit of chasing thoughts that came up. So sitting and observing my breath and then reminding myself to do this when I started chasing a thought was like breaking a bad habit. After a few weeks, the habit lessened and it was easier to be still.
What I realized, though, was that I was living in a state where it was like my mind had divided itself, a part was assigned to breathing and the body so the other part could live up in the head and do all the thinking. Mediating on the breath and body brought these two parts back together until they became one. But before that happened, I had a large amount of emotions tied to thoughts that flooded my consciousness that made it difficult to sit unmoved. I also realized they were always there using up my energy like a dementor from Harry Potter, I was just not attentive to what was inside my own mind when I wasn’t sitting to meditate.
And in the space between the thinking mind, which for me was always stuck on what’s Not, and the part controlling my body is where these thoughts and emotions were kept. Actually, once the two merged, I realized, for me at least, it was the division that actually created this emotional and thought junk that was leftover from being in an incomplete state. It left emotional and thought leftovers when the active part of my mind was wandering away from the living that was actually happening at any moment. Once this junk filtered out, these two parts of my consciousness just came together. There was letting go, and some rushed everywhere in my body. It was like I could feel every cell. It was a very direct, thoughtless experience that didn’t gather. There was no room for it to nor inner debate.
Sitting and being attentive to the breath was like making the living experience complete. Maintaining it without messing with the stuff that surfaced allowed those “leftovers”from incomplete experience to finish. I thought of it as like coals from a fire that went out before being burned up completely until the next fire.
While in this whole state there is a clean-ness to life, but when separated, slag gathered from incomplete experience and so back to the mediation seat.
For me, the practices of cultivating, refining, and transforming Qi, especially those that focus on transforming the body's memories (those that have the potential to release the deepest toxins, in their physical, mental, and energetic manifestations), are also very important for achieving this state of stillness and clarity much more easily and quickly over the years. Not to mention practices that restore memory and the potential for clarity, such as those of inner smile, for example.
Before learning from Rob I was mostly involved in Buddhist practice. The method described above is an excellent way to calm the mind, I also personally used the scanning of body parts to relax each part of the body.
What has struck me the most with Neidan is the energetic cultivion and how over time it greatly helps with inner stillness.
Robs guidance has been amazing and his ability to simplify complex information has been so helpful and something I could not and likely would not do on my own.
😀
Wonderful and useful post as always! I like the simplicity, as well as how you frame clarity as a by-product of stillness, which I agree. I started meditating everyday since two years ago, realizing that not one day is the same. Going through some stuff lately and finding that just by sitting consistently, regardless of what happens, is helpful to me.
Brilliant! Not one day is the same is a very important concept which underlies the nature of the Qi system of the universe. Great comment!
I’ve been mediating for a few years and have studied theory consistently after the first few months and several experiences that convinced me to read more into proper Neidan theory. Eventually, I found Robbie have been enjoying classes for a couple of years now. But, when I started, I did not have any theory and really only a brief instruction similar to the one above. I took quite a few notes, but because I didn’t any proper theory or symbols from it, I just used whatever I had to make sense of what I realized and experienced.
Even before I started meditating, I was aware that I struggled with an overactive mind, which could probably be considered high function anxiety. The first thing I realized when I’d sit and observe my breath was the habit of chasing thoughts that came up. So sitting and observing my breath and then reminding myself to do this when I started chasing a thought was like breaking a bad habit. After a few weeks, the habit lessened and it was easier to be still.
What I realized, though, was that I was living in a state where it was like my mind had divided itself, a part was assigned to breathing and the body so the other part could live up in the head and do all the thinking. Mediating on the breath and body brought these two parts back together until they became one. But before that happened, I had a large amount of emotions tied to thoughts that flooded my consciousness that made it difficult to sit unmoved. I also realized they were always there using up my energy like a dementor from Harry Potter, I was just not attentive to what was inside my own mind when I wasn’t sitting to meditate.
And in the space between the thinking mind, which for me was always stuck on what’s Not, and the part controlling my body is where these thoughts and emotions were kept. Actually, once the two merged, I realized, for me at least, it was the division that actually created this emotional and thought junk that was leftover from being in an incomplete state. It left emotional and thought leftovers when the active part of my mind was wandering away from the living that was actually happening at any moment. Once this junk filtered out, these two parts of my consciousness just came together. There was letting go, and some rushed everywhere in my body. It was like I could feel every cell. It was a very direct, thoughtless experience that didn’t gather. There was no room for it to nor inner debate.
Sitting and being attentive to the breath was like making the living experience complete. Maintaining it without messing with the stuff that surfaced allowed those “leftovers”from incomplete experience to finish. I thought of it as like coals from a fire that went out before being burned up completely until the next fire.
While in this whole state there is a clean-ness to life, but when separated, slag gathered from incomplete experience and so back to the mediation seat.
Wow! What a detailed and thorough response! Thank you Jonathan 😊
For me, the practices of cultivating, refining, and transforming Qi, especially those that focus on transforming the body's memories (those that have the potential to release the deepest toxins, in their physical, mental, and energetic manifestations), are also very important for achieving this state of stillness and clarity much more easily and quickly over the years. Not to mention practices that restore memory and the potential for clarity, such as those of inner smile, for example.