Rodney J Owen
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Living into The Spiritual Body

2/22/2019

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This is the third installment of my post series on utilizing the Daoist Triad approach to training, which I use in my Taiji-Qigong practice and teaching.  The previous posts in the series are available here, here, and here.  This approach involves training the physical body in such a way as to prepare it for the high energy flows of training the Energy Body, via Qigong/Neigong/Kundalini-Yoga/Taiji, etc...  Training the Energy Body opens one up to awareness of a higher level of being and the unlimited potential of skillful living.  Of course, we don't really have three separate bodies, or even three distinct manifestations of this body.  This terminology is convention, a way of teaching embodied practice.

A good metaphor for seeing ourselves in this way is the various states of water.  In its frozen state, water is a solid.  As a solid it vibrates relatively slowly.  It has a hard surface, more like rock than liquid.  However, at temperatures above 32 degrees F, water becomes a liquid.  It is soft and viscous, and easily conforms to the shape of whatever contains it.  If we add enough heat to water, 212 degrees F in fact, it becomes a gas.  In this state it vibrates much faster than liquid or ice.  Steam rises and expands and takes up much more volume as the same quantity of liquid or ice.  We can compare this to our conception of the three bodies human.  Our Energetic Body vibrates much faster, and has much different qualities than our physical body, which is solid and vibrates much slower.  However, our Spiritual Body indeed vibrates at a level that is much faster than either, and much like the example of steam, our Spiritual Body expands and is not strictly limited to a physical container.

While we can train our Physical and Energetic Bodies through various practices, that doesn't really apply to our Spiritual Body.  This is our essence.  It is beyond our influence.  It is always present and always has been present.  Rather than engage in dubious practices attempting to influence the infinite, it is better to work on developing awareness, which really means to direct attention to that which is aware of being aware.  In short, we don't train our Spiritual Body.  To optimize that aspect of our being, it is perhaps best to acknowledge and live into that Reality.  To simply be.  And while meditation, prayer, and various types of practices and rituals are considered to be "spiritual practice", they belong to another category.  We can't really practice being who we already are.  We can only be.

To that end, we can further consider our water metaphor.  Heat can be applied to steam to the degree that it too will change state.  At temperatures above 212 degrees F, steam is superheated.  At that state, it is invisible to the eye.  All the water and vapor have been heated out of it.  What remains is basically something close to pure energy.  The substance is vibrating extremely fast at this state.  This energy is used in power plants and other industrial processes.  It is extremely efficient because it does not contain any water vapor, which is corrosive to some processes.  Think about that.  It doesn't contain water vapor, but is still in essence water.  Comparing this to our three bodies, what is this fourth quality, superheated steam, equivalent to?  The Dao?  God?  Our imagination?  I'm not so sure that matters as much as understanding the power and potential of water, and how that mirrors human existence.  Consider that there is something that is beyond what you now call your Spiritual Body, and that that too is not a separate entity anymore than your other bodies are.  Understand that, whatever the state, solid, liquid, gas, pure energy; ice, water, steam, superheated steam; in essence water is still water.  On an energetic level, and in terms of potential, humans are much the same.  We need each aspect of our manifestation to survive.  Further, as we learn to work with and train the first two, we become aware of the higher functions.  As that happens many of the limitations we once knew begin to fade.  We can, in a way, become like superheated steam: powerful, pure energy; attentive to higher realities; and living a life much richer and expansive than the one we lived when we only thought we were water and ice.  Most of us just don't realize that yet.

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Words of Wisdom, 2/22/19

2/22/2019

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"I once experienced with absolute certainty the fact that everything was made entirely of mind. Then the acid wore off."
Physicist, Nick Herbert

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Training The Energetic Body

2/12/2019

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In following our examination of the Daoist Triad approach to training, the next aspect after training physicality is to address the energetic body.  Our prior training, physicality, stretching the soft tissues, strengthening the muscles, increasing skill and agility, and caring for all aspects of our physical lives lays the groundwork for training the energetic body.

The energetic body consists of our nervous system, meridians, chakras, and various energetic receptacles and gateways.  We address this primarily through intention and movement.  The most common ways to train the energetic body are with Qigong, Taiji, Yoga, Gongfu, and meditation.

First of all, these practices do not create Qi, or energy.  This is not magic.  The first law of thermodynamics applies.  However, we can work with the energy that is available to increase our understanding of it, and to nurture and direct it effectively as we become accustomed to the practice.  On the other hand, humans are not isolated entities in an environment.  We are connected and interrelated with all things.  In essence, there is only one energy, albeit manifesting in apparent individual aspects.  We are each individual manifestations of the same energy.  And when we die that energy leaves our physical bodies.  However, as dictated by the First Law of Thermodynamics, it doesn't dissolve, it doesn't disappear.  It continues in some fashion.  As we live we are able to experience and work with our individualized internal energy and experience and be affected by the energy of other manifestations, or basically all manifestations.  For example, practicing Qigong on a mountain or by the ocean are experiences that are rich and informed by the environment,  yet different from each other and even more different from Qigong in the dojo with ten other practitioners, or in your living room alone.  We are training our energetic bodies but a major aspect of that is in interacting with the energy around us, whether that is other people, animals, or trees and water.

Without writing a treatise on Qigong, I want to summarize the practice of training our energetic bodies.  The best simple explanation is that we relax and intentionally move, or allow the movement of our internal energy.  Various energy practices will affect our energetic bodies in different ways.  While they are all good for you, there is a lot of difference in the hard style Qigong of Shaolin, soft Qigong, Pranayama, the various schools of Taijiquan, Hatha Yoga, Dao-Yin, and the various schools of Gongfu.  The best place for one to start is to find a practice that resonates and go with it.  In time, the practice begins to inform the practitioner.  If we follow the practice we will find our path. 

Qigong practice utilizes relaxed body movements with mind intention.  There are specific Qigong practices that address specific conditions.  There are simple Qigong practices such as walking Qigong that is helpful with preventing and treating cancer and dealing with chemo therapy.  There are Qigong practices that help us connect with nature and the Universe.  There is choreographed Qigong, such as Taiji and Gongfu forms that train strength, agility, and the storage and release of energy to be used in martial applications.  And there is static Qigong, standing, sitting, and lying meditations that not only train awareness but internal energy as well.  As far as that goes, awareness and internal energy are so interrelated they could be considered the same thing.  And while intention is important, the mind sets a certain intention for practice and then leaves it alone.  There is not a lot of effort in effective Qigong.  It tends to care for itself.

In the end, it's all Qigong.  Practiced with the right intention, sitting, lying, walking, running, swimming, even sleeping can be Qigong.  Unlike most physical disciplines, the key is not in how one moves but in the intention of movement.  The overall majority of Qigong practices are really quite simple.  Yet, for all its simplicity, Qigong is still a deep and mysterious practice.  There really are no gauges for Qigong practice.  Yes, it gets deeper and more mysterious the longer we practice, but it is impossible to measure and even harder to articulate.  The best way to practice is to just do it till you become it.  Let it be.  The best indication of effective practice is improved health and spiritual awareness.  Which leads seamlessly to the next section in the Triad of Training: The Spiritual Body (next blog post).

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