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Hello Friends in the Tao,
My inner alchemy practice has been cooking itself nicely and several issues have arisen from new develpments. I thought you fellow travelers might have some interesting insights to share…
So, my recent practices have been cultivating lesser and greater kan & li, responding to my body’s need to have quite a lot of personal and ancestral issues resolved. A recent posting of a text relating a form of Star Alchemy inspired me to resume a bit of that practice. Having stuck with lesser and greater exclusively for alsmost two months, I was surprised to find the alchemical process at the star level “cooking” much, much harder, more consistently, evenly, and with greater effect than I have previously experienced. It seemed to me that the personal potencies realized by practicing the star level of alchemy had the potential to become a bit addictive. Why go back down into density when it feels so warm and peaceful here in the middle of this soft, starry yuan space? To put it another way, the neutrality towards earthly completion experienced in the stellar yuan space started to feel a bit like indifference. The accumulation of stellar-level metal in the yuan space also seemed very rapid, and, I hope my meaning is not too obscure, very potent. This experience seemed to trigger a greater appreciation for the ‘safety’ built into the structure of one cloud’s fomulas. Here’s a more pointed question, is practicing star alchemy without having accumulated a significantly inertial ‘center’ in the lower formulas imbalanced/unsafe? Or is it merely that practicing star while NEGLECTING the incompletions of the lower formulas is imbalanced/unsafe? To say it backwards, is practicing star safe if one practices lesser and greater at the same time? The same concerns apply to H/E, but to a much greater degree.
Let me not sound too worried; these practices are yielding wonderful effects! Physical strength and flexibility, stamina, mental and emotional clarity, a profound feeling of freedom and joy in being a part of human creativity, and a space of infinite refuge and revitalization in the yuan space are all amazing gifts of the practices. My caution seems to travel up from my spiritual ‘root,’ a warning against the consequances of an imbalanced cultivation process.
I would appreciate any insight you sages might proffer.
Yours in the Sparkle-Space,
Patrick
Hello Patrick,
Good to hear that your practice is going well! The most important aspect in cultivating the different levels for me has been to strengthen the lesser and greater kan and li levels.
This may also be partly because, like yourself, I was really interested to learn all the formulas in a relatively short time frame (with 6-12 months between, sometimes doing the audio course first then the live session in the summer). It may also be that each person has a different configuration so benefits from spending more time at a particular level. As michael has said, though, we are the current innovators in this experience so we have to gauge for ourselves!
After learning and practicing all the formulas, I went back and focused on lesser for a year, and that made huge changes in my feeling of rooting the yuan qi into the physical-energy-spirit body. Doing the advanced lesser Kan and Li also made huge changes. Now I am focusing on greater for a while, but still do star and all the others semi-regularly.
Your concern about the safety of focusing on higher formulas only, in my opinion may be restated bluntly as to say “how much is your entire being benefiting from focusing only on the higher formulas (without a solid root in the body?)?”. There is really no right or wrong here, but I would think it would be more difficult to “hold on” to and root in the yuan qi if there is not enough yuan jing in the picture, or to root in the yuan qi to your personal self. So you may be accomplishing a lot in the stellar level but then still have issues to deal with in the personal. Its your choice where you focus your attention, and will receive the fruits of what you choose to focus on.
Nice post, Patrick. Happy to hear you asking this level of question. But I think the question is probably very personal, i.e. based on your past mental tendencies to want to leap ahead and find yourself on precarious non-ground.
So the question here remains the same, reinforcing what Singing Ocean said above: How much of Star are you actually able to eat, ie digest so that the CONSEQUENCES of eating that level chi flow down into the other levels?
That is taking responsibilty on the inner planes….star blessings from the Caribbean,
Michael
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