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After the Beijing conference on Daoism Nov.5-7, we all head to the birth place of Lao Tzu / Laozi in Luyi, Henan, and some interesting nearby Daoist sites.
Then I’m flying to Wang Liping’s hometown to interview him about neidan and his vision of it. This was arranged courtesy of kathy li – thanks so much for your assist in this.
If you’ve read Opening the Dragon’s Gate: The Making of a Taoist Wizard, you’ll have an idea of what he’s about.
Feel free to post your suggested questions. I will publish the interview later (he’s agreed to answer ALL questions).
Michael
Questions: Here are a few to start with. Some of these questions are almost the same, but I would be interested to know his answer.
1. Are peoples lives planned out by a spiritual part of themselves, or are our lives determined by the free will of our actions?
2. If a person’s life is influenced by the earth, planetary and star energy at their birth, can a person change their destiny in life?
3. Are their many surviving complete schools of inner alchemy in China today? (other than the dragon gate sect of Quanzhen Daoism)
4. What is your view on people who practice Inner Alchemy or Qigong to gain martial or energetic healing powers over others rather than spiritual development, and are these two purposes compatible or different from each other?
5. What is the difference between Daoist and Buddhist methods of Inner Alchemy?
Hello Michael
I look forward to take part of your interwieu with mr Wang Liping! That sounds realy interesting!
I have some questions:
1 Wang has a goal to deepen the knowledge of woman cultivation. I wounder if he will come out with any written material, like a book, about woman cultivation?
2 I have studied some parts of the white tigress practises and wonder if he see it as a good way of cultivation for women and men?
3 The book opening the dragon gate is wery interesting, beacase it describes the relationhip between Wang and hes three masters and what they accomplished during there traveling around China, for hide and practises. It is clear that Wang has got a wery intence and sometimes dangerous training and that he has reached wery high levels in hes practise and cultivation. One thing that strikes me though about the book is that it describes some parts of hes masters and hes own abilities that might be wery hard to accept for a big part of the population. Abilities like being invisible or like moving in mountains without touching the ground amoung others. I wounder if not writing about such abilities, even if they work, not might be contraproductive to the goal of uniting western science with taoists concepts, in that sence that many scientist not will take Wang Liping serious beacase they not can’t believe in what hes students have been writing about him. And also writing about those extraordinary phenomena might even let taoist friendly people be sceptical to Wang and hes school in taoism. Any comments on that? Perhaps it was commented already in the book but I have forgotten beacase it was quite a while ago since I read it.
Good luck with the intervieu!
S D
Hi Rainbowbear,
It will be interesting to hear his perspective, though there are bound to be different viewpoints within the Daoist community depending on their background and the school of practice they adhere to.
More questions:
6. Many Daoist alchemical texts focus on the cultivation of yang qi, can you comment on whether it is possible to cultivate yuan qi, and which is more important and why?
7. There seems to be a difference in viewpoints between those who say inner alchemy is more like a “sitting and forgetting”, or focusing on the present moment practice as some people interpret Lao Zi, and the Dao Inner Alchemists from the line of Lu Dong Bin who focus more on the transformations of the five elements, and cultivating yin, yang and yuan qi. Can you talk about these two approaches?
8. Can you briefly outline the daoist cosmology, and give a description of the terms Dao, Wuji, Hundun, Xian Tian (early heaven), and Hou Tian (Later Heaven), and how they relate to each other?
Thank you,
CD
Dear Michael
this is my little list, bound to grow longer…
1. Could you give us 10 (ten) suggestions that would improve the experience of practice, and it’s results, for daoist practicioners? (5 do’s, 5 don’ts)
2. Could you give us 10 (ten) reccomendations that would improve our everyday life (family, sexuality, nutrition, environment)? (5 do’s and 5 don’ts)
3. Will Shen Laoshi or any of the editors/authors that publish on Longmen Pai, ever publish the books in English? (the Cleary version is lousy)
4. What would a person need to be and to do, to become a Student of him ?(not participant to a workshop)
5. Is it safe to practice outdoors in the winter? The lattitude here is 45 degrees, the same as Beijing…
i will add some more questions pretty soon.
thank you
L1
Great questions. I was just pondering #6 my self. As chi is referred to as yang and jing as yin and shen nutrual. Is yuan inter changeable with the word primal or core or neutral.
6. Master Wang Liping, what is your opinion on the spreading of the Xiao Dao methods in the West? Does the Universal Tao/Healing Tao systems fit into that category also, as Xiao Dao methods? What are their benefits from your p.o.v as master and magician, are there things that need to improve?
(please bear with me Mr. Winn, i only ask this because he said he will answer all questions. i need to know what he thinks)
7. Is there a specific connection between the chinese lunar calendar and daoist practices in your system? what is it, if you can explain.
…more questions soon…
Thank you for sharing, Mr. Winn!
I would like to know if there is any way to learn Master Wang´s system if one does not have enought money for the workshops. Will there be an English translation of the instructional book that has been published in Chinese?
Another thing I wanted to ask is whether the stillness methods practiced by master Wang lead to the same states as samatha meditation in the buddhist tradition or if these two practices are different.
What is the best way to fill the dan tien and why? Could he outline the practical methods?
What is master Wang´s advice for serious western practitioners who want to progress while living in modern society?
Thank you very much,
Martin
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