The ordinary and extraordinary: Entering the qigong state

I think this is a wonderful discussion point. I heard Michael describe spiritual science as experiments with totally unique results each time, as contrasted to physical science which demands the same response for their truth to be accepted. This makes sense to me and is liberating.

In that spirit, it seems there cannot be one path that is prescribed because we are dealing with multi dimensional and personal issues that are unique.

If it comes down to personal experience and anecdotal evidence, the dread of physical science, than I agree there is a progression that I am going through but one only I can recognize. It is different than anything listed. It is more like a spiral, revisiting areas again and again with fresh perspective and applications. Like today, I was doing some Fusion and reexperienced the smell of my father’s cologne and a feeling of a childs love for him that I haven’t felt in a long time. Another layer revealed itself.

I have also noticed that when I seek and receive a physical transmission from going down to Asheville or up to Tao Mtn., I break all previous limitations, which makes me think there is something to this lineage and oral transmission business. That there is “permission given” by the teacher in an energetic way that releases me from the limitations I have unconsciously placed on myself. Does that make sense?

I think the progressions on paper are there as guideposts and not jailers’ bars. baba

I think everything is available at once, all methods, all abilities, and at the same time there is endless room and need for discipline, for development, for refinement, and for artistry.
It’s like G. I. Gurdjief said: A cow can be raised to a higher state of being (his lingo, but let’s say to ‘the qigong state’). What will happen? It will continue to eat grass.

Your comment reminds me of a quote from the movie “A River Runs Through It”:

“All good things come from Grace,
Grace comes from art, and
art comes from work.”

These strike me as excellent observations.

Our Western cultures are so into sanctioning and discipline, on getting it right, preferably the first time, that it can get in the way of the excellence that is allegedly being aimed at.

We give children second and third and fourth chances all the time. “That’s ok sweetheart, no sense crying over spilt milk…”

Well, we can do the same for ourselves and each other, if only not to stifle that innate source of primal energy-creativity we, as grown-up spiritual adepts, have become so good at zeroing in on with our philosophies and spiritual disciplines. This is to be more feminine; letting things be imperfect becomes soft beauty, vulnerable works of art.

I really like Jimmi Hendrix. Ever notice how his solos seem like, at any given point, he might be “at the beginnings of fucking up”–but what turns it into artistic genuis (often, not always) is a basic joyful trust he has in his own deep well of being, of creativity.

Naturally he practiced too–but I seriously doubt he practiced like a soldier doing pushups, getting ready for war.
As usual, a balance makes for the best alchemy. I say, discipine can be viewed as a cool game… Part of an infinite adventure game that is all the more absorbing and fulfilling for being difficult to master.