2 Circle Walking and Taoist Meditation - Intermediate Meditation 5, Part 3

BAGUA MASTERY PROGRAM

~~-.~ r~~~ • •I~ .. I. l,~~--~;~ , __.....__ -...~

,

MODULE 8 Circle Walking and Taoist Meditation: Meditation 5, Part 3 (Intermediates)

BRUCE FRANTZIS

Copyright© 2011 Bruce Frantzis All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by Energy Arts, Inc., P.O. Box 99, Fairfax, CA 94978-0099 The following trademarks are used under license by Energy Arts, Inc., from Bruce Frantzis: Frantzis Energy Arts® system, Mastery Without Mystery®, Longevity Breathing® program, Opening the Energy Gates ofYour Body™ Qigong, Marriage of Heaven and Earth™ Qigong, Bend the Bow™ Spinal Qigong, Spiraling Energy Body™ Qigong, Gods Playing in the Clouds™ Qigong, Living Taoism™ Collection, Chi Rev Workout,™ HeartChi,™ Bagua Mastery Program,™ Bagua Dynamic Stepping System,™ Bagua Internal Warm-up Method,™ and Bagua Body Unification Method.™

Editing: Heather Hale, Bill Ryan, Richard Taubinger and Caroline Frantzis Interior Design: Heather Hale Cover Design: Thomas Herington Photo and Illustration Editing: Mountain Livingston and Thomas Herington Photographs by: Eric Peters, Bill Walters, Caroline Frantzis, Richard Marks and Catherine Helms Illustrations: Michael McKee and Kurt Schulten Image Alteration: Lisa Petty, GiriVibe, Inc., Patrick Hewlett and Jodie Smith Models: Bruce Frantzis, Bill Ryan, Keith Harrington, Don Ethan Miller and Paul Cavel Printed in the United States of America PLEASE NOTE: The practice of Taoist energy arts and meditative arts may carry risks. The information in this text is not in any way intended as a substitute for medical, mental or emotional counseling with a licensed physician or healthcare provider. The reader should consult a healthcare professional before undertaking any martial arts, movement, meditative arts, health or exercise program to reduce the chance of injury or any other harm that may result from pursuing or trying any technique discussed in this text. Any physical or other distress experienced during or after any exercise should not be ignored and should be brought to the attention of a healthcare professional. The creators and publishers ofthis text disclaim any liabilities for loss in connection with following any of the practices described in this text, and implementation is at the discretion, decision and risk of the reader.

Table of Contents Meditation 5, Part 3: Engaging Your Seventh Energy Body of Individuality .... 5 What Is the Seventh Energy Body? .............................................. 5 Accessing the Seventh Energy Body .................. The Final Meditation ....

00000

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Finishing a Meditation Practice

000000000000000000000000000000

7 8

9

Meditation 5, Part 3: Engaging Your Seventh Energy Body of Individuality What Is the Seventh Energy Body? The seventh energy body is called the "Body of Individuality:' This difficult-todescribe energetic quality cannot be understood purely through metaphor, but rather must be consciously experienced. The process of discovering your essence is a radically new concept for virtually all human beings. The seventh energy body answers a central question posed by philosophers, mystics and many a tiny child trying to understand their place in this giant universe: Who Am I?

5

© 2011 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.

6

Bagua Mastery Program

When found, the answer will have nothing to do with the normal way most perceive or define themselves such as: I am a man/woman, rich/poor, intelligent/stupid, etc. The core of your spiritual individuality is different. Your personal spiritual essence goes beyond any of the life changes you have experienced, whether or not they have left a fixated residue inside you of any kind. Fixated residues could include: • Anything you have done, has been done to you or you have wanted to do. • Any place you have been or wished to go. • Your personal beliefs, judgments and character flaws/strengths. • The sum total of all events, relationships and people you have met during this or any other life. • Anything you can think of or imagine that relates to your selfimage and perceptions. In their process of self-discovery, practitioners come to know who they are spiritually, simultaneously as an independent actor and a connected piece in the larger flow of the Tao. Like each human cell (i.e., Body of Individuality), we have independent functions related to ourselves and, equally, the ongoing workings of the entire body (i.e., the universe or Tao). You seek to uncover how you are capable of independent action yet, like that which never changes, you are capable of staying seamlessly connected to and complete within the whole.

© 201 1 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.

Module 8: Circle Walking and Taoist Meditation

7

Accessing the Seventh Energy Body Through Part 3 of Circle Walking Meditation 5, the door is open for practitioners to get intermittent glimpses of their seventh energy body. • Somewhere between the two ways of relating to everything in life-i.e., what does and does not change-you are in the position to spontaneously begin to glimpse your seventh energy body. Stay awake to and aware of the possibility. • When the forces of the universe are so kind as to give you a glimpse of your personal essence, simply relax into the core of your being (or soul) and stay there as long as you can. Do not try to hold onto or prolong the experience. Don't be tricked into grabbing onto the exerpience and overexaggerating the often inflated meanings you think it may have. Remember this is just a glimpse, rather than a permanent situation as of yet. • As glimpses come and go (and they will), just be clear that in the grand scheme of the universe there is no longer any need for you to be or not be anything, to do or not do anything. So as time passes, somehow the nature of your spiritual individuality can fully begin to emerge and manifest. • Allow these spiritual progressions to relieve you of intellectual burdens. You do not need to incessantly second guess yourself as you intuitively seek to become capable of remaining balanced while colloquially "going with the flow" of the spiritual forces of the universe. This fundamental Taoist principle goes much beyond what it is normally interpreted by the phrase that has been glibly printed on the back of surfing t-shirts.

© 2011 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.

8

Bagua Mastery Program

• By definition, intermittent glimpses are not stable. Yet each time you get an intermittent glimpse of your personal essence, it can move you a step closer to having an unbroken, stable and continuous awareness of it. Moreover, in order to move from intermittent to stable awareness, first certain other pieces of the puzzle must be filled in. Each piece will require you to go through at least the five phases of walking meditation methods presented in this text and, most likely, quite a bit more. At a minimum, you must lose your resistance to change in your fourth to seventh energy bodies (mental, psychic, causal and essence) and stabilize the awareness of that which is changeless within yourself. This process presents very unique and extremely worthwhile challenge. However, you truly need direct and significant exposure to a genuine master. Resolving the energies of your sixth (causal) energy body and recognizing and stabilizing the space beyond karma is the bridge to actualizing the seventh energy body.

The Final Meditation The final meditation involves concretely recognizing your essence, whether you are Walking the Circle or engaging with passing changes that weave through and intertwine with your life. You must have a continuous awareness of your essence until it never leaves you and ultimately becomes the door through which in timeless time you arrive at being one with the Tao. Just as the course of life always changes, so does the content of your awareness, which is also ever-changing. The awareness of awareness itself does not change. The awareness of that which is beyond change, to honestly express itself, must always be stable and fluidly interacting in a unified awareness with the interplay of all that does and does not change simultaneously.

© 2011 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.

Module 8: Circle Walking and Taoist Meditation

9

As your practice matures, both change and that which is changeless will always be effortlessly present at once-neither distracting from the other and smoothly co-emerging and co-existing in your relaxed awareness.

Finishing a Meditation Practice 1. Slow down your walking speed and smoothly relax your breath, step by step. 2. Change as you like until you clearly bring your chi down strongly into your lower tantien. 3. Let the sense of your awareness-of that which permeates everything, that never changes-become as awake as possible 4. Slow down and finish at your own pace. 5. If you so choose, when you finish walking and without missing a beat, sit down. Wipe the sweat of your face and continue your meditation sitting. Beginning from the crown of your head, dissolve downward (using Inner Dissolving, if possible for you).

© 2011 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.