circle walking and taoist meditation - intermediate meditation 4, parts 1-3

8/11/2019 Circle Walking and Taoist Meditation - Intermediate Meditation 4, Parts 1-3

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B GU M STERY PROGR M

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MODULE 6Circle Walking andTaoist Meditation

Intermediate Meditation 4Parts 1-3

BRUCE FRANTZIS


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Copyright 2010 Bruce Frantzis

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Table of Contents

Section 1: Meditation 4 Part

Understanding the BodilyEnergies of Your Emotions 5Overview 5

Part 1: Working with Subtle Emotional Energies 6

Preparation 6

Instructions 7

Section 2: Meditation 4 Part 2

Unfreeze Your Emotional Energies

until They Freely Flow 11

Section 3: Meditation 4 Part 3

Releasing the Resistance to Change 15


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Sectioneditation 4 Part 1:

Understanding the BodilyEnergies o f Your Emotions

verview

Before moving on to Walking Meditation 4 you must find and stabilize the place

inside where your internal continuum feels natural. I f your emotions become

overexaggerated, they block your abili ty to be aware, especially when changing

directions very rapidly. However, when your emotions are not blocked, it s much

easier to maintain your awareness even when changing direct ions very rapidly.

From a Taoist meditation perspective, humans have two basic types of emotions:

low r emotions which are derived from our body, such as anger, fear, frustration,hunger, greed and physical desire; and higher emotions such as love, compas-

sion, balance, generosity, caring for others, the desire to further everything. The

2011 Bruce Frantzis AII Rights Reserved.


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8agua Mastery Program

higher emotions are essentially about the hope and the intent to do what is best

for all and in harmony within everything, including nature (or the environment).

Higher emotions go beyond the survival needs and just grasping at anything you

can and in any way you can.

Part : Working with ubtle

motional nergies

Preparation

Ideally, you will integrate at least two of the more advanced neigong

techniques into your walking practice, such as twisting (neigong component

9) and activating the energies of the spine (neigong component 11), to most

effectively develop this phase of meditation.

In Meditation 4, the twisting of your waist, arms and legs should become very

strong, penetrating deep within the soft tissues, and around and into your

internal organs. If you add the spinal qigong technique of Bend the Bow, each

and every step you take should constantly pump the fluids within your spine,deepest muscles and other anatomical structures.

These deep structures and fluids link to your brain through your spinal cord.

The organs, spine, spinal cord and other deep structures are prime places where

many subliminal emotions are stored within the body. When activated, they can

cause stored subliminal emotions to naturally release and emerge.

If you try to incorporate Bend the Bow Qigong into your walking during earlier

meditations (1-3), it might result in your subliminal emotions becoming yet more

suppressed or coming out much slower than if incorporated in to your walking

meditation practice at this more appropriate stage. So don t be in a rush and

make sure you have a stable foundation in Meditations 1-3 before trying the

following exercises. Bagua Meditation work and internal neigong are arts that

you should develop over a lifetime, and should never be rushed.



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Likewise, activating the spine may tag you into becomingaware of emotional pain or sadness. What s happening in yourjoints may be the connector to somewhere else in your body,say your heart or brain. In turn, that will be a lead-in to enable

you to recognize and become aware of the subliminal andsubtle chi of the emotions connected to those body parts.

Eventually, the subliminal emotions hidden inside you becomeaffected and revealed by currents of chi that your internal

movements engender. Some examples are opening andclosing, spinal pumps, soft tissue twisting or activating thebodies spiraling energy currents.

y the end of this practice the intent is to get your first experiential tastes of

these subtle emotions or thoughts. You can then influence your ability to access

the subtle chi of your emotions by focusing on the relationships between the

different ways you can for example twist open close nd practice spinal pumps

inside your body. You can do it through ny neigong component either stronger

or more gently nd in various combinations by adjusting how much of your in-

ner world you are willing to work on without becoming overwhelmed. Increasing

or decreasing your sensitivity to your emotions nd the speed t which you can

dissolve nd release them while maintaining your own seventy percent rule canalso help you begin to balance your emotional energy.

3 Increase your walking speed until your inner emotions start surfacing

more rapidly and become stronger.

4 By using awareness alone, observe how you can become aware ofthe ways

in which emotions live insideyou. So just by thinking about something and

using your intent and awareness, you can rapidly go to where the related

emotions live inside you. Walking faster helps because the faster you walk,

the more your system naturally revs up and starts releasing what s stored

inside you.

This said, in the beginning to maintain your personal 70percent rule, you must walk very slowly and only graduallyspeed up over time. Otherwise, your internal infrastructure is



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Module 6: ircle Walking and Taoist Meditation Meditation 4 Parts 1 3 9

not strong enough to withstand the release and you will s implygap, gap, gap. This prevents the object of the meditationexercise, which is to reduce or eliminate all gaps in yourawareness that block your abili ty to notice the subtle energetic

qualities of your emotions. If you are not yet enlightened, it is inevitable that gaps will

occur. This is especially true for relatively beginningpractitioners. The task is to simply gap out less and not causemore gaps.

5 When your body feeling or your mind suddenly gaps out after recognizing

where the subtle emotional energies live insideyou and loses its continuity,

notice if there is a slight jarring effect when you reconnect. This can lastfrom the time it takes to take a few steps, complete a full circle or even

longer. When you find this has happened to you, walk a little slower and

become grounded. Then, being mindful of your 70 percent rule and when

you feel you have got yourself together again, gradually return to full

speed.

6 Think of a horrible, sweet, depressing or lofty thought about something

you really do or don't want to happen in your life to better refine yourunderstanding of where your emotions live in your body. Where do you

feel it and what other kinds of related emotions emerge in your body

mind?

Think about something you have tru ly desired and would likeback again. Ask yourself, Where does that desire live inside mybody-mind?

Next, ask yourself where any of the recent questions liveinside your energy channels. At this stage, do your best tocontinuously activate your body's left, righ t and centralenergy channels, if you can. Through these and all the o therchannels that you can consciously feel, you start becomingaware of how your emotions live and react within your body'senergy channels.



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1 agua astery Program

As you monitor your inner world, ask yourself: How do thesubtle thoughts, images, sounds, or feelings impac t myabil-ity to be aware as well as conscious of the nature of awarenessitself, the deepest level of intent or the Heart-Mind? Then, by

moving faster, you can bring your hidden emotions into yourawareness. So rather than being hidden and opaque, you bring

the energies to the surface where they can be consciouslyaccessed.

7 This is the point at which you confront your inner demons. Bring them

out of the murky depths, use the Inner Dissolving process to dissolve and

resolve them, and be free of them once and for all. Regardless if it's anger,

fear, greed, feeling helpless and powerless or anything else of which you

could conceive, energize yourself with each step of your circle.

Along with the help of the neigong components with which you are

working, you dissolve, resolve and tame your inner beasts and demons.

Always CHANGEthe circle's direct ion anyt ime you feel you're getting stuck

within your fear, anger, grief, sadness, hopes or frustrations.

2011 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved


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2 agua Mastery Program

and earth that your nervous system finds its natural rhythm within an unbroken

continuum of consciousness. This way it can change naturally and comfortably

without strain or force.

Emotions can be useful, neutral, distressing or like nasty poisons that destroyyou from the inside out. After a specific emotion s usefulness has passed, you

can become internally free enough to let go and change. This allows the space

for the next emotional change to be available to you. Or you can remain frozen

or stuck without moving forward in which case the frozen emotional residue can

either be aggravating at best or make your life a living hell at worst, and distinctly

unpleasant for those around you.

Sharpen your sense of what it means to either connect or disconnect from theenergies of earth and heaven, neither of which you should disconnect from dur

ing Meditation 4 Part 2. So ask yourself what is occurring. Notice where your

emotions are in your body and energy channels during all the in-out, open-close,

twist and pump motions.

In time, you can jump to the next level and recognize how your movements

influence and inhabit your spirit, so you can become even more aware of how

emotional energies play and swirl inside you. As your emotions change, the point

is always to gain the ability to internally shift freely without get ting stuck.

1. After finding the obvious energies and as your awareness changes and

grows, look for progressively more subtle emotional energies within you.

Initially, focus on and find out where the more subtle negativeemotions live in your body.

Summon all of your dissolving power to release whatever youfeel is blocked.

Let go of whatever stops you from freely changing from oneemotion to another.

2. Become aware of your positive emotions and release them. For many, this

may be somewhat counterintuitive. I mean, who wants to get rid of the



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Module : ircle Walking and Taoist Meditat ion Meditat ion 4 Parts 1-3 13

good stuff, right? Consider that it doesn't matter ifyou are stuckor attached

within a positive or negative emotion because stuck is stuck. Your energyis still frozen and can't change. Unless it becomes free, it cannot convert

into spirit. Frozen emotional energy of any kind is neither fully alive nor

fully natural. In Taoist practices (Walking the Circle, sitting meditation or

in life), a guiding principle is to always seek what is natural for its time and

place. Strong attachments to anything clearly exceed this principle.

3 Again, repeat the same question with a different face: Where are the

positive emotions hidden in my body? Where are these energies of being

positive, kind, generous, or willing to help within you and your body?

4 Now move faster and you will be able to dredge out these emotions from

your system more rapidly. Just take care that as you move faster, you doso without strain and at a speed that your nervous system and glands can

handle.

5 While moving between your positive and negative emotions, release and

free them. As they release, look inside and observe if something else is

there. Something that cannot be defined, that has no specific quality, thatis beyond words or thoughts to express, but can be recognized within your

awareness. Is there anything that can simultaneously be fully present and

yet coexist with your positive or negative emotions as they come and go?

Do you have any sense of an all-pervasive, universal quality? See if you can

find it.



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Sectioneditation

4 Part :Releasing the Resistanceto Change

Many freak out from negative changes, the horrible things that happen in life.Likewise, others are afraid to relinquish negative changes and enter the positive

because they can t accept what can be nurturing for all sorts of reasons. But noth-

ing stays the same forever. Seasons change, one into the other; cold changes to

warm and dry to moist. Days grow longer while nights become shorter and vice-

versa.

Everything in life s constantly changing

Turn, twist and thereby transcend your resistance to change. Allow the change to

happen without forcing it. Find what is natural. Change if you feel it s appropriate

or not, as the case may be. Use everything Walking Meditation 4 has taught you,

so you can recognize and overcome the common resistance to change, the flows

of life regardless of whethe r you want them or not.

5

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6 agua Mastery Program

1 As you change from one direction to the other, focus on your Heart-Mind

and allow it to lead the negative and positive rising and falling, dissolving

and changing. Let the resistance between the changes let go. Know that

many things wil l happen in your awareness and many things won t. Know

that at times you ll make yourself out to be an absolute fool while othersyou ll be the absolute wise one. Allow each arising and just let go of -

whatever it may b e t o flow one into the next like the changes of the

seasons movement of the stars and the whole universe.

2. Find this place of change. Release the resistance to it. Maybe to release the

resistance, you must dissolve your emotions. Maybe you must energize

them first, especially if their content is very feeble. Or maybe you have to

dissolve something you just can t define yet but you sense is stuck.

3 As your emotions more freely let go, change and move to what the next

greater sense of naturalness means. Can you get a sense of that which does

not change, the emptiness that permeates everything and fundamental ly

underlies nature itself?

In Chinese n ture or n tur lness is c lled dze ran.

4 As this new, indefinable something arises in your awareness, move faster.

As you do, you also more rapidly release your negative subtle emotional

energies as well as your resistance to change and thereby can more easily

and freely change. Transcending the resistance to change enables you to

develop a natural relationship with the way that everything is always in

the middle of becoming the next thing. Become comfortable with this,

settle into it.

circle walking and taoist meditation - intermediate meditation 4, parts 1-3

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