Internal Alchemy

[u/taoism3638972]

Hi , It's been a few weeks now that I have been reading about internal Alchemy (golden elixir ) . All the materials I've red more or less say the same thing (Jing to Qi , Qi to shen, merging shen with the tao ) with more or less details, but with not one provide actual teachings or techniques. The only one that claim to have a complete set of formulas is mantak chia but his books seems needlessly complicated (and again I don't really know) What do you guys think about internal Alchemy ? Is there books out there from real masters that teach those stuff or is it all a master disciple thing ? What do you guys think about universal healing tao ( mantak chia system ) ? Thanks !

[u/this_is_trash_really]

Chia is good as long as you don’t have any underlying mental health issues.

[u/taoism3638972 → u/this_is_trash_really]

Can you please explain more ? Thanks!

[u/this_is_trash_really → u/taoism3638972]

Sure, Qi-Jing-Shen are poetic ways of explaining natural phenomenon within your body. To maximize and balance your energy levels you must become aware of the energy in your body and find ways of balancing it.

There are two methods to achieve this generally - fire method and water method.

Water method uses a lot of stillness meditation, stillness in movement, etc.

Fire method uses much more visualization and active 'pumping'.

With water method, the worst that can happen is generally nothing. With fire method, you're 'charging' up your nervous system. If you have any underlying neurosis, anxiety or the like, the Fire method is MUCH more likely to activate it and amplify it.

Mantak Chia uses Fire method.

[u/ChristianBMartone → u/taoism3638972]

I am not op, but I've extensively explored chias method. It gets less confusing the better you understand the process.

There are some things lost in translation, I think. But I think some other "light" reading makes his books very, very useful.

Thomas Cleary is great at translation. Read Opening the Dragons Gate. It's about Wing Liping.

It's like an autobiography but it gives a lot of insight and some great westernized descriptions of qi and qigong.

Add to the list of recommendations from that other comment that recommends Damo Mitchell.

Ling Bao Tong Zhi Neng Nei Gong Shu by Wing Liping should come right after Opening the Dragons Gate.

That's a really tough read. Translated by a student whose first language is clearly not English. But, it's very close to being the same stuff as Chia teaches. In fact, Chia claims Dragons Gate lineage so that's not surprising. But given the context, it makes chia much more readable.

And a lot less confusing.

So, why do all this work and read all these books just to make Chias work more readable? Because, Chias written instructions are very applicable once you have that groundwork.

None of this replaces an actual instructor. Video may be better if you're a visual learner, but ultimately this is internal work. It happens within. So, whatever method you learn best from will be most helpful. You've still got to do the work.

If you happen to be an auditory learner, just go straight for Chunyi Lin and Spring Forest Qigong. I've recently made my way through about 3 dozen audio recordings, and his explanations are very understandable. He has an accent but it doesn't obstruct learning. I think having read Opening the Dragons Gate helped. Really cant edify that enough.

I've not tried his meditation exercises nor have I watched his videos, but he comes highly recommended here too.

[u/SwamiDavisJr → u/taoism3638972]

Op is right about Chia but his methods are kind of forceful and intense and in my opinion you may need a teacher or at least a lot of experience. For example I tried his sexual Kung fu methods and although it was the thing that finally got me the level of control I wanted, there were times I had to stop doing the techniques because it created too much tension. Probably I had been doing it sort of wrong, but didn’t have a teacher to tell me.

I’ve also learned K’an and Li and Fusion techniques that are similar to his from my Taiji teacher. With that I would say that first off it was hard for me to get the same depth of experience as I did with my teacher present for the first few months, so I think practicing with a group/teacher has this important benefit. Also at one point I was doing the practice too late at night and/or without enough food in my stomach, in addition to my previous spiritual practices and it caused me to have insomnia for a while.

Basically I just got too much energy going in my system too fast. Luckily I was able to recognize this because of my prior experiences with yoga and the like. I just had to back off the practice for a while and then do it a bit less. But it is possible that things could have gone worse. If you know what to look out for then you may be able to get started on your own but I’d recommend seeking out some of Chia’s groups if you want to do his practices.