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Yoga, Qi Gong, Tantra and GhostsI am continuing my Blog theme of discussing Yoga since I am still in India surrounded by Yogis, both Indian and foreigners. Iwant to look at the nature of Yoga, its similarities to Qi Gong and ghosts!Confusion has arisen in modern times as we have now been exposed to the teachings of both Yoga and the Daoist arts. Bothof these systems present different views of how we as humans function beyond the level of physical form as their emphasisis different. The Daoist internal arts seem to focus upon the energetic realm whilst Yoga seems to discuss thespiritual/consciousness realm. There is a very good reason for this. This reason is Tantra.In modern times the term Tantra is often equated with sexual practices. The alternative community has turned what wasoriginally the study of the energy body into a way to heighten sexual pleasure under the illusion that this will lead to spiritualelevation. Tantra was not originally majorly concerned with sexual practices as only a very small part of its teachingsconcerned dual cultivation methods of this sort. The term Tantra can be translated as meaning gaining understandingthrough expansion of the awareness, it was originally the study of expanding the frequencies of our comprehension in orderto study the more subtle energy realms which sat beyond the physical body. Being a Sanskrit term it was originally a branchof the Yogic schools practice and could basically be equated with Qi Gong. Any form of energy work including Qi Gong, DaoYin or even internal alchemy would fall under the bracket of Tantric practices. It was Yogas way of studying the energy body.It is rare to find a Tantric Yoga school these days. Many may well say that they are practicing Tantra when they are not. If youhave the chance to witness an actual Tantric school practicing you will see that many of their exercises essentially look likeQi Gong. After the performance of Asanas, which are the physical exercises most would equate with Yoga, Tantric Yogapractitioners often sit and breathe whilst making particular hand postures, chanting and moving their fingers and armsaround in time with their breath to shift Qi (which they know as Prana) along the length of the meridians known as Nadi tothem. They work with three key energy centers in their bodies which correspond to the location of the Dan Tien and refinefrequencies inside of their bodies to lift Jing into Qi and then into Shen; in short they are practicing their own form of Qi Gong.Many of these Tantric practices were passed on to the Buddhists of Tibet and now there are also Tantric schools of BuddhistYoga coming from this tradition as well. At some point Tantra was largely removed from Yoga leaving many schools with abridge that could not be crossed. Students were now trying to jump from Asanaa (physical body work) to meditation on theChakra (spiritual body work) which cannot be done. You cannot successfully move from physical body work to the spirit body;it is too big a jump. There must be some kind of energetic practice which bridges the two.Part of the reason why Tantra was removed from Yogic schools was because of its connection to the realm of ghosts andhungry spirits. Work with Qi is, to some extent, also connecting us to other realms not normally available to those who areoperating on a purely physical level. When we access the energy body and work with it for a long time it becomes clear thatnot only is the realm of Qi a bridge to the realm of divine spirit but it also connects us to the world of spiritual entities whichcan either be benevolent, neutral or malignant. This is the reason for many cases of spiritual possession and madness thatare the result of energy work. Travelling extensively within the far-East has opened my eyes to the way in which culture hereembraces the concept of spiritual entities with great ease. Every day local people go to the nearest temple to appease thespirits before going to their offices to work. Exorcisms are carried out regularly and there is no doubt within people minds thatspirits live alongside of us throughout the course of our daily lives. Within Tantric schools it was believed that the risks ofopening the energy body and mind up to the invasion of spiritual entities was too great a risk and so it was gradually phasedout of the practices. Now the bridge was broken and no work could be carried out on the consciousness. What was left wassimply physical practice based around improving the health of the body. From here numerous other styles were born eachfocusing upon bodily purification in a different manner whilst the original aim of working towards conscious elevation wasforgotten or relegated to the level of intellectual study.There may be some subjects in the above paragraph that some find hard to fathom. Belief in spirits, either positive ornegative is not something which sits comfortably with the belief systems of many in the west. Whether or not this is the case,it is kind of irrelevant; this was the belief system of those who founded the systems of Yoga and Qi Gong so therefor anythingcreated within these systems will take this belief into consideration. The spirit world would always have been a considerationfor the ancient sages. Another factor inherent within the Yogic systems, rarely discussed now, is the development of Siddhisor abilities similar to the abilities developed from prolonged practice of the Daoist arts. These are abilities such as increasedlevels of intuition, telepathy, the ability to control others thoughts and movements and so on. These abilities were associatedwith the opening of the Dan Tien or the seven spinal fires within Daoism and with awakening of the seven Chakra withinHinduism. Many of these skills were then discussed elementally as well within the Tantric traditions. For the teachers ofTantra each element came with a different skill such as-Water: The ability to transmit healing information into water so that itcould be drunk as medicine. Also, the ability to control water in others bodies thus making them move around according toyour will. Tantric Yoga teachers would teach the physical movements of their systems in this manner. Fire: Tantric masters of

fire could generate warmth from their hands and even set alight objects simply using their intention. Earth: Thesepractitioners could, to some degree, control their own physicality. A test for them would be to place their hand lightly onto solidrock and leave a deep handprint. This is a phenomena well recorded, even in modern times, in Tibet. Air: This is the elementof the mind and those Tantric masters at this level could control the thoughts, beliefs and emotions of other people. Void:The final element is the divine element of emptiness and those at this level could bring on experiences of stillness for otherpeople at will. This could lead to high-level healings and mental awakenings.The above elementally related skills are linked to each of the Chakra after the first two meaning that those with an awakenedChakra are classically said to be able to manifest the above abilities. Those who could not, had not reached the stage ofworking effectively with their Chakra and were required to practice more. Is it these skills that are the reason for the removalof Tantra from the Yogic school? Did the ancient teachers really want the majority of people to have access to these abilities?I have met some teachers who can manifest this sort of ability and in my experience they do not have to be particularly nicepeople. The connection between virtuous manifestation of compassion and development of high-level skills does not reallyexist as you would expect. You can be a jerk and still develop power over people.Daoism and the internal arts which came out of the tradition such as Qi Gong had the opposite problem. The body work andenergy work were kept giving a solid bridge to move into the energetic realm but almost every school dropped the spirit bodypractices. Largely this was due to the fact that most internal schools went down the medical path and working with theconsciousness on this level was not required for repairing and maintaining a persons health. This means that manypractitioners of Qi Gong are stuck at the level of the energy body and cannot progress as very few esoteric Daoist schoolsstill maintain their teachings on the spirit body. Those schools that do class themselves as religious, wisdom or spiritualschools of Daoism rather than the medical schools which we tend to have more contact with in the west.This brings us to internal alchemy which is the form of sitting meditation most commonly practiced by Daoists in moderntimes. Alchemy can basically be divided into two main schools of thought. The first school is aiming to develop a spiritual formof the self in order to attain immortality; this is known as developing the spiritual embryo. The second school does not aim forthis and instead aims for complete emptiness and merging with the Dao, thus converting ever higher frequencies of energeticsubstances into a state whereby it connects with the frequency of Heaven. Whilst I have a theoretical understanding of themethods involved in the first tradition I am not trained in it so I cannot comment. Anything I said would be purely intellectualand therefor most likely wrong. The second school of alchemical thought is the method I follow and so I feel that I candiscuss it to a certain point which corresponds to the lowly level I have reached myself.In the form of alchemy aiming to convert Jing into Qi and then into Shen there comes a point when complete emptiness isattained. This is the same experience discussed within many Buddhist and Hindu schools whereby one dissolves thephysical form and the mind to just leave complete connection with the universe. For many this is a ground-breakingexperience and a life-defining moment, myself included. It corresponds to the stage of linking your own spiritual energy, viathe Chong Mai, into the vastness of Wuji so that you experience the stillness at your own core. The majority of my ownpractice these days is around this kind of work and my own exploration for authentic teachers is around alchemy. Theproblem with this kind of work, and many who have experienced the same will most likely agree, is staying here. Theseglimpses of connection to a profound state tend to be fleeting. Whilst the experiences bring some kind of change to a personsoutlook on existence it is difficult to remain here for long periods of time. The reason for this is because these are simplyglimpses of direct with the consciousness body, we are touching upon the next stage in our inner development but not yetable to fully progress to this stage. This is partly because the foundational work within the energy body is not yet completed;the energetic stage is a long process which cannot be skipped as we will be left with the problem of never reallyunderstanding or refining our own consciousness.Why discuss this? Because I think it is important to look at these issues if we ever wish to use any of the internal arts toprogress beyond the most fundamental of levels. Firstly, in the west we need to develop more respect for the inherent risksinvolved in powerful energy work. If we are going to engage in practices such as this then guidelines should be adhered toand advice should be sought in order to prevent any illnesses occurring whether energetically or spiritually. It is a constantproblem that the arrogance of westerners is that they seem to think they can take eastern practices and simply adapt themto suit their purposes throwing out the bits that they dont believe in simply because they incorrectly view eastern cultures asprimitive. Secondly we must also understand that many of the systems we are presented today HAVE been changed in thisway. Pieces are missing and a great deal of searching is most likely required by those who really want to delve deep intointernal cultivation. Please note that I am not trying to be negative about either Yoga or Qi Gong. I think both are amazingsystems with the potential to lead people towards high levels of comprehension; I am just discussing the way they arecurrently being practiced. For me, I have always trusted in classical teachings, whether verbal or written within classical texts.I work on the reasoning that the people who put the classical teachings together were most likely far more wise than I so Ishould probably listen to them; even if their reasoning is currently lost to me.

Yoga, Qi Gong, Tantra and Ghosts