– NEI GONG – WAI DAN – DA XUAN QIGONG – NEI DAN – SHEN GONG & MEDITATION – SHEN DAN – MAGIC – DREAMS –
WELCOME TO DA XUAN DAOISM!
Traditionally, learning a personal Way implies having a direct contact with your Professor. However, our way of life makes this prerequisite almost impossible for most of us. Fortunately, in our day and age, technology makes new ways of teaching possible.
For many years we have taught around the world, building great experience which confirmed the effectiveness of the Da Xuan method.
Today we are happy to finally open the doors to the Da Xuan school through Distant Learning Programs, in both English and in French! Our distance learning courses cover many aspects of our Tradition. Every one of these aspects is accessible to any person seeking a method to improve their life, provided a personal commitment with serious and regular work.
The path to self-realization can start here, today.
If you do it, it works.
NEI GONG
MOVEMENT ANIMATED BY THE BREATH
Nei Gong or “Internal Work” can only become concrete once the student has assimilated the basics of Wai Gong. Only then do the moves no longer require vigilance to be done correctly. Once the physical motion has been trained and understood, you will be able to shift your attention to the sensation and the breathing.
A conscious perception of the body moving in space, and the synchronization of movement and breath, will multiply the beneficial effects of the practice on your health and on the global circulation in the body. It will also bring you to a stage where you can open yourself, while moving, to the finer perceptions that allow real energetic exchange with the world.
FORMAL TRANSMISSION OF THE DA XUAN SCHOOL NEI GONG
This particular teaching comes directly from the Zhang Clan, the Clan of Zhang Jiao, whose practices can be traced back to the year 170. This is the foundation of our tradition for training the body and producing Qi. The formal transmission of the Da Xuan School Nei Gong relies on all the teachings of Inner Alchemy, but here expressed in movement. These practices will therefore nourish our healing methods, our fighting arts, our vitality, but also and above all they will be an important preparation to conscious death.
WAI DAN – EXTERNAL ALCHEMY
THE ART OF TRANSFORMING MATTER
Alchemy is the art of Transformation. Going from Matter to Light, from Body to Spirit, from the Mundane to the Divine. An Alchemist follows a spiritual path in which his practice is based on doing rather than knowing. He seeks the Stone, or “Philosopher’s Stone” in which Light is condensed becoming an absolute Yang. This Absolute Yang can be used for Inner Alchemy.
In addition to seeking the Philosopher’s Stone, which is a long process, our Taoist Practice of External Alchemy is also based on the making of many Elixirs, defined as the “64 Recipes for Realization”, which nourish our deep evolution but are also very accessible and convenient to produce in our daily lives.
In External Alchemy there are two ways for a practitioner to experiment on the transformation of matter: The Mineral Way, which is the transformation of metals, or the Vegetal Way, which is the work on plants. Both can be done in our kitchen with minimal equipment. This will allow you to produce, with simple methods and tools, potent elixirs for health, vitality and longevity. It will also support your spiritual practice into your own realization.
GOING FROM EXTERNAL ALCHEMY TO INNER ALCHEMY
By observing mutations on tangible matter within a genuine practice, one can actually see the process of their inner evolution, i.e. the transformation affecting their Energy, Body and Mind.
Living the external alchemical process gives you a better understanding of The Way. Because their similarities in major steps of transformation give keys to better perceive the essence of a personal quest and self-realization.
Furthermore, each ingredient of the external alchemic practice is related to an aspect of our humanity, for instance, both go through the steps of calcination, purification and sublimation.
Therefore, External Alchemy affects the person’s Internal transformation: by performing this work on matter, the transformation will also occur on the corresponding inner aspects of this person, leading them into the light of the Absolute. Although the finality may be a long path, the process itself is extremely beneficial in that, the external practice becomes a mirror of one’s inner state.
With this concrete process happening before your eyes, it is much harder to lie to yourself about your personal evolution.
QIGONG OF THE DA XUAN FAMILY
Before going into depth and detail about the evolution of the Da Xuan practice, the first and most important aspect of this training is to understand the concrete, “down to earth” mechanisms of energy work, giving space to direct experience and common sense and leaving aside the imagination and fantasies. Whoever dreams, visualizes energy and imagines sensations is not actually practicing. Like any system which is grounded in reality, the understanding and use of Internal Force is practical and effective, experienced and usable. For this, the Da Xuan form allows a solid and real experience!
The Qigong of the Da Xuan Family consists of 6 different forms. Each divided into three parts with 9 Cycles altogether.
The 6 Forms are:
- Knowing Qi, The Basic Da Xuan Nei Gong Form
- Health and Vitality – The Qi form
- Internal Strength – The Power Form
- Depth of the Spirit – The Mind Form
- Spiritual Study – The Spiritual Form
- Secret Revealed – The Da Xuan Non-Form
These forms consist of variations which focus on one aspect of our tradition more than others. The first three levels of study focus on the physical and the Qi going from basic knowledge of our Qi Gong practice and the training of Nei Gong to techniques which will increases your vitality. The fourth level will prepare you to nourish the spirit to connect to the Spiritual (the fifth level). The last level, more dark and mysterious, carries the shamanic roots, the immortals of Teng She and the Serpent God of the Origin of the World… Very different from the other 5 levels!
These 6 forms can also be seen as the 6 lines of a Hexagram
1st Line: Knowing Qi, The Basic Da Xuan Nei Gong Form
This is the beginning where there is everything and nothing: we are not yet in the subject! And not yet in the real practice either. Once this is realized and established it is possible to go further
2nd Line: Health and Vitality – The Qi Form
This is the Da Xuan Health Form for Vitality, which “forces” an abundance of Qi through the training and brings you to your maximum energy potential. With this daily practice, you will achieve an overall stability and root yourselves in the world, your head touching the stars, and your body grounded. Man between Heaven and Earth.
This now raises the question of the use of this new potential. Indeed, those who practice daily can already “play” with the Qi, but we must learn to use the Qi more accurately, to turn the rays of light into a Laser beams!
This is the purpose of the third variation of the Da Xuan Form
3rd Line: Internal Strength – The Power Form
This stage is for the development of Internal Force, it is the form which shows how to use your potential with more profound experimentation of the Energetic world. This is also the form for Martial and Combative Force, a way to mix the innate and acquired Jing: The Way of the Master.
Being permeable to the tangible and energetic worlds through your practice, will lead you to a higher sensitivity of the existing manifested forces.
The third line in the Hexagram “the Yao” is the transition from gross to subtle. It is the most fragile and the most “dangerous” stage of the practice. Indeed, here you can get sucked into the dark side and the feeling of being “powerful”. This is why the work of the Internal Force requires you master the foundations, with a clear connection to the Lineage and clarification of your personal Way.
This leads us to the fourth line of the Hexagram, one that will connect you to One Way, United and Complete.
4th Line: The Depth of the Spirit – The Mind Form
The form trained at this stage is very simple and yet very complex at the same time, as it focuses both on the mind and the emotions in a very internal way. Here, nothing is perceived from the outside, everything is felt and manifested within. Therefore, it is quite difficult to access for the experienced practitioner and hermetically sealed to the novice. Besides, part of the form is individualized and no one practices it in the same way.
This in itself is an accomplishment of the way as it gives access to the subtlety of one’s humanity.
The training at this stage is perfectly in connection with the Great Seal and the experiences from previous practices will nourish this great immersion in the invisible world in which all that has been done previously becomes one. The form is minimalist in order to have high availability of the mind and a flawless connection to the Invisible World. This aspect of the practice is a treasure of our School.
5th Line: Spiritual Study – The Spiritual Form
The 5th line represents the “Place of the Emperor” in the Hexagram and the Spiritual aspect in Da Xuan. Here, the actual training of the form is directed by the “Ba Shen”, the 8 Gods.
The great qualities of the School are manifested in each part of the form, under the protection and strength of the lineage and with specific alignment of Spirit, Energy and Environment, as the form takes into account the directions and points of Power.
This is the level of the practice which really takes into account the three maps of the practitioner: The Environmental map – “Lopan”- the Human Map, and the Heaven Map, all specific to our Tradition.
This powerful, hypnotic and global work is an ancient jewel preserved by our school.
6th Line: Secret Revealed – The Da Xuan Non-Form
As the 6th line of the Hexagram goes beyond the given question, the 6th level of Da Xuan practice also goes beyond the form and the structure given by the practice.
This work is by far the most complete and most incredible of our tradition, but it is only the result of all that has been done before.
The Da Xuan Form and the Nei Gong of our tradition is an Amazing Treasure and an essential tool for our school.We must explore every aspect of this practice and progress to test every level of teaching.
NEI DAN – INTERNAL ALCHEMY
THE BREATH PRACTICE
Breath is linked to Chi therefore it is the source of our vitality. Its nature is Yin and Yang as it corresponds to the “Man” element in the “Earth – Man – Heaven” trinity. Training the Chi through Nei Dan, also called “Inner Field”, requires being aware of your breath before moving on to subtler practices.
In Man, Breath is the link between the Body which is Yin and the Mind which is pure Yang. As such, conscious breathing helps regulate our emotional by strengthening the root.
The practice of Nei Dan will allow the practitioner to develop three energy centers:
– The first is the physical center, or Lower Dan Tian also called “Elixir Field”
It manifests our connection to Earth, it is our incarnation. It is perfectly open and available from our birth, and stays so until our death. Nevertheless, realizing this perfection involves the awareness of this lower center. Training the Lower Dan Tian leads to the increase in vitality and the realization of our being, often hampered by our pathological habits. The achievement of the Lower Dan Tian training is the fundamental basis of the energy work, it is the source of our vitality, the “battery” of our body.
– The second is the emotional center, or Middle Dan Tian
It expresses our human nature, between Heaven and Earth and it center can be open before one starts any practice. If you grew up in a safe environment and received love then there Is a chance it is open! Indeed, Emotions greatly define our humanity! While the Lower Center is related to our physiological functions, our relationship to our emotions and to others directly depend on this Middle Dan Tian. The Practice will allow us to release ourselves from the imbalances which may have affected the opening of this center and which tint our emotional perceptions.
– The third is the spiritual center, or Upper Dan Tian
This center is closed by default and can only be opened by the practice. Related to Heaven, it allows a clear perception of the world and opens the practitioner to infinity, to the mysterious.
We can see here that Nei Dan explores the various aspects of our humanity: our fundamental physiological functions – the source of our health, our relationships with others – the emotional peace and the possibility to open and unite oneself with the greater.
The curriculum for the study of Traditional Nei Dan training consists of 9 sections
In this practice, the breathing exercises are organized in 9 different steps, beginning with an awareness of our breath and of our center, these being the essential basis to increase vitality, as without a sufficient amount of energy, it is impossible to work. We then learn to make this energy circulate in our body to feed our entire defensive system and amplify the general circulation of body fluids and energy in our body. Only then can we explore the limits of our body, from the deepest center to the furthest borders of the outside world, sharing with the world and nourishing from it. This last step will become increasingly refined and lead the practitioner to return to a natural, fluid and constant exchange with the Universe.
SHEN GONG & MEDITATION
PRACTICES OF THE MIND
Shen Gong is the work on the mind. The training of the Mind is essential for anyone wishing to truly know themselves and better understand the world. As the mind is our tool to grasp reality, it needs to be calmed, clarified and open to fully perceive the world.
SHEN GONG
Shen Gong, is a traditional set of exercises developed to understand the way our mind works. Since we can only work on what we know, it is crucial to become accustomed to and understand what is in our mind.
We will quickly see, through some simple exercises, the constant mess and noise in our mind, independently of our will! There is no way you can force your mind into quietness!
The only way is to tame it. And for this, the main weapon developed and trained in Shen Gong is ATTENTION.
This rare quality is valuable for all the other practices but also simply to be in the moment.
Attention is what keeps us from falling into our mental and emotional traps.
MEDITATION
Meditation, on the other hand, is not an exercise, but a state. There is nothing to seek.
One is simply in the moment, reuniting with our true self which is always here, but so often stifled by our emotional outbursts and our compulsive comments.
This free state of mediation cannot be experienced without first knowing and educating the mind through the more structured exercises of Shen Gong.
SHEN GONG FORMAL TRAINING
Training of the mind, deep meditation and the opening of the Spiritual Centre.
The Practice of the mind for the pursuit of Happiness and Self-realization through the clear vision of reality. This formal teaching is Da Xuan’s traditional method to profound enlightenment.
It is a comprehensive education available to everyone.
SHEN DAN – TRANQUIL SITTING
THE SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE MIND
Here is our traditional synthesized vision of the mind: It relies on the principle that there are three minds.
- First there is who we think we are, which is none other than our ego.
It is the little character or the inner judge which relentlessly talks.
It is this voice that we hear before speaking, but which also tells us things, inside our head, that we say out loud.
The one we think we are is purely our mental mind, and thus is really different from who we really are.
This inner little judge will often parasite our ability to think clearly since it is always moving.
- The second mind is who we really and deeply are.
It is linked to the unconscious and deeper aspects of our mind and is, by far, the closest to our true nature.
This deep mind, who we really are, is a state of the mind which does not consider the realities of the world.
It means we cannot be functional when we are in this unconscious or semi-conscious state.
- The third mind is who we pretend to be.
This we are terribly aware of, that’s why we won’t say much about it!
It is all the characters that we pretend to be or that we play depending on the environment and people we interact with.
- First there is who we think we are, which is none other than our ego.
The balance of our mind comes from the balance between these three parts.
In order to do so, you first need to make the third mind (the masks) disappear as much as possible.
Secondly, you need to clarify your thoughts so that the one you think you are, your mental mind, can work without disturbing you.
Finally, it is important, in order to be fully happy, to keep a daily connection with the one you really are, through meditation, breathing or even physical exercises.
Achievement is finding Peace in the relationship between these three aspects of our Nature.
The formal teaching of Shen Dan offers a way to connect and balance the three aspects of the mind through a spiritual training.
We Teach two aspects of the Tranquil Sitting:
“Internal Contemplation” and “Sitting and Forgetting”
MAGIC
SEEING THE OTHER WORLD
We live in a time when the rational, the tangible and the logical took over our perception of the world. Yet if we look closer, there are so few people who have entirely eradicated irrationality from their lives, and most civilizations throughout the world have kept contact with the irrational and the invisible…
We are conditioned by a very small part of our mind. The rational mind: It helps define, distinguish, structure, comprehend, a vital aspect for us… but gradually it cuts us from our relation to the infinite, to the spiritual. Although the rational dominates our general perception, can we say for sure that the world as we see it is the reality?
We have all experienced these intuition moments enabling us to make the right choices, the phone calls of a person we were just thinking about …Indeed, it is perfectly possible to keep our common sense while giving space to a more subtle form of reality…
The practice of Magic is the exploration of the deep relationship between ourselves and the world, based on something other than a purely rational discrimination of internal and external life changes. This practice pulls us out of our certainties, which are the only real limits to our personal evolution.
Going into this practice does not require you to embrace or understand a complex tradition. Besides, you may come from any cultural or religious background. You just need to accept the possibility of a subtler reality in order to observe the strange signs of life which seem to communicate a message. Embracing the subtle world and connecting to deeper spheres is possible as long as we free our minds from the power of the intellect.
DAOIST MAGIC: FORMAL TEACHING
Our tradition has a very detailed Magic Practice, inherited from the Wang Family, one of the 9 clans, from Kunlun and Tibet. It was recorded in Chinese history from with the first Fangshi (sorcerers) about 450 before our time.
Daoist Magic was the specialty of my Teacher, the only 9th grade Daoist Tianshi of the 20th Century.
The formal teaching is deep and precise.
The strength of a serious magical practice is that the results of work on the subtle world are concrete! If the effects are invisible then it is NOT magic but only fantasy.
The Daoist Tradition distinguishes two forms of magic:
Yin magic, which is passive and all about observation with an acute attention to the changes of the world; This gives us a new perspective on the world, and a clearer vision of our place in it, understanding how to benefit from it.
Yang magic, more active, uses this observation of changes for operative purposes, action based on intention. It reveals the potential of our intention and its influence on the changes of the world.
LUCID DREAMING PRACTICE
If the daily Practice on the body, breath and mind develops our consciousness, the dream practice seeks to extend this consciousness during our sleep. How sad to fall into a black hole at night when the day was spent trying to remain present to ourselves and to the world! The Way leads us to seek awareness throughout our life: the practice of lucid dreaming is a way to stay conscious during sleep.
Dream practices are ancient, but the possibility of consciousness during sleep was only recognized scientifically in the 80s.
The first evidence of the existence of lucid dreaming was produced, on April 12, 1975 by Keith Hearne at the Hull University in Great-Britain. Alan Worsley, the subject of the experiment, signaled his awareness in the dream by an eye-movement code previously agreed on. These signals were recorded during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. It was shown that one could be aware in the midst of sleep.
It has also been proven that dreams are essential in our learning process, as well as in dealing with our emotions. Dreams allow us to digest our life experiences and learn from them.
If dreams bring messages, we can deduce that when experienced consciously, they can greatly enlighten our personal evolution.
DIGESTING OUR EMOTIONS
A dream is the digestion, by our mind, of the huge amount of information and emotions experienced every single day; thanks to this, we can wake up in a neutral emotional state. Dreams consists of 80% of the perceptions and events of the past day; our mind, to satisfy its need to understand and classify, tries to organize all the fragmented information collected and make a coherent story out of it. The remaining 20% give the dream’s formal structure and symbols expressing our deeper problems.
A recurring dream is the sign of an experience that our mind could not digest. It is a message that we don’t understand; it is the expression of a blockage hindering our evolution. This dream will repeat itself, as long as we have not understood its message, because we are all inhabited by the deep desire to evolve.
A nightmare is a dream in which we are the victim; it is the expression of the suffering from the blockages impeding us. The original purpose of the nightmare is related to childhood and meant to help us adjust to the aspects of our life that seem incoherent and which create anxiety.
Hence the importance of dreams and practicing them with awareness, for a balanced emotional life. If our emotions are not completely digested during the night, we wake up in the morning with an emotional layer which, will become a mood-humor if it is regularly fueled with the same emotion. A humor is a densified emotion, constantly present, that doesn’t need to be triggered by an external event or a thought, as it usually is the case regarding normal emotions. These humors are directly responsible for many diseases, as the Treaty of the Yellow Emperor states: “Undigested emotions are the primary source of disease.”
THE DA XUAN DREAMING PRACTICE
Through the practice of dreaming, we will work on the mind’s digestion process to make it more fluid, which first implies to eliminate the superficial “wastes” from our mundane activities, allowing us to see the key messages to our evolution more clearly. The dream is also a crucial time for regeneration: it allows us to go back to the Yuan Shen, the absolute, and nourish ourselves with this universal energy.
We can identify three phases of sleep during which dreams are possible:
– Falling asleep
– REM sleep
– Deep sleep
The falling asleep and the deep sleep are the phases in which consciousness is the hardest to keep.
Therefore, we are primarily interested in REM sleep, during which dreams can be experiences in three different ways:
- The Unconscious Dream, in which we are absolutely passive and suffer the scenario that our mind produces, based on the perceptions and emotions of our day, with the underlying fabric of our deeper problems.
- The Guided Dream, in which we are partly conscious, that is to say that we can influence aspects of the dream without being able to control it fully; this intermediate zone, is particularly interesting since it is the point of contact between the unconscious and the lucid dreaming.
- The Lucid Dream: Here we are completely free to influence any aspect of our dream. Being released from our body, we can achieve practices and journeys that would be impossible in material reality.
This practice will induce a change in the issues manifested in your dreams. They will go from mundane, egotistic matters to deep troubles and fears. This evolution toward your truth develops your feeling and connection to the Absolute.
DA XUAN LUCID DREAM TEACHINGS
The practice follows a progression based on the Three Tresures (Body, Qi and Shen) starting with the body and focusing on the object of the dream. Then training the Qi in relation to emotions and finally training the mind.
By applying daily principles and rules in preparing for the night, you will digest your emotions faster and easier, thus giving space for the actual dream practice. Our school uses specific exercises to wake up and act in dreams. Being freed from the limitations of the body, every practice done during the dream will allow you to significantly open your limits and go straight into the dissolution of your blockages.
Now that you know Lucid Dreaming is a proven fact, you just need to train the qualities of a “good dreamer” and live a second life…in your dreams!!!