I sat some time, staring out the window, before beginning to write this.

Why?

It's my usual means of invoking the Muse. But it was more than that.

One, we've had a lot of cold, gray, rainy days here lately, and this morning, the sky is bright and blue. I was, and still am, taking in the peace.

Two, I'm a bit full (too much oatmeal), and I slept really well last night -- I'm in a bit of a digestive trance with one foot still in the Emptiness.

Three -- and I suspect this is the real reason, which is why I share it last (though I do admit it's also both a rhetorical device and a helpmate to my invocation to use those other reasons as scaffolding to bring me to my point) -- I wanted to write about Qigong today, but I didn't want to write about Qigong today.

The thing is, if you didn't know, I worked at the Spring Forest Qigong healing center for a few years.

(And, if you didn't know, why not take a more-than-gander at these? Panache, Your Voice Carries Well, Free Your Spirit, A Real Gentlehobbit, Waffer-Theen.)

Which is to say, or say again, I answered thousands of emails (most covering questions related to Qigong and healing, whether to a shallower or deeper degree), took hundreds of phone calls (same idea), and even wrote a whole bunch of long newsletter articles about the shallower and deeper aspects of Qigong and healing (a few of which I've shared above, and elsewhere on this website).

For some time, I'd do that all day, then I'd come home with zest, gusto, and unquenched appetite, not just to read, listen, write, and talk about Qigong MORE, but -- most important -- I'd also do my daily practice of the Qigong movements and meditations.

In the early days of this, I did connect with Spring Forest Qigong Master Jim Nance.

The details of that are "neither here nor there." It was for help, let's say -- because it's true.

As I've gone deeper into my practice, I've come to understand him more, so I can see more of the human side of him, whereas before I was blinded by my awe.

As a friend, also deep in the Qigong, told me -- seeing the human side of these Masters takes nothing away from them, but only makes me love them more.

What I'm saying is, he told me something in those early days -- in his by-the-way way, which made it so easy for me to pass what he said by, not seeing its worth.

He said working at that healing center was like deep-sea diving: you go so deep and come under such tremendous pressure that you can't just pop right back out of the ocean and go on your merry way.

You need to decompress.

As I later understood, that was not just a casual suggestion to take it easy; deep-sea divers can die when they re-emerge too quickly from the depths.

So -- you could say I'm still decompressing from my time at the healing center.

"Slow is the experience of all deep wells: long must they wait before they know what fell into their depth."

Which isn't to say I haven't been practicing my Qigong daily this whole time -- that, I have always done, and that, I suppose, is what I wanted to talk about today.

Of course, I talked about it already here.

I won't cover it all again, but in brief...

I can't tell you how often someone would call, or write, or come in and complain that either they weren't healing fast enough or they weren't "advancing in their spiritual growth" fast enough.

Master Chunyi Lin, founder of Spring Forest Qigong, got this question (or complaint) a lot, of course, so he even recorded a short video of himself addressing it in his usual simple, heartfelt way. Enterprising readers can search it out online, I'm sure.

In short, he said, "Fast or slow is a feeling, and that is subjective. What do you really want? Do you want your symptoms to go away, or do you want to heal from the root?"

The implication being -- relief from symptoms and healing are not the same thing.

And, well -- they really aren't.

But, of course, almost no one wants to hear that, and almost no one hath ears to hear that.

Yet, it's the truth.

And, so, if you stumbled onto or have been drawn into the orbit of something like Spring Forest Qigong, if you've felt, There's something here, and I know it can help me, and if you understand that it is a system and method of cultivating the ever-changing Qi that is the root of the physical form, then... really, the only honest approach you can take, if healing or spiritual growth by this system and method is your desire, is to practice daily, no matter what.

Almost no one wants to hear that, either, and just as few have the ears to hear it.

But it's the truth.

I said I wouldn't say it all again, but I just did; and as I said elsewhere, Sometimes you have to say things THREE TIMES so people understand you.

That's twice. Let me give it one more go.

When I was first drawn to Spring Forest Qigong, I don't know exactly what it was that drew me. All I can say, having now the clarity of retrospection, is that it was meant to be.

Master Lin says everyone has a "soul purpose."

That's true, and it's so, so profound.

All I'll say about that, in passing, so as -- for once -- not to take you down flowery side-paths on our long peregrination today, is that the higher governs the lower, and that in the "seven dimensions of healing" Master Lin talks about, healing in the dimensions of the heart and soul... how should I say it?

It cuts right through the Gordian Knot.

Trying to approach the healing, step by step, symptom by symptom, from the physical realm upward, is like being handed that giant ball of thousands of knots and trying to unravel it, and them, one by one.

Gurdjieff said:

"'On the earth we are very far removed from the will of the Absolute; we are separated from it by forty-eight orders of mechanical laws. If we could free ourselves from one half of these laws, we should find ourselves subject to only twenty-four orders of laws, that is, to the laws of the planetary world, and then we should be one stage nearer to the Absolute and its will. If we could then free ourselves from one half of these laws, we should be subject to the laws of the sun (twelve laws) and consequently one stage nearer still to the Absolute. If, again, we could free ourselves from half of these laws, we should be subject to the laws of the starry world and separated by only one stage from the immediate will of the Absolute.

"'And the possibility for man thus gradually to free himself from mechanical laws exists.'"

Just before that, he says:

"'The idea of a miracle in the sense of a violation of laws by the will which made them is not only contrary to common sense but to the very idea of will itself. A "miracle" can only be a manifestation of laws which are unknown to men or rarely met with. A "miracle" is a manifestation in this world of the laws of another world.'"

Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous

And, though here we're talking about unraveling knots, before I do that by tying it all together, let me just add a knot or two more.

In Gurdjieff's conceptual system (itself only an aspect -- the mental-intellectual development aspect -- of the Work he and his students engaged in), all of creation was a radiation, according to the Law of Octaves, from the Absolute -- from God.

He called each of these stages proceeding from (and including) the Absolute worlds, or cosmoses.

And, please, don't think he that he just "made that up."

He himself says that this is an ancient understanding, some of whose terminology he even adopts unchanged. I've found that to be true.

So, there's the Protocosmos, the First Cosmos, the Absolute.

Then, the Megalocosmos, the Great Cosmos.

Then, the Macrocosmos, the Large Cosmos.

And so on till you have seven of them.

Seven -- remember that.

Each cosmos has its own nature and -- now what I quoted should make a little more sense -- its own number of laws.

It gets complex, and I won't pretend to understand all the intricacies of it, but it's beside the point anyway, so -- that's helpful for me, and for you.

Now, we cleave the knot in twain by tying it all together.

Just as in Gurdjieff's system there are Seven Cosmoses, in Spring Forest Qigong there are Seven Dimensions of Healing. They are the same.

Gurdjieff says matter and energy are one, and in Spring Forest Qigong, we learn that Qi is not just energy, but energy with consciousness and intelligence.

Gurdjieff says, I am more of a materialist than the materialists.

What he means is, not that he denies the spiritual realms, higher consciousness, or divinity, but that all of those things are simply higher and finer expressions of materiality.

In Spring Forest Qigong -- these days, especially, since in the summer of 2021 Master Lin completely revised the content, terminology, and method and order of presentation of the content of his core classes, Levels One, Two, and Three -- you learn that, at root, what you're doing with the Qigong practice is gathering, cultivating, and refining Qi.

Think about that -- and take your time.

And, actually, before you do that, consider one more thing.

The cosmoses of Gurdjieff, like the dimensions of Spring Forest Qigong, are not "separate realms," say like the solar system you learned about with styrofoam balls when you were a kid.

No; rather, they are interpenetrating dimensions, all present everywhere, all at once, all the time.

It's just that, in each dimension and in some physical locations, one dimension, and so one kind of matter, dominates and predominates.

Ok.

Now, think about that, and take your time.

Take plenty of time, actually; I've taken, mmm, 10 or 15 years to think about it (and to more-than-think about it), and I'm only now starting to make headway (or more-than-head-way).

What I'm saying is, with a practice like Spring Forest Qigong, you are actually gathering, by many means at once and while in this relatively "low," relatively "law-burdened" realm, more and more of finer and finer particles of Qi, while both refining your own bodies (physical, mental-emotional, and spiritual) and their capacity to digest that finer and finer Qi.

That's not mere metaphor.

Remember: all the dimensions, or cosmoses, are material, and they're all here at once. That means, every kind of Qi you need is here, all around you, all the time.

And, remember, Qi is not just energy (and, as Gurdjieff would say, both matter and energy): it is energy with consciousness and intelligence.

And, remember what I said elsewhere: there is no higher consciousness without higher conscience.

And, also remember that the great spiritual traditions understood that the higher enters the lower by the sacred wound made by piercing the heart, while the core Qi cultivation practice of Spring Forest Qigong, the Five Element Qigong Healing Movements, has you cultivate happiness, joy, peace, contentment, gratitude, unconditional love, kindness, and forgiveness while you do special movements, visualizations, breathing, and internally intone certain sounds.

And, please remember, all those wonderful emotions you consciously cultivate with the Five Elements practice are very fine, very high, very divine forms of Qi.

Whew.

What I'm saying is... by the practice of Spring Forest Qigong, you attain the "possibility... thus gradually to free [your]self from mechanical laws."

Let that sink in.

You'll say, That's a lot to let sink in.

I'll answer, Use the wisdom of the cloth-dyers.

If you'd like your cloth to really hold that dye, withstanding many washings and long use, then you don't just soak it once: you soak it, wring it out; soak it, and wring it out; soak it, and wring it out, many, many times.

Which brings me back to what I said earlier: no one wants to hear it, but if you want to heal and make progress in Qigong, you have to practice every day.

I'll end on this, since already I've gone overlong.

After I'd done enough research online -- several years of this -- to be satisfied that Master Chunyi Lin was "the real deal," I took a flight to Minnesota and attended a live Level One class with him.

It was one of the last live ones he taught (though he should be teaching the "revised" Levels live this year -- I'd encourage you to attend them).

The class was huge, and he only taught the first half -- Master Jaci Gran taught the second half.

To be honest, I had a hard time paying attention to the "lessons," because what I really wanted to do was take a good, long, up-close look (and by look, I mean more than using mere sight) at Master Lin, to see whether he was what I believed he was.

And, you know what?

He struck me as almost simplistic, as did his teaching.

I didn't leave feeling he was a fake or fraud, or that his system wasn't special... it just felt like, Man, this is some real kindergarten stuff. Why isn't he more charismatic?

And, what I'm telling you now is, I couldn't have been more wrong.

Spring Forest Qigong is, in fact, one of the most profound spiritual teachings and methods of Qi cultivation I have ever encountered. As I've said elsewhere, I've found it to be a master-key that's unlocked many doors of understanding that long stood locked before me -- and I've only begun to understand that.

But, again, what I'm saying is -- the only way I could experience that was by practicing. 

The only way I could make headway was by making my way with more than my head.

Remember what I said about the nature of Qi.

And, all that is to say, going back to decompression and practicing daily... please practice every day, but please don't be disappointed if you "don't feel anything."

My own experience, both with my own practice and in interacting with thousands of Qigong students and healing clients, has been that you may not know what you need for your healing and spiritual growth.

OK?

I know that hurts your ego, but it's true.

And, at the same time, your system may not be accustomed to ingesting and digesting those finer forms of Qi.

You're like someone who's been eating Fritos, Whoppers, Milk Duds, and Mountain Dew for years, and who then suddenly tries to eat a nourishing home-cooked meal with many herbs, many fresh ingredients.

Not only does it "not taste good," but -- it might just make you sick.

But don't blame the home-cooked meal; have pity on your deranged digestion, and give it some time to adjust.

You don't know yet what's good for you, and you don't even recognize it when you taste it.

But please remember that, with Spring Forest Qigong, from the very start you are making a direct connection with the divine -- with the Absolute, as Gurdjieff called it, -- and it knows you better than you do.

It knows what you need better than you do.

It knows everything.

You might, in fact, say:

Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.

What, then, is left to do?

Practice.

Practice consistently.

Have faith.

By faith are all things accomplished, and without faith are no things accomplished that are accomplished.

Put that in your gourd and let it ferment.

21 April 2022