Stages of cleansing, building and nourishing: 10 Questions to the Grandmaster

[barrys]

Dear Family and Visitors,

As you know, for the Shaolin Wahnam Summer Camp 2013, Sifu has put together a program called Three Treasures of Qigong to help people understand, experience, and progress safely through all stages of cleansing, building and nourishing. The combination of arts being taught can take any practitioner from the most basic stage of clearing illness to the highest levels of spiritual cultivation, based on their needs and objectives.

You can find more details of the course here

Sifu has kindly offered to answer questions on the topic of Stages of Cleansing, Nourishing and Building.

Family and visitors are invited to ask questions. These might be about the general topic or specifically about challenges you have faced or are facing.


Out of all the submitted questions Sifu will choose 10 and we will post the answers here and on the event website over the coming weeks.

Looking forward to learning a lot from this thread.

With metta,

Barry

[sancrica]

Wonderful :-)

Hi Barry Sifu,

It is amazing how much Sifu keeps sharing. Such an inspiration for all of us...

One of my particular worries is to grow at the speed it is better for me. So now, that I have the chance, I would make my personal question about the subject:

In the last Saint Valentines Course, I had really vigorous Chi Flows. Through the years, I have seen that they keep growing and being even more vigorous. In order to get the best benefits and development, is it better to let them being vigorous whenever I feel it or to keep some of them still?

I really love Questions and Answers series. They are really enriching and of so much help in my practice. :-)

Thanks Barry Sifu for starting this thread and thanks Sifu for you infinity generosity.

Love, care and Shaolin Salute,

Santiago

[barrys]

Dear Santiago,

I am sure that is a question that will resonate with and be helpful to a lot of people.

With metta,

Barry

[Andrew]

This is an excellent opportunity. By excellent opportunity I mean both the Q&A that Barry has kindly started on cleansing, building and nourishing as well as the courses on offer at the Summer Camp to enable people to experience these.

My questions:

1. There are many stages of development. At any point during their development, how can the practitioner know when/whether to cleanse, build and/or nourish?

2. The effects of cleansing can sometimes be quite strong. How can a practitioner know that such effects are caused by cleansing rather than deviation in their practice (and thus avoid worrying unnecessarily)?

[Leo Shaolin]

Thank you Sifu and Barry Siheng for this great opportunity.

Question 1:
Dear Sifu, how do the different stages affect each other, especially in the reverse direction to our normal development? (i.e. Does a lot of built up force enhance the cleansing? Does a strong spirit enhance the development of internal force? How does a cleansed body improve the nourishment of the spirit? …)

Question 2 is related to Andrew Siheng’s:
Dear Sifu, would you please elaborate on the extremes of training, namely over-cleansing and over-training? How can a practitioner know which of the extremes he might have reached and how can they be overcome?

As we are training high level arts, a lot of practitioners reach those points at some time of their development, so your answer will be highly appreciated.

Thank you very much for sharing your wisdom!

Best wishes, o\

Leo

[Matthew]

Thank you Barry Sipak for this thread and thank you Sigung for another priceless opportunity to learn from you.

After three excellent initial questions all of which I might have asked myself, I initially found it difficult to think of another one!

My (limited) understanding of cleansing, nourishing and building is that these processes are non-linear, dependent on many factors such as the individual, training practices and so on, and that as one develops they may experience cycles or spirals of these three stages, not necessarily in order.

My question is: Please could Sigung illustrate the nature (cyclical or otherwise) of these processes as one develops with an example of how one possible path might unfold?

I hope this question makes sense?

Thank you.

With love and respect,

Matt

[barrys]

Dear Andrew and Leo,

Thanks for the questions .

To everyone,

This is a great opportunity for anyone practising or interested in Chi Kung to ask a Grandmaster a question directly. If you are on Facebook you can share the link on your timeline. This will give as many people as possible the opportunity to participate in the questions and benefit from Sifu's answers.

If you want to share it you can go to this link and click 'share'.

With metta,

Barry

[Luo Lang]

Dear Sifu,

At the Cosmic shower course two years ago in Bern you went deeply into explaining that physical, emotional, mental and spiritual cleansing as a result of a good cirlculation of energy should in general have more importance or priority than the building of energy.

Interestingly and to many student's surprise you would mention that the better a student cleanses or is beeing cleansed the more or better he/she also nourishes and builds up energy/internal force.

Could Sifu please elaborate more on the relation between cleansing and building the energy?

Thank you Sifu for offering to answer our questions.

[Mark Blohm]

Dear Sifu,

If we follow (or don't follow) instructions, and if we trust the Master (or think that we know better than the Master), how will this effect the processes of cleansing, nourishing and building?

[Damian Kissey]

Internal Arts

Dear Sifu ,

Is it correct to say that both non practitioners and chi kung practitioners experience cleansing , building and nourishing throughout their lifes but randomly haphazardly in the former and progressively systematically in the latter ?

What is the method for and nature of cleansing , building and nourishing in sentient beings like immortals , arahants and boddhisatvas ?

Thank you .

[Adam B]

Dear Sigung,

What are the similarities and differences between building and nourishing?

Thank you,

[Guest]

Dear Sifu,

When we face fierce, intense (but upright) emotions through cleansing; should we embrace our fire or find the middle path (cool down) in these extremes?

Thank you,
Tim

[Andy]

Dear Sifu,

Thank you for this opportunity. My question is similar to some of those asked previously, but if the answer has not been covered by your earlier responses I would like to ask:

Q) How does one judge whether to keep practicing through a cleansing period, or to stop practicing for a while?

Shaolin Salute,

[Zach]

Dear Sifu and Barry Siheng,

Thank you for the opportunity within these Question and Answers.

Here's my question: Several times when I began cleansing, I incorrectly guessed that the symptoms were the beginning of a cold or flu. I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that we should treat cleansing differently. How do we tell the difference when the symptoms are similar? Should we treat cleansing differently than a minor sickness?

I should add that I have rarely been sick in the six years I've been practicing Chi Kung. When I have been sick, the symptoms are so much milder and the progress of healing is so much faster, that I cannot use my older references for how healing happens.

As always, my thanks and gratitude.

Zach

[Kevin_B]

Dear Sigung,

How do the stages of cleansing, building and nourishing differ between the arts practiced in our school?

Suppose you had three people who were identical in every way possible. The first person practices the 18 Lohan Hands Chi Kung exclusively. The second person practices Wahnam Taijiquan exclusively. The third person practices Shaolin Kung Fu exclusively.

How would their respective journeys through cleansing, building and nourishing be similar? How would they differ?

Thank you Sigung.
Thank you Barry Sifu.

All the best,

Kevin