Hello everyone,
Having read through some of the posts and links related to various meditations particularly those involving the activations of chakras/energy-centers I thought I'd write a post about what I feel is one of the most important components in any meditation involving energy work.
I studied chi gong meditation for a number of years under a very competent
instructor whom I respect very highly. One of the most important aspects which was always stressed was the 'closing'. In fact, my instructor thought this to be such an important aspect that he gave us, apart from the standard closing applied to each form, a large number of other methods for 'closing' including many *forced closing* exercises (the most extreme of which was rigorous exercise to the point of physical exhaustion).
For those who may be confused by what I mean by closing, the purpose of closing is to clearly define a section of the meditation that leads up to a point where you are *done*, you are no longer meditating and your state of consciousness is back to 'normal' and 'mundane'. Any little bits of energy which may have gathered in various places on your body are re-absorbed or evenly distributed and you 'close' yourself. You're done, time to go do the laundry and pick the kids up from soccer practice.
I'm not sure how this relates to other traditions, but I would go as far as to recommend to any beginner in any tradition to avoid *any* meditation instructions which clearly don't have an ending or which leave you in an altered state of consciousness after you're done. By an altered state I certainly don't mean a feeling of relaxation and well being, there's nothing wrong with that.
The *only* exception to this rule is meditation done before going to sleep, if you fall asleep while meditating (this assumes this is your regular bed time) you will close yourself automatically by the time you wake up as part of the the normal sleep cycle.
This advice is aimed mainly at people who are exploring various meditation techniques that they are finding through books and on the web. If you have a *qualified* instructor in whatever tradition you follow I suggest you stick to what your instructor tells you but I would still go as far as to recommend you ask your instructor about this specifically and about the dangers of remaining 'open' after meditations involving the activation of energy centers or exposing yourself to foreign energy.
How to tell if you're still 'open':
- your mind keeps wandering back to whatever you were doing during the meditation itself.
- you are still aware of energies (however you perceive them) to an extent similar to meditation
- you feel removed or detached from daily or mundane concerns or desires (yes I'm outright saying this is a bad thing)
- you're not sure if you're 'closed'
How to fix it (fix it *every* time):
- go for a jog, do some pushups, go play some sports
- go visit an older respected friend who has absolutely no interest in the
occult and is the most logical skeptical person you can find and just hang out chewing the fat about the most mundane stuff there is
- go for a swim
- if you don't have an instructor and you still have trouble PM (Private Message) me if you want, although I can't promise I can help.
It can be very tempting to try and prolong some of the experiences
gained by various meditations and to walk around in the world with a higher degree of consciousness and perception compared to those around you. There are negative consequences to doing this that you don't want ranging from the mundane to the not so mundane, consult your instructor for details. If you are looking to enhance your perception through meditation allow this to happen slowly and naturally (years, many years no matter how naturally sensitive you are, be patient).
If you don't have an instructor and you think you can trust a total stranger on the internet whom you've never met feel free to PM me, *don't* PM me if you already have an instructor. I am *not* currently an instructor and I will not become your instructor.
If you've been following various rituals and meditations found in books or over the internet and have found yourself constantly 'open' (hopefully I've made this concept clear) after your meditations (including any bizarre experiences or after-effects such as drifting off in the middle of your daily routine, lost time, a sudden and remarkable change in your ability to perceive the non-physical, or any drastic changes positive or negative related to the non-mundane or anything else which either bothers you or excites you or both) STOP. Stop and find yourself a qualified instructor.
Over the years I've become aware of some traditions whose aim is to remain 'open' as I describe it for purposes that I will not describe. Trying to pursue such a tradition without an instructor is *insane*, if you think you may have been pursuing such a tradition on your own, STOP.
The mind is a very powerful thing, have respect for it and respect for yourself.
Best wishes in pursuing your practices!
T. Guy.
(P.S. please feel free to comment, I'm interested in hearing the views of others on this subject.)
The Importance of Closing
The Importance of Closing
. . . . . . . . .
Be aware.
. . . . . . . . .
Be aware.
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Hello hedgewitch, thank-you for taking an interest.
When I first joined this forum, one of my goals was to acquire a better understanding of witchcraft as it is commonly practiced; mainly through interacting with its practitioners.
When I first posted the above article I did so for two reasons. One was that I simply wanted to indicate that, as a new member, I had some knowledge to offer. Unfortunately I am far from immune from the desire to promote my own self importance and this desire has probably colored my post. The other reason was that I was genuinely concerned for the welfare of those practicing various forms of meditation without supervision and leaving themselves completely or excessively open to various external influences; for example: the negative emotions or intentions of those around them. Many of those who are interested in magick (in whatever form) are already extra-sensitive and can perhaps mistake the emotions of beings in their proximity for their own and even unknowingly reproduce them without good cause.
In truth, until I started participating in this forum, the concept of grounding was completely unknown to me. A few times I thought I saw some direct analogue with my own practices but I feel the connections I have drawn may prove to be mostly illusory.
The concept of 'closing' is meant to bring one back into a state of mundane consciousness, to 'close' oneself after 'opening' oneself. When one is meditating, one can become intimately connected to all sorts of things, one's 'flow' is far reaching and interconnected, one is 'open'. I really can't elaborate too far beyond this because it's a concept which I acquired while actually learning my meditation and to describe it precisely in words is difficult for me.
What I believe I now understand about grounding is that the witch returns excess energy to the universe after performing some sort of spell work. I gather this involves channelling energy from potentially many sources including 'the source of all' or the primal source. The grounding is mainly to avoid the ill effects of having excess or foreign energy in one's system, in essence, so that one doesn't become 'out of balance'. I believe I may still not be entirely correct in my thinking about this, and to be honest, in order to gain an actual understanding of grounding (albeit a tiny and basic one) I would have to witness a witch preparing for, performing a spell and then performing a grounding ritual so that I could see what was going on for myself and understand it on my own terms as opposed to through the paucity of language.
Here is a brief summary of how I perform my basic meditation to put the description of the closing technique into some context:
When I learned my qi-gong there was a major focus on one's 'flow', specifically the flow of one's 'chi'. At the center of the main meditation, one draws in freely given energy (usually from the sun or the moon) drawing it down into one's 'dan tien' or 'seat of heaven' along with one's breath and 'pushing it down', concentrating it there, squeezing it in. This fills the 'dan tien' with energy and it acts like a furnace, somehow converting this energy into your own chi which radiates outward through all your 'channels' helping to unblock them, making them 'through'.
There are also secondary visualizations involving the heart, the skin and various things going on around the 'dan tien' which we visualize as a flower (namely a red lotus). This flower is what's drawing the breath and the energy from the the sun/moon as it opens and closes (rain, steam and fire are also involved but to get into all the little visualizations is a bit complicated). In essense this flower is feeding on the energy you draw in, and the chi it puts out in its furnace action is unblocking your channels. This furnace-like action also assists in forcing out 'black' or dead 'energy?', well it's not exactly energy, kind of like 'badness' or 'crud'.
The energy from the sun/moon is drawn along the following path: from the sun or moon it enters the top of the head (which I believe you call the 'crown' center?), moves to a point roughly between the eyebrows and a little above (the 'mind's eye' point) and down into your palms (which rest in a specific formation left-over-right just above the 'dan tien' much like you see most buddhist monks do; there are subtleties to the positioning of the fingers and thumbs as well) where it pools, from there it is drawn into the 'dan tien' meeting with the breath which is drawn in through the nose and mouth, through the lungs and from there directly into the 'dan tien'.
During the meditation the palms become highly energized (and also fill with much blood) as does the mind's eye point. This is a bit of an over-simplication of the main meditation form; there are also times during this where one partially breaks the meditation and does various other things before returning to the meditation again. It is performed either in a standing 'horse riding' stance or in a full or half-lotus sitting position.
This meditation is meant to improve the overall ambient strength of your chi and to improve the quality of it's flow and your perception or control of 'flow' in general. This is the foundation, everything else follows from this.
The 'Closing' (I'll try be to be specific here):
- At some point you wind down the meditation.
- You fully open your eyes (which are normally kept half-closed).
- You let your visualizations fade.
- All Excess Chi/energy which has collected on the skin or anywhere else is moved into in the hands (I can't really describe how one learns to move chi, basically chi follows attention, blood follows chi). To aid this process you slap your hands together and rub them (remember Karate Kid? well that's pretty much it), this helps you put more attention in your hands.
- This energy is used to 'pat down' all parts of your body. Basically you just slap your hands all over your body, particularly the top of you head and your kidneys.
- Next you slowly rub your face up and down while yawning and with your eyes wide open. You imagine that the energy still remaining in your hands is beaming in through your open eyes and into your head (leaving your hands).
- Finally you place your hands together, left on top of right, and take whatever remains of the excess energy there and focus it into a tiny golden speck.
- You place your hands over your navel and move that speck in and downwards through your belly-button and into your 'dan tien'.
- you say to yourself "I'm closed"
- BAM! You totally ignore that fact you were meditating and go do something normal.
That's the main closing technique in a nutshell. An example of a simple 'forced closing technique' is something as simple as doing some extreme and acute physical exercise until you are utterly exhausted. 100 pushups for someone in average health should do the trick, maybe more for an avid athlete or someone young.
With regards to energy work, when one uses one's abilities to accomplish something out of the ordinary (such as an act of healing) it's recommended that one performs a meditation form designed to restore one's flow (which includes the closing at it's termination). However, the danger here is usually that in helping a patient, a healer can have the tendency to pick up the patient's bad flow configuration by induction and acquire a (usually temporary) sympathetic version (same symptoms, but no cause) of whatever afflicted the patient.
I'm finding that my practices are somewhat different from those employed in witchcraft, and because the two are different paths there is a greater tendency for miscommunication, especially using words. That being said, I hope my description was entertaining for you and I'm happy to share.
cheers,
T. Guy.
When I first joined this forum, one of my goals was to acquire a better understanding of witchcraft as it is commonly practiced; mainly through interacting with its practitioners.
When I first posted the above article I did so for two reasons. One was that I simply wanted to indicate that, as a new member, I had some knowledge to offer. Unfortunately I am far from immune from the desire to promote my own self importance and this desire has probably colored my post. The other reason was that I was genuinely concerned for the welfare of those practicing various forms of meditation without supervision and leaving themselves completely or excessively open to various external influences; for example: the negative emotions or intentions of those around them. Many of those who are interested in magick (in whatever form) are already extra-sensitive and can perhaps mistake the emotions of beings in their proximity for their own and even unknowingly reproduce them without good cause.
In truth, until I started participating in this forum, the concept of grounding was completely unknown to me. A few times I thought I saw some direct analogue with my own practices but I feel the connections I have drawn may prove to be mostly illusory.
The concept of 'closing' is meant to bring one back into a state of mundane consciousness, to 'close' oneself after 'opening' oneself. When one is meditating, one can become intimately connected to all sorts of things, one's 'flow' is far reaching and interconnected, one is 'open'. I really can't elaborate too far beyond this because it's a concept which I acquired while actually learning my meditation and to describe it precisely in words is difficult for me.
What I believe I now understand about grounding is that the witch returns excess energy to the universe after performing some sort of spell work. I gather this involves channelling energy from potentially many sources including 'the source of all' or the primal source. The grounding is mainly to avoid the ill effects of having excess or foreign energy in one's system, in essence, so that one doesn't become 'out of balance'. I believe I may still not be entirely correct in my thinking about this, and to be honest, in order to gain an actual understanding of grounding (albeit a tiny and basic one) I would have to witness a witch preparing for, performing a spell and then performing a grounding ritual so that I could see what was going on for myself and understand it on my own terms as opposed to through the paucity of language.
Here is a brief summary of how I perform my basic meditation to put the description of the closing technique into some context:
When I learned my qi-gong there was a major focus on one's 'flow', specifically the flow of one's 'chi'. At the center of the main meditation, one draws in freely given energy (usually from the sun or the moon) drawing it down into one's 'dan tien' or 'seat of heaven' along with one's breath and 'pushing it down', concentrating it there, squeezing it in. This fills the 'dan tien' with energy and it acts like a furnace, somehow converting this energy into your own chi which radiates outward through all your 'channels' helping to unblock them, making them 'through'.
There are also secondary visualizations involving the heart, the skin and various things going on around the 'dan tien' which we visualize as a flower (namely a red lotus). This flower is what's drawing the breath and the energy from the the sun/moon as it opens and closes (rain, steam and fire are also involved but to get into all the little visualizations is a bit complicated). In essense this flower is feeding on the energy you draw in, and the chi it puts out in its furnace action is unblocking your channels. This furnace-like action also assists in forcing out 'black' or dead 'energy?', well it's not exactly energy, kind of like 'badness' or 'crud'.
The energy from the sun/moon is drawn along the following path: from the sun or moon it enters the top of the head (which I believe you call the 'crown' center?), moves to a point roughly between the eyebrows and a little above (the 'mind's eye' point) and down into your palms (which rest in a specific formation left-over-right just above the 'dan tien' much like you see most buddhist monks do; there are subtleties to the positioning of the fingers and thumbs as well) where it pools, from there it is drawn into the 'dan tien' meeting with the breath which is drawn in through the nose and mouth, through the lungs and from there directly into the 'dan tien'.
During the meditation the palms become highly energized (and also fill with much blood) as does the mind's eye point. This is a bit of an over-simplication of the main meditation form; there are also times during this where one partially breaks the meditation and does various other things before returning to the meditation again. It is performed either in a standing 'horse riding' stance or in a full or half-lotus sitting position.
This meditation is meant to improve the overall ambient strength of your chi and to improve the quality of it's flow and your perception or control of 'flow' in general. This is the foundation, everything else follows from this.
The 'Closing' (I'll try be to be specific here):
- At some point you wind down the meditation.
- You fully open your eyes (which are normally kept half-closed).
- You let your visualizations fade.
- All Excess Chi/energy which has collected on the skin or anywhere else is moved into in the hands (I can't really describe how one learns to move chi, basically chi follows attention, blood follows chi). To aid this process you slap your hands together and rub them (remember Karate Kid? well that's pretty much it), this helps you put more attention in your hands.
- This energy is used to 'pat down' all parts of your body. Basically you just slap your hands all over your body, particularly the top of you head and your kidneys.
- Next you slowly rub your face up and down while yawning and with your eyes wide open. You imagine that the energy still remaining in your hands is beaming in through your open eyes and into your head (leaving your hands).
- Finally you place your hands together, left on top of right, and take whatever remains of the excess energy there and focus it into a tiny golden speck.
- You place your hands over your navel and move that speck in and downwards through your belly-button and into your 'dan tien'.
- you say to yourself "I'm closed"
- BAM! You totally ignore that fact you were meditating and go do something normal.
That's the main closing technique in a nutshell. An example of a simple 'forced closing technique' is something as simple as doing some extreme and acute physical exercise until you are utterly exhausted. 100 pushups for someone in average health should do the trick, maybe more for an avid athlete or someone young.
With regards to energy work, when one uses one's abilities to accomplish something out of the ordinary (such as an act of healing) it's recommended that one performs a meditation form designed to restore one's flow (which includes the closing at it's termination). However, the danger here is usually that in helping a patient, a healer can have the tendency to pick up the patient's bad flow configuration by induction and acquire a (usually temporary) sympathetic version (same symptoms, but no cause) of whatever afflicted the patient.
I'm finding that my practices are somewhat different from those employed in witchcraft, and because the two are different paths there is a greater tendency for miscommunication, especially using words. That being said, I hope my description was entertaining for you and I'm happy to share.
cheers,
T. Guy.
What is "chi-gong"? I've heard it on other forums and I never thought to ask what it is lol.
As far as my meditation techniques, I've never had a set way of brining myself back into the mundane world. I do use grounding and I slowly bring myself back by thinking "Ok, I'm done". If I'm astral projecting, I use a visualization of walking down a flight of stairs breath by breath until I get to my body, at which point I am totally awake.
Wow, in writing it sounds kind of cheap but it works lol.
As far as my meditation techniques, I've never had a set way of brining myself back into the mundane world. I do use grounding and I slowly bring myself back by thinking "Ok, I'm done". If I'm astral projecting, I use a visualization of walking down a flight of stairs breath by breath until I get to my body, at which point I am totally awake.
Wow, in writing it sounds kind of cheap but it works lol.
The fool thinks himself to be wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. ~Shakespeare
That's a pretty loaded question LeoMoon because many different practitioners of qigong hold many different views. In essence, it's simply a set of forms, exercises and techniques which are passed from teacher to student, the central set of which are usually to strengthen the 'chi'.
Here is a link to our friend wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qigong . I've read through the main page and pretty much agree with everything put forth by the authors. I particularly agree with the criticism section which talks of those who warn of practicing qigong without proper supervision, it appear that I'm not the only one with these concerns. I also agree that 'virtue' is indeed vital for successful practice of qigong having personally experienced the effects of what can happen if one allows one's virtue to wane.
As far as the effects of qigong, I believe that effects on the body can not reach beyond what is already naturally possible. However, qigong practice can open up an entire realm of spiritual development which begins because of the practice itself.
I hope that helps
cheers,
T. Guy.
Here is a link to our friend wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qigong . I've read through the main page and pretty much agree with everything put forth by the authors. I particularly agree with the criticism section which talks of those who warn of practicing qigong without proper supervision, it appear that I'm not the only one with these concerns. I also agree that 'virtue' is indeed vital for successful practice of qigong having personally experienced the effects of what can happen if one allows one's virtue to wane.
As far as the effects of qigong, I believe that effects on the body can not reach beyond what is already naturally possible. However, qigong practice can open up an entire realm of spiritual development which begins because of the practice itself.
I hope that helps
cheers,
T. Guy.