Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Spring Forest Qigong Emptiness

Is it possible to focus on something other than "emptiness". I understand it and see it could possibly be the translation from the Chinese, but as Chunyi says himself you will feel sadness and to me that is clear, obvious, and true. Consciously, does anyone have benefits tagging their focus onto another entity?
Thanks for the cool board,
David

First time I went fairly deeply into the Emptiness, my mind heard the word "Darkness."

One of my favorite books, "the Huainanzi," translated by Thomas Cleary and re-aranged for easier reading by a Western audiance under the name "The Book of Leadership and Strategy," translates the term as void.

Now that you bring the topic up, it would be interesting to know the Chinese transliteration of the term.

The feeling of sadness is not because you "feel empty inside," but rather because the Emptiness/Darkness/Void had an immanence facilitating empathy. I have found the only way to maintain sanity in the face of the reality of the magnitute of human suffering is to join Chunyi Lin dream of "a healer in every family and a world without pain."

Actually, I had imagined the word "emptiness" to be more like "space" - like the emptiness between the planets and the stars - this holds no connotations of sadness for me, and actually brings up instead a feeling of awe and wonder at the mystery and intelligence of this amazing universe.
Smiles,
Valentine

I'm still very new to this stuff, not having even gone through all my tapes yet.

However, I wandered about the emptiness. I sometimes think of it as the void... an abscence of conscious thought, and other times as space, the universe that my body has combined with.

The other thing that tweaks me is the multiple mental activities I have to perform while doing Qigong. 1) visualize the conduit in my torso, 2) go into the emptiness, 3) visualize every cell drawing energy from the universe (or your choice) and the energy being drawn to the lower dantien (and the exhale side), 4) visualize energy between my hands, or flowing through my body and out my toes, or myself in and energy ball.

That's a lot for me to do and get the moves correct too. Oh yeah, and stay relaxed. Maybe notice the your body for feelings of chi.

Any help on the order of these in importance, or cycling through the thoughts, or can some be started and released and others must be continually held. Or will all become obvious when I advance in mastery?

Again, I haven't finished the material for SFQ I and haven't even opened the box to SFQ II.

Thanks for bringing this up dhoffman9.

I'm curious, and sending love,
Iam2

It would be easy to get theological on this subject, but it really doesn't help that much.

"Going into Emptiness" as a brain state (thanks for MRI's and experimental adapts) is the forebrain shutting down and the limbic brain lighting up. Heh, the doctors became VERY alarmed, because by the rules of neurology, as we understand them, she should have been comatose right then, or at the very least unable to speak. Yet, she was able to speak clearly and understand what was going on around her.

The best way to explain the reason a person can or would do something like that is through the example of math. When we process math with our forebrains, it's an exercize in symbolic manipulation. The symbol for "2" combined with the symbol "X" and another symbol "2" yields the results of the symbol "4". With limbic processes, you go onto Emptiness and touch the Platonic Reality of "2 X 2 = 4".

If you like reading biography, consider finding out more about the Indian math-wiz Ramanujan. He claimed that he knew the answers to complex mathematical problems because the Goddess Namagiri wrote the answers on his tongue. This is how his mind perceived the act of going into Emptiness. (Or, to remain more agnostic on the subject, Namagiri exists in Emptiness and brought Ramanujan into it to give him the answers).

Okay, I reviewed the descriptions in the booklet in the course.... I guess it's not as bad as I thought. Each exercise has a purpose and a visualization.

Thanks for the concious (fore brain) description Kaiden that matches the emptiness description in the booklet.

Thanks and sending love,
Iam2

Oh, I just had the best so far exercise since the retreat. It's because of this thread and the resultant clarification and sorting out of ideas I had about Qigong. Mainly the purpose and visualization for each exercise. I had been mixing it all up since I got home.

As for the emptiness: I find that Chunyi's phrase "Go inside" instantly changes my perspective on any visualization. It brings me inside my head and the experience becomes a totally surrounding one. Not a third party or vantage point experience. This is a more body oriented experience and much more closely linked so some of my best meditation experiences at the retreat.

Thanks again for the thread contributions, and sending love,
Iam2

I'm still not ready to let this one go yet.

Emptiness as the Conscious mind receeding and the inner mind communication. Following the transition to sleep analogy or exact rout. Should one try to enter the emptiness by relaxing and starting down that path to sleep, but then stand on the edge?

Is being in the emptiness, the absence of conscious control of thought, or the absence of all thought? Can the conscious observe (communicate one way) with the inner mind or is there nothing in the emptiness? No thought conscious or other than conscious?

There must be some people here, who have been there. Or will at least share their experiences. Maybe someone who has read about it, or spoken with a master about this?

Maybe the emptiness is something different for each person?

Again, I remember Chunyi's words of going into the emptiness and being followed with go inside. Are these two ways of describing the same thing? Is the second only the first step on the way to emptiness.

How does going into the emptiness compare with being totally in the present? Totally emersed in the present experience, without conscious labelling or judging, just simply being aware of All it means to be being.

Please, keep this going with your insights. I don't feel I have my answers yet. And they are important to me.

Thank you, and sending love to all,
Iam2

I don't know about all that, but the past couple of days have been different after reading responses here.
David

Hi David:

Our western culture tends to attach negative meanings to the words "emptiness" and "nothingness" which is not the case in the Chinese culture. Perhaps because there are more than a billion people over there they need some quiet time in the emptiness!! (Just kidding)

I find the best way to think about this is to come out the other side of emptiness and then you have "everythingness." While mediating you become one with everything and then you are back to emptiness again. They are really one and the same.

Master Lin consistently wants us to be joyful while doing SFQ and going into the everythingness. Thus the name spring forest which is a time of newness, birth, peace, growth and love are all positive qualities to nurture.

SFQ to you,
Agent B