Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Spring Forest Qigong Stillness versus Vibration

I am finding myself incresingly confused as to what I should be trying to achieve.
When I am doing SFQ I find though I want the silence and stillness what I am experiencing is vibration.

Should I aim to vibrate at a faster/higher level,or as Master Lin says, feel the stillness and be at one with the universe.

Presumably if you are vibrating you are not experiencing stillness, or do you eventually vibrate so fast that you get to a place where you are still?
Has anyone any experience or advice they can share?
Love and light
Faune

[This message has been edited by Faune (edited August 24, 2005).]

I started recently but I have never experienced vibration - I feel like needle pinching in my arms and some other areas when I move yin & yang.

In my experience, emptiness is a state of mind in which one is quiet, at peace, not thinking a lot, nor evaluating, judging, comparing. You may be thinking more than you need. The state you want to be in is totally present with whatever you are experiencing, here in this present moment, as totally and completely as you can. That is peace, that is emptiness. If you feel vibration, be with it, be at peace with it. That is your reality, it’s fine. Nothing to do with whether you’re experiencing the emptiness and stillness right or not. It sounds to me like you’re having lovely and rich experiences, only relax into it and be with it fully. All is well, it’s all good.

Having just returned from a 5-day meditation retreat with Zen Master/ Buddhist monk/ peace activist (nominated by Martin Luther King for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1966 for his anti-war work) Thay Thich Nhat Hanh, I feel I know whereof I speak (though I am aware that’s always a danger!!) Keep it simple, don’t over-complicate. Truth is simple, peace is simple. Not always easy, but simple. Both Thay and Master Lin say that in many ways.

I’ve been thinking ever since coming back home how much I would love to see Master Lin and Thay meet and talk together. I’m sure they would get along so well and be in agreement about things; to listen in on such a dialogue would be such a treat and a learning experience! They have very similar gentle smiles and kind ways, soft voices, clear vision. Beautiful teachers.

You seem like a wonderful, sincere, open soul. Trust that you’re doing fine, better than fine.

With a deep bow,
Stephanie

Life is this simple:
We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent,
And the divine is shining through it all the time.
This is not a fable or a nice story,
It is true.
--Thomas Merton (Christian monk, and old friend of Thich Nhat Hanh)

[This message has been edited by Steph (edited August 24, 2005).]

Hello Desert Sphinx and Steph,

Thankyou for your replies, they are helpful.
My experiences with SFQ have been varied over the 18 months I have been pracising. I had to do the exercises lying or sitting at first due to illness and eventually after 7 months in a standing position.
I first experienced tingling in hands and feet , after 8 months I got a feeling of bubbles rising up my legs from the soles of my feet ( I was amazed when I got level 2 to find this area is actually called 'bubbling spring')This was more marked when 'rolling the ball of energy'.
Since then I have been feeling vibrations - a bit like you get when sitting in a plane taking off, but so far no stillness or quiet.
I will follow your advice Steph, and go with the flow - it is my experience and others will have a different experience of SFQ, but I must admit I was getting a bit worried that I did not seem to be feeling the stillness!
Thanks again
Love and light
Faune

One more thing I forgot to say. When I was at SFQ Level I & II classes in June, both Chunyi Lin and Jim Nance stressed over and over, FEEL the energy. It sounds like you are doing that a lot, more than most of us! Certainly more than me most of the time.
So that sounds very good to me.

Mindfully
and with a deep bow,
Stephanie

"I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing Light of your own Being."
--Hafiz

[This message has been edited by Steph (edited August 25, 2005).]

From the Book Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle:

Silence is helpful, but you don't need it in order to find stillness. Even when there is noise, you can be aware of the stillness underneath the noise, of the space in which the noise arises. That is the inner space of pure awareness, consciousness itself.

You can become aware of awareness as the background to all your sense perceptions, all your thinking. Becoming aware of awareness is the arising of inner stillness.

(So for me, feeling your energy or feeling the vibrations in no way prevents one from being in the stillness. It always helps me to remeber "no matter what happens, let it be ok" and "honor everything, nothing matters")

A friend recently explained the stillness to me as sinking down into the ocean where it is quiet. There will always be activity (waves or thoughts) on the surface but it doesn't interfere with the sense of calm further down in the ocean. The deeper we are able to go down, the less the surface activity affects us. I had been feeling less than successful with my meditation, but this explanation helped me to be okay with the fact that I still have mindchatter and of late I've been able to distance myself (sink deeper) from it somewhat more. I hope this explanation might help someone else.

Love
Etoile

Hello , Steph, Claire and Etoile,
Thank you all for your responses , they have helped me a lot and enabled me to get my experiences into perspective.
The users of this forum are so helpful and full of loving kindness plus a good dose of practicality . Sometimes one feels very isolated and to be able to get the kind of help you have given is beyond measure.
with much appreciation
Love & light
Faune