Hi Jane,
I read your post in some website about Fajin, would you please share to me your experience. I am still working on it. You can reply to my email if you don’t mind.
Thanks a lot.
meditation
For twenty years, meditation has been my main passion.
I have studied, evaluated and practiced dozens of meditation techniques over the years.
Beginning with guided visualization, self hypnosis and biofeedback in my teens, I progressed in seated Zen. I followed the practice of zazen and shikentaza. I also learned Mindfulness and Vipassana.Building upon that foundation I started a devoted and regular practice of Taoist meditation. I practiced two approaches known in some circles as the Fire Path and Water Method.
It was while practicing the Inner Dissolving process of the Water Method in retreat, that I experienced a profound meditation awakening that finally healed my soul and set me free from my suffering. I have been practicing the Water Method and Taoist Alchemy practices for ten years.
Meditation posts:
Meditation, mental illness and the brain
Scientific research studies into meditation
Articles about meditation that I endorse:
Top Ten Myths about meditation at Wildmind
Enlightenment: ‘The Guru’s Trap’ by Andrew Paterson
July 2008 update
Responses
By: kosana on January 4, 2008
at 8:03 pm
Just wanted to say that you are a real inspiration to me.
By: David on January 20, 2008
at 4:34 am
Hi Jane.
Hope you are well. I’m from the uk and followed your videos on youtube. It’s really great that youre online and I’m sure a great inspiration to people with difficulties (i know you are to me). I have struggled with o.c.d. myself and have found that with meditation and the right attitude i have had experiences that led me to believe i could be ‘well’.
I’m not out of the woods yet but at least feel i have walked along the right path for a while.
i followed up your reccomendation of ‘relaxing into your being’. I have a question i thought maybe you could answer. i’d be very grateful. You definately seem to to know more about different schools of meditation than i do. The idea of ‘inner disolving’; does this refer to a specific practice unique to taoist meditation or is this a mechanism that would occur in other forms of meditation. Is it essentially……being aware of tensions\problems in ones mind\body and just sitting with them without trying to change them….. and somehow through this ‘accepting’(?) awareness of them facilitating their evaporation.
From my experience this would seem to be how it worked.
From my reading of ‘relaxing into your being’ Bruce Frantzis never really seemed to explicitly state what ‘inner disolving’ was. And i wonder if essentially whats particular to schools of meditation is the language and ideas used to describe what youre doing and attitude (eg water\fire school) rather than any particularly unique techniques. i may be wrong and i really hope this doesn’t make me sound ignorant.
By: simon on April 22, 2008
at 1:25 pm
Hello Simon from the Uk.
First my apologies for just getting back to you now. I do hope you find this reply.
Let me go through your questions one at a time.
First, in answer to,
“The idea of ‘inner disolving’; does this refer to a specific practice unique to taoist meditation or is this a mechanism that would occur in other forms of meditation?”
I first learned this technique in the context of water method taoism. I don’t know for sure that it is unique to the school. In fact I rather think that inner dissolving can be discovered and rediscovered again and again. While I am unaware of any other traditions which refer to the same exact technique, I could teach it to you without any taoist over tones at all. you need not be hip to taoism or into one school or another to dissolve.
Is it essentially……being aware of tensions\problems in ones mind\body and just sitting with them without trying to change them?
No. This is good to do at first. Taking stock of what is in you by scanning yourself internally. It is not dissolving though
. and somehow through this ‘accepting’(?) awareness of them facilitating their evaporation?
No. Dissolving is something you do with your mind. It is a felt sensation that you are conscious of. Your intent, what you do with your mind causes dissolving. you can dissolve inward and outward and both simultaneously.
what i will do here is list his works which reference dissolving in greater or lesser detail. Sometimes its just a sound bite, sometimes it’s detailed.
Before I do I would add, meditation traditions differ a bit in philosophy, goals/aims, methods used to achieve those goals. I think you will find the many parallels running between Taoism and Buddhism as well as interesting differences.
I am not sure how knowledgeable I am about other traditions. I skimmed the surface of quite a few in my teens and latched onto Taoist meditation in my early 20s. It’s not like I spent ten years in India studying kundulini and another ten years in Japan in a zendo. Taoist water method meditation sort of fell into my view and it’s a method that suited my personality and was good fit for me. It was a method I took to naturally, like a duck to well…water. I got involved with Taoism, fell in love with what i was learning and never again studied another form of meditaiton. There was no need. I got everywhere I ever wanted to be with the dissolving practices. It was a ball I found, picked up and ran with.
I am not really qualified to speak knowledgeably about other traditions since I never got around to deep and prolonged study of them.
So, dissolving and references both explicit and subtle.
Relaxing Into Your Being 1st edition
dissolving: pages 64,65,
outer dissolving: page 66
inner dissolving: page 67
once you can dissolve, what should you be dissolving? See chapter 2 on a discussion of the eight bodies. The first 4 or 5 are the ones you will focus on for mental and physical health.
if you find you ‘want more to do’ with dissolving see pages 55-56 for a discussion on nei gung
If that is not enough there is also the companion book.
The Great Stillness. first edition
Two entire chapters devoted to dissolving
Chapter 4 and 5, pages 90-150
Opening the Energy Gates of your Body 1st edition
The outer dissolving technique is discussed on pages 56, 57 and 58, called chi dissolving
The Power of Internal Martial Arts.
Outer Dissolving, page 69
Inner Dissolving page 70
Inner/Outer together, 71
nei gung on pages 63-64
what do to with your mind and energy is covered very briefly with a discussion of
the mind, awareness, attention and intention pages 72-76 with a short mention of nei dan and alchemy at the end.
Dissolving is not something that just happens, it is something you cause to happen. This is felt and not visualized. It requires concentration and is not passive. It is something that occurs when you focus a certain way with your intention.
Here is a link to a video
I made about it. I hope that all helps!
By: Jane on May 13, 2008
at 3:48 pm
just a quick note to say thanks for responding jane. i think meditation is one of those things that can only be understood so well outside the context of practice. i guess cos it does kinda put one outsice the realm of concepts; and by it’s nature talking about/describing things puts one back into that conceptualising realm. i need to get back to practice myself. i’m not sure i fully understand where youre coming from with dissolving etc i.e. (still!). but anywayright now i need to get back to practice!
By: simon on May 22, 2008
at 10:33 am
You are most welcome Simon.
Here is another possible assist.
First ask yourself, what is the length of your ability to stare with complete focus at a spot on a wall?
While you are thinking about that tense your fist up.
How long do you think you can keep your fist clenched and tense? You run out of gas sooner or later.
Put your attention/awareness/consciousness into your tense fist. Notice how being tense makes you feel. How does it make your arm feel? Your elbow? Your shoulder? The longer you remain tense and rigid the more strain creeps into your mind at the same time as muscle fatigue. Remember that.
Now relax your hand. With all your will, relax your hand and pay attention to your hand, arm, shoulder as your continue to send wave after wave of relaxation into your hand.
Now don’t just relax but relax more. Relax more. Think you are relaxed? Send more relaxation into your hand, more, more keep relaxing. Eventually, your hand will feel quite different with so much relaxation in it. Your arm, elbow and shoulder will feel different. Your muscles start to recharge.
At some point you must pay severe attention to the process of relaxing. How do you do it? How is it possible, to send an impulse into your hand to relax? How do you feel your hand at all? You have to find the place where your mental intention tells your body to relax. When your mind initiates the command to relax, you move your chi into your hand. Try to relax by concentrating on continuously letting go of, surrendering to being open in the spaces in your hand.
Remember when I asked, How long can you concentrate on a spot on a wall? This now becomes important. How long can you concentrate on a spot inside your body? Can you accurately feel your hand? What about the tendons and muscles? What about the fluids like blood and lymph? Can you feel your individual finger bones your carpals?
At some point you will discover that by concentrating on continual surrender/relaxing, while remaining completely focused and attentive, that your mind can send your chi into any spot in your body and initiate dissolving. This process is like the sun melting an icecube. The energy of your mind releases blocked energy in your body. You can focus your mind on a thought or a feeling as well. You can focus your mind on the feelings of energy in your body, your chi. If you learn to dissolve, you can dissolve anything inside yourself, including and especially, behavior patterns.
Obsession is fixation, it drains energy. Compulsion, is moving in a scripted fashion. Tensing up can become a habit and so can avoidance/attraction behavior. You can dissolve out your physical tension, your emotional and your mental tension using the same *trick* for everything. You can be free of the pattern it imposes on you. That is how I did it. You can dissolve your attachments, to thoughts, ideas, places, people, objects. Until their meaning or effect on you is altered. In theory, you can dissolve your OCD out of your self completely by dissolving everything you are obssessed about that causes some compulsory behavior. When your mind is no longer tensing on thoughts and remains relaxed, you will be peaceful.
By: Jane on May 22, 2008
at 11:27 am
Recent updates today for this section, mostly additional links
By: Jane on July 25, 2008
at 12:41 pm
