Meditation and finding blockages and maybe leaving the group early

[Anonymous]

Good morning,

I have a question today about blockages I am finding in meditation. With this month’s meditation work, I feel like maybe I understand, maybe I don’t but all I can do is share the experience I had. When following Bruces instruction to find a blockage, I felt one in my left side below my ribs, then started noticing smaller ones popping up across my body, my neck, my ear, my left knee, my head. According to what he is saying, this sounds like what he means when you have one central blockage and the smaller ones all actually connected to it. Is this accurate? It seems right but I really don’t know.

Also, I feel at this time like it’s becoming harder and harder to even properly practice every day. The most I get it seems is about 20-30 every morning on the daysI have to work which is only three times a week. Most times I simply meditate and don’t even really use anything from the training circle. That being the case, I just feel like I’m failing repeatedly to take full advantage of what is available to me here. If this is the pattern that set’s up every time I try to be a part of Energy Arts, and it has happened before, then I need to stop putting money and time into something that I’m just wasting it on, not because I’m unhappy with the training, but maybe because this specific system just simply does not jive with me for whatever reason. I would hate to leave, but it looks like I might have to do so.

I guess the real question is why I feel like no matter how many times I try the Energy Arts material it just doesn’t jive completely. My own nature is certainly more yang in nature than yin, maybe for me the water system just isn’t right, even though it seems like it holds the tools I need but yet those tools don’t always feel right in my hands. I don’t understand that feeling or if it even makes sense, has any one else out there felt this way before about this or any other type of qi system?

[Anonymous]

Mike,

I understand what you are saying. There is so much material available on the site, that it is hard to practice it all. Moreover, due to its circularity, you do not really have an entry point, so it is up to each individual to decide where to start, with which practice. I myself joined the Five Keys, D&T, Energy Arts training circle, Taoist meditation circle, Hsing I mastery group, Tao Te Ching group, and yesterday evening the Energy Gates group. Is it a lot? Yes! Do I practice everything? No. I just have the material available, a library so to speak. Energy Gates forms the foundation of the entire system. There is a good Youtube post by Paul Cavel, one of Bruce’s top certified teachers, regarding how the entire system is linked to each other. In a nutshell, you have Energy Gates, D&T and Heaven and Earth as foundation, followed by Bend the Bow and Spiraling Energy Body, and Gods as the pinacle of the system. So personally, I would start with Energy Gates and D&T and work from there. And if you can only practice three times a week for 20 to 30 minutes, then it be so. Better then nothing. On the other hand, everyone has to decide for him or herself wether or not she or he stays on board. No one ever said the road was easy, I just know it is worth the journey.

All the best,

Jan

[Anonymous]

Hi Mike,

I can definately relate. I’ve studied with Bruce since 1999. During that time there have been lots of ups and downs. There have been times when I grew so frustrated with my slow progress that I felt like quiting. I’m glad that I stuck with it. I eventually had my breakthrough in meditation and since then my progress has continued to accelerate.

I’d give you the same advice. Just stick with it and to the degree that you can, make it a daily practice. Just focus on making it a little bit of progress each week.

I like one of Bruce’s sayings “Don’t let great be the enemy of good.”  Yeah, maybe you could be practising more often but practicing a couple of times of week is pretty good! Keep going!

I also know what you mean about all this knowledge flying by but not having the time to practice all of it. This is something that used to frustrate me a great deal. I think now I take it all in for the sake of understanding it. It feels like I took a note of it and put it on a shelf. In the meantime, I practice whatever calls to me. I know that later I can always go back and start practicing stuff that Bruce has already taught. But I also know that I don’t have to practice it all now!

Hope this helps,
Janak

[Anonymous]

I think Janak really hit the nail on the head here – I too can sympathize with feeling like there is so much information in the Training Circle materials, it can feel a little like drinking from a fire hose!
I am hard pressed to even *watch* all the material each month, so there is no question that I won’t be able to practice it all.
But like Janak (hope I am addressing you properly!), I feel that just being exposed to the information adds it to my experiential “library”, and during practice something I heard Bruce say will pop into my head and click.

I have had the thought too, that with all the material already seen in the Training Circle I could just practice that for a decade or so and then come back – but who knows how long this material will be available? I’m soaking in as much as I can while I can, and practicing what I can.

I also just signed up for a training with a live teacher, and know this will allow me to integrate the material to the fullest extent.

Blessings on all of us and our practicing and journeys!
Joel

[Anonymous]

I think Janak really hit the nail on the head here – I too can sympathize with feeling like there is so much information in the Training Circle materials, it can feel a little like drinking from a fire hose!
I am hard pressed to even *watch* all the material each month, so there is no question that I won’t be able to practice it all.
But like Janak (hope I am addressing you properly!), I feel that just being exposed to the information adds it to my experiential “library”, and during practice something I heard Bruce say will pop into my head and click.

I have had the thought too, that with all the material already seen in the Training Circle I could just practice that for a decade or so and then come back – but who knows how long this material will be available? I’m soaking in as much as I can while I can, and practicing what I can.

I also just signed up for a training with a live teacher, and know this will allow me to integrate the material to the fullest extent.

Blessings on all of us and our practicing and journeys!
Joel

[Anonymous]

Yes, I agree with these very interesting replies. At least you have developed your awareness to notice some blockages. That is progress in itself!

Like Janak, I too have found my progress painfully slow, so I would urge you to carry on.

I have realised that for me, this practice is exponential. It starts so shallow as to be hardly noticeable, and most frustrating. This is probably why perseverance is so emphasised in this tradition. But the curve is there! Carry on!

You say that you struggle to practice for 20-30 minutes at a time. Right? I still struggle to practice for 5 minutes (though I am at the beginners stage of standing). If you can identify blockages, though, you are on the right track, but different layers of internal resistance will throw you off quite easily.

This is why this is such powerful practice for meditation. If you can identify concrete physical blockages and attempt to release them (but being aware of them is enough), this will connect deeply within your mind, emotions and whatever, to the source of these blockages.

This was one of the major stumbling blocks to Freudian psychoanalysis (although the theory was good). By entering straight into the psychological realm, they encountered resistances that made progress very problematic.

That is the wisdom of this tradition – because of its age probably. I would suggest reverting to some earlier preparatory exercises, and increasing your familiarity with these blockages that you have already identified. In creasing your awareness of them will give you the fastest progress I believe.

Your previous replies have all been very helpful and accurate

[Anonymous]

Thank you all who replied here, your insights have been very helpful. The whole idea of feeling information overload is certainly the source of why I was feeling this way when I posted originally. It is good to know that this library is always going to be here, and I can also download and archive everything for future reference.

I’m going to stick it out for the last 3 months, even if it means going back to the very beginning of this whole thing and starting from there. I think if I just do that, stick with one thing that I feel comfortable with then I will make more progress than feeling that I have to do everything now while the group is in progress. It’s not a waste of time or energy for me to do so and if anything else it has begun to help in so many other ways.

Thank you again for all your support and answering my questions

[Author]

Posts