“Safeties” for new meditators?

[Anonymous]

I have no experience with Taoism or with meditation (unless you count using binaural beat tapes to spend time in the Theta state), but I picked up four of Sifu’s books at the library hoping to learn the Taoist meditation techniques for cleansing my unconscious and refining my conscious experience. In reading The Tao of Letting Go, I came to the very first practice, breathing through my heart, and I was INSTANTLY thrust into a pool of grief and tears poured from my eyes. I stopped the exercise until I could seek out advice about the importance and significance of this.

In Kundalini Yoga, I understand that there are conventions or auxiliary practices that are “safeties” that prevent potential harmful situations from happening. Are there any such in the Energy Arts system?

[Anonymous]

Hi Michael,

In the Energy Arts system, the biggest safety is known as the “70% percent” rule. Bruce talks about it in several of his books.

The basic idea is that you don’t want to do too much and you want to err on the side of caution. You only want to do 70% of what you are capable of doing. It isn’t 70% of your maximum capacity i.e. “How much could I do if my life depended on it?” Instead, it’s 70% of what you can do without straining. So 100% would be when you first started to experiance strain. 70% should basically feel “easy” i.e. “Oh yeah, I could bear a lot more if I needed to but I’m just taking it easy”

So in your case you would want to gradually explore your limits. You might go into your heart for 5 minutes and see how that feels. Was it too much? Did you start to get tense and strain with effort in trying to bear the uncomfortable sensations? Or were you able to be relaxed and okay, even though you were experiancing intense emotions?

If it is too much, then you try to figure out a way to make the practice less intense. You might try practicing for a shorter amount of time, or you could try to keep your awareness on the outer edges of your heart instead of going to the middle of it. You might stop the breathing and just try to feel the area instead.

If the practice is comfortable and you want to go deeper, then you do things to intensify your practice. You practice for longer, etc…

Janak

[Anonymous]

Hello Michael, 

“Downward Dissolving” is the Energy Arts System’s “safety” that is built into all of the forms.  You can learn more about downward dissolving in Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body:  http://www.energyarts.com/store/products/books/opening-energy-gates-your-body-book

We hope this helps.

Kind Regards, 

Energy Arts Team

[Author]

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