Re:Qigong /Chi Kung & Taijiquan/Tai'chi Chuan

I did not intend to respond to your post specifically. My post was intended to be inserted at the response above yours. I could not change it once it was posted.

As Einstein said, "Theory without practice is sterile, but practice without theory is blind." Now maybe I don't have this exactly right, but hopefully my point comes across. Again all meditation practices are not the same, even though hopefully they all evolve individuals toward spiritual maturation. Just as each individual has unique characteristics with regard to their biochemistry, food tolerances, exercise tolerances, etc., so too does this exist for mind training. Typically this has been left for the spiritual teacher to decide based on his knowledge of the student and the student's particular characteristics. We all have affinities for what works best in many different situations in life. This is what I am trying to get at with meditation practices. I want the morphology of the different types. Shamatha is not the same as Vipassana. TM is not the same as Zen. In studies it has been found that Zen practitioners do not habituate to external stimuli, where in other types of meditation practices the practitioners do. There must be something different going on here. What is it?

With regard to the experience of meditation, of course we all have to experience it, or we are not going to get anywhere, nor can we say we have a practice. But meditation is one part of a bigger picture of spiritual development, and the other part is study of the particular system from which the practice arose. Many Eastern Buddhist masters regard meditation practice without study of the scriptures as one of the primary reasons Westerners are not as successful at starting, developing, and continuing a meditation practice. It is also recommended to find the discipline and practices most suited to one so that progress is most efficient. The recommendation at that point is to stick to that particular practice and path and give oneself wholeheartedly to it. Bouncing from one technique to another is considered an obstacle to the path.

Replies:

Re:Qigong /Chi Kung & Taijiquan/Tai'chi Chuan, by Meditator, 08/29/02

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