William Bodri

Many people know about the Daoist philosophies of naturalism and flow that characterize a special way of simple living in harmony with Nature. However, they are usually unfamiliar with the deeper Daoist teachings on how to become a spiritual Immortal, which is Daoism's way of signifying that you attain enlightenment. The ideal of the Daoist sage is actually symbolized by the third of the Three Pure Ones - Daode Tianzun who is also known as "The Heavenly Worthy of Dao and Its Power." Like the Bodhisattva of Buddhism, he symbolizes the human being who achieves enlightenment by mastering his inner Qi energy through a process that purifies and refines it to a high degree, and who then works to help mankind by using the universal powers he thereby attains.What is the Daoist path to enlightenment? It involves climbing five non-denominational ranks of spiritual attainment or sagehood - called the stages of the Daoist Immortals (Human, Earth, Spirit, Celestial and Universal). You accomplish this by cultivating virtue and merit to become a good human being so that you are worthy of the Tao and by undertaking special cultivation exercises to purify your internal energy or Qi. If you perform the right exercises sufficiently then you will undergo a twelve-year process of internal alchemy, where your internal energy starts rotating on its own, that purifies your Qi energy sufficiently so that your spirit can finally escape its human frame as an independent life, which then initiates the true path of spiritual ascension because you then become a Daoist Immortal. You can explain the inner alchemical process using the stories of famous Daoists as well as Hindu, Christian, Tibetan, Buddhist, Sufi and other saints since they all go through the same steps of Qi refinement with minor differences.Herein lies many of the secrets to the processes of internal alchemy that have been kept hidden from the public for centuries, as well as little-known Daoist principles on health and healing, anti-aging, repairing your physical injuries, marriage, finding a life purpose, the science of happiness, supernormal powers (such as bilocation), rain making, political and military power, the strongest astrological forces which affect the fate of mankind, martial arts, and the three dantian (and other ways) that section your body for inner energy purification exercises that you will not find in other texts.

The purpose of this book is to more firmly establish you in the sequence of stages for attaining enlightenment. It is written as if for Buddhist monks and nuns because it can be most useful to this audience, but it can help individuals in all spiritual traditions. By reading this information the members of other religions will be able to realize how their saints are becoming enlightened and this knowledge will help them profoundly in their own spiritual practices and traditions.When Shakyamuni Buddha first taught his students he emphasized the emptiness of our self and phenomena. He clearly taught that all things lack an independent, intrinsic, self-so core nature because they are composite constructions defined by all other things. Therefore they do not inherently exist but only provisionally exist through filial relationships. His entire life he taught the principles of no-self, impermanence, dependent (conditional) arising, and suffering. These basic dharmas have already been sufficiently transmitted to society because now even modern science accepts them. At the end of his life, Shakyamuni surprisingly flipped his teachings because in the Nirvana Sutra he then spoke of True Self, permanence, purity and bliss. Those teachings seemed to be the opposite of his previous lessons on selflessness, impermanence, impurity and suffering but there was a reason for this new approach.The lessons within this book are a form of skillful means because they stipulate the importance of physical cultivation practices rather than just mental cultivation such as meditation practice. During his lifetime, Shakyamuni Buddha emphasized that we must purify our consciousness to achieve the spiritual attainments of dhyana, which are specific stages of Arhatship or Arhat attainment. He rarely emphasized the physical aspects of the stages of spiritual attainment nor that we should engage in acts of service to society to help eliminate the conditions of suffering around us that people commonly experience in life. Nevertheless, "beautifying society" is also a form of physical purification that essentially stands behind the motivations of the Mahayana and Esoteric Buddhist traditions. Because ethics and social morality have advanced since his day and the level of public education and understanding has also advanced, it is beneficial that the dual emphasis on mind and body (mind-body) purification should now be returned to Buddhist practice. In other words, there should be more emphasis placed on body cultivation and inner energy work since this is necessary for enlightenment.In this book you will therefore find an emphasis on these neglected topics in order to correct many of the current deficiencies in Buddhist practice, especially within the Zen tradition, and thus help more individuals attain enlightenment and much more quickly.

The Buddhist, Taoist, Yoga and Hindu traditions are usually taken as the primary guides to enlightenment theory and practice, yet all genuine religions share some common cultivation theories and practices which will take practitioners to the same spiritual body attainments that constitute spiritual enlightenment and liberation (Moksha). This book explains this non-denominational spiritual path with details. Much of the contents will seem revolutionary, including: a comprehensive description of "interdependent origination" within the universe that incorporates the Hua Yen view and includes the creation of the cosmos and the development of sentient life; the Diamond Sutra enlightenment view of what we ultimately are as our true nature and apparent nature; an explanation of the spiritual goal of sat, chit, ananda and how this necessitates a dualistic mind-body cultivation system that entails physical exercise and inner energy work to achieve physical health and bliss, along with meditation practice to achieve the flow state of pristine awareness; how we must cultivate our minds and behavior towards virtuous ways and do good deeds to improve society in order to merit the Twelve Year kundalini transformation period required for enlightenment; revelation of the five spiritual body attainments within the sambhogakaya along with their properties; the five stages scheme of spiritual progress for how to reach enlightenment through cultivation practices; and the principles of Yin and Yang Qi cultivation inherent in yoga, martial arts and all spiritual cultivation practices. This will be a perennial guide to the spiritual cultivation efforts you undertake in your life.

The martial arts and yoga are both schools that teach physical stretching exercises, and they both emphasize internal energy cultivation, or neijia. The martial arts also emphasize ideal body alignments and physical movements so that you can express tremendous muscle power together with Qi energy for physical attacks or defense. To reach the highest levels of yoga and martial arts you need to learn how to lead your Qi efficiently, and match its power with your physical movements. You need to be pursuing a mental and physical state of flow by cultivating internal Qi movements.There are many techniques that work on cultivating the Qi (Prana) of muscles, organs and bones; meridians or Qi circulatory orbits; muscle force transmission pathways; bindus, marmaor acupuncture points; appendages such as arms and legs; body cavities such as the three dantian, chakra sections and other sectioning schemes; and simple body parts (such as the ears, eyes, teeth, penis, and so forth). In yoga and the martial arts, you normally learn how to cultivate the Qi within all these separate sections via body alignments, specific physical motions and energy exercises until you can sense and control your body as a single energy unit. You can stimulate and cultivate your Qi via special breathing exercises, visualizations, sound vibrations, emotional states, and through your will or special absorptions. Especially within the martial arts, you need to know how to cultivate these various techniques to purify your Yin and Yang Qi to progress to higher achievement levels. Most all of the different ways of purifying your Qi focus on small segments of the body instead of just a single whole body that you attempt to cultivate all at once. As the segments become more purified, this helps to open up the Qi channels within those regions, their Qi flow becomes free of impediments and also becomes smoother. As a result, martial power can be expressed quicker and more fully. All the segments of your body, regardless of how you partition it in nei-gong exercises, and regardless of what techniques you use, must be "washed" with Qi or Prana. At the same time, it is useful to hold onto specific emotions to purify their Yin and Yang composition.Here is a guidebook for how to pursue these types of cultivation, and the unified mind-body state of flow where there is a sense of control over any agency while your mind remains focused, quiet, and alive in experiencing the moment. This is the sat, chit, ananda target of Yoga, the "no mind and no body" target of Zen, and the blissful state of "no extremities" within the martial arts. You reach it when you can finally control the entire underlying energy matrix of your physical body, which is the ultimate purpose of yoga and the martial arts such as in the schools of Emei, Wudang and Shaolin.

The path to enlightenment, self-realization, moksha or spiritual liberation is essentially a pathway of Yoga. Specifically, this pathway of "Buddha Yoga" entails both mental meditation practice and inner cultivation of the Qi or Prana within your body via your willpower so that you can attain the first fruit of the spiritual path, which is an independent spiritual body that can leave your physical body at will. Buddha Yoga is also a pathway that requires you to polish your mind and behavior so that you can achieve the purity of virtue in thought, word and deed.Regardless of their religion and hard work at spiritual training, most people won't achieve the initial fruit of the spiritual path because they usually lack the proper instructions and devotion to effective spiritual practice efforts. The most they can then hope for is success in the afterlife, during which time they can choose to become Bodhisattva protectors or guardian spirits for all sorts of earthly activities. Why waste time if you can start training for such a role now?That being the case, this book teaches ordinary people how to properly perform spiritual practices and how they can most effectively train to become a guardian spirit, Buddha or Bodhisattva of their own choosing. This includes spiritual careers as protectors of nations, cities, people's health, wealth, agriculture and so forth. This is a form of Karma Yoga.It reviews common spiritual teachings about the origin of the universe and consciousness, helps you decide upon your own specific life purpose or purposes within life, delineates the Yoga practice methods for cultivating the physical body and stages of emptiness meditation required of Buddha Yoga, goes over several foundational topics of study for becoming various types of guardian spirits or Bodhisattva protectors for humanity, and reveals how religious professionals can better help greater society through certain forms of self-study. A tour de force of countless practical topics, in addition to training guides of various types it also reveals how spiritual leaders can more easily raise money for their centers and efforts.

Breathing new life into the fields of philosophy and spirituality, the self-cultivation practices of the Confucian way, reinterpreted for modern times, are once again a great blessing for humanity. Similar to vipassana, the methods of mindfulness and self-correction can help us cut off mental afflictions, master our automatic mental processes, increase our mental clarity and elevate our rational thinking processes. Used by individuals bent on self-improvement such as Yuan Liao Fan, Benjamin Franklin, Frank Better and others, they have led many to the heights of personal worldly success. Confucius also provided us guidelines on how to manage states and prevent the fracturing of social cohesion that threatens many countries today. The principles of cultivation taught by Confucius, Mencius, Wang Yang-ming and others not only include mastering your mind and behavior, but your body and its internal energy as well. In this way they also help us to achieve greater levels of health and vitality. They prevent us from becoming errant men of business and can help us find a meaningful life purpose or multiple purposes within life. Taken to the utmost perfection that entails fully transcending our animal nature, the stages of Confucian cultivation enable the most successful adherents to achieve the status of a sage.

Ordinary people often experience unusual mind-body phenomena due to meditation practice such as hearing voices, seeing visions, dreaming colorful scenarios, and feeling inexplicable energy sensations or strange movements inside their body. This book explains all the various different types of experiences that can happen to meditation practitioners. It offers both scientific and transcendental explanations so that people can easily understand what they are experiencing due to their efforts. For instance, covered are explanations for unexpected sensations of warmth or coolness within your body (and thirty-four other types of physical sensations), unusual internal vibrations, changes in respiration, skin problems, emotional outbursts, the hearing of voices and seeing of visions, hearing music within your head, sexual fantasies and psychic abilities. An emphasis is placed on why feelings of internal energy arise within you, and how they appear in various forms due to prolonged yoga, meditation and other spiritual practices. Included is also an excellent primer on how to practice basic witnessing meditation correctly, also known as vipassana. Additionally there are lessons on how to use wisdom analysis and other modern techniques to dissolve stubborn mental a ictions that bother you, and how to change long-standing habit energies. Over thirty types of quieting "emptiness meditation" practices are described along with powerful auxiliary methods you can use to help eliminate nagging psychological issues. In addition to a dozen case studies of meditators who experienced curious phenomena due to their practice, many additional visionary and auditory experiences, both real and delusory, are described that commonly occur to ardent practitioners in many religious paths, including Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Sufi and Buddhist saints. This valuable information can guide you through many normally inexplicable meditation and spiritual experiences regardless of your tradition.

Using the Greek story of the Twelve Labors of Hercules, which outlines the progressive stages of spiritual development that spiritual practitioners in all spiritual traditions go through, this book presents full details on the step-by-step progression of the physical transformations that occur to practitioners. Whenever someone starts to consistently cultivate spiritual practice in a devoted way, there are physical changes that will occur to the human body. These physical transformations, called "gong-fu" in the eastern spiritual schools, are non-denominational signposts of spiritual progress. If you cultivate spiritual practice sufficiently then these phenomena will arise. If you don't practice correctly, they simply won't appear. Their appearance is a matter of proper devoted effort. These phenomena include such things as the awakening of kundalini (yang chi) within the body, the opening of the chakras and purification of the body's energy channels, hormonal transformations, the calming of consciousness, the experience of refined mental states described as "emptiness," and various other mental and physical phenomena.Normally people think these phenomena only occur to individuals following eastern cultivations traditions such as yoga, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Vajrayana. However, these phenomena that arise are totally non-sectarian and non-denominational. They equally occur to devoted spiritual followers within Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. If you cultivate spiritual practices sufficiently, these purification transformations will occur and if you don't cultivate meditation or other spiritual exercises, you will not experience them. Your religion has nothing to do with it.All genuine religious traditions employ cultivation practices designed to help you achieve a quiet mind. Because thoughts die down due to these practices, this resulting mental quiet is described as peacefulness, silence, cessation, calming, purity, and emptiness. Your mind empties of busy thoughts and so you begin to experience mental peace. When your mind quiets, proper spiritual practice requires that you remain aware during this experience rather than try to suppress thoughts from further arising. The practice of maintaining awareness while mentally quiet is called witnessing, observing, knowing, or introspection. As the mind quiets, you continue to watch your mental continuum but without attaching to it. The gradual calming of your mind results from successfully letting go of thoughts, and because your body's life force (chi) and consciousness are linked, as you let go of thoughts you also drop the habit of clinging to the energies you normally feel in your body. With proper spiritual practice you learn how to detach from these energies and let them function without interference. Once you learn how to do this, your kundalini energies will arise and their natural circulation will start to transform your body.Those energies will open up your chi channels and chakras and transform your physical body, purifying it. As your chi purifies, so will your emotions and habit energies. As you progressively let go of your chi, it will also revert to its natural circulation which has been suppressed by errant thought patterns. Cultivating a quiet mind leads to your kundalini arising, those energies purify your channels and chakras, that purification leads to a greater degree of mental purity or emptiness, and the two components of body and mind reach ever increasing levels of refinement. This book presents full details on this step-by-step progression of transformations that occur to practitioners on the spiritual trail. It covers the meditation practices that successful adepts have traditionally used throughout history, and non-denominationally links the gong-fu experiences of these practitioners with the stages of the spiritual path and the ultimate quest for self-realization, or enlightenment.