Buffy’s Dalian Experience

----- Buffy Marie, Feb. 2010

I have never had that much experience with sitting meditation, apart from the most basic clearing-the-mind and deep-breathing techniques, so when my teacher (Richard Liao) from acupuncture school invited me to meet his teacher, Master Wang Liping, I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn some more meditation techniques, and to possibly bring my martial and healing arts to a new level.

Knowing Master Wang’s lineage from the book < Opening the Dragon Gate>

I had no idea Master Wang was a lineage holder of the Dragon Gate Sect of the Taoist School of Complete Reality, I just knew that I trusted and respected Richard Liao and wanted to take the opportunity to broaden my own personal training. After I bought my plane tickets, and after talking to a friend with whom I go to acupuncture school, who is also a student of Master Wang, I discovered and read the biography Opening the Dragon Gate: The Making of a Modern Taoist Wizard and was astonished to learn the history of Master Wang's life. This made me feel much honored to meet the Taoist master and to have the opportunity to attend a meditation retreat with Master Wang and to possibly learn some of the meditation techniques of his lineage.

Tears pouring down my face

When the retreat was underway, we began by doing some meditation techniques that seemed very simple but had profound effects on my being in general. After the first session, it felt that my whole body had opened up, and with the guided visualization techniques (the Secrete of Golden Flower) Master Wang was leading us through, I began to see some very amazing images inside of my head. The first notable thing was that whenever we would meditate, as we began to move the Qi, tears would start to pour down my face. There were no emotions attached to the tears, it was just like some kind of release would happen and my eyes would pour tears. Richard said that my liver was opening up. This made sense to me because I had learned about the connection between the liver and the eyes in Chinese Medicine School, and we had been doing some self-massage techniques to open up our vital organs. As the days progressed, my experiences became more and more phenomenal, to the point that I was astonished. I can not possibly give examples of every experience I had within the confines of this posting because we were doing three meditation sessions a day for five days, and in the course of one session many many things would happen that were noteworthy. However, there were a couple of things that really stuck out to me that I would like to share so that other readers can get a feel for the scope of my experience while training under Master Wang.

Seeing my Soul (灵，Ling)

At some point in our training, Master Wang told us to look inside and see what we could of our bodies. I looked inside and my entire body was illuminated as if it was outlined by a bright sparkling light. I could move this outlined body without moving my physical body, simply by the command if my will. I was able to make my hands and legs do whatever I wished. I felt as if this body could step away from my corporeal body and travel into the universe without depending on my physical body for breath and food and etc. It was like a reflection of my soul which is attached to, yet independent from this body, and through my will, was able to disengage, making this body seem as if it is unnecessary to exist. Of course, knowing that I am a very inexperienced practitioner, I was timid and decided I had better not mess around with this phenomenon until after talking to someone who could advise me on whether or not I should be doing this at all.

After talking to Richard, I found out that I had been seeing my Ling. In other words, I had made contact with the material aspect of my soul which is linked to the body but which can be separated and used to travel apart from the body, but also continue to live after the death of the physical body as long as the practitioner is able to control and utilize it. I was amazed. The biggest reason being that I am a relatively inexperienced practitioner and have almost no experience with such things as astral projection or anything even similar to it. After ruminating on the matter, I came to realize that Master Wang is very powerful and he is able to infuse his students' experiences in order to bring them to levels that would be far more advanced than they could possibly achieve on their own.

Refining Jing into Qi – undesirable sensation of my inside body

Another noteworthy experience came a couple of days later during the same part of the meditation when Master Wang had us look into our bodies and see what we could. This time, it was as if I was inside of myself looking around, and my body was a gigantic Buddha. It was made of a crystaline substance somewhat similar to amber, and was illuminated with a soft warm reddish/yellow glowing light. The sensations I was having at that point are really hard to describe because I had never felt anything similar in this body. It was as if nothing else even mattered. The weight of daily life was nonexistant. I felt as if the beat of my heart were irrelevant to this, as if my vitality were not dependant upon my breath. Later Richard told me that this is a part of the process of refining Jing into Qi, one of the first steps in achieving the Internal Alchemy of the Golden Pill Theory.

Master Wang is a true gem

I strongly believe that there is no way I could have possibly achieved this level of meditation without the help of Master Wang. Because of these and other experiences I had in China, I can say with a strong sense of clarity and assuredness that I believe in the legitimacy of Master Wang's lineage and true connection with the Tao. I was not searching for a master, but somehow, Master Wang has become a part of my life. This is a sign to me that he is the teacher I am supposed to be learning to walk the path with. I feel so much gratitude toward Richard for having the wisdom to see that what I could learn from Master Wang would be so powerful for me. I also feel indebted to Master Wang for taking the time in this life to guide me along the path of the Great Way. Master Wang is a true gem.