FEELING OF THE DIVINE DURING COSMIC SHOWER
A feeling of God
Question
Practicing Cosmic Shower often leads to experiencing the presence of the Divine, albeit using an energy visualization method.
In my experience the feeling of Cosmic Shower is getting more and more refined over the years, and what was in my earliest stages a real energy shower feeling (feeling of energy) gradually evolved to a very subtle contact with the Supreme or Divine. I have to add that this Cosmic Shower feeling can now be initiated without any technique and without conscious volition as well, but just by standing where I am, relaxed and happy.
Therefore I would like to ask what are the differences between God (or the Divine) and energy. What is the relationship between God (Cosmos, Divine, etc...) and energy? Are the development stages described above to be normally expected?
Sifu Maxime Citerne
Answer
Congratulations for your wonderful development. This development, though expected from senior practitioners in our school is very, very rare. Most chi kung practitioners do not even experience an energy flow. And the number of people who practice gentle physical exercise but mistaken it as chi kung is actually very small compared to the world’s population.
But your development is expected from our students. Those students who only learn generating energy flow from us, but do not learn any other chi kung skills in other courses, if they practice regularly and sufficiently may sometimes feel energy flowing inside them even when they are not performing any chi kung patterns.
Those who progress to more advanced chi kung skills, like Sinew Metamorphosis or Small Universe, may feel the effects of their arts even when they are not performing the respective techniques, like feeling very powerful or enjoying a small universal energy flow. In your case, as you have learnt Cosmic Shower before, you can feel a shower of cosmic energy by just standing relaxed and feeling happy.
Originally, Cosmic Shower was just the art of having cosmic energy showering down our body. This is still the result practitioners in other schools, who practice genuine chi kung and have practiced consistently for many years, experience when they perform similar chi kung skills.
They may not call their art Cosmic Shower. Indeed many of them may not have different techniques or skills. They continue practicing what they first learned, and after many years of dedicated practice, they may experience cosmic energy showering down through them. This experience of a cosmic shower happens only infrequently, and they would consider it a fantastic attainment. Only a small percentage of those who practice genuine chi kung would have this experience, probably less than 10%.
Please note that this is not 10% of those who say they practice chi kung. More than 80% of those who say, and sincerely believe, that they practice chi kung actually practice gentle physical exercise. Thus, this is 10% of the total number of the less than 20% of people who say they practice chi kung. In other words, a rough estimate is that less than 2% of people who say they practice chi kung outside our school may have a cosmic shower infrequently.
The term “Cosmic Shower” was coined by me for this regional course that produced a shower of cosmic energy down the body of course participants. At first I called it “Golden Shower”, but later changed the term to “Cosmic Shower”.
More than 60% of those who attended a Cosmic Shower course would experience a cosmic shower down their body. There were two reason why we could be so ridiculously cost-effective. I knew the philosophy of having a cosmic shower, including the necessary techniques and skills, and I transmitted the skills to the course participants.
Amongst those who practice chi kung (most of them actually practice gentle physical exercise), but do not know the techniques and the skills of Cosmic Shower, less than 2% may experience cosmic energy showering down their body if they practice diligently for more than 5 years. For our students, who not only practice genuine chi kung but can purposely generate an energy flow, if they know the techniques and the skills, but the skills are not transmitted to them, more than 50% will have a cosmic shower if they practice the techniques and skills on their own for less than 6 months. It they attend a Cosmic Shower Course where the skills are transmitted to them, they can have a cosmic shower in less than 4 hours!
As I continued teaching Cosmic Shower, I improved my teaching methodology. First I transmitted the skills of opening their meridians so that cosmic energy could shower down the body of course participants more effectively. Then I transmitted the skills of cleansing their blockage physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Now, in the latest development, after their cleansing, I transmit the skills of strengthening them physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
Besides having learnt Cosmic Shower, you also have learnt Sinew Metamorphosis or other methods that can build tremendous internal force, and Merging with the Cosmos. Hence, as you have practiced the techniques and skills diligently, even when you are not performing the techniques but are in an ideal condition, like standing upright and relaxed, and feeling happy, the skills manifest themselves, with you enjoying a cosmic shower or expanding into the Cosmos.
The differences between God or the Divine and energy is a matter of semantics, and depend much on the persons using those terms as well as the conditions in which those terms are used.
For those who do not believe in God or the Divine, and have no exposure of genuine chi kung, and that constitute a lot of people in the world, God and energy are different. They regard God as a term used to scare people, or sometimes to persuade them to do good. They regard energy as some force that does work, like oil to drive engines, or the action of winds that insidiously but surely erodes land.
For those who believe in God or the Divine but have no exposure to genuine chi kung, the terms are also different. They regard God or the Divine as real, though many may not fully understand the terms. They also regard energy as force that does work.
For those who may or may not believe in God or the Divine, and practice gentle physical exercise but mistaken to be chi kung, the terms are different. God is supreme, whereas energy in the context of the "chi kung" they practice, is what they have heard of but never experienced.
For us in Shaolin Wahnam, whether God or the Divine and energy are the same or different depends on the conditions we use these terms. In a cosmic dimension, God or the Divine and energy are the same. God or the Divine is an undifferentiated spread of universal energy, infinite and eternal.
In a personal context, God or the Divine and energy are different. God is personal, though He can also be universal in other situations, and the God one worships may or may not be the same as the God another person worships. The connotations, at least, are very different.
Energy is the force we work with for attaining good health, vitality, longevity, mental clarity and spiritual joy. It is different from God or the Divine.
The relationship between God or the Divine and energy depends on ones understanding and situations. To many people there is no relationship between God or the Divine and energy, regardless of whether it is mechanical energy, natural energy or life force as in genuine chi kung. To others, especially those who are pious, the fruitful use of energy, like driving a car or practicing chi kung to overcome illness, is a grace of God or the Divine.
When we practice Cosmic Shower, we regard the energy that cleanses and strengthen us as a grace of God. We appreciate that God or the Divine is all compassionate, and He gives his grace to all people. It is not because God or the Divine does not bestow grace on them that some people are sick or unhappy. It is because they block themselves from the grace of God. Cosmic Shower is an excellent method to clear the blockage.
The developmental stages you mentioned above, like the feeling of Cosmic Shower getting more and more refined, and from experiencing a cosmic shower to a presence of the Divine, are normally expected from our instructors and students who practice our arts diligently. But to most other people, such developmental stages are very rare, and may be considered crazy by some people.
As explained in some details above, the developmental stages of our instructors and students depend on the philosophy, skills and techniques they have learnt. If they have learnt only basic philosophy, skills and techniques of generating an energy flow, they may also obtain the benefits of more advanced chi kung arts after practicing diligently for many years.
This, in fact, is the normal development of most other practitioners who practice genuine chi kung. But they need a much longer time, and a far smaller percentage will attain these results because they only know the basic techniques, without knowing the basic philosophy and skills.
Those instructors and students who attend courses on special chi kung arts, like Cosmic Shower, Cosmic Breathing and Developing Internal Force, will have more than 80% of obtaining the respective benefits in 4 hours because the philosophy and techniques are taught, and the skills transmitted to them. It is simply ridiculous but true.
A feeling of the Divine
The above discussion is reproduced from the thread 10 Questions on Cosmic Shower in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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