1 – Introduction

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1.0 – what, why, how?

This book focuses mainly on ‘why’ and ‘how’.
The book ‘gorilla Dharma arsenal’ (⚔️🛡️) focuses on the ‘what’, the details of the exercises.
how to use this book:
commit it to memory, the main principles.
every so often, a few times a year at least, review the full text to check if your memory was accurate and if you’ve gained any deeper insight on some of the nuances.

1.1 – gorilla sati (remembrance) memorizes gorilla ☯Dharma

4 mobile truths: move it or lose it.
the mental counterpart for sati is
sati: use it or lose it.
If you don’t recollect regularly the gorilla Dharma principles,
they’ll fade from your memory.

If you have something valuable, and you want to use it, you can’t use it unless you have it in your hands.
If you have valuable skills, Dharma weapons, you can’t use those weapons unless you have them memorized, ready to deploy and practiced frequently.
Dharma is to be remembered, investigated, practiced.

2 – gorilla breathing

2.1 - natural breathing

Not trying to control the breath.
Not even needing to pay attention to the breath.
But if you are paying attention to the breath, maintain relaxation.
Just let body naturally adjust according to physical activity intensity.
If you start running for example, breath gets faster and deeper without any conscious volition on your part.

Best Breathing technique in general for most exercises

I'll have more to say in detail later,
but in brief I'd advise people to breathe naturally,
and not try to force your breathing to coordinate inhales and exhales with detailed qigong physical movement.
Or even if you do want to or need to coordinate breath to precise physical movements,
in your learning stage for a few weeks or months until you're familiar with the movements,
prioritize passaddhi (pacification awakening factor, relaxation) and jhāna first,
before you try to synchronize breathing with specific movements.

If you're all tense trying to sync breathing,
you block passaddhi and jhāna,
which will nullify the effectiveness of qigong.

2.2 - diguju breath

See Diguju

2.3 - coordinated breath

This is when a particular exercise calls for you to
coordinate the timing of physical movement
with a particular cycle of the breath.

example:
a qigong that tells you to raise your arms on an inhale,
pause 2 seconds keeping your arms in place,
then lower your arms on the exhale.

2.4 - jhānic breath

The general principle is,
whatever physical spatial location on your body you focus on,
the mind sends qi/energy there.
An ordinary person, not using any jhāna,
also sends energy there with the mind,
just to be able to probe what's going on with the body,
activating the nerves and reading the sensations.

someone with jhāna competency,
who has spent a good long time charging up their jhāna battery,
can send extra energy to any part of the body that has a clear pathway
(no energy blockages to that part of the body).
It's like the difference between turning on the tap water in your kitchen faucet,
and turning on a firehose.
Much greater jhānic water pressure to push anywhere in the body.
The current of energy can be expressed and sensed as heat,
hydraualic water flow,
electrical sensations,
gooey magnetic force with shape,
luminosity - visible light when strong enough, powers the divine eye,
etc.

So the idea with jhānic breath,
is that with the physical breath,
one has already mastered the ability to pacify, relax that fully.
So one pays more attention to the interesting correlates of the physical breath
as described in previous paragraph: gooey magnetic force, luminosity, heat, etc.
16🌬️😤‍ breath energy is not just the physical breath,
it includes correlate phenomena of the breath.
Or if you don't agree with that,
You could just see it as kāya-gatā-sati 🏃‍ four elements meditation.
16aps is a subset of kāyagata-sati, and both have the wonderous property
of being able to occupy the full bandwidth of one's attention
to drive out distractive verbal thoughts (mental talk).

2.5 - health preservation, longevity breath

In short, do as much jhānic breathing as possible 24/7,
but you also need to do a gorilla RDA (recommended daily allowance)
of moderate cardio vascular exercise
that uses close to your full lung capacity.

Because not doing any physical stretching,
not challenging and utiilizing the full range of breath (lung capacity, etc.) everyday,
not doing any resistance weight training (body weight is fine, don’t need gym equipment),
your body will atrophy.

more details later...

3 – TBD

4 – Four Mobile Truths: Move it or lose it

4.0 – suffering, four mobile truths and four noble truths

To make it easier to remember the main ideas of gorilla Dharma, I’ve numbered them and organized them in a way that parallels and complements the four noble truths.

4.0.1 – suffering (in qigor 🦍☯Dharma) refers to unnecessary pain and injury in Buddhist sitting meditation culture

4.0.2 – nirvana, cessation of suffering (in qigor 🦍☯Dharma) means...

You apply qigor 🦍☯Dharma at all times in how you deeply relax and maximize jhāna in all of your activities.
This is actually described in many suttas, such as MN ¹¹⁹ and AN ^8.63.
But what is not in the suttas, are specific types of exercises that will give a full range of motion to all body parts, loose energetic blockages, prevent and heal injuries, etc.

4.1 – first mobile truth: there is pain and injury in Buddhist sitting meditation culture

4.1.1 – remedy: Modulate what you measured

Don’t do something exactly the same under every circumstance by default.
According to time, location, health conditions, situation, there are different optimal strategies.

Things that you modulate:
1. how many repetitions you do
2. the speed of what you do
3. the intensity
4. frequency, how many times a day, per hour, per month, etc.

example: on a cold day at noon, even though you’re usually warmed up at this time of day and ready to do certain exercises, because it’s cold do some extra gentle exercises to warm up and measure yourself to make sure things are warm and soft before you proceed.

measure before you modulate

don’t go in blind, actually be lucid and aware of the situation, don’t just modulate carelessly.
this is why V&V💭 and S&S🐘💭 are so important in all activities.
'measure’ only works if vicara and sampajano are doing their job (as a proxy for right view, right discernment, etc.)

Moderating moderation

don’t get stuck into thinking everything should be modulated by moderating the quantity of it, namely reducing it.
The principle of diminishing returns applies, but some things you shouldn’t moderate.
For example, 7🐘 sati “mindfulness”, should be and can be done all the time. You don’t want to moderate that.
Jhana 4j🌕 can be done most of the time, even doing exercises you can maintain a partial jhana.
Some things, rather than thinking about diminishing returns and moderating/reducing that activity, you should be instead thinking, how can I exploit the hell out of this and do it even more?

1.1 measure: gorilla buffet of bite size samplers

first, note that “measure” is an extra ‘m’ I stuck into the 4 M’s of the 4 gorilla truths.
'measure’ corresponds to pañña/wisdom, the sampajano in S&S🐘💭, the ‘lucid-discerning’ that rides shot gun with sati/remembering always.

The gorilla buffet principle, is that you should do a few reps, just taking a few seconds, of all the moves in your arsensal and taste it, try it out to determine how many and how long you should do that move. If you have an injury and need to do a certain move more, do more of it. If you’ve gotten strong in another area and don’t need to do as much to maintain that strong area, you can lessen that exercise.

The same principle works with eating. If you’re at a buffet, take a bit size sample of everything, then taste the sample (“measure”). How good that tastes, tells you how much your body needs those nutrients. If you need more, eat more. If you don’t need it, it won’t taste good.

mentally sample the buffet

You can also just mentally imagine tasting a sample of food to ascertain whether you need those nutrients.
You can mentally try out an exercise , your gorilla intuition will tell you if you need to do more

gorilla buffet principle trains the sati faculty!

This is important. Even you don’t plan to sample everything the buffet, mentally go through everything once a day, or once a week, frequently enough to keep that item in your memory.
If you don’t remember something, then you can’t use it.
If you remember it, it’s a weapon in your arsenal AN ^7.67

1.2 don’t fall into binary thinking

It’s not either you’re a superhero or you’re a failure, either do or don’t do. There’s an infinite continuum of possibilities, using ‘modulate the measured’ principle.
like fad diets, binging and purging. People think either you have to be on a painful diet that you hate, or you have a happy unhealthy diet. If you ‘modulate and measure’, it’s a kind of middle path that can attain a sustainable a healthy diet that also tastes great.
instead, measure and modulate, to create a sustainable healthy habit

1.3 foot in the door momentum: bully the bully

this one works closely with the “1.2 binary thinking”.
underpromise, overdeliver
sometimes people won’t commit to attaining a goal, such as first jhana j1🌘, because they don’t want to be someone who can’t keep a promise or vow.
what you should do instead, is commit to something attainable, like 5 minutes a day attempting first jhana.
then you find that it’s such a pleasant and valuable experience with so many benefits, you naturally increase the amount of time.
you got your foot in the door, and you use the momentum to build on it.
if you had been discouraged to even commit to trying to attain first jhana, you would have failed because you never even made the attempt.

bully the bully, turnabout is fair play

this is a mental trick to help with your motivation to commit to self improvement projects.
for countless lifetime, mara has been using the ‘foot in the door’ principle to lure you into developing wrong bad habits.
example: “I’m just going to watch a few minutes of t.v. and then do the project I committed to.”
what actually happens? You channel surf a few minutes, something catches your interest and then hours are wasted.
mara got his foot in your door and lured you into his trap..
So now you’re going to use mara’s trick on him, and use “foot in the door” method to develop healthy sustainable habits for self improvement.
Bullying the bully.
instead of being mara’s victim, now you can derive joy knowing you’re the one bullying mara everytime you use ‘foot in the door’ to develop a new wholesome habit.
that’s bullying the bully, and what a lovely motivating perception to give you rapturous joy (4😁).

Example 1: Jogging is stupid, or so I thought

I hated jogging most of life. I used to think it was stupid and only for sadistic masochists. But 10 years ago, I realized I needed some of aerobic cardio health benefits. So I committed to doing 10 minutes a day of slow to moderate jogging.
gradually, over time, I increased it over time because I saw the benefits, and now I do 30min a day or more (meeting RDA of health experts).
I got my foot in the door, and built on it. Most people would just fall into binary thinking, either do it and give up, or just don’t even try.
I used to hate jogging, thinking it was the most pointless activity ever.
But after a few years, when my cardio vascular system strengthened, and light jogging was no longer a painful activity, then I began to appreciate the health benefits, and began to experience occasionally the endorphins and runners high people talk about. (actually those bliss factors are the same as Pīti😁 and sukha of jhana 4j🌕).
Using the ‘foot in the door momentum’ principle, I turned what was once the most hated thing into a valuable ally and a beloved friend Shake & Bake that I spend 60 minutes a day with.

Example 2: When in doubt, do jhana

I used the ‘foot in the door’ principle to make sure I meet daily quotas of jhana practice.
I tell myself, “even though you’re really busy and need to do X, just sit down do do 5 minutes of jhana, or 5 minutes of taiiji, then do that chore X.”
What happens is once I commit to 5 minutes, it always stretches into 30 minutes or 60 minutes. It’s hard to ever do less than 20 minutes because jhana is blissful and really easy to do if you make a daily lifelong practice of it.
Once you feel the bliss, and can see and think clearly, it’s very easy to see, ok, chore X is not so important and can wait 5 minutes...or 45 minutes.
So my typical day, I commit myself to 8 sessions at minimum 5 minutes each, of either sitting meditaiton or taiji/qigong related standing/walking equivalent exercise.
That’s 40 minutes total which is easy to make a firm commitment that I’ll do.
But because those activities are so inherently blissful once you gain competence, what I actually end up doing is a minimum of 4-6 hours a day. That may sound like a lot of time, but when you charge your jhana battery for 4-6 hours, then you need 3-5 less hours of sleep.
That’s the power of the ‘foot in the door’ principle. I make a commitment of 40 minutes, and I reap much greater rewards because it’s a positive slippery slope and gateway drug.

4.2 – second mobile truth: the causes of pain and injury

4.2.1 – Modify the gems and the trash

a) modifying gem might improve and yield something even better
but without trying and being complacent, you would never know. Innovate, experiment, modify

b) what seems to be trash, with some modification, turn into treasure

gorilla ethos: Qigong movements improvised in an impromptu way, often without authorization.

Before you can improvise effectively (gorilla jazz improv of 🦍🎱), you have to do your due diligence and systematically train with the 4 gorilla truths.

4.3 – third mobile truth: cessation of pain and injury

4.3.1 – how: Maximize jhāna

4.3.2 – gorilla nirvana mantra: fast, slow, high, low, check zen, stay zen, always zen

maximize the 🦍🎱 and anything else in the gorilla arsenal
maximize time efficiency
maximize energy efficiency
maximize health benefits
maximize purpose of your precious life

4.4 – fourth mobile truth: way to end pain and injury

4.4.1 – by (M)ultipurpose (m)atchmaking and (m)ultiplexing

feeding two birds with one scone
Cutting 3 carrots with one slice
Getting 5 things for the price of one

Examples of what to do:
1. while waiting 10 minutes for pressure cooker to finish (gorilla truth #4, maximum efficiency of energy and gas to cook food, fastest also),
do shake and bake Shake & Bake which accomplishes cardio and aerobic strenghthening, tap and slap accupressure on feet , and chant some pali suttas.
So in 10 minutes of time, you’ve accomplished 5 important necessary things to do that don’t interfere with each other. That is, you don’t compromise quality by matchmaking and multiplexing those activities together.

2. while lying on back in sleeping bag or bed, can do wrist circle exercises, ankle circles, neck circles, all at the same time.

3. while doing a standing forward bend, dumbell rows. The weights even increase the stretch of the forward bend, while the rowing dumbells strengthens neck, shoulder, back muscles.

Examples of what not to do:
1. read an important book or article while your coworker is telling you something important.
You’ll miss pieces of what you’re reading or what you’re hearing. You’ve just compromised quality and integrity

2. driving and doing something on your cel phone at the same time.
This isn’t multi tasking, it’s about to be multi crashing in every sense of the word.

3. crossing the street and staring at your cel phone at the same time instead of observing road conditions for people running stop signs and traffic lights.
many people have died from doing this.

5 – TBD

6 – TBD

7 – TBD

8 - 🎱🦍 mobile eightfold path, a.k.a. Eight pieces of Gorilla

8.1 - 👣 Buddha takes a stand

There’s a saying that “you don’t want to be a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.” But if that one legged man is a man of taiji, then it’s a completely different story.

8.1.0 – fundamental principles of correct standing

These fundamentals should be done whenever you stand, not just when you’re intentionally doing a meditation in the ‘standing’ posture.

8.1.0.1 – wrong ways of standing

* knees, ankles, hips locked – often you see people standing with legs straight, like stilts or crutches.
Why is this ‘wrong’ or bad? Because parts of your leg are totally tense to lock everything out into a stilt, and other muscle and tissue that isn’t getting used starts to atrophy. The tension from tightened tissue blocks circulation of qi, blood, and energy leading to further decline of both tense and relaxed parts of the leg.
You may not realize how wrong this is when you’re young, but when you get old you’ll definitely know the effects of wrong standing with the pain and injuries you accumulate.
Why do people stand wrong in this way? Maybe because they’re tired, and this allows some parts of their leg to feel more relaxed.

* full body weight not evenly distributed on entire foot.
If your foot is not evenly supporting all of your body weight, it means you’re biased leaning forward, or backward with most of your body weight on your heels, or favoring the outsides or insdes of your feet.
Why is this ‘wrong’ or bad? Because you want to share the load equally whenever you can. Putting extra pressure on one part diminishes circulation of energy.

* spine is crooked, leaning forward, leaning backward, or sideways

* wearing uncomfortable shoes because they’re fashionable – this damages not just your feet, but causes a chain reaction of other body parts along your spine getting damaged to compensate for foot pain and discomfort. You have to decide whether fashion is more important to you, or health. If you’re really powerful and successful, you can flex and flaunt your power by wearing comfortable shoes and clothing that promotes good health, and thereby change the culture by trickling down and influence everyone else to abandon fickle fashion.

* don’t tense up following good standing meditation advice: There’s plenty of good advice out there on good standing practice, but sometimes Taiji and qigong instructions are too many, too detailed, and as a result the student becomes very tense trying to do all those details. I’m not saying don’t listen to your teachers, but your first priority is don’t block jhāna by being tense and nervous trying to follow details. Maintain passaddhi/pacification of body and mind, deeply relax, THEN gradually try to incorporate the details of whatever qigong system you’re doing.

8.1.0.2 – correct way of standing

* Your hips, knees, ankles, all have at least a tiny bit of bend in them.
* If you have damaged nerves, numb parts in your calves, lower leg, entire leg, hips, butt, etc., from too much sitting meditation, really make sure to bend your knees and ankles at least a tiny bit, and get your calves and foot muscles to engage and feel like they’re working, supporting the whole body weight. It took me many years to regenerate nerves and sensation in all parts of my feet and lower leg, before I could do standing meditation properly in this aspect.
* Your body weight is centered on your feet, meaning that, imagining your foot is completely flat for simplicity, the weight is evenly distributed across the entire flat surface, not biased to the front, back, or sides.
* spine is straight, not leaning forward, leaning backward, or sideways: see 🏃📐 ujuṃ kāyaṃ
Ones you have jhāna, you’ll get the J.A.S.I. ('Jazzy') effect, the ideal way to effortlessly maintain straight spine.

In short, correct standing entails

Engage your entire legs, entire body, every cell of your body. If you’ve got jhāna, you should feel like you’re boneless, no skeleton, nothing that feels rough, heavy, stiff, tense in your body. Your body feels like soft liquid, or light as air, empty as space. Or like a single contiguous blob of magnetic gooey force, no arms, no legs. If you flex your elbows, knees, ankles, you don’t feel any bones. You feel light, weightless, like you could levitate if you meditate for a couple of weeks without doing anything else.
Every cell in your leg, every cell in your body feels like it’s effortlessly sharing the load it takes to stand. This is advanced higher level. At lower levels, it should feel like the work load is distributed evenly among all your foot and leg cells, there are no body parts taking undue extra pressure, and no slacker cells idling and wasting away.

A. Standing static postures

Only externally static, internally depending on which the 4 jhanas you abide in, it can be a raging volcano, an ocean rumbling in your dan tien, a still pond, or just empty luminosity.

What meditation to do while standing statically?

Prior to jhana, work on pacifying body and thinking. A great way to do this is completely immersing your awareness in the breath as it suffuses the entire physical body, aka 16 APS (anapana). Basically, any meditation you can do in the sitting posture you can do in the standing posture.

A taoist spin on 16 APS
Visualize a white hot gooey magnetic ball of energy the size of a basketball in your dan tien (near belly). With your eyes closed, visualize and keep your mind immersed in that white ball. Eventually, with a good 4th jhana, it won’t just be a visualization, there will actual luminosity that pervades the entire body, and you can make a gooey magnetic ball of qi roll around anywhere on your body, and compress and stretch that gooey mass.

how do you know if you’re really relaxed?
The biggest problem for most people is they’re not relaxed in the kaya-passaddhi and taiji sense of relax, and they don’t even know it.
If you’re fully physically relaxed, you should feel forces permeating every part of your body, sometimes heat, hot liquid, electricity, other strange sensations running in loops and channels. As chanels are getting cleared, euphoria and blissful sensations in parts and eventaully every cell of the body. At a higher stage when the forces smoothe out, maybe you feel just like a water balloon, at higher stage, maybe like an air balloon that expands and contracts. At a higher stage, body feels empty and luminous.

If you’re physically relaxed but not mentally relaxed, you won’t experience those symptoms of physical relaxation above.
Mentally relaxed means citta passaddhi, a-vitakka-a-vicara samadhi.
In other words, you’ve stopped coarse thinking, only subtle perceptions and intentions relating to your meditation object remain.
MN 19, MN 20, 16 APS are especially helpful in developing this.

why stand when you can sit?
* If your qi channels aren’t opened up very well, not limited to leg channels, after long sits (of many hours continuously) you’ll start to get drowsy.
* doing daily sessions of standing, say, 20min, 30min, 60min, develops some leg strength and if done well can help open up the leg channels. Whereas sitting longer than the flexibility of your body allows (say 2 to 3 hours of advanced sitting meditators), the qi channels in your legs start choking off your extremities (especially feet, toes, lower leg). If you see young meditators in a monastery frequently stumble, lose their balance, fall while walking, this is a strong hint they may be pushing themselves too hard and sitting too long. What they should do instead is shorten some of the sits, add some short yoga stretching sessions, do some standing and walking meditation until they’ve loosened up and are able to comfortably sit for the desired length without any part of their body in pain, discomfort, or going numb.

1. 🌌Wuji posture

legs shoulder width apart, arms completely relaxed at side.
Weighting is about 50/50 between left and right side.
Prior to opening up all the energy channels in the body very well, if you’re relaxed enough, you might experience some vibrations and shaking in the body. This is normal, you shouldn’t feel ashamed or self conscious. Shaking can take years to gradually fade. Many people don’t experience bodily shaking because they’re standing (or sitting) too tense.

2. Wuji with hands covering dan tien

one hand over the other, covering your dan tien.
Energetically, how does this differ from plain wuji #1? Similar to how cross leg posture connects and energy channels between right side and left side of your body, you might feel a stronger, more consolidated energy from doing this.

3. Tree hugger

See the video 8x-meridian.webm
It has nice 3d video animation with camera angles all around the body.

4. Leaning tower of wuji

Starting from posture 1 (standard wuji).
1. close your eyes, don’t worry about details of what the posture looks like externally. Kaya passaddhi, true relaxation is an internal art. Learn to feel where tension and relaxation is.
2. Shift your weight completely to the right leg (you were 50/50 split weight prior).
2a. While shifting weight, try to keep spine + torso relatively straight, but don’t worry if it curves slightly. Main thing is stay completely relaxed.
2b. While shifting, don’t introduce any tension by lifting either shoulder, or adjusting neck orientation, or subtly pushing off the left leg with any upward direction.
2c. your right leg, as you shift, let it compress and sink into the ground from the additional body weight being added to it, rather than keep the right leg stiff and resisting the weight shift. If your two legs were an hour glass, imagine all the sand was in the left leg, and gradually shifting and sinking into the lower right leg. Internally, after you finish shifting weight, you should feel a few inches shorter, most of that from the right leg and hip compresing.
3. your ending position, you kind of look like “leaning tower of pisa”. Your right leg feels a few inches shorter than before you started from the compression, your right hip feels like a shock absorber that got compressed as well, hips folded in as you shifted weight.
4. check your shoulders for relaxation, with subtle “medusa principle” movement.
4a. your right arm should be dangling freely, and if you quietly relax and observe your right arm, gravity and the weight of your free arm dangling should cause your shoulder area tissue to expand and lengthen by several centimeters at least. With eyes closed, it feels like my arm lengths by several inches.
4b. your left arm, try to relax the same way as much as possible, but it won’t lengthen because of your “leaning tower”, the weight of your arm is supported by your body (hand and wrist area will be resting on body from the lean). But your left arm will get it’s chance to shine and lengthen when you repeat this exercise for the left side.
5. similar with shoulders, look for and dissolve tension in the neck by using the medusa principle (soft like octopus, no bones, just liquid or magnetic energy sloshing around). If you don’t understand medusa yet, try just making very small motions with your neck, side to side, or circular, and observe which part of the neck is tense and which parts are relaxed as you move slowly. And then appy sati, remember what tension and relaxation feels like, and using that memory as a reference point, coupled with medusa movement, you know what you’re shooting for when the taiji master tells you to “relax deeply”.
6. your left leg is completely relaxed. You are now a one legged man of taiji, with 3 arms. The left leg is the 3rd arm. Your weight is completely supported by the right leg. Test this by lifting the hand of the left leg just slightly off the ground to see how it affects your balance.
7. empty out your 3 arms, imagine for a moment having all 3 amputated, no arms, just emptiness there. You’re just a leaning tower of spine and right leg. Feel how relaxed those 3 arms are, and try to make your leaning tower feel just as empty and relaxed, using subtle, almost invisible medusa movements to adjust yourself.

do the same for the other side
repeat these steps for the other side of the body.
sample practice sequence
alternate between 3 postures: left side, right side, and 50/50 standard #1 wuji stance with arms hanging freely. Maybe start with about one minute on each. Or try left side, 50/50 wuji, then right side, wuji 50/50. Try different combinations, even up tp 5 minutes for each.
original source
The original move was a taiji quan relaxation qigong designed to loosen the shoulders, but without much explanation other than “relax”. The explicit details of that I figured out on my own over many years, but basically any taiji master who has relaxed shoudler and body are intuitively doing most of what I’m saying in explicit detail, but they might be doing it subconsciously and the internal adjustment is too subtle to see externally, and they don’t know how to explain it in detail other than “relax”.

5. relaxed fit playing guitar

(coming soon)

B. Static standing with some arm action

c. cloud hands / feet walking
d. ocean in the palm of your hand
e. wing chun palm changes
f. 3 palm change
g. skiing: on one leg, arms and other leg are “skiing”

8.2 - 🚶🚶🚶 march of the arahants

8.3 – FLT: full lotus turtle

(🚧 book is going through major reorganization right now)

A comprehensive guide to sitting meditation postures

As a memory device for the nomenclature (7🐘), FLT is a pun on FTL (faster than light). Turtles are not known for being fast.
The turtle reference is to a set of turtle (animal known for longevity, living even 200 years) qigong exercises ostensibly for the neck, but really when done correctly with the whole body, the undulating motion adjusts, massages every single vertebrae in the spine.
🦵🦶Kicks for hips: Kicking drills to open up hips and give them full range of motion.

a 3 min video of my favorite exercises to support FLT

video: FLT video: megaturtle full lotus around the world, cat/cow flexing, shimmy
https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2019/06/flt-video-megaturtle-full-lotus-around.html

-🐱🐮 I do a lot of flying cat cow in that video

🐱🐮 flying cat cow

the principle of alternating forward and backward bending of the spine, as well as all other directions of spinal flexing (left, right, and everywhere in between)

򠀽𒀽𺑧reat to do after a long sit

🙀🐈💩the cat and the scat

great exercise for sitting meditators, squatting safely

The Physics of sitting comfortably

sitting cushions, and getting rid of that crutch

sitting posture: better off without zabuton, the p...

sitting: yoga wedge and elevating spine

It’s not just about knees and hips, spine is super important

🏃📐 ujuṃ kāyaṃ: proper way to straighten spine

Important tip: even if you can do a perfect full lotus posture, if you’re planning to do long sits (3-8 hours or more), consider sitting on some time of wedge setup for your long sits. You may be able to have perffect posture for 20min to 45 min, but most people probably can’t keep perfect posture effortlessly for 8 hours.

sitting meditation posture, knee health, jhana constipation

staying warm, especially if you have a shaved head

for long sitting meditation: my favorite stretch f...: supine hamstring hip opening

FLT: faq, such as 'why is "full lotus" is the best...

FLT: cross leg sitting, right leg over left or vice versa

🧘🐢FLT : switching left/right full lotus posture ...

pull up bar traction great for spacing out spine

pullup bar, spine align, spinal decompression

inversion tables

(work in progress)

🐢 around the world

a. sun salutation warmups

b. various angle leg and bound angle

c. plough variations

d. updog medusa and turtle

e. gorilla crouching jazz doens’t need yoga mat

f. turtle was a guest host, then a permanent partner

The move I do most frequently helpful for full lotus seated

under the video /silk reeling / silk neck brian

starting at 6 min mark, this is the turtle movement.

Ostensibly, it's to loosen the neck joints. But if you do it right, it lengthens and expands every vertebrae in the spine.

The radical gorilla enhancement is not just doing it in that one front-to-back plane of motion demonstrated in the video, but take it off the rails and “go around the world” (you should be able to sweep about a 180 range from left to right)

Some examples:

1. Do a 180 sweep from left to right side

2. from a starting backbend, with arms held forward in whatever way to counterbalance and help you feel stable, do the turtle with a 180 sweep. I call this around the world turtle

3. This can be done from a sitting posture, cross legged, legs spread out, whatever.

4. From a standing, forward bend (your torso is inverted, upside down), do "around the turtle". It feels really trippy and it releases your lower vertebrae from the inversion.

Nowadays, at least a few minutes before and after every sit, I do "around the world turtle" combined with various sitting postures (lotus, double pigeon, kneeling, bound angle), and especially the seated angle as shown in the video

/yoga/iyengar/iyengar-instructor-seated-angle

Over time (months, years), gradually spread your legs farther apart.

Misc., References

🔗 FLT articles: notes on the Dhamma

sometimes in civilized society, there is good reason to slap the shit out of someone

1. finger toe spacers: interlace your fingers with your toes.
1b. rotate feet and hands about ankles and wrists

2. slapping palms to bubbling wells, HARD.
https://qigor.blogspot.com/2024/02/fun-full-lotus-moves-finger-toe-spacers.html

(end of 8.3 FLT⏹️)

8.4 - 🐳🐉swimming dragon in repose

what could be better than having a tropical warm water ocean paradise in your back yard? How about a swimmming treadmill that costs 0$, no sharks, no deadly stings from jellyfish, etc?
a. macro circles in situps
b. plough scissors
c. lion posture cresent kicks
d. sleeping bag micro taiji
e. bridge pushups
f. wheel pushups

8.5 - 🐙 Subtle medusa rules heaven and earth

a. mastery of 5 bows, no one on heaven and earth can stop you
b. 5 main bottle necks dissolved
c. like drunken boxing, with large to micro movement
d. dissolves into water, then air, then emptiness and luminosity

5niv (hindrances) of kaya passaddhi: tight neck (spine), two tight shoulders, two tight hips.

In the video subdirectory "medusa", watch the octopus videos, especially the "octopus playing", to see what smooth relaxed movement can look like.

quick octopus info:
Octopuses are invertebrates. They do have a beak, which is the only hard part in their entire body. Fun fact, octopuses can fit though anything that is large enough for their beak to fit through. ... Invertebrates do not have a bony spinal structure.

Medusa (see medusa images in that same medusa subdirectory), is based on the mythical character medusa, with snakes instead of strands of hair. Snakes have skeletons, but their movement is much closer to the octopus (no skeleton) than humans.

So now, replace the 5 bows of the body (neck+spine, 2 arms, 2 legs) with medusa snakes, or better yet octopus tentacles, and this will melt the blockages at the 5 hindrances of the body (neck, shoulders, hips) from the twining, twisting, stretching from that movement. Also, all your fingers and toes, make those into snakes and octopus tentacles as well.

Now for the gorilla (guerrilla) jazz improv. Doing any qigong, or taiji quan, or even hatha yoga, take it off the rails. You can use the basic structure of those well known disciplines as a starting point, but then you dance around the basic structure, improvise, literally move your arms, legs, spine, fingers, toes around independently like individual octopus tentacles.

So for the move "around the world turtle goes full lotus", apply this principle, move like an octopus, and you'll be able to feel all kinds of tight areas you didn't even know about.

One more practical tip, you might want to practice this in solitude, and not do this for example in a public group sitting, in a monastery, etc, at least not until you become proficient enough you can do the movements with subtle amount of motion that attracts attention.

In the gorilla eightfold path, the right view of a gorilla is he doesn't care how the public views him, but for practical reasons, sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. At a monastery, one of the monastics thought I was possessed by demonic spirits when I was just loosening up during walking meditation time. The general public can not discern the difference between insanity and genius, so proceed with caution.

Here's the secret to success. As I explained with the basic turtle neck/spine qigong in another article, when I first learned it many years ago, I realized it was gold. I didn't just do it every day, I took a break every two hours, then every hour, then even every 30 min. to do the turtle for a few minutes. Same thing with Medusa and Gorilla. Once you realize how incomparably powerful these principles are, you apply it every moment, every movement, all the way, as much as you can whenever you can.

8.6 – 🐯 mountainside archer surrounded by tigers

360 degree spherical coordinate freedom

a. like 8 pieces of brocade “archer” taken off the rails and given 360 degree and spherical range

metaphor for brahmacariya

b. metaphor for brahmacariya, only one arrow, can not shoot it, but needs to keep it cocked to ward off threats.
mountain refers to ☂️🌄 samādhi and Ek'agga (mountain peak allusion). Without brahmacariya, samadhi becomes weak, mind becomes sluggish, dull, stupid, body weakens as well (compared to a yogi who keeps brahmacariya).
The mountainside has many tigers (metaphor for the opposite sex) tempting you.
So this life threatening puzzle, how do you hold off many tigers with one arrow, has a paradoxical solution, somewhat reminiscent of SN ^1.1. If you shoot one tiger with the arrow, you are devoured by the other tigers. If you don’t even threaten to shoot, then you are also devoured.
You only have one arrow, so you have to constantly use the power of that arrow to point it at the tigers to ward them off, without actually shooting it. If you shoot your arrow (semen at a coarse level, any thought of lust at a refined level), you lose your brahmacariya and then all the tigers come in and devour you. You protect the arrow and conserve it, representing your spiritual vitality and capital, the source of power of samadhi, then you can keep the tigers at bay and by means of the spiritual power and vigor 3🏹 conserved, have the means to transcend lust.
Lust is transcended gradually in 4👑☸ and 👑8☸, with kāma‍ supressed in j1🌘, sublimated even further through higher jhanas, and completely destroyed with the attainment of a nonreturner and arahant.

8.7 - 🦅🐉Dragon Ascends

a. bagua teacup, descending dragon windup
b. bagua whirlwind palms
c. 🐱🐮 flying cat cow

8.8 - 🦍🎵 Gorilla jazz improv

After you've mastered your solo, individual exercises,
you're ready to use your vocabulary of exercises and combine them in spontaneous,
unexpected ways to create new masterpieces.



Perhaps the most important piece of all 8, knowing how to adapt, borrow, utilize any movement, from any healing modality, in a spontaneous, impromptu way, to fix any health deficiency you have.
a. it aint what you do, it’s how you do it
b. taiji pull ups, complete relaxation between reps, 9 per day, even just hanging in there releases spine
c. taiji pushups – complete relaxation between reps, modulate wrist orienation, arm distance, breath, etc.
d. 4x4 walking
e. jump rope
f. squat, standing back bend, forward bend, body+neck circles, 2 arm side bend, effectivley compact sun salutation
g. corkscrew squat, single leg armswing. option: treehugger arm swing (for faster rpm)
h. the cat and the scat safe squat: takes body weight off your knees

Using eightfold gorilla path as fundamental structure as a starting point, then dance around the structure like a spontaneous, impromptu jazz improv as needed to fix and optimize physical health.

shake and bake: diguju breath, ujum kaya, j2, j1 sutta recitation
tap and slap: accupressure points, behind knees,elbow crease, releases black bruises, itchy toxins
jiggle and wiggle: jazz hands, light bulb twisting, larry curly moe
flip and flop: inversions and backbends
swing it brother swing:
shake, rattle, and roll:

9 - 🦍❤️ Gorilla Heart Sutra

9.1 – Line 1: always W.A.S.T.E. F.R.E.E.

W.A.S. = Warm And Soft

Like a healthy supple baby full of qi, life, vigor. Not cold, hard, brittle, close to death like an old sick man. "W.A.S." comes first in the "always WASTE FREE" because before any exercise can be effective, you need to first heat up make things warm, soft, pliable. Just like you can't shape gold into jewelry until the gold is heated up and pliable.

T.E. = Tension eliminated

Equivalent to EBT process of achieving 5🌊 Passaddhi/Pacification, or Taiji's relaxation 'sung'. When you scan the whole physical body (16🌬️😤‍ steps 3 and 4), while moving through any slow diagnostic movement, whatever feels hard, cold, brittle, pain, tight, uncomfortable, dense, massive, that's tension. And it can be eliminated by warming it up, melting the ice, going through "F.R.E.E" range of motion.

F.R.E.E. = Full range (of) expression, elastic

If you move through range of motion, you hear "snap, crackle, and pop" from your joints cracking, you have cummulative tension and sub-optimal circulation, you haven't achieved W.A.S state yet.

9.2 – Line 2: F³.A.R.M.I.N³.G.

(f³)

f1: finish diminish: cease activities when you reach a point of getting diminishing returns

cease doing exercises at a time you get diminishing returns.
it’s good to try out bite size samples of various exercises like a buffett, to see how they feel and whether you need them. (see ‘m’ measure for pleasure and ‘a’ assess to progress)

f2: finish the mission of exploitation

Not to get the wrong idea from (f1), if you haven’t reached a point of diminishing returns, you should exploit every exercise and squeeze as much benefit you can out of it. For example, I fixed my neck problems by doing turtle neck exercises every hour every day, or about a year, then as neck healed I did less of that exercise, and now I only do a few minutes per day of turtle neck.

f3: feed two birds with one scone

also covered in another line from gorilla heart sutra, splice and dice, also in 4 gorilla truths.
Not just feed two birds, feed many birds with one scone. For example, I never do basic standing version of turtle exercise anymore, I always combine turtle with other necessary exercises like pancake stretching, etc.

(a.)ssess to progress, with ample sample

1. this corresponds with 16🌬️😤‍ step 3 breath meditation, become sensitive to the feeling of breath in every cell of the body. The kinesthetic sensation of how it feels tells you the health condition of that cell, whether it’s damaged and needs attention, or whether it’s in good condition and you can move on.
2. ample sample: refers to liberally sample from the gorilla buffet arsenal of different movements, each exercise is a diagnostic tool for ‘assess to progress’ as you do the move.

don’t discount the count

ways you use counting to assess:
1. for example, doing an exercise, count reps and see what count body starts to strain and tighten up. Gradually build up more reps for increase in strength
remember the count and see if you improve over days

(r.)amp not amp

gradually increase the intensity of your exercise, rather than suddenly ‘amp’ing up high intensity from a cold start. That’s inviting injury.
Don't rush into full range and full intensity of exercise, gradually ramp it up, not instantly amplify it to full strength, because it's very easy to injure yourself as you get older.

(m.)easure for pleasure

works in conjunction with ‘a’ssess to progress – body parts that need attention will feel really good when you do that exercise, releasing endorphins and pleasure chemicals in the brain.

(i.)nject bottleneck

Also known as a priority principle. You want to ‘f’inish, or limit the time on exercises where you’re already getting diminishing returns, and focus more time and energy on exercises that are your problem areas. The body is an interconnected whole, and parts that have a problem are a bottleneck on the whole system, so they need immediate and extra attention. Fixing a bottleneck yields an exponential return, or alternatively stated, fixes the exponential drain on the whole body caused by the bottleneck.

Some of these bottlenecks develop slowly over decades so you don’t even notice them. Finger and toes for examples, and the skin, are extremites in the body, the last place to get nutrients and garbage collection from circulation.

(n.)o pain to gain

There are two important meanings here

(a) in contrast to the popular saying, “no pain, no gain”

That’s not exactly wrong in all cases, but it’s a rather crude way for a plan to success. A much more skillful approach would be a-p-pamāda 🐘🐾‍ to success, while being happy in the process.
In other words, one still has to strive diligently, but if one’s mental attitude is skillful, it doesn’t have to be a painful process.

(b) body parts that are in pain are often bottlenecks that need fixing

(n.)o harm alarm

“measure for pleasure” often rides a thin line between being too lax, and too intense of a stretch causing pain and injury. So be conservative and avoid injury, which can set you back a long time, and is a poor risk reward gamble. Develop and Listen to the alarm for harm.

(n.)o need for greed

careful patience is the fastest way. Greed for fast progress creates tension, mistakes, injury, etc.
Note there are three ‘n’s in ‘ f.a.r.m.i.n.n.n.g.’ for emphasis, that human nature is greedy for fast progress and needs extra reminding and emphasis to avoid that trap

(g.)rit to the limit

Grit corresponds to EBT ‘s a-p-pamāda 🐘🐾‍. At first seems contradictory to ‘no pain no gain’ and ‘no need for greed’, but it comes down to not what but how you do it. If you do it wrongly, it’s unskillful greed and effort. If you can harmonize bliss and assiduity, then it’s skillful resilience and diligence.

9.3 – Line 3: aware but don't care

_{frankk‍ 2025-12-21. Chinese + Spanish are google gemini.}

Esta es probablemente la razón principal por la que la gente solo obtiene una fracción del beneficio de su rutina regular de ejercicio.	This is probably the biggest reason people only get a small fraction of the benefit from their regular exercise routine.	这可能是人们在日常锻炼中只能获得微乎其微收益的最主要原因。
Se preocupan por su apariencia y su estatus social,	They're worried about how they look and their social status,	他们过于担心自己的形象和社交地位，
hasta que se toman en serio el espíritu del gorila y maximizan los beneficios para la salud.	until they take the gorilla ethos to heart and maximize the health benefits.	直到他们真正领会大猩猩精神，并将健康益处最大化。
Hacen taiji como un arte escénico, preocupándose por detalles superficiales sin sentido con fines teatrales.	They do taiji as a performance art, worrying about meaningless superficial details for theatrical purposes.	他们把太极练成了表演艺术，为了戏剧效果而纠结于毫无意义的表象细节。

The Gorilla Principle: Liberation from Self-Consciousness

No importa si te miran,	Don't care if they stare,	不在乎别人盯着看，
no importa lo que vistas,	don't care what you wear,	不在乎穿什么衣裳，
no importa el peinado,	don't care about hair,	不在乎发型怎么样，
no importa la ropa interior.	don't care for underwear.	不在乎内衣在何方。
Este mantra aparentemente irreverente señala	This seemingly irreverent mantra points to	这看似玩世不恭的口诀，直指
uno de los mayores obstáculos que impiden que las personas	one of the greatest obstacles preventing people from	阻碍人们从体育锻炼，
obtengan el beneficio total de su régimen de ejercicio físico,	extracting full benefit from their physical exercise regimen,	以及禅修、气功和禅那修习中
y de su práctica de meditación, qigong y jhāna:	and their meditation, qigong, and jhāna practice:	获取全部益处的最主要障碍：
la autoconciencia (inhábil),	(unskillful) self-consciousness,	（不善的）自我意识，
en oposición al discernimiento lúcido, relajado y no verbal de sati + jhāna.	as opposed to the nonverbal, relaxed lucid-discerning of sati + jhāna.	与之相对的是禅那与正念中那种非言语、放松且明晰的觉知。
Preocuparse por quién mira (¿me veo ridículo?)	Worrying about who's watching (do I look foolish?)	担心谁在看（我看起来是不是很傻？）
Obsesionarse con la apariencia (¿es apropiado mi atuendo? ¿está mi pelo desordenado?)	Obsessing over appearance (is my outfit appropriate? is my hair messy?)	纠结于外表（我的衣服合适吗？头发乱了吗？）
Mantener la compostura social (debo lucir digno, controlado, respetable)	Maintaining social composure (must look dignified, controlled, respectable)	维持社交形象（必须看起来端庄、有节制、受人尊敬）
Prestar atención a preocupaciones externas irrelevantes relacionadas con la autoimagen,	Paying attention to irrelevant external concerns related to self-image,	将注意力放在与自我形象相关的无关外在关注上，
reduce un ejercicio potencialmente transformador a nivel espiritual y de jhāna	reduces a potentially spiritually and jhānically transformative exercise	会将本可以转化心灵和进入禅那的修习
a una mera representación teatral física.	to mere physical theatrical performance.	降格为纯粹的肉体戏剧表演。
Esta autoconciencia inhábil	This unskillful self-consciousness	这种不善的自我意识
causa tensión física, tensión mental.	causes physical tension, mental tension.	会导致身体紧张、心理紧张。
La tensión es lo inverso a passaddhi (pacificación, relajación).	Tension is the inverse of passaddhi (pacification, relaxation).	紧张是轻安（平静、放松）的反面。
La pacificación alimenta y fortalece el jhāna,	Pacification feeds and strengthens jhāna,	轻安滋养并强化禅那，
la tensión lo debilita y daña tu salud física y mental.	tension weakens it, and harms your physical and mental health.	紧张则削弱它，并损害你的身心健康。

Common wrong things people do:

* Se enfoca en parecer elegante en lugar de sentir el flujo del qi	* Focuses on looking graceful rather than feeling the qi flow	* 关注动作是否优美，而非感受气的流动
* Mantiene una expresión "pacífica" artificial en lugar de una respuesta natural	* Maintains an artificial "peaceful" expression instead of natural response	* 维持人为的“平和”表情，而非自然的反应
* Realiza movimientos técnicamente correctos con tensión interna por la ejecución	* Performs technically correct movements while internally tense about execution	* 动作技术虽正确，内心却因纠结细节而紧绷
* Prioriza la simetría y la belleza sobre la auténtica sabiduría corporal	* Prioritizes symmetry and beauty over authentic body wisdom	* 将对称与美感置于真实的身体智慧之上
* Practica para una audiencia imaginaria en lugar de para el cultivo interno	* Practices for an imagined audience rather than internal cultivation	* 为了想象中的观众而练，而非为了内在修养而练
¿El resultado?	The result?	结果呢？
La práctica de jhāna, el ejercicio físico, el Taiji, el yoga se vuelven danza,	Jhāna practice, physical exercise, Taiji, yoga becomes dance,	禅那修习、体育锻炼、太极或瑜伽变成了舞蹈，
en lugar de cultivo mental, espiritual y energético.	rather than mental, spiritual, energetic cultivation.	而非心灵、精神和能量的修持。
Los movimientos son cáscaras huecas,	The movements are hollow shells,	动作成了空洞的躯壳，
técnicamente correctos pero espiritualmente vacíos.	technically correct but spiritually empty.	技术上虽无误，精神上却贫瘠。

The Gorilla Ethos:

Muévete sin preocuparte por la estética	Move without concern for aesthetics	动作时不考虑美感
Exprésate sin filtrar por la propiedad	Express without filtering for propriety	表达时不筛选得体
Participa plenamente porque ninguna energía mental	Engage fully because no mental energy	全身心投入，因为没有任何精力
se desperdicia en pensamientos y preocupaciones improductivos.	is wasted on unproductive thoughts and worries.	被浪费在无谓的思虑和担忧上。
Cuando adoptas una mente genuina de "no me importa":	When you adopt genuine "don't care" mind:	当你采取真正的“不在乎”心态时：
Tu cuerpo se mueve con inteligencia natural,	Your body moves with natural intelligence,	你的身体以自然智能运作，
no con una belleza coreografiada	not choreographed prettiness	而非按编排好的套路去扮亮
El qi fluye libremente porque la atención no está fragmentada,	Qi flows freely because attention isn't fragmented,	气流顺畅，因为注意力不再分散，
el cuerpo y la mente no están tensos.	body and mind aren't tense.	身心不再紧张。
Cuerpo y mente están pacificados y relajados, el sustento de jhāna y samādhi.	Body and mind are pacified and relaxed, the feedstock of jhāna and samādhi.	身心获得轻安与放松，这是禅那与定的养分。
Los ajustes de la forma ocurren orgánicamente al	Adjustments to form happen organically by	对姿势的调整是有机发生的，通过
ser sensible al flujo y bloqueo energético interno,	being sensitive to internal energetic flow and blockage,	敏锐觉察内在能量的流动与阻塞，
en lugar de mediante la corrección ansiosa de	rather than through anxious correction of	而非通过焦虑地纠偏
la mera forma externa de la cáscara física.	mere external form of the physical shell.	那仅仅作为物理外壳的外在形式。
La práctica se profundiza desde una inútil ejecución física estética	The practice deepens from useless aesthetic physical performance	修习从无用的审美肢体表演
hacia una sutil transformación energética y espiritual	to subtle energetic and spiritual transformation	深化为细微的能量与精神转化

The Freedom Paradox

Irónicamente, una vez que dejas de preocuparte por cómo te ves:	Ironically, once you stop caring how you look:	讽刺的是，一旦你不再关心自己看起来如何：
Tus movimientos se vuelven MÁS naturales y auténticos	Your movements become MORE natural and authentic	你的动作变得更加自然真实
Tu práctica se vuelve MÁS efectiva	Your practice becomes MORE effective	你的修习变得更加有效
Tu presencia se vuelve MÁS genuina	Your presence becomes MORE genuine	你的存在感变得更加真诚
Tu beneficio se multiplica exponencialmente	Your benefit multiplies exponentially	你的获益呈指数级增长
La energía gastada previamente en mantener la apariencia,	The energy previously spent maintaining appearance,	原本用于维持形象、
monitorear reacciones y gestionar la autoimagen queda disponible para la práctica real.	monitoring reactions, and managing self-image becomes available for actual practice.	监控他人反应和管理自我形象的能量，现在都能用于实际修习。
Esta no es una diferencia pequeña: es la diferencia entre el 10% y el 100% de beneficio.	This isn't a small difference—it's the difference between 10% benefit and 100% benefit.	这绝非细微差别——这是 10% 收益与 100% 收益的质变。

Practical Liberation

Esto no significa abandonar todo estándar o practicar desnudo en público.	This doesn't mean abandon all standards or practice naked in public.	这并不意味着要抛弃所有标准或在公共场合赤身裸体。
Significa:	It means:	它意味着：
Practica por la práctica misma,	Practice for the practice itself,	为了修习本身而修习，
no para observadores (reales o imaginarios)	not for observers (real or imagined)	而非为了观察者（真实的或想象的）
Usa lo que sea cómodo y funcional,	Wear whatever is comfortable and functional,	穿舒适实用的衣服，
no lo que proyecte una imagen	not what projects an image	而非为了塑造某种形象
Deja que tu cabello haga lo que hace;	Let your hair do what it does;	头发随它乱；
deja que tu rostro exprese lo que expresa	let your face express what it expresses	表情随它变
Si tu cuerpo quiere ser raro, torpe,	If your body wants to be weird, awkward,	如果你的身体想要表现得古怪、笨拙
o poco elegante, déjalo	or ungraceful—let it	或不优美——随它去
Sacúdete, tambaléate, tropieza—	Shake, wobble, stumble—	颤抖、摇晃、踉跄——
si es el resultado de un jhāna "estreñido",	if it's the result of constipated jhāna,	如果这是禅那“滞塞”的结果，
bloqueos que necesitan tiempo y práctica para resolverse,	blockages needing time and practice to work itself out,	是阻塞需要时间与练习来疏通的过程，
entonces está bien.	then it's fine.	那么这完全没问题。
La "forma incorrecta" de tu apariencia externa durante	"incorrect form" of your external appearance during	在开发禅那的过程中，
el proceso de desarrollar jhāna es el camino correcto a seguir.	the process of developing jhāna is the correct way to go.	外表的“错误形式”反而是正确的途径。
Corrige tus bloqueos energéticos internos manteniendo la relajación,	Fix your internal energetic blockages by maintaining relaxation,	通过保持放松来修复内在的能量阻塞，
deja que lo externo se vea feo por un tiempo,	let the external look ugly for a while,	让外在丑一会儿，
y cuando lo interno se "desatasque",	and when the internal gets unconstipated,	当内在不再滞塞，
el jhāna permeará todo el cuerpo suavemente,	jhāna permeates whole body smoothly,	禅那顺畅地渗透全身，
la forma exterior se verá "correcta",	the outer form will look "correct",	外在的形式自然会看起来“正确”，
y *será correcta internamente* y energéticamente (que es nuestra prioridad).	and be correct internally and energetically (which is our priority).	并且在内在与能量上也是正确的（这才是我们的重点）。
Lo que la mayoría hace es forzar la apariencia externa para	What most people do is force the external appearance to	大多数人所做的是强迫外在形式
parecer correctos ante el maestro o sus compañeros,	look correct for the teacher or their peers,	在老师或同行面前看起来正确，
mientras sofocan su desarrollo de jhāna	while stifling their jhānic development	却因身心的紧张
con tensión mental y física.	with mental and physical tension.	扼杀了禅那的发展。

The Ultimate Test

¿Practicarías igual solo en tu habitación que como lo haces en público?	Would you practice the same way alone in your room as you do in public?	你在房间独处时的练习方式，和在公共场合一样吗？
Si no, estás actuando, no practicando.	If not, you're performing, not practicing.	如果不一样，你是在表演，不是在修习。
El gorila es el mismo sea observado o no—	The gorilla is the same whether observed or not—	大猩猩无论是否被观察，其本色不变——
esta es la libertad que desbloquea el beneficio total.	this is the freedom that unlocks full benefit.	正是这种自由开启了修习的全功。
Resumen:	Summary:	总结：
La autoconciencia que conduce a la tensión mental y física	Self-consciousness leading to mental and physical tension	由自我意识导致的心理和生理紧张
puede robar el 90% del beneficio de tu práctica espiritual y energética.	can steal 90% of your spiritual and energy practice benefit.	会偷走你 90% 的灵性与能量修习收益。
La sabiduría del "no me importa" del sutra del corazón del gorila	The gorilla heart sutra's "don't care" wisdom	大猩猩心经中的“不在乎”智慧
no se trata de ser descuidado o grosero—	isn't about being slovenly or crude—	并非关于邋遢或粗鲁——
se trata de redirigir toda esa energía desperdiciada en autocontrolarse	it's about redirecting all that wasted self-monitoring energy	而是关于将所有浪费在自我监控上的能量
hacia el cultivo real.	into actual cultivation.	重新定向到真正的修持中。
Cuando realmente no te importa lo superficial,	When you truly don't care about the superficial,	当你真正不在乎那些肤浅的东西时，
finalmente puedes preocuparte por lo que importa:	you can finally care about what matters:	你才终于能关注真正重要的事情：
la experiencia directa y sin filtros de la práctica misma.	the direct, unfiltered experience of the practice itself.	修习本身那种直接、未经滤镜的体验。

9.4 – Line 4: shake and bake, tap and slap, jiggle and wiggle,...

9.5 – Line 5: flip and flop, invert and subvert, rock and roll, swing that thing, heat the feet

flip and flop

🐱🐮 cat cow, flying cat cow

the principle of alternating forward and backward bending of the spine, as well as all other directions of spinal flexing (left, right, and everywhere in between)

Also refers to doing exercises from unusual positions flip flopped from the usual. For example lying down doing cloud hands and cloud feet. Doing turtle while forward bending from standing.

invert and subvert

invert: instead of looking at a problem in a straightforward way, such as I want more passaddhi 5🌊, how do I get it?
Use alternative inverted ways of approaching it, such as, what things am I doing wrong that block relaxation/passaddhi, and how can I avoid doing those things?

subvert: that’s not an injunction to arbitrarily subvert authority. One should be careful and circumspect, but if authority or common wisdom is promulgating wrong views that cause harm, don’t be an accomplice to the crime.
Or don’t be afraid to speak up to qualify or correct health advice that is harmful under certain conditions.
For example, drink 8 glasses of water of day is bad advice if taken in an unqualified dogmatic rule.
Someone who has a low salt diet and eats a lot of fruit, needs a lot less than 8 glasses,
and someone living in a desert may need more.

rock and roll

1. see GST gorilla stick therapy, using foam rollers and pvc pipes to roll out the knots
2. crab shuffle squats: lots of ‘rocking’ on heels and toes and ‘rolling’ body in various angles to get all kinds of leg stretches with bent legs. Normally people think you can only get a good leg stretch with straightened legs, but that limits stretching to the parts of the leg that are already stretchy. If you want to stretch the stiff parts of the leg, crab shuffle squat, and corkscrew elevator will hit all kinds of spots on the legs that straight leg stretches will never hit.

keep the heat: head neck hands feet

9.6 – Line 6: b.o.l.d. man w.a.k.m.

(b.)lind

practice taiji, qigong, internal martial arts with eyes closed, fully attend to kinaesthetic breath and energetic body experience, soft, magnetic gooey energy.

(o.)ne (l.)egged

the taiji principle of differentiating between solid and empty (how much weight bearing on each supporting leg), taking to its logical conclusion.
the taiji forms generally don’t have that many moves where you can completely practice being 100% on one leg. Repulse monkey is one.
so modify taiji forms to have a lot more 100% weight shifts, narrower stance, try to always be 100% on left or right leg.
and doing some line drills and standing qigong drills with 100% one leg.

waist turning drills on one leg

such as the corkscrew arm swing squat drill, will really accelerate your taiji development.
for sitting meditators, this will accelerate the opening and development of opening hips and loosening legs, because being 100% on one leg means the 100% of the other leg can be 100% relaxed and loosening decades of calcification from standing on two legs double weighted all the time and sedentary sitting with legs atrophying.

one legged man with 3 arms

in your one leg drills, think of yourself as a blind man with one leg and 3 arms (the 2nd leg is the 3rd arm). If you make progress, your 3rd arm/leg can be as soft, smooth, and full range of motion as your regular arm shoulder articulation. In other words, if your leg doesn’t feel like your arm, it’s because the butt, hips, etc, are calcified and tight from too much lack of range of motion ( the ‘free’ in line 1 always WASTE FREE).

(d.)rowsy man

Drowsy here does not mean actually drowsiness, fatigue, or lack of energy and mental alertness.
It’s meant to convey that the ‘sung’/relaxation of taiji, the passadhi of jhana 5🌊, when it reaches it’s maximum limit, is straddling the point between exerting enough energy to maintain a shape, form, body posture, and the form collapsing.
For example, if you were standing and decided to completely relax 100%, you would collapse on the ground like a rag doll and pee on yourself.
But if you are training to find the maximum relaxation point before that point of collapse, using the most relaxed energy efficient method to maintain desired form/posture,
then in the process of finding that point, you might sway like a drowsy person.
So most people practicing taiji or an internal martial art, they prioritize getting the superficial details and appearance of the form correct, so the teacher doesn’t correct them or they don’t want to look incompetent in front of their classmates.
But for someone shooting for jhana and maximum development of relaxation, then you prioritize pacification/relaxation and don’t mind occasionally look like a bumbling drowsy man while searching for maximum relaxation. This works in close conjunction with line 3 ‘aware but don’t care’. You don’t care if the superficial appearance of your form is not the most correct or prettiest – you value the PIE (precious internal energy) and jhana development. Superficial appearance details adds to much tension and kills your relaxation. So know your priorities.

(w.)ins (a)ss (k)icking (m)atch

There’s a saying that you don’t want to be the one legged man in an ass kicking contest, because you’d be at a serious competitive disadvantage.
But If you’re a master of taiji and jhana, then the blind one legged man is a completely different story that defies conventional reality.

9.7 – Line 7: 4️🦍 four gorilla truths and 🦍🎱 eight fold gorilla path

Example: taiji set done fast for cardio and heat building.
modify: modalities that don't work, put on hold. They can work later, you can inject the reject with some modification.

9.8 – Line 8: always WASTE FREE FARMINNNG to FHILL UP with PIE

always WASTE FREE FARMINNG mantra explained already in line 1 and 2

F.H.I.L.L.: Force, Heat, I = current of energy, Luminosity, Lucidity

For all 5 terms, see the glossary in SLUMP🌄👁

U.P.: Unlimited Potential

Refers to the fact that if you bake and eat a massive amount of PIE (precious internal energy) every moment of the day as much as possible, you will have unlimited potential to attain the 6ab ⚡☸ higher knowledges (most importantly, nirvana, and 5 mundane superpowers possible).

P.I.E.: Precious Internal Energy

see article: Essential Principles:
and read sections on PIE and balancing 4 elements

9.9 – Line 9: fast, slow, high, low, check zen, stay zen, always zen

meaning: partial jhāna can be maintained in any posture, any activity, whether you’re going slow or fast.
beginners need to move slow or stay still to maintain jhāna, but with practice you realize jhāna has nothing to do with fast or slow, it’s how relaxed you are.

it’s not how fast or how slow, it’s how zen
when in doubt, zen
zen first, questions later

31 – body part index of notes

legs

18 knee lifts
18 kick backs (kick heel to butt)

lunge, fiddle and twiddle, neck look back, better than yoga extended pose

48 squash ups
Squats + pushups simultaneously = squash-ups
similar to ‘scat and the cat’., but hands can be farther apart from feet like 4 leg animal
squashup jumps: both hands and feet, or just hands, or just feet
can do pushup jumps the same way

999 – index

FZQ feng zhi qiang lineage: Hu Yao Zhen, Chen Fake

ZMQ zhen man qing