The Advancement of the White Crane Daoist Yoga System
A Level 2 Daoist Yoga Certificate Course offered by the Jade Sun School of Tai Chi & Qi Gong
The White Crane system of Daoist Yoga is rooted in the timeless wisdom of the Daoist tradition, however it is taught within the context of who and where the human being is now. That is, it serves the preservation and cultivation of HUMAN health within the reality of the choices that humanity needs to make now in order to evolve.
Its inspiration comes from and is led by the role of the Bodhisattva Guan Yin in serving the above. The intention at the heart of this approach is expressed by the following tenets;
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1) White Crane means that our engagement of the body via awareness/feeling & breath is rooted at the centre of gravity (lower Dantien). This grounds our being, creating the foundation for learning to correctly enter the heart and move our being from the experience of ourselves as pure feeling.
[Note: The inner heart sanctum is the place that the embodied human being has within itself that is the residence of the source intelligence behind the flow of Qi or energy in all life processes.]
The White Crane method of practice gives us a Bioenergetic technique that mirrors to us if we are connected to and moving from this place inside.
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2) We then apply this ability to the “Yoga” practice, here we are opening from this place into the movements we are taught to engage. So if we ‘open to stretch’ the emphasis is on opening and gently activating the energy gates and channels letting the body’s sacred self-correcting wisdom respond and unfold.
So we can say White Crane Daoist yoga is the way of heart opening to stretch or elongate, rotate as guided by feeling’s instructions. This is gentle, non-forceful and above all else, realistic. The approach is not goal orientated, it is not gymnastic or athletic in its emphasis (though it can certainly support these endeavours). Because of this its suitable for all.
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3) Daoist refers to the Ancient Wisdom of life as presented by the Chinese culture, it embraced the rule of Heaven and Earth. It teaches OF the reality of WU WEI and the unfoldment of life from this state as the interplay between YIN and YANG, opposing but complimentary forces. However, the WHITE Crane teaching encourages the revelation of engaging the YIN and Yang aspects of Consciousness that are really the same at the heart of what WU WEI actually is, and that is LOVE / CHRIST. Therefore the emphasis is on fusion rather than opposition, meaning we don’t just seek to balance Yin and Yang or achieve Daoist immortality, but in fact let the inner heart show us, unfolding within our selves the meaning as to why love became us.
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So, the real understanding of life is 3-folded not oppositional, the movement of one’s awareness to pure feeling creates or initiates a non-dual experience for the I consciousness of the practitioner, paving the way for the practice of the alchemical synthesis of the different aspects of one’s being into the essentialness of what they actually are as LOVE. So White Crane Yoga is the true path of the heart that leads to the reality of LOVE that is the essentialness of one SELF. This THIRD force, the result of the synthesis of one’s awareness into the innate feeling nature of one’s being as being the same thing that is also the substance of nothingness, is the key to YOGA, and the awakening of a direct line of relationship between the Individual and the source of its own existence. The essence of WU WEI.
The above is important when understanding the intentionality of the Daoist yoga approach. So, if I am, for example, opening the “Spine”, I am opening upward and downward as that centre from which the up and down actually originate, or are aspects of. This is a deeply spiritual intent and with practice heals all false sense of separation in the practitioner. However, it’s grounded and can be demonstrated in the physical body wisdom practices quite easily.
The resulting unfoldment for the practitioner is an actual finding of one’s self within restriction. An opening to one’s innate pristine innocence or pure heartedness and an awakening to and remembering of the Brotherhood of LIFE. This state of eternal reverence is at once both the natural uncontrived consequence of the White Crane YOGA, and the foundation of the practice. When both of these become one in the practitioner they are now in a position to apprentice themselves to the BODHISATTVIC intent (see Guan Yin at beginning of article). THIS is the intent of the second level training, that is the personalisation of one’s relationship with Guan Yin as the heart desire of one’s own being.
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