Why This Incredible Story of An Ancient Buddhist Monk That Lived 1300 Years Ago Can Literally Save Your Life : Bodhidharma/Damo- The Patriarch of Zen/Chan Buddhism & founder of Shaolin Kung Fu and the Healing Qigong Exercises - noted for their ability to reverse deadliest common chronic illnesses in the west today...
If you suffer from any of these ailments, I have news for you Obesity Anxiety Type 2 diabetes Inability to focus and concentrate Inability to take action and get things done Low self esteem High blood pressure Anger Fatigue Insomnia Read on Because: What I have to share with you today is going to change your life for the better forever Bodhidharma was an indian buddhist monk that travelled from india to china to spread ZEN/Chan buddhism and he discovered monks that were suffering from the same kinds of diseases we find prevalent today.. He taught his 'wall-facing" meditation (like in Soto Zen) to the monks, but he quickly realized that they were not robust enough to endure the rigorous and long sessions of meditation. They were so weak that they would often fall asleep during Zazen or get sick. Bodhidharma bolstered their stamina and willpower by teaching them Indian breathing exercises as well as martial arts. (Baduanjin/18 Arhat hands qigong, and Yijinjing) If you put these powerful qigong protocols into your life & begin doing Qigong daily you will find they will rejuvenate and reinvigorate your health, your mind and your body, reverse most chronic illnesses - without hard work, you will find you are actually enjoying it and having fun There was a difference between the Buddhists who mostly saw the body as a burden and just focused on developing the mind, doing loads of sitting meditation all day
Why This Matters To YOU! (THIS IS VERY RELEVANT TO YOU AS YOU WILL SEE BELOW ) The taoists believe if you make your mind or spirit very strong, without SIMULTANEOUSLY strengthening the body at the same time it can burn out your body very quickly This is the case when you do a lot of sitting (meditation) it created massive problems for the monks and simply SITTING creates a lot of problems for US today this has been proved by science. The 7 Deadly Risks Of Sitting & Sedentary Lifestyle 1. Sitting too long increases your risk of developing cancer : (this study from the Journal of national cancer institute, discovered that for every 2 hours of sitting the risk increased for colon, endometrial and lung cancer) 2. Sitting greatly increases heart disease (this 14 year study that surveyed 53,440 men and 69,776 women from the american
journal of epidemiology) discovered that men and women who sit more than 6 hours a day died earlier than people who limited sitting to 3 hours a day. and was correlated to cardiovascular disease mortality 3. Obesity and Mortality a study done by mayo clinic discovered that moving throughout the day can help you maintain your weight even without exercise.they added 1000 calories to each of the subjects of the test in a lab- where they controlled diet and exercise under lab conditions, and discovered some people managed to maintain their weight and others put on fat! This was quite interesting as it relates well with qigong practice they discovered those subjects that had moved more without exercising had managed to unintentionally maintain their weight even though they were eating more. 4. Prolonged sitting induces type 2 diabetes, along with obesity (or perhaps because of it) this study confirms that breaks in sedentary time rather than total sedentary time is correlated with adiposity (how fat people are) (heres the study of over 800 000 participants that discusses this) an interesting conclusion is that people who sat the most were 50% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. 5. Sitting causes you to become inflexible losing your agility, and makes you unable to use your body efficiently as it was when you were more active and young, this is not so much to do with age as people who are older but use their bodies stay flexible agile and nimble (look at elderly dancers, yoga instructors etc) this goes to show another of the eternal qigong principles holds out (I think it was Ge Hong who said The hinges of a well-used door never rust) 6. Here are some youtube vids that prove my point about age and using your body effectively: 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccau0-0a9nc 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srlhfuvq8hq 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o625rylh3by 7. Sitting blocks the enzyme responsible for burning fat :the lipoprotien lipase is the enzyme responsible for breaking down fat so your body can use it for energy,the enzyme is switched off by sitting and this causes you to get fat. 8. In this journal of physiology study mice s lipase (LDL)functionality was measured 1. Lying down LDL activity very low
2. Standing LDL 10 X more effective than laying down 3. exercising No additional effect on LDL now this was surprising! 4. (This correlates with a profoundly beneficial qigong practice called Zhang Zhung ) 5. I will go into it in my new free course Healing Qigong Course you can sign up at the bottom of this page) 9. Sitting or living a sedentary life correlates to a greater incidence of depression this american journal of preventative medicine study discovered the feel good hormones cant find their way to the receptors. Why this is Relevant To YOU? Obviously in this modern time and society we all sit a lot more than we should unless we are labourers or peasants working the rice paddies! Do You Do Any Of The Following (for more than 30 minutes at a time?) On A Regular Basis? Sit behind a desk in front of a computer at work Drive Watch tv or netflix or movies Use a computer Reading Do homework or research Travel by car bus train or subway/tube for more than 30 minutes? prolonged sitting and sedentary lifestyle can lead to.. insulin resistance Type 2 diabetes Fatty liver disease Congestive heart disease Kidney disease High blood pressure
Insomnia Sleep apnea What Is The Solution : (The First Zen Master Discovered Or Created An Epic Solution..) There was once a great prince of southern India -of the Pavalla kindgom called Bodhidharma. its important to note that as a prince, Damo would have been of the kshatrya or Warrior caste in india and thus educated on how to liberally kick ass india has several indigenous martial arts such as Kalaripayattu
it is interesting to note that Kalaripayattu: has a section of exercises called MaiPaya t : which are body conditioning exercises, could these be the influence Damo used to help the monks? Maipayat exercises (reference here : ) (also spelled Maipayattu) is associated with the emergence of knowledge concerning meditative and prescriptive exercises. Originally recorded late in the Vedic period, in conjunction with Vedanta, and Yoga, is done working from a full-deep yogic breathing, by initiating set movement patterns that nurture creativity and feeds the body with breath energy. This energy is taught in Maipayat to be of the divine energy. The teachings of Maipayat are within many different branches of Tantra, Yoga & Martial Arts. Similar exercises are taught in t'ai chi although Maipayat exercises more fluid movements while attempting to align the chakras. Practitioners of Maipayat seek to ritually channel their harvested energy through practical training and development of breath and progressively more intensive rapid movements. Proponent practitioners report that the method improves body-mind balance and coordination, causes a rejuvenation of spirit, and assists in creative potential. Maipayat, the oldest health art of breathing known from Ancient India. It is instructed as a self-healing yoga therapy in Ayurveda, and it also appears in conjunction with Indian martial arts: "The foundation of Kalaripayattu, like all other martial arts, is structured
movements called Maipayat, which are based on certain foundational stances drawn from the stances of animals like the elephant, horse, crocodile, boar, fish, peacock, snake and lion. Maipayat practice is associated with a lot of jumping and kicking movements that are typical to the practice of the Kalaripayattu." ref [1] Subsequent offshoots of Maipayat have been the basis of various transplantations of sutras, such as in the late Han dynasty dealing with breath control and mystical concentration. Bodhidharma is said to have transported to China in the fifth century, Buddhism combined with mind, body & breath training in the form of Maipayat. In China it customarily utilized Taoist vocabulary to make the Indian techniques intelligible to the Chinese. It shares many basic principles with Qigong and kungfu. We will call him Damo after his chinese name Damo had given up his princedom and his worldly life and riches and converted to Buddhism and dedicated his whole life to attaining full enlightenment According to the legend he attained full enlightenment and then went to china to an emperor WU who was a dedicated Buddhist and had made many requests for Buddhist sages from India to come teach the dharma(truth) in his country Now Damo, was not like your average monk, he was a fully enlightened saint and one of those people who do not entertain egos lightly he made no difference between a beggar and an emperor (this is called equinamity) and answered as he would any egoistic person he was one of those Buddhists who CUT the ego to the core.. When the emperor Wu asked him how much merit did I accumulate for all the buddhist temples and buddhist monks I supported and all the buddhism I spread Damo s answer was : NONE its important to note here that Damo was bringing real buddhism to China, at the time the chinese used to only follow the buddhist scriptures and did little actual practice towards attaining enlightenment, and Damo is the FIRST PATRIARCH OF ZEN so he was all about DOING PRACTICE and not just theory
Emperor Wu : How much karmic merit have I earned for ordaining Buddhist monks, building monasteries, having sutras copied, and commissioning Buddha images? Bodhidharma: None. Good deeds done with worldly intent bring good karma, but no merit. Emperor Wu: So what is the highest meaning of noble truth? Bodhidharma: There is no noble truth, there is only emptiness. Emperor Wu : Then, who is standing before me? Bodhidharma: I know not, Your Majesty. This didn t sit lightly with an egotistical ruler full of self importance and he banished Damo from his empire, Damo went to Shao-Lin temple He was disgusted with Shaolin s weak, sickly and lazy monks. He was a master of martial arts and a believer that you need to practice and have a healthy body to support a healthy mind (this is a mahayana buddist doctrine) and thus decided to do something about it *He had discovered that the buddhist monks in Shao-Lin were very ill and in a poor state of health, because of all the sitting meditation they do So he started teaching them a set of exercises to reinvigorate their bodies and spirits as well as ZEN meditation to reach enlightenment.
(To read a more detailed story of Damo you can check it out Here) These EXACT exercises are the basis of much of the Qigong tradition we have today and they were created to cure the precise problems we face today! (illnesses from sitting and sedentary life) It is my firm conviction that the attitude of some of the original buddhist monks in china, (remember at that time buddhism in china was dominated by studies of sutras, which people in the west could equate with lots of reading holy books of buddhism and trying to live a virtuous life.. And their end goal was enlightenment - you would eventually get enlightened after many lives(reincarnation) led in this way - So They placed NO importance on cultivating a healthy body ) This led to people living a life without an emphasis on physical or spiritual development, - ie not enough emphasis on personal effort and cultivation like meditation. - ie their lives were not even involving physical labour, as monks beg, so largely their lives were probably somewhat sedentary mirroring our own present health crises from sedentary lifestyles
Damo s version of buddhism involved intense self cultivation and meditation, which meant a person was PERSONALLY responsible for their own enlightenment in ONE lifetime and could only be achieved by RIGOROUS Zen style meditation this however means that you have to have the ability to concentrate powerfully, for Hours every day... and to do that you need to have both discipline, willpower, focus and a very healthy body - to support this strongly developing mind. So he taught the monks the qigong forms that have come down to us today - to make them stronger, have better focus, healthier bodies and minds and these same qigong exercises can help reverse the typical chronic illnesses presented above... If you actually put these qigong protocols into your daily practice you will find they OVERDELIVER by a WIDE MARGIN You actually attain amazing health and vitality as well as physical stamina and strength So What Exactly did Damo teach the monks? 1. The 18 arhat /lohan hands qigong set (I will tell you how you can get an entire DETAILED course on this wonderful and health promoting qigong set in my free Healing Qigong course) 2. Yi Jin Jing (muscle and sinew changing classic) 3. Xi Sui Jing (Marrow washing classic) these teachings are advanced and concern a lot of internal qigong which can lead a student practising without a master to guide him to harm his own health.. so we cannot teach this here. 4. Baduanjin : later the monks shortened the 18 Lohan hands into an easier set called the 8 section brocade or ba duan jin which is the first thing they teach students because it gives most of the benefits of the full 18 movements * 5. Zhan Zhuang commonly practiced in Shaolin as well as almost all martial arts, - and its benefits are SO profound It may simply have been a standing meditation which is practiced in Zen Buddhism.*see below in yellow
NOTE: I will be covering all of these in my free course except Xi Sui Jing, as it can be a potentially dangerous form of qigong for someone to practice without the guidance of a master. See the bottom of this document to learn where you can get info on how to do these exercises... See my proof of Zhan Zhuang practice in the shaolin tradition below: As we continued our visit: Hall of Abbot, Hall of Damo. On the uppermost level of Shaolin Temple sits the One Thousand Buddhas Pavilion. From the outside, it seems a quite ordinary hall of weathered gray planks and stone, but inside 48 indentations in the stonework of the floor immediately grab the attention. Careful examination reveals they are set in pairs and positioned in straight rows, each depression approximating the size and shape of a human foot. In fact, decades of stamping feet of practicing monks eroded the stone slabs. A 70 years old master said: During the past Chinese dynasties monks used to practice post standing but later this practice was forgotten. You should take this as an important indication. Ref: http://taichibasics.com/benefits-of-standing-meditation/ The Story Of Bodhidharma in More Detail
The following account was copied from this website: no copyright infringement intended, I only copied it because the internet has a habit of changing and this information is fantastic, Id hate for the info to dissapear and become defunct, so I copied it here to a pdf so that you could enjoy the story, please support the website where It came from. Bodhidharma is believed to be born in the Kanchipuram city of India, located near the famous Madras city during the early 450-500 A.D. He was the 3rd son of the famous king of Kanchipuram city and grew up in the Warriors cast. Bodhidharma was not interested in becoming the king of Kanchipuram and was interested in the teachings of the Buddha. He began to show great wisdom at the young age of 7 years old. He started getting trained under his mentor Prajnatara and became a monk. His name was changed to from Bodhitara to Bodhidharma and started living in his monastery where he learned the way of the Buddha. After his father's death, Bodhidharma started spreading the knowledge and beliefs of Buddhism throughout India under the guidance of his mentor. Years later, after the passing of his mentor, Bodhidharma left the monastery and went to China to fulfill the last request of his master: spreading the real teachings of Buddha further into China. Bodhidharma left his motherland of India and started his endeavor. Although the actual route of his journey to China is unknown, most scholars believe that he traveled from Madras to Guangzhou province of China through the sea, and then by land to Nanjing.
Some scholars also believe that he cross the Pamir Plateau walking, along the Yellow River to Luoyang. Luoyang was famous as an active center for Buddhism at that time. It is said that Bodhidharma s journey to China is said to have taken three years. Once in China, Bodhidharma started to spread Buddhism but had to face skepticism and fierce opposition because of his teaching on real Buddhism. He professed that Buddhist scriptures were only a guide for achieving Enlightenment, and that enlightenment itself can only be attained by practicing Dhyana (Zazen). It is important to note that, at the time in China, Buddhist scriptures, and not meditation, were at the heart of Buddhism. Bodhidharma's teaching of authentic meditation-based Buddhism got him ostracized and rejected - he had to live as a beggar for many months. He then left the Luoyang province and moved on to the Henan province where he traveled to Shaolin Monastery. After being refused entry, he lived in a nearby cave, where he practiced Zazen facing a wall for nine long years, not speaking for the entire time. The Shaolin monks were so impressed with his dedication to his zazen that he was eventually granted entry to the Monastery. He taught his 'wall-facing" meditation (like in Soto Zen) to the monks, but he quickly realized that they were not robust enough to endure the rigorous and long sessions of meditation. They were so weak that they would often fall asleep during Zazen or get sick. Bodhidharma tried to bolster their stamina and willpower by teaching them Indian breathing exercises as well as martial arts.
Bodhidharma stayed and taught at the temple for many years and died at 100+ years old - he was poisoned by some disciple as revenge because he had not been chosen as the successor. Bodhidharma was an energetic teacher who called all Buddhists, monks or lay people to make their best effort in this lifetime. He was opposed the idea of earning merits by making donations. Instead, he affirmed that everyone has Buddha-nature and encouraged each and everyone to Awaken. Bodhidharma is the 28th Patriarch of Buddhism in a line of descent from the Buddha via his disciple Mahākāśyapa, Buddha's successor after his death. Besides being known as the father of both Zen Buddhism and Shaolin martial arts, he remains today as a prime symbol of determination, willpower, self-discipline, and is the perfect embodiment of Buddhist Enlightenment. What You Need To Do Now To Heal Yourself: If you want to heal yourself of these ills and ailments of premature aging, low vitality, High blood pressure Type 2 diabetes Stress and anxiety Poor focus concentration and failing memory Other chronic illnesses.. caused by sitting too much on a job like driving, working at a desk behind computer etc Then all you need to do is find out how to do qigong.. Practice the 1. Quiescent qigong 2. Baduanjin 3. Zhan zhuang And you can easily reverse the damage sitting does to our health see my offer below... Now You Can Start Healing Yourself - Sign Up For My Free Healing Qigong Course To do so, all you need to do is sign up for my free healing qigong course & health guide - click below check out my free how to guide on how to do healing qigong here :
The Healing Qigong Protocol
About The Author
Brian Colborne I am a qigong student - I don't like the use of the term master, as there is always room for improvement. I have benefitted from qigong and taiji training and similar practices for years, and love to share my knowledge and experience with people who would like to experience a more holistic form of healing and personal development (cultivating life force to nourish life and overcome disease) I own the website healingqigong.org and have recently written the above mentioned quick start guide to help you experience healing qigong in your own life.. From my FB page: Healing Qigong is a Qigong practice that promotes overall vitality and healing, rapidly removing disease and blockages to vital energy flow(qi) in the body - powerfully healing you wholistically from the core. I have created a website to help people who are like you and me, ordinary folk who end up suffering from chronic illnesses such as: type 2 diabetes..from eating the wrong food and being too sedentary because our jobs require us to sit 6 hours a day. high blood pressure from stress, and as a knock on effect of other things that are impacting your health (get my free report about what an 1400 year old ancient buddhist monk did to heal these chronic illnesses -to see what this is, its too long to go into here) anxiety and stress from our jobs, relationships and personal lives.. Obesity insomnia I think you get the idea, I cant list every known chronic illness but many of these share related root causes... and they can be cured by a more holistic lifestyle and with a regular practice of healing qigong! to download my quick start guide - so you can start healing today... just go to the learn more button on my facebook page OR you can grab it above on the image of the guide book