Burning through Karma

One of the hardest stages of neidan training I have been through is working through reincarnation energy, affectionately known as “burning through karma.” It is tough.

Recently one or two of my students have begun to enter this stage. It is not easy. The emotions it releases can be overwhelming, and it is easy to lose perspective. But it is an important part of our training, and if we have the opportunity to do it, why not? It will only make our lives better.

Think of yourself as a house with many rooms. In the best case, the whole house is clean, comfortable, and well ventilated. But for most of us, some rooms are locked and sealed up. We have not been inside them for years, because they are dirty and full of crap. The crap is reincarnation energy. Our job is to clean it out.

Reincarnation energy accumulates through our past choices. When something comes out of those choices that we cannot process, we hide it away. It is bad, nasty stuff, and we do not want to feel it.

Neidan training requires the body to be cleaned out, just like the house. All the rooms need to be opened and the crud and crap inside cleaned out. And to do that, we are going to get dirty. This is where the training gets tough. To clean out a room we will need to go inside, and this will get us covered in the dust and dirt of emotions and memories that have been locked away.

Unlike cleaning house, though, this part of the training is fairly passive. Once jing and qi build up inside the body, the places where this crap is locked away will naturally open up. All we need to do is stay open to the process. We just sit and let the energy move, and let the emotions release. I find it best not to think about the stuff. Just experience it and let it go. After all, at the end of the day, the drama doesn’t mean anything.