Question: I have been living in China for quite some time. Obviously I’m not Chinese, I’m Dutch. For the past five years, I’ve been quite happily immersed in Tai Chi, which gives you an awareness of the energy flowing through your body. People are not normally aware of that energy, so when they feel angry they don’t realize that the energy is driving the emotion. I found that this energy is extremely sensitive to thoughts, it shapes around thoughts, it gathers around thoughts. So it seems to me that all these metaphors used in spiritual Teachings really point to the principle that thought shapes energy and disturbs its path. And from your Teaching today, I think I see it as the free flow of energy according to God’s Will, and this free flow of energy is actually this feeling of bliss. If energy flows naturally, there’s this bliss feeling, peace of mind, contentment, and even more. So I think that opening up means the removal of obstacles of this energy. If you remove the obstacles, they are always removed, they don’t come back. So my take on it is that ‘being’ actually allows this energy to flow freely.

Answer: Yes, that is well said. The important point is that it is not purely the thoughts that create obstacles, rather it is the thinking, which is thoughts stretched out in the duration of time. Thinking is based on emotions, which create impressions, which create blocks in the flow of the energy. Thoughts come in from outside and arise in us, but when we take delivery and get involved in the thought, and extend the thought in the duration of time, then the previously free-flowing energy gets constrained and forced into certain trajectories. The subtle body is the energy body (the Pranamaya Kosha). The free flow of energy in the body becomes blocked due to our life conditioning by our parents, family, school/college, friends, work, and all of these preconceived and misunderstood notions of how things should be and should not be, and how people should be and should not be, and me and my story of whatever happened to me in life. Our egos become identified with all of that.

Then the Teaching comes before you and shows you the truth of how things actually are within the play of Consciousness, and that starts untying these knots and unblocking these blocks. This understanding starts transforming one’s conditioned beliefs, dogmas, concepts, and all the associated judgment, blame, malice, and envy. The Teaching dissolves these blocks, and that enables the free flow of energy and the sense of ‘being’. The bliss that you speak about is the bliss of being, not ‘becoming’ or ‘been’. It is actually the human being, the pure being, the pure energy, the pure Shakti, which is right here right now in its pristine purity flowing freely and blessing everything. All of that appears within Consciousness.

Question: I also recognise that the philosophy is more powerful than a practice like Ta Chi, but Tai Chi elevates your sensitivity, which makes you more perceptive to the philosophy. So embodiment is quite important, but philosophy is more important.

Answer: Yogic practices and Tai Chi help open up the nadis of the body. The energy flows along the streams and subtle channels of the body, and the practices help the energy flow more freely. The free-flowing energy enables greater perception of the Teaching.