Kunlun Nei Gung | Ancient knowledge, spiritual practices, and healing methods

Pillars of Bliss
By Lama Ngakpa Dorje (Max Christensen)
Edited by Chris Tittle

Revealing the ancient, simple way to ecstatic bliss and spiritual re-enlightenment.

Forward
By Chris Tittle

"Less is more." I learned that in art school and soon adopted it as my mantra. The concept tuned my appreciation in such a way that as time passed, I was more and more deeply impacted by the poetry and power of all things simple. For within simplicity I understood, was the truth, the essence of an expression. Source.

Ultimately, I applied the "less is more" concept to myself because I knew that if I could understand the essence of myself, I would have a solid point of reference from which to understand everything else. Of course, I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to get there, but I believed that if I maintained a sincere effort and gave genuine consideration to the things that crossed my path, I would eventually be led to my goal.

Born with a skeptical mind and a natural aversion to the rhetoric of my family's religion, I found myself drawn to the philosophical concepts of the East. I opened myself up to many systems: T'ai Chi, Hatha and Kundalini yoga, Zen Buddhism, hypnosis, astrology, tarot, and even some wacky, New Age creations.

Admittedly, I found some truth and many beneficial aspects to these systems but, aside from Zen Buddhism, the poetry of simplicity was not there. There was extra stuff and that "stuff," I felt, only served to confuse rather that further enlighten those practicing the system.

Zen Buddhism had a beautiful simplicity to it but the time frame to see real results seemed far too long and after a while it felt like punishment rather than an enlightening spiritual practice. I wanted something active.

From studying Kundalini Yoga, I learned about raising the Kundalini energy. I loved the idea that there were hidden power sources within my body that could be unlocked and used to open up the different energy centers.

Effective as it might have been, even Kundalini Yoga had a lengthy time frame of 33 years to mastery; one year for every vertebrae. I wanted something faster.

It was at the Kundalini Yoga center in Taos, New Mexico that I met Lama Nakpa Dorje. He had been temporarily using their facilities to provide organ resetting and burning palm treatments to his patients.

He had a real mystique about him with his piercing, turquoise eyes and calm, pleasant demeanor. Looking at his clothing, and "Outback" styled hat, one would think he was straight from Down Under. I wasn't sure where he was from but I could tell he wasn’t from Taos, New Mexico. The owner of the center told me that "Dorje" was an incredible healer who had been raised in a monastery and had traveled all over the world mastering different spiritual systems.

When introduced to him, I extended my hand for the usual greeting but was surprised when he very warmly embraced my hand with both of his. He stared deep into my eyes, smiling at me. It felt like he was looking right through me, into my soul. He held the embrace for a bit longer than I was used to or comfortable with and I withdrew my hand before he was finished shaking it. Immediately afterward, I felt a bit insincere and kind of shallow for not knowing how to welcome such kindness. I just had never experienced anything like the feeling I got from his deep gaze. It was as if he already knew me and could know anything he wanted to know about me.

One of my fellow students at the yoga center sat down and started asking Lama Dorje more about what he did. Being curious myself, I immediately tuned in. Lama Dorje told him about a class he was teaching at the local park where his students learned different martial arts styles and that they also did a secret monastery practice called, the spontaneous Kunlun. Having never heard of such a practice, the student asked to know more about the spontaneous Kunlun. Lama Dorje described a practice that raised the bliss energy and the magnetic potential of the practitioner such that he might shake as if in a seizure, laugh hysterically, cry, speak in tongues and could be drawn and stuck magnetically to a fence, tree or a post and not be able to get away. He said that this simple practice was all one needed to completely open one's energy centers and reach enlightenment (or re-enlightenment, as he likes to put it).

Obviously my curiosity was piqued, but when he told us that one-hour of this practice was equivalent to one hundred years of another practice, I decided that I would definitely be attending his next class.

The first class was very impressive and quite a challenge. When I arrived the group was already doing a standing nei gung posture. I joined right in, copying the leg and arm positions of those around me and we stood holding the posture for about forty-five minutes. With shaking, cramping legs, nobody was more relieved than I when he told us it was time to stop.

Next the students broke off into their individual Kung Fu forms. I was amazed to find that each person was learning a different technique and my amazement turned to awe when one of the students told me that Lama Dorje was fluent in five esoteric styles of Kung Fu and could teach several hundred different forms.

Then myself and the other first-day students were asked to sit down and observe while the advanced students did a standing spontaneous Kunlun set. I was excited. I had been thinking of nothing but this since the day at the yoga center. "Finally, I am going to see people get stuck to fences and trees!" I thought to myself.

An air of mystery consumed the park as the students took the starting posture. Almost immediately torsos began spiraling and people started smiling. Within about a minute or so, some students started shaking. With this shaking came laughter and in some cases a kind of insane mumbling and I realized that I was witnessing "speaking in tongues."

After a few minutes of this, the students were overcome by this shaking energy that seemed to have a will and direction of its own. The starting form had completely disappeared and everyone went off into their own thing. Some students began moving about, running, spinning in circles and many were hopping up and down as if being controlled by some unseen puppeteer.

My attention was drawn to one of the hopping students named John, who unknowingly, was being drawn toward the tennis court fence. "Here we go," I laughed to myself, as he bounced helplessly backward and sure enough, into the fence.

He tried time and again to pull himself away, only to be sucked back into the metal web. It was quite an amusing and bizarre site to see. The student seemed to find it pretty funny as well smiling and laughing as the fence pulled him right back after each futile attempt to get away.

Finally after a Herculean effort on his part to break free, he was yanked backwards with a force so great that he came off his feet and slammed down onto his tailbone. The fence had him, and there was no getting away.

After coming around, the highly magnetic pupil stood up, rubbed his belly for a moment, crossed his palms over his naval and then went to sit down and rest. A breakthrough day for him, it was.

My focus turned back to the teacher. I watched in amazement as Lama Dorje stood with his hands raised and vibrating, directing the "blissed-out" students around like some magnetic orchestral conductor. Wherever his hands moved, the chosen student would inexplicably follow. Even those with closed eyes and the ones he stood twenty feet behind (obviously unaware of his focus), would find themselves moving forward, backward or sideways as the movement and direction of his hands dictated.

The most humorous and impressive display of control occurred when Lama Dorje "magnetically tied" one unsuspecting student to a stream fifty yards away. The student was sent bounding off in the intended direction and when he got to the stream, he bounced into it. It was hilarious and boy was he surprised!

It must be noted that while Lama Dorje cares deeply for his students, he has a wickedly playful sense of humor and he’s not afraid to use it. "Never forget to smile," he repeats regularly, not only to keep everybody from getting too serious, but also because it opens the crown center at the top of the head.

It came time for the students to "close down." They did this by mentally telling themselves to slow down and then by placing their left hand on their right, palms centered over their belly, just below the naval. This concluded the practice.

Once the advanced students had settled back into a normal state, they were asked to help show us new students the Kunlun. I was a bit apprehensive but very excited to see what would happen to me.

Sacha, the most advanced student in the class, was to be my instructor. He started me out standing with my knees bent (such that I couldn't see my toes), tailbone and chin both tucked slightly to straighten the spine, shoulders relaxed and chest soft. My hands were positioned in the proper posture and I was told to stand and wait for the bliss feeling to activate.

Well, I waited but when immediate results were not forthcoming, I started the movement myself, hoping to awaken in me what the others had been so successful in doing. As I moved and swiveled and swayed, I concentrated on the sensations in my spine and belly. Not much was happening (I found out later that my intense concentration and anticipation were not helping the process but severely hindering it) so, I just kept moving and after about ten minutes I started to feel my arms rise up as if there were balloons attached to my wrists. It was quite strange, I thought, so I just kind of watched them do their thing. When thirty minutes or so had passed, we were told to close down. Class was over and it was time to go home.

As I drove home, I couldn't believe what I had just experienced. At that point I knew that I had found both a teacher and a spiritual practice that I would be dedicated to for the rest of my life.

After several weeks of doing the practice both standing and seated I hadn't had much result. It was a bit frustrating because I had seen other students open up right away. The women in the group seemed to have the quickest success, while the men had a much slower time. It was a yin practice and we were much too yang.

Eventually, after expressing my frustration to Lama Dorje, he explained that the key to success was letting go of the mind and all expectation, and letting yourself kind of fall into the sensation as it became active. The objective sort of observation that I experienced with my arms rising up was precisely the right mental approach to this practice: the empty mind.

One day, after doing about an hour and a half of standing postures we went into the standing Kunlun practice. I was feeling quite invigorated having commanded my body to stand for such a long period of time and when I started doing Kunlun, I felt supercharged. Still, I didn't expect anything to happen with this session (since it had been about six weeks with little or no real result), but I participated with enthusiasm just the same.

I assumed the position, closed my eyes and began spiraling from the waist (as if working an imaginary hula-hoop). Then Lama Dorje walked up and I could sense that he was doing something in front of me. Curious, I opened my eyes for a second to find him raising his vibrating hands from naval to my throat. Suddenly, I felt my legs start shaking and then my whole body started bouncing. It was one, two, three bounces and then backwards into the air. Eight feet was about the distance I covered before landing on my back in the snow. When I hit, I felt an intense surge of bliss rush through my whole body. It felt so good that I just lay there laughing and laughing. It was the kind of laughter that can come from a really intense orgasm. My body was buzzing with a light, tingly sensation that felt wonderful!

As I lay there laughing, I snapped into this perspective where the whole world suddenly seemed completely absurd. The very concept of our existence seemed utterly ridiculous with all of the dramas we perpetually create and partake in. It was clear that ultimately none of it mattered and I realize now that in that moment I was "getting" what is referred to as, "the Cosmic Joke" and it was hilarious. The laughter came from deep, deep, deep within my soul and I just let it rip.

Since then I have had a wonderful time with this practice. There have been moments, while practicing in the full lotus position, where the bliss energy rose up so strong that I couldn't move. I found myself trapped in a column of ecstasy with my eyes rolled back and my mouth gaping wide. The energy had rushed to the top of my head and got stuck there because my crown center was not open yet, so it had no place to escape. Finally, after consciously moving it down to my heart it found release, radiating outward for what seemed like a distance of twenty feet. It was intense.

My life has changed in so many positive ways since starting this practice that it is hard to remember what I was like before. It has helped me release old emotional blocks and energy blocks that I didn't even know I had. My heart is softer, my organs have released a lifetime worth of toxins, and I rarely get sick, I always feel really good and the bliss stays with me all day long.

The best part of the Kunlun practice is that raises your vibration rate, such that you are vibrating higher than most of the people around you. It's great because not only can others sense this higher vibration, they find themselves feeling better because it raises them up too. You find that people actually become more attracted to you, as if you have become a beacon of light in a world of darkness.

I like to do the seated Kunlun in the evening, before bed. I find that it blows out all of the stress and negative energy I have accumulated during the day. It's like resetting yourself. It is as if anything other than your innate, glorious, vibrant, beautiful, harmonious true nature is cast off, rejected by this simple practice. You are left feeling light, happy, content, and centered, very aware of your Buddha nature. Enlightened.

I know that learning Kunlun from a book cannot compare to learning it in person, from a true master, but it is a great place to start. If you would like a deeper understanding of Kunlun, Lama Dorje is occasionally available for seminars and can be contacted via the information found in the back of this book.