The great teachings are deceptively simple, but equally difficult to apply.
Ageless wisdom never changes, but it can be incredibly difficult to properly apply to your everyday life.
For instance, Rainbow Body is the transformation of your body into rainbow-colored light at the time of death.
Tibetan monks such as Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche reveal that to achieve Rainbow Body, all you need to do is think consistently loving thoughts for 13 years!
No big deal, right? Nonetheless, this is the ultimate goal of our soul in the universe.
There is no spiritual loophole to hard work, for any of us.
For instance, the word, ‘gung’ as in gung fu (kungfu) and qigong translates into “hard work done over a long time” — as in a lifetime.
Embedded in the name, is the wisdom that these movement arts are to be done consistently, for your entire life!
Qigong is full of simple practices – easy to learn, easy to do.
The hard part is doing them every day, consistently… throughout your entire life!
True mastery lies in repeating the fundamentals over and over and over again.
This should not be seen as boring or as a burden.
Quite to the contrary, classic Buddhist practitioners believe that until we begin this practice, we are living in a prison of hell called Samsara.
“Information addiction” is an excellent way to stay in Samsara. All too often, we see internet personalities promising instant and massive results from some “weird trick” that only they have access to.
To be a master is not complex, but it is hard.
All you have to do is place yourself in the right lineage, under the right master and then train…
EVERY DAY. For years. For at least a decade or more…. and never quit!
While the way may be easy, once you find correct teachings, applying them on a daily basis is hard work, ‘Gung’.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of rubbish out there.
Many people claim to be a spiritual teacher, a this or a that, but they are self-appointed or they took a weekend workshop.
This is dangerous and unfair.
I just worked with a client today who had been misled by a teacher who was basically making stuff up.
The internet does not help. You can find hundreds of people channeling angels and telling you what you need to do with your life who have never had any training.
While some of these people may be helpful, many are not.
That is why I apprenticed real lineages and real masters for most of my life.
I started my search out with a couple teachers who were self-taught and it just didn’t cut it.
Then, I went right for the lineage-jugular.
I was fortunate to be led to lineages with direct connections to the bloodline of thousands of years of contiguous teachings.
First it was with Michael Harner, who was directly taught by the Jivaro, Shipibo-Conibo and Siberian shamans…
Then it was Harley Swiftdeer Reagan, a salty Marine who was a half Native American, did three tours of ‘Nam, taught shamanism, martial arts and marksmanship.
Then I married a martial art master, owned five martial art and qigong schools, and absorbed all I could for over 10 years, becamine a lineage-holder and master instructor.
During that time, I found Taoist grandmaster, Sung Baek.
I traveled to the jungles to train with an Ashaninka Master Ayahuascero, Juan Flores.
…. and the list goes on.
My point in telling you all of this is not to brag. There is a reason why this training matters.
It is my goal to share the most grounded, credible teachings I have distilled from each of these great masters with you.
I took on the unimpressive yoke of the student… not for a weekend, but for decades, because I wanted the real deal.
This saved my life.
These Rock-of-Gibraltar teachers, masters in the Spirit realm, gave me real initiations and real teachings from real lineages… along with their own unique brilliance.
I cooked long and hard, watched, learned and was trained.
It took incredible dedication to pursue all these paths for so much of my adult life.
I realized that all of this training meant nothing if I wasn’t using it to improve the world.
So, I did the only logical thing: I started a school to teach what I learned.
This way, the teachings are kept alive and I fulfill my Gung.
One of my teachers said that a woman starts her mystery school at age 40…
In the next email, I will share how wounds can be turned into medicine… and mystery schools.
Warmly,
Elizabeth Wilcock
Temple Holder & Initiator on The Priestess Path
