Roni Edlund - Daoist Nei Gong for Women: The Art of the Lotus and the Moon

DAOIST NEI GONG

FOR

WOMEN

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DAOIST NEI GONG

FOR

WOMEN

The Art of the Lotus and the Moon

RONI EDLUND
AND DAMO MITCHELL

FOREWORD BY SOPHIE JOHNSON

LONDON AND PHILADELPHIA

First published in 2016

by Singing Dragon

an imprint of Jessica Kingsley Publishers

73 Collier Street

London N1 9BE, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.singingdragon.com

Copyright Roni Edlund and Damo Mitchell 2016

Foreword copyright Sophie Johnson 2016

Front cover image source copyright Damo Mitchell 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Names: Edlund, Roni, author.

Title: Daoist Nei Gong for women : the art of the lotus and the moon / Roni

Edlund and Damo Mitchell ; foreword by Sophie Johnson.

Description: Philadelphia : Singing Dragon, 2016. | Includes bibliographical

references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015038739 | ISBN 9781848192973 (alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Qi gong. | Exercise. | Medicine, Chinese. | Women--Health and

hygiene.

Classification: LCC RA781.8 .E35 2016 | DDC 613.7/1489--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015038739

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84819 297 3

eISBN 978 0 85701 247 0

C ONTENTS

F OREWORD

H ooray hooray for a book dedicated to womens development in the internal arts! This fantastic book is a serious, comprehensive exploration of female cultivation full of treasures to practise and information that addresses the glaring lack of feminine understanding in the internal arts.

I have the privilege of regarding Damo and Roni as my finest teachers and true examples of dedicated, insightful practitioners. The teachings presented in this book and in their courses are of phenomenally high calibre. This, when accompanied by the ethics by which they both live, is a rare thing.

As a young woman trying to find teachings within the energy arts, it made sense to me that my energy and body moved in a completely different way to those of a man. Surely, I thought, there must be some core differences in the way we women need to practise. I began studying internal energy work from the age of 15, working with Daoist, Tibetan and Sufi internal practices, and discovering common yet shocking experiences of misogyny. At worstoh dear, Ive been reincarnated as a woman, my bad no chance of enlightenment for me then! Or simply a total lack of understanding that a womans body has a different type of energetic makeup to a mans.

So I kept looking and explored many approaches and traditions while trying to find a serious, female-friendly approachwithout much luck. A shockingly common experience, I now understand from speaking to other female practitioners.

I soon found that the teachers I met undoubtedly had some Qi skill and knowledge, yet they lacked ethics and there seemed to be little work on the Heart-mind. Emotionally, many of them appeared distorted, particularly around their relationship to sexuality, power and money. I learned a great deal about the general attitudes we have towards spirituality and the feminine. Although this was frustrating, it also encouraged me to explore an experientially based understanding of what spiritual transformation as a woman is all about.

Eventually, I found a teacher who wasnt trying to rob me or sleep with me! I studied with him for many years. He developed an internal energy system that worked with the Heart-mind as well as the other aspects of the energy body, which was wonderful work. Yet I had an intuition that there were many missing links. After his death, the time came to find another teacher. Seeing a YouTube video of Damo moving, I found myself saying, I could learn a great deal from that man. I was by now a woman in her 40s and a little resistant and dubious about re-entering the Daoist world. I sent Damo a somewhat rude and blunt email! That email began an ongoing training journey with this remarkably skilled individual and teacher.

As a serious female practitioner, finding teachings appreciative of and adaptive to our uniquely female expression and route to the Dao is difficult, even ignored by most teachers. As women, we are surrounded by images of male cultivation and transcendence. Within the body/energy/tantric traditions there is very little available for women to work with purposefully with their body, with the confidence that their female energy makeup is understood and utilised for awakening. Why there are so few female teachers and teachings is a mystery, apart perhaps from the vast worldwide suppression and fear of women. This sits in the heart of every woman I know, whether she is conscious of it or not. In my experience, to step out in society as a woman of wisdom, a spiritual figure of any sort, takes the courage to release ourselves from the vibrational inheritance/memory that to do so will result in violent persecution. This book is making a huge and vital contribution to all women who want to reclaim their true strength. Not the imitation of masculine expression, but the deep valuing of our intuition, softness, heart-centredness and connection to the environment. Daoist Nei Gong for Women will support women to value this real, incredible, wild femininity more deeply.

Over the years of training and spending time in the crazy restaurants Damo likes, we had many conversations. It was becoming clear to him and Roni that teaching regarding Daoist female cultivation was virtually impossible to access, that women needed it and, in typical Lotus Nei Gong fashion, they were going to do something about it!

This book is the result of that deep exploration, undertaken by both of them, to right the balance and present this material for women. These two will only teach what they truly know. Roni has diligently worked with these practices for many years, until they have become steeped into her system. I have seen her transform, her own development moving deeper and deeper. The material in this book is wonderfully comprehensive both in describing practices relevant to various times in a womans life and as a detailed and thorough theoretical overview to strengthen and contextualise the practice of female Nei Gong. There is great attention to practices for specific times in a womans life, and I very much look forward to learning more of them from Roni!