What if you have practiced spontaneous spiritual movement for years without understanding what you are doing?

It is worth returning to the question: why am I doing this practice? Doing something for many years and truly understanding it are two different things. If you keep repeating movements without understanding how they relate to changes in your life and character, you cannot judge how much you have learned simply by counting the years.

In my earlier years, I knew some older friends in spiritual practice who had practiced spontaneous movement for years. Yet they said they did not know what they were doing; they simply went to worship and moved a little, treating it as exercise. I felt it was a pity that after spending so much time, they still had not understood what the practice was originally meant to help them with.

In Sheng Zhen Men's teaching, we begin by discussing why spontaneous spiritual movement happens and why we practice it. We also explore its meaning through religious perspectives and personal experiences of the movement. Besides doing the practice, you need to look back at whether you understand your inner self better and whether you are willing to change your existing habits.

Of course you can explore on your own, but when you cannot work something out, you can also raise questions and ask experienced people to explain. Do not assume that a deity has descended into you, or that you have become a deity, simply because your body moves. Understanding what you are learning helps prevent a situation in which you keep practicing yet become less and less clear about it.

I have had these questions myself. After practicing spontaneous movement for seven or eight years in my early years, I began to feel tired of repeating the same thing. Was I going to move like this for the rest of my life? What had I actually learned from the deities? Although I could experience spontaneous movement then, that did not mean I could clearly perceive divine intentions or handle matters for others. I therefore also needed to think more carefully about what I truly wanted to learn and where to go next.