XiaoYaoYou

Hi Taobums Community ~ I was wondering if anyone out there has experienced this or heard about it... In my qigong practice, I’ve been working with postural daoyin training working with rooting into the earth and allowing the free-flow of Qi through my body, & exploring optimal balance of my structure (physically and energetically). I’ve been working a lot also with beating and drumming the Qi, and also the microcosmic orbit. The two experiences that I’m wondering if anyone has heard about (I’m an acupuncturist and this isn't really the way the Ren and Du meridians are described in the textbooks... well, the Du meridian is, somewhat, but not exactly in this way): Focusing on the area above the perineum causes the Ren meridian to light up along the surface of the body. If I then focus on the area above the perineum and fill it with energy, the Ren meridian will go in an arc upward, from area just above the perineum out away from the body in a half circle, pouring into the third eye, filling the upper dantien with energy. In wuji posture, if I pull my head back a little while looking slightly down, so that my sinuses move into the field of the taiji pole (I’ve been a student of Jerry Alan Johnson’s system, and he talks of the taiji pole… not sure if it’s in other systems), and if I focus on stretching Du-16, it will create a circle of energy that runs from Du-20 (the vertex of the head) through the sinuses, back to Du-16 (where neck meets occiput) and back up to Du-20, circling around and around, filling the upper dantien with energy. Curious if anyone knows about this… These things are not in my textbooks and my qigong teacher didn’t seem to know much about it either. Maybe it’s just the way my energy is shifting as I explore my own healing process, but I’m wondering if anyone else has heard of these things. Please share if you have experienced this, or if you’ve heard of this ~ perhaps a qigong system or teacher talks about this? Thanks so much everyone!

Hi Tao Bums Community ~ I’m new here so I thought I would stop in and say hello, and also see if anyone can recommend a qigong/neigong system or teacher with a deep understanding and instruction regarding the extraordinary meridians, preferably something different than is found in the typical TCM system. I've been an acupuncturist for 10 years, and been into qigong and yoga for quite a long time. I’ve recently become interested in internal alchemy. I’m not looking for any particular “powers” other than to have control of my own energy circuits, and also anything that contributes to vibrant health and longevity (for myself and my patients). Mostly I just really resonate with Taoist cosmology and Chinese medicine, and I really enjoy learning about and working in the energetic realms. The last few years, I’ve been a student of one of Jerry Alan Johnson’s senior teachers and enjoy that system greatly. I planned to continue with it, but I recently find myself without a teacher and wondering which direction I should go with my qigong practice. I find JAJ’s system to be particularly powerful (for me, anyway) in terms of clearing stagnant energies and healing in general, and I appreciate how open he is with his knowledge. I plan to continue my daily practice with that system, but now that my teacher is gone, I’m wondering what else is out there. In the past year, I’ve been doing a lot of postural daoyin training (JAJ’s wuji posture and the 1-10 meditation) and experiencing the Qi that comes up from the earth, in particular discovering how proper posture activates the flow of the extraordinary meridians, including branches off the main pathways that I don’t find in the textbooks. What I’ve been experiencing doesn’t seem to be part of JAJ’s system, although perhaps it’s in there and I didn’t get to that point yet. However I’m not finding references to what I’m experiencing in his books and my teacher didn’t remark on my experiences when I told him about them. I recently read the Chase/Shima translation of Li Shi Zhen’s book on the extraordinary meridians, and found a lot of correspondences between what I’m experiencing and what he says about the 8 extras, particularly regarding pathways and focal points. Li Shi Zhen doesn’t appear to use the standard (TCM) confluent points of the 8 extras, but he references the knowledge of Zhang Bo Duan, and implies that a doctor should cultivate the 8 extras through internal alchemy to really understand how to use them. So I’m looking for a teacher or system that discusses this. Does anyone know a system or teacher out there, pointing to the same things Li Shi Zhen was pointing to, regarding the 8 extras? I’ve poked through the forums and I’ve seen references to this book, but not to systems that really discuss this. The information must be out there somewhere though, and I’m hoping someone here might know. Thanks so much, everyone, and I look forward to getting to know people here! And as soon as I can figure out how to flesh out my profile, I'll do that too.

Vortex, in answer to your question about how the extra points connect in with the meridians, I can give an answer about Anmian on the bottom of the heel. Anmian, by the way, means peaceful sleep. My understanding with this point is that it is where the Yin Qiao and Yang Qiao meridians connect, perhaps even source from deep inside this point. Yin Qiao and Yang Qiao meridians are used (in part) for diurnal (day vs. night) patterns. I use this acupoint for helping improve emotions and/or sleep when the person's energy (spirit, Yang Qi, etc.) is rising up into the head preventing being grounded, and preventing sleep.

Hi Rainbowvein, I've been offline a few days, and just saw your comment. For me, when I do this, it does physically open the occiput, however it doesn't feel like an energetic opening in the occiput specifically. It feels more like a third eye and sinuses opening, if we're talking about an energetic opening. The way it all happened was first there was a Yin Qiao opening, which extended out through Kidney-1 acupoint, and extended up through Du-20 at the vertex of the head. After a few months, there was the Ren meridian opening that I mentioned, and then a few weeks after that, the circuit in the head opened up. I can definitely echo Hydrogen, in a comment above: I'm not an expert (by far) and I don't have a teacher in this. I would like to be able to use this information with my patients, however, and for me to find a teacher in this would probably be a good idea. Thanks joeblast, hydrogen and rainbowvein for the reflections!

Just downloaded these, and I look forward to reading them. Thank you so much!

Welcome Dan! I'm new too. Enjoy the forum!

I'm going to just give a thumbs up to effilang on that last comment. Very well stated.

Hi Faceless_One, I've personally had a lot of benefit training in Jerry Alan Johnson's system of qi gong (qi gong = nei kung). He is very open with his information which I really appreciate. He has a DVD video that is very good for beginners called Chi Kung: The Healing Workout. You can find it on Amazon, and lots of other places as well. There are many teachers and many different systems. The most important thing is to find a teacher and a system that you resonate with. Our body has strong natural healing abilities. If you find a system you resonate with, healing is sure to happen. Best of luck to you!

Welcome, Lightchild! I'm new here too. It's a friendly and very helpful place. Enjoy!

Yeah, the name for Xiao Yao Wan comes from Xiao Yao You, the title of the 1st chapter of Zhuang Zi. The formula helps create the physical and energetic requirements for the state of mind of Xiao Yao You ~ "free and easy wandering". I love the formula and the state of mind. With the popping you mention, it sounds similar to what I experienced -- it felt somewhat like I had been punched in the nose, this kind of intense feeling in the sinuses under Yintang. It felt like it needed to come in and back into the line of the taiji pole, and when I did that, the circle of energy going around to Du-16 and Du-20 started. Thanks for commenting, dmattwads!

Hi Yellowsky, Welcome! I'm new here too, but appreciating the great discussions. Enjoy!

Welcome to the forum, Greendog! I'm new too, but this seems to be a helpful and supportive community. Enjoy!

That slideshow is really helpful. I have that book on my Kindle, and the Kindle books are a little bit more difficult for me to wrap my head around, for some reason. I like to see how far I'm in the book, and randomly flip through pages for context, and it's not easy to do that with the Kindle. So the slideshow is great. Thank you!

dmattwads, that's great, it's so nice to meet you! Cheya ~ WOW my eyes are popping out reading those reviews, especially when it mentions the quote by Zhang Ziyang (a.k.a. Zhang Bo Duan, who Li Shi Zhen referenced in his 8 extras book)... The reviewers are also accomplished qigong practitioners/masters. It looks like it will be a really good book. I *really* hope it goes beyond Master-Couple points... I think I'll have to go ahead and pre-order it. Come on July!

AOMA. How about you?

This looks fantastic, thanks so much for sharing! I look forward to Saturday...

This is great, thank you so much for the recommendations! Pythagoreanfulllotus: I found the Taoist Yoga text and downloaded it. From the table of contents, it looks a lot like Foundations of Internal Alchemy by Wang Mu. Perhaps it's different ~ I'll find out! The practice meditation CD looks interesting too. I've heard of Chunyi Lin, but I don't know anything about him, so thank you for the recommendation. I'll check it out! Cheya: thank you so much for the link to David Twicken's upcoming book. I hadn't heard about that, and I'll definitely want to read that. Re: contacting Charles Chace and Miki Shima, I hadn't even thought about that! That's a really good idea. Thank you also for the link to globalqiproject. Another page I had never heard of! Looks like a lot of information. I really appreciate it! dmattwads: Thank you for the "hello"! I also went to acupuncture school in Austin. Great city! Thanks so much for the replies, everyone!