Mal

Nice article, although I'm not a big fan of weightlifting and I do think there are benefites that you can get from Yoga, espicially astanga. Like Mado said in his response "When properly taught, yoga teaches integration and strengthening equally to flexibility" the key being "taught properly" My bigest problem with yoga was trying to contain my ego. I just couldn't go at my own pace and kept trying to copy poses that my clasmates had take years to learn. I liked the moving astanga postures, but just didn't enjoy the static ones. I find Tai Chi much more enjoyable. And importantly less likley to cause injury for beginers. I tend to teach elderly/less mobile/injured students and you still have to be very carefull. Even Tai Chi is more strenious than it looks.

Inspired by I am naturally a very happy person. When I talk to people they often say "Wow, you are so happy" or "what a nice smile" etc.... However I sometimes "feel" that I "need" to be unhappy. There will be nothing wrong in my life but I just get a strong desire to well basically sulk or mope around, or be cranky. It's like my body needs to feel like that sometimes. I can repress it and just make myself feel happy but in the back of my mind the desire to sulk is still lurking there, where as if I just indulge myself in being unhappy, just for a hour or so, I sort of work through it and feel normal again. I have often though this might just be my way to balance out my overly happy personality.

Hi Yoda, I've been doing them for 3 months. Good fun and they help me wake up in the mornings. I haven't noticed any "special" effects either. I'm 33 so I don't expect to look any younger, but I would enjoy it if they stoped my hair from thining I'm not doing the 6th Tibetan, are you.

Hello there, Nice community you have here. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone. My main interests are Tai Chi and Kung Fu. I'm also interested in "The 5 Tibetans", "Mat Furies Combat Conditioning" as well as M. Chia's sexual energy techniques, although I've never really tried to practice them they do have a lot more appeal now that I'm 33 as opposed to 18 when I originally found his "Taoist Secrets of Love-Cultivating Male Sexual Energy" book. I'm from Townsville in Queensland, Australia. I've been practicing Tai Chi, badly , since I started High School. Our Art teacher use to lead the entire school through a short form during morning parade. Everyone use to make fun of Tai Chi, but I loved it. I tried to keep learning from books and various teacher over the years but I have only made good progress since I found my current teacher in 2002. I'm also learning Tong Long Kung Fu from him. The reason for my post is that my new years resolution is to practice "The 5 Tibetans" in the morning and after Kung Fu practice (I've practiced daily since 2003) and "The Kings Court Exercises" from Mat Furies Combat Conditioning. I've done these exercises previously but I've always found the kings court exercises too intense and I've really only been able to keep doing them for a month before I giving up. So this year I'm increasing my reps a lot more slowly, aiming at just enjoying the exercises everyday rather than trying to get to "x" amount of reps in "x" amount of weeks. So far so good (I'm up to 20 reps, started before new year) and I'm enjoying them a lot more this time too. I'm also doing the 5 Tibetans, basically as an experiment to see if can take advantage of it's "youthing" properties to fill in a developing bald spot I've done these previously too, but not on a daily basis, I find the "spin" exercise quite enjoyable and unique. Also my partner believes they actually do thicken up my hair!!! So I thought I'd give them a proper go and see what happens I think that's enough rambling for now

Hi Japhy, Thank for the link, I'll check it out. Nice to hear from you again too Mal

It's always fun trying to avoid the McDojo's with their endless contracts and free uniforms etc Wing Chun is by far the most poplular and common of the southern chinese systems, so it's often dificult to find a decent school. A good (i.e. complete) system of Tai Chi is all you need and I'm not too sure how well Wing Chun would complement your Chen style (northern v southern influences) However all the people I know that do kung fu also know some form of tai chi, but they usually started with kung fu and incorprated the tai chi for health reasons. My Sifu knows Chen style as well as Yang. He taught us Yang and won't teach us Chen untill after we have learnt Tong Long (southern art, similar to wing chun) When I asked him if Chen style was "worth learning as well" he said that knowing Chen gives his Tong Long more power, but it will be many years before we are good enough to be of any help to us. Anyhow, it would certanly be worth having a look at. What about the other students at the school you go to, do they train in any other arts?

Thought I would bring this one back to life, with some results The 5 tibetans: Doing 21 reps first thing in the mornings. Every now and then I will sleep in for an extra 10min and only have time for the "spin" but basically I've found these to be a really enjoyable practice. I often stay up late and have trouble feeling awake with only 4 hrs sleep, these do make me feel good at the start of the day rather than exhausted. An intresting side effect was that I now want to going back to Uni for some post graduate education. Will have to wait till next year but it's a change, I haven't felt motivated to do that for years. As for hair regrowth, nothing yet Combat conditioning: Intresting experience. I got up to 30 reps practicing everyday, lost a few kg's and got under 100kg for the first time in years. But once I had acheived that goal I found it very dificult to motivate myself to keep doing these everyday. At the moment I'm doing 70 reps for the squats, 35 for the pushups and I have changed the neck bridge for a normal gynmastics bridge (10~20 seconds) I felt trying to get my nose to the floor was overstretching my neck, a bit painfull sometimes, and now that my arms are strong enough to do a gynmastics bridge I prefer to do that. I'm doing them a fair bit slower than "fury speed" much more like astanga yoga. I'm also nose breathing and stoping when I start to puff. Not "sold" on the combat conditioning. + They are very good at building strength and removing fat - so hard to do that I eventually hate doing them and stop At the moment I'm probably doing them every 2-3 days.

ROTFLMAO That's classic, cheers

Nice link, I quite enjoyed : "The fact is that the knowledge cycle of learning the classical Tai Chi to understand its eventual consequences is very long. To learn the Tai Chi form takes several years to be proficient. To test the effectiveness of what has been learned in actual martial art application takes another few years. To confirm what the health implications are, especially during older age, requires a human generation" I recently asked my teacher "out of the Yoga that I do in the morning (only since November) and the Tong Long and the body weight exercises that I do in the afternoon, Tai Chi is the one that seems not to be giving me huge noticeable benefits, especially compared to the Tong Long Chi Gungs" His response was "Try applying the chi in Tai Chi and have a slightly lower stance and you will feel the difference" I have been learning Tai Chi with my teacher since October 2002 and it was only last year that he corrected our forms and started us focusing on "chi" The form certanly felt different after that correction last year but the journey isn't finished yet

I read a quote from an old Tai Chi teacher many years ago, and they asked him if he could have his life over again would he do anything different? His answer was. "Only learn one form"

It's a fair question, if you only want to defend yourself IMHO you don't really need more than one move that you KNOW WORKS if you have the ability to set the situation so that move is effective. I found that after 6mts of Tong Long training I was able to defend myself against 95% of people out there. Basically because 95% of the people out there only know a few moves, and don't practice every day And I wondered why I should I put in a lot of effort over the next 10 years to learn the other 9 forms in our system when I had basically everything I needed in the first form (6 techniques) As far as defending yourself the problem is IF you come up against that remaining 5% of people out there that do practice and do know more than a few moves. Then the technical advantages of the more "advanced" forms in your system are usefull. But running into people like that who want to "pick a fight" is pretty rare. So why did I keep practicing? I found that there was a lot more to martial arts than just being able to fight and I found it to be a great program of physical exercise and spiritual development that really helps me a lot as a person, so I would like to learn the entire art.

I didn't look at the web site but Fraz Bardon's books provide a system of induction into Hermetics, very basically another type of ceremonial magic. I got into Bardon this after I stopped doing Golden Dawn practices.

Sweet, I'm going to live FOREVER !!!!!!!!!

Welcome Grover, enjoy your stay

You could also try http://www.astraldynamics.com/ Good web site and they have a workbook for a 90 day course. I have the book, but didn't complete the course last year. They focus on energy work being a "key" to astral travel. I was doing it for a while but I had a martial arts comp comming up and even though it only takes about 30min a day for the course I just lost motivation. Wasn't a waste as the energy work reminded me about the healing tao book that I had and eventually led me here

I like OSHO, well I enjoy his books never got to meet him.

Hi Japhy Ryder, Thanks, it seems that taking these slowly is really important. My lower back has always been weak and a bit sore, that's why I wanted to learn tai chi years ago. And I find that rite #2 is quite hard for me. Actually hard isn't the correct word, it's just that it is dificult to do without putting too much strain on my spine. If I just lift my legs my spine will "click" and can get sore after a few reps. I have to concentrate on raising my legs "with" my breathing and mind which makes the movement effortless. This time because I've only been increasing the reps by 2 a week and only started at 3 reps I've been going o.k. last time when I got to 9 reps I started to feel really good (like now) and I increased them to 21 in a week or so which was too much, except for rite #1. I kept doing 21 reps of it on and off for months now, I really enjoyed it and it's the reason I decided to try T5T again. I've also convinced my Dad to give them a go. Any suggestion for overweight 60 year olds who are having dificulity doing #4 and #5, apart from "Just hang in there and don't try too hard" As for the combat conditioning. Not too sure exactly what I'm aiming for with it yet They certanly increase my aerobic fitness faster than anything else I've tried, but because they are quite strenious I find it's easy to burn out from trying too hard. So I'm not doing them Furey style i.e. really hard this time. I'm taking them easy and increasing by one a day for a week and then staying on that number of reps for a week to "recover." I'm not really intrested in getting to "X" amount of reps in "Y" weeks but I would like to still be doing them at the end of the year. I can do 100 squats so 25 is really only getting me breathing but I want to try to keep the same number of squats and push up's, last year I ended up doing 50 squats but could only manage 2x 10 reps for the pushup. I'm more focused on the combat conditioning for the back bridge as I find it really helps my lower back and I enjoy sitting upside down just breathing, it's almost getting a bit meditative (even if it's only for about 30 sec) Have to keep trying to get my nose down................. perhaps one day

Hi BD2, don't be concerned about any apparent "lack" of progress. I like you're attitude, as long as you keep trying I'm sure you will have success and enjoy the journey

Another week T5T is going well, up to 9 reps and everything is feeling really easy and effortless. I'm actually enjoying getting out of bed to do these in the morning and I am NOT a morning person. But unlike last time I'm not going to jump up to 21 reps like I did last year and hurt myself, slow and steady..... Combat Conditioning is going really well too. I'm up to 25 reps. The best I have ever done previously for the hindu push ups is 10 reps. All in all very happy this week, although that could also be from having a slight amount of "success" trying the big draw in the last few weeks

and I think it was the one that you put a link into a forum of yours on but I'm getting better at navigating here so I think I've found it again "www.skymountain.net" so it's all cool

Well spotted Our sifu belives that our tai chi form is "all we will ever need" too. His fathers only practice is doing Tai Chi twice a day. However Sifu also believes it will take at least 3 years before we can do Tai chi "correctly" enough for it to "work" as a chi kung, that is why he teaches us the other Chi Kungs first so that we can experience this while we are learning tai chi. I've been doing tai chi since 2002 with my Sifu. About 6 months ago he corrected our Tai Chi forms and now I can feel "something" when I am doing it. But not to the same extent as the chi kungs.

Another thought, Perhaps the purpose of the Microcosmic Orbit is like a safety valve to preven and nasty side effects people often experience with the raising of sexual energies? It seems that not many people practice it daily. But people do seem to be practicing something that could be doing the same job. Personally I have a set of chi kungs that I do.