Fa Xin

Listening to your body (stop eating when your full) Balanced diet Food with the least amount of artificial tampering Can't say I do all these but I'm getting better.

I would recommend choosing a good qigong or neigong system. This will create a routine for you that has goals and structure. It seems you have a lot of inherent talent, your just lookin for structure. There's many good systems around here that will help you hone your skills. Choose one that speaks to you.

I train everywhere. By myself if my teachers not around. I go from training with teachers to expanding my own knowledge through books videos or daily life. My teachers encourage this. I'll never NOT train. It's my passion! If you want to learn it you will no matter from a book, imagination or a teacher.

I thank you for this! Some of your posts expressing the benefits you had from Pangu Shengong lead me to give the form a shot, which ended up being a profound practice for me. Your posts surely are informative, thanks again !

I dislike practicing qigong or meditation while on cannabis. While these are very "in the body" practices and cannabis tends to send me out of my body. It also makes my energy rise and fire up pretty fast... my thoughts go faster, my heart beats faster, it's harder to relax and therefor harder to do energy practices. Although I have found visualization, imagination and creativity are increased, I find it very hard to focus while high. I would think it's really good for things like weight lifting, swimming, yoga, cleaning. Not for subtle energy stuff (for me at least).

I read "Yi" and thought of intention.

I'm not sure what happens but I'll find out someday. I have ideas about it that seem to constantly change. An interesting thing about NDEs is most people feel they are "going home". That's significant as it implies we've done this before IMO.

I would say yes to a point. However the ability to move energy is not based on movement of the physical body. So qigong should not be judged on the movements alone. I feel that combining a qigong program with something like yoga or martial arts is the best, all around strategy for optimal health. I've done martial arts for 2 decades now, but the health benefits I've gained from qigong in the past year has far exceeded my benefits of physical exercise. Even my taiji practice. Hope this helps!

Aetherous, Quiet on the outside, busy on the inside. You can move energy without moving your body at all!

My first dealings with Buddhism was with Thich Nhat Hanh's books. People say he's slightly repetitive, which I agree with. But he repeats the essentials like compassion, so by the end of the book it really makes an impact on you. "Heart of the buddha's teaching" is my favorite, I gave that book to many people as gifts. Buddhanet.net is an amazing, huge resource of free information, including meditation instructions and articles.

Thanks CT! I suppose it would be! I guess Vipassana didnt come to mind since it starts with following the breath, but kind of morphs into the main practice of "observing" I find the meditation is very relaxing, but takes practice. At first your trying hard to do nothing.... what a conundrum!!!! Makes sense why you start with focusing your mind on something, then on nothing, and not just jumping right into the "nothing".

One method in particular I've been using lately is "quiet sitting" aka just sit there quietly in the present moment and do nothing. Thoughts arise and sometimes I follow them but I always come back to the moment. I don't follow the thoughts but I don't not follow them either. Actually I was wondering if there's an official name for this sort of meditation? My teacher simply called it "quiet sitting". No breath counting or object of focus. Just awareness.

I have had some experience with spirits. Indeed there are spirits around us most of the time, but they are natural to the area/land and usually do not make me feel any different unless I tune into them. When there is a spirit of possibly a human or something else it will be very palpable. My friends and family who are quite "mundane" will feel the presence. There is a spirit who resides in my girlfriends parents basement. It generally leaves us alone. I have intuition of who it is, a family friend who lived there previously. Why he is there I don't know, perhaps he is working off some issues. But many times at night when you go down to basement you KNOW your not alone, you feel watched. I will say my mani mantra and send it compassion, rather than be afraid and try to banish. I do feel compassion for it, even if it is negative. He stays in the basement and doesn't bother anyone. Then there's the spirit of my deceased mother. I can not feel her presence at all, except rare times like when she pushed the Christmas tree over. The tree FLEW over and Christmas lights flew off it. When we started putting the lights back on, we all felt goosebumps at once. We verbally said "we won't put lights on" and it stopped. We believe she was warning us that a fire may have started. Other than that incident I have not felt her spirit. The third spirit was at my aunts house wen I was very little. Always had bad dreams there and felt afraid. My aunt saw shadows and heard footsteps but I did not know until later in life. The feel of the house was that of my girlfriends parents basement, you did not feel alone, you felt watched. It was very tangible and took intention to ignore the feeling. The best way to deal with spirits like this IMO is keep your vibration high. Cultivate a peaceful and happy heart is the best way to help yourself and the spirit. Say a prayer that it will find its way and be free. I personally have not come into contact with something that needed a forceful throw out. But if I resided in my aunts house I may have thought of it. (Long story edit to short) I also used to hang out in this old building which was run by an older Jewish mafia boss. We found evidence in the building of unsightly activities such as prostitution and drug use and possibly worse. The building itself felt like the two previous ones, felt like you weren't alone and had a very creepy feel. I felt nervous walking alone through the building. Those feelings are usually not just imagination and should be listened to. Once I was walking to my car early morning before sunrise going to work. I had done this many many times. This time I felt the air was tense, like something was there. I was on guard. When I got to my car an animal ran out from under my car. I believe it was a raccoon. Point is, when something is off, if your listening you will feel it. FX

I can attest to the ear massage. Any type of self massage is the epitome of "taking care of oneself" and super beneficial. I like to use the sun and moon as tools. Ever stare up at the full moon for 25m? It has quite the effect. I'm not into sun gazing but sitting out and absorbing its rays are very beneficial as well. Even opening up a curtain is huge. We don't enjoy the outdoors enough, in our society of staying in doors. I find many things in nature to be my tools and teachers. FX

If the system master says flat out, "don't practice other energy stuff with this", I would include it to mean things like hermetic Kabbalah stuff such as MPR and qbl cross. Those are a form of energy manipulation for sure. There's probably a reason he advises against it. Also the Qabalistic exercises prescribe to a certain energetic current which may be counter to that of particular qigong systems. My advise is to not mix systems.

This was such a deep and interesting thread! Very cool! It's a topic I struggle with as well. Some days I pray to god for help. Other days I feel like I am god. Mostly I feel like I am part of God, as we all are. But now I feel like I'm just a loose conglomerate of bacteria and micro organisms. Thanks a lot TDB!

I too had a lot of success and personal progress&healong from Pangu shengong. I have gone deeper into the system and enjoy the energy a lot. One thing in particular I've noticed after practicing the system deeply is a very close bond with nature. Things like the outdoors, sky, trees, moon, mountains... I feel very happy and close to things like this. I guess that's why it's called Pangu...his body became the world right?. And why master ou focuses his poems on nature. -- Lots of great info and systems in this thread. There is no system better than another, I believe it depends on what your drawn to and what resonates with you the most. Pangu shengong is best fit for me now and I have no desire to search more. But maybe later it will be something else.

Teachers are people too though, they must buy clothes, food and a house. The amount of money is a big thing for me...

Any update OP? Are things any better?

I havent seen the video. I thought it was out of production and hard to find.... and there were also rumors that it would be rereleased but i havent heard anything yet. that book answered many questions for me when i was first starting xingyi

lol yesss, I always get mixed up with 2 and 3! i will quote from Master Ou's "Pangu Mystical Qigong" book: "...Sometimes a miscount might occur, but a strictly accurate count is not a matter of importance; simply stop when you find the number has exceeded 26. It does not matter if you rotate the wrong number of times, but you should gradually make your practice more accurate." "If there are interruptions during exercising, such as telephone calls, it is not necessary to do the closing movement. Practitioners may either continue the exercise after having dealt with the distractions or start over from the beginning; do not be a stickler for formalities." and the best quote, "When exercising, make sure to feel calm and natural and "take it easy." It will not be harmful if your attention is occasionally diverted."

Do you have the accompanying VHS or just the book? I have the book too, it is awesome.

I like to wake up to my morning qigong routine. Nothing like getting dressed, brushing your teeth and getting in the "zone" before work. I will also do my qigong meditation during my lunch break at work. When it's a hectic day sometimes I will lose my center in the commotion. It's good to relax and get a boost. After work I will do some Daoyin and light stretching. After that I'll practice my taiji and xingyi. And yes, little things such as chores are awesome. The biggest challenge and goal is to find enjoyment in the smallest and daunting of tasks.

I spent many years reading books, studying texts and practicing taijiquan and trying to understand the intricacies of qi and qigong, to no avail. Then one day I happened upon a nice little qigong set and teacher, who simply said "practice this". It blew anything I learned or thought I knew out of the water. Point of this text is understanding how it works, and actually doing it well are so different. Also you find the best things in the least likely of places, times and people. Don't judge a book by its cover! The simple things are often times the best.

Isnt it all thought ?