Vajra Fist

@freeform excellent response, thank you!

Totally off topic here, so mods feel free to split, but as someone who has had cancer about 10 years back - while practicing qigong at the time - I'm curious about this explanation for the disease. What is the cause for stagnation? Lack of flexibility?

Interesting points he made here about how the 8 mother palms contain the essential neigong of the style, with each palm corresponding to the energies of each of the eight trigrams. Hate to admit it, but Gerard is probably right over how it's the more simple movements in bagua where the essence of the system lies.

A lot of people here are fans of Damo Mitchell. I think he has excellent advice for kundalini syndrome - stop all your practices. Then do stuff for your body; go for a run, play tennis, go swimming.

Thank you, that's a fascinating answer!

Definitely similar in scope, although I definitely found the characters in Malazan series more relatable. Never once felt like a slog which Wheel of Time did in the end. I've never heard of Sword of Truth but looks well regarded. Twenty one books though!

I'm halfway through rereading the Malazan series, its made me cry and laugh out loud. Its deprived me of sleep so many times but I don't care because its still the greatest fantasy series ever written. Close second has to be the Prince of Nothing trilogy and the sequel series the Aspect Emperor, which has prose so beautiful it could be poetry and characters so monstrous it makes you flinch to read what they do.

Five Immortals Temple is legit. Lindsey Wei was offering an introductory online course on this form recently, but unfortunately she doesn't teach the full form. Apparently the sect doesn't allow the final four palm changes to be taught outside of the temple itself. Fascinating system though, they describe bagua as more of a ceremony than a martial art. Seems like it's more in tune with the art's shamanic roots than I've ever seen before.

Went to a few Michael Tse classes in London a few years back. He's a top quality teacher. Never really got on with wild goose but his dvds are probably the best resources for learning the first few forms

I've always been interested in learning Chen taijiquan but there are no teachers nearby me. The few times I've bought DVDs, which purport to teach the entire Laojia form in 1.5hrs, I've ended up with busted knees. I saw an interesting course on udemy the other day, which teaches the 8 form, qigong, silk reeling and basic stepping in some serious depth. Its 16 hours long and pretty pricey, but a lot cheaper if you go directly to the teacher's own site (taichi.school). I was pleasantly surprised at how detailed yet challenging the material was. With 16 hours I was expecting a BKF style course where he sits on his arse for about 14 hours before teaching a couple of moves for the last couple of hours. Instead you get 16 hours of practical exercises, warmups and tutorials. Stuff you practice on your feet. The guy is pretty unassuming and not at all flashy, but he's a fantastic teacher. Check out this introductory class.

Thanks, maybe its just me with a bit of buyer's regret. I'm not a fan of the subscription type models, would rather have everything up front to learn at my own pace. It would be different if it was a price in the range of a Netflix sub, but its $40 a month and you need to commit for at least a year or two in order to get some way into the system. Thats up to $1000. And even then there's a lvl2 closed door group with an unknown pricing model. If you can't afford it using during the 1-2 year period and quit, you effectively have only half learned the system. Someone else will be able to confirm if when you resubscribe again, you have to start back at week 1. Just seems a lot of money and a big commitment. That said, my gripe is purely on the pricing model which of course I knew all about before I signed up. If you don't have a family and have a significant disposable income I imagine it will be less of a concern. Anyhow, thanks for the pointers. I'll go through the foundations and heavenly streams lectures and exercises and if I change my mind will leave a more positive review.

I signed up for the course. There's quite a bit of material, but more than half of the courses including all the general lectures are locked and only available for annual students. Considering monthly subs work out $40 more a year than annual subs, this doesn't seem entirely fair. Also, not everyone can afford $440 up front. Im glad I've signed up to see what the fuss is about, but honestly I expected a bit more than a 40 minute lecture on sitting posture to get started. Its the standard drip feed approach.

Definitely one of the maddest threads I've encountered on daobums.

Thanks for all your replies on this. I practice an alternate day form of intermittent fasting, so I fast for about 36 hours, skipping food for an entire day and then eating at breakfast the day afterwards. Does the warning above only apply for extended fasting for more than 48 hours, or does it apply to anything more than skipping a single meal?

You've already stated you disagree with it on Buddhist canonical grounds, which was an excellent point and well made. Petty ridicule of other members then detracts from that point in my opinion. I know there are still practitioners of Falun Gong in China getting arrested for passing out literature that (they see) as 'clarifying the facts' about their practice. I'm curious, what is the situation with Fragrant in China? Are there still people practicing, albeit behind closed doors? Is it largely tolerated now, with authorities turning a blind eye?

Thanks buddy. I know he has a video on diet and lifestyle which looks like its only available in the annual course. Do you know if he has any advice against fasting in that? I fast alternate days and its become a very important part of my life. I'd be curious to know his thoughts on it, but annoyingly I probably only have enough cash at present to sign up to the monthly course.

Are all the lectures on xinyi and yang sheng gong on the monthly thing or is that just the annual sub?

We'll all have different answers from different traditions. But from where I'm standing, I'd see these sort of things arising where you haven't got protection from higher beings. In Buddhism, there are several buddhas who have mantras that can protect you from spirit harm, which can trigger disease or accidents. https://fpmt.org/mandala/archives/mandala-issues-for-2000/may/mental-and-physical-illness-can-be-caused-by-spirits/ I remember when I was younger I took acid and I had the distinct feeling I was under attack from astral entities. When I slept a played the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum on repeat for the whole night. As soon as I put it on, I saw golden rainbow light in the room and felt utterly secure and at peace. I slept like a baby that night. Could have just been the acid, but there's something about that drug that I think shifts your mind into the astral plane, so not everything is as much a hallucination as you might think. Personally, I'd recommend either the Mani or the Medicine Buddha mantras. Listening to this once a day will help at first. If you want to go deeper, you can read the sutra and practice this meditation. Good luck to you

There was definitely a bit of this. But I think the approved qigong styles were those that had been donated to the state, and could thereby be used as 'generic' qigong under the national qigong association. The ones that were banned were the independent qigong styles that had a founder who wasn't a party leader. If there's a large independent group not directly under the control of the CCP then it becomes a threat. This is why Catholicism, with its Vatican leadership, has always had a rough time in China.

I squeezed my arse cheeks together so hard through much of this post.

This is not just something from this style. I noticed many masters from the qigong boom time just simply stopped teaching, or allowed the practices fall into obscurity, even when there wasn't a political risk. Yan Xin, who is apparently based abroad, is the other obvious one. Which begs the question, why did they start teaching in the first place if not to leave something for the future?

I disagree with Virtue and others over the likelihood of him still be alive, and I also have misgivings over this style, but this is pretty childish. It would be better where you disagreed with the specific arguments, if you raised properly thought out objections, rather than just laughing at others or pouring scorn. A proper discussion benefits everyone.

Of course, if he hasn't reached that level, its totally understandable to be afraid for one's own life or the lives of family. But also, its equally understandable to have died of a karmic disease.

Reaching this point in cultivation, where you are no longer bound by the physical laws of the world, means you need to have first relinquished some fundamental attachments, primarily to life and death. If he has indeed reached this level, where he is like a god, having no attachments and no longer being bound by karmic forces, why would he allow doubt to be cast over his lineage in this way? Why hide away to avoid harassment from the CCP when he no longer has the attachment to life? Surely the validity of his method as a healing modality to be passed down for generations, would be more important than his life, at least at that level?

I don't agree that these issues can be resolved by dedicated practice. They seem as much to do with the laws of the human realm as they do individual cultivation. The Buddha apparently also died of an unspecified illness, and he had eliminated all karma and transcended the realm of samsara.