mcoolio

Now that you mention it, there was a period where I also used to meditate (breathing) in the cold frequently. Although perhaps a little bit unpleasant in the beginning, I remember it being one of the things that lead me to a (short) period of being very cold resistant (which I already spoke about above). I went from always having cold hand and feet to being able to take cold showers without any discomfort. I could not believe it at that time. Practicing a lot of other stuff and the energy circulation that brings in the body is probably one of the reasons, but I think this breathing meditation in the cold was also very important. That really pushes you to relax and calm down and perhaps this allows the body to open up more instead of close. Gonna experiment more with this next winter.

Ultimately, there is only one true source. All the rest is bogus to some extent. Who here has established a good connection? I for one, like to keep everything as a possibility.

You look ridiculous

BTW: Don't worry that the vid above is for martial art, martial art and qigong is very similar Here are 2 more video's from Mike Martello (RIP): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUPpEYZZA48 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVDnt-41Ssg

Your qigong practice should, eventually, if good, progress towards you having a good circulation going on in your system. Of course, in the beginning, the circulation you get going during your practice will wear of quickly, but the longer you practice, the longer it will stay. This can take a few years. Now there is one thing that I think is very important for a good qigong practice and this is the jibengong exercises. These are just the simple warmup exercices that you encounter in a typical kungfu class. Simple but very important in building a strong qigong/meditation body. Here is a nice vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TklfnrVo11Y If you go to a qigong class, and they never showed you these kind of exercises, then you have to either ask your teacher for it, or look elsewhere for it. Ideally you have a set of 30+ different exercises that cover the whole body. And everyday you pick a few of these and do these for at least 30m total. The reality is that a qigong practice without a strong jibengong practice as a foundation, will probably lead to nothing, or in the best case, you will progress very slow in your qigong practice. Same goes for your meditation practice, you need a strong body. Today with our western lifestyle, we need jibengong more then ever.

Are some people destined to have power? Why?

What style of (medicine) books is this you are studying, because these methods you mention seem a little bit random Cold hand and feet is also something I suffer from a lot. When I was still playing soccer, one time in winter , my big toe was completely white and as hard as a rock. Starting a practice (qigong, meditation, ...) improved the problem a lot. I remember one period where I felt particularly in the flow of the practice, where I used to train outside in the cold for hours. When I met people afterwards and shook hands with them they were shocked at how cold my hands were. But to me it felt like a cold summer breeze. I'm not there yet, but am convinced that with a good practice eventually, I will no longer suffer from this problem.

The trigram cards you posted a little bit higher seem a little bit bland to me. All look the same and have to look carefully to distinguish the trigrams. Just my view of course For the casting with the dots inthe last 2 posts: Seems like it could be a nice method to cast a hex. The summing and direct method both seem fine to me. Using 3 coins works fine for me though. Not sure if I would prefer the card using over the coins. Would have to try it out.

From the tcm point of view: * cold hand and feet * problems in head Ringing, dizziness, feeling of fullness in head can all point to different things, so to come to some correct diagnosis probably need to be more specific then 'problems in head'. All in all, probably very difficult to come to a correct diagnosis from these 2 very general symptoms. Can even ask yourself if these symptoms have the same cause. Studying a little bit of tcm from books on your own can be interesting (if you haven't already). Could give you some more ideas about what organ(s) are causing this. Still probably very difficult to find out on your own (our through forums on internet) and going to a (good!) (tcm) practitioner is probably your best bet. I'm no TCM practitioner by the way, but I studied a little bit on my own and that gives me some indications of how it all works (but mostly shows how complex it all is). So yea, lot's of organs could be at the root of your problem. Heart and lungs are very much involved in the circulation of qi and blood in the channels and vessels. Blood deficiency can give cold hands and feet and can also cause dizziness in the head. This can come from lot's of different organs... On the other hand if you want a simple solution ... Practicing a good qigong system consistently for a significant amount of time will increase the qi circulation in your system and this will always help at least a little bit.

Sure, if you wanna follow damo's stuff, best ask someone from that school. Interestingly, I don't see to many people here training his system ...

I don't do Damo's stuff, but some general rules might apply. About the foot position: Feet not fully 'relaxed'. Ankles dont collapse inward, so there should be a nice arch in the inside of the foot. You can lightly grab the toes into the floor and lightly press knees outward. Both work together to give this arch. Weight is equally front (ball and toes) and back (heels). About the sinking and yao's: Not sure what translation of yao is. But regarding the sinking. There is this idea in statics of both sinking and growing at the same time. In the beginning you can even slightly raise your structure on inhale and slightly lower your structure on exhale. And then can progress to make this raising and lowering as infinitely small as possible. As you approach non movement on outside can even feel how internal movement and sensations actually become stronger. About corrections all time vs only at beginning: Dont think there is right or wrong here. Can do some sessions where you keep scanning your structure and do corrections all the time and also do sessions where you refrain from making corrections (or rather just relax all about all the points but just stand and enjoy). This idea of wuji being empty and without movement Remember that in statics there is also this idea of pushing in all directions and this is what actually gives the immobility. So the idea of empty should not be misunderstood. You should be holding the structure and this is work. Plus the breathing will also produce some slight raising, growing and lowering sinking movement and to completely prevent/remove this I think would be wrong because you cut of the qi movement. Off course different schools have different rules so if you do damo's stuff and if there are students of his here maybe they can chime in.

The second I know is a brilliant mystic, but who is the first?

Welkome to TDB!

Past years, spent many hours a day practicing some qigongs and meditations stuff. A few days ago decided to do some simple wuji posture standing. After 40m it was quite uncomfortable. Had to give in at 1h20m. I had expected it to be much easier. So that was quite a reality check. I like to think I practiced with sincerity during that period. And I believe the practices I did were as good as most things one can find on this subject. But can see a few of my mistakes a little bit better now. At one point, I hope to not make those mistakes anymore. So can take a while to see through the delusion (or the deception), and then comes the next one ...

But still, as @Lairg is saying, there are perhaps people that can establish such things remotely. I'm certainly open to this. So yea, maybe asking on forum is not such a bad idea after all.

@Takingcharge I wish I could, but unfortunately no, don't know anyone to recommend at the moment. You know, perhaps I retract my advice from few post earlier. I've learned myself the hard way how western medicine, good for some stuff but for other stuff, they totally have no idea what their doing. Alternative medicine, I'm sure there can be lot's of good stuff but probably also lot's of people there that have no idea. So I guess you have to be lucky to know someone or to know someone who knows someone. So I come to conclusion, sure, why not asks here on forums for ideas, directions to look. But still, why are you so sure this issue has nothing to do with the mental aspect? How can you trust yourself to see things clearly? I have to admit that from your post, you seem a little bit in a confused state. Your writing seems quite incoherent. Of course there can be other reasons for this but for me it certainly indicates that mental aspect is perhaps involved in your problem. How can we be sure then that what you write here matches with reality? So that's why perhaps it's better to see someone in real life.

Perhaps you really have some condition, but looking at your post, it could just as well be that you suffer from anxiety or some psychological condition. How can we establish this over the internet via forum messages? So my advice is to go seek more real doctors. Western and/or alternative medicine type. And if really can't find anything, perhaps consider seeing psychologist or something, to rule out the mental aspect.

The idea of correction and maintaining form has it's place in practice, just as much as the idea of letting go. Does letting go and being natural have much meaning, if it is not preceded by correction?

Amazing how much followers he managed to amass. And he seems to have huge influence and does lot's of good stuff in the world. His Joe Roegan interview is interesting though, especially towards the end. Shows me that he is still human.

Same thing for me. Some days I feel amazing during and after my practice, some days I already know before my practice that it's going to be worthless. I would say it's normal, and can probably take quite some years to stabilize. I just keep practicing everyday . On the other hand, if you're not sure if the training system you are following is the best for you, I guess you can always try something else. If you decide to try out some system, I guess it's important to stick with it for some time. But after that, if you still have doubts, probably better to move on. When you find some system and/or teacher that pleases you of course you need to commit to it for a longer period. Only then does your practice really start! No more doubting. No more yesterday it feel good why today feel bad? Simply the practice. Everyday. And if you reach this point, you will see that it possible that your practice has a positive effect on your daily life. Because every day you return to this practice. You had an argument with some family member or a hard day at work, but you know when you return home you will do your practice and it's all okay. It takes a while to reach this point and requires confidence in the system you are practicing. All decent all around qigong systems develop the qi and this will have an overall positive effect on the system. So probably not necessary to do some qigong specific for heart or specific for whatever(certainly not in the beginning). Any decent system will do. There are a few recommendations on the forums

Qigong/meditations systems specifically for the heart are very interesting to discus. I'm curious to know if people here have had interesting experiences with that. However, I doubt it would give you much benefit to practice these in your current situation. Your anxiety might not go away from practicing this and might even become worse. Qigong and practice are nice but if you don't fix your daily life problems, practice, whatever benefit it may give you, will be nullified when you go back to your everyday problems. You cannot run away from these. So fixing everyday problems is also an important part of the path! Sometimes, hard decisions have to be made ... Do you already have a regular practice going on?

The internet Seems to me it can serve as an extremely powerful vector for all kinds of magick, occult type arts. The past decade, the stage has been set. Everybody is connected by now. It seems the darker forces are already using it, somewhat successfully. Not sure about the forces of light. If I would study magick I would definitely experiment to see if I could use the internet to enhance my practice. Anybody here who has been using it in their own personal practice? Any other stories or insights to share regarding this? Or perhaps people disagree with me? Or perhaps this is already well known and I'm just stating the obvious? ------- PS: I don't do or really know any magick practices myself. This is just a vague thought I've been having that I think is interesting and wanted to share the thought. But I do think magick is interesting and at one point later, want to go a little bit deeper into it.

Maybe I understand what you mean. Looking at some stuff and some ramblings here, can get a bit wacky sometimes, haha! (and I haven't looked around that much) But a little bit of wackiness is perhaps good, and like you say, also good stuff yea. Ahhm, not sure I share the same view. Or better said ... I like to think things are somewhat in their proper place. Perhaps you are just grumpy and old. Or perhaps I'm just young(I'm not that young though) and naive.

Seems like you have a rather pessimistic view about this place

Group based practices and magicks seem interesting to discuss yes. Simply the fact that indeed you can connect and synchronize with each other. If done well I would think it would open lots of new possibilities.