irkk

Welcome back. Good luck with your training!

I can only recommend the teaching material of Stuart Alve Olson. You can find out more about the DVDs etc. here (including video clips): www.phoenixtaoistcenter.com

http://www.energyarts.com/Browse/Videos/index.html

The Dragon and Tiger Instruction Manual describes the Dragon and Tiger chi kung set of Kumar`s system. The set can be done sitting, standing and lying. The book contains a detailed description of the standing practice. Dragon and Tiger is a medical chi kung form. According to the book it is classified as a Buddhist form of chi kung. That`s why there are some Buddhist concepts mentioned in the book (e.g. Bodhichitta). The set consits of seven movements that work with the chi in the acupuncture meridians and the etheric body. You can find a clip of some of the movements on Kumar`s website.

Time to delurk (for one post). I have both new books by BKF. If you get Dragon and Tiger Medical Chi Gung Instruction Manual you probably do not need Chi Revolution (includes parts of Dragon and Tiger among other things). I would highly recommend the Instruction Manual. In my opinion it is the first real "How to do" book from BKF that tries to actually teach a practice from the ground up and step by step (of course only if you believe you can learn anything from books). At the moment I am also working with some of the DVDs of Stuart Alve Olson. I would highly recommend his Sitting Eight Brocades DVD.

The Yin Yoga of Paul Grilley shares most of the postures with Paulie Zink`s Taoist Yoga. The more difficult postures that can be seen on Paulie`s homepage are not covered on the Yin Yoga DVDs by Paul Grilley or Sarah Powers. The big difference cannot so much be found in the execution of the postures but in the internal aspects of the (in my opinion) different systems. In Yin Yoga DVD by Paul Grilley the internal aspect is not covered as deeply as in Sarah`s DVD. Sarah mixes Taoist and Buddhist concepts but the Taoist concepts covered by her are different from the aspects covered by Paulie Zink. Sarah emphasizes the balancing of water and fire (Kan and Li) using ujjayi breathing as practiced in ashtanga yoga. She also covers organ and meridian relationships. I would say this material has very much in common with Winn`s Fundamentals I and Meridian Chi Kung by Dirk O. The internal aspect of Paulie Zinks tape from Unique publications in my limited understanding concentrates more on balancing the 5 elements in the body as a whole and does not concentrate or does not emphasize so much the balancing or healing of one organ or meridian at a time. I would say it has more in common with higher level alchemy practices. That there is a difference in the internal aspects becomes obvious if you look at the meditation DVD coming from Grilley in the fall of 2006. It emphasizes the Indian Chakra system and not the microcosmic orbit. Grilley seems to be more influenced by his Japanese teacher as far as the internal aspects are concerned. For those interested in Yoga and Buddhism I would like to recommend another book that combines Yoga with vipassana and gives a very good overview of Buddhism and its relationship to Yoga. It is Mindfulness Yoga by Frank Jude Boccio. I think this book is especially helpfull for those with experience in Ashtanga Yoga and the works of Jon Kabat-Zinn, who also have an interest in Buddhism.

Paul Grilley was taught by Paulie Zink, who is a master of monkey Kung Fu. Taoist Yoga is part of this Kung Fu style because of the enormous amount of flexibility this style requires. Paulie Zink and his style are very traditional, so if you want pure taoist yoga, without any Indian or Japanese additions, I would try to get some of Paulie Zink`s Taoist Yoga tapes. There is one tape avaiable from Unique Publication but I would not recommend it if you are a beginner. The material is too much for a newbie. But on the other side it contains some nice, doable 5 elements ecercices. At the moment I am in the process of building my practice up, so that I can practice this program regularly. Then there is another video of Paulie Zink from Panther Productions. I do not own it, but I was told that it is even more advanced and far beyond my abilities at the moment. The last option is to get the new Taoist Yoga series (that`s what I will do next month or so) from pauliezink.com. He states that his Taoist Yoga is the origin of Yin Yoga on his page. So if you want the purest, most Taoist approach to Yoga I would recommend getting Paulie Zink`s new DVD series.

If you want to get into yin yoga you can check out the thread Sean posted. To get an actual training program I would recommend getting either Paul Grilley Yin Yoga DVD or Sarah Powers DVD from pranamaya. There is another Yin Yoga DVD by Sarah Powers avaiable from her website. But there is some overlap between the Sarah Powers DVD from pranayama and the DVD from her website. I continue to get a lot of benefit from my Yin Yoga practice. The best thing about it is that the Yin practice helps to connect my different practices. That is especially true for Sarah Powers Insight Yoga DVD from pranamaya. She teaches an interesting breathing method with roots in Ashtanga that emphasizes harmonizing fire and water (Kan & Li) and Prana and Apana. Then there is her focus on the different meridians and organs and the bridge to vipassana meditation. The connection to Scott Sonnon`s Yang Yoga is obvious. You see, Yin Yoga can deepen the connection between different practices and help to create a cumalative effect. But there is a caveat for beginners using Sarah Powers DVDs. Paul Grilley emphasizes that it is really the lower body that has to be kept still in the Yin style, whereas you can and should move your upper body during the practice, especially your neck. This is really important and is not really emphasized that much on the Powers DVDs . If you have areas of tension in the upper body or neck and hold the posture for five minutes (especially Seal posture) you are setting yourself up for trouble. I speak from experience. Try to get rid of as much upper body tension before your Yin session as you can and move your neck as necessary when you hold your Yin posture. Scott Sonnons material was a great help for me here. Speaking of him, I really like his Yang Yoga, Flow Fit etc. but keep noticing that most exercices where presented in the original zdorovye videos with a lot more explanation. I hope that Scott someday brings out his zdorovye on DVD or even a new version of it. I really like the way he explains the things in the original video set and feel this is somewhat lacking from his DVDs, but they are still very good.

There is Bruce Kumar Frantzis`s Longevity Breathing. It teaches to breathe with your whole abdomnial cavity, the upper part of the lungs and from the back of the lungs. You can find out more about Longevity breathing on Kumar`s website (energyarts.com).

I practice Wing Tsun Kung Fu. There are many types of this southern Kung Fu style, each using a slightly different spelling (Ving Tsun, Wing Chun, Wing Dschun .....). As there has been a lot of inner style conflict I will not comment on the self-defense value of the different styles. I think nearly all of them are among the best martial arts you can study, but from my own experience Wing Tsun, the style of Leung Ting has some clear advantages in regards to Taoist spiritual cultivation. It emphasizes softness and is closer to the Internal martial arts than most of the other wing chun styles (but this is not taught explicitely in class and there is no talk about chi). Thus it is very easy to include Taoist concepts in the forms, for example Bruce Kumar Frantzis`s longevity breathing or outer dissolving. I have found that training in the forms helps me relax muscles in the chest area better than even tai chi or any other internal art.

I never sad that Energy Balance through the Tao is a bad book. Actually it is very good. But I have not yet found a picture, photo or illustration that is not in the old book. As for the text, it is a little harder to judge, because I own the German edition and have not read the new book entirely, but from what I have read it is just the same. In the book it says: Originally published in Thailand in 1999.

I just got my copy of Chia`s new Tao Yin book Energy balance through the Tao. Unfortunately it seems to be only a new edition of the old Tao Yin book with minor changes of the illustrations. If you already have the old book I would not recommend getting the new one.

There a basically three methods to get into Yin Yoga without attending a workshop: 1, You can get the book from Paul Grilley titled Yin Yoga 2, You can get the DVD set from pranayama 3, You can get the Yin & Vinyasa Yoga DVD from Sarah Powers (www.sarahpowers.com) The DVD set includes from Paul Grilley includes an entire DVD that explains the theory of Yin Yoga and the differences to "Yang" Yoga, so I feel you do not need to get the book if you get the DVD set. The DVD by Sarah Powers contains a combined Yin and Yang Yoga session. Sarah powers combines her approach with a mindfulness approach. I think there is some vipassana influence in her teaching. She explains and talks a lot during the poses. I have found that some people find that annoying when repeating the session on a daily basis, but you can turn the sound off if you need. Over time I have practiced Sarah Powers Yin Yoga set the most as I feel it adresses my problem areas best and is very helpful to make long meditation sitting sessions easier. In fact she mentions, that that was one reason for her to include Yin Yoga in her training.