Teddy

I practice yiquan loads and loads and loads. My teacher has told me that if you practice a lot of standing, then sitting meditation is not necessary. He says standing gives you all the benefits of meditation and more. Despite this. I sometimes practice sitting meditation. I like it, and have practiced it even before I took up zhan zhuang. I have practiced many varieties from vipassana to guided imagary, zen, and microcosmic orbit... I want to add something to my practice, and I have decided that meditation would be good. The main reason I want to practice this, is to disolve all of the shitty blockages in my mind (even more than zhan zhuang does alone) I am REALLY curious about Bruce Frantzis' system of water meditation. However, I am hesitant to buy the audio course because it is expensive. and at the moment I am short of money. I cant find much info on his system on the web. What I really want to know is... What benefits does it have over for example zen... or Ken Cohen's meditations? Can one learn it from his cds/books. ...and is it worth the price tag. Thankyou for your help

You need an option for 'don't know'. How can I possibly know how potentially strong my energy could be? As with all things to do with human potential and what we are capable of... the ideas we have are expanded so frequently. I just know that every day my energetic state improves. Who knows whether there is an upper limit to this process.

They decide what goes in the DSM by meeting up and voting on things that they reckon should be diseases. ie All the diseases in the DSM are c o m p l e t e l y m a d e u p!!!! Whether its a disorder or not is up to you.

I realise I may be completely delusional, but I worry about kissing within about half an hour after practicing qigong, because of what it feels like. Has anyone else felt similar? If so what? The thing is I have heard lots of advice like 'dont have sex within an hour of practice' etc All these warnings about losing your chi... and I'm worried that hearing all this stuff has just made me paranoid... but... I feel something very real, and it feels like a drain of somekind. Although at the same time they are about the BEST kisses ever ...so maybe it's a good thing. What I would like to hear from you all is that it is good to kiss after chi kung. After all it is fine to practice 'healing' after chi kung apparantly, and that doesn't leach chi.

I dont like feeling this angry, but I do and have no where else to talk about it. Doctors are so respected in my culture (uk) people assume that doctors know everything. Their word seems akin to the word of God. Doctors encourage this by completely removing the words 'I don't know' from their vocabulary. However, they lack the most basic common sense. My local hospital has a burger king and kfc in their entrance hall, and when I go in, it is not unusual to see people with intravenous drips tucking in to a big mac. The interior of the buildings themselves are THE MOST ugly buildings I have seen (worse even than airports). There is no fresh air. The way these 'health care' (I use the term with sarcastic irony) professionals talk to you is robotic and devoid of humanity. THE ONLY way a GP will help care for your 'health' is by prescribing drugs. They will happily prescribe antibiotics for common colds, but laugh at the idea of giving dietry advice. Many of them are genuinely well meaning, but it boggles my mind, how many of them are so uninformed considering that they have dedicated their lives to 'health'. The third largest killer (behind cancer and heart disease) is side effects from CORRECTLY prescribed drugs. When you include incorrectly administered etc... Modern medicine is the largest killer in the uk (and usa). I realise that this is becoming a very long post, so I will stop here and see what replys I get. :-) ...the basic point is it makes me SO SAD when I see my friends and family drawn in and deceived by these idiots, when there are so many better ways... and I dont know what to do about it. Please help.

I refuse to drink most milk sold in shops in the uk, because of the way the cows are treated and the rubbish that they are fed, injected etc. However, I DO drink organic milk that complies with the soil associations standards I even rang up rachels organic dairy to check how many vaccines/antibiotics their cows were given. I was told that they are all fed on organic grass and only given antibiotics when they are ill (when they do not supply milk). However, I have seen programs on youtube that say that this is illegal. Is this just in the USA? Can I trust organic milk from the UK?

Thankyou all for your informative repies. Excuse my ignorance, but what actually is the difference between raw and pasteurised milk? Is pasteurisation some kind of irradiation process? Why is raw milk so much better? And what about the pasteurisation process makes milk so bad?? Thanks a lot for your help...

Absolutely. I'm sorry if I came across as arrogant. It is the system that I am annoyed at... doctors as a group, not as individuals. Two of my closest relatives are doctors and they are lovely.

How come so many great yoga gurus turn out to be corrupt? (bikram, mansukh patel, sivananda...)

Xueshang and Ya Mu. It is true that antibiotics are genuinely the best thing to do in many many many situations. Just as regular exercise is also sometimes the best thing to do. Western Medical science is AMAZING. I myself have been saved in the past by doctors. No amount of 'chi' would have made a difference. However, it does have limitations... and where I live this is simply not acknowledged. I don't know what attitudes are like in the US of A, but the impression I get is that it is much the same. I also think the medical establishment have their ethics twisted. Here in the UK a nurse was in the news last week. She lost her job for offering to pray for an elderly and sickly patient (who was also a christian). There was an outcry and she got her job back thankfully. A doctor wont hesitate to medically examine a strangers genitals, but if a nurse gives a loving and caring hug to a suffering child eyebrows raise because it could be 'innapropriate'. Drugs work and are the best course of action for many things. But they are not everything. ...oh and the drug culture surrounding psychological disorders is crazy. As I have said, sometimes it helps... but usually there are many other better courses of action. My mother was prescribed prozak for depression after her mother died. Things like how much exercise she was taking weren't even discussed. Talk therapy and discussing what support her family can give her was not even discussed... just "you're unhappy. Ok here're some drugs. Appart from the fact that feeling depressed after your mother dies is normal and not pathological, this is crazy.

hahahaha excellent!

Blatantly they will!!! ...and I wish I could shout that from the rooftops, its just that I dont want to be that negative -after all, there are people who work in hospitals who do genuinely care, and hospitals can be good for some things ie surgery. I just feel helpless, because if I suggest to people 'take a walk in nature. Eat something fresh. Drink some water. Do some exercise (or qigong). Meditate etc'. I may as well be talking to a brick wall. And incase your wondering about it, I am not a zealot who goes around telling people what lifestyle they should have, but when someone complains of a headache after staying in all day staring at a computer, and asks if a have a painkiller. I say no. Have an orange. Have a glass of water, and have a stroll in the park, . Then I get looked at like I am a new age nutcase spouting taoist superstition. ITS JUST A CASE OF COMMON SENSE. HEALTH DOES NOT COME IN A PILL. WHY AM I SO MAD FOR THINKING THIS??? HOW CAN I GET ANYONE CLOSE TO ME TO SEE SENSE???? By the way those are beautiful pictures Durkhrod Thanks

The fact that there are so many of us all practicing, is mass healing the planet slowly but surely, and the more of us there are the greater the healing. Personally I think it would be counter productive to all focus on the illuminati... ...the best thing to do is to just ignore them, and then they will lose their power. If all of the individuals refuse to comply with them, they will go away.

Energy work.

Who is Randi, and what is the Randi show? I don't think we have that in England. Is it a program full of horny people (or would that be spelled 'randy')

There have been quite a lot of scientific studies done in to the nature of chi. They have found that externally emitted chi includes various em waves. They have found that externally emitted chi has scientifically significant effects on cell cultures, cancer, mice etc. They have studied eegs of peoples brainwaves doing qigong and found that the brains of people who regularly practice change significantly. Biologically qigong has loads of effects such as increasing t cells. The list of research that has been done under controlled scientific conditions goes on and on. For more info read 'The way of qigong -The art and science of chinese energy healing', by Ken Cohen. or google the qigong institute.

I've always been told that reiki is a bit rubbish, but coincidentally, last night I had a dream that somebody gave me a reiki healing and it was amaaazing! So maybe I should give it a try

Practicing ba duan jin on a daily basis will improve your ability to handle increased flow of chi.

Find a good friend in the town where I live.

Zhan Zhuang

I wish I knew. A few months ago I posted a very similar question. I recently moved to a town near London and I have no friends, and do not have the kind of jobs that helps you meet people. I am very lonely. I would love qigong tai chi friends, but do not have the money for classes right now. (and besides I would not benefit from any of the local classes so it would be a waste). Good luck finding friends in New York

I had exactly the same problem to the extreme, but when I started practicing zhan zhuang it completely went away. However, it sometimes comes back after 'holding the belly' position. Not sure why or what the problem is caused by.

NO sensitivity? Deaf, blind and dumb??? ....ok Ill stop being sarcastic, and tell you something useful: However sensitive you are now... -regular practice of qigong will make you more sensitive. and. thats. a. fact. FACT (ps what is the ayp forum)

I was in Crete a few months ago. They're not ALL liars

Romantic relationships are so challenging for us blokes. If you dive in to it fully it will be difficult, but equally rewarding. Do you want to have your cake and eat it? It's all very well to say that you want to have a 'spiritual relationship', but deep down what would you rather hear from you girlfriend... "I love you the same way I love all Gods creations", or... "The highlight of my whole day is making love to you"... ...probably the latter. Here is something important: There is nothing wrong with having an ego. -We have egos for a reason. Here is something else important: Although fellas usually dont like to be 'possessed', girls usually (not always) want a protector. Someone who sees them as special, and therefore worthy of protection. It sounds to me like she has a lot of power over you. Women usually want a strong man. If she can make you crazy just by critisizing you she will see this as a weakness. She will then critisise you more. This is how women 'test' men. You pass the test if you can show that you respect her feelings but are not over sensitive to them. The tests will get harder until you pass... ...or fail. She probably wont admit most of this because it is deeply subconcious.