soaring crane

Being the realist that I am, I ordinarily block this kind of nonesense from Faceboook when I see it, but this one intrgued me and I think it could be interresting for a lot of Bums: http://quizly.io/quiz/1671/begin/1

Anyone know Ron Jeremey's whereabouts? fyi - this member of staff would pose a pretty strong argument against an early re-admittance of Deci Belle. And I doubt he'd be very interested anyway.

Certainly! :-)

It's all really good stuff, but I'm going to suggest doing this before beginning the seated meditation (and afterwards, too). I'd add heel rotating (standing) and some yoga for the hips/pelvis/butt, all as preperation for the sitting session. But if he wants to do qigong, there are better ways to sit than in staid stillness. Gentle rotation of the pelvic basin, combined with profound breath and yi guidance, for example. That's qigong, imo.

yes, that's what I meant. I wrote it because you described your practice as qigong.

Same and Yin ... Yang ...

ditto

I was careful to ask if I was reading your post correctly, and given the nature of your original post, I believe I was. I didn't say anything about trolling, and I'm certainly not trolling you here. I simply asked if you were testing us to see if we live up to your standards or not. It still seems to me that that was the underlying motivation for your post. If I read you wrong, then great. But then I would still prefer to read your own take on your own question.

Original Soaring Crane Qigong from Zhao Jin-Xiang is a complete program that can take you as far as you want to go. Don't believe the tame descriptions of it as a health program for seniors. It was banned in China for a reason. I was practicing this passionately when I joined the Tao Bums, hence the name. Fanhuangong is my current passion, as revealed to us by Prof. Cong Yong-Chun, but you probably have to live in Germany to learn it. Prof. Cong also brought the very powerful Xi Xi Hu walking qigong forms to us. Quite possibly the most effective qigong of all. I think you can walk to heaven with this stuff. Lam Kam Chuen is the lineage holder for original Zhan Zhuang. He has one school in the US, in San Francisco, I believe, but many authorized instructors in the UK and the European continent. It's a lot more than just standing like a post. Those would be my top four.

Stand up! Your English is fine, don't worry about it :-)

now to harmony a wave dying in a soft, limpid pool of light

You are truly the messiah!

Maybe you can clear up for me what this thread is about, Brian?

Am I reading you correctly here when I conclude that you were in some way testing the people here? My first inclination was to throw the ball back at you and request you first do the legwork by providing your own insights to the question you raised. It's my inclination every time someone posts a querie like this. But if you were simply trolling, I'm glad I opted for sarcasm instead.

Moderation Message #2 This thread has been split/pitted from the point where it turned into a two-man bickering contest

I don't think you're going get hard numbers like that.

It's possible this has come up before in the past, not sure.

Hello Mahesh, and welcome to the forums! Glad you found your way to us :-) Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TDB team

I can tell you a one thing that's different here in Germany. The public education system is structured in a way that, for the most part, acts like a conduit for the student's natural inclinations and it has three branches catering to those inclinations. Grades 1-4 are all the same, but starting at grade 5, kids enter either a more trade-oriented school system or more academic system. Then there's a middle system for kids that could go either way. Which branch a student enters is based on grades and teacher evaluations, plus the wish of the parents and the student. This goes to grade 10, which is the legal minimum for education here. After that, kids from the academic or middle branch can continue on to college or university, if they have the grades for it. But all of the students can go to what I'll refer to as professional school, where they learn a trade. The list of trades is extremely long and generally limited to whatever industries are in the student's region. It could be virtually anything. The young men and ladies at the register in the supermarkets went to school for three years to learn the retailing business, for example. Lab technicians, house painters, truck drivers, administrative workers or all sorts, care workers, you name it, if it didn't require a university degree, the person doing that job went to school not only to learn the work itself but a lot of broad knowledge about the industry as a whole. This kind of schooling is combined with a long internships at firms. Depending on their size, companies here are required to take part in the internship program. They have to provide x-number of training slots, and have to actively take part in the students' education. For example, one division of the company I work for produces industrial chillers. They typically have three to five new interns every year, the most popular trade now being Mechatronics. The teams of interns are integrated into the company. The rotate through the various departments, learn everything there is to know about this field, while concurrently attending school where they still get more of the general education, but focussed on the work life (they learn about labor law and safety, for example). Once the internship is up (they have to pass certification testing for their field), they're not guaranteed a job at the company, but they're well-prepared to do that work competently at any firm in the country. This is as true for the sales clerk at the corner bakery as the graphic designers at the most prestigious marketing companies. Of course there are mistakes made and abuses occur, but the overall effect of the system, which is part of the public education here, is a population better equipped to survive in the working world, and companies and small businesses staffed by qualified professionals at every level clearly have a better chance of surviving long-term. And that's one way jobs are created. I've read that the German system is being tried in other countries, including the US, but I can't imagine for a minute that many American companies would agree to take part, and if forced to do so, would howl like stuck pigs about the socialism standing in the way of profits. So you see, genado, it isn't the "socialism" that fails, it's the people behind the system. The crazy-uncle memes you posted only demonstrate that throwing money into a housing project with no long-term strategy for an industrial base are doomed to fail. But I could post equally biased and spiteful memes about US companies that abuse communities for short-term profits, leaving behind environmental and economic wastelands. If the people running those companies had been schooled differently, brought up differently, they would have different, healthier perspectives and work harder at creating real prosperity. But they're a product of the system they were born into. We all are.

If anybody can, then you :-)

I would like to see the proof that Hitler fluoridated the drinking water. Fwiw modern Germany does not.

To the counter-opinions to my statement that Taiji/Qigong isn't group practice, I can agree that the way I worded it "purely gymnastic activity" is an overstatement or oversimplification, but I stand by my basic idea that groups are for learning and that the goal is to support and improve on the individual experience. I would in fact caution against becoming dependent on the group for your practice as this can very easily and very often does hinder your personal development. This doesn't mean you can or shouldn't at times practice with the group, but no teacher can breathe for you and any teacher worth his or her salt should be insisting that you practice the learned material on your own, and make clear that your personal practice is the ultimate goal. I'm writing specifically about learning forms here, btw. Group energetic work is in a completely different category.

The price is actually not outrageous.

Haha... And that makes you a... Divergent? :-)