growant

Ya Mu, When practicing Gift of the Tao, is it important to do all of the movements on the dvd in each practice session or can some be left out? If its ok to leave some out/only do a few, do they need to be done in the same sequence as on the dvd or can one go out of order? thanks-

Thank you very much Michael (and Snowmonki) for your thoughtful and comprehensive response- that helps alot. Looking forward to the dvd and seminar- and thanks to rodgerj for the informational part of his post ; )

Wow, you sure did read alot into my post that wasn't there- talk about projection! I never wrote there's anything wrong with practicing for good health or to heal others, or asked what good is medicine. I AM trying to clarify for myself, however, how the purpose and benefits of these methods differ from ordinary qi gong. If someone else with better reading comprehension and without the chip on their shoulder would chime in, that'd be great.

Not to be obtuse, but having read this and other threads on the topic, I'm still not entirely clear on the purpose and benefits of stillness movement and gift of the tao chi qong (aside from healing others). Can anyone with experience chime in on the benefits/purpose of the two , stillness movement and gift of the tao? I've already bought Michael's book and am considering buying his DVD. thanks-

Taotongue, Please private message me, would like to communicate offline, thanks

anyone know what happened to the kunlun forum? hadn't checked it for a while and when I did it was gone?

Thanks Lloyd and thank you very much Sifu Terry for your thoughtful and comprehensive response. To clarify, if one had a poor nights sleep or only a few hours (or if this is happening daily for a period of time), is it still OK to practice on those days? If one opens their eyes briefly to check the elapsed time while practicing, does that halt the energy, requiring one to restart? Is it ok to alternate the half lotus with left foot on top as it becomes painful/feet go to sleep? Also, regarding the self healing aspects of the art, do you know if it would be/has been helpful with heart conditions? Reapiring the effects of smoking? (I know you wrote that you were treating post-operative heart patients in hospital) Have you known of any incidences where it has cured cancer, aids, etc..? thanks again very much for your time-

thanks!

VcraigP, Can you please provide more info about the 'shaking'- its purpose and benefits? thanks

Zenbear- Sent you a pm, not sure if you saw it? A few questions about this practice- 1 Is it OK to practice when exhausted? 2 It was written that GM Doo Wai said the purpose of this chi qong is to get the internal organs under subconscious control- aren't they ALREADY under subconscious control?- I don't understand this 3 Its been written that the practice turns grey hair black, does it also help curing baldness? 4 Can one with internal martial arts/chi qong experience begin with volume 4, skipping the first 3, and if so, would there be any loss or missed benefit by doing so? 5 Does the chi kung help with releasing unresolved emotional traumas (recapitalution in Castanedan terms)? 6 Regarding sexual activity and Flying Phoenix, you wrote 'While we were practicing both basic standing and seated FP meditations (seated ones collectively called "Monk Serves Wine") in the early years, and then with the other more advanced martial qigong systems in later years, GM Doo Wai basically and jocularly told us to "knock ourselves out" when it came to sexual activity--because all the stuff in our training--including cooking with Chinese herbs (we made a training porridge or "jook" (IN Cantonese) constantly during our training) and ingesting of powerful herbs via alchohol tinctures and honey-based pills) kept that sexual component replenished and in balance.' From the above I conclude that for someone learning from your videos, without benefit of the chinese herbal and jook knowledge you learned, it may be harmful to 'knock yourself out' sexually? Is that correct? Also, the sexual activity can be harmful in two ways- 1) to the practice by hindering progress/energy development 2)to the individuals health/lifespan, by depleting the finite reserves of jing From what you wrote earlier, it seems GM Doo Wai was referring more to 1 than 2, is that correct? thanks-

Thanks. Having just about finished your book, how do the effects of the stillness movement differ from that of other spontaneous chikung, for example years ago I learned Soaring Crane Chiqong, the second half of which is comprised of a few minutes of memorized movements followed by almost half an hour of straight spontaneous movements? thanks-

So does the one hour/day minimum practice of stillness movement (in order to maintain the transmission) need to be one hour of exclusive practice or one hour of practice done while doing other things? If one had to not practice (or practice less than an hour per day) for a couple of weeks would the transmission from the seminar be lost? Also, I'm still not entirely clear on the benefits/purpose of the stillness movement (and how it contrasts in purpose and benefit with the Gift of the Tao). I think that the stillness movement is supposed to raise your vibrational rate thereby bringing you closer to enlightenment? Can someone expand on the benefits on a physical level? thanks-

Anyone here have any experience with him or his Fus?

I base that opinion on interviews I've read with Mark about his teacher and other reading I've done about the experiences of other students (not Mark's) of the same lineage having 'encounters' with Muktananda tho they never met him when he was alive.

Trunk, thanks for your response. I tried pm'ing you first but kept getting error messages for some reason, though it appears you finally got them Hundun, That letter is one of many claims/complaints from the website leavingsiddhayoga.net (which seems credible to me). I also sent you a few PMs a while ago Hundun, never heard back, if you still want to meet up in Socal let me know. Normally i would seperate the message from the messenger but this particular practice seems especially intertwined with lineage/shaktipat, and it seems unavoidable that practitioners would be 'tying in' with Muktananda's energy, thus my concerns.

Trunk- I was thinking of doing an intensive with Mark but came across some disturbing info about his Guru on the web, wonder if you have any thoughts on this or if Mark has ever addressed any of it. http://www.leavingsiddhayoga.net/larger_perspective.htm thanks-

Santiago- check your pms , I'm coming to florida soon.

Any news from Rodgerj or other Mak Tin Si students? How is the training going? What changes have you experienced?

If you are only interested in cultivating and not in making money there are spiritual communities around where you can work off your room and board (don't know for sure but think you'd have to work a fair bit less than 60 hours/week) and can spend the rest of your time cultivating, ideally it would be a spiritual community that is harmonious with your chosen path. Typically if you have a special skill they can use you would do that, otherwise there's always tasks that involve no extensive training you can do. I know there is or used to be one such community in Mt. Shasta, California, google around and I'm sure you'll find others. Good luck!

How does the sphincter tug on the inhale/tightening exit valve work/how is it performed?

I don't think its funny either. I went there and had a hard time figuring out how to get out. Pretty childish, Biff. I don't care for mean humor.

I used to take a white powder gold, I think the company is no longer in business. It made me feel kind of cool, a state that felt like it would lend itself to meditation. I also used it with some success when I had insomnia.

Does Jenny say (like Max) not to combine Kunlun with other energetic/kundalini/upward flowing practices? I don't mean practiced one after the other but more like one in the morning and one in the evening?

Garry, Can you talk a bit more about the developing yin and yang and splitting ying and yang above? That part is of particular interest to me, and if you're able to talk a bit about the movements related to that it'd be cool. thanks-

Anyone who practiced falun gong also continue their other practices (not drop them?) I am interested in trying out falun gong but don't want to drop my other practices, martial and spiritual.