guangping

I'm 55 and I too have chronic pain for the last 10 years. All tai chi and standing meditation if done correctly can help. Have you tried water aerobics at a local gym or swim center? This is the best form of exercise for someone older and you have to commit to it for at least two years. A good massage therapist may help. My sister has Crohn's disease and I help get rid of her body pain every few weeks.

The easiest way is to have your teacher correct your stance. If you are teaching yourself I can just about guarantee that you are doing it wrong. It could be from the way you distribute your weight when you sit down, almost everyone in the US has problems as a result from driving a car for many years. Also, the hip, knee, and ankle are inter-related, where one joint will freeze up and cause problems in the others. There are reflexology points in your thigh bicep and gluteal muscles, they can be triggered using a knuckle or elbow, if someone is willing to help you. Lastly, you can do it while visualizing in standing posture. The secret is that muscles have two states, tense and relaxed. When you can get in touch with the tense muscle group, then when you breathe in, feel the whole body expand, when you breathe out let it relax. This is all that water method of standing meditation is. When practicing don't take such a wide stance, make it smaller until you don't feel that muscle hurt. This is your comfort zone and is where you should work until its comfortable for you. Then you can gradually work back out into a wider stance.

So stop doing what you have been doing. You have probably caused acid reflux condition and it can be serious. Drink 8 glasses of water spread out along the day, the deep abdominal breathing should be done slowly, and if it persists after 2 weeks go see a doctor. Stop trying to learn stuff just from a book. Books are good reference material to be used as back up to a good instructor. Go find a teacher and you won't have these kinds of problems.

" This might have been true 15-20 years ago, before Bruce broke his back,but not so much after that. He has mellowed. I never witnessed anything like that while attending many of his retreats from 1996 to 2002. Some people get annoied of his personality, but thats another story.. " The incidents I personally witnessed happened in some workshops that I convinced some friends of mine in the Bay area to attend. I don't remember the year but it was when he was first getting established after coming back from China. When demonstrating techniques and in pushing hands he discharged fa jing on two of my friends, and had to be told to cut it out. It was clear he didn't mean to and didn't have the control. One friend went on to study with him for several years and confirmed that he hadn't gained any better control. I take nothing away from his being a good teacher, I learned a lot from him and his books are filled with good information. I just found better teachers who were more compatible with my personality.

There is a Shanghai Martial Arts Association and at least one qigong hospital that you can research and find. Or go to the old racetrack at 5:30 am and look at the groups practicing, you might find one that you'd like to join. If you go to a China Travel Service agency that caters to tourists they might know of teachers who accept foreign students.

Ahh man! And here I thought we were talking about KIM QI, which can be measured, bought, and especially tasted. I believe the Western version is known as QI TOS, and has a unique property of turning your tongue orange...

The George Xu story was great. I have taken a few workshops from him, he has some of the most fluid bagua stepping I have ever seen. His brother is supposed to be a better teacher, more accessible. I salute your chutzpa for approaching him. I have never met Peter Ralston, just some of his students. And I have taken classes from Bruce and Henry Look. Bing Gong, Don Rubbo, and Henry Look were all students of Kuo Lien Ying. Kuo was responsible for smuggling Mr and Mrs Ou (?) out of China and the popularity of I-chuan training in the Bay area. His wife still teaches at San Francisco State. Were you at one time the assistant when Bruce taught in Berkeley? I seem to recall a woman helping him teach the water method qigong and some other classes.

I swear this bit was lifted from a George Carlin routine... Osho's groups were pretty wild, a lot of orgies that made even old hippies blush. They tried to take over a town in Oregon which ended up in his being deported from the United States, back to India where he eventually died. We had a group of Rajneeshnans in the town where I lived, they ran a vegetarian restaurant, and several I counted as friends.

As for research, I've found that the Qigong Institute is a good place to start. They have a database with over 4000 research citations. www.qigonginstitue.org I also found a link to the Chinese databases through Stanford University but I can't find the link again, god I'm getting old...

The best exercise to strengthen the heart meridian is zhan zhang standing meditation, with the hands facing your chest. It helps the whole heart meridian and heart band ( kind of like sargeant pepper's only without any toe tapping ), is easy to do, and you get to stand outside among the trees. The best reference for this is The Way of Energy by LOam Kam Chuen, available through Amazon Books.

Jakarta, One of my best friends and fellow tai chi students was a professor of physics at University of California at Santa Cruz. He is where I came up with theories on qi, along with our access to Jerry Alan Johnson. Perhaps you knew him, he was Dr. William Burke, had a hand in developing chaos theory... If you came to his funeral then we might have even met... As to John Chang, I only know about the paper trick. It was photographed for television a few years back for one of Bill Moyer's shows. I think he still has a show called Bill Moyer's Journal. Anyway, I remember watching it and being impressed and asked Jerry how it was done, and he told me about it being a trick. xuesheng, I make attempts at pigeonholing definition of qi into terms that are more comfortable and fit into the paradigm I know. The reason that scientific theory is good is that it's based on designing experiments that will produce the same results. I wasn't a scientist in college, my major was considered to be false science at the time, it was psychology, the most impure of sciences. Even back at the turn of the century martial artists were describing what they did in terms of newtonian physics, what they understood in their day. The more complex, philosophical trappings were added on later to fit in with Chinese medical and Buddhist and Taoist theories. Remember that qigong as we know it was created for Western consumption by the Chinese government, much like designer outlets were created by merchants in Hong Kong to get the business of Western tourists who were looking for bargains. OK, now let's talk about EMPTY FORCE ... heh heh heh.

Jakara, What do you do for a living? As for listings of qigong research, give me a few days to remember where I used to look for them. I'm retired and it will take me back a few years. I know that the International School for Medical Qigong has some research papers and articles on their web site. I think the url is http://www.medicalqigong.org. There have been studies done in the US but I don't know how valid they are ornot. States like California require a license to practice TCM, so they have to have been convinced somehow that it works. The paper that caught on fire was chemically treated beforehand. Exposure to oxygen caused it to catch fire, it had more to do with magician's tricks than qigong. I prefer to visit a teacher and see for myself if they are good and honest or making false claims. I've also been to China, but back right before the Tianemen Square incident happened.

Why do you want a six-pack abdomen? It may be attractive to young people but seems silly to me. I worked out with weights in the gym over 25 years and saw lots of mistakes made, all by guys in their 20's. If you do lots of qigong and breathing your abdomen will look more like a baloon than a six pack. I'm 55 and the grandkids think it fun to bounce their heads off of my belly as I push them away, look ma no hands!

Yes, I do tend to over simplify, and I was trying to make a general overview that was easy to understand. The word qi means energy and there are many definitions for the types of energies in our world. Besides the language translation problems ( I have a manuscript written in the style of Beijing at the turn of the century that no-one has been able to penetrate ), there are the problems of trying to put them into the scientific and physiological terms that we currently have knowledge. Also, I said that the body creates an electromagnetic field, which has been measured, not an electric one. Yes, I agree about the problems with western scientific research, but there has been a wealth of research done in China and Japan that has been published there and not here. I used to use the university library to help me back when I tried to research and follow other research in this field. I don't know who John Chang is, I hope that he isn't the charlatan from Indonesia that was featured by Bill Moyers a few years back who supposedly lit a piece of newspaper from the heat of qi in his hands. I'd have to see him in person. There are lots of people who have demonstrated skills at manipulating qi, what types impress you? I have seen demonstrations in martial and medical qigongs, and a few sidewalk demonstrations in Shanghai... It would be nice to have a discussion with you if you would stop being condescending.

Hello Jane, thanks for posting your video, I hadn't realized how much I miss places like San Francisco and the Bay area. I lived for 31 years in Santa Cruz. One of my favorite restaurants is The Happy Immortal, located a few blocks from Golden Gate Park... whom have you studied with? I'm curious if I know any of your teachers, even the bad ones. Do you know Bing Gong or Don Rubbo at all?

Nice graphic. Where did you get it?

Jakara, I agree that there is a problem trying to make equations from quantum physics to consciousness, and that is what the wikipedia article described. I'm not talking about consciousness, merely describing the quantum level of matter. Your body is composed of matter. Physics also tells us that the human body gives off a weak electromagnetic current, and that we are good conductors of electricity... The Chinese have elected to call this field qi, the Japanese call it hara, and the Americans call it farting...;-) Internal practice is not philosophical but pragmatic, based on exercises that work, or else they wouuld not still be taught. What do you practice?

I'll take another stab at this. Quantum physics says that matter is just energy vibrating at different frequencies. Your bones, muscles, blood, and organs also vibrate at different frequencies. The electromagnetic field that is created is what the Chinese call qi. You can cultivate it, manipulate it, and deplete it. When you are practicing or standing meditation outside, the goal is to use your body to create a circuit between the Heavenly energy ( your head ) and the Earth energy ( your feet ). Rooting creates the connection with the earth, stopping the monkey mind gives you more awareness of your connection to Heaven. It's called by Mantak Chia the macrocosmic orbit. Practicing standing among trees is icing on the cake. Trees produce oxygen which helps you to relax, and they are a good metaphor for the attitude you need in practice.

Hello Ryan, Quantum physics tell us that all matter is just energy vibrating at different frequencies. Your bones, muscles, blood, organs also vibrate at different frequencies and the electromagnetic field they give off is what the Chinese call qi. You can cultivate it, manipulate it, and deplete it. If you are going to do massage a lot, you will be interacting with other people's fields a lot, taking on part of their field, and depleting your own, so practicing ways to cultivate and replenish yours is a good thing to do. chris

Hi, I've registered as guangping, which is a county in China where the style of tai chi that I've practiced is named after. Or Kuang Ping style, as taught by Kuo Lien Ying in San Francisco, and one of his primary students Bing Gong. I have also studied with Jerry Alan Johnson, and a bit with Bruce Kumar Frantzis. Also studied yiquan and qigong, though we used to call them warm-up exercises... I'm an old guy, 55, living in Colorado Springs, CO. Currently practice more meditation than tai chi. and fall asleep a lot during practice. Before I moved here, I gave all of the books I had collected over 20 years to the local acupuncture college in Santa Cruz, CA. I think that just about everyone who has practiced tai chi has had the fantasy of becoming a Daoist.

Good question. There's not the excitement I had when I was just learning, but in reality I have learned so little. I like the energies created when I practice, paying attention inwardly instead of to all of the outward stimulation that we have in our world today. I no longer look at it as a vast, mystical thing but a smaller, more pragmatic and simpler approach to life, which seems to suit me fine. Instead of going out at night I'm content to have a cup of tea, smoke a good cigar, and stand outside and watch the stars with my cat. I have diabetes and dead nerves in my feet but still try to practice every morning, or every other morning, or every third morning...I have a degenerating sacral disc from an accident 10 years ago, and have constant pain which makes sitting or sleeping difficult, but I still try to practice my meditation, which may skew the results and explain some of my weird theories. All in all, it just helps me get through my life, constantly gives me insight, and has become an integral part of what I do each week.

fa jing, the martial arts discharge

" Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one sees the manifestations. These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness." [/i]Ever desireless, one can see the mystery... In meditation when you can become the observer of your desires, you can trace them back to their source, referred here as the mystery. Ever desiring, one sees the manifestations... And taking the desire and projecting it out into the future, you can see how it will affect your life and the lives of others. Karma, or the manifestations of desire. these two spring from the same source but differ in name... Our emotions are rooted in pairs. Anger and fear come from the same source but manifest differently. this appears as darkness... the literal meaning is just that, in meditation when you get to the source, it at first appears that you are in total darkness, or infinite space. It's also known as wu wei, the still point from which all action comes from, creating the tai chi and yin and yang. In physics it would be the still point before the big bang. A simple view, but the tao te ching isn't talking about rocket science...

I studied with Bruce for awhile, and I was good friends with the guy who ghost-wrote his first couple of books. I'll let you in on a dirty little secret: while Bruce is a very good teacher, he has a problem. He can't control himself and discharges on people. This would be ok in a sparring match, but not on people whom you are teaching and are unprepared for it. Needless to say he has caused a lot of distress and a lot of his students quit on him. There are lots of people who have gone to China and learned from high level teachers. There are also very high level teachers in the US, Europe, and Poland. Another story: Bruce and Jerry Alan Johnson met once for a taping of a Texas based television show. Bruce kept discharging on Jerry until Jerry lost his patience and cleaned Bruce's clock. It was all caught on tape, but I think it's been long destroyed. It wasn't until years later that I told Jerry about Bruce's lack of control and he realized that Bruce wasn't doing it intentionally.

Bob Flaws has written several good books on diet and Chinese medical meridian theory. I think he may still have a website, its been a few years since I looked...