guangping

you are a young guy who likes to masturbate a lot, and is trying to disguise how much you like it by ascribing feels from "working" on chakras. you are not working on anything except your hand muscles. the advice from others here is valid, if you are going to try any energy work you have to have a proper foundation first, and you can only get that by studying with a good teacher. otherwise you are just jerking off while thinking its a spiritual thing. get out of yourself, get a girlfriend and learn how to be intimate with another person and how to care for someone other than yourself. so far you're getting an F grade.

I haven't read much of Mantak Chia except for the first few books he wrote, so I'm not sure what he currently labels things , and it's been over 25 years since I picked up one of his books. I've seen this described by several authors, so I could easily be confusing and blending them all together. Something I've been doing a lot in my 50's. I can hardly wait to get to John McCain's age... First, let me say that there really is no difference energetically with the results of the two. The microcosmic orbit is for sitting meditation, where you run energy down your front, back up the spine, over the head, and back down the front again. The successful completion of this "circuit" is the orbit. In standing meditation you incorporate the legs and the energetic pattern resembles a figure eight instead of a simple circle, and it's been labeled the macrocosmic orbit, being a greater energy field. Adding Bruce Frantzis's water method meditation is a good tool for getting past blockages, and may prevent or lessen the shaking of muscles and tendons that occur during practice.

Well, I don't know if that's true for the whole history of the forms. What I do know is that around the turn of the century in Beijing you had a rare confluence of some very high level martial artists (and I'll get the names mangled here, sorry), of the Yang family in tai chi, Dong Hai-chan in bagua, and the teacher of Wang Xiangzhai in Hsing-i. They met and exchanged training methods and that's why there is such a mixture in training methods. As a historical tidbit, Wang's hsing-i teacher killed a man and was put in jail for a few years, where he was in chains. He practiced his hsing-i forms while in those chains and came out of jail more powerful than ever; and that is why the Beijing forms of hsing-i have short stepping and explosive movement. zhan zhuang came from Hsing-i. Standing in santi position became single pole standing when Wang Xiangzhai created I-chuan, horse stance became pole standing. After getting standing down, you learn how to vibrate and create fajing. Then you take what you learned and apply it to moving forms and weapons. I agree that bagua is pretty special, but I've seen how hsing-i is good at killing people. I'm just content in using it in the tai chi form that I do now, having given up some others.

Hello, I've practiced standing meditation for over 20 years. You need to learn this properly from a teacher, as the corrections can be very subtle and non-verbal. You should not try to run energy through your body until you have the basic exercise down and have stood for 200 hours, traditionally speaking. Standing is just the beginning of the practice, but is good by itself. Microcosmic orbit is for sitting meditation, macrocosmic orbit is for standing as it involves the legs. Proper practice begins with at least 1/2 hour of warmup exercises, 40 minutes of standing, and other moving exercises afterwards to distribute the chi throughout the body. If you build up too much chi you also must know how to dissipate excess chi back into the ground. Heating up and shaking is not a goal but a by-product of purging things like lactic acid buildup in the muscles. It's not wise to become addicted to things you are trying to release.

Hello, I spent a few years way back when studying with Jerry learning the internal aspects to my tai chi set, introduced people who knew yiquan to him, and made him use a professional editor because his writing was horrible. He has good knowledge, overcharges for his books, and has bad communication skills. But he was the best teacher I ever had and I learned a lot from him. Now this was all before he got caught up teaching seminars all over the world in medical qigong and then this Taoist crap. His books are good if you are studying with him, then they would make a lot of sense. But if you just buy them for reference, they may be confusing. He was a famous bagua teacher (one of the tests he had to graduate from being a beginning student, was to be blindfolded in the center of 6 senior students, and defend against their bagua attacks), had teachers come to him to learn the internal aspect to their arts, got into medical qigong when he found out that the healing qigongs actually worked. He was able to get rid of certain cancer tumors in folks, became associated with a medical teaching college in Beijing, and was the first white guy they allowed as a teacher. His book on medical qigong was used as their English language textbook. In China, since the 1950's, qigong and martial arts were discouraged. Teachers were sent for re-education. It wasn't until after Nixon went to China and they began to develop a tourist trade that the martial arts and traditional Chinese medicine were welcomed back. Still, most jobs in China until the 1990's, were selected for you by the government. If they thought you could be a Shaolin monk for the tourists, you were sent to Henan and had no choice in the matter. Same goes for all Buddhist and Taoist temples that survived, most monks and abbots were appointed. So much information was lost despite the government's recent attempts to gather together the old information. You might say that Jerry has become a government approved Taoist. The rituals are real enough and the information that he puts into books are as authentic as far as current knowledge can go. If anyone can divine whether a practice or ritual has value and works or not, I would trust his judgement though I would trust mine more if I practiced it. As for knowing if a practice can produce bad or demonic results, after dealing intimately with the results of supercharging the energetic pathways from martial arts and meditations for over 30 years you kinda get a handle on these kind of things, and I would pay attention to what he has to say.

the man in the video was not practicing or using empty force, what he has created with his students is similar to a spider and its web. he was the spider, his students an energetic web. I've seen this happen in a couple of places. video was pretty funny. it's one thing to practice something for hours in a studio, and another thing entirely using those skills in fights. I knew of people who went out on saturday nights just looking to get into fights with gangs of people to test their skills...

too bad, I just got rid of about a dozen, threw them in the trash so the room they were being stored in could be lived in by two grand-daughters. you don't need to get heavy staffs, although one of my teachers was known for using an iron staf... in fact, a piece of pvc pipe will work fine, you will be able to tell if you are emitting jing along the length of it better than a piece of wood. otherwise, go to a martial arts supply place and buy a rattan staff, which is what was used in the old days in China.

Macrocosmic Orbit is achieved from practicing standing meditation, while Microcosmic Orbit comes from sitting meditation. They are essentially the same thing, with one including the legs, the other while sitting down. According to Chinese medical theory, each emotion corresponds with a meridian or energetic state, we cycle through the meridians during the course of a day about every two hours. For men, the usual problem is the storing of anger/fear in the area of the tan tien, and releasing it causes a lot of emotional upheaval. This is when most guys stop practicing yiquan, you pussies. Bruce Frantzis's water method meditation is an easy, gentle way to help dissolve energetic blockages. Also, Thich Nhat Han's writings are good for inspiration during meditation.

Cha'an Buddhism was brought to China by the Indian warrior monk Da Mo, who also is credited for starting Shaolin martial arts. It's a cultural interpretation of an Indian yoga practice. Zen is the same thing with a slight name change when it was exported to Japan, and filtered through their cultural lense.

Two books you might enjoy: Crazy Wisdom by Chogyam Trungpa The Essential Crazy Wisdon by Wes Nisker

I had Kenichi Sawai's book where he described meeting Wang Xiangzhai, and there was no mention of a newspaper challenge. He said that he came to China as a martial artist and asked to fight Wang because of his reputation at the time. Sawai said that he learned I-chuan from Wang and took it back to Japan. I also read an account of their fight that was purported to come from a student of Wang's. The timeframe when they met fits the time of the Japanese invasion of China before WW11. In order to secure the areas they occupied, they would round up the best martial artists and keep them under a form of house arrest. Also, if you want a good reference book on the history of I-chuan, then Jan Diepersloot's book the Tao of Yiquan is very good. It's out of print, but there are some expensive copies to be had at Amazon Books.

I'm not sure I want to get into this, especially when you young guys start spouting the gobbldygook... In internal martial arts training as well as meditation, you learn to pick up and understand the energy a person is constantly sending out. You have a field about 4 to 8 feet surrounding you of body heat, saliva exhaled when you breathe, emotions, and thoughts that constantly broadcast. By developing the peripheral nervous system you can easily interact with this field. Using peripheral vision you can see a person's aura. Using the dan tien you can understand a person's emotions. Using your pineal gland, or third eye, you can determine spirit. There's no magic involved, just skill and practice. Development comes through practice of moving meditation like tai chi and both standing and sitting forms.

I was told that Kenichi Sawai was Wang Xiagzhai's jailer during the Japanese occupation of China, and this is where he learned I-chuan, which he called Taikiken when he went back to Japan and taught it.

A good book with the longest title: Qigong Empowerment: A Guide to Medical, Taoist, Buddhist, Wushu Energy Cultivation by Shou-Yu Liang and Wen-Ching Wu Liang was considered one of the five tigers of China, or top martial artists.

Bob Flaws and Blue Poppy Enterprises have the best books on diet and eating according to Traditional Chinese Medicine. http://bluepoppy.com

I enjoy Sufi music, and my favorite in this category is the album Whirling, by Omar Tebbiuk ( not sure of the last name spelling, sorry )

To understand about 5 element theory, how it relates to meridian theory, and the types of qigong developed to stimulate them, you need to study Traditional Chinese Medicine. Lots and lots of books out there, even some devoted to 5 element theory alone...

Tai chi is qigong, there are good teachers in LA and you will find that it's a good companion to yoga.

I just remembered Bob Flaws and Blue Poppy Press. He writes from an acupuncturist's or TCM's point of view...

Jerry Alan Johnson's are the best reference material if you are a professional, but he has always charged way too much for his stuff. Liang Shou-you (?) has a good book showing the differences between martial, medical, and buddhist qigongs, I'm sorry but I can't remember the name of it or if I even spelled his name correctly. He was once considered one of China's five tigers, or top martial artists.

I slipped and fell on some stairs causing problems with a lower lumbar disc, which is degenerating. The disc is a smaller one in between the hip right before the tailbone, so I have problems sitting down at times and even laying down doesn't help. I have practiced massage for over 30 years, and I've learned from tai chi how to listen. I use the standing posture to help diagnose a problem, and then use the person's breathing to release the muscles held in tension. Takes less than 10 minutes to do. Because my sister has no pelvic wall to hold her lower intestines in, the pull of gravity often throws a hip out of place or the muscles in her lower back get tired from having to counteract against the downward pull. First, I find the spot , then I feel for the trigger point, have her take a really deep breath, then I apply pressure only on the exhalation. Works like a charm, and I can get rid of rib pain, hip pain, make dowager's hump disappear, etc.

Sinking into the tan tien is an actual physiological instruction, very simple to do. Have your teacher show you how.

Books on meditation by Thich Nhat Han are very simple and beautiful, based on developing the inner smile. Finding a community of people with similar interests of hers is good, people my age take classes and play cards at our local senior center. Maybe taking classes at you community college or art center? A group of friends to go out for sushi every Thursday evening? Joining Big Brothers and Sisters, helping a child in your community... Lots of ways to combat loneliness and depression, realize they are just part of the natural emotional cycle, and not to dwell on them, let them pass.

What is it that you consider Fa Shen? Explain the technique as I've never heard of it before. Thanks.

No don't try and teach yourself bagua, you can really hurt yourself. It's essential to learn the correct stances and way to walk without blowing out your knees, and for that you really really need a good teacher. If you don't have any bagua teachers where you live, find a hsing-I or tai chi teacher and learn one or both first... You need to practice for about 10 years to get a good foundation down, anyway...