sirius

hello to all you bums out there! i was lucky to get an introduction into a special daoist meditation. the aim was to work with the heart and the shen energy. in one part of the meditation we received a little wooden ball which had been prepared with a very intense, sweet scent. i had thei Impression that it was a mixture of different fragrances: a little bit of apple blossom, a little bit of camphor and something else, which i couldn`identify. maybe i`m completely wrong. can anybody help me to find out more about this scent? thank you!

thank you grandmaster p! maybe there was some lily fragrance in it, yes, possibly. that`s a good ides! and the idea to get in contact with the guy who guided the meditation and to ask him is even better! and maybe soaring crane knows something about it - he was at the workshop, too (i suppose). many blessings!

thank you all for your answers! it was nor sandalwood nor patchouli. i know both fragrances very well - so i should be able to reckognize them. maybe i should ask my question in a different way: what kind of scent is connected with the middle dantian?

excuse me, john c,, for having written my statement. i was in a hurry this morning. maybe i misunderstood to whom you did adress your questions.

hello! great topic! i´m very interested in tree chi kung and made some experiences with it during the last years. unfortunately i don`t have much time at the moment for a longer and more detailed post. but i will write a little bit more later. greetings from the woods sirius

hello to all you taobums out there! i have some questions concerning walking chi kung practices: 1. what kind of energy does the body gather while doing walking chi kung practices? 2. does the body get "addicted" to this kind of energy ("addicted" = to get used to)? 3. how often/ how long should i train walking chi kung? i practice zhan zhuang chi kung regularly (almost every day) for at least one hour up to 90 minutes per day. i really started doing walking chi kung last year. at the moment i practise walking chi kung for about one hour three or for times per week. i do exercises from the book "walking chi kung" by lam kam chuen. during the last weeks my body felt very hot inside during the training and for a short time afterwards. i have the impression that my body gets "addicted" to the energy created by the exercises and that i have to continue my practice. what do you think about it? thank you for your answers in advance!

i like your paintings! :-)

thank you soaring crane for coming back to my questions! and thank you for really trying to answer them and to help me! i would like to send you a pm to give you some more detailed information. thank you to everybody who contributed to the topic "walking chi kung"! i found a lot of useful information! thanks a lot! i will definetely look for a qualified teacher to learn more about walking chi kung.

thank you all for your answers, for sharing your experiences, for your insights, for your help! awareness is a key word. i will more carefully watch what happens during the training and how i feel afterwards. thank you ,old chi, for your statements and the link referring to bruce frantzis. i`m glad that you`re addicted, too. lol! thank you, soaring crane for the advice to do closing exercises. i do several closing exercises: gathering chi in the lower dan tien, for example. i don`t remember having read something about getting addicted to energy in the "walking chi kung" book. but i will pick up the book and look for it. probably my question also came up, because i have a health issue: a chronic sinusitis. the walking chi kung helps me a lot to be able to cope better with the symptoms and to feel better. soaring crane could you write some more about your experiences with walking chi kung? btw, do you attend lam kam chuens chi kung workshop in germany in may? i live in germany, too :-).

at the moment i`m reading "the psyche revealed through the i-ching" by carol k. anthony and hannah moog. a fantastic book! full of insight, full of practical advice. i just began working with some of the methods to get rid of destructive thoughts/ programmes. i have the impression that the methods work and that they can help me.

lemon balm (for tea, tea mixtures and other things), lemon bush (for tea), different kinds of sage (for cooking and healing and fumigation), angelica (for fumigation), valerian (as a compost starter), verbena (for tea and fumigation), chamomile (for healing teas) and yarrow (for fumigation, for healing teas and as addition to the compost), calendula (for teas, salves and as an addition to the compost to improve the compost quality), comfrey (for salves and as an addition to the compost), mugwort (for fumigation) - and of course many aromatic herbs for cooking like parsley, chive, wild garlic, hedge mustard,thyme, rosemary, savory, garden sorrel, borage, tarragon, dill, burnet, oregano, cress, nastutium. and there are many other herbs in my garden, which i don`t have to cultivate, because they grow by themselves like nettle, dandelion, daisies and many others.

hundun, thank for your great posts. i immediately thought of "not doing" or complete surrender to the dao when i read your words. to give up the ego, to be sincere and to surrender to the life force seem to be the important things - according to my limited experiences. and experimenting, definetely. and to have fun! many blessings! sirius

hi niveQ! zhan zhuang is a very good method to strengthen your back. especially the exercise "embracing the tree" is very useful. in fact zanh zhuang will help you to feel healthier in many ways and on many levels. the important thing is to train regularly and to find a good teacher who can help you in many ways. good luck! happy standing! sirius

roger n. walsh/ "the spirit of shamanism" serge kahili king/ "the urban shaman"

i forgot to mention two more books: jan fries/"the cauldron of the gods" (celtic tradition) and "helrunar" by the same author (ancient german tradition/runes). that`s it for the moment. hope you find something intersting for you!

hi, i liked the following books/ authors: loren cruden (sorry i don`t know the english title, because i read the german translation); john matthews/ "the celtic shaman" (european tradition); bradford keeney/ "shamanic christianity"; nicki scully/ "the golden cauldron"; felicitas d. goodman (shamanic trance work); rosita arvigo and nadine epstein/"rainforest home remedies". all these books are infinite sources of inspiration and knowledge. blessed be! sirius

great topic, more pie guy! do you practise tree chi kung? i like to do my chi kung training outside whenever it is possible. i found a nice place with old oak trees standing in a circle. i often do tree chi kung = energy exchange with these tree. whenever i need a quick shot of energy i get in contact with trees. now, in springtime in western europe, i visit pine trees regularly for example. greetings from the forest sirius

zz training with eyes open means FULL AWARENESS - not only concerning the permanent process of scanning your whole body, but concerning your awareness of the fact that you are standing between heaven and earth. and as a more advanced student the awareness of the six directions. happy standing! sirius

zhan zhuang is definetely a treasure! it`s a tool that enables you to develop and use your whole potential as a human beeing. our sifu, master lam, taught us to do the training with open eyes. the training consists of three parts: warm up, the main exercises, cool down and gathering the chi. it`s very important to have a long warm up. after that you try to relax your whole body from head to toe. then you do the main exercises: wu chi posture, embracing the tree and so forth. after that you cool down and gather the chi in your dantian. you can use a mirror as an aid to see if you do everything in the right way. nevertheless you need a qualified teacher if you want to learn zhan zhuang correctly. happy standing! sirius

teachers should be patient. teachers should have humour. teachers should be filled with entusiasm.

Hi! Does anybody know the "Taoist Tai Chi" organisation? Is it a religious sect or a serious school? Thanks in advance for your replies! Greetings from old Europe Sirius

Yes, i mean the Taoist Tai Chi Society.

to get rid of anger and to get back into balance again is possible by working with the five elements. of course you can strengthen your liver by doing some special exercises - but this is just one piece of the puzzle. there are several methods that you can use: for example the zhan zhuang standing postures which are related with the elements metal, water, wood, fire and earth. another good exercise for cleaning your body/ your emotions is "the five healing sounds". try to find a qualified teacher or an experienced student who can give you more information about that. many blessings! sirius

my energy level definitely influences my interaction with other people. there are some things that i noticed during the last years and especially during the last month (when my energy level was higher than usually): when my energy level was high or higher than usually i had less conflicts with other people (family, colleagues and so on). it was easier to convince other people (at my place of work for example). cooperation with others was definitely easier. the relationship to my boss was very relaxed. was this the result of having more charisma? i think so. on the other hand i experienced that interesting things happened when i had less energy than usually: out of the blue i was criticized or attacked by others - often for some strange reasons. cooperation with others became more difficult. even communication became more difficult (more misunderstanding) to go with the flow was often difficult or impossible. was this the result of having less charisma? i think so. while writing these words i notice how difficult it is to describe these subtle things which happen between me and others in all day life. anyway, i`m convinced of the fact that more qi leads to more charisma. and i think that there are special exercises which you can use to create more charisma.

when i wrote "to get rid of negative thoughts" i meant negative feelings/ emotions as well.