Ya Mu

And I understand they run barefoot...

Different Master Wang; I refer to Teacher Wang Juemin. He is an ascended master no longer incarnate here. I teach his system because he asked me to.

Running is sure great fun. But be careful of those knees, feet and ankles. Beach running just about has to be the greatest. Be aware there is an awesome, mystical and fantastical qigong running method that goes far beyond regular running. The Taoists of old would use it to cover great distances across China.

Be careful projecting qi into pericardium or heart channel. Your intent and the quality of qi should be very gentle when you do this.

Haven't read entire thread but here are my thoughts on this. Attempting to block thoughts is as much doing as not attempting to block thoughts and creates as much mental activity. I think the key is to not indulge in the thoughts. An example of this is the thought "ice cream" Indulgence would be the internal chatter of "Oh, I like chocolate ice cream. Hmm, I think I will go by the grocery store tonight and pick up some." Non-indulgence would be to recognize this as a thought but allow it to pass on through. What I tell beginning students is to be a 3rd part observer, but this is not the final aspect. What I have found is that there is a way of separating the first and second attention. It comes about through the practice of raising the energy body vibration frequency and the practice of Listening. When we recognize who we really are and practice Listening it can be developed to the point where we can do this with one attention (and we DO want this attention to be the dominant one) and allow (with control from dominant) the other attention fairly free reign but to be used as a tool instead of a random event generator. I have posted this before but here is an example. I went into a sleep lab and was wired from head to toe. We started with me doing qigong with no preparation, but just go now. I had 3 minutes. While doing qigong the brain levels were monitored. At the end of the 3 minutes the brain levels went through the first 3 levels of sleep and were headed down. And I could have carried on a conversation while doing so; this is what I mean as separation of the two attentions. Another example is this makes it very easy to do other tasks while doing qigong. Movie-watching qigong anyone? Another example is I can work on a client giving them my full attention and projecting energy, while doing qigong AND reading a book or carrying on a conversation with someone else.

You hit on one of the problems. Heck, I can't even get any majority of folks with few problems much less folks with major problems to actually practice qigong. Most people do not wish to assume responsibility for themselves. And to Jane, look into self-publishing. Since you are going to have to promote your book anyway you may as well self-publish. Be aware that since, as I said above, most people do not wish to assume responsibility, there are people walking around out there that actually do better with meds than not. I know for you it is an emotionally charged issue and, since you overcame it, you think most will want to. Not true. For 30 years I have tried to promote qigong by walking, living, and breathing it. Very few actually listen to me. Out of thousands of students I doubt there are more than a couple hundred who truly practice it. Out of teaching at two different medical schools and one hospital not one person at these facilities, with the exception of one truly outstanding MD, actually continued the practice. And in clinic (medical qigong), if you don't fix it the first visit most will not return. Most would rather keep up weekly visits to chiropractor or western MD for drugs than to actually come to a medical qigong practitioner for healing, much less learn it for themselves.

I agree with this view!!! To the OP: Whether or not this birth control practice caused the problem did you learn your lesson about trying to teach something you don't understand? Unfortunately this type of "teaching" seems to be the case with many. One reason there are so many myths concerning qigong.

Reason 37,699

You just haven't yet discovered the right qigong system for you. Keep searching and you will. When you do I assure you that it will not be boring.

Athanor, Qigong practice is experiential. YOU have to feel these things for yourself. We could speak and debate these things for years (and have ) but until a person discovers qigong for themselves the real meaning is missing. To address what you asked here and Vortex replied to I will give an example. The main qigong form I practice is called Stillness-Movement and is an OLD method that is very powerful. Only after practicing this method for over 15 years was I able to, over another 15 year period, develop a highly energetic qigong movement system called Gift of the Tao. There is no possible way I would have been able to develop the Gift of the Tao without having studied and practiced the old knowledge system.

Agreed. I think it can help open the channels and also feel you have intuitively "seen" this exercise because it IS one your patient needs right now. It also is a heaven/earth thing because while one hand goes to heaven the other goes to earth, so probably a good one for balance, eh?

Hi David, That sounds like one of the eight brocade pieces. Who knows where it actually came from. To me, these are no more than good stretches and have very little energy component. I still do them every now & then.

I have received many TTB'ers email/pm's asking about my next workshop. Next class in Stillness-Movement Neigong, Gift of the Tao Movement Qigong, Medical Qigong and Taoist Medicine is March 20/21/22 www.qigongamerica.com We also learn tree qigong, walking qigong, sleeping qigong, spiral qigong and will introduce new movements from Gift of the Tao II.

Anyone attending should go ahead with their motel reservations: Suggested motel: Super 8 West Plains 1210 Porter Wagoner Boulevard West Plains, MO 65775 (417) 256-8088

I would put my female students up against any program's male or female students - they just are damn good at it. I think it has to do with sensitivity being easier for female. There are a goodly number of female teachers. Some awesome female qigong practitioners that I know are Damaris Jarboux, Daisey Lee, Kathleen Dubay, and a few that are not public so I will not mention their names. Damaris has a multi-year qigong certification program in Boulder, Kathleen does private instruction in Boulder (they both do qigong healing) and Daisey Lee teaches all over the world but based in Hawaii. I told this story before so I will try to condense it and hope to get it right after all these years. One of my female students decided to attend one of the conventions on qigong that attract the top name folks in USA as well as Europe, China and Russia. She attended one of the 2-day workshops there and was partnered up with one of the famous qigong authors (the class was taught by one of the famous Chinese qigong guys. This particular qigong guy is a nice guy who I like but I noticed (I was in same workshop) that he was being somewhat condescending to my student. When it came time for her to project qi to him you should have seen the look on his face - priceless! He was stammering where where did you learn how to do that do you know how powerful you are - etc... She took it all in stride as she is very low key. But I walked outside and laughed until I hurt.

I have more female students than male. Females do REALLY well with Practicing Taoism.

You need some Chinese manual therapy. Don't know where you are but if you could make it by my clinic in Missouri I can and will help you with this. I offer guaranteed pain relief or no fee. Most types of exercise are only going to aggravate this type of injury. Some specific ones may help but without palpation I wouldn't recommend any particular thing.

Yes; go to China after you have learned qigong for the cultural experience. Specifically, if you want certification, look for the Level IV certified Teacher on the NQA website. Requires 10 years teaching experience. I am a Level IV certified Teacher and have a certification program. www.qigongamerica.com

Yes, true. Thoughtful post. Amazing all the different stuff written yet each book will tell you that they are right. Sorry to hurt your sensibilities. I was just having fun and trying to laugh with the OP not at them. AS above 2 posts there are many things written but very few things actually understood. This is one of those things where forum posts are difficult to take at face value. The 2nd part of my above post was dead serious. If one doesn't understand the dimensionality of "chakras" how the heck would they expect to go about "opening them"? What exactly are they "opening"? Here is the thing; if one learns and practices proper qigong then each and every energy center will open in a relaxed easy natural manner. There is absolutely no need for forced openings which can lead to problems. The actual dimensional understanding comes much later, after opening, by practicing LISTENING. This is why I roll my eyes, shake my head, and wonder at humanities trial whenever I hear this subject. Oh, and sometimes carrots make people think; I understand they are also good for the eyesight. Bottom line advice to the OP - find a teacher that actually knows something and spend some time studying and practicing.

Glad to see another Teacher saying this. I have been saying it for many years. Most folks wish to believe otherwise.

How to open a chakra? You go to the store and getya a chakra opener. I like the blue-green ones as they seem to work better. EVERYONE knows that the red ones don't work as well. And EVERYONE knows exactly the proper time of night to open the chakra; if you try to open one of those suckers at the wrong time of day I hear that little things pop out of them and a person can't walk in a straight line afterwords. Not trying to make light of your question, but only one person in 10,000 seems to understand that chakras have dimensionality, unlike the ENERGY CENTERS that have a more or less fixed location, so how the heck do you expect a question like this to be answered on a forum? Are you seriously considering trying to do this from suggestions on a forum? If so, my, how brave you are! Or perhaps some words of caution are in order? If someone tells you they have seen many anomalies in folks that have played around would you heed the words? Probably not; carry on.

I find that salt baths using one lb of salt help with many folk's pain. I take tumeric and fish oil, this seems to help. An Asian Bodywork therapist or TCM doctor should be able to help. I can help with Taoist Medicine therapy if you are ever in my neck of the woods.

In general it should be no problem adding it to other systems as the moves are themselves balancing. I practice Stillness-Movement along side of the moves and it is wonderful. I am not a fan of forced systems (forced opening of energy centers), and I would say try these moves without the forceful work and see if it works better. They are Shamanic Shifting moves. As one progresses through the moves there will be energy shifts that correspond (vibrationally) with natural openings of the energy centers. One is definitely shifted into a new awareness at the end of the moves.

You now can see some of the spectrum - vast isn't it? Are there any teachers anywhere near you or within traveling distance to take a workshop? If so then you might wish to try what I am going to suggest. But the same thing will apply if you choose the more limited way of looking through correspondence or books/dvd's. Once you have all your info together, sit down and still all thoughts. Ask your Higher Level self which of these are for you and see if at that instance you feel drawn to any particular thing. If you don't do it this way it will be a trial and error thing, which in itself is not bad. Do not stick with something that does not resonate with you. But then again, don't initially expect miracles to happen as it IS a lifetime practice. You asked about qigong. I would strongly suggest you investigate MA and qigong separately; if they overlap that is OK but it will be impossible for you to grasp the intricacies of either unless you look at them both. Do not be afraid of making mistakes - this is one primary way of learning.