Ya Mu

As I mentioned in your other thread, the Stillness-Movement qigong is the most powerful I have experienced. Better to follow a single path a long ways than multiple paths a short ways.

The Stillness-Movement qigong I teach is medical qigong which excels at the healing perspective. There are other forms as well that are more geared towards medical. Find a program of medical qigong and follow that. There are two or three that I would recommend in addition to my own 500 hr certification program. I encourage you to look at both martial and medical perspectives. People that impressed me with healing abilities? My teachers. I have met no one whose abilities even compared to the abilities of my teacher Master Wang Juemin. I have utilized his methods for over 25 years in clinic with a tremendous success rate.

Everything from moral choices and destiny, quantum mechanics, space-time continuum, alternate universe, spontaneity versus logic; very Taoist if you look at it from that viewpoint. HIGHLY recommended.

These words are meaningless. It is the experience itself that has meaning. If you are looking for a one to one correlation with the words written above, then it may be harder to find; the correlation comes from the experiential and not from a lot of mis-translated books.

Not all of Chinese internal alchemy is martial; I would say the majority isn't. Learn from a teacher and take everything, especially what you read on the web and in books, with a smile on your face and a doubt in your mind until you prove it to yourself.

I liked him. I have found very few doctors in Beijing who were not disappointing (to me). To others they are "masters". It all depends on one's perspective of what they have seen and been trained in. I touched on this in another thread recently about the perspective of understanding qi and made the statement that a martial artists understanding differs from a medical qigong perspective. Best? I guess if you are trying to take someone down then the martial perspective is definitely best. If you are trying to heal someone then obviously the medical perspective goes much further.

As I said, it does depend on one's viewpoint. Either I really just wanted an excuse to post about the movie in a taoist forum and inserted taoist so I could do so OR I see experiential Taoist elements BIG TIME in the movie. All a matter of perspective, though, isn't it?

I did a 2-day workshop with him. He is a pretty cool guy. His qi was OK but more Martial Arts oriented. His ability as a doctor was somewhat disappointing. He enjoyed smoking his pipe in between his therapy sessions. But was very physically fit, no doubt to being very physically active. I think he was Garripoli's main teacher of the Wuji.

All I am trying to say is that it is very difficult to get past, energetically speaking, the original intent that something was developed for. Particularly when such time & effort was spent on developing the martial aspect of this. You can think of it as karmic attachment if you want, but it is more of an energetic imprint. I'll give an example of this. I can be practicing movement qigong and my horses will stand around and go into a deep calm trance-like state. Without thinking one bit or tensing up one bit or any change whatsoever but going into taiji or Hsing-I my horses come to attention and the dominant one comes to the front, head curled up and stomping his feet, all are wondering why someone they know and like is challenging them. It is the energetic difference that they feel, not the movement itself, because my qigong movement system is very big with large swooping movements, some of them even resembling their counterpart martial moves.

And it will always be limited to the linear time-oriented thought process if done in this manner. Some forms of qigong do not use this method.

I would agree only to the extent that anything can be turned somewhat into a gongfu. If the moves are practiced as developed then energetically they can't be totally separated from the original intent, which is martial. No one can just declare "this is something else" and it be so. Or perhaps we could take brain surgery and "declare" it to be something else and it be so.

I took it he was referring to the taiji, as most everyone seems to abbreviate the martial art to tai chi. I can see where tai ji can be an energy circulation method but I have never seen it to a very efficient energy cultivation method. Those moves were developed for one thing - to take someone down; break his jaw, block, break his arm, block, stop his heart, etc.

Uh, yeah, you are confusing me. Yoga is yoga, Tai Chi is Tai Chi; nothing like qigong, which is qigong. In the context talked about in above referenced study Zen is deep state of relaxation and Qigong is deep state of relaxation stimulating creation which is energy and INTENT. Hating to really give definitions, because definitions can be so subjective, depending on the context, etc., and knowing someone will say I am wrong, I will try a very simplified definition: Yoga - stretching exercises plus - ask somebody else Tai Chi - Brutal and vicious martial art. Can help circulate energy. Zen - What I said above plus - ask somebody else Qigong - Study of energy ; Energy + INTENT = Creation; wu wei, arrived at through qigong and INTENT, state of harmony/synchronicity with Tao

Qigong has everything to do with Tao, since Tao owns qigong. The state of wu wei (harmony/syncronicity with Tao) can be achieved by practicing qigong. Qigong is the tool one can use to experience Tao on an experiential level. Reading 10,000 mis-translated (or even properly translated; remember the Tao that be talked about is NOT the real Tao) books on Taoism/about Tao will not give anyone the insight or connection to the Tao that can be obtained with one hour of proper internal qigong practice. Someone else that knows more about Zen can address the other part of your assumption.

I don't think the study had anything to do with trying to decide which was better; they were simply trying to see what the difference was in the relaxation response and found this. The last time I checked the practice of qigong or zen practice in itself was not a religion. Perhaps it has changed and no one informed me.

Yes! SO much difference in the qi of the food for YOU if you eat local farm grown vegetables. Try to find those that don't use pesticides.

Japanese doctors did a study with Zen "masters" and Qigong "masters". They measured brain wave patterns. Conclusion was that the Zen and Qigong folks both went into deep relaxation but the Qigong guys has the creative aspect of the brain stimulated while the Zen people did not show this.

You don't "control" qi, qi is the life force that animates YOU. My suggestion is to just practice and don't worry about it. Everyone has a different level of sensation of qi. It runs from the spectrum of "can't feel a thing" to being knocked over by it. You may find that martial art understanding of qi and the medical qigong understanding of qi differ quite a bit. So, if you really want to fully understand qi, keep practicing your tai chi and Hsing I AND add an internal qigong cultivation method.

To expand on this a bit: I think everything that is in harmony is going to boil down to a wu wei method. Some say wu wei is "non-doing" but it is really much more "in sync with Tao". I have found that when one raises the energy body vibration rate, this synchronicity will start to happen. This synchronicity can get pretty wild and sometimes hard to believe, but it sure does happen. If we hold onto the concept of mental creation, trying to create through a linear process, it is very difficult to be in harmony because we do not stop to listen; we are trying to control a non-linear process linearly. It is OK to "put it out there" mentally (better with prayer), but then we must let go in order to allow the process to happen. Topflight's example shows this. I have a similar story to his. Only by letting go of the linear attempt at control were we able to find that which would be in harmony.

Kinda depends on how much beer qigong I want to do. Just kidding! 9-5 Sat/Sun/Mon, probably let out a little earlier Monday depending on what we get done. If you need to get out earlier to catch a flight I'll try to catch you up on anything you may miss, so it will be OK.

Yes, raise energy body vibration and find through the Taoist art of non-seeking. In other words, practice your qigong and quit trying (try without trying involves letting go of that which you seek). Then she will walk right into your life. Of course, there is the old saying, be careful what you wish for.

Practice with trees, the tree qigong is very powerful. Just takes a little practice. The qi is more refined than that of the falls. The falls just about knocks a person over they have so much qi, but it is more chaotic than the smooth refined tree qi.

I'll second this. Jim probably knows as much about the 8 extraordinary vessels as anyone alive. On top of that he is a heckuva nice guy.

An interview with my friend Damaris. She is the real deal and has a 4 year qigong program. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/QigongMasters...Damaris-Jarboux

I practice 24 hrs a day. Meditation in life Stillness-Movement. Concentrated practice only 3-6 hrs per day. Kinda slacking off in my old age. I like to make a little time for beer qigong. Will NEVER do regular meditation again. Stillness-Movement meditative neigong surpasses it in every way for me.