Cameron

You should continue but build up the time graudually. In other words don't start standing for 1 hour the first week start with 5 or 10 minutes for a couple weeks then 15 minutes etc. If you build up the time gradually it is easier. you may experience some trembling after 15 or 20 minutes that is pretty normal and part of the test of discomfort. The way Cohen describes this in his book is your body is adapting to a greater charge of internal energy. Sort of like a pot of water boiling and the lid is jumping up and down.

Awesome new post from Winn about the 3 finger technique. Yoda, this goes right to our conversation about it the other night. More reason not to use this technique from the Winn. http://healingdao.com/cgi-bin/tpost.pl?smessage=5409

Kieth, how were you taught Saamchoy? Sifu Morrissey told me he does 5 minutes with 1 arm extended then 5 minutes with the other arm. And he breathes up and down along the arms to the back .Sort of a mini orbit around the arm to behind the chest. I prefer just doing embracing the tree but play with it sometimes. Seems like it is the basic posture of Baguzhang or something.

Pietro, I think most of us regulars don't read or do much of anything with the blogs and have decided the personal cultivation journal is the place for these discussions. I am a little embarassed to say I didn't even realize you had a blog on here and will go through it when I have time as it looks pretty interesting. If you like that format no problem but porbably you would get more feedback and people reading if you started your own cultivation jounral.

Good points all around. Thadeus, it's definetly good to maintain a critical eye regardless. my main standing meditation teacher is Ken Cohen. I did a workshop with him a couple months ago and think his book is an excellent introduction to standing meditation and the guidelines are very balanced. He makes no claims at the practice curing cancer but does say it is the foundation of qigong training. Sean, I think it's cool your acupuncturist prescribed 20 minutes embracing the tree a day and look forward to your ellaborate feedbacks. In regards to the energy created, Ken says the 3 tests(I have written about this like a year ago in my journal here) are the test of discomfort, fire and patience. Sean, you are probably in the test of discomfort now where there is some straining etc. after 20 minutes the shoulders feel very heavy, the arms or wrists are shaking etc. The next stage, and Ken said at the workshop that it could take anywhere from a month to a year to go through these stages depending on the individual, is the fire stage. I guess you could say this is a more yang stage where areas that were cold or depleted are filled with qi and may become very hot. The dan tien may feel very hot where it felt cold before etc. the shaking and trembling isn't experienced as much and the qi is basically surging through the body(providing you also take care to do retention). The test of patience is the final stage. I think from what Ken teaches this is where standing truly becomes a "spiritual" practice. Maybe the boundaries between inside and outside disappear .You no longer differentiate where your head ends and the sky begins or where the Earth begins and your feet end. You are going more deeply into the awareness aspect of standing. The "Yi" aspect of Yiquan..mind. For me it is really a profound practice that probably parallels zazen in many ways but with more of an energetic quality. Whereas pure zen sitting you are going directly to the shen awareness aspect of meditation in standing your working with the jing and qi and shen..balancing and building them up and then developing them quite naturally. And the internal power is real. Even BK Frantzis says it was through standing meditation outside of Hombu Dojo of Aikido in Japan that he first realized what internal power was. His water method makes alot of use of standing but with a more ellaborate dissolving meditation. Ken doesn't do any dissolving and says just stand with awareness, let whatever happens etc..very zen. From what I have heard Chia does lots of mental stuff and from what I remeber of the Bone marrow nei kung book it was alot of do the inner smile, circulate the orbit etc while you stand. I like those practices but prefer Cohen's approach and occasionally play with Bruces dissolving approach. Ice to water to vapor etc.

Do you practice standing meditation or is this something you read? I have a hard time saying someting that is so clearly an awesome practice "overrated". To me, calling standing overated is akin to calling Tai Chi overated or zazen overated. Maybe, it's not the best practice for you personally, for me it's definetly a top 10 practice.

OMG I have been having some fun with traditinal MA's. First, I am getting Chinese food a couple weeks ago and as I am waiting at the bar strike up a conversation with the waiter. He says he is only doing this until he graduates to become Sensei of his dojo. I go what art? And he says Tiger Claw Kung Fu or something. So I bring up that I do BJJ and like UFC and he goes " Oh that shit doesn't really work. In real life you don't have a cage. If one of those UFC guys tried to take me down I would just side kick them". I would have probably laughed out loud for real but I didn't want him spitting in my seafood soup so I go "interesting, yeah I coould see how a good shin kick might prevent a world class wrestler like Randy Couteur from taking someone down. So where is your dojo I may stop by sometime". I think he may have actually handed me a card which I promptly threw in the garbage on my way out. Then today, a customer who has been in many times tells me how he does Kung Fu and would like to spar sometime. So I do my best Wanderlei Silva impersonation bringing my arms up to strike and he goes "Ha..just try to punch me and I will show you what I would do". Of course I have spent so much time with traditional martial artists I don't even want to argue and I give a picture perfect punch right down the middle that no one would ever use on the street..ever... He moves off to the side a little and grabs my arm and locks it and goes "See I just break it here". I am nodding and playing along because this guy has spent thousands of dollars and I am not going to fight my customer. I also can tell just looking at him that he would be in total shock if I took him to the ground and totally helpless. But again, not something I plan on doing. So I go " Man you sure you know your stuff and I am not messing with you on the street." Then he invites us to some art exhibition or something(He is an artist) and leaves. Anyway if I ever meet someone who is not my customer who says "lets spar" then asks me to punch a certain direction so they can do a certain move..I am just going to kick them right in the nuts and walk away.

Alek is good but Fedor is another level. Alek won't ever be champion IMO . Crocop knocked Alek out with 1 kick. He hit Fedor, Wand and Mark Hunt with the same kicks repeatedly and they did nothing. However, fedor is apparently not fighting at all in 2006 due to an injury so if there was ever a chance for Alec to step up it would be now. But like I said, I don't see Alec beating Mark Hunt or that Sergei guy either. And if Shogun moves up to heavyweight I don't think Alec can do anything to him either. Alec is basically a slower version of Fedor with a weak chin.

OMG I was chatting with Yoda on the phone last night and we were talking about all these posts I read on MMA.TV about lizard/serpent race controlling the world secretly and all that. So I told Yoda if your interested in that you should be happy Max has joined our discussions..he beleives in ALL that shit

Andre seems cool and I like his style. I would rank him #2 heavyweight in the world after Fedor. So you think Chuck will stuff Randy's takedowns on Saturday Maxie?

LMAO!! http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...friendid=175656

So K are you going to make a Myspace page and start talking to college girls or is Mrs. Y still stuck on the whole mongomy thing? *kidding and sipping green tea*

In one of two times I met with Sifu Tom Morrissey, who is one of only a handful of guys that Kenny Gong authorized to teach his system(along with the guy you studied with Kieth), I enjoyed it. I think he must have had some intuition that I wasn't going to to stick around because he taught me the "saamchoy" Baghuazhang standing meditation and said if I never see you again this is the best thing I can teach you..or something. I think I will probably get back into the chinese internal MA's when I am in my 40's or something. Anyway i do zhan zhuang every day which some teachers like Ken Cohen consider the foundation of internal MA's. Maybe I'll do one of those retreats with Frank Allen at Dao Mt one year. Then again, if I am going to get back into it I should probably study with Tom. He is a cool guy and good teacher. I could tell he really loved Kenny Gong. Toms website, http://saamchoy.com/

That looks interesting Max. Here is some video of Juba Nour Sensei at his dojo in Manhattan. http://aikidoofmanhattan.com/videos.php#

I love Aikido and what little I studied of internal martial arts from China I liked but my time is limited(like everyone) and BJJ is more fun. I also got tired of people basically making themselves beleive in a technique when I could walk out of it at any second. In BJJ you walk out of a technique if the guy is good he does something else. But my Aikido teacher in NYC, Juba Nour, is as martial and real Aikido that you would find anywhere if I was still living in NY, or ever move back, it would be a hard, hard decision whether to study with him or with Renzo Gracie. Cam

I was looking forward to Chuck vs. Wand in Pride but Chuck got dominated by Rampage. Here is the clip, http://www.vidilife.com/reloc.cfm?cryp=010...3D9-4B88-AF6B-0

Very cool

Hehe, I don't even have anything on my page and havent told anyone I am on there or anything .You need to give me instructions on how to set shit up!

This AZ HOTTIE is even finer than the red head from Oakland!! OMG retention would not last a week! http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...riendid=5836713

Go back and read the book Beavis! Also his audio course on Taoism. He says emptiness practice-sitting and forgetting- is the most important practice and *drumroll* It will impove qigong practice, excercise etc etc etc etc Just buy the damn tapes they are like $10 on Amazon. You bought Prasara Yoga body flow and have no intention on doing it for 5 years for God's sakes. *Sips Ron Teeguarden Tea*

Awesome thread. I would add Ken Cohen's view on practice. 1. Emptiness meditation. He says it is the most important practice. He reccomends 40 minutes in the morning and 40 minutes at night. Basically watch the breath, watch thoughts come and go, listen to all sounds etc. 2. Zhan Zhuang. As foundation of energy work. practice 20-40 minutes every morning. All other Taoist practices(Microcosmic Orbit,healing sounds, absorning qi from stars,sun,moon and planets, sexual qigong) are built off of the foundation. And to add my 2 cents, I think there is *something* to Bodri and Max's strong emphasis on "merit" and doing good deeds. I actually find there is an energetic component to it and it is definetly healthy to do on some level. Even the herbalist Ron Teeguarden says the way to develop shen is to give! he says take qi and jing tonics for the first 2 treasures(and the 3rd) but the way to develop Shen is to give others. All great food for thought(or practice).

I find it quite beautiful but if Sean has a problem take it down. http://abum.com/show/12210/sexy-girls-kissing.wmv

Yes genius but Sean doesn't let me post porn so I posted this! Actually, Sean is very wise banning porn so we dont' all go and mess up our so called retention practice.

I always liked Max's cell phone message. It said "You know what to do". When Max and I met in Asheville for Winn fundamentals Winn had everyone introduce themselves in a circle. Max and I sat next to eachother and I was first. Winn asked why did you come here or something and I said " To become more balanced etc" some kind of generic answer. Max was next. Winn looked at Max and Max said " If I knew why I came here I probably would not have come". Everyone laughed and Winn said " Wow, I need to watch out for this guy, he's really deep".

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~afive/stuff...e%20Destiny.swf