doc benway

Thank you - interesting stuff!

Can you share a piece with us?

Good and valuable points about the effects of geography, physiology, and culture on spiritual practices, not to mention age, nutrition, and a whole host of relevant variables. On a related note the Tibetans were largely nomadic and relied on walking long distances at altitude. They probably had less need of standing and moving activities and often had to practice in yurts, small rooms, and caves.

Hi @chidaruma Welcome to DaoBums! Disclaimer - I'm not an expert or master of anything just a moderately dedicated student stumbling along as best I can. I have found qigong and Bön practices to be complimentary and safe together for me. One thing I've learned is that what is good for me may or may not be good for someone else when it comes to energetic and spiritual practices. The qigong I practice includes ba duan jin, shiba luohan gong, and taiji jian shen fa but mostly ba duan jin. I have no personal experience with zhineng qigong. It's a very young system created in the 1980's and seems to be an amalgam of different systems. Some of the movements appear externally similar to the taiji jian shen fa routine I practice. I think a set like ba duan jin would be safe to combine with Bön practices, it has been for me, and it is quite widespread and accessible while still being quite ancient and time-tested. My recommendation is try and learn any qigong you are going to practice from a credible teacher and to follow their advice when it comes to combining it with other practices and traditions. My other suggestion is to go slowly and cautiously and feel your way through the practices, listening to how your body, energy, and mind are reacting. Both the Tibetan and Daoist practices have cultivated heightened sensitivity and awareness of what is going on inside, and outside, for me so I think there is little risk of trouble as long as you go slow, listen, and observe closely. I would use considerably more caution when it comes to combining other practices with neigong. The Tibetan practices certainly do have a forceful and fiery side, especially in the early stages, but I find them to be well-balanced overall. The tsa lung from the Ma Gyüd, for example, includes the physical movements and breath holding which are quite "yang" but there is also the inner listening, opening, and resting upon completion of each set, integral "yin" components of the process that provide balance. If I find anything lacking in the Tibetan practices it is that I miss some of the standing meditation and upright movement I enjoyed in Daoist arts like qigong, taiji, and bagua. Not that I think this compromises the efficacy of the system but it, as you say, exercises different metaphorical "muscles." Conversely, I found the Daoist practices to be somewhat lacking for me when it came to connecting energetic cultivation to certain areas of my life in a practical way which does happen through the Tibetan approach. I think there is definite value to having a primary spiritual practice strongly rooted in one tradition but I also think it is fine to supplement, if you feel the need, with other practices. I do a bit and have yet to experience any negative effects. Good luck and feel free to reach out if you think I can be of any help.

If you click the 🔔 there is an option to click “notification settings” in the top right corner of the pop up menu. You can customize what notifications you receive but, as far as I can tell, any settings here affect all users. I don’t see a way to limit notifications from selected members. Sorry

@blue eyed snake Please elaborate on what you are looking to achieve. Thanks

And he’ll bounce back again as a dragonfruit!

ChiDragon’s back, 😁 Nice to see you again!

He was quite the character! I enjoyed his enthusiasm and fearlessness but it is also good to know one’s limitations! 🙃

ChiDragon is a self-taught taiji and qigong practitioner. He considers himself an authority on both subjects based on his translations of Chinese source material. His ideas and interpretations are literal and practical but his lack of any guidance or instruction results in limited and often mis- understanding. I believe he was suspended or banned from the site a while back but you can search on his name and then his content and there are volumes of posts to explore. Enjoy!

Try Shaolin Soccer

“When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick; every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. But if, instead, you look at where your thoughts are coming from, you will see that each thought arises and dissolves within the space of that awareness, without engendering other thoughts. Be like a lion, who rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.” ~ H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche ~

~ Chogyal Namkhai Norbu In order to be able to truly integrate one’s practice with one’s life, a few sessions of sitting meditation a day are simply not enough, because we live a twenty-four hour day, and an hour or two of practice just won’t give the right results. “Integrating”, on the other hand, means understanding the condition of “what is” in relation to life itself, without correcting it, so that every circumstance of one‘s life becomes an occasion for practice. *** ”The Self-Perfected State”

From Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche: On this special occasion of the anniversary of the parinirvana of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, I am reposting these prayers I wrote for him. Rinpoche has been a very important part of my journey in the West. I'm forever grateful for his blessings and guidance in my life. ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་གསོལ་འདེབས་སྨོན་ལམ། Prayer to the Dharmaraja འགྱུར་མེད་དབྱིངས་ལས་གཡོས་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ། ། དགོངས་རྟོགས་མཐའ་དང་བྲལ་བ་ནམ་མཁའི་ཀློང་། འཕྲིན་ལས་ཐོགས་པ་མེད་པའི་ནོར་བུའི་འོད། ། དུས་མཐའི་མུན་པ་སེལ་བའི་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། ། ། Unwavering Dharma King, from the unchanging space of your knowledge and realizations beyond limit, in the expanse of the sky (Namkhai), Your enlightened activities are the constant shining Jewel (Norbu) Banishing darkness for all times, O Precious One (Rinpoche). འཁོར་བའི་ནད་གདོན་འཇོམས་པའི་བདུད་རྩི་སྨན། ། ཐར་པའི་ལམ་གྱི་བར་ཆོད་ཟློག་པའི་གྲོགས། ། མ་རིག་སྨག་རུམ་གཞིལ་བའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་འོད། ། གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེས་ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཟུངས། ། You are the medicine that eliminates disease and obstructions. You are the friend who clears away obstacles to freedom. You are wisdom’s light, removing the darkness of ignorance. Please hold us in your enlightened state of wisdom, love, and compassion. མི་མཐུན་རྐྱེན་ལས་སྒྲོལ་བའི་སྟོབས་ལྡན་ཕ། ། ལུས་སྲོག་ནུས་པ་གསོ་བའི་བྱམས་ལྡན་མ། ། ཉམས་རྟོགས་བོགས་འདོན་བསྐྱེད་པའི་དགེ་བའི་སྤུན། ། གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེས་ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཟུངས། ། You are the powerful father who frees us from negative circumstances. You are the kind mother who nourishes our body and life force. You are the Dharma brother who supports and increases our insights and realizations. Please hold us in your Enlightened State of wisdom, love, and compassion. རྟག་ཏུ་ཉམས་མེད་སྙིང་གི་ལྡུམ་རའི་དབུས། ། བཅོས་མིན་དད་པའི་མེ་ཏོག་དཀར་པོ་འདི། ། བརྩེ་ཆེན་ཆུ་ཡིས་གསོས་ཏེ་ཁྱེད་ལ་འབུལ། ། གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེས་ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཟུངས། ། In the unblemished garden of our heart center, This white flower of genuine devotion Is sustained by the water of great love; this I offer to you. Please hold us in your enlightened state of wisdom, love, and compassion. ཀ་དག་གཡོ་བ་མེད་པའི་ཀློང་དབྱིངས་ན། ། ལྷུན་གྲུབ་འགག་པ་མེད་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱས། ། འོད་གསལ་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་གདམས་པ་སྤེལ། ། གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེས་ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཟུངས། ། In the space and expanse of unwavering primal purity, The spontaneous presence of continuous wisdom increases, And there you spread the message of clear light Dzogpa Chenpo. Please hold us in your enlightened state of wisdom, love, and compassion. ཅེས་དུས་མཐའི་རྫོགས་ཆེན་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་ནམ་མཁའི་ནོར་བུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་མཛད་འཕྲིན་མཐའ་རུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་དྲི་མེད་གསོལ་འདེབས་སྨོན་ལམ་འདི་ཉིད་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་སྐུ་ཞི་དབྱིངས་སུ་གཤེགས་པར་ཐོས་མ་ཐག་ཏུ་ཚིག་རྐང་བཞི་པ་དེ་“སྙིང་ནས་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཟུངས་”ཞེས་པར་ཁ་སྒྱུར་ཞུས་ཏེ་ཞབས་འོག་པ་བསྟན་འཛིན་དབང་རྒྱལ་གྱིས་རྒྱ་གར་རྒྱལ་ས་ལྡི་ལི(༢༠༡༨།༩།༢༨)ནས་གསོལ་བ་ཕུར་ཚུགས་སུ་བཏབ་པའོ།། In these end times, the Enlightened Body, Speech, and Mind of the Dzogchen Yogi Dharmaraja Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche have fulfilled his Dharma Activities, and now that we have heard that his Sublime Form has entered into the Dimension of Peace, the fourth line of each shloka I have now changed to “Please hold us in your enlightened state of wisdom, love, and compassion.” I, Tenzin Wangyal, humbly composed this sincere prayer in New Delhi, India, on September 28, 2018. (translated by Steven Goodman)

No Very practical otherwise the training would not exist. These methods are not theoretical or speculative, they are solely for practical application.

A precious moment of awareness!

Exactly the same?

I don't think God "wants." That's simply anthropomorphic projection.

I am no expert on the subject but this is an innovative website that could be useful - https://www.stuffthatworks.health/mcas PS - use caution with potassium supplements. If you use them, good idea to check serum potassium levels periodically

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood. How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of the lambs. How rivers and stones are forever in allegiance with gravity while we ourselves dream of rising. How two hands touch and the bonds will never be broken. How people come, from delight or the scars of damage, to the comfort of a poem. Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads. ~ Mary Oliver

@blue eyed snake you now have access, enjoy!

One of the many benefits of prostrations! 😁

I haven’t been moderating actively and simply wanted the mods to be aware of the question. I agree that anything here is basically public domain. We can’t stop people from copying anything we write here or anywhere else on the web for that matter. I don’t know if there is any rule prohibiting it here at the moment.

This sounds like a wild cat!