lifeforce

Not necessarily so. It depends on style/lineage. Most Hebei is 60/40 or 70/30 back weighted with a straight spine, while Shanxi is more 50/50 with a small forward lean from the waist. The more back weighted stances develop leg strength/power. The 50/50 develops an equal capacity for speedy advancing and retreating, should a combat situation arise.

In my experience I've never had to believe in anything to practice qigong. Qi doesn't come from a diety, it is the lifeforce of the universe. One only has to learn how to feel it and experience it's wonders by practicing certain methods, opening up and looking inward. No belief is necessary.

I've seen and heard of tons and tons of enormous benefits from the practice of Bagua, and it's core training, circle walking. I've put this off for long enough and thanks to Gerard's amazing posts on walking meditation combined with zhan zhuang, I've done some further research and mapped out a practice which I will start first thing in the morning. I'm going to start just with linear walking first, to get the feel of the stepping and of keeping the body in correct posture. The mud step and crane stepping methods are what I plan to work on. I'll focus on mud stepping, ultra-slow everyday for a month, then try crane stepping, again, extremely slowly, for the next month. I'll have a go at walking the circle when I feel comfortable with these steps, no matter how many months it takes. Reports of my experiences will be in my practice journal section. Great article on the benefits of circle walking are here. Mud stepping instructions: * Circle walking is practiced for three intertwined primary purposes. The first is to achieve stillness of mind . The second is to generate a strong, healthy, disease-free body, with relaxed nerves and great stamina, which Taoist monks needed both for normal daily work and to be able to meditate for prolonged periods. The third purpose is to develop balance internally while either your inner world or the events of the external world are changing, often faster than you can keep up with.

This is how to perform the mud-walking step:
1. Stand relaxed with your arms at your sides, keep feet parallel, one foot one and a half to three inches off the ground. 2. Step forward, keeping your raised foot parallel to the ground, heel and toe an equal distance from the ground. (The higher your foot is above the ground, the easier the step is; the nearer your foot is to the ground, the more body control is required.) During this step, your hips and body weight do not move forward. 3. During the last 20 percent of the step, your lead foot simultaneously moves forward an inch or two and touches and brakes on the ground. Also during the last 20 percent, friction is initially applied on the ball of the foot with the toes, bringing the foot to a full stop flat on the ground. When you finish the step, there is no body weight whatsoever on your lead foot, above and beyond the weight of the foot itself. The heel-toe method is more appropriate for those whose balance is poor or who have back or lower body problems. This method is essentially the one employed in normal everyday walking, only with more awareness than most of us use. Here is how this step should be performed: 4. Stand relaxed with your arms at your sides, keeping one foot one and a half to three inches off the ground. 5. Step forward with one foot and have the heel touch the ground first, making sure there is absolutely no weight on it. 6. As you shift all of your weight forward, gradually roll your foot to the ground like a cat does, clearly feeling every sensation in the sole of your foot until your toes are on the floor. 7. Finish with your weight on the lead foot.

Walking in a Straight Line
Choose whichever of the two previous methods of stepping that suits you, and incorporate your choice throughout all of the following walking exercises. Walk very slowly at first until you have a good understanding of all the various parts of the walking process. Then gradually increase your speed.

Part 1: Begin with your feet side by side and paralled, then step forward. Begin standing with your feet together, your arms at your sides, and your right foot one and a half to three inches off the ground. From feet parallel, your right foot steps forward no farther apart from your left foot than the width of your hips. Keep 100 percent of your weight on your left leg, and slowly step forward with your right leg, owithout transferring any of your body weight forward. As your right foot goes slowly forward and lands on the ground, either heel first or toe first (depending on the method you are using):

(1) maintain awareness of every part of the bottom of your right foot, including your toes; (2) be aware of every inch of air space your foot travels through, and every sensation, externally and internally, that the step generates; and (3) no matter which stepping method you are using, be especially attentive to how you put your foot on the ground. Try not to let the act of having your foot touch the ground disrupt your concentration or awareness. Don't get discouraged. Remember that your ability to concentrate will naturally grow with practice. In the beginning, it is a difficult task to maintain complete concentration.

Part 2: Shift your weight from your back leg to your front leg. Keep your left foot flat and steady, anchored on the floor, your right foot ahead of it. Push back through your left heel to push your body forward until 100 percent of your weight is shifted to your right leg and foot. Keep both feet flat on the floor. Feel every sensation as you push your weight forward-when you push from your left leg, when the shifting weight goes through your belly and hips, and when your right leg receives it. Feel every sensation on the bottom of both feet. The forward weight shift finishes on your right leg.

Part 3: Bring your back foot forward until it is parallel to your front foot.
With your weight 100 percent on your right leg, bring your left foot forward, with the bottom of the foot parallel to the floor if you can (otherwise, heel higher than the toe, especially for heel-toe stepping), until both feet are touching side by side, or no more than six inches apart. When you finish, your weight is still on your right leg, and the left foot is one and a half to three inches off the ground.

Part 4: Begin again with your opposite leg. You now will repeat parts 1, 2, and 3, reversing lefts for rights and vice versa. (a) Feet parallel, keeping 100 percent of your weight on your right leg, step forward now with your left leg. ( Shift 100 percent of your weight from your back right leg to your left front leg. You are now 100 percent on your left leg, zero percent on your right leg. © Bring your right foot forward until it is parallel with your left foot. Your weight is still 100 percent on your left leg. Practice as much as you possibly can. Gradually, as your balance gets better, you can let your stride get longer. Your legs will stretch and your blood will pump more strongly as your blood circulation improves. Practice this straight-line walking for a minimum of one week to a month before attempting the next phase of circle walking. The straight line walking you have just learned will become the inside step of circle walking.


Marvelous post !

I love Peter Owen Jones. His documentaries have been shown here in the UK. A very pragmatic guy who, despite being an Anglican minister, is not afraid to empty his cup. Extreme Pilgrim I've posted this one before. Taoism - A Small Insight

Isn't life wonderful ? That's two awesome films I've watched on the forum today. (This one and the Hubble one). Thank you for posting this.

I've seen this before. It is utterly mind-blowing. We cannot even begin to think of the sheer scale of the known universe, let alone the unknown. The Tao is truly unfathomable. Thanks for posting this.

Superb !

Not wishing to sidetrack the Connecting With Qi... thread, I thought I would share my thoughts here. Some of the details of my shaktipat/kundalini awakening experience are in this post. The feeling of constant bliss is wonderful. I still go about my days as normal and to others I appear and act no different, even to my wife, children, family and work colleagues. However, there has been a BIG change within me. I have been touched by God, the Divine or whatever anyone wishes to call IT. Names are not important. IT is flowing through me making every cell, every atom, fully alive. I see, feel and experience the world very differently. I feel connected with EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. Not just intellectually, I can actually feel it. Every task, however mundane it used to be, now becomes a pleasure. Life is wonderful and not a struggle anymore. No system or tradition or ritual or religion is needed anymore. Was it ever needed ? The task is accomplished. That is all for now, my mind is buzzing.

I think the whole thing is a work in progress, so to speak. The difference is, I don't need to look for anything anymore, it has all been taken care of. I just have to let IT do the Divine work. The constant bliss/love energy may only be the start. For instance, morality, character and behaviour towards the rest of creation still needs work, I'll be the first to admit that. I've already seen evidence of a change there. There has been an instant change in my diet. Without any thinking or reasoning I've cut out all sugar, coffee and artificial, processed ingredients. I've had no alcoholic drinks (not that I did much anyway), and have cut out all animal food and by-products. My meditation has changed also. I'm not sure if it is actually meditating in the classical sense anymore. I just sit, with eyes wide open, in full lotus and just BE. No breath control or awareness, no noting, no visualizations. Everything is perfect as it is. I am becoming a super conductor for the Divine. Cleaning up body, mind and spirit simultaneously. Good times.

That prior experience was only a primer to this one. Even though at the time I thought I had attained something, it pales in comparison to this. It's the waves upon waves of pure bliss and love energy that is striking about this. Back then it was a part intellectual/part experiential experience, which came from studying the texts and meditating on them. It was a necessary stepping stone, as was all the practices I have done. They have opened me up and allowed IT to pour in.

Wonderful writing from the heart Hundun. Thank you.

Thank you TI.

Talk about synchronicity ! I was just about to start a discussion on this. Thanks for bringing it up. I've been reading Paramahansa Yogananda's works again and I'm feeling that his books resonate with my recent shaktipat experience. A fire has been lit within me and at the moment I'm trying to validate my experience with the words and experiences of self-realized masters. The Kriya Yoga path of SRF seems to have been a big success for those either searching for self-realization, or for those who have had a glimpse of the Divine and wish to deepen their practice. A starting point, or foundation for this path is the hong sau technique.

Pointless thread.....again !

Awesome Gerard Thanks

Thanks for mentioning me and my experience I've been trying to analyze, scrutinize and explain it to myself but I think I would do the whole thing a dis-service if I was to come up with a fixed answer. The signature in Hundun's posts seems to be a good way of putting it. Divine energy (God ?) moving through me tingling and vibrating. An extreme sense of joy, well-being, peace, serenity, love for life in all it's forms has literally soaked into by entire being and it has stayed there. I can see and feel the connection with the whole of the Universe. As soon as I clicked on that website and gazed at Gabriel Cousens, IT just hit me like a wave, pouring in through the head/third eye and descending down my spine and into my dantien. From there I could move this back up my spine, all the way to the crown and out into every part of my body, just by placing awareness on IT. My body started to spontaneously shake. My legs started to bounce up and down. I couldn't stop from smiling, then laughing as tears of joy ran down my cheeks. I honestly didn't think this kind of thing was possible and I have ridiculed people in the past for saying such things. How foolish I have been ! The feelings and sensations are still with me and haven't abated one bit. My whole outlook on life has changed and I fell very, very good. As for what do you do with the energy and raised consciousness ? I honestly don't know. I think you have to work it out for yourself. I'm just continuing with my practices of neigong, zhan zhuang and meditating because they feel right to me. Hope this helps. EDIT: This page has a description of most of the things that are happening to me. It's all very pleasant though and any sense of fear of the unknown has been eradicated from my being.

Interesting. I will have to try this. Thanks for the tip Gerard.

Thanks Gerard. Walking meditation is often overlooked as a practice in favour of sitting. This is unfortunate, as many have attained realization, solely through walking meditation. I like to practice barefoot if possible as I find it creates a living connection with Mother Earth, rather than just a dry, mind only exercise.

I ordered this at my local library and found it an enjoyable, easy to read book. The accounts of pre-communist Chinese temple life are fascinating. There is quite a graphic narrative on an exorcism which was very interesting to say the least. The whole book is full of warmth, humour and laughter and is a celebration of life itself. However, one chapter in particular stood out head and shoulders above the rest of the book. Chapter 15 Divine Tao, gives one of the most poignant, life-affirming and practical explanations of the Tao, and of living a Taoist life, that I have ever come across. It proves that, although Chinese in origin, the practice of Taoism is open to anyone, of any race, age, sex or nationality. It is all encompassing and all one has to do is open themselves to the complete mystery of life. A great find.

Great advice.

Thanks Drew. I've sent an e-mail to Dr Cousens detailing my experience. Four days later and there has been no let up in the tingling energy in my spine. I can direct it anywhere in my body. The most intense is when I send it to the head. It seems to have it's source at the lower spine, not right at the very bottom though. I am feeling incredibly blissful all the time, but calm, peaceful and very happy.

Kettlebell Core Training Five Tibetans More sitting meditation (every day would be good). With a focus on chakra/kundalini work. Since my shaktipat experience, I feel as if I'm being guided to more 'yogic' disciplines. So I'll see how it goes.

Excellent dwai, thank you.

Thanks for the info Seth. It all seems a bit sinister and extremely dogmatic. I'll stick to the more traditional teachings.