wishface

Anyone done Barefoot Doctor's School for Warriors?

I learned some healing sounds (Return of the Urban Warrior by the Barefoot Doctor aka Stephen Russell). But are they correct? Are there different sounds from different traditions; from what i've seen/read there are different sounds.

...paths, truths, forms, styles, exercises, effects, gurus, teachers (though not locally), books, retreats, workshops, opnions, contradiction. What to do? How to start?

That scribd link will be another pirate copy and the book says don't do this without proper instruction first. The CD is not available in the UK.

That's what i did. Are books/videos an adequate teacher? In my experience (of trying to learn tai chi) they aren't because the teacher isn't able to convey what he teachers through the medium of a book. I've seen some of mantak chia's stuff, but it always comes with a huge proviso saying 'don't try this at home'. It's also not the easiest to follow which means i'm reluctant to try it given those two factors. I don't know of any good books for beginners or even books that are fairly comprehensive that are thus suitable.

are there any good sources for learning the microcosmic orbit that don't involve obscure books not on sale that tell me not to learn from the book? It's very off putting.

my attempts to find a teacher have met with no success and the thread i started specifically for that purpose got no responses. Do you have any suggestions? Obviously i would like to find one, but i don't live in rural china.

those are different sounds. So am i doing the correct sounds? An acceptable variant from another tradition? Or something completely wrong? No one recognises the sounds I describe?

no, again you misunderstand, I'm talking about the individual sounds: Liver = shhhh Kidney = fuiiiiiiii heart = haaaaaa spleen = huuuuuuuu lungs = sssssssss overall body = shiiiiiiii

Let's assume im not a fool, otherwise discussion becomes needlessly awkward. It's not the pitch I'm questioning, but the actual sound itself.

I think you'd have to be pretty naive to believe that link contains freely given material. I don't even think it's the full package, just some of the audio and the video part. No good downloading half the product and trying to learn from that. I also find it somewhat disrepsectful to try and learn from a master whose work you have basically taken without permission. He may well have made it free, but if that's true why not just advertise this on the homepage.

This forum is like getting blood from a stone! I'm guessing therefore that the vast majority of readers/respondents are not in the UK.

How does one achieve stillness?

That doesn't mean it wasn't uploaded without permission.

free, as in pirated?

49 days without water? Well I can't disprove it, but that's a tall order! Anyway, does this stuff not have an english distributor because I really don't want to order overseas. The first book also says you can't learn this stuff from just the book since it needs to be done properly. I'd rather do it properly than rely on the author's explanation. IME a lot of exercise manuals do not give accurate enough instructions at times. This has been my experience of tai chi. Simple movements, poorly explained. What thenf ollows is bad habits and bad practise.

that damo qigong link seems to suggest being careful of putting your awareness there. easy to see the contradictions already. any good websites for the best form of this practise?

Thanks, but i have no idea how you can decipher the language used. most of it seems to be about semen as well. I really can't follow that, and it does seem to indicate one needs a teacher.

How many people who have replied are from England?

great reply, thanks. any good book/dvd sources for this form of qi gong? nothing like actual recommendations. In fact that applies to every suggestion since there's noone i can find locally teaching that stuff (and cheaply since i haven't the money for long term teaching) I do mindfulness breathing meditation every morning, following a 4 stage guided meditation from wildmind.org. Fairly simple: place a number after/before each breath, then just watch the breath, then just watch the breath from a more focused point, the nostrils.

No, i read it and will try it later. thanks. Do you know any free teachers in the North Somerset UK area?

My goals: to overcome fear and to heal, to improve myself through taoist practise (as a particular methodology that appeals to me), to learn to meditate. I would like to lean physical arts such as chi kung to improve myself physically as well as mentally and spiritually. I do not live near a meditation center. I still do not understand why earning a living through teaching wisdom or self improvement automatically negates the teacher's validity - especially if it's acceptable to receive donations. We can all agree the ideal would be to learn for free. But I know no teachers free or otherwise, hence the thread I mentioned which received no responses.

Some people do both. Some people give stuff away and others charge. But the world we live in is such that often people won't recognise the worth of a thing if it doesn't have a price tag. Or some gurus are just in it for glitz and glam and cash. Is it really reasonable to judge the worth of a teacher by whether they teach for free? Please, show me someone who can teach for free. I've read many books on tai chi for instance, and it's just not something you can learn that way. Even on video it's not much better. that itself is hard enough to learn. To quieten the mind. To find a means to achieve this.

I don't really get why people are automatically 'false' for charging money for wisdom? I don't think there's anyone who'd object to learning for free, but that isn't always the option. I posted a thread trying to find teachers locally and got no replies. Being a light unto yourself is a great ideal, but people have to start somewhere, and a system with techniques to learn (such as chi kung) isn't really going to be learned without (proper) instruction. I've already seen posts here warning against learning through inferior methods. Can you really expect people to rely solely on books and youtube? Perhaps you know some decent youtube tuition/wisdom? Just because youtube is free to view is no more a guarantee of quality than if they charge for it. Even if someone works for free you'll seen find they get criticised for not being very good as a consequence. Who, then, is right? That brings me full circle.