Spectrum

Reindeer Flight

Huey Lewis: Walking on a Thin Line

Now your scaring me, matadora.

The Kunlun Headbanger thing?

Ever seen a Raindeir jumping up to fly? A great big giant step...

Taught at a hostel for two 6 month cycles. Morning chi gung and taiji go good for hostel environment. Nonviolent meditative motives. A lot of crazies around the hostels... A couple books I think are worth while in the evening cool: Yang Family Secret Transmissions (Douglas Wile) Warriors of Stillness 1 & 2 (Jan Diepersloot) One of the wudang videos Oolong Rabbit sent me while I was living rurally was a Wudang 108 set that has been enjoyable to watch for continued puffs of inspiration. I watch the heck out of that thing and must have seen a half dozen new transitions into known movements, for example a transition from Golden Cock directly into Snake Creeps that I had not considered. It's pretty cool how the 13 mix and match for various flavors. I also enjoyed that one because the form was demonstrated in three different variations in three different costumes, along with time spent at the end simply slideshowing Taoist temples.

Trunk- Lay back in butterfly while sitting on two rollers (in a sock/etc) placed at the top of the sacrum. Gradually roll down to the base working each point out. Eventually move up to wood balls, or golf balls work ok. Various sizes work for feeling it out. The goal is not to pop anything, that just happens sometimes when working into a new area or something was tight/kinked, but the sacrum as a series of internally strung bands that hinge into and through the pelvis that will effect the lower carriage when relaxed. Work small circles on each acupoint you feel. Internal figure 8s with the pelvis. Follow up with simple forward stretch for legs and lower back (back of knees to floor & flatten lower back reaching w/ chin to toes. Cobra style ab stretches, then v stretches for legs, forward butterfly, hurdlers stretch (abductors), and a downward dog or two. Always a recipe somewhere in there. A knows all the Sanskrit names for these, all i know is what feels good and has worked so far. Always seem to learn a little more everytime I practice with her. It's opened up some internal hinges that I was previously unaware of but feel the difference in movement during taiji practice etc.

An interesting thing about working around live music is there are some associated feelings of internal 'flow' that usually occur after a couple hours of milling around the theater space. They are not identical to the internal sensations that follow continual taiji practice, but there are some subtle similarities. In this regard I have not experienced a level of internal "visualization" that ever produced these sensations... not saying it's outside of the possibilities, like spending a couple hours standing in rushing water, I have felt similar during and after practice, still and moving, and also after a chi gung treatment from Sei Gung. Also i notice that some spots that I would usually clear w/ practice, are having a tendency to 'quiver' during or after a show and then release, making practice time more enjoyable as there is a slightly shorter warmup period . Is there such a thing as cheating in chi gung practice?

Sounds like you off to a solid start. Depending on what type of weight lifting you are doing it can be benificial or detrimental to the soft styles. Long chain (whole body/core) lifting like squats are great to combine abdominal breathing with. I lean away from things like curls etc, and tend towards body weight exercise.... even exercises like pushups w/ elbows out or in, or better yet series of sun salutations which open / close the body as well as elongate and contract the muscles. The idea being to cycle / circulate the body with movement, not only break it down so it can rebuild itself stronger, but to break completely free.

Mythical origins of the art aside, most taoist forms of taijiquan claim origin from Zhang San Feng. Search wudangbing on youtube. In the spirit of Taoist taijiquan.

Question on content: What types of taichi movements are taught on the video? How many? Visible relationship to other forms or formats? Yang etc? Are there any sample clips on youtube? Thanks.

Feet Hands Head Neck and Ears. Fastest way to turn concrete to goo. Nice map links.

If you do what you've described while holding universal post your biological center should take over and the wandering attention settles in the dan tien. Belly Breathing is the physical counterpart to placing the attention on the dan tien. If "attention" becomes a problem you havn't been standing long enough, or maybe need a teacher there to help. There is a natural way that the sand of thoughts will settle and the water of the mind will be clear for those moment/s. As you begin to cultivate stillness you may notice a natural lengthing of the breath, this is also known as long breathing, in which the attention (as homey described) is brought to the transition points of inhale-exhale. As this space is extended there is as associated kind of psychophysical motif similar to suspended animation. Moving the attention around is only after you cultivate stillness. Until then while meditating bring the attention internally to the biological center. If internal 'movement' is experienced your job is to 'let go' of it and attend to the center while doing the work. (gung) If the attention is continually brought to a specific area that you feel is stuck, a physical practice associated with that area will help clear it (i recommend finding a weidan set which works all the channels, or a form of vinyasa yoga in which you feel rubbery afterwards...) You should seek a teacher in your area to study from directly if you are not already.

Here here another breath of fresh air for this man!

Xenolith, long time, are you planning on or already attending any group practices in the coming months?

Reverse second wind it. Give yourself some whole body work to do and the mind won't be clouded with distracting thoughts. Usually 5 minutes in universal post is a good place to start. See what your thinking about right at that time you feel like "quiting" ... probably not the same things you were thinking when your "trying" to be still. So at that time as now ... breath, relax, align.... weight sinks directly down between the feet, feet distribute weight evenly "bridged" from metatarsal web to heel, knees don't go further out than the toe. Same goes for forms practice, or even going for a taoist jog, it will always be easier to experience "no thought" after you give yourself a physical task to accomplish. Stillness being balanced with movement.

From what I've gleened from the fellow members of the forum is that one of the first Kunlun practices is to rock forward and up (like standing tip toe) onto K1? If I am wrong please correct me... For kicks and giggles do a tigers hand (contract fingers and thumb keeping the base of the fingers and palm open), while "holding" a posture on K1... inhale contract-exhale relax-align. Hands and feet at the same time? What I'm getting at is to balance how high you go w/ deepening stance work. What goes up must come down. Stillness is one way to neutralize and ground, but when obvious (especially localized) physical sensations happen it's best to align the body energetically with foundational work. In case no-one has told you never 'hold' a stance w/ your knee going beyond the tip of your big toe. Begin to feel the bottom of your feet and what the differences are between rocking forward and up, and sinking backwards and down. S T R E T C H This may inspire some answers through perspiration. Real answers are a process of inner discovery, it is difficult to read so many personal opinions/experiences and arrive at truth. It's like describing in words how to punch. There are many ways to make contact and release, but only one connection from center to edge. Face to face is the Way.

I consider moving meditations as the natural root for using visualizations as a "practical" technique. There is no need to visualize when you're right there, yet even in learning to do, you must visualize while learning, even if it's an image which occurs from a somatic sensation, but it still puts the egg before the chicken, as you practice you hatch it, you're the chicken out of the egg you've sat on all that time "visualizing" what you are doing ... then suddenly you are doing it without thinking, that is the the first glimpse of wuji inside taiji, stillness within motion. Then learning to forget comes into the play, and visualizations are aligned with the natural attunements experienced during practice. In this way feeling is put before visualizing, and visual phenomenon is not confused with "visualizations". The relationship between movement and stillness can be cultivated by stretching the experience at each end of the spectrum. Absolute movement feeds absolute stillness. Absolute stillness feeds absolute movement. At the foundation is wuji. Practically played out this is the manifestation of sung.

Emptiness can bring to surface awareness natural physiological process we are not usually aware of because thoughts overlay this original consciousness with esp. emotively attached thoughts creating a vibrational texture known as "me". Answer the question Who am I? Or in a meditative sense what occurs pscyhosomatically while falling into sleep or awakening, thoughts and physical stimulus fuse into a single fabric known as dreaming. The question might then be raised about the state of mind/body of sung, and it's relationship to wuji, sung is the psychophysical manfestation of wuji in any posture. How does wuji unfold into yin-yang, replicate again into taiji, bloom into the eight, and then return to wuji? ... physically? I can hardly believe it myself. I love the classical arts. There is the common vernacular of the body philosophies in which we can relate across, after that the forms in which we appear either align with these body koans or they do not. synthenasia seeks within without withdraw and blend in the beginning is the end