Spectrum

I saw some guys online practicing Discharging into 1.5ft dia birches getting them to shake. I notice when you place your hand on a tree and be still the opposite occurs, the tree sways you. I'm also reminded of the hip rotation swaying and loose hands I commonly see silver and golden years Asian women doing. Regardless of the style or context, the breadth in which we learn from natures Way is a wonder to me. Is this bounce part of a larger opening, moving, or closing schema? Sounds like mama bouncing me in her lap! Can you describe your breath a little more in relationship to the "sudden stop" at the end of the first part of the description? ... One day while using Feng Shui to search for suitable practice spots I stumbled across a curious couple of "Northwest Granola Types" on a day trek amongst the geothermal upwellings. Now thinking they were up for some of that special outdoor fun for couples and not wanting to be disturbed I disembarked from the localized ley hunt (hah) and set sights on a cave further up the way. Later on as my tai chi that day would have it I ended on a completely different spot then where I started, but the view was better. To my surprise the lovers of the earth is what I find, writhing in time with an unseen song, with their clothes on, that is writhing around all alone! Without judgement towards either the use of psychedelics or trance convulstions in general, I was reminded of what I have read of Mercia Elliad in his descriptions of some forms of shamanic trance. What it did not remind me of however was anything to do with Taoism. I'm thinking on a practical level if this behavior was practiced in the public square the police would show up. If you stumbled across it in the middle ages perhaps it was a demonic posession. Either or, I'm not to say there arn't some times i've convulsed in my life. The Taoist classics say the ancients "breathed through their heels." How could they have done that if they were writhing around on their bellies? Man doesn't crawl but a few years and stands the rest. Stand like a tree if you got to anyways. Spectrum

Greetings all! This forum looks great. Looking forward to taking part in the discussions. I'm a martial artist in Oregon. I pay my bills w/ a tech job.... I live my life as an artist. I'm a student of the martial arts since 1994. My interest in Taoism stems from my exposure to Taoist influenced movement arts. Those influences, including teachers, friends and experiences, changed my life, and continue to do so. Exploring truth through movement (& stillness) has been my passion for many years. I can post details of my training later, just wanted to get an intro out so I can contribute to other threads. Kind Regards, Spectrum

Da Liu decsribes it as a solo exercise. I learned it in a series once we had already gone through about 25 moving forms of chi gung. If it's done right your lungs will tell you. You should not get "out of breath" if your coordinate your cycle correctly. I think this is similar to fatigue while practicing martial art, when your movement gets ahead of your breath, your demand exceeds your supply. I believe Da Liu also describes Quick Breathing (similar to what I learned as Fire Breathing) as a method burning off excess jing as it manifests in it's associated lower tan tien. This would assume a period of abstinence for the associated charge to build. Heat can generally be generated in the lower abdomen with a period of abdominal breathing and meditation, fire breathing performed by itself seems to do the same thing but faster. Fire breathing performed during a chi gung set w/ whole body movement feels different then when done laying down quietly, or sitting still gazing at a light bulp as Da Liu describes his practice. The particular form in question does differ slightly from the technical details I have learned; Sifu included a method of "regulation" for creating the proper vacuum / pressure balance similar to the way a tubro charger sucks o2 through an engine faster. In what I learned as Fire Breathing our regular chi gung breath is double or tripple timed and the lower tan tien expands and contracts w/ each breath. Expansion is simply relaxing the contracted tan tien. This is performed in nose-out mouth w/ a couple of details on regulating the vacuum and pressure using tongue mouth throat combinations so no tension is held in the torso during the regular cycle and only a contraction of the tan tien is needed w/ the Fire Breath cycle. This is kinda like sloshing in behind the wave in the bathtub to get the wave bigger. Metabolism transitions become another frequency of rhythm to adapt to and change with. Again I'll emphasize the importance of breath coordination and equal lengths of inhalation and exhalation while completely relaxing. Generally speaking it's probably best to spend some jing using the mind to direct the chi into a specific whole body task before success or failure is judged by unspoken phenomenon having been put into words. These are arts of feeling based, in and of spontaneous motion, both seen and unseen motion. Music is felt as much as it is heard. Seeking phenomenon outside of what naturally occurs along the way defeats the purpose of the trip. Shared phenomenon may offer roadsigns on the internal map of psycho-kinesthetic experience, but by no means is the heros journey the same for everyone everytime. Chi is to often disconnected from the physical body in which it manifests in my opinion. In my personal experiences I've found a high percentage of success attending and observing the natural rhythms of work and rest, both spontaneous and regimented. For instance if "no effects" are felt form a specific "form" of breath, you might try first adjusting your mind to stop looking for effects, and second explore the breath in a variety of positions and situations; sitting against the wall, while laying down, sitting up, standing on one leg, while holding a 2lb weight 45 degrees above your head, that is the point, to kick your bodies metabolism in while relaxing and regulating your breath, riding the proportional wave of movement & stillness that is naturally created when we place even the slighest load on our synergetically balanced system. I admit that I am completely biased, because the fire breath I use makes me sweat or signifantly raise in tempurature after a short period. If I run out of breath prior to an increase in body temp, then most likely I'm not regulating my breath correctly. On a purely physical level this is kinda like getting winded jogging before breaking a sweat. I have more thoughts on this but I better post this before I time out. _Spectrum Where was he trying to "go" with a fire breath technique? It sure does clean the lungs out! I wonder where that gunk "went". It wasn't there to begin with.