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Incredible, thanks for posting. Did you take Michael Lomax's healer certification course?

"Warrior Monk" was a high ideal for Shaolin Monks. However, no reason why our Taoist internal martial arts masters can't be "warrior monks" also.

Yeah thanks looking forward to it

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Sifu Wong's book was written quite a long time ago, his teaching method has changed since then. For example in the book it may say to visualise, however when Sifu teaches it in person - for the excercise Lifting the Sky - there is no mention of visualisation. So the emphasis may start on getting the physical movement correct, then the breathing and finally the chi flow. Every class is started by relaxing, going into a Zen state of mind and smiling from the heart. This is usually done in a relaxed upright standing posture. So when you practice from the books I would advise you (and have seen instructors of Sifu advise) to not visualise, just keep your mind clear and gently aware of your movements and breathing. The three important rules to take note of are 1. Don't Worry - you don't need to get the form 100% correct, it's more important that you're relaxed and have a good mind state. 2. Don't Intellectualise - having thoughts and wondering if you should be doing this or that hamper your ability to generate chi flow. 3. Enjoy your practice - you will have better results and generating chi flow is easy if you are enjoying yourself. I would definitely recommend the book Chi Kung for Health and Vitality and for sure learning from an instructor would be ideal.

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Doesn't sound like he has a choice. Best of luck Aaron.

The transmission and teaching from Sifu Wong Kiew Kit has basically led most of my training. His teaching can basically apply to everything, any other techniques i've practiced have benefited from my learning from Sifu Wong. Just being in Sifu's presence your mind goes very sharp, you feel lighter and of course the chi flow is much more powerful. If you say you purposely move your body like a willow in a breeze you have absolutely no understanding of this skill in Shaoling Wahnam lineage. It's a product of being able to generate chi flow, and indeed as said above if you have the skill to generate this flow you can use any external pattern to amp things up or get the flow highlighting a certain way. You don't move the body, the flowing chi moves your body. Its a really great thing to develop and I practice it every day. It's so easy and enjoyable too!

So after making this post last night i did some mantra practice - here's a brief outline. 1. Repeating "Om Mani Padme Hum" as my mantra 2. Started with diamond method outlined above 3. Dropped the external silent repeating, just repeating in the mind 4. Without decreasing concentration, made the mantra more and more effortless 5. Started to lose awareness of some of my body 6. As it became more and more effortless i dropped saying the mantra and just "listened" 7. Went into 1st jhana state - bodily bliss, light etc 8. Quickly went through bliss and just rested in a very calm open spacious state, but also very aware. I think i then went out of progressing in concentration and just practiced zen style meditation. Well there's an easy method if you want to get enjoyable calm spaciousness state without losing awareness, took about 10-15 mins to get from 1-8, then just enjoyed the state for who knows how long.

I've done a bit of mantra meditation and I found i naturally went towards what i've read is called the "diamond method" of mantra recitation. This is saying the mantra in your mind, listening to the mantra internally and silently saying the mantra externally all at the same time. Might sound like a handful but if you try it, it absorbs you into the mantra quite nicely. If i remember correctly i would then drop the silently saying the mantra and just go into repeating the mantra mentally. The practice is quite fun for leading into concentration states - might play with it tomorrow, haven't done this for a while.

Yep that's a good point, I realise that i have spent some time really "accepting" the breath and allowing it to become deep in my meditation too, rather than just ignoring it. Edit- I still want to say to HNJT that i strongly advise you to not practice your breath compression or whatever causes the headrushes - it's not good.

Please don't continue your current breathing technique, it's worst than a waste of time as you will harm yourself. In my experience my breath goes deepest and perhaps seems to even stop just practicing meditation that has no emphasis on the breathing. It's a combination of deep relaxtion and the mind state that's achieved through meditation. You'll know that this state of breathing is much better than conscious control because it's incredibly comfortable and you will feel very good during and after your session.

If you're currently working too hard, i suggest taking a break. My digestion used to be a bit screwed up from mostly worrying and rushing around all the time. Whether you can manage a holiday or not, definitely pick up some qigong - from my experience go for a spontaneous practice and also practice standing meditation focused on complete relaxation.

Agreed, remember qigong/meditation are SKILLS i.e someone who practices a so called "basic" technique very skillfully will get much much more benefit than someone who goes for a so called advanced technique. Important skills involved in energy work and meditation - Relaxation, no thoughts, good posture, making a positive state of mind. These points are all done with no force. I can elaborate if you wish. There's no reason why someone can't work on these 4 points, it can bring a lot of benefits and is of course very safe.

Wow thanks for that. I feel like im just uncovering yoga and the indian traditions, SO many incredible practioners and masters it's very humbling.

How about Trailanga Swami, simply incredible.

. It's a good idea to work out what you want from meditation, what are your aims and goals? If you want pleasure from meditation then im sure there are many practices that focus around bliss and all that. Perhaps focus on bringing the meditative skill to the rest of your day. I guess one definition of a master is that they don't need to do their practice as they live it 24/7, they ARE the practice. Enlightened masters ARE the Dharma.

In John Chang's case I highly doubt he aimed to get the ability to light something on fire. In fact I would hardly call it an ability, he "just" has so much power that he can use it to effect the physical to that degree. The implication of having this much energy goes far beyond just burning something. I wonder about some meditators who have the "siddhi" of generating fire. I believe this is different to John Chang's feat in that the siddhi type is basically heavily weighted to the shen or mind level where as John Chang's ability is more weighted to the energy level. So essentially the siddha is manipulating "reality" with their mind.

Internal martial art - not too hard not too soft. I like internal Shaolin Kung Fu and Taijiquan. I prefer the meditation and energy developement side of the arts.

Rooting by contracting all the muscles in the legs? Have you actually tried this ChiDragon? Standing in a Zhan Zhuang posture for 20-30 mins and contracting all of your leg muscles the whole time? Many Kung Fu masters would practice Zhan Zhuang for hours, and let me tell you, you categorically do NOT build interal force through tensing the whole time! In fact its the exact opposite. You'll know for yourself when you finish a relaxed Zhan Zhuang session, practiced in the correct manner, and you feel full of power that has NOTHING to do with muscular tension.

That was nice .

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