Harmonious Emptiness

I'm not just saying this because I know (of) him through this forum, but I would learn from Michael Lomax (Ya Mu @ TTB). Aside from the astounding effectiveness I have heard of, his lineage is part of Quan Zhen, so for Taoist healing, that is as real as I'm gonna find it. I just don't see how I could manage it for myself right now though...

Maybe taking a couple days off wouldn't hurt to let your body catch up. It could also be that you're just be taking in a lot more air than your used to and that has made you feel light headed. I would disagree somewhat with the suggestion not to do kung fu before the qi gong, especially if your instructor has said to do it this way. You warm up, then do kung fu, then do qi gong to settle down and regenerate qi before going about your day. A lot of kung fu is sort of qi gong in disguise anyways. You might want to try the whole set from the video I linked earlier if you haven't tried moving qi gong, just to get a feel for moving qi gong, and then you might see how to apply it to the movements in kung fu, aligning your whole body, mind, intent, breath, and chi with the movements, alternating between gathering and releasing in a way that cleanses the body. Then close with qi gong to gather positive chi which will also calm you down and allow better for better flow through the day.

National Geographic's: WuDang Temple Monks (1/5)

To reiterate then, and add some more (in italics)

Depends. It's nice to know sources, but some things, it's just you know it came from somewhere... If you learned it it's from you too.

The thought occurs to me, if I should share my experience or things I have read from reliable sources, knowing how comparatively limited it is. Aside from just writing stuff to practice the Zen art of forum writing , I figure, if I can play a four chord song and I've been playing it with my heart and soul for a number of years, I might not be a master guitarist, but I still love playing the guitar. I might not have much worth sharing, but maybe something for the person who wants to learn that song.

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Hey man, and if for any reason other than no reason at all, you never know when those contacts will come in handy, or when you will have something for them. All of a sudden the grocer is looking to buy a guitar and the guy you just talked to is selling his, or this girl is looking to take yoga classes and the librarian is a teacher. Make as many contacts as you can. Like you said, nothing to lose. A good trick when meeting people is to remember, when you run out of things to talk about, instead of digging up stuff you know about, find out what they know about.

What Chi Dragon said is true as well, that the body will adapt. It's just that there are ways to avoid these symptoms too, though the transformation could be more gradual. I would venture and unprofessional guess that the illness could have been a purging set on by the qi gong. It's like when people start eating healthy food some get sick first since the food purges toxins and then they decide it's bad for them which may not really be the case. Sounds like the qi gong is working powerfully, likely supported by the kung fu and good instruction, and that you already did some serious purging so it's probably uphill from here. Don't worry too much about worrying too much in the beginning. Just keep practicing. Nobody becomes a master in a week. Do it with feeling, like Master Aretha Franklin , and stay relaxed to let the chi flow through the joints (you remember what it's like when the joints were too tight ?).

Not much I can say about the awakening experience. You might do some research on spontaneous Kundalini awakenings which you will surely relate to in a number of ways though it could have been something similar yet different that you experienced. I don't know about Kriya yoga masters in Toronto, but I believe Master Helen Wu, granddaughter of Wang Ziping, teaches Tai Chi just outside of Toronto in Richmond Hill. http://www.helenwutaichistudio.com/?page_id=202 "Helen Xiao-Rong Wu was born in Shanghai, China in 1956. She began her training in the martial arts when she was 3 years old, studying under both her grandfather, legendary martial artist Zi-Ping Wang, and her mother, Professor Ju-Rong Wang, the first female professor of martial arts in China." Here is a great article by her sister, talking about growing up with her grandfather: http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=84

I couldn't have said it better myself, especially the part quoted above. Excellent post by Turiya as well.. What you are seeing here too is that people who treat other's like sh*t have a long way to grow. It's like when a crazy crack head says "you %*$&%*$&$& go and %&%$&$&$&$&*#*" you just think "man, I feel bad for that dude, he must be suffering something serious" you know? Not that you want to see the weakness of every person, but you can see the balance and accept that they are not perfect, that you are not perfect, and that we are all on a crazy journey to reach perfection one day at a time. Forgiveness is not all that easy but as it says in Proverbs "stone is heavy and sand is weighty, but who can suffer the provocation of a fool?... The one who can conquer himself is mightier than he who takes the city." By the way, a good place to meet people can be in activist type groups, which abound in Universities. It's an easy way to break the ice and do something rewarding with your energy and spare time. Just don't have any presumptions about the relationships that will develop or what you will or should get out it. Keep reading the Tao Te Ching and things to help develop yourself. University is a time to reinvent yourself. Just avoid those who want to live in high-school for the rest of their life as you're plan is to move forward and grow into a True Man (See the I Ching for the term)!

Well, if you're used to loneliness, then that could be an advantage as in a way it makes you more independent and more able to be an outsider and think differently than "the herd." This is useful for Taoists, since Taoists like to know why things work, and that is more difficult when thought patterns are pre-determined by what is already deemed true or acceptable. So being a loner has it's advantages so long as you can embrace it as a "leader of one." Either way, learn to love yourself and you will be able to love others. Everyone deserves to have pride in themselves so long as they remain open to others.

I could be wrong, but I believe it has to do with, as you said, the spirit being more yang whereas the physical is more yin. I think there may be something about the pure yang being within yin, so cultivate yin to obtain the pure yang and then let go of the yin to rise with the pure yang. Getting too caught up in semantics is just diversion though anyway, imo.

Agreed. Too many voices can be toxic to one's practice. Best to just listen to Tao and the masters of antiquity, imo. We have to choose our consultants, not the other way around. At the same time, listening to what others practice can lead toward some things we might not otherwise have found out about, like some true masters with sound advice. But ultimately, "too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the broth", so again, Best to just listen to Tao and the masters of antiquity (edit: I should add, and of course an experienced master you wish to learn from if you find one), imo.

The shaking especially and meridian slapping in the beginning loosen up stuck chi which could block the flow. They also let out negative chi which can also be negative emotional energies. The close helps direct the chi to flow from the hands and feet as needed rather than sticking in one area, then it directs the chi down to the dantien and stores it there. That set is quite balanced but also has a great part for the middle dantien. Since your set ends with focus on the middle dantien, it could help to brush the chi back down to the lower dantien. You might even want to add the final grounding movement from it before the close as this is excellent for grounding. I don't know for sure that your second movement will bring the chi up to the head. just picturing it sounds like some that do, bending forward or down and then sending the head back with a big breath. That might not be what you're doing though. Either way, if you follow that with middle dantien focus and then do the grounding movement and closing you should be fine, especially if you're doing the good opening to allow an easy flow and transition. I've heard different things about their use as a chi gong, but I know they are very very important in Shaolin kung fu, and probably help a lot for grounding and rooting a la Tai Chi. If you want to make them more chi gong oriented you could just hold the chi ball in front of dantien, but I don't know where your teacher is going with them so you might check with him about doing this. You don't want him to think your "cup is too full" and that you're modifying everything he says, iykwim. Holding the chi ball like this can be very helpful though to center you and take your mind off your thighs, while directing the energy coming up through the ground, in my experience.

Is there a specific name of the style of qi gong you're doing? Different styles generally have different effects. I think the medical styles are especially calming, while martial styles might rev you up more. Do you practice sitting meditation? This can have different effects on different people as well, but it can help to sort of metabolize everything, in my experience, so long as you follow the Taoist principles of Wu Wei or abiding in stillness and harmony while not forcing them, enjoying the silent awareness when possible.

What do you think of adding a "Favourite Chuang Tzu quotes" topic in here? Yays or nays?

Owledge, with all your lofty perspective, do you not see how patronizing and condescending you sound? People try this, "I'm gonna be a jerk and see if this person a nicer than Mother Theresa, and if not I have a new punching bag with whom I can act like the mountain master of superior insight." Lots of people seem to love to do that here, and I spent too much time trying to be a street hero and step in for people that I eventually just quit trying to be a bodyguard for people who I percieve as having further to drop by getting into such interactions. This drop being enough for them to just leave. I see a lot of people with very strong opinions about things they know nothing about and that is never a good path. Twinner, if I said something like "being gay is xyz, and you can never prove otherwise (since you can't really)" don't you think you would be a little bit pissed off that I just offended you and so many other people you respect? Why assume Ya Mu should feel differently about his lineage? Why assume you can just attack it as an absurdity with no reaction to your insult? And really, high spiritual masters are usually very disciplined and don't put up with childish BS and will punish some students severely. Ya Mu might not be a high spiritual master of the Himilayas, but he is a master of Taoist healing to the extent that he teaches other masters. He gets rid of evil entities with Taoist methods. Is it any wonder that his rather courteous and patient rebuttals have tried to turn back some of the BS being directed at him? Would he be an effective healer if he had no capacity for doing so? Fyi, in the Shaolin Grandmasters text (published in the 90's or so by a Grandmaster Shaolin exile) it is said that monks will only send back the negative energy sent to them, which I think Ya Mu has no more than done.

Hey, how was this Pu-ehr Anamatva? I'm thinking about investing in a Pu-ehr cake. Was this loose tea? I've been drinking some cheap "Pu-ehr heads" which are broken off of larger cakes but I find they have a bit of a fishy taste which I read means they are not stored well when aged (probably next to drying fish). Just found out about this book which is high on my wishlist now: Also a really good link from Reid's website about Oolong benefits: http://www.danreid.org/daniel-reid-articles-health-benefits-tea-oolong-tea-as-soma-all.asp excepts:

It's that time again. Learning a lot but need to disconnect and reconfigure. See you in a couple weeks. Much lowv Happy Exitness...

What are people's take on studying with understudies of a lineage holder? For example, I'm strongly considering joining a Chen Tai Chi school, but the beginner classes might be taught by an understudy. Is it worth the same rate, or should I start at a school where the master instructor teaches the classes though may not have the same direct lineage proximity?

to paraphrase The Buddha's teaching on vipissana, "when you are walking, know that you are walking. When you are smelling earth, know that you are smelling earth. When you feel the arising of an emotion, know that you are feeling this emotion arising. When the emotion is going away, know that it is going away. When you no longer feel the emotion, know that it has gone away." It's observation basically. Watch them arising, watch them leaving, know when they're gone. Same for everything "when you are inhaling a big breath, know that you are inhaling a big breath. When you are exhaling, know that you are exhaling." Ime, it's far more difficult to change something without full observation.