ridingtheox

I have been a fraud all my tai chi teaching is invalid ... i am not a master nor interested in martial art (Quaker, pacifist, Vietnam Veteran) ... btw one of my students (78yrs) has been experiencing rotational qi in his solo practice of TCC which I had never discribed to him ...

today I completed a week of 'mirror image' long form daily with two days of practicing it twice ... it has been very revealing of remaining imbalances and removing some energy blockages a very interesting experience opening new windows for this student ...

Shazan wrote .. I read about "mirror image long form" on this thread. What is it? Is is done the opposite way of normal long form as in the dvd? what are the benefits? I have practiced 'mirror image long form' intermittantly for over 2 years. It seems to balance / harmonize body posture. I may do it once and not again for weeks. Or I may do it for a week or more at a time. Since I have always been strongly right handed, I get the feeling quite clearly where I need to work on movements. It also seems to balance right brain / left brain issues. I was a scientist mathematician / forest ecologist / linguist ... all heavily left brain so the mirror image has been 'refreshing and stimulating' That is my experience. I suggest if it interests you that you 'play' with it from time to time. peace

for a variety of reasons I have not been doing the Advanced Long Form meditation first thing in the morning, not at home, respiratory problem gift from grandkids (LOL) etc. I have been doing YLF TCC almost daily. This morning I finally got up early and did get in a solid Long Form. The energy was better than before I had the hiatus by a considerable amount and it was the most continuous through the form. Sometimes I think a break yields this gift. During the last month I have introduced the 5th Advanced Seated meditation from disk 7. In 5th form there are only 4 moves, however, the practice includes a long pause and a slower performance of the last 2 moves. This shift to an even slower speed is really intense and it seems crucial that the first half is done at usual 'slow' speed of all the other FPCK so a significantly slower speed is very intense in the sensations of qi movement both in the upper body, but also in the dan tien itself. It was a delightful discovery.

i will say that in grad school 40 yrs ago i found that regular tai ji practice increased my energy level making it seem that i was more effective in the time i was working i believe that FPCK if practiced with attention to your energy might well act in a similar manner ... don't over do ...

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. B. Franklin

My dog, an English beagle named Obie-One, has, as his name implies, has a soul far, far greater and more noble than that of the average mere mortal. I have met sifu Obie-One you may remember truly and old soul ... oh tis true tis true ... charlie

energy rising doing frequent fp meditations. I like coupling Adv short standing med w Adv seated med ... both start from wide brace position. I often do Standing... seated ... standing . it rocks qi

not a big fan of Oz, his repeated misrepresentations of diet issues is disturbing nor of Weil, while he is a Tucsonan I find some of his writing not in harmony w scientific reality. on the other side Kabat-Zinn is amazing and I have Siegel's Mindsight in my reading cross-hairs peace for all sentient beings ... dogs do have souls moo. charlie thomas PhD OF (old f<3 )

wade-giles / pinyin confusion perpetuate T'ai Chi Ch'uan / Tai ji quan ... not mystical just linguist nightmare

kind of interesting exchange when does qi begin? when is it gong? where does it go? sorry this thread sort of dried up ... see you at flying phoenix continuing discussion maybe ...

greetings from Cascabel well I have misplaced several of my FP disks drat c Practice consistently is the key about one hour minimum FP plus a good round of TCC for Blue Phoenix: I wrote a short message encouraging seated practice in a chair so that 7 reps can be attained during a single session. If hip issues are a problem address that separate Finally today i urge practicioners / players here to pay attention to the breath during the performance slow and rhythmic does the best results? Keep a little note on how deeply and evenly you breathe. The lengthening, deepening of breath capacity is another sign of progress in your practice. This may take some months or years to be really evident so be patient but persistent. Peace to all beings (esp my old cows, )

while i have not done the moonbeam splashing ... the long form continues to open new channels for me ... I appreciate the suggestion to do a faster practice occasionally followed by a slower tempo repetition. My quickest pass is usually on the 10 - 11 min followed by < 20 min ... usually a 5 min break between. The breath pattern is different from the quicker to the slower version. Quite an experience expanding practice. Most often I still concentrate on slow deliberate 25 min form. I feel like I am getting a much better full body experience movement rooted moving to dan tien directed to one or both hands through the spine and scapula ... I also do a little microcosmic orbit breathing before starting the practice. Noticing that the hands / fingers tingle intensely when I do this. I have also experimented with mco breath between the percentage breaths. No detrimental effects as far as I can tell and some intensification of focus / awareness ... less drifting into ' monkey mind' during the practice. The whole body involvement continues to encourage my daily practice. Amazing discovery so late in life! FPCK rules! lol

Sifu wrote "But if you hold the 2nd position for a few extra breathes as prescribed (before lowering the forearms) and then do following movements very, very, very slowly at the speed " this is a good description of what developed very quickly with this ... holding the posture and gently letting y guide qi thru a microcosmic orbit ... emerging from the 'orbit' flowed much slower than the tempo for the first moves naturally. more... for somet days now (post operation recovery) I have been experiencing the microcosmic orbit in the initial three breaths for all of the forms. At first it was only occasional, but now is the norm. Not always, but nearly. I have also been having good 'macrocosmic' breathing in the case of the preparation for the long form. My tai qi long form has also progressed to feeling the connection ... energy from earth thru legs ... guided my dantien to ming men, shoulder, lao gong ... a long spiral of energy thank you again Sifu Dunn

finally working on Adv Seated MSW #5 ... it is very short but has been quite intense .. the 'synchronization' of breath and movement quite strong from the first performance. I have coupled it with both #3 (a long series) and #4 (another short series). Having recently thought (bad idea) why I am doing so much qi gong ... I have come to the idea that it is the increasing awarness of body / respiration function ... so much of my life has been mind/brain ... now I am experiencing the body intensely. Flow, energy cellular respiration! balance or organ systems regeneration / recovery from surgery. This has been a renewing of a long spiritual journey.

finally reached a 22+ min long form today ... breath and energy returning nearly to pre-surgery levels ... sleep still irregular beyond what i expect ... since sleep is always a little irregular for me!

hello scientist, my back ground includes chemistry, (BS) Forest Ecology (MSF) and Forest Biometrics (PhD) so I think of myself as a 'scientist' including the skepticism that implies. I have done Tai ji for long time and Flying Phoenix qi gong for 4 years now. I hope you find the energy and stillness your journey will certainly lead you into ... the path you are hoping for. I do FP almost daily especially the long form disk 4 .. I also do the Standing Still fairly regularly. I find the two practices quite complementary. They open many doors. Sifu Dunn has a real reputation among students on this forum, for caring and teaching. You have begun a great step into the universe ... peace

thanks for the good wishes and acknowledgements for recovery my practice interrupted for trip to daughter's family but will resume tomorrow! peace

Recovery proceeding forthwith... Adv. MSW one minimum and most days two selections from 1-4 disk 7. This week I have also done two repetitions of the long form daily a shorter set followed by a longer set ... 11-12 min for first set and 19-21 for the second set. I still hesitate to up the time >25 min, which had been my practice prior to surgery. I am also doing Long form Tai ji with my little class here in Cascabel 30-35 min practice which is structured a) wu ji standing, b)selected pieces from 8 brocades c) long form abbreviated to 1st series and half the second series, d) silk reeling and concluding wu ji standing positions 1 + one of 2-5. I also find very nurishing wu xing qi gong practices ... harmonizing the body meridians/elements/system. the above discussion is out of my range of experience. on the other hand the Quaker experience is about universal stillness finding god/christ in group worship. The terminology Friends/Quakers use would probably confuse most of the participants in this thread, but is western universalist mysticism in my experience. peace charlie

home from hospital/surgery last thurs couple days in hospital ... first attempts at FPCK were less than great. Breath is short and still lots of internal pressure from the CO2 in my abdomen. Today I did ASMSW 4 pretty fast as my breath stayed short. I hope to keep doing a little more each day. Still not up for the long form and certain I will have to go pretty quickly the first few times I do practice it. good to be back at practice even if it is short and modified significantly

I certainly recommend sifu's teaching methods and interactions. They certainly kick started my qi gong practice 4 years ago, I regret not being up for SoCal traffic to visit his classes again. The inspiration provided also continues to contribute to my desire and experimentation with the FP meditations and practice. peace neu ban muon hoa bin, hoa bin co voi ban lap tuc ... if you want peace, peace is with you immediately .... Thich Nhat Hanh

I have missed doing the long form standing med a few days over the last 3 years ... I make a 10 hour drive to Cal and the 10 hour return monthly. those days are often too tiring to do the long form hence two days a month missed ... sometimes i manage a double dose on one day and tell myself that makes up for the missed days I cannot recommend strongly enough this sort of continuing regimen for the performance of standing long form ... at this time i have almost constant buzzing/throbbing palms, arms, bai hui and my breath has deepened pushing 3 breaths per min during performance. I wish I were a better 'salesperson' I do mention it to anyone who will listen I also do 4 of the Advance Seated meditations ... one or more per day ... it is strange that the big sleep med 50 20 10 is a wake up for me if i do it late in the evening . the AS med (80 70 50 30) is more likely to lead to a good night's sleep. practice practice practice FPCHQG ... peace

had something of a break through my long form which has stalled at something less than 25 min took 27+ min!! wooo hoooo... of more interest and meaning is that qi pulsing at bai hue was more intense and persistent throughout the practice and the rolling? moving of qi at dan tien was also present for a considerable portion of the form practice. Now that seems worth passing along. peace to all being

may I offer: ending one exercise with 3 breaths helps the system 'clear' the current state. Each exercise opens, mobilizes different systems perhaps similar to moving from one TCM element (metal, wood, etc.) system to the next in the element cycle. The next practice you begin also invokes 3 deep clearing breaths in preparation. I can imagine experimenting with dropping one or the other of these 3 breath clearings, but observing how the qi pulses/moves/feels carefully during the 'transition.' It is interesting enough for me to try omitting one of the 'clearing' breaths. Though I often get up move around and drink a little tea or water between forms (mostly Adv. MSW 2 & 3/or4). Stay tuned ... however it may take several weeks or months to make this sort of experiment LOL.

moonnight: My friend calls it eating alien food, because being a vegetarian causes one's consciousness to rise. Often times eating meat will carry the instincts of the animal into the human, so thoughts like lust and anger will form. sorry this sort of anthopomorphic thought making animal instincts somehow not acceptible or worse is so ego-centric it blinds us to the broad truth that all of life is sacred and needs to be respected. Peace to all being