humbleone

This was posted elsewhere. breathing techniques meets modern science. buteyko claims that much disease is caused by hyperventilation, so it pays to slow down our breathing. Estentially making the case for meditation and breath work. he actually has a simple test which is pretty cool. one can actually use it to measure meditation progress. http://www.normalbreathing.com/learn.php

yes, after watching master lam's youtube videos, I started doing a warm up, it really enhances my practice. I noticed that master Lam actually places quite a bit of importance on the warm up, he actually does a different warmup in each of his 10 youtube video's.

sounds like a good book to read. i have heard that there are four(4) lobbyist in Washington for every congressman! Even the supreme court said that it is OK to spend unlimited amount of money on elections, thus the super packs. It is nutty to read that superpacks, all funded by billionairs are out spending the candidates in the republican primary race. 94% of the time, the congressional candidate with most money wins, so yeah, all about maintaining the status quo. Americans talk a good talk about 'buy made in america', but Walmart parking lots are overflowing with consumers who can't wait to buy cheap 'made in china' imports... imo, the president maynot be able to bring about much change, but it is the bad decisions that really hurt us. President Bush, the two wars and the dreaded tax cut for the rich. so we the electorate are really choosing the lesser to two evils, which candidate will do the least damage

male pattern baldness is passed down by the mother via the X chromosome. so they say if you want to know if you will be bald, look at your mom's brother or her side of the family. I used minoxidil in my 20's for years and years. I think it did slow down the loss of hair and grew some fuzz http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000883/ I am in my late 40's now and hair is the least of my worries, but it sure was important when 20 something...

I have been told to follow my heart in selecting practices. Zhan Zhuang tops my list! It takes me to a distant land never before visited. So no formal training just what I can gather from books, youtube and TTB Other who practice Zhan Zhuang, could you share a few words. --Do most people start with a warm up exercise before ZZ? Lam Kam Chuen seems to suggest to start with basic circular knees rotation, losen the pelvic area. --what about closing, how much time should be spent in closing? This is one area I have problems with. I seem to need a LOT of grounding. I usually do the traditional close with hands over dan tien + hands on hips and move in circular motion, again from Lam Kam Chuen.

sorry didn't mean to hijack chris d's thread. this thread just stuck a cord, a long term goal, many years in the making for me. various forms of meditation and qigong help, but the effect seems to wane off as the day progresses. i like chris d's idea of awareness during the day when going about everyday tasks. something 'constant' that I can carry around with me, so no matter if I am at work, or standing on the platform waiting for the subway or loading the diswasher, its there... good idea mYTHmAKER, about gently placing the attention at tan tien. for some reason I get an immediate protest by the mind, a sharp increase in anxeity. sounds like a conversation in the columbus park waiting to happen

great info in this thread. My issue I believe is somewhat similar to Chris d. It is too much thinking all day, so trying to get out of my head. I tried many times to focus on the lower dantien/hara, but found it very hard. All I could do was to visulize the LD for a few mintues, then get lost again in thoughts. One idea I got from this thread is to focus on the breath, make that a 'constant'. a good side effect of breathwork it calms the mind/inner chatter. just have decide if to focus on the bridge of the nose, or belly... http://www.wildmind.org/ thank you for the link Gerard...

ok ic what you are saying. i am also working on similar, very hard to put it in practice for me. I looked into something steve had mentioned. http://awareness.tk/

I wish the OP all the best with his treatment. frankly guys I am a little surprized that this thread didn't evolve into a in-depth dicussion of medical qigong? maybe most here don't really believe qigong works when important matters are on the line I consider this thread a freudian slip!

chris, sorry not sure what you are asking. are you saying you get so absorbed in a task that you lose track of time? buddhism does have its own set of awareness/mindfullness meditations, which help a person be more 'present'. Some practicle things that help me at work, proper sitting posture(emperor sitting position) and breathing go a long way. also there is nothing like breaking the hour down into smaller segments via computer alarms etc...

Tower of London with its 900 years of history is worth seeing. Crown jewels are a must when there. Much of it is indoors so good during the winter months. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g186338-d187547-Reviews-Tower_of_London-London_England.html

Thanks for the link, the NDTV reporter I thought did a really good in-depth interview. Glad to see HH sense of humor in tact, he said he slept really well after his descision not to be the political head I recently read a one page article in the New York Times about Tibet. Sadly the article was in the 'Travel' section. It talked about the dozens of new luxury hotels being built in Tibet. About the high speed train from Beijing to Lhasa. http://www.chinatibettrain.com/pictures.htm With 9% GDP growth, I worry there is nothing that will stop the mighty Chinese from overrunning Tibet and turning it into a buddhist disneyland. Just curious what are the predictions made by the Oracles? Are these the same Oracles that helped plan HH escape from Lhasa, right in-between the enemy lines..

Hundun, thank you for your informative reply. I always learn a lot from your posts. so I ordered the book from amazon this morning. PS. If other newcomers are interested, I would highly recommend Eva Wongs book 'Taoism'. Her book does an excellent job covering the history and philosophy of Taoism over the ages and how the various schools evovled. Amazon sells used copies for $0.99 cents!

Good thread Hundun if you guys can clarify two issues for me. --so I started about a year ago. one thing that kept me from experimenting, are the dire warnings in the path that I took, NOT to mix different methods. here is what I read in the book. nei gung conforms your body to specific frequncies or magnetic impulses. Different styles of chi gung or nei gung flow the energy in different directions, and at different frequncies. When you mix in something that is out of harmony with the frequency you have alraedy established, a third harmonic is created that may be extremely determental to your health. --what about mixing lineages, aren't there celestial beings that looks after its own, won't they be confused

Thanks for the heads up, I read some of the yelp reviews. Suns Tea Shop sure looks good. there is nothing like a good pot of tea after a Zhan zhuang session

Inspired by this thread, I took a walk last week to our local chinatown. I usually go to TenRen, they have a small tea bar setup in one corner of their tea store. The guy behind the counter recommended I try King's Tea(see below). It sure tasted good. May take a walk again today, thanks for the Pu-erh and Ti Kwan yin recommendation. What I found amusing was that my wife and I were the only ones drinking hot tea. The place was filled with 20 something mostly chinese, all drinking some funky bubble tea http://www.tentea.com/kingstea.html King's Tea, a TenRen exclusive, is made of high quality oolong tea blended with a touch of ginseng to create an incredible aftertaste. The tea has the rich smooth taste of oolong with an aftertaste which is sweeter and longer lasting than the traditional oolong tea. The bitter tartness associated with ginseng can not be tasted in this tea. King's Tea is offered in two varieties, Green and Dark, each in several different grades. The Green and Dark King's Teas are determined by how long the base oolong is baked, with Dark ones baked longer than Green ones. The different grades depend on the quality of the oolong leaves.

good post hundun. Thank you again for your good sound advice earlier this week. I am starting to realize I can only get so far reading from books and watching youtube! time to work with a teacher in person. encephalon clued me in to master ck chu. so planning on taking his Nei Kung Workshop later this week. I like the fact that he also offers posture correction for people like me who mostly practice at home... http://www.chutaichi.com/

good thread. I have heard this comment before, I believe Gerard mentioned it also in his thread, that 'qi will correct the posture'. i found it a rather curious comment, what is the basis for this? One thing I have a hard time with, is tounge tip touching the roof of the mouth. interesting to note that master ck chu doesn't say anything about it in his eight steps.

Sadly 70 years of Communism in peoples republic of china really destroyed a great heritage. I have many colleague at work who are from China, graduates of some of the most prestigious universities in China. None know much about Taoism. Someone said only 1% of the people in china practice Taoism. I think Taoism is too weird for mainstream America One area that taoism may make some headway is in the area of healings. perhaps someday insurance companies will start to pay for qigong treatment, but it will take a long time given how poorly organised and fragmented qigong healers are. taobums member fullotus favorite teacher, Chunyi Lin! I can't speak about his methods, but I give him a lot of credit for spreading the word about qigong. He has treated over 120,000 people. He has been recognised by the mayo clinic and some universities. http://www.springforestqigong.com/index.htm

Thanks for the link Cameron. This reads like an excerpt from Max's upcoming book. Looking forward to reading it. All the best.

stopping the rain... http://www.laoziacademy.us/2009_russia.htm

hello, I am new to all of this(qigong), those of you interested in master wang liping or other teachers, what do you hope to accomplish? are you guys interested in a career as a healer and earn a living that way? It appears there is no shortage of high level teachers even in the US. I believe fulllotus mentioned master chunyi Lin. last night I downloaded Ya Mu(Michael Lomax) book, both of these teachers sound very impressive. frankly some of the more abstract stuff they talk about, talking with spirits ete, not sure what to make of... all the best

thanks for the headsup chris. He is another teacher i have been meaning to explore. I must say reading Ya Mu's TTB posts, a lot of personal integrity comes through. all the best

great post, thank you for sharing your practice. Gives me some food for thought. just curious, if your two 30 min sessions are identical or do you blend in Frantzis moving dissolving method of cloud hands or three swings? New to all of this, one thing that has really helped me is the Frantzis spinal stretch. So based on the success of this physical method, I started doing, every day, basic tapping to 'open' the channels. Jenny Lamb really gets into tapping qigong. She has a good dvd. the hope here is that opening the channels will help with the dissolving energy blocks methods. http://www.easterninternalarts.org/ Another good find, is Spring Forest Qigong. Chunyi Lin has built his whole qigong practice around resolving energy blocks. His Level 1 DVD (yes another DVD to buy ) also gets into tapping the energy points. http://www.springforestqigong.com/index.htm