Green Tiger

My qigong practice began with the 8 pieces of brocade and I would recommend that or Terry Dunn's Flying Phoenix Chi Kung Volumes 1 + 2 to absolute beginners. There are a lot of good 8 pieces DVDs, but I second the mention of Chris Pei's DVD from the original poster. Also, for a more in-depth look, check out Yang Jwing-Ming's Eight Simple Qigong exercises. It is probably the best 8 pieces DVD going. He shows the seated and standing postures. Also, I enjoyed John Milton's Cleanse and Build Inner Qi DVD, which is basically the 8 pieces, but with a few other good exercises mixed in, and he also does some variations with some of the postures that I liked. Milton has a few other DVDs that I would like to try, but haven't yet. Anyone familiar with his other programs? EDIT: How could I forget about Matthew Cohen's Fire and Water DVD??? I've actually attended one of his qigong classes, as well. Good teacher. In his class he did some of the movements from the DVD but spent MUCH more time with each individual movement than he does on the DVD. Man, my legs were SORE after that class!

So if, lets say, I have a very emotionally traumatic experience involving intense fear, even though I was not physically injured in any way, this could manifest as a physical pain or injury? Possibly a misalignment of the spine or something like that? Is there a specific way that certain emotional traumas might manifest in the body? Does anyone know? For instance, if I have a verbally abusive person in my life who expresses a lot of anger toward me, would that emotional trauma manifest differently than the intense fear? Perhaps I'm attempting to split hairs. What I would like to understand is: Do specific emotions relate to specific areas of the body? Does stress ALWAYS manifest as lower back pain, in everyone, or is it more subjective? Maybe my stress manifests as shoulder tension and her stress manifests as hip tension, but TYPICALLY it manifests as lower back pain? Or maybe there is no typical way for it to manifest at all. Maybe it is totally subjective.

Thanks. I'm sure it will work itself out eventually. The healing I've experienced goes much deeper than simply spinal health and stress relief, though. It has effected me in ways that I never expected, and wouldn't have thought possible. I can totally understand why someone would be skeptical though. Chi, or whatever you want to call it, is very mysterious and elusive, and before I felt it I wasn't sure if it were real or not. I used to think it was just a metaphor for uniting many complex and disintegrated functions of the body. Tom Rogers is not an unbiased source, but he makes a very strong, well referenced, point (IMO) about the difficulties many researchers have had when trying to nail down and accurately define this 'spooky' energy. That doesn't change the fact that many people with a variety of backgrounds have documented the effects of a mysterious force. Obviously, it hasn't been identified and classified to the satisfaction of the scientific community. Maybe it can't be. Maybe it (the energy) prefers it that way. Mystery makes life more exciting. I only interjected because I assumed you were also interested in investigating this mystery. After reading more thoroughly, it appears that perhaps you are not, which I find somewhat puzzling. I can't imagine someone could be a frequent contributor to this forum and not be intrigued by the preponderance of people here who claim to have a relationship with this mystery. That alone would have spurred me into an intense investigation.

Hey, I use an online I-ching every morning for fun. Usually, the readings seem relevant and often insightful and, no matter what the I-ching tells you, it never seems like bad advice. Anyway, today I cast hexagram 25 - Innocence (or, in the version I'm using, they call it "Remaining Blameless") Hex 25 basically says that you should get out of the way and let nature take its course. In fact, it recommends you discard your motives altogether, because they are getting in your way. I've read it several times, but this time something clicked for me. I think it had something to do with the changing lines. The changing lines I got today read: Plow your field for a field well-plowed, not for possible harvests. Clear the wasteland for land well-cleared, not for potential rich fields. Such guileless enterprise can't help but succeed. I really like that image and the message it conveys. Do something well, for the sake of doing it well. Have no other motivations. . . Man, that's hard!

Online I-Ching I use is here.

This might sound silly, and I'm not sure if it could actually be considered a 'Taoist' approach, but . . . I've been finding lately that the more I focus on my relationships with my male friends and relatives, the more I seem to be getting noticed by females. I have a feeling that this phenomenon (if it is not just my imagination) could have something to do with the interplay between yin and yang, but I don't know enough about yin/yang theory to extrapolate any further than that.

I am also in the midwest, and have been eager for a chance to attend on of Mr. Lomax's seminars. Would have been at the one in November, but transportation difficulties got the best of me. When does the great midwestern self-healing sit in begin?

PRACTICE UPDATE Over the past month I've been practicing FPCK almost daily. I was practicing the sitting in the morning and the standing in the evening, but I've been mixing it up lately and *trying* to make my morning routine 20 mins each of Monk Holds Pearl, Monk Holds Peach, and Monk Gazes at Moon--in that order. My ideal evening routing would be the three seated warm ups followed by the first Monk Serves Wine, for about ten minutes each. Of course, life forces me to improvise and I often end up doing the standing in the late afternoon and the sitting in the evening. I have to agree that the morning is the best time. I figured it was because my mind was still half asleep and it was easier for me to relax, but I'm sure there is more to it. Lately, the practice seems to really be opening up the energy channels in my back and right shoulder. I always experience a lot of spontaneous shifting, twitching, shaking, and twisting while holding the standing meditations. Last night, during my standing practice, I felt something in my stomach let go and then heard a loud, groaning tummy rumble. Almost immediately after (maybe even simultaneously), my body started to sink more and I had more control over my 'tail.' There was more freedom in my hips than I have ever felt before. it was kind of an odd sensation. I felt like I was wearing a diaper or something. That openness in the hips last the rest of the evening, but when I woke up this morning, they felt like they had gotten tight again. I sometimes count the length of my breath throughout the day. I don't know if its because of the FPCK, or just simply the power of deep breathing, but I've noticed that I start to feel some of the effects just by breathing deeply and counting along with the breath like I do when I practice the FPCK. Does anyone practice yoga as well as FPCK? I have been practicing Ashtanga the past couple of weeks and I noticed that it seems to have improved my FPCK sessions.

I know I'm worth at least one camel . . . maybe even two!

Dragon/Tiger is good. Lee Holden has a great routine designed specifically to help with upper-back and neck issues. If you don't want to drop the $20 (worth it, as are all his DVDs), I would recommend sitting in some cross-legged variation and doing neck rolls. Or, just let the head drift from side to side. Try it with the arms pressed out at your sides and then with the hands in the crane's beak mudra, beak pointing up. All the while just letting the head drift from side to side. Then maybe finish with some shoulder rolls. I feel that I should also mention that the pain in your neck may not necessarily be caused by a neck problem. Pete Egoscue says that the site of the pain is rarely the site of the problem. I don't know what it is in your case, but in my case, my neck pain is an indirect result of tight hip muscles . . . I think. In any case, I would avoid doing any poses or exercises that might put pressure or strain on your neck.

It's been about a year since I first started practicing FPCK. I haven't been practicing continually in that year. I spent about seven months practicing the standing meditations and about 4 months practicing the seated meditations. The chi kung I've been doing over the past 4 or 5 months has been good (mostly simple standing and quiet sitting meditations), but I started to feel that I needed to revisit FPCK, so, for the past two weeks I have been practicing the seated meditations every day and the standing meditations about every other day. The seated meditations have been GREAT! I can really feel the chi flowing now. So much so that it has begun to induce involuntary movements. About five minutes into my seated meditations, my hips with start rocking back and forth and my right shoulder will pop and roll all over the place (especially during the rotation section of first exercise). The standing exercises have not been as . . . energetic, but I feel that I am learning a lot about my body from them. Monk Holds the Peach as always been one that seems to 'click' with me and it is also the most challenging (maybe that's part of the click?). The first time I did MHP it had a powerful effect on me and, considering how powerful ALL the meditations feel now, I was a little apprehensive about doing MHP. Interestingly, I felt it had the weakest energetic effect on me, but it was also the hardest to relax into. I feel like my hips need to come forward more than they are, but if I try to get them to move forward my feet won't stay flat on the floor. I'm planning to start doing the standing meditations every day and see what happens. I'm glad to see that this thread is still active. I hope to soon hear how everyone else's practices are progressing.

Perhaps the style and format of the writing is supposed to invoke a sense of 'babbel.' The structure of the paragraph is representative of the tower of babel. The meandering stream of consciousness creates a sense of a continually evolving and changing spoken language. I think it would strengthen the piece to slip into various languages intermittently. Begin in English, then move to French, Spanish, German, Arabic . . . each language being another step farther away from the original. That is my forum-post workshop for the day.

I could be mistaken, but I think I read somewhere that Edgar Casey received information from the Akashic records about the fall of Atlantis and it had to do with the people there acquiring or attempting to acquire the power of the gods. . . . or something like that. I'm not sure if its relevant to your discussion, but that was the first thing I thought of after reading your post. I feel like we're approaching the top of our tower and the only way to go forward is to go down. Down could be a free fall into atomic Armageddon or it could be a gentle glide into a more natural and harmonious way of life. Or it could potentially be some mixture of the two. Who knows? Only The Shadow knows. BTW: Stream-of-consciousness writing style should have died with Kerouac.

This has already been said, I think, but I thought it might be worth re-stating: It could be good to practice the two independently, but to attempt some sort of fusion would be prohibitively difficult. I would recommend practicing your more 'physical' routine first and then follow that up with some dissolving vis-a-vis the water method of BK Frantzis.

I think it is easier to relax with the eyes closed, but I sometimes practice standing with my eyes open. In fact, quite often I'll practice standing in front of a full body mirror so I can check my posture. Also, most of the Flying Phoenix standing meditations are supposed to be done with the eyes closed. The only exception is Monk Gazing at Moon.

I also get a lot of popping. I think its kinks in the fascia releasing. Could also be tendons/ligaments. Electric shocks and spinning are unknown to me though. What sort of energy practices do you do, aside from acupuncture?

I think I'm going to switch back to Flying Phoenix Chi Kung for a couple weeks. I'll do the sitting sets in the morning and the standing sets at night. Its been a while since I've focused on FPCK (since August), and in the past it has had the effect of an energetic power wash; really opening up the channels. I only stopped practicing after six months because I felt like a misalignment in my hip was preventing me from progressing and that it needed to be adjusted via non FPCK means. So I've also been practicing yoga and to help with alignment. I feel like I've got my energetic 'plumbing' more closely aligned now and some FPCK might really flush out the system in a profound way. FPCK was the first chi kung practice that had a tangible energetic effect for me, so maybe it is special to me because of that. At any rate, I'm kind of excited to go back to the practice, if even for a short time. It may be longer, depending on how it goes.

Well, I've made a few attempts since this thread began. To be sure, the ego never left. In fact, at least once I felt like the monkey mind chatter got worse after about 90 mins. 120 mins+/- about fifteen was the longest I could stand in a single session. I initially thought that I would be able to go a lot longer, but this was based on faulty reasoning. My logic when something like this: I usually only run about 2-3 miles a couple times a week, but I can easily run 7-10 miles if I want to SOOOOO . . . since usually stand 30-60 minutes a few times a week then I should be able to stand for 170-240 minutes if I really wanted to, right? Well, not without my body screaming in revolt. The first place where I started to feel some serious fatigue was in my core. That was interesting, since the minor fatigue usually effects my legs and back more than my core. In fact, the longer I stood, the more it felt like I was getting an abdominal workout rather than a leg workout. The fatigue started in the front/belly and then later included the low back. The last time I tried, I noticed my hip structure seems to be changing. There was a lot of shifting and burning in the hips, especially in my low back near the mingmen. The last attempt was yesterday and I'm tempted to try again next week, but I'm also a bit apprehensive. I feel like I'm on to something with the way my core and hips reacted to the longer standing, but this morning when I was doing my seated meditations I felt more tense than usual. The seated posture was probably more grounded than usual too, but my mind just wasn't settling like it usually does. I'm thinking I'll do mostly seated medidations for the rest of the week and see how they go, then try another long standing. It's probably still premature, but I feel like the long standing meditations are really good for initiating the dissolving process and the seated meditations supplement that by going deeper into a blockage. We'll see . . .

Okay . . . totally psyched about the standing marathon this weekend! My plan: Sunday - wake up at about 8am practice seated 8 pieces of brocade a la Yang Jwing Ming (30min) practice an hour of yoga begin standing - time is called when I a) fall out of the stance fall asleep I really hope I fall asleep first I was considering playing music while standing, but should that be prohibited from the challenge? I can't help but wonder: Could I outlast the battery on my iPod? I was thinking I'd practice standing with arms at sides to begin with, and then gradually lift the arms (using chi/yi ) until I'm 'hugging the tree.' That's how I usually practice. Then, when I feel like I'm about 80% finished standing, I gradually lower the arms back down. Does that all sound agreeable?

I just finished reading Magus of Java last night, and would be interested to hear more stories about John Chang . . . but, and maybe this is a can of worms best opened in another thread . . . I don't think the most important takeaway from Magus was belief in John Chang's 'powers' or lack thereof. Magus concluded by reminding us (ten years ago, btw) that we as a species have come to a very important crossroads in our evolution. We are in the process of destroying our environment, and although many of us are aware of this, most of us aren't doing anything about it. Pretty soon, it will be too late to do anything but prepare to ride out the crash. Our collective way of life is not sustainable and we need to collectively remedy that. Our collective karma for failure will probably be pretty stiff. There is promise in the energy arts. Maybe even enough promise to someday transform our science and the way we use our technology. But first, and most imporantly, they have the ability to transform human consciousness to be more aware of the interconnectedness that most people are so blind to. We don't need John Chang to teach us how to merge our yin and yang. We just need to fall in love with whatever practice we are fortunate enough to find and then work hard to build enough light within ourselves to share with the rest of the world in this hour of darkness. I think that is our calling as practitioners of these arts and stories like Magus of Java and Seeking the Master of Mo Pai simply strengthen my resolve to work hard at what I love.

Hua Shan!?!? What an amazing synchronicity, I just finished reading The Wandering Taoist, and I was thinking through much of that book that it would be SOOO COOL to go visit Hua Shan. I've never been out of the states though, and travel to china sounds expensive and frought with red tape. Maybe a group thing through a travel agency? I'll keep my ear to the ground.

In my experience, standing helps open up the knee joints at 30-60 minutes. I rarely exceed that time though. This challenge should be a good experiment to see what might change after two, four, or six hours. Maybe even 14! Also, in my experience, knee problems associated with Tai chi practitioners usually have more to do with improper transitions within the forms (i.e., when shifting from a back-weighted stance to a front-weighted stance). If the hips are tight, the rear knee will often 'catch,' or not shift properly.

I'm game. I usually don't exceed an hour of standing in a single stretch, but I think I could go 5-7 given the proper motivation. 14h? Hard to imagine, but maybe. Have you, or do you know of anyone who has fallen asleep while practicing standing? In the 36 chambers of Shaolin, they suggest that the Shaolin monks can sleep while standing on their heads!

Has anyone read Kosta's other book, Nei Kung: Secret Teachings of the Warrior sages? I haven't, but the Amazon reviews aren't encouraging. It sounds like the book is more of a discussion of the history of nei kung practice and not the technique. I think the title is a bit misleading, if that's the case. I just started reading Magus of Java after I saw this thread and I've been pretty impressed so far. Of course I have no idea how authentic or reliable it is, but it is well written and a very good story. Also, I'm probably way off with this, but I had a flash of inspiration while I was reading Magus. I have also been reading Jerry Alan Johnson's Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy and I remembered a beginning technique described in that book that I thought might be similar to the initial Nei Kung training. If anyone is familiar with initial Nei Kung training, let me know if I'm anywhere close to the mark with this: In the first stage, the anus is contracted with slight muscle control, and the energy is directed into different energy centers along the Microcosmic Orbit. When first beginning, inhale and expand the abdomen while imagining that the anus is connected to the navel and is pulling up towards it. On the exhalation, contract the abdomen and draw the energy from the navel back down towards the anus. Next, inhale and create a connection between the anus and the Mingmen. On the exhalation, draw the energy from the Mingrnen back down towards the anus. It is important to synchronize the drawing up of the anus towards the navel and Mingrnen area with the expansion and contraction of inhalation and exhalation. This will facilitate a sacral-cranial rhythm throughout the body. From Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy, Chapter 15: Postural Dao Yin Training, 323-324 by Jerry Alan Johnson