Green Tiger

I've been reading Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy and . . . WOW! Lot of information. There have been a number of times I've been tempted to post some things from the book or start a discussion based on something I've read, but then I would NEVER finish the book. It is over 1k pages long. I did want to throw this out there though. One of the most important aspects of my training lately has been standing meditation. I've found it difficult to find a good, concise, and complete instruction for proper standing posture. The Way of Energy is a great one, but if you want it broken down into 18 easy-to-remember rules, here they are. 18 rules for proper standing postures: 1. Stand with the feet flat 2. Bend the knees 3. Relax the hips 4. Round the perineal area 5. Close the anal sphincter 6. Pull in the stomach 7. Relax the waist 8. Tuck the chest in 9. Stretch the back 10. Relax the shoulders 11. Sink the elbows 12. Hollow the armpits 13. Relax the wrists 14. Suspend the head 15. Tuck the chin 16. Close the eyes for inner vision 17. Close your mouth and turn your hearing inwards 18. Touch the tongue to the upper palate He goes on to explain each rule in more detail, but I think most of them are pretty self explanitory. I find it helpful to begin my standing practice by going through each of these one at a time. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

What are the seven stars?

Hey, I've had this scrollhanging in my cubical at work for quite some time. The website advertises it as a "working hard" scroll, but there are many characters on it and I was wondering what they all mean. Also, the two characters that are supposed to mean "working hard" probably don't literally say that and I'm curious what the literal meaning might be. Thanks in advance to whomever assists with my request.

Mother Teresa said: "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."

Considerate Christian Women should get sex changes . . . per the Gospel of Thomas: Simon Peter said to him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life." Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven." Gospel of Thomas 114.

Sinfest - glad to see some poetry laid down on the taobums. Nice work! A lot of abstract ideas, though. I tend to prefer poetry with more concrete imagery. I really liked "Turn your pain into something beautiful." I don't know if you would be interested in a poetry exercise, but a good one would be to write another poem and title it "Turn your pain into something beautiful." See where that takes you.

The arts I've studied at length are Tae Kwon Do, Aikido, and Taijiquan. I've also dabbled in about half a dozen others. My impression is that it really doesn't matter what the style is called, or how it was used historically, it all comes down to how long the instructor has studied martial art and how dedicated he/she has been in that study. Even though we may call it Yang style to honor the originators, by the time it got to me, it was no longer Yang style, per se. It was my teacher's style that I studied. If I wanted to train for cardio and flexibility, I wouldn't find another school, I would just do taijiquan faster and/or deeper. Same goes with Aikido. That art can be very physically demanding, but some people just don't practice that way. I've practiced in schools where the warm-up falling drills had me sweating through my gi! If I were you, I would start by checking out all of the schools you can find in a 20-mile radius and see what they have to offer. Don't worry about what 'type' of school they are so much as what you see happening there.

I've read that some people interpret the experience slightly differently, but it is almost always the same basic structure. The freaky thing to me is, some people call them elves, some people think they are more like aliens. Like the gray bug-eyed dudes. I think one lady in the study felt like she was taken to a spaceship where there were two alien doctors performing some sort of operation and then they noticed that she arrived and were not pleased to see her. Kind of weird that some of the entities get excited when a human visits and some do not seem so excited. By the way, I wouldn't recommend taking ANY psychedelics without the assistance of a shaman or guide of some sort. Very much like internal martial arts, fooling around in hyperspace is reported to (occasionally) have some unpleasant side effects.

I've been doing research on the subject of correcting postural imbalances for only about the past year or so, but Pete Egoscue is the best single resource I've found. Pain Free changed the way I approached my conditioning quite a bit. Before, I was all gung-ho for strengthening with limited active stretching to improve my posture (especially on my right side as that was what I thought was the "weak" side). Egoscue's book helped me to realize that, first of all, the problem wasn't just on my right side, it was the way my right and left sides were disintegrated. Second, along with strenthening and active stretching, I would benefit from (what I'm going to call) passive stretching exercises. A good example is this static back exercise: You just lie on your back with your legs elevated for a while and allow the muscles to relax. I don't know the name of it, but there's a (somewhat) similar exercise in yoga, where you lie on your back with the soles of your feet pressed together. I'll probably check out this Foundation book as well though. I'm really interested in the core and how the health/conditioning of the core effects the rest of the body. Thanks for the great thread!

My impression is that the TCM 'Marrow' is basically like jing . . . only different. Not to add further confusion, but the energy is created in the kidneys (as is jing, right?) and it nourishes the spine and brain through the jing (whatever that means). I'm not an expert, by any means, but the concept is confusing beyond merely the usage confusion. My current image of the human body as described by TCM is sort of a plumber's nightmare. Jing and Qi and Marrow all being routed here and then re-routed there and doing this and that and the other thing. I am very jealous that you have Jerry's book. From what I've seen, they look like they'd be THE reference material to have. I would love to buy the whole set but . . . no. At any rate, I think you should ask for clarification from your teacher about storing energy in the marrow. There is a description of the practice in Tai Chi Classics by Waysun Liao also, but hopefully your instructor can clarify. Do let us know what he says.

I bought this book and sort of skimmed it. It wasn't what I was looking for at the time. I think I was expecting more of a step-by-step instruction and, instead, it is a really deep dive into the qigong theory and mechanics involved in the practice, but I don't recall any sort of how-to, per se. From what I remember of it, it seemed to be just like the microcosmic orbit meditation. I should probably go back and take another look at the book, but I've been on an 'unregulated breathing' kick for a little while and I guess I'd like to see how that plays out. For those of you who do practice it: Is this the sort of practice where you regulate breathing, or is breathing more or less allowed to happen?

What exactly is political yoga?

Viva la Resistance!!!

I've been practicing alternating nostril breathing off and on for the past few months. The way I practice is pretty basic. Either sitting or standing I plug my left nostril with my left index finger and exhale through the right nostril, then inhale through the right nostril. The inhale and exhale both being as slow and smooth as possible. Not really controlled, but just allowed to happen (ideally). After an exhale/inhale on the right side, I plug the right nostril with my right index finger and repeat with the left side exhale/inhale. I've noticed two things about this that I think are perhaps important: First; the two nostrils rarely draw breath evenly. What I mean is, usually the right draws air very easily and the left is constricted or tight and draws air much slower. However, they seem to alternate. Sometimes the left is easy and the right is tight. Rarely do they both draw breath in the same way. Second; this practice seems to alter the pressures in the chest (thoracic cavity?). Often, when I draw in breath through the nostril that is tighter, I feel like I am inflating my chest. Usually the feeling of inflation only occurs on the opposite side of the nostril drawing the breath. I've also noticed that, if I focus my attention on the side of my body that I'm working on, the breath seems to flow more freely. A third thing that is worth mentioning: After practicing fifteen to twenty repetitions of this, the nostrils and pressures seem to balance out to some degree. I'm hoping that more regular practice might give me more balance generally and maybe eventually I could even practice alternating nostril breathing without plugging my nose. I'd love to hear other experiences with this practice.

$108 is about $192 less insane than what I saw in the Dragon Gate Sanctuary online store. I'll give their youtube videos a closer look and maybe consider breaking open my piggy bank, but I really think they would benefit from an offering of one or two introductory DVDs at a much lower price ($30-$40 maybe?). If I bought that and really liked it, it might entice me to bust open the piggy bank for the more high-end DVDs. I know, I know: They're martial artists not marketing experts. I just hate to think that some really great instructional material might get passed over simply because it appears overpriced. I buy a lot of instructional DVDs and books and I know that, typically, you get what you pay for. The Dragon Gate Sanctuary DVD prices seem so much higher than the average rate that it makes me suspicious, but also interested.

I heard Brock Lesnar fights all of those guys at the same time for his morning warm up

hoooooly buckets . . . for that price they had better be AMAZING DVDs. The one that has the KYMQ is $300 NO DVD is THAT good.

I would say, for me, unification is the better word. Unification of my senses with the available stimuli could also be called awareness. Unification of my body with the pull of the earth gives me a sense of pleasant feeling of falling or melting that could also be called bliss. But I think the common denominator is a breaking down of barriers, of tensions, of resistances and merging with my environment. Unify!

How about Jack Burton vs. John Chang. Jack Burton gets +10 v Taoist Alchemy Or Monkey King vs. Indiana Jones. If Jones wins, he eats the monkey king's brains and , due to a clever spell the Monkey King had put upon his brain, becomes . . . ZOMBIE JONES!!!

Ron Paul 2012

What sort of meditation are you planning to spend all night practicing? I think you may find that SLEEPING for eight hours is a very refreshing meditation.

That's a good topic you bring up, ChiDragon. In our Tai Chi class we always do warm-up exercises, but I've often felt that the transitions between the warm ups and the Tai Chi form practice was almost seamless. I'd thought before that the warm ups were really also Tai Chi exercises, and we just called them "warm ups" because they occurred at the beginning of class. (We do a few static stretches but mostly they are circular movements and bends while standing.) On the other hand, I've noticed that the Tai Chi form makes a good warm up for more frantic things like football, or soccer, or basketball. Perhaps you could elaborate on this concept in another thread? The breathing exercises described at the beginning of this thread may serve as my warm up for the next couple of weeks. Thanks again for sharing!

Good advice! After the breathing exercises, if you wanted a little movement, you might try eight pieces of brocade (ba duan jin). There are dozens of videos on youtube, but if you've got some spare change for something better, I would suggest either this oneor this one. They are both good. Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming's is better, but for $20 more.

I can't presume to know what's best for you, but, from what you've written I think you could use one reminder: You must taste bitter before sweet. Whatever you decide to go after, you can't assume that just because it doesn't start off the way you wanted or expected, that it means it is a bad path for you. On the contrary, some of the best journeys I've embarked on have started out TERRIBLY, only to surprise me later on. Additionally, (and although it may not be the thing for you) if I could do it all over again, I would get into the medical field. I've heard a lot of talk lately about an upcoming 'health care crisis' and people in the medical field should have a lot of opportunity. That is an area that interests me though, maybe not for you. Best of luck.