spiraltao

"I get the sense that as long as I don't overdo the posture, and as long as I am vigilant in keeping to the guidelines, I should be able to benefit from the practice without causing myself harm. So that's why I'm asking here.. i saw someone on another thread say that one should just hold stance for 3 min in the beginning, working up slowly from there, but never hold a stance for more than 10 minutes. That wasn't anything I had seen in books, so it prompted me to start this thread. Hope that helps you bums understand where I'm coming from, thanks for the helpful advice" " That too is my main question, how long is too long? I started at holding the postures per Master Chuen's advice, starting with ten minutes and working up twenty plus minutes now. In his book, Master Chuen says that once one can hold the foundational postures for twenty minutes they can move on to the more advanced postures. ...but I have had conflicting advice from a ZZ practitioner in Brazil. Also, never neglect warming up the joints prior to wuji is one bit of info that I know is very important and makes the standing much more beneficial.

I also own Master's Chuen's Way of Power. I can not offer any advice on the how to, as I am not qualified, but I can tell you that I love ZZ and it develops internal energy. In the beginning I got the most from the "holding the belly" posture and what Master Chuen calls the "on guard" posture which is the San Ti stance. As he mentions in the book, it is best to get completely comfortable with the five beginning postures before progressing to the more advanced ones, as one won't get the benefit from them without a proper foundation. I have been doing these standing mediations for a year as a part of my qigong. Also ZZ just feels better to me outside. ...I suppose it goes without saying to always start in Wuji to attain song.

Nice to meet you! I agree with Zerostao, we all should meet and the energy would be through the roof, plus each one has a unique perspective and a baguazhang player is like a snowflake, right? ...so what I am tryin' to spit out is we would feed off each other and have a great opportunity to here on this forum as well. This is not Cheng style as in Cheng Ting Hua? I am familiar with both Jason Tsou and Liu Jingru's youtube/internet vids. Thanks for the review on the DVD.

Like Chi Dragon, I think their needs to be a clear definition of the term, just to be safe.

i looked up that title and got way more than one result who is the author, Zero?

lol, thanx! check my edit above, sloppy what style baguazhang do u study?

I might be in his Daoist Magic and Incantations book, I will check it for both topics. I looked and Jerry references his Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy: Volume 3, Chapter 28). for the one to ten meditation. This may be useless info, but here it is, from DAOIST MAGICAL INCANTATIONS, HAND SEALS, AND STAR STEPPING TRAINING IN DAOIST MAGIC FROM THE ZHENG VI SCHOOL OF ANCIENT CHINESE MYSTICISM WRITTEN BY PROFESSOR JERRY ALAN JOHNSON, PH.D., D.T.C.M

@ Ya Mu My K1s seem to not "feel" as full of energy as the rest of the centers. I can still sense the chi but not to the extent of the other areas. Should I do the K1s more than one time? ...I have slowed down on them as slow as possible. Open for any advice or tips!

Ever heard of Taake? Great Finnish metal band. Amon Amarth are the best Viking themed metal IMO. I like Enslaved, but they are a bit too experimental for me. Twilight of the Thunder God is one of their best. My favorite non mainstream metal band were precursors to modern day black metal! MERCYFUL FATE! Love 'em. While the lyrics are very immature and silly to me now, I still love the groove, that will never change.

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds."-Albert Einstein Hopefully this one is not a double post.

I didn't mention Kenneth Cohen, he has to be mentioned.

I am going to be that guy. The guy that read the first two posts and then comments, heh.. At any rate, from age 14-18 I worked on body buillding, I ate MEAT and lots of it. My friend whom I worked out with was a vegetarian, maybe not to the vegan extreme, but he DID NOT eat meat. He was truly a "corn fed" hillbilly. He could bench 440 lbs while I maxed out at 425 lbs on the bench. The thing that always suprised me was my friend had more bodyfat than I did! To make my point, I am quite sure much of the results of your body building exercises come down to your genetic body structure. This was really of no big suprise to me, but maybe it was because of my experience with my vege terror weight lifting partner in high school. EDIT-I am NOT referring to RAW diets. Thanks to Gerard for his post!

In no particular order because that would be impossible for me. Sifu Christopher Lee Matsuo Mike Lomax Lam Kam Chuen the late Erle Montaigue(i missed the part about living, so I must change this to Eli Montaigue) my grandmaster Rick Picken's intrepetation of John Wing Lok Ng's teachings for both combat and health. Each of these persons has made a personal impact on me either thru direct contact or indirect via a book, email, or both.(also DVD) I gotta list five more, sorry Yang Jwing Ming Bow Sim Mark Jerry Johnson Kent Howard Liang Shou Yu IMO one COULD NOT GO WRONG with material from any of the published media from any of the above!

Whoa, this keeps happening Mike. You have the vocabularly and experience to better describe in words the impact of these movments. I will proudly second that if one is really in wuji to start, the Qi is INSTANT. I just told Kim yesterday, "Ya Mu said to do these moves much slower, but I hate to go too much slower, as the vibrational frequency raises very quickly!" She could see me shaking. This and a few other exercises WORK for me. I am super sure that it was not luck I got turned onto Mike's path. It is meant to be. I am taking this to the sky BABY!

Whoa, this keeps happening Mike. You have the vocabularly and experience to better describe in words the impact of these movments. I will proudly second that if one is really in wuji to start, the Qi is INSTANT. I just told Kim yesterday, "Ya Mu said to do these moves much slower, but I hate to go too much slower, as the vibrational frequency raises very quickly!" She could see me shaking. This and a few other exercises WORK for me. I am super sure that it was not luck I got turned onto Mike's path. It is meant to be. I am taking this to the sky BABY!

Ooops, I didn't have the right quote up. I think it was "embrace annihilation" I was referring to, hehe. To me that kind of means embrace the nothingness, hence embrace nihility, if that is even a word, lol. EDIT: I see the difference now, annihilation is a process and nihility would be the result of annihilation, I suppose I need to look it up and find out the true definition.

LET ME SAY! THANKS YA MU! You have helped me open UP all the way with these movemtents. I plan on purchasing gift of the Tao II. and Gift of the Tao I, as well. BELIVE ME the DVDs would be worth the modest price that Ya Mu offers them for. I am honored to have learned so much about myself trhu these movements. What a gift. COMMENTS I have found that circle walking after the energy center activations is greatly enhanced, its easy to lose a couple of hours. I told Mike in an email that I felt as if time stood still and he said that was one of his goals if I understood him correctly. Mike is a NUMBER ONE GUY! Sorry it took so long for me to post this. Been livin' in the NOT SO LINEAR world and loving it! Oh yeah, I done the thirteen elbow kundalini awakening form and BAM! During the first three whipping palms my tailbone popped! I will report back with more coherent info. Self infilcited sleep deprivation for some pineal gland fun is RAWKIN' this NITE.

Love that quote! Embrace nihility close to the same thing?

Love this song, great album.

I thought that I would realy an interesting story about black metal. Back in around 2003, I was training my short power and doing wing chun alot! At any rate I was doing no spiritual meditation or anything of the ilk. I have met, Ihsahn the vocalist for Emperor in my dreams. I never knew the correct phonetic pronunciation of his name until the first of the three dreams came. His name is pronounced, ISH AN, not the way it was spelled and I didn't know this. However in the dream I was in a forest calling for him phonetically like " EYE SHAN!" While I heard "ISHAN" repeated back to me form what looked to be the Carpathian Forest. Mayhem and Emperor are my two favorite BM bands.

I was discussing Baguazhang with a very talented (not sure if he is sifu, but most likely is) Fu Style practitioner. He advised me to NOT WASTE TIME ON BAGUAZANG, as of NOW. I told him the fact that I had no tai chi experience, but some xingyi and wing chun. He said that TAI CHI must be mastered b4 going on to bagua, or at least the 105 set Fu style. He said to begin with 24 posture. ...and that "grasping bird's tail" in Fu style tai chi was essential to understand baguazhang ON THE OTHER HAND, I have been looking at it like Sifu Matsuo said "One could practice tai chi, hsing I and pa kua or JUST PA KUA!" My sifu threw me right into the bagua. No push hands experience ala taiji, but sticky hands from wing chun. I am interested in any opinions. JAYSAHNZ TAO

[rambling thought pattern]At this point i would say heart, not the physiological one, but there brings up where does heart energy come from? ...and I am not sure. I have thought of spirit as "energy with an involuntary personality" not saying it is correct, though. If that even makes sense to anyone. Wonder where our spirit began? Each of us are the same yet unique. We all have DNA. Is DNA mortal? From my understanding, yes.[/rambling thought pattern] :wacko: