spiraltao

@-K- The only answer was "bad things might happen", I did not ask him myself. When you say work on lower level things before higher level are you referring to refining the three dan tians from the lower up? Sorry for such basic questions, I am learning every time I come here. @Scotty I wasn't familiar with the vocabulary, thanks. @Friend-I have never learned a set number of reps, just the visualization aspect. Today I talked to another fellow Ng student and he said that this exercise was Tibetan in origin! Interesting. The way that we learned to meditate sitting down was Tibetan as well, I am sure because during sifu Christopher Matsuo's Tibetan Tea Ceremony live broadcast, he described exactly how we were first taught to meditate, tibetan bon, if I recall correctly. Did Crowley practice Qigong?

yeppers Zerostao is correct. i do ha ve a query on a breathing exercise (kundalini, i'm told that was taught to me by my sifu and it came from Hui Wing Lok Ng my great grand master. All right one can perform the exercise either sitting or standing. One steadies the breath until it is stilled and prepared for a long breath. A mudra is formed with the right hand with the ring finger crossed over the pinky finger. Next place this right hand onto the nose so that the thumb flattens closes the the right nostril, the index finger is placed on the third eye ( between the eyebrows). Now, slowly, inhale. Visualize golden light being inhaled and guide it down teh sun and moon channels following the serpents all the way back down with one serpents head resting on the heart chakra nd the other serpent's head resting on the crown chakra. Now after the breath has been guided thru the channels completely hold the breath while switching nostrils to opening the right one up and closing the left one with your "mudra hand". Now on the exhale, make it slow, slow, slow and visualize blackness exhaling out of your nostril into a ball in frot of you. With each breath the blackness on the exhale should be visualized less black on every exhale until the blackness is gone! Master Ng said if one inhaled thru the crown he would need to be there to tweak it. Dr. Hui Ng and my sifu call it a cleansing exercise. Just wondering if this sounds correct and if anyone else has any experience with it? THANKS FELLOW BUMZ

To avoid confusion I thought i was posting in response to the previous page, my mistake.

Hmmm, I must vehemently disagree that martial arts are NOT effective in a street fight. However, one most have the techniques down so well that they are reflex, this is the reptile brain, no? Have u all not been training correctly in regards to the combat elements of baguazhang or wing chun for that matter. I know a wing chun guy that has it mastered and is a couple of years younger than me. He made a guy KO thru a bullet proof vest, with thrusting finger strike. I have seen him end fights with one strike to ST 5. I have even fought an amatuer boxer myself, when I was in high school, the guy was 30! ...and he was the real deal. ...however I used my head and grabbed his waist and slammed him on the pavement until concussion stopped the fight. In my opinion if one can't use the martial arts to fight, then they need to open there eyes. No system is perfect. It's about the person and how hard they train. Remember it takes one thousand kicks in the kwoon to equal one good one on the streets. Our art has and always will be street tested and proven. I feel sorry for those of you who are missing out on the awesome combat side of martial arts. I assume this could have alot to do with the teacher not knowing the fighting applications.

Hello, I have been quite the avid lucid dreamer for about 18 years now. I keep a dream journal. I was just wondering if any other tao bums here that have experienced a dream only to see it come to fruition in real life? Just interested in pretty much any input, personal experience or anything of that ilk. I put this here because i am new here and don't want to waste space in the main forums.

Zerostao is a fellow KY baguazhang player. Through him i have gotten to learn many training methods and techniques. While i have only got to watch a heart of bagua and the VP that Zerostao shared with me. I have absolutely no problem with low volume audio! His information is PRICELESS. Some mastes simply won't ever reveal it! I learned thru heart of bagua that the dragon posture is the trinity stance on circle. Zerostao showed me the iron shirt qigong and the red lightning forms. These two forms have produced more visible results than any form i ahve ever learned! Thank goodness for Lao Xie and Sifu Ray. Both of them have taken time to clarify some points that I wasn't clear on. Ray offers Skype classes. All credit goes to Zerostao for turning me on to the Dragon Gate teachings. The application are very doable, if one has a clue about the combat side of baguazhang. It must be applied nearly nose to nose for maxium effectiveness, reminded me of Wing Chun in that way. So bless Dragon Gate Sanctuary and may they prosper. I am hoping to get the three in oen dvd special, if all goes as planned.

I suppose my question is a pretty simple and direct one. I just hope that I posted in the correct forum. Here in southern KY the weather has been very very hot. Heat index near one hundred F at night. My point being is that I have noticed my sweating patterns. If I do my baguazhang, the combat side, which I suppose is more yang than the dancing play of the form, my sweating is different than if I do pure qigong. My bagua sweating starts very quickly and it seems to just bead and collect. My qigong sweat seems to be thinner and seems to increase when I seal my energy after i am done. This sweat is very thin and runs down my brow and soaks my entire body. :ph34r: Can anyone give me any insight on this? Is my qigong too yin or bagwa too yang? ...or is this as things should be? Also, how important is wiping off the sweat one accumulates after qigong? How long is too long to leave it on? Does it matter?

in my school fa jin is defined as the release of trained energy. here is a youtube vid that illustrates what I call fa jin!

my bad, Mal:blush: thanks

I am trying this exercise for the first time tonight. I gotta hand it to Zeros, he shared the "standing wave" with me and I have yet to find a qigong that opens up the joints and puts one's mind on a higher frequency at the same time. However, I am very new to this. It is very inspiring to read about already successful qigong daoist style, you know? I found that "whipping" out the eight mother palms while walking the circle makes me really feel the burn of the tendons growing and the tendon sheath lubricating. Doing the palms static while on the balls of my feet seems to produce nearly the same effect. It becomes very fun! I hope this is on topic enough.

I have owned Master Lam's book Chi Kung-The Way of Power for nearly a year now. I posted a bit on the "wall of fire" exercise. I highly recommend this book, as it is very affordable and Master Lam leads you from the beginning stages to more advanced stages. Thanks for the youtube link!

:excl: :excl: :excl: This really stirkes a chord with me, zerostao! I had a few years of really nihilistic type living. This was very counterproductive to my whole life, though at the time, for some strange reason I thought it was OK. Bottom line for me in regards to nihilism it is extremely counterproductive to most any positive influence. That was just my case, though. Zerostao, I am of your debt for many years to come for simply suggesting this site! I have really learned about a daoism and have become quite confused with some of these topics. ...but a journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step. ...since I have began seeking my dao (is this the correct way to put it, cuz that is the best way I know how to describe it), I do see how the baby step method is the ONLY way to tackle it with a real understanding and to get the most benefits! Same with baguazhang! What I was getting at is that even though some of these accomplishments are baby steps, I seem to reap benefits ten fold, ya know? At any rate I will end this ramble.

IMO, nose breathing would be the best. I try to always breathe through the nose. Usually if I get winded I will find I have been breathing through my mouth! Nose breathing is a yin technique, but at any rate, I prefer it!

Great comparision! I can identify with your taste, marblehead. I am not a big listener of Trower, but I do happen to own Birds of Fire, great album.

Here is a staple among my aural pleasures. His band, The Deli Creeps- Obviously his image is not meant to be taken seriously. He was born in a coop and raised in a cage, heh.(aka Brian Carrol) Buckethead had his own monthly column in guitar player magazine at the age of 16. I have been listening to Buckethead, Praxis, Deli Creeps, Death Cube K, for eighteen years and he still has a great sound. This guy can play, whats in a name anyway? lol Now, Paul... U

Jum back when i training W_C exclusively, I had a regime. I need to get back into it. It was a basic Army workout (at least that is what I called it). It involved with four sets of forty pushups, of course it's best to start with eight or ten reps of three sets. I was an avid weight lifter before this, but I found better toning thru THREE MAIN exercises! Jumping rope, rolling up a boat anchor tied to a string(a weight can be subbed for this) and tiger pushups with the tiger claw. DO NOT do the tiger push ups on the tip of the finger, use the pad. I forgot the other most important(i do this and a few others every day) which I have found now to be a baguazhang/hsing yi/ related chi kung. It is merely rotating the waist to sling the arms and allow for light tapping on the kidneys, I alternate that with knocking on the gates of life.

I agree! I still don't really understand the meaning of the word mandala, but in the same thought I must say that I can feel them when I look on DGS page. A great idea, IMO. Really captures the beauty of baguazhang in a contempary fashion, but yields a timeless result. ...or something like that, they are works of beauty for sure!

Can I get a personal training log. I feel it would greatly enrich my practice and give me a great reference. I love this place, I thank zerostao so much for telling me about it and I find the moderation to be friendly here! Thanks /J

MY THOUGHTS AS WELL! My opine is that the man has been dead for years. Regardless, he is a symbol for terrorism here in the US. I thought it was kind of odd that this happens during the president's all time low popularity. ...but that is just my two cents.

Many thanks! Speedy, the mods are!

thanks! I look forward to any input. I will update in the morning if I do indeed dream. In the past I gained weightlessness/short periods of soaring in the clouds and the view is absolutely magnificent. I can see a city underneath, the funny thing is the city is never set in the same chronological time period. Also quite often I jump over large bodies of water. Then there is the talking cat fish who is often harsh, but offers advice that applies in the real world. Just a few thoughts...

Oddly (or not) enough I was shaken awake by a family member who told me that I was screaming in my sleep. Whew. I can remember what I was dreaming. In my dream I was trying to shout, but was unable to scream loud enough to warn my father of impending danger. Might sound silly, but was very real. So obviously that dream was not quite lucid as I could not do as I wished inside that world.

no, I have never got to witness any visitors.

good point and i think you make a great point there. u see grand master is/was a "forest demon" (although, we know are human) so the lineage thing makes even more sense in regards to ggm lineage. his engilsh was never so great anyway. so what we mean by "demon" might not be what ggm thought the same word meant. did that make sense? i like the idea of using the "demon" for our benefit.

Hello fellow tao bums! I am looking forward to enjoying and participating in the discussions here! I have been interested in martial arts since age 9. I began training at age 10 with Ng family five animals. I stayed with this long enough to get some basic wing chun. While both systems served me well and I found benefits from each, I find baguazhang and qigong to be nothing short of profound! I have only a year of baguazhang trainging in so far and I will admit I am a clumsy learner, but therein lies a beauty known to us slow learners, lol. The beauty of "journey along the way" is what I would call it. I want to thank a fellow kung fu brother for directing me here. I am very excited to see what the tao bums are all about. Jason