松永道

Yup, good goal. Martial arts are great for leg strength and flexibility. Internal martial arts will also cover the breathing, relaxing, and mental aspects of qigong. That's a great place to start. Then add body weight exercises, climbing trees, push-hands, and/or kettlebells (or sandbags if you can't get your hands on these) and you're pretty much set for a strong, healthy, energetic body. Add in sitting meditation and a proper diet and disease will never find you! Plus it's all fun.

You'll never look 16 again, but if you regularly practice, you will look younger. You may well however, accomplish the energy and ease of 16 again. Or, if you're like me, much better than 16 because you were in shit-shape at high school age. There are old grannies all over China who can throw their foot strait up over their head, they still look like grannies though, just happy, healthy, and with fewer wrinkles. I've also heard plenty of stories from retirees who have started sprouting black hair again after years of going gray. If you ask me, the real secret of youth comes down to one word: mobility. Joint mobility, will keep synovial fluid from stagnating. Breath mobility, deep, easy, will regulate the heart and get oxygen to all tissues. General athletic mobility pumps extra blood to the muscles and keeps the tendons relaxed. Brain mobility, learning new things, new languages, keep challenging yourself. Emotional mobility, keep yourself from stagnating, don't always just look at the bright side, get angry at the same things, etc, etc. The lists go on. Keep mobile in all aspects and age won't find a place to settle. Most any qigong exercise will help you with breath, body, and joint mobility. Just pick one you like the most and practice. There are differences but really, the biggest differences are between people, not systems. Don't get hung up on finding the best one.

Thanks, though aside from my high-school French that came out like clogs in a pipe when I started learning Chinese, I think I'll be out of luck with the French translation. No matter, the Chinese texts I have are good, it's only my personal experience that's lacking, but one thing I took from Kohn's review is maybe that's not a bad thing. Seems the strong point of Hussein's translation, in her opinion, was the relative lack of interpretation. Why rename the Hun dragon animus, the Po tiger anima? To do so limits them to the scope of another philosophical system. I really respect Yang Jwingming's style, he prints the original text, then translates it more or less directly, then he gives his analysis. Agree or disagree with his analysis, you still have the direct translation and original text to look to. Thanks for you support everyone, just doing what I can in service of Dao. If we all do what we can, maybe mother nature won't decide to call an end to the human experiment just yet!

Don't know him, but I've spent all my time in Xi'an apart from travels. It seems you're really sincere, that's good, it will get you through the language hurdle. I do think you're going about this the right way (of course, I'm bias, I've chosen the same), because in only a year or two you will be able to start reading the classics, in their original form, and realize that in it self is a form of cultivation. But choosing this way is also difficult, slow going, and though you may wind up with real skill you still won't have a diploma to show for it. As far as places to study go, I suggest you consider Chengdu in Sichuan Province. The city has a real feeling of culture, something fast disappearing in China. And from my impression, there are more tea houses per-capita in Chengdu than any place else in China. There are many masters there and the TCM University in Chengdu is one of the few places I've heard you can get a decent education (though I think you'd still be better off finding a sympathetic doctor to apprentice with). Where I to do it again, without my guanxi in Xi'an, I'd move to Chengdu - no question. The only problem is their putonghua is sucks! Actually the grammar structure of sichuanhua is still closely related to mandarin (not like some of the southern dialects), so you'll still get into the same thinking pattern, it's just their pronunciation is not so good. All ss, no sh. Of course, that's not really a big problem, you just might wind up with a sichuan accent.

I decided to Google translate a section: The first law Shouxin sit-in Practitioners of Gong practitioners to gain the upper hand, in a quiet room, transportation, housing, sitting, lying all along been intended, sit cross-legged take-safe, natural breathing, eyes closed, repentance. Request Shouxin turn a blind eye, on top of the tongue palate, who stressed that interest rates, quiet emptiness of God, separate five fingers, palms down, on his knees. Request to do with vision, setting rhyme ears, tongue seal gas, listen to the heart rate, breathing natural harmony for the four images. In order to the universe itself to the world as a heart and kidney, sit cross-legged mind when the request would like nothing, empty, empty million are forgotten, ignored without thinking, without listening to no consideration, no there will be no welcome, no there is no outside. Nerd alert: Has anyone seen the new Battlestar Galactica? This reminds of how the baseship cylons hybrids talk. Jumbled and cryptic but you can just barely discern the meaning underneath. This is the first step of the first level of Yin Xian Fa by-the-way.

The above posts have already pretty much covered my opinion and experience on mainland China but I will add a bit on TCM. The TCM taught in Chinese medical universities is almost certainly inferior to the quality you'll find in some western TCM schools. The teachers here are all "scientific materialists" which basically means they don't understand the essence of TCM or at the very least won't admit to it. They rarely even read the classics in their original form, preferring modern translations written by equally uninformed colleges. Every once in a while you'll find a good teacher, a real cultivation and medical master in a university but this is a very rare exception. That said, masters of genuine ability certainly exist on the mainland, though finding them isn't easy. Luckily, if you just find one, you'll soon find more. I like this point by Wudangquan: "...given the choice between those who ran, those who renounced, and those who stayed upright in the face of some pretty terrible things - I think I would personally prefer the latter." Indeed many masters fled but I think many of the best stayed behind. Sadly, though it's better that the past, even now it's still unwise to really come out of hiding. Still, Taiwan may be your best bet. Unless you have someone to connect you with the right folks on the mainland the initial step of finding the right folks can be daunting and can take a while. I imagine it's easier in Taiwan. But if you're not bent on studying in China, in Chinese, I know two good schools in the states. The National College of Natural Medicine and the World Medicine Institute. The first has a Classical Chinese Medicine program (as opposed to traditional Chinese medicine) which emphasizes the classics and personal cultivation via qigong. The second was founded by a Daoist medicine master and specifically trains students in Daoist TCM. Unless you plan on spending a long enough time in China to find medical master and become his/her apprentice you'll get a better education at either of the above schools. Plus you'll save a lot of time.

You could send your Yang Shen to meet him, correct?

I'm working on a translation of the Ling Bao Bi Fa levels of cultivation. Not finished yet but here is the gist of it: The main categories are broken down into Yin Xian Fa and Ling Bao Bi Fa. Yin Xian Fa is broken into Huan Yuan, Bu Lou, and Zhu Ji. Yin Xian Fa (引仙法) literally translates as Pulling Toward Immortality Methods. Huan Yuan (还原) means going back to the origin. This stage involves mostly correcting the posture, collecting the mind and regulating the breath. Bu Lou (补漏) means to fix the leaks. Zhu Ji (筑基) means to build the foundation. The goal of Yin Xian Fa is to Lian Shen She Qi (炼身摄气) or to practice the body and absorb and contain the Qi. Completing of this state leaves the body full of Qi, returning to the energy levels of a 14-16 year old. From this foundation the student begins the real practice of Ling Bao Bi Fa. Ling Bao Bi Fa (灵宝毕法) is broken down into Ren Xian Fa, Di Xian Fa, and Tian Xian Fa. Ren Xian Gong (人仙功) the Human Immortal Methods. This stage involves transforming Jing into Qi Di Xian Gong (地仙功) the Earthly Immortal Methods. This stage involves transforming Qi into Shen. Tian Xian Gong (天仙功) The Heavenly Immortal Methods. This stage involves returning Shen to the void. Accomplishing the Yin Xian Fa in itself is no small feat, but it's not hard, it just requires dedication. I know it's Yin Xian Fa methods that are being taught at WLP and Shen Laoshi's seminars. I also assume David S Versedi's Foundation Training is a method of Yin Xian Fa from the sounds of it. Incidentally, the marriage of Yin and Yang that DSV wrote about accomplishing a while ago and being the first westerner to ever do it is the first step of Ren Xian Gong

Sounds like the 'steak' they sell here in Xi'an. The genuine western article! In defense of western daoists though, they come from a societal belief system that labels you by what you believe. You don't need to be a priest to be a Christian nor an imam to be a Muslim. You don't even need to go to church, temple, or mosque. You just have to say it. That's it! That's all you have to do to identify with a belief system in the West. Why should you need to be ordained to call yourself a Daoist? The English word Daoist is not the translation for Daoshi, it should read Xin Dao. --- There are plenty of people who misrepresent themselves to make money. They'll say they are whatever sells. But this too is hardly a new phenomenon. In almost every city I've traveled through in China in most any park you can find a 'master' in funny clothes any morning of the week. And they all boast lineages going back to Zhang Sanfeng, Laozi, or even Huangdi. And most would say they're Daoist, Buddhist, Tibetan, pretty much what ever it took to crack open a western wallet. Lets not confuse the charlatans with the hobby Daoists, they are two entirely different breeds. --- If they're outside the tradition, how could they change it? To use your analogy; there are lots of people making pizza in the world. Some chefs make it well, some make it poorly. But I have yet to find a chef who makes pizza so poorly, so famously poorly, that he somehow makes even the good chef's pizza taste worse. They have no relation. Now sure some people, who've only eaten bad pizza may think pizza tastes terrible. They may think it's green, square, and soggy. But even so, where good pizza is made, people will eat it and they'll know it's good. And should there be a place in the world were the folks love green, square, soggy pizza then to them I say bon appetite! The way I see it, Chinese Daoism grew out of a few books and teachings then proceeded to mix with culture in every age that followed. In the west, Taoism again grows out of books and teachings, to mix with a different culture. Call it Western Daoism or Chinese Daoism - it's no matter, it's still all the Dao, or more accurately, none of it is.. 道可道非常道，名可名非常名...

Pretty shallow answer. I asked the question, "is there a reason for the slow road?" for you to think about, not toss off. There are many possible reasons: One, the practice involves first building the Jing rather than just amping the Qi. Jing, broadly defined as the physical body, transforms slowly. Two, traditional teachers may have feared fast energetic progress might out pace moral progress. Three, slower progress allows you to study the process of change. Four, easy come, easy go, quick results are often temporary. Five, historically, cultivation was high technology, test a student's loyalty before giving away the full teaching. Six, different practices progress at different speeds producing different results. Seven, going fast, should problems appear, they'll progress faster too. And so on and so forth. There are good reasons for fast and slow, don't assume someone is pissed because they disagree. Traditional wisdom deserves careful scrutiny. Engage your brain. Good insight.

YM, Thanks for presenting this article. However, I do disagree with the author's initial conclusion that there is no such distinction between Religious Daoism and Philosophical Daoism. I do not know when the distinction between religion, daojiao (道教), and philosophy, daojia (道家), first appeared in Chinese history. The author may be correct that it was the construction of late imperial confucist scholars. However, the practice of daojia has been a valid lifestyle for centuries though it may have been so thoroughly built in to traditional Chinese thought that it was beyond naming. I'll explain. Traditional Chinese disciplines almost all used the vocabulary of what we now call Philosophical Daoism. Yin, Yang, Xu, Shi, Wuxing, Bagua, etc (阴、阳、虚、实、五行、八卦、等) are all found in ancient science, medicine, martial arts, calligraphy, painting, and music. Where the practitioners of these arts all ordained Daoist priests? Of course not. And yet you have words like Yi Dao (医道) - the way of medicine; Wu Dao (武道) - the way of martial arts; Qin Dao (琴道) - the way of the zither, Dan Dao (丹道) - the way of internal cultivation. And householders could practice these Dao, they were not exclusive to Daoist priests. Practicing a form of Dao also did not grant one the title Daoshi (道士) nor Daoren (道人). But it seems the author does not recognize this as Daoism. For him, Daoism is a name. The Daoist of his imagination is a Daoshi, Perhaps an American today can indeed become "a Taoist." But if so, how and where can that really happen? Not, certainly, in an American bookstore, library, or classroom. I would say that if one travelled, for instance, to the Abbey of the White Clouds in Beijing, and underwent the spiritual training necessary to practice Taoism in the living tradition of "Complete Perfection," then a person of our society might be justified in claiming to "follow the Tao." And so to follow Dao one must know the rituals and be officially ordained. Poppycock! Americans would call my teacher a Daoist for he understands and continues to study the Daodejing, Nanhua Jing, Huangdi Neijing, uses the philosophy of Yin, Yang, Wuxing, Bagua in the practice of TCM, Taijiquan, and Neigong. But he is not what Chinese call a Daoist. He does not live in a monastery nor wear the robes, though he does know many of the rituals. He follows Yi Dao, Wu Dao, and Dan Dao, and though his master was also not a Daoist, his tomb stone is in the Daoguan on Huashan. In reality, people who follow Dao are not always called Daoists, and not every Daoist really follows Dao. And on this point I'd say the author is just as confused as his audience. --- But aside from arguing the historical accuracy of American Taoism, I think this article points to another important phenomenon that happens when religions move out of their original cultural context into a new one. We've seen it happen with Buddhism in China, Tibet and Japan, Christianity in Africa and the Americas, and now Buddhism and Taoism in the west. In each of the above cases the prior belief systems and new religious belief system combine like mother and father to create and offspring that carries features of both but is also something new entirely. You could says it's the evolution of belief. Old ideas are reexamined from the bottom up, shaken up, reorganized, and ultimately rewritten. And this is how they stay alive and thrive into a new era. It's not only impossible for an American to follow the tenets of Ming Dynasty Daoism but an idiotic suggestion. Yes, I think it's important to have a correct understanding of religious history - so you know how to re-interpret it into modernity. The American Dao is not the Han Dynasty Dao, Tang Dynasty Dao, or Ming Dynasty Dao. It is new and it's supposed to be. And as it matures it will look back and continue to re-imagine Gehong, Wei Boyang, Lu Dongbin, and Wang Chongyang along with Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Liezi just as it always has throughout Chinese history. That's the nature of change.

Tao Te Ching Chapter One The Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of the ten thousand things. Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one sees the manifestations. These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gate to all mystery.

The old wisdom on the subject is: Fast at the beginning, slow in the end. Slow at the beginning, fast in the end. You think over the course of human history people are just now figuring out yoga/qigong/meditation training can be done faster? Or are there good reasons why every tradition, hermetic, yogic, and daoist all advocate a slower road? Either they're still around 'cause they have succeeded or still around 'cause they haven't.

The fizards get out competed on land and in the water. In many ways, nature favors the specialists. It's not strange that the missing links aren't around any more, the strange part is that it happened so fast. As Qi research progresses I think we'll find that natural selection is not just some random roll of the dice. Chemical processes in the body take place thousands of times faster than they do outside the body in the exact same conditions. There's something that guides the process, that brings things together. And I think we'll find this same force also guides the process of gamete DNA selection.

When I first began sincerely practicing qigong and meditation, my body and mind changed. Bound emotions began to flow then transform back into free-flowing potential. Chronic illnesses and allergies disappeared along with their binding emotions. I knew, this technology could save the world. But people didn't listen. I told them what it had done for me. It had set me free! But who actually heard me? The more I pushed my belief on friends, family, and even strangers, the more I pushed them away. Was it because they were beyond redemption? Eventually I stopped trying to save them. Their ears were closed. So I carried on with my life and practice. Months past. Then a strange thing happened. One day I was out with my Dad in Hood River. There's a set of stairs there that stretches from the town up into the high hills. It was a nice day so we decided to go up for a better view. The air was fresh and I felt like I was the breeze in one breath going up the mountain side. When I got to the top, I had hardly realized I left my father far far behind. Later than day over dinner he said, "you know, I saw you going up the hill today, it was like you were flying, is that from qigong?" "It must be." "Do you think I could learn at my age?" And that was that. He was interested. And genuine learning is born of interest. So now I simply life my life, practicing, improving, and friend by friend ask me what I do. Once they ask, I tell them and should they want to learn, I teach them. And sure enough my family, most friends and even grandmother today practice yoga, qigong, and/or meditation... I guess the whole point I'm getting at is Li Jiong is right, you can't save everybody. In fact, you can't save anybody. Everyone has to save themselves. And should a person seek to be saved - I say that right there makes them savable. You often say, "I would give, but only to the deserving." The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish. Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights, is worthy of all else from you. And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream. And what desert greater shall there be, than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving? And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed? See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving. For in truth it is life that gives unto life while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness. --Khalil Gibran

Dantian (丹田) Dan (丹) means elixir, Tian (田) means field. The elixir resides at the field's center. Chakra means spinning wheel. Draw three circles on top of one another, connecting at their boarders. These are the three fields. O - upper O - middle O - lower Place a dot in the center of each circle. These are the three elixiers. Draw a line down the center through the circles and the dots. There are seven areas the line intersects a circle or dot. These are the seven chakras. Chakras 7 and 1, face up and down to interact with Cosmic Qi and Earth Qi respectively. The other chakras face forwards and backwards. Everyone has the three fields and the seven chakras. Cultivation creates the elixirs and makes the chakras and fields bigger and healthier (bigger here means mostly how far they extend from the body).

If these boards were equipped with graffiti so I　could draw pictures it would be much clearer.

The word in Chinese for laziness is lan (懒) or lansan (懒散). Lan means lazily or slowly. San means to disperse or scatter. From a TCM point of view, some people need more dispersing, but indeed, some need more collecting. Dispersing and relaxing is the characteristic if xin (心) the Heart Organ Network; condensing and holding, the Kidney Network (肾). The Heart stores the Spirit (心藏神); Kidney stores the Will (肾藏志). The Heart's emotion is Joy or pleasure; the Kidney's, fear. In terms of the five elements, Water, the Kidney, restrains Fire, the Heart. Heart creates Earth (the earth network governs thinking), Earth restrains Water. When Water inadequately restrains Fire, Fire creates too much Earth, which in turn excessively retrains Water. In emotional terms, too much pleasure and thinking reduces the Will and the lazy Will indulges in too much pleasure and thinking. It's a vicious cycle. Strengthen your Will. You feel good to at work because it collects you. You contain your qi from dispersing. But, for now, you need to really push the Will to start working. A strong will restricts your indulgence in pleasurable activities. Pleasurable activities refer to any type of addiction. TV, sweets, drugs, sex, shopping, games, any type of pleasure seeking behavior. Restrict these and your thinking will naturally be less agitated. Meditation strongly tonifies the Kidneys and Will, in part because it quiets and collects your thinking. The necessary attitude shift: working sucks. It's not pleasurable. It's not supposed to be. But you gotta do it. It literally sucks. Why literally? Because it sucks your qi and Will back in. Too much thinking before a task will sap the Will. Do the required mental planning then without hesitation kick your own ass into motion. P.S. The laziness the other posts refer to, I call outward laziness. What I'm talking about is inward laziness. The best Taiji players look outwardly very relaxed, but inwardly their Will is incredibly engaged. Should other people call you lazy, but you are exercising your Will, this is not laziness. This is a socially constructed misconception. P.P.S. I wrote this but didn't include it because it broke the flow. (... out of fear of the future, not having enough, being poor, etc, most of the previous generation works very hard. Though this was mainly bred into them by their parents who suffered WWII, the Great Depression, and other hardships. And as you go further into the past, you generally find more fear/working hard and less pleasure/laziness. The latest generation were born sons and daughters of affluence - free and encouraged to follow their hearts. Entertainment has reached perhaps it's highest level in all of human history. Information is too abundant. And we've had little to fear. Indeed, most kids these days feel entitled to an easy, affluent life without having to work for it. In short, we've over corrected for the previous generations' deficits. The Greatest Generation was too tight, too Will driven. The current generation is too scattered, too pleasure driven...)

Thanks commenting Lin, Admittedly, the Daoists like to show the Buddhists in bad light and vice-versa. Luckily both sides cultivate respect enough that it's never come to much more than a philosophical disagreement. S.N.Goenka, by the way, is a world teacher of Vipassana meditation. Heart of gold. But not the model of health. Admittedly, from my own experience, I've seen about the same number of fat and thin Buddhists and Daoists - though the fast majority don't cultivate. But a good number of internal martial artists tend to be plump. I think when you learn to use less and less force, the body inclines towards fat or thin based on genetics and diet. I have never seen a fat cultivator of Yang Shen Dao, but then I haven't met more than a dozen, so the sample is too small to call. I think we can agree Buddhists emphasize the heart, xin gong, and Daoists emphasize the vitality, ming gong. But of course, the emphasis of one need not and should not exclude the other. My experience with Vipassana did wonders for my personality and emotion. In Chinese medical terms, there are really only two fundamental disharmonies of the body. One is deficiency, the other, stagnation. The doctor reduces stagnation, brings it back into circulation, and tonifies deficiency - usually in that order but not always. To me, xin gong reduces. The main cause of stagnation is from thoughts and emotions (though also from external injury). To reduce stagnation, Vipassana, the only Buddhist meditation I'm familiar with, uses equanimity. Observe equanimously, that is without craving or aversion, and flow will naturally arise. However, intense reduction can leave a person deficient - and this was also my experience with Vipassana. Ming gong tonifies. But the process can exacerbate stagnations you might have. Also having more energy on hand, one need be more mindful with their emotional life so as not to cause any new stagnations. On the upside, tonification can make a stagnation more obvious so as can easily reduce it. What do you think Lin? And may I ask, can you explain your perception of Yin Shen, Yang Shen, Yuan Shen, and Shi Shen?

Living in accordance with Dao is not entertaining. But, 'not entertaining' is not boring. Boredom is a dull, craving mind. It's the hangover you get from too much entertainment.

I would imagine if you had both acquired enough Jing and repaired your leaks, breatharianism could then be a possibility. I worked evenings one summer and spend the afternoons stretching, meditating and reading in the park. Generally in direct sun for hours on end. The odd thing was, I never burned and never really got tan. In the process of stretching, I would just tune my mind, body, and breath all on the same wavelength and let the process work. Tension would disappear. When I started stretching in the sun, at first the sun was hot, but again, just tuning my mind and breathing into it, the heat dissipated. With my eyes closed I felt like my body was translucent. Stretching, only the small area of tension had form, and the sun shined right on it, melting it away like ice. It was important to drink plenty of water and eat very little food to make things work right. Though I did some times crave green vegetables and ate them in due course. My body felt light, strong, warm, and clean and continued to after the summer ended and I no longer had time to stretch.. right up until thanksgiving, when I got drunk on red wine and proceeded to gorge myself like a prize pig. There's a short sentence from the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic: 逆于生乐 From going against dao, we derive entertainment. --------- Have you tried squat pooping? Might turn you around on the issue.