松永道

Started in early 20's - now I'm in my fourth cycle!

Year of the Rat baby...

I started at 24 and indeed complained about being a Johnny-come-lately. Then one day, I mentioned that to a 60 year old woman in my Bagua class and she laughed. "24! I started when I was in my 50s! You've got plenty of time..." Yea. I do.

Martial arts aside, most traditional cultures don't teach cultivation too young. They wait until you've grown up a bit, have a career, a family... I think there's a real reason to it. So many people who start young, start for the wrong reasons. They don't want and/or can't compete in the world, so they turn to spiritual things. A lot pf people see non-attachment as an end goal but there are two ways to get there: detachment or transcendence. I think that's a potential danger of starting too young, how can you transcend something you've never experienced? How can a 15 year old monk transcend sexual desire? How can you transcend material prosperity when you've never had it? This is why so many monks practice for years and achieve nothing! Talk about going against the natural current.

In China and India (I don't know about other cultures) the vast majority of sages came from wealthy families. Buddha was a prince. He had everything. Wealth, women, power, he lacked nothing. Nothing except real spiritual fulfillment. He had all those things and so knew fulfillment wasn't found in any of them.

I'm not saying the only way to transcend something is to have it in ridiculous abundance, you don't have to sleep with thousands of women, make a million bucks, or become governor. But you have to manifest these things, stability, prosperity, worthiness, confidence, in some way before moving on. Otherwise, it's just quiting, detaching from life before it starts.

Hmmm.

Quite a rant, wonder where that came from..

The body is really a beautiful canvas; exercise, an abundant pallet.

One of my favorite things about this near and dear work of art of ours is that we can do so many things with it. Everyone can create and shape their own expression. Fast and wiry, big and strong, slow and fat, thin and weak.. our choices, our attitudes define our bodies, and our bodies reinforce those behaviors.

精能生神，神能驭精

"Jing births Shen, Shen drives Jing"

"Body gives birth to Consciousness, Consciousness controls the body"

An abundantly healthy body can properly house the spirit. Anything else we do with our bodies may as well be chalked up to artistic license.

I just want to know what you all think of this book for somebody with a pretty screwed up energy body.

Dude, less is more... but no-one gets that at first so don't sweat it. The very first move, standing, in your taiji form can fix your energy flow if you put the time into it.

If you need a sitting form and your taiji teacher is unwilling or unable to teach, I'd recommend a vipassana retreat. SN Goenka's are good, free, and will take you from zero to meditator in 10 days.

Less is more, more is less

Slow is fast, fast is slow

Nothing to worry about, you've already started.

Thanks! I do have some dampness, but I think if it got significantly worse because of the pills I would notice... and it's never a problem in the ridiculously dry desert summer heat... I've had deficient blood/yin for as long as I can remember, and I've used tonics for short periods of time, cooking with astragulas, rhemmania and...what was the other one, I forget...

Who gave you the deficient blood/yin diagnosis? Switching to an all raw/vegan diet is significantly cooler than a meat/cooked foods diet. Hair loss is a symptom of cold, yang deficiency. Vegan/raw diets will exacerbate problems for essence deficient/yang deficient/spleen deficient persons.

Blood deficiency is a general cause of premature graying hair. If the deficiency is due to deficient Jing essence, particularly of the kidney and liver (with symptoms like ringing ears, copious night urination, lower back discomfort, etc), then it's a bad idea to go vegan/raw. If the deficiency is due to deficient nourishing blood, often due to excessive thinking/anxiety/stress and resulting in heat symptoms such as insomnia and very dream-full sleep, then I think vegan/raw diet would be ok.

Randy Choy on Gregory Fong's site

 

there are 20 articles in the series, covering everything from intelligent training to the eight han dynasty exercises to training in eight footwork boxing.

what do you think?

Nice. Very nice. He seems like an good and honest teacher.

 

I agree with you somewhat. In fact considering what I know of Song...'s training and his access to instruction in China with a Master I am somewhat puzzled as to why he is feeling the need to seek out supplemental training to what is already there. But so he is.

 

Admittedly, I have all the access I need. Maybe I'm a fool, I should just practice what I've learned. However, I'm not training in the traditional way, the world just won't allow it. One of the problems with tradition is that it was designed in and for a different time.

I want to be true to the Dao, hold on to yin and embrace yang. That means holding on to tradition but also staying open to other things. What tradition really preserves is a way of thinking. Like with Chinese medicine, you can change the treatments, drugs, new tools, machines, but you need to hold on to that way of thinking, the traditional logic for synthesizing patterns. That's the core. Acupuncture, herbs, and massage are just the branches. Tradition, if it's really alive, needs to evolve and adapt along with us.

My learning style here is not just to come with only questions but to also at least attempt my own solution. So far, so good.

Are your pupils dilated?

Chinese medicine has a few reasons for dilated pupils, the only one of which might pertain to you is called an upward disturbance of Hun. Hun is basically the spiritual drive, diametric to Po, the earthly drive. Liver is the home of Hun, and strong liver qi manifests as bright, clear eyes. Not just bright and clear looking, but bright and clear seeing. Now if your pupils are dilated, that means the liver qi is burning beyond its means (think mushrooms, LSD, and other eye dilating, spirit activating drugs). If your pupils aren't dilated that means your liver qi is strong but still kept in check by the Po.

If your eyes aren't dilated then bright colors is a good sign of progress.

Interesting. Looks like 五行 (wuxing) to me.

"The original Taiji is very meaningful, now, I can just tell you the name of each part, the black area we call it 'Hun', the red area we call it 'Dun', the white area we call it 'Hong', the blue area we call it 'Meng', the center area we call it 'Ling'."

Could you please give the Chinese characters for these names?

Would they happen to be:

Hun 浑

Dun　沌

Hong　鸿

Meng　蒙

Ling　灵 or 零

I'm looking forward to practicing t'ai chi for the rest of my life 'till death do me and my body apart until birth again. (my goal is not transcendence, this is a beautiful and diverse plane that needs the help of aware people like all of us)

 

Is there a good resource to learn turtle qigong or another longevity practice without a teacher?

 

how long have you practiced t'ai chi, any comments?

 

and anyone know of a good naturopathic doctor or psychologist that does energy work in the Portland Oregon area?

Easy to find in Portland. I know they taught Turtle qigong at OCOM (Oregon College of Oriental Medicine). And NCNM (National College of Natural Medicine) produces top class NDs some of whom are very savy with qigong and other energy work.

NCNM has a clinic down in SW. I think 1st ave. Best go ask around there.

Ahh Portland... how I miss thee..

Does anyone know how to translate chinese text into english very well or good enough to read?

 

I have a chinese qi kung book i want translated there is 55 pages but desparetley wanted to read it!

 

Anyone that has time to help translate it would greatly appreciated, PM if you would be interested to do it!

 

WYG

How many characters per page? Is it in classical chinese or contemporary? Traditional characters or simplified?

Hi,

 

I purchased an Enso clock, the thing was great until the sound stopped working in the first few days!

 

I ask here because I assume a lot of you guys use timers for practice....

 

Does anyone know of any mobile phones that has a timer function that has a custom alarm sound? Like use a singing bowl chime as the "alarm".

 

Cheers,

Janus

There is a piece of software for palm devices called Pocket Doan. It's a very good custom timer. Choose your own chime sounds, time durations, etc. And it's free. Windows mobile devices also can run a palm software emulator.

Smart phones are pricey though.

anyone ever heard of this guy?

 

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=yogameditation

 

what do you think of him?

Wow, I think almost everyone here has more ability than this guy.

However, unlike almost everyone here, he's aching to be a cult leader.

My beliefs on internal vs. external training aside, the best overall body workout I have found are the Combat Conditioning exercises offered by Matt Furey. The Hindu squats, Hindu push-ups and back-bridges will improve your core/body strength as well as your flexibility beyond belief. If a person gives just those 3 exercises a total of 25 minutes a day, he will be amazed. And the beauty of those exercises is that you no equipment other than your own body.

Awesome thanks, I'll give them a try!

 

 

Can you describe more fully what is the hard style qigong? How about describing the meditation practice?

 

Craig

Hey Craig, how have you been?

The hard qigong stuff is part of the Taijiquan. In part, it's muscle-tendon changing through the Taiji form instead of doing a separate Yi Jin Jing form. However, this practice is "without form", and should be practiced in addition to "with form" practice. The "with form" practices involve walls, sandbags, or best of all, another person. Push hands is the number one "with form" practice for building the body (practice soft to build listening ability etc or practice hard to build muscle). I should be practicing push hands for an hour a day but the Doctor and his senior student are both too busy with running the clinic, especially with the approaching Olympic madness.

So until I find some good push hands partners, bodyweight exercise seems like a good runner up. If I could find kettle bells out here I might give them a try.

The sitting practice is either neidan (the one Dr. Xi taught at Louguantai with some additions) or wu-wei depending on the time of day. Noontime, bright, yang, and hot, is great for a siesta wu-wei meditation.

I'm very happy with my taiji training, generally practice through the form for at least an hour a day. Soon I'll have some people to play push-hands with and this will help with the muscle building aspect immensely.

I ask about more muscular training because I have never trained an external martial art and I feel my progress in Taijiquan is hindered because of that. Practicing the form soft, even for a life time, may give health benefits but it will not result in martial power.

Taiji means the supreme extremes. That is yin and yang.

A muscle must not know only how to relax, but also how to contract,

A mind must not only know open no-thought, but also focused concentration

Power lies between the extremes. Moving between the extremes.

Daodejing 36 speaks of this nature:

That which shrinks

Must first expand.

That which fails

Must first be strong.

That which is cast down

Must first be raised.

Before receiving

There must be giving.

This is called perception of the nature of things.

Soft and weak overcome hard and strong.

The baby boy begins life soft, a soft mind without words, a soft body without power

And to become man be turns hard, shapes his ego, uses action, achieves by will

Then the sage returns to soft, non-action, and completes the circle.

Shen descends into qi, qi coagulates into jing

Jing transforms into qi, qi transforms into shen

After some honesty with myself, I find my Jing is still insufficient to fuel my journey back to Shen. In other words, I have yet to transform from boy into man, let alone man into sage. Why not revel in the beauty of form and names before returning to the void!

But enough philosophy!

Xuesheng, thank you very much for your average training schedule. I know everyone needs to make their own but seeing how other people practice helps a lot. I like your structure: meditation, opening the body with qigong, strengthening, form work, then sealing it in. Good logic. May I ask what your strength exercises involve? Are they muscle contraction calisthenics or do you practice with some sort of object?

Thank you everyone, I see no hi-jacking, ranting or unfriendliness.

三人同行，必有我师焉！

It's summer, late summer, but still summer. The days are getting shorter but there's still plenty of yang to go around. It's a good time to build body strength, flexibility, and practice outside with the rising and setting sun (maybe more).

But what's the best way?

I am looking to structure a training schedule that incorporates Taijiquan, qigong, meditation, and bodyweight exercise. My goal is to improve overall flexibility, posture, and strength. And I'd really like to get closer to being able to do the splits (I'm absolutely terrible at the side splits)!

Time: According to The Yellow Emperor's Classic, 5-7am and pm are good times for exercise. 11-1 noon and midnight are best for meditation. Now I interpret this as roughly sunrise and sunset are workout times. You can enjoy the outdoors, the sun light, but you won't get burned (externally or internally)

Structure: I've heard many fitness gurus say life weights first, then do cardio. I've heard at Shaolin, the students generally start with calisthenics, then do form work. This would lead me to believe one should start with the hard stuff - body weight exercise, hard qigong, etc - for the first hour or so then switch to soft stuff - Taijiquan form, qigong - for the next hour or more. It seems to me morning should be harder on the muscles and evening should be more internally focused. What do you think?

How do you train?

I'd say drugs are like a loan;

A boon you'll have to pay back.

To simply take them and waste them

will bring you into big time debt.

But to really use them as a teacher, helper, opener, expander,

these are investments.

Cannabis, alcohol, caffeine are all small loans,

LSD, mushrooms, ecstasy, are big big ones.

Use them frivolously and go into deep debt

or use them purposely, mindfully,

and you could end up in the black.

Could. In the end they are still a gamble.

I apologize for the limited appeal of this post. But...

I you can read some Chinese, check out Quanxue

It has a ton of Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, and Medical classics as well as poetry, history, and stuff by Nan Huai-Jing (Bill Bodri's master). Many of the texts, like the Daodejing, are presented in their most original (earliest existent) text. The Daoist section alone is great: Laozi, Zhuangzi, Lu Dongbin... great stuff.

Can you explain this a bit further? If I watch my breath, nothing seems to happen. It's just inhalation and exhalation, so am not sure what you mean by 'origin.'

Watching the body breath is truly amazing.

Here's an idea. Take no control at all, let the breath do as it will. Loose any presumptions, that the breath must be long, slow, deep, and thin.. these will naturally arise. First your breath may become shallower. Shallower and shallower, until it stops. Then a new breath emerges. Like being in the womb again.

Wuwei, non-action, will take you all the way if you let it. No forcing. No thought. Just observe what happens naturally.

That's one way to do things anyway.

...Like I had encountered a lost friend that could help show me something I have been looking for...

This is a true phenomenon and if it's really true for this situation then no doubt he noticed it too. Why not ask Chen about paying the money back later? Put your 缘分 (yuanfen : affinity) to the test.

Lin,

This may be a testament to my attachment to material things but... Who is your tailor out in Anhui? I can't help but notice your classy, classical, comfortable looking duds.

Anyway, sorry (in a selfish way) to here your time in China will be coming to an end soon. I guess we won't get a chance to meet this time around. Though should you come through Xi'an on your way out be sure to drop me a line. Your school sounds wonderful, I wish you success (also in a selfish way, after all, I want to live in a better world).

Peace,

祝你一路平安啊！

 

The biggest trick has always been to convince people they are free when they are in fact enslaved!

 

Good rule of thumb, so which people think they are the most free of all? I believe it's America that has perfected this trick to a new and frightening degree. Control in China seems primitive in comparison.

Chinese people do have a more collective society, but it revolves around family. Families are still and have always been China's social security network.

As for the Dao, yielding to natural law is far different from submitting to the fabricated laws of Man.

Dirty Secrets

Don't listen to the bed-making gestapo!

There's nothing natural about rectangles and flat sheets. Expose those beautiful rolling folds of your rumpled quilt to the light of day! Should your bed reflect your person, be like the hills, ravines, and valleys. This is a landscape that breaths. Texture and dimension.

Who should want to fashion themselves as a flat, bacteria haven?

(By the way, I believe in "zen neatness", dusting, putting things in their places. But there's nothing zen about strict tidiness. The world's scariest people are neat-freaks.)

I see "Backwater" is perhaps an inappropriately charged word but this is the historical view that China and India held towards Tibet. Into the 6th and 7th century Tibet had yet to develop a written language. It still used primitive agriculture techniques and had relatively poor medical knowledge. It's was (and still is) a hard life, limited population, and allows less time for other pursuits above surviving. Compare this to China's and India's huge developed civilizations at the time.

I'm not saying "uncivilized" is bad, only that little cultures are heavily influenced by big cultures, rarely the other way around. Though any exchange will influence both cultures in some way.

Pre-language Bon was a local oral tradition. How can you date an oral tradition? Every culture on earth had/has an oral tradition. And you may as well say every oral tradition dates back to the dawn of man. Oral traditions are living things, always changing, interacting, and diverging. Only writing has the power to carve culture dead into a stone tablet.

Can you teach me how you scan?

Can someone start a topic on scanning? What it is, how to learn, etc. Apparently I've been doing it to people without intending or being away of it for some time. At an NQA conference one of the presenters called me out on it.

"You just scanned me."

"I just what?"

I don't want to be doing this to just anyone and everyone if its so invasive. I figure the best way would be to learn how and thereby learn how not to.