Antares

Dorian, what is connection between Mo Pai and Longmenpai? Is not you lumping things together? I do not know anything about Mo Pai and I do not care honestly about Mo Pai. It might be such the fiction as Carlos Castaneda's yaqi's warriors. So many people believed in that stuff and in Tensegrity. If you are one of those who believe that sitting meditation is alchemical method then I would suggest you to learn authentic texts. If you like Wang Liping go ahead. 3000 $$$ flushing down... If no one in Longmen knows Wang Liping what to talk about? You can believe what you want I don't care

As for BKF I agree. It is only some mechanics as well as in taichi. That is what I am talking about. I agree that this is just only forms of qigong. As it was mentioned above it is working with postanatal qi. There are few methods of cultivation as far as I know. Neidan and neikong accumulate prenatal qi. And martial qigong use it for fighting skills. People read books on bagua (BKF) and taichi and they buy it as high forms of cultivation methods. Because nothing to compare with. Real masters do not disclose it openly. I contacted one of the BKF's instructors in the past and I was badly impressed with his communication skills and he did not say how it works for him regardless I asked him few times. But anyway it is better than many other calisthenics like taichi and external MA akin to karate, aikido, and so on... But there are some very advanced MA schools. What they call old school kung fu which have alchemical methods of cultivation. This thread is about taichi. I just was thinking to practice it and now I think I won't do it. And I wanted to hear other opinions on Ya Mu's words that MA forms have "attached karma" to it. Hmm, many authentic Chinese masters practiced MA as part of the their path. I think that point is in balance. There should be not only MA forms but some internal methods as the core of a system. Another point is that taichi what we know now is kinds diluted method of cultivation. IMHO

Who is Jim? What kind of levels you are talking about? Wan Liping claims to be patriarch of Longmenpai sect. The person from Wu Lui Pai sect was asked few times about Wan Liping on their forum and he asked few patriarchs in China (of Huanshan,Wudangshan sects and others ) and no one knows there who is Wan Liping. I would give a link on that thread but it is not in English. More over that Wan Liping teaches only qigong in form of sitting meditation as far as I know. This is not authentic alchemical practice. If you believe that WP is cool then go for his seminar. I will not for sure. And this is my last post about WP

There is another problem with veganism. Not only B12 or nutrients. It will make your body more alkaline. What is bad for stomach and colon. And I suppose it can make one to much yin. Because plants and fruits that vegans eat are mostly of yin quality (water). Somebody against grains here. TCM considers grains as one of the most balanced food with neutral and balancing qualities. And it is good source of protein. So vegans should take vinegar to reduce alkaline issue. I am thinking to go veggie and have a look how it rocks. But I will be taking whey protein with a supergreens powder and fish and ghee oils. They say that the point is to build healthy micro flora that can produce all what a body needs. But it's not just to go veggie. Primarily important to keep healthy diet with no alcohol, no animal stuff at all, no sweets, no ketchups and so on... Not easy but possible. And one MUST cleanse all the body. Kill parasites with special herbals and maintain healthy micro flora. Only this way of strict regimen. I suppose that whey protein and supergreens powder have all nutrients that body needs.

I wonder... regarding building foundation of BFP arts energy. So I have decided to go on with FPCK practice as I have been doing it every day for last 4 months. And I was reading about BFSYG too and practiced it for awhile but I think it is better to cultivate something one in the beginning. Sifu Garry says that it's better to start with only 2 static meds and understand how they work. What is diff with FPCK? Sifu Terry says that it's better to start with minimum of 3 standing ones and 2 seated ones at least. I am doing all meds from vol.1 in the morning and all meds of vol. 2 in the evening. Also I just taught first med. from vol.3 and will add it to the vol.1 & 2. I suppose vol.3 works more with kidneys. I have not noticed that vol. 1 and 2 helped much with my kidneys yang deficiency. I think until I resolve it I won't go much ahead

CHEESE!!!

Flying Phoenix Martial Form? What are the benefits I wonder?

The question is if you can get ALL nutrients from vegan diet. I doubt. A man needs at least 80 grams of protein every day. I personally eat twice a day. So I need 40 grams of protein for every meal. How much plants to eat every time! Stress for digestive system and much of starch

Why are you talking of Wan Liping? As far as I know he is fraud. Good example of how people believe to new agey teachers and give them their money! Few years ago I wanted to attend his seminar. They sent me email with the request to pay 3000 $$$ for 3 days seminar. I sent my request to the branch of authentic taoist sect and I was replied they nobody knows who is Wan Liping in China, no any monk, no any other taoist. Many people just trust to promotion and engage in what they do not understand As for taichi I personally believe it is diluted in the most cases. But BKF is good example of authentic wushu lineage. Also I would say Stuart Olson seems to be good teacher in authentic lineage. They teach both form and qigong. But there are so many other forms of qigong that I think I stick with another no martial qogong/neigong system. Because another non martial system might be more advanced of cultivation IMHO

But how does it relate to this thread? In horse stance i breath deep and slow. Can you do this while doing cardio exercise? My heart beat is normal but in cardio it should go up. The idea of cardio is to increase heart beat and pump the blood, no?

Pure Truth, can you share how you practiced? Did you start from level 1 two meditations? And what is the neichia?

No, they both are direct students of direct Uesiba's students who stayed with him until he passed away. The reason why I call it new agey because there is no neikong as such. No meditation, no breath practice. My main teacher used such terms as "stay in the moment" (i guess he read E. Tolle much), "extend your chi" (how one extend it if one does not have a clue what is chi)... This is not internal MA. Not worthwhile to compare with authentic wushu. And was invented recently. I do not think any other teacher teaches any better. But I admit that there might be few high level aikido teachers. Do you have good examples? And as this thread is not of aikido and is about taichi I would say that in the most cases they teach diluted taichi akin to calisthenics what people do in parks.

Try to eat meat every day for few months and then not to eat for few months and you will see the difference. I did eat meat and fish every day last year. I forgot about practice and only was thinking of sex and was in depressed state of mind. Plus alcohol and so on....

I was thinking like you after 1 year of practicing Aikido. Once I met a guy who was black belt and he said that he left Aikido for Yoga. The reason as he explained was that it was not really applicable. And I had been doing A. for 1 year and as we were told it was only beginning. And I thought that that guy missed the point with A. And I came to the same conclusion after three years. USELESS. Close to new agey stuff on the market - love, non violence... The point then why to train it? All attacks there in the way no one really would attack you, no one grab like they train in Aikido. Yeah. It might happen that somebody stupid would grab your wrist and wait while you doing something to him... Better to spend this time for qigong, neigong... I did 3-5 classes a week. And then I changed teacher to see what is there else could be. I came to another more advanced sensei as he claimed and it was slightly better but still far from real application against REAL attack. I completely discouraged in it after a man who did that fo 12 years said he has no clue how to fend off face punch!!! And he said he is doing it for qi development. May be somebody likes such kind of training but it is not for me. Better to do qigong. I think it is more important to free the mind from violence. But why then to practice MA? Also my sensei teached Taichi forms and qigong. No one benefited from it for years. Uesiba was adept in Japanese Tantra first of all and MA was kinda training for him. But now people think that that Aikido was his main path. He invented Aikido only at the end of his path, but it was HIS unique path. As for M. Uesiba he trained in Aiki Jutsu and I think it how he got his skills. Only HAVING REAL experience in CONTACT MA one can understand and use Aikido. If one has no any clue about contact MA then it is only philosophy and business. You can be no violent doing qigong or yoga or just gardening, or playing golf. But if you have 20-30 years for Aikido may be it is your way, I can't judge here. The question how far you can go with it. I would better study bagua. Aikido is too much new agey

There is the point. It is still martial art. I personally had been doing "internal" Aikido for few years within the "lineage". And realized it was useless and waste of time and money. In the beginning teacher was saying that was high level martial art. But after few years he said that it is not the MA and we should not think that somebody going to attack us as it crude thoughts . And I did not understand what I was doing. Another day he said it is the art and one should visualize something in real life. And I could not realize what I should visualize. How somebody attacking me? And the real application of that MA was useless. It was not MA and it was not qigong, it was much closer to calisthenics under the mask of IMA. I am not sure about Chinese IMA. May be it is quite applicable if you are lucky to find good teacher but something says to me it is rare chance to find one. I understand what u saying that IMA is neigong. But there are many other not MA neigongs and qigongs. And in the most cases so called IMA are nearly good calisthenics with some forms of qigongs. And it might be waste of time trying to mix qigong with MA forms. Better to cultivate something one edited for grammar

As far as I realized the main idea of the article is that energetic of qigong is more subtle than from IMA. And I asked myself why I wanted to learn taichi or any other MA forms? Any qigong is lifetime commitment and imho it is better to commit in something one and make it perfect. Why do many people want to find an IMA master and learn from them? Is not it coming from supposition that somebody going to attack them?

Cheese is not meat. Never had diarrhea from it. At the moment I eat vegetarian food adding organic powder made of supergreens and some mild cheese made of sheep milk. No any other animal products.

Are you believer that horse stance is CARDIO exercise?

cycling rocks for me.

I have learned 2 sections of Taichi with Terry Dunn's DVD. Easy to follow, good explanation, good camera (you can see from 2 angles), good warm up. Best DVD on taichi yang form I have ever seen.

What I wanted to add to SYG and the reason is why... As I mentioned I have got video of Chan Mi Gong. The system is based on 5 exercises for the spine washing it up and down, loosing all joints, opening points and channels. Very similar to the Opening Energy Gates. FP is very very soft and does not give feeling of the good body workout. That is major reason why I wanted to terminate FP practice, as it takes at least 2 hours every day. Plus I need something else more dynamic. So I thought to do smth more like spine workout, taichi and SYG. Weight lifting could be bad for energy channels imho

I'll watch again the DVD. May be I missed smth. I recall it was smth about feeling relaxation. What is wrong with taichi? IMHO good for grounding and for qi development either. But it might be better to do FP for this reason as these 2 systems are fully compatible. And in FP there is taichi - like form. I mean I want to go further with SYG as main system and some levels of FP. My idea was as I tried to explain that SYG is static in the beginning. But FP has some dynamic, but I feel I NEED smth else for the body and your idea of strength training seems appealing to me. that just may be my mind wants something else... Yeah, may be I will just add some weight lifting to my FP and SYG practice

And what better to concentrate on? Breath down and up or just relax and feel the body...?

The question. Is it alright to do seated one from level 1, then taichi and finish with standing one? Or to do them separately or better together one after another?

Thanks. I will be doing another dynamic qigong following by SYG level 1. Was thinking to practice zazen but I suppose SYG is much more efficient than just quiet sitting. Might be zazen is broken Boddhidharma's method. I just wanted to attend local zen community for group meditation. But they just sit and nothing more. I would better practice SYG and dynamic qigong.