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After reading through Nathan Brine's wonderful book (The Taoist Alchemy of Wang Liping, vol. 1) depicting the practices and overall line of development within the Dragon Gate sect, Nathan puts out a wonderful reminder. To truly build the foundation for neidan, one needs to learn how to relax and in particular learn the art of Song 鬆 . In WLP's lineage the art of Song is explored through methods such as pore breathing, body squeeze and the nine basic foundational techniques. From Nathan, I can understand there is a big difference between Song and flexibility. One can be completely flexible, yet not be Song 鬆. This is important to remember, I feel. I personally have been exploring Song through the practice of "anchoring the breath" as described by Damo Mitchell in his online Microcosmic Orbit course along with some of the practical teachings (pore breathing, from Wang Liping (viz. Nathan Brine). I also try to incorporate the principles into my standing work, though this is proving more difficult than I thought as it usually ends up with me spiralling into sponteanous postures rather than sinking the Qi and rooting and anchoring more deeply. I thought this would be a nice topic to explore together. I am sure it has been mentioned before, but it could be nice to have a thread directly dedicated to this aspect of internal training. So, what methods or ways have or are you working on Song or sinking in your practice? What does it feel like when it's working for you -- how about when it's not? What is important to keep in mind when learning this process?

Was listening to this lovely song and it was so beautiful and moving that I'm sharing with you all. Enjoy

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I have read the first thirty six songs quite well and I see no mention of song. Softness is stressed by my sifu, sensitivity would be a more apt description. Does the mud stepping produce a state of song or is it like the so many of the songs say, the hard and soft mutually correspond to create a different kind of enenergy unique to baguazhang. This is one of my favorite songs. TWENTY EIGHTH SONG When the opponent is hard and I am soft, this is the RIGHT WAY. However, if I am soft and the opponent is hard, the mthod is also good. The hard and the soft mutually coordinate and win (control) from the WAIST. The conflict (battle) is decided on whose stepping is better.