Beginning QiGong - Best books for exercises?

[DaoChild]

Morning all,

I'm interested in adding some QiGong practice to my morning meditation. Truthfully, I'm more interested in seeing if QiGong actually does anything.

 

Can you recommend some good books on QiGong, which explain it the best, and which give you the best exercises? I'd love to tag on 30 minutes of QiGong to my morning practice, and see if I feel any different in several months.

 

Thank you & Have a lovely weekend,

 

DaoChild

[Squatting Monkey]

This book will help you to acquire internal strength and build a strong, healthy body. It's one of the best out there IMO.

 

Check elsewhere online. I've seen it much cheaper ( can't remember where though )

[Jesse]

Morning all,

I'm interested in adding some QiGong practice to my morning meditation. Truthfully, I'm more interested in seeing if QiGong actually does anything.

 

Can you recommend some good books on QiGong, which explain it the best, and which give you the best exercises? I'd love to tag on 30 minutes of QiGong to my morning practice, and see if I feel any different in several months.

 

Thank you & Have a lovely weekend,

 

DaoChild

 

The Way of Qigong by Ken Cohen

 

Jesse

[Thunder_Gooch]

Spring forest qigong is by far the best beginner practice out there.

[Aetherous]

DaoChild,

 

What are you hoping qigong will do?

[BrokenFist64]

Qigong empowerment by Master Shou-Yu Liang has quite a few practices you can do. Also the way of energy by Master Lam Kam-Chuen very easy basically just standing in place and positioning your arms in a certain manner with deep belly breathing. You'll get results in your first session or at least after a week

[Spiritual_Aspirant]

I would recommend "9 Palaces Qi Gong" by Baolin Wu.

[Squatting Monkey]

Also the way of energy by Master Lam Kam-Chuen very easy basically just standing in place and positioning your arms in a certain manner with deep belly breathing. You'll get results in your first session or at least after a week

 

I think there's a bit more to it than that.

[bindo]

Spring forest qigong is by far the best beginner practice out there.

I have to agree with MPG. The spring forest course, the lectures and practice, are quite good. I have nothing but praise and respect for Chunyi Lin.

[BrokenFist64]

I think there's a bit more to it than that.

 

[Eric23]

I think there's a bit more to it than that.

 

So simple and so profound. The Way of Energy would be my recommendation.

[Aetherous]

Way of Energy is great to learn standing. Standing is pure qigong and it could be said nothing else is needed. I also like The Way of Qigong by Kenneth Cohen. It has additional tips on standing, as well as being the absolute best introduction to qigong.

 

I asked "what are you hoping qigong will do?" to DaoChild, because when people hear of the health benefits of it, they're only hearing a fraction of the story. As Cohen says in his book, (summarized): if you aren't focusing on having a healthy lifestyle qigong will be disappointing.

 

Qigong's health benefits mainly stem from the relaxation response, which is great. Nothing else. In other words: the more "external" a form is, like taiji, the better it will be for health.

 

So to sum it up: the core of qigong could be considered to be standing, but that's not all there is to it.

[DaoChild]

DaoChild,

 

What are you hoping qigong will do?

 

Good question. I'm hoping it will give me benefits beyond that of meditation (physical relaxation & peace of mind) E.g. internal power for Bagua.

[neidan practitioner]

Good question. I'm hoping it will give me benefits beyond that of meditation (physical relaxation & peace of mind) E.g. internal power for Bagua.

 

Standing meditation has traditionally been used to help build internal strength and

energy in the internal martial arts. The book that others have mentioned

"The Way of Energy", by Lam Kam Chuen looks like it might be what you

are looking for then. The internal martial art dachengquan mainly focuses on various

standing meditation forms to build internal strength and energy, and greatly down plays

practicing forms, although it seems more recent practitioners of yiquan (new name used by some

for dachengquan) are adding all kinds of shadow boxing like movements to their practice as well.

 

Since you already practice bagua, you are already doing a moving form of qigong,

so standing meditation, also known as zhan zhuang, big tree, and post standing, and

by other names, is probably what you are looking for. Many people don't practice it much

these days, maybe for just five minutes or so at a time, so they may not realize the benefits

that can be had from longer and regular practice.

 

Once you get up to standing twenty or thirty minutes of practice a day or more, you

should quickly start to see the benefits. It can be a bit tough to do at first until you

get used to it, but it is well worth it in my experience. It has been said that standing

meditation is the real secret of building internal power in the internal martial arts,

and was how Yang Cheng Fu and other famous internal martial artists reached such

a high level. This was said by Cai Song Fang, who is a well respected tai chi master

in China and who specializes in mainly doing wuji standing meditation for his training,

(not the same as 'wuji qigong', a moving qigong form), which I believe Cai Song Fang learned

from Ye Dami, who learned it directly from Yang Cheng Fu.

 

- np -

Edited May 16, 2009 by neidan practitioner

[Ya Mu]

Way of Energy is great to learn standing. Standing is pure qigong and it could be said nothing else is needed. I also like The Way of Qigong by Kenneth Cohen. It has additional tips on standing, as well as being the absolute best introduction to qigong.

 

I asked "what are you hoping qigong will do?" to DaoChild, because when people hear of the health benefits of it, they're only hearing a fraction of the story. As Cohen says in his book, (summarized): if you aren't focusing on having a healthy lifestyle qigong will be disappointing.

 

Qigong's health benefits mainly stem from the relaxation response, which is great. Nothing else. In other words: the more "external" a form is, like taiji, the better it will be for health.

 

So to sum it up: the core of qigong could be considered to be standing, but that's not all there is to it.

 

Ken's book is good because he is one of the best scholars around concerning qigong. So to learn about qigong this is a great starting place. Totally agree with the focusing on healthy lifestyle.

 

Totally disagree with your next statement about the more external a form is the better for health. There are many external and internal forms. There are also many external as well as internal forms that don't do much at all. Of course, waving your arms around can be good circulatory exercise that also helps loosen joints. Taiji is a vicious and brutal martial art. Moving the body is good, but minutes of time spent I don't know that rebounding exercise isn't a better exercise for health purposes.

 

 

Good question. I'm hoping it will give me benefits beyond that of meditation (physical relaxation & peace of mind) E.g. internal power for Bagua.

 

I think rebounding exercise 10 minutes twice a day will help do the physical relaxation & peace of mind (neurochemical release). But the internal power for Baqua? Probably more Baqua practice.

 

But for general health a good internal qigong exercise combined with a good movement exercise can definitely assist the body, mind and spirit. I would look to a good DVD instead of a book if I wanted to learn a movement form. Better still would be to go to a class on the form you choose to learn then take the DVD home to practice. Jianye Jian has about 300 DVD's on movements, some of his are simple to learn. Garripoli's wuji form is good. My Gift of the Tao form is highly energetic, I know folks that like wild goose form. I guess if I really wanted to learn another movement form it probably would be Fu Wei Zhong's. He has a book and DVD but I would take the classes. 2nd choice would be Garripoli's wuji form (he has DVD).

[Aetherous]

Ya Mu,

 

Totally disagree with your next statement about the more external a form is the better for health. There are many external and internal forms. There are also many external as well as internal forms that don't do much at all. Of course, waving your arms around can be good circulatory exercise that also helps loosen joints. Taiji is a vicious and brutal martial art. Moving the body is good, but minutes of time spent I don't know that rebounding exercise isn't a better exercise for health purposes.

 

I agree, real forms of exercise are even better.

 

The way I see it, is that it's all about what we are cultivating. "Spiritually", standing is good. For health, go for a jog!

 

Just my opinion...

[Ya Mu]

Ya Mu,

I agree, real forms of exercise are even better.

 

The way I see it, is that it's all about what we are cultivating. "Spiritually", standing is good. For health, go for a jog!

 

Just my opinion...

 

But the reverse side of this is that I haven't gotten a cold or flu since I started practicing Stillness-Movement internal exercise a long time ago. Can't run anymore. MOST people who practice Stillness-Movement internal exercise miss less sick days and feel better. So it really depends on the quality of the exercise.

[rain]

But the reverse side of this is that I haven't gotten a cold or flu since I started practicing Stillness-Movement internal exercise a long time ago. Can't run anymore. MOST people who practice Stillness-Movement internal exercise miss less sick days and feel better. So it really depends on the quality of the exercise.

 

Medical Qigong has no doubt helped my health. I do neigong and luohan medical qigong.

 

I am quite convinced this practise is homeopatically digging up what is buried in my system. It is slightly scary, but..I never once imagined this to be all sunshine. That would be naive IMHO.

 

There are books..but I would rather find a dependeable teacher with credentials and practise with a group every week in addition to daily practise. And read bookSSSS

Edited May 18, 2009 by rain

[Jakara]

"A complete guid to Chi Kung" by Daniel P. Reid has excellent theoretical information about chi and chi kung and also has some good practices.

 

"The way of energy" by Lam Kam Chuen has great Zhan Zhuang exercises, I felt chi in my hands after one week of these excercises and gained a lot of energy in terms of daily vigour.

 

"Xing yi nei gong" by Miller and Cartmell has great dynamic chi gong and stretching. I know taoist priests and kungfu schools that use very similar techniques.

 

If I had to pick one to get first I'd go for "The way of energy" because its the most effective in the shortest time and should therefore give a good introductory flavour of how useful chi kung is. But I'd get them all if possible.

Edited May 17, 2009 by Jakara

[Dainin]

There are many good choices listed above, I'll just add a few others that I like:

 

Dr. Roger Jahnke: "The Healer Within" and "The Healing Promise of Qi"

 

Wong Kiew Kit: "Chi Kung for Health and Vitality" and "The Art of Chi Kung"

 

Chris Jarmey: "Theory and Practice of Taiji Qigong"

 

After you've been practicing for a while, check out:

 

Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming: "The Root of Chinese Qigong"

 

 

Also, while I agree that it's best to study with a teacher, there are some DVDs that

I feel are pretty good at conveying moving qigong forms:

 

Francesco and Daisy Garripolli: "Beginning Qigong" (the Wuji form on this one is very nice)

 

Ken Cohen: "Qigong" (the first one, not the healing one)

 

Dr. George Love: Meridian Qigong (a fine all around form from my teacher)

 

Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson: "Chi Kung: the Healing Workout" (outstanding production and great sequence)

 

 

I hope you establish a practice that you enjoy!