ridingtheox Posted April 22, 2017 today so far 6 am long form flying phoenix not timed 7:30 yang tjq long form class 1 hour 15 min (form 25 min) 3:15 five standing short forms done in sequence 4, 1, 3, 5, and 2. times dragon emerges 7:35 white crane 5:50 lift earth 7:45 8 sections 9:05 Phoenix &dragon 6:20 total 36:30 INTENSE 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zen-bear Posted April 23, 2017 (edited) Hi DSCB57: Sorry for the slowness of this reply. Mitigating circumstance--perhaps the best: Mercury retrograde! No problem Sifu, I appreciate you taking the time to answer our questions. However I am still not clear regarding my third point: But what if each repetition takes 5 -10 minutes? How is one supposed to devote 2 - 3 hours to a single meditation? I just timed a typical 18 repetitions of Bending the Bows. It took me just under 40 minutes, minus the time it took to complete the breath control sequence. Now my question is: if you recommend practising BTB plus two other meditations from the standing DVD 1 set plus the 3 warm-ups from the the DVD 2 sitting meditation set plus one of the MSW meditations each day, where is one supposed to find the time? Let's break it down: If I do the warm-ups plus BTB x18 plus two other standing meditations, that is already an hour and a half. Aside from the fact that that is a sizeable chunk of my day, I then need to also do a further hour at least in order to complete the 3 warm-ups and one MSW meditation from DVD 2. That is two and a half hours each day, and I never get to complete all the standing meditations. Try as I might, I just don't have the energy to do the sitting meditations in the evening, especially as they are becoming more and more painful - not during the practice, but after. Sometimes I cannot move my legs for 10 to 15 minutes following the meditations. I think that my age and physical condition need to be factored in. I don't think there are many 59 year olds in my condition who could sustain my rhythm of practice. I would appreciate some feedback from other more experienced practitioners who have maybe found themselves in a similar situation. David www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html Hi David -- DSCB57, Which FP Meditation(s) takes you 5 to 10 minutes to do one repetition? The only ones that can apporach 10 minutes per repetition in my experience would be "Moonbeam Splashes on Water" and "FPHHCM" (Long Form Standing Med. on Vol.4) If you are doing reps. of FP Meditaitons at that speed (5 to 10 min.) you may be attaining a speed of movement slower than any previous practitioner in history, including Grandmaster Doo Wai(!) If that's the case, I would like to see a video of your practice...as you may have broken new ground. (I'm serious). I just timed a typical 18 repetitions of Bending the Bows. It took me just under 40 minutes, minus the time it took to complete the breath control sequence. Taking 40 min. to complete 18 rounds of Bending the Bows is a very slow and excellent speed of practice. 30 minutes to typical and quite standard. Now my question is: if you recommend practising BTB plus two other meditations from the standing DVD 1 set plus the 3 warm-ups from the the DVD 2 sitting meditation set plus one of the MSW meditations each day, where is one supposed to find the time? • ANSWER: You don't have to do 18 rounds of Bending the Bows every session. 8, 9 or 10 slow repetitions will suffice on a daily basis. Doing a full set of 18 rounds of BTB once every 7 to 10 days is an excellent training frequency. Doing a full set of 18 rounds every day for a week or two is excellent establishment of the meditation. Once you can do BTB effortlessly and "muscle free", you can do less than 18 rounds in each practice session. (1) If you do 8 rounds of BTBs at your very slow speed, that is thats 8 x 2.2 minutes = 17.6 minutes. (40 min. / 18x = 2.222 min. per round) (2) Spend 5 minutes one each of the following: Monk Gazing At Moon; Monk Holding Peach; Monk Holding Pearl. = 15 min. (3) Take 4 minutes to do each of the 3 warm-up seated meditations on Vol. 2 = 12 minutes*** (4) One set of 7 repetitions of a typical Monk Serves Wine seated meditation can range from 20 seconds per round to 2 minute per round: so add resting breaths of 30 seconds in duration: 14 min. + [ 7 x 30 sec. = 3.5 min.] = 17.5 minutes (5) Doing a second Monk Serves Wine seated Meditation, as I strongly recommend adds another 17.5 minutes of practice. TOTAL TIME at your speed of practice - 69 minutes ***You can also skip the 3 seated warm-up meditations after youv'e done them for about 3 weeks on a daily basis. Then revisit them later on after you've finished all the MSW seated meds on Vols .2 and 7. Let's take a look again at my post of yesterday, #4191: You will see that in 104 minutes, I covered the 5 basic FP Meditations on Volume 1, taught 3 Monk Serves Wine meditations (each one doing a full set of 7 repetitions). plus did one Bok Fu Pai Meditation to boot (90 60 40 30). I taught the following 15 Meditations in 3.5 hours -- (with15 minute break). Here are the approximate durations spent on each Meditation (in blue). 1. Tai Chi Warm-ups: 3 from first 40 min. of my Tai Chi for Health DVD. (30 min.) 2. Silk-Weaver's Exercise (Qigong) 2x (10 min.) 3. 9 basic Wuchi postures of Sum-I (I-Chuan). (10 min.) 4. Bok Fu Pai Meditation (90 60 40 30) (6 min.) 5. Monk Gazing At Moon. (6 min.) 6. Monk Holding Peach (6 min.) 7. Monk Holding Pearl (5 min.) 8. Wind Above the Clouds - 3 rounds (as it was first time for all the students). (12 min.) 9. Bending the Bows - 9 rounds. (15 min.) 10. TaoTan Pai Meditation No. 16 (seated) (8 min.) 11. TaoTan Pai Meditation No. 17 (seated) (8 min.) 12. TaoTan Pai Meditation No. 18 (seated) (8 min.) 13. Monk Serves Wine #2 (50 40 30 10) -- 7 rounds (20 min.) 14. Monk Serves Wine #3 (90 80 50 20) "the Waker-Upper" -- 7 rounds (20 min.) 15. Monk Serves Wine #5 on Volume 7 (20 40 90 10) 4 movements per rep. -- 7 rounds (14 min.) Total Time in practice: 178 minutes = 2 hours 58 minutes 50 minutes of non- FP Qigong warm-ups. 24 min. of Tao Tan Pai meditations Total time in FP meditation: 104 minutes 17 minutes of classroom discussion. Aside from the fact that that is a sizeable chunk of my day, I then need to also do a further hour at least in order to complete the 3 warm-ups and one MSW meditation from DVD 2. After about 2-3 weeks of daily practice , you don't need to spend that much time doing 3 warm-ups and one MSW meditation from DVD 2. You can drop them for a while. As outlined in last Tuesday's class that I taught: just practice 1 MSW seated meditation for 20 minutes, or 2 of them in 40 minutes. Then move on. That is two and a half hours each day, and I never get to complete all the standing meditations. Try as I might, I just don't have the energy to do the sitting meditations in the evening, especially as they are becoming more and more painful - not during the practice, but after. You may have other taxing obligations such as work and family life. But the FP seated meditations should not cause pain after a practice. Sometimes I cannot move my legs for 10 to 15 minutes following the meditations. I think that my age and physical condition need to be factored in. I don't think there are many 59 year olds in my condition who could sustain my rhythm of practice. You may not be getting enough aerobic exercise. (run, job, cycling, swimming, tennis, golf, etc.) Hence your legs are sore after seated meditations. Schedule your FP Qigong regimen to suit your schedule and lifestyle. As I've suggested as a basic formula: Do two standing and two seated FP Meditations on a daily basis. Add to or substitute out old meditations for new ones. Bear in mind that FP Qigong comes from a monastic tradition, where the monks at Ehrmeishan practiced this art around the clock for years. It is always a challenge to fine time to practice a monastic art that was practiced all-day or half-day long. The 2.5 hours a day that you are spending practicing FP Qigong is commendable. But if it's not practical and if it's causing you pain, then do bit less. Ramp it down and try 80, 90 min. or 100 min. a day. The goal of FP Qigong training is to get to the moving meditations on Vol.3 and 4 and to do those without doing the Volume 1 standing meditations. In fact, today at my Tai Chi class, we did extensive stretching and then warmed-up further with 2 very slow rounds of Wind Above the Clouds, 2 rounds of Wind Through Treetops, and one round of Moonbeam. I hope this helps. Sifu Terry Dunn www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html Edited April 23, 2017 by zen-bear 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DSCB57 Posted April 23, 2017 (edited) Hi David -- DSCB57, Which FP Meditation(s) takes you 5 to 10 minutes to do one repetition? Hi Sifu Terry, The best is for me to do a run down of how long each repetition of each repeating meditation takes me. So today I timed myself. You will see that I have included the warm-ups from DVD 3 as well as the Wind Through the Treetops meditation which I had already started to integrate into my daily practice before you answered: DVD 1 Standing warm-ups: Wuji standing posture 5 minutes T-Stance Wuji right and left 1 minute each Wuji lowering and rising up 1 minute DVD 3 Standing warm-ups: Warm-up 1x9 - 10 minutes Warm-up 2x9 - 10 minutes DVD 1 BTBx9 24.29 minutes WACx1 5.19 minutes DVD 3 WTTx1 - 12.33 minutes That said, I think it was MSW #1 or #2 that was taking me 5 - 10 minutes to complete, but as I said, I have stopped practising these due to the severe pain in my left knee after completing the 1 hour or so of sitting meditation. However, once my knee has recovered I will time myself and post back on this thread. The only ones that can apporach 10 minutes per repetition in my experience would be "Moonbeam Splashes on Water" and "FPHHCM" (Long Form Standing Med. on Vol.4) If you are doing reps. of FP Meditaitons at that speed (5 to 10 min.) you may be attaining a speed of movement slower than any previous practitioner in history, including Grandmaster Doo Wai(!) If that's the case, I would like to see a video of your practice...as you may have broken new ground. (I'm serious). I'm up for the challenge, and I thank you for such an honour, but I tried to use my smartphone to video myself practising BTB and just couldn't find a way to do it successfully. I need a video-cam to do it properly, but don't have one - neither does anyone else in this godforsaken part of the world . Now the weather is improving it may be easier to try again outside (you may have heard about the hurricanes and other climatic anomalies we have been experiencing over the past month or so in Spain). I think the slowness I have achieved may be the reason I tend to lose track of where I am in the repetitions, because I enter a very deep state of meditation. I should perhaps mention that I am not a newcomer to Qigong, and have spent several years practising Shaolin Pei Ho and Shuang Yang Pei Ho, Lam Style Taijigong, Zhan Zhuang Qigong, Yiquan/Dachengquan, Choy Li Fut, Bagua circle walking and Qigong/Neigong, Neigong Yiliquan, Hunyuan Qigong, Fragrant Qigong and various other forms of Qigong, so these may have contributed to my abilities once I encountered such a potent art as the Bak Fu Pai Flying Phoenix system - not to mention with a master willing to impart the real practice. . Taking 40 min. to complete 18 rounds of Bending the Bows is a very slow and excellent speed of practice. 30 minutes to typical and quite standard. Thank you. • ANSWER: You don't have to do 18 rounds of Bending the Bows every session. 8, 9 or 10 slow repetitions will suffice on a daily basis. Doing a full set of 18 rounds of BTB once every 7 to 10 days is an excellent training frequency. Doing a full set of 18 rounds every day for a week or two is excellent establishment of the meditation. Once you can do BTB effortlessly and "muscle free", you can do less than 18 rounds in each practice session. I don't know whether I have reached that stage or not (effortless and muscle free), but what I can say is that I am able to get into a low horse stance now without straining and without my thigh muscles shaking, as used to be the case when I practised horse stance during Shaolin Gongfu training. That is in of itself remarkable to my mind, because I did not have to push myself in order to lower my stance - rather it is a case of sensing that as the Qi expands out from the LDT it also fills my legs and pushes my lower back backwards - whereas previously I needed to train with a partner standing on top of my thighs in order to get that low! In case anyone is interested in my technique for achieving such a slow pace, I basically begin expanding outward from the LDT, then right from the tips of my toes through to my fingertips, constantly adjusting the timing as the Qi sinks into my legs and feet along with the outward expansion to the hands and fingertips. Particularly when sinking down, for example from the point at which in BTB with the first opening movement, once I have sunk as low into the horse stance as my body wants to go I continue to open the arms outward, sensing where my fingers are in relation to one another, then bring my fingertips as close together as possible without actually touching. Then once the hands are drawn back toward the neck and the hands are facing palm downward in front of the upper chest - at that point I start to push very gently from the laogong points in the hands right down through my body until I feel my tendons stretching to the last joint of the toes when I reach the highest point of that part of the movement. This pushing also happens in reverse from the tips of the toes upward. This is similar in Wind Above the Clouds and Wind Through the Treetops. Throughout the entire meditation I endeavour to be aware of everything both within and around me. But of course my main focus is upon sensing where my hands, fingers and arms are in relation to one another, and whether my posture is correct or not - just as one does in any type of Qigong training. But given that the eyes remain closed, in this system it becomes far more difficult to be aware of the spatial positioning of one's limbs - especially the arms and hands. I found it took me some time to trust that my middle fingers were going to find one another . Of course, the slower one practises, the easier it is to be aware of these subtle spacial awarenesses and learn to correctly coordinate one's movements. I can go through the same description for the first two Monk Serves Wine meditations from DVD 2 if anyone is interested. I think this may be a helpful exercise for us to compare approaches to our practice - with Sifu's permission, of course. (1) If you do 8 rounds of BTBs at your very slow speed, that is thats 8 x 2.2 minutes = 17.6 minutes. (40 min. / 18x = 2.222 min. per round) (2) Spend 5 minutes one each of the following: Monk Gazing At Moon; Monk Holding Peach; Monk Holding Pearl. = 15 min. (3) Take 4 minutes to do each of the 3 warm-up seated meditations on Vol. 2 = 12 minutes*** (4) One set of 7 repetitions of a typical Monk Serves Wine seated meditation can range from 20 seconds per round to 2 minute per round: so add resting breaths of 30 seconds in duration: 14 min. + [ 7 x 30 sec. = 3.5 min.] = 17.5 minutes (5) Doing a second Monk Serves Wine seated Meditation, as I strongly recommend adds another 17.5 minutes of practice. TOTAL TIME at your speed of practice - 69 minutes Thank you for this revised exercise schedule. As you can see, I opted for 9 repetitions because I figured that halving my original time of almost 40 minutes would round it out nicely to 20 minutes...it didn't quite turn out that way though. However, point (4) is where calculations go pear-shaped, because each repetition of Monk Serves Wine 1 or 2 takes me at least 5 minutes to complete. So at a minimum we have 7x5 minutes + 45 seconds per round = 38.15 minutes. This is also why I now feel so much resistance toward practising the seated meditations from DVD 2, since the pain started becoming unbearable in my left knee. And that was only a half lotus! Perhaps I will have to practise sitting upright on a chair until my knee recovers fully? * Edit, 26/04/2017 in order to include specific times recorded for DVD #2 Sitting meditation practices: I eventually found a more comfortable position - yesterday sitting upright with legs straight out toward front, and today with knees resting on neck pillows in a frog-like position. I needed to support my spine to keep my back as straight as possible. I found this allowed me to enter very deeply into the meditations. (The two times were taken from yesterday and today's practice sessions and include the breath sequence time) Sitting warm-ups: (1) MGM x30 8.39 mins, 11.23 mins (2) Raise and lower arms 10:20 mins (did not record today's time) Sitting meditations: MSW #1 x7 46.27 mins MSW#2 x7 56.43 mins 57.22 mins MSW#3 X7 29.28 mins So I am averaging between 6.5 and 8 minutes for MSW #1 and 2. I found that I was experiencing lapses in consciousness - not sleeping, but just no longer quite aware of what I was doing. At these junctures it took me a little while to recall precisely where I was in the movement. It was a really strange feeling of being 'there', but not there....I don't know how else to describe it, but I was not at all comfortable with this experience. I also totally lost my awareness of breathing. It seemed to simply stop, as though I had entered a space in which time and movement had ceased to exist for me. After this morning's sitting meditations (MSW 2 and 3), I needed to drive to a neighbouring city, and realised that I was having difficulty maintaining my focus on driving - not to the point of being dangerous, but I was certainly a little concerned. It was even more apparent after my chiropractic treatment, so I ended up sleeping for a couple of hours when I got home. ***You can also skip the 3 seated warm-up meditations after youv'e done them for about 3 weeks on a daily basis. Then revisit them later on after you've finished all the MSW seated meds on Vols .2 and 7. I actually skipped the 3 warm-up meditations initially, but now realise my mistake, as they work on the neck and shoulders, which is where a considerable proportion of my health issues is focused. I only have Volumes 1 to 3, I don't have Volume 7. Do I need to purchase this? Let's take a look again at my post of yesterday, #4191: You will see that in 104 minutes, I covered the 5 basic FP Meditations on Volume 1, taught 3 Monk Serves Wine meditations (each one doing a full set of 7 repetitions). plus did one Bok Fu Pai Meditation to boot (90 60 40 30). I taught the following 15 Meditations in 3.5 hours -- (with15 minute break). Here are the approximate durations spent on each Meditation (in blue). 1. Tai Chi Warm-ups: 3 from first 40 min. of my Tai Chi for Health DVD. (30 min.) 2. Silk-Weaver's Exercise (Qigong) 2x (10 min.) 3. 9 basic Wuchi postures of Sum-I (I-Chuan). (10 min.) 4. Bok Fu Pai Meditation (90 60 40 30) (6 min.) 5. Monk Gazing At Moon. (6 min.) 6. Monk Holding Peach (6 min.) 7. Monk Holding Pearl (5 min.) 8. Wind Above the Clouds - 3 rounds (as it was first time for all the students). (12 min.) 9. Bending the Bows - 9 rounds. (15 min.) 10. TaoTan Pai Meditation No. 16 (seated) (8 min.) 11. TaoTan Pai Meditation No. 17 (seated) (8 min.) 12. TaoTan Pai Meditation No. 18 (seated) (8 min.) 13. Monk Serves Wine #2 (50 40 30 10) -- 7 rounds (20 min.) 14. Monk Serves Wine #3 (90 80 50 20) "the Waker-Upper" -- 7 rounds (20 min.) 15. Monk Serves Wine #5 on Volume 7 (20 40 90 10) 4 movements per rep. -- 7 rounds (14 min.) Total Time in practice: 178 minutes = 2 hours 58 minutes 50 minutes of non- FP Qigong warm-ups. 24 min. of Tao Tan Pai meditations Total time in FP meditation: 104 minutes 17 minutes of classroom discussion. That's an astonishing amount of ground you got your students to cover! After about 2-3 weeks of daily practice , you don't need to spend that much time doing 3 warm-ups and one MSW meditation from DVD 2. You can drop them for a while. As outlined in last Tuesday's class that I taught: just practice 1 MSW seated meditation for 20 minutes, or 2 of them in 40 minutes. Then move on. So at my rhythm, that would equate to around 4 repetitions of 1 MSW seated meditation, or 2 repetitions of 2 MSW meditations, or 4 repetitions for each of 2 MSW seated meditations? You may have other taxing obligations such as work and family life. But the FP seated meditations should not cause pain after a practice. The work/family obligations are a moot point for me, as I don't have a family and am unable to work until my health is restored. I think the knee pain is arising from an old injury, (several actually) plus bad training practices in the past such as pushing knees, and quite possibly the FP energy is working on it - so this may be some sort of reaction. But I also find that practising the T-posture Wuji warm-ups is making the discomfort noticeably worse. You may not be getting enough aerobic exercise. (run, job, cycling, swimming, tennis, golf, etc.) Hence your legs are sore after seated meditations. My spinal issues won't allow much in the way of aerobic exercise. I can't even do push-ups any more, and I certainly can't run at all. However what I am practising is Taiji Ball Qigong, in order to strengthen my back. I also try to do this as slowly as the FP meditations, and I believe that this makes the exercise even more demanding and powerful in its overall effect, both internal and external. My chiropractor noticed the effect within a month or so (I had not yet begun the FP meditation practice). He said that I was noticeably stronger than before. Schedule your FP Qigong regimen to suit your schedule and lifestyle. As I've suggested as a basic formula: Do two standing and two seated FP Meditations on a daily basis. Add to or substitute out old meditations for new ones. OK... Bear in mind that FP Qigong comes from a monastic tradition, where the monks at Ehrmeishan practiced this art around the clock for years. It is always a challenge to fine time to practice a monastic art that was practiced all-day or half-day long. The 2.5 hours a day that you are spending practicing FP Qigong is commendable. But if it's not practical and if it's causing you pain, then do bit less. Ramp it down and try 80, 90 min. or 100 min. a day. Thank you, I'll do less repetitions then, and I'll try and reduce the overall time I spend practising... The goal of FP Qigong training is to get to the moving meditations on Vol.3 and 4 and to do those without doing the Volume 1 standing meditations. Having seen the Volume 3 and 4 moving forms on Youtube, I can see why you say that - they are very similar to Taijigong forms. As I mentioned, I have already begun to integrate the first moving meditation from DVD 3 into my training (Wind Through the Treetops), and I feel that it is very beneficial to my spinal condition. It surprised me how I found I was able to adapt to the movement without much discomfort. Especially as I have very limited backward mobility of the spine and neck. In fact, today at my Tai Chi class, we did extensive stretching and then warmed-up further with 2 very slow rounds of Wind Above the Clouds, 2 rounds of Wind Through Treetops, and one round of Moonbeam. I hope this helps. Sifu Terry Dunn www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html Indeed this has been very helpful and insightful, thank you Sifu for giving me so much of your time. David Edited April 26, 2017 by DSCB57 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tao stillness Posted April 23, 2017 Along the same lines as above regarding time spent doing these meditations, I would like to ask Riding the Ox how the 90 second meditations on volume 5 can take several minutes to do each one? Does this mean that you are doing like 10 repetitions of each one? I am scratching my head over this one. Like Sifu Terry said to the other super slo-mo guy, I would love to see you post a video of you doing those flash meditations at that speed since I thought that I did have the correct sense of what moving as slow as a shifting sand dune is like. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zen-bear Posted April 26, 2017 (edited) Indeed this has been very helpful and insightful, thank you Sifu for giving me so much of your time. David Hi David, First of all, you're very welcome. Second, I will respond to the comments you made underneath your 14+ quotes of sections of my posting as soon as I can. I am in the middle of an extremely busy week. But right off the bat: If you are pressed for time, you don't have to spend 10 minutes on each of the standing warm-ups on Volume 3--especially if you've been doing themfor some weeks or months. While the warm-ups that I programmed onto the DVD series are great primers for FP Qigong practice, It is more valuable use of time to do the actual FP Meditations. Best regards, Sifu Terry Dunn Edited April 26, 2017 by zen-bear 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DSCB57 Posted April 26, 2017 (edited) Hi David, First of all, you're very welcome. Second, I will respond to the comments you made underneath your 14+ quotes of sections of my posting as soon as I can. I am in the middle of an extremely busy week. But right off the bat: If you are pressed for time, you don't have to spend 10 minutes on each of the standing warm-ups on Volume 3--especially if you've been doing themfor some weeks or months. While the warm-ups that I programmed onto the DVD series are great primers for FP Qigong practice, It is more valuable use of time to do the actual FP Meditations. Best regards, Sifu Terry Dunn Thank you Sifu. Since I wrote that - sorry, rather extensive post I have been once again practising the sitting meditations from DVD #2. I have therefore edited my previous post in order to include the times I recorded for each part of the practice. I think it may be helpful. The new section is marked with an asterisk and in bold script. Regarding the DVD #3 standing warm-ups, I have only been practising them for a couple of weeks, since I began integrating the DVD #3 material into my daily practice. I don't want to neglect doing them because I find them very powerful in their own right - they remind me of Cloud Hands from Taijiquan, but seem to also have an element of Silk Reeling, energetically. I just need to establish a training routine that I am able to keep up every day, that is what most worries me, because I don't want to risk burning myself out, as I have tended to do with other exercises. For example, it is now 10 pm, and I still haven't practised my standing FP Qigong meditations. So it will take quite an effort to practise them now. Best regards, David Lesak Moderators, I don't know why, but when I edit a post it is repeated for each iteration? Edited April 26, 2017 by DSCB57 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zen-bear Posted April 26, 2017 In my norrmally scheduled Flying Phoenix Qigong class last night, I gave an intensive Mercury retrograde review of two Qigong systems: half the time was devoted to a sampling of Tao Tan Pai Basic 31 Nei Kung exercises; other half was FP Qigong. And that practice was prefaced by 15 minutes of Yang Tai Chi warmups. I. Class began with the 3 Yang Tai Chi warm-ups presented in the first 40- minutes of my Tai Chi for Health Short Form and the TCFH Long Form dvds. These 3 exercises were created by my first: A. Wave Hands Like Clouds in bow stances and "horse step" (ma bu: a wide 2 shoulder-widths square stance with feet parallel) B. Play Guitar to Lifting Hands repetitive 90-degree transition practice C. Snake Creeps Down L-Rt repetitive practice. II. A 35-minute of sampling of Tao Tan Pai Basic 31 Nei Kung Exercises: A. Circling Palms (2 sets of 8 reps.) - 10 min. B. Crane Folding Wings - 3 min. C. TTP Basic #3 - 3 min. D. TTP Basic #4 - 5 min. E. TTP Basic #10 - 4 min. F. TTP Basic #11 - 3 min. G. TTP Basic #12 - 3 min. ("Clench, contract, swallow") H. TTP Basic #16 - 4 min. (seated, 5 breath retentions) III. Flying Phoenix Qigong - Standing Meditations 25 min. with emphasis on Bending the Bows: A. Monk Gazing At Moon - 5 min. B. Monk Holding Peach - 5 min. C. Bending the Bows - 17 min. D. Wind Above the Clouds - 1 round: 3 min. IV. First 3 of the Tao Tan Pai Basic 31 Seated Meditations - 9 minutes. V. Flying Phoenix Qigong - Seated Meditations - 20 minutes E. Seated Warm-up Meditation #2 (50 30 10) - 5 min. F. Seated Warm-up Meditation #3 (50 10 50) - 5 min. G. #4 Advanced Monk Serves Wine Meditation on Volume 7 (60 70 40 5) - 12 min. 'Tis a very rare occurrence--that two such powerful and authentic monastic systems of Qigong have been taught together. And creatively blended at that, if I do say so myself! Enjoy. Sifu Terry Dunn www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pitisukha Posted April 26, 2017 Hi Sifu Terry and all FP practitioners! I've a memory of sometime ago of reading here on the forum of upcoming new DVDs (FP n.6, and TTP?) and maybe an FP book, if I remember well... Are these any news about these? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tao stillness Posted April 26, 2017 (edited) I remember the answer to that question from Sifu Terry was that those projects would take some time and from that I got the impression that they were strong goals but finishing them this year was not set in stone due to other pressing projects Sifu Terry is also working on. Edited April 26, 2017 by tao stillness 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Astral_butterfly Posted April 27, 2017 Monk Holding Pearl is such a precious gift, and the figure of 8 movement it brings is so therapeutic. Does anyone think that I should start again with the warm-up if I do other meds afterwards? I followed up with another med (without warm-up due to time constraints) today and it was sublime. By the way I think that thanks to MHP I have gone up a notch in the quality of the meditation. It did something that unblocked a previous hurdle. The only thing that stops me from continuing this blissful MHP for hours is time constraints. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Enchanted Garden Posted April 27, 2017 Hello dear ones! Hopefully you won't mind my intrusion. I may be new to you guys, however I got to know many of you by reading this thread for some time. I've picked up Flying Phoenix Chi Kung about a month ago (rather miraculous events led me to this). I am grateful for so much input and feedback from the practitioners, and of course a special thanks to Sifu Terry for all his generous work. It is so rare that a teacher would participate and give so much further guidance - this speaks high of his character. Hopefully we won't take too much advantage of his precious time. But I guess the question that led me to post here (otherwise I never would, tooooo shy) has to be addressed to Sifu Terry. Reading through I haven't found the mentioning of it. So... Briefly will say that I started off right with the Long Form, since it didn't have strict prerequisites, and mainly because I have a problem with combining different exercises and also because currently I am able to put in only 20-30 minutes a day for practice. Today I will finish learning the 6/6 part of the form and then start to incorporate the breath sequence. Surprisingly I'm feeling stuff even without breath starters, just in the process of learning the movements. And couple hours after the session still feel strong currents up and down the body, oozing out of feet (so happy because I always had a problem with grounding, my feet would often be blue!), and palms all the way up to the elbows as if submerged into and circling warm water. Anyway, sorry for taking so long. I'll try to stay to the point... Couple days ago I found I'm pregnant with a second child. My question is - is Flying Phoenix Heavenly Healing Chi Meditation Long Form compatible with pregnancy, and if so up to which trimester? If not so, which meditations from the DVD1 and DVD2 (as I have them also) would be safe to practice? Thank you very much in advance. And I apologize if this question already got answered at some point in history. Nice to meet you all, Olga. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vajra Fist Posted April 27, 2017 Massive congratulations Olga 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Enchanted Garden Posted April 27, 2017 Massive congratulations Olga Thank you, Vajra Fist! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pitisukha Posted April 27, 2017 Welcome to the forum! Congratulations too!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Enchanted Garden Posted April 27, 2017 Welcome to the forum! Congratulations too!! I'm truly feeling welcomed. Thank you, pitisukha! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Astral_butterfly Posted April 27, 2017 Hello dear ones! Hopefully you won't mind my intrusion. I may be new to you guys, however I got to know many of you by reading this thread for some time. I've picked up Flying Phoenix Chi Kung about a month ago (rather miraculous events led me to this). I am grateful for so much input and feedback from the practitioners, and of course a special thanks to Sifu Terry for all his generous work. It is so rare that a teacher would participate and give so much further guidance - this speaks high of his character. Hopefully we won't take too much advantage of his precious time. But I guess the question that led me to post here (otherwise I never would, tooooo shy) has to be addressed to Sifu Terry. Reading through I haven't found the mentioning of it. So... Briefly will say that I started off right with the Long Form, since it didn't have strict prerequisites, and mainly because I have a problem with combining different exercises and also because currently I am able to put in only 20-30 minutes a day for practice. Today I will finish learning the 6/6 part of the form and then start to incorporate the breath sequence. Surprisingly I'm feeling stuff even without breath starters, just in the process of learning the movements. And couple hours after the session still feel strong currents up and down the body, oozing out of feet (so happy because I always had a problem with grounding, my feet would often be blue!), and palms all the way up to the elbows as if submerged into and circling warm water. Anyway, sorry for taking so long. I'll try to stay to the point... Couple days ago I found I'm pregnant with a second child. My question is - is Flying Phoenix Heavenly Healing Chi Meditation Long Form compatible with pregnancy, and if so up to which trimester? If not so, which meditations from the DVD1 and DVD2 (as I have them also) would be safe to practice? Thank you very much in advance. And I apologize if this question already got answered at some point in history. Nice to meet you all, Olga. Welcome to the forum Sifu Terry told me you can practice till the 8th month without any issue. Lovely meeting you ! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Enchanted Garden Posted April 27, 2017 Astral_butterfly, you made it so short and easy! Thank you so much for your input! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Astral_butterfly Posted April 27, 2017 Astral_butterfly, you made it so short and easy! Thank you so much for your input! Anytime! So happy to have you here Enchanted Garden! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Earl Grey Posted April 27, 2017 Welcome! Looks like we will have one of our first Flying Phoenix babies because of the massive amount of qi that you and your child will cultivate over the next few months! 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Astral_butterfly Posted April 27, 2017 Welcome! Looks like we will have one of our first Flying Phoenix babies because of the massive amount of qi that you and your child will cultivate over the next few months! That is what I was thinking! What a great chance for someone to be born filled with blue love 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Enchanted Garden Posted April 29, 2017 (edited) Something like this? Edited April 29, 2017 by Enchanted Garden Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Astral_butterfly Posted April 29, 2017 Something like this? Blue_Mother_2.jpg Blue_mother_1.jpg Wow, did you paint that, Enchanted Garden? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Enchanted Garden Posted April 29, 2017 Wow, did you paint that, Enchanted Garden? Nooo Just something that came up when I was searching for the Divine Mother images and then thought of a blue light that might be attributed to her. Before that I was somewhat uneasy about the whole concept. Seemed like I would be replacing my natural energy or aura that I was born with. Maybe someone could still clarify this for me. Would greatly appreciate it! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Astral_butterfly Posted April 29, 2017 Nooo Just something that came up when I was searching for the Divine Mother images and then thought of a blue light that might be attributed to her. Before that I was somewhat uneasy about the whole concept. Seemed like I would be replacing my natural energy or aura that I was born with. Maybe someone could still clarify this for me. Would greatly appreciate it! Oh I had a big discussion about that with one of the thread participants, I will try and find it for you. Sifu Terry responded satisfactorily. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Enchanted Garden Posted April 30, 2017 Oh I had a big discussion about that with one of the thread participants, I will try and find it for you. Sifu Terry responded satisfactorily. Ok, at least I'm not way off in my doubts. Thank you. I haven't had a chance to read all of the discussion thread yet. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
