Flying Phoenix Chi Kung

[Earl Grey]

46 minutes ago, centertime said:

I have some theories based on books and my own experience:

- When you do not see well, you retreat inwards... You back off the world because it is dangerous to be in touch with the world.

Let us say it can be..  One makes a decision to withdraw...   Also, you have less and less energy. therefore you do not have energy to see well... to expand... Your comfort zone gets smaller and smaller... You may become rigid and freeze.

-When you do Chi Kung... you unfreeze yourself.. patterns in the body.. tensions in the body.... because you move.

When you have a tension in yourself , it affects your body , not just your eyes..  Also, some tension in the eyes are mirrored on various  parts of the body which means if you move them... you relax them and they can affect your eyes as well.

You also start "softening" blockages.. and walls placed in your mind and in body. That is why people have nightmares when they tried to improve their eyes... because they release negative fears and experience kept under the wraps or buried.

So each time you do Chi Kung you soften your walls...blockages inside your bit by bit... Often it is not smooth process. Too much released is then people feel very bad performing some Chi Kung. Best Chi Kungs give your little side effects.

-Doing Chi Kung also allows you gather energy which can be used to solve "blockages"... Blockages can be considered to be created because of buried internal conflicts well...  They are reawakened when you do Chi Kung... However, good Chi Kung gives you good energies that allow you to solve previously unsolved conflicts better this time.. When that happens you may solve the problem, release blockages.. Chi flows better... you start healing.

-Blockages can be complicated....the energy network can be in bad state.. Then Chi Kung can overload the system... and you get "Chi deviation"....  Good Chi Kung releases your blockages in order that comes with the least suffering... Bad Chi Kung may start  releasing big blockages , then you get stuck because you cannot process it... It is a "meal" that is too heavy or too toxic..to "digest".

Good Chi Kung helps you to transform blockages into better energies.. (internal achemy) that allows you to process blockages easier. Good Chi Kung gives you the energy type/Chi that you miss, that you need to solve internal conflicts.  Less good Chi Kung gives your energies that do not help you much because you do not need those. It is like taking the right energy "vitamin".

- Eye blockages often come with  neck, shoulder/spine blockages as well.. so until those are resolved, eyes may not improve. In those cases, you can think Chi Kung does not work... or it may work just slowly and you do not notice it. Eye blockages can mean blockages in the head, brain..... As conflicts reawaken again, you may experience headaches again. So they may be temporary.

So it can be very complicated....

 

-Buddhist exercises.. can also make you less "walls"... as steer you beyond "the ego" that maintains those walls.. 

Blockages are not bad things..in themselves they are created to prevent energy overflow and burnout in the system. You create them when you cannot handle something in life. (A life situation in general or pain).However, if there are too many of them.. that the chance of healing is low... because Chi can flow very badly... In principle, blockages can resolve themselves ,this could happen on its own. Though some healing happens naturally but when you acquire more new blockages than you resolve...because of new bad life experiences. then your eyes sight gets worse..  As life goes on new challenges can come while you have not solved the old ones.. creating a downward spiral.

Now Chi Kung can speed up problem resolution.. so you may get more healing than new blockages,... In fact, you may resolve some ancient blockages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a bit hard to read your post because your formatting could be better.

 

While your experience is valid, the problem is that it does not conform to qigong theory. All it does is speak of your own health and response to your practice rather than being the expected development for everyone.

 

I would recommend going through the reading list on taichimania.com to clarify some conjecture you're making. In addition, the unique FP qi does not follow typical TCM theory, but it does have overlapping principles with how qi usually flows--except the FP qi is intelligent and goes where it should.

 

While you may mention Buddhist exercises or qi, you have to specify because there are multiple types of qi and different Buddhist schools and practices, different methods of qigong....so I'm a bit lost with trying to follow what you're trying to say,but what I can see is that it's confusing and doesn't seem to fall in line with FP specifically. Your post reads more like a journal entry, so at the very least, thanks for sharing.

[centertime]

On 2022. 03. 07. at 3:36 PM, Earl Grey said:

 

It's a bit hard to read your post because your formatting could be better.

 

While your experience is valid, the problem is that it does not conform to qigong theory. All it does is speak of your own health and response to your practice rather than being the expected development for everyone.

 

I would recommend going through the reading list on taichimania.com to clarify some conjecture you're making. In addition, the unique FP qi does not follow typical TCM theory, but it does have overlapping principles with how qi usually flows--except the FP qi is intelligent and goes where it should.

 

While you may mention Buddhist exercises or qi, you have to specify because there are multiple types of qi and different Buddhist schools and practices, different methods of qigong....so I'm a bit lost with trying to follow what you're trying to say,but what I can see is that it's confusing and doesn't seem to fall in line with FP specifically. Your post reads more like a journal entry, so at the very least, thanks for sharing.

What I tried to say.... is.....in detail and long post, that I tried to describe how healing works for eyes and in general.... and how Chi Kung worked in general...  not all, because I do not know all of them... just the ones I have tried.

 

Edited March 8, 2022 by centertime

[Earl Grey]

7 hours ago, centertime said:

What I tried to say.... is.....in detail and long post, that I tried to describe how healing works for eyes and in general.... and how Chi Kung worked in general...  not all, because I do not know all of them... just the ones I have tried.

 

Again: healing does not work for the eyes and in general based on what you wrote even if we go by TCM, this is best used in your personal journal because this is a Flying Phoenix thread, and Sifu Terry is ultimately the only authority of how FP may heal the eyes and its general healing potential.

 

What you wrote is a bit general and I don't see reference to how you came across this or if it is rooted in even TCM.

 

Let's focus on FP and leave the explanations to Sifu Terry instead of conjecture, which only confuses other readers.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Earl Grey

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

An update to my eye surgery results. Today I went for a post operation check up and my right eye has improved from prescription of -0.75 to -0.25, left eye has gotten a bit worse from a prescription of 0.00 to -0.50. Nothing really concerning, eyes are still healing and stabilising so having the numbers closer together is a good thing, will take months to fully heal. I hope by my next appointment in a month I can get them both to 0.00, which is ambitious since hardly anyone will have completely perfect eyesight like that, but -0.25 in both eyes would be the realistic result. Only time will tell.

 

Now for the interesting part, after I left the opticians office and walked through the lobby there was a big white statue of Guanyin on the TV in the waiting room. I had to stop and do a double take to make sure I was seeing it properly. I think it’s the Guanyin statue at Wat Huay Pla Kung in Chang Rai. I don’t believe this is a coincidence, especially since I’ve been doing FPCK! One day I have to personally visit that site to say thank you!

 

[centertime]

On 2022. 03. 09. at 4:59 PM, Pak_Satrio said:

An update to my eye surgery results. Today I went for a post operation check up and my right eye has improved from prescription of -0.75 to -0.25, left eye has gotten a bit worse from a prescription of 0.00 to -0.50. Nothing really concerning, eyes are still healing and stabilising so having the numbers closer together is a good thing, will take months to fully heal. I hope by my next appointment in a month I can get them both to 0.00, which is ambitious since hardly anyone will have completely perfect eyesight like th

 

 

Why did you go to surgery if you eye were improving because for Chi Kung?

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

2 hours ago, centertime said:

Why did you go to surgery if you eye were improving because for Chi Kung?

 

No amount of chi kung would make my eyes go from -11.25 to 0.00

[centertime]

9 hours ago, Pak_Satrio said:

 

No amount of chi kung would make my eyes go from -11.25 to 0.00

I see.. That is what you believe then.  You acted by your beliefs.

[Earl Grey]

15 minutes ago, centertime said:

I see.. That is what you believe then.  You acted by your beliefs.

 

What is your intention here? We are here to talk about FP and you seem to be set on pushing your views about qigong that so far, haven't had any sources cited or qualifications presented.

 

Please take a more sensible approach before you consider posting on this thread and derail it.

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

3 hours ago, centertime said:

I see.. That is what you believe then.  You acted by your beliefs.

Yes my belief in common sense 

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

An update on my eyes. Right eye has gone to 0.0, left eye is still at -0.50. Going to focus on getting the left eye to 0.0 for the next check up in two weeks! If I could get one eye from -0.75 to 0 I can definitely get the other one from -0.50 to 0!
 

[zen-bear]

On 3/6/2022 at 5:49 AM, Chainikas said:

Hi all,

I am learning Moonbeam Splashes on Water  and need some clarification.

1. How many times extended arms in front of body goes down and up (in DVD with voice it says 2.5 cycle: down up, down up, down, and in demonstration www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWJsEElHygQ at 1:30 its 1.5 cycle).

2. After presses and pushes. When swinging arms left and then right: does head need to follow right hand till the end like in youtube video at 4:03, or stop just facing forward at left hand like in DVD with voice.

Thank you.

 

Hi Chainikas,

 

1.  You float the arms up to shoulder level and then lower to the thighs two times.  (This is the movement that's similar to the opening movement in all Tai Chi forms but is done in the wide horse-riding stance [ma bu]).

* I said "2.5" times on the DVD because I counted the preceding movement of the arms lowering movement from shoulder level as the first ".5".  And in the Death Valley intro footage on that Youtube video, I abbreviated to one round so the montage wouldn't seem monotonous.  But do 2 rounds as per the DVD instruction.

 

2.   You can face the right hand at the end of that posture that I call a prototype of "Fan Through the the Back" in Tai Chi (just before the tilt towards the left rear corner) or you can look straight ahead as in the DVD (as per Earl Grey's correct advice).   But either way, you want to have your mind (closed eyes visualization) on the right palm when the arm extended down the right normal at shoulder level.

 

• Here is another video reference for you to use, in which I do the two  "Moonbeam" at an optimally slow speed.  'Shot this in Feb. 2019, which is 15+ years after I produced the CKFH DVD series:

 

 

Enjoy your practice of "Moonbeam Splashes On Water."

 

Sifu Terry Dunn

 

http://www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html 

Edited March 21, 2022 by zen-bear

[Earl Grey]

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

 

The following individual in this Youtube video is demonstrating gross misunderstanding of the Flying Phoenix capstone Long Form Meditation--start to finish--and thus of Flying Phoenix Qigong as a system, according to an aghast Sifu Terry Dunn. Sifu Terry advises FPCK subscribers to avoid this video and not to learn anything from it except what NOT to do with one's bad habits carried over from external styles.

 

 

 

 

This is the comment I have posted that was done while meeting and conferring with Sifu Terry: 

 

Quote

Here's what an unqualified, uncertified instructor looks like doing the Flying Phoenix capstone form that shows it's completely wrong from the very first two movements onwards. This was brought to my attention by Sifu Terry Dunn, who said that "this is wrong from start to finish, and no matter what he thinks he is doing, this is neither qigong nor is it Flying Phoenix Qigong. I'm only sorry that I missed this video for almost four years. I couldn't even watch it from start to finish in one sitting because it's so painful to see that I had to stop at numerous points to grimace. The impression left by viewing this video grows on you the wrong way, like realizing that you just had bad seafood."

As Sifu Terry's student, I am personally sorrier that I spent five minutes on this and have never heard him give such a scathing and dismissive critique before to anyone. As Popeye says, "Enough's enough and I've had enough."

To compare, see the DVD or his video performing here in Glacier National Park and also the demo by his beginning workshop student, Dr. Emil Mondoa (an emergency room physician in Bear, Delaware), done within one year of taking Sifu Terry's workshop and working with the DVDs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by Earl Grey

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

These last few weeks while I’ve been recovering from my eye surgery my vision has been fluctuating from perfect to blurry. This is normal and will last for a few months until my eyes are fully healed but it’s given me a good opportunity to test the effect of FPCK on the eyes. So today I started with Wind Through the Treetops, then Moonbeam Splashes on the Water, then Monk Holds Peach, then Monk Holds Pearl then Wind Above the Clouds. The interesting thing was before I started my eyes were blurry, but after doing each exercise they got clearer and clearer. It was like watching a video from 360p to 480p to 720p to 1080p up to 4k. It didn’t last the rest of the day, due to my eyes still healing and adjusting from the surgery but was interesting to notice the immediate results effects on vision after practice.

 

Anyone else have similar experiences?

[centertime]

10 hours ago, Pak_Satrio said:

These last few weeks while I’ve been recovering from my eye surgery my vision has been fluctuating from perfect to blurry. This is normal and will last for a few months until my eyes are fully healed but it’s given me a good opportunity to test the effect of FPCK on the eyes. So today I started with Wind Through the Treetops, then Moonbeam Splashes on the Water, then Monk Holds Peach, then Monk Holds Pearl then Wind Above the Clouds. The interesting thing was before I started my eyes were blurry, but after doing each exercise they got clearer and clearer. It was like watching a video from 360p to 480p to 720p to 1080p up to 4k. It didn’t last the rest of the day, due to my eyes still healing and adjusting from the surgery but was interesting to notice the immediate results effects on vision after practice.

 

Anyone else have similar experiences?

I noticed Monk Gazing at Moon had some effect on my eyes. I had similar experience with other types of Chi Kung... things clearing up...

Edited March 27, 2022 by centertime

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

An interesting result from the opticians this week! My right eye has got worse and gone down to -0.50 from zero, while my left eye has improved from -0.50 to -0.25. Seems like they are still stabilising. Still have a few more months healing to go, my optician recommended I get another check up in 3 months so will see how my results change again then. Maybe trying to get both eyes to zero is a bit ambitious since no one will have completely perfect eyesight, but I can still try. Either way I will be happy if FPCK can get me as close to zero as I can get!

 

[oreothecookie]

Hello everyone!!!

 

It has been a long time that i didnt come to this forum, i can see that the community is still very active 😃.

I practiced Flying phoenix chi kung for almost 2 years, ten years back, and i stopped after for some personal issues. I gave it another try the past few days,and i can feel almost immediately the nice feeling that it gives, calming, reassuring, sensé of peace and clarity, it feels like an old friend.

I came here as well because  I had a question related to the sport i am practicing, i am a fencer, and i was wondering if maybe Sifu Terry knew some systems that could help to be more efficient in this sport, i guess it's not that far from kung fu, you have to have a great deal of agility, speed, réflexs and accuracy if you want to be in the zone to face your opponent.

 

Thanks in advance,

Best to all of you.

Keep the spirit alive

[growant]

Hi Sifu Terry, for the basic seated unmoving FP meditation with breathing sequence 50-10-50, can the hands rest on the thighs/knees if an elderly person is practicing who doesn't have the strength to hold the hands mid-air for a long period of time?

[Miffymog]

My FPCK is ticking long quite nicely.

One of the things I have added to it recently is a simple stretching routine so I can start moving towards sitting in half lotus. Researching into the type of stretches I could do to do this by searching on this website gave me some very good resources. This is the book I brought to help me and I bought it second-hand for just £3 on eBay.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Becoming-Lotus-Achieve-Full-Posture/dp/1885928181/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2JK6M2PD56VQV&keywords=Becoming+the+lotus&qid=1652341814&sprefix=becoming+the+lotus%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-2

 

After 2 months of stretches I can now sit quite comfortably in the Burmese posture and this is being a good improvement on sitting on a low table. In time, I would like to be able to sit half Lotus on both sides, but as I only do 15 minutes of stretches every other day I think full Lotus may be too far for me.

 

 

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

On 5/2/2022 at 3:36 PM, growant said:

Hi Sifu Terry, for the basic seated unmoving FP meditation with breathing sequence 50-10-50, can the hands rest on the thighs/knees if an elderly person is practicing who doesn't have the strength to hold the hands mid-air for a long period of time?

Hi growant, I believe this is correct as Sifu Terry performed it this way during the last zoom class I attended with him. 

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

50 minutes ago, NickC said:

My FPCK is ticking long quite nicely.

One of the things I have added to it recently is a simple stretching routine so I can start moving towards sitting in half lotus. Researching into the type of stretches I could do to do this by searching on this website gave me some very good resources. This is the book I brought to help me and I bought it second-hand for just £3 on eBay.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Becoming-Lotus-Achieve-Full-Posture/dp/1885928181/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2JK6M2PD56VQV&keywords=Becoming+the+lotus&qid=1652341814&sprefix=becoming+the+lotus%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-2

 

After 2 months of stretches I can now sit quite comfortably in the Burmese posture and this is being a good improvement on sitting on a low table. In time, I would like to be able to sit half Lotus on both sides, but as I only do 15 minutes of stretches every other day I think full Lotus may be too far for me.

 

 

Nice find! Will keep an eye out for the book! 

[Miffymog]

43 minutes ago, Pak_Satrio said:

Nice find! Will keep an eye out for the book! 

 

If you're interested, this link covers some of the more advanced stretches that are in the book, but I can't really do these yet 

 

http://zenmontpellier.net/eng/lotus/lotuseng.html

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

59 minutes ago, NickC said:

 

If you're interested, this link covers some of the more advanced stretches that are in the book, but I can't really do these yet 

 

http://zenmontpellier.net/eng/lotus/lotuseng.html

Oh cool! Will try them out!

[Earl Grey]

Dear all

 

A reminder that we are also on AG where most updates are posted due to more visibility there. The Dao Bums does not let non-members view this thread, but you don't need to be a member to view us on AG and see recent posts or extractions from this thread's history as highlights of Sifu Terry's wisdom, such as this one here:

 

https://forum.alchemical.garden/threads/89/post-1760

 

Quote

Hello Steve,

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and the interesting supporting experiences about this absolutely absurd theory by a degreed academic who by every indication simply pulled it out his behind (where his severely compromised brain seems to reside). I didn't know that you had observed a daily program of Mindfulness meditation at your place of work for 9 years. That, in my arrogant opinion, represents far more reliable data from observation than whatever statistical research this Ph.D. from Oxford conveniently massaged and mislabeled to come up with his farcical theory.

Yes, it goes without saying from my scree--but I'll also say it here since you and ridingtheox make the point: any symptoms of psychosis that surface while a person is doing meditation such as mindfulness only indicate that the person was psychotic prior to doing mindfulness. Just like psychotics reveal themselves while under hypnosis with the wide and slow rolling of the head and neck (that can be quite eerie and unnerving to the layman).

Your story about the professor at Northwestern who wrote a book denying the Holocaust is even worse than my experience of an academic fool and idiot, a Japanese "scholar", who was teaching a course in ancient Chinese philosophy at Yale. During the very first class I attended, he got up and expounded his belief that all the mystical writings and visionary art created by the ancient Taoists and early Buddhists resulted from practicing meditation with abnormal breathing methods that caused oxygen depletion and an excess of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the blood, which impaired their brain functions, which caused them all to hallucinate. That was an example of sheer ignorance and pride in stupidity acting under the guise and protection of "scholarship". For his mind--like that of many spiritually blind and earthbound spirits in his race--could not fathom or make any sense out of the staggeringly precise organic and naturalistic observations of the Taoists and early Buddhists. So CO2 poisoning was this jackass's contribution to the study of ancient Chinese philosophy, entirely missing the point that ancient Taoist and Buddhist philosophy and religion are systems of applied yoga, as my favorite heroic scholar of the past, W.Y. Evans-Wentz, elucidated. But some nitwit heading up the Philosophy Department at Yale actually gave him a visiting teaching post. I had just been introduced to Kung Fu during my first year at Yale and had begun learning it from my good friend and classmate who was an adept and from Sifu Douglas Wong in Los Angeles who I had sought out during my summer break--but I had bare minimum experience in Qigong and meditation at that time. Nevertheless, something in me became incensed by this Japanese professor's arid and totally unfounded theory about CO2-induced hallucinations that I instantly got up and walked out of the class, trying to spit the taste of his stupidity out of my mouth, and obviously never to return. Looking back, I see that instance of witnessing "the blind leading the innocent" at that tender age caused me mark the first calibration on my "Weird-Shit-O-Meter" to "proud and blind."

I have never gone out of my way to belittle or mock stupid people's ideas and chicanery--unless it rises to the level of a public menace--because fools and dolts can't help themselves and don't know any better, and the Zen view is that they are "perfect in their ignorance." But when it comes to an over-educated fool like this Oxford-trained Ph.D. to publish such an absolutely ridiculous and preposterous idea with no clinical proof whatsoever, and style it as a warning to all meditators and mental health professionals worldwide, and then talk vague nonsense about it in the interview using gobbledygook new age homilies as justification--simply caused my Weird-O-Meter to register off its scale and me to go incendiary.

Thanks again for your views.

 

[Miffymog]

The calming nature of Flying Phoenix and has really benefited me, and this is most noticeable when I perform practises that I had before I started Flying Phoenix.

 

For example my Eight Brocades stretches feels much better, and I'm much more able to relax into my ZZ stances.

 

However, I'm always on the lookout for more practices I can do that complement Flying Phoenix, and one way I'm doing that is by reading the Flying Phoenix thread that is now over 10 years old.

 

This keeps leading me to books and practises that were common knowledge on the Dao Bums website years ago, but I'm only now just discovering.

 

The last discovery I had of this was in regards to the stretches you can do to get into full lotus, but my current one is the discovery of Swimming Dragon Qi Gong.

 

I have to be careful with what I do with my back, but this is a lovely gentle exercise that, like Flying Phoenix, generates a very soothing energy.

 

There are numerous tutorials on YouTube explaining how to do this very simple exercise, and I also purchased this book to give me extra guidance. It's not necessary for the practise, but it does give some interesting background information.

 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2022 by NickC

[BluePhoenix133]

Nice i have been doing stretches recently to try to achieve lotus posture, although not consistenly.

£119 for that book though.....Jesus.