Flying Phoenix Chi Kung

[cihan]

 Is it just my particular case, to start strongly in the arms?

Hi Julian, at the beginning, for some people, forearm hairs feel like loaded with static electric, when raising them  as in Monk Gazing at the Moon, somebody else I forgot who also mentioned it on this forum, but the effect was not permanent in my case. Arms and hands circulate the energy, so they seem to get charged initially.

[cihan]

 I would much rather encounter an elemental than wake up in sleep paralysis with a grey alien standing at the foot of my bed lol

If you can tell the difference, then you are my hero :-)

[tao stillness]

The hands and arms getting charged with energy was my experience also. It was then hit and miss, it would not happen each time I did a FP meditation. I find there is more chi to feel late at night, but only if I am not fatigued.

[Aeran]

I found the seated meditations, especially MSW1, would produce strong sensations in the arms, almost like a warm steam rising up off them.

[zen-bear]

Good discussion by Joolian, Cihan and Aeran about the tangible energization of the arms while practicing FP Qigong.  FP Qigong is a complete Qigong system that will cultivate the superabundance of FP Healing Energy to perfect good health in oneself and that will heal others in the practitioner's environment, and it will develop the same kind of frictionless body mechanics as the Chinese internal martial arts (Tai Chi Chuan, Ba Gua, Xing-I, Liu He Ba Fa, etc.).  Those FP Practitioners who are already advanced in these internal energy martial arts will find that their body mechanics will accelerate their progress in FP Qi cultivation and make their experience of the FP Healing Energy all the more profound.

 

Reminder to all who are presently focussed on the energy sensations experienced through the arms:  The goal of the FP Qigong system is to develop proficiency in the Long From Standing Meditation (FLHHCM) taught on Volume 4, which is the capstone exercise of the system.  For that moving meditation, along with all the standing moving meditations--Bending the Bows, Wind through Treetops, Wind Above the Clouds, and an d Moonbeam Splashes on Water, facilitates the internal energy flows and develops the "external" body mechanics to make the internal energy connection between the lower body and the upper body --through the Gua.  In all internal martial arts systems, practitioners normally first have tangible experience of the chi in the upper body, head arms.  Then in the legs.  And then finally after years of persevering training, the connection between energy flow in the milestone physical achievement of total body integration is realized.  The sign that total body integration is achieved in the Flying Phoenix system:

 

Whenever one moves a hand or foot in an FP Meditation--or even in normal every day waking life--one feels the energy move or change inside the body mass at the exact same height in perfect correspondence to the movement of the limb(s).

 

All this is to say:  enjoy all the sublime sensations of the wonderful Monk Serves Wine seated meditations.  But remember that the standing FP meditations are more powerful (stated many times in the past), and both standing and seated FP Meds are to be practiced thoroughly to derive the full benefits of the system.

 

Good practicing.

 

Sifu Terry Dunn

 

_{www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html}

[zen-bear]

Not to sidetrack this thread's discussion of the practice and effects of Flying Phoenix Heavenly Healing Chi Kung, but I want to post here what I posted this morning on my social media networks about this  article interviewing this Oxford-educated researcher on meditation who has written a book titled, "The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You?" that asserts that there is a "dark side" to meditation and that "severe difficulties" are experienced by 7% of all who practice (insight) meditation such (such as mindfulness meditation).  To my amazement, he conflates these "severe difficulties" with "possible psychoses" and states that "meditation can lead people into possible psychosis"!

 

I had long hard laughs from reading this article, for it is a prime example of the pseudo-scientific horse shit that gets circulated on the internet.  But a day after I wrote  excoriation of Dr. Miguel Farias' theory of meditation "leading people into psychoses," I discovered online that he has  degrees in psychology and psychotherapy from Univ. of Lisbon and Oxford University (a Ph.D.), did postdoctoral research at the Ian Ramsey Centre in Oxford, worked as a research associate at the Psychology of Religion Group in Cambridge, and lectured at the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford. In 2014, he joined Coventry University to lead the Brain, Belief and Behaviour research group.  Being utterly amazed that Oxford could graduate a person so inane who would later posit a thesis so preposterous, I stand by my critique just the same and am all the more flabbergasted by his statements in this article.

 

Because Farias' brow-raising theory deals with the subject of meditation, which has everything to do with everything we do here with Flying Phoenix Qigong, am posted it here in order to get feedback from FP practitioners, especially those with decades of meditation experience like Tao Stillness to share their thoughts about this Ph.D's book thesis!

 

This all started as a 2-liner short post on Facebook, but after I read the article more closely and found it to be a load of sloppy detritus, it turned into a scathing critique and condemnation.  Y'all will surely get a kick out of this:

 

Title of article and question for the day:  "Can Mindfulness Meditation Have Negative Side Effects?"

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/episode-237-the-cost-of-the-senate-audit-the-cheater-s-high-parkour-prison-breaks-more-1.3109635/can-mindfulness-meditation-have-negative-side-effects-1.3109670

 

Answer:   Yes, meditation has plenty of "negative" side effects. They collectively are called "grist for the mill". There is no such as meditation without tears.

 

But Dr. Miguel Farias of Univ. of Coventry believes that "meditation can lead people into possible psychosis":

 

"So one study suggests that these very severe bad experiences can happen in up to 7% of the people. However, most long-term meditators will have experienced at least one difficult experience - not a severe as this, but they will have experienced something like unexpected deep anger or anxiety."

 

My reaction: "SO WHAT!!"

 

As for his absurd "theory" that meditation can cause "possible psychoses" in up to 7% of those who meditate and report, that is a hilarious but very serious load of bunkum, propounded, I presume, solely for the purpose of getting attention, creating controversy, and upping sales of his book.

 

In my experience, undiagnosed psychosis can manifest during hypnotherapy and is indicated a particular set of involuntary physical movements (that is eerie and quite creepy for most non-psychotics to observe in proximity).  Obviously, deep meditation can bring hidden (already existing) psychoses to surface. But to actually cause psychosis?!!--what is this Dr. Farias on--acid laced with speed?

 

One paragraph reflecting Dr. Farias's expertise really caught my eye, so I decided to dissect it here and and comment on each sentence:

 

What do you think is happening in the process of meditation that's leading people into a possible psychosis?

Meditation has always been a self-exploration technique. We need to have a holistic understanding of who we are. We have lots of hidden room within ourselves. So we have a great propensity towards being good and compassionate, but there's also within us the propensity for aggression and violence. And for a very good reason: survival. So when we start shaking up the deeper structures of who we are exploring ourselves, it's perfectly normal that we find out something unexpected about ourselves. And sometimes we're not at the stage at which we're ready to deal with this material, which is probably what is happening to the people who have suffered most severely from meditating. However, there are some psychiatrists who would claim that within this crisis there is the possibility of spiritual growth. I don't know. I sit on the fence here. What I'm dealing with right now is the necessity to address that there are these potentially very harmful psychological effects coming out of meditation techniques whether they are transcendental meditation or mindfulness. And we need to be aware of this.

 

 

MY COMMENTARY (in blue CAPS):

 

For starters, "Doctor" Farias's definition of meditation is New Age horseshit.

 

INTERVIEWER: What do you think is happening in the process of meditation that's leading people into a possible psychosis?

MF: Meditation has always been a self-exploration technique

• NO, IT IS NOT A SELF-EXPLORATION TECHNIQUE.  MEDITATION HAS CERTAINLY HAS DEVOLVED INTO ITS PRESENTLY POPULAR, ILL-TAUGHT PRACTICE;  BUT THE ANCIENTS NEVER USED IT FOR SELF-EXPLORATION.  INSIGHT FOLLOWS CHANGE; NEVER PRECEDES IT.  AND QUIET SITTING DOESN'T CAUSE CHANGE, EXCEPT WHEN DONE LONG ENOUGH, ONE MIGHT HAVE TO GET UP TO PEE.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

(4) Meditation without sufficient preparation through having heard and pondered the Doctrine is apt to lead to the error of losing oneself in the darkness of unconsciousness. [1]

[1] This refers to that mental chaos or delusion which is the antithesis of the mental discipline acquired by right practice of yoga under a wise guru's guidance.

                                  --The fourth of "Ten Errors", Section X. of "Precepts of the Gurus" in

                                   "Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines", translated by W.Y. Evans-Wentz.

 

This passage, btw, spells out the whole problem since time immemorial with ill-taught insight meditation, which is more prone to happen as self-guided meditation techniques have been faddish for years and has become more and more popular in America and the west with derivative methods such as Mindfulness Meditation. Insight meditation/Mindfulness is fine and calming and great to teach kids in school in order to improve focus and concentration, but a good and wise instructor is absolutely essential for adolescents and adults, in order to prevent them from being fed perverse views, or getting stuck in any of the three major pitfalls on the path of spiritual growth: fear, clarity, and power. (I am not so much a proponent of insight meditation, because that modality is too easy to be manipulated by charlatans and I don't like to see people giving up their power to gurus, but am a very strong proponent of concentrative meditation [into which all the Chinese martial, yogic and healing arts generally fall] and the spiritual path of martial Zen that these arts facilitate.)

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

 

We need to have a holistic understanding of who we are.

• AS IF YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON WHO HAS THIS HOLISTIC UNDERSTANDING.

 

We have lots of hidden room within ourselves.

• I THINK I'LL FURNISH MY HIDDEN ROOM WITH FLOOR-TO-CEILING TV, NHK SPEAKERS, LAVA LAMPS, HOOKA PIPE, A FEW BEAN BAG CHAIRS, NORDIC TRACK, AND A DANCER'S POLE.

 

So we have a great propensity towards being good and compassionate, but there's also within us the propensity for aggression and violence. And for a very good reason: survival.

• OH, SO, LIKE, YOU'RE AN IDIOT, RIGHT? --TO HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING THAT INANE?

 

So when we start shaking up the deeper structures of who we are exploring ourselves,

•MAYBE A HARI KRISHNA JAMBOREE WILL SHAKE UP "DEEPER STRUCTURES OF WHO WE ARE" WITH THEIR PATENTED JUMPING BEAN ENEMAS--IN THE WORDS OF BERKELEY/VENICE BEACH/GREENWICH VILLAGE COMEDIAN SWAMI-X, OR PERHAPS IN THE THIRD MONTH OF PRIMAL THERAPY WITH ART JANOV HIMSELF, ONE WILL BE ABLE TO FACE THE MOST DEEP-SEATED PAIN(S) THAT A PERSON HAS SPENT AN ENTIRE LIFETIME BUILDING NEUROTIC DEFENSES TO NOT EVER HAVE TO FEEL, BUT NOTHING AS PSYCHOTHERAPEUTICALLY INERT AS MINDFULNESS MEDITATION OR ANY TYPE OF INSIGHT MEDITATION CAN SHAKE UP SHIT --I.E., BRING INTO CONSCIOUSNESS ANYTHING THAT RISES ABOVE GRIST FOR THE MILL--UNLESS ONE GETS A SURPRISE VISITATION FROM THE MAHAKALA OR ONE OF ZHENWU'S FIVE DRAGON LORDS.

 

...it's perfectly normal that we find out something unexpected about ourselves.

•THIS DEFINITION OF "NORMALCY" IS SO PROFOUND, THAT I MUST READ IT MANY, MANY TIMES OVER, AND THEN LAMINATE IT AND PUT IT ON MY WALL, AND USE IT AS A DAILY MANTRA.

 

And sometimes we're not at the stage at which we're ready to deal with this material, which is probably what is happening to the people who have suffered most severely from meditating.

• THIS CONCLUSION IS PURE CONJECTURE AND SPECULATION PREMISED ON ONE HELL OF AN INANE ANTECEDENT. BUT FOR DR. MIGUEL FARIAS, PURE CONJECTURE BASED ON AN INANITY = THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD. AND THE FACT THAT THIS IS ALL HE HAS TO SAY IN AN INTERVIEW ABOUT HIS BOOK INDICATES THAT THAT IS ALL HE HAS IN HIS BOOK TO JUSTIFY HIS COCKAMAMY CONCLUSIONS AND PREPOSTEROUS THEORY.   (OH, YOU MEAN THAT 7% OF ALL MEDITATORS WHO HAVE SUFFERED "MOST SEVERELY"--BY YOUR SCIENTIFIC METRICS OF SUFFERING, WHICH YOU ALSO DEFINE AS AN AT-RISK GROUP FOR "POSSIBLE PSYCHOSIS.")

 

However, there are some psychiatrists who would claim that within this crisis there is the possibility of spiritual growth.

• THREE POINTS:

(1) WHY DO YOU, DR. FARIAS, DEFER TO "SOME PSYCHIATRISTS" AND NOT MAKE THIS PROFOUND CONCLUSION YOURSELF--THAT "WITHIN THIS CRISIS THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH"?

(2) SINCE WHEN DO PSYCHIATRISTS KNOW DIDDLY SHIT ABOUT SPIRITUAL GROWTH? UNLESS THEY ALL TRADED IN THEIR M.D.'S FOR DOCTORATES IN DIVINITY (AND EVEN THEN...), OR HAVE RECENTLY BEEN CALLED AND ANOINTED EN MASSE BY GOD, THE LAST I KNEW OF THEM, THEY ARE ONLY TRAINED TO DIAGNOSE MENTAL ILLNESS, PRESCRIBE DRUGS AND SURGERIES, AND TEACH THE LANGUAGE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS THAT ALLOWS PATIENTS TO TALK ABOUT THEIR PROBLEMS FOR 10 YEARS AT $300/HOUR AND NEVER SOLVE ONE PROBLEM.

(3) BUT I LOVE THIS GUY, FOR HIS CRAZY-ASS SEGUE ARRIVES AT THIS CONCLUSION: PSYCHOTICS CAN NOW ATTAIN SPIRITUAL GROWTH. WHY, HE'S JUST MADE A DISCOVERY THAT IS UTTERLY MIRACULOUS! ]

 

I don't know. I sit on the fence here. What I'm dealing with right now is the necessity to address that there are these potentially very harmful psychological effects coming out of meditation techniques whether they are transcendental meditation or mindfulness. And we need to be aware of this.

**NO, DOCTOR FARIAS, YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE SITTING NOT ON A FENCE, BUT ON YOUR BRAIN. BECAUSE YOU HAVE SHIT FOR BRAINS AND YOUR HEAD IS IN YOUR ASS. THEREFORE, YOU ARE SITTING ON YOUR BRAINS. Q.E.D.

 

I will post this on the Flying Phoenix Chi Kung discussion thread on Daobums.com, followed by 440,000+ Qigong/meditation practitioners worldwide, because Dr. Farias' theory, created by piling alternating layers of bunkum and hokum, has attained new heights in the world of horse shit.

(Bunkum = nonsense; hokum = pretentious nonsense.)

Edited March 2, 2016 by zen-bear

[zen-bear]

Hello to all:

 

This morning I started a new discussion thread in GROUP STUDIES titled,

 

"Meditation can lead people into possible psychosis," according by Dr. Miguel Farias, author of "The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You?"

 

by posting the above scree (#3606) there.

 

If there any FP practitioners or followers of this thread who want to comment on the article about Farias's research on meditation, please post them on this new thread. 

 

It's already gotten off to a good start with lots of interesting responders.

 

Thanks.

 

Sifu Terry Dunn

Edited February 20, 2016 by zen-bear

[ridingtheox]

psychologists and psychiatrists have a much larger probability of confusing correlation and causation than most 'hard scientists.'

 

I have not read the article thoughtfully,  but that's what I think sifu dunn is exposing.     Some people who beginto meditate come to the process with extant psychoses or an insecurity that leads them to psychoses   ... perhaps.  I have met a few meditators who seemed to have problems   but   causation    not    proved maybe not proveable .

 

Hypothetically,  I can imagine individuals with mystical/magical beliefs  drifting deeper into delusion by  spending much time alone and in their own  mind.  But are they meditating?  How do you demonstrate that if the only evidence is that they sit/stand/lie quietly for periods of time? 

 

enough  this may be deeper water than i thought 

[tao stillness]

OK Sifu Terry, I will be glad to comment on this. I am trained as a teacher of the Transcendental Meditation programme. I have been doing this meditation for the past 42 years. It has more documented scientific research than probably all other types of meditation combined, and in my experience it leads to the deepest possible states of meditation. I am also a recently retired clinical psychologist. I have to wonder if the author of that book has ever done any meditation himself or what kind of research he has done on the benefits of meditation. I am only going to make two main points.

Number one, in 1975 on the Merv Griffin show he devoted one show to Transcendental Meditation and one of his guests was Dr. Bernard Gluck, Jr., head of the Institute for Living which is the oldest private psychiatric hospital in the United States. Dr. Gluck stated that Transcendental Meditation was taught to a number of the hospital's patients who were all considered to be severely mentally ill, schizophrenic. All of them significantly improved and their medications dosages were able to be decreased as a result.

My other point is that I totally agree with Ridingtheox. If someone becomes psychotic as a result of meditation, the chances are, in my opinion, that they were already psychotic before learning mindfulness. I also discount the article because I find mindfulness meditation to be the most superficial type of meditation so it would be hard for me to believe that it could cause any damage. It usually only produces alpha waves which is the same state of mind as when one daydreams. Therefore, daydreaming might also lead to psychosis if we follow this kind of logic. Like Sifu Terry, I too wonder about a brilliant, well educated professor who writes nonsense. Such a case happened not that many years ago when a professor at prestigious Northwestern University wrote a book claiming that the Holocaust never really happened in history! I think this shows that even highly educated professors can be psychotic. I would enjoy writing more about this but it is time for me to do my meditation for tonight.

I forgot to mention that the last mental health center that I worked at for 9 years had a mindfullness meditation group every day. Our patients were at the level of state hospital care and not one of them ever had a bad experience from meditation. Enough said.

Edited February 21, 2016 by tao stillness

[zen-bear]

OK Sifu Terry, I will be glad to comment on this. I am trained as a teacher of the Transcendental Meditation programme. I have been doing this meditation for the past 42 years. It has more documented scientific research than probably all other types of meditation combined, and in my experience it leads to the deepest possible states of meditation. I am also a recently retired clinical psychologist. I have to wonder if the author of that book has ever done any meditation himself or what kind of research he has done on the benefits of meditation. I am only going to make two main points.

Number one, in 1975 on the Merv Griffin show he devoted one show to Transcendental Meditation and one of his guests was Dr. Bernard Gluck, Jr., head of the Institute for Living which is the oldest private psychiatric hospital in the United States. Dr. Gluck stated that Transcendental Meditation was taught to a number of the hospital's patients who were all considered to be severely mentally ill, schizophrenic. All of them significantly improved and their medications dosages were able to be decreased as a result.

My other point is that I totally agree with Ridingtheox. If someone becomes psychotic as a result of meditation, the chances are, in my opinion, that they were already psychotic before learning mindfulness. I also discount the article because I find mindfulness meditation to be the most superficial type of meditation so it would be hard for me to believe that it could cause any damage. It usually only produces alpha waves which is the same state of mind as when one daydreams. Therefore, daydreaming might also lead to psychosis if we follow this kind of logic. Like Sifu Terry, I too wonder about a brilliant, well educated professor who writes nonsense. Such a case happened not that many years ago when a professor at prestigious Northwestern University wrote a book claiming that the Holocaust never really happened in history! I think this shows that even highly educated professors can be psychotic. I would enjoy writing more about this but it is time for me to do my meditation for tonight.

I forgot to mention that the last mental health center that I worked at for 9 years had a mindfullness meditation group every day. Our patients were at the level of state hospital care and not one of them ever had a bad experience from meditation. Enough said.

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 "Wierd-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 Wierd-O-Meter to register off its scale and me to go incendiary.

 

Thanks again for your views.

 

Best,

 

Sifu Terry Dunn

Edited March 3, 2016 by zen-bear

[tao stillness]

For those seekers on the path who do Flying Phoenix Chi Kung or another ancient Chinese method for evolution of Consciousness or just plain old well being and who might not know which opinions to accept as valid concerning the dangers or non-danger of mindfulness meditation, I want to share just a tidbit of my own experience. When the founder of Transcendental Meditation, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, conducted an experimental one month course at the completion of our teacher training course in 1976, almost all of us, as predicted, went into temporary states of higher consciousness which were the same experiences that mystics, yogis, adepts, Taoist, Buddhist, Zen, Christian saints and others around the world at different times throughout history have written and spoken about. My own experience and conclusion at that time was that it was without doubt the most natural state of mind anyone could ever be in. It was the experience of one's own True Self. Only those who have had this state of consciousness could possibly understand how this is our real nature. It is the furthest experience from a hallucination that anyone could possibly have. Therefore, the Oxford professor created his treatise from an unnatural state of mind which is the same condition that everyone else is experiencing the world from unless they have been awakened from a physiological change in brain functioning which  produces normal states of consciousness.  I have worked with brilliant, well educated psychiatrists who are considered to be experts of the human mind just because of their training. Yet they are some of the most closed minded people I have met when it comes to educating them about higher states of normal human functioning which they have no clue about. The rare exception is David Hawkins, MD who is a psychiatrist now living in Arizona. As a youth he spontaneously went into higher states of consciousness which he has described in all of his enlightened books. Clients who sought him out in New York City were at times healed just being in his presence because of the energy that he spontaneously emitted which was the vibration of love, the greatest healing agent of them all. He had to hire a staff of over 20 therapists to handle the clients that sought him out and he had to eventually  give up his practice to escape from the huge demand for his services. But he is someone who teaches from his experiences, whereas the Oxford professor seems to be teaching from his opinions. My teacher used to say, "knowledge is structured in consciousness." And knowledge comes from direct experience plus intellectual understanding.

[pitisukha]

“Just as a solid rock is not shaken by the storm, even so the wise are not affected by praise or blame.”

The Buddha

[zen-bear]

To All:

Opening today at the USC Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, CA is a rare and excellent exhibition called, "Royal Taste: the Art of Princely Courts in Fifteenth Century China" that features paintings, religious statuary, jewelry, porcelains, and lifestyle accouterments created during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) that are utterly exquisite and in many cases breath-taking.

http://pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu/…/exh…/2016/RoyalTaste.aspx

http://www.latimes.com/…/la-ca-cm-royal-taste-usc-pacific-a…

Last Monday--all made possible by my friend Catherine Young, I gave a fun lecture to 30 docents at the museum about "the significance of "Chi" (Qi) in Chinese culture and art." My talk began with discussion of ancient Chinese astronomy mapping the heavens, astrology, the mythological Four Symbols plus the central Yellow Dragon correlating to Wuxing--5 elements (or 5 phase changes), and Yin Yang Theory. Then I discussed the wide range of Taoist spiritual and lay practices that flowed from this cosmology: fengshui, I Ching divination, traditional Chinese medicine, meditative arts like Qigong, and martial arts such as Tai Chi, which was created at Wudangshan in the 13th century, and Taoist spiritualism and exorcistic rites. Because the 3rd Ming Emperor, Yongle, patronized and endowed Wudangshan Taoism in spectacular manner, building the most prominent palaces and highest temples on Wudangshan (for he believed that Zhenwu (the Perfected Warrior), aka Xuan Wu (Mysterious or Dark Warrior) aka Beidi (god of the northern sky) had ordained his political and military successes, the art of his imperial court in Beijing that was naturally reflected by the princely courts located throughout the empire was replete with Taoist symbolism and motifs--and Wudangshan icons in particular. In popular and esoteric Taoism, Beidi is worshiped as the 7 Stars of the Big Dipper and his pre-anthropomorphic or post-anthropomorphic (spiritual) form is the black tortoise and snake, which, of course, are associated with the water element.

As a matter of course, I gave a short demonstration of Tai Chi, then in contrast demo'd the Third Section of Eight Sections of Energy Combined (because GM Doo Wai says that 8 Sections is a Wudang art), and then led the docents in a 15-minute practice of "Flying Phoenix Celestial Healing Qigong", which as we here all know, hails from the far western relative of Wudang Taoism, Ehrmeishan's White Tiger sect. We practiced these 3 FP Meditations:

Guardian Standing At Temple Gate
Monk Gazing At Moon
Monk Holding Peach.

btw, the Four Symbols of Chinese mythology and cosmology are: the Vermillion Bird of the South (Fire), Green Dragon of the East (Wood), White Tiger of the West (Metal), and Black Tortoise of the North (Water). Plus the fifth is the Yellow Dragon in the center associated with Earth. These five "symbols" of course correlate to the Five Elements and this cosmology--with its "big picture"--is helpful in understanding the place that Bok Fu Pai arts hold in Chinese alchemy and why its Qigong arts like Flying Phoenix are so powerful.

In preparing for this lecture and boning up on Wudang Taoism, I will intimate here semi-publicly that I had a spontaneous and quite unexpected encounter with Bei Di. You may all take this statement with several shakers of salt. But it was quite an uplift in my day, to say the least. And I find myself slipping into a calm but high-running current of humbling martial bliss unexpectedly at odd times.

This week's spiritual convergence and encounter was foreshadowed about 4 years ago when mysterious Taoist talisman came to me that showed some martial deity seated with 2 attendants flanking him and 28 Taoist constellations behind them and a pair of oppositely colored orbs inside cloud trails at the top corners. I didn't know who the subject was or what the symbols exactly represented. After the lecture Monday afternoon, I came back home and noticed/realized that the face of the diety in the talisman is the face of Zhenwu and that the constellation right above his head is seven stars of the Big Dipper.

Btw, according to Taoist spiritualism--both esoteric and popular, one of the visitation dates on which Zhenwu descends to the earth plane to intervene in human matters of justice and war is coming up soon. So do your research, mark your lunar calendars, and get your dragon's blood incense ready, folks.

Carry On.

Sifu Terry Dunn


_{www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html}

Edited February 28, 2016 by zen-bear

[ridingtheox]

We are traveling; visiting daughter's family.   Two young boys absorb a great deal of energy.   It is difficult to maintain a regular schedule of FP/TCC   

 

Let me just say the FP has moved into a phase that in standing long form  energy moves from the root is guided by the dan tien and expresses itself in the arms/hands.  It has taken a long time for this to feel  like the normal practice condition,  but now it is well established even if I do have periods where daily practice is interrupted.

 

so  keep  practicing and move into disk 4 Long Form with confidence that it will be an energy changing experience

 

peace

[zen-bear]

Yesterday evening's practice in one 3.5 hour session:

 

Hour One:

Moonbeam Splashes on Water

The last 90-second FP Meditation (on Vol.5)

GM William Chen's 60-part Yang Tai Chi Form -- 2 times

GM Chen's punching drills (body mechanics) -- 15 min.

The 8th Form of Eight Sections of Energy Combined -- two times.

 

second 90 minutes:

Advanced Flying Phoenix Qigong Mediations Nos. 1, 5, and 9-- one round each

Tao Tan Pai Five Dragons Meditation (1 hour).

Eight Sections Combined 10-minute seated Meditation in dragon drop position -- 3 times

 

 

Last 60 min.:

5th Form of Eight Sections of Energy Combined -- once.

108 Yang Long Form.

GM William Chen's Yang TC sword form -- 2 times

Wudang Tan Jian (Elixir Sword) -- 2 times

Edited March 23, 2016 by zen-bear

[zen-bear]

Hello to all FP Qigong practitioners and thread subscribers:

 

I just a good part of Easter weekend revamping the Chi Kung For Health DVD catalog page on my website to include short demonstration video clips of Volumes 1 through 5 of the DVD series.  The page also includes a new and expanded summary description of the Flying Phoenix Qigong art.  The last descriptive text was posted on this page in 2010.  Through continuous practice and teaching of FP Qigong--including answering questions posted here on this thread, my understanding and appreciation of this wondrous art is not only deeper, but rounder and smoother...more organic, yet more supramundane.

 

Please share this link and spread the healing and good karma:

 

                      www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html

 

Thank you to all for your interest in FP Qigong and your perseverance (ren) on your respective Paths!

And may the BLUE HEALING FORCE be with you.

 

Sifu Terry Dunn

Edited March 29, 2016 by zen-bear

[BluePhoenix133]

Hi just wanted to share some of my experiences with the flying phoenix, I have really grown to love doing the meditations. When i practice the reiki meditation i know during the 5th part  of the meditation my  hands are in prayer position and i focus on the touching between the tips of the two middle fingers. This is when is start to experience the flying phoenix energy for some reason.

I have done dvd 7 only a few times and a couple of months ago i had a profound experience. The day after practicing it i was cycling home from work at night time...must be a 7 ish mile bike ride and the energy started to activate and i felt amazing i was so happy and blissed out. No doubt it was because of the practice of DVD 7 the previous night.

I was mostly listening to this song, sounds better on my mp3.

I have only attempted dvd 3 a few times, i tried a few weeks ago and did a few repetitions of the first meditation but i have a cracked rib so i was a bit too painful and the 2nd meditation was long and complicated. With my ibs and addiction im too fatigued and too mentally feeble to attempt it.

I cracked my rib when i was knocked off my bike by a deer, something which everyone i tell finds amusing, came out of no where hit my front wheel knocked my bike from under me... cut up my hands and knee. The unusual thing, aside from being hit by a deer was the music i was listening to. I had downloaded a load of pystrance that day and i dont listen to dark psytrance but for some reason i had accidentally downloaded it and it was the first time i had heard that song. Out of all the music that had to be playing from my mp3 player it had to be that evil song, i must have been listening for no more than a minute when i then got crashed into and found my self lying in pain with this nasty song playing.... it was like an evil little moment lol.

Perhaps this was natures way of punishing me for forgetting mothers day : P Edited March 29, 2016 by BluePhoenix133

[zen-bear]

Hi just wanted to share some of my experiences with the flying phoenix, I have really grown to love doing the meditations. When i practice the reiki meditation i know during the 5th part of the meditation my hands are in prayer position and i focus on the touching between the tips of the two middle fingers. This is when is start to experience the flying phoenix energy for some reason.

 

I have done dvd 7 only a few times and a couple of months ago i had a profound experience. The day after practicing it i was cycling home from work at night time...must be a 7 ish mile bike ride and the energy started to activate and i felt amazing i was so happy and blissed out. No doubt it was because of the practice of DVD 7 the previous night.

 

I was mostly listening to this song, sounds better on my mp3.

 

I have only attempted dvd 3 a few times, i tried a few weeks ago and did a few repetitions of the first meditation but i have a cracked rib so i was a bit too painful and the 2nd meditation was long and complicated. With my ibs and addiction im too fatigued and too mentally feeble to attempt it.

 

I cracked my rib when i was knocked off my bike by a deer, something which everyone i tell finds amusing, came out of no where hit my front wheel knocked my bike from under me... cut up my hands and knee. The unusual thing, aside from being hit by a deer was the music i was listening to. I had downloaded a load of pystrance that day and i dont listen to dark psytrance but for some reason i had accidentally downloaded it and it was the first time i had heard that song. Out of all the music that had to be playing from my mp3 player it had to be that evil song, i must have been listening for no more than a minute when i then got crashed into and found my self lying in pain with this nasty song playing.... it was like an evil little moment lol.

 

Perhaps this was natures way of punishing me for forgetting mothers day : P

 

Hi Blue Phoenix,

 

Thanks for your report of good effects from practicing the Vol.7 Advanced "Monk Serves Wine" seated meditations.

Yes, it's quite often that one will feel the energizing effects of an FP Meditation the next day, often during the same time period--especially in your case since you did the entire Vol.7 practice.

 

So sorry to hear about your painful impact with the deer. But good that you are able to understand that that was no "accident" and that the accident was the end of a causal chain of events.

 

As you progress further with your FP Qigong practice and attain deeper mind-body integration and one-pointedness, along with all the salient health and yogic benefits, you must bear in mind that you are also developing a very high degree of structural sensitivity--i.e., all the various types of energy absorbed through your sensory channels have stronger and deeper effect on your body and mind. Thus one must be more cognizant and more discriminating of what types of energies one exposes our sensitized structures to...and be doubly, triply careful of practicing FP Qigong in a totally secure, clean, uninterruptible environment.

 

I'm not familiar with the type of music that you had accidentally downloaded and was listening to when the deer crossed your biking path, but I will take your word for it that it was "dark and evil" in nature. I can diagnose your painful bike crash in these terms: the spontaneously healing, life-giving nature of the Flying Phoenix healing energy that you unmistakably felt activated by your bike ride was in diametric opposition to the dark/evil music that was coming into your nervous system through the ears. Conflict within manifested a conflict without.

 

Recall that a long time ago I posted here an account of how after practicing FP Qigong standing meditations for some duration with my students, it was difficult to switch to doing Kung Fu, because the FP Healing Energy cannot or "doesn't want to move that way" with a martial intent! That's how purely positive the FP energy is.

 

I've had some "energy accidents" in the past when I was in my 30's with practice of the first Nei Kung system I learned, Tao Tan Pai, and fortunately haven't had any self-created problems when practicing FP Qigong all these years. For FP Qigong is extremely benign and forgiving. Recall I wrote once that it really takes talent to screw up an FP Qigong meditation and hurt oneself with it."

 

You did not screw up your FP Qigong practice one iota. In fact, your practice was exemplary because the FP healing energy re-activated the next day during your aerobic exercise, biking. Your error--one of attention lapse as to your auditory input--was in NOT letting the FP healing energy guide you into the LIGHT. Instead, you inadvertently polluted the LIGHT with that music.

 

So let the deer steer you back into the LIGHT of the Flying Phoenix! Deer dispenses Tough Love.

 

Best,

 

Sifu Terry Dunn

 

P.S. fyi, I have all kinds of music in my libraries. The darkest stuff I have is some early gangster rap of the early 90's, which I keep for nostalgia's sake because I trained police in arrest & control techniques for 3 years and that music--e.g., Spice One's "Peace to my Nine"--reminds me of "the type" of criminal element in society and its milieu--so that I'm always able to recognize that type of wantonly destructive, barbaric and predatory spirit and energy in people should it ever come close--and to even have a bit of compassion for such low-level spirits (--only after they've been rendered harmless).

Edited April 13, 2016 by zen-bear

[BluePhoenix133]

Oh they were two different bike rides, that time i got hit by the deer was a month or so after that blissful bike ride. As for the mother nature mothers day thing i was kinda joking, but if i had remembered my whole timeline might have been different and i might not have hit that deer.

As for the evil music thing, i had a similar experience when i was on a certain substance which seems to bring me to a hightened energetic state and i experience more synchronicities... the only time i crashed my bike was when i had a negative thought/attitude towards someone and then i crashed... i think it was the only negative thought i had had so it does make me wonder if i attract bad experiences by have negative state of mind.

I have looked into deer symbolism before and if i was to put meaning to what happened at first i thought it might be negative. As deer is to do with regeneration/healing and the heart. I used to have allot of bliss in my heart but the last few years of illness ect has pretty much stopped this.

But i got up after the accident and did not let phase me maybe that means ill come back and regenerate....symbolic perhaps that my heart has taken a fall but will come back stronger?  Also a cracked rib take 4-6 weeks to heal and it was 6 weeks before my birthday april 16th so maybe ill heal and be reborn....haha i dunno probably looking too much into this but i have been feeling a bit more bliss in my heart again recently and i dont mean buzz either i managed to open up my heart centre years ago though meditating.

Thing is im not very grounded but i have allot of fire in my chart so i have had profound spiritual experiences but not consistently and im very random.

Any way im talking too much about myself

[ridingtheox]

About 2 nights ago I was doing Adv. Seated  4.    Almost immediately  i felt a familiar pressure/buzz at the crown point .. bai hui?

Years ago after a 90 day standing process I regularly felt this sensation for several months.  It left after a period of low tCC practice frequency.  I have often tried to bring it up again,  but with relatively low frq and low intensity when it did occur.

 

It was like sensing an old friend.  It has been present in almost all of my qi gong.  It also has the characteristic that it does not distract from my focus on dan tien energy 'glow'.  I just completed Adv Seatd 5 and it was continuously present for the short 15 min +  practice.

 

Peace friends

[zen-bear]

About 2 nights ago I was doing Adv. Seated  4.    Almost immediately  i felt a familiar pressure/buzz at the crown point .. bai hui?

Years ago after a 90 day standing process I regularly felt this sensation for several months.  It left after a period of low tCC practice frequency.  I have often tried to bring it up again,  but with relatively low frq and low intensity when it did occur.

 

It was like sensing an old friend.  It has been present in almost all of my qi gong.  It also has the characteristic that it does not distract from my focus on dan tien energy 'glow'.  I just completed Adv Seatd 5 and it was continuously present for the short 15 min +  practice.

 

Peace friends

Hi Charlie,

 

Glad to hear that you're experiencing delightful crown chraka opening sensation from the #4 advanced seated MSW meditations. 

 

All the Vol.7 MSW meditations  are amongst my favorites.  That's why I published them... so everyone can get a taste of real Qigong.   Even the 4-movement one with 20 40 90 10.  Such simplicity but such subtlety in mustering-manifesting Big Energy.

 

As Fu_Doggy, others and I have reported, doing any 2 of the 5 Advanced MSW meditations back-to-back is a very deep and special cultivation that will advance the yogic progress of any practitioner with any type of yogic/meditation background.  That's only about 35-40 minutes investment of time and energy.  The returns are Cosmic! 

 

And as I've also suggested in the past year, doing any 3 of the MSW Meditations (from Vols.7) back to back to back in a sitting is a tremendously beneficial meditation.  Practice of the entire Vol.2 program in one sitting is also a most excellent way to establish the FP seated meditations and anchor their benefits. 

 

Besides the health benefits, such 3x practice of the Advanced MSW meditations will greatly develop concentrative, focussing faculty, aka one-pointedness (samadhi)...and will enable one to traverse the lower material jhanas--i.e., the second and the third jhanas seemlessly.  Heck, just the process of doing an FPCK breath-control sequence followed by any of the postures or postures-with-movements provides "access concentration" and experience of the first jhanic state, where all hindrances to full absorption have been subdued.  (This is just a hint/teaser of what's coming in my FPCK book, about 85% complete.)

 

Keep on enjoying!

 

Best,

Sifu Terry 

[zen-bear]

Hello to all FPCK Thread Subscribers and Practitioners:

 

Last night I taught the first class in a new FP Qigong course in LA.  And just going through with the class of beginners the first 6 basic FP Qigong Meditations on Vols. 1 and 2 was like being visited by an old friend showing subtle gifts.  After getting a bite to eat with a student and getting home around 10:30, I was so clear and light that I wrote new pages for 2 of my book projects for 6 hours straight into the wee hours.

 

This is the content of last night's 2 hour class:

 

• 45 min. of warm-ups emphasizing posture, relaxed body mechanics, flexibility and circulation.

a)  6 Qing Dynasty Imperial Exercises (20 min.) ; 

b )  Play Guitar/LIfting Hands Drill as in the Warmup Section of my Tai Chi For Health DVD (1990)--5 min.,

c)  Master Bow Sim Mark's Wu-chi turning of waist while lowering and raising of torso (5 min.) 

d)  9 wuchi postures of Ichuan.

e)  Bok Fu Pai standing Meditaton with breathing (90 60 40 30)

 

5 min. break

 

70 minutes of Flying Phoenix Meditations in this order:

1)  Monk Gazing At Moon.  10 min.

2)  Monk Holding Peach  10 min.

3)  Monk Holding Pearl  10 min.

4)  Bending the Bows 15 min.

5)  Seated Meditation #2 on Vol.2:  50 30 10 -- 12 min.

6)  Seated Meditation #3 on Vol.2:  50 10  50 -- 12 min.

 

Standing basic FP MEds. caused subtle to moderate vibratory states (tossing) in almost everyone.

Monk Gazing At Moon caused, as usual, a  very, very rapid vibration through my whole body and causing rapid thumping of my heels on the floor, although my heels never left the floor, that vibrated through the floor it seemed in all directions and rattled the door 15 feet to my left and rattled the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and window frames of the large classroom about 20 feet to my righ.

 

So after 24 years of practice, the effects of the basic standing FP Qigong meditations are more refined...but they definitely still ROCK the TOTALITY of ones being.

 

Carry on you Wayward Sons (and Daughters).

There'll be peace when you are done. 

Put your weary heads to rest-- in the wings of the Flying Phoenix.

Cry all you need to--it's good for you.

 

Sifu Terry

Edited April 8, 2016 by zen-bear

[tao stillness]

Hello Sifu Terry,

Those are impressive reported experiences from your qigong class. I compare your class to the qigong class I have been taking thru an adult education class from a local community college. There is a world of difference. Your warmups are probably advanced compared to the super simple basics we are being taught and never advancing beyond that level.

My question is, what are the Qing Dynasty Imperial Exercises?

[zen-bear]

Yes I would like to know which DVD 

 

I had gone though reading all the posts and all of the 95 pages. 

 

anybody?

Shiva Shakti,

 

The seated Monk Serves Wine Meditations that have been reported by me and others are restoring hair growth and original hair color are the found on Volume 7 of my Chi Kung For Health DVD series.  I believe that they re the second and third exercises in the program with the following breath-control sequences:

 

80 70 50 30  -  The moving meditation pattern consists of 10 positions and 10 movements

 

70 50 20 10 -   The moving mediation pattern consists of left arm forward circle like a wheel, right arm forward circle, turning left palm to face the extended right palm at heart level, followed by 7 movements.

 

Enjoy the hair raising and scalp-sparking.  And also look out for the mild and blissful "washing sensation" throughout the brain matter.  Truly amazing.

 

 

Sifu Terry Dunn

 

 

_{www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html}

Edited April 13, 2016 by zen-bear

[zen-bear]

Hello to all FP Qigong Practitioners,

 

Last Wednesday I had an enjoyable Skype visit with GM Doo Wai.  He unfortunately has been incapacitated for the past 8+ years due to a series of strokes that he suffered.  He sadly has no use of his right arm and two legs.  He only has use of the left arm. And his speech is severely compromised.  He can vocalize less than 3% of his former vocabulary.  His mind is alert and he has full memory access from what I can tell.   I will not publicly discuss the causes that led to his strokes but will say that his severe health problems were certainly not due to his life-long practice of  the Flying Phoenix Qigong or any of the martial, yogic, or healing arts under the vast Bai Hu Pai (White Tiger) Family System.  In fact, his non-functioning limbs aside, he looked particularly good for being 87 years old.  Skin was smooth; color was good that day.  And he was in a pleasant mood.  We worked out a way to communicate where I could ask him yes/no questions, and he was quite responsive and forthcoming.

 

These are the parts of our conversation that I would like to share with the FP Qigong community:

 

A.  I confirmed with Grandmaster Doo Wai (again) that Sifu Garry Hearfield in Australia has learned the most amount of Kung Fu and most advanced Kung Fu systems within the Bai Hu Pai (Cantonese: Bok Fu Pai) tradition from him --including Bok Fu Pai, Omei Mountain Bak Mei  and Tibetan Burning Palm Kung Fu systems.  Again, Sifu Garry is thus GM Doo Wai's chosen and designated successor to carry on the task of preserving and teaching the Bai Hu Pai family of arts that he has learned to the next generations.

 

B.  I verified that four very powerful meditations that the grandmaster had taught our circle in L.A. in the early and mid-90's are higher level Flying Phoenix Meditations.  I knew this already because these   meditations tremendously amplify the reserves of FP Healing Energy to such superabundance that the Healing Energy will spontaneously transfer or "jump off" of the practitioner to anyone of positive regard in close proximity and heal that person.  But after so many years, i finally got final confirmation from the grandmaster.  I also confirmed that these Advanced FP Meditations can cultivate the general jing (geng) of the body to such a high degree and develop such control over the jing so as to enable the practitioner to "punch through"  our own Bok Fu Pai Iron Shirt, which means most other systems' iron shirt arts as well.

 

C.  The "Healing Qigong Detoxification Meditation" with breath formula (50 40 30 20 10) that the GM demonstrates on a Youtube video (which I recall someone had asked about on this thread some time ago) is a Bok Fu Pai Meditation--not Flying Phoenix.  

 

D.  The grandmaster was very pleased when I demonstrated for him Sections 3, 4, and 8 of the Eight Sections of Energy Combined Kung Fu.  (I'm constantly amazed what the digital video and the web affords teachers and students  these days.)

 

Lots to preserve, so I better get back to training, teaching and publishing.

 

 

Sifu Terry Dunn

 

 

www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html

Edited April 13, 2016 by zen-bear