Good Places For a Beginner to Start

[The Observer]

Can anyone recommend me:

A: Any good Qi-Gong resources to start out with (books/websites for example)?

and/or

B: Any Qi-Gong teachers in the Miami area?

 

Many thanks!

Edited September 10, 2010 by The Observer

[effilang]

One of the 100s of these threads really needs to be stickied.

 

Perhaps an official intro-guide on the sticky?

 

[Thunder_Gooch]

Can anyone recommend me:

A: Any good Qi-Gong resources to start out with (books/websites for example)?

and/or

B: Any Qi-Gong teachers in the Miami area?

 

Many thanks!

 

The absolute best system on the market for beginners is Spring Forest Qigong. A lot of people recommend Ken Cohen, but I can't stand him personally.

Edited September 11, 2010 by More_Pie_Guy

[Ya Mu]

The absolute best system on the market beginners is Spring Forest Qigong. A lot of people recommend Ken Cohen, but I can't stand him personally.

"absolute best"

So you have tried all the systems to arrive at this conclusion? Dang, you sure have been busy.

 

OP,

There are many qigong systems. Some indeed are more powerful than others. Some will have a much more accelerated "qigong growth" or energy awareness factor than others. Some are more body oriented and some are more energy oriented. But you do have to start with something. So choose something and practice daily.

The Gift of the Tao qigong movement system is highly energetic and easy to learn; can be learned from the DVD.

 

edit: Look here and search for qigong teachers in your area.

Edited September 11, 2010 by Ya Mu

[Thunder_Gooch]

"absolute best"

So you have tried all the systems to arrive at this conclusion? Dang, you sure have been busy.

 

There are many systems, and many more I am unaware of even. I do know that spring forest qigong is effective, and very easy to understand. Hence that is why I think it is the best place to start.

[goldisheavy]

I respect Chunyi Lin. He seems like a wise, honest, kind, open and non-bullshit guy. I haven't tried Spring Forest Qigong per se (although I do similar things anyway sometimes), but so far every time I see a video with Chunyi Lin, I am impressed.

[Trunk]

Any good Qi-Gong resources to start out with (books/websites for example)?

AlchemicalTaoism.com will give you some decent theory and over-view, and smorgasborg of techniques - though it is not a system by any stretch. It's all free.

[Creation]

Of all the systems geared toward complete beginners that you can learn on your own that I have seen, I would agree that Spring Forest is the best.

 

However, there is a book and a 2-DVD set, which either was just released or will be available very soon, from B.K. Frantzis.

 

http://www.energyarts.com/dragon-and-tiger-dvd/

 

It is of my opinion that this is one of the most beneficial qigong sets ever developed in China.. Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong is also a fun set to do and many people actually begin to FEEL energy or chi moving in their body after practicing a while.

 

When I was in China I searched for a qigong set that had three properties:

 

* It would clear out energy blockages and give the entire body an energetic cleansing,

* It would be easy enough to be practiced and learned by virtually anyone, regardless of their age or current state of health,

* It would have fewer movements and accomplish what other longer sets took many more movements to do (many people just don’t have the time to learn 100+ or even 24 movements of tai chi)

 

The qigong set that I found that best fit these qualities was Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong.

Edited September 11, 2010 by Creation

[atena]

I recommend: http://www.healingdao.com

Qigong & neigong techniques which work pretty nicely together, and comes up with theoretical understanding such as yin & yang, 5 elements, etc.

and: Trunk's alchemicaltaoism.com

[The Observer]

Thanks for the different links guys! Also I'm sorry if the thread was redundant, but a lot of the links to the different stickies were dead or didn't have specific enough info.

[Gerard]

.

Edited September 21, 2010 by durkhrod chogori

[Tess]

The absolute best system on the market for beginners is Spring Forest Qigong. A lot of people recommend Ken Cohen, but I can't stand him personally.

 

I'm curious as to why you don't like Ken Cohen?

 

I'm just starting out myself, and reading his "The Way of Qigong". I'm finding it very interesting. I'm 'only' doing standing meditation at the moment.

 

Does anyone else have feedback on Ken Cohen or this book please?

 

I suppose I have to start somewhere

[Maddie]

I like Ken Cohen's book too, lots of good basic info. I'm sure you will get a lot of various answers here as you already have. So I can't tell you what is the "best" for you, but I can share my experience.

When I first began Qigong I experimented with all sorts of various practices. What I found in my expereince is that starting off with the Physical Qigong (the movements) helped me to prepare for the more still sitting meditative Qigong. At first it was very hard to make my mind still enough to sit and meditate. Doing movements on the other hand took less mental concentration, yet had a very beneficial effect on my mind. After I had done the physical Qigong for a while (and I still do it almost every day) then it was much easier for me to move on to some of the still Qigong. Even now I usually do my moving sets first in the morning, and then do meditation.

Ok I'm no master, but thats just my experience, hopefully it may be usefull. :-)

[Sunya]

Can anyone recommend me:

A: Any good Qi-Gong resources to start out with (books/websites for example)?

and/or

B: Any Qi-Gong teachers in the Miami area?

 

Many thanks!

 

What is your motivation? Why do you want to do qi-gong and what do you want to accomplish?

[Encephalon]

Of all the systems geared toward complete beginners that you can learn on your own that I have seen, I would agree that Spring Forest is the best.

 

However, there is a book and a 2-DVD set, which either was just released or will be available very soon, from B.K. Frantzis.

 

http://www.energyarts.com/dragon-and-tiger-dvd/

 

There was quite the controversy about 4-6 weeks ago regarding the wisdom of beginners entering into microcosmic orbit practice, which SFQ advocates, although I must say that I like the way Chunyi coordinates the breathing practice with the mco. A few seasoned practitioners argued that the MCO should be allowed to start itself up once an extended period of zhan zhuang, the static postures of nei kung such as "Embrace Tree" or Embrace Horse" has been practiced and the energy waves begin to course through one's body.

 

 

I have to say that I feel fortunate to have practiced nei kung for year and a half before I even tried the MCO, because it didn't take long for the "small orbit" to spill out into the large orbit. Nevertheless, I see people practicing the MCO routine who have no tangible sensation of energy yet, and I am ignorant of what the implications are.

[Creation]

There was quite the controversy about 4-6 weeks ago regarding the wisdom of beginners entering into microcosmic orbit practice, which SFQ advocates

Yeah, I had a lot I wanted to say then, but was in one of my non-posting phases.

 

Regarding the present discussion, I would say don't do the mco as a stand alone practice. I trust that Chunyi Lin has enough knowledge and wisdom that IF you do the whole system, you will be fine. If you only do the active exercises for a while before starting mco, even better.

 

Lin and Cohen both have self-study multimedia courses that go into a lot of detail about the different aspects of qigong. Awesome. Why do I like Lin's better? I perceive this split in Cohen's: here are the "basic exercises" and then here is a bunch of "more advanced" stuff to play with after that. Whereas in Lin's course, it's all right there: He incorporates stuff (passphrase, go into the emptiness, connect to the master's energy, emphasis on love and compassion) that help people connect to the higher levels right into these few, simple movements and meditations. So you don't get overwhelmed with all this stuff to try, yet you find people saying "I've tried all this different stuff, but just these few movements seem so much more powerful!"

 

That is just the opinion of a beginner though. And I only have a cursory knowledge of Cohen's course, so I might be mistaken about it.

Edited September 15, 2010 by Creation

[Mal]

[dwai]

Can anyone recommend me:

A: Any good Qi-Gong resources to start out with (books/websites for example)?

and/or

B: Any Qi-Gong teachers in the Miami area?

 

Many thanks!

 

TRy Dragon and Tiger Medical Qi Gong by Bruce Frantzis. I've tried it and it's very good...

IINM, it has been designed to help clear out blockages and prepare for more serious Taoist practices.

 

You could also look up Sifu Ron Hoffman (http://houseoftaichi.com/sifu/sifu.html). I believe he teaches in the Ft Lauderdale Area...and he is a student of my Teacher's Teacher. I think he teaches more martial-arts oriented Tai Chi, but his style is Temple-Style Tai Chi, as taught by Master Waysun Liao.