Falun Dafa thread - open discussion...

[GrandmasterP]

Not really. I think five pounds a lesson is about par for the course in England. The Tai Chi Union lady who teaches round the villages by us charges that. Say she gets 20 per class and teaches five sessions a week round various village halls that's not a bad income even after deducting hall rental expense. Insurance to teach QiGong or TaiChi is very reasonable too. Less than seventy pounds a year.

It's only really the big names who sell DVDs etc who charge silly money for classes and they tend to be located in London or similar prosperous areas where customers have more money than sense.

Grandmaster Mantak Chia's centre is expensive for sure. He's coming to London next month and every session is top dollar.

[GrandmasterP]

That's not to say he's not worth it. Not my cuppa tea [too Yang-y] but I have the greatest respect for his work and that ex Gurkha officer chap who runs the London franchise is both a gentleman and scholar.

Just that outside of the affluent areas folk simply won't pay above a certain price for a one-hour long class.

[Shagrath]

Personally I have never trained Falun Dafa, but lots of my friend did and I have never heard a bad thing about it. On the other hand I practice Buddha Fa that I have learned from my teacher and he learned it from his teacher in Tibet. This Tibet monk said that this is original practice centuries old and Li Hongzhi ruined it by removing some of movements, added some of his own and changed speed. When my friend tried that practice after few years of Falun Dafa they ware amazed by the strength of practice. One monk even said that that Buddha Fa he teaches is originally developed by Boddhidharma and later on it moved to monasteries and in Shaolin stayed diluted practice Yi Jin Jin and Xi Sui Jing. He said diluted because the practice of Buddha Fa has all benefits of both Yi Jin Jing and Xi Sui Jing.

 

I cannot say if that is true or not, no one can because of the there are no people who knew Boddhidharma and are still living. But I can say that its really great routine, one of the most profound that I have ever encountered and I have lots of medical miracles (hi bone density, bone regeneration after injury, no muscle soreness after intensive workout, worst stage of discus hernia healed, etc) because of that practice.

[ralis]

Personally I have never trained Falun Dafa, but lots of my friend did and I have never heard a bad thing about it. On the other hand I practice Buddha Fa that I have learned from my teacher and he learned it from his teacher in Tibet. This Tibet monk said that this is original practice centuries old and Li Hongzhi ruined it by removing some of movements, added some of his own and changed speed. When my friend tried that practice after few years of Falun Dafa they ware amazed by the strength of practice. One monk even said that that Buddha Fa he teaches is originally developed by Boddhidharma and later on it moved to monasteries and in Shaolin stayed diluted practice Yi Jin Jin and Xi Sui Jing. He said diluted because the practice of Buddha Fa has all benefits of both Yi Jin Jing and Xi Sui Jing.

 

I cannot say if that is true or not, no one can because of the there are no people who knew Boddhidharma and are still living. But I can say that its really great routine, one of the most profound that I have ever encountered and I have lots of medical miracles (hi bone density, bone regeneration after injury, no muscle soreness after intensive workout, worst stage of discus hernia healed, etc) because of that practice.

 

Could you provide details of the Buddha Fa and how one can learn it.

[Shagrath]

Could you provide details of the Buddha Fa and how one can learn it.

 

I don't have any resource on that subject, since I have been individually trained by my teacher and he was individually by his teacher in Tibet. So...

 

Exercises are very very similar like those in Falun Dafa since Falun Dafa originaed from Buddha Fa. So if you know those exercises you can adjust to these in 10-15 minutes.

 

1. exercise is the same but with one additional movement

2. exercise is also the same but on the end posture there is one mudra done with hands that amplify maturing of amygdala and elimination of destructive emotions

3. exercise is the same except the turning the wheel part, here it's done differently

4. exercise is exactly the same

5. exercise has similar movements but it's done in different order and there is much more emphasis on cultivation prenatal energy and harmonisation of two brain hemispheres.

 

And between every exercise is meditation and after all exercises there are two meditations done in Embracing the Tree posture.

 

There are lots of benefits but some are: maturing of microcosmic/macrocosmic orbit, strengthening 12 organ channels and 8 extraordinary channels, maturing all 3 dan tiens but accent is on middle and upper, harmonisation of two brain hemispheres, regeneration of bone marrow, cultivating transparent body (best translation from my native language, in Falun Gong it's called Falun wheel in lower abdomen) and Buddha nature ("emptiness"), etc.

 

There are three levels of transparent body as you go through cultivation, three levels of empathy development and the end is being aware of your Buddha nature.

 

As for learning I don't know what to tell you. The only person that teaches it that I know of is my teacher and he teaches it only in his higher class of Tai Chi and Qigong and he lives in Eastern Europe. And I am now currently living in Netherlands. So if you are interested and ever passing through PM me and we'll go for a drink and practice some energy Shen Gong

Edited October 7, 2012 by Shagrath

[GrandmasterP]

Interesting piece in Qi Journal by Ken Cohen (The Way of QiGong author).

 

 

What is Falun Gong?

 

 

Qigong has always been associated with spiritual traditions. Although modern practitioners generally consider qigong a healing art or even a branch of Chinese medicine, the majority of early qigong texts are found in the Taoist Canon, a collection of more than 1,000 texts on Taoist philosophy, religion, ritual, and qigong. In Taoist literature, qigong is called daoyin, "leading and guiding the qi" or yang sheng, "nourishing the forces of life." Qigong exercises were probably originally modeled on ancient shamanic postures and dances, similar to the postures described in anthropologist Felicitas Goodman's landmark book Where Spirits Ride the Wind. Ancient people discovered that specific postures or combinations of postures produce specific states of consciousness and influence the flow of subtle energy in the body.

 

 

Qigong is an evolving art. Old styles are modified and refined, and new styles are created according to the experiences, insights, and talents of practitioners. One of these new systems, called Falun Gong, was introduced by forty-one year old Li Hongzhi in 1992. Fa is the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit word dharma, meaning Buddhist teachings. Lun translates the Sanskrit word chakra, meaning wheel. Falun is the dharma chakra, the wheel of Buddhist teachings. To turn the wheel of the dharma is to practice and propagate Buddhist teachings. Gong means skill or it may be short for the skill of controlling qi: qigong. Thus the name Falun Gong means "a qigong method that spreads Buddhist wisdom." Alternately, this system is called Falun Dafa, the Great (Da) Method (fa) of Falun. It includes both dynamic qigong (dong gong) in which qi is stimulated through gentle exercises, as well as quiescent qigong (jing gong), in which the mind controls qi during meditation.

 

 

Falun is more than a philosophical principle and a qigong system. The falun is also a spiritual energy center in the lower abdomen. This is not as esoteric as it first sounds. Imagine that you are a belly dancer doing hip gyrations--these movements, by the way, are part of a sacred healing dance tradition from the Middle East, originally practiced by women preparing for childbirth. Now imagine the movements getting smaller and smaller until your body is hardly moving at all, yet you still sense motion within the belly. The feeling of subtle rotating energy is actually very pleasant. The "energy ball" massages the internal organs, relaxes the diaphragm (causing a deepening and slowing down of the breath), and awakens an awareness of the body's untapped potentials. In conventional qigong and Taijiquan practice, this sensation is called dan tian nei zhuan, inner rotation of the dan tian (elixir field). I am convinced that the turning of the falun mentioned in Li Hongzhi's various publications is a variation of dan tian rotation. It is a valid qigong technique.

 

[Jetsun]

Strange group though, there is a Falun Dafa art axhibition in my town which I went and they dipict their leader in many classic Christ and Buddha poses, its quite scary

[GrandmasterP]

I know that the swastika is an ancient symbol and all but I reckon one of the reasons they have not taken off in Europe to any great extent is that they have it all over their literature.

People here have long memories and even those of us who were not born until after the second world war still perceive swastika as a negative symbol.

Ken Cohen, to me; is one of the top chaps writing about QiGong and TCM and if he says Falun is OK then I'd defer to that.

My own limited experience with one of their members was less than positive but one swallow does not make a summer.

[Cheshire Cat]

Have you seen this?

 

I think of Falun Dafa as this kind of experiment.. but on a longer frame of time.

[Cobb]

I know that the swastika is an ancient symbol and all but I reckon one of the reasons they have not taken off in Europe to any great extent is that they have it all over their literature.

People here have long memories and even those of us who were not born until after the second world war still perceive swastika as a negative symbol.

Ken Cohen, to me; is one of the top chaps writing about QiGong and TCM and if he says Falun is OK then I'd defer to that.

My own limited experience with one of their members was less than positive but one swallow does not make a summer.

when i grew up in china, swastika was just so normal and everyday that i couldn't even understand why ppl find it uncomfortable. you see it in so many buddhist temples. i knew nazi's deeds but i never thought of the germans when i see the buddhist symbol. similarly when i watch wwii movies, the nazi's emblem never reminds me of buddhism either. i just couldn't believe how one could put the two together (but now i heard in the 30s some zen masters in japan came up with some buddhist theories to explain that killing enemies is a beautiful and serene thing to do, and the japanese in wwii did commit some similar acts like germans)

[GrandmasterP]

Eberhard Arnold has a good take on the swastika image on Page 266 here.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nAQiPK0D7s4C&pg=PA266&lpg=PA266&dq=eberhard+arnold+and+the+swastika+and++Fire&source=bl&ots=v55EoqHpOh&sig=4slCT-VH425LoRNCZaHsXQXmYOg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OkfOUOC5DZOA0AXxmIGYCQ&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=eberhard%20arnold%20and%20the%20swastika%20and%20%20Fire&f=false