The 100 day Meditation Experiment

[The Way Is Virtue]

I'm in. Funny that I was watching my taiji coach's qigong video this morning and decided to begin this very practice in addition to the bear frolic (for deficient kidney). Glad I logged in today.

Be well,

TJ

AKA FNG

Great! I guess you mean you are going to practice the wuji stance and the bear frolic mmovement? Sounds good.

 

So we have several here who are goijng to try to practice every day for the next 100 days or so. I'll be interested to hear from everyone on how they are making out from time to time.

[The Observer]

I'm loving the Tree Stance! My body complains a bit but I really enjoy being out in my backyard amongst the plants and my cat I'm feeling good these first few days.

[The Way Is Virtue]

I'm loving the Tree Stance! My body complains a bit but I really enjoy being out in my backyard amongst the plants and my cat I'm feeling good these first few days.

Sounds good. I am practicing indoors. I guess today is the official first day of the 100 days. I don't know if 100 days of daily standing meditation will be enough to make a really big difference, but it should help at least somewhat and maybe strengthen my legs a bit more and give me a bit more stable stance. It will be interesting to see how things progress.

 

Wtm, adept, and Tao_Jones, if you are still checking this thread, I forgot to ask you guys how long you have been doing your current practices now and how you are finding them? Any interesting results so far?

Jetsun, have you practiced qigong or meditation much before?

 

Wtm, did you find that all the zhan zhuang practice you did previously helped with your qi levels much? Is the Flying Phoenix qigong mostly static standing and sitting postures or is there movement sequences as well? It looks interesting. Also, I am not sure what intu-flow is exactly. Is it more of an exercise or martial art than a form of qigong?

 

 

Also, do any of you guys know how I can reply to more than one post in a thread at a time in one single reply? I guess I use the multi quote button but I am not quite sure how that works...

 

twiv

Edited October 18, 2010 by The Way Is Virtue

[King Kabalabhati]

I'm in. At least 30 minutes of full lotus sitting with Small Universe and/or emptiness

 

edit: but lets make it 1000 days for starters

Edited October 18, 2010 by King Kabalabhati

[The Way Is Virtue]

I'm in. At least 30 minutes of full lotus sitting with Small Universe and/or emptiness

edit: but lets make it 1000 days for starters

Sounds good King K. I think I will try the 100 days first and then re-evaluate at that point. Have you been doing meditation or qigong long? Any interesting experiences so far?

[pilot]

Did it improve your taiji?

In some ways, undoubtedly, and in others, it remains to be seen. It's hard to give a precise and short answer, it's only been a few months since I started zhan zhuang, and I'm still experimenting with variations. My taiji and qigong have not been routine, and undergo lots of changes and experimentation too. The way Kam Lam Chuen from Way of Energy explains the practice has certainly helped guide my former standing meditation I did part of Qigong, and also how I approach Neijia overall. ZZ is part of taiji to begin with after all (see Tsung Hwa Jou).

 

I see from your list of interests in your tag that you do a lot of practices so I guess it might be hard for you to tell specifically how much the zhan zhuang practice is helping overall, but have you noticed any improvements that you would attribute to the zhan zhuang practice?

 

With regular ZZ, I have not felt out of practice when suddenly starting my Taiji routine, and this used to be a big problem. I have tried pairing a nearly full ZZ session right before Neijia a number of times, and it is clear that ZZ exercises your body and mind fully so that any more is excessive (and likely not beneficial). I do more short bursts of Wuji and standing pole between sets instead, and otherwise separate ZZ and Neijia into different sessions. The one thing that I attribute to ZZ directly is the inner relaxation/steadiness/strength of mind and the 'potential energy' especially in the legs. Sure, taiji and qigong have that same effect, except ZZ does so directly and leaves me feeling empowered and not out of breath (I believe to be a sign of excessive Yi and strained Shen). This is exactly what is described in Way of Energy and the source of my realization to the importance of ZZ in its own right. I can also say that without my struggling with Taiji, ZZ wouldn't be where it is for me now. I have done Qigong standing from when I began Neijia, and it felt nothing like the ZZ I do now. So truly they go and work together.

[johndoe2012]

Wtm, adept, and Tao_Jones, if you are still checking this thread, I forgot to ask you guys how long you have been doing your current practices now and how you are finding them? Any interesting results so far?

Jetsun, have you practiced qigong or meditation much before?

I've been doing this (qigong/meditation) for 1½ years. Current result: more confidence, less fear, overall more effortless life (less going against what life is teaching me). No spiritual wild things as other members on TTB.

 

Wtm, did you find that all the zhan zhuang practice you did previously helped with your qi levels much? Is the Flying Phoenix qigong mostly static standing and sitting postures or is there movement sequences as well? It looks interesting. Also, I am not sure what intu-flow is exactly. Is it more of an exercise or martial art than a form of qigong?

Zhan Zhuang: Signs of wind qi as Bill Bodri calls it, yes. Bubbling Well in the feet alot, hands warmer, better blood circulation, better digestion, cleaning of the digestion system (farting! LOL). No MCO, unfortunately :/.

 

Flying Phoenix: there are standing static, standing moving, sitting static and sitting moving.

 

Intu-Flow: a joint mobility exercise, it loosens your joints. Supposedly it will also improve your sense of "flow" as Scott Sonnon calls it. Recommended!

 

 

Also, do any of you guys know how I can reply to more than one post in a thread at a time in one single reply? I guess I use the multi quote button but I am not quite sure how that works...

twiv

 

I just do it manually by using the quote tags and change the name inside the tag.

 

EDIT: I forgot to add that I actually do wuji standing as warmup to Flying Phoenix and as a ending for my Tai Chi practise, but that's only 2 min each

Edited October 18, 2010 by wtm

[King Kabalabhati]

Sounds good King K. I think I will try the 100 days first and then re-evaluate at that point. Have you been doing meditation or qigong long? Any interesting experiences so far?

 

Started out with Pranayama breathing about five years ago. Now, for the last year or so, mostly Spring Forest Qigong and some hatha yoga for stretching. All in all I do about an hour - hour and half a day plus things like Small Universe or mantras while driving and walking. Random healing.

 

Interesting experiences... well healing is very interesting. Also peace of mind, clarity of emotions, freedom from excess desire..

 

You mean energy experiences? Things like high voltage surges of energy through the spine, spontanious whole-body orgasms, simultanious electric orgasms with a girl without intercourse, sudden tears of happiness, bliss bliss bliss....

 

Yeah.. But they're not important.

[Jetsun]

Jetsun, have you practiced qigong or meditation much before?

 

Over the last 6 or so years I have been experimenting with one technique or another from all sorts of traditions from Yogic and Buddhist to Shamanism and fouth way approaches, mostly trying to find healing although the spiritual interest seems to have progressed too almost accidently. I went through a period a few years ago of doing Qigong learning a few different forms like the 8 Brocade but I gave it up as it seemed to not go deep enough for me or bring me the healing I was looking for, but I have come back now to Taoist techniques again after reading some of BK Frantzis books about the Water Method which seemed to be a perfect method for me.

 

Although initially I dived too quickly into the heavy Water Method meditation before strengthening my nervous system with standing methods which was a bit too much to handle, so I am taking it more slowly now doing the outer standing methods of Zhan Zhuang and outer dissolving. (alhtough I can't help myself doing the sitting once every few days as I sense it is powerful and im impaient to get to the good stuff )

 

So far after doing the standing for a just a few days I have noticed going to work is easier and I appear to be a bit more relaxed but obviously there could be a number of factors that cause that so I don't want to jump to too many conclusions.

Edited October 18, 2010 by Jetsun

[johndoe2012]

The way: you might want to read this post at dharmaoverground.

 

Very interesting.

[f-man]

i

Edited January 10 by f-man

[The Way Is Virtue]

[The Way Is Virtue]

I'm loving the Tree Stance! My body complains a bit but I really enjoy being out in my backyard amongst the plants and my cat I'm feeling good these first few days.

Observer, forgot ask you about your previous meditation and/or qigong experience.

I think you mentioned elsewhere that you have done some zen practices?

 

Mewtwo, also would be interested in hearing about your previous practices. I think you have done some yoga, martial arts, and some tummo? The tummo sounds like something I should look into. I have a problem staying warm in cold weather. Sounds like a handy practice to know. I know the heat it produces is not the goal of the practice but it would come in handy for dealing with the cold.

[The Way Is Virtue]

Noticeable energy flowing up the back, down the front in an orbit. Sensations were less noticeable in areas without blockages, and experienced as strong vibrations through areas that had recently opened up (pushing through blockages). Movements were/are spontaneous, as I did/do not do any visualizations (refering to Chia) to hasten the orbit. The flow seems to increasingly have less and less vibrations. The other day during meditation, I had a massive ball of energy in my dantien and post-med was having difficulty managing the heat all over my body. So, I decided to lie down. In less than 2 minutes, the MCO started and I found relief of my overheat.

Ok, that sounds very good. It seems that you were already fairly open in regards to your meridians/channels before starting this practice. For some people opening the small circualtion can be a fairly long drawn out process with aches and pains and various sensations as the energy slowly works it way through restrictions and blockages.

 

When I do my meditation practice I am feeling a lot of places in my body where the energy is either very restricted or outright blocked. This morning when I was practicing, my left leg started shaking off and on quite a bit making it hard for me to keep standing. It felt like energy was trying to work its way through parts of the leg but was having a very hard time of it. I did my best to ignore the shaking and managed to complete my full session. I can feel similar restrictions all over my body when I practice, so I guess I have my work cut out for me. I try to ignore any sensations when practicing so as to not distract from my practice but the leg shaking was a bit hard to ignore.

[The Way Is Virtue]

The way: you might want to read this post at dharmaoverground.

Very interesting.

Very good info. Thanks!

[The Observer]

Observer, forgot ask you about your previous meditation and/or qigong experience.

I think you mentioned elsewhere that you have done some zen practices?

 

 

Hey Virtue!

 

My start in meditation was originally with closed eye/yogic/TM style meditation. A few months down the road I read about Zen and got interested in it. Ever since I've been practicing Zen-style breath counting with walking meditation for the past 4 or 5 months. I've recently become interested in Qigong/Daoist alchemy and a few days ago added standing meditation to my practice, partly due to our previous conversations in that other thread I started....

 

My current routine is basically

Morning-30 min. zazen followed by 5 min. of walking meditation. (Plan on maxing out to 45 once the depth of the meditation increases)

Night-5 min. of standing (progressively adding more time until I master it and move on to Tree Hugging lol)

[The Way Is Virtue]

Hey Virtue!

 

My start in meditation was originally with closed eye/yogic/TM style meditation. A few months down the road I read about Zen and got interested in it. Ever since I've been practicing Zen-style breath counting with walking meditation for the past 4 or 5 months. I've recently become interested in Qigong/Daoist alchemy and a few days ago added standing meditation to my practice, partly due to our previous conversations in that other thread I started....

 

My current routine is basically

Morning-30 min. zazen followed by 5 min. of walking meditation. (Plan on maxing out to 45 once the depth of the meditation increases)

Night-5 min. of standing (progressively adding more time until I master it and move on to Tree Hugging lol)

Sounds like a really good practice routine. How's the knee?

[The Observer]

Sounds like a really good practice routine. How's the knee?

Still hurts if I kneel or squat down, but for the most part it feels like the more I use it the less pain I feel.

Oh and as an aside, my right hand got intensely warm during standing meditation last night; what does that mean?

Edited October 19, 2010 by The Observer

[The Way Is Virtue]

Still hurts if I kneel or squat down, but for the most part it feels like the more I use it the less pain I feel.

Oh and as an aside, my right hand got intensely warm during standing meditation last night; what does that mean?

That's a good sign! (the warmth I mean, not the sore knee ). You may feel various different sensations as time goes on. The idea is to try not to focus on any sensations too much so as to not distract your mind during practice, but of course you will still be aware of whatever is going on. If parts of your body are getting quite warm that is a good sign that you are already starting to get some results. The sensations can vary quite a bit. When you finish your standing meditation you can straighten up your legs and bring both palms to your lower dantian area, with the center of your palms lined up and both palms facing inward over the lower dantian area, and imagine any excess qi returning back to your lower dantian as you stand there relaxed for a minute.

[Edit:] The sensations are not a requirement for making progress in qigong, as some people seem to get good results without feeling too much in the way of unusual sensations, but these types of sensations can be an indication that you are making some headway however. Just didn't want to leave the impression that one necessarily has to be feeling a lot of unusual sensations for them to be making good progress.

 

 

Hi WiV, I attempted to PM you to elaborate more on my practices, but you do not have your PM enabled. Before assuming that my meridians/channels were fairly open, let me say one thing: I am not exceptional practitioner; the system that I am practicing is exceptional. Read to learn more about stillness-movement at:

Sillness movement neigong and michael lomaxs light warriors guide book

My intent is not to derail this wonderful thread, but to reach out to you personally, WiV.

RV, I have enabled my PM feature now.

 

twiv

Edited October 20, 2010 by The Way Is Virtue

[The Observer]

That's a good sign! (the warmth I mean, not the sore knee ). You may feel various different sensations as time goes on. The idea is to try not to focus on any sensations too much so as to not distract your mind during practice, but of course you will still be aware of whatever is going on. If parts of your body are getting quite warm that is a good sign that you are already starting to get some results. The sensations can vary quite a bit. When you finish your standing meditation you can straighten up your legs and bring both palms to your lower dantian area, with the center of your palms lined up and both palms facing inward over the lower dantian area, and imagine any excess qi returning back to your lower dantian as you stand there relaxed for a minute.

[Edit:] The sensations are not a requirement for making progress in qigong, as some people seem to get good results without feeling too much in the way of unusual sensations, but these types of sensations can be an indication that you are making some headway however. Just didn't want to leave the impression that one necessarily has to be feeling a lot of unusual sensations for them to be making good progress.

 

 

twiv

 

When opening and closing should I rotate the palms over the dantian or just place them over the area with no movement as you say?

[The Way Is Virtue]

When opening and closing should I rotate the palms over the dantian or just place them over the area with no movement as you say?

Placing of the palms over the dantian area when you finish is just one way that is used to help direct excess qi back to the dantian area when you are closing. Some teachers teach the rotation of the palms, but just placing the palms over the dantian area seems to work well. Some do the the rotation and then place the palms over the dantian after. Other teachers may add other things as well.

 

Here is a link to a fairly elaborate qigong closing routine, in case you are interested,

The massaging of the face, head, neck, and shoulders and patting down the body is fairly common as well.

The head, neck, and shoulders can be an area where excess qi can remain and can cause things like headaches or other ill effects, so doing that massage is probably a good idea.

 

Here's a couple more examples:

Almost every teacher I have seen seems to do the closing a bit different.

 

BTW Observer, were you practicing any sort of closing steps after standing medition? Maybe you were already practicing some of this?

Edited October 20, 2010 by The Way Is Virtue

[Ryan McCoole]

Funny thing, I never even looked at your challenge yesterday but started the Zhan zhuang "holding the tree/balloon" and wuji stance for the first time in months. It must be Jodo, the will of heaven. I'm in! That puts us at January 25th, 2011.

 

I started ZZ in London when reading Lam Kam Chuen's Way of Energy.

It hurt a lot to even hold 5 minutes.

Yesterday I could hold comfortably for 20 minutes even though I hadn't done it in a while because I think I learned how to *relax* and channel the pain/pleasure one feels. It's wonderful to have a lasting base.

 

Goals:

20-25 minutes of Holding the Balloon stance every day

20 min of the "standing in the river" (arms out at sides)

Sitting meditation to solidify the yang chi (without overly hardening it)

Refraining from orgasm and ejaculation.

 

Go team! Great idea.

 

[The Way Is Virtue]

Sitting meditation to solidify the yang chi (without overly hardening it)

Welcome Ryan McCoole.

I'd be interested to hear a little more detail of what you mean by that and what is

your source of these concepts. I have not heard things described this way before.

[solman]

I'm in with 30 min of San Xing Ping Zhan Zhuang for 100 days starting today. I'll let you know how it goes.

Edited October 20, 2010 by solman

[The Way Is Virtue]

I'm in with 30 min of San Xing Ping Zhan Zhuang for 100 days starting today. I'll let you know how it goes.

Welcome Solman!. Is this the practice you will be praticing?

http://www.zhinengqigong.org/Methods/sxpzz.htm