Which practice to start?

[surfingbudda]

Hi everyone,

Let me just say a little about myself first. The first time I experienced energy was practicing qigong for the first time last year. It was an amazing experience and was like a whole new sense opened up to me. My teacher was this guy My link he seemed very authentic and the real deal. However he spoke no english and everything had to be verbalized to me through his assistant. This method of learning was hard for me and alongside school, I ultimately stopped practice after about a month of training. It was good qigong though from wudang mountain. I dont know if this is fast for qigong, but i could feel recognizable chi on only my third day of practice; this may be partially be due to the fact my master put his own energy into me to i guess jump start my chi, kinda like jump starting a car. Well anyways i am now in college and really want to practice qigong. Last night i checked out golden shield qigong which is basically the equivalent of shaolin iron body qigong where the practitioners spent the whole time hitting themselves with sticks and bricks as hard as their bodies could take to force chi development. Bruce Franztis harshly warns against this kind of forceful and vibrational qigong, so I am wary of pursuing this style. Although I would really like to start a practice of Bruce Franztis's qigong, the closest instructor is an hour away and that is too far for my busy schedule. I did find a class of wild goose qigong in town. Has anybody had any experiences with this style? Any advice or comments are gladly appreciated. Also what do you guys think of Bruce Frantzis's qigong, is it one of the most thorough styles out there that can take a person from beginner to advanced master?

[Sloppy Zhang]

I practice the stuff that B.K. Frantzis has put out in his books "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body", "Relaxing Into Your Being", "The Great Stillness", and "Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong". All of them are GREAT. The instructions in those books are very detailed. Energy Gates and Dragon and Tiger are mostly method books, focusing on specific practices and principles that you should start incorporation. Relaxing Into Your Being and The Great Stillness are a two part book set that has mostly theory and background on Frantzis' tradition of Taoism, how it is similar/different from other methods, and more philosophical outlook, sprinkled with some practices.

 

I have never practiced with an instructor or Frantzis himself. I have practiced exclusively from his published material. And I have to say that it is still a GREAT method, one of the best I have come across, and you can get some great results. The thing about his system is that it emphasizes naturalness of movement and flow, as well as feeling. Once you can truly feel your body, you don't need a teacher to tell you when you are doing something right/wrong- you will FEEL it AS it happens. When things start to go wrong, you can feel them sooner, identify them, and fix problems BEFORE they occur.

 

On top of that, the stuff in his books build the foundation for the rest of his sytem as a whole, so if you want to progress further, that's where you want to start. And if you want to do other systems, the stuff he teaches is pretty universal, and you'll be able to apply what he teaches to whatever else you learn.

 

The only downside is that, as far as the published material, it's really "low energy". Highly effective, but still low energy. He says that this is to prevent harm if practices are approached incorrectly. And as you very well know, his books have ample warning on all the things that can go wrong. However, I'll also say that the tools he gives you can allow you, if properly learned and applied, to take on a higher energy system. So if you can't make it to him (his seminars are pretty pricey!) to learn higher level stuff, but still feel ready to move on, after learning a bit, you might have the tools to start trying stuff on your own anyway.

 

So, I'm all for practicing on your own from books, even without a teacher, as I'm also a college student with a busy schedule. Other people strongly disagree. Others say you won't have as good of an experience. I don't know about that. Since I started meditation and qigong, I haven't had an in-person teacher, and I feel like I've gotten along just fine. If all of this energy work is real, and a natural part of being human, then it should be self evident through consistent practice on your own with the proper methods. There are some awesome people on thetaobums, a lot of good questions have already been asked. You can make a lot of progress with just you and a few experienced friends

Edited November 10, 2010 by Sloppy Zhang

[johndoe2012]

You could try Flying Phoenix qigong, search for it on this forum.

 

You feel the qi from day one, in my experience.

[King Kabalabhati]

SFQ is lovely

[markern]

As mentioned a lot of Frantzis` system can be leart without a teacher. You can also learn Springforestqigong from DVDs and you can take KAP via skype. You can also learn standing meditation without a teacher. Also healing sounds and inner smile you can learn by yourself. THey are highly useful, you can incorporate them into most other systems and you can do them while doing other stuff like sitting on the subway (the sounds can be done subvocaly and the smile is easy to do without others taking note of it).