teaching qigong?

[Friend]

Edited November 16, 2011 by Friend

[Friend]

Edited November 16, 2011 by Friend

[ShaktiMama]

An alternative thought --

 

Would you consider hosting/organizing a workshop in your local area for a taiji/qigong teacher from out of town, one with solid skills? Often I hear of interesting teachers that I would love to study with. Most of the time, they don't come near where I live. Bringing in different teachers would give you a chance to learn new forms & techniques, and also give you a chance to experience different teaching styles. Not everyone can teach well. There are technicians and then there are teachers.

 

All the teachers I have studied with in person have long histories of their own in person studies with teachers and masters. I wouldn't study (for long) with anyone who didn't have the requisite training and knowledge to be able to answer my questions sufficiently.

 

5et has a very important comment:

Form is extremely important otherwise one can cause themselves all kinds of serious injury to joints. If the form is out of balance, energy can get stuck and cause other more serious problems.

 

If you endeavor to teach, and have the potential to cause harm to your students, ask yourself these questions: Is my limited knowledge and real potential for students to be harmed by my teachings a risk I am willing to take? And is my lack of foresight a genuine quality of a genuine taiji/IMA teacher?

 

 

Back in 2005 I worked myself into a blood and chi deficient state. I was working 16 hour days and more.

 

I also found out I was severely, severely anemic to the point I could have easily died. I eventually required iron transfusions to recover and now have to take iron supplementation for the rest of my life it seems.

 

Before that a lot of free advice I received revolved around "are you practicing your qigong? Do more standing?" and such. The advice generally revolved around do more, do more.

 

So one weekend I attended a qigong workshop and by the time Tuesday rolled around I thought I was going to die. I had to crawl from my bed to the kitchen or to the couch. I would fall over with weakness and nausea. My skin actually took on a greenish color. Occassionally, it also had this yellowish orange color that is called "smoked ham". The color change lasted for about three months.

 

After three days of crawling and nausea and feeling like those were the last days of my life on earth I was strong enough to go see an excellent acupuncture physician.

 

Through his heavily accented Chinglish he scolded me for doing so much qigong. He said I was even purging myself of my own prenatal chi in my chi and blood deficient state. I was making myself worse not better. He gave me firm instructions to do only 1 minute of chi gong a day for the next couple of months. Then maybe I could go to five minutes. He gave me a standing posture to do that was minimialist in its simplicity: Standing with arms at side, index fingers pointing to the earth. Pointing straight down so that they pointed through the tops of my arches in a stance.

Then just breathe.

 

This experience led me to start studying medical qigong.

 

People who want to be teachers should ask themselves, If a student said they became very ill from chi gong would you believe them and would you know what to do?

 

Qigong is not an innocuous practice. It is extremely powerful. It is important to learn what practices are beneficial for most people but they are not necessarily beneficial for all.

 

There is one particular practice that I know of called Bringing Down the Heavens. It is pretty common. It should not be done for more than a couple of repetitions with people who have low blood pressure because one of it's effects is to lower blood pressure.

 

Unless... you want your students fainting on you.

 

I am sure others could contribute some similiar experiences.

s

[Mr. T]

hold the phone...did you say you developed your own acupuncture system that you are applying to actual people? am i the only one who finds this unsettling? you have trained in some internal styles, but have you trained under a practitioner of tcm or acupuncture? now that stuff can get really, super dangerous. please, tell me you have training in acupuncture, or else please stop poking people...

 

this is the reason that these types of arts are not taken seriously in the west...

[mYTHmAKER]

Ok here is my story again.

 

I live in a small town where there arnt alot of qigong stuff or even taichi stuff. I have studied from books and dvds because that is all there is out here. I studied taichi xingyi and bagua. i learned that it does not matter the form as long as you are combining your breath with your movements you are cultivating chi. So I decided to create my own style of martial qigong based on the movements of the lion. And i did that.

 

I am not resistant to the idea of a teacher if there were one who could teach taichi or bagua or xing yi around where i live i would learn it. Then show them my form and see what they think.

 

in the same way i studied martial arts i studied tcm and developed my own accupressure thing. which has had very good results on people who have injuries like a sprained ankle ect.

 

You are asking a question to people who can't see what you actually are capable of.

Therefore i suggest you post a video of your form so we can see you and then more accurately

answer your question as to whether you are ready to teach.

[mewtwo]

i will do the video thing.

 

And i said accupressure not puncture.

[mewtwo]

Mewtwo,

 

one can learn from books and from DVD even on their own - when one is a genius like an reincarnate of some Qigong Saint. Others by repeating and repeating and getting enlightment after enlightment about the method. One form is enough and one not need to reinvent a new wheel. And one form is already too much for commoners to understand.

Even a single Postion of Standing Exercise is a not a word but a book of information

with depth.

 

I am not satisfied when you said you "learned that it does not matter the form as long as you are combining your breath with your movements you are cultivating chi"

What Chi? The form matters very much. Depending on what Form you made the Energy Flow is different. Tai Chi Forms differ even in a style in creating a flow.

 

One has to rely on "awareness on observation of changes" and if you read a book you should reflect on it when you do the form. You have to use the information. A quote by a Qigong maestro or an old manual has even with one sentence so much things to say like in a Qigong.exe -a whole method itself with more than 10-20 Variation of usage. If you understand just one meaning then you should practise more, there is more between the lines and behind the lines.

 

There is general Qigong where people say it is basic qigong : soft, gentle, moderate speed, relaxed, non forced with stillness in mind,enjoy, love in the heart, here and now awareness, and allign body movement amd posture: can do the same and one can choose Pilates and practise that way,you can walk, you can sit, you can eat and so you can live! So what the ruckus to go and teach it just share it .

 

If you can teach Kamehameha(Dragon Ball) or Hadoken(Street Fighter Series) and can proof it then it is a different matter... at least you should be able to fire deadly rays from eyes (Marvel Heroes) .

Also you must have at least have 40 years practise of Qigong in society or at least 20 years in a monastry or at least 10 years under hermit immortal in the wilderness.

(I will give you a discount when you have studied 5 years one of the teacher who are in Taobums Forum and have the above things I mentioned.)

Also I will test your Chi and you will need to survive Tazers

(Idea comes by reading Chunyi Lin Spring Forest Qigong "Born to be a healer" telling

that he has to play electric current and survive this as a test, weel Mr Lin has survived it arccording to the book )

 

Just underestimate me

Q

 

 

 

 

It does not mater if say i was doing sun style taichi and also did xingyi quan they both cultivate chi. It does nto mater the external form but what you do internaly.

 

 

Why are you talking fiction in your later part of your post?

[mewtwo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUB3VgU7AaM

 

 

My qigong I am sorry about the quality and the rushnessed of it. It was on a low quality video camera.

[zerostao]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUB3VgU7AaM

 

 

My qigong I am sorry about the quality and the rushnessed of it. It was on a low quality video camera.

you know, it has some interesting ideas in it. it kinda looks to me more like a warm up type of qigong which would lead to more qigong. when you are taking a bite of the apple , what is your mind thinking?

i think you have potential to be a good qigong teacher, i still reccomend that for now you focus on known basic qigongs, keep it simple especially for newcomers. maybe one day you will be a qigong pioneer ...

move slowly get your foundation set first

[mewtwo]

My mind was thinking of a way to fix the digestive tract. kind of like an energetic way of doing dhauti cleansing technique except without a piece of cloth.

[dawei]

First off I would tend to say you need to follow your intuition; but I say that with a fair amount of expectation that you have a well established energetic connection to your dan tians and innate. Yes there are horror stories of Qi deviation issues (I've had them too; required my Qigong master to clear them but eventually I learned how to clear them myself), but I think both Taiji and Qigong can be started (and/or kept) simple and safe. That also comes with some amount of expectation that one knows how to do this. Keep a focus on how you regulate the three main aspects: Body (jing), Breath (qi) and Mind (shen). Understand how each contributes towards positive and negative effects.

 

Since you know some TCM and acupressure, I would look into meridian clearing/purging/opening vs tonifying more and more. This is usually where the troubles will arise. There are specific meridian stretches and loosing exercises. There are also associated Qigong exercises for each organ. I would be familiar with most all of this so that when you create something you know the effect theoretically and then you practice it a lot to know it experientially.

 

I say this because a lot of your exercises [on the video] involve the middle dan tian (or 3rd and 4th chakra areas) where the seat of emotions reside (and most importantly the heart). You want to be careful about this. You mentioned the imagery of "red" sauce over one's head on the video; the head (7th, crown chakra) is usually associated with 'white'; 'red' normally associated with the heart (fire organ), or lower dan tian (furnace dan tian) and also the 1st and 2nd chakra, the root and sacral/sexual. I think it may be easier to focus on colors as part of purging: Imagine 'white' on inhale and 'turbid' (dirty) on exhale. Maybe research more on chakras and colors. It's all a good tie-in.

 

I'll comment specifically on your video in next post so this is not so long.

[dawei]

A few comments on your video:

1. I would chart out each exercise and what you want to accomplish with it. I would mark them as "purge", "tonify" or both, and check the flow of the exercises against what you hope to achieve. Then adjust some of the breathing accordingly. I felt that your 'sighing breath' (purging breath) is maybe in the wrong sequence or should at least be at the start to get the body/mind calm and emptied.

2. Hug Exercise: Is this intended to be purging or tonifying or both? I like your full arm extensions and palms up maintains Yang Qi connection. But, as an alternate, you could throw your arms slightly downward (with palms down) to make it a release of bad Qi from the throat and chest area. Practice that feeling using 'white' light on inhale and dirty Qi on exhale. ( I see a general pattern of you purging from the throat/heart downward as preparation for the digestive 'swallow').

3. Push out-Pull in Exercise: Your video appears to start with a push out; I would start with Pull in. After your last "hug" your arms are extended; so there is a natural transition to go "in" somewhere... use that. "Pull In" [from the last Hug] with INHALE; Then Push out with EXHALE. I would finish with a "Push Out" so you clear the arms and let them float downward. (I think these first two exercises could be both tonify and purge, so maybe a regulated breath of equal length and strength.)

4. Side Swip Exercise: When your arms swip from the chest then go to the rear, you have clinched fists and they stay clinched till you throw the arm forward. This is effective holding 'turbid' Qi (on swipe) for a few seconds in clinched fists and then throwing that Qi forward.

 

IMO, what you want to do is: INHALE- swipe across chest (grab hold of Qi you want to pull away from heart/chest area); As your arm is pulling back in clinched fist then do a short but strong EXHALE opening the fist so that turbid Qi is thrown quickly away {behind you). While the shorter exhale normally defines this as a 'tonifying' movement, the now much stronger exhale transitions to more purging. If practicing with multiple students they do NOT want to throw Qi in each other's space. So the throwing motion should be downward like the arm is going. Account for spacing with students around this issue. (So, here I see a transition to purging and clearing)

5. Down Swip Exercise: Same idea. INHALE- swip down, clinch bad Qi and quick, strong EXHALE open hands and release bad Qi towards ground behind you. (more purging and clearing but the movement is now downward which is the same direction as the digestion)

6. Knees up Exercise: I am not so fond of this idea, unless it was done at the very end to just stimulate some blood flow. Based on the sequence I see so far, the legs are a logical next step but I would use more of a Taiji Yin-to-Yang, Yang-to-Yin shifting (weight on left--purges right foot; weight on right--purges left foot); or a weight-to-front-of-feet (Inhale) to weight-to-back-of-feet (exhale) purging motion. Try these and see if you feel anything.

7. Sigh Exercise: This is a great and essential tool but I prefer it at the start to calm body and mind. Nothing says you can't do it again in the middle. If done at the start, it should feel like a whole body release from head downward, as you show, exaggerate it with arm movements, even bending forward to really release everything ; if done in the middle, I would 'feel' it more inside like the chest-digestive tract-hips are clearing down and out the legs. So you could combine this with the weight on front-of-feet (Inhale) to weight on back-of-feet (heavy sigh exhale) purging motion.

8. Ball Swallow Exercise: After the tossing and before swallowing, I would allow the hands to just begin to compress and condense that ball for maybe 5 seconds, moving around the edge of the ball, forming it smaller and smaller; then bring ball to mouth with both hands and swallow and allow the hands to slowly move down the front of the body in unison with your mind and digesting all saliva you have.

 

Notes:

9. I would have the tongue in the 'fire position' (relaxed behind/above teeth on gum line) the entire time. That will help to generate the saliva throughout (swallow throughout as needed) and for the 'ball swallow'.

10. Colors: Bring in color may be hard for some at first. I would focus on the purging aspects which means one can focus on 'white' on inhale and 'turbid' (dirty) on exhale.

11. In medical qigong there is a cool oil purge which you could do at the very end. Close your eyes and imagine oil (due to it's slow flow) dripped down your front {the source could be a smilie face or sun) and envision it's slow path down the head, split the shoulders and off finger tips, down chest, split the legs and 10 feet outward from feet. Repeat with oil flow down the back. A third variation is repeat down the 3 dan tians. After all three are done, the oil sprouts golden flowers at your feet which come back up, filling into your body.

 

Thanks for sharing your video.

[mewtwo]

Thank you dawei i will keep that in mind. But the focuse of my qigongi guess i did not put it in the video is a sort of martial arts more chi more powerful person in martial arts. When i am pushing and pulling i am pushing negative chi and pulling in positive chi into my body.

 

Thanks for your sugestions though i will take them to heart.

[Prince...]

If you're serious about teaching, put together a small practice group (that you will "teach" for free). Maybe some things you're doing will work better for some than others. If there isn't much of an interest in your area right now, are you sure people will be interested later if you were to develop real skills?

 

Go to work, and save your money. Travel to seminars where you can meet people already teaching. Be willing to experiment.

 

Whatever you do, don't go around calling yourself a master if you're not. If you have your own system, be sure to tell people it's a work in progress. The last thing you want to do is make a bad name for yourself because the martial world is really small.

Edited January 10, 2011 by Prince...

[Friend]

Edited November 16, 2011 by Friend

[mYTHmAKER]

i would like to see your sun style taichi and xingyi quan

Edited January 10, 2011 by mYTHmAKER

[mewtwo]

may i ask why you want to see me do sun style taichi and xingyi quan?

[mYTHmAKER]

may i ask why you want to see me do sun style taichi and xingyi quan?

 

Yes you may.

I would be better able to see how you move and whether or not you are qualified to teach IMHO.

Also am curuoius

[mewtwo]

oh ok just a for warning i have not done the forms in a while so i am going to be rusty. i will tihnk about doing sunstly taichi and xing yi.

Edited January 10, 2011 by mewtwo

[phore]

Where do you stand alchemically. Hows your intuition. Do you see through a glass darkly or could you draw detailed diagrams of the bodys energy system from what you see with your third eye. can you astral project. what do your guides say?

[mewtwo]

I have great intuition. i could draw some what detailed diagrams with what i know about the energetic system. I can some what astral project in my dreams. I have not consulted my guides.

[phore]

I have great intuition. i could draw some what detailed diagrams with what i know about the energetic system. I can some what astral project in my dreams. I have not consulted my guides.

sounds like a good skill set. can you see auras? can you tell a person what to do if they experience one of the many different kinds of chi sickness. Can you guide anyone through a spiritual awakening (things will get messy if you cant).

take into account the safety of your students, then act with benevolence, integrity and skill.

[mewtwo]

That is the one reason i asked if i could teach on here cause of chi sicknesses and such. I know that grounding helps but what else can help? How does one guide one through a spiritual awakening?

[Starjumper]

That is the one reason i asked if i could teach on here cause of chi sicknesses and such. I know that grounding helps but what else can help? How does one guide one through a spiritual awakening?

 

Do not teach chi kung, you might end up hurting people. Loose 100 pounds and clean up you act, then find a chi kung master from the martial arts side of town, not the ones who go around patting each other on the back with certificates. Until then teach tai chi, do you have a tai chi video?

[mewtwo]

you meen learn taichi starjumper7? why would i need a how to video on taichi?