The first thing you learned in Chi Kung.

[ChiDragon]

Form some of the readings on the forum, some of you are learning Chi Kung from books and some are taken lessons from an instructor. I am just curious how is your instructor give you your lessons and what was the first thing your instructor tells you...??? For those who are learning from the books, how did you get started it...???

 

It would be appreciated for your kindness to let me know. Thank you in advance.

Edited June 6, 2011 by ChiDragon

[Oolong Rabbit]

Exercises to open the hips and spine.

[effilang]

He taught me that i had no idea how to relax physically, even though i thought i did.

[phore]

A lot of the time the first thing taught to students is the 8 pieces of the brocade. These exercises were credited to tamo. They were the first type of qigong the shaolin monks encountered on their journey to enlightenment as well. I randomly learned them from a book named Chi' the Power Within. The only taichi teacher ive ever met in person started his students off with the 8 pieces as well.

Its a pretty zen way to begin. They teach you how to move your body during qigong.

Edited June 6, 2011 by phore

[doc benway]

The first thing my Qigong teacher addressed was proper posture, then natural breathing.

[suninmyeyes]

.

Edited June 6, 2011 by suninmyeyes

[Franklin]

another vote for posture and then natural breathing

those were the first thing that where shown to me as a beginner and also what I introduce to students first

 

franklin

[Sahaj Nath]

the three primary regulations: body (relaxation, posture, stance), breath (natural breathing, buddhist breathing), and mind (focused awareness). that's where it all began, and it continues to be at the core of what i do.

[GreytoWhite]

I first started learning the Chen taiji silk reeling exercises with focus on breath and proper abdominal rotation.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

I first learned lower dan tien breathing from Waysun Liao's translation of Tai Chi Classics (little did I know how awesome he is).

 

I found my movement instructions through online videos. What I automatically thought of when doing them was Tao Te Ching philosophy of flowing with natural changes (following breath), and Complete Reality explanation of Emptiness. I had also been reading Taoist scripture for about 10 years, so it was an "Oh My God this is awesome moment" to finally connect the philosophy with the practice.

 

Here is the first video I started to work with consistently:

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1572962536605659291#

[Stigweard]

the three primary regulations: body (relaxation, posture, stance), breath (natural breathing, buddhist breathing), and mind (focused awareness). that's where it all began, and it continues to be at the core of what i do.

Yes!!!

 

[Harmonious Emptiness]

the three primary regulations: body (relaxation, posture, stance), breath (natural breathing, buddhist breathing), and mind (focused awareness). that's where it all began, and it continues to be at the core of what i do.

 

I think the "Oh My God, this is awesome" moment was my correlative "mind (focused awareness)" part of the practice. lol. Combined with Emptiness, of course

 

 

edit: also, from "Tai Chi Classics," feeling the Chi between hands and then with hands over lower dantien.

 

This was useful in keeping "focused awareness" while moving in and out and up and down with the breath and movement of Qi Gong.

Edited June 7, 2011 by Harmonious Emptiness

[ChiDragon]

Let me tell my own breathing problem history. I had a breathing problem when I was a teenager. My breaths were so shallow. I cannot even finish a sentence with one breath. Therefore, I took TaiJi lessons, the Yang style 108 movements. I was told not to concentrate on my breathing as a beginner, but just do the movements and let them guide my breathing.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Let me tell my own breathing problem history. I had a breathing problem when I was a teenager. My breaths were so shallow. I cannot even finish a sentence with one breath. Therefore, I took TaiJi lessons, the Yang style 108 movements. I was told not to concentrate on my breathing as a beginner, but just do the movements and let them guide my breathing.

 

yes, I found that my breathing first had to slow down, to match the movement that was matching the slow breathing, that was matching the movement...

[Apech]

Standing still for what seemed an eternity

[Qigong15]

The first thing I discovered was that Qigong is more than just gentle exercise - never looked back since

[ChiDragon]

One who wants to practice Chi Kung should get a good grip of its definition. Then, one will have a good idea of what one is going into.

 

Here is my definition of Chi Kung:

It is the ultimate method of breathing with slow movements which needs to be practiced to its perfection for energy cultivation. The ultimate goal to attain abdominal breathing which is to sink the chi to the dan tien.

Edited June 24, 2011 by ChiDragon

[thelerner]

He taught me that i had no idea how to relax physically, even though i thought i did.

 

I'll second this. I'll consider my first Chi Kung to be Ki-Aikido, and I was told over and over to be more relaxed, more relaxed. Stop planting and using muscle, power come through relaxation, extension and extending ki (intent).

[phore]

Standing still for what seemed an eternity

I suppose standing stakes is pretty basic too. I like the tree-hugging posture/ holding the ball.

I've also spent quite a bit of time standing in horse stance.

In the Kundalini Awakening Process we started with 4 basic qigong exercises to gather and move qi.

[Dagon]

A fellow student named Peter loaned me a book to read called "The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life" by Drunvalo Melchizedek. I had no idea about Chi or Chakra's or anything like that at the time, (10 years ago)but found it intriguing that the golden mean spiral was found everytwhere in nature. So I continued to read, and got to a meditation technique, said to be given by the Egyptian Thoth. I completed the process in a few days, which I found the center or third eye. I didn't know what all of it meant at the time, so I began to coorelate my experiences to other teachings and found that the meditation was described by the yogi's as kundalini awakening.

 

"The Egyptians awakened it. The ancient Chinese awakened it. The Eurasians, Mayans and Toltecs awakened and used it. The ancient Yoga practitioners designed the Yoga postures to speed and awaken its presence."

 

http://www.kundaliniawakeningseminars.com/home.html

 

Then I scoured the web to find more, and here I am

Edited June 25, 2011 by Dagon