Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan Posted October 1, 2011 Aren't there free mindfulness and silent meditation spaces near you? I find what i can when i can. This morning @ the 'old woman meteor' museum, which is closed for rennovations till november, i sat in quite peace and waited for the sun to rise, and i can go back out there later if i need to get out of the buzz of society for some more practice, but there's no shade and 100+ degree weather is harsh when i dont know how to use chi to feel cold Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Birch Posted October 2, 2011 I find what i can when i can. This morning @ the 'old woman meteor' museum, which is closed for rennovations till november, i sat in quite peace and waited for the sun to rise, and i can go back out there later if i need to get out of the buzz of society for some more practice, but there's no shade and 100+ degree weather is harsh when i dont know how to use chi to feel cold You don't know how but you can imagine you do:-) IMO/IME "Buzz of society" = good place for many practices. Mountain-tops also good. Beaches, also good. Forests, love them. Cooking, massive practice. Offices, hardcore. Churches, very interesting. Internet, wow what happened with that??? Dude, you 'wait' for sunrise;-) Right there, if you can quit waiting:-) What do you need to learn from anyone?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan Posted October 5, 2011 My sitting meditation helpped me wait The quiet peace helpped me meditate. "I find what I can when I can."; I practice as much as I can as often as I can find time to practice. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ChiDragon Posted October 5, 2011 My sitting meditation helpped me wait The quiet peace helpped me meditate. "I find what I can when I can."; I practice as much as I can as often as I can find time to practice. Now, that's what I've called discipline....) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan Posted October 5, 2011 LOL It sure doesnt "feel" disciplined! But the results are obvious to me, now that i have seen my physical improvements! Kind of a funny story actually: I've always been very skinny and up until this last 2 years, hardly any muscle or definition thereof. The other day while exhausted from walking all day, i went into the library bathroom and lifted my shirt, because i had a side ache and i guess i wanted to just make sure all was well, and i was shocked to see the level of definition my muscles had taken on! I dont normally keep tabs on my body like that, so it was a sudden surprise to me That is proof enough to me that chi cultivation practice works, and well-even if you hardly know what you're doing! just as long as you continually are DOING it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LBDaoist Posted October 6, 2011 This discussion of masters and economics is an interesting one. My experience has been most closely related to what FiveElementTao has put forth. The master I train with required an entire year's worth of payment in advance. His philosophy is that if a student is interested and committed to learning, they can come up with the money. If they cannot come up with the money, the odds are that they are too busy with other parts of their lives (like struggling to put food on the table) to really dedicate time to mastering the art. That concept of mastering the art is an important one. My master is training future masters. He has been teaching for 36 years, and so far at least half a dozen of his students have gone on to open temples of their own. Not everyone who trains the art will end up making it their life's work, but the potential is there. My master is also working on creating a university where students will be a able to earn a real, accredited degree. The university is not going to build itself. It takes money. As sifu always say, "The art is free, you are just paying for sifu's time." The art is free. Feel free to go figure it out on your own. If you want guidance, have the respect for the master and compensate him for his time. At one point I was facing financial hardship and I thought I was going to have to leave the temple. I went to my sifu and explained to him that I could not continue to train anymore because I could not afford it. He shook his head and explained to me, "I accepted you as my student. You are going to continue coming to the temple, and you will pay me again when you can afford to." I have been training with him for ten years at this point. I willingly pay my tuition and participate in fund raisers because I know that out of the 100 students that sifu has at any given time, at least a couple of them might be in the same situation I was in. Nobody wants to teach a freeloader. At this point, those who are studying the art and sharing their findings with others are standing on the shoulders of others, going back over 1000 years. Each one of those people took the art, improved their own lives with it, and passed it along to others. Nobody got a free ride. In my own life, the art has improved all of its aspects. Sifu has a philosophy. Life is like a table with four legs. The legs are your health, your finances, your relationships and your job. All four of them need to be in balance before you can really dedicate yourself to learning the art. At the same time, learning the art will help you balance those four. If any one of them is too far out of wack... too short or too tall, the table will not be level and whatever you set on top of it will slide off. To the OP, make sure that your table is level and that your legs are even. Spend your free time training what you know. A master will show up. I contemplated qi and meditating and martial arts since I was 8. It wasn't until 23 that I discovered that I was living three blocks from a Daoist master (having moved a few times since I was 8 obviously). 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan Posted October 6, 2011 I have to agree with the finer points you made, but consider this: I want to teach freeloaders, freely. My time is only as valuable as the company i keep with it. If i can improve the life of a "freeloader" and turn their ways around, that is a great potential to improve not only the person, but the community and even the world. One person at a time. I can reject no student, no matter their finances or commitment. every grain of sand counts toward the mountain they could build. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fiveelementtao Posted October 7, 2011 (edited) I have to agree with the finer points you made, but consider this: I want to teach freeloaders, freely. My time is only as valuable as the company i keep with it. If i can improve the life of a "freeloader" and turn their ways around, that is a great potential to improve not only the person, but the community and even the world. One person at a time. I can reject no student, no matter their finances or commitment. every grain of sand counts toward the mountain they could build. HNJT, I am happy to hear that you have a strong desire and plan to teach others...I strongly support your desire to teach and I encourage you to do whatever you need to do to be able to teach qigong to others. Qigong teachers are desperately needed in our world. IME, if you have a strong desire to teach it may be because you have been called to do so. There are certainly appropriate situations to freely teach others so I don't want to give the impression that one should charge money in every situation. I myself do teach freely quite often and I always seek to provide sliding scales to those who have shown their commitment to learn. I also agree with what has already been said in that a teacher does not charge for the art itself because any true art is beyond price. There is no amount of money in the Universe that could adequately compensate for a true energy art. The only thing that is being paid for is the time and effort and experience of the teacher. Having said that..., HNJT, You haven't even trained with a teacher yet but you are already outlining your teaching strategies including what payment will be? In terms of making determinations now about how much you will or will not charge a student... I promise you when you are in a position where you are supporting yourself and perhaps a family and you have spent years under the direction of a master or teacher and you have first hand experience of what it is actually like to sacrifice your hard earned cash for years and the dedication it took for you to continue your training you may have a different viewpoint regarding this subject. good luck to you... Edited October 7, 2011 by fiveelementtao 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan Posted October 7, 2011 5ET, I am not only dedicated to my goal, but irremovably bound to it. I know full well that the benefits of spreading chi cultivation the world over are far greater than the greatest payment of cash any individual or whole class could ever provide from 1 yen to infinite euros. I know full well that there will come a time i will have to pay for lessons from hard earned cash, and i know full well how that sting can affect luxuries and even necessities and bills. Never the less, BECAUSE I know this, I know that OTHERS who need to know this world will have just as hard a time as I, if not harder. It can only inspire me to help them ever more than before. There are two ways to look at it: "It took ME this much to do it, so it has to cost YOU, TOO. Compensate me and I'll teach you." OR "It did take me a lot to get all this, and I know how hard it is. It needn't be. So long as you are committed, you will learn from me." The goal is not only to share teh wealth of Qi, but to exemplify the faults of greed and unnecessary prerequisites. It is not so much that the student is on my time as much as it is that I am on the student's time. Work with the student, not expect the student to work with ME. Agreeably, there would need to be a middle ground, but it's a amtter of effort give and take. The amount of effort from the student to learn is the amount of effort they recieve that I spend teaching them. No student need be turned away due to laziness; what you put into it you get out of it. THAT's on THEM, not me. So why worry so much about finances when I've complete faith in the Tao and it's universe to be in my best interests? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
