Filling Vs. Opening [a Center]

[宁]

no one dares take a stab at these questions, interesting

[Ish]

Master Hu Yao Zhen (creator of Stillness-movement) could do some incredible feats and says that the practice does have some relation to the martial.

One his high level students Feng Zhiqiang was said to have a ball of hardened qi that he could move around his body at will, doesnt that sound like "level 3"? Also i believe he reached that with less than a decade of training with Master Hu and Chen Fake.

[宁]

Master Hu Yao Zhen (creator of Stillness-movement) could do some incredible feats and says that the practice does have some relation to the martial.

One his high level students Feng Zhiqiang was said to have a ball of hardened qi that he could move around his body at will, doesnt that sound like "level 3"? Also i believe he reached that with less than a decade of training with Master Hu and Chen Fake.

 

that would surely mean up to 15 years of dilligent and consistent training, impressive. al the more so as the type of training required for that result seems very demanding.

[Diamond Spectrum]

"how does the specific neigong energy interact with the body's own bioenergy? it seems that they do to a certain extent, as training seems to ease and even heal some ailments, however the process is still fuzzy, because you'll get improvement in some parts, and no response in others. hmm."

 

This has to do with clearing and tuning the meridians so the tissue related to the ailments can receive the energy you are cultivating with practice. Although a specific practice, i.e. "abdominal breathing" will change the state of the bodies chi, area's of specific ailment will need to be treated as well with rest, direct manipulation, tui na, herbs, linaments, etc. From my perspective it's important to have a system that compliments that natural processes of the body and doesn't overly mystify the experience, that is why good practice is about tuning! It's about amplifying the natural physical processes, not just tuning into some mystery energy source somewhere under your feet, but realizing wuji, and experiencing stress relief on a daily basis instead of letting it build up into "dis-ease" ... the system that i was introduced to when i was a teen does this, at the time i was very strong anyways, so it helped me smooth out my chi and comb and cultivate it, as i've grown older (i'm 36) i recognize very similar sets of experiences with but now can bring about much more cultivated outcomes to a variety of "stimulus"

 

"regarding that, if the neigong energy does interact fully with the bioenergy, would it primarely focus on repairing physical damage? that will explain why more aged practitioners, as well as the ones that have (minor) health problems, take longer to FILL the center. "

 

neigung will both open and fill. part of good alignment and posture is to uninhibite the bodies natural stress responses, when this occurs in conjunction with proper breathing, the chi is cultivated through your breath, the more you practice, the smoother the chi, like turning pebbles to sand and sand to dust. The centers fill naturally as we move about eat and breath and the sun and moon take their course. What practice does is speed this spinning process up. This is shaping the wave of chi and you are breathing it in and out with each and every breath. Good practice will change the way you perceive your breath on a daily minute by minute basis, and stress will literally MELT off of you one breath at a time when these sensations occur. Often times during the day when i'm not "practicing" i will get the sensation of every single hair on my body pointing in a single direction when i breath in, and changing direction when i exhale. Chi Gung is an art of feeling. It is difficult to put into words.

[Diamond Spectrum]

In rereading my last post i want to make a distinction (without editing and re editing) in the opening aspects. sometimes "movement" is more appropriate to open a center than stillness, and neigung is based in stillness. I have encountered students with very limited ranges of motion that when encountering standing meditation find it difficult because of inhibition in areas of injury. What i've done is explain to them that in stillness is motion, and by slowly following their pain, their inhibition, they also follow the pathway to freedom. I induce a small amount of natural motion into the area via their own passive tendencies. Once this is underway normal practice will keep opening up the area. Sometimes it is in stillness that one finds the physical or spiritual answers that they are looking for, other times it is in motion that everything falls into place. i hope this helps. good training to you.

[宁]

thank you for the input @DS, interesting read.. if it's possible i'd like to know more about what you practice.

 

somehow i've got the idea that the frequencies of the natural Qi of the body, and the frequency of the Qi produced as a result of practice are dissimilar.

the body however has a way of metabolizing that foreign type of Qi, i'm just wondering how does it do it. i have a medical proffesion that interferes with the way i understand practice, you see. the 'how's' and the 'why's' are important to me, they give me perspective.

the whole point of this thread is building perspective...

 

edit: the body metabolizes the foreign Qi when you discontinue practice, it brings you back where you started, leaching the Qi out ~ this leaching is, for me, a process that makes that energy readily usable by the body.

 

also, the frequency of neigong energy is even more different from natural body energy...

Edited August 6, 2012 by 宁

[joeblast]

宁, imho it does the conceptual framework a disservice to refer to it as 'foreign.' it is a natural byproduct of practice - there's many 'qualitatively different' resonance-energies, its the blending together in good proportions that makes the sparks fly. its also jing-qi-shen in action; its establishing resonances and absolutely, utilizing it. part of practice is making the resonances strong and stable, its the framework for more and yeah ds, melt off, heck, cool off, blast it in a wave off the yang arm and leg channels, good to cool off in the hot summer months! I remember studying a weekend with Lin a few years ago, middle of the summer in million degree brooklyn heat, sweating my ass off in shorts and a tank top, him totally comfortable with his robe and everything - he had to poke at me and say why so hot? you warm yourself up with certain practices in the winter, why is this any different?

 

I agree on about when "balance" isnt where 'balance' should be. it is appropriate to use corrective qigongs to work towards having the certain body's "closed-eye equilibrium point" be where it should - with various structural imbalances, the student's self-corrections might not be calibrated just right, hence a huge benefit of having a trained eye to assist in pointing things out to be corrected. a thesaurus word jumble of what ds said, basically having an injured back I can absolutely attest to that. I had surgery back when they still sliced you wide open to remove the random bits! everybody gets their body busted up in their own peculiar way, so different folks, different corrective qigongs.

 

rv, if your breath doesnt go deep, how deep does yer neigung go? neigung power inside to out, need to sufficiently attenuate the out so that as much available potential goes in and not consumed by out. ohm's law, tension = resistance = "eatin' ur potentialz!" (for whatever reason lolcats jumped into my mind, haha) and also the resultant cascade of neural firings and loops thereof that happen from stimulation / physical activity.