laying a foundation

[rainbow]

At this point in my life I am much too busy to get any sort of teacher or master. I spend my scraps of free time reading about Taoism-qigong etc. but I think that attempting to cultivate chi energy without proper instruction could be harmful, not progressive.

 

In the time being, what type of meditation or physical/mental exercise could I do on a daily basis that would help me to lay a foundation until I can acquire a master/instructor. I am thinking of something simple, like focusing on my dantien while meditating or a simple exercise of qigong that would not potentially harm me.

 

Is there anything I can do without a teacher that would allow for noticeable progress in cultivation but that is safe?

 

Reading a book just isnt the same as hearing a real person give me instructions with the connotative moral lessons. Its hard for me to disipline myself and to really understand what is happening without instruction. So, what can i do now that will make the road ahead easier, assuming that I will have a master someday.

 

Thanks everyone!

[soaring crane]

Hi,

 

Ii guess you've come accross some dire warnings in your readings. If you're of relatively sane mind, then don't take the warnings too seriously. I haven't met any people that have actually damaged themselves by doing basic Qigong exercises. Some get stiff shoulder and things like that but energetically, no. It's people at the intermediate levels of practice that can get themselves (ourselves) into trouble. I think it's part of the growing process

 

I'm going to post a simple routine on my little website soon. Just need to make photos.

 

Also, there are some really good dvds out there these days, as far as I know.

[sean]

Simple standing and sitting in stillness meditations. Zhang Zhuang. Zuowang. Eight brocades. Five animal frolics. Can't really go wrong with the basics.

[Trunk]

Simple standing and sitting in stillness meditations. Zhang Zhuang. Zuowang. Eight brocades. Five animal frolics. Can't really go wrong with the basics.

See Sean's post on this for descriptive links.

[mbanu]

Cultivate the Human path of immortality for now, rather than screwing with the Heaven, Earth, or Ghost paths. The Human path is fairly well-documented, and not dangerous to follow at all. It will not provide longevity on the scale of the more advanced paths, but followed correctly it will keep one hale & healthy, and extend one's life as far as can be expected without special techniques. The standard quote is until the age of 100, although this number depends on when the practices were started. Also more importantly, it creates a solid foundation for more advanced practices, if a teacher is found later on.

 

The Human path is written about in many Chinese medical books on longevity and healthy lifestyle. Life Cultivation and Rehabilitation by the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine is a good English collection. Or, for a less technical work, The Mystery of Longevity by Liu Zhengcai is also good.

[thaddeus]

Is there anything I can do without a teacher that would allow for noticeable progress in cultivation but that is safe?

An excellent question. Another way to ask this is..'what is the common denominator of all training?'

You got some great answer already, so you can't go wrong.

Some additional pointers, though..if you consider what is the common denominator of all training is to cultivate a state of mindfulness, present moment awareness. It's a basic fundamental of all training. Internal martial artists call it a part of the 6 harmonies..another word is Yi or intent or heart mind. So do that well, and you have everyone beat because it's probably the most important thing.

The next is to cultivate a relaxation of the muscles and transfer awareness to the connective tissue. Nothing really esoteric or weird in that, but it's another basic fundamental. This 'peng' that arises when you allow forces to travel the path of connective tissue to the ground and back and not so much tense muscles gives your movement power. Again, cultivate that and you have everyone with a teacher beat.

Just my two cents,

T

[riverheron]

I recommend this audio CD by Ken Cohen as a great place to start. I discovered it about ten years ago and it was a great way to start into cultivation with the voice of a teacher guiding you along the way . . . simple, and powerful.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Qigong-Meditations-K...TF8&s=books

 

{sorry for the long link . . .}

 

love qi,

 

riverheron

[mYTHmAKER]

Even though you don't have much time I would advise looking for a teacher

near where you live.

See if you can be taught a basic simple form that wouldn't take too much time to learn.

eight brocades and soaring crane qigong are two that come to mind.

Most people can't learn from a tape or book. You may think you are doing something correctly

but the oddds are you are not. One can't see the movement in a book and when viewing a tape

it is usually opposite when we face the screen.

A class once a week to learn the basics and a correction class once in a while would suffice.

You will learn faster as it would take you longer to learn on your own.

[soaring crane]

 

eight brocades and soaring crane qigong are two that come to mind.

 

hey

[mYTHmAKER]

hey

Not you silly.

I did practice soaring crane for a few years.

Edited February 21, 2007 by mYTHmAKER

[rainbow]

Thank you all for the advice. Is there an instructor you know of in the SoCal Ventura area?

[soaring crane]

Not you silly.

I did practice soaring crane for a few years.

 

cool

 

I actually started a Soaring Crance group at yahoogroups but I couldn't find anybody to take part

Did you ever get into the Zifagong part? The sixth form?

[mYTHmAKER]

cool

 

I actually started a Soaring Crance group at yahoogroups but I couldn't find anybody to take part

Did you ever get into the Zifagong part? The sixth form?

 

After the five forms I did some spontaneous standing (Zifagong)

Is the sixth form the walking form. I didn't do this

[soaring crane]

The sixth form is the Zifagong, spontaneous standing, yes. It's what I concentrated on most and supposedly the reason the form is now banned in China.

 

Walking isn't really a component of it, afaik. A lot of teachers just like to walk a little after practice. Or a lot

[mYTHmAKER]

The sixth form is the Zifagong, spontaneous standing, yes. It's what I concentrated on most and supposedly the reason the form is now banned in China.

 

Walking isn't really a component of it, afaik. A lot of teachers just like to walk a little after practice. Or a lot

 

The form is banned in China - how strange.

The walking was a moving form.

From a web site

"This form is a higher level of Chinese Soaring Crane Qigong. The practitioner walks in certain patterns and postures, incorporating the traditional Chinese "Ba-gua" figure and the basic principles of Crane Style Qigong."

Edited February 21, 2007 by mYTHmAKER

[Japhy Ryder]

 

It's people at the intermediate levels of practice that can get themselves (ourselves) into trouble. I think it's part of the growing process

 

 

I completely agree. It's tempting to think in terms of beginning, intermediate, and advanced practices. But especially when one lacks a flesh-and-blood teacher to work with regularly, I think it's more productive (and safer) to focus on the basics. In some qigongs, beginning, intermediate, and advanced practitioners do the same stuff, the difference being HOW they do it. This was stunningly clear to me last summer as I watched one of Wan Su Jian's students do a version of the Eight Brocades. Her practice was beautiful to watch. She'd obviously been a beginner for longer than I have!

[Spectrum]

Novices obviously need to learn the basics... but I think the thing that seperates intermediate from advanced is understanding those basics as they apply to the whole; including timing; for martial and/or health benifits.

 

Spectrum

[soaring crane]

 

The form is banned in China - how strange.

The walking was a moving form.

From a web site

"This form is a higher level of Chinese Soaring Crane Qigong. The practitioner walks in certain patterns and postures, incorporating the traditional Chinese "Ba-gua" figure and the basic principles of Crane Style Qigong."

 

I've heard three explanations for it:

 

Some people actually took it to such an extreme that they died during practice.

 

Some people began to act out the sexual dance in an unacceptable way

 

The form, especially the freeform, encouraged free-thought and self-expression. This last one seems most likely but the woman I learned the form from, Petra Hinterthuer, has contact to people who should really know the truth and she says it's because of reason #1. I just can't imagine the Chinses gov't becomming concernded because a few people died.

 

That same woman always does a 20 or 30 minute walk-around after the final form but what you're describing sounds like an "enhancement" created by one particular teacher or school. There are many Crane forms...

[Spectrum]

Some people began to act out the sexual dance in an unacceptable way

 

Man that's still going on!

 

Don't know if this is relevant but a certain Master Wang of the YiQuan lineage had a spiral health dance he realized. Totally freestyle. Formless form. Circle Walking, the 8, the 9 palaces, these are all meaningful expressions. So Beautiful.

Edited February 24, 2007 by Spectrum

[mYTHmAKER]

Some people actually took it to such an extreme that they died during practice.

Did they practice in traffic

 

I have trouble believing this, I did a google and came up with nothing.

The only reference to banned qigong is falun gong.

There are many articles stating how soaring crane is used in hospitals in china.

 

If it was banned it would be written up somewhere

Edited February 24, 2007 by mYTHmAKER

[mYTHmAKER]

Youtube has soaring crane video clips shot in China

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b-6f2jp1Kg...ted&search=

[soaring crane]

 

If it was banned it would be written up somewhere

 

huh... you're right. I never looked into it, just accepted it as fact. Thanks for doing the research!

[Yen Hui]

At this point in my life I am much too busy to get any sort of teacher or master. I spend my scraps of free

time reading about Taoism-qigong etc. but I think that attempting to cultivate chi energy without proper

instruction could be harmful, not progressive.

 

In the time being, what type of meditation or physical/mental exercise could I do on a daily basis that would

help me to lay a foundation until I can acquire a master/instructor. I am thinking of something simple, like

focusing on my dantien while meditating or a simple exercise of qigong that would not potentially harm me.

 

Is there anything I can do without a teacher that would allow for noticeable progress in cultivation but that is

safe?

 

Reading a book just isnt the same as hearing a real person give me instructions with the connotative moral

lessons. Its hard for me to disipline myself and to really understand what is happening without instruction. So,

what can i do now that will make the road ahead easier, assuming that I will have a master someday.

 

You have inadvertently hit upon the main point of contention or division between the Northern and Southern

sects of Complete Reality Taoism. Both sects practiced the cultivation of essence and life, that is, mind and

body; but the Northern School (i.e. the Dragon Sect) taught that the mind essence should be cultivated first;

whereas the Southern Sect taught that the body should be cultivated first, as preparation for more advanced

methods in refining the mind.

 

The path of dual cultivation, or of simultaneously cultivating mind and body, eventually emerged from this

division; and is referred to in Hexagram 30: "Clarity of mind is rooted in life but can also consume it. Everything

depends upon how the clarity functions." (cf - Line 4 @ http://www.geocities.com/clearlight610/chou_i/h30.html )

The idea of life being dependent on the function of inherent clarity is expounded at large for us in these words:

 

On the Twin Cultivation of Essence and Life

 

Master Zhang Ziyang said, "If you start with essence, it's hard to apply it in practice; if you start with life,

there's a concrete way of approach. Even if the achievement is one, nevertheless there is something better

about starting with esence."

 

Li Qing-an said, "The best people have already planted roots of virtue and have inborn knowledge; once they

directly comprehend essence, they naturally comprehend life."

 

Essence and life are one matter. The reason people die is that the body and spirit separate. The reason the

sense organs are useless after death, even though they are still there, is no spirit to manage them. Obviously

the spirit is the manager of the body; when the spirit departs, energy dissipates, so how could life exist outside

of essence? If you divide them into two for twin cultivation, differentiating them into prior and latter, that is not

quite right. Why? When you cultivate essence, life is therein. As the Celestial Master of Open Serenity said,

"When spirit is restored to the body, energy returns of itself." No one has been able to accomplish intercourse

to produce the elixir without being outwardly nonresistant and serene. Indeed, first refining vitality into energy -

thus cultivating stabilization and liberation from the matrix - is roundabout and difficult to achieve fully. If you

can realize the body of reality, why worry that the physical body will not be sublimated?

 

The three passes from effort to effortlessness constitute the gradual method; cultivating the upper pass so as

to include the lower two passes is the sudden method. Now you should directly practice refinement of spirit

back into emptiness: when you reach the state of utter emptiness and silence, vitality spontaneously evolves

into energy, and energy spontaneously evolves into spirit. The handle is in your grip; your destiny is up to

you! This is penetrating the three barriers with one shot. This is the simplest and easiest, most direct and

quick; those on the Way should thoroughly appreciate this. ( Taoist Classics, Volume 2, pp. 550-551 )

 

Now, the secret "oral" teachings of Internal Alchemy are embedded within the 64 Hexagrams of the I Ching.

Consequently, I would advise developing a close acquaintance with the I Ching. It holds the hidden secrets of

all alchemical principles and teachings, inherent within the mind itself. The I Ching refers to our higher nature

as the Mind of Tao; the Body of Wisdom inherent within the human heart-mind. In Hexagram 48, it (i.e. the

heart-mind) is referred to as "The Well" (cf. @ http://www.geocities.com/clearlight610/chou_i/h48.html ) and in

Hexagram 61, as the "Inner Truth". Thus, according to this, each of us possesses a well of divine wisdom. The

mystery is in how to effectively access or penetrate it! The ancient method of penetration is disclosed for us in

the Great Treatise, which expounds the Fourfold Tao of the Holy Sages in these basic terms:-

 

1. The Book of Changes contains a fourfold tao of the holy sages. In speaking, we should be guided by its

judgments; in action, we should be guided by its changes; in making objects, we should be guided by its

images; in seeking an oracle, we should be guided by its pronouncements.

 

5. The Changes are what has enabled the holy sages to reach all depths and to grasp the seeds of all things. (cf. @ http://www.geocities.com/clearlight610/cho...n_pt1_ch10.html )

 

And Chapter 8 of Part Two says this:-

 

1. The Changes is a book

From which one may not hold aloof.

Its tao is forever changing--

Alternation, movement without rest,

Flowing through the six empty places;

Rising and sinking without fixed law,

Firm and yielding transform each other.

They cannot be confined within a rule;

It is only change that is at work here.

 

2. They move inward and outward according to fixed rhythms.

Without or within, they teach caution.

 

3. They also show care and sorrow and their causes.

Though you have no teacher,

Approach them as you would your parents.

 

4. First take up the words,

Ponder their meaning,

Then the fixed rules reveal themselves.

But if you are not the right man,

The meaning will not manifest itself to you.

(cf. @ http://www.geocities.com/clearlight610/cho...an_pt2_ch8.html )

 

So, then, according to the above teachings, though you have no teacher, that is to say, are not linked to the

Great Tradition, through a completely realized person, yet are you to regularly take up the Changes, which is

to say, consult the Divine Oracle, and ponder deeply its words! "The Changes are what has enabled the holy

sages to reach all depths and to grasp the seeds of all things." It is by the Changes that the holy sages came

to understand their own inherent natures and to penetrate the eternal laws of internal alchemy. However, the

Treatise quotes Confucius as saying that: "Through one action, the fruits of a hundred thoughts are realized."

(cf. @ http://www.geocities.com/clearlight610/cho...an_pt2_ch5.html ) As important as the contemplative act is,

the emphasis must always be placed upon the practical application of the Oracle's teachings in our daily life. It

is in this manner that mind essence or clarity is cultivated, and therein immortality itself!

Edited February 26, 2007 by Yen Hui

[lino]

you can practice even while you are busy and nobody will even know the difference

 

Try doing the perineum lifts while you work and don't forget to keep the tongue up. Save the intense breathing techniques for any time that you have set aside for qigong but do some slight buddhist breathing as much as you can.

[mat black]

Yen Hui, i loved reading your post. very nice.

 

in addition to 'formal' practice ie qigong, meditation etc,

one master told us once that in 24 hrs of the day you can cultivate

 

i won't go into everything he said for 24 hrs, but some very simple things were:

 

when driving: drive for others, for saftey and peace on the road

 

at work: be the best employee or employer you can be

 

at home: be the most loving brother/sister/father/mother you can be

 

when eating, imnagine it is the nicest meal you ever had, don't read, let the qi be in the stomach

 

when you go top the toilet, go to the toilet, do nothing else, close your eyes...........

 

 

...............there was much more he said, but the most important one: SMILE FROM YOUR 3 EYES

 

this will enhance the shen 24hrs.