Xiang Gong - Fragrant Qigong

[Thrice Daily]

No, just researching. I'm reluctant to learn any new formal qigong forms without a physical teacher in the flesh, at least to begin to learn from. I think this is important. 

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

1 hour ago, Thrice Daily said:

No, just researching. I'm reluctant to learn any new formal qigong forms without a physical teacher in the flesh, at least to begin to learn from. I think this is important. 

That’s very smart! If you do end up wanting to learn, let me know and I can put you in touch with someone who knows a teacher. Definitely will be remotely since you don’t live in the same country but at least you can get direct feedback.

[Thrice Daily]

thanks for the offer. I am interested in spending some more time on 8 pieces brocade, Baduanjin , did you try this?

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

12 hours ago, Thrice Daily said:

thanks for the offer. I am interested in spending some more time on 8 pieces brocade, Baduanjin , did you try this?

I tried it, it’s quite good but I mainly do Flying Phoenix and Tan Tao Pai qigong as I find the healing effects better.

 

Banduanjin is a good one to learn without teacher though, lots of free and detailed information on them available and is hard to really do damage to yourself with those. 
 

 

[Thrice Daily]

On 15/11/2024 at 4:17 PM, -ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ- said:

No, I mean are you doing Fragrant Qigong as well as YJJ?

I’m just doing the Yjj, but I must say my Qigong seems to have recently been emitting fragrances.

 

I’ve started noticing this strangely enough.  

 

I picked up my set of Yijinjing in Taichung, Taiwan, (the old cultural centre before Taipei took over from what I understand) back in 2011.

[qin00b]

All right. Just completed 100 days of Level 1. I was considering a move to Yi Jin Jing, but remembered there was a level 2 for this. Seems like I will continue with 100 days of Level 2 and see where it gets me. 

 

[EFreethought]

3 minutes ago, qin00b said:

All right. Just completed 100 days of Level 1. I was considering a move to Yi Jin Jing, but remembered there was a level 2 for this. Seems like I will continue with 100 days of Level 2 and see where it gets me.

 

So what changes have you seen from 100 days of Level 1?

 

[qin00b]

1 hour ago, EFreethought said:

 

So what changes have you seen from 100 days of Level 1?

 

Changes in health:  Main thing I noticed was a respiratory issue that's been bothering me for years cleared up towards the home stretch of this _gong_. Couple other minor but persistent things cleared up as well. I think my eyesight changed a little as well (got better). Hadn't been sick despite the wife getting very ill a couple times since I started. 

 

Things specific to Fragrant:  

Spontaneous Fasting:  this only happened once. I had to break the fast for social reasons, but probably could have kept going. 

Spontaneous Fragrances:  only noticed these a couple times.

 

Other:

Vivid dreams. Hadn't had vivid or memorable dreams in years, but shortly after starting to do Fragrant, I had a series of vivid dreams which were helped me work through some spiritualistic type work I'd been doing. These faded and came back recently, again helping me work through some more stuff.

 

"strobing movements" during the wafting scents movement, if I've got my eyes open and am not watching tv, I'll notice that the hands are moving as if under a strobe light - the movement feels smooth, but rather than being visually perceived as a continuous movement, it was as if every other "frame" was being perceived. I take this as a good sign. 

 

All in all, I think it was 100 days well spent. I'm looking forward to the next gong. I'll try to keep better notes as I go through this to see what changes occurred. 

[EFreethought]

17 minutes ago, qin00b said:

Changes in health:  Main thing I noticed was a respiratory issue that's been bothering me for years cleared up towards the home stretch of this _gong_. Couple other minor but persistent things cleared up as well. I think my eyesight changed a little as well (got better). Hadn't been sick despite the wife getting very ill a couple times since I started. 

[REST CUT FOR SPACE]

Thanks for the info.

 

Another question: How did you learn it? Did you get the DVDs from John Dolic's website? Or did you do a video conference?

 

[qin00b]

14 hours ago, EFreethought said:

Thanks for the info.

 

Another question: How did you learn it? Did you get the DVDs from John Dolic's website? Or did you do a video conference?

 

I used the resources in this thread (specifically the level 1 video in this post:  

Edit:  not the old lady in the field…the daughters in front of the bridge video. Not sure why the link went to the other one (

 but I also got the instructional (not the follow-along) video from Dolic. Dolic was very nice and answered a bunch of questions I asked him via email. that.

 

Somewhere, there was also a pdf of the level 1 method that not only shows the techniques, but has an FAQ about the practice of the method (for example, there are some who say that visualization is never allowed in Fragrant, but it is under one specific circumstance….). I found that helpful as well. 

When learning only from a video, I use the method @Starjumper recommended in his Tien Shan vids - watch the video a couple times to get the motions down, then pretend that the video is like going to see your teacher - do the techniques daily on your own and then come back every now and then to "take a class" with the teacher and see what you need to work on. 

Edited January 4 by qin00b

[qin00b]

Not quite 10 days into practicing level 2 (do level 1 and then immediately into level 2). First few days were trying to get the coordination to move the hips and arms in the proper manner. Then, the standard feeling of being "just on the verge of sickness" which I find comes about a week into any new qigong form. 

 

The weird part is the last 3-4 practices, I've had no issues with level 1, but an incredible amount of back pain (just under shoulder blades) during level 2. So much so that I've nearly had to stop. Been practicing variations of stance, etc. to try to see if I can figure out what's happening. Will try practicing at a different time and see if I can get through this. 

 

On the plus side, I noticed when holding "three sages sitting in meditation" at the end (basically ZZ with the hands at lower dan tien) a sense of feeling the qi in a way I haven't since getting deep into practicing Tien Shan. 

That said, while practicing, I had a playlist of unfamiliar songs and just after my back pain started, the chorus of the song playing was, "take a break," so I think I'll consider this a message from beyond and come back to this in a couple weeks. The back pain is notable even during level 1 now, so in the interest of giving myself some time to  heal, I'll give it a rest (probably move back to Tien Shan in the interim, at least some subset of level 1). 

Edited Sunday at 07:50 PM by qin00b