Potent Systems

[tao stillness]

All I know is that I tried Falun Gong for 3 months 10 years ago and dropped it as it took too long. Since I now have more time I took it up again last month for about 3 weeks. All I know is that for several years I have had lower back pain after lifting anything even a bit heavy such as 25 lbs. But soon after this recent go round with Falun Gong that slight pain disappeared even though I have been lifting a 33 lbs baby for awhile now. 100 million Chinese were not going to do Falun Gong unless it really did heal people that they knew and then themselves when they tried it. I dropped it again recently because the postures are not enjoyable at all. It is meant to make you endure hardship with the thinking that suffering changes bad karma to good karma. Just one of Master Li's concepts that I disagree with. But it does result in rapid and unexpected physical healings. The emphasis is that the practitioner should focus on uplifting his moral character in order to get full spiritual benefits because modern Chinese do not have very high morals according to Li Hongzhi. Instead, they are striving to get ahead of others on the job and are jealous of the success of others and are preoccupied with materialistic achievements. He does not even want the practitioner to read any other qigong books as all other qigong methods are to be considered to be low quality and only good for physical healing but will not advance you spiritually. Falun Gong is mainly for achieving enlightenment. Since it is all taught for free, including all of the teaching videos and texts are online, it is not a money making organization. 

Edited December 12, 2020 by tao stillness

[Dainin]

Falun Gong makes their money from the Shen Yun performances:

 

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/stepping-into-the-uncanny-unsettling-world-of-shen-yun

 

"Shen Yun is a nonprofit. In 2016, it reported more than seventy-five million dollars in assets and more than twenty-two million dollars in revenue."

[SifuLew'sdaughter]

There should be no DVDs of the Tao Ahn Pai system, my father was against DVD’s of Chi Gung 

[Iskote]

9 hours ago, SifuLew'sdaughter said:

There should be no DVDs of the Tao Ahn Pai system, my father was against DVD’s of Chi Gung 

 

I think I understand the reasoning of why some traditional teachers would be reluctant to video record their sets and practices. The teacher may well teach different students somewhat differently depending on their ability and level of understanding, etc. As a given student progresses, the teacher may modify the movements for that particular student to match their level of understanding and achievement. So, from that perspective, there is no set or static form that applies to all students.  Also, more 'advanced' forms should not be practiced until a student has mastered the more 'basic' forms and practices. If forms and practices are put on DVD, students may be practicing things which they are not ready to be practicing, and they may also really need the close guidance of an accomplished teacher to keep them on the right path and to assist the student with any issues or questions they may have in their practices.  

 

What many martial arts and qigong/neigong teachers from China have realized in the last several decades however is that much of these traditional arts are in decline, or are in danger of getting completely lost, or they are modified and changed into something else by people who are not really qualified to do so, as these old traditional masters pass on. In order to try to preserve their systems as intact as possible for future generations, quite a number of those masters of traditional systems have broken with tradition and have been recording part or much of their practices on DVD's. This way future students have a reference from an accomplished teacher of the system of the way things were traditionally taught and practiced. It still can/will have the drawbacks which I described above, but at least there is a better chance to keep the system from getting completely lost or too distorted from the original traditional teachings. 

 

[johndoe2012]

Courses on Sheng Zhen online are free at the moment

 

https://shengzhen.online

 

I tried enrolling in the Awakening the Soul course and felt the transmissions of the contemplations and the Qigong, powerful and shifted some deep blocks in my system.

 

Also the Union of Three Hearts seem powerful, a big light in the center of my head appeared.

 

[tao stillness]

To Sifu Lew's daughter,

Times have changed. Technology, DVD teaching, online teaching, etc. are part of our modern life. I have a friend who only dabbles in qigong, trying a form only once in awhile. Yet he has some experiences the first time he does some qigong from a DVD or online download which equals that of a master. Effective qigong should produce results regardless of the format that is being used to teach it. That is my personal opinion from trying about 100 different qigong forms so far, mainly learned from DVDS. The strongest Qi I ever felt was when a teacher online was sending me a Qi transmission. 

[Cleansox]

1 hour ago, tao stillness said:

Yet he has some experiences the first time he does some qigong from a DVD or online download which equals that of a master. 

How does he know that? 

[tao stillness]

My friend did not make that claim. I stated that because I was so impressed. I might have exaggerated based on the way he described the tremendous Qi flow in his body. When he first did Flying Phoenix holding a peach, I think it was, as he held his hands in that position he could feel like a spinning ball of qi in his hands. When doing other types of qigong he feels Qi shooting out of his bubbling spring points and energy going up his spine so it sounds like he has the MCO going spontaneously. Recently he felt Qi shooting out from his beard. And he hardly ever does any qigong at all.  

[johndoe2012]

The Union of Three Hearts from Sheng Zhen is a super simple meditation giving good results.

 

So far it feels better due to not invoking "the feeling-being" which meditating on the lower dantian does (in my body).

 

The feeling-being is all about the "me, my self and I" structure and meditating in the middle of the head cuts that off completely starving the feeling-being away. So a quick way to realization of no-mind I think.

Edited August 12, 2020 by johndoe2012

[RiverSnake]

On 7/22/2020 at 4:57 AM, johndoe2012 said:

Courses on Sheng Zhen online are free at the moment

 

https://shengzhen.online

 

I tried enrolling in the Awakening the Soul course and felt the transmissions of the contemplations and the Qigong, powerful and shifted some deep blocks in my system.

 

Also the Union of Three Hearts seem powerful, a big light in the center of my head appeared.

 

 

Its cool that the courses are free. Congrats seems like there's some groovy chi over that way.

[tao stillness]

I have heard only good things about Sheng Zhen. Unfortunately, I never felt anything from it when I tried it for a week. 

[Antares]

 

Incredibly powerful system. Justin Stone brought it from China in 70th. This system was invented by Yang Luchang for the Chinese Emperor Court for he was famous martial artist at that time and was invited by the Emperor to teach the Court martial skills. 

 

The Emperor had harem and was very busy with all his day to day activities. So he needed a lot of energy for all his activites and asked Yang Luchan to teach him energy cultivation system for gaining power. Yang invented this system for this request and he used some tai chi movements which he simplified so that lay people could practise it. The feature of tai chi chih is that it works with Ming channels. 

Justin Stone died at age of 95. If you do it right you can feel joy and even bliss during execution and after exercises have been done. 

Good for eldery people for maintaining health issues. 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Antares

[Vajra Fist]

On 14/12/2020 at 1:59 PM, Antares said:

Incredibly powerful system.

 

Thanks for restarting this thread, one of my favourites here on the bums.

 

Interesting system, seems like a lot of stuff is ascribed to Yang Luchan these days. That's not to dispute its effectiveness, seems to get a lot of plaudits. 

 

How long have you practiced it for? Do you find its a medical or spiritual qigong?

 

Is this an accurate representation of the system? 

 

 

Curious to give it a try next time I have an hour free 

 

 

 

[Dainin]

I have limited exposure to Tai Chi Chih, but enjoyed what I've tried of it. I have never heard of the Yang Luchan attribution before. Some of it clearly comes from Tai Chi Ruler. The following blog post discusses Justin Stone, his Tai Chi teacher, and how some information in his books changed over time:

 

Tai Chi Chih: Lineage or Lone Star?

 

From what I've heard, the Guang Ping branch of Yang Tai Chi is probably the closest thing today to what Yang Luchan taught, as it is attributed to his son Yang Banhou. There is an interesting discussion about this as a bonus on the late Master Y.C. Chiang's Taiji DVD.

[Vajra Fist]

24 minutes ago, Dainin said:

The following blog post discusses Justin Stone, his Tai Chi teacher, and how some information in his books changed over time:

 

That was a fascinating read, thanks. I thought some of the movements looked similar to the rocking ones on the masterworks taichi ruler DVD I have. Interesting that the author of that blog still practices the system even knowing what he knows, must work.

[Antares]

5 hours ago, Vajra Fist said:

 

Thanks for restarting this thread, one of my favourites here on the bums.

Interesting system, seems like a lot of stuff is ascribed to Yang Luchan these days. That's not to dispute its effectiveness, seems to get a lot of plaudits. 

 

How long have you practiced it for? Do you find its a medical or spiritual qigong?

 

Is this an accurate representation of the system? 

 

Curious to give it a try next time I have an hour free 

 

 

I did not practise it long enough in order to be able to evaluate it fully.   I learnt it in Wu Liu's branch in Russia 6 years ago and the story in re of the origin of this system comes from there. I did not do research on this system. Also to be honest I mentioned it here for the further investigation of this system. At that time I had been practising it for about 6 months and then shifted to another methods which I considered more advanced. So I stopped doing it after 6 months of practice. I was said that it works on all levels including health and spiritual one. There is actually one exercise in it where one should move hands high on the level above the top of the head and as far as got it right it helps the spiritual evolution but my instuctor did not recommend doing it as it is recommended for advanced practitioners. So I can not recommend doing all exercises if you are not ready for that. It is not recommended to cultivate top tan tien in the beginning as it can move energy up into the head. Just mention it for safety reason. At that time the benefit out of practising it was the energy boost straight after doing it. 

So they teached only 8 exercises as part of the initial preparation for more advanced methods. But the main initial method there is Daogong which I have been practising mainly. Recently I come across this system on the youtube and decided to try it again. This time I did more exercises after Daogong and.... WOW... it was feeling like "kundalini" awakening. Now every time I do it I feel  "awakening" and very pleasent feellings like pleasent currents of qi moving inside. I started making investigation on the system. 

As for whether it is correct on the video I dunno as I learnet only 8 out of them. These 8 are shown right on the video but to me it seems they lift hands too high. May be it is not good to lift hands so high for the beginners at least. Only I can say  that system balances yin and yang and nourishes kidneys, also works on central channel. Also they gave me a few another neigong methods to open up legs channels which help to benefit more from this systems.   

Edited December 18, 2020 by Antares

[Antares]

6 hours ago, Dainin said:

I have limited exposure to Tai Chi Chih, but enjoyed what I've tried of it. I have never heard of the Yang Luchan attribution before. Some of it clearly comes from Tai Chi Ruler. The following blog post discusses Justin Stone, his Tai Chi teacher, and how some information in his books changed over time:

 

The person who taught me 8+1 exercises mentioned once that there is a man in USA who brought it from China and lived long but his system is not original one because he added a few more movements and slightly changed it. Also he said that what they teach is original set which was secret method of Chinese Emperors. So i believe that there are 9 basics exercises of the ancient set of exercises. 

[damdao]

@Antares what do you call ming channels? The eight extraordinary vessels? 

[Antares]

1 hour ago, damdao said:

@Antares what do you call ming channels? The eight extraordinary vessels? 

Yes, but kidneys channels in the first place. Watch movements carefully, the secret is in ""yining" and "yanging". But better to do with instructor for one can fall into desires. Hope you familar with daogong. If you combine them the better effect you will get. First do daogong, then taichi chih. 

[EmeraldHead]

On 12/18/2020 at 5:38 PM, Antares said:

I learnt it in Wu Liu's branch in Russia 6 years ago

How's that working for you?

[Antares]

14 hours ago, EmeraldHead said:

How's that working for you?

Immediate boost of energy, pleasent feelings inside, good and deep sleep   

[Maddie]

Has anyone found that some of the simple arms swinging movements that are meant to only be a warm-up before Qigong seem to be a nice Qigong routine in and of themselves?

[thelerner]

21 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

Has anyone found that some of the simple arms swinging movements that are meant to only be a warm-up before Qigong seem to be a nice Qigong routine in and of themselves?

Yeah, the pulling/pushing of such big muscles, as well as tugging and releasing fascia throughout the body is.. stimulating.

 

I find whole body shaking, often done as warm-up to be an excellent simple QiGong all by itself.  Do it for 10, 15, 20 minutes and it gets pretty deep.

[Antares]

1 hour ago, dmattwads said:

Has anyone found that some of the simple arms swinging movements that are meant to only be a warm-up before Qigong seem to be a nice Qigong routine in and of themselves?

There are a few levels in qigong/neigong systems. It depends on Yi development so movements work on the levels of:

1) Physical / psychical 

2) Energetics

3) Spiritual 

 

For the latter one the previous two are of great importance but implicate the work of Yi/Intent and it is where spiritual work begins. Also the state of mind is of great importance. The two visually similar movements may work on different levels. It depends on who and how does it  

[Maddie]

34 minutes ago, Antares said:

For the latter one the previous two are of great importance but implicate the work of Yi/Intent and it is where spiritual work begins. Also the state of mind is of great importance. The two visually similar movements may work on different levels. It depends on who and how does it  

 

So would you say the thing the separates Qigong from calisthenics or just swinging one's limbs around is intention?