nei gong and mindfulness meditation

[cbaraona]

Hi, I recently found on this forums a reference to Damo Mitchell´s - The Art of Philosophical Change, and I would like to know how does it combine with mindfulness meditation. Specifically, the first "exercise", Sung breathing. Is there a recommended order for practicing, like first the breathing then mindfulness? Can it be harmful to combine both in one sitting, like first meditating then doing the breathing, or the other way around?

 

My thoughts on this, and I very well might not know enough, is that mindfulness might have a different purpose than energy work, that would be something like attention, acceptance and letting go, while energy work, like the name suggests, is a more oriented towards a "goal" activity, in which case, the passiveness of mindfulness would be lost by combining them. 

As a reference, I have been practicing yoga for almost a year now, and minfulness meditation for a couple of months. 

 

I would love to hear your comments on this, and I´m very grateful for the opportunity to have a place in which to discuss this,

Thanks!

[Kar3n]

You are likely to get many lengthy answers that will span the spectrum, but ultimately do what works for you.  

 

Try them back to back, it if is too much, do one in the morning and one in the evening. If it is still too much, eliminate one or do one every other day. Switch it up until you find a comfortable flow 

 

Welcome to the bums.

[doc benway]

I have some experience with both Daoist methods (not specifically Damo Mitchell, I'm not sure what lineage his teachings come from) and mindfulness.

 

I find them to be completely complimentary. 

 

Daoist neigong practices, by and large, are methods of concentration. One use the attention or intention to observe and/or guide energetic awareness within and through the body and beyond. Mindfulness practices are wonderful ways to cultivate concentration and attention and will, therefore, augment and compliment anything that relies on concentration and attention. Mindfulness allows us to prolong the duration and stability of attention and concentration. 

 

If one finds mindfulness to be passive, they have probably been taught incorrectly (at least in the early stages). To be mindful is to remain fully engaged and connected and that's a very active (and challenging) process in the beginning. I will say that at advanced levels, one is able to gradually relax the degree of effort without losing the connection. At that point perhaps the word passive could be used but if the connection is lost, the mindfulness is lost. I think the word effortless would be more accurate than passive, perhaps.

[cbaraona]

Thanks a lot Kar3n and steve! I guess I´ll just have to experiment. In regards to your comment steve, I completely agree, effortless does describe the act a lot better. Thats one of the difficulties of trying to communicate this practices  

Also, my question arose mainly because in yoga, theres usually and order for practicing, which goes from the rough to the more sublime, meaning that one first works with the body, doing asanas, then energy work, which ultimately derives from pranayama and lastly, meditation, therefore my wondering if there´s sort of a recommended order of practice in nei gong. 

Nevertheless, I´ve just tried meditating and then doing sung breathing, and I gotta say that it feels good , the focused and relaxed attention of mindfulness easily translates to the relaxing of the muscles by breathing that is this exercise in it´s first stages.

 

Thanks a lot for your comments!

[joeblast]

if one refines the breath to enough of an extent, it becomes a mindful awareness game.

 

remember ohm's law.