Flying Phoenix Chi Kung for non-Taoists, non-Buddhists

[Sulo Eno]

Hello,

I have recently become interested in Flying Phoenix Chi Kung. I have studied various forms of Chinese martial arts for most of my adult life (mostly external) along with some Chen Tai Chi. I am interested in the health benefits of Flying Phoenix, but have no interest in Taoism or Buddhism. I have studied them and have no misgivings about remaining Catholic. Incidentally, I have no need for syncretism, nor for obscure forms of christianity.

 

In short, are there other people who self-identify as "Christian" who practice Flying Phoenix Chi Kung? I ask because there seem to be a great many people who practice eastern religions here and wonder if I am quite alone.

 

P.S. This is not intended to stir a debate relevant to the truth content of various religions.

 

Thanks,
Sulo

[Aeran]

 I think if you ask around you'll find that most of the people who practice FP (at least the subset who post here on DB) aren't religious Daoist/Buddhists, but simply integrate concepts from the philosophical branches of those schools of thought into their worldview. And so far, I haven't found this to be a prerequisite in any way to FP practice, just a general trend amongst people who train in Qigong.

 

At least one regular contributor to the FP thread, Ridingtheox, has mentioned that he is a Quaker, and he's I believe one of the more long term practitioners here. We discuss the issue briefly in the FP thread here: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/12639-flying-phoenix-chi-kung/?do=findComment&comment=783084

 

 

Where it might be tricky with FP specifically is that the oral history of the system is quite firm on the meditations being originally taught to a Daoist monk by an unspecified Goddess on a sacred Buddhist mountain. Given the benign nature of the meditations, I can't imagine that it would cause problems on that end, but you'd have to decide for yourself how comfortable you are, personally, practising meditations which are accounted to have come from a non-Christian spiritual source (and which at least partially tap into an "extra-mundane" source of Qi to induce their effects, as opposed to drawing in/circulating environmental and bodily energies like many systems of Qigong).

 

We actually had an interesting discussion about this a few months ago, regarding spiritual experiences induced by FP practice and whether they were based on the history of the system or on the practitioner's pre-existing notions of the Divine, but never came to any firm conclusions.

 

It might help if you post this in the FP thread directly or contact Sifu Terry via. PM/email and ask him about his experience in the matter - given how many people he's taught, it seems likely that a Catholic or two number among them. 

 

I hope you find the answer to your question

 

 

 

 

[9-9-9]

This is not relevant to Flying Phoenix specifically but you find it interesting. 

Some ancient neigong meditations are practiced by high order catholic priests. Some of these meditations are  labeled as daoist or Buddhist because they were adopted and are used by such, but actually they predate both religions. Obviously not the case for FP. 

[Awen]

Sifu Terry, I understand, subscribes to the concept of the unity of religions, so there is certainly no requirement to change one's beliefs in any particular direction.

 

As regards the origin of the forms- if one were not to give credence to the possibility of the existence gods and goddesses, it surely would not have an impact on their conclusions re: the efficacy Flying Phoenix Qigong as a set of health and wellbeing promoting exercises? In this regard the words of Yogi Bhajan come to mind, namely that the lineage of a system/person/institution is less important than its legacy.

 

As a parallel example, not everyone who practices Pangu Shengong is fully convinced of the origin ascribed to that particular system, however they often note very strong health improvements or heightened chi sensitivity, so they accept what they can and continue making real progress in the system.

[Mudfoot]

On 2018-01-02 at 12:43 AM, Sulo Eno said:

 have studied them and have no misgivings about remaining Catholic. 

There is an offical document from the Catholic church saying it is ok for catholics to practice arts like yoga, so there should not be a problem combining them.