yinwater Posted February 23, 2008 Hi, My first post: Is it generally considered counterproductive, or even harmful, to concentrate on the chakras during Qigong practice? By Qigong I mean something basic like a variation of the Eight Pieces Brocade. During Qigong practice, shouldn't the focus remain on the Dantians and maybe the Qi meridians? Any experiences or opinioins much appreciated, thank you Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VCraigP Posted February 23, 2008 Hi, My first post: Is it generally considered counterproductive, or even harmful, to concentrate on the chakras during Qigong practice? By Qigong I mean something basic like a variation of the Eight Pieces Brocade. During Qigong practice, shouldn't the focus remain on the Dantians and maybe the Qi meridians? Any experiences or opinioins much appreciated, thank you Depending upon the view of the instructor it may not even be recommended to focus on ANYTHING. As a simple rule I would say focus on the form and natural breath, unless specific breathing is called for in the instruction. But there are SO MANY different styles of Qigong as to make it impossible to generalize. In my opinion there is no need to focus on "Chakras" and it is potentially detrimental to the goals of the practice. Investigate how to do the Qigong to your best whether it be via book, DVD or live teacher. Why add something foreign? Like NIKE says, just do it. Craig Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yinwater Posted February 23, 2008 Why add something foreign? Craig Thank you for the good words, Craig. "Foreign" is an interesting word. That probably goes to the heart of why I dont feel Qigong and Chakras mix well. Is it a Buddhist/Daoist conflict that I sense? But, energetically, wouldn't focus on chakras tend to disperse whatever Qi you built up during a Qigong session? The question came up at a course recently and I was just wondering... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
de_paradise Posted February 24, 2008 IMHO, the point of meditation is locking the attention on something, single minded focus. So either focus on movement of qigong or chakra meditation is quite enough. Dont delude yourself that putting your mind vaguely on the chakra postitions will have some kind of magic power or will open them--they are just another thing to lock your mind with. How can you both focus on doing good qigong and also on your estimated chakra postions? probably it will contribute to the mind switching attention from here to there to there. But maybe not, maybe its a good meditation. Throw in the whole kitchen sink to focus on if you want. But if you cant lock your mind into stillness on all that, focus on a single muscle of one single finger is enough. Thank you for the good words, Craig. "Foreign" is an interesting word. That probably goes to the heart of why I dont feel Qigong and Chakras mix well. Is it a Buddhist/Daoist conflict that I sense? But, energetically, wouldn't focus on chakras tend to disperse whatever Qi you built up during a Qigong session? The question came up at a course recently and I was just wondering... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Procurator Posted February 24, 2008 Hi, My first post: Is it generally considered counterproductive, or even harmful, to concentrate on the chakras during Qigong practice? ...................... remain on the Dantians and maybe the Qi meridians? Any experiences or opinioins much appreciated, thank you Dantians and maybe the Qi meridians ARE the chakras Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WhiteTiger Posted February 24, 2008 Dantians and maybe the Qi meridians ARE the chakras Errr.... depends how they function... i don't know enough about the Chakras to say much about them. (make a quick note, I'm not 100% sure why i was taught this but i was taught to talk about the Dantian and meridians (or talking about both) Energy Fields, and the pathways being energy paths to the energy fields. What I can say is the Chakras is quite different then the the these energy fields. They are for different purposes but yet can have very similar or same side-effects (if that is the write word to describe it) Yet they're still slightly different. This is where the art of English comes in to play a major role in talking about these things AND one can only truly understand these things properly after mastering each thing. They are a bunch of Taoist schools that integrate somehow safely (at least i've heard of it) the supposedly named "Buddhist" Chakras with the supposedly named "Taoist" Energy Fields. Although it would be quite a journey to try and do both. But more importantly... (read qoute) Why add something foreign? Craig Yes, why if taught a practice one way add something foreign. He didn't teach it to you that way. I'm sure there are some people that call Qigong that happens to work with Chakras (for me to say if thats Qigong or not isn't my place) I believe there are places (I don't know currently but they used to) Hua shan teaches both. If you want to search for some well known traditions that teach both. I know some Tibetan Buddhism do stuff with energy fields and Chakras. Supposedly claims from the book Opening the Dragon Gate practices both also. So yeah master one of them and continue to master your whole system... if you can actually get that far (and you teacher actually wants to get you that far) then go master a system that deals with the Chakra system. Then you can clearly define the difference for yourself. Thats how you learn for yourself, if you really want to know. I actually wanted to start a topic about this... talking about the differences. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sheng zhen Posted February 24, 2008 I actually wanted to start a topic about this... talking about the differences. There is one here already. Here. We are full of energysystems, energychannels and points. Beginners textbooks, but also experienced teachers, say that they all correlate. That the meridians are the nadis, chakras are dan tiens, etc. As if we only have one energetic system running through our physical body. We have hundres of systems and functions running our consciousness, just like we have hundreds of systems and functions running our body. But for cultivating, it is never clever to mix systems. That would be like mixing blood with lymphatic fluid. Not good Worst case cenario it will create damages, but mostly it will only make none of the practices work as they should. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
