Practicing qigong and yoga

[markern]

I have been practicing yoga for quite some time and I have a little bit of experience with tai chi and qigong. I am wondering if you consider practicing qigong in addition to yoga safe? An opinion I have heard is that it is dangerous to mix powerfull alchemical practices and breathing practices and meditations from different traditions while blending asanas and other milder energywork like tai chi can be fine. However, in qigong there seems to be a bit more specific manipulation of energy than in tai chi. It also has a bit different principles for aligning and using the body than yoga (it seems to me at least), so I can see there might be some conflict. However, the qigong I want to use is a very normal qigong practice only aiming for general health, it is not specificly geared towards spiritual purposes. That I would think makes it more compatible with yoga. What do you guys think? My reason for wanting to try this is that although I love my yoga, it is so physical that it is not as easy to realy get into the energyflow as in the easy standing postures and extreemly slow movements of qigong. I have also come across a qigong class my accupuncturist says is especialy good for health purposes and strongly recommends.

[h.uriahr]

I have been practicing yoga for quite some time and I have a little bit of experience with tai chi and qigong. I am wondering if you consider practicing qigong in addition to yoga safe? An opinion I have heard is that it is dangerous to mix powerfull alchemical practices and breathing practices and meditations from different traditions while blending asanas and other milder energywork like tai chi can be fine. However, in qigong there seems to be a bit more specific manipulation of energy than in tai chi. It also has a bit different principles for aligning and using the body than yoga (it seems to me at least), so I can see there might be some conflict. However, the qigong I want to use is a very normal qigong practice only aiming for general health, it is not specificly geared towards spiritual purposes. That I would think makes it more compatible with yoga. What do you guys think? My reason for wanting to try this is that although I love my yoga, it is so physical that it is not as easy to realy get into the energyflow as in the easy standing postures and extreemly slow movements of qigong. I have also come across a qigong class my accupuncturist says is especialy good for health purposes and strongly recommends.

I'm not sure what type of yoga you are doing but , and I mean no disrespect, but if it's similar to qigong then all youre doing is circulating chi and it's not at all dangerous. I've met one person and only one person that has gotten sick but that was by his own stupidity. Nothing is really dangerous. Unless you do something so rare and off path you will be completely fine no matter what you do. Danger is part of the myth and secrecy. Out of all the myths, the only one I've found of any value, and I'm sure everyone will disagree now, is converving your semen. Semen converts to chi, semen is the refined jing, the most pure jing there is, which is why it's important to conserve. Unless you are a woman..then sorry Disregard the danger myth, use your head and use common sense, you'll be fine, seriously.

[markern]

I'm not sure what type of yoga you are doing but , and I mean no disrespect, but if it's similar to qigong then all youre doing is circulating chi and it's not at all dangerous. I've met one person and only one person that has gotten sick but that was by his own stupidity. Nothing is really dangerous. Unless you do something so rare and off path you will be completely fine no matter what you do. Danger is part of the myth and secrecy. Out of all the myths, the only one I've found of any value, and I'm sure everyone will disagree now, is converving your semen. Semen converts to chi, semen is the refined jing, the most pure jing there is, which is why it's important to conserve. Unless you are a woman..then sorry Disregard the danger myth, use your head and use common sense, you'll be fine, seriously.

 

Thanks for the input. Hope you are right. I am doing Iyengar yoga. It is considered very safe both physucaly and energeticaly by itself. Long term I belive that Iyengar provides a safe path of yoga and pranayama that provides extreemly well for my health needs and is very efficient and stable in spiriutal terms. However, particulary in the first few years you have to focus a lot on the mostly physical in order to make the pose perfect and hence stable. It is first when you have realy good alignment and stability in hte pose that it will allow you to sink into a meditative practice to the degree that you do in qigong. Qigong poses are usualy so easy for the body to do without strain and are done so slow that you can have a much more meditative experience and feel more energy much earlier on. In Iyengar once you realy master the poses you start to do them for realy loong and then you get very deep energetic experiences from the poses but for quite some time it just isen`t as energetic as I hope for so I feel like adding some qigong just have that lowly sloe energetic feeling and to reap the benefits of producing stronger currents of energy.

[Eric23]

You might consider doing them at different times of the day. I do Yin Yoga in the morning, a nice gentle, meditative begining to the day. After work in the late afternoon I do zhang zhuzng, a good energy pick up. So far so good for me at least.

[markern]

One of the reason I have tought of that yoga and qi gong should be safe to mix is that you already have yin yoga in Taoism. Some of the yin yoga poses that Griley has pur into the practice comes from India but loads of asanas that are practiced in India have been practice in CHina in conjuntion with qigong. For example the asanas in Mantak CHias Dao Yin. However, I thought this might be a bit different from a full practice of Iyengar, and I always hear so much about not mixing stuff so I am just cheking what people here think

[h.uriahr]

One of the reason I have tought of that yoga and qi gong should be safe to mix is that you already have yin yoga in Taoism. Some of the yin yoga poses that Griley has pur into the practice comes from India but loads of asanas that are practiced in India have been practice in CHina in conjuntion with qigong. For example the asanas in Mantak CHias Dao Yin. However, I thought this might be a bit different from a full practice of Iyengar, and I always hear so much about not mixing stuff so I am just cheking what people here think

You'll get a ton of opinions. I've yet to experience anything at all dangerous with my training. It keeps the student teacher relationship open and in check if a student thinks the practice is dangerous. Keep it up.