Miffymog

In many parts there is a very large over lap with my understanding of a Christian interpretation of God, however, this approach adds much logic that I feel can be missing in Christianity.

Highly recommended 👌

Sorry to be a nuisance, but I was just wondering if my name could be changed back to Miffymog? Thank you

If its the 50th Anniversary of Pride one you're thinking of, it seems its not going in to general circulation I'm afraid. ebay UK might have some, but the really nice ones with all the rainbow colours on could cost a little bit more than 50 pence

I found it quite inspirational, and its now sent me off down a nice little rabbit hole investigating what Vedanta is, so thank you

I've been doing 15 mins stretches, every other day, for 2 to 3 months. Have gone from no flexibility to kind of half lotus both sides. Instead of getting the book, you can just use YouTube tutorials and they cover all the main stretches you need. But I'm not sure I'm putting in enough time to reach full Lotus, but that doesn't bother me yet.

Success! On both tablet and laptop! But I don't know why, because I'm sure I've just done exactly the same as I did before. Anyway, its all working and that makes me very happy

I'm using a Samsung tablet and copy the link from the browser while on the desktop version of the Web page. I've tried just pressing enter after posting the link but the forum still doesn't seem to recognise it as a YouTube link. I'm going to experiment with using my laptop tomorrow and see what happens then.

It is not worth £119, especially as its actually quite a small book. I was lucky and got mine for a few pounds second-hand on ebay

Just watched the 7 of them and I can confirm he gives very clear explanations

As for myself, I find Luke's posts the easiest ones to resonate with. I keep coming back to Chan Master Hongzhi for inspiration and one of my favourite quotes of his is, 'Do not leave any traces, and inside and outside will merge into one totality.' So I apply this in the world of duality i.e. in regards to relationships with other people. The idea being is if I continually smooth out my relationships with other people, I will continue to get closer to the source.

The calming nature of Flying Phoenix and has really benefited me, and this is most noticeable when I perform practises that I had before I started Flying Phoenix. For example my Eight Brocades stretches feels much better, and I'm much more able to relax into my ZZ stances. However, I'm always on the lookout for more practices I can do that complement Flying Phoenix, and one way I'm doing that is by reading the Flying Phoenix thread that is now over 10 years old. This keeps leading me to books and practises that were common knowledge on the Dao Bums website years ago, but I'm only now just discovering. The last discovery I had of this was in regards to the stretches you can do to get into full lotus, but my current one is the discovery of Swimming Dragon Qi Gong. I have to be careful with what I do with my back, but this is a lovely gentle exercise that, like Flying Phoenix, generates a very soothing energy. There are numerous tutorials on YouTube explaining how to do this very simple exercise, and I also purchased this book to give me extra guidance. It's not necessary for the practise, but it does give some interesting background information.

In the past I have found myself being drawn into a cult, and it was only by listening to my deepest instincts that I was able to get out it. Our spiritual nature is a very intimate and sensitive part of ourselves, and is very easily dominated. Not all domination in this regard is due to negative intent. But, just as it is very easy to take advantage of someone sexually, for example having a one night stand with someone when they wanted more, it can also be easy to take advantage of someone spiritually. You have felt an imbalance in the relationship, and you were absolutely right to remove yourself from it. This was not an easy thing for you to do do, and may take a short period of time to get over. Unfortunately, there will be a period of time where you will have to find yourself and create your own identity. This is part of life. When you have done this, you will have learnt some lessons and things will be better and easier. Until then, I wish you good luck.

If you're interested, this link covers some of the more advanced stretches that are in the book, but I can't really do these yet http://zenmontpellier.net/eng/lotus/lotuseng.html

My FPCK is ticking long quite nicely. One of the things I have added to it recently is a simple stretching routine so I can start moving towards sitting in half lotus. Researching into the type of stretches I could do to do this by searching on this website gave me some very good resources. This is the book I brought to help me and I bought it second-hand for just £3 on eBay. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Becoming-Lotus-Achieve-Full-Posture/dp/1885928181/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2JK6M2PD56VQV&keywords=Becoming+the+lotus&qid=1652341814&sprefix=becoming+the+lotus%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-2 After 2 months of stretches I can now sit quite comfortably in the Burmese posture and this is being a good improvement on sitting on a low table. In time, I would like to be able to sit half Lotus on both sides, but as I only do 15 minutes of stretches every other day I think full Lotus may be too far for me.

Can't help but think about the Asterix cartoons when I see anything to do with the Roman Empire

(Apologies for the mild derailing of the thread and to Nungali) Being a sinner in no way means you're a bad person, it is merely a way to acknowledge that there have been times in your life when you have not done the right thing, and doing so is a very powerful spiritual practice. Coming back to the topic of the thread a bit more, doing this near or at the time of death, when your belief system may involve some kind of judgement or determination as to the next phase of your existence, could be seen as something that is beneficial. However, without this possibly subtle interpretation of the word, it is easy to see how the regular use of it at a funeral service could cause quite some upset.

Please do. At the moment I have a passing intellectual curiosity in this topic, but the more I find out about it the more it grows.

So is the basis of the YJJ to sink/gather chi in the LDT, then in certain postures direct this chi into the tendons, which then strengthens them?

I’m now approaching 4 months of practising FPCK and I’m pretty relieved that my practice routine seems to be settling down. However, unlike previous routines such as Silent Illumination meditation or a simple ZZ stand, there always seems to be more stuff to learn, and I’ve had to accept that this is part of the process. One aspect of having a practice that uses a range of techniques is I’m having to learn how to listen to my instincts in regards as to what meditation to do on what day. There’s a fairly simple approach here whereby I simply cycle through all the meditations, but as I’ve yet to familiarise myself with them, there is a degree of guess work of what to do when. As for things that are pretty stable, the main one is I now only do one session a day, with two meditations in it, one static and one moving. I used to do two sessions a day, but I just don’t have the motivation to keep doing the second session. This means I now rotate between either standing or sitting each day, which has the benefit of reducing the strain on my knees. When I used to stand every day my knees were fine, however due to the calming nature of the FPCK energy, I find myself sinking slightly lower in to my stances, which very mildly strains the knees. However, by alternating between a sit one day and a stand the next, the knees are fine. I’ve also adjusted my seated posture from a chair to a low wooden stool with my legs very slightly crossed, which is an improvement. I’m also pleased that my energy levels have increased sufficiently so I now do some warm up exercises before the meditations. For the time being I’m doing nothing more than what Lam Kam Chuen recommended for beginners of ZZ, which is knee, hip and arm rotations. I’ve actually changed the knee rotations to knee raises, as I feel this is a slightly better joint loosening exercise. I’m planning on changing this simple 3 exercise warm up to the 8 Brocades, and then later still onto Wong Kiew Kits 18 Lohans. As far as familiarity goes, I’m good with about a third of the published material, am learning another third, with the final third set to be learnt later on in the year. I find there’s a really good element of body conditioning that goes on in this practice as a number of the standing meditations use the horse stance. I go as shallowly as possible so my legs don’t shake near the end of what might be 30 minutes of standing moving meditation. But the muscles are finding this easier as time goes on and I’ll lower this depth in time. The other physical aspect I like is the internal stretching that goes on as I try to perform the meditations as slowly as possible. I’ve been doing the 8 Brocades one day a week during my day off from FPCK and I’m happy to notice it’s improving as time passes, and this is something I wasn’t expecting. I’ve also been performing Shibashi on my day off just to give myself a break from the breathing sequence and this is another calming and balancing energy practice that nicely compliments FPCK. When I’ve got to the point of knowing all of the publicly available material by heart and can perform all the moving meditations smoothly and effortlessly, I may well look into something else, however for the time being I’m very much enjoying this particular journey and I’m gaining many benefits from this practice.

Dear Moderators, Could I please have my name changed to Nick? Many thanks, Nick

Just watched one of Sifu Terry's Monk Serves Wine meditations so I can learn from it, and the quality of the energy I feel when following him is so much higher than when I perform them just by myself. It gives me much more motivation to carry on practicing, and to join him in one of his Zoom lesson

Flying Phoenix 2 month long review I’ve been practising FPCK for over 2 months now and I’ve been meaning to write up about my progress for some time. It just so happens that I’ve recently found some time to write up about my progress just when my practice is stabilising. This point in time has been defined by two major issues, firstly, I have finally worked out how to do the exercises with out hurting my knee, and secondly, I have also discovered a speed that I am happy to use with all of the moving meditations which is fairly constant and allows me a good level of body mind integration. I know that there will be further developments as I continue, and this is only a snap shot of my experiences in time, but I always find it quite informative looking back on these posts so I can see where I’ve come from in the future. I’ll first go over the two issues of the knee and speed of movement, and then I’ll go over my experiences of each meditation. There will be a little bit of overlap with these two approaches. Firstly the knee. I always have to adjust a new practice so that it does not hurt my right knee. There is actually very little wrong with it, and in some ways its weakness is simply a feed back mechanism to ensure I have good form. The two issues I have had with with relate to both the sitting and standing exercises. Briefly, the pain I experienced with it from the sitting meditations was trying to go into half lotus when my muscles are not limber enough. The simple solution here has been to just sit on a chair. The energy flow is not as good as in half lotus, and I feel that the fact the heart has to pump blood all the way down to the feet is mildly detrimental, but I have still managed to make progress. I also experience pain in the knee during the standing exercises, this has been resolved by just having a very small bend in the knee, if a bend is required. I have learnt from following Lam Kam’s ‘The Way of Energy’ that initially you only need the smallest of bends, and in time, as the muscles strengthen you can naturally go lower if the stance requires. Also, if I maintain a very mild bend, then the standing positions can be maintained with less strain. The first advantage of this is that if the muscle is working but not straining, the whole body is more relaxed, and then the energy flow is better. The second advantage is that I know from experience, the main contributing factor to my knee pain during a stand is when my muscles and legs start to shake and vibrate a bit. If there is no vibration, then the knee is fine. Now, in regards to the speed at which I move. This issue had almost constantly occupied my mind since I’ve started, so I’m now pretty happy that it’s seems to have settled down some what. One piece of advice to so move a slowly as a shifting sand dune, but there are others, such as move one third the speed of a Tai Chi form. There is quite a bit of difference between these two speeds and it really is a case of finding your own speed which you are comfortable with. Going really, really slowly puts too much strain on the practice and it’s possible to start losing interest in it. Also, when going really, really slowly, the movements start to become jerky rather than smooth. So a simply rule of thumb is to go as slowly as possible while still being smooth and while not getting too bored. Like a Tai Chi form, your speed also reflects your mood at the time and along with what your body and mind need in the moment. I was always impressed with Tai Chi that when I was feeling for example sensitive, the form would naturally be very gentle, but if I was emotionally stressed, the form would become very muscular and would effectively burn off some of the stress. There is not quite that range of feeling in FPCK, but there is some scope. For example, if I am stressed, the speed naturally wants to go particularly slowly, as it is in this way that it gets to burn off tension. However, my speed has seemed to settle down to a fairly constant rate regardless of the exercise. The mediation that helped me most here was the basic warm up 2, where you take a seated posture and simply raise and lower your arms. I started off doing 5 in 20 minutes, but over the course of practising this once every other day for two months, it naturally slowed down to just one up and down movement. This was due to in creased strength in the arms, and also in the back. But it was also due to the fact that the simplicity of the exercise allowed me to really focus on the movement of the muscles involved. I would put all my concentration on the muscles that were moving, and in time I became more aware of them, and their nature seemed to become softer and softer. In reality, my current speed of movement is 3 to 4 times faster than this, but investigating just how slowly I could move, while developing the muscles required, was a really important part of the practice and, fortunately, could be done on a chair. The length of time it has taken to developed the muscles in FPCK has, of course, equated with roughly how long it would take to my muscles to become pain free in a new ZZ posture. There have been various other things I have discovered over the last couple months, but I’ll now discuss them on a meditation by meditation basis in future posts.

I've only been doing it for a short while, but when I started I did experience extra sensitivity to background noises, however, that phaze has passed quite quickly. I also have quite a few background noises during my sessions which now no longer really bother me. I think you can definitely experiment with putting some music or white noise in the background during your practices, and then just see how it goes. For example, I'm still very much in the period of experimenting with different seated postures which don't hurt my knees. I simply try out different postures and see what happens.