Miffymog

The cat takes a nap. His tail twitches quite a lot. Right, I am now off.

Hi there Summer, The time commitment is roughly 30 minutes as a minimum, but as the whole practice is quite relaxing and enjoyable, after time you may find the duration naturally increases. Here are some links that can give you a pretty good overview of the requirements and what’s involved. https://taichimania.com/essentialguidelines.html https://taichimania.com/trainingschedule.html And this link will give you a lot of very well structured information on the practice. https://forum.alchemical.garden/branch/zenbear/

This is all that matters.

Hi Sifu Terry, I was just wondering what your advice was in regards to FPCK and fasting. I currently practice 6 days a week and I've just started fasting on my day off. This seems to be working okay, but I'm considering increasing the fast to 2 days a week in future, would it still be alright to do some FPCK on a fasting day or should I leave it until the fast is over? Many thanks, Miffymog p.s. I've never really had any brain washing sensations, but when doing Basic Warm Up 1 (5-60-80-40-30) as slowly as possible, I have sometimes felt as though there were two very small cogs intermeshing and rotating right in the center of my head (just in front of the pineal gland). But it was a really mild sensation

I remember reading somewhere that if you asked a Westerner who they were or how they defined themselves, they would nearly always answer that question with what their job or profession was. But if you asked an African, they were more likely to define themselves by who they were related to (Who/what are you? - I'm so and so's cousin/brother/sister). I'm trying to redefine myself in my own mind in these terms, but I'm not quite there yet

You'll be fine. If you find yourself experiencing too much chi after a session, the advice is actually go and eat something as that 'turns it off'.

I'm not saying it's either something you can or should do, but I did come across this guy on Youtube that might have some answers to your questions. https://m.youtube.com/c/sexualkungfu

I liked him.

This is a slightly tricky one to deal with. TLDR; it's best if things like this are done on a daily basis, but you can start off with literally doing just 5 minutes a day, just to create a the habit. This duration will then naturally increase in time. Whenever I had practices in the past, be it standing or sitting mediation, I always used to tell myself that the amount of time I end up doing it was always fairly equal to how much less sleep I’d need during the day. Therefore, it actually took no time out of my day to do it, I merely needed to get up a little earlier to do it. The reason I’d need less sleep was because I’d gain a little more energy from doing the meditation, the day would be a little less stressful due to it, so I’d expend less emotional energy, and my sleep was probably of a slightly higher quality. So it was kind of a win-win situation (the fact is, this is probably true for any daily exercise routine, not just meditation and qi gong). For me, the most challenging bit was getting up early to do it, because if I left it to the evening, there were always other things that might come up and I’d miss a session. FPCK is a little bit different, in that because the mediations can be quite relaxing and aren’t always too strenuous (especially when it comes to the seated mediations on DVD 2), my sessions can end up taking up quite a bit of time, and I definitely don’t get all that time back in less sleep needed. However, the way I have reduced the longer sessions is by only doing one mediation a session. Currently, I do some warm up exercises, sit or stand for 10 minutes before I start, perform the mediation for 20 to 30 minutes and then done, so it's relatively compact. Good luck with your new job and finding a routine that works for you

Either go to your normal GP, or look for a local TCM practitioner?

It'd probably be best to sign up to his on-line school where you can then join his Facebook group. There are loads of people who'll be happy to help you there.

Wow - that was awesome - Thank you Sifu Terry!

Hi there, I've just re-read your original post and I realised that I've written a response that doesn't really answer you question. But having written it, I've decided I'll still post it rather than delete it - sorry about that --- I’ve done a CBT course of intrusive thoughts as I have suffered from them myself, here are some of the main things I leant. The first step is it’s best not to avoid situations where they might arise, as that can reinforce the sense that the thoughts are more than just thoughts. Then, once you have identified the situation where they may occur, try to identify your ‘MUST NOT …’ thought. What is it exactly you must not do or think. As soon as you see something as a must not, that is a good way to get the mind to entertain the idea, so what are your must nots? Also, while in the situation, see if you can identify any safety behaviours you may be using to reduce the intrusive thoughts. Unfortunately, these also have the tendency to just re-enforce the intrusive thought and you pretty much have to let go of these behaviours too. You then have to face that situation where you have the intrusive thoughts and ‘let the worst thoughts possible’ happen. This is a challenge and involves no small amount of ego death. The fact is, you may not have a pleasant experience allowing your thoughts and imagination to ‘go wild’. However, after the event, you will always realise that the consequences of not fighting the mind are less than the perceived fear you originally had. If you have truly managed to let go of yourself in the moment of confrontation, then the next time you face it, it will be easier. The anxieties and intrusive thoughts will not have gone, but they will have diminished. What will then happen is in time the ability to relax into the moment at the onset of the anxiety becomes easier, and you can slowly become more rounded again. This is all much easier to do with a therapist, but I did find this book particularly good Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts: A CBT-Based Guide to Getting Over Frightening, Obsessive, or Disturbing Thoughts by Sally M. Winston PsyD (Author), Martin N. Seif PhD (Author)

Definitely go for the first two together if you can afford it Level 1 / DVD 1 just consists of standing meditations, and level 2 / DVD 2 just consists of sitting meditations. A really good thing about FPCK is that it combines both, and works better with both. So if you can stretch to the cost of them together then I highly recommend it, and you can then just stick with those for ages before you think about purchasing any of the other DVD's.

This just means in its most common usage, one a normal person on the street would understand it as.

Short answer: This one is above my pay grade I’m afraid. Combining stretches from such a different tradition is one thing, but combining energy work is something quite different. FPCK is a daoist tradtion, as is Serge Augier’s Da Xuan, but Hatha Yoga is not... The problem is these practices have effects on the body that are beyond our ability to perceive, so how one interacts with another is very difficult to predict. However, FPCK’s primary aim is to generate healing, calming and balancing qi. And, although this is not something I can actually recommend doing, when I have mixed two systems together and they haven’t complimented each other, I do tend to find out about it pretty quickly. For example, negative side effects have included having too much energy in the head and difficulty sleeping. But if you do both, at different times in the day, and end up feeling more balanced, calm and grounded, then you may be okay….

There used to be a time when Terry would recommend that when you are learning FPCK, if it is your first type of qi gong or internal martial art, it’s best just to focus on it alone for the first couple of years while your energy body becomes used to the new energy flows that FPCK induces. However, if you were already a Tai Chi practitioner, then as long as your FPCK session is at a different time of day to your Tai Chi practice, then you can do both, ie practice Tai Chi while learning FPCK. This approach has changed a little bit where he now says it is fine to learn both FPCK and another internal art at the same time, as long as the sessions are separated by a little bit of time in the same day. I just do FPCK, but I do add joint loosening, back stretching, tendon stretching and kua opening to my practice. However, I know that other FPCK practitioners have combined learning FPCK with other various energy and internal martial arts with out any problem, so in short, it should be okay.

I believe it probably can. But things like this can take time, and it's also sometimes worth using other methods to help you as well if possible, i.e. don't just rely on FPCK to solve all your aliments, instead use it as an aid to help heal you.

He may have contemplated that while looking into making the DVD's downloadable, but after a lot of thought and research I think he decided to keep things as they are. Although I could be completely wrong about this. If you post this question on the original FPCK thread, he does respond.

Yep, I've seen stuff that agrees with this. I remember reading somewhere about a psychological experiment where by if the time frame between a prediction of a 2 outcome event, and the actual event happening is small enough, the subconscious mind will always trick the conscious mind into thinking it 'guessed' the right answer in advance. So that the ego can maintain its sense of importance, it continually gets tricked into thinking its more influential than it is.

Just to add, I love the Douglas Harding style!

Hi there, Can recommend FPCK, but I'm afraid it's DVD only, below is a post of Terry Dunn's which explains why from the FPCK thread. I didnt have a DVD player either so just brought a really cheap DVD reader for my laptop and it did the job fine. Good luck with everything. "Hello a5a5a9, In what country do you reside? My company has been shipping all the programs in my catalog (see www.taichimania.com) since 1985 in VHS cassettes --before internet when I used to advertise in Yoga Journal, Inside Kung Fu Magazine- and Karate Kung Fu Illustrated. I didn't go to DVDs until about 2001. Today we can ship to practically any country in the world, except we couldn't get product delivered to China, ironically enough. As I explained earlier on this thread: after consulting with media consultants, top executives in the entertainment industry, lawyers, and a lot of other friends in the media business, I decided in the early part of last year that the risk of piracy and counterfeiting in this digital age was just too great to have do digital downloads of mp4 copies of my programs. The cost to ship my CKFH DVDs to any part of the world is not prohibitive--given the immeasurable if not comparable health benefits that FP Qigong practice provides. And a new DVD player with USB input costs $19 to $30 on Amazon. I plan to produce and distribute more advanced levels of FP Qigong on DVD format. These future DVD programs that teach more advanced and dangerous levels will only teach the movements and choreography. For the all-essential breath-control formulas in advanced meditations can only be taught safely once the student has demonstrated proficiency in the forms--PLUS has demonstrated an aptitude in using the FP Qi for healing others. That's how the Bok Fu Pai tradition works --as well as other complete Chinese systems of hygienics. Sifu Terry Dunn "

Made a bit of a break through with my FPCK recently. Yesterday I sat in Monk Holding the Pearl for 30 minutes, but I didn't do the breath sequence until 15 minutes into the meditation. By doing this I really got to feel the effect the breathing pattern had on the chi. I was in a relaxed state anyway, and it did take a minute or two for the chi to change its nature after the percentage breaths, but when it did, I was clearly able to feel the change. Put simply, the chi simply becomes more relaxed and pleasant. It is only a small insight, but it has strangely given me quite an increase in my understanding of the Flying Phoenix. So do as Sifu Terry always say, keep practicing!!!

From this book he actually says when you start out, feel free to just do the ones you enjoy, in order to start feeling the relaxing movement of the chi. But once you've got into that relaxed, flowing movement, then you really should start to add all the other movements of the set (although there is no real rush to do this). Curiously enough, today is my day off from Flying Phoenix Chi Kung and I was going to have a rest day today, but you mentioning Shibashi in this thread has inspired me to do it today instead. Thank you 🙂 The Theory and Practice of Taiji Qigong https://amzn.eu/d/fEIuECG

Not quite answering the question, but Master Sheng-Yen used to take his students out of samadhi by beating them with a stick if they were in it for longer than 2 hours, so different schools have different approaches and priorities.