Vajra Fist

If you're practicing ba duan jin, practice a martial art too. I've recently added BDJ to my shaolin practice and it feels really synergistic. Yan Lei has an excellent range of DVDs called 'Shaolin Warrior' which are just fantastic workouts. Or try shotokan karate. Its a really easy martial art to teach yourself. My old teacher learned remotely and travelled for JKA grading in Japan. He got up to 7th dan over the course of about 20 years.

Thanks!

I agree completely, he's probably the only Shaolin teacher I can think of in the west who is 100% true to the Chan roots of the style. He specialises in a 13 luohan rou quan form, which is like a Shaolin tai chi form. I'm based in the UK so my teachers are more focused on the sanda side of the art when you get beyond the foundation stuff, which is pretty much just kickboxing. I prefer this side of Shaolin much more. And I think they have a pretty wide curriculum at the European temple. One of the senior abbots doesn't do MA at all, and focuses exclusively on meditation. They also teach a range of qigong, like the 13 luohan, yijinjing etc.

Hi new mod team, doing God's own work. Mind if I grab my own PPD? Mostly so I don't spam the forums with my ravings and odd thoughts.

Awesome, thanks! Do you still practice it? Worth $300?

I was planning to go to this monastery for a couple of weeks this summer but my plans were foiled by COVID. They've released a wonderfully filmed documentary about training there and the master, Shi Heng Yi. Enjoy!

@liminal_luke Thinking of taking the course starting next month. Quick question on the exercises: is there much in the way of visualisation? I tried his Master Key series recently and was put off quite a bit by the amount of visualisation that requires.

Isn't this the dude who wanted sex with dakinis a few months back?

@freeform excellent response, thank you!

Totally off topic here, so mods feel free to split, but as someone who has had cancer about 10 years back - while practicing qigong at the time - I'm curious about this explanation for the disease. What is the cause for stagnation? Lack of flexibility?

Just a note, one of the other main teachers of this style Liping Zhu, will be teaching a 13 day webinar course on the form early next month https://www.sfzc.org/calendar/events/online/thirteen-day-taiyi-swimming-dragon-taichi-form-ii-liping-zhu-online-83-819 I practice the form twice in morning and twice in the evening. Definitely starting to feel qi circulation from the practice, now that it has gone beyond the immediate physical challenges. I'm also stronger, more flexible and feel more open in the body too. Those physical benefits have helped my shaolin training along quite a bit. Look forward to practicing this every morning.

Interesting points he made here about how the 8 mother palms contain the essential neigong of the style, with each palm corresponding to the energies of each of the eight trigrams. Hate to admit it, but Gerard is probably right over how it's the more simple movements in bagua where the essence of the system lies.

A lot of people here are fans of Damo Mitchell. I think he has excellent advice for kundalini syndrome - stop all your practices. Then do stuff for your body; go for a run, play tennis, go swimming.

Thank you, that's a fascinating answer!

Definitely similar in scope, although I definitely found the characters in Malazan series more relatable. Never once felt like a slog which Wheel of Time did in the end. I've never heard of Sword of Truth but looks well regarded. Twenty one books though!