Llodro Gyeltsin

Dividing spiritual practice from physical/heath-based practice can be very trappy. To say the least. No serious Master I have come across makes such a distinction. And, you know, just about everybody will make more or less claims about the particular practice they themselves follow. And sometimes their master will make extravagant claims about what the benefits may or may not be. Simply put, effectiveness is much less about the specifics of the practice and much more about just doing it regularly as a lifetime's dao. What happens, happens. You can't speed it up. You can't slow it down. But if you try to push it, you can risk both physical and psychological damage. For instance, deep horse stance, if done too soon or for too long, will just fuck with your knees and back. Following internal qi work without incorporating it into an external practice is just plain stupid - frankly. There are plenty of stories about the walking-wounded from those who took Mantak Chia's warning too lightly and embarked upon internal work without external work and pastoral guidance. The health-warnings are real. Although there's a lot of marketing nonsense associated with 'secret' teachings, the gate-keeping does perform a useful task in weeding out 'tourists' and ensuring pastoral care at an appropriate pace. All that said, there are very simple things you can begin to do which in the fullness of time will lead somewhere. So now, of course, I'm going to introduce you to something I do... The cornerstone of wu shu and martial arts, is zhan zhuang - Standing Like A Tree - which itself is part of a tradition called Da Cheng Chuan, The Great Accomplishment. This practice is very powerful but starts slowly - like all good practice should. The current Grand Master Lam Kam Chuen made a TV programme about zhan zhuang many years ago which was extremely good. It made its way on to youtube and now you can just follow his training. In the beginning it's both very easy and very hard. You just stand. In certain positions. He gives you warmups too. And warm downs. These are actually Ba Duan Jin - The Eight Brocades. There are tons of different forms of this. This is one that keys very well into zhan zhuang. This practice is sometimes called Yiquan (mind boxing) and/or Tendon Testing, and is an integral part of Daoist energy work, internal and external. The power is that it is a static tradition. You just stand still. This a training for the mind as well as the body. It is, frankly, extremely easy and extremely hard all at the same time... And the teaching is IN the practice.. ie it's quite zen... 'stop thinking, stop talking... [just do the practice] ... and there is nothing you will not know.' Things will be revealed as you practice.... Just start with the video and practise it for a while. If you like it, you can find a teacher by going to Master Lam's website. They are all over the world - fewer in the US, but some. Master Lam spent time there but found very few serious students who didn't want to run before they could barely crawl let alone walk... this is NOT a quick path.. They don't exist..

I DID mean Pankenier yes! I'd love a copy. Mail it to [email protected]. Thanks, I really appreciate this!

I'd like to read this - but I've been subscribed to Academia before and got so pestered by spam I closed the account down... anybody got a copy to send me?

Major's paper is a good if rather pedestrian start. But the trouble with this small paper is that yin-yang came in much later than the wu xing and rather than mention the Ho Tu and Lo Shu he uses the magic square, overlays the wu xing and gets the order wrong...Not mentioning the bagua, both pre and post heaven seems perverse too and would have prevented this error.. The gua have their spirit connections too..

It is, it seems, de rigeur to say hello as a newly registered member. So here I am. I became interested in daoism when at university 50 years ago and the interest has continued - specifcally qigong, nei dan and the yijing. This now represents a fairly full time practice...