E. S. A.

I will PM you.

23 minutes ago, Toni said:

Xing Shen Zhuang is the same that zhi neng level 2? Thks

 
Not exactly the same but achieve the same function and have many shared similarities. Even Xing Shen Zhuang itself is a little varied from lineage to lineage. If you have access to Zhi Neng Second method then that would work great for posture purposes. The trick with these exercises though is to relax into it and know where your rotation axis is. Each movement has a different rotational axis in your body the movements are centered on. It is not simply a movement. You need to feel things rotating from that axis and learn to guide the mind to those points.

I believe it said, "From change emerges Taiji, hence the two poles resulted".

If you look at the characters Tai means like "Bigger than Big". Ji meant the top of the main pillar holding up the roof, meaning the highest point. So TaiJi is like the "vast limitless nature of the universe".
 

To my knowledge the legend goes that Chen Tuan passed down his "Illustrate of Wuji" which was then later elaborated by Zhou Dunyi in his "Illustrated TaiJi". According to Chen's illustrate "From Wuji (无极) emerges TaiJi (太极)". The basic philosophy is something along the lines of originally the universe was in a chaotic state, an ultimate void, knows as an environment of "Fundamental Qi" (真气, pronounced ZhenQi). Yang begins to emerge when motions are activated in the qi. When motion reaches its full capacity, qi settles down to form the Yin. Then all things are created through an interaction if Yin(阴) and Yang(阳) Qi.

So that is to say specifically that TaiJi is the state when WuJi begins to divide into Yin and Yang, therefor the state of TaiJi is the origin of all things.

E. S. A.
The Wanderer

I will send you a PM. There are large collections out there.

Cheers,
E. S. A.

It is my understanding that at the truth of things the MCO is meant to arise as something experienced naturally through one's training. Not the sole purpose or intent of one's training. We don't go into it trying to produce an MCO or we will likely end up just creating illusory sensations. The Dao turns itself. 

The best posture specific QiGong I know if is called Xing Shen Zhuang. It is a QiGong that goes through and works on specific sections of the spine. That combined with fundamental TaiJi poses is going to be the ultimate posture training. Seriously pick up a book or video on the fundamentals of TaiJiQuan (I would suggest Chen's style) and practice the standing poses for a good amount of time. 

Cheers,
E. S. A.
The Wanderer

There is a sequence of 4 exercises used in various QiGong circles and Vajrayana sects intended for exactly this.

The first exercise is as follows. Grab each arm around the forearms, creating a sort of rectangle with your chest and arms. Breathe in through the chest, expanding the diaphragm and the front of the ribs, slowly raising your linked arms above your head. Keep going and slightly apply pressure downwards, feel the back portion of the diaphragm sink, and the front portion rising up and stretching. Breathe out and slowly lower your arms back down, keeping them connecting. Switch the arms and repeat. This begins the proper diaphragmatic movement.

Second exercise, place your hands on your side near the base of your ribs, elbows pointing to the side. Do the same breathing, expanding up in the front, sinking down in the back. But this time more focus to expanding on the side of the chest pressing against your hands. Feeling the back sink down.

Third exercise, same as first exercise but when you stretch your arms above your head you unlink them at the top and continue to stretch further up going in to the first exercise posture of Ba Duan Jin but with linked hands. do the same breathing this time at the top focusing on expanding and breathing into the upper portion of the chest.

Final exercise is essentially spreading your arms out to the side while breathing in and pushing them out in front of you while exhaling. This is done with palms down first then palms up. But if done properly after the previous exercises the entire chest should be expanding and moving freely and you should feel as if your arms are being pushed apart to the side when you breathe in and pulled in like a spring when you breathe out. Feels like you aren't moving your arms yourself. The Qi is.

If you have any questions I can record a video or something. Very similar to various "Power Breathing" methods taught.

Enjoy,
E. S. A.
The Wanderer

Well, that lasted a whole of a few hours before it got removed and my entire account deleted. 

I don't understand why IronPalm LLC. would remove the videos as they were made and released FOR FREE by James. Seems they are more concerned about pinching every $ they can instead of respecting Lacey's memory.

Looks like I will be rebuilding my video archive. This time entirely private.

Greetings fellow Dao Bums,

First let me start by saying I know there are many opinions on James Lacey, Doo Wai, and pretty much everything involving them. However, that is not the purpose of this and if you would be so kind, there are many other posts and places to have such discussions.

I have put together a public archive on YouTube of the videos James released for free over the years. Most of these videos have been lost to time and it is a shame. So for historical purposes, I have placed everyone I can find and published them in a public playlist. Keep in mind, none of these were ever sold and were originally released for free by James himself.

[Video] James Lacey Historical Archive

If anyone has any other footage feel free to get in touch with me.

Cheers,
E. S. A.
The Wanderer

6 hours ago, sambista2002 said:

Is this the test?:

https://news.stanford.edu/news/2008/may7/med-taichi-050708.html

This is an amazing paper, thank you so much for sharing this 🙏 

I’d also like to thank everyone else who took the time to respond. It seems I have a lot to learn. I will stick with my current teacher for now. I am enjoying the motivation he instills. 
 

@Taomeow coffee and chat? Haha, you seem to know your stuff. I’m finding lacking the experimental factor of this internal system limiting to my understanding of its relationships. Hopefully in time. 
 

Cheers,

E. S. A. 

On 2020-07-10 at 3:09 PM, SirPalomides said:

 

Huh?

Don’t mind him. There’s a common view of the church being a vampiric power-obsesses organization. 
 

I’m glad you have found your way here. You will find some great sections related to these topics. 
 

May I ask, are you interested in more of the practiced work or the theology/metaphysics involved? I don’t know much of Daoism but I have studied many of the sutras and may be able to point you in the right direction.

Cheers,

E. S. A. 
The Wanderer

“A baby is born without an understanding of the meaning, or lack thereof, in the world, and yet it is born equipped with the desire to play in various games. The baby is quite happy being fully engaged in a game without feeling the need to question whether there is inherent meaning, or not, in the task. [You have stopped playing].

Perhaps [your] either taking life far too seriously, or are consumed by a search for the ultimate truth or belief system to explain the complexity of life in its entirety, whereas you may be better off taking a break from the bigger questions of life, and simply engaging in more playful activities. This is not to say that the bigger and deeper questions of life are unimportant, rather, a healthy and fulfilling life is better achieved through balance, and in this case balancing the serious and heavy subjects with a more lighthearted and playful approach to life”

Nihilism is a tough beast but I would argue in practice it’s very broken. It would seem that we have an innate biological process for meaning. Whether we realize it or not. 
 

Cheers,

E. S. A. 

The Wanderer

I own the highway. 

Cheers ✌️
E. S. A. 

3 hours ago, Daniel said:

"Begin to count on each breath..."

 

Respectfully, would you please elaborate on this? 

 

Does the count reset on each breath?  Or does the count continue to iterate as the meditation proceeds?  Or maybe I've completely misunderstood? 

 

Sorry if it's a silly question.

It’s not a silly question at all. More than happy to elaborate.

From my personal experience, in energy systems, we begin to use our minds as tools to develop and effect our practice. We want to begin to learn to control the mind and not let it race. To teach it to have more powerful visualization as well as clear focus at whatever task is at hand. Just like any skill or muscle it can also be trained.

I think the most fundamental sense of meditation is learning to quiet that background noise. You can’t begin to genuinely focus on a particular practice or technique of you can’t even quiet your mind and actually focus on that task.
 

Personally, I have found the best method for beginning this mental control to be a simple Zen meditation. I feel at a basic level it does not influence the energy system much so you don’t have to worry about adverse effects. It will act as an introductory chi cultivation method as well (ID HIGHLY SUGGEST AGAINST VIEWING IT AS SUCH THOUGH, focus on control, not power). 
 

Sit relaxed whatever that is for you. In a chair, laying down, half lotus, etc... begin to take some deep breaths and loosen all the muscles in your body. Working around your face down your chest to your toes. Let your breathing try to slow to a natural rhythm. You want to aim as if you are breathing like you aren’t thinking about it. When you are ready to start, with each breath count up. You can start simply saying the number in your head. But if you want to get into visualization practice I would try and picture the number (as well as say it in your head if you wish). Continue this till you hit 10. Start over. You will often not make it close to 10. Wandering off in thought. That’s okay 👌 Just start back at one when you realize and keep going. You will get better and better until that background noise is no longer a problem. 

Again, my expertise is not in this area and there are likely people better suited to answer your question. But this is my view 😎

Feel free to send me a PM. 
 

Cheers,

E. S. A.

The Wanderer

Hey Ashbell, welcome 🙏 

I am in a similar circumstance to you. Over the years I have worked with many systems, looking for that “path”. 
 

In terms of QiGong systems I don’t know a whole lot. However, from everything I’ve heard people say it is more important to attempt to establish a strong foundation than get caught up in the complexities of one system or another. It would seem just as important to do what you can to set your every day life in order, not just every day practice. 
 

So things like sleeping ,eating and life habits should be paramount to ones system as it will cascade downwards and effect the results of your training. 
 

My teacher says that in China, devout students of TaiJiQuan would train a single posture or movement for potentially months. Only then moving on to another posture or movement. He listed roughly 10 fundamental stances/moves if I remember correctly. These were designed to teach the connecting ideas of the routine and how energy in the system moves at a basic level. Before going in to full routines. My teacher says that the only reason they teach routines now in the beginning is to satiate the short-term oriented western minds. Students would get bored and give up if he had them doing the same thing for months. But he strongly believes single postures before routines it is a much faster way to true Kung Fu. 
 

As far as meditation itself goes I think you can think of it very similarly. There are lots of complex systems. Different visualizations, breathing techniques, mantras, physical positions, tension flow, etc... but we want a strong fundamental first. I think it’s important to just take 5-10 min a day when you start and just do a basic meditation. Nothing fancy. Just sit and breath, try to relax, breath naturally calmly, don’t worry about your thoughts. Begin to count on each breath and visualize the counting. This is really as fundamental as it gets. Basic breathing, basic visualizing, no pressure. Then, once you feel yourself actually getting in that meditative state, go and learn a more advanced technique and get absorbed in a system. 

Cheers,

E. S. A. 
The Wanderer

I appreciate the responses you have all taken the time to give. Due to the current situation, going and checking out different schools is not an option. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a teacher a year or two ago. But only recently have I reached out to seriously attempt to study TaiJiQuan. It would seem to leave me feeling significantly more “fulfilled” than I have had with “western magick”.

Here is the information on my teacher. Maybe you can relay to me whether I have made a good choice. From my personal experience he is a very humble man, has a certain aura about him you can feel, almost relaxing, but opening at the same time. Seems to be very focused on long-term slow individual development but while still entertaining people to keep their interest. 

https://tntkungfu.com/instructors/team/

http://taichiology.com/?page_id=278

Above are the links to his Martial Arts school and Publishing business.

I would love to hear your opinions.

Cheers,

E. S. A. 

Hey Pramod! Welcome aboard. I’m new here as well and experiencing a similar struggle, but from a different angle.

After the bit of research I have done on different systems of techniques I’ve found when you actually sit a master down and listen to the traditional training regiment it’s very fundamental. 
 

My teacher talks about how traditionally in Chen’s family Tai Ji Quan they would spend a period of roughly 6 months practicing roughly 10 fundamental stances and movements. These stances and movements teach the basics of proper twisting, spiral rotations on different planes, distribution of tension and relaxation as well as the timing of leading or lagging/ following or antithesizing movements. Etc. 
 

Then when the routines begin to be taught you can better navigate through them. 
 

I will send you a PM with these practices and the basic simplified Chen’s form. 
 

Unfortunately I do not have much personal knowledge of other forms of cultivation such as orbit practice, etc... 

It is my personal view that I would like to be sound of body and sound of mind before I begin to construct the temple of the spirit. And to be frank I have been rather lazy with my diet and exercise. So I am leaving that stuff and sticking with good diet, exercise, Tai Ji Quan and meditation. 
 

Another great book I can recommend is titled “The Root of Chinese Qi Gong” I’ll send you a PDF copy as well when I get home.

Hopefully some more experienced members may chime in with the various cultivation systems to look into. 
 

Cheers,

E. S. A. 
The Wanderer

I tried my hand at finding more but was fairly unsuccessful. 
 

There is this YouTube video that shows a “Sword Finger QiGong”. Whether it is related or not you would likely be able to tell. The YouTube channel also seems to have other videos on the subject. Here is a YouTube playlist that includes an interview with the Master. 
 

Also this FaceBook video I found tucked away. Nothing specifically SFQG8F. 
 

Let me know if you find out more. Super interested 👌

Cheers,

E. S. A.

The Wanderer

Thank you for the response.

Hopefully it doesn’t turn into a wushu flame war 🔥 I very much appreciate the conveyed experience and anyone else with some experience willing to chip in. As I have no personal experience actually practicing Yang style, only reading of it. It would be nice to read various experiences. 

Oh geeez haha. I saw Daniels post yesterday and just assumed. Totally my bad. I will be more diligent in the future 😂 glad to see you have become technologically awakened. Lol.

Cheers. 

On 2008-03-06 at 7:25 AM, manitou said:

This is technoligically challenging to me. To comment on a thread, how do you do it without doing an entire quote of the person previous to you? Have we created a thread by our several messages back and forth? What is guided mode?

Are you a friend of Bill's as well?

Welcome Manitou 🙏

This website is a message board. There are many sections that are specific to certain types of discussion. Within each section people create a “thread” with a title. And then people respond to these threads. 
 

For instance, you created a thread called “wow, great forum” in the “Welcome” section and all of these replies are specific to this thread you created.

You do not have to quote to reply. You can simply scroll to the very bottom of any thread and there will be a reply option. This will allow you to type a response and hit submit reply. There are many options in this reply box for stylization, links, etc...

Sometimes you will want to quote someone which is what the “quote reply” function is for. You can go in and erase parts of the quote if you are only referencing a short section. Obviously don’t alter the quote.

If you want to speak completely privately you can click on a users profile and send them a “Private Message” or PM. 
 

Hope this may assist your technological challenges. Feel free to send me a PM if you need.

Cheers,

E. S. A.

The Wanderer

Dear fellow Dao Bums,

I have recently begun studying Chen’s style Tai chi after much research on different styles. It would seem to my personal views (which are limited to mostly Western/Hindu systems) that Chen’s style is the oldest and closely related to the original principles of TaiJiQuan. It encompasses movements of hard and soft. Tension and relaxation. Fast and slow. Unifying the polarities into a whole system. Chen’s style also has a great depth to the movement of chi and its movements. From what I have seen of Yang style it seems to only be soft slow movements. Now that being said, I have seen a few people express concern on any tension at all. I was hoping some practitioners of different styles could weigh in with their personal experience and start a conversation on the differences between the styles and the beliefs surrounding them. 
 

Cheers,

E. S. A.

The Wanderer

While this is all very new to me it is my understanding QiGong isn’t quite as simple as just starting a routine. It’s more of a wholistic system. A lot of preparatory work is done to set a strong foundation for both the mind and the body. Just like proper TaiChi would never have you learning a routine until at least 6 months of movement/meditation prep.. I would suggest reading the book The Root of Chinese Qigong: Secrets of Health, available on Scribd. If you don’t have an account I will happily send you the PDF, just PM me. 
 

Cheers,

E. S. A.

The Wanderer

On 2020-06-22 at 8:18 PM, Lao Xiong said:

The only thing I will say about a Qi generator is that a few years back Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine did a study of Qi in the body and projecting qi outside the body Their conclusion, at that time, was internal Qi easy to prove, external qi (projection) fake.

I was under the impression they proved external Qi. In fact from great distances. There is a document in the CIA archives I saved that went over all the studies done by the Chinese government or something along those lines. 

Read chapter 3 from the official CIA library. CIA-RDP96-00792R000300430003-5

If you don’t feel comfortable going to the link, PM me and I will happily send you the PDF.

19 hours ago, freeform said:

When his purging started he would sweat strange bright colours, colour would collect under his nails and drip out from the edge, his eye whites would change tint etc. But this stopped within about three or four months.

What a sight to see. Never heard of anything like this. 
 

I wonder if maybe something in Paradoxal’s day to day life is causing a influx of toxins that is not allowing you to get pat this point.

I am very new to this myself and am very interested to see if I will have any of said effects related to my personal drug use.

Maybe a daily log would be useful? That’s what we do in ritual Magick. Very precise notes and observations that allow you to try to parse connections and then further try to discern correlation vs causation. What you ate, sleep schedule, etc... things you feel might have an outcome on your practice. 
 

Cheers,

E. S. A.