yugenphoenix

Appreciate the comments, it is not an intellectual understanding of the process but what I feel that I am attempting to articulate. I am foolish to talk about it anyway, but I was so excited by it and wanted to share my experience and ideas with others.

@MIchael80 Not pre-birth? I was hesitant to title this post anything lol 😝 but the results and the progress I feel I am making can’t be called anything but Neidan but I don’t want to split hairs over words that are meaningless I will just call it something else 🙂

@markern It depends on the day and how my body is feeling. Varies. But depth is not a pissing contest. It’s more about finding connections within yourself between body, breath, and energy and opening pathways to expressing that.

All that sounds like the great beginning of a flame that you could slowly and carefully be blown into existence. I think combining a seated practice with a standing one is best, however that looks in your system or what is best for your personal energetic situation and state. EVERYTHING is individualized. I have used Hof’s method and “vase breathing” is an arrow in my quiver for sure. I also love that silence and openness of the holds of breaths and in between…love to just let the engine maintain, just feel and observe, be aware, let breath, energy, colors, images, all go where they want, help where they can, dissolve into emptiness eventually…balance any work with energy with grounding and “just sitting” Shikantza…In my own personal system I call it, “Being alone with the weight of Being” or “Wrestling with the Void of Self” Can’t recommend standing meditation to you enough. It is key and my practice really took off when I learned to combine both. Highly highly recommend Ma bu or Horse stance but only when you can sit in it comfortably, correctly, and aligned…that’s when the magic happens 😁 but start higher in the stance so called “easy horse,” then gradually lower your thighs as your channels open and can handle more and more current and your thighs and hips open (squatting is great for this) Great amazing reference on aligning in horse stance and Nei Kung in general. This is an incredibly powerful system and forms the foundation of my “standing” practice. All the best 🙇🏻🙏 https://ckchutaichi.com/shop/books-and-dvds/books/the-book-of-nei-kung/

Nice article, love this diagram! Very succinct and pretty much hits all the points you need to be aware of to begin your standing practice.

Did you achieve any kind of results with the Wim Hoff Method? No feeling of CHI from it? Did you utilize his online instructions or did you receive training in person? Only reason I ask is I have heard he emphasizes doing Horse stance in his in person seminars but never mentions it in books or internet articles and information he puts out. And Horse stance is a key to CHI development IMO. As for CHI awareness exercises, it is not so much the system or technique you use, it’s how deeply you apply yourself to it. You need to get very comfortable with the movements until you can do them “mindlessly” and instead of focusing on how you are doing the movements or whether they are right, you begin to focus on your breathing, how it feels, where it goes, etc and once you are doing the movements with a focus on your breath, which IS Qi you are now doing “qi awareness exercises” same ones you were doing before but now it’s Nei Kung and you are beginning to learn what you need to do to manipulate you own energies and then others for purposes of healing or destruction. Do you do any standing meditation now? I still do this “Chi Circulation Exercise” from this system. It’s a great example of what I am talking about, even though it’s “basic” it can be very powerful and helpful throughout your training no matter what level. Good luck with your personal practice 🙏🙇

Lol that could be some pick up line 😆 And no worries! Happy to help anyone on their personal path 🙏

Hey @Lala Nila https://dakinitranslations.com/the-female-principle-women-in-buddhism/ https://dakinitranslations.com/buddhist-female-teachers-lineages/ Much progress in your practice 🙏🙇🏻

The four base Trigrams are pictorially in my mind Absolute Yang (Heaven) above man, Absolute Yin (Earth) below him. The two mixed Trigrams are his “arms,” representing Man, as caught between Heaven and Earth, a permutation of those creative energies, but which if he has the intuition and insight and training may learn to flow and manipulate these energies within himself and FOR himself. I have heard of a great Tai Chi player who was said to “hold the Eight Trigrams within his palms,” and this first diagram in this book I’m reading made me think of that quote and it’s possibilities 🙏🙇🏻 https://www.amazon.com/Ba-Zi-Four-Pillars-Destiny/dp/1848192908/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2WA3YOPLPWJY2&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.NYsTuOODMC3bBFWtCuUEKg.E_PfA_K1OltlnWsiXxPeMhEbmh4HcqAxtTkqK3zWcos&dib_tag=se&keywords=Ba+zi+serge&qid=1756995260&sprefix=ba+zi+serge%2Caps%2C388&sr=8-1 “These four are the nucleus for the remaining 60 and give us the base for all situations. As previously mentioned in the above extract from the Dao De Jing, they describe everything, or the ten thousand things. If we look back at the image of Man between heaven and earth, this is the complete theory, with Ba Zi and Feng Shui arising from this. But know that the knowledge contained in the book is deep and can take a lifetime to master. The difficulty lies in the understanding of each hexagram, because very often the information and explanation is just one example of its interpretation. Each of the hexagrams should be adaptable to any situation that we might want to look at—from work and money to relationships, amongst many other things. So, from these 64 things, we should be able to explain everything.”