zen-bear

You're welcome, Rene!

It's great to have you back on the thread! Thank you for your explanation--it's worth a bit more than 2 cents! To all FP practitioners: you have found that the number of repetitions in FP Qigong training varies from 1, to 7 (in the seated MSW), to 18 (basic standing "Bending the Bows"), to any duration of time from 5 minutes to 40 minutes or longer for the stationary standing or seated exercises. In GMDW's advanced 10,000 Buddhas Meditations, every one of the 48 exercises that has movement is done 18x as a general guideline. And within that system, there are special practices that vary from the 18 repetitions. All the Best, Sihing. Terry

Hello Sihing Garry, I just viewed 6 of your Omei Bak Mei postings on Youtube that I had never seen before, including the link you sent. I take it that these are your most recent ones. Terrific! Congrats! I especially like your Saam Bo Chung Choi. It's now official in my mind: your gung-fu form (root and linkage from root to hand) is more developed than any of GMDW's senior students from San Diego that I knew when I started training with him in 1991. Many people commenting on the Bak Mei, Yau Kang Mun, So. Praying Mantis, and GMDW's White Tiger gung-fu--and many practitioner's we know of White Tiger do NOT understand how the stances work with the hand techniques (starting with basic punching), and you have shown more clearly here in your demo of Saam Bo Chung Choi--than in all your previous clips--how they are supposed to work. I will PM you more about the SBCC Form. Here is my mailing address: Zen-Bear, Inc. 1112 Montana Avenue, Suite 707 Santa Monica, CA 90403 U.S.A. Thank you so much in advance! Whatever you are sending will be quite a LIFT, I know! I have more to send you as well. Peace Brother Garry, Terry

Greetings, Will do, Garry. As soon as dig out of an impossibly deep black hole--of unfinished pressing business you cannot imagine. One. TD

Hello Rene, Everyone, I believe, when they started learning the FP Qigong or any of GM Doo Wai's other internal arts that involved repetitive rounds of a relatively complex sequence of movements done very slowly (at sand dune speed), such as the Monk Serves Wine seated med's, would lose count of their repetitions every now and then. To keep accurate count of the number of repetitions you do is part of the mental training. If you lose track of the number, just end the meditation when you think you've reached 7 reps (in the case of the MSW exercises). Once you practice the FP Qigong system for a while, you will know from experience and natural "feel" that missing one repetition or doing an extra 8th one won't kill you. But if it does, let me know! Sifu Terry P.S. If you follow the basic instructions: 3 opening full breaths, the unique breath-control sequence for each meditation, the correct number of repetitions with properly executed movements, and 3 closing full breathes, you won't have any problems and you don't have to worry about any energy "leakage". Energy "leakage" would occur if one failed to do the 3 full breathes at the end and the just went about one's business. One would be walking around, going through one's daily routine in a hypnoidal,slightly somnambulist state, which is not a good thing to do--because (1) you'll be breaking qigong form as you perform everyday movements and activities but the qigong cultivation "engine" would still be running. In other words, you'd be operating with 1/3 of the Qigong process missing--your Xing, or shape-form: think of it as riding in a small skiff with an outboard engine, holding onto the tiller, but all of a sudden (as in a cartoon) there's no more boat--just you holding onto the motor going through water!!! (Who says that cartoons can't be one of the 1,000 gates to the Law?! ) (2) you'll be too sensitive to the normally subconscious physical sensations in your body, become distracted from your environment by being in that "high", and probably get run over by a truck. The 3 deep breaths at the end normalize the energy of the body, and when taking the 3 breathes becomes a habit and convention--developed by doing the FP exercises for years and years, it becomes an effective "off" switch that allows one to to end any meditative or altered state you happen to be in. Carry on, Rene. Best, Sifu Terry P.S. No prohibition against showering or bathing after doing the FP Qigong. (But do make sure that you always finish with the 3 full breaths.) GMDW told us that the only specific prohibition was to not expose yourself to strong wind or dampness when practicing any of the meditative arts that he taught us. I would generalize that to say: avoid exposure to any extreme elemental forces when you practice the FP Qigong.

Hi Rene & Hi Sifu Garry, Yes, our teacher GM Doo Wai's instructions for beginners was to take a 3 to 5 minute break between each meditation to let each one settle and seal itself. The three deep breathes at the end of each FP Meditation ends the meditation on the mental level, but sometimes one needs the addtional 3-5 or more minutes for one's energy to normalize. Best, Sifu Terry

Hi Sifu Garry (Si-hing), Good to see you with your new screenname. WBBM. Can't wait to see it, Brother. I've loved every clip that you've forwarded to me over the past year. Thanks! More from me will be coming to you as well. Best, Sifu Terry

Hello Ruthless, Everyone has to work around their physical idiosyncracies and limitations. Many of my older students bring meditation cushions and pillows to sit on when they do the Monk serves Wine seated med's. Keeping the back straight and vertical of course is absolutely essential in FP Qigong and all forms of meditation. Doing the MSW meditations in half-lotus or full-lotus is optimal. Next best is sitting cross-legged. Next best is sitting propped up on a pillow or meditation cushion. Next best is sitting in a chair with feet flat on fllor--and you can have your back propped up against back of chair. For beginners starting seated FP Qigong, supporting the back to maintain erectness and stillness is actually is better than not supporting the back. While it is desirable to develop good seated meditation posture with being propped up by anything, there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing the seated MSW exercises with the back propped up against a vertical wall--for the long run. I do it that way in my personal practice all the time. When I teach FPQigong I don't use props or lean-to's, but I allow my students to bring any type of props and aids that they feel they need to do the seated ex's more comfortably and correctly. So don't deprive yourself of the chair-back. Use it! Sifu Terry

Hi Craig, Yes, Wind Above the Clouds is done just one time following the breath-control sequence. (I'm pretty sure it's on the DVD instruction.) And yes, you can do it as slowly as you can with the knowledge that you only need to do it once. Of course, do it multiples times with the breath sequence each time (interpersed with the other FP exercises) is a deeper practice and can only provide more benefit. Enjoy, Sifu Terry

Hi Ruthless, Sorry I didn't answer your last question about Wind Above the Clouds. No problem whatsoever in doing it with extreme, relaxed stretching. (My hand is out past my foot... right above the ground when I do it). As long as you maintain total body relaxation throughout the movements, the exercise will work for you. Enjoy, Terry Dunn P.S. Yes, the Tao Tan Pai neigung requires close supervision when being practiced.

John, Yes, of course. The lower chakras are part of the human system. You will not feel the activation in the lower chakras in the same manner that you feel that in the upper ones. And one will also not feel the activation of the lower chakras in the same manner that one would feel their activation using a different a Qigong or yoga system (that utilizes different energetics). Terry Dunn

Hello Junbao, My comments are below in italic-bold. I'm glad you starting to have fun experiences with the FP training. You're very welcome. Sifu Terry

Greetings Brian and Elizabeth, Congratulations on the release of your new book on the Jingwu Association. I look forward to getting a copy and reading it. One of my most important teachers, Grandmaster Doo Wai of the White Tiger system (Bak Fu Pai)-- whose arts are discussed a bit on the "Flying Phoenix Chi Kung" thread started here back in Dec.-- told me his version of the Huo Juan Jia story and how gifted he was in kung-fu when he came out of the southern Sil Lum School. He told us that Huo Juan Jia invented his own system that he called the Mizong Lohan Mun, or "Deceptive Lohan System". A very good Kung-Fu system. But unfortunately as a result of the Japanese and western colonial occupation/oppression of China starting in the late 1880's, and Huo Juan Jia's death by poisoning, all of his best students were eventually killed resisting the Japanese (primarily) and the "Fayshee" Lohan Mun art--or Back Lohan Mun secret art--was lost long ago. the Fayshee Lohan Mun art involved training the heng-gung (the "light" force) but that art died with his students and his last grand-student who died in Hong Kong a ways back, he said. Sad story of the demise of a great Kung-fu style. Regards, Sifu Terence Dunn

WTM, I'm glad that you are starting to feel some of the remarkable benefits of the FP Qigong. All the FP exercises work systemically (I don't mean here "systematically"--although that's also true) and the massaging, "energy-pulsing" at the third eye (and later "washing") that you felt occurs because each exercise's posture combined with the breath-control sequences works first to ignite the FP energy and then to release its circulation between the sacral and occipital areas of the spine and up to the top of the head. All the upper chakras naturally get charged and activated. Best, Sifu Terry

Yes, ginger works with all the Flying Phoenix meditations. Ginger is also one of the five ingredients in one partidular meditation tincture used for FP Qigong and other internal arts in the BFP tradition. But for best results, you want to use the sliver of raw ginger in the mouth, not tea'd. Terry Dunn

Hi Simply Puzzled, Thanks for sharing your and your roommate's experiences with the Flying Phoenix Qigong. There is nothing more gratifying for a teacher of this system than to get a positive report like yours--that after a session of FP practice, you feel 100% better and got sublime relief from the effects of an old serious injury. Neck injuries and head injuries of course are very difficult to rehabilitate. In the 80's, before I learned the FP system, I had two dedicated Tai Chi students who were both Occupation Therapists specializing with the head-injured. I learned from following their work that even by applying a Tai Chi-based therapy (which they formally instituted at their respective hospitals back east and got funding for) plus a strong Qigong system (basic of Tao Tan Pai that I also taught), the healing process is very slow. That "mixture of pain and release" that you felt is the healing effect of the FP Energy. If you continue practicing it on a regular basis, you will slowly but surely release all the time-bound pain from the injury that can be released. In all holistic healing (models), the basic premise is that the body is inherently perfectly able to heal itself...and if left to its most natural and pristine functions without the mind's and nervous system's tendency to repress (i.e., not feel) the pain of the injury, the integrated body will heal itself more quickly and more thoroughly. (This isn't to say that repression is always a bad thing; rather, pain repression is a necessary for survival, it's an important facet of our "fight or flight" mechanism. But after we've suffered a severe or catastrophic injury, the body's natural repression of the pain can become extreme and "rigidifying", locking the energy (pain) of the initial trauma within the bodily tissues permanently. Rehabilitation then becomes a process of systematically releasing and de-rigidifying the body form its necessarily repressed, pained, and "contorted" state. *Your very accurate description of the healing process brought on by FP Meditation as the "mixture of pain and release" gives rise to its converse: that "pain is in the resistance," which has been a yogic fact and holistic healing principle since time immemorial. (this isn't to make light in any way of the real and unbearable pain inflicted at the point of injury and trauma; I know what pain and suffering is. It speaks more to the healing process, post-trauma.) Effective Qigong like Flying Phoenix and other truly healing yogas put the body in its primordial, pristine, self-healing state through regular practice. Very high-level yogi's can attain this effective, fast-self-healing state in meditation. It can also be induced to a certain extent through deep hynotherapy, depending on the subject and the expertise and particular schooling of the hypnotherapist. What I'm talking about, unfortunately,is not something that people can attain in a 50-min. yoga class lying on their backs listening to the sweet guided imagery or new age affirmations of the yoga teacher--no matter how nurturing or well-intended. (Unless of course, the yoga teacher is true master with powers.) Any good Qigong system will have a powerful, esoteric formula (what I call its "alchemy") that refines and then coordinates the 3 processes or elements of Qigong: (1) xing (shape-form of the body), (2) yi (meditative concentration--not just "intent" or "mental focus"), and (3) chi (breathing or energy) ...to put the body in the primordial, pristine, self-healing state where mind and body are perfectly integrated, marked by the ability to "feel what you think" and "think what you feel" without any friction or one nano-second of a time-lapse between those two functions of thinking and feeling. Various yogic cultures give this state different names: "samadhi","transcendental", "stopping the world." As I've cited several times in past postings, one of the most ancient standards for attaining the samadhic state is described in the I Ching in hexagram #52: "Keeping Still. Keepiing his back still until he no longer feels his body." ***But the samadhic state is not the ultimate physiological self-healing state. Beyond promoting access to the samadhic state, FP Qigong in its very unique way activates the body's natural healing processes by putting all the organ functions under the regulation of the subconscious mind through its unique alchemy. FP Qigong's physiological effects (if they could only be scientifically studied and compared against a control group and a range of other Qigong methods!) are thus very, very different form the energizing and rejuvenating effects of other Qigong systems. Again, this is the precise English wording (in italics above) that my teacher used to describe how the FP Qigong works to heal the body and how Flying Phoenix energy is cultivated. Think about this process statement...it has very profound and far-reaching implications. I hope you continue to reap more benefits and feel better from the FP practice, so that you very soon shift your screenname to "Simply Unpuzzled" :0) Since you're recovering from a neck injury, I would highly recommend the seated exercises in Volume Two, because the seated "Monk Serves Wine" moving meditations create very pronounced energizing effects throughout the upper body and imparts a certain tangible sensation within the brain that I'll let you find out for yourself. (*perhaps other contributors and FP-testers can chime in to confirm the tangible effects in the upper body imparted by the Basic Seated Meds. but not completely give away the surprise! ) Best, Terry Dunn P.S. Again, I'm glad to explain as much as I can about the workings of FP Qigong because as you'll discover more and more, it has nothing but beneficial and salient effects--and also, as I explained before, the Flying Phoenix Celestial Healing Qi Meditation (Fei Feng San Kung) system is a purely healing or medical qigong system that cannot be abused or co-opted by the profane and deranged to do harm. (Which is the whole reason for high secrecy in the Chinese martial, yogic and spiritual traditions.) Thus I can be very forthcoming with what I know about practicing the system--as opposed to other internal arts taught by GM Doo Wai.

Lightbody...Aura : Tomato...Tomahtah Dreambody or your "double" --now that's something different. --Terry Dunn

You're welcome, Pablo. Best, Terry Dunn

Hi Pablo, Thanks for your input and comparisons of the effects of Flying Phoenix that you experienced. Although I've just recently become aware of it, by watching clips of masters doing it on Youtube, I know that Hunyuan is a very good and effective Qigong system. As for Eight Brocades, this is an example of a very fragmented and broken tradition where all the books and videos that I've seen on 8PB over the past 25 yrs or so have been very rudimentary with no breathing method taught whatsoever--except what follows naturally from the calisthenic movements. Unless you find a master who knows the complete 8PB system and will teach you the breathing (and footwork), one will not get much out of the 8PB system as published other than just that: calisthenic exercise--and minimal at that: more suitable for the aged and movement restricted. I knew a few high-level kung-fu people in the past who also practiced 8PB, but they admitted that it was their kung-fu that activated the 8PB effects, not the other way around. For calisthenic exercise, you're much better off practicing a complete holistic system like any style of Tai Chi Chuan. Best, Sifu Terry Dunn

Hello Lloyd, Answer: No. Do NOT blend the ending 3 breaths of one Flying Phoenix Meditation with the starting 3 breathes of another FP mediation. The FP training is anchored by 3 full breathes at start of each meditation and 3 full breathes to end each meditation. The purpose of the 3 breathes at the end is to normalize your internal energy system after doing the perfectly measured and designed cultivation of each FP exercise. This is especially true--and more easily felt--in the case of the seated MSW meditations. Also, take a one, two or more minutes' break before starting the next meditation. I'm glad that you are finding the FP Qigong powerful and empowering. It can not only empower one to attain supreme good health and youthful vitality (i.e., slow if not reverse aging), it can also empower one to attain spiritual consciousness. I was not being facetious when I made up the new FP lyrics for the 60's classic "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane: "Go ask the Bodhisattva Puxian (patron saint of Ehrmeishan) when your aura's ten feet tall" Best, Terry

Hi Pablo, Below finally are my responses to your recent observations of your Flying Phoenix practice. In general, everything that you've reported means that you are practicing the FP System correctly and receiving its natural benefits in a very efficient manner. My specific comments are in bold below: Pablo, many thanks again for your detailed account of your diligent practice. Keep up the good work, and do write in again whenever you encounter your next set of interesting Flying Phoenix energy effects and have questions about them. Best, Sifu Terry Dunn

Hello John, Yes, as I've stated in several past postings on this thread at various times: (1) It is generally OK to mix Flying Phoenix Qigong practice with other qigong practice, especially if you have the other qigong methods long-established. (2) What I don't recommend whatsoever is for someone to learn the FP Qigong system while learning another qigong system. (3) For optimal results, when learning the FP Qigong system, you do not want to practice it in close proximity timewise to your other Qigong practice(s) because that will dilute the effects of the FP training and make it more difficult for you to discern and experience the tangible and distinctive FP energy--even though, as I stated in past postings and Pablo from So.America has confirmed in his recent posting, the FP Celestial Healing Energy becomes visible to the naked eye after a certain level of practice--and will even show up on videotape. (4) For optimal results, because the the cultivation of the FP energy is cumulative, you want to practice the FP Qigong in one continuous session, on a daily basis if possible, and at the same time of day if possible. *Before experiencing this rare Qigong system, it's only natural to consider the reports of the distinct healing energy of the FP System as being different from other qigong-cultivated energies as an idea. But consistent practice over a relatively short period of time, tangibly feeling and (in some cases) visibly seeing the FP energy as a unique healing energy that is totally different from other forms of internal energy is a tangible, verifiable and repeatable experience.* ...Such has been the experience of the FP practitioners who started this thread back in December (Fu-Dog, Kameel, Fachao, Rene, Bakuakid, Sunshine(Harry) in Germany,Mark Kim and many others--and of course, "Spirit Ape", my school brother Sifu Garry Hearfield) who have solid experience in FP--and even recent newcomers to such as Metal Dog and Pablo. In most of the Chinese martial and yogic arts--until one is well-practiced, seasoned, tested over a long period of time, and initiated by a master in the higher levels of the art--the reports and stories of "energy" and energy Works are just that: Tales of Power, --as Carlos Castaneda put it, as the title of his fourth book. But fortunately for y'all, the the Basic Level of the Flying Phoenix Celestial Healing Qigong system is amazingly fast-acting and imparts profound facility with energy cultivation and even energy transference to anyone (regardless of previous training) after a relatively short period of practice--and without the presence of a supervising qigong master. If anyone cares to verify this observation for John, please chime in. Thanks. Good luck in your explorations, Sifu Terry Dunn