zen-bear

Hi Junbao, Although I did answer your questions here in a previous posting, my spirit beckoned me to write some more. So here are a few more comments in italics below that might add a little more insight and also a FORM TIP to help the seated warm-up meditation with the palm rotation: You're welcome. ENJOY.

Hello Funkytortoise, The Flying Phoenix Qigong meditations are already pretty simple in movement. Only if someone is physically impaired or handicapped or infirmed should one think about changing the movements to make them easier to do. For example, the Standing Exercise "Monk Holding Pearl" in Volume One of the DVD series can be done in any position: standing, seated, and lying supine. But at any rate, the breath control sequences at the start of each exercise should NOT be changed in any way. Holding right hand in the left palm against the tan tien (lower abdomen) is a basic, universal position found in all forms of meditation throughout the world (sometimes called "lotus hand" or "earth meditation position"). Other than Some of the Flying Phoenix exercises involved the right hand held in the left palm; others involve the left hand being held in the right palm. As far as I can tell, there is no conceptual relation between this hand position and the left/right bending-stretching actions of "Wind Above the Clouds." Sifu Terry Dunn

Thanks for providing your accurate advice to Mokona, WTM. True that many people tangibly feel more dramatic energy effects with the seated Monk Serves Wine Meditations of Volume 2. But all the standing FP meditations are in general more powerful than the seated meditations. The standing and seated meditations work together to form a complete system. Sifu Terry Dunn

Hi Lloyd, It really doesn't matter whether one practices the Flying Phoenix Qigong indoors or outdoors--as long as one's environment is quiet, calm, secure, temperate, non-toxic, and free of noise, odors and distractions, and free from any inclement types of weather and harsh elements. Most importantly, wherever you practice should be free of any objects or animals physically bumping in to you while you're practicing the meditations, as that can seriously damage your internal energy and compromise your health. Of course it's more beneficial to do FP Meditations outdoors in a quiet Sequoia forest at 8,000 ft. with lots of clean air than to practice overlooking NYC's Time Square during rush hour. Because all of the FP Qigong exercises highly sensitize all the organ systems of the body and the nervous system, you do not want to expose yourself to strong wind, cold, or rain, snow, ice, sleet, dust, etc. when you practice them. FYI, when I filmed the CKFH dvd's in Death Valley, CA in 2003,during the very last day of filming (of Volume 7) we had to take a long break for several hours because a small little sandstorm in the shape of a visible mini-cyclone blew right through out location. We had to cover up the cameras and take cover ourselves. (In fact, if you look at Vol. 7, there is one segment where you can see a distant dust-storm blow right across the distant background-- from left to right, I recall.) Because outdoor weather conditions can sometimes change very quickly, I advise that one take the path of least resistance and first learn the FP Qigong system indoors. Then once it's learned, one's strength and immunity will be that much stronger so that one can expose oneself to changing weather conditions, stampeding buffalo, avalanches, runaway snowmobiles, police car chases, or a Rastafarian band parachuting on top of you. Sifu Terry

Hi Dainin, Thanks for mentioning the Tui-Na Acupressure course being taught at the San Diego Taoist Sanctuary. I am most familiar with and am fully versed in that Tui-Na system and actually helped refine the Tui-Na curriculum in the late 70's early 1980's with my school brother Bill Helm (Director of the Taoist Sanctuary for past 25+ years), John Davidson (Share K. Lew's No.1 senior student at the time), Bruce Eichelberger (another senior student more focussed on healing art than martial art in L.A. in the 70's and 80's), and another senior instructor whose name I won't mention because he is a long-term felonious criminal who hasn't been arrested and prosecuted yet (but his victims who wound up wounded on my doorstep in 1985 are still alive, pretty much healed now after 26 yrs., and are ready for justice). At any rate, although I haven't taught the course since my time Cedars-Sinai Hospital in 2000, I am able to teach a Tui-Na course based on the exact same 13 strokes that Share Lew passed on to our circle of senior students in the mid-1970's. I don't know who is teaching Tui-Na now at the Taoist Sanctuary these days, but Bill Helm is able to teach it in any emergency for he and I and the others worked together on the original curriculum. Bill created the first teaching pamphlet with b&w photos, which, who knows, may be still in use today. Sifu Vince Black is a wonderful old friend who I haven't seen in decades. He and Bill Helm were two of the four guest Sifu observers/witnesses to my black sash test certification in 1983 (for the Tao Tan Pai and Sil Lum 5 Animals Systems), which lasted about 9 hours. During the second to the last portion of the test, I fought full-contact against my instructor, then my instructor plus classmate (and equal when it comes to fighting) Hugh Morison, then those two plus Bill Helm, and then those three plus Vince Black. I met Sifu Kenny Gong twice when he was alive, for I was very close buddies with fellow classmate psychologist Jeff Pfeiffer (under John Davidson), who was best friends with and studied with Stu Charno, one of Kenny Gong's sr. students in California who taught Hsing-Yi out of his studio in Venice for a number of years. Your mention of Vince Black and Kenny Gong brought all these associations and rather high times back to memory. Thanks for the blast from the past! And Sifu Vince Black, if you're out there, a warm and healthy HOWDEEE!!! Best, Sifu Terry Dunn P.S. I spoke to Bill Helm about 2 months ago and he told me that Sifu Lew is no longer personally teaching anything through the Sanctuary and hadn't been for a while. But the Sanctuary's course offerings in martial and healing arts teach the knowledge that was directly transmitted by Share Lew starting in the early 1970's when the Taoist Sanctuary was in Los Angeles on near Oxnard St. and Cahuenga Blvd.

Metal Dog, Thank you very much for your observations on Reiki based on your 22 years of hands-on bodywork in medical, rehab and athletic settings. (I have worked in the same three arenas but not full-time over the past 30 yrs, including teaching FP Qigong for 5 years at Cedars-Sinai Medical Ctr. here in Los Angeles--to both outpatients in cardiac rehab and to acute-care post-operative patients in the Dept. of Cardio-thoracic surgery. In 2000-1 NBA season, I trained the L.A. Lakers full-time in Tai Chi and kung-fu as a warm-up to their daily practice sessions). You made a very critical point about the effectiveness of the healer regardless of the healing method or "technology" that I didn't emphasize strongly enough (at all, actually) in offering my observations of Reiki: that first and foremost, beyond the healing method that one uses, what makes a good and effective healer is the right intent (a compassionate heart) and the ability to create "good chemistry" with the patient (i.e., rapport skill, which covers everything from gaining knowledge of the person's cultural, psychological, emotional issues on the spot to understand the full context of the patient's presented problem, to "pacing" the patient's neurolinguistic programming, to being the honest authority on the health issue at hand that instills the patient's faith and confidence.) Combine these elements with an effective method of holistic healing that (develops good diagnostic and treatment skills), and you should have a competent healer. The qigong, of course, empowers both diagnostic and treatment skills to supernormal levels--and sometimes, depending on the healer, his/her years of experience, and the tradition to supernatural levels). And very true that not everybody should be trying to work therapeutically on an energy level, regardless of good intentions. Some people are just not cut out for it--in terms of not being able to develop the facility to work with internal energy or not having the proper balance of critical mind (left brain) and intuition/structural sensitivity (right brain) to avoid becoming a psychic sink or a "sin-eater." I know of people who studied the same systems that I studied for the same number of years or more--but who can't effectively apply their healing knowledge. On the other hand, I've come across some amazingly skilled and masterful veteran bodyworkers, masseurs and masseuses with no training in internal energy who work purely on a physical-corporeal level who do great work and are in good health. Pressure on, pressure off; press here, circle there, knead over there. Doing healing work is a serious matter--whether you're an M.D., O.M.D., herbalist, masseur, or energy healer. And it's something that one has to have a calling for. That is, one needs to be "called" to do healing work...the same way that one has to be "called" to become a priest or a minister or a guru. It is not a field of endeavor where one can "call" oneself. Doing so never works out well because nothing healthy nor helpful can be built up on a foundation of self-deception, false pride and hypocrisy--as the exposed televangelists of the 1980's (Bakker, Swaggart, etc.) and the Catholic Church over the past decade have so dramatically demonstrated. Most Chinese traditions of martial arts and healing arts are so rigorous, deep, balanced and normally self-regulated that by the time one masters a martial art system, one normally has also acquired an effective holistic, energy healing system and working knowledge of Chinese herbs as well. As a student, one of course learns healing by doing; along the path of martial training, all sorts of tests of healing and self-healing naturally arise and are put to the student by the master. When the training is completed, the healing knowledge normally "begs" to be exercised and to be put to use. The comprehension forces its way out of oneself and manifests in practice. Hopefully, the master will exercise it in a productive, compassionate and responsible manner. But how long effectively and cleanly the knowledge is transmitted is a function of the master's character, self-discipline, and respect for his system's ancenstral tradition, for there are a million temptations for a master to abuse the temporal power given to a master by his followers. Thanks for the suggestion to read "Joy's Way". I'll take a look at it when I have the time. Doing most of my fundamental training in healing from the mid-70's through the mid-80's (when New Age and old age cults were rampant and doing all kinds of damage), I can sort out worthwhile material from dross. Glad the info regarding the martial/healing aspects of Tao Tan Pai and the strictly healing function of the FP Qigong has helped to fill in some blanks. Best Regards, Sifu Terry

Hello Biff, Thank you for your compliment about contributing openly to readers here and how I come across. Sorry for taking a few days to reply (I'm having a very busy and rough week with business). But I wanted to get back to you with answers to your questions. They are good ones that will help others on this thread. 1) Effects of having "built a reserve of heavenly energy" (through the Flying Phoenix practice): Yes, people take notice of your FP energy because the aura "precedes" one. From the time that I first learned the FP Celestial Healing Chi Meditations from GMDW in the early 1990's, everytime I completed a practice session, whenever I would go out into public (e.g., to a restaurant), people are immediately affected by the FP energy and would instantly look at me. After my Wed. evening FP Qigong classes, which are 2 hrs. long, all my students report the same thing when they go into the public afterwards. People stare at them in the face. 2) "Like attracts like" -- this law of attraction is true on many levels--mental, emotional and spiritual. How one concentrates one’s thoughts and mental energies, what type of emotions one emanates, and the nature of one’s spirit all determine what a person “attracts.” On the most basic level, humans attract and manifest things and people in their lives through their subconscious script or programming. The mind is a goal-machine, and depending on how effectively one sets or programs one’s goals (through whatever method that works) different people attain their mental goals to varying degrees.. Practicing the FP Qigong without fail cultivates the distinctive, tangible FP heavenly healing energy in everyone. And without fail will improve one's health. That is an absolute—in a world that’s very short on procedures with absolute outcomes. But depending on a beginner’s actions, lifestyle, and the forces (beneficial or destructive) that one exposes onself to, the FP energy can be quickly used up or squandered or it can be preserved and increased. The practitioner's state of mind, emotional state, ego structure and spiritual awareness (or lack of) can either further the FP cultivation to improve one's health and enhance one's healing powers, or do the absolute minimum of maintaining one's health at least for the duration of the practice. Over the years I have had some students who--in all honestly--are so dense and deep with body armor tied to such extreme egotism that they claim never to feel the benefits of FP practice, yet I can see that the FP energy is transforming them all the while. (Whereas most students who do the FP qigong take to its energy like a child to cotton candy.) 3) “ If a student has reached a high proficiency and is able to project healing energy, do you feel additional training is required to supplement the regular treating of patients?” Answer: Yes. There is a range of basic fundamentals to very advanced methods in healing with FP energy that requires training. A yogic prodigy—we’re talking a real avatar here-- might be able to quickly intuit or “grok” where the FP healing energy and art comes from, and quickly understand how the FP Energy works on all levels. But that is an extreme rarity. 4) With many Chinese traditions, doing healing work is an integral part of the Qigong and kung-fu practice, especially if one is working on seriously injured and diseased people full-time, like 6 to 8 people or more a day. Then your entire background—not just the Qigong training, but one’s kung-fu training and spiritual practices all come into play. The Reiki phenomenon is one of those things where it all depends on the healer (and his/her power of intention)—not so much the method. I have not been impressed with what I’ve seen of the Reiki method in California and I’ve seen it since its heyday in this country around the late 80’s when everyone was talking “Reiki, Reiki, Reiki.” I believe the sensitive Buddhist monk in Japan who created Reiki method way back in the 20’s or whenever was a talented and powerful spiritual healer. Originally a monastic tradition, Reiki might be a movement where today only the highest initiates of that Buddhist tradition (if it still exists) have authentic healing power and can heal at a distance, etc. as they profess they can do. So I wouldn’t discount the system wholesale. But being 80 years and an ocean removed from the originator of Reiki, what I have seen of Reiki (and what I just read online about it again) by my standards doesn’t qualify it as a complete healing system because among other things, it is missing a qigong engine. And in my orthodox view, I don’t believe that Reiki is that strong healing system because it is missing a martial art complement on the “flip side” to ground the healing art—as in the Chinese monastic traditions. (throughout the cult-infected 1980's, I saw hordes of "wounded healers" of all stripes at work, not having much effect at all for all those years within various communities--other than slow drainage) ***Again of course, if the Buddhist spiritualism that enveloped the founder of Reiki has been passed down and is still operative—i.e., there are practitioners who know how to tap into that spiritual healing channel used by the founder of Reiki, then it doesn’t need to have martial art complement.*** Bottom line: If you are accomplished in a complete (i.e., holistic) Chinese martial art, you are going to be that much more powerful a healer. The Chinese tradition has always been “healer by day/martial artist-teacher by night”. Compare Reiki training to Master Share K. Lew’s Tao Tan Pai (Taoinst Elixir Method), a Tang Dynastsy monastic tradition where after one is first trained in the TTP Kung-Fu for several years (mastering 5 animal forms, etc. and becoming able to fight) before one learns the TTP Basic 31 Exercises and Tui-Na Acupressure (a system comprised of 13 strokes and their combinations—which can be taught over one weekend—but has to be applied and practiced for years). And then after that one learns the more advanced TTP nei-gung arts to be able to reckon with stronger malevolent energies and spirits. But basic TTP Kung-Fu for 4-5 years, the TTP-31, and Tui-Na Acupressure will make anyone a fully competent energy healer. Same can be said about GMDW’s White Tiger tradition. Training in FP Qigong, the BFP Kung-fu, and GMDW’s vast pharmacopia will make anyone a thoroughly competent healer. (I’m not familiar with Ya Mau but will take a look). Are the breath percentages activating different variants or vibrations of energy from the subconscious? (And FP healing energy is the combination of these energies) or is each movement and breath percentage just a different circulation to open specific channels and build/circulate those paths? (I would assume both). No. The breath percentages don’t activate anything from the subconscious; “vibrations of energy” do not come from the subconscious. The FP Energy is a distinct singular energy that's upheld by the exercises. The FP Energy, as far as I can tell, is not a combination of "other" energies. Each FP Meditation with its unique posture and movements circulates the FP Energy throughout different parts of the body. Regarding BFP energy. In your experience would you say that six months daily dedicated practice is enough to build a full reserve of specific energy be it healing or ging? This is somewhat important as there are so many meditations. I would assume one reserve must be filled and then the next type of energy can be worked on. The answer to question two may affect this. 6 months of daily FP practice covering all the basic meditations is enough to create a reserve of the FP healing energy. But of course, one full year is all that much better and effective. But then again, it depends on each practitioner's state of health, lifestyle, and purpose in life. I cannot answer your question with regards to cultivating the ging or martial energy because there are so many levels and different types arts in the BFP system. It varies from system to system. But I must say, and Sifu Garry Hearfield might chime in on this to agree or disagree, that all of the internal meditations in the BFP system are relatively fast-acting compared to the internal methods of other Chinese martial arts. It’s also an unanswerable question because it depends how much kung-fu background the practitioner has going into the internal practice. Case and Point: Sifu Garry Hearfield, because of his certified mastery of Yau Kung Mun before he started BFP with GM Doo Wai, was able to accomplish high internal cultivation in less than 4 years--what most others would take 12 to 15 years to accomplish. And he demonstrates BFP and Ehrmei Bak Mei better than any student of GMDW who started after I started my training--but before Sifu Hearfield started his! A fighter or healer regularly engaged and using reserves may require a ‘refill’ more often. Another consideration is that the ‘first level’ adapts the practitioner to a certain level and frequency of energy. Each level builds more and so previous levels or meditations are no longer required so in the end there is no need to practice hundreds of meditations a day. Your first sentence is true unless the practitioner has fully mastered the FP or BFP internal system. Then there is no “refilling” because there is no depletion. Everything--every exercise in the FP Qigong system and the BFP internal arts--is essential. It is all there for a reason. How you design your practice day to day is up to you. Your last sentence is true--depending on the quality of one's practice. Lastly, with healing ability sometimes comes a deeper level of intuition. The ability to read a person and their energy in order to properly diagnose etc. Have you noticed anything like this? and does it expand in other areas of your life? Knowledge of energy through healing work starts as intuitive but becomes as deductive as clockwork. “Intuition” merges with a form of literally “seeing” with more experience. And yes, one’s intuition—what I call “structural sensitivity”—increases to the point where one can diagnose a person remotely at a great distance. (In fact, this remote diagnosis as well as remote healing is often much easier than having the person in front of you because you’re not distracted by the persons “tonal”--clothes, attitude, emotions, etc.) I wanted to add an additional note regarding 'self defence' and get your thoughts on it. If one is overflowing with heavenly healing energy in abundance and is able to easily project it to others, it stands to reason that the energy can be used in self defense. More specifically in altering emotionally charged situations involving anger/rage etc. Your reasoning is off here--and is detached from experience and practice of the Flying Phoenix Qigong. Repeat: the FP energy cannot be used for self-defense if you are in a fight. You need to use martial art and instantly apply martial energy or else you will get your clock cleaned. In other systems like Tao Tan Pai, one can quickly switch one’s energy from healing to martial with the flick of one’s intentionality. But in the FP system, one cannot transform its specific healing energy into a martial one—no matter who you are. Practice the FP Qigong system a bit, and then try to do martial art with the FP energy-- and you see the folly of your question--due solely to lack of experience. There are various martial qigong methods in the BFP system that cultivate many types of energy different than the FP energy. The tangibly light and visibly blue FP energy is strictly a healing energy. One cannot use it for other purposes—without bizarre consequences. Altering or diffusing a charged situation that’s heading towards--or is on the cusp of--violence depends on the strength of one’s own spirit, one’s clarity in reading the situation, one’s facility in verbal and emotional “judo,” and absolute confidence in one's martial skill (kung-fu) as back-up. By virtue of greater experience and better training, the "diffuser" has the situation under control and the antagonist already defeated, for he has total and accurate knowledge of what he can do, and total, accurate and instantaneous awareness of what the antagonist CANNOT do. (Hence the most-often quoted passage from Sun-Tzu's "Art of War.") It also depends on the physical and spiritual strength of the antagonist, and his will and capacity to destroy. A very strong and crazed antagonist will instantly elicit the "fight or flight" response (kick in the release of adrenalin) in everyone except the most experienced of masters. And to use a more extreme example, if the antagonist is demonically possessed (and I have indeed encountered two in my life), one needs perfect shen, a purified spirit and a higher protective spiritual force to deal with it --not a reserve of FP energy. Would you agree that the FP energy can be mood altering to the recipient? Only if the recipient is oneself. If you, Biff, project or infuse another person with the FP energy, there is no certainty that it will affect his/her mood in any way. If so, I'm sure you can see what I mean by self defense. The art of fighting without fighting.. lol. Rather then hit an attacker with ging and mess them up, balance could be restored and their excess emotion diffused by the FP energy. Pretty high level. An advanced practitioner could potentially control anxiety, fear etc. What are your thoughts on this? do I have it all wrong? Very wrong. You are extrapolating and conjecturing here without grounding in experience. Practice the FP Qigong, do healing with it for about a year, and you will answer these questions for yourself. When you are working with the Flying Phoenix Heavenly Healing Energy, no thought of violence or conflict can possibly enter your consciousness. But since you asked for my feedback on your conjecture: Projecting FP healing energy to a patient or subject who is open and receptive is one thing; trying to project FP healing energy in a conflict situation to a heated, angry assailant doing violence will probably put you in the hospital or the morgue. The diffusion of intense, free-floating anger and hatred in a conflict situation with a healing energy like FP that you mention requires the highest level of consciousness and spiritual development, and only a consummate warrior or a sage-saint can pull it off. Even then, a saintly warrior-sage with crystal-clear perception may not choose to diffuse a situation with healing energy; it depends on the timing, distance, speed, and power of the physical attack, the assailant's intentions (whether they are deadly or not), and what emotional, psychic, and/or spiritual energy is driving or possessing him to attack. But ultimately, it all boils down to the clarity and predilection of the warrior. There are some people who need to be saved, and there are some people who need to be killed. --And I will qualify a warrior's conscious decision to kill as being absolutely necessary in a life-or-death situation to preserve one's life through self-defense, or to follow the maxim, "Do that which causes the least pain" in order to save innocent others from death or permanent catastrophic injury. And in case anyone out there has forgotten: in the Chinese martial art tradition, "doing that which causes the least pain" is effected by applying the Shaolin Creed: "Avoid rather than check, check rather than hurt, hurt rather than maim, Maim rather than kill. For all life is precious, Nor can any life ever be replaced--even that of the meanest creature." --and other similar teachings. The Art of fighting without fighting is using one’s shen (spiritual awareness) to avoid unnecessary conflicts and dangerous situations that can reverse or possibly end your path of growth and learning. Unless you have mastered FIGHTING, it’s useless to speculate about “fighting without fighting.” Thanks for your questions. Sifu Terry Dunn

Hi Bill and Everyone: To clear up some common inappropriate habits that people bring to the Flying Phoenix practice from their practice of other qigong methods, this is recent Q&A I had with Andy Roth from San Diego (who has experience in Tao Tao Pai) regarding synchronization of breathing and movement in Flying Phoenix practice: Terry, Hope all is well with you. All the warm up exercises have inhale up exhale down breathing tongue curled. Does that include the last three movements that are in Bending the Bows? You had stated that Bending the Bow is free breathing except for the three starting, breathing pattern and the 3 ending breathes. I was not sure if that applied to the last three warm up movements as well. How many repetitions are done of each warm up exercise? I have been doing 3 or 4 or each. Thanks Andy Roth Reply terry dunn to AndyRoth show details Aug 24 (2 days ago) Hi Andy, Things are going well. I hope you're having a good summer. Answers: (a) No. None of the movements in Bending the Bows or in any Flying Phoenix exercise are synchronized with "inhale up and exhale down"; you breath as relaxed as possible and move as slowly as possible. But you do NOT consciously try to coordinate an upward movement with an inhalation or a downward sinking movement with one exhalation. You should be taking 12 deep breathes to slowly raise the arms to throat level or eye level and the same number of breaths to lower the arms to hip level. ( It doesn't matter how many times you do the warm-ups on the CKFH dvd's. The more repetitions, the better. But for lack of time, you can skip the warm-ups and jump straight into the FP Meditations. They are extraordinarily relaxing in and of themselves. Best, Sifu Terry Thanks. A bit confused. The DVD states breathing in the warm up. Inhale up exhale down. I do not have it to view at this moment to check, I am at work, but I am rather sure that is indicated in the few warm ups. - Show quoted text - Reply Forward Reply terry dunn to Andy show details 3:10 PM (22 hours ago) Yes, the warm-up exercises have the synchronization if inhale rise/exhale lower. That's almost universal feature in kung-fu and tai chi forms. But the warm-ups are not part of the Flying Phoenix tradition. They are qigong warm-ups from other unrelated internal martial arts that I added to the start of each program to enable the student to do the FP better. But everything else on the DVD's with the breath control sequences is authentic Flying Phoenix Qigong. Hint: for lack of time, skip the warm-ups and just do the FP meditations. Best, Sifu Terry Sifu, OK now it makes sense. Once I get my wife doing all 5 we will come up and see you for corrections. How long should one do all the standing before going to the seated? I am now doing the standing 5 times a week for 5-8 minutes each. Andy Andy, 5-8 minutes for each of the FP standing meds is fine. But stretching practice of each out to 15+ minutes is even better to establish them. --But I realize that everyone has time constraints. Practicing 5 times a week is a nice solid schedule. But if you squeeze in even just 10-15 minutes of total practice on the other 2 days, you may notice the boost in benefits. Best, Sifu Terry Dunn

Yes, it's a small world when it comes to genuine kung-fu masters. I'm glad to hear your daughter's wedding had the extra blessings invoked by Master Chan's Wah Lum Temple lion dance. btw, an old friend and classmate, Albert Leong (very recognizable stuntman and actor doing Chinese villain roles...long hair, fu manchu moustache--torturing Mel Gibson with the car battery in "Lethal Weapon 1") was actually one of the greatest lion dancers that I have ever known. He was so strong and animate that the lion (dragon) seemed real when Al would act out the mini-plots of the lion dance.