WallaMike

Hello ejr1069:

I think you are correct. I think your nervous system is not ready for all this energy. There is a good book to read about this (actually several, but this I finished this one just last week), called Unmasking the Rose by Dorothy Waters. Her book covers about a decade or two, so it was interesting to follow her progress and perhaps you can get some ideas out of it. Eventually she gets over it,it just took a while.

However, I think it is very common to have an experience like yours, since it is like running through too much current through a motor: it overheats and causes damage. I had a Kundalini experience many years ago while in school and about a week later I was taking a test and I was really drilling down to squeeze that last answer out of my brain, when I had this hot flash that practically threw me out of my chair. Since then, everytime I concentrated too hard, I got these hot flashes, so I had to learn a new way to get information out of my brain. My grades suffered...bummer!

Another interesting book is by Franklin Merrell Wolff, Pathways Through to Space. He describes how if he stayed connected to "the Current" too long, when he stops, he feels deflated and like he's been sick a long time. Actually, related to my comment above about hot flashes, Franklin also warns not to "push into this too hard with the mind" if you're not ready, as it could cause bad side effects. I think I was not ready. Still probably not ready. Sigh.

By the way, do you have any information about energy movement during the Zhan Zhuan style Qigong you practice? While I'm referring to written material, any of your experiences would also be interesting and helpful to me.

Thanks,

WallaMike

Devoid:

Thanks for your helpful reply. Once I start a program, I tend to do it intensively for months or longer. However, since in the past I've wasted oh so much time and just burned myself out doing mindless (in a non-Tao way) stuff, I'm now more careful in what I elect to do. So this time I'm trying to get some input so I don't go riding off in all directions at once! Plus, I tend to be fairly concrete and don't have good intuitive ideas yet in dealing with this area, while I think many people who do this are much more tuned in than I am. Thus, when I'm only taught the physical part of a qigong movement, I can do it, but I just don't get any energetic response from it, usually. But if I'm taught the specifics of what's going on at the subtle level, I can attend to that particular aspect and get biofeedback rather than just getting overwhelmed and guessing. My mind is way too fertile.

Your advice re doing the same thing for 100 days sounds good, so I will apply it to whatever I set up.

Yours,

WallaMike

I joined the Tao Bums group today after searching exhaustively on the internet for anything that discussed qi or energy circulation during standing meditation, but could not find much. While doing my searching, I noted most of the discussions here on this forum were thoughtful, generally helpful, and rarely was there the bashing or dis-ing I see in most websites. So, I thought hey, why not join and see if these members could help me with this?

I read a previous discussion in this forum where the member noted that just standing and being mindful or aware is all that is needed. While I understand this, it hasn't worked for me, since I get pain in my shoulder and trapezius muscles after a few minutes. This improved over a few months, but still nothing energetic going on. Unless I do something with my intent, I seem to be a person that unconsciously suppresses energy movement. Thus, the only way I've ever been able to do any qi work or get qi movement is though using my intent to move energy around.

Last week, by doing some subtle movements (rocking slowly on and off the front of my feet/bubbling wellspring area), I was able to feel some energy moving up my legs and torso and this helped relieve some of my upper back and shoulder pain so I could stand a lot longer and I felt a lot better when done. I still felt better several days later, so I said, "Hey, I need to check into this more!"

Based upon this, I've been searching for more information in books and DVD's about energy movement patterns during standing meditation, but no luck. I ordered Mantak Chia's DVD on standing meditation, since apparently he discusses the microcosmic orbit related to this, but I haven't gotten it yet.

I also got Ken Cohen's DVD's on developing Qi, but this was mostly just a physical description. I haven't yet finished my Spring Forest Qigong Course I yet and I like what I see, but so far it seems to be a moving, not standing qigong. I've also read a number of recommended books, like The Way of Energy, Empty Force, Qigong Empowerment, etc, but still can't find but a sentence or two here and there about qi flow during standing meditation. I just bought the book on Dragonfly Qigong hoping that will help, as appareently he talks about energy flow along meridians in the book, but I'm not hopeful.

So, does anyone have any other suggestions about where I might find this information?

Thanks,

WallaMike