Kenzen

Thank you Drew and Lydian! Very quick replies I will not try to force the breathing next time. Hopefully it will become more natural eventually. I will also check out the SFQ discussion board. Thanks for informing me about that Drew. I havent done the small universe meditation yet but I think I will try tonight.

I recently started the active exercises and I was wondering about the breathing. In the beginning excercise Master Li says to take a deep breath, while inhaling pull the stomach in a little and while exhaling push the stomach out. Is this kind of breathing done in all of the active exercises? I tried it last night and I found I was focusing on getting the breathing right instead of energy moving. This kind of breathing feels unnatural to me, since I've been taught to do the oppostite while meditating. Also, I practice zazen sitting meditation and occasionly pure land meditation(reciting the buddha's name). Can this type of sitting mediation replace the small universe meditation? If not, is it ok to mix? Excuse my noobness

Hello, I've been a long time lurker to the forum and I have a few questions about qigong that I will ask in the discussion thread, but first the introduction I've been interested in Taoism for several years but never really pursued it besides reading some books. I did pursue Ch'an/Zen Buddhism and I think this is the path for me. I have also been interested in qigong for awhile but never started partly due to some of the horror stories I've heard. Also several people have told me not to learn from video and I haven't found a teacher that I would feel comfortable with, yet. Anywho, so a friend of mine let me borrow his Spring Forest Qigong set and I just have some queations reagarding that and qigong in general. I will post those in the discussion thread. Thanks