bamboo

Thanx TTB that would seem to be the recurring theme. I'm doing allright with Jenny Lamb's yigong, so i'll sit tight.

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Okay, thanks for the heads up. Who provides good, reasonably priced instructions of Dragon Gate energy work? Of the DG lot i've contacted here, practically no one has responded. Is there a practice group here in the uk?

Hey, According to my understanding Acne in TCM is regarded as damp heat. So if you can get rid of the dampness that's a good start. About six years ago i got a dose of real bad acne on the back. I tried western conventional medicine for it, for too long, man that stuff was useless. Tablets, topical gels....nothing! Then i bought a book on Chinese nutritional therapy, following the advice in the book the acne was gone in no time. Dampness slows down the circulation of chi, which in turn creates heat, kind of like a frictional force. So try to avoid dampness producing foods. The big ones are dairy [milk, yogurt etc], excess meat, junk food, and refined sugars [chocolate bars, sodas, all sweets]. It is the Spleens job to transform the food and drink we eat, so depending on the strength of it you may want to avoid excess cold foods [cold drinks, salads, too much raw food], these hamper the functioning of a weakened spleen system. Here's the book i used http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Nutrition-Therapy-Traditional-Complementary/dp/3131309628/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299897796&sr=1-1 Hope this helps

That would be like someone saying that i am a reincarnation of Mick Jagger According to what i've heard Shakymuni Buddha gave a behest to four of his great disciples to remain in the world. All of them kept their physical form and stayed in the world to teach. They were Kundupada, the venerable Pindola, the Buddha's son Rahula, and the venerable Mahakashyapa. Now you get the Jagger joke.

No problem Audio. But i would suggest that if you want to see which one resonates best with you, then run them separately for a period of time. Otherwise one may color the experience of the other. Then you won't be getting an acurate representation of either of them. Just my humble opinion.

Isn't this the same Audio with the question about Kunlun? And now you're running FP as well. Let me give you some advice, i had to learn the hard way. Don't mix your words...Don't mix your drinks....and NEVER mix your qigong, unless you know they're compatable, or your name is Wang Liping. That said, i practiced a form a while ago that required sitting in either full or half lotus neither of which i can do. But by sitting in quater lotus i got great results anyway. Quater lotus is bringing one of your feet up and tucking it in the crack between the calf and thigh, instead of HL, which is pulling your foot all the way up onto your thigh. QL is still a very stable posture, and supports the back and keeps it erect without effort. I think one reason for sitting in either HL or FL when doing sitting chigong/neigong, is because it increases the chi circulation in the torso, increasing the efficacy of the exercise. But as i don't practice FP, maybe someone else can jump in and give you some advice. Quarter lotus link http://www.zencenterofdenver.org/GettingStarted/zazeninstructions.html

Hey Audio, I've just started using the spontaneous exercise too, but Jenny Lamb's version [that's who max got it from]. On Jenny's dvd before she does the spontaneous sitting posture she does 10 warm-up exercises. Personally i use my own ones, but the difference it makes is HUGE. Basically if you stetch and loosen up you create a much more conducive environment for the chi to start moving and opening up the channels. Stretching and or self massage, arms, torso and legs will all increase the chi circulation and help kick things off. Although i've got no spontaneous movements yet, the warmth/bliss arose the first time i did the exercise. It's all just a matter a prep.

I've only just started the yigong, less than a week in. I practice in the morning, somewhere between 3:30 and 6:00am, then again in the afternoon around 3ish. I have tried it in the evening as well, but i think it might be too early dayz for spontaneous movements yet. Getting good strong chi sensations though.

Hey neichuan, the cordyceps that is mass produced for use in chinese medicine and available on the internet is grown under artificial conditions, no insects are harmed in it's manufacture. The wild harvested stuff in lazy's link is crazy expensive, 1 kilogram of wild-harvested Cordyceps costs about $250000 ...ouch No wonder those kids were skipping school to go find the stuff...there's gold in them hills

Yeah, i got the yigong jenny lamb spontaneous dvd. That's a good exercise, no spontaneous movements yet for me though. Just nice warm feeling building, and chi moving up the governing vessel into the head. I found a video on youtube of trauma release exercise 3 you where talking about, sorry about the disturbing polar bear footage at the begining. And Dr David Berceli explaining the TRE system: Thanx sean, interesting stuff

At the beginning of the path, little and often is best. Better to sit 20 minutes three times a day, than one block of an hour. A friend of mine in China used to sit four hours at a stretch, but he told me somewhere in the middle he used to get real drowsey. In the Lamrim Chenmo [stages of the path to enlightenment] by Lama Tsongkapa it says regarding the length of the meditation session, 'You have to do numerous short sessions. Some say that if you meditate in brief sessions and stop when it's going well, you will still be eager to meditate at the end of each session, while if the session is long, you will become weary. Others explain that if the session is long, it is easy to fall under the sway of oblivion and scattering, so it is hard to develop flawless concentration.' Kamalasila bodhisattva recommends 24 minutes as a good length for short sessions.

@onelove Okay, fair enough. I only have the yigong dvd, i don't know about Jenny Lamb's teachings. I just wanted to point out to Long yun the purpose of the 100 days, as it pertains to cultivation practice. Take care

@onelove In cultivation practice celibacy is an absolute requirement. In taoism it goes by the name non-leakage, bramacarya to the yogis, discipline in buddhism, celibacy in christianity. All traditions have it, because without it, you'll be spinning your wheels going nowhere. Qigong is part of the cultivation practice of the taoists. As such, it is their method of opening the channels, and speeding up the process of transforming the body in order to aid their cultivation. The yogis have yoga. The tibetans have trulkhor [and other things]. These are practices they use to help at the stage of intensified practice, for transforming the physical body, in conjuction with celibacy. This is not rigid dogma. Anytime you have these type of guidlines in cultivation systems, it is to point out the dangers along the road. If people are practicing energy exercises as part of an ordinary life, while giving free rein to their desires, then they are using these tools totally out of context, and possibly doing themselves great harm. These exercises are part of the spiritual path, and need to be carried out within certain peramiters. If you lose your jing, it's hard to make progress. No jing means no chi. No chi means no chi channels opening, and thus no chi to shen transformations and samadhi states. In other words, no water in the boiler, no steam in the pipes. This is cultivation 101. Ignore this rule and you get no progress.

Hey Long yun, I've got Jenny Lamb's yigong dvd, no mention of the 100 days on it though. Sunya wrote a review on here about his yigong seminar with jenny and someone asked him whether jenny mentioned the 100 days, and he said she didn't. The 100 days is for the initial transformation of jing to chi though. So if that's what you're shooting for, then you gotta do it. Also if you loose your jing, then you loose your chi. Then it's a case of no water in the boiler, no steam in the pipes, and you got nothing to work with when you do yigong The other purpose of the 100 days is to purify the energy channels. As the Hatha Yoga Pradipika of Indian yoga says: 'The yogi who has perfected himself in the yamas [the first stage of the yogic path] will purify his nadis [chi channels] in three months [of meditative practice].' During the 100 days you don't even think about sex [sexual desire], even thoughts stir up the jing and interfere with the transformations. Need i say anything about physical expresions of desire. As Master Nan Huaijin says, 'when desire arises all the elements go into motion, and are all sustaining damage equally.'

Hey all, I'm considering whether to change my qigong practice from the current exercises over to Sifu Jenny Lamb's yigong system. I've had a couple of false starts, switching then switching back. It's always very disruptive changing your system of regulating your chi. Bodri says conciousness rides on the chi [at low levels], so when i change up my chi exerciese i feel totally homeless, not myself at all So i figured i would ask the taobum elders, as to the best and safest ways to go about changing ones chi regulating exercises. Any advice?

I just did....I would say it is very good for the health of your spine, and body conditioning, and does balance your chi. It isn't very energetic though.

I practiced nothing but YMAA qigong for my first six years of training. Siji gong - four season qigong Baduanjin - 8 pieces of brocade Taiji qigong Classical Yang taiji White crane soft qigong Five animals qigong I would say it is very good for your spine, and body conditioning, and does balance your chi. It isn't very energetic though, it's not like Spring forest or yigong.

The purpose of my using energy exercises is basically summed up by Bodri: 'When you want to cultivate, you want to reach samadhi. You cannot reach samadhi unless your chi mai all open. So, many methods have the purpose of helping you clear your chi channels so that you can enter into samadhi.' So i need exercises that work on all the channels of the body. I was under the impression that jenny lamb's yigong system caused the chi to mobilize and clear the channels, that's why i was looking to switch to that one. I asked jenny lamb if her yigong system was compatable with my Buddhist practices, she said it was. I'm pretty sure she's a buddhist herself.

This is something worth paying attention to as well. The relationship between sexual life and kidney essence/chi. This following bit is taken from Maciocia Foundation of Chinese Medicine: 'The sexual essences of both men and women are outwards manifestation of the kidney essence. For this reason, the loss of these sexual essences leads to a temporary loss of kidney essence. Under normal circumstances, however, this loss is quickly made up, and normal sexual activity does not lead to disease. It is only when it is excessive that the loss of essence caused by sex is such that the body does not have time to recuperate and restore the essence. Quite simply, excessive sexual activity results in marked fatigue, dizziness, blured vision, a lower backache, weak knees, and frequent urination afterwards.' Here's a couple of tables, based on you age and health for the frequency of ejaculation: Age In good health Average health 15 2x/day once/day 20 2x/day once/day 30 once/day every other day 40 every 3 days every 4 days 50 every 5 days every 10 days Sorry the table went crazy as soon as i posted it. So for age 15 2x/day in good health, average health once/day, and so on Another broad rule regarding frequency of sexual activity [somewhat less generous than the one above] is to divide your age by 5 to work out the interval in days between Age Interval in days 15 once every 3 days 20 once every 4 days 30 once every 6 days and so on...........

You practicing any other qigong, besides these two? Personally, speaking from my own experiance, i really wouldn't mix things with the falun stuff. See the falun system sets up a very specific chi flow [exercise 4], this flow continues even after you have finished the exercises. Every time you do the exercises it reinforces that energy current, after a while it becomes like a large belt of energy following the river chariot rotation [up the back down the front, then into the legs]. Practically any other qigong exercise you practice will then disrupt this energy belt. Then you don't get the benefit of the falun exercise, and you may even cause some unwanted chi reactions. That's my humble opinion on the matter

A word of caution to you non. The Falun exercises are the most incompatable i have tried. That is to say, you cannot be training any other qigong apart from the Falun or you will get nasty side effects. You will also not be getting the full effect of the Falun exercises. As another taobum told me, if you run two trains going opposite directions on the same track.....

In TCM Kidney chi deficiency manifests as pain or weakness of the lower back and knees. The kidneys are represented as water in the chinese five element scheme. Sounds to me like kidney chi deficiency. What ya think taobums? As for what you can do about it, i would suggest qigong to be your best bet. Really good for balancing the energys of the internal organs. There's many different types out there, choose wisely