ridingtheox

I have completed 2 readings , one verse per day of this book. It has contributed to my qi gong practice as each verse has a section on the qi qong 'interpretation'. Other translations of DDJ may be more poetic or literary ( Taoistic.com by Stepan Stenrudd ), but the linking of these two approaches to Tao is quite appropriate. I am left with wondering about Yang Jwing Minh and embryonic breathing. I think I am experiencing it as the cellular respiration 'qi'. But it may take some time to let that settle in. worth the read imo

ZZ is an important part of my teaching tjq and qc we begin class every day w ZZ and return to ZZ to close ... the absolute, before the beginning essential as breath as heart beat ... from time to time I personally do standing for up to 20 min and very occasionally 45 to 1 hour .. peace to all beings hold all being in the Light

I am certainly in favor of incorporating ZZ in health practice. I have done TCC since 1976. Ba Duan Jin since 1981 and Flying PHoenix since 2011. In my own class we start and end w ZZ as I was taught in first classes of TCC. My experience is that these are very complementary practices. There is a part of spirit and health that movement seems to move activate and accumulate qi more that the pure ZZ. However, incorporating periods of ZZ which are not always of the same duration or frequency, adds significantly to my sense of spiritual growth and to the intensity of feeling qi in the practices which involve movement. The twin cores of practice are TCC which i teach and FLying Phoenix standing long form .... the capstone exercise of the family of FP qi gong according to Sifu Terry Dunn and which i experience to be true. At the heart of all these practices is the breath. Attention to breath in all exercises is fundamental to progress. Awareness of both the external breathing rhythm and frequency per unit time should provide energy and health benefits. And awareness of the internal whole body breath.. that is the cellular level of respiration leads to deeper benefits. Over the years my breath rate durring practice has become slower even in intense practice 2 breaths per minute is common. My heart rate has slowed from the mid 70's relaxed to mid 50's. So my summary is ZZ is an important part of practice for me sometimes one hour per session tho most often half hour total for a 90 min gong. And periods of shorter duration varying over weeks or months. peace and good practice to all beings ridingtheox

interesting thread too bad it seems inactive ... ZZ has been an important part of my practice for at least 30 years with one rather extended gap '96 - 09/10. I do 5 min. everyday 5 min of each of 5 postures 2x weekly, and occasionally a 30+ min of one of the postures.super energizing mostly peace

another welcome to this site ... it is a good place to find encouragement for your practice ... especially when you hit slow periods (which you will). My sense is persistence in practice is the key to progress for some people a real live group is helpful, but you can do this on your own mostly. For me i started TCC and various groups have contributed to my experience including Sifu Dunn most recently good luck in your qi gong peace charlie

kind of interesting exchange when does qi begin? when is it gong? where does it go? sorry this thread sort of dried up ... see you at flying phoenix continuing discussion maybe ...

hello scientist, my back ground includes chemistry, (BS) Forest Ecology (MSF) and Forest Biometrics (PhD) so I think of myself as a 'scientist' including the skepticism that implies. I have done Tai ji for long time and Flying Phoenix qi gong for 4 years now. I hope you find the energy and stillness your journey will certainly lead you into ... the path you are hoping for. I do FP almost daily especially the long form disk 4 .. I also do the Standing Still fairly regularly. I find the two practices quite complementary. They open many doors. Sifu Dunn has a real reputation among students on this forum, for caring and teaching. You have begun a great step into the universe ... peace

moonnight: My friend calls it eating alien food, because being a vegetarian causes one's consciousness to rise. Often times eating meat will carry the instincts of the animal into the human, so thoughts like lust and anger will form. sorry this sort of anthopomorphic thought making animal instincts somehow not acceptible or worse is so ego-centric it blinds us to the broad truth that all of life is sacred and needs to be respected. Peace to all being

meat: i have been a small cooperative rancher, raising free range beef no steroid feed mostly grass and browse fed. I have read a bit about it and feel I am quite justified in saying our beef is good for you. It is not easy to find small owner rancher who hope to have a quality safe and drug free product for sale, but not impossible! I hope to handle our cows and steers with respect and consider them partners in life. They play an important role in helping us to manage land so as not to over graze or simply extract all we can from the land in the short run. to I eat our beef, but not to exclusion or in my opinion excess. It is not always easy to rationalize this position, but I have no doubt that I have given extensive time and meditation to the position I take regarding food. Peace

good day practice 13th Sat early morning Long Form standing Dao yin yangsheng gong evening in addtion late night 12th i did 45 min standing Zhan Zhong ... rotating thru 5 postures and finally some single finger standing 5 individual and the one triple warmer total 53 min not so good today busy packing and hosting quaker meeting now i will try long form at easy rhythm speed hopefully right side and left side practice it has been a month since i did two R and L

I did complete the Big sleep night of the 10th 11th Dec 5:30 am long form 24 min 90 60 .... 9 am TCC long form teaching 5 pm Daoyin yang sheng gong 15 min ( i also did some cloud hands practice and a 30 min of Hearfield's Tibetan fire? palm ) 12th 5:30 am FPCH long form 90 60 ... not timed .. 9:00 TCC long form teaching I will have a long day's drive to Redlands 450 mi on Monday which will mean a light day re: practice lv Tucson 5 am ... trying to imagine getting in practice that day