ridingtheox

I read Wing's Tao de Ching early this morning, #53, had not been visiting TdC for a while ... stay on the path don't get distracted by by ways It had a resonance for me regarding our cultural divide. Today is 63 on my path to 108 Long form FP meditation. An emerging break through is the dropping away of monkey mind and feeling of centered breath. There is also an increasing sense of rootedness and flow of qi in both long and short wave vibrations. quite often I feel as if I have an 'electric bracelet' on my right wrist. and continuing opening of bai hui. at this stage I am feeling very much like this IS my current path ... don't get distracted! Happy New Year all beings Hoa Binh

yes the delay, lag time for doing these sleep/wake exercises is a noteable / awareness issue to be present . thanks for the reminder ...

day 53 doing some back to back mirror normal form also performing mirror while watching Sifu Dunn youtube videos of the long form. getting good physical pheed back (heh heh) found this on youtube has what I think is thoughtful 'western' science interpretation of broad qi gong exercise value which i interpret by comparison to western work out ... hmm not well expressed but take a look at the link anyhow:

I have viewed that knee video and commented that it is nonsense ... I have done the knee rotation exercise as demonstrated by Lam KamChuen for over 30 years. I learned it when first studying TCC in Vancouver, BC. It was part of my practice as i recovered from knee injury (jumping out of pick up bed at age 71!!). If done as shown by LKC it is a basic positive exercise. btw i documented this in detail on youtube and my comments were erased ... Hmmmm StandStillBeFit Zhan Zhuang

day 38 of planned 108 experiment. currently 2x long form daily morning and evening standard and mirror image ... awesome ... almost every day I do teach the long form TCC to neighbors also in their 75 / 77 yr range. Jimmy has to have a rotator cuff surgery (old injury), the Doc was amazed at his flexibility during the pre-op examination, J reported his TCC and the Doc was truly impressed. thank you Sifu ...

now at day 31 twice daily morning and evening made it thru thanksgiving and the family visit here, now i am starting to worry about xmas .... practice that is not the gifting ! I hope to do some back to back sessions this week or next Hoa Binh stubborn as the ox

i am now at day 23 the last days doing long form 2x daily, usually one of those is mirror image. Warm ups ... are reallyimportant for beginners, but skipping them occasionally is not nearly as important as NOT having time then to do your chosen FP meditations. It is quite important to do the breath percentages. Again there are exceptions, sometimes when i am just working on the forms, revewing them, refreshing them, watching and imitating Sifu on dvd or now sometimes on line, I skip them. And yet feel as if I had all the benefits of a more formal practice. If you have a chronic condition healing may come slowly. On the other hand a crisis may well, as noted by tao stillness, respond to a very intense practice regimen in one session or one day etc. Note that i consider other qi gong and TCC practice as a part of my health program (ba duan jin, wu xing, and some silk reeling). Peace for all sentient beings

hmmm the thread gets loonier and loonier ... i am a strictly practice is healing and spirit opening process ... currently i am in the starting phase of 108 day journey .. (day 19) for long form for the last 5 days I have done 2x daily standing this morning's mirror image practice was very near 30 min duration. The holidays and family wil be on us soon keep hoping the journey flows thru those days ... My tcc practice has also taken another rise to new plateau. Li YuenFei' Ba Duan Jin has also been quite rich experientially. My advice is not to speculate too much or believe too easily, but to practice with an open heart-mind. Enjoy

today I have avoided election news and views. 7:30 am teaching practicing Long Form TCC ...beginning w Zhan Zhuang finishing w ZZ. One hour. Moving hay and feed from town to barn ...Long Form 22 minute right side (original) nap LOL Walk 2 miles. Long form left side also about 20 min. Supper. 25 min Zhan Zhuang. 18 min Ba duan jin . Guided meditation Thich Nhat Hanh ... Peace to all beings thanks to Sifu Dunn for pointing new directions and intensities..

musings: breath, breathing is the central element of all qi cultivation. awareness of breath is key to progress in tcc and all the qg exercises. by extension respiration at the cell level, the delivery of oxygen to all body is life, no breath no respiration no life. If breathing is not a central part of your practice , you need to reconsider how / what you are doing. If you are doing FP but not breathing smoothly and with awareness throughout, then your practice is not correct. The focusing breaths and breath regime are key to the efficacy of this practice, however, the breath must continue to be in your awareness and intent as you do the forms. This is one possibility of doing the FP ' wrong'. One can do the physical sequences correctly and still not be doing the practice efficiently. I think that this is true of all internal arts. The breath is critically important .. chu y pay attention. Cultivate and store in the dan tien, but always come back to the breath. mho

sitting ... i sit on a simple chair toward the front edge ... my old knees just not yielding as they once did ... in fact I find the advanced seated meds quite powerful without worrying about pain; I am quite careful for posture. It may be true that I am missing some subtle advantage, but my body says I am accumulating strong chi in dan tien and feel vibrant energy along meridians and into hands fingers. if you are young keep trying to stretch, for sure but do the exercises as demonstrated concentrating on moving the chi with intent.

i tried to vote thank you on that post, but received and error msg something about a reputation vote

the practices listed on 21 June ; i differ only in the advanced seated II b. (btw i don't have disk available but believe 80 70 50 30? ) instead I do 60 70 40 5 immediately followed by 20 40 90 10 I have all the sensations listed except NO blue light ... once or twice i have had a purple flash also esp in the last I have an intense opening sensation in bai hui .. peace

landscape and location have always had an importance so I understand that energy well thanks again for these video posts

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

Have just discovered this .. watched it, then i did the mirror image while watching the performance i.e., eyes open ... It is faster than I have ever done the form, not as powerful to me as my daily practice of course it lacks the breathing so I was not expecting it would be. However, it was quite energizing enough that I immediately did it a second time,, that too was very 'hot' Thanks for this video. Now i have to watch and study the Eight sections videos... Peace Charlie

ditto for Tao Stillness

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

great bike stories ... i rode a bike to and from grad school and work for 23 years starting about 1972 I did not start TCC until 77. I had numerous great rides that produced profound 'spiritual' sensations. Many of them early on while living at 7000 ft alt. near Flagstaff AZ and attending NAU, living 10 mi south of campus. I really loved my Swiss built Super Mondia? When we moved to Cascabel on a 20 mile dirt road i stopped riding there is just no good way to ride on wash board dirt roads. I still hold dear the years of commuting and fun rides of 20 or more miles. Bike on!!

About 2 nights ago I was doing Adv. Seated 4. Almost immediately i felt a familiar pressure/buzz at the crown point .. bai hui? Years ago after a 90 day standing process I regularly felt this sensation for several months. It left after a period of low tCC practice frequency. I have often tried to bring it up again, but with relatively low frq and low intensity when it did occur. It was like sensing an old friend. It has been present in almost all of my qi gong. It also has the characteristic that it does not distract from my focus on dan tien energy 'glow'. I just completed Adv Seatd 5 and it was continuously present for the short 15 min + practice. Peace friends

We are traveling; visiting daughter's family. Two young boys absorb a great deal of energy. It is difficult to maintain a regular schedule of FP/TCC Let me just say the FP has moved into a phase that in standing long form energy moves from the root is guided by the dan tien and expresses itself in the arms/hands. It has taken a long time for this to feel like the normal practice condition, but now it is well established even if I do have periods where daily practice is interrupted. so keep practicing and move into disk 4 Long Form with confidence that it will be an energy changing experience peace

psychologists and psychiatrists have a much larger probability of confusing correlation and causation than most 'hard scientists.' I have not read the article thoughtfully, but that's what I think sifu dunn is exposing. Some people who beginto meditate come to the process with extant psychoses or an insecurity that leads them to psychoses ... perhaps. I have met a few meditators who seemed to have problems but causation not proved maybe not proveable . Hypothetically, I can imagine individuals with mystical/magical beliefs drifting deeper into delusion by spending much time alone and in their own mind. But are they meditating? How do you demonstrate that if the only evidence is that they sit/stand/lie quietly for periods of time? enough this may be deeper water than i thought

btw have had a bad lingering headcold ... but practiced daily . Adv. seated 4, 5, standing 1,2,3 some TCC plus some wu xing did not cure the cold but sure felt good to do these mediative arts .. did not do the long form most days ... that was disappointing as I had planned a 100 continuous period. Now I have to start over

also my experience of FPCH is probably suspect