ridingtheox

for a variety of reasons I have not been doing the Advanced Long Form meditation first thing in the morning,  not at home, respiratory problem gift from grandkids (LOL) etc.   I have been doing YLF TCC almost daily.   This morning I finally got up early and did get in a solid Long Form.    The energy was better than before I had the hiatus by a considerable amount and it was the most continuous through the form.   Sometimes I think  a break  yields this gift. 

During the last month I have introduced the 5th Advanced Seated meditation from disk 7.  In 5th form there are only 4 moves,  however,  the practice includes a long pause and a slower performance of the last 2 moves.   This shift to an even slower speed is really intense and it seems crucial that the first half is done at usual 'slow' speed of all the other FPCK so  a   significantly slower speed is very intense in the sensations of qi movement both in the upper body,  but also in the dan tien itself.  It was a delightful discovery.

i will say that in grad school  40 yrs ago  i found that regular tai ji practice increased my energy level making it seem that i was more effective in the time i was working  i believe that FPCK  if practiced with attention  to  your  energy might well act in a similar manner ...  don't over do ...

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.   B.  Franklin

My dog, an English beagle named Obie-One, has, as his name implies, has a soul far, far greater and more noble than that of the average mere mortal.

I have met  sifu Obie-One you may remember  truly and old soul ... oh tis true tis true  ...

charlie

energy  rising  doing frequent fp meditations.   I like coupling Adv short standing med w Adv seated med ... both  start from wide brace position.  I often do  Standing... seated ... standing . it rocks  qi

not a big fan of  Oz,  his repeated misrepresentations of diet issues  is disturbing

nor of Weil,  while he is a Tucsonan I find some of his writing not in harmony w scientific reality.

on the other side  Kabat-Zinn is amazing  and I have Siegel's Mindsight in my  reading cross-hairs 

peace for all sentient beings   ... dogs do have souls   moo.

charlie thomas PhD OF  (old f<3 )

wade-giles  /  pinyin  confusion perpetuate  

T'ai Chi Ch'uan  /  Tai ji quan  ...   not mystical  just linguist nightmare 

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 ...

greetings from Cascabel  

well I have misplaced several of my FP disks       drat

 c

Practice consistently is the key about one hour minimum FP  plus a good round of TCC  

for Blue Phoenix:  I wrote a short message encouraging seated practice in a chair so that 7 reps can be attained during a single session.   If hip issues are a problem address that separate

Finally today i urge practicioners / players here to pay attention to the breath during the performance slow and rhythmic does the best results?   Keep a little note on how deeply and evenly you  breathe.   The lengthening, deepening of breath capacity is another sign of progress in your practice.   This may take some months or years to be really evident so be patient but persistent.

Peace to all beings  (esp my old cows,   )

while i have not done the moonbeam splashing ... the long form continues to open new channels for me ...  I appreciate the suggestion to do a faster practice occasionally followed by  a slower tempo repetition.   My quickest pass is usually on the 10 - 11 min  followed by  < 20 min ... usually a 5 min break between.   The breath pattern is different from the quicker to the slower version.   Quite an experience expanding practice.   

Most often I still concentrate on slow deliberate 25 min form.   I feel like I am getting a much better full body experience movement rooted moving to dan tien directed to one or both hands through the spine and scapula ...  I also do a little microcosmic orbit breathing before starting the practice.  Noticing that the hands / fingers tingle intensely  when I do this.  I have also experimented with mco breath between the percentage breaths.   No detrimental effects as far as I can tell and some intensification of  focus / awareness ... less drifting into ' monkey mind' during the practice.

The whole body involvement continues to encourage my daily practice.  

Amazing discovery so late in life!   FPCK  rules!

lol

Sifu wrote

"But if you hold the 2nd position for a few extra breathes as prescribed (before lowering the forearms) and then do following movements very, very, very slowly at the speed "

this is a good description of what developed very quickly with this ...  holding the posture and gently letting y guide qi thru a microcosmic orbit ... emerging from the 'orbit'  flowed much slower than the tempo for the first moves naturally.

more... for somet days now (post operation recovery) I have been experiencing the microcosmic orbit in the initial three breaths for all of the forms.   At first it was only occasional,  but now is the norm.  Not always, but nearly.   

I have also been having good 'macrocosmic'  breathing in the case of the preparation for the long form.  

My tai qi long form has also progressed to feeling the connection ... energy from earth thru legs ... guided my dantien  to ming men,  shoulder,  lao gong ... a long spiral of energy

thank you again Sifu Dunn

finally working on Adv Seated MSW  #5 ...  it is very short but has been quite intense .. the 'synchronization' of breath and movement quite strong from the first performance.    I  have coupled it with both #3 (a long series) and #4 (another short series).

Having recently thought  (bad idea) why I am doing so much qi gong ... I have come to the idea that it is the increasing awarness of body / respiration function ... so much of my life has been  mind/brain ... now I am experiencing the body intensely.  Flow, energy cellular respiration!  balance or organ systems  regeneration /  recovery from  surgery.

This has been a renewing of a long spiritual journey.  

finally reached a 22+ min long form today ... 

breath and energy returning nearly to pre-surgery  levels ...

sleep still irregular   beyond   what  i expect ... since sleep is always a little irregular for me!

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

thanks for the good wishes and acknowledgements for recovery

my practice  interrupted for trip to daughter's family  but will resume tomorrow!

peace

Recovery proceeding forthwith...  Adv.  MSW  one minimum and most days two selections  from 1-4 disk 7.   This week I have also done two repetitions of the long form  daily  a shorter set followed by a longer set  ...  11-12 min for first set and 19-21 for the second set.   I still hesitate to  up  the time >25 min,  which had been my practice prior to surgery.  

I am also doing Long form Tai ji  with my little class here in Cascabel  30-35 min  practice  which is structured  a)  wu ji standing,  b)selected pieces from 8 brocades c)  long form  abbreviated to 1st series and half the second series, d) silk reeling and concluding wu ji standing positions 1 + one of 2-5.  

I also find very nurishing  wu xing qi gong practices ... harmonizing the body meridians/elements/system.

the above discussion is out of my range of experience.  on the other hand  the Quaker experience is about universal stillness finding god/christ in group worship.  The terminology Friends/Quakers use would probably confuse most of the participants in this thread,  but is western universalist mysticism in my experience.

peace

charlie

home from hospital/surgery last thurs couple days in hospital  ...  first attempts at FPCK  were less than great.   Breath is short and still lots of internal pressure from the CO2 in my abdomen.   Today  I did  ASMSW 4  pretty fast as my breath stayed short.   I hope to keep doing a little more each day.  Still not up for the long form and certain I will have to go pretty quickly the first few times I do practice it.

good to be back at practice even if it is short and modified significantly 

I certainly recommend  sifu's teaching methods and interactions.  They certainly kick started my  qi gong practice 4 years ago,  I regret not being up for SoCal traffic to visit his classes again.  The inspiration provided also continues to contribute to my desire and experimentation with the FP meditations and practice.

peace

neu ban muon hoa bin, hoa bin co voi ban lap tuc ...

if you want peace, peace is with you immediately .... Thich Nhat Hanh

I have missed doing the long form standing med a few days over the last 3 years ... I make a 10  hour drive to Cal and the 10 hour return  monthly.  those days are often too tiring to do the long form hence two days a month missed ...  sometimes i manage a double dose on  one  day and tell myself that makes up for the missed days

I cannot recommend strongly enough this sort of continuing regimen for the performance of standing long form ... at this time i have almost constant buzzing/throbbing palms, arms, bai hui  and my breath has deepened  pushing 3 breaths per min during performance.

I wish I were a better 'salesperson'  I do mention it to anyone who will listen 

I also do 4 of the Advance Seated meditations ... one or more per day  ... it is strange that the big sleep med 50 20 10 is a wake up for me if i do it late in the evening . the AS med  (80 70 50 30)  is more likely to lead to a good night's sleep. 

practice practice practice  FPCHQG ...

peace

had something of a break through  my  long form which has stalled at something less than 25 min took  27+ min!!

wooo hoooo...

of more interest and meaning is that qi pulsing at bai hue was more intense and persistent throughout the practice and the rolling? moving of qi at dan tien was also present for a considerable portion of the form practice.  Now that seems worth passing along.

peace to all being

may I offer:   ending one exercise with 3 breaths helps the system 'clear' the current state.  Each exercise opens, mobilizes different systems perhaps similar to moving from  one TCM  element  (metal, wood, etc.) system to the next in the element cycle.

The next practice you begin also invokes 3 deep clearing breaths in preparation.   I can imagine experimenting with dropping one or the other of these  3 breath clearings,  but observing how the qi pulses/moves/feels carefully during the 'transition.'  It is interesting enough for me to try omitting one of the 'clearing' breaths.  Though I often get up move around and drink a little tea or water between forms  (mostly  Adv. MSW 2 & 3/or4).

Stay tuned ... however it may take several weeks or months to make this sort of experiment  LOL.

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

I try to do 7 reps and have done 8's and 9's  on the shorter Advanced Seated Meditations, to no apparent ill effects.   

I admit to occasionally doing fewer than 7,  also to no apparent ill effect.  The important thing for me to remember is the three clearing breaths at the end.  

It has also been my experience that reviewing the disc can be very beneficial even after practicing for many weeks.   It occurs that I see something that did not register deeply enough.  I have had very intense qi sensations  while watching and imitating Sifu on more than one occasion.   That experience also seems to follow into succeeding practices of the forms.

thanks again to Sifu for presenting this  material so clearly and openly.

and for his frequent timely responses to questions on this thread.

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

after three years of practice I feel cheated  because I never have the blue light ..  LOL   I see lots of green lights, red lights (mostly when driving)  ..

Once I thought I had a purple light  but that was illusory. 

for those how have it  good for you ... as for me   in fact I do not feel cheated    just lucky to come upon FP 

today's long form   26 + minutes   

yesterday  ASM  2 &  3   ....  very intense  sensations in fingers, wrists and internal 'circulation' of dantian  qi ... 

After a lapse of some years I have also re-established  a strong almost continuous buzz/vibration at the Bai Hui during execution of the ASM's

hopefully  meng min vibes will also return soon!!

Peace to all beings