Leif

There's nothing wrong with levels. (As vipassana was recommended: There are levels to be found even in some vippassana teachings.)

(What's "traditional methods of training"?  Baguazhang - 19th century - is it traditional or modern?)

Test what you like with open mind and caution and do what works for you.

Publically he's teaching couple of systems he learnt from his teacher, all info is on his website, Yi Jin Jing, 4 Cycles, 8 Cycles,... all from some Shaolin branch his teacher passed on to him.

14 hours ago, Oneironaut said:

Does energy cultivation itself bring about or facilitate Buddhist enlightenment?

From what I have overheard, I'd say definitely. One teacher said that there's little point in vajrayana deity practice, unless you have mastered kumbhaka, or more precisely, there's always some point, but what he likely meant that there's a profound difference. (That's if I correctly understand kumbhaka categorized as energy cultivation practice.) And there's often a glimpse mention about kundalini, chakras and channels in non-hinayana buddhist teachings.

26 minutes ago, Oneironaut said:

The reason I ask is because I feel discouraged after learning from a Theravadin monk that Shakyamuni Buddha said enlightenment is only possible through monastic means and lay people will not reach it.

Theravadin business IMHO. Something like vajrayanists saying that enlightenement takes 100 lifetimes of theravadin practice but is possible withing 1 vajrayana practice lifetime.
I'd ask for exact quote from Buddha's talks and then research further, if you are into buddhist philosophy aspect of that. If it's really exact quote fro Shakyamuni Buddha, not just purposefully adjusted, from the little I have grasped, his talks were often circumstantial, ie. what he said applied to a particular situation and not general, that's a point where buddhist scholar might come handy.

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The Theravada tradition does not concern itself with energy work or even any kind of yoga and qigong (I'm not a fan of either yoga nor qi gong) so perhaps a good neidan system will be more practical for modern day people.

 

I have very recently heard a story about famous vajrayana master, who practiced qigong. And another one has qigong as a workout included with his online course (Tsoknyi Rinpoche).

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Someone suggested Yantra Yoga and I'll look into it.

Well yeah Yantra Yoga would be natural choice, if one prefers to keep close to the roots (of vajrayana).

I'd recommend looking at Anthony Korahais course on https://flowingzen.com/  , they have some intro qigong course that is free and frankly one doesn't need that much for starters (though they change sometimes what's on free offer, I don't know whether what I have found "ok" for starters is what they currently have among their free offers, but they always have something). That's if you are looking for something simple and moving. In my book doing Zhang Zhuang that you do is more than fantastic already. And reason for Flowing Zen recommendations is not that it's spectacular or magical but because there's teacher, community, it's online, accessible, and first of all it's a teacher that has a lof ot experience with healing fatigue, depression etc. and has offer targetted at exactly that.

On 24. 9. 2020 at 4:56 AM, oglights said:

My next idea is to attempt to somehow learn T'ummo, as apparently you can gain control of the central (vagus) nerves, which seem to be where my problem originates.  See that's the difficulty, it's a real shot in the dark and I have no idea if it will help. 

So that I don't sound like second grader giving advice to ninth-grader, this is more like free form comment from my perspective than advice: I've spent some time on lightly checking various methods for purposes of troubleshooting, and from the little I have always observed the trend to go "to the basics" in those cases, to minimize instead of maximize, and your idea to learn Tummo reminded me of my learning KAP (kundalini awakening process) few years back - my biggest takeaway was not how to arouse the kundalini energy but how the grounding that's used for troubleshooting. IMHO Tummo here sounds like knocking out the wedge with another wedge, adding fire to the fire, etc. Frankly your situation is far beyond my own imaginations and in this case myself I would consult real master/teacher at any price (not meaning monetary, and master being either someone who can fill-in the pieces missing in the books - as in this case regarding dissolving meditation - or someone who can diagnose your situation and advise how to fix it), throw away any garbage (what didn't work for years so far, what is more of an "energy work" than "healing work", etc.), and concentrate on the simplest basics (I'm sure you have more of those in your repertoire than me to choose from, my go-to methods would be eg. standing meditation ie. zhang zhuang, or Hakuin's butter meditation or any simple meditation that makes one go down from head to foot).
It's example stemming from other type of problem but it's about general principles: people who have huge problems due to kundalini/energy issues, don't get healed by fighting it through yet another high energy practice, but by rooting, going to nature more often, changing diet, getting rid of balast and garbage in life,.....
There is nothing wrong with being an adventurer...but at some point one has too choose between further adventure or healing, and I feel here you might ask yourself whether what you have chosen is further adventure or healing.

Meditation in general is the practice that allows you to recognize your thoughts when they arise then let them be.

Anyway there are many other possible approaches to such a problem.  From dumping her, finding a lover, reprogramming your mind to develop passion for bigger sized women instead, to praying to a deity, some kind of loving kindness meditation, etc. etc.

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I would also like to describe my experience with Flying Phoenix Qigong after one month of practicing the level 1. Previously I practiced fragrant qigong for 7 months, and still previously several other styles. Fragrant qigong was very powerful,  but I think FPQG is still better. As another user said, it greatly improves your metabolism. I have always suffered from bad digestion, and I really feel FPQG helps with that. I also feel more strength in my whole body, and more energy throughout the day.

 

I am focusing on doing bending the bows, and I feel it is a great exercise on several accounts. I also love holding the peach and wind above clouds. However the great benefits it has had on me, I must say that my tinnitus, which started some 8 years ago, has not improved, as it neither improved with the other qigong styles. But I hope it will improve with time and with other levels of practice, which I expect to begin soon. (I train every day around 1.5 or 2 hours)

 

Thanks to Sifu Terry and to Earl Grey for sharing this great style!

This is your post from May 2019.

2 hours ago, SirPalomides said:

Do Vajrayana Buddhists see the sutra-based Pure Land Buddhists as mistaken somehow in their belief that faith in Amitabha and chanting his name is sufficient to be reborn in the Pure Land?

Goal of vajrayana is buddhahood in this lifetime not rebirth in pure lands. That's also hinting towards that vajrayana practitioners would generally consider their path much faster than pureland. Thus it's IMHO not about sufficiency but efficiency.

On 2. 4. 2020 at 8:07 AM, Vajra Fist said:

Reminds me of Spring Forest's password 'I am in the universe, the universe is in my body'. Wonder if they had the same teacher?

and some more (similarities), yes I believe it was master Xiao Yao

If you do Facebook you can subscribe for notifications at https://www.facebook.com/events/889161271496654/

(Also earlier he made available 4 Cycles qigong routine https://madmimi.com/p/2ab5601 which is a type of "guardian qi" qigong.)

7 minutes ago, rideforever said:

So what the fuck are we closing schools and businesses for ... old people are going to them anyway.

Where I live (Czech r.), the reason for closing schools and businesses has been explained, as to hold back the growth of the number of people infected, to slow it down a bit, so that healthcare capacities suffice to handle the critically ill (so that healthcare doesn't end up like in less fortunate countries, where they have to decide who gets air ventilation and who is out of luck because of lack of these medical devices. They even came with some scientifically based simulation and numbers for that, which I don't remember anymore.

Due to data available for that age group still statistically relatively insignificant, also due to high differences in healthcare in various countries, ...

Graph for Korea that I have seen somewhere listed 0% until 30 y/o.

Don't know further details, sorry, apart from what could be considered mostly rumors overheard on various websites in past  which only planted a seed at most, it's this post (end of the post) by sifu:

https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/12639-flying-phoenix-chi-kung/?page=114&tab=comments#comment-535299

and also this lengthy one:

https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/12639-flying-phoenix-chi-kung/?page=96&tab=comments#comment-455973

that both suggest that there might be some purposefully made-up videos flowing around.

5 hours ago, themjay said:

A daobums search reveals a couple of broadly positive comments over the years, but you can’t get more overt criticism than this site:

https://wilsonyongtaoism.wordpress.com/

No idea about the first site, but in my very humble >>opinion<<, that second site, "review site", is not quite independent, but the "Our circles" page clearly hints what is it all about ("business competition"). From the little I remember of writings of that other guy running websites in "our circle", I wouldn't be surprised if it was his own creation. 

On 1. 10. 2019 at 11:06 PM, MBZ said:

on which dvd is the first standing static meditation of sunn yee gong? Thank you.

I'm not sure whether they didn't release new DVDs since (IIRC there could have been some discussion about one of them needing a re-do), I had the first ones when they started, and on those DVD1 were sitting static and DVD2 standing static.

On 3. 10. 2019 at 12:06 AM, Bruce Qi said:

I should mention here if anyone is looking to study syg look for the original tapes of gm doo wai doing them , hearfield has changed the forms and added his own kind of stamp to them meaning to me they are not authentic syg.

 

watch doo wai doing the same form as hearfield and notice the difference as they are quite big !

 

It's also worth mention that there are some videos (ok, one at least... but one or twenty, effect is same) by GM himself, circulating out there, that were supposed to be done on purpose, to misdirect or punish certain student. 

On 29. 2. 2020 at 2:30 PM, Jay78 said:

that's only KAP1 then would need to keep going.

There's no need to keep going besides KAP1, per KAP FAQ: "This one course is all you need. Everything else is just added fun and assistance."

11 hours ago, DSCB57 said:

A slight correction. It was not GM Doo Wai who appointed Christer Wretfors as anything. WBBM as far as I am aware is the sole provenance of Sifu Garry Hearfield, and it was he who in fact appointed Christer to represent his organisation in the EU - that is not what I asked about, and is of no interest to me whatsoever. Please get your facts right. 

Maybe you have misread what I wrote.

I wrote that ChW is representative of WBBM for Europe, not that he was appointed by GMDW.

You asked who was trained to a high level in Doo family arts.

ChW certainly was trained to a high enough level, at least by their standards if not yours, in some of the Doo family arts, otherwise he wouldn't be appointed by WBBM/GH who is defacto a lineage holder. He is also a teacher on some of their videos (eg. Bak Fu Sunn Yee Gung).

Here is a list of sifus, authorized as of around 1998 (though of course it's very unlikely any of them is in Europe), significantly larger than the list voiced by GMDW on the Skype call recently:

http://web.archive.org/web/19980709125431/www.bakfupai.com/shifu.html

A bit old but contacts for some of them (CT, MG, DD,..) can be still be found online.

Yes I have been thinking about this often too.

Everything is relative.

Someone looks hot because they use decades old pr photos or a hair dye. Others might have it in their genes.

As for Chunyi Lin, healing is not a one way operation where someone pours chi over pacient and they are healed. He commented on that himself, if you are interested in more detail. IIRC it was a matter of choice.

It's not quite fair to put functional medicine and kundalini practitioners together, IMHO kundalini people are not quite into health aspect.

This has been mentioned in one reply above, and is quite common: many Chinese masters and advanced practitioners got to their practice because serious health problems. Some in early childhood, some fairly late even their fifties and sixties. Others practiced arts but smoked, drunk, etc. 
So it's often fairly hard to make general comments, there were different starting points. More important to look more deeply on particular invidual you are intending to learn from. 

On 29. 6. 2018 at 4:54 PM, DSCB57 said:

GM Doo Wai appointed Sifu Garry Hearfield as his representative for Europe.

Unless there were some recent changes, my understanding in the past was that GMDW appointed Garry Hearfield (WBBM) as his representative for some arts, subsequently Christer Wretfors who lives in Sweden is representative of WBBM for Europe.

All the possible reasons you could think of.

Not all of them are out there on the market trying to sell. 

Some have just made an effort 10 or 20 years ago to document an endangered art.

Some cater their established audience (like kung-fu guys in their 40-60s) where DVD is just fine.

Many mostly care about one on one teaching, and have something out just to establish some little presence.

Some don't really care to make themselves accessible, you have to make effort and prove yourself.

Some have DVDs, because they sell expensive courses, and it's harder to sell expensive online content, getting a big bag stuffed with DVDs and manuals is supposed to make you feel like your purchase was worth it :).

Many actually have online digital content (Peng, Matsuo, Bisio, Frantzis, Waysun Liao, Seidman, Chen Zhongua, Ken Cohen, Yadi Alamin, Gary Hearfield, at least two former students of Sifu Wong Kiew Kit have online courses,.... just few of the top of my head, there must be way more).

I didn't want to imply it being what's technically called 'preliminary practice', sorry about that - wrong wording choice.

On 18. 1. 2018 at 4:12 PM, virtue said:

the reason for that might be that it would need to have additional zhine practice to make it stable and deep. I only got a clear and powerful experience of the natural state once I tried guruyoga and because of this success there is no reason now to look elsewhere.

While it's not very stressed, zhine is more like a preliminary than additional practice, ideally one should be good at it already before getting transmission. Guruyoga is "if you don't have time, do at least this" in Dzogchen Community, base of everything.

This one is likely the most extreme of all the mentions of this that I have stumbled upon.

Such generalization is in contradiction with reports I read or overheard about healthcare in China (shortage of doctors, tickets to visit specialist sold on black market, doctor taking patients in batches thus there is no privacy, large number of people without health insurance nor money to pay for healthcare,.....).

I have always took this as something that perhaps could have been true at some time in history with some class of people (ruler, nobility,...), if not just a misused or misunderstood metaphor from some book.

It would be interesting to know what was the original source.
 

On 8. 9. 2017 at 0:09 PM, SmilingPenance said:

Hi just discover this style and would like to learn more. can anyone point be to a book or video of these practices done correctly. want to start on the right foot

Possibly this:

Can't vouch for this with any certainty, but with same question as you have, just some time back, somehow I ended up with this video (quite likely recommended in an older thread here on TDB, not sure anymore).