yatzhong

I've been able to do the full lotus posture for about five years now. Got the flexibility as a byproduct of moving the torso (rotating the spine) via the kua ( inguinal crease) while doing yiquan moving drills. My former classmate told me that the flexibility for doing that was the same that was needed to do the full lotus position. He stated that it was the iliopsoas muscles that controlled the movement as well as the ability to get into the full lotus posture. He is a TCM doctor who specialized in acupuncture. The yi as I know it can tap the energy from the glands that sit atop of the kidneys (adrenals) if you practice right but I've only known yi to mean intent, not energy from the kidneys. Interesting thought though.

Cold drinks anytime are on my taboo list (except for beer & ale) All my teachers have warned against cold drinks. Even in summer my sifu will sit in the class watching us sweat our asses off while drinking warm water or tea. After practice juk, or rice porridge is a good idea as well. I like mine with roasted pork.

I practice yiquan and taijiquan. They seem to be enough.

On the way to work this morning, "Deep Purple's Greates Hits"

Zhan zhuang is the basic practice in yiquan and we do a lot of that. There are several different types, levels and benefits of standing. In our first level of standing the practices of muscle / tendon changing and marrow washing are present. Part of the muscle / tendon changing is gained doing movements & stretches while standing. The shaking and trembling that occurs after one holds the postures for 20 minutes or an hour is where the real benefits come in. It is where the tendons really develop and where the marrow washing occurs. From day one our teacher told us this and pushed us to persevere through some of the most intense shaking, thundering & bouncing I've seen humans endure. It also produces an intense amount of heat inside the body and just about everyone sweats profusely at first. Anyway not to stray to far from the subject...... The shaking and vibrating is when the tendon changing and marrow washing occur. I've read about these studies that were done on lab rats and immediately realized that science had proven a very old tradition that many had written off as bullshit. John

Not having been at a workshop with Max yet I wouldn't speculate on what his transmission consists of but I have experienced something that sounds similar. My first yiquan teacher would end each of our sessions with me sitting on a chair in the middle of his living room doing seated meditation. During my seated meditating he would move to different parts of the room and just stand there. I never opened my eyes but I could swear that he was doing something and that I was feeling something coming from him. After the first several weeks of this there I began to experience a movement inside of me that caused my body to move back & forth while I was doing the seated meditation. Befor he retired from teaching and went back to China he made me bai shi and then taught me what he termed a "secret exercise" that he had me do with my eyes closed. I opened my eyes slightly for this and he was standing in front of me with his right hand pointing to my stomach / spleen area and his hand was shaking. Supposedly he was giving me "the touch" or a transmission of qi. He normally kept his students from exchanging with each other but I managed to meet a few and they all had similar experiences. My current yiquan sifu does it a bit differently. Sometimes he does it one on one and at other times in a group. We stand face to face or in a cirle in wuji zhuang and he sends qi into us. I've spoken to him about my other yiquan sifu and the sitting and the "touch" and he said that these are traditional methods of a teacher "giving something" to his student. From these experiences I would say that a transmission is kind of like a seed planted in one that allows one to progress to higher levels. Kind of like a jump-start for the dan tien. I might be way off though. Does any of this sound familiar to you gentlemen who have gotten the transmission from Max? John

It is part of the Sin Tien Wuji system that I've been learning.

I don't know about changing DNA but I learned a very esoteric qigong method about two years ago which is supposed to rejuvenate the cells. It's very involved and time consuming but once I do it all of my aches and pains (I have quite a few) dissappear as if they were never there. It brings about a very strong sensation of movement within the body with its visualizations and other components while one works his way from head to toe concentrating on various organs and other components. So do I believe that DNA mutation is possible? Why not? I don't dissect these practices with science. If something works then fine. If it doesn't then I move on. Believing in what one does to be true in the context of qigong / neigong is part of the thing working or not. John

I'm going to try and make this. By that time my book will have arrived and I'll have familiarized myself with the practices. Hope to see some of you there. John

Hello All, My name is John and I just signed up a few days ago. I spent the better part of the day at work reading the entire Lama Dorje thread and am very surprised and interested in what many of you had to say because I've experienced some of the same things in my past 16 years of practicing taijiquan, yiquan and qigong. I've just ordered the Kunlun book and am going to try and make it to the NJ workshop in May. Looking forward to sharing some experiences with you. J

Well then I guess I've found a home.