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I've been practicing Taijiquan for several weeks now. Just stretches and dantian breathing. During class on monday up to right now, I've had a cold feeling in my chest and a fast pulse. My teacher says not to worry about it, but he didn't seem to know what it is. Any ideas?

Learning of Hebei Xingyi quan in London. Enrolment in a group to study Hebei Xingyi quan. Hard training, only for men!* All trainings are held outdoors in any weather. The study program of Xingyi quan is following: 1. Santi shi (inner work including: 5 small bows, 5 middle bows, 1 large bow, 5 inner intentions, etc.) 2. Basic methods (Ji ben gong) 3. Five Fists (Wu xing quan - 五行拳) 4. Five phase linking form (Wu xing lian huan quan - 五行连环拳) 5. Eight Forms Boxing (Ba Shi Quan - 八势拳) 6. Twelve Animals (Shi Er Xing Quan - 十二形) 7. etc. To find out the details, send a private message. *95% of women cannot train on this hard lessons. There are usual lessons, which everyone can attend. P.S. The advert does not exclude women specifically, as it does not state that women cannot attend. All women willing to train hard during these classes are welcome.

I found this document interesting, I thought it could be helpfull. This man has been one of the few disciples of Yang Chengfu. He talks about the best way to do the form, jing, and plenty of anecdotes about its master.

What is the importance of neigong in internal martial arts? Well, according to a very highly respected bagua zhang practitioner from Beijing, Ma Chuanxu, practicing martial techniques in internal martial arts without first developing neigong (which primarily involves opening the small and large circulations) is just a waste of time from the point of view of ever developing high level internal martial arts skill. This is why authentic internal martial arts training primarily focuses on practices which develop neigong. In xingyi, they typically might do a lot of standing practice, while in bagua it is lots of basic circle walking, and in taiji regularly practicing the taiji form will develop neigong, although all of the internal arts may supplement with other neigong practices as well depending on the exact lineage and teachers. Can you achieve high level neigong if you do not maintain a long period of celibacy while developing your neigong skill? According to Ma Chuanxu, no, but men who are not celibate can apparently achieve a lower degree of neigong if they do not have too much sex. I am not sure if there is any such requirement for women, but it was primarily men who learned the internal martial arts during Ma Chuanxu's time, so that is why he likely didn't comment on the requirements for women. Ma stated that a serious internal martial arts student would need a period of about six years or so of celibacy to develop good neigong skill, and even then that is only if they are practicing very diligently and correctly of course. This would explain why so few internal arts practitioners reach a high level of internal skill, as the requirements and commitment is not at all easily achievable by most people. Ma did say that once you have achieved a good level of neigong skill that the practitioner can have sex once every two or three months without too much problem, (which should no doubt be reduced as you get older), but too much more than that and you will likely degrade your internal skill too much. You can read the whole interview with Ma Chuanxu by Jarek Szymanski from 2000 at the following link. I think it is very interesting reading for the student of the internal martial arts, or for anyone who is interested in understanding the requirements of authentic neigong training. It is not often that you get to hear a real master speak so openly about the requirements for training neigong in the internal martial arts. http://www.chinafrominside.com/ma/bagua/machuanxu.html Here's a video clip of Ma Chuanxu doing a little bagua and xingyi, probably from a number of years ago. Very fluid and soft, as authentic internal martial arts which are built on neigong require. Ma Chuanxu is probably around 80 years old now, based on the birthdate that Jarek indicated for him.

Hi, I was interested in having some notion about what you think is a good daily practice duration. And what's your average daily pratice ? For those who pratice a lot, what's your main routine ? Have a good day. Clément

Any good teachers in LA? They all seem like scams or cults. Thank you.

Hello all, This book is a very good one and could be a good starting point for beginners, as well as excellent supplemental material for the seasoned practitioner. http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Your-Life-Energy-Well-Being/dp/1590309960 Enjoy. It would be interesting to find out from any Bum who has practiced these what their experiences have been. Dwai

Hello fellow wayfairers, I find myself with very low energy now and for the past, maybe, 6 months. Before that time and especially a few years back I was typically a high energy person and fairly well centered/grounded. I think Qigong/neigong is the way to fix that for me. I have 2 books which came highly recommended, The Way of Energy by Master Lam Kam Chuen and Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body by Bruce Frantzis. Ive begun practicing Zhang Zhuang along with some of the internal techniques and body alignments Frantzis talks about and I have felt a increasingly strong chi sensation as I practice as if I'm improving and tapping into my chi. I also feel more energetic after a practice session. The closest things to chi instruction I have near me is a shoddy Aikido dojo and a young american Tai Chi Chuan instructor that claims to have spent time studying it in China. Now my question is, is it possible to learn Qigong exclusively from books, videos, and mindful practice? Anyone here have success with self/book taught Qigong for healing themselves? Should I try out the Tai Chi guy? I appreciate your help friends

Hello! I just joined the forum and is very intrigued by all the past and previous post about the different types of training. I have also notice that there isn't much detailed information on Grandmaster Tu. I am one of Grandmaster Tu's student. I have been training with him for many years and have seen improvements in my life from training Iron Crotch. There has been much rumors about this practice being dangerous or students in the past have been hospitalized. These claims are indeed false. The only way to get injured from practicing Iron Crotch is if you practice on your own without the right guidance. Having the correct knowledge of hanging is crucial to practicing and in order to see results you must learn it the correct way. Grandmaster Tu has been teaching for more than 30 years! I would love to share and spread his teaching here on the forums. If you have any questions about Iron Crotch I can personally answer them for you. Thank you and I look forward to meeting some new friends on the forum! PS. Here is Grandmaster Tu's Website, since I did not see it anywhere on the forum. www.Mastertu.com Thank You 99 Iron Crotch Practiioner

Greetings members. New to this forum, and to any forums that may discuss tai chi. I am relatively new at the practice and look forward to learning more about this martial art form. Any guidance anyone can give to great sources within the forum would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all! Gazzer

You have just 2 days left to get yourself a used (but immaculate condition) copy of Gary Clymans Nei Kung Bible on ebay. Don't miss out!

Hi all. I watched this last night and thought it was very good. I've been practicing for three and a half years and over the curse, have identified how Taoist the martial art's philosophy is. This documentary explains it all... I see that there are a lot of Bagua and Tai Chi practitioners on here but not many talk about Wing Chun. I'm quite interested in learning more from the Bagua and Tai Chi philosophies too to draw on similarities more than anything. So anyone with anything to say on any Taoist martial arts, please go ahead

Hi all, We all know about the principle of relaxation in meditative and chi-cultivating disciplines. We've all felt the profound benefits of relaxation. However, although many of us are learning from masters who are advanced in age, a lot of us are young and full of energy, vigor, and speed. So I want to get some opinions on this: how do you resolve the contradictory disciplines of relaxed power and peak performance (demanding as much as you can from yourself, getting high performance in your life overall, not just physically but mentally, working long hours, pushing yourself to achieve goals, etc) ? For example, I love the "ideal" of going to bed early and waking up several hours before dawn to practice my chi kung, forms, and meditation. It seems extremely sensible to sync my sleep schedule with the sun. But often when I wake early and have a great day, I've gotten so much momentum that I'm still amped come sundown, and I realize I could work (or play) for 12 more hours. But this goes against the precepts of just taking it easy, and this is tough for me, because we live in a world where the 70% rule doesn't really cut it. For most of us we have to rolling out the 110% power. Any suggestions? I'd love to hear how other peak performance people synthesize these seemingly opposite ideas.

Hi all, I just had a private lesson with the son of a very famous tai chi master in NYC. He seemed completely bored as he did the movements; the whole thing was conducted like he was teaching me how to wash windows. This seems to be a recurring theme - I understand the taoist ideal of humility, simplicity, and a total lack of ostentatious or excessive movement. Still, this is throwing me. Chi training to me is the most amazing thing in the world. It's literally cultivating energy from the cosmos - I can feel it deeply, and it changes my consciousness in an immense way to practice for even a few minutes. So what's the deal? Watching videos of Cheng Man Ching, it's the same thing. I know that great tai chi masters don't need to "do the form" because they already have immense chi, but it just seems so dull, like they don't have any passion or interest at all in what they're doing at all. I want to keep taking lessons, and practicing, but the vibe I keep encountering with so many of these people really throws me off. I'd love to hear some comments and perspective on this.

Today I am happy to let you know that I have just finished a translation of Sun Lutang's Bagua Quan Xue- The Study of Bagua Quan To celebrate- it is on special discount for the first week! After that it is regular price. click here: The Study of Bagua Quan by Sun Lutang In about a week or so it should be available through amazon in the US and in Europe as well as through Amazon's Kindle I am sure most people have heard of Sun Lutang- but for those that have not- here is a bit from the back cover: Again- To celebrate- it is on special discount for the first week! After that it is regular price. click here: The Study of Bagua Quan by Sun Lutang when its available through amazon and kindle i will post the links cheers Franklin

This is the first modell I make of after thinking about the 5 Elemental Phases I used pictures from http://donlehmanjr.com. to create this Model. While thinking about using the direction force of the 5 Elemental Phases I recognize Phases which are there opposite which have to balance out. Metall + Fire = Contraction +Expansion , Wood +Water = Rising + Sinking. I thought about Earth is circulating or producing,centering stabilizing. Then the thought came to place it in a cross. I thought about Yin and Yang For example:Expansion can be example from inside when one use inner force to push Qi out or it expands because the enviroment is sucking the body, vaccumizing. Next thought came that fromm the 1 "Tai Chi" 2 "Yin and Yang" has 4 different Combination known as "Sixiang" with 8 "Triagram". First my thought was on the Sixiang. The four desribe for me 4 Phases Fire, Water Wood, Metal as a picture This I found here http://www.fengshuimestari.fi/Feng_Shui.html Fire = TaiYang = South Water = TaiYin = North Metal = ShaoYin = West Wood = ShaoYang = East The problem where is earth and Symbol? I was then had the thought of Yin and Yang. So I placed Yang above and Yin below. The reason was all things earth must be center as it is in Feng Shui are Yin and Yang as in "Heavenly Streams" I read the character of earth is producing. So things are Yin Yang and in greater Heaven and Earth. Accidental I place it above the Bigrams Diagramm. And so I produced the first Triagramm : Heaven and Earth. My mind shifted and I saw by adding a line above the Biagram I could produce a Triagram. For some kind of reason I had the logical to place the yang from above and when I look below I saw that by adding a line below and removing the upper line i produce the next Trigram from the 6 Triagrams. So above are now 6 Red line representing Yang and below 6 Yin. But different than the seasonal diagram I resulted in Kan and Li instead of Zhen and Dun. Logic is Zhen and Dun because of the extreme Yin is slowly changing to Yang resulting in less Yin Lines. But as well from the build the Kan and Li is technical logical from the order of Yin and Yang. Thinking about that "life" is pretty complicated thing. I then had a shifting and saw that from the four lines the first above and the 4th from above are exchanged Red line becomes Green Line. They are for me the two spots of the Ying Yang Symbol. Also the black lines are moving lines by remembering about Divination has such thing. So I resulted in this Diagramm. I made circles so one can try to imagine and see the triagram which are in the passed down charts around. So I make a digram which has from Tai Chi down to Bagua all involved. There are some thought by looking at this diagram: The spring time is for me a strange time having the exchange of the Lines at the beginning and the end between Winter and Summer. I think that there are two different clear circles and one not so clear. A clear run of Kan and Li a clear run of Zhen and Dui and the diffent changes and combination of Kan, Li, Zhen Dui. I have only a guess but "Zhen Dui Cicle" is to produce. Because Yang is rising The "KanLi ZhenDui Circle" is growth. As in life the is up and down of Yin an Yang. The "KanLi Circle" is seemingly when it comes to decay. Water and Fire oppose each other if one has not a cultivation method to change the clashing and destruction. The thing I have as last thought in this post is: "When one change on still live. Things which are not changing a dying as quote somewhere" Next would be I Ching the combination of the Triagrams to Hexagrams having 64 Hexagram+ 8 Triagrams. Which if count in for each 6 line can change one can have a hell of work to analyze the the possible changes. Since there is 1 to 6 line that can be change and everthing below 6 has also different combimation.But mathematical there is a limit. A foreplay would be starting with Trigrams with moving lines first. But that for another time.

The process of Taoist Alchemy as described by Waysun Liao's student and front man of the spiritual "new school way" of Temple Style Taichi, Master Gregory James. He posted this essay in his forum publically in 2011 and I think it's precious knowledge that everybody should have! Enjoy!

Many people who speak/write about the art of Bagua Zhang and its principle exercise, circle walking, express how these practices are excellent for longevity. Walking the circle, it is often said, is all one needs to do for health and long life. However, where is the evidence for this? Certainly, bagua zhang practioners are quite supple and strong, and notably so even into old age. There is a lot to be said for the twisting and squeezing aspects of the art and the constant focus on circular patterns. It would make sense to see this connected to longevity. But, when we look at the history of bagua zhang masters, we don't see a lot of long-lived people. With very few exceptions, the great masters of bagua zhang consistently seem to live 50, 60, or 70 years. That is, not much more than the average population. Even Dong Hai Chuan, the modern founder of the art, only lived around 85 years. Any thoughts as to why this is the case? How about contemporary bagua zhang masters? Are they living to 100 or more? 8) Dong Hai Chuan

I have realized that IMA (internal martial arts) folks are reifying Jin (power) in the same way as many Taoist folks reify Tao. By this I mean that they are trying make it a concrete "thing". You hear terms like ... emitting Jin ... or shooting Jin ... sending out Jin. It is the same error when people think that Tao is a "thing" that can be the "object" of worship. It is also synonymous that, just as Tao is not a "thing", Jin is also not a "thing", and just as Tao is more of a "way" or pattern of things, Jin is more of a "power". Also synonymous is that folks try and make both Tao and Jin something "special", meaning that it is something above or beyond mundane reality. Read more... http://www.tai-chi-wizard.com/the-tao-of-jin-in-tai-chi-chuan.html

A little while back I asked Laoxie what book/s he'd recommend on bagua zhang. He recommended this one and I've just started reading it. Really like it. If any of you crazy circle-walkers wanna book club it, well... here we go.

Hey i'm Xandre im new here just introducing myself. I am a student of Wing Chun, Krav maga and tai chi. I am currentely in the search for a perfect (or what i perceive to be perfect) internal martial art as well as a good master in the these arts Mo Pai, Ba Gua, Tai Chi, Chi Kung

Blacktaoist training in China

Anyone read this book? http://www.amazon.com/Five-Levels-Taijiquan-Chen-Xiaowang/dp/184819093X/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=3ATB9C53AOSU1&coliid=I1ERBRT6L5GX9Y It's a little pricey which is why I've been hesitant to pick it up. Not only that but there's only two reviews for it on Amazon.

OK here is part of the list of the DVDs I can currently access: Qi Gong for Beginners and Qi Gong for Stress Relief By: Garripoli Tai Chi for Fitness By: David Chang AM Chi, Lower Body Chi, PM Chi, Tai Chi Beginning Practice, Tai Chi Daily Practice By: David-Dorian Ross Energy Exercises for Emotional Vitality, Energy Exercises for The Beginner, Energy Exercieses for The Intermediate By: Discovering Chi (series) Tai Chi for Beginners By: Samual Barnes Tai Chi Inner-Wave By: Joey Bond Tai Chi Fundamentals By Tricia Wu Which of these, if any, should I use? If any of these are not something you would recommend, why exactly? For example, in another thread I started on another subject. Matthew Cohen's Fire and Water Qi Gong came up. The person that said the exercises were bad gave a couple of reasons, among them things like Mr. Cohen is flexing his muscles when they are supposed to be relaxed. What I am looking for are energy gathering/purifying exercises, preferably in Qi Gong (AKA Chi Kung). I like the side effects of good muscle flexibility among other things. I always liked Cohen's workout because I could use that after a really hard day of work where I was stiff and sore and I always felt better. I could also use it after a draining day and feel energized. Furthermore I can "see" the flame at my center, even meditating on this now, and I know when it is blinding bright and full of energy or when it is dim with little energy. The amount of energy I see there is directly releated to what I experience in my body. So I am looking to, in essence, recharge myself. I should also mention that it appears I am linked in some way to the earth or earth energy. I now see vines that come up and either connect to roots I put down from my feet or the vines just enter my body. This is all in my minds eye of course. Be kinda freaky to have vines come out of the ground into your physical body Anyhow this is symbolic, to me, of energy from the earth, while a sort of system or web or whatever of light rays or shoots - whatever you want to call them, connect to the energy of the sun/sky. Anyhow there is shamanic, magician and other energtic stuff going on here, and this should be considered in any DVD you recommend. Yeah I know I'm weird OK, as for length 10 minutes is awesome, 20 is OK, 30 is bearable, 40+ is "YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!!" So somewhere between 10-40 minutes is best for me. Also the exercises/moves should be very well narrated, as in Cohen's DVD, so I can easily see and feel how my body should be placed, and know I have it in the right position. Whatever else you can say about Cohen, you can certainly easily follow the audio of his DVD most of the time. Any DVD that depends on the video to explain everything is not as useful to me. Because I can carry around and use an audio file with me. But I can't work that way with a video file. Free is awesome, if any such creature exists. You give me the names of good teachers I'll gladly hunt around YouTube. Otherwise I will see what I can dig up at the library. Have a bunch of material there, something in it has to be of good quality. As always your help is appreciated. I would really like to get it right this time, hope I don't have to unlearn anything Cohen taught wrongly. - DreamBliss P.S. PLEASE NOTE! DO NOT RECOMMEND A CLASS OR ANYTHING THAT COSTS MONEY TO ME! I have no money to buy anything, so I have YouTube and the library. Of course I also have a birthday coming up on the 11th... Hint... Hint... Right now on my birthday/Christmas list are Josephine McCarthy's "The Excorsit's Handbook" and Magical Knowledge books II and III, Shalia Catherine's "Focused and Fearless" and "Wisdom Wide and Deep." Prentice Mulford's "Thought AreThings," Franz Bardon's "Initiation Into Hermetics" and, last but not least, the "Kybalion" by the Three Initiates.

I'm drawn into Baguazhang, but just for meditation purposes (or more exactly: meditation, qigong, aerobic exercise) at this point. On my shortlist to learn from is Bruce Frantzis (Bagua mastery online program, re-opening soon. Expensive.), Ted Mancuso (owner of plumpub, 2 DVDs, nice price and modular approach) Christopher Matsuo - Heart of Bagua (or is it with Ray Carbullido) Yang Yusen's gaobagua.net program seemed almost perfect too (especially as you are required to submit practice video for a check and feedback), but contemplating on whether it would be too disrespectful of me entering with intention to drop out at some point. Also Bingkun Hu has a bagua walking form out as part of Wild Goose Qigong series. Will appreciate any comments regarding the "Frantzis vs. Mancuso vs. Matsuo" choice, or even whether it's possible to learn the very basics from video. I have read here numerous times that it's not possible, my subjective understanding of those comments so far is that it's not possible to learn the art of baguazhang that way to which I concur. Yet what if we talk about very basics - circle walking, single palm change? If people like Frantzis, Matsuo, Mancuso, Bisio, Yang Yusen, and maybe others, don't just sell "demo DVDs" but actual "DVD courses", and sure they all say you should come for live training one day but none says you have to right from the start? (And yes I'll go learn with live teacher but that might take a year or two. But I need aerobic exercise right now and thought to kill two flies in one shot.)