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Hello everybody, I'm looking for some feedback on the Six healing sounds by those who have tried it. I am someone who has tried a few different styles of qigong without getting the results that I hoped. I suspect the root cause of my health issues is chronic, persistent blockages in the Liver. Trapped energy/emotions in the liver, basically. Hence my interest in the healing sounds and their apparent ability to 'purge' stuck emotions. I did ask for feedback on the Six healing sounds in a recent thread I started about '100 days of qigong', but I thought it was better to cast a wider net here, by making it a standalone topic. I'm still a newbie here, so please forgive me if posting in wrong section, or not following correct etiquette... Thanks kindly

In qigong, connection to earth and heaven is clearly important. I believe that much initial work is setting up alignment and body conditioning so that we can experience support from the ground beneath our feet; that is my experience. I work on establishing a benevolent connection to the earth both through gardening (caring for the soil) and in qigong (where I like the subtle rising support that seems to give me access to an inner elastic quality, even in a simple arm swing). Any comments welcome! But I would also be grateful for information on how we 'experience' the energy of heaven. And is cosmic energy the same as heaven? Or does cosmic include both heaven and earth energy?

Good day folks! I tried to look into common history of qigong and yogic asanas (the physical bit of yoga), and so far has had no luck with google. I have just two pieces of information. -- Qigong seems to have been fairly evolved by 2nd century BC. That's the dating of the silk scrolls depicting qigong practice. -- Around the same time period, there is the earliest written mention of asanas, albeit without specific examples. That's all I've been able to find. The google search of a common history keeps leading me to yoga and qigong comparisons, but I'm not interested in that. I want to learn about their common history, if there is one. Perhaps they have a common ancestor? Perhaps they originated completely separately? Perhaps we know nothing? Best wishes, Anton

Hi everyone Happy 2023 and it's nice to meet everyone. I began my gigong journey in mid 2022 through stumbling upon spring forest qigong (SFQ) on youtube. Since then I have discovered books and youtube materials by Damo Mitchell and have been practising fairly diligently (i.e. about an hour a day). My search for qigong has been driven mainly by health reasons. I have developed symptoms of yang deficiency such as cold hands and feet and tiredness last year, and I thought medical qigong might be a good place to start. Re my experience, I found the SFQ stuffs quite able to generate some noticeable effects soon after I started. specifically, I have been able to feel a lot of tingly sensation throughout my body and some relief after a short while. However it wasnt until I read Damo Mitchell's A comprehensive guide to Daoist Neigong did i realise how much fundamental practice I must go on with if I were to develop systematically. At present, I am working primarily on 'stilling and consolidating the Jing' in the Wuji posture. After about practising for 2 weeks - for about an hour a day, I started to feel my lower abdomen heating up, just as Damo described in Chapter 7 of the said book. At the beginning the heat only came on while I exhaled and was concentrated in one spot. This slowly spread through to the back and now occasionally occurred even at inhalation and would become consistent for 2-3 mins, before they disperse again. I have started to also complement this with some sitting practice (also to still the Jing and stablise the mind). I also do 10-15 mins of jing ben qigong (like the 5 elements qigong taught in SFQ when the lower ab is heating up, it brings a nice, warm sensation up and down my torso). To support the practice, I have cut out most unskillful sexual behaviours, including cutting down porn consumption to minimal /necessary level. Just wanted to ask anyone who know this here, 1) if this sounds about right? 2) Does anyone have any similar experience? 3) If so, have they experienced any health benefit? 4) How did your experience progress from here? I am 39/M based in London, UK. I dont really have many friends I can talk to about this (maybe 1), so if you are in the UK, specifically London. I am very keen to link up! Jason

I am practicing tai ji quan for 4 years, and suddenly can feel what qi is about one-year ago. The major material what I learned is in chinese until I found this forum. I am practicing qigong now, and trying to do some research about what qi is.

Hello, There are already some topics similar to this one, and I have read them, but still I felt that my questions weren't answered, so I decided to register on the forum and ask them myself. Originally I planned to send it as a DM to @steve, but I decided to post it openly, so anyone else that has experience with both systems can contribute if they wish to do so. That being said, I'd really appreciate your input @steve. I'm a Yungdrung Bon practitioner. My practice, at least when it comes to working with channels and energy, consists of tsa lung exercises from Magyud, Zhang Zhung Nyengyud trul khor and tummo from Ku Sum Rang Shar (for now the general and special preliminaries only). Recently I have begun to dabble a bit in qigong, with some local instructor and their teacher that visits us from time to time. We seem to do mostly alignment stuff for now, opening the kua, wall squats and the like, as well as some basic forms. Even at that really basic level my qigong practice really enhanced my body, my energy levels and general well-being, in a way that my Tibetan yoga practice didn't seem to address. I get many benefits from doing yoga of course, but it just has a different feel and effect upon my mind and body. I'd describe it like using different sets of muscles, metaphorically speaking. I want to continue my qigong practice, as I found it rewarding and complementary to my other endeavours, but I'm worried it can cause some problems down the line. I've read the injunctions against mixing systems from both traditions, so understandably that is concerning to me, as of course I will continue on the path of Tibetan yoga. From your point of view - practitioners that have practiced in both traditions - can they be mixed safely or not? (by mixing I don't mean doing them in one session, but for example qigong one day, yoga the other, or qigong in the evening and yoga in the morning etc.) If so - what is the qigong system that you would recommend for someone like me? I was thinking about the Zhineng Qigong (simply because of the availability of online teachings), but I read that the teacher advised against mixing it with other qigong system, not to mention other traditions. Secondly, do you think that the Tibetan approach is lacking in certain respects? I don't mean to offend anyone, or the teachings. I consider myself a dedicated practitioner, I've taken refuge vows, but I can't help but wonder that the Tibetan systems are forceful and fiery to the extreme, pure yang, while the Daoist systems seem more balanced. At least that is my limited, entry-level understanding, as I am an expert in neither. I'd appraciate any guidance I can get, and thanks for getting through this long post _/\_

Dear Dao Bums, Qigong and astral travel... Let me ask you some questions 1) Have you astral travelled? If yes, could you elaborate how you got to be able to do that, as well as share some experiences 2) Do you know any trustworthy stories (about friends, teachers etc) about astral travel? If so, please share 3) Do you know any qigong or meditation methods for astral travelling you could share? 4) Do you know any qigong or meditation teachers (trustworthy and authentic) who teach astral travel? Let me share some of my own answers to the above questions a) I'll start with SKY (simplified kundalini yoga). b ) After, I'll share about my sexual qigong and daoist lovemaking teacher. c) Then, I'll share from my indian-village-mountain-cave-yogi guru, who has a student who has shared stories about "sukshma sharir ki yatra" (subtle body travel or subtle body pilgrimage). d) Subsequently, I'll share the story of a white, atheist european boy, who accidentally got the power of astral travel through tibetan buddhist mandala visualisation meditation. e) finally, I'll share a short story from a qigong master from Australia SKY In SKY (Simplified Kundalini Yoga), Vethathiri Maharishi (the guru and founder) was taught astral travel by one of his own gurus. In the beginning of SKY, astral travel was taught as one of the meditations, freely available to everyone. Later, they changed it so only masters would learn it during the masters course. Latest... they completely stopped it. Therefore, alas, I have not been able to learn it yet.. However, I've heard face-to-face trustworthy accounts of high level teachers and masters in SKY, personally telling me about their experiences. The method used is meditating on the navel chakra. After that, I don't know what the next step is (yet.. I hope to learn someday, somehow). Other things they said: how they used to learn it. It would be on full moon morning. They would all have eaten a light dinner the night before, and meditated on the navel chakra before bed time. They would then meet at 4AM. They would all lie down with white sheets on top of them. Vethathiri would be seated, guiding it all. They would meditate on the navel chakra while lying down, and Vethathiri would use his yogic power to take them out of their body, one by one. Once all were out of the body, he would take them to the moon, all together. After returning to the meditation hall, he would stay there. He would then allow everyone to go and do what they want to try; e.g. visit their families, visit mountains or faraway lands, go on pilgrimages to temples etc. Lastly, he would put everyone back in their body. They could then practice this meditation on full moon mornings back home, whenever they wanted. They should just follow the same instructions; light dinner the night before with navel chakra meditation before bed etc. Sexual qigong and lovemaking teacher He told me that the end goal of all daoism and qigong is astral travel. "The One" spoken about in alchemy is actually our spiritual fetus, spiritual body, whatever you want to call it. "Return to the One", "Merge three into One", "From spirit to the One", "Merge with the Emptiness and attain the One" etc. He said the couple would do their qigong and meditation. They would then make sweet, sweet love. They would then leave their bodies. Once out of the body, they would use all the energy from the lovemaking to heal the physical bodies. They would then travel to another planet in our Galaxy, the one from where qigong originates. Here you can be taught higher teachings and achieve higher levels of mastery than using the qigong physically available on Planet Earth. Teachings which have slowly been lost over time, since given to the Planet Earth by "the Gods". Indian Village, another student of my guru He got the siddhi of sukshma sharir ki yatra through the following steps: 1) attain mantra siddhi of a kavach mantra (tantric protection mantra) 2) tratak on the sun and moon to build the energy sufficiently strong 3) meditating on the navel chakra with neck lock until prana and apana merge, after which they rush up through the sushumna, naturally break your neck lock, and go to the crown chakra 4) the prana will then pulse in your crown chakra. You meditate on this pulse of energy for 60 minutes with no other thoughts in your mind 5) then you will feel your sukshma sharir leave your physical body (don't become shocked, then you will have to restart the 60 minutes) 6) after the first succesfull leaving out the crown, you can do it very quickly (because the path has been opened) 7) then you can lie down on the back more comfortably and simply leave out the crown 8) then you will see your physical body sitting or lying there, and you will see spirits around you, trying to mess with you, trying to get you to freak out. Don't let them distract you from your goal, remember that you have put the kavach and trust in it 9) go to your destination, do what you need to do, come back (just by thinking about your body, you automatically return instantly, no matter where you are or the distance) He himself personally went to "Vaikunth", the planet or place where Lord Rama resides. He then did puja to Rama and Sita. Then he returned. After this first journey, he would venture out and journey, doing pilgrimages or simply visiting interesting places, every night during his sleeping time. White atheist boy At one point in my life, I stayed 6 months in a Hindu Ashram in Europe. The resident indian swami told me the following story about this swiss boy, who came to ask for advice. He was a white, swiss, atheist boy, who had never been interested in religion nor spirituality. In his 20s during his university education, a girlfriend of his convinced him to try to meditate, as a way to cope with stress. He agreed (I think he liked the girl ) He was taught a tibetan buddhist mandala visualisation. He would visualise the mandala in 4 steps: lower part of the mandala, middle part of the mandala, upper part of the mandala, the whole mandala together. If you lose the visualisation, you start over. He actually felt some stress relief from this method, so he continued it all throughout university, and also after starting work. After 7 years, one day while meditating, he heard a huge pop. He opened his eyes and saw the wall moving towards him. He was very surprised. As he tried to move, he noticed it was actually him, flying towards the wall. He turned around, and shockingly saw his body sitting in the chair. He was out of his body! He didn't know what to do, so he decided to go visit his dad back home in the countryside of Switzerland. He flew slowly all the way, following the roads and signs. He found his dad out in the garden, working. He tried to talk to him, but his dad didn't react. After some time, he flew all the way back, and went into his body again. He called his dad and asked "dad, did you work on the kale in the garden around 3 o'clock this afternoon?", "Why, yes son, I did". The swiss boy was shocked. The leaving of the body would then happen every single time he meditated. As an atheist, he was so confused by this experience, that he stopped his meditation, and went on google to try and find some hindu or buddhist centers in his city. He found the ashram I would later live in for 6 months, and asked the resident swami to explain what was happening to him, how it was possible, and what he should do. Qigong Master from Australia He was born into a chinese qigong family. At 4 he was forced to do long standing. As a teenager, his teacher took him astral travelling. He took him all the way down to the "realms of hell", and all the way up to the highest levels of "divine realms" they could go to. Conclusion I have heard many bogus and untrustworthy accounts of astral travel in my life. However, the ones above, I can all vouch for. They were told to me by trustworthy friends, in a natural and unforced manner. There were no reason or anything to gain for them, cooking up these stories. It was simply a natural part of the conversations I shared with them during my time with them. I consider them quite "juicy" and interesting I hope to also learn astral travel someday Now please, what do you have to say about my 4 initial questions: 1) Have you astral travelled? If yes, could you elaborate how you got to be able to do that, as well as share some experiences 2) Do you know any trustworthy stories (about friends, teachers etc) about astral travel? If so, please share 3) Do you know any qigong or meditation methods for astral travelling you could share? 4) Do you know any qigong or meditation teachers (trustworthy and authentic) who teach astral travel?

Hi all, My question is, what is so different about taijiquan and qigong, such that I struggle to do even 3 minutes of Spring Forest Qigong or zhan zhuang (or even Flying Phoenix Chi Kung), but I can do 5-10min of the tai chi? Not only that, but tai chi is the only practice that has actually given me a sort of buzz. It seems to me the active opening and closing movements, along with feet movements, are helpful, but I lack knowledge of the inner workings to understand this. The form of taijiquan I'm doing is Bruce Frantzis wu style. As a follow up question, given that my body/mind seems to have an affinity for tai chi, should I focus less (if at all) on qigong and practice tai chi almost exclusively? Or does this mean I need to endure it and keep practicing qigong? My goals are health and "spiritual progress." Recently I've been struggling with health, in particular movement, and some (diagnosed) zen sickness. I can only manage one 20-30min walk per day for example. Although I'm making lots of progress, one thing that eludes me is a consistent practice right now. In that past, before my zen sickness, I was able to do anapanasati or open-awareness type meditations for an hour or two everyday, in addition to being very phyiscally active. My background is almost two decades of inconsistent (self-taught) buddhist meditation and (self-taught) hatha yoga. Thank you in advance.

Been trying to find a a qigong technique or meditation technique for boosting brain performance but cant find anything.

Hi, Since few years , I have become very petty. I am also going through a lot of stress, fear and anxiety due to family troubles. I wasn't always like this. I used to think big, about doing bigger things. Now it is like I have closed my heart. I have become petty, worrying about petty matters and stuff. Is there a qigong which instills this big heart energy in us. So we can embrace ourselves, and the challenges of this world.

Let me preface this by saying that I never felt any inclination whatsoever to be a doctor.Zero.Nada.Not even in dreams. I don't even like much to interact with people, at all. In this aspect I'm the stereotype of the introvert that prefers to be alone. And yet...yet I realized now that for a while(the last three or four years?) I've kept thinking of "the healing arts"/medicine. Once in a while I would talk(with my family) about learning more about anatomy to develop my massage skills, joke about learning acupuncture to "pin myself with the needles", try breathing techniques to lessen the pain, or as it happened today, search about therapeutic methods. I was even taking notes about thermotherapy/heat therapy just right now. Why?No idea. I know next to nothing about how the body works or how ultrasound can be used to alleviate pain or reduce swelling. I even enjoy reading the books/posts that talk about it(the art of healing or how the body heals itself, regeneration and etc.), but at the same time I feel no interest in being more proactive about it and maybe "use it to help others". ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Am I somewhat being led towards a more "medically-inclined life"(for some odd reason), or is it all just in my head and I should stop trying to seek issues where there are none?

Dear Dao Bums, I'll do this in 4 parts: Intro Practices and personal experiences Conclusion on practice Questions for you Intro Last night I finally managed 3 lucid dreams in a row!!! I am over the moon I've been wanting to lucid dream since I was a teenager. I've gone to several tibetan buddhist workshops with renowned dream yoga lamas, read more than 3 books, watched countless interviews and read countless accounts online. Furthermore, I've been practicing daoist sleeping qigong for more than 4 years (not daily, but in practice cycles). I never felt I got anything from it! It only disturbed my sleep! I had 2 lucid dreams as a teenager. I knew I was dreaming, I knew it was all a dream, yet I could neither control myself nor the dream. This was with buddhist dream yoga and "western scientific" lucid dream (setting an intention, getting up during the night to reset intention etc). In my twenties I managed 3 lucid dreams, when I started to seriously meditate and dream journal. It was simply a byproduct. Here I could not control the environment, but I knew I was dreaming, and I could control myself. For the past 2 weeks I remembered my almost life long desire to lucid dream, and decided to give it a go again Practices and personal experiences What I've been doing buddhist wise is the purification breathing before sleep, visualising a red flower in the throat chakra, chanting the syllables of each petal and also visualising them (Om Ah Nu Ta Ra). None of it gave me anything. Daoist sleeping qigong, I learnt from master Wu. There are 2 sleeping positions, flat on the back with a mudra on your navel, and on your side with one hand on the navel and the other holding a mudra on your ear. You then visualise certain things. No matter how much I tried it, it has only been about 5 or 6 times I felt better sleep from it. All the other times, it simply feels like a qigong. You can feel the qi and blood circulating in your body. There was only 2 times in a particular retreat, where he shared 2 new visualisations he never shared before, that on the first night with the first visualisation, something really happened, and the second night with the second visualisation, I got really deep and restful sleep immediately. However, after I got back home and continued the practice, it didn't have the same effect. Lastly, the past 2 weeks, I gave it a go again with tibetan buddhist practices.... And last night it paid off!! The game changer for me was a bön method from Dr Nida Chenagtsang (I got it from his book "tibetan art of dream analysis"). It's a 5 step visualisation before sleep. This was what allowed me to finally experience lucid dreaming! And it was awesome! I was aware I was dreaming, I could control myself and the environment. It was super dope Conclusion on practice I feel there are 3 things which led to me finally experience lucid dreaming: 1) pure and open channels and energy centers (after 9 years of daily meditation and 7 years of daily qigong, now adding 14 days of daily tibetan practice, finally opened my channels and centers sufficiently) 2) sufficiently strong energy (I could actually feel that in the 3rd dream, the environment was a bit less responsive to my desired changes, I think the reason is that it actually takes some energy to control the dream) 3) I finally accumulated sufficient good karma (never hurt yourself or others, physically or mentally, help alleviate the suffering of others when you can, love and forgive) The tibetan practices I did for the last 14 days were: 9 purification breaths, breath holding meditation from the first steps of karma mudra meditation (the non sexual ones) and the bön visualisation before sleeping. Questions for you Would you like to share your experiences? 1) How did you get to be able to lucid dream? 2) Which practices did you follow, and for how long? 3) What do you do, during lucid dreams? 4) What are your greatest "pro tips" for lucid dreaming? 5) Anything you would like to add on the subject of lucid dreaming? May you all be blessed!

Hello, I am new on this forum! I don't know much about Daoism or Qigong, I was pointed towards these practices due to some of my interests and areas of improvement that I'm pursuing at this moment. I started with buddhist meditation some years ago (basically following the breath at the tip of the nose), at some point I developed strong sensations on my face and involuntary body movements which hindered my practice. I couldn't find much information in this regard from buddhist sources so people pointed my towards Qigong. I have body rigidity and lack of good sleep that hinder me when trying to pursue different physical activities. Some Qigong practices also seemed useful to improve in those areas. I have started practicing for a few weeks exercises from Damo Michell's book "Daoist Nei Gong", mostly the 8 Ji Ben Qi Gong exercises detailed in the book and the Sung Breathing exercise. I had a lot of success regarding my body rigidity issues, specially with the Sung Breathing exercise, I got many involuntary movements that have slowly untangled some rigid parts of my back, and released my spine in points that seemed too rigid. But I haven't had much success regarding the blockage issues on my face that hinder my meditation. I got some recommendations for Zhan Zhuang and some other "grounding" practices, but they don't seem to do much to reduce the tension and even strengthen it in some sitiations. Would be interested in learning from this forum more about other people's practices and possible methods that could help improve my meditation. Looking forward to participating in this forum and learning from other people!

Hi, this will be kind of an info dump about how i discovered internal alchemy and what I discovered so far. I feel as though I'm making fast progress, would love to hear from others here if I am on the path of the rabbit or turtle. I am self-taught in almost everything I do, I consider myself a good judge of false truths and universal truths. I trust my instincts, but I know it can be dangerous to mess with these energies without guidance, which is why I'm here. A) I've been meditating on and off since middle school (24 YO now) to try and deal with anxiety, depression and difficulty falling asleep at the time. over the recent year I've noticed something is missing from the practice which is why it didn't feel natural to meditate consistently. B ) Started training in powerlifting when i was 16. Came across the Valsalva maneuver for bracing the core and efficient lifting. This has lead me to learn that breathing into the abdomen has many benefits (leaning nervous system to rest & digest), also Elliott Hulse's video about "breath into your balls" further reinforced that idea. now i know this is anchoring the breath. I've made this a habit for a long time before discovering internal alchemy. C) I've noticed animal products made me feel heavy and lethargic, and had a negative effect on my training. so I've been vegan for over 2.5 years now and developed more awareness of how the things i put in my mouth affect my body. I overall have higher energy and a clearer mind thanks to this. D) when i broke off my last relationship, I've noticed i felt like a different person when i had a gf vs when single. In a good way. i knew it wasnt the girl specifically, and i never enjoyed casual sex much. By process of elimination, i deducted it was because i didn't watch porn or masturbated while in a relationship, that desire simply never came. That lead my down the rabbit hole of NoFap, which somewhat worked for about a year or two, but by the time COVID came around it felt extremely forced and detrimental to my mental health. I realized that NoFap is incomplete. after further research of the psychology of (porn) addiction and the emotional knots of that habit i've reached a more complete picture of the issue. excessively expelling sexual energy is a symptom, not the core issue. Now i know this is Taming the White Tiger. About 3 months ago, i've decided to research the subject again. by that time i had fully taken in the sensations of sexual energy rising and falling, and how powerful (and dangerous) that energy is. By simply typing "Sexual energy" into YT i came across a channel that talks about sexual energy and the MCO, which led me to Qigong and Internal alchemy. I learned about the MCO, the 3 treasures, the dantien and some more of the basic concepts. I started doing Shi Heng Yi's Baduanjin qigong routine a few times a week. Which helped me: 1. feel much more connected to my body, within 2-3 sessions ive noticed a lot of stored tension in my shoulders, hands and head. 2. Meditate more easily. I became aware that i couldn't meditate a lot because it felt like too much energy is floating to the head. Thanks to the anchor to the body, meditation doesn't feel like suffering. 3. cultivate more of the non-action mindset. I'm insisting on NOT imagining Qi and simply doing the practice, and noticing the effects in my body naturally. During heavy training sessions i would listen to metal music in order to hype myself for the lift. for the past to month or two that desire did not arise. Syncing the breath and closing the magpie bridge during qigong made me realize how powerful my body can feel without external stimuli. So using the same methods in my training, i can focus on my body, gather and use immense amounts of force with a tranquil mind, ultimately making my training feel easier and energy refining rather than energy draining. 4. slowly feel the effects of the dantien and MCO. After a Saturday of going to the beach alone and an evening of meeting with a friend and smoking weed, I've had a realization on the drive back home. I started to remember the habit of the tongue positions and reminded myself to do it. suddenly i felt a click, almost like my mind was sharper the second my tongue and the roof of my mouth connected. Also i swear i could almost feel a flow, like it was almost very easy to see the breath and rhythm of the universe in that moment. perhaps it was an illusion, however it felt very real. The feeling carried over to my everyday even when i was sober, then faded and sometimes comes back just a little bit now and again. To reiterate, I've been practicing internal alchemy for only about 3 months, and already feel significant benefits. The absolute basics of the practice were already known to me (see A-D) and I haven't been grasping or forcing (as far as I'm aware). I really hope this is real progress and not an illusion. Please share you opinion or thoughts Besides that, is there something else i should do besides meditation and qigong to build a strong foundation? I still struggle with the White Tiger sometimes, however it is easier now than it has ever been. Should i read a book on qi/neigong? (all info so far was learned on the internet) OR should i hold off on learning about higher concepts for now until I've laid a strong foundation?

I heard there is qigong for improving brain function and intelligence called wisdom/scholarly qigong. However I have not been able to find much information on it. The only book I have seen on it is Mantak Chia's Wisdom Chi Kung. Also in Damo Mitchells book "The comprehensice Guide to Daoist Neigong" he describes that jing can enter the brain and improve brain function through the microcosmic orbit when it first opens. The brain functions on marrow and the more marrow it has the smarter it is. And jing is the building block of marrow. Also Yang qi at higher stages can pass through the zhong mai/ thrusting channel and enter the center of the brain and improve brain fucntions I think that's a samadhi experience. Lastly I came across Wang Liping's lineage. And started to read books like Opening the dragon gate and Ling bao tong zhi neng gong shu and they describe a technique for increasing intelligence called zhi neng gong. It is started after one has successfully practiced yi xian fa. They basically learn to develop inner seeing and awareness in an empty mind and use that inner seeing and awareness to solve problems. Are there any other techniques with more details describing scholarly/wisdom qigong.

I will intdoduce my shelf to all of you again after being absence long time from the martial arts and nei kung forums... I was taught the system of five animals and hard chi kung in the period 1992-2000 by Antonios Iatrakis in Heraklion Crete and I reached a teacher level (In 1997 I was given a black belt and the first Dan). This system is genealogy of Shu Pui Cheung, based in Philadelphia's China Town. The kung fu of this kind includes movements in combination with breath, such as the tiger associated with the bones, the crane associated with the nervous system, the leopard associated with power and speed, the snake associated with controlling the chi-prana (animal power) and finally the dragon, who combines all four previous animals into one and symbolizes spirit-perfection. On the journey of my internal search until 2008 I was taught, I received influences and guidance from several teachers, some of which are: Kostas Vrettos (wu taiji form and sword) Panayiotis Kontaxakis (chi kung of the sun, chi kung of the spine, iron shirt and opening the microcosmic track.) Master Don Ankut (Korean based in New York, from whom I taught iron shirt chi kung twenty-four animals and tai chi chi kung, dan tien chi kung) Wang ting jun (Xing Shen Zhuan) In the last ten years, I have practiced beside master Kenneth Bone (the only personal student of BO MA, a high-grade Buddhist monk and teacher at Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai), from whom I fully taught the following: 1. Chen taiji chuan 3 frames (new, old, small). The main feature of chen tai chi is the switching of slow and fast spiral movement as well as the explosions at the end of the movements, of course, if we choose it. Some of the benefits of the proper tai chi execution to health are the following: Due to the very slow and constant speed of movement (we can only choose slow motion, if our goal is health) the body muscles are stimulated at the cellular level while the heart pushes the blood even to the smaller capillaries. This makes tai chi an excellent cardiovascular exercise. At the same time, the muscular and neuronal control capacity is gradually increased at a more sophisticated level. During the exercise of tai chi, the soles of the feet as well as a part of our intent, our mind are rooted in the soil with consistency in addition to the external stability to gain emotional balance. In addition, during the execution of the form, alignments of some parts of the body are made, while others are symmetrically arranged in relation to specific axes and points. This makes the contribution of tai chi to the prevention and treatment of orthopedic problems decisive. Because of the spiral movements combined with the intent, chi is driven to the joints and from there to the bone marrow where the blood is produced. This helps to strengthen the bones, to clean the bone marrow and thus to better oxygenate and revitalize the body. It is, therefore, an excellent anti-aging exercise. The constant intention of pulling from the earth and the top of the head from the sky dilates, strengthens the spine and exalts the spirit. Finally, all our moves should be guided by our intention, with the consequence of pushing the chi to the various parts of the body.This is meditation in movement, which strengthens our macrocosmic orbit. White crane (white crane from the lineage of master wee kee jin perfrected in my opinion by the great buddhist monk BO MA). The feature of this system is the combination of breathing exercises, tendon nei kung and bone- chi vibrations. Wild goose if the execution is done by the secret method, it is one of the most effective energy practices that combines stretching exercises and light vibrations to open energy meridians as well as detoxify the body. It includes two forms for opening the microcosmic and macroscopic track, respectively. Each "move" of this form can be used individually as a separate exercise, aiming at specific benefits. Swimming Dragon.. Form with the main aim of exercising the kidneys and opening the third eye. Mara qigong This form deals entirely with the spine and with the opening of all acupuncture points left and right. It looks very much like yoga on the move with the palms of the hands united. Mo pai the proper one not the ritual and demonic one LOST KUNG FU SUSTEM iam also train a system of a series of 12 spiraling forms very old and very very rare !!!! when I asked my sifu to tell me the name of this system, told me that he did not knew the name and that his teacher never mentioned from where come from. I believe that these forms are arcetypes for pakua, taichi xing yi system

Dear Dao Bums, What I wanted to share today was my very interesting discovery about the parallels between the TCM and qigong meridian system, and the chakra, nadi and petal system in Yoga and Sri Vidya. The two channels in the agyna chakra: Ksham (क्ष) is the left side of the forehead, it is the left, outermost bladder meridian in TCM. Ham (हं) is the right side of the forehead, it is the right, outermost bladder meridian in TCM. The bladder branches into 2 channels on each side of the spine, i.e. 4 channels in total. An innermost and an outermost on each side of the spine. The four channels in the muladhara chakra: Sam (सं) is the left, lower kidney meridian (i.e. from the muladhara chakra and down to under the foot) Vam (वं) is the right, lower kidney meridian (i.e. from the muladhara chakra and down) Sham( शं) is the upper part of the right kidney meridian (from muladhara chakra and up through the body, through the lung and finally into the brain) Ssam (षं) is the upper part of the left kidney meridian (from muladhara chakra and up) The six channels in the swadistana chakra: Lam (लं) is the left, lower part of the spleen meridian (running from svadistana chakra and down to the big toe) Bam (बं) is the right, lower part of the spleen meridian. Bham (भं) is the right, upper part of the spleen meridian (running from svadistana and up) Mam (मं) is the innermost bladder channel to the right of the spine, running from swadistana chakra and up alonside the spine Yam (यं) is the innermost bladder channel to the left of the spine, running from swadistana chakra and up alonside the spine Ram (रं) is the upper part of the left spleen meridian (from swadistana and up). I can't wait to journey through the rest of the chakras and nadis, and clear the channels even more (nadi shuddhi). I'll keep you posted as I discover more If you'd like to know a bit more about the background, read on: There are mantras for 6 chakras and their individual nadis. There are 2 nadis in the agyna chakra, 4 nadis in the muladhara chakra, 6 in the swadistana, 10 in the manipura, 12 in the anahata, 16 in the vishuddi. That means you need to memorize a total of 50 sanskrit letters and their mantra, which is going to take some time Saying the sound of the sanskrit letter in the "petals" of the chakra, activates the nadi. Saying the sound of the sanskrit letter in the middle of the chakra, activates the chakra. All of this knowledge is from Hinduism, namely the Yoga and Sri Vidya tradition, as taught by Guru Karunamaya. I've written about my experiences with it here: The method is simply "sandwiching" an empowered mantra from your guru in between the sanskrit letter for each channel. This 1) activates the channel, 2) sends energy from your guru mantra into the channel, 3) closes the energy inside the channel. For example: lam aum nama shivaya lam. So far, I've only mastered the agnya, muladhara and swadistana (which I've described above), so the next one I'll work on memorizing and opening is the manipura chakra and its 10 nadis Be blessed by the Divine! May we all enjoy good health, long life, prosperity, happiness, wisdom and peace

Endless debates over what is correct and what is not correct. Endless debates over what is better and what is worse. Every day fare in the kingdom of the ego. Up and down, east and west, hot and cold. Which is correct? Which is not correct? Which is better? Which is worse? Which all-knowing and all-seeing being can answer these questions with absolute authority? Who here on this Earth can say what immortality is? If anyone can live forever, they must be very rare. No, it's about spiritual immortality, you say? What is spirit? What is spiritual immortality? This person says this. That person says that. Which all-knowing and all-seeing being can answer these questions with absolute authority? What use is self-cultivation if it is not practical? If what a person practices has value and benefit for them, is it not good? If what a person practices improves their health and state of mind, is it not good? What does it matter what this person or that person says about some particular cultivation method? If what a person practices has value and benefit for them, is it not good? If what a person practices improves their health and state of mind, is it not good? I am just a human standing on a vast Earth, surrounded by a vast universe. I do not know anything about spiritual embryos and immortality. Nebulous clouds which no one can seem to agree upon. Beautiful images for the ego to picture and behold. In this world we must be practical. Will it help us through our work day? Will it give us better health? Will it give us a better state of mind? Will it help us to interact with others in a more positive way? Will it help ease the aches and pains as we grow older? What is ultimately real, and what is ultimately not real? What is ultimately of value, and what is ultimately not of value? I do not know. Which all-knowing and all-seeing being can answer these questions with absolute authority?

I came across this person's videos and want to find all of them, specifically the ones where he talks about changing the bones. I have no idea how to get in contact with this person or where else to find his videos. Apparently his videos were posted on this site around 2015. Does anyone know how to find this person's videos, if so, please let me know. Thank you.

Hello hello hello Long time no see everyone! As I realized recently, there has to be an intermediary routine to add at the beginning of my day, but before I start doing my neijiaquan sessions, and I figured it must be the ever-famous "rubbing and tapping" promoted by so many schools and teachers. There used to be a ton of videos and articles but recently I have a feeling that the internet has inflated so much it's impossible to get to the good old bootleg stuff or maybe I'm just way less patient these days Please, please share your favorite self massage/tapping routines that go well with your other practices Namaste! Anyways, gotta walk that circle!

Hello, I am interested in learning medical qigong and this website has some amazing background. I recently did a two week free trial with Holden Qigong and the practice is improving my energy but I felt really ambivalent about Lee Holden. His background has various incongruous stories about how he was introduced to qigong, and as I understand he was a protege of Mantak Chia, the unintentional inspiration for the founding of this site. I want to learn from a respected and legitimate teacher and practice in a respectful way. Looking forward to finding recommendations 🙏🏻

Hello Dao Bums, I got a chance to sit down with Harry Minogue this last Saturday and chat about Baguazhang. I hope you enjoy. https://youtu.be/0hvCighYqyM

https://youtu.be/tV3Ds1FpUp8 In this video Michael Goddard and myself discuss intuition and how to develop it. We discuss techniques from Reiki, foundations for integrating intuition into your daily life, as well as how intuition has literally saved my life. I hope you enjoy this discussion and we plan to continue these. Thank you, Matt Parsons

Hi all, wasn’t sure what part of the site to direct a question about what types of online qigong people have found during this last 2 yrs (where many practitioners went online). I picked up with spring forest qi gong, but something isn’t fitting right with me, and I want to find an alternative. Figured this might be a good place to ask. (And my background is in Wu-Ming style qigong, via Master Nan Lu in Nyc, but I cannot make his live classes) thanks for any help directing the question! I’ll remove this when I know where to post

Hi - I’m wondering if anyone would be comfortable sharing any online qigong groups they might be aware of (so many practitioners have gone online in last two years). I’ll clearly be searching on my own, but thought it couldn’t hurt to toss the question here in case it brought up an interesting avenue. I have had positive and powerful teachers in the past (Wu Ming style), but do not have access to live classes at present…and it helps me to have a live group to practice with, as I’m somewhat isolated at present. I recently found Spring Forest Qigong in Midwest of US…and while I like the actual practice (basic, but a good way to lead me where I’d naturally go in practice, movement leading to an orbit meditation)…I’m not certain about the $$$ to miraculously heal people/cancer vibe. Something isn’t sitting right. Any offerings welcome….whether you can share any experience/knowledge of SFQ, or suggest another solid online live group to investigate, I’d be very grateful. thank you!