The B.K. Frantzis Thread

[Sloppy Zhang]

So I kind of wanted to get a thread started to focus on the methods taught by B.K. Frantzis. I think his stuff is really great. His seminars can be pricey, and some areas of instruction seem to be spread far and wide, but I think what he has out in book format is excellent. However, most of it is rather uncontroversial (I think he wanted it that way!) so it's easy to gloss over and move on to something more flashy.

 

One of my inspirations was the other day I think I caught some sort of cold from a friend of mine. Today when doing my dissolving practice, I notice my nose was pretty clogged up, and I felt a lot of tension in my face. Earlier I had tried to blow my nose, but not a lot of stuff was coming out, it was mostly just congestion I think. I spent about 20 minutes just dissolving my face, and after I felt a really strong urge to massage certain points on my face, which I did.

 

A couple minutes later mucus started flowing out non-stop. Really nasty stuff. But after that I felt 100x better. Stuff that probably would have taken two or three days to get out (or get over) took me under an hour.

 

Excusing the nasty example, I'm curious if anyone else can share experiences they've had from practice, insights into the system, or something else along those lines? I know there's a few people here that have had experiences with the system Bruce teaches, so it would be great if we could get together and share, as well as give info to anyone looking to investigate (as many people are discouraged by high prices and not knowing exactly what they are getting).

 

For my practice background, the only way I've managed to get a hold of the material is through books, but this summer I'll most likely be in New York, and have more access to teachers, and depending on how my funds look and their schedule, might plan on going to a seminar

[dwai]

So I kind of wanted to get a thread started to focus on the methods taught by B.K. Frantzis. I think his stuff is really great. His seminars can be pricey, and some areas of instruction seem to be spread far and wide, but I think what he has out in book format is excellent. However, most of it is rather uncontroversial (I think he wanted it that way!) so it's easy to gloss over and move on to something more flashy.

 

One of my inspirations was the other day I think I caught some sort of cold from a friend of mine. Today when doing my dissolving practice, I notice my nose was pretty clogged up, and I felt a lot of tension in my face. Earlier I had tried to blow my nose, but not a lot of stuff was coming out, it was mostly just congestion I think. I spent about 20 minutes just dissolving my face, and after I felt a really strong urge to massage certain points on my face, which I did.

 

A couple minutes later mucus started flowing out non-stop. Really nasty stuff. But after that I felt 100x better. Stuff that probably would have taken two or three days to get out (or get over) took me under an hour.

 

Excusing the nasty example, I'm curious if anyone else can share experiences they've had from practice, insights into the system, or something else along those lines? I know there's a few people here that have had experiences with the system Bruce teaches, so it would be great if we could get together and share, as well as give info to anyone looking to investigate (as many people are discouraged by high prices and not knowing exactly what they are getting).

 

For my practice background, the only way I've managed to get a hold of the material is through books, but this summer I'll most likely be in New York, and have more access to teachers, and depending on how my funds look and their schedule, might plan on going to a seminar

 

I've read Bruce's works extensively and they are a vast ocean of wisdom. I found many things he said reflective of what I've learnt from my Taiji teacher...wrt Taiji practice.

 

Also his books are excellent to read because of so many personal anecdotes he throws in to spice up the material.

I have loosely tried to practice dissolving and it is hard. A lot of what he describes as phases in inner/outer dissolving have happened automatically to me during regular Taiji practice. But his works act as a guideline/roadmap that I turn to whenever I feel the need. Haven't really taken any of his workshops, but hopefully this year or the next, somewhere in mainland US I intend to attend one.

 

Cheers!

[Creation]

Like dwai said, dissolving is HARD. It's not something you can just do. Having to try to figure out how to do it from a book or CD set seems about as futile as it gets.

 

And yet, here I am trying to do it.

 

So what I would like to see from this thread is that those who really understand dissolving would help out those who are clueless (like me). What stages did you go through, what helped you get to the next one, what insights do you wish you would have had when you were starting out, what insights have you gotten from seminars that were not in the books that you have found to be essential, what have you found from independent research, etc...

 

What I mean by stages is this: Dissolving comes after learning to stand/sit, sink, scan the physical body, scan the energetic and emotional bodies, breathe, etc. (or at least a subset of that list, depending on what you are going for). Trying to jump straight to dissolving is wishful thinking.

 

Here are some struggles I am having that prospective commentators can start with.

 

1. To even be able to be able to stand sit in a relaxed way and keep your awareness on your body, you need to have good posture. I have held my head and neck improperly my entire life and have a curved spine and asymmetric hips, so I can't really even sit in a relaxed way with "correct alignments" without straining and getting tense. What can I do about this?

 

2. It's so easy to jump ahead when you are not ready. For example, somehow I really did not understand that in Taoist Internal Breathing you are supposed to JUST feel your breath and not try to regulate it in any way except to make it connected, until you can REALLY feel it all the way down to your dan tien. So I spent a lot of time forcefully breathing with my belly and slowing down my breath (but I didn't know it was forceful because I was completely out of touch with myself) which, for the purposes of using the breath for dissolving is a waste of time.

 

3. Okay, seriously, how do you be "present"? What does that really mean? Let's not kid ourselves, we might think we know but we really don't (I am speaking to beginners like myself here). Just like we might think we are not straining but we really are. When I sit down to breathe I am not really present. My thoughts continually pull me off balance. Now, I know this is unavoidable in the beginning and I need to stick with it, be patient and keep practicing, but I would like to know if anyone has found anything that helped them REALLY be present, or accelerate the process of learning to be present, that was not in the books (or anything that was in the books that I might have missed).

 

So, to those who have "been there": learning to have correct alignments, feeling/scanning the physical/energetic/emotional bodies, learning to breathe properly and use the breath as a tool for dissolving, really being present to what IS here and now when you sit down to dissolve, and whatever else you have found to be an important skill to have in dissolving. Any and every piece of advice you can give please do.

 

Anyone who can comment on any of this even if you don't practice BKF's stuff, I would appreciate you input as well.

Edited March 21, 2010 by Creation

[dwai]

Like dwai said, dissolving is HARD. It's not something you can just do. Having to try to figure out how to do it from a book or CD set seems about as futile as it gets.

 

And yet, here I am trying to do it.

 

So what I would like to see from this thread is that those who really understand dissolving would help out those who are clueless (like me). What stages did you go through, what helped you get to the next one, what insights do you wish you would have had when you were starting out, what insights have you gotten from seminars that were not in the books that you have found to be essential, what have you found from independent research, etc...

 

What I mean by stages is this: Dissolving comes after learning to stand/sit, sink, scan the physical body, scan the energetic and emotional bodies, breathe, etc. (or at least a subset of that list, depending on what you are going for). Trying to jump straight to dissolving is wishful thinking.

 

Here are some struggles I am having that prospective commentators can start with.

 

1. To even be able to be able to stand sit in a relaxed way and keep your awareness on your body, you need to have good posture. I have held my head and neck improperly my entire life and have a curved spine and asymmetric hips, so I can't really even sit in a relaxed way with "correct alignments" without straining and getting tense. What can I do about this?

 

2. It's so easy to jump ahead when you are not ready. For example, somehow I really did not understand that in Taoist Internal Breathing you are supposed to JUST feel your breath and not try to regulate it in any way except to make it connected, until you can REALLY feel it all the way down to your dan tien. So I spent a lot of time forcefully breathing with my belly and slowing down my breath (but I didn't know it was forceful because I was completely out of touch with myself) which, for the purposes of using the breath for dissolving is a waste of time.

 

3. Okay, seriously, how do you be "present"? What does that really mean? Let's not kid ourselves, we might think we know but we really don't (I am speaking to beginners like myself here). Just like we might think we are not straining but we really are. When I sit down to breathe I am not really present. My thoughts continually pull me off balance. Now, I know this is unavoidable in the beginning and I need to stick with it, be patient and keep practicing, but I would like to know if anyone has found anything that helped them REALLY be present, or accelerate the process of learning to be present, that was not in the books (or anything that was in the books that I might have missed).

 

So, to those who have "been there": learning to have correct alignments, feeling/scanning the physical/energetic/emotional bodies, learning to breathe properly and use the breath as a tool for dissolving, really being present to what IS here and now when you sit down to dissolve, and whatever else you have found to be an important skill to have in dissolving. Any and every piece of advice you can give please do.

 

Anyone who can comment on any of this even if you don't practice BKF's stuff, I would appreciate you input as well.

 

I haven't taken any formal classes in this method but it seems like that any seated or supine meditation can be used to do dissolving.

 

What works best for me is Shavasana (The Corpse Pose of Hatha Yoga). After doing some basic yogic postures and breathing, when I lay down in Shavasana, my mind is alert (due to the Yoga practice) and body on the threshold of relaxation. The dissolving happens first at a physical level and then at a mental level. The physical part is when the body gradually relaxes, like a slab of butter on a hot plate, releasing physical/musco-skeletal "issues".

 

The physical release is like outer dissolving...I must admit the Ice to Water to Gas analogy doesn't really work very well for me.

 

As the body relaxes, like the blockages releasing into the ground, then the mind aspect usually plays in. The thoughts change from a continuous stream of thoughts to discrete packets of thoughts with small gap between each thoughts to slowly flowing thought packets with large gaps.

 

Usually the thoughts that arise are what need to be "inner dissolved". These thoughts,feelings associated with these thoughts and emotions that arise as a result thereof are those that need to be worked on.

[dwai]

 

 

3. Okay, seriously, how do you be "present"? What does that really mean? Let's not kid ourselves, we might think we know but we really don't (I am speaking to beginners like myself here). Just like we might think we are not straining but we really are. When I sit down to breathe I am not really present. My thoughts continually pull me off balance. Now, I know this is unavoidable in the beginning and I need to stick with it, be patient and keep practicing, but I would like to know if anyone has found anything that helped them REALLY be present, or accelerate the process of learning to be present, that was not in the books (or anything that was in the books that I might have missed).

 

So, to those who have "been there": learning to have correct alignments, feeling/scanning the physical/energetic/emotional bodies, learning to breathe properly and use the breath as a tool for dissolving, really being present to what IS here and now when you sit down to dissolve, and whatever else you have found to be an important skill to have in dissolving. Any and every piece of advice you can give please do.

 

Anyone who can comment on any of this even if you don't practice BKF's stuff, I would appreciate you input as well.

 

Being present means witnessing the thought packets as they arise and disappear. imho, it seems like the thoughts which are discrete packets tend to trigger a chain reaction, so we travel from one thought to another to another and where the first thought might have been about a itch on your back, it might lead you to the grand canyon (via a sequence of triggers and cues). This stream of thought packets is what we call the "mind". What we usually tend to do is attach to these thoughts (thus the monkey-mind, wandering-mind, etc) and end up getting "uprooted" from our original goal (of meditation). By being aware of the fact that these thoughts are simply discrete packets, we can simply observe them and then let go of them. At this point it will become clear that we are not the mind, but something else that is underlying the mind (which is simply a stream of thoughts playing out randomly). When this realization happens, we become aware of a gap between the thoughts. This gap is empty but vividly aware/conscious and a evokes a sense of fantastic well being. I guess it might feel different to different people. To me it feels like my consciousness is being jerked from one level to another (like how the body might feel when it drops from a great height in a short interval, like in an amusement park). As this gap elongates, the sense of jerkiness also reduces.

 

As far as the different layers/bodies goes -- we call them the pancakoshas in Yogic parlance (or the Five Sheaths). Bruce's version talks about 7 layers, but that difference is not very important, imho.

 

The five layers are the physical, energetic, mental, intellectual and spiritual sheaths. In Yogic terms they are called the Annamaya (Food-dependent) Kosha (Sheath), the Pranamaya (Energetic) Kosha, the Manomaya (Mind) Kosha, the Vijnanamaya (intellectual) Kosha and the Anandamaya (Blissful) Kosha. These are like the layers of an onion. The outer layer is the physical (food-dependent) layer, then the energetic layer (with the meridian network), then the mental layer (with the stream of thoughts), the intellectual layer (with the rational faculties) and finally the blissful layer (when all thoughts, intellect, etc have been transcended).

 

When meditation (dissolving), we first encounter the physical layer, then the energetic layer. After this point we encounter the mental layer and then the intellectual/emotional layer. I think the majority of our work and effort are directed at these two layers (of mental and emotional/intellectual levels).

[Sloppy Zhang]

Hi Sloppy,

 

Question: did you dissolve all the way down to your feet once you did your head? And release the energy out the feet and hands?

 

Yup

 

I hope others, including SFJane and Pietro, comment here, as they could be esp. helpful.

 

I hope so too

[Creation]

I hope others, including SFJane and Pietro, comment here, as they could be esp. helpful.

I've got my fingers crossed. And if we're lucky Jess O'Brien will show up too. He has been know to pop up in discussions of the Water Method at random times.

 

Creation, one exercise that has been an excellent precursor to my chi gung practice, that I continue to keep up with, is deep relaxation. Do you actively practice any formal relaxation techniques? If so, what method(s) do you use? I utilize the corpse pose, as it allows for much letting go. My body alignment was off for a few years too, but I was lucky to be helped by rolfing. However, it did not make everything 100%. That's where the deep relaxation has helped enormously. I use a guided relaxation/vizualization track to effectively take me deep in to a wonderfully relaxed state.

Good! This is what I was looking for. No, I don't make a formal practice of deep relaxation, but you are not the first to recommend that to me so perhaps I should finally get started on that. How did deep relaxation help your alignment?

 

Incidentally, what do you think the difference is between deep relaxation and dissolving? I ask because of what dwai said about corpse pose earlier. My thought was "that is a relaxation exercise, not dissolving per se" but I didn't feel qualified to say why. Maybe you could shed some light on the issue?

[Creation]

Ah, thanks to dwai and Rainbow Vein for the progressive relaxation in corpse pose suggestion (just got done practicing). It is definitely a great practice, not to mention being a great stepping stone to standing/sitting and dissolving, especially if you incorporate focused breathing into it.

 

I'll definitely be doing more of this in the future.

[markern]

Ah, thanks to dwai and Rainbow Vein for the progressive relaxation in corpse pose suggestion (just got done practicing). It is definitely a great practice, not to mention being a great stepping stone to standing/sitting and dissolving, especially if you incorporate focused breathing into it.

 

I'll definitely be doing more of this in the future.

 

yoga nidra can do all of this ver well. In addition you get much more including the possibility to put in a "hypnotic" suggestion/resolution it can also be done with alternate nostril breathing or spinal breathing as an element. Santiago knows an extra powerfull version and can give an empowerment for i.

[SFJane]

 

A couple minutes later mucus started flowing out non-stop. Really nasty stuff. But after that I felt 100x better. Stuff that probably would have taken two or three days to get out (or get over) took me under an hour.

 

Excusing the nasty example, I'm curious if anyone else can share experiences they've had from practice, insights into the system, or something else along those lines?

 

Hey there Sloppy. That sure sounds like you did some dissolving to me. I've had similar experiences that I'll try to talk about later. For now I want to just answer this question from Creation.

 

 

 

 

1. To even be able to be able to stand sit in a relaxed way and keep your awareness on your body, you need to have good posture. I have held my head and neck improperly my entire life and have a curved spine and asymmetric hips, so I can't really even sit in a relaxed way with "correct alignments" without straining and getting tense. What can I do about this?

 

 

Hello Creation. This is a more common problem than you might think. I've had to deal with similar issues as well. First let me mention where in Bruce's stuff you can find some more information about your question.

 

In the first edition of 'The Great Stillness' on page 217 is Appendix A. On those pages Bruce explains how to sit and deal with sitting strain and alignments.

 

In the first edition of 'Tao of Letting Go' on page 41 is Chapter 3. In that section is similar but more fine tuned and detailed information on maintaining alignments.

In a nutshell: Think of the whole of your insides as a kind of cloth. You don't want it to be too loose or too tight. You want it to be comfortable. When you feel strain or tension building in an area you want to shift slightly away from immediate discomfort by adjusting your posture.

 

Then you want to move the tense area and get the chi and fluids pulsing again. To do that you breathe into the area of your body that feels not quite right and you guide your attention and intention into that area and slowly release and dissolve. After awhile that area should start to feel 'squishy' or at least no longer painful if you do it right.

 

In your case you know where your body is out of whack so you can prepare yourself in advance that you are going to have to deal with your internal landscape or cloth. One of the things that will help is understanding opening and closing and lifting and sinking. You've probably heard of those things because they are used in internal martial arts like Hsin I and Tai Chi.

 

In terms of sitting you want to keep your structure lifted and your insides sunk. You use your breath to open and close your body cavities or to make waves and stretch your internal cloth, well in advance of when you think it's going to get painful or misaligned. You can also breathe into surrounding structures and get them to move in small pulses and that can help open up the closed down areas. Another way is use your intention to make tiny circles and spirals into those uncomfortable area of the internal cloth.

 

In my experience the way to do that safely is to adhere to the 70% rule of gentleness with regards to how much you practice. You want to grow your alignments and mental poise incrementally and naturally. When your body is out of alignment it sends interference into your tissues and energy channels that is interpreted by your brain as neurological noise that occurs during and in between those thought packets. Those distortions limit your cultivation, sap your energy and interfere with clarity so it's important to be always be mindful that you are not short circuiting your body's energy during sitting or standing practice.

 

That's all for now! I am off to catch the sun setting.

Edited March 23, 2010 by SFJane

[EagleShen]

3. Okay, seriously, how do you be "present"? What does that really mean? Let's not kid ourselves, we might think we know but we really don't (I am speaking to beginners like myself here). Just like we might think we are not straining but we really are. When I sit down to breathe I am not really present. My thoughts continually pull me off balance. Now, I know this is unavoidable in the beginning and I need to stick with it, be patient and keep practicing, but I would like to know if anyone has found anything that helped them REALLY be present, or accelerate the process of learning to be present, that was not in the books (or anything that was in the books that I might have missed).

 

 

Hey Creation, i've not studied Bruce's stuff, but in terms of learning to still the mind there are two techniques i've found really helpful in developing presence.

 

One is simply curiosity, be curious about what you're mind and body are doing rather than trying to ignore them or see them as something that is pulling you off centre. There is nothing which is not the Tao. Watch any thing that happens with unattached curiosity, follow that which is persistent, our curiosity can be a great gateway to staying conscious.

 

The other is hunting thoughts. Like a cat watching at a mouse hole, watch with all of your attention, with all of your focus for the next thought to emerge from your mind. I know many people who've found their first experience of stillness in their mind with this one. When a thought does arise, eagerly leap on it, digest it (letting it pass through), await the next one.

 

That said, it's usually people's 'emotional bodies' that cause the most distraction IMO, so it is necessary to dissolve emotional blockages to get really present.

[Sloppy Zhang]

In terms of sitting you want to keep your structure lifted and your insides sunk.

 

When your body is out of alignment it sends interference into your tissues and energy channels that is interpreted by your brain as neurological noise that occurs during and in between those thought packets. Those distortions limit your cultivation, sap your energy and interfere with clarity so it's important to be always be mindful that you are not short circuiting your body's energy during sitting or standing practice.

 

This part has been the hardest for me (thanks to my bad posture ) sinking internally without enough awareness and I find my neck and shoulders start to sink, but trying to lift my structure too much and I tend to pull everything else up with it.

 

Been checking myself in a mirror, and trying to make sure I have a sunk feeling while maintaining my correct posture.... feels kinda weird sometimes

 

That's all for now! I am off to catch the sun setting.

 

Hope you enjoyed the sunset, thanks for everything you've contributed so far, can't wait to hear more

 

And thanks to everyone else for contributing. Eagleshen, I'm definitely going to have to try the "cat watching mouse" mindset I agree that curiosity can really help go a long way, not only in being able to stay conscious during thoughts, but figuring out where a thought is coming from, why it's showing up when it does, how it affects you, and how you respond.

[Creation]

EagleShen,

 

Thanks for chiming in.

That said, it's usually people's 'emotional bodies' that cause the most distraction IMO, so it is necessary to dissolve emotional blockages to get really present.

Yes that is definitely the case here. I have a the equivalent of a thunderstorm in my emotional body pretty much constantly. And being naturally very intellectual I got in the habit of thinking in order to not feel emotional pain (in the way that others might use drinking) very early in life. So I'm in double trouble.

 

 

Jane,

 

Thanks for the detailed reply. In addition to anything else you want to say, could you please describe pulsing a bit? I've seen that word thrown around in Water Method stuff, but right now it is just a word to me.

Edited March 24, 2010 by Creation

[Ya Mu]

One way of finding deep relaxation prior to doing practices of this nature is to simply lie down and use body-mind. Start at the toes. Wiggle them around and tell them to relax. Next feet. Move them around then tell them to relax. Next ankles then calves then knees. Then hips, abdomen, chest. Then fingers, hands, wrist, elbow, biceps. Then neck, cervical and neck muscles. Then mouth teeth, gums. Then ears, forehead, scalp and hair. If you first call attention to them (moving them) then command them to relax they will.

 

This technique is certainly not limited to any particular method but would apply to just about anything. We use it with our Spiral Qigong method. Spiral qigong is a "dissolving" technique which "dissolves" the whole body and layers, and balances out the energy flow through all the centers.

[Sloppy Zhang]

Creation, you've got me pondering your question. I have limited experience in dissolving, but I see it as different than deep relaxation. I'll check back in with you guys on this one, as I take some time to analyze my practices.

 

 

EagleShen, good reminder. Patience can assist with this process. And I could use more patience in my practices.

 

 

Sloppy, one technique I utilize is to imagine a cord attached to the top of my skull. I imagine this energetic cord to be pulled gently towards the sky. Slowly, gently, I allow my spine to rise. At the same time, I let everything that is connected to the spine to sink. Arms, ribs, diaphragm, organs, pelvis, etc. I adjust any alignments that may be off. When it feels right, I open my occiput by lifting the back of my neck and keeping my eyes level with it. If I do this well, my jaw will release too.

 

I find this exercise is good to do when walking by myself. Add to that, the sinking into the ground through each leg.

 

Thanks for the tips

[SFJane]

Sloppy, one technique I utilize is to imagine a cord attached to the top of my skull. I imagine this energetic cord to be pulled gently towards the sky. Slowly, gently, I allow my spine to rise. At the same time, I let everything that is connected to the spine to sink. Arms, ribs, diaphragm, organs, pelvis, etc. I adjust any alignments that may be off. When it feels right, I open my occiput by lifting the back of my neck and keeping my eyes level with it. If I do this well, my jaw will release too.

 

Very short yet sweet description of sinking and lifting Rainbow_vein.. Sloppy and Creation, I fully agree with this summation of lifting and sinking. You can not go wrong following Rainbow's post on this.

 

Thanks for the detailed reply. In addition to anything else you want to say, could you please describe pulsing a bit?

 

Surely, as this ties into number 2 on your list.

 

For example, somehow I really did not understand that in Taoist Internal Breathing you are supposed to JUST feel your breath and not try to regulate it in any way except to make it connected, until you can REALLY feel it all the way down to your dan tien.

 

Breathing is the first step to pulsing. What pulsing really is is, opening and closing. If you make a fist you are closing your hand. If you tighten that fist, you are closing more. If you relax your hand you are opening. If you gently stretch out your fingers you are opening even more. Pulsing is the oscillating flow of opening and closing.

 

If you keep playing around with the mechanics of how you open and close the shape of your hand you may become aware that blood and synovial fluid is moving, pulsing, in your fingers and palm. The pressure increases and decreases, just like the pulse you can feel in your wrists and neck or groin for that matter. Breathing oscillates air as well as various fluids in your thoraic cavity. The pulse is so large that it is really a pump.

 

Now if you can direct your chi at all, you may find that the chi leads the blood. What that means is that if you can oscillate the yin and yang aspects of your chi you will get the blood and other fluids pulsing and pumping. Part of the reason you are just feeling your breath is to get acclimated to and become aware of, the fact that your entire body is pulsing with each breath, including the chi in your dan tien.

 

If you place your palm in front of your dan tien and breath and listen with your hand, you may feel an ephemeral pressure moving out to your hand and slightly tugging on your hand, in front of your belly.

 

That pushing and tugging is the natural flow of chi from your dantien, pulsing with each breath. So breathing is linked to pulsing and opening and closing. And listening carefully to your breath will allow you to not only detect these pulsings but also determine if your pulse pattern is interrupted at any point during the inhale or exhale.

 

If that is the case you want to find out why right away. That could be too much stomach tension or it could be tension in your shoulder blades or it could be you've got a good case of what Bruce calls 'geek neck' from sitting so long that your occiput closes down on your cervical vertebra from compression and bad posture/breathing and stops pulsing cerebro spinal fluid in and out of your skull leading to headaches and chi stagnation in the head.

Edited March 25, 2010 by SFJane

[Seth Ananda]

 

Now if you can direct your chi at all, you may find that the chi leads the blood. What that means is that if you can oscillate the yin and yang aspects of your chi you will get the blood and other fluids pulsing and pumping. Part of the reason you are just feeling your breath is to get acclimated to and become aware of, the fact that your entire body is pulsing with each breath, including the chi in your dan tien.

 

 

Great SFJane, I love your posts.

I can move my blood with my Chi now, which has developed from lots of gentle Dan Tien breathing. I can move it around and warm up my feet or Hands, Keep my feet from going numb in full lotus, and those Lift chi up - pour chi down type movements feel great, But also I am wondering 'What do I do with this?'

 

I often think the long time health benefits must be amazing, of being able to move blood and expand all those little capillaries and the veins, considering how many people have strokes or get circulation problems... But I just do not know what to do next.

Of course I will keep doing what I am doing as it is working and I love it, but are there ways of using or developing This? What next?

 

Thanks

Seth.

[Old Man Contradiction]

I can't comment on his qigong or meditation, but I read The Power Of Internal Martial Arts from front to back. I believe the knowledge is there, and good knowledge too, but based on videos of him practicing I think he still has a lot of work to do and a lot of questions to ask himself. This is from a martial arts perspective though. Maybe he doesn't care too much for that anymore.

[Sloppy Zhang]

For those of you who don't know, there is an excellent blog here taichimaster.com that has a lot of great articles, I suggest everyone check it out.

[z00se]

Ahhh i didn't even know who this bloke was. Went to that webpage and saw his pic and yeah i've seen him on TV here. I mean i watch tv one hour a month at most. So strange he was on when i was watching it!

 

As far as i remember he was taking a few whacks to the gut from a stick by someone & using his iron shirt or smething to protect himself.

 

Seemed to be pretty serious though not too much smiling or laughing from what i saw.

Edited March 29, 2010 by z00se

[work_in_progress]

In terms of sitting you want to keep your structure lifted and your insides sunk. You use your breath to open and close your body cavities or to make waves and stretch your internal cloth, well in advance of when you think it's going to get painful or misaligned. You can also breathe into surrounding structures and get them to move in small pulses and that can help open up the closed down areas. Another way is use your intention to make tiny circles and spirals into those uncomfortable area of the internal cloth.

 

Hi Jane,

 

I was wondering if you could go a little bit into the details about this. Exactly how do you breathe into a body cavity to open it or close it. Do you just bring your attention/intention to a certain spot?? I'm kind of new to this stuff and trying to learn as much about this as I can. Thank you.

 

wip

[SFJane]

 

Hi Jane,

 

I was wondering if you could go a little bit into the details about this. Exactly how do you breathe into a body cavity to open it or close it. Do you just bring your attention/intention to a certain spot?? I'm kind of new to this stuff and trying to learn as much about this as I can. Thank you.

 

wip

 

Oi. The simplest explanation is that the word 'pressurize' is synonymous with breath for this particular example. Unless you have a structural defect you're breathing into your thoracic cavity all the time. If you are new to paying attention to your breath, you may or may not have noticed that the pressure from breathing extends downward into your belly and genitals and also upward into your neck and head.

 

When you inhale and exhale, various cavities and vessels as well as the spaces between joints are being modestly opened and then closed from breath pressure coming and going. To pulse, open or otherwise get some movement going into other parts of your body using your breath you follow your breathing with your mind into the part of your body that you want to deliberately open up.

 

To that end you can 'breath' into your hands, eyeballs, ear canals, armpits, elbows, wrists, palms, fingers, urethra, anus and rectum just by guiding your mind along the subtle pressure wave that breathing causes. It's something that is easier shown then explained in words. If you had your hands on my belly it would be obvious in about a second or two. But perhaps I've explained it enough to get some kind of sense of what I am talking about and to further explore breathing into your limbs or organs in such a way as to cause them to pulse and pump a little on your own. There are refinements to this and eventually you can cause some degree of opening and closing by manipulating intent as well as internal pressure. Good luck.

Edited March 31, 2010 by SFJane

[z00se]

To that end you can 'breath' into your hands, eyeballs, ear canals, armpits, elbows, wrists, palms, fingers, urethra, anus and rectum just by guiding your mind along the subtle pressure wave that breathing causes.

 

I've always been able to breath out of my anus, just can't breath in. *giggle*

[Pietro]

sorry edited out. :-)

Edited April 4, 2010 by Pietro

[David Yeh]

Don't know if you guys have seen this, kinda funny: BK Frantzis doing a little tai chi dance to disco music:

 

http://tinyurl.com/yhfwzoc