sean

The Tao Bums Interview with Bruce Frantzis - March 2011

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You may remember back in November 2010 I posted an inquiry "what would you ask Bruce Frantzis?"

 

Thank you for the many thoughtful questions that came out of that topic.

 

So many in fact it was rather hard choosing which to send to Bruce.

 

A huge thanks to Apech there for helping me organize all these questions into a coherent document, and reviewing the final streamlined interview questions. (Thanks!)

 

This post is to announce that I've just received Bruce's responses now.

 

It turns out he took many hours to carefully respond to our interview questions.

 

The interview is well over 8,000 words. :o

 

So instead of trying to format it into a post, I created a PDF of the whole thing which you can download here:
Interview with Bruce Frantzis and The Tao Bums March 2011

 

Hope you enjoy!

 

Best,

Sean

 

PS - I've also been told that Bruce's new "Taoist Meditation Circle" is live:

http://www.energyarts.com/taoist-meditation-circle-subscription

 

Looks pretty cool. If you're thinking of signing up, be sure to use the coupon they gave me "taobums10" for 10% off.

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You may remember back in November 2010 I posted an inquiry "what would you ask Bruce Frantzis?"

 

Thank you for the many thoughtful questions that came out of that topic.

 

So many in fact it was rather hard choosing which to send to Bruce.

 

A huge thanks to Apech there for helping me organize all these questions into a coherent document, and reviewing the final streamlined interview questions. (Thanks!)

 

This post is to announce that I've just received Bruce's responses now.

 

It turns out he took many hours to carefully respond to our interview questions.

 

The interview is well over 8,000 words. :o

 

So instead of trying to format it into a post, I created a PDF of the whole thing which you can download here:

Interview with Bruce Frantzis and The Tao Bums March 2011

 

Hope you enjoy!

 

 

Best,

Sean

 

PS - I've also been told that Bruce's new "Taoist Meditation Circle" is live:

http://www.energyarts.com/taoist-meditation-circle-subscription

 

Looks pretty cool. If you're thinking of signing up, be sure to use the coupon they gave me "taobums10" for 10% off.

 

Whoa, awesome! Look forward to reading this, thanks (to Apech too) for putting in the effort to make this happen!

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Great job, good editing. Haven't gone through all 23 pages yet, but I did see my question was the last :).

 

Thank you for producing something that encapsulates Bruce Frantzis methods and philosophies so well.

 

Michael

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Thanks a lot Sean and Bruce Kumar Frantzis! Kind of amazing that he took that much time to reply. Can't wait to read the interview.

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Guest sykkelpump

Thanks for this interview.

I suppose many here have tried Bruce Frantziz system.I am especially interested in the Breathing exercise where you learn how to breath with the whole body.I had this ability before,but I somehow just lost it.I tried several years to get it back,but then I gave up wasting my time.I learned it from gary Clyman and it was incredible powerfull,I was able to generate and condense chi into the whole body or dantien or anywhere I chosed.When I condensed the chi,it changed and felt like electricity.incredibly powerful.I clearly felt every cell of the body powerfully expanded and contracted with chi.Now I am into meditation and happy with that.I do get somewhat the same experience when doing white skeleton meditation.But I have never stopped wondering why I lost this skill and I would like it back again.So my question is have anybody learned this kind of full body breathing from Bruce? and if,please describe a little how it feels

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if you want to strike water don't dig 20 wells ten feet deep, dig one well 200 feet deep.

 

This interview is a deep well, Thank you

 

_/\_

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Most excellent conversation, thanks to everybody who made it happen -- Sean, Apech, the bums who provided the questions, and of course Bruce Kumar Frantzis who answered them with such mastery. A very rewarding 23 pages!:)

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Most excellent conversation, thanks to everybody who made it happen -- Sean, Apech, the bums who provided the questions, and of course Bruce Kumar Frantzis who answered them with such mastery. A very rewarding 23 pages!:)
Co-sign. Efforts like these are really what make this site awesome!! Edited by vortex
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Along the lines of the reputation, I really do feel like he's creating and targeting a market. It seems he is very much trying to bring these practices to as large an audience as possible. As such (at least in his writings), he uses very generalized terminology. Not a lot of actual Chinese words. He doesn't do anything more but hint at any abstract energetic or metaphysical topics. Nothing that would scare off your average Joe, or make them shut down from culture/information shock.

 

Which cuts both ways, because while on the one hand you get access to incredible material, if you really want to dig deep and really know a lot of nitty gritty stuff, well, you're pretty much kept hanging!

 

I for one think he's got a lot of knowledge and a lot of experiences, and a lot that he could share on some very deep topics, which back up some of the off hand side comments he makes about things, or complicated issues he steps around, and that's why I will continue to pursue practicing with him.

Edited by Sloppy Zhang

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Very nice, I think he is doing a great service by bringing these techniques to the masses. It sounds like he may have a plan of starting his teachings in the west with physical teachings then later going into the spiritual in more depth.

 

Has anyone trained in the Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong he talks about? how do you rate it?

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Very nice, I think he is doing a great service by bringing these techniques to the masses. It sounds like he may have a plan of starting his teachings in the west with physical teachings then later going into the spiritual in more depth.

 

Has anyone trained in the Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong he talks about? how do you rate it?

 

Just from the book.

 

It's solid and all around awesome. Low impact physically, works directly with specific channels. Well balanced.

 

Just as an aside though, he mentions all the time that there are a lot of sets out there that all get the job done relatively well. Dragon and Tiger is just one set which he personally found gives a lot more than you have to put into it (as in, you don't have learn complicated movements, don't have to be physically strong, don't have to already have opened specific channels, don't have to memorized a lot of movements, etc).

 

There are other sets out there and if you are doing something that you like that seems to be working for you, more power to you.

 

I'd recommend it if you don't already got a similar practice, but if you do, don't feel like you gotta go out and pick it up.

Edited by Sloppy Zhang

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I'd recommend it if you don't already got a similar practice, but if you do, don't feel like you gotta go out and pick it up.

 

I liked how he broke up the focus on question "If I could only do one practice exercise what would it be and why?" into General, Martial Arts, Meditation.

 

Really helped me understand why there are so many different areas that get recommended as "essential" Currently for me it seem like more standing practice would be of benefit to my expectations/areas of interest.

 

Also his perspective on "Why become eclectic?" yet also keeping dedicated to a single path to get to the depth of knowledge that comes from experiencing, as opposed to a seminar here and there surface information.

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