What are the best books on standing meditation?

[Cameron]

A Kunlun practitioner recently pm'd me asking about standing practice. I recommended she read Ken Cohen's book but what are the other good books on standing practice?

 

I glanced over The Way of Energy by Master Lam which looked excellent. Any other recommendations?

[KoHsuan]

[Empty Force: The Power of Chi for Self-Defense and Energy Healing

By Paul Dong, Thomas Raffill

[松永道]

I glanced over The Way of Energy by Master Lam which looked excellent. Any other recommendations?

 

I thought "The Way of Energy" was great. Bruce Frantzis' "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" is also helpful. In my opinion though, standing practice is not as easy as it seems. It doesn't take much instruction, but having a teacher to help you with the posture just once, so you feel what correct posture feels like, is more valuable than an entire book on the subject.

 

And if you can't find a human teacher, practice next to a big, healthy tree. Trees are standing meditation masters.

[steve]

I also recommend the Way of Energy

[Yoda]

After Lam, Warriors of Stillness.

[Mal]

I've got Empty Force by Paul Dong & Thomas Raffill in the mail, after talking with KoHsuan.

 

There seems to be a lot of interest in standing practices at the moment. I asked my Sifu about perhaps giving standing a go (or horse stance practice) but he said "Kung Fu and Tai Chi are enough for you."

 

Sifu does not like to waste class time talking, so I'll be working on expanding his answer over the next few weeks and seeing how meditation (Kunlun) fits into that picture.

[james]

Hey all, the two main books im familar with are 'the way of energy' and 'opening the energy gates' they are both good books on the subject the way of energy has nice pictures and a nice feel to it and opening the energy gates has a lot of good tech info regarding proper bodily allignment which is important particularly with the knees if you are going to be standing for a extended time period or have weak knees to begin with, you dont want to mess with your knees, standing practice is the main qi gong i am familar with, when i first wanted to learn qi gong and tai qi the master i trained with would not teach you anything until you could maintain a posture he called five element standing for two hours, the posture consisted of a fairly low horse stance with the arms extended straight out from the body, it was a real test and i never actually completed the two hours when i was at training, i was able to do it at home a few times though, but from practicing religiously for a period of seven months i got so many more benefits than from any other form of qi gong ive studied since, i would say its like anything, good to have a knowledgable teacher to give advice push you and know potential dangers health advice ect, but its a pretty simple practice in the begining when you are just working downwards ie assume the position allign properly breathe into the belly and the big one RELAX like frankie goes to hollywood, well mabey not quite like frankie does.... and definately have a cool down breathing/meditation session after prolonged standing thats always the best bit anyways thats my two cents peace

[mgd]

[thelerner]

When it comes to standing, a few minutes with an expert can be better then hours with a book. Its nice to have someone with experience adjust your body. Zhan Zhang people may be rare, but a good Tai Chi player should be excellent, a yoga practitioner, Gung Fu people, some Aikidoists, Feldenkrist, etc. a fairly long list.

 

M.

[Gerard]

I asked my Sifu about perhaps giving standing a go (or horse stance practice) but he said "Kung Fu and Tai Chi are enough for you."

 

Wise man, stick to that advice.

 

Why?

 

Simply because you live in society and not in a Taoist or Buddhist monastery deep in the Himalayas.

 

Using non-symbolic language: it would be too much internal training for you to be able to cope with.

[yatzhong]

Coming from an extensive yiquan background and having done standing in my taiji class I would say that from the many books that mention zhan zhuang the best one is "Warriors of Stillness Vol I" It is the best writing on the practice of wuji zhuang written in English or Chinese.

 

"The Way of Energy" is not a very good book on yiquan's standing method. It might be interesting and have a lot of nice pictures but it doesn't give enough details on the rules and regulations for the standing postures he shows in the book. Without these nuances and intricacies the best one can hope to do is just relax while standing and maybe get some health benefits.

 

Never read Ken Cohen's book on standing. Never knew it existed.

 

Honestly though. Without hands on instruction and correction there is little good one can get out of just standing with your arms held in a particular posture.

 

Mal there are many different types and levels of standing. The majority of them having a particular benefit or strength attributed to it. Many internal and external systems use standing as one of the core practices for building a variety of things. If your system doesn't do standing practice then I would ask what exercises it has to build a strong foundation. If the sifu says that that's what the forms are for then I would look for a new teacher.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Essential books are both of Jan Diepersloot's, Warriors of Stillness 1 & 2,

 

Lam Kam Chuen's 'Way of Energy', 'Way of Power' (more advanced, also good dvd available), and his new

book , 'Master Lam's Walking Chi Kung' is teriffic.

 

If you live or are visiting the Bay Area, get in touch with Fong Ha for perhaps some personal instruction, fine tuning, or attending some of his classes....would be invaluable if you're self-taught.

 

Most important thing is to just stand. I used to live in a canyon in the Catalina Mountains in Tucson, and standing

on a big rock out in Nature really supercharges your standing. Treat yourself to an some real Nature Standing,

on a rock that calls to you.

 

Anybody have any experience doing ZZ while standing on powerful magnetic plates. Peter Ragnar, who I can't figure out, has a course in magnetic chi gung, while standing on strong magnetic plates. If you're interested in getting magnets, don't by from him, but search the internet for places that sell magnets, and you'll save lot's of money.

 

Steve

[Gerard]

Coming from an extensive yiquan background...

 

Honestly though. Without hands on instruction and correction...

 

"there is little good one can get out of just standing with your arms held in a particular posture...."

 

You are contradicting yourself.

 

Sorry but let me disagree.

 

Form is not as important as you think it is. Achieveing a fully relaxed state is the key to success.

 

It doesn't matter how you stand...as long as you stand relaxed with no force, as qi will put you in "your" correct posture.

 

To the original author,

 

Read this info:

 

http://www.martrix.org/zhan_zhuang1.html

 

 

Good luck.

Edited April 13, 2008 by durkhrod chogori

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Durkhrod,

 

Thanks for the nice link on Standing.

 

God, I LOVE to stand!

[james]

thanks alot for the link durkhrod, i went to the free download section and downloaded the zhan zhuang article, i would recomend anyone else whos interested in standing to check it out i think its about 28 pages, theres also this cool compilation of don juan matus/castaneda quotes from all the books compiled together with these great illustrations that u can download also if your a castaneda fan, well guess i should go and do some standing now after all that good info peace

[mgd]

Edited April 13, 2008 by mgd

[yatzhong]

You are contradicting yourself.

 

Sorry but let me disagree.

 

Form is not as important as you think it is. Achieveing a fully relaxed state is the key to success.

 

It doesn't matter how you stand...as long as you stand relaxed with no force, as qi will put you in "your" correct posture.

 

To the original author,

 

Read this info:

 

http://www.martrix.org/zhan_zhuang1.html

Good luck.

 

Sorry but I don't see where I've contradicted myself.

 

You can disagree all you want but that isn't going to change the facts about proper zhan zhuang practice.

 

Completely relaxed standing with no particular form is the highest level. But in order to be able to get to a point where that type of standing is beneficial one must go through the preceding levels. If all it took was complete relaxation then why stand at all? Why not just lay on a slab like a corpse? A question one might ask himself is what is the purpose and benefit of zhan zhuang and go from there.

 

While I don't believe that there is any book out there that does justice to and presents basic zhan zhuang as practiced in yiquan the "Warriors of Stillness Vol. I" presents wuji zhuang better than any other book that's out there. In yiquan the wuji standing practice is done when one has reached a hight level and no longer consciously needs to practice the basic rules because they have become subconscious.

 

The article you gave the link to is misleading. The author didn't even get the six directions correct and his explainations about mo ca bo (friction stepping) and shi li practice are not very good either.

 

Lam doesn't give very much in his books nor in his classes from what I understand. He doesn't even allow his students to ask questions. This statement comes from his own mouth. (I know some former students of his) My former taiji sifu studies with Lam's yiquan teacher and the standing he learns is very different from what Lam writes about. Paul Dong, the author of "Empty Force" also studied with Lam's teacher, Yu Yong Nian who was a direct student of Wang Xiang Zhai the founder of the yiquan school. So again I'll say that while his books are nice to look at the substance in them leaves a lot to be desired if one wants to learn yiquan.

 

Cam, exactly what is your friend looking to get out of standing practice?

Edited April 13, 2008 by yatzhong

[Cameron]

The person who pm'd me has already responded in this thread and sounds like has benefitted.

 

Also, Max does teach standing at the Kunlun workshop so people doing Kunlun that want instuructions in standing could do the workshop.

 

I agree the level of teaching from any book is limited and if you want to really learn any practice better to seek out a teacher who is authentic and take some classes.

 

Cam

[KoHsuan]

Cameron,

Is it true that Kunlun standing ( 5elements) will be explained in next Max's book?

 

 

 

 

Also, Max does teach standing at the Kunlun workshop so people doing Kunlun that want instuructions in standing could do the workshop.

 

 

Cam

[Cameron]

Chris(Mantra68) would be the person to ask about that.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Again, if in the Bay Area, Fong Ha would be good to get instruction and advance your practice,

I took a class in NYC with him once, and he had just decided to take cold showers in the morning.

I FINISH UP with cold always, seals the energy in, and a great practice, and was energetic,

affable and seemed powerful.

 

I walso had the Way of Energy tape transferred from the English PAL to the American NTSC, if enough

people are interested would be willing to make copies and send em out to TaoBums.

 

Also, if you've never practiced Standing Meditation in real nature, it is incredible. Doing it on a huge boulder

is a whole different level.

 

Anyone with opinions on standing on strong magnets?

 

Shive Das

[Cameron]

I did a morning class with Fong Ha in Bay Area when Taobums webmaster Sean was still living up there. We did standing practice but there wasn't any instruction, just silent practice in a park.

 

I also did a workshop with Ken Cohen where he taught standing. Here is some footage on Youtube of a recent Ken Cohen workshop.

 

ax7wUOe-sUg

[KoHsuan]

Chris(Mantra68) would be the person to ask about that.

 

 

but I never had enough luck to get response from him..

Edited April 30, 2008 by KoHsuan