Experiences of Qigong

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Bagpuss The Gnome, modified 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 5:20 AM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 5:20 AM

Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 704 Join Date: 11/2/11 Recent Posts
Is anyone here doing Qigong?

If so, what do you think of it? And do you have any suggestions for getting started?
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PP, modified 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 7:19 AM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 7:19 AM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 376 Join Date: 3/21/12 Recent Posts
Hey Nick, what are you looking for with a Qigong practice? Are you health oriented? Martial Arts oriented? Willing to boost your meditation? Aiming to see energy at display? Siddhis?
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Bagpuss The Gnome, modified 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 7:50 AM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 7:50 AM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 704 Join Date: 11/2/11 Recent Posts
Hey Pablo.

Health, particularly in regard to better flow of energy around the body..
anti anti camper, modified 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 7:58 AM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 7:58 AM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 23 Join Date: 10/15/12 Recent Posts
There are literally thousands of qigong techniques. One of the easiest ways to get started is "Eight Pieces of Brocade" (Ba Duan Jin). There are many videos on youtube of this form from which you could learn it and practice it. Taiji is a form of qigong as is Bagua circle walking. I recommend the books "Daost Nei Gong: The Philosophical Art of Change" by Damo Mitchell and "Opening the Energy Gates of your Body" by Bruce Frantzis.

aac
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PP, modified 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 10:35 AM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 10:27 AM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 376 Join Date: 3/21/12 Recent Posts
- Spring Forest Qigong (probably the most recommended Entry Level Qigong in Taoist energetic circles) is much like scanning but with a heavy emphasis in visualization link Here's the manual in Scribd.com

- Flying Phoenix Chi Kung (this one I tried longer) is a blend of soft tummo practice with health qigong, but time consuming (2hrs daily). link If you're interested, I could send my 6 DVDs set for free. We'll have to work out how to send them from my country though. There's a +100 pages ongoing thread with Q&A between the teacher and practitioners in Taobums

- Feng Zhi Qiang's Hunyuan Qigong (I have been doing a subset of it for 6 years) is more bodily focused, working on circulation and nurturing dantiens. It's the one I would definitively recommend, though I have made some variations to suit my current needs. Here's the manual in Scribd.com and one of a +1000 videos at youtube.

- Bruce Frantzis' exercises in his book "Opening the Energy Gates of your Body" are an excellent complement to meditation. Probably not powerful as other qigongs but really doing the job to enhance your meditation practice. I do some exercises from my Taiji school that are very similar.

- Jenny Lamb's Qigong link. I've read many good reports on her qigong. And it seems that she's a centered person, definitively a plus plus in wacky Taoist circles ;o) I've read that the heavily promoted Kunlun Qigong is a subset of Jenny Lamb's plus some other stuff.

Added: If possible, try to contact Triple Think (Nathan) and or Chuck Kasmire, old posters here, as it seems that they have studied with accomplished qigong masters.
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Bagpuss The Gnome, modified 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 1:14 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 1:13 PM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 704 Join Date: 11/2/11 Recent Posts
Thanks AAC and Pablo.

Tons of good stuff there Pablo, much appreciated. Im off on retreat tomorrow but may well take you up on your kind offer when i get back (though I will pay the postage of course! and return to you)

Have you guys realised any benefits you can directly attribute to Qigong practice?

I was thinking of just doing the "lifting the sky" movements while on retreat. The reason I am interested is mostly health related but also curiosity as I feel so much vibration in the body all the time, it may be beneficial to try to manipulate it a bit. Working with pranayama practices has not yielded much...
anti anti camper, modified 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 2:01 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 2:01 PM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 23 Join Date: 10/15/12 Recent Posts
Baggy,

I'm convinced there are health benefits to qigong though they are harder to measure than, say, running or weight lifting. As a moving meditation it is great for body-based awareness and to get out of the mind a bit. In this sense I find it very calming and centering. Perhaps the most direct benefits were observed some months ago when I was having strange and slightly frightening de-realization experiences which I think are related to my formal meditation practice. Qigong was a huge stabilizing force at that time.

aac
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Nikolai , modified 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 3:53 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/8/13 3:53 PM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 1677 Join Date: 1/23/10 Recent Posts
"Where conciousness goes, chi/qi/ki follows." Someone in the know.
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PP, modified 11 Years ago at 3/9/13 12:35 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/9/13 12:33 PM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 376 Join Date: 3/21/12 Recent Posts
Nick W (aka Bagpuss):

Have you guys realised any benefits you can directly attribute to Qigong practice?

I was thinking of just doing the "lifting the sky" movements while on retreat. The reason I am interested is mostly health related but also curiosity as I feel so much vibration in the body all the time, it may be beneficial to try to manipulate it a bit. Working with pranayama practices has not yielded much...


My actual Qigong practice is on maintenance mode for the last two years, when I finally dropped all hopes of attaining enlightenment through energetic practices, and got close to Dharmma. So I do just a subset of the Qigong exercises in order to keep healthy and boost my meditation. Regarding benefits, I don't see any particular one. But the thing is that when you stop doing them, your health worsen. By unhealthy I mean, muscular / bone / nerve pains, and organ diseases. You'll still have back pain or stiff neck if you have a bad postural habits.

Though you may experience some interesting stuff with energy, the bottom line is expect nothing. If you are here at DhO engaged in your meditation practice, then you're already on the right track [I'm telling this to myself too, of course]. My opinion (and my Taiji teacher's too) is that high level qigong and alchemical Taoist practices are for people with 3rd Path o more. You may reap some benefits if your're a kinesthetic guy (in the NLP classification) and have strong concentration, but then perhaps that's more close to the magick path.
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Aduro T, modified 11 Years ago at 3/9/13 1:40 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/9/13 1:40 PM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 30 Join Date: 6/6/12 Recent Posts
My perspective on this is that moving meditation and meditation in daily life really complements sitting meditation a lot. Qigong can potentially act as a balanced moving meditation that can hit a lot of different areas. It can also show you how to do a lot of moving meditations that can be used in your daily life. If trained properly, it can provide an incredible assortment on benefits. It shouldn't really be done in isolation, or without having other aspects of a healthy life. You ought to have a healthy diet, take care of yourself, compassion for yourself and others, have a social life, perhaps do some nei gong, perhaps some sitting meditation regardless. From my perspective, balance and harmony is important when it comes to developmental practices. I suspect that those who seem to progress fast in meditation have an imbalance that desires meditation.
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Pål S, modified 11 Years ago at 3/10/13 4:34 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/10/13 4:34 PM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 196 Join Date: 8/16/10 Recent Posts
Pablo . P:
Nick W (aka Bagpuss):

Have you guys realised any benefits you can directly attribute to Qigong practice?

I was thinking of just doing the "lifting the sky" movements while on retreat. The reason I am interested is mostly health related but also curiosity as I feel so much vibration in the body all the time, it may be beneficial to try to manipulate it a bit. Working with pranayama practices has not yielded much...


My actual Qigong practice is on maintenance mode for the last two years, when I finally dropped all hopes of attaining enlightenment through energetic practices, and got close to Dharmma. So I do just a subset of the Qigong exercises in order to keep healthy and boost my meditation. Regarding benefits, I don't see any particular one. But the thing is that when you stop doing them, your health worsen. By unhealthy I mean, muscular / bone / nerve pains, and organ diseases. You'll still have back pain or stiff neck if you have a bad postural habits.

Though you may experience some interesting stuff with energy, the bottom line is expect nothing. If you are here at DhO engaged in your meditation practice, then you're already on the right track [I'm telling this to myself too, of course]. My opinion (and my Taiji teacher's too) is that high level qigong and alchemical Taoist practices are for people with 3rd Path o more. You may reap some benefits if your're a kinesthetic guy (in the NLP classification) and have strong concentration, but then perhaps that's more close to the magick path.


If we ignore energy practices as means for insight, have the practice benefited you in avoiding/reducing symptoms like:

- unpleasant vibrations, or vibrations in general.
- tension in various parts of the body
- headaches
- energy 'blockages' in the body (at chakra points for instance)
- any other psychosomatic stress reaction.

I realize you don't have a different version of yourself who have not done this training for comparison, but it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on this.
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Eric B, modified 11 Years ago at 3/10/13 7:04 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/10/13 7:04 PM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 187 Join Date: 8/24/09 Recent Posts
Nick,

Nick W (aka Bagpuss):
The reason I am interested is mostly health related but also curiosity as I feel so much vibration in the body all the time, it may be beneficial to try to manipulate it a bit. Working with pranayama practices has not yielded much...


I do it solely to counter weird energetic stuff that I experience, and I think doing it is better than not doing it. I have two variations. For the first, my meditation timer has interval bells, and I do 4 minutes of microocsmic orbits after pranayama before I begin meditating.

For the second, I have a DVD of a routine called "The Four Golden Wheels" by Robert Peng that takes all of 13 minutes. I usually only do this one if I'm going through a phase with a lot of annoying energetic stuff going on.

I haven't pursued Qigong any further due to lack of time.

I hope this helps. I know you're off on retreat as I write this.

Eric
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PP, modified 11 Years ago at 3/10/13 10:30 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/10/13 10:24 PM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 376 Join Date: 3/21/12 Recent Posts
Pål S.:

If we ignore energy practices as means for insight, have the practice benefited you in avoiding/reducing symptoms like:

- unpleasant vibrations, or vibrations in general.
- tension in various parts of the body
- headaches
- energy 'blockages' in the body (at chakra points for instance)
- any other psychosomatic stress reaction.

I realize you don't have a different version of yourself who have not done this training for comparison, but it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on this.



- Unpleasant vibrations: yes, channeling them to the ground. But that's not because I'm using some practice to move energy towards the feet, but noticing where some body tensions would impede that vibrations to naturally go down there. So, actually I'm more like dissolving those tensions, activating (just by remembering) neurons that have memory of the cells of that body part getting relaxed.

- Tensions: much the same like above, but with special focus on joints, which releases lots of energy.

- Headaches: IMO, Qigong worsen headaches. And in cases like flu, it gives a boost that lasts not more than 2 hours (IME).

- Energy blockages: IME, channeling energy there aggravated the problem, but I haven't tried that again lately, perhaps my new noting tools could complement well with energy work. Instead, it did nurture some key chakra centers that were weak: dantien, mingmen.

- Psychosomatic stress reactions: Yes and no. I had a steady health improvement during the past 10 years, but the core problem (the "knee-jerk" response) I could tackle better with noting and not Qigong (dissolving/ active vipassana ranks between the two). Noting has many benefits for your mental health if you already have some Psychology tools. This topic/link is kind of a taboo in DhO, but if a Freudian psychologist ever pick up the Four Foundation Noting practice, it would be a revolution in speed and efficiency in treating patients.
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 11 Years ago at 3/11/13 2:09 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/11/13 2:09 PM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
what is taboo at the DhO? talking about psychological benefits? people do that all the time...
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PP, modified 11 Years ago at 3/11/13 5:05 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/11/13 5:04 PM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 376 Join Date: 3/21/12 Recent Posts
Hey, I didn't say "taboo" but "kind of taboo". I don't know how hard that word sounds in English, but in Spanish it usually refers to something where there are non written codes that say that the topic shouldn't be address directly. In fact, using the search engine in DhO you'll see only 2 threads with the word "Psychology" in the title. Given that there are 3750 threads, that means only 0.053%.

There are a lot of bits of information regarding the topic all over the DhO, but because of the heavy focus on the practical side of meditation, I believe this topic is gently avoided. Given the powerful tool that noting is, as I'm beginning to discover, I wish I could have had this tool back then when I spent 8 years sit in a couch making little or none improvement in my psychological stuff. It strike me that the topic isn't address more, with so many here people who have been there and already have walk all the road.
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Jeff Grove, modified 11 Years ago at 3/11/13 5:30 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 3/11/13 5:30 PM

RE: Experiences of Qigong

Posts: 310 Join Date: 8/24/09 Recent Posts
Nick W (aka Bagpuss):
Is anyone here doing Qigong?

If so, what do you think of it? And do you have any suggestions for getting started?


Yes part of my practice has always been based around Zhineng Qigong which was opened to the public by Dr Ming Pang

The following books (3 in the series) are worth there wait in gold for any qigong practitioner

Voyage to the Shore by Yuan Tze (if any one is in New Zealand you should track him down)

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Yuan%20Tze&search-alias=books&sort=relevancerank

Breadcrumb