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How often and when abdominal natural, reverse and counter force breathing should be practised?
Jox … 🙂
Hi Jox,
The only time (for me) I feel it to make sense as an active stand-alone practice is after doing the orbit. This is because after the orbit you have an enhanced awareness of your front and back channels, so the internal aspects of the breathing practice can be taken deeper. This is probably one reason why Michael teaches this in QF3, to follow the orbit from QF2. In any case, it is an easy add-on to the orbit practice.
Other than this, I find the most natural times to do the breathing practices tend to be when I need “filler”, i.e. I’m in a situation where I’d like to practice, but I can’t do qigong or meditation.
Examples of this are:
1. I’m too physically tired to do qigong or meditation, but I’d like to practice. It is something you can do while lazily relaxing in a comfortable chair.
2. Trapped on airplane . . . qigong isn’t really possible, and meditation is quite difficult with all the noise and activity.
3. Standing in line . . . can’t really do much movement, and usually just enough going on that meditation is challenging.
4. If sick in bed (although lucky for me, it’s been a long time).
So, for me, with the exception of an add-on to the orbit practice, I almost “never” think to myself, “I want to do breathing practices”. Instead, I always choose something else, and it is only when I want to practice, but can’t do something else, that I use that as a fall-back (e.g. examples above). However, considering the number of times throughout any given day where “want to practice, but can’t” occurs, this affords plenty of practice time if one is aware.
Qi,
StevenI agree with Ocean Breathing. It’s quite nice, and I do it frequently. Things like that, where it is kind of a physical qigong, e.g. Ocean Breathing, Blissful Breathing Qigong form, etc., . . . where you are standing/moving, I kind of consider a different category from the stationary/non-moving breathing practices. These latter non-moving breathing practices are the ones I was referring to in my previous post as using as “filler”.
All good stuff, in any case.
S
When I was working on QF 3/4 as my focus, I always started with a few minutes of counterforce breathing with hand movements followed by a few minutes of reverse breathing with hand movements, before I did the standing-in-stillness and/or blissful breathing qigong. Since I have moved on to other practices as my focus, I developed a “quick session” or warmup that is described in this post:
Mini Chi Breathing/Grounding Session/Warmup
I often do it in the morning, or different times throughout the day when I don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to qigong.
Just did exercises for 2,5 hours outside … it was – 2,5 degrees …
One hour of qi gong and 1,5h wing chun forms after … 🙂
I did ocean breathing and then counter force breathing, followed with counter force breathing in embracing the tree and The Golden Turtle …Interesting how well counter force works … and I think intention of expanding and contracting red ball make the process much more powerful … Really energetic and second, my body and hands become really warm, despite the temperature was under zero …
Jox, 🙂
We tend to overlook on certain habits that affect our life. We list down seven such habits that give you a belly pudge and how you can get rid of the unwanted fat gathering around your increasing waistline…
-http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-11-23/diet/31374576_1_belly-monounsaturated-fats-mealsAlthough Shepherd feels that his claims are consistent with scientific findings, his primary concerns are cultural and philosophical, and his primary frame is not medical but mythic. Weaving threads from disciplines that are normally treated as separate, his book treats art, religion, and science as facets of a single story. Whether giving a deep reading to an academic article on the implications of brain transplants or parsing the work of the early Greek philosophers, Shepherd reminds us that all human endeavors are modes of encounter with the world, rooted in one or both of our brains. He argues that we, as a culture and as individuals, have become walled off in our heads, losing touch with the intelligence of our bodies. We have reached a point, Shepherd tells us, where the cranial brain’s efforts to solve our problems are the problem. Only by leaving the “tyrant’s castle” of our heads and entering into a profoundly embodied relationship with the mystery and beauty of the world will we successfully turn our planetary crisis into an “initiation.”
-http://thesunmagazine.org/issues/448/out_of_our_headsBeard is a slang term describing a person who is used, knowingly or unknowingly, as a date, romantic partner (boyfriend or girlfriend), or spouse either to conceal infidelity or to conceal one’s sexual orientation.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beard_(companion)How often and when abdominal natural, reverse and counter force breathing should be practised?
-http://forum.healingdao.com/practice/message/24020/I have impression that most important really is to somehow have right kind of aim first of all with these breathing practices.
But also since the beginning, it’s my opinnion, one shouldn’t do these too mechanically. Here for example that certain M. Chia book is slightly erring in my opinion.
To turn these breathing practices to work for NEIDAN one should, instead of counting 9, 18, 36 sets of certain type of breathing, just learn to observe with what one can immediately have control and with what not and what works for this or that situation or purpose.
So best in the beginning would be to combine these various breathings (natural, reverse and counter force) with abdominal massage just to develop right kind of sensitivity with all muscular (abdominal muscles, various diaphragms etc.) systems and various movements they are responsible.
Sorry for my broken English.
HOWDY
Ps. Some key expressions for this other question: heterosexual, felon, homosexual, necrophilia (sexual attraction to corpses), murderer, serial killer, hitman, fugitive, beard (companion), satanist, cannibal, torture, racketeering, burglary, money laundering etc.
http://issuu.com/scottjenson/docs/mantak_chia_-_iron_shirt_chi_kung_i (pp.39-46)
http://issuu.com/scottjenson/docs/mantak_chia_-_iron_shirt_chi_kung_i
The numerology of counting breaths (say in multiples of 9) is entirely unimportant in my view. In particular, I do not feel that any of these numbers 24, 36, 72, etc. have any significance. The significance of numbers (in my opinion) stops once you go beyond ten.
The real purpose in the numbers 24, 36, 72, etc., is not so much the numbers. The purpose is to indicate length of time in doing practice. When meditating, it is difficult to say that “you should do a given practice for a certain length of time”, because one can not really watch a clock while you do it (and even if you could, it serves as a distraction from doing the practice). Therefore, by providing a count, this provides a way for a person while they are doing internal practice “to measure” how long they are doing a given practice.
Thus the count is not important, and one can feel free to let that go if it acts as an interference to doing the practice. It is only really a guideline to indicate a good minimum length of time to pursue the practice, in my opinion.
S
On April 5, 1999, Blaine was entombed in an underground plastic box underneath a 3-ton water-filled tank for seven days across from Trump Place on 68th St. and Riverside Drive. According to CNN, “Blaine’s only communication to the outside world was by a hand buzzer, which could have alerted an around-the-clock emergency crew standing by.” BBC News reported that the cramped plastic coffin offered six inches (152 mm) of headroom and two inches on each side. During the endurance stunt Blaine ate nothing and drank only two to three tablespoons of water a day. An estimated 75,000 people visited the site, including Marie Blood, Harry Houdini’s niece, who said, “My uncle did some amazing things, but he could not have done this.” On the final day of the stunt, April 12, hundreds of news teams were stationed at the site for the coffin-opening. A team of construction workers removed a portion of the 75 cubic feet (2.1 m3) of gravel surrounding the six-foot-deep coffin before a crane lifted the water tank. Blaine emerged and told the crowd, “I saw something very prophetic … a vision of every race, every religion, every age group banding together, and that made all this worthwhile.” BBC News stated, “The 26-year-old magician has outdone his hero, Harry Houdini, who had planned a similar feat but died in 1926 before he could perform it.” During the preparation of the stunt, Jonathan Demme told Time Out New York, “HeÂ’s the most exciting thing in America … And IÂ’m not just talking entertainment.”
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blaine#Buried_AliveThe Beating the Heavenly Drum Qigong exercise is a valuable tool in aiding and maintaining a healthy ear, hearing mechanism, and beyond. I will describe two ways of how to do the exercise, and recommend that you try both and decide for yourself which one feels more comfortable and natural for you to carry out on regular basis. Personally I have found the exercise to be of great help in alleviating the effects of tinnitus, focusing oneÂ’s mind and hearing, and providing relieve to tired ears. I owe my knowledge of the exercise to the Dr. Stephen T. ChangÂ’s invaluable Burn Disease Out of Your Body and Supawan P. Panawong GreenÂ’s Qigong classes.
-http://cec.sonus.ca/econtact/9_4/saario.htmlAleksander Heintalu (sünninimi Aleksander Rassadkin, tuntud ka kui Vigala Sass; sündinud 31. mail 1941 Tartus) on eesti ravitseja ja publitsist, põllumajandusteaduste doktor.
Usutakse, et ta ravib taimeravi abil vähki, hulginärvi kroonilist põletikku, leukeemiat, ainevahetushäireid ja atroofiat ning sportlastel ülekoormusest tingitud hälbeid.
Heintalu olulisemad teosed on eepos “Kuldmamma!” (ĂĽle 900 lehekulge runodena), ravimtaimeraamatud “Kuidas ma ravin rahvast” (16 osa; 25 000 retsepti enam kui 1500 juhtumi põhjal) ja “Taimedega vähiravi vastu”, raamatud “Appi vampiirid”, “Estide (tšuudide) hingestatud ilm” (2 osa), “Tšuudide Maagiaraamat” ning “KUNSTI KULDLĂ•IKE KASUTAMINE Haljastuses”.
-http://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksander_HeintaluActually I have impression that these numerological things are not at all useless, but when starting breathing practices one should concentrate to develop the body as a system which can process energy in totally different, more efficient way.
One aspect to use the numerological things is magical. For example that Estonian guy Vigala Sass has developed quite interesting practices in that direction from shamanistic point of view. As theory he uses mainly Chinese Medicine.
HOWDY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r331mHLncyE (superpowers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZKInwW8g30 (rulktribute)
“The Chakravartin shall come out at the end of the age, from the city the gods fashioned on Mount Kailasa. He shall smite the barbarians in battle with his own four-division army, on the entire surface of the earth.”
-SRI KALACHAKRAThe word kalachakra means cycles of time, and the Kalachakra system presents three such cycles – external, internal and alternative. The external and internal cycles deal with time as we normally know it, while the alternative cycles are practices for gaining liberation from these two. The structures of the external and internal cycles are analogous, similar to the parallel between macrocosm and microcosm discussed in Western philosophy. This means that the same laws that govern a universe also pertain to atoms, the body and our experience of life. The practices of the alternative cycles also follow this structure so as to allow us to engage with and surmount these forces in an efficient manner. Such mimicking is, in fact, one of the distinguishing features of the anuttarayoga tantra method.
-http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/e-books/published_books/kalachakra_initiation/pt1/kalachakra_initiation_02.html…meditating, it is difficult to say that “you should do a given practice for a certain length of time”, because one can not really watch a clock while you do it (and even if you could, it serves as a distraction from doing the practice). Therefore, by providing a count, this provides a way for a person while they are doing internal practice “to measure” how long they are doing a given practice.
-http://forum.healingdao.com/practice/message/24046/Many of these weapons and implements have their origins in the wrathful arena of the battlefield and the funereal realm of the charnel grounds. As primal images of destruction, slaughter, sacrifice, and necromancy these weapons were wrested from the hands of the evil and turned – as symbols – against the ultimate root of evil, the self-cherishing conceptual identity that gives rise to the five poisons of ignorance, desire, hatred, pride, and jealousy. In the hands of siddhas, dakinis, wrathful and semi-wrathful yidam deities, protective deities or dharmapalas these implements became pure symbols, weapons of transformation, and an expression of the deities’ wrathful compassion which mercilessly destroys the manifold illusions of the inflated human ego.
-ROBERT BEER, The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs1) Yoga of Withdrawal (so sor sdud pa)
The adept severs attachment to objective references and begins to perceive inconceivable and intangible yet formulated natural manifestations of the mind known as, “empty forms.” This yoga is practiced in complete darkness until the signs of successful meditation arise.
2) Yoga of Meditative Concentration (bsam gtan)
Unifying oneÂ’s perceptions of empty forms with interior awareness, the adeptÂ’s mind abides in equanimity as it gradually begins to engage the empty forms as sensible objects.
3) Yoga of Harnessing One’s Life-force (srog rtsol)
Interfusing perceptual awareness with empty forms, the adept then performs the vigorous methods of drawing-in and sustaining the primary and subsidiary vital winds within his or her central channel and six chakras.
4) Yoga of Retention (‘dzin pa)
Mobilizing oneÂ’s life-force, the adept yogically unifies the empty forms with the vital winds and perceptual awareness, generating indestructible seminal spheres within his or her six chakras, and fusing his or her subtle essences with these seminal spheres.
5) Yoga of Recollection (rjes dran)
Mastering the subtle essences, the adept draws-forth the four joys, successively increasing and stabilizing supreme immutable bliss and recognition of the empty forms. Supplementary enhancement yogas such as “tummo” (gtum mo) or “inner fire” practice are also performed at this point.
6) Yoga of Meditative Stabilization (ting nge ‘dzin)
Relying upon the pristine awareness of supreme immutable bliss, the impure seminal spheres diffuse and the adept accomplishes coalescence with the connate Kalachakra deityÂ’s enlightened body.
-http://www.jonangfoundation.org/jonang-kalachakra-practice-outlineQuestion. I have noticed some ugly veins coming up just under the skin. There is a pinkish-purplish knot of tiny veins on my face and then I have some larger bluish veins just behind my knees and near my ankles. They do not hurt, but I want to know whether I should be worried about these. Will they grow? Will they start to hurt? Could it lead to anything serious? Can they be fixed?
-http://www.fitness.com/articles/795/are_visible_veins_a_skin_problem.phpBlood is circulated around the body through blood vessels by the pumping action of the heart. In humans, blood is pumped from the strong left ventricle of the heart through arteries to peripheral tissues and returns to the right atrium of the heart through veins. It then enters the right ventricle and is pumped through the pulmonary artery to the lungs and returns to the left atrium through the pulmonary veins. Blood then enters the left ventricle to be circulated again. Arterial blood carries oxygen from inhaled air to all of the cells of the body, and venous blood carries carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism by cells, to the lungs to be exhaled. However, one exception includes pulmonary arteries, which contain the most deoxygenated blood in the body, while the pulmonary veins contain oxygenated blood.
Additional return flow may be generated by the movement of skeletal muscles, which can compress veins and push blood through the valves in veins toward the right atrium.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood#Cardiovascular_systemHow far that goes with Chinese practices, it is anyway at certain level important for Kalachakra practitioners, I mean those very few who get that far. For example Chao Pi Ch’en claims that imagination is neither important nor necessary.
When meditational practices are not only mental, but bodily and energetic as well there are some alternative timekeepers to follow.
Also during meditation session one can have strange experiences or actually strange when these are experienced for the first time. When these are daily they are normal. I for example had strange experince when I had done meditation only for quite short time. I was sitting in meditation and suddenly I had for brief time, but long enough to understand that for it there is not easy explanation, confrontation with an energy ghost. There seemingly was something which I should have done, and because of that I had suddenly my wristwatch in front of my eyes as a reminder, when in reality it was outside my field of vision half a meter away besides that I had my eyes closed.
Actually elaborate Buddhist mandalas have multible practical use. These are not only used as first mentally created Seed for Clear Light, but can also be used as Memory Palace, which means that they can as well be used for timekeeping.
HOWDY
Ps. Sorry for my broken English.
I personally do not do such large counts in my practice, either for time measure or other reason. I simply do the practice for as long as I feel is essential for me to feel the energy and/or intuitively I feel I’ve done enough. In any case, if one does enough regular meditation, you can start to intuit correctly how much time has passed without resort to some time-keeping measure.
I can say that in the HT, all such numbers larger than 10, have no significance. Master Chia used to say “just do the practice until you feel energy”, and people kept pestering him to answer the question “how long”. He finally put these numbers in as a way to pacify people. I can tell you that they have no significance. Daoists often like to pick multiples of 9, which is why you see things like 36, 24, 72, etc., but if one is honest, you should realize that nothing is going to be measurably changed by doing something 35 or 37 times vs. 36 times.
Less than 10, OK.
There is some actual impact on the number chosen.
But for larger numbers, I think it fantasy to believe that there is anything significant (e.g. 35 vs. 37 vs. 36).In my opinion,
StevenBallet is a type of performance dance that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary based on French terminology. It has been globally influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres. Ballet may also refer to a ballet dance work, which consists of the choreography and music for a ballet production. A well-known example of this is The Nutcracker, a two-act ballet that was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a music score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BalletIn dance, choreography is the act of designing dance. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. A choreographer is one who designs dances. Dance choreography is sometimes called dance composition.
Aspects of dance choreography include the compositional use of organic unity, rhythmic or non-rhythmic articulation, theme and variation, and repetition. The choreograhic process may employ improvisation for the purpose of developing innovative movement ideas. In general, choreography is used to design dances that are intended to be performed as concert dance.
The art of choreography involves the specification of human movement and form in terms of space, shape, time and energy, typically within an emotional or non-literal context. Movement language is taken from the dance techniques of ballet, contemporary dance, jazz dance, hip hop dance, folk dance, techno, k pop, religious dance, pedestrian movement, or combinations of these.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choreography_(dance)Godiva (/ɡəˈdaɪvə/; Old English: Godgifu[1]), known as Lady Godiva, was an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to a legend dating back at least to the 13th century, rode naked through the streets of Coventry in order to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation imposed by her husband on his tenants. The name “Peeping Tom” for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend in which a man named Tom had watched her ride and was struck blind or dead.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_GodivaThe theory of oral-formulaic composition originated in the scholarly study of epic poetry, being developed in the second quarter of the twentieth century. It seeks to explain two related issues: the process which enables oral poets to improvise poetry; and why orally improvised poetry has the characteristics it does.
The key idea of the theory is poets have a store of formulas (a formula being ‘an expression that is regularly used, under the same metrical conditions, to express a particular essential idea’) and that by linking these in conventionalised ways, they can rapidly compose verse.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral-formulaic_compositionOne shouldn’t be too serious about these things.
Actually it doesn’t matter in the end what M. Chia is teaching, because what really works is important. I have impression that he has also changed many things during the years.
Here it would be usefull for example to check as an alternative some Yang, Jwing-Ming QIGONG-IN-DEPTH(?) series material to get some perspective for Daoist schemas and ritualism. Also maybe some Peking Opera material could demonstrate that alternative point of view.
By the way he seemingly also has found, for his situation, good enough business to write books.
If one is able to read these kind of things, it’s possible to recognize certain things wherever they are.
Also good would be if one has enough background artistically.
So for example ballet dancing or music. Musically both jazz and (western) early music are interesting, but actually we should take a look at some nice ballet pieces in my opinion.
These are in multiple way exact.
Here my point simply is that with certain, even quite monotonic rituals, one can attract various energetic Peeping Toms.
Most artists (composers, ballet choreographers etc.) don’t work like that, I have impression, because that is for the magicians (so called second-ring-of-power in Castanedian terms).
For example for persons like Vigala Sass. Actually he seems more like Russian Estonian but link with certain Central and East Asian practices is firm.
HOWDY
Ps. Sorry for my broken English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvJBqhoK5S8 (elinamiettinen)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF1OQkHybEQ (riteofspring)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7v8tv39nRA (johnzornmasada)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T16_lfYBsd4 (stockhausenkreuzspiel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdS_bhC4PMI (pekingopera)
An excellent mantra to awaken prana for prana vidya is Gayatri Mantra. Every mantra is presided over by particular devata. The aditya devata called Savita is the devata of Gayatri. Savita is one aspect of the sun and a symbol of cosmic prana which gives energy, light and life to all beings. However, the form of meditation for Gayatri Mantra is Gayatri Devi or prana shakti.
-SWAMI NIRANJANANDA SARASWATI, Prana Pranayama Prana VidyaFokine described Stravinsky’s Petruska score as “sounds tormenting the ear and yet stimulating the imagination and stirring the soul.” The dancers complained about the score and found it difficult to keep track of counts. Fokine admitted as much, but managed to make progress with the dancers and on the choreography itself. Fokine redefined ballet with this work…Fokine used Russian national dance forms in a fragmentary fashion for the various characters in the crowd. Fokine complained that the crowd was insufficiently rehearsed, Nijinsky complained that movement for the crowd was never really choreographed but was left for the dancers to improvise, and Benois complained that Diaghilev would not spend the money necessary to realize certain effects. Kirstein writes, “The metaphor of manipulated automata remains poeticallty powerful, now haloed in the nostalgia of many period memoirs. Did Benois see Diaghelev as the charlatan Showman? Was Nijinsky typecast as Petrouchka?”
-http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrushka#ChoreographyIt is easy to keep count up to four cycles (sixteen counts). When you reach the fifth cycle (twenty counts), raise your left index finger from your knee. On reaching the sixth cycle (twenty-four counts), lower the index finger, and if you continue increasing the counts, raise the middle finger. When you reach the seventh cycle (twenty-eight counts), lower the middle finger and raise the little finger. When you reach the eight cycle (thirty-two counts), lower the little finger: you have accomplished the level of’minor kumbhaka’. Doing this four times over, you can keep count until you reach the level of ‘major kumbhaka’.
CHĂ–GYAL NAMKHAI NORBU, Yantra Yoga-The Tibetan Yoga of MovementThe word nadi means ‘channel’ or ‘flow’ of energy and shodhana means ‘purification.’ Nadi shodhana, therefore, means that practice which purifies the nadis.
The number 24, used for timing the breath, derives from classical texts, which use the Gayatri mantra as a metre to measure the lenght of pranayamas. The Gayatri mantra is made up of 24 individual matras or sound syllables.
– SWAMI SATYANANDA SARASWATI, Asana Pranayama Mudra BandhaThis page has a variety of suggestions for beginning amateur astronomers who wish to observe the sky with only the unaided eye. It is a common misconception that you need to have a telescope to do astronomy; this simply is not true. A wide variety of objects can be seen with the naked eye: from planets and stars, to nebulae and galaxies. While you can usually see more detail if you use a telescope (or binoculars) and you can usually see more objects of a given type if you use a telescope (or binoculars); the same types of objects that can be seen with a telescope can be seen without a telescope.
-http://www.umich.edu/~lowbrows/guide/eye.html“Work like hell. I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. [This] improves the odds of success. If other people are putting in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100 hour work weeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing you know that….you will achieve in 4 months what it takes them a year to achieve.”
-http://blog.kissmetrics.com/the-mind-of-elon-musk/Daoists often like to pick multiples of 9, which is why you see things like 36, 24, 72, etc., but if one is honest, you should realize that nothing is going to be measurably changed by doing something 35 or 37 times vs. 36 times.
-http://forum.healingdao.com/practice/message/24057/Let’s not be too serious, but still become at least slightly clearer with this.
For example for artists like musicians or ballet dancers counting can be also very important.
When counting numbers over ten become important during breathing?
Counting numbers over ten become important for example when inhalation, exhalation and retention here or there have radically different lenghts but also in some other situations.
I know that these are not HT practices, but considering the original question one would need to ask first of all why one is doing any breathing practices because from any normal point of view that is unnatural.
HOWDY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwRoHC83wx0 (gayatri108times)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtaxU6DZvLs (elonmusk)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5WBSgJaVRc (kujikiri)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkXhWNEKBRA (govinda)
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