[Miso]

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[Miso]

Thanks! You’ve been very helpful with just this little bit of info, atually.

[Miso]

Trunk said: “Good call.
Your routine should heavily favor rooting practices.

While Yi Swallows Qi helps grounding (because it’s training in sinking qi, and trains the tan tien to open & recieve and gently hold), there can be some bubbling up of unrooting emotions etc on the way. Best, for you, to have rooting practices well in place first.

Also, there are milder ways to guide attention and qi down, like the classic of following your breathe”

This is all very interesting. I take chi gong from a chi gong master but he does not give all of this information. I have some books but they don’t really seem to give it in a clear way either. What types of exercises are considered “rooting” exercises and why? How exactly does one guide attention and qi down (would, for example, a sitting meditation involving following a “sun” or warmth slowly down to the dan tien count as this?) hmm. . . I wonder if falun gong, which I recently experimented with, is a somewhat ungrounding practice (I felt like I was in the clouds somewhere, distant from everything, but very happy and energetic) and the practice I had been following a more “rooted” practice (at least in terms of its foundation exercises). Or if these questions are too long for this board, can you lead me to a book that would help?

[Miso]

Thanks. Unfortunately I am one of those people who can be VERY ungrounded, so not sure this is for me, at least not without guidance. I will read more about it.

[Miso]

Trunk: Would this be a safe practice to pick up and simply try, independently? I ask because I am very much in need of heat-clearing, and this sounds intriguing. I take herbs to clear heat, but this is a slow, cumbersome process.
Thanks.
–miso

[Miso]

gosh! Thank you for your thoughts, though I must say at some point my powers of concentration lagged, so I didn’t get all of them. However I did read parts of Mr. Li’s book. I am not at all well-versed in Asian philosophy, and my interest in chi gung really stemmed from two things: a strong interest in alternative health and a strong desire to rid myself of health problems. Thus my interest is secular, and falun gong is NOT. Your philosophical engagement with the text is impressive, but my reasons for rejecting it are in part based on the fact that it is indeed such a text by which one is supposed to live, without questioning, and this in itself does not work for me. Also, perhaps unlike many on this board (I don’t know since I just got here), spirituality probably hasn’t been my strong point, and, while it seems to have suddenly caught up with me and stared me in the face, it is difficult for me to deal with. That said, the last thing I’m going to adopt is a philosophy that calls human bodies “filthy” and seems to reject sensuousness in favor of a desire for death (transcendence). (Oddly, however, Li’s insistence on bodily purificaction doesn’t seem to extend to food, as he “lets”–eek– you eat what you want, as the other falun gong people gleefully pointed out to health-food oriented me).
I too felt the energy very strongly while doing the exercises, reading the book, and even spending time (3 times) with the other people. I also think there is something to it, and right now secular, intellectual me is actually scared that there is indeed a falun rotating in my abdomen (i’m having strange abdominal symptoms) when I don’t want there to be. What I decided, though, is that even if Li could take away my diseases, I’d much rather have illness along with real, sensuous human life than subject myself to his mind control. I need to be an empowered being, after all, and human, rather than spiritual matter. –miso

[Miso]

Snowlion: sure, if you’d be willing to talk outside of this forum I would appreciate it. I don’t really want to post my information publically, however, so it would be up to you to offer yours (I’m not sure how it works on this board, since I just leaped right in here, perhaps a bit rudely). When you say you “self-balanced . . . from a terminal path,” do you mean that you cured yourself of a terminal disease? I am quite interested. Thanks.
–Miso

[Miso]

oldh: I know you didn’t say my teacher was evil–I had said that falun gong was evil and my teacher, while problematic in that he could be rude and arrogant, was not (and who knows what he would say about me, since I was a bit resistant to what he had to say, to say the least). Your suggestions are good. I do think for now I should go with something safe; hence the desire to return to the old teacher. Eventually I may pursue something new. Right now, though, I partly have a desire to go back to the old chi gung and see if it works for me in a new way. Also, I’m not sure what it means to mix forms, and people have warned me against it, and I’ve already moved back into the old forms (from my teacher), and worry about mixing them with the falun energy. Also, I’m still getting strange symptoms from the falun gong (in addition to benefits), and really feel I need someone to help me, though the chi master will probably be upset with me (maybe he won’t freak out, but he can be pretty rude and arrogant, and a woman told me that she showed him a pamphlet from a local lecture on falun gong at a major medical school–she was considering going–and he tore it up and stamped on it).
I really appreciate all of the info/interest here; it helps a lot. I’ve been doing chi gong on and off for years without any clear understanding of it, and REALLY doubting its efficacy. Of course I’ve also gotten very little benefit, and my attitude–arising from blocked channels???–may be one of the reasons why. I have to admit that with the falun gong, a new world seems to have opened for me. It’s a shame I can’t continue with it, but I know it wouldn’t be the right thing. –Miso

[Miso]

hmmm. . that is interesting. I am one of those very flexible people, yet have a lot of stagnation, and find that the stretching also helps a great deal. –miso

[Miso]

Thanks, Rainbowbear. There was a time when I wouldn’t have understood what you’re telling me, but I am coming to a new place in my life and, to tell you the truth, falun gong has helped me get there. I can’t go on with it, though, and perhaps not with the other qigong either (though I will for the time being, as it feels very peaceful now and it is helping me cleanse the f.g. energy out of my body). Fasting for me was short, supervised by the qigong master, and very hard. I’m very “deficient” in Chinese medicine terms, and many others in the class who seem to love the fasting seem to be coming off more of an “excess.” I wonder whether that could be the difference, or maybe i’m just rationalizing, but after each fast I got new problems that stayed, and I don’t want that to happen, so I’m going to avoid it for the time being. I think there are a few other qigong options if I don’t want to practice completely by myself, and I’ll seek them out. Thanks. –Miso

[Miso]

I have a question about stretching in chi gong. The other qi gong I do does NOT involve stretching at all, mainly meditations and standing postures involving moving chi with the mind to open passages and circuits. Also there are breathing exercises, and at the advanced level, some that are a bit challenging to the muscles. However Falun Gong has a key move called “Buddha showing a thousand hands” which supposedly “opens up the channels” and involves stretching. Other qigongs i’ve seen also incorporate this and it seems important. Somehow I feel it may be a missing link for me, someone who suffers from a lot of stagnation. Any thoughts on this? Clearly I don’t know a whole lot about the mechanics of qi gong.

[Miso]

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[Miso]

Interesting–thanks for both of your responses. I have actually decided to stop the practice for now, partly because in addition to the positive changes, there are problematic detoxifying symptoms, and without help or guidance I can’t feel sure that I’m not doing myself harm. Also, I can’t get past the rather threatening tone (of the books) toward people who only do the exercises. Though I don’t see myself as superstitious, I have had experiences with chi that suggest he does indeed have an energetic connection to those who do the exercises, and I don’t feel comfortable. The other form of chi gung I do works so slowly and is so frustrating to my western “results now” sensibility. I agree that the other qigong master is problematic in some ways, but he is sort of the only game in town if you want to study with a master, and he is not evil, which at this point is the way I see falun gong (it’s just how it feels to me; the practitioners themselves did not seem evil at all, but strangely willing to be used for some other purpose, and Li’s taking advantage of them, especially those in China who are in grave danger, seems evil to me). However, as far as the other qigong goes, I think I’d do better with a system that was less complex and less “macho” (from my perspective) than that–it involves fasting, and suggests that the only way to really progress is to fast several times a year, and I have found that absolutely BRUTAL (did it twice). Can you suggest a qigong that is valid to do on my own, safe, with enough quick results to keep a westerner going? You mention something in one of the posts, but I’m not sure where to start with it.

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