Qigong

[marc108]

Does anyone here practice Qigong? I've been thinking about taking it up and was wondering if anyone could recommend specific teachers, books, etc?

[daverupa]

I recommend Yang, Jwing-Ming for a solid foundation; he's published prolific amounts on the topic, and it's all of rather high quality.

Keep your tongue up...

[reflection]

Thanks for asking, I've also started with Qigong recently.

This could be of interest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY6L5_5IZlc

With metta.

[danieLion]

I recommend Yang, Jwing-Ming for a solid foundation; he's published prolific amounts on the topic, and it's all of rather high quality.

Keep your tongue up...

Hi marc108, daverupa,
I like Jing-Mings books too. Lots of diagrams, pictures, explanations, etc.... I also like Kenneth Cohen's The Way of Qigong: The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing. While it's more theory based than Jing-Mings works, it's still got a lot of great exercise advice too. Many acupuncturists are also trained in Qigong (this is where I get most of my instruction and do my fine tuning), so you might think about looking for one as Qigong teachers are kind of rare in most parts (but they do exist and if you find a good one, you're way ahead of the curve).

Are you interested in active Qigong, visualization, or both?

metta

[marc108]

thank you all for the recs

Are you interested in active Qigong, visualization, or both?

whats the difference? I've practice Pranayama for some time, i'm interested in comparing it to the other Asian methods of energy work so I would like to know the real nitty gritty stuff of how, where, why etc.

[danieLion]

thank you all for the recs

Are you interested in active Qigong, visualization, or both?

whats the difference? I've practice Pranayama for some time, i'm interested in comparing it to the other Asian methods of energy work so I would like to know the real nitty gritty stuff of how, where, why etc.

Hi marc108,
Not an official authority, so don't take this as the Qigong gospel, but the difference basically boils down to movement (active) versus while still/without /(non-active). All Qigong, AKFAIK, involves at least breath visualization at the (lower) dantian. I practiced pranayama for several years when I was younger, but have not tried it with Qigong. The literature referenced above should help with the nitty gritty. If you're interested in details, I could tell you what I do specifically, but don't know of any other way to help you with the nit and grit. I think the good old fashioned trial and error method (or it's fancy version, the experimental method) are you're best bet in figuring out what's going to work for you.

In general I think Qigong is great for samatha, but I'm having trouble seeing if it as directly relevant to vipassana as, say, jhana practice is. I only mention this to allude to the fact that a lot of finding what works also depends on your purposes.

metta

[marc108]

sure, i would like to hear specifics about your own practice