Reply:

I understand that you are inquiring about the specific techniques of the Building the Foundation stage. I appreciate that you limited your question to that part of the practice. It is probably the stage of the practice that could [...]]]> Question: How can I start practicing Nei Dan? I am very interested in the foundation building practices.

Reply:

I understand that you are inquiring about the specific techniques of the Building the Foundation stage. I appreciate that you limited your question to that part of the practice. It is probably the stage of the practice that could most readily be described in writing, although it would take at least a small book to do it justice. To put it in perspective, we take three days to introduce the first stage of Building the Foundation (Ju Ji) in our Internal Alchemy course. This is only after preparing them with three days of basics and nearly a year of personal practice!

However, it is also important to understand that there is no single answer to your question. That Westerners, as part of our general education and conditioning, expect a single answer to a question is one of the great cultural barriers that has to be crossed in order to understand these practices. You will likely find that each school has a slightly different approach and even within a school there would be variation among teachers and their students.

If you are serious about wanting to study Nei Dan, but do not have a teacher, then the best advice I can give without knowing you would be to establish a diligent Qigong practice of some sort. By diligent I mean daily and committed. A committed daily practice is essential to success in cultivation. There is a saying “Those who start the (Internal Alchemy) practice are as numerous as the hairs on an ox. Those who finish are as rare as the dragon’s horns and phoenix’s feathers.” That is, many people learn it, but few are committed enough to follow through with the practice. If you have a good practice, you will have a good foundation to learn Internal Alchemy when the time, place, and people are right.

It is important to note that I made no assumption about the level of your experience or of those reading this topic. The Foundation practices are where most everyone new to Nei Dan will start. Having prior experience with meditative and movement arts, as well as language skills are all very useful, but in Nei Dan, that is only the starting point.

If you are simply interested in learning about the general principles of this stage, you might take a look at Fabrizio Pregado’s translation of Wang Mu Foundations of Internal Alchemy: The Taoist Practice of Neidan

It provides a rather detailed discussion of the principles and terminology. Although the texts in question are from Nan Pai, other schools will use them as well. You will also find his translations of Zhang Boduan  (張伯端)  Awakening to Reality: The “Regulated Verses” of the Wuzhen pian, a Taoist Classic of Internal Alchemyuseful as well.

The video is designed to let you follow the movements in your own daily practice. It includes eight complete Qigong sets. These sets are the core forms in first level of the TCCII Professional Qigong Certification course series.

About “Moving with the Tao” Qigong Practice DVD

The Five Animal [...]]]> Check out the new trailer for our Qigong Exercise DVD.

The video is designed to let you follow the movements in your own daily practice. It includes eight complete Qigong sets. These sets are the core forms in first level of the TCCII Professional Qigong Certification course series.

About “Moving with the Tao” Qigong Practice DVD

The Five Animal Frolics (Wu Qin Xi Qigong) form of medical Qigong was invented by Hua Tuo, one of the fathers of Chinese Medicine during the Han Dyanasty. It features the Tiger, Deer, Monkey, Bear, and Crane animals which were later incorporated in to Chinese Kung Fu. Eight Pieces of Brocade (Ba Duan Jin) is attributed to the Taoist Immortal Lu Dong Bing and is the most commonly practiced Qigong in the world. Post Standing (Zhan Zhuang) is considered one of the most important foundation exercises in Tai Ji (Tai Chi), Xing Yi (Hsing-I), Ba Gua (Pa Kua) and Yi Quan (I Chuan).

The Body Opening, Meridian Opening, and Shaking Sets are Nei Gong (Taoist Yoga) designed to enhance your overall health and well-being. The Energy Replenishing and Refining sets are meditation in movement. These practices will help energy healers, yogis martial artists and meditation practitioners.

1. Body Opening
2. Meridian Opening
3. Body Shaking
4. Energy Replenishing
5. Energy Refining and Projecting
6. Eight Pieces of Silk Brocade
7. Five Animal Frolics
8. Post Standing

The complete Qigong set is available on DVD at http://www.filmbaby.com/films/4744

The music on the video is “High Mountains and Flowing Waters” from the “Rising Moon” Guzheng CD, by Bing Xia Available http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/BingXia

Participants from all walks of life gathered in Washington DC on Friday to begin a three day intensive course in the highest level of Qigong training. This course, titled Cultivating the Spirit: Internal Alchemy, provided a comprehensive introduction to the [...]]]> Congratulations to those who successfully completed their first Internal Alchemy (Nei Dan) course this past weekend!

Participants from all walks of life gathered in Washington DC on Friday to begin a three day intensive course in the highest level of Qigong training. This course, titled Cultivating the Spirit: Internal Alchemy, provided a comprehensive introduction to the practice and theory of Nei Dan. Throughout the weekend, they learned advanced meditation techniques, practice principles, and participated in self-reflection exercises designed to facilitate personal growth and realization. Many of the participants experienced personal breakthroughs in their practice and perspective on life.

Through our many years of study, we have learned several complete systems of this rare art, including Internal Alchemy systems specialized for healing and martial usage. We have trained this art for many years, but this was the first time we have taught it to a group of selected students.

The system of Internal Alchemy we taught was based primarily on the Southern School (Nan Pai), although it was influenced by the Northern School (Bei Pai). It emphasizes Dual Cultivation of Xing and Ming. In this context, Xing refers to your heart-nature and Ming refers to the body.

The Internal Alchemy course is part of our Qigong and Tai Chi certification program and our professional development program for nurses.

There are indeed times the ancient Chinese considered better for certain types of practices. But the answer we give usually surprises them. “The best time to practice is whenever you can!”

“But, I’ve [...]]]> One of the questions we often get, especially around the Equinox and Solstice, is “When is the best time to practice Meditation and Qigong?”

There are indeed times the ancient Chinese considered better for certain types of practices. But the answer we give usually surprises them. “The best time to practice is whenever you can!”

“But, I’ve heard you should practice meditation at Midnight!” They’ll often say.

That is true, but what if you cannot practice at Midnight? Suppose you fell asleep, or you are a nurse who works third shift. What would you do? Would you not practice?

You see, what they are really asking is “when is the ideal time to practice?” But that question is not easy to answer.

In the beginning, practicing when you can is better than not practicing, even if it means you cannot practice at the “ideal time.”

In the end, all your daily activities should be a form of cultivation, no matter what the time. Ideal practice times simply have no meaning at this stage.

It’s the middle stages where timing the practice can be helpful given the right set of conditions. To practice during the ideal times means that you have enough influence over your lifestyle that you can reliably set those times aside for your practice. This is hard for most people to do in the beginning. But it is a worthy goal.

For those of you who can structure your life in such a way as to set up a practice routine, you would ideally practice 4 times a day: 11pm to 1am, 5am to 7am, 11am to 1pm and 5 to 7pm.

For most people it will be a great task to get even one or two of those times allocated for dedicated practice. If you can only practice one time per day, then the 11pm to 1am time is ideal for meditation or Internal Alchemy.

So don’t worry about it if you can’t practice at the ideal time. Practice whenever you can! You’ll see the results for yourself.

I recently took my 4 year old son to get pizza at one of the local re-developed town centers around Washington DC. These places, though very commercial, are often great fun for the young ones. That evening they happened to feature a local band which was [...]]]> Most people want to be perfect. Not everyone, but most.

I recently took my 4 year old son to get pizza at one of the local re-developed town centers around Washington DC. These places, though very commercial, are often great fun for the young ones. That evening they happened to feature a local band which was going to play some sort of rock-funk synthesis. My son and I thought that was pretty cool.

This band was very serious about their music. They got there an hour early to warm up. Cool, these guys are a little better than “three cords and crank the Marshall to 11.” They were pretty good, for a free concert in the middle of planned town center.

People started showing up to hear them play – it was time to rock!

They kept warming up.

“We just want to get it just right” one of the band member announced.

They kept warming up.

“Hey, it’s DC, it’s okay if we start late, right?” another one said.

They kept warming up. It almost seemed like they were practicing for their next show.

People started leaving.

They kept warming up. They had to get it perfect…

… After all it was rock and roll. And everyone there in the little town square with the makeshift stage could tell if the guitar was slightly off, especially the first generation Chinese lady with her grandson.

More people left.

The band was tired – they spent their entire first set time warming up – they needed a break before they jumped right into rockin’.

Finally, we had to go – two hours is a long time for a 4 year old to wait for the band to get it perfect.

You could tell by their warm up the band was pretty good. But they weren’t exactly Parliament or the Red Hot Chili Peppers or AC/DC.

Two hours warming up just didn’t make them sound any better than they did after a half hour. At least if they had started playing many more people would have been exposed to their music.

This obsession with perfection is understandable in our society – on a certain level it is encouraged, even rewarded.

Unfortunately, it is also one of the greatest barriers to real success in life. Because our obsession with perfection creates a reality that very few can live up to, we often delude ourselves. In many cases this keeps us from accepting responsibility for our own actions or our own situation. It keeps us from really doing something.

Instead of doing something, we spend all our time getting everything just right.

In the end, we don’t do anything, just like this band. It becomes delusion when we think getting ready to do something is the same as doing it. We might wonder why, after we spent two hours warming up, all these people left.

Perfection is certainly one of biggest challenges a student encounters when studying Kung Fu, Qigong or meditation. Instead of just practicing their art, they worry about whether they have the form perfect. Instead of sitting down to meditate, they worry that everything isn’t “just right” for meditation.

The reality is that the form will never be perfect. The conditions will never be ideal for meditation. You just have to do it. Over time, with hard work and good instruction, you will get better.

One day, if you can give up the concept of perfect and replace it with hard work, you might even find you have some attainment.

That is the real meaning of Kung Fu – skill obtained through hard work over time.

Great masters aren’t born. They work hard at it.

Can you find the great master within yourself?

You can if you remember you don’t have to be perfect. All you have to do is do it.

Sometimes, it just needs to be “good enough for rock and roll.”

This video introduces you to the Qigong state and the Five Animal Frolics form [...]]]> The Qigong State and Five Animal Frolics medical Qigong were part of the Qigong credit courses that we taught to holistic nurses at their annual convention this year. All forms of higher cultivation including meditation and Qigong benefit from the Qigong state.

This video introduces you to the Qigong state and the Five Animal Frolics form (the Tiger, Deer and Bear are shown). The full form, along with several other forms, can be found on our Qigong practice DVD available at http://www.filmbaby.com/films/4744