Qigong advice?

[bodhimind]

I heard a GWV member talk about Qi gong before.

I mainly practice "zhan zhuang" (standing post meditation) which is basically just standing and doing Anapanasati. I also do some walking meditation as recommended by Jhanon. I was wondering though, if anyone has experience with Qi gong, which is supposed to revitalize your body and health?

Any resources or advice to start with doing genuine qi-gong? I guess it might help to say that I can remain in bliss after meditations and feel the tingling. However, I am still not sure how it fits into the system of preserving the health of this physical body. I heard from others that it makes the body feel more refreshed and vitalized, which is what I think I need (on top of a better diet), since I've become more sensitive to the unpleasantness in certain areas of the body.

[Sam Lim]

"zhan zhuang" - standing posture
qi-gong- - breath work

I don't know what kind of qi-gong you are interested in. The name "qi-gong" itself denotes that it is only breath work or pranayama. The kind of qi-gong that I practice is purely breath work.

Instruction : Stand, sit, lying down and prone position. Tongue curled upwards. Breathe in through the nostril slowly. Focus your attention on the dan-tian (four inches beneath the naval) and fill the stomach up without moving the chest.
Once the stomach is full, hold your breath as long as possible and then slowly breathe out through your nostril slowly.

This form of qi-gong is just like meditation with the attention on the breath with spine erect but not rigid.

[jay.validus]

I am not sure if this is considered Qi-gong or not, but I started doing it last year off and on.

Breath normal for a couple minutes.  Then take a larger inhale then a larger exhale.  Hold your breathe like you are under water.  Hold your breathe for as long as comfortable then allow your body to take an inhale.  It will be craving for it.

I find it interesting to mediate with eyes closed and doing this.  There is such a strong pull to inhale air that you are fighting such primal instincts.

My kung fu instructor teaches some Qi-gong, but I do not find it all that useful.  It is more that because time is limited, and I have tried to practice energy meditation before, I found I just did not bother.   Someday I may go back to it with a clearer focus,

[Sam Lim]

This does not sound like qi-gong to me. All qi-gong have to focus on the dan-tian.

The form of qi-gong that I practice may looks simple but not many can do it or master it. It makes your whole body hot.

[jay.validus]

Well, when I did practice Gi-gong, we focused on the navel, focusing the energy, then moving it to the extremities with various poses and movements.  I released the energy from the kidneys and brought the flow out, but we were not told to do that, it just felt natural and the right thing to do. 

[bodhimind]

Thank you all for your replies.

I've been studying Traditional Chinese Medicine and its application to Qi Gong for the past few days quite intensely. I realize what they call Qi Gong, although its name translated to English is "breath work", it really means "Energy work". I now realize my question was too general because there are so many kinds of qi gong.

Thought it was interesting so I decided to share some things I learnt...

It's divided into 5 areas and their representative analogies:
- Qi (soldiers)
- Breathing (strategy)
- Mind (command)
- Shen (morale)
- Body (battlefield)

Hence qi gong is: Using the command (mind) to control the strategy (breathing), cultivating a high morale (shen), hence moving the soldiers (qi) effectively across the body (battlefield).

Qi when moving outwards forms the aura that shields against external influences. Qi when moving inwards manages the health of internal organs. Hence learning how to use the various factors above properly can help to preserve health. Qi from food and air comes from the diaphragm muscle (Middle Dan Tian). Qi from original essence from parents comes from the enteric nervous system (Lower Dan Tian). Shen, the commander, resides in the brain (Upper Dan Tian).

jay.validus mentioned "energy from kidneys". I believe the kidneys store "Yuan Jing" (which means the original essence contributed by our parents).  This is normally converted to pre-birth Qi, which is stored in the lower Tan Tian.

gandarloda mentioned the method for gathering chi into the lower Dan Tian.... Do you mean using regular abdominal breathing (yang pushing outwards while inhaling) or reversed abdominal breathing (yin moving inwards while inhaling)?

I'm a little confused about how Qi Gong reconciles with Buddhism though. I know Tao Te Ching says something like: "Convert jing to Qi, Convert Qi to Shen, Convert Shen to emptiness." From mapping across to Buddhism, I find that if the yang Qi rises, it gives off very similar results to the spiritual crisis talked about here - with an agitated mental body and bad emotional waves. Then the "Yi mind" (or rational mind) has to calm the emotional mind, remaining in equanimity to raise the spirit.

Apparently they call people who can raise their spirits out-of-body as "immortals" or "Shen xian", meaning that their spiritual bodies have sufficient power than the average person. Enlightenment in their context is never needing to take birth in a physical body again, becoming the divine.

I will try out your methods and see what I get experientially. I think qi gong really has more in common with this than what I previously thought...

[Sam Lim]

Well, qi-gong is normally a Taoist practice.

Shen is normally understood as spirit. I am Chinese by the way.
Qi can be interpreted in so many ways. Anger, strength, gas and etc.

The kind of qi-gong I practice is also Taoist. It was created by a eunuch in the Imperial palace.

There is a danger in directing your qi when one is not an accomplished practitioner.
One can gather qi in your dan-tian and also store it below your feet.
Qi is also kundalini. That is how my kundalini started. When one meditates one is also gathering qi. Once qi is enough or saturated one also gets bliss.

[Jhanananda]

I'm a little confused about how Qi Gong reconciles with Buddhism though.

Qi gong is really gandarloda's specialty; so I will only answer this question.  If you recall, the meditation practices described in the Pali Canon use the 5 aggregates as a vehicle of meditation.  One of the 5 aggregates is the breath, thus Anapana-sati is meditation upon the breath, which if it were translated into Chinese would be Qi gong.

It also so happens that Tai Chi Chuan, which is one of the styles of martial arts practiced in China, is essentially Buddhist walking meditation with a Taoist twist and a martial arts emphasis.

[Zack]

I'm no expert but have practiced and studied various forms of qigong, including medical qigong for a few months this year, and have found it quite helpful. For medical qigong you'd probably want to find a qualified teacher, and they'd probably recommend concurrently reading the textbooks by Jerry Alan Johnson, but the practice of solo qigong is pretty easy to get into on your own. It's good to attend a class in person at some time to make sure you're doing things correctly, but there's a lot of good material out there. The "Eight Pieces of Brocade" is a well-known basic form, shown here by a Shaolin monk. I've liked the videos by Ken Cohen, Yang Jwing-Ming, and Chunyi Lin's Spring Forest Qigong, along with probably some others I'm not thinking of.

[bodhimind]

One can gather qi in your dan-tian and also store it below your feet.

This heavily reminds me of the Butter Pill medical qigong that the Zen master Hakuin used to cure his ailments. A site with various translations: https://medicalqigonguk.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/hakuin/

It also so happens that Tai Chi Chuan, which is one of the styles of martial arts practiced in China, is essentially Buddhist walking meditation with a Taoist twist and a martial arts emphasis.

That brings more clarity... I'm currently trying to learn the Yang style, which is supposed to help with health.

I'm no expert but have practiced and studied various forms of qigong, including medical qigong for a few months this year, and have found it quite helpful. For medical qigong you'd probably want to find a qualified teacher, and they'd probably recommend concurrently reading the textbooks by Jerry Alan Johnson, but the practice of solo qigong is pretty easy to get into on your own. It's good to attend a class in person at some time to make sure you're doing things correctly, but there's a lot of good material out there. The "Eight Pieces of Brocade" is a well-known basic form, shown here by a Shaolin monk. I've liked the videos by Ken Cohen, Yang Jwing-Ming, and Chunyi Lin's Spring Forest Qigong, along with probably some others I'm not thinking of.

Thank you for the recommendations, I will check them out. I've personally read some of Yang Jwing-Ming's books, but I do need to have some practical experience as well, as you said.