Wednesday, 19 December 2012

Steve's Animals Project

Greetings all!

First of all, congrats to all who are taking up the 100 days of training idea!
I do this about 2X per year, and think it is a great way to grow my practice.
This session is directed towards working with animal essences, and by the end of the 100 days I hope to have a better grasp of the connection between animal qigongs and forms. I also want to have a deeper knowledge of the animal forms in our system, and hope to have several new neijia / Tai Chi forms by the time this study is complete. The Snake is here. I'm thinking about a Dragon form, and a Tiger.

Today is day 10/100 for me, and I think the Snake form is pretty well finalized. Instead of postures, it consists of 7 short sequences of movements, within which one or two postures can be identified. This is because, as a coiling continuum of movement, I really did not think a posture-by-posture breakdown was a productive way of approaching the form. I specifically with to thank:

1. Randall, who helped me understand the distinction between Snake and Dragon energy, and who gave me a parallel reference with his "Five Ancients" system.

2. Jan, who identified breakages in the energy and areas where it had to be smoothed out.

3. Jill Tomassson who provided a significant imaginative breakthrough for me, by speaking of the need within the form for an energetic "narrative".

4. Bob and Peter R. for their encouragement.

Several creative issues I identified were:

1. The desireability of rooting the form in the qigong system,

2. the need to focus simply on movement of energy, rather than application or technique, and

3. the need to avoid throwing in everything but the kitchen sink!  ;-)

I suspect that the second of these points will pose a particular challenge when I get around to addressing the Tiger!

For the next bit I'll work on the Snake form every day, in conjunction with Crane, so as to really internalize it. It takes about 1,000 repetitions for a form to be internalized. I am hoping to be 1/2 way there by CNY, 2013!

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Heart for The Holidays

Missed a few days of posting. No worries - this commitment is to Gi Gong practice, not to blogging. Because of a too early start to the day,  I didn't get to  Daisy Lee's wonderful Qi Gong. And after a busy day in the frazzle of the city, I felt like soothing myself by revisiting a Sam Masich DVD I'd let collect dust for too long.

Balancing the Heart: Shuxin PingXue Gong with Sam Masich looks like a conversion from an early 90s video. Lots of excellent info, and it's obvious he put thought into what he'd share so viewers don't get overloaded, but still learn about qi, breathing, acupuncture points and meridians. This is not HD video, but that doesn't matter. The variety of angles make it easy to follow, and he comes in with instructions just when you need them.
I did the first few moves ( he suggests learning one move a day for 8 days - maybe it's a Hanukkah Gi Gong? :-) ), plus a few random bits like the ear massage which is fantastic. 20 minutes later my ears are still feeling ALIVE!! It's actually part of this video sample.

Friday, 14 December 2012

The Yin and Yang of Learning


Always remember that knowledge is only the Yin side of study. 
To become proficient you also need to manifest the Yang side through action.
Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming

Perfect.
Photo by YY Gardener

Thursday, 13 December 2012

My Declaration

My 100 Day Practice road looks like this.
The road ahead. Photo by YY Gardener.
My commitment
I commit to a minimum of 20 minutes a day of Qi Gong: Daisy Lee's Radiant Lotus Qi Gong for Women (a.m.) and that old love of mine, Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming's series (p.m.). Any Qi Gong on top of this = the beautiful surprises encountered on any road trip!

My objectives 

  • internalize these two forms
  • improve my Wuji stance
Treading the precipice?
Sifu warned about overcommitment. Will books tip the balance? I'm thinking no, so I'm also committing to reading The Healing Art of Qi Gong by Master Hong Liu. 306 pages over 100 days? Doable. Taking on Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming's The Root of Chinese Qigong: Secrets for Health, Longevity & Enlightenment? That would be pushing it!

Marking the milestones
I have a theory that having milestones at the 25, 50, and 75 day mark will urge me on to 100. So on these days - i.e. on or about Saturday January 5, Wednesday Jan 30, and Sunday Feb 24 - I plan to celebrate my achievements by getting together with friends and sharing Qi Gong with them. 

The arrival
I don't know if monks of old had a party to celebrate meeting their vows :-) Who knows? And this is now. So a Qi Gong and tea party is in the works for on or around Thursday, March 21. I didn't realize til counting out the days that e.t.a. will be the first day of spring. Sweet!

One day down, 99 to go!
Thank you, Sifu, for the inspiration and guidance.

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

Guidelines for 100 Days Training



Here are the guidelines, according to Sifu Steve:

The “100 Days’ Training” is an old traditional Asian martial arts custom, intended to mimic certain elements of the “3-Months” training retreats which are traditional in certain branches of Daoism and Buddhism.

The elements involved in this kind of training are:
Get your ducks in a row. (Does that mean developing a Duck Qi Gong??) 
Photo by  Tomas Castelazo, via Wikimedia Commons


A clear objective.
Set out what you will do, when, how long, and what you want to accomplish.

A public commitment = equivalent to the old temple vows. 
Last time around I dedicated myself to 1 hour+ per day of the Old Yang form. This time, I am not specifying times, but shall work with animal material every day, the objective being to more deeply internalize the animal energies, and also to have, three months from now, at least 3 more animal forms of Tai Chi. As far as this goes, I'm polishing the Snake form, and hope to eventually have a Tiger and a Dragon. These forms will have a sequencing independent of any form we now do.

Record-keeping and public reportage. 
In the past I diarized. I also last time made entries on the Club Facebook page, but had very little commentary of feedback. This time: a blog for the group participating in this project, to share our progress, problems etc.

Final evaluation. 
At a nice Chinese restaurant, say, the beginning of April?

Dangers to the process are:

Over-commitment.
Your objective must be ambitious, but achievable. Almost invariably, new entrants to this process bite off more than they can chew, and then get discouraged when they cannot keep up the effort.

Concentration on quantity rather than quality. 
15 minutes of intense and intelligent practice are worth much, much more than an hour of rote exercise put in for purposes of satisfying your commitment and your ego! Don't set yourself up to fail!

Neurotic commitment.
Focusing upon the commitment, rather than recognizing times when your ability to perform is negated by ill-health or other factors. In other words, your 100 days will probably take more than 100 days! Be reasonable! Don't punish yourself!