Korpo
14th April 2007, 05:54 PM
Hello.
What I have found very useful is to have both the book and the DVD.
Author is Bruce Kumar Frantzis who is a legitimate Taoist lineage holder and master, which means he has full teaching authoritisation from his own Chinese teacher/master for what he teaches. He teaches Qigong, Neigong and meditation from a Taoist tradition he calls "Water school", which derives its teachings from the tradition of Taoist scholar, philosopher and sage Lao Tse.
The book (OtEG) is about a set of Qigong/Neigong exercises. While Qigong simply describes as a term nothing more than "energy work", Neigong means "inner work". Neigong practices can be trained and applied to most Taoist arts as Qigong sets and internal martial arts like Taiji Quan, Hsing-i Quan and Ba Gua Chang. While Qigong has become a term to denominate both movement exercises (Wai Dan Qigong) and inner energy work (Nei Dan Qigong), Frantzis tries to emphasize how internal techniques can enhance those movements, and because of that calls it Neigong. This is nothing new or special, BTW. He himself writes that this is more in tune with original terminology.
The Qigong set consists of a standing practise for inner work and several movements. These components are called "The Outer Dissolving Process" (ODP), "Cloud Hands", "The Three Swings" and "Spine Stretch" respectively. While this seems to be not many movements for a Qigong set, all of these are not easy to do right and I personally find them to be very efficient.
Main practise of the programme is the ODP, and most important practise of all his Qigong/Neigong courses. It is done in Wuji stance. Wuji is the emptiness before anything came into existence, including the duality of Yin/Yang. This stance should allow optimal, balanced Qi flow without emphasing anything especially, as other poses tend to do.
This serves as the canvas for applying the Neigong work of scanning the physical/etheric body for any blockages, learning to sink Qi (an important grounding practise that also helps deep relaxation) and learning to dissolve blockages outward. This process does not focus on storing and raising Qi, but instead on freeing and relaxing the Qi bound in blockages to restore the free Qi flow of the body. Storage in the sub-navel storage is also possible later on.
Then the topic of "energy gates" is brought into play. These are the energy centers and ports at the joint, acupuncture cavities, etc. that regulate internal energy flow and energy exchange with the external and other, more subtle energy bodies. Their location is given and how they fit into the ODP.
All of this a lesson in how to handle the internal energy flow, how to unblock it and how to build "internal awareness" to know on a deeper level what is going on inside your body.
Then come the Qigong exercises.
"Cloud Hands" is a rather intricate move with hip rotation, twisting of arm muscles, proper stance and rooting. It contains many of the elements usually associated with Wu style Taiji. It helps various joints, develops the left/right main channels of energy, and can help in finding and dissolving blockages.
The "Three Swings" are a bit more dynamic moves that stimulate what the Chinese call "the Three Burners" - the urito-genital system, the digestive system, and the cardio-vascular system. 1st and 2nd swing share the "arm work", and 2nd and 3rd the foot work, which eases learning. 2nd and 3rd require and teach balance, as there are turns with hip rotation while standing on one foot. This can be very energising for the corresponding "Burners".
While the other exercises are more Qigong, as the external triggers the internal, the last movement is again Neigong, the "Spine Stretch". It teaches how to bend/relax the spine vertebra by vertebra, and then to "reerect" it. This trains both posterior and anterior musculature of the spine apparatus. This exercise can be enhanced by applying the ODP whenever a vertebra bend reveals a blockage. Basically all of the moving exercises can highlight blockages, but the Spine Stretch allows for pausing and dissolving before going on.
All of the descriptions are very precise and the writing is very clear and readable. Still I recommend getting the DVD also, as this is a great learning tool. The Qigong herein gets very powerful when exercised with good precision, and this avoids misunderstandings, since a book can portray only so much of a multi-facetted all-body movement.
The DVD itself has excellent explanations and demonstrations, but the video is low resolution. Bruce Frantzis makes this already clear when selling this in his own store, as this is a digitalisation of a VHS tape. As the exercises are broken down to great detail and explained like in a real course, this worked pretty well for me. It is even somewhat amusing as the tape shows Bruce with a bit of overweight and not very nice sweat clothes, but I find it reassuring that you do not need to be perfect in every way to do good Qigong.
People interested in Qigong and energy work may enjoy this book and DVD, I did. I practise this exercise for nearly a year at the time of this writing.
Oliver
What I have found very useful is to have both the book and the DVD.
Author is Bruce Kumar Frantzis who is a legitimate Taoist lineage holder and master, which means he has full teaching authoritisation from his own Chinese teacher/master for what he teaches. He teaches Qigong, Neigong and meditation from a Taoist tradition he calls "Water school", which derives its teachings from the tradition of Taoist scholar, philosopher and sage Lao Tse.
The book (OtEG) is about a set of Qigong/Neigong exercises. While Qigong simply describes as a term nothing more than "energy work", Neigong means "inner work". Neigong practices can be trained and applied to most Taoist arts as Qigong sets and internal martial arts like Taiji Quan, Hsing-i Quan and Ba Gua Chang. While Qigong has become a term to denominate both movement exercises (Wai Dan Qigong) and inner energy work (Nei Dan Qigong), Frantzis tries to emphasize how internal techniques can enhance those movements, and because of that calls it Neigong. This is nothing new or special, BTW. He himself writes that this is more in tune with original terminology.
The Qigong set consists of a standing practise for inner work and several movements. These components are called "The Outer Dissolving Process" (ODP), "Cloud Hands", "The Three Swings" and "Spine Stretch" respectively. While this seems to be not many movements for a Qigong set, all of these are not easy to do right and I personally find them to be very efficient.
Main practise of the programme is the ODP, and most important practise of all his Qigong/Neigong courses. It is done in Wuji stance. Wuji is the emptiness before anything came into existence, including the duality of Yin/Yang. This stance should allow optimal, balanced Qi flow without emphasing anything especially, as other poses tend to do.
This serves as the canvas for applying the Neigong work of scanning the physical/etheric body for any blockages, learning to sink Qi (an important grounding practise that also helps deep relaxation) and learning to dissolve blockages outward. This process does not focus on storing and raising Qi, but instead on freeing and relaxing the Qi bound in blockages to restore the free Qi flow of the body. Storage in the sub-navel storage is also possible later on.
Then the topic of "energy gates" is brought into play. These are the energy centers and ports at the joint, acupuncture cavities, etc. that regulate internal energy flow and energy exchange with the external and other, more subtle energy bodies. Their location is given and how they fit into the ODP.
All of this a lesson in how to handle the internal energy flow, how to unblock it and how to build "internal awareness" to know on a deeper level what is going on inside your body.
Then come the Qigong exercises.
"Cloud Hands" is a rather intricate move with hip rotation, twisting of arm muscles, proper stance and rooting. It contains many of the elements usually associated with Wu style Taiji. It helps various joints, develops the left/right main channels of energy, and can help in finding and dissolving blockages.
The "Three Swings" are a bit more dynamic moves that stimulate what the Chinese call "the Three Burners" - the urito-genital system, the digestive system, and the cardio-vascular system. 1st and 2nd swing share the "arm work", and 2nd and 3rd the foot work, which eases learning. 2nd and 3rd require and teach balance, as there are turns with hip rotation while standing on one foot. This can be very energising for the corresponding "Burners".
While the other exercises are more Qigong, as the external triggers the internal, the last movement is again Neigong, the "Spine Stretch". It teaches how to bend/relax the spine vertebra by vertebra, and then to "reerect" it. This trains both posterior and anterior musculature of the spine apparatus. This exercise can be enhanced by applying the ODP whenever a vertebra bend reveals a blockage. Basically all of the moving exercises can highlight blockages, but the Spine Stretch allows for pausing and dissolving before going on.
All of the descriptions are very precise and the writing is very clear and readable. Still I recommend getting the DVD also, as this is a great learning tool. The Qigong herein gets very powerful when exercised with good precision, and this avoids misunderstandings, since a book can portray only so much of a multi-facetted all-body movement.
The DVD itself has excellent explanations and demonstrations, but the video is low resolution. Bruce Frantzis makes this already clear when selling this in his own store, as this is a digitalisation of a VHS tape. As the exercises are broken down to great detail and explained like in a real course, this worked pretty well for me. It is even somewhat amusing as the tape shows Bruce with a bit of overweight and not very nice sweat clothes, but I find it reassuring that you do not need to be perfect in every way to do good Qigong.
People interested in Qigong and energy work may enjoy this book and DVD, I did. I practise this exercise for nearly a year at the time of this writing.
Oliver