hey tim, its beegs, i havent been here in a while, you had been very helpful with some of my questions in the past.
my question today is this--what is the usual method of teaching shanxi style?i learned santi,qigong,squatting monkey(dai), then pi quan for a while, 12 variations on pi,however i have not developed the pi jing properly. how is this taught?i later learned many variations on all the elements,then it was right to bagua, my teacher (master li) feels that bagua footwork is very neccessary.
so in essence my question is about the jing of each element, how do we develope it?can you describe it in words?
also im a tcm student, so im very critical in my thinking, why does pi quan benefit the lungs? why does zuan benefit the kidneys? i have heard many surface explanations, but maybe you can help me out.this point is very important to me.and were you taught a qi gong variation for each element? i was taught 2 so far.
last but not least, which of your videos will show me more application and structure?i have a great teacher, but his english is limited, and he is traditional,and i respect that. i know i have to stance train and everything for real internal, but im stubborn and must understand the how and why of these things. hopefully you can help

Hi Beegs,
I can only tell you how I was taught, I'm sure different teachers of various branches of the art teach differently.

I was taught San Ti Shi first. Then the Five ELements. The basic Elements are taught "Fixed Step," they are done very slowly (my teacher would say "just like Taijiquan") and there is a pause after each movement or step. Momentum is controlled and no force is used.

I don't think I can describe the jing of the Elements in an instructional sense in written words. I'm sure you know the general flows of energy for each Element already (Pi descends, Zhuan rises, Beng moves horizontally forward, Pao moves from inside outward and Heng moves from outside inward).

I have never studied TCM, but my own take on the Elements is that they have no special effect on the organs at all. No more than any other type of calisthenic exercise.

I was taught a type of "qi gong" exercise for each Element in the Hebei style.

I don't have any videos on Xingyiquan applications.

thanks tim, one thing i was taught, was that with the rising and falling of pi, in the qi gong pi that i do, it mimics the body opening and closing as if coughing,and we use our hand gliding along the lung channel as the pi goes up, so this is bringing qi to the lungs,(the body motion of coughing,and the touching along the channel, and imagery, brings qi to the lung meridian.)i learned a similar explanation about zuan, but not yet about the others.
i appreciate your help, and i hope to meet you someday, nothing but respect for your accomplishments.
i have a question on bagua,at that board
beegs

"also im a tcm student, so im very critical in my thinking"

My vote for the most ironic post of 2003. Ah, hell, it should win for 2004 as well.

dear peanut gallery and any like minded observers/participants, if beegs is studying traditional chinese medicine in a 3-4 yr. college program critical thinking is going to be tested and developed to a certain extent. metaphorical adjectives like floating\sinking, ascending\descending are very apt words to describe the mental-emotional-physical feelings and functioning of the classic 4 excessive-uncentered energy flows. mental-emotional poise coupled with attentiveness to a particular dan tien can create the poise-equanimity of the 5th energy flow. my experience is that continuous practice of a particular 5 phases fist can create more body awareness of its corresponding region even without pre-suggestive thought. if you are exercising and then stand or sit still trying to cultivate greater awareness of a particular organ you will find that different types of movement automatically lend themselves to awareness of different bodily regions. exercise "lifts the spirits" whereby mental functioning is enhanced. different emotional thought patterns\reactions become typical when repetitively performing a certain movement. different internal regions of the torso contain qualitatively different feelings\sensations. if the sexual yogic techniqes of anal sphincter contraction and breath adjustment are not learned then intense orgasms without ejaculation will not become a typical experience. greater physical-mental-emotional stamina, energy, and awareness are the fruits of different standards of self management. as long as "internal methods" of energy cultivation are not practiced our cultural standards will never get much higher than the wonderful capitalist-democracy, quantitative-measuring science were promoting around the world we can take the overly secretive insights and inner technology of the oriental world and rejuvenate,purify, and harmonize our conflict of human impulses-thoughts-feelings to embody the good and not the dregs of capitalism\socialism, science\religion, group consensus(democracy)\unilateral-dictatorial control. a truer more permanent utopia cannot come from any "ism" but can take root in the human heart(xin) that embraces its treasures of Jing, Qi, and Shen.

Jonathan. You sound like a new convert to a religion. Perhaps for a while you should read less and train more. This is not a 'put down', I'm serious.

dear mark, sexual yoga and qigong have benefits that go beyond a theoretical discussion. the quality of democratic discussion as a whole could use some improvement. the dualistic-ditchomous vision of the world needs gentle determined refinement. as colin powell, general shinseki, and harvard scholar joseph nye(who wrote a book using the terms "soft"big government-F.D.R.-socialistic strategies and "hard"militaristic strategies---- Soft Power and Hard Power, were integral to his discussion of the U.S.A. using its power in a way that's not self-defeating----case in point, the shallow political debate and approach to winning the hearts and minds of the middle east we've had recently. have you ever seen the film "Mindwalk" written, and directed by Fritjof Capra and starring Sam Waterston,Liv Ullmann, and John Heard (produced and distributed by Paramount\Triton). it talks about a "crisis of perception" existing between science,politics, religion,arts and culture. I've been practicing taoist health cultivation and the internal arts since 1991. i realize that the internal arts are a pretty big tent including many outlooks on life. taoist sexual yoga techniques have turned a weak teenager into a stouter 20something and a stronger still thirtysomething. Tolerance has been practice of mine when encountering people of a primarily scientific-materialist point of view. there used to be a stronger commomfolk understanding that unregulated ejaculation was self destructive in the long run for health and longevity. taking a purely materialist view the way modern medicine has until recently promoted the idea the sperm\ova could be cheaply replenished by the body. thus ejaculation from coupled sex or masturbation is encouraged. Oriental medical systems of thought don't take this view. they and the physical arts they promote advise breath control, sexual yoga, diet regulation and attunement of attitude. if you read through the literature and talk to different masters you'll find the same theme but to different degrees of agreement. all oriental teachers past and present say to conserve the sperm\ova thru managing their sex life and\or menstruation with artfulness. Either have less ejaculations or learn to end premature ejaculation by anal sphincter control and breath control. eventually greater control, orgasms, and energy wil prove what is really possible. I can be intellectually honest about myself. as for women reducing and eventually stopping menstruation (and its attendant energy loss) i have'nt met any women who've tried to accomplish that using taoist qigong breast massage and anal sphincter contractions. however i've both met and heard of women taking pharmaceuticals to reduce and stop their menstrual cycle. qigong---sexual or non-sexual is not the primarily the scope of religion, or even belief. in 1991 i believed i could practice sexual qigong|yoga, but had little success. in 2004 i can adjust my breathing, contract my uro-genital-anal sphincter muscles and with the concentration it takes to read a paragraph move blood\energy away from the pelvis and experience a bio-chemical. hormonal, energetic, high-----with a female or by myself. ejaculation feels like a mouse fart compared to the feeling i have now. its like a relaxing massage and the high\tipsiness of meditation.

Wow, please describe how to do this.

Dear Jonathon;
Your high-level training seems to have robbed you of the ability to use capitalization, punctuation and hit the return key on occasion. Too much introspection is not good for the soul... or the English language.

"ejaculation feels like a mouse fart compared to the feeling i have now."

Dude,
This is just too much infromation.

how does any of this apply to MARTIAL arts?

Perhaps he thought it was MARITAL arts due to dylsxeia.

jonathan,

when the mouse farted while you were ejaculating into it- where you having anal intercourse with said mouse... or vaginal intercourse?

having bred and raised hundreds of mice in my lifetime i have to say that i am disqusted with the mental image of you spending 1991-2002 in a medatative quest to copulate with tiny, furry, sensitive rodents. i can't imagine why such a thing would strike anyone's fancy... for the first time I am speachless.

Your parents should be taken out and shot. You have disqusted me to such an extent that I'll never meditate again.

I hope I never see the decendents of my mice in jonathan's favorite periodical: "PentMouse"

Oh my God. I don't know what to do. Barf or laugh my ass off.

Dude, you're messed up.

exactly... guys like jonathon needs to be kept away from the general population and not allowed to have cheese, peanut butter or cedar chips!

By the way, for any devotees of neo-Taoist sexual practices, you cannot physically retain semen by practising any of the traditional ways of conserving sperm as Jonathon mentioned in his recent ramblings (and I thought that I had trouble staying on topic!!!).

When you do any of the "locking methods" advocated by advocates of such methods, your semen is forced back into the bladder and it still gets lost the next time you have a pee. It doesn't end up turning into bone marrow or rising up your spine.

You want to know the secret of becoming more highly evolved as a human being: treat those around you with compassion and don't just spend all of your time obsessing about your own needs.

Michael, you're exactly right.

p.s. instead of practicing sexual yoga you might try viagra or some other drugs if you have such weak ejeculations that they feel like mouse farts. Or you could try some herbs like horny goat weed or whatever if you're a TMA ;)

p.s.s. From a lot of stories i've heard a lot of those old asian martial arts masters really didn't seem to hold conserving sperm that highly if you know what I mean.

p.s.s.s. if people lose chi though ejeculating then I porn stars should all drop dead at the age of 30 or whatever from lack of chi. And Hugh Heffner seems to be doing fine despite his age and "additional duties" as editor-in-chief.

p.s.s.s.s. The whole losing chi though sperm might be rooted in the fact that zinc is used to make sperm. You ejeculate you lose zinc. Zinc is used for anaerobic energy production and a lot of other vital stuff in the body. Losing zinc isn't a problem because we quickly replenish it from what we eat. Maybe in old china when they had even poorer diets than many people there do now losing zinc and therefore energy and strength was a big deal and they made up the chi crap to explain it.

Thats just my 50 cents.

is that why it tastes metalicky sometimes?


I keeeeed, I keeeeed.

I am with Mont. This is too funny. People take that Jing-qi-shen thing too seriously. Unfortunately, jing has been only made it to the general public (see Dr. Yang and Mantak Chia's books) as sperm ( whether it tastes metalic or not I don't know LOL!!!).
Jing is actually the essence of the entire physical body. Hsing I builds Jing (the body)not your freaking sperm. This is the problem with a little information being dangerous. The jing-qi-shen transformation occurs in women too. Do they have sperm? It doesn't require any special techniques or abstinence. the transformation occurs naturally in everyone at all times. It is the natural process of the body taking in food, air, and water, etc and turning it into usuable substances for the body. That's it! Nothing mystical. If all the organs are working smooth and you are healthy - you get a healthy mind as a bonus. For the academically inclined read "Understanding Complete Reality" translated by Cleary.
Otherwise, get your groove on and don't forget the zinc!
chuck

Chuck,
You have some valid points... but sperm retention is a valid way of containing and transforming your energy, that's why they tell fighters not to have sex during training and specifically before a fight. I am not saying abstinence... thats the opposite extreme and not balance, but a conservative life style(Not squandering your sperm)will have added health and energy benefits. And I am referring to all that mystical crap... I will take a good lookin chica over immortality any day.

Just the other night, they were discussing this subject on tv; ie., should athletes have sex before a big game (in this case the final match for the Grey Cup in Canada).

The latest scientific opinion was that orgasm didn't deplete as much as it relaxed and that this kind of "relaxation" would be beneficial to some athletes who were too tense and aggressive by nature and not beneficial to those athletes who were already a little too loose.

The advice of the person being interviewed boiled down to "don't engage in any activity that you aren't used to doing regularly before an important competitive event.

In more traditional terms, abstaining from orgasm might be good for those compulsive in their sexual behaviour who are trying to become more spiritual; while having "blue balls" from that kind of training might also make your students a little more mean and aggressive if you were trying to get them to be better fighters.

I still can't stop thinking about that poor mouse.

"It's not the sex before a game that ruins my players performance. It's the staying up all night looking for sex."

Tommy Lasorda

If someone will lend me their sister I will gladly demonstrate how one can be a competent fighter immediately after having sex.