Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Spring Forest Qigong Newbie introduction and Questions

Hi all,

I've been working with the level one course and lurking on this forum for about a month now. Thanks to all who post here, many of my questions have been answered by reading the responses and sometimes I gain insight just from reading your questions.

I have been pretty sick for the last 2 years and am hoping the Qigong will help me get back to my work (myofascial therapist and teacher for 30 years). I can't say I have noticed any changes yet but I have only been doing 1/2 hour a day of active exercises. I enjoy it immensely and intend to continue. I also do the Holosync CD meditations for an hour a day and the small universe meditation about 2 or 3 times a week.

While doing the exercises, I find my mind actively sequencing through the various instructions that master Li gives, concerning: breathing, visualization, intention, feeling the Qi, form, etc. Hardly being in the emptiness!

My question is this...What is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to focus on? I feel that if I knew that, I could develop one skill at a time and more importantly, slow the mental activity.

Thanks in advance,
Michael

Things quiet down and get simpler, merging into one experience... Your practice sounds ok. More inactive than active exercise. I don't know how that balances out with your physical body's needs, as you mention you have been sick for a few years.
I don't feel I get past entry into something, until about 40 minutes into an exercise. After you do an hour with something, and then go back to 30 minutes, it feels like 10 minutes.
What I focus on as an underlying constant,I consider very important, is constantly relaxing and opening up. I really try to slow my breathing down.. In that process I would see/feel myself as not dense or solid, but rather, just as just energy or light. Losing the container, merging, dispersing... I come back to the breath, or a point of focus, then use the relaxing/opening up, almost indiscernable slow breathing, to unfocus again. I spend some time focusing everything, coordinating everything, but then let go at some point too. Sometimes when I do small universe, I coordinate with Master Lin for the part of the meditation he is talking you through, then, when he says, "do the rest on your own", I sometimes change my breathing to suit my own pace. I may breath much slower, relax very deep, and let that lead things. I am aware on some level of the sounds, feeding it into points as "spiritual energy", but don't necessarily try to match breath with everything. I am not saying this is how to do it, this just happens for me sometime. After about 40 minutes, I know I am doing the rotation, but I am in lala land with something else going on, a nice pulse of energy here and there from above or out there...
Try a variation every once and a while. Try going outside to a nice spot, and just do one of the active exercises without the tape. Just you and the universe, or you and Mother Earth, or you in nature. No music, just presence, slow breathing, relaxed. Experience one of the exercises with no detail, or at least start it that way, based in nothing. You may find that some of the form, the exercise takes on is effortless. Say, breathing of the universe, for instance... just inhale and exhale reaLLy slow. Don't think about reverse breathing... Maybe ten minutes into the exercise, you may find yourself energizing and releasing, without someone telling you, or without your mind telling you to do it. It might just be more of a coordinated feeling that you don't have to mindfully generate. You might bring in form, like correct breathing, because you like it, not because you are supposed to do it. You might do things without thinking that you are doing things. Let it take form from a more open and relaxed perspective.
With meditation, maybe try just sitting sometime in silence, or by a stream. Just relax, think of being as open as you can, maybe locate somewhere, like your lower dan tien, then slow down your breathing, let the focus go, forget the breathing... Try doing nothing. You may discover and underlying calm, that when you return to focused exercise, can coexhist, and ground activity you experience in that peace. I really do think it is a valuable contrast, to just go outside and do one exercise sometime, or whatever moves you, with nothing but yourself, in nature. No tapes, no agenda, formless. Again, coming back to 'form', focusing on something, breathing, visualizing, etc., might be calmer for you. Maybe you have to feel some things, as how they are, without holding on too much to the instructions. You maybe just need some perspective, on what your routine has been.

Hi, Michael.

I really like all that Gallen posted. Since you are doing holosync, you can see how every thing he posted is perfect for that as well.

I concur w/ Gallen that relaxing and opening up for my main focus. I keep opening my channels until i am totally relaxed. I do this w/ mental words and w/ a feeling of letting go in my body.

I honestly think one of the most important statements of Level--- Relax yourself into a state of being so that when you do not focus, you feel something, and when you do focus, the feeling disappears. page 32 of SFQ1

I also do the self concentration meditation during The Dive when i listen to holosync.

Best wishes for your healing

Thank you Gallen, for your reply. I needed to hear the general OK'ness in following my learning curve with SFQ. Allowing myself to come back to focus on form or reverse breathing as it comes up sounds so simple, yet it hadn't occured to me.

I will most certainly go do some practice under an old white oak tree I love and down at the river. I am very blessed to be living on 80 acres of river property in the Ozarks. Breaking up the practice by doing it somewhere else and just doing one or two of the exercises is brilliant advice. Breaking up old patterns (in my case trying too hard and being impatient) is just what I want to do.

I have developed my kinesthetic awareness and physical relaxation response to a pretty good degree by practicing (in many different ways) since I was a teenager. I am now 51. Letting go of the mental activity however is still a struggle.

You say, "Your practice sounds ok. More inactive than active exercise. I don't know how that balances out with your physical body's needs, as you mention you have been sick for a few years."

Is it better to do more active exercise if there is a physical ailment? I do more inactive now because I need the rest.

Thank you once again. There is much to think about in your post.

Michael

Margaret,

Thanks for the reply. I am still working on that quote from the SFQ1 manual since you posted it somewhere earlier. At this point I just don't get it. It's one of those statements that just "feels" full with meaning but eludes me. I'm almost there, but not quite.

I have been consistently doing the Holosync CD's through level one for a little over a year now and have played with the microcosmic orbit during the immersion part but prefer to listen to the sounds and direction from master Lin.

Have you used the Holosync CD's for long?

Michael

Hi Michael,
Your physical condition should improve with qigong practice. When I think of active and inactive, usually, the active part has a direct impact on improving one's physical health. This is in conjunction with most beginning active exercise , focusing on the lower dan tien. If you aren't seeing change in your physical condition, try spending more time in active exercise. Working on the lower dan tien, focusing there, also takes ones out of the head/mind. In general, try more focus on the lower dan tien. It sounds like you are more active in the upper dan tiens, and mention your mind activity as something you would like to slow down. I keep thinking of Breathing of the Universe, and also, Joining of Yin & Yang, as good single exercises to do, perhaps by that oak tree(location) you mention. I see in my notes, that Breathing of the Universe is good for the lungs. This is a perfect time of year, late summer changing to fall, to focus on the lungs(five element theory). It relates to the skin, the immune system, and from an emotional standpoint, depression/sadness on the downside, righteousness/courage on the upside. One 'could' be more vulnerable to the negative aspects , this time of year. (Getting sick/immune system, or depression with the end of summer/going into winter)The joining of yin and yang, is a good energy building exercise. Keep these exercises very simple, in regards to focus on the lower dan tien, and no thinking. "Feel it" to give it definition, don't "think it".
Be aware of not thinking. You can feel the minds presence without activating it. I am sure you have heard of being in the present. This is a good focus too. Just being where you are, and keeping that focus. This keeps the mind from travelling to the past or future, or "looking' at, or 'thinking about' what you are doing. As we are in this third dimension, we experience time passing. Because of that , the present moment is "in movement". Staying in the present has a sense of that constant movement of time. Again, this can be felt, and not thought about. It is a possible place of focus that can quiet the mind. When I mentioned stream(or river), I was thinking of a place to meditate. Try a meditation, just focused on breathing energy from the universe, into the lower dan tien, and using the sound of the stream to still the mind. That being your connection to staying in the present moment as time creates that movement. The sound of the stream can become like a voice or voices talking to you, just listen(absorb) and relax. Don't analzye or think about what you are hearing. Stay in the present, give your mind that down time. The things I mention are for possible exploration, to maybe gain perspective on your practice. Ground in the structure of SFQ practice. Bring your experiences/insights back to a regular practice routine.

Hi Michael,

I find the "Six Keys to Success" (SFQ Level 1 - page 22) very helpful advice. I also try to listen to my own intuition on how long to do a specific exercise, etc. If it feel right to you, do it - your spiritual guides are helping you all along. Take care. Joana

Michael,
I've been listening to CRI holosync for a little more than 4 yrs. I listen daily at the same time.

Yes, that saying took me awhile to assimilate. It's what i call the direction part that complements the poetical direction of: i am in the universe; the universe is in me; the universe and i combine together. To me, both are saying the same thing.

Another way to look at it is to go into peripheral vision. When you don't focus on a branch of a tree but rather the whole tree. That's also the same thing. The emptiness of Buddhism is just that, a merging where we don't focus on anyone one thing and by doing that, we feel/experience something quite clearly. Peripheral vision is the same thing.

Gallen, Yes - Thank you, I'll work more on the active exercises.

Joana, Thanks rereading that helps. Actually I think I will review all the material. I'm sure it will all seem different now that I've been practicing for a little while.

Margaret, Thanks for the new perspective, reading it I got new glimpses. I love this process of learning. The light is flickering on now, I can sense that it will illuminate soon.

Have you continued on through the Holosync system? I am trying to decide if I should purchase the next level. I love doing the meditation but I haven't really noticed any differnce from the first Awakening Prologue cd to the last level one cd.

Hmm, perhaps I shouldn't be discussing this here. Is there a moderator on this forum? If so, is it ok to go off topic like this?

Aloha Amstar,

As for "drifting" on this forum - I have received many various requests, ranging from tasking people to minimize acknowledgment after replies to doing something about the "hate" issues that showed up for them on some earlier robust threads. The forum members as a whole have been very respectful, showing Love, kindness and forgiveness to the themselves and others in the forum. This is a place of sharing information, experiences, and compassion that may assist each of us in our experiences with Spring Forest Qigong.

I would just ask all to remember that many viewing these posts don't have a broadband connection, and are looking for more information, or clarification about Spring Forest Qigong. Please honor that by sending any "off-subject" inquiries via personal email (usualy listed in the submitter's bio info).

Many have commented to me about the wonderful support and information source this form has been for them. It's a privilage to be a part of it.

Much Love, Shawn